February Books

I don't recall what this piece is called but it seems to fit for today.

February went by swiftly and I seem to have done nothing at all. I did read a lot but not really. Here are the books I read in February minus some books I forgot I have read and a link to a blog post that interested me.

01 | The Magnificent Lizzie Brown and the Mysterious Phantom by Vicki Lockwood > link
I guess you can say this is the book every kid wants because every kid dreamt of running away with the circus, right? That's exactly what Lizzie Brown did. I like this enough but it just fell a bit too short and kind of easy to guess what would happen. I like that Lizzie is a psychic and that's pretty much all I like about this book. One Sentence-ish Review: It was short and quick, maybe a bit too predictable but I enjoyed it although it wasn't as fun or exciting as the synopsis sounds.

02 | Book Scavenger (The Book Scavenger series 1) by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman > link
A boy that thinks of his cowlick as a person is a bit strange to me but then I'm not twelve. I enjoyed this book but perhaps the every day family drama is a bit boring but at least, no one's an orphan here. One Sentence-ish Review: It was good and it kept me reading but perhaps the every day family stuff is a bit boring.

03 | The Secret of Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson and Alex T. Smith (Illustrator) > link
I really don't like people comparing this to Harry Potter or say this is for fans of that series because it's not like those books even if it was written with that same British sensibility. It's quirkier and quicker in plot and all around a bit weird. I really enjoyed reading this book even though it's easy to tell who the real prince is. Everything happens quite fast and yet, it seems to lack some details especially about the characters. I would have liked to know more about Odge, the hag and the kitchen boy Ben. And the title, The Secret of Platform 13, doesn't seem like the right title as most of time, we aren't even on platform 13. I guess what I like most is the weirdness of the characters but at the same time, they all seem pretty dumb to assume things without doing a lot of checking.
 One Sentence-ish Review: I enjoyed the quirkiness of the characters and the writing style and the weirdness of everything but I also find it bit too predictable. (Note: the cover above is the one that I like but it's not the one that I read as I thought that one with the two boys on a platform was boring.)

04 | Murder Wears a Mask (Kelly Armello Cozy Mystery #1) by Donna Doyle > link
This novella (which is under 200 pages but they still call this a book) is the blandest, cozy mysteries I had read and yet, it annoys me somehow by its blandness. There seems to be no conflict, no fights (there is one but it's told to us but it's a bit meaningless to the story), absolutely no one gets hurt except for the murder victim and no one seem to be doing anything but thinking. There are three perspectives here for no reason other than to know what these three are thinking but then again, the boy who found the body didn't have much of a voice toward the end.
    Small town and all but why does it seems like everyone here is so quiet that any action is taken, is subdued or perhaps the author was going for an extremely clean read in that everything has their sharp edges removed so no one gets even a paper cut. There is a murder, drug dealing and police corruption but did these things get any sort of detail or any sort of resolution? So yes, we get resolutions but there seems to be no fuss about it, almost as if it's not even worth talking about. The Christian part is just a brief talk about god. The mystery got solved just like that. We don't even get to see the criminal making a confession or anyone doing anything particularly interesting and if they did, it's a summary.
    And Kelly Armello, supposedly the main character, isn't even worth knowing. She's a really good looking librarian and that's all I know about her. And her so-call amateur sleuthing? That consisted of staying in a storage garage and spying on people and talking to a few people - that's pretty much all she did. There is no danger of her being in danger, it's all talk about possibility of danger. Honestly, Kelly has zero influence on the story. I don't know why she is even the main character aside that there needed to be a main character.
    And the cover? Why yes, all librarians wear fitted shirts and dressed for romance. So yes, librarians can be sexy but was that necessary for a cozy murder mystery? Admittedly, there is romance but it's more like the guy, Troy (the cop/designated love interest), and Kelly, thinking about how good looking each other are. Also, was it necessary to keep bringing up that Troy served in Afghanistan? How many times do we need to know that fact?
One Sentence-ish Review: The first couple of chapters were quite promising but then it became a mystery of why it was so bland and boring. So yes, this is a first book in a long series and not much happens but I didn't need my books to be sugarcoated in a way that I get not even a smudge of interest from it.

05 | The Witching Flour (Spellford Cove Mystery Book 1) by Samantha Silver > link
I really, really hate it when the main character, Robin, respond to comments with "Fair enough." I mean, it's not a bad phrase but it's an annoying phrase. I would have preferred something else, anything else.
    I like the talking cat named Shakespaw but he doesn't do anything other than cat-like things aside from the talking and reading. I like the magic the main character and her family has but it was a bit boring and I wonder, if someone closes their eyes to do a spell, doesn't it give someone a chance to knock you over the head before the spell can be completed? I'm just saying it's stupid.
    I don't quite like this world in which witches can do any type of spell, there seems to be no boundary, no limit of what they can do other than the fact that they specialize in certain talent like the main character Robin is a kitchen witch which meant she's talented in baking which is kind of boring but okay.   
    The sisters Elsa and Emma seems interchangeable, and probably they should have just merge those two characters into one. And why can't one of them be a male witch? Too many females in that family and they couldn't make one of them a man?  There's the cliche quirky grandmother which we get a glance at. And the usual demons, vampires, shifters, all sort of cliches creatures exited here or so they said. I guess the thing about first book in a series is that, characters gets introuced or that people are talked of but we don't get to know them until the next few books.
    There is a talk about a council for paranormal beings but honestly, it just sounds like a bunch of people who had daily meetings but doesn't do anything if someone does any bad things with their witchy powers like these witches can just break into people's home and the council doesn't do anything. Also, in this world, witches can't see ghosts unless they are born with the power to do so which is an odd thing because does it not make more sense for witches to see ghosts because they are paranormal beings? I find this annoying only because this is used to make the character be the only one to see ghosts so that makes her special in a way but still does not make me like her one bit.
    The only character I like here is the ghost, Vanessa, who was murdered. I thought she was quite fun with her murderous thoughts. Honestly, it's the only fun part of this book.
    The main character, Robin, seems rather childish for a twenty-something. [Spoiler: She does what every cliche cozy mystery main characters do -  confronts the killer all by her lonesome self. If this was a regular cozy mystery with no magic, she would be killed but because she was a witch with powers, she lives. Spoiler ends]
    All this secrecy about not letting the humans know about their magical powers and yet they talked openly about magic in a cafe where anyone can eavesdrop and I don't care if one of the character says it's safe to talk there and that no one eavesdrops on them which is bull because unless they create some spell for that, anyone can eavesdrop on them. This is after all a small town, doubtful if people didn't notice witches doing magic especially since they do it right in the streets (yes, one of them showed off her powers right on the street), what a good way to keep it quiet.
    One Sentence-ish Review: A light, paranormal, first book in a series with not much meat to the story with cliche characters, cliche behavors and dumb logic with a murder mystery a bit like background and characters are introduced one after another without doing much and a main character that just seems a bit too childish and yet, I did sort of enjoyed this book but probably because I can make fun of it.

06 | Do you read spoilers? Somewhere back in time (okay it was January), I read this blogger who likes to read book spoilers before reading a book and I half agreed with her. I don't mind spoilers as long as it doesn't entirely ruin the book for me and most of the time, it really doesn't. Although I think with book series, you will always see the spoilers because in the synopsis, they mostly tell you the ending of the previous book so I don't read the synopsis for later books in a series.
    I usually keep my reviews spoiler-free and will put in a note (like in #5 above) if I was going to spoil it because it's easier and I don't have angry readers even though I'm sure most people don't read my reviews because most of my readers do not read the same books that I do. The blog post link is here if you can care to read it.

How are you doing this March?