No Stacking the Shelves this Week

I am broke and jobless therefore I have no new books. lol. And I have to wait until fine free day at the library to return the books I forgot I had. So I have no library books either. Just one more week!

Anyway if you want to participate, Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.

I hope you all had a great week and got LOTS of books!

Review: Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Pages: 472 (hardcover)
Spoilers: High
Rating: 3 
Summary from Goodreads:

Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight—she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug. When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change. She never expects to become Po’s friend. She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace—or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away . . . a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone. 

 With elegant, evocative prose and a cast of unforgettable characters, debut author Kristin Cashore creates a mesmerizing world, a death-defying adventure, and a heart-racing romance that will consume you, hold you captive, and leave you wanting 

Finally! It took me forever to write this.

General:

I picked up Graceling because the reviews were really good on goodreads. I expected to really like it. But I ended up being underwhelmed.

I really liked it at first. I felt engaged and could fell the potential of an amazing story oozing off the pages. But it started to lose me after a while. The action fizzled. It tried to pick to pick back up again with A LOT of added action but by that point I was gone. 

The romance was adequate. I really liked Po. He is a typical wet dream hero. He's kind, understanding, attractive, and doesn't care that Katsa beats the shit out of him, and of course has no faults.

Katsa really confuses me. She says she doesn't want to get married or have children. Hey me either. But every time she and Po have sex or I don't know, look at each other the author makes a point to say that Katsa will not get married or have children. I get it! It's explained that Katsa doesn't want the freedom he would "give" her to be a gift. Maybe I don't understand what most marraiges are like: a partnership between two people who love each other? Isn't that what she and Po have? Maybe marriage is different in this world. I don't know. I get the message Cashore is trying to say, but I don't think it was executed well. 

Plot:

Do not read this part if you don't like spoilers.

So Katsa and Po went off the find Bitterblue (Po's cousin) that is the princess in a neighboring land and to find out why her father kidnapped Po's grandfather (or uncle, I can't remember). It turns out that the King had a mind control grace and was actually evil and wanted to hurt Bitterblue. They find her and are going to help her. So Po goes to try kill the King but gets hurt, so he makes Katsa to go on without him because he's dead weight . This leaves Katsa to have to take Bitterblue to Po's family on the other side of the fictional world. They must pass over a dangerous mountain because everywhere else is guarded except this one as no one has ever survived going over it. 

They make it after a rather boring, but supposed to be, excitement. The King's there controlling Po's family and Katsa. Well he threatens Po so she kills him. Yay the end, right? The problem of the story has been resolved right? Right. But alas the book continues on.

No now I must mutter through Katsa and Po's family going to find Po (while they discuss why she's not married to him, come on I am over this). Oh and Bitterblue has suddenly stared talking like a 30 year old. What? Anyway they make it to Po and he's not himself, and being all moody, and I don't give a shit anymore. Turns out he's now blind! Dun dun duh. Shoot me. That has no point! At all. Why would you add it? My only guess is so he has a fault. Or for some shock value. But the problem is, that it's not shocking, it's completely useless. 

But I will say that I liked it. As far as a young adult fantasy novel it's good. Adequate action and intensity in the beginning. And I liked the scene where Katsa kills the King. I could pretty much leave the rest. Including the second half of the romance. It got real repetitive real fast.

Overall:

Stacking the Shelves: June 17th

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.
Sorry this is late. There's been a death in the family and I've been a little busy these last few days.

Borrowed:


Insider (duo book) by Maria V. Snyder


Starters by Lissa Price
The cover in person looks so much better.


If I Stay by by Gayle Forman

Leave a link for your book haul in the comments!

Stacking the Shelves: June 10th

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.

Since the last time I did a Stacking the Shelves I got three books. I'm in a reading slump so it's not a lot.

Bought:

Storm by Brigid Kemmerer.

Library:

Graceling by Kristin Cashore.


Fire by Kristin Cashore.

Post the link for your book haul in the comments!

Theme Song Saturday: Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins

Theme Song Saturday is hosted by Sinn.

Here are the rules found on her blog:

• On Saturdays, find a song that reminds you of the current book/series you're reading. In your post, tell us about the song, why it reminds you of the book, and post a video (either official music video or anything with the song you can find on YouTube).
•  Grab the Theme Song Saturday button to include in your post. 
• When you get your post all up and running, come back here and put a DIRECT link the post in the Mr. Linky Widget I'll put up on Saturdays.
•  Check out the other people participating and leave comments! As bloggers, we love to get comments, so share the love ^_^ 
• Everyone is welcome to join! Don't feel the need to participate every week. While I'd love to see you coming back, don't get yourself bogged down. 
• In yours posts, have a link back to this intro page, so new participants know the rules.

The song I have chosen for Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins is Stupid Girl by The Rolling Stones. This is because I could not stand Sophie's voice in this book. And I stopped reading the book one reason was because she was so aggravating. She was supposed to be 17 but honestly acted and sounded like she was 12. I wanted to tell her to shut her stupid ass up hence the song.