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My reading goal for 2011 is 50 books.

Obtained: A Christmas present this year.

The last in the Vampire Academy series, I actually skipped reading the fourth book to get to this one. And I'm not sad that I did. There's something about this series that both drew me in and frustrated me, and I can't quite put my finger on it.

The last book ties up a lot of threads that had unravelled across the series, and leaves a few new ones dangling, which is appropriate as I believe that Mead is going to write a new series based in the same universe. My money is on either Adrian or Jill as the MC in the new series.

Some things came together a little *too* neatly, while others were frustrating. I appreciate what Mead was trying to communicate about Adrian in this book, but found the final scenes involving him didn't strike the right notes for me. This may have been because I skipped the fourth book, but he didn't seem entirely consistent with the Adrian we met in books two and three.

Otherwise, it was a quick read and I'm glad I got it!

Making a list of these, separate from my goal of 50. Hoping that I don't buy nearly as many as I did last year. I might make a point of re-reading the ones that I've acquired and noting whether there was anything I particularly liked or disliked about them:

1. Cowboy Swagger by Joanna Wayne (Jan 3)
2. Genuine Cowboy by Joanna Wayne (Jan 4)
3. The Wild Card by Rhonda Nelson (Jan 4)
4. Breaking the Rules by Tawny Weber (Jan 5) - I felt uncomfortable reading most of this book because of the central conflict between the hero and heroine, i.e. that he kept making decisions for her, for her own good. That kind of thing drives me nuts.
5. Not Another Blind Date by various authors. A collection of three short works.
6. A Daring Proposition by Jennifer Greene. Would have been infinitely better if some chapters had been written from the hero's perspective.
7. Tangled Tinsel by Vivian Arend (Jan 8)
8. Heat of the Moment by Karen Foley (Jan 13)
9. My Favourite Cowboy (I think?) (April 7)
10. !! Can't remember, but I'll fix that (April 8)
11. Mitzi's Marine (April 10)

Pretty entertaining, actually. I might like Nikki and Rook more than Beckett and Castle At least, until I see the next new episode of Castle.

It took me a bit to get into this book, but it proved to be as delightful as the first one! I love the voice this is written in, and the colourfulness of the characters.

I already have the next in the series, and I imagine I'll be reading it next!

Amusement. I read review that suggested this was a less than satisfying conclusion to the cliffhanger (of sorts) at the end of Changeless. While it wasn't 100% of what I had hoped it would be, I think it was a good start and hopefully Heartless, out on July 1st, will carry through on the promises made in this book.

I liked it.
Even though it felt like a lot of running back and forth between three or four locations, and having characters exit stage left at the end of a chapter only to be yanked back on stage at the start of the next (okay, maybe that only glaringly happened once...)

I need some relationship resolution in the next one though.

Great concepts, terribly annoying main character who drove me nuts with her damsel in distress behaviour.

Intriguing Fae world.

I stopped with the second of the trilogy because I can pretend it's a happy ending to the love story.

Pretty good, pretty good. Solidly on team Cal <I think that's the right name, it's been a month since I read it>. Hoping Archer turns out to be a bad guy, so that there's no awkward brush-off, even though I presume he and the main character will end up together.

Relatively satisfying ending to a series I loved and hated.

Really enjoyed it though the return to the lab at the end didn't quite fully work for me. Wish it had been an adult series so we could have seen more of the relationship between the mc and the love interest.

Fluff.

Cannot wait for the next book. Must have relationship between Cassie and Pritkin. Please?

Ugh. Some enjoyment of this book, but the description of the rest of the series made me cringe over the love interest issues that crop up.

The text of this book is syrupy like honey. Sometimes sweet, sometimes cloying. I need more umph in it to really feel the impact of the climax, but still, a decent story.

These books were devoured within 24 hours. Gulp gulp.

Love the sassy main character, slightly less love for arrogant love interested, but big love for sassy main character standing up to him and not letting him push her around.

Love that Merit was also portrayed as suitably analytic as befit her grad student status. That was a lot more satisfying than the totally dependent on the new man in her life professor in the last novel or two that I read (whose title escapes me!)

I'd rate this a nearly 7 on a scale of 10. The cast in this book is so few as to make me feel almost claustrophobic by the standards of most urban fantasies.

I'm interested in reading more of them, but... not interested enough to rush out to buy them.

I paused reading this book during the climax and came back to it two or three weeks later, which should give a sense of how 'into it' I was.

It's not a story that really drew me in. I enjoyed it, and I'd pick up the other books in the series if I saw them on sale, but I won't go out of my way to get them.

6.5/10

I'm coming to realize that I really like sassy heroines, but overbearing heroes ruin a book for me. And if the sassy heroine is embarassed/humiliated/has to rely too much on the hero? Sometimes, it's like I take it personally.

I mean, I get that we need conflict in a book, and I don't want the hero and heroine to be together automatically (if that's the way a story is going to go), but... I guess I really want them to be on equal footing, in some way.

Anyways, I have the next two in this series already out of the library, so I'll probably read them later in the week.

Can't quite recall the proper titles, but I enjoyed them. I like female POVs because I can slip into them more easily, but I thoroughly enjoyed Dresden's adventures. I've got the third sitting on the top of my TBR pile from the library right now.