10 Sequels That Were As Good As The Original

So, earlier this week, I talked about why I’m not into sequels. But that doesn’t mean all sequels are bad! Here are ten I love.

1. In Death, by JD Robb (mystery/ romance): The series follows Eve Dallas, a homicide detective, as she solves murders and continues to figure out how marriage works. Each book is an individual mystery, but Dallas’s character arc continues as she makes friends, pisses people off, and tries to balance being totally invested in her job and being totally invested in her marriage. This series has over 40 books in it, and I rush to get a copy every time it’s released. While I like some of them better than others, they never disappoint.
2. Doctor Sleep, by Stephen King, the sequel to The Shining (horror): “It’s going to suck,” I thought. “There’s nothing else that I can possibly want to see in this story,” I thought. Danny has become an alcoholic to deal with all the things he knows. I was prepared to quit this story. Instead, I was drawn into the plot, and I loved Danny as much as an adult as I did when he was a cute kid. It’s not quite what the back cover copy promises, but it’s still good. If you loved The Shining, it’s worth giving it a shot.
3. The Wedding, by Nicholas Sparks, the sequel to The Notebook (romance): I thought nothing could ever be as moving as Allie and Noah’s relationship in The Notebook, but I was wrong. Even though (SPOILER ALERT) Allie dies at the end of The Notebook, Noah’s love for her is still as vital as he helps his son-in-law rekindle his romance.
4. After You, Still Me, by Jojo Moyes, the sequels to Me Before You (romance): I didn’t think there could possibly be any more to say after Me Before You, but I was wrong. Luisa has so much more life to live, and though she’ll never forget Will, she has to find a way to make life go on. Luisa is one of those characters that jump off the page. Both books had fresh plots that meant I couldn’t put them down.
5. Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, by Thomas Harris, technically sequels to Red Dragon (horror/ thriller): Hannibal Lecter doesn’t play a huge role in Red Dragon, but he is there and they’re all set in the same universe. There are a lot of people out there who didn’t like Hannibal, but I love everything about it. I was devastated that the movie changed the ending. (If you hated the book, let’s discuss.) Both Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling are complex and fascinating characters who I can’t get enough of. I realize Hannibal Rising is part of this series, but it just wasn’t for me.
6. Harry Potter and All The Sequels (YA fantasy), by JK Rowling, sequel to Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone: I loved every single one of these books in different ways and for different reasons. There was never a time when I was ready to be done with this universe. If there were continuity errors or anything like that, I don’t care.
7. The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, by Steig Larsson, sequels to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (mystery): Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salandar are fascinating characters and the plots of the sequels drew me in as much as the original. They’re flawed but vibrant characters set inside interesting mysteries.
8. The Dream Thieves; Lily Blue, Blue Lily; The Raven King, by Maggie Stiefvater, the sequels to The Raven Boys (YA paranormal): I read the first book on a trip. I had it on audiobook, and for some reason, I wasn’t into it. I tried to switch to another book, but I didn’t have enough reception to download a different book. My choices were to keep going or listen to silence. I’M SO GLAD I KEPT GOING. While the books (especially the last one) had their flaws, overall, the series was totally worth it and paid off most of the promises the first book made.
9. Where She Went, Gayle Forman, the sequel to If I Stay (YA romance): This is one of those rare sequels I liked better than the first. To be clear, I loved the first book, but I loved the second one even more. I can start anywhere in Where She Went and just start reading. Both books spoke to me and tugged on all my heartstrings.
   10. Girl of Nightmares, by Kendare Blake, the sequel to Anna Dressed in Blood (YA horror): Anna was such a fresh, interesting ghost in the first book that I was happy to see what happened to her and her beloved ghost hunter.

What are your favorite sequels?

Book Challenges- Week 15-17

As you can probably imagine, I burned out on blog posts during the A to Z Challenge. I love it, and I’ll talk more about it in my reflection post, but I decided to take a break from reporting in on my book challenges.

Popsugar Challenge

(17/50)

A book with a weather element in the title: Black Lightning, by John Saul (horror): When I was a teenager, I read a ton of John Saul books. Full disclosure: I have no idea if I read this one before or not. It’s a good, straightforward book about a serial killer and some weird paranormal stuff that happens. I enjoyed it, but didn’t love it.

A book that was published in 2018: The Woman In The Window, by AJ Finn (thriller/ mystery): I generally hate the trope of “unreliable narrator who drinks too much and basically causes all their own problems.” This book started off that way, but I stuck with it because a trusted friend recommended it. When it hit 50% or so, there was a twist I loved so much that I was all in, and I couldn’t put it down until the conclusion.

A book about twins: Blood & Salt, by Kim Liggett (YA horror/ paranormal): I decided that I needed to start reading more YA horror, because that’s what I write and enjoy. So that may be why I’ve had a run of particularly enjoyable books, and this is one of them. Ash and her twin know their mother used to belong to a cult, but she got out… or so they thought. When their mom disappears, they find and infiltrate the cult in order to help her, but there’s so much more going on than they bargained for. This book kept me on the edge of my seat, and kept me guessing as to who were the good guys and who were the bad guys up until the end. They wrapped it up enough to satisfy me, but be warned… there is a sequel…

While I Was Reading Challenge

(4/12)- No progress this week

The Unread Shelf

Running Total: 3 Um… is that really all? I’m not doing so well on this one.

5 Classic Books

(0/5) No progress… I think I’d better get started.

Miscellaneous Reading

Fire Up Your Writing Brain: How to Use Proven Neuroscience to Become a More Creative, Productive, and Successful Writer, by Susan Reynolds (non-fiction): This book has a lot of interesting information about the brain and different techniques to work with how the brain likes to do things.

The Girl From the Well, by Rin Chupeco (YA horror): This book is on my favorite books of 2018 list. It’s a fantastic story that draws from Japanese legends. The narrator is a vengeful ghost who kills people who murder children. But when she meets a teenage boy who’s got a demon inside, she starts to think about things other than vengence. It’s a good standalone book but does have a sequel.

Famous Last Words, by Katie Alender (YA mystery/ horror): From the cover (and the description), this one looks like fluff. It’s not. There’s a serial killer and a ghost, and how those two things intersect is a lot of fun.

The Forgotten Book, by Mechthild Glaser (YA fantasy): I was attracted to this one by the gorgeous cover. The book wasn’t what I expected, but I still enjoyed it. I knew that it was a reinterpretation of Pride and Predjudice, and I love all things P&P. That being said, it made the story somewhat predictible. There’s a definite fantasy element that wassn’t in the original book, so it’s a unique angle in that sense. If you’re a P&P fan, it’s worth reading once.

The Dark Side of Nowhere, by Neal Shusterman (YA science fiction): This was a fast read with an interesting premise. It sets up the weird very well and keeps it going throughout the book. The conclusion is satisfuying. I won’t say this was my favorite book this year, but I definitely wanted to see what happened.

We Were Liars, by E. Lockhart (YA mystery): This book. I don’t even know what to say. It’s nearly impossible to discuss with anyone who hasn’t read it. I’ll just say that it was a roller coaster ride from beginning to end, and that if you love mysteries, you should read this.

Dark In Death, by JD Robb (#46) (Mystery/ romance): I am in awe of Nora Roberts (aka JD Robb) for keeping this series going strong for almost 50 books now. I love the characters in these stories, and love how they interact with one another. Having followed this series from the beginning, it’s lovely to see how they’ve all grown and changed over time. I love cop procedurals, but these books are so much more than just that. Some of them I like better than others, and this is one of my favorites. The premise of the murder was creative and a lot of fun.

Abandoned

None this week.

2018 Running Total: 47

Have you made any progress on your TBR or book challenges?

J is for (Books About) Justice #atozchallenge

For A to Z 2018, my theme is Books About ____. If you’re stopping by from your own A to Z blog, feel free to leave a link. If you need help with how to do that, you can look here.

If you’re someone looking to read a lot of great blogs, here’s the link for the A to Z challenge.

I love a good crime thriller. Bonus points if it probes questions of right and wrong, of justice vs. law. (Because sometimes those things aren’t the same.) Here’s a list of some books about justice that I love.

To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee (literary): I only read this a few years ago, and I’m so mad that my school didn’t require it. It’s a fantastic story about the child of a lawyer, and how she follows the case of a black man accused of raping a young woman. It’s got all those interesting layers of questions about right and wrong, the way people’s assumptions influence how they think about the world, all filtered through the eyes of an interesting child. And it’s actually enjoyable to read.

A Time To Kill, by John Grisham (crime thriller): When his 10-year-old daughter is raped by white men and it doesn’t look like there’s going to be justice, Carl Lee (a black man) kills them. Everyone hates pedophiles, and so it’s easy for most of us to understand why a father would kill the animals who hurt his daughter like that. This book is a fascinating thrill ride, complete with interesting drama both in and out of the courtroom. It made me think about what justice looks like in a situation like this, and if justice even exists.

Presumed Innocent, by Scott Turow (crime thriller): The movie was good, but the book was better. Rusty is trying to solve the mystery of who killed Carolyn, the coworker he was having an affair with. When the affair comes out, he’s accused of the murder. The twist at the end was amazing. I read this book as a teenager, and I still think about it from time to time.

In Death books, by JD Robb (sci-fi crime thriller): This is a 40+ book series, starting with Naked In Death. It’s 2059, and Eve Dallas is a homicide cop in New York City. She hunts down bad guys and sometimes dispenses her own brand of justice. Each book is a self-contained “murder of the week” along with amazing character development and often interesting subplots about Dallas’s friends and family. She has a rigid definition of right and wrong, and it’s always interesting to see her go up against other characters, both personally and professionally, who have more flexible morals. While you don’t have to start at the beginning, I definitely would. It’s fun to watch how Dallas grows and changes.

I really like crime novels and crime shows, so this list could go on and on and on. But I made myself keep it relatively short. What books about justice do you love?

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2018 Book Challenges- Week 2

Popsugar Challenge

(4/50) Considering how long book 3 was, I’d say that’s good progress.

Sorry for the really long review of this one, but I can’t do it justice in a paragraph.

1. A book with an ugly cover– A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara (literary) I got interested in this book after Ramona over at While I Was Reading put it on her list of books she refuses to read. She said it was supposed to be gut wrenching, which was enough for me. I like a good gut wrenching from time to time. A mutual reader friend and I decided to read it together, because if it’s really that intense, it’s best to read it with a friend. After I started reading, I retroactively put it in this category because the cover is awful. I never would have picked it based on that.

I’ll be honest, it was hard to get into at first. Around 20% (according to my Kindle), it started to hit its stride and hook me. This is a looooong book.

I don’t think it emotionally affected me as much as it would most people. First off, I knew it was supposed to be depressing. Second of all, I worked for Child Protective Services, and although I’ve never seen as awful of things as happened to Jude, once you’ve seen awful stuff, degree almost doesn’t matter any more. Third, I knew what was going to happen by the time I hit 30%. I hoped I was wrong…

I also felt like this book played with my emotions a bit, like it was trying to be gut wrenching, rather than the author just telling a story. Like I said, the ending was telegraphed early, but the fact that it’s not revealed until the end lessened the impact for me. There was a large twist I didn’t see coming that particularly hit me, but in retrospect, I really should have seen it.

The language isn’t especially beautiful. Often, in literary fiction, I highlight passages I love for their beauty. In this book, I did still highlight, but for concepts I wanted to revisit rather than language. It’s a lovely book for the way it evokes emotions and its portrayal of life.

Still, with all its flaws, it’s a wonderful story about life and love and friendship, how hard it is to recover from a crushing childhood. I do recommend this book, but with reservations. If you’re too sensitive to weighty emotional material, or you don’t want to commit to reading the first 150 pages of a long book before it gets good, it’s probably not your thing.

But if you love literary fiction and love an emotional ride, this may be one to put on your TBR.

2.  A book about grief- Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum (YA)- This was exactly what I needed after reading A Little Life. It wasn’t quite “light,” but it was a fast read with light-hearted and humorous moments. To be totally honest, I teared up with this book more than I did with A Little Life. All the emotions in this book were because of the main character telling her story and me feeling bad for her, not because I was supposed to.

It’s about a teenager grieving the loss of her mother, but also about friendship and falling in love. It was a super fast, refreshing read. It was totally predictable, but that was exactly what I needed.

While I Was Reading Challenge

(0/12) No progress

Clearing Off My Shelf Reading

No progress

5 Classic Books

(0/5) No progress

Miscellaneous Reading

1. Secrets in Death (In Death #46), JD Robb (Romance, light science fiction, murder mystery) I can’t keep up with JD Robb’s/ Nora Roberts’s output. I know some people find these to be all the same, and in some ways they are. Eve Dallas, with her husband Roarke, solve every mystery and always get the bad guy. But I enjoy the stories and it’s always a familiar, comforting, fun ride. They’re different enough to keep me interested, and while I like some more than others, none of them disappoint.

2018 Running Total: 6

Have you made any progress on your TBR or book challenges?

I is for In Death

JD Robb has written 53 books in the In Death series in the past 21 years.  That’s a huge number of books.  (Some of these are novellas that appear in anthologies, but it’s still impressive.)

The books center around Eve Dallas, a police lieutenant in the New York Police Department, and her husband Roarke, multi-billionare businessman and former criminal. There are also multiple supporting characters that make regular appearances.

Each book centers around one or more murder that Dallas must solve.  As the series has continued, Roarke assists her more and more often.

I love reading these books, but I’ve also started studying them from a writer’s perspective.  If you’d ask me, I would have told you I didn’t think that a character arc could span over 53+ books, but I would have been wrong.

Dallas and Roarke have continued to develop, as a couple and as individuals.  Though the focus tends to be on them and their relationship, the other characters in the universe are interesting and often experience character growth of their own.  I love the fact that a married couple can continue to be the subject of a series; too often the curtain drops just after the wedding, but that’s not real life.  They argue, they compromise, they have past lovers, and yet they navigate it together.

Each story shares characteristics, but they’re not formulaic.   There are multiple series subplots, like Dallas’s past, and information about these is doled out over time.  It’s masterful the way Robb keeps my interest in these subplots.  She drags them out for just the right amount of time so that they never get stale, but also never turn into an info dump.

The books are thrillers with elements of romance and science fiction, and while the science fiction might not please hard-core sci-fi fans, they’re always a good story.

More than anything, I want the stories I tell to be compelling and interesting.  I think that’s the best rule for any author: tell a good story.

“Life is never as long as we want it to be, and wasted time can never be recovered.”
― J.D. Robb

In Death, a Review

On Throwback Thursdays, I review older books.

The first “In Death” book was published in 1995, and #41 is scheduled to be released this fall.

Naked in Death is the first in the series, and it introduces Eve Dallas, a hard edged “murder cop” in New York City, circa 2058.  Dallas is the main character throughout the series.  Each book has her conducting at least one investigation into a murder.  In this first book, she must investigate the murder of a senator’s granddaughter.  She also meets Roarke, an Irish gazillionare with a secretive past.

The books have a little bit of everything: romance, mystery, intrigue.  Amazingly, JD Robb has not repeated the same story twice.  They’re new and interesting.

One of my favorite things about this series is that Dallas and Roarke get together over the course of several books and (spoiler alert) eventually marry.  However, we’re not left with a happily-ever-after romance book ending romance.  They argue like real married people, have conflicts, and continue to learn more and more about one another.

Dallas develops friendships and builds relationships, and some of these people stay a part of the world.  Her relationships with others are complex and interesting.  While you could pick up any book in the series and enjoy it, I think they’re much more enjoyable as part of a series.  The people within the pages of this book have become my friends; people I can root for and really enjoy seeing triumph.

Don’t get me wrong; all the characters have flaws.  But that makes them even more real and endearing to me.

If you like a little bit of everything, mixed up and tied together with a good murder mystery, this may be the series for you.

P is for Predictions

One of the things I love most about sci-fi books and movies are the predictions about science and cultural changes in the world, and how often they’re wrong.  We’re only one year away from 2015, and we still don’t have the flying cars or skateboards that Back the the Future II promised me.

JD Robb’s In Death Novels are set starting in 2058, and in this version of the future, most of the food is vegetarian, with soy based meat substitutes, as they explain that real meat is expensive, and most cannot afford it.  I like this version of the future, and wouldn’t be surprised if it comes to pass for both economic and environmental reasons.  I should still be around to see it.

One of my all time favorite movies is Terminator II.  But August 29, 1997 came and went, and nothing bad happened.  The movie was great when it came out, because even if I didn’t believe anything bad would happen then, I still wondered, what if?  The Running Man, set in 2017, is obviously a product of the 80s.  The culture and styles of the 80s seep into that movie, making the idea that it’s set 3 years from today laughable.

Even if most books and movies get it wrong, it’s still fun to imagine what the future might hold.  I wonder how different it’s going to be from anything I imagine.

“If you learn one thing from having lived through decades of changing views, it is that all predictions are necessarily false.”
-M. H. Abrams

 

Calculated in Death- A Review

Calculated in Death (2013) is #45 in JD Robb’s In Death series, featuring my hero, Eve Dallas.

Dallas is everything a heroine should be: sharp, acerbic, vulnerable, interesting, fierce, and loyal.  I could go on with the adjectives, but you get the picture.

Yes, the books are predictable.  Dallas is a homicide lieutenant for New York Police Department in the year 2059.  She gets the toughest cases, and she’s always going to catch the killer… it goes without saying.  However, as I’m fond of saying… “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey,” and these books always have a great journey.

There’s romance, there’s action, there’s friendship.  The books have good, strong characters.  Dallas isn’t afraid to bed the rules sometimes, but she struggles every time she does, which is one of the things I like about her character.

If you’ve never read any of the books, I’d highly advise starting at the beginning, though you can really start with this one and catch on pretty fast.

An accountant is killed in what appears to be a botched mugging, but Dallas isn’t fooled, and suspects there’s a reason she was killed.  When she starts digging into the accountant’s work, she starts to put together a picture of fraud and money laundering.

It’s a super fast read, and lots of fun.  Happy reading!

Celebrity In Death- Book Review

Nora Roberts, aka JD Robb has done it for the 34th book in the In Death series.  Celebrity in Death follow Eve Dallas, Roarke, Peabody, and the rest of the cast as they investigate the death of an actress playing Peabody in a movie about the Icove case (from Origin in Death).

Roberts’s, aka Robb’s, characters are consistently interesting, likable, funny, and flawed.  They argue, they bicker, they support one another, just like real friends and family do.  Reading an In Death is like visiting old friends, except with murder.

If you’re a fan of the series, I recommend this book, two thumbs up.  If you’ve never read any of these books, you could start with this one, but I’d recommend starting from the beginning.  Around book 30 or so, I went back to the beginning and read them all straight through.  While it was interesting to see the growth of all the characters straight through, I was ready to put the books down toward the end.  It’s pretty much the same as having house guests; though I might love them, it’s time for them to go home after awhile.

Timeless

I once read a bit of writing advice that said it’s important not to put slang into your story so as not to date your work.  In that way, your work will be able to have longer lasting appeal.  For a little while, I bought it.  I have a tendency to believe just about anything, at least at first.

Now I think that bit of advice is hogwash.

Having a story without anything to “date it,” when done deliberately, is a bit like cooking without any spices so that you don’t offend any taste buds.  I was reading a book today in which the author referred to someone watching Johnny Carson.  Until I read that, I hadn’t realized the book was published in 1990.  I liked reading that.  There’s another series of books, the In Death series by JD Robb, which are set in 2059.  The author has some of the characters use slang, different slang than what’s used now, but I like the fact that the characters talk differently.  I think that it adds to both the setting and adds depth to the characters.

Let’s face it, timeless classics are anything but “timeless.”  I like reading Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice, not because they’re set in a time vacuum, but because the characters are timeless, the plot is timeless, and they way they make me feel is timeless.  It’s like the photos I talked about yesterday.  Reading these books is like looking back at a moment in time.

I don’t advocate adding slang just for the sake of doing it, or putting in things to date your work just because.  But if something fits, if it adds to the story, or the character or just feels right, then of course you as an author should add it.  I judge what to put in and take out by what I like to read.  If I enjoy it as a reader, then it’s the right thing to do as an author.