Shadow and bone (Leigh Bardugo)

I finally came around to reading the Grisha trilogy as promised in my post about Six of crows, so here's my review!

The orphans and best friends Alina and Mal are serving in Ravka's army when Alina's hidden powers are discovered and she's revealed as sun summoner, one of the most powerful grishas to ever live, introducing her to a whole new world, where soon everybody tries to seduce her in order to gain an advantage in the fight for the throne and power over Ravka.

"I've been waiting for you a long time, Alina," he said. "You and I are going to change the world."

I absolutely love this series, and my crappy summary definitely doesn't do it justice, but since the story is so complex, I'm struggling a lot with summarizing it. It's really fast paced and got me hooked from the very first page. The story is fantastic and full of plot twists, which I certainly didn't see coming and made me love the story even more.
The writing was good, but definitely nothing extraordinary, even though I really liked the way the prolouge and epilouges are written, however the thing that really stood out to me is the fantastic worldbuilding. This is the first book I've read that's so heavily inspired by Russian and Germanic culture and although it was super unfamiliar, I enjoyed it a lot. Another quite important element in this story that I don't think I've ever seen in any books I've read, especially not in the YA-genre, is the religious extremism, which fits perfectly in the world and adds a whole new dimension to the story. I also liked the magical system and the fact that it's explained so well, and not just seeing the grisha society, but also the way grisha are treated by the rest of the population, that doesn't have any powers. Another aspect that made the story way more intense is the circumstance that people without magical abilites are far from defenseless, since Ravka is an industrial country and pistols, guns and rifles are common weapons and can kill all grishas, since their power is limited.
And don't even get me started on the characters. I absolutely adored all of them, and many made it into my "all-time favorite chracters" list. Alina Starkov, the main character and heroine of the story, had a loneliness and stubborness, that makes her very relatable and likeable, and she is actually one of the very few heroines I've read about who didn't annoy me at some point. She goes through a crazy character development from a sickly young girl to one of the most powerful grishas that ever existed and seeing her struggle with choosing between good and evil, between light and darkness is amazing. But the character I probably enjoyed even more is the Darkling, who is so complex, interesting, manipulative and completely intriguing. I liked every scene he is in simply because of his presence so much more. Seeing his vulnerability and his longing for sympathy and understanding in one moment and in the next how he tortures and kills innocent people makes him such a good villain. His relationship with Alina is definitely super interesting and understandable, and I'm not gonna lie, the evil part in me is shipping them a lot. And let's be honest, you can't be able help yourself but love him, especially in the scenes in which more of his tragic backstory and feelings are revealed. At the beginnig I had my troubles with the second main character Mal Oretsev since he reminded me so much of Gale Hawthorne from the Hunger games trilogy, whom I hate so much. But I started to like him at the end of Shadow and bone and really liked him during Siege and storm and Ruin and rising, as more of his personality and feelings are shown. This is one of the very few books (the other ones are the Clockwork angel trilogy by Cassandra Clare and A tale of two cities by Charles Dickens) in which I don't just don't mind the love triangle, but actually really enjoyed it and in a way it is quite cruicial to the story since it represents Alina's struggle between good and evil. My other even bigger crush in these books is Nikolai Lantsov, who sadly doesn't appear until the second book in the series. I'm not kidding, he's just perfect and that's basically all you need to know. He's adorable, charming, extremely charismatic, funny and sarcastic but can also be reckless, manipulative and brutal if he has to. I also enjoyed most of the minor characters, especially Zoya Nazyalensky, and was very suprised to see that even those go through character developments.
I also really loved the ending (even though it made me cry sooo much) and I'm pleased with the decisions Leigh Bardugo made in order to strike us with the moral of the story.

Rating:

Shadow and bone: 4.5/5 ✹

Siege and storm: 5/5 ✹

Ruin and rising: 5/5 ✹

I genuinly didn't mean to write so much, but I hope you enjoyed this review anyway. If you're looking for an epic fantasy series you definitely need to check the Grisha trilogy out! And I also can't recommend the latest book by Leigh Bardugo called Six of crows enough, since it's truly fantastic. If you're interested you can read my review here.

Leah

Reading problems tag

Since I've basically only written reviews lately, I wanted to mix things up a bit, so I decided to do this tag. I'm sorry it probably won't be too detailed and long, because even though my exams are over now, I'm still pretty busy with school.

1. You have 20000 books on your TBR. How in the world do you decide what to read next?

That's probably a scenario that's never gonna happen to me! I'm already happy if there are at least 10 books on my TBR, so I won't have to spend money on books for the next two months. Anyway, what book I choose to read next always kind of depends on my mood or what genre I'm into at the moment as well as to some extent to what season currently is. I guess that sounds pretty weird, but I feel like I enjoy contemporary novels way more during spring and summer, while I love reading fantasy in the fall and winter months.

2. You're halfway through a book and you're just not loving it. Do you quit or are you committed?

I have to finish it. No matter how much I have to force myself to keep reading or how big the reading slump is gonna get, I just hate leaving a book and the story it tells unfinished. I genuinly can't think of one right now I haven't finished, regardless of how much I've hated it. I even completed all the reading I had to do for school so far and my teachers seriously picked horrible books for us to read.

3. The end of the year is coming and you're so close, but yet so far away on your goodreads reading challenge. Do you try to catch up and how?

Since I've only completed one goodreads reading challenge (and surpassed my goal by reading over 10 more books than I actually planned to) so far, I've never been in this situation and don't really know what I'd do. As long as my goal is reasonable and I have an actual chance of catching up, I'd probably try to do it by picking up fast paced and short contemporary novels, because I do get kind of ambitious with completing my reading challenge.

4. The covers of a series you love do. not. match. How do you cope?

I barely do. This happens so often to me and my reactions are mostly complaing and whining about it to basically everyone I'm close to. Luckily most of my friends and family understand the struggle!

5. Everyone loves a book you really don't like. Who do you bond with over shared feelings?

Fortunately I have quite a lot of friends as well as my brother who love reading as much (or nearly as much) as I do, so I usually find someone to share my thoughts with. And even if I don't, there're still somewhere people on the internet who understand me.

6. You're reading a book and you're about to start crying in public. How do you deal?

I honestly just go for it. I know it's extremely embarrassing, but I don't care too much in that moment. I just want to enjoy the book as much as possible and if that involves showing emotions, I'm fine with it. Since I'm also quite good at crying without nobody else noticing, it's not that big of a deal. In a way, I'm even a bit used to it because I start crying super easily. So if you ever see a girl reading and crying in public, that's probably me.

7. A sequel of a book you loved just came out, but you've forgotten a lot from the prior novel. Will you reread the book? Skip the sequel? Try to find a synopsis on goodreads? Cry in frustration?!

I mostly just pick up the sequel, since I usually remember what happened in the prior book while reading. I have to admit I always actually plan to reread the first book, but most of the time never come around to actually doing it.

8. You do not want anyone - ANYONE - borrowing your books. How do you politely tell people nope when they ask?

I hate lending out books to anyone else than my really REALLY close friends, because I'm just super scared of something happening to my books or just never getting them back. I often just tell them I already lent them out to someone else and it's probably gonna take a while until I get them back, so they just forget about it in the majority of cases. A lot of my friends also don't read in English, so they're luckily not that interested in my books.

9. Reading ADD. You've picked up and put down 5 books in the last month. How do you get over your reading slump?

I usually go for short and fast paced contemporary novels or books that I'm 100% sure I'll enjoy to get over a slump. In case nothing helps, I try rereading some of my favorite books/series. Anyway, I've never had to deal with really big slump, so I'm definitely not the best person to give advice on this matter!

10.There are so many new books coming out that you're dying to read! How many do you actually buy?

As many as I can afford. Sadly my parents don't pay my books any more, so I'm basically broke most of the time because I'm spending way too much money on them. But I'm fine with it, since books are amazing.

11.After you've bought the new books you can't wait to get to, how long do they sit on your shelf before you get to them?

It always depends on how many books are currently on my TBR and which ones I'm most excited for. Sometimes I start reading a book right after I bought it and sometimes they have to wait a few months on my shelf, but I'm quite proud that I can say I (nearly) never let a book stand on my bookshelf for longer than half a year before I get to it.

I hope you enjoyed this tag and you're having an amazing day!

Leah

A knight of the seven kingdoms (George R.R. Martin)

A knight of the seven kingdoms contains the three novellas The hedge knight, The sworn shield and The mystery knight that all follow a young knight called Dunk and his squire Egg on their journey through Westeros.

"A falling star brings luck to him who sees it, Dunk thought. But the rest of them are all in their pavilions by now, staring up at silk instead of sky. So the luck is mine alone."

I absolutely loved all of the three stories, which are each about 120 pages long. I enjoyed George R.R. Martin's writing as much as I did in all his other books I've read so far. The story has a way lighter tone to it than the A song of ice and fire series, which is so much darker, so reading this was a nice change and an amazing opportunity to visit Westeros without having nearly all your favorite characters killed off.
The plot wasn't extremely intense, but still very exciting with some twists as well. Because of the little time jump between the three stories, we get to see different locations for each one.
The best part are definitely the characters, both major and minor ones. I absolutely love Dunk, it's so refreshing to have him as "hero", since he's just an ordinary young man, who's neither royal nor noble, and has to work hard to achieve anything. He's actually more of a loser, he struggles most of the time and often things go very wrong for him. That doesn't only make him a pretty realistic character, but also allows him to show his personality, which is beautiful. While Dunk's maybe not the smartes guy in Westeros, he's definitely one of the most honorable, positive and kindest one. The second main character Egg is just so cute! You can't help but totally adore his bright and also quirky nature. The relationship between them is simply beautiful. Reading about it made me so happy, and I loved everything about it. I would've loved to see more of the minor characters like Tanselle, The red widow and Lord Bloodraven, but hopefully we'll get to see them in future Dunk and Egg novellas.
When I heard that there's going to be artwork in it, I was honestly quite sceptical at first, probably because I associate books with pictures in them with children's book, even though that's obviously just stupid. But when I started reading and took a closer look at them, I enjoyed them so much and actually found myself pretty much always looking forward to the next drawing. The art is incredibly gorgeous and definitely did add something to the story and made this book a quite new reading experience for me, since basically all books I'm interested in don't have any kind of art in them. (The drawings you can see underneath are some of the biggest in the book, most of them are smaller, but amazing nonetheless.)

 A knight of the seven kingdoms is set a bit less than 100 years before the events of A game of thrones, so they obviously don't spoil anything for the A song of ice and fire series, but I'd still advise you to read these books before A knight of the seven kingdoms, since I guess it's really confusing without the knowledge of the world, it's history and the great houses. Of course you can give it a try anyway, even though I think you won't enjoy it as much.

Rating: 5/5 ✹

I'm so sorry for writing way too much, but I just love the world of Westeros so much, so I can't stop talking about (and obsessing over) it. At least I'll try to shut up about it on here until The winds of winter will be published. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this slightly longer review!

Leah

The lying game (Sara Shepard)

So The lying game by Sara Shepard is about Emma, a girl who has to live the life of her twin Sutton after her sister was murdered. She doesn't know who has killed Sutton but everybody is a suspect. And the only person knowing that Emma's twin lost her life is the murderer himself.

I heard different opinions about this book series. Some people say that the story is pretty bad while others think that the book is brilliant. I have to admit that I was confused when I started reading it bc the book is written in first person view but the narrator is the ghost of the dead twin Sutton. So a few times she tells about Emma (who is obviously called Sutton by everybody) and in the next sentence she talks about herself. But as soon as you understand the scheme, the book's really easy to read and less confusing.
About the plot I can say that it's nothing especially good or exciting but there are a few chapters which I did enjoyed reading.
I actually don't have a theory about the murderer and the motive. That's why I'm looking forward to reading the next book and I hope that the story behind all this won't be disappointing.

In general I'd recommend this book to people who like this kind of mystery books. But honestly you have to make an own opinion about this book series bc I'm actually not sure whether I like it or not.

Vicky

Vanishing girls (Lauren Oliver)

After a car accident that involved the two sisters Nick and Dara, both of them stop talking to each other, so they start to grow away from each other, even though they used to be really close. Nick decides to try to save their friendship, but then Dara suddenly disappears, only a few days after a nine-year-old girl called Madeline Snow vanishes. During Nick's search for Dara, she not only learns that the two disappearances are linked, but also regains her memory of what really happened during the time of their accident.

"Sometimes day and night reverse. Sometimes up goes down and down goes up, and love turns into hate, and the things you counted on get washed out from under your feet, leaving you pedaling in the air."

This is the first thriller I've read in the last two years (and I basically only picked it up because it's written by Lauren Oliver), since I don't really like this genre that much, so I was quite glad that especially the first half of the book has more of a contemporary feel to it. The start in general is pretty slow and things only really speed up in the last two-thirds of the story, so I guess people who like super intense books won't enjoy this much, especially since the reveal is short and felt, at least for me, pretty unsatisfying. The ending definitely is quite predictable, particularly for people who read a lot of thrillers.
Even though a lot of people apparently have their problems with Lauren Oliver's books, I enjoyed her writing as well as the characters and their relationships. I didn't really like Nick and Dara that much, but I definitely did like some of the minor characters, and all of them are pretty realistic. What I loved was how the relationship between Nick and Dara is portrayed, and the book doesn't just show the nice parts about having siblings, but also the jealousy and rivalry that arise.
I also liked that the book is divided into "before" and "after" the accident, so that you get to experience the present as well as the past, but the chapters inside some of the "before"/"after" categories aren't chronological, which kind of confused me sometimes.
So if you're looking for a contemporary book with some mystery in it, you can definitely check it out without being disappointed after you finished it, but sadly I can't promise you the same for this book if you want to read an intense thriller.

Rating: 3.5 ✹

I hope you enjoyed this review and you're having a fantastic day!

Leah

All the bright places (Jennifer Niven)

I genuinly hope I'm not offending anyone by the way I'm talking about mental illnesses, I'm just trying my best to review this book and since it's so closely tied with this topic, I wanted to address it as well.

Theodore Finch and Violet Markey meet each other on their school's bell tower for the first time, where they're both for different reasons. Violent is still deeply troubled by her sister's death, while Finch is suffering from a bipolar disorder. At first, Violet doesn't want to be associated with him because of his reputation as freak, even though he helped her down that tower, but when they have to work on a school project together, Violet and Finch both open up towards each other. Violet's world starts to grow again with Finch at her side, while Finch can't stop his from shrinking.

"Is today a good day to die?"

Sadly, very few books actually deal with topics like mental illnesses and suicides, even though it affects so many people. I understand it's a very sensitive issue and bringing it up can be difficult, but the way Jennifer Niven managed to do it in this book shows it's definitely possible and needs to be done a lot more, not just in books, but also in school and most importantly in media to erase the stigma that comes with any kind of mental illness. This story shows how important it is to speak up, to never be ashamed and to seek help.
I had my troubles with the first few POV chapters of Finch, mainly because I've never been confronted with any kind of mental illness before (Thanks for not educating us about these illnesses, German education system!), but I learned to love them as much as I did Violet's, whose feelings I understood really well from the beginning on. I really enjoyed the writing, especially the way the facts and quotes were integrated.
The story itself was in a way really beautiful and lovely, but on the other hand obviously increndebly sad and touching. I was sobbing throughout reading the whole book and it showed me how important it is to talk about your feelings instead of ignoring them, which will sooner or later lead to horrible things. Even though the ending was kind of predictable, I was actually suprised that it did happen, because I wouldn't have thought the author was brave enough to go that far. She even managed to make me cry with her note at the end of the book, which was very meaningful and should definitely be read as well by everyone who picks up this book.

Rating: 5/5 ✹

Whenever something is bothering you, please speak up. Whatever it is, it's not your fault and you shouldn't be ashamed. So please speak up.

Leah

2016 resolutions book tag

Hey guys and happy new year! We hope your start in 2016 was good and that you're looking forward to an amazing year! Like many other people we have some resolutions and thought it would be motivating and interesting to share them.
Our resolutions are probably pretty similar, but hopefully you'll enjoy this post anyway!

Bookish resolutions

In 2016, I will...

Vicky:
1. Read at least 30 books (Well, that doesn't sound much compared to Leah but I really wanna achieve my goal and this year is gonna be very stressful).
2. Find "unknown" books and try reading new genres I've never read so far or that I didn't like.
3. Read at least one book in spanish (I learn it in school for a bit more than two years now and I think I'm ready for reading in this wonderful language)

Leah:
1. Read at least 50 books. (I really hope I'll be able to achieve my goal, even though school is going to be pretty stressful, especially in the new school year that starts in September.)
2. Give different genres a try and start reading a variety of books and authors.


Book blogging resolutions

In 2016, I will...

Vicky:
1. Write more reviews (Like 2-3 per month) and finish them faster (I sometimes need two weeks to finish one little review...)
2. Follow the post schedule (our plan is to post Wednesday and Sunday but I fail pretty often with posting so I'm sorry for that and I try to do it better in 2016)

Leah:
1. Write at least two reviews per month (and actually post them that month).
2.  Follow the post schedule and stop posting on random days as much as possible.

Career/Academic resolutions

In 2016, I will...

Vicky:
1. Try to be more active in class.
2. Be happy about what I've achieved and the good school I'm able to go to.

Leah:
1. Try to be more interested in my lessons.
2. Appreciate my school/teachers more and feel grateful for getting such a good education.
  
Personal resolutions

In 2016, I will...

Vicky:
1. Be more focused on the projects I wanna do and finally start them (My gosh that sounds way more epic than it is... I literally just don't wanna lie in bed all day)
2. More sleep is always a good resolution. I definitely don't get enough sleep and my bed time is mostly pretty late, but I know that although I don't often feel tired it's not good for my health so I should better sleep more this year.

Leah:
1. Definitely get more sleep. Even though I don't get that tired if I don't sleep enough, I start feeling
 stressed out by small things and feel in generel just shiftless, so I really need to change that this year.
2. Stop worrying and try to have a more positive attitude.
3. Stop wasting so much time on social media.  


Hopefully when we'll look back at these resolutions next year, we actually managed to achieve most of our goals. Good luck with your resolutions!

Vicky and Leah