I'm in Norway!

Hello there. Right now, I'm actually in Norway. I've scheduled this post to let you know that I won't be continuing my a review a day schedule for the next week. I actually still have eight books to go, but it would've been too stressful to write a review for each of these before leaving for my holidays. I'm sure that's okay with everyone but I wanted to mention it nonetheless. And to be honest, I'm already insanely proud of managing to post every single day for a week. That has to count for something!

So as I've said, I'm in Norway. It feels weird to write this before I'm actually there. I'm sure Norway is beautiful and I will certainly talk about it more once I get back. I'm going with my dad, his girlfriend and my sister and we're renting a car and, starting from Oslo, are going to go to different places in the south of Norway. I don't really know where exactly I will be on Sunday, respectively now, but I'm sure my dad has it all under control. And once I get back, I will hopefully be able to show you exactly where we went and what we saw.

But yes, I'm very excited and this is all getting too confusing, writing as future-me. I'm going to leave it at that and hope you're having a wonderful week. I'll be back soon with hopefully many beautiful pictures and some more book talks.

Shatter Me

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

I have a curse.

I have a gift.

I'm a monster.

I'm more than human.

My touch is lethal.

My touch is power.

I am their weapon.

I will fight back.

No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon. But Juliette has plans of her own. After a lifetime without freedom, she's finally discovering a strength to fight back for the very first time - and to find a future with the one boy she thought she'd lost forever.

Juliette can't touch anyone and she hasn't talked to anyone in 264 days when The Reestablishment get her out of the asylum her parents put her in. But The Reestablishment have plans of their own, they want to use Juliette's ability to inflict pain upon touch as a weapon for torture. Surrounded by people who scare her and disgust her, Juliette holds on to Adam, the boy she's known since school and the only person who's ever been nice to her her entire life.

This book took a little getting used to. The writing style in the beginning is very unique and mirrors what's going on in Juliette's head. Sentences are crossed out and replaced by ones that don't scare her as much. She is on the verge of going insane and I loved how we could feel that through the writing. Juliette's life has been so incredibly lonely that when she finally finds the one person who's nice to her and treats her like a human being, Juliette grows more self-confident and the sentences get less choppy.

I really enjoyed the story, it's very unique and a good start go a great series. Surprisingly, I liked Juliette's character, even though I usually prefer strong and badass heroines to weak and dependent ones. And Juliette definitely belongs to that second category. The relationship between her and Adam is so important and I loved to see how Juliette changed because of what Adam saw in her. For the first time in her life, someone thought of her as a human being with emotions and feelings and not just a monster. For the first time, someone gave her love and friendship instead of hatred. That gave her an enormous amount of strength and I think was crucial for her development also later in the series. She's still very dependent at the end of this book, but it's definitely a start.

I recommend reading this series to anyone who likes dystopian, fantasy, paranormal kinds of books. I can't really compare it to anything I've read before, it really is very unique and I loved that

Rebel Belle

 

Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins

Harper Price, peerless Southern belle, was born ready for a Homecoming tiara. But after a strange run-in at the dance, Harper's destiny takes a turn for the seriously weird. She's imbued with the powers of a Paladin, guardian with agility, super strength and lethal fighting instincts.

Just when life can't get any more disastrously crazy, Harper finds out who she's charged to protect: David Stark, school reporter, subject of a mysterious prophecy and possibly Harper's least favorite person. Things get complicated when Harper starts falling for him - and discovers that David's own fate could very well be to destroy Earth.

In this book, we learn about the world of Paladins and Oracles alongside Harper Price, who has been passed on the power of Paladin at her Homecoming dance. Her duty is to protect David Stark, the first male oracle in a very long time. Harper learns to handle her superstrenght and speed and of course David is always endangered to be killed, so she desperately needs her superpowers to protect him from the bad guys. While trying to keep what's happening to her secret from her friends and family, she keeps struggling to act normal and find time to spend with her boyfriend Ryan. As everyone grows more and more suspicious, the danger David's in keeps increasing and Harper really doesn't have time for both her private life and Paladin anymore.

This is the first book in a series and I'm not sure I'm going to pick up the other ones when they're released. Even though the writing style is fantastic and I often laughed out loud while reading, I didn't enjoy the story very much. I think it would have been a great novel if there hadn't been the paranormal aspect to it. I don't like the idea of Paladin and Oracles and since the main story does focus on that, I'm not very curious as to what happens next. I will say though that the backstories are great. I loved the relationship between Harper and David and so many hilarious moments happen between them. The friendship with Bee also seemed very genuine and I was glad there wasn't too much drama going on there, unlike with Harper and Ryan.

I gave this three out of five stars because I loved the writing style but the story itself really didn't do anything for me. It seemed to be making fun of the idea of paranormal books because the Paladin stuff is just strange and silly and I really didn't like that. It was all just too weird for my taste.

The Assassin's Blade

The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas

Celaena Sardothien is Adarlan's most feared assassin. As part of the Assassin's Guild, her allegiance is to her master, Arobynn Hamel, yet Celaena listens to no one and trusts only her fellow killer-for-hire, Sam. In these action-packed novellas - together in one edition for the first time - Celaena embarks on five daring missions. They take her from remote islands to hostile deserts, where she fights to liberate slaves and seeks to avenge the tyrannous. But she is acting against Arobynn's orders and could suffer an unimaginable punishment for such treachery. Will Celaena ever be truly free? Explore the dark underworld of this kick-ass heroine to find out.

After reading both Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight in a few days, I needed more. So I picked up my only option for more Celaena. This book is a collection of five novellas all set before Throne of Glass. They focus on the relationship between Celaena and Sam who is introduced in Throne of Glass as Celaena's first love. I was so excited to learn more about Celaena's past and most of all of her life as a real assassin, doing her job and killing people for money. But this book turned out to be so much more than just that. It's not about Celaena going around and killing random people but about discovering that she does not agree with Arobynn's choices and standing up for what she believes in. It's about how she gets in trouble and many stories that are mentioned in Throne of Glass are told in this book. We also learn about the background of her capturing and also about what happened to Sam. I'm really hoping that some of the hints that are dropped in this book will be uncovered in the upcoming Throne of Glass novels. I would love to see Arobynn make an appearance in the series. 

I definitely recommend reading these novellas if you like the Throne of Glass series. Even though we all know how it's going to end, learning about how Celaena gets there was so interesting and heartbreaking. I absolutely fell in love with Sam and I was hoping against hope that he would meet a different end. And thinking about what Celaena has witnessed at her age just makes me incredibly sad and I feel like I understand a lot of her actions better now. So reading these stories is definitely time well spent if you would like to know everything about Celaena Sardothien.

Crown of Midnight

 

Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

 

Eighteen-year-old Celaena Sardothien is bold, daring and beautiful – the perfect seductress and the greatest assassin her world has ever known. But though she won the King’s contest and became his champion, Celaena has been granted neither her liberty nor the freedom to follow her heart. The slavery of the suffocating salt mines of Endovier that scarred her past is nothing compared to a life bound to her darkest enemy, a king whose rule is so dark and evil it is near impossible to defy. Celaena faces a choice that is tearing her heart to pieces: kill in cold blood for a man she hates, or risk sentencing those she loves to death. Celaena must decide what she will fight for: survival, love or the future of a kingdom. Because an assassin cannot have it all . . . And trying to may just destroy her.

The second novel in the Throne of Glass series focuses on Celaena's life after the big competition to become the king's champion. I liked this one even better than the first because we plunge deeper into the world of Erilea and uncover many more dark secrets. The huge plot twists made the whole story so much more complex that I cannot wait to know what's coming next. I definitely recommend starting this series and if you haven't read the first two books, do not continue reading this post because it will ruin the story for you.

I love how Celaena develops in this book, from a rather selfish young woman to someone who wants to change the world and fight against the bad guys. I also really enjoyed Nehemia's role even though I would've preferred her to stay alive. But her death is also what brings Celaena to act and actually do something. I thought the way she grieved and seeked revenge for her friend was really moving and it let us see a part of her that we kind of forgot about towards the end of the first book.

Even though I don't think I really have to mention it, I absolutely love the relationship between Celaena and Chaol. I'm so glad they got together and even though everything is very unclear at the end, I'm sure these two will end up together. I cannot wait for September, when Heir of Fire, the third book in the series, is coming out. There are so many possibilities as to what could happen, I just need to know!

Overall I just loved every page of this book. It proved that the Throne of Glass series deserves to be my new favorite fantasy series. It's so brilliant and I'm loving Celaena more every chapter. She is such an interesting character and I admire how she's anything but weak. I feel like in a lot of young adult books, the female main characters are always sort of week and dependant in the beginning and only learn to be stronger throughout the book and with the help of some guy who believes in them. Celaena was absolutely kick-ass from the very start and I love that. I really just can't get over how much I love this series.

Throne of Glass

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Meet Celaena Sardothien.
Beautiful. Deadly. Destined for greatness.

In the dark, filthy salt mines of Endovier, an eighteen-year-old girl is serving a life sentence. She is a trained assassin, the best of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake: she got caught.

Young Captain Westfall offers her a deal: her freedom in return for one huge sacrifice. Celaena must represent the prince in a to-the-death tournament—fighting the most gifted thieves and assassins in the land. Live or die, Celaena will be free. Win or lose, she is about to discover her true destiny. But will her assassin’s heart be melted?

So this is the story of Celaena, an assassin feared by all the world, Dorian, the crown prince, and Chaol, Dorian's closest friend and captain of the royal guard. Celaena meets the other two as she is supposed to fight as Dorian's champion in a tournament to become the king's assassin. Even though she doesn't want to serve the crown, participating is her only chance of survival. Throughout the tournament, Celaena gets to know both Dorian and Chaol better and we learn a lot about the most feared assassin. There are also dark mystical things going on in the castle and especially surrounding the king that Celaena needs to learn about to protect herself from getting killed.

I went into this book with a feeling I was going to like it and it lived up to any expectations I could've had. I fell in love with Celaena and her sass and bad-assery. I instantly liked her humour and sarcasm and also loved to watch her open up throughout the book. We get to know her 'softer' side as the story develops and we find that, even though she could probably kick anyone's ass, she also has a soft and girly side and loves clothes and books. If that is not the definition of a perfect heroine, I don't know what is.

I also really enjoyed Chaol's character. I loved how Celaena wasn't what he expected at all and he was always waiting for her to show her real side and start murdering the people around her. He was so cautious with her and oh so loyal to Dorian, it was quite impressive. I couldn't wait for him to get to know Celaena's real self and, honestly, for them to fall in love. I'm not a huge fan of Dorian but I see how he's important to the story. And he did get Celaena to open up and we find out a lot about her because of him.

This is definitely one of my new favorite fantasy series; to me it was perfection through and through. The characters and the setting are perfect and I can't wait for what's yet to come. I definitely recommend starting this series to anyone who likes fantasy. You will not regret it.

Thank you for reading.

The Edge of Falling

The Edge of Falling by Rebecca Serle

Caggie's life was perfect.

But when a moment of recklessness on the Manhattan rooftops is misunderstood by her friends and family, Caggie knows that her life has changed forever. Nothing makes sense anymore, and no one seems to understand.

Then she meets the dark and enigmatic Astor - the only person who understands what she's going through. But as he seduces Caggie further away from her old life and everyone she once cared about, she starts to wonder if she'll ever find her way back. Because once you fall, there's no going back.

A lot is going on in Caggie's life and she doesn't really know how to handle it all. A few months back she lost her little sister and she can't help but feel responsible for her sister's death. On top of that, she becomes known at her school for saving someone's life at a party in summer but noone knows the truth about what really happened that night. She can't tell anyone, so she starts shutting everyone out who used to be close to her. She pushes away her friends and family and only when she meets Astor, she feels like someone understands what she's going through. She becomes more and more attached to him, keeping away from her family and best friend, even though she doesn't really know anything about him.

The story of how Caggie deals with her grief sounded really interesting and the cover is so beautiful, I was really excited to read this book. But then I was kind of disappointed. The story itself is rather dark and it was very hard for me to identify myself with our main character. I understand that Caggie is going through a very difficult time and making the right choices is definitely not easy in that position but she was acting so stupidly. Sometimes all I wanted was to shake her and tell her what an idiot she's being. And then Astor is just such a weird guy, I never managed to warm up to him and he really scared me at some points. There just wasn't anyone in this book that I liked as a character which makes it hard to enjoy the story.

I did like the ending to this and I felt like everything was wrapped up nicely, especially because it ended the way I hoped it would - even if it was rather dramatic. But what bothered me most overall was that the whole story never really touched me. When I read Love Letters to the Dead I cried throughout the whole thing just because the thought of losing my sister is unbearable. I didn't shed one tear reading The Edge of Falling though, even though the main characteres are in similar situations. I have no idea why but that's definitely why I didn't rate it higher than three stars. I had just expected a little more.

The book is rather short, though, so if you're interested you should definitely give it a try. And, to be honest, that cover makes a great addition to any bookshelf. Thank you for reading!

I'm back!

Hello there. I have not posted anything on here in two weeks but that is going to change! As you might know, I went to Mallorca two weeks ago for my summer holidays and my friends and I spent a beautiful week at the beach. I got a lot of reading done which leaves me with 10 books to review. The plan is to post one review a day for the next few days and get this out of the way. The reviews are most likely going to be shorter than usual because I don't remember every single detail about books I've read a month ago. I really hope I'll finally be able to get back on track with my reviewing and hopefully not fall behind so easily in the future.

But for now, I'm going to leave you with a few pictures of our trip to Mallorca. Thank you for reading!

My Summer TBR

Hello there. It's FRIDAY and not just any Friday but the Friday before my summer holidays. I'm leaving for Mallorca on Sunday and I'm beyond excited. Lying on the beach and enjoying the sun and just relax is going to be awesome and of course I'm also hoping to read a lot of good books while I'm at it and that's what I wanted to talk about today.

I have a few books here that I'm absolutely dying to read so I thought I'd show them to you. My amazon order just arrived yesterday and SO MANY GOOD BOOKS. So these are the books that I got and plan to read in the next few weeks: 

• Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi
  I've just finished reading Shatter Me and I cannot wait to read the second novel in the series. It's about Juliette, a girl who has never known love or friendship because everyone thinks she's a monster. She cannot touch people without inflicting serious pain or even kill them, which has led to an extremely lonely life and a lot of insecurities. She is taken in by The Reestablishment who want her to be their weapon and force her to use her power. I'm hoping to read this soon but decided it wasn't really beach-reading-material and it's probably going to have to stay at home. I'm really intrigued by the ending of the first book so I'm sure this won't be left on the TBR-pile for too long.
• We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
  I've heard so much about this and at the same time almost nothing. Everyone said it's best to go into this book not knowing anything and I'm really excited to do exactly that. This is such a tiny book that I'm hoping to get through it quickly and definitely plan on reading this next week at the beach.
• Everything Leads To You by Nina LaCour
  I am in love with this cover. I don't really know much about this book either but THE COVER. It's so beautiful and I can't wait to find out whether the story is too. It's about a girl called Emi whose brother gave her his Los Angeles apartment for the summer under the condition that she does something great there while he's gone. This sounds like the perfect setting for a fun story and hopefully that's exactly what it will be.
• Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson
  Another beautiful cover and hopefully another great contemporary novel. I love the synopsys of this book and am very very excited to read it. It's about a girl called Emily whose best friend disappeared and left her a to-do list to bring Emily to do things she wouldn't normally do.
• Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson
  This book looks so interesting! Flipping through it, I can see pictures and lists (I love lists of all sorts) and maps and I just want to know what it's all about. It's about a girl and a guy going on a roadtrip; I don't even need to hear more, I already love it.
• The Museum of Intangible Things by Wendy Wunder
  Another one I bought because of the cover. How could I resist all these pretty covers though? I'm not sure I'm taking this on my trip next week (I am going by plane after all and there's this annoying weight limit) but this will definitely be read this summer too. I mean look at it, it practically screams summer. It's about two friends leaving their boring town to discover new places and meet new people.
• The Selection by Kiera Cass
  I've wanted to start this series for so long but then always decided to read another one first. But I will get to this eventually. Everytime I read the synopsys, I want to read the book instantly but then for some unknown reason never actually do. It's about a girl who is one of 35 chosen women to compete for the love of a prince, even though she doesn't actually want to. What actually won me over is the promise of 'glittering gowns and priceless jewels'. I just love stories of luxury and balls and I'm very excited to start this book.

So these are all of the books on my Summer TBR List (for now). Since I can't really take all of them with me to Mallorca, I'm gonna have to make a very difficult choice soon. I want to read them all and arrgghhh.

So if you have any recommendations as to which ones I should read first, please leave a comment. I'm really facing an impossible decision and I need help!

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you're having a great day.

June Wrap-Up

Hello you beautiful person. It is now July and I'm here with my June Wrap-Up. June has been a good reading month for me but not such a good blogging month. I read a lot of five-star books this month that I obviously want to talk about but even though my plan was to write a review for every single book I read, I haven't quite been able to keep up with my blogging lately, especially because I want to talk about non-booky things too. But I'm still going to show you all the books I've read this month and if someone out there, for whatever reason, is interested in my opinion on one of these books, I will gladly write that review first.

So I've read the following 7 books this month:

• Attachments by Rainbow Rowell | ★★★★★ | Review
• My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick | ★★★★ | Review
• City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare | ★★★★★ | Review
• The Edge of Falling by Rebecca Serle | ★★★ | Review
• Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas | ★★★★★ | Review
• Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas | ★★★★★ | Review
• The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas | ★★★★★ | Review

I'm currently reading Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins which will be included in my July Wrap-Up as I haven't finished it yet. I also plan on doing a Summer TBR post once my Amazon order arrives as I'm going on holidays next week and plan to read a lot of books.

Thank you so much for reading.