2019 Reading Challenge Reviews - Book 1

I recently shared that I'm participating in the 2019 Pop Sugar Reading Challenge this year. I'm super excited to read books in more genres and styles, and from authors I wouldn't normally have picked out for myself (as well as some of my more traditional choices).

I'll be sharing my thoughts on the books I read throughout the year, and what prompt I read them for. (For a list of the prompts, please see my 2019 Reading Challenge Overview post, or check out the list on popsugar.com)

Here are my thoughts on the first book that I read in 2019:

Book 1: The Brotherband Chronicles: Slaves of Socorro by John Flanagan

I gave this book 3/5 stars on goodreads.

I had been reading the Brotherband Chronicles series in 2018. I really wanted to read this book since it was the next one in the series, but needed to find a prompt that fit it. Thank you prompt, "Your favorite prompt from a prior year". There were so many prompts from 2018 that fit this book, and so I'm so glad that the prior year prompt was an option.

A few of my favorite 2018 prompts that fit Slaves of Socorro were: The next book in a series you started, A book set at sea, and A book with characters who are twins.

I really loved the Ranger's Apprentice series, but am having a little bit of a harder time falling in love with Brotherband Chronicles. Don't get me wrong, they're still quick, fun YA books (this time set in a more viking style environment). Some reasons I think I may enjoy this series differently are: there are a lot more main characters in Brotherband Chronicles than there were in Ranger's Apprentice which makes the character development a little slower, there are (so far) less strong female characters in Brotherband Chronicles than there were in Ranger's Apprentice (though the ones that are in it are great), and there seems to be a lot more technical terms with sailing for example (though there is a glossary to explain sailing terms in each book).

In this particular book in the series, I felt like I was finally getting to know some of the main group of characters a bit better (like the twins for example). However, I'd still like a bit more character development/description for the main cast as a whole.

I also thought the plot and the reintroduction of a character from Ranger's Apprentice, but the sailing scenes and some of the battle sequences didn't capture my attention as well as I would have liked.

Overall though, I did think it was a nice YA book, and I will keep reading the series (maybe later this year).