Thursday, July 31, 2014

The Secret Lightning Scar- Chapter 9 [A Harry Potter FanFic]



I woke up the next morning with the same overwhelming feeling of giddiness left over from the night before. The room was completely devoid of people, so I laid in the comfortable bliss of my bed, reminiscing about how perfect my evening had been. The only way that it could have been more perfect was if my excitement had been better received by Harry, Ron and Hermione.

Upon returning from the date, they had bombarded me with questions. When I finally admitted that Draco and I had kissed, I was met with nothing but negativity. Hermione frowned and shook her head judgment practically poured from her body language. Ron furrowed his brow as his face and ears turned bright red. I looked to Harry, hoping at least to have the solace of his support, but he wore the same unreadable, almost blank expression on his face. I shrugged off their reactions and went upstairs to get away from the negativity.

Aside from that minor bump in the road, the night had been perfect. Laying there, replaying the date in my mind, I had to laugh at the way that everything had ended up. Never in my life had I expected to date Draco Malfoy and be happy about it.

As my mind tends to do when left to its own devices, it began to wander through random thoughts before once again settling on the single thought I’d been pushing from my mind. Voldemort.

I tried to push it away again, but it shoved its way into my thoughts, kicking the happy thoughts out. “Is it time to tell someone?” I wondered. “Did Dumbledore confide in Professor McGonagall? Maybe I should talk to her.” The feeling of hopelessness washed over me. I had no one to help me, and no idea what Voldemort was up to. As much as I thought that Professor McGonagall might be able to help, she was nothing compared to Dumbledore. He seemed to constantly have ways of knowing what was going on. McGonagall was brilliant, but I doubted that she was that brilliant. The truth of the matter was that what I really needed was Dumbledore’ guidance and that simply wasn’t possible.

“But it is possible,” I realized, abruptly sitting up in my bed. My mind was racing with how obvious my realization had been. Dumbledore’s painting hung in the headmaster’s office. All I needed to do was to get in there and talk to him without Professor McGonagall knowing. But I didn’t know the password, and had no ideas about how to get it. I sighed, knowing that it was a long-shot, but kept the idea in the back of my mind.

I rolled out of bed, got dressed, and went down to the common room. I was surprised to find that Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all still in there, rather than at breakfast. Hermione appeared to be doing homework, but Harry and Ron were playing a game of Wizard’s Chess.

“Morning, Carrie,” Harry said as I walked in. He quickly went back to focusing on the chess game, because he appeared to be losing. I sat down beside them, and sure enough, only a minute later, Ron declared “checkmate.”

“Can we go get breakfast now?” he asked Harry, who had seemingly waited for me to come down before getting food.

“Yeah, let’s go. I’m starved,” he replied. “You coming, Hermione?”

Hermione looked up from her work upon hearing her name. “Sure, let me just finish this sentence,” she replied. A couple seconds later, she put her quill down, rolled up the parchment, and placed it in her bag.

We exited through the portrait hole and made our way down toward the Great Hall. As we went down the final staircase, I saw Draco just reaching the top of the staircase leading from the dungeons. He had already spotted us and grinned in my direction.

“Good morning,” he said. “Heading to breakfast?” I beamed at him, memories of the date flooding back to the forefront of my memory. Harry, Ron, and Hermione pretended like he wasn’t there.

“Yes. You?” I replied as we reached the bottom of our staircase.

“I am,” he replied. He then continued tentatively, “Would it be alright if I ate with you lot?” I grimaced, worried about what the others would say, and turned to gauge their reactions.

Before I could respond, Ron did so for me. “No, that would not be bloody alright,” he growled, taking a threatening step toward Draco. His face and ears reddened, and he glared at Draco.

Draco seemed surprised but calmly replied, “It was just a question, Weasley. No need to get angry.” At these words, Ron’s eyes looked like they could shoot flames.

“Keep your hands off my sister,” Ron spat at Draco. “You may have deluded her into thinking you’re not the same arrogant git that you’ve always been, but you aren’t fooling me.”

“Ron!” I exclaimed, looking to Hermione to stop him. But she didn’t seem to have any desire to calm him down, clearly agreeing with his anger.
Draco’s brow furrowed, and he glared at Ron. “I think Carrie can make her own decisions,” he said darkly.

“That doesn’t mean I agree with them,” Ron snapped.

“You don’t have to,” I exclaimed incredulously. Ron glared at me. “It’s my choice, not yours, Ron! If you don’t like him, that’s your problem, not mine.”

“He doesn’t deserve you,” Ron growled. “He’s acted like a lousy git toward all of us for as long as we’ve known him. He sided with Voldemort, Carrie! He tried to kill Dumbledore! He’s a complete waste of life, and yet you suddenly fancy him! What’s wrong with you? Has he put you under the Imperius curse? Has someone destroyed your brain?” I stared at him, my mouth hanging open, unable to form words. Hermione wore a smug expression on her face, as if Ron’s outburst proved what she’d been saying all along.

“I can’t change the past,” Draco said, amazingly still calm. “I wish I could. I regret the path I chose more than you could ever know. And I don’t blame you for being skeptical of my motives and for not believing that I’ve truly changed. I’d find it hard to believe too if I were in your position. But if I’m ever going to be able to move on from the past and start fresh, I at least need the opportunity to have a second chance.”

Hermoione was visibly surprised by what Draco had said. Her eyes widened and her eyebrows raised, seemingly subconsciously. Ron seemed to be at a loss for words and blinked stupidly, seemingly frozen with his mouth hanging open. I turned to Harry for the first time during the exchange. He was not shocked like the other two were. Instead, he looked at Draco with a very curious expression. Draco gave a small, half-hearted smile in my direction, and then gave the others a polite nod before setting off in the direction of the Great Hall.

Before the others could recover from their surprise, I rounded on Ron. “Can’t you just stay out of my business and trust me for once?” I fumed. Without waiting for a response, I hurried after Draco, who was carelessly pushing his way through groups of people, clearly more upset than he had let on. Rather than turning with the crowd toward the Great Hall, he shoved the main doors open and hurried outside.

“Draco!” I exclaimed, following him out into the courtyard. He plopped down onto one of the benches and leaned his head back against the stone, staring at the sky.

“I’m so sorry for Ron’s outburst,” I said softly, sitting down next to him.

“I’m not upset with Ron,” Draco replied without taking his eyes off the sky. “He has a right to be upset. I’ve done all those terrible things that he talked about. Having them all laid out in front of me like that makes me upset with myself.”

“You’ve changed, Draco,” I said. “The fact that I’m sitting here with you, and that you’re mad at yourself rather than Ron, and that you didn’t attack him, all of those prove how much you’ve changed. You’re not that person anymore.” I reached over and softly placed my hand on his. Draco sighed.

“Does that even matter if no one believes me?” he said softly, still not looking at me.

“Of course it does,” I said fiercely. “It doesn’t matter if no one else believes you. You know it’s true, and so do I. And I’m here for you.”

He finally turned to look at me, his facial expression extremely soft and vulnerable. Without a word, he pulled me into a kiss. One hand wrapped around the back of my head, pressing me to him, and the other softly cradled my face. While our first kiss had been soft and sweet, this one was deep and passionate.

“Thank you,” he said softly as we pulled apart. “I know you’re going to think this is cheesy, but you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” I laughed and rolled my eyes. “I’m serious,” he said. “I’m not taking one second with you for granted.”

I laughed again. “How about we go get breakfast? Just us,” I suggested.

Draco sighed and shrugged. “Alright,” he said. “I was really hoping to make some sort of peace with the others, but I guess we have to take one step at a time.”

“It’ll come eventually,” I said reassuringly. Draco gave me a small smile and we went inside for breakfast. We sat by ourselves at the far end of the Gryffindor table, receiving looks from several people, the least of which being from Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who appeared upset that I had chosen to sit with Draco. After breakfast, Draco and I went our separate ways, each needing to get homework done. Rather than go to the common room as usual, I sat in bed working on my Defense Against the Dark Arts homework. I didn’t particularly want to see my friends at that point. If they wanted to talk, they would have to come to me. And that’s exactly what they did.

About halfway through my essay, the door to the girls’ dorm opened, and I didn’t even need to look up to know that it was Hermione. She came in quietly and sat down at the foot of my bed.

“Carrie?” she said. “Can we talk?”

I sighed and put down my quill and parchment. “Go ahead.”

“I hate what’s happened to our friendship these past couple weeks. We’ve been so distant-”

“No,” I cut her off. “You’ve been distant. Ever since I started dating Draco, you’ve been avoiding me.”

Hermione grimaced. “I know,” she admitted. “I’ve been pushy with my opinions and haven’t listened to yours. I assumed I knew better than you. I’m sorry.”

“And now? Do you finally believe me?” I asked.

It was Hermione’s turn to sigh. “I- I’m not sure. I can see the changes in Draco. But I still can’t say that I like the relationship.”

“You sound like Harry,” I grumbled.

“At least I’m trying,” Hermione said.

“Yes, you are. Thank you,” I said. “What about Ron?”

“Well, I don’t think he’ll be having another outburst,” Hermione said. “But he still doesn’t like Draco, regardless of whether or not he’s changed.”

I sighed. “Well, at least that’s something,” I said. Hermione nodded. “Let’s not let our friendship get to the point where we’re avoiding each other again, OK?” I said.

Hermione smiled. “Absolutely,” she replied. “Care to join us in the common room?”

“Yeah, I’ll be down in a minute,” I replied. Hermione left and I grabbed my homework and put it in my bag. I threw my bag over my shoulder and made my way down to the common room, grateful to at least have one of my best friends back.

As I sat down next to Harry on the couch, Ron mumbled an apology. “It’s alright,” I replied, pulling out my quill so that I could finish my essay.

“Are you alright?” Harry asked.

“I should be asking you the same question,” I replied. Harry raised an eyebrow.

“And why is that?” he asked.

“Every time anyone brings up Draco, you get this weird, expressionless look on your face. Are you sure you’re really OK with him?” I replied. Harry’s brow furrowed.

“I never said I was OK with him,” he said. “We’ve been over this. I think he’s changed, but he doesn’t deserve you.”

“You really don’t need to go the protective brother route, Harry. Ron’s got that covered,” I joked. Harry frowned.

“I’m not going the protective brother route. I’m trying to be the supportive best friend. I’m trying to put my own feelings aside to help you,” he said, sounding annoyed.

If he was trying to make me feel guilty, he was doing an excellent job. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I know it’s asking a lot of you to suddenly accept a guy you’ve hated for seven years. Thanks for at least trying.”

Harry smiled. “You know I’m always here for you, Jacobsen,” he said, playfully rustling my hair.

“You’d better be,” I threatened.

“Of course,” he replied. Just then, Fred and George came down the stairs from the boys’ dormitories.

“Whoa,” I said. “This is a rare sight! The two of you have been practically MIA the last few weeks. I think I’ve seen you like, twice.”

Fred smirked. “We’ve got a business to run, haven’t we?” he said.

“You’ve been in Diagon Alley?” I asked. “How have you been keeping up with school?”
George waved my question away. “Doesn’t matter,” he said. “We’re actually on our way to Diagon Alley right now. Any of you lot care to join? We’ve got a fool-proof method of getting there and back without getting caught. Been using it all month.”

I grinned. A few hours away from Hogwarts was just what I needed. “Count me in,” I said.

“Me too,” Harry chimed in. “I could use some fun. I don’t think I’ve broken any school rules yet this term.” I had to laugh, realizing how calm this term was compared to previous ones.

“What about you two?” George asked, turning to Hermione and Ron.

“I’ve got to work on homework,” Hermione said, without looking up from the parchment she was writing on. Ron, still looking slightly annoyed, gave a little grunt that seemed to signal that he wouldn’t be joining us.


“Let’s go then,” Fred grinned. Fred, George, Harry, and I all climbed through the portrait hole and made our way to the statue that guarded the tunnel that lead into Honeyduke’s basement. 

As we climbed into the tunnel, I grinned at Harry, who beamed back at me. We were about to get a fun, drama-free afternoon, which was just what we needed.

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I hope y'all enjoyed chapter 9 of The Secret Lightning Scar! I've gotten back into a routine of writing these, so they'll return to being posted every two weeks! 
The Secret Lightning Scar main page: Click Here 

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

The Pendragon Adventure Book 9: Raven Rise Discussion [Summer Reading Challenge]

Hey, y'all! I'm here with another summer reading challenge post! I'm continuing on with my July challenge: The Pendragon Adventure!

Series Info

Since this series is a little less well-known than the other series in my Summer Reading Challenge, I decided to discuss the premise of the series as a whole. The Pendragon Adventure is a 10 book series centered around our main character, Bobby, and his adventures through multiple dimensions (or territories, as they're called in the books). The books are told from a dual perspective. Our main perspective is of Bobby, told in first-person through journals which he sends to his best friend to keep a record of what is happening. The secondary perspective is of Bobby's best friend, Mark, and pseudo-girlfriend, Courtney, who receive the journals and go through their own problems on Earth. The majority of the books focus on a single territory each, as Bobby travels there to thwart the evil Saint Dane.


Book Summary
As always, remember not to read this if you haven't read the previous books in the series, because this summary will probably spoil you for any books that came before this one!


Bobby Pendragon believes that it is over. He has trapped both himself and Saint Dane on Veelox, seemingly stopping Saint Dane from completing his plans. But what he doesn't know is that while he's isolated on the island of Ibara, Halla is falling apart. The battle has moved to his home territory of Second Earth, and Saint Dane's Convergence seems to be underway. Is it too late to save Halla?



Overall Thoughts

Non-spoiler section!

I don't know how I feel about this book. Well, I guess I do, but I'm not sure why. And why is a pretty important factor in this situation. Although I ended up really loving The Pilgrims of Rayne even though I remembered disliking it, the same can't really be said for Raven Rise. I mentioned in my last post that I really disliked the turn that the last few books took. And after re-reading Raven Rise, I'm finding that I feel the same way. However, as I said, I'm not sure why I dislike it. I'm not sure whether I dislike it because I'm so frustrated with how calculated and well thought out Saint Dane is and how he's winning the upper hand or because I genuinely don't think that this is the way I think the series should go.

I think that's the epitome of my struggle with the last few books in this series. I have a hard time figuring out whether I don't like it because I hate that Saint Dane is getting the upper hand, or if the Convergence legitimately takes the series in a direction that was totally out of left field and doesn't fit with the rest of the series. I think it's probably a combination. I feel that although I like the book, my emotions toward it go more toward appreciation rather than liking.  Maybe I just crave the simplicity of the one territory per book plotline. As I said, I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. Hopefully, my thoughts are more coherent in the wrap-up.

I also worry that my opinions of this book might be slightly clouded by my opinions on The Soldiers of Halla. A very confusing and (for me) extremely memorable scene occurs at the end of Raven Rise, and it prompts this big explanation about Travelers in The Soldiers of Halla, and I distinctly remember not being satisfied with that explanation at all... and I feel like that's partially clouding my opinion of Raven Rise.

I also feel like Raven Rise is a lot choppier than any of the other books. Usually, we get a nice back and forth between Bobby's POV and Mark & Courtney's. In Raven Rise, however, we have Alder, Mark & Courtney, Patrick, and Bobby. Just when we get into one story, we're bounced to another.

As far as rating, I'm a little torn, which makes sense since I don't exactly know how I feel. I do feel that it's one of the more intricate and well-constructed Pendragon books, so I'll give it 4.25-4.5 stars because of that.  More accurate rating TBD in my wrap-up.


Spoilery Discussion!


If I were to choose one word to explain this book, I think it would be confusing. All the changes occurring with Halla because of the Convergence had me really confused. Especially the timelines. It seemed sometimes like Nevva and Saint Dane would have to be in multiple different places at once for their plans to work out. The changes to Second Earth kept me confused, as did the changes to Third Earth.

I'm also kinda getting tired of Saint Dane's plans always working out just how he wanted them. Even when Bobby thinks he's doing something that's finally going to take Saint Dane by surprise, he's playing right into Saint Dane's plans! There's no way he could plan this whole elaborate scheme so perfectly to know exactly how Bobby will react to events.

Also, that scene at the end with all the Travelers showing up in this desolate wasteland... huh? I know it's explained early on in The Soldiers of Halla, but I can't remember the explanation, so right now nothing makes sense. I'm confused.

Sorry this discussion is totally incoherent, but I think I'll have my thoughts together for the last book.

Favorite Quotes


Page 116: "I'm not your friend."
"Yes, of course. I hope that by now you understand exactly where our differences lie."
"I do. I'm trying to protect the territories, and you're trying to kill everyone. I've had that one down for a while now."

Page 432: I grabbed Alder's arm and squeezed. "You're my brother. There's nobody I'd rather be here with. Actually, I'd rather not be here at all, but since I am, I'm glad you are too."

Page 446: "How many of those suits do you have? Do you like, send them to the laundry, or just toss 'em out and put on a new one when it gets all gamey?"
Saint Dane chuckled. I amused him. 
"Does it matter?" he asked.
"It was a joke, idiot." On top of everything else wrong with him, Saint Dane didn't have much of a sense of humor. Except when I amused him. Which happened a lot, I'm sorry to say.
"I'm glad to see that you're in a good mood. You should be. Our struggle has finally come to an end. Perhaps we should celebrate."
"Perhaps you should bite me."

Page 458: "There will be no more protests. No more dissension. No more violence. There will be only one voice. The voice of Ravinia. The voice of Halla. Your voice."
"There goes freedom of speech," I said.
Saint Dane didn't react.



So, there you go, that's all for this summer reading post! Have you read the Pendragon series? What do you think of the series? Let me know in the comments!

I've also created a Facebook page for my blog, so if you want to check that out and like it, you can click HERE. I'll try to keep that pretty up-to-date with new posts and such.

Thanks for reading this! If you like my posts, don't forget to subscribe/follow, since it lets me know that you're enjoying what I'm doing. See y'all soon!

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Instagram Book Challenge... Times 2!

Hey, y'all! So I haven't done a challenge yet this month and since I don't really have time to do two, I decided to do two challenges which were similar and overlap just a little. And for once, these actually come from Instagram! So, I actually decided to format the pictures as if they were actually Instagram pictures, so they have frames and filters and other fun things. So, since I have two challenges, let's get straight into the challenges!


1) Cover Love

I go on and on and on about my love of the covers of Across The Universe and A Million Suns, but they're all over this challenge already, so I chose one of my recent cover loves. I purposely bought the paperback just so that I could have this cover. It just looks really cool! And I'm going to be reading this very, very soon.

2) Made Me Cry

I picked a handful of books that made my cry more than any others. The last 200 pages of Deathly Hallows just keep me constantly crying. I even found a filter that looked like little water droplets so I used it. All the sobs.

3) I Want His/Her Life

Hermione Granger. Imma steal your life. I want to go to Hogwarts. I want to be one of the golden trio. I want to marry Ron Weasley. She just has a great life.

4) Oldie But A Goodie

Look at the cool old-fashioned effect I found! If you've read my Top 15 Stand-alones post (link HERE!), you'll know how much I absolutely love this book. It was published in the 1930s, but it reads so easily and it's a very intricate and well-crafted mystery. 

5) Superior Second Book

These are all the sequels that I own and have read which are better than the first book. Hopefully I can add to this list with all the series I plan on reading soon!

6) Best Book Abroad

I mean, these two series are both abroad and they're some of my faves. I almost chose some series like Pendragon and Across The Universe, but those aren't even set on Earth! So I chose some books set in Britain!

7) Could Be YA... But Isn't

It's all about teenagers! The only reason it's labeled adult is because it's Stephen King. Yes, it's really crazy and could be too horror or violent for YA, but I have a feeling that if it was published today rather than in the 70s, it would be considered YA. 

8) TBR Book on My Shelf

This series is very high on my TBR. Very high. like I want to get to it in August. If I don't get into it in August, I'll read it in September. Really soon.

9) Currently Reading

I'm so close to being done with my July challenge! I plan on finishing this up tonight so that I can take a couple days on The Soldiers of Halla.

10) Fantastic Fantasy

I've been talking about this series a lot because I'm rereading it this month, but I feel like this series is very underrated. It's amazing. AMAZING. It's a middle grade series, but by the middle, I would count it as a full-fledged YA series. 

11) OMG Ending

Besides the ending of Deathly Hallows, this is the most beautifully written ending I've ever read. The epilogue is a large part of the reason that Clockwork Princess landed in the "made you cry" picture.

12) Remarkable Retelling

So, I haven't read any re-tellings yet, but it seems like everyone absolutely loves this series, so I'm putting my trust in my favorite booktubers on this one.

13) Wish I Was There

I decided not to go with the obvious "Hogwarts" answer. I would love to flume to Cloral because it seems like such a gorgeous and fun territory. Sniggers at Grollo's for everyone!

14) Stellar Sci-Fi

Y'all. Y'all. I know I've said it before, but this trilogy is one of the most underrated YA trilogies ever. It's a very consistent series. All three books are very good. Series like Divergent and Shatter Me are incredibly inconsistent quality-wise (I didn't like Shatter Me, but Unravel Me and Ignite Me got better, and I LOVED Divergent, but Insurgent and Allegiant got progressively worse). All 3 of these books are perfect. Love.

15) Road Trip Book

The first time I read the series, I was on a road trip while reading 3 & 4 and have very vivid memories of reading Prisoner of Azkaban in the car while stuck on an icy road in the middle of the night. That book will always be associated with road trips for me.

16) Reluctant YA Reader Rec

This was a very difficult one for me, because I don't know of any books that could definitely sway someone to appreciate YA. But this book is beautifully written and deals with very serious issues, so I think that it could convince a reluctant YA reader that YA isn't petty or bad-quality.

17) Shades of... Green

I mean, this one speaks for itself. It's called Shades of Earth and it has several shades of green on the cover. It fulfills the challenge on its own! 

18) Oh So Swoonworthy

Jace Wayland (or whichever last name you wanna use but I'm avoiding spoilers). I absolutely love Jace. Love. A lot of people would choose William Herondale or Jem Carstairs from The Infernal Devices, but I feel like Jace is a combo of the two of them. He loves books and plays piano and he's sarcastic and arrogant but actually a softie. I love him. Love.

19) Fave Use Of Font

I absolutely love the typography on this book. I'm a big fan of hand-written looking fonts, and I especially like the way that it's used.

20) Made Me Think

You could say that it made me... doublethink. Bad jokes, bad jokes. Anyway, it really made me think about how much we take freedom of speech and freedom of thought for granted. 

21) Spine Show & Tell

So, these are some of my favorite spines, and they just so happened to form a rainbow! I love the ombre on the Across The universe trilogy, the simplistic red of McFly's book, the highlighter orange of Ready Player One, the typography of Mr. Penumbra's, and the beautiful teal of Ignite Me. Love.

22) Late To the Party

So, there's being late to the party, and then there's whatever I've got going on, because I still haven't read them. So I'm still late to the party. I haven't even gotten to the party yet!

23) 2014 Release

This was the first 2014 release that I read this year, and I had a lot of fun making this picture look really old, since the plot takes place long in the past!

24) Make the Movie!

I've already talked about Pendragon a lot in this post, but this is honestly #1 on my list of books I want to see as movies. They were written to become movies! And yet, they haven't yet. It's really sad. 

25) Mug + Book

I had a really cool music mug but it broke. And that was my only mug. It was beautiful and I'm really sad. Soooo, I used my record tumbler and went with a music theme. 

26) Starts with a J...

I don't have any books that start with J, so Infinite Jest was the closest I had...

27) Best. Title. Ever.

Would I say it's the best title ever? No. But it's definitely one of my favorites that I own because of the irony of an amnesiac having a memoir.

28) Great Dedication

Love it. So perfect, especially with the seven horcruxes. And I always really love when authors dedicate books to the fans. 

29) Cool Cover Remodel

This cover is 20 million times better than that really terrible original cover that had nothing to do with the story. I mean, look at it:
Literally nothing to do with the plot.

30) School Setting

I mean, is there any better school setting? Is it even possible to have a better school setting? I think NOT.

31) Best Book of July

I do still have to finish 2 books, but so far, this is surprisingly my favorite. I went into it remembering it as one of my least favorites of the series, but I was pleasantly surprised. I was really impressed.


So, that's the end of the I Heart YA July Photo Challenge! Now, we're gonna jump right into the #30DaysOfBookstagrams July Challenge!


1) July TBR

I set myself the goal of re-reading the Pendragon series, which you already know if you've been following my blog. I've only got two left, so yay!

2) A Book in the Sun

What about a book in... A Million Suns? Oh man, my jokes are terrible. But true to my vampiric form, I don't want to take a book outside into the sun... but mostly because I'm just too lazy. 

3) Summer Book Boyfriend

It's not really a "summer" series, but I read it in the summer. So Jace. Always Jace.

4) Awesome Typography

Apologies for the repeat, but I just really love this typography!

5) Best Photograph on a Cover

I typically am not a fan of photography on covers. I don't like actual people on my covers. However, I absolutely love the Sweeney Todd movie tie-in cover, because Johnny Depp.

6) Blue Books

Blue on blue on blue. 3 books I love, another that I love the cover of. Guess which is which? 

7) Book + Song With Same Title

The book was actually named after the song (Across The Universe by The Beatles. If you didn't get that, then what are you doing with your life?!), and the titles of the other two books in the series come from the song as well! The series is great, and that Beatles connection just makes it even better.

8) Spell Your Name With The 1st Letter of Books

I don't have any books that begin with the letter K, so I went with my last name.

9) Your Head in a Book

I'm fully aware that this wasn't what it meant by face-in-book, but I was sleepy. So this is what you get.

10) Road Trip Book

When I saw this, I didn't think I had any road trip books, but then I saw The Lightning Thief, and I realized, "Ooh, that's a road trip book!" because although it's a fantasy, it revolves around their road trip!

11) Page Excerpt From Current Read

I love DJ's little notes at the beginning of the Pendragon books. 

12) Favorite Bookmark

I made this bookmark, with symbols of some of my favorite things: Harry Potter and music!

13) Favorite Non-Fiction

I also really love McFly's Unsaid Things but that one popped up several times in other pictures, and this one has had a huge impact on my life. 

14) Book Chessboard (Black + White)

This was a little difficult, because I don't have a ton of just white books, but I "made it work," in the words of Tim Gunn... and yes, I'm watching Project Runway while working on this post.

15) A Signed Book

Yep. That's right. I have a signed copy of TFioS. Be jealous. I found it in Target one day. I had planned on buying the book at some point, but I didn't have immediate plans to buy it. That changed the second I saw the "Signed Copy" sticker.

16) Recently Bought Books

I have my July book haul coming next week, so here's a sneak peek of it! I wanna keep y'all guessing right til the end.

17) A Classic You Love

What's better than one great classic? 3 great classics! All three of these books are really great. Love.

18) Books By Favorite Author

You're probably slightly confused right now. Why isn't this a picture of JK Rowling's books? Allow me to explain. I recently watched a video by Ariel Bissett where she discussed her favorite authors. She said that she didn't count JK as one of her favorite authors because she didn't have faith that she would love every book by JK. That got me thinking. When The Casual Vacancy, The Cuckoo's Calling, and The Silkworm came out, I felt no urge whatsoever to purchase/read them (although I'm kinda interesting in The Cuckoo's Calling and The Silkworm now). I'm more attached to the Harry Potter series than to JK herself. However, I'm already looking forward to Cassie Clare's next book. Yes, it's still set in the same world, but I'm READY. Also, the Bane Chronicles. Yes. 

19) Book Spine Poetry

A Million Suns Ignite Me Across the Universe
Beautiful Creatures Catching Fire Shatter Me
A City of Ashes Under The Dome; A Brave New World
Nothing Feels Good.

Mostly crappy, but I don't really care.

20) A Book That Make You LOL

Weasley twins, Weasley twins, Weasley twins. They are mostly 90% of the reason why this book is #6 on my favorite HP books rather than 7. They are too hilarious.

21) A Book in the Bin (Crappy Book)

No, your eyes didn't just die. This is pixelated book is going to be part of my Stand-Alone Reviews #2 post that I think should be coming out next month. If you're familiar with the book, there's a good chance you still recognize it. But I didn't want want to spoil it. But yeah, I didn't like this book. Nope. I didn't like the characters, and the plot didn't surprise me. I'll probably get some hate for this one.

22) Snap Your Own Cover

So, TBH I was way too lazy to figure out what cover to change and what to take a picture of, so here's what I wish the Shades of Earth cover looked like.

23) Ombre Spines

I clearly have a lot of blue books. There were several more I could've used, but I tried to get a good ombre going.

24) Books in Your Bag

I took it out of the bag to take a picture, but yeah, since this is the book I'm reading, I had it in my bag!

25) Imitate a Book Cover

I didn't really want to use this because I think it's a terrible picture of me, but I tried. I couldn't figure out anything else to do, and this just worked because of the hair. So... yeah. 

26) Book + Flowers

I don't keep flowers laying around because I hate flowers, and I hate the outside, so I didn't want to go outside and search for flowers, so here's a book with flowers on it.

27) Bookish Art

I absolutely love this picture. TRUTH.

28) Color Palette Tag

So, I couldn't find anything about the color palette tag until after I already took this picture and was working on this post, so I just decided to do a picture about my personal color palette/ favorite colors. My favorite color is red. I also really love teal, black, purple, and charcoal. I also really love Fangirl's dust jacket's color, but this was the only charcoal I had. But yeah, those are my five favorite colors.

29) A Book + Album That Goes Well Together

I mean, these are actually perfect. They came out the same year, and they're both a trip down McFly's Memory Lane. They were basically made for each other. 


30) Favorite Book of July

Like I said earlier, this is my favorite of the month so far!

31) Freebie!: A book you recommend to EVERYONE.

Get it. Read it. Love it. It's just such a beautiful and perfect book and I love everything about it. I tell everyone to read it all the time.


Whew, that was a marathon of a post! Next month, the regular challenges will resume, I promise!

I've also created a Facebook page for my blog, so if you want to check that out and like it, you can click HERE. I'll try to keep that pretty up-to-date with new posts and such.

Thanks for reading this! If you like my posts, don't forget to subscribe/follow, since it lets me know that you're enjoying what I'm doing. See y'all soon!