My 2015 Books

God where has the time gone?!

Last year (2015), but the end of January I think I read something like 7 books. This year? It’s almost the middle of February and I’ve read…zero! I know, shame on me! The self professed person that plans on getting an homage to books tattoo has read zero books so far this year. I should be ashamed of myself. I should be embarrassed. Oh well, life. Different priorities, different person, different moods. I have a small stack of books I want to read…but somehow never get to them. Something always comes up. My mind always goes to another place. It’s been a weird couple months. No wait…it’s been more than that. My mind just isn’t focused. Guess what I have read though? Fanfiction. Yup. Last year I made it a point to not read fanfiction due to my complete obsession in previous years. I focused on reading actual physical books. But this year? I don’t give a flying fuck what I read.

My 2015 reading year was dominated by two fucking phenomenal female authors.

Sarah J Maas. I’ve heard about the Throne of Glass series for some time and resisted it because I knew as soon as I started I would love them and be hooked and I didn’t want to be the person to wait for books to come out. I have zero patience. But guess what I did? I caved of course. I read Throne of Glass during a reading slump something around the summer and BAM – hooked. Read the first one (loved it), read the second one (loved it even more), read the third one (mixed feelings because it was a “journey to find one self” book whereas the rest of them where just action action action…it was also just sad and frustrating), waited for the fourth book to come out (Amazon took a week to get here, read it in two days and loved it despite other people’s mixed reviews. I see where they’re coming from, but it was a situation of fangirling all the way). And now I must wait until September for Book 5. At least there’s only two books left? I am completely in love with this series. It’s my new Harry Potter.

Oh, while we’re on the subject of Sarah J Maas. Let’s talk about A Court of Thorns of Roses. Again – heard a lot of buzz surrounding this book. Resisted. Caved. Loved it. The next book comes out in the early summer? May? Can’t fucking wait. While I was reading it, I strongly disliked Rhysand…however; after having read the book, I am, firmly, on Team Rhysand. I can’t wait to see how this story/series unfolds. I love that world. Is it going to be trilogy? I don’t know…

Moving right along.

The second female author?

Colleen Hoover. This fucking fantastic bitch. God I love her books. Again – I’ve heard of her books for awhile but never jumped on the book. Hopeless was on my TBR list for a long time and I caved and read it and loved it. So many twists and turns…And then I read Ugly Love (so sexy, so compelling, so heartbreaking, loved it), Maybe Someday (definitely my favorite of the books til then, the feels with all her books man – the swooning, the laughs, the tears, the smiles, the sexy times. SO GOOD.) And then I read Confess. Wasn’t in love. Just okay. BUT – November 9 came out and holy jesus. After putting all my read books together, November 9 is, hands down, best book I read in 2015. Again with all the feels. Such a fantastic setting, such great characters. LOVED IT. While we’re on Colleen, let’s talk about Never Never. I read two out of the three and I’m planning on buying and reading the final one soon. They’re cute little books full of mystery and I honestly can’t wait to see how it concludes…but honestly – why the fuck is it three books? To make more money? To build more suspense? Because come on – if you put the three books together, they’re the size of a regular book. Besides Slammed, I think I’ve read all of her “first books”…you know how she writes companion books that are in the POV of another character from the first books? Yeah, not reading/interested in those. Should I read Slammed? Probably. Anyways, moving on.

Some other points/thoughts on my reading year –

I read Life and Death by Stephenie Meyer when it came out. I think the day of. It’s funny…I read it and I couldn’t believe I thought Twilight was ever good back in the day. Don’t get me wrong – I will forever thank the Twilight series for making me enjoy reading again after Harry Potter. It was the starting point for so many things in the life. Without those books, I know for sure I would be a different person. I haven’t read any of her books in years so I when I picked up Life and Death, it was so bad guys. The writing, the switcheroo, the everything. It was bad. I will continue to read any and every book she puts out and The Host remains one of my favorite books of all time, but yeah…Bad.

Tahareh Mafi and the Shatter Me series. What a roller coaster it was with me. I know I’m not the first to say this, but the writing style? SO GOOD. So lyrical, so beautiful. Praise. *Spoiler*  I knew before even starting the series that Warner was endgame. By this time all the books had already come out. I read Shatter Me at the beginning of last year and could not understand it. I hated him. Did not see one ounce of redemption for him. Nope. I was firmly on Team Adam. I heard I would change my mind after reading his novella. Nope. Still didn’t like him. Then I read Unravel Me and…eh. I started the understand him a bit more and I put myself in Juliette’s shoes. What I did was I went on Juliette’s journey. I rode the train with her. I discovered my love for Warner on her timeline and lost my love for Adam as well with her. People were going crazy for some chapter in Unravel Me. The supposedly “sexy” chapter…and okay? It was just meh. Compared to some of the chapters in Ignite Me? It was so meh. Ignite Me guys. Ignite Me was fucking fantastic. Even though the ending felt rushed, it was such a great conclusion. The Warner that I love. The feels. The sexy and sweet chapters in the end. SO GOOD.

Rainbow Rowell. Despite all the praise she’s been getting, I wasn’t super in love. I read Fangirl in the beginning of the year and received Eleanor and Park for Christmas. While I liked both books, I can’t say I loved them as much as everyone else seemed to. Nothing super memorable. Sorry. I will try to read some more of her books this year. I have Attachments on my self right now and I’ll try to get to it, but I don’t have high expectations. I’m in the minority. I know. That’s okay.

I received Where Sea Meets Sky by Karina Halle from a Goodreads giveaway and fucking loved it. Never heard of the author and don’t know what else she’s written, but (weird to say this) that book got me through a particularly memorable happy time last year. You can now put “Roadtripping through New Zealand” on my bucket list thanks to this book. Now that I actually think about it, I really want to reread it! More road trip/traveling books like this, please!

I started two series that I don’t know if I’ll ever finish reading. Read Shadow and Bone and loved it and I have the next two books on my self…but motivation guys. They’re not calling for me. I have Six of Crows on my shelf and I heard it’s fantastic but this year has just gotten away from me. I read the first two books in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone and loved those books too. The world is so amazingly built and admitedly they are hard books to get into – high fantasy and you have to really be in a mood to read those books so that is why I have not finished Dreams of Gods and Monsters. I started it…but have you seen the size of that book? Don’t know when I’ll ever pick it back up.

Poetry. I bought a couple poetry books this year and really enjoyed them. I’ve never been super into poetry but I’m definitely starting to warm up to it. I’ll be getting some more, that’s for sure. I follow some poets on Instagram and I’m obsessed. Wish I had their talent.

Reading goals/plans for 2016. Haha. Goals. Since I’m off to a bad start, I don’t know how many books I’ll get to this year. Looking at my TBR shelf now, it’s all over the place. A big stack of “first books in a series”, some contemporary, some romance, some fiction, some books I’ll definitely not read anytime soon…here’s what I can tell you. The books I’ll 100% read this year? Never Never Part 3, ACOTAR book 2, Throne of Glass book 5, any and all new Colleen Hoover books, I think there’s a Tahareh Mafi release this year…but I’m pretty sure I remember it being a middle grade book. Oh well. We’ll give it a try? Anything else? Books on my TBR that I know I’ll pick up? Six of Crows, I’ll Give You The Sun, More Happy Than Not, Everthing Leads to You (started it last year, just need to finish it), The Raven Boys…Hmmm…I don’t know. I guess you’ll find out in 10 months. Lol. Follow me on Goodreads, Twitter, Instagram, whatevs, all the social media to keep up to date…if you want to, of course.

Laters.

(just got a FSOG flashback with that last line. Ya feel me? Lol.)

 

 

My 2015 Movies

These end of the year posts are slightly late because if you know anything about my job, then you’ll know that the end of the year holidays means madness and no life. Anyways, without further adieu…

These are the movies I saw, in order, in the year 2015. We’ll get to my top movies at the end of this post and some chit chat about movies. Some of these might be rewatches and not all of them came out this year.

1. The Giver
2. Snowpiercer
3. Boyhood
4. What If
5. Whiplash
6. The Best of Me
7. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
8. Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
9. The Book Thief
10. Divergent
11. 50 Shades of Grey
12. Kingsmen
13. Fast Five
14. Avatar
15. John Wick
16. The Theory of Everything
17. Fast and Furious 6
18. Insurgent
19. Furious 7
20. How to Train your Dragon 2
21. How to Train your Dragon
22. Cinderella
23. The Last 5 Years
24. The First Time
25. Pitch Perfect 2
26. Mad Max: Fury Road
27. Ex Machina
28. You’re not You
29. Tomorrowland
30. Jurassic World
31. The Goonies
32. Inside Out
33. Mission Impossible 5: Rogue Nation
34. Paper Towns
35. The DUFF
36. Into the Woods
37. SPY
38. Age of Adaline
39. The Longest Ride
40. The Martian
41. The Walk
42. Magic Mike XXL
43. Casino Royale
44. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
45. Far from the Madding Crowd
46. Spectre
47. Mockingjay Part 2
48. Sisters
49. Trainwreck
50. American Ultra
51. Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Looking at this list, I’m honestly kind of bummed out because there aren’t as many stand out favorites as normal years. It wasn’t too difficult to figure out my top movies. I thought this year would have been a great year in movies, but maybe that will be next year? I didn’t see as much as I could have. I didn’t watch as many movies by myself this year. Sure it’s awkward, but I have to do it if I want to watch more!

When deciding what my favorite movies this year were, I go to a silly criteria in my head — they have to be movies I still think about, movies I can see myself watching over and over again, movies I liked when I first watched it but like even more the longer they’ve come out, movies that I think will have longevity/relevance not in just this year. Some things to keep in my mind about me: I rarely put a comedy in my top list. You can say I’m a bit of a pretentious snob when it comes to my movies. Sure I love to laugh like the next person, but I’m a drama person and I will continue to be until a comedy has won a Best Picture Oscar recently. Yeah. #sorrynotsorry #selfaware Another thing – there were a few movies that I loved and continue to think about…but the end in some way or another irked me. A bad ending, or an ending that I didn’t like, bothers me and will somewhat ruin a good movie for me. I have to have felt something when I left that theater. Examples this year? Snowpiercer and Ex Machina. LOVED the movies. Both cool concepts. Cool settings. Interesting characters. Thought invoking. But both had endings I couldn’t get with. Last thing – I’m sentimental. I’m as sentimental as they get. Even if if was a bad movie, if the way I saw the movie and who I saw the movie with, just the overall story behind it resonates with me, that movie will move up higher.

Okay. Let’s do this.

My favorite movie of 2015 is….can anyone guess from that list? I would say it’s a little bit unexpected coming from me considering it’s not really a drama movie but an action one. I like to keep you guys on your toes.

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

Comments about some other movies:

• Whiplash (this is easily in the top, but because it was technically released in 2014 but I didn’t see it til early 2015, it felt weird picking this one. But I loved it. I came out of that movie with feels.)
• Boyhood (everyone look up the song at the end of this movie. LOVE it.)
• Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and The Goonies (cult classics that I disliked? Yes, shoot me now I didn’t like The Goonies. Sue me.)
• 50 Shades of Grey (dear God such a bad movie with terrible chemistry between the two leads. Having said that, I will continue to watch the other movies.)
• Kingsmen (2015 Bond. This movie was unexpected. It was amazing. Sequels?! But that ending though…with that church shooting and immediately what happened afterwards? Okay, let me shed one more tear. )
• John Wick (Unexpected. Kick Ass. Welcome back Keanu.)
• Furious 7 (This is the sentimental movie of this list for not only Paul Walker but something else as well. )
• The Last 5 Years, Into the Woods, and Pitch Perfect 2 (Anna Kendrick. What the hell?! No. The third was a sub-par sequel and I’ll always associate that movie with one painful memory. )
• Tomorrowland (Disappointment…but then again, what were we expecting when they decided to make a movie based off a Disney park?)
• Paper Towns (Disliked the female lead character. Couldn’t relate to that movie at all. Considering TFIOS was my favorite movie of last year I wanted this to be better than it was. Hoping Looking for Alaska will be better.)
• The Martian. (I will read the book this year! I will! I own it already, I just have to motivate myself. Great movie though! Fantastic!)
• Magic Mike XXL (Don’t get the hype with these movies. Sorry.)
• Mockingjay Part 2 (Disappointing finale. Catching Fire is my favorite of the bunch.)
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Having never seen of the previous movies, I really enjoyed it. Edge of my seat. WTF moments. Great new protagonist. Great villain. Human. Relate-able. Sad. Action packed. )

And here concludes 2015’s movie post.

 

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Summary (copied from GoodReads)::: “Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee. Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling. Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.”

Book 6 of 2015!!! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars. My rating: A

You guys…YOU GUYS! Please tell me everyone has read this book. I don’t have enough good things to say about it. It was so good!!!!!!! I didn’t start reading this book til 8pm last night (because I debating between this and another book) and didn’t end up putting it down until I finished after 4 am! I literally could not put this book down for anything. It was just amazing. The setting was different and interesting, the characters were crazy and awesome, the action – you guys – the action was like non-stop and there was interesting things happening left and right. This book blew me away. I cannot wait to read the rest of the trilogy. This book combines fantasy with magic in a different world. If you haven’t read this book yet, what are you doing with your life? You are so missing out on something special! Go! Read it! Then come back and see what I have to say regarding it with spoilers!

Thoughts containing spoilers!

• OMG, where do I even begin?! I open up the book and literally the second page is a map of this world. Remember how I picked up The Girl of Fire and Thorns and couldn’t read it anymore even though it contained a map as well? Well this certainly didn’t deter me from this book. And the illustrations are so fucking cool. I see this continent and then “The UnSea” with these dementor-like creatures in it and I’m intrigued. I don’t like super scary stuff so I was hesitant, but this book was just so fucking fast-paced that I didn’t care that there were dark parts.
• I know the book was using Russia as a sort of setting, but I rarely got those references other than the clothing and the speech/words. I heard a lot of people feel that she mis-used Russia? I don’t know. And I don’t care. Even though a lot of the phrases went right over my head, I still really enjoyed it obviously.
• Her dedication: “For my grandfather: Tell me more lies.” I was like WTF? I loved it.
• The page with the ranking for all the Grisha. I do have to say there were times I was really confused regarding their whole army system. The King has his own army? And then the Darkling looks after the Grisha, who are the second army? And all of these people are somehow magical but not really? They can control things like air, fire, light, darkness, etc. They can heal people, they can make people beautiful, they can kill people, they can create beautiful clothing that are bullet-proof? Yeah…as soon as I saw that list of the Grisha I knew I was going to have a hard time and for a while there I was actually taking notes, but then just gave up and get immersed in the story.
• Okay, so the actual story/plot of the book… I read the back of the book and knew she was going to fall for the Darkling right? I started reading the book and I wanted to just become a casual reader. I didn’t really want to read between the lines and speculate about what was going to happen later on. So while I’m reading I’m really digging this Darkling guy. He seemed like someone deeply misjudged and somebody who wanted to right the wrongs of his country and ancestors. And then he kissed her, I was like “Yeah, I support this!” and sure we got all of these weird/suspicious characters throughout the story (I did not like Baghra at all. When she led Alina away and told her to run away, I was like “what?! no!” and then there was the fucking creepy as hell Apparat?) but again – I was going with the flow. So when Baghra revealed to Alina that the Darkling was actually the one who created the Shadow Fold and not his great-great-great grandfather like he said in the beginning and that he actually planed on expanding it and not getting rid of it, I was shocked. I really freaking wanted to like the Darkling. Like I thought I knew how the book was going to go, but that was not what I was expecting, even though I knew I should have suspected something.
• I knew the Darkling was going to find Alina. When, I didn’t know. So right when Alina sees the Morozova’s Stag and decides not to kill it and then the Darkling shows up – my jaw was on the ground, I was probably sweating. It was just getting so fucking good at this point! Of course he would show up! And then he puts the necklace around Alina and sentences Mal to death…I was done. I was in so many tears thinking that Mal was going to die.
• After Alina finds out that Mal is stationed in the North, I went to the back of the book and read the letter that he wrote to her. It was so fucking sad. I was in tears.
• When Alina spends her last night with Mal in the prison before the Darkling plans on feeding him to those things in the Shadow Fold, I was crying then too. I love Mal. I felt so bad for him. These guys that are the “side-kicks” to these bad-ass female heroines – they always get a bad life don’t they? I was rooting for the Darkling for most of the book, but when the truth was revealed I was Mal all the way. lol.
• Of course at the end freaking Alina had to overcome her whatever powers that the Darkling controlled to over take him and doing the fucking Cut! (I was shocked). And then when her and Mal escaped into West Ravka I fucking knew she was going to have an itch for that power she just possessed in the Shadow Fold. She was going to be the next Darkling. She had that itch and it’s not going away and she’s going to push Mal away in the next couple books because of it. Of fucking course. Alina – girl, you have got to get it into your head that this power is not good. You’re going to turn into him! And of course the Darkling is not dead. He can’t possibly die.
• Halfway through the book when I was still on the Darkling’s side, I had a suspicion that either Mal or the Darkling was going to die. I thought in some twisted way that Mal was going to end up being the bad guy. And then when he wasn’t, I thought he was probably going to sacrifice himself when it came time so that Alina can do what she has to do to save the world. The Darkling has to die eventually right? Is he going to die in the third book?

How will this trilogy conclude? I’m excited! I really want to read those books right now this second, but I have a place an Amazon order for that to happen (cause books everywhere else is not as cheap) and wait for that to come. I’ll have to read another book in the meantime so I can buy that book’s sequels as well so I have a big enough basket. I’ll have to see what else to add to my basket. I was highly highly impressed with this series so far, so hopefully I find another series to love as well, if not more. I’m sure I had some more thoughts about the book but can’t think of them at this moment. I was going to write this post last night/this morning right after I finished, but it was too late and I had to get some sleep. Okay, onto another book! Hopefully I can finish a 7th book this month! I am on a roll you guys! And I didn’t even start reading til the second week of January and had a few days there were I didn’t find anything fascinating enough. Usually if I find a good book it will take me a maximum of 2 days to finish it. I’m just an obsessive reader like that ;)

Four: A Divergent Collection by Veronica Roth

Summary (copied from GoodReads):::”Two years before Beatrice Prior made her choice, the sixteen-year-old son of Abnegation’s faction leader did the same. Tobias’s transfer to Dauntless is a chance to begin again. Here, he will not be called the name his parents gave him. Here, he will not let fear turn him into a cowering child. Newly christened “Four,” he discovers during initiation that he will succeed in Dauntless. Initiation is only the beginning, though; Four must claim his place in the Dauntless hierarchy. His decisions will affect future initiates as well as uncover secrets that could threaten his own future—and the future of the entire faction system. Two years later, Four is poised to take action, but the course is still unclear. The first new initiate who jumps into the net might change all that. With her, the way to righting their world might become clear. With her, it might become possible to be Tobias once again. From #1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth comes a companion volume to the worldwide bestselling DIVERGENT series, told from the perspective of the immensely popular character Tobias. The four pieces included here—THE TRANSFER, THE INITIATE, THE SON, and THE TRAITOR—plus three additional exclusive scenes, give readers an electrifying glimpse into the history and heart of Tobias, and set the stage for the epic saga of the DIVERGENT trilogy.”

Book 5 of 2015!!! I hate that GoodReads doesn’t consider this an actual book so it can’t contribute to my reading challenge goal, but I’m still counting it!

GoodReads Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars. My rating: A

What can I saw about these stories/book? Not too much! If you’ve read the Divergent series, then you obviously have to read these short stories. It took me awhile to get to it, but I did it and loved it. They went by super quick and they were all really interesting and you got a good sense of who Four really is. I was in a tiny reading slump before this book and as soon as I saw this on my desk I knew it would get me out of it because I already knew the Divergent world, so I didn’t have to learn all this new stuff to dive right back into it.

• I fell back in love with Four. I love him, no matter what anybody has to say.
• I immediately wanted to re watch the Divergent movie after this. I hope they do a good job with the Insurgent movie. The trailers have been just so-so, so please don’t screw it up!
• That first short story brought me to tears.
• Even though it’s been awhile since I read any of the actual Divergent books, I kinda forgot about Marcus and what happened to him. I hate him so damn much.
• I hate Eric. That fucking asshole!
• Story 3: The Traitor was by far my favorite because it includes Tris! I was waiting for it and all the scenes did not disappoint. Loved getting to see inside Four’s head during some of my favorite scenes from Divergent.
• Four has had such a hard, difficult life and it made me remember Allegiant and brought me back to tears. Why did any of this have to happen to him? So sad! I feel so bad for him!

…that’s pretty much all I have to say. A short-ish review for a short book. Read it!!!

Reading Update…

Hey Guys,

So I actually wrote that “Maybe, Someday” post over a week ago and just haven’t gone back and edited it and then post it, so yeah…Some stuff has happened in the last week that I thought I’d share with you and let you know my reading progress so far this month…I might make another post at the very end of the month or the beginning of February as sort of a “January Summary” thing, but I might not, so this post will contain some of those elements…

After I read “Maybe, Someday” I got into a tiny reading slump. Since I was reading al contemporaries so far this month I thought it would be a good idea to continue in that theme and finish off the month reading more of them. I picked up “Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares” by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan and got 76 pages in when I just couldn’t read any more. That idea of the book is great with going around the city and doing all these things, but the characters got on my last fucking nerves, especially Lily. So I stopped and I may or may not go back to it someday.

Then I looked at my stack of new books and decided that I thought I would enjoy “The Girl of Fire and Thorns” by Rae Carson…well, I didn’t enjoy it…I got to Page 64 and put the book down. For some reason I just kept reading even after I wasn’t really getting into the vibe of the book and if I persevered I knew I could have finished the book, but I really wanted to enjoy a book, not force myself to read something. The characters weren’t so much the problem with this book, it was the premise instead. All the hispanic names, the locations, the magical elements including her Godstone and the religious aspects of the book… The rest of the paragraph with contain slight spoilers to the beginning of the book and speculation regarding the rest of the book, so process with caution::::::::::At first I thought I liked the King/Prince whatever, but then he just sort of ignored her once she came into the castle place. I also suspected that he only married her cause of her Godstone…which, let’s talk about that – a magical diamond like stone embedded into her belly button since almost birth…like what?! And then I made the mistake of going onto GoodReads to read the summary for this book and I was bit spoiled cause it said that there was some kind of revolutionary that she fell for, blah blah blah. So she doesn’t end up loving the King…This story had a lot of similar aspects to another book that I actually finished reading just yesterday, and I loved that book, so maybe I’ll give this another try eventually, but it’s getting put down for now.

Since that time I have completed two more books, so wait for the next posts to see what I read! :)

 

Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover

Summary (copied from GoodReads): “At twenty-two years old, Sydney has a great life: She’s in college, working a steady job, in love with her wonderful boyfriend, Hunter, and rooming with her best friend, Tori. But everything changes when she discovers Hunter’s cheating on her–and she is left trying to decide what to do next. Sydney becomes captivated by Ridge, her mysterious neighbor. She can’t take her eyes off him or stop listening to the passionate way he plays his guitar every evening out on his balcony. And there’s something about Sydney that Ridge can’t ignore, either. When their inevitable encounter happens, they soon find themselves needing each other in more ways than one…”

GoodReads Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars; My Rating: A+

I know right – A+? Really? Yip, I loved this book that much. It is by far my favorite Colleen Hoover book that I’ve read. That lady can do no wrong! It is best going into this book without really knowing anything outside of that summary I posted on top. I was really quite surprised by a lot of what happened in the book and it really benefited my reading experience. I didn’t even start this book til late in the afternoon and finished it in one sitting. I laughed, I “Aw-ed”, I cried, I just felt all the feels. Such a good book! Now go away and read it right now!!!

Thoughts containing Spoilers:::

• Was anyone expecting Ridge to be deaf? I sure wasn’t! When he said that I thought he was pranking her because maybe he overheard Bridgette thinking she was deaf the night before so he decided to do the same thing to her. And I even flipped back to the previous chapter when he was “talking” to Maggie but then I realized they must have been signing and it just looks like regular quotes to us. But looking back there definitely were the signs, like we never knew if he sang to his songs, just that he played him, and him not wanting to talk on the phone with Sydney. But then I was confused (and apparently ignorant) that deaf people could write songs (which made me like Ridge just that much more). This was definitely not my first foray into stories with deaf people in them, but still I really really enjoyed it!
• I almost forgot that this was a Colleen Hoover novel and forgot that there was going to be something revealed later on that would result in temporary heartbreak. We kept getting these clues to there being something wrong. Ridge going away on “family emergencies”, him saying how there was no way he could leave Maggie, and Warren telling her how he’ll never leave Maggie…I knew there had to be a reason and I couldn’t figure out what specifically it was, just that he felt like he had to love her and stay with out of some sort of obligation. And then it was revealed that Maggie has Cystic Fibrosis. I loved the way Maggie handled their breakup and the reasoning behind it. It was a totally legitimate reason and made me respect Maggie that much more.
• As soon as Ridge said he hadn’t spoken since he was 6, I knew that the next time he did speak was going to be towards Sydney. And I was right!
• Even though I’ve never been cheated on or have cheated on anyone else, I could oddly relate to these characters on so many different levels. I totally understand the whole “loving two people at once” situation. Everything Sydney felt, I felt right along with her. She was definitely a protagonist that I could see myself in the shoes of. I loved her.
• When they confessed how they felt about each other and Sydney said “I failed first” – I completely died. Tears streaming down my face, done.
• And when she signed “when” and all those words he said on the stage at the end – loved it!!! Like, she had to learn how to sign right? He spoke for her, so the least she could do was learn his language.
• And the lyrics to all those songs especially the ending to “Maybe Someday” – “For her I bend, For you I break.” God, I felt so many different emotions reading this book. I had so many tears! I didn’t think I would like lyrics, because usually I’m a bit of a pretentious snob and don’t really appreciate poems and/or song lyrics from just “everyday people”, but I really enjoyed them in this book.
• And I loved all the texting they did. It was something new and refreshing to read that made the book go by faster.
• Ridge telling Sydney all about him…All those stories that he’s never told anyone but her…did he not know at the time that there was a reason that he could do that? There’s obviously something different about Sydney where he can share those things with her instead of Maggie…
• The humor in this book. All the pranking and the inside jokes and the witty banter (you know how much I can’t resist witty banter).
• There were times where I thought “Omg, make her move out already so you stop feeling this way” but I still loved the sexual tension. I feel like if I was Sydney I wouldn’t have put myself in those situations where they almost kissed or almost did something that crossed the line. I would have just conceded and been like “you’re with Maggie, I’m gonna bow out because this isn’t going to lead anywhere good.” And it just kept coming up time after time after time. Couldn’t they have just stopped writing songs together all together if it kept happening? They couldn’t resist? And there were so many times where they were both leading each other on. Like Sydney knew he had a girlfriend, yet she still allowed all those awkward situations to happen and he obviously knew he had a girlfriend and yet he just touched her on her chest to listen to her singing and got closer to her, putting his arms around her, etc. Those were not innocent touches and I would have been pissed if I was Maggie.

I don’t know how can I go onto reading all of the dystopian books I own now. I love contemporaries so much!

Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

Summary (copied from Goodreads)::: “When Tate Collins meets airline pilot Miles Archer, she knows it isn’t love at first sight. They wouldn’t even go so far as to consider themselves friends. The only thing Tate and Miles have in common is an undeniable mutual attraction. Once their desires are out in the open, they realize they have the perfect set-up. He doesn’t want love, she doesn’t have time for love, so that just leaves the sex. Their arrangement could be surprisingly seamless, as long as Tate can stick to the only two rules Miles has for her – Never ask about the past. Don’t expect a future. They think they can handle it, but realize almost immediately they can’t handle it at all. Hearts get infiltrated. Promises get broken. Rules get shattered. Love gets ugly.”

Book #3 for 2015 and my second Colleen Hoover book :)

GoodReads Rating: 5 out of 5 stars. My rating: A-

In this post, I’ll compare this book a lot to the only other Colleen Hoover I’ve read – Hopeless, so that might bother you a bit if you haven’t read Hopeless (which I highly recommend).

I’m struggling giving this book 5 out of 5 stars. Immediately after finishing Hopeless I knew it was a 5 star book but I was a bit hesitant with this book. I don’t know why. This book was different in a lot of ways from Hopeless. I was expecting to cry a lot during Hopeless but only a few tears came out. I was however shocked several times during that book. This book however, left me in puddles of tears but nothing shocked me. It was a great book that reminded me a lot of fanfictions that I’ve read. The plot was a bit predictable (I mean come on – it’s a “friends with benefits” type of scenario and everyone knows someone always develops feelings) and the real “climax” of the book was a bit of a let down in my eyes (I’ll get to that more in my spoilers section). The characters were just fine and it was heartbreaking at times. Another difference between this book and Hopeless is that these characters are in their early/mid twenties whereas the Hopeless characters were still in high school. But with any of Colleen Hoovers characters – they’re all relatable. It was definitely a good book worth reading. I actually read like 1/6 of it one night and then finished the rest of the book in one sitting the next day. It was something you just couldn’t put down.

Thoughts containing spoilers:::

• The back story of Miles seemed like a bit of a let down for me. I was expecting something crazy and just way more to have him that closed off. Was I expecting too much? When Rachel got pregnant I was like “Ok, is she gonna have a miscarriage?” but then it just kept going on and on and then she had the baby so I was like “Is the baby going to die? Is Rachel AND the baby going to die?” and I was partially right. I don’t like it when I expect something to happen. I like when things happen out of the blue that completely shocks me.
• The “big reveal” didn’t come until almost the end. I just kept waiting and waiting for it to happen! I was looking at how much I had left to read and was like “there is no way this book is getting wrapped up” but it did.
• As much as I liked Tate and some of the things she did, she seems like a bit of a boring character. I liked her dialogue and the things she should have said to Miles but didn’t but she seemed pretty blah to me. Miles was the only one with a secret. I wish there was some sort of complexity to her as well instead of just the one who wanted Miles to open up to her and love her.
• Miles was a super frustrating character. The way he just left Tate there after having sex with her. Completely ignoring her and just not giving anything away. He was being so rude! Did he not know how to be a decent human being? He did not know that by doing those things you was breaking Tate’s heart? I mean, I know he tried to distance himself and make it just about the sex, but his behavior was just uncalled for. Felt so bad for Tate.
• Was totally expecting that chapter where Miles went to see Rachel to see how she’s doing. Loved that she asked if he loved Tate and Miles being scared that he couldn’t do it.
• Loved the writing. It was just fantastic. I loved the explanations of “Ugly Love” towards the end. It was just beautiful and so easy to read. I loved that Tate’s chapters were all just regular paragraphs but Miles chapters were center justified and the use of different font sizes and placement. It would go diagonally across the page sometimes, one word vertically down, some words bolded, some words repeating but it getting larger and larger every time it got repeated. It was just fascinating. Unique and I just loved it. Showed a different side of Miles.
• I loved that she showed us in Miles head after everything had gone down and the past was revealed. Loved reading about what he was thinking and his motivations and feelings.
• The book was just sad a lot of the times. I was pulling for Miles but knew that his time was coming to an end. I felt so bad for Tate. I knew why she kept continuing the “relationship”/arrangement, but it still really sucked for her. I was just like “Miles! Just tell her! You know you miss her! You know you love her!”
• This book left me in fucking tears. I didn’t really start crying until Tate said good-bye to Miles and then that chapter where Miles went to see Rachel slayed me and then when Miles came back and told Tate about himself.
• The ending was very satisfying. I was wondering if we were going to see them fall in love. I was afraid it was just going to end on Miles opening up and seeing that there was a future with Tate. Loved when he proposed and asked her to break rule #2 that he wanted a future with him. And I loved seeing him go full circle with seeing Tate and Sam and holding Sam and finally crying because of happiness again. It sucked that he blamed himself this whole time because of what happened to Clayton…which leads me to…
• What the hell happened to Clayton? So they got into a car accident on their trip back home after having him? He said he saw some lights and then they car just flipped into the lake? It wasn’t really fleshed out for us.
• I wanted to see Miles actually tell Tate everything. He said he would tell her in his time but I wanted to see that! I know it was to speed up the story and to skip over the boring parts of their relationship, but I would have wanted to see that.
• Rant coming: At the beginning where Miles meets Rachel and then realize that their parents are dating and them saying how they can’t be in a relationship now and their parents calling them “sister” and “brother”…like NO! I absolutely do not understand this concept. So two parents get together and they both have kids from previous relationships…why is it not okay when those kids start dating/falling in love? I’ve read this topic else where and it’s always deemed as so “taboo” but I find it completely fine! I just don’t understand. Why would parents be opposed to that? They’re step-siblings! It’s not like they share blood or anything! And they’re practically adults. Why do parents have to make it so taboo/are against it so much? Your kids found each other – and in some cases they found each other because the parents got together – so you should be happy about that, not get angry and “Oh, you can’t date your “sister”” Um, just no.

I think that’s about all I have left to say. Again – like Hopeless, there were a bunch of quotes and passages that I just loved from this book, so eventually when I find the time, I’ll create a post dedicated entirely to those. I have a shipment of books coming in on Friday, so before then I’ll be reading “Maybe, Someday” by Colleen Hoover!!! But after that – you guys just wait. I think I ordered 7 books and 5 of those are all the first books to dystopian type trilogies/series. Can’t wait!

Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

Summary (copied from Goodreads): “Sometimes discovering the truth can leave you more hopeless than believing the lies…That’s what seventeen-year-old Sky realizes after she meets Dean Holder. A guy with a reputation that rivals her own and an uncanny ability to invoke feelings in her she’s never had before. He terrifies her and captivates her all in the span of just one encounter, and something about the way he makes her feel sparks buried memories from a past that she wishes could just stay buried. Sky struggles to keep him at a distance knowing he’s nothing but trouble, but Holder insists on learning everything about her. After finally caving to his unwavering pursuit, Sky soon finds that Holder isn’t at all who he’s been claiming to be. When the secrets he’s been keeping are finally revealed, every single facet of Sky’s life will change forever.”

GoodReads rating: 5 out of 5 stars. My rating: A

Non-Spoiler thoughts::: I finally read this book guys!!! I bought this book at Target ages ago meaning to read it but was never in the mood to do so. Like Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (the first book I read this year), I heard a lot of great things about this book. I heard that all of Colleen Hoover’s books are easy to relate to and plot wise there’s always a big shocking climax/reveal toward the middle-end of the books. And I would say that it holds true for this book, although there wasn’t just one, but several (that might have been mildly spoilery). I loved this book. I don’t know if it was because it reminded me of the fanfiction I like to read, but I liked it a lot more than Fangirl. It had everything for my formula of a perfect book – humor, angst, sexy times, witty conversations, great relatable and likable characters, highs and lows, made me feel the feels, good ending with everything tied up/no loose ends, etc. I totally recommend this book. This was the first Colleen Hoover book I’ve read but if you want a glimpse into my future: the next two books I’ll be reading and reviewing are both by her. I bought Ugly Love and Maybe, Someday before I even started Hopeless and I guess it was a bit presumptuous of me to buy more of her books before I even knew if I liked her writing, but I had high hopes and they were met 100%.

Now getting into spoiler territory::: (like I like to do, here is my stream of consciousness thoughts regarding the book):

• I have an overactive imagination so I was predicting stuff way out there about the climax of this book. There was some stuff I definitely saw coming especially with the flashback chapters to 13 years ago and I had a feeling regarding some of the other stuff that was going to happen, but I was actually surprisingly okay with not having my imagination come to fruition with this book. I had this feeling that the book wasn’t going to be an HEA. As soon as Sky and Holder left Karen’s house after her finding out about her past and there was a still a chunk of the book left, I knew that she was going to want to see her dad and I suspected something bad was going to happen. When they got there and her dad was going to radio-in and then he invited them in, I was like “Oh my God, someone is going to die and I think it’s going to be Holder!” I totally did not expect the dad to shoot himself. Thank God he did. I was so scared that something was going to happen to one of the main characters. My hands were legitimately sweating towards the end. I pretty much knew all about Sky’s past before it was finally revealed, but when the dad said he molested Less, I was like “Holy Shit NO!” and then when Karen revealed that the dad was actually her brother, oh man. Those were actually the moments that shocked me.
• I heard this book was an emotional mess and I guess it was kind of sort of. I really didn’t find myself with the urge to cry though until the very end where Sky forgives Karen and they hug it out and Colleen Hoover has this great quote: “We wrap our arms around each other and we cry. We cry mother to daughter. We cry aunt to niece. We cry victim to victim. We cry survivor to survivor.” Fucking beautiful.
• I loved Sky. She was a totally relatable strong kick ass female character. I loved how she made those hateful notes on her locker more creative. It didn’t remotely bother her because she thought it was pathetic and sad that these people wouldn’t even have the imagination to do something creative with them. When those girls leave the dollar bills in her locker and she said something like “thank your father for me” – hilarious. I loved her personality quirk that she never cries. I love that she hates dealing with emotions (much like me) and she’s terrible at gift-giving. Her relationship with Six was so wonderful and cute.
• I loved the metaphor for the sky and counting the stars all throughout the book. I loved how the very last chapter brought it all together with child Holder and Hope and how it all began. She unknowingly kept that promise and it became a symbol for her life. I wonder if Holder realizes that. I loved that both of them have this fascination with looking at the stars.
• Breckin – so fucking cute. Loved him! That whole “Mormon” thing – so funny.
• Loved how the game Sky made up – Dinner Quest – became like a thing that would come back throughout the book.
• I totally did not realize the significance of Holder’s “Hopeless” tattoo. Hope and Less – the two people he let down. Hopeless. So sad yet so beautiful.
• When we got to the scene of the Prologue chapter…oh man. When you first read it you thought that it was Sky in her now room and Holder telling her to leave or something, but so glad we got that explained. I love when things come back and makes everything clearer.
• The whole “I live you.” Oh my goodness. I’m totally going to start using that from now on.
• The constant thing of Holder teasing her and sending her rude text messages. Loved it. I loved how it was like their “thing.”
• Holder had so many good quotes and lines in this book. I’ll eventually have to compile all of them and create a post on them. Is it evil of me that I dog-eared the book for all the times I liked what they said?
• I loved Holder. Have I mentioned how much I loved Dean Holder? Sure he was a bit moody at times and had some anger issues, but he was justified! He fights and defends the people he loves.
• Oh, and finally – the writing. Loved it! How many times have I written the words “love/loved” during this post? lol.

That is it for me. Let me know in the comments what you thought of this book or what you’re currently reading. So far this year has been pretty successful. Two books I couldn’t put down so far. It’s funny how you start reading a book and you’re just all “eh” about it but then you pass a certain point and just cannot put it down for the life of you.

 

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

This post was written January 7th, but took me a few days to come back and edit it:::

So my first book of 2015 is done…only 12 more to go and it’s only the first week of January! I can totally do this!

I know I said in that earlier post that I was going to be reading a book I already owned, but yesterday I was at Target and ended up picking up three books including Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I didn’t feel like ordering from Amazon and waiting for the order to come in. I would go to the Barnes and Noble but their books are way too expensive. Ain’t nobody got the money to pay the original cover price!

So…Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Summary (copied from GoodReads)::: “A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love.  Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan…But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving. Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere. Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words… And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone. For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories? And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?”

GoodReads rating: 4 out of 5 stars. My rating: B

As soon as I saw this book at Target I knew I had to buy it. I’ve heard so many good things about it. I didn’t read this book until close to 9pm yesterday. Read for about 4 hours, went to bed, got up around 3pm (because it was my day off and I’m still on college sleeping schedule more than a year out) and read until 10pm when I finished.

I had high expectations for this book and that’s never a good idea for me because I’m always let down. Did I like this book? Yes I absolutely did. Did I love it? No. I know that will anger some people when I say that. Keep in mind that I’ve been reading mainly fanfiction for the last 3 years so this being the first book I’ve picked up in quite a while and giving it 4 stars is saying something. My mind has been so used to reading fanfiction and having them start, go and end a certain way that this book was a definite an adjustment. It’s funny that this book is about a girl who writes fanfiction and I’m an avid fanfiction reader in real life. I knew I was going to like it before I even picked up this book because it just had a cute premise. I would definitely recommend this book for anyone wanting a cute, light read.

Stream of Consciousness thoughts containing spoilers:

• Loved Levi and Reagan. Those were my favorite characters.
• Reagan’s personality is like me in a lot of way. Blunt to the point of people thinking that you’re mean, but to the people who really care and know you they know you’re coming from a place of love and that’s just who you are. I loved her no nonsense personality and how she dealt with things. I honestly thought Levi was somehow her brother. I couldn’t understand why Levi would still be her boyfriend when she was clearly sleeping with other guys.
• Levi was so cute. Despite kissing that girl at that one party, still loved him. Knew he was going to be the main love interest as soon as I saw him. Nick was just there to distract us. Loved that he was that ray of sunshine and always smiling but also loved that he loved Cath’s quirk and knew the difference between Cath and Wren when Cath was doubting his feelings.
• At times Cath seems way too inside her head and overbearing. It got annoying but I think that was part of the point of distinguishing between the twins. Cath was afraid and unwilling to move forward in college whereas Wren wanted to create a new life and live it to the fullest what a lot of people do when they get to college.
• Could not stand Wren even though I completely saw where she was coming from. Did enjoy that she redeemed herself at the end. Loved the relationship between the twins and their cute eccentricities and their shared love for Simon Snow even though she seemed like she turned on Cath through the majority of the book. Glad they got to share the final release of the book together.
• I knew Nick was trouble from the beginning. That fucking asshole and trying to place the blame back on Cath for him loosing his TA job? Psht. how he never even thought about walking her home after they wrote together in the library at midnight. He was such a douche. Was using Cath and when he was like “well it’s my story and you were just the editor” I was like…well if you didn’t have Cath you would be a terrible writer you piece of shit asshole!
• As soon as we learned about Arthur’s mental stuff, I knew he was like Cath in many ways and the other way around.
• The asshole mother and how she wouldn’t stay at the hospital with Cath for Wren. She just wanted to be friends and not a real mother to them. At first I thought Cath was a bit too unreasonable to not even hear their mother out, but she made the right decision.
• I know the whole Simon Snow thing was supposed to be like Harry Potter, but I’m sorry – I did not like reading those parts. How every chapter started with a passage from either Cath’s fanfiction or the Simon Snow books? Nope, didn’t like it. Didn’t find it interesteing, found myself wanting to skip those pages entirely if I didn’t think it was going to have something to do with the plot in real life.
• Cath and her obsession with finishing her fanfiction and her not thinking she was good enough to write her own story…I wish we would have had more to read regarding her writing that paper for her fiction-writing class. I wanted more of a development and an arc regarding that. I didn’t like how she just kind of gave up on it and then in the end she just wrote it real quick in Levi’s bed and then on the last page finding out that she won some prize for it. I wanted to see that in real time. I wanted to see her get out of her head and finally go through the process of writing about her mother and creating her own story instead of “borrowing” from Simon Snow. Her eventually development into a full fledged writing without relying on Simon Snow. What was she going to do for the rest of her life? Not possibly write Simon Snow fanfiction. She had the potential to be a great writer and I would have really liked to have seen that. Really disappointed in that aspect.
• Could have definitely been longer if she had fleshed that out
• Really wanted to see her go through the process of going through her writing process with Professor Piper. I hated how she kept lying to her and telling her that she was working on something and that she didn’t want to show her until it was closer to being completed. I would have loved to have seen a scene of Cath finally bringing in her draft to left her read and what Professor Piper would have said about it.
• Because I’m so used to reading fanficiton – there were no fun, sexy times. Only alluding to them. I wanted to see it! I know it’s a YA book and not an adult book, but still! lol

Speed Dating by samekraemer

Summary: “When Bella Swan and her closest friends agreed to accompany Angela to a speed-dating event, they were skeptical. That was until a cute bartender stepped up and mesmerized Bella more than she’d ever anticipated. He was gorgeous, and she was smitten.”

I’ll start off by saying I really liked this story at the beginning. I was smitten from Chapter 1. However – the longer it went the more I became disinterested in it. As a story overall it was good but there were a lot of nit-picky things that I found bothersome.

The dialogue between the characters were great. I loved the way Edward and Bella had their little back and forths, especially from the very first chapter. I think had it just been a one-shot, it would have been great. Maybe even a little 2-3 chapter story. What really lost me in this story was the speed (pun not intended) and the progression of these characters later on in the story.

The story really should have been renamed. Sure the characters meet at a Speed Dating event and their relationship progressed quite fast, but that wasn’t really what was at the heart of the story. It was cute that the author brought it back at the end of the story, but it was so much more than speed dating.

Let’s talk about the speed. If you haven’t read this story and would like to, I would stop here because I will be getting into spoilers. The main characters annoyed me. Maybe it was just me and what I prefer to read, but Edward started calling her by nicknames as soon as they met. I found that a little weird. Within a month of dating Edward professes his undying love for Bella. That’s a little fast. Also – he says that he won’t have sex with her until she said it back. Now, in my personal life, I’m all about waiting til both parties are in love to wait til physical activity, but this is a fanfiction and I want fantasy elements. It was a little too traditional for me and not enough steam. The author says that it’s rated M, but it was barely rated R. The sex scenes were very tame. Nothing like I’m used to reading and what I like to read. And they move in together super soon too even though they still had so much to resolve.

And the drama guys. First Bella finds out about Edward having a 13-year-old daughter (which doesn’t get resolved until WAY later) and then the daughter gets into an accident so Edward brings Bella (whom he’s known for all of like 2 weeks) all the way across the country with her and then Bella’s father gets sick and dies and then Bella over reacts at the Bachelor Auction and believes something Tanya says without even conferring with Edward so there are tears there, then the little bitch that is Edward’s daughter and Bella wanting to flee again, then Edward goes all emo and decides to move across with country to his daughter without taking to Bella about it so more tears there cause Bella can’t handle that shit, so she officially breaks it off with Edward and months go by and she’s still in love with him but then she starts working for this other guy and he’s sort of hot and then he shows up at the Speed Dating thing at the end and then Edward shows up out of the blue (which I was totally expecting) but I was not expecting to start loving the new Creigh guy. When she stood up and took Creigh with her and they went to that diner and then afterwards he drops her off back at Irish Eyes and kisses the hell out of her and says that if he had gotten there first he would have loved her completely I was like *swoon fucking swoon take me now*. I was so on board for Bella and Creigh. Can we please get a Creigh spin-off? lol.

So overall, a good story with too many flaws I couldn’t look past.