Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Unravel Me (Spoiler Free) Review

Unravel Me (Shatter Me, #2)Title: Unravel Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Series: Shatter Me #2
My rating: 4/5 stars
Date Read: 1/31/17

I am not going to lie, the main reason why I continued on with this series is because of Kenji. He still is my favorite character.

Unravel Me is the second book in the Shatter Me trilogy (not really a trilogy anymore) and it takes place after the events of the first book. We follow Juliette and her journey and blah blah blah. Can not say too much because it is a sequel BUT I can talk about non spoilery things below so lets do that instead.

In the first book I did not care about any of the characters but Kenji and that had kind of changed. Kenji is still my favorite and probably will be for the rest of the series but I am enjoying some of the other characters. I do not hate Juliette anymore and I care more about her now but I kind of care about her now.

Everyone says Warner is the best and he is fictional boyfriend material and I can start to see where they are coming from now. In the first book I did not like Warner at all, in fact I found him creepy. In this book we see more of Warner's other side and he seems human and less robotic. I think I am starting to like him. Still not on my fictional boyfriend list though. I kind of ship Warner and Juliette.

Adam. I still hate Adam. He is way to needy and way to overprotective in his and Juliette's relationship. I don't ship them and will probably never.

In this book we do see a glimpse of some of the characters pasts and I found them to be very interesting, like why they are who they are now.

Yes this book is predictable and yes some things in the story are way to convenient but I will be continuing and finishing the main part of the trilogy and am actually looking forward to the new release in this now series. Reading Shatter Me and now Unravel Me makes me realize that I do miss the dystopian genre a bit. It was the genre after all that got me into reading .

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Tuesday, February 13, 2018

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Spoiler Free) Review

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #1)Title: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
Author: Michelle Hodkin
Series: Mara Dyer #1
My rating: 3.5/5 stars
Date read: 1/27/18


I picked this book up mainly because I keep seeing the Becoming of Noah Shaw floating around and I wanted to see what the hype about this series was and I needed a easy read to read during midterms.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer follows a girl name Mara obviously and she wakes up in the hospital without the memory of why she is there. She later moves to Florida and she tries to remember what happens that night throughout the story. I surprisingly enjoyed this book but I did have some issues with it as well. I really enjoyed having an unreliable narrator because it kept me guessing whether something was true or false throughout the book and I think that may of been the reason why the rating is higher than I thought I would of gave it.

One of the issues is the romance. I did not care about it and didn't ship the two characters that were supposed to be shipped.

I really enjoyed the writing style of this book. It was very easy to follow and perfect to read when very busy as I did not have a lot of reading time when reading it.

One thing that I will say is that Noah Shaw is not the swoon worthy. I expected him to be like a new fictional crush but nope, I just found him average which is extremely disappointing. I did like Mara but I didn't love her as well. I thought all the character were average.

Also I really enjoyed the sibling relationship between Mara, Daniel, and Joseph. It is realistic and it is evident that they all love each other. I feel like in most books we never see siblings getting along and they usually are enemies or just side characters that are only in the book once or twice. In this book, the siblings are still side characters but they are still constantly in Mara's life and care about her.

The ending makes me want to read the next book soon. I heard the second one is good but the last one isn't so I don't know if it is worth continuing with this trilogy yet. I also am not hearing great things about The Becoming of Noah Shaw, but we shall see. Overall I did enjoy this book.

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Monday, February 5, 2018

Wintersong (Spoiler Free) Review

Wintersong (Wintersong, #1)Title: Wintersong
Author: S. Jae-Jones
Series: Wintersong #1
My rating: 3/5 stars
Date Read: 1/20/17

I recently heard of Wintersong and when I read the synopsis I knew I had to read it. It sounded so good.

Wintersong follows a girl named Elisabeth also known as Lisel. She is very passionate about music and music continues to be very important to her throughout the story and I really liked that element. Lisel heard tales about the Goblin King and one day her sister is taken by him. Lisel decides to travel underground and save her sister. I heard this is a Labyrinth retelling and I have absolutely no idea what that is but people say they are similar so. . .

I did not like the beginning of the story. I felt like nothing happened and it was all background information that I did not really care about whether it was important or not. About 1/4 of the way through I was hooked and loved it. Then the middle hit and after that it was just meh. The first half was more action which is what I wanted and the second half was more of an emotional battle which I did appreciate as we don't see a lot of those in fantasy, however I was not expecting the journey to end so soon and was just kind of bored in the second half of the book. The second half also seemed more romance heavy and I did not care about the romance which is a big factor of why I did enjoy the first half more.

Even though I heard this is a Labyrinth retelling, Wintersong also felt like a Hades and Persephone retelling as well. Maybe I noticed that because I have no clue what Labyrinth is but I never heard anyone else make the Hades and Persephone connection although I am pretty sure there are reviews out there that say something about it and I just have not come across them yet.

Will I be continuing with this series or duology or whatever it is. At the moment no. I don't care about the characters that much and I am not really interested in seeing what happens next. This book was entertaining and I did enjoy it for what it was but it as ultimately disappointing as I though I would love it and give it at least a 4-star rating. This book is not for everyone but if you are interested I would suggest reading some other reviews that are more positive and some that are negative before reading this book before you decide whether or not it is for you.

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Thursday, February 1, 2018

January Wrap-Up and February TBR(2018)

Hello and welcome to a new post. Today I will be sharing by January Wrap-Up and my February TBR. I will also like to mention I am so close to hitting 800 followers on my bookstagram and it would mean a lot if you gave me a follow. I am @andreasbookishthoughts.

So in the month of January I read a total of 7 books which is a lot more than I thought I would especially since I have midterms this month. One of the books was an audio book reread.


The Hobbit
So the first book I read in 2018 is The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolken which I gave 4/5 stars. Starting off the year strong. I really enjoyed this book. The Hobbit is the prequel to The Lord of The Rings trilogy which I have read before this book and to be honest I don't think it is necessary to read The Hobbit First but I think you should though. I would also like to say I did watch the movie first, but I still enjoyed the book more. The Hobbit follows Bilbo Baggins and his adventure with the Dwarves and Gandalf. We also learn how Bilbo discovered the ring. Definitely an enjoyable read and I am glad I finally read it.



Poison Study (Study, #1)
The next book I read in the month of January is Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder. I really enjoyed this book as well. Poison Study is a back list book that is still pretty popular as I have seen it mentioned here and there. I finally picked it up after having it on my TBR shelf on Goodreads since 2015 and I can't believe it took me so long to pick it up and I did add the next two books to my TBR shelf on GR. Poison Study follows a girl name Yelena who murdered someone and is next in line to be executed. Instead of being executed she is offered a position to become the Commander's poison tester. She takes the position and things happen. I won't say too much because going into the book only knowing the bare minimum about it helped me enjoy this book more. I also shipped the two main characters a lot. That is all I am saying. Definitely recommend it.



The Shadow Queen (Ravenspire, #1)
Another book I read in the month of January is The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine which I gave  2.5/5 stars. I didn't hate it. I did enjoy the book but I was not impressed by it. To me it was just average. In fact I won't lie, I don't remember a lot about it. What I do remember is that it is a Snow White retelling and there are people who can shape shift into dragons. The main character is also trying to take back her throne. It was a generic fantasy. The Shadow Queen did remind me a lot of the earlier seasons of Once Upon A Time which I did like more than this book. I will repeat myself. It was not bad. I enjoyed the story and it was entertaining it just didn't wow me. 


The Circle
The next book I read is also a 2.5 star read and that is The Circle by Dave Eggars. The Circle is my school's book club pick for the month of January. I did not hate it. Just nothing happened. At all. It over described things and I did not like the main character. The story was very eye opening though as we can see how our society could possibly become something like this in the future and it is kind of scary. The Circle follows a girl name Mae and she is hired to work at The Circle and we basically follow her work day and see how The Circle evolves and becomes more powerful in a way. If you want to read it I would say go for it because it shows you how technology is starting to take over our lives.


Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4)
Another book I read was a reread and I listened to it on audio and that is Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire which I gave 5/5 stars. The Goblet of Fire is my favorite book in the Harry Potter series and I really enjoyed rereading it in a different format. I am not the biggest fan of audiobooks but the Harry Potter ones are amazing. This is the fourth book in the series and it follows Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts. I am not saying much other than it is amazing and you should read the series. 



The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #1)
The last book I read in January is The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hopkins which I gave a 4/5 stars. I surprisingly really enjoyed this book. The reason why I picked it up is because The Becoming of Noah Shaw has been floating around and I wanted to know what the hype for this series was. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer follows a girl name Mara Dyer and she wakes up in the hospital not knowing what happened. She was apparently in an accident with a few of her friends and she is the only one that made it out alive and has no memory of it. This book has an unreliable narrator which made me enjoy the story more as I wanted to know what was true and what was not. Overall do recommend it however I am not sure whether or not I will be continuing with this series due to the fact I heard the third one and Noah Shaw isn't that great.


So those are all the books I read in the month of January and onto my February TBR


Unravel Me (Shatter Me, #2)I have already read this book this month. I will give you my thoughts on it in my review and my February Wrap-Up. I did enjoy it. I liked the first book but it wasn't great but I heard that the series gets better so I wanted to give this book a chance and I thought I would enjoy it more and spoiler alert, I did enjoy this one a lot more than the second one.





The False Prince (The Ascendance Trilogy #1)
The next book is the one I am currently reading and that is The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielson. I think this book has to do with some sort of competition but I honestly have no idea what it is about. I just saw it at my local library and it looked like a fantasy and has a high rating on Goodreads so why not read it.






Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices, #1)The next book I want to read is a reread and that is Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare which is the first book in The Infernal Devices trilogy. The reason why I want to reread it is because I want to reread all the shadowhunter books this year in preparation for the release of Queen of Air and Darkness at the end of the year. I love this series so much and am excited to give it a reread. Clockwork Angel is a historical paranormal book which has a love triangle, but it is done right so it doesn't bother me at all. I usually am not a fan of them so if I do like one, than it is probably done very well.


Love, Hate & Other FiltersAnother book on my TBR this month is Love Hate and Other Filters by Samira Ahmend. This is a contemporary own voices book following a Muslim teen whose parents want her to be the perfect Indian daughter but she wants to follow her own dreams instead and go to film school. I think (don't quote me) there was a terrorist attack and the attacker has the same last name as her and people treat her differently even though she is not related to him or knows him in any way. This book sounds so good and I heard great things about it so far and it is one of my 2018 most anticipated releases.


A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3)
If I have time the final book I want to read this month is ACOWAR by Sarah J. Maas. I read the first two books in this trilogy (ish) last year and I thought the first one was okay, but really enjoyed the second one. I am excited to continue on and read the conclusion. I am aware of the problematic issues in this book and will keep and eye out for it as well. I am so excited to hopefully read the finale (ish) this month and finally say I have read ACOWAR.




So that is my February TBR. I hope you enjoyed this post. What was your favorite read in January and what are you most excited to read this month? Thank you for reading and I hope to see you soon!