Girl of Fire by Gabrielle Mathieu

Girl of Fire mainly follows the story of young Berona, who escapes her family farm to battle with an escaped Water Demon that terrorizes the land.
The story has a lot of magic and many characters.
The main group of characters, called the Mannites, are fairly well developed and sympathetic.
There is a side story about another kingdom called Vendrisi that feels a bit throwaway and is explored a fair deal in the beginning, and then just pops up again at the end. I have a suspicion this character will figure into another book in what is obviously going to be a series.
The writing is good, the author paints beautiful word pictures, and the concerns of a young girl are honestly addressed. I liked the way the different chapters are told in the voice of different characters so you know what they are all thinking and doing.
One thing I am not sure how I felt about is the number of characters who died. I do feel that is honest in a story like this to have at least some characters that do not survive, but it was pretty "Game of Thrones" in this story, and I felt like the number of deaths were a bit over the top for the intended audience.
The story takes a very long time time to build and then wraps rather quickly, and it's not at all clear to me how and why it came to the resolution it did, which s the main reason I am going 3 stars instead of 4.
Also, the ending was very unsatisfying to me, and obviously just OK, wait for the next book.
You don't know the fate of many of the characters at the end, which is not the way I want a book to end, even a series book.
Thanks to NetGalley for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.  My opinions are my own.

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

This is the second book by Helen Hoang I've read and I really enjoyed it as much as the first.
She really nails the emotional relevance of her characters.
Stella is a brilliant econometrician (still not sure how that differs from an economist), who also has Aspergers, and is trying to figure out how to better relate to people.
She meets up with Michael who may relate TOO well, and sparks fly.
The details of that and the ending would be spoiling...

But what is so great is how she writes, and how well you understand what the characters are feeling.
Plus the love scenes are SO HOT!
I just can't hate on that at all.
I would recommend this for any number of reasons, it's really helpful in better understanding those who are different from us, as well as being a great read!

Hi all this is my first attempt at a Blog.

I am going to try and post some of my Book Reviews here.
I hope you enjoy them.