May Wrap-Up

Hello, there! 

I thought I'd write a post telling you a little bit about what I've read during the month of May. I don't know if this'll be interesting to any reader I may have, but if it is and you wish to see these become a monthly thing, pray tell. Your feedback is ever welcome.

I'm fairly proud of myself for May: I managed to read a fair bit, and read quite a few good books.

1. The Raven Boys - Maggie Stiefvater

I read this on a plane back from London at the very beginning of the month and thoroughly enjoyed it. Ive already written a review of this book and rated it a 8.5/10.

2. Pushing The Limits - Kathy McGarry

This is the first book in a trilogy and I quite enjoyed it. It had an unusual story, and though the main part of the plot you could see coming from the beginning, the rest of the story was very unpredictable. I'll give it 8.5/10.

3. Dare You To - Kathy McGarry

This is the second book in the trilogy previously mentioned. Again, I quite enjoyed it. I liked it a bit better than the first book, though it was a much more predictable and typical story. I'll give it a 9/10.

4. A Midsummer's Nightmare - Kody Keplinger

I've read most of Kody Keplinger's books and though they can be very enjoyable reads they can be fairly annoying, for they are all very similar and are all set in the same town, which grows kind of old, seeing as the town is quite boring. Therefore, I'll give this book a 6.5/10.

5. Shiver - Maggie Stiefvater

I really liked this book. It was sweet and some of the characters were easy to get attached to. I'd rate this book 9/10.

6. Linger - Maggie Stiefvater 

I appreciated this book much less than its prequel. The story just wasn't as enjoyable as Shiver. That being said, it wasn't bad, so I'll give it 7.5/10.

7. Two-Way Street - Lauren Barnholdt 

Though this book wasn't a work of art, it wasn't horrible either. It was fairly average: the story wasn't anything special, neither were the characters. It wasn't really bad, though, so I'll give it 7/10.

8. The Selection - Kiera Cass

I liked this book much more than I expected to. The story was quite interesting and it had been a while since I'd read a dystopian-ish story. I liked Maxon a lot and appreciated America's POV. I'd give it a 9/10. I might be writing a review of this book later, if that's interesting to any of you guys. 

9. The Prince - Kiera Cass

This was a companion novella to The Selection. It was from Maxon's POV, which I really liked. I'd rate it 9/10.

10. Unspoken - Sarah Rees Brennan

I've been wanting to read this book for the longest time and am really glad I did. It was really good and I can't wait for Untold to come out in September. I'll rate it 9.5/10.

11. Let It Snow - Lauren Myracle, John Green and Maureen Johnson

This collab book was very sweet. It followed three different stories told during a really big snow storm. It was very well written, as is to be expected from these three authors. I'll rate it 8/10.

12. Perfect Chemistry - Simone Elkeles

Though this book was terribly cliché and predictable, it was a fun read. My only problem with it, is that, being half-Latino myself, the exaggeration of all the Spanish expressions used by the members of the Latino Blood was quite aggravating. Nobody talks like that, and it got quite annoying at times. That being said, 8.5/10 for this book.

13. Paper Towns - John Green

I wrote a full review for this book already, so just go check it out if you want a more detailed idea of my thoughts on this book. I really liked it and therefore rated it 10/10.

So that's it for the month of May. Please tell me if you'd like me to make monthly wrap-up posts.

Have a nice day,

Toodlepip,

x Clara

Paper Towns - John Green

It is a truth universally acknowledged that John Green is one of the best authors in the world. He has written some pretty marvelous pieces of litterature, amongst which stands one of my favourite books ever, The Fault in Our Stars, and Paper Towns was just further proof that he can write beautifully, thoughtfully and that he can create some breathtaking characters. Now, don't go believing that I prefer it to TFiOS, because TFiOS just can't be surpassed, but Paper Towns was a truly wonderful book and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone out there. It was a great, interesting read.
I'll give a short summary and then discuss some of the characters.
So, the book is told through Q's (Quentin Jacobsen) perspective. He likes his next door neighbour, Margo Roth Spiegelman, but they stopped being close after they found the body of a man who had killed himself in the park near their home. Q is the type of person who doesn't have too many friends but isn't lonely and is slightly geeky without being bullied about it: he's a very normal person. One night, Margo comes into his room and makes him play pranks on a bunch of people -if they can really be called pranks. The next day, she's gone. The rest of the book follows Q's search for Margo.
I really liked Q and the way he kind of overanalyzed everything and everyone around him. His interaction with this idea he has of Margo is truly charming and I liked getting to be in his head for the length of the book: his thought process is really different from mine, and he's really smart, so it's refreshing to read from his POV.
Then we have Margo, who only truly appears in the book for a short period of time: most of the book is spent simply following her trail and thus interacting with her, but she's not there in physical form, so to speak. We do get to know a lot about her, though. Margo is a really interesting character: she is unlike anyone I've ever known, and her interactions with all of the other characters are very peculiar, and fun to read about. I really liked the first part of the book, the night when she and Q just go around Orlando, all of the pranks. We kind of got an idea of what Margo is like, but it was really hard to form a coherent idea of her personnality. She is a very puzzling character in that sense, and I really appreciated reading about her and finding out things about her through the clues she left for Q.
Finally we have Ben and Radar, who are simply awesome. They're both so funny and John Green did perfectly with these two, because they added humor to the story, balancing with all of the slightly dramatic things that are going on around them. Once again, he proved that he has the best sense of humor and I found some of the things that Ben and Radar said, or even things that happened to them, or were a part of their storyline, their background, to be truly hilarious (like the whole black santa collection thing with Radar's parents).
Overall, I really loved this book, the storyline, the progression. It was a very fun, interesting and unusual book, and I greatly appreciated reading it. I'd rate it a 10/10 and would recommend to everyone, but mostly to people who read and loved TFiOS.
That's it for today,
Toodlepip,
x Clara

The Raven Boys - Maggie Stiefvater

Hullo! I recently finished reading The Raven Boys, by Maggie Stiefvater, which was excellent.
You may have heard of it before, but it's a fairly recent book, so it's not too famous yet, though I have no doubt it will be in the next few months.
Now, I know that normally I give you a plot summary for the book and then review it, but this time around I can't seem to be able to write one that's coherent without being spoilery. So, I guess you'll just have to trust me when I tell you the story's great. Oh, and don't chose whether or not you want to read it based on what it says on the back, because I don't find it does the story justice. Anyway, hope you read The Raven Boys even without a plot summary, 'cause it's worth it.
Onto the review: the book was really good, as you'll have understood from what I've been saying. I absolutely loved the characters, mostly Ronan and Noah (and Adam, but now I'm confused as to what to think about him). They were very well written and seeing their different POV's and ways of dealing with people was quite entertaining. Parts of the book were really funny and others just made you want to cry, and I loved that. Not that I love crying, but I like it when a book makes you feel a whole bunch of different emotions and isn't just one thing the whole way through. I really liked the way the story developped, it was extremely interesting and surprising (for once, I didn't expect at all what was going to happen). I'd never read anything by Maggie Stiefvater, but now I'm thinking I might give the Shiver series a try. The only about Raven Boys that I didn't like was Whelk. And that's purely because he was a despicable character and I don't like despicable characters. Apart from that, he was well written, it's just that I wanted to punch him in the gut throughout the entire book.
So, overall, I'd give this book an 8.5/10. It was really good and I would greatly recommend you pick it up and read it, because it's totally worth it.
I'll see you sometime soon with a new review,
Toodlepip,
x Clara

Massive Book Haul!

Hey guys!

Today's post, as you'll have guessed by the title, isn't a book review, but a book haul. Before I get any comments on the amount of books that we're purchased here, I'd like to say that these were bought over the course of a few months (from January to May, so 5 months) and that buying this amount of books is not a habit of mine.   

Anyway, onto the new books! :) I'll put these in order of purchase.

1. Daughter of Smoke & Bone - Laini Taylor (iBooks)
I watch Christine's (polandbananaBOOKS on YouTube) videos and for a while now she's been singing the praises of this book, so I thought I'd check it out. I haven't read it yet, but defo look forward to doing so.
2. Me & Earl & The Dying Girl - Jesse Andrews (iBooks)
Another book that was purchased after hearing a booktuber say great things about it (in this case, Raeleen, aka padfootandprongs07 on YouTube) and so I thought I'd give it a try. Haven't read it either.
3. Lola and the Boy Next Door - Stephanie Perkins (iBooks)
I bought this after reading Anna, have read it and absolutely loved it. I did a review on it, you can go check it out if you want.
4. The Summer I Turned Pretty - Jenny Han (iBooks)
I found this one while browsing on iBooks and quite enjoyed it. It wasn't the best book ever, but it was a fairly agreable read. If you want me to write a review on it, feel free to ask.
5. Clockwork Princess - Cassandra Clare (iBooks and Amazon)
I'd been waiting for this gem to come out for a few months now and I certainly wasn't disappointed. Definitely one of the best books I've ever read. I'll be writing a review on this one quite soon, hopefully. (Also, I bought it in eBook and physical format because it was that great)
6. The Fault in Our Stars - John Green (Amazon)
I borrowed this book sometime last year and loved it so much that I decided to buy so I could have my own copy. If you want a review, I'd be glad to write one.
7. Looking for Alaska - John Green (Amazon)
Well, John Green purchases are self-explanatory, I believe. I mean, come on! The man's genius! 'Nuff said.
8. Just One Day - Gayle Forman (Barnes & Noble)
I was in Barnes & Noble about a month ago and saw this book. I'd heard nothing of it, but it looked pretty good. We'll see how that turns out.
9. Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson (Barnes & Noble)
I'd heard some quite good things about this book on the Internet, so I decided to give it a try.
10. The Messenger - Marcus Zusak (Barnes & Noble)
The Book Thief was amazing, so I thought I'd pick Zusak's newest novel (at least I think it's his newest).
11. Warm Bodies - Isaac Marion (Barnes & Noble)
I've been dying to read this book. The movie was great (I wanted to wait to read the book before I saw it, but alas, it wasn't possible, so I'll be reading it as soon as I can).
12. The Name of the Star - Maureen Johnson (Barnes & Noble)
I've been a pretty hardcore Cassandra Clare fan for a while now, and Maureen constantly appears on her tumblr and she seems to be very good friends with her, so I thought I'd pick up one of her books and this one seemed particularly interesting.
13. Paper Towns - John Green (Barnes & Noble)
I'm currently reading this one and absolutely loving it, but that's not a surprise since it's John Green.
14. Go Ask Alice - Anonymous (Barnes & Noble)
I've heard some pretty great things about this book. I'm halfway through it, and I quite like it. Though I don't think 'like' is the right verb. Anyhow, the book's good.
15. Crash and Burn - Michael Hassan (Barnes & Noble)
Another Raeleen recommendation, we'll see how it turns out. It sounds pretty good.
16. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs (Barnes & Noble)
This book had gotten some extremely varied reviews from all over the internet: some, like Jesse (aka jessethereader) can't stop saying wonderful things about it and others, like some girl I can't remember from Goodreads, said it was one of the worst books they've ever read. I thought I'd give it a try anyway, so we'll see how it turns out.
17. Changeling - Philippa Gregory (Sent to me)
I won this book in a contest on a bookworm blog like mine, so I really don't know anything about it. I thought I'd include it in the haul anyway.
18. The Perils of Certain English Prisoners - Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins (Waterstone's)
I'm a pretty big Dickens fan and when I saw this book at Waterstone's I thought I might see what it was about. I'd never heard of it, so I'll see how it turns out.
19. The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern (Waterstone's)
Another recommendation from Raeleen I thought I'd give a try. It seems really good and I really liked the cover.
20. The Raven Boys - Maggie Stiefvater (Hatchards)
I read this one on the plane and it was one of the best books I've read in a while. I'll be putting up a review fairly soon, because, guys, it was truly amazing.
21. Love and Friendship - Jane Austen (Hatchards)
I'm a pretty big Jane Austen fan so it was only natural that I bought this one when I saw a Jane Austen book I'd never heard of. It's one of her really early novels (she wrote it when she was fourteen!) and, plus, it was only 6 pounds.
These last two aren't normal books but I thought I'd include them anyway: Wreck This Journal, which I got from Urban Outfitters, and Finish This Book, which I got from the Tate Modern, are both by Keri Smith. They've gotten pretty popular in the past few months. If you haven't heard of them, they're a kind of interactive books, where you're told to either do something to the journal or write about something in the book. They're quite fun to complete.

So that's it: my huuuuuge book haul's done. Hope you enjoyed it. I'll be back with a review sometime soon. :)
Toodlepip,
x Clara

Sorry! :/

I don't really know if anyone reads this blog, but if anyone does, I truly apologize for the lack of posting that happens on here. I've been in a serious exam phase, but that's not an excuse for three months without a post. I will be trying to post a few things over the next few weeks. I can't promise anything, but I'll try my best. Until then,
Toodlepip,
x Clara

The Host - Stephenie Meyer

So, I recently finished reading The Host (I know, everyone and their mother has already read it, but, what can I say, better late than never) and must say, I was agreeably surprised. I expected to dislike it because I hated Twilight so much, but I actually ended up kind of loving it... :s It was a Stephenie Meyer book, so the writing wasn't perfect, but, contrarily to Twilight, it actually had a creative and interesting plot. The characters didn't make you want to gauge your eyes out and it wasn't horribly stereotypical. So, altogether, very different from Twilight in an extremely pleasant way.
So, I'll start by talking about the main characters: Wanda and Melanie. One of the very nice things about this book was that both of these characters were extremely strong and independent, though both in very different ways. I was scared we might get a Bella scenario all over again, but both characters were polar opposites to our Twilight protagonist. It was very interesting to read from Wanda's POV, because since she was an alien, her thought process and reactions to different events were very peculiar and surprising. The way she processed everyone around her and how they treated her was quite nice to read. Melanie was also interesting, though sometimes her extreme impulses and reactions to Jared and Ian could become aggravating. Now, onto he boys. Jared was annoying at times, but the bond between him and Melanie was quite touching and sweet. I personally preferred Ian, who was the sweetest boy (or man, I guess) you could ever encounter. I want an Ian in my life. He and Wanda were the most beautiful thing ever and those last few chapters made me squeal in the best way possible. I wish we could've seen more of them together, but then again I always wish that at the end of a book with a cute love story. I really appreciated the fact that the book didn't turn around these love stories like Twilight did. Though they were an important part of the story, they weren't the focal point.
The plot was quite interesting. I'll try to tell you a bit about it without being too spoilery. I'll tell you a bit of context so you're not completely lost if you haven't read the book. The story is set in what seems to be a not-too-distant future. In this future, aliens called Souls have invaded our planet and many others by using our bodies as 'hosts'. They do so by inserting themselves into our bodies and claiming them for their own. Usually, when this happens, the host disappears, leaving only his last memory behind. So, Melanie is a human that's been on the run since the souls invaded Earth. She gets caught and Wanderer (Wanda), a soul, is inserted in her body, but instead of disappearing, Mel stays inside Wanda's head, talks to her, and, eventually, leads her back to her human life, her friends and family. There, the two are confronted to a group of humans who don't know how to react to their former friend who has been taken by the souls. It's all quite complicated, but it makes for a beautiful story.
I, personally, really enjoyed this book and would recommend to any teenager and possibly some adults. All Twilight fans will love it, but some who, like me, didn't like Bella and her surroundings, may very well enjoy it as much as I did.
I truly can't wait for the movie to come out (March 29th, people!). When I saw the trailer at the movie theatre for the first time, I had a serious fangirl moment. Anyway. This book deserves to be read, and if you haven't read it yet, go! What are you waiting for? So, I'll give The Host 9.5/10.
Toodlepip,
x Clara

Lola and the Boy Next Door - Stephanie Perkins

I just finished writing my book review about Anna and the French Kiss and just had to come and write a review for its sequel: Lola and the Boy Next Door. If you haven't read the review for Anna, I'll tell you this: I loved it. Because of that, I had high hopes for Lola. Although I did really love this book, I loved it in a very different way than Anna.
I was really happy we got to see a little bit of Anna and Étienne's relationship, because that was something I would've been sad to say goodbye to only after one book. I really liked most of the characters, though Max infuriated me in a way that people who try to screw up my otp always do. I really appreciated the fact that Lola has two gay dads, but this isn't the centre of the book, it's merely a detail and is regarded as perfectly normal, which is nice. I like the little details Cricket and Lola notice about each other; they're really cute.
Now, onto the characters. Lola is a really fun character and I really liked the fact that she went to her school dance dressed as Marie Antoinette. I wish I had the guts to do that, because it would be totally awesome. I liked the relationship she had with her dads and with Norah. And I loved her relationship with Cricket. Speaking of which, Cricket Bell is the perfect man. There were scenes where that boy broke my heart. He's just the nicest, sweetest guy ever. I wish I had some Cricket Bells in my life. And though she was kind of bitchy, I appreciated Calliope more than I thought I would. As said before, Max infuriated me, but that's mainly due to the fact that throughout the entire book he was trying to screw my otp up. There were moments when I thought that he might actually succeed. Then I remembered that this is an american novel and that, luckily, I knew this wouldn't happen.
So the story is about Lola, this eccentric girl that lives in San Francisco and, as said in the book, believes in costume. She dresses up every day and doesn't wear the same outfit twice. When her next door neighbours move back after a few years of being away, she faces her life-long crush, Cricket Bell, again.
I loved this book. It was really well-written, just like Anna was. Stephanie Perkins is truly a talented author. I loved the characters most of all, and their interactions. It was different from Anna, though I think you could probably compare it to Anna from St-Clair's point of view. It was really good, and I would recommend it to all who love a good romance novel.
It gets a 9.5/10 from me. Hope you read and enjoy it, like I did!
Toodlepip,
x Clara

Anna and the French Kiss - Stephanie Perkins

So. Everyone and their mother has read this book, and, let me tell you, it totally deserves the fame. I know the title and cover are really bad, and if I hadn't heard so many wonderful things about it, they would normally have made me put this book back on the shelf never to be touched again. But, that being said, I am so glad I didn't and ended up reading it because this book was absolutely amazing.
Now I know this is a really romance-centered book and if you don't appreciate this type of book, you may not enjoy Anna as much as I did, but it seriously is a wonderful book. Stephanie Perkins has promise and talent and she wrote this book beautifully.
So, let's get started with the characters. Anna is a character I really appreciated, which I find is becoming way too rare in Young Adult books; female protagonists nowadays have a tendency to be really whiny and annoying and dependent on everyone around them. Yes, Anna struggles with being alone throughout the book, but she does so in a way that doesn't make me cringe and want to throw a book at her face. I really like her point of view and the way she describes St-Clair is just adorable and sweet, though she really doesn't take a single one of his hints throughout the entire book, which kind of annoyed me at times. Which brings me on to main character number 2: Étienne St-Clair. I'm totally in love with St-Clair and he just makes me wish I had cute, funny, smart, British boys that are into history and love Napoléon Bonaparte. Alas, life was not so kind as to give me said male. So for the moment, I'll settle for fictional characters. They're the next best thing and I guess they're good enough.
Now, if you haven't read the book, I'm assuming you've understood by now that Anna and the French Kiss is a romance novel. I think the title gave that away. So the story revolves around Anna, an American girl whose dad sends her to boarding school in Paris for her senior year of high school. She meets a handful of interesting people that she grows to love.
Having lived in Paris myself and missing it horribly on a daily basis, I really appreciated getting Anna's description of places I know and love and her appreciation of them. It made me want to go back even more than I already did.
I loved, loved, loved Anna, and would recommend to any teenage girl and everyone else who may like a good romance novel. If you haven't read it, definitely go and pick it up, you won't regret it.
This book gets a 10/10 from me, and I hope it will or did for you too.
Toodlepip,
x Clara