January Wrap-Up

Don't mind all the balloons in this post, it's my sister's birthday today.

Well hello there. Unfortunately, January is already coming to an end and university is starting again soon. But I'm here today to talk about happier things: the books I read in the very first month of 2015! Even though I had to study quite a bit this month (exams suck) and am also working, I found time to read 9 books in January. This isn't the most books in a month I've ever read but I'm still happy with it, considering that some of these books were quite big. 

ARC Review: One of the Guys

I received a free copy of this book through Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion or my review of the book in any way. Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with this eARC!

One of the Guys
by Lisa Aldin
Publication date: February 10, 2015
Published by: Spencer Hill Press
Kindle Edition, 320 pages
My rating: 4/5 ★

Tomboy to the core, Toni Valentine understands guys. She'll take horror movies, monster hunts and burping contests over manicures. So Toni is horrified when she's sent to the Winston Academy for Girls, where she has to wear a skirt and learn to be a lady while the guys move on without her.

Then Toni meets Emma Elizabeth, a girl at school with boy troubles, and she volunteers one of her friends as a pretend date. Word spreads of Toni’s connections with boys, and she discovers that her new wealthy female classmates will pay big money for fake dates. Looking for a way to connect her old best friends with her new life at school, Toni and Emma start up Toni Valentine’s Rent-A-Gent Service.

But the business meets a scandal when Toni falls for one of her friends--the same guy who happens to be the most sought-after date. With everything she's built on the line, Toni has to decide if she wants to save the business and her old life, or let go of being one of the guys for a chance at love.

One of the Guys was a fun and light read but our main character also deals with some more difficult things. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and read the whole thing in a day because I couldn't put it down. The story really surprised me. It focuses on friendship and also family besides the (obvious) romance. All of these themes were equally as prominent and I really liked that.

The friendships in One of the Guys are perfect and felt very real. Toni has always been a part of a group of four friends and she starts to realize that they are growing apart a little. Her fear of losing her friends came across really well in my opinion and I could relate to Toni a lot because of it. She didn't always deal with it in the best way, but who does? Overall she seemed like a pretty straight-forward person and I really liked that. She does have major problems with telling people how she feels and, even though as a reader it was a little annoying at times, it showed her character development perfectly throughout the book.

Character development. Toni goes through a lot of that and it was wonderful to watch. In the beginning she really is tomboy to the core but with time and especially with befriending Emma, she realizes that she wants to 'embrace her womanhood', as she puts it. This went really well together with the other things she's discovering about herself and coming to terms with.

The romance was also really well done in my opinion. No instalove but a friendship that slowly grows into something more and I just really enjoyed to read about it and see it develop. I will say, though, that Toni has absolutely no clue when it comes to love and feelings and just doesn't see things that are completely obvious to the reader. But since it really fit her character, it didn't bother me for the most part.

Whereas I liked the story a lot overall, I also had some minor problems with it. Toni seemed like a pretty reasonable character most of the time. She even realizes at times that her problems might not be the biggest ones out there and those are the scenes that positively surprised me (because, really, what YA character ever does that?). But she also has those moments when I just wanted to shake her and scream at her that what she's doing is STUPID. The business she starts being one of them. That whole aspect of the story really wasn't my favorite. It just screamed trouble from the very beginning and those kinds of things really annoy me in books. But gladly, the story had a lot of other focuses too and it all balanced out very well.

I would recommend One of the Guys to anyone who likes contemporary but is looking for something a little different. There is romance but it doesn't overshadow the other aspects of the story and I really liked that. Also, the book is very well written and you'll just fly through it.

On the Topic of Angels

Well, hi there. As you may or may not know, I'm currently reading the Daughter of Smoke & Bones trilogy by Laini Taylor. And it's got me thinking, so today I'm going to talk about something a little different on here (nothing deep or anything, don't worry).

Angels are these beautiful, elegant and graceful creatures and honestly, who wouldn't love a pair of wings for themselves? But when you start to think about it, wouldn't that just be the most inconvenient thing ever? Yes, the flying is great. And yes, they would look really cool. But here are some things I've thought about where I'm really glad there aren't two huge wings attached to my back:

Top 5 Authors I Would Like To Meet

Hi there. It's time for another Top 5 Wednesday post, since, you know, it's Wednesday. T5W was created by Lainey at gingerreadslainey and if you want to join in, you can do so here. This week's topic is Top 5 Authors We Would Like To Meet. I found this quite hard to put together because while I love reading their books, I probably wouldn't know what to say to these authors. Mostly,  I just want to hear them talk about anything and that would be fine with me. 

5. George R. R. Martin

What I usually say about George R. R. Martin is that I really don't want to meet him. He has written many scenes that made me cringe and that I could hardly read and I'm not sure I want to meet the guy who comes up with all of them. I mean, he makes his characters go through that and he thinks all of it up in his head. Of course that's what makes him such a great writer but it's also kind of scary. But I guess curiosity won the better of me and I would just ask him about EVERYTHING in the Song of Ice and Fire series.

4. Suzanne Collins

She is the writer of my favorite trilogy, so of course I want to meet her. If only to convince her to write another book. Or to sign my books. Or to tell her how much I love The Hunger Games.

3. Laini Taylor

She's an author I've only recently discovered but I fell in love. With her writing, her imagination and her books. I just want her to teach me everything so that I can write as good as her one day (that's not too much to ask, right?)

2. J.K. Rowling

I don't really have to explain why I want to meet her right? Right. I bet she's on everyone's list but that's no reason for me to leave her out. She's the person who brought Harry Potter to life. She deserves to be one every list there ever will be. I should probably read her other books before meeting her, though.. 

1. Rainbow Rowell

Now, she just seems like the best person on earth. I want to be her friend. I mean, of course I want to be friends with someone who writes books like that. So relatable and simply beautiful. She has quickly become one of my favorite authors and I will buy and read absolutely anything she writes. Can we please be friends already?

So that's it, those are my top 5 authors I want to meet. I hope you're all having a great week and thank you for reading!

What authors would you like to meet? 

Do you agree with my choices?

Movie Review: The Spectacular Now

So I finally watched The Spectacular Now last night and I just want to quickly share my thoughts. I haven't read the book yet, and I know I should've probably done that first, but I just really felt like watching the movie. I didn't really know what it was about and I expected some cute teenage romance. It surprised me, though, because it was quite different from what I had imagined.

It follows Sutter Keely who is this upbeat, popular guy who doesn't really care about anything other than enjoying what he has right now. But we soon find out that his carefree attitude towards everything just helps him to avoid all the things he doesn't want to have to cope with, like not knowing his dad. After his girlfriend breaks up with him, he meets Aimee who is completely different from him. At first, he wants to 'help' her out by being her friend or something like that (I didn't really get that part) but of course things get a little more complicated.

Even from how I just described the movie, I would still expect a cutesy romantic story, but it's really not. I don't really know how to describe it, it just runs a lot deeper than what I expected. Since I really  don't want to spoil anything for you if you, like me, don't really know what the story is about, I'm just going to say that it left me rather sad than happy.

The acting was phenomenal in my opinion. It felt very real and honest and I loved how there was lots of awkward laughter. The conversations didn't feel superficial or simply well-rehearsed, they rather seemed like they could be happening in everyday-life, and isn't that what acting should be like? Also, there wasn't a lot of background music, which really matched the setting and story of the movie and I loved that. Sometimes it gets a little too much when there's always music that's trying to tell you what to feel. The Spectacular Now made me cry a little without a sad song playing at the right moment. It's not that hard for a movie to make me cry, though, but still.

Overall I really liked this movie and it was surprisingly different from what I had been expecting. One problem I had with it was that I didn't always feel like I quite understood what was happening. That made it a little harder to connect with the story. Also, not much actually happens throughout the story and I can imagine that that bothers some people; for me it was okay, though. I might still pick up the book sometime and hopefully that would help me understand the whole story a little better, but I wasn't that blown away by the movie that I feel the need to start the book right now.

Have you watched The Spectacular Now? 

If so, what are your thoughts?

Thank you for reading!

Review: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Publication date: February 21, 2012
Published by: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Paperback, 359 pages
My rating: ★★★★★

Dante can swim. Ari can't. Dante is articulate and self-assured. Ari has a hard time with words and suffers from self-doubt. Dante gets lost in poetry and art. Ari gets lost in thoughts of his older brother who is in prison. Dante is fair skinned. Ari's features are much darker. It seems that a boy like Dante, with his open and unique perspective on life, would be the last person to break down the walls that Ari has built around himself. But against all odds, when Ari and Dante meet, they develop a special bond that will teach them the most important truths of their lives, and help define the people they want to be. But there are big hurdles in their way, and only by believing in each other - and the power of their friendship - can Ari and Dante emerge stronger on the other side.

This was one of the most beautiful and honest books I have ever read. It broke my heart even though I didn't feel like I had a lot in common with any of the characters. But Benjamin Alire Sáenz used his wonderful words to make me feel so many emotions while reading about Ari and Dante. When I picked up this book, I never expected it to be as good as it was. To be honest, if it weren't for the Little Book Club, I probably would never even have thought of reading it at all.

The main focus of the story is Ari and Dante's friendship, how it came to be and all the struggles that come with being a friend. But the book was about so much more than that. It told so many different stories, all of them unique and beautiful to read about. Ari and Dante meet at the beginning of summer as Dante offers to teach Ari to swim. I loved their first encounter and everything that happened from then on. Their friendship grows incredibly strong even though both of them aren't very experienced with the friendship-business. Especially Ari has problems opening up to people and it was wonderful to see him do so more and more throughout the book. We get to learn so much about these two and the journey is simply beautiful.

Then there's Ari's family. I loved learning about them and finding out about all their own private wars that they were fighting. Because Ari's family didn't have it very easy. Ari's older brother is in prison and his dad is dealing with being a Vietnam war veteran. Not only Ari has a way of dealing with things on the inside, without talking to anyone, but his parents too. Talking about feelings is difficult for all of them and it was wonderful to see them open up to each other throughout the story. Even though Ari is often unnecessarily hard on himself and very negative in general, I completely understood and felt for him. He had so many questions about himself and his family that he couldn't answer on his own and he struggles with that weight throughout the book.

Overall, this was a beautiful story about growing up and coming to terms with yourself, about family and friendship, and about falling in love. I highly recommend this book to anyone, it's exceptionally well written and handles different sensitive topics incredibly well.

Review: Days of Blood & Starlight

This is the second book in the Daughter of Smoke and Bones trilogy. If you haven't read the first book, you probably shouldn't read any further because there might be spoilers. I reviewed the first book here.

Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor

Art student and monster's apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.

In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.

While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.

But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?

This book was simply amazing. Laini Taylor's writing is so beautiful and her imagination must be the most wonderful thing in this world. I don't know how she came up with a story like this - a story that made it impossible to stop reading - but I am so glad she did.

So much happened in this book and I loved it all. After finishing the first book, I had hoped the second one would be even better, and it did not let me down. This book kept me on edge throughout the whole story. I was so scared of what would happen next all the time because, let's be honest, anything could happen. Laini Taylor is not scared to kill off characters and who knows what else she had come up with? Luckily, she's also a genius writer and everything comes together in the end so wonderfully. Just enough good news to balance out the bad, and enough hope to keep you reading. 

As I said, I loved everything in this book. Karou's development was wonderful to watch and even though I was screaming at her in my head at some points, I think she handled everything pretty well. I hadn't expected her to keep going after Brimstone's death the way she did, but it just all made so much sense. 

One of my favorite things about the book was how Zuzana and Mik still played an important role. I kind of expected them to be cast aside, since, you know, there's a whole new world to be explored in the book. But they weren't and, again, everything worked together so perfectly. There are also a lot of new characters introduced, which I liked a lot. Even though most made my skin crawl, I loved reading about everyone equally. Usually I have one or two characters that I'm most interested in but here I just wanted to know about everyone and everything.

Another thing that I thought was done incredibly well was Karou's and Akiva's relationship. Even more than in the first book, romance was not the main focus of the story at all and, surprisingly, that didn't bother me one bit. There are still a lot of mixed feelings between the two and as a reader, you got to feel that so well. Even though I do want the romantic happy ending, I am okay with not getting it (yet). The things Karou felt just seemed so reasonable. I mean, who could blame her?

All in all, this book was just incredible. I can't wait to see how the series ends because I'm sure it will be epic. All the tiny problems I had with the first book were completely forgotten after the first few pages of this book.

Let me know what you thought of Days of Blood & Starlight and thank you for reading!