LIES, Reboot, and A MINIATURE BOOK HAUL

I lied.
Believe it.
Riding Freedom was not the last of me.
*DRAMATIC GASP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*
That's right.
In fact, I have read so many books since the last post, I'm doing a book haul.
*MIND BLOWN*
But I'm so sorry guys...
MY LAST POST WAS IN NOVEMBER.

Yes, Flynn Rider, November of 2015.

(And, please excuse my excessive use of Tangled gifs in this post, but I just watched this so....)

#throwback to my old review on Mockingjay
I digress.
First Book Haul ever, here we go:


Great Read: 
Lockwood and Co. by Jonathan Stroud

Lucy Carlyle should've known what she was getting into when she moved to London. The Problem had left a dent there, for some. Many Psychic agencies are thriving due to the hauntings in London, and Lockwood and Co., a rag-tag team of two boys, are one of them. They invite Lucy into the family, and despite her failed missions before, she accepts their offer. A common, everyday person would think a small company like Lockwood's couldn't last a month with agencies like Fittes around. But when Lucy joins Lockwood and George's efforts to keep the company running, an opportunity comes up that could mean life or death for the company and the people in it.

This book was awesome. I'm not one for books that have a scary aspect to them, but I LOVED this. This book made me scared (in the best way) and scared for the characters at the same time. Jonathan Stroud mixed in the right amount of thrill and adventure with friendship and sass, and yes, a little bit of romance. (Between whom I will not say.)
The only complaint I have about this book is that only a short part of the book at the end actually deals with the screaming staircase, but that does not make the book slow at all. The ghost cases before the Screaming Staircase are still action filled and do keep you on the edge of your chair.
****
Four Stars.


Books You Need to Put on Your 'To Read' List:

The Zodiac Legacy by Stuart Moore and Andie Tong
Illustrated by Stan Lee

Zodiac Legacy Summary

I absolutely love anything Marvel. So when I saw that Stan Lee was on the team for creating this book, I FREAKED OUT.

Seriously, who doesn't want an action-packed book that has amazing pictures by Stan Lee, the creator of Marvel? 

If I'm to be honest, I really, REALLY just wanted to look at the pictures and not read the book at all. This went down in my head:

5 Year-Old Me: 0.0 Pretty pretty pictures. 0.0

Practical Me: You know there are actually words in this right? I mean, there IS a story to go with those pretty pictures.

5 Year-Old Me: 0.0 Pictures.

Practical Me: We're going nowhere with this conversation. We're reading this now.

And I'm really glad I did. It was a fun ride reading about the fights between The Vanguard and Steven and the gang.

The only reason I wouldn't give this book five stars is because I really wanted more character development and a little less fighting. I would like to know more about all these characters and their motives, which will hopefully be revealed in the second book, The Zodiac Legacy: The Dragon's Return. Sadly, these flaws in the book brought it down two stars from its potential.

***

Three Stars.

P.S. The sequel is out right now! It's for sale at pretty much any book store in the kids section and it is also on Amazon.
After I finished The Zodiac Legacy I was basically like:

And now I am at peace because there is a sequel. :)

The Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan

Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle Summary

You guys have no idea how excited I was for this book. Me and my friends all wore our Camp Half Blood and Camp Jupiter shirts the day it came out, and then I booked it (see what I did there???) to Barnes and Nobles for this book. I was so excited.

And I wasn't disappointed. Just when we all thought Percy Jackson and the gang were done for...for forever, Rick is like:

And the fangirls were like:

Regardless, this book was all I hoped it would be. It was like if Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Heroes of Olympus had a book baby, Trials of Apollo would be it. And for those of you who have read both of those series, you know how awesome that is.

Trials of Apollo had almost all the awesome characters from both PJO and HOO (YES PERCY IS THERE XD). The god Apollo narrates this book, and every chapter starts with a haiku (which is also AMAZING). Every moment isn't action-packed, but it is filled with nostalgia, ships, and THE FEELS.

YOU WANT TO READ THIS BOOK.

I PROMISE.

And may I say, the trailers were hilarious. (Check them out here.)

The only things I would complain about is that the narration was iffy at times. I felt like, on occasion, Percy had just taken over Rick for a second and took over narration. Also, Rick promised that we would see all the characters in this book, but some only got mentions, and these were characters who deserved more than mentions.

But over all it was a good book.

****

Four Stars.

P.S. Please read the Percy Jackson and the Olympians books and the Heroes of Olympus books (in that order) before you read Trials of Apollo. It won't make sense otherwise.

So, how have you guys been? What should be on MY to read list?

I have more book reviews on the way, because three books is DEFINITELY a lot less than the total amount of books I've read since last November. 

Also, check out The B.O.B.'s sister website at:

http://tamml.blogspot.com/

Have a great week!

:)