Review: The Fault in Our Stars (19/04/20)

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If anyone is unfamiliar with this book, where have you been for decade? I admit I had not read this book. But I did understand the basic story line. The story follows Hazel as she navigates later stages of terminal cancer. She goes about her days muddling through as best she can. Her mum who worries about her mental state encourages her to go to group therapy session once a week. It is there she meets Augustus. They form a friendship full of witty banter and love of reading.

No more summary as its basically all tears from there…

It’s hard to say what I liked about this book. All of it? None of it? How can I like a book that so completely broke my emotional well-being? But I did.

The characters were brilliant. They were funny, so funny. Which was needed in a book that was dealing with the issue of childhood cancer. It was written beautifully and having never read a book by John Green before. I did not know what I was missing. I am ready (almost) to take on any of his other books if they are even half as good as this.

There was nothing I didn’t like about this book honestly. Except all of it. But not really. I guess you only understand if you have read it.

A solid 4 stars. If you want to weep like a baby and are ready to be emotionally distraught. This is the book for you.


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Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (18/04/20)

So this book started off really slow to begin with. I felt like I really struggled to get to the 25% mark. and took me much longer to read than I anticipated. Maybe I just wasn't quite feeling it to begin with. Who knows?

Luckily it got much more interesting with the introduction of Matthais and Nina's characters. I loved the back and forth with their characters. I also liked them much more than Kaz's initial chapters, he took me a long time to warm too. I liked Inej almost straight away as well, her character is so complex yet seems to readily give herself to the reader. I really couldn't work out Kaz Brekker, but I don't think I was meant to. Jesper and Wylan make up the last two characters in the group and they were fun to read and rounded the team off nicely.

The basic plot is the six characters led by Kaz are attempting to break into the Ice Palace to kidnap/recuse/commandeer a prisoner who knows about a drug being used to make Grisha crazy strong and unpredictable. This 'jurda parem' seems to be very dangerous and could threaten the safety of many people. However, this isn't a selfless, heroic kind of adventure. These character are for the most part ruthless and most have questionable morals. The story covers their journey together and the changing relationships within the group, whilst they try to get in, get out and most impotently get their money..

It took me a long time to get used to the swapping between points of view. I was at times, early on, very confused.

Mostly because of the amount of characters there was. I definitely enjoyed reading from some characters view points more than others.

I enjoyed the original Grishaverse trilogy and got through them really quickly so was expecting the same here but this is very different. I don't think I've ever read a true 'heist' style story and I couldn't decided early on if I like it or not. Overall by the end I was hooked. This isn't a book you can put down and then come back to a few days later, you need to keep everything fresh in your head. All the charcaters rounded out and the ending was brilliant. It's been a few days now since finishing and I keep thinking about the characters. I will definietly be continuing the series fairly soon!

I give this book a solid 4*'s. I think if I hadn't found it so confusing in the beginning I would have given it more.

Wicked As You Wish by Rin Chupeco (05/04/2020)

So I received this book as an ARC in my December Fairyloot book subscription box.

As the release date wasn't until March 2020, I hadn't really seen or heard anything about this book to know if I wanted to read it or not. After reading the summary, I was pleasently optimistic. It was put across as a kind of Snow Queen re-telling.

This made me very interested!



 I'm not sure anyone I have ever met has seen the cartoon I had on video as a child, but it was 'The Snow Queen' and I loved it so much. It was really dark and absure, likely made from one of those cheap animation studios, but none the less I loved the story of Gerda venturing off on a perilous journey to save her childhood friend Kay.

After a bit of digging on google it turns out the version I loved was the 1957 version of the story.... animated in Soviet Russia....

I'm not overly surprised. As I was primarily raised by my grandparents so tended to end up watching random old films.


 Anyway, this film gave me a good understadning of the orginal story, so long story short, I had high hope for this book.

I like the orginal story, I have liked many other re-tellings, and this book seems to have lots of other fairytales woven into it.

So far so good.

And don't get me wrong, I ended up in the long run enjoying this story. BUT....

The beginning was so confusing and I didn't really see the point in the main character having Philippine heritage. I know, I know... it's likely to be an unpopular opinion but I found it made the world building really confusing. The world was like the 'real' world. Some countries the same and not much changed about them other than the addition of a magic system... But then there was random 'mythical' countries all over the place. The book didn't have map which made it really hard to place things, I ended up spending a lot on time confused about where the hell everything was in connection to countries I knew.

The other confusing bit was there were so many characters introduced so early, that didn't really have actual parts. But they kept talking. I had to re-read so many pages because I just had no idea who was saying what, or who they were talking to. It was very slow starting book which I actually started reading way back in February. I could not get past the first hundred pages easily. A couple of times I was close to DNFing it.

However, I pushed through it and really knuckled down to get it done this month and I am glad I did. I'm not saying it was the best fantasy re-telling, by a long shot. It is such a shame the last 50% of the book was actually paced well and had interesting character development. I particularity likes the 'Banders', the group selected by the Cheshire Cat (yes from Alice in Wonderland) to assist getting the Lost Prince of Avalon, our heroines best friend, Alex, back to his sealed off Kingdom of Avalon. I liked those characters much more initially than I did Tala and Alex the 'main characters'.

There was a tiny element of romance, but it seemed thrown in and not a main plot point in this book. This is the start of a series. Will I continue?

I would have liked to give the ending of this book a better rating but the slow start really pulled it down. It was nearly a 2* book, had the ending and character development not picked up.

August Fairyloot 2019

 

So first things first. I am not being paid for this. My husband bought me a subscription to Fairyloot for my 30th Birthday (this July).  The August box is the first box I have ever received. And it did not disappoint. I cant even begin to explain how much I enjoyed opening this box and how good the quality is of all the items. So lets break down this unboxing.

 I will add, I had to open this in my kitchen, because my 3 year old would have been all over it, and I literally couldn't wait until he was in bed as I had been waiting since July to get a box!

I have seen enough unboxings on YouTube to know the card on top is the spoiler card, so I put that to one side straight away. At this point I just want to say I couldn't believe how beautiful the box was on the inside. I am not going to be precious about keeping the box, but it wasn't lost on me how lovely it looked when I opened it. Underneath the spoiler card was some lovely purple packing,it looked high quality and well packed when I opened this box. Now onto the stuff...

The first thing I pulled out was this set of 3x scrunchies. Honestly not my favorite item in the box, and I didn't initially recognise the fandom. When I checked the spoiler card and saw it was for the Graceling trilogy, I must admit I liked them a little bit more, however I have only read the first book in the series and that was quite a few years ago. Once I knew it was easy to see the references to each of the books; Green for Graceling, Red for Fire and Blue for Bitterblue. It is really unlikely I would wear these out, but I do put my hair up for bed so I have designated these for bedtime scrunchies.

The next item i pulled out was a Candle from 'Flick the Wick', again I didn't recognise the fandom as 'Slaking Jack the Ripper' is actually on my Kindle to read, I in fact bought it a couple of weeks ago with my birthday voucher. So the smell is a coffee and chocolate scent for the character Thomas Cresswell. All I can say is the scent is heavenly! I hope I like this series just based on this scent alone. It primarily smells chocolate, but more on the Shea/coco butter type of smell. Which happens to be one of my favorite scents. I literally made an audible moan when I opened this to smell. I haven't tried burning this yet but I really hope it emits a good amount of smell.

The next item is a Lord of the Rings themed mirror. Not much to say about this item, its a nice enough, simple small mirror. Again like with the scrunchies I'm probably not going to use it as if it was a bag mirror I would have liked a flip open back, otherwise its just going to get scratched it. I a a Tolkien fan, but my husband is more of a Tolkien fan than me, and he has in fact claimed this item for his man cave. This item along with the scrunchies were my least liked items, but that doesn't mean i disliked them. I liked them but compared to everything else they were the least impressive items.

This item was my first little 'squeee' moment. I was slightly confused pulling out this little pink box initially then I saw on the back it said cutlery set. I opened it and found a lovely little pink velvet bag. when I opened this I nearly died with happiness. In side was a set of chopsticks, a fork and a spoon. All rainbow coloured! I loved them straight away, then I noticed it had some engraving on it. When I read the engraving I knew straight away what fandom it was from. The Lunar Chronicles. I have read all but the last book in this series and loved them all. I will be using these for work.

 Then I pulled out this beautiful, very good quality, cushion cover. It is listed as a pillow case, but as far as I am concerned pillowcases are rectangles, not squares. Either way, its a lovely item, and another one I recognised, the cushions read, "You will burn for you are an ember in the ashes". I am actually currently reading 'An Ember in the Ashes', loving it by the way. So whilst I am not currently part of the fandom, I feel like I will be soon. I did wonder how good the quality of items like this would be, as I have recently bought a 'Court of Thorns and Roses' cushion cover from 'Wish' for a couple of £'s and I wondered if this was where these companies got cushions covers as well.... I can confidently say they do not. This is a lovely item I will be using when I get a cushion filler. 

This may be one of my favourite items in the whole box. It is a laser cut metal book mark complete with a Brandon Sanderson quote. It is a beautiful rose gold colour with a shiny grey tassel. Honestly I love this book mark, I feel awful saying I haven't yet read any Brandon Sanderson novels, but again the Mistborn saga that this bookmark showcases is on my to read list. It is incredible quality, it has some really delicate sections but these are sturdy and none of it feels like it is going to break.

  

This box just keeps giving! These are the next two cards in the new tarot card set. These appear to be Harry and Hermione. Obviously I am Ravenclaw, I'm completely into Harry Potter. It was the original series that got me into reading, got me excited about a book release. I'm into it! As this is my first box I have actually missed 4 cards so far 2x sets of 2 cards. I am hoping to buy these separately as I would love this to be a full collected set. The artwork is beautiful, the quality is lovely and has a matt type finished which is much nicer then if it was a shiny finish. They are just really lovely.

Lastly, the book. The real reason everyone gets this box. I was complete in the dark about what book it was going to be. I was very pleased with the book, it is a book I had added to my Goodreads 'want to read' list. Now lets talk about the 'exclusive features'. It has beautiful art work on the inner dust jacket and obviously is signed, this is lovely and the book itself is a stunning teal/turquoise colour. I have read 2 or 3 chapters already and I can tell I am going to enjoy this book. It does tend to take me longer to ready standard books now compared to my read time with eBooks, mostly because I tend to have the most time to read at night, and my husband doesn't like the light on. So it is much easier to simply pick up my Kindle rather than my every piling up real books.

Overall I am in love with Fairyloot. My subscription will be continuing and I am Keen to get some of the standalone release editions of new books. I will be getting my husband to order the 'Queen of Nothing' box as I am just going to love it, I can tell. If you are on the fence, get one, try it, I believe it is seriously good value.

Hush Hush (02/02/19)

So this book took over a month for me to read, which considering how its not a relatively long book baffles me. I was not compelled to read this book when I had a spare few minutes. I was not finding myself wanting to stay up just a little bit longer to finish the next chapter. It was honestly really lacking in so many ways.

I love reading YA fantasy/paranormal/mystical books. I love them! I have enjoyed series like House of Night, Sookie Stackhouse, Hunger Games, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, I even liked Twilight back before the films. But I just don't get this book at all.

Less than a month after reading it I can barely remember anything that happened. None of the characters were likeable, swoon worthy or even vaguely pleasant. Her mother was frankly useless. The police who randomly seemed to show up completely incompetent and frankly rude (but not in a realistic way).

The 'heroine'.... if you could see or feel how hard my eyes want to roll back into my head thinking about her would give you a better understanding of how I felt towards her. She has no conviction to anything. She isn't even being portrayed as dumb, but that is what she is. Her best 'friend', just vile, not even funny at all.

The main 'love interest' .... called Patch, again with a tendon pulling eye roll. he was the only vaguely interesting character. But even there this book just complete missed the mark with me.

Honestly I have no more words for this book. It seemed to be about nothing at all, and i cant honestly remember any redeeming element of it. Honestly surprised it has 3.something stars on Goodreads. If i could give it less than 1 star I would have. I likely would have given it -Stars. Safe to say i will not be reading any of the others.

Heir of Fire (09/09/18)

So this is the third installment in the Throne of Glass series, following straight on from Crown of Midnight, we pick straight back up with Celeana and how she is still devastated from the loss of her close friend.

This review will have spoilers in, its impossible to talk about a 3^rd series book without them!

So I’ll start with what I thought I wouldn’t like. Rowan. And Celeana.

When I started this book I was completed all about Chaol and Celeana… I probably still am deep down. But I can see something beautiful and different blossoming with Rowan. I feel like Chaol saved Celena in ToG but in HoF it is Celeana/Aelin who saves Rowan. And I think after all that happens in HoF Celeana/Aelin needs to not feel like she has been saved. She needs to be the hero of her own story.

But yes for a good third of the book I could kind of see Chaol being pushed aside and I was not happy about it.

Dorian’s love life filled me with such hope…. Then utterly shattered me. I actually applaud the author for that. To often in these types of books you can see the love interests playing out in a very samey samey kind of way. Not with this one. I am still raw and broken from it. I had to put the book on my lap for a few mins to really absorb what was happening.

I loved the flash backs to Aelin’s past and hope we get to see more of these in future books. I feel the story is becoming very intricate now and has really found its way. I know a lot wont like it because of the changes in direction but realistically for Aelin to get done what is needed, big changes needed to happen and the changes in her in this book to me, seem realistic and purposeful.

I also really enjoyed the character shift to Manon, the Blackbeak Witch. Hers in a very interesting storyline and I look forward to seeing it develop and how it links to Aelin’s story overall. For me this was a good solid read which once I got over the whole Chaol issue, I found I enjoyed immensely and look forward the book number 4!

Crown of Midnight (12/08/18)

So the book picks up a little while after the end of the first book. Celaena assassin, Chaol is still training with Celaena everyday when she is at the castle and not off on business for the king and Dorian is trying to get over Celaena. Lots of action, which is incredibly well written. Lots of intrigue and plot twists and the level of fantasy world building is on point.

I must say I am proper fan-girling over Chaol.  I am so invested in this coupling that I can barely focus on anything else. I like that he is far from perfect. His flaws make him more real, more believable and a lot more interesting. This internal fight he has with himself to realise what it is he really wants.

Honestly this book did me in. I’ve not been able to start the next one properly as I am too devastated by the sheer amazingness of it. It’s everything the first book should have been. The difference in complexity of the story and how well the characters have been development is phenomenal. I have not enjoyed a book this much in a long time.

I wouldn’t change this book. I wouldn’t add anything. Just well done, Sarah J. Maas, new fan here, and that means you will have me for life. Totally invested in all the characters and this new world that has been created. Just so enjoyable.

If you read the first book and weren’t too impressed…. This book is a whole other level! Please give this book a chance, otherwise you will miss out on something truly special.

Throne of Glass (08/08/18)

This book in many ways is a standard love triangle young adult novel. If you found twilight, hunger games or house of night style books tedious. Then don’t bother here. If, however, you are like me, then open up this book for a whole new world of blooming brilliance.
Simple, if interesting concept of a young assassin roped into a be all competition to become the tyrannical kings personal Champion assassin.

I found all the main characters interesting and well rounded. I want to know more about them. Luckily there are more books in this series and I can already tell there are going to be some interesting developments with some characters. The main character Celaena, I liked, a small criticism being we maybe didn’t need telling how beautiful she was every other page. This did become less apparent as the book neared its end. Love interest wise, I surprisingly liked both possibilities. Both Chaol and Dorian were likeable and swoon worthy. Without giving away anything, I have surprised myself at which one I am routing for. I would be lying however if I didn’t admit this changes every now and again.

The character of Nehemia added some depth to Celaena that I feel helped both characters become more interesting and added some nice non love interest drama to the story. Nehemia seems fierce to me and I could see her being such a strong female force in this fantasy world.

There was plenty about this book that should have made it just a YA guilty pleasure. But I feel there are some foundations for this being a blindingly fabulous series and I am just so happy to have started it. I get very into these types of books, I love a good series, but I always worry starting one. Whether it will hold up against all the other books I have read before. And luckily for me this one did. I can already feel myself getting all fan-girly about it. I could also see this being a fabulously epic tv series.

The main criticisms about this book are that the beginning does seem very predictable and a bit slow on any action happening. This young girl is meant to be this fierce, sly and amazing assassin that needs guards at all time. Yet it takes time ¾ of the way through the book for her to have a real fight scene. Plenty of people would have lost interest before that point. Luckily, I didn’t. by the end I had a good feel for what the next books will become. I could feel the writing evolving as it went on. So if your giving this book ago and feel like it’s a bit, meh, please give it till the end to judge it. It may surprise you.

Torment (15/08/14)

I have literally realised that I had missed on posting a review from back in August. Luckily I had it saved so have been able to copy it over now.

So a couple of months back I read Fallen and was decidedly unimpressed with the whole story in general. I still can’t explain why I decided to read to follow up book Torment. But I’m glad I did. Once again, it could have been better, I’m not saying it was as good as some of the books I have read lately, but it was much better than the first book.

This book sees Luce sent off to a posh school on the west coast (there happens to be special classes about angels and demons, which made me pull many faces when reading it). Daniel, the uber love interest of the first book, Luce’s ‘one true love’ send her here after the events at the end of fallen with the premise of keeping her safe. Rebellious teenage acts ensue, and as you can guess, Luce ends up not being very safe. I still have real issues with Daniel as the love interest. We know nothing about him, he hasn’t done a single thing to endear me to him, and I kind of route for Luce to screw him over a little bit and date someone who doesn’t control her every move without giving her even a glimpse of understanding as to why these things keep happening to her.

Other than that actually the general way the story is going was much more interesting to read, Luce had more backbone and the new characters that were introduced as her friends were well rounded and well written into the story. I can see where the story may head now, which is saying a lot as I didn’t get the first book at all. I can honestly say I will now read the rest, I just hope that the author carries on developing the story and possible try to include a few less cliché type scenarios.

Graceling (25/10/14)

Finally got round to reviewing my most recent read. Graceling is the first book in the Graceling Realm Trilogy, it is also my first experience of Kristin Cashore. I must say that when I started this book I definitely felt like the author had very little imagination, at least in regards to the naming of the Kingdoms (Nander, Estill, Sunder, Wester and Middluns). I literally rolled my eyes at this poor attempt to rename north, south, east, etc. Personally I found it hard to take seriously and nearly made me put the book down. Luckily this is one of the only things that bothered me. The rest of the book, the concept, characters and plot were all really good and I easily found myself routing for the characters.

This is a fantasy world were Gracelings are known by their differently coloured eyes. Their Graces can show themselves in any number of ways some could be graced with cooking skills, numeracy whilst others have graces for fighting. Enter the main character Katsa, who is being used by her Uncle Randa the King of the Middluns. All Gracelings are owned by their kings and are used by them unless their graces are not that important or useful. Katsa is unfortunate that her Grace is exceptional. She is almost unbeatable in a fight, is skilled at archery and sword fighting and can kill a man before he realises what is happening. But Katsa is unwilling to be just a hired hand, used to deal out Randa’s often unfair idea of justice. So she has formed a secret council, a network of people who aim to help those who cannot help themselves and deal out a better form of justice where they can. All under the noses of the kings from all the kingdoms. It is on one of these very missions that Katsa rescues a Lienid, Prince Tealiff, and runs into another Graceling with exceptional skills. After knocking him out, and leaving him at the castle she has rescued Prince Tealiff from Katsa is surprised when he turns up at her home and turns out to be Prince Tealiffs grandson, known to everyone as Po. After the Po tree of lienid whose leaves grown silver and gold to match Prince Po’s eyes. Together to two embark on a mission which changes who Katsa believes she can be.

I completely loved the character of Po. Personally, I wish the author didn’t have so much against marriage, because I just feel like their love story was lacking something. Some sort of final closure, especially since I have found out these characters are not even to be used in the other books. I loved the way Po was able to bring out the best in Katsa and but I would have liked to have seen more of Po developing from Katsa influence. Because she most definitely had an influence on him. This is a very fine YA fantasy with the only negative being some odd and awkward naming of places and characters was a very enjoyable read. The views of the author on marriage and women’s independence does come through pretty strongly, with no wavering of the opinion. This for me was too strong for the story, I am not saying it needed to turn into an all mighty lovey dovey fest, but, there may have been some value in creating a symbiotic relationship were they are both equal in the relationship and committed without getting married. It sort of felt, if not said, that one day she would just pack up and move on and he needed to be ready to except that. Taken at face value I did enjoy this book just felt some of the themes came on a little strong for my liking.

The Traitor Queen (09/10/14)

The Traitor Queen gripped me straight away, I did have a couple of pages where I was slightly confused but that was more to do with it having been a very long time between me reading this book and the previous books. However it didn’t take long for it all to come back, and for me to remember what was happening, who was who and what I thought was going to happen. Throughout the book I felt so connected to all the characters, even those I hadn’t previously liked.

As this is the last part of a sequel trilogy there were a number of characters to follow. Obviously Black Magician Sonea, who was the main character in the previous trilogy still has an important role and is travelling to Sachaka for diplomatic purposes, accompanied by Lord Regin. Lord Regin and Sonea’s relationship had developed greatly over the six books and I have to say I liked where his story lead to, from being a horrible, manipulative, spoilt character to a dignified, understanding and very likeable character. There is also Lord Lorkin, Sonea son, who has returned to the Sachakan capital after living a number of months with the Traitors, the outlaw band of black magicians that live in the mountains of Sachaka. He has had to leave Tyvara, the woman he has fallen in love with and doesn’t know if he will see her again. He knows at some point he will have to choose between her and the traitors and his home in the allied lands. Also back home is Lilia, Anyi, Cery and Gol who are undertaking in a completed different story line that is equally dramatic and important to the development of allied lands. All the characters storylines climax in devastating amazing ways.

As this was the end of long series if you include both trilogies I have been able to see full character developments, share their losses, see how that has changed them. This has been a brilliant series and one I have enjoyed immensely. I will say I think over all I preferred the first trilogy more, but only because I felt it was more raw and emotional. This trilogy, using the same character base, I found that I connected most with the characters I already knew and never truly warmed to new additions. However it was nice to be able to see these characters I knew grow up and change. Would highly recommend, if you enjoyed other YA books like Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Tales of the Otori etc; I would imagine you would love the original series and this one.

Inkheart (09/08/14)

This is a book I have had on my to read pile for some time, and having a bit of extra free time on my hands have finally got round to. I vaguely remember seeing the film that was made, but luckily the film wasn’t that memorable so I couldn’t remember how it ended. However, I enjoyed the book very much and realise why the film maybe didn’t do as well as was expected. Most of the characters are either hiding their emotions or a secret of some kind throughout the story, this did not portray over well in the film and just made everything pretty confusing.

On the whole this is a book about a father and daughter who love to read and have the ability to make books come to life and this appealed to me greatly. It was a slow starter but built up the characters well and I really wanted to know what happened to them. I am not saying this book was the pinnacle of literary accomplishments, but I enjoyed the fantasy, the adventure and how with some characters, even towards the end you weren’t sure if you should like them or not. For instance the character of Dustfinger who is ripped from his story into a world he despises and he yearns just to return home. You never know whether to trust him, to not trust him, to pity him or to think he is selfish. Not all the characters in Inkheart fall into a black and white category, which is refreshing, especially in a book aimed at slightly younger/teen readers.

Great amounts of cheesy humour, good general read I would definitely read the next two books as the characters are all built up now so I think the next books would pick up quicker. Would have probably enjoyed this book more when I was in my yearly teens.