Stacking The Shelves [463]

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, ebooks and of course audiobooks now that they are so prominent in the book community!

In other words, no matter the shape or form your book has – it belongs in Stacking the Shelves.

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I got these two audiobooks from Libby this week, I actually already had Blind Date with a Werewolf on my kindle and Leave Me Behind as a special edition lol but my focus has been shit lately, and audiobook is all that works right now, so we adapt!

Happy Reading!! 

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by Tynga at Saturday, September 05, 2026

 audiobook, K.M. Moronova, libby, Patricia Briggs, Stacking The Shelves  6 People left their mark

✎

Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor

Warning!  Dreams of Gods & Monsters is the finale to a trilogy.  Check out Tynga's review of Daughter of Smoke & Bone and my review of Days of Blood & Starlight by clicking on the titles to avoid series spoilers!

Starcrossed lovers Karou (a monster) and Akiva (an angel) join forces in a new and unique twist on the classic good vs. evil battle.  Angels are descending on Rome in battalions, thousands of angels, through a tear in the sky.  Concurrently, Eliza, a genetics researcher, is called to Morocco to investigate what appears to be a mass grave full of unnatural monsters.  Karou has managed a great deception and set up a puppet leader of the chimaera.  Through him, she's able to unite the misbegotten and the chimaera to battle the invading seraphim.  Yes-- that's the great twist on the classic good vs. evil battle:  in Dreams of Gods & Monsters, angels are seen as a malevolent invading force and the monsters (chimaera) are the good defenders!

As with the first two books, the characters are so incredibly rich.  The reader literally gets inside many of the character's minds, so we see firsthand their struggles and doubts and confidences.   This series is solidly YA; we can be sure which characters are "good guys" and which ones are the "bad guys."  But they're still more complex than that.  Karou is definitely a "good guy," but we see her struggle with battle plans, knowing that some of her kind may perish.  And although Akiva is on Karou's side, the reader can feel his confliction, going against his own kind.  By the end of the book I was nearly crying and/or cheering out loud!

Speaking of characters, of course we must talk about Zuzana and Mick!  How could anyone not love this brave pair?  They are fully human, and don't always understand what's going on, but they are always always always ready to stand by Karou's side.  Even when that leads to a serious lack of chocolate cake in Zuzana's life.  Ya'll, I have never shipped two characters as much as I ship them!  I haven't yet read Night of Cake & Puppets, but I plan to asap.

Not only is Laini Taylor good at developing characters for us to love, she's also a top-notch world-builder.  You might think it'd be hard to wrap your mind around a world populated by creatures composed of many different species (such as a gray wolf head on a human body, or a jaguar body with a human head and bat wings), a world lived mostly deep inside a system of caves, but the author does such fantastic descriptions that you can really picture yourself there.

So, the plot.  Here's where Dreams of Gods & Monsters lost one of it's five stars for me.  The final battle did not go as I expected it to.  I felt like it fell a little flat compared to all the build-up.  I also felt like there were a few loose ends, or tenuous connections, at the end, considering that it's a series finale.  It wasn't too terrible; if you're already invested from reading Daughter of Smoke & Bone and Days of Blood & Starlight, you should definitely still read Dreams of Gods & Monsters... but just be prepared.

And finally, the narration:  I listened to Dreams of Gods & Monsters on CD and the narration was great!  The narrator had good, clear annunciation and pacing.  The production quality was great; I never had to fiddle with the volume.  I never tuned out.  And the narrator did a great accent for Zuzana and Mick.

This is such a unique, well-written trilogy, and I definitely recommend to folks at work (and now to you too)!

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by Tynga at Thursday, April 30, 2015

 angels, audiobook, Brown Books for Young Readers, chimaera, Daughter of Smoke amp; Bone, Laini Taylor, Library, Little, Paranormal, Review, young adult  2 People left their mark

✎

Battle of the Ampere by Richard Paul Evans

Battle of the Ampere is the third book in the Michael Vey series.  So this review could contain slight spoilers for the first two books, but I promise no spoilers of this volume.

You won't find any series fatigue in this third volume!  After a narrow escape from the Peruvian Elgen headquarters, the Electroclan is scattered in the jungle.  Not only do they need to continue eluding the remaining Elgen guards and Dr. Hatch, but they also have to survive a grueling trek through the rainforest.  The goal that the Electroclan teens are moving toward: destruction of The Ampere (Dr. Hatch's fancy yacht, and the headquarters of the Elgen) and, hopefully, Dr. Hatch himself.  A little bit more is asked of the reader in this book, as the main characters are split up in a few groups of 2-4 each.  They are all moving toward a rendezvous, but for the first half of the book the viewpoints alternate between a few different characters in different locations.

Another difference between Battle of the Ampere and Book #2, Rise of the Elgen:  romance.  It's still very, very chaste (I think I remember one kiss), but it is there.  Michael spends some serious jungle time with a girl who is not his girlfriend, Taylor, and both Michael and Taylor have to deal with the emotions that brings up.  (No surprise: Taylor's ability to read minds kind of helps cut through any emotional irrationality during the ensuing Discussion of Feelings.)  The first two books in this series focus entirely on action and adventure; this third book is able to include some more emotional development of the characters now that the reader is familiar with the characters' talents (powers?) and situation.  Not only is there the Discussion of Feelings between Michael and Taylor; other supporting characters also have moments of emotional vulnerability.  All of this is really well done.  The emotional growth is more often shown than told, and is sprinkled throughout the book, in between exciting action.  The reader is never left bogged down with feelings, and nothing feels superfluous.

So yes, the ACTION! ADVENTURE! continues.  The Electroclan is still always on the go, trying to take down Dr. Hatch and the Elgen.  To make things more difficult, the Peruvian government has declared them wanted criminals for their "terrorist" activities destroying the power plant.  Yikes.  To recap:  trekking through the jungle on foot.  Dr. Hatch and his private army wants their heads.  The Peruvian government wants their heads.  They must destroy The Ampere.  I wouldn't trade places with them for anything!

A bonus factor in this book series: kids with disability.  The main character, Michael, has a superability: he's literally electric.  But he's also got a disability: Tourette's.  This never ever defines him or slows him down, but it is present and occasionally Michael has to work around it.

My only gripe with Battle of the Ampere is a tiny one:  the very ending.  When I read Battle of the Ampere, I already knew that there was going to be a fourth book.  But still, can we maybe not set up the fourth book so very blatantly at the end of the third?  I listened to this on CD, and I feel like the ending period would have been better placed about 15 minutes prior to the actual end of the book.  But maybe that's just me.

Speaking of listening to it on CD... the narration was fantastic!  I reviewed Rise of the Elgen a few weeks ago, and it's the same great narrator.  He has great cadence, and I never had to fiddle with the volume button.  He kept me totally engaged.  I think the book would be great no matter how you read it, but I do give the audiobook a shiny seal of approval.

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by Tynga at Thursday, December 18, 2014

 Action amp; Adventure, audiobook, Library, Michael Vey, Review, Richard Paul Evans, sci-fi, Science Fiction, Simon and Schuster, young adult  3 People left their mark

✎

Doll Bones by Holly Black

Doll Bones promises to deliver a creepy tale about a group of children who go on a journey to return a bone china doll to it's rightful home. Add in the fact that Doll Bones was 2014 Newbery Honor Book and is written by Holly Black, acclaimed author of The Curseworker Series. I thought that I would love Doll Bones for sure, but I was extremely disappointed by it and I felt that Doll Bones is a classic case of wasted potential. Doll Bones really should be a creepy book, but it decides to focus on more the fragile friendships of Zach, Alice, and Poppy than discussing The Queen (the bone china doll that Poppy's enamored with). If Holly Black had decided to concentrate on The Queen more, I have no doubt that I would've enjoyed this book far more.

Don't be fooled by the creepy premise and cover, Doll Bones is a coming-of-age tale about middle-schoolers who are facing growing pains. A good chunk of this book focuses on the relationships that the kids have with their guardians and how it affects their daily lives. If I wasn't expecting such a creepy tale, I definitely would've loved to read about the child-parent relationships.

Holly Black really does an excellent job of creating such life-like, realistic characters. I personally wasn't a fan of the characters because I found their squabbling and drama to be extremely irritating. I also couldn't fathom going on a legitimate quest, I really do think that if I was a lot younger I would've enjoyed this book more. I have experienced middle school drama first-hand and so, I don't really want to read about it.

The plot of Doll Bones was extremely dull, much to my surprise and I had to force myself to continue reading at multiple points. I truly just didn't care about these characters at all or their quest in the slightest bit. I didn't enjoy the direction the plot took and by the time the ending rolled around, I was so happy it was over. Doll Bones isn't a bad book perse, it's just the not type of book for me.

I listened to the audiobook of Doll Bones and the narrator, Nick Poedhl wasn't perfect, but he did keep me interested for the most part. Poedhl did a pretty good job of doing all of the voices and his narration was pretty spot on.I think listening to the Doll Bones audiobook is a great option and it kept me more interested than I would've been if I'd been reading it in print.

Doll Bones was extremely disappointing due to it's very juvenile feel and lack of creepiness. I expected so much more from Holly Black and frankly, I was bored throughout most of the audiobook due to the mediocre, tedious plot-line. Doll Bones is a very hit or miss read, but I hope others enjoy it more than I did!

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by Tynga at Wednesday, February 12, 2014

 audiobook, Fantasy amp; Magic, Holly Black, middle grade, Mystery, Paranormal, Review, Simon and Schuster, young adult  1 Person left their mark

✎