The moon and more (Sarah Dessen)

Emaline seems to have her life perfectly figured out with her long-term boyfriend Luke, a decent job and a good relationship with both her family members and close friends. But then she meets in the idyllic beach town she's lived in for her whole life a young and ambitious man from New York called Theo, who challenges her to reach for bigger things. To make her last summer before she has to leave for college count, Emalin decides to be more adventurous and open for new challenges as well as relationships, and tries to find the balance between where she comes from and where she's going.

"Life is long. Just because you don't get your chance right when you want or expect it, doesn't mean it won't come. Fate doesn't punch a time clock or consult a schedule."

This is the first book by Sarah Dessen I've read, so I didn't have any expectations and I also can't compare this to any of her other novels, but I enjoyed it. It's exactly what I wanted and hoped it to be, which is just a light and fun summer read, that makes me excited for the season and appreciate the good weather instead of complaining all the time that it's way too hot. Anyway, it definitely did inspire and motivate me to go out and do fun activities this summer rather than binging TV shows for the whole summer break (let's be honest, I'm still gonna do that, but hopefully just not as excessively as last year). Honestly, this book isn't anything special or unique and it's basically the definition of a YA contemporary novel including aspects like a love triangle, family drama and friendship, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing at all. In the end, we all read because it brings us enjoyment and The moon and more definitely doesn't disappoint in that point. This novel is also great for a variety of different kinds of readers: picky readers know pretty much exactly what to expect, it's obviously amazing for people who are really into YA contemporary literature and it's also safe to pick up for young people who don't read a lot. The plot is okay, it's not that dramatic or thrilling, but again, that's not really the reason you read those kind of books. What I especially liked about this one are the different family dynamics and the fact that the main character doesn't have these stereotype friends. Something that confused me a lot are these moments at the end of some chapters where some bad event gets kind of teased, but then at the beginning of the new chapter you find out that literally nothing happened. I mean, why tell the reader that the main character is hanging out in a neighborhood with this really bad reputation and it's dark and someone is approaching her, and then just start a new chapter back in her house and just ignoring the previous few pages. I was a bit disappointed with the romance because I had my problems with both boys the main character has a romantic relationship with, it is however quite nice that the focus doesn't solely lies on the romantic aspects of the story. The writing is okay, it's not fantastic, but it's not bad or cringe-worthy either and it allows the reader to basically fly through the book, since it's so easy and fast to read. The novel has with about 435 pages in my opinion the pretty much perfect length for a YA contemporary book and gives the reader enough time to really get to know the characters as well as the places where the story takes place.
I liked most of the characters and I think pretty much all of them are in some way relatable, something that's at least for me very important in contemporary and coming-of-age novels. I think that's why it's great to read a book like that sometimes, even though you're like me and enjoy fantasy books a lot more. These characters aren't like somebody who we want to be, like the ones in genres like fantasy or sci-fi, but similar to the person we actually are. These realistic characters who share certain character traits with me help me gain at least a bit more confidence and also boost my self-esteem by showing me that I'm fine the way I am and that there's wrong with me.
 I'm pretty sure I'll pick up another book by Sarah Dessen, since I feel like after reading The moon and more, you can't really go wrong with any novel written by her in case you're searching for a light contemporary read and I'm just in the mood for fun summer books right now.

Rating:  3/5 ✹

I hope you enjoyed this review, have a lovely day!

Leah

Disney princess book tag (part II)

Here's the second part of the Disney princess book tag. If you want to check out the first part, click here. I hope you'll enjoy it!


Pocahontas: A book whose ending is a roller coaster of emotions

The ending of Ruin and rising, the last book in the Grisha series by Leigh Bardugo, was just too much for me. I felt so many emotions and couldn't decide whether I was happy or sad about the ending and ended up bawling my eyes out for the last couple of chapters.

Mulan: A book with a kickass female character

How can I not choose Celaena Sardothien from the Throne of glass series by Sarah J. Maas for this question? She's basically the definition of a badass character, so reading about her adventures is so much fun.

Tiana: A book with a hardworking, self-made character

I honestly thought about this question for quite some time, but couldn't really come up with anyone who fits this describtion a 100% and isn't my answer for any other question. I guess the closest comes Agnieszka from Uprooted by Naomi Novik because she certainly does work hard to improve her skills and also has to do some chores, so I hope she counts as a valid answer for this one.

Rapunzel: A book featuring an artist

Actually quite a few characters come to my mind as answers for this question, but I'm just gonna go withe Feyre from the A court of thornes and roses series by Sarah J. Maas because of the lovely scene that involves her painting for like three days straight in A court of mist and fury.

Merida: A book featuring a mother-daughter relationship

At first, I thought this is one of the easiest questions to answer out of all of them, but once I really started thinking about it, I realized how often the main character's mother is just dead or gets killed after a few chapters. A mother-daughter relationship however I do remember to be pretty sweet is the one between Marguerite and her mom Sophia (is that even her name?) from the Firebird series by Claudia Gray.

Anna & Elsa: A book with a great sibling relationship

The relationship between Adelina and Violette Amouteru from The young elites series by Marie Lu isn't what you'd typically call great, but what I really love about it is the development of it. It's so lovely and empowering to see how much both of them came to understand, trust and support each other over the course of the first two books and I'm beyond excited to see what they're up to in the next one, especially because of what happened at the end of The rose society between those two.

I hope you enjoyed this book tag and hopefully you didn't mind me splitting the tag into two parts. Have a wonderful day!

Leah

Disney princess book tag (part I)

Since I'm completely stressed out at the moment because of all the exams I have to study for, I'm gonna split this book tag into two even parts. I hope you don't mind that both posts will be pretty short and you'll enjoy it anyway! (Click here to get to the second part.)

Snow white: What's your favorite classic?

I absolutely love The great gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The time period in which it takes place sounds amazing and I'd love to visit one of the fabulous parties. It's one of the first classics I've read and it definitely motivated me to start reading more classics.

Cinderella: What book kept you up way past your bed time?

It happens very often that I'm reading for way too long in the night and end up feeling horrible the next day in school. I'm not entirely sure, but I think the book that kept me up the longest is Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins which I finished at around 3:30 am when I read it for the first time a couple of years ago.

Aurora: What's your favorite classic romance?

A tale of two cities by Charles Dickens. I usually hate love triangles, but that one is just perfect and incredibly beautiful and sad and emotional and I love it. It's also the only love triangle where I actually like both guys equally. Another pretty cool aspect is that the book is set during the French Revolution, which is quite interesting.

Ariel: A book about sacrifices and fighting for your dreams

I think Celia and Marco from The night circus by Erin Morgenstern sacrifice a lot for each other and manage to build the world of their dreams in the circus and that's a really wonderful thing.

Belle: A book with a smart, independent female character

One of the only female characters I can think of who never did something really stupid is Margaery Tyrell from the A song of ice and fire series by George R.R. Martin. She's incredibly smart and despite her pretty young age she knows exactly how to achieve her goals and how to manipulate people for her purposes.

Jasmine: A character who challenges the social conventions of their world

 Kestrel from the Winner's trilogy by Marie Rutkoski certainly doesn't want to fit in the way her society pressures her to, so I guess it's no big suprise she ends up playing a part in a revolution.

Again, I'm sorry for keeping this so short, but hopefully you've enjoyed it. Have a lovely day!

Leah

The rose and the dagger (Renée Ahdieh)

Just like always, since this is a sequel, the summary is for the first book in the series called The wrath and the dawn.

The ruler of Khorasan, a boy-king, takes a new bride every evening, just to have her end up dead by the time the sun rises again. When Shahrzad's best friend Shiva is forced to marry him and gets murdered by him, Shahrzad wants vengeance and volunteers to be the king's next wife. She achieves something none of the girls did before her: She manages to live until dawn.

"No. He was not here to wreak revenge. For revenge was trifling and hollow.

No. He was not here to retrieve his wife. For his wife was not a thing to be retrieved.

No. He was not here to negotiate a truce. For a truce suggested he wished to compromise.

He was here to burn something to the ground." 

The thing I love most about these two books is definitely the setting. Renée Ahdieh manages to create such a beautiful and unique atmosphere with her descriptions about the clothing, buildings, nature and food and by adding a few Persian words and phrases the world feels pretty realistic. The storyline is good, it's certainly gripping, but nothing too special. To be honest, I could've gladly passed the whole love triangle up and I definitely didn't need that many quarrels between Khalid and Tariq. Their small "battles" just seem like pissing contests between two premature teenagers and that's exactly the way they acted around each other, which I thought is simply stupid and annoying. The romance in this book was definitely bearable and quite cute and even though it is one of the biggest main aspects in this story, there isn't too much of it. For some reason I assumed that this series is a trilogy when it actually consists of only two books so the ending really caught me off-guard and I wasn't expecting it, since it's in general pretty short and feels rather rushed. I also can't see the point of the last kind of climax in the story, since the event is undone anyway, so why is it really necessary?
Shahrzad is in my opinion a completely average main character, I did enjoy reading from her perspective and I do like her, but she's not gonna become one of my favorites since I just didn't have any kind of "connection" to her. However, I really liked the big role Shahrzad's little sister Irsa played in the second book in the series and honestly prefer her over Shahrzad. I can relate to her a lot, she's pretty much the opposite of Shahrzad, since she's rather calm, shy and quite insecure. Because I often experience feelings similar to hers it was amazing and empowering to see Irsa overcome her fears and develope into an independant and strong character. The relationship between Shahrzad and Irsa is just beautiful and made me realize once more how lucky I am to have siblings. The only character I thought was pretty much unnecessary and didn't "deserve" the big role he plays is Shahrzad's and Irsa's father Jahandar. Of course it was nice to have him add a bit more magic to the story, but I couldn't care less about him. He annoyed me (actually not just me but all the other characters as well) the whole time and I didn't care one bit whether he survived or is happy or is gonna suceed or not, and at some points I even hoped he would finally die, not because he's a horrible or cruel character that I hate, but simply because he bothered me so much. What I enjoyed a lot however is how strong and independant women are portrayed in these books and it's so satisfying to see them achieve so much despite their, in comparison with men, rather low social position and their "lack" of physical strength.

Rating: 4.5/5 ✹

I'll be really busy with studying for exams for the next three weeks so I probably won't be able to write any reviews, but I'll still try my best to at least post a book tag once a week. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this review. Have a wonderful day!

Leah

A court of mist and fury (Sarah J. Maas)

To keep this review spoiler-free the summary is for the first book in the series called A court of thornes and roses.

Feyre lives near the wall that seperates the mortal lands from the faerie realm. To keep her family from starving, she needs to hunt and ends up killing a magical creature. To pay for the life she took, she gets imprisoned in a faerie court and slowly but surely falls for her captor, a creature she's been taught to hate for her whole life.

"There are good days and hard days for me - even now. Don't let the hard days win."

This book is phenomenal. Honestly, I don't even know where to start. I had super high expectations when I started it since the sequel was one of my most favorite books in 2015 and it took me a while until I could finally start reading, so I already heard of all the positive reactions and reviews. Still, this novel managed to suprise me because I didn't expect it to be that amazing. I'm really mad at myself for having trouble getting into the story at the beginning since I feel like I could've enjoyed it even more if I was able to dive right into it, but to be fair that was completely my fault because sometimes I just get distracted super easily. Anyway, basically everything about this novel is fantastic. The plot is fast paced, thrilling and varied, there are a lot of small (or bigger) plot twists you don't necessarily see coming and it's pretty much impossible to stop reading. It is certainly very interesting to see how PTSD and trauma plays a big role in this book and I think it's important to have these aspects in a novel like A court of mist and fury, not only beacuse it makes the story and its characters so much more realistic, but also because it's necessary to talk about these things a lot more. I really liked the ending and while it isn't truly a cliff hanger, Sarah J. Maas knows exactly how to end a book, so her readers will definitely pick up the sequel as well and I'm already so looking forward to reading the third book in the series. Her writing is, as always, absolutely beautiful, compelling and especially vivid, so I instantly had pictures of all the characters and places in my mind and had no trouble at all imagining the story in my head. A skill Sarah J. Maas has certainly mastered is world-building. She introduced so many new places and each and every one was absoultely stunning. Honestly, if I had the chance to travel to Prythian, I'd take it instantly and never come back. And that's exactly what I want in a high fantasy book: I want to read about a world that's very different from our own, with buildings that seem over the top and beautiful nature and that's exactly what I got in this book. The only thing I didn't enjoy in this book are the sex scenes. It's not that I think they're disgusting or anything, they're just so cringeworthy and, at least for me, extremely uncomfortable to read. I just feel like a creep staring into someone else's bedroom window while reading these scenes. I totally don't mind one or two of these scenes in a novel, but in A court of mist and fury are at least half a dozen of them. I honestly wished there was less focus on the romance, but to be fair I have to say the book definitely improved in this aspect since in comparison to the prequel A court of thornes and roses the romance is certainly less primary and the focus lies on the plot line.
To be honest, I'm in a bit of a conflict regarding Feyre as a character. At the beginning of A court of thornes and roses I couldn't stand her because she made stupid choices and just did the opposite of what experienced characters advised her to do and as a result got everyone into trouble, but as the story continued she developed and I ended up liking her quite a lot by the end of the first book. For the second book, it was the exact other way round: I began with liking her, but sadly started disliking her more towards the end. It's not like I absolutely hate her, but she's just not one of my favorite characters either. Apart from, like I mentioned before, still sometimes making stupid decisions and ignoring advise she tends to be quite arrogant and just starts randomly villainizing people. She's sometimes a bit annoying and frustrating as well since when she wants something for quite some time and then actually ends up getting it, she suddenly doesn't want it anymore. I also don't understand her morality: killing your rival's family is (obviously) evil, but killing his family in return as revenge is totally fine? Okay. Aside from my personal opinion about her I definitely have to admit that she goes through huge character development and is, especially in the second book, a really strong and independant character. I loved how many new characters are introduced, but at the same time I was a tiny bit sad the characters who appeared in the first book didn't get that much "screen-time". To be honest, I don't really care about Tamlin, but I did miss Lucien a bit. Learning about a lot of characters' backstories was super interesting and adds a lot to the complexity and dimension of the characters. While I really enjoyed how basically all the good characters are very complex and "gray" characters, I was quite disappointed to realize all the villains are very one-dimensional and just completely evil. None of the truly bad guys has any other motivation than the usual thirst for power and all of them are basically 100% evil without any part that's at least remotely good. Because of this, I wasn't very impressed with any of the villains and thought they're quite boring. Anyway, I fell in love with all the new characters, but if I had to choose my favorites, I'll probably go with Rhys and Mor. I'm not gonna lie, I'm definitely looking forward to meeting even more new characters in the third book.
Even though this review may sound a bit negative it certainly isn't meant to be. Sarah J. Maas showed with this book again how brilliant she is and I'm everytime suprised to see how she manages to get better and better. I can't encourage you enough to pick up A court of thornes and roses and A court of mist and fury and if (in the unlikely case) you haven't read Maas' other series, The throne of glass series, go do that now. You definitely won't regret it.

Rating: 5/5 ✹

Can I just say how incredibly cute this little Feyre bookmark is? I just had to show it off in another picture, so have a look at my adorable bookmark (and the beautiful spines of course).
I genuinly didn't want this review to become that long, so thanks for reading it anyway. I hope you enjoyed it, and have a fantastic day!

Leah

The winner's kiss (Marie Rutkoski)

To keep this review spoiler-free the summary is for the first book in the series called The winner's curse.

The rich daughter of a general named Kestrel lives in the Valorian colony Herran, whose original population was made into slaves. Kestrel decides at an auction to buy a slave called Arin without her father's approval and ends up falling in love with him. Both of them are faced with a nearly impossible decision: whether to betray their people or each other.

"You don't need to be gifted with a blade. You are your own best weapon."

This book is everything I possibly could've asked for and the perfect ending to a fantastic series. I absolutely loved it and couldn't help but tear through it. To be honest, this is definitely one of the best last books in a series I've ever read and it's my favorite out of the series, which says a lot since I loved The winner's curse and The winner's crime a lot. The story is super fast-paced and filled with action, schemes, betrayal, gambles and just the right amount of romance. The plot is amazing, it's full of little twists and really intense, so it's most of the time literally impossible to stop reading. There's just honestly not a single thing I would change in this novel, so if you haven't read the series yet, go and pick it up. Now. An especially amazing part of the novel is definitely the ending that completed the story in such a beautiful way. I liked how it isn't an completely happy ending, but still positive enough to make you feel satiesfied. There's not really a lot to say about the writing except that it's fantastic and beautiful and perfect. The alternation between the two POVs is very balanced and especially in the fight scenes, which are extremely epic by the way, done perfectly. I enjoyed the romance a lot more than in the first book because it isn't as prominent and way more mature.
I really loved the characters, especially due to their huge character developments. My favorite thing about Kestrel is that she fights a lot more and a lot better with her brain and wits instead of her fists. Seeing her scheme and planning battles is so interesting and intriguing, definitely also because of the high stakes that are constantly there. I loved the little "duel" she has with her father throughout the book and in general how the story doesn't only focus on the relationship between Kestrel and Arin (what's their shipname by the way?), but also on Kestrel and her father. Arin is a compelling character as well, since he's so ruthless, calculating and cold-blooded, but at the same time he's extremely caring and tender with Kestrel. It's one of my favorite things about Arin's and Kestrel's relationship that both of them bring out a completely different facet in the other person. I also loved the pretty big focus on minor characters like Sarsine and Roshar. I enjoyed both of them so much, Sarsine probably because she's the most relateable character for me and Roshar because he's just such a funny, sassy and sarcastic character. Honestly, I don't even think it's possible to dislike those two.
Anyway, I can't recommend this series enough and even if you don't enjoy the first book that much, definitely keep reading because they just get better. I'm quite sad the series is over now, but I'll definitely pick up any future books written by Marie Rutkoski since they're hopefully as fantastic as The winner's trilogy is. Honestly, just go and pick it up.

Rating: 5/5 ✹

Sorry for rambling so much, I hope you enjoyed this (sadly rather short) review anyway. Have a lovely day!

Leah

The crown (Kiera Cass)

Since The crown is the fifth book in the Selection series, the summary will be for the prequel called The heir.

The crown princess Eadlyn is forced to hold a competition for her heart in order to calm down riots and entertain the population. Even though her parents met and learned to love each other through a similar contest, she doesn't want to even embrace the possibility of finding her soul mate in a group of random suitors and just hopes to end her selection as soon as possible. But as the competition begins, she realizes finding her true love might not be as unlikely and impossible as she thought.

"You have to embrace the idea of imperfection, even in the thing that is most perfect for you."

To be honest, I didn't have anything close to high expectations for this, mostly because I didn't enjoy The heir even nearly as much as I did the three prequels with America as main character. However, while The crown isn't necessarily what I'd call a phenomenal book, it didn't disappoint either. It definitely is a solid ending to a series with a lot of up and downs.The biggest problem with this novel is probably that it's so short. I mean, it's not even 300 pages long. Because of this, everything felt rushed, from the plot to the relationships between characters. The plot in general is so predictable and none of the little plot twists managed to suprise me even in the slightest. But let's be honest, noone reads this series in hope for an incredibly intense storyline, but rather for the romance. And it was, despite being so cheesy a lot of the time, pretty cute. I'm not gonna lie, what I liked most about this book was seeing all the characters from the first three novels in the series all grown up and didn't care that much for any of the new ones, but it's not like they bothered me. The writing is okay, I'm honestly not the biggest fan of Kiera Cass' writing and it often felt over the top. I understand she's trying to create a romantic atmosphere, but some quotes are just too much, like sunshine having a melody. Seriously? I might just lack the experience of having a love life, but I can't imagine ever hearing the melody of sunlight. Anyway, all in all it is a very enjoyable, easy and quick read and the perfect one to get you out of a reading slump or just to motivate you to start reading more.
The characters are mostly alright, but Eadlyn as a main character still annoyed me so much. Seriously, how can two awesome characters produce such a shitty one? I don't even know if Eadlyn is such a brat just because of her upbringing, which apparently went completely wrong, or if that's what her personality is like. At least she wasn't as horrible as she was in the prequel, but I also don't feel like her development worked the way Cass wanted it to because honestly, at the end I still couldn't stand her. I wanted to punch her so badly at several scenes, but especially when she explained how she doesn't like bowling since she has to put on used shoes to do it. Honestly, can somebody please dump her in a huge trash can? Her suitors however, despite seeming really stupid and one-dimensional sometimes, are quite likeable and their interactions with Eadlyn are mostly pretty fun to read about. Like I mentioned before, I loved seeing all the characters from the first three books again and I was suprised to see how many appearances they made and obviously quite happy when I realized that they still play a quite important role. One last thing about the characters: why do all of them have such weird names? Is it so hard to come up with names that an ordinary human being can pronounce properly?


Rating: 3/5 ✹

I'm really sorry this review turned out being so confusing and all over the place. I guess I need some time to get into writing reviews again after my longer hiatus. However, I'll do my best to read more and hopefully I'll find enough time to review most of the books I read. Anyway, have a fantastic day!

Leah