Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross

 “Birthdays were wretched, delicious things when you lived in Beau Rivage. The clock stuck midnight, and presents gave way to magic.

Curses bloomed.

Girls bit into sharp apples instead of birthday cake, chocked on the ruby-and-white slivers, and collapsed into enchanted sleep. Unconscious beneath cobweb canopies, frozen in coffins of glass, they waited for their princes to come. Or they tricked ogres, traded their voices for love, danced until their glass slippers cracked.

A prince would awaken, roused by the promise of true love, and find he had a witch to destroy. A heart to steal. To tear from the rib cage, where it was cushioned by bloody velvet, and deliver it to the queen who demanded the princess's death. 

Girls became victims and heroines.

Boys became lovers and murderers.

And sometimes... they became both.” 

This book, I actually read last year, but the long awaited sequel came out Tuesday, so I figured I would make a quick review. Because I love this book. Ish. I will try to write coherent thoughts. 

Stats:

Genre: Dark fairy tale retelling

Feelings: Some?

Happiness: Some snark and fun back and forth conversations.

Cuteness: I have mixed feelings about the romance. 

Fast pacing: Ish

Series: YES. And no. The new book, Tear You Apart, is a companion about Viv.

Read if you like: Once Upon a Time, and really dark fairy tales.

Content: Ehhhgggghhh. Some intense kissy stuff. Stupid romance thrown in. "Suggestive" comments. The most graphic it gets is the really annoying kissing with all the *BACK CLUTCHING* that makes me roll my eyes. 

In one sentence... A town where everyone gets a role in a fairy tale ending in death or sadness, and a girl on a mission for truth.

Thoughts: A apple, a blade, and dark flowers.

Overall:

Rating: 4.5/5

This review has LIGHT ROMANTIC SPOILERS in the negative section

The Lovely Bits:

I really like this book. When I say it's dark, I mean it. Fairy tale retellings can get old. But these are the types of fairy tales where Cinderella's stepsisters cut off bits of their feet. The dark kind. And it was glorious.

This is a very much concept driven book. After my first read, I did love the characters. I have given some thought and realized there's really more in it I didn't like that I thought. That being said, I still love the plot and story so much, it will remain a favorite.

The writing was lovely, thought simplistic. It was dark and weird, and very much pleasing. I ate up this whole book. Even the awful characters you kind of /like/.

I have so many mixed thoughts about Mira. She could be so obnoxious at times, but she was also realistic. She made terrible decisions but she was only 15. She was human. Wanting more. So I related with her. But there were times I wanted to smack that girl.

I feel like this is another case where I like the book so much that the little things in it that would normally disgust me don't bother me as much. I can understand why many people hate this book, but I loved it. 

The Less Lovely Bits

Before we get to the awful romantic square thing, I am going to talk about Mira. I did say she was relate-able, but she was also ridiculous. She complained about not being able to drive or go to parties. She said she could never date or watch R movies. I understand that Sarah Cross was trying to make it obvious that she is sheltered, but...she's 15. I'm 15. I am not allowed to go to wild parties or watch R movies and chance are I won't be dating for a long time. So instead of relate-able she came across of obnoxious.

Sarah Cross also I think made her a little too...mellow with things. She goes to this place and meets these weird people...including a girl who coughs up jewels and flowers...and calls it "weird".

What.

Okay. Now for the messed up romance. Before I say anything I'd just like to say that Blue, Felix, and Freddy...they're brothers. Yep.

Blue: The Bad Boy. The annoying teen with conveniently colored blue hair and sass. Least annoying out of all of them. But the forced tension with him and Mira was annoying. She's 15. Make this cute. Not weird.

Freddy: The Nice Guy. Oh but he's so dedicated to her! And if she is to go through with her role as sleeping beauty, he's her true love!

Felix: The Mysterious Man. A freakin 21 year old who shares a bed with her and DOES WEIRD THINGS. Stop. She's 15. Stop. He's making her feel obligated to do something, even to the point where she gets a nightgown and all that. She's 15. Never dated. And yet suddenly bravery and experience. 

Oh no, of course when Blue offers her a place to stay it's a terrible idea! But a 21 year old? Psh. Much better.

Here, look. I made a diagram for this.

Yeah. The romance of this novel sucked majorly.

Overall, I still finished this book loving it. I managed to swallow my furious-ness about the romance enough to realize that this story had so much promise and I really thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Partly also because the other not-main characters. Tear You Apart, the new one, has so much promise because it's about Viv, who is awesome.

I would definitely recommend this to people who have the patience for a weird love square and really like dark fairy tales. It's worth it.

Let's Get Lost by Adi Alsaid

“It was time to let go of the mad desire to remember. It was time to start living whatever life would come. In the present, not the past.” 

I've been so busy lately, so sorry I haven't posted in a while. But today, I bring you a review for a lovely book I just finished. It was quite predictable and probably cliche, but I really enjoyed it. Definitely produced some smiles.

Stats:

Genre: Contemporary. Road Trip book!

Feelings: Some happy flaily feels

Happiness: See above. I definitely grinned reading this.

Cuteness: The bits with Hudson were very insta-love, but honestly kinda adorable. But there was a lot of friend-cute.

Fast pacing: No, but this book is split up into five different "parts" so it was a very quick read.

Series: Nope.

Read if you like: Road trips, fluff, friendship stories, self-discovery sentimental reads. Also I think fans of Morgan Matson's Since You've Been Gone would like this. It has a similar DO ALL THE THINGS vibe.

Content: Light kissing, few cases of swearing, drinking. Some "rebellious" behavior, I guess.

In one sentence... Four different people meet one girl on her journey to see the northern lights, and the changes she makes in their life are nothing they would expect.

Thoughts: People coming and going. The sound of an engine running, loudly played music, running in the woods, swimming in a river, and the color red.

Overall:

Rating: 4.5/5 This is a tentative rating. I loved it and I consider it to be amazing, but that is more of a personal meaning to me. I am rating this not completely for quality but because I personally loved it. If I was going to be picky the rating might be smaller. 

This review has LIGHT SPOILERS

The Lovely Bits:

Okay I am just going to go out and admit it, I pretty much got this book from the cover. I've had friends give me lectures on that but I have no shame. Seriously who hasn't done that? And normally I like fantasy and adventures, with detectives or ghosts or misunderstood evil people doing bad things and...you know, being misunderstood. I do have contemporary books I love, but not as much. But this one? I couldn't help it. It was so cute. And that's what the whole book is. It's cute. Literary? No. Award winning? No. Influential? Not really. But it was cute and I liked it.

This book. I flew through the whole thing, becoming easily caught up in the story and the different characters. Everyone was damaged and interesting, even with their annoying moments. It was light, cute, but meaningful.

There was a lot of development, and I'm a sucker for character development. I also love stories about a bunch of random people being connected somehow. I also love road trips, and self-discovery books. So basically this was everything I could want.

Bree, I think was my favorite of them all, because her story was the most intense and serious. The writing was very simplistic while still being pretty. I don't think it was too obvious how hard he was trying to make it pretty.

It's hard to write my feelings about it? I read it at kind of the right time for me. Looking at it now, it's harder to figure out what it is I like. I think it's simply a case of a book having all the right components for me. 


The Less Lovely Bits: 

Leila was a little too perfect. Yes, she did had flaws. But it seemed like Adi Alsaid made this perfect girl, and then remembered he was supposed to add some flaws and sprinkled in some random things like a tragic back story and amnesia. She was likable and hate-able all at the same time.

(okay spoilers from here on out. Skip all the bold if you don't want spoilers)

Hudson. Okay he was sweet, and the insta-love wasn't too ridiculous. It wasn't the type where they know each other for a day and are planning to get married. It was more of a case where they knew each other for a day, they are attracted to each other, and they kiss, might have a future and stuff like that. But I didn't like how he came back in the end. I would have preferred if they both went their own ways and dealt with it. It seemed a little too pulled together and happy for me. Yes, this is a fluffy romance, but I still wanted Hudson and her didn't have a happy ending.

Also the random little girl whose name I don't remember at the end bugged me. She was annoying. When she got "lost" in the pathetic attempt for an intense climax I kind of wished she'd got eaten by a bear. Don't hate me. 



Overall, I did enjoy it. A lot. I would recommend it to those who don't mind a fluffy, kind of cliche read.

Also I really want to go on a road trip.

The Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J Maas

They had survived, when so many had not. And no one ­else could understand what it was like to bear it, unless they had lost as much.


Recently, I have finally finished the third book in Sarah J. Maas's Throne of Glass series, or what I like to call it: The Maas of Lots of Pain series. See what I did there?

Anyway. Long story short this series is amazing. In this post I will be writing quick reviews for the first two books and a longer one for the third. I read the first two last year, but I didn't want to just review the first two of a series.

Also. This is a post for the currently released books, seeing as there are going to be three more in the series.

Throne of glass is probably my least favorite out of them? It was amazing, but after reading all three, ths one isn't the greatets to me.

Stats:

Genre: High Fantasy

Feelings: Angry sympathetc ones

Happiness: Some? I just love Celaena

Cuteness: Not at this point, because I didn't like Dorian in this book.

Fast pacing: Ish? 

Series: Duh.

Read if you like: Kicking butt assasins who are still HUMAN and competitions and fantasy

Content: Violence, some swears.

In one sentence... The most feared assasin is hired as the kings champion in a fight to the death for freedom.

Overall:

Rating: 4/5

The Lovely and Less Lovely Bits:

This was a fun book. Instantly, I really liked Celaena. She was fierce and strong but still like pretty dresses even though she had daggers tucker underneath. Maas is a very good storyteller, and you could really see it. It was engaging enough to keep you into it, though at first all the competition stuff seemed a little cliche. 

The world was well crafted and you felt like you were really there decoding wyrdkeys with her. The characters were really fun to read, even the evil ones. I really love Sarah J Maas's writing. She's got a very to the point style, no tiring paragraphs about uninteresting things. 

This book was a little more info-dumpy, and really, a bit eh for all the hype this series gets. I am still completely happy that I continued in the series. It keeps getting better.

Crown of Midnight is lovely. It's fast and has some more interesting events in it. I had major book hangover after this one.

Stats:

Genre: High Fantasy

Feelings: Yes. A lot. 

Happiness: YES. OTP's that finally become canon.

Cuteness: YES.

Fast pacing: More engaging than the first.

Series: Gee....I wonder.

Read if you like: The first book? Hidden secrets, lying, more killing and more cute.

Content: Two characters sleep with each other off the page. Swearing, violence.

In one sentence... Things get more serious fast as secrets begin to come out about Celaena, her work, and her past.

Overall:
Rating: 5/5

Mild spoilers below about book couples.

The Lovely and Less Lovely Bits:

This one tore my soul out. Instantly you fall back into this world, and realize just how dense this story is. So much happens in so little pages. I have a lot of thoughts about this one.

First off, happiness. My OTP came true. Chaol and Celaena were so adorable and I love them so much.

You really got a lot more development on Celaena. Before she was cool, but a lot of her traits seemed really forced. In this one you get to see more of her, and I really appreciated that. A lot of characters you were so-so about begin to come out more, and you also get more about the pasts of characters.

There's a lot of twists. A lot of hidden secrets come out, and reveals that were next to impossible to see coming. Loss, love, determination. You will be left mouth hanging open. I still think this is my favorite of the series.

And finally, Heir of Fire. I was very much excited to read this. While it wasn't quite what I expected, I did enjoy all of it, and the ending left me out of breathe. 

Stats:

Genre: High Fantasy

Feelings: Mega ones

Happiness: Oh yes.

Cuteness: Eh?

Fast pacing: Ish.

Series: Guess.

Read if you like: FAERIES AND DEATH.

Content: Swears and violence.

In one sentence... More secrets are uncovered, new people are met, and darker dangers revealed.
Thoughts: Breaking and being fixed and breaking all over again.

Overall:

Rating: Tentative 5/5 

This review is SPOILER FREE

The Lovely Bits: 

The writing. The writing has matured quite a bit by now. The story is now denser, the characters a lot differnt. The changes you see in Celaena from book one to three are heartbreaking. I am so pumped to see how she changes. 

The story gets a lot more depth. Now we have witches, wyverms and Fae all bunched together. The Fae was a really intersting culture to read about. These weren't like any "faeries" I had ever read about. I don't want to give away too much, so I'll just leave it at that.

Also, the witches. Maas doesn't take shortcuts in developing the specie's in her stories. She doesn't call them just witches and leave you to picture warty old ladies in point hats. Nope. She describes their second eyelids, there way of life, even giving them iron teeth and claws. They're freaky, okay.

Sarah J. Maas really has a way of making you love and hate characters at the same time. She does that many times in this book. You start of hating someone and then all of a sudden you love them? What? She messes with your head. You're all set to want some character to go die in a deep dark hole but then suddenly you're clutching to them while crying.

Yeah. That's what this book is.

And Celaena's back story. The whole chapter where we learn everything that happened tore my soul to shreds. It was very different than what I was expecting.

Basically, this whole book was glorious.

The Less Lovely Bits

This book was freaking long. Honestly, I skipped most of the witch chapters. I was so engaged in everything else I wasn't that interested in the witch stuff. I felt like it should have been shorter or not there at all. 

While it was nice to have mean characters be actually good, it did get a little old. What was wrong with having a jerky character that wasn't on the evil side? There didn't always have to be some justifying reason to be cold.

The romance witch Sorscha and Dorian was really cute, but also felt a little rushed and unnecessary, though it did have some good character development.

Sarah J. Maas tends to have a POV chapter from every character. That is nice, but it's another thing that could be annoying.

Honestly, there wasn't much I didn't love in this. Everything was well thought out, but very dense.

Overall, I highly recommend this series. It's unlike anything I've read. It's a very unique way of storytelling, so I don't think it's for everyone. But I would defiantly give it a shot.

Far Far Away by Tom McNeal

“He says that all that happens when you go far, far away is that you discover you've brought yourself along.”

Again, a book has been presented to me with a gorgeous cover, an amazing synopsis, and promise of a really great story. And I walk away very disappointed. 

Don't get me wrong...it wasn't bad. It just wasn't what I wanted it to be.

Stats:

Genre: Fantasy-ish paranormal wanabe

Feelings: No.

Happiness: No, not really.

Cuteness: I honestly could care less about the "romance".

Fast pacing: No

Series: No. 

Read if you like: Grimm fairy tales, light concepts, quick romance

Content: Nothing, other than a few kisses that aren't described and stuff. This could basically be a juvenile fiction book.

In one sentence... A troubled teen aged boy and a feisty redheaded girl try to piece together a mystery, all from the point of view of the ghost of one of the Brothers Grimm.
Thoughts:  A beautifully baked cake, guys. Cake.

Overall:

Rating: 3/5 

This review has NO MAJOR SPOILERS

The Lovely Bits:

Okay. You see that one sentence summary I wrote? It sounds pretty darn cool. The concept itself is awesome. Narrated by the ghost of one of the Grimm Brothers? Um,  yes! Sadly other than the concept there were few lovely things I was happy with.

The writing wasn't bad. There were some characters I actually really liked. I think the "problem" is that this is a modern day story advertised as an old fashioned fairy tale retelling. While that does go well with the voice of the narrator, it left me unsatisfied at the end, seeing as I had been expecting something dark.

Really, this is one of those books where I had a lot of things I disliked but those didn't make it a bad book. So the "Lovely Bits" section is quite short, but I still think other people can enjoy this book as long as they really know what it's about.

The Less Lovely Bits:

First off, as nice as the synopsis sounds, it really ticked me off after finishing the book. Let's take a look.

On goodreads, it tells you exactly what this story is about. The ghost, Jeremy, the girl, and the mystery. But on the book itself it says something along the lines of:

"Then Ginger takes a bite of cake that is said to make that person fall in love with the first person they see...and for her its Jeremy"

Okay. Interesting. And it did happen.

But was not brought up again basically the whole freaking book. What? 

I was told this book was dark and creepy. I like dark and creepy things. I was expecting at least a Kill Me Softly level of creepy. I didn't get it. There were subplots thrown in there that felt forced and contrived, and very out of place in a story that's supposed to be dark and about Grimm fairy tales.

This was such an amazing concept. I just wish they would have done better. I wish they would have made Ginger less of a stereotyped "wild feisty" redheaded girl. She was a fun character. But I felt like she was too much like every other feisty heroine out there. There was nothing that really made her stand out to me.

Overall, it wasn't a bad book. It wasn't a good book. It wasn't lovely or not lovely. I think people can enjoy this if they know that it's really more of a contemporary with some fairy tale stuff thrown in. 

It's just a book that won't be sticking with me personally.