Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag (2018)

Today I will be doing the Mid- Year Book Freak Out Tag again. It is had to believe the year is halfway over already. I know this post is a bit late but I have had a busy July because of traveling and I caught a cold but I am better. I was not tagged by anyone to do this but it seems fun so I am doing it. I am not tagging anyone but if you want to do it feel free too.

Original creators:

Chami: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03gz6k0IB-Y

Ely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_Wh0rPGfRg 

1. Best book you’ve read so far in 2015. 

Renegades by Marissa Meyer is 100% the best book I read so far this year. I love the characters and the story line and I just love everything about this book.

2. Best sequel you've read so far in 2015.

Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas. I did really enjoy this book and yes I finally read it this year. It is my least favorite in the series but I have not been reading a lot of sequels or books in general this year so my list right now is quite small but I did read this one recently and really enjoyed it. 

3. New release you haven't read yet, but want to.

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. Everyone has been talking about her book and she was on the Tonight Show but I do not have the time to read it right now. I know I will love it too so that could be the reason why I am procrastinating a bit. 

4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year.

QUEEN OF AIR AND DARKNESS by Cassandra Clare. Hello!! If you follow me on Instagram you know I love the shadowhunters series (not the show) and currently rereading all of the shadowhunter related books. Yes I am very behind on my reread. Shhhhhh.

5. Biggest disappointment.

Wintersong by S. Jae Jones. When I first heard about the book, I thought I would of loved it and I did love part of the first half but the rest of the book just was not for me. 

6. Biggest surprise.

The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X. R. Pan. I did not expect this book to become one of my favorites. I thought this book was amazing and I am also half Taiwanese and the main character is also half Taiwanese and it was accurate representation. Although I am not half white like she is, I still related to some of the things she goes through.

7. Favourite new author. (Debut or new to you)

Emily X. R. Pan. Her book is now one of my all time favorites.

8. Newest fictional crush.

Adrian from Renegades. He is awesome!

9. Newest favourite character.

Nova from Renegades. She is also amazing!

10. Book that made you cry.

Um None. I rarely cry reading books. In Order to live by Yeomi Park is very sad though. It is an autobiography about Park's journey escaping North Korea.  

11. Book that made you happy.

Click'd by Tamara Ireland Stone. It was a cute middle grade novel that I really enjoyed.

12. Favourite book to film adaptation you saw this year. 

Only saw one. Love, Simon. I did really like the movie though as well as the book and would recommend both. 

13. Favourite review you've written this year. (Booktube version: Favourite video you have done so far in this year)

Hmmmmm. I have no idea. Maybe my review of Clockwork Angel?

14. Most beautiful book you've bought so far this year (or received)

Either my copy of the translated version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone in Chinese or Crystal Storms by Morgan Rhodes. I should also mention I did only buy 1 book and received 1 book this year.

15. What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

Children of Blood and Bone again. The hype is real for this book and I know I love a good fantasy. 

City of Bones (Spoiler Free) Review

Title: City of Bones
Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: The Mortal Instruments #1
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Date Read: 5/20/18

Actual rating 3.5

The Mortal Instruments is my least favorite series in the Shadowhunter world so far. I read City of Bones for the first time in 7th grade. It has been awhile. I actually did a book report on this book when I first read it.

City of Bones in the first book in the TMI series. We follow a girl name Clary and she wittiness a murder only she can see and there is no body left behind. She thrust into the shadowhunter world and ends up on looking for something which I do not want to say because it is not in the synopsis and I do not want to spoil the book.

If I were to be totally honest, I do not like Clary or Jace. Both of them are probably my two least favorite characters in the series. Clary is not that bad in this book, but as the series continues, she gets more and more annoying. Everyone says Jace is dreamy and amazing but personally I do not like him.

Despite not loving the two main characters, I do love Isabelle, Alec, and Simon. All three are some of my favorites. I did not really like Simon that much till later on in the series when I first read it but I definitely like him more in book one on my reread. Same goes for Alec. I do wish we saw more of these three characters in this book but they will play a bigger role in future books and I am looking forward to that.

I definitely think if you are interested in this series that you should dive into TID first because the world building is better and it is easier to understand than in this one. In City of Bones we kind of dive right into the story with very little development since Clary is very single minded and not really into learning about the world unlike Tessa, TID, who is more interesting in it and everything is better explained since she is trying to understand what the world is.

Yes I am glad I reread this book and I do plan on continuing my reread.

For those of you curious on my opinions on the adaptations, the movie is meh (Lily Collins was great) and the TV show is shit.

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Glass Sword (Spoiler Free) Review

Title: Glass Sword
Author: Victoria Aveyard
Series: Red Queen #2
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Date Read: 5/8/18


I read Red Queen in the beginning of 7th grade. Now I am in 10th grade. It has been awhile. I wanted to continue on with this series and I really did enjoy the first book. Despite Red Queen not being one of the most original books, I remembered a lot of it and was ready to dive into Glass Sword. Sadly this book was a disappointment. (I did look up spoiler reviews of Red Queen before reading this book)

In this world the people with silver blood have powers and those with red blood do not. Our main character Mare has powers and is a red blood. Glass Sword takes place after the events of book 1 but because of spoilers, I am not going to give you a synopsis.

I heard mixed reviews about the second installment. I went into Glass Sword with very low expectations and still did not enjoy it that much. The beginning was slow and boring. I felt like nothing happened. I mean things did happen, it just was not exciting. I considered multiple times whether or not I should DNF it or not. I ended up pushing through and I am glad I did because the middle chunk of the book was actually good. The ending was eh so overall the book was just okay.

I felt like this book was longer than it had to be. The entire story, I felt at least, was entirely based on who you can trust or not.

There were a grand total of zero characters I loved. I mean I did like Farley and the rest I do not care about. I actually found the main character Mare to be extremely unlikable in this book. I remember liking her in book one but sadly not in this one. She made some very not so smart decisions and was very annoying. I did not like her narration that much as well. What I did wish for was that we saw more of Maven. Maven is a very interesting character and I actually do want to know what is going on in his world. Cal was eh. Kilorn, eh. Did not care much about them.

Would I have enjoyed this book more if I read it a year ago? Probably. I think my reading taste changed slightly since reading Red Queen and I ended up finding this book eh. If you want to read a book with an original concept, this series is not for you, but if you are okay with it, I would say give it a shot since everyone has different opinions on everything. I probably would not continue with this series to be honest since I do not really care to know what happens in the future books. Only time will tell though.

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