Wednesday 17 June 2015

Short & Tweetish Reviews #3: Death & The Girl Next Door & After the End

You may wonder how I end up reading so many books by the end of the month when you see my total on our Monthly Recaps, but it's really no mystery.  I'm just a girl with a long commute to work and an intense love of audiobooks! I've been having a hard time putting my thoughts together for reviews lately so I thought I'd try my hand again at Short & Tweetish Reviews (There's no way I can keep it to 140 characters!) This style of reviewing was introduced to me by Mary@The Book Swarm  and Karen's @For What It's Worth.

Death and The Girl Next Door by Darynda Jones
Publisher: St. Martin's Press/Macmillan Audio
Publication date: October 2nd 2012
Length: 7hrs and 48min
Narrator: Lorelei King
My rating:  3 stars 
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My Thoughts:  
Darynda’s signature funny storytelling style. Sexy, mysterious hero, spunky heroine with abilities yet untapped.  No love triangle as the description leads you to believe, yay! Fun start to the series, but information was frustratingly slow to trickle in, and the heroine was slow to clue in on a few obvious conclusions. Lorelei King’s narration makes up for most of that. I plan on listening to the next one.




After the End by Amy Plum
Publisher: Harper Audio
Publication date: May 6th 2014
Length: 8 hrs and 47 min
Narrator: Emily Rankin, Graham Hamilton
My rating:  4 stars 
Amazon | B&N | TBD | Audible | GRs

My Thoughts:  
Everything about the world Juneau believes in is basically a lie.  Still, her powers are very much real as is her desire to find and rescue her kidnapped clan. 

Strong, smart, determined heroine. Juneau didn't have a whiny bone in her body, nor did this story suffer from lack of communication, which is a common complaint of mine with YA reads. She was upfront and honest with Miles.

Miles was self-absorbed and spoiled when the story began, but I was happy to witness positive character growth on his part. I did enjoy the romance between these two, even though it was a small part of the story.

A little slow in the beginning, but I highly recommend the audio book. Bonus with a male and female narrator! The story left off in sort of on a cliffhanger, but the second book in this duology is already released so that's not unbearable.  I'm on hold for the next audio copy. 






16 comments:

Joy said...

Oh oh I definitely have to read Darynda's YA. It's good to know that it doesn't have a love triangle! Why are there 3 people on the cover? Weird.

Anonymous said...

I thought Death and the Girl Next Door was really slow too. It wasn't as good as her adult series for me.
I'm so happy to read your praise for After the End. I love your description of Juno. I think you're going to love book 2 even more, especially on the romance front.
Lovely reviews, Rachel!

Unknown said...

I'm glad you enjoyed After the End, Rachel. I have to say that while I liked that book, Until the Beginning is so. Much. Better. It blew me away! So definitely get to reading that sequel soon. :)

Lovely reviews!

Jenny said...

I still can't get over how much the guy on the right of Death and the Girl Next Door looks like a baby Viggo Mortensen. Right? RIGHT?! So glad you enjoyed both of these Rachel, I thoroughly enjoyed the Death series and I need to read the Amy Plum one. I have this first book on my shelf waiting for me:)

Heidi@Rainy Day Ramblings said...

Lorelei totally made the YA series by Darynda I listened to the second and thrid. I wish I had loved that series. I still need to try the Plum series.

Maja (The Nocturnal Library) said...

I guess Lorelei would make Darynda's YA series better... she makes everything better after all. Unfortunately, I read all three and I was less than happy with them. As for After the End, I thought it was different and really really enjoyed it.

Anonymous said...

I just couldn't get into the first book of Darynda's YA series - I utterly loathed it! Which is strange, because I adore her adult work.

Piecraft Bucharest said...

I have to read After The End - it's been on my list forever! As for Darynda's YA, after so many glowing reviews for her adult stuff, I am kind of curious...

Linda said...

really exited to read After The End really soon because its been in my tbr list for some time now and I really need to pick it up! I like your reviews and its great that you recommend the audiobook to us :D

The Bibliophile Babe said...

I'll have to check out Death and The Girl Next Door! I enjoyed the authors other books.

Keertana said...

I've really been wanting to try an Amy Plum novel so I'm thrilled you enjoyed After the End, especially in audio format. I need to pick it up soon for sure, especially as I've been starved for an audio read for awhile. Love these quick, informative reviews, Rachel! :)

brandileigh2003 said...

I love a funny storyteller, so totally need to check out Jones

Carina Olsen said...

Stunning reviews Rachel. <3 Yay for mostly loving After the End :D I own both books. Really must read them soon :) You make it seem awesome. <3 Thank you for sharing about these two books :)

Jennifer said...

Great reviews. I always love books with death as a character. Always tend to be interesting. These seem like great reads and as the cover geek I am, i cant ignore how cool both covers are. Thanks for sharing! :)

The Readdicts said...

I am so glad you enjoyed both these reads, Rachel and these reviews are so cute! I must admit thought that Death and the Girl Next Door sounds better to me and thank you for putting it up on my radar. Awesome reviews!

Sarika @ The Readdicts

Beena said...

I haven't heard of these books before but After The End sounds really intriguing though - adding these books to my TBR, thank you for the awesome reviews <3 Benish | Feminist Reflections

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