Through the Fire by Shawn Grady

The best way to describe this book is to say that it has a 2 star beginning and a 4 star ending. I decided to meet in the middle for my final review.


I wasn't really sure where the story was going for the first half. Everything seems to jump around and it didn't feel like a plot was coming together. But, around page 200 it started to jive and the last 100 pages definitely caught my attention.

You can tell the author was (is?) a firefighter. Lots of fire jargon that was interesting, but then it got old quickly. The whole thing felt a little repetative through the middle, but by the end I was hooked and was anxious to find out what happened.

I loved the fact that I had no idea who the arsonist was right up to the end. Normally I can catch on to these things.

All in all, this was a good read. The beginning wasn't great, but the end made up for it and I enjoyed it enough.

My TBR Pile

I haven’t been able to do a lot of reading in the past week and a bit- actually I’ve done a ton of reading, but it was for school so that doesn’t count- and I’m falling way behind on my TBR pile. I thought I'd do a post about what’s coming up because I’m excited to get to them.

Right now I’m about 100 pages into Through the Fire by Shawn Grady. I won this book on GoodReads ages ago (I think back in November) but I didn’t actually receive it until the end of March. I’m finally getting around to reading it now. It’s ok so far. I’m about 100 pages in and it hasn’t grabbed me yet, but it’s not bad.

Next-up… Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins! My friend Crystal over at Crystal Clear Reading had an awesome giveaway for a signed copy of this much talked about book… and I won! I originally planned to put down Through the Fire and spend a night flying through Hex Hall, but the guilt got to me and I decided to wait and finish one before I pickup another. I can’t wait though!

Also sitting waiting patiently for me is Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green. I have mixed feelings about this book. I had no desire to read it for the longest time until I discovered vlogbrothers and thought “I have to read anything and everything John Green has ever written” and immediately ordered my own copy of WGWG. I anxiously awaited its arrival and squee’d when it hit my mailbox… and it’s still sitting there. My husband even picked it up and read it (and loved it) but for some reason, I just haven’t felt like starting it. Strange right? So, I’ve decided for sure that it will follow Hex Hall.

Counting the books I have on hold at the library along with the stacks of unread books on my shelves at home, the last thing I needed to do was place a Book Depository order. But I did. Because my birthday is coming up and so I made my husband pay for the order as my birthday gift

On there way to my house as we speak are:

Deadly Little Lies by Laurie Faria Stolarz- the sequel to Deadly Little Secret. Although I thought the first was just “good” I wanted to continue with the series to find out what happens.

The Line by Teri Hall- I LOVE dystopian novels (think Hunger Games, The Giver, Unwind etc) so I’ve been dying to get my hands on this book. Unfortunately, my library doesn’t have a copy, nor do the have intentions to get a copy. So I finally broke down and ordered it.

I also pre-ordered:

Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce- I don’t know what it is about this book, but I’m dying to read it.

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater- I really enjoyed Shiver and have heard raves about the Linger ARC’s being passed around so I’m pretty excited about this one too.

So that’s it. With our plans cancelled for this coming long-weekend, I’m taking the Friday off any way to get caught up with school (yes… I’m already behind). So hopefully that will leave 3 days where I can get through a couple of these books. Can’t wait!