Walking Dead: Here We Remain

The Governor has attacked the prison where Rick and his group have been trying to survive. Rick manages to escape the attack with his son Carl, but they have nothing in the way of supplies. They are separated from the rest of the group and must find a new place to stay. Rick is also injured, and goes into a coma leaving Carl alone with zombies all around. Will they survive?

This is volume nine in The Walking Dead graphic novel series. The last book in the series I reviewed was volume five: The Best Defense. Since my opinion of the series is mostly the same for the books in between these two, I thought I would skip ahead in the reviews to the next one that really stood out to me. First, this volume was different because it focused only on two characters. Second, I thought the writing improved from the previous books. Third: the character development was amazing!

I think this was the best book in the series so far. There is not a lot of dialogue, but I really liked the focus on Carl. Previously, we were not given very much information about him except for the basics, so it was interesting to discover what being a kid in the zombie apocalypse has done to him. It really developed some of the internal struggles better than many of the previous volumes, which is one aspect I have been hoping to see in this series. The series often feels too rushed to really see how the characters would be changing in such a situation. There is still a rushed feeling as you read about these characters and how they change, but it is an improvement.

If you like the Walking Dead series, this is a good one to read.

The Magician King

Quentin Goldwater has finally escaped his miserable life in Brooklyn, graduated from magic college, and has discovered his favorite fictional world Fillory, is real. He should be happy. Quentin discovers being king of Fillory has not magically made him happy. He begins to long for a quest to bring new thrills into his life. The quest does not go as expected. Quentin finds himself in the real world and must struggle to find his way back to Fillory.

This was an incredible continuation of the trilogy. I will admit, when reading the first portion of this book, I thought it was good, but a little slow. I also thought it was lacking some of the magic that made me love the first book The Magician. When I got to the last third of the book, I could not put it down. It was amazing! It exceeded all my expectations, and is definitely on par with the first book.

At first it was a little frustrating to realize Quentin is still looking for whatever it is that will make him happy. He has it all. I like that we grow with Quentin. He is a very real character, and I enjoyed the quest. I also liked learning more about Julia, and how she learned magic. There are some great new characters and adventures in this book. I cannot wait to read the third book Magician's Land. After finishing this book, I have very high hopes for the last book.

I highly recommend reading this book!

Geronimo Stilton: The Hunt For The Golden Book

Geronimo Stilton is celebrating his tenth anniversary for publishing his first book. His Grandfather wants him to write a special book for the occasion that must be completed in time for the huge party he is throwing for Geronimo. Geronimo's laptop is stolen, and it has the only copy of the book. He enlists his family and friends to help him find his computer and print the book before the party. Will they be able to get the book printed before it is too late?

I liked reading this Geronimo Stilton book. It was fun to read, and it had lot of bonus material. There was an extra short story: The Lake Monster. It is a fun mystery that Geronimo and his friends must solve. At the end, you can see how many of the clues you got correct to find out what level of Mouse Detective you are. There were also a whole bunch of jokes that were fun to read and tell to other people. I thought all the different features were a great way to involve the reader in what was going on.

I liked the focus of the main story as well. You learn about how books are made, which is always great to understand how things are made. I also liked the focus on relationships. It really showed how important it is to be considerate of other people. This book is geared towards the 7-10 year old age group, and is a fun story.

This is the tenth book the Bookworms have read together. Alejandro picked this book out. It was one of the newer Geronimo Stilton books, and was one they had not read yet. They are huge fans of this series. We had a great time discussing the book, and telling the jokes at the end to each other. Here are just a few of the Bookworms' thoughts on the book. Warning! There may be some spoilers.

Q&A With The Bookworms Book Club

How many stars out of 5 would you give this book?
Alejandro 6! 5 for the main story and the sixth is for the extra stuff. It was really good.
Paige 5 I liked it!

What was your favorite part of the book?
Paige When his Grandfather gives him back the book with a lot of red marks to change it to be more about him. And the romantic cruise with Lola.
Alejandro All of it! I did really like when he was inside the cargo plane looking for his computer. I predict other people weren't happy when they found all the open boxes.

What did you think about learning how books were made?
Alejandro I thought it was cool to read about it. It was my first time learning about that.
Paige We learned about it in school, but it was fun to read about.

Would you want to be an newspaper editor like Geronimo, or a secret agent like his friend?
Paige A secret agent. Because it is cool and I could solve things like a mystery.
Alejandro I would be an editor. Because I would be famous and I like reading the newspaper and reading things and I could write a book about the Loch Ness Monster.

Would you parachute out of a plane?
Alejandro Yes it would be fun.
Paige No. I could go in the water or hit a rock and die.

Did you like the Lake Monster story?
Alejandro I thought it was cool!
Paige Yes.

Did you read the clues, and were you able to figure them out?
Paige Some of them.
Alejandro Yes, and I figured them out.

What level detective were you?
Both: Super Investigator.

Did the clues help you know what to pay attention to in then story?
Alejandro Yes, but I noticed some stuff without the clues.
Paige Yeah, but I noticed some things with the clues and some without the clues.

Did you have a favorite joke?
Paige I liked a lot of them, but I really liked the one about the skunk. It really stinks!
Alejandro I thought they were funny. My favorite was probably: Why shouldn't you tell jokes to an egg? It might crack up!

Thank you to the Bookworms for reading and reviewing this book with me. I had a lot of fun talking about it and telling the jokes. I look forward to our next book! 

Until You're Mine

Claudia has everything she has ever wanted. She has a husband, two boys, and a baby on the way that she has wanted for a long time. She loves her job as a social worker, so she hires Zoe as a nanny to help her around the house. Despite Zoe's recommendations and connection with the boys, Claudia does not trust her. With several pregnant women being attacked in the area, Claudia begins to realize how vulnerable she is, and that she has a stranger living in her home. As she digs into Zoe's past, she makes unsettling discoveries that could have great impact on her life.

I thought this seemed like an interesting mystery as it explores the idea of how far a person will go to have a child of their own. I liked that at times I would start to guess what was happening, as you do when reading a mystery, and something would happen that would make me second guess my original thought. At times it was a little more convoluted then I would prefer, but it was an alright mystery.

I think this is a good distraction novel if you like mysteries that keep you reading but do not require a lot of attention. I did not get overly attached to the plot or the characters. There was a lot of information/misinformation that could overwhelm the story at some points. I also felt that some of the plot points were not necessary and distracted me from what the story was really about. I think some of it was suppose to help us connect with the characters or fill in the story, but it did not seem necessary to the real story to me. On the whole it was a okay mystery.

 If you like mysteries I would give it a try.

**I received a free copy of this book from Blogging For Books in exchange for an honest review**

*Receiving a free copy of this book does not change my review. It simply provides me with a copy of a book that I would not have gotten to as soon, or heard about otherwise.