Review: Carry On

★★★★☆

I'm glad that I had the time and motivation to end my journey with Simon now.

I started Carry On in November and thought it was going to take make just a couple of days before I finished it. In reality it took me over two months!

***************************************************

Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who's ever been chosen. Honestly, I don't even know how he got through his education to his last year. He can't do normal spells and then when something dangerous in going on, he just ''goes off''. In other words, explodes (and sets everything on fire). But there's something charming about Simon and his clumsiness. He doesn't think like an aristocrat or think he actually is the most valuable asset to the World of Mages.

Baz. I don't know what to say about him. He's awfully a handsome and a vampire. His mother was the headmistress before the Mage. He just is the opposite if Simon. When Simon doesn't know what to do, Baz knows. When Simon can't do something, Baz can. They're completing each other all the while they claim to hate and plot to destroy the other.

At the beginning I couldn't dive into the story, so to me it felt like it dragged a lot. Half way through the plot picked up pace and it started moving better. The last hundred pages were pure perfection. Things I thought would be real awkward in real life weren't on the paper and that just amazed me a lot.

But one thing is sure: the words that sum up the book perfectly are Carry On.

Review: The Here and Now

                              ★★☆☆☆

 Wow. I don't know where to start. Should I start with the good or the bad?

I'll start with what I did not like in The Here and Now.

1. No plot.
this book would've been a hundred pages long if there wouldn't be anything to fill the blank places. Yeah, no I know the names of some card games and how awkward the talk of sex that openly would actually be in real life.

2. What characters?
There definitely were characters, but I did not connect with them at all. Which makes me kind of sad, since without great characters the book can't be a great one. I can't even describe how they look like. All I know that the main couple had an insta-love and that's it. No real love nor the actual emotion could be felt.

3. Future or past?
I have to say that for the first hundred or so pages I couldn't say that was Prenna from the future or the past. Not before she said/thought it straightly; ''I'm from the future.'' It might be just because I was careless while reading and missed it earlier.

4. The ending.
Crap. I don't even want to talk about the ending. It was so subdued. No emotions just dumping all the characters and saying the end. Ugh.

What actually liked?

I likes that Ann Brashares had created a futuristic world where  everything was in a puddle of mud. And then the time travelers tried to fix it by changing the past. That made me think that the present day is also important, not just the future we work so hard towards.

What I'm confused of:

The date 17th of May 2014. It was traveled through the story nicely and everything was build around it. Still, I think that there was no real use of it. I could've been left out.

Now I'm starting to think that maybe I should've given this book only one star, but I liked the beginning, so I'm gonna stick to the two stars.

Review: Eleanor & Park

'''Because...' he said quietly, looking at his desk, 'because people want to remember what it's like to be young? And in love?'''

                       ★★★★★

Eleanor & Park gave me shivers from the very first page. The first page defines the mood to the book, and making me almost cry on the first page... Well, the only thing that was on my mind, was why? Why would the story lead up to that situation in the end? Could it still end differently or was it doomed to have a heart-breaking ending?

Eleanor is the new kid. She moved back to her mom and Step dad's place after her step dad had banished her a year earlier. Her step dad, Richie, is a total ass. The whole family is afraid of him and they have no freedom or money to do anything in their lives. Eleanor wears too old, too big and too noticeable clothes.
 Eleanor wants to be herself, not anyone else. Not even to share a resemblance with another person. And when she looks like someone else she gets really antsy and wants to run from the situation. I think that her anxiety and need to be her own person is because she hasn't ever been able to do anything to help herself, and not being able to make decisions of what you do in your life is horrible.
Another thing that at first look you couldn't believe of Eleanor. She is shy. Like, really, really shy. Although her clothes beg her to be noticed, inside she just wants to disappear. Many people who read Eleanor & Park might disagree with me, but to me Eleanor is shy.

Park is the kid whose mom is from Korea. He has a little brother and seemingly perfect, happy family life. Or at least to Eleanor his family is perfect. Park wears only black, reads comics, listens and mixes tapes. He tries to learn how to drive a stick-shift.
Park is not the popular guy, nor is he the hated guy. He's just the guy in between. Wanting to go unnoticed, living his own life. He has succeeded until some girl with red hair and freckles got in the school bus. Park tries to ignore Eleanor, but it's hard. Her looks just beg him to notice.
Park. How to describe Park? He tries to be nice to everyone, but he has a bad temper when somebody insults someone close to him.

Their journey together starts from the school bus, sharing comics and not talking at all. It ends also. The journey in between is full of growing, exploring and pain. They grew from the pain they found while they explored their pasts, presents and futures.

This book was not a happy book. So if you're looking for something light to read, then don't. This book contains so many emotions that sometimes I had to put it down and continue the next day. It's rough to read it, but in the end, you are glad you did.

Thank you again, Rainbow Rowell, for such an amazing book.

December Wrap-Up

2015 is over and it's time to start 2016, but first the books I read during December:

Yeah, three. I must say, I'm ashamed, but what can you do when you've got the world's worst reading slump?

And since it's January and the start of 2016 it's time to set your Goodreads 2016 Reading Challenge goal! I set mine on 100, but if I'm really fast, I'll up it to 120. Only time will show that.

Review: The Kiss of Deception (The Remnant Chronicles #1)

'' The good ones don't run away, Lia.''

★★★★★

 Holy moly, what did I just read?! I was expecting a really good book with a great plot twist, but what I got was something else. Something awesome. Something that is titled greatly.
The Kiss of Deception lives up to its name.

The protagonist, Princess Arabella Celestine Idris Jezelia, the first daughter of the House of Morrighan, is a seventeen-year-old girl from the kingdom of Morrighan. She possesses the gift, which every first daughter possesses, but what is the gift, we know not. The book starts on her wedding day when she is wed to an unknown prince from the land of Dalbreck. Not wanting to be married to a stranger she escapes with her maid Pauline and together they make a journey to Pauline's childhood town. Where they start new lives and work as waitresses in an inn. Little they know what consequences their escape has caused.
After the wedding's been called off, the Prince of Dalbreck packs his saddlebags and tracks Lia down. But he doesn't reveal himself to Lia, and Lia has no idea she has befriended her ex-fiancee.
The same time, from the land of Venda, an assassin has been sent on a mission to kill Lia. To prevent a much-needed alliance between Dalbreck and Morrighan.

When the three collide, Lia unaware of the men and the men knowing Lia's true identity, the race towards the inevitable end starts. Who ends up falling in love with who? And more importantly, is the calling of duty worth of betraying your love?

Personally, I loved this book! I'm so glad to have picked this one up. I've been slumping for a while and before this, I haven't really read anything after September. But this one, oh this one, Wow.

First of all: the base on which Pearson has created the book is just great. All the stories and legends and songs and traditions, they make the book come alive, they make it feel real. I really liked the endings of chapters. Most of them had few verses or short stories that really might not have made sense at the time they are presented them but in the end the realisation strikes, and hard.

The characters were awesome. Not much development happened during the book, Lia might have grown harder and lost the edge of her stubbornness. I can't tell any more of the character's because they are the root of this story and the ingredients to your heart attack.

Seriously. I almost had to call an ambulance when I got to the plot twist. When you read this book, make sure you actually read it and not just thumb through it, because if you're not careful you might miss it. It comes out of nowhere, strikes you hard and leaves you gasping for air and clasping your chest as if your heart would jump out.

So read it! :)

Review: The Raven Boys

            
                                     ★★★☆☆

Couldn't come up with a great catch phrase like they do in the back covers, so straight to the actual review.

Our protagonist Blue is the only child in a family of psychics. With father gone from birth and weird aunts living under the roof her life is far from normal. She also has a curse. When she kisses her true love, he will die. Blue has sworn off boyfriends, and the boys from Aglionby Academy, the Raven Boys, are the absolute no.

Until Blue sees one of the Raven Boy's ghost on a St. Mark's Eve. After that coincidences lead together and the Raven Boys end up solving a mystery of a disappeared Welsh King with the help of Blue.

Starting from the Raven Boys. There is a great group dynamic, it's carefully planned and set and it makes the book a whole lot of better. There are four boys: Gansey, the leader, Ronan, the irresponsible, Noah, the shy creep, and Adam, the poor one. Since coming to Aglionby Academy you need to be filthy rich, Adam has gotten a partial scholarship. Though his brightness and will to study to have his own life made, he has to endure his violent father. So the group has the invincible one, Ronan, and the vulnerable, Adam.

Then there's also the down-shifted Latin teacher and his will to revenge his unfortunates in life.

There were two things that bothered me very much while reading The Raven Boys. The first was the dropping and picking up the subjects too randomly. First you read of one thing and then suddenly the chapter ends and you think it continues in the next one, but no. You need to wait around hundred pages until it's picked up again, if it will be picked.

The second irritating thing was the ending. It didn't feel like an ending to a book. It felt like an ending to a chapter. There was no resolving of ''the puxxle'' or anything. It didn't make me feel that I need to run to the book store to get the next part. For someones this kind of ending might work but I was expecting more.

Bookish person's (Christmas) presents and where to get them

We all have the Christmas present problem. What to buy for a friend, mom, sister, mister, cousin or cat. We don't simply know! But if that person is a book lover or a bookish person here are some recommendations to make your Christmas shopping a bit easier.

1. A book

Really? Yep. A book. If a person happens to like books then you should buy him or her a book. The only problem is that if you buy a book he or she already owns or doesn't like or someone else is going to buy the same book for him or her.

Another way is to reveal that you're buying a book and you need to ask. So if you're not 100% sure of the book and you don't want to reveal your intentions, maybe the book is not the option for you.

2. Bookmarks
If you are a DIY person, this totally is your thing. Bookmarks can be bought nearly anywhere where paper is sold and most people don't even use an ''official'' bookmark, just a slip of paper or something to mark their place.
Making your own bookmark and doing another for your buddy is a great idea for a Christmas present or an extra for your main gift. Just Google 'bookmark' and you get so many awesome ideas for your own personal bookmark. (Or if you're lazy, you can also just print them.)

3. A Candle

Dark and cold nights in the middle of winter beg for light. Book people love candles since they are one of the most dangerous things in the world. One wrong move and poof, all your books have been turned into ashes.
But scented candles are The Thing. With scents like fairy dust, old books or Mr. Darcy's office you can set the perfect mood for reading. And the options are limitless.
Many small companies produce bookish candles and they get so busy during holiday season so if you want to ensure your shipping is going to be delivered before Christmas is over. So, order in November to be sure, to be absolutely sure, order during September of October!

4. Mugs

Tea (or other) + books = Pure perfection.
Mugs can be found anywhere. Bookstores, grocery stores, granny's jam-cellar... Everywhere.
''I didn't choose mug life, mug life chose me.'' -is probably the most commonly heard expression among the mug hoarders. Most bookworm's cabinets are full of mugs, every size and colour, so by adding a mug with a bookish print is going to make the bookworm's Christmas so much better.




5. Other merchandise: clothing, bags, phone and laptop cases etc.

Anything you need in basic, everyday life can be found in some bookish form. Pillows, check, beds, check, rugs, check, clothing, check. Everything, check.
Just buy anything bookish to the book-lover and you have succeeded in the task of Christmas present buying.







Where can we find these things?

Online is probably the best choice.
Many online stores have so much more to offer than a physical store, since they're all in boxes in huge warehouses. And usually they're a bit cheaper. Just remember to order them early enough, so they have time to ship your order and it gets delivered before the Christmas Eve.

Here are few suggestions if you don't know where to start searching from:

https://society6.com/bookwormboutique
https://www.etsy.com/shop/BookishCandles

Then our best friend: Google.


And if you're really late, DIY is your best friend along Google!

November Wrap-Up and December TBR

Shame. That's the only word I can describe what I'm feeling right now. It feels so bad that I haven't accomplished anything during November.

I only read three books and one novella. Three. Books. What I have done if not read? And those books weren't even long ones. The average 350 pages. What I have been doing this whole month?

Here's what I read during November:

I'm planning on finishing all the books I started in November. And that's work already.

Here's my December TBR:

 And this month I WILL read more than these four. Because it's Christmas!

Review: The Carnelian Legacy

My first thoughts were ''Oh, I already know what's going to happen.'' But in the end I was wrong. Not awfully wrong, but wrong nonetheless.

★★★★☆

Our protagonist is Marisa MacCallum. She lives with her uncle and brother. The book starts after Marisa's father has died.

It happens when Marisa is riding with her horse Siena in the woods that are rumoured to be cursed. People go missing there and they are never seen again. And that's what happens to Marisa. She sees three lightning strikes with no thunder and sucked into another dimension.

In this part I was super excited, because time and dimension travel stories are the best!

Marisa wakes up in a world called Carnelian with two strangers by her side: Lord Arrigo Macario and Ambassador Darian Fiore. Arrie and Darian take Marisa with them on their journey. Since the world is not the same as Earth is, Marisa is most of them a damsel in distress.

But Darian is not who he claims to be. He is not an ambassador, but a prince on the line to the throne. Though there's one teenie tiny 'if'. If he doesn't marry a Fiore princess, he can't ascend the throne and his evil cousin Savigno gets it. And with only one Fiore princess left, Savigno's sister Matilda, Darian's options are quite limited.

But Darian notices something that no one else notices and together with Lord Arrigo they plot and mischievous plan. A plan that the reader doesn't know they were plotting before the end of the book.

There are glimpses, that can't be explained, in the book. Glimpses of things that shouldn't be there and don't make sense before the end. And I think that this book should be read until the last letter to understand its magnificence.

The experience of reading The Carnelian Legacy can only be described as re watching a movie and knowing what happens, and still being surprised.

And I must add my favourite quote here!
''Deciding that he seemed more like a Tarzan than a prince.''

Review: I Was Here

It's been two weeks since I finished I Was Here. I know, shame on me.

★★★★☆

Four stars out of five. It was really good but its tempo was a bit too slow.

We follow Cody, Meg's best friend and other half through the book. The book starts after Meg has killed herself and Cody tries to find who she is without Meg.

To Cody, Meg has always been the daring, cheerful and perfect friend, but the reality is another one. So much different that Cody needs to take an emotional road to get through the grief that Meg's death has caused. The truth reveals itself after few wrong turns and a pair of kittens.

If you wait for a huge, mind blowing, soul destroying plot-twist, there ain't one coming. The story keeps on steady pace from the beginning to the end. Only the packed emotion behind every sentence keeps the reader so hooked that it's a one-night-read.

What bothered me though, was the ending. Having read If I Stay and Where She Went I was expecting some emotional wrecking and ocean full of crying, but it didn't happen. And I am the easiest crier in the world. When something is pretty or happy or someone dies or anything even slightly sad, I'll cry. Just imagine me reading The Fault in Our Stars...

Back to business. In my opinion the plot might have been a bit more quick going than it was, but after reading it the steady pace felt right. Since the book is so full of packed emotions and rough subjects it was really nice the digest the things read, while still reading.

Recommending it!

Review: Queen of the Deep

★☆☆☆☆

Got to say I don't remember when was the last time I've given just one star to a book.

If I start from the beginning I got every good thing covered very fast.
The only thing I liked was the beginning. I really liked the picture Kay Kenyon had written of Jane's childhood. Her childhood was not picture perfect but still she found comfort from her plays in the basement. She felt safe with Starling and trusted him.

Then I'd say everything went south.

Many things sounded too childish to come from twenty some year old's mouth. Also I didn't have almost any backgrounf information about anything besides Jane's childhood at the beginning of the book and some scraps here and there. Really annoying.

Also to me it seemed that when this book was written it had not been entirely planned or something because sometimes it felt just too impossible to fit in the story line. For example at some parts something happens and it results a dead end. How do we get out of this dead end? Well, let's do something more impossible which leads up to snother dead end. And there we go again.

Most of the characters were shallow and were not entirely full charcters. Some parts of every character was missing. I would love to read the book again if the characters were changed to be better suitable for the story.

I could summarize the whole book in one sentence: A book with adult themes and content written in alanguage suitable for little kids.
Honestly sometimes I couldn't say if the book was for little kids or to adults.

Nanowrimo15

I finally decided to do it.

I've been writing a little this and that for a few years and now it's time to finish what I started. I'm writing the full draft of a novel I've been working on this Autumn. I actually got a block after I showed the first 500 words to my friend and she said she didn't like it. Now I'm not making the same mistake! I hope my sis is ready to read the full draft when it's ready. :p

3667 words now and more coming out as fast as I can write. 

If you don't know what Nanowrimo is, here it is in a nutshell:
                                            The month of November is the National Novel Writing Month, which means if you participate you're going to write a draft or the full book in just a month. Target word count is 50,000. You update your word count and, if you want, your author profile to nanowrimo.org. Through the site you can read pep talks, get writing-tips and have writing buddies. Some regions organise writing or plotting events which you can participate. Basically it's about inspiring people to write their novel and not to think too much, so it gets done before another decade has passed because of procrastination.

Are any of you participating?

Review: A Court of Thorns And Roses

I love retellings. I love Beauty and the Beast. So I was bound to love A Court of Thorns And Roses.

★★★★★

I've loved every Sarah J. Maas' book I've read this far and this one did not disappoint me.

We follow a human girl named Feyre. Her mother died, her father is depressed and her two sisters are demanding and not suited for rough living. And since they lost their fortune and moved to a little cottage Feyre has had to look after her family. She does it to honour her vow to her mother on her deathbed. But harder times come, they have no food and no money to spare. Feyre hunts farther away in the woods to find any game in the dead of winter. She faces a huge wolf which she kills. But the wolf was Fae, or rather High Fae. She has to pay for the kill with her own life or by living her life in Prythian, the Fae lands.

Feyre is such an amazing character that truly feels alive. She knows what it is to be hungry and what it is to wealthy. She knows neither of them come without costs. She knows what it is to be desperate and to act out of desperation, still feeling the fear it inflicts. During the book she grows more courage and independency and a lot more stubborn she was at the beginning. And maybe she has been very stubborn and courageous originally but the turns in her lifer have made her subside those qualities and put fear and desperation into their places.
The thing that really caught my attention was Feyre's feeling toward her family. To me it seemed that she cared about her family, that she wanted to take care of them but she didn't love them. It's unusual because usually all heroines are so in love with their families and they don't want to leave them at any cost. But Feyre merely argued against the idea of leaving just save her life. Not her family's. I admire Ms. Maas for that.

There's Tamlin, you fall in love with. He is adorable. A bit awkward and doesn't know how to act around Feyre. Some might think that is he truly is awkward, wouldn't he then be badly written character? No. Not at all. It's really adorable to follow his clumsiness and it suits perfectly in contrast with other characters. Tamlin is a High Lord, but we find this out later. It doesn't come out as a huge surprise given it's a retelling from Beauty and the Beast. He suffers along with his court of a curse that is a huge spoiler, but it binds them to wear masks that don't come off. The curse is broken by a mortal, but how is too a huge spoiler.
 Then there's the Tamlin behind the awkward outer shell. The Tamlin who has teeth and attitude. A will and desire to protect his Kingdom and those he cares about.

The other two main Fae are Lucien, who's part of Tamlin's court and then there is Rhysand. Rhysand the Mysterious I would call him. I don't know what he wants of Feyre and what his intentions and motives are. I hope these we will find out in the next book, A Court of Mist and Fury.

My thoughts went from basic emotionless reading to 'holy what's going on?' to 'Oh my God I'm dying' to 'Just stop you killing me'. And that went over and over again. I know that Maas' books are intense and full of emotions that really make you feel something but this. Really. Hurt. And. Made. Me. Happy. The whole experience made me crave for the next book. I had two sentences scribbled to my notebook of reviews:
''Am I supposed to live through this?'' and ''Really, you expect me to breathe?''
You can make your own conclusions of how awesome those feelings are during the book.

It really is a page-turner and actually quite fast to read. I would recommend to pick it up now, so it's over and you can mope until the next book comes out!

And if you haven't read the book yet, check the pronunciation guide in the end.

November TBR

Usually when I'm doing TBR's for the month I fail miserably. It's like when I list something I definitely won't read it, but then I read ten other books outside the list.

The solution to my problem: I am going to list only few books and then all the others I choose during the month depending how I feel.

Those few lucky (or unlucky) books on my list are:

 

Rest of November's reads will be seen throughout the month.

Happy November Eeverybody!

October Wrap-Up!

I'm kind of disappointed to this month's score. Only six books! I don't know what I have done during this month to earn a score this low. Usually I read at least eight books a month.

But nontheless, here they are:

Lumière
Jacqueline E. Garlick

★★★★☆

 Wendy Darling
Colleen Oakes

★★★★★

 Queen of Shadows
Sarah J. Maas

★★★★★

He Found Me
Whitney Barbetti

★★★★★

 A Court of Thorns and Roses
Sarah J. Maas

★★★★★






 
Ashes to Ashes
Melissa Walker

★★★★☆

It has been a good-book month for me. Four out of six got full five stars and the two got four stars!