Okay, sometimes I admit that I am not good at reading series in order. For the most part even when a book is AMAZING it can be difficult for me to jump back into the character’s world and continued plot.

So, I decided to rapid fire (kind of) sequels to some of the series that I had started… let’s go!

Glass Sword by Veronica Aveyard

1.5 years after the first book (Red Queen)

3 stars

A lot darker than the first.
Little to no hope throughout was a theme. Dark emotions, dark choices, refusal to let go and revenge and darkness the guiding force in pretty much all characters.
Powers are interesting, and it makes the fighting great. Just wish the characters were a little more likeable and a little less of a combined whine and bloodthirsty mess.

True Valor by Dee Henderson

1.5 years after reading the first (True Valor)

2.75 stars

No overarching plot, mostly mini stories of characters who have a slow burn style relationship over mostly letters on multiple deployments. I think I got it all in that sentence.

While I didn’t mind the characters and the mini stories were pretty interesting, I am a plot person and there wasn’t one. The blurb made it seem to be something we could latch onto but it took most of the book to get there and it was really anti climactic.

While I could appreciate the military stuff for a while, without a plot to anchor it, I lost interest fast. There are definitely things to like in here, but it just wasn’t my pacing or style enough to enjoy it.

The Calling by Rachelle Dekker

10 months after reading the first (The Choosing)

3 stars

Fear is the real enemy to freedom.. that’s what this book focussed on.
After the first book, this one was disappointing. The danger didn’t feel as extreme, I don’t like time gaps, and I wasn’t as connected to Remko as I was with Carrington in the first book.
The ending was…. Conflicting. I know why it was written that way, but I don’t quite buy it. I also hate that the next book has a HUGE time jump (two decades).
The lessons were great, and deep understanding was good. For me, it just wasn’t enough to raise my rating like the first book did.

Mystery of the Silver Coins by Lois Walfrid Johnson (Viking Quest)

11 months after reading the first (Raiders From The Sea)

2 stars

Boring. I was so bored.
First book we had some action pushing things forward, but this was just a few different POVs of running through the forest and avoiding the people chasing you. I was bored.
Not a huge historical fiction person and this period with Vikings and stuff is not my fav either. I lied these books as a kid, but I can’t really remember why.
A little sad that I didn’t enjoy it but it was quick and the first book was better.

Local Artist by Paul Trembling

1 year after reading the first (Local Poet)

2 stars

DNF halfway with a skip to the end.
HUGE and very serious trigger warnings:
Suicide (graphic), pedophelia, child abuse, murder/death, injury detail, violence.
I jumped to the end curious to know the solution before planning to continue but had already slugged through a graphic suicide description, so was already on edge. When I read some of the ending I didn’t even finish, and put it aside disgusted. Honestly, good job by the author for making me so uncomfortable and icky feeling that I couldn’t even read it, but I was officially done at this point.

pillars of fire by Laurice E. Molinari

13 months after reading the first (Vero Rising)

3.5 stars
The first book was really a regular kid figuring out he was a guardian angel in training, and what such a different life and calling really looked like. Exploring all the amazing spiritual things he had no idea had been around him the whole time.
This second one continues his “training” (even though the teachers he encounters don’t actually teach them anything and basically leave him and his fellow trainees flapping in the wind) but it didn’t have the same feel. There was still a fascinating story, filled with amazing beings that you only read about in pages of scripture, but there was also a lack of growth for me. These angels were left to basically figure everything out themselves, a massive hurdle is placed in front of our main character and yet, there is almost no support that we see in most of the pages. The draw to these stories is the same as book 1, but the follow through felt weaker. Like we aren’t given as much information as we should have been. I still enjoyed the ride, don’t get me wrong, but some of this was so frustrating that I got pulled out of the story.

sparrow by mandy fender

3.5 years after reading the first (Defier:The Girl Who Stood)

2 stars

Ummmm, how do I say all the things I want to..? I’m just going to info dump it all in this review I suppose.

I still maintain that this story had so much potential! It was a while since I’d read the first so it took me a while to remember everyone, but once I did… oh boy.

I like the character of Lennox, her journey at the Sparrow compound learning everything would have easily fit into the first book. I don’t know what exactly our third book climax is leading towards, except for one very obvious plot point.

Our villain didn’t feel deserved. I don’t understand how this one guy is the “big bad” at all. He’s basically a bully with money.. how is that a superior villain? It’s not.

The writing, I finally realised, is a big problem for me. There are VERY well written sequences – particularly within the action that goes on – but most of this book reads like it was written by an absolute novice writer. Phrases that are amateur at best are littered throughout this book. I’ve read great writers and not so great, and I’m sad to say this one falls in the category of writing that just isn’t good. It needed severe work before it was published in my opinion. It’s not even writing style that I’m objecting to, it just reads like a first draft, which is not what you want.

The parts where we all of a sudden talk very seriously about God were so out of place, I didn’t know what to do with them. It wasn’t weaved in nicely, it was slammed in the middle of a scene and shoved down your throat. Like I said in my review of the first book, I love Christian fiction but his wasn’t hitting over the line for me.

The general plot of this second book was pretty interesting, but it was wrapped up in so much poor writing and cliche lines that it was almost impossible to keep track of a thread that kept me engaged.

I’m so disappointed in these comments because again… it has so much POTENTIAL to be an amazing story. So much. It just didn’t make it through the pages. If this had gone through maybe another four or five draft passes, heavy content editing and revisions, it could have been great.

---

Well, that was certainly interesting. Mostly, it was easy to recall where things had left off, but some of those were harder to pick up after reading (especially when it had been quite a while since the first one was read!).

I’m sure there are more, but hopefully I can keep going with the series above so I can flip the page on the stories above!

See You in the Adventures
Christy Grace