I found these at Ocean State… for $1.50 each:
Oh, Yeah!
The timing was perfect. While my husband and Pickle went camping, Gearbox and I took a staycation (Gearbox is still recovering from his accident). We made the most of our week. We watched the extended edition of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. We went on anime binges. And we read. A lot.
I started with Vampire Academy because it was at the top of the stack, and I wanted some light, fun, reading. It was great. Rose was a butt-kicking heroine with a bad temper and a bit of an attitude. She got into trouble. She made terrible choices, but didn’t we all make terrible choices at 17? It was fun, exciting. I liked it so much that I immediately bought the rest of the series.
And that was my mistake.
With each book I became more and more disenchanted with the series. A crush on a teacher, I get. A love affair with a teacher — creepy. Risking your life, throwing away your career, and breaking promises to pursue that love affair — stupid. I kept waiting for Rose to grow up. To make better choices. To chose Adrian (did I mention I hate love triangles?!?). To stop ruining the lives of people around her. It’s been a long time since I genuinely wished the love interested would get a stake through the heart so we could be done with it.
Oh well. Lesson learned. Read the reviews for the later books before investing in the whole series. In the end I gave the first two books ★★★★☆ because I really enjoyed them and the rest of the series ★★★☆☆ because I stayed up late reading them even though I occasionally wanted to hurl the books across the room. Book 6 is teetering in ★★☆☆☆ territory.
And, if any publishers are listening, it’s crazy that it was $18 dollars cheaper for me to buy the paper copes of books 2-6. I would have preferred the e-books.
What’s on my TBR Pile:
– Witch Eyes by Scott Tracey
– Origami X (spy themed origami)
For more It’s Monday, What Are You Reading, visit Kellee and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Sheila at Book Journey.
I’m sorry to hear you dodn’t like Vampire Academy series. It’s one of my favourite series.
Hi Katya, I know what you mean about love triangles bordering on painful, creepy, and downright hurl-worthy (if you find yourself near a wall, or a trashbin, depending on your mood). I am very very careful now when it comes to starting book series as it does take so much out of the reader. And it’s painful if the rest of the books go downhill mid-way. I love staycations! And the extended trilogy of LOTR! Sounds positively awesome. Enjoy the rest of your books this week!
It was fun to watch the LOTR movies through the eyes of a tween.
I’ve read a bunch of series this summer that I enjoy less and less the farther in I get. I think the farther you get into a series the more expectation you have and when the author takes the series/characters/plot in a different direction it can be frustrating as a reader.
I actually liked The Vampire Academy series in increasing order, the books got better and better for me. And the discrepancy in price is crazy!
It seems I go in phases with my reading though vampires have never grabbed my interest.
@Tanya and Sam
Go figure, right? I know a lot of people who love this series… It just keeps reinforcing for me that paranormal romance, even when well done, is not my cuppa tea. :-)
I’m not sure I will choose to read any of these, but glad to know about them in case I see some students reading. I had enough with the first one of the Twilight series. I love Dracula, so really want the story to be good, as I hear that you do, too. Try the Maggie Stiefvater Shiver and on. I have liked it!
Ugh! Too bad about the series. I hate it when that happens.
Nice finds! I haven’t started the Vampire Academy series yet, but I keep meaning to. I know what you mean about series, though. Sometimes the longer they are, the more they travel away from what your first impressions of what they would be.
I was thinking about this… I can think of more series where I was disappointed by the later books than series where I loved it more and more as it progressed.
I have done that with books, bought the whole series in excitement and then read the first one and groaned, I swear I will never do it again! Of course it comes against me when the 1st is good and I want to read the next straight away!
Powers is third in that trilogy – have you read the first two?
Kathryn
I haven’t read the first two books but I’m hoping my library has them… I couldn’t resist picking Powers up for such a great price.
Vampires are very very good :)
Have a great week! The Brunette Librarian’s Blog
My students like Gamer Girl, and it is very different from any other book I’ve read. Mancusi has a vampire series, too. Sigh! So many.
I’m really looking forward to Gamer Girl. *Fingers crossed* Sometimes when my expectations are too high it’s easy to be disappointed.
I have heard exactly what you said about Vampire Academy (and House of Night)- that it starts out really strong and really starts to stretch as the series continues.
Happy reading this week! :)
If you like vampire books, have you tried Sunshine by McKinley? I love that one. Sounds like I wouldn’t enjoy Vampire Academy, since that is exactly the kind of thing that drives me crazy!!
I love LOTR – and I’m super excited about the Hobbit. I read that with my fifth graders each year, and I show them the cheesy 70s animated movie. It’s funny to watch their reactions to that one.
I prefer ebooks when they are books I don’t think I’ll be passing along to my students or children. I hate when they are more expensive than the regular paperbacks.
I see that you are currently reading IQ84, I hope you enjoy that more than the vampire series ;)
I am so jealous of your £1.50 bargains!
I haven’t read Vampire Academy- I figured I wouldn’t like it but be stuck reading the whole series to know what happened!- So annoying I have an up coming post on series vs stand alones mentioning how it annoys me!
I really need to watch the whole trilogy in the right order one day- I always end up watching Fellowship loads and then the other two randomly!
Have a great week!
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