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Showing posts from November, 2017

November Wrap Up

- FireBlood by Elly Blake (YA Fantasy) 5/5 AmAzInG! Even better than the first book! I know many of you are worried about the love triangle, don't be. The story is well told, beautifully written. Ruby must go to the land of Firebloods to both learn to control her gift and to find a way to destroy the mimax but she ends up discovering a lot more than that, both about the curse and about herself. - Beautiful Player by Christina Lauren (book 3) - Beautiful by Christina Lauren  (book 5) (New Adult) 5/5 Definitely the funniest of all books in the series so far, I laughed and laughed. Will is our resident player, a different woman whenever he feels like it. Hannah is the 'I work too hard to have a life kind of girl'. When their paths cross you expect Hannah to go head over hills silly, but it is our funny boy that goes all lovely dub. Its a sweet and fun read. (New Adult) 4/5 I loved this!!!! All my beloved characters from the previous books got page time. It was so frea

Without Merit by Colleen Hoover - 2.3/5 Stars

I don't really know exactly what to say about this book. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either... Much ado about nothing  seems the best way to describe the whole book for me. Too many secrets, too much crazy, too many issues... and yet it all felt flat. Whatever message she was trying to convey was lost in a sea of random thoughts and actions.   I liked It Ends with Us because it was very raw and realistic. It took one major issue and tackled it head on.  I am confused about Without Merit because it was meant to be raw and realistic and it ended up being the exact opposite.  The blurb: The Voss family is anything but normal. They live in a repurposed church, newly baptized Dollar Voss. The once cancer-stricken mother lives in the basement, the father is married to the mother’s former nurse, the little half-brother isn’t allowed to do or eat anything fun, and the eldest siblings are irritatingly perfect. Then, there’s Merit. Merit Voss collects trop

All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater- 5 Stars are not enough

Absolutely Brilliant!!!!!!! I am delighted that I got to meet her for this book's signing, it makes it that much more special. I told her at the signing my favorite work by her was The Scorpio Races, well... not anymore! This was amazing. A perfect story, at a perfect pace, with amazingly well written characters. Sooo many amazing quotes too! I will be quoting this book for weeks 😄 The Blurb: Here is a thing everyone wants: a miracle. Here is a thing everyone fears: what it takes to get one. Any visitor to Bicho Raro, Colorado is likely to find a landscape of dark saints, forbidden love, scientific dreams, miracle-mad owls, estranged affections, one or two orphans, and a sky full of watchful desert stars. At the heart of this place you will find the Soria family, who all have the ability to perform unusual miracles. And at the heart of this family are three cousins longing to change its future:  Beatriz , the girl without feelings, who wants only to be free

An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson- 4.9/5

This was AdOrAbLe! Our main female character is Isobel, she is an artist, a painter!- needless to say I was sold at that point already- Every detail and description of Isobel's work was accurate and beautifully written. She paints portraits for the fair folk, since they cannot. The fair folk cannot do anything considered craft- painting, cooking, dress making... She is amazing at what she does and has managed to protect  and support herself and her family through it. There is even a rather powerful protection spell in her house put there as payment by one of her most frequent patrons- Gadfly. He is charming and I really liked him. I figured out what he was up to about two thirds in the book and I think you will too. But that didn't make the story any less interesting. One day our other main character pays Isobel a visit. Rook, the Autumn Prince. Faeries don't have emotions, or at least are not meant too. Love perhaps, but that is rare. But Isobel sees sorrow in

Clipped Wings & Inked Armor by Helena Hunting - 5/5 Stars and 3/5 Stars

Clipped Wings   5/5 by Helena Hunting was the perfect New Adult Romance novel. It had the passion and the drama you would expect from an NA book.  We have Tenley, a lovely girl broken by the events of a year past. But not a little broken, she is shattered. I would be in her shoes too... Finding out what happened to her is devastating.  Our boy is Hayden. He has the bad boy look, all tattoos and piercings. That being said, he is one of the sweetest NA males I have read in a while. He is also broken, the tragedies of his past follow him as well. It is the mutual understanding they have of each others pain that makes their relationship unique and beautiful to read.  Hayden is a tattoo artist and their relationship truly begins when Tenley decides to display her pain through ink. A massive tattoo in her back, on top of her old scars. Hayden has tattoos he chose for that same reason and he knows this won't fix her. Her pain is a year old, he has struggled with his for 7

Fallen Movie- 3.5/5 Stars

Doing something different today- writing a review on a book turned movie. The ever so cheesy Fallen Series by Lauren Kate was the very first ya fantasy I read and fell in love with. That was 8 years ago now ... time flies!   To me, it is pretty straight forward- if you haven't read the books the movie will probably feel too cheesy and with not enough depth. You will struggle to connect to the characters and the story and acting will both feel forced (even if that isn't the case). I will recommend you only watch this if you have read the books and you liked them! And that my dearies, go against everything I believe... Because you see... I almost always hate movies based on books I loved. I purposely only watch book based movies if I have not read the books, and I do not read the books for movies I loved either. That is so as not to destroy a book and/or movie I have come to love.  I realize this makes me sound rather harsh, but I rather avoid disappointment and sadl

Red Rising by Pierce Brown - 2/5 stars

I started writing this review before I finished the book. Because that my lovely peeps was more exciting than the book itself... I finished the book, so it is not so terrible I want to kill myself, but it is not as amazing as promised either. I love dystopia! And thanks to some amazing writers such as Jay Kristoff, Marissa Meyer, Claudia Grey, etc., I have also come to love YA Sci-Fi. And because of that, I was looking forward to the combination of both genres. In that sense, Red rising delivered. Pierce Brown managed to effortlessly combined dystopia and Sci-Fi. Here is however my main problem with Red Rising: it suffers from the Mary Sue syndrome (in this case Gary Sue, the male version). For those who don't know the term Mary Sue is used for cliche ya characters that are idolized by all and seemingly perfect.  Our Mr Perfect- Darrow, lost his wife- Mrs Perfect, and is seeking revenge. He finds solace in a group of people that want to bring down the elites who enslave

It ends with us by Colleen Hoover- 4.9/5 stars

The reality of this book has left me speechless. I have been staring at this computer screen for a good hour now trying to find the right words. And that is after I spent a good 6 hours in my couch reading it. This is not the kind of book that can easily be put down to be read later, there are no good spots to stop. Once you start it becomes incredibly difficult to take a break.  The story is complex . It is raw . It is honest . It is sad . It is painful .  It shows the reality of human nature. The reality that we are not black and white, simply good or bad. The vast majority of us fall somewhere in the middle- people that make mistakes. It Ends with Us is told through Lilly's eyes. It is told in the present tense but we also get glimpses into her past as she reads journal entries from when she was a teen. Lilly is brave and strong. But also as vulnerable as any other woman out there. I was rather impressed with her character, with her sense of self and her ability t

FireBlood by Elly Blake 5/5 Stars

Can someone please explain to me why this book is not better known? I loved every single page. FireBlood was even better than the FrostBlood! I was worried going into it that there would be a love triangle. I LOVED Arcus and Ruby, they are perfect for each other. The romance was superb in FrostBlood - at least as far as ya fantasies go, so I was petrified of the prospect of a love triangle.  Obviously I am not going to tell you exactly what happens, but... Does Ruby gets rather close to Kai? Yes, that is obvious by the book blurb . But by the time she does two things will have happened already:  One, you will feel her loneliness in the Frost Court and understand her need and desire to have friends, to have people that are like her and that understand her. Arcus loves her and she loves him, but he is the King of a court that hates her, that is afraid of her, and that treats her rather poorly because of it.  And second, you will love Kai! You will still miss Arcus and wa

Beautiful Player (Book 3) and Beautiful (Book 5) by Christina Lauren- 5/5 and 4/5 respectively

As some of you may know the Beautiful series is my current obsession! Each book in this series has been better than the other. Beautiful Player was the funnest! I burst out laughing more times than I can count. Check out the Book Blurb here:  Goodreads- B. Player We know a bit about Will by now from Beautiful Stranger. He is a Player. He schedules his 'girlfriends' just as easily and as simply as one would scheduled daily work outs. He is also loyal, friendly, and a lot of fun. It is no surprise that Jensen, his childhood friend, suggests that his sister Hannah contact Will in order to get out, meet people, make friends... When Will meets Hannah, his friends baby sister, he takes her under his wings and promises to teach her to have some fun and a better work-life balance. He introduces her to Chloe and Hannah, takes her out for runs and drinks.  But, Hannah is not what Will expected. She is not the shy baby sister anymore. She is a full grown woman, with no fil