Animal Crossing: New Leaf

At the end of August, my cousin gave me his old 3DS that he didn't use anymore. The first game I bought for it was Animal Crossing: New Leaf (after deciding that Pokemon XY was too expensive), and I'm really glad with my choice! AC:NL is my favorite Animal Crossing game ♥

I take a picture of my outfit and house when I start playing each day. It's really fun to see how everything progresses!

Basic town details:

Town name: Anderson

Mayor: Quinn

Other player characters: Nate, Fel, Sol

Native fruit: oranges

I decided to take a slightly different route than I usually did with my Animal Crossing games: my town and villagers are based off those of my NaNo, Aperture. For the past three games, the town name and players were just kind of random. I used my name in both Population Growing and Wild World, but used the name of an old OC for City Folk. It's really fun to see and work with my characters in a new universe!

I think New Leaf is the most fun of the Animal Crossing series! There's much more to do than in previous games, especially when you play as the mayor. I'm amazed with the possibilities for town customization! The island makes it really easy to earn money, especially if you play at night and get all the beetles, and the minigames are fun as well. (The island minigames are where I got most of my flowers, too, I'm not gonna lie.) I love the unlockable furniture customization and QR code reader. I've had a ton of fun looking up QR codes and fixing up furniture to give to the villagers. 

I earned a lot of money in the first three days I played...

There are a lot of cool little details, too. You can hang certain things on the wall of your house, like shelves or pictures or clocks, and the camera angle goes around 360 degrees. Fruit and non-fruit trees are slightly different colors, and there are, like, 20 different fruit types to get. The dirt patterns look slightly more realistic. The villagers themselves seem to be even more unique! I've received a couple letters from my villagers out of the blue, even when I hadn't written them anything first, which had never happened to me before. I wrote them back and got another response the next day! They wave when you leave their house and are always understanding if you have to turn down one of their requests or otherwise can't follow through. 

I went to Anime USA about a month after I got my 3DS, and I was able to streetpass at least 300 people. I also completely filled up my HHA showrooms! It's so much easier to order furniture through the model homes than have to wait for Nook / Timmy and Tommy to stock it, even though it can be a couple hundred bells more expensive. 

I just recently unlocked Dream Suite! I'm working on funding it. 

I know I'm definitely behind on the ACNL bandwagon since the game is over a year old, but I would definitely recommend it if you haven't played it yet! It's a very cute and lighthearted game with a lot of leeway in terms of game play. (◡‿◡✿)

Books I've Read -- October

I'm really debating doing individual reviews for some books. I feel like some books deserve more than a paragraph. I feel like I'm not finishing as many books as I used to, and I don't know if it's because of the books I'm reading or because of something else. It's a little worrisome.

While We Run by Karen Healey, finished 10/7. I definitely liked While We Run more than When We Wake. I don't know whether it's because of the different narrator, or because there was less exposition, or maybe a little bit of both. It's very dystopian-like, with the whole "our government sucks and we're going to do something about it". It's kind of an open end, though, and I'm not sure if there's a third book, so I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that. I also have to include content warnings for blood / violence, emotional / psychological abuse, and mentions of sexual abuse. This book series is definitely pretty dark, so if you have any issues with any of those things, I would really suggest avoiding the series.

Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan, finished 10/8. Blood of Olympus was the only book in the PJO series that I had to wait for. And it killed me. But it was also the only book that I was able to speculate about with other people, without any of us knowing what was gonna happen, and the only book where I had to be careful what I mentioned after I finished it because not all of my friends were able to marathon it like I did. And I've gotta say, I think Blood of Olympus wrapped the entire series up really well. Kind of a fairy-tale, everybody-is-happy ending, but I appreciated it. I really appreciated being able to see how many people at school had copies of the book, and it's opened up conversation with a few people I wouldn't really have otherwise talked to. I really appreciate everything that I've experienced due to the Percy Jackson series, and I'm really glad I got into it before it ended.

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner, finished 10/15. Sci-fi survival isn't really anything I've read before, so These Broken Stars was kind of new for me. The copy from the library was a pretty big book with a lot of words per page, so I thought it would take me longer to read than it actually did. It also seems to kind of fall into paranormal romance, slightly, which could be hit or miss. The romance was kind of ... obvious? There's obvious character development, but the character development leading up into the romance was kind of glaring to me. Everything regarding the world Lilac and Tarver are on is really interesting, and I wish there was more information on it, since it seems like the next book in the series focuses on a new couple.

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare, finished 10/24. City of Ashes was a hot mess. I definitely wouldn't have finished it if my friend hadn't recommended it and lent me her personal copy. (So it was an obligation finish.) And I admit, I think part of my feelings about this book stem from reading negative reviews on goodreads for both it and City of Bones while I was reading. Not entirely the best idea in hindsight, and while I did enjoy reading the reviews, I admit that they probably influenced more of my opinion going into it than I usually want. I have to agree that the descriptions are too much purple prose-like and sometimes incredibly contradictory (including something like "shined blackly" -- how???), and there were at least a few different things where there were no explanations to how they managed to work completely around the established rules of the universe. Mainly, how vampires work. That's the biggest one I can think of. And runes. That too. And Clary and Jace are incredibly frustrating, both with their stupidity in general and their "oh we're apparently siblings but I still kind of like you" mentality. Like, ew. All of that said, though, I'm kind of curious to see if the next book manages to solve / answer anything, so I will be reading that. Hopefully it won't be as bad. (Even the friend that recommended City of Ashes said she threw it at the wall. So there's that.)

Towering by Alex Flinn, finished 10/29. Man, Towering was completely misleading. From the dust jacket synopsis, I assumed that Rachel would be the driving force of the book. She wasn't. Other than the opening chapter / prologue, she wasn't an apparent part of the book for a good portion of it. Even the Goodreads description is pretty misleading. The book seemed fairly normal for the first half, and then it took a really sudden (and unrealistic) turn in trying to explain what happened. Like, I know a Rapunzel retelling isn't going to be all that realistic, but whatever happened in Towering just didn't make sense, and almost kind of seemed like it was thrown into the plot. I mean, the explanations fit within the story, but they suddenly just appeared with really no warning. And then the insta-love was just ... it wasn't even insta-love. It was like they loved each other even before they met, and Rachel seemed awfully ok with kissing / physical contact with a boy she just met despite apparently not knowing any guy in real life ever. I really enjoyed A Kiss in Time, but I'm starting to wonder if it was actually a good book or if I just liked how fluffy it was.