TBR Challenge #5: Blood for Blood

Blood for Blood by Ryan Graudin

Series: Wolf by Wolf

Rating: 4/5

Theme: Historical

*****Please Note: Since this is the second book in the duology, there are tings that will be discussed that might reveal things from the second book*****

Why? A few years ago I read Wolf by Wolf because it was all the rage to read and I enjoyed it. It was different and unique. So I definitely waned to get my hands on this books. I’m not really going to get into details of this book since I don’t want to reveal anything pertinent to those who haven’t read it yet.

Review: As I’ve mentioned before, I read the first book in this series during the hype of its release. I wasn’t really the biggest fan of it, but I enjoyed it enough that I decided to pick up this book. I’m glad that I did because Graudin was able to tie off all the loose ends nicely, not necessarily the way I would have liked, but it did answer questions that I have.

I enjoyed the progression of the characters in this book, especially Yael. I love her strength and her determination to see through her plans, even though she knows that she is risking more than her life. I also love the relationships seen in this book. Although I’m not a fan of Adel or Felix, I understand their decisions for their actions. I would love to seen more of Henrika, but I think I would have enjoyed it less if I did.

This book broke my heart more than once and there was a lot of things that saddened me about it. I don’t think that the ending with Felix and Adel was fair to Yael, since I feel that she gave up a lot of things to get to that point. I would have enjoyed it more if Graudin changed one thing  about the ending  (*L!!!* I hope that hint is good enough).

The author has a great way of writing his books that you can envision a very gritty, noir style of movie. This is the third book of his that I’ve read and I always envision his books with a dirty, sepia filtered atmosphere, almost similar to an old photograph. All his characters are well written and well thought out that you can picture them vividly as the story progress. I especially enjoy his heroes and heroines. They are all so perfectly imperfect that readers can relate to them. I would definitely read more of his YA novels.

 

 

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Sorry I’m bringing in another Top 5 on this blog, they’re great but it’s not much of a variety in content. I wasn’t able to post on my usual days because we’ve been painting our house and it’s taking a lot of my free time and energy.

Anyways, this week’s Top 5 is another topic that I really like. Basically list the top 5 books that you have read as an adult, but would have been a good read for your younger self to learn a lesson.

Here is my Top 5:

I won’t go into details as to why I picked each one for this list. Know that these books that I’ve read have all taught me a thing or two about life in general. I would have loved to have read books like these when I was younger to teach me more about friendships, acceptance, diversity and relationships. These books made a great impact to me while reading them and I believe that even as a child I would have enjoyed them. I especially love how more and more artists/writers use graphic novels to convey stories and reach lessons to the readers.

I think out of these five books, I would pick Maus as my favorite. It’s a great resource on teaching students, or anyone else who wants to learn more, about the Second World War. This is a very grave part of our history, but I think it’s important to teach this to people. I also really love Lumberjanes and the fact that I include it in many of my recommendations just shows how much I adore it. It’s a great story of friendships, diversity and adventure. I love the volumes.

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That’s it for my Top 5. Let me know if what books you feel made an impact with you as an adult and would have been an interesting read as a child.

Top 5 Favorite Friend Group

It’s been awhile since I posted a Top 5 Wednesday and this week’s topic is pretty interesting. This is pretty self explanatory, just give your top 5 books that are your favorite group of friends.

Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis

This is a recent read for me and I’m glad that I read it. I wasn’t a fan of some events that occurred in this book, but I did enjoy the friendship between the protagonist and her neighbor. I enjoyed it a lot because of their respect for each other even with the age difference. It’s something different and unique. It may not be a group of friends, but it’s still a lovely example of a friendship.

Winter by Marissa Meyer

This is a series of books, but I included the last book from the series, because this is were you see the friendships bloom between all the characters. I love each and everyone of them as an individual character, but they are even better together. The spin off graphic novel, Wire and Nerve, show more of the deep connection between the nine major characters.

The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury

I’ve mentioned this before in my review, but the relationship in this book is amazing. I love the bond between the princess and her Watchmaidens. I understand that they are her bodyguards, but there is still a level of respect from the princess towards her maidens, which I think is amazing.

Avatar the last Airbender by Michael Dante DiMartino

This isn’t the original graphic novels of the Avatar, but still a great representation of friendships. I love all the characters and the bond that they have with each other. I especially love the age range between the four characters because it shows that they are inclusive of everyone. Plus, great show of diversity, when diversity wasn’t as popular.

Lumberjanes by  Noelle Stevenson

I always include this graphic novel when people mention ‘Favorite Friend Group’. I love the characters in this graphic novel and the friendships are just amazing. I love the diversity of the group, the inclusion it represent and the respect that they have towards each other. Such a great graphic novel for your readers.

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That’s my top 5 for this week, hope everyone enjoyed it. Let me know books you enjoyed that represents great friendships.

 

August Wrap-up and I Passed my N.E.W.T.s

This wrap-up will be a bit different because I’m going to be separating my Wrap-up and TBR for August and September. This month was a great reading month, I was able to read 10 books, which is my best month so far in the year. The N.E.W.T.s Readathon that I participated in for August was very successful and I totally passed! Here is a recap of my TBR for the redathon.

These are the books I read for the readathon and the challenges that is associated to them. This is not in the order I read them, but rather in the order of the challenges that’s in the readathon.

ASTRONOMY

A: Stars on the Cover:

Everyone’s a Aliebn when ur a aliebn too by Jomny Sun – 3/5 Stars

I picked this up because it was one of the top read of a Booktuber that I follow, so I thought it would be a great read. I wasn’t really a fan, it was interesting, but I don’t really think it would be in my top 10 read for this year.

E: Book that has a ‘Sky’ in the title:

Ten Thousand Skies Above you by Claudia Gray – 2.5/5 Stars

I wanted to like this book because this cover is so beautiful, but I just can’t. I really wasn’t a fan of the protagonist and the story in the whole. I enjoyed the tidbits without the romance, but there was too much romance for my liking.

CARE OF MAGICAL CREATURES

A: Animal on the Cover

The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey – 4/5

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the characters, the world building and the way everything was set up. I love the different creatures that we encounter in the novel and the friendships that Grey includes in the book. I’m most likely going to continue on with the series.

E: Under 160 Pages

Locke and Key Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill 3/5

This was an interesting graphic novel. I’ve heard so many people rave about this, so I had to try it out. It’s really not my cup of tea. I think it’s too violent for my liking, but I see why so many people enjoy it. The graphics are great and the story line is really unique. It makes me want to check out Joe Hill’s novels.

CHARMS

A: Read a book with Magic in it

Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day by Seanan McGuire – 3.5/5

I decided to pick this book up because Seanan McGuire is also the author of the popular trilogy called Wayward Children. Before I get into those books I wanted to try her out as an author. I’m pleasantly surprised with this novel. Although it’s pretty short, the author was able to pack in so many details. I’m intrigued to pick up her more popular series.

E: Cover Buy

Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis 3.5/5

I bought this book really not knowing anything about it except for the fact that its dystopia and the cover is beautiful. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I enjoy the cover. I liked the story well enough, but there are just certain events that happened closer to the end of the book that I wasn’t a fan of. The one thing that I did enjoy about this dystopian world, the events that lead up to this catastrophe is very likely that could occur in our world.

HERBOLOGY

A: Book with a Green Cover

The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall – 2.5/5 Stars

I actually wrote a review for this and I’ll link here. All in all I wasn’t a fan. It was advertised as something I thought I would enjoy, but ended up not being what it was. So definitely not going to be a series I will continue.

E: Book with Illustrations

 

Giant Days Vol. 5 and Vol. 6 by John Allison

This is one of my favorite graphic novels and if ever you pick it up and try it our, you’ll see why. I enjoy the characters and the little shenanigans that the three friends get into.

O: Read a book with either one of these words in the title: light/air/sun/water

Avatar the Last Air Bender by Gene Yang

I was actually looking for the original Avatar Graphic Novels, and I thought this was the one. I was wrong. I’ve watched the original Avatar shows and I really wanted to try out the graphic novels. Sigh.

So Let’s go over the rules again to pass to make sure that I’ve got everything ticked off.

1. No cross over. One book per challenge
2. No skipping grades
3. Must have an at least two Acceptable in two different classes
4. Must have one Outstanding
5. Must have read minimum of four books

As seen, I was able to finish all the challenges and therefore I passed my N.E.W.T.s! YAY!

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That’s it for my wrap-up. I’m really proud of myself for reading so many books this month. I haven’t been reading a lot lately and this month is a success for me. Hopefully next month will be just as great. YAY!

 

 

 

On Holiday

Hello All!

Unfortunately I need to take another hiatus for this week. I’m going to be super busy with school starting, we have a lot of events beforehand.

I’ll be back to my regular postings by Monday of next week.

Happy Reading ’til then and have a good LONG weekend!!

Blogging Ideas and Book Memes

I’ve been racking my brain thinking of what to post today and yet I really can’t find anything. I looked around the internet for help and I came across this posting and I thought it was  very helpful, therefore I wanted to share with all. Anyways, enjoy!

Book Blog Post Topics and Ideas written by Aimee, Always

Adding to her ideas, I wanted to add some other Ideas that will be great for book bloggers, and that is book memes.

I’m really not 100% sure why people started calling it book blogging memes, but there are lots of book blogging memes floating around the internet. I’ll list my favorite memes and their hosts.

It’s Monday: What are you Reading Hosted by Book Date 

I really enjoy Book Date Monday because it helps me with getting things in order at the beginning of the week. Basically, the idea behind this post is listing books that you’ve read previously, what you’re currently reading and what you will be reading the week after. Afterwards, you can link your post to her site.

Top 5 Wednesday hosted by Sam from Thoughts on Tomes

This one is a fun Meme because the people who participate are very lively. Basically Sam post a topic at the beginning of the month for each Wednesday of that said month. You can then link up your post on the Goodreads group, Top Five Wednesday.

Top Ten Tuesday hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This has a similar concept as Top Five Wednesday but the list will be for 10 books instead of 5. Technically there are no rules that it has to be 10, but I prefer to including 10 book on my choices. I think this is the main reason why I stopped creating these last year, plus it doesn’t really go with my posting schedule. Still a fun meme to do though.

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These are the Memes that I particularly follow, write and post, but I actually want to look for more, because its a fun way to meet people and post different things on your blog.

Hope this helped everyone, or at least a few book bloggers..

 

 

 

 

TBR Challenge #4: The Conspiracy of Us

The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall

Series: The Conspiracy of us #1

Rating: 2.5/3

Theme: Series (A Book that is part of a series)

Why? I’ve been meaning to read this series for awhile now every since one of the booktubers I follow compared it to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci code. Since this is part of a series, I would say it counts.

Review: I originally picked this book up because I heard it being compared to The Da Vinci’s Code by Dan Brown. Since it is one of my favorite books, I was very intrigued by the comparison and had to read it. Unfortunately, I think those who believe that the two books are similar, are dead wrong. Besides the fact that they mentioned a historical fact, I don’t really see any similarities. I was really disappointed.

Like I said, there really wasn’t any similarities between the two books and I wished that the booktuber I follow didn’t even bother mentioning that information. The mystery aspect of the book is somewhat cliche and the plot is similar to other books that I’ve read with the same premise. I didn’t really find anything unique about it and the “action packed” scenes, are not very packed with action. In fact, I feel that the author spent more time on building the relationship between the protagonist and the love interest, than the actual mystery.

Speaking of relationships, I wish that someone mentioned to me that there was going to be a love triangle in this series. I hate this trope and wouldn’t even have picked it up if I knew that there was this possibility, so please be warned, there is a love triangle here.  I didn’t really pick this book up for romance, I wanted mystery, intrigue and puzzles. As you can tell I’m a bit bitter about reading this book.

That being said, Hall’s writing is pretty good. I really didn’t have a problem with her writing and her character developments. As much as I did enjoy some of the quirkiness of this book, I don’t think its enough for me to keep with this series. Seriously my main concern about this book is not the author’s fault, but rather the recommendation that it was given. I expected one thing and yet received a totally different story.