Holiday AdventureAThon: What I’m Reading

 

Hey guys! I didn’t join the readathon until a bit after I was supposed to, but I still picked out a 7 book TBR and I’m gonna give it my best shot to get through them all! If you don’t know about the Holiday AdventureAThon, here is the post: Holiday AdventureAThon

I’ll be reading for Team Holiday Snowman, incase anybody was wondering! So here is my TBR based on the prompts.

Presents: A book you got as a gift: The Magician’s Nephew by C.S Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia)

My mom bought me the set years ago and I have yet to read them. Oops. This is my chance!!

Santa: A book with red on the cover: Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

I actually finished this book and this challenge yesterday, and the book was soooooo good!! I loved it. Can’t wait to read the next one. Although I fear that they are going to add a love triangle, which always, always gets me worked up.

Wonder: A book based on a holiday: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Okay, so I have a serious lack of holiday books on my shelves!! I have been told that this one does happen around Christmas so I’ve decided it counts…. If I decide I can justify going to the bookstore to get myself in the holiday spirit, I’m going to buy A Christmas Carol and swap these out. Not sure if that is going to happen though, so for now, this counts in my eyes!

Candles: Read a book by candlelight:  The Wizards of Once by Cressida Cowell

I feel like candlelight will give me the perfect atmosphere to read this book. I know, I know, it looks more like a Halloween book than a Christmas book, but I’ll be reading it next to a Christmas candle!

Nice: Read a book that a friend or family member recommended to you: The Merciless by Danielle Vega

I am kind of unsure about this one, but my brother loves it and really thought I should read it, so I got it off of Book Outlet for like 3 dollars, and it will work perfectly for this prompt.

Jack Frost: Read a book with the word “snow” on the cover: Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle

Ta da! The one and only holiday book I could find on my shelf. Which I own only because… John Green.

Snowman: Read a Historical Fiction Book: Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

Started this one last night.. So far so good. 🙂

Let me know if you are doing any readathons for the holidays and what you’re reading!

 

 

 

What I Lost by Alexandra Ballard: Review

Title: What I Lost

Author: Alexandra Ballard

Pages: 400 (Hardcover)

Rating: 5/5 Stars

What I Lost was by far one of my favorite reads this year. It follows a 16-year-old girl named Elizabeth who suffers from Anorexia and as a result, is admitted to an inpatient care center for eating disorders. The story shows her struggle to cope with her disorder, bonding with the other girls in the center, and eventually on her way to recovery. There is a lot of accurate information about the medical problems that can come about from eating disorders such as Osteoporosis and other bone problems, loss of periods, unusual growth of hair called Lanugo, etc. I have never personally suffered from any sort of eating disorder, so I can’t speak for the accuracy of the representation, but I have heard from people who have gone through it that the book was relatable to their own experiences. If you suffer from any eating disorders, just know that there is a lot of content that may be triggering including anxiety about eating, calorie counting, and talk of weights and sizes.
I really liked that this book was focused on recovery. So many mental health books end as soon as the characters are getting help, but this book begins as soon as Elizabeth goes for help. I feel like I learned a lot of things that I did not know in regards to eating disorders, which I am glad about.
I do wish that the ending would have given information about what happened to the other girls at Wallingfield. An epilogue would have been nice to end the book and show the reader how everybody is doing a few years later.
Overall, I loved this book and I highly recommend it.

My Name in TBR Books Tag

Hello everyone!
In this tag, I have to take the letters of my name and find books that I want to read that start with those letters. So without further ado, let’s get started! Also, if a book starts with “the” I’m going to ignore that the and use the next word. Because this is actually a lot harder than I thought it would be!

K-  The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

I have actually never read a Patrick Ness book before, but Peruse Project likes this book, so I think I will too! To be honest, it’s not at the top of my TBR and there are books of his I would rather get to first, unless I stumble across this one cheap on book outlet or something!

Y-  You Are Here by Jenny Lawson

I actually am really excited to read this one! I absolutely loved her book Furiously Happy. Jenny Lawson is hilarious in a sad and relatable way and her writing is so unique.

L- Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch

When I first heard people talking about this book I thought it was probably just a silly YA with no real depth. Don’t get me wrong, I do sometimes like reading books like that to get me out of a slump. After reading the description of this one, it actually sounds a lot more powerful than the pretty cover would have me believe.

I- It by Stephen King

I have read a good amount of this book already, but I was reading it when I was trying to move to a different apartment a few years ago and I just set it down and never picked it back up. I do know I want to read it all over again before I ever see the movie though!

E-  An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson

There I go again cheating with the books that actually start with an article (an). But it was the only E book on my TBR! Everyone swears that this book is nothing like ACOTAR, and I’m hoping that is true. I loved ACOTAR and I don’t take kindly to books that are too similar to my favorites! (COUGH COUGH, Eliza and Her Monsters vs TFIOS)

Let me know if you have read any of these books or if you’ve done this tag. I would love to check it out and know what you think about any of the books I mentioned!

 

The Young Elites Review

Title: The Young Elites

Author: Marie Lu

Pages: 355

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

The Young Elites is about a girl named Adelina Amouteru who was affected by a fever that plagued the nation. A lot of the people who got sick died, but the ones who didn’t die were left with markings and some of them were also left with powers. The society hates these powerful survivors and aims to destroy them. Adelina was one of the many who was given powers after the fever. When Adelina accidentally uses and reveals her powers, she is hunted by a leader of the “Inquisition Axis” (Which is basically the government in Kenettra, where the book takes place). Through this hunt, she finds a group of other people with powers from the fever and they group together to try to stop the Inquisition Axis from trying to kill people like them.

This book was awesome! I loved Adelina and I thought it was an interesting twist for Marie Lu to make her somewhat evil. Adelina borders on good and bad and it’s hard to say at some points whether she is a hero or a villain. Even at her villainous moments, I was rooting for her. Enzo was my favorite character in the book, his power was super cool and sometimes a bit disturbing. I liked the relationship between his character and Adelina. I’m a reader who never gets sick of seeing romance in my books.

Marie Lu’s writing style always grabs me so I can’t stop reading and I love it! I don’t feel like there is a lot more I can say without giving away some of the twists and turns, but I would definitely recommend reading this! I think if you liked her Legend series, you will like this one as well. They’re completely different but they are both action-packed with similar writing style and easy to get through quickly.

 

 

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!! I’ll try to keep the details minimal incase someone accidentally happens across this.

 

What do you guys think of the ending with Enzo? I think he’ll be back in the next books, especially after reading the epilogue. I don’t have the second book yet, but I’m definitely going to go pick it up ASAP.

Let me know if you’ve read The Young Elites and what you thought of it. If you haven’t read it, does it sound like something you would be interested in or not really?

November Book Haul

I was struggling to think of 10 book settings that I would like to visit for Top Ten Tuesday. (Most book settings are pretty dangerous, and I’d rather just read it from the safety of my own couch!!)  So instead of that, I decided to do my November book haul before we get too far into December.

1 The Assassin’s Blade by Sarah J. Mass

This is a prequel of novellas to the Throne of Glass series. I haven’t read the series yet, so I thought I would pick this up and get going with Throne of Glass.

2 Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Following suit of the last book, I got Throne of Glass! I loved ACOTAR so much and I’m hoping I’m not disappointed by this series! I don’t know much about it other than that it follows a female assassin which sounds awesome to me.

3 Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

I read Fangirl a few years back and I only realized this year that Carry On is basically the story that Cath writes fanfiction of! So I’m pretty excited to give this one a shot.

4. Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

This is the second book in the Shadow and Bone trilogy. I read the first book last month and I LOVED it.

5. Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

Of course if I read the 2nd book I’m going to need the 3rd and final book!

6. Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

This book is about 3 sisters who are in line to the throne, but in order to get the throne, one must kill the other 2. I’ve heard this has a slow start but I’m super excited to read it.

7. The Wizards of Once by Cressida Cowell

I don’t normally love Middle Grade novels as much as I hope to, but I have big expectations for this one! The illustrations are really cool and a bit dark. This book is all about magic and fantasy and adventure and it sounds like a good time.

 

Let me know if you’ve read any of the books that I picked up this past month and which ones I should put at the top of my TBR!

 

Down the TBR Hole #3

If you didn’t see my last Down the TBR Hole post, this post was created by Lost In A Story. I’m sure everybody can relate to the TBR getting a little out of control. In this post, I will go through the last 5-10 books on my Goodreads TBR and decide if I still have any interest in these books or if they can go.

Here we gooooo!

1 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

I really, really want to finish some classics this year, so I’m going to keep this one! I have a hard time getting into classics so I really hope I can learn to love them.

Verdict: Keep

2 The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

I’ve had this book on my shelf for years and it keeps getting buried under all of the other books I buy. Since the author is just coming out with a spinoff sort of book, I think it’s time I get to this one.

Verdict: Keep

3 Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

I still think this book looks good, but I can’t see myself getting to it any time soon.

Verdict: Go

4 Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

I’ve been wanting to get to this one since I finished The Girl on the Train in February!! I’m so behind on my TBR, but I still want to read this one.

Verdict: Keep

5 The Day We Met by Rowan Coleman

This sounds like it is about a woman who gets dementia, I believe. Although I loved, loved Still Alice, I don’t really think this sounds like something I want to read right now.

Verdict: Go

 

If I have removed any books that anyone thinks I should give a shot, please let me know and I’ll add them back!! 🙂 Let me know what is on your TBR and what you think you may want to pass on that you once thought you wanted to read.

Eliza and Her Monsters (Unpopular Opinion)

Title: Eliza and Her Monsters

Author: Francesca Zappia

Rating: 2/5

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Let me start by saying I am so bummed that I didn’t love this book. Normally I really enjoy super hyped up books, and this one started out great for me, but let me tell you what changed my mind.

I was nearly half done with the book and loving it, when I ran into a page that reminded me almost exactly of a part from The Fault in Our Stars. I stopped reading and went to the internet to find out if maybe the book was inspired by TFIOS or something to make this resemblance make sense. No inspirational credit was given to John Green anywhere that I could find, and from here on out, I was disappointed in the book. In Eliza and Her Monsters, Eliza loves this book series called the Children of Hypnos. There are 4 books in the series and the 4th book ends abruptly, making room for a 5th, but the author became a recluse and never wrote the 5th book. Nobody knows what happened to the author for sure. Eliza has her love interest, Wallace, read these books. When he gets to the end of the 4th he gets really worked up and suggests they should write a letter to the author and find out what happens. Nearly the exact same thing happens in TFIOS. Hazel Grace in The Fault in Our Stars is obsessed with a book called an Imperial Affliction. The book ends in the middle of a sentence and the author became a recluse and never wrote another book or answered fan mail. When Hazel Grace’s love interest, Augustus Waters, reads the book he gets really upset and insists they write the author a letter. Hmmm. This may not have felt like such an issue to me if John Green were not my all-time favorite author and if TFIOS was not one of my all-time favorite books. But he is, and it is and I thought Eliza and Her Monsters was great until I came across that and wondered how much of it is original. Closer to the end of the book, there was a quote; “This is a roller coaster that only goes down.”  Obviously this reminds me an awful lot of the quote from TFIOS; “I’m on a roller coaster that only goes up.”

Another problem that I had with the book was that the characters are so selfish. Eliza is so wrapped up in herself and her computer that she doesn’t know a thing about her 2 little brothers, nor does she spend any time whatsoever with them and her parents if it can be helped. Eliza takes her parents for granted even after she meets Wallace and he later informs her that his father drove himself off a cliff, Wellhouse Turn, right in front of Wallace. She gets so pissed off at her parents for revealing her identity as the writer of the wildly popular comic “Monstrous Sea”, when they had NO IDEA how big it was and why she didn’t want everyone knowing she wrote it. Of course the would have known if she would have gotten off of her computer long enough to tell them. Lastly, she plans to commit suicide on the very cliff where Wallace’s father killed himself after she and Wallace got into a fight. I understand feeling hopeless and wishing to die, but if that is how it had to be, she shouldn’t have even thought about doing it there. I can’t imagine the guilt that Wallace would have felt for the rest of his life and how much harder it would have been for him to drive past Wellhouse Turn after not one, but two people he cared about died there. Having ranted so much about Eliza, I must say Wallace was no saint either. When Eliza couldn’t push through her anxiety and self hatred to finish Monstrous Sea so that Wallace could get a book deal transcribing it, he threw a fit and wouldn’t talk to her. I would be upset if I were him too, but he knew she was going through a rough time, and he also knew what depression and anxiety can be like, and he still left her feeling alone.

Alas, there are things that I did like about the book!! I thought the author’s writing was very good. I appreciated the portrayal of mental illness. I felt like the differences between Eliza’s and Wallace’s forms of anxiety were accurate and I think it is important to show that illnesses can be different within the same category. I thought that the pressures both Eliza’s and Wallace’s family put on them about being social, getting into college, etc. were well done. Lastly, I really liked the ending. I was happy that the author didn’t opt for a sad ending and that she showed the characters trying to better themselves and heal from the pain that they endured.

Even though I didn’t love this book, I know that a lot of people rave about it, and it would definitely be worth giving it a shot if it is something that sounds interesting to you.

Top Ten Tuesday; Winter TBR

It’s Tuesday, which means another week of Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the  Bookish ! This weeks topic is top ten TBR for winter.

I’ve only just begun to stick to a solid TBR. The reason I decided to do this is because I buy SO many books that I don’t end up reading the old books I’ve bought because I have so many new ones being added to my shelf each month. So far it’s been helping a lot and I’ve found a lot of great books that I thought I may have lost interest in.

1. Voyager by Diana Gabaldon

I’m currently reading this book, so I’m planning to finish it in December. I put off reading this book for SO long because the size of the book intimidates me. (this is where the solid TBR comes in) I’m glad I finally started it because I am loving it.

2. The Young Elites by Marie Lu

I loved the Legend series, so I hope that I love this one as much.

3. Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu

Emmmabooks convinced me that I needed to read this one in her review video of it. Plus, if Amy Poehler thinks it’s a must-read, I will definitely read it.

4. Kill the Boyband by Goldy Moldavsky

My sister sent me a picture of this awhile back and we giggled and thought it seemed like an interesting idea, and then I forgot about it until I was walking through Barnes and Noble and found it on the shelf! The title interested me and I’m excited to see if it is any good.

5. What I Lost by Alexandra Ballard

This is another book that Emmmabooks got me excited about. The cover is pretty, as well.

6. Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

I heard of this book through PeruseProject on Youtube. The description sounds really interesting and different and I cannot wait to get to this one.

7. Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

I first heard of this book on Abookutopia’s channel. Do you see a theme here? I’m easily influenced by booktube!

8. Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman

Look at this cover!! I’m obsessed with the cover, I’m excited to read a YA western and PeruseProject liked it, so I think I will too!

9. Children of Eden by Joey Graceffa

I picked this one up when I saw it at the bookstore just because I saw Joey Graceffa wrote it. I was not aware that he was writing novels, but I used to watch him on Youtube years ago (back when he was making Winterspringpro parody music videos). Although I haven’t watched him for a very long time, I’m happy to be able to support him by buying his book.

10. Carve The Mark by Veronica Roth

I bought this the week it came out and still haven’t gotten to it!! This is because of all the new books I buy, and again, this is where the solid TBR helps. Divergent was one of my all-time favorite series and even though Veronica Roth absolutely shattered my heart with the end of the Divergent series, I will gladly read anything she writes.

 

Let me know what you guys are planning on reading next and if you’ve read any of the books on my TBR/ what you thought of them!

 

 

They Both Die at the End Review

Title: They Both Die at the End

Author: Adam Silvera

Rating: 5/5 Stars

I’d like to start this review by saying even though this book follows 2 boys that received a call telling them they’re going to die, it is more so about living.

The book is set in a world where a company named Death-Cast calls people at midnight to inform them that it is going to be their last day. They are not given the information of how or when they are going to die for sure, just that it will be before midnight once they’ve received the call.

The main characters, Rufus and Mateo, both receive the alert right away in the beginning of the book. They meet each other early on through an app called the Last Friend, specifically designed to help people who have received the alert to find a friend to spend their end day with.

Despite their death sentence, Rufus and Mateo live their last day to the fullest in ways that they would not have been able to do had they not met each other. They face their fears, overcome emotions that have been holding them back, and live a lifetime within a day.

I would highly, highly recommend this book! The majority of the book didn’t feel very sad to me, but the end was definitely sad. Like I said before, although the book is leading up to death, it is ultimately about living to the fullest and not being held back by the things that scare you.

I cannot wait to read Silvera’s other books! Adam seems like an awesome and genuine person and I will support him by buying and reading everything he comes out with in the future.

Also! I thought it was really clever that the book took place on September 5th which was the release date of the book.

Let me know what you thought of They Both Die at the End if you have read it and if you haven’t, let me know if you want to read it! Also let me know what you would do with your last day if you knew it was your last.  I think I’d be so terrified about how and when it was going to happen that I would stay in my bed terrified.

Daughter of the Burning City Review

Title: Daughter of the Burning City

Author: Amanda Foody

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

Hello all!

Long time no post, I’ve been busy starting a new job as a stylist at a salon and taking all of the tests that go along with graduating cosmetology school, but I am so excited to be back and reviewing again!

I had been trying to get through Daughter of the Burning City for what felt like forever and I finally finished it  yesterday. The plot of the story follows a 16 year old girl named Sorina who is an illusionist in a freakshow that is part of a traveling festival called Gommorah. As an illusionist, Sorina is able to create people in her mind and bring them to life. As her illusions (which she considers her family) begin dying one by one, Sorina has to undergo investigations to try to find out who is killing her illusions as well as how a figment of her own imagination can be murdered. Sorina is a part of 2 investigations, one with her father and the boss of the entire festival and one with a boy she met in the bad section of Gomorrah, named Luca. Luca is by far my favorite character, he is funny, charming and kind but he also portrays some of the arrogance that often draws us to male characters in YA books.

There is a bit of romance in this novel, but it takes a backseat to the mystery of the plot. The mystery is very well told and unpredictable. I never would have guessed the outcome and I really enjoyed being surprised by it.

I did think that the first half of the book was a little bit slow going, but I was also in a bit of a reading slump due to all of the other things going on in my life when I started the book. By the middle of the book I could not stop reading and ended up finishing the second half in an afternoon. I would recommend this book to anybody who likes a good fantasy set in a world that feels like it could be real.

I would love to see a sequel to this book, but at the same time I felt content with the ending.

If anybody wants to talk spoilers email me at readbykylie@gmail.com ! Let me know in the comments if this sounds like a book you would be interested in or if you’ve already read it I would love to know your thoughts!