February Wrap-Up and March TBR

           

1- Oblivion (3/5)
    I read Obsidian almost 3 years ago, and I haven't really continued on with the series even though I wanted to... So when I saw that the ebook for Oblivion, the series from Daemon's point of view, was really cheap, I decided to buy it and see if by reading it, it would maybe get me more excited to read the other ones. To be honest, I don't think it was very well written. I don't really like some of the stuff that happened or how the relationship between Katie and Daemon form, but this is almost like a guilty pleasure type thing. I find it entertaining even though I don't think it is necessarily good. 
       This book was on my February TBR so √
       
2- Code Name Verity (3.5/5)
     I have a review on Code Name Verity that you can check out by clicking here.
        This book was on my February TBR so √

3- Anna and the French Kiss (5/5)
     I wrote a review of this book here!
       This book was on my February TBR so √

4- The Clockwork Scarab (3/5)
     I've never read a steampunk book before so it was quite interesting to read this one. I liked that it had to badass female protagonists! However, I had a lot of problems with it. I didn't see any chemistry between any of the characters, and the plot was kinda all over the place. A lot of things were introduced/mentioned but not really resolved. I'm guessing most of it was to introduce topics that will be bigger on the other books, but that bothered me a bit. I love the cover and the cover under it. I'm not sure if I'll continue one with the series... 

MARCH TBR

Cinderela Pop
   
     This is a book written by a Brazilian author and I'm not sure if it had been published anywhere else. But I'm excited because it is a retelling of Cinderella, and it's part of a series of retellings and I love the other two books. 

Cintia é uma princesa dos dias atuais: antenada, com opiniões próprias, decidida e adora música! 

Essa princesa pop morava com os pais em um castelo enorme de onde via toda a cidade. Todas as noites ela olhava pela janela, onde ficava admirando a vista e sonhando... com um príncipe que ainda não conhecia.

Porém um dia o castelo de Cintia desmoronou e com ele tudo à sua volta. Desiludida, ela deixou de acreditar em romances e teve que reconstruir cada parte de sua vida, sem deixar o mínimo espaço para o amor.

Ela só não contava com um detalhe... Havia mesmo um belo príncipe em sua história. E tudo que ele mais queria era descongelar o coração da nossa gata (nada) borralheira!

The Princess Bride 

      This is my Book Club's pick of the month. To be honest I have never actually seen the movie so this is gonna be interesting. 

What happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince of all time and he turns out to be...well...a lot less than the man of her dreams?

As a boy, William Goldman claims, he loved to hear his father read the S. Morgenstern classic, The Princess Bride. But as a grown-up he discovered that the boring parts were left out of good old Dad's recitation, and only the "good parts" reached his ears.

Now Goldman does Dad one better. He's reconstructed the "Good Parts Version" to delight wise kids and wide-eyed grownups everywhere.

What's it about? Fencing. Fighting. True Love. Strong Hate. Harsh Revenge. A Few Giants. Lots of Bad Men. Lots of Good Men. Five or Six Beautiful Women. Beasties Monstrous and Gentle. Some Swell Escapes and Captures. Death, Lies, Truth, Miracles, and a Little Sex.

In short, it's about everything. 

Wormwood 
  
    This actually was my cousin's book and she gave it to me. To be honest, it is not the type of book I would ever pick up to read if I didn't have it in the first place. It's been sitting on my shelf for more than a year and I just picked its name out of my TBR jar so I guess I read it. 

In 1756 London, Agetta Lamian fears the end of the world is near. She's the housemaid of Dr. Sabian Blake, who recently acquired a legendary book said to unlock the secrets of the universe, and overhears his prediction that a comet called Wormwood is headed toward London.

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Book Review: Code Name Verity

I have two weeks. You'll shoot me at the end no matter what I do.

That's what you do to enemy agents. It's what we do to enemy agents. But I look at all the dark and twisted roads ahead and cooperation is the easy way out. Possibly the only way out for a girl caught red-handed doing dirty work like mine - and I will do anything, anything to avoid SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden interrogating me again.
He has said that I can have as much paper as I need. All I have to do is cough up everything I can remember about the British War Effort. And I'm going to. But the story of how I came to be here starts with my friend Maddie. She is the pilot who flew me into France - an Allied Invasion of Two.
We are a sensational team.

Rating: ★★★.5

Code Name Verity was a very interesting read. This was the book that my book club chose for this month, and I was very excited because I had heard good things about it. The story is about an Allied spy captured by the Nazis during World War II, who is being tortured into writing a confession detailing the British war effort. The woman decides to tell such information through the story of her best friend Maddie, the English pilot who brought her to France.

There are a lot of things that make this novel great, but there are also things that I didn’t like about it. And that’s why my rating is 3.5 out of 5. The author must have had to do so much research to write this story! It’s amazing the amount of detail, and most of it are things that we don’t usually hear in History class. I love that the two main characters are women. I never knew to what extent they were able to help with the war effort, and it was really cool to see that, although most were put in inferior positions than men who sometimes had less knowledge/experience than them, many women held very important roles. I really enjoyed learning more about this side of the war, about the Allied forces, since most of the WWII related books I’ve read are more focused on Germany and the Jews.

However, to be honest, for more than half of the book I was kinda bored. I didn’t really care that much about Maddie’s story, and not a lot of action was happening. If you’ve read the book, you know that things change at a bit after the middle of the novel, and you begin to find out plot twists that you didn’t even know where happening. Although that made the book ten times better for me, it was a bit too late for it to be completely redeemed in my eyes. It was like the second part was saying “hey, here is why the first part wasn’t so boring after all!” But you can’t erase the fact that it was boring while I was reading it. 

My favourite part about the book, besides the historical things I learned while reading it, was the characters. They were so great, especially the two main ones, and so easy to relate to! Two strong female protagonists aren’t so easy to find, so it was nice to see them being so badass in a time where gender equality was less common it is today. 

        I recommend this book if you're looking for a historical fiction that shows a different side of the war, and that has two great female protagonists! 

January Wrap-Up and February TBR

Happy New Year everyone!! I hope all of you get to read amazing books this year! I plan on reading 50 books in 2017, the same goal I set for myself for last year. The month of January started well, I read the three books that were on my TBR for the month! Here they are:



1- Night 
    
   I don't really want to rate this book since it's a true story and all. I don't feel comfortable doing so.
But I can still say that this was a very well written book. With a good pace and, although really sad, super interesting as well. The ending felt a bit rushed compared to the rest of the story, but I learned a lot about the terrible thing that was the Holocaust, from someone who was in a concentration camp.


2- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - The Original Screenplay (5/5)

      It was absolutely amazing to read the screenplay of this incredible movie. I have never read a full screenplay before, so it was very insightful and really cool to see how the movie came to life from this script. I love the cover and the little illustrations in it. I hope she publishes the screenplays of the next movies in the series as well. 




3- Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Hammer of Thor (4/5)
     
   As some of you know, I am not the biggest fan of Magnus Chase. (I have a review of the first book if you wanna check it out) I went to Rick Riordan's book tour for the Hammer of Thor and it was really cool. I definitely liked this one more than the first. I've moved on from my initial shock of comparing it to the Percy Jackson series. I know I shouldn't compare them! But I can't help it! This novel was funny and entertaining through out. Unfortunately it wasn't one of those books where I can't put it down. I have to admit I spent one or two days without even opening it. But overall it was a good read and I recommend it if you are a Riordan fan. 


FEBRUARY TBR

Oblivion
   I read Obsidian almost three years ago (I can't believe it's been that long!) when I got a free ebook copy. I saw this recently for a very cheap price on Kindle, so I bought it. It is Obsidian, but from Daemon's point of view. I have yet to read the next books in the series. Hopefully by reading this one, I will get excited to read the rest.

I knew the moment Katy Swartz moved in next door, there was going to be trouble. Lots of it. 

And trouble’s the last thing I need, since I’m not exactly from around here. My people arrived on Earth from Lux, a planet thirteen billion light years away. Plus, if there’s one thing I know, it’s that humans can’t be trusted. We scare them. We can do things they only dream about, and honestly, we make them look weak as hell. ‘Cuz they are. 

But Kat is getting to me in ways no one else has, and I can't stop myself from wanting her—or wanting to use my powers to protect her. She makes me weak, and I’m the strongest of our kind, tasked with protecting us all. So this one simple girl…she can mean the end for us. Because the Luxen have an even bigger enemy—the Arum, and I need to stay on my game. 

Falling for Katy—a human—won't just place her in danger. It could get us all killed, and that’s one thing I’ll never let happen...

Code Name Verity
    This is my Book club's book of the month and I quite excited to read it. I've been quite interested in reading World War II related books recently, and I've heard a lot of good things about it!


That's what you do to enemy agents. It's what we do to enemy agents. But I look at all the dark and twisted roads ahead and cooperation is the easy way out. Possibly the only way out for a girl caught red-handed doing dirty work like mine - and I will do anything, anything to avoid SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden interrogating me again.

He has said that I can have as much paper as I need. All I have to do is cough up everything I can remember about the British War Effort. And I'm going to. But the story of how I came to be here starts with my friend Maddie. She is the pilot who flew me into France - an Allied Invasion of Two.

We are a sensational team.

Anna and the French Kiss
    I have been wanting to read this book for so long! I just picked its name out of my TBR jar (yes, I made a jar. I have too many unread books on my shelves, I need a way to finally force myself to read them), and I'm so glad I did so because I've been feeling like reading a romance contemporary for a while now.


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?

Favourite Books of 2016

         2016 was a good year in terms of reading for me. I read 53 books and that is the most I've read in a year ever! My Goodreads challenge was to read 50 books so I'm glad I surpassed my goal. I, again, set my goal for 50 books in 2017 because I don't want to overwhelm myself and I feel like 50 books is a reasonable goal for me to achieve. I've made a favourites post for 2014 and 2015 and I can't believe I've had my blog for this long! In March, my blog will be celebrating three years! A reminder that these are my favourite books that I read this year, they were no necessarily published in 2016. This list is also not in any particular order. Some books represent the whole series (if I read all of them this year, like: Shatter Me, The Knife of Never Letting Go, Legend, and The Elite).

November Wrap Up and December TBR

1- Nation (4/5)
         This was my Book Club book of the month for November. At first I thought it was very slow paced and kinda boring, but it got better and better and by the end I thought it was very entertaining. I really liked Terry Pratchett's writing style and the characters and the story that he created were truly awesome.
        This book was in my November TBR so √

2- Of Mice and Men (3/5)
         At school my English class read 1984 for our novel unit, but some of the other English classes read Of Mice and Men. Some of my friends had really liked it and when I saw that the book was super short I thought "Why not?" and then I read it to see what all the fuss was about. I definitely thought it was entertaining and well written, but it didn't spark much emotion in me so then I didn't really love it or anything. It's okay, but I don't think I would ever read it again. 

                           3- Legend (4/5)
         This is my book club's pick for December. Although it did remind me a lot of other dystopian novels that I have already read, I think that the plot was well done and the characters were quite interesting. I personally thought that Marie Lu's writing style was quite similar to my own, so it was kinda weird to read it. The romance in it felt a bit too instant for me, but I just started reading Prodigy and I can see that things are taking a different turn than the first book. 


DECEMBER TBR

Prodigy
       
    After reading Legend I can't wait to read the rest of the series!


Injured and on the run, it has been seven days since June and Day barely escaped Los Angeles and the Republic with their lives. Day is believed dead having lost his own brother to an execution squad who thought they were assassinating him. June is now the Republic's most wanted traitor. Desperate for help, they turn to the Patriots - a vigilante rebel group sworn to bring down the Republic. But can they trust them or have they unwittingly become pawns in the most terrifying of political games?


Champion


June and Day have sacrificed so much for the people of the Republic—and each other—and now their country is on the brink of a new existence. June is back in the good graces of the Republic, working within the government’s elite circles as Princeps-Elect, while Day has been assigned a high-level military position. 

But neither could have predicted the circumstances that will reunite them: just when a peace treaty is imminent, a plague outbreak causes panic in the Colonies, and war threatens the Republic’s border cities. This new strain of plague is deadlier than ever, and June is the only one who knows the key to her country’s defense. But saving the lives of thousands will mean asking the one she loves to give up everything. 

Night

     This is a non fiction book about a Holocaust survivor. I read one last month, and this other one was recommended by my History teacher and apparently it is way better than the one that I read, so I am excited to read it. 


Night is Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by Marion Wiesel, Elie's wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal memoir in the language and spirit truest to the author's original intent. And in a substantive new preface, Elie reflects on the enduring importance of Night and his lifelong, passionate dedication to ensuring that the world never forgets man's capacity for inhumanity to man.


Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them screenplay

         After watching the movie I just had to buy this!


When Magizoologist Newt Scamander arrives in New York, he intends his stay to be just a brief stopover. However, when his magical case is misplaced and some of Newt's fantastic beasts escape, it spells trouble for everyone…

Signed books from Writers' Conference

     At the end of October, I volunteered at a Writer's Conference and it was amazing! I got to meet so many authors and fellow writers, and got to attend great workshops! I definitely recommend going to Conference and events for writers, particularly if you are a young writer. There was a singing session in one of the days and I got a few books signed, and I am going to tell you guys a little bit about them, and hopefully you will read them and like the authors as much as I liked meeting them.

1- A Bollywood Affair 
        The cover is so pretty and Sonali Dev is so nice! She also had some great workshops and I am excited to read her book!

     Mili Rathod hasn’t seen her husband in twenty years—not since she was promised to him at the age of four. Yet marriage has allowed Mili a freedom rarely given to girls in her village. Her grandmother has even allowed her to leave India and study in America for eight months, all to make her the perfect modern wife. Which is exactly what Mili longs to be—if her husband would just come and claim her. 

     Bollywood’s favorite director, Samir Rathod, has come to Michigan to secure a divorce for his older brother. Persuading a naïve village girl to sign the papers should be easy for someone with Samir’s tabloid-famous charm. But Mili is neither a fool nor a gold-digger. Open-hearted yet complex, she’s trying to reconcile her independence with cherished traditions. And before he can stop himself, Samir is immersed in Mili’s life—cooking her dal and rotis, escorting her to her roommate’s elaborate Indian wedding, and wondering where his loyalties and happiness lie.

2- The Eyre Affair

        When Jasper Fford talked about his books to us and the way he writes, I had to immediately buy this one! It sounds insane but good and I am so excited to read it! 

Welcome to a surreal version of Great Britain, circa 1985, where time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, veryseriously. England is a virtual police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem, militant Baconians heckle performances of Hamlet, and forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense. All this is business as usual for Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary detection, until someone begins kidnapping characters from works of literature. When Jane Eyre is plucked from the pages of Brontë's novel, Thursday must track down the villain and enter the novel herself to avert a heinous act of literary homicide.

3- The Professionals 

       Owen Laukkanen said that he got inspiration for this novel from his friends, and that sounds strange but cool. His workshop was great and I got to help out in it! Although this isn't a book I would normally buy, I am excited to read it and find out more about it.

Four friends, recent college graduates, caught in a terrible job market, joke about turning to kidnapping to survive. And then, suddenly, it's no joke. For two years, the strategy they devise-quick, efficient, low risk-works like a charm. Until they kidnap the wrong man.

Now two groups they've very much wanted to avoid are after them-the law, in the form of veteran state investigator Kirk Stevens and hotshot young FBI agent Carla Windermere, and an organized-crime outfit looking for payback. As they all crisscross the country in deadly pursuit and a series of increasingly explosive confrontations, each of them is ultimately forced to recognize the truth: The true professionals, cop or criminal, are those who are willing to sacrifice . . . everything.

4- Dragonfly in Amber

        Even though I have never read Outlander, I had to get a book signed by Diana Gabaldon, because I know that one day when I read it, I will probably love it and I couldn't let the opportunity to meet her pass. Outlander was sold out so I got the second book. Hopefully I will read it soon. 

For nearly twenty years Claire Randall has kept her secrets. But now she is returning with her grown daughter to Scotland’s majestic mist-shrouded hills. Here Claire plans to reveal a truth as stunning as the events that gave it birth: about the mystery of an ancient circle of standing stones... about a love that transcends the boundaries of time... and about Jamie Fraser, a Scottish warrior whose gallantry once drew a young Claire from the security of her century to the dangers of his.
 
Now a legacy of blood and desire will test her beautiful copper-haired daughter, Brianna, as Claire’s spellbinding journey of self-discovery continues in the intrigue-ridden Paris court of Charles Stuart... in a race to thwart a doomed Highlands uprising... and in a desperate fight to save both the child and the man she loves.

September Wrap-Up & October TBR

          School came back in September but even with all the homework, I still had time to read 4 book which was pretty awesome! 

1- Graceling (5/5)

          I reread Graceling because this is my book club's book of the month! I have a review on it if you wanna check it out! (I also have a review of Fire, the second book in the trilogy). 

          This book was on my September TBR so √

2- Clockwise (4/5)

         You can check my review of Clockwise by Elle Strauss by clicking here.

3- The Ask and the Answer (4/5)

         I have a review of The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness that you can read by clicking here.

4- Monsters of Men (4/5)

         I also have a review of Monsters of Men, by Patrick Ness. Click on this link to check it out.

OCTOBER TBR

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard - The Sword of Summer 

       

          I'm finally reading this book because I'm going to one of Rick Riordan's book tour event of The Hammer of Thor (the second book in the series) and I am so excited! (I actually already read half of the book last month but I guess it will be featured on the October Wrap-Up post)

Magnus Chase has always been a troubled kid. Since his mother’s mysterious death, he’s lived alone on the streets of Boston, surviving by his wits, keeping one step ahead of the police and the truant officers.

One day, he’s tracked down by a man he’s never met—a man his mother claimed was dangerous. The man tells him an impossible secret: Magnus is the son of a Norse god.

         I don't know what else I'll be reading but I am feeling like reading a contemporary after this so... And I'm also definitely reading the next book that my book club chooses!

          I know this was a pretty quick post but if you guys have any recommendations of post please feel free to tell me on the comments! Any books /movies that you want me to review or any tags that you would like me to do! 

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July Wrap Up and August TBR

     

     I can't believe I read 6 books this month! That's awesome! The problem is that I only reviewed one of those six books... Oh well... 

1- Remember (3/5)

     Remember had basically the same style of Year of Mistaken Discoveries (also by Eileen Cook). Since I met her and she sounded super nice (and I actually really like her writing style) I decided to read another novel by her. This one, I believe, is the 2nd newest one (it's behind With Malice which is getting a lot of recognition which is awesome). This book was a typical contemporary, nothing really special about it. I enjoyed it and if you wanna read a book where you won't get too attached to the characters or plot, then I recommend it to you. It's one of those type of books where you read it and then you basically forget about it. It's nice to read at the time but that's it. 

     This book was on my July TBR so √

2- Prisoner of Night and Fog (5/5)

     You can check my review of this book here.

3- Bound by Duty (3.5/5)

     I got Bound by Duty as an ebook a long time ago because I got an email from Bookbub (which is great you should check it out) saying that it was free on Amazon so I thought "Why not?". Anyways, I am currently travelling and I only brought two books with me (I was planning on buying some during the trip so that was okay), but after finishing reading Prisoner of Night and Fog I didn't feel like reading my other book, The Knife of Never Letting Go, so I was checking the ebooks that I have (on my phone) and I decided to read Bound by Duty. I don't know why but when I read ebooks I just can't take them as seriously as I would've taken an actual book. So it's weird for me to review them because they for some reason sound like fanfics to me. The novel was actually quite entertaining and I wanna know more about it (so I'll be definitely reading the next book). The characters were okay and I didn't really like the instalove to be honest. Instaloves aways make me feel weird about it and I can't really trust the characters and I always think they are hiding something. Because we know more about Amelia than Aidan, so I don't really trust him. But overall, I liked the story and the plot too. 

4- Muito Mais que 5inco Minutos (3/5)

     This book is written by a Brazilian Youtuber called Kéfera Buchman. It's in Portuguese but I'll still share my opinion about it with you guys. To be honest I was expecting something completely different. It's not that I didn't like it, she basically told the readers about her life before she started her Youtube channel, but I don't think it was very well written. It didn't seem like it had any particular order of events, and it also didn't have a very clear theme. Like one time she would talk about her struggles with bullying and then she would talk about romance and first dates and then she would talk about something else completely different. I don't know... I just don't think she needed to write a book about that to be honest. 

     (By the way, the translation of the title is: A lot more than Five Minutes; her channel is called 5inco Minutos, aka Five Minutes)

5- Quando Tudo Começou (3/5)

     Another book written by a Brazilian. This one was written by a famous Blogger (also Youtuber but mainly a Blogger), who is also an author of more than five books, that I really like. This is actually a graphic novel, illustrated by Lu Caffagi, and I think that the best part of the thing was the illustrations. They are absolutely stunning! I love them! However, I think that the story was kinda pointless. It was about Bruna's, the author, first day on her new school, when she was younger, It was cute and all but nothing really happened and, as I said about Muito Mais que 5inco Minutos, this story didn't really need to be written. We weren't that curious about it and she could have easily told us that on a blog post or something. It was cute but unnecessary.

6- The Knife of Never Letting Go (5/5)

     Check out my review here.

AUGUST TBR

The Gunslinger

     My cousin recommended this book to me and now I'm at my other cousin's house and he has the book so now I'm reading it.  

 Beginning with a short story appearing in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1978, the publication of Stephen King's epic work of fantasy -- what he considers to be a single long novel and his magnum opus -- has spanned a quarter of a century. Set in a world of extraordinary circumstances, filled with stunning visual imagery and unforgettable characters, The Dark Tower series is King's most visionary feat of storytelling, a magical mix of science fiction, fantasy, and horror that may well be his crowning achievement.                                                             Book I                                                                           In The Gunslinger (originally published in 1982), King introduces his most enigmatic hero, Roland Deschain of Gilead, the Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting, solitary figure at first, on a mysterious quest through a desolate world that eerily mirrors our own. Pursuing the man in black, an evil being who can bring the dead back to life, Roland is a good man who seems to leave nothing but death in his wake.

Princesa das Águas 

     A Little Mermaid retelling written by a Brazilian author. I really like the cover and I'm excited to read this book!

 Uma releitura da história da Pequena Sereia, com a marca de Paula Pimenta, uma das mais importantes autoras brasileiras da atualidade. Arielle Botrel é uma nadadora famosa, prestes a viver o maior desafio de sua vida: participar das Olimpíadas pela primeira vez. Porém, ao contrário do que todos pensam, ela não possui tudo que deseja. Por ser a filha caçula de uma grande família, a garota é muito protegida e, apesar das medalhas e dos troféus, sonha com uma vida diferente, onde possa ser livre. Até que um dia um acidente faz tudo mudar. Arielle é apresentada a um mundo diferente... E nele existe alguém que vira sua vida de cabeça para baixo. Porém, para conquistá-lo, ela terá que abrir mão de sua voz. Será que Arielle vai conseguir conquistar esse príncipe sem palavras? E se no coração dele já existir outra princesa?