The Desert Spear by Peter V. Brett

Title: The Desert Spear

Author: Peter V. Brett

Type: Novel
Genre: Fantasy

Series: Yes Book #2 of the Demon Cycle

Pages: 579
Copyright:  2010

Publisher: Del Rey

Rating: 4.5 out of 5


Summary: from Good Reads.
The sun is setting on humanity. The night now belongs to voracious demons that arise as the sun sets, preying upon a dwindling population forced to cower behind ancient and half-forgotten symbols of power. These wards alone can keep the demons at bay, but legends tell of a Deliverer: a general-some would say prophet-who once bound all mankind into a single force that defeated the demons. Those times, if they ever existed, are long past. The demons are back, and the return of the Deliverer is just another myth . . . or is it?


Feelings: 
I really enjoyed reading this book. At first I was a little disappointed that the first part of the book was now from the point of view of the Krasia self-proclaimed Shar'Dama Ka, Ahmann Jardir who is the Deliverer for the desert people. The story starts almost were The Warded Man stopped but then it goes back and tells the back story of Jardir who was a minor character in the last book.

Arlen, the Warded Man, plays a role in Jardir's narrative as we catch up to the present time but it is a different in many ways from what we saw from Arlen's perspective. It isn't until half way through the book that we see the characters from The Warded Man. I had a hard time with it at first because I didn't really like the Krasia people as much as the Northerners that told the first book. However, I did end up liking the Krasia and enjoying their part of the narrative as well.

The story ties up loose ends from the last book as well as leaving open many things for the next book. I have to admit this book didn't progress how I expected it to. I am glad that it didn't because being surprised by a story is a good thing.

This is some of the best fantasy I have read in a while and I highly recommend it.

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

Title: A Reliable Wife
Author: Robert Goolrick
Type: Novel
Genre: Fiction
Series: No
Pages: 305
Copyrigt: 2009
Pubisher: Algonquin Paperbacks

Rating: 3 out of 5

Summary: from Good Reads

Rural Wisconsin, 1909. In the bitter cold, Ralph Truitt, a successful businessman, stands alone on a train platform waiting for the woman who answered his newspaper advertisement for "a reliable wife." But when Catherine Land steps off the train from Chicago, she's not the "simple, honest woman" that Ralph is expecting. She is both complex and devious, haunted by a terrible past and motivated by greed. Her plan is simple: she will win this man's devotion, and then, ever so slowly, she will poison him and leave Wisconsin a wealthy widow. What she has not counted on, though, is that Truitt a passionate man with his own dark secrets has plans of his own for his new wife. Isolated on a remote estate and imprisoned by relentless snow, the story of Ralph and Catherine unfolds in unimaginable ways.
 
With echoes of "Wuthering Heights" and "Rebecca," Robert Goolrick's intoxicating debut novel delivers a classic tale of suspenseful seduction, set in a world that seems to have gone temporarily off its axis.

Feelings:
I enjoyed reading this book. It wasn't the typical romance novel, however, that is what this book is. The writing is at times very good and others typical of the romance genera. The beginning of the book gives a little bit of a feel for what the prose can be like.

It was not snowing yet, but it would be soon, a blizzard, by the smell of it. The land lay covered already in trampled snow. The land here flew away from your eyes, gone into the black horizon without leaving one detail inside the eye. Stubble through the snow, sharp as razors. Crows picking at nothing. Black river, frigid oil. (page 3)

There are times when the book uses you, referring to the reader, and I both liked it and didn't like it when this was done because it reminded me I was reading a book.

This book isn't going to be for everyone. It is a romance but not one that individuals that normally read romance novels are going to like. This is romance with a twist and not one that is very pleasant. Ralph Truitt and Catherine Land are not what they say they are. I can also see that the writing might really annoy some people. At times I think the author may give up some of the story for the way words sound together. However, at other times I think that the author simplifies and the writing isn't as good. The story itself is not really anything new and unique. However, I did enjoy the story. That being said before you decide this is the book for you I would recommend you read at lead a bit of the first chapter.

 

Reached by Ally Condie

Title: Reached

Author: Ally Condie

Type: Young Adult Novel
Genre: Fantasy

Series: Yes, Matched #3

Pages: 512
Copyright: 2012
Publisher: Dutton Books

Rating: 3.5 out of 5


Summary:  from Good Reads
After leaving Society to desperately seek The Rising, and each other, Cassia and Ky have found what they were looking for, but at the cost of losing each other yet again. Cassia is assigned undercover in Central city, Ky outside the borders, an airship pilot with Indie. Xander is a medic, with a secret. All too soon, everything shifts again.

Feelings: 
Out of the series I thought that this was the best of the books. After reading this book I felt like I understood the world that the characters in the series lived in. I also liked that there were more characters in this book than in the last books. This was largely because we had three narrators, Cassia, Ky, and Xander, and they were all in different places interacting with different people.

It is difficult to say much about the last book in a series without giving away much of what came before. This book shows the difference or lack of difference between the society and the rising. We also get to know those people that have lived outside of society and how they feel about the society and what they really want from life.

Xander, Cassia, and Ky still have an triangle relationship but there isn't really any doubt as to what will happen at the end. All three of them grow as characters and I think that really is what made this book the most interesting for me.

I would recommend this book to those that liked the other two in the series.

Crossed by Ally Condie

Title: Crossed

Author: Ally Condie

Type: Young Adult Novel
Genre: Fantasy

Series: Yes Matched #2

Pages: 367
Copyright: 2011
Publisher: Dutton Books

Rating: 3 out of 5


Summary: from Good Reads.

The Society chooses everything.

The books you read.
The music you listen to.
The person you love.

Yet for Cassia the rules have changed. Ky has been taken and she will sacrifice everything to find him.

And when Cassia discovers Ky has escaped to the wild frontiers beyond the Society there is hope.

But on the edge of society nothing is as it seems...

A rebellion is rising.

And a tangled web of lies and double-crosses could destroy everything.

Feelings: I enjoyed this book more than the first in the series. Cassia seems a little less like an annoying teenager that is having a fit that she didn't get her way and more like an individual that is going to make what she wants happen and not sit back and let people tell her.

This book unlike the first, that was just narrated by Cassia, switch between Cassia and Ky. Each chapter is dedicated to one of them in first person. At first I thought it might be a bit weird reading first person from two different perspectives but it does work.

I personally liked this book more than the first in the series. In this one we learn more about the society and what it does to stay in power and the Rising that is working against the society. We also learn about those that are on the outside and don't work with either. This was a stronger book that the first one because it dealt with difficult issues in an adult manner. Ky has been sent off to be a decoy in a war that doesn't exist and Cassia is trying to get to Ky. They both make compromises and in the end I think they are stronger characters because of it.

I would recommend this book to those that enjoyed the first Matched book. This is another book set in a post-American world but I don't think it exactly fits with the other books as far as the action as a result I don't think this book is a good fit for those looking for another Hunger Games like book.