I think if you love horses and enjoyed the Hunger Games, you'd really like this book. I think if you enjoy a good race and creepy, man-eating water horses, you'll like this book. I certainly had fun listening to the audio book!

Spoiler

Is it just me, or does it feel like Puck did NOT practice enough at all to even come close to winning the race? Did she even practice on the beach more than the once? I kept thinking, "Okay, she needs to start pushing herself and Dove if they're even hoping to finish the race," but it never happens! It was like someone glancing at a notebook and then acing a super-hard test but not being known as a genius or anything.

Tthe stakes are pretty high and she has some major disadvantages. I just can't believe that with her small amount of practicing, a little bit of gossip, some tutelage from The Horse Whisperer Sean, and a pony (horse!) would be able to win against a hell-bent Mutt, tall, crushing, ravenous, crazed capall uisce, on the sand against a town full of sexist men.

A classic "pick-em-off-one-by-one" (well, two-by-two in this case) kinda book. But the characters are the focus and the strength of this book. I really love the main character, Mack, but its a real close race since everyone is written really well! So enjoy this book of a monster on the loose in an abandoned fairground and the fourteen people that are hiding from it!

4.5 stars
As you can see, I liked this one much better than the first book! I think now that I'm settled in with the characters, familiar with who they are by now, I was able to enjoy it more. Also, I feel like it got less on my nerves without Felicity being one of the POVs (you get Tress, Rue and Kermit for this book). Ribbit is just unhealthy in the mind, but I think Felicity's way of thinking didn't have as much of an excuse and there was more spoiled, popular girl POV to grate on my nerves with her. Ribbit's just a creep. End of sentence.

I especially enjoyed how often this book made me cringe at the grossness of some of it! Made me think of Daniel Kraus who is especially creative when it comes to gross descriptors and people living through (or not) some pretty gruesome stuff happening to them!

-1,000 points for pet death. That's 500 points per pet.

I was past my 100-page rule when I suddenly thought, I don't think I'm enjoying this book. Then I saw that I only had 1/3 of it left to go and kept going. Then near the end I thought, This book is really dark. I don't think I'm going to like this ending.

I like my horror but I like my redeemable characters and I just was not in the mood for something this dark and characters this irredeemable.

4.5 stars. I really enjoyed this book!

It is optimistic, accepting, loving, and just a great outlook of space and planet exploration with a crew of 4 people that just all get along. They are hungry for knowledge, are doing science for science's sake, and get great enjoyment out of discovery. It made me very happy. There's a little bit of turmoil and it sounds like things aren't going so well on Earth, but these four? They are fantastic! I loved each of the characters! And it gives you some questions to ruminate on after the book is over.

Strangely, the narrator for this book was a narrator in The Initial Insult. I enjoyed her character MUCH MUCH more in this than in the other book! LOL.

I enjoy Blake Crouch and became a big fan with Dark Matter. This one was good, but I just didn't seem to enjoy it as much as his others. It's still a great page-turner! I tell people that Blake Crouch helps fill the hole Michael Crichton left when he passed away.

3.5 stars
Definitely very philosophical for a teen book. Do teens really have thoughts that deep? I know I didn't at that age. But still, a good, classic John Green book with John Green dialogue and teens having to endure more than the average teen should and dealing with it much better than I would have.

Also, wookie/human slash fiction.

2.75 stars. I kept hearing good reviews for this book so I went into it with high expectations, and I generally love Stephen King. My friends were all like, "Oh! You're reading the new King book, how is it?" but, like I told them, I've learned to withhold my review until I'm completely finished because King can create an ending that can turn your opinion right around and make the book fantastic or devastating. In this case, it was neither. I kept waiting for it to get better. I was like,

Spoiler

"Ok, once he's out of this prison the real adventure will begin!"

but it never really picked up for me.

So all in all, the best part was the beginning with Mr. Bowditch and the mystery behind his character. It was the actual "fairy tale" part that was kinda meh.

After reading To Be Taught If Fortunate by this author I got a taste of her writing and loved it. I turned to this book, the first of a series, for more friends in space doing science and loving life. It most certainly delivered! This type of writing and sci-fi is what I need in my life right now. And so many wonderful characters and character building! Amazing!
So please give it a try. I can't wait to read book two!

4.5 stars. Listening to this while traveling in Wales really set the scene!
I think I read at least one Discworld book a year, but this one is really cute. It's shelved as teen fiction at the library and I agree, if you have a younger reader who wants to take a stab at Pratchett's fantasy and humor, this would be the perfect book. Very rarely do we get old, white, male authors that do a good job at writing women, but Sir Pratchett has many of them in Discworld and creates some of the toughest most memorable women in fiction! I was very happy to read about the adventures of Tiff and the Wee Free Men!