It’s Monday! What are you reading? (2/21/16)

This past week, I finished:

Remembrance by Meg Cabot
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have never been a huge Mediator fan, but I love Meg Cabot and needed something fun to read, so here we are.

This was a fun read, and I liked Jesse way more than I probably ever have. It probably helps that he’s not dead.

My only real issue is that I was annoyed (view spoiler)[they had sex before the wedding, especially since they got married the following week. That was dumb. I’m also not sure about the message it sends. Like, it was PERFECTLY FINE for them to wait since Jesse is Catholic and wanted to wait. Sometimes guys wait to have sex until they get married. And I liked that Suze was the one who had to deal with it, but ugh. It felt like such a PREMARITAL SEX IS OKAY moment, which…it is, but it’s also fine to wait until marriage. So. (hide spoiler)]

There was not enough CeeCee or Gina in this book, that’s for sure.

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Stars Above by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked this overall. It’s hard to rate a collection of short stories because each story is, you know, it’s own thing. Most of the ones in this collection provide backstory for the characters.

1. The Keeper (about Scarlet’s grandmother and how she came to house baby Cinder and become Scarlet’s guardian): This is an excellent start to the collection. Scarlet and her grandmother are both fantastic. (4 stars)

2. Glitches (how Cinder came to live with the Linh family) — this was fine, good backstory on Cinder (3 stars)

3. The Queen’s Army (how Ze’ev became Wolf, pack alpha) — Levana is the worst. Also, of course she finds kids from poor families for this. Of course. (3 stars)

4. Carswell’s Guide to Being Lucky (teen Thorne, the charmer) — this was fine, good backstory on Thorne (3 stars)

5. After Sunshine Passes By (how Cress came to live in the satellite) — Cress is a badass. This was heartbreaking but also shows how deeply excellent Cress is. (3 stars)

6. The Princess and the Guard (Winter’s decision to stop using her gift) — This is probably my favorite of the whole book. This gives all the backstory of Winter and Jacin and how they got to be the characters we see in the books. They are both pretty amazing, basically. (5 stars)

7. The Little Android (another android with a personality chip defect) — I thought this was going to be about Iko at first, but it’s not. This was pretty heartbreaking as well. I liked it. The characters aren’t connected to the ones from the series, but this offers a slice of life look at what it’s like for characters who aren’t living in the scope of the rebellion to live in that world. (4 stars)

8. The Mechanic (Cinder and Kai’s first meeting from Kai’s POV) — Aw, Kai. This was adorable. (3 stars)

9. Something Old, Something New (epilogue, a wedding) — This is probably my second favorite because all of the main characters are together again for a wedding. This is a trope I dig. Also, I love Iko with my whole heart and fully support any story in which she gets a lot of page time. (4 stars)

So, no duds here, though some stories were clearly superior to others. It was nice to spend more time with these characters and get to know more about them and their world.
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As of today, I’m reading:

Yes, still. I’m not really a fan. The book is s l o w. Not only that but I am NOT buying one of the key character’s motivations. Book club is this Sunday, so I should be finished by then. We’ll see how it goes.

I haven’t decided on a second book for the week yet. I have a stack of library books to choose from.