May Wrap-Up

May was a.......stressful month to say the least. For the most of the month I was on break from the blo0g because school was really busy this month. Thankfully school is almost, almost!!, over and I can nw read more and focus on my blog now. 

Since it was a really busy month for me I didn't read as many books as I would have liked, but I styill read more then I thought I was going to. So there's that. Since I was on break for most of May I only posted 2 reviews for this month. 

Books read: 7

(Re-read) Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder | 4 Butterflies

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green | 4 Butterflies

The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas |4.5 Butterflies

Where She Went by Gayle Forman | 4.5 Butterflies

The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson | 4 Butterflies

The Forever Song by Julie Kagawa | 4.5 Butterflies

Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins 

Reviews: 2

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson 

The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson 

Book of the Month: 

The Forever Song

How did your May Reading go?

Happy reading

Review: Crown of Embers by Rae Carson

Grade: 4 Butterflies
Series: Fire and Thorns #2
Author: Rae Carson
Publisher: Greenwillow books
Pages: Hardcover 410 pages

Goodreads Summary

She does not know what awaits her at the enemy's gate.

Elisa is a hero.

She led her people to victory over a terrifying, sorcerous army. Her place as the country's ruler should be secure. But it isn't.

Her enemies come at her like ghosts in a dream, from foreign realms and even from within her own court. And her destiny as the chosen one has not yet been fulfilled.

To conquer the power she bears, once and for all, Elisa must follow a trial of long-forgotten—and forbidden—clues, from the deep, hidden catacombs of her own city to the treacherous seas. With her go a one-eyed spy, a traitor, and the man whom—despite everything—she is falling in love with.

If she's lucky, she will return from this journey. But there will be a cost.

I love fantasy books. Whether they are Adult fantasy, YA fantasy, Urban fantasy, whichever I love them all. So it goes without saying that I am kind of in love with this world and this series. I read this first one about a year ago and I finally read this one and I loved being back in this world with these characters. This book was a really great second book, I loved where this book lead the series and I can't wait to read the last one!! However, this one did somewhat how the second book curse, which I will explain later in this review.

This book starts about 5 months after the end of the first one. Elisa is now Queen of the kingdom which is falling apart. No one seems to accept her as queen and she never really did anything to show them her worth, which was a little frustrating. However, it was great to get back into this world. I love the world that Rae Carson has developed. Maybe its because of the great world building or because it just sounds beautiful, but either way I love this world! I also loved where this book took the series. At the end of this one I couldn't wait to read the third just because of how much amazingness this book set up for the third.

That leads to my first problem I had with this one. It felt to much like a bridge between the first and third. This plot seemed to be to much of a set up for the next one. It felt like the whole reason for this plot to exist was to set up for the third one. Don't get me wrong, this plot was action-packed, thrilling, gripping, with a touch of mystery, but it felt like the author sat down asked herself 'what do I want to happened in the last one' and wrote this plot around that. It was still an enjoyable book, but I just really don't like it when books do this.

I also felt like this plot was set up around the character development of Elisa instead of the character development of Elisa set up around the plot. If that makes any sense whatsoever. It seemed that the author wrote the plot around what she wanted Elisa to go through and wrote certain things just so Elisa character could develop. This doesn't sound to bad, but when reading it I felt that it alienated this book's own plot.

Now to the characters. I really love these characters!!! I think Elisa is a great main character and really holds her own, even though at the beginning of this book she didn't do much of that, but she gets better towards the end with all of her character development. Hector was great and all the other side characters as while. I think all of these characters are just amazingly fleshed out and have a lot of depth, which is always amazing to read.

What really made this book was the love story between Hector and Elisa. I loved their relationship, how they both made each other stronger and better people. You could also practically feel the chemistry between the two on the pages. They worked so well together, they were just perfect for one another. I also loved reading their relationship develop and them realizes that they love each other. However, there was one thing I couldn't quite understand. Why the hell couldn't these two be together?!?! The author made it out to be a tragic love affair because they could never have each other. Um....why couldn't they have each other again? That was just never fully explained and it made me frustrated with both of them.

Overall this was a really great book and sequel! Some aspects did feel to much like set ups for the next book, but that aside this was a really great book to read. This book had a fast paced plot, mystery, magic, love, backstabbing, ect. One thing I couldn't get behind was the religious aspect though, I just couldn't buy into it.

This book got...

 4 Butterflies

Beloved, This is a really good book.

Recommended if you like: Fantasy, Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder, and The Girl of Fire and Thorns.

Review: The Well of Anscension by Brandon Sanderson

Grade: 4.5 Butterflies
Series: Mistborn #2
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Publisher: Tor Books
Pages: Hardcover, 590 pages

Goodreads Summary

The impossible has been accomplished. The Lord Ruler – the man who claimed to be god incarnate and brutally ruled the world for a thousand years – has been vanquished. But Kelsier, the hero who masterminded that triumph, is dead too, and now the awesome task of building a new world has been left to his young protégé, Vin, the former street urchin who is now the most powerful Mistborn in the land, and to the idealistic young nobleman she loves.

As Kelsier’s protégé and slayer of the Lord Ruler she is now venerated by a budding new religion, a distinction that makes her intensely uncomfortable. Even more worrying, the mists have begun behaving strangely since the Lord Ruler died, and seem to harbor a strange vaporous entity that haunts her.

Stopping assassins may keep Vin’s Mistborn skills sharp, but it’s the least of her problems. Luthadel, the largest city of the former empire, doesn’t run itself, and Vin and the other members of Kelsier’s crew, who lead the revolution, must learn a whole new set of practical and political skills to help. It certainly won’t get easier with three armies – one of them composed of ferocious giants – now vying to conquer the city, and no sign of the Lord Ruler’s hidden cache of atium, the rarest and most powerful allomantic metal.

As the siege of Luthadel tightens, an ancient legend seems to offer a glimmer of hope. But even if it really exists, no one knows where to find the Well of Ascension or what manner of power it bestows.

I am in love with this series!!! Completely and utterly in love with the characters, the world, the plot, everything in this series is amazing!! This book blew me away!! It was an amazing sequel. It improved on everything Brandon Sanderson wrote and developed in the first one. It captivated me, it enchanted me and it put me on a rollercoaster of emotions.

One of my favorite things about this series is the world. He writes the world so vividly that you can see the red rays of the sun, feel the coldness of the harsh winter, and taste the falling ash. On top of that is the tone to it. The sadness, horribleness, and just plain depressing feel of the world bleeds into the tone of the book. These books all have this really depressing tone to them. You feel sorry to the character who have to live in this godforsaken world.

This also adds to the emotions you get from the book. Because of the horribleness of the world you instantly root for the characters that try to put some goodness into this world. Since you feel sorry for the characters, you connect with them more. This could also be from the fact that all these characters are so beautifully crafted that they feel like they're real people. Every single one of these characters, evil or good, has so much depth to them, it's amazing!! This author knows how to write characters, which is why you don't want any of these characters to die..the good ones at least. These characters get into so many deadly situations and you are on he edge of your seat, because you don't want the to die. When one of them dies, because quite a few do, your heart is ripped upon and stepped on with metal cleats. I just love these characters!

The only real problem I had with this book was the plot. I know most fantasy plots aren't always constantly fast-paced and that was the case for this one. Don't get me wrong, in he beginning this plot kept my attention, however, it just wasn't always fast-paced. At the beginning, what grabbed me was the world and the urge to know what was in store for the characters. However, the plot did take off after the beginning of the book and when it did it soured. So many things were happening at once. There was another twist around every turn and I just couldn't put this book down!!

This didn't really bother me that much, because until the plot really took off, world building, character development, and learning about this world's past filled the plot's space.

This was an outstanding continuation of the series. It gave us so much character development and world building! You get more information about the Deepness and 'The Hero of the Ages" and life before the Deepness it's amazing!! This book series will just captivate you, make you fall in love with the characters, and then make you cry your eyes out because apparently characters can't live past 1 book.

This book got....

4.5 Butterflies

Beautiful, this is a great book. 

Happy reading

Late, Late April Wrap-up

So this is a really late April Wrap-up. I took my break before the end of April so I never posted/wrote this before my long break, but better late then never, right?

April was a good reading month. I am proud of the number of books I read considering how stressful school and life was towards the end of April. I read some pretty good books, I re-read three books. I also read a really bad book I wouldn't recommend to anyone.

Books Read:  9

The Archived by Victoria Schwab| 4 Butterflies

The Cloud Searchers by Kazu Kibuishi| Great!

(Re-read) Spellbound by Rachel Hawkins| 4 Butterflies

Crash Into You by Katie McGarry| 4.5 Butterflies

Growl by Elaine Pierson| 1 Butterfly

(Re-Read) Karma Girl by Jennifer Estep| 4 Butterflies

Before Midnight by Jennifer Blackstream| 3 Butterflies

The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson| 4.5 Butterflies 

Fire by Kristain Cashore| 4.5 Butterflies

Book of the Month 

The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson

This was just such a great unique book and I can't wait for the second one to come out!!!

That's how my April reading went.

Happy reading

I'm Back!!!

Hi guys!  Remember at the end of April when I said I would be taking a short, week long break from the blog? Yeah, somehow that week turned into a month, but it was a well needed month break. I was dealing with a lot of stress with school and other stuff and I really couldn't deal with maintaining a blog on top of that. But I'm back now!!!

I am really excited to start blogging again!! I've missed it, a lot. I missed writing reviews and talking about books. So, I am ready to start the blogging again :D.

Since school is still going, I will only be posting a few posts this week. However, the week after that I will be free of school and summer will start, at least for me. So this week will be a slow one, but after that I will be home free and ready to post all the reviews and memes.

Happy reading :D