Book Series Review: The Lynburn Legacy (Unspoken, Untold, and Unmade) by Sarah Rees Brennan

Due to the stomach bug making its way through my family, I didn't make any posts last week. But I'm going to try to make it up to you by doubling up on posts this week. So here's the first of today's two reviews. I hope you enjoy!

Last Tuesday, one of my most anticipated books of the year was released. The Lynburn Legacy was one of the few book series I found out about right after book one was released, and I really enjoyed waiting for sequel releases, and then immediately buying and reading the sequels. While I agree that some series require binge reading (Vampire Academy, I'm looking at you), I love the opportunity that the breaks between books give me and other fans to anticipate the sequels and express that excitement through fan art or fan fiction or fan mixes. While The Lynburn Legacy doesn't have as large of the fan base as a lot of other book fandoms, the fans are so dedicated to the series, and it makes me so happy to find new people who have also heard of and love this series.

The Lynburn Legacy trilogy is a gothic mystery series with fantasy elements. It is my favorite series by Sarah Rees Brennan, and I have already reread the first two books in the series, and plan on rereading all three books again in the future.

• Addicting: 10/10
• Originality: 10/10
• Suspense: 10/10
• Funny: 10/10
• Romance: 10/10
• Overall rating: 50/50

Pick up this trilogy if you like

• YA mysteries
• Spunky protagonists
• Awesome female friends
• Jokes
• Siblings relationships

Skip this book if you hate

• Plots hinged on miscommunications

I realize that I am biased, but I really think everyone who likes YA books would love this book series. Unfortunately, since it is a lesser known series, it might not be available at your local bookstore, but you can always order online, or request that your local bookstore order a copy.

Book Review: The Demon's Covenant (Spoiler-free)

I don't know why all my reviews so far are on the second book in a series. I should go back and write reviews on the first installments so people can actually follow them in sequential order, but that's a task for another day. Today I'm talking about The Demon's Covenant by Sarah Rees Breenan, the second book in The Demon's Lexicon trilogy.

Although this is a spoiler-free review, it's long, so the rest of the post is hidden beneath the cut.

Book Review: The Madness Underneath (Spoiler-free)

I've got a bad habit of accidentally giving away spoilers for TV shows and other forms of entertainment, and I have a lot of feelings about this book in particular that I can't talk about without spoiling everything.  So if you have read this book and would like to hear my thoughts on the contents within, I will write an in-depth review/book talk post with spoilers later.

If you have NOT read this book yet, never fear! This review is spoiler free.

I found this book to be very surprising. A lot of things happened that I didn't expect, or turned out differently than I expected. While this turned out to be rather low on action, it was far from slow paced.

I had trouble putting it down, and I read it cover to cover within 2 days. Considering I've been at the halfway point of 4 other books for the last month or two, this was impressive.

However, I must address the fact that this book is not very similar to the first book in the series, The Name of the Star. The Name of the Star was a ghost murder mystery, and while there were some loose ends, it stood well on its own and could have ended there if need be. The Madness Underneath is not another independent installment of the story, it is an introduction setting up the 'big' mystery that will be explored in books 3 and 4. While I understand why this was done this way, I still would have liked more action and less set-up from a second book in a series. I would have preferred if the series had been plotted so that the first book had more of the set-up for the big plot arc, instead of the first book charging ahead at full steam with its own self-contained plot arc, just to hit the brakes come book 2.

I gave this book 4 stars because I really enjoyed Maureen Johnson's writing style, and despite my complaints, I am really excited for the rest of the series. I had been on the fence about owning this series, and finishing this book is what prompted me to go out and buy the first one. I can tell I will be re-reading the series in the future.

You can read my more in-depth review at Goodreads (goodreads.com/ishipmeandbooks), and my spoiler-filled review will be posted later this week.

Happy reading,

Katie