Book Review- The Darkest Minds

Title- The Darkest Minds
Author- Alexandra Bracken
Pages- 488
Rating-  4 out of 5
Companion/Sequel/Other- Book 1

Okay so this is the last book that I read in 2015, and I’m happy to say that it was a good one! I tried reading this book about two years ago and I just couldn’t finish it. Here we are two later, and not only did I give it another go and finished it, I ended up really enjoying it. I don’t know what it was this time, but I passed the part where I stopped the first time, and I honestly couldn’t remember why I didn’t finish it before.

I really did enjoy the idea of this story- the camps, the different colors and powers. However, and this is what made me give it a four stars. Even though they talked about the powers, I honestly didn’t feel like they gave us enough explanation about them. By the end of this book, I still didn’t know much about the powers. I mean we got the basics, but that was really it. I just wanted more from that.

I absolutely adored the characters- Ruby, Liam, Chubs, and Zu. Seriously, they work so well together and are just an all around great team. I couldn’t wait to find out more about these characters, especially Ruby.

Ruby’s story, even though it took awhile to get to it, was heartbreaking. I felt so bad for what happened to her as a kid, and it really makes you see how strong her powers are. I want to say that even though I can see why people say that she can be an unlikable character, I personally loved her. I thought she was fun, strong, and sweet. However, that’s not to say that she’s not flawed because she definitely is.

This book was crazy and it felt like these kids were being chased by EVERYONE! The PSFs agents, skip tracers,bounty hunters, the League. Pretty much everyone and anyone were after them. Especially Ruby and Liam, for what Ruby was, and for what Liam did. Liam was worth a lot of money to people!

I want to talk about the romance for a second. I noticed that a lot of people seem to love or dislike the romance. Me? I’m on the love side. I absolutely adore Liam and Ruby and definitely think they make a great couple. You can see the connection from the beginning, and it definitely took some time to develop but I loved it. Liam is absolutely amazing and one of my favorite lines from this book came from him:

“Give me one reason why we can’t be together, and I’ll give you a hundred why we can.”

Last but not least, the ending. Oh god, the last few chapters were extremely heartbreaking and it left us on such a cliffhanger. I can’t wait to find out what the heck will happen next.

2015 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 430 times in 2015. If it were a cable car, it would take about 7 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Best Books of 2015

So I read quite a few books this year, and I thought it would be fun to share my Best Books of 2015! Now these books weren’t published in 2015, just ones that I read. I will start with number 6 and work my way down to my FAVORITE for the year!

Number Six: The Silence of Six by E.C. Myers

This book was different from anything I’ve read this year, and I was surprised by how I much I really enjoyed it. It follows a boy named Max whose best friend Evan hacks into the live stream of the presidential debate being hosted at there school. He ends up killing himself, but not before sending Max a final message. From there he’s brought back into a life he thought he left behind!

Number Five: My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

I won’t say much about this one because I did a review which you can check out HERE. I thoroughly enjoyed this one and found myself loving all the characters in this story. I absolutely adore Jase and his family!

 

Number Four: Under the Never Sky trilogy by Veronica Rossi

This serious is seriously so addicting. I was hooked from the beginning, and I read the trilogy in about a week. I fell in love with characters individually and together. Not only that, but the world that Veronica Rossi created is great!

Number Three: Origin by Jennifer L. Armentrout

I won’t say much about this one either because I did a full review as well, HERE. Also this is the fourth book in the LUX series and I don’t want to ruin in. Keep in mind that my review does have spoilers. I will say that I couldn’t stop reading this and I loved the ending so much!

Number Two: Article 5 trilogy by Kristen Simmons

This trilogy was a complete and total surprise! From the first chapter I was hooked by the world and the characters! I absolutely loved the relationships and the characters and couldn’t put these books down!

and coming in at Number One is an author: Tillie Cole!

I discovered Tillie Cole this summer and have read six of her books so far. I absolutely adore her stories and definitely have to say that all of her books I’ve read have been my favorite this year.

 

Book Review- Sweet Fall

Title- Sweet Fall
Author- Tillie Cole
Pages- 273 (ebook)
Rating-  4 out of 5
Companion/Sequel/Other- Book 2 in Sweet Home, Book 1 in Carillo Brothers

I’m telling you Tillie Cole is truly an amazing author. Everything she writes draws you in. I’ve never read anything that has made me feel the way that Tillie Cole stories do. They’re addicting, raw, emotionally draining and just simply beautiful! Of course, before you continue on there will be SPOILERS, MAJOR SPOILERS, for this book!

This book follows the characters of Lexi and Austin who we meet in Sweet Home and Sweet Rome by Tillie Cole. This book was so different from the first two. I enjoyed the first two books, but I honestly didn’t feel as emotionally drained reading those as I did with this book. This book is tough to get through, but it’s so worth it.

Lexi. Lexi is the girl who puts on a fake, happy, cheery persona, but underneath it all she is in so much pain. She has an eating disorder, specifically she’s anorexic. Has been since she was 16 years old. Now I’ve never dealt with this type of situation before, nor have I known anyone who is anorexic so I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. This book was really tough to read because of what both the characters went through. Reading the thoughts going through her mind about how she looked was extremely hard. She never thought she looked good, she always thought she could lose a few more pounds. Just a few more pounds and she’ll be perfect. Then after losing those few pounds, just a few more pounds. It was truly heartbreaking to read. I even found myself saying “you’re perfect” a few times.

Austin. Austins situation was just as hard to read. Austin’s childhood was a shitty one. He was introduced to the gang at a young age, and figured that was what his life would be. Until football of course. He managed to get his way out of the gang(thanks to his older brother Axel. I honestly don’t know how I feel about him. I want to hug him, and  punch him in the face at the same time.) Anyway, Austin is now part of the Tides and the wide receiver and he’s damn good. The NFL and a better life for him and his family is right around the corner. That is until his past comes back. Austin’s mother is very, very sick, and because of that Austin has to choose what he wants in life. He ends up going back to his old life, the gang, and selling drugs to get the money needed to care for his mother. It’s understandable, but truly heartbreaking to read. Austin worked so hard to get out and make a better life for himself, and he gets brought back in to help his family.

I really felt as though Austin and Lexi wouldn’t work well together. Especially with everything that was going on with them, with how damaged they both were, you would think they would never work. Strange this is, because of how damaged and messed up they both are, they end up being quite perfect for one another. They help each other out when it’s needed the most, and they bring each other back from the darkest moments.

The only negative thing(and honestly it’s not even a negative, more of a personal preference of mine), I really wish there was a bit more humor in this book. I understand that this dealt with such serious topics, which is why I wish there was a bit more humor. I felt so emotionally drained by the end of it.

This book is though to read, but absolutely worth it. I would highly, highly recommend this book, or any of Tillie Cole’s books(I’ve read 6 so far, and each have been amazing!)

“Why the war paint, Pix?
Because I can’t stand the girl underneath….
“Why the tattoos ?”
Because I can’t bear seeing the scars of my past.”

“It’s funny. I used to look up at the stars and feel so small and unimportant. But I’ve come to realize that the only thing that can ever make you feel alive and important is the one person who takes you for you.”

Musing Mondays [1]

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme that asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer:

• I’m currently reading…
• Up next I think I’ll read…
• I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
• I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
• I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
• I can’t wait to get a copy of…
• I wish I could read ___, but…
• I blogged about ____ this past week…

THIS WEEK’S RANDOM QUESTION: Of course, IMHO, any  time is a great time to read — but, if you were forced to choose the best season for reading (in your own opinion), what would it be? Why?

This is my first Musing Monday, and I thought it would be fun to do. So here we go! I haven’t read anything in awhile because I’ve been in a weird not-wanting-to-read mood and I absolutely hate it. However, lately I’ve been wanting to get back into reading. So I think I’m going to pick up Sweet Fall by Tillie Cole.

This is the 2nd book in the Sweet Home series, and the first book in the Carillo Brothers series. I’m pretty excited about this because 1) Tillie Cole is a GENIUS! I’ve read 5 of her other books, and I always get so invested in her stories. 2) The newest book in the Carillo Brothers series is coming this month and it sounds so good, so I want to be able to read it!

Random Question- If I had to choose, I guess Summer would be the best season for reading. Mainly because I’m not a fan of the heat so I really love to stay in where the air conditioner and fans are!

My Reading Mood

So lately I’ve been in the “I-don’t-know-what-is-wrong-with-me-but-I-can’t-get-into-any-book-that-I-pick-up-mood.” It sucks. Every book that I’ve started, I just can’t seem to get into to. It’s not that they’re bad books, it’s just that I’m not in the mood, so I don’t give it my full attention.Have you been in this mood before? What do you do? What books brought you out of it? What books would you recommend for me to read?

NaNoWriMo Update

So we are seven days into NaNoWriMo, and I admit I’m already behind. I have over 8,000 words and I believe we’re suppose to be at 11,000 or so. So yes, I’m a bit behind. Usually once I get behind I’m done for, but I wrote about 1,000 words today so I do believe that I can catch up.

It’s very stressful trying to keep up with the word count, and parts of my story right now are pretty bad. But one thing that I remember is to NEVER DELETE! No matter how bad it is, no matter if it’s the most pointless sentence or words ever written, I won’t delete it. I will keep every bit of it. I can always go bad and correct these things AFTER NaNo.

One thing that I’ve been having a LOT of fun with during this story, is writing out my characters backgrounds and information. I have a few pages dedicated to that just so I can go back and look at the characters. It’s been a ton of fun doing that.

That’s just a quick update on my NaNo so far. Nothing interesting, but I will probably do another update in a few days or so. How’s NaNoWriMo going for you? Are you enjoying writing your story?

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you’re having fun, and being safe! Let me know what you were for Halloween!

I thought it would be fun to just answer a few Halloween related questions. So here we go:

1) What was your favorite Halloween costume?

When I was a kid, I went as Pocahontas for 3 years straight! That was, and still is one of my favorite movies, so I loved that costume!

2) What is your favorite horror movie and/or TV Show?

I don’t really have a horror movie that I love to watch. I’ve seen so many, it’s hard to decide. Possibly Texas Chainsaw Massacre? Or the Halloween movies. As for TV Shows, this isn’t really scary(sometimes the episodes can be), but SUPERNATURAL! I think it’s a brilliant choice. Plus it’s on the tv right now as I’m typing this!

3) What is your favorite candy?

I love Twizzlers. I have an addiction!

4) How far would you last in a horror movie?

I would totally survive a horror movie because my ass would be out as soon as people start dying. PEACE OUT BITCHES!!!

5) Would you rather walk through a graveyard at night or spend the night in a spooky abandoned house?

That depends. Would the Winchesters brothers be with me in the abandoned house? Because I would so do that if they were. If not, the graveyard it is!

WHICH IS SCARIER?

– Werewolves or Vampires?

Vampires.

– Ghosts or Zombies?

Definitely Ghosts for me!

– Creepy dolls or creepy clowns?

 Both are creepy as hell, but I guess I would choose the clowns!

– Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, or Leatherface?

Without a doubt, 100%, Freddy freakin Krueger. I HATE him!

NaNoWriMo 2015

It’s that time again!!!

For those of you who don’t know(I’ll be surprised if you don’t), NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. People try to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. This is my fourth time participating and I’m as excited as always. I always have a lot of fun during this. As well as a lot of stress! For those of you particpating and need a buddy, go ahead and add me!

http://nanowrimo.org/participants/angelicam2009