Pivot Point (Spoiler Free) review

Title: Pivot Point
Author: Kasie West
Series: Pivot Point #1
My rating: 3/5 stars
Date Read: 4/24/18

I read several other Kasie West books before and I really enjoyed most of them and I did like half of this one. Kasie West is known for cute contemporary books. This book though is slightly different from her others.

This book takes place where the people with powers live in the compound. No one knows that they have powers and they are basically isolated from the rest of the world but not really at the same time. They can leave they just have to promise they are not going to tell any outsiders that they have these abilities. Our main character Addie has some sort of clairvoyant power. Her parents are getting a divorce. She can either stay in the compound with her mother or move to the outside with the norm people (normal people with no abilities) with her dad. She looks into the future and this story shows her the outcome of both situations to help her choose. The chapters alternate one where she stays and the other when she leaves.

I really liked the story when she left the compound so much more than when she stayed. I liked the characters more and I liked the story more. I did not hate the other story, I just did not care that much about Duke and Addie in this reality.

This is a duology and I am definitely continuing on with it. I am excited to see what happens to Addie next. The thing I love about Kasie West's book is that they are so addicting. This book is no exception to that.

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My Oxford Year (Spoiler Free) Review

Title: My Oxford Year
Author: Julia Whelan
My rating: 3.5/5 stars
Date Read: 6/3/18

This book was not exactly what I expected. Not in a bad or good way. Honestly I just found it eh though it did have its cute moments. I have not heard a lot about this book but I read the first few sentences on the back cover summary and it sounded good so I decided to pick it up. This book follows a girl name Ella who spends a year in Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship. That was all I knew going into this book and I did wish I read the entire summary so I had a better idea what the book was about.

Honestly at the same time I am glad I did not read the entire summary because it also seemed a bit spoilery and I probably was not going to read it.

It had some tropes and actually reminded me of another book which I will not say but that book is YA.

The writing is not the best. It felt average and it is hard to explain it. It was simple and easy to understand. Nothing was wrong with it it just was not a wow factor of this book but the writing did not effect my enjoyment of the story.

I did like the characters and I felt like it made the story more enjoyable. I enjoyed reading from Ella's POV and I liked seeing her thoughts. I feel like as the story progressed she developed into a better person and character. Jamie Davenport was ok. I mean not really swoonworthy but eh. Maggie, Charlie, and Tom. I love how Ella's friends still play an important part of the book though I do wish that they were in the book more. I really like them. Cecelia was interesting. I did not like her in the beginning of the story but really liked her at the end. I did want more information about something in her life and I felt like could add to the story if she talked to Ella about it. I cannot say what.

If you read the book or the back cover summary full, it is very predictable that my least favorite trope is in this book. For some reason though it did not bother me as much as usual which is strange. I think it is because (view spoiler)[ he does not teach halfway through the book anymore (hide spoiler)] Overall I did enjoy this book. Could be better but enjoyable and I am glad I read it.

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The Sims Book Tag

It has been such a long time since I have done a book tag so I felt like it was time to do one. After browsing the internet to see what book tags existed I decided to do the Sim's book tag. I never personally played the sims but I love watching Dan and Phil from DanandPhilGames play the sims. This tag was created by Hailey in Bookland (click for original video) her channel is also amazing so if you have not checked it out yet you should. I was not tagged by anyone but I am doing it anyways!

🚨 means spoiler. Skip question to avoid spoilers

1. The original Sims: the best author debut.

There are so many debut novels that I absolutely love. It is so hard to choose the best one so I decided to pick a recent one which is The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan. TW for suicide and depression in this book. This book follows a girl name Leigh who is half white half Taiwanese. Her mother committed suicide and she is convinced she turned into a bird. Leigh travels to Taiwan to visit her grandparents on her mother's side which she has never met before as well. I am half Taiwanese (half Chinese) seeing Taiwanese representation in this book was amazing and it was accurate. The author is also Taiwanese so it is own voices. The writing was so good and the story was very intriguing, both past (flashbacks) and present. It was such a good debut novel and one of my all time favorite books.


2. The grim reaper: the saddest character death. 🚨 (SKIP IF HAVE NOT READ BOOK TO NEXT Q)

There are so many books with sad character deaths that it is so hard to just pick one. I think one of the saddest was in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Dobby and Fred. Dobby is completely innocent and does not deserve to die and how cold you separate the twins. It is cruel. My heart still hurts to this day.








3. Sims getting stuck: a character that just got in the way. 🚨 (SKIP IF HAVE NOT READ BOOK TO NEXT Q)

I think this question means a character that was in a way intruding something or just complicated things. I am confused because this could mean a number of things. So I think I will go with a character that kept interrupting something. Do you get it. Hopefully and for this one I will have to go with a character from P.S. I still love you. John Ambrose McClaren. I think that is his name. He kept getting in the way of my ship. I ship Lara Jean and Peter so when I new love interest was introduced in book two I was already done with the love triangle drama and it honesty made my reading experience with this book a lot worse. So he did get in the way of my ship and this is how I am going to answer this question.


4. Simlish: a book with amazing writing.

The answer to this question has to go to the one and only Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Lani Taylor. I love Lani Taylor's writing and am so mad I did not read this book earlier. This book is actually the only book I read so far by this author and I really need to read her other books and finish this series because it is also so good. Lani Taylor's writing flows very well and nothing is very choppy. It was very poetic in a way. The writing is also unique compared to a lot of the other YA books I read in the past so it was a very pleasant surprise.






5. Expansion packs: a series where the books kept on getting better.

The perfect answer to this question is to one of my all time favorite series which I have not read the last book yet whoops. That is The Falling Kingdom Series by Morgan Rhodes. In my opinion each book just gets better and better. I am so scared to read the final book. This series is a high fantasy YA series often compared to Game of Thrones as the YA version. There are a lot of similarities between the two but there are also a lot of differences. Every time I finish a book in The Falling Kingdoms series, I needed the next book pretty much immediately. And the next book never disappoints and is better than the previous fom what I remember.


6. Sims romance: the worst case of insta love.

Okay this book has insta love because of the title but it still was executed so badly it was one of the worst cases I have read about. This book is The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith. I hated this book actually because of the way it was executed and the writing style. So obviously this book has insta love ad I was prepared but it was done so badly that I just did not like it at all and it just made me not like the book more when I was already not liking the book for numerous different reasons. Overall not for me but hopefully if you read it you will enjoy it more than I did. I did enjoy some of her other books though. This book could totally go to the net question too.


7. Cheats: a book that was entirely unrealistic. (not fantasy)

Like I said, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight for this prompt too but I want to feature a different book so for this one I am going to say One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus. I did enjoy the book but I also had problems with it. Fist off I hated the ending but that is not the point. The one thing that I found super unrealistic is that if there is an app or website posting things that are hurting people and invading their privacy in a way, the administration should be addressing the issue because it is their responsibility or would the parents try to do something about it? I feel like the lack of adult interference in this book is kind of unrealistic.




8. Needs fulfillment: a character who made all the wrong decisions.

For this one I am going to have to go with Clary Fray in City of Lost Souls. I will be honest, she did make some good decisions but she made this one decision that drove me absolutely crazy in this particular book that made me not like her even more than I already did. If you follow me on my Instagram @andreasbookishthoughts you would know that Clary is not one of my favorite character. She makes unrational decisions throughout the series as well but there was a particular scene where she made a certain decision in this book that annoyed the crap out of me.



9. Error code 12: a series that started off great but went downhill from there.

We are going old school and I am choosing the Divergent series by Veronica Roth. If I reread the books today, I probably would give Divergent (book 1) 3 stars or even two. I know I would not like it as much as when I was younger. I loved Divergent when I first read it and it instantly became a favorite. After reading so many better books this book has been removed from my favorites shelf but it still has a special place in my heart. Insurgent was still really good and I liked it a lot but it was not as good as the first one. Then Allegiant came along. I did not like this book at all. I surprisingly did not hate the ending of Allegiant, the book was just boring and in a way not for me.


10. The Sims vortex: a book/series that completely engrossed you.

There are so many books for me to choose from but for this one I think I will have to go with Renegades by Marissa Meyer but I love all of Meyer's books. The Lunar Chronicles are also on my all time favorites list! I read Renegades earlier this year and I absolutely fell in love with the story as soon as I started it. I love the characters, I love the story line, and I love the writing. I could not stop thinking about this book for a long time after I finished. It was that good and definitely my favorite read of the year so far.


11. Who do you tag?

This is an old tag so IDK but if you want to do it then I tag you.

Thank you so much for reading. It has been way to long since I have done a tag post and I really enjoy doing these and want to do more in the future. Until next time bye.

The Astonishing Color of After (Spoiler Free) Review

Title: The Astonishing Color of After
Author: Emily X.R. Pan
My rating: 5 /5 stars
Date Read: 5/26/18

Trigger warning for suicide and depression

The Astonishing Color of After is about a girl name Leigh who is half white half Taiwanese. Her mother commits suicide and Leigh is convinced she turned into a bird when she died. Leigh travels to Taiwan in this book to visit her grandparents on her mother's side of the family who she never met before trying to figure out why. This book has a lot of flashbacks as well which really added to the story.

I have been to Taiwan before as my mom's side of the family is from Taiwan. My grandparents moved to the US since before I was born so I never visited them in Taiwan and unlike Leigh's grandparents, they speak English. I do relate with struggling to communicate with your grandparents with my dad's side of the family since they only speak Cantonese and I know like 5 words and four of them are 1, 2, 3, and 4.

In this story Leigh learns a lot about her mother's side of the family and she learns to appreciate more of her culture on her mom's side. 

When reading this book, I wanted to know what happens next and I flew through this book. It has short chapters so despite it being a lot longer than I thought, I read it fairly quickly. I wanted to know what happens next in the flashbacks and in the present which normally does not happen.

This book is like a contemporary but not really. It has some kind of magical element to it. Maybe magical realism. I do not know exactly what magical realism is but I have heard people call it that.

Overall I highly recommend this book but please keep in mind that this book deals with suicide and depression. Remember mental health comes first.

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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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