re·view : Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor

Days of Blood & Starlight (Daughter of Smoke & Bone #2) by Laini Taylor
5 Stars.

syn·op·sis 

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.

This is not that world.

Art student and monster's apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.

In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.

While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.

But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?

re·view 

So. let me tell you this : the first half of the book is just plain boring.

However, is necessary boredom..

You see, for them to get to the interesting stuff, the characters need to get there, it would be just weird if they got to that conclusion out of nowhere.

So yeah, is boring, but once you get to about half of the book, shit got REAL!

Also, the writing is as beautiful as ever, argh, wanted to put post its in every page. So so beautiful.

The plot was amazing, I love how Taylor managed to woven all those story lines together. And wholly mother of twists, did not see that ending coming!

Love aspect : ok, so this one is the one dividing point I saw going around. And no, there is no lovey dovey with Karou in this one, but Zuz and Mik were the cutest thing ever and I love the whole tasks he is doing. 

“So," he called to her back, "Just out of curiosity, you know, purely conversation and all, at what age will you be entertaining offers of marriage?"

"You think it'll be so easy?" she called back over her shoulder. "No way. There will be tasks. Like in a fairy tale."

"Sounds dangerous."

"Very, so think twice."

"No need," he said. "You're worth it.” 

Yeap.

There is also a whole new creepy level on this one, since is definitely not in human world and some of the images were plain bizarre. Also, was that a rape scene? 

Anyhoo, I think is enriches the story though, it is very high fantasy and with a little imagination turns those images very real.

As I said, the pacing suffered in the first half, but it was necessary. Once you pass that, it picks up a whole lot.

I love what the author did with the characters, I love every single one of them, even the ones I hate. I didn't know I could be this disgusted at a fictional character, but it happened.

Also, I love Akiva, I didn't love him before, but.. oh.. *sigh*

With all of the creepy and dark things, which cover most of the book, we still get glimpses of light..

“As long as you're alive, there's always a chance things will get better."

"Or worse," said Liraz.

"Yes," he conceded. "Usually worse."

Hazael cut in. "My sister, Sunshine, and my brother, Light. You two should rally the ranks. You'll have us killing ourselves by morning.” 

Light, get it? Could not resist.

Love it, love it, love it. Go read it.

30 things to tell a book snob

  That is the title of a article that I read this week on Booktrust. I have been reading some of their articles for some time, and this one is spot on. I agree with every single word.
  The articles writer is Mat Haig and here it is:

30 things to tell a book snob

Posted 19 April 2013 by Matt Haig

It is World Book Night next week and World Book Night is a good thing, because it is fun and helps get books into the hands of people who wouldn't otherwise read them.

And people should read books. Books are good.

But many are intimidated. One of the reasons people are put off reading is snobbery. You know, the snobbery that says opera and lacrosse and Pinot Noir and jazz fusion and quails' eggs and literary fiction are for certain types of people and them alone?

There is something innately snobby about the world of books. There is the snobbery of literary over genre, of adult books over children's, of seriousness over comedy, of reality over fantasy, of Martin Amis over Stephen King. And it is unhealthy. If books ever die, snobbery would be standing over the corpse.

So here is my message to book snobs:

1. People should never be made to feel bad about what they are reading. People who feel bad about reading will stop reading.

2. Snobbery leads to worse books. Pretentious writing and pretentious reading. Books as exclusive members clubs. Narrow genres. No inter-breeding. All that fascist nonsense that leads commercial writers to think it is okay to be lazy with words and for literary writers to think it is okay to be lazy with story.

3. If something is popular it can still be good. Just ask Shakespeare. Or the Beatles. Or peanut butter.

4. Get over the genre thing. The art world accepted that an artist could take from anywhere he or she wanted a long time ago. Roy Lichtenstein could turn comic strips into masterpieces back in 1961. Intelligence is not a question of subject but approach.

5. It is harder to be funny than to be serious. For instance, this is a serious sentence: 'After dinner, Alistair roamed the formal garden behind this unfamiliar house, wishing he had never betrayed Lorelei's trust.' That took me eight seconds to write. And yet I've been trying to write a funny sentence for three hours now, and I'm getting hungry.

6. Many of the greatest writers have been children's writers.

7. It is easy to say something to people who are exactly like you. A bigger challenge lies in locating that universal piece of all of us that wants to be wowed, and brought together by a great story. There isn't a human in the world who wouldn't enter the Sistine Chapel and not want to look up. Does that make Michelangelo a low-brow populist?

8. It does not matter about who the author is. The only thing a book should be judged on is the words inside.

9. Martin Amis once moaned on the radio that there were too many writers talking across the table to their readers rather than down to them. This was the point I went off Martin Amis.

10. You don't have to be serious about something to be serious about something.

11. You don't have to be realistic to be true.

12. You are one of 7,000,000,000 people in the world. You can never be above all of them. But you can be happy to belong.

13. The only people who fear people understanding what they are saying are people who have nothing really to say.

14. Books are not better for being misunderstood, any more than a building is better for having no door.

15. Shakespeare didn't go to university, and spelt his name six different ways. He also told jokes. (Bad ones, true, but you can't knock him for trying.)

16. Avoiding plot doesn't automatically make you clever. (See: Greene, Tolstoy, Shakespeare.)

17. Freedom is a process of knocking down walls. Tyranny is a process of building them.

18. There can be as much beauty in short (words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters) as long. Sparrows fly higher than peacocks.

19. Snobs are suckers, because they have superficial prejudices.

20. The book I am least proud of, that I didn't work hard enough on, was my most ostentatiously highbrow one.

21. Reading a certain book doesn't make you more intelligent any more than drinking absinthe makes you Van Gogh. It's how you read, as much as what you read.

22. Never make someone feel bad for not having read or not read something. Books are there to heal, not hurt.

23. Imagination is play. Snobbery is the opposite of play.

24. I used to be a snob. It made me unhappy.

25. Simple isn't always stupid. When I write a first draft it is complicated. There is mess. The second and third and fifteenth drafts try and get it to make sense, to trim away the frayed edges.

26. Stephen King was right. Books are 'portable magic'. And everyone loves magic.

27. Inclusion is harder than exclusion. Just ask a politician.

28. The brain can absorb many things. So can a novel.

29. For me, personally, the point of writing is to connect me to this world, to my fellow humans. We are all miles apart. We have no real means of connecting except via language. And the deepest form of language is storytelling.

30. The greatest stories appeal to our deepest selves, the parts of us snobbery can't reach, the parts that connect the child to the adult and the brain to the heart and reality to dreams. Stories, at their essence, are enemies of snobbery. And a book snob is the enemy of the book.

Original Post

BookTubers recommendations.

Ok, so here we go!

My favorite YA ladies! :)

Katytastic Vlogs!

Bookables!

SSandLetters recommends.

Crash Course Literature! :)

John Green (author of Looking for Alaska, The Fault in Our Stars), is the teacher!

Great videos about:

Romeo and Juliet

Great Gatsby and a bunch of cool stuff. 

Here is a Playlist with all of them, check it out!

They also have history, chemistry, biology and their own channel Vlogbrothers.

But lets face it, you know about them.. haha..

re·view : The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

The Darkest Minds (The Darkest Minds #1) by Alexandra Bracken
5 Stars.

syn·op·sis 

When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something alarming enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that gets her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government “rehabilitation camp.” She might have survived the mysterious disease that’s killed most of America’s children, but she and the others have emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they cannot control.

Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones.

When the truth comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. Now she’s on the run, desperate to find the one safe haven left for kids like her—East River. She joins a group of kids who escaped their own camp. Liam, their brave leader, is falling hard for Ruby. But no matter how much she aches for him, Ruby can’t risk getting close. Not after what happened to her parents.

When they arrive at East River, nothing is as it seems, least of all its mysterious leader. But there are other forces at work, people who will stop at nothing to use Ruby in their fight against the government. Ruby will be faced with a terrible choice, one that may mean giving up her only chance at a life worth living.

re·view 

Oh.. so many feelings.

I had to give myself a couple of days before I wrote this, mainly because there are so many conflicted feelings happening.

I loved the writing, LOVED IT. There is something about the way Bracken writes that mixes the disturbing things in the book with such realism that gave me goosebumps.
When I started reading, all I could think of was XMan, which I thought could go very wrong, very fast. Surprisingly it didn't.
I loved the dark tone of the story, but what I love even more, was how well the little happy moments were written, the calm before the storm days were just SO beautiful.

The pacing is great, I was so sick reading this, even with half the NyQuil in the US, I still had to make myself put this down a couple of nights. You know, with the need to sleep and all.

Taking the writing out of the equation for a moment, the best thing was most definitely the characters. Their evolution is almost palpable, the way Ruby learns to take control, the way Zu grows in to herself, the confidence we see in Liam.. and Chubs, well Chubs is Chubs.. Love that name, Chubs :P
But the thing I want to talk about here is not even the characters we love, but the ones we hate. I don't know how Bracken did it, but I was actually disgusted to my bones of Martin, aaargh. Also the other orange, aaah, take them away from me!
Is it weird that I like that? That I like hating characters? Even Cate.. passive aggressive b***. 

Here is where I explain the conflicted emotions though.. I heard some people talking about this, and is mostly way they didn't like the book. This actually made the book better to me though.
And that is where the plot was going. They didn't really know anything or anyone, they were just looking for the Camp, but they didn't know how to find it, or what to do when they got there.
We also get the impression Liam wants to be in some king of resistance, but he doesn't know how to do it.
They mostly have a sh*t load of questions, but not enough answers. 
We don't really know what is going on aside from the main characters, but I'm ok with that.
This is book #1, I would have a problem if this was the final book and we didn't have answers(Pandemonium anyone?).
But we are seeing this world with Ruby's eyes, she is being in a concentration camp for 6 years, so I'm guessing the author will leave as to find out things when Ruby does. 
And for once, I love that.

re·view : Hallowed by Cynthia Hand

Hallowed (Unearthly #2) by Cynthia Hand
2.5 Stars.

syn·op·sis 

For months Clara Gardner trained to face the fire from her visions, but she wasn't prepared for the choice she had to make that day. And in the aftermath, she discovered that nothing about being part angel is as straightforward as she thought.

Now, torn between her love for Tucker and her complicated feelings about the roles she and Christian seem destined to play in a world that is both dangerous and beautiful, Clara struggles with a shocking revelation: Someone she loves will die in a matter of months. With her future uncertain, the only thing Clara knows for sure is that the fire was just the beginning.

In this compelling sequel to Unearthly, Cynthia Hand captures the joy of first love, the anguish of loss, and the confusion of becoming who you are.

re·view 

Review of Unearthly

Lets do this fast and sweet, because this series is turning in to Twilight FAST.

Good things:

- Writing

- That addictive quality that won't let the reader put the book down!

- Claras relationship with her mother.

Bad things:

- Watching someone sleep from the window (WTF?)

- Was it really needed for her (mom) to die for the whole book? I was a mess of sobs every time I picked this up.
- Love triangle just doesn't work.
- Jeffrey, Angela and Wendy. What the hell happened?

quote : The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

The little moments when being Brazilian is cool.

tag : Reading & Book Buying Habits

Reading & Book Buying Habits

WHAT
What genre do you read?
Fantasy, Science fiction, mystery, trillers and classics mostly :)

What type of book (hardcover, e-book, audio) do you buy?
I like hardcovers. Don't like paperbacks because I cant stand broken spines, ebooks because I like having the actual books(you know, in case of a zombi apocalypse), and audio because I space out way to easily.


WHEN
When do you read? How much time do you spend reading?
At night, I usually read from 11 o'clock until I'm too sleepy, about 3 o'clock?

When do you buy?
Whenever I feel like it, usually a couple times a month.


WHERE
Where do you read?
Usually in bed.

Where do you buy?
I try to buy cheap as much as I can, so library stores, thrift stores, independent bookstores.
Comic are the only thing I only buy in one place, Nuclear Comics in O.C.


WHY
Why do you read?
If I have to blame someone, that would be my mom, she had the bug and gave it to me.

Why do you buy?
Uh.. because I love reading?


WHO
Who do you read around?
My husband, also known as my darlin' boyfriend is always snoring by my side.

Who buys you books? Who do you buy books for?
My family and friends try to, but they usually just give me the gift cards.:P
I gift books to my mom, sister, some of my friends that like reading..


HOW
How do you read? (other reading habits & rituals)
At night, in bed, no eating or drinking.. that is pretty much it.

How much money do you spend on books? How many books do you have?
Any where around $20 to $100 dollars a month. Depends on sales and stuff.
I don't know exactly, 350 here in California and the bulk of it is in Brazil, I would say 450 to 500? Haven't figured out a way to bring them here yet, I'll have to bring them slowly :)

re·view : Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

Bloodlines (Bloodlines #1) by Richelle Mead 
5 Stars.

syn·op·sis 

Blood doesn't lie...

Sydney is an alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of human and vampires. They protect vampire secrets - and human lives. When Sydney is torn from her bed in the middle of the night, at first she thinks she's still being punished for her complicated alliance with dhampir Rose Hathaway. But what unfolds is far worse. Jill Dragomir - the sister of Moroi Queen Lissa Dragomir - is in mortal danger, and the Moroi must send her into hiding. To avoid a civil war, Sydney is called upon to act as Jill's guardian and protector, posing as her roommate in the last place anyone would think to look for vampire royalty - a human boarding school in Palm Springs, California. But instead of finding safety at Amberwood Prep, Sydney discovers the drama is only just beginning...

re·view 

Adrian is baaaaack!

All I have for this is looove. I want to live inside Richelle Meads brain, please? She can do no wrong by me.

I read all vampire academy series and now I'm working my way through Georgina Kinkaid.

But lets talk about Bloodlines shall we?

Sydney has to prove that she is a good alchemist, so she hijacks het sisters first mission to go to California and protect Jill.
I am guessing that people that just read the VA series would think this has a slow start. But since its been years since I finished those books, I don't mind to be introduced to Meads vampire world all over again. You see, you don't need VA series to understand what is going on here, Bloodlines stands on its on.

I liked Sydney before, but Meads introduces her readers to a whole new side of the characters. I love Sydney now, one of my favorite things about her is how desperately scared she is of the Moroi. 
Because if I had to be around vampires and my obligations included weekly visits so they could feed, I would fucking scared of them, ok?
Like looking at them coming and running with all I have in the other direction. Thing is, Sydney can't, so we get to go in her head and see what she is thinking and how repulsed she feels.
But let ler explane: 

“Is it really so terrible being around us?"
I blushed. "No," I said. "But . . . it's complicated. I've been taught certain things my entire life. Those are hard to shake."
"The greatest changes in history have come because people were able to shake off what others told them to do.” 

Adrian is as amazing, witty and tortured as ever. In his words:
“Takes a lot of tries before you hit perfection." He paused to reconsider that. "Well, except for my parents. They got it on the first try." 

“Can't you... I don't. Find a hobby or something?"
"Being charming is my hobby.” 

Ok, I'll stop.
And after those samples I don't need to say how good the writing is do I?
The plot is engaging and the ending twist was amazing, other than that, pacing was also pretty good, had to read it one sitting.

re·view : Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

The infernal Devices Trilogy

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare 

3 Stars.

syn·op·sis 

Danger and betrayal, secrets and enchantment in the breathtaking conclusion to the Infernal Devices trilogy. 

Tessa Gray should be happy - aren't all brides happy?
Yet as she prepares for her wedding, a net of shadows begins to tighten around the Shadowhunters of the London Institute.
A new demon appears, one linked by blood and secrecy to Mortmain, the man who plans to use his army of pitiless automatons, the Infernal Devices, to destroy the Shadowhunters. Mortmain needs only one last item to complete his plan. He needs Tessa. And Jem and Will, the boys who lay equal claim to Tessa's heart, will do anything to save her.

re·view 



Review for Clockwork Angel HERE.

Review for Clockwork Prince HERE

** spoiler alert ** 

OK, I'm really not sure about this.
There will be spoilers by the way, so if you don't want them, get out now.
Byeee.


I love the shadowhunter world. I think is awesome and I wish I thought about it myself.
I'm ok with the fact that Clare recycled the structure of the first series to write this one with the excuse that it is all because they were related. Didn't you see the fine print?

However what I'm not ok with is the fact that when I start a new series, I expect it to be nicely raped up in the end. I don't want the author to give me the answers to the universe, just the ones for the questions presented on the book.
Like how the hell did Mortmain disappear from the institute when Tess pretends to be dead? Did he have magic or not? Some of them keep saying that he can't - and yet..
Whats is the connection with Will's family and Shanghai? I don't care how he planned everything, there is no way he would know about Tess and Will three years in advance.
Also, why does will can see ghosts? Just so Clare could revive another character that should stayed dead?

What also pissed me off is the build up for a battle, and then.. argh.
Seems like she didn't want a battle because she didn't want to kill characters.
Where I think that for a novel to be epic, it needs its battle. It's ok to kill a character or two. She prepared the readers for James death, he should have stayed dead. Even if she had killed Henry or one of the Lightwoods.

Oh, another thing that bothers me, what was Cecily doing on this book? Just so everyone could end up getting married? And she could pass on the ruby necklace? Really?
It could be just me, but it felt like dead weight.
Most of this book felt like the love interest were more important. The love interest and the fact that Clare didn't want conflict with the fan base.
Because really? That ending was just a cop-out.
The whole trilogy she insinuates that Tess really loves Will and they are perfect for each other. Then in the last minute she decides that no, they were the same, she loves them equally and both of them is ok with that. WHAT?
Don't even get me started on that sex scene, it was just like she just needed it on the book and it seemed like a good place as any. Really? houwers after Jem is dead? I don't care what the excuse was. Not. cool.

Oh, that epilogue..
First thing is that Clare did not need for Tess to be immortal, she could have said that Angel blood is stronger - witch she does, by the way - and kept Tessa mortal, with will and happy.
But she has to make team Jem happy, so she abandons all her family. Again, WHAT?
And them she goes in to the sunset with the perspective of burring Jem in the future. *sigh*

Is it just me or all Clare wanted was to show us how clever she thinks she is?
How she can tie up both series while making a lll the fandoms happy?
.not

re·view : Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

The infernal Devices Trilogy

Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare 

4 Stars.

syn·op·sis 


In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray has at last found safety with the Shadowhunters. But that safety proves fleeting when rogue forces in the Clave plot to see her protector, Charlotte, replaced as head of the Institute. If Charlotte loses her position, Tessa will be out on the street—and easy prey for the mysterious Magister, who wants to use Tessa’s powers for his own dark ends.

With the help of the handsome, self-destructive Will and the fiercely devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister’s war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal. He blames them for a long-ago tragedy that shattered his life. To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors, from the slums of London to an enchanted ballroom where Tessa discovers that the truth of her parentage is more sinister than she had imagined. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister himself knows their every move—and that one of their own has betrayed them.

Tessa finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, though her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will—the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do?

As their dangerous search for the Magister and the truth leads the friends into peril, Tessa learns that when love and lies are mixed, they can corrupt even the purest heart.

re·view 



Review for Clockwork Angel HERE.

I didn't know if I should write this one, but still felt weird to post the review for Clockwork princess without posting something here.

If you liked Clockwork Angel, you will fly though this book and RUN to #3, that is what I did.
The pacing is decent, I'll have to admit that it takes awhile to pick up, but when it does, I could not stop reading it.

There is not too much happening in the Shadowhunter world, some developments, but nothing too extensive. I would say it was mostly preparation for whatever is going to happen in book 3.

Where this book shines, at least in my opinion, is on character development. Clare makes us go in a emotional roller-coaster with the characters.

I don't want to go too much in to it in case I spoil something. But no worries, I'm going all out with the next one.

series that I NEED the next book

*spoilers ahead*

June 4th 2013
The Grisha Series
Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

 After that ending, when everything went to hell and they ran saved themselves, I just need to know how they are going to get pulled in the mess again and what is going to happen.

 Also, romance..

 It is so close to the release date!!!












July 9th 2013
Charley Davidson Series
Fifth Grave Past the Light by Darynda Jones 5





“That took balls."  
"Please," I said with a snort, "that took ovaries. Of which I have two.” 


I NEED MORE OF THAT.















October 22nd 2013
Divergent Series
Allegiant by Veronica Roth









There is not much I can say other than :
NEED IT NOW.














November 5th 2013
Legend Series
Champion by Marie Lu






" He is a Legend.
She is a Prodigy.
Who will be Champion? "

Did you see that? Did you read it?

This is bound to kick all the asses. 
Do I need to say this again? Need it. Give it to me.











November 19th 2013
Bloodlines Series
The Fiery Hart by Richelle Mead

More Adrian.
Gimmi. Gimmi. Gimmi.

Teaser:
“Relax, having kids is years away. But can you imagine? Your brains, my charm, our collective good looks…Then add in the usual physical abilities dhampirs get. It’s really not even fair to everyone else.”

AAAAAH!








February 4th 2014
Lunar Chronicles Series
Cress by Marissa Meyer

All I now and need to know about this is Rapunzel.
Are you serious?
I ask no questions. Give it to me and no one gets hurt.

Also, I'm dying to see the cover!

re·view : The Fate of Mercy Alban by Wendy Webb

The Fate of Mercy Alban by Wendy Webb 

syn·op·sis 

From award-winning novelist Wendy Webb comes a spine-tingling mystery about family secrets set in a big, old haunted house on Lake Superior.

Grace Alban has spent twenty years away from her childhood home, the stately Alban House, for reasons she would rather forget. But when her mother's unexpected death brings Grace and her teen-age daughter home, she finds more haunting the halls and passageways of Alban House than her own personal demons. 

Long-buried family secrets, a packet of old love letters and a lost manuscript plunge Grace into a decades-old mystery about a scandalous party at Alban House, when a world-famous author took his own life and Grace's aunt disappeared without a trace. The night has been shrouded in secrecy by the powerful Alban family for all of these years, and Grace realizes her family secrets tangle and twist as darkly as the secret passages of Alban House. Her mother was intending to tell the truth about that night to a reporter on the very day she died - could it have been murder? Or was she a victim of the supposed Alban curse? With the help of the disarmingly kind--and attractive—Reverend Matthew Parker, Grace must uncover the truth about her home and its curse before she and her daughter become the next victims.

re·view 




So, I am a chicken, in a big, BIG way.
That said, I would never pick this book up in a book store, just because of the whole ghost story thing..
That's why I'm so thankful to Goodreads giveaways.

I just loved it, it's very creepy, but not being too much..
Pacing starts picking up after introductions are made, but I could not put this down. Read it in a couple of days and that was only because I had no time to read in one sitting.

The romance is not very good, but since is not the main story line,  it works as a nice touch to the story..

I loved the writing style, as soon as the story starts to get too crazy, Webb grounds everything with a touch of reality.
Really don't have, waiting to see what the author comes up with next.