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.

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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!

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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!

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