May 3, 2015 by Bianca Leave a Comment

April Reads & May TBR

This month, I have finally upped my game and read more books than I did within the first couple of months in 2015.

I accumulated three more books, to add to my collection, and finally got my posting schedule together so that there is a smooth stream of content.

In the month of April I read:

Elected by Rori Shay
Suspected by Rori Shay
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

So that’s about a book a week, which is alright but not fabulous.

I have already posted my review for Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen, so you can check it out:

H E R E

On the fourth of May, I will post my review for Rori Shay’s Elected as a part of a book blog tour, and it will be followed by Suspected’s review on the fifth of May.

I just finished Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi, so my review will be on Bookalicious in about four days…

Now, to the second part; my May TBR Pile…

I am planning on reading:

Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi {Shatter Me’s Sequel}
Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi {The Third Book in the Juliette Chronicles}
Destroy Me by Tahereh Mafi {The Novella between #1 and #2}
Fracture Me by Tahereh Mafi {The Novella between #2 and #3}
The Selection by Kiera Cass

April 19, 2015 by Bianca 20 Comments

How To: Read the Shadowhunter’s Chronicles

**Disclaimer; this post has been updated numerous times to incorporate extra additions to the series. The last update was on the 9th of April, 2018.

It was a rainy, dark Sunday afternoon and my friend, Thanushri, and I were discussing how much homework we had~~n’t done~~, when she asked for a book recommendation.

We fell into a deep conversation of our favourite books when Thanushri asked if City of Glass (of which she had not read) was more interesting than City of Bones and City of Ashes. Of course, with this, I began explaining everything to her, and then it came to me that it would be more efficient to write a post all about how to read The Shadowhunter Chronicles, than explaining it to every single person on this planet.

Welcome to the world of Nephilim. I have a feeling that you won’t be leaving anytime soon.

THE SERIES + BOOKS

One of the best things about being in the Shadowhunter fandom is the fact that new stuff comes out all the time! On March the 27th, 2007, Cassandra Clare released City of Bones, the first instalment of the Mortal Instruments Series (first series).

I, personally, believed that the series was meant to stop after City of Glass, since if you stop there, most problems were resolved. Once I got out of my reading slump and began to read City of Fallen Angels, I realised that Cassandra Clare had an amazing talent of leaving small hints everywhere that don’t mean anything until later in the series (and it makes you feel like a fool for not guessing, beforehand). So please, don’t repeat my mistake, and read all 6 books.

THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS

This series consists of six books;

City of Bones —– THESE TWO BOOKS
City of Ashes —– EXPLAIN THE UNIVERSE.
City of Glass —– THIS BOOK OPENED UP THE SCENE FOR THE FINAL THREE BOOKS.
City of Fallen Angels
City of Lost Souls
City of Heavenly Fire —– BEST BOOK, BY FAR!!

[Read more…]

April 14, 2015 by Bianca Leave a Comment

Book Tour: Half Breed Queen by L.A. Hendricks

Not all that long ago, I signed up for a book blitz with ‘Mostly YA Bound Book Tours’ for L.A. Hendricks’ ‘Half Breed Queen’ which is the first instalment in the Skatia Narratives Series. I only ever sign up for book tours and book blitzes when I find novels that I would pick up, if I saw them in a bookshelf, and when I read the synopsis for this book, I fell in love!

I hope you do too!

Half Breed Queen {The Skatia Narratives #1}

By L.A. Hendricks

Genre: Fantasy, Aliens

Age category: Young Adult

Blurb:

Devastating tragedy puts 14-year-old high school freshman Marla Owens, on a fast-paced journey of survival, revival and coming of age. Driven by a force she can’t begin to understand and a burning need to find out the truth, she heads toward her mother’s home in North Dakota. She soon learns more about herself and her family than she could have ever imagined — her mother was royal heir to the powerful Skatian throne! And now the Skatian people need her to protect their world from those who wish to conquer it.

In a classic tale of good versus evil, set on Earth and beyond, a young girl fights to survive to become a young woman—and the reluctant queen of Skatia. Who can she trust? Will she be able to control her own immense abilities and justified anger to do what’s right? One thing’s for sure: Marla’s not in Texas anymore!

You can find Half Breed Queen on Goodreads.

You can buy Half Breed Queen on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo Books, The Book Depository and iTunes.

Download an Excerpt

About the Author:

LA Hendricks is an IT project manager by day and science fiction/fantasy novelist by night. A longtime lover of words, she reads science fiction, fantasy and paranormal romance novels regularly (when there is time). When not reading, writing or working, LA can most often be found watching football or basketball with her adorable cat, Mona.

You can find and contact Lori here:

Website | GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook

Wait! There’s more! Along with the release of an awesome book, Lori Hendricks and Mostly YA Bound Tours have created an awesome giveaway for you!

The Rafflecopter giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY! (Awesome!) and you could win a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

Think about the beautiful books you could buy! You could even purchase ‘Half Breed Queen’, which is cool!

Enter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

April 12, 2015 by Bianca 2 Comments

Review: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

First of all, I’m writing this review five minutes after having read the book, so if, when reading, it feels like every word has been written with overwhelming amounts of emotion, you’re right!

Cover Title: Red Queen

Series: Red Queen Series
Book Number: #1
Author/s: Victoria Aveyard

Publication Date: February the 10th, 2015
Publisher: Hachette

Pages: 299

Purchase Links: Amazon | The Book Depository| Booktopia | iTunes

Synopsis

The poverty stricken Reds are commoners, living under the rule of the Silvers, elite warriors with god-like powers.

To Mare Barrow, a 17-year-old Red girl from The Stilts, it looks like nothing will ever change.

Mare finds herself working in the Silver Palace, at the centre of
those she hates the most. She quickly discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy Silver control.
But power is a dangerous game. And in this world divided by blood, who will win?

Recently, it seems as if every reader on the internet has read Red Queen, because of the amount of hype it has received, and along with that, the praise.

At first, I thought that this book was going to be a fantasy-themed-story, with hints of royal blood here and there. I wasn’t exactly expecting what came, but I won’t hesitate to say that I’m not happy with it.

Red Queen was a sad book, full of betrayal and plot twists hiding around every corner. It’s one of those books that have to be physically pulled out of your hands to stop you from reading, and I loved it for that, however, the amount of plot twists was crazy!

Throughout the novel, I found it hard to know which characters to trust. Little hints were given by Victoria, trying to make you think that a certain character was not to be feared, but, as a reader, I disregarded them and kept going until I got to yet another plot twist that incorporated every hint and created a story which said, quite blatantly: IT WAS A BAD IDEA TO TRUST THAT CHARACTER!

I thought that the plot was quite unique, despite the fact that it reminded me of Divergent more than once, and Victoria’s execution was brilliant. The creation of the characters was, however, just above average, as I believed that – while they were fantastic – they took the default personalities of dystopian characters {e.g. Prince Charming, female character that wants change, male friend who goes a bit beyond what she wants, nice turned evil guy and psychotic step mother}.

**MINOR SPOILER** In saying this, I did enjoy Farley, as a character. She was the leader of a very big rebellion, but she was still human. Still afraid of what may come her way.**END OF SPOILER**

One part of Red Queen that I absolutely loved was the fact that the protagonist, Mare Barrow, felt like she didn’t really fit into her Red community, or her family. She was always independent, and didn’t rely on the help of her companions – however helpful they may have been.

In conclusion, I thought that Red Queen, despite a limited number of flaws, was a fabulous book and deserves to be put on my “Sweetest Books” list.

Have you heard of or read Red Queen? What do you think of the cover design?

April 7, 2015 by Bianca 2 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday: Least Favourite Characters {1}

To arrive at this topic, I asked my awesome Instagram followers to suggest some themes, so here’s this week’s T10T topic: 10 of my least favourite characters in all of the books I have read.

Beatrice Prior, Divergent I personally thought that Tris was too reliant on other people for a Dauntless and Abnegation girl. Tobias always had to be at her side, to keep her out of harm’s way (and even then, she managed to make silly decisions).
Rixon, Hush Hush Saga Come on, is there one person on this planet that did like this evil, back-stabbing guy? I don’t believe that Rixon needs an explanation.
Elara Merandus, Red Queen The perfect villain and the worst queen. She’s so evil and rude towards Mare, and she truly believes that she has the right to enter other people’s heads, just because she’s of great nobility. I think that no one should have this right, and this is why I do not like Queen Elara one tiny bit.**
Evangeline Samos, Red Queen Oh my, Evangeline was at the receiving end of my (imaginary) death stares throughout the entire book! She was rude and heartless and completely undeserving of the title of ‘Future Queen’. I also disliked the way that she turned many of the Queenstrial ‘applicants’ against Mare.**
Valentine Morgenstern, The Mortal Instruments Valentine literally ruined Jonathan’s life before he lived. Jonathan was meant to be a lovely guy, but instead of letting it be, Valentine ***SPOILER*** injected him with demon blood and created a devil of a man. In the seven minutes that Jonathan was Jonathan, we really got to understand that Jonathan was being controlled from within.
Nathaniel Gray, The Infernal Devices Last but not least, we have the worst brother that anybody could ever wish for… The devious, betraying Nate who almost got HIS OWN SISTER KILLED. Wow. There are literally no positive aspects of this wicked villain.
Jessica Betram, Confessions of a Shopaholic I’m not sure whether I was the only reader who found Jess to be annoying, but from ‘Shopaholic and Sister’ until the end of the series, I felt a strong hatred towards her and her ‘hippie’ ways. She was always trying to control Becky, even though they only knew each other for a tiny amount of time, and tried to change her lifestyle too much for my taste.
President Coin, The Hunger Games The rebellion in this trilogy was meant to be for the greater good of the nation that Katniss lived in, however, with President Coin in charge, it was impossible for the world to live peacefully. Throughout Mockingjay, Coin did so many things that Katniss hated and that would be detrimental to the rebellion’s outcome.
Brenda, The Maze Runner Oh my Gosh… Don’t even get me started on how awful Brenda is. Thomas was definitely meant to be with Teresa and she sunk the ship! I always felt that she was there purely to ruin their relationship, since she did nothing else to help the team.
Wilson, Branded Oh… My… Patch… This guy was the most frustrating, evil, horrible and did I mention evil guy in this entire universe. Cole and Lexi are still one of my favourite ships, and all that this man cared to do was break it up… NO! No one can break Colexi!

** At this point in time, I am only on page 195 (around the half-way mark) of Red Queen, so if these two characters do something drastic and change their personalities, I wouldn’t know. These two characters are in my “Burn Book” 😉 while I’m at this point in time.

So now that I have got all of my hatred out, regarding my least favourite characters, you can tell me all about yours! Who are your top five least favourite fictional characters (from books)? Why do you dislike them so much?