Every Last Word mini review

Every Last Word
by Tamara Ireland Stone
hardcover
368 pages
my rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis via Goodreads 

If you could read my mind, you wouldn’t be smiling.

Samantha McAllister looks just like the rest of the popular girls in her junior class. But hidden beneath the straightened hair and expertly applied makeup is a secret that her friends would never understand: Sam has Purely-Obsessional OCD and is consumed by a stream of dark thoughts and worries that she can’t turn off.

Second-guessing every move, thought, and word makes daily life a struggle, and it doesn’t help that her lifelong friends will turn toxic at the first sign of a wrong outfit, wrong lunch, or wrong crush. Yet Sam knows she’d be truly crazy to leave the protection of the most popular girls in school. So when Sam meets Caroline, she has to keep her new friend with a refreshing sense of humor and no style a secret, right up there with Sam’s weekly visits to her psychiatrist.

Caroline introduces Sam to Poet’s Corner, a hidden room and a tight-knit group of misfits who have been ignored by the school at large. Sam is drawn to them immediately, especially a guitar-playing guy with a talent for verse, and starts to discover a whole new side of herself. Slowly, she begins to feel more “normal” than she ever has as part of the popular crowd . . . until she finds a new reason to question her sanity and all she holds dear.

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My thoughts:

This was wonderful! Probably one of my favorite contemporaries to date. Cute and a little fluffy but it had its fair share of dark moments.

I was hooked from page 1 and I never wanted to stop reading. Sam was so endearing and my heart broke for her so many times while watching her battle her OCD and trying not to let it affect her everyday life.

One thing I really loved was how the chapter headers were set up. Part of Sams OCD was an obsession with the number 3, so the title of the book is three words, all the chapter titles are 3 words. Another thing Sam did was while making a playlist she would pick out a song that was the defining song for the playlist, within that song she would study the lyrics and pick out three words that would define that song/playlist and that was the title for the playlist. The chapters were titled the same way and I loved that! It added a special touch to how everything was set up.

I also loved AJ and if Tamara wanted to write another book centered around him, I would devour it in a heartbeat! He was a really interesting character and I really wanted more of him.

I loved Poets Corner and I found myself wishing that my school had something similar, I would have loved to have been a part of the top secret poetry club.

I really want to say more about this but I don’t want to spoil anything…I almost feel like you should go into this book not knowing too much about it.

Queen of Shadows Review

Queen of Shadows
Sarah J Maas
Sep 1^st 2015
Hardcover
648 pages
my rating: 5 out of 5 stars
❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Synopsis via Goodreads:

The queen has returned.

Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she’s at last returned to the empire—for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past…

She has embraced her identity as Aelin Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen. But before she can reclaim her throne, she must fight.

She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die for her. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen’s triumphant return.

The fourth volume in the New York Times bestselling series continues Celaena’s epic journey and builds to a passionate, agonizing crescendo that might just shatter her world.

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Well hello there!

How are you today? I would like to introduce you to one of my new favorites.

Queen of Shadows!

Queen of Shadows was almost everything that I wanted and more! It was my highest anticipated book of the year! And now book 5 is already my highest anticipated book for 2016.
The only thing I wished would have happened is that my ship happened. It didn’t. 😥 😥 😥

Sad face 😦  I loved seeing Celaena and Chaol together. But since she’s shed the Celaena identity and is truly Aelin now it makes sense, still it makes me sad, because he’s one of my biggest book crushes.

Still loved it though!

So Queen of Shadows is the 4^th book in the Throne of Glass series and I loved it so much Throne of Glass is one of my favorite series of all time. The beginning was a little slow, but I found that momentum built up fast and for the last 200 or 300 pages I just flew right through them. This book brought out all of my feels, I was happy, I cried, I squealed in joy, I felt moments of rage. God it was awesome!

Characters I loved
Aelin
Manon
Lysandra
Nesryn
Aestrin
I loved those five so much. I really want to see them like get together for a really sassy tea party and then just go out and kick a bunch of ass.
Aelin/Celaena I just love her, if I could bring any book character to life for a day, I would so choose her we could spend an awesome day shopping and reading, it’d be a blast.

I was almost surprised by how much I loved Lysandra, I didn’t like her in the Assassins Blade prequels, but I loved her right off the bat, she had amazing character development and I admire her discipline when it came to restraint and hiding her emotions. That can’t be easy to especially given the circumstances.

Nesryn was awesome, she was a great addition to the group and from the moment where she was first introduced I loved her, I knew she was going to be a great character with her calm and steady personality. She had such a grounding effect on everyone and she saved everyone’s asses a couple times.

Manon and Aestrin, Manon was my favorite point of view to read in Heir of Fire, I’m always anxious to get back to her storyline. Aestrin shocked me a lot with her rebellion in this book you really got to know her better in this book. And I want more. Actually if Sarah woke up tomorrow and wanted to write more prequels or a spinoff of Manon and/or Lysandra I would support that 110%.

There were a lot of twists and turns that happened that I really did not see coming. At all. I don’t want to spoil anything, but seriously this story did not go in the way I expected it too, granted I didn’t give it too much thought since I like being surprised with storylines. I haven’t theorized how the series is going to end and I’m not going to. I am so excited for the next installment and kind of devastated that I have to wait a whole year!

Favorite Quotes:

“Let’s go rattle the stars”

“She was the heir of fire. She was fire, and light, and ash, and embers. She was Aelin Fireheart, and she bowed for no one and nothing, save the crown that was hers by blood and survival and triumph.”

“She was a whirling cloud if death, a queen of shadows, and these men were already carrion.”

The Bronze Horseman book review

The Bronze Horseman
by Paullina Simons
paperback
Sept 8, 2009
810 pages
my rating: 5 out 5 stars

Synopsis via Goodreads

The golden skies, the translucent twilight, the white nights, all hold the promise of youth, of love, of eternal renewal. The war has not yet touched this city of fallen grandeur, or the lives of two sisters, Tatiana and Dasha Metanova, who share a single room in a cramped apartment with their brother and parents. Their world is turned upside down when Hitler’s armies attack Russia and begin their unstoppable blitz to Leningrad.

Yet there is light in the darkness. Tatiana meets Alexander, a brave young officer in the Red Army. Strong and self-confident, yet guarding a mysterious and troubled past, he is drawn to Tatiana—and she to him. Starvation, desperation, and fear soon grip their city during the terrible winter of the merciless German siege. Tatiana and Alexander’s impossible love threatens to tear the Metanova family apart and expose the dangerous secret Alexander so carefully protects—a secret as devastating as the war itself—as the lovers are swept up in the brutal tides that will change the world and their lives forever.

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So it turns out, that when you read an 810-page book, you have a lot to talk about. I think this is longer than what I usually write out. I also feel like I could have kept going.

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A Thousand Pieces of You mini review

A Thousand Pieces of You
by Claudia Gray
Hardcover
368 pages
published November 4th 2014
my rating 4 out 5 stars

Cloud Atlas meets Orphan Black in this epic dimension-bending trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray about a girl who must chase her father’s killer through multiple dimensions.

Marguerite Caine’s physicist parents are known for their groundbreaking achievements. Their most astonishing invention, called the Firebird, allows users to jump into multiple universes—and promises to revolutionize science forever. But then Marguerite’s father is murdered, and the killer—her parent’s handsome, enigmatic assistant Paul— escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him.

Marguerite refuses to let the man who destroyed her family go free. So she races after Paul through different universes, always leaping into another version of herself. But she also meets alternate versions of the people she knows—including Paul, whose life entangles with hers in increasingly familiar ways. Before long she begins to question Paul’s guilt—as well as her own heart. And soon she discovers the truth behind her father’s death is far more sinister than she expected.

A Thousand Pieces of You explores an amazingly intricate multi-universe where fate is unavoidable, the truth elusive, and love the greatest mystery of all.

Ruin and Rising book review

Ruin and Rising
by Leigh Bardugo
Hardcover
417 pages
June 17^th 2014

Synopsis:

The capital has fallen. The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Now the nation’s fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.

Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova’s amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling’s secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction–and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.

I enjoyed Ruin and Rising the most out of the whole trilogy, the whole series was enjoyable and not only would I recommend it but its one that I will definitely re-read.

Siege and Storm review

Siege and Storm
By Leigh Bardugo
paperback
435 pages
Published July 17^th, 2014
my rating: 4 out 5 stars

Synopsis:
Darkness never dies.
Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land, all while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. But she can’t outrun her past or her destiny for long.
The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling’s game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her–or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm.

The Rose Society review

The Rose Society
by Marie Lu
Hardcover
Published October 13^th 2015
395 pages
my rating: 5 out 5 stars

Synopsis:
Once upon a time, a girl had a father, a prince, a society of friends. Then they betrayed her, and she destroyed them all.

Adelina Amouteru’s heart has suffered at the hands of both family and friends, turning her down the bitter path of revenge. Now known and feared as the White Wolf, she and her sister flee Kenettra to find other Young Elites in the hopes of building her own army of allies. Her goal: to strike down the Inquisition Axis, the white-cloaked soldiers who nearly killed her.

But Adelina is no heroine. Her powers, fed only by fear and hate, have started to grow beyond her control. She does not trust her newfound Elite friends. Teren Santoro, leader of the Inquisition, wants her dead. And her former friends, Raffaele and the Dagger Society, want to stop her thirst for vengeance. Adelina struggles to cling to the good within her. But how can someone be good, when her very existence depends on darkness?

Bestselling author Marie Lu delivers another heart-pounding adventure in this exhilarating sequel to The Young Elites.

 

My review:

Shadow and Bone review

Shadow and Bone
by Leigh Bardugo
Paperback
372 pages
published: May 7^th 2013
My Rating: 4 stars
Synopsis:

Alina Starkov doesn’t expect much from life. Orphaned by the Border Wars, she is sure of only one thing: her best friend, Mal–and her inconvenient crush on him. Until the day their army regiment enters the Fold, a swath of unnatural darkness crawling with monsters. When their convoy is attacked and Mal is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power not even she knew existed.

Ripped from everything she knows, Alina is taken to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling. With Alina’s extraordinary power in his arsenal, he believes they can finally destroy the Fold. Now Alina must find a way to master her untamed gift and somehow fit into her new life without Mal by her side. But nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. As the threat to the kingdom mounts and her dangerous attraction to the Darkling grows, Alina will uncover a secret that could tear her heart–and her country–in two.

Beautiful Disaster review

Beautiful Disaster
by Jamie McGuire
paperback
416 pages
Published August 14^th 2012
my rating 3 out 5 stars

Synopsis:
The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University’s Walking One-Night Stand.
Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby wants-and needs-to avoid. He spends his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way Travis has no idea that he has met his match.

The Martian book review

The Martian
by Andy Weir
My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis:
Six days ago astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

Now he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm forces his crew to evacuate the planet while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded on MAr’s surface, with no way to signal Earth that he’s alive. And even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone years before a rescue could arrive.
Chances are, though, Mark won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to kill him first.
Armed with nothing but his ingenuity, his engineering skills and strength, Mark embarks on a dogged quest to stay alive. But will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?