June Reading List

Other than the first and last books, this month was, apparently, Vampire Month!

1) Emily of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery
The Emily Trilogy, Book 1
Middle Grade, 10+
This is one of my forever-favorite books. I was a little afraid to re-read it, since I hadn't since beginning at Hollins, but nope, it held up, and I realized I'd even forgotten a few of the minor subplots. I never read Anne until I was in college, thinking it somehow a betrayal of Emily, since everyone always seemed to like Anne better- but not me. I still love Emily best. And, of course, Teddy Kent.

2) & 3) The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and The Struggle by L. J. Smith
The Vampire Diaries, Books 1 & 2
YA, 12+
I won this volume a while back from Kazdreamer, and when I received the 5th book to review, I figured it was the perfect excuse time to read the series. I enjoyed these, but feel like I was missing out, since I didn't read them when back when (granted, they came out when I was still reading Boxcar Children). I know if I'd found them when I was 13 I'd have loved them. Either way, I thought they were lots of fun, though at first I was ambivalent about Elena. I did grow to like her. She definitely had a lot more... gumption... than certain other heroines of vampire romances. And I found myself liking that about her later on, but at first I could not understand why I wanted the girl who always got what she wanted to get what she wanted. *shrug* Whatever. So I dove right into the next volume...

4) and 5) The Vampire Diaries: The Fury and Dark Reunion by L. J. Smith
The Vampire Diaries, Books 3 & 4
YA, 12+
I enjoyed this one, too, though the plot arc from books 1 through 3 made much more sense to me than the plot of the fourth book. I think it was originally a trilogy that was added on to, but someone correct me if I'm wrong there. Anyway, up until the very end of the fourth one, which made absolutely no sense and had no explanation, I was still thinking they moved along decently well & were pretty fun, light reads. So I headed into book 5 with a certain set of expectations...

6) The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Nightfall by L. J. Smith
The Vampire Diaries, Book 5 also The Vampire Diaries: The Return, Book 1 (apparently this is a 'new trilogy' but the same characters?)
YA, 12+
And then I got to this... well, there's no real nice way to say it. I just thought it was a mess. Supposedly set a week after the end of Dark Reunion, where the "Class of '92" graduates, suddenly everyone had a cell phone, shopped online, and had a lot of technical capabilities. And none of the characters acted like they had before- any development they'd had from the end of the previous book was gone. And, apparently, vampires cannot have sex, though all the blood-sharing scenes were overtly sexual (I can give examples if asked). And for me, the biggest disappointment was that it was just kind-of dull. The characters run around for 500-some pages doing next-to-nothing, but discussing it over and over and over. *sigh* I really, really wanted to like it! But I just couldn't. I have seen some reviewers who loved it, so maybe it was just me... but I couldn't get into it.

7) Operation Storm City by Joshua Mowll
The Guild Trilogy, Book 3
MG, 10+
This one was fun. I wish I'd read the other two first, because a number of references weren't fully explained (which I think is fine, especially in the concluding book in an on-going trilogy), but all-in-all, this was an exciting adventure, set in India and China in, I believe, 1920 or so, and features a brother and sister pair on a mission to find and rescue their parents, a female straight-talking pilot, a maharajah and his butler, a tiger and a host of other interesting characters. While I recommend reading the earlier books in the series first, this is definitely one I'll be seeking out to read the first two. Also, the books are formatted kind-of like a textbook in that there are charts and pictures and explanations of side-characters throughout- great for kids who like more to their books than just pages of endless words (like my hubby, who flipped through all the technical drawings!)

Books read this month: 7
Books read this year: 41


Anyone read any of these? I welcome discussion, especially of The Vampire Diaries books! Maybe someone can talk me into liking Nightfall?