January Wrap-up!

In Books (all ratings out of 10)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald ——————– 10 (Re-read for school) 
Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein ————————- 9.5
Endless Knight by Kresley Cole —————————— 9.5
Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout ————————- 9.5
Onyx by Jennifer L. Armentrout —————————– 9.5
Opal by Jennifer L. Armentrout —————————— 9.5
The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan ————– 8.5
Vixen by Jillian Larkin —————————————- 6

I am  done Vixen, Onyx and Opal but I’m behind on writing reviews. Sorry y’all! They’re coming! I actually had a decent reading month, I guess to make up for my terrible one in December. And I bought more books…I have a problem! I never used to buy books so often!

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas: I don’t know much about this novel, all I know is it’s about this girl in an assassin competition to find the best killer to be the King’s personal assassin. It was in the bargain section at Chapters, hardcover for $5 and I needed it!
Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers: Again this was a bargain book and I know very little about it, but the cover is cool and I think it’s another one about an assassin but she’s trained by nuns? Maybe? We’ll see.
Poison Study, Magic Study and Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder: I have talked about all these books, I’ll leave a link to my first one HERE if you want to know what it’s about and I just worship this series. Particularity the first one and it was just so tragic that I didn’t own them! So I fixed that.
And I bought a novella on my iPad, “Fracture Me” by Tahereh Mafi and this goes with the Shatter Me trilogy. It is 2.5 so after Unravel Me, before Ignite Me (coming out next month). Anyway the last novella I read for this series turned out to be very, very, very important for the actual novel, which is rare. But I figured  should probably read this one before Ignite Me just in case.

I have not gotten my copy of World After ( by Susan Ee) that I ordered after Christmas yet and a little annoyed about that! I feel like they aren’t going to ship it until my pre-order comes out which kinda sucks. Normally they ship things separately if needed.

In Life

Finals and studying were pretty much all that was going on, sooooo… my exciting life as a teenager showcased! I hung out with some people and did some stuff over the exam break and I worked. Don’t die of excitement now! My second semester started yesterday I’m now taking biology, chemistry and a general science and I have a spare so ALL THE SCIENCE (minus physics but whatever…we don’t count physics… it’s not cool enough to play with us, ok? It’s like a math.) I have mentioned this but I am taking ski lessons for double black/out of bounds runs and that’s really fun. My instructor is great, nice, funny guy though he is very tough but challenges are good!

That’s it for January! Bye Everyone! Kisses

Liebster Award!

Hey beauties! Charlotte of It Does Not Do To Dwell On Dreams And Forget To Live (Go check her blog out guys, it’s really good!) nominated me for the Liebster Award! Thank you very much Charlotte, I’m so flattered!

 

The Liebster Award is an award for blogs with under 200 followers, making it a great way to discover less prolific blogs and bloggers who share the same interests as you.

Here are the rules:

1. Link back to the blogger who nominated you
2. Answer the 11 questions given to you by the blogger who nominated you
3. Nominate 11 other bloggers with less than 200 followers (wasn’t this 10 last time? No matter!)
4. Go to the blogs you nominated and notify them of your nomination
5. Give your nominees 11 questions to answer

Answers!

1. If today was your last day on this earth, what would you do with it? Just go do some crazy stuff with my friends so they have some great memories to look back on, then spend the evening with my family I guess.
2. If you could cure one illness/disease, what would it be and why? AIDS. I think that would just be a terrible way to die because your immune system is gone so the last years of your life you are just constantly sick and there isn’t an effective treatment or anything available all you can do is sort of slow it down. And I read in a newspaper some time ago in one country in the Middle East, I forget which one the “cure” that they are pushing for AIDS is to have sex with young girls. Obviously this doesn’t work, it’s just the sex trade being even more awful. At any rate that is the one I would pick.
3. What is your favourite holiday? I’m gonna go with either Halloween or Valentine’s Day.
4. In 10 years time, where do you see yourself? Working as a nurse on the coast, hopefully married with a kid/ with kids.
5. Private or State school – which is better? Why? I go to public school and there’s nothing wrong with it. People say private school has higher standards for grades a such but I think that’s false. Pass in my school is 60% and you are really pushed to get 75-80% in order to get into the -1 stream. (60-75% is -2.) My school also requires 10 more credits then the province does to graduate and students from SCHS typically do better on diplomas then the province average. And Alberta students are the most sought after in the country for universities. I don’t think there is enough of a difference education wise, at least here to justify paying so much money and having to wear uniforms (I would go insane if I needed a uniform). If you have a religion you follow or art you want to get into then private might be worth it, but there is another public school in the city that is much more arts oriented opposed to my school’s academic so you have plenty of options. there is one private school that I know of where it’s really focused on self teaching and some people like that more so they go there.  Maybe in other countries it’s different, I have no idea, but here it’s really even in the quality of education, it’s just a price difference.
6. If you had to name two children after characters from a well known fandom, what would you call them (and which fandom)? (Boy and girl) I am naming my child James, and he WILL be called Jem. End of story. (Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare) I also like Damon, but I’ve liked that name before I got into TVD so that probably doesn’t count. And for girls, Alice, as in from Wonderland. Or Gemma (A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray) I like old fashioned names 🙂
7. What is/was/will be your major in college? Nursing, specifically BScN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing) (hopefully)
8. Besides WordPress, which are your favourite three websites? Ummm…YouTube, We ❤ it (my friend made me an account JUST so I could follow her and I got addicted…) and Wikipedia for saving my grades.
9. Name something you want to cross off your bucket list in 2014 (if you have one. If you haven’t, make one!) I’m going to Greece! August, I’m so excited! And March I’m seeing a production of Giselle (it’s a ballet) and I have wanted to see that one since I read Dancing Through Fire (By Kathryn Lasky) when I was 10 or something.
10. What do you associate with England? The Queen, Union Jack, a bunch of family friends, Tea, rain, accents
11. Who would you most love to see in concert? I’d love to see Imagine Dragons again. That was a great concert.

Nominations!

1. Storytime with Buffy (I know she has over 200! I don’t care, she’s awesome!)
2. Flip that Page
3. The In-Between Place
4. Jen’s Pen Den
5. Stephanie’s Book Reviews
6. Read. Run. Study.
7. Keep Watching the Words
8. What comes Next
9. Chronicles of Radiya
10. Mom With a Book
11. Little Red Knows 

Questions for my Nominees!

1. What is your ideal vacation?
2. What was/is your favourite subject in school?
3. Vanilla or chocolate?
4. I’m taking this from Charlotte because it was so good: If you had to name two children after characters from a well known fandom, what would you call them (and which fandom)? (Boy and girl)
5. Top 3 favourite movies?
6. If you won $5 million, what is the first thing you would do?
7. You can go anywhere in the world BUT you can never go back when you leave. Where do you go and how long do you stay?
8. Best quote?
9. What’s your favourite thing to eat/drink in each season?
10. What’s one of your guilty pleasures?
11. If you were in the Hunger Games, what would be your strategy?

Cover Reveals (With Some Mad-Woman Theorizing About COHF)

First, because I won’t have to give spoiler alerts, The One by Kiera Cass. This is the third book in The Selection Trilogy and I don’t actually know when this cover was actually released but I just saw it today! It’s a decent series, the first one I liked much better than the second but I’m still excited for this last book, lots should be happening. And all these covers are just beautiful and fit the series so well!

Next: CITY OF HEAVENLY FIRE by Cassandra Clare! Ah! This cover came out…two days ago? I think? Maybe it was three. I don’t know anywho the final book in The Mortal Instruments series has a cover! SPOILER ALERTS PAST THE PICTURE! DON’T READ IF YOU HAVEN’T READ ALL OF CASSANDRA CLARE’S BOOKS! Not just Mortal Instruments!

Ahhhh! (angelic opera, not screaming.) I’m not sure how I feel about this cover actually. It’s cool but it took me a bit to get used to. Why does Sebastian (I’m assuming that’s Sebastian) have wings? Oh! Oh! that thing at the end of COLS when he sends the wings? Could that tie back in? Maybe…hmm…On that subject: Ithuriel WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! First you get trapped in a stupid necklace, then Valentine enslaves you and right after you get freed and are back in heaven Sebastian is just like “hmm I need an angel, Ithuriel!” Get’s out a laser pointer and Ithuriel chases it into a cardboard box or something.  Seriously he’s an angel, what is the point of being an angel if you are going to get yourself trapped every 5 minutes and can’t even fight of a mortal?!

I am super excited for Luke and Jocelyn’s wedding! I feel like something is going to happen at this wedding or after at the recession or something. I think like it’s going to be this huge thing! I’m really scared that Luke is going to die honestly. Supposedly 6 main people are going to die and Luke I feel is going to be one of them. I don’t want him to but I sense it.

Ok so 6, my guesses:

1. SEBASTIAN! He’s gotta die right? Right.
2. Maia
3. Jordan: I like these two but if people have to go, I would be less devastated if it was these guys.
4. Luke
5. Alec? I don’t want Alec dead! But at the end of COLS I was so nervous for him! This crazy little vampire girl just killed Camille who is an ancient, super strong vampire. How is that possible?( OOH what if she’s not really dead?!? What if she faked it?) Anyway we left Alec alone with her, pretty much with no weapons so super nervous!
6.  THERE’S STILL ONE MORE! I refuse to even consider that it is Jocelyn, Clary, Jace, Simon or Izzy. I cannot handle Izzy dying. No. She’s not allowed to. No! Just No! I can’t! And Simon is just super luck all the time! Maybe it’s Maryse? Oooh or Raphael? Maybe?

Ok so those are my 6 guesses! We know it’s not Tessa or Jem, I really hope they are in this book. We know Jem is but I’d like Tessa to be there too! I had a theory on curing Jem! Because Jace has all this heavenly fire in him that burns away evil maybe they find a way to transfer it to Jem? Yes? Magnus I’m guessing. I’m not sure if I want Magnus and Alec together again. I mean I DO, but what Alec did was awful! I don;t blame Magnus for being super hurt!

Bye guys! That’s all I got! Kisses!

Studying, Studying, Crying, Studying, EXAM!

Hello beauties! So in case you missed it form my terribly subtle title, it’s exam week (Week? Weeks really.)  at my school! Diplomas! YAY! For all you non-Albertans, diploma exams are exams written in the final year of high school worth 50% of your mark and Alberta is the only place in Canada that still had them, so yay Alberta. I have only English and Social as diplomas this semester (Calculus isn’t a grade 12 course therefore doesn’t have one) and both are in 2 parts. English written consists of a personal writing responding to provided work(s) (poem, short story exert and a picture) and then a critical essay on a “work of literary merit” of your choice on a given topic. Both the Topic and the 3 works are given in the exam, you don’t get them before. And Social written is a source relationship paper and a position paper. You’re given 4 sources, 3 for the first paper, one for the second and they are exactly what the sound like.

Anywho I did my English part A today and I have never studied for English in my life. I don’t know how to do it! So for these papers worth 50% of my mark (Actually I think they are 15% and 20% respectively with the MC portion being the other 15%, but I’m not positive on that.) I figure I actually should study. I picked The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald because as I have mentioned, I adore this novel. To study I re-read the book, wrote down all the characters with a summary of them, wrote down a bunch of quotes and then bought the audio-book and listened to that. Then prayed. Because they don’t give you the topic until you are in the exam, you really just have to hope that they topic you are given can work with your selected novel! Hence the crying portion. At any rate the topic turned out to be “kindness” and as soon as I read that I let out a huge sigh because I can work with that! Unfortunately most people picked works we had covered in class (Gatsby was not one of them) and kindness didn’t suit very well at all, so I feel bad for my poor friends but I am so very relived!

My personal response took the form of a short story, an utterly depressing one at that. The picture was a boy standing in the rain so I wrote about a boy who uses his imagination to lessen the harshness of his life. In his mind he is a brave Prince, his mother died and his father turned to substance to sooth his pain and in his drug-induced state he would beat the boy. One day it’s raining very hard and just as he’s outside his house the boy hears his little sister cry from within, their father is going after her so he distracts him to free her. His imagination jumps in to protect him and the rain has flooded, bursting through the window and the entire town is soon under water and he finds himself in a boat with his family, including his dead mother. A voice demands a sacrifice but he cannot bear to push one of his family into the water, even his father, so he dives in himself. He it’s implied that his father kills him but then “sees” (it’s vague as to whether his spirit is watching or this is his imagination as he is dying) his little sister being taken away in a police car, then flashes forward to see her graduate while foster parents watch proudly.  Like I said, depressing but hopefully it goes over well and the markers like it. 

Tomorrow I have Social written (How do you study for that!? It’s all source based! I’m trying though…) and then Friday is Calc and next Monday and Tuesday is English and Social MC. Wish me luck!

In other life, I’m kind of, sort of, possibly, maybe seeing/dating  Eric. I mentioned him a few times ago, he’s a guy friend of mine. I’m not honestly sure what’s going on, I’m not really ready for another serious relationship at this point (yes I HAVE told this) but we pretty much decided to leave it until after exam break. I am taking ski lessons, they are for double black/out of bounds runs and it’s really fun. My instructor is a really cool guy, super nice but very tough. I’m so sore! And we got another 60 cm (2 feet-ish) of snow today so I missed ballet, sadly.

That’s really my life! Just studying, studying, studying, studying…

Book Rant: Obsidian

This cover is so ugly and cheesy! I hate it! It just doesn’t fit. Am I alone on this?

RATING: 95%

GENRE: YA, Paranormal-Romance

SERIES: Lux Series, #1

I mentioned earlier that this was one of the books I really wanted to read because it has been sitting on my shelf for months and I just got to it. So very worth the wait! This book is fantastic! I don’t want to tell you what is on the back of the book because the back of the book tells you too much! Don’t read the back flap! Just dive into it! The long and short of it is that this 17 year old girl, Katy, moves from Florida to this small town in West Virginia. She’s is prepared for dull, small town life and decides to content herself to reading and blogging, then she meets her neighbors. Twins, a boy and girl both starting their senior year, both drop-dead gorgeous. They are a little weird and Deamon is infuriating but Dee and Katy become fast friends despite Daemons constant verbalization of his disapproval. I won’t give you anymore because I don’t want to spoil you at all. As I said this book is just amazing, I cannot wait to get my hands on the next one! Spoilers past here so read then come back and rant with us!

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Our main girl is Katy and ah, I relate so well to her! She’s one of us! She is a book blogger, loves to read, is in grade 12, she’s funny she is just a great character. What is it with bad boys that is so damn attractive? By bad boys I mean obviously the ones that are kind of jerks but also won’t let anything really hurt you. Will Herondale, Jace Wayland, Raffe, Jack, Gideon de Villiers and now Daemon Black. Damn that is a fine bunch there. I love Daemon so much, but he also frustrates me do much! But his asshole-ness is kind of like Will’s where he’s being a jerk but it’s to protect his sister so it’s really hard to hate him for it. Ok that make out then leave thing was brutal! I felt so bad for Katy! That would be so embarrassing. I don’t know what I would do! The scene right before that was so funny funny because you knew what was going to happen as soon as Katy says that she would never, ever have sex with Daemon, then giant make out. I was confused, why did everything break? That would be such a hard thing to explain! “Oh hi mom, my laptop broke because I was kissing this guy…” I pity Katy so much for that because laptops are expensive! Maybe this is just my school, but I need one for school. It is a requirement to do absolutely anything in any course except, I was going to say except math but I use it sometimes in math to.  Damn you technology ridden school!

I love Dee. I want her as a best friend. I love how invested she is in this friendship with Katy it’s really sweet! You knew Daemon was going to cave and end up liking Katy. I like how it wasn’t insta-love because that has been done so much and is so cliche, at the end they are just realizing they “like” each other and trying to figure that out. Its a very natural feeling relationship. I really like how he calls her kitten just to tease her.

Ok this dance, we have Katy going off with this jerk whats-his-face. Simon? Is it Simon? I want to call him Jake for whatever reason. No matter we know that this guy is bad news, especially when he starts drinking. Daemon had to come in and save her though, we knew he would. And then we get that fight scene with the Arum where Katy saves his life. So ninja! I was so proud of Katy! And then they wake up after sleeping together. Ah I was laughing! This book has so many funny parts. Oh before the dance, when Daemon was being jealous out of no where like when he goes right between Katy and Simon in the cafiteria “Oh sorry I just need a drink…”

Did anyone see the parallels between this and Twilight? In the BEST possible way! This book is better written (I think anyway) there was just all these little things like she moves to a small town, single parent, weird hot guy with crazy mood swings, Dee I thought was like Alice, Daemon stops a car, and there’s the little alien “family” and they are all paired off together. Ash reminds me so much of Rosalie,  there were just so many things but I honestly liked this book better. Though I did enjoy Twilight. You know, shut up! It’s a fun book to read, I enjoyed it. I wasn’t amazingly written but it was a lot of fun, the movies were awful, but the series isn’t as bad as everyone makes it sound! Anywho…

The ending! I was so confused! What even happened there!? I’m so lost! What I pictured was light from Daemon going into Dee then into Katy then Katy floating into the air and screaming (like Katie Bell in Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince when she touched the necklace) then shooting light at the Arum and his exploding into a push of smoke. Katy isn’t an alien! So confused! Then Daemon heals her and leaves part of his soul in her or something? They’re connected somehow now. I’m not really sure. I hope they elaborate in Onyx.

I can’t wait to read the next one, I have the 3rd one which isn’t really helpful but no matter! Bye darlings! Kisses!

Book Rant: The Painted Girls

RATING: 85%

GENRE: Historical fiction

SERIES: Stand-alone

Hello beauties! Today we talk about The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan. I would give it a 14A rating, normally I wouldn’t bring this up but if you are looking for a less intense novel with a very similar story line, Dancing Through Fire by Kathryn Lasky would be the PG version. Both are based of the art of Degas during the late 1800, set in France, both revolve around ballet students at the Opera and their life at that time. So if you like the sound of the novel but don’t think you can deal with the intensity of it, there is that other option for you. 🙂 As I said The Painted Girls is based in France in the late 1800s and these 3 sisters are trying to survive in this world with a dead father and a mother addicted to absinthe. The younger 2, Charlotte and Marie join the Paris Opera hoping to earn a living on the stage, Antionette finds work as a extra in L’Assommoir, and with that she falls into the arms of a dangerous young man, Emile. Marie and Charlotte feel the absence of their sister as she slips away from them and depends deeper and deeper into the low ranks of society. This is a very dark novel. Over all I liked this book, but it’s not something I can ever see myself re-reading. It’s like The Kite Runner (by Khaled Hosseini) in the sense, for me, it was really good, really interesting and after reading it I felt enlightened and just not entirely sure how to feel emotionally about it. But I will never pick either of these books up again. I’m not sure why, but some books are like that  guess. I do recommend it though. Spoilers past here!

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For me this book started off very sad and then in the middle it was very hopeful and almost happy. And then the end feels very sad again. It wasn’t fulfilling for me but I imagine it is quite accurate. It’s very dark and by the end of it I didn’t have a whole bunch of hope for a happy ending for the three girl.

What I disliked about the book is how cold and clinical feeling it is. Like as the girls are telling their story they are detached from it. Almost like it was second hand, it was very much so “theses are the facts and this is how it made me feel” but with very little showing of emotion. Sometimes it worked like a trauma patient telling their story and having been totally desensitized to it, but I felt like that emotionless, robotic way of dealing with things needed to come away on occasion so we could actually see emotion. For example when Marie is with Monsieur Lefebvre she does try to go for help but we are in her head so I felt like we needed to feel more before she shut down emotionally. And Antionette with Emile I just thought we needed to feel more with these characters.

I did like how Charlotte was left out of the action. We hear about her but even before the girls say they are keeping Charlotte out of this, it’s obvious they are. They are both trying very hard to keep their little sister away from what they have both gone through. It was interesting to see Marie progress. At the beginning it was Antionette keeping both girls isolated and trying to make sure they didn’t have to fight to hard, but then as Marie starts falling she realizes that she never wants her baby sister to have to go through what she did and I think part of her sees the similarities between herself and Antionette and what they have done to survive, even though she doesn’t want to. I’m really glad the baker boy likes her.

I don’t know what else to say about this novel. This is a hard one to talk about! I cannot eloquently articulate my thoughts into writing so I’m just going to stop here. Bye lovelies! Kisses.

Book Rant: Endless Knight

RATING: 95%

GENRE: YA, fantasy

SERIES: The Arcana Chronicles, #2

Hello, hello! Welcome to the Book Rant! Today we are discussing the second book in Kresley Cole’s lovely Arcana Trilogy (think it’s a trilogy anyway), Endless Knight. The first book is Poison Princess, I’ll throw a link to my Book Rant on that over HERE if you want. This is a really interesting series, the idea I think is brilliant. The characters are tarot cards and they are engaged in this giant battle that destroyed the world and they fight until there is only one of them left standing. Apparently this has happened many times throughout history and the cards have varying degrees of knowledge about what is going on and who they are, etc. Evie, our main girl is the Empress and she has just figured out who she is, what’s going on and really just learned the extent of her power. And it’s pretty intense. She is still with the alliance of 3 other cards and the human boy, Jack, who swore to Evie’s dying mother to protect her. Death (who has won the game the past 3 times) is out to get Evie but she’s determined not to play any game where she doesn’t make the rules. That is it for the non-spoilery section if you haven’t read the book and don’t want to be spoiled leave, read the book, then come back! Bye! Spoilers past here!

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OH MAN! OH MAN! Poison Princess was good, but Endless Knight, we hit the ground running! I could not put this down! I finished it in a day and I NEED the next one! Right now! It comes out (supposedly) in a year! There is not even a title for it. AH! What is life?!?! Where do I even start? Lets start with Lark. You know, I can’t even hate her. She’s a betraying, two-faced bitch but I don’t hate her! When we first found her out I wanted Evie to kill her but that went away pretty quick. I just can’t hate her character and its really frustrating! I love that cyclops the wolf is actually a giant puppy, when Evie gives him a bath I was laughing so hard it reminded me so much of my dog. The wet t-shirt idea, that entire thing. Picturing Death trying to ignore her and just the whole idea of trying to wet t-shirt Death. So funny.  This book made me laugh a lot. Death (Aric, I guess) and Evie’s banter is so witty!

Ok so Jack-Evie. I’m not sure how I feel about this right now. I was completely on Jack’s side for most of this book. When he was freaking out at the beginning I 100% got it. Didn’t like it, but I got it. Then when they have the heart-to-heart when Evie’s in the bath (when she stood up I just wanted to give her a round of applause. Damn right, girl!) after that I really loved them and their entire relationship and it was just perfect. When Aric drops this bomb of on us of “Oh he just went after you because you were his half-brothers girl” followed by “Oh he killed your mom.” Like with Lark I’m not mad at Jack. Obviously no matter WHY he went after Evie originally he truly cares about her now and Evie’s mom probably asked him to assist her suicide so upset yes, mad no. And Evie reacting how she did makes sense too. I also like Evie with Aric. I don’t know what I want right now. I like them both. Aric I feel really bad for and he flat out admits he hates killing. I feel bad for him! And Evie is/was his wife! You have to feel pretty sympathetic towards him.

The Cannibals are terrifying. They were way scarier than the bagmen, because they plan. I was so confused about the killing of whats-his-name tarot card who brainwashes people. Until Death explained it I was so lost. I didn’t get why he died, I didn’t catch on. I was really pathetic of me actually. The Lovers, I am really nervous about this situation. Jack needs to get out of there. I don’t like it! Death at least seems to kill quickly, the Lovers sound like rape, torture then kill. I want Aric and Evie to be a power team and nip that in the bud ASAP. What a terrible place to end a book! Sounds like Aric is willing to help is Evie sleeps with him? Did I read that correct? So much unresolved sexual tension with those two! Granted it has been 4 thousand years, Aric is patient I’ll give him that! Aric I don’t know what to think of you! I thought you were a Sebastian but you’re more like a Will so I’m very confused and have many conflicting emotions. Evie was just a bitch in her past lives! Well Death did stab her…into a rock…

What does Matthew mean Finn and Selena risked their lives for Jack and are left for dead?! Why would you end the book here?! 3/5 of our original/main characters are in mortal peril, Matthew we don’t even know, Evie is prostituting herself out to save them or will kill Aric (which doesn’t help her AT ALL in saving Jack. I really hope she thinks this through! She won’t but hope.) I just need the next one.  Everything needs to be sorted out!

Ok bye lovelies! That’s all for today!

Book Rant: Rose Under Fire

RATING: 95%

GENRE: YA, historical-fiction

SERIES: Companion Novel with Code Name Verity (by Elizabeth Wein)

Hello Lovelies! I have finally finished Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein, I know! It took me a month! I’m sorry! Fantastic book though! It is set in WW2 and it is about a young American Allied pilot, Rose, who works with Britain’s Air Transport Auxiliary meaning she delivers aircraft. She gets captured and placed in a concentration camp and the novel in her recounting her time spent there, and her escape, in a diary. During her time in the camp meets a group of very different women: a glamorous French novelist, a Polish girl who has been used as a Nazi Ginny pig for years and a USSR military double ace female fighter pilot. The little family struggle to keep each other alive and to get their story out to the world. It is very intense and graphic, so if that bothers you I don’t recommend it. There are some parts that are very hard to read. It is beautifully written and the description is amazing. I have said in the past diary-style novels don’t capture me as much, but this wasn’t the case for this novel. It is a companion novel to Code Name Verity meaning that the two fit together, but you can read each of them totally independently of each other and they will make perfect sense. That is all for the non-soldiery section, spoilers past here so bye if you haven’t read the book!

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I absolutely adore Elizabeth Wein. It is very obvious she knows her stuff and the books are well researched. That also means this book was very disturbing. More so than Code Name Verity, which was intense and sad but it didn’t describe the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps. There were some parts of this novel that were really hard to read. Even with the worst things glossed over (which they realistically would be, a survivor would likely block things out.) Anything reading about Roza and her medical experiments was really hard. My mind wouldn’t let me picture it for the most part. Half the time I would see her just as a girl with crutches and sometimes she would just look normal. Whenever they went into detail about how her legs looked, my mind made it much less severe, like someone had taken a plastic doll, or clay and just morphed it. I have been meaning to Google and image because the nurse inside me is somewhat curious s to what this could possibly be, but mostly I am just to horrified, it’s too cruel.

I was really in love with these characters. I wanted them to succeed so badly and their mini-victories made me want to cheer and then when the bad things got back in it was crushing. I forgot a lot that this was a diary. it was always kind of shocking to find us back in this lovely, nice hotel room. Having it be a diary made things both easier and harder. Harder becasue the events were more fixed. They always are in a novel but they don’t really feel that way. When the author is telling about something that already happened and we know how it ends its much harder because you know this person won’t make it. it was also easier for the same reason. No matter what happened we knew that Roza, Rose and Irina were going to make it out of the camp at least alive, we also knew they then get separated. Having read Code Name Verity before this book brought a little more to it, with Maddie when she’s talking about Julie it’s more than just a name, you actually have feelings behind it like Maddie would so that was a really great tie in.

I don’t have much else to say about this book other than it was amazing. Ok Bye guys! I’ll try not to take so long next time 😛