First Impression Friday #21

Happy First Impression Friday! I have a little more than normal to talk about today. I always read a lot in January (I live in Canada and it’s too freaking cold for me to go outside!) so I actually have 4 books that I’ve finished in the last two weeks! Since there’s so much to talk about, I’ll get right into it!

First Impression Friday is a post that was created by the brilliant Joe from JW Martin – Storeys of Stories. Instead of doing this weekly like he does, I decided to do this one biweekly. So every two weeks, I take the books that I’ve finished within that time period, and I compare my first impressions (from the first 1-2 chapters) with my final thoughts and how I rated it. Here are my first impressions of the books I’ve read in the last 2 weeks:

MY FIRST IMPRESSIONS – This one started much like the other books in the series have; hilarious, interesting, paranormal, chaotic, and adventurous. I love that each of the books seem to have a bit of a recap of the other books before really getting into the meat of the new story. Since I loved all the other books in the series, I felt that it was automatic that I would rate this one 5 stars…..

HOW I RATED IT – Oops! Well….. 5 stars apparently wasn’t obvious lol! This one was good, don’t get me wrong, but it was a little slower paced, and more focused on one mission whereas the others were a whole bunch of different threats all happening at once. I found this one to also be little more emotional. There was a lot of focus on Thor (where we FINALLY got to see why everyone hated him so much!!), and that was a bit it. It was also a bit of a transitional story that would carry his life and situation into something new. I think that book 4 will come back though!

MY FIRST IMPRESSIONS – I was nervous about this one for 2 reasons. 1 – I wasn’t impressed at all with the first prequel (Down Among The Sticks and Bones). 2 – I remembered Lundy from the first book, but I don’t remember being completely attached to her character. I found her situation interesting, but I didn’t remember her personality. As soon as I started the first chapter, I knew this was going to be a good one. But – I still wasn’t sold. I guessed that I would rate this one 3.5 stars…..

HOW I RATED IT – WRONG! SO WRONG! This book was spectacular! And by the end, I felt like my emotions were shredded and raw. I ended up absolutely LOVING this character, her story, her friendships, her passions, her torment, and literally everything else about her. This one actually might be my favourite of the series so far! Click HERE for the full review.

MY FIRST IMPRESSIONS – Because I loved the first book (The City of Brass) in the series so much (if there were a million stars to give that book, it would still get 2 million!), it was almost immediate knowledge to me that this one would be rated high! It was so easy to fall back into this world within that first chapter. I guessed that I would rate this 5 stars…..

HOW I RATED IT – And I did! This book was just as amazing! It was more political and less magical than the first, but her writing is just outstanding!!! If you haven’t started this series yet, you need to! Click HERE for the full review.

MY FIRST IMPRESSIONS – Oh how I loved the first chapter! It was like flipping a switch and it was so easy to forget my surroundings and fall into this world of torture and horrors. Even though I was trying to prepare my emotions for everything this character went through, I had a feeling this would break my soul. I guessed that I would rate this one 4.5 stars…..

HOW I RATED IT – Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. I ended up rating it 3.25 stars. The story was good. The characters were great. But there was just a *spark* missing if you know what I mean. There was something in the writing style that somehow didn’t translate for me and my emotions and attachment to the story was severely lacking. I think it was because it was originally written as a screenplay…. the transition to novel form was missing out, but it would make an incredible film! Click HERE for the full spoiler free review.

Those are all the books I’ve read over the last 2 weeks and my first impressions of them. A lot of these I had strong feelings about how I was going to rate them before I even started. It just goes to show that your expectations aren’t always correct! I almost had one more to add to this list but I’ll be finishing it tonight 🙂

Until next time, happy reading!