Book Reviews 2017: Catching Up On Book Reviews

**All reviews on Randomness With Rachel are done on a five star rating system. The reviews are solely my opinion and no one else's. Randomness With Rachel does not receive any incentives or compensations for reviews.**

I read earlier this year but never got around to posting my reviews. These were read BEFORE I started my 40 books by 40, so they don't count against my list.

The Cursed by Heather Graham

Once again- Luke Daniels made this book so enjoyable. He makes each character come to life. I will sing his praises in each review I do on a book he has narrated. 

I liked this book more than the most recent ones I've read from the series (I'm reading them out of order). I enjoyed the ghost story and mystery portion a lot. I like Dallas and Hannah together, although for once I would like the romance to actually take time to blossom and people not fall in love in a matter of weeks, but that's just me being nit-picky. And this isn't a spoiler. You can tell from their first meeting they will end up together, it's not that big of a surprise.

I won't ruin it by saying what happened, but I didn't like the epilogue of the book. I would have preferred another ending but it didn't ruin the book for me. As always, I look forward to reading another book by Ms. Graham.

Book summary:

Darkest Journey by Heather Graham

I'm giving this a generous 2.5 stars (and mainly because I love Heather Graham and can't bring myself to give anything she writes anything lower). I'll start with the positive: I liked the main characters of Charlie and Ethan. I like how they at least had a past together, so their romance wasn't as off the wall as some of the relationships in the other books in this series. Usually the romance part of these stories bothers me, but I was actually okay with these two as a couple. 

I'm a history nerd and I usually enjoy the historical tidbits that Heather Graham throws into her stories, but this one didn't do much for me. I couldn't get into it mainly because I think the plot didn't flow as well as it has in her other books. And the scene where everyone was giving a speech about safe sex and STDs reminded me of those horrible movies we had to watch in school. It sounded too "textbook". People don't talk like that. 

I saw in a few other reviews that people noticed grammatical errors and typos. Since I listened to the audio book, I can't comment on that. BUT, Luke Daniels did a fantastic job narrating this one (so if you are interested at all, I highly recommend listening to it). As much as I've enjoyed the Krewe of Hunters series, I'm sad to say that I think it might be time for it to come to an end if this is how they are going to be. The past few that I've read (well, listened to) just haven't been the same as the earlier ones in the series. 

Book summary:

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

I went back and forth wondering if I wanted to give this 3 stars or 4 so I decided on a 3.5. The ending is the one thing making me debate my star rating (no spoilers about it). This is a book that as you are reading it, you can't put it down. That happened to me. I read over half of it on a plane ride from TX to PA. 

I liked the characters, even the horrible, mean ones. The character development was fantastic. I've seen it described as Mean Girls meets Groundhog's Day, and in a way it is. It was an interesting story line. 

As far as YA fiction goes, it's a very good read. I definitely knew people like the characters in the book. I can't honestly say that I personally related to any of them (I wasn't a "mean girl" and I wasn't really picked on by mean girls). I would recommend this one.

Book summary:

Landline by Rainbow Rowell

I really enjoyed this book- so much that I read it in a day. I liked the characters because none of them were "perfect". It seems in so many books the main characters are always overly attractive and have the perfect life. These characters seemed real. Were some annoying? Yes, but annoying people exist in real life. We all have annoying people in our lives (even if we love them dearly, they may be annoying at times). 

I enjoyed the story line- I'm always fascinated with "time travel" type stories. This made me think who I would want to talk to if I had a phone that called the past. This was the first book I've read by this author but I plan to check some others out soon.

Book summary:

XOXO!