More books and a meme...

I've read the next two installments of Michelle M. Pillow's Realm Immortal series: Faery Queen and The Stone Queen. All titles can be found at Samhain Publishing. I enjoyed both, although the first book (see review below) was definitely the best. I liked Faery Queen the least. It focused on Juliana's older brother Hugh, and the queen of Feia, who first appeared in the King of the Unblessed. Hugh dislikes the Queen, whom he holds responsible for his sister's marriage. He also lusts after her. Queen Tania is lovesick for Hugh, and Lucien, the King of the Damned, seeks to use her pain to his advantage. I did not particularly like either Hugh or Tania, and never felt that there was more than lust between them (especially on Hugh's part). It did get me excited for the next one, and I pretty much focused on the parts with Merrick (the hero of the first book), and the evil but interesting Lucien. I give it a C+. I enjoyed The Stone Queen much more, which returned the focus to Juliana, Merrick, Lucien and Mia. In this one, the pregnant Juliana ends up encased in stone. While Merrick tries to find a way to free her and their child, the war rages on between the Blessed and the Unblessed, and Lucien plots to overthrow them all. This one was paced well, and I just love the gloomy but hot Merrick, and sexy, evil Lucien (I'm really fascinated by his weird relationship with his nymph mistress Mia). I did feel that Juliana was borderline TSTL (but how many fairy tale princesses are?), and I wasn't thrilled with the explanation of how Juliana ended up within stone. It didn't really make much sense to me, seemed like the author rushed through it to get on to more interesting stuff. But all in all, this was another fun tale. I give it a B. I don't know if this was a trilogy or if there will be more, but I'd definitely be up for Kalen (Merrick's ally) getting a story, as well as more Lucien/Mia.

Any other Pillow recs? I'm in a definite paranormal mood. Anyone read her vampire books?

Okay, I wasn't going to do this, but the more I saw this on everyone and their sister's blog, the more curious I was to see what I've read. I don't know where this list came from. It's a mix of classics and good and bad bestsellers.

Red=Ones I've Read
Green=Haven't read, but may attempt at some point
Purple=No interest in reading
Pink=Seen the Movie Only

1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown) (I was forced to listen to an audio on the way to NH and I hated it.)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18 The Stand (Stephen King) (well, the mini-series)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44.The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible (well, not the whole thing)
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58.The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)9
96.The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce) (Okay, I actually only read huge excerpts of this for a class, and I loved them (love the Molly Bloom section, but somehow I doubt I'll ever be picking it up again).




33 read. If I were honest, most of the greens are probably purples, but I like to think I'd read 'em at some point. Kind of a random list, if you ask me.