Top Ten Tuesday #1

Top Ten Tuesdays are created by The Broke and the Bookish

10 (er..6?) Characters I would Crush on If I was also a Fictional Character

Augustus Waters- The Fault in Our Stars 
Augustus is a fantastic crush worth character. I fall in love with him a little more every time. I'm not sure I could stand to take him away from Hazel though.

St. Claire - Anna and the French Kiss 
The story line in this book is just as sweet as this boy is! I always imagined him as super handsome too and he knows all about Paris. What isn't there to like?

Jace Wayland (or whatever we are calling him these days) - The Mortal Instruments Series 
Jace is that bad boy that you just do not want to be bad! He is just so attractive to me that I had a crush on him even though he is such a jerk in the beginning of City of Bones! The movie trailers have made me fall for Jace all over again though. It made me realize how much I need to read City of Bones again!

Will Herondale -The Infernal Devices 
Especially after finishing Clockwork Princess I don't know how I couldn't swoon over him! Will is one of my favorite Cassandra Clare characters and I would love to ride around in carriages in Victorian London with him.

Ethan Wate - Beautiful Creatures
Ethan is a boy that is after my heart. His inner dialogue is so honest and it translates into what he does and says so often. He is an all around great guy and he is so protective of Lena! Ethan is one of my favorite narrators that I have read this year and I imagine it would be easy to crush on him if I lived in Gatlin.

Captain Wentworth - Persuasion 
I have always loved Captain Wentworth the best out of Jane Austen's heroes  I'm not sure why (probably because I this was my first Austen book). Even so, Wentworth is just so swoonworthy. I think I like him because, unlike Darcy for example, he had to make something of himself. He was successful!

Howl - Howl's Moving Castle
I wasn't sure what I expected from this book, but falling in love with Howl wasn't part of the plan. He is so good hearted (wink) wizard even while he is trying to convince you he isn't. Its all so cute that I just couldn't help but fall for him.


Sorry I don't have 10 characters! I didn't want to force it and I've only really picked up on reading again in the past year so it was difficult to pick out 10 really crushworthy characters.

Friday Reads #1

Friday has arrived and I've started ton of books this week! Even though I've started a bunch I cannot put down the Infernal Devices Series Finale: Clockwork Princess! I am so excited that this book is finally here! I wanted to start reading it as soon as I picked it up but I actually had to go back and reread the end of Clockwork Prince before I got started on this.
So I just started this and I am dying to look at the inside cover with the family tree on it and to find out what happens to my favorite (well one of my favorite) Shadowhunting trios!

March In Review

So after going through a bit of a reading slump last month and only reading two books, I have made up for lost time!

Books I Finished This Month (8)  

1) Brisingr - Christopher Paolini
2) Inheritance - Christopher Paolini
            My Thoughts on this the Inheritance Cycle
3) Beautiful Creatures - Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
            My Goodreads Review

4) Witch Child - Celia Rees
 
5) Unnatural Exposure - Patricia Cornwell

6) Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien
 
7) Point of Origin  - Patricia Cornwell
   
8) A Clash of Kings - George R.R. Martin

9) Friends With Boys - Faith Erin Hicks

     

Books I Started This Month 

1) Clockwork Princess - Cassandra Clare

This is the final book in the Infernal Devices series and I'm around 50 pages in and I'm loving every second of it so far. I'm still trying to savor it though! 

2) The Two Towers - J.R.R. Tolkien 

3) Grave Secrets - Kathy Reichs 

Another forensic anthropologist that hunts down killers. I haven't read a Reichs book in a while and she is my favorite author of these types of books so I am diving right in! 

Whats New and Noteworthy in March? 

New Release I'm Excited About: 

Clockwork Princess was just released and if you haven't already started this series I would highly recommend it! Now you don't even have to wait for the next book to be released! This trilogy is set in Victorian England (one of my favorite time periods of history) and centers on the Shadowhunters of the London Institute and Tessa Grey, a new arrival from America who is searching for answers about her brother and herself. This series is a Prequel to the The Mortal Instruments series that is set in present day. (and is also amazing) The three books in the Infernal Devices Trilogy (Clockwork Angel, Clockwork Prince and Clockwork Princess)  even come in a Box Set now which is convenient because once you start you will not want to stop! 

Deals I Saw: 

Daughter of Smoke and Bone - Hardcover edition is now a bargain bin deal on Amazon

Gone - By Michael Grant  - Great Deal on the paperback edition! 

Angelfall- Susan Ee - Only $3.65 for a physical copy! 

**Anything I list was priced at the time I posted this all of them can change at any time! 

Inheritance Cycle Review

by Christopher Paolini 

The Inheritance cycle is the unforgettable, worldwide bestselling saga of one boy, one dragon, and a world of adventure. When Eragon finds a polished blue stone in the forest, he thinks it is the lucky discovery of a poor farm boy. But when the stone brings a dragon hatchling, Eragon soon realizes he has stumbled upon a legacy nearly as old as the Empire itself. Overnight his simple life is shattered, and he and his dragon, Saphira, are thrust into a perilous new world of destiny, magic, and power. Can Eragon take up the mantle of the legendary Dragon Riders? The fate of the Empire may rest in his hands. . . .

Brisingr

I've been waiting for Inheritance to come out for a long time and only recently was able to get my hands on the book. In the mean time I was reading the first three books in the series to remind me exactly what has been happening. (There are so many people, places and events to keep track of!)  When I read Brisingr I was about half way through it before I remembered why the book is so difficult to finish. Originally there were supposed to be three books in this series, but half way through writing this book Paolini decided this book had to be its own story.
I don't agree with this decision AT ALL. In a lot of ways I loved how Eragon and Saphira developed more of their own indepdent voices in this book, but there wasn't enough plot development to keep me interested during the 700 page book. (and then read another 700 page book to finish the story) The author focused on Saphira, Eragon and Roran in this book, but I thought there were other characters that could have a voice as well. I would have loved to have seen Arya have a voice. She is such a complex character and hearing her version of events would have been so interesting! Plus she is a much more mature character than Eragon! I found it frustrating that Paolini only switched perspectives between these few characters. Roran's perspective was all moaning about Katrina and killing people instead of advancing the plot. I was frustrated with this book until I finished it, but I still had hope that this story would end on a good note.
Rating 3/5 

Inheritance

The final book in this series, Inheritance, is just as thick as Brisingr. I have a lot of the same issues with this book as I did with the third one. Even so, I liked this book better. There are so many things I really liked about this book. I had a good many predictions about this book before I began and some of them came true while others didn't which was great! There were good plot points! There were things that threw me for a loop! I was excited. I should also mention that I finished this book in three days, neglected my school work to read it and stayed up until 1am to finish this book. I was so excited to read this and find out what happened between the King and Eragon! Then I did.....
The end of this story was one of the biggest disappointments I've had in a while. I just was expecting so much and for the story to redeem itself and to make up for all this time I've spend reading all the description and it just didn't. It fell completely flat for me.
There are three reasons why I think this ending did not work for me
1 ) It seemed like Paolini was trying to set up for a sequel series? I'm not sure, but there was a lot of talk about the future and what was going to happen that maybe he was setting up to have a series set up in the future once the world had changed? That's the feel I got from it at least. (Even though there hasn't been any talk about this and I didn't really want one) There wasn't enough of a solid end point for me. There seemed like there was too much left open.
2) I had too many unanswered questions. I won't pose them here because of spoilers, but there were a lot of things that I still had questions about.
3) It seemed like no one was happy at the end of this series! When you learn about characters and care about them you want them to be happy, and there seemed to be no happiness in sight at the end of this book. I thought there wasn't enough rewards for the protagonists for what they suffered through.
Rating 3/5

This Series as a Whole

There is A LOT of description in these books. It is overwhelming and frankly annoying. Towards the end I stared skipping paragraphs of battles, scenery and people just because there is so much unnecessary detail. As a reader I was exhausted from hearing about every step of every process that Eragon took and all the details about the places he went. I was tired of this book before I got to the end, but I was still eager to find out what happened next....
The first two books were defiantly stronger to me. They had plots that moved a long faster. I liked the character development throughout the series. I thought Eragon defiantly changed from farm boy to Dragon Rider till the end which was good. He advanced as a character and grew up. He could have done more growing in my opinion but young characters are often like that.
Still I'm not discouraging anyone from readings these books. I think they can still worth reading if you are wiling to stick with them even though I have issues with them.
Rating of Series: 3/5

February in Review

So I'm going to start using the In Review section of this to not just list the books I read this month and talk about them. Instead I'm going to list books I read this month and give them a rating. I'll link my comments about that are here, on Youtube or on Goodreads. I'm also going to post about books I'm excited for or have heard about in the past month. I'm also going to post about things I have started reading or given up on. Hopefully this turns into more of a month in review than a list of what I read this month.

Books I Finished: (2) 

A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness 

Rating 5/5 

Review of This

Howl's Moving Castle -  Daine Wynne Jones

Rating - 4/5 

Review of This

Books I Started: 

Brisingr - Christopher Paolini (Inheritance #3) 

I'm currently about half way through this book. I've read it before and I'm starting to remember why it was such a drag to finish. The plot isstalled right now I'm frustrated with it. 

A Clash of Kings - George R.R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire #2) 

I'm barely one hundred pages in but liking it so far. My problem is I read Game of Thrones about 6-8 months ago so I'm having trouble remembering exactly what happened with each character. 

Unnatural Exposure - Patricia Cornwell 

I'm not completely captured by this yet even though I'm half way through the book. 

Beautiful Creatures - Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (Caster Chronicles #1) 

Loving this! Another book I'm half way through, but this one is keeping me on my toes. I love the descriptions of Gatlin and Lena is fantastically mysterious. Ethan is one of my favorite narrators since Hazel in The Fault in Our Stars. 

Opal - Jennifer Armentrout (Lux #3) 

I'm actually not as impressed with this one as I was with the first two? I'm no where close to giving up on it but I'm flying through this one like I did the first two books. 

I started a ton of books this month and hopefully I'll finish some of them next month. I've been busy with coursework and all of these books are 500+ pages so they are taking me a long time to get through!

Review: Howl's Moving Castle

by: Diane Wynne Jones

Description: Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the ever-moving castle in the hills: the Wizard Howl's castle. To untangle the enchantment, Sophie must handle the heartless Howl, strike a bargain with a fire demon, and meet the Witch of the Waste head-on. Along the way, she discovers that there's far more to Howl—and herself—than first meets the eye.

Review: Howl's Moving Castle is an amazing fantasy story. After finishing A Monster Calls, I was looking for something light and fantastical. This turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. I think one of my favorite aspects of this book is that the author creates a world that is equal parts fantastic and realistic. One this I loved about this story was that even though there is a lot of different scenery, the author doesn't spend a ton of time describing the outside world. She puts all the focus on the castle and I fell in love with the castle fairly quickly. Another great aspect are the characters! Howl, Michael, Calcifer and Sophie are a great group. I fell in love with Howl even though he comes across as selfish at first. Sophie is a character that I root for through the whole book. When she is working in the hat shop I wanted her to get out and be adventurous because I knew she could do so much more! The curse gives Sophie a new life with Howl, Michael and Calcifer who are all fantastic. The humor in this book is quarky, but I think it is a big part of why I loved the book so much I loved this book and I would love to read it all over again soon.

Rating: 4/5 

Review: A Monster Calls

by Patrick Ness 

Description: The monster showed up after midnight. As they do. But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting. He's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming...This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor. It wants the truth.

Review: 

I loved this book. I read it in an afternoon. It is a simple story but emotional and touching. It is gorgeous, the illustrations and design on the book are fantastic, and beautifully written. The monster is an amazing character and its voice is incredible. It is an intense story with a lot of emotions that hit you throughout the book. I cannot praise this book enough. I loved the reading experience and the illustrations make it unique. 

Going into this book I knew that there was a certain predictability to it. Even so, this plot is fabulous. I think it resonates so well with the audience because it is easy to relate to the pain Conor is going through whether you are a child or an adult. The story is tragic but beautiful and I think anyone could read it and enjoy it. 

Who Did I Hear about this from?

Kayley Reads: https://www.youtube.com/user/kayleyreads/featured

Books and Quills: https://www.youtube.com/user/booksandquills

January in Review

1) Would I Lie to You? - Cecily von Ziegesar

Rating 1/5 

I'm very tired of these stories and after this one I don't think I'm going to be reading anymore of them. The story is repetitive and boring. The characters don't change and they are all very selfish and self-centered. Even characters that I liked in the beginning I loath now. 

 2) Shatterglass - Tamora Pierce

Rating 5/5 

I flew through this book. During this series the four young mages have a fallen into a familiar pattern and each one finds a student that they must learn to teach. This story is all about Tris and I think she is one of the more mysterious and complex characters in the Circle Opens series so I was excited to read her book. After Daja's book I was hoping I would be able to finish this one fast and I absolutely did. The story keeps moving and it feel more like a detective story with more urgency than Daja's book did. I think that is one of the things that wouldn't let me put this book down. Pierce's writing is fabulous as always and she always fits something original into her stories (like the lightening globes that are important in this story) that don't interfere with the world she has already built. I think this is a great conclusion to this series of stories about the four.  

3) Opal - Jennifer Armentrout 

Rating 5/5 

I really enjoy this series so far. It is intense, thing keep happening, but it isn't out of control. I think the tension between Kat and Dawson of course keep things interesting but after this book I see less of the parallels to Twilight than I did in the first book. I like the two of them and their hot and cold relationship is very fun to read. I liked that more characters were involved in this book other than just Dee, Kat and Dawson. The first book I flew through but this one is much longer and I had to spend more time with it. I loved it none the less. I will definitly be reading the third book soon because I need to know what happens next. There is also a prequel out and another book to come I think? 

4) Cause of Death 

5) Eldest 

These last two are rather old popular titles that I read but I don't necessarily think I need to give my thoughts on. Both of them were great though and I will continue to read both series. 

December in Review

Hello there!

I'm sorry I didn't post anything for a while. The end of the semester and the Holidays really tied me down but  I've been on a bit of a reading streak recently and I finished four books since the end of the semester which put me over my goal of 50 books for this year! 

1)The Circle Opens - Cold Fire (Daja's Book) - Tamora Pierce

Rating - 4/5 

It took me forever to read this but that isn't a reflection on Tamora Pierce's writing or this book. The four young mage's seem to be learning that they are teachers as well as masters in this series. Daja has always been my favorite character in this foursome and she is just as strong on her own in this book. She discovers magic in a pair of twins while traveling North with Frostpine during the winter. While trying to find teachers and guiding her new students, Daja also must find who is starting dangerous fires in a town mostly made of wood.

I loved this story. It was sweet and sad. I think this book really shows us even more about Daja because I think she sometimes gets overpowered by the other three even though I think she is a fabulous character and very powerful. She is a terrific heroine and she is so so strong both in her magic and her character.

Now I move onto Tris's story which might be a struggle for me but I enjoy the writing, the world and the magic so much I'm not sure I could ever be upset to find more book that I have to read by Tamora Pierce.

2) The Hobbit - J.R.R.- Tolkien

Rating - 4/5

I really loved this book overall but there were elements that were missing for me.

Bilbo Baggins was awesome. He was an excellant character and I really enjoyed Tolkien's writing style where he talks to the reader as he writes. It is a unique writing style and it takes a little while to get used to it but I enjoyed it very much and I think it gives the reader even more information without always stopping to make room for it in the story.

The adventure itself it so wonderful and so interesting. The story follows Bilbo as he becomes the fourteenth member and the burglar for a company of dwarves who are trying to win back their homeland from the dragon Smaug (who is another awesome character). This is the story of their journey there and back again.

 I think something major that was missing was character development for many of the dwarves! I felt that through much of the book I knew nothing about them even though they were a major part of this fantastical journey. At the end I was a little disappointed. After all the adventure, the ride home wasn't as interesting. I love the story but I felt like a lot of description was missing. I found out later that there are appendixes that give a lot more information about the world and I hope I can read some of that soon.

3) Obsidian - Jennifer Armentrout 

Rating 5/5 

I've been waiting to read this book for a while and it was on sale for Kindle for $3 and how does a girl say no to a sexy alien. I started this book in around nine right before I went to bed but I never looked back at the clock until I had finished every extra that Jennifer Armentrout had to offer and it was 1 am. 

There is a Twilight feel to this book. Girl meets hot guy and boy isn't human. He saves her life a couple of times. Perky sister is her best friend. As I read I noted the similarities as I went but they didn't bother me. Even so, I think this story works a lot better. Katy and Daemon's banter had me laughing out loud. Their insta-love is a little annoying but a lot of stories work like that in YA now. There are a lot of elements that work in this story though. I thought the alien story was unique and interesting. Its kind of a typical paranormal YA romance but I really enjoyed it. I thought the extra scenes in Daemon's point of view were excellent. I want to read even more from his POV. Katy is a great character and I loved that she had a passion for books. That element made me love her and really connect with her. 

I couldn't put this book down and I have already purchased the next book in the series. I cannot wait to have time to read it.

4) From Potter's Field - Patricia Cornwell

Rating - 3/5

Overall I like this end to the Temple Gault story line I was getting used to the murder, problem, solve problem and catching the bad guy progression of Cornwell's books and this mixed things up a little. Overall I think it was done rather well and I really like Kay Scarpetta as a character. I don't have a whole lot to say about this book though other than it was a gripping plot that ended this string of books on a good note. I am excited to read the next one and see what is in store. 

Sorry November!

Sorry guys I've been incredibly busy that I haven't finished a single book this month! Its been insane and stressful so hopefully next month I'll be able to make up for it. I'm not making a Month Ahead video this month because I have no idea what I'm going to read once I get started.

The Month Ahead - November

Books Listed: 

The Name of the Star - Maureen Johnson 

Eldest - Christopher Paolini 

Cry of the Icemark- Stuart Hill 

Cold Fire - Tamora Pierce

Seraphina - Rachel Hartman 

Hopefully I will read these!