Ranking Project Runway Designers #10 [97-108]

Hey, y'all! So I'm back with the next post in my series ranking all of the Project Runway designers! As I said in the last post, this is a new 18 post series on my blog, with each post consisting of the next 12 designers. 

Here's my disclaimer once again: Any and all comments are my opinions on them based on the way they presented themselves on the show (and of course, the way the show was edited) and in no way is a reflection of how they are in real life. The way a contestant presents themself on a show, combined with the editing of the show, is not necessarily the way they are outside of the show, and because I don't know these people personally, I can only go based off of the way they were portrayed on the show. 

Also, I feel like this is a little obvious, but I'll go ahead and say it anyway. If you don't want to be spoiled for what happens in the show or what order people go home, don't read any further. Because I will mention what place the person got. And I'll be talking about All-Stars placings too, if applicable, so just bear that in mind before continuing to read on. So let's just jump right into the next 12 on the list.

108. Becky Ross

Season 9- 10th Place

Going into the season, I really liked Becky. Although she was constantly berated for her clothes being dowdy, I thought she had an interesting aesthetic. She gave some funny confessionals, but she ended up being a bit boring overall and I got a bit tired of her after a while. Overall, I have more of a positive opinion of her than negative, but definitely not a favorite.

107. Kara Janx

Season 2- 4th Place

All-Stars Season 1- 7th Place

In general, I liked Kara. But there were definitely certain things that happened or that she did that reminded me that she's very solidly not my type of person. Like when she made a big deal of saving the Barbie hat. Like... what? Who cares? You just lost some of your shopping/designing time! Like, she was very scatterbrained, but about everything and seemed to constantly be in panic mode. She was just all over the place and despite liking her, I did tend to get a bit annoyed.

106. Stephen Suede Baum

Season 5- 5th Place

All-Stars Season 2- 11th Place

I will admit, I remember nothing about this guy's aesthetic. What I do remember is that Suede was a lot of fun to watch because Suede had a crazy personality and because Suede referred to Suede in the 3rd person. All. The. Time.

105. Mitchell Hall

Season 6- 14th Place

Another person who was just really fun to watch! He was a disaster. He was on the winning team and still managed to get himself eliminated because he was that much of a disaster. This season was one of my least favorites, but it was great to watch Mitchell spiral.

104. Kevin Johnn

Season 1- 6th Place

Yet another person who ends up on this list because they were enjoyable to watch. The whole controversy with someone ruining Wendy's photo was really interesting. Kevin had a really quiet personality, so he definitely wasn't crazy exciting, but it was fascinating to see how softspoken he was. Plus, I think he was one of the stronger designers that season. Did I love him on the show? Nah. But I liked him better than some other people. 

103. Jack Mackenroth

Season 4- 12th Place (Quit)

I don't have that strong of an opinion on Jack. As I've said before, his season isn't one of my favorites and although he was likable, he was gone early because of his medical problems. I feel bad for him and think that he should've gotten a chance to go again at this point, but oh well. Like I said, no strong feelings here.

102. Rami Kashou

Season 4- Runner-Up

All-Stars Season 1- 8th Place

I put Jillian in the last post and Rami is in this one, so I feel like I'm making a lot of enemies here. Anyway, I liked Rami's aesthetic. Seriously, I love draping. But when all you do is drape and all of your dresses look similar, it gets a bit tiring. And his personality was just alright for me. I think I just get a bit annoyed when I see people get far in competitions by doing basically the same thing every week, and I got a bit tired of Rami doing just that. 

101. Miranda Kay Levy

Season 12- 11th Place

I went into season 12 with such high hopes for Miranda. Her portfolio looked really awesome, she seemed to have a really chill personality, and her bio was really interesting. But then she got in the game and (IMO) immediately began a downward spiral. Her first design was great, but didn't really address the challenge, so she was in the bottom. And then afterward, she fell into a rut where she pulled the same trick (midriff tops, I believe) out of the bag too many times and subsequently got eliminated for it. And, she also came off as rather unlikable at certain points because of her criticisms of other people. Overall, I liked her to some extent, but she plummeted rather quickly.

100. Fade Zu Grau

Season 13- 9th Place

All-Stars Season 5- 13th Place 

Ah, Fade. He had a really unique aesthetic, sometimes really interesting, and sometimes rather odd. Overall, I liked him. I thought that he came off as really unique and likable, but he didn't come off as one of the stronger designers and didn't last a super long time. Overall, I thought he was likable but not necessarily the most memorable contestant.

99. Joshua Christensen

Season 9- 11th Place

You probably look a bit like Josh in this picture right now. 'What?! How did this guy get this high on your list?!' And you're probably right. Going solely off of his stint on PR, he's not a very strong designer. In fact, he's probably one of the contestants who's done the worst on the challenges on the show. But he was an interesting underdog to root for. He seemed like a really nice guy, and despite being in the bottom for nearly every challenge he competed in, at the beginning of every challenge, I found myself hoping that this time he would be successful. Never really worked out, but oh well. He was likable, and I found myself rooting for him. 

98. Peach Carr

Season 8- 11th Place

All-Stars Season 2- 13th Place

Overall, Peach always came off as a weaker designer. I never expected her to win, and honestly would've been shocked if she did win. But she was fun, she was funny, and she wasn't that bad. She had her moments, and I liked her. I wasn't sure why she was chosen for All Stars (personality, I guess?) but she was definitely a likable person on the show. 

97. Althea Harper

Season 6- Runner-Up

All-Stars Season 2- 8th Place

Althea makes it this far on the list more for her design ability than for how much I liked her. I did definitely find her likable, especially among the cast of one of my least favorite seasons, but her design ability is much stronger for me. She was rather strong throughout the season (never falling into the bottom) and was also likable.

So, those are the next 12 designers in my Project Runway designer rankings! I'll be back soon with the designers who got places 85-96! Who are your favorite and least favorite people to be on Project Runway? Let me know down in the comments!

Previous Post: Ranking Project Runway Designers #9 [109-120]
Next Post: Ranking Project Runway Designers #11 [85-96]

List of all Ranking Designers Posts

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Calling All Fans of The Mole!

I'm a self-proclaimed reality TV junkie. My list of favorite TV shows consists of mostly reality competitions. For the longest time, I refused to admit to myself how completely obsessed I was with reality TV, but that's definitely become a thing of the past. Over the years, I've discovered more and more reality shows that have been added to my favorites list. But, in recent memory, none of them has stuck with me quite as much as the purported "smartest reality show ever," The Mole. 

Quite honestly, there isn't a ton of discussion online anymore about the Mole, given its age, but I know that the fandom is small but mighty, given the things that I do see popping up around the internet (Rob Has A Podcast episodes, Twitter hashtags, and the constant questioning of Anderson Cooper). Because of this (and my obsession with the show) I came up with the idea of doing a blog series- or starting a separate blog- for all things related to The Mole. My ideas are all over the place right now, but I wanted to throw it out there to see who bites.

For the uninitiated, allow me to explain. In the Mole, a group of contestants compete in missions/games, each of which can earn them money for the group pot that a single contestant will win in the end. But, there's a catch. One of the contestants is a saboteur-- The Mole. This person is not competing for the money, but is instead working with production to sabotage the missions and make the group lose games, thus keeping them from earning money. The real contestants' prime objective is to discover which among them is the mole. At the end of each episode, they take a quiz, and whichever contestant scores the worst on the quiz is executed (eliminated from the competition), whittling down the contestants. Only the last 3 people make it to finale, where there is a winner, a loser, and a mole. 

Throughout the season, the audience is also in the dark as to The Mole's identity, which is definitely the most fun part of the show. Viewers are given hints throughout the season to help them discover the identity of the Mole, alongside the player's confessionals and hypotheses about who the Mole could be. 

If you're like me and enjoy the hidden saboteur trope a la Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, this series will be like candy to you. Or caffeine. Or drugs. You get the point. It's addicting and you won't want to stop watching. But, unlike a lot of other reality shows, this game is really smart and keeps your brain active throughout the entire process. You find yourself making accusations constantly and often distrusting someone that you trusted just last episode. I can't say enough about how clever and fun this show is. 

Side note: Anderson Cooper is the best host of all time.

So that's my pitch. I'd definitely suggest that if you haven't checked it out and the premise sounds interesting, give it a shot. I don't think you'll be disappointed. All the US Seasons are available on YouTube, and will be linked at the end of this post. However, persuading you to watch the show isn't the main point of my post. Instead, it's to discuss this potential blog series. 

As aforementioned, I've been wanting to start this for a while, but I have a ton of different ideas as to what to do with it, and I could use some guidance. I think that, at least as a starting point, I'd like to go episode by episode doing recaps and discussing everything going on. I think that the best way to do this would be to have a spoiler-free section of each post for newbies that might be reading, but then a spoiler-filled section at the end where I can discuss the clues and Mole activity throughout the episode. Other ideas that I think would be fun include rankings of the seasons and rankings of the moles. Maybe best winner rankings as well.  

Past that, I could use some advice. Mole fans, what would you like to see from a blog series on The Mole? What topics would you want to discuss? What do you think would be most helpful for the newbies in these posts?

Mole newbies: If you'd like to follow along with my posts and watch the show as I discuss it, that would be awesome! I'm going to start with US season 1 and work my way through in order. It'll be about a month before I get anything started (because I'm finishing up a series on Project Runway designer rankings), but I hope to get things going sometime in August. 

Let me know down in the comments what ideas you might want to see in a potential Mole series and what you think of the ideas I've discussed in the post!

The Mole (US) on YouTube:

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 5

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Ranking Project Runway Designers #9 [109-120]

Hey, y'all! So I'm back with the next post in my series ranking all of the Project Runway designers! As I said in the last post, this is a new 18 post series on my blog, with each post consisting of the next 12 designers. 

Here's my disclaimer once again: Any and all comments are my opinions on them based on the way they presented themselves on the show (and of course, the way the show was edited) and in no way is a reflection of how they are in real life. The way a contestant presents themself on a show, combined with the editing of the show, is not necessarily the way they are outside of the show, and because I don't know these people personally, I can only go based off of the way they were portrayed on the show. 

Also, I feel like this is a little obvious, but I'll go ahead and say it anyway. If you don't want to be spoiled for what happens in the show or what order people go home, don't read any further. Because I will mention what place the person got. And I'll be talking about All-Stars placings too, if applicable, so just bear that in mind before continuing to read on. So let's just jump right into the next 12 on the list.

Since I can already see myself sounding like a broken record on this post, I'm just going to put it out here at the beginning: this list is largely made up of people from some of my least favorite seasons who are barely within the top half of my favorites within their seasons. So lots of conflicting opinions on each of these people.  

120. Buffi Jashanmal

Season 10- 12th Place

Right from the start, I mostly enjoyed Buffi's personality. I thought she was funny and funny to watch, though sometimes a little too much. However, she didn't last very long and I simply couldn't get past the fact that I disliked her aesthetic. It was loud and obnoxious and everything I dislike. And unfortunately, her stuff didn't look very well-made. I wanted to like her based on her personality, but couldn't get past her designs.

119. Ari Fish

Season 6- 16th Place

I really wish that Ari had stayed longer than she did. She seemed really interesting, and it's a shame that she ended up getting cut in episode 1, but her designs were a little off-the-wall and that typically doesn't go over too well or last too long on PR.

118. John Wade

Season 2- 16th Place

You're probably wondering how on earth John got here. And you're probably right. He should be further down on the list. If we're being technical, he was kinda a semi-finalist. But at this point, we're still firmly in the category of people I have mildly positive opinions on vs. lower on the list, which is people I actively dislike. And I was digging John's vibe. I didn't think that his first dress was that great, but I liked some of his prior designs, enjoyed his personality, and thought that he could've been enjoyable on the show. So he winds up here.

117. Tu Suthiwat Nakchat

Season 11- 10th Place

Tu was... interesting. The main thing that I disliked about him was his aesthetic. I just didn't like any of his designs. And his personality was lackluster on top of that. And even worse, he was on a season that's pretty low on my favorites list. 

116. Rodney Epperson

Season 6- 9th Place

I enjoyed Epperson. He's definitely one of the people who falls under the category mentioned at the beginning. I don't have strong opinions on him, but he definitely falls in the upper half of my season 6 favorites. And season 6 was one of my least favorite seasons that I've watched the fewest seasons. 

115. Robert Plotkin

Season 1- 5th Place

Oh, Robert. Oh, Robert. I'm not even sure what Robert was doing on the show. I want to say that he wasn't even a designer prior to the show, but don't quote me on that. He just didn't seem to have much skill or talent... but he was one of the most entertaining people to watch. Robert was just a disaster! I think that he's the only person to ever injure themselves on Project Runway because of things outside of designing. He was literally trying to impress Alexandra and had to be taken to the hospital for a head injury. Wat. He was such a bro and so ridiculous and hilarious. After being eliminated, he was brought back to assist the other designers and all he did was sit, chat, and drink coffee. Everyone knew he was unhelpful. He was just a delightful disaster to watch.

114. Jillian Lewis

Season 4- 3rd Place

I think I'm going to have some people disagree with me here, because she's a favorite from a favorite season. But in my opinion, she's good on a not-so-favorite season. Come at me, bro. Her personality was a little bland for me, and I remember her designs often being a bit too cutesy for me. Just not my cup of tea, and not super memorable for me. She's in the top half of my favorites on her season, but (unpopular opinion alert) season 4 simply isn't one of my favorites. #sorrynotsorry 

113. Elena Slivnyak

Season 10- 6th Place

All Stars Season 3- 3rd Place

When I first saw Elena on the show, I actually thought that I was going to like her. She had a cool personal style, and I thought her designs looked pretty cool. But then, she got onto the show and she was insane. She was crazy, she screamed at everything and everyone, and she was thoroughly unpleasant. Also, I feel like her style didn't translate well to the show. Her designs outside of the show were really cool, but they were also pretty intricate and definitely took longer than a day to make, and so some of her designs ended up being rushed and not as good as they should have been.

112. Kooan Kosuke

Season 10- 13th Place (Quit)

Oh Kooan. Oh, Kooan. Kooan was such an interesting character. The more distance I get from the season, the more I like him. The first time that I ranked this list, he was rather low, but that was before a re-watch of season 10. And after re-watching season 10, I moved him up quite a bit. His aesthetic is rather out there, but pretty interesting at the same time. There were certainly designs of his that I enjoyed more than I did before, as well as some I still didn't like. But he didn't last too long and therefore doesn't leave a huge impression on me.

111. Korto Momolu

Season 5- 2nd Place

Once again, a middle of the favorites person on a least favorite season. I'm not entirely sure of the general perception of season 5, but for me, it's one of the seasons I've watched the least and one of the ones that I care the least about, and Korto falls around the middle of my favorites on that season. I liked her and found her personality likeable, but I felt a bit meh about her designs. There were some standouts that were very good, but I didn't dig her aesthetic that much overall. So she falls around the middle of the list.

110. Gordana Gelhausen

Season 6- 4th Place

Once again. Not a season 6 fan. (Is anyone...?) Gordana is actually probably in my upper half for that season, but season 6 is just so... ugh. I thought she was a fairly strong designer and I love her bridesmaid remake dress, but I never really connected with her and found her personality a little bland.

109. Char Clover

Season 13- 4th Place

I think we've started and finished this list on rather similar notes. Char had an enjoyable personality. She was entertaining and fun to watch, but I was not a fan of her designs. And like Buffi, her construction was questionable. She made it so much further than she should've. I liked her, but she fell around the middle of my favorites that season.

So, those are the next 12 designers in my Project Runway designer rankings! I'll be back soon with the designers who got places 97-108! Who are your favorite and least favorite people to be on Project Runway? Let me know down in the comments!

Previous Post: Ranking Project Runway Designers #8 [121-132]
Next Post: Ranking Project Runway Designers #10 [97-108]

List of all Ranking Designers Posts

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On Hate-Reading.

This is a topic that's been on my mind quite a bit over the past few days, so I just decided to go ahead and do a blog post discussing it.

So, hate-reading. Simply defined, reading something despite prior knowledge saying that you will dislike it. But it needs a slightly more detailed explanation to get into the real meaning of it. Some of you might be reading this and wondering, "If you know you're going to dislike it, why invest your time in it?" and you'd be 100% right in saying that it doesn't make sense. But I think the factors here are that there's a difference between dislike and disgust and that there are different ways to consume things. 

For example: you, dear reader, have probably hate-read before. Nearly all of us have that friend (in my case multiple friends) on Facebook that you keep around simply to roll your eyes at their posts. Maybe it's the person who uses their Facebook as if it were their personal journal, posting every single menial detail of their day, from what they had for breakfast that day to the dream they had the night before. Perhaps it's that person who thinks they're so cool and likes to prove it to everyone on a daily basis. Or, the person who has laughably awful grammatical errors in every single post. Or the person whose political beliefs seem to make absolutely no sense in your mind. The list goes on and on. But, in all of these cases, there's some form of enjoyment to that dislike. 

We see the person using Facebook as their personal journal as woefully out of touch with the purpose of Facebook and find humor in that. We find humor in the try-hard desperately trying to come off as so cool. The grammatical errors and the seemingly non-sensical beliefs trigger our sense of superiority toward the person saying those things. In every single case, there's some sort of enjoyment factor to reading these posts. Even if you vehemently disagree with someone, most of us find enjoyment in telling someone else why they're wrong, or at the very least, quietly rolling our eyes at how wrong they are. 

There is a difference, however, between this enjoyable dislike and disgust/offensiveness. While you might keep the obnoxious "cool kid" try-hard on your friends list for the lulz, you're probably not going to keep around the rude, offensive loudmouth who constantly insults everyone and is generally just a jerk. There's no fun to that. And thus, the difference between the lighthearted mockery of grammatical errors and the outright disgust at offensive people. 

Also, as mentioned in the opening, there are different ways to consume things. The main difference that needs to be made in this post is the difference between in-person and not in-person. While the try-hard "cool kid" might be really entertaining to follow online, if you feel that way about someone, you're not likely to be close with them in person. While it might be funny to read their posts online, they're probably rather grating in person. The same is true with hate-reading in general- enjoyable at a distance and online, but you wouldn't really want to be around that person IRL. So, that's my little explanation for why I think that we sometimes get enjoyment out of hating things. 

Personally, I kind of see there being two different types of hate-reading, one of which I indulge in regularly, and the other of which I'm anxious to dip my toes into. The first of these is, of course, the online hate-reading. AKA, the thing I've spent the entirety of this post discussing so far. As discussed, we pretty much all do this, and I'm probably one of the worst offenders.

All of the different types of people listed are based upon my own Facebook friends list. I have FB friends at pretty much every point in the political spectrum, and hate-reading the posts of people I vehemently disagree with is beautifully angering, sometimes to the point that I get in FB arguments just because I can. There's one person I've almost deleted on several occasions because of his ignorant, idiotic posts about women, but I keep him around not only as a reminder that these people actually exist, but also as someone to roll my eyes at. I have younger friends on FB who are definitely those try-hard "cool kids" who post mirror selfies with their bra showing and talk about getting high when I know they've never smoked weed a day in their life. And, of course, I've got some older FB friends who post everything, from the dream they had the night before to a random/pointless/uninteresting encounter they had at work with a customer. And I keep all of them around so that I have someone to roll my eyes at. 

But, I also take it further. My best friend has one friend on FB that we're notorious for looking up whenever we're bored. He posts gym selfies constantly, professed his love for his girlfriend after a week of dating, and litters all of his posts with GO DAWGS, cheering on his favorite team even when they're not actually playing. His posts are typically seemingly pointless and uninteresting except when hate-read in jest. My best friend and I also like to randomly go on the Men's Health website and read all of the dating "advice" for men, pretty much all of which is ridiculous and littered with underhanded (often unintentional) sexism. We hate everything about it, but it's endlessly fun to ridicule. 

But then, there's the second type of hate-reading. The hate-reading that exits the sphere of posts, opinions, and statuses online and enters into the literary world of books and authors. 

And this is where I tend to look the other way. In my knowledge, I have never purposely set out to hate-read a book. If I hear bad reviews on a book or if I don't think I'll like it, I simply don't pick it up. Sure, sometimes I pick up a book that has mixed reviews where I'm unsure if I'll like it, but I go into that book with the attitude of "OK, it's possible that I won't like this book, but I'm going to give it a shot because it sounds interesting." 

Simply put, I'm a reader and a lover of books. Someone put quite a bit of their time and energy into this bound up pile of pages and words that I'm about to read, and I want them to have succeeded at crafting an interesting book. Sometimes, it doesn't work out and I end up not liking it or thinking that it wasn't well-written, etc. but I at least try to enter every book with an open mind. Often, if I already have a negative mindset going into the book, I just won't bother with the book, because I'll probably end up projecting that mindset onto the book even if it doesn't deserve it. I try to start out as objectively as possible in order to be a fair reader/reviewer.

But, as the topic of hate-reading has come to the forefront of my mind, I've been itching more and more to pick up a book and just hate-read the crap out of it. As much as I enjoy hate-reading online, I'm sure to enjoy hate-reading in book form. However, right now, it feels a little dirty. 

What I mean by this is that it almost feels like a sleazy thing to do. As forementioned, someone spent quite a bit of time and energy crafting a book, just for me to pick it up with the express purpose of hating it and taking a big ol' crap on it. It seems a bit like a jerk move. But at the same time... I still really want to do it. Recently, I've read some 1 star reviews of books that have made me insatiably curious about picking up the book to experience it for myself.

So you see the dilemma here. Probably. If not, allow me to explain. While I love hate-reading online, hate-reading books feels a bit slimy to me, given the amount of work put into them by their authors. But, at the same time, there are some purported train-wrecks that I want to experience for myself. So, I'm at an impass. If I hate-read this book, I thoroughly expect the fans of the series to jump down my throat and accuse me of being mean or making fun of a book. Again, as in the beginning, "why would you read the book if you expect to hate it?" And here's my explanation. If, in the future, I hate read your favorite book and you're upset with me, I'd like to direct you to the statements below in hopes that you won't attack me in the comments.

I don't expect to hate the book. (Wait, what?) Yep, I don't expect to hate it. I expect the book to be a complete mess, but I expect to enjoy every single second of experiencing that complete mess. If I thought I wouldn't enjoy reading it, I wouldn't read it. But I expect to have a great time reading this book and picking apart all of its flaws. I expect to binge read this book, just like I would probably binge-watch a season of a reality show, even if I thought it was utterly ridiculous. I certainly don't want to offend the author or upset them by reading their book specifically because it sounds like a crappy book. But, they put this book out into the world to be read and reviewed, and my single voice will just be one additional voice in whatever cacophony of people are criticizing it.

You might love it, and that's great for you and I will never fault you for that. You're entitled to your opinion, just as I'm entitled to mine. But based on reviews, it sounds like something I'll love to hate, and I want to experience the purported train-wreck myself. Maybe the critics are wrong and I'll end up liking it. You never know. But based on what I've seen, it sounds like a car crash that I don't want to look away from. I don't mean any of this in a mean, rude, or contemptful way, and it's certainly not meant as an insult toward the author, as I prefer to separate the art from the artist. 

Hate-reading can be incredibly different from picking up a book in honest and ending up disliking it. If I pick up a book expecting to like it and it turns out to be not-so-great, it could turn into hate-reading depending on the book, but in most cases, it just ends up being a book that I don't like. Whereas with hate-reading, I approach the book with a healthy dose of snark. From the start, cynical, sarcastic comments will probably made and should be expected. My point is not to offend, but to approach criticism with a comedic, snarky tone; to point out the ridiculousness of a book in a humorous way.

So that's it for this post on hate-reading. And before anyone even mentions it, don't expect to see me picking up Fifty Shades of Grey anytime soon. I don't want to touch it with a 10 foot pole, let alone hate-read it. Let me know in the comments if you also indulge in some online hate-reading, and while you're at it, let me know what books you've hate-read (if any). 

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Most Anticipated Releases for the Second Half of the Year!

Hey, y'all! So once again, I'll be participating in Top 10 Tuesday, hosted on The Broke and the Bookish! It's been quite a while since the last time that I did one of these, but I wanted to jump back in the saddle and this week was perfect for that because the topic is all about my most anticipated book releases for the rest of the year.

I'm not sure that I have a full 10 books on the list, but I do have a sizeable handful. Also, I've decided not to include books that are continuations of series that I haven't started, thus excluding continuations of the Throne of Glass and Magisterium series (despite how much I want to start both series). That being said, let's just go ahead and jump into it!

1. A World Without You
by Beth Revis

Beth Revis is one of my favorite authors, and when I discovered that she was releasing a new book, it immediately got added to my TBR. This one is especially interesting because Beth Revis has always written dystopia/sci fi in the past, and despite seemingly having some sci fi overtones, this appears to be a darker contemporary. I'm really intrigued to see what a contemporary novel from her is like and how she marries these genres together. 

2. This Savage Song
by Victoria Schwab 

Everything about this book sounds extremely interesting. It's a dark urban fantasy where music plays an integral role and the characters sound really complex. I've read 2 V.E. Schwab novels already and have enjoyed (but not quite loved) both, so I have pretty high hopes for this first installment in a new duology. 

3. Heartless
by Marissa Meyer

This one isn't quite as high on my TBR as the others. I think the main reason that I'm even interested is because Marissa Meyer has proven that she's really great at turning classic fairytales on their head, so I'm interested to see what she does with Alice in Wonderland. That being said, I'll probably wait to see the reviews before actually picking it up. 

4. The Fate of the Tearling
by Erika Johansen

This is one that I'm really excited about. I've only read the first book in this trilogy, but it was really great and I'm hoping to catch up with the second book before the conclusion to the trilogy comes out later this year.

5. Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy
by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan,
Maureen Johnson, and Robin Wasserman

As much as I love The Mortal Instruments, I'm admittedly a bit wary about this. I had mixed feelings about The Bane Chronicles, which were written by 3 of the people who are writing these novellas. I know that the novellas are available in ebook format, but they're all $2/3 and I'd rather not bother with it, since that'll be about the same price as the hardcover (if not more expensive). Either way, I'll probably still end up getting this when it comes out.

6. Gamescape: Overworld
by Emma Trevayne

Admittedly, I just discovered this book while going through lists of 2016 book releases, but it does sound really interesting. The premise gives me Ready Player One vibes, which makes me both interested and a little wary. Yet another one that I'm going to read some reviews for first.

7. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Illustrated Edition
by J.K. Rowling

And finally, of course I'm going to be getting this! The illustrations in Sorcerer's Stone were gorgeous, so I have high hopes for Chamber of Secrets. I can't wait to have all of these illustrated editions. 

So, that's it for my post on my most anticipated releases for the second half of the year. What releases are you really excited about? Do we have any in common? Let me know down in the comments!

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Review: Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson [Spoiler Free!]

I don’t even know where to start with this book. Obviously, I should start with what the book is about. But I’m not really sure that I can do it justice. Or explain it in a way that makes sense. But I’m going to try.

Warbreaker is a high fantasy novel following a slew of characters as two kingdoms, Idris and Hallandren, are on the brink of war with each other. There are way too many to explain here, but here are the highlights:

- A princess from Idris who is betrothed to the God King in Hallandren.

- Her sister, set on saving her sister and seeing her returned safely to Idris.

- A lesser god named Lightsong the Brave who isn’t quite sure how he received that title.

- Vasher. A bit of an enigma, and would prefer to keep it that way.  

The first thing that really drew me to this book was its prologue. A couple months back, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to read and I was half trying to pick something just based on what I was in the mood for, but I also was trying to read something fast-paced that I could get through quickly. I pulled 5 books from my shelves and read the first few pages just to see what would grab me, and this one grabbed me so much that I ended up reading the entirety of the prologue. Unfortunately, I wanted to be done with whatever book I chose within a few days, and I wasn’t sure that I could do that with a book that was 600+ pages, especially since I was still in classes. So I set it aside, waiting for the right time to pick it up again. And at the end of May, that’s exactly what I did. And full disclosure, I freakin’ loved it. But I’m going to try to be accurate and critical in my review so it’s not just me gushing about how much I loved everything.

This is my 7^th Brandon Sanderson book. Before this, I’d read his Mistborn trilogy, the first book in his Rithmatist series, and the first two books in his Reckoners trilogy (which I’ll be finishing ASAP—I’ve been waiting for my physical copy of Calamity to reach me). So far, I have yet to be disappointed by a book that he’s written, so he’s rather quickly climbing to the top of my favorite authors list.

As with all of Sanderson’s adult work, Warbreaker takes place within the Cosmere. If you’re unfamiliar with the Cosmere, it would take me far too long to explain, so I won’t go too in-depth. Basically, it’s a universe with several different worlds. So far, none of the stories from separate worlds have overlapped (AKA you won’t be spoiled for Mistborn if you read Warbreaker or vice versa) but eventually, once more Cosmere books are published, I believe that many things should come together at some point. I don’t know the full scope or breadth of this, because I haven’t even gotten through all of the Cosmere books that have been published so far, but it’s a pretty large-scale endeavor.

OK, so now let’s talk about the world that Warbreaker takes place upon. As always, Sanderson’s world-build is impressive. Both of the kingdoms within this world are rather distinct, with completely different religions and beliefs, which are constantly prominent and discussed throughout. Both are well fleshed-out, intricate, and rather interesting. In this world, there is a magic system called Breath or BioChroma. I don’t want to ruin anything for you (part of the fun is learning all of the intricacies of the magic system) so I won’t go into too much detail here. Essentially, this magic system is based around color. Breath can be used in various ways when used in combination with color. And that’s about all I’m willing to say about the magic system, because it’s just really interesting to learn about throughout the book. It’s just really intricate and really intriguing to learn about.

The characters in this book are also a major strong point. There are a lot of really interesting characters, and they all have really strong character arcs. My personal favorite character to follow was Lightsong, a lesser god. He's really funny and sarcastic, and I found myself always wanting to delve deeper into his character and learn more about his backstory. Another character who was a highlight for me was Vasher. The prologue is from his POV, and that's initially what drew me in, and I immediately wanted to learn more and more about this really mysterious individual. And then there are the two princesses- Siri, who's very happy-go-lucky, and Vivenna, who's very disciplined. When the book begins, they're presented as polar opposites, but as they begin to develop as characters, you realize that they might be a bit more similar than expected. And in addition to those, there are numerous other side characters who constantly keep you on your toes and guessing as to who you can and can't trust. 

Because there are so many interesting characters, we also get a really interesting plot. Each character has their own interesting motivation and storyline, and all of those plots are woven together in extremely interesting ways. Sanderson is an amazing writer and knows just when to cut out from a scene and leave you wanting more so that you'll be invested to keep reading. I'd say that this is more of a slower paced book-- a fantasy driven by political maneuvering and intrigue rather than constant battles-- but that's one of the things that I really loved about it. As you continue through the book, you uncover new mysteries to be solved while simultaneously slowly unraveling other mysteries. It's just an intricate, well-crafted plot that I thoroughly enjoyed. 

So, as you can tell from the above ramblings, I thought pretty much every aspect of this book was a strong point. The characters, the plot, the world, and the magic system were all incredibly intriguing and I found myself getting incredibly invested into everything going on. I ended up giving Warbreaker 10 stars out of 10, which of course translates to 5 out of 5 on Goodreads. Seriously, Brandon Sanderson is a master of his craft and has me believing that he can do no wrong.

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Ranking Project Runway Designers #8 [121-132]

Hey, y'all! So I'm back with the next post in my series ranking all of the Project Runway designers! As I said in the last post, this is a new 18 post series on my blog, with each post consisting of the next 12 designers. 

Here's my disclaimer once again: Any and all comments are my opinions on them based on the way they presented themselves on the show (and of course, the way the show was edited) and in no way is a reflection of how they are in real life. The way a contestant presents themself on a show, combined with the editing of the show, is not necessarily the way they are outside of the show, and because I don't know these people personally, I can only go based off of the way they were portrayed on the show. 

Also, I feel like this is a little obvious, but I'll go ahead and say it anyway. If you don't want to be spoiled for what happens in the show or what order people go home, don't read any further. Because I will mention what place the person got. And I'll be talking about All-Stars placings too, if applicable, so just bear that in mind before continuing to read on. So let's just jump right into the next 12 on the list.

132. Beatrice Guapo

Season 10- 16th Place

As a bit of a continuation of the last post, here's another first elimination! As with the others, I thought she seemed interesting, but her designs on the first episode were just a mess.

131. Ricky Lizalde

Season 4- 6th Place

Oh Ricky. Ricky was just an emotional wreck. Once again, he was on a season that's lower on my favorites, and he didn't really have a huge impact on me and I don't have a strong opinion on him, 

130. Sweet P Vaughn

Season 4- 5th Place

All-Stars Season 1- 12th Place

Once again, I didn't have a strong opinion on her. I liked her just fine personality-wise but I don't remember particularly liking her designs, so that just created a pretty meh opinion of her in my mind.

129. Kelly Dempsey

Season 14- Runner-Up

I have to admit, I was very wrong about Kelly. At the beginning of season 14, based on everyone's home tours, portfolios, auditions, etc. I predicted that she would be the first one eliminated. And then she ended up making it all the way to the finale. Oops. Regardless, I still have to say that I'm not a fan of her aesthetic (seriously-- tons of animal prints and FANNY PACKS?! How is that anything other than tacky...?). But, watching her on the show, she was fairly likable. I didn't absolutely love her, but despite disliking her aesthetic, I didn't totally dislike her either. 

128. Kristine Guico

Season 13- 11th Place

Honestly, the most interesting thing about Kristine was her hair. She seemed nice and she seemed to have a fairly interesting aesthetic, but other than that I wasn't super impressed.

127. Samantha Plasencia

Season 13- 10th Place

I had some mildly high hopes for Samantha. Based just on her personal style and her personality, I thought that she would be someone I would like. But she barely got screen time, and wasn't on for super long so I didn't really get a chance to get to know her. In addition to this, her designs were a bit basic and a little boring (hence her not getting much screen time and not lasting long).

126. Kimberly Goldson

Season 9- 4th Place

I had rather mixed feelings about Kimberly. Overall, I liked her personality. She was one of the nicer contestants on a very dramatic season, and she was a really talented designer. HOWEVER. Her designs were simply not my thing. At all. I don't remember if it was just on her finale collection or if this was a signature of hers, but she made these pants (and perhaps tops too?) with these large bows included as part of the design and every time I think about those or see those, they just make me cringe.  

125. Keith Bryce

Season 5-  10th Place

Part of me wants to like Keith and part of me doesn't. I remember liking his vibe and liking some of his designs, but I also remember that he was a little abrasive or aggressive and not well liked. I could be totally wrong about that, but once again, this is a season that's not one of my favorites and therefore if someone isn't a favorite of mine from that season, they aren't going to make much of an impact on me or my favorites list.

124. Emmett McCarthy

Season 2- 8th Place

When I think of Emmett, I will forever remember him in his ridiculous ice skating outfit, because that's about the only memorable moment that he had on the show. I thought he was alright, and certainly didn't dislike him in any way, but he was just unfortunate enough to be someone with a smaller personality on a season full of HUGE personalities. 

123. Raymundo Baltazar

Season 2- 13th Place

Raymundo was an early boot on season 2, so he wasn't really a standout personality. And like with Emmett, he was on a season with a lot of big personalities, so there was very little chance of him actually standing out on this season. 

122. Wesley Nault

Season 5- 15th Place

The only reason that Wesley got this high (despite being on a least favorite season and being an early boot) is that I remember him being pretty likable and because I've seen a bit from him after the show because of his relationship with Daniel. I would've liked to see more from him, but alas, he winds up here.

121. Daniel Feld

Season 5- 11th Place

Daniel made a bit more of an impact than his ex, but still not a very big one. I vaguely remember him being a bit arrogant (but not over the top?) and that I had some vaguely positive feelings about him. But once again, not a favorite season, didn't make it super far. I feel like a broken record over here...

So, those are the next 12 designers in my Project Runway designer rankings! I'll be back soon with the designers who got places 109-120! Who are your favorite and least favorite people to be on Project Runway? Let me know down in the comments!

Previous Post: Ranking Project Runway Designers #7 [133-144]
Next Post: Ranking Project Runway Designers #9 [109-120]

List of all Ranking Designers Posts

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