Rainy Day Reads

I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought it sounded like fun. When recommending books it can be hard to hit all the things that make a book great, and sometimes you really enjoyed one aspect of it, but maybe not so much other aspects. So I’ve tried to find popular books that many people will have read to recommend from and then tried to find not-so-popular books to recommend according to a specific topic in the book. Does that make sense? Hopefully it will once you read the recommendations.  The Book Thief by Markus Zusak:  Why: Unusual narrator: Two Boys kissing by David Levithan World War II setting: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein Understated romance: The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: Why:  The competition element: Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin Dystopia: Angelfall by Susan Ee Rising up against the government: Legend by Marie Lu Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling: Why: Friends...

This is the long-awaited last book of “The Raven Cycle” and I finally got around to reading it. Absolutely everyone hauled it when it first came out, but it took a little while for me to get my hands on it and then it took another good while for me to actually read it. Do you know that feeling of not wanting to read a book because you are afraid it won’t live up to the rest of the series? Well, have no fear, because this one does. We follow Blue and the Raven Boys as their adventures comes to and end. I can’t really say too much about the plot without spoiling the rest of the series, if you haven’t read that yet, but just know that this book is everything the other books are and more. We get closure on pretty much everything, there’s drama, action and love and all of it is well-written and realistic. Plus there is one love story that I for sure thought was fan-made or what you call it but it turned out to be canon!! Woop!  Sometimes I was a bit confused, because it h...

Winter Well, my library finally got the book in, so I could finish this review! And all my expectations of a kick-ass ending were well and truly met!  In this last book of the series we learn more about Winter, who was introduced in the last book. She is based on Snowwhite and as with the other girls, there are a number of elements from the fairytales that are recognizable in the story, but it is really a unique story.  In this final book all the storylines come together and we get an epic rebellion against the evil queen, and quite a few love scenes, as we now have 4 couples to follow. I felt like the plot was really well done. It all seemed to be going along smoothly, but then something would happen to throw it off course and it kept you guessing through the entire book. I was expecting a happy ending, but I must say Marissa Meyer had me on the edge of my seat anyway, and there were times when I thought the happy ending might be tinged with more than one s...

Cress This is the third book of the Lunar Chronicles series so I can't go into too much detail regarding plot or characters without spoiling the other two books.  The third book of the series has been the best so far. This time we meet Cress, who is based on Rapunzel. We had a brief glimpse of her in Cinder, but now we get her full backstory.  I can’t really say too much about the plot in this book without spoilers, but I will say that it was really action packed for the most part, and I felt like it moved along a bit faster than the other books. Towards the end however, I was lagging a little. I don’t think I am cut out for marathoning series, as I just get a bit sick of the same story line for over a thousand pages. So I’m glad I will have a little bit of a break, while I wait for the last book, Winter, to get to me from the library.  As for characters in this book, I feel like we get to know the old ones better, and the new ones are described quite we...

I picked this book up because it was a recommendation for the Lonely Genres Book Club for the genre steampunk. I don’t think I have ever read anything steampunk, so I decided to give it a try. And I quite liked it.  The book is set in steampunk Victorian London, which in this universe is populated by humans, werewolves, vampires and a very few so-called “soulless” people. Alexia Tarabotti is one of these soulless people, and what that means essentially is that she cancels out the supernatural with a touch. So if she touches a vampire for example that vampire becomes human again, as long as she touches him.  The supernatural folk have struck a precarious balance with the humans and they are living side by side in sort of harmony. But then supernaturals start to disappear and Alexia is hunted for her soulless state which is very coveted. It all kicks off from there and the book is quite action packed. Apart from the action there is the Austen-esque descriptions of...

I saw this tag on Readsanddaydreams on Youtube, but it was originally created by Jen Campbell . Basically you go through the alphabet picking an author for every letter and quickly talking about a book of theirs you either have read or want to read. I thought that sounded like fun and a good way to talk about a lot of different books. So let’s do it! A - Jane Austen. I love Pride and Prejudice, but if you want something a little bit shorter, try Persuasion or Northanger Abbey. All these are about love and social maneuvering, but Northanger Abbey has a bit more spark as it is a parody of the Gothic stories that were popular at the time.  B - Kendare Blake. Anna Dressed in Blood. I don’t usually read scary stories like this, but I actually really liked it and the sequel is on my TBR. It’s about a ghost hunter who comes to town looking to vanquish this particular ghost.  C - Suzanne Collins. I love The Hunger Games. The first book in particular. I wonder if she ...

I saw this tag on Youtube and decided it looked like a lot of fun. And with the spooky season in full swing I thought it would be only fitting to recommend some supernatural reading. I was inspired by Sarawithoutanh , but the original video is here ! TAG QUESTIONS: 1. Vampire 2. Werewolf 3. Zombie 4. Ghost 5. Witch/Warlock/Spellcaster 6. Fairy/Fae 7. Demon 8. Angel 9. Alien 10. Superpowered human After trying to come up with books to recommend for this I realize that apparently I don’t read a lot of books with “supernatural creatures” or what have you. So I have had to resort to some books that don’t quite fit the bill or books that I haven’t actually read yet for a few of these…But I hope you won’t hold it against me, if I promise to read more about the supernatural in the future! Here we go: VAMPIRE Starting strong, I haven’t actually read any vampire books. That is to say I do vaguely remember a friend of mine forcing me to read some Anne Rice, but since it apparently made no impres...