Young Adult

The BEST Book Series to Binge

Posted on January 6, 2020 by Ashley Lauren

I know binging on Netflix is all the rage, but I’m much more interested in binging book series

You can probably guess some of the main things in my life that make me happy – kids, husband, traveling, cookies with their centers still soft and, of course, reading. But let’s dive just a bit further into reading… for all your readers out there, is there anything quite so wondering than finding that amazing book series and getting completely lost in it?

One of my favorite things to do is to read book the first book in a series and then head to the library to check out ALL the remaining books so I can binge read them. You know – like Netflix but so. much. better.

So maybe that’s why I generally hesitate to pick up the first book of the series. Am I the only one? I am wary of the commitment it implies – I’m in this for the long haul, it tells me. In the time it takes to read four very different books, I may be reading, basically, one really long story. It’s enough to make my palms sweat.

So, to help any similar anxiety you have, I thought I would highlight some of my absolute favorite series. (Note – I’ve left off the ‘duh’ ones such as Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. Those are, obviously, amazing and if you haven’t read them then you need to shut this down and start reading!)

In particular, I’ve highlighted the series I’ve truly binged. There are some series out there that, while wonderful, aren’t necessarily ones that you need to binge. (The Rockton Series by Kelley Armstrong is a great example of this) These, however, I recommend you get all books at once and settle in for the long haul.

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1. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon – Anyone who knows me is likely shocked this is my number one (#kidding). These are easily some of my favorite books and definitely my favorite series. Binging this is a very time consuming commitment so it is SO worth it. And then you can watch the series for a double binge-whammy!

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2. Renegades by Marissa Meyer – Let’s face it, I’m a little in love with Meyer. She’s the author of another great series, Cinder, but I decided Renegades was much more binge-worthy. Why? Because I just recently inhaled this series and loved it (especially the conclusion). YA friendly and very timely with superheros it’s both predictable and unique at the same time.

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3. The Cormoran Strike Series by Robert Galbraith – I’ve really gotten into mystery/crime books lately and I recommend these books ALL the time. They are so good and I can’t wait for additional books to come out. What I love most about them is that they are binge-worthy. Most mysteries are so stand alone you can pick them up at any stage, but these books truly excel if you go in order.

PS – Fun fact, Robert Galbraith is J.K. Rowling’s pseudonym. But this is NO Harry Potter!

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4. The Veronica Speedwell Mysteries by Deanna Raybourn – these books are SO good with an incredible, sassy protagonist. They are set in the 1880s and include mystery and seduction. I regularly laughed out loud at these and can’t wait to eat up the rest (she’s still writing more *squee*)

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5. Beartown by Fredrik Backman – at only two books some people might not consider this a “series” but I still had to include it. Beartown and the sequel, Us Against You is such a beautiful story. Being from a small town myself, I tend to bristle at “small-town” books as they often are written by someone who doesn’t quite get it. But Backman does a wonderful job at building these character and town.

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6. Cake by J. Bengtsson – let’s be honest, there are few things more delightful than binging smutty romances. And Cake is easily one of my favorite binges. While, yes, they are stand along novels, this is one of the first series I’ve read where the continued story line of the characters really matters in future novels. The stories are adorable, endearing, and filled with all kinds of sexual exploits.

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7. The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg – I’ll be honest, I wasn’t blown away by The Paper Magician. I had my hesitations with the story, but I decided to keep reading (mostly due to a romantic component, I’m such a sucker for that) and ended up blowing through the series. I think this series works best when you can binge it – when you can really immerse yourself, you get those feels!

So – what did I miss? I’d love to find another series to add to my list!

Categories: Lists, Pick Ups, Young Adult | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Mockingjay – 2/5

Posted on January 4, 2015 by Ashley Lauren

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

mockingjay

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Beware!  Rage ahead! – I actually read this book a couple years back before any of the movies were around, but I thought now would be a good time to re-earth the review.

Ugh. I think that’s a pretty good overall reaction to this book. Just ugh. The last three hours of listening to this was flat out annoying. I do not understand how people think this is good… I mean, maybe it’s easier to read and skim past Katniss’ irritating inner monologue but when it’s in audio book format there’s just no escaping it.

Seriously though, this book sucks. I only give it 2 starts instead of 1 because it is part of a larger trilogy and I enjoyed Catching Fire a decent amount. Was Katniss less annoying there? Or maybe I was able to ignore her the first 50 or so times and then finally broke.

Katniss is a ridiculous character. She’s supposedly this strong girl – emotionally capable of surviving the harsh world of district 12, of basically raising her family, having the strength to volunteer to (what she thinks) die for her little sister, and dealing with the emotional turmoil that was the games itself. That’s pretty bad ass.

But somewhere toward the end of Catching Fire and certainly in Mockingjay instead of being that strong, smart, independent young woman, Katniss is a quivering lump of jelly who second, third, forth guesses EVERYTHING from her sanity, the sanity of others, who she loves, who doesn’t she love, what people’s intentions are, whether the rebels are good, bad, whether the sun is actually in the sky, if rabbits exist, what the color blue is, whether she should kill herself, whether she should destroy the world, if unicorns exist, whatever I DON’T CARE. JUST GROW A PAIR. SRSLY. Katniss is fricking USELESS. And – just like Twilight and all the other stupid young adult books that think self-sacrifice and multiple lovers is the only way to have a proper love story, Katniss is nothing more than a little girl who can’t look internally and actually figure something out. EVER. Instead everyone else has to do it for her and die for her and trust her and blah blah blah stupid.

Oh – and another thing. Authors that think using nightmares as a way to show someone’s mental distress are twats. Lazy twats. And Collins uses nightmares about three times a chapter. I get it. Life is horrifying. She’s scared. She’s traumatized. News flash, I already know that from her stupid “ahh, I’m so broken and confused and damaged” thought processes that occur every 7.8 seconds.

Katniss and her breakdowns make me want to shake Collins by the shoulder and give her a backhand. Yes, I know Katniss has lost a lot of people in her life. Her dad, friends in district 12, people she knew in the hunger games, other important people (spoilery)…Obviously that’s hard. But here’s the thing. SO HAS EVERYONE ELSE. Everyone in this freaking book has had a hard life! Everyone has lost their family, their friends, other loved one, other neighbors, the list goes on! Yet why is Katniss such a little bi-otch? Why does she has the ridiculous mental breakdowns where she’s silent for MONTHS. Where she semi-kills herself with drugs? Where she’s sobbing and irrational and people have to slap her? Oh yeah, because Collins thinks it’s dramatic or some crap. Instead it’s just ridiculous and it’s a cop out. Do you see Gale falling apart? Do you see any number of other characters falling apart for no reason? Sure, there’s a handful of other with mental issues – Finnick for one – but at least those have some kind of literal mental breakdown. And at least for them it happens ONCE. No, instead Katniss has to fall apart multiple times in the most dramatic way possible. It’s disgusting and flat out annoying.

You’ll probably note I haven’t talked about the plot line at all. It’s fine. Nothing too exciting, a little slow in fact, and pretty predictable. If the characters were less annoying I don’t think I would have a problem with it.

Sorry, I don’t know why this book rubbed me the wrong way. I probably shouldn’t be so angry about it – I should just have shrugged my shoulders and tossed it aside. I think it’s because of the hype though. So many people have read through this half-jizzing themselves the whole time when it’s really just crap. It’s poor writing that stems from a series getting popular before the end.

My last and final outrage was the epilogue.  It wasn’t as bad as the Harry Potter epilogue but it was darn close.  The Hunger Games, of all trilogies, should not end with a sugary-sweet Disney happy ending type of story.  It’s placating to the masses instead of sticking to the theme and, after all the let-downs of the book itself, it isn’t even of interest to me.  Do I care about who is happy and who isn’t?  Not really when I as a reader am so disappointed.

All in all – gross.

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I have to say that I haven’t yet watched the Mockingjay Part 1 movie yet – I have enjoyed the first two movies so far and I hope that Hollywood adapts Katniss as a character and makes her better than this final book allowed.  We’ll see!

Categories: Weekly Review, Young Adult | Tags: , , , , , , | 1 Comment

YA Book Review: Paper Towns by John Green – 5/5

Posted on July 20, 2014 by Ashley Lauren

Paper Towns by John Green

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My rating: 5 of 5 stars

John Green is some kind of word magician. Or plot sorcerer. Or character wizard. I don’t know what exactly, but the point is that Green is filled with glitter and rainbows and confetti magic.

I devoured this book in less than a day. When I closed the final page I just gave one nod and said, “Nailed it.” Green knows exactly what he is doing in all his stories.

When a book is truly 5 stars I don’t feel like my reviews are needed. What’s there to say? Go read this book is pretty much sufficient. But, still, I suppose I can relay a little of what makes this beautiful.

I have never seen a better trio of boy friends. Q, Radar, and Ben are fantastic. Green’s dialogue is perfect. You can see each person, you can understand who they are, and, even better, you can understand why the three of them are friends. That’s a lot to know about people who aren’t the main stars in a relatively short book.

Then, of course, there’s Margo. Probably the only thing that is a stretch is the relationship between her and Q – it’s too stale in their history for it to start being friendly again now, but I’ll take it. Regardless, I love all the different ways we see her and the influence she can have on people.

There’s life lessons galore but there’s so much to giggle at as well. Such a wonderful book.

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YA Book Review: Mila 2.0 – 1/5

Posted on July 19, 2014 by Ashley Lauren

MILA 2.0 by Debra Driza

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My rating: 1 of 5 stars

No. This book is just a giant no.

There are so many obnoxious things about this story. I really, really wish I hadn’t even finished it. I slogged through it because I had a theory and, of course, it wasn’t until I got to the end that it occurred to me I might not be able to test my theory until the next book in the series, and there’s no way I’m picking up that brick.

For a book about an android/cyborg/whatever you want to call Mila, it was freaking boring. Mila is the lamest machine-like-thing ever. She can do crazy ninja-like moves, which is cool if predictable, but what else? She can insert a microchip into her wrist (but can barely process it) and she has GPS. That’s it. So. Lame.

Nothing about what she is makes sense. “Mila” is supposedly some kind of weapon the U.S. has made? Why in the world would they EVER design an android weapon to take the shape of a teenage girl? Dumb. And this entire project is run by two scientists? Equally dumb.

There is just so much about this that is absurd. I can’t resist naming a few:

1) Kaylee, her so-called best friend of a month, tries to kill her over a boy who moved into town two days before. The crazy of that situation was so glossed over.

2) Mila’s “love” for a boy who, again, had been around for two days. Why? There is zero connection. I’m so suspicious of him but we don’t get any more information before the end of the book, so I have no way of knowing if my guess is right (seriously, though, Mila is on the run from a “secret organization” who “knows no bounds” and a strange guy shows up, all handsome, decides he loves Mila, and his name? HUNTER. *slow blink*)

3) Mila has all this attachment to her school, and friends, and horse, and mother, etc, but she’s truly only been “alive” for a month. For a machine with human feelings she has about 500% the amount of feelings anyone has for anything in that length of time.

And then – there’s the biggest, most ridiculous thing of all. It’s after Mila and her mother’s capture (sorry for the spoilers, seriously though, you don’t want to read this book) and the scientist is putting her through “tests. ” Apparently if she can show that she doesn’t have emotions (when they already know she does) then she can live. So they decide to put her through these tests using emotion as the main incentive for her to succeed. In the final test she literally has to go through a Tough Mudder-like course all the while watching TV screens of her mother slowly being burned to death.

I’m sorry but if Mila works so hard to win at these games isn’t that showing exactly how her emotions are controlling her actions and not her logic? A true machine would look at this obstacle course and be all like “that seems like a risk to a lot of people and myself just to save one woman.”

I always feel a little guilty when I go into these rants, but I just can’t get over how little sense this book made. If you were thinking about picking this up, just stop. If you want to read a good book about a young adult cyborg lady, pick up Cinder instead.

Categories: Debuts, Put Downs, Weekly Review, Young Adult | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Series Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone – 4/5

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Ashley Lauren

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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It may be possible that these are the prettiest YA series covers ever. Srsly.

To those of you who pick up this book – I recommend you buy/borrow the other two from the trilogy at the same time. You’re going to want to read them all in quick succession.

I love this series’s imagination, the colors, the scenes. It’s all so beautiful. The setting is incredible – Prague, the art studio, Poison. Even better are the people! Humans, angels, and creatures – they are all fascinating. Taylor does such a great job of showing me everything without overloading me with exposition. I can see so much, and I don’t even think that’s because I’ve traveled to many of the places (Prague and Marrakesh being two main settings – gorgeous on paper and in real life!).

Then there’s a plot. It has the scary angels which fascinate me (quick plug for how awesome Angelfall is) along with just as fascinating underworld beings. I love the way you’re not sure who is good and who is bad. The action is intense on both a large and a small scale.

Book one, for me, was an obvious 5 out of 5 – hit it out of the park kind of style.  But, with the curse of most trilogies (in my opinion), the second and third books get too weighty.  The second book doesn’t move nearly quick enough and the super bad-a** main character (necessarily) stumbles and whines and moans a bit. I get that Karou was going through hardship, but it’s just not fun as a reader to see how long it takes her to see what is right in front of her face.

Book two ramps up at the end and by the time you make it through book three, you’ll feel all weepy for not seeing more of the characters (at least I did) – Zuzana, Mik, Liraz, Hazael, Issa, Ziri, and, of course, Karou and Akiva. I loved them all, particularly the humans, throughout the whole process. The fighting, the plotting, it was all so beautifully done. I love how little right and wrong there is (did I say that already?  Well, it’s true). Every once in a while you get your certainty for who is inherent good or evil, but I love how the idea of angels and demons just doesn’t hold up. It’s a beautiful message, all and all.

The book should have ended at the end of the battle, when we know who won. Truly. It did not need to go on into this whole other plot. I’m not sure where Taylor was taking all of that – there were too many new ideas (and characters, for that matter) introduced in the final book. I think it was all one giant plot line that wasn’t needed. I think the core plot was perfect on its own.

Even though I have a few qualms, I loved the trilogy. Per usual, book one was the best and one I ate up quickly, but the other two well supported it all. Definitely a great YA series to pick up!

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YA Book Review: Daughter of Smoke & Bone – 5 of 5!

Posted on June 22, 2014 by Ashley Lauren

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

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My rating: 5 of 5 stars

To those of you who pick up this book – I recommend you buy/borrow the other two from the trilogy at the same time. You’re going to want to read them all in quick succession.

I borrowed this book from the library and read it in a day. Within about three minutes of closing the book I was online, confirming the others were on the shelf, and walking back to the library to borrow the other two. It’s that good, folks!

I love this book’s imagination, the colors, the scenes. It’s all so beautiful. The setting is incredible – Prague, the art studio, Poison. Even better are the people! Humans, angels, and creatures – they are all fascinating. Taylor does such a great job of showing me everything without overloading me with exposition. I can see so much, and I don’t even think that’s because I’ve traveled to many of the places (Prague and Marrakesh being two main settings – gorgeous on paper and in real life!).

Then there’s a plot. It has the scary angels which fascinate me (quick plug for how awesome Angelfall is) along with just as fascinating underworld beings. I love the way you’re not sure who is good and who is bad. The action is intense on both a large and a small scale. Both the reader and the main character, Karou, spend the book trying to figure out who she is – and what connection she has to the (potentially) imminent end to the world. That’s a plot hook if I ever heard of one!

Okay, enough of this internet business – I need to crack open book #2!

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YA Book Review: Instructions for a Broken Heart – 2 of 5

Posted on June 17, 2014 by Ashley Lauren

Instructions for a Broken Heart by Kim Culbertson

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My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Sorry, folks, this is not good. I know some of you loved the book, but this was cringe-tastic. It’s like Culbertson took all the bad parts of a YA novel and shoved it all into a beautiful package.

This book has so much potential! A recent break-up, an Italian vacation, twenty dares from a best friend – I love the premise. The execution was total blerg.

Where do I begin? Let’s start with my biggest frustration – the trip. That was the most boring, god-awful travel log I have ever read. Seriously, how do you write a book about a trip to Italy and focus only on the bad parts? I’d done a trip like what Jessa experienced in this book and I know what Culbertson was getting at – school trips abroad are generally terrible ideas. You sit in a boring bus all day, you barely have any time at locations, etc. I don’t want to read about it. I don’t need to see all the nuances of why traveling in a group sucks.

This book, to me, is just littered with Culbertson’s life experiences. It’s so obvious to me that each experience Jessa has Culbertson likely had in life. I’m all for authors drawing on true experiences, but this is just too much. All the referrals to specific musicals and games and whatnot – it was all too exact. Television shows and movies were just too alienating; as a reader I didn’t know a lot of the pop culture that was mentioned. None of it had meaning to me and so I just felt like I was listening in on a young girl’s (boring) life.

And then, of course, my main issue. Every single character needed to just get over him or her self. I know people are self-absorbed at that age but I don’t want to read about it in the extreme. Jessa’s pity party went on for far too long – blah blah you loved him blah. Based on everything we learned from Carissa, he obviously sucked, so you shouldn’t have loved him. And this whole “being too busy” thing was just lame. And can I mention how apparently everyone in their brother was poet or a singer? I know they were drama kids, but still.

I don’t know, it seems like very little in this book rang true (what’s up with Jessa having like six incredibly close guy friends? And everyone on the trip hooking up? What was up with her telling a new story for her scar all the time?) or, when things did ring true, I didn’t want to know (I don’t need to know how bored you are on the bus. I really don’t,)

It’s not my intention to be completely mean.  I did finish it, after all. The writing was decent and there were some really nice lines but I just couldn’t get lost in it. So not worth it.

Categories: Put Downs, Travel, Weekly Review, Young Adult | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

YA Book Review: Impluse – 3.5 of 5

Posted on June 8, 2014 by Ashley Lauren

Impulse by Ellen Hopkins

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My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I checked this book out from the library, I didn’t bother to crack the cover. I just went on my merry way. When I finally opened the book I almost snapped it right shut – I had no idea it was written entirely in verse (or close enough). I’ve only read one book in this style before, long ago, and it didn’t sit too well. I decided to keep an open mind, though, and jumped in. Overall, I’m glad I did. This book is a solid 3.5 with enough oomph to round up instead of down.

I could have done without that style of writing and just gone with the prose, but it worked. It focused more on the characters and their thoughts and required less regarding the setting and other goings-on (not that those were absent). I also enjoyed the way the three characters’ pages actually looked different. It was an easy way to tell apart the voices (which was needed, since otherwise everyone was similar in their manner of speaking).

This book is angsty to the extreme. It’s necessary, a book about three characters who failed at suicide is bound to be angsty, but it’s still good to know coming in. Despite all their problems, I found their ability to move through the Levels of their care too easy. This book is pro-medication as a fixer; I know meds help many people, so I’m not knocking it, the book just makes the opinion obvious. The workers at this group are strangely oblivious – maybe that’s another statement being made as well. I think by the end we as readers all knew something was going to happen (this type of book couldn’t be all happy-go-lucky, after all) but that unfortunately made the “happening” dulled.

Despite a few of my misgivings, I think this is a very solid YA book about many difficult subjects. My absolute favorite part of the book is how these three characters see each other. I love, love, love how Hopkins did this characterization. All three people, of course, hate themselves in some way (who doesn’t, especially as an adolescent?) but they all see each other as wonderful. They all see the others as strong and capable and beautiful. It’s a great message and woven in very subtly.

Overall – not bad and it’s worth it to try something new!

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