"Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas is a Must Read if you like Fantasy! (UPDATED)

We both liked this one! 
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas is a mix of fantasy, mystery, competition, relationships, survival, royalty and friendship. Celaena, a famous teen assassin, who was betrayed and worked in a death camp as a slave in salt mines is chosen by Prince Dorien to participate in a contest that could give her freedom. If she wins, she would have to serve the king as his Champion assassin for four years and then she would be free. Celaena is brave, confident, determined, skilled, snarky and feisty. She is housed in the castle and finds a secret passage into tunnels that lead her to trouble!

I am so glad I read this book and look forward to continuing in the series! The characters are interesting and I really like Celaena, Nehemia, Chaol—captain of the guard and Prince Dorien. I didn’t dislike Cain until well into the book but disliked Kaltain and Duke Pellington right from the start. This book kept my interest from start to finish and I found myself chuckling and cheering. I would have preferred the final duel to be a clean fight but I still liked the ending. Nor did I care for the otherworld stuff; however, the action, Celaena and her relationships with Chaol, Dorien, Nehemia and Kaltain more than made up for it. This is a really good story I recommend to anyone who enjoys a bit of fantasy.
(Karen's review, 4 stars because I hear the next book in this series is even better!)


Gerard's review:

Throne of Glass is a YA novel about a young girl named Celaena.  She has been trained to be an assassin and is "the best."  Unfortunately for her, she is captured and put in a death camp.  However, when the king decides that he wants his own assassin to work for him, he runs a contest.  His son frees Celaena to enter the contest and maybe a chance to be free IF she wins.

This is an outstanding read; I LOVED IT!   Celaena is a great character and I was quickly on her side!  This has plenty of action and the other characters are really interesting too.  It almost goes without saying that the story line is superb!  This is a MUST READ and I will be reading the next book in this series soon.  This is going to be hard to beat for my "book of the month"--it's fantastic!
(Gerard's review 7/3/15, 5++ stars)

Here is a video of Gerard and me discussing this book on our front porch:

See our Crown of Midnight review and discussion video.

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. To find books on a specific topic, scroll to the bottom and click on the topic you want.

Happy Reading!

"More Happy Than Not" by Adam Silvera

More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera is a YA novel told by a young teen boy named Aaron.  He is having problems figuring out who he is exactly and he does not have his dad to go to because his dad committed suicide.  Poor Aaron thinks he is the cause of that!

I enjoyed this book.  It covers a lot of modern-day issues and all the characters were very well developed. 
(Gerard's review, 4 stars)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. To find books on a specific topic, scroll to the bottom and click on the topic you want. Happy Reading!

Teaser Tuesdays: Four Today

Gerard's:

Under a black-purple sky, a chariot is drawn by six angels harnessed like horses.  Blood and sweat stream down their shoulders and chests where the harness cuts into them.

From page 33 of End of Days by Susan Ee.

"I'm spending the night at Genevieve's.  Tell Mom I'm at Brendan's playing some new game or something."

From page 21 of More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera.

Karen's: 

"I demand to know," she began, but the Captain of the Guard pulled her back from the prince with spine-snapping force.  "I wasn't going to kill him, you buffoon."

 From page 12 of Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas.  (Click link for Gerard's review.)

One of the most important things you can do as a leader is to develop other leaders.  Those leaders will affect hundreds, if not thousands, of other people.

From page 4 of Leadership Lessons from West Point edited by Major Doug Crandall.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along, so I thought  I  would play for fun! Just pick two sentences from the book you are reading.

Happy Reading!

"Leadership Lessons from West Point" Can Apply to Leadership in General

Leadership Lessons from West Point is written by different Army officers who have had actual battle experience in leading men. It is actually a textbook that is well organized and addresses many different aspects of effective leadership. I must admit I did not read the entire book word for word because it nicely set off main points of each topic. I read those main points and if it was related to something that I felt would be helpful to me as a Sunday School teacher or volunteer coach, I read those entire passages. After reading Hope Unseen about an army officer who became blind due to a war bomb in Iraq and eventually got a teaching position at West Point, I wanted to read this book to see more of what West Point cadets were taught about leadership.
(Karen's review, 3 stars)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. To find books on a specific topic, scroll to the bottom and click on the topic you want. Happy Reading!

"End of Days" by Susan Ee is a Great Finish to a Great Series!

End of Days by Susan Ee is book 3 and the last of the angel series which I loved! All three books in this series are very good! In this last book, Penryn and Raffe are on the run with a lot of twists and turns to come before the last part of the book that covers the final battle between angels and humans.

There is plenty of action in this one which made me enjoy it a lot! It’s a great series that has a really good ending. Super job, Miss Ee! I look forward to your next project.
 (Gerard's review, 5++ stars)

The first book in this series is Angelfall and the second is World After.


Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. To find books on a specific topic, scroll to the bottom and click on the topic you want. Happy Reading!