The martian (Andy Weir)

The astronaut Mark Watney is left behind by his crew during a dangerous storm on Mars because they think he died while he is actually still alive, so he is stuck alone on the whole planet without a way to communicate with Earth. Instead of giving up by killing himself he decides to try his best to survive in this extremely deadly environmen.

"Actually, I was the very lowest ranked member of the crew. I would only be "in command" if I were the only remaining person. What do you know? I'm in command."

To be honest, this isn't really the kind of book I usually read and I've only picked it up because my Dad bought it, but I'm glad I did, since it's so enjoyable. The writing is pretty good and I liked the idea of using log entries as well as the normal way to write a story, which means in running texts.  On the one hand I was very fascinated with the detailed descriptions of the science and quite suprised at how much I understood but on the other hand the huge focus on it definitely makes the whole story a lot less exciting and during some parts even boring, so you probably won't enjoy this novel that much if you're not into science at all. The story in general isn't that suspensful, the only part that at least in my opinion is kind of intense is the ending, so I wouldn't even necessarily call this book a thriller. The aspect that makes this book so unique and outstanding is definitely the humorous way the story is told. When I was told how funny this novel is, I couldn't see how the concept of being all alone and trying to survive can possible be combined with something comical, but once I started reading and realized how fantastic these two aspects work together, I honestly couldn't get enough. In spite of the extremely dangerous and deadly situations I laughed so much while reading. While probably a few people don't like the kind of humor in this book, I thought it's amazing and definitely the reason why this novel is special and not like any other sci-fi/thriller survival story. I did quite like the plot, but after a while I kind of got the feeling that events are repeated and the main character fell into this pattern of everything's fine, then something bad happens, then he fixes it and everything's fine again until the next disaster happens, so the plot ends up being quite predictable. I also would've loved to have a longer ending because even though I enjoyed it, it did feel a bit flat and unfinished to me.
I absolutely loved the main character Mark Watney since he's such a funny and smart guy who still feels very human because he does make sometimes stupid mistakes and there's quite a big focus on trivial problems like using the bathroom, having minor complaints like headaches that aren't included in a lot of books. However, something that's in my opinion really unrealistic is the fact that he, despite being in a hopeless situation all on his own, despite not speaking or communicating with another human being for so long, never has any kind of depressed or suicidal thoughts. Of course are only extremely mentally stable people sent into space, but I think it is very unlikely the astronauts on their way back to Earth are in a worse mental state than the one who's been left to die on Mars. Anyway, I liked the other members of his crew nearly as much as him and seeing their point of view as well as a bit of their backstories is pretty interesting and enjoyable. I honestly was a bit confused with all the different NASA employees since I had no clue who is actually responsible for what kind of work, but I did enjoy their point of view anyway.
I haven't watched the movie yet but definitely plan on doing so in the near future. Apparently it's supposed to be more serious, though it still has some funny scenes. Maybe I'll write a post in which I'll compare the movie to the book but I can't promise anything yet and to be honest, it's probably gonna take me a few months until I finally come around to watching it, simply because I'm not the biggest fan of movies due to their length.

Rating: 4/5 ✹

I'm really sorry for being so inactive here lately but at least I'm motivated to write posts again and hopefully I'll be able to post once and sometimes even twice a week. I hope you enjoyed this review and you're having an amazing day!

Leah

The iron trial (Holly Black and Cassandra Clare)

Call's father told him all his life to never trust a magician and instructs him to fail the Iron trial, a test you need to pass in order to start your education to become a proper magician, so Call tries his best to mess up, yet he's chosen as a student anyway. He finds himself in the Magisterium, where he not only learns the truth about magic, but also about his past.

"Fire wants to burn, water wants to flow, air wants to rise, earth wants to bind, chaos wants to devour, Call wants to live."

Usually I'm not a big fan of middle grade books, mostly due to the typical writing, for example in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan, that just makes me feel like this book is actually written for primary school kids and I'm a super immature teenager who still reads that stuff, but I honestly have to say that the writing in The iron trial and the sequel The copper gauntlet is very good and genuinly suprised me since it is very similiar to the average writing in Young adult books, so I definitely enjoyed it. Apart from that, the only differences from the Young adult genre is that there's way less romance in it and it's rather focused on friendship, which I honestly liked quite a lot because too much romance can get cheesy and boring very very quickly and can ruin the story for me, and the plot isn't as dramatic, too. Sadly, this resulted in the first part of both books, especially the second one, being kind of slow and nearly boring, but the pace picks up towards the middle of the novel and the story becomes definitely exciting and kind of amazing. Although I did like both books and I'm gonna pick up the third one when it comes out in September, I think because they have a lot of potential, they certainly could've been better. Anyway, the worldbuilding is good and even though the Magisterium sounds like a rather cold and uncomfortable place, I'd still love to be able to explore all the caves. I also quite like the magic system and even though it's not extremely unique, it does have some special aspects, my personal favorite of them are probably the chaos-ridden beings.
This series gets compared a lot to the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling and there are of course a lot of similarities, but once you dive deeper in the story you'll soon realize it takes a completely different turn and, as far as I can tell now, it'll become even more dissimilar as the Magisterium series progresses. A very unique aspect are the mostly small, but sometimes even pretty big plot twists, that are super enjoyable, as well as the humorous and funny way it's written and I'm not gonna lie, I did laugh out loud quite a few times while reading.
Nearly all of the characters are really adorabable and you can't help but adore them, especially the main character Cal and his chaos-ridden pet wolf Havoc. I loved Cal's sassy and funny remarks and thoughts and in general just enjoyed reading from his point of view. It's also kind of refreshing to not have Cal as the "hero" of the story with these awesome and special powers but instead only have him as friend of that "savior", which in this story is Aaron, who I liked quite a lot because of his rather calm and responsible personality and his patience, that's really important if you're friends with someone as chaotic as Call. Tamara is probably my favorite out of the three since she is - like Hermione, with whom she gets often compared with - extremely smart, but unlike her way more relaxed and not super focused on sticking to the rules all the time.
Anyway, if you like reading about magic and enjoy humorous books, I don't think you can go wrong with the Magisterium series, so it's definitely worth checking it out.

Rating:
The iron trial: 3.5/5 ✹
The copper gauntlet: 3/5 ✹

Sadly I couldn't find the matching cover for the second book and got instead this extremely ugly one, and I didn't want to include it in the picture at the top of this post, so here's a small picture of it.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this review and you're having a happy day!

Leah

The queen of the tearling (Erika Johansen)

I just want to warn you that this review is probably going to be a huge rant and even though I'll try to write as objective as possible, I don't think I'll succeed. I hope you enjoy it anyway!

On her 19th birthday Kelsea Glynn must begin her journey to take her throne from her uncle, who ruled as regent while she was underage, and to rule the Tearling, yet she is being hunted during her journey to the castle and even as she gets crowned, the danger is greater than ever, not just for Kelsea, but for her whole kingdom.

"The future was only disasters of the past, waiting to happen anew."

I had high expectations when I started this book and only heard fantastic things about it, so obviously I thought this was gonna be this amazing and epic fantasy story. Well, guess what? It's not. It's soo freaking boring. I basically had to force myself to pick it up so I could finally finish it. What makes it even more tiring is the fact that the chapters are about 40 pages each, which is at least for me way too long. I didn't like the plot because nothing is really happening or repeating all the time, yet this book is still 488 f*cking pages long. Why? Definitely partly because of the writing, which would be actually okay, if it wasn't for all the unnecessary and stupid descriptions. So. Many. F*cking. Descriptions. Also, why do I have to read 5 times about how the main character is nearly getting killed? Once or twice is completely sufficient. Erika Johansen also tried to add in some mystery by not revealing details about her mother or who her father is to the main character, but rather letting here find out one by one. Anyway, it didn't work because I just didn't care and didn't mind at all if the answers to these mysteries are revealed or not. The worldbuilding is even worse, it just doesn't make any f*cking sense. First of all, this isn't even a fantasy world, but actually a dystopian version of earth. At least I think so? Apparently some dude wanted to create an utopia, but their ships crashed so they don't have any kind of technology any more. This is basically everything we're told about the history of the country. And this happened at least half a century from now, since people only used e-books, so the technology was highly developed, yet their ships crashed? How? Why didn't they use a plane? Did he only take extremely dumb people with him, instead of doctors and scientists, or how does it come they weren't able to invent anything again? Jeez, even the medieval Europeans had more inventions, since they were at least able to print books. And which moron saved birth control pills instead of something that'd help them figure out how to invent electricity again or at least antibiotics? Usually a big part of a fantasy novel should be some kind of magic, but the only magical elements were a queen who couldn't be bothered to use her powers, a completely useless seer and a stone that only does something if it serves the plot. Again, this doesn't make any sense. Another thing that bothered me so much was this ridiculously high focus on looks. Who cares how someone who appears for five pages looks like? At first I actually really liked that the main character wasn't extremely gorgeous, but only rather plain and isn't that skinny either, until she started to complain all the damn time. What the f*ck is wrong with looking plain? What is wrong with not looking super skinny? What is wrong with having curves? She is even jealous of a woman's beauty, yet only because of that beautiful face and body she's been raped and abused for years. How can you envy the reason for something so horrible? In general, why are people judged so much based on what they look like in this book? Why is being "ugly" seen as such a bad crime by the main character?
The characters in general are okay, but in no way good or even extraordinary. While I did dislike, sometimes even loathe the main character, I just couldn't find the motivation to even care about the others or their fates. Kelsea Glynn, the main character, just made me so mad. How can somebody be so arrogant and incompetent at the same time? So confident yet so bad at commanding or gaining respect? She's been prepared her whole life for ruling, but the very first freaking decision she makes dooms her whole country. She's so stupid and acts like a child all the time despite being 19 years old, and even thinks her behavior is mature, when all she does is based on emotions like anger instead of thinking. I mean, she rather saves books than does anything for the defense of her country and people. Sure, I love books as well, but I'd never sacrifice people's lives for it, especially not as their queen. She doesn't understand betrayal and just trusts the very first dude she meets and depends way too much on him. She also just falls in love with the first handsome guy who seems to be about her age, even though he's an a**hole and harms her kingdom. Another thing that bothered me so much is how rude she is to everybody who disagrees with her and actually thinks this is the fitting behavior for a queen. I genuinely can't even be bothered right now to write more about some minor characters, and honestly, there's not even much to say anyway because there's a huge focus on Kelsea and on Kelsea only. However, that little bit of what we see of the Queensguard just shows how completely incompetent its members are. They're supposed to bring her to the castle, she gets kidnapped; they're supposed to protect her, she nearly gets killed several times; they're supposed to be trusted, one of them betrays her; they're supposed to obey, they don't; what's even the point if they're just failing all the time?
On the back of the book, it gets compared to The hunger games and A song of ice and fire and that just makes me even angrier, because it's an insult for two fantastic book series, since not just their plots, but also the worldbuilding, writing and the characters are infinite times better. I probably will watch the movie adaptation anyway, because Emma Watson is going to star in it and she's amazing (let's just ignore the fact that the incredibly beautiful Emma Watson is gonna portray the plain, nearly ugly Kelsea Glynn), but I hope they'll change as much as possible from the book.

Rating: 2/5 ✹

I hope you enjoyed this review even though I did get a bit angry writing this and swore more than I wanted to. Have a lovely day!

Leah

The book courtship tag

I actually wanted to do this tag for such a long time because I love the concept of structuring the questions according to the different stages of courtship, and I've finally come around to it, so let's jump right in!

Phase 1 - Initial attraction: A book you bought because of the cover?

I absolutely LOVE the cover of Six of crows by Leigh Bardugo. It looks so stunning, so when I saw it in the bookstore, I couldn't help but buy it immediately despite having no clue what it's about. Since the story is amazing as well, I luckily have no regrets.

Phase 2 - First impressions: A book that you got because of the summary?

Can you keep a secret? by Sophie Kinsella sounded based on its summary like a fun and quick read, so I bought it and wasn't dissapointed at all. I had such a good time reading it because it's a sweet and hilarious story at the same time.

Phase 3 - Sweet talk: A book with great writing?

The writing in Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson is amazing and it's definitely one of the biggest reasons why I enjoyed this book so much. I really plan on reading another book by Brandon Sanderson this year because if his other books have writing that's as fantastic as the one in Warbreaker, you can't help but have a good time reading them.

Phase 4 - First date: A first book of a series which made you want to pick up the rest of the series?

Shadow and bone by Leigh Bardugo as well as Throne of glass by Sarah J. Maas are the perfect start for the two series and definitely made me long for more!

Phase 5 - Late night phone calls: A book that kept you up all night?

Since I mostly read at night anyway, I could answer this question with a lot of books, but I'm just gonna go with Carry on by Rainbow Rowell because this book is amazing and reading it was certainly worth being tired in school the next day.

Phase 6 - Always on my mind: A book you couldn't stop thinking about?

If you've read any of the other book tags I did so far, you'll know there's only one answer to this question: the A song of ice and fire series by George R.R. Martin. I've read it for the first time nearly a year ago and I've honestly been so obsessed with it ever since. I just can't stop thinking and talking about it and I'm spending way too much time searching for any kind of theories and discussing them with other readers. You have no idea how much I'm looking forward to rereading these fantastic books in (hopefully) about one or two months.

Phase 7 - Getting physical: A book which you love the way it feels?

I love touching and hugging books no matter what (that sounds kind of weird, but you know what I mean), but my paperback copy of Ice like fire by Sara Raasch feels really nice. The texture feels good and it has the perfect size for hugging.

Phase 8 - Meeting the parents: A book you would recommend to your family and friends?

I think my parents (epsecially my mom) as well as some of my friends would really enjoy The night circus by Erin Morgenstern. Honestly, I'd recommend it to everyone, because I just love everything about this story and reading this book is such a special experience, so I wouldn't want anybody to miss it.

Phase 9 - Thinking about the future: A book or series you know you will reread many times in the future?

Like I mentioned before, I'll definitely reread the A song of ice and fire series, not only because I love it so so much, but also because you need to read it at least two or three times before you understand every single connection between characters and events, since the books are just so complex and detailed. I'm already looking forward to seeing all the foreshadowing and details I missed on my first read!

I hope you enjoyed this tag and you're having a nice day!

Leah

Warbreaker (Brandon Sanderson)

The Idrian princess Vivenna has been trained all her life to marry the Hallandren God king to fulfill a treaty between the two countries and to prevent war. When her younger and completely unprepared sister Siri is sent instead of her, Vivenna decides to rescue Siri as tensions run higher than ever until war seems inevitable and everything the two sisters hold dear is in great danger.

"It was strange, how easily and quickly protection could cause destruction. Sometimes, Vasher wondered if the two weren't really the same thing. Protect a flower, destroy pests who wanted to feed on it. Protect a building, destroy the plants that could have grown in the soil. Protect a man. Live with the destruction he creates."

I wished I wouldn't have started reading this book with these huge expectations because it took me quite some time to get into the story and world, so the first 150 pages kind of did disappoint me. The rest of the book however, especially the last part, is spectacular. While the magic certainly is unique, it seemed strange to me at the beginning and I don't know exactly why, but the term BioChromatic magic sounded a lot more like Sci-Fi than fantasy to me, but as I got used to it, I started loving it. The concept of using the soul as the source of magic, that can be used to animate materials, as well as color is really interesting and refreshing, since it's a change from usual magic systems. The writing as well as the worldbuilding is fantastic and the novel in general is very fast-paced and enthralling with its big focus on politics and intrigues and the betrayals that come with it. There are also some amazing plot twists, and especially the first caught me when I was completely unaware, so it was utterly shocking. I absolutely loved the ending, in my opinion the book just got better and better until finishing with the ending as the peak, and I was suprisingly completely satisfied with it. Even though in my opinion it's really difficult to make a fantasy stand-alone work, Brandon Sanderson did an amazing job with Warbreaker. Apparently there's supposed to be a sequel in a few years, so even though I'll obviously read it and hopefully love it, I still think Warbreaker is fantastic on its own and doesn't necessarily need a sequel.
As you probably know, the characters are one of the most important parts about the story for me, and they didn't disappoint at all. In fact, they are all amazing, everyone with a different backstory and different strenghts. Although I love all of them, Siri is probably my favorite, along with Lightsong. I enjoyed how adventerous and spontaneous she is and definitely admire her ability to adapt so quickly to her new life. Even though I also liked her chapters in the beginning, they get so much better as the story progresses and she becomes more daring and more involved in politics. What I loved most about Lightsong is probably his humor, honesty and wit, but also his very unique and special relationship with his priest Llarimar and the way he treated Siri, as well as always being unpredictable, which adds a lot more excitement to the story. His chapters were no doubt the most entertaining ones. Sadly, I did have some problems with Vivenna for the most part of the story, since she's so arrogant and way to confident in herself, so she doesn't question her actions and the choices she makes as well as being so focused on herself, she can't see what's actually going on around her. I can definitely see and understand why she acts that way, but it didn't really make me like her more. Even though she needs 400 pages before even starting to change, the character development is amazing, probably one of the best I've ever read about. In comparisons to Siri's and Lightsong's development, which are both rather slow and subtle, she changes drastically during not even 50 pages, yet this development doesn't seem rushed at all, but is perfectly done. I would've loved to read more chapters from Vasher's point of view, since he's the only POV character who can control and use his magic properly and I think they'd give even more insight into how many different things actually can be created with breath as well as the limits of the magic. The most entertaining part about his chapters is definitely his sword Nightblood, that can talk to Vasher in his mind and even though it's pretty brutal and aggressive, it's also funny and quite sassy.
I just found out you can read several drafts of Warbreaker as well as the finished version for free on Brandon Sanderson's website, but please buy the book in case you like it. 

Rating: 4.5/5  ✹

Since you can't really see the cover in the picture at the top, here's a closer shot so you can admire this beautiful cover. I hope you
enjoyed this review and you're having an amazing day!

Leah