Good morning, good afternoon, good evening friends! Friday is usually reviewing day, and since I am a teensy tiny bit late on all of the reviews I need to write, I thought I’d change things up a bit…So today marks the first day I am doing mini-reviews. I hope you’ll enjoy this new format !
Stars Above, Marissa Meyer
I’m not such a fan of novellas of sorts, actually I think I could count how many I read on one hand. That being said, after falling in love with The Lunar Chronicles series, I was recommended -read: screamed at. But I’m not mad. THANK YOU for screaming at me- to read Stars Above. This collection of little stories, set before everything that happened in the series, giving more perspective into the events, the characters’ minds and back stories.
Some stories felt a little unequal, and unfortunately I didn’t fall in love with every single one of these. I think I had a hard time grasping the whole interest and connecting to the characters in The Little Android story, but that’s probably the only complaint I got here. Otherwise, everything felt well-rounded and thought-of. I appreciate the author’s want to complete the story with some necessary and very, very interesting back story: Michelle Benoît’s side of the story was, by far, the more interesting one, because this is where it ALL BEGAN. However, all the important characters get their own moment to shine in this, which I appreciated so, so much, and only contributed to make my love grow for this little crew.
My rating : 4 drops !
KEY WORDS
Short stories, Science-fiction, swoon worthy romances, crew goals, incredible world-building.
TO READ IF
This is not a necessary read, but if you loved The Lunar Chronicles so much and are having a hard time saying goodbye to the characters, read that one. It’s the perfect farewell to this gorgeous series, and it filled me with happy feelings of contentment.
My reviews for the series :
The Last Beginning, Lauren James
I haven’t read tons of time-traveling stories, though I love the concept. After really enjoying The Next Together, I couldn’t help but need to get the next book in the series, mainly because I had so many questions that still needed answers.
If there’s one thing I really enjoyed about this series, it’s the whole concept of time-traveling. That book is an adventure, it’s fast-paced and taking you from the 1700’s to 2052 in the blink of an eye, leaving you with familiar characters to love and a whole universe to discover, still. If the world-building could have been shaped a bit more, I was thrilled to get back into this adventure with the author. It was a bit predictable at times, but that didn’t take away any of my enjoyment. However, the back and forth in this story were a bit head-spinning, at times.
I quickly grew attached to all of the characters in this series, despite the fact that it was 90% of new characters. Clove was determined, sometimes a bit too stubborn, but she felt like a real teenager, which I really appreciated. The relationships were developed enough, and I loved seeing the dynamics between Clove’s parents develop along with all the struggles inherent to the story. Also, the romance side of this story was really good to follow, because it didn’t take over the plot. It was just there, built with time and on the side of the main story.
My rating : 4 drops!
KEYWORDS
Time traveling, historical novels, parents and children, science-fiction, f/f romance.
TO READ IF
You enjoy time traveling stories, the in-between historical novels and sci-fi because it got these two things, fast-paced books, diverse romances and tight parents/children relationships.
My review for the first book :
I have yet to read The Next Together, even though I’ve heard great things about it (and it sounds amazing as well)! And I also need to catch up on all the TLC novellas. I’m so behind. ?
Ohh yes you should! If you enjoy time travelling stories, you could love that one. Also, I don’t feel like many bloggers have read it, and I really WANT to talk about it haha so read it ? Thank you Mikaela!! 🙂
I still haven’t picked up The Last Beginning because it is kind of not a priority right now. You know how I had mixed feelings about the previous book. But I do want to get to it at some point in the next months.
I get it, and no need to rush into reading a book you’re not motivated to get to – I think it might just make the reading experience worse for you ? I hope you’ll enjoy it when you get to it 🙂
I hope so too 🙂
Hey you my kindred spirit! I am writing quick reviews for three books I’ve been stuck with, haha!
Sometimes teens in books sound so much younger or older than they are, it’s nice to have real teens in stories too!
….We are twins maybe ? ? I thought it was a good way to still write reviews without having to think too much about it ? ? and I’m glad, I had fun writing these mini reviews, I hope you will too while writing yours 😀
The Last Beginning looks just like my cup of tea. Time traveling stories are easily my favorites so I’ll surely look out for this. You should try out Lauren Beauke’s The Shining Girls if you’re in the mood for time travel. It’s about a serial killer who could travel through time and one of his victims who survived. Really intriguing.
Ohhh well if you enjoy these kind of stories, I really think you might like this one. I hope you’ll love it when you get to it. And thank you for this recommendation! 😀
I love this new addition of mini reviews; enough to get an idea of the book but not too much to take up a lot of time writing I’m assuming. 😀 I’m glad you read Stars Above Marie, I think whether you enjoy anthologies or not it’s a must for fans of The Lunar Chronicles series. Also I’m really glad you enjoyed The Last Beginning, did you find it answered a lot of questions you had left over from The Next Together? That’s how I felt about that book, and I loved Clove’s relationships with her parents as well, both sets of parents actually. 🙂
Great reviews for both these books Marie.
Thank you Beth! I’m glad you enjoyed this, and it took me less time to write as well ?
Yes, I thought that many questions were answered, which I was happy for. After finishing The Next Together, I thought there were way too many questions left, and I didn’t enjoy that feeling haha. I’m glad that it was resolved ? Thank you!
Ha, that’s great. Gives you more time to blog hop and read other people’s posts I guess. Oh that’s great to hear, that’s one of the reasons I enjoyed The Last Beginning a little more just because there were so many more answers in it than in The Next Together. 🙂
That’s all right. <3
And more time to relax and try not to freak out about blogging as well, haha 🙂 Thank you! 🙂
It’s important to leave some time for relaxing as well! 😀
OH yes it is ahah, otherwise I’d lose my mind I think ?
I’m glad to see you enjoyed these books! I felt the same way with Stars Above, while I really enjoyed some I didn’t get too much attached to the others! (I did especially love the last novella though! <3) I have yet to read the Next Together and the sequel but when I do, I'm going to have to come back and read both your reviews on the books!
Oh yes that last novella was PERFECTION! ? And I’m glad to hear you’re considering reading The Next Together, these are awesome books. I hope you’ll love them, and thank you!
I finished Cinder this week and LOVED it
Ohhh I’m SO glad to hear it! Now you need to read the rest of the series, it just gets better and better!
It’s planned ?
I can’t wait to hear your thoughts about it!
STARS ABOVE OMG YESSSSSSSS. Like the last story? = <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 . I have to admit, I'd read The Little Android on Wattpad before, so when I encountered it in Stars Above I actually just skipped it. I read The Next Together last year and really liked it. I should try to find The Last Beginning!
YES that last story was SO good, I loved it! <3 <3
I hope you'll enjoy The Last Beginning. I was a bit frustrated at the lack of answers in the first book, I was glad to get some haha 🙂
I have not read Lunar chronicles yet. I have Heartless on the TBR though. The second book is new to me. Glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
Oh I hope you’ll enjoy Heartless and that it will make you want to read more from this author 🙂 The Lunar Chronicles is such a good series 🙂 Thank you so much! 🙂
I didn’t really like The Next Together when I read it (actually I kind of disliked it) but I was super intrigued by the time-traveling element! I still am, actually; I’m just not sure I like the writing style enough. I assume from your mini-review that Kate/Matthew made quite a bit of appearance in The Last Beginning? I’m still undecided on whether or not I should finish the series – I enjoy the idea but the writing didn’t really work for me. :/
Oh I understand, and it’s annoying to keep on reading if you can’t really connect with the writing…I’m sorry that happened :/ Yes they do make an appearance, and it was nice to get answers to questions left behind in the first book. I do think however that if the writing style isn’t for you, no need to push it, maybe you’ll just end up dislinking the whole series even more :/
Ah I’m so glad Stars Above is actually good- and I’d really like to read about Michelle Benoit in particular! And the Last Beginning sounds fun too!!
Ohhh yes, that story about Michelle was so interesting, I was glad to discover a bit of what happened at the very beginning of Selene’s story! I can’t wait for you to read it 🙂
Excellent!! I love the pics!
Aww thank you! 🙂
Loved this post. I don’t review books but I review lots of other stuff! Come check out my site
http://www.demirviews.com/
Thank you so much ! 🙂
Great Post, Its small and simple and gives you enough to get an idea of the book 🙂
Thank you!
Oh thank you! 🙂
nice post dear……
Thank you 🙂
I want to read the Lunar series but haven’t yet. Too many other books to read.
Ohh well I get the struggle ahah 🙂 I hope you’ll be able to squeeze it in soon, it’s such an amazing series 🙂