A-Z Bookish Survey

Today I will be doing the A-Z bookish Survey. This survey was created by Jamie from Perpetual Page-Turner. Let's begin.

Author you’ve read the most books from:
Rick Riordan. I read 16 of his books. He is the author of the Percy Jackson series.

Best Sequel Ever:
I absolutely loved Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas.

Currently Reading:
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Drink of Choice While Reading:
I love Snapple peach tea.

E-reader or Physical Book?
Physical duh. I love feeling the pages between my fingers. I do read E-Books when traveling though.

Fictional Character You Probably Would Have Actually Dated In High School:
I am currently in high school and would totally date Will Herondale from the Infernal Devices.

Glad You Gave This Book A Chance:
Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco. I loved this book. I was never going to read it but now it is one of my favourite reads of the year. I need the sequel now.

Hidden Gem Book:
George by Alex Gino. I really enjoyed this book and I also think it is a very important book because the main character transgender and it is a middle grade novel.

Important Moment in your Reading Life:
When my good friend introduced me to Goodreads.

Just Finished:
The Iron King by Julie Kagawa. I sadly wasn't a huge fan of it and gave it 2.5 stars.

Kinds of Books You Won’t Read:
I usually don't read poetry.

Longest Book You’ve Read:
A Storm a Swords by George R.R. Martin (1,177 pages)

Major book hangover because of:
Frozen Tides by Morgan Rhodes.

Number of Bookcases You Own:
4 one in my room and 2 in the living room and one in the office.

One Book You Have Read Multiple Times:
All of the Harry Potter books.

Preferred Place To Read:
I love reading in my room.

Quote that inspires you/gives you all the feels from a book you’ve read:
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.” 

― George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons

Reading Regret:
Not reading Cassandra Clare's books sooner.

Series You Started And Need To Finish(all books are out in series):
The Darkest Minds Trilogy by Alexandra Bracken.

Three of your All-Time Favorite Books:
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling, Frozen Tides by Morgan Rhodes, Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas.

Unapologetic Fangirl For:
The Shadowhunter World though I do not like the TV show and stopped watching it halfway through season 1.

Very Excited For This Release More Than All The Others:
Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare. I am dying to read it and needed it since last year.

Worst Bookish Habit: 
Placing paperbacks in my backpack because it can get crushed.

X Marks The Spot: Start at the top left of your shelf and pick the 27th book:
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Your latest book purchase:
The last book I bought was Falling Kingdoms and Rebel Springs both by Morgan Rhodes.

ZZZ-snatcher book (last book that kept you up WAY late):
Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare. I could not put that book down.

Thank you for reading and I hope to see you in my next post!

Vampire Academy Review

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
My rating: 3.5/5 stars
Date Read: 4/17/17

This book is trash, but addictive trash. The perfect book if you are in a reading slump and need something that is not hard to follow and addictive.

I never read a book based on Vampires (unless TID, TMI, and TDA count). Yes, I haven't read Twilight yet and yes, I don't plan on reading it because I already know I will hate it.

Vasilissa, Lissa, is a Moroi, which is a type of vampire that is mortal, can tolerate some sunlight, and possesses some magic. She has a rare gift and has to be protected from the Strigoi, the immortal vampires who are more powerful. Rose Hathaway is a dhampir which means she has both human blood and vampire blood in her system. She can eat normal food and has no problems standing under the sun. If you are still confused, don't worry, the book explains what each one is very well.

This book is told in first person and we follow Rose Hathaway's point of view. Rose and Lissa ran away from the St. Vladimir's Academy and escaped for two years. Now they are caught and sent back to the academy. There are stuff that happens but I feel like if I tell you what it is it may ruin the enjoyment of the book so I am not going to tell you.

The writing style is easy to follow. It is easy to figure out what is happening making it easy to just dive into the story. I will say though that at times, I found the narrator a bit annoying mainly when she repeats herself on how attractive a guy is over and over.

My favourite character by far is Christian. I wished we saw him a bit more throughout the book. He is a student that is "invisible" at the academy meaning no one really notices his.

Rose and Lissa's friendship is amazing. A female friendship in a book, sign me up. I feel like we need to see more female friendships in books. Authors you can still have romance and strong female friendship! Both Lissa and Rose stand up for each other and try to do what is best for one another and I loved that aspect so much. I am the book focused a lot on the friendship.

I do recommend this book for reading slumps and overall did enjoy it. The main reason though why I gave 3.5 stars and not 4 is because it didn't really stand out to me.



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Stalking Jack the Ripper Review

Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco
My rating: 4/5 stars
Date Read: 4/15/17

Stalking Jack the Ripper is one of the books I went into with extremely low expectations. I've been hearing a lot of mixed reviews on it. To be honest I never thought I would pick it up. I am so glad I did though.

This is a Jack the Ripper retelling. If you don't know Jack the Ripper is a murderer in London in the past. He is one of the most famous yet know one knows who he really is.

The story is told in first person and we follow the point of view of Audrey Rose Wadsworth. Audrey Rose breaks societies exceptions. She often sneaks off to her Uncle's laboratory to study the human body. She studies the body's of the Ripper's victims trying to solve the murders and figure out why he is doing it and who it is.

When reading I had so much fun trying to solve the mystery myself. I kept changing my opinion on who the Ripper is. Did I get it right, no, but I won't tell you who I predicted was the Ripper.

Audrey Rose is a strong female character. I liked reading from her point of view. She is a character that does not like to be told what to do, but is also very curious and her actions made sense most of the time. She was such a good character.

Thomas is also a main character. He is one of my favourite characters and I shipped him and Audrey Rose together so hard. When I was reading I was like ship don't sink, ship don't sink. I won't tell you if it sunk or sailed. You have to read it to figure it out.

Note this book does contain pictures and some of them are not that pleasant.

The beginning was really slow and I wanted to DNF at first. As the book went on it gradually got better and better till I could not put it down. After the first half I was hooked. I felt like the beginning nothing really happened which is probably why I was bored in the beginning. I am so glad I gave it a chance. I need the sequel now!



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Stand Alone Recommendations 1.0

Today I will be sharing with you some of my favourite stand alone books. I like stand alone books because it does not require too much commitment.

The first book I will be recommending is Since You've been gone by Morgan Matson. This book follows a girl named Emily Hughs who is shy and likes to hide behind her outgoing BFF Sloane. One day Sloane disappears and no one knew where she went. The only thing she left behind for Emily was a to-do list. Some of the list has easy things like going apple picking at night. Other things are crazy like skinny dipping. Emily believes that if she completes the list she will find Sloane. Along the way she meets new friends. I love this book and I think it is more of a summery book since it takes place during summer. I really love the story line and characters.

I also have to mention another Morgan Matson book. This one is Second Chance Summer. This book is about a girl named Taylor and her father receives unexpected news. He decides to spend the summer in their beach house. Taylor hasn't been there since she was 12 and at 17 she now has to face everything she left behind including two of her past very good friends Lucy Marino and Henry Crosby. We do get flashbacks telling us what happened. I really enjoyed this book and I love the family element in it. It added so much more to the story. Again,  I highly recommend it. 

The next book is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. This is a historical fiction novel following a girl named Liesel Meminger. She lives in Germany during Word War II. As you can tell from the title, she steals books. One thing interesting is that it is narrated by death. It makes the book very unique and interesting. Death sometimes spoils parts of the book but it still is so interesting. If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend it.

Another good book that takes place during World War II is Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys. This book follows four different characters point of view from four different countries. The story is very powerful. It is so hard to explain. It has to do with getting to safety. I did love the writing style and I found the story very informative as well.

The next book is the Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. In this book, the circus comes to different places and towns without any warning. The circus only opens at night. I recommend going into this book without knowing much about it. The writing style is beautiful and it is so atmospherics. It does have similarities to Caraval by Stephanie Garber and I did like it better than Caraval so if you liked Caraval I think you will enjoy this book. I do not recommend reading this during a reading slump.

 The final book I have to recommend is the Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvator. This book is told in first person by two different characters named Sean Kendrick and Kate "Puck" Connolly. They both live on an Island and every November their is a race called the Scorpio Races, where people race horses and Water Horses. Water horses eat meat and live in the water. Sean Kendrick is a returning champion and has his own reasons to win this particular race. Puck to never planned on entering the race but fate hasn't given her a choice. She is the first girl ever to enter the races.

Those were my standalone recommendations and I hope you check some of them out! Thank you for reading and I hope to see you in my next post. 

This Is What Happy Looks Like Review

This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith
My rating: 3/5 stars
Date Read: 4/9/17

I recently got out of a reading slum and I can feel another one coming. I decided to pick up a cheesy quick read and this is the book I needed at the moment because I no longer feel the slump coming.

This Is What Happy Looks Like starts off when Graham Larkin accidentally sends an email about his pet pig Wilbur to the wrong person being Ellie O'Neil. They start talking through Email however, their names are never mentioned to the other person. Graham is a really famous actor and is playing a part that is being filmed in Maine where Ellie lives. Ellie however wants to avoid the cameras and the life of a star.

This was a really fast read and perfect for reading slumps so I will be reading the authors other books when I feel a slump coming. I will say though I did find some problem. I really liked the beginning of the book. It was interesting and I wanted to know what happens next. As the story progressed I started to loose a bit of interest. Ellie has a secret which we learn about really fast and when it was revealed it was like okay we knew it for awhile and it was not a surprise. I found the pacing a bit odd. This book takes place throughout one month. The first few days took up a huge chunk of the book and the last three days took up another huge chunk of the book and the middle of the month was shoved in the middle of the book, but I felt like it would of been okay if it was a bit more developed.

This book is written in first person. We follow the point of view of the two main characters, Ellie and Graham. I personally like Ellie's POV better. I feel like I liked Ellie better than Graham in general. I cannot pin point why. I just did.

Overall I do recommend this. It is cute and a quick read and again perfect for a reading slump.

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Salt to the Sea Review

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
My rating: 4/5 stars
Date Read: 4/4/17


I use to hate historical fictions. After reading a few of them I started to like them. Since I was in the mood for some historical fiction I decided to pick this one up. I loved it. It was very interesting while at the same time teaching me about the events that happened. This story takes place during world war II. If you love historical fiction I highly recommend Ruta Sepetys books.

Salt to the Sea follows four different characters. The book is told by all four of their point of views. The chapters are extremely short so it feels like you are reading very fast. One thing to note is that it changes perspectives every few pages. Sometimes even less than a page. If you don't like books told in multiple point of views Salt to the Sea may not be the book for you.

I found the beginning very confusing to be honest. The perspectives jumping every few pages made it hard for me to figure out what was going on at first. But eventually it all made sense and I fell in love with it.

This is not exactly a happy book. It takes place again in World War II. I only read one other book that takes place in World War II, the other being the Book Thief and I actually like this book better.

The book is told in first person and the narrators are teenagers. The characters names are Emilia, Florian, Joana, and Alfred. All the characters are from different countries. Florian from Prussia, Emilia Poland, Joana Lithuania, and Alfred I forgot or they never mentioned it. He was on the boat 99% of the book. In this book their is hardly any romance but there is still a little. The romance was not overdone which made the book better.

Overall it is one of my favourite historical fictions and I highly recommend it. It taught me a lot about the time period and about World War II. I

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