REVIEW – The Vampire Wish

He’s a vampire prince. She’s a human blood slave. They should be enemies… but uniting might be their only hope to prevent a supernatural war.

Annika never thought of herself as weak—until the day vampires murdered her parents and kidnapped her from our world to the hidden vampire kingdom of the Vale.

As a brand new blood slave, Annika must learn to survive her dangerous new circumstances… or face imminent death from the monstrous wolves prowling outside the Vale’s enchanted walls. But not all in the kingdom is as it appears, and when a handsome vampire disguised as a human steps into her life, Annika discovers that falling for the enemy is sometimes too tempting to resist.

Especially when becoming a vampire might be her only chance to gain the strength she needs to escape the Vale.

This review will be spoiler free.

I gave this book a 3/5 stars, but now that I am rethinking it, I may actually give it a 2.5/5 stars. I had high hopes going into this book but it just let me down.

I recently got 3 months of Kindle Unlimited for $0.99. So when I found the full series of these books, I was excited to start reading them.

When I began, the writing was very dull. It was based on action more than anything else.

We follow the main character, Annika, as she watches her family be killed by vampires and she becomes a blood slave.

As she lives in Vale, the kingdom owned by vampires, she developed a “family” at the local tavern that she works at. I would have loved to learn more about this family situation as many experienced the same as Annika, but there is hardly any character development at all. The author kind of just used them as characters to be used once and then tossed to the side.

There was a budding romance that was tossed to the side and then never heard from again. I would have liked to see their relationship develop, but that never happened.

I think the hardest part about reading this novel was that there was hardly any character development at all. Yes, it is a short novel, but I would like to get to know the characters. They all seem pretty shallow and that is disappointing.

Also, there was no details of the area around them. There was a few small environmental descriptions, but I want to know more about their surroundings.

The worst part is, that it ends on a cliffhanger. It was not a problem for me because I have all the books in one Kindle book, but if you bought a physical copy, be warned.

I am not sure if I want to read the next novels.. If the writing becomes better then I might, but it was pretty bland. The novels are not that long, so I may give it a shot.

I appreciate that the author took the time to write this novel, but I am thinking the advertising of her being a best seller is a little of a stretch.

All in all, the writing was bland and the story is a bit generic. I do have to admire that it is an Aladdin retelling. So that is awesome.

Have you read this novel? Do you plan to?

The Wicker King Review – SPOILERS

This review contains spoilers.

I did not really know what to expect with this book, but all I knew was that it involved mental health and two possible gay bois. I was excited to start reading and I discovered that it is written in short, letter-like chapters. At first I thought I was not going to like the way it was written, but I was surprised to see that it all flowed well and it was great to read.

I particularly enjoyed the attention to detail as the pages got darker and darker the more in depth into the madness the two boys got. It was such an interesting read and look at how mental illness can affect those who are close to the person suffering.

Well in this case it was a tumor in the brain, but mental health, none the less.

Anyway, the story of the real world and the Wicker King’s world was interesting to read about and to read about the stark differences the two boys experienced was interesting. It just goes to show that not everyone views the world the same way.

I did not particularly like August and Jack’s relationship at first as it seemed like Jack could be abusive towards August, who was just trying his best to help his friend in need. I am happy that at the end, Jack seems to be not abusive as his problem is gone.
Personality changes may have been due to the tumor, though.

I would have loved to know more about Peter and Roger, though. They seemed to be the voice of reason, along with Rina. I would love to possibly see another novel with more a more in depth look at these characters. Peter and Roger meant well, even if they were creepy, and Peter sometimes mean, in trying to help.

I especially liked the end notes that the author wrote about how people who are living in neglectful relationships and mental illness. I loved the message that she portrayed that it is not your fault if you are in that situation and I think that is so important to know. It was powerful and I think you should definitely read the end note as it is powerful.

I enjoyed this book overall, and I will definitely be recommending it to others!

Have you read this book? Did you like it? What are your thoughts?

Until next blog,

Five Feet Apart Review

Guess who is back after a year and a half hiatus! I am finally getting back into the gist of actually posting again and getting out of my reading slump. I have finally gotten my mojo back to write so hopefully I can keep it up again.

Anyway, the first review of the year is for the novel turned movie, Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippencott and contributors!

My Rating: 5/5Five Feet Apart is a novel that gives insight into the not normally well known world of cystic fibrosis and how people with this terminal illness live their lives knowing that they could die at any moment. It focuses on Stella, a high school senior that has to miss her senior trip to be in the hospital due to a flair up of her CF. We explore her world and her friends.

Soon another CFer comes in named Will. He also has B. Cepacia, a highly medicine resistant bacteria, and they fall in love, but are forbidden to ever touch.

It also has characters like Poe who does not want to be in a committed relationship due to him not wanting to hurt his partner if he dies. Did I mention he is gay? Poe needs to be protected. They all need to be protected.

That is all I am going to say about the plot to avoid spoilers. It was a great read and I enjoyed reading about a world that you never really hear about. My only experience with CF is that one of my mom’s work friends had a baby born with CF a few years ago. That is about it.

I am not sure how well the representation is to accurately show people who have this terminal illness and I am not sure what terminology is offensive if any, but I hope that what I read was accurate so that I can say I am more aware of their struggles and everyday life. If anyone knows if it is accurate or has any more information, please let me know!

I read this book to prepare for the new movie that just came out a few days ago. I am going to go see it with my mom and I am excited to see how they ended up changing the book into a movie.

I feel like everyone needs to read this book as it shows a forbidden world to those without CF take for granted. It deals with serious subjects that show the hardships these characters and people in real like go through. It is a quick read and I think it is worth it.

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts?

Anyway, I will see you guys in the next post. I apologize for my absence and I hope that I will keep up an actual schedule this time.

Updates + Late BookCon Overview

So this is very belated, but I went to BookCon for the first time and I adored it. I actually made some friends there and that was really cool. I got a ton of books for free. 😍 I also bought some books from some indie authors and I am looking forward to supporting them! I am currently reading a book from Interlude Press. I adore their company so much.

So my first experience with BookCon was a DOOZY. There was so much there and I adored it. The lines were atrocious, but I did end up with some really good free books. Sadly, they were not giving away ARCs of Muse of Nightmares and Wicked King. They said they only did that for BookExpo. That is ok, though. I got some really great books!

I thought I was going to meet some of my favourite authors, but I did not realize that they sell out within seconds, so that sucked.

However, I did get to see V.E. Schwab. I just got to see her, nothing else. My friend was walking behind Laini Taylor!

Books I got for free!

The books I bought with my own money!

Overall, I enjoyed it a lot. It was painful, but the goodies made up for it. 😍 I swear all of my bags were at LEAST 50 pounds. It was so painful.

I am hoping to go back next year! Maybe I can actually see a Broadway show next year too. 😀

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Now onto updates!

I have been meaning to update my blog’s theme and image. I want to change my aesthetic to something to do with succulents because I recently started raising succulents. Would you guys mind if I started blogging about my succulents/gardening adventures? I kind of want to turn this into a book blog/gardening blog!

With the recent passing of my life-long best friend, my cat Rudy, I have turned to gardening to try to ease the grieving process. It hurts a lot still, but I am really enjoying my new plants.

My new babies! I still have yet to name them all! The one in the metal container is Hermann, though!

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So that is it for now. Let me know whst you think! Did you go to BookCon? Do you like succulents/gardening? How would you feel if I blogged about gardening as well?

Until Next Time,

Alyssa

[Review – Spoilers] Reign of the Fallen

So, I am sure I am late to the party to this one, but I felt the need to share my opinions. I had a lot of mixed feelings with this book, so I will share them to those willing to read. Be warned, there will be spoilers.

So, I do not usually rate books lowly because I appreciate the effort that goes into writing a whole novel and sharing your work with the world. That is why I have given this book 3.5 stars. It was just average for me. The writing was fine, the characters were fine, it was just an average book.

I actually had stopped reading for awhile. The only thing that had motivated me to read on was the release of ACOFAS was coming up and I don’t like leaving books unfinished.

Once I had started reading again, I became very disappointed. 1/3 into the book and my favourite character and the protagonist’s love interest dies. This is where I kind of just… lost interest… After this Odessa develops a potion abuse. As a person where alcoholism runs in my family, I can kind of relate to this. She did not want to get help, yet she kept talking about how good her friends were. She never let them help her and it was frustrating.

After Evanser’s death, she just… goes off with another of their friends and basically uses them to help grief. This would have been ok if it was not shown in such a… lustful way? I am not sure how to put it, but even Odessa realizes what she is doing is wrong.

Later we come across Evander’s sister that no one has seen for fifteen years. Odessa develops feeling for her and BOOM she is a bi character. Now, do not get me wrong, I am so glad there is bisexual representation, but it just felt that she was forced to be this way. Like it just feels like she was thrown into this relationship with another woman just to get more publicity. I don’t know. It also just feels weird that she goes and dates Evander’s sister right after he dies.

So a not so recurring theme throughout the book is Odessa wants to find out who she really is. She was an orphan, so she had no sense of self. What she was was only a grand necromancer. When Evander dies, she just… never mentions finding herself again. She just adopts his dreams of travel and that was that. We never got to see who Odessa truly was other than a necromancer and that really bothered me. Her character was never explored. That goes for a lot of the other characters, if not all.

I would have loved to see the other characters development. I wanted to see more of Simeon and Danial and their relationship, but they were only there when the going went rough because Odessa did not ask for help in any other situation. Odessa considered them family, yet through the way she acted, it did not feel that way. ESPECIALLY when she leaves for another country in the end and does not even have the courage to tell them goodbye or that she is leaving. That was a jerk move and I disliked her character more and more throughout the book. Like yeah, strong female leads are great, but stupid strong female leads are not good. She just kept making stupid decision after stupid decision.

Also the antagonist was obvious to me.

Alright, so enough of what I disliked, let me tell you what I liked. I adored Simeon and Danial. ❤️😍👌 Danial is a bean and we must protect him. I want to know more of their relationship. Like please give me more of the ship. I need them.

The whole magic linked to eyes thing was interesting. I wish it was explored more. Like it was explained a bit for the sake of the story, but I want to know more.

The whole necromancer magic was clever and I liked the concept of being lost if you were in the Deadlands too long. It made for a tense read when they were in there.

The cover was pretty too.

So these are the reasons I have rated it at 3.5 stars. I know I gave it a lot of criticism, but it made me feel so unsatisfied throughout the entire book. 😦 I was really looking forward to this book too. Oh well, I hope other people enjoyed it more than me.

Update:

I will be attending Book Con in June! If you go, let me know! Maybe we can meet up!

Physical Books vs. eBooks

Merry belated Christmas everyone! This will be my first post completely written on my new iPad Pro. If there are any mess ups please forgive me because I am not used to this keyboard or interface yet. With that aside, I hope you enjoy what I have to say today. :>

So I have mixed feelings on both physical and eBooks. I do not hate one or the other. I think I prefer physical books, but I do not actually hate eBooks. I just like the feeling of physical books (and the smell). I think they each have their pros and cons and I am going to be exploring those pros and cons for each one. If you think of anything I did not mention feel free to tell me in the comments!

Physical Books

• They smell really good. I know I am not the only one that thinks this omg. I especially love the smell of used books or a used book store.
• You can display them in your own personal library. It feels so nice to display all the books you have read and impress people with how many books you have read. It is so satisfying.
• No battery life.

• They are usually more expensive. With the exception of used books, new books are usually way more expensive than eBooks as it costs more money to print them and all that.
• They can get ruined by getting wet.
• For paperbacks, the cover can get bent. THIS IS THE WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD. It physically pains me.

eBooks

• They are usually cheaper than their printed brethren.
• Their covers cannot get ruined.
• You can read in the dark. Like if this could be a superpower I would want it. I remember the show Wizards of Waverly Place and how the brother always wanted to read in the dark. I felt that too, man.

• You cannot display them nicely on your bookshelf/personal library.
• Usually they are super hard to read in the light due to the reflection of the surface. (With exceptions of certain devices.)
• If your device dies, you cannot read anymore.

So these are just a few of the pros and cons I could think of for each. I understand that there are probably more that I did not cover. If you can think of any, please tell me in the comments! I would love to hear what you have to say. :>

So as I have been writing this, I realize that the WordPress app does not have a way to center text for some reason???? Like come on Apple/Wordpress. Get your act together. My Android phone cannot do that either and I was super hoping that my iPad would be able to freaking center the text like on a computer. *sigh* Oh well. I will just have to go on the desktop site to fix it all. By the time you are reading this you will not be able to see how none of my text is centered and this may just seem silly to leave in but I really needed to vent about this. Ok I am done LOL.

Do you have anything else to add? Which do you prefer?

Review: Strange The Dreamer

Warning this post contains slight spoilers!

Clicking this link will take you to the Goodreads page!

This book was so whimsical in the way it is written. The whole world is wonderfully designed and I cannot believe how much I adore this novel. The beginning was very cryptic at first, but after the first few chapters, it clears up and it makes a big loop.

When I started reading this novel, I was confused and tempted to put it down. I am glad I did not give into my temptations because this has quickly become one of my all time favourite books. Thank you YA Lit Discord for pushing me to read it! I finished it in approximately 3 days. Words cannot express my adoration for this novel.

The characters are so fantastic.

Probably like most everyone, Lazlo is my favourite character. He is relatable in his actions and you cannot help but cheer him on as he fights to claim his dream. He is selfless. There are times in the novel where I wanted to jump in and stand up for him when he would not stand up for himself. He felt very human and I would love for him to be my friend.

Sarai was a very cryptic character in the beginning. I feel so many things towards her and I wish I could help her. She is just longing for a normal life where she is not hated. I admire how she would not let the hatred affect her and how she forgave the humans.

Thyon is… Thyon. I wanted to punch him so many times. At least he is good looking.

This novel explores different aspects of human nature. It shows the longing to protect the ones you love and the grief that can come with it. It demonstrates love where you may least expect it. It demonstrates forgiveness where there was formerly hatred and a grudge. I adore how human this book feels. The characters bring the story to life and allow the reader to feel exactly what they are feeling.

Overall rating: 5/5 stars. 

Have you read this novel? What did you think? Is it on your TBR?

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Twitter

My Personal Book Blog Insecurities

First off, the idea is from Well-Thumbed-Reader. 

So if you know me, you should know that I have a lot of insecurities. Like dang how do I make it? I have a lot of insecurities regarding my book blog due to many factors. This seems to be like a complaining post LOL. I do not want to make it seem like that, but these are just my personal feelings regarding my blogging.

Here are just a few of them that I can think of off the top of my head.

I do not post regularly.

I try my hardest to do this, but it does not happen sometimes. I even took a HUGE break from my blog and almost gave up because I kind of just dropped from the book blogging world.

I feel as if people only follow blogs that post on a regular schedule. I want to do this, but college gets in the way and I am not the best at making post ideas. I really have only posted book reviews and I am not sure how many people actually like those, haha.

I want to start posting more regularly, but I am not sure how it will work out.

I do not have a large follower base like other blogs.

I know this is not supposed to matter, but it is just so hard to see other book blogs with such large followings. They seem to just explode overnight, LOL. Like I made a blog to share my ideas with the world, but it is kind of hard to share my ideas when I am not a large blog.

I know the more I post, the more followers I will get in theory, but I feel really anxious about this part of my blog because popularity seems to be with everyone else BUT me.

Do I even have a blogger voice? Am I professional enough? How much unprofessional-ism can I get away with?

I have a hard time with the way I write. Like it is how I write and I like it, but I don’t know if others like it or if it flows well. I try to make my ideas flow well, but I am just insecure about my way with words. I want to use phrases like “LOL” in my posts, but can I get away with that? Does that make me a bad blogger to want to do so? These thoughts are so invasive that it is annoying, haha.

I feel like my blog is not as “pretty” as other blogs.

I have been constantly tweaking the feel and look of my blog for awhile. I eventually settled on the design I have now, but I always feel like I need to change it to something else.

As I look at blogs and their designs I see some sort of underlying pattern that I guess I am not in on. LOL. They look so nice and flowy and then there is me with my bread blog, haha.

I want to keep changing my blog look, but what is the limit to change it? Is there an amount of times that gets annoying?

Do I post too many reviews?

I read a lot of books and I like to share them with the world, but I feel like that I post a lot more reviews than discussions? Is this a bad thing? I want to expand my posts more, but I also want to share the books I read with other people who may enjoy them.

I take frequent book breaks.

When I get on a reading high, I can read a ton in a short amount of time, but this eventually wears off and then I get into a reading slump. I see so many other bloggers who have read 100+ books this year and I have currently only read around 24. Like dang, I wish I had that much motivation. I want to read books constantly, but life gets in the way and ruins that. :<

Do you have any of these insecurities? How do you deal with them? I would love to know.

 

Interview With The Vampire Review – SPOILERS

First off I would like to say I am sorry for the lack of posts. I have been busy with college and I kind of lost motivation for blogging. I am trying to get back into the swing of things. Here is a book review for a book I recently finished.

This is the story of Louis, as told in his own words, of his journey through mortal and immortal life. Louis recounts how he became a vampire at the hands of the radiant and sinister Lestat and how he became indoctrinated, unwillingly, into the vampire way of life. His story ebbs and flows through the streets of New Orleans, defining crucial moments such as his discovery of the exquisite lost young child Claudia, wanting not to hurt but to comfort her with the last breaths of humanity he has inside. Yet, he makes Claudia a vampire, trapping her womanly passion, will, and intelligence inside the body of a small child. Louis and Claudia form a seemingly unbreakable alliance and even “settle down” for a while in the opulent French Quarter. Louis remembers Claudia’s struggle to understand herself and the hatred they both have for Lestat that sends them halfway across the world to seek others of their kind. Louis and Claudia are desperate to find somewhere they belong, to find others who understand, and someone who knows what and why they are.

Louis and Claudia travel Europe, eventually coming to Paris and the ragingly successful Theatre des Vampires – a theatre of vampires pretending to be mortals pretending to be vampires. Here they meet the magnetic and ethereal Armand, who brings them into a whole society of vampires. But Louis and Claudia find that finding others like themselves provides no easy answers and in fact presents dangers they scarcely imagined. – Goodreads

342 Pages

Rating: 5 stars

So I picked this book up on a whim. Well, I ordered it from Amazon on a whim. Same difference. I bought it knowing very little about it, but I had seen drawings of some of the characters and fell in love. I cannot believe how much I love this book and the characters in it.

So it starts off with Louis being turned into a Vampire by Lestat. The way that Louis sees it as a gift in the beginning was different than other novels I have read. I enjoyed that he went on and on about how beautiful the world seemed to be. It was like he was blind and then by becoming a Vampire he could see. It was really nice to see that.

It made me sad about Louis’ character development. He starts off happy and elated, but then he spirals into depression and grief. It is really heart wrenching to see how unhappy he ends up. Louis is a very complex character that I am hoping to read more about in the next books of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles series. I am sad about how he turned out though. 😦 The poor bean deserved better than the internal conflict he was cursed with.

I know this is probably bad, but I adored Lestat as a character. I felt for his loneliness and it just touched me. He just wanted to be loved and to have a family. Or that is how it seems in this first book. I am only now getting to the second book.

Unpopular Opinion: Claudia is a brat. I disliked her character. I loved her development, but disliked her as a character. I understand that being eternally 5 would suck, but she had to get past that. She just seemed like a brat all throughout the novel. Ever since Louis and Lestat had “adopted” her, she was given everything she ever wanted and when she became older, she got what she wanted no matter what, except the womanly figure she longed for. I can just go on and on about why I disliked her character, but she did not deserve what happened to her.

Another character I loved was Armand. AHH. I ship Louis and Armand so badly, but the ship sank like the Titanic. I am so excited to read more about Armand. I really wished that he and Louis would have became closer than they did. I just want them both to be happy. Lestat too. D: They all deserve happiness. I guess Claudia did too, but there is nothing we can do about that. Oh well.

The internal dialogue of Louis’ internal conflict was interesting to read about. I have not read a novel that depicts Vampirism in a way that this novel did. It was basically an allegory for good and evil/right and wrong. The difference in this allegory is that the character falls into what they originally thought was wrong and evil and stays there. It was a really nice change of pace, but it made me sad because Louis basically ended up emotionless incapable of loving anyone again. 😦

Anyway, as always I am really lenient in my ratings. If I enjoyed the book, I give it a five. I do not believe in rating books low… The author poured their heart and soul into the writing and I think enjoying it is all that matters.

5/5 Stars.

 

Have you read this novel? Did you enjoy it?

How To Utilize Your Library!

Hello dear readers! Today I am going to tell you about all the ways you can utilize your local library. I know that all libraries are not the same. I am just going to tell you a few things that you might have at your local library. 

Let’s get started!

Online Checkouts/Catalog

First off, you can check out books on the library’s website. They have an online catalog of all the books they do or do not have. This may be a given, but it is super useful in my opinion. You can just check out a book and the library will have a section with the book and your name on it. If your local library does not have it in stock you can either get it from somewhere else or you can place yourself on the holding list. This is super useful if you do not want to go to the library and search throughout the shelves. My mom and I use this a lot as it is much easier and a lot quicker. You still need to scan your card to check out the book, but it is still faster.

Music/Videos

Some libraries actually use an app where if you put in your library card, you can listen to music and watch movies for FREE. I have not used it personally, but I always see it at my local library. I think this is super cool and I need to utilize it more, haha. My local library uses Freegal to stream music. I am not sure what it uses to play videos.

Events

My library always has events going on. Whether it be a book club, an anime club, or even classes, there is always events. Libraries should have a calendar either in the building or online that you can go to and check out all the neat events they have going on. It is super unique. I like to go to a convention at my library that they host every year or so. It is a really neat way to meet new people in your community.

3D Printers ect.

My local library actually has 3D printers that members can use. I was super surprised about this. The library downtown has all sorts of neat things. There is a laser cutter, a decal machine, a music studio and more. If you are into this sort of thing like I am, you may want to check out and see if your library has these resources too! I had to go to a class to use some of the machinery, but now I can use it as I please when I make appointments.

Ebooks/Emagazines

This is my absolute favourite part of my library. If you have a tablet or a smartphone, you can download ebooks onto your device! I use this all the time as I am lazy and I do not want to get out of the house. My library uses the apps OneDrive, Freading and Cloud Library. OneDrive is more for audio books so I do not use it. I use the other two. It is a great utility to use. I do not think many people know about this. I think a lot of libraries have it. I was super excited when I found out that I could get ebooks from my library. They do return after 14 days usually. If you finish a book sooner, you can return it sooner too. 🙂 That way another person can read it sooner if they are waiting for it! If you are in line for a book, it will automatically go to your tablet or phone when it is available.

Language App

My local library has a free learning languages app that you can use when you insert your library card. I have been wanting to use it, but I have been having problems. My library uses Mango Languages. I am super excited to start using this because I love learning languages in my spare time.

Music Lessons

While looking on my library’s website, I just found out that there is an app you can use with your library card to get free music and vocal lessons. I have never seen this, but it looks amazing! The resource is ArtistWorks for Libraries. I think this is such a great and useful thing. I have been wanting to learn piano, so I might try it out.

Well, these are all the things I can think of right now. I am sure there are more that I am not aware of. I really love my library because there are so many extra things that you can do there. It is super useful to have these services and I am grateful.

Does your library have these resources? Do you use them?