The Story

From the back of the book:

Just as Arthur Dent’s sense of reality is in its dickiest state he suddenly finds the girl of his dreams. He finds her in the last place in which he would expect to find anything at all, but which 3,976,000,000 people will find oddly familiar. They go in search of God’s Final Message to His Creation, and, in a dramatic break with tradition, actually find it.

The Response

I am going to dub this year the year of attempting to finish series/trilogies/sagas/etc. Really. Because this is the least amount of time that I’ve ever spent between Hitchhiker’s books.

I will fully admit that I enjoyed this one much better than the second and third in the series. In fact, I may go so far as to say that it was as enjoyable as the first in the series.

And I may have to go back on my “omg hate Arthur Dent” thing that I felt after the last book, because he was so much stomachable in this installment. The lack of character growth really didn’t matter too much in this one because he wasn’t being thrown into all kinds of new and horrible circumstances that he wasn’t learning from. In fact, he wasn’t even out exploring the universe for the good majority of the book – he spent most of the book on earth courting some lovely girl by the name of Fenchurch.

Fenchurch was a little boring, but that certainly seemed to suit Arthur Dent quite well.

The highlight of this book was definitely Adams’ humour and randomness. For example, I don’t typically like epilogues at all, but the fact that this one ended with “There was a point to this story, but it has temporarily escaped the chronicler’s mind.” made it pure gold. Instead of pretending that it doesn’t exist, I would definitely have to say that this was quite possibly one of the best epilogues I have ever read.

Even though Shannon has told me to skip Mostly Harmless, I think I will attempt it anyway, if only so that I may have this series completed.

The Bottom Line

An enjoyable installment in the series, on par with the first in the series.

The Story

From the cover of the book:

In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray has at last found safety with the Shadowhunters. But that safety proves fleeting when rogue forces in the Clave plot to see her protector, Charlotte, replaced as head of the Institute. If Charlotte loses her position, Tessa will be out on the street – and easy prey for the mysterious Magister, who wants to use Tessa’s powers for his own dark ends.

With the help of handsome, self-destructive Will and the fiercely devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister’s war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal. He blames them for a long-ago tragedy that shattered his life. To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors, from the slums of London to an enchanted ballroom where Tessa discovers that the truth of her parentage is more sinister than she had imagined. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister knows their every move – and that one of their own has betrayed them.

Tessa finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, though her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will – the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do?

As their dangerous search for the Magister and the truth leads the friends into peril, Tessa learns that when love and lies are mixed, they can corrupt even the purest heart.

The Response

Oh my.

First of all, I am enjoying this one so much more than The Mortal Instruments (though I’ve still only read the first 3 and really should read the remaining ones).

Second of all, the next two paragraphs of this post is going to mostly be me raving about both Magnus Bane and Jem.

You see… I love Magnus Bane. I know this when I’m not reading books that he appears in, but it never becomes apparent to me exactly HOW MUCH I love him until his name graces the pages that I’m holding. At which point I let out a little squeal and discover that nothing could be wrong in a world where Magnus Bane existed. Oh dear me, I’m getting all a-flutter just thinking about him.

And then there is Jem, who I would argue is very much the Melanie Hamilton of this series. You know, oh-so-good and believing only the good in everyone and would do anything for anyone he loved and just all around so wonderful in his goodness. And gosh darn it if Tessa breaks his heart, I will find a way to jump into the pages of these books and strangle her myself.

Cassandra Clare has definitely improved her writing over the years. I know a lot of people don’t like her on principle of the whole fanfiction fiasco, but I am still quite a fan of her original fiction. The story is always very well paced, the characters are really well fleshed out, and there’s always so much humour in it. And the combination of the three makes for awesome books and wonderfully awesome series that could make ANY fangirl squeal in girlish delight.

This has definitely become a very good series, and I’m looking forward to reading more of it when the next installment is released… in the meantime, I really need to get back to her Mortal Instruments series.

The Bottom Line

I can’t believe I have to wait so long for the next one, gah! Bother! Loved this!

The Story

From Chapters.ca:

In this delightfully witty, provocative book, literature professor and psychoanalyst Pierre Bayard argues that not having read a book need not be an impediment to having an interesting conversation about it. (In fact, he says, in certain situations reading the book is the worst thing you could do.) Using examples from such writers as Graham Greene, Oscar Wilde, Montaigne, and Umberto Eco, he describes the varieties of “non-reading”-from books that you’ve never heard of to books that you’ve read and forgotten-and offers advice on how to turn a sticky social situation into an occasion for creative brilliance. Practical, funny, and thought-provoking, How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read-which became a favorite of readers everywhere in the hardcover edition-is in the end a love letter to books, offering a whole new perspective on how we read and absorb them.

The Response

This book has been on my radar for a few years now, and the concept of it intrigued me. A book that not only champions not-reading but also shows you how to best go about it? I can understand how people in certain industries would need to know about more books than they could possibly read, but I didn’t realize there was enough of a market out there to have a whole book that champions non-reading as well as giving out advice on how to do it. I wanted to know more.

And it was certainly an interesting concept… but I don’t think that was enough to make it a really interesting book. In fact, I will admit that I skimmed most of this book… which, ironically enough is one of the ways that Bayard recommends that you don’t read a book.

See, he has four classification for not-reading books:

1. Books you don’t know – you know, those books you either have never heard of
2. Books you have skimmed – books you haven’t read fully
3. Books you have heard of – books you know of but haven’t actually read
4. Books you have forgotten – books you’ve read but don’t remember anymore

The whole first third of the book talks about these classifications, citing examples of who does this kind of non-reading (oddly enough, most of these examples were of fictional characters) and why/when this type of non-reading would be done.

The second third of the book touches on types of situations where you may find yourself needing to speak about you haven’t read:

1. in society
2. with professors
3. with the author
4. with someone you love

In each of these instances you would want to respond in different ways when speaking about books you haven’t read. Of course, the last third of the book looks at how exactly to behave in these situations (and thus, how to talk about books you haven’t read):

1. don’t be ashamed that you haven’t read the book
2. impose your ideas on the people you’re speaking to
3. make up what happens in the book
4. talk about yourself instead

So… bits and pieces of this book were quite good, but most of it was just skim-worthy. I didn’t agree with a lot of it – including how Bayard goes on about how reading a book makes you completely unobjective to it, and how (especially when critiquing it) you are better able to speak about a book if you know only what you learned from other sources. Hmm.

The Bottom Line

It was intresting… not sure if it’s a keeper, and not sure how much I agree with… but it was an interesting read if nothing else.

The Story

From the back of the book:

The last thing Cammie Morgan remembers is leaving the Gallagher Academy to protect her friends and family from the Circle of Cavan – an ancient terrorist organization that has been hunting her for over a year. But when Cammie wakes up in an Alpine convent and discovers that months have passed, she must face the fact that her memory is now a black hole. The only traces left of Cammie’s summer vacation are the bruises on her body and dirt under her nails, and all she wants is to go home.

Once she returns to school, however, Cammie realizes that the Gallagher Academy now holds more questions than answers. Cammie, her friends, and mysterious spy-guy Zach must face their most difficult challenge yet as they travel the world, hoping to piece together the clues that Cammie left behind. It’s a race against time. The circle is hot on their trail and will stop at nothing to prevent Cammie from remembering what she did last summer.

The Response

So this one doesn’t exactly pick up where the last one left off… but it DOES pick up at exactly the moment following the last moment that Cammie remembers from the previous book – when she set out on her own to learn why the Circle was hunting her. Unfortunately for both Cammie and the reader, that was months ago and we have no idea what has happened to her in the meantime.

It was actually kind of neat discovering what summer-Cammie had been doing at the same time that present-Cammie herself was learning of it… as well as discovering what present-Cammie is now capable of (dangling a teacher over the railing without knowing that she had even made a mover, for instance).

There were two things that made this book super awesomer than the other books. Actually, no, there were three.

First, it surprised me. I mean, it’s not unusual for this series to have double agents, but I still didn’t see it coming!

Second, it took us on a scavenger hunt across the world, what fun! We were in Ireland and Rome and Switzerland just to name three places.

Thirdly, oh I love Joe Solomon so much! Love love love love! (I remember the first few times I had crushes on adult characters in teen movies and novels instead of the main teen love interests… it was shocking, but now when characters like Joe Solomon are involved, it is TOTALLY worth it.)

Oh! And most importantly, yay girls who kick ass! There’s something so encouraging and heartwarming to read books about girls and women who are that smart and strong and who fight for themselves. It always makes for such an amazing story.

This book was so cute! So so cute! Do not want this series to end at all! Am missing it already!

The Bottom Line

Highly recommend this book to people who haven’t started the series yet – especially for those readers who secretly want to learn how to become a spy themselves. ;)

The Story

From the back of the book:

Jake Helman, an elite member of the New York Special Homicide Task Force, faces what every cop dreads – an elusive serial killer. While investigating a series of bloodletting sacrifice rituals executed by an ominous perpetrator known as the Cipher, Jake refuses to submit to a drug test and resigns from the police department. Tower International, a controversial genetic engineering company, employs him as their director of security.

While battling an addiction to cocaine, Jake enters his new high-pressure position in the private sector. What he encounters behind the closed doors of this sinister operation is beyond the realm of human imagination. Too horrible to contemplate, the experimentation is pure madness, the outcome a hell where only pain and terror reside. Nicholas Tower is not the hero flaunted on the cover of Time magazine. Beneath the polished exterior of this frontiersman on the cutting edge of science is a corporate executive surrounded by the creations of his deranged mind.

As Jake delves deeper into the hidden sphere of this frightening laboratory, his discoveries elicit more than stereotypical condemnation for unethical practices performed for the good of mankind. Sequestered in rooms veiled in secrecy is the worst crime the world will ever see – the theft of the human soul.

The Response

Lamberson spoke on a bunch of the bookish panels at last year’s FanExpo. Let’s face it, when he mentioned that Cthulhu was making an appearance in the third novel in this series, I knew I had to get my hands on the first two installments in The Jake Helman Files, even though horror isn’t typically my genre of choice.

While I did enjoy Personal Demons, this book wasn’t nearly as scary as I had hoped it would be. Most of the horror elements were related to biogenetics and I’ve read some scifi and other speculative fiction that, quite frankly, scared me a whole heck of a lot more than this book did. It’s unfortunate, because I went into this book looking to be scared.

That said, I haven’t read a non-vampire or non-zombie horror novel in a couple of years, so picking up this book was a nice change.

Aside from the lack of scariness, though, this was an enjoyable book. Helman is a hero who is extremely flawed, making him one that is believable and realistic. He’s not exactly likable, but you still want to root for him because he just keeps finding out that the situation he is in is worse than he had originally suspected. The other characters in the novel were… well, the good guys were one dimensional, but the bad guys, whoo! They were nasty pieces of work, that’s for sure. They were disturbing in the way that bad people can be disturbing – because gosh darn it, when it all comes down to it they are just people but they are just so darn EVIL. (And evil people can be a whole heck of a lot scarier than vampires, zombies, werewolves or other monsters because… well… they aren’t that much different than us.)

One thing that this book really had going for it was the pacing. There wasn’t a dull moment, and the excitement and scare was balanced out well by quieter moments to allow the horror of what happened sink in. I would guess that Lamberson’s work as a movie director is what made him able to handle the pacing so well.

The Bottom Line

While not as scary as I had originally hoped, this was overall an enjoyable read. I’m looking forward to reading the other installments in The Jake Helman Files

The Story

From the back of the book:

Connie thought freshman year might suck. She never thought it’d be literal.

Bad dreams? No big deal. After all, Connie Perez is starting her first year in the prep school her mom runs. Anyone would be a little stressed, right? When she starts dreaming about strange creatures and places that don’t make sense, she doesn’t think much about it. There’s other stuff on her mind. Then she starts noticing that the people she dreams about get sick right afterwards.

Then everything gets weird.

There’s something bad on the campus of Springden Academy. Something that feeds on students and warps their minds. And, as Connie and her friends try to figure out what’s going on, it starts to look like she’s the only one who can stop it.

The Response

Boarding schools? Soul-sucking incubi? Kick-butt female leads who need to take down the evil that is threatening their school? Yes please!

Hickey of the Beast is told in the form of a letter from the main character, Connie, to a good friend from summer camp. Normally I don’t like epistolary novels – I find that they spend too much time in the character’s head and that they don’t have enough action. Thankfully that wasn’t the case with this book. It didn’t feel at all like it was a letter – in fact, I forgot that it was quite often – instead, it read more like Connie was sitting there telling you about what was going on with her. Was handled quite well, actually.

Some of the characters were really well put together. I really enjoyed Connie – she had the right balance of “wtf, super powers are real?!” and “omg this is so cool” and “I don’t want to be the one who has to save the whole school!” That struggle gave her a lot of depth and made her seem so much more realistic than some heroes who discover they have “super powers” do. (And I use the term “super powers” loosely – does precognition and the ability to communicate with the spirit of the school count as a super power?)

The main bad guy wasn’t believable, but I just think that’s because we didn’t really get a chance to explore what motivates him. Unfortunately, it was rather obvious that he was the bad guy right from when the first person got sick. He wasn’t a character I loved to hate. Or even one that I hated to hate. He was just … meh.

Aside from the characters, the plot was okay – a little slow moving at times, but still good. I really liked how Kunkle brought in a different angle of vampirism than what is popular right now. I also really liked how she tied Connie’s abilities to the school grounds – how Connie has her abilities because she’s spilled so much blood (of her own, through accidents like falling off her bike) on the school grounds over the years. It brings an extra dimension that shows how much humanity and nature are tied together.

Lastly, there were so many awesome pop culture references that made this book a lot of fun – from mentions of NKOTB to Sailor Moon and more… but I’m wondering whether those references would mean quite as much to someone who is currently a teen as they did to someone who grew up with that stuff. I mean, here I was all “OMG YES AWESOME WIN WIN WIN!” and I don’t know if someone younger would have that same reaction.

The Bottom Line

I will definitely be looking for more from this author – Hickey of the Beast was tres cute! Recommended to fans of YA books.

The Story

From the back of the book:

Organizations use graphic design to clarify their messages and craft them into emotional experiences. It is the graphic designer’s job to take these messages and visually transform them to be well organized, evocative, and memorable. For graphic designers to do this successfully they must be armed with the proper knowledge, skills, and intuition.

Design Elements is a fun and comprehensive manual for graphic designers that includes hundreds of tips and examples for designers to attain the fundamental skills that contribute to successful design. It is the most compact and lucid handbook available outlining the basic principles of layout, typography, color usage, space, image, and how to put it all together. Design Elements not only offers great tips on the basics, but also shows you how to break the rules without compromising communication or confusing your audience.

The Response

This book covers a lot of the same things that most general graphic design books cover. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing – reading the same information from different sources really helps to reinforce things for the reader. That certainly was the case in this respect.

What this book does really well is with the introduction and the appendix – it explains and illustrates 20 rules that each designer should follow, and then goes into what the best ways to break them are. It goes into why you may want to break these rules and (while breaking these rules may end up being awesome for the project you’re working on) shows what you may be compromising from the other rules when you break one.

The examples that were chosen to illustrate everything throughout the book were quite good too – I will definitely be keeping this on my shelves and flipping through it when I need to look for inspiration.

What I really particularly didn’t like about this book was how it made note of paragraphs. You know how these days, there’s a carriage return and potentially the first line of the next paragraph is indented, etc etc. Paragraphs in this book were noted by a square bullet, no carriage return, no indentation, just a square bullet separating two sentences. Yes, I realize that this is how things were done back when print was originally gaining popularity, but when you never see it anymore, it’s hard to get accustomed to and makes it highly distracting when reading. Doesn’t flow nearly as well as it could have if the paragraphs were formatted how we’re used to… That’s one of the things that graphic designers need to remember when designing something. Yeah, it’s all good to be inventive and original and awesome, but you’ve also got to remember that user experience is extremely important and if what you’re doing is getting in the way of communicating with the user then you should reevaluate your solution.

Getting off soapbox.

The Bottom Line

A solid coverage of graphic design principles. Would highly recommend to those new in the field or those looking to revisit and strengthen their grasp on some of the fundamentals of good design.

The Story

From the back of the book:

Angering the Inuit sea goddess Sedna brings about powerful visions and overwhelming abilities for the young sorceress Driftwood Ellesmere. Giants created by Hans Blekansit continue to spew Blekan-Marts all over the world. Odin, Thor and other Norse gods return to Earth to conduct illegal whaling. A surprise reunion helps Harry Blekansit finally get off the toiler. Amidst all the chaos Driftwood and Rose become celebrities caught up in a strange merchandizing deal. And to top things off, Driftwood never seems to have any success talking to Tide. Will she ever figure out how to cope with the wild world around her?

The Response

Oh, I enjoyed this one SO MUCH more than the second in the series! Huzzah huzzah! Because I really was worried – I hadn’t liked how Davidge had handled some heavy subjects in the previous book (beating us over the head with “slavery is bad!” instead of showing us how it’s bad, as well as how the subject of parents beating their children was dealt with), so was extremely concerned that that would be how everything was handled from here on out. Thankfully it wasn’t!

We start the book back up north, with Driftwood surviving on her own in the arctic after building an igloo and attempting to learn how to hunt for food, but soon she’s whipped away on an adventure whose roots (once again) come from the evilness of her birth-father. Ah, sometimes you just have to wonder when on earth a character will learn.

What I most enjoyed about this installment was Davidge’s portrayal of the Norse gods – especially Thor, Tyr and Balder. He’s taken each of their most famous traits and pushed them to the point of ridiculous, which made for some highly amusing moments. While other gods and goddesses from other cultures have appeared in this series so far, the fact that I had some familiarity with the Norse gods made me recognize what Davidge was doing to them, and makes me wonder if he had done the same to others who had appeared. I think I’m going to need to look more into the Inuit gods and goddesses (as those seem to have appeared most often) to see what they’re like in folklore and how it compares to how Davidge portrays them.

While the characters still seem awfully one-dimensional (I don’t know if I’ve really seen any character growth in the series so far, aside from some people realizing that magic does in fact exist), none of them are too dislikable. Even Driftwood’s brother, who is supposed to be crazy annoying, is almost endearing in the fact that at 20-something he still just wants his father’s approval. Plus he’s an utter brat and (as I’ve said a hundred times before) I have an extreme soft spot for brats.

The Bottom Line

I have to say that I quite enjoyed this one, to the point where I got through it in one sitting. Now that my worrying about this book has been put to rest, I’m quite looking forward to reading the fourth and fifth books in the series.

The Story

Clea Raymond found her soulmate in mysterious and handsome Sage, and discovered they have loved each other through many past lives, all of which ended tragically. Clea wants nothing more than to prevent history from repeating itself and to be with her true love. But there are dark forces in the world: people who want to destroy Sage and the elixir that makes him immortal.

Sage has been taken, yet Clea is certain he is still alive and will stop at nothing to find him. She turns to her friend Ben, and they enter into an uneasy alliance with Cursed Vengeance, an ancient faction that has information that can lead them to Sage. Clea must get to Sage before Cursed Vengeance does, or risk his death at their hands. But Ben’s role in Sage’s kidnapping – and in their past lives – leaves Clea questioning whether Ben can be counted on. Just when they get closest to their goal, the events around her make Clea wonder if she’s really saving Sage . . . or if she’s leading them to repeat their disastrous pasts all over again.

The Response

I should’ve read this months ago when the publisher first sent it to me. Instead, it’s been sitting in the TBR pile watching me (or so it felt), so it’s a bit of a relief that I finally picked it up.

Once I picked it up, I definitely had a hard time putting it down again. I will say this about the series – the books are certainly extremely easy to jump into. Typically it takes me a few chapters to really get into the pace of the book, to get to know the characters, but in this case, as soon as I started reading it I found the book exciting and enjoyable.

It picks up almost immediately after the last book ended off – some time has past, with Clea moping in bed because OMG Sage is her true love and she isn’t spending all her time with him and even if they were they would be doomed because she’s always died horrible deaths, blah blah blah. But I’m quite happy we skipped that part, because even the part of that which we saw annoyed me. In fact, Clea annoyed the freakin heck out of me for the majority of the book… but that’s only because I have absolutely no patience for characters (or people) who do nothing but moan over the fact that they aren’t with their One True Love and just mope in bed all day. Urgh.

But! The best part about this book was the introduction of four new characters – four characters who drank the elixir of life way before Sage did, and whose bodies have completely deteriorated… but because they’re immortal, they’ve found a way for their consciousness to survive without their bodies. They were horrible and wonderful and cool and so much more interesting than anyone else in the novel! I think I’d read a series of books just about Amelia. Forget Clea, gimme more Amelia.

The Bottom Line

I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the first (too much angst!), but it was still pretty enjoyable. Will I continue with the series? I hope so!

The Story

From the back of the book:

In a world of menace and violence, standing up for what’s right can save your life.

Rossamünd is now the personal servant of the Brandon Rose, the most renowned – and infamous – monster-hunter in all of the Half-Continent. When he moves to her adopted hometown of Brandenbrass, the full secret of Rossamünd’s origin is revealed. His old dormitory-master Fransitart’s cruorpunxis – a monster blood tattoo – made from Rossamünd’s own blood, proves that he truly is a Rossamünderling, a monster made in the likeness of a human. But despite the Branden Rose’s power and influence as a Peer of the Empire, powerful forces move against them both, led by the conniving surgeon Grotius Swill, who has one goal: to destroy them and their world.

The Response

Oh… this book… I am so happy that I read it and yet so sad that it took me this long to read it. I had loved the first two books in the trilogy when I read them back in 2008. They’re original, imaginative and extremely well written. In fact, I would have to say that this trilogy has some of the best world making that I have ever seen in a children’s or young adult’s novel. It’s definitely reminiscent of how well made Tolkein’s worlds all are put together. So well thought out; it’s just all amazing and real and that alone makes the trilogy worth reading.

Unfortunately, I have to say that because it has been so long between books, it took me over 100 pages to get into the last installment in the trilogy.

Here’s the biggest problem about it – because Rossamünd’s story is filled with a lot of travels, and meeting new people throughout his journeys, there are a lot of the colourful characters we met in the first few books… and when they made an appearance in this book, I had no idea who they are. In fact, the only characters I really remembered were the four main characters in this book. Even among the last couple pages, it mentioned characters that I had no idea what their relationship is to Rossamünd. And unfortunately, that made it hard for me to really invets myself into the first bit of this book. That said, once I got back into the swing of the trilogy, I REALLY got into it. It’s just such an amazing story, so touching, so full of action and adventure that any type of reader would enjoy it, whatever they look for in a good book.

Since this is the last in a trilogy, there may be spoilers for the two previous books from this point onward.

The story as a whole shows how those people and things we think are evil may not be as evil as we may originally think them to be. Rossamünd and the Branden Rose’s relationship was one of the most touching of the series in this aspect. Her care and acceptance of Rossam&uum;nd, and how she shows that even she (one of the people who are forever hunting and killing monsters) can learn to love that which she is always hunting, well it gives hope for the whole world. Really, their relationship was quite beautiful – I’ve always found stories where orphans find acceptance and love with a family to be extremely touching. This was that plus so much more. Poor little orphan Rossamünd, not only knowing who he came from, but not even knowing WHAT he is, whether he’s human or whether he’s that which the world hates and fears… it’s so much more touching when he finds the love of a parent/guardian in the Branden Rose.

Actually, the growth of both Rossamünd and the Branden Rose in this installment were amazing and showed such care and depth that you know how well Cornish planned the series ahead of time. They both changed so much and so magnificently throughout the whole trilogy – Rossamünd accepting who he is, and the Branden Rose learning affection for that which she hunts.

And here I haven’t even gotten to talk about the monsters of the series, which all have amazing things that I could say about them. I mean, some of them are nasty to the point where I was shuddering because of how grossed out I was… but some of them were everything that was wonderful and charming. Especially Cinnamon, a sparrow-like creature who walks around in garments that gentlemen would wear. Oh, he was lovely. The book made me believe that such beings could exist, whether in our world or in another one. These are the characters that belong to the GOOD fantasy stories.

The more I think about it, the more I would consider placing these books on-par with the Narnia books, though with much less Christianity in them, and more more detailed and developed. More in terms of the characters in both that make you yearn to find that magical world where something like them could exist.

The Bottom Line

This book, though it was over 600 pages, and though it took about 100 for me to get into, was over before I was ready for it to end. The last few chapters utterly broke my heart, both because of things that were so wonderful that happened and so horrible and so sad… I really wish that there was more in this lovely trilogy. I highly recommend this trilogy to fans of YA fantasy.