Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Let's Talk: This Is Where It Ends

Title: This Is Where It Ends
Author: Marieke Nijkamp
Series: N/A
Genre: YA Fiction
Page Length: 282 pages
Publication Date: January 5, 2016
Date Started: March 28, 2016
Date Finished: March 29, 2016
Rating: 3.5/5 stars

*Semi-spoiler free review*

I didn't read this book for the stellar ratings, I read it because it's an important topic to talk about. Even so, it wasn't quite what I was expecting.

This was a pretty good book, but I don't believe this is what a school shooting is like. I've never been in one, but this seemed different than what I've read about in the news and such. For starters, this is a revenge story, with a lot of people getting caught in the crossfire.

I didn't expect the story to be so centralized on revenge for one thing. Usually when you hear stories about revenge shootings it's the kid who was bullied and he wants to get revenge on everyone. In this book, the shooter does what to get revenge on the school, but mostly on the characters who the points of view are told from.

I expected to feel a lot more than I did. I thought that I would be crying more, but I only cried at the very end during a memorial ceremony. Things that should have had me bawling, like when someone's brother died or sister got shot, didn't have me crying. I wish I had been able to form connections to them.

I did enjoy this book for the most part. Well, not so much enjoy as I don't think I could really enjoy a book full of so much death and sadness as the main part. I don't know how to describe my feelings on this book.

I think that while it wasn't exactly like a lot of school shootings, it still raises the topic of school shootings, which is what I hope the author set out to do anyway. I think this is a very important read that not only talks about shootings, but also the importance of family and friendship and keeping the ones close to you sane. 

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Thanks for reading
xoxo
Lauren

Friday, March 25, 2016

Let's Talk: Awake at Dawn

Title: Awake at Dawn
Author: C.C. Hunter
Series: "Shadow Falls" #2
Genre: YA Paranormal
Page Length: 383 pages
Publication Date: October 11, 2011
Date Started: March 21, 2016
Date Finished: March 23, 2016
Rating: 5/5 stars

*Semi-spoiler free review*

I adored this book. It was so good!

For starters, there was quite a bit of character development in this installment. I saw so many characters at the end that were quite different than the beginning of the first book. It was very interesting and fun to see how Kylie has progressed since the beginning of the first novel.

Of course, we still don't know what she is...

Derek is driving me insane! He's being such a dick! Ugh, maybe I want her to be with Lucas now. Lucas is still there for her and he almost died for her, but where was Derek? Ignoring her. I'm not sure how I feel about him right now.

The action has been amped up. And the feels, too. This book left off at a bit of a cliffhanger--not the biggest, but still a little bit--and I really want to jump right into the next book. I'm actually about to go buy it...

Honestly there's not much I can say right now other than this book was fantastic! 

~

Thanks for reading
xoxo
Lauren

Monday, March 21, 2016

Let's Talk: Born at Midnight

Title: Born at Midnight
Author: C.C. Hunter
Series: "Shadowfalls" #1 
Genre: YA Paranormal
Page Length: 398 pages
Publication Date: March 11, 2011
Date Started: March 20, 2016
Date Finished: March 20, 2016
Rating: 5/5 stars

*Semi-spoiler free review*

Picking up this book from my TBR shelf was a random split second decision when I was putting books on my shelf. I opened it up, read the first page, and then ended up reading the rest of the book in one night.

This book was really good. I enjoyed it more than I expected to, and I'm honestly on such a Shadow Falls kick right now. I already ordered the 3rd and 4th books and am reading the 2nd. It's such a good world to be in.

This book follows a girl named Kylie who's mom send her to a camp for delinquents, only for Kylie to find out it's actually a camp for supernatural creatures. And she's apparently one of them. However, she denies this at first, then tries to figure out more about who she is--WHAT she is.

Born at Midnight was a great series opener. We established the world, got character relationships started, lit a match under a romance candle, and even got a bit of ass-kicking action. There was humor but also seriousness. It was great.

I adore this series now, and I'm only on the second book. I'm very excited to continue on and see what happens with Kylie, Derek, Lucas, Della, and Miranda (especially Kylie, Derek, & Lucas; team Dylie for life). 

A definite recommend from me.

~

Thanks for reading
xoxo
Lauren

Owlcrate Unboxing: Writer's Block!


So...I got my March Owlcrate box...

AND IT WAS EPIC! Let's talk about what was inside!
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This is what it looked like when you first opened it. One of my favorite parts of this month's card was that the books on the edge of the desk are books that have been in past Owlcrate boxes!
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First thing under all of the white snakes was this little pocket writing prompt notebook from Chronicle Books I flipped through it and it has a bunch of little writing prompts and activities to get your writing juices flowing. It's pretty cool!
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Then we had these amazing Banned Books high socks from Out of Print! They're so amazing that I'm wearing them right now!
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I saw this quill pen from Kikkerland and freaked out! I love quills but I don't want to but it and buy ink and possibly spill it everywhere, so this is perfect. I can see myself now: sitting in class taking notes and everyone giving me weird looks...ah.
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Up next we had these AMAZING custom pack of bookish themed pins from Bookworm Boutique. I love Bookworm Boutique and they're actually in my top bookish shops of 2015 post. I freaked out when I saw these because I love bookish pins so much!
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The book this month was The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner. I've heard good reviews for this book and it looks pretty good so I'm excited to jump right into it!
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With the book, we also got a 'column' postcard (something to do with the book) and a letter from the author, Jeff, himself! How cool!
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And of course, on the back of the themed postcard we had the contents of this month's box.
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I am very happy with this month's Owlcrate box! I enjoyed the February one but this one just BLEW ME AWAY! I'm very excited for next month. April's theme is: DYSTOPIA.

Suscribe for your Owlcrate today: http://owlcrate.com/

*Disclaimer: this was not sponsored, endorsed, or solicited in any way. I paid for this box with my money and just decided to unbox it for you guys*

~

Thanks for reading
xoxo
Lauren

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Let's Talk: Fablehaven: Keys to the Demon Prison

Title: Fablehaven: Keys to the Demon Prison
Author: Brandon Mull
Series: "Fablehaven" #5
Genre: Middle-Grade Fantasy
Page Length: 588 pages
Publication Date: March 23, 2010
Date Started: March 14, 2016
Date Finished: March 17, 2016
Rating: 5/5 stars

*Semi-spoiler free review*
*REREAD*

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, this is my favorite book of the series. The characters have grown up, there are hot new characters, and there's a ton of action. There's some long parts but those are overshadowed by the fast-paced ones.

There's tons of action and information stuffed into this book. Reading not only this book but this whole series again has made me realize I had forgotten a lot of what happened. It was almost like reading it for the first, except I knew how it was going to end and what major things happened.

So I've been gushing about Warren in these reviews, and I honest to god love him so much. But now I'm gushing about a new character: Bracken.

I couldn't talk about him in past reviews because he wasn't in those books, but I love love love Bracken. He's in my top 3 characters, which is a pretty prestigious spot because of the quantity and amazingness of main/side characters in these books.

I'm honestly so excited to see how the sequel series is going to play out, because I've been dreaming about what has happened after this book since I was around 10 or 11. I'm so pumped for it in October! And so ready!

Do yourself a favor and read these books, because you have to get through the first 4 to get to this one. I have reviews on all of them, all conveniently located under the Reviews tab.

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Thanks for reading
xoxo
Lauren

Monday, March 14, 2016

Let's Talk: Fablehaven: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary

Title: Fablehaven: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary
Author: Brandon Mull
Series: "Fablehaven" #4
Genre: Middle-Grade Fantasy
Page Length: 527 pages
Publication Date: March 8, 2009
Date Started: March 9, 2016
Date Finished: March 13, 2016
Rating: 4.5/5 stars

*Semi-spoiler free review*

Sh*t went down in this book.

There were betrayals, there was action and adventure, and there was a lot of feels!

Okay, so this one has always been my least favorite of the series, even though it is excellent. This one moves slower than the previous three and took longer for me to get back into when Wattpad (curses) was distracting me.

I did really enjoy it, but it was a little slow. A lot of things happened, however, and the world expanded quite a bit in this one. I am excited to continue into the next one.

My baby, Warren--oh poor soul. He's so perfect and GAH the things that happen to him are NOT fair. I wish I could just lock him in a safe room and never let him leave. But then he'd probably grow depressed and I'd feel bad, and then let him out, and then he would probably get injured or something.

THE BETRAYALS! *gasp* I already knew it was coming, but it still hurts reading it. These characters go through so many betrayals and so much sh*t that it's inspiring to see them keeping it together and fighting on. Wow, just wow. This betrayal was the most shocking one to me when I first read this series, partly because I loved the character who betrayed so much. *sighs*

I'm already into the 5th one, which is my favorite if I remember correctly. At least, I've been telling myself it's my favorite since I finished off the series.

Don't hesitate to pick this series up before the sequel series comes out in October! You truly will not regret it!

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Thanks for reading
xoxo
Lauren


Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Let's Talk: Lady Midnight

Title: Lady Midnight
Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: "The Dark Artifices" #1
Genre: YA Paranormal/Urban Fantasy
Page Length: 720 pages
Publication Date: March 8, 2016
Date Started: March 6, 2016
Date Finished: March 8, 2016
Rating: Infinity

*Semi-spoiler free. If there are spoilers it will be at the end with a #/Spoiler in front of it*

The feels, man!

I adored this book! It was never too slow for me and everything just kept clicking into place at the end. I was in love every step of the way. Even though it was 700 pages, I still was wanting more! I got to the last 20 pages and started tearing up because I didn't want it to be over. I never thought it was going to slow or was dragging, it was just perfectly written.

Cassandra Clare was always an excellent writer but with this book she has shot straight to my Top 5. I honestly adored this installment in the Shadowhunter Chronicles.

We already knew about the shadowhunter world and the hierarchy in it which meant we were able to jump straight into the story and building the characters. I loved all of the characters, even the evil ones, and that just goes to show how a good character building can do anything.

Let's talk characters!!! I knew I was going to enjoy getting more into Emma and Julian just from what I read of them in CoHF, and I was NOT disappointed in this book. It was so much more than I could have dreamed between them! Their relationship was honestly amazing, and neither could stay angry at the other for a while. It was honestly just fantastic, and it makes me wish I had a parabatai, male or female.

I was so broken at the end, when Emma did you-know-what to you-know-who (not Voldemort). I'd been waiting all book for something to happen and then it happened and then it un-happened. So depressing.

But I love this feeling of utter heartbreak because that means it was a good book and made me feel for the characters and the story. I had recently gone to a self-published author's meeting with my school's book fair, and one of the aspects of a good story-she said-was characters so believable you'd swear they were real. And I swear the characters in this book are real.

I was hesitant when this book was first announced, but then I finished CoHF and I was more open to it, and my excitement had just been growing and growing the past few months. And my expectations were far succeeded.

Bow down to Cassandra Clare, a new addition to my Court of Queens (aka favorite female authors).

INFINITY STARS FOREVER

~

Thanks for reading
xoxo
Lauren

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Let's Talk: The Love That Split The World

Title: The Love That Split the World
Author: Emily Henry
Series: N/A
Genre: YA Sci-Fi Romance
Page Length: 390 pages
Publication Date: January 26, 2016
Date Started: March 1, 2016
Date Finished: March 4, 2016
Rating: 3/5 stars

*Semi-spoiler free review*

To be blunt, I was a tad disappointed by this book. I expected it to be a lot more interesting and involve the love more than it did.

A lot of it was on the basis of hallucinations and how some trauma can open a wormhole that leads to alternate realities, or something along those lines. It was rather interesting, but sometimes it was explained in a very long, very verbose, and very repetitive way that made it hard to fully comprehend. The author tried explaining it but then went back and said "let me make it simpler" and explained it again but in a different way. It was a little confusing.

What I thought was really cool was the way that she explained the alternate realities and Natalie/Beau's worlds and why some things were the way they were. It was a little bit of a "woh!" moment for me. And I wasn't really expecting it. And when it was revealed who Grandmother was?! Blew my mind!

I thought the incorporation of Native American stories was really interesting and a little bit surprising for me. I definitely wasn't expecting Native American stories in a Sci-Fi novel, so it was a nice refreshing twist. They were pretty cool as well. 

This book was more of a magical realism than a sci-fi, in my opinion. And the romance kind of took a backburner to what was going on inside the main character, which I was slightly disappointed in. The characters who weren't Natalie fell a little flat for me, which was sad because I love super-romances. And the romance was a bit of an insta-love as well, which isn't necessarily a bad thing in this case, but I see a lot of insta-loves that it would be refreshing to get a few more novels that didn't have it. 

I did enjoy this book, but not as much as I hoped. I am still in love with the cover, but the book itself was a little disappointing from the excitement I had leading in.

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Thanks for reading
xoxo
Lauren

Let's Talk: The Martian

Title: The Martian
Author: Andy Weir
Series: N/A
Genre: Science Fiction
Page Length: 369 pages 
Publication Date: February 11, 2014
Date Started: March 5, 2016
Date Finished: March 6, 2016
Rating: 4/5 stars

*Semi-spoiler free review*

I enjoyed this book. It was funny, which I was expecting from all the reviews and recommendations for this book. But, it was a tad slow--which I get! The whole story is around 630 days! That's a crap ton of days!

Mark is funny. A lot of his humor comes from sarcasm or just general bad jokes (intentionally bad, of course). I was glad that there was the humor in this because it would have been really depressing and boring at times.

I have to admit, I didn't understand parts of it. There was a lot of technical talk, which was explained well, but it was still an overload on my brain which had been running since 5 am on 3 hours of sleep. I read until 1 am on Saturday. So it was a little tough for my brain to process that last night.

But I still enjoyed this book. I will most likely read it again, but not soon. I'm hoping to finally get to watch the movie this week as I have FINALLY read the book.

All in all, The Martian was a good book. I enjoyed the multiple perspectives and the daily entry log.

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Thanks for reading
xoxo
Lauren

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

February 2016 Wrap Up

Wow.

I read a crap ton of books in February (comparing it to some months where I read 4 books). The magical number I read was 13. I'm not going to go into too much detail on these because I did post reviews for all of them (linked with them) but I'm just going to put what books I read, a little info on each, and my top 3 at the end of the post.

Since I have a lot to talk about, let's just get into it.

Number 1...
Title: Six of Crows
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Publication Date: September 29, 2015
Days Spent Reading: 3
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Book Talk: http://laurensboookshelf.blogspot.com/2016/02/lets-talk-six-of-crows.html

Number 2...
Title: The Heartbreakers
Author: Ali Novak
Publication Date: August 4, 2015
Days Spent Reading: 1
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Book Talk: http://laurensboookshelf.blogspot.com/2016/02/lets-talk-heartbreakers.html

Number 3...
Title: Poison Study
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Publication Date: October 1, 2005
Days Spent Reading: 2
Rating: 5/5 stars
Book Talk: http://laurensboookshelf.blogspot.com/2016/02/lets-talk-poison-study.html

Number 4...
Title: Steel
Author: Carrie Vaughn
Publication Date: March 15, 2011
Days Spent Reading: 2
Rating: 4/5 stars
Book Talk: http://laurensboookshelf.blogspot.com/2016/02/lets-talk-steel.html

Number 5...
Title: The Host
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Publication Date: May 6, 2008
Days Spent Reading: 2
Rating: Infinity
Book Talk: http://laurensboookshelf.blogspot.com/2016/02/lets-talk-host.html

Number 6...
Title: Finders Keep Her
Author: H.B. Stumbo
Publication Date: November 25, 2015
Days Spent Reading: 2
Rating: Infinity
Book Talk: http://laurensboookshelf.blogspot.com/2016/02/lets-talk-finders-keep-her.html

Number 7...
Title: The Heart of Betrayal
Author: Mary E. Pearson
Publication Date: July 7, 2015
Days Spent Reading: 12
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Book Talk: http://laurensboookshelf.blogspot.com/2016/02/lets-talk-heart-of-betrayal.html

Number 8...
Title: Fablehaven
Author: Brandon Mull
Publication Date: July 1, 2006
Days Spent Reading: 2
Rating: 5/5 stars
Book Talk: http://laurensboookshelf.blogspot.com/2016/02/lets-talk-fablehaven.html

Number 9...
Title: Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star
Author: Brandon Mull
Publication Date: June 1, 2007
Days Spent Reading: 1
Rating: 5/5 stars
Book Talk: http://laurensboookshelf.blogspot.com/2016/02/lets-talk-fablehaven-rise-of-evening.html

Number 10...
Title: Illuminae
Author: Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Publication Date: October 20, 2015
Days Spent Reading: 4
Rating: Infinity
Book Talk: http://laurensboookshelf.blogspot.com/2016/01/lets-talk-illuminae.html

Number 11...
Title: Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague
Author: Brandon Mull
Publication Date: April 21, 2008
Days Spent Reading: 3
Rating: 5/5 stars
Book Talk: http://laurensboookshelf.blogspot.com/2016/02/lets-talk-fablehaven-grip-of-shadow_26.html

Number 12...
Title: The Good Girl's Bad Boys: The Good, The Bad, and The Bullied
Author: RubixCube89201
Publication Date: N/A
Days Spent Reading: 2
Rating: 5/5 stars
Book Talk: http://laurensboookshelf.blogspot.com/2016/02/lets-talk-good-girls-bad-boys-wattpad.html

Number 13...
Title: On the Fence
Author: Kasie West
Publication Date: July 1, 2014
Days Spent Reading: 2
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Book Talk: http://laurensboookshelf.blogspot.com/2016/03/lets-talk-on-fence.html

...

Now for my top 3 (I excluded Illuminae because it was a re-read I read last month and also The Good Girl's Bad Boys because it was a Wattpad novel). 

My number 3 was Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague by Brandon Mull. It brought back nostalgic feels and OMG WARREN!! 

Number 2 goes to The Host by Stephenie Meyer. The feels!

And Number 1: Finders Keep Her by H.B. Stumbo. I loved it so much that I gave it both a non-spoiler review AND a spoiler one! Go check it out!



Let's Talk: On the Fence

Title: On the Fence
Author: Kasie West
Series: N/A
Genre: YA Contemporary
Page Length: 296 pages
Publication Date: July 1, 2014
Date Started: February 28, 2016
Date Finished: February 29, 2016
Rating: 4.5/5 stars

*Spoiler free review*

This book was a quick fun read. It's one that I would pick up to get me out of a reading slump because of the simplicity of it. It's not long (less than 300 pages of substantial sized print) and the story reads fast. It covers a long amount of time for such a small book.

It was a little cliche at parts, but that's okay. I still enjoyed it. I rank it up there with the Wattpad contemporaries I read and love. It's that kind of a story.

The characters are believable, the stories are thought out, and it doesn't waste time explaining things that don't need to be explained. It's straight to the point.

However, there were times when it was lacking the explanation of a relationship between two people. Why is this person so close to this person? It doesn't delve into those relationships very much, which was definitely a little disappointing.

I enjoyed this book, but it wasn't a 5 star read for me. It was really good and I can't really think of anything that was majorly wrong with it, but it just wasn't 5 star worthy for me. It didn't make me feel enough. But I still enjoyed it and will most likely read it again.

~

Thanks for reading
xoxo
Lauren