Dream On and on and on and on and on (or maybe it was the speed of the audio)

The last book in the Vault of Dreamers trilogy seemed endless to me.  The Keep of Ages just was not my thing.  I have to say though that it very well may have been the audio production and the speed at which I listened.  I had it up to 1.5 and the main character, Rosie, was just so whiny!  And so alarmist!  And just going on and on and on and in a panic throughout the whole book.  And it was really annoying.  It just ruined the book for me.  I mean, I was glad to find out how it all ended and I did care.  So it didn't ruin it, which says a lot about how much I do like Caragh M. O'Brien and the world she created here and also in Birthmarked. 
I see that I had a sort-of similar reaction to the third book in the Birthmarked series and so now I wonder if it is one of those deals where the publisher made O'Brien turn a one-book idea or a two-book idea into a trilogy.  That's what I think happened with Matched and what I know happened to Claws because the author is my friend.  Still, this was a good and unique premise.  Read the first two for sure and then if you listen to the third, play it at regular speed, you might like it!

What We See in the Mirror

The Rule of Mirrors is the second book in the Vault of Dreamers series by Caragh M. O'Brien who wrote the Birthmarked series.  I read the first one in the series, but during last year when I wasn't keeping up with the blog.  So all I can say is I really did like it!  And you really should start with the first one first.  The Rule of Mirrors is that we don't really see ourselves, ever, as others see us.  I was going to write "we don't really see ourselves as we really are" but that really isn't true, is it?  I mean, what is our "real self?"  The one that we see or the the one that others see?  Or are we many selves, like Naked Masks? Ah!  Big questions of little real import!  In any case, this is a very engaging series.  I am not quite a sucked into it as Birthmarked, but I can recommend it for sure!

My Fault

I built Promised up so much, I was bound to be disappointed.  I mean I pre-ordered the ebook.  I loved the first two books and the mini-books in between and I just thought this one would be awesome.  How could any book live up to the expectation?  It wasn't bad.  It just wasn't AMAZING, like I thought it would be.  Gaia is the leader of New Sylum and they have gone to settle near Wharfton, and asked the Enclave for a water supply.  I don't know, it just didn't do it for me and I am sad.  It is a must-read, as is the whole series, but I just expected so much!  Still, read the whole series!  It is so worth it!!

BLAH!!!

Not the short story, Ruled.  Ruled was awesome.  But it was short!  Of course, it was a short story, an ebook to tide us over until Birthmarked #3 finally gets here!  Like Tortured was between the first two books.  When is the third coming!  Soon, next week, I think.  I can't wait!  I love this series!
This little book takes place been Prized and Promised and is told from Leon's POV.  Gaia is doing her mid-wife thing, Peter is angry that Gaia has chosen Leon over him, and Leon is sad that Gaia won't yet marry him.  Man.  I can't wait until the new book!  I LOVE this series!

Promises! Coming Soon!

Until Promised comes out later this year, check out Tortured, a short story from Leon's perspective when Gaia set off for the Wasteland.  I love the Birthmarked series so much!  The first book was awesome and I loved the second one.  Sometimes the second book in a series can be so disappointing, but Prized wasn't at all.  Can't wait until October!

Team Will? Team Leon? Team Peter?

I was so thrilled to get my hands on the ARC of Prized, the second book in Caragh O'Brien's Birthmarked Trilogy. I loved Birthmarked and have been recommending it to anyone and everyone, especially folks who are looking for YA books with strong female lead characters. Gaia is definitely strong! She has rebelled against cruel societies, escaped imprisonment and close calls with early death. This sixteen year old midwife from the shores of Unlake Superior doesn't give up. In Prized, Gaia faces moral dilemmas, time in the stocks and the wooing of three very different young men.

Gaia has taken her infant sister, Mya and gone off in search of the place her grandmother went years before. The story begins with both Mya and Gaia near death, found just in time by a young man on horseback from nearby Sylum. Sylum seems like a nice place….at first….but then as Gaia learns the rules of this matriarchal society, she finds that it might not be the best place for her, her sister, or Leon, who has followed her from the Enclave. Indeed, the Big Momma Boss of Sylum takes Mya away from Gaia right away and gives her to another woman to raise. Some women might dream of a world run by women, but Prized really shows us that a society dominated by any group that oppresses others, is a bad society.
I loved, loved, loved this book and can’t wait for the third! It raises some big questions, everything from reproductive rights to environmental protection and it does so in a completely non-preaching way. This is a must-purchase for the library, and the series is a must-read!

READ THIS NOW

How much did I love Birthmarked? Well I left it in my car one night and it was about one am, rainy and cold so I bought it on my Kindle. Then I put it on my phone. I wanted to read this book twenty-four hours a day. I read all through the night and wasn't even tired, even though I had to work the next day. This is another dystopian book and I have to say I think it is better than the one that my favorite before, which was Hunger Games, which is still a totally amazing book, but this book is fantastic! The story is set in the future after the world has gotten totally messed up because of climate change. Lake Superior is now the unlake- all of the bodies and stuff like that have dried up and water is in really short supply, especially for the folks who live outside of the Enclave in the sectors. Gaia is a sixteen year old girl who lives in Western Sector Three. She and her mother are midwives. The deal with being a midwife though is that the first three babies born to each midwife have to go directly to the Enclave so that the wealthy folks there can adopt the kids and the kids can be "advanced" into a happy, privileged life. In the first chapter Gaia discovers that her parents have been taken prisoner by the government. She has to figure out what in the heck is going on and how to get her parents out of the Enclave. This book has a TERRIBLE cover, but it is fantastic! It has romance in it, sigh, but that is okay! READ THIS BOOK DUDES! FOR REAL!