Review Comparison: The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Review Comparison: The Iron King

Review Comparison is a new feature I'm trying out where I am pulling out the pros and cons of the featured book mentioned in my review and other bloggers' reviews. Please let me know how you like this new feature and if you have any suggestions on how to make it better. I'm still playing around with the format.

Click for my original review: 

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa 
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Team: Puck

The following bloggers kindly allowed me to include their reviews in this feature: 

Paranormal Indulgence

Rating: 5 out of 5

Team: Ash

Amaterasu Reads

Rating: 5 out of 5

Team: Ash 

The Bookish Type

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Team: Puck

The Book Vixen

Rating: 3 out of 5

Team: Pash

Brooke's Box of Books

Rating: 3 out of 5

Team: Ash

Please click on the links to read their full reviews!

~Conclusions~ 

Grimalkin was unanimously liked, and all but one mentioned the characters as a strength of the book. World building was another notable strength. The plot was overall liked, but two reviewers noted significant inconsistencies. 

Three reviewers mentioned that they enjoyed the book even though they don’t usually like fairy books. Three reviewers felt the book did not live up to the hype, but they did enjoy it nonetheless. 

 

       

 

 ~Characters~

General:

• Vivid and lifelike personalities (The Bookish Type)
• “They all had at least one attribute that I latched onto” (Brooke’s Box of Books)
• “I’m really attached to the characters” (Paranormal Indulgence) 
• With the exception of Grimalkin, they all felt a tiny bit lacking (Small Review)

Meghan:

• “Ultra-relatable” (Paranormal Indulgence)
• “Surprisingly relatable heroine” (The Bookish Type)
• “Will strike a chord with young adult” and adult readers (The Bookish Type)
• Admirable and refreshing, never whiny (The Bookish Type)
• Refreshing attitude (Brooke’s Box of Books)
• “Likable character who has her priorities in order” (The Book Vixen)
• She grew throughout the story (Amaterasu Reads)
• "I like her, but I don't love her" (Small Review)
• Great narrator, “there wasn’t too much thinking or over-analyzing” (The Book Vixen)
• Nice narrative voice, not overly introspective (Small Review)
• “Her true nature remains mysterious” (The Bookish Type)

  

Ash:

• “Not the typical hero…” (Amaterasu Reads)
• “Makes me want to swoon” (Amaterasu Reads)
• Allure heightened by intrigue (The Bookish Type)
• “Pretty darn hot…” (Brooke’s Box of Books)
• Hot (Small Review)

 Puck:

• “A fun, lovable character” (Amaterasu Reads)
• Entertaining and endearing, entirely lovable (The Bookish Type)
• “…Managed to annoy me and crack me up all at once…adds to his charm” (Paranormal Indulgence)
• “Great sarcastic lines,” snarky (Brooke’s Box of Books)
• Likable, but not as developed as I would have liked (Small Review)

Grimalkin:

• Liked him, humorous (The Book Vixen)
• “The most interesting supporting character I’ve read in a while” (Amaterasu Reads)
• “I absolutely love Grimalkin!” (Amaterasu Reads)
• “Steals the show” (The Bookish Type)
• “[Kagawa] personifies the aloof and condescending attitude of a cat perfectly and hilariously” (The Bookish Type)
• “His sarcasm lightened the mood for me…” (Paranormal Indulgence)
• “I laughed a lot because of him” (Paranormal Indulgence)
• “I adore Grim” (Brooke’s Box of Books)
• He’s the character I wonder about…” (Brook’s Box of Books)
• "If Grimalkin was a human, I'd totally be Team Grimalkin" (Small Review)

  ~Plot & Writing~

• “Swept me away from the moment I turned page one” (Paranormal Indulgence)
• “Sucked me in without me even knowing it” (Brooke’s Box of Books)
• Fascinating (Paranormal Indulgence)
• Engrossing (The Bookish Type)

• “Lacking in some areas and flourished in others” (The Book Vixen)
• A number of inconsistencies (The Book Vixen, with page references for support)
• Some inconsistencies and characters not making sense (Small Review)

• Unique, engaging, “phenomenal” world building (The Book Vixen)
• Great world building, fascinating (Amaterasu Reads)
• Good world building, "I lost myself entirely in her world" (Small Review)
• “Brilliantly created” (The Bookish Type)

• Antagonist is fresh and unique (Amaterasu Reads)
• Thought-provoking (The Bookish Type)
• Never a dull moment (Small Review)
• Fun, light, and jovial (Brooke’s Box of Books)
• A lot going on, but not overwhelming (The Book Vixen)

 ~Romance~

•  “It took some time before I got to see some embracing… [this] added to the appeal of their relationship” (Paranormal Indulgence)
• Romance “develops slowly and tantalizingly” (The Bookish Type)
• Doesn't develop too quickly or monopolize the plot (Small Review)
• Romance is formed fast, but liked that Meghan kept her focus on her mission (Brooke’s Box of Books)
• Romance is cute, but predictable (Brooke’s Box of Books)
• “Even Team Puck fans will find themselves holding their breath…” (The Bookish Type)
• Wish Puck had been given more of a fighting chance (Amaterasu Reads)
• Finds the romance interesting (Amaterasu Reads)

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Recap 2/19 to 2/25

In case you missed anything, here's a recap of what was posted Saturday, February 19th through Friday, February 25th. 

I am also asking for some feedback!

Reviews

Dark Mirror by M. J. Putney
Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George

(Click on the titles to go to my reviews)

Memes

In My Mailbox

Forget Me Not 
Tween Tuesday

Waiting on Wednesday

Book Blogger Hop

Features

Discussion: The Super Huge Blog Roll

How To Make Colored Boxes

Giveaway: Dark Mirror by M. J. Putney (last day to enter!)

What's Your Status? 


A meme created by Zakiya from Butterfly Feet Walking on Life where we recap our reading week. Feel free to visit her site and link up your own What's Your Status Posts. Here's how my week went:

Finished

(Click on the covers to go to Goodreads)

Not to brag too much, but I so rocked this week!
Sure, ok, maybe most of these books were on the shorter side, but I'm still totally patting myself on the back.
Even better, I loved all but one of these books (I'll cry about All Just Glass in my review later on).

Currently Reading

(Click on the covers to go to Goodreads)

Did Not Finish

Dreaming Anastasia by Joy Preble
Page 31 of 304
Received: Free e-book from Amazon

Clearly I didn't get very far into this book, so take what I say with a grain of salt. For all I know things could have changed soon after I stopped and so my experience may not be representative of the rest of the book. 

I wasn't able to connect with the characters and the main character Ann annoyed me. She wasn't the type of person I would want to hang out with and the idea of spending a few hundred pages with her didn't appeal to me. She was a downer and extremely critical of everyone around her to the point where I wanted to slap her and tell her, "Honey, you ain't 'All That' yourself either!"

I wasn't feeling the Anastasia trapped by a supernatural creature part, but this might have been well executed. I don't know. I may pick up this book at another point, (in large part because I want to like it because of the cover) but given my strong dislike of the main character I don't think I'll be revisiting it as long as I have other TBR options at hand. Unless of course anyone has read this book and promises it's worth reading?

Feedback Please!

Email:
We're closing on week two of email responses to comments. How do you like it? Is it helpful? Annoying? Remember, if you don't have your email made public on your Blogger profile, then I can't send you an email alert when I respond to your comments.

How To Posts:
I've added a request form for future How To post topics. If there's something you've been wondering how to do and you would like me to address in a How To post, please fill out the form by Clicking Here. You can also click on the Blogging Tips and Tricks picture in the left sidebar to get the same link.

I can't stress enough how much you would be doing me a favor by making these requests. You're saving me from wracking my brains to come up with new post topics, so please don't feel shy or like you're bothering me. It's quite the opposite!

Your questions so far have all been great! Some require large responses and so I'll make dedicated posts for them. Others require much shorter responses, so I may make a Q&A post where I'll answer a few questions at once. We'll see how it goes.

 

Miss anything last week? Click here to read a Recap. 

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Book Blogger Hop (11)

Book Blogger Hop is a weekly meme hosted by Crazy-for-Books where book bloggers answer the weekly question and hop around to other blogs and see what other bloggers have to say. The goal is to discover new blogs, "connect with other book lovers, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books!"

This week's question is:

 "Do you ever wish you would have named your blog something different?"

Sometimes, but not really. There are only two reasons I wish I had picked something different. 

First is because it starts with an "S." My blog name doesn't do me any favors when it comes to alphabetical listings! 

The other reason is because when you type in "Small Review" into a search engine, you get a ton of results about all kinds of small (as in, not long) reviews for a variety of products. My blog doesn't even show up until pages and pages later. 

Otherwise I'm happy with it.

 

 

 While you're hopping through, you might also like to check out:

Giveaway for M. J. Putney's Dark Mirror
Discussion: The Super Huge Blog Roll
Weekly Recap 

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How to Make Colored Boxes

How to Make Colored Boxes

What You Will Learn

You will learn how to put a box of color around text like in the header above or like this:

Let's Do This!

Step 1: Getting the Code

Copy the following code: 

<div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(244, 240, 236); padding: 5px 8px; text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Your Text Here</b></span></div>
</div> 

Step 2: Setting the Color

<div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(244, 240, 236); padding: 5px 8px; text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Your Text Here</b></span></div>
</div>

The highlighted part of the code sets the color of your box. Refer to a chart like this RGB and Hex Values chart and select the numbers that correspond to the color you want to use.

Step 3: Setting the Padding

<div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(244, 240, 236); padding: 5px 8px; text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Your Text Here</b></span></div>
</div>

The number highlighted in pink sets the top and bottom margins (or "padding"). 

The number set in red sets the left and right margins (or "padding").  

The following pictures show what happens when you adjust the numbers:

Step 4: Setting the Text

<div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(244, 240, 236); padding: 5px 8px; text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Your Text Here</b></span></div>
</div>

This code is set for centered, large, and bolded text. You can adjust these features as you like.




Step 5: Setting the Borders 

The code above does not currently have any borders set. If you would like borders, then copy and past the following code:

<div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(244, 240, 236); border:3px solid #000000; padding: 5px 8px; text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Dotted</b></span></div>
</div>


The part highlighted in pink sets the width of the borders. You can adjust this number to make the borders wider or narrower. 


The part highlighted in blue sets the color of the borders. The code above has the borders set for black. You can refer to the RGB and Hex Values chart to select a new color. 

The part highlighted in red sets the type of border. You can change this word to any of the following to get a different type of border:

I like to keep a draft document with the code saved in Blogger. That way whenever I want to use a colored box, I just open the file and copy and paste the code. You can also make a template draft document if you use the same code on all of your review posts, etc.

Click here to make a request for a future Tips & Tricks post.

The form is anonymous, so please don't feel shy at all!

I'm certainly not an expert, but I'll try my hardest to explain what I do know and research what I don't know.

Click here to read previous Tips & Tricks Posts 

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Waiting on Wednesday (13) + Giveaway

Button from Bewitched Bookworms.

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we all feature upcoming books we're eagerly anticipating.

I've altered things a little to include one book that hasn't come out yet and one but that has already been published but I still haven't gotten around to reading yet.

Betrayal by Lee Nichols

Release Date:  March 1, 2011

Only one week away!

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Pages: 304

Goodreads Page

This is the second book in the Haunting Emma series.

DO NOT READ the blurb if you have not yet read Deception!

Click here to read my Deception review.

 From Goodreads: (Highlight to read)

Emma Vaile is the most powerful ghostkeeper in centuries. Which is great when she's battling the wraith-master Neos, but terrible when she's flirting with fellow ghostkeeper (and soul mate) Bennett. When ghostkeepers fall in love, the weaker one loses all power, and that's not something Bennett can handle. Heartbroken and alone, Emma tries to lose herself in school with fellow ghostkeeper, Natalie.

When a new team of ghostkeepers arrive—one a snarky teen boy, the other a British scholar—Emma finds solace in training for the battle against Neos. But as the team grows stronger, they are threatened by an unknown force. One they thought was good.

As chilling and page-turning as Deception, this sequel will grab readers and hold them to the last page. No one is safe from suspicion as Emma closes in on the traitor.

End of spoilers.

I so loved Deception, the first book in this series. Emma is a really likable heroine who I found very easy to relate to. Her worries make her feel more human, but they never bog down the story. The first book had a ton of mystery, a little romance, and a cast of characters I couldn’t get enough of. The ghosts were particularly amusing. I’m counting down the days until I can dive back into Emma’s world and unravel the mystery.

I'm going to read this for a few of my challenges:

• 2nds Challenge (read a book by an author you have only read once before)
• Morbid Romantica Challenge
• Most Awaited YA Releases 
• YA Series Challenge

The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines

Release Date:  January 6, 2009

Publisher: DAW

Pages: 344

Goodreads Page

From Goodreads:

What would happen if an author went back to the darker themes of the original fairy tales for his plots, and then crossed the Disney princesses with Charlie’s Angels? What’s delivered is The Stepsister Scheme—a whole new take on what happened to Cinderella and her prince after the wedding. And with Jim C. Hines penning the tale readers can bet it won’t be “and they lived happily ever after.”

Talk about strong heroines! These princesses look more than capable of kicking butt. The book looks fun, light hearted, and action packed. I also love the hint about returning to darker themes of the original fairy tales. I wonder how the story will play out? I’ve had this book on my TBR for a long time, but I’ve never managed to get around to reading it.

For those of you who have read this book, how did you like it? I know it’s part of a series, but does it end on a cliffhanger or wrap up nicely on its own?

I will try to read this for the following challenges:

• Wish I'd Read That Challenge (read books you wish you've read but haven't yet)
• YA Series Challenge

While you are waiting for your books, you can enter my giveaway for a chance to win Dark Mirror by M. J. Putney!


Click here to enter
(the giveaway is at the bottom of the post)

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Book Review: Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George

Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George
Release Date: March 20, 2007
Publisher: Bloomsbury 
Pages: 321
Received: Library
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars 
Goodreads Page

Summary

From Goodreads: 

Many stories tell of damsels in distress, who are rescued from the clutches of fire-breathing dragons by knights in shining armor, and swept off to live happily ever after.
Unfortunately, this is not one of those stories.

True, when Creel's aunt suggests sacrificing her to the local dragon, it is with the hope that the knight will marry Creel and that everyone (aunt and family included) will benefit handsomely. Yet it's Creel who talks her way out of the dragon's clutches. And it's Creel who walks for days on end to seek her fortune in the king's city with only a bit of embroidery thread and a strange pair of slippers in her possession.

But even Creel could not have guessed the outcome of this tale. For in a country on the verge of war, Creel unknowingly possesses not just any pair of shoes, but a tool that could be used to save her kingdom…or destroy it.

Review

Jessica Day George is rapidly becoming one of my new favorite authors. Her books are like cotton candy. They're light, sweet, and happy. There are antagonists and hurdles, but you know they'll be resolved and good will prevail in the end. Sometimes things work out a little too perfectly, but this comes across in a more cozy, heartwarming, makes-this-reader-happy way than in an annoying Mary Sue manner. When you just want to take a break from life and get lost in a "nice" book that'll make you smile, Jessica Day George delivers. 

Creel is a thoroughly likable character, flawed yet endearing, capable and determined without being pushy or obnoxious. I really liked her and found her first-person narration a pleasure to read. I liked Creel so much that when the antagonists of the book were horrible to her I wanted to reach into the book and strangle them. Luckily Creel is awesome and didn't put up with their abuse.

One thing I wasn’t sure about at first was the embroidery scenes. I couldn’t imagine they would be very interesting, but I was so wrong. I absolutely loved reading about the different embroidery projects Creel was working on. I almost wish the book was illustrated, but Jessica Day George created such vivid descriptions that I could picture everything as if it were right in front of me.

The plot is engaging, with Creel's development as a dressmaker creating an easy going storyline that nicely complements and frames the more dastardly political intrigue simmering beneath the surface. The mystery of the slippers is slowly unraveled and satisfyingly concluded.

I thought there was never a dull moment, with the plot moving along at a nice pace that isn’t too slow or too fast. There’s a little court intrigue, a little adventure, a little mystery, a little war, and some fun balls. There is also a touch of romance, but the plot focuses primarily on Creel’s adventures (though I wish there was just a teeny, tiny, little bit more romance. Just give me *that* kiss). I was so into the book and the characters that I even cried at one point! This is a Special Shelf book for me for sure.

This is the first book in a series of three, but it works just fine as a stand-alone story. The book is light enough for middle graders but fully developed enough for YAs to enjoy as well.

 Explanation of rating system: Star Rating Key 

Looking for another lighthearted fantasy? You might like: 

The Wide-Awake Princess by E. D. Baker

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Discussion: The Super Huge Blog Roll

I’m the type of person who loves making To Do lists. I feel all organized when I have everything laid out in an orderly list, and then I feel super awesome as I cross everything off. 

But my Google Reader? Oh gosh, that is one list that drives me crazy!

When I go through one of my folders, I get that feeling of *Whew* I AM FREAKING AMAZING!

But then someone makes a post and that beautiful feeling of successful completion evaporates!

*Poof!*

I suck.

But that’s not what I should be feeling at all, right? I should be happy. I love reading blogs. So why has this become stressful? Because I’ve allowed my Google Reader to get too big (look at my blogroll. You think that’s big? My GR list is even bigger).

I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ll say it again: I’m a more is more kind of person. Sometimes this is good, but other times it leads me to get in over my head. In all my excitement of blogging, I went around like a mad woman following everyone that looked like they had a remotely interesting blog. If every blog was a tiny grain of sand, this is what my Google Reader would look like:

A little daunting, huh? Something needs to be done, but what?

The love went away??

I really don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings by un-following them. I know it hurts, it’s happened to me before! But, hey, it happens, right?

So I am coming to all of you to help me out here! 

How many blogs do you follow? 

Of the blogs you follow, how many do you comment on? Seriously, some of you are commenting champions. I am in awe of your prolific and substantial comments. 

How in the world do you manage to read all of the blogs you follow and leave so many great comments? Do you have a system? If so, please share!

To help me out here, I’m going to take all of your advice, think about this situation, and participate in the Bird in the Hand Blogroll Challenge hosted by Steph at Fangs, Wands, and Fairy Dust. The challenge officially begins March 1^st and runs through March 31^st. The rules are flexible with a great “do what works for you” attitude.

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