What I read--August

I read some really great books in August.  I went on a bit of a crazy Lauren Oliver and Veronica Roth binge-reading fest and loved it.  That's what trilogies are for, right?  Here they are in no particular order.

Lauren Oliver shows a mastery of the voice of a high school mean girl in this poignant work.  I really love her writing style and found this compelling and heart-wrenching.  

Though this one was very well-written, I didn't love it.  I just wanted to solve the mystery and felt like I wasn't into the storytelling enough to exercise patience.  I might have skimmed just to find out what happened.  Not the uathor's fault.  But when I start out knowing that there's a mystery to be unravelled, I sometimes do this.

I liked this story.  I definitely want to find out what happens next.  I could stand with a little less architectural description and I'm not sure I love the ghost, but neither thing made me not really like the book. 

I really loved this trilogy.  Even if at times I found the concept a little more than improbable. Oliver's writing is so descriptive, and even though it's maybe a little flowery, it was perfect.  I practically fell in love with the coupling myself.

 

I'll confess, I watched the movie and then had to know what happened.  Loved the premise.  I'm still reflecting on the last book and trying to decide if I'm cool with it or not.  

So Stephen King basically tells us how he writes in this memoir and manual.  Much of it was great advice and I will consider it when I am crafting from now on.  But not all of it.  It may be okay to plot in advance and not mean you are dull.

I would actually recommend all of these books.  Even if you aren't into YA, I really think that Lauren Oliver's trilogy is so full of beautiful and heartbreaking romance that any romance novel fan would be sucked in, lifted up, destroyed, and fulfilled by it.