I bought my nephew the set of these books for Christmas! I'd considered reading them at the time, but somehow I forgot about them. Your review makes me want to go and read them, though. When I have time I'll have to check them out and give them a go. I'll make sure to let you know if I do! <3

totally let me know what you think! I love them, actually just re-read them a week ago lol.

(I'm sorry I haven't been active in Book Club this term! Work and school have me crunched for time. I am reading PoA and discussing it with my boyfriend. He bought the entire series and is reading the later books for the first time.) Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Richard Mayhew leads a perfectly ordinary existence in London Above. He comes to the aid of a bedraggled girl named Door and then becomes essentially invisible, inaudible, and intangible to everyone around him. Richard ends up in London Below, a magical shadowy city of forgotten sewers and abandoned subway stations that exists in another dimension. He joins Door on a quest from her murdered father to seek out the angel Islington.

I enjoyed this book because it has such a strong atmosphere. London Below is just as intriguing as the Wizarding World. The characters, setting, and plot are well-developed. Readers who are familiar with London and its neighborhoods will get a kick out of the London Below counterparts in the story as well.

Everyone should read it because it's hard to come by fantasy that's written for adults and written well. Neil Gaiman is an immensely talented author with a huge body of work. He's most recognized for his Sandman series and Coraline. Neverwhere was adapted into a radio play for BBC Radio 4 starring James McAvoy, Natalie Dormer, Benedict Cumberbatch, Christopher Lee, and Anthony Head. I listened to it when it aired and it was excellent.

SPOILER (click to toggle)

Everything about this book sounds amazing. I've heard of the author but I've never read any of his books, so I'd love to try this out. It sounds like just my kind of fiction, too! I'll have to give it a shot! And the radio play of course. I may or may not be completely in love with Anthony Head. ^^;

And I totally understand - I was extremely busy most of the term, too, and now I've just found out I'm moving so I'm packing and arranging things so life is STILL crazy. I may just have to post some final overall questions rather than finishing up the chapter themed ones because it's SO crazy lately.

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Heads up folks! Seeing as this has been an insanely busy term for everyone from what I've been hearing lately, I've decided to extend this contest to 11:59pm on Tuesday, May 17th so that those who have not yet entered still have a shot! Please enter if you're at all interested! I have 3 prizes and only 2 entries so far!

here's my entry for the book review contest! <3

Set in the early 1800’s, Britain is at war with Napoleon’s France. Captain Will Laurence, pride of the Royal Navy, captures a French ship with far more precious cargo than he could have ever dreamed. Gold and jewels aside, the French ship is found to be carrying one of the most valuable items during a time of war: a dragon’s egg. Dragons are used by both sides in aerial combat, and Britain can use all the help they can get, with France’s superior Aerial Corps looming over them. They hope to get the egg back to the dragon training grounds in Inverness in time for a skilled, highly trained captain to claim the dragon. However, the egg is far closer to hatching than they realized, and when the inevitable happens, the dragon must be harnessed immediately, or it will fly off and Britain will lose this rare treasure. Laurence’s life, while still dedicated to fighting the French, is turned upside down and he finds himself in a world quite unlike anything he’s ever seen or experienced before.

I absolutely adore this book. I’ve always liked historical fiction, and I love fantasy, so when I heard this was the Napoleonic wars with dragons, I immediately picked it up. Watching Laurence’s transformation from a proper, gentlemanly sea Captain to starting from the very beginning in the aerial corps is a wonderful arc. Most of the characters are very likeable and all are written well. The writing style is such that I had a very good picture of nearly everything in my head as I was reading it, and I grew attached to many of the characters and dragons very quickly. The battles are very exciting, and never before did I realize how badly I wanted to be able to ride a dragon, climb all over its harness during flight. You can’t help but feel a rollercoaster of emotions during this story; as Temeraire, the newly hatched dragon grows, you learn with him and Laurence about the world of the aerial corps. There are times of laughter, like with the children who act as cadets on Temeraire’s crew, there are times of sadness, like when Laurence discovers a dragon is being neglected. You’ll get angry, you’ll laugh, (and if you’re like me) you’ll cry. There is plenty of conflict but also resolution, and the overall arc of the story is quite satisfying.

A very exciting and immersive read. If you like fantasy (dragons!), history (Napoleonic wars!), and in general just a really well written book with excellent characters, you absolutely need to read this book! (And, it’s only the first book of many in this series, so there are plenty of adventures to come after!)

The gorgeous Temeraire

a contest? I've never done well with book reviews writing them that is.

No worries, I understand! It was mostly just about me wanting to hear what you guys are passionate about. The awards aren't for best writing or best use of prose or anything quite so literary, just for whoever made me want to read their book the most! <3

The contest has ended, and it was so impossibly difficult to pick the winning order! You all made me want to read the books you've described! The respective winners are:

First Place: Poppet

The way you've described the book was well balanced between being informative enough to help me understand the premise, and vague enough that I desperately want to go find a copy ASAP and find out all about London Below! I'm excited to give this book a read!

Second Place: Alewiina

I actually gave the first book in this series a try once and I stopped reading about 80 pages in, but I don't remember why. I recall it being well written and interesting enough - perhaps I just wasn't in the mood to read much at the time. Your summary plugs it really well, though, and I have a renewed interest in the series! I'll have to give it a try again soon! I have a slightly dog-eared copy of it on my book shelf. :)

Third Place: Raven

Last but most certainly not least! Believe me, the determination was difficult. Your description of what the book is about leaves me wanting more (I love faeries so hard) and the whole thing reminds me of something akin to Chris Colfer's Land of Stories series, which I rather enjoyed. I feel like a 9 year old protagonist may make it read a little young for my tastes, but I'm still happy to give it a try some time on account of the subject matter!

Your prizes will all be sent out shortly.

Thank you guys so much for participating!

Final questions for the book will be posted soon so we have the last couple of weeks of term to discuss our closing and overall thoughts. :)

thank you so much <3 and congrats to

Thank you so much! I can't wait to hear your thoughts on the book, and I'm really glad that I get to share it with you. c:

Thanks and congrats to you too!

Congrats!

Congrats to you two as well! :D

Hey folks!

The term is winding down! It's all over for the spring term on June 4th, so I thought I'd post some final questions. I apologize for the inactivity - it was a crazy term at school, then I had picked up spare shifts at work, I was apartment hunting with my lovely GF, and just this morning I had eye surgery so now I'm sitting at my desk, a bit logy on the anaesthetic and looking like a pirate with an eye patch. I'm sure you've all been busy, too!

In any case, I'd love to hear everyone's final thoughts on the book. What plot points stood out to you the most and why? Which character was your favorite in this book and why? How would you have handled the events as they unfolded. How do you think this has all helped to shape Harry as a person?

If you have any questions for the whole group, feel free to post them! Any other final thoughts are more than welcome, too!

Cheers, and have a great summer! Thank you all for being such an awesome group of people to chat with!

damn, you've been busy! Hope your eye heals quickly -snuggles-

I like the mystery of the book, the trying to fit all the pieces together--finding out about Harry's parents and Lupin it was awesome, one of my favourite books. It totally helped shape Harry, learning about his dad. In many other books he keeps going about thinking what his father would do-- I remember one of the books he was pretty upset about something till he learnt his dad wasn't good at it either.

I agree that learning about his father really shaped him. In later books, too, I think that he learned that his dad wasn't necessarily a hero in every way, and I think that was humbling for him and helped him learn that you don't have to be perfect to be a good person.

PoA is definitely a LOT of people's favorite book. I have trouble deciding mine, but I quite like OotP. :)

Mine favs are PoA, GoF and OotP and I'm not sure which one I like more lol

POA is my favourite book and as others have said learning about his father and a tiny bit about his mother helped shape Harry later in the series.

My favorites are PoA and HBP. I like a good mystery!

You ladies did an amazing job running this for Third Term. <3