Mini-Reviews: The ‘Popular Backlist Titles’ Edition // I Read The Raven Boys, Shatter Me And Percy Jackson

I’ve been having one of the best reading months in quite a while and have already finished 9 books at the time of writing this, so I decided to shorten my monthly wrap-up post by sharing some mini-reviews.

If you’re a regular reader, you might have expected my review of Leah On The Offbeat to go up today and while I would have loved to do that, we were asked by Becky’s team over at Penguin Random House UK to wait until after the release to share our reviews, so we’ll have to wait a bit longer. But I will talk a tiny bit more about it in my wrap-up (and all over Twitter) if you really want to hear my opinion on the book! 😉

But for now, let’s get to today’s reviews!

Most of us are probably familiar with the story of The Raven Boys but just in case you haven’t read this book yet, we follow Blue Sargent, who has grown up in a house surrounded by psychic women but has no psychic abilities of her own and has always been told that she is going to kill her true love when she kisses them.

On St. Mark’s Eve, Blue joins one of the psychics as they observe the corpse road and write down the names of everyone who is going to pass away within the next twelve months when suddenly Blue sees a soul – something that has never happened before.

That’s the first time she ever comes across Gansey but their paths continue to cross until Blue joins Gansey and his friends Ronan, Adam and Noah on their quest to find a sleeping Welsh king who supposedly grants the person who wakes him up, a wish.

The Raven Boys is a story filled with magic, mystery, kickass women, intriguing characters (Ronan, my love, I am looking straight at you) and fantastic character dynamics! This was actually the third time I read this book and I have to say, I still enjoyed this story so, so much!

Unlike the previous times, I actually listened to the story on audiobook this time around and I can highly recommend it to you guys too! I feel like it gives the story a completely different feel and I am 100% going to continue my series reread via audiobook in the upcoming months!

And just in case you give this book a try and find it difficult to get into right away, stick in there! It actually took me to attempts and about a 100 pages to fully get into the book! But it is absolutely worth it!

The next book I want to talk about is Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter Me which I actually also reread (or, listened to) this month! And yes, Jackie yelled in absolute joy about this – as you might have guessed if you know how much she loves this particular series!

In Shatter Me, we follow Juliette, who has been locked up in a cell for almost a year because she is seen as a danger to everyone surrounding her because her touch (as the tagline on the book suggests) is lethal. Juliette quickly finds herself in a position where she is being used by the Establishment and its leader Warner to show everyone how powerful they are.

After finishing this first book in the series I can definitely tell why people are so addicted to this series because (as always) Tahereh’s writing is addicting and you constantly want more. Juliette was also a really interesting character to be in the head of and I genuinely can’t wait to read/listen to more of this series and see where Juliette ends up by the end of Restore Me.

And lastly, I want to talk about Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson And The Lightning Thief! If you’ve been reading my blog for a little while you might remember that I adore Rick’s Magnus Chase trilogy (even though I am not caught up just yet) but didn’t have the best experience with his Apollo series and had actually told myself I wouldn’t read another Riordan book because of it.

But! One day I was walking home from my parents and I saw that our local library was open so I decided to stop by and check out their Young Adult section which is where I found the entire Percy Jackson series and decided it was a sign that I needed to give another series of Rick’s a try – I mean, what’s the harm right?

I feel like with this particular book, everyone knows what the story is all about, so I won’t talk about it. Instead, I’ll talk more about my enjoyment of the book.

Whenever I get into a new-to-me Middle-Grade story I always worry about the fact that I am someone who is in their very late twenties and that maybe the story won’t be for me – I am happy to report that wasn’t the case at all!

Actually, I devoured this story! I had started listening to it on my way from my parents on another day and then couldn’t stop until I had listened to the entire book. Mind you, I had planned on actually reading along in my physical copy but I just couldn’t wait to get home to pick up said copy!

And now that I’ve had this positive experience with another Rick Riordan book I am about 85% sure that I want to get caught up on his other works too (excluding anything Apollo related)! And there is so much for me to explore!

How about you guys? Have you read any (or all) of these books? And if so, which book was your favorite in their respective series? Do you ever worry that you’re too old to enjoy a particular book? If so, do you let that influence whether or not you’re going to pick up the book or not? Let me know in the comments below! I can’t wait to hear from you guys!

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