Hello, dearings! I’m alive yet again =D I have been making some solid progress on my readings, which brings us here today: MORE MINI REVIEWS! This time, our theme is Edgar Allan Poe, as I’m reading this pretty and giant book with his main works =) I’m not done yet, hence the ‘part 1’ deal, haha!
Just remembering that the mini reviews deal is a combination of inspirations from Cait, of The Paper Fury, and from Lindsey, of @thepagemistress, and that I do those with books that: a) I really liked, but the book didn’t change my life; b) regardless of my feelings, were too short for a complete review; c) regardless of my feelings, weren’t unforgettable.
In this post, you’ll find mini reviews for these Edgar Allan Poe’s books:
Goood Sunday to all lovely readers out there! Welcome to my TBR of the Week actually, my TBR for the past three weeks that seems to be stopped at every ARC I remember I forgot I should be reading: The Son of Neptune, second book in the series The Heroes of Olympus, by Rick Riordan ❤
MY ROYAL PANDA SELF IS HOME! This means back to quality posting, tags, memes and basically being here! ❤ It’s Sunday, so let’s go back to the golden age of my blogging what with my choice for TBR of the Week: The Crown’s Game, by Evelyn Skye! *–*
Hi, there! I’m back with the review for the second volume of the Rowan of Rin series, by Emily Rodda: Rowan and the Travelers! You can already expect the review for the third book as well, haha!
Rowan is now known on his village as the Mountain hero, but he feels far from it. It is true that the boy learned how to handle his fears on his last adventure, but he never stopped being afraid at all. To make things worse, the Travelers, the nomadic people, are back after only one year after their last visit to Rin.
The villagers of Rin suspect that the Travelers found out about Rin’s new plantation, made of a Mountain berry that Allum, a half-Traveler and half-Rin villager brought back from their journey, and want to steal it. Things couldn’t be worse.
That is, until Sheba, Rin’s old mad witch, has a vision involving a great danger involving all of them. As no one else besides Rowan listens to the woman’s advertences, soon enough Rin is in a deep sleep and the only awaken people are Rowan and Allum.
Now they desperate need the help of the Travelers, but… Can they trust each other?
The Analysis
Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader 🙂
I remembered only pieces of this book, so I was glued to my chair until I was finished with it, haha! Once again, I loved visiting Rin and spending some quality time with Rowan! This review will be short because of two reasons:
The narrative style continues to be third person mainly focused on Rowan’s point of view, but with glimpses of other narrators. Rowan grows up so much from one book to another, but Rodda never forgets that he is just a boy, so it is wonderful.
The plot was more complex this time and had even more mystery than before. We are now introduced to the lands beyond Rin and the Mountain and to other people, like the Travelers and the people from Maris. As this is a re-read, I don’t know which part of my brain unconsciously remembered the plot twists and which part just guessed it, so I won’t try to analyze this aspect, haha!
As the travelers arrive, the reader meets new characters and has a chance to become closer with old ones. I decided that I really like John, Allum, Marlie and Sheba, haha! Also, I loved Zeel, she was so fearless! A good side kick to Rowan on this new adventure!
I still imagine Rowan as Ronan, the Grand Chase game character, by the way.
this fellow lol
As to Zeel, she was like a young Liv Tyler on my head. A girl can dream, right? Lol
The only thing that bothered me a bit on this volume is that Rodda seems to slow the story’s rhythm down in the beginning and I don’t understand why. Rowan is not being the overthinking type, but you feel that it is taking long to see anything happen, you know? And this is a problem in a book aimed for preadolescents 😦
I still loved the second volume of Rowan of Rin and I hold my ground that this is one of the best dystopian/fantasy books that I’ve ever read, though! If you like those genres, interesting characters, mystery and is not a fan of romance (that is non-existent on Rowan of Rin series so far), you have to give this series a go!
Thank you so much for reading! ❤ Have you ever read a book by Emily Rodda?
Hi, again! I’m sorry, I’ve been reading a lot on the past few days and I can’t put up with my own rhythm to blog about them, haha! Today I bring to you another re-read: Rowan of Rin, from brilliant Emily Rodda!
Rowan always felt a stranger on his own village. People in Rin were expected to grow up handling every physic aspect of life with perfection. But not Rowan. He was always too skinny, too thin, too scared… Useless. All the kids always made fun of him. The only thing that he never failed to do was to look after the village’s bukshas, a kind of breed between cow and sheep.
Until the bukshas’ lake rans dry and no one knows why.
Rowan knows he’s not a brave man as his father was before his death and that his own mother doesn’t believe in him to be strong, but he has to save the buskhas. The only creatures that ever believed him and never made fun of him. That trusted him.
So when he’s left with no other option but to travel to the Mountain with the other six villagers, Rowan decides that he will be brave for the bukshas.
Even if it scared him to death.
The Analysis
Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader 🙂
If you have read this post, you know that I LOVE Emily Rodda. I’ve read the whole Deltora Quest series (all three parts of it) and then I started reading Rowan of Rin. As always, Brazilian publishers took so long between a book and other that I stopped reading it on the second book and when I got myself the third book, I could hardly remember the story at all. Hence the re-read, haha!
Rowan of Rin was everything good that I knew I had felt on my first reading and more. With real and relatable characters, a wonderful setting and life-saver riddles, it had everything that I love about a fantasy/adventure book. Five stars again ❤
The narrative is third person styled, from Rowan’s point of view most of time, but anyone can barge in during the book. Even Estrela, Rowan family’s buksha. I personally love Rowan, he’s an adorable kid ❤ He’s always true to himself, no matter how bad things look or sound. I’ll get there in a moment lol
Also, I love Rodda’s writing style. It’s so fluid, detailed and addictive! I’ve read this book in one single hour, as I didn’t remember how it ended, just some pieces of their adventure. (I also read the following book in one seating, haha! Only the third was spilt on two sittings as life is not fair.) I dare to say that the dystopian created and Rodda’s writing are the strongest points on this book.
Rodda’s main characters have a very good thing and a poor thing about them. They observe a lot and pay attention to so many nice things, but they tend to not think about themselves a lot. To this day, I’m not really sure of Rowan’s looks, haha! All people around him is easier to picture, but it’s like he’s a nice faceless boy. I mean, I imagine him just like the Grand Chase character thanks to the name, that is similar, but I don’t have a book official version, you know?
This is Ronan, from Grand Chase! I miss this game so much, the Brazilian branch was closed on 2014 😦
But there’s another catch to Rodda’s characters. Each one of them is one type of person that you’ll find on a society. There’s the optimistic, the grumpy, the honest, the cheater, the workaholic, the loner, the wise… And so on. Still, they aren’t boring one you figure out which type each one of them will be, as Rowan brings the best on each of them. He rarely judges people, as he is always occupied trying to understand them. You gotta love the boy.
Also, I really wished to know his age. Oh, well.
I feel the need of highlighting the world that Rodda created for this series. It starts small, with only the village of Rin, the bukshas’ lake and the Mountain, but keeps growing through the series, showing one more piece of it on each following book. ❤
The first map is the only one present on this book. The other appears only on the next volume (picture taken by me from the Brazilian edition of the third book in the series, Rowan and the Keeper of the Crystal)
Overall, I think this is an ageless book. If you like dystopian, fantasy, adventure and doesn’t care about romance, you have to board my fangirling boat and read Rowan of Rin!
Thank you once again for reading! ❤ Have you read any books by Emily Rodda?
Hi, there! Good Friday to you! I have to stop saying that, Friday is always good, ugh.
Anyway, another month arrived and I don’t know about you guys, but my February flew out of the window, haha! It’s the first Friday of March, which means… Must-Have Edition of the Month!
This time, I got fancy and chose a classic in a classic wrap: Great Expectations, from Charles Dickens. Nothing much? Wait for it: Penguin edition. Clothbound.
those images were found on Google and are used here with illustrative purposes only
Seriously, how did I lived so long without this beauty? It has chandeliers, for crying out loud! (Yes, I’m a chandelier freak since I was a toddler, haha!)
I just need to hug this book and make it mine.
That’s it, haha! Thank you for reading and stay tuned: we have nothing more and nothing less than three cover reveals today! 😀
Hello! Today we have the first post in my new section, Authors from my Heart <3, that will talk about a book author! Last time, I talked about a manga author and now we open the book author section with Meg Cabot!
(x) Writer’s royalty member
The first time I’ve read a book by Meg Cabot, I was just a kid. I knew her from The Princess Diaries movies and, of course, wanted to read the books as well. I ran to the bookstore with my mom (I was about 8 or 9) and the first book in the collection was sold out on that particularly place. On that fateful day, my mom couldn’t take me anywhere else and I was so sad that I would have to wait a few more weeks to get it… I don’t remember why, but my mom wouldn’t be able to take me to another bookstore anytime soon. Then, feeling my pain, the bookshop seller said that I could take home a different Meg Cabot series while I waited for The Princess Diaries to be back on stock. That’s when I met The Mediator series ❤ I held the first book with its oh-so-ugly cover in my hands and wanted to cry. My mom insisted that I take it, along with volume 2 in The Princess Diaries series (which had a beautiful cover), so I did it. THANKS, MR. BOOKSHOP SELLER, THANKS, MOM!
That’s how I got to know my all-time favorite series from Meg and how I discovered that I only liked when Meg wrote supernatural stories. I read the second book in TPD series, believing that I didn’t need book 1 as I had seen the movie and hated everything, haha! Point for the ugly covered book 🙂
I love the movies with all my heart, but those books weren’t for me, simply like that. I used to have the Brazilian Edition in the picture, but I gave it away to my school’s library, as it was clear I would never read it again or continue reading…
Oh those covers. Honestly, they were so ugly that the next Brazilian edition had it changed to this:
despite the inconstancy of Suzannah’s looks through those covers, they are still better than the ones I have home.
The sad part is to see that the original covers also sucked hard. Still, ugly covers or not, I love this series. Jesse was one of my first bookish boyfriends and he played a very important part in my life, as he was almost a cowboy and I have been fascinated by those since I’m a toddler that watched my dad reading Tex’s adventures (a cowboy with a yellow shirt, any bells ringing?). But I’m babbling and the important thing is: WE WILL HAVE ANOTHER BOOK IN THIS SERIES NEXT YEAR!
This book shouldn’t be a standalone, Meg! Please, stop writing lame books and revisit this series, please! But, again: BRAZIL, WHY DO WE HAVE SUCH AN AWFUL COVER?!
I was so happy with The Mediator and Jinx that I forgot how big of a flop that TPD was for me and borrowed The Boy Next Door from a friend. Awful mistake. I’m still not into those kind of books I don’t even remember if I was able to finish it or not, haha!
I had a true State of Grace when I started this series, as I was on a big hiatus from Meg (her fault, as she made it so hard for me to buy her historical romances and impossible for me to like her regular teen books). I read it slowly, savoring each chapter, because I knew it all ended in three books. And it did and I cried because I was once again orphan from her. And still am, btw. I plan on starting the 1-800-Where-R-You series, but I have no guarantees that I shall like it, so I’m delaying this moment, haha!
Oh, and by the way. 1-800-Where-R-You also has awful covers. Meg, you should sue most of your your graphic designers team. Just a friend’s advice, seriously.
That’s it! Thanks for reading ❤ Do you like Meg Cabot? Which is your favorite book? HAVE YOU READ 1-800-Where-R-You SERIES?! I need to know if I won’t have my heart broken, haha!
Hi, there! I was tagged by my sweet Audrey, from the Forwards and Bookwords, forever ago in the Fireworks Book Tag, thank you! Let’s answer it 😀
Screamers: a book that made you want to scream! (in a good way)
Hmm, I would say Viscount’s Wager, from Ava March. Ava sent it to me as an early birthday present and I freaked out both when I won it and when I finished it, haha!
Bombers: a book you read before it exploded in the book community
Hmm, I would say The Book Thief and The Vampire Diaries 🙂
3. Banger: a banned book you read
I honestly don’t know, haha! I’m not aware of any banned books in my country or estate, so I don’t think I have read anything banned so far…
Peony: a book/author you think everybody needs to read
Emily Rodda, for sure. I loved the whole Deltora Quest saga and now I’m totally digging Rowan of Rin series. Love her!
Crossette: a book/series with a complicated plot
The Fellowship of the Ring, first book in the Lord of the Rings saga. Really, I didn’t think it was so entwined when I saw the movies, haha!
Diadem: a book/series with amazing central characters
The Selection, by Kiera Cass. I loved America (and I usually have deep issues with narrator characters), Maxton, Celeste and Aspen… Everything!
Atches: light your own fireworks by tagging five people
I don’t even remember if I was able to finish it or not, haha!
The Book Adventures of Annelise Lestrange 