What I Read in April

Here are the books I read in April.  The links will take you to my full reviews.

All ratings are on a scale from 1 (bad) to 5 (great).

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON by Cressida Cowell - 3

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III has to train a baby dragon to obey his commands in order to avoid being cast out of his Viking tribe.  But can he do it?  I enjoyed the movie, so I was looking forward to the book.  Unfortunately, I just found it average with underdeveloped characters.  And Toothless, the dragon, was especially annoying.

ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE KNIGHTS OF CRYSTALLIA by Brandon Sanderson - 4

Alcatraz has returned home.  However, he finds that the librarians have arrived claiming they want peace.  What are they really up to?  Can Alcatraz stop them?  As always the book was funny with great characters, however I felt the pace was a little slow, especially in the middle.

PRINCESS ELIZABETH'S SPY by Susan Elia MacNeal - 4

Maggie Hope gets her first assignment for British secret service - go to Windsor Castle and act as Princess Elizabeth's tutor all while looking for any evidence that there is a plot on her life.  Maggie has hardly arrived when someone is murdered.  Was the princess the target?  Once again, this was a fun World War II spy novel, and I enjoyed spending time with Maggie.  However, some editing glitches and a very familiar sub-plot did bother me some.

LET THE SKY FALL by Shannon Messenger - 5

Vane has no memory of his life before his parents were killed in a tornado.  Audra has spent her entire life guarding him, but always from a distance.  But when the winds of change come into their lives, can Audra train Vane to meet his destiny?  I really enjoyed this YA fantasy novel with a strong romance.  The characters were great, and it was easy to pull for them.  And the plot moved along well, leading to a climax that kept me turning pages.

THE LAST MUSKETEER: DOUBLE CROSS by Stuart Gibbs - 5

This Middle Grade trilogy comes to an end as modern day teen Greg Rich must figure out a way to save seventeenth century France and find the stone that will take his family home.  Fasted paced action made it hard to put down, and I loved every second of the race to the end.

DEATH DINES IN edited by Claudia Bishop and Dean James - 3

A mostly fun collection of food related murder by a wide variety of authors.  A few of the mysteries were rushed at the end, but for a most part they worked.  However, there was one story that was disturbing and I didn't care for at all.

THE BAKER STREET TRANSLATION by Michael Robertson - 4

The latest letters to Sherlock Holmes involve translating common nursery rhymes.  Couple that with a kidnapping, and Reggie Heath is going to have to put on his detective hat again.  The beginning could have been a little better, but once this book got going, it was a wild, fun ride.