It’s time again to ask ourselves the three W’s:
What would you do if you survived the sinking of the Titanic?
Would that moment haunt you?
Would you try your luck with a different luxury ship?

Wait, no, that’s not right. We ask these three W’s:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words.

                   

The Revenge of Magic by James Riley
★★★★★ || Goodreads
The start of a new middle grade series! I went in thinking this would awake all the Chosen One trope nostalgia that made up my whole teenhood, and yet … I was pleasantly surprised? The protagonist is more of an accidental hero, and really, it’s the females in this who kick ass and take charge, which was so refreshing. I fell in love with this cast early on, and they definitely make the novel!

The Last Dragon by James Riley
★★★★☆ || Goodreads
You see that title? This book has DRAGONS, so you know I was bound to pick it up, right? Book two of The Revenge of Magic series, with more magic and more monsters. Waaaay more monsters. And a new world! Which was actually quite interesting to explore. The dragons play an interesting role in this, too, and I hope to see more of them.

Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor by Ally Carter
★★★★☆ || Goodreads
This book was chock full of adventure and mystery, and it was more fun than I thought it would be, since the sort of spy kids type of thing isn’t normally my scene. I really liked April’s voice. She was a funny and lovely narrator. This cast of orphans just totally stole my heart. This book was a quick, enjoyable read, and I hope there’ll be more in this series.

The Future King by James Riley
★★★★☆ || Goodreads
This book was great … and today’s actually my day to post for the blog tour! So you should obviously go and check out that post. But also … this book took a legend and turned it on its side, and boy was that interesting. Also, magic threatens to destroy the world, and these kids have to kick butt to save it yet again. Also, just a hint, but there are Fae in this, at least briefly.

The Super Life of Ben Braver by Marcus Emerson
★★★★★ || Goodreads
I picked up this series as part of a blog tour because I thought it would be something our patrons would be interested in, but if I’m honest? I wasn’t sure it would be my thing. I mean, I love the idea of books like this, but usually the mid-grade humor isn’t really my thing. So imagine my surprise when this got going and I started cackling like mad. This book is part book, part graphic novel, and the blend of the two was highly effective. I’ll also say that every mid-grade book I get in, I hand it to my daughter first to see whether or not she’s interested. She read the back and went, “Mmm, nah.” But I told her to read the first couple of pages (because that’s what got me), and she did … and then she walked away with my dang book. -.-; I had to hunt it down again just to read it. She said it reminded her of Danny Phantom and, one, I’m proud that my Minion was able to utter those words, but two … she’s sort of right? Which is impressive.

Wicked As You Wish by Rin Chupeco
DNF @ 15% || Goodreads
Wow, guys, super disappointed about this one. I’ve heard wonderful things about Rin Chupeco, and based on the blurb I thought this would be it for me. I’m going to have to read her other work, because she has a lovely writing style, but this … just was a no for me. The idea is great. I love that the protagonist is a Filipina, and the way the culture is brought to life and presented is wonderful. I learned a lot. Where it falls down, though, is the world-building. It’s just not there. This is a contemporary alternate timeline book, where YouTube and the like exist, but where there’s also magic and spelltech and firebirds and Neverland, Wonderland, and Avalon. 15% of the way in and I have absolutely no idea about this world, and I was so confused that I couldn’t even see going on. Plus, the way we learn about the world is in large, boring chunks of exposition. At one point, there’s, like, two pages of a Wikipedia article the protagonist reads to tell us about Avalon’s history and the firebird. Then, at another point, there’s a podcast that she listens to that tells the history behind spelltech. It just wasn’t effective for me. It was like listening to a history lecture about something that I’m expected to know about, and yet, I don’t.

Reviews Posted This Week

   

The Deep by Alma Katsu
Status: 5%

Click For Goodreads Summary

Someone, or something, is haunting the Titanic.

This is the only way to explain the series of misfortunes that have plagued the passengers of the ship from the moment they set sail: mysterious disappearances, sudden deaths. Now suspended in an eerie, unsettling twilight zone during the four days of the liner’s illustrious maiden voyage, a number of the passengers – including millionaires Madeleine Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim, the maid Annie Hebbley and Mark Fletcher – are convinced that something sinister is going on . . . And then, as the world knows, disaster strikes.

Years later and the world is at war. And a survivor of that fateful night, Annie, is working as a nurse on the sixth voyage of the Titanic’s sister ship, the Britannic, now refitted as a hospital ship. Plagued by the demons of her doomed first and near fatal journey across the Atlantic, Annie comes across an unconscious soldier she recognises while doing her rounds. It is the young man Mark. And she is convinced that he did not – could not – have survived the sinking of the Titanic . . .

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Sooo … I literally JUST started this one, and I actually have absolutely nothing at all to say about it. Except that it exists, I guess? The beginning starts off intrestingly enough. The main character apparently has amnesia and has no idea who she is or what happened, so that seems fun. There’s not much I can say about this right now, but I’m enjoying the writing style so far, at least.

               

So, I’ve got a Ben Braver series tour on Friday, which means I need to finish up Ben Braver and the Incredible Exploding Kid and Ben Braver and the Vortex of Doom. After finishing the first, I’m looking forward to them. They should be pretty fast reads, and if they’re anything like the first one, I have no doubt that I’ll love them.

Then, on Saturday, I’ve got a blog tour for Magic Unleashed, the first book in the Venators series, which has come super highly recommended, and I’m really looking forward to reading it!

And then my last in a series of last-minute blog tours that I’m scrambling to finish will be If We Were Giants, which not only sounds super interesting, but was apparently written by the Dave Matthews? So that’s fun. When I saw the author, I thought it was a different Dave Matthews, since it’s not an uncommon name, but nope, apparently not.

And then I’ll round out the week, hopefully, with a bit of Bone Crier’s Moon, which sounds absolutely brilliant and I just can’t wait to dig into!

So, you know, there’s a little bit of everything on the horizon, which is sort of how I like it.

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What are you reading this week? Anything you’d recommend? Link to your WWW posts below so I can visit you!

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