It's pretty crazy how many novels I can read in just over a month. I read 8 novels in the month of April, and I took some breaks in between a few of them. I'm also two-thirds the way through another book. Good god I'm a nerd. But I love it. I don't know what my life would be without it.
Starting from the beginning, I read the John Green novel An Abundance of Katherines which I received from K for my birthday. It was the last book I needed to have read all of John Green's books. It was really good, though not my favourite of his books. It's the story of Colin, a child prodigy who only dates girls named Katherine. He attempts to develop a formula that would predict the outcome of any relationship between any two people. For a book about a math formula, it had surprisingly little math, and the math it did have was pretty easy to understand (thanks to grade eleven functions, though). The story was really good, and there never seemed to be a dull moment, thanks to other characters and their complicated lives. 
The next book that I read was Personal Demon by Kelley Armstrong. Please don't try to 'click to look inside.' I really do hate it when pictures come with captions or things like that. And I couldn't find another one of my cover that would size correctly and not blur. Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series chronicles the lives of supernatural women who try to live their lives as normal as possible under their circumstances. This specific novel featured Hope Adams, who is an Expisco half demon. She struggles with being both a demon and a human, and how it affects her life. Toss in a pair of chameleon-esque brothers (one with an eye for a special lady), a supernatural gang, and a few dead bodies, and you've got yourself one amazing read.
Let's just say I was on a Kelley Armstrong binge for a while, because the next few books are all by her. No Humans Involved introduces Jaime Vegas, a necromancer whose career in showbiz is to 'contact' to the spirits of the dead. But when her chances at reality TV come along, she jumps at the chance ... and finds herself in the middle of a ghost infested house with secrets of its own in the backyard. Jaime has to figure out what is going on before anyone else notices something is up, or worse, it happens again. 
I took a break from the Otherworld series and read a different kind of Kelley Armstrong novel. Made to be Broken is one of her crime and mystery novels, told by hit woman Nadia Stafford, or Dee to her employer. But this time it isn't a job that has Nadia leaving her lodge in the Canadian north; its the disappearance of her teenage employee and her baby. No one else seems to take a notice, or any interest, that the young girl is missing, and that here has been no sign of her for days. Nadia knows that this isn't just normal teenage pressure from living in such a small town in the middle of nowhere. And she's not about to let them disappear without a trace. 
I returned to the Otherworld series, and was introduced to a human girl named Robyn in Living with the Dead, who is great friends with half demon Hope Adams. Framed for two murders she didn't commit, Robyn is forced to run, into a new world she could never have imagined. Werewolves, demons, sorcerers, people who know where you are no matter where you are. It gets pretty crazy in the end, but it was pretty good, definitely one of my favourites of the series I think.
The next was Frostbitten, another Otherworld novel. I loved this one because it finally returned to the story of Elena, the female werewolf. I must admit I'm usually not one for tales of werewolves (they are one of my least favourite supernatural beings) but the Otherworld werewolves have capture me in their world. I think it's because they have this really tight knit family type society going on, and they are so familiar with each other, and I just love it. I like the smallness of it coupled with the closeness. Anyway, Elena and her husband Clay (also a werewolf) have to go to Alaska to fix up a mutt problem (what they call werewolves who aren't part of the pack). It was really an amazing one because you learn a lot about the wolves, but also quite a bit about the Alaskan wilderness and some of their legends. I think it would be an interest place to take a vacation in the future, if I was ever so inclined to go someplace and freeze my fingers and toes off.
The next book that I picked up is really different from the last few books that I've read. Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I've got to admit this novel made me think quite a lot about life and what it means to really experience it. The novel is set up in a series of letters written by Charlie, to some unknown friend. All the names have been changed, including Charlie's, so that the recipient of the letters won't know who they are from and won't be able to send anything back. The letters are all about growing up and experiencing new things. Charlie's experiences and observations kind of become your own, and you start to feel sorry for this boy who doesn't really understand the world quite yet. Though I can tell you that none of us do, and we never will. Sorry. We just won't. Here are some of my favourite quotes from the novel: "So this is my life, and I want you to know that I am both happy and sad, and I'm still trying to figure out how that can be." "I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there." I really recommend this book, it was such a great read and I enjoyed it so much, I was really upset when it ended.
The next book I read was a collection of stories by Holly Black called The Poison Eaters. I really enjoyed them because they were quick reads and they were interesting and unique. My favourite story from the collection was The Coldest Girl in Coldtown. It was pretty much about a time when a vampire virus takes over, and parts of cities are quarantined and called Coldtown, since the vampires are so cold. Anyway, the Matilda is trying to starve the virus out of her system so she can return to her family and boyfriend, until she learns he has gone to Coldtown with her friend to find her. So she has to go and find them. There are many other good stories in the book, including faeries, unicorns, elves, the devil, and many more magical type things. It really satisfied my appetite for fantasy. Anyway, I'm exhausted from this week, it seems like it has dragged on forever, so I'm going to crawl under my covers with my book and read until my eyelids cannot stay open, and then sleep. I will hopefully post again tomorrow, and satisfy my writing mood again. Until then, keep reading, and DFTBA.
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