February Bookmark Wrap Up

How the time goes by. It's March already and it just keeps going faster everytime.

Last month was so busy in schools and exams were thrown at me from all the angles (still are) and my reading didn't go as well as planned. I only read two books, but the most important ones.

 Read:

The Giver by Louis Lowry

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

I had to read The Giver for class and I was really excited about it. I had a test of it an aced it too! But in general I thought this book was amazing, one of the books that set the pause for dystopian. I thought the world building was excellent, I could imagine the world perfectly. Maybe it wasn't as good at the end, but I get why she did it.

Later, I read very hurriedly Pride and Prejudice. It was a reread, number 567 most likely, and it just keeps being awesome. It took a little longer than usual for me because I was reading it in English for the first time. And I think knowing the original words gives it a new tone to the book, more true to the story.

I had planned on reading two more books, but that just didn't happen. School has me tight in the rope and I really need to get the good grades I'm getting, even if I'm half leaving books behind. *sigh*

There will be reviews up for both books where I tell you exactly what I thought of them.

Thanks for reading once again, and I hope you have a wonderful day!

Kingdoms, Battles, Love...What Else Could You Ask For?

Title: Graceling

Author: Kristin Cashore

Genre: Fantasy, 

General Thoughts: Great great book.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars.

First Lines

His eyes. Katsa had never seen such eyes. One was silver, and the other, gold. They glowed in his sun-darkened face, uneven, and strange. She was surprise that they hadn't shoe in the darkness of their first meeting. They didn't seem human..

Graceling is the story of Lady Katsa, a girl who is graced with the power of killing. She has been trained all her life, and used by her uncle, king Randa, to do all of his errands, torturing and killing people. And then she meets Po, who is graced with the power of fighting. Together, they'll search for the answer to Grandfather Telif's capture, and find a few mysteries of their own.

I've wanted to read this book for a while. More than a year and a half, I'd dare to say. But somewhere along the way I heard this tiny bitty bad review about it. I can't even remember who was it from or what exactly did it say, but I remember it discouraging me from reading it.

Enter present world, where I find myself with new friends and companionship (book related) and they happen to mention their love for this book. Reason why we're here. I read it. And I regret really hard not reading it before.

The writing is one of the things that did it for me. It was a special kind of writing due to it being more 1600's, to say a year. And I've heard a lot of people complain about it not being good, but I'm not a native English speaker, and for what I saw, I think that she wrote what was best.

Then we have Katsa. I don't necessarily love her as my favorite character. She's super bad ass and hilariously dense. But she's very robotic, and this makes me not feel her as much. And there's also the "I don't want kids, not getting married cause freedom" thing. In my case, I related her intensity towards that problem due to the era in which she finds herself. I mean, if someone was like that in this century, or the past one, or even the one before, I wouldn't have bought her. Because it would have been fake and very unnecessary to dig so much into it. But Katsa is kind of in an older time (or at least that's my perception) and I think it's not that exaggerate. Of course, it did bother me, for her to be so surly. But I get it.

I found the idea of Graces and their relation to the eye color to be such an original idea and very cool. Very well thought and executed. And all this Grandfather Tealif being captured and who is the one who ordered it. That's just plain awesome. One thing I didn't really like, which is very characteristic of series, is that not everything is revealed. And I wouldn't mind it that much if it wasn't because they really didn't say anything. There are so many things mentioned but not explained that it feels like the the author forgot about this things. But I guess I'll have to read the other two. on my way

But the thing that really bothered me about this book is how anticlimactic is was. It built up so much things and there was so much potential, and it all ended in this...nonsense. It really blew it for me. But the book in itseld was so amazing and interesting and full of awesomeness all over that I gave it 4.5.

AND OMG PO. Cutest thing ever. I'm in love completely. He's A+ perfect. And that ending was perfect. Really sad, but it was meant to be. The only thing I didn't like about it, is that you could see it coming miles away. But oh well.

You should definitely read this if you haven't. You won't loose your time and you'll end up so delighted. 

Neighbors or Roomates?

Title: Rusty Nailed

Author: Alice Clayton

Genre: Romance, New Adult

General Thoughts: Not as good as it could be.

Rating: 3/5 stars.

First Lines:

"Oh, God."Thump."OH, God".Thump thump."Caroline, don't say those things to me when I'm so far away." Simon chuckled, his voice loew. And still as thrilling as it ever was."Silly Simon, I'm simply reacting to the banging on the other side of the wall."

Rusty Nailed is the delicious sequel to Romance novel, Wallbanger. In here, Caroline and Simon's relationships reaches the stage of settling down in to normal life, which seems to have Caroline a little busy. And with all the overload of work she's getting, her life is soon to be a mess. She now has to find a way of balancing life or everything will come crumbling down.

My initial thoughts of this book where that it was better than the first book and that it was filled with much more character development and funnier scenes. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that it wasn't better than the first book, that it had way more flaws and holes than Wallbanger. And then I thought, wait, it is better in some ways than others. And then I thought, no it isn't and...

In resume, I'm not sure what to think about it, but this is what I've managed to gather down of my feelings.

I think that this book had a way better plot than the last one, because it wasn't only about Caroline and Simon's relationship, it was about: Caroline and Simon's relationship, how she felt, her work and how it was all too much and the friends and Simon's past and feeling good and traveling. And I think it's great that the author tried to add more to this novel, but I think somewhere in the way, she lost control of it. As in, she built up situations and resentment towards things that at the end of the book were never resolved or confronted. It's like she tried to create this big thing and then realized how massive it actually was and how out of control it got and then just forgot about a few things and focused on the other.

In my opinion, I think she should have found a better way to wrap things up, not to rush it as much and to pay attention to more details in the novel. I've come to the conclusion that she wrote things that she didn't know where going to have a consequences on how the novel was taken.

Or maybe I expected to much of this novel.
But I do appreciate her trying to change things down a bit, just not the final execution she gave it.

Something that really bothered me was the ridiculousness of some parts of the book. The whole Sophia-Neil business was plain ridiculous and not funny at all. It was annoying to read and it was obvious to were it lead. But the premise of the things that started it all (view spoiler) got me interested, but ended plain disappointed. And the fights that this would have caused gave foot to another yet great plot to add but she didn't see it and just wouldn't take the opportunity.

It was very interesting in some parts, others where boring. You'll forgive me, but I thought that Simon's High-school reunion scene was boring and she could have done better.

Also, in this book the predictive-ness was all over the place and unlike the first book it didn't really work, for me. I think that it all just went monotonically to were it was supposed to go and no real twist happened.

Writing this review has done wanders for me, I now have a clearer understatement of my thoughts.

In conclusion, I didn't have high expectations but expected better anyway. It was flawed and not very good and I didn't enjoy it as much as the first one. I do like the way it ended thought, even if she didn't quite wrap it as she should. And I recommend to read this if you have an urge of knowing what's next, but don't get high hopes on it.

Watch Out for Your Neighbors.

Name: Wallbanger (Cocktail #1)

Author: Alice Clayton

Genre: Romance, Contemporary, New Adult

General Thoughts: Good book for reading slumps.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars.

First Lines 

"OH, GOD."Thump."Oh, God."Thump thump.What the..."Oh, God, that's so goof!"I scranbled up out of sleep, confused as I looked around the strange room. Boxes on the floor. Pictures propped agaisnt the wall.My new bedroom, in my new apartment, I reminded myself, placing both hands on the duvet, grounding myself with the luxurious thread count. Even half asleep, I was aware of my thread count."Mmmm... Yeah, baby. Right there. Just like that... Don't stop, don't stop!"

Wallbanger is the story of Caroline, professional designer who just moved in to a new apartment, and has just declared herself in a dating-hiatus. She finds that the guy behind her bedroom walls might be getting some more than unusual sex, and then starts and unusual relationship with what she calls her "Wallbanger".

OK, I admit it, this was thoroughly and completely a guilty pleasure. I admit it, no shame in it.

This is a contemporary, romance, maybe New-Adult novel. This is exactly the type of books that I try to avoid reading, because it normally leads to disappointment and reading slumps, for me. But this novel in particular was filled with humor, which is something I highly appreciate. And this was definitely not a bad one.

It was cheesy, and really predictable, but I didn't care. It was obvious and we all knew it and the author didn't try to hide it, she just worked with it. That's something I'm impressed about and very happy to read.

The characters weren't the best ones or the most deep and full of layers type. I did find myself loving the main characters, Caroline and Simon. I thought they were very real and funny, and I was rooting for them. The other characters gave me mixed feelings. Some were annoying to me, some were really great, some I had to think twice until I remembered who they were. But they weren't stupid or unrealistic and I'm very grateful for that.

The story is cheesy and predictable, but original in it's own way. I think that she added some elements to it that made it not so one-sided. I laughed out loud in several scenes and gripped my hands in anticipation of what was coming. It made me feel, which is always good.

The style of writing was very particular. It wasn't poetic or memorable or majestic. She chose ways to phrase things so that it was 21st century-ish but not overly spoiled-OMG-girl that we all hate. And she added things like phone conversations, that at first I found confusing but then I found myself loving.

Lastly, the romance in the novel wasn't all over the place or overly dramatic. This is very typical of romance, chick-lit novels and it's the main reason of why I run away of them. But I didn't feel that in this novel. Maybe I'm growing into it or this was really a good novel or I just really wasn't paying attention.

I read this because a friend lent it to me and I just said, whatever, why the fuck not? And I went with very low expectations and I ignored a lot of mistakes and pet-peeves of mine. But I really think this novel was a good one. Not just me.

I definitely recommend this to most readers. Maybe if you read more adult, drama books this won't be for you, but I think it appeals to anyone. I gave it 3.5 for the small mistakes (really, I can't never really ignore them) like the cliches in the speeches of the characters, etc and because it was just a passing novel. But a really good one.