The End Book Tag (Original)

I was at my volunteer job working away and for some reason whenever I'm there I think about The Bourbon Thief by Tiffany Reisz, specifically the ending. I don't know why it is that I always think of that book while I'm there, just that I do. Today I just had the best idea for a book tag. Naming the different types of book endings and choosing a book for that specific ending. I should probably give you a bit of a spoiler warning because even though I'm not actually getting into what happens I am giving away the type of ending the book has. So if you're very sensitive to spoilers I would suggest not reading this one.

The WTF Ending - A book that made you scratch your head 

The Catastrophic History of You and Me. I'm honestly still confused by what happened at the end of the book. I really don't understand what happened. If anyone would like to explain it to me please do.

The Cliffhanger - A book that left you on the edge

Darken the Stars. The worst part about this cliffhanger is that this is the last book in the series. At least with every other book that has a cliffhanger, you get some reprieve when you get to the next book. BUT THERE IS NO NEXT BOOK WITH THIS ONE WTFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!

The Sad - A book that left you in a puddle of tears

A Dog's Purpose. This book is the reason I'm no longer allowed to read books about animals. I get way too invested and I cried the entire time I was reading it and the ending was just too much for me. I was on the verge of having a mental breakdown.

The Epic Ending - An ending to a book that absolutely blew your mind

A Court of Mist and Fury. Do I even need to say it? Everyone who has read ACOMAF knows just how epic that ending was. Sarah J. Maas has written a million amazing endings to her novels, but this is by far the best one yet. 

The Happy End - A book that gave you the warm and fuzzies when it was over

Cracked Kingdom. This book ended off with the cutest epilogue ever. So many ends are tied up and there are things that left for the reader to imagine. I find it funny that this has a happily ever after considering the entire series is about Royals.

The Epiphany Ending - A book that made you look at the world differently when you finished it

I'll Give You The Sun. This book made me realize that no matter how bad things get, it'll get better. The sun will end up shining and you're going to be happy again.

The Triumphant End - A book that made you think "hell yeah" when you finished it

Ignite Me was a rollercoaster ride. The ending was so incredibly badass. The entire book was pretty badass, but the ending really took the prize. I honestly think the author could have ended the series at that point perfectly, however, I'm still happy she decided to continue the series.

The Bittersweet End - An Ending that was both happy and sad

The Bourbon Thief was the reason I made this post so it seems only fair that I include it here. The Bourbon Thief has a very bittersweet ending, justice is served, but there are also some pretty sad things that we find out about the current day. I won't get into the details cause I actually really want you guys to read this book for yourselves. Just know that for every sad moment is another happier moment to counteract it.

I always feel like the team captain choosing players in gym class whenever I do a tag because I don't want to leave anyone out. I don't like picking favorites, therefore, anyone who wants to do the tag can do so. 

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Rant: Random Fainting

The occasional fainting spell is a normal occurrence in real life so I wouldn’t be that angry if it just happened once in a while, but the amount of times it’s used in books drives me crazy. Often times an author will use being knocked out or fainting as a way to move on to the next phase of their story. They’ll end off chapters with that to try and add suspense and let me just tell you it drives me up the fucking wall.

The book that comes to the forefront of my mind when I think of pointless fainting is The Fallen Star by Jessica Sorensen. I love Jessica Sorensen and I love her books, but my god, there had to be at the very least, 5 chapters that ended with the protagonist fainting. This bitch just could not stay awake. She might as well have been named Aurora.

I know I say this a lot but this trope, to me, feels like lazy writing. Instead of getting the character through the difficult situation they are in at the moment, the author chooses to glaze over it. 

There is definitely a time and a place for a character to pass out. I just hate when a character passes out for no apparent reason. If you’re going to make a character pass out you should explain why the fuck they are passing out. Not just having the character pass out because they were overwhelmed.

This is a shorter rant, but it’s still something I feel pretty strongly about. What do you guys think? Do you have issues with characters randomly fainting?

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Olympian Challenger Spoiler Free Review

Olympian Challenger
by Astrid Arditi

Release Date: July 3rd, 2018

Synopsis:

A hero’s tournament. A defiant contender. Does one girl have the courage to take on Mount Olympus?

Hope’s world doesn’t have room for heroes. She barely has time for schoolwork, swim team, and taking care of her ailing mother. But when she’s invited to a mysterious tournament, the all-powerful hosts won’t take no for an answer.

Transported to Mount Olympus, Hope comes face to face with her new trainers—the pantheon of Greek gods. While other contenders train hard to gain a fighting edge, Hope searches for a way out. Instead, she finds a gorgeous shadow god who may just convince her to stay…

As each round unfolds, the ultimate prize draws closer—the granting of her heart’s deepest desire. If she survives the final challenge, her mother’s cure would be within reach…but only if Hope can ignore the tournament’s dark purpose.

Olympian Challenger is the first book in a bold YA urban fantasy trilogy. If you like Greek mythology, forbidden romance, and feats of courage, then you’ll love Astrid Arditi’s heroic coming-of-age tale.

My Thoughts:

I received an ARC through Netgalley for an honest review

I gave this book 4 stars. I had a blast reading this book. I was having a bit of a hard time reading some of the ARCs I had, but reading this one gave me the push I needed.

The thing about books like this is that I really love them for the whole competition theme. My only issue is that by the end when everyone else has been eliminated, it just feels so lonely. There is a reason I loved the Hunger Games and my favorite show when I was younger was Total Drama Island, but with all of these the same issue arose: It just isn’t fun anymore when there is a single person left.

The characters were a home run. They were well rounded, dynamic personalities and I wanted them all to be happy. I want only good things for them and hopefully, we will see that in the next book.

I’m a sucker for anything with mythology in it and I am happy to say that I was pretty satisfied with the knowledge the author had of Greek Mythology. There have been a few books I’ve read in the past which were pretty much 95% fabrication of the mythology. I mean it definitely wasn’t the most accurate, but it did have a healthy incorporation of fact.

Overall, I’m excited to get to the next book. This was an amazing start to the series and I want to see some happy things and some exciting things happening in the next book. Fingers crossed.

Top 10 Worst Book to Movie Adaptations

This was a bit of a last minute list I had the inspiration to write. I wrote it then published it just now. I hope you enjoy.

1. Percy Jackson

I could list all the reasons why it was horrible but I won’t because I think it’s better left unsaid. Let’s leave this movie in the past and hope that maybe one day they will make an animated Percy Jackson movie. I would love that.

2. The Vampire Academy

They tried to make it into a comedy. Why?

3. The Fifth Wave

Hollywood needs to stop casting Chloe Grace Moretz in everything. Don’t really like her as a person or an actor and I’m tired of not enjoying any of these movies because she’s in all of them. This is why I didn’t watch If I Stay. 

4. Practical Magic

I love the Practical Magic movie and I love the book, but in terms of accuracy, the movie is horrible. Not even remotely close to the book.

5. Harry Potter Franchise

I love the Harry Potter movies, but once again, they are horrible representations of the books. I am especially angry about the fifth movie. The Order of the Phoenix was the longest book but the shortest movie. They cut out so much important information plot-wise. They took away and character development the characters and there was no Quidditch!. The Order of the Phoenix was probably my favorite book but by far the worst of the movies.

6. Divergent

It was just too long! I had to keep taking breaks while watching the movie because it was so long. 

7. Twilight

I debated whether or not to put this on here because as you know I didn’t like Twilight. However, I thought about it and decided I would because the movies were a lot more horrible than the books. The acting was stale and I understand why because all the actors hated it.

8. City of Bones

The movie just was not good. There were some aspects of the movie I liked more than the show, but really overall it was a horrible adaptation.

9. And Then There Were None

I had to read the book for school and it was love. I loved that book. And then as a class, we watched the movie and as an activity during the movie we had to write down everything that was different between the book and the movie. Man, there were a lot I don’t even know where to begin.

10. Jane Eyre

The thing about Jane Eyre is that a lot of the character development happens while Jane is having her inner monologue. We get of lot of her thoughts rather than seeing what is happening around her. We see memories and her feelings about certain situations. This is very hard to translate into film which is why it was so horrible. Jane in the movie just felt so flat and had no personality whatsoever. Also Mr. Rochester is really attractive in the movie and he’s not supposed to be!

What was a book to movie adaptations you hated?

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January Wrap Up

I am very late with this one. In my defense, I had a lot of books I had to come up with something to say about and I couldn't always think of something.

1. Burn Before Reading 

I gave this book 3 stars. While this book as okay, it didn’t live up to my previous standards for Sara Wolf books. I love her writing style and generally the characters she writes, but this one just missed the mark for me.

2. #Nerd 

I gave this book 4 stars. This was one of those books that were better than most, but still didn’t completely have me. As much as ai enjoyed it, it didn’t have my love.

3. Undeclared 

I gave this book 3 stars. I love the Royals series that Jen Frederick writes with Elle Kennedy, yet I had never read any of her solo work until this moment. This book was okay, but once again, it just didn’t live up to the Royals series.

4. Smitten 

I gave this book 3 stars. This was cute and smutty. It took me a bit to get through this as it wasn’t the best and not very high priority, but still an enjoyable pastime.

5. Lover Enshrined 

I gave this book 5 stars. I had started this book almost a year ago, maybe it was a year ago, but I just never finished it because I wasn’t that interested in reading Phury’s story. However, I got the sudden desire to finally continue on in this series so I read this book and it was so good! I love Phury and Cormia! They have so much chemistry, I just didn’t expect it at all.

6. Tamsin 

I gave this book 3.5 stars. I feel very conflicted about this one. I could honestly write a novel on how conflicted I feel about it, but I won’t because I have a review for this book already. No need for more word vomit.

7. Stolen 

I gave this book 3 stars. I almost didn’t read this book because of how much I hated the final book in the original trilogy. However, I decided to give this a go because I was hoping so much that it would be better. I liked how we got to see Clare and Shephard and the healing process after what happened. I also loved the extension of the world and we got to see more of Shepherd’s plot play out. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the main storyline however, it felt a bit off at times and I wasn’t really comfortable with them.

8. #Junkie 

I gave this book 4 stars. My one gripe about this book is that I wish the story could have been condensed into one book. My whole issue with this and #Nerd is that I wish it was more of a one book per couple sort of thing. I tend to not like NA romances to be drawn out for more than one book, it’s really a personal preference.

9. A Penny Lost 

I gave this book 4.25 stars. Time travel books are my guilty pleasure. This one definitely fed my desire to read more time travel books. I can’t wait to continue on in the series and see where our characters head to next.

10. Wingless 

I gave this book 3 stars. I wasn’t entirely impressed by this book, but it did have lots of potential to be a great series.

11. Love Between Enemies 

I gave this book 2 stars. It just boggles my mind that people read this book and thought that it was cute. This book pissed me off and the more I think about it the more I actually want to take away a star. I won’t because I don’t feel like going back and changing all my reviews that I’ve already posted, but that doesn’t change the fact that this book wasn’t good. 

12. Pretty Dead Girls 

I gave this book 5 stars. I loved this book. I don’t know where, to begin with, this book. I didn’t think I would like it but I really did. The author really pulled out all the stops on this one.

13. Wolfsong 

I gave this book 5 stars. Hands down the best book I read this month. I won’t even try to explain to you why this book is so great or even tell you what it’s about. You should just go in blind and know that this book is one of the best I’ve ever read.

14. Him 

I gave this book 3.5 stars. This one was a lot better than the first. I’m actually pretty excited to read the next book in this series to see how it can top this one. This series is definitely on a rise. My one major gripe is that it’s so short. I honestly wish the author would just write one longer novel rather than these short novellas.

15. 1984 

I gave this book 3 stars. Had to read this for a class. Everyone else seemed to love it and I just can’t seem to get into it. I get the important message, but much like Lord of the Flies, it felt a bit dry to me. It was mostly the protagonist doing things that made me feel gross.

16. Double-Exposition 

I gave this book 3 stars. I wanted to love this book so much, but it really just came up short. I didn’t really like the couple all that much. It was passable, but I won’t be continuing on with this series.

17. Lover Avenged 

I gave this book 4 stars. I’m loving these characters more and more as we go along. I had to give this one 4 stars because I felt that our main couples relationship sort of faded out and got overshadowed by other events in the book. 

18. Angel 

I gave this book 4.5 stars. Read this one in a couple of hours and I loved it. I’ve noticed that Angel was so much nicer than all the other made men. I mean, he’s by no means a nice guy, but he’s a lot nicer to Adalyn than some of the other men were to their girlfriends, definitely less controlling.

What were some of your faves of the month?

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Also be sure to check out my giveaway for some of my favorite books of 2017! HERE