Discussion Post: I'm Yes Then I'm No, I'm In Then I'm Out - Or the Beloved Books That I Just Couldn't Seem to Love

As always I didn't get around to my discussion post till the end of the month.  Partly because of how busy it has been with school getting started back up. And partly because I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to discuss.  Even now, my title isn't as good as I want it to be, but it was the best I could come up with at the moment, so hopefully it somewhat makes sense.  My discussion today is going to be about the books that either everyone seems to love and I tried, but just can't get into or don't quite get the fuss.   Of course I am going to throw in some GIFs because it is just so much fun to find them!

A reminder that the 2016 Discussion Challenge is hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts at Midnight.  If you want to check out any of my earlier posts you can go to these links:

• Fiction is Fiction - Or Why I Believe Teens are Smarter Than We Give Them Credit For,   

• It's In the Stars - Or Why I Don't Give Ratings on My Blog,   

• This Review Should Come With a Warning - Or Is It Okay to Review New Adult, Adult, and Young Adult on the Same Blog,   

• Copy, Paste, Repeat - Or How Many Places Do You Post Your Reviews.

• To DNF or Not to DNF, That is the Question - Or How Do You Decide if You Should Give Up on a Book?

So, my title refers to the Katy Perry song, Hot n Cold, but of course my favorite use of the song is in the Twilight parody by the Hillywood Show, which was also my first introduction to the YouTube sensation.  But what I'm going for with this post is all the books that everyone else is so "hot" for, and they just left me "cold" or at least "lukewarm". 

 

The first one is a series, and I want to duck here, because I'm afraid a lot of you are going to be throwing things at me through the internets.  I am on the 2nd book in the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, and I am just not feeling it.  

The first book, Cinder, was more interesting to me than this 2nd one, Scarlet, has been so far.  Even then, when I finished Cinder, I was still left a little bit unsure of what all the fuss was about.  It was okay, but nothing that I was now obsessed over.  But, I was able to get a copy of Scarlet for $4 at a Scholastic Warehouse book sale, and then I won the next three books in the series through a couple different giveaways.  I had heard from many people that book 2 was better than book 1, so I assumed by winning all those books that was a sign I was going to go on and be swept away once I started Scarlet.  Umm, no, it's not happening.  I started the book on August 6th, and since then I've read 4 other physical books, and that's not counting the ebooks I've read.  I usually keep a physical book up on my nightstand so that I will read that right before bed instead of staring at a screen, because I feel like it is probably better for my sleep.  But Scarlet has just not kept me reading.  I can't decide whether to push on through, or give up and then maybe just sell/trade all my copies of the books in the series as a big set.  

 

Next is the Heroes of Olympus series and The Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan.  Now see, I loved the Percy Jackson series. 

But I had so much trouble keeping the characters straight in The Red Pyramid as each chapter went back and forth between them.  Which sucked, because I love Egyptian mythology and was so excited for that series.  

And then, when I struggled through The Lost Hero, all I could think was how many more words were used than were needed.  I looked at the size of the book, and thought about how if they'd left all those extra things out, it would have been probably the same length as the books in the Percy Jackson series, and still just as good as those.  Because of that I have not made myself read on, dreading the amount of time and extra stuff to skip over as I try to get to the main story.  

 

The last books I'm going to talk about that didn't blow me away are the Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare. 

 I actually love the Mortal Instruments series.  And I love Magnus Bane!  But I tried picking up and reading the first one in the series, Clockwork Angel, and just couldn't get into it.  I think it was actually one of my very first ever Books for Trade deals too!  So I have the copy sitting at home.  I don't know that I want to give up though.  I feel like maybe now sometime I might go back and try it again.  Just don't know when.   

So, are any of these books one that you loved?  Do you have any books like this that you don't like but everyone else does?  I'd love to hear your thoughts, so please chime in below!

The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus) by Rick Riordan

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Once again I am in love with Rick Riordan and his world of mythological creatures and demigods! I put off reading this for so long because when his other new series, The Kane Chronicles, came out, I couldn't wait to start reading it. And then, unfortunately, I was quite disappointed. And I love Egyptian mythology, so that was very sad to me. But the way the story was told, between the two characters, I had trouble sometimes remembering which person I was reading from their point of view. Which really made it hard to let the story take me away. But with this new Heroes of Olympus series, I was grabbed again and sucked back into the story, just like I was back with the Percy Jackson series.

We have a new group of demigods in this story to follow around, but some of the old ones, as well as other characters are back. Of course we still have all the Greek gods, but we now learn about the Roman gods and how they relate to the Greek ones and demigods. Percy Jackson has disappeared, and at the same time a new demigod, Jason, has just shown up out of nowhere. Now, the kids he is dropped in with have all these memories as if they've known him, but soon learn it is just the Mist messing with their memories. And of course, something is brewing, and there is a quest. The kids get to Camp Halfblood where it should be safe for them, but not without danger along the way! There they meet Annabeth who is looking for Percy.
One of our other new demigods is Piper, who is the daughter of a famous movie-star. What I like about this story is that we know kind of from the get-go that Piper may betray her friends. Her dad has been kidnapped, and she is being contacted by something evil. And this evil has said she must keep the quest from being successful if she wants to save her dad. The other of the three new ones is Leo, who is a son of Hephaestus. I have to say I just loved Leo. His character is so funny. I also felt him to be very relatable. He felt as if he was a nobody, that his friends had all the power. But he can withstand fire, and even create it! And he is great with fixing things. I also love how his "type" of girl are the ones that are way out of his league and he knows are not attracted to him. Again, that seems to be my "type" of guy. He also has secrets he doesn't want to share with his friends, and worries about whether he can help or if he'll be causing the quest to fail.
And finally we have our Jason. Jason can't remember who he really is, but he seems to have a lot more memories of the Roman gods as opposed to the Greek ones. At Camp Halfblood, Chiron knows he is, and tells him he should be dead. But then won't explain why? Hera, or Juno in Roman mythology, comes to the demigods saying she needs their help in order to prevent another evil from taking over, even though the Titans were defeated before. And as the story goes on, we learn more and more about Jason, but in very small doses. We're given just little tidbits that fill in some blanks, but still leave you hanging till the end to find out more.
Some great new characters/gods in this book. I loved King Midas, he was funny, as well as Aeolus, also really amusing to read his part in the book. I'm now so excited to go on with this series, and you'd think as part of my "September is for Sequels Challenge" that I'd read on in the series, but alas, I have other books on the list to get rid of. This does help me out in getting the current Truman nominees read, because I hadn't read them all yet. But doesn't help with the ones I need to help read for next year.

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