Crystal Singer - Anne McCaffrey

Ah Anne McCaffrey.  One of her side series, non-PERN related.

Killashandra Ree spent 10 grueling years training for a musical career until the fateful day in her senior year when her final test they told her her voice had a unpleasant burr in higher registers that would prevent her from being a soloist.  Unpleasant burr?!??!  After all the encouragement she received.  If she couldn't bea top soloist she would walk away from it all.  At the space port she runs into a crystal singer on leave.  Pulled into his wonderful world she forgets about her unpleasantness for awhile and starts to think maybe crystal singing might be her calling.  Or is it?  Why is it that Ballybran, the only world with crystals on it, is rated a class 5 and extreme caution is needed.  Why is it that only crystal singers leave the planet and no one else?  Is she brave enough to change her destiny despite everyone urging her not to?

This is another favorite series of mine that Anne wrote.  Only 3 novels (really, really wish there was more!) it's one of those series that you can't put down.  I have read this series so many times I've had to replace the books multiple times.  And yet no matter how many times I read it, Killashandra is still a new but old favorite character.  Her journey is amazing especially as once again Anne creates this whole not just world of Ballybran but also universe where the crystals being cut on Ballybran make communications, interstellar travel and other things just as amazing.

So, so worth it to pick these up.

After You - Jojo Moyes

Second book that occurs after Me Before You (same author).

After Will is gone, Louisa is meant to break out of her tiny little world and truly live.  Can she do as Will wished?  Will she be able to make it?  Will she be able to move on?

After reading Me Before You and the emotional coaster that book put me on I was a bit trepidatious about this one.  I said before that between the book and the movie it was a great story but Louisa drove me nuts in the book.  Well the Louisa in After You...honestly this one was not nearly as emotionally charged as the first book.  I appreciate that moving on from the death of a loved one is difficult and that trying to find your way is even harder and Louisa was no exception to this.  She joins an emotional support group because her parents forced her to.  She has an accident which brought her back to her parents house.  New characters walk into her life some of which she has no control over.  I didn't enjoy this one nearly as much as the first one however I needed to know what happened to Louisa after Will.  This book still left me on a cliff, however the ending of this book, just like Me Before You left me with open possibilities.  I feel like this was more of an extra chapter than Louisa's ending.  You see her emotional struggles, Will's parents struggles and the trickle down affect his death left on everyone around him.  Louisa is the type of character that I don't think will ever get it together (like of all of us in a small way tho) but it's about family, support and coping with things.

If you're really curious about how she is after Will, then pick this up.  If you want the reader's digest version - give me a call and I'll spill.

Catacombs - Anne McCaffrey & Elizabeth Anne Scarborough (Book Two)

A continuation on where Catalyst left off.

Chester and Jubal arrive on Mau, Pshaw-Ra's home planet where cats are worshipped as gods.  But the welcome Pshaw-Ra was expecting does not appear and not is all as it seems for his latest scheme.  How will Chester, Jubal, the crew of Ranzo and the rescued Barque cats fit in on Mau?  Out of the frying pan and into the fire?

Once again this one fell short for me.  I just cannot put my finger on it.  What I didn't enjoy or where it was lacking - story was there, characters were good and it had good exciting things happening.  But it was just...flat.  It got to the point that will a few chapters to go I just didn't feel the need to read to the end.  I skipped to the last page with the happily ever afters and it was as I suspected.  This has only happened to me with one other book.  And I got through The Simarillion!!

Anyways I don't think either of these two books are worth picking up and reading.