In my literary endeavor to read 52 books this year, I have been chugging along quite well. I just finished my 28th book a few days ago and here are some of my favorites (as well as ones I should have just left on the shelf)!

You can read my first quarter literary round up here.

Favorites

• Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen. My friends, Sarah Dessen can do no wrong. I know everyone says her stories follow her own “formula,” but Ms. Dessen, don’t fix what ain’t broken. Her characters are fresh and intriguing, and her prose, it just has that Sarah Dessen feel. I don’t know how to say it any other way. A great summer quick read.
• The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle. I have always loved the story of Robin Hood and the many retellings, so it was a wonder to me how I hadn’t read the classic story behind it. So when I started reading, I was surprised by how light and funny it was. Robin Hood is so witty and, even though it’s in an older English, still made me laugh out loud. I loved reading about how Robin gathered his original band of men and the stories of his many clashing with the sheriff. I read this over the course of a few months, a story here and there on my lunch break. It wasn’t a page-turner, but when I finished, I wished there were more stories for me to read.
• Where She Went by Gayle Forman. You may remember that If I Stay was one of my disappointments in my last blog post. Well this sequel totally surprised me. It was told from the perspective of Adam, not Mia, and man, what a great character he is! He was so much more interesting than Mia and his personality was, excuse this cliche, a breath of fresh air. Forman’s beautiful prose is highlighted better in this book, with each chapter starting with lyrics that Adam wrote. Even thought it is largely character-driven conflict, I couldn’t put the book down. I wanted to know what happened next (which is pretty unusual for me with character-driven plots).

Disappointments

• Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman. This is the sequel to Seraphina, which I absolutely adored when I read it last year. Seraphina was everything I want in a book: romance, a strong female lead, fantasy, kings and princes, and a solid conflict. Shadow Scale was nothing like its predecessor. Several of the main characters were hardly mentioned and the romance that had defined much of the first book was nonexistent in this one. Rachel Hartman is a beautiful writer – and she has great verbage! Maybe a weird observation, but she has a gift for using big words that actually make sense in context which I loved. But the story itself was lacking. A lot. So read Seraphina, but please, just leave Shadow Scale on the shelf.
• The Immortal Nicholas Flamel series by Michael Scott. Okay, I need to confess, I may have read this series partly because the author’s name is Michael Scott, one of the best characters ever from The Office. BUT ANYWAYS. It was just so mediocre. The writing was subpar, at best, and some of the wordings were just so odd. The characters I felt didn’t have any development, and over the course of six books, that’s pretty bad. One of the main characters was just so stupid he should have been killed off in the first book. I think I would have been happier if he had. For a fantasy series, it just fell so flat. Nothing really redeeming about any of it.

Not a bad second quarter! You can also see all of the books I’ve read this year here. Have you guys read any good books lately?