Sunday Post #2

The Sunday Post is a weekly feature hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer. This is where bloggers share what went on this week and what's coming up on their respective blog. You also can share what books you've acquired this week and a round up of book news. Basically it's just a time to share what you want to share with other bloggers!

Reviews on my blog this week: 

Ten Things Sloane Hates About Tru 

A Court of Thorns and Roses

Blog tours: 

The Finn Factor

All I've Never Wanted

Features: 

Top Ten Tuesday

Waiting On Wednesday

Football Book Tag

Feature and Follow Friday

Changes coming to blog: 

I'm transitioning from Blogger to Wordpress right now. For the most part, I'm mostly all set up for officially launching my site. I already figured out how to refer anyone who goes to this site to my new one. So I hope to officially make this change sometime this week after I work out some technical issues.

Reviews coming up this week: 

Romancing the Dark in the City of Light

Future Perfect

My Secret to Tell 

And a few more depending on what books I finish and review this week! 

There will also be the regular weekly features of Top Ten Tuesday, Waiting On Wednesday, and Feature and Follow Friday.

New books: 

I haven't bought any books yet, but I did pick up a solid collection of books at the library this week. A lot of these books are super old, but I just haven't gotten around to them yet so I'm excited to read them! I already devoured A Court of Thorns and Roses though. 

    

   

Did you guys like any of these books? Let me know! 

This week was banned books week and a lot of bloggers/websites had interesting things to say about it. 

Electric Literature talked about the importance of provocative YA books. I loved absolutely everything that the author of this piece had to say. 

Such A Novel Idea shared their favorite banned books. I know I already highlighted a post from them at the start of banned books week, but this was just too good to pass up on. 

Some non-related blog posts that I enjoyed: 

Mikayla posted about e-readers and why they aren't so bad. 

Book Rock Betty wrote a seriously rad post about trusting friends with book recs. 

Alexia from Adventures in Reading shared her favorite diverse reads on Read Sleep Repeat.

I loved what Lili's Reflections wrote about blogging hiatuses. 

Well, that's about it for this week. I'm still in shock that it's already October. I hope you come back to my blog sometime this week. Thank you for reading my post!

A Court Of Thorns and Roses Review

 

A Court of Thorns and Roses

Sarah J. Maas

Bloomsbury Children's 

May 2015

"Pity those who don't feel anything at all." 

"Don't feel bad for one moment about doing what brings you joy." 

"We need hope, or else we cannot endure." 

“I was as unburdened as a piece of dandelion fluff, and he was the wind that stirred me about the world.” 

Goodreads description: 

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it... or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

Perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore and George R. R. Martin, this first book in a sexy and action-packed new series is impossible to put down!

Confession: I feel like I'm one of the few people who has never read a Sarah J. Maas novel until I finally got around to picking up this one. I will start by saying that she definitely lived up to the hype. Her writing is absolutely gorgeous and I found myself enchanted by her fabulous storytelling. I said this in my review of Red Queen and I'll say it again: there can never be too many strong heroines in YA/NA books. Bottom line is that I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to read a magical story that has complicated and fascinating characters. Give this one a try, I'm sure you'll love it. 

Feyre is a fierce protagonist to say the very least. Like Katniss, she provides for her family that lives in poverty by hunting. The main reason why I loved her so much was because she possessed all of the qualities that I believe a female protagonist should have. Those qualities include: selfishness, bravery, cleverness, loving, feisty, and resourceful. Tamlin was a complicated but still a mostly likable love interest. Since this is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Tamlin is obviously the Beast of the story. He certainly shows some of those Beast qualities at points in the story, but he gradually becomes more vulnerable and caring around our girl Feyre. I also found myself really liking Tamlin's friend Lucien, who didn't like Feyre at first but slowly warmed to her and formed a friendship with her. I didn't like Rhysand. Sorry to all those who do like him, but I'm just not a fan of the bad boy. 

As you'll see in pretty much any review of the book that you read, the romance in this book is extremely steamy. I think that the pace of the building relationship between the two went at a realistic speed that I truly enjoyed. However, I think it still was a little bit unrealistic how quickly the relationship turned into love. Lust I could see, but it being love in such a short amount of time seemed a bit far fetched to me. Regardless, I still found it to be completely swoon worthy. It's actually rather graphic at times, which is why I consider it to be more New Adult than Young Adult. 

If I liked this book so much than why am I rating it a four instead of a five? I'm so glad that you asked! I'm rating it this because I found the character of Rhysand to be off-putting. In the majority of scenes that he's in, he just acts so repulsively and I especially didn't like how he treated Feyre like a slave. She makes a deal with him that she'll go with him for a whole week every month for the rest of her life. After making that deal, he feels as if he has huge control of her and he drags her around to parties as if she was a play thing. Worst of all was when he would make her drink the wine at the parties, which made her unaware of what was happening around her for the rest of the evening. Basically it's the equivalent to giving her date rape drugs. He justifies this by telling her that he could have easily raped her, but didn't. And she's supposed to be grateful for that? Maybe you just shouldn't have done it in the first place, Rhys. Anyway, a lot of people are anticipating this becoming a real love triangle in the second book with Rhys being the other love interest obviously. Already, people are talking about how they are Team Rhysand, which I absolutely can't understand. While I respect everyone is entitled to an opinion, it's just mind blowing that people would let his behavior go like that.

Fantasy has never been my type of genre. I naturally gravitate more towards contemporary, especially in the YA/NA category. I was definitely surprised that I enjoyed this story so much since it was heavy with fantasy and fairy themes. I think it's a true testament to Sarah J. Maas's writing. She created such gorgeous and vivid imagery that made me feel like I was standing right there in the middle of this world. It was never a slow paced book in the slightest, twist after twist kept going down that certainly kept your interest. While Rhysand does rub me the wrong way, he doesn't completely discourage me from really really liking this novel. I wanted to give it five stars, but I felt like my pretty negative feelings about that character made it more of a four star read. You should get a copy of this ASAP and form your own opinion about it then talk to me about what you think! 

Feature and Follow Friday #5

 

This is a weekly feature hosted by Alison Can Read and Parajunkee. The hosts also have a featured blog each week. The featured blog this week is Rabbit Ears Book Blog.

The question this week is: Pick three book characters: Kiss? Marry? Kill? 

I'm going to get specific here and pick the three main boys from the Anna and the French Kiss series

 

 

St. Clair from Anna and the French Kiss

Cricket from Lola and the Boy Next Door

Josh from Isla and the Happily Ever After

Kiss: Josh

Marry: Cricket

Kill: St. Clair

While I love them all, there's no way I could ever kill Josh. I love the whole quiet and angsty artist thing he has going on. Cricket would be the ideal husband in my personal opinion. So therefore, that leaves St. Clair to kill. I love him as well, but I feel like the others are way more my type. 

As usual, feel free to follow me on Bloglovin if you don't already.

Blog Tour: All I've Never Wanted Review

About the Book

Title: All I’ve Never Wanted

Author: Ana Huang

Genre: YA 

The Scions were the four richest, most powerful guys at Valesca Academy, and they ruled the school with iron fists. Everyone wanted to date them or be them...everyone, that is, except Maya Lindberg, who just wanted to avoid them until she could graduate.

She almost succeeded, until an ill-advised outburst on her part put her right in the Scions' path. Just like that, one became her fake boyfriend, one her unwanted matchmaker, one her guardian angel, and the one she couldn't stand the most? Yeah, he's her new housemate. 

I'm honestly shocked that I'd never heard of Ana Huang before! I'm a pretty huge fan of Wattpad, I've discovered a ton of incredible stories through using it. Anyway, I was impressed by Ana Huang's writing. She did a beautiful job at capturing all of these layered characters. Some of the drama was a little overwhelming at times, but I always felt connected to the story itself and each character within it. Needless to say, I'm definitely prepared for the next novel that Ana Huang writes. 

Maya was a fabulous and sassy main character. I loved that she couldn't care less about how much money these kids have, if they act like jerks then she's going to call them out on it. I know that the lower class female character meets and saves the snotty rich boy is a common cliche in various YA novels. However, I felt like this book had so much complicated subplots going on, that it wasn't so cliche. I did think that Roman, the ridiculously rich guy that Maya tells off the first time that she meets, was an absolute jerk that I personally wouldn't tolerate. But I also feel like his reluctance to truly change into a nicer human being in this book would be completely unrealistic. Someone that spoiled isn't going to change overnight, and I like how Huang emphasizes this several times within the book. 

As I said earlier, there are tons and tons of characters in All I've Never Wanted. I've already talked about the two main characters Roman and Maya, but there's also Carlo, Parker, Zack, Venice, and Adriana. The first three are members of the Scions alongside Roman. Adriana is Zack's gorgeous twin sister who instantly takes a liking to Maya and believes that she'll be perfect for Roman. Venice is Maya's hyper close friend, who is a total fangirl of the Scions. There's also a brother, (Carlo's brother Rico) many different parents, and Maya's hilarious grandma. If I had to pick a favorite out of the group of supporting characters, I'd likely choose Carlo. He's a great friend to Maya and he also probably has the best head on his shoulders out of all the guys. To me anyway, he seemed to be the most grounded and down to earth one. I also really loved Adriana and felt like she had such an endearingly strong personality. I enjoyed the scenes where she was playing matchmaker with Maya and Roman and actually ended up roping her brother into it with her. 

Since there's so many key characters, you can probably guess that there would also be a lot of romances going on as well. The couples are: Roman and Maya, Adriana and Parker, and Venice and Zack. Carlo also has a girl but she's not apart of the group so we don't get to see her much. While I did like Roman and Maya together, they weren't my favorite since it took them so long to actually get together. I hated all the drama that seemed to stop them every time you thought they were going to act on their so very obvious feelings. Therefore, my favorite was Adriana and Parker because they got together pretty early on in the book. I thought it was adorable how long Parker had feelings for her and she also liked him. Although that initial conversation when they first get together is all we really see of the relationship, I still enjoyed it since they stayed together the rest of the book with no drama. 

I recommend this book if you're looking for something that's well written and filled with a great ensemble cast. There's so much to enjoy about this book, so I'm just going to urge you to read it and see for yourself what all my fuss was about. While I wish some of the drama could have just been left out, that didn't make me completely dislike the book, I was still really interested in it from start to finish. I'm beyond glad that I chose to read this one!

Author Bio

Ana Huang, better known as ACRL37 on Wattpad, primarily writes Young Adult and Romance. She started writing her first novel, All I've Never Wanted, when she was sixteen; it was originally inspired by the Asian manga Hana Yori Dango. Her second novel, If We Ever Meet Again, was loosely based on her own study abroad experiences in college. Her stories currently have a combined view of over 20 million on Wattpad. Besides reading and writing, she also enjoys shopping, brunch, and traveling.

Links

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/All-Ive-Never-Wanted-Huang-ebook/dp/B00WY2WU50 

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/all-ive-never-wanted-ana-huang/1122059657

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/all-ive-never-wanted/id1001710587

Wattpad: http://wattpad.com/acrl37

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ana_huang37

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25464015-all-i-ve-never-wanted

Football Book Tag

 All credits go to Lauren at Bookmark Lit for creating this clever and unique tag! These two comments below are courtesy of Lauren as she informs us the general overview and rules of the tag.

 WARNING: This tag is not for the casual football fan! Only die-hards will probably have strong enough feelings about each team to participate.

THE RULES:  Sort the 32 football teams into the categories listed below based on the feelings that the teams give you. Each category has a certain number of slots available for teams. Pair a book with each team based on which book relates closest to the matching bookish category. Don’t use any team more than once!!

PICK ONE TEAM & BOOK

• THIS IS MY TEAM. I love them more than anything and don’t care if the obsession is unhealthy. | Favorite book of all time

 The Texans are my favorite team, mostly because of my love for J.J. Watt. I watched Hard Knocks with the Texans over the summer and fell in love with the whole team as well. They haven't been having the best season so far and they haven't had a winning season for a quite awhile now, but I'm still seriously cheering for them. My favorite book of all time is definitely Jellicoe Road. It's just so beautifully written and has such unique characters that will always stick with me.

• I hate this team with every fiber of my being. When they lose, I feel like I’ve won. |Book with a low rating and/or enraged you while reading

 



I'm with Lauren, I absolutely can't stand the Patriots. My problem mostly comes from how they always win. Plus Tom Brady just comes off as a jerk to me. I also think Patriots fans are beyond obnoxious. Sorry, if any of you are fans of them! I do know a fan of them who isn't obnoxious at all, but a lot of them are and that makes me resent the team as a whole. Ugly Love was a book that I gave a one star rating. The whole romance and love triangle (that wasn't REALLY a love triangle) just made me so angry.

• A lot of people I know love this team, but I’m not one of them. | Hyped book that didn’t work for you

Where I live, there's tons of Bengals fans. I liked the first book in the Selection series, but I couldn't stand this one. 

• I don’t personally know a single person who roots for this team. (Do they have fans??) | Underrated book you loved

 






It could be because they haven't been very good for several years now, but I don't know any fans of them. Audrey, Wait! was a book that I loved and believe is completely underrated. 

• I HATE how good this team is and I really need them to suck a bit more. |Book that pleasantly surprised you

 
 

Okay so the Broncos have yet to win a Super Bowl since Manning joined their team. However, every season they've been totally dominate during the regular season. They always have a winning record and I have a ton of respect for them, but they are just so good. Plus their division isn't really that tough and so they always crush it. What We Saw was a book I didn't expect to love as much as I did. 

• I’d give anything for one of this team’s players to join my team. | Favorite supporting characters or friend group in a book

 
 

How freaking unstoppable would the Texans be if they had a guy like Odell Beckham Jr. on their team? I'm with Lauren on her book answer for this one, I can't think of any books that have a better cast of characters than My Life Next Door

• If I had to get rid of my team’s quarterback, I’d take the quarterback from this team in his place. | Favorite main character

 
 


I LOVE Russell Wilson. He just seems like such a sweet guy. I also think his rise into the NFL and becoming the Seahawks starting QB was incredibly impressive. I love Emily from Since You've Been Gone, she's one of the few characters that I totally related to.

• This team has one of the HOTTEST players in the NFL. *fans self* | Book boyfriend 

 







 


Cam Newton is easily the sexiest player in the NFL. I just love Perry from Under The Never Sky. 



DIVISION RIVAL TEAMS & BOOKS

• These three teams are my division rivals. | Sports-related books you’ve read

 
 
 

 

PICK MULTIPLE TEAMS & BOOKS
*If you have a lot of teams under the more negative categories, you don’t have to feature a large amount of books… just in case you don’t want to spread the negative around too much

• If I was forced to choose teams to root for instead of my own, it would probably be one of these. | Books containing ships you will go down with

 
 
 
 

My whole family are fans of the Steelers and some of my family actually lives there. Personally, I've never been a huge fan of them, but I will cheer for them just to bond with them. I like the Eagles partly because of Silver Linings Playbook. I have mixed feelings for the Cowboys, but I still respect them, I'm just not a huge fan. I love Lucas and Jacqueline from Easy, they are such a power couple. As is Cam and Avery from the amazing Wait For You series.

• Because of that ONE terrible game I’ll never forget, these teams are stuck in my head forever. *shakes fist* | Books with endings you didn’t see coming

 
 

Texans have only made it to the playoffs twice, in back to back years in 2011 and 2012. Both times, they defeated the Bengals in the wildcard game, only to get beaten in the second game. In the first year, it was the Raven who beat them, and it was actually a pretty close game. We Were Liars is the only choice for me. 

• If I had to choose a team based on their colors, logo, or uniform, I’d choose these beauties. | Covers you love

 
 

How can I not love Dolphins? I also love the color. I picked New Orleans because I really love the design. As you can tell based on the book covers, I love pink and anything with bright colors. I think both of these are just so adorable and they managed to get my attention right away.

• I generally like these teams and will root for them (unless they’re playing mine, of course). | Books you’d recommend

 
 
 

I used to cheer for the Bears because I liked some of the players, but they are no longer there. Still though, they have yet to give me any reason to dislike them so I still wish them the best. I like the Rams because a few of their players were huge stars on my favorite college's football team. I recommend these two books because I believe they both have seriously important things to say about mental illness.

• I generally dislike these teams and am pretty happy when they lose. | Books you weren’t a fan of or were disappointed by 

 

 
 
 

Most of these teams I dislike due to a combination of my parents not liking them or because I didn't like their attitude towards my team. There was so much attitude radiating from the 49ers when they played the Texans this year during a preseason game. I expected to like both The Truth About Us and The One Thing more than I did because the plots seemed to sound like something I'd absolutely love. 

• I don’t care either way about these teams. *yawn* | Books that were middle-of-the-road MEH for you

 
















I just don't have any thoughts or feelings about these teams really. I was expecting to love Open Road Summer and The Summer I Turned Pretty series a lot better than I actually did.


Well, that's it for the list! Thank you again Lauren for taking the time to carefully and thoughtfully construct this tag. I loved it and felt like it was so much fun! I tag any die hard football fans who also feel like this would be fun for them.