Spring Break

Tomorrow I'm going back to school. I have very little to show for the week off. Unless you count breaking the world record for most cough drops consumed over a three day period. I have been really ill. Some sort of flu. So I spent the majority of the break sleeping.

I just got finished with Ironside by Holly Black. Like the two books before it, Tithe and Valiant, it was excellent. Believable plot. Interesting and sympathetic characters. They are some seriously good books. My favorite book in the trilogy is Valiant. It's the only books that is centered about Val, an average teenage runaway. I really hope Holly Black writes another book about her. Val has this great troll boyfriend and as a couple they are really enjoyable to read about.

Something I really look for in series are references to previous books. I get really excited when a familiar character is mentioned in a plot that they are not involved in. Holly Black does this really well. The references are quite subtle, but they make the book ten times more immersing for me. Anita Shreve, the author of Fortune's Rocks and The Pilot's Wife, does something similar. Most of her books take place in or around the same house. There are constant reminders of previous story lines and characters. It brings new life to old stories that have already been read.

The weather has been so lovely for the last two days. I have completely forgiven the utterly miserable weather that preceded it.