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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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!

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I'm Back- FOR REAL

Hey, y'all! So I think this might be my longest hiatus from posting-- A MONTH AND A HALF. WHAT?!?!? And I know I promised in April that I would be posting again... and then I posted like 2 things and disappeared. But this time, I'm for real. Want to know how I know that?

Because I already have 3 posts scheduled to go up IN THE NEXT WEEK ALONE. Not even kidding. And I'll probably have another within the next 24 hours. The first one will be posted at noon today (10 AM Central time, June 16th), and it's my Harry Potter Experience post. Chances are, if you're reading this, it's already up. So go check that out if you're interested!

Then, tomorrow, I'll (hopefully) have a post that correlates to my Top 5 Wednesday video this week, followed by 2 review posts on Friday and Monday.

But let's stop for a second and get real here. This is not going to keep up. I'm not going to be posting 4X a week on a regular basis. I'm hoping to post at least once a week steadily, maybe more depending on the week. I want to continue my ranking Project Runway designers series, and I want to continue doing CDs On My Shelf posts. I'll probably scatter in some other things (especially bookish things, if I do full written reviews of books), but those will be the main content on here.

I'm not making any promises. I know I'm a lazy bum, but I also know that if I continually force myself to do stuff I don't really want to do, I will eventually just stop all-together. And I don't mean to say that I dislike blogging. I like it very much. But sometimes, after working all day (I have a full-time job, for those of you who are unaware), sometimes, I don't feel like coming home and doing MORE work, and instead want to just sit and watch Netflix/YouTube. So I'm going to try and strike a healthy balance of vlogging, reading, blogging, and down-time over the summer.

I'm not sure how anything's going to transfer into the new school year, because (for those of you who don't know), I'm entering my senior year of college. And not only am I going to be taking senior classes, but as a music major, I'm going to be preparing for a recital. And on top of this, I'm going to be working as a research assistant, will (most likely) have a fellowship, AND will be applying to grad school. So blogging/vlogging/reading regularly might not be as possible then as it is now.

Anyway, I have digressed extremely far from my original point, which is that for now, I'm back, and I hope to continue to steadily post over the next few months because I feel like there's no better way to talk about my opinions than to type and subsequently edit them so that I can say exactly what I mean.

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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!

Summer Wrap-up!

Hey, y'all! Back in April, I did a monthly wrap-up post and mentioned that I might make it into a monthly series. Obviously, that hasn't happened... for several reasons. I had a lot of posts going up at the end of the month during each month in the summer, but the main reason I didn't do them is that my life isn't that interesting. I don't do that much. But enough interesting stuff happened throughout the summer that it warranted a wrap-up post. I'll also be discussing my monthly favorites! Let's get right into it!

The first, most obvious thing that I did this summer was my summer reading challenge. If you followed my blog at all throughout the summer, you probably already knew that. But, if you haven't seen anything about it, you can click here to check it out! It was definitely a big challenge for me, but I'm really glad that I decided to do it, because I got through 26 books in only 3 months! I'm really happy with the amount of reading I got done in May, June, and July.

Now, let's get into everything that went on in my life during each month!

May

As I mentioned in my April post, May began with finals. My finals were actually really early this year, and my last one was on May 2nd. Normally, I would almost immediately begin moving out after finishing my finals, but since I was working in the library on campus over the summer, I actually just got to chill out for a week before starting work. Both of my roommates moved out and went home, leaving me with a huge triple to myself! But the joy didn't last for long. Mid-May, I moved into summer housing. Let's just say it sucked. The dorm we lived in during the school year is one of the nicer dorms and we had a fairly large room. The room I lived in over the summer was very small, had bad lighting, and was in an older dorm with lots of pipes and a big window AC unit. It was a bit of a disaster.

Besides moving into my summer room, not much really went on in May. I worked 40 hours a week during the weekdays and relaxed in my room on the weekends... and didn't really do much else. 

May Favorites

The Mole

For those of you who have never heard of The Mole, it was a reality TV show from the early 2000s. There are 5 seasons. The first two are with regular people, the 3rd and 4th are with celebrities, and the 5th season was a regular people reboot circa 2008. The premise of the tv show is that a large group of people are competing to win money for a group pot that one of them will win. But the catch is that one person in the group is "The Mole," a saboteur hidden among the group who is working with the producers to keep the group from winning money. The contestants are attempting to discover who the mole is, while simultaneously trying to win money, and the home viewers also don't know who the mole is. At the end of each episode, contestants take a quiz where they have to answer questions about the mole's identity. The person who scores lowest on the quiz is eliminated. 

I first discovered the show last summer and watched the first two seasons. In May, I ended up re-watching the first two seasons and watching all 3 of the other seasons for the first time. If there were more seasons, I would have watched those too. I love this show. Oh, and the gif is of Anderson Cooper (who hosted the first two seasons and is half the reason it's amazing) being adorable after tricking the contestants into thinking he was about to eliminate someone. 

Clockwork Princess

Clockwork Princess was by far my favorite book that I read in the month of May. I read almost all of it in a single sitting, and it was absolutely beautiful. It quickly and unquestionably became one of my favorite books. Often, I have to give quite a bit of thought into what rating to give a book, but this one was a no brainer. 10/10 immediately.

June

June 1st, one of my school-year roommates got back to school for her internship that she was doing over the summer. We weren't living together because all of the summer rooms were just doubles, but it was nice to have one of my best friends back on campus. 

My birthday was on June 10th, and my parents were able to drive down to visit me, and they got there the same day my summer roommate (who I also live with during the school year!) came back to campus. So I spent the weekend with them and then my grandparents were supposed to fly in on Monday morning. Unfortunately, my grandparents' plane was delayed because of bad weather, so they didn't arrive until late that night. That afternoon, however, I took my parents to meet my bosses, and they actually bought me a cake and brought it in for all of us to eat!

  

 I love my bosses. They're some of the sweetest people ever. So, that night, my grandparents finally got in and I got to spend just a little bit of time with them that night. 

The next day, I showed them around my campus and introduced them to my bosses. We got to go out to dinner and then we picked up my cake and met up with my roommates to eat the cake.

My roommate Erin (the one on the right, who I wasn't living with over the summer) gave me a Wreck This Journal, which I was really excited to start using. Sarah, however, got... creative.

It's a running joke. We got Erin a wand for her birthday as well. We're all basically 5 year olds trapped in 20 year olds' bodies. Also, my smile is so weird because the icing on the cake turned our teeth black. Oops.

After my birthday, June wasn't really too interesting. It was basically just like May: work, chill, repeat.

June Favorites

Top Chef

Top Chef has been one of my favorite TV shows since 8th grade. So basically for 7 years *cue Kristen stopping and realizing that junior high was literally SEVEN YEARS AGO and that she's currently a 20 year old college junior* I have watched this show religiously. Well... lately not so much, but the first few seasons are perfection. Hulu added basically every episode of Top Chef, so I ended up making my way through *almost* all of the first five seasons while at work. I didn't quite make it to the end of season 5, because that was when the season started going downhill, and when the show started going downhill as well. Season 2 was the best season by far (followed by season 3, and then seasons 1&4 are tied). The only reason season 4 gets to tie with 1 is because RICHARD BLAIS. AKA my favorite contestant ever on Top Chef ever. Anyway, season 2, head-shaving incident. It will live forever in infamy. 

American Horror Story: Murder House

I had been meaning to watch this show for a really long time, but I have a very long list of shows that I've wanted to get to for a long time. I was in the mood, so I went for it. Season 1 was great. Haunted houses are my favorite haunted things. And Evan Peters as Tate totally has a Kurt Cobain vibe and I love it and I love him. I watched about half of season 2 before getting disinterested. I didn't dislike it, but I definitely couldn't get into it as much as season 1. If season 3 had been up on Netflix, I'd probably have just watched that, because I know I'd like it. But season 1 was great. I'll get to the other 2 eventually. 

July

Just like May and June, only one really interesting thing happened in July... the Fourth of July! One of my friends had an Independence Day party, where we ate lots of food and set off lots of fireworks. It was lots of fun.

So yeah, the fourth of July was really fun, but it was really the only exciting thing that happened in the month of July.

July Favorites

The Pilgrims of Rayne by DJ MacHale

This one shocked me. I always considered it to be one of the worst in the series (partially due to its terrible cover) but upon a re-read, it's unquestionably my favorite. I wish I could erase my memories of reading it and then go back and re-read it so that I could experience all of the shock and awe that goes along with it.

My Top 15 Stand-alones

I promise that this isn't just some shameless plug. I actually really enjoyed writing this post. I mean, I enjoy writing every post, but I especially enjoyed this one. I'm not quite sure exactly why I enjoyed it so much, but it was just a lot of fun and I got to see how some of my favorite books stacked up against each other... quite literally!

August

August is when things started to get really great. August first, Erin, Sarah, and I were able to move out of summer housing into our new apartment! Erin liked her summer room, but Sarah and I were very, very ready to move. Not only was our room completely cramped, but it had become ant and gnat infested and super gross. We wanted out of that place ASAP. And it didn't hurt that our new apartment is gorgeous...

The only tiny complaint is that the apartments were designed to have one person in each bedroom, but when our school took it over, they put two people per room. So our spaces are a little... cozy.

This is my side of mine & Erin's room. There's also an entry into the room with our closet, and on the wall across from my bed, I have my desk and bookshelf... but you can't see that yet because I'll be making a post all about my bookshelf later. 

After spending the entire weekend of August 1st-3rd moving, I packed up again on Monday and hopped on a plane to visit my parents! I spent a week there, and it was a nice and relaxing break from work and pretty much any responsibilities at all. It was great. 

And that pretty much catches y'all up with everything that has been going on with me this summer. Classes start today (well tomorrow, but I'm scheduling this for tomorrow, so... you get it) but I only have work-study and orchestra, so I have a pretty light schedule... until Thursday. That's when I start doing research assistant stuff out the wazoo. WOOT. 

August Favorites

Problem by Pentatonix

So, I will admit that I have listened to the original version of this song (by Ariana Grande and Iggy Azalea) a grand total of 0 times. All the way through, at least. So I wasn't extremely excited about Pentatonix covering it. I knew it would be great because it's PTX and everything they do is amazing, but I wasn't crazy excited. The day their EP went up for pre-order, I pre-ordered it, being the obsessed fan that I am. With that came this song, and the music video was released the same day. I then proceeded to listen to exactly 0 other songs for about a week. I'm not exaggerating. This song is probably my most played song on my iTunes at this point, but I don't want to plug in my phone and prove myself right.

Dare MattG

If you're unaware, this guy is Matt. His Youtube channel is MattG124, and every Friday, he does "Dare MattG" (That thing on the internet where you dare me to do some things and sometimes I do those things that you dare me to do). Anyway, since he's been doing it for almost 3 years and has had a few breaks from doing it, he has a little over 90 Dare MattG videos. Before starting this marathon, I think I had seen like 2. I've now seen 1-75. And I'm working on the last 20ish. I've loved his videos for forever, but never got into Dare MattG. And now I've seen the light.

This brings me to infinity and beyond... er... what my plans are for the immediate future.

I'm working with my advisor as her research assistant, so that's going to take up a lot of time. Plus, I have 2 300 level psychology classes this semester, which is intimidating. I also have a 100 level music class, but I'm not really concerned about that. I probably wouldn't be too fazed by taking 4 400 level music classes, honestly. Anyway, I also have the same work-study job as well as ensemble classes and private lessons and orchestra (for which I'm now the viola section leader, so YAY). Plus the many many hours I'll be devoting to research assistant stuff, which I don't even want to think about right now. Let's just say that I'm glad I dropped my fourth class.   

I'll be posting an update on schedule and such... soon. IDK when. Because I don't have a schedule yet. If you only knew how busy I am...

Don't forget that I've created a Facebook page for my blog! If you want to check that out and like it, you can click HERE. I'll try to keep that pretty up-to-date with new posts and such.

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

The Pendragon Adventure Rankings! [Summer Reading Challenge]

Hey, y'all! I'm here with my LAST summer reading challenge post! I did individual posts on each book, as well as a series discussion post, so here are the links to all eleven posts:

The Merchant of Death

The Lost City of Faar

The Never War

The Reality Bug

Black Water

The Rivers of Zadaa

The Quillan Games

The Pilgrims of Rayne

Raven Rise

The Soldiers of Halla

Pendragon Series Discussion

Now, in this post, I'm going to be ranking my favorite covers, travelers, and territories!

Series Summary

The Pendragon Series is a young adult fantasy series. The beginning books could be classified as middle grade, but I think young adult is a better label. 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.

Ranking The Covers

#10: The Pilgrims of Rayne

This cover. UGH. I immediately hated it when I first got the book, because Bobby looks totally different on this cover! If you look at the first 7 covers, it definitely looks like the same guy is on all of them, just aged up a bit each time. This one looks like a totally different person! Also, I recently discovered that this is also DJ MacHale's least favorite cover and that he not-so-lovingly refers to it as "Bobby the blue-eyed reindeer." I hadn't even noticed the reindeer thing. But all the other covers depict Bobby with dark eyes. You'd think they'd at least try to make it cohesive.

#9: The Lost City of Faar

It's not that I hate this cover. I just don't particularly like it. Maybe there's just too much orange. Because the water looks orange, his suit is orange, the bubble is orange, the ship is orange, the lettering is orange. Too much orange.

#8: The Reality Bug

Bobby looks a little weird on this cover. Not like bad or different, I just think that the way it's laid out, it almost makes him look even younger than on the Merchant of Death cover.

#7: The Rivers of Zadaa

Like the covers before it, I don't care a ton about this but it has Loor on the cover, and that bumps it up a lot. Loor makes everything better. 

#6: Black Water

I feel like this cover fits the book really well. You definitely get the jungle thing. Bobby definitely looks like he's aged, which is also indicative of the maturing of the series. And those eyes! Pretty cool cover.

#5: The Never War

I feel like this cover is one of the most well-connected to its story. Just at a glimpse, we can clearly see that it takes place in the past in New York!

#4: The Merchant of Death

When I think of the Pendragon series, I think of this cover. I feel like the first cover in a series is always the most iconic or memorable, and I think that's definitely what it is. 

#3: The Soldiers of Halla

I love the contrast between Bobby and Saint Dane on this one. It's really cool. You can see the beautiful Solara behind Bobby and it's just a really cool cover.

#2: Raven Rise

This book, like The Pilgrims of Rayne, still does make me slightly mad just because Bobby doesn't totally look like the previous books. But I really like the colors of this and the nazi-esque cover.

#1: The Quillan Games

Oh boy, I love love LOVE this cover! Red is my favorite color, so I love that everything is red accented. I love the castle and the depiction of Quillan with the huge screens. It perfectly matches the book and looks amazing while doing so!

Ranking The Territories

Although this list is mostly ranked due to interest factor, there are sometimes where a place won out because I'd prefer living there over another place.

#10: Eelong

I don't think that Eelong is the least interesting territory. Nope, I think that falls to the #9 spot. But this is the territory that I'd least like to live on. I'd rather not be treated like an animal, thanks!

#9: Zadaa

For me, Zadaa is the least interesting of all the territories. Many of the other territories have something really cool going on, but Zadaa is almost as close to Earth as you could get. No crazy weird animals, only a single sun... it's just not as cool and interesting. 

#8: Denduron

I like Denduron. I think it's really interesting with the Bedoowan versus the Milago and the huge castle carved into the mountain. However, I don't think it's quite as interesting as some of the other territories. 

#7: First Earth

If I were to choose a time in Earth's history to travel back to or have characters travel back to, 1930s New York would be pretty low on the list. Obviously, that's when the Hindenburg crash was, so that can't really be helped, but I just really wish that First Earth could have been in a slightly more interesting time in Earth's history. That being said, I'd much rather live on First Earth than any of the territories that fell lower on this list.  

#6: Second Earth

You probably think I'm crazy for putting the territory that we all live on (if we're pretending for a moment that other territories do, in fact, exist) so far down on the list. Allow me to explain. If this list were purely based on where I would want to live, yes, Second Earth would obviously be slightly higher. However, this list is based off of both how interesting I find a territory as well as how much I would want to live there. And because of the first aspect, this is slightly lower. Maybe Second Earth would be interesting to someone who lived on a different territory, but to humans on Second Earth, it's just... normal. 

#5: Ibara

When I first started re-reading this book, I felt a very strong resemblance to 1984 because of how information was withheld and because people could disappear just because they spoke their mind. But then when you dig deeper and find the truth about the society, it's incredibly interesting, and I especially loved the twist about the rest of the territory and the whole reconstruction plan. 

#4: Veelox

I'm a sucker for virtual reality. I wouldn't want to live in Veelox, but I would certainly love to go and visit and jump inside Lifelight just once. And because of the whole everyone-is-in-lifelight-and-not-actually-living thing, it definitely has the feel of a dystopian civilization, which is also one of my favorites to read about. 

#3: Third Earth

And when I say Third Earth, I'm obviously talking about the Third Earth we see at the beginning of the series. The untainted, perfect Third Earth. The technology is astounding, the people live in entire cities underground, on the moon, and underwater. Just... whoa. And they figured out how to stop destroying the earth. The only sad part is that actual books aren't really a thing on Third Earth. But that's a small price to pay... right? I would love to live on Third Earth. If I could bring some family members and a few friends with me, I'd be set.

#2: Quillan

Remember how I said that I really like dystopian worlds? Yep. Quillan. The entire society is really interesting! And though I don't know this for sure, it seems like DJ MacHale might be making some sort of statement about where our society is headed. Blok, a company, basically runs the entire territory. The poverty is out of control and people gamble with their lives. Literally. And let's not even get started on the games. I obviously wouldn't want to live on Quillan because it's a disaster, but it would be really cool to have a Quillan Games channel on my TV. 

#1: Cloral

Was there ever any doubt? Everyone loves Cloral! How cool would it be to live in a world that's made up completely of water and live on a floating city? They have such cool technology too, like the domes that mold to your head so you can breathe, and skimmers! Race you to Grollo's for sniggers! 

Ranking The Travelers

For this list, I stuck to just the travelers with Bobby/ of his generation of Travelers. And I decided to go with Elli Winter and exclude Nevva. Does Nevva even count at this point? Anyway, I also left Bobby off the list. Obviously, Bobby would be #1. Duh. He's our main character. But since that's a given, I decided to just rank the other 9 of them.

#9: Elli Winter (Quillan)

I don't hate Elli. Sure, I'm a little sad when women are really timid and scared and meek, but that's just me. But she's just not traveler material. She just can't handle anything. And she's also the traveler we see the least of, which doesn't help her chances of getting any higher on my list.

#8: Aja Killian (Veelox)

Aja is intelligent, confident, head-strong, and talented. Sounds like a character I would love, right? Well... maybe not so much. As a character, I have nothing against her, but as a traveler, I do. She caused so many problems for Bobby when he went to Veelox. She had problems cooperating and letting go of control so that Bobby could do what he knew best. She thought she knew it all and she didn't. Not a great quality for a traveler to have.

#7: Patrick Mac (Third Earth)

I really wanted to like Patrick. He's a really smart dude, and he's a professor (or is he just a teacher? Can't remember) And once again, I didn't dislike Patrick! I really didn't. But he just panicked and ended up causing problems that he couldn't fix. Cool guy, not so great for the whole traveler thing.

#6: Kasha (Eelong)

I grew to like Kasha eventually, but when we first meet her, she's a doozy. I think I was mostly annoyed with the fact that she didn't want anything to do with Bobby and hated him just because he represented the stuff her dad told her about. But it's always hard to shake bad first impressions, so I only like her a little.

#5: Siry Remudi

At first, he's incredibly frustrating and I wasn't really sure I would grow to like him, but when he eventually came around, he was super loyal to Bobby and I really ended up liking him.

#4: Gunny VanDyke

Gunny is just great. He's one of the most level-headed people in the entire series, and it's great that Bobby can depend on him and trust in him to pull through.

#3: Alder

He's such a lovable, clumsy teddy bear, and yet he's a highly trained fighter. He's such a loyal companion and always eager to jump in and to help Bobby. I'm just glad he's on our side.

#2: Spader

Spader is just great. He always has a great attitude about everything and keeps optimistic. He's such a fun guy but at the same time he's also incredibly loyal and wants to do what's right. He may not be a fighter, but he's lots of fun to have around. Hobey ho!

#1: Loor

How could anyone beat Loor? She's an amazing warrior. It takes her a while to appreciate Bobby but she quickly becomes his go-to traveler for whatever he needs. She's great to have on your side, and she's a great friend to Bobby, not just a companion. She's absolutely incredible, and she's certainly my favorite traveler, and probably my favorite character in the whole series.

So, that's it for my summer reading challenge! All of them are completely done! I can't believe the summer will be drawing to a close in less than a month! Seems really crazy!

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