Hourglass by Claudia Gray

Series: Evernight
Author: Claudia Gray
Page Count: 339
Published: March 9th, 2010
Publisher: HarperTeen
  5 Stars ★★★★★

Bianca has escaped from Evernight Academy after a fight between the vampires and Black Cross. Now, she and her boyfriend, Lucas, are living with Black Cross, which is made much more dangerous by the fact that Bianca is actually a vampire. If Black Cross finds out, she could be tortured or even killed. 

While keeping her secret is hard enough, things become even harder when Balthazar is taken prisoner. Pretending to hate him, she and Lucas must now consider not only how to escape themselves, but how to rescue Balthazar as well. 

Things don't exactly go as planned, and Bianca struggles with the possibility of becoming a full vampire. She knows what kind of existence she'll have to live with if she goes through with it, but what will happen to her if she doesn't?

The third novel of the Evernight series really blew me away. It dealt with so much at once, including Bianca's relationship with Lucas, her love for her family and her struggle with her vampire nature. Everything seemed explored very deeply, and whenever I picked this up, I was totally captivated. 

Claudia Gray made this book especially emotional, particularly during the events near the end of the book. I will admit, I did cry a little (it seems I've been reading many tear-inducing books lately!) and I really, really need the next book. As soon as humanly possible. 

The level of emotion near the end shows how immersed in Bianca's world I found myself. I think the best part about this series is the relationships between the characters, not only Bianca's romantic relationship with Lucas but her friendships with Vic, Raquel, and especially Balthazar. After reading the first three books, which are written in Bianca's perspective, I honestly feel like I'm friends with these three too! Everyone feels so real, and the way that they care about each other is often touching. 

Bianca is one of my favourite characters in YA fiction because she is so strong. She is able to adapt to change quickly, she's passionate, and she's determined. She never truly gives up. I'm sad to know that there are only a few more books left in the series for me to read, because I just love everything about this series!

Aside from stirring up emotions, I found the ending of this book to be quite the cliffhanger. I can't wait to find a copy of Afterlife, though I'll probably wait a while to read it because I don't want to get closer to finishing the series!

Readers who like YA novels with vampires will appreciate the Evernight series. If you want a main character who is very likeable, and if you like reading about strong friendships and bonds through tough times, this series is for you!

Find Hourglass on Goodreads

50/50 Friday - Favorite/Least Favorite Book Read this Year so Far...

This meme is hosted at The Butterfly Reader and Blue Eye Books

This week's topic is favourite / least favourite book read so far in 2017

Least Favourite

 

Oh this was so easy.... Neuromancer for sure. I had to read this for school. It was soooo painful. I wrote a mini review on Goodreads, I'll post it for you guys:

" 1.5 stars

Where to begin?

Well I guess first I'll say that I read this because it was required reading for English class. If my grades did not depend on me finishing this book, I would not have continued reading it after chapter two.

Every time I picked this up, it was only a matter of time until I felt like my brain was bleeding.

I have no idea what the point of this book was. The writing style was hard to follow and it was just...confusing.

So why did I add that .5 stars? Well, the author was pretty good at writing descriptions. Some of the aspects of the society in this book were interesting.

But overall I really wish we could've read another book for class."

Favourite

 

So I decided to ignore sequels read this year because there are quite a few great sequels I read that could claim this spot. There are many awesome books that I've read so far, but I have to choose Mask of Shadows for this one.  While it wasn't five stars, it was four which is still really awesome. Plus, I was really emotionally invested in this book because I am so excited to read about fellow genderfluid people! 

Are either of these books on your to-read list?

Forbidden by Syrie James & Ryan M. James

 Series: N/A
Author: Syrie James & Ryan M. James
Page Count: 410
Published: January 24th, 2012
Publisher: HarperTeen
  4 Stars ★★★★

Claire goes to school at Emerson Academy, and she's hoping that she gets to stay there to graduate high school. She and her mother move around a lot, and Claire wants to stay for a while near her friends and crush for once. Things are changing for Claire, though. She's been having visions and she knows things that she shouldn't ... The idea of possibly being psychic scares yet excites her at the same time.

Alec is new at Emerson Academy, but friends and grades are the least of his worries. He's run away from his duties watching out for the spawn of angels, and making sure that those who have turned dark stay in line. He doesn't plan to meet Claire, or to fall for her. But with the possibility of imprisonment if he's found, and his sudden new mission to track down a Nephilim, meeting Claire, and discovering what she is, complicates everything.

It had been a while since I'd read a book about angels, so I figured I'd give this one a try because I'd picked it up so long ago. I was very impressed with the story and the characters, and I thought the romance was really sweet.

I enjoyed the author's use of angel myths, including the Nephilim. While forbidden romances can be cliche at times, I thought that this angel romance was forbidden in the best way possible. It wasn't too far fetched of a conflict, but I thought the problems that the characters faced were sufficient enough that their worries and fears truly made sense. This book had the perfect balance between conflict, romance, and everything else. 

Alec's rebellion against what he'd spent his life doing was one of the best parts of this story. I love when characters rebel or go against what they've been taught to believe, and Alec really fit this criteria. His courage to take a stand for himself and try living a new life at Emerson Academy was admirable, and his feelings for Claire were sincere. Alec was my favourite character because he was just so interesting, he had such a complex past with so many hopes for the future. 

I also find Claire a likeable character, and I enjoyed reading about her powers and visions and how they developed. Claire's friends played an important role supporting Claire in this tough time of her life, and I appreciated that they didn't abandon her when things got really crazy. The characters in this novel were very enjoyable to read about, and that's what made this book so special and interesting. 

However, I truly wish that this book had been longer. It doesn't seem that there's going to be a sequel, and with the ending that Forbidden had, I've found myself rather disappointed. That's the thing that took off a star for me. 

Overall, a great read. Fans of angel stories will like this book, especially if you're looking for a book that doesn't revolve solely around fallen angels. Those who like forbidden romances, especially those in YA, should give this book a try.

Find Forbidden on Goodreads

Pride Month Books

June is LGBTQ Pride Month! In honor of pride month, I have decided to talk about LGBTQ books that I have read, want to read, and are currently reading.

LGBTQ Books That I Have Read

   

   

Captive Prince is a gay romance that I won off of Goodreads! I really enjoyed it. Switch features a bisexual boy dealing with biphobia in his community. If You Could Be Mine is a bittersweet story of two girls in love in Iran, and Pink features a bisexual girl in an Australian setting. Symptoms of Being Human is my favourite out of all of these because it's about a genderfluid person, and there are so few books about us genderfluid folks! 

LGBTQ Books That I Want to Read

  

  

  

There are lots of LGBTQ books that I want to read as well! A few of them include Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out, Seven Ways We Lie, Brooklyn Burning, Carry On, Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda, and Two Boys Kissing. There are sooooo many more that I want to read, but this post would never end if I listed them all! 

LGBTQ Books That I Am Currently Reading

   

I'm reading two LGBTQ books at the moment, Mask of Shadows and Unnatural. Mask of Shadows is from Netgalley while Unnatural is from the thrift store! I am so excited to be reading Mask of Shadows because there are so few books with genderfluid people in them, and to read a fantasy book with a genderfluid protagonist is super awesome! 

Thoughts

I guess I just have some general thoughts to share on LGBTQ books! I'm really glad to see more and more books featuring LGBTQ characters being released every year. Whether they are main characters or side characters, I always get excited! 

I also like that there seem to be books that don't focus on coming out. While books about this are still awesome, I love to read about LGBTQ people just existing in daily life, whether that be in a contemporary setting or in a magical fantasy world. On that note, I've seen some comments and reviews about Mask of Shadows, my current read, concerning the fact that the focus of the book isn't the character's gender identity. They just happen to exist as a genderfluid person. Some readers have said that they don't see a point to having a genderfluid character if this isn't essential to the plot, and that they think the genderfluid part is kind of ridiculous (um, ouch?). People seem to lack the understanding that genderfluid people....casually exist.....like everyone else.....and every second of every day isn't focused on our genders! Gasp! And so our genders don't have to "add" to the plot. Does every book with a female protagonist have to be about 'girl power'? No? Then why should all representation of nonbinary people have to be all about that one aspect of the character? Just some food for thought. 

On the other hand, that's not to say that books that don't feature LGBTQ people are bad! I love many books that star cisgender, heterosexual people. However, as an LGBTQ person, I like to see characters like myself in novels and stories. 

So, that's it for this post! Tell me about your favourite LGBTQ books, whether they be fiction or nonfiction. Are you currently reading any LGBTQ books? Have you read or want to read any of the books that I've mentioned today? 

Happy Pride Month!

Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick

Series: N/A
Author: Becca Fitzpatrick
Page Count: 400
Published: October 7th, 2014
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
  4.5 Stars ★★★★

Britt is going on a trip with her friend, planning to backpack in the surrounding nature, and maybe even impress her ex-boyfriend, who dumped her unexpectedly months before. When she and her friend drive into a blizzard, she has to seek shelter in a nearby cabin inhabited by two men, Shaun and Mason. At first they seem friendly, but it soon becomes clear that something just isn't right. 

These men are on the run from the law, and they demand that Britt lead them off the mountain, taking her hostage. Britt soon finds that she is not the only girl who has run into trouble on this mountain, and as tensions rise, she doesn't know who she can trust. Will she survive? Or will she die at the hands of her kidnappers, or the blizzard?

I'm a fan of Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush, Hush series, so when I saw that she had written a contemporary, young adult thriller, I was super excited. The idea of being trapped in a blizzard on a mountain, uncovering gruesome mysteries and fighting for survival, simultaneously terrifies and intrigues me, so naturally, I had to get this book. 

To be perfectly honest, I found the beginning a bit hard to get into. This wasn't due to the pacing, I think the pacing was actually really well done, but rather the characters. It took me a while to actually like Britt, the main character, and as for her best friend and ex-boyfriend, I never really liked them at all. I'm not entirely sure why I didn't like Britt at first, I think it was a mix of her narration and her fixation on her ex-boyfriend, but thankfully as I got further into the book, she became much more likeable. 

Her kidnappers, Shaun and Mason, brought an interesting dynamic to the story. Shaun, once revealed as a criminal, is completely unlikable in every way, and it isn't necessarily because of his criminal actions. As a person, he was deceptive and impulsive, and as a villain, he truly unnerved me. The idea that there are people like Shaun, real people, actually out there in the world.... Then there's Mason, who isn't really like Shaun at all, though Britt remains suspicious of him throughout the novel. Mason was written as a mysterious character, somebody with secret intentions, and I appreciated the little mystery of who exactly Mason was that was weaved into this story. 

I did have a bit of a problem with Mason's character at times, and this ties into some of my issues with Britt, as well. There was a bit of romance, or infatuation, in this book, but it just seemed out of place. I've read lots of books with kidnapping, mystery, and romance all mixed together nicely, but the romance in this book made me roll my eyes. I won't explain too much, as I don't want to spoil this for anyone, but I really believe that the romantic aspect could have been handled in a much, much better way.

One thing that I really did enjoy about this book was these memories or flashbacks of Britt's life that the reader gets every now and then. It helped me to understand Britt a little bit better, and it helped me to change my mind about disliking her. I feel that without these memories or flashbacks, this book wouldn't have been as enjoyable. 

The thing that made me truly appreciate this book was the twist at the end. While Britt and the reader are playing a guessing game throughout the whole book, the ending made me believe that one theory was true, and then the next page, it was like all the evidence just shattered and pointed to a completely different conclusion. Those last few chapters were a serious roller-coaster, and I had to stop myself from speed-reading through them to find out how it was all going to end. As for the actual ending, I think that it was a nice way to end the book, and while it played with some of the things that I had issues with earlier on in the novel, it wrapped things up nicely. 

Altogether, this was an awesome read. Thrilling and filled with mystery, I was not disappointed. While there were a few issues throughout the book, the twist ending certainly made up for it.

I recommend this to fans of young adult thrillers. If you like books that make you keep reading late into the night, play a guessing game with your mind, and offer devastating twists and turns, this book is for you.

Find Black Ice on Goodreads