Renegades (Spoiler Free) Review

Title: Renegades
Author: Marissa Meyer
Series: Renegades #1
My rating: 5/5 stars
Date Read: 4/21/18

I finally read Renegades and I freaking love every moment of it. I cannot believe this book took me so long to get too. I picked this book up because I was in a mood to read a book superhero related since Infinity War comes out soon and this book seemed like the perfect read and it was.

Marissa Meyer is one of my all time favorite authors so I did have a feeling I was going to love this book before I read it but I did not expect to love it this much. Meyer is known for her retellings and this book is not a retelling.

Renegades takes place in a world where there are prodigies with powers. In a way, it is sort of like the X-Men but not really. The good guys are the Renegades. They helped defeat the villains and helped rebuild society. In this book we follow two characters, Nova and Adrian. Nova is an Anarchist. She does not like the Renegades and Adrian is a Renegade.

From page one, I wanted to know what happens next. This is a huge book and I manage to fly through it. A lot of people say that this book was to long. I mean it is long, but I did not think it was to long. I really liked every moment of it.

I really enjoy the superhero and villain concept of this book and found it unique to the YA world. If you are a fan of Marvel or DC, you will probably like this book. I am not a fan of DC as the only DC movie I liked was Wonder Women, but I am a huge fan of the Marvel Universe.

Also Adrian has made it to my fictional crushes list. I mean it is hard to get on that list so congratulations!

Overall it is hard to get all my thoughts down without spoilers, and I am doing my best. I am currently writing this review and hour after I finished the book and I am still processing my thoughts. You know, is hard writing reviews for books you love so much! I will definitely be reading the sequel.

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American Panda (Spoiler Free) Review

Title: American Panda
Author: Gloria Chao
My rating: 4 /5 stars
Date Read: 4/11/18

American Panda focuses on a Taiwanese American girl name Mei. She is a 17 year old and is starting her first year in MIT. Her parents sacrificed a lot for her and have planned her entire future out. She is to become a doctor and marry a Taiwanese guy that her parents approve. Mei however hates germs and has no interest in becoming a doctor. She also has a crush on a guy who is not Taiwanese.

I am half Taiwanese half Chinese and am born and currently live in America. Unlike Mei's parents, my parents are less strict than Mei's when following the Taiwanese and Chinese traditional culture. As long as a get good grades and study hard, they are happy.

Mei's and my life are very different, but they are also very similar. While reading this book, I did learn a lot about the Taiwanese culture that I did not know about. I did understand how Mei was feeling about both cultures and how being raised Chinese (Taiwan is and is not part of China. It is hard to explain) in America and accepting both cultures. It is had. Some of the small things like not knowing and never watching some of the TV shows that most Americans watch and having know idea what they are talking about is something we both have in common and I found that I did relate to Mei a lot throughout the story even though my parents have adapted a American Chinese Taiwanese lifestyle while her parents followed a strict traditional Taiwanese culture.

In this book Mei struggles with the decision of whether or not she wants to follow the path her parents set for her in the future, or confront them and tell them she wants to make her own choice. Her brother did not follow the path he was given my their parents and was actually disowned from the family. This of course makes Mei even more nervous to tell her parents.

This book was cute and I really liked Mei as a character. The writing was the thing that I was not the biggest fan of. I did like it, but it was not the best and it did not blow me out of the water. I felt like this book was missing something that would of made it amazing and I think it was the writing. I thought some parts would be a bit jumpy like it needed another scene to be there before the next scene happened. It may just be me because I know some people really like the writing.

Overall I really did enjoy this book and I would recommend it. It is an own voices book and as an own voices reviewer I can say that the representation is accurate from my point of view.



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May Wrap-Up (2018) + A Very Ambitious June TBR

Today I am sharing my May wrap-up and June TBR. In May I read a total of 5 books which is great considering that it was a crazy month. Since summer vacation is starting this month, I also have a crazy TBR. This is going to probably be a bad idea since I will be going on vacation on the 20th but oh well.

The first book I read in May was a reread and that book is Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare. I gave this 5/5 stars. If you did not know, I am rereading all of the Shadowhunter books in preparation for Queen of Air and Darkness. Clockwork Princess is probably my favorite Cassandra Clare book and I love it to pieces. This is the third book in The Infernal Devices trilogy. The story takes place in Victorian London. I love all the characters especially Will, Jem, and Tessa. Charlotte is definitely an underrated character and deserves more love. I highly recommend this trilogy.


The second book I completed was Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard which I gave a 2.5/5 stars. I did not hate it, it just was not my favorite and I had issues with it. I read Red Queen when I was in 7th grade and really liked. I finally decided to pick up Glass Sword and it was eh. I did remember what happened due to the hype and me reading some spoilery summaries but not remembering what happened in the previous book did not effect my enjoyment. The only character I really cared about was Maven. I did not care about Mare, Cal, and the others at all. In fact, I do not really like Mare that much. The fist half of the book was also really boring since nothing really happened. I may pick up the next book or I may not. I have no idea.


The third book I finished was another reread and that is City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. I did lower by rating from 4 stars to 3.5. I still liked it but in all honesty, The Mortal Instruments is my least favorite Shadowhunter series. I am not a huge fan of Clary and Jace. I actually finished the series for the story line and Isabelle, Simon, and Alec because they are amazing. Overall I am glad I reread this book since it has been awhile since I read this book and I picked up so many things I missed the first time.


Th forth book I read was The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan. I love this book and gave it 5/5 stars. It was exactly what I wanted to read at the moment. The main character is half Taiwanese half White. I am half Taiwanese but half Chinese. So we are similar in a certain way. I love that this book takes place in Taiwan. I have been there before and I loved it. Yes night market food is amazing. There are also a lot of flashbacks in this book and I really liked them and I felt they added so much to the story. This book does have a trigger warning for suicide and depression.

The final book I read was In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park. This is an autobiography about a North Korean girl and how she escaped North Korea. This book was powerful and emotional and it is not an easy read. I do think that this is an important book and everyone should read it. I learned a lot in this book. Knowing everything that happens in this book happened in real life makes this story 20x more powerful. I do highly recommend it. Due to it being an autobiography, no rating.



Onto my very ambitious TBR. I have 10 books on my TBR this month and I do not expect to read them all.

1. My Oxford Year (current read)
2. I See London I See France
3. City of Ashes
4. Empire of Storms
5. Love and Gelato
6. The Star Touched Queen
7. Famous in Love
8. The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
9. The Demon King
10. Flawless.

Do I expect to read every book on this list. No. But I need options. Thanks for reading and I hope to see you in my next post.