In February I finished two series, and read a couple of books I’ve been curious to read. I also finished the manga series Death Note, but I’m excluding it from this blog post.
Number of books: 5 (and 2 started)
Number of pages: 1,705
Reading List:
◦ The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #5) by Rick Riordan ★★★★★
◦ The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks ★★★★
◦ Four (Divergent short story collection) by Veronica Roth ★★★★
◦ The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks ★★★
◦ Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn ★★★★★
◦ started: Lord of Chaos (The Wheel of Time #6) by Robert Jordan
◦ started: The Matchmaker by Marita Conlon-McKenna
I chose a few of the books to review below:
The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
The fifth and final part of the Percy Jackson series. Percy has just learnt about a prophecy: on his sixteenth birthday he will decide if the gods or the titans will win the war, by choosing side. But will he make the right decision? And does the prophecy even concern him?
I love Rick Riordan’s books about the semi-gods, gods and monsters from the ancient Greek mythology placed in our modern world. These YA books are eventful, with many unexpected turns and a large amount of humor. I like the characters and the adventures, and Rick’s writing-style in general. Five parts was a good length of this series, and this final part was the perfect ending to the adventure. Now I want to read the other stories he’s written!
Rating: ★★★★★
The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
Noah Calhoun returns to his hometown after the Second World War, where he buys an old house to fix up. He’s haunted by the memories of his first crush, the wonderful summer he spent with Allie Nelson. Suddenly she stands before him and says that she’s engaged to be married, but she wanted to tell him in person. The question is, does their feelings for each other really belong to the past?
If I would describe this novel with one single word, I would say beautiful. The story is in two parts: past and present. Both parts are slow-paced and not very eventful, but instead of becoming boring the story only becomes beautiful. This is the ultimate eternal-everlasting-love story and I enjoyed every page.
Rating: ★★★★
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
On their fifth wedding anniversary Nick realizes that his wife Amy is missing. Their are signs of struggle inside the house and the police regards the situation as a kidnapping, possibly a murder. Nick is a weak liar and far from a perfect husband – but is he a murderer, as most of the town seems to believe?
I read this novel in February since I wanted to watch the movie before it was removed from Netflix, and I wanted to read the book first. My first thought after I finished the book was “WOW!” It took me a while to straighten my tangled thoughts. The book is divided in two parts, and in both parts we get to follow both his and her side of their life before and during their marriage. The characters were interesting and human, the intrigues were captivating, and all the plot twists eventually made me feel like I could hardly trust a word of what I was reading. It was a very thrilling book and I’m happy to have read it!
Rating: ★★★★★