Me before you (Jojo Moyes)

Okay, I've just finished Me before you by Jojo Moyes and I really need to talk about it. And I'm sorry that I don't have a pic of it but I only have a crappy German version and you can't take a cute pic with it.

Louisa Clark has everything she needs: a job that she likes, a boyfriend and a lovely family. But after losing her job her whole life changes. Because then she meets Will.
Will Traynor, a once successful business man, had everything he wanted until the day of the accident. Now he has quadriplegia and is forced to live in a wheel chair, unable to move his arms and legs.
Two years after the tragedy, Louisa starts her new job as Will's personal assistant. Instead of serving people in the small bakery like only a few weeks before, she now has to take care of the disabled young man who is always grumpy and mean. But Louisa doesn't know the whole story behind her six month contract and when she's discovered it, a race against time begins...

“You only get one life. It's actually your duty to live it as fully as possible.”

Firstly, the topic of this book is really serious and difficult and in my opinion Jojo Moyes dealt with it in a fantastic way. Secondly, it's not only a romantic book about love but also about the point of living and the question what a happy and wonderful life looks like. Thirdly, I'm actually destroyed right now bc the story was beautiful and cruel at the same time.
So I loved that you could see the difference between the two families. On one side there was Will's, a noble family, rich, but not that warm and loving towards each other (at least that's what I think). They cared about Will but they didn't let him make his own decisions. On the other side we had the Clark family. Although they are poor and in constant fear of losing everything, they look out for each other. They were always there to help each other (e.g. with Thomas, the son of Lou's younger sister). I mean, they are obviously chaotic and people may see them as weird but I personally really like them.
The plot was really heart-braking but in general it was a good story to read (maybe not the most unique story I've ever read but still not as boring as some other romance books).
The writing was fantastic bc you were taken with emotionally but you also started to make an own opinion about the topic assisted suicide. I could see their character development (especially concerning Lou and Will) as well and I guess that's part of why the book is so good.
Jojo Moyes wrote a sequel called After you and I'm really looking forward to reading it even though I'm not quite convinced that it's gonna be as good as Me before you. Anyways, as soon as I bought and read it, I will let you know what I think about it.
All in all, I totally recommend this book to everybody who enjoys reading dramatic love stories. But be prepared for a lot of crying, heart-breaking moments and laughing in tears.

Rating: 5/5 *

I'm really sorry for not posting for such a long time but I was on a reading break bc I had no motivation for reading or doing anything but laying on my bed all day (it was pretty stressful at school and a lot of other stuff had to be done). But now I'm back and I found my motivation again. I hope that I can at least post one review/tag per week and you also get something from Leah weekly.

I hope you have a nice day!

Vicky

Glass sword (Victoria Aveyard)

To keep this review completely spoiler-free, the summary won't be for Glass sword, but for the first book in the series called Red queen and the quote is from Red queen as well.

Mare Barrow lives in a world where people are divided by the color of their blood - the silvers are the elite of the society because of the supernatural abilities they have, while the poor and ordinary reds are the workers and soldiers. Her blood is red, yet she has powers only a silver can have. To cover this up, Mare is forced to live at the palace as a lost silver princess and betrothed to one of the crown princes. As she learns more about life with the silver nobility, she decides to join a red rebellion - and risks everything she's gained and more.

"The truth is what I make it. I could set the world on fire and call it rain."

I've read the first book pretty exactly a year ago and usually I still remember a lot after that time span, but weirdly this wasn't the case for Red queen at all, even though I really loved it. I couldn't even recall any names other than the main character's and while I did know there is a huge plot twist at the end, I apparently forgot everything else about it. Since the second book picks up right where the first one ended, I'm sure that's amazing if you read them back-to-back, but if you don't, it's confusing. Really confusing. I needed at least 50 pages to figure out who each character is and in what way they're even relevant to the story and the main character. I just couldn't get into the story at all, so reading it was frustrating and tiring and it even caused a small reading slump, since it took me so long to finish it. The plot is okay, it's mostly the same thing over and over so it gets boring pretty quickly, but it gets at least better towards the ending. The aspect that's so special about the first book, which is the shocking plot twist, is just completely gone from the second one. You're constantly being reminded of the possibility of betrayal, so when it's actually happening, you've already been expecting it for the last 20 pages, which just takes away all the tension and results in a pretty boring plotline despite the mostly action-filled events. The ending is completely predictable, because the plot twist or betrayal or whatever is placed at the pretty exact time where it is in Red queen as well, so I was already expecting it and it isn't shocking at all. The writing is good, even though it definitely was a bit too dramatic and over-the-top for me and not only the planned repeats of certain phrases got quite annoying after a time, but the writing in general, which seemed repetitiv and unvaried in the use of words and metaphors. Obviously, since this is a sequel, there isn't too much worldbuilding and the little bit that's in it was okay, but to be honest I don't really like the world a lot. I'm just not into that mix of a dystopian novel with magic in it. I prefer the "traditional" kind of high fantasy that takes place in a medieval inspired fictional realm without any highly developed technology like planes and computers. Apart from that, the fantasy elements in this book were quite good and I actually enjoyed them, even though I don't like the superhero-like powers that much.
And don't even get me started on the characters. A lot of new characters are introduced, but seriously every one of them is one-dimensional, flat and in the best case, if we get to see a tiny bit personality, it's a stereotypical character. Everything is so focused on the main character Mare Barrow, it's obnoxious, especially since she's one of the most unlikeable characters I've ever read about. Don't get me wrong, I hate a lot of characters, but I can at least see reasons why other people would like most of them. In this case, I just can't get how anyone can stand Mare, let alone love her? She's so obsessed with herself, extremely arrogant, selfish but thinks she's so selfless and often just plainly stupid. She's so busy pitying herself she's apparently no longer capable of seeing what's going on around her or empathizing with people so she ends up treating them really badly. I can see that Victoria Aveyard wanted to create a gray character, somebody with good intensions but also a lot of flaws, or some kind of anti-heroine who demands your sympathy anyway, but Mare clearly turned out as neither of those, since I can't see a freaking way how you could actually like her. The few minor characters I genuinly liked and remebered, since nearly none of them are in any way memorable, were not likeable for me because of their personality, but rather because of their ability to annoy and make Mare suffer the most. I enjoyed the villain for example a lot, not because he's a good villain, since he's not, but because he fights Mare and hopefully kills her soon so I won't have to suffer anymore reading from her point of view.
All in all, this novel certainly isn't in any way horrible, even though my review kind of makes it look like it is, but I definitely was dissappointed since I enjoyed the first one so much more. I'm not sure why I couldn't love Glass sword as much as I did Red queen, I don't even think neither I nor my taste in books has changed that dramatically. Anyway, I guess I'd still recommend it to everyone who's into fantasy and dystopian YA books, because I feel like I'm basically the only one who didn't absolutely love it, judging from the high ratings on goodreads.

Rating: 2/5 ✹


I'm not going to post a lot of reviews over the next month or so, since I've just started my reread of the A song of ice and fire series, which means I won't come around to reading any new books I could review, but I'm still gonna be trying to post a tag weekly. I hope you enjoyed this review and you're having a nice day!

Leah

Lady midnight (Cassandra Clare)

The orphans Emma Carstairs and Julian Blackthorn are shadowhunters living in Los Angeles, warriors who have to defend ordinary humans from demons and supernatural creatures, so when dead humans as well as faeries are found they need to investigate. But this case is special for the both of them since it's Emma's chance to get revenge for her parents, who were murdered in the same way five years ago, and the opportunity for Julian to get his brother Mark back. They only have two weeks to solve the mystery and they're yet to realize the great importance of their investment in this case.

"When you love someone, they become a part of who you are. They're in everything you do. They're in the air you breathe and the water you drink and the blood in your veins. Their touch stays on your skin and their voice stays in your ears and their thoughts stay in your mind. You know their dreams because their nightmares pierce your heart and their good dreams are your dreams too. And you don't think they're perfect, but you know their flaws, the deep-down truth of them, and the shadows of all their secrets, and they don't frighten you away; in fact you love them more for it, because you don't want perfect. You want them."

Wow. This blew my mind. It's been over two years since I've last read a book by Cassandra Clare and apperently I kind of forgot how amazing her books are. I did expect to have a good time reading Lady midnight, but I definitely wasn't prepared for the rollercoaster of emotions it triggered in me. I honestly loved everything about this story, I'd even say this is her best work so far, which is a huge statement for me because of the great impact The mortal instruments as well as The invernal devices had on my life. The writing is fantastic and Cassandra Clare just makes it with each of her novels impossible for me to put them down and to not devour them. Something that I noticed, but it certainly didn't bother me in any way, is the weird point of view. I couldn't quite identify wether it's supposed to be a third person limited narrator or a third person omniscient narrator, so I guess it's a mix between the two of them, which is definitely pretty unique. The worldbuilding is a bit different from her previous books, since there is no need to introduce the shadow world to the main character as well as the reader, but only to the reader, because all the characters are already familiar with it (and let's be honest, most of the readers as well). Anyway, she managed to explain everything important without making the story slower or boring the readers, who know that stuff already. The plot in general is very fast-paced and even though there are a few chapters that aren't action-filled at all, none of them are boring. I'm actually really suprised at how much I adored this book since I'm not the biggest fan of crime stories, but I guess the fact that it gets combined with the supernatural world makes it a lot more exciting and I loved how the investigation is written, because even though they experience failure and even helplessness, little hints towards the solution of the mysteries are always given to keep it from becoming frustrating and drab. Usually, the amount of romance in this book would've been way too much, but Cassandra Clare just knows how to write romance without making it annoying and stupid. Her love triangle in The invernal devices for example is one of the few I don't absolutely despise and I usually don't like this whole forbidden romance thing either, but it's just too good in Lady midnight to not love it and it at least has a genuine reason why it actually is not allowed. Another thing I loved about this novel is how diverse it is without making a big deal about it, which is just what we need to show young people how normal the equality between races, genders, sexual orientations and so on should be. Another great aspect is that autism and mental illness are a big topic since even though it's more talked about, authors still don't write about characters with these conditions a lot.
The characters are amazing and I honestly fell in love with them instantly. Emma Carstairs is such a strong and badass warrior, but still so funny and sassy as well as caring about those she loves. I adored her from the first time she appeared in the prologue of City of heavenly fire and I love her even more after this fantastic journey with her. Julian Blackthorn is just as amazing and a character I genuinly respect and admire. He's so fiercely protective and willing to give up everything for the ones he loves and one of the few characters I believe to actually be selfless instead of just pretending to be. Their relationship is so beautiful and powerful and while I obviously love them as friends and parabatai, I can't help but to ship them. A lot. Another character I liked a lot is Cristina Rosales, because she's a pretty interesting character with a lot of secrets and also because of her positive and upbeat as well as loyal nature. I was also able to relate to her since English isn't her native language either, but she tries her best to perfect it. Her friendship with Emma is great and, at least for me, so relatable and seeing how close she got with all the Blackthornes in such a short time was heart-warming. And since I want to keep this review spoiler-free, I can't write much about him, but how can you not love Mark Blackthorn? I enjoyed all the Blackthorn kids as supporting characters so much since each of them added with their personalities something unique to the story and they appear for the exact right amount of time to make the reader care about them, but to still have the focus of the story on Emma, Jules and co.
I don't think there are a lot of YA readers who haven't picked up any of the Shadowhunters novels, but in case you haven't, I'd still recommend you to read them in the order they were released (The mortal instruments - The invernal devices - The dark artifices) even though you technically could start with Lady midnight, but you would miss a lot of the references that make this book even better. Also, can I just say how perfect the short story at the end of the book is and how happy it made me?

Rating:  5/5 ✹

Since you can't really see the cover on the picture above that well, I added a close-up because it's just so beautiful, it might even be my favorite cover out of all the Shadowhunters books. I hope you enjoyed this review and you're having an amazing day!

Leah

A thousand pieces of you (Claudia Gray)

Marguerite's parents, two genial scientists, have figured out the existence of alternate dimensions and how to travel between them. After her Dad gets murdered and the suspect, her parent's favorite student Paul, leaps into another dimension, Marguerite follows him with the help of another student called Theo to avenge her father's death.

"Every form of art is another way of seeing the world. Another perspective, another window. And science - that's the most spectacular window of all. You can see the entire universe from there."

I'm not the biggest fan of dystopian / sci-fi novels right now, so I was rather skeptical when I started reading this book, but it didn't dissappoint and I actually liked it quite a bit. It's a solid story and I can't say I didn't enjoy reading it, even though it does have a lot of these typical dystopian YA novels aspects in it. Since I haven't read a lot of these in the past few months, this was an rather painful reminder of how much f*cking love triangles s*ck. Seriously, why are they in basically every YA book? They're just so horrible and frustrating and I can't see how anyone could possibly enjoy them. If it wasn't for that crap, this novel would've been so much better, since I actually like the principle of the story. I think it's very interesting to think about the existence of alternate dimensions and wonder about how you would've turned out if a certain event that shaped you a lot never happened or you made a different decision at some point. I loved not only seeing how the main character's situation and surroundings, but also the whole world changed every time a new dimension is introduced. The world building is good, so exploring each new dimension was one of my favorite parts of this book for sure. I was pretty suprised to see that everything added up and the author didn't make a mistake with the timelines and different dimensions since that's what usually happens if characters in a book jump through time and space. The writing is okay, to be honest I didn't like it a lot, but I can't really determine exactly what bothered me about it, I guess I'm just used to a superior writing style because of the books I've recently been reading. It's pretty fast-paced and while it's not that suspense-packed it's definitely not boring and overall quite enjoyable.
I sadly had my problems with the characters since I couldn't identify with them a lot which leads to me just not caring about them. I'm sure the main character Marguerite is a lovely and nice girl, but it's fairly difficult to actually concentrate on learning more about her character because the stupid love triangle is bothering you all the freaking time. Is it really that hard to choose between two evenly great guys? Once she settled on one of them, she wasn't even capable of deciding which of the different versions of him in the different dimensions she wanted. I mean, it's totally not like they're basically the same person anyway. This whole dilemma makes her too annyoing at times to truly like her for me. The other two main characters Paul and Theo are okay, they're not really original or special and I'm sure I'll forget all about them in a few weeks, but at least it wasn't super frustrating to read about them. Who I did like are the minor characters like Marguerite's family and meeting them (or sometimes not meeting them) in the different dimensions is amazing and I was alsways happy to have one of them appear. By the way, is it weird I shipped Marguerite's parents more than I shipped her with either of her love interests?
Anyway, if you're looking for a light and quick read or you maybe even need something to get out of a reading slump, definitely check this book out. Also, the cover is unbelievably gorgeous so it's gonna look amazing on your book shelf, it sure does on mine.

Rating: 3/5 ✹

I'm sorry I'm not able to post more often than once a week at the moment since there's a lot going on regarding my last two years of school right now. I hope you enjoyed this review and you're having an amazing day!

Leah

The goldfinch (Donna Tartt)

The goldfinch follows Theo Decker from the day on his mother was killed in a terrorist attack when he's thirteen years old. Theo miraculously survives the explosions and manages to steal his mother's favorite painting and as he learnes of her death, his only reminder of her. Because of that picture he's slowly drawn into the criminal underworld over the next ten years but he ultimately can't let go of this piece of art since it would mean letting go of his mother as well.

 "A great sorrow, and one that I am only beginning to understand: we don't get to choose our own hearts. We can't make ourselves want what's good for us or what's good for other people. We don't get to choose the people we are."

I was so intimidated by this huge book, not just because of its length of 864 pages, but also because I usually rarely read adult fiction and was kind of worried I wouldn't enjoy it at all. Anyway, after putting a lot time and effort into reading it, I feel so accomplished and glad, since this is probably one of those books that stay in your heart for your whole life and in some way even change you. The writing is fantastic and I didn't even care that there are a lot of detailed desciptions, which of course slowed the book down a bit, so I'd only advise you to read it if you have enough time to devote yourself to the book or else it's gonna be super frustrating and boring and might even cause a huge reading slump. I absolutely loved the plot although there aren't many extremely exciting moments in it, and especially enjoyed seeing not only the main character Theo, but also various minor characters grow up. It was in a way very bittersweet for me to read about this process since I love coming-of-age stories and seeing how Theo's life changes for the better made me so happy, but at the same time it did make me feel a bit worried and unhopeful for my own future because of how much also goes very wrong in his life and how easy all your potential, hope and dreams can be destroyed. To make a long story short, this book made me think and deliberate a lot (actually, it still does) and that's what's at least in my opinion important for the book to have genuine lasting effect. The whole novel is amazing and I loved it so much, but if I had to choose my most favorite part, I'd definitely go with the ending because it's just spectacular. It doesn't only bring together all the different story lines perfectly, but also kind of summarized what the story, what life really is about in such a touching and beautiful way. Even though I have basically no idea about art and I'm usually not even particularly interested in it, I still enjoyed how art and antique furniture are incorporated into the story and play actually a quite important role all through the book and to be honest, reading this book made me want to visit an art gallery so badly. I don't think I've ever read a book that deals so much with drugs and addiction, which is actually quite upsetting because this story shows with way more effect than the projects I did in school on drugs and alcohol why you should stay the hell away from drugs, so I think it's super important to have more books, especially in the YA genre that deal with this topic as intensely as The goldfinch does.
I loved the variety of characters and seeing them grow over a long time span is truly amazing. I really liked the main character Theo and it's heartbreaking to read about his tragic story and his development from an innocent child to this broken man who had to deal with too many losses. To be honest, reading from his point of view was sometimes pretty frustrating since he does make a lot of stupid mistakes, but you can't blame him because of the situation he's in. For me, it was actually pretty difficult to form my opinion of Pippa since we only get to see her trough Theo's extremely biased point of view, but she is definitely different than the usual love interests of the main character and quite refreshing. My favorite character though is Hobie. He's such a nice and supportive guy and his personality is simply beautiful. I love how he never judges anyone and just spends his time doing stuff that's important to him.
Anyway, I can't even stress enough how fantastic this book is and how much I loved it, so you should check it out. I'm certainly gonna pick up another one of Donna Tartt's novels.

Rating: 5/5  ✹

I hope I didn't ramble too much and you still enjoyed this review. Have a great day!

Leah