Top Ten Tuesday #5

Hosted by The Broke and The Bookish 

Top Ten of the Best Books I’ve Read Recently

Fairy Tail Blue Minstrel Vol 1

          

I love Fairy Tail and have been meaning to start reading its spin-offs for a while now. I started off with Wendy’s Spinoff Blue Minstrel and I was not disappointed! That adorable little sky dragon slayer is holding her own and is truly an amazing character.

The Temple of Paris

           

I’ve hyped this book up a lot recently so I won’t fangirl over it again but it’s a super amazing sequel about fantasy science told by an awesome female protagonist!

Dracula

          

I’ve owned this book for awhile, read about 8 pages 4 years ago and finally sat down and read it this year. It lived up to the hype, and it was so cool seeing how much of the lore Stoker put in one book.

Avatar Smoke and Shadow Part 2

        

 

I will never not love this serious. I will read all of the Avatar Universe until they stop producing new material. Hopefully that will never happen because I need the gap between Aang and Korra filled up, after Legend of Korra ended, and even just stories about all of the past avatar’s adventures. Right now we’re looking at a rebel uprising that wants to dethrone Zuko and make Ozai the Firelord again! I haven’t read the third and final part yet but I’m looking forward to it.

Silk

          

 This is seriously not a story to pass up. Cindy Moon aka Silk is an Asian-American young woman who was bitten by the same radioactive spider as Peter Parker but wasn’t able to control her powers. She locked herself up in an underground bunker where she stayed for years until discovered by Spiderman himself! Now she’s a badass force of nature who beats up bad guys and always has a witty remark. This comic features Spiderman, The Fantastic Four, Black Cat, Mockingbird, and Spiderwoman, and everyone’s favorite boss: J. Jonah Jameson Jr.

Ms. Marvel

          

Ms. Marvel is another awesome comic featuring a 16-year-old Pakistani-American. She’s marvel’s first Muslim character to get their own comic book and the first volume won the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story. It’s so refreshing to get some diversity!

Angela Queen of Hel

           

Ok this is going to be my last Marvel promotion but this is also another amazing read. Angela is Thor’s sister, an Angel Bounty Hunter who grew up outside of the 9 realms. This comic starts out with her lover Sera in Hel and Angela’s goal is to take over as Queen of Hel to free her lover and mistreated Angel sisters. If you want an empowered woman, queer representation and all the sass look no further!

Dark Disciple

          

This is one of the new canon Star Wars books so of course I had to read it. It looks at what’s really good and evil and whether or not a middle ground exists. Vos (a jedi) and Ventress (a former sith and enemy of the jedi) realize that they have a common enemy: Count Dooku. Teaming up will give them the best chance at killing him before he and the separatists take over the galaxy destroying innocent lives. Being partners on such a stressful mission creates an intricate bond between a dark force user and a light force user like never before.

The Rose Society

        

 

I’ve already reviewed this but this book is another great novel by Marie Lu. The cast of characters get cool powers in such an interesting way and I love how the story is told by the villain’s perspective.

Sword of Summer

I’m Rick Riordan trash. As long as he writes mythological books, I will read mythological books. Magnus was a fascinating character and I was shocked to find that he was killed only a couple pages into the book. This also has Muslim representation with Magnus’s good friend Sam as well as plenty of references to his past works since they’re all intertwined so well! (Also Annabeth Chase makes a brief appearance so that’s a plus)

Review: Department 19 by Will Hill

Department 19

by Will Hill

Publication Date: March 31^st 2011

Publisher: Razorbill
Source: Bought

Find This Book: Department 19

Rating: 5/5

I just finished it yesterday! It was really good. It's vampire-y but not like sissy vampires. More like cross me and I'll rip your throat out. There's a little Van Helsing, Dracula, and Frankenstein (but they're not major characters, at least not yet). It was a little all over the place for a bit as far as telling the story goes but all the threads came together nicely so it was all ok haha I'd totally recommend D19 to people!

So what is this book about? It's about this guy named Jamie Carpenter. He grew up knowing that his father was a traitor to the British government along with bullies constantly reminding him. Around his 16th birthday, his mom was kidnapped and a Vampire named Alexandru attacks him! Alexandru is one of the 3 original brothers that Dracula himself turned. How will Jamie ever survive? Frankenstein, THE Frankenstein monster, comes and saves him? Why? Because Frankenstein made a promise to Jamie's dad to always be there for the Carpenter family. The Carpenter family is part of a secret British Government department called Blacklight, Department Nineteen. When Dracula was killed by Van Helsing and those 3 other guys, they formed Department Nineteen to train future Vampire Hunters! Most people who join are selected from elite military people, but when a guy descendent of the founders turns 16, he's asked if he wants to join. Seeing as his mom was kidnapped, of course he says yes.

He goes through a lot of cool vampire training (quite an interesting read just for that sake, if nothing else) and during Jamie's stories there's flashbacks to the original people who killed Dracula.

One thing I don't understand is the couple Larissa and Jamie. I don't understand why Larissa likes him! I mean he's not a bad guy but the relationship was out of nowhere with no sturdy footing. I’m totally fine with romance, but the book was super badass and it just seemed like a relationship because the author wanted one in the nook, not because the characters were meant for each other.

I also thought that Dracula and Jamie's mom tied in nicely to the book. Vampires don't need a cause. They do things because they CAN. Which makes them one of the ultimate predators and brings a certain element that twilight just can’t grasp (plus they don’t sparkle haha). The ending was a huge jaw dropper and brought about a wake up call to Jamie. When I finished, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on book 2! It was just a shame that I bought this book in New Zealand 3 years ago without the second or third. Thank god for the Internet though, I was able to get The Rising shipped to me online, But now they have the series at Barnes and Nobles… a bit to late for me but all the convenience for you!