Review (re-read): To All the Boys I've Loved Before (To All the Boys I've Loved Before #1)

Author: Jenny Han

Started reading: October 21st 2020

Finished the book: November 22nd 2020

Pages: 421

Genres: YA, Romance

Published: August 7th 2014

Source: Bought the book

Goodreads score: 4.15

My score:

Synopsis

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed.

But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters: her first kiss, the boy from summer camp, even her sister's ex-boyfriend, Josh.

As she learns to deal with her past loves face to face, Lara Jean discovers that something good may come out of these letters after all.

Review (re-read): Mockingjay (The Hunger Games #3)

Author: Suzanne Collins
Started reading: October 27th 2019
Finished the book: December 1st 2019
Pages: 390
Genres: YA, Dystopian
Published: August 24th 2010
Source: Bought the book
Goodreads score: 4.03
My score:

Synopsis

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.
It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans--except Katniss.

Review (re-read): Catching Fire (The Hunger Games #2)

Author: Suzanne Collins
Started reading: August 25th 2019
Finished the book: September 13th 2019
Pages: 391
Genres: YA, Dystopian
Published: September 1st 2009
Source: Bought the book
Goodreads score: 4.29
My score:

Synopsis

After winning the brutal Hunger Games, Katniss and Peeta return to their district, hoping for a peaceful future. But their victory has caused rebellion to break out ... and the capitol has decided that someone must pay. As Katniss and Peeta are forced to visit the districts on the Capitol's Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. Unless they can convince the world that they are still lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying. Then comes the cruellest twist: the contestants for the next Hunger Games are announced, and Katniss and Peeta are forced into the arena once more.

Review (re-read): The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games #1)

Author: Suzanne Collins
Started reading: July 14th 2019
Finished the book: July 21st 2019
Pages: 374
Genres: YA, Dystopian
Published: October 2008
Source: Bought the book
Goodreads score: 4.33
My score:

Synopsis

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before - and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

Review: The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books #1)

Author: Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Started reading: August 7th 2018
Finished the book: August 14th 2018
Pages: 487
Genres: Fiction, Historical, Mystery
Published: January 25th 2005
Source: Bought the book
Goodreads score: 4.26
My score:

Synopsis
Barcelona, 1945 - just after the war, a great world city lies in shadow, nursing its wounds, and a boy named Daniel awakes on his eleventh birthday to find that he can no longer remember his mother’s face. To console his only child, Daniel’s widowed father, an antiquarian book dealer, initiates him into the secret of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a library tended by Barcelona’s guild of rare-book dealers as a repository for books forgotten by the world, waiting for someone who will care about them again. Daniel’s father coaxes him to choose a volume from the spiraling labyrinth of shelves, one that, it is said, will have a special meaning for him. And Daniel so loves the novel he selects, The Shadow of the Wind by one Julian Carax, that he sets out to find the rest of Carax’s work. To his shock, he discovers that someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book this author has written. In fact, he may have the last one in existence. Before Daniel knows it his seemingly innocent quest has opened a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets, an epic story of murder, magic, madness and doomed love. And before long he realizes that if he doesn’t find out the truth about Julian Carax, he and those closest to him will suffer horribly.

Review: Glass Sword (Red Queen #2)

Author: Victoria Aveyard
Started reading: March 20th 2018
Finished the book: March 30th 2018
Pages: 444
Genres: Fantasy, YA
Published: February 9th 2016
Source: Bought the book
Goodreads score: 3.94
My score:

Synopsis
Mare Barrow’s blood is red—the color of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control.

The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind.

Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors.

Review (re-read): Illuminae (The Illuminae Files #1)

Authors: Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Started reading: January 5th 2018
Finished the book: January 10th 2018
Pages: 602
Genres: Sci-Fi, Horror
Published: October 20th 2015
Source: Bought the book
Goodreads score: 4.31
My score:

Synopsis
This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do. This afternoon, her planet was invaded.

The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.

Review (re-read): Red Queen (Red Queen #1)

Author: Victoria Aveyard
Started reading: October 26th 2017
Finished the book: November 16th 2017
Pages: 383
Genres: Fantasy, YA
Published: February 10th 2015
Source: Bought the book
Goodreads score: 4.08
My score:

Synopsis
This is a world divided by blood – red or silver.

The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change.

That is, until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power.

Review (re-read) (SPOILERS): A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses #2)

Author: Sarah J. Maas
Started reading: June 9th 2017
Finished the book: June 17th 2017
Pages: 626
Genres: Fantasy
Published: May 3rd 2016
Source: Bought the book
Goodreads score: 4.73
My score:

Synopsis
Feyre survived Amarantha's clutches to return to the Spring Court—but at a steep cost. Though she now has the powers of the High Fae, her heart remains human, and it can't forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin's people.

Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court. As Feyre navigates its dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms—and she might be key to stopping it. But only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future—and the future of a world cleaved in two.

Review (re-read): A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1)

Author: Sarah J. Maas
Started reading: April 3rd 2017
Finished the book: May 6th 2017
Pages: 421
Genres: Fantasy
Published: May 5th 2015
Source: Bought the book
Goodreads score: 4.30
My score:

Synopsis
Feyre's survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price ...
Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre's presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.

My thoughts

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this series. Since the new book arrived in my mailbox last week and I really wanted to review the other two books, I decided to do a re-read. To quote myself in my last review, this book is:

Dazzling, emotional, gripping, intense, powerful, unique, astonishing, captivating, magnificent, fascinating, memorable, breath-taking, heart-breaking, spine-tingling and tear-jerking!

READ. IT.

Pros

• Worldbuilding: The worldbuilding in this book is so strong. Sarah J. Maas is using her first book as a really good set-up to explain the world Feyre is in and the creatures she is meeting. It's so fascinating, all the names and new species she can come up with and I SWEAR it just all makes sense...
• Feyre: Feyre is my #1 heroine! She is fierce, loving and ready to give her all for the people she loves. I'm a very big Feyre-fan, she is all you want in a series like this.
• Ending: It seems like a thing, to break my heart at the end of a book. I know how book 2 is going to end, and Sarah J. Maas is a BOSS in ending books with a big shock. I LOVED the ending. I cried so hard, even the second time, it was perfect, it was great and it makes you want MORE. I couldn't wait to read the second book after this first one.

Cons

NO!!

Overall

I am such a huge ACOTAR fangirl. I LOVE the books. I really don't know what I'll do with my life once this series ends. Can't even think about it right now. I totally recommend this book to fantasy lovers. I know the books are kinda hyped right now, maybe? But I can't imagine anyone hating these books...

Who can hate a book when it leaves you like this:

Other opinions about this book

"A gorgeously written tale as lush and romantic as it is ferocious. Absolutely spellbinding."

- Alexandra Bracken, NYT Bestselling Author

"Readers will find the author's trademark blend of action, romance, and witty banter as well as a sexier edgier tone."

- School Library Journal

"Suspense, romance, intrigue and action. This is not a book to be missed!"

- The Huffington Post

Memorable quotes from this book

"Do you lie awake at night to come up with all your witty replies for the following day?"

"A kiss for each day we'd spent apart, a kiss for every wound and terror, a kiss for the ink etched into my flesh, and for all the days we would be together after this. Days, perhaps, that I no longer deserved. But I gave myself again to that fire, threw myself into it, into him, and let myself burn."

"Don't feel bad for one moment about doing what brings you joy."

What's your opinion about this series?!

  

Review (re-read): Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles, #1)

Author: Marissa Meyer
Started reading: April 18th 2017
Finished the book: April 24th 2017
Pages: 387
Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, YA
Published: January 3rd 2012
Source: Bought the book
Goodreads score: 4.15
My score:

Synopsis:
Sixteen-year-old Cinder is considered a technological mistake by most of society and a burden by her stepmother. Being cyborg does have its benefits, though: Cinder's brain interference has given her an uncanny ability to fix things (robots, hovers, her own malfunctioning parts), making her the best mechanic in New Beijing. This reputation brings Prince Kai himself to her weekly market booth, needing her to repair a broken android before the annual ball. He jokingly calls it "a matter of national security," but Cinder suspects it's more serious than he's letting on.

My thoughts

I LOVE fairytales and Disney and everything that comes with it. I've read the book a year ago and it was an instant favorite of mine. Since then I've been wanting to read the other books. I've bought them a month ago and decided to read Cinder again, since I have a thing for series and I also remembered I LOVED the book. It was so much fun to read it again. It's a nice retelling of a fairytale.

Pros

• Sarcasm: I LOVE sarcasm. I totally get this type of humour and it's so well embedded in Cinder's personality. I loved to read the parts where she was being sarcastic, it makes me relate with characters in books and I always seem to appreciate characters a little more when they don't take everything so seriously.
• Cyborg/Lunar: This modern fairytale consists Cyborgs and Lunars. I love a great thought through fantasy book and that's what Cinder is! The Cyborg and Lunar part is very believable and that's a very strong part about the book.
• Real threat: There is a real threat in this book the form of Queen Levana. She was so fierce and felt like a real threat to me. I'm not a person to believe everything right away, but she is a very believable character who adds a great deal of tension to the book.
• Nice ending: The ending is so strong. You get yourself some answers and after that you really want to know what is going to happen, and then the book ends. Yep, I like it!

Cons

• "Big Secret Reveal": I remember from the last time, when I read this book that I figured "the big secret" out pretty quick. It felt like it was right in front of Cinder but she was a bit naïve to not see what was going on. This was just a tiny con for me, still a favorite this book!

Overall

A really nice book that I would enjoy every time I'd read it. I feel like the re-telling of fairytales is something magical, when it's done right. And it is definitely done right in this book, to my opinion.

Most definitely magical!

Other opinions about this book

"Singing mice and glass slippers are replaced with snarky androids and mechanical feet in this richly imagined and darkly subversive retelling of 'Cinderella.'"

-BCCB

"This is one buzzed novel that totally delivers."

- Stacked Book Blog

"Author Marissa Meyer rocks the fractured fairy tale genre with a sci-fi twist on Cinderella."

- The Seattle Times

Memorable quotes from this book

"I'm sure I'll feel much more grateful when I find a guy who thinks complex wiring in a girl is a turn-on."

"Vanity is a factor, but it is more a question of control. It is easier to trick others into perceiving you as beautiful if you can convince yourself you are beautiful. But mirrors have an uncanny way of telling the truth."

"Prince Kai! Check my fan, I think I'm overheating."

What's your favorite fairytale of all time?

Mine is Beauty and the Beast.

  

Review (re-read): Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Harry Potter #1)

Author: J.K. Rowling
Started reading: March 20th 2017
Finished the book: March 28th 2017
Pages: 332
Genres: Fantasy, YA, Fiction, Adventure
Published: June 26th 1997
Source: Bought the book
Goodreads score: 4.44
My score:

Synopsis:
Harry Potter has never heard of Hogwarts when the letters start dropping on the doormat at number four, Privet Drive. Addressed in green ink on yellowish parchment with a purple seal, they are swiftly confiscated by his grisly aunt and uncle. Then, on Harry's eleventh birthday, a great beetle-eyed giant of a man called Rubeus Hagrid bursts in with some astonishing news: Harry Potter is a wizard, and he has a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
An incredible adventure is about to begin!

My thoughts

I'm writing for every person that has not yet read the Harry Potter books or is thinking about re-reading. You might think that every person on earth has read a HP book at some point, but you will be astonished if you figure out how many people did not yet read it! I LOVED the movies when I was younger. It's so hard to turn great books into good movies (cuz the movies are never better than the books). I assure you; The books are awesome and you should read them, or just re-read them. I've been reading them 13 years ago or something and I don't remember that much. So you can expect a lot of Harry Potter reviews this year!

Pros

• Worldbuilding: The worldbuilding is great in the Harry Potter books. It's the magical atmosphere that drags you in and won't let you go. I gotta tell you: I'm still waiting for my Hogwarts letter to tell me I got a place... It all feels so magical and so real. Everything is explained vividly and you can picture everything in your head so easily! You actually explore the wizard-world together with Harry, who had no idea too...
• Characters: There is a character for every person. Everyone will have their favorite and it can be from Malfoy, to Hagrid, to Hermione or Ron. You don't have to be the Harry Potter-fangirl to like the book! The characters are so well thought through that everyone can relate with one of the characters.
• Adventure/Mystery: Love it! There is so much adventure and mystery in the books. You discover new secrets or learn new things in every chapter of every book. That's why I (as a 25 year old person) still LOVE the books. Even this book, where Harry is still 11 years old.

Cons

Nope...

Overall

Like I said; I'm writing this blog-post for the people that have not yet read the Harry Potter series or who are considering re-reading it. JUST - DO - IT.

Memorable quotes from this book

"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live."

"It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends."

"To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure."

What's your favorite Harry Potter wand?
Mine is Hermione's!!