It's Monday, What are You Reading? (2)

This meme is hosted at Book Journey.

Life

My last week of complete freedom - interpreting school starts this coming Saturday!  Eeeep!  I'll probably write more about that later in the week.  It's a time of transition all around - the days are still warm but the nights are getting cooler, the wool yarn finally reappeared in the craft stores, and soup sounds much more enticing than it did a couple of weeks ago.

This week's roundup is longer than usual thanks to the Read-a-Thon.  I read 1,000 pages in a day - I had no idea I could do that!

Read Last Week

 Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead ★★★

Yup, vampires.  Having three main classes of supernaturals instead of vampires vs. other was neat but the story was only so-so.  I hoped it was just world building blues and moved on to the second book.

 Frostbite by Richelle Mead ★★★

But the next installment was little better.  Mead started heading into "tell, don't show" territory which is a big ol' red flag in my book.  But the plot held together more or less and I just had to see what happened with the sexy Dimitri.  So, near the end of the Read-a-Thon, I tackled:

Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead  ~abandoned~

And... no.  All of my pet peeves from the first two books popped up in the first fifty pages and I threw in the towel.  No need to continue here.

Dead Inside: Do Not Enter by Lost Zombies ★★★★

This post-apocalyptic tale unfolds via notes and other ephemera a la Found magazine.  A super fast read, it was an engaging way to spend the wee hours of the Read-a-Thon.

Crossed by Ally Condie ★★★

Picking up where Matched left off, Cassie is off to the Outer Provinces to find Ky, her true love.  I like that they picked up a few side characters along the way but nothing really happens here.  The move from point A to B, are joined and separated, and book three is set up.  I'm not giving up on the series but I'm disappointed with where this went.

A Lady Awakened by Cecilia Grant ★★★★

This was my first full blown regency romance and I really liked it.  Martha's husband died suddenly and she's cut out of the will unless there's an heir in the picture.  She enlists the help of a rake to make sure that happens and over the course of the next month what started as a business transaction becomes much, much more.  Solid writing and a good plot made the pages fly by.

How Reading Changed My Life by Anna Quindlen  ★★

Ranting about this book during Hour Twenty Four of the Read-a-Thon kept me awake.  Graaah.

Currently Reading

Kiss of Crimson by Lara Adrian

I liked the first book of the Midnight Breed series well enough to pick this up.  I don't have high hopes for it, though.

Escaping into the Open: The Art of Writing True by Elizabeth Berg

Just started and I'm excited to see what she covers.

Still Waiting

(books on hold at the library)

I just got access to the State Library so this section is going to explode!

Gone Girl - 17 out of 41 (six week wait)

The Paid Companion - 2 out of 2 (one month wait)

Divergent - 4 out of 4 (two month wait)

Halfway to the Grave (Night Huntress #1) - 24 out of 25 (three month wait)

The Victory Lab - 5 out of 5 (three week wait)

Never Seduce a Scot - 32 out of 34 (two month wait)

The Great Inversion and the Future of the American City - 2 out of 2 (one month wait)

Dark Lover - 26 out of 27 (three month wait)

Pleasure Unbound - 6 out of 6 (six week wait)