Book review catchup: February and early March

So, yeah. February. Here's the list with very short reviews:

1. 
   The Dead Girls' Dance - I didn't enjoy this as much as the first in the series, probably because it went more towards action and less towards mystery overall, probably because a lot of denouement was happening as mysteries unravelled and things happened. But I've found that Rachel Caine can have one I don't like as much followed by two I love, so I'm not too worried and I'm sufficiently curious to read the next one when I have time.
   
   
2. 
   On the Edge - I loved Ilona Andrews' other series... but I think I may like this one even better. There's fairyland, there's the regular world, and in between are the people who live on the edge in the borderland between. Very strong female lead, interesting worlds, good characters, great story. In particular, I liked how she dealt with the various types of classism that would happen in that world -- really added to the richness of everything for me. This may be my favourite book for this month.
   
   
3. 
   Y: The Last Man Vol 1: Unmanned - I'm on a bit of a Brian K. Vaughan kick between finishing Ex Machina, starting Runaways, and chancing upon him in Buffy, so I figured I should go to the beginning. I don't know, though... while it's clearly good, this one just didn't grab me and pull me in the way others did. Maybe I'm just not that interested in a world where all the men suddenly die horribly... except for one. I'll give the next book a try, though.
   
   
4. 
   The Gratitude of Kings - Cute little fairy tale. Kept feeling like something horrible would happen, but it's a kids book so it didn't.
   
   
5. 
   Magic Bleeds - Latest in Ilona Andrews' first series. Loved it as much as the others and highly recommend the series as a whole. This is the "set in a broken version of Atlanta" series I mentioned here, where "broken" in this case means that magic and technology come in waves, so sometimes the car works and sometimes you have to take a donkey to get anywhere. Best thing about this book in the series: the dog. ;)
   
   
6. 
   Dr. Horrible and Other Horrible Stories - cute graphic novel with side stories to Dr. Horrible. Enjoyable, but a little plot free. I found it to be a bit of a disappointment compared to The Guild's graphic novel, which advanced my knowledge of the characters considerably. Hey, did I ever review that here?
   
   
7. 
   Ex Machina Vol. 9: Ring out the Old - Still enjoying the series, but this was far from my favourite episode
   
   
8. 
   Hex Hall - Teen story about a girl whose inability to control her magic gets her sent to the remedial school for supernatural types who can't blend in to normal society. It didn't grab me the way, say, On the Edge did, but I did read it all in one sitting.
   
   
9. 
   The Impostor's Daughter - putting the novel in graphic novel, I picked this up because I was surprised to see what appeared to be a normal hardcover in the graphic novel section. It's an interesting autobiographical story from a woman who finds out that the father who she worshipped as a child is a con man.
   
   
10. 
    Spike, After the Fall - This way much more enjoyable than I found Angel, After the Fall. (uh... which I apparently never reviewed. Good concepts, but it didn't quite click for me, and why the heck can't comic artists ever do a consistent Angel? Is David Boreanaz that hard to draw?). Felt very much like Spike, and by concentrating on one person primarily I think this book really was a better package.
    
    
11. 
    White Rapids - the complete story of a small town made to support a hydroelectric dam in Quebec, and closed when the power company automated the power plant. Feels more like infographics than a comic; I really loved the graphic design of this story.
    
    
12. 
    White Tiger, A Hero's Compulsion - I just got this out because it was written by Tamora Pierce, and I loved many of her young adult novels. I liked the story of White Tiger finding her way as a new superhero, but I have to agree with my sister who said that she felt like she really needed to know more about the back story and universe to really get this volume. (I often feel this way with american comics, sadly, but I haven't the energy to devote to learning enough to feel like the worlds are complete when I enter them.)
    
    
13. 
    Runaways vol 4 True Believers - Still enjoyable. Kinda sick of how they kept name dropping the Avengers in there, but I'm not sure it could be avoided in this case.
    
    
14. 
    Beet the Vandel Buster vol 1 - Cute story, if a fairly standard tale: little kid decides he's going to save the world; everyone laughs, but it turns out he's actually pretty powerful. By the end of the story, he and his best friend sidekick (a surprisingly strong girl in her own right) are heading out... for adventure! It feels very derivative, but I found it enjoyable nonetheless.
    

Honourable mention:

• 
  Only Human - A third of the way through it it was only just getting interesting... but I had to return it to the library before I got through it. Interesting concept wherein a filing error suddenly makes a small number of inanimate objects human, but at a third of the way through they'd barely done anything. Might try to pick it up later, but it felt a little too slow for my tastes.
  

That's just my library list -- there's a few other books which I'll list off later.