Fantastic Middle-Grade Fantasy Series!

Hey, y'all! So, as an avid reader who has been an avid reader since the age of 4, I've read a lot of books in my time. And, since I've always loved fantasy books, I've seen the good, bad, and the ugly of the genre, and decided to share some of my knowledge with y'all. I might make this into a series of "underrated recommendations", but the basic point of this specific post is to highlight some not-so-well-known fantasy novels aimed at the middle grade audience.

And just to get this out of the way right off the bat, if you're interested in middle-grade and have not yet read the Harry Potter series or the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, stop right here and look into those two to see if they sound like your cup of tea. I'm not going to get into either in this post, because they're some huge, well-known series. However, I do have a lot of posts about Harry Potter, which you can see by clicking here if you're interested. But seriously, if you haven't read Harry Potter yet, you really need to get on that, because DUH it's like one of the biggest series of all time.

And now, on to my actual recommendations.

The Pendragon Adventure

by DJ MacHale

I often forget that this series is a pretty underrated one, because it's been a big part of my life since junior high. This is also one that I've talked about very extensively, so I'll make sure to leave links to posts, as well as my video on the topic down below my description of the series. 

The Pendragon Series is a middle grade/ young adult fantasy series. The series begins with the main character, Bobby Pendragon, at age 14. One day, his uncle suddenly shows up at Bobby's house and tells him that he needs some help. What Bobby doesn't realize is that he's about to be taken on the biggest adventure of his life. Bobby learns that there are 10 territories (alternate dimensions) and that he is a Traveler, a person tasked with the protection of the territories. Bobby quickly learns that a guy named Saint Dane is attempting to throw the territories into chaos, and it's Bobby's job (along with the travelers from the other territories) to stop him and save all of humanity.

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.

This series has been one of my favorites for almost as long as Harry Potter. The territories are insanely cool, and the characters are really interesting and diverse. I would especially recommend this series to people who enjoyed Harry Potter and want something similar but very unique and insanely well-crafted. Like with Harry Potter, the reader gets to watch the main character grow up and come into his own, with a finale rivaling that of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt. 2. But still not quite as good because... Harry Potter.

Series Discussion (w/links to posts on individual books)

Book Rankings

Video discussion on the series:

The Ascendance Trilogy
by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Like with Pendragon, I have full discussions on both my blog and on my YouTube channel, both of which will be at the end of this series' section.

The Ascendance Trilogy is a middle-grade series centering around Sage, a twelve-year-old orphan boy who is very clever, snarky, and a skilled thief. Sage is collected by Conner, a nobleman with a cunning plan. He needs an impersonator of the king's long lost son, and has recruited four orphan boys to compete for the role. But Sage will soon find out that things are much more complex than he originally thought. He must succeed... his life depends on it.

This series is really excellent, regardless of the fact that it's a middle grade series. I read it for the first time five months ago (AKA as a 20 year old) and absolutely loved it. While there were definitely books in the trilogy that I preferred over others (my favorite being The Runaway King), this was overall a consistently good trilogy, which can be very hard to find. However, the series is particularly outstanding as a middle grade trilogy because of how fast-paced and engrossing it is. The False Prince is a little slower-paced compared to the other two books, but you hit the ground running in The Runaway King and are taken on a crazy ride that doesn't really let up until the end of the trilogy.

The main character, Sage, is one of my favorite aspects of the trilogy, and I think that the middle grade audience would really relate to him because he's just so cool. His snark keeps you laughing, and his cleverness keeps you constantly on your toes, because you never know what he's going to pull next. Overall, this trilogy is a complete delight and absolutely outstanding, and it isn't talked about a lot within the BookTube community.

Ascendance Trilogy Review

Video discussion on the series:

The Charlie Bone Series
by Jenny Nimmo

I actually don't think I've talked about this series at all on here, and I've only briefly mentioned it on my Youtube channel, which is really surprising to me, because I really like this series.

This is a middle grade fantasy series about a ten year old boy named Charlie. When he discovers that he has a magical ability, his aunts send him to Bloor Academy, a school for children with special gifts like Charlie. Once there, he meets a slew of interesting people, all with interesting abilities such as the one Charlie possesses. This is an 8 book long series with tons of interesting characters and twists and turns.

This is definitely aimed at the youngest audience out of the series that I've recommended so far. I first started reading it when I was 10, but I think kids either slightly older or slightly younger would also enjoy it. On the surface, based solely off of the description, it may sound like a bit of a ripoff of Harry Potter, but the two actually aren't very similar at all. The biggest difference is that the kids don't have magic powers, per se, but instead each have one single special ability. And in general, these are not your typical special abilities like flying or super strength. I don't want to spoil anything for you, so I won't tell you exactly what they are, but I will promise that they're really unique and really cool. 

Now, although I did just say that this series isn't that similar to Harry Potter, I do think that you'd enjoy this series if you like Harry Potter. One of the biggest similarities is that they both take place at a boarding school, and that seems to be an aspect of books that a lot of people get really excited about. I also think that people who have read and enjoyed A Series of Unfortunate Events will enjoy this series as well, because this has a fairly dark tone overall and is also really unique. I might even throw in fans of Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children, just due to the fact that all of the kids in this series have unique abilities and that it has a dark tone. Overall, this is a really unique middle grade series that has a pretty dark tone and is really interesting. 

So, that's it for my middle-grade fantasy series recommendations! Let me know down in the comments if there are any other genres you'd like to see recommendations for. Even though I'm a big fantasy person, I enjoy a huge range of genres and would probably have plenty of recommendations for whatever genre you toss my way!

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Book Discussions #2

Hey, y'all! Back in June, I did a post where I did short discussions about some stand-alone books that I'd read recently and said that I might make it a series... and that's what I've decided to do! In these posts, I'm going to be doing discussions for every single book I read. This was going to be just for stand-alones, but I realized that (even though I wish I could) I can't marathon every series that I read. So single books within series will be included within these as well. If I read 2+ books of a series back-to-back, they'll get their own posts. I plan on including 6-7 books per post, so new discussion posts will be up after every 6-7 books I read, give or take a few.  These discussions will be entirely spoiler-free and fairly short.

Also, all but one of these were written within a day of finishing the book. so even though it's been a few months since I've read many of these, the discussions were completed when the book was still fresh in my mind. I was waiting for one more book before posting this, but I decided I'd rather get it up before the end of the year instead of waiting for one more book. So here we go!

Looking For Alaska 
by John Green

So, I actually read this all the way back at the beginning of March and forgot to add it in my first Stand-Alone Discussion's post. Oops! But I had a lot of opinions about this book, so I just had to talk about it. I'm probably going to get a lot of hate for this, but... I wasn't impressed. I didn't like it. First off, I didn't like the characters. I couldn't empathize with them because I didn't care about them. Maybe it's because I'm a boring adult, but I found their constant drinking/smoking/rule-breaking to just be stupid, immature high school students trying to be cool and just wasn't impressed. I kinda-ish ended up liking The Colonel, but don't even get me started on Pudge. If you want to know why, ask and I'll explain why I don't like Pudge, but it's a long explanation so I won't discuss it right now. I also felt like John Green wanted to make Alaska this very deep-thinking philosophical character, but she came off as someone trying too hard to pose as a philosophical person. Like she was trying to be the stereotype. Another problem that I had was that nothing about this book kept me guessing or surprised me. I saw the twists coming. All of them. To me, that's a sign of a plot that is way too predictable. Overall, I just didn't like it. Sorry, not sorry.

I gave it 2/5 stars on GoodReads, so I'll give it 4 stars out of 10. Please don't hurt me.

And Then There Were None 
by Agatha Christie

This was not a first-time read for me. If I'm being realistic, it's closer to the 10th-15th read. If you saw my Top 15 Stand-Alones post (Check it out here) then you'll know that this is my all-time favorite stand-alone novel. After all of those challenges and after that huge reading marathon, I just wanted to curl up with my favorite book. So that's exactly what I did. It was a great choice. I read it in just a few hours and really enjoyed reading it again. It was very comfortable and familiar. And great. Philip Lombard will forever be one of my favorite literary characters. It's just a very well concocted mystery and I just love it.

It's my favorite book! How could I give it anything but 10 stars out of 10?!

Ready Player One 
by Ernest Cline

I knew going into this that I was going to enjoy it. Although I didn't grow up in the 80s and I'm not an expert on the decade, I do have a pretty high interest in the decade. Most of my favorite movies are from that decade, and I really enjoy a lot of the rock music from the 80s. Even more importantly, I love dystopians, and I love video games. If you've read anything where I've talked about dystopian novels, you know that when I read a dystopian, I want world building out the wazoo. This book has all the world building I could ever hope for. It made my little curious heart sing. But it didn't suffer because of it. It was still extremely action-packed and really awesome. A lot of the video game references went over my head, since I'm not well-versed in older video games, but the book did a great job explaining things. Honestly, this book just had everything I could want from a book: action, adventure, magic, a fantastic world, a fantastic plot, mystery, etc. it was just all great. 

Overall, I had to give it 10 stars out of 10. 

Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore 
by Robin Sloan

I'm not quite sure what I expected going into this book, but it wasn't really... this. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the book! But it took a really weird turn that I totally wasn't expecting. I knew that there was something weird and mysterious going on with the bookstore based on the synopsis, but I was thinking that it would be something illegal or something like that. Either way, I didn't love this book, but I did like it. There were several things that I thought could have been explained better. There were a few parts where I found myself having to try a little too hard to understand what was going on, because something hadn't been explained enough. Aside from that though, this book was pretty enjoyable. Overall, it was likable but unimpressive.

I decided to give it 7 stars out of 10. 

Fangirl 
by Rainbow Rowell

I went into this book not knowing a ton about the plot or characters... except the main character. When I heard that the main character was an introverted girl who wrote fanfiction and was going to college for the first time, I knew I had to read it because that was me 2 years ago. I feel like a large percentage of young adult readers will be able to relate to Cath. I know I definitely did. This book was completely adorable. I laughed out loud and said "Aww" more times than I could count. It was so cute. It was realistic and believable, and even had some deep moments. But overall, this is light contemporary at its finest, and I loved it.

I think I'm going to go with 9.75 stars out of 10. Almost perfect.

The Bone Season

by Samantha Shannon

Y'all. Y'ALL. So, I had high expectations for this book. It's the first in a new series, it's a fantasy and dystopian mix, it's got a main character who's close to my age, it's set in England... the list goes on and on. The point is, this book had absolutely everything I love in books... and it did not disappoint. The main gist is that our main character, Paige, is clairvoyant. In this dystopian future, being clairvoyant is a crime and clairvoyants are hunted down and killed. There are many many many different types of clairvoyants, and Paige is one of the rarest. She works for a voyant (slang for clairvoyant) gang in London. A lot of people weren't huge fans of this book because they didn't like the info-dumps and they found it hard to keep up with the different types of voyants. But I loved all of that. When I'm introduced to a new form of 'magic' or a new world or a dystopian version of my own world, I want to learn all of the information. And I definitely got that. And loved every second. 

Since it is the first book of a series, there is a lot of world-building and character development, and I really enjoyed it. Another of the key characters, Warden, is especially interesting. I won't go into detail to avoid spoilers, but if you've read the book, you know what I mean. I did find it a bit difficult to keep up with the characters, because nearly all of them have 2 names, and they're used interchangeably, and sometimes it's hard to keep up with which 2 names refer to the same person. But honestly, that's the only criticism that I have about the book. I loved all of it. It was incredible. The Mime Order comes out in late January and I really just don't want to wait two whole months for that book. NOW. NOW. Please, NOW. 

This is an easy 10 stars out of 10. This was amazing.


So that's it for the last Book Discussions post of the year! I hope you enjoyed this! Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Let me know in the comments!

I've started doing Booktube a little as well, so if you want to check that out, you can click HERE. I plan to post most of my videos to my blog, but just in case I miss one or decide not to post it on here, that will keep you up-to date. 

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! If you like my posts, I'd really appreciate if you'd subscribe/follow so that I know you're enjoying what I'm posting! See y'all soon!

End of the Year TBR!

Hey, y'all! So, I've been seeing some people post videos and pictures about the books that they want to read by the end of the year, so I decided to go ahead and do the same since I have a complete list of the books that I want to read before the new year. I'll also do them in the order that I plan on reading them. Let's jump right into it!

The Bone Season

by Samantha Shannon

When I started working on this post, I had just started this book. However, I have now finished it, so it's no longer on my TBR. Sometime in the next few days/ in the next week I plan to get a discussion up for this, so stay tuned because I have a lot of strong feelings about this book and need the next book NOW.

The Bane Chronicles

by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan, and Maureen Johnson

This was one of my most anticipated releases of the year, because I love Magnus Bane A LOT. I planned to start this right after finishing The Bone Season, but I'm having a book hangover and I'm not sure how long it'll be until I start it. I just want more of The Bone Season, but there isn't any more yet and I'M DYING OVER HERE. Anyway, I'm really excited about this and this is what I'll be reading next.

The Chaos Walking Trilogy

Book 1- The Knife of Never Letting Go

Book 2- The Ask and the Answer

Book 3- Monsters of Men

by Patrick Ness

I picked these up last month with the intent of reading them before the end of the year. And that's what I intend to do! I plan to start the trilogy after finishing The Bane Chronicles (which shouldn't take too long). This sounds like exactly what I'll love- a sci-fi dystopian. The only thing that would be better is a fantasy dystopian, but that still isn't that far off from this. They're big books, but once I get into the plot and characters, I should just fly through this.

The Hunger Games Trilogy

Book 1- The Hunger Games

Book 2- Catching Fire

Book 3- Mockingjay

by Suzanne Collins

If you've followed my blog for a while, you'll be familiar with the fact that I have not read this trilogy. And yes, I realize how incredibly shocking that is. Especially given my love of dystopians. I was told about the first book and how good it was long before the hype, but brushed it off, because I didn't trust the opinions of the person suggesting it to me because they weren't super booky and I assumed they didn't really know my taste. Then everything got so hyped and I was being hipster and avoiding because it was popular and then it just got to the point where it was ridiculous that I hadn't read it... and now we're here. But that's not the only reason I haven't read them. I also heard that Mockingjay isn't that great. BUT, I saw the first movie for a second time when it was on TV and it reminded me how much I liked the movie the first time and so I decided that I really needed to give it a try. If I'm to believe most people, these really shouldn't take too long to get through. 

The Rook

by Daniel O'Malley

Lately I've just really been in the mood for adult fantasy, and that's what this is. It's another fantasy dystopian, which is partially what drew me to it. After reading Ready Player One, I had the worst book hangover and wanted to read something exactly like it. But of course, the book is just so unique that it's impossible to find something similar enough. But I went to one of those "What should I read next?" generators, and this was like the first result. And Goodreads also told me to read it. I read the synopsis and knew immediately that I needed to read it. 

The Name of the Wind

by Patrick Rothfuss

Like I've said a few times in the past, I've been really into adult fantasy lately. And I've heard nothing but good things about this book. I thought it was a stand-alone, but apparently it's a series, which is actually even better. The second book is already out, so I may need to read the second one before the end of the year too!

OK, so that's it for the books that I want to read by the end of the year! I plan on doing a ranking of every book I've read this year (excluding re-reads), so you can look forward to that next month!

I've started doing Booktube a little as well, so if you want to check that out, you can click HERE. I plan to post most of my videos to my blog, but just in case I miss one or decide not to post it on here, that will keep you up-to date. 

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! If you like my posts, I'd really appreciate if you'd subscribe/follow so that I know you're enjoying what I'm posting! See y'all soon!

October/November Book Haul [Book Haul #5]

Hey, y'all! So remember how I said I would see you in December? Oops, I lied. Not on purpose, of course, but I just didn't think about the fact that I'd be doing my book haul soon. My bad. This will probably be my last book haul of the year, because there's only one other book I want to read by the end of the year that I don't have. Also, since there are only 9 books in this haul, I'm not going to divide by sections. I'm just going to go book by book.

Also, as a side note, this is possibly the most excited I've ever been about a book haul. And I'm not saying that because I want you to get pumped or to try to get you to read on. I'm genuinely really excited about all of these books. I bought almost all of these with the intent to read them by the end of the year, so they're all ones that I'm really wanting to read. And there are a couple that I've already read.

Gone Girl

by Gillian Flynn

This is one of the books that I've already read. If you'd like to read my thoughts about it, you can click here to see my discussion post.

There was just so much buzz surrounding the movie and I really like mysteries/ psychological thrillers, so I was really interested in reading it. And it was definitely an interesting read.

The Rook

by Daniel O'Malley

After reading Ready Player One, I had a major book hangover. Like, bigtime. I wanted to read something exactly like it. Every time I looked on a website for similar books, this one popped up. I wasn't totally sure since it was more of an adult novel and I usually go for YA (not that I'm afraid of adult-- my brain just defaulted to looking for books that fit my typical genre rather than branching out). However, upon realizing that this was both a fantasy and a dystopian and after reading the very intriguing blurb, I was very interested. And also, because of my interest in a certain book (which pops up later in this haul), I've gotten really interested in adult fantasy. 

The Chaos Walking Trilogy:

The Knife of Never Letting Go

The Ask and the Answer

Monsters of Men

by Patrick Ness

I've had my eye on these books for a while, and when deciding to get the first book, I just decided to buy the trilogy in matching covers. These covers are really pretty (especially The Knife of Never Letting Go) and I also love the spines.

This trilogy is a science fiction dystopian (oh look, my fave word!) and it just sounds insanely interesting. I know that when I read the first, I'll want to continue immediately. The only concern I have with these is that their binding is really tight. They almost seem like they're British binding and I'm not excited about that because I hate breaking spines, especially really pretty ones like these. I just want them to loosen to that I can actually open them without being scared of cracking the spine.

A Clash of Kings

by George R.R. Martin

I had both the first and the third book in this series, and I want to start it sometime near the beginning of next year, so I decided to go ahead and get the second book. I really like the big, floppy, trade paperback copies, so that's what I went for. I found this used online, so it was pretty inexpensive. So now I can marathon the first three books and hopefully the rest of the series once I buy them!

The Bane Chronicles

by Cassandra Clare

Y'all. This was like my most anticipated book of the year other than City of Heavenly Fire. I absolutely love Magnus Bane. He's possibly my favorite character in the Shadowhunter world. He's just so snarky and sassy  and sarcastic and I love him. The cover is gorgeous, and I could not be more excited about getting to read even more about him. This is my next read after the one I'm reading right now.

The Diviners

by Libba Bray

This is the other book in the haul that I've already read. I discussed it in the same post as my Gone Girl discussion, so you can click here if you want to check out my discussion about The Diviners as well. I won't go into too much detail here, but let's just say that I enjoyed it and am eagerly awaiting the second book in the series (trilogy?). Going into it, I'd heard many really great things, but wasn't certain about how much I'd like it. So I was cautiously optimistic. But I ended up really enjoying it!

The Bone Season

by Samantha Shannon

This is actually the book that I'm reading right now. I watched a book haul that Regan (PeruseProject on Youtube) did, and in it, she hauled this book. When she said fantasy and dystopian within the same breath, my interest was peaked. And when she explained what it was about, I immediately went and found a used copy online and ordered it because it just sounded so incredibly interesting. I love both genres and it's set in England, and it's going to be a series, and it just seems to be everything I really like in books. So far, I'm really loving it.

So there you go, that's all for my October/November Book Haul! Like I said at the beginning of the post, this will probably be the last book haul of the year. I have all but one of the books that I want to read by the end of the year, so I shouldn't be buying any more after that one. Maybe.

I'll be back in a few days with my TBR for the rest of the year, which might be outdated by the time I get it up, because I might have finished The Bone Season by then. Either way, I do plan to get that up later this week.

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! If you like my posts, I'd really appreciate if you'd subscribe/follow so that I know you're enjoying what I'm posting! See y'all soon!