The Girl of Fire and Thorns | Rae Carson | #1

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I took a photo of this book with some flowers I got on Valentines Day which feels like ages ago because I haven't put up a proper review till now......Not just that, but the fact that February has practically ended and it's almost March, like whAt? This year is floating by. 

The Girl of Fire and Thorns is a Young Adult, Fantasy novel. It is the first book in a trilogy. Here is the goodreads synopsis:

Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness. Elisa is the chosen one.

But she is also the younger of two princesses, the one who has never done anything remarkable. She can't see how she ever will.

Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a handsome and worldly king—a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who needs the chosen one, not a failure of a princess.And he's not the only one who seeks her. Savage enemies seething with dark magic are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary thinks she could be his people's saviour. And he looks at her in a way that no man has ever looked at her before. Soon it is not just her life, but her very heart that is at stake.

Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If she doesn’t die young.

Q: Guess how I ended up reading this book rather that all the books on my 'to-read'/'currently reading' (which you can find on your right)?  

(If you don't want to guess imma tell you anyways.)

A: I stole it from my sister. She has recently bought a couple of books she has mentioned she will definitely read but that has not happened so I saw this on her shelf and it looked interesting so I started to read it. This is 100% not something I would read. Yes, it is fantasy, yes it is Y/A but it's not a book I would normally be gravitated towards. 

I am all for BOOKS HAVING D I V E R S I T Y! I know that in most young adult, there is quite a minimal amount and the books are mostly whitewashed which is a big disappointment. THIS BOOK HAS GREAT REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN AS WELL AS BEING DIVERSE and that makes me so happy. To be honest I expect all books to have diversity and to somewhat not be a 'generic read'. I say this because lately when I think of the Young Adult genre the first couple of things that pop up are: (1) love triangles, (2) some form of the story leading up to a relationship, (3) the main character is white (and the rest of the characters are as well), (4) super unrealistic representations of people, (5) these horrendous gender society roles! (6) "Your not like other girls, you're different." (6) Loads of violence but it is taboo to have sex, (7) "I let out a breath I did not know I was holding." (8) Overthrowing/rebelling a system, government, society, etc (9) Lack of LGBT+ (10) and of course, lack of diversity/poc and there is much more but I am trying to contain myself. 

I'm not gonna lie and say that before I educated myself on these issues I was definitely reading books like those and thinking they were amazing. 

If you would like to see funny tweets relating to the 'generic' young adult books and phrases most said, I will link you to this twitter account: @DystopianYA , enjoy! 

this account is a great laugh and highly recommend you follow them for more amusing tweets, here are some tweets I thought were hilarious: 

In no way am I saying this book is the perfect book or anything along the lines of that. Yes, this is a book with great diversity and represents characters realistically but this book, like any other book will have flaws. This book starts off with the main character Elisa having to get married off to the King for reasons (read the book) and the King is a beautiful man with black hair and captivating eyes. Shocker! However, trust me when I say sometimes things like this need to be in books. Just to keep it interesting. I will agree that there are MANY ways in which books can be more compelling rather than something generic like a hot dude and a love triangle (which is also shockingly in this book). I mean sometimes a love triangle is needed, sometimes there need to be a hot dude and I'm not saying this needs to stop entirely but something new and alluring would be preferred. 

However I will mention this book is fantastic at keeping you on edge and the many plot twists. 

*whispers* everything changes

This book is also strongly and I mean VERY STRONGLY surrounded around the authors perception and views of religion. I applaud Rae Carson for having religion/faiths a part of this book. Religion is another thing I believe most authors don't write about or simple choose not to and it's always cause: they 'just don't want to go there' or don't want to explore that extent, I totally understand why but it nice to see once in a while something different. 

In this book Rae Carson has addressed religion without condemning or condoning a certain faith. Religion is a very hard thing to introduce in writing; this is because there are many religions/faiths and in a way when it is pronounced in books it can come off as trying to 'advertise' a certain religion. I'm not saying religion in books is crazy rare because of course there are books where it is hinted or clear elements shine through in the writing, for example Harry Potter. 

I love reading about strong female characters and Elisa in this book was phenomenal. She is strong, smart, witty and truly wonderful. It is so heart-warming to see authors write about female characters like this with good representation that can relate to many readers. Elisa goes through a physical and emotional journey throughout this book and I'm sure throughout this series. Another thing that makes me very happy is that periods have been mentioned in this book. If you ask me the rarest thing I read in books it's probably addressing that the majority of people with vaginas bleed occasionally is by far the rarest! Thankyou Rae Carson for including that, even though it might have only been mentioned less than a page, it is better than nothing. 

I highly, highly recommend you go read this! 

p.s: tbh I am still waiting for a book other than the THRONE OF GLASS series by Sarah J Maas and this one where having a period is mentioned. 

p.p.s: Follow me on twitter for my reading and life escapades. 

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

Fairest | Marissa Meyer

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*(I'm so sorry for not reviewing anything. I've written this review ages ago and I've been meaning to post it but I haven't..........I don't know. It's ehh. I've been on edge with this review, like I don't really want to post it but whatthehell!) 

Okay I read this super fast, it doesn't even feel like I read the book but then again I was reading this when I should have been working. This is seriously the most prettiest book I have had the pleasure of reading this year. Just a heads up, this is like a prequel from the perspective of one of the characters from The Lunar Chronicle series by Marissa Meyer. That series consists of: Cinder, Scarlet, Cress and Winter (yet to be released, I have review of only Cress so I will link that here.

If you have not read the Lunar Chronicles series I highly recommend you do, the books get better are you read on and the story lines are amazing! They are based of fairytale re-tellings. As this is a prequel I don't think it really matters if you haven't read the series or all the books but it would be better if you have read the books so you actually understand some of the context as well as the world. 

Fairest - just like the books in the Lunar Chronicles - is a Young Adult, Dystopian/fantasyish novel. follows the perspective of Queen Levana, who if you've read the Lunar Chronicles we know her as a very heartless woman. This book gives us her backstory it is somewhat a novella, this is labelled as 0.5 so it is before the Lunar Chronicles Series. I've read a few reviews about this book where people have said that this was pointless and added nothing to the plot/story line of the Lunar Chronicles but isn't that the point of novellas and prequels of certain characters? I mean the only thing I took away from her story is that now I see her slightly different manner and I don't look to her and have millions of ??? flying everywhere. In the series we don't learn much about Queen Levana but only her tactics, we don't get an insight into her world or how she thinks or to why/how she has become what she is. Maybe this was pointless but to me it wasn't. Nevertheless it was written by Marissa Meyer and I love everything she has come out with so far. This was a quick read and I enjoyed it very much. 

In this we get more insight into her world or the 'world' built on the moon: Lunar. IT IS SERIOUSLY SO SCARY BUT VERY COOL AND I LOVE IT! I highly recommend reading the Lunar Chronicle series. 

The Darkest Minds #1 | Alexandra Bracken

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Sorry, sorry, sorry! 

I am still alive just not reading because I'm trying (not) to revise for exams. I'm sorry if you guys miss me, I understand as I would miss myself. Truly sorry. 

(If you missed me, I missed you too!) 

Anywaysssss....

I super sped read this for you guys and to get something up on this blog. I was halfway through this after my saga book review but then I went hiatus on reading for quite sometime. I don't even know, sometimes you just gotta give yourself a break from the stuff you enjoy so it doesn't feel like a 'job' or a burden so it doesn't become unenjoyable. Not to mention on top of that I have all the revision I'm (not) doing. 

THIS WAS REALLY GOOD! That's an understatement. I haven't read much dystopian in a while so this felt really good to read. If you're wondering why I haven't read much dystopians it's because I stopped reading them around the end of last year because I was reading an overladen amount that I started to feel as though every, single, plot line was becoming generic and repetitive. I have owned this book and the second book, Never Fade for....since last year, which if you ask me is a long time. I started reading this in January and it is now February. WhaT? 

The Darkest Minds is the first book in a trilogy and is a Young Adult, Dystopian based around a group of kids that get sent to a 'rehabilitation camp' because of a wide spread disease that is affecting and killing most of America's youth. Ruby -the main character- might have survived the disease that practically wiped out the majority of America's youth but she and many other have emerged with something worse, something that made the government build this 'camps'. They have emerged with abilities they cannot control. They are dangerous. 

Escape, love, action, violence, blah blah you get the gist. This is terrible synopsis go look at the better one on goodreads. 

One thing I would like to mention is that the idea for this book is very unique but somewhat, poorly executed. I truly did enjoy the reading experience, however this book went so, damn, slowly! The book itself is 470+ pages and when I felt as though I had read a chunk, it was more like two pages. The book is filled with adventures and action, yet it went very slowly; that is another reason why it took me a decade to finish it. Nevertheless I like that I ended up savouring the book more that I would if I just flew through it. It's a solid book and it's not cliche with the romance aspect. The book is not a 'romantic dystopian' but a proper dystopian where we focus more on the plot rather then who is making-out with who. God Bless Alexandra Bracken.

(Quick, irrelevant, interlude update of my life: I've had more than three cups of tea today also HOZIER IS AMAZING if you didn't already know.)   

Even though I personally enjoyed this book very much, it is quite littered with flaws that I would like to mention. Before I address a few of them, I am not hating on this book or Ms Bracken because I adored the book in the end and Ms Brackens' writing. With that being said, this book keeps you in the dark for the most part of the storyline; I was expecting it to ease into everything so you're slowly understanding everything. But no. I know that keeping readers in 'the dark' is a literary device where you keep readers on their toes and engaged (i forgot what it called when you do that), although I believe there are necessities that you need to address in the beginning of the book. For example, these kids have 'mind powers' and I didn't properly understand how they worked till halfway through the book. I don't believe it was my fault that I didn't understand but the way it was written and explained. Not to mention for a world as the one in this book, you need good world building! I felt as though this booked lacked effective world building. 

I definitely plan on reading the next book Never Fade and maybe this one will be even better! You know how it goes with dystopian: they get better as you go through the trilogy, for the most part anyways. 

Again, I am extremely sorry that I've been gone but not to worry I have another review coming in a couple of days. Hopefully! I'm not making any promises. 

Have a lovely day everyone!