June Books

 

I had quite a few books that were just okay this month.  I listened to a lot of thriller/suspense books, and they were interesting while I cleaned the house, but would I say you-have-to-go-read-this-right-now?  Eh. The 2 stars ones were some of those books where I was interested enough in the story to finish, but there was too much inappropriate content for me to be able to recommend them, per se.  I know you guys get what I'm saying.

The Princess Academy: Palace Of Stone by Shannon Hale- 4 Stars - This is a continuation of The Princess Academy series and follows Miri as she travels to the palace to help her friend, the soon-to-be queen, before her wedding.  Along the way she finds out there is a rebellion brewing, as the people are burdened by tributes they must pay to the King.  Miri is sympathetic with the rebels, but also loyal to the royalty because of her friend, and she must figure out what the truth is and help stop a disastrous massacre.  This book was way different than what I thought it was, but overall I enjoyed it! It was fun to see what the characters were up to next, and interesting how the author handled the topic of an uprising and all that (I'm happy to report I didn't detect any real-life political statements being made).  Content Notes: Miri kisses a couple boys who are pursuing her (all very innocent), there are references to the "priests" using divination to find where the princess comes from, but that played very little role in this book.  Some magical elements since Miri and her fellow quarry people can "speak" to each other through the stone from their mountain called linder.

The Princess Academy: The Forgotten Sisters by Shannon Hale - 4 Stars - In this book, Miri wants to go home to her mountain village, but is instead recruited to go train the royal cousins for a possible upcoming marriage to a neighboring king, in order to prevent a war.  When Miri arrives, she finds out the cousins' royal allowance has been pilfered for years, and they are barely surviving.  As the story goes on, more mysteries are brought to light, and she starts to wonder who the royal cousins really are.  I enjoyed the story in this book more than the second book, but there were a few more content notes.  Content Notes:  As in the other books in the series, the magical elements involve linder allowing Miri to speak to her people from a distance, and also to recover memories from the stones.  In this book there were way more references to the "creator god" of this land, and so more may need to be discussed with kids about the made-up religious aspects.

The Survivors by Jane Harper- 3 Stars - I really enjoy mysterious books that take place in small towns, and this book was like that.  Keiran returns to his hometown after leaving years ago because of a tragic incident that lead to the death of his brother and another man.  As another girl turns up dead, the past is being investigated to find out what is happening in the present. They finally unravel what really happened to the two men who died and another girl who disappeared decades ago.  This book is more of a slow burn, it's not un-put-downable, but it kept me interested until the end.  I was a little dissatisfied with the ending, but the solution to the mystery is not something I suspected.  I also appreciated that this book was pretty clean compared to so many other books in this genre.  Content Notes:  Sparsely scattered curse words throughout (maybe one or two f-bombs?  Can't remember).  Keiran recalls memories of teenagers making out, his friends bragging about "conquests", drinking, etc.

Who Is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews - 2 Stars - This is one of those books where you hate all the characters from the start, and it only goes down from there.  If you like books where justice is done, this is not that book.  Florence Darrow loses her job after sleeping with and stalking her boss, only to get a position as an assistant to the mysterious Maud Dixon, the anonymous author of a best selling book.  The entire time she is trying to figure out how to get published, because she was raised to think she was destined for greatness, and publishing a book is what she thinks will accomplish that.  As we find out more about how Maud Dixon actually researchers her books, the plot gets pretty twisted.  This book is very slow for the first half, and I honestly thought about giving up on it a few times.  I persevered, but the ending was so twisted, I almost wish I had given up.  I will say that I didn't see the end coming, and by the time I was halfway through it I felt like I had to finish just to see how things ended up.  Even though I hated all the characters. Content Notes: Adult situations that I ended skipping past because of raciness (I listened on audio).  Curse words throughout.  Terrible morals of all the characters - lying, cheating, murder, etc.  And no one ever pays for their crimes in a just way.

The Half Sister by Sandie Jones - 2 Stars - I was disappointed in this one, but once again, by the time I decided it wasn't going to be my favorite, I was a little invested and felt like I had to finish listening to it.  In this story, Kate and Lauren don't really understand each other's lives, and have very different views of their parents.  One day during Sunday dinner, a girl shows up claiming to be their half sister.  The rest of the book is spent learning more about the relationships between the sisters and their parents, secrets that were covered up, and finding out if Jess really is their half sister or not.  A big part of this plot involved infidelity by one of the sisters, who was also being abused by her husband.  I don't like plots that involve infidelity, especially when it's excused.  By the time it came up in the book I was halfway through and decided to just finish.  The ending was just okay, and I feel if this were to happen in reality, the characters would have been more traumatized by what happened than what was portrayed. Content Notes: Infidelity, etc.  Moderate curse words. 

Hostage by Clare Mackintosh - 3 Stars - This book took a few chapters to get into, but then was very exciting.  Mina, a flight attendant, finds herself on the first London to Sydney nonstop flight, when she gets a note that tells her to open the door to the flight deck or her daughter will die.  From then on, we watch as this hijacking drama, and Mina's personal history and family life, unfolds.  There were some political perspectives thrown in here and there from some of the passengers, but not too heavy-handed - nothing that made me want to through the book across the room.  What I found really interesting about this book is that the author makes the people with whom she would be sympathetic in real life the hijackers.  I think it's really tempting for authors to demonize people they don't agree with politically by making them appear awful in their books, and I thought it was interesting that Mackintosh took the opposite tactic.  I was unsatisfied with the twist at the end (it was kind of an awful thing to make the character do), but overall I enjoyed the story.  Content Notes: Here it loses a couple points.  Mina has some moments where she recalls an assault she experienced as a younger woman, and part of it was just way too descriptive for me.  I just don't like having those pictures in my head.  I think there is a way for that kind of thing to be a plot point without painting the picture for us quite so much.  It lost a star for me because of that.  Moderate cursing.  

The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth - 3 Stars - In this book, Fern Castle (who I think is supposed to be on the autism spectrum?), finds out her sister Rose is struggling to have a baby.  Rose has always taken care of Fern, and so Fern decides to pay her back by getting pregnant and giving the baby to Rose.  Only...some things in their relationship aren't quite right, and it takes the situation with Fern's baby to see that she has more people that care about her than she ever realized.  I enjoyed this book overall, though there were some discussions of adult things that were a little much (I guess I should have realized that since part of the plot involves Fern getting pregnant).  As far as the suspense aspect of this book, I didn't realize what was happening in the book until about halfway, and then I couldn't stop listening until I had finished it.  I will say that there was some memories discussed by one of the characters of being assaulted in her younger years (I'm trying to be vague here) that were too descriptive for me.  I just can't handle any details of that sort of thing.  Because of the more serious elements and adult references, I took a couple stars off, but the story was a pretty good one as far as psychological suspense goes. Content Notes:  Adult situations discussed, abusive memories from one of the characters that were too descriptive.  Moderate level of curse words, I'd say.

Hope you had a more successful reading month in June than me!  I'm going back to memoir for July, and I think I'll have a couple of winners for next month!