Book Review: The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa

Today I am going to be sharing my review for The Lost Prince (The Iron Fey: Call of the Forgotten) by Julie Kagawa. This is the first book in the Call of the Forgotten series, which is sort of a spin off series to The Iron Fey series. This series takes place 13 years later with a new main character and such. I am a huge fan of the original Iron Fey series so this was a highly anticipated book for me. I will post the summary down below and then I will share my thoughts on the book!

Summary from goodreads:

Don’t look at Them. Never let Them know you can see Them.

That is Ethan Chase’s unbreakable rule. Until the fey he avoids at all costs—including his reputation—begin to disappear, and Ethan is attacked. Now he must change the rules to protect his family. To save a girl he never thought he’d dare to fall for.

Ethan thought he had protected himself from his older sister’s world—the land of Faery. His previous time in the Iron Realm left him with nothing but fear and disgust for the world Meghan Chase has made her home, a land of myth and talking cats, of magic and seductive enemies. But when destiny comes for Ethan, there is no escape from a danger long, long forgotten.




So basically, this book stars Ethan Chase, who is Meghan Chase's younger brother. In the very first book in the Iron Fey series, The Iron King, Meghan gets shoved into the world of Faery because Ethan (who is very young at the time) gets kidnapped and was brought into the Nevernever and she has to go rescue him. So it's thirteen years later, and Ethan is the main character. Unlike his sister who is half fey, Ethan is completely human but he has Sight, which is the ability to see the Fey. They have caused nothing but trouble for him his whole like so he pretty much loathes them and wants nothing to do with them. However, Ethan gets sucked into the world of Faery once again even.

I did give this book a 4/5 stars on goodreads, but I really have mixed feelings about it. Like I said before, I absolutely loved the original Iron Fey series so I had really high hopes for this book. With that being said, I was kind of disappointed. There were a number of things that bugged me about this book, Ethan being a major one of them. It's sad to say that I did not like his character very much, which really sucked for me because I thought Julie Kagawa did such an amazon job in her last book writing from Ash's POV so I really expected to like Ethan as well. I found him to be really annoying, he's really moody all the time and just has such a bad attitude. This totally threw me off. He got a little bit better as the book progressed but it wasn't enough to significantly change my opinion of him.

I really liked the concept of the story line in this book, but it started off really slow. It took over 100 pages for Ethan and his companion to get into The Nevernever and into Faery. This book is a perfect example of why I like reading high fantasy novels much more than kinds like this. I don't know how to explain it, but this book for me (even though Ethan is human) had too much human world and action for me. Like all I wanted was for them to be in the Nevernever more and have more of an adventure there (kind of more like Meghan's story). I know that might be kind of unfair for me to say, but non the less I was just bored during a lot of the story. I was also hopping to see more from the previous characters in this book. I was happy that Grimalkin was in this story sort of a lot though, since he is one of my all time favorite characters from this series. It was nice to see Puck and Ash make a few quick appearances, but I really wish there was more of Meghan in this story.

Besides Ethan's being the main character, there were his companions in this book Kenzie and Keirran. Unfortunately I already knew who Keirran was from reading the short novella The Iron Prophecy, which is fine but I feel like the story would have been better if I didn't know who he was and got to find out during this book. I wasn't a fan o Kenzie very much, either. She was also sort of annoying and it bothered me how she was always calling Ethan "tough guy". I really didn't like their relationship together either, I can't exactly put my finger on why but I just know something about it bugged me. I do like how Ethan opened up towards her and stopped acting like a complete A-hole though. It just seemed like the two of them lacked some kind of chemistry for me.

The reason I did give this book a 4/5 stars (I would probably would have said 3.5 if goodreads would have let me lol) was because I did find the concept of the story good, it was just lacking a lot of things. I will continue to read the next books in the series when they come out because I do still have high hopes for them. Hopefully, this first book was just boring because it was getting the story going. If you have read the Iron Fey series then I definitely think this one is worth the read too because anything to keep a story going after you think it's finished is a win for me!

I hope you all enjoyed me review and happy reading!

Book Haul #4

Hello Everyone! Today I am going to share a haul from Barnes and Nobel of books that I purchased this weekend. I really love going into Barnes and Nobel because there is just something so great about being in a bookstore. I normally purchase my books online from bn.com because they are cheaper, but since I don't live around a bookstore I tend to splurge a little bit when I go in them.

In Honor and Moonglass by Jessi Kirby. One of my favorite book bloggers, Sarah, from yaloveblog.com/ recommended me to read Jessi Kiry's books since I'm really into YA Contemporary books right now! I am really excited that I found both of these books on the shelves and I can't wait to read them! I absolutely love the cover of Moonglass, it's so pretty.

The Archived by Victoria Schwab. I was kind of skeptical about buying this book, I really wanted to try it out because it sounds so different than any other fantasy book that I've read. Sometimes when I pick up books like these, I tend to get disappointed if I don't enjoy them. I think I was too curious about this book though to not pick it up.

Lucid by Adrienne Stoltz and Ron Bass. This is another book that I'm really excited to read. It has tons of good reviews on goodreads and it's one I've been wanted to pick up for a while.


That is all for my book haul, I hope you all enjoyed and happy reading!

Book Review: Paper Towns by John Green

Hello Everyone! Today I am going to share my review for Paper Towns by John Green. I finished this book today and I absolutely loved it. John Green is a phenomenal writer (I can't say that enough times LOL) and his books never ceases to amaze me. This is the 4th John Green book that I have read, and next to Looking for Alaska this one might be my next favorite (maybe). Now on to my review!

Summary from Goodreads:

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows.

After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew.



So basically this book is about Quentin, or Q, the main character who grew up with his neighbor named Margo, and they were best friends when they were younger. They obviously grow apart during high school and Margo is pretty, popular etc. Q has a lot of friends but they don't run in the same crowd as Margo's friends. One night Margo shows up at Q's window in the middle of the night and takes him on adventure through town and he has the time of his life spending time with her. After that night, Margo runs away and disappears. Margo has run away before, but has always left clues to where she has gone. So Q thinks that she has left clues for him to find her, and he goes on a wild goose chase looking for her with the help of his two best friends. His friends Ben and Radar help him figure everything out, and he also makes friends with one of Margo's friends named Lacey. Q and everyone else soon finds out that the Margo they thought they knew, wasn't really the real Margo after all. As they are looking for clues they are trying to figure out the question no one really wants to ask, is Margo still alive?

I don't think I have ever read a book where an author was so great at writing their characters as John Green is at writing his. They have so much personality and are so well developed it's amazing. With that being said, I loved all of the characters in this book. Every single one of them. I really enjoyed Q's character because he is so determined to find Margo, and he's quirky and funny, and just so real. I also really like Margo because she was such a mystery to use a lot of the time, she reminded me of myself a little bit. She keeps a hidden notebook and is always writing. She has lot of interest that she doesn't share with anyone, like her record collection because these things are too personal. She leaves clues for Q in a Walt Whitman book, and I just love that. I feel like she is such a deep person and it's just amazing for us and Q to uncover that part of her.

The only issue I had with this book was that about after page 100 or so the book got a little slow for me and dragged a little bit. The first 100 pages or so while Q and Margo are on their adventure was great and fast paced, but then it slowed down until like last maybe 100 pages then it picked up again. I really liked the ending to this book as well. I really thought it ended perfectly but at the same time I always want to know more or what is going to happen after ending like this. I'm always sad to see them end because I just want so much more for the characters.  I gave this book a 5/5 stars on goodreads because I just adored this book so much!

I am currently reading The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa so look forward to a review on this book very soon!

Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed this review!

Book Review: The Dollhouse series by Anya Allyn (Dollhouse and Paper Dolls)

Today I am going to be doing reviews on the first 2 books in the Dollhouse series by Anya Allyn, which are Dollhouse and Paper Dolls. I got the first book in the series free on my kindle from bookbub.com (regular $2.99) and the second book I purchased on my kindle for $3.99. As I have stated in a pervious post about free or cheap kindle books, I am always kind of skeptical of reading them because sometimes I don't find them to be as good as regular priced books. I know there are some great books out there that are free and cheap (as I have also stated before) but sometimes they are hard to find. I went into reading Dollhouse without really knowing what it was about other than from when the description said. I did not look at any reviews for it etc, because I wanted to go into it and form my own opinions.

I first off want to say that there is a number of things that I like and also dislike about these books. I rated them each a 3/5 stars on goodreads. I am in no way trying to make this a negative review, but rather I am posting an honest review. Also, I want to forewarn everyone reading that these reviews will probably contain some spoilers, but I will try to keep them as minimal as possible.

Summary from goodreads:

Fifteen year old Aisha disappears in the forests on a school hiking trip. She's the latest in a string of children to vanish there over the past five years. The towns surrounding the forests are on edge and they demand answers. And wildboy Ethan—Aisha's boyfriend—is on the run after he and his grandfather are blamed for Aisha's disappearance.

Cassie is just about the only friend Ethan has left. She's been secretly in love with him ever since her mother dragged her to the wilds of Australia from Florida six months ago. 

Desperate to prove Ethan's innocence, Cassie searches the forests with Ethan to find out what really happened to Aisha. But Ethan's growing strangely silent, and Cassie's left questioning if her feelings for him are clouding her judgment. 

Cassie discovers a dark secret lurking in the heart of the forests; a secret world of nightmarish horrors—where nothing is as it seems, where the supernatural invades your soul, where the people she trusted most might be the people she can trust the least, and where escape exists only in dreams.

This book is definitely the most strangest, weird, twisted book I have ever read. I don't know at this point if it was a good thing or a bad thing. I seriously spent 80% of the time while reading this book sitting there thinking "Wait, what?". It got really confusing sometimes and the writing in it was very choppy.

As you can tell from the description, A girl named Aisha disappears in a forest on a school hiking trip while she is with her friends. The Last person who went to look for her is her boyfriend Ethan, so right away all fingers point to him for her disappearance. The story is told from Cassie's POV, who is a friend of Ethan and Aisha. She really wants to try to prove that Ethan is innocent (or is he?) so her and her friend Lacey (another friend of theirs) set out in the forest to try to find Aisha. So basically, all of the characters get thrown into this nightmare world that is sick and twisted, and yada yada. This was nothing like I expected it to be, and I was really shocked when I learned where the title Dollhouse came from.

The first chapter of this book caught my attention pretty well, but throughout the story it went really slow. It picks up towards the middle of the book, but then slows down again. So this book was really up and down for me. I felt like the pace couldn't get comfortable. The writing style of this book was really choppy. I felt like I was constantly having to go and re read a lot of the sentences because they just didn't make sense or seemed out of place. This whole book left a lot of questions unanswered and that bothered me a lot. The characters seemed kind of empty in the beginning and we didn't really get to know them very well. Some things that were talked about seemed unnecessary and didn't have a point to them. The characters in this book are 15 years old, and a lot of the stuff that happens seems really unlikely for them. Like really, are two 15 year old girls going to camp out in the woods for a week, while trying to find their disappeared friend, and they both convinced their parents they were going on a school trip over break right after their friend went missing in the woods? No.

I didn't find the characters in this book to be anything special. They all kind of seemed to run together and had similar personalities. Cassie, the main character was okay. I did sort of like Ethan in the beginning but I'm not sure how I felt about him in the end, and now I'm even more confused about him after finishing book two. I did enjoy Jessamines character for some reason though, even if she was 'one of the bad guys.'

A thing that I did like about this book was its originality. I have never read anything like this book before, not even remotely close. I still am not sure if that is a good or bad thing but I do have to give the author credit for the originality of this book. The parts that weren't slow, I was actually really engaged in the book and I had to keep reading to find out what was going to happen next. I read each of these books really fast, I read them in 2 days (so 4 days total). The ending totally leaves you hanging, so I have to start reading the next book right away. If the ending didn't leave me having, would I have picked up the 2nd book? Probably not.

Now let's get onto my review for the second book, Paper Dolls. There will probably be some spoilers in this second review.

Summary from goodreads:

Book Two of the Dollhouse Trilogy

Cassie discovers the truth behind the existence of the dollhouse– leading up to a terrifying revelation about herself, one that will challenge every last thread of her sanity.

This book picks up right where the first book left off and leaves you hanging. There is a lot of action in the beginning, but it slows right down afterwards. The writing style was still a little choppy, but it wasn't as bad as the first book. I still had to re read a lot of stuff because it just didn't make sense a lot of the time. There was still a lot of things that happened and a lot of unanswered questions like the first book as well. However, this book did answer some of the unanswered questions from the first book, but then again it left new questions that weren't answered. I don't know if that makes sense LOL.

In this book, some parts flashed back to the past in the 1920s and was from Jessamines POV, which I loved because we really get to see who she was as a person, before everything that happened to her and it was different from the Jessamine we got to know in book one.

Like the description says, Cassie is trying to discover the truth behind the existence of the Dollhouse and she learns a lot of things about herself and the world around her. She is having a hard time coping with all that she went through, and so are the other characters. It felt a little bit of sympathy for her, but at the same time, she makes a lot of stupid decisions in this book with trusting the wrong people. I just wanted to yell stupid, stupid, stupid and her a lot of the time.

This ending also leaves you hanging, and it was probably the most confusing ending I have ever read in a book. I still don't understand what happened even after reading it multiple times. I really hate not understanding something in a book, it frustrates me.

All in all, I rated these books each a 3/5 stars. They had a unique story line in them, but the writing style didn't work for me because it was too choppy, messy and seemed all over the place. I will probably continue reading the series when the next book comes out some time this year. I don't mean for this review to be negative or too critical, but I am just being honest and these are my own opinions. If anyone reading this review has read these books, I would love to know your thoughts on them!

Thank you all for reading my reviews and I hope you enjoyed them!

Book Review: The Perks of being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Today I am going to be sharing my review on The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. I can't believe that I just now read this book! I have always herd great things about it and have been meaning to pick it up, but it recently attracted my attention when I herd of the moving being made. I'm always a sucker for reading books if there is going to be a movie made on them. I have not seen the movie yet but I definitely cannot wait till it comes out on dvd.

Summary from goodreads:


Charlie is a freshman. And while he's not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. Shy, introspective, intelligent beyond his years yet socially awkward, he is a wallflower, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it. 

Charlie is attempting to navigate his way through uncharted territory: the world of first dates and mix-tapes, family dramas and new friends; the world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite. 

But Charlie can't stay on the sideline forever. Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor. 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a deeply affecting coming-of-age story that will spirit you back to those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.

First I wanted to start by saying that I absolutely loved this book. Everything about it. I don't exactly know what else to tell you other than I loved this book. The book is told from the main character, Charlie, who is a freshmen in high school. This is sort of written in a diary like form, except instead of a diary, Charlie is writing letters to someone about his every day life. He addresses the letters as "Dear Friend" but we don't exactly know who he is writing to, and the person whom is receiving his letters doesn't know who he is. Basically Charlie just needs someone to talk to and share things with so that is why he decides to write these letters. 

I really loved Charlie's character in this book. He is so innocent and pure it is unbelievable. He is sweet and quirky and just unlike any character I've ever read from. I love how he cares so much about his sister and family. He cares about his friends and one of his favorite teachers. He just care about everyone and everything in general. He knows he is different and doesn't exactly fit in anywhere in high school, but I'm sure most of us can relate to him in that aspect when we were younger once too. He makes friends with a couple of older high school kids who are seniors. They kind of treat Charlie as a younger brother but they are really genuine with him and their friendship at the same time which I think is wonderful. Since Charlie is hanging out with older teenagers, he goes to parties and experiments with things like drinking and drugs. Charlie he doesn't do these things from peer pressure he does them simply because he is curious, which is a great example of what I mean when I say he is such an innocent person. I love the way Charlie portrayed the other characters in the story as well. His two best friends Same and Patrick are nothing but wonderful to Charlie and they are some of my favorite characters in the story. 

I rated this book 5/5 stars of good reads and it's a book that I can recommend for everyone to read! I might do a book to movie comparison after I see the movie ;)

Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed my review!! 

Book Review: Ask the Passengers by A.S. King

Today I am going to be doing a book review on Ask the Passengers by A.S. King. This is my first book that I have read by this author and I definitely was not disappointed. This was a great book and I read it really fast. I am getting a lot more into young adult contemporary novels recently and I am so happy I have this one to add to my book collection. This wasn't like any book that I have read before (I know I say that a lot but it's totally true every time!) but I am really enjoying reading different types of books on different subject that I haven't read before. I will post the summary from the book from goodreads below and then on to my review!

Astrid Jones desperately wants to confide in someone, but her mother's pushiness and her father's lack of interest tell her they're the last people she can trust. Instead, Astrid spends hours lying on the backyard picnic table watching airplanes fly overhead. She doesn't know the passengers inside, but they're the only people who won't judge her when she asks them her most personal questions . . . like what it means that she's falling in love with a girl.

As her secret relationship becomes more intense and her friends demand answers, Astrid has nowhere left to turn. She can't share the truth with anyone except the people at thirty thousand feet, and they don't even know she's there. But little does Astrid know just how much even the tiniest connection will affect these strangers' lives--and her own--for the better.

In this truly original portrayal of a girl struggling to break free of society's definitions, Printz Honor author A.S. King asks readers to questioneverything--and offers hope to those who will never stop seeking real love.

First off I want to say that A.S. King is an awesome author and has such a great writing style. I read this book so fast because I was just so engaged in the story and the characters that I couldn't stop. I look forward to reading other books written by A.S. King in the future. 

So this book is about Astrid, who is trying to figure out who she is and where she belongs in the world. Her mother and pushy and Astrid doesn't feel like she gets love from her. Her dad is clueless and pretty absent minded when it comes to anything, and her sister is busy fitting the role of a 'small town girl' and they aren't very close. Astrid's best friend is really bossy and pushy also, so Astrid feels pretty alone in the world. Along with her family and best friend, she has to deal with her peers at school and all of the gossip that is hurtful to her as well. She spends time looking up at the sky, talking and sending her love to the passengers on the airplanes that she sees. Astrid also silently sends love to other people in her life as well, which is a reason that I loved this book so much. She has so much love, even towards the negative people in her life, that just always sends positive vibes towards them. Why can't we all be more like Astrid? 

So as Astrid struggles with her self discovery, she falling in love for the first time in her life and it's with a girl. She keeps this a secret from everyone because she doesn't exactly know herself how she feels or if she is gay or not. As she is on her road to self discovery, she begins to ask her self these questions: "Why does it matter? Why does it matter if I'm gay or not? Why doest it matter who I fall in love with?" She is sick of the labels and doesn't want to be put into a box any longer. There is such great messages within this book and it really has great strength and meaning.  This book has so much character growth and discovery in it and it's completely amazing. Astrid grows so much as a character and while she is figuring out her life she really learns how to stand up for her self about what she feels. She also learns how to accept who she is and who other people are as well. 

I loved a lot of characters in this book besides Astrid as well. I couldn't stand her mother though, and wanted to go inside the book and yell at her many times. However, towards the end of the book we could see her mother changing as well and we get to see her accept Astrid for who she is and that was nice to see. For some reason I really enjoyed Astrid Dad in this story. I don't exactly know why, since he wasn't exactly the best parental unit either, but just how Astrid describes him as "stoned all the time" was kind of funny to me. At times he seemed to be really trying with her but was a little too absent minded to succeed at first.  I also liked Astrid's girlfriend, Dee, as well. She has a quirky personality and I think her and Astrid were a great for each other. 

This book has a lot of great lines in it, and I am a sucker for books with great quotes in them. One in particular thats has stuck with me is, "I don't care who you are, where you came from or what God you believe in. I can guarantee you that if you hate, you will never active true happiness." I found this so powerful that when I read it I just was awe struck and kept re reading it. The ending to this book and the last pages completely blew me away also.  

I definitely gave this book a 5/5 stars on goodreads and it's one that I recommend everyone to read! 

This is all for my book review and I hope everyone enjoyed it! Thank you for reading :)
Find me here on goodreads!

Book Haul #3

Hello Everyone! Today I am going to share with you my first book haul of 2013! I did not purchase any books last December so I was definitely ready for some new books to be added to my collection. I still have tons of books that I purchased last year that I have not read yet but it's just a great feeling to buy new books.

The books I got were:

 The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. I am excited to read this book and it's one that I have been meaning to pick up for a while now. I have never read this or seen the movie but I've herd wonderful things about both so I can't wait!

 An Abundance of Katherines and Paper Towns by John Green.  I absolutely love John Green. He is such a phenomenal writer and he has quickly became one of my favorite authors. These are the only two books I have not read by him yet. I have been wanting to order these online and I finally did and I am so happy. I have yet to be disappointed by any of his book so we shall see how these ones are. :)

Ask The Passengers by A.S King. I have not read anything by A.S King but I have herd wonderful things about this book from friends and it has a lot of great reviews. After reading the description of this book I looked up her other books as well and I definitely want to read them also.                  
 
The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa. I am in love with The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa. I was so sad when the series ended but I was so excited when I herd the author was writing another book set in the same world with a new main character. I herd that this book is great also and I can't wait to read it.


This is all for my book haul so you can expect some book reviews from me in the near future! I hope you all enjoyed my book haul and Happy Reading!

December Reading Wrap up + Reading Challenge

Hello Everyone and Happy New years! I am so excited for this new year to be here and to get onto reading some really great books! Last month in December, I made a reading challenge for myself and my goal was to only re read books that I have already read. I have successfully finished my challenge and did not read any new books. I have been wanting to re read a lot of my books for so long and I am happy that I finally was able to. Also since I was not reading new books last month, I did not buy any new books either! This has probably been the longest I have gone with out buying books LOL. You can probably expect a huge book haul from me in the near future :). 

Now I am going to share with you all of the books that I chose to re read and why I re read them as well.

-Harry Potter books by J.K Rowling. I re read the first three books in the Harry Potter series which are Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.I absolutely love the Harry Potter series and it will forever be a favorite series of mine. I have not read these books (especially the first few) in such a long time. It was great re reading them and I felt like I was re living my childhood a little bit! So those were 3 of the books that I re read this month.

-Looking for Alaska by John Green. This is definitely one of my all time favorite books and I could easily call this one my favorite book I've ever read (maybe). I am so glad that I chose to re read this one as part of my reading challenge. Looking for Alaska is a book that has stuck with me ever since I have read it the first time. It is a book that I couldn't stop thinking about even month after I read it. John Green is such a phenomenal writer.

-Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. This is a book I haven't read in at least 10 years or more. I kind of bought this one in a spur of the moment on my kindle to include for my reading challenge. It is a fairly short book and I read it really fast. This was my all time favorite book as a child and I have read it multiple times during my childhood as well. I can't say I enjoyed it as much as I use to reading it this time around but none the less it is still a great book.

-The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. This is another book that I have read more times that I can count when I was younger. I don't think I have read this book in at least 5 years either, but I still absolutely love this book. It was really great re reading it and I'm sure this won't be the last time I re read it.

I am currently a little over half way through reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I really wanted to include this book in my December wrap up but I haven't been able to get much reading done in the past week. So this book will be included in my January book wrap up. I am going to be doing other reading challenges in the future, with different topics but I will probably also do another re reading challenge as well. However since I have been having such a great time re reading Harry Potter I might continue to read the other books now instead of waiting for a new reading challenge.

I hope everyone enjoyed my December Wrap up and thanks so much for reading!