Bookshelf Tour

This lovely bookshelf has survived 6 moves in 7 years and two crazy cats who are found of sleeping on my books. While I used to shelve all my books together, recently I decided to dedicate this shelf to only my Young Adult and Children's Literature.

Children's Literature and Fantasy:

Favorites: Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness and Protector of the Small Quartets, Harry Potter and Sarah J Maas's Throne of Glass series (the only books I have been reading the last two years)

Dystopian and Modern Fantasy:

Favorites: Holly Black's Modern Faerie Tales trilogy and Taherah Mafi's Shatter Me trilogy

Miscellaneous, Rainbow Rowell and Chick-lit:

Favorites: Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl and Meg Cabot's Heather Wells Series

Now I just need to figure out what to do with this pile. So many books and not enough shelves.

A bookshelf tour of my adult novels coming sometime in 2015... 

Quick Review: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

“In the fairy tales, the poor girl smiles when she becomes a princess. Right now, I don't know if I'll ever smile again.”

About

Our main character, Mare, is a Red. Reds are normal human beings and are the slaves to the Silvers, elite beings with supernatural abilities. The Silvers treat the, forcing them to live in slums and to fight a century long war with neighboring Silver kingdoms.   In an effort to save herself and her friend from conscription Mare finds herself working in the Silver Palace only to discover that she's just as special as them. Mare finds herself in the middle of a dangerous game of revolution, lies and betrayal in the guest for the crown and freedom.

My Thoughts

Honestly I did not have high expectations for this book. This book was getting so much hype on Booktube and amongst the blogs that I follow. After the letdown that was The Darkest Part of the Forest, I was not expecting to be so captivated by this novel.  This book is similar to many books on the market now and while I found it to be predictable, I still really enjoyed this read.  

My only issue with this book is that Mare is very naïve. I had mentioned before that this book was very predictable, well apparently for our main character it was not. Overall, I cannot wait to see what is up next in this trilogy. Remember - ”Anyone can betray anyone.”

Overall Rating: 4 Stars

Find On: Goodreads or Amazon

Quick Review: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

“Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.”

About

This book follows two parallel stories set during World War II. Our main characters are Marie-Laure and Werner. Marie-Laure is a blind girl who lives with her father until the Nazis invade France. Marie-Laure and her father flee Paris to the coast, into Saint-Malo, to live with her reclusive uncle. Unknown to Marie, her father is smuggling a rare diamond, that many believe is cursed with magical power. Werner is German orphan who knows everything about radios. Because of his skills he is sent as a young boy to train as a soldier for Hitler’s army, ultimately using his skills to seek out resistance armies using the radio. We follow both characters throughout there adolescence, until their stories collide.

My Thoughts

I do not understand why everyone seemed to love this book. It never seemed to end and nothing important happened. It just kept plodding along and I just kept reading waiting for the excitement to begin. Contrary to what I was led to believe this book is not about WWII or a love story. This is a book about a diamond that may or may not have magical powers and the struggles that our two main characters go through throughout the War. Considering the atrocities committed during this time period, the "struggles" of our two main characters were nothing. The character stories do not even bring them together until the book is ¾ of the way through and then you are just left wanting more.

While the writing was beautiful, it was not enough to save the story. 

Overall Rating: 3 Stars 

Find On: Goodreads or  Amazon

Quick Review: The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

“There's a monster in our wood. She'll get you if you're not good. Drag you under leaves and sticks. Punish you for all your tricks. Anest of hair and gnawed bone. You are never, ever coming... home.”

About

Our main story revolves around Hazel and her brother Ben who live in a town where human and fae co-exist. The town is quite the hotspot tourists and the main attraction is the horned boy, who has been asleep in a glass coffin in the woods for generations. While the fae usually leave the townsfolk alone, choosing to prey on the tourists instead, something has changed. Now the townsfolk are fair game to the wicked games of the fae.

My Thoughts

I am a huge fan of Holly Black, ever since high school reading her Modern Faerie Tales series. While this story was dark and creepy, everything that I love in a Holly Black book, this has to be my least favorite book that I have read of hers.

This book was okay. I didn’t hate it, but I definitely did not love it. I think that I had set my expectations really high for this book and when it didn’t live up to the hype I had built, I became disinterested. This book got off to a slow start. Nothing really happened until halfway through the book and then BAM everything was happening all at once and then it was over.

Overall, this book had potential and I wanted to like it more then I really did (which is probably why I threw in the extra .5 star), but it just did not do anything for me.

Overall Rating - 3.5 Stars

Find on: Goodreads or Amazon 

Quick Review: Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini

“There comes a day when every girl loses the stars in her 

eyes. And then she can see clearly.” 

  

About

This story is about Lily, and Lily has had a pretty hard life. Lily’s mother is crazy, and she happens to be allergic to everything in this world. But that does not stop Lily from trying to live a normal life (YAY for perseverance!!). Lily is determined to attend her first high school party, with her BFF (whom she is secretly in love with) Tristan. After catching Tristan with another girl, Lily has a drink which causes her to have a seizure, embarrassing herself in front of all her peers. Utterly embarrassed Lily wishes she could just disappear.  And then she does. Lily is transported to an alternate universe, one with witchcraft and another Lily who just happens to be the most powerful witch in this world.

My Thoughts                                                                           

I really enjoyed this book. Like, surprisingly enjoyed it.  The world building, a magic system that actually makes sense, the main and side character and the romance all worked together to make a really good read. That cliff-hanger ending made me really excited to get my hands on the next book in this series. 

Overall Rating - 4 Stars

Find on: Goodreads Amazon

A Confession...

I have a shameful secret. Okay, it's not so shameful that I need to go into hiding but it is a secret that I never thought would become a reality. I used to read books. You see how I have bolded and underlined the used to part. Yep, that is my secret. I, the former bookworm, have not finished more than 5 books in the last 2 years.

Now, for the majority of people this would not be an upsetting fact, but I spent my childhood lying around reading books. Not playing video games or playing sports, but reading books. My local librarians knew me by name and let me know when they were ordering in new books so that I could have first dibs. We were tight. I was a dork.

I loved to read. I loved books from across all genres - fantasy, historical, romance, comedies - loved immersing myself in another worlds, with new friends and stories that would captivate me and help me escape my boring life in a small country town.

My love for reading didn't even wain when I moved 6 hours away to attend University. Even with the burden of course work, holding down a job and making time to party with my friends, I still made time to read the occasional book for pleasure. It was not until I graduated and starting working full time that my reading habits fell to an all-time low. It wasn't that I didn't have the time. I worked 9-5, I watch more television now than I ever did and honestly have no social life to speak of.

I can't even pinpoint the last time I picked up a book. I am going to just say I have read 5 books in the last two years because that seems like an acceptable number. In all honesty it could be less. Sure I have attempted to read a few more books than this. I can never seem to get through them. I think I have another 10 books sitting in my book case that have been read 25-50%. I cannot seem to focus. I used to pick-up a book and read for hours. My mom used to yell at me all the time for staying up past my bedtime reading (like she should I have been happy I was a huge nerd). Now I am just constantly distracted. I will start reading, look at my phone, play Candy Crush, remember that I haven't watched this week’s episode of The Blacklist, which turns into Vampire Diaries and morphs into some show about redneck Gypsy's. Weeks later I will remember that I was trying to read a book and the cycle begins all over again.

So I have decided that I am going to change. I was going to revert back into my bookworm self (the 15 year old me is cringing - who knew reading would be cool?). This is where this little blog comes in. I want something (and maybe some someone’s) to keep me accountable. My goal is to write a book review after I finish a book. I am honest, sarcastic and bitchy. I don't sugar coat things so perhaps people will enjoy what I have to say (yes I am speaking to you future reader).

In all honesty, what I hope to get out of this little experiment is to just enjoy reading again.

Wish me luck!