Know When to Fold 'Em

What's that Kenny Rogers song? Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em. I sure hope I'm using the lyric correctly in my title. I know zero about cards, but I think folding means giving up...or surrendering...or dropping out...or ending the game. Whatever. This post is about when you just can't love a book.

 

 Drew, I'm sorry. 

Drew Barrymore has had quite the life. Child star, bumpy road, happy adult woman making her way, loving mother. She's delightful to watch when she visits Jimmy Fallon. When she was on his show talking about her book I went online to my library and reserved it. It took forever for my turn to come up. I was 132 on the list. Anyway, I'm sorry to tell you that I couldn't finish it. I just couldn't get into it. Each chapter is a short story from her life, so you can pick it up and put it down without having to worry about remembering details from a previous chapter. I tried. I tried to like it. I kept it past the due date wanting to give it a shot. Finally, I realized I just wasn't loving it enough to keep going. I have a bazillion books to read and I'm super behind on my reading challenge. So I gave it up. I think it reads as if Drew were telling you the stories in your living room. If you love Drew, this might appeal to you.

Let's talk about a book I love: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. Stalena suggested it, I read it, I loved it. The sequel comes out next month. [Insert excited face here.] Please note that if you go searching for this book series, the description of the sequel gives spoilers. So if you haven't read Red Queen yet, don't look at anything but that book. Trust me. I'm trying to help you.

Okay, back to the book at hand. Steel Scars. It's a novella companion (again, read it after Red Queen). I had a bit of a hard time with it. There was military jargon and decoded messages that broke up the text, so it was hard for me to get into it. But halfway through the story began to actually unfold. Until that point (and each time there was a decoded message) I skimmed it. Once the story read like a story, I got into it. And then it was over. Since I skimmed I'm not going to include it on my reading challenge. I'm also telling you not to read this once you finish Red Queen. I'm just warning you that it's a bit different from Red Queen and Queen Song (another novella that's the prequel to Red Queen). I'm still super excited about Glass Sword!!! (Link to Glass Sword not included for your protection You DO NOT want Red Queen spoiled.)

P.S. Do you see how many times I linked Red Queen? Read the book for goodness sakes!