Currently Reading

Since the beginning of this year…okay, lets be honest here, more like December, I haven’t read a single book. Every time I tried to pick up a book, nothing would hold my attention. I decided to just wait until I get back into the reading mood. And I finally have been getting into that mood.

I finally picked up a book. My first read of the year is The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory. I thought this would be the perfect ‘getting back into reading’ book because it seems like it’ll be a light, cute, and quick read. Which are the perfect books to get back into reading with. I’m not that far into it, but so far I am enjoying it. So we’ll see how it goes.

Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn’t normally do. But there’s something about Drew Nichols that’s too hard to resist.

On the eve of his ex’s wedding festivities, Drew is minus a plus one. Until a power outage strands him with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend…

After Alexa and Drew have more fun than they ever thought possible, Drew has to fly back to Los Angeles and his job as a pediatric surgeon, and Alexa heads home to Berkeley, where she’s the mayor’s chief of staff. Too bad they can’t stop thinking about the other…

They’re just two high-powered professionals on a collision course toward the long distance dating disaster of the century–or closing the gap between what they think they need and what they truly want…

 

Book Review- In the Afterlight

Title- In the Afterlight
Author- Alexandra Bracken
Pages- 535
Rating-  3.3 out of 5
Companion/Sequel/Other- Third and final book!

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD! ONLY READ IF YOU’VE FINISHED THIS BOOK!

If you saw my review for Never Fade, then you would know I really enjoyed (almost)everything about that book, except for Ruby. The same goes for this book, except now you can add Ruby and Cole to the mix. I’ll start off with what I didn’t liked about this book.

Ruby and Cole- I can’t explain to you how much these two frustrated me in this story. Now i can’t deny that these two work well together, but that’s because they’re so similar. To me that was a bad thing. They both want the same thing, to free the camps, but they wanted to go about it by fighting and killing, which, yes, there was obviously going to be a lot of that, but they wouldn’t even listen to anyone else’s ideas. They just shut down anyone’s plan. Also, these two had so many secrets from everyone, it pissed me off. Every other word from them was “you can’t tell anyone”, “no one else can know” “this stays between us”. Damn, it frustrated me to know end.

What pissed me off the most, was the way Ruby and Cole treated Liam. Talking down to him, treating him like he’s useless, like he can’t fight, or help. He freaking escaped from a camp, survived on the run, and took care of Chubs and Zu. Now, what? He can’t do anything? I don’t think so!

COMMUNICATION- Oh my god! This is what made me want to throw this book across my room. Except, I was reading on my ereader, and I couldn’t do that, but I was tempted. As I said before, so many secrets were kept from one another. If they just talked to each other, told each other the truth, so much could have been avoided!

Moving on to what I liked about this book:

Plot- I really liked where this story started off, and was heading. As with the rest of these books, this one had a lot of surprises. I enjoyed seeing them finally work out a plan to free the kids from the camps and expose the truth. I can’t even begin to imagine how hard it must be to wrap up a series, but I felt this one did a decent job. I didn’t even see the big twist coming: Clancy was controlling Ruby! What the actual hell?

Characters- As always, I loved the characters. I said it before, and I’ll say it again. These characters are fun, strong, badass, and real. I loved seeing all these characters that we know and love come together and work towards a common goal. People who you’d think wouldn’t work well together, surprisingly did. Also SUZUME was back! YESSSSS!

Ruby and Liam- Now as frustrated as Ruby was, I do have to say, I really loved her when she was with Liam. I adored all the Ruby and Liam scenes. These two, for all the flaws, are perfect for one another.

Chubs and Vida- This was just EVERYTHING! I have nothing else to say but that!

Cole’s death- I don’t know how I feel about it. To be honest, I didn’t really like Cole that much. I mean, I didn’t hate him, but I also didn’t care much for him and I think most of that had to do with the way he treated Liam. I did feel sad about his death though, mainly because of Liam. I mean, Liam had just found out about Cole being a Red. I really thought they were on there way to fixing there relationship, but then he dies? Are you kidding me? I would’ve loved to have watched Liam and Cole get there relationship back. I could’ve seen myself growing to really like Cole.

So those are my thoughts on In the Afterlight by Alexandra Bracken. Let me know what you thought about the conclusion below!

#FridayReads [4]

Today, and this weekend, I’ll be rereading City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. It has been quite awhile since I last read this book, so I thought a reread was due! Plus its 10 year bookaversary is coming up!

When Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder. Much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with odd markings. This is Clary’s first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons–and keeping the odd werewolves and vampires in line. It’s also her first meeting with gorgeous, golden-haired Jace. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace’s world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in an ordinary mundane like Clary? And how did she suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know….

For those of you who don’t know, this is the first book in The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare. The same series the TV show Shadowhunters is based off of. Have you read this series? Do you watch the show?

#IIReadathon Wrap Up!

Dana over at @andbookhoarding hosted the Informal Impromptu Readathon from February 27th until March 4th. As what I normally do, I decided to join in last minute. It was a fun readathon, with sprints being hosted every night, which really helped with my reading. I was able to read 3 books this week, which is the most I’ve read in one week!

The first book I read was The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury and I gave this book a 4 out of 5. This book was a retelling of Aladdin and was a definite surprise. I really enjoyed the characters and retake on the story!

Next I read Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon. I’ve been wanting to read this book since I watched the trailer. I’m really glad I was able to get to it during the readathon. This book was such a fast read, and I really did end up enjoying it. I ended up giving this book a 4.3 out of 5. I loved how it was told throughout different formats like IM’s and Emails as well. The characters were a lot of fun and I loved the romance.

The last book I read Was Nerve by Jeanne Ryan. I really didn’t like this book and I gave it a 1 out of 5. I watched he movie last month which made me want to read the book. I enjoyed the movie. It wasn’t anything great, but it was simply fun to watch on a Sunday afternoon. However, I really didn’t like the book. I didn’t like the writing, or the characters, and I really didn’t like the romance. It just wasn’t for me. I do however recommend the movie if you want something fun.

Trailer Thoughts: Everything, Everything

So I finally watched the Everything, Everything trailer and I thought I would share my thoughts. First, I think it’s important to mention that I HAVE NOT read the book. So these thoughts are just from the trailer alone.

I absolutely adore this trailer. It seems like it’s going to be such a cute, yet emotional movie! From what I’ve heard, it gives away a lot from the book? As I said, I haven’t read the book, so I can’t really say. I can definitely say that after watching this trailer, I really want to read the book. So here’s hoping my library has it in!

I thought the music in this trailer was great, and fit really well! But what I think is the most important thing are the actors. The casting for this movie seems fantastic. Just from this trailer you can tell that the two leads have such amazing chemistry together. I really can’t wait to see this movie. Until then, I definitely plan on picking up the book.

What are your thoughts? I’d really love to hear from those who have read the book? Does it seem like it’ll be a good adaptation?

Book Review- Never Fade

Title- Never Fade
Author- Alexandra Bracken
Pages- 507
Rating-  4 out of 5
Companion/Sequel/Other- Sequel

I want to start off by saying that I really enjoyed everything about this book: the characters, the writing, the pacing and plot. Everything was great. Except for one thing that wasn’t. One thing that made me go from giving this book a 5 stars to a 4 stars…Ruby. I’ll start off with this positives first, and then talk about my one negative. WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE DARKEST MINDS AND NEVER FADE!

Plot- The story started off a bit slow, and I wasn’t really sure how I was feeling about it. But I kept going, and it really started to pick up. Next thing I new it was 3:30am and I’m still up reading. I was doing that whole “just one more chapter” thing us readers do. When Ruby finally ended up going on a mission for the League to find Liam and the flashdrive, that’s when it started to pick up and damn it got good! They’re were so many surprises that you don’t expect and it just keeps you wanting more.

Characters- The characters, I think are the best thing about this books! They’re fun, strong, bad-ass, and real. I was surprised to find myself really loving the new characters: Jude, Nico, and Vida…especially Vida. But what I really loved more than that, was seeing Ruby reunite with old characters. CHUBS! LIAM! Even though both reunions were completely different and surprising, it was amazing to see!

Liam and Ruby- One thing I really loved about The Darkest Minds, was the relationship between Liam and Ruby, and the way it ended in the first book was heartbreaking! I was so glad to see them finally reunite in this one, although I knew it wasn’t going to be the same. I was surprised to find out that even though Ruby erased herself from Liam’s memories, his feelings were still there. So when he saw her, he just knew.

Now lets talk about the one thing I didn’t like about this book:

Ruby- I just  want to point out that yes, Ruby did have moments in this book where I did like her, but for most of the book she got on my damn nerves. Most of the time, that happened was when she was alone, or with the leaders of the children‘s league. She just seemed like a completely different person, at least until she got her friends back: Chubs and Liam. With them by her side again, she seemed like the same old Ruby, whom I did like. Without them, she was mean, rude, and just cold. I also didn’t like how she trusted Cole. I get that he looks like Liam, but he’s not Liam. You don’t know him, so why trust him? Why keep a secret from Liam, because Cole asked you to? You already messed with his memories, now you’re going to keep a secret from him about his brother? You should be trying to earn his trust back, not keeping secrets. It frustrated me.