Review – Overlord, Vol 2: The Dark Warrior by Kugane Maruyama

Overlord, Vol 2: The Dark Warrior
By: Kugane Maruyama
Release Date: (Original) November 8, 2012; (English) September 27, 2016
Publisher: Yen Press
Series: Overlord, Book #2
Rating:


Every time I go into a bookstore it’s the same. I chant “I just bought books; I will not buy more.” I’m not sure why I bother. It never works. This last trip to the bookstore was my best attempt yet. The last set of books I’d ordered had just arrived at my door that morning and I swore I wasn’t buying more. Then I saw Overlord, Vol. 2: The Dark Warrior sitting on a shelf with some recent manga releases, squee’d, and immediately bought it. Because I’m weak.

Review: The Elite

The Elite (The Selection #2)
By: Kiera Cass
Website: http://www.kieracass.com/
Release Date: April 23rd 2013
Publisher: HarperTeen
Series: The Selection Series
Rating:


The second book in this series, like the first, didn’t disappoint me. We continue with America Singer and the remaining contestants of the Selection as the women work to win the heart of Prince Maxon. America meanwhile is stuck between a rock and a hard place as her heart still pulls her to her first love, and palace guard, Aspen. Who will she choose? And, when she’s ready, will the one she chooses still be hers to claim?

Review – Doctor Who: The American Adventures

Doctor Who: The American Adventures
By: Justin Richards
Release Date: October 25, 2016
Publisher: Penguin Books, Limited (UK)
Received From: Publisher
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
Rating:


It’s been quite some time since Doctor Who has aired. The Christmas Special is still several weeks off. I’ve been completely Doctor Who starved these last months. But never fear! There’s something to tide us over until Christmas. Doctor Who: The American Adventures released on October 25, 2016.

#ThrowbackThursday Review- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
By: J. K. Rowling
Website: https://www.pottermore.com/
Release Date: June 26, 1997
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
Series: Harry Potter, Book #1
Award: National Book Award (UK) 1997, British Book Award for Children's Book of the Year (1998), Smarties Prize (1997), and many, many more.
Rating:


I haven’t reread Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone since middle school, probably. My little paperback is beaten up now, passed along to my siblings before being returned significantly more worn than the last I’d seen it. Pages are missing along with the back cover. The spine is split in two. Small, triangular holes line a few of the pages where my parrot sat and gnawed on the book as I read. A giant sticker, one of those large, badge-like ones they give out at doctor’s offices, is tucked between the pages, buried near the end of the book where it was once used as a bookmark.

I can’t help but smile as I look at the book, and I wondered how unbiased of a review I could truly make this. The nostalgia factor is alive and well with this one, after all. I read the first book when I was 11, and the last book was released the summer I graduated high school. Harry Potter bookended my childhood. But, I’ve tried my best to maintain an open, unbiased opinion. Here goes!

Review: The Selection

The Selection
By: Kiera Cass
Website: http://www.kieracass.com/
Release Date: April 24th 2012
Publisher: HarperTeen
Series: The Selection Series
Award: Abraham Lincoln Award Nominee (2015)
Rating:


The Selection is one of the books I looked at with curiosity but hesitation. I’m not one for girls in pretty ballgowns, I prefer heroines battling their own enemies while wearing pants and having swords clash around them. Still, America Singer’s story pulled me in. I am well aware this is not everyone’s cup of tea (reviews on Goodreads will show that) but let me explain why I give this a high rating and why you should at least give it a shot.

Review – Remnants of Trust by Elizabeth Bonesteel

Remnants of Trust
By: Elizabeth Bonesteel
Website: https://elizabethbonesteel.wordpress.com/
Release Date: November 8, 2016
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Series: Central Corps #2
Received From: Publisher
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
Rating:


This week marked the release of Remnants of Trust, the second novel in the Central Corps series by Elizabeth Bonesteel. This is a fast paced military science fiction novel that has a lot going for it. The story begins with Captain Greg Foster and Commander Elena Shaw, freshly returned from a court martial and assigned to the relatively empty Third Sector. But things aren’t quite as quiet as they assumed as the Exeter, another ship from Central Gov, is attacked by raiders. Even after the Orunmila, a PSI ship, comes to the rescue the ship is destroyed, half the crew is dead, and the captain maimed. To top it off, a traitorous saboteur is on the loose.

Review: Outlander (Outlander #1)

Outlander
By: Diana Gabaldon
Website: http://www.dianagabaldon.com/
Release Date: June 1, 1991
Publisher: Dell Publishing Company
Series: Outlander Series
Award: RITA Award by Romance Writers of America for Best Romance of 1991 (1992), Puddly Award for Romance (2001)
Rating:


 Not only is this book series originally published before I could pronounce the word Outlander it was published at perhaps the perfect time to receive the acclaim that it did. Now, with the books adapted to Starz as a regular series the popularity of the books has again been brought back to the forefront which is how I happened upon them. 

Diana Gabladon took a concept and literally ran with it throughout this series and I can safely say that I will be reading all of them. In the first installment we are asked to believe quite a bit but as a fantasy/sci-fi reader at heart I readily believed that the events in this book could happen and were indeed worth reading about. The question to everyone who is considering reading this series is can you believe in Gabladon’s story? 

Review: Survive the Night

Survive the Night
By: Danielle Vega
Website: http://www.daniellerollins.com/
Release Date: July 7th 2015
Publisher: Razorbill
Rating:


High hopes for this book were, unfortunately, dashed. The cover was intriguing and I had hoped for a great story. I don’t normally read what could be considered horror and so, given that I’d heard of the success of Vega’s other book The Merciless (which I have yet to read)  I took a chance. I sort of which I hadn’t.

Review: Nearly Found

Nearly Found
By: Elle Cosimano
Website: http://nearlygonebooks.com/
Release Date: June 2nd 2015
Publisher: Kathy Dawson Books
Series: Nearly Gone #2
Rating:


Nearly Boswell cannot catch a break! After the murder mystery in Book #1 of the series we see Nearly try, yet again, to keep herself focused on her future but trouble always finds her and this time it’s dragging her classmates and her family into it. 

In all seriousness this book was a good follow-up to book #1 Nearly Found and it helps give us some answers we didn’t get in the first book. Aside from a few questions I have that I’ll admit are me nitpicking at things that bothered me on such a minor level that I’ve decided that I need to get over it. Still, with more murders and more questions in her life it takes a huge effort by Nearly and her friends to once again help solve murders and get answers. 

Review – Disney Manga Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas

Disney Manga Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas
By: Jun Asuka
Release Date: November 22, 2016
Publisher: TokyoPop
Rating:


It took an awfully long time for me to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas. Decades, in fact. I wasn’t quite five when it came out, and my parents banned me from watching it on account of me being too scared. This was probably a smart move in retrospect as I vividly remember being terrified that Halloween by a fellow trick or treater dressed up as a ghost (quite literally a middle schooler under a sheet with two eye holes cut out). I ran down the block, screaming, and refused to believe it wasn’t a real ghost. (Sorry, Dad).