Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour

Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour

3.75 stars

Emi loves film. She’s set designer and she loves her job, but her relationship life is rocky and it only makes it worse that she works with the girl who keeps breaking her heart. After finding a letter from her favorite actor she decides to track down the person the letter was intended for. Her brother told her she could live in his apartment as long as she does something great. Emi’s about to embark on adventure where she does the greatest thing of all… she falls in love along with some other pretty awesome things. This book is fun! I never intended to read it because it didn’t really sound like this novel would be my kind of thing. But the opportunity to request this book arose and I took it. I was lucky enough to be accepted for my request and I’m so happy I read this. I don’t read of LGBTQ it’s not really my thing and I’ve had conflicts with a few LGBTQ books in the past and it makes me hesitant, but after reading Everything Leads to You I think I’ll try to give more books like this a chance. This book was pretty great! There were flaws but it was a fun novel. It was serious and thoughtful, but not serious in the way that depresses the reader. I’ve read LaCour only once before and it was some time ago. I wasn’t all that impressed with it, but I did enjoy it. LaCour’s writing has really blossomed. She does a fabulous job of invoking images of a film set and creating the love for something normally overlooked in the film industry.


The main female character is Emi. Emi is pretty cool. She can be annoying… Even that doesn’t really describe her. There are times when I liked her a lot but didn’t like her at all. As a person/ character, Emi is very down to earth with a brilliant artistic mind. I would definitely want to be her friend in real life.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 8

The other main female character is Ava. Ava is a pretty enigmatic character. I’m not sure how to describe her because she is such a mystery. But she’s not a mystery like Alaska Young. We find things out about Ava and she doesn’t remain this cloud of wonder that the reader tries to reach out to but nothing is learned. I like a mysterious character that can stay mysterious but also give answers to their life.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 8

I need say that I really like how the romance was done. It wasn’t rushed and they became friends before anything happened. It felt like a real relationship.


The other characters in this novel were phenomenal. I know there are quite a few times I say this, but the other characters made this novel. Emi and Ava were the central focus, but the characters they interacted with helped build it into something great. Charlotte was my favorite character. It was so refreshing to see such a strong lifelong friendship in a YA novel. I feel like YA authors have strayed from close friendships and write about characters who are lonely and don’t fit in. In reality, teenagers have friends. Even people who feel alone have one friend out there who they probably don’t think is a friend but are. It’s great to see a teenager with friends especially a good, close friend like Charlotte. I would talk about the other characters, but that would give away what great things happen to Emi. I don’t want to spoil that.


Character Scale: 9

Now, the reason why I’m only giving this book 3.75 is because towards the end the book fell a bit, but picked itself up and kept going. The snag was really hard to keep reading through, but it wasn’t a huge handicap to the book. My favorite things about this book are the brief little road trips, the Yes & Yes script, and the movies! So many fun things in this novel! I highly recommend it.

Cover Thoughts: The cover is beautiful but Emi has some black in her so why is this girl your average white girl sporting a messy bun? Still beautiful though.



ANNOUNCEMENT!! I'm going to be attending the RT NEW ORLEANS BOOK FAIR! THIS SATURDAY, IF YOU ARE GOING LET ME KNOW AND I HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

First in the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy

4.5 stars

Grace was attacked by wolves when she was younger, but there’s one wolf that never hurt. She watches him and he watches her. She longs to run with the wolves in the cold snow and finally be with her wolf. Sam is a wolf. He lives two lives: one in the frozen winter months as a wolf and one as a human in the summer’s heat. When Grace finds her wolf in the form of a yellowed-boy she doesn’t know where it will lead her, but she may finally get to be with her wolf. I really enjoyed this book and I almost missed out on its beautiful depth. I made a promise to finish Shiver before I turned 16. I think I made this promise right when I was about to turn 16 or whatever but I read this book in the winter and finished it before my birthday. While I read this book back in December I can still feel every emotion I felt when reading. Sometimes I felt horror because Grace’s attack was brutal and had me a little nauseous. Sometimes I felt happy because Grace and Sam were just so good together. Sometimes I felt nervous apprehension in the moments before Sam and Grace finally met without just brief encounters in a bookstore. The thing that stuck with me the most about Shiver was the beauty of the winter months, the shivering cold, and the wolves. The coldness of this book is every word. I could feel it coming off the pages, but there was warmth in the moments that Sam and Grace were together. I could feel the warmth of their love overcoming the cold. It was beautiful. The wolves of Mercy Falls are very different from your usual werewolf lure. They change in the cold. Each chapter is marked by temperatures to show the cold quickly approaching. The colder the weather is the longer they stay wolves. The hotter it is the shorter. You get the picture.



The main female character is Grace. I really liked Grace. She wasn’t a character who could take on the world, but she felt human. She loves books, her friends, wolves, and she lives a pretty simple life. I didn’t always like her because she had moments where she seemed to judgmental, but I really did like her. She’s one of the easier characters to relate to in YA. She is odd, but in a way that as a reader it doesn’t seem very odd. I imagine I would have the same reactions that Grace did to situations.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 8.5

The main male character is Sam. Sam was hard to like sometimes but I did love him. He was very sweet and it was easy to fall in love with while Grace was. I liked his transitions that were shown from human to wolf and vice versa. It was very beautiful. I think Sam is one of the oddest wolves I’ve read about and he happens to be one of my favorite.


Swoon Worthy Scale: 8.5

The Villain- I wouldn’t really say there’s a villain in this one. They faced a wolf who wanted Sam as mate and a few obstacles here and there, but there was no central force trying to tear the world apart. I found this refreshing in paranormal. It was all simple and there were no hidden layers and the real villain was Mother Nature herself. There’s nothing you can do about that.


Villain Scale: 3

I liked Grace’s friends. Some more than others and I liked how the girl who was perceived as the mean girl became a friend. It was refreshing to see someone go from absolutely hated to a good friend.


Character Scale: 7

Too think I almost never pick up this book again after putting it down for some reason. I don't know why even put it down because I was enjoying it. I'm glad I told Wendy Darling I would though. Basically this may just seem like another cliché with werewolves, but it’s not. It’s a simple tale of beauty with love. Shiver has one of the most beautiful endings. It’s so heartbreaking and then it was a quick rush of happiness. It was done beautifully by Stiefvater. I commend her for this beautiful book I look forward to the sequels.

 

Cover Thoughts: I love the cover! It’s so gorgeous and it fits the book so well. I love the art and the colors. Just love it.

Double Review: End of a Revolution

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Second book in the Hunger Games trilogy

5 stars

Katniss Everdeen is the girl on fire, the mockingjay. Everybody in Panem knows her name and she is seen as a beacon of hope for the uprising. Katniss and Peeta travel around the Districts in the Victory Tour. They see glimpses of an uprising, but nothing prepares them for the Quarter Quell. A special kind of Hunger Games that happens every 25 years and this year the Reaping will be one the victors won’t forget. Katniss and Peeta will have to face another Game and this time both of them could die. I always take forever to get to finishing series. I finally decided to pick up Catching Fire two years after reading The Hunger Games because the movie was coming out. I finished the book on the opening movie day and then quickly jumped into Mockingjay. Suffice to say that I love this trilogy. I really enjoyed The Hunger Games. I wouldn’t consider it one of my favorite series or trilogies if I had only read the first book, but for me Catching Fire was what made me fall in love with this trilogy. I adore the story painted in Catching Fire. The horrors Katniss and Peeta face in the 75th Hunger Games are terrifying and it was a thrill to be back in them. I won’t lie, the book does drag. Chapters just on the Capitol parties and their weird drugs, extravagant clothes, and Katniss’s body preparations are what make up the whole first part. I didn’t hate that part at all, but I didn’t love it and I was going to rate this book lower until everything picked back up. Collins knows how to write intense scenes of fear and suspense. There wasn’t a moment in these games where I wasn’t on the edge of my seat, gripping my book tight in fear of what might happen next.


The main female character is Katniss. I like Katniss a lot more in Catching Fire than I did in THG. She’s a lot stronger and she has a purpose. Besides needing to stay alive, Katniss has more goals than just keeping herself alive. She seems more human. I adored her new relationship with Peeta. The rooftop scene is one of my favorite scenes in the whole entire trilogy. It’s beautiful, simple and it showed the blossoming love of what could be between her and Peeta. It made my inner fangirl happy. Can we talk about Katniss’s dress? The descriptions of that dress during the interview were absolutely breathtaking.



Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 9

The main male characters are Peeta and Gale. Peeta has my heart. I love Peeta. He cares about people and he has a big heart, which isn’t a very good thing to have in the Hunger Games, but his heart makes me love him. Peeta had several scenes in this book that made me fall in love with him entirely. Gale on the other hand has always annoyed. They are two very different men. Gale is a jerk in disguise. Katniss doesn’t see his jerkiness because she’s is just as much of a jerk. They are very brutish people. I do love some of Gale’s aspects, but I never really liked his character. 


(Didn’t Josh get hotter? I think so and he looks more Peeta-ish.)


Swoon Worthy Scale: Peeta- 9 Gale- 6.5

The Villain- President Snow is a tyrant and I love his absolute need to destroy Katniss and all she represents. I wouldn’t want to meet him anytime in the real world, but since I’ll never find myself in Panem I think he’s a horrifying villain who shows mercy to few but he will stop at nothing to keep people in line.


Villain Scale: 8.5

There are so many characters to love in this series, especially in Catching Fire. There are old characters: Prim, Katniss’s mom, Effie, Haymitch, Cenna, and Katniss’s three stylists. There are new characters: Finnick, Johanna, Beetee, Wiress, Mags, and Plutarch. I love all these characters in some way and more than others. Finnick and Johanna being my favorite but that’s beside the point.


Character Scale: 9

The scenes in this book were intense and the writing captivating. I absolutely adore this book and instead of it suffering from second book syndrome it is a solid book. If you have read The Hunger Games, but haven’t finished the trilogy pick up this book ASAP! You won’t regret it and if you do you can fuss at me, but I’m sure you’ll love it.


Cover Thoughts: It’s so shiny and red. The cover in person is striking. I love. It’s my favorite cover of the trilogy. I don’t love the colors, but I do like that they fit the title and overall book.




Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Third book in the Hunger Games trilogy

4.5 stars

Katniss Everdeen survived the 75th Hunger Games. District Twelve doesn’t exist anymore and the survivors find themselves in District 13. The revolution is beginning. Sacrifices will be made and nothing in Panem will ever be the same. I’m sad that this trilogy is over and I remember the feeling of dread hanging over my head when I was finishing. I originally gave this book a solid 5 stars, but it’s been months since I read it in November and I’ve thought about it. While I love Mockingjay the ending almost killed my love for this trilogy. I’ll get to that later.


The main female character is Katniss. I did not like Katniss very much in Mockingjay. In fact there were times when I absolutely hated her. My love for Katniss just was completely gone in certain parts. Of course, I was still invested in her life and the people around her, but her decisions made me loathe her. I hated how she changed for the worst and not for the best. Her change may have been necessary for the Capitol to fall, but I think she should’ve changed in a different way. I think I just missed the old Katniss. This new Katniss was an empty shell with extreme PTSD. I couldn’t love her the same way I used to. It was a very love-hate relationship with her in this book. There were times that I really loved her though. The Hanging Tree part was one of my favorites in the whole trilogy.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 7.5

The main male characters are Peeta and Gale. Gale is present in this book a lot. He is there the whole entire time. I think it’s safe to say that I dislike Gale in this book much more than I did before. He is a cold man and he just wants to take people down. Gale doesn’t care if he hurts innocents and that is what made me lose all respect for him. Peeta was absent for a very long time and when he came back he was broken. The Capitol had broken him and poor Peeta. I miss the old Peeta. I still love Peeta, but it’s not the same. I loved the Real-or-Not-Real game he would play with Katniss every now and then. Those brief moments felt like them rekindling their love. Kind of.


Swoon Worthy Scale: Gale- 3 Peeta- 8.5

The Villain- So many twists and who’s the real bad guy in the novel. There were a lot of questions that were repeatedly brought up towards the end of the revolution. I loved the takedown at the end. I thought it was very well done. I saw it coming, but it was still well done.


Villain Scale: 8.5

So many characters died in this one. We lost a lot of great characters. It was sad. Incredibly sad and I loved every new character brought in including the two Avox brothers. The wedding between Finnick and Annie was such an uplifting part. There were a lot of happy times and a lot of sad times in this novel. The sad outweigh the happy by many, but this Panem and Panem is a world where bad things happen all the time.


Character Scale: 9

 

The ending… I was very disappointed in it. Katniss moped about in her PTSD state for two or three chapters. The epilogue redeems the ending though. I’m still a little pissed at some of the choices Collins made, but I love this trilogy very much and I’m happy I finally finished it.


Cover Thoughts: This cover is beautiful. It’s not my favorite, but the color scheme makes it look very striking and eye catching.

Bridge of Snow by Marie Rutkoski: A Mini Review

Bridge of Snow by Marie Rutkoski

Prequel to The Winner's Curse trilogy

5 stars

Only Marie Rutkoski seems to be able to bring tears to my eyes with her beautiful tales. Her writing is so beautiful and the stories she weaves in her stories absolutely beautiful. There is no short story that I've loved this much just because it was it was story not because of the plot or what was happening. Rutkoski has become one of my favorite authors and I will read anything this woman writes. This story was absolutely magnificent and it was free. 

If you would like to read this beautiful story you can read it here. I urge you to please give it a shot. You won't regret it.

Phoenix Island by John Dixon

Phoenix Island by John Dixon

First in the Phoenix Island series

3 stars

Carl is sixteen years old and he has been in plenty enough trouble in his short life time. When he finds himself in court again the judge sentences him to Phoenix Island. Phoenix Island will reform him and it’s the place where orphans who also happen to be delinquents are sent. There are a lot of strange things going on at Phoenix Island and it’s up to Carl to save his friends and figure out the dark secrets surrounding the island. I did enjoy Phoenix Island, but I didn’t love it. The book started out pretty slow and it reminded me a lot of Holes. You know judge sends kid to mysterious camp in the middle of nowhere.

Holes is better though. At least the movie is I haven’t ever wanted to read the book. Phoenix Island does have good qualities it is very suspenseful where it needs to be and it keeps the reader on the edge of their seat. I wouldn’t say it’s completely captivating though because while the suspense is brilliantly done it can also be incredibly boring and dry in certain parts. Towards almost the middle of the book (page 63 to 125) it picked up a lot and there was a chapter or two immediately following that were completely entertaining and then it fell. It fell and it floundered to find equilibrium with this new plot. It eventually worked, but it struggled. The writing was decent and I think it helped even the plot out eventually but it took longer than necessary.


The main male character is Carl. Carl is decent enough in terms of being a good character. I didn’t connect to him or find him all that interesting. He had good and negative points. I liked the reasoning behind why he feels the need to beat bullies up. It was a remarkable reason and Carl has great back story. Of course, he also is incredibly boring to read about because he is a he-man. He tries to seem philosophical but he is too into his muscles at times and it messes up the balance.


Swoon Worthy Scale: 6

The main female character is Octavia. I like Octavia. In fact, her POV was the more interesting one out of the two. I’m not really sure why there are two POVs in the first place because it was completely unnecessary but she was much more interesting than Carl in her few chapters. I especially enjoyed the chapters during the Blue Phase.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 6The Villain- I can’t decide how I feel about the villain in Phoenix Island. He has potential to be a great villain, but in reality he is just another wanna-be-villain wanting to be Voldemort.


Villain Scale: 4

The only character I loved in this whole novel was Ross. He was funny and he was a good friend to Carl and even Octavia. His comedy was dry, but he did say a few funny things that made me smile.


Character Scale: 6.5

I think Phoenix Island is a good book and I do recommend it for fans of Holes because I feel like that is an audience that would really enjoy it especially younger boys or even teenage boys who don’t read often. It’s something they would really enjoy. I liked it, but I’m picky about books and hard to please recently. I do plan on recommending these books to my younger cousins because I know they would love these. I will give the sequel a shot though because I’m curious about Carl’s future and even Octavia’s.


Thank you, Mr. Dixon for being kind enough to send me a copy of your book because my Kindle galley expired before I could download it! You rock!

Cover Thoughts: The cover is very rough and dirty fitting. It fits the book well. Not my kind of cover, but I love that it fits the book and its atmosphere.

March Recap!

I'm a little late and I'm happy to say that this my month off and I'm free to do blog a lot and read and have fun. YAY!

Personal Life: Winter guard is over as of the of March and it was bittersweet. I was happy with the season, but sad to see it go. It's sad that all our hard work is no longer going to be viewed weekly. Our show song was King and Lionheart by Of Monsters and Men. It's a pretty good song and if I see a video of our show I'll post it. Besides that I received my permit! WHOOP! I don't think anything else interesting happened. I saw Divergent and I liked it, but didn't love it.

Books I've Finished (Links lead to review):


Insurgent by Veronica Roth 4.5 stars (not yet reviewed)
Cupcakes and Ink by Helena Hunting 3.5 stars
The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski 5 (billion) stars
Dating for Keeps by Rachel Hogan 1.5 stars (Not yet reviewed)
And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard DNF (2 stars)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 2 stars (Not yet reviewed)
Origin by Jennifer L. Armentrout 5 stars!!! (Not yet reviewed)
Terrorscape by Nenia Campbell 5 stars

Favorite Book of the Month:
The Winner's Curse was hands down my favorite book this month. It was absolutely stunning and just I can't even begin to formulate my words coherently even now.

Currently Reading:


Allegiant by Veronica Roth (On page 254 out of 526)
Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour (On page 39 out of 304)
Scandal by Navessa Allen (On chapter 4 of 11)
Clipped Wings by Helena Hunting (5% done)

Thoughts So Far: I'm enjoying Allegiant, but I think it's definitely the weakest book of the trilogy. I was surprised to receive Everything Leads to You from Penguin. I'm not big on LGBTQ stories because I feel like I don't really connect, but this one is fun so far. Plus I've enjoyed one of LaCour's other works (Hold Still) and thought I would give this one a shot. I'm reading Scandal online. It's fabulous and has a lot of sexy dirty times.;) You can read it here. I started Clipped Wings immediately after finishing the prequel, Cupcakes and Ink, but I'm not enjoying it. Hopefully it picks up soon because I hope  it's as good as the prequel.

Faux by Ken Hattaway

Faux by Ken Hattaway

Prequel to Bloodline

2 stars

Hmm... How do I explain Faux? Well basically there's some random demons placing bets on this girl named Dakota. I'm honestly not sure what the hell was going on. I know Dakota has dreams and she has her boyfriend drop her off at this psychiatric hospital or clinic. Then it just kinds of fizzled out into abrupt WTF-ery.



Maybe I missed something somewhere along the line, but I now understand why this is no longer for sale on Amazon. A) Because this short is short as hell. B) This is just random nothingness. C) Plot? What plot? D) Thank God, it was free! This probably could've been like a sample for the book Bloodline. In all honesty Faux would probably be better suited as a prologue than as a prequel. I will probably give Bloodline a shot because it wasn't a completely idiotic spree and it does have potential. I mean who can say no to dragons, but I'm just not feeling this.


Cover Thoughts: I think the cover is pretty cool. It's well-done compared to most self-published authors' covers and I like the icy feeling the cover gives off.