Mid year freak out tag

I know I'm a bit late with this tag, but I wanted to give you a little update with my reading year anyway, so I hope you enjoy this book tag!

1. Best book you've read so far in 2016

This question is extremely hard to answer since I've read so many different books and nearly all of them are really good in their own way and it's difficult to compare them. Right now, I'd probably go with Lady midnight by Cassandra Clare, which is truly outstanding, but it's just so hard to choose only one.

2. Best sequel you've read so far in 2016

Definitely A court of mist and fury by Sarah J. Maas. I even preferred it over the first book in the series and can barely wait for the next one, because her books just seem to become better and better. A close second by the way is certainly The winner's kiss by Marie Rutkoski, since it does a fantastic job at ending The winner's trilogy and is in general just a really good book.

3. New release you haven't read yet, but want to

I think I've caught up with all the new releases I've definitely wanted to read, but a book that's been recently released and sounds interesting is This savage song by V. E. Schwab, but before picking it up I'll definitely read her Shades of magic series.

4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

It's impossible for me to choose between Crooked kingdom by Leigh Bardugo and Empire of storms by Sarah J. Maas. It. is. honestly. not. possible.

5. Biggest dissappointment

Sadly, I have to go with Glass sword by Victoria Aveyard for this question. I just didn't like it at all, even though I really enjoyed the first book in the series called Red queen. (If you're interested in my specific reasons for disliking this book so much, you can read my review which I've linked below.)

6. Biggest suprise

I was really suprised I ended up liking The nothing girl by Jodi Taylor as much as I did, because it's just not exactly what I usually enjoy reading. I got this book as a present from my aunt and uncle and even though I'd never thought of buying a book like this myself, I liked it a lot.

7. Favorite new author (debut or new to you)

I've read actually a lot of books by authors that are new to me this year, but the one that managed to suprise me the most is Brandon Sanderson with his work Warbreaker. Despite having read so many fantasy novels already, Warbreaker was a new experience for me and in some ways unlike any book I've ever read.

8. Newest fictional crush

I'm very sure I'm not the only one with this answer, but how can you not fall in love with Rhysand from the A court of thornes and roses series by Sarah J. Maas? We don't get to see him a lot in the first book, so I didn't really consider him a fictional crush until reading A court of mist and fury, where he plays a way bigger role, this year.

9. Newest favorite character

Two characters that quickly became some of my favorites are Alina Starkov from The grisha trilogy by Leigh Bardugo and Adelina Amouteru from The young elites series by Marie Lu. Both of them are similar in the way that they are at least to some extent heroes who turn into antagonists, which I think is really interesting and it's great to experience their journeys.

10. Book that made you cry

To be honest, basically every book manages to make me cry, so I'm just choosing another new favorite, which is The night circus by Erin Morgenstern. It's such a beautiful and at some points heartbreaking story and I just can't recommend it enough.

11. Book that made you happy

The moon and more by Sarah Dessen did a pretty good job at making me feel happy and is in general a quite good contemporary book that puts you in the perfect mood for summer.

12. Most beautiful book you've bought (or received) so far this year

Does The world of ice and fire by George R.R. Martin, Elio M. García and Linda Antonsson count for this question? The cover isn't that pretty, but the artwork inside in return is truly stunning and spectacular. It's just amazing to actually see the places and events you've read so much about in the A song of ice and fire series drawn in such a beautiful way on the pages of a book.

13. What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

I don't think I necessarily need to read any books by the end of the year, but I do hope to have read American gods by Neil Gaiman by then, because the tv show premieres at some point in 2017 and I want to have finished the book before that.


In case you're interested in reading my reviews for any of the books I've mentioned, you can click below to get to each one:

Lady midnight
A court of mist and fury
The winner's kiss
Glass sword
Warbreaker
The grisha trilogy
The young elites
The night circus
The moon and more

I hope you've enjoyed this book tag, although my answers are pretty short and my english probably isn't as good as it usually is due to the fact that I'm just really tired and unfocused right now. Anyway, have a nice day!

Leah

The young elites (Marie Lu)

Adelina Amouteru is one of the survivors of a terrible disease called the blood fever that killed every adult who got infected and marked the few surviving children, making them malfettos. Malfettos like Adelina are despised and excluded from society, sometimes even hunted. Adelina soon discovers that the blood fever hasn't just brought her suffering, but also a gift: a magical and strong power, which makes her one of the Young elites and gives her the opportunity to seek revenge against all those who've wronged her.

"I am tired of being used, hurt, and cast aside. It is my turn to use. My turn to hurt."

When I started The young elites I had literally no idea what's it about and only picked it up because so many people said how amazing and unique this series is. Because of my high expectations I was a bit disappointed since the book is for the first half basically like every other YA fantasy novel and while that definitely doesn't mean it's bad, it just wasn't what I've expected and what I've wanted to read. But towards the ending, The young elites gets suddenly very dark very quickly, which I honestly absolutely loved. The concept of having the main character start out as a hero and turn more and more into a villain is just super intriguing. Since you tend to get attached to the main character in general as a reader, you are constantly questioning yourself during this series whether you really should support and root for the main character. It brings you in a bit of a moral dilemma and kind of forces you to think a lot about your idea of ethics. The plot in general is quite fast-paced and I felt at no point in any way bored. I liked the writing as well as the worldbuilding, even though I was a bit confused where exactly which character was at some points during the story (but that's probaly just because I was too stupid to understand the map at the beginning of both books). One thing I really didn't like however is how short both books are. The first one is about 350 pages, the second only slightly longer and at least in my opinion, that's just a bit too short for a fantasy novel, especially because I'm used to reading fantasy books with at least 500 pages. I usually wouldn't mind that much, but The young elites series has so much potential and it'd be simply great to have a longer story and to explore it inmore depth.
The best thing by far about this series are definitely the characters. All of them are super interesting and intriguing and actually feel like realistic characters since they all have some kind of backstory and none of them is completely good or evil. The main character Adelina Amouteru is a fantastic character. She's completely different and incredbly complex and something that makes her so special and interesting is her internal dialogue, that becomes even more present in the second book. What I really admire about Adelina is how she manages to turn horrible experiences into advantages. The abusive childhood she had to suffer through didn't break her, but only helped to make her stronger. Despite being sometimes afraid of the darkness inside her, she uses it for her power rather than pretending it's not there. I think these examples just show how much of a strong character Adelina is and honestly, I was in equal parts slightly terrified of her and also sympathised with her a lot. I won't go into any detail about the other characters to avoid spoilers, but I can definitely tell you that they're amazing and reading about them is truly phenomenal.
I am genuinely so excited for the third and last book in the series called The midnight star and can barely wait for October to get my hands on it. Hopefully I've motivated you to pick up this series and you'll enjoy it as much as I have!

Rating:
The young elites:  4/5 ✹
The rose society: 4.5/5 ✹

I hope you enjoyed this review. Have a fantastic day!

Leah

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