Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor

TL;DR huge and satisfying ending to the trilogy

(finished 8/24/15)

It's been a long time since I've finished such a huge book in such a short amount of time. 613 pages in two days. Even I'm amazed by that. It's felt like forever since I got through some 300 pages in a day. 

This trilogy has definitely been memorable. Even though it's been so long between reading the books, I could still jump right into it without trying to remember who the characters were or what the conflict was. I didn't review the first book, but I wrote a mini-review for the second book in the final monthly review I did back in January.

And I gotta say, I was not disappointed by Dreams of Gods and Monsters in the least. It actually made me really happy, as much as a story about a world in a constant state of war can. Not fluffy-happy, but I am definitely very content with the ending to the point that I wish there was more to the series so we could enjoy more of it. I did not expect to receive such a nice ending. (Again, as nice as you can get within the context, but hey, I was definitely preparing myself for the worst, and for a couple chapters, it almost seemed like I would get it.)

Since this really the only opportunity I have to review the series (since I said so little in my only other review), I'm gonna go a little all-out. Bear with me.

First up: I love all the characters in the series. Even the heartless bad guys I can appreciate from a writer's point of view because we really get more than just Karou's perspective. The omniscient 3rd person past narration really lets you get personal with all the characters, which makes the bad guys' downfall all that much sweeter. (I also said that about Rook.)

I can't comment too much on Karou and Akiva's relationship from the beginning, because I don't remember too much from Daughter of Smoke and Bone, but dang can I appreciate their romance in the final book. They trust each other, treat each other as equals, and they're patient. They were willing to push their relationship to the side in order to focus on the threat of total apocalypse. That also made their ending that much sweeter (if that doesn't spoil too much.)

And Zuzana and Mik! And Liraz and Ziri! I am so incredibly grateful for Liraz's character growth and relationship, not only because she's essentially somewhere on the ace-aro spectrum, but that she got someone who cared for her and would respect that. I never expected to see Liraz the way she is by the end of the book. She really develops and I love that. Ziri also got to cash in his good karma by the end of the book and I am so grateful that it happened. I was so afraid he would just get the short end of the stick from fate, but he survived and was rewarded for it. Zuzana and Mik are definitely the best troopers in the world and not only do I love that, but I love their relationships with Karou and how they undoubtedly have her back no matter what. (And c'mon, Zuzana putting Mik up to three fairy-tale tasks, which he not only succeeds at, but does it amazingly?)

I was a little confused on how Eliza fit into the whole narrative, and I'm pretty sure she wasn't there the previous two books, but she never really felt added in at the last minute. I was really surprised how she ended up involved in everything that was going on, but hey, I really don't think I can complain with the outcome.

Like I said earlier, this series deals with a war between the chimaera and seraph races from a different universe, so there's a lot of dark stuff in the series. The biggest things that I can think of to warn you about are blood / injuries, death, and sexual assault. Those play a big part in the story as a whole and they aren't taken lightly, but some scenes are stomach-turning.

TL;DR the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy is amazing and I am highly satisfied with how it concluded. Please read it.

Horizon by Alyson Noel

TL;DR melodrama and convenient plot devices galore

(finished 8/19/15)

Well, I managed to read The Soul Seekers series all the way through. I consider that a big accomplishment. Honestly, I don't know if I'm just a jaded reader, or if most of the series falls victim to the "pre-2010 YA feel" that I still haven't blogged about, but I was pretty underwhelmed by Horizon considering it's the final book in the series. (But let's be honest, I was underwhelmed by all the other books, too.) 

My review of Mystic says that I thought it was better than Echo, but I definitely think Horizon is worse than both of them. Horizon only made me mad.

First up, there are a ton of things that aren't mentioned until after the fact or are brought up too nonchalantly. I know I mentioned this in the review for Mystic, but holy crap I was in a constant state of confusion because the characters gave me no indication of what was going on. What do you mean Xotichl got her sight completely back? What do you mean Cade just suddenly made an appearance after 6 months of being MIA? What do you mean Dace's eyes turned red? That's bad narration. You can't just skip vital pieces of information like that and just be like, "oh yeah, that happened" a couple chapters later!!

Also along that line, everyone minus Xotichl was a cardboard cutout of an immature teenager. (Xotichl was more human, but even she was out of character.) Oh no, my boyfriend decides to distance himself from us because he's turning into a monster, I'm going to put him before everyone else who rightfully is doubtful about him! Oh no, my boyfriend decides to go back to the Upperworld when all three worlds are going to hell because he "hears his people in agony", he must be ditching me to date some other spirit guide instead! Just stop.

It's also mentioned around the end of the book that they're not even in their senior year yet. I don't know about you, but even the immature juniors at my school can handle crises more effectively than these kids. Also, how did Daire just miraculously gain control of Paloma's adobe and clients? Why are Cade and Dace made managers of the Rabbit Hole? Why do they have fancy cars in the middle of absolute nowhere? Why the heck is there no mention of these kids in school?

I haven't used bolded words in a review yet. This is kind of nice. Can you tell I'm bitter?

Let's also discuss how Horizon just blatantly disregards everything the previous books established and re-makes the rules as it goes. One twin can't live without the other? Oh, we'll just fix that with the power of love~  Leftfoot gets his throat slit "inadvertently" by the beast Dace turns into? He gets miraculously healed! (I don't even remember who heals him. Only that he--and Dace--survive when they should've been dead by all established logic.) Jennika has trouble with commitment? Let's just change that with a wish granted from Daire's spirit guide! It's not a satisfying ending when they haven't earned the happy ending. I cannot think of anything that would justify them getting almost everything they want this easily other than making it a ~nice happy ending~

How could Horizon (and the series in general) be improved?

• no unnecessary deaths (read: Paloma and Chay)
• deaths where the characters should've died but miraculously lived because ~plot shield~ (read: Dace and Leftfoot)
• ACTUAL SANE ADULTS
• differences in the narrations used, instead of them all sounding the exact same
• more mature teens who care less about having sex all the time and a little more about not killing everyone around them with their stupidity
• romances that didn't read like they were cut and paste out of Romeo and Juliet
• better pacing, not three months for the first three books and then six months between the third and the fourth (only for the fourth to take place over what feels like two days)
• someone involved with the publishing process sending the book through another round of revision plot- and character-wise

I honestly only finished the series so I could be done with it, and because the library had the subsequent books available when I went. Do I regret doing so? Only slightly. I feel like Daire and Dace killed off a few of my own brain cells. (I fully enjoyed unleashing my snark on them, though. That I do not regret. As always, I typed it up into a spreadsheet. Even just putting the spreadsheet together made me really angry at everything.)

TL;DR maybe this entire series would've been better if someone had sat down and said, "look, you've got a good start, but you really need to develop your characters and your plot devices before we publish this." I really wish that would've happened. I could maybe have excused the mediocre plot and enjoyed the series if I didn't hate most of the main characters, cringe at every mention of romance, and honestly hope that the bad guys won in the end. (And I really did. I really hoped Cade would win and kill both Daire and Dace. At least then they couldn't ruin anything with their "romance"--even if that meant the Richters were still in charge.) 

I obviously tried to give this series a chance, proven by the fact I read all four books despite deciding I didn't want to keep my copy of the first book. I'm usually a pretty patient reader, but I do not excuse shallowly-written characters or insta-lust that continues on for the entire series. I think I was holding out for an ending marginally better than the rest of the series, and yet I was disappointed by an unearned "happy ending" (if you can truly call it that) and a cliffhanger that suggests there could be a spinoff series. No thank you. 

Rook by Sharon Cameron

TL;DR post-apocalyptic Scarlet Pimpernel

(finished 8/14/15)

Oh man, this book was wild. Even more so than the climaxes of each of The Lunar Chronicles books. And I don't compare things to TLC lightly. The entirety of the book felt like facing off against Queen Levana, and if you can keep that tension going strong the entire book, then you are hella. 

Right off the bat, I'm gonna agree that Rook is long. It took me a long time to find my groove with it. The last book I read comparable in size was Teardrop, and that was definitely a fight to finish. It took a while to get a true interest in Rook going, but I ended up spending most of the 14th reading instead of surfing the internet, so that definitely means something. 

I actually really adore the narration. It was 3rd person past omniscient, so it jumped between characters and situations, and the transitions were so cool. They were like movie transitions. I think Rook would actually do really well as a movie in that regard, if they kept them like that. It connected the different scenes / happenings together really well for me. (I also realize that some people could maybe find it tacky. I dunno. I enjoyed it.)

And I honestly thought I would never ever admit this, but there's a good love triangle. I found it really interesting, especially since it's more realistic than most YA where it's the female MC going "oh no, I like these two boys equally, what do" for the entire book. Rook's romance was more complicated than that (and more simple at the same time), and I really liked it. It's not actually a triangle; I just know that's the easiest way to explain what it is, because let's be honest, "love triangle" gets used for every instance of a romantic complication even if the shape is more of a V. (Maybe I should just switch to some form of the phrase "romantic complication" in place of "love triangle". I'm really starting to hate triangles.)

I found all of the characters really interesting. The omniscient narration definitely lets you get really in-depth with a lot of the characters, which also reveals a lot of irony in the plot. (Or just really terrible coincidence. I'm not exactly sure which.) Rene is probably my favorite character. I'm not even entirely sure why. The narration definitely made me sympathize with the characters, even LeBlanc, a lot like Fairest did for me and Queen Levana. I definitely don't agree with LeBlanc, or even Spear for that matter, but it did help to see the world from their eyes. And made their endings more satisfying than they otherwise would've been, I think. (I feel really awful for admitting that but I'm not gonna lie, either.)

The worldbuilding was pretty good, but I wish there was a little more on how they got to that point between now and then. I mean, the geography changes significantly, and yet there's really nothing to explain it. (That's really just me, though.) It could probably be explained away with "well they don't know what happened after the Great Death", but I'm still curious.

Rook is apparently an homage to the Scarlet Pimpernel, which I'm not familiar with at all, but I really love the whole "masked hero" trope (genre?). It's probably from adoring Sailor Moon. I don't know.

TL;DR if you like suspense and longer books, I really think you'd like Rook. It also reminds me a little of the Legend series by Marie Lu, so I'd say check it out if you liked that.

Promises by Amber Garr

TL;DR Romeo and Juliet-ish but with mermaids and selkies

(finished 8/8/15)

EDIT 9/20: I forgot to add that I got this book for free through Bookbub. 

The good news is, Promises gave me everything I wanted and didn't get out of Just Breathe. Except a smart main character, but hey, the plot's gotta start somewhere. 

In all honesty, I kind of wished that the plot of Promises had taken a different route, that Eviana would've gotten caught trying to run away with her lover the night before her arranged marriage. I feel like that would've made a really interesting story, especially considering the compromise her fiance Kain offered. But nope. She succeeded in running away. 

And also in making everyone's lives a living hell. That part was actually kind of fitting. I was glad that she realized her mistakes, but it was kind of too late to fix anything by that point. 

The beginning of Promises was really strong and I had really high hopes for the story, especially when reading it right after Just Breathe, but after a point it started to weaken. It was still stronger narration than in Just Breathe, but once Eviana and Kain got to Cotillion, there started to be more telling than showing and I noticed some occasional grammar mistakes pop up. I'm pretty sure I got an updated version of what was originally published, but a few things still slipped through the cracks. 

My biggest frustration was how geography was generally just thrown out the window. I understand there's a disclaimer at the beginning that says "The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to [...] locales is entirely coincidental." But I don't think that's really an excuse to just use geography however you want when you name specific places. 

(I'm gonna go geography nerd for a second here. Bear with me.) The beginning of the book mentions their beach is "emblematic of the northern California coast" on screen 14, but Eviana says she's from "around the Santa Barbara" area on screen 150. Now, I'm not clear on where the NorCal / SoCal divide is, but Santa Barbara is close enough to Los Angeles that I'm pretty sure it's still SoCal. Eviana and Brendan flee to the east coast, but Eviana mentions both Kansas and Tennessee, and both seem out of the way for how fast they were trying to get away. Google Maps did provide a route that cut through Tennessee, but there's no reason for them to go through Kansas, and I think it'd be impossible granted the time they made making the trip. Going through Kansas would add a lot of time. 

There's also various mentions of the "Maryland coast", which in real life consists of Ocean City. You can count the Chesapeake, but what very little indication as to which coast they're on points towards the ocean one. Which is a ten mile strip of city. I'm not aware of any "private coastal parks" (screen 252) or "dunes" (screen 350) anywhere in Ocean City. It's impossible to drive more than a "half hour along the barren Maryland shores" while seeing "white dunes [that] were trimmed with green grasses and the occasional scrub pine" (screen 436) unless you're actually driving in Delaware. There's also a discrepancy with the Bay Bridge; Eviana mentions pulling into the visitor's center before paying the toll on the east side, but you only pay the tolls heading east -- there's no toll booth on their end of the bridge -- and as far as I know, there's no visitor's center on either side. (I could be wrong about the visitor's center. We've never actually stopped before going over it.) 

Anyway, these are things that irked me because it's home turf. I might not have thought twice about it if I wasn't so excited to see "we were heading to the Maryland coast" on screen 251. I get very protective of the DMV and how it's portrayed in fiction. I get that Garr probably used the location to her own devices, but I feel like that works a lot better if you don't mention specific location names. If you're going to tweak geography to fit your plot, don't mention Baltimore or Severna Park. Or the "coast" that's just a city. I think Delaware would've fit the plot just as well, and I wouldn't have nit-picked it. Delaware really does have "barren shores" for at least a couple miles. 

Okay. Moving on. I know those points really won't matter to most people. 

Eviana was frustrating a lot of times as a main character, especially considering how selfish she was, but I was glad that she was at least able to look back and realize her mistakes. I was almost exactly the same age as her when I read Promises. It's kind of weird to think about. I really wish she would've sucked it up and gone through with the marriage to Kain, especially since she herself admitted that he was a nice kid and pretty attractive. (Although honestly, she described all the merfolk to be attractive, so I guess it's relative.) I still can't find any realistic proof that an almost eighteen year old would call her "forbidden" romance with someone "fated", but I guess it's happened before. (In Romeo and Juliet, at least. And look how that ended.) 

I'm not sure that the romance would really be considered a love triangle, but it's definitely along those lines. I honestly was rooting for Kain more than Brendan (in case you couldn't tell already). There was nothing that made me support the romance at all, but I don't think it was necessarily bad. It was just mediocre and there was no real lead-up into it since Eviana and Brendan had been an established couple for a while before the beginning of the book. 

Actually, I did like that part. There wasn't anything about Eviana falling in love. It was more about her struggles with maintaining the relationships, partly with the whole arranged marriage, and partly with what follows later in the story that throws in some even bigger hurdles they can't really jump over. 

The worldbuilding for the merfolk was pretty cool. It was definitely more in-depth than in Just Breathe, and I'm not quite sure how it would check out realistically in tandem with the human world, but I appreciated the detail. It had the descriptions that I craved after not finding them in Just Breathe. I appreciated that they had selkies and the other water spirits I know they've mentioned in the Percy Jackson series but that I forget the name of. That helped to add some depth to the worldbuilding, too, since that added a little bit of background history. 

I would definitely continue reading the series if only for the worldbuilding, but from the Goodreads descriptions of the subsequent books, there isn't really any promise that there's going to be more. I mean, there could be. I think my only option to continue on with the series is to pay the $2.99 to get Betrayal, and in all honesty, that's three bucks I could put towards trying out new series. If Betrayal goes on sale for whatever reason, sure. I'll probably get it. But I am a college student without a job who is trying to make the $60 in iTunes cards from Christmas last as long as they possibly can, for books and music.

TL;DR it was enjoyable, especially after Just Breathe. The MC's fairly immature, but the worldbuilding (minus actual geography) was solid. I don't think I'm ever going to be over the whole "barren Maryland coast" thing, though.

Pumpkin Drink Comparisons

"Pumpkin spice season", as the radio called it earlier, has been my favorite part of going back to school so far. I know everyone thinks of the Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks, but I have no sort of brand loyalty whatsoever, so I decided to make it a mission to try every pumpkin-flavored drink I could get my hands on this season before everyone switches over to peppermint. 

Instead of possibly racing against time to try everything before pumpkin spice season ends, I'm publishing this post with the original two drinks I started out with and I'll update it as I try more. 

EDIT 9/17: added Dunkin Donuts!
EDIT 9/22: added 7-Eleven and re-uploaded the Sheetz and BR pictures since it looked like the links to them broke
EDIT 11/23: added On the Run (at ExxonMobil stations) and Starbucks

First up: Sheetz!

I looked up a map of Sheetz locations, and it looks like it's only a Midatlantic chain. I didn't realize that before. 

My aunt bought me my drink, so I'm not sure what exactly it's called or how much it costs, but it was good! It kind of reminded me of the chai drinks my grandmother would buy for me from Caribou Coffee when she picked me up from  school. There was a lot of whipped cream and I had to mix it in with a coffee stirrer before I could drink any of it since it was pretty thick. It also didn't keep me up that night, which was awesome! 

Baskin-Robbins

Name: pumpkin cheesecake milkshake

size: medium

price: $5.99

My mom was the one to tell me about these since she got a promotional email about them. It was really rich. She compared it to drinking a liquefied pumpkin pie, and I really enjoyed it. They also have it as an ice cream flavor, along with other fall-themed stuff like candy corn or maple pralines. (The candy corn ice cream is really good.) 

My biggest complaint was that the guy that took my order only offered a size medium or large for it, and I really did not need this much to drink. I guess I could've asked if I could have a small, but it didn't really occur to me at the time. I think it's a pretty good value considering the size that it is and how strong the flavor was, but please don't let me ever order something this large ever again. 

Dunkin Donuts

name: pumpkin ice coffee

size: small

price: $2.19

Dunkin Donuts also offers a pumpkin latte, but the day I tried it was pretty hot so I opted for an ice coffee instead. (Hopefully I'll get to try the latte too before they take it off the menu.) I was honestly really surprised with how cheap it seemed! I don't know if I was just jaded after Baskin Robbins or what, but a plain ice coffee from Starbucks costs about the same as this did! 

From what I can tell, it's just a normal ice coffee with the pumpkin flavoring added in as a syrup. It was pretty strong at first and it tasted a lot like Caribou's chai tea did, but I drank the ice coffee over the course of an hour or so and the ice watered it down. Even watered down it wasn't that bad! It was sweet without making me jittery and kept me focused on what I was doing.

7-Eleven

name: pumpkin spice latte

size: small

price: $1.35

7-Eleven's has definitely been the best so far, cheapest price or not. It's a lot sweeter than the other ones I've had so far and doesn't taste too much like spices. (I almost called it spicy, but that's not quite the same thing ...) The coffee is ridiculously hot when it comes out of the machine, so I let it sit until I got back from shopping at Jo-Ann's. It's really good when it's not scalding. 

Anyway, the past two years I've made the mistake in thinking they don't have it and getting a normal coffee before realizing it's in a specific machine. It's from a machine that looks like the ones that give out creamers. I think they might also have pumpkin-flavored creamers, but I'm not entirely sure. The machine I got it out of had like five different buttons to it and I only cared about the PSL one ;; 

On the Run (ExxonMobil)

size: small

price: $1.35ish for each

I waited too long to add onto this post tbh;; I did the same thing at On the Run that I did at 7-Eleven, so I ended up with two coffees. One was a "fall blend" of sorts and one was a pumpkin spice latte. The PSL was just as good as 7-Eleven's, but it tasted more pumpkin-y to me. The more normal coffee was pretty standard, but I stuck like four Almond Joy-flavored creamers into it, so I'm not sure I can really vouch for it. 

Starbucks

name: pumpkin spice latte

size: small

price: $3 - $4 range

I don't really remember how much the Starbucks PSL costs since I've only bought them from campus and they never have the prices up. It's the most expensive of the coffee drinks, that's for sure. 

The Starbucks on my campus is a "business venture" of sorts in the sense that business students are the ones that run it and not necessarily Starbucks employees themselves. (This is the sense I get; this may not entirely be true.) This may be the reason why I was disappointed with the PSLs I got -- they both tasted like burnt coffee beans and very un-pumpkin-like. I actually ordered a PSL from them twice just to make sure the first one wasn't a fluke. 

The Starbucks PR twitter is pretty on point, though. I tweeted about how the first coffee wasn't par and they responded with an email address I should contact. I didn't do it because of the whole "business venture" thing (and also because I suck at emails), but it was nice to know they have a bot (or a person, I guess) keeping up with that kind of thing.

Stuff I've had in the past:

I've tried a couple different kinds of pumpkin flavored drinks in the past two years or so, but I haven't tried them this year, so I'm considering them slightly different than the ones above. 

Tim Hortons

I got to try Tim Hortons for the first time on a trip up to Erie last year, and they surprisingly had pumpkin-flavored stuff at the end of August! I don't remember too much about it, but I liked it. Unfortunately, there aren't any Tim Hortons in my area. (Maybe I should enlist the help of my friend at OWU. There's one nearby and I sent her on a mission to try something pumpkin-flavored from there.) 

Dunkin Donuts

Again, I don't remember too much, but I liked it better than a Starbucks PSL. There are a lot of Dunkin Donuts near me, including two right near my campus, so I'm definitely gonna try and get a more comprehensive take on it soon.

7-Eleven

I really only tried their pumpkin-flavored drink last year because of their promotional deal where they were offering 50 cent coffees. Honestly, I think 7-Eleven's was the best I've really had so far. I'm definitely hoping to go back and try it again, considering I don't even really know if they'll have it, but we never really stop at 7-Elevens. 

Starbucks

I wasn't all too impressed with Starbucks' PSL, mainly because Starbucks is expensive and I can barely justify getting a plain $2 ice coffee from there. I've heard they're changing the recipe and using actual pumpkin, though, so I'm going to try it out one more time. 

If you guys try any of the pumpkin-flavored stuff out there on the market, let me know! I know there are bound to be good ones out there from places I haven't considering going to yet. I definitely have my work cut out for me. 

My First Fortnight in College

I just remembered to update my About page and my sidebar to include this new information. Oops.

This is my planner from this past week. There's a lot going on. 

Anyway, August 31st was my first day of college classes! I'm attending a community college in my city, so it's not as much adjustment as some of my high school classmates are experiencing, but it's definitely a lot different than high school was.

Almost all of the adults I've talked to recently have asked how college is going so far, and my answer about 98% of the time is "it's a lot of work." Like, this is a lot to adjust to after having only two "real" academic classes in my senior year (one of which I chose to take of my own free will).

I feel pretty unprepared for everything, tbh. In high school, it often came up how what we did was "prep for college", which was complete BS. None of what we did prepared me for this. I also tested out of a bunch of classes because of AP tests, so from what I can tell, I'm the only "fresh out of high school" kid in four of my classes. (One of my classes is a first year seminar thing, so all of us are freshman, but either my perception of what 18 year olds should look like is severely skewed or a lot of the kids are older than me.) One of my classmates actually called me "baby Joy" when my age came up, which I actually found amusing.

I'm especially unprepared for the thought of writing college papers. I have one due this week that's supposed to be about five pages, when the most I ever wrote in high school was a page and a half if I really stretched it. It's not really academic per se, as the paper is applying what vocab and concepts we've learned in class so far to ourselves, but this paper is honestly stressing me out.

A good portion of my graduating class is going to the same community college as I am, but I was unfortunate in the fact that I don't share my classes with any of them. It's very lonely. I am lucky in the fact that I get to hang out with my friends some days when our breaks line up, but I just had a class start this week, so that eats up a lot of the time I had to spend with them. It only runs until the end of October, though, so I'll get the time back.

One thing that's actually pretty good is the fact that I'm actually getting some exercise. The campus is a lot bigger than my high school and I've been actively avoiding the elevators so I can take the stairs. This actually started because the building my art class is in is pretty old and the elevator absolutely terrifies me, but I've taken the stairs even in the science building, even though it has a really cool elevator with a glass wall that lets you look out over the lobby. I think it's too early to really notice any changes, but I'm hoping that by the end of the semester I won't feel like I've run half a mile trying to climb four flights of stairs. (I'm weak. I know.) The exercise and workloads so far have really worn me out, so I've actually gotten my sleep schedule back under control in no time. It's kind of amazing.

In terms of my classes themselves, they're not that bad. This semester I'm just taking classes I would need no matter what degree I'm getting. I'm hoping to major in Geography since that's something that's offered at my college. I'm taking Color Theory, Intro to Communication, Physical Geography, Statistics of some sort, and the first year seminar, which adds up to 14 credit hours. x___x

My favorite place on campus so far is on the south side of the art building. It's got some metal picnic tables as well as a ledge you can sit on and it's shaded by these huge trees planted between the building and the parking lot. I get wifi from out there and it's an awesome place to sit and people watch. I've seen some cool people so far! The most prominent one is this guy that looks like Blake Michael with slightly longer hair. (I had actually been referring to him as "Dog With a Blog doppelganger" for the first week and a half until I googled the actor's name.)

My chill spot faces the entrance to the parking lot, so I see a lot of people as they come and go. 

I've also had to do actual homework, which is strange after a year of doing essentially nothing once I got home. It's not bad, especially considering most of it has just been reading the text book and finishing up assignments from class.

I actually spent time studying on a Saturday. That's, like, unheard of. 

Anyway, I think that's all I have to talk about so far! I'll probably make another update around midterms regarding how I'm adjusting and what's changed. All in all, college hasn't been too bad so far, and I'm really grateful for that.

Just Breathe by Heather Allen

TL;DR MC learns she has mermaid heritage

(finished 8/6/15)

I really tried to like Just Breathe. I really wanted to. I got Just Breathe as a free ebook through Bookbub and it was the second one I read out of the huge batch I downloaded (the first being What I Didn't Say), and I was kind of disappointed that I ruined a good reading streak so easily. 

As a disclaimer, I do realize that ebooks can be updated (and a few of the copies I own are revised versions), so it's entirely possible that I received an older version or that the book will be updated in the future. I don't know. I'm still pretty new to ebook / indie books. 

My biggest issue was really that it read like the first drafts of my classmates' short stories in Creative Writing class. It's one thing for a first draft to read like that; it's another when it's supposed to be a finished book. The narration was almost exclusively telling, and I honestly can't even think of a good "show" example in the whole thing. There were a bunch of grammar and formatting mistakes that should've been caught in a round of proofreading. 

Just Breathe taught me how to use the bookmark / commenting feature on iBooks. I used it a lot. The first one was on screen 35. (I don't know how to refer to placement in ebooks. They're not pages, per se. I'm just going to refer to them as "screens" until I figure out a better word.) 

     A smile plays on my lips, "Thanks, feeling alright today," my daily attempt at avoiding conversation.
     I grab a glass of juice and a banana, "Have a great day."
     My dad glances up from the newspaper, "You too learn a lot today."

 (Those are all separate paragraphs. It doesn't show up well on my blog page because they're all only one line.)

Now, I don't remember being taught this rule specifically in school, but I'm 99% sure you only use a comma to end dialogue when there's a dialogue tag immediately after it. I'm pretty sure you can't use commas like this. I feel like it should read like this instead:

     A smile plays on my lips. "Thanks, feeling alright today," I say, my daily attempt at avoiding conversation. I grab a glass of juice and a banana. "Have a great day."
     My dad glances up from the newspaper. "You, too. Learn a lot today."

Unfortunately, these kind of sentences happen frequently.

Ever (the main character and narrator) also seems to fall into the Mary Sue trope. She has a unique name while her brother has the common name "James", she gets away with a lot of crap without really getting in trouble or ever feeling the consequences, and is able to break a lot of the rules because she's the "strongest".

None of the characters have strong and consistent characterization. They just acted the way it would work best for the plot; Ever and Jack were really wishy-washy and all over the place, and there was nothing compelling about the rest of Ever's family or her friend, Gabbi. Gabbi actually started to get on my nerves with the way she read as a cardboard cutout of the "talkative best friend" trope.

The plot was pretty standard. There wasn't really anything unique about it, and unfortunately, the worldbuilding was really weak. I'd picked up Just Breathe for the whole mermaid aspect of the book, but it ended up being disappointing. Very little of the mer culture or the underworld location was really explained or described in the detail I'd been looking for, and it generally seemed to be consistent with human society except for being underwater.

I think Just Breathe is a fairly good start as a first draft, but I felt kind of let-down when I got something resembling a draft more than a finished book. I think if there'd be some more revision, both in grammar and in character / plot, Just Breathe could've been really strong. The characters and plot need more depth.

I'm not really sure what compelled me to read all the way through. I think a lot of it is my reluctance to review books I haven't finished. I was curious about what the ending of the book would be like, and a lot of people on Goodreads have mentioned that it cuts off really abruptly. I kind of expected that, tbh. I'm surprised that I made it all the way through the book without really getting angry. Usually I'm not so tolerant of immature characters all across the board or frequent grammar mistakes.

I typed up a spreadsheet of all the notes I made, but I typed half of them up the day this post went live instead of when I just finished the book, and I gave up with a lot of the contexts and comments. Some of them kind of speak for themselves.

TL;DR if I figure out that Just Breathe has an updated version, I'll probably read it and see if it's a stronger version. If you're not a patient and forgiving person, Just Breathe most likely isn't your thing.

What I Didn't Say by Keary Taylor

TL;DR senior year after a stupid decision leaves the main character mute

(finished 8/5/15)

This is the first book that I ever got through Bookbub, which both my grandmother and my friend introduced me to. I'd been getting the emails for a while, but because I can't use Google Play and I don't have iTunes on the laptop I normally use, I figured I couldn't get the book deals. (I was wrong.) I think What I Didn't Say was one of the few books that I've actually paid for so far, getting a 99 cent deal. The rest of the books I've gotten have been free so far. 

What I Didn't Say is the first e-book I've read since we went to Alaska two years ago. The e-book system my library uses is a pain in the butt to navigate, so I only stuck with physical copies from the library until I learned the ropes with Bookbub. 

I honestly think What I Didn't Say was worth more than the 99 cents I ended up paying for it. It's not all too realistic, and some things happen a little too conveniently, but I really enjoyed reading it. (I also enjoyed the fact that I learned Orcas Island is an actual place in Washington. I love real-life settings. I wish I'd figured it out while I was reading, though.) 

The plot is almost entirely character-driven, so it's not very action-y, but I found it really interesting. The only other book I know about with a mute character is The Summer of Chasing Mermaids, which I've been dying to read. Someone on Goodreads pointed out that Will should have had other options to partially recover his ability to speak, but I'm honestly not sure how that would've worked out within the story -- Jake's family is huge, so I don't know if they'd be able to afford some of the procedures other than just saving his life.

I'm not sure much of the plot would function really well in real life, come to think of it. Samantha's plot line probably wouldn't have lasted as long as it did in the book. It functioned within the book, though. I'm glad that the book explored her family life a little bit. That happens very rarely in a lot of the books I read. It's always just focused on the love interest themselves rather than that person's life outside of the relationship. 

I enjoyed the romance aspect of the book. It was pretty chill, at least compared to some other books I've read recently (*cough* Soul Seekers series *cough*). I think Jake was probably very laid-back for a teenage boy finally getting with the girl he's been crushing on, but hey, I'm not gonna complain about that. Nothing indecent happened. I really appreciated that fact. 

It was also really interesting to me to read about the characters' senior year, since I just finished that up myself. It was a little strange when I realized partway through the book that I had already experienced what they were going through. (I'm still not older than them, though, which is kind of the funny thing.) 

I'm a little hesitant to consider What I Didn't Say a fluffy book, since it does deal with depressing topics like the aftermath of a drinking and driving accidents and a less-than-perfect home life, and I usually only consider books fluffy if they're really lighthearted. It's still a really good contemporary romance, though. 

I'm not sure if this is only an ebook or if there's a way to get your hands on a physical copy, so I'm sorry about that. I can tell you that it's available through iBooks, but the deal I got through Bookbub will probably be over with by the time this review goes up. Sorry :c

TL;DR definitely try it out if you like contemporary romance, and especially if you don't want something marshmallow-fluffy but still has a nice feel to it. 

Kissing In America by Margo Rabb

TL;DR girl finds a way to travel cross-country with her friend to see her crush again

(finished 8/3/15)

There's actually a lot more to the story than just that, but my policy with the TL;DR is to be as short as I can possibly get away with, so bear with me. Kissing in America also deals with interpersonal relationships, both romantic and not, as well as death, teenage angst, and exploring the balance between an idealistic version of life and what you actually end up with.

As a content warning, there is a death before the start of the story and a significant part of the plot focuses on grieving, so if that's something you want to avoid, Kissing in America probably isn't going to be your thing. I think it's done really well, but some of it was pretty heartbreaking. Kissing in America isn't quite a fluffy book.

It actually struck me pretty early on how Kissing in America felt actually realistic in terms of romance and narration. Honestly, for all I know, Eva could very well have been a real teenager and not a fictional character. Her narration was simple and concise and her crush on Will was so much different from the romances in all the other books I've read recently that I was overjoyed.

The plot itself isn't too realistic in terms of actually working out well in real life, but I think it worked well within the context of the book. The climax felt kind of short for me, but I really loved reading about Eva and Annie's cross-country adventure. Especially once they actually reached LA. I read Kissing in America close enough to our trip out west that reading about them visiting the Santa Monica pier (even for just a few pages) put me in a really good mood.

Kissing in America is a really good contemporary, but I wouldn't consider it fluffy at all. There are some pretty depressing moments, but none of them were "shock factor" or anything. They were very realistic things that Eva and the people she knows unfortunately had to experience. Things also don't quite work out as nicely as they do in standalone fluffy contemporary romance books, but I actually appreciated that.

TL;DR this is actually my favorite romance books out of the ones I've read in the recent past, so I definitely recommend it.

Teardrop by Lauren Kate

TL;DR MC's tears start the apocalypse, apparently

(finished 7/21/15)

One day, I will finally accept the fact that I do not enjoy paranormal romance at all and stop reading them. 

But I am apparently doomed to put myself through hell for a while longer before I knock all of them off my TBR. 

Let's start out with the fact that the prologue made the first couple chapters confusing as anything for me. Titling it "Prehistory" makes it seem like it's way before the story starts, yes? Wrong. It's, like, maybe two months before the first chapter. This whole time I thought Diana had been dead for at least a year, if not much longer, when in reality it had only been two months.

Not the most endearing way to start the book.

Eureka was pretty oblivious and uninteresting as a main character, and Ander was just as creepy as Finn from Switched, if not more so. I liked Cat, Eureka's best friend, and the twins, Eureka's half-siblings. And her dad. Her dad was pretty okay. (Her stepmother, on the other hand, looks like she's trying to take Lady Tremaine's spot so much so that she's just the "evil stepmother" cliche character. Not interesting.)

The romance was so insta-love that I hated both of them from the start, pretty much. Nothing about either of them was endearing to me. Especially:

"You have to survive because I won't live in a world without you." pg 396

Yes, Ander, because the "love of your life" is so much more important than, I don't know, the survival of the rest of the world, maybe. You already got so many people she cared for hurt or killed because you couldn't do the job in the first place. 

(I'm sorry. That was really sassy. I just don't like him.) 

And as the resident weather nerd, I feel like I need to say that the meteorologists are stupid for calling the storm towards the end of the book a "derecho". That is not a derecho at all. Granted, they don't really understand where the storm came from, but unless that storm is moving straight north on top of them (which it wasn't), then it can't be a derecho based on how long it lasted. 

Okay. 

What I did like was the narration in terms of setting establishment. It was really vivid -- almost to the point of pushing Infatuate, but not quite. My familiarity of Louisiana extends to New Orleans only, so it was nice to learn more about the areas considered "bayou". The setting and mood were always set up nicely. 

The plot also moved along pretty slow, which was annoying considering Teardrop was the biggest book I've read in a while, but it didn't take me more than two days to finish. So that's something. I'm not sure if I would've wanted the plot / action to move along any faster, since it's already only a period of about two weeks maybe, but there are some unnecessary scenes that probably could've been skipped. They built the mood, sure, but some plot points could've been consolidated down to share chapters.

Here's a sticky note spreadsheet for Teardrop. It's not as impressive as some of my more recently read books, since I didn't start until about 150 pages in, but good lord there are some monumental facepalm moments in this book I just couldn't not document.

As a side note: my grandmother mentioned that a lot of the words she was unfamiliar with and looked up didn't match the meanings -- she said there were at least a few words used incorrectly. I can't actually comment on this, since I didn't notice any, but I think it's worth mentioning. (And if you have insight on this one way or the other, let me know! I'm really curious. I already returned my book and can't check.)

TL;DR a lot of my reasons for disliking Teardrop are my own preferences, so if you like paranormal romance, it's probably not too bad of a book. I just don't like paranormal romance.