I Finished FIVE Books in THREE Days!

Guys, I finished FIVE books in THREE days! When quarantine first started I was reading Sarah J Maas' new book House of Earth and Blood which is part of her Crescent City series. I have loved everything that I've read by Sarah. Some of my favorites books have been a part of her A Court of Thorns and Roses series and I also loved the Throne of Glass series. 

This series started off slow. I mean there was action at the very beginning but then it seemed like a million pages to set the whole world up. The world of Crescent City is very complicated and there are a ton of characters and different kinds of creatures so I understand why she had to set the scene on so many pages but I moved at a snails pace through the first part. Then three days ago I was motivated to finish it and flew through the rest!

Overall I liked this book but it definitely isn't on the same level as the TOG and ACOTAR series. It was definitely a great story and took some turns that I didn't see coming but I wasn't in love with the main characters, so that made it not as fun for me to read. This is a looooooooong book. So enter  at your own risk! 

Next up, I read an entire four book series.....

These books are the Stella and Sol series by Kimberly Loth. I had heard about these from Elle Fowler on YouTube and I was excited to read them (especially since each one is only $4.99 on Kindle- not a bad price!)

Now this series is about two cities, Stella and Sol. In Stella there is never any daylight. It is nighttime all the time and magic exists. In Sol it is daytime all the time and it's a conservative city where everyone follows the rules. 

I thought the concept of the story was great. I really enjoyed the main character and her struggle between her home life in Sol and learning about Stella and the way they live life there. I loved the city of Stella and all the different types of magic they use there. I loved the relationships in the royal family of Stella.

However, there were things that I didn't love.

Things happened almost TOO quickly. Zwaantie (the main character) would think about doing something, go to do it and it would be done. There was no anticipation. She also flip flopped about decisions over and over again. Changing who she loved or who she was trying to fall in love with. 

Overall, I loved the story as a whole I just wish there had been a little more. I would recommend the series if you are looking for a quick series that you can get through quickly but don't expect a ton of substance.

What have you been reading lately? 

Recent Reads: June 2019

Happy Monday everyone! 

Today I want to share a bit about the books I read in the last month. Basically all I did was complete the Throne of Glass series! I absolutely loved this series. The main character is a strong female lead and she makes the entire series enjoyable. 

I shared about the first three books in the series here. I felt like the following four books were equally as good with the exception of Tower of Dawn being a bit boring. I don't want to give much away since you will need to read books 1-3 before reading these four but I disliked that the characters separated and you didn't get any further story about the main character in book six. 

Overall I highly recommend this entire series! If you like fantasy novels then definitely check them out.

What's on my to read list next? So far I plan on reading The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid and The Rest of The Story by Sarah Dessen.

What do you plan on reading this month?

Two By Two

The first Nicholas Sparks book I ever read was in seventh grade. As someone who has always been a hopeless romantic I absolutely loved devouring every book he had previously released. Throughout the years I've kept up with his novels reading them immediately once they are released. Nicholas Sparks most recent book was released earlier this month and only took me two days to complete.

Two By Two I found to be pretty different from all previous Nicholas Sparks novels. The story involves Russell, his wife Vivian, and their daughter London who live in North Carolina. Their world is turned upside down when Russell decides to leave his job and start working at home for himself. Vivian decides to head back to work which involves a complete change of roles in their household. 

Russell finds himself home most days with his daughter taking on the sole responsibility of carting her to and from her activities and caring for her. London and Russell develop an amazing bond while Vivian seems to be drifting further and further from her family.

I won't spoil the book for you, but throughout the majority of it I really hated Vivian. She was a deplorable character who was extremely controlling and I couldn't see a single good quality that Russell seemed to find in her. However, their relationship is not the only one this novel focuses on. Russell's relationships with his parents and sister are explored as well.

Overall, this is a book I would highly recommend if you love a good, easy read. There is plenty of drama but also many heart-warming moments that left me tearing up.

What books have you been reading lately?

A Few Book Reviews

During my lunch hour I have been spending quite a bit of time reading! I was going to do three different review posts but decided to just keep them all together in this one blog post to keep things simple! 

The first book I downloaded on my Kindle is If I Stay by Gayle Forman. This novel chronicles Mia as she is in the hospital after a car accident. Her parents and brother were all killed before making it to the hospital but Mia is in a coma and is fighting for survival. She has an out-of-body experience and gets to decide if she wants to stay and fight for her life or if she would prefer to pass on and be with her family. 

Mia is a musician and plays the cello which causes her to deeply connect with her boyfriend Adam. Her memories are mostly of him as she fights for her life and Adam fights to be able to help her.

I found this book to be quite the quick read but I enjoyed it immensely. I really want to watch the movie and it is on my to-watch list for the near future!

After finishing If I Stay, I knew I needed to read Where She Went which is Adam's (Mia's boyfriend) story from after her accident and recovery. Apparently Mia went to Julliard and left him behind without any explanation and he is in pain himself. Reading Adam's story wasn't quite as captivating as Mia's in the first book but I did enjoy it and finished the book rather quickly. If you have read If I Stay I would highly recommend reading Where She Went so you can see the continuation of Mia and Adam's story.

Of course being a big Bachelor fan I needed to read Sean Lowe's book For The Right Reasons. (If I'm being honest I think I'm a bigger fan of his sister Shay then I am of Sean) I really liked that Sean's book contained so much behind the scenes information from the Bachelor and showed how it truly works. There were many religious mentions which aren't really my thing- but most of the book was truly enjoyable and I found myself excited to find out new things that I didn't know about Sean and the show.

What books have you been reading lately?

The Girl On The Train

My mom recommend The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins to me several times before I actually read it. She told me that it reminded her of Gone Girl and she thought I would love it.

The Girl On The Train is told from the perspective of Rachel. Rachel rides the train every day into London and we quickly learn that she is an alcoholic, recently divorced and is in every way an unreliable narrator. Soon into the novel we learn that she watches a particular couple every day during her train ride and makes up a story about them. Then one day, she finds that the information she has about the couple is pertinent to a crime that has been committed. 

As readers we have to figure out who is telling the truth and if we can trust Rachel in anything that she says. In that sense, The Girl On The Train is very similar to Gone Girl- we never know as readers who we can trust!

I would 100% recommend this novel to anyone looking for something great to read. I have also heard that this is going to be turned into a movie so get reading it before the movie comes out!

What books have you read recently?

The Siren by Kiera Cass

Last week I was obsessed with reading The Siren by Kiera Cass. I started it while I was waiting for my car to get serviced, and then ended up staying up until two in the morning in order to find out what happened. Books and I have such a love/hate relationship. I love to read, but I hate loosing sleep =)

The Siren by Kiera Cass is an amazing novel and after a slow beginning, it had me hooked. The novel is centered around a girl named Kahlen. Kahlen is a siren and lives and works for the Ocean, she is one of a few girls who has the task of bringing down ships in order to curb the Ocean's appetite. Kahlen (along with her sisters) is deadly to humans and cannot speak in front of humans or else will lure them to their death. Kahlen is discontent but willing to serve her 100 years in order to be granted a real life once she is done. That is, until she meets Akinli.

I found the beginning of the book a little slow as Kahlen shared the experiences she had with her sisters, however once she met Akinli and a love story began I was hooked. I love a good love story =)

The ending was just as I wanted it to be, I was content and thrilled that everything turned out just the way I wanted it to. Would I recommend this book? Absolutely. If you love a good love story and you love novels that allow crazy things to be happening in our normal, boring world- I would definitely recommend it to you.

I do have to say though, that it was a little difficult to get started reading since there is so much going on, trying to figure out why Kahlen is in this position and what her relationship with the Ocean is. There's also quite a long time line from the beginning to the end of the book, which at first makes it difficult to follow, but once things slow down at the end, everything falls into place.

Today, it's only $3.03 as a Kindle download! Find it here.

Have you read any good books lately?

Bossypants

Recently, I decided to order Bossypants by Tina Fey on my kindle. I was undecided about Tina Fey. I really did not care for the tv show 30 Rock but in general thought Tina was an interesting person so I decided to give it a read. Man, Tina Fey is funny!

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The stories in this book are not in chronological order by any means but they do follow a trend that makes them all blend together. Tina has a ton of funny stories about her childhood as well as throughout adult-hood. One of my favorite stories she told was about her honeymoon with her husband. They went on a cruise and ended up having a scary time on board where they thought they might have to be separated. Afterwards, Tina's husband says it must have been hard for Tina to think she would have needed to refused a lifeboat in order to stay with him and she says that she thought how hard it was going to be for him when she got on a lifeboat and left him behind. I found that extremely amusing. Tina goes on to explain that if in Titanic Rose had gotten on a lifeboat, Jack would've been able to survive on that piece of wood and she would not do the same thing to her husband.

There are a ton of amusing anecdotes from her life and Tina writes them very well. I was on the fence deciding whether or not to read this book but I'm definitely glad I did. It is not as funny as Ellen DeGeneres books are but it is definitely worth the read! There are even some funny tales from when she pretended to be Sarah Palin on SNL- which I greatly enjoyed.

Overall, I would recommend this as a great summer read. You can easily stop and start this book since there is no intense plotline. It is easy to read whenever you have an opportunity and not have to read straight through. If you have a Kindle, Bossypants is only $4.99 on Amazon which is not a bad price.

I have read a few other books throughout the summer so I will be posting reviews on those over the next few weeks as well!

The Host

I started reading The Host by Stephenie Meyer a couple weeks ago. I actually purchased it on my Kindle when all of Stephenie's books were being sold for $2.99 and under one day. I read the Twilight series back in college and loved them but was always wary about The Host because I thought it would be so different then Twilight and I wouldn't be able to get into the novel, but I decided to give it a try.

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WARNING: Spoilers Ahead!

When I started reading I was instantly weirded out. I thought I wouldn't make it through twenty pages, the story starts out so strange. By the time I made it through twenty pages I was interested. Who was this Wanderer person? Why was this takeover of Earth necessary? I knew that Melanie was still going to be in Wanderer's head and there would be conflict, but that was the extent that I knew about the story. 

From the beginning of Wanderer/Melanie's internal drama I was instantly on Melanie's side. I couldn't understand what was happening and why Wanderer would want to be part of such a despicable society. Even though the souls are "peaceful" I didn't like the idea of them taking on human hosts, although I did enjoy learning the tidbits of Wanderer's life in different worlds. 

I was so excited when Melanie decided to trust Wanderer and let her see the love between her and Jared and the love she has for her brother Jamie. I waited for her to find Jared and was so upset when he didn't react to her in a loving way. I became frustrated as I realized that Jared didn't know if Melanie was still inside her body.

I thought the love connections and the insane relationship triangle? square? parallelogram? I don't even know what to call it. The fact that Melanie is in love with Jared, and Jared is in love with Melanie makes sense, but then add in that Wanderer also feels love for Jared, but Ian feels love for her and Wanderer is sure how she feels about Ian. Well by that point her name is Wanda in the book, have I lost you yet?

Anyways, I was floored by Wanda's goal to save everyone but herself and so thankful that they managed to save Wanda despite her protests. I was thrilled when everyone who belonged together ended up together, I do love a happy ending. I was also thrilled at the end of the novel when Wanda managed to meet someone else like her and they discovered there were other survivors. 

I really want to go see the movie now, I am extremely interested to see what they do with the movie, if it is far different from the novel or not. I'm assuming it will be, I mean The Host is a looooooong book. There must be less information given, and not having the first person narrative will be very different after just finishing the book. I'm planning on going to see the movie within the next week so I will let you know of any differences I notice and if I think the movie is as good as the book.

If you are on the fence about reading this novel, just know that I stayed up till 4am the other night reading because I just could NOT put the book down. When I finally fell asleep it was because the words were blurring together and I made time to finish it the next day. This novel pulls you in and makes you want to be a part of the world they are describing. I felt like I was right there in the underground volcano caves, following Jeb around and talking to Ian!

Geez, book nerd alert!

Any great books you've read lately???