Champion by Marie Lu

5 Stars

"until the day we meet again I will hold you in my heart and protect you there, grieving what we never had, cherishing what we did"

Holy shit, that ending has left me with a hole the size of the Republic. Here's a gif to accurately describe my current emotions.

I love this trilogy so much and I love Day and June. I ship them so, so hard. I'm sat here just stroking my book because I loved it so much and I'm so sad that I finished it. It's been a long process for me, I first read Legend back in February of last year and I really loved it. I saw a lot of potential for a really good series there. I didn't get Prodigy until that Christmas but I didn't want to read it until I got Champion so I didn't have to wait like I did so much after Legend. So a couple weeks back when I finally ordered Champion, I decided I'd finally read Prodigy and a few days later Champion arrived and I needed it so badly. Marie Lu knows how to leave you wanting more, that's for sure. After each of the books, I've been hungry for more and now I'm afraid I'm going to starve.

It's crazy to see how much the series has improved from the beginning, I still thought Legend was fantastic but Prodigy got better and Champion was even better. Marie Lu took my expectations and exceeded them, for gods sake. I love it when an author can do that, Legend set up such a perfect ground for something really fantastic and she managed it. I've seen a lot of authors set up a really promising story and then just not pull through and it's so disappointing, that's how I felt with the Divergent trilogy. I am so glad the Marie Lu fulfilled my expectations and beyond.

 I think my favourite thing about this was, it didn't let all the lovey dovey romancey stuff get in the way of all the action and war and fun stuff. Don't get me wrong, I obviously adore Day and June but Marie Lu has found that perfect balance between work and play, I guess. I appreciate that Day and June both had their priorities straight, they're narration wasn't constantly thoughts of the other, if you get what I mean. It's just a really good balance.

I loved the point system thing Antarctica had going on. Give me a whole book on that, someone, please. That is completely irrelevant to my review but I loved the idea so much and I wanted to mention it, I wish we got to see a little bit more of it.

Now, I need the perfect way to conclude a review for the perfect (heartbreaking) conclusion to the Legend series. I absolutely loved it and I'm so sad that it's over and now, I'll probably clutch my book to my chest and contemplate all of my existence now without it. I can't wait to read the Young Elites series now and experience more of Marie Lu.

My Reread TBR

I love to reread. I even wrote a post about why I love it, you should check it out here. I promise it's good ;). Anyway, whenever I'm looking at my shelves I see so many books I need to read again. So, I thought I'd make a list of them and hope they no longer haunt me.

1. Love Letters To The Dead by Ava Dellaira
I read this very early last year and honestly, I can't remember a lot from it. I remember I really liked it and it reminded me of Perks of Being a Wallflower which I love. Also, because it's from my pre-reviewing days (hence why I only have a vague idea of how I felt about it) I really want to review it.

2. The Bees by Laline Paull
This one was once again pre-reviewing but I remember reading this one pretty well. I remember it was so unusual and I loved it, I thought it was genius. I would love to write a review about this because I'm so in love with the concept.

3. This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith
Because fluff. It was so cute and light and fluffy and I can't get enough of anything fluffy.

4. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
This is one of my all time favourite books. If someone took me to a deserted island and told me to take only one book, this would be it. I mean, I'd put up a fight first because who do they think they are but I'd definitely end up taking The Book Thief with me.  I actually have a review of this one here.

5. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
This is one of my favourite classics and it's been about two years since I read this which is surprising to me because I really didn't think that much time had passed. I really love it, it's so sweet.

6. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
Because it's been three years and I can't remember if I loved it or hated it. I think I loved it but I was 14 and I loved anything John Green wrote by principal and I don't think I'd still love it now. I think it would make for an interesting review.

7. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
I think I like this a lot. I had a theme though a couple years ago, I loved anything angsty hence my love for John Green. I considered myself a rebellious teenager who didn't conform by societies rules. This was absolutely not true, I can confirm I was the most timid teenager ever, definitely not rebellious. Angsty books like this made me feel rebellious though and I liked that. It would be interesting to see what I think of them now that I've accepted my I am not an angst ridden teen.

8. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
Just because I really liked this one and it sort of went downhill for me as the series progressed.

9. I Was Here by Gayle Forman
I think I liked this one but once again, I struggle it remember much of it.

10. Girl Online by Zoe Sugg
Because I can't decide if I want to read the other books or not.

11.The Improbable Theory of Ana and Zak by Brian Katcher
Did I like this or did I not? I can't remember. I really wish I'd started reviewing earlier because it is a great way to log the way I felt about certain books.

12. The Yearbook Committee by Sarah Ayoub
This was magnificent and one of my favourite pieces of Oz YA. So good.

13.Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid
Because I don't like to leave things on even numbers.

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

5 stars

“For the two of us, home isn't a place. It is a person. And we are finally home.”  

Arghhh, this was amazingly fluffy and I still have butterflies buzzing around in my stomach. I swear, if I don't fall in love that hard at least once in my life, there'll be hell to pay. I think I said something in my Isla And review about if the first two books were any fluffier than that, I'd probably die? Well look who's barely hanging on. I've spent 15 years and 11 months without this book, how?

I love the Paris setting, it's what made me fell in love with Isla And. I also love reading about boarding schools and studying abroad and whatnot. I could never do it myself because I hate travel and I get really horrible home sickness. But, this is exactly why I read, to get all the experiences without all the hassle of actually experiencing them myself. I'm only half joking. It's so romantic and beautiful and cool as hell.

I was really concerned I wouldn't get the same sort of experience reading Anna And after Isla And but honestly, it still got me stressing out about whether St Clair and Anna were ever going to finally get together even though I knew they would. There were also certain things that I knew had to happen for it to end like it did in Isla And but I was still so concerned about it. It was weird also, to see Josh with Rashmi and to see Rashmi at all because after reading Isla And, I'd automatically painted her as some horrible person. I feel like I have a better understanding of Josh now.

While, in Isla And, the romance was quick this one took what seemed like eons to build up. Every time I thought we might be getting close to something, something else happened. It certainly kept me on my toes and I was constantly turning pages. There was enough happening that I was swooning at one page and then the next something was pulling at my heart again.

I love that Anna is nowhere near composed and perfect and she made quite a handful of mistakes. She stutters and stumbles over her words which is comforting to me because I have such an easy wit with my family and friends yet any time a boy I'm remotely interested in is near, I'm impossibly stumbling over my words.

I loved it, I loved it so much. I can't stop hugging the book to my chest, I've had to stop typing several times simply because I've overwhelmed by affection for it and therefore just want to hold it. I think I'm one of the only souls who have not been blessed by this book but if there are a few other lovely souls out there, waiting to be bless then please do get blessed. It feels so pure yet it isn't all that pure. I can't wait to read Lola And, I can only hope my heart can take it.

The Choice by Nicholas Sparks

3 Stars

“He often felt that too many people lived their lives acting and pretending, wearing masks and losing themselves in the process.”  

Look, if you've read one Nicholas Sparks book then you've essentially read them all. So, if this is true, you might ask, why do I keep reading them? I don't know, okay? I'm as confused as you are on that one, it's like I'm on auto pilot when I buy them and then I just wake up the next day and they're on my book shelf and I swear they're breeding.

You might think I'm having a dig at Nicholas Sparks, of course I'm not. It's all in good fun, I can assure you I would be in no place to take a dig at him. He 10 times more successful than I am and honestly, it is well deserved. He's got 18 novels and they're all international bestsellers and 11 of them have movie adaptations. He is doing great in the romance genre and I do tend to be more fond of reading his novels than I'd probably like to admit.

My point stands though, his characters and stories are very similar but since I am an absolute romantic I still read them. Kind of like John Green and I still love him. It doesn't make their talent as writers go down, it does kind of decrease the enjoyibility of the books but not always.

The Choice reminded me a lot of The Notebook, but kind of better. Essentially, the same sort of thing happens but not exactly. If you took the main points from The Notebook and applied them to The Choice, you'd find that they are very similar.

The romance between Travis and Gabby builds insanely fast and it is definitely whirlwind but, I guess this is the charm. The romance in Nicholas Sparks' novels is always fast and desperate but I think that reflects on him, he is clearly a hopeless romantic (obviously, he does write romance novels, thanks for that Brooklyn) and I think it's nice that he gives his characters that hopeless kind of love that is often debated as real or not.

This is probably one of my new favourite Nicholas Sparks novel behind A Walk to Remember and Safe Haven. There are also doggies featured in the book and doggies are probably the key to my heart. I'm not mad at this, I'm not completely and utterly in love but it was a good read.

THE LIEBSTER AWARD

THE RULES:

1. Thank the person who nominated you.
2. Answer the 11 questions they wrote for you.
3. Nominate 11 people.
4. Give them your set of 11 questions to answer.

Thank you to Belle from @mybookcastle for nominating me. I'm pretty exciting to be doing something I haven't really done on my blog yet. 

Belle's Questions

Any tropes that you love but others may find it cliché or annoying?

Definitely friends to lovers. I really love it. I don't know that that many people find it annoying but it definitely is the first to come to mind.

What is your current read and how much are you liking it?

I just started A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E Schwab. I'm only about 30 pages in so far but I'm actually really enjoying it already and I can tell I'll really like it. 

Name a fictional character that you relate to the most.

Hmm, I think we can all relate just a little bit to Cath from Fangirl. She's a bit dorky and a bit awkward. I'm a bit dorky and pretty awkward. She likes fictional worlds maybe a tad more than she should. I think she's fairly relatable. 

What is one essential when you’re reading?

I don't really have one but I usually like to be alone when I read. I don't really like reading with other people in the room. I struggle to lose myself otherwise. It's also preferable that I'm comfortable while I read, I usually like to wear my pyjamas.

Up till now, what is your most favourite book of 2017 and why?

I just finished Noteworthy and I am so in love. I read an e-arc of it and I'm already considering pre-ordering myself a copy. I'm in love with it. I can't really remember what else I've read this year but this is the freshest in my mind that I remember absolutely loving. It was just a really good book and everything I wanted. 

Which underrated book/series do you think more people should read?

This is a tough one. A lot of the books I really love are already very hyped. One I can think of that I think is probably a bit underrated is The Bees by Laline Paull. I thought it was a really intriguing read and I quite enjoyed it. It's a bit different and I struggled with it because it's just a tad more sophisticated than what I usually read but once I'd gotten into it, I found that I really liked it. 

What is one thing you wish to see more in books?

More diversity. Just in general, more of everything. I'd like to see more sexualities  and genders and disabilities and races. I think it's really important that everyone gets to read characters that reflect themselves. I also think it's important that people get to read all sorts of different characters.

What is a popular book/series that you’re dying to read?

I'm dying to read Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe. I've heard so many gorgeous things and as a contemporary nut, I'm ashamed of myself for having not read it. I'm definitely hoping to read it sometime in the immediate future.  

Do you have a fictional soul mate?

I've never really thought about it. I don't really think I do, there are so many characters I love but none that really come to mind. 

Book buying online or go to a bookstore?

Where I like there's only one proper bookstore and it's pretty expensive compared to places online also it has nowhere near the amount of selection. I already have about 70% of the young adult books they have and it really isn't that big of a young adult section either. In Australia we don't really have that many hardcovers either so that's a pretty big factor. I've gotten a pretty big chunk of my books online mostly because it's cheaper. 

If you could live in any country, where would you live?

I'd love to like in England. I'd die to go to Liverpool and Abbey Road. I'd also love to see Buckingham Palace. I think it would be a pretty interesting place to live and there are a lot of really awesome concert bands in England. 

I'm only going to nominate a few people because I really do not have 11 people to nominate.

Emily @Paperback Princess
Uma @Books.Bags.Burgers
Amy @A Magical World Of Words
Charlotte @Bookmarks and Blogging
My Questions
1. What 2017 release are you looking forward to most?
2. Where is your favourite place to read?
3. What is your favourite genre to read?
4. What is the most recent book you DNF-ed? And why?
5. If you could bring one character to life, which would it be?
6. Library or bookstores?
7. What is your favourite thing to snack on while you read?
8. Is there a book/series that everyone else loved but you didn't?
9. If you could live in any bookish world, which would it be?
10. Which characters would be in your bookish squad?
11. What is your next read?

I look forward to seeing your answers!

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli

5 Stars



I received a copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

This was absolutely a five star read. It was fantastic and I know as soon as I found out Becky Albertalli was writing another book I wanted it immediately. Simon Vs was the cutest read ever and now this is the cutest read ever.

There was a crazy amount of diversity and I love it. I love the way the author just slipped in diverse characters without even a second thought or anything because I think that's the ideal of how life should be. I think that's a really influential way of writing and I think a lot of people would do well to learn from it. The amount of diversity was incredible and made me smile.

I adore Molly and I think she is a ridiculously relatable character. I think it's lovely to have that and she wasn't the classic YA main character either. She was quirky and awkward and someone who I think I'd get on really well with. Immediately I felt like I could relate to her and I think I could list any number of people who could relate to Molly. She was my perfect main character.

The relationships in the books were a big focus and I think it was interesting. It focused on the different types of relationships and how other people cope with relationships. But, it did it in a super cute way. All sorts of relationships too, family, friendships, everything. I think it spoke about relationships in a very real sense and a way that is way more relatable than some.

This was such a sweet book. Literally the sweetest. It was like eating a whole bag of mini eggs in one sitting. Yes, that good. I'm so ridiculously happy that this didn't disappoint even though I was at least 99.9% sure it would be amazing. I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a diverse read or who just loves contemporaries. It was adorable. Actually, I'm going to say adorkable because I think that sums it up so much better. I'm in love with it.

Stargazing For Beginners by Jenny McLachlan

3 Stars

Thank you to Bloomsbury Aus for sending me a copy.

I really liked this. I thought it was super cute and a super quick and easy read. I was looking forward to this, the blurb was promising and the cover really caught my eye. It's fair to say, I was not disappointed.

Meg is a science nerd. She loves space and physics. I like space, hate physics. I'm a bit of a science nerd myself. I prefer biology and chemistry, though. Science has always been one of my favourites and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about someone who has such a passion for it. I just thought it was great and I even learnt a bit about it.

Meg's mum follows an oh-so important cause leaving Meg with baby sister Elsa. Elsa was adorable, by the way. This kind of reminded me of This Raging Light which follows a similar plot. We get to see Meg juggle the new responsibility of caring for Elsa and trying to keep on top of everything else too. Through this, we see Meg and Elsa form the sweetest bond and I was really pleased because I absolutely love a bit of sibling love.

I loved the biscuit club. It was gorgeous to watch these kids blossom and build a friendship. If I'm not mistaken, it seems as though it was inspired by The Breakfast Club which makes me very happy because I love 80's movies. I love those sorts of friendships and bonds. It was just really lovely and it also really made me crave biscuits.

My favourite thing about this book was definitely Annie. I was thrilled when she was first introduced. Annie has cerebral palsy, it affects her legs and she moves around on crutches or her wheelchair. The reason I was so excited to see this is because my cousin has cerebral palsy and much like Annie, it affects his legs. He's been on crutches his whole life but will eventually have to move to a chair. He's quite determined to stay on his crutches as long as possible though. I've never seen it represented before and I'm so happy. The only reason I'm so familiar with it is because of my cousin, he was about 16 when I was born and that's just all I've ever known. I once asked my mum when his leg would be okay because being a kid, I associated crutches with broken legs so I just assumed he had a really badly broken leg and she explained it to me. I told her about Annie and she was pretty pleased about it too. And, it's even nicer to see that Annie has a personality, she has an attitude, she's funny. Annie isn't her disability and I think some authors struggle to set their characters apart from that. I really appreciated Annie.

I really enjoyed it. It was a sweet little read and I had a lot of giggles while reading it. Cute, fun, what more could you want? It didn't have a lot of real substance if you get what I mean but it was really nice and lovely and enjoyable.

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

4 Stars

“No. I can survive well enough on my own— if given the proper reading material.”  

Okay, wow! I don't know what I was expecting here but it was freaking good. I was so hesitant to read it for so long because it was so hyped and I didn't want to be one of the only people not to like it but holy hell, I loved it. I'm going to order the rest of the books asap.

For the first thirty pages, I was completely lost. I had no idea what was happening, only that Celaena was a sassy bitch. I eventually got the jist of things though and as soon as I did, I was loving it. I also very much fell in love with Chaol but I may or may not fall in love with every fictional boy I come across. I'm undecided on if this is a problem or not.

I love Celaena, what a cool character! She is really cool and not at all what I expected her to be. I thought she'd be one of those really annoying characters who go on and on about whatever but I actually really liked Celaena. I was also surprised at what a lovely assassin she is, I thought she'd be a lot more difficult? Maybe. I'm struggling to explain what I expected but I'll presume someone will understand and move on.

I thought the plot was kind of like a mash up of Divergent and The Hunger Games but way more intense. It was really epic. And I really love the whole royal setting thing, I absolutely adore it. I thought the world was really, really cool and I can't wait to see more of it.

At first I was really team Chaol but now I'm kind of equally Dorian and Chaol. Well, maybe a little more Chaol but I do admire the easy banter between Dorian and Celaena. I really hope to see a bit more Chaol action in the rest of the series.

I've heard so much about this series, so much good and I can honestly confirm all that good stuff. It was fantastic and I really do recommend it. I am so excited to continue the series, I didn't know that I would but I am absolutely busting to start the next book already. I could talk forever about it, probably but as I don't want to spoil to much if you're one of the few people left who still hasn't read this book, I won't. I probably will have to avoid all the social media outlets until I finish all the books because spoilers galore.

The Inconceivable Life of Quinn by Marianna Baer

2 Stars

I received a copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Looking through the goodreads ratings I feel like I'm the only person who wasn't thrilled with this. Which is seriously disappointing, I was really excited for it. I love it when books have names in the title for some reason. I was also really interested by the concept of teen pregnancy.

Let me tell you a few things, teen pregnancy scares me a lot. I'm so scared of falling pregnant for a million and one reasons but mostly because I think your teen years is in most cases not the right time for anyone. But, I am really interested in what goes through a pregnant teens mind and how they feel and how everything effects them. I imagine it's incredible difficult but I feel like I didn't get a huge amount of that from Quinn. She didn't talk a lot about how the pregnancy felt and what was going through her head in regards to it.

The whole virgin pregnancy was also incredibly interesting to me for obvious reasons. But, I don't know if I like the way that played out. It was strange to me and the whole virgin Mary thing got out of hand unbelievably quickly and wasn't very believable.

I was very confused about the whole ocean thing and I just wasn't sure how to feel about that. It was definitely interesting but I'm just a bit confused about it. It almost seemed random. It definitely isn't where I expected that whole thing to go and I'm not sure if I'm confused because it was unexpected or because it was just confusing. I can't work out if it was offensive, either, I think it might be.

Also, the ocean thing threw me out. Because, I don't know what genre this falls under now and I don't really like that. From the start it was very much a contemporary and then it turned into a bit of a scifi and I don't like that. I don't like my genres mixing and this definitely happened.

I think the story revolved very much around trying to figure how the pregnancy happened which, I mean, obviously but that was almost all that happened and Quinn constantly kept going back to the ocean memory. To be fair, it was freaking dodgy and a huge part of the books but I don't know. I thought it was too much and too heavy on it. I would've liked some other stuff chucked in the mix.

I'm struggling to put together words about why I didn't like this book. It was just disappointing and I didn't get it. It wasn't what I expected and I'm kind of bummed about it. Something about it rubbed me the wrong way. I hope you have a much better experience with it should you decide to read it.

Prodigy by Marie Lu

4 stars

"He is beauty inside and out.
He is the silver lining in a world of darkness.
He is my light."

Bloody hell, this got me straight in those feels. My exacts thoughts as I read through the last twenty or so pages were no Day baby, I love you. Don't let this happen. I feel like that pretty well describes my relationship with the series so far. I loved this, a lot.

Firstly, you've probably gathered that I love Day. Just yesterday I wrote a review for Shadow and Bone where I claimed I really loved Mal but that's all gone out the window now as I've been reunited with my Day. He is probably my new favourite person ever, I wish he would come to life so I could shower him in love and kisses.

Anyway, I love all the fun action. There's all this kind of mystery throughout the book. No one really knew what was really going on but now we know and I'm super excited for the last book. It really kept me interested because there was always something I wanted to know more about.

I've always enjoyed the rebel sort of books but this is kind of like spin on those rebel books. I can't really think of a book I'd be able to accurately compare this to. I could have easily found some to compare Legend to but this one really took a spin. I'll enforce again that I am ridiculous amounts of excited to read Champion. I think Prodigy has really set up a good ground for Champion to stand on so I really look forward to seeing what Marie Lu has done with it to wrap up the trilogy.

I love this trilogy so far. I feel like I've really connected with June and Day (who I ship so much btw). Plus, I'm actually very excited for the next book which isn't always that common for me with a series. I'm super nervous for Day, please let him be okay! I feel very invested in Day at this point and I'm very much hoping for a happy ending for him and June.