1st in a Series Challenge Recap

Challenge:  1st in a Series Challenge
Host:  A Few More (Reading) Challenges
2012 Level:  Series Lover (6 books) - COMPLETED
Thoughts:  I went up a level this year and was still able to easily complete this challenge.
Books:
1. Impulse by Ellen Hopkins
2. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
3. Delirium by Lauren Oliver
4. Immortal Beloved by Cate Tiernan
5. Wither by Lauren DeStefano
6. Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

The Hunger Games

Title: The Hunger Games

Author: Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic
ISBN: 978-0-545-40577-5
Why Read?: For Fun
Challenges:  1st in a Series, Book Blogger Recommendation, Dystopia, 100 Books in a Year

Thoughts: With the movie coming out, I figured it was type to finally read The Hunger Games, which people have been suggesting to me for years.  I am glad I finally did.  This is a wonderful dystopian with plenty of twists in a world I want to learn more about.  I didn't think it would be my type of book, but I was more than pleasantly surprised.

Rating: 5 stars

Impulse

Title: Impulse

Author: Ellen Hopkins
Publisher: McElderry
ISBN: 978-1-4169-0357-4
Why Read?: Book Club
Challenges: 1st in a Series, YA Saves, A to Z, 100 Books in a Year

Thoughts: Reading a verse novel was a new thing for me.  I have read long poems before and even anthologies that loosely tell a story, but this was the first true novel.  The story is very intense as Hopkins expertly gets into her three protagonists' heads that I often forgot I was reading poetry instead of prose.
Rating: 4 stars

1st in a Series Challenge

Challenge:  1st in a Series Challenge
Host:  A Few More (Reading) Challenges
2011 Level: Series Novice (3 books) - COMPLETED
2012 Level:  Series Lover (6 books)


1. Impulse by Ellen Hopkins
2. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
3. Delirium by Lauren Oliver
4. Immortal Beloved by Cate Tiernan
5. Wither by Lauren DeStefano
6. Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

1st in a Series Challenge Recap

The 1st in a Series Challenge was definitely one of the easiest I completed this year. I did the easiest level of Series Novice (3 books) and surpassed it three times over. I will definitely participate again and up my level. Here were the titles I read this year for the challenge:

1. Shadow Blade by Seressia Glass

2. Broken Angels 1 by Setsuri Tsuzuki

3. Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper

Over Sea, Under Stone

Title: Over Sea, Under Stone

Author: Susan Cooper

Publisher: Simon Pulse

ISBN: 978-1-4169-4964-0

Why Read?: For fun

Challenges: TBR Pile, 1st in a Series, YA Series, Fantasy, 100 Books in a Year

Thoughts: I had forgotten how much I love older - British - fantasies until I started reading this. The mood set with the twisty, secretive Grey House is just right for a fantasy adventure, especially when you through in the enigma of a great-uncle and the mysterious strangers. An excellent read, but slower than more modern YA fantasies.

Rating: 4 stars

Broken Angels Volume 1

Title: Broken Angels Volume 1

Author: Setsuri Tsuzuki

Publisher: Tokyopop

ISBN: 1598161598

Why Read?: For fun

Challenges: 1st in a Series, Manga, 100 Books in a Year

Thoughts: The artwork in Broken Angels is perfect for a high school shojo fantasy. The story, however, left me thoroughly confused. Fujiwara Sunao is a girl who dresses as a boy and has some magical powers (I think she might be a fallen angel or something) that she uses to help others who have some twisted problems. Oh, and the school nurse is girly (although a guy) and creepy, and the class president also has some attraction to Fujiwara. There was a lot of potential here, but the story just did not make sense.

Rating: 2 stars

Elsewhere Online: January 2011

As you may have guessed from my In My Mailbox posts, I review for another website (bookloons.com). As I cannot post my reviews there and here, but I would still like to count the books I read for the challenges, I am going to have a post like this at the end of the every month listing the books I reviewed and what challenges the went towards.

Title: Once Was Lost

Author: Sara Zarr

Challenges: Young Adult Contemporary, 100 Books in a Year

Title: Shadow Blade

Author: Seressia Glass

Challenges: 1st in a Series, People of Color, Horror & Urban Fantasy, 100 Books in a Year

1st in a Series Challenge

I love series, so the 1st in a Series Challenge 2011 from A Few More Pages seems perfect for me. I really need to be reading some 2nd in series, though, I am signing up for the lowest level, Series Novice (3 books).

1. Shadow Blade by Seressia Glass

2. Broken Angels 1 by Setsuri Tsuzuki

3. Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper