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). 

Check out my links below!

YouTube Channel 

Facebook

Goodreads

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!

Review: Don't Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary/Thriller

My Rating: 9/10 (4/5 on Goodreads)

Recommended for: Anyone looking for an addicting read that will keep you guessing and engrossed the entire way through.

One night, Samantha and her best friend Cassie went missing. When Samantha is found on the side of the road, she has no memory of how she got there and absolutely no recollection of her life before that moment. As she re-discovers her life, she discovers that despite seemingly having everything- a rich family, a hot boyfriend, and insane popularity- the old Samantha was the epitome of a mean girl. The more she discovers about her old life, the more she hates the person she used to be. But, while trying to get back to her normal life, she can't stop thinking about the night that she went missing. Why did they disappear? What happened? And most importantly, where is Cassie?

Don't Look Back follows Samantha's attempts to discover the person that she was and the person that she wants to become, all while trying to unravel the mystery surrounding the night that stole her memories from her.

Before reading Don't Look Back, I was in a bit of a reading slump. I've heard on several occasions that Jennifer L. Armentrout's books are really addicting, so I decided to pick up the one with the premise that spoke to me the most. And y'all, this book did not disappoint. This was definitely one of the most addicting books that I have read in a long time. I picked it up around 2 in the morning, intending to just do a little reading before I went to sleep. I had 2 presentations the next day, but before I knew it, somehow it was 5 A.M. and I was about halfway through the book. I was forced to put it down, but picked it up ASAP the next day and finished it. I was completely hooked on this book and engrossed in it from page 1.

That, I think, is the strongest aspect of this book. Armentrout's writing is incredibly compelling and engrossing and totally sucks you in. She keeps you constantly guessing as to what is going on, and once you think you've started to figure something out, she throws something else into the mix that confuses you once again. She adds in little revelations often enough that it keeps you completely intrigued and invested, but with wide enough gaps that you have enough time to formulate theories. She keeps you constantly on your toes and it's wonderful. 

Now for the not-as-great aspect about the book. When I finished the book, I immediately went on Goodreads and gave it 5 stars out of 5, because duh. I couldn't even manage to put the book down-- how could that not deserve 5 stars? But then, as I actually sat and thought about it, I felt that for some reason, I just couldn't bring myself to give it 5 stars. I couldn't put my finger on it, but there was just this gut feeling holding me back. So, I lowered my rating and tried to figure out what it was. Eventually, I figured it out. It was the characters.

I've found in the past that I usually don't enjoy books set in normal high schools. Typically, the characters tend to be written as high school stereotypes, and I end up finding them vapid and annoying. That was kind of the case with these characters. While Samantha and a few of the characters that were really prominent in the book weren't totally stereotypes, some of the side characters seemed a bit like stereotypes. For example, both the male and female versions of "rich, pretty, popular, mean kid" were present within the book, without a ton of additional depth. And on top of this, even though the more prominent characters weren't too stereotypical, they did seem a little flat. I'm not sure I could name more than a couple character traits about any of them, which I find problematic, given that they were present for pretty much the entirety of the book. However, like I mentioned, this was something that was a bit of a subconscious problem, and I had to think pretty in-depth about it after finishing the book to even figure out what the problem was, so it didn't really take away from my reading experience.

Overall, the plot and the pacing were super on-point. Armentrout wrote it in a way that keeps the reader constantly engaged and invested in the story. The book constantly kept me guessing and curious as to what was going on, and started to unravel the mystery piece by piece in a way that urges the reader to continue. Despite the characters being a little flat, I found that this was one of the most addicting and unpredictable books that I've read in quite a while.

So, that's it for my review of Don't Look Back by Jennifer L Armentrout! If you've read this book, let me know down in the comments what you thought of it! And, if you have any questions about the book, ask them down in the comments as well!

Check out my links below!

YouTube Channel 

Facebook

Goodreads

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!

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!

Check out my links below!

YouTube Channel 

Facebook

Goodreads

   

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!

Anticipated Book Releases For the Rest of 2015 [Top 5 Wednesday]

Hey, y'all! So, this week's topic for Top 5 Wednesday was Top 5 Anticipated Pre-Orders For the Rest of the Year. I ended up having a fairly long list of books, and since I wanted to talk about all of them, I decided to do an entire post talking about all of the releases that I'm really excited about. The books I talked about in my video will also be included, and they'll be organized by release date. Titles link to the Goodreads page for each book, if you want to learn more about it.

Today's Top 5 Wednesday video:

Lair of Dreams

by Libba Bray

Release date: August 25

This one is one of the ones that I've been anticipating for the longest. I read The Diviners back in October and initially thought that it was just a standalone. Obviously, when I actually read it. I discovered that it's going to be a series (a 4 book series, if I remember correctly). I loved The Diviners (You can check out my written review here if you want) and can't wait to finally be able to dive into the sequel. It's even longer than the first book- 702 pages!- which actually makes me even more excited. And I'm really glad that they made a slight change to this cover re-design. Originally, the new cover was pretty similar to this, but with worse coloration and these weird faceless people. It was just bad. This is at least a little better.

The Rest of Us Just Live Here

by Patrick Ness

Release date: August 27

Yes, I will be getting the UK cover, because it's so much cooler than the US cover. Anyway, I still haven't read a full book by Patrick Ness. I liked what I read of The Knife of Never Letting Go, so I'm hopeful that I'll enjoy this one. The concept is really interesting and plays with tropes that are normally seen in YA, so I'm really excited about this one.

The Copper Gauntlet

by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black

Release date: September 1

For some reason, I didn't think too much about The Iron Trial last year, even though it sounds like it's right up my alley. I love magic school books, and that's what this series is. Yes, it's middle grade, but it's by Cassandra Clare, who is one of my favorite authors. Either way, The Iron Trial is one of the first books I want to get after my ban, and I will, of course, be getting this one as well. And I want to read them sometime this fall.

Queen of Shadows

by Sarah J Maas

Release date: September 1

Just like with the last one, this is another book where I haven't read the previous book(s), but I want to start it really soon. And the Throne of Glass series is even higher up on my TBR than The Magisterium series. I've been wanting to read it for a very long time, and I'll be buying all of the books ASAP when my ban is over.

Shadowhunter Chronicles

(2015 Cover Re-Design)

by Cassandra Clare

Release date: September 1

I might hold off on buying these for a while. I love all of these books, and I made a video all about these new covers. I like them enough that I want to buy them, but since they're books I've already read, I'm not sure I'm going to get them immediately. I'll probably buy a box set of one series, and then wait a bit before buying the other one.

Discussion on the new Shadowhunter covers

Library of Souls

by Ransom Riggs

Release date: September 22

I read the first two books in the series at the beginning of 2014, and I enjoyed both of them. It's not my favorite series I've ever read, but I did like it. I'm probably going to wait before reading this, because the Miss Peregrine's movie is going to be released... sometime? I'm actually not sure when it's going to be released, but that will be the perfect opportunity to reread the first couple and to finish reading the series. Normally, I wouldn't wait that long, but I'm not that attached to it. I can wait a while without getting anxious.

Carry On

by Rainbow Rowell

Release date: October 6

I loved Fangirl, and the Simon Snow series sounds pretty cool, as does Cath's fanfic. From what I've seen, this isn't actually Cath's Carry On fanfic, but I'm still really excited to read this, because this is her first fantasy novel, and MAGIC SCHOOL! YAY!

The Amazing Book is Not on Fire

by Dan Howell & Phil Lester

Release date: October 8

I've mentioned several times that these two are my favorite YouTubers. I'm very frustrated at all of the YouTubers writing books, but I'm excited about this one. Yes, it's another memoir, but they actually wrote it (from what they've said- and I'm going to trust them), and the description makes it sound just as quirky, fun, and random as they are, so I'm really excited to get this one. I've already pre-ordered it, too.

Shadows of Self

by Brandon Sanderson

Release date: October 8

I've recently fallen in love with Brandon Sanderson, after reading his Mistborn trilogy and The Rithmatist. I haven't continued on to Mistborn 4, and this book is Mistborn 5, so I'm not sure if I'm going to get to it immediately upon its release, but Sanderson is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors (and depending on how good the rest of his books are, he might become my favorite author) and I want to read all of his books.

Illuminae

by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Release date: October 20

This is one of the books on this list that I'm most excited about. Caz from Little Book Owl talked about this book near the beginning of the year, and I was really intrigued by it. It wasn't super high on my TBR yet, but it intrigued me and I kept it at the back of my mind as a release I might want to look into. But then I started learning even more about it and it sounds really interesting. Not only is it tagged as dystopia/fantasy/sci-fi on Goodreads (aka my favorite genres), but it also has unique formatting with case files included, and stuff marked out. And then I saw the ARCs that people got at BEA and it just made me even more interested in it. I can't wait to read this one!

Ten Thousand Skies Above You

by Claudia Gray

Release date: November 3

The first book in this series, A Thousand Pieces of You, was released last year, and it's one of the books I really want to buy after my ban. The concept is really interesting, because it deals with a chase across parallel universes, and it just sounds super cool. These covers are really cool as well. Anyway, this is a series that really intrigues me, and I hope to read the first book in this series and then jump into this one.

Winter

by Marissa Meyer

Release date: November 10

I feel like every single YA reader is excited about this release. I'm pretty late to the Lunar Chronicles party, because I only read the 3 books that are out back in April and May. I really enjoyed them, and this has become one of my favorite series, so this is one of the ones that I'm most eagerly anticipating. And it's supposed to be 800 something pages, so that makes me really excited. I need to know how things end up for these awesome characters!

Passenger

by Alexandra Bracken

Release date: January 6, 2016

OK, so you're probably like "Kristen, this clearly says 2016. This is supposed to be books released in 2015." I made an oopsie. This was originally going to be released in 2015, but got pushed back to 2016. And I forgot about that. And this is one I'm really excited about, so when I narrowed down my list, this was one of the ones I decided to include in the video... and then I realized that this is now a 2016 release. So it's not supposed to be on this list. However, since I included it in the video, I decided to talk about it here as well.

Anyway, this just sounds incredibly awesome. First of all, the MC is a violinist, and it sounds like it might play a big role in the book. And as a violist music major, that makes me so excited. Plus, this involves time travel and is like a treasure hunt across time and several continents, That just sounds so cool. I can't wait to read this one. It sounds so cool.

So, those are all the 2015 releases that I'm super excited about! Let me know down in the comments which ones you can't wait to read!

Check out my links below!

YouTube Channel 

Facebook

Goodreads

   

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!

The Leveller by Julia Durango [SPOILER FREE REVIEW]

Hey, y'all! I recently read The Leveller by Julia Durango, and despite having a lot of feelings about the book, I didn't want to devote an entire video to reviewing it. So, I decided to do a full written review on here instead. Despite the fact that I'm reviewing it quite soon after its 6/23 release date, I did NOT receive this for review, it's a book I purchased for myself.

Nixy Bauer is a leveller, a pseudo bounty hunter inside of the virtual reality game called MEEP. Because MEEP is a fairly new technology, the government limits how much time people can spend within it per day. When a kid is spending too much time in MEEP, their parents call on Nixy to pull them out, and she's known for being able to pull kids out of MEEP extremely efficiently.

One day, however, she gets a job from the game's creator. His son, Wyn, has blocked himself into MEEP and has left behind a suicide note. It's now Nixy's job to go in after him and retrieve him. However, when Nixy reaches Wyn, she discovers that things are not quite as they seem, because he reveals that he has actually been trapped inside MEEP. Nixy and Wyn must fight their way out if they ever want to get back to the real world.


That concept sounds really intriguing, right? Doesn't it give you Ready Player One vibes? I'll be honest, that's the biggest reason that I picked this up. I've been in the mood to re-read Ready Player One for quite a while, but can't really justify the re-read when I have a reading challenge going on. And I hoped that this would at least be a decent stand-in for Ready Player One. Unfortunately, though, this was just overall disappointing.

My first major problem with the book was the writing. This may sound strange, but I don't typically notice how good or bad the writing is unless I really enjoy it or really dislike it. And in this case, I really disliked it. Everything came across as very juvenile and sometimes reminded me of the way that I worded things when attempting to write stories at the age of 13. Nixy and Wyn were supposed to be 16, but they often spoke and acted like 13 year olds. On top of this, there were some words that were just extremely over-used. Specifically, the word 'truly.' It got to the point where I was going to throw the book if a character said 'truly' ONE. MORE. TIME.

Unfortunately, the problems don't stop there. Overall, I didn't find the plot that intriguing. In fact, it was only vaguely there. After Nixy got into MEEP to rescue Wyn, nothing really happened until the very end, apart from some instalove and some aimless wandering around. Speaking of which, the instalove in this book was really painful and cringe-worthy for me. I don't know how else to describe it except that I was physically cringing at some of the dialogue between Nixy and Wyn within approximately 10 minutes of meeting each other.

I also kind of expected some of the things that I think were supposed to be a surprise. This is generally to be expected, because I've mentioned many times that I can usually guess twists. Durango tried to surprise the reader with the villain reveal, but the foreshadowing was too heavy pretty early on, and she practically blatantly revealed it a while before the official reveal.

However, despite the many problems I had with it, I didn't hate it. I do see potential in the story and the world based on the way that the story ended. I think it will be really interesting to see the real-world implications of the things that happened within the game. I'm assuming that this will be a trilogy (because series apparently just means trilogy in YA anymore), and I hope that the next two books are a little longer and better written so that we can dive a little deeper into this game.

I found it very hard to come up with a rating for this one. Based just on my criticisms alone, it would seem that this book should get an abysmal rating. But for some reason, I somewhat enjoyed it. I would say that my dislike of the book didn't outweigh my like of the book. There's something oddly intriguing and charming about it, and enough loose threads left that I'm curious about what will happen next. I think I would have given this a slightly lower rating if not for the potential that I see in this series. Durango definitely has room to delve deeper into some of the issues that were raised very late on in this first installment, and I hope for everyone's sake that she does, or else the rest of the series will be as bland as this book was.

In the end, I gave The Leveller 6 stars out of 10. I think I would've gone with a 5.5 if not for the potential that I see, but I can only hope that Durango takes this series in a slightly better direction than she took this first book.

The Ascendance Trilogy by Jennifer A Nielsen [Discussion]

Hey, y'all! So, I just finished the Ascendance Trilogy by Jennifer A. Nielsen, and since I marathoned the trilogy, I decided to do a single post devoted to discussing the trilogy.

For each book, I'll be doing a spoiler-free discussion, followed by the rating that I gave the book (A note though: these discussions WILL spoil the previous books in the series. To discuss book two, I have to talk about book 1, etc. So, if you haven't read book 1, don't read past the spoiler free discussion for book 1. I hope that made sense...). I'll then go into a spoilery discussion. Each of these discussions was written within 24 hours of finishing the book, and before moving on to the next one.

The False Prince

The False Prince centers around Sage, an 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.

While I really enjoyed this book, I did have a couple problems with it. The biggest one was the twist. It didn't surprise me. I think there were some people who were surprised by it, but I just wasn't. When I heard that there was a twist, I thought "Oh I bet it's _______" and unfortunately, I was right. I was hoping the entire time that I was incorrect and that the book would surprise me, but it just didn't. And although it didn't hurt my overall reading experience, I was disappointed in it's predictability. That's not to say, however, that the book completely lacking surprises. There were definitely several smaller things which surprised me within the book.

The brightest spot for me was the main character, Sage. Sage is everything I love in a character. If I were to sort him in a Hogwarts house, he'd be a Slytherin. He's snarky, sarcastic, defiant, and proud, but he can back it up with his wit and cleverness. He can take care of himself and he's his own person and hates being ordered around. He's just super cool. 

I really appreciated the cleverness of the world building, The lessons are used both to teach the boys information that the prince should know, and to give us information about the world that the boys are living in. I also really enjoyed the plot. The book is about 350 pages, and there was never a dull moment. Sure, the entire book wasn't super fast-paced and crazy, but I was never bored and I never felt like the book dragged at all. And the last quarter of the book was just really epic, exciting, and fast-paced. 

Overall, I thought that this was a really great book. I ended up giving it 8.5 stars out of 10. (Which is 4/5 on Goodreads)

So there's really not much else to talk about except the plot twist itself. Honestly, when I heard that there was this major plot twist, I immediately thought "I bet the main character is actually the lost prince, pretending to be an orphan for whatever reason." and the entire book, I kept hoping that there would be some other twist and that I would be wrong for once (not trying to brag, this just happens an annoying number of times) but alas, I wasn't wrong. 

What did surprise me, however, was when Latimer was killed. That was the first really exciting thing that happened in the book, and it definitely did a great job of reeling me in. I also really enjoyed the little secrets that Sage keeps, such as the "gold" rock and actually being the one to steal the sword.

I think the last fourth of the book was definitely my favorite. Tobias attacks Sage, the boys have to hide in the tunnels, and then of course all the stuff that goes down once Sage actually gets to the castle. 

Since I'm writing this before continuing on to book 2, here are some things I hope to see going into the next book:

- As much as I like the name Jaron, I really hope that we get to continue to call him Sage. I don't think it's going to happen, but I'm going to continue to hope. I guess I'll find out soon enough.

- I really, really hope that a love triangle doesn't develop between the betrothed princess, Sage/Jaron, and Imogen. We just really don't need that. Imogen's the best. End of story.

The Runaway King

Book 2 opens with a bang as an assassination attempt stirs up trouble. War is coming, and the pressure is building. Jaron soon realizes that to save his kingdom, he might have to desert it. 

This book... there were points where I couldn't even deal with this book. It was so good. Like, I went into this series expecting to be blown away by book one because of all of the rave reviews, but The Runaway King is the clear star of this show (so far-- The Shadow Throne might impress me even more, who knows?!). The Runaway King was so fast-paced and action packed, and actually surprised me a lot more than The False Prince did! While there wasn't one big twist, there were so many twists and turns that kept me guessing the entire way through, and I was incredibly impressed. 

Also, I would just like to emphasize how much I love Jaron. Like, I'm willing to say right now that he is my favorite main character that I've ever read. Granted, main characters are almost never my favorite characters in their books/series, but Jaron is far and away my favorite character in this series. He's just too freakin' awesome. He's snarky and sarcastic and UGH he's great.

I enjoy The False Prince and The Runaway King for very different reasons, because even though they both have the same mood/feel/vibe, they are very different books. The False Prince is slower, but mysterious and intriguing, and I really enjoy when books are like that. However, The Runaway King is pure adventure. It's fast-paced and exciting, with thievery and pirates galore. I think that if I had actually been surprised by the twist in book 1, I might have rated it higher, because slow, intriguing, mysterious books with world-building are my fave. But since I wasn't surprised, I wasn't as impressed, and ended up enjoying The Runaway King more.

Overall, I really loved this book. This was super exciting and I enjoyed almost every second of it. I gave it 9.5 stars out of 10. (Which is 5/5 on Goodreads)

There were several times that I almost had to laugh out loud at this book. Jaron would get himself into a situation that seemed impossible to get out of and I would be like "Well how exactly do you expect to get yourself this terrible situation this time, Jaron? You're chained up in a cell perched over a cliff, and your leg is broken. I think you're officially stuck." And then what happens? Oh, he just casually climbs out the window and scales the cliff with his one good leg and then challenges the pirate king to a duel and wins. I mean, go you, Jaron. For real, he's just too dang epic!

I have to say, this book surprised me a lot more than The False Prince, even though I had expected the opposite. I did not see the Gregor thing coming. I got really annoyed with him and was sick of him trying to get someone to reign instead of Jaron, but I didn't think that he had betrayed the King by helping Conner. I was also really surprised that Jaron convinced Roden to come over to his side. I thought that there was absolutely no chance of it, but clearly he realized that he was being stupid.

Also, I am really annoyed at the love triangle thing, but I get why it is happening. Because clearly Imogen is the right girl for Jaron (RIGHT?! They have to end up together. PLZ, Jennifer Nielsen, let them end up together) but he has to be friendly with the Princess that he is betrothed to (who isn't terrible in the slightest, but Imogen.). And I'm not sure how this is going to turn out, because Nielsen clearly wants us to like Imogen and root for her to end up with Jaron, but it seems pretty unlikely and impossible at this point. The only redeeming thing about this love triangle is that it doesn't play an extremely prominent role. Yes, Jaron is constantly worried about Imogen, but that's just it... he's worried about Imogen. They're friends, and he's concerned about her and barely thinks about the princess. It isn't even until the end that romantic feelings are brought up, and even then, it's between Imogen and Jaron, but not Jaron and the Princess. Jaron and the Princess agree that they're friends. 

I know I'm being pushy here, but I'd rather just see a story where Imogen and Jaron really care about each other, but struggle to be together because of the war, the troubles they're going through, and they come from different classes. That would be so much better than a love triangle, even if they didn't end up together in the end. (and for the record, my ideal scenarios go: end up with Imogen = doesn't end up with anyone > ending up with the Princess. AKA, I like both of the first scenarios equally and am not a fan of the last one.)

The Shadow Throne

The Shadow Throne opens just as war is about to break out in Carthya. King Vargan has kidnapped Imogen, and Jaron embarks upon the journey to save everything that is most important to him. 

I thought that the conclusion to this trilogy was overall beautiful and emotional. There were several moments where I found tears falling from my eyes at moments of both despair and of joy. The Shadow Throne was an emotional roller coaster for me, going from wanting to throw the book, to wanting to hug it, to being down-right confused about what Jaron was doing. 

As wonderful as this conclusion was, however, it was not without its faults. Or rather, singular fault. As I said in the spoilery discussion of The Runaway King, there were several moments throughout this trilogy where I sat and thought, "Well how exactly do you expect to get yourself this terrible situation this time, Jaron?" and then he managed to come up with this crazy scheme that ended up working. And for the first two books, I really loved this, and I loved seeing him succeed in them because it was always so epic when he did. However, in this one it wasn't really like that some of the time. 

There were a couple times when I had to kind of suspend my disbelief. Some things were a little too coincidental for them to be perfectly planned out, and sometimes I just couldn't bring myself to believe that he had come up with that plan for the scenario he was in. It wasn't an overwhelming sense of "this is stupid," but rather a slight "meh, not sure if that's really that logical," and it didn't detract from my overall opinion about the book.

The Shadow Throne was also slightly less surprising than The Runaway King. There were a couple twists that were unsurprising, but there were also several things that I didn't see coming. 

Overall, I thought that this was an epic conclusion to the trilogy and ended up giving it 9 stars out of 10. 

So, as I was saying with the "suspending my disbelief" part of my discussion, I thought that there were a few plans that were a bit too coincidental. And I wanted one of Jaron's plans to epically fail at least once. But somehow, he managed to succeed constantly, and that bothered me. It was a little too neat and tidy. Everything wrapped up very nicely, but a little too nicely. 

Also, I wasn't surprised in the least bit when we found out Imogen was still alive. Honestly, I was waiting for it. I was acutely aware that there was still a chance she was actually dead, but unless the main character actually like sees the corpse/feels the pulse/ there's a funeral or something, I don't believe that they're actually dead. Like there was a book that I read last year (no spoilers!) where character #1 claimed that she killed character #2 and I was completely convinced that character #2 was going to pop up later in the book and not actually be dead. He/She didn't, so he/she is probably dead. However, I still think that there is a possibility that he/she is not dead. We shall see. Anyway, back to the point. I expected Imogen to pop up again, because it just wouldn't be a happy enough ending for Jaron if she was actually dead. Plus, this is a middle grade series that isn't very dark, so it would have felt very out of character for this book to suddenly get really dark and have one of the main characters die.  

So, that's all I have for my discussion about The Ascendance Trilogy! I hope that if you've made it this far in the post, you've actually read the trilogy (please don't read spoilers before you read the books!!!), so let me know down in the comments what you thought about the trilogy! Did you enjoy it as much as I did?

Check out my links below!

YouTube Channel 

Facebook

Goodreads

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!

Series I Want To Start in 2015!

Hey, y'all! So, I've started participating in Top 5 Wednesday on YouTube, which is basically a group of BookTubers who make videos each Wednesday listing their top 5 of whatever that week's topic is. This week's topic was "Top 5 series you want to start this year." As someone who really loves series, I got really excited about this topic. So I went to my Goodreads and found myself so completely swamped with series that I created a new shelf called Series To Start. I added the first book in each series that I have on my TBR shelf to this new shelf and was shocked to find that there were a whopping 52 SERIES on my TBR shelf. WHOA. Now, that doesn't mean that I own 52 unread series. Far from it. It just means that there are 52 series to which I have shown varying degrees of interest toward reading.

Because of this vast number of series that I want to read, and due to the fact that I want to read a lot of series this year and am dubbing it The Year of Series, I decided that just talking about 5 series isn't enough. And so, I came up with a list of the series that I'm most looking forward to reading. That doesn't necessarily mean that I'll get to every single one of these this year, but rather that right now, these are the ones I'm really excited about. And rather than ranking them, I just listed them in alphabetical order. Because that's a lot easier.

The Ascendance Trilogy
by Jennifer A Nielsen

I watched a video where a Booktuber talked about this trilogy, and since we don't typically have super-similar taste in books, I didn't really give it a second thought. However, about a month later, I watched the video that Jamie and Jeff from Ermahgerd Berks did, listing their top 14 books of 2014, and Jeff raved about this trilogy. Apparently, the first book has the best twist ever. Anyway, Jeff and I tend to like the same types of books, so that really pushed me to want to read this. I'm so excited about this trilogy that I've bumped it up to like next on my TBR... after The Mime Order, of course.

The Chaos Walking Trilogy
by Patrick Ness

I meant to read this trilogy before the end of 2014, but it didn't happen. I actually started The Knife of Never Letting Go while travelling back to school after Thanksgiving. I got almost halfway through! But then I got to school and got swamped with finals and by the end of it, I knew I wouldn't remember everything that had happened, and so I decided to start over the next time I picked it up and that decision caused me to push it back just a bit. I did, however, really enjoy what I read of the first book. It took a little while to get into it. I'm a huge grammar nazi, and Patrick Ness's writing in this trilogy is really unique and includes misspelling words and it frustrated me to no end at first. But once I got into a groove, it almost didn't bother me. I definitely intend to pick this up relatively soon.

The Checquy Files
by Daniel O'Malley

Once again, The Rook was on my list of books to read before the end of 2014, but that unfortunately didn't happen. Since the second book comes out at the end of June, I might just hold off on reading The Rook until Stiletto comes out... but I'm not sure I'm patient enough for that. From what I understand, this is an adult fantasy dystopian in which our main character, Myfanwy has supernatural powers and is part of a secret organization that battles supernatural forces in Britain. And apparently the book begins with her waking up and having no memory whatsoever of her life before that point. That just sounds absolutely fantastic.

Codex Alera
by Jim Butcher

Regan (PeruseProject) is one of my favorite BookTubers because we have a pretty similar taste in books. And she absolutely raves about this series. This is her favorite series aside from Harry Potter... though I'm not totally sure that she doesn't like this one better than Harry Potter. Either way, I've heard her say good things about this enough times that I just feel like it's time. I need to start this series soon. 

The Dark Artifices
by Cassandra Clare

As I've said many times, I absolutely love Cassandra Clare's books. I love The Mortal Instruments, and I love the Infernal Devices. Both of them are just so great. Cassie creates such great, interesting characters, and her Shadowhunter world is just such a fun world to read about. Even though I'm a little more excited about her other upcoming series, The Last Hours (which is set about 20 years after The Infernal Devices trilogy), I'm still really ready to get back into the Shadowhunter world and see what Cassie has in store next!

A Darker Shade of Magic
by V.E. Schwab

This is another new series that is being released this year, and I'm really excited to get into it because it just sounds so interesting. It's a fantasy with parallel Londons and a character who is a traveler and can go between these parallel Londons. Overall, this just sounds like a super interesting new series, and I cannot wait until the first book comes out in February.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Series
by Douglas Adams

I'm not sure if I plan on reading the entire series, but I have heard that the sense of humor that this book has is very similar to my own sense of humor, so I feel the need to read at least the first one.

The Kingkiller Chronicle
by Patrick Rothfuss

I've actually already started this series. I'm not super far into the first book, but I can already tell that the writing is amazing. My plan is to read both of these this month. I should also probably pick up the novella at some point, but that's definitely not my first priority. I'm really excited to finally get to these.

The Lord of the Rings
by J.R.R. Tolkien

Honestly, at this point I'm just embarrassed that I haven't read this trilogy already. I just need to read it already. 

The Lunar Chronicles
by Marissa Meyer

This series has been on my TBR since I first started watching BookTube and got on Goodreads. It seems like something I'll really enjoy, and I've been slowly collecting these over the past year. I've pre-ordered the paperback copy of Cress, and I'll get it on January 27th, so once I've finished The Mime Order and the Ascendance Trilogy, I have a feeling that these will be the first books that I jump into. They just look so good. 

Pathfinder Series
by Orson Scott Card

I've heard great things about this series from BookTubers who share my taste in books and generally have the same opinions on books as I do. It sounds really cool, with some really interesting paranormal abilities involved. 

A Song of Ice and Fire
by George R.R. Martin

This is another one that I just need to get on. I'm so late to the game on this. It's exactly my type of book, and I really want to watch the TV show as well. I just need to read these. For real. 

Throne of Glass Series
by Sarah J. Maas

Once again, I've heard nothing but great things from BookTubers who share the same taste in books as me, and it just sounds so great. The main character seems like such an awesome, strong female lead and I definitely love seeing that in books. Plus, she's an assassin and it's a fantasy. Yes, please!

So, those are the series I want to start in 2015! I'm not sure I'll be able to finish all of these by the end of the year, but since a handful only have 1 or 2 books out, I'm hoping to be able to get through most of these before the end of the year! What series are you most looking forward to starting in 2015? Let me know down 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!