Dewey's 24hrs Readathon [TBR]

Yes, I've decided to sign up for Dewey's 24hrs Readathon in midst of my finals. (IKR?) Well, this readathon takes place on the 23rd April 2016 and every participants from all over the world would be starting at the same time. Since I'm located in Cardiff, I would be following the British Summer Time which starts at 1PM till 1PM of 24th April 2016. It's not a lot of time but I have studies to do while participating in this readathon, I'll just have to see what's gonna happen. 

Anyways, my TBR would be a simple one. I plan to finish up the rest of the novellas in Tales From the Shadowhunter Academy by Cassandra Clare and many other co-authors. I'm currently at 'The Evil We Love' and would be starting my readathon from there.

TBR List

Starting point: 4% of The Evil We Love

Pale Kings and Princes

Bitter of Tongue

The Fiery Trial

Born to Endless Night

Angels Twice Descending

After I'm done (if I actually did finish) Tales From The Shadowhunter Academy, I can finally start Lady Midnight (The Dark Artifices series)! But so far, the above is my TBR for Dewey's 24hrs readathon. 

Comment down below if you're joining this readathon and what do you plan on reading!

Summer 

Review: City of Heavenly Fire

City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A beautiful conclusion to the Mortal Instruments series. Despite the awfully thickness of this book, it was a swift read. The storyline flows much better than the four middle books in the series, perhaps I was in the mood to read it. (I take back my words, City of Fallen Angels is still my favourite of all.)

-below are spoilers to the series and The Infernal Devices series-

As usual, this book is written in multi-perspectives narrations and some bits in third person view. This book introduces new characters, such as Emma Castairs and her "institute family". I feel that her POV was not serving any purpose, whatsoever, other than Cassandra's effort to introduce readers to her incoming new series, "The Dark Artifices". The other most complained POV was Maia's. Despite all the dislikes, I find her stories do serve more purposes that Emma's.

After 6 books, I still do not feel any attachments to Clary & Jace and I think this is the main reason that this series isn't one of my favourite. However, I do enjoy reading them and my favourite is still Simon. Oh, Simon, my dearest. Yes and the special appearance of Tessa and Jem. *in tears of joy* I can't help myself to squeal in excitement whenever their names were mentioned and find myself sharing a inner joke with the character 'yep, I know what ya talking about'.

I do feel that Jem deserves a paragraph of me thanking him due to his contribution to me liking this book. So, thanks Jem.

Every series deserves a beautiful ending and I would say this book does its justice. However, I do think that it's a bit too long and I would do whatever for some of its length given to The Ruby Circle.

View all my reviews

[REVIEW] The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski

This is a book I did not expect to like or rate it high. To be honest, I was interested in reading this book because of its high ratings on Goodreads and rave by book tubers. Of course, the beautiful cover partly contributes. I'd gotten on reading it without knowing what is it about and the result was pretty shocking.

Goodreads synopsis: Winning what you want may cost you everything you love. 

As a general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions. One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction. 

Arin’s eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It’s not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin. But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined. 

Set in a richly imagined new world, The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski is a story of deadly games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is whether you will keep your head or lose your heart.

Firstly, I love the story. I believe it's because it's hard to guess what would happen next and you've no choice but to keep reading it. (I finish it in one evening.) I find it hard to explain the mixed feelings I had reading this. The starting was a blur, when the author starts introducing the two communities, Herrani and Valorian. It took me a few chapters to fully understand what's going on, I'm slow I know. So basically, the Valorian conquers the Herrani land years ago and the Herrani(s) are slaves to them. The main character, Kestrel is a Valorian and she stumbled upon an auction and bought a young slave Herrani. Of course, the rest would be the forbidden love between them.

However, there's a twist which I hadn't see it coming. (read the book) The whole plot twist really got me into the story and wanting more. From reading this, I felt the pain, the sorrow and the emotions are pretty strong. Kestrel was torn between being with her love one or loyal to her people. It might seem cliché but it's a whole new feeling while reading it.

Kestrel and Arin are one superb pair. They might be from the different communities but in fact they share the same passion and character. This leads them to each other and they can't help but to fall in love with each other.

Need I say more because the rest is for you to find out when you read it. I believe this is a dystopian, historical (kinda), young-adult fiction. It's the 1st book of The Winner's Trilogy. I highly recommend this because not many books surprise me as this does.

Summer

you can get this book from book depository: The Winner's Curse

[REVIEW] The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

I received this book from a Tumblr giveaway.

First impression - the cover is one of my favourite book covers. The photography is so stunningly beautiful. I believe this trilogy has the most beautiful and relatable book covers ever. However, they say 'do not judge a book by its cover and I find that idiom very suitable in reviewing this book.

Goodreads synopsis: Mara Dyer doesn’t think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.  

It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can’t remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed. 

There is. 

She doesn’t believe that after everything she’s been through, she can fall in love. 

She’s wrong.

As I implied above, yes, this book is not in my favourite list. It's enjoyable but the characters are annoyingly perfect. If this were my first young adult paranormal romance, I might hug this book and rave about Noah. The truth is that Twilight is my first YA paranormal romance so this book didn't struck me as appealing as it should be.

First off, Noah is the problem and the sadly protruded problem is him being too perfect. If you have not guess it already, yes, he is another hot-i-dont-have-to-study-but-i'm-smart-becoz-i've-photographicmemory-skipclasses-pickfights-becoz-dont-touch-my-girl-hotbody-changedgirlfriendslikecloths-but-i-see-you-are-the-one guy. Everything else is self-explanatory. On the other hand, our main heroine, Mara Dyer is the damsel in distress for Noah to be attracted to and saved. Actually, Mara does not get on my nerves that much because of her paranormal-ness but Noah does. His character struck me as too perfect and no character should be perfect for the story to go on.

"You have to be an artist and a madman, a creature of infinite melancholy, in order to discern, at once, the little deadly demon among the wholesome children," he said, his British accent melting around the words, his voice smooth and low. "She stands unrecognised by them and unconscious herself of her fanatic power."

Who the hell will say something like that?

Secondly, I like the creepy and eerie feelings during the first 1/3 of the book but how did it suddenly projected to some flowery high school romance drama. I wanted to know what's going on with Mara and all that was told is Noah is hitting on Mara. The relationship was widely mentioned because this is in fact, a paranormal romance novel.

Look on the bright side, I did enjoy this book as it was a fast read. The chapters are left off as mini cliffhanger and you would be eager to read the next chapter to find out what's going on. I also really impressed with the idea of Mara's ability. It's not vampire or werewolf or magic or fallen angel but something unexplainable. That idea of supernatural power is not something you would easily come across in fictions, even paranormal fiction.

Seeing that I sped through this book but unwilling to continue (maybe next time) the series, I gave it a 3-stars. If you like paranormal romance and Noah is your type of guy, maybe you'll love this book.

Summer

pretty cover book: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Almost everyone in the book world has been raving about this book and I cannot NOT check it out. There must be a reason for the whole hype, right? 

Goodreads synopsis: Can Anna find love in the City of Light? Anna is happy in Atlanta. She has a loyal best friend and a crush on her coworker at the movie theater, who is just starting to return her affection. So she's less than thrilled when her father decides to send her to a boarding school in Paris for her senior year. But despite not speaking a word of French, Anna meets some cool new people, including the handsome Étienne St. Clair, who quickly becomes her best friend. Unfortunately, he's taken —and Anna might be, too. Will a year of romantic near misses end with the French kiss she's waiting for?

Yes, it is an adorable-makes-you-feel-so-cuddly-and-good book. A book for remedy situations, for after break-ups (maybe?), for book-hangover, for RomCom desperate moments, for dateless measure and for Paree-lovers. If you are any of the above, you'd to pick this book up. 

First off, I love that Stephanie Perkins describes about the settings. Many RomCom books do not care for anything other than the two main characters. But when I was reading this book, I did feel like I'm actually with Anna in Paris and speaking français all these while. You can't help it. It's written everywhere. I could even smell the croissants.

Next, the storyline. Despite everything being perfectly structured in this book, the storyline was very cliché. It's another a-new-girl-in-school-meets-perfect-guy-but-with-family-problems kind of book, the "perfect-ending" book. If it's the book alone, the story is perfect but if you compare with the other RomCom around, the storyline will not standout. 

But I don't think the storyline is the aim of the book. This book is supposed to make you feel good and feel real. There's no save-the-world-apocalypse and no unsolvable-Will-Tessa-Jem, it was just simple romance and friends-family drama. 

In fact, the middle part of book was pretty heart-wrenching. (page 259) God, I cried a bucket for Anna. Maybe it's because I understand her feelings. It was awful, her narration sounded like she's going insane (metaphorically). I was almost shouting at the book, 'no Anna, you can't do that! You can't you can't!'. That's how deep the book affects me. 

However, one part really did annoyed me. I didn't know what the hell was St. Clair doing. The book explains the reason but me myself don't really comprehend it. Why? Why won't he break up with Ellie? I was as confused as Anna. 

Overall, it's a RECOMMENDED 5-stars YA contemporary read. I will definitely get Lola and the Boy Next Door and Isla and the Happily Ever After (coming out on 14th August 2014). I'm pretty excited for Isla and the Happily Ever After because Josh (from AaTFK side character) will be the main character of the book.   

READ THIS BOOK,

Summer

i'm getting it: Anne and the French Kiss 

Cress by Marissa Meyer

original post

The 3rd book of the Lunar Chronicles series. 

- SYNOPSIS LINK - (rather not read it since it’s the 3rd book of the series)

Goner. THIS WAS SO DAMN GOOD.

*The following contains spoilers of the series, if you have not started the series, you are advised to START READING IT NOW.*

When I was reading Cinder, I thought I would just ‘ship Cinder&Kai; then when I was reading Scarlet, I loved Scarlet&Wolf; when I was reading Cress, man, Cress&Thorne were so adorable. When I was ending Cress, I fell back to ‘ship of Cinder&Kai. wtfthisthisseriesdoingtomeman?

First off, the plot is very well thought off. It wasn’t just fairy tale retelling, where you could guess what would happen next. But, as the story flows, I was like ‘right, this happen in the original story’, instead of, ‘right, I knew this would happen’. Big Difference. 

Secondly, Cress&Thorne. Carswell Thorne was hilarious. His self-esteem, his jokes, his care for Cress and his blindness (what?) - Thorne, you’re my man. Cress is adorable. Little Crescent Moon, I love her. Her innocent crush towards Thorne and heart-breaks when she thought Thorne would not come and save her. Oh gosh, I couldn’t help but love her more. 

"Believe me, Cress. The pleasure was all mine."

CAN’T YOU NOT LOVE THEM?

I like that these books aren’t written just from one main character POV. They were written from various POVs and from that, we would know what’s happening at different venues. 

Thirdly, I can’t wait for Winter. It would be mind-blowing! A little sneak-peek of Winter while she talked to Scarlet. She’s a mad girl and she could foresee the future, I presume. I’m already in love with her. Plus, Jacin. He’s still a mystery but I’m anticipating. He would either be the prince for Winter or one of the 7 dwarfs. Oh, the 7 dwarfs, can’t wait to read about them!

Definitely a 5-stars on Goodreads.

Another review coming up,

Summer

To Get Into the Lunar Chronicles series:

Cinder / Scarlet / Cress

The Infernal Devices trilogy by Cassandra Clare

original post

I had to write this post as I couldn’t sleep. 

This post will not be a normal book review. It would just be a full post of me going on and on about how I love and hate this trilogy. Plus, I’m pretty sure there are tons of review about this trilogy already. I shall not go with the flow. 

I love this series God knows how much.

First book: Clockwork Angel SYNOPSIS LINK -

First off, why, William Herondale? Will, Will, Will, Will. I love him. I love him. He’s everything I adore about the classic (should be) Victorian era man. My love for Sherlock Holmes, my love for the Victorian era, my love for steampunk & paranormal & crime-mystery… the list goes on. Yes, Will. He’s too much for me to handle. He’s too much for me not to adore him. 

"The first time I showed you the library, you told me your favourite book was The Wide, Wide World. I thought you might want to know that I… read it." His head was down, his blue eyes looking up at her through those thick dark lashes; she wondered how many times he’d gotten whatever he wanted just by doing that. 

& that would be the part where I fell in love with Will, catastrophically. 

I would try hard not to detest the ending, of killing Will and letting Jem live with Tessa, forever. (Not forever because Jem is now a mundane.) I shall not think ill of Jem and think of this as the redemption for Jem’s kind heart. *cough* hardly *cough*

Oh, those book-covers are certainly most gorgeous I’ve ever seen. It’s hard to find the hardback of it and I’ve ordered them and waited for almost 2 weeks for the last book. Well, if you have not notice the inner dust jacket of Clockwork Princess, the family tree of the Castairs, Herondale and Lightwood family till the current TMI year. 

Yes, the writing. Cassandra Clare is a pure genius. It was so beautifully written, I just gone awe after I read the Clockwork Angel. Everything, even those chinese phrases (well, I do understand the pinyin) were of high-class. 

Actually, I was reluctant to continue the series after C.Angel but I heard spoilers all over the bookworld. Plus, my friend convinced me to & I’m glad I did. Overall, it was a perfectly written series. Plots, climaxes, writings, characters, foreign languages and book covers; everything killed me. 

Flaw, there was, but purely judgemental it seems. I didn’t enjoy Tessa’s fidgeting over 2 boys. Well, I believe in one-to-one relationship in books but that’s only my preference. How on earth can you fall in love with 2 persons at the same time? Maybe because they both were parabatai, that’s why Tessa could. 

Thanks cassandraclare, I’m now having the worst case scenario of post-series-hangover. Thank you for this amazing, beautiful written work. I’ve gone so attached to this series that I never thought I would have. It’s too magnificent, it’s like a star shines so bright at night and you couldn’t ignore it but stare in awe. 

Those who still have yet to give this series a go. Read it. Please please please. You’ll not be disappointed. 

Definitely 6-stars on goodreads,

Summer 

to get into the series:

Clockwork Angel / Clockwork Prince / Clockwork Princess 

or have a marathon:

The Trilogy box set (hardback) 

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

original post 

- SYNOPSIS LINK -

I did not enjoy this book, to be frank. The following is purely and explicitly my own personal opinion. If you’re a fan of the book, please don’t feel offended. 

First of, the cover. What’s with the straight lines and circles crossing all over the cover like tic-tac-toe? The cover photo is perfect without those funny lines and circles. Why? 

Second, the story. It’s a dystopian young-adult novel. It’s a YA yet most of things written were about marriage and pregnancy. Okay… Cecily, the child bride, was impregnated at such a young age. 14? You may say it’s a dystopian but it’s also a YA. 

Thirdly, there’s no excitement or even climax throughout the whole story. You may argue that the near-escaped of Rhine is one of the climax. But, it didn’t make me wanna continue reading the story. It was dead plain, most of the time, Rhine monologued and contracted with herself about her feelings towards Linden. Okay…

Fourthly, Linden. I don’t understand why Linden was not aware of what his dad was plotting all these while? Even the maids knew. Linden is such a blur, weak and pathetic man. #whyishelikethat?

Lastly, why no Rowan cameo? This is just my little disappointment. I was half-expecting Rowan to cameo out of nowhere to show “support” or something. But, all he did was acting as a flashback in Rhine’s dream and anecdote. 

— — — — — —

However, I really like how the author sets the tone of the book. It was calm and calm and even calmer. (That’s a bad thing?) I did feel the tone, although it made me sleepy. 

Plus, actually I was interested with the story but not how the storyline flow. I thought it would be creepy and mysterious, but Rhine just failed it. Rhine. Rhine. Rhine. 

This is a series so I think (hope) the rest of the series would make a big plot twist. But, I would not continue the series. I’m sorry.

Honest opinion,

Summer

eleanor & park by Rainbow Rowell

original post 

I’ve just finished this book like 5 minutes ago. & I have quite a million things to say.

- SYNOPSIS LINK -

First, when I first saw this book in Kinokuniya, I fell in love with the cover. It is just the cutest thing ever, the font and illustrations. I love the cover but I did not pick it up. I could not fell for pretty-book-covers books again. *It happens, all the time.*

Secondly, Why did I not buy it, it’s a New York Times Bestseller? I was on a budget that day. #life

Thirdly, this book haunts me all the time because it knew that I did not bring it home. I saw it all over booktube. So, I brought it during my third last book haul. (There’s another one coming soon.)

Fourthly, I finally read it, admired the cover 10millionth times, rolled around my bed every time Park does his goo-ing thing to Eleanor and almost-cried with it. 

Fifthly, there’s no fifthly actually. It just sounded not right ending with a 4. But, I’m still gonna write something. When I was reading halfway through it, I accidentally flipped to the second last page and saw the first line. I was almost in tears because I thought it was gonna be a bad ending. I didn’t like to be happy throughout the book and finally cried at the end. It’s just not a good feeling. 

…getting on to my review…

I would say, I love this novel. 

The sentences are short and sweet which portraits Rowell’s style. *if that’s really her style, I’ll read her other books to double-confirm* I like double narrators (what you call that) fictions, it shows what both parties really thinking. Because, if the authors did the right trick, they could really blew me off with their surprising plot twist. 

e&p did it. Partly because I was expecting a sad ending. The three words ending just blew me away. *spoilers alert* 

I love how Park falls in love with Eleanor. Eleanor wouldn’t couldn’t return his love. She can’t promise anything. She’s just trying all her best to return Park’s feelings and Park didn’t mind it until they went apart. Park literally broke down, into pieces. Luckily, and thank-god-ly, Eleanor picked up his pieces, fixed him up at the end, before Park really went broken. 

Not to mention, this book makes me laugh, like laughing out loud. I was reading it at the dentist and thank god, that’s not a hospital. I was at the part when Park was putting on eyeliner and his dad got so furious. I cracked. 

The other thing was the music. The list goes as wide as the sea. Rowell is fab with her music. I like them because I adore songs from those time. The list just makes me wanna cry. 

Why did I not cry? Interesting point. I TRIED. I couldn’t. I wanted. I just couldn’t. Hey, no excuse. I just ran out of tears. 

Did I mention Park’s dad? He was an amazing character. He was like Molly helping Sherlock behind the scene but stays behind the scene, get it? He was the one who kind-of sort-of pulled e&p together. He’s just Eleanor’s fairy godmother. 

I would rate this a 5-stars. Highly recommend to anyone who love-dovey, humorous, contemporary love-at-first-sight kind of story, you should definitely read this. In fact, everyone should read this, it just makes you feel like falling in love or all over again. 

This is my first book review ever. Actually I did some in my personal blog out of outbursts of emotions. This is my first official review on my first book blog ever. 

Thanks for stopping by,

Summer

getting to the book: eleanor & park (the version I have was out of order hence)