July tbr/Summer Reads

So I thought I might as well do this *waves hands effusively* when I mean 'this' I mean tell ya'll what I will probably (and I say that loosely) be reading over the summer. Now these are just a few of the books on my tbr and I may most probably will end buying a shit ton more books later on throughout the month of July/August so the schedule may change up a bit, I may also not read some of these on the list depending on my mood. As you can tell, A few most of these are summery contemporaries.

A couple are books in a series (needed to be completed or I'm starting/marathoning). 

There is one non-fiction in here cause my parents are going on about reading more non-fiction so

L͙̙̜̳ͮ̽̃̅̋ͫͅm̰̮̌̿ͯa̺͑̑ͭ̿ͧ̓o̬̮̦ͣͣ͛̾̇͑

From top left to bottom right:

These Broken Stars #1 by Amie Kaufman and Megan Spooner
The DUFF by Kody Keplinger
Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins
The Time Travellers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Winger by Andrew Smith
Just one Day by Gayle Forman
Anna and the French Kiss #1     }Stephanie Perkins

Lola and the Boy Next Door #2
Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson
Across the Universe #1 by Beth Revis
Lean in by Sheryl Sandberg
Cress #3 by Marissa Meyer
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by DO I EVEN NEED TO???!?!?!
Legend #1  } by Marie Lu
Prodigy #2
Champion #3
I will also be re-reading 'The Fault in Our Stars' before I watch the movie.

I will be tweeting/updating my reading escapades on twitter: @FionaJadex and goodreads so you can follow me on those if you wish ~you should i'm hella rad~ 

Also as a final note, I know that this is a bit much (or a bit little) for some people but then again I don't think I'm gonna pick up all these books in my holidays. Another thing would be that I might be travelling and meeting my familia so thats that. 

I wish everyone a lovely summer and read a lot, or a bit, or none w/e floats your boat

x

June Wrap Up

Guys, guys, guys my summer holidays have started just a few days before June ends and I cannot explain how done I am with this school year. Never the less I shall not bore you with my end-of-school-year-rants and here is what I have read in the month of June: 

Overall in June I had an acceptable reading month, I read seven books. 

The first three books I read were part of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series which consists of five books. I've only read the first three:

PJ and the Lightning Thief,  ☆☆☆☆.5

PJ and the Sea of Monsters, ☆☆☆☆.5

PJ and the Titans Curse, ☆☆☆☆☆

due to #ayearathon, as the theme this month was to read Rick Riordan. I really enjoyed reading these books, they were really fast pace and action packed and just great middle-grade books to read. Here is my review and thoughts on these books.

                     ☆☆☆☆☆

The next book I read was Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman and I just have so much to say about this book it was so good I cannot even, here is my full review on this book. 

☆☆☆☆.5

The third book I read in the month of June was My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick and this book is a contemporary and a great summer read. I remember tweeting out my feels every ten minutes because this book is phenomenal, I cried I laughed it was so lovely. It's not a sappy Y/A contemporary but more of a REALISTIC one. Here is my full review on this book. 





☆☆☆☆☆

The next book I read was a highly anticipated book for this year and it might just have to be my favourite book so far this year? I mean it was just so good and I cannot even fathom my thoughts for this. City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare, lemme just say this was a fantastic ending to the Mortal Instrument series; I'm gonna miss all these characters and the story. Thankyou Cassandra Clare for writing and crafting such a great series. Here is my review on this book. 

☆☆☆☆☆

The last and final book I read in June was Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I didn't think I had to review this because it's...Harry Potter.... Although I did find the first two third of this book quite slow, probably because I had watched the movie a few years back and knew who the 'Prince' was and also who dies which kinda took away from the reading experience. 



I did end up reading seven books from my eight book tbr, I just didn't have time to pick up More Than This by Patrick Ness this month, maybe in July.

City of Heavenly Fire | Cassandra Clare

☆☆☆☆☆

Oh, how I have anticipated the release of this book and its finally here. A bit of a belated review but thats cause the struggle to find this was ridiculous. I went to six different bookstores till I found it and boy was it good. 

I don't want to spoil anyone because this is the sixth and last book of The Mortal Instruments series and if you haven't read the fist five books in this series then you should stop reading now....but here is the synopsis for City of Bones the first book in this series, if you like it then I recommend picking it up because this series is worthwhile. 

"When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder― much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing―not even a smear of blood―to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know... " 

Before I even, this book is a monster. I could kill someone with this. 

~Insert meaningful gif someone getting hit with a book for not reading the book first~

My thoughts straight after I finished the book (quite intriguing):

'oH MY GOD, this was so lovely and I loved it and I cannot. EVERYTHING WAS JUST GREAT AND CASSIE DIDN'T KILL US AND HOW CAN I FATHOM THIS BOOK?!?!?!?! I LAUGHED AND ALMOST CRIED AND JUST THIS WAS PERFECT!' 

....moving on.....

My thoughts after a few hours of fathoming:

Where do I actually even start? 

I guess from the beginning we know straight of the bat that the 'heavenly fire' was the key to the whole thing and that it was what was going to defeat Sebastien in the end but they didn't have the sword (Glorious) but they did have Jace. Can we just take a moment for the fact, if Clary had killed Sebastien in the last book (City of Lost Souls) none of this shit would have gone down, if she would have just stabbed 'Glorious' into Sebastian. If only.

I had a few theories about who would die in this book and it hurt me so much, I thought I was going to be in pieces at the end of reading CoHF but the deaths weren't that bad. Cassie said in a tweet (I think) that six main characters would die or something along the lines of that. I thought straight up that Simon was gonna die, thankGOD he didn't. Simon (and Isabelle) are literally one if not my favourite characters in the whole series. I also had theories that either Maia or Jordan would go and it was Jordan..........oh that was really sad. I had mixed feeling for Maureen, I didn't like her but I wasn't sure if she was going to die I also thought Alec was a goner but he lived. I knew Sebastien had to go at some point but I was not expecting Jonathan Morgenstern to bloody show up??!!. I also wan't expecting Raphael to die but once Sebastian retrieved that dagger from Raphael for not killing Magnus I knew it, I just knew. 

So these Blackthorns: Helen, Mark, Julian, Tiberius, Livia, Drusilla and Octavian (did I get them all) I really, really like them. I am so excited for TDA (The Dark Artifices) the next trilogy Cassie is writing which revolves around these two characters Julian Blackthorn and Emma Carstairs. Emma, gotta love her, I'm already love her and she isn't like Clary at all (Clary at times for me can be a bit annoying).   

I definitely did not expect the Seelie Queen and the fae to side with the Endarkened/Sebastien but then again 'they side with the winning team'. The moment I read that scene with the Seelie Queen and Sebastien in her bed (I almost died!) I knew that they couldn't trust the fairies. So then when Luke, Jocelyn, Magnus and Raphael get an invitation to dine with them I was like 'NO! THEY'RE EVIL! YOU MUSN'T' *sighs* that went downnnnn hill. 

                                                             

"Simon you have to 'DTR'" -actually laughed/cried here. 

Isabelle and Simon are my favourite characters to follow in this whole series, they are just so lovely to read about and every encounter with Simon is hilarious. Throughout the book Izzy doesn't let him tell her he loves her not till they are talking about the dreams they had when they entered the realm. I most definitely was not expecting Simon to give himself up to Magnus's dad and let him take all his damn memories! Then we jump to the aftermath in 2008 and its killing ALL of them to see that Simon doesn't remember any of them not till Magnus did his 'thing' and Simon COMES BACK AS A POSSIBLE SHADOWHUNTER! I would love to see more Izzy and Simon in 'The Dark Artifices' 

Yes, the scene we were all anticipating......Clace<3 They have sex in a cave no big deal. But honestly I thought that whole scene was written beautifully and it was just so cute and my feels! I knew that there was gonna be a sex scene because I just believed that it would happen in this book and it did. I had also seen some fan-art on tumblr of a cave/swimming scene, not sure who drew it but its lovely. Never the less it was steamy and fab. The one thing that made me laugh for a good five minutes had to to be the part where Jace whips out a condom, like he carries them around regularly especially in demon realms. 

The scene where Clary kicks-ass when Sebastian was going in demanding for the kiss and she stabs him and Sebastian dies but Jonathan rises then dies. Now Clary has always been this weird character for me, she definitely develops from the first book, they all do but in this book in particular she kickass and she isn't annoying at alll! Maybe its cause this book was just so good I didn't even care. The scene where she is leaning in to Sebastian's kiss but then she stabs him with Heospherous and my god that was intense, Sebastian's all 'You think you can still kill me-' but then its all muffled as he dies. But wait hold on no, wait right JONATHAN MORGENSTERN SHOWS UP all perfect and normal and poor Jocelyn doubles over and I'm like 'What is going on, is this even real'. The fact Clary came up with the idea of the heavenly fire as a rune on the blade/dagger was genius, she fooled everyone.  

I know I didn't cover all the 700+ pages here but I think you get the gist of everything. This book made me so happy in the end even though some parts killed me. I don't mention Maia much but I do love her as well and I think the fact she grows out of her shell is fantastic. Helen and Aline, that really killed me, as if the Blackthorns and Emma haven't already gone through enough now Helen is getting exiled but at least Aline offered to go as well. 

Before I end this review I want to say: thankyou Cassandra Clare for taking your time to writing and crafting this amazing series and on behalf of all your readers thankyou so much. This book was written incredibly well and this might even be my favourite book of 2014 so far, I didn't not like anything in this book everything was just a perfect and well written ending to wrap up this series. I'm really going to miss this series. 

~fi

  x

My Life Next Door | Huntley Fitzpatrick

Please excuse the terrible photoshopping of the book, my bad.


☆☆☆☆.5

My Life Next Door is about a girl called Samantha Reed; who lives in an abnormally big house for 

only three people including herself: her sister Tracy and her mother- the senator. She has been living across from this large family-the Garretts for ten years. The Garretts were everything the Reeds weren't and Samantha's mother loathed them, she would say they were just a racket with their toys sprawled all over the lawn; a mess. Samantha and her sister were never really introduced to their neighbours because they're mother despised them but that never really stopped Samantha's curiosity and she would always sit a top her roof and watch them, that is until one night when one of the Garrett boys- Jase comes and decides to sit next to her.  

This is a Young Adult Contemporary so there is 'falling in love', BUT BEFORE YOU think its all cliche as shit lemme just say ITS NOT! and it is worth your time. Honest, its not cliche at all but the opposite; in that sense very true to real relationships and what they deal with.

The book it written very well and Huntley Fitzpatrick grasped a teenage relationship very well, she writes about both families and the issues they go through very well and it was so true to a real relationship and you see yourself rooting for these characters. The characters were written brilliantly to a point where they almost feel real and relatable, the development throughout the book was on point and so was the whole book in general.  This is one of a few contemporary's I've read where it's so realistic! 

I gave this book a 4.5 stars. This was such a pick-me-up for me because I've been reading some slow books lately and this was phenomenal. Things I just am in awe from this book (there is a few):

REALISTIC CHARACTERS 
REALISTIC FAMILY
REALISTIC LOVE/RELATIONSHIP
No wishy-woshy teenage drama that no one has time for.
GEORGE!!!!!
The Garrett's
Jase! 
It made me cry, in a good way but at one point I was bawling because of one scene. 
It made me laugh, literally out loud! 
The fact the Jase and Samantha were mature and not stupid-un-responsible teenagers they were 17 I believe. 

There are some strong themes of love/friendship and family which mould Samantha into who she becomes at the end of this book and it's lovely to follow both Jase and Sam's journey through this book. I think I may just keep this review spoiler free. Overall I loved this, I really did. A perfect summer contemporary! I was 'supposed' and I use that word loosely because clearly I'm not on my summer holidays yet (still got two exams and a two weeks of school to read this in my summer holidays) but I just couldn't wait and I'm glad I didn't. 

~fi
  x

Noughts & Crosses | Malorie Blackman

☆☆☆☆☆

“Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong.” 

― Muhammad Ali


Noughts and Crosses is about these two young people trying to figure themselves out in a somewhat corrupted society of prejudice and racial discrimination. In this world Noughts and Crosses don't mix at all. Sephy is a Cross: a member of the dark-skinned ruling class, whilst Callum is a Nought -a “colourless” member of the underclass who were once slaves to the Crosses. The both are best friends since childhood This is a story about racism in its cruelest and most hopeless form and it is disgusting, really. 

This is the first book in a four book series and one novella, I believe. I've been putting off reviewing this book because no matter how much I say, it won't give the book justice at all, this book was truly phenomenal and heart wrenching. I can tell you how much I loved this book although the struggle it was to finish it only because of this society: it is disgusting to see people being treated this way and this book is most definitely not for the lighthearted readers. However I urge you to read it, only because its worth your time and you won't regret it.  This book is a somewhat 'alternate history'/ 'alternate universe' where the Crosses are the great and the Noughts are nothing but scum "blankers", if you will. Forget about the characters and the plot but this type of 'corrupted' society alone is heart-wrenching to read, the discrimination of skin colour and it made me sick that this was the way they treated each other in this setting. Malorie Blackman has truly crafted a masterpiece and this was fantastic to read, never the less. 

I gave this book five out of five starts because it was deserved. I don't want to say too much about the conflicts that these two characters go through but it is a romance never the less. It is worth the read, everyone should read it but don't think that its light-hearted and bubbly because this deals with the unspoken truth of racism and dysfunctional families. I prefer if I don't say more so I don't spoil or lead on to suspense. 

*I'm sorry but I had 2. 

I'm not so sure how I should go into this because it felt as though my heart was ripped into a million shredded parts then run over by a gazillion busses and then thrown over a cliffs edge, that repeated a billion times. Legit, not even 50 pages into this book I was already balling my eyes. This book truly hurt my heart, so much. I'm sorry if this review becomes miscellaneous because my thoughts are all over the place (I made sure I started writing this a few hours after the book just so my feelings weren't all over the place) but I shall probably start going in order of events.

*So we start of pretty innocent, don't get me wrong the discrimination and racisms was there from the beginning but the characters were innocent: Callum was 16 and Sephy was 14-15, something like that. They're relationship was so adorable can we just take a moment, Callum cared for he so much and vise-versa. Sephy wasn't a hater even though she was a Cross and that was great, she might have been the only non-hater we came across for the most part of that book. The parts where Callum was being beat up and discriminated was horrible to read, I did tear up and at some parts I was full out wailing. I think the part where Sephy stood up for Callum and sat next to him (was sorta stupid) but still very loving; where she got beat up for it, yeah that part was tedious for me to continue because it was so terrible. 

*Their families were very interesting. Callums (the McGregor's) Especially, we start of with a whole family and in my opinion They Were all very much great. Up Until Lynette died, Jude Went ballistics, Ryan lost it and Meggie was trying to hold it together. Poor Callum was in. the Midst of all of this not to mention Sephy's family hated him. Sephy's family aussi Were very interesting, In the Beginning we learn That Jasmine Hadley was indeed alright with the first goal at Noughts Then drifted away. I thought That in a society like theirs, dysfunctional families and everywhere Would Be Was not this something to be very shocked about goal When Jude and Ryan join the Liberation Militia; When Jude plants the bomb I was literally dumbstruck.

I know I'm missing loads of other things but I feel like if I write more all these feeling are going to come back and I just won't be able to hold it in. I just think that (maybe its just me) but Sephy could have saved him but she chose to save her baby and also she thought Callum would despise the thought of the rest of his life in a cell and instead rather die. There were just so much tears that were shed through this whole book and I felt so hollow after reading this. Callum's death was so much to take it I was crying and crying and I couldn't stop. 'I needed to breathe'. This book seriously hurt my heart. It sickens me that racism is still such a big thing in the 21st century, you'd think we would be more civilised, yet were going in circles. This book deals with so much more than just racial discrimination, two people unable to love eachother or be together. I wish that upon nobody, god forbid. 

Percy Jackson and the Olympians | Rick Riordan | Books 1-3

The 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians' is definitely one of the series that my friends (including Rain) hoarded me into, but I loved it. I now know why everyone tells me to read it, its brilliant. I can tell you now after reading only 3/5ths of the books so far it's action packed straight from the beginning. I didn't think I would enjoy this series at all only because its middle grade/fantasy and I didn't think it would be my cup of tea, but tell you what this is freaking amazing. I specifically remember saying "I'm never, ever going to read Percy Jackson" but here I am, *sighs*. This series consists of five books, but I've only read the first three. I do plan on reading this whole series which means I only have to read the next two and then I plan of reading the 'Hero's of Olympus' which is also a five book series. I only did end up picking this series up because of #ayearathon (I blame them). #ayearathon is basically a week long read-a-thon for the whole of this year which takes place at the beginning of every month with a theme/genre of book. The theme for this month was Rick Riordan.

Fiona rated it: ☆☆☆☆.5

The Lighting Thief is the first book in this series and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I gave it a 4.5 out of 5 stars. I love the concept of these books, the idea of the Greek Gods and you just learn so much whilst reading. 
Greek Mythology in general (◕‿◕)✿

Rick Riordan's writing style is very easy to read (considering that its middle grade) they way he crafts his books is brilliant, they are always filled with action. 

The characters in this series, expecially in this book where we are getting to know all of them. All the characters in this book were written really well and I'm pretty sure all of them if not most were very relatable. In general I really think everyone should read this at some point, whether that may be in middle grade or not. If you're skeptical like me, just go for it! You never know. They are 12! When I was twelve I didn't know what god was. 

Fiona rated it:☆☆☆☆.5

The Sea of Monsters is the second book in this series and I fairly enjoyed this as-well. I realised that most of theses books you tend to forget half of all the action that happens throughout the books (maybe this is just me) because of the amount of action that is happening every time you turn a page and I'm not saying this is a bad thing at all, I think its great. These books are very fast pace and quite addictive. 

The plot just thickens are the characters just keep developing and its all coming together very well. 


Okay, um, er, they are 13 in this one, what even! I've come to a conclusion that when you think Percy and Co are going to rest or cut down of the action for a while, it never, ever happens.  There is always something somewhere going on and I freaking love it. These books have been out for quite sometime now so I do know a little about what happens but not everything. This book out of the three I have read so far was probably the one I forgot most about, apart from the fact that they retrieve the fleece and Thalia comes back to life. I think in this book we get to know more about the Gods and a bit more about Poseidon and his relationship with Percy, I'm not gonna lie I think one of the best story lines in these book might just have to be the relationship Sally Jackson and Poseidon share. Shipping Annabeth and Percy pretty hard. Percabeth. 

Fiona rated it:☆☆☆☆☆

The Titan's Curse is the third book in this series and so far my favourite. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who hasn't read the books up until this one, all I have to say is that if you haven't started this series you really should get on it at some point.

When I first started reading, we again jump straight into action and so much is going on. The characters just keep getting better and the monsters even worse, we learn more about Kronos and Luke; we also get introduced to the Hunters, Artemis and Apollo, Bianca and Nico de Angelo we also learn a more about Thalia.

Can we please just take a moment for Artemis and her Hunters, oH mY goD were they amazing, girl power everybody! ZOE NIGHTSHADE EVERYBODY!!! I LIVED FOR HER, she was a kickbutt characters, so you could already guess how it felt when she died, I was screaming at the book. The one character I get freakishly attached to dies and everything just...also Bianca dies and I thought that was horrible I really liked her as well, I believe that because these books are indeed middle-grade that the deaths weren't dealt upon heavily like in Young Adult literature, where authors literally rip your heart out.

There was a point where Percy decides to take on the Titan Lord Atlas and I literally facepalmed my way through that chapter. When Dr Chase came in a started to shoot down the Titan army was also very kickbutt, Annabeth's dad is pretty cool. Not to mention in this one they are 14 which is slightly more reasonable, but still. Still shipping Percabeth. I don't think I talk a lot about Annabeth and Grover but they are also two of my favourite characters in this book series.

I think I should clarify why I gave the first two books a 4.5 start rating instead of 5, this is because even thought I love the books I just don't feel the 5 stars and its very hard to explain why exactly. Considering the fact I still have two weeks of school left before the Summer holidays (I want them to come faster!) I think reading three books in a week is pretty good. There is just so much I could go on and ramble about but I thing you guys get the gist of it. Overall I really enjoyed my week of Percy Jackson and I think will probably end up reading the last two books in this series in the next month only because I still need to get through my June tbr.

We Were Liars | E. Lockhart

☆☆☆☆.5

There isn't much I can say if you haven't read the book, I'm pretty sure you have heard this from multiple people but I rather not ruin the experience of going into a book without knowing anything about it and this is exactly how you should to dive into this book. However what I can say is that it is a worthwhile read.

The book itself has one, if not the most vague synopsis I have ever read and its brilliant. There is a lot of hype surrounding 'We Were Liars' and I'm just glad that the hype didn't ruin it for me. The best way in my opinion is to go into this knowing nothing and getting the most out of it once you're done.

Bye Bye now non spoilery people......byeeeeee....come back and join the dark side once you've read the book.......gooooodd bYE!

Anyways! so lets get started.

Hello people-who-have-read-the-book-hopefully-and-aren't-here-because-don't-want-to-be-spoiled, because you're gonna get spoiled so leave my lovelies if you haven't read the book.

Where do I even begin, holy shit this was fantastic. The plot line the idea and writing everything was top notch and on point. I've heard loads of people say the hype surrounding this book killed it for them but I am so glad I didn't cave into the hype and read it when I felt like it. I read this in a few hours, it didn't feel like I was reading for very long either (not to mention it is quite a short book).

I gave this a 4.5 starts and you're probably wondering "Fiona why didn't you just give it the full 5 stars" and this is because I wanted more, just a bit more. We read from the beginning that something has happened, something has shook Cadence up and we read, read, read and follow this protagonist through her thoughts and issues and we lead up to the big reveal and let me tell you, the 'big reveal' was big and it did shake me up slightly but I wanted just a bit more.

A little more character development, not to much hidden away? I'm not to sure, it just irked me that I wanted more. I guess you could say it was closure.

I really liked the setting and the way it was presented, this whole book was just so well thought out and phenomenal. I loved! LOVED the fact that there was diversity in the main couple (Gat + Cadence) it was so cute to see their relationship unfold and bloom. I don't know if its just me but I don't read much books with many main couples being of colour or diverse and this was great. (Also the name Cadence was so pretty).

I did at times get so confused with the family's and who belonged to who and which house and family. But once I got the hang of it and flicked back to the front where it has two pages dedicated to the Sinclair family tree, I got the family down.

This was emotional, I'll give you that. I almost cried, I didn't actually cry like physically with snot and tears and mess but I almost did. This was cause I was so confused, we go from realistic reality (what) to ghosts and I was like 'wait what' but when I found out they died I was like 'oH my goodness no way' It was sad.

It crushed my soul and now I feel no more. The writing style was so lovely! Very poetic and I loved it. Some may argue that it was repetitive and snarky but I liked it very much. Yes! at some parts it was repetitive but I didn't mind it too much. This is my first book by 'e. lockhart' and I very much enjoyed it and hopefully I read some more of her books in the future.

Everyone needs to read We Were Liars.