Check out Scott Reads It! for reviews, giveaways, & more! The Vault Of Dreamers was one of my anticipated books of fall 2014 and yet, it’s also one o Check out Scott Reads It! for reviews, giveaways, & more! The Vault Of Dreamers was one of my anticipated books of fall 2014 and yet, it’s also one of the most disappointing books of the year for me. This book has an amazing premise that involves a dystopian game show, but this book is poorly executed with a deadly slow-paced plot and characters that are terribly bland. I felt so tempted to abandon this book several times while reading because I never felt any connection to any of the characters.
Welcome to the Forge School where students are monitored for 12 hours a day and their every move is displayed on TV in a Big Brother-esque show. After a long 12 hour day, students are forced to take sleeping pills and into a 12 hour slumber, but things aren’t quite that simple as Rosie discovers. All it takes is a simple act of resistance and suddenly Rosie’s world turns upside down.
I’m not sure why anyone would want to watch The Forge Show for 12 hours, let alone for more than 5 minutes. The characters on this show aren’t interesting at all and are very bland to the point where their character arcs are virtually non-existent. For a reality show, these characters don’t have large personalities and this show doesn’t really have much drama. I don’t quite get why hundreds of thousands of people watch this show for hours on end, if it were me I’d probably flip to a different channel.
The Vault Of Dreamers features a love triangle, one that is flimsily constructed and unmemorable. I’m not a huge fan of love triangles because they’re over done and Vault has such an unnecessary one. The two love interests are Linus and Burnham, both of which lack development and were characters I couldn’t care about. This love triangle doesn’t really add much to the story and merely added cliche moments to the plot.
Vault is a so-so start to a new series and I had very little interest in Rosie’s adventures to the point where I struggled to finish this book. I was really put off by the romance and the incredibly slow-pace of this nove, I know that I’ll be skipping the sequel. ...more
Seen at Scott Reads It "No wonder princesses were so impotent in fairy tales...If all they could do was smile, stand straight, and speak to squirrelsSeen at Scott Reads It "No wonder princesses were so impotent in fairy tales...If all they could do was smile, stand straight, and speak to squirrels, then what choice did they have but wait for a boy to rescue them."
I love fairy tales even though they can be the most cliche stories. There's just some magical and mind blowing about fairy tales even though most of them end with a happily ever after. I even love the gruesome, classic Grimm Fairy Tales which are quite entertaining. I went into The School For Good And Evil with pretty high expectations and for the most part I enjoyed this book.
The School Of Good And Evil revolves around two friends, Sophie and Agatha, who are so different from each other. Sophie is the princess type with her blonde hair and urge to find her true love. Agatha doesn't really care about such silly things such as love. Somehow Sophie ends up in the School For Evil while Agatha ends up in The School For Good. Both girls feel that they don't belong at their school and want out of this fate.
Soman Chainani does a superb job of creating such a vivid and magical world. I loved reading the descriptions of each of the schools and their quirky classes. The School For Good And Evil was a fabulous backdrop to this book and I loved reading about this strange world. Each school was really awesome in their own way but I don't think I'd fit in at either school at all.
It's a bit hard to read a book when you don't like one of the protagonists. I really disliked Sophie, I know this was the author's intention but I couldn't bare reading about her. She was extremely superficial, irritating, self-centered, and snobby. Chainani did a great job of making Sophie a very realistic and developed character but I couldn't stand her. Thankfully by the end of the book, Sophie had evolved as a character and she was certainly more likeable.
Agatha is the star of The School For Good And Evil and I couldn't help but love her from the get go. I love how Agatha pokes fun at princesses (see quote above) and fairy tales. Agatha was an extremely loyal friend to Sophie even though Sophie wasn't so kind to her. If I was Agatha, I probably would have ditched Sophie if she treated me the way she treated Agatha (This is probably why I would never be apart of The School Of Good). Agatha was the kind of character that I definitely could relate to and I hope to see more of her in the sequel.
Pacing is a bit of an issue in this book and I feel like the plot moved a bit too slow at times. Also I think this book is a bit too long for the middle grade audience it's targeted towards and this book could have been shortened a bit. This book is nearly 500 pages and I felt there were times when my attention wavered and I was a bit disinterested in this book.
Overall The School For Good And Evil was a delight to read and I'm definitely excited for book #2. This book may be targeted towards children but I definitely think this book has some crossover appeal. I think many Young Adults and Adults will love this book even though they are not the intended audience. I heard that the movie rights to this book have already been sold and I think this book would make a fabulous movie. Fans of Once Upon A Time will love this magical, spellbinding story of what it means to discover who you are. Thank you to HarperCollins for providing me with an ARC in exchange for a honest review....more
I read this book with the lovely Kristin from My Friends Are Fiction & Octavia from Read. Sleep. Repeat.
Mild spoilers ahead--you have been warned!
Rating: 2.5 Stars
Vampire Academy is the first book in the NY Times bestselling series and it's a literary phenomenon. I have been hearing about this book even before I had a Goodreads account and the VA fandom is enormous. Not to mention the fact that there's a Vampire Academy movie coming out on Valentine's Day 2014. I decided to finally give into the hype recently and jump on the Vampire Academy bandwagon. I know I'm late to the whole world of Richelle Mead, but I know I'll definitely be returning to read more of Dmitiri and Rose's adventures. I did enjoy Vampire Academy, but I just have to say that it didn't nearly live up to the hype.
I'm not sure what I expected from VA, but I expected a whole lot more from Mead. Instead of getting an insane paranormal novel, I was treated to a novel about typical high school drama. Mead definitely handled the high school cliches better than a lot of other authors, but I'm still extremely disappointed. I didn't get all of the feels, after finishing VA, I didn't feel the need to rant how amazing it was. Frankly when I finished VA, it was just okay I'm die and that's it.
The characters in VA weren't nearly as amazing as I have been hearing from Goodreads friends. Honestly I didn't care for Dmitri much at all and I did NOT like the whole romance with him and Rose. The whole age gap and student-teacher relationship didn't work for me at all. There was nothing special about Dmitri, I'm sorry guys but I just had to say it. I surprisingly liked Rose, despite the fact that so many of my friends have said she's extremely annoying. I didn't find Rose annoying at all and I loved her snarky, kick-ass attitude. Rose is by far, the best character in VA, even better than Dmitri. There I said it! Lissa was nothing special and I felt rather indifferent towards her. I feel like I didn't see nearly enough of the students in St. Vladimir's Academy to comment on them, but I felt like their presence was really lacking in the novel. The other students were a bit on the undeveloped side and they really weren't too distinct in my mind.
Plotwise, not much really goes on in the entire novel and most of the novel is literally dialogue and world-building. Some of the dialogue is really humorous, but it didn't really excuse the incomplete plot. The world building of Vampire Academy is really in-depth as I would have expected from Richelle Mead. The mythology behind the dhampirs, the Strigoi, and Moroi was extremely interesting to read, but I felt as if the mythology was too infodumpy. It was a bit overwhelming to have all this mythology thrown at me and I don't think I really got a chance to properly digest it all. Vampire Academy ended right when the novel started to get really interesting; the ending was executed wonderfully and I wish the rest of the book was just as entertaining.
I will be continuing this series because I have heard that future books are a lot better. I'm not sure if this book was mediocre because most of this book helped set up what Rose and St. Vladimir's Academy is like. I just hope that the rest of this series isn't as disappointing, because I really wanted to love this series. Please, don't let me down! Vampire Academy wasn't a bad novel by any standards, it was just not all what I expected. ...more
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