The Last Magician [ spoiler free ] Review

Title: The Last Magician
Author: Lisa Maxwell
Series: The Last Magician #1
My rating: 3.5/5 stars
Date Read: 10/8/19



The Last Magician is a book that I heard pretty good thing about but not exactly much about it. All I know is that there was a time travel element and a girl travels from the modern New York to 1902 New York.

So basically the main character is suppose to steal a book from the past without ruining the future. This mean without messing with the past too much basically.

When I started this book I thought the beginning was slow. There were quite a few POVs and the one I really only cared about was the main characters. The others were so boring that it was hard for me to continue reading. However, I will say the story picks up around the halfway point, or at least it did for me, and I started to fall for the other characters and actually really enjoyed a lot of their prospective.

I wished the magic system was explained a little more in this book because even after finishing it, I still do not understand this magic system that much. I have caught on a little but for the most part I was confused. However, for some reason, the story itself still managed to make sense and the book was still good.

Overall I do recommend this if you are a fan of time travel book, but definitely keep in mind that this book has a slow start. I will probably continue on with the series but am not positive yet.

View all my reviews

The Roaring 20's Book tag

Hello everyone, today I will be doing the roaring 20's book tag. The tag questions really stood out to me as the questions sounded interesting. The creator's are Monica from monica kim, Sara from sarawithoutanH, and Emma from emmmabooks. They are all linked at the bottom of the post. The three of them are all hosting a Diviners readalong which I will not be partaking in because of school, but I do hope to join in when they read the last book. As you could probably tell, this tag is based on the Diviners series as the books take place in the 20's. Let's get on with the questions.



1.Roaring 20s - a 2020 release you can’t wait for
I feel like there is one answer for this one. At least for me. I am way to excited for Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare. This book does take place in the shadowhunter world and if you did not know, I love the shadowhunter world (as long as we are not taking about the TV show) and I will basically read any of her books that take place in it. I will not be sharing a synopsis for Chain of Gold since I do not want to spoil any of her previous series since they are all mostly connected in some sort of way. I also graduate high school in 2020 so moving on.


2.“That’s the berries” - a new release you loved
I have been really bad at reading new releases but I think I am starting to get better at it. I think my favorite release for the year that I have read so far has to be Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim. This book surprised me in the best way possible. We follow a girl who goes in her brother's place to compete to become the imperial tailor. In order to do so she must disguise herself as a boy as females are not allowed to compete. The first part is very much like project runway. The second part is more of a quest which I really enjoyed. Definite and underrated book and 2019 release.


3.“Now you're on the trolley!" - now you're right - a series that took a book or 2 to get good
For this question I am going with the Shatter Me series. I did not like book 1 that much (2 stars) but I really did enjoy books 2 and 3. The series, at least in my opinion, improved a lot as it went on. Overall I did think it was over hyped though I did read it after my dystopian phase. I did enjoy the series overall as a whole but will not be continuing it on with the series (extended trilogy) as I sadly do not care enough but it was good or what it was and enjoyable.




4.“Bluenose” - killjoy (a book that put you in a reading slump)
A book that put me in a slump was Illuminae and that was because I had no motivation to read the book. I wanted to love it but I just could not get into the story and I did not care for the characters one  bit. Forcing myself through it did make me a bit slumpy. I do want to give this author duo another chance though because Aurora Rising sounds epic.






5.“Hotsy Totsy” - attractive, a book with a beautiful cover
A book that I think has a gorgeous book cover is Furyborn by Claire Legrand. I really enjoy colors like the combinations of bright colors on a dark background so naturally this cover really stood out to me. I am glad to say that I did enjoy this book a lot and do recommend it. I still need to read the sequel though and I do hope to get to it soon.




6.“Let’s blouse!” - let’s get out of here - a book you DNF’d
One that may surprise a lot of you is Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo. I did not like the first book Six of Crows but I wanted to give the sequel a chance but sadly I just could not push through. I do want to give the duology another chance though because it receives nothing but praises and I want to be part of the hype. Also I kind of want to read King of Scars and I need to finish this first before I can read it.




7.“Zoozled” - a book that caused an epic book hangover

I want to say Lord of Shadows as it is my go to answer, but I think I am changing my answer to Archenemies by Marissa Meyer the second book in the Renegades trilogy. That ending. It just made me want to read more. I am hoping to get my hands on Supernova, the third book, very soon. If you are looking for a good good vs. evil story, definitely check this series out. 

And that was the Roaring 20's book tag. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for reading and I will hopefully see you in my next post. 

*Tag creators:

emmmabooks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_MmwpudWDE&list=WL&index=59

monica kim: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F80O51TApK0

sarawithoutanH:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9Y-4IUDchs

Some of the Readalong info (Taken from Emma's video description)
- readalong dates -
The Diviners: Oct 26-Nov 31
Lair of Dreams: December
Before The Devil Breaks You: January
King of Crows: February

- liveshow dates -
The Diviners: December 12
Lair of Dreams: January 9
Before The Devil Breaks You: February 13
King of Crows: March 12
Times TBA - follow each of the hosts for more info!

Sorcery of Thorns ( Spoiler Free ) Review

Title: Sorcery of Thorns
Author: Margaret Rogerson
My rating: 5/5 stars
Date Read: 9/11/19

Sorcery of Thorns is a book I heard many great things about and was very excited to read it despite not liking the author's debut book An Enchantment of Ravens. I do recommend that you give this book a chance even if you were not a fan of An Enchantment of Ravens because I also saw many reviews that felt the same way as I did.

This book follows a girl name Elisabeth who has grown up in one of the great libraries. After being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Elisabeth is blamed for a crime that she did not commit and as a result will eventually have to team up with a Sorcerer despite the fact that she has been raised to believe that they are bad.

I really enjoyed this book so much more than I did. I was hooked around thirty pages into the book and pretty much flew through it. Sorcery of Thorns is a standalone fantasy book so it is absolutely perfect for fantasy lovers who do not want to commit to a new fantasy series.

I used to say I am not a fan of romances in books (especially in fantasy) but lately I am finding myself enjoying a lot of the ones I read recently including this one. Honestly it is one of my favorites that I have read. I really liked the love interest and he is probably my second favorite character behind Silas who is his demon servant.

The world was great and the characters were great although I am not going to lie, Elisabeth was sometimes annoying because of some of her actions but overall really enjoyed it and I found myself reading a lot later into the night then I should have been.

View all my reviews

Spin the Dawn ( Spoiler Free ) Review

Title: Spin the Dawn
Author: Elizabeth Lim
Series: The Blood of Stars #1
My rating: 4.5/5 stars
Date Read: 8/26/19


Spin the Dawn is sold as Project Runway meets Mulan and usually when books are sold as similar to Mulan, it is not, but this one, I could see the similarities and I do agree with this sales pitch of the book.

We follow Maia who is the daughter of a tailor and when a royal messenger summons her father to compete for the position to become the imperial tailor, she poses as a boy and takes his place. She is also given the impossible task of sewing 3 dresses, made out from the laughter of the sun, the tears of the moon, and the blood of stars.

This book takes place in a fantasy world that is inspired by East Asia and there are quite a few cultural references that I recognized and really appreciated when reading. As an East Asian myself, I defiantly want to read more fantasy books inspired by it.

The romance in this book is hate to love and I really enjoyed it. I usually find myself thinking romances are eh or not necessary but I really ship this one and I love the banter between the two characters. I really wanted them to be together but at the same time I wanted them to not be because I loved the bickering and wanted more of it.

The ending left me wanting more and I really wished I read this later because now I have to wait a year till the next book comes out and I need to know what happens next like now. I am glad I read it and highly recommend this book and will be continuing on with the series.

View all my reviews

Contemporary Book Recs

Edit: I was suppose to post this in July, but completely forgot. Whoops. So here are contemporary recs in October even though most of these are cute summer reads.


Hello everyone! Today I will be recommending some of my favorite contemporary reads since summer is here, or at least it is summer where I live, and I love reading contemporary during this season. I really enjoyed all of these and hope that if you pick any of them up that you will too!


The first book I am recommending is Love, Life, and the List by Kasie West. Kasie West is a pretty well known for her fluffy YA contemporaries. Based on all the book I have read by her, they are either a hit or miss for me. Love, Life, and the List is my personal favorite and I absolutely devoured this book when I read it. We follow a girl name Abby who enters her artwork into this art show but gets rejected because apparently her art does not have enough heart. She creates a to do list in order to gain experiences and improve her art work throughout the summer. This book also has the friends to lovers trope which is quite a popular trope that people really enjoy. If you want something quick and easy to read, this is definitely the perfect book to read, especially for those who are wanting to get ahead of or catch up on on their reading challenge.


The next book is an older release and that is Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen. Like Kasie West, Dessen is also another very popular YA contemporary author, yet I do not hear people talking about this book that often. In this book we follow the main character Auden as she spends her summer with her father and stepdaughter in a town called Colby. Auden is a straight A student and lives with her mother who works at a university resulting in Auden's life being very academic based. This book has a cute romance while also dealing with self discovery. I love how Sarah Dessen books are always realistic and the things that happen in them feel like they could happen in real life.


Another recommendation I have is Pride by Ibi Zoboi. This is a modern day Pride and Prejudice retelling that takes place in Brooklyn New York. We follow Zuri who is Afro-Latino. The rich Darcy family moves across the street and Zuri is not very happy about that. Her sister starts falling for one of the brothers and Zuri cannot stand the other brother Darius. There are so many similarities to the original story of Pride and Prejudice while at the same time having enough differences to make it its own story. It is a diverse read for those who are looking to diversify their reading as well.


The final book I am recommending in this post is Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson. Morgan Matson is such a well known contemporary author and this one is one of my favorites of her works so far. I have read all of her books that are released so far and they are all really good. Since You've Been Gone follows a girl name Emily who is an introvert and is known as the friend of her best friend Sloane who is extremely extroverted. Her best friend leaves with no traces except for a to-do list for Emily to complete over the summer. She decides to complete the list in hopes of it giving her clues to where Sloane went. This was such a cute book and I actually ship the ship which does not usually happen.


Those are some of my contemporary book recommendations. If I were to recommend all of my favorites then this post would be very long so keep an eye out for part two in the future. Thank you for reading and I hope to see you in my next post!

Ace of Shades (Spoiler Free) Review

TTitle: Ace of Shades
Author: Amanda Foody
Series: The Shadow Game #1
My rating: 4/5 stars
Date Read:  8/4/19

Ace of Shades was such a surprising read for me, in a good way. I read her debut novel last year and enjoyed it (3 stars) and I wanted to give her second book a chance as well since I heard even better things about it and the concept seemed very intriguing. Turns out I really enjoyed it and had such a fun time reading it and now want the sequel, which thank goodness is already out.

This book follows Enne Salta who travels to the City of Sin to find her mother. The only clue to her is the name Levi Glaisyer, a street lord and a con man. The City of Sin is sort of reminds me of Vegas. I found the world unique and interesting as well.

Out of all the characters my favorites were Levi and Lola. Enne was extremely annoying in the beginning but she grew on me more and more as the story went on. In fact, all the character became better people.

I wished the Shadow Game was explained better as I found the game to be a little confusing. I wanted to know the rules and what it was in general. In the beginning it is just referred to The Shadow Game with little information other than no one survives it. At the end of the book we do learn a lot more about it but I do wish it was explained better.

When I first started reading this book, I will admit I was a bit bored and the story was slow. It took me about 50 pages before I became fully invested in the book. But once I was hooked, the book was hard to put down.

Overall I do recommend this and it is definitely and underrated read. I think Foody's world building, characters and writing were improved from her debut and do recommend you give this one a try even if you did not like Daughter of the Burning city.

View all my reviews

Top Ten [ Spoiler Free ] Review

Title: Top Ten
Author: Katie Cotugno
My rating: 4/5 stars
Date Read: 6/25/19

Top Ten is a book that I have heard a lot of mixed things about and was hesitant to read it. Many people really enjoyed it but I also heard a ton of negative reviews and I am so happy to find myself being one of those who actually enjoyed it and I think it was because I was in the mood for a fun quick contemporary read.

Top Ten follows Gabby and Ryan who are best friends since freshman year in high school. Now graduated. One of the things they do is make top ten lists of random things so they decide to recall the top ten moments of their friendship.

One thing I really enjoyed about this book is that their friendship is not perfect. It is evident that both characters truly care about each other, but they argue and get mad at each other which are things that happen in real life and I enjoyed how their relationship was not always cookie cutter perfect.

One of the main characters, Gabby also has anxiety and it is mentioned throughout the book and does play a role in the story. I really appreciated how her anxiety was not just mentioned once and never touched upon again. It was part of who she was and I appreciated how we could see how it affected the choices that she made and some of her everyday struggles and I did relate to some of the choices that she makes. Gabby is also bisexual and I had no idea about that going into the book. I do not know if the representation was good as I am not an own voices reviewer but I did not see any problematic issues when reading.

The one thing I wished this book did was instead of having the top ten moments as a countdown from 10-1 it was mixed up and told in chronological order. I feel like if it was told that way, the story would of been more enjoyable and easier for some people to follow.

Overall I do recommend this book hesitantly mainly because I know that it is not for everyone. But if you are craving a contemporary and this book does appeal to you, definitely give it a chance. I will hopefully be able to read another Katie Cotugno book before summer ends as this was the perfect summer read.

View all my reviews

Girls of Paper and Fire [ Spoiler Free ] Review

Title: Girls of Paper and Fire
Author: Natasha Ngan
Series: Girls of Paper and Fire #1
My rating: 4/5 stars
Date Read: 6/24/19

Girls of Paper and Fire is a book I heard a lot about ever since it came out. I heard mostly good things about it and really wanted to give it a shot and I was surprised with how much I enjoyed it.

This book is an Asian inspired fantasy following a girl name Lei who has golden eyes. As a result she one day gets chosen to become one of the kings paper girls and taken from her home. However, she is the ninth paper girl and usually only eight are selected. Lei does not want to be a paper girl and throughout her time as a one, she starts to fall for one of the other paper girls. Yes there is a f/f romance in this book.

This book does have a trigger warning for rape and sexual assault as well. It also says it explicitly in the beginning of the book before the book even starts so only read this if you are in the right head space to handle the subject matter.

The beginning was slow. I feel like I have been saying that about a lot of the book I have been reading lately, but it is true. It took me several chapters to understand the world and to become invested in the story and the characters. Once I pushed through that point, I was invested in the book and flew through the rest of the book because I had to know what would happen next.

I wished some of the side characters got more character development because I really knew nothing most of the other paper girls and most were very forgettable. I thought that the paper girls would all have a stronger friendship then they actually had and was slightly disappointed by that.

Overall I do recommend this book especially if you are looking for a diverse fantasy read. I definitely will be reading the sequel when it comes out and so am so glad that I finally picked this book up!

View all my reviews

The Truth About Forever [ Spoiler Free ] Review

Title: The Truth About Forever
Author: Sarah Dessen
My rating: 4/5 stars
Date Read: 6/19/19

Since it is summer and I have been craving a contemporary I finally decided to pick up another Sarah Dessen book. Sarah Dessen is an author that has so many contemporaries released and the ones I have read so far, for the most part, I really enjoyed. I do hope to pick up another one of her books before summer is over.

The Truth About Forever follows a girl name Macy who lives a perfect academic life. Her boyfriend is the top student in the school. She is also very studious, studying for the SATs all summer and helping her boyfriend out working at the local library while he is at brain camp. She and him are very type A. Macy also gets an unexpected catering job where she meets new friends and starts to get out of her shell. In this book (before the book starts) it is mentioned that her father passed away and it mentioned and does affect the family throughout the story.

The one thing I love about Dessen's books is that they are realistic, have important messages, the characters grow, and family usually plays an important role in it. Yep, parents do exist. I feel like in every YA contemporary book I read, the parents are usually absent which I think their presence in this book and Dessen's other books, make them more realistic.

I really enjoyed the characters in this book and they all have distinct personalities. They were each their own person and I could tell them all apart no problem. Macy went through a lot of character development and self discovery in this book and it can easily be seen how she became the person she is at the end of the book.

Overall I do recommend this and I will be reading other books by the author in the future!

View all my reviews

Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating [ Spoiler Free ] Review

Title: Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating
Author: Christina Lauren
My rating: 4/5 stars
Date Read: 5/27/19

Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating was a very surprising read for me. I picked this one up because it seemed like a quick and easy read I could fly through and that was what I needed at the moment. I was surprised on how much I enjoyed the book and now want to read all the Christina Lauren books.

This is an adult romance following Josh and Hazel who are great friends and have a pact in a way not to date each other. They also double date, setting each other on blind dates that for some reason always go wrong. This book is obviously friends to lovers trope but I actually enjoy that trope so it did not bother me at all.

Josh is Korean and I cannot speak for the Korean representation but I will say that I though Hazel was a but racist when it came to the pronunciation of Josh's Korean name. To me it felt like she was not trying to pronounce it right but I am not an own voices reviewer on the rep and cannot say anything about it. Other than that though, I did not see any problems about race.

I will say the first 3/4 of the book were really strong but the end of the book was kind of eh. I felt like a lot of unnecessary drama was introduced and it kind of ruined the book for me towards the end which is why I did give this book 4 stars instead of 4.5.

Overall I really did enjoy this book and will read other books by Christina Lauren. If you are looking for a cute fun adult romance to read definitely check this book out. Sorry if this review is kind of eh. I took the SATs the day I am writing this and my brain is still fried.

View all my reviews

Daisy Jones and the Six [ Spoiler Free ] Review

Title: Daisy Jones & The Six
Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
My rating: 4.5/5 stars
Date Read: 5/21/19


I read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo earlier this year and loved it and I heard such good things about Daisy Jones that I had to pick it up. Even though I did not enjoy this one as much as Evelyn Hugo, I still loved it so much!

This book is not written in a traditional format. It is written in more of a conversation format sort of like an interview style and it took me a few chapters to adjust to the writing style and figure out what was going on. Once I understood it though, I was hooked and I absolutely fell in love with the characters and the story.

This book follows a famous band from the 1960's-70's who had 1 hit album then broke up and no one knew why. In the book, the band comes back together in the future to explain what happened. How they got together, what was going on during the peak of their career and they big why they broke up.

I will say this book has a heavy trigger warning for drug and alcohol abuse so please be aware of that before going into this book.

I literally love this book so much and it is one of my favorite reads of the year. I do want to reread it on audio book even though I usually hate audio books but I heard it was really good and since I already read it I do not have to worry about spacing out while reading!

Please read this book if you are in the right head space to read it. It is so good! The characters are amazing and the story is amazing.

View all my reviews

N.E.W.T.S. TBR (2019)

Hello everyone! Today's post is going to be a TBR. I am not sure if I ever posted a TBR post on my blog before but the N.E.W.T.S. readathon is taking place in August and I wanted to share the books that I am reading for it. This readathon was created by the channel Book Roast. Click here to see the announcement video with all the information about the readathon. I am very excited to participate in it even though I am going to be very busy this August.

The career I chose is Magizoologist and I did complete all the O.W.L.S. that I needed to complete to continue on with the N.E.W.T.S. Here are the books I am planning to read and the challenges they complete.


Care of Magical Creatures:

A: Follow the Spiders! Why couldn't be follow the butterflies? A book title that starts with A, for Aragog. 

The book I chose for this challenge is Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody. I do not know much about it other than that the book has Las Vegas vibes. I heard great things about it and I have also been wanting to pick it up for awhile and it seemed like the perfect book to read for this challenge. I have read her debut novel Daughter of the Burning city and really enjoyed it so I am very excited to finally read this book.



E: Read a book under 300 pages

For this challenge I am going with Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seannan McGuire, the second book in the Wayward Children series. I read the first book, Every Heart a Doorway, for the O.W.L.S so I thought that this readathon would be the perfect time for me to read the sequel which I actually heart it is more of a prequel. People say this book is even better than the first one and I am excited to finally continue on with this series.



O: Grab onto Fawke's tail! Read a book with a bird on the cover.

This challenge took me awhile to decide what book I wanted to read. At the end I chose Spin the Dawn by Liz Lim. I heard such good things about it and people seem to really be enjoying it. I do not know much about it and I do not want to know much about it before going into it as I find that I tend to enjoy books more knowing little about what it is about.




Charms:

A: Read a book you think has a gorgeous cover.

The book I am using to complete this challenge is Caraval by Stephanie Garber. I have been wanting to continue on with this series and in order to do so I need to reread the first book as I do not remember much that happened in it. I personally love the cover of Caraval and am excited to finally give it a reread.




E: Read a comic / graphic novel / manga (or a book less than 150 pages)


For this challenge I decided to go with a graphic novel which is The Prince and the Dress Maker by Jen Wang. I rarely read graphic novels but I have read a few and really enjoyed them. I heard nothing but positive this about this book and I hope I am one of those people who also love it. Definitely excited to be able to cross this book off my TBR list soon.



Herbology:

A: Mandrake! Quick, put your headphones on! Listen to an audiobook (if not- green cover)

I do not like listening to audiobooks so I am choosing to read a book with a green cover and for this challenge I am going with Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas, another reread. I have been rereading the Throne of Glass books I have already read so I can finally finish reading the series. This series is one of my all time favorites so I am excited to read this for the second time!



E: Read a book between 350 - 390 pages

This challenge took so long for me to find a book because every book I picked up had either over 390 pages or under 350. The book I chose for this challenge when I finally found a book was Vicious by V.E. Schwab. This book is a book I have been wanting to read ever since I first heard about it and it is also one of the top 10 book I want to read this year and if you did not know, I am doing very terribly at that challenge at the moment.


That is my N.E.W.T.S. TBR. Let me know if you are also participating and what you plan on reading if you are participating. Thank you for reading and I hope to see you in my next post.

Grim Lovlies [ Spoiler Free ] Review

Title: Grim Lovelies
Author: Megan Shepherd
Series: Grim Lovlies #1
My rating: 4/5 stars
Date Read:  5/18/19

Grim Lovlies is a book I heard little about before going into it. I have heard of this book hear and there but not much about it. The main thing that intrigued me was the cover and that this book takes place in Paris. If you did not know, Paris is the number one place on my travel bucket list of places I have never been before.

This book follows a girl name Anouk who is a Beastie meaning that she originally was an animal but was turned human. The witch who turns her into a human is murdered and this means that Anouk and the other Beasties that the witch has turned now only has 3 days before they turn back into their original form. After becoming human, non on the beasties want to become animals again so they go on this quest to try to find a way to stay human.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I think it helped that I had little expectations going into this book mainly because I did not hear many people's opinions before going into the book.

The beginning was confusing and the writing style in the beginning did not click with me that well, but as the story went on, I started to understand what was happening and the writing must of improved because it stopped bothering me after awhile. I think it just took me some time to understand the world and the concept of what a beastie was.

I did not like the main character Anouk that much. She irritated me quite a bit during the book and I did not agree with all her decisions. I also did not like Beau, another beastie that much as well. My favorite character in this book is by far Cricket. I just love her so much! There are also a lot of different creatures in this book such as goblins and witches so if that is something that appeals to you defiantly give this book a shot!

Overall I really did enjoy this book and do want to continue on with the duology!

View all my reviews

More Popular Books I Have Not Read

Hello everyone! Today I will be sharing with you more popular books that I have not read. There are so many popular books out their that I still have to read and there are so many that I want to read but just have not gotten the opportunity to get to yet. If you see any of your favorites let me know and maybe I will bump it up on my TBR list. I am also avoiding very new releases and sequels as that would add even more books to this list. These are not all the popular books I have not read so there will be another part coming in the future!


The first book I am going to mention is The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevado. This book has been talked about quite a bit and it sounds very interesting. I know it also won some sort of award that that intrigues me even more. I really have no idea what this book is about but I do know that their is some sort of slam poetry element. I also believe that this book is told in verse. Do not quote me since I am not sure if that is true. I do hope to read this book soon but I say that about every book.




The next book is Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. This book is a Nigerian inspired fantasy novel that takes place in a world where magic is outlawed. I believe it is inspired by Avatar as well. The main character, I think, is trying to to restore magic. As you can tell, I am really bad at giving a synopsis of books I have not read yet. I am excited to read this but have no idea when I will get to it.




Another popular book I have not read is Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan. I have really been wanting to read this book ever since the movie came out. No, I still have not watched the movie because I like to read the book before watching the movie. I am that person. This book is about a women name Rachel who is dating a guy name Nick and Nick happens to be part of one of the richest families in Singapore and she learns this when they visit his family there. I heard such good things about it and hope to get to it soon so I can finally watch the movie.



Scythe is a book that has been getting quite a lot of hype recently. This is a dystopian following that takes place in a world where people no longer die so they have people called Scythes who kill people to control the population. The main characters are Scythe apprentices training to be Scythes I think and they do not want to be there. The concept sounds so cool and I heard nothing but good things about it and I do hope to read it soon (she says about every book)





The final popular book on this list but not the last one is going to be Circe by Madeline Miller. I heard so many people talk about Circe and they all seem to really enjoy this book. This book is about Circe who is part of Greek Mythology. That is all I really know about the book. It also has a stunning cover which is one of things that made me intrigued to read the book other than the hype. I do not know much about it but I do want to pick it up in the future because I do want to know why people love this book so much.



Those are some more popular books I have not read. What is a popular book you have not read yet? Thank you so much for reading and I hope to see you in my next post!

Every Heart a Doorway [ Spoiler Free ] Review

Title: Every Heart a Doorway
Author: Seanan McGuire
Series: Wayward Children #1
My rating: 3.5/5 stars
Date Read: 5/13/19

Every Heart a Doorway is a book I never planned on picking up mainly because I had little interest in it but I continued to hear such good things about the book and since it is so short I finally caved and read it and am so glad I did because I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.

This is more of a short story then a book mainly because it is under 200 pages. This book takes place in a world where some children open up doors and get transported into another world. After awhile, sometimes they leave or get kicked out and can not find their way back. When they return to the world that we know of today, some want to go back to what they call home, the world they traveled to. Those students get sent to the Wayward Children's boarding school. There is also a murder mystery element in it as well.

The beginning of this book was quite confusing to me and it took be a little to get into the story, but about 1/3 or 1/4 of the way through, the story started to pick up and I found myself more interested in what was going on.

My biggest complaint about the book is that it was to short. I felt like the story needed another 100-150 pages for it to be an amazing read. I felt like the world building and character development was not that well done as it could of been because the size of the book. I also wanted the mystery to be better developed and a lot of things seemed a bit rushed.

I did love the concept of the book though and I really enjoyed the story and the writing. I liked the characters however I wanted to know them better and I am planning on reading the other books in the series in the future. Overall I do recommend ii, but keep in mind that because it is a short read, some plot points, the character development, and world building, may seem rushed.

View all my reviews

Everless [ Spoiler Free ] Review

Title:Everless
Author: Sara Holland
Series: Everless #1
My rating: 4.5/5 stars
Date Read: 5/1/19

Everless is a book I hard floating around social media here and there and the cover really caught my eye. I have not heard much about this book and did not know much about the story before going into the book other than that people's time is currency. This means the rich live long lives while the less fortunate live shorter lives. That was all I knew about going into the book and that is all I think you also should know going into the book.

I feel like Everless is a book that the less you know the more you will enjoy the book because there are a lot more surprises and twists.

When I first started reading this book, I was sucked into into the book within the first few chapters of the book. After I was hooked, I struggled to put the book down. I needed to know what was going to happen next.

I really liked all the characters in the book that I was supposed to like. I enjoyed reading about the main character and she is surprisingly one of my favorite characters. Usually the main character is one of my least favorites. I will say that the main character made some decisions I did not agree with but don't all main characters do. My favorite character in this book has to be Liam. I loved learning more about his story.

I loved the world of Everless and it was very easy to follow.

Overall I do recommend this book and think more people should read it. Definitely one of the most surprising in a good way reads I have read this year.

View all my reviews

From Twinkle With Love [ Spoiler Free ] Review

Title: From Twinkle, with Love
Author: Sandhya Menon
My rating: 3.5/5 stars
Date Read: 4/36/19



From Twinkle with Love is a book I heard a lot of mixed reviews about and I am in the middle. I liked some parts of it and there are some parts that really frustrated me.

This book is told in letters Twinkle writes to her favorite female filmakers and I absolutely love that about it. I felt like it added a lot to the story. The main character is an aspiring filmaker and seeing her look up to her role models throughout the story definitely helped boost my enjoyment of the book.

Twinkle has a long time crush on this guy name Neil. When Neil's twin brother, Sahil, asks her to direct a film for the Midsummer festival, Twinkle accepts because she will finally get a great opportunity to direct a film and she could also possibly get closer to Neil. But then, she finds herself falling for Sahil.

The main character is 16 however, the book reads more like she is 13 or 14 years old. It did not bother me to much though since I am currently 17 and know some people around my age who also act younger than they are actually are so it is not something that is unrealistic, it is just her personality. I do know that some people would be bothered by it though.

The main character is not perfect and makes mistakes throughout the book. She is flawed. Same as her friends but if you are looking for a book with not perfect characters that learn from their mistakes this one may be for you.

Also the main character is Indian American so if you are looking for a book with an Indian American lead, this one is perfect. There are also quite a few diverse side characters as well.


View all my reviews

Two Can Keep a Secret [SPOILER FREE] Review

Title: Two Can Keep a Secret
Author: Karen M. McManus
My rating: 4/5 stars
Date Read: 3/30/19

Two Can Keep a Secret is NOT a sequel to One of Us is lying. They are two completely different books.

TW: Missing Person, Murder, Substance abuse

I have been wanting to pick up Two Can Keep a Secret ever since I heard that it was coming out. I really enjoyed One of Us is Lying (although I did not like the ending) and had a feeling I would like this one more. Small town with a lot of secrets, sounds cliche but I love that trope. I did enjoy her debut a bit more even though it does have a lower rating since I did have a problem with the ending of that particular book, but I still enjoyed this book a lot and will be picking up her next work.

This book takes place in a small town called Echo-Ridge and Ellery and her twin brother Ezra move there to live with their Nana. The town has a lot of secrets. Her aunt went missing at the age of seventeen and a homecoming queen was murdered. Now during Homecoming season, someone is threatening the homecoming court.

I did not predict the ending first off so hooray for me because lately I have been able to predict the endings of a lot of books I read and I love it when books take a different turn that makes sense that I did not see coming.

The beginning was slow and it started out boring but as the story continued I became more invested in the story and what is going on and really glad I decided to push through the fist 50 pages because the book improved so much.

The main character is very interested in true crime which is something I love as well. I do binge watch all the Buzzfeed Unsolved episodes because they are so good.

Overall I do recommend this book if you are able to handle the triggers.

View all my reviews

Avengers Book Tag

Hello everyone! Today's post is one that I am so excited to write mainly because Avenger's Endgame recently came out and it was amazing! No spoilers here. All I am going to say was that I watched it Saturday the 27th, did not get spoiled for it at all and loved it!

If you could not tell, I mean you probably already know because the title of the post, but I am doing the Avenger's Book tag! This tag was created by Kristen from the YouTube Channel Super Space Chick who also happens to be one of my favorite booktubers. I highly recommend you check out her channel.

1) Iron Man / Tony Stark -  A book that made you laugh out loud
I am a pretty emotionless reader. I never cry while reading and I never really laugh out loud but I found myself smiling ear to ear while reading the book Geekerella by Ashley Poston. I am not sure if I laughed at all but I do know I smiled a lot while reading this book. Geekerella is a modern day Cinderella retelling with fandoms. It is perfect read for fangirls and boys. I do highly recommend this book especially if you are looking for a book that will make you smile.



2) Captain America / Steve Rogers - A book that sends a positive message
A book with a positive message is George by Alex Gino. This book is a middle grade following a trans main character. It is a book that teaches little kids to be more accepting of the trans and LGBTQ+ community in general. I feel like one of the messages of this book is accepting people's differences and that we should no treat someone differently just because of what they identify with and that is such a positive message in my opinion.


3) Black Widow / Natasha Romanov - A book with a kick butt female protagonist
There are so many kick butt female characters in books these days so I thought I would share one that I find underrated. For this question I am choosing Alosa from the book Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller. This is a pirate book following the daughter of the pirate king. She is sent on a mission to another part of a treasure map from another pirate lord, the map when completed leads to the big treasure. Also gets herself purposely kidnapped to try to get the map. There is also a slow burn hate to love romance in this book that I absolutely loved and quite honestly I do not care or like most romances I read in books these days.


4) Hawkeye / Clint Barton - An underrated book you wish more people would pay attention to
For this one I am going with a book that I read quite recently (at least when I am writing this) and that is Everless by Sara Holland. I do not hear many people talk about this book and I absolutely loved it! This book takes place in a world when time is currency. That is all I think you should know going into this book as I do think the less you know about the book going into it the more likely you are to enjoy it. This is also a duology and both books are out! I still need to read the sequel and I do hope to get to it soon!



5) Hulk / Bruce Banner - A book that made you incredibly angry
A book that made me angry would have to be Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. I wanted to love this book so badly. I thought I was going to love this book. It is incredibly hyped and it ended up being one of my most disappointing reads of all time. I was so bored while reading the book and felt like nothing happened when reading. I found myself not caring for the characters. Even though I was so frustrated while reading this book I continued on hoping it would get better. I have tried the audiobook for a reread in hopes I would enjoy the book more (even though I am not an audiobook fan) and DNFed it. I just cannot push though the book.


6) Thor - A book with a character who's strength you admired
For this question I will be going with Starr Carter from the Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. I will admit that I did not love he Hate U Give as much as everyone else. The writing style did not click with me that well and did effect my enjoyment of the book a little negatively. But one thing I loved about the book was the main character. She is such a strong person and he situation she is in is something that no one should be in. The way she stands up for her beliefs and grows as a character is amazing and I do think she is one of the strongest YA characters that I have read about in a long time.


7) BONUS: Loki - A book with a twist or surprise that tricked you 
Because I am such an avid reader, I have become quite good at predicting endings of books but an ending that I did not predict was the one in the book Two can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus. This book is a YA mystery that takes place in a small town. Yep a small town mystery. I will say the less you know about going into the book, the more you will probably enjoy it because it is a mystery and it is more fun piecing together the puzzle yourself and seeing everything unfold before you. But I will say that I was surprised by the ending and did not see it coming at all.


And that is the Avengers Book Tag! I had so much fun writing this! I am not tagging anyone to do this tag but still feel free to do it if you want to! Thank you so much for reading and I hope to see you in my next post!

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo [ SPOILER FREE] Review

Title: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
My rating: 5/5 stars
Date Read: 3/38/19

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a book that I heard such great things about that I finally decided to pick it up and it helped pull me out of my reading slump a lot! This is a book way outside my comfort zone. I usually do not read historical fiction and adult books so for me it is a huge surprise that I am giving 5 stars. I expected to enjoy it but not as much as I did

Before going into this book I will say do some research because there are quite a few triggers in this book.

In this story we follow a reporter, Monique who gets the opportunity to interview Hollywood icon Evelyn Hugo. She is not well known and does not know the reason why Evelyn has chose her out of everyone to tell her story. So throughout the story we follow short snippets of what is going on in Monique's life as well as the story of how Evelyn Hugo became the Evelyn Hugo and about the choices she made throughout her life.

There is diversity in this book as well. Monique is biracial and Evelyn is Cuban American and bisexual.

There is just something about this book that makes it seem like you are reading someone's autobiography or biography and I loved that about it. I loved the way Evelyn's story unfolded and I really liked the way she shared the consequences for actions. Evelyn is a very flawed character but it makes her seem more real.

I flew through this book and it has been awhile since I found myself wanting to pick up a book during free time. I constantly was thinking about it when not reading and I missed that feeling so much. I wished this book was longer, but at the same time glad it was not because I hate when books are too long and they start to drag.

If you are like me and this book is out of your comfort zone, still give it a chance. I have been constantly thinking about this book in a good way ever since I finished it. If you can handle the triggers of this book please pick it up. It is definitely my favorite read of the year so far and I now want to read all of Taylor Jenkins Reid's other books!

View all my reviews

City of Ghosts [ Spoiler Free ] Review

Title: City of Ghosts
Author: Victoria Schwab
Series: Cassidy Blake #1
My rating: 4/5 stars
Date Read: 3/6/19

Victoria / VE Schwab is quickly becoming one of my all time favorite authors. All of her books I have read so far I have really enjoyed and City of Ghosts is no exception.

City of Ghosts is a middle grade novel following a girl name Cassidy Blake who can see ghosts. Her best friend is also a ghost. When Cassidy's parents get a job hosting a TV show about the most haunted places in the world she travels with them to Scotland. Cass finds herselfsurrounded by ghosts, not all of them friendly.

This book is so good and not scary for my scaredy cat friends. I personally get scared easily and was not scared at all when reading. It is a middle grade so I was expecting that. If you are wondering what to read for Halloween I would recommend this book because the main theme surrounding this book is ghosts and creepy old places and that gives off a lot of Halloween vibes.

Since this book is short (under 300 pages) it is perfect for those in a reading slump or for people who do not have a lot of time for reading.

I really liked the characters and I enjoyed reading about the friendship between Jacob (Cassidy's ghost best friend) and Cassidy. They were great friends to one another and it was refreshing to read a book that focused on friendship and had no romance.

I do not think I ever read a book set in Scotland before and reading this book, I learns a little about the Scottish culture and the different places. It made me want to take a vacation to Scotland.

My only complaint about this book was that the beginning was a bit slow and it took me awhile to get into the book. But once I was hooked, I flew through the rest of the book. Overall I highly recommend this and I cannot wait for the sequel.

View all my reviews

Zenith [Spoiler Free] Review

Title: Zenith
Author: Sasha Alsberg & Lindsay Cummings
My rating: 2.5 / 5 stars
Series: The Androma Saga #1
Date Read: 2/27/19

*I do occasionally watch both author's YouTube channels and this has no effect on the rating I gave this book*

Actual Rating is a 2.5

Zenith is a book I see very mixed reviews on. Some absolutely love it. Some cannot stand it. And other think it is okay. I did enjoy this book a lot more than I thought I would and I think it is because I went into this with extremely low expectations. I found this to be an okay book.

This book follows a all female space pirate crew. That sounds so cool and makes the story have so much potential. I am so sad that I did not like the way it was executed. Andi is the captain on the Marauder and she is known to be the Bloody Baroness. It is literally enforced so many times in this book to the point I started getting a little frustrated. I wanted to see more of her as the bloody baroness and not be told it.

The writing is not that great either but it is not as bad as I was expecting so that was a plus I guess.

And also this book changes POV so many times. For the most part I was okay with it as the chapters were very short and it made the book seem a tad bit shorter but sometimes they would change POV mid chapter and confuse me and I did not like that part.

I wanted more of the Marauder crew. I wanted to know more about them. They are not very well developed characters which was kind of disappointing.

I will say that the action scenes were the best part of the book and I enjoyed them so much more than the rest. I think this book could also be shorter as there were some things that could of been cut out.

I may give book two a chance. Have not decided yet.

View all my reviews

Thank u, next Book Tag

Hello everyone!

I have been wanting to do another book tag for awhile so scrolling through different book tags online I came across the Thank u, next book tag. This tag is based of the song thank u, next by Ariana Grande which most of you probably heard of before because this song literally blew up when it came out. This tag is created by Jananie from the channel  thisstoryaintover. 

1. Name a book that you said "thank u, next" to, i.e. DNF'd (did not finish).

I rarely DNF books because I am not enjoying the book. Most books I DNF are because that my library loan expired. A book I did DNF because I was not enjoying was Uprooted by Naomi Novik. I had such high expectations for this book and ended up being so bored while reading it. I really wanted to love it. May give it another chance in the future though since so many people love it. I do plan on giving her new book Spinning Silver a chance though because that one sounds so interesting.

2. Name a book that taught you love (i.e. a book you loved)
A book I read recently (or at least when I am writing this post) is The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. This book is so good and yes I know I am only adding to the hype that this book has but it made me fall in love with reading more especially since it pulled me out of my reading slump that I have been in since the end of last year.

3. Name a book that taught you patience.
A book that taught me patience is Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Lani Taylor. I did really enjoy this book but there was one chunk of the book towards the end that was so boring that I had to force myself through it. I wanted to DNF the book so bad because that part was so slow and boring, but I absolutely loved the previous parts of it and I knew what I was reading was important so I did end up pushing through and am so glad I did because after that part, the story really picked up.

4. Name a book that taught you pain.
A book that taught me pain was Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare. This book literally destroyed me. That ending was just heartbreaking. I saw it coming about 5 seconds before it happened and ahh. I still am not over it. The Shadowhunter books are some of my all time favorites and I have a feeling that some of her new books are also going to teach me a lot of pain. Queen of Air and Darkness also could of worked for this prompt but I think Lord of Shadows taught me a bit more pain.

5. Name a book that you loved at the time of reading but in hindsight you do not like as much anymore but which you still learned some other quality from.
A book I absolutely loved at the time I read it but looking back I do not like as much is Divergent by Veronica Roth. This book was one of my absolute favorites when I started reading and it was one of the books that got me into reading. Over time, however, if I were to reread it, I honestly would probably not enjoy it as much but because of nostalgic reasons I may still like it. As for something I learned, I will have to say perseverance. The main character is a very strong character and does not give up.

6. Name a book you're currently talking to, i.e. have the hots for.
Other than The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, a book that I am currently obsessed is Throne of Glass. I recently reread it for the Throne of Glass readalong hosted by Kassie from the channel MissSassyKassieand Brittni from Brittni's Book Find. This series is one of my all time favorites and I am so glad I chose to reread the first book because there was so much that I forgot about it and I cannot wait to finally finish reading this series!

7. Name the book that gon' last - the book of you - the book that helped you love yourself a little bit more.
For this book I will be choosing The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan. Leigh is half Taiwanese and I am also half Taiwanese. Even though she is half white and I am not, there were still things that I did relate with. This book takes place in Taiwan and I have also visited Taiwan and seeing all these places in the book that the main characters visited that I have been to meant a lot. There were a lot of cultural things that I was familiar with and it was nice to read it in a book.

8. Tag someone do to the tag!
Anyone who wants to do it!

That was the Thank U, Next book tag. Thank you so much for reading and I hope to see you in my next post.