Mini reviews

Hey guys. Since the blog is obviously lacking everything at the moment I thought I’d let you know what books I’ve been reading lately and what I thought about them. I’m going to call these mini reviews because they’re not going to be as, I don’t know, analyzing (?) as my reviews usually are but they’ll still give you an idea as to what I thought of the books. For plots, see Goodreads.

Books read in January:

Captivated by you (Crossfire #4) by Sylvia Day

 I liked this book although I felt that there were some things missing. I’m always curious to learn more about the characters Eva and Gideon and even though you got to know some about them I kind of felt like this book was a filler. Eva and Gideon actually didn’t accomplish that much in their relationship and they didn’t move forward as much as I would have wanted so I was a bit disappointed by that. And the way the book ended, gaaah! *pulls hair out* I mean seriously, you can do better than that miss Day!

Goodreads rating 4/5

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
I read this book for a literature course at uni and I didn’t like it very much. Sure the story was good and all that but it was too slow for my liking. The different POV’s confused me. I liked the movie better and that doesn’t happen a lot.

Goodreads rating 2/5

Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones

Another book read for school, though I liked this one better. I liked the characters and the story. It was a bit slow in the beginning but it got better the further you got into it. An OK book.

Goodreads rating 3/5

Books read in February:

Wake (Watersong  #1) by Amanda Hocking

I was a bit disappointed by this book. What I’ve read of Hocking so far has been great, I loved the Trylle series so I was of course expecting a similar experience with this, but sadly that didn’t happen. The story is actually quite a good one and I enjoyed how Hocking incorporated the Greek mythology. The character of Gemma was interesting enough but the fact that she would die for someone she basically just started having feelings for annoyed the crap out of me. I don’t want to spoil anything so I’ll leave it at that.

Goodreads rating 3/5

Clockwork Prince (The Infernal Devices #2) by Cassandra Clare

Oh my beloved Shadowhunters how I’ve missed you. As usual Clare’s attention to detail is just, WOW. After reading this book I immediately wanted to dive into the next one but I had to stop myself. So many books, so little time. This book wasn’t as good as the first one but that was probably just because there weren’t as many new impressions in this one. You get to know a lot about the characters pasts in this book and I think that helps getting to know them better. I know I fell a bit more in love with Jem when I read this book, but also Will, oh poor Will. So until the next book I’ll just keep Jem and Will in my mind.

Goodreads rating 4/5

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Okay, so I hated this book in the beginning. I mean really, I wanted to stop reading it, set in on fire and bury it. But I’m glad I didn’t. This turned out to be one of those books you read and then when you finish you feel empty and you’re not exactly sure how to move on with your life. I can’t say that I loved it because I didn’t. There wasn’t enough action so to speak. But I loved the characters and the plot twist, oh my. I’m glad I gave Mr Green a shot and I will certainly continue reading him.

Goodreads rating 4/5

The Selection, The Elite & The One (The Selection #1-3) by Kiera Cass

A new favorite. The entire series is amazing but more on that later. My first thought was: “Is this supposed to be British English or American English?” because Cass uses words such as post instead of mail etc. But it is in fact American English. The country, called Illéa is actually America in the future after a couple more world wars and a takeover by China. So it’s a dystopian book, and I love that. In my epic reads book tag I said that if I had to choose a dystopian world to live in I’d choose the Chicago from the Divergent series, but I’ve changed my mind. I want Illéa and I would like to be a Three or a Four. What’s a three and a four you ask? Well Illéa has a caste system where One is the Royal family and Eight is the lowest, they’re the homeless people. Our main character, ironically named America Singer (yes, ironically, we’ll get to that later, maybe) is a Five, which is not great but it’s not bad either. Fives are the artist types of the community, hence the last name Singer. Anyway, so there’s this selection thingy where one girl from each province get “randomly” selected (every girl between the ages of 16 and 19 (?) can enter the draw) to move in to the royal palace and compete for the Prince’s heart. Weird? Yes. Wait, no, I wasn’t going to retell the plots in these mini reviews. We’ll use Goodreads for that.
Anyway, I loved this book, I loved America, I loved Prince Maxon, I loved May. I hated Aspen. So yes the series is amazing and I can’t wait to read the fourth book!

Goodreads rating 5/5, 4/5 & 5/5

Books read in March (so far):

Fallen by Lauren Kate (Fallen #1)

I really liked this book although the love triangle bit bummed me a bit. I think we’ve established that I’m not the biggest fan of love triangles. But how stoked was I when I realized that not only was this book about a girl being reincarnated but about fallen angels?! Amazing. I love fallen angels and I’m totally doing a re-read of Becca Fitzpatrick’s Hush Hush series this summer. Anyway, OMG Daniel Grigori seriously, and Cam as well, you won’t be lacking boys in this one I can promise you that. And also the main character of Luce, I love her, she’s so troubled but still manages to find new friends and stuff. Yay her. I’m waiting to read the next book which I failed to add to my latest book order.

Goodreads rating 4/5

That is all for now, hopefully my new books will get here soon and I can show them to you. Have a great evening/day wherever you may be!

xx Kayla

Today's harvest

Hello lovelies. I got some books today, some via mail and one from the bookstore where the lovely Bella works. There are more to come next week and I will be more than happy to show you which books those are then. But for now:

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

Captivated by You by Sylvia Day

Wake by Amanda Hocking

The help is for uni, but who knows maybe I'll like it. I finished reading Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo yesterday and I thought I'd have review up by tomorrow evening so keep a look out. I will probably also post my reading challenge for 2015 while I'm at it.

Just got home from watching the Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies and now I'm going to read some before bed.

Sleep tight, lots of love, Kayla

Ascend by Amanda Hocking (Trylle #3)

Original title: Ascend

Year published: 2012

Published by: Tor/ St Martin’s press

Number of pages: 326 pages

First sentence: “I had my back to the room as I stared out the window”

Plot: Wendy is once again faced with one hard decision after another. In the choice between her own life and the lives of her people, can she find a way to save herself and the rest of the Trylle? And what about love? Wendy is starting to realize that maybe life with Tove isn’t going to be enough for her.

My thoughts: Oh my god. For those who thought there wasn’t enough action in the last book. Here you go! This book has got action, friendship, family and some love scenes that are to die for. Even though I got this book spoiled for me earlier I enjoyed reading it and I’m very happy with how it all turned out. Wendy evolves more during this book and she finally comes to terms with the fact that just because Finn was her first “love” it doesn’t mean that he has to be her only love. We also get to see Wendy’s mother Elora finally letting go of her regal ways, she finally lets her guard down and she and Wendy start some kind of mother/daughter relationship.

The only bad thing I have to say about this book is that I hate that every single book ends with marriage and babies. Why is that necessary? Fifty Shades, Twilight and now this. I mean I love happy endings but it just feels so ”been there done that”. Other than that I loved the book and the entire series. I’m looking forward to reading some more of Amanda’s books. I think the next one will be “Wake” but before that I have a lot of other books that needs reading.

Torn by Amanda Hocking (Trylle #2)

Original title: Torn

Year published: 2012

Published by: St Martin’s Press

Number of pages: 291 plus a collection of one shots named “One Day: Three Ways”

First sentence: “When Rhys and I showed up at my “brother” Matt’s house at eight in the morning, he was happy…in the sense that he was glad I was alive and hadn’t disappeared forever.”

Plot: After the events in “Switched” Wendy doesn’t think her life could get any more complicated. She was wrong. She’s kidnapped by Vittra trackers and while in captivity she learns more things about her past. Things that maybe would have been best kept hidden. In the middle of all of this there are her feelings, feelings she’s not sure she should have.

My thoughts: I don’t understand people who complain about Amanda’s writing. I totally love it, it’s real. And sure this book may not have been packed with as much action as the first one but it was still enough. I don’t think that an action filled book was her goal here. You get to learn a lot more about the history of Wendy’s people, both Trylle and Vittra. You also get to see Wendy working really hard to get her powers in order so that she can help her people. Wendy matures a lot in this book, she realizes that she has to consider what’s best for her people and not just what’s best for her and so she makes some decisions, decisions that might not be in her best interest but ones that she can live with nonetheless. I love this series and I love all the pop culture references and how the author used Swedish words such as “Förening, Ondarike, Mänsklig” and so on. It made it a whole lot more relatable, at least for me, being Swedish and all.

I went on goodreads because I wanted to leave a review and I stumbled upon a review. Someone decided it would be fun to spoil the next book. Let’s just say I’m not happy. At first I thought I wasn’t going to read the last book but I quickly decided against that. I love the series too much to give up on it just because someone spoiled it for me.

Anyway, great book. I do recommend it!