SHORT REVIEWS:HISTORY IS ALL YOU LEFT ME

Author:Adam Silvera

Genre: YA, romance

Date of release: 2017

Reading time: 5 hours to a week.

Description:

A teenage boy must cope with the sudden death of his ex-boyfriend, and with his OCD. Themes of friendship, family, grief and coping with mental health are explored.

The Good:

• Normalizes homosexuality
• Parts of it were so funny, I actually couldn’t stop myself from laughing out loud
• helps bring about awareness about mental health related issues like OCD, and coping with grief.

The Bad:

I wasn’t hooked on to it: what should have been a 5 hour read took weeks.

The flow of the story was interrupted by two separate timelines.

There were too many issues and themes in the book, thus they could not be explored in depth.

First person narrative. (Does anyone even like first person narrative?)

Similar reads: 

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by David Levithan and John Green

I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

P.S I Love You Cecelia Ahern

CRESS BY MARISSA MEYER

My thoughts
‘Rapunzel, Rapunzel… throw down your long hair.’
That part does not make it into Cress, which is of course a retelling of Rapunzel.
Futuristic Rapunzel’s name is Cress and she’s stuck in a satellite, not a tower. This retelling is the closest to it’s original compared to the other books in the series. There’s the evil witch, the damsel in distress whose tresses had to be cut off and there’s the prince who turns blind.

I liked this book the least, probably because I found Cress to be immature, annoying and slightly delusional. Granted, she was stuck in space for seven years but she’s still annoying. Her being paired off with Captain Thorne is slightly weird, plus she went all stalker mode on him. No, she used to totally fangirl over him.
There are a very few scenes involving Wolf and Scarlet, who I absolutely ship and who I think are my OTP! Things go bad for the couple, like honestly… this novel has only tragic things for Wolf and Scarlet, which made my heart ache. And poor Wolf, he’s like a lost puppy without Scarlet.
Cinder is her usual self, acting in a very not-princess-like manner. She manages to kidnap a prince, er…I mean emperor right under the Lunar Queen’s nose. And she has a new accomplice, but is he trustworthy? Who knows?
Another princess makes an appearance, so keep an eye out for her.
I probably would have liked this book a lot more if there was a lot less of Cress. How mean of me right? But I did skim read a lot of Cress’ perspective….oops. I can’t really hold it against the author, because I’ve liked all her other characters, it’s just Cress who doesn’t appeal to me.

MY RATING –

BTW, on a somewhat related but not really related note – Tangled is my favorite movie.
So, what’s your favorite movie ?

Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles #2) by Marissa Meyer

Its red riding hood revamped, and I loved every bit of it. Like it’s predecessor, Scarlet hardly sticks to the original story. The main characters of the original story – red riding hood as Scarlet Benoit, the hunter as Hunter, the wolf as Wolf and The Grandmother as Michelle Benoit and the disguise as the grandmother seem to be the only things taken from The Brothers’ Grimm fairytale. Other than that, the story is vastly different.

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The book is divided between the story of Scarlet and her search for her missing grandmother, and Cinder and her escape from prison. There’s a new character in Cinder’s life – Captain Thorne, her partner in escape and he’s likable in a very self-loving and humorous way. Iko fans can rejoice, there’s good news in store for you. We get a few scenes of the beloved prince Kai, as well as Cinder’s step-mother and step-sister. What about Queen Levana? Yeah, she’s evil as ever. Usually characters like Wolf revolt me. Strong, macho and aggressive alpha males. But I like Wolf, I don’t know, I just really do like him. He reminds me of Jacob from twilight, but a more likable version of him. And a hotter one too. And Scarlet? She’s sort of bitchy in a way that makes me really like her. I’d say this book is better than it’s predecessor. It’s fast paced and I finished in just two sittings! In fact, it got me so hooked, that I immediately started Cress. my rating – Goodreads link to the book – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13206760-scarlet?ac=1

ANTIGODDESS BY KENDARE BLAKE

This review contains spoilers.  Lots of them.
ABOUT THE BOOK
From Goodreads.
The Goddess War begins in Antigoddess, the first installment of the new series by acclaimed author of Anna Dressed in Blood, Kendare Blake.

Old Gods never die…

Or so Athena thought. But then the feathers started sprouting beneath her skin, invading her lungs like a strange cancer, and Hermes showed up with a fever eating away his flesh. So much for living a quiet eternity in perpetual health.

Desperately seeking the cause of their slow, miserable deaths, Athena and Hermes travel the world, gathering allies and discovering enemies both new and old. Their search leads them to Cassandra—an ordinary girl who was once an extraordinary prophetess, protected and loved by a god.

These days, Cassandra doesn’t involve herself in the business of gods—in fact, she doesn’t even know they exist. But she could be the key in a war that is only just beginning.

Because Hera, the queen of the gods, has aligned herself with other of the ancient Olympians, who are killing off rivals in an attempt to prolong their own lives. But these anti-gods have become corrupted in their desperation to survive, horrific caricatures of their former glory. Athena will need every advantage she can get, because immortals don’t just flicker out.

Every one of them dies in their own way. Some choke on feathers. Others become monsters. All of them rage against their last breath.

The Goddess War is about to begin.

MY THOUGHTS

Antigoddess is the first book in the goddess wars series. Kendare Blake is also the author of Anna Dressed in Blood, which is supposedly better than Antigodess. I bought both the books at the same time, so what do you do when you have two books by the same author – one which is rated sky high, and the other above average. You read the worse book of course, because you don’t want to be disappointed later.
I may have had some prior expectations from the gods. I mean how could I not? I did read every Percy Jackson book as well as every Heroes of Olympus book, so of course these gods already had some sort of identity in my mind.
The Athena in Antigodess is selfish. She really doesn’t care about anyone but herself, but then isn’t that how the gods always are? Using demigods to do their dirty work. In addition to that, the goddess of wisdom seems to lack precisely that, and her battle skills aren’t really noteworthy. This of course could be attributed to the fact that she is dying- her body filling up and being pierced by owl feathers. Owls apparently, are her loyal servants. Athena the virgin goddess gets a tidbit of romance. I found that weird honestly, like it was working against the laws of the universe.
Aphrodite as usual is portrayed as the stupid, spoiled brat with no power. Her way of dying? She’s turning bruised and ugly. I wonder why Ares isn’t in this. He is the god of war after all, and being Aphrodite’s lover, I’d expect him to be all geared up and ready to kill. So Hera refers to her as daughter. This is new to me because – 1. The most famous recounting of Aphrodite is that she emerged from Uranus’ genitals when he was castrated by Cronus. 2- The other notable recounting is that she is the daughter of Zeus and Dione, which would make her Hera’s stepdaughter and well, Hera is not kind or motherly to her step children.
So Poseidon is the bad guy. Uh, this doesn’t sit well with me. I suppose it’s because of the whole Percy Jackson’s dad being good thing. In Age of Mythology, ( yes, I played that game :D) Poseidon is the shown as being evil but even then it just didn’t work for me, it was too deeply set in I guess. But this isn’t a really big deal, it doesn’t bother me which side Poseidon is on.
Apollo. She killed Apollo. How could she kill Apollo? Why would she do this? Not only did she kill him, but he died in such a pathetic way. I mean first he kills freaking Poseidon and then he gets killed by Aphrodite. That’s just horrible. And honestly, I did like his romance with Cassandra so this is not fair. Hmmph.
So if Cassandra and Odysseus were reincarnated, shouldn’t Apollo be too? He’s the freaking god of the sun.
I fail to understand why the gods would go search for Demeter, Cassandra, Hector, Achilles and gods know who else when they ought to approach Thanatos or Hades. And honestly, how could Persephone die? Does that mean Hades is dead too?
I found the characters a bit flat. It’s the first book, so I guess that can be excused. They need time to grow and develop. I like Kendare’s writing style, which why I probably let my issues with the book slide through. She did break my heart when she killed Apollo though.

My rating – 4/ 5 stars.

Breakable (Contours of the Heart #2) by Tammara Webber

ABOUT THE BOOK

(From Goodreads)

He was lost and alone. Then he found her.
And the future seemed more fragile than ever.

As a child, Landon Lucas Maxfield believed his life was perfect and looked forward to a future filled with promise — until tragedy tore his family apart and made him doubt everything he ever believed.

All he wanted was to leave the past behind. When he met Jacqueline Wallace, his desire to be everything she needed came so easy…

As easy as it could be for a man who learned that the soul is breakable and that everything you hoped for could be ripped away in a heartbeat.

MY THOUGHTS

Breakable is the companion novel to Easy. The story is told from Landon Lucas Maxfield’s perspective. Within his perspective there are two perspectives, one as Landon, before he met Jacqueline Wallace and the second as Lucas when he joined college and noticed her.
Landon and Lucas though the same person, are quite different. Landon is a confused, raging boy who is lonely, doesn’t know how to deal with his mother’s gruesome rape and murder, and so resorts to drugs, sex and the occasional bashing someone up. Lucas is a reformed bad boy, who works hard and abides by the rules but still blames himself for his mother’s death. Both of them have tattoos are piercings, which make them oh so hot.
Lucas is head over heels about Jacqueline, the way he would almost stalk her reminds me of my schoolgirl crushes. His stalker like behavior saves her from what could have been a horrible tragedy, and in the book Easy, that’s where Jacqueline’s story begins. But with Lucas we get a little background to the event.
This book contains explicit sex, and a lot of it. It’s all tastefully written, so I think it’s worth reading. The things is, Lucas and Jaqueline spend most of their time bonding ‘physically’. They don’t really seem to talk a lot to each other or connect on a mental level. How long can that kind of relationship last?
Lucas is an alpha male, it’s pretty obvious; but not in an Edward Cullen / Christian Gray –I’m-going-to-dominate-you way. He doesn’t treat Jacqueline like a child or force her into anything. He respects her. The words ‘she obeyed’ were thrown around quite frequently though. I’m probably just over analyzing.
Also both Jacqueline in easy and Lucas in Breakable seem to have the same lingo, maybe words like ‘asswipe’ are commonly used in the United States, I don’t know. I think more attention should’ve been paid to differentiate their narrative styles.
On the whole I really did like the book, I think Tamara Webber is an excellent writer. She pulls you into the story and you just don’t want to put the book down until you finish.
Rating : 4/5
By the way, for those of you who thought the guy on the covers is cute, his name is Dusan Novakovic. You may now stalk him

CROWN OF MIDNIGHT by SARAH J. MAAS

ABOUT THE BOOK

From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.

Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.

Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena’s world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie…and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for
MY THOUGHTS
Celaena is the King’s champion now, and she isn’t really following the King’s orders. No, she’s being a sneaky little rebel and doing things her way, which of course is what everyone wants. This book shows the assassin side of her, the animalistic part that commits cold blooded murder. But surprise! Even assassins feel guilt.
This book was less predictable than the predecessor but even so some things are easy to predict, such as the identity of the dead princess Aelin
Every relationship is almost butchered. So by the end of it Celaena is just left confused and hurt and Chaol keeps making bad decision after bad decision. And what about the gorgeous prince? Well, he possesses an ability he wasn’t aware of, and of course he’s still heartbroken over the break up with the assassin. A prince and an assassin, who would’ve thought?
What did I like about the book? It had more action and more magic, and more death. But honestly, I couldn’t wait to finish the book so that I could read another book. This novel lacks mystery, it didn’t keep me at the edge of my seat trying to figure out who the killer of a certain important was. (No, I will not say who was killed.)
I’ll read the next book simply because I bought it and I guess I still have hope for the series. In fact I did read a few pages but then decided that I need a break from the haughty assassin. I did discover something while reading this book – Sarah J. Maas always uses the word ‘truly’ instead of ‘really’, and now I truly hate the word ‘truly’. There is no reason for it, I’m just pet peeved.
My rating for this book is 3 / 5 stars
So why should you read this book? Because it has almost 5 stars on Goodreads, and since the vast majority of people absolutely loved this book, there’s a really good chance that you will too.

ELEANOR AND PARK BY RAINBOW ROWELL

ABOUT THE BOOK
From Goodreads

‘Two misfits.
One extraordinary love.

Eleanor… Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough…Eleanor.

Park… He knows she’ll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There’s a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises…Park.

Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try’

MY THOUGHTS
I thought I’d love this book, I really did. I guess there’s a part of me that wanted to love this book, but I didn’t. It’s not in the least way a bad book, as a romance book I guess it hits all the check marks, but the thing is halfway through the book I got bored. It was just endless sappy dialogue which I guess would appeal to the romantics out there.
But there’s a lot of wonderful things about this book. Eleanor reminds me of both a Weasley and Merida from Brave. You know I really think Eleanor could be the Weasley’s muggle relatives. It’s wonderful that Eleanor is not your normal skinny girl who keeps moaning about her lacking in the chest area, it’s even more wonderful that Park is not some out of this world hot guy. No, they’re just normal teenagers, who don’t really engage in a lot of physical activity but still love each other.
So there’s Eleanor trapped in a house with an abusive step father, a submissive mother and a whole lot of little kids. I think that’s the reason Eleanor never says I love you back to Park, all she’s known is a broken family and being broken and so Park with his perfectly normal family seems too good for her, like she could never be a part of it. There’s a lot to learn from Park who loved Eleanor endlessly , even when her moodiness made her unlovable, and from Eleanor who stood up for herself in the end.
Those three words on the postcard? I think they’re the words Eleanor never said back. But I guess this book ends the way you want it too.
Rating- 3.5/5 stars
P.S – I think Rainbow Rowell has the best book covers

THE LUNAR CHRONICLES-CINDER BY MARISSA MEYER

ABOUT THE BOOK
(from Goodreads)
“Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.”

MY THOUGHTS

Marissa Meyer, you had me at cyborg Cinderella!
So Cinderella has come a long way since her Brothers Grimm days. She’s transformed from a girl in a dirty smock to a highly efficient mechanic who lives in New Beijing. And really, who needs a glass slipper when the prince can have a glass foot.
This retelling is based very loosely on the originally story, except for the evil step mother, two step sisters, a prince and a ball there’s nothing else that’s taken from the original story. There isn’t as much of romance as one would expect a fairytale to have, which is alright because I’m sure it’ll be made up for in the next book.
What’s so special about Cinder? Well, it’s not her skin, or her hair or her dainty little feet. It’s not even that she’s cyborg! What’s special about Cinder is that she is immune to a plague that has been killing loads of people, and has even killed her step sister Peony. And also that she’s not actually from Earth, but could possibly be the dead niece of the tyrannical lunar queen. I’ll be honest, it was pretty easy to predict that Cinder would be the mysterious dead princess Selene. Oh yeah, and the prince is in love with her. I’d say they have had too little interaction to be in love, so for now it’s more likely that they just find each other attractive. There’s this evil part of me that wants her to ditch the prince by the end of the tale!
I think it’s a rather interesting story. It’s no doubt very predictable, but I think the author’s style of writing keeps you hooked on.

Did you like the story? Do you think Cinder will get her happily ever after?

ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS BY STEPHANIE PERKINS

ABOUT THE BOOK
(From Goodreads)

Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris–until she meets Étienne St. Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Étienne has it all…including a serious girlfriend.

But in the City of Light, wishes have a way of coming true. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with their long-awaited French kiss?

MY THOUGHTS
Salut!
As the title of the book suggests, this story has something French to it – the story is set in France, well most of it. There’s a small bit of it that takes place in America.
At first the main character and the narrator of the story Anna Oliphant seems like your average cribbing teenager, and why wouldn’t she be upset? Her father has decided that she should complete her senior year of high school at The School of America in Paris, which of course is in France. Most people would squeal with joy at this opportunity, after all it’s just for 9 months, not the rest if her life! But Anna is devastated, because she’ll have to leave behind her brother, her best friend and her could be boyfriend and she is absolutely positive that her last year of high school will be terrible.
Contrary to her predictions she makes friends soon enough, and realizes that France was not what it’s stereotypes suggested. The focal point of the story is Étienne St. Claire, who is an American with a British accent and a French name. O mon Deu! C’est magnifique! ce n’est pas? Doesn’t that already make him hot? Anna describes him as being extremely attractive, so much so that almost every girl that sets eyes on him falls in love. And then there are her other new friends – Meredith, Rashmi and Joshua.
The reason I didn’t absolutely love this book is that the characters seem a bit too perfect. St. Claire’s only physical flaw seems to be his height, and really being short doesn’t really strike me as being much of one. And there’s that other flaw where he keeps cheating on his girlfriend Ellen, but it’s made out to be alright. Maybe if the story was told from Ellen’s perspective, he’d really be portrayed as a jerk. I don’t understand Anna’s absolute hate towards her father. I just don’t. Maybe if she disliked him I would get it, but to hate him for just being an annoying dad is kind of pushing it.
I also wish there was more about France in the book, and more of the language. But I guess when you’re stuck in a school that’s American, you don’t really go all out French. Let’s face it, how many of us have gone to a new place but never bothered to explore? A lot.
The amazing thing about this book is that it leaves you feeling just wonderful, like you have this glow of happiness inside of you.
Overall rating – 4/5 stars.
What were your thoughts on the book? And did you absolutely fall in love with Étienne St. Claire?

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

ABOUT THE BOOK
“After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin. Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king’s council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she’ll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom.

Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilarating. But she’s bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her… but it’s the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.

Then one of the other contestants turns up dead… quickly followed by another.

Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined”

MY THOUGHTS
*May contain spoilers
I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book, because every almost every booktuber out there has been raving about this. Maybe they set my expectations a bit too high, because while it was a good read it didn’t blow my mind or leave me amazed.
The book was realistic in a way since the main character, Celaena Sardothien, Adarlan’s Assassin- doesn’t have ultra-superhuman strength, it’s clear that her skills have been procured through training and her time spent in Endovier has worn them down. It’s quite refreshing to see that the writer has not tried to make her seem macho- Celaena wears dresses- gorgeously beautiful dresses – although she does prefer her tunic and pants, she cries and surprisingly she is even kind and pretty soft hearted. So what made her an assassin? It’s not explicitly given in the book, it just has a few teasers her and there. Maybe the novellas (which I have yet to read) contain the stories.
Then there’s a love triangle which consists of The Crown Prince, The captain of the Guard and Celaena. If we are taking sides, then I’m definitely rooting for The Captain. The romance angle isn’t all that interesting. I’m pretty sure Chaol, The Captain of The Guard will win her over by the end of the series. Then of course, there’s Sam- the assassin’s dead lover. I have a feeling he isn’t really dead.
The friendship shown between Nehemia and Celaena is beautiful. It has all the elements real friendship would- trust, suspicion, secrets, love … you get the idea.
The book was wonderful in so many ways, so why did it not sweep me off my feet? Simply because when you open a book about an assassin, you expect more action and more suspense, and in that facet the book lacks a lot. You don’t really try to figure out what’s going on as you read the book, because it’s not that interesting. The world in which the story takes place doesn’t grip you and make you want to be a part of it. I’m hoping that as the series progresses the book will get better. There’s a bit of magic and ghosts, but not all that much.

Overall it was a good book, and I’m glad they changed the covers.
Rating: 4/5 stars

What are your thoughts on the book?

you can buy the book here

USA – http://www.amazon.com/Throne-Glass-Sarah-J-Maas/dp/1619630346

UK – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Throne-Glass-Sarah-J-Maas/dp/140883233X

INDIA – http://www.flipkart.com/throne-glass-english/p/itmey7pt5fqefqq9?pid=9789382563013&otracker=from-search&srno=t_1&query=throne+of+glass&ref=2ecb026d-7771-4842-87cd-8ac07c6f598d