Books I Read In One Sitting [Top 5 Wednesday]

Hey, y'all! So for Top 5 Wednesday this week, the topic was books you read in one sitting (or close to). I had so many books that I wanted to mention that I decided to do a blog post just listing (and briefly discussing) all of the books that I could think of that I'd read in one sitting or close to one sitting.

So, since the list is so long, let's just go ahead and jump into it!

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

by J.K. Rowling

This is still the only book that I've ever been able to get at its midnight release, and I dove into it as soon as possible. I probably had to set it down a few times to do chores and such, but I pretty much read it in a single sitting. 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

by J.K. Rowling

I've mentioned this several times, but I was on vacation when this book came out and instead of waiting until I got home to get the copy I reserved, I bought this at the airport and spent the entire day on the plane reading it and once again finished it in a day.

City of Bones

by Cassandra Clare

This book was my introduction to the Shadowhunter world, and I was hooked right from the start. I remember discovering it and being completely unable to put it down. And ever since, I've loved Cassie Clare and her books.

City of Heavenly Fire

by Cassandra Clare

I read this Cassie Clare novel really quickly for a very different reason. Last May, I was doing a reading challenge where I read all of Clare's books in one month. This was the last book I had to read for the challenge, and I had only one day left to read it, so I buckled down and read the entire thing in a single day.

Clockwork Princess

by Cassandra Clare

Similar to the last one, I was reading this for my challenge, and I was getting a little behind, so I really wanted to get it done quickly. However, that quickly changed when I got so pulled into the book that I couldn't put it down, and I fell in love with it.

13 Reasons Why

by Jay Asher

This is one of my all-time favorite books, and the first time I read it, I was so drawn in that I read it all in a single sitting. I just wanted to find out everything about the story, and couldn't put it down.

Divergent

by Veronica Roth

For this one, I read about 50 pages before going to sleep. When I picked it up the next day, I got pulled in and couldn't put it down. Like with Clockwork Princess, I got so invested in the story, I just had to keep reading and reading. 

The Shadow Throne

by Jennifer A. Nielsen

With this one, I'd been reading the trilogy for a while and just really wanted to figure out how it ended, and so I buckled down and read the whole thing in one sitting.

And Then There Were None

by Agatha Christie

I've obviously read this one in a single sitting multiple times, but I'm pretty sure that the first time I read it, I also either read it in one or two sittings. It's just too good. 

The Future of Us

by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

Like with Jay Asher's other book, 13 Reasons Why, this book had a really intriguing concept and I eagerly anticipated its release. When it finally came out, I bought it and was so intrigued that I just sat down and read the whole thing. Although the book didn't live up to my expectations, it was at least good enough to keep me interested until the end.

Ten

by Gretchen McNeil

This quick read was actually due more to a time constraint than to actual interest, even though I was curious about what was going to happen. I read this in the month where I had to read 6 books, and I was getting down to the end and just needed to fly through books, so I just sat down and got through this one in a couple hours.

Wildflower

by Janine Carbone

Just like with Ten, I read this in February where I had to read 6 books in a month. Plus, this book is really short and fast-paced, so I probably would have read it in a single sitting either way.

Evil Under The Sun

by Agatha Christie

This is another February, 6-books-in-a-month book. But this one was the last one of the month, so I was under even more of a time crunch. I definitely wouldn't have gotten through it as quickly without the time constraint though, because this is (so far) my least favorite book that I've read this year.

Horrorstor

by Grady Hendrix

I read this in October as a horror marathon, and was so intrigued by the concept and the very interesting and unique format of the book that I just wanted to see what would happen. It wasn't an amazing book by any stretch of the imagination, but it was intriguing enough that I finished it in one sitting. 

Ignite Me

by Tahereh Mafi

This was another reading challenge one. Otherwise, I don't think that I would've read it in a single sitting like I did. Definitely the best book in the Shatter Me trilogy by far, but still not anywhere near being one of my favorite books.

The Body Electric

by Beth Revis

This book was just so good. I couldn't put it down. The world was so cool and the story was so intriguing, and I just kept reading and reading. 

The Fault in Our Stars

by John Green

I was actually on a trip when I read this. It's a pretty short book, so it wasn't hard to finish it in a single sitting. And after this one, I actually continued right on to...

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

by Stephen Chbosky

...this one! Which I also read during that same sitting. Probably not the best idea to read both of these books in the same day, but oh well. They were both really good. 

Whodunnit? Murder on Mystery Island

by Anthony E. Zuiker

Murder mysteries are really quick reads for me because I just want to know what's going to happen. And these books are particularly quick reads because of the way that the murder investigations are conducted, so I just flew through this. 

The Twilight Saga (except Breaking Dawn)

by Stephenie Meyer

Yep, I read the first three books in the Twilight Saga in about 6 days. Two sittings per book, even though they're massive. I almost want to go back and reread them just to see if I actually enjoy them now. Breaking Dawn, however, took me a really long time to read because I hated Jacob's POV (even though he was one of my favorite characters in the series).

So, those are all of the books that I can think of that I read in (pretty much) one sitting! Let me know down in the comments what books y'all have read in one sitting!

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!

Wizarding World of Harry Potter Info/Experience!

Hey, y'all! So last week, the week of my 21st birthday, I was lucky enough to travel to Orlando and go to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter! And, since Harry Potter is such a big deal and a lot of people go to Universal just to go to Harry Potter World, I decided to write a post just talking about my experience there and hopefully give y'all some helpful information if you are, in fact, planning to visit. 

So, the most important thing to know going into The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (shortened from here onward just to WWHP) is that there are two distinct sections, each of which is in a different park. The Universal Resort is made up of Islands of Adventure, where the Hogsmeade section of WWHP is located, and Universal Studios, where the Diagon Alley section of WWHP is located. When Diagon Alley, the newer of the two sections, was built, the Hogwarts Express was added in order to transport people between Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley.

And this, my friends, is the catch. If you want to be able to go to both Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley in the same day, you have to have a park-to-park pass, meaning that you have a pass to both the Islands of Adventure park and the Universal Studios park. The same goes for riding the Hogwarts Express. If you want to travel between the two parks, you have to have passes to both parks. And obviously, this is more expensive than having a pass to just one park. However, although this is an obvious money grab, it really is the best way to experience WWHP because the two parks are very complementary.

Hogsmeade

(These pictures are from my 2012 trip-- I didn't really get any Hogsmeade pics this time)

So Hogsmeade is, of course, designed to re-create the town of Hogsmeade next to Hogwarts. Inside of Hogsmeade, there are places that exist within the series, such as the Three Broomsticks (a restaurant) and Honeydukes (a candy store). Zonko's used to be a part of Hogsmeade, but now that the Weasley twins' joke shop is open in Diagon Alley, the Zonko's has been taken out. The outside of the shop still shows the Zonko's sign, but inside it's actually just an extension of Honeydukes. On top of the shops present within the series, there are also a couple shops that have been added that contain Harry Potter merch.

Within Hogsmeade, there are 3 rides: 

The Forbidden Journey 

Dragon Challenge 

Flight of the Hippogriff

The Flight of the Hippogriff isn't exactly a kiddie roller coaster, but it's not an intense roller coaster at all. Dragon Challenge, however, is a pretty intense roller coaster. There are two different tracks of the roller coaster, each named after a dragon in the Harry Potter universe- the Hungarian Horntail (the blue track) and the Chinese Fireball (the red track). While there isn't a huge difference between the two tracks, I personally preferred the Hungarian Horntail because I felt like it was a little more twisty.

The third and final ride in Hogsmeade is the Forbidden Journey, which is inside of the Hogwarts castle. It's a very unique, hard-to-describe ride. Put into the simplest terms possible, it's an inside roller coaster. However, there's a bit more to it than that. It's a ride where the track is above you and your feet dangle down. You sit in a row of 4 people, and your little "car" travels independently from the other cars. By that, I mean that although all of the cars take the same path, you don't see them at all, and you feel like your car is all by itself. As far as the things that happen during the ride, it's a mix of screens and physical objects. The screens are huge 3D screens that look very realistic and are combined with special effects like wind to make you feel like it's actually real. You're also taken past physical objects that move and react to your car. The ride definitely does not feel like you are on a normal track. You get turned around, you go up, around, sideways, etc. It's a very interesting, unique ride.

Diagon Alley

So, before you even get inside Diagon Alley, you come across The Knight Bus and Grimmauld Place.

Also outside of the actual Diagon Alley section are King's Cross Station and the Phone Box that lets guests into the Ministry of Magic.

 So, once you get inside Diagon Alley, you come across The Leaky Cauldron and tons and tons of shops. Not all of the shops are ones that you can actually go into, such as Flourish and Blotts (which I think is a shame because they could sell all of the books in there, along with notebooks, pens, bookmarks, etc.). However, pretty much every single shop from the series is there, which is really cool.

Quidditch Supplies

Wisacres Wizarding Equipment

Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour

Ollivander's

Weasley's Wizard Wheezes

 There were several other shops, but I didn't get pictures of them. On top of Diagon Alley, they also added Knockturn Alley, along with Borgin & Burke's, which I thought was super cool.

The only ride within Diagon Alley is the Escape from Gringotts ride.

The Gringotts ride is similar to the Forbidden Journey ride in the sense that it is an atypical ride that has heavy use of 3D screens. However, the Gringotts ride is slightly more like a typical roller coaster. You sit in a cart with 6 rows, which is much more like a normal roller coaster, and follows a more typical, mostly horizontal, track. However, unlike the Hogwarts ride that has both screens and physical objects, the Gringotts ride is solely just screens and a ride.

The Hogwarts Express

I rode the Hogwarts Express multiple times in both directions. It's pretty straight-forward- you sit down in one of the compartments and the window is actually a 3D screen that recreates what you would see outside of the actual window. There's not too much to say about the train except that it's a pretty cool experience. And it is different each way, so make sure that you take it each way!

Comparisons

Parks

OK, so now that I've broken down what each of the parks have, I'm going to compare the two and talk about what the best parts of each are. Like I said at the beginning of the post, the parks are very complementary. I feel like Hogsmeade has the better rides, and Diagon Alley is the better overall experience. I think that the Hogwarts ride is a lot more fun and more dynamic than the Gringotts ride, and that's even before considering the other two rides in Hogsmeade. 

And, as I said, Diagon Alley is a better experience, especially for the hardcore Harry Potter fan. Although the entrance is not through The Leaky Cauldron, the entrance is very discreet and secluded, and when you enter Diagon Alley, it's like entering into a totally different world. And it never really breaks character (if that makes sense). However, with Hogsmeade, there are constant ride intrusions, butterbeer carts all over the place, and shops that aren't actually in Hogsmeade, and for me that took away from the experience.

Restaurants

Three Broomsticks

Leaky Cauldron

This section is going to be pretty brief, because I feel like the restaurants are pretty comparable. They serve pretty similar food- both try to stay pretty British. I think they have some of the same food, but definitely not all of the same food. I got Bangers & Mash at The Leaky Cauldron and Fish & Chips at The Three Broomsticks, and I enjoyed both meals pretty equally.

Bangers & Mash at The Leaky Cauldron w/ regular Butterbeer

Fish & Chips at The Three Broomsticks w/ hot Butterbeer

Butterbeer

So, for those of you who don't know, there are actually multiple different versions of Butterbeer. When I went to WWHP 3 years ago, there were only two types- regular/cold & frozen- and they have since added hot butterbeer. However, these drinks are not all the same drink at different temperatures. They actually all have very distinct flavors. Regular butterbeer is carbonated, and pretty much tastes like cream soda and root beer. Frozen butterbeer is a slushie texture and is the sweetest of the three. Hot butterbeer kind of has a bit of a chocolatey flavor to it. The flavor of it (to me) was very familiar, but I couldn't place it. All three of them are topped off with a very butterscotchy cream. The first time I was there, I tried both and distinctly remembered preferring frozen butterbeer to regular butterbeer. However, I decided to try all three of them again and decided to rank them on here for y'all.

#3) Regular/cold Butterbeer

I still like regular butterbeer, but both of the other forms are far superior. To me, this one just has the least flavor out of all of them. Both of the other two have really great flavors, but this one is just a little watery when compared to the other two. And while I got 2 cups of each of the other two while at WWHP (and for one form I got 2 cups of it in the same day), I only got this single cup during my entire time at WWHP.

#2) Frozen Butterbeer

Apologies for the worst-focused picture ever!

Frozen Butterbeer is just SO GOOD. And it's so perfect to drink on a hot day in Orlando. It's so sweet and delicious and oh so yummy. It was just as good as I remembered it being, and I had to get a cup each day.

#1) Hot Butterbeer

Y'all. Y'ALL. This was such a wonderful surprise. I wasn't sure what to expect from this, but I definitely didn't expect the sheer perfection of this drink. I loved it so much that I got two cups in one day, even though it was like 90 degrees outside during the day and 80 in the evening. Like, I was in Diagon Alley at the end of the day on my last day I was there, and 30 minutes before close, I went to go get one last cup and they were out on that side of the park so I sprinted to the train and sprinted from the train to The Three Broomsticks just to get a hot butterbeer. I wish I had this stuff on tap so that I could drink it all the time.

So, that's pretty much all the stuff at Harry Potter World that I wanted to talk about! I think I covered pretty much everything, but if you do have any other questions, I'd love to answer them down in the description!

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!

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.

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!

Book Discussions #3

*Pre-post disclaimer/apology: So, the books on this list are all books I read a while back. My intent with these was to get the post up ASAP but clearly, that didn't happen. Eventually, I just decided to go ahead and post it as-is. Not sure if I'm going to continue to do my written reviews this way. I might begin writing individual reviews instead. Anyway, enjoy the reviews!*

Hey, y'all! I'm back again for another Book Discussions post! In these posts, I do discussions for every single book I read. This was going to be just for stand-alones, but I realized that (even though I wish I could) I can't marathon every series that I read. So single books within series will be included within these as well. If I read 2+ books of a series back-to-back, they'll get their own posts. I plan on including 6-7 books per post, so new discussion posts will be up after every 6-7 books I read, give or take a few.  These discussions will be entirely spoiler-free and fairly short.

Also, I try to write these discussions within a day of finishing the book. so even if it's been a few months since I've read a book, the discussions were completed when the book was still fresh in my mind. So here we go!

Murder After Hours
(originally titled The Hollow)
by Agatha Christie

Read: January 4th, 2015

This is one of the books in Agatha Christie's Poirot series, a series centered around a brilliant detective named Hercule Poirot. In this book, a weekend in the country turns into the scene of the murder, and of course, Poirot is on the case.

I read somewhere that Agatha Christie said that her biggest mistake with this book was introducing Poirot into it. And I kinda agree. This had a very different feel for me than other Poirot novels. I almost didn't care about who committed the crime, which was very odd. Typically, with the Poirot novels, I don't really care too much about the characters except Poirot. However, that was exactly the opposite. Often, Poirot's presence or absence wasn't important, and I was more concerned with how the characters would end up once everything was said and done. And while I don't necessarily have a problem with this, it just all makes it not seem like a Poirot novel, which is what I set out to read. I chose to read this Poirot novel because it sounded like it would have a very Clue-esque vibe (dinner party at a mansion, person is murdered, everyone starts blaming everyone) and the book definitely didn't have that at all. Overall, it just didn't read like a Poirot novel, and that was its biggest problem for me.

Overall, I gave Murder After Hours 7 stars out of 10.

Wildflower
by Janine Carbone

Read: February 7th, 2015

*I received a free ARC of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review*

I only had a couple complaints, so I'll talk about all of the positives before touching on those. First off, I really enjoyed the way that the flashbacks were mixed in with the main plot. I thought that it was really intriguing and it kept me guessing as to what had happened in Faith's past. I also really enjoyed Faith as a character. As a college student who spends most of my time in my apartment, there were several aspects of her personality that I really connected with.

I thought that the second half of the book was especially thrilling. I was constantly wondering what was about to happen or when something big would happen, and when crazy stuff did start happening, I couldn't put the book down. In fact, I found myself accidentally skipping entire lines because I was trying to read faster than my brain could actually comprehend, because I was just so curious about what was going to happen. That being said, however, I did think that there were a few predictable aspects. I figured out several things about the stalker long before they were revealed in the book

The only real problems that I had happened within the first 50 pages. I felt like there was a little too much telling vs. showing when it came to describing things. This ended up creating the only other real issue that I had with the book: the beginning of the romance. I thought that the beginning stages of the romance were very rushed. We see the very beginning and then jump forward in time twice in very quick succession. For me, this made the relationship seem slightly hard to believe at the beginning. Although it's made very clear that we have jumped forward a significant amount of time, it's hard to think of it as a serious relationship when they met ~20 pages earlier. I really wish that this portion of the romance was fleshed out a little bit more, because I think it would have added a little bit more to the book. I understand why this was a little rushed through, because all of the important events occur after this, but I think it could have been a little more fleshed out without ruining the pacing.

Overall, I thought that this was a really exciting, fast-paced read. If you're looking for a quick and exciting psychological thriller that's deeper than average, I would definitely recommend Wildflower!

I ended up giving Wildflower 7 stars out of 10.

Ten
by Gretchen McNeil

Read: February 24th, 2015

I had my eye on this one for a while, but didn't have very high hopes for it. Ten is basically a re-telling of And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, which is my personal favorite stand-alone novel of all time... which is why I didn't have very high hopes for it.

Because I've read And Then There Were None, I did expect some things that I think would have been a surprise to anyone who hadn't read And Then There Were None. And I think that the changes made to the original story were cleverly done. Even though I wasn't surprised by any of the twists, I didn't figure out who the killer was until just a little bit before it was revealed. I was fairly convinced that it was someone else. So I applaud Gretchen McNeil for that.

Now on to the not-so-great. Until the deaths started happening, almost everything was really cringey. I know that a good chunk of it was purposeful to highlight how obnoxious many of the characters are, but there was definitely some dialogue that I thought was completely stupid. It reminded me why I don't usually read books that deal with teens who are actually in high school. I'll read about teenagers all day long, but when they get into a normal high school setting they just tend to get obnoxious. On top of this, the writing overall was just meh. I usually don't tend to notice how good or bad writing is, but I definitely noticed in this book. It wasn't down-right awful, but it definitely wasn't written amazingly. It was also pretty heavy on the foreshadowing. A little more subtlety would have helped tremendously.

Despite the cringey moments, Ten was very fast-paced, and I ended up finishing it in one day because I was just too curious to see what was going to happen. So, I ended up giving Ten 7.5 stars out of 10.

Evil Under The Sun
by Agatha Christie

Read: February 26th, 2015

Once again, this is a part of Agatha Christie's Poirot series. In this book, Hercule Poirot is vacationing on an island. And one morning, one of the guests, a beautiful actress, is found murdered.

I was surprisingly really disappointed in this book. I typically spend the entirety of a Poirot book just sitting and pointing the finger at everyone. I get really invested in trying to figure out who did it. But in this, I found myself just not caring. Sure, I had suspicions and hunches, but none that I particularly cared about or felt adamant about. I dunno, I just had an overwhelming sense of meh with this book. It gets slight bonus points for the fact that the mystery was intricately crafted, but that's usual of Poirot books, so it wasn't as if I wasn't expecting that.

I ended up giving Evil Under The Sun 5.5 stars out of 10. Like I said, that bonus .5 is for the intricacy of the mystery.

The Body Electric
by Beth Revis

Read: March 7th, 2015

Beth Revis has solidified her spot among my favorite authors with The Body Electric. I've talked a bit about how much I appreciate excellent world-building, and how important world-building is to my enjoyment of a book... and Beth Revis gives me pretty much everything I could ever want. The technology is super cool. I feel like this would be a good read for someone wanting to get into sci-fi, because the technology is explained in enough detail to make sense and be interesting, but Revis doesn't bore you with long explanations about how everything works... which wouldn't actually be boring to me, but I was happy with the explanations we got.

Also, it takes place within the same universe as Revis' Across The Universe trilogy. However, since this takes place in the future of the Across The Universe world, and is set on Earth rather than space, that doesn't really have a huge effect on this book because the technology and world are very different from the trilogy. There are, however, a couple Easter eggs that Across The Universe fans will appreciate.

However, there was one aspect that kept gnawing at me and slightly bothered me (not a spoiler-- promise!). So, right from the beginning, the Secessionary War is mentioned. There are a lot of things about the war that are discussed. We see how life is after the war, we learn about some events during the war, but it's never really explained how the war started or what was being fought for. Obviously, "secessionary" speaks for itself, but who was seceding? How did it start? This never got answered, and that really bothered me because it was the only hole in the world-build.

I do feel like the blurb about this slightly misconstrues some of the things in this book, namely the Reveries. The blurb makes it sound like reveries are something only Ella can do because she has special powers, but that's not the case. It's actually a technology that other people can and do use. However, special abilities do make an appearance in this book, so I'm not too bothered by it, because I don't think anyone would be put off by that difference. Just go into it expecting sci-fi/dystopian, not paranormal/dystopian.

Overall, I liked the story. The majority of it was pretty fast-paced, and full of twists and turns. With about 100 pages in, I had been considering it a 9 star book. I was really loving it, and there were definitely some twists and turns that I didn't see coming, but there were a couple things that were unsurprising. However, those last 100 pages... WHOA. So many plot twists. So much craziness. Mind blown. I could not put the book down. It was just utter craziness and I loved it.

I decided to give The Body Electric 9.5 stars out of 10. Not quite perfection, but so amazing.

The Name of the Wind
by Patrick Rothfuss

I have to admit, it took me a little while to get invested in the story. Right from the start, the writing was beautiful, but I wasn't quite sure what was going on yet, and there hadn't yet been any excitement, so until we got into Kvothe's story, I wasn't incredibly invested. However, once his story began, I was hooked. 

I will warn everyone going into this that it's not exactly a fast-paced book, because it is a story of Kvothe's life, rather than just a small snippet of an exciting part of his life. However, I typically enjoy slower novels more than most people. I appreciate, pay attention to, and care about world building more than the average reader, which is probably why I have such a deep love of high fantasy and dystopian novels. And in this book, we get incredible world building. One of the most interesting aspects of the book for me was learning about the system of magic within this world. It, just like everything else in this world, is really well fleshed out and just so incredibly detailed.

I also really like Kvothe as a character. He's really strong and determined. He knows what he wants, and he'll do whatever he has to in order to reach his goal. Although he does have the character flaw of being somewhat arrogant, that just makes him a bit more endearing to me, because although I don't express it like he does, I definitely have an arrogant streak.

Even though this is a large book, and it did take me a while to read it, and it was a slower book, it never felt like a task. There was a section that was a little slower, but it wasn't a huge section (I'll discuss further in the spoilers) and so it really didn't bother me, especially since the following section was my favorite part of the book.

So, overall, I just absolutely loved this book. I can absolutely understand why it has a 4.5 average on Goodreads. The writing was amazing, as was everything else about this book. 10 stars out of 10. I'm officially obsessed.

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!

All Time Low- Future Hearts

Hey, y'all! It's time for me to talk about another CD on my shelf! As always, I put my iTunes on shuffle, and the CD containing the first song that played is the one I'll be talking about!

NOPE. This is a very special CDs On My Shelf, where I discuss the CD that I've been eagerly anticipating for quite a while. AKA: Y'ALL, MY FAVORITE BAND'S NEW CD CAME OUT TODAY!!!!!!!!!

Release Date: April 7th, 2015

Genre: Pop punk, Alternative

When I bought the CD: Pre-ordered it! (But heard all of the songs about a week before its official release)

Track Listing

1. Satellite
2. Kicking & Screaming
3. Something's Gotta Give
4. Kids in the Dark
5. Runaways
6. Missing You
7. Cinderblock Garden
8. Tidal Waves (Feat. Mark Hoppus)
9. Don't You Go
10. Bail Me Out (Feat. Joel Madden)
11. Dancing With a Wolf
12. The Edge of Tonight
13. Old Scars/ Future Hearts

All Time Low is:
Alex Gaskarth- vocals, guitar
Jack Barakat- guitar
Zack Merrick- bass
Rian Dawson- drums/percussion

L-R: Rian, Alex, Jack, Zack

About All Time Low: 
[Stolen from my posts on their other CDs]
All Time Low was formed in 2003 when all four guys were still in high school. One day, they were all just jamming together and decided to form a band. Their "first" CD, The Party Scene, came out in 2005, but it's not really considered most of the time when discussing All Time Low's discography. They then released Put Up or Shut Up, an EP, in 2006. They have released 4 more CDs: So Wrong, It's Right in 2007, Nothing Personal in 2009, Dirty Work in 2011, and Don't Panic in 2012. All four members of the band have been in the band from the beginning, which I think is pretty significant for a band that's already 11 years old.

My Opinion about All Time Low:
[Once again, stolen from my posts about their CDs]
I talk a lot about how McFly is my favorite band... but I've failed to mention that I have two favorite bands... and clearly, All Time Low is the other one. If forced to choose between the two, I would choose McFly, but All Time Low definitely also holds the title of my favorite band. I've been listening to them since junior high, and they're the only band that has consistently been one of my top 3 bands since then. Even McFly can't say that. Alex Gaskarth is absolutely hilarious, and a total Harry Potter nerd, which I think is super awesome. He's definitely my favorite in the band just for that. And of course, everyone loves Jack. He's the crazy goofball, and no one can get enough of his hilarious antics. And the skunk hair. It will never die! Also, Rian Dawson and Cassadee Pope are actually the cutest couple ever. I approved immediately when I heard they were together. Adorable.

About the CD:  

As you will notice, this CD came out today! I've been listening to it non-stop and decided that it would be fun to actually choose a CD to talk about for once rather than choosing randomly. This CD is a really interesting one. I feel like there are a lot of different things going on with it. I have a hard time categorizing this within All Time Low's discography of music. There are moments when I feel like songs are very familiar, but others when I feel like this is a totally different sound for them. 

IMHO: 
I was beginning to get really worried about this CD. They released Something's Gotta Give, Kids in the Dark, Runaways, and Tidal Waves and I was very underwhelmed. None of them were bad, but they were all very expected. They definitely had ATL's normal sound, but without the excitement that usually accompanies one of their songs. Of the four of them, they're generally each perfectly good songs on their own, but when they were all released one after the other, I started worrying that the entire CD would sound the same. Fortunately, that couldn't be further from the truth. I'm not going to go into a comparison to other All Time Low CDs, because I do plan on doing a ranking of all of them soon, but I do really like this CD overall.

As always, I'm going to give each song a rating out of 10 and then give a brief explanation of why it got that rating. 

---------------------------------------------------
*Disclaimer: I've only been listening to most of these songs for about a week. I usually don't post on CDs this soon after their release because it typically takes me a while to solidify my opinions on songs. So I was a little generous on this, and my opinions will probably continue varying for a while until I settle into my long-term feelings. *

Satellite- 9/10.

This one is really interesting because it features distorted guitar and vocals, which is really unusual for All Time Low. It's a little bit more gritty of a sound, which I feel is one of the new sounds that ATL introduces on this CD. And it features brief screaming. Not hardcore by any stretch of the imagination, but definitely rougher than the usual All Time Low song. 

   

Kicking & Screaming- 9.5/10. 

This has a sound that is fairly "Don't Panic" but with a good mix of the grittier Future Hearts sound. That's probably why I enjoy this song so much, because the Don't Panic sound is my favorite, and I really love this new, grittier sound.
   

Something's Gotta Give- 8.5/10.

I tried to categorize this song within the All Time Low discography, but found myself grasping at straws. Maybe it just sounds so familiar now because I've played it a lot, but it feels very All Time Low. I feel that the sound on this one is also a new sound that they introduced on this CD, and it's the exact opposite of the other one. That's all grit while this one is really smooth.
   

Kids in the Dark- 9/10. 

This song makes me think of Time Bomb and some other songs on Dirty Work. Fortunately, it's the good songs on Dirty Work. Even though it was released amidst some underwhelming songs, this one is really fun and I enjoy it.
   

Runaways- 8.5/10.

This one, I feel, has the same sound as Something's Gotta Give. It's very... glossy. I'm not sure that's the right word, but the vocals are very smooth and it's got a much softer sound than the grittier songs on the CD. There are a few electronic sounds thrown in and even the bass sounds softer. I'm not quite sure how I feel about this yet. I don't dislike it, but it's not my favorite All Time Low sound ever.
   

Missing You- 8.5/10.

Once again, I get the Something's Gotta Give vibe from this one. It's obviously very different from Something's Gotta Give, but it has the same, softer, poppier sound. Even though it's fairly out of place in ATL's discography, it doesn't really sound out of place. It's got a kinda folk-pop vibe that I actually kinda like.

   

Cinderblock Garden- 9.5/10.

This song sounds very All Time Low. That probably sounds odd to say, since these are all obviously songs by All Time Low, but I feel like there are so many elements in this song that are so essential to All Time Low as a band.
   

Tidal Waves (Feat. Mark Hoppus)- 7.5/10.

This is another one with the softer sound. It's also my least favorite. It has some Nothing Personal elements because of the electronic sound to the chorus, but it's nowhere near as exciting as Nothing Personal. I just feel like the song never really builds to something. It just kinda flat-lines.
   

Don't You Go- 10/10.

I love this one. It sounded very familiar but not because it was similar to All Time Low songs. It is a little, but Alex's vocal style reminds me a little of Billie Joe. This definitely has more of the grittier Future Hearts sound, and I love it. It has a splash of Dirty Work, but in a good way.
   

Bail Me Out (Feat. Joel Madden)- 9/10. 

This song just makes me think of Good Charlotte. And not just because Joel is on it. I feel like the music is also very Good Charlotte as well. It definitely has some of the softer sound to it, but the fact that it's mixed with a Good Charlotte-esque sound elevates it above the other songs with that vibe.
   

Dancing With a Wolf- 10/10.

This. Song. Hands down, my absolute favorite song on the CD. It's got the grittier sound to it and it's just so great. It's got just the slightest tinge of an electronic sound to it, which is actually super cool. It's just so fun and such a jam song.
   

The Edge of Tonight- 8.5/10.

I had to give this one a little time. Initially, I was like "Nope, too much pop. Don't want to listen kbye." But the chorus is really great. Overall, the song definitely has that softer sound, but the chorus almost makes up for the overly poppy verses.
   

Old Scars/ Future Hearts- 10/10.

The sound on this one is extremely similar to the one on Satellite. They're the most gritty songs on the CD and I love it. Also, I keep feeling like Alex's vocals have a Billie Joe-esque sound on this CD. I'm not sure why. But yeah, this one is really great. I think ATL should explore this grittier sound a bit more. I'm a big fan.

---------------------------------------------------

Favorite Songs: Dancing With a Wolf, Don't You Go, Old Scars/ Future Hearts

Least Favorite Songs: Tidal Waves.

Video! 

Kids in the Dark music video

Something's Gotta Give music video

Rating: 8.5/10. I know that this isn't exactly the average of all of the ratings, but it's certainly the most common rating. I like this CD, but I have some mixed feelings about it. I'm definitely going to be jamming to it and blasting it for quite a while, because I do genuinely like it, but I really wish that they had explored the grittier sounds more because those were really great.

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!

Hey, y'all!

Hey, y'all!

So... it's been a while.

And by a while, I mean approximately a month, so it's nothing crazy, but it is definitely my longest absence from this blog. And before the long absence, I was... scarce, to say the least.

So, what's my explanation for this long break from blogging?

Laziness. Laziness is my explanation.

I know you're probably wanting some actual explanation, but that's the long and short of it. Pure laziness. And I've been focusing on vlogging and writing.

See, I have all of these things that I enjoy doing in my free time: reading, writing, vlogging, blogging, watching YouTube videos, etc. And there are typically only so many that I can focus on at a time. Lately, it's been vlogging, writing, and watching YouTube videos (which is a constant regardless of the other things that I choose to focus on). But, I want to try to prioritize blogging more. At the beginning of the semester, I made this crazy schedule where I was going to be blogging or vlogging literally every single day. And while I technically have time to do that, I didn't factor in the fact that I need to have down time where I'm just lazing around and that I get distracted really easily. So I never seem to be able to fit everything in.

Anyway, I will be resuming the Project Runway rankings series. Also, a new CDs On My Shelf post will be up on Tuesday, April 7th. And this is a special post, because it's not a randomly chosen CD. It's been specifically chosen because it's being released on April 7th. If you know anything about my taste in music and favorite bands, you probably know what this is, so that's all the info I'm giving you.

Also, I'm not sure what I'm doing about book posts, because I have been making book videos on my YouTube channel. So I might not be making very many book posts aside from reviews. But we'll have to see.

I'm going to be participating in Camp NaNoWriMo, so maybe I'll post some updates on here? IDK for sure. We'll have to see...

So, there you go, a brief update! See you in a couple days!

Check out my links below!

YouTube Channel 

Facebook

Goodreads

And no, this isn't an April Fools Day prank. I just thought it would be better to post it on the first day of the month. I'd come up with something actually funny if I was kidding.