Wordless Wednesday

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HAPPY READING EVERYONE! :)

"City of Ashes" - Book Review

Synopsis:

Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what's normal when you're a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires, and faeries? If Clary left the world of the Shadowhunters behind, it would mean more time with her best friend, Simon, who's becoming more than a friend. But the Shadowhunting world isn't ready to let her go — especially her handsome, infuriating, newfound brother, Jace. And Clary's only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insane, certainly evil — and also her father.

To complicate matters, someone in New York City is murdering Downworlder children. Is Valentine behind the killings — and if he is, what is he trying to do? When the second of the Mortal Instruments, the Soul-Sword, is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor arrives to investigate and zooms right in on Jace. How can Clary stop Valentine if Jace is willing to betray everything he believes in to help their father?

In this breathtaking sequel to City of Bones, Cassandra Clare lures her readers back into the dark grip of New York City's Downworld, where love is never safe and power becomes the deadliest temptation.

My Review:

Engrossing. I am seriously hooked on the Mortal Instruments series. Cassandra Clare's City of Ashes is a masterpiece, I'm in love with her writing style. The sequel to the Mortal Instruments series was no disappointment. I enjoyed reading more of Clary and the gang's story unfolding, and about Valentine's impending uprising. 

After the first book I was pretty shell-shocked from a major plot-twist (though between you and me, I don't believe it at all) but City of Ashes helped me get over that drastic turn of events (well, sort of). This is one of those book series that gets you wanting more and the books don't get worse as you continue on through the series, actually it's just the opposite. The Mortal Instruments series has easily become one of my favorite book series.

City of Ashes was packed with action from cover-to-cover and filled with a hefty dose of suspenseful drama, just the way I like it. Jace is as charming as ever; his sarcastic mouth is something you could never get bored of. This book was filled with a couple of plot-twists that made me put the book down in shock, it's that good. After being left with a huge cliffhanger I'm excited to see what Clare has in store in City of Glass. If you  haven't started reading the Mortal Instruments series, what are you waiting for?

HAPPY READING EVERYONE! :)

"City of Bones" - Book Review

Synopsis:

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder -- much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing -- not even a smear of blood -- to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know. . . . 

Exotic and gritty, exhilarating and utterly gripping, Cassandra Clare's ferociously entertaining fantasy takes readers on a wild ride that they will never want to end.

My Review:

Awesome! City of Bones is a great start to the Mortal Instruments series. It's jam-packed with action, demon-fighting, sarcasm, romance, suspense, drama, and everything else you could want in a paranormal  YA book. Cassandra Clare has a unique writing style that's very different from other young adult writers, but different in a good way. Eloquent is the word that comes to mind when I think of her writing style. Clare's writing is so vivid and descriptive I didn't get lost once during any of the fight scenes. Some of the fight scenes I've read in other books had me lost in the middle of it because of the authors' writing styles. Cassandra, however, managed to write out the fight scenes perfectly.

I liked Jace right from the get-go. He's a smart-mouth and has endearing qualities I won't mention to prevent spoilers. You know how sometimes you read a novel and you really like a character? Maybe you and that character wouldn't get along very well in real life because your personalities would clash but you still enjoy reading scenes they're in. I smiled whenever Jace made an entrance because regardless of what was going on you could always rely on his smart-mouth to lighten up a situation a bit. He actually really reminded me of the character Loki from Amanda Hocking's Trylle trilogy.
At the beginning of the book I already knew what team I was rooting for in the little love triangle going on in City of Bones. However, as the plot progressed...things happened. I won't tell you what things happened, if you want to know you'll have to read the book yourself. The falling action leading to the conclusion of the book left me so confused. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about what happened, I think I'm still in shock and processing all of the information. I'm angry and sad for sure.
I'm still on the same team I was on at the beginning but I need to read more of the series to make sure my theories are true. I recommend City of Bones to anyone looking for a good summer read now that schools are coming to an end in time for summer fun. 

I cannot wait until the City of Bones movie adaptation comes out this summer! :D It looks really promising and I think the guy they cast to play Jace suits him perfectly. 

HAPPY READING EVERYONE! :)

Wordless Wednesday

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HAPPY READING EVERYONE! :)

Things, things, and well....things

Hey everyone!


This post is kind of going to be an explanation of a few things, an update of things, and an explanation of things to come. For starters, it's finals week. I'm almost done with my second year of college! Just one more final to go!

I also wanted to apologize for having missed Wordless Wednesday and Fabulous Finds Friday about three or four times within the last couple of weeks. The impending finals had me all stressed out and I couldn't focus on anything else, and well...life happened. Today I got my hardest final, Calculus, out of the way and I feel so relieved even though there's a chance I could have flunked the test entirely. I'm just glad it's over.
As some of you may well know, or may not, I'm studying to be a veterinary technician. I recently got accepted into the school of my dreams!! :D *happy dance* and I will be starting in the summer. That means while I'm in that school most likely The Literary Forest will be on hiatus.

I'm sorry, but medical school is tough and I'll have to give my undivided attention to school in order to do the best that I can. However, that's  about two months from now so don't worry! After my last final coming up next week I will be more active on this blog and have far more time to read, which means more reviews.
Speaking of reading, that's a good segue to get onto the next topic I wanted to talk about. Since my last post regarding the book ban I have borrowed and purchased books. I know, I know, go ahead and throw your tomatoes at me. I'm weak and can't resist books, though, having met so many people in the book community, I know I'm not the only one. I am reading a book off of my shelf right now (well not at this moment since I'm typing up this blog post) so that's got to count for something? I'll be doing an In My Mailbox post here soon to show you all the goodies I couldn't resist getting.

Next on the things to talk about would be the progress of Soul What?! my novel. Soul What?! is in the process of being edited, quite rigorously I might add, and is close to 80% done. If everything goes swimmingly I hope to have Soul What?! released this summer! I'm super excited, and cannot wait to share my debut novel with you all.
I think that's pretty much all I wanted to talk about today. It's currently raining here and I'm so very happy about that. Also, I've recently gotten into Doctor Who....and I'm kind of obsessed.

HAPPY READING EVERYONE! :)

Fabulous Finds Friday

Hey everyone!

I know I missed last week's Fabulous Finds Friday (FFF), I'm really sorry. It's the end of the semester and so much has been going on it's hard for me to keep up with what I'm forgetting to do. On Friday I had a feeling that something was off and that I was forgetting to do something. It wasn't until Saturday that I realized what I had forgotten. Unfortunately, I also forgot this week's Wordless Wednesday because of a huge exam I was studying for.

Today's Fabulous Finds Friday is about the funniest, saddest, and scariest books people in LA that were randomly interviewed on the street have read. I really liked this video, being the obsessed reader that I am, because you can see how one book can have different effects on different people.

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• The funniest book I ever read would probably have to be Touch of Frost (Mythos Academy #1) by Jennifer Estep. Her sense of humor is so dry and quirky and her books always have me laughing out loud.
• The book that made me bawl my eyes out was A Walk To Remember by Nicholas Sparks, that man knows how to tug at your heart strings.
• The scariest book I've ever read would probably have to be Uninvited by Amanda Marrone. It wasn't a really scary book, I just don't really read scary books. But the boyfriend in the book was a creep. It kind of reminded me of the movie Fear.

What is the funniest, saddest, or scariest book you've ever read? Leave a comment down below. If you want to watch more videos like this Barnes & Noble have a 'Why I read' series on their YouTube channel.
Check it out here!

HAPPY READING EVERYONE! :)

"Don't Breathe a Word" - Book Review

Synopsis:

Joy Delamere is suffocating.

From asthma, from her parents, and from her boyfriend, Asher, who is smothering her from the inside out. She can take his cruel words, his tender words . . . until the night they go too far.

To escape, Joy sacrifices her suburban life to find the one who offered his help, a homeless boy called Creed. He introduces her to a world of fierce loyalty, to its rules of survival, and to love--a world she won't easily let go.

Set against the backdrop of the streets of Seattle, Holly Cupala's powerful new novel explores the subtleties of abuse, the secrets we keep, and the ways to redemption. But above all, it is an unflinching story about the extraordinary lengths one girl will go to discover her own strength.

My Review:

I actually really liked this book. When I first began reading Don't Breathe a Word I wanted to stop reading it after a few chapters because the main character Joy seemed to whine a lot. Though she kind of was entitled to considering what she was going through, however, it did get on my nerves after a while. I didn't really know that this book was about abuse until halfway through the book. If you are wary of books with abuse or just don't like reading them period then this book may not be for you.
The characterization of this book was spot-on. Cupala did a fabulous job making the characters so real and the emotions so raw. There were moments that I was so into the book I felt just as helpless as the characters or just as relieved as they felt when things got better.
Creed was by far my favorite character in the whole book, he was charming, funny, sweet, selfless, and flawed enough to be real. Don't Breathe a Word was such an in-depth view into the lives of homeless teens in Seattle. The emotions were raw and it really opened my eyes to a few things. I try to be immensely grateful for everything that I've been blessed with in my life, but this book reminded me that there are even smaller simple things that we take for granted. When it comes to food I analyze it (It's a very bad habit) because I'm kind of a germ-a-phobe, but this book made me realize I'm so lucky to eat off of a plate and not out of a gross dumpster. I really liked this book and I'd recommend it to anyone that likes reading from perspectives different from your average young adult fiction characters, or if you like reading unusual love stories. It's the little things that matter the most, don't take them for granted because they could be gone in a heartbeat.

HAPPY READING EVERYONE! :)