Review - Miles Morales

Miles Morales by Jason Reynolds

* Read via NetGalley for Review

4 out of 5 gnomes

It was nice to read more about Miles Morales as Spider-Man. I know a little bit about him from the comics but it was great to get a whole book about him. There’s just the tiniest hint of an origin story but it works really well, you’re pretty much just thrown into his world.

This Spider-Man really reads like a teenager not an adult trying to act like a teenager so you’re not jarred out of the story but drawn into it. Also shows that Spider-Man problems can be just as crazy as regular high school problems.

This is more a Miles story than a Spider-Man story until almost the very end. I wish there had been more Spider-Manning because he is a really awesome Spider-Man. Saying that though you do read/hear about some of what he's done as Spider-Man and all the drama and trauma that he’s already been through. I’m hoping there are future books about Miles by this author.

The villain is definitely new to me aka one I hadn’t heard of before. This villain is also a sinister surprisingly old evil too. Plus it just seems believable from a real world and comic book point of view that a villain who believes this could form and cause chaos very easily.

His family life is well done. There is plenty of drama but also a lot of love between him and his parents. I have to mention his friend Ganke too, he is really entertaining and brings out a fun side of Miles.

I wish there had been more of a resolution with the ending. It was good but there are some loose threads that I’m very curious about.

Review - Night Shift

Night Shift by Charlaine Harris

2 gnomes and a gnome hat out of 5 gnomes

What and Why, these are the two words you might find yourself thinking while reading this last book in the series.

This book felt very rushed to get to a kind of a meh conclusion. I mean everything was slow paced before but this just felt like the author wanted just to be done with the series.

I like multiple points of view books a lot usually. This though felt like Harris couldn’t pick which character she wanted to be the protagonist. You flit from person to person but don’t really find out a lot about anybody.

They introduce something extremely interesting about Manfred’s family but then don’t really go into it a lot.  

The whole end game kind of felt like an afterthought and a no duh kind of moment on who would be participating. Their solution doesn’t really feel like much of a solution… Plus nobody really got a satisfying conclusion.

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P.S. The TV show has me hooked and I recommend it a lot more than I do these books. The show is definitely cheesy but in an awesome way. The pacing is much less slow and things are happening crazy fast. The characters are also a lot easier to connect to on the screen then via the books.

Quick Review - By Your Side

By Your Side by Kasie West

3 out of 5 gnomes

I work in a library so the whole being trapped in a library aspect made me want to read this book. Lets just say that I know people have been very close to being locked in the library here before...but the place is always double checked by security too. It's a cool concept but I'm not sure how feasible it would be so you have to suspend your disbelief and just kind of go with it.

Dax and Autumn have some great chemistry. He's the loner/bad boy that nobody gets she's the photography person who has a lot of friends. The book is without a doubt predictable as heck. There are some definite eye rolling moments but then I just kept on reading. Let's just say Autumn has some rather oblivious friends. Saying all that though, I just couldn't stop reading. It's like one of those bad TV shows that you just can't stop watching.

Overall a quick yet not very surprising read that still manages to make you care about these characters.

Colorado Vacation

 Moose and baby Moose :)

Fun with the panorama setting on the phone:

 The Stanley Hotel on Overlook Lane aka the hotel that inspired Stephen King to write The Shining.