Wrapping it up for January!

Hello, my darling readers!
Another month is over, so let me give you a little summary of the amazing posts just to make sure you didn’t miss anything. 😉

This month I did a little DC special. After watching all the Marvel movies last year, I though I should give DC a shot as well. However, I did not only watch the DCEU films, I also read the four DC Icons books that recently came out (all of them written by well-known YA authors).

For the novels, we have four posts:

• Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo
• Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu
• Catwoman: Soulstealer by Sarah J. Maas
• Superman: Dawnbreaker by Matt de la Pena

Superman: Dawnbreaker by Matt de la Pena (DC Icons #4)

Hello, my darling readers!
With Superman: Dawnbreaker by Matt de la Pena I reached the end of the DC Icons books. After the last two books were a bit of letdown, I hoped this one might save my opinion on the series. Let’s see how it turned out!

Superman Dawnbreaker on Goodreads

The Plot:

Clark Kent is discovering more of his stranger powers that don’t seem to be from this world. While he’s trying to adjust and balance that with his life as a regular teenager, he might uncover some dark stuff that’s going on in his hometown…

The Rating:

Well, Superman didn’t save the day here.
There are a few issues I have with this book, but the biggest one is how the story is spread out.
It’s a little over 200 pages long and almost nothing happens for almost 90 pages. So all the main showdowns, resolves and epilogues are squeezed in the final 20 or so pages. I got rather bored because even the setup of the story is not too exciting. There isn’t much going on either and ultimately many questions remain unanswered.

When it comes to logic, Superman is doing a little better than, for example, the Batman book. However, there are still a few irritating moments, especially with the fight scenes, where I had trouble figuring out what de la Pena was actually describing.

Catwoman: Soulstealer by Sarah J. Maas (DC Icons #3)

Hello, my darling readers!
So, on my quest to read everything Sarah J. Maas has ever published, I naturally found myself picking up Catwoman: Soulstealer as well. It was actually the first book of the DC Icons series I read!

Catwoman: Soulstealer on Goodreads

The Plot:

Selina Kyle grew up in the slums of Gotham City. Now she’s about to make a grand return, armed with a new name, a fortune and a kick-ass costume. How handy that Batman is currently away – that means the cat gets to play…

The Rating:

Okay, ahem. What is there to say?
Maybe Maas should stick with her other worlds and characters.

First of all, there isn’t much going on for about 3/4 of the book. I was desperately searching for a story but I couldn’t find one until I got to the final chapters. There everything is super-rushed as she had to squeeze half a book’s worth of plot into a couple of pages.

However, the main problem Catwoman presents is the character development or lack thereof.

Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu (DC Icons #2)

Hey guys!
I just finished reading the second book in the DC Icons series. This time Marie Lu took a shot a Batman. Let’s see how that turns out!

Batman Nightwalker on Goodreads

The Plot:

A teenaged Bruce Wayne is sentenced to do community service at Arkham Asylum. There he meets an inmate involved with the Nightwalkers, a murderous gang that targets millionaires…

The Rating:

Oh boy, where do I even start with this one?
I know these books are about superheroes so there will be some unrealistic stuff in there. This, however, is pushing the boundaries of what I am inclined to accept.

For example, why on earth would a detective/the court think it’s a good idea to have a teenager on duty at the asylum with the most dangerous criminals in all of Gotham and where he is harassed by said inmates? This makes just no sense whatsoever, so a pretty big prerequisite for the story falls through for me.

Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo (DC Icons #1)

Hello, my beloved readers!
After I had devoured all of the Grishaverse novels, I went on to pick up Leigh Bardugo’s contribution to the DC Icons series. Although I hadn’t been a superhero fan for most of my life, I got sucked into the MCU and now I’m checking out the DC Universe as well. I liked the Wonder Woman movie, so I was pretty excited to give this one a shot!

Wonder Woman: Warbringer on Goodreads

The Plot:

Diana, daughter of the Queen of the Amazons, longs for a chance to prove herself. An opportunity opens up when she saves a girl from drowning and suddenly finds her self tasked with saving the world…

The Rating:

This was quite good!

First of all, the Wonder Woman of the book (and the other Amazons as well as Themiscyra) are but an inspiration. Many things differ from the info that have been established in comic or movies thus far.
It’s difficult to take an already famous character but then make the thing your own. Here and there I felt like Bardugo struggled a bit with that.

The story we get is pretty much your standard “let’s go on a quest to save the world before the times runs out” type of thing. There wasn’t too much surprising or unique stuff going on and that left me a little disappointed.

Top 5 Tuesday: Series I need to finish

Hey, guys!
It’s Tuesday, that means it’s time for a bookish favorites posts. Top 5 Tuesday is hosted by Shanah Bionic Book Worm and is quite simple: check out the topic and write a post with your picks.
This week I’ll talk about some bookish series I absolutely need to finish!

Tomorrow When the War Began

I started with this amazing Australian series many years ago and read the first three books. Then other things got in the way and never continued with the remaining novels. It’s a shame ’cause the story is super intriguing. I will finish the series at some point. I just don’t know when that is.

Tomorrow When the War Began on Goodreads

The Folk of the Air

You have no idea how excited I am about Queen of Nothing, the final installment of Holly Black’s The Folk of the Air trilogy. It’s one of the most anticipated releases this year and it can’t come out soon enough. I devoured the first two books, so of course, I will finish the series!

Queen of Nothing on Goodreads