Harper Lee Is Publishing a new Book?!?!

Today Herper Lee announced that she was releasing a sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird called Go Set a Watchman, 55 years after she first released the modern classic. I am so ambivalent about this! I’m of course going to read it but To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my all time favorites and I’m not sure this new book will live up to the same standard. Harper Lee was quoted as saying “I have said what I wanted to say and I will not say it again,” when she was asked about writing another book after TKAM’s success, so I really hope she has a very good reason for going back on that. I really hope this book is as fantastic as TKAM and my biggest fear is that is will taint it depending on what happens now that Scout is an adult.  This book was technically written first but the manuscript was lost until now. The excepted date of release this summer (July? I think I read that somewhere.)

Top 14 Books of 2014

Happy New Year (almost). I anticipate an issue with my system when the numbers get higher. These are only from the book I read this year for the first time, not that they were necessarily released this year. As with last year, these are in no particular order.

1. The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken: The third book in this series is out but I haven’t read it yet! The first is still my favourite out of the two I have read though they are both fantastic.
2. Cress by Marissa Meyer: This is the third book in the Lunar Chronicles and this series keeps getting better and better. They’re fairytale retellings (kind of) with cyborgs and space travel and I am not explain this well at all. Just read it. Cinder is the first.
3. The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater: I didn’t know what to expect from this novel, I went into it totally blind. I ended up really enjoying it! The characters are so good and the premise, while fantastical and made-up feels like it could have happened in a different place at a different time in our world.
4. City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare: Obviusly this was going to be on the list. I will read and adore anything this woman puts out.
5. Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor: Again, this had to be on the list. An amazing conclusion to this series, though the way it ended there could have been another book. I don’t think she’s planning on writing one though, which is unfortunate becasue these are beautifully written.
6. Heir of Fire by Sarah J Maas: I need the next one! there isn’t even a title out! If you don’t know I just finished this one and it is the third book is an amazing series, Throne of Glass is the first one if you want to jump on this train.
7. Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi: This book really redeemed the series for me. After the second I was on the fence abut it but this pulled it way back up in my mind.
8. World After by Susan Ee: The dark, twisted, creepiness continues and how I do love it. A great book to follow Angelfall, I love the dark sarcasm through out these novels.
9. Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers: Another assassin novel. This on also has fantasy elements but it’s more so trying to disguise itself as historical fiction.
10. Endless Knight by Kresley Cole: Dead of Winter! It’s coming really soon! This is a very unique, post-apocalyptic/fantasy/paranormal story line. If you are looking for something that doesn’t really follow the norm it’s this.  first book is alright, second is amazing! It’s characters are based on tarot cards.
11. Obsidian by Jennifer L Armentrout: Unlike many others on this list, the first book was my favourite and the there was a decline from there. I’m almost temped to tell you to stop after this book but I don’t remember how big a cliff hanger there was at the end of it. You might need to continue, like it might not work as a stand-alone.
12. Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein): Elizabeth Wein. Just this author. he WW2 stories (her other one is Code Name Verity) are so real and heart-wrenching. You want to stop reading becasue its so horrific what she is describing but you want to finish at the same time becasue you want a happy ending for these characters, even though there isn’t always one.
13. Allegiant by Veronica Roth: Very satisfying conclusion. I know lost of people hate the end but for me if it had ended any differently I would have been disappointing with the story, it wouldn’t have been true to character.
14. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead: This is just a fun, fluffy read. I’m starting on the third one. With these books I find you can’t take them too seriously. You just have to jump in and enjoy the characters and not over think it too much.

What did you really love reading this year?

Book Rant: Heir of Fire

RATING: 5

GENRE: YA, fantasy

SERIES: Throne of Glass, #3

Heir of Fire by Sarah J Maas. This book just hit the ground running. I really enjoyed the first two books with the competition and seeing Celaena be an assassin and watching the love-triangle play out, but this book blows it all away. There’s less drama, much more magic and general kick-ass moments and, I found, better character development. What can I say for a non-spoilery section? Not much! Celaena has been sent to Wendlyn to assassinate the Royal family there, which she has absolutely no intention of doing. But in Wendlyn lies answers she needs to help overthrown the tyrant King, the very man she pretends to be a loyal servant for. Behind Celaena leaves her friends, Prince Dorian, and Chaol, Captain of the King’s guard, who are also walking the thin line of treason trying to protect their loved ones from the brutality of the King. I highly reccomend starting this series if you haven’t, last I checked there were supposed to be 6 books total so this is the perfect time to jump on this train. Each one is getting better and better. I love Sarah J Maas’ writing style, I find it similar to Laini Taylor’s in that she’s very good a weaving threads you don’t think are important at the time then we zoom out and it’s this beautiful masterpiece. That is all for the non-spoilery people! Bye if you haven’t read the book!

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Okay….where should I start?

We have this new character Rowan. He’s this immortal fey Prince, badass warrior and at first I don’t want to say I hated him becasue that’s too strong. I wanted him to be a friend for Celaena, not like Dorian or Choal, but a real friend who really got her and accepted her and would support her. Neither Dorian or Chaol ever did that, they always had another agenda. And I was so frustrated with him in the beginning becasue he wasn’t doing that I knew that was how they needed to end up. He didn’t even seem to care about her as his student, it really seemed that he had been conditioned to think that becasue she was a demi-fey her life didn’t mean much, ever as a Queen. The peak of this is when Celaena finally yells at him “You left me.” becasue it’s so true, she’s grasping at straws trying to pull herself up enough to fulfill her vow to Nehemia and Rowan will randomly give her a hand up then drop her again. When Emrys finally spoke up on her behalf it was the beginning of a change and it was so good to finally get there. I couldn’t believe what he did though with Luca. What. Yes, it does make her act to save him but it’s the cruelest teaching technique. It wasn’t until her burnout that I finally started liking Rowan. He didn’t know of her past and that made some of what he’d done less cruel. When he finally pens up about his back story we see that he is just as broken as Celaena and they try to put each other back together. I liked how protective he was over her, not like a lover like Chaol, but like a true friend.

I was so proud of Celaena during that fight for the fortress! She’s so selfless, she really doesn’t give herself enough credit. She is a warrior Queen who will sacrifice everything for her people. THAT is a Queen, not sitting in a throne like Maeve watching her people suffer for her. The character growth she goes through is just fantastic. The coming to terms with her life and what had happened to her and accepting her actions and inactions instead of constantly dwelling on them and the end of the book with the tattoo was beautiful. Speaking of, the Valg Princes. Agramon, the greater demon for fear from Cassandra Clare’s shadowhunter world (City of Ashes?) came to mind along with the dementors from Harry Potter. They feed off your fear and pain and go through your most horrible memories until you finally die.

Chaol…sigh…

 

How I felt THE ENTIRE book. Do I need to elaborate more? Was anyone NOT feeling like this towards him? I still like him, but so frustrated.

Let’s move to Dorian and What’s-her-face-healer-chick. Dorian is like a 13 year old flipping girl who can’t not be in a relationship for 5 minutes. This was supremely unnecessary in my opinion. They only significant thing about her character, besides being Dorian’s latest love interest, was that she was another spy. Her role could have been absorbed by Ren, or Chaol, or Aedion. She was just there to generate unnecessary angst with her death. But I didn’t know enough about her to care at all about her death. Dorian revealed his powers saving Chaol, not her anyway. This is the only time I can recall being really annoyed at Sarah J Maas, for introducing and making a huge deal out of this character only to kill her. You could argue that she facilitated the development of Dorian’s character but all his not-considerable development in this book could have been through someone else already in play instead of adding this bimbo so he can fall in love…again. I’m actually glad she’s now dead she I don’t have to deal with Dorian falling out of love with her a week later. Apart from that bullshit relationship, Dorian and Chaol’s interaction I did find very interested. I was so pissed at Dorian for telling Chaol that he couldn’t accept Celaena for what she is (although true) becasue in the last book Dorian wasn’t accepting her either until he realized he is magic. That’s not friendship, you “accept” who she is now that you NEED her. F*** off! Neither of them deserve a second thought from Celaena. But I can’t even be mad at either of them for lack of communication becasue they are both doing it to protect the other. They’re both in the mindset of willing to give up, basically destroy, their friendship to save the other. Chaol a little more than Dorian, Dorian also wants to kill his father and Chaol isn’t there yet. It just shows their true loyalty to one another. When Dorian exposes his power to save Chaol is the epitome of that, even though they are no longer friends in the superficial sense, they are deeper friends then ever.  When Chaol told Dorian that he loved him AH! One of the best parts f the book. Sounds like now Dorian in under the control of the King with one of those collar things, so that’s mildly terrifying. Just as he finally grew a pair too. (I wasn’t all too happy with either of them in this book, if you missed it.)

Aedion! How much do I love this character? So much! At beginning I  hated him becasue thought he truly had turned completely against his people. I though he was the King’s Whore just as he wanted everyone too.  When Chaol points out the ring, I just felt horrible for him becasue he wasn’t himself at all. But then we find out he’s actually a genius and has been playing everyone for so long and actually trying to help. I love how loyal he is to Celaena (Aelin). When he was talking about all his titles and the ones he cherished most were safely locked away I absolutely love it: “Cousin-that had been his most beloved title. Cousin, kin, protector.” I really hope there is a reunion between those two in the next book. Obviously he has to be freed from whatever jail he got thrown into. I’m glad Chaol finally picked a side but he did a really inconvenient time to do so. Aedion had completely forfeit himself so Chaol couls stay in the King’s favour and then Chaol totally burned that bridge. I like that he picked a side becasue I could take another book of his character acting like he was in this one, but timing man, timing.

The witches side plot I really, really enjoyed! Manon is not in anyway a likable character but I still found myself rooting for her. Abraxos was her redeeming point, when she actually cared about something. Then when she saves Petrah and after she kills the Cochran when she’s thinking about the fact that the witches are made into monsters, they aren’t born heartless. I think she can be a really strong character and I can’t wait for the story lines in intersect. I think this plan is going to backfire on the king, a lot.  The witches don’t seem the type to submit to anyone’s rule and now they have the wyverns so unless there is something else in it for them I don’t think  that alliance will last horribly long, especially if/when magic comes back. I really want Manon to team uo with Celaena, even though she killed Baba Yellowlegs. Given the relationship between The Thirteen and Iskra I think they might be able to come to a (probably temporary) agreement to overthrown the King. I really hope so. Also we never addressed the fact that all the meat and people smelt off. That was pretty key, but we got no explanation.

Maeve at the end, AH! I WILL STAB. You don’t hurt Rowan! I think that ring is far more important then we have been told. Maeve isn’t the type to do something like release one of her warriors over something simply sentimental. Hopefully it isn’t a Wyrdkeys, I don’t think it is but maybe something else magical? Rowan and Celaena can’t split up, they are so fun to read together. I’m not sure how is going to work becasue magic is gone. The next book has explaining to do. It’s a whole year away! I don’t think I can do this. So many questions unanswered!

That is all for this book, bye guys!

Book Rant: The Raven Boys

RATING: 2.5

GENRE: YA, Paranormal

SERIES: The Raven Cycle, #1

Hi Everyone, first off, Merry Christmas! I hope you are all having a happy holiday with lots of R&R and cookies and treats with your friends and family.

Now, The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater. This book is based in a small town in Virginia and Blue the main character comes from a family of psychics though she herself cannot see anything. Until one night she sees the spirit of a young man, Gansey. There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit, either he is her true love or she is destined to kill him. As fate would have it Gansey and Blue cross paths when her and his ridiculously rich private-school friends (known as the Raven Boys) come to her mother for a reading. Gansey is on a quest with three other Raven Boys: Ronan the unpredictable fighter, Adam a sweet-hearted scholarship student and Noah the quiet observer.  Blue finds herself caught up in their sinister and mysterious hunt into the magic Blue has been surrounded with her whole life but never understood.

Be warned, this book does take lots of patience. SPOILERS past here.

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You may remember the other books of her’s, The Scorpio Races, that I absolutely loved. And people have just raved about this book and series so I went into it with very high expectations and was left underwhelmed. I found there wasn’t much of a plot until halfway through. Sure we knew Gansey was looking for this dead King and there was plenty of back story on the boys’ and Blue’s lives but nothing had really come into play to move the book forward. It felt very sectioned like, here are the characters, now here is the story instead of weaving the characters into the story and watching them develop and learning about who they are that way.  The last 100 pages really picked up and I became really interested, but before that I just was reading to get through it.

Chainsaw. I don’t get it. WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS BIRD? The Raven Boys have a raven, ahahahaha, that’s so funny. (Sarcasm) The stupid thing kept being brought up, am I to assume it will be important in the next book? At the end we learn it came out of one of his dreams, cool story bro. At this point we have seen so much weird stuff and you live on a magic fey energy line so my capacity for shock has been neutralized. It significant enough for me to justify Ronan telling us he needs to feed it every other chapter. This damn bird better be able to tell the future or save all their lives somehow in the next book.

The Adam-Blue relationship was kind cute, but really it just seemed to slow the inevitable plot and try to construct some unnecessary drama for later. It’s well established at the beginning of this book Gansey is her true love she is destined to kill. She didn’t see Adam’s spirit. I’m not saying she can’t really like Adam, but the end-game has been set.

This Noah-is-actually-a-ghost plot twist. I actually am not sure how I feel about this at this point. I’ll get back to you after I finish the next book. I certainly don’t dislike it and it was done really well but I don’t know if I like how ended yet. I was very happy to have him back but part of me felt like he should have died and been at peace and bringing he back was kinda cruel.

I love Gansey’s character. He’s the most real to me, the others seem a bit 2 dimensional. Noah doesn’t bug me becasue, well, he’s a ghost. The whole point is that he is a shadow of what he was. Adam actually isn’t too bad, it’s Blue and Ronan that really irked me. Ronan in stereotypical fighting, tough, stubborn one who is this way becasue of a traumatic past. And Blue I thought she tried too hard to make her eccentric and different and just ended up making her flat, it ended up being her whole character. There wasn’t anything else to her, no real personality traits, she’s just a sassy, eccentric teenager. She has a couple moments like when she’s with Gansey in the church and she tells him about the prophecy around her when I got the sense that she could be made into a really good character but there weren’t a lot of them. She does have some witty dialogue that made me laugh but there’s nothing behind them.  Emotionless. That’s the word I’m looking for. Gansey though. This character! He’s very human. He has these different sides to him depending on who he’s around and what role he has to play and that’s very true, everyone does that to varying degrees. Beneath that all he’s very unsure but not in a way that stops him, it makes him act and try to figure himself and this mystery out. I really like how he’s so good with words and he just turns them into a dangerous weapon, even without meaning to. And he’s trying to change that.

Neeve. I was kind of confused regarding her relationships with all the people in Blue’s house. At the beginning she’s creepy but we are generally ok with her. She’s like that aunt that is weird but she’s got your back, she’s not mean, she can be helpful and we trust her. And then somewhere in the middle she suddenly becomes suspicious and I don’t know why. Lots of family lives in this house so that another aunt came to live with them I didn’t find strange. We were told by Blue that it was and that she didn’t understand why she was here, but I had just accepted it. She needs a place to stay, all her family is there , it made sense to me. Then at the end I wasn’t sure if she was being evil, or… is she trying to help and having good intentions but maybe going about it wrong not realizing she’s hurting?

Once we found the plot I enjoyed it. It had a great treasure hunt and if had kind of the same vibe as The Spiderwick Chronicles. I never read those books I just saw the movie. Does anyone remember that and know where I’m going with this? Anyway, wasn’t a huge fan of this novel over all, but I didn’t dislike it. I’ll read the next one but I’m not tripping over myself becasue I feel I need it right away.

What are your thought? Again I hope you have a fantastic Holiday! Bye!

 

I’m back!

Hey guys, long time no talk! Between university and work and friends  I have no time to do things like sleep or write or read. Guess how many books I have read since I last talked to you in September? ONE. A single book. Cress by Marissa Meyer, the 3rd book in the Lunar Chronicles.  I’m so ashamed. BUT as of the 17th of December I am free for a whole month! A month guys of just reading and sleeping and getting fat of Christmas cookies! I already have it planned out what I’m going to read first (marathon Throne of Glass series because the new one is out! Everyone be excited! I lent the first one to my friend 6 months ago and I still haven’t gotten it back so I bought another copy for me and I’m letting her keep mine as part of her Christmas gift. I got the new hardcover design so it matched the other two now so I’m not even mad 😉 )

When I last talked to you guys I was having a really bad time with university (sorry y’all, but thanks for letting me rant) but I have since made really good friends, I didn’t end up joining the sorority becasue it was too much money but I still do hang out with some of the girls. We went to a pre-screening of Mockingjay Part 1 this Wednesday. Guys, its so good! I wasn’t a huge fan of the last book, but I really enjoyed the movie. I should actually re-read that book. But it was so good. This last week I also finished all my Christmas shopping. I WIN CHRISTMAS! I’m on top of it this year! Normally I don’t finish until the week before/week of.

Unfortunate I’m not nearly as productive in the rest of my life. I lost my UniCard which lets me use transit and the gym so oops. Someone found it, but I don’t physically have it back yet. I just got out of the slump of the semester where I just didn’t care anymore. I did really bad on a couple exams, one being 100% my own fault becasue I didn’t go to lecture or read the textbook at all, I’m kinda impressed with myself for passing. The other was less my fault, like 40/60 split. It was a french spelling test (essentially, the prof reads out a couple paragraphs you have to write it down correctly and you lose a mark for each mistake) and I’m dyslexic, if you didn’t know, which makes it a lot more difficult. She also marked it out of 30 instead of 100 like she said she was going to so the margin for error shrunk drastically. Over all I’m still doing alright in school, not as well as I did in high school but that’s expected. I’m definitely a solid B student overall still.  I still like three of my  five classes, especially my anatomy class, we have moved onto muscles and it’s so interesting!

That’s all I got so far, I’ve been trying to write a biology paper all day so my brain is all over the place!

Hey Guys, I Need Advice

Hi Lovelies, there isn’t anyone in my life that I can talk about this with so I’m sorry, but I’m going to rant it our to you guys and maybe writing it out will be enough for me to work it through, but if you have advice or a suggestion please, feel free.

I hate university. Not the class content, that’s interesting, but I don’t know anyone. There are three girls from my high school that I see rarely. My lectures have more people in them then I had in my graduating class. Never in my life have I had trouble making friends, I’m a chatty person and I like meeting new people but I’ve been here three weeks and it like hitting my head against a wall. No one seems to like me or want to be friends and if I do find someone I can hold a conversation with the next day they are lost in the sea of people. There was a guy I had been texting all summer who is in one of my classes and when we met we arranged to go out for drinks. He cancelled on me 30 minutes before we were supposed to meet up leaving me alone in part of the city I didn’t know, with no vehicle and a dead cell phone. Discouraging isn’t a strong enough word for when someone likes you but as soon as they meet you in person they seem to instantly become disinterested. I know this doesn’t sound great becasue so many people don’t get to go to university, but the thought of sitting for hours between classes by myself makes me cry.

One of my highschool friends convinced me to go to a sorority recruitment meeting (yes, they apparently exist in Canada too, but much less elaborate then in the States, there are about 20 girls in both groups) and I expected stereotypical movie mean girls but they are so friendly and welcoming I instantly fell in love with a bunch of them in both groups and I think I could make some really good friends. But its $750 first year and $400 for each of the following years you are apart of it. That’s a lot of money no matter who you are, but especially for a student. They did break it down as to what everything’s for and if you join any other campus club even though the start up fee is $10, you have to pay for all your activities (ie: ski club: hotel rooms, passes, rentals, busses etc.) and this includes every activities and trips they do, it still is A LOT of money. It doesn’t help that my mom is completely and utterly anti-sorority. It not that I want her to pay or anything, if I do decide to do it I’ll work for it myself, it’s just I really need someone to talk this through with and not instantly say “your buying friends.” I don’t see it like that but sure, fine, I’m buying friends. That how everyone else sees it. At this point paying for the opportunity to spend time with the only people I have met on this damn campus who actually seem friendly doesn’t even sound like a bad thing.  And then throw in actual school work and a part-time job.

I don’t know guys, all I know is I’m somehow sleeping too much and too little at the same time and I almost constantly feel ready to start crying and just feel like I’ve made a huge mistake. As weird as it sounds, I think it would almost be better to have moved across the country and be living away from home is residence, at least then I would have opportunity to meet people in my building.

Liebster Award

Hi Everyone, Jocelyn of  52 Letters in the Alphabet Nominated me for this award a couple weeks ago, Thank you so much and I’m so sorry it took so long! I’m onto round 5 of doing this and I’m pretty well tapped out of people I can nominate!

Jocelyn’s Questions:

1. Can you read in loud places or only when it is quiet? I have 2 brothers and a dog, my house was never quiet when I was younger so I can do either. I like listening to music while I read too,  which I know some people find really annoying.

2. Do you prefer to read stand alone books or series? I really enjoy series because you get to see more of the world and the characters.

3. Who is your favorite author and why? Cassandra Clare! She never leaves me wondering if she’s ever going to write another book! The most frustrating this is when you are reading a series and the author just suddenly drops off the face of the planet in the middle. It’s happened! Carnival of Souls Sequel, Melissa Meyer, I’m waiting!

4. Do you organize your bookshelves in any particular way? By height then alphabetically within height. I know it’s weird! I like my books all being even!

5. What fictional character would you date? William Herondale. #1 fictional boyfriend forever.

6. What is book that has made you angry (for any reason)? The Chrysalids. Can I light this thing on fire? What is that ending?

7. What genre do you never read? Non-fiction.

8. What is the best book you’ve read this year? The Darkest Minds series by Alexandra Bracken is pretty high up there, I don’t know about best.

9. Do you prefer paperbacks, hardcovers, or e-books? Hardcovers! Paperbacks annoy me becasue they fall over and get wrinkled and bend and wear is you ever take them of the shelf.

10. What is one book you wish everyone would read? Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein should be mandatory reading in highschool.

11. What book has influenced your life the most? There have been a lot, Harry Potter was/is a huge influence on me becasue I grew up with it, The Infernal Devices Series by Cassandra Clare really made me rethink my relationships with people (romantic and otherwise) and how we interact with each other and the effects we have on one another as well as how I react to events. Divergent by Veronica Roth, the first one in particular, very much so contributed to how I view my thoughts and actions. The Help and other historical-fictions like Elizabeth Wein’s works and The Book Thief made me think about my place in society and if I had been around during these time periods where would I have fallen?

That is all, another huge thank-you to Jocelyn!

Opposites Book Tag

Hey everyone! This has been awhile coming, I just got really busy with university. I first saw this tag when Tanya of Read. Run. Study. did it, I’ll leave the link for her over HERE so you can go check her out, and it looked like a lot of fun so I have decided to attempt it!

1. First book in your collection & the last book you bought

The Music of Dolphins by Karen Hesse is one of the first books that I recall personally buying when I was in grade…3? I have older books in my house but either I didn’t buy them they were given to me or they aren’t mine (ie: all the Harry Potter’s are my older brother’s).

City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare finally shipped to me a few days ago even though I purchased it back whenever, but I’m going to go with that one!

2. A cheap book & an expensive book

My copy of Specials by Scott Westerfeld was in the free book give away bin at my school library so that would be the cheapest.

And Stardust by Neil Gaiman is one of my more expensive books at ~$25. Worth it, it’s a really good book, I recommend it!

3. Book with a male protagonist & book with a female
protagonist

Percy Jackson Series. As I was doing this I realized most of my books don’t have male leads, slightly more challenging then it should have been. If you haven’t read this series, where have you been for the past 10 years? It’s really amazing, really fun, go find it!

Female protagonist! I got this one in the bag! But let’s go with The Naming by Alison Croggon, I have never heard anyone talk about these books, I have two I believe there are four in total. I read these back when I was in my Lord of the Rings mourning period and I really enjoyed them! It’s an epic fantasy that follows a slave girl, Maerad, as she is broken out of her slavery by a magician, Cadvan. I actually have been meaning to pick this series up again and finish it, I only stopped becasue the third book wasn’t published and I just ended up forgetting about it.

4. Book you read fast & book that took too long to read

I read the whole Hunger Games Trilogy (by Suzanne Collins) in one night, not ashamed! Who needs sleep when there are books?

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin. This isn’t a long book! My copy is 275 pages. I was stuck on an island with no TV and no internet and this was the only novel I had left of the ones I brought and it still took me a week! I found this book so boring I kept having the problem of falling asleep while reading it! I keep telling myself that I should re-read it becasue I was pretty young, 12 or so, and I’ll probably enjoy it more now but it’s really hard to force myself to do.

5. Pretty cover & ugly cover

Entwined by Heather Dixon. I feel like i should frame this and hang it as art because it is so beautiful  I usually tend to prefer simpler cover designs, but this is just too pretty and it matches the story PERFECTLY!

I don’t even own this book but I have to include it, Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. I have been avoiding buying this book though I have the other two for no reason other than I hope they re-print the hardcover with the new version. Hasn’t happened yet, but I’m waiting! If I hadn’t heard about this book from so many people liking it and saying the cover doesn’t match, there is no way I would have picked it up. I judge book by their covers, so do you, don’t pretend you don’t. When you are out walking though Chapters or Barnes and Noble you don’t pick up books that don’t catch your eye.

6. National book & international book

The only book I have based in Canada is Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. If you don’t know this book and you are female I’m not sure what to say to you. There are a bunch of movie and TV movies and TV shows and there’s a musical. Classic young girl literature.

I’m going to go with Greece becasue I was just there, Nobody’s Princess by Esther Friesner, it’s based in ancient Greece and follows Helen of Troy when she was a child. Not a fantastic book, the history and mythology isn’t overly researched, but it’s kinda cute. Little bit of badassery from 10-year-old Helen.

7. Thin book & thick book

The thinnest book I have is In My Enemies House by Carol Matas clocking in at only 176 pages. This is a WW2 book and it is very intense, I can not read it more than once every couple years becasue even though it is fantastic, it’s very graphic and difficult to read. It’s on par with Elizabeth Wein’s novels in my mind.

Breaking Dawn is my thickest at 756 pages unless we count my Charles Dickens collection which is actually 5 books in one and 1481 pages. I haven’t read any of it. It’s really big and scary. It’s absolutely gorgeous though.

8. non-fiction book & Fiction book

Thanks to U of C common reading program I own one non-fiction book now. Misfit: A Changemaker with an Edge by Andreas Souvaliotis. I haven’t read it, I probably won’t. I don’t like non-fiction novels. I don’t want to read about this world, that’s what news is for, I want my novels to be an escape.

Fiction, let’s have No Small Thing by Natale Ghent becasue I just read it. This book is based in 1977 and is about these three kids for a recently poor family with a father who walked out on them when they lost their money. And they come into a free pony. It’s a super sweet coming of age story.

9. Overly romantic book & action book

Anyone who has been following my blog for any amount of time knows my go-to romantic novel but I’m going to shake it up a bit and actually do something different. Halo by Alexandra Adoretto. This novel is about 3 angels who come to earth and the youngest one falls in love with a human boy. This is another book I didn’t realize was a series. It ended perfectly fine after this book and I don’t see the reason for a second so I haven’t read it becasue I’m sure that somehow it will mess up this perfect novel. It’s not all lovey-dovey, there is some conflict with a demon pretending to be human and bringing evil to the town and what-not. I could have gone more romantic but I don’t read many romance specific books. I like my books with romance in them but I don’t own many “romance novels.” I’ve read some, none that come to mind. If you want to leave some suggestions that would be nice actually.I need some fluff to read.

Everlost by Neal Shusterman. I didn’t realize this was a series until I just Goodreads it to find the authors name! Apparently it’s a trilogy. It’s about kids caught in limbo, really interesting. There’s a hint near the end that there might be a romance starting but we never see it develop which was fine by me, the story wasn’t set up for a romance.

10. Book that made you happy & book that made you sad

Hurt Go Happy by Ginny Rorby. This is a weird one becasue while reading it you wouldn’t immediately think “happy.” It has a lot of sad moment in it and the end is incredibly bitter-sweet. I wish I could explain it better but that would spoil you. It’s so hopeful and optimistic it makes me feel better.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling. ***SPOILERS*** Many will disagree with me becasue this is a touchy subject, but the hardest death for me in this series was Sirius Black. He didn’t need to die, if Harry had just remembered his stupid mirror! He was the best person and he went through so much and just as his life was improving he gets killed.

That is it for this tag! I hope you found some new books you want to pick up!

Summer Wrap-Up!

Hello darlings! Summer is over and my first official day of university is tomorrow! I’m back from Greece, which was absolutely amazing I saw and did a lot of very, very cool things but it’s nice to be home again.

Books with Book Rants:

1. The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken ———- 5
2. The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater ——– 4.75
3. Cinder by Marissa Meyer———————- 4.5
4. Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas ———- 4.5
5. Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken ———— 4.5
6. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer ———————— 4.5
7. The One by Keira Cass —————————– 4
8. Kissing Shakespeare by Pamela Mingle —————- 4
9. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead ——————- 4
10. Legend by Marie Lu ——————————— 3.75
11. Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins—– 3.5
12. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews —– 3.5
13. The Ring and The Crown by Melissa De La Cruz ——- 3
14. Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge ————— 2.5
15. Eternity by Elizabeth Miles ————————- 0

Books I read/ re- read, but didn’t talk about:

16. A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray —– 5 (re-read)
17. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien ———————- 5 (re-read)
18. No Small Thing by Natalie Ghent —————- 5 (re-read)
19. Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr —————— 5 (re-read)
20. Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder ————- 4.75 (re-read)
21. The Juliet Club by Suzanne Harper ———  4.5 (re-read)
22. Ladies in Waiting by Laura L. Sullivan —— 2.5

I think I did okay considering I was away and not really reading for two weeks! I’ll talk to you guys later! Kisses!

Book Rant: The One

RATING: 4

GENRE: Dystopian, YA, Romance

SERIES: The Selection, #3

SERIES RATING: B

Hello beauties, I am back! The One is the third and final installment in the Selection Trilogy. This is one of those series that is incredibly frustrating but at the same time really fun and entertaining and you can’t stop reading it. I’m not going to spend too much time here becasue this is the last book, if you want a more detailed explanation of what the series is about I direct you to my The Selection rant HERE and you can catch up with us then come back. Bye if you haven’t read the book! Spoilers past here

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Hey friendship who has read The One. How are you? I hated America considerably less in this book. She could still be infuriating especially with the whole Aspen stupid situation and her indecisiveness on everything and her insane ill-planned actions but it wasn’t nearly as frustrating as in The Elite. He stupidest moment had to be the leaving the castle in the dead of night to meet with August and exchange 10 words. 20 tops. What the hell is wrong with notes? Coded message? Carrier pigeon? Smoke signals, anything but endangering the two people you need alive! Kriss and America’s father being  northern rebels had to be the least shocking thing ever. I’m not entirely sure why it was even necessary to include.  Anyway, America gets shot and we end up in Aspen’s room of all places with all America’s love letters posted all over the walls! Am I the only one finding these shrines to America weird? Maxon has his pictures, Aspen has letters, it just seems weird to me. I don’t think I’d find a wall for pictures of me sweet. I loved when America was talking to her dad and explaining why she liked Maxon and he made her feel like herself, not a number or a project.

We knew even in The Selection that America was going to be Queen so it felt really dragged out at time! All she needs to do is say “Oh, I love you” she has this epiphany halfway through where they are on the roof dancing in the rain of she loves Maxon and doesn’t want to be with anyone else but she doesn’t tell him! America is such a horrible procrastinator! I’ll tell him I love him later, I’ll tell him about Aspen later. As soon as he noted that she was close to Aspen (which was AFTER she decided she was so in love with Maxon and wanted to be the princess) I would have been “oh this is actually something we should clear up now so there is no drama later, he and I were childhood sweethearts, it was over by the time I selected and he left to become a guard.” Nice and simple. 80% honest, leave out the make-out sessions in the castle so you both don’t get killed, leave it at the we broke up before I even knew I was selected.  But no. We get Maxon at the end suddenly acting irrational and very much like America becasue she was standing close to Aspen. They weren’t even doing anything and he just freaks out. He had to get shot to realize he truly loved her and she loved him. These two are the most dysfunctional couple ever.

What I wanted to happen that didn’t really get shown was for the country to start getting fixed. This series truly just was about the selection.  I would have rathered the selection be over half way through the second book and then the rest be world fixing. And more back story would have been nice becasue we don’t really know what happened to dissolve America (Country) and make Illea.

Celeste! We finally like her in this book! She becomes our best ally and redeems herself. We have these two really fantastic moments with all the elite girls, one when they are fooling around and take Maxon’s camera and are taking a bunch of pictures with the Queen and then when they are all sitting in America’s room having a huge heart-to-heart about what they’re done so far, what they’d do different and their futures and all that. Both of those were so great. And then she dies. It was this huge invasion and in all the past ones no one dies or was even that hurt and this one is just a slaughter! The King conveniently dies, as does Anne (becasue can’t have her complicating he Lucy-Aspen relationship *eyeroll*) and the Queen. And the northerners come in to save the day and we skip right to the wedding. Aspen walking America down the aisle seemed odd. A chapter before Maxon had been shouting at America and ready to marry someone else becasue she was standing close to him and he now knows that he’s her ex-fiance. I would have thought her Mom would give her away, but whatever, it was a satisfying ending.

That is all! Bye!