To All The Boys I've Loved Before | Jenny Han

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Okay so this was not what I expected at all. I hope ya'll like these images I took, look at all those 'to-be-read books in the back of the first pic. ALSO, I borrowed this from my friend Tess - whom I mention so much on this blog: here, here, here, here, here and here. I don't know if she wants this back so I'm hanging on to it for now, I did however Skype her the other day to tell her that I'm making this post right now and that she is gonna get a shout out, you can follow her on tumblr here. 

This is a Young-Adult, Contemporary, it is the first book in a trilogy I believe. This is a goodreads synopsis (you can follow me or add me on Goodreads here) because I will not bother myself to sit and tell you what this book is about: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed. But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters: her first kiss, the boy from summer camp, even her sister's ex-boyfriend, Josh. As she learns to deal with her past loves face to face, Lara Jean discovers that something good may come out of these letters after all. 

I have reviewed Jenny Han’s other series: The Summer I Turned Pretty on this blog and the review of that is here. I have come to the conclusion after reading four of her books and a short story from: My True Love Gave To Me (I have a review of that here, it was my last blog post actually so you can probably scroll down!) that her writing... irritates me. Her plot and ideas - I don’t like. Yes, its ~cute~ and sometimes makes me feel warm and mushy but other than that it sucks so much. It should wow me, I should be wow'ed or at least enjoy the premiss of the book, which I did not....at all. There is nothing special about Jenny Han's writing, like truly this was a bland contemporary to me. I am giving it two stars and not one because I managed to finish the book because I wanted to, I didn't feel like I was forcing myself to. That should say something, even if it's just a little. 

In my honest opinion, this book was all over the place. There wasn't a single thing that created a consensus for everything to become one. Am I making sense? Because I felt as though everything in this book could have been a story in itself, there was just too much and none of it was adding up. Not to mention there were main characters that I disliked heavily in this book as well, maybe that’s another factor to why I didn’t enjoy the book in the end. I did not like the main at all. Lara Jean is sixteen and she sounds like a twelve year old brat. She is just so ??? I didn’t like it, she wasn’t as bad as Eadlyn whats-her-name or America Singer from The Selection series (I have a review of those here) but she was pretty bad. Her little sister was nice but I also disliked Lara’s older sister Margo. Everything was just ‘yikes’ for me. In my honest opinion the entire book was built at a very superficial level. I know this is a contemporary but like where?.....It was pretty bad.

I know this book is a trilogy (I believe). I will not be reading the next two books because there isn’t anything special about this series. APART FROM THE POC (people of colour)!!!! I really loved that this book has an Asian family (or at least half Asian) because it’s a step in the right direction. Even though everyone else was of course White, it’s good to submerge yourself in a teen novel where many individuals can possible relate more to a character than just her thoughts/personality. I applaud Jenny Han for this but in this day in age we shouldn’t have too, diversity should be one of the top priorities in bestselling novels because…..the world isn’t White and other races do exist believe it or not. I feel extremely strong about this because this world is filled with opportunity and all different beautiful kinds of individuals, if you are not capturing that in you’re books…what are you doing. You are not being honest to yourself or this world because there are so MANY types of people. Just trY. Another thing I want to mention before I digress, is that I will not be labelling this book as ‘diverse’, why? Because there is a single half Asian family does not mean this book is diverse (lmao). SO sorry (not sorry) but it’s not diverse at all.

To conclude, I will not be continuing this series, or reading anymore Jenny Han. Life is too short to read books that irk me and I mean I knew this was about to happen. I had read her other three books and they annoyed me so yeah. Also, the plot in this isn't exciting at all and I can already predict what will happen so I'm not at a loss here. If I were you I would read the synopsis and if you think this it up your ally, go for it. Otherwise, move on...it really isn't great. Contemporaries should be realistic, this was not.

p.s

Check out my most popular reviews:
Love and Misadventure by Lang Leav
I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson
Yes Please by Amy Poehler
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Alex + Ada by Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn 

follow me on goodreads to find out what I'm reading next! 

My True Love Gave To Me | a-bunch-of-amazing-authors

Long, cold nights are for falling in love...

This is depressingly very late. Christmas is over and I have exams in May. Schooling has slowly and painstakingly taken my sanity. Yes, I know it's not Christmas and that's now a whole year away but I did read this (shockingly for once) in December (I believe). Although I haven't had time to sit and write this until now...thirteen days into January. 

This is a short story collection by various amazing young adult authors edited by the one and only Stephanie Perkins. There is a mixture of authors I'm very familiar with and some that are new to me. The contributing authors consist of: Rainbow Rowell, Holly Black, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Stephanie Perkins (who also edited the book), Matt de la Pena, Kirsten White, Lani Taylor, Gayle Forman, Jenny Han, Myra McEntire and last but not least Ally Carter. 

I've decided to review this book by individual short stories (author by author) as I think this would be easiest. I'll then compile and average for this whole book. This makes no sense whatsoever but lets just go with it. 

This might just be the most prettiest book I own (like ever). Hold on let me just pan over my bookshelves and see if there is anything better....yeah no. Lets talk about the cover of this book because are you not seeing how pretty this book is? I specifically got this hardback only because of the cover. There is an original cover with mini people ice skating and I thought that was cute but this is cuter and it has pink sides!

Midnights by Rainbow Rowell:

5/5

So this is the first short story and it's Rainbow Rowell so it's amazing as always. If you want so see some of my reviews on her books I'll link them here: Landline, Attachments and Fangirl. She is one of my favourite authors of all time. Anyways back to her short story in this instalment, I basically really enjoyed it. I expected nothing less and she delivered as always. This is such a wonderful quick read for the holidays. 

The Lady and the Fox by Kelly Link:
0/5 

Yeah I didn't even finish this or read it. Sorry. Let me know if it's actually any good and maybe I'll give it a go. 

Angels In The Snow by Matt de la Peña:

0/5

I have to give the short stories I didn't read a 0. As harsh as it sounds I do because...well...I didn't read them. Nothing to review. Let me know if this one is good and I will come back and read it. 

Polaris Is Where You'll Find Me by Jenny Han

2/5

Okay I know that rating is harsh but honestly I don't even remember this story lol. When I went back into the collection to recount the ones I read and the ones I didn't I had to double take on this story. Only because I didn't remember if I even read it! The only reason I actually properly gave this a go as because it's Jenny Han. I read her Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy here, which I also have a review of here. What I do remember of this was that it was really cute. The main is super cute and the romance in this was very ~high school~ flirty; once in a while you do need something like that. Overall, this was good but not memorable. 

It's A Yuletide Miracle. Charlie Brown by Stephanie Perkins:

5/5 

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR! ThiS WAS SO GOOD!!!!!! MY FAVOURITE IN THIS COLLECTION. AHHHH I adored this so much. I expected nothing less from Stephanie Perkins, she's a phenomenal author. This main character Marigold was honestly, so different to any of her other character in Anna and The French Kiss (I have a review here) or in my favourite book by Perkins: Lola and The Boy Next Door (I have a review of that here as well) OR the third instalment Isla and The Happily Ever After (I have a review of that here too, this also happened to be the first review I did in 2015). Everything in this story was perfect. It was nothing redundant you would have heard of in any other book, the situation was so weird and the circumstances even weirder. I loved it! 

Your temporary Santa by David Levithan 

4/5

This was so gay and I loved every bit of it! This story kept me on my toes the whole time. Like, whats gonna happen next? How about now?! It was written extremely well, I have never read anything else by David Levithan but now I want to. I have How They Met by John Green and David Levithan in my 'to be read' pile but haven't gotten time to read it. Let me know whether I should bump it up higher if its any good! 

Krampuslauf by Holly Black:

0/5

I know Holly Black is a great author, I've heard so much about her. But this just made me bored, I think I got 3 pages in and I was like nah. Do let me know if this is actually good and that I suck and should give it another go!

What The Hell Have You Done, Sophie Roth? by Gayle Forman

0/5

Yeah I tried to give this one a go too but it just wasn't happening for me. Although, I have read Just One Day by Gayle Forman which I reviewed here. 

Ok so turns out there is maybe 4-5 other short-stories after this one and I didn't read any of those because none interested me. If they are worth the read, do let me know and I'll go back and have a look again. 

Thank you. Also, I posted in time this time! I promised I wouldn't be hiatus for long and I wasn't! Don't worry, I've got another 'proper' review coming in the next week (hopefully). I'm super excited for that one. Have a wonderful day everyone. 

x 

p.s

follow me on goodreads to find out what I'm reading next! 

Queen of Shadows #4 | Sarah J. Maas

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Ahh I don't know how to review this!

Current mood = Waiting for my face mask to dry, whilst listening to Can You Feel The Love Tonight by Elton John - bringing back my Lion King nostalgia. 

I went through a reading hiatus because of all the stuff that has just come about with life. I was reading this over summer...I think....or maybe it was the beginning of the year, I don't even remember! I just know that I read like half of the book and then I put it down for long enough for me to forget major aspects and the majority of the plot line, for that reason I wouldn't fully take this review into consideration to whether you want to read it or not. I just really wanted to get another review out for you guys cause I've been gone for so long. 

Although, I will review the whole of the book to my best ability. Queen of Shadows is a Young Adult, Fantasy novel. 

This is the goodreads synopsis: 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 will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die just to see her again. 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.

Celaena’s epic journey has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions across the globe. This fourth volume will hold readers rapt as Celaena’s story builds to a passionate, agonizing crescendo that might just shatter her world.

This book actually won the goodreads choice 2015 for young adult fantasy.

If you are curious, I don't have reviews on the first two books: Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight, as I read those before I started this blog. However, I do have a review of the third book: Heir of Fire - this is one of my favourite reviews on this blog so check that out, it's spoiler free! 

As this is the 4th book in the Throne of Glass instalment, there will be slight spoilers. To be honest, if you haven't read the last three, I don't know why you would be reading this review right now, but if you want a possible brief of the series and my thoughts on the whole series, I will go ahead and do that first. 

The first book is called: Throne of Glass, the second: Crown of Midnight and the third Heir of Fire, which I have a review of.

The series started off very ~fantasy~ and possible predictable and generic but I think after the first two books you really start to see where Maas intended for the series to carry on to. I started the series very naive and stupid really... I only read it for the romance and the 'love triangle' and not till the third book did I really appreciate the characters for who they were, the world building the the plot lines. the third book is by far my favourite, this one is also (don't get me wrong) VERY good, but I got side tracked and it was just slow reading for me. 

This book - the fourth in the instalment - was a little disappointing. It was really slow. Like really slow. At least for me! Towards the last 100 pages of the book, I started skimming and if you've been around my blog for sometime now you know how much I HATE SKIM READING BOOKS! But here I am....skim reading the last 100 pages because IT WAS SO SLOW I JUST WANTED TO FINISH IT. That is the main reason I gave it 3 stars. By no means is this a 'bad book'. Nevertheless will I continue with the series, it's just this book aided further understanding of the characters and where Maas would be taking the plot line, just - the book was so slow....I feel like it could have been written in like 300+ words rather than 500+. 

I love Manon Blackbeak. SHE IS SUCH A GOOD CHARACTER! I picture her so badass, she is just phenomenal. We are introduced to this new character Manon in the previous book (the third book), Heir of Fire, which I have a review of that here. I was enthralled by her from the beginning. She has such a nonchalant but devious and conniving nature; basically I'm in love with her and cannot wait for how she will further progress. (She is so great, I can't even.)

We can see CLEAR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT WITH ALL CHARACTERS! I have been saying this since the third book! Now into the fourth instalment and I will continue to belch this! !!! Everything is slowly but surely coming together nicely and I'm quite excited to see how this turns out. If you've read the first book or the second and aren't already hitched, I really recommend you to continue to the third book because that's where it all really comes together, the characters fully enlighten and everything just !!! comes together really well. The third book Heir of Fire is hands down my favourite so far. The main protagonist really comes so far from the first book. She is such an empowering, beautiful character...I am speechless. 

In my last review of the previous book....(here) I also talk about the writing. Sarah J. Maas has really evolved with the writing since the first book. The series has literally now become: follow-the-main-protagonist-and-sarah's-epic-writing! Because I'm telling you, she has really adopted the style of epic high fantasy literature in a young adult novel and she should really be proud! I haven't read much high fantasy but this has really steered me into the right direction for it. Maas's writing really captures that ~fantasy~ feel and having read all her books (mostly all of them), I am allowed to tell you how far her writing has come since Throne of Glass. I know many people stopped after that book because of the plot line that was just starting up and the way the book was written, all I can say is persevere through the first two and you will legitimately be mind blown by this stage. Yes, I found this book quite slow but nonetheless the plot is thickening and so MUCH IS HAPPENING/HAPPENED! To think these twists and turns and all that action would be here when I was still reading the first book, I would think you were flat out lying. Not only has the plot awakened and thickened, Maas's writing has developed and so have these characters.

This world and these characters are really worth it, I'm telling you!

Also, if I haven't already mentioned, I have a review of the third book! Heir of Fire. Which is like my favourite review ever, so like, go, like, check it out. Here, here and here.

I know I've been gone long, but would you believe me if I said I have like 4 posts in the drafts waiting to be published? Cause I do! Furthermore, I will be starting two new series on this blog. The first is called Colour Study, where I take books from my book shelves with a particular colour in mind and I compile them all, take pretty photos and tell you all about their ~stories~. Where I got them, what they are about and what they mean to me. The second series is called The Psychology Corner (how original), where I take books related to psychology or have psychological concepts and I address those alongside reviewing the book. As I want to pursue psychology, I thought this would be a great idea to share my opinions and thoughts about psychology in literature. So check out for those posts coming your way!

p.s

follow me on goodreads to find out what I'm reading next! 

I'll Give You The Sun | Jandy Nelson

✴ ✴. 5 

OKay, lets begin.

When I first got this book, I believe it was on my birthday (I did a birthday post on this blog as well, which I will shamelessly link here). My friend Tess...I feel like I mention Tess is every other blog post but the thing is SHE IS ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS and we love each other and she reads lots of books, like me probably more than me. We were in a bookstore and I saw this book and it was the hardback version but at a really cheap price for hardbacks where I'm from. Hardbacks are so expensive here but this was so cheap I was actually shocked. It was just this one book. There wasn't a second or third, just this one. I asked Tess whether it was good and she said it was so I just ended up getting it. I was really happy (~imagine me being happy here~). So I got this book on my birthday.

I'll Give You The Sun, is a young adult, standalone, contemporary, coming of age novel by Jandy Nelson. This novel is based with a first person perspective with two pint of views - Jude and Noah- This is the goodreads synopsis: 

Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and dramatic ways . . . until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as someone else—an even more unpredictable new force in her life. The early years are Noah's story to tell. The later years are Jude's. What the twins don't realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world.

When I first started it, probably a few weeks ago at the end of Octoberish, I hated it. I hated it. I hated it. SO MUCH! It was the writing style I despised. I know this is a recurring theme with a lot of other people who have read the book so it's not just me. HOWEVER, once I started to get like 50+ and 100+ pages into it, I started to work around the writing style and it got better. Not just that, but the actual plot (if you will) also got better and more intriguing. One night, I kid you not, I literally couldn't put the book down. It's kind of a sad book. It laments quite a bit. But it's a really lovely coming to age novel.

Another thing I really liked was probably the only realistic and genuine part of this book were the relationships between characters, romantically and platonically. The relationship with their parents was so interesting to read as well as the relationship with their friends. This is an LGBT+ book as those themes are present in this novel. This is my first LGBT+ book ever... WOW. I know right! What took me so long. I really loved that romance in this. It wasn't cliche or sexualised so much. It was mushy, cute, simple and I adored it. There is also heterosexual relationships, it's not all LGBT+. HOWEVER, I would like to stress that there is homophobic themes discussed in this book, if that triggers any of you, please don't read this. Your mental health and state is better than reading this book. 

Now to talk about everything I disliked.... 

Firstly, I did really like the characters in the book, although I thought they were just crafted too ~indie~ like. I just felt like they were just so.....I don't know....made to be so hipsterish and I really don't know how to explain this. It just felt artificial to me. The characters themselves were iffy. I loved Noah but I just liked Jude. They are twins but totally different people. I really liked some parts of the novel and some parts less. I didn't hate a particular scene or anything but this book was just eh.

In addition, there isn't a legit plot line. It's a contemporary coming to age story, so it's more of just lessons learnt and the growth of these characters. The concept of this book was good, I liked that cause everything really linked and fell together towards the end. Another thing I want to address, is that the POV's are like at different ages of Noah and Jude and I barley remembered how old they were cause it felt like they were doing so much at the age of 15? Which was weird for me. I mentioned before that I hated the writing style, and I feel strongly about that. Jandy Nelson is just not for me. Some people may think it's literary genius or whatever, but I despised it. There were times in the book I got hooked to a certain POV and I loved that but then it would go away and I'd find myself just skim reading. .

That brings me to my next point of issue: I hate skim reading. That's how you know it's bad. My English teacher actually said to our class a few week ago, that she would like to see us reading different genres of books such as: Ishiguro, Hosseini, Murakami, biographies, classics and basically not your typical teenage Y/A genre so that our sense of syntax, diction and overall language could broaden. She also mentioned that we didn't have to finish the book if we found it hard, just to read a few pages because sometimes that is all you need. I hate not finishing a book and just leaving it. Even if I hate it I have to finish it. No idea why I do this, it's just become my thing but I think I will start more of that in 2016. Life it too short to read shitty books.

You have to understand how disappointed I was because I made this up to be such some great panache; when I then got into it and the possibility of it being absolute shit got surreal. Although, I did get really emotionally invested with Noah's POV everything else was a blur (probably due to the fact I skimmed most of the book).  

Would I recommend this...I don't know. I wouldn't take just my review into account. Read others peoples reviews and maybe check the book out yourself if you're a bit off on whether you want to read this or not. I think I may just be the minority with this one.

Sorry for the extremely long sabbatical hiatus. I've been dying doing IB. I know it's been so long! Going through a break-up so that's also very hard to deal with. I'm really devastated that I cannot read lots and review much, but it's only because I don't have time, or I just really get tired/lazy. Hopefully I'll read over the Christmas holidays but then again I will also be revising for an exam in January. Wish me luck and I truly hope I'll get some reviews out for you all! 

p.s

Check out my most popular reviews:
Love and Misadventure by Lang Leav
I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson
Yes Please by Amy Poehler
To All The Boys I Loved Before by Jenny Han
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Alex + Ada by Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn 

follow me on goodreads to find out what I'm reading next! 

The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy | Jenny Han

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Hope you're all well! 

This is so belated I'm in tears. These photos are basically my summer. 

I didn't actually have the time to finish all three so I just read two of them. This is a trilogy and I read the first and second books, 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' and 'It's Not Summer Without You'. Both I fairly enjoyed and at times I did cry. I get very emotionally attached. Shocker. I read them over the months of July and possible the beginning of August. 

This review is three months too late, I know and I am very sorry but stuff happens and this blog just went of hold for a long time. I don't know how long I'll be back though because I am not reading that much at the moment. Without further ado, here is 'ma' review.

I thought I should read the books over my summer holidays as they are contemporaries and summer was the best time, as well as the fact these books are set in the summer and they all have the word 'summer' in their titles. However, it's now October and I am a little dodgy on the events that took place in the first and second book of the series cause it's been almost four months since I read them and like I said before, this review is super late and I am sorry but I am also not sorry. I will try my best to remember what I loved and didn't.

Some summers are just destined to be pretty.

When each summer begins, Belly leaves her school life behind and escapes to Cousins Beach, the place she has spent every summer of her life. Not only does the beach house mean home away from home, but her favourite people are there: Susannah, her mother's best friend, and her sons, Conrad and Jeremiah. Belly has been chasing Conrad for as long as she can remember, and more than anything, she hopes this summer will be different. Despite distractions from a new guy named Cam and lingering looks from Conrad's brother, Jeremiah, Belly's heart belongs to Conrad. Will he offer his to her? Will this be the summer that changes everything?

Firstly, I don't like the whole idea of 'turning pretty'. I'm gonna start with that. These books are somewhat childish to me. I don't like 'turning pretty' because then it just becomes this terrible thing with teenage girls where then assume they have to be 'pretty' to gain attention and to be able to be loved, WHICH IS TOTALLY BONKERS! And should never be promoted especially in books. Don't put it into their minds that they have to suddenly change to start to be noticed. Puberty is another thing but to just suddenly 'become pretty' is ridiculous. I understand this probably wasn't Jenny Hans aim and I can see what she means and she probably didn't mean this. I say all this because, the main character - Belly - hangs out with these two brothers her whole life each summer and when she suddenly turns sixteen they start to look at her 'differently'... *rolls eyes to the back of my head*. Yes, it was probably the puberty BUT BELLY HAS ALWAYS BEEN BELLY FROM THE START, she didn't suddenly change as a person. OH MY GOD! Why is it always what the boys want and what the boys notice? There are bigger, better, time-worthy things in life than just impressing guys. 

Did I enjoy the first and second? Yes I did. But I don't like the idea around these books where there is a clear love triangle, maybe even square. This is because the girl in the books will always get tossed around. It's unfair and boring. To be honest, Belly goes through so much emotional trauma I literally cannot believe she is still putting up with this shit. These books, however have a way because Jenny Han is a cinnamon role and I adore her writing, it's very easy to get into but not for everyone.

The thing with love triangles and love squares is that it can be literary genius and amazing and then it can just get predictable, stupid and boring. There is a thin line. It also just gets so frustrating for the reader if it drags on and on, cause then its like "JUST PICK ONE OF THEM OHMYGOD!". There are some books where a love triangle/square is necessary to the plot and what not; then I see it's purpose but for miscellaneous other times it's just there as filler to drag on with ~who will she pick~. Just, unnecessary.

Secondly, the characters are worth it. I think that the characters were written very well especially the main character: Belly. There is a lot of back story with many of these characters as all three books are based from Belly's point of view (first person) and in each book she gets older. So in a sense it is a coming of age trilogy. Belly does really develop from the beginning of the books to the end, even though I haven't read the last book, I'm sure she flourishes in that. The rest of the characters were extremely realistic and also written very well. There are characters like the brothers - Conrad and Jeremiah - that at times I highly dislike and then I like again which is a recurring theme for me. All in all I don't like either brother as her love interest to be honest. They are both pretty bad. I could write and tell you how problematic and dickish they both are but I won't waste your time like that.

Thirdly, I would like to touch on that the writing is really easy to read and flows well. I may have mentioned this at the beginning briefly, but yeah, I have nothing against the writing. The plot is centred around Belly and her Summers as well as her growing older and wiser. I got the trilogy in a box set for such a bargain! I highly recommend if you're interested in the books to start with the first book The Summer I Turned Pretty and work your way down. 

ALSO SIDE NOTE, HAVE U ALL HEARD Hello BY ADELE?!?!?!??!?! When I listened to it, I swear I was crying about a relationship I don't even have. Here's there link if you haven't heard the song. GO DO IT PLEASE.

p.s

follow me on goodreads to find out what I'm reading next! 

The Heir | Kiera Cass

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Hi, okay so I've been gone a long time for many reasons which I will go into but first I would like to greet all these new people who have stumbled onto my blog. Hello! I'm Tia and it's very nice to meet you. I hope you stay a while and enjoy my reviews with some ice lollies. 

Basically, I had to deal with a loss in my family which was very tragic and unexpected which meant I took time to mourn, grieve; deal with it and cry. I haven't worn makeup in almost two weeks because it was inconvenient considering it would just be ruined with all my tears. It also meant I would have to travel back to all my family and friends so we could all be together for the funeral. I was very sad the first couple of days and now I'm getting better but it still really hurts. That being said I haven't been reading much over this past week, however I was currently reading this (The Heir) when this ordeal happened and I was almost done with it but I stopped reading it and only picked it up again a few nights ago and completed it in a sitting. Even though I finished reading the book I didn't feel like reviewing it till now, so Hi! I'm back. 

The Heir is a Young Adult, Dystopian and is also the sequel to The Selection trilogy by Kiera Cass. Although on goodreads this is considered as book #4. My thoughts of this book in a nutshell? Well, it was a fucking mess. I knew it was gonna be bad but I just thought to give it a go and see where it ends up, but bloody hell DON'T! 

Now this is a hard book to not spoil for you, so if you want to read The Selection series and don't want to be spoiled by the sequel to that trilogy The Heir (this book!) then stop reading and go eat some vanilla ice cream. Like, stop now, I'm warning ya'll, I will spoil after this!

America Singer dies!

Sike! 

Also the first book came out in 2012 so...girl bye! Although that whole series is predictable and you all knew who America Singer was gonna end up with so with that being said, enjoy this review on her daughter Eadlyn Schreave, who surprise surprise also goes through a 'selection' (gross). 

If you're someone who has read the prior trilogy and are a bit iffy on wether to read this (don't) then you're at the right place. For you all I will also keep this very spoiler free, like all the rest of my reviews but just to put it out there, this is spoiler free. 

Eighteen years ago, America Singer entered the Selection and won Prince Maxon's heart. Now the time has come for Princess Eadlyn to hold a Selection of her own. Eadlyn doesn't expect her Selection to be anything like her parents' fairy-tale love story...but as the competition begins, she may discover that finding her own happily ever after isn't as impossible as she's always thought. A new generation of swoonworthy characters and captivating romance awaits in the fourth book of the Selection series! This is the synopsis on goodreads.

I used to have the reviews I did for the three books prior to this: The Selection, The Elite and The One but I reverted them all to drafts because I reviewed them when I was a baby sunflower and they are a little rusty and....bad. So I don't have them up but if I did I would link you all to them, however I will recommend reading some of the fantastic reviews on goodreads of other wonderful reviewers. Like I said before you will have to read those before you can read this or you will be in for many spoilers and you won't understand anything.

What is a 'Selection'? 

Good question. It's basically the same this as if you've ever watched The Bachelor or The Bachelorette, yeah, that's what it is with like dystopia (not much) and hella drama. 

The thing is when I first read The Selection I was in love. I gave it 5/5 stars; it was amazing. As we progress through that trilogy to the second book The Elite, the plot and idea got less and less interesting and when we ended with The One, everything was so predictable and it just got boring. Kiera Cass had some plot twists in the last book that were TOTALLY unnecessary, I shouldn't even call that a plot twist to be honest. Looking back the whole reason I adored The Selection books at first was because I was at that age that romance was such a buzz and the only thing in young adult literature. I believed that women had to have a love interest and had to be naturally beautiful and gorgeous. As I have grown up my genre and taste of books have slightly altered and I've grown as a person and realised so many different things. If you asked me to read The Selection series now, I probably would not love it as much (I would hate it). 

Eadlyn Schreave is nothing like America Singer, she's WORSE! In my opinion anyways and I'll tell you why. 

So many reviews that I've read of this have said that they love the fact that Eadlyn is not like America but I hate that! Like, I didn't like America either but at least she wasn't a total brat and had some manners. I have no idea how Kiera Cass wrote Eadlyn and who she was imagining when writing her (if she was) but it was a mess! I knew from the beginning that I wasn't gonna like her. At all. No joke. America Singer is #1 on my most hated female characters in books and Eadlyn Schreave is #2.

Schreave....what is that. What. Is. That. Name. 

Also how do you pronounce her name? I've been saying/reading Ed-lin or is it Eid-lin. I still don't know I've been pronouncing it the whole time as Ed-eh-lin which is 100% wrong but she was so irrelevant I didn't care. Don't get me started on her last name, shreeve? #sorrynotsorry

No matter how much I dislike Kiera Cass's books I can never understand why I adore her writing. I have a theory that it's because her writing is so easy to read and follow; it just flows nicely. It's one of those books you could just read in a few hours because the writing style is so easy to follow. Just the other day I was telling a friend of mine who had also read the three books before this one but decided to not pick up and read this (for obvious reasons and I don't question her at all), is also trying to read 100 books this year. So I told her that if she ever needed to read a book quick to keep up with trying to read 100 books she could always pick this up even though she may hate it, only because it's a quick book to fly through. 

The main character is Eadlyn Schreave and in The Selection series: America Singer. These books do have minor characters but they aren't very memorable which is another reason these books lack proper and good character development. Kiera Cass seems to just plop her characters here and there with minimal background or development. You'll find yourself reading and be like 'Oh yeah, that character! I totally forgot they were there.' 

Another thing I would like to touch on is the world building in these books is so.....bad lacking. It is said to be a dystopian and in the books the world has these 'casts' that is literally brushed upon. There is so much potential in this series if everything was just amped up but not the romance! There is already enough of that. This is more of a romantic dystopian rather than a dystopian. 

All in all, if you're wondering why I chose to read this even though I had learnt my lesson with the prior three books and obviously reflected upon them and my perception has changed. The whole reason I chose to read this is because I thought it would be different (even better?) and I thought that the fact I've invested my time into three books I might as well just continue and read the fourth but I think that's all I'm doing. I'm sure there is gonna be a fifth and maybe a sixth but I'm done. 

One thing I will give Kiera Cass alongside her writing is the cover of these books. They are absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous and I just....LOVE THEM! Publishing companies take note. Hopefully I don't come of as hating Mrs Cass because I'm sure she is a wonderful lady. I follow her on twitter and she is very funny, nevertheless I don't love her books. I would recommend you read her first book The Selection and to the people, who like me invested their time in three books, I would have to say just don't read this. 

Peace out. 

p.s

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The Winner's Curse #1 | Marie Rutkoski

✴ ✴ ✴.5/✴

3.5/4

Wow.

This is book is.......different (odd?) I feel like my mind could change tomorrow on what I thought on this book which is never a good thing. I don't know whether I should sleep on it and come back to this review. 

(Update: I slept on it and I still feel the same.) 

The Winner's Curse if the first book in a Young Adult, Fantasy trilogy; so far only this book (#1) and the second are out, the third currently has a set date for March the 1st 2016. This is labelled as a fantasy but it's more of a ROMANCE fantasy. I say this because when I think of fantasy I think of Throne Of Glass and The Girl of Fire and Thorns and this is nothing like that, it is more focused surrounded by a romance. 

Lady Kestrel's engagement to Valoria's crown prince calls for great celebration: balls and performances, fireworks and revelry. But to Kestrel it means a cage of her own making. Embedded in the imperial court as a spy, she lives and breathes deceit and cannot confide in the one person she really longs to trust.

While Arin fights to keep his country's freedom from the hands of his enemy, he suspects that Kestrel knows more than she shows. As Kestrel comes closer to uncovering a shocking secret, it might not be a dagger in the dark that cuts him open, but the truth. This is the goodreads synopsis. 

Okay, I did not think I would read this in a day and I knew once I started this that by the end of it I would have mixed feelings about what to rate it. My prophecy is true. I literally have no bloody idea! Did I enjoy it? Did I not? In the end I'm going to give this a 4 star rating however it fluctuates between 3.5 and 4. 

The plot was interesting. It intrigued me enough to be hooked so that I didn't put this book down, not until I realised I hadn't had lunch or dinner. The beginning of the book (1/3) was quite slow but not achingly slow that I got bored and put it down; the book starts to pick up in the second third of this book and towards the end. The plot twist in this book kept me on my toes to be honest. Frankly I'm not sure if the reason I read this book really fast was because I was in the mood for a straight up romance book that I knew I could speed through as those books are my fav types of books to read once in a while, or because the book was actually written really well. I still don't know. I've actually read a few other reviews on this and a recurring theme is the uncertainty of what to rate this book and what to make of it. One thing I know for sure is that I will be going into the sequel a little worried. I hope it's good. The idea of this book is genius and the follow through with the writing is also worthy of an applause. 

I just want to properly clarify that this book isn't built on a romance like the Shatter Me trilogy by Tahereh Mafi but I will not consider this a fantasy fantasy book worthy to be labelled and sorted into such books as the Throne of Glass series, A Song of Ice and Fire series (The first book A Game of Thrones is EPIC FANTASY and just beyond me AMAZING!), City of Bones series and The Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy. Also I hope I don't come across as if I sped through this and didn't enjoy it at all because I really did like the book, it was a quick and much needed pick me up read to get me into the mood to read more books. With that being said, this isn't much of a memorable book for me; I can see myself later on in this year not remembering much of this book at all. I'm crossing my fingers that the second book in this trilogy The Winner's Crime is breathtakingly amazing. I've read some really good reviews on that book, so I'M EXCITED! 

The characters were not fully developed to my liking. I feel like there could have been more, for example a better back story but it didn't take away from the plot that they weren't fully delved into. I say this because the moment you start this book there is no leading up; the first thing you read is the purchase of Arin - the slave, so we don't get much of Kestrels life before him or how she lives and her family/friends. That also aids my point that this is mostly a romance fantasy. We follow mostly two point of views as two of the main characters in this series. Arin and Kestrel. We follow in third person which helps as there is limited bias views with a third person perspective.

The female protagonist in this book is a very strong woman. Which I'm all about! Having well represented heroines in novels is what I live for, however she could be written better and I hate this main character. Hate is quite strong more like I heavily dislike and maybe I'm cheating here but I've been writing this review for a day now and I've already started the second book in this series (which I do plan of reviewing here as well) and I've started to tolerate (slowly) this main character. The thing is, I just don't like the way she has been crafted. She isn't a super loveable character, maybe it's just me. 

The writing is alright and I didn't mind it too much however at some parts I found it quite irksome but other than that I think it's easy to follow, not poetic or lovey-dovey but alright. I enjoyed the book so I guess her writing style is easy to follow as well as it being fast and fluid to read. I have never read anything by Marie Rutkoski and I don't know if this trilogy is her first to be professionally published or if she has other books out. 

I want to also address my point of this being a 'romance fantasy' because I'm not saying I don't read fantasy books without romance, for example, Throne of Glass, Game of Thrones and The Girl of Fire and Thorns all have romantic aspects to the book but they are also very well developed and structured alongside beautifully crafted world building and characters. This was not as good as those, but it is worth reading because it is enjoyable and keeps you on your toes. 

I would also like to mention that I own the paperback copy which IS NOT AS NEARLY AS PRETTY AS THE HARDBACK and this also goes for the second book in hardcover, they are both such gorgeous books. If you have these in hardcover, I envy you! 

This is not something hardcore fantasy fans want to be reading unless you're looking for a romance-y fantasy book then this is perfect but other then that not so much. The world building is alright, so is the writing and the characters but it's a bit iffy for me. I have the second book so I am going to read that and probably review that as well. I did enjoy this, as I finished it in practically a day but it's a really debatable book in my opinion. There will be people who despise it and others who adore. I think it depends on the mood you're in whilst reading and depending on what you want to read at the time. When I first started reading the book and I was around 100ish pages in, I remember thinking and tweeting that I felt as though this book was going very slow for minimal world building. 

All in all it's a solid book worthy of 3-4 stars. I hope I don't come off as if this was a pain to read because I read this really fast and I was delighted. 

Also, I am very excited because I had my last exam today and now I'm off for summer (!!!) and I will have much more time to read more and write reviews which is wonderful considering I plan on reading lots over summer. 

p.s

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Amy & Roger's Epic Detour | Morgan Matson

✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴

NOW I JUST WANNA GO ON A ROAD-TRIP!

I always do this thing where I read books that are PERFECT for the summer time and for when I go on holiday yet I read it literally the month/few weeks before summer begins. This is one of those moments. I'm so mad about that but so glad I read this. 

Also before I go into this review, my lenient and wonderful friend Tess (who I mention in many reviews/blog posts: here, here, here and here) lent me this book, so I just want to take this part of the review to thank her (Tess I love you), you can follow her on tumblr here. (She hasn't actually even read this book yet so when I give this back to her I will whack her in the head with it!) 

This is a Young Adult, Contemporary, it is also a standalone. Amy & Roger's Epic Detour follows Amy Curry who is not looking forward to her summer. Her mother decided to move across the country and now it's Amy's responsibility to get their car from California to Connecticut. The only problem is, since her father died in a car accident, she isn't ready to get behind the wheel. Enter Roger. An old family friend, he also has to make the cross-country trip - and has plenty of baggage of his own. The road home may be unfamiliar - especially with their friendship venturing into uncharted territory - but together, Amy and Roger will figure out how to map their way. This is the synopsis on goodreads. 

I hope none of you find this cliche. I didn't. I give props to whoever wrote the blurb cause it got my attention and I had never read a road-trip book before and let me tell you, this being my first is going to be hard for any other books to top this. As well as this being my first ever road-trip book, it is also my first standalone in a very long time (my first one this year I believe). This is definitely a favourite and possible my favourite book I've read this year so far! 

Contemporaries are supposed to be realistic and that is one of the reasons most people read them in the summer when they have a couple months off to do nothing and have more free time to read, however me being a total nut decided to read this before my summer holidays meaning I'm one contemporary down from my summer tbr. Tragic. 

The google definition of a Contemporary romance book is: a subgenre of romance novels, generally with the setting after World War II. The largest of the romance novel subgenres, contemporary romance novels are set in the time when they were written, and usually reflect the mores of their time.

This in a way means that in our 'time'/'era' would be modern and realistic to our daily lives. Amy & Roger's Epic Detour is super realistic. I used to be iffy about contemporaries because I thought most of the 'romance' is forced and unnecessary at times. In a way I think the romance in this was forced almost as if Ms Matson was like "Oh, the book is about to end, lets make them kiss now." Although that is very debatable. I slept on this thought and the next morning I realised you could take it both ways. What I'm trying to say is that the romance part of this book can be realistic. Don't get me wrong, it didn't lessen my love for the book I just thought it was abrupt but then later realised it was realistic for the book to steer in this direction. If you don't agree I can see why but the rest of the book was so realistic, like the whole road-trip. 

The main character Amy was interesting. I really loved her only because she was relatable and made me laugh (out loud!). Another thing is that the way she acted towards the road-trip and Roger is probably the exact way I would react but she has more balls then me. We mainly follow Amy and Roger (as it's their road-trip and it would only make sense..) At the beginning I didn't like Amy at all but she grew on me just like the book did. I really like the way Roger was written and characterised, he was very loveable. Both of them were. Morgan Matson's writing is wonderful and humours. I don't have anything bad to say about her writing because I truly savoured this book. If anything I just wanted more, I wanted to follow through but the book ended and I felt like I had just lost a friend. 

There are so many thing I adored about this book; one of them are the playlists. Actually give me a second, I think I'm tearing up. The fact Morgan Matson decided to include playlists in each chapter/every time the main characters were heading to a new state was so thoughtful and really added to the book. You know that saying "someones music taste says a lot about the person" (I think I made that up) and I totally agree (with myself) cause it added to my perception of these characters. Also the songs are legit and most of them I hadn't heard before so I was (no joke) searching them all up and I just wanna thank Morgan Matson for getting me into some new tunes and adding to my never ending playlists. 

Not only that but Morgan Matson added scrapbook pages of Amy doodling her trip and receipts from diners and motels they stayed in. Throughout reading the book I was questioning whether Ms Matson actually went on a road-trip to write this and SHE DID! Which is a whole new level of dedication but she had a wonderful time! Not to forget that the book was amazing! I really enjoyed it. 

I just feel like the experience of reading this book and following the journey is a story in itself. Now I just feel like reading more road-trip books (any recommendations?) and going on a road-trip. 

Who wants to go on a road-trip with me? 

p.s

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