Book Buzz: The Wicked Will Rise by Danielle Paige

Hello again! I'm still alive, and I'm back just in time to get excited about the next book to be released in my infamous list of Elite Favorite book series. While I'm sad to see another month end (I'm super behind on my reading goals), I'm super excited that it also means the release of The Wicked Will Rise by Danielle Paige.

It's the second book in a series, so I'll include the cover and description of the first book in the series, Dorothy Must Die, below.

I didn't ask for any of this. I didn't ask to be some kind of hero.

But when your whole life gets swept up by a tornado - taking you with it - you have no choice but to go along, you know?

Sure, I've read the books. I've seen the movies. I know the song about the rainbow and the happy little bluebirds. But I never expected Oz to look like this. To be a place where Good Witches can't be trusted, Wicked Witches may just be the good guys, and winged monkeys can be executed for acts of rebellion. There's still a yellow brick road - but even that's crumbling.

What happened? Dorothy.

They say she found a way to come back to Oz. They say she seized power and the power went to her head. And now no one is safe.

My name is Amy Gumm - and I'm the other girl from Kansas.

I've been recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked.

I've been trained to fight.

And I have a mission. 

This book series has just been killing it so far. I'm obsessed with the setting (Oz is so vividly portrayed, it's like you can taste it), I'm obsessed with the villains, I love Amy Gumm, the protagonist, and I love how there are 3 short novellas, now combined into one handy physical book, that helped me get through the wait for the next book.

I'm also really excited that I'm completely caught up on this series, so I can start reading this book as soon as I get it. Which reminds me that I've forgotten to pre-order it. Whoops, I know what I'm doing tonight.

Happy reading,

Katie

Reading Lightning Round: First and Last

In my entire conception of this project, I often wondered how no one had ever considered doing it before.

Now that the round is over, I know that it was doomed. DOOMED.

I did not reach the 1/2 point on any of the three books I started, though I did determine I very much enjoyed two of them. (I read the first chapter of Maze Runner first, and once I read the first chapters of the other books I felt too disconnected from Maze Runner to go back to it.) Partially this is due to the weekend becoming much more busy than originally anticipated, but the real culprit is the plain and simple fact that I cannot read an entire weekend reading anymore.

For instance, the latest book in the Lunar Chronicles, Fairest, was released yesterday. I had devoured  the first 2 books in the series, Cinder and Scarlet, within two days each. Cress, on the other hand, took me nearly a week. And while I managed to read the 6 books in the Vampire Academy series over the course of 2 weeks last year, that was the only time all year I managed to start and finish a book within a weekend. I had several other reading binges throughout the year, but they all took place over 3-4 days, usually work days instead of on the weekends.

Now that I know the Reading Lightning Round is not going to work in its current format, I'm going to focus on reducing my TBR by reading more (and maybe figure out a better method for the Lightning Rounds).

Reading Lightning Round #1

I have the super unexciting responsibility to watch my sister's dog this weekend. However, this means I  will have a ton of time for reading, which means I'll be doing my first Reading Lightning Round of the year!

To recap, the Reading Lightning Round is basically a read-a-thon where the TBR is set in stone and any books less than halfway read must be given away.

Beginning on Friday evening, January 23, I will read the first chapter of three pre-determined books. I will read as much as I want for the rest of the weekend. I am not obligated to continue reading any of them, so they must compete for my attention. By the time I go to sleep on Sunday, January 25th, the books reaching at least the halfway point are declared the winners and the rest are declared the losers. The winners will be added to my permanent book collection shelf and my list of 2015 reads, and the losers will be added to the donate pile.

This month's theme* is Dystopian Novels. And the contestants are:

1. The Host by Stephanie Meyer
2. The Maze Runner by James Dashner and
3. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

*I won't always do themes, but I want to read dystopians right now, so putting other genres on the list would only set them up for failure.

#0by16

As I said in my last post, there's this new 2015 challenge going around the BookTube community to reduce your personal TBR to 0 by 2016. I'm not going to try to reduce my TBR to 0, but I would like to make a big dent in it. For my purposes, I'm defining my TBR as my owned, unread physical books. This is solely to stop having full shelves (in addition to 1 entire bookshelf) devoted to TBR books. E-books, library books, borrowed books, all of the books I have marked as 'to-read' on GoodReads but do not actually own, do not count against me.

Beginning of 2015: According to my GoodReads account, the number of unread books I own physical copies of is 106 books*. That's more than twice as many books as I read last year, and I'm sure I'll be adding more books as the year goes on. Which is why I've come up with an awesome idea for how decrease my TBR and increase the books I'll read this year (that doesn't involve reading 100+ books in a year).

I'm inventing Reading Lightning Rounds!

Usually, a lightning round is a round in a game where everyone tries to get as many points in a short period of time. This may sound like a read-a-thon, but it's not. In this lightning round, you are the judge, and your books are the contestants that have to battle for a place on your shelf. Any losers must leave immediately. That's right, you have to get rid of them.

Sound crazy? Perhaps. This is not for the weak of heart. This is intended for those people with a shelf full of new releases from the last five years, the people that look over their bookshelves and see a lot more 'meh' than excitement. In particular, this is for people like me that want to at least start the books I've bought over the years before parting with them.

The rules of my Reading Lightning Round are as follows (if anyone else wants to participate, feel free to adjust as needed)

1. Every month, I will designate one weekend to complete a Reading Lightning Round.
2. I will pick 3 books beforehand. No switching books during the round. If I'm not feeling the book, even if I'm just not in the mood for it, it's out.
3. I will read the first chapter of each book. 
4. If I manage to reach the halfway point of the book (and still want to read more) before the end of the weekend, the book gets to stay. 
5. If I do not manage to reach the halfway point of the book, it must go.
6. There is no quota for winners or losers. All three books can win (though unlikely I'll be able to read that much in a weekend), and all three books can lose.

*Edit: My Goodreads account wasn't updated. I only have 79 unread books on my shelves. Still a lot, but quite a bit less than I thought. And a Reading Lightning Round should take care 36 books this year, which is almost half of the TBR.

New Year, New Blog

One thing I failed to mention in my 2014 review post was my blogging. To sum up, it was terrible. I completely fell off the wagon, time and time again. But I did learn a lot of things about myself as a blogger, and what I want for this blog.

• 3 posts a week is way too much for me.
• I don't want to be a big-time book blogger. I want to geek out about the books I want, without keeping to a super demanding schedule and feeling constricted by rigid expectations. 

So, now that I've taken potential fame and notoriety off the table (haha like that was actually going to happen), I can focus more on having fun with this blog. I'm going to aim for 1 post a week about whatever I want, without designating certain topics on different days.

As I mentioned in my last post, I am participating in the GoodRead's Annual Reading Challenge again (aiming for 50 again), but that's not the only challenge I will be doing. There are several read-a-thons that are going on, and I plan to participate in one of them this year (IDK which one yet, I'll update you as soon as I know). There is also a challenge to reduce your TBR by 2016, known as #0by16. I won't be sticking too strictly to that one, but you can expect a another post in the near future to discuss my plans to reduce my TBR list.

Happy 2015! Here's to a great year!

2014 Reading Recap

Let me start by recapping the last few years of my reading, in particular the years after I joined GoodReads and started actually trying to increase the number of books I read and tracking what I've read. The 50 books in a year sounded too daunting, so I went with a more reasonable number of30 books for 2012 instead.

I failed with 27 books.

Not quite defeated by this, I attempted to read 30 books again in 2013.

That time, I failed with 26 books, despite the fact I'd included several short stories that had been published as a singular entities as opposed to part of short story collections.

So last year, I originally though I would stop setting myself up for failure and challenge myself to 25 books instead. I had managed that in the past 2 years, I figured I might as well succeed this year. But I also had the urge to throw caution to the wind and just go for the 50 books challenge I had first heard about. 50 books seemed much more plausible now, especially since the new crazy goal on BookTube was 100 books in a year.  But it wasn't until the end of February, when I read a 6-book series within 2 weeks, that I really decided to commit to read 50 books in 2014.

It should surprise no one that I failed to read 50 books in 2014. Maybe one day I'll meet my reading goals, but it has yet to happen.

However, I failed with 48 books.

Guys.

48 BOOKS.

That's 21 books more than I've managed to read in the past 2 years!

I'd also like to do a quick recap of my reading habits in 2014. I've started buying and reading a lot more books on my Kindle. (Actually I use the Kindle app on my phone in order to read during my lunch break)

I did a lot more impulse book buying based on Amazon Daily Deals and Epic Reads Epic Deals, which is part of the reason I felt somewhat unsatisfied by what I read last year. When I looked over my ratings, there are a lot of 4-5 stars, so I can't say I didn't like most of the books I read. But part of the attempt to read so many books in one year did have me gravitating towards quicker reads, and I feel like by reading more books, I ended up with a larger percentage of books that were ok, as opposed to books I loved or hated. I put in my breakdown of the past 3 years below (cause I'm a nerd).

2012: 4-5 stars: 19 (70%); 3 stars: 4 (15%); 2 stars: 4 (15%);
2013: 4-5 stars: 17 (65%); 3 stars: 5 (19%); 2 stars: 4 (15%);
2014: 4-5 stars: 33 (69%); 3 stars: 12 (25%); 2 stars: 3 (6%);

In case you're interested, all the books I read in 2014 are listed beneath the cut, and the separate page with my running list will by updated to reflect 2015's books.

NaNoWriMo 2014

You may have noticed I've abandoned the blog again. The "3 posts per week" schedule has proven to be too taxing on me, and now that I am participating in NaNoWriMo, I have put all non-noveling hobbies on the back burner. But, I will be back in December, with an updated posting schedule.

Have a great November!

Happy reading (and writing!),

Katie

Blog Maintenance Post - Release Update

I'd just like to quickly apologize for all of the incorrect information I had in my list of Upcoming Releases. I might be able to understand my past self getting one of the release dates wrong, but not only did I have the wrong dates for both of the releases listed, I also had the wrong title for one of the upcoming releases (Danielle Paige's next novella/short story/ebook/etc. in the Dorothy Must Die series is not, in fact, Burn the Witch, but The Witch Must Burn).

I've also added a ton of new releases I'm looking forward to in the next year, so you've now got the most updated version of books I'm looking forward to reading.

That being said, I'm sad to see the pretty Blood of Olympus cover go. I haven't even received my copy of it in the mail yet!

Book Review: Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Tiger Lily is a beautiful retelling of Peter Pan, with Tiger Lily as the main character (obviously) but narrated by Tinkerbell. I loved Tinkerbell's point of view, and although I am nothing like Tiger Lily, I related to her so much.

I also really liked how quickly I turned from taking Wendy's side from the canon Peter Pan story to everyone else's side in this story. I mean, in the Disney movie, everyone in Neverland (except Peter and the Lost Boys) hates Wendy practically upon sight. Seeing the movie from her point of view, Wendy had my sympathy, but after reading this book, it seems more likely that Wendy has a bad personality as opposed to everyone else on Neverland being crazy. Like that one saying goes, if you have a problem with everyone you know, you have to consider that you are the common link.

• Addicting: 9/10
• Coming of Age: 9/10
• Romance: 8/10
• Literary: 10/10
• Social Commentary: 10/10
• Overall rating: 46/50

Pick up this book if you like

• Coming of age stories
• Retellings of classic stories in general, or Peter Pan specifically
• Multifaceted, flawed female lead you will love
• Character-driven stories

Skip this book if you hate

• Anything changing the canon Peter Pan story
• Novels where the romance the book focuses on doesn't pan* out 

I originally borrowed this from the library, but I only got 2 pages into it before realizing I had to own a copy for my personal collection. I haven't reread it yet, as I've only just read it at the beginning of this year and so I can't recount it towards my reading challenge, but I'm planning on taking a break from the annual reading challenge next year to allow myself more freedom to reread and enjoy my books.

*Pun intended

Raves: The Elite Favorites

Even though I just wrote a post about book spoilers, I really want to go more in depth of that topic. Since today's post has to fit the 'rave' category, I'm going to talk about the books series that I am most rabid about preventing being spoiled on. These are the books I preorder or buy on the release day, the ones I start reading the minute I have them, the ones I finish reading within 4 days of their release, the ones that I will specifically avoid the internet for. If anyone spoiled me on these books, I would probably makes threats of violence before walling myself up in my room to finish the book so I couldn't be spoiled anymore (and then go back and apologize for the threats once I've cooled off because violence is never ok). 

While these obviously include my favorite series, they don't include all of my favorite series, for the reasons below. 

• If I start a book series after more than one book has been released, I'm probably not going to get through all the published installments of it before the next book comes out. A long time between releases means less motivation to work through the backlog, a short time between releases or a quickly upcoming release means less time to read. I've tried using the latest book releases to motivate me to finish earlier books in the series (The Mortal Instruments, Divergent series, Heroes of Olympus), and it never works out.
• If the book series is long and complicated, or if there's more than a few years between installments, I usually want to reread the earlier books immediately before reading the latest release. This brings us back to the problem in the previous bullet, and even if I read the first few books immediately after their release, the later books in the series don't receive the same love (The Books of Abarat).

For these reasons, I've nicknamed the special books that have ever made this list the Elite Favorites just to show how fancy they are. Here they are in no particular order.

1. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling: This series may be a long time finished, but this is the book series that turned me from your average bookworm to the rabid 'goes to midnight release of book and reads it the next day' book nerd. This is also the only exception to the first bullet above (I didn't start the series until after The Prisoner of Azkaban was out, and I read books 1-3 long before Goblet of Fire was released). If there were any more Harry Potter books coming out, they would immediately make this exclusive level of reads.
2. The Lynburn Legacy by Sarah Rees Brennan: I know I talk about this book a lot, but I really love this series. I found out about it just after the first book was released, so I could easily read each new installment on the release date without having to slough through a backlog. This series just ended a few weeks ago, which means I've got room for a new series to make it to the elite list.
3. The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer: This is another series I found out about not too long after the release of the first book. This series also has a steady, easy-to-remember release schedule (every year, the first week in February), though the original 4 book line-up got changed to 5, which changed the release schedule slightly so the last book will be released later the same year (OMG 2015 can't get here soon enough).
4. Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige: This is the newest series to make the list, and to be honest I'm not sure if it really belongs here, as it hasn't had a chance to earn its place (Only book 1 and the prequel novella have been released so far, but I've already preordered the next novella. We'll see how soon I read it after it's released - November 11th, 2014)

Like every person who writes blog posts alone in their room, I tend to think that I'm just talking in front of an empty room, but if that is not the case and you'd like to interact, please let me know if you have your own list of Elite Favorites and what books make your list. Also, if you have recommendations for book blogs to follow, let me know! I need to read more book blogs.

Rants: Spoilers

I had a hard time trying to think of a topic for today's post (hence why I'm breaking my internet ban and writing it last minute), but once I saw PolandBananasBooks's latest video on how to avoid spoilers (warning, she spoils Allegiant several times throughout it), I knew I had to address the reason for my failed internet ban.

I've been spoiled on TV shows and on movies, but there is no spoiler I strive to avoid like I do the book spoiler. I had no problem avoiding spoilers as a kid and teenager, mostly because I spent less time on the internet and had less books to keep track of, but now that I have BookTube in my life (as a follower, not an active participant), I have almost 300 books on my TBR pile and less time to read than ever. It seems rather ironic that BookTube introduces me to books I want to avoid being spoiled on AND the opportunity to be spoiled on them, but that's the way it goes.

The most recent book I've been spoiled on was Allegiant. I still haven't read it yet, but I've been spoiled on it by Goodreads, BookTube, and real-life people over the last year that it's been out.

That being said, I don't think all book spoilers are bad. There are some books I wanted to read until I found out what happened, then realized I wouldn't like the book at all. And there are even more books I wasn't sure I'd like until I learned how it ended, when I decided I would really like it. The main difference here, though, is that all the book spoilers I benefitted from were ones I specifically sought out, where the ones I did not want to know were the ones that were thrust upon me.

The main point of today's topic is that while spoiler-filled book talk has an important place in the book talk realm, it's important as a creator to tag your spoilers and as a reader/watcher/consumer to watch out for spoilers. I make a point of hiding my spoilers beneath cuts, including the "spoilers" tag in the labels and saying there are spoilers in the title, and separating the spoiler-filled reviews from the spoiler-free reviews. I also recommend following the tips provided by PolandBananasBooks in the video I posted at the beginning of this post (but only if you have read Allegiant, as she spoils it several times).

Book Review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Now that summer is officially over, I can finally pick my favorite summer read of 2014. (To be honest, I've already decided this is my favorite book of the year, but I can't make that ruling official until January 1, 2015)

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart is beautiful and poignant and poetic and so many things I didn't even know I wanted in a book. This book has had so much buzz, and I'm so happy I somehow managed to avoid it all. If you want to read this book (and believe me, you do), do not look up anything about this book before reading it. I can only speak from my experience, but going into this book with no expectations was so wonderful.

I'm not going to say anything else about the book here in case you want to read it, but if you are still on the fence, here is how I rated it on my personal book stats.

• Addicting: 10/10
• Originality: 10/10
• Thought-provoking: 10/10
• Lyrical: 10/10
• Romance: 8/10
• Overall rating: 48/50

Pick up this book if you like

• Poetic prose
• Quick reads
• Unreliable narrators

Skip this book if you hate

• Uses of amnesia in fiction

I'd like to recommend this book to a specific group of people, but it involves giving away a spoiler for something that happens 25% into the book. I'm going to list it below several rows of stars. If you don't want to be spoiled on this, this is it for the non-spoiler part of this book review, close this page and go read the book! If you want to see the slightly spoiler recommendation, keep reading beyond the stars.

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At the end of last year and beginning of this year, my two remaining grandparents passed away. There has been a lot of grief and anger to deal with, both my own and that of my immediate and extended family. To me, this book very accurately depicts how the death of a grandparent affects the relationships of the entire family. I found reading this book to be a cathartic experience in regards to my loss, and I highly recommend it to anyone who has recently lost a grandparent.

Click the link below to reveal my discussion including spoilers.

Raves: Epic Reads

For today's second rave, instead of talking about books, I'm going to talk about something book-related.  Epic Reads is the social media branch of the HarperCollins Publishing marketing team. While the team is made up of many people, Margot and Aubry provide the face of Epic Reads with their weekly liveshow, Tea Time. Nearly every Wednesday* at 3:45pm EST, Margot and Aubry host a half-hour liveshow on their YouTube channel, where they drink tea and discuss books. Their video topics range from unveiling upcoming HarperTeen releases, cover reveals, and discussions of their latest reads. As of this week, they have had 78 episodes of Tea Time, and I have watched every single one (excluding the few early ones not on the YouTube channel).

Tea Time is responsible for a lot of my reading backlog. I have a TeaTime shelf on my GoodReads, just to show how many books I've gotten recommended from them. That being said, they also keep track of sweet deals on their Epic Reads Epic Deals page, so while they've added to my book-buying addiction, they've also given me the means to utilize my Kindle, and of course, read more.

Another thing I really love about them is their energy. They are never negative, and I think it must be really difficult to have a deep passion for books and only share the positive feelings. I have often been tempted to say terrible things about the books I disliked, and even succumbed to those temptations, but watching Tea Time inspires me to be the best book blogger I can be. I didn't start blogging to become famous (good thing, because that's very unlikely), or to trash talk books, or even to write honest negative reviews of books. I started this blog because I love books and I love talking about them. Watching Epic Reads reminds me of that, and it motivates me to work harder.

*Since it's for work, they don't post on holidays, and they only host shows every other week during the summer.

**This post has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of Aubry's name**

Book Buzz: The Blood of Olympus

It's been a busy few weeks here on the blog. I've barely had time to recover from the end of the Lynburn Legacy, and it's already nearly time for the last book in the Heroes of Olympus series.

In case you don't know what I'm talking about, the Heroes of Olympus (HoO) series is a best-selling YA fantasy series by Rick Riordan. It is a spin-off from the Percy Jackson and the Olympians middle grade series. Both of these series are such addicting reads. I really believe they are the 'Harry Potter' of this generation. The last book in the Heroes of Olympus series, Blood of Olympus, comes out on October 7, next Tuesday. I won't put a blurb of it here, as it will spoil people (myself included), but I will put the dust jacket blurb for the first book in the original series, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.

Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school... again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus' master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect. Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus' stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.

I'm still two books behind in the series, and the HoO books are all over 500 pages, so I've got a lot of catching up to do. I also want to binge read this series, rereading books 1 and 2 before reading the 3-5, which means I won't be getting to Blood of Olympus for at least two weeks. Since I'll be avoiding the internet like the plague until I'm caught up (MUST AVOID SPOILERS!), I will have my posts written this weekend and scheduled to post on the current Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule.

Book Rants: Girls Who Hate Girls (The Mortal Instruments 1-3 spoilers)

Today's second book-related rant has to do with the all-too-common trend of fictional girls who hate all the other fictional girls around them. To be honest, I haven't actually seen this frequently enough in books to warrant all the times I've read about this trend, but I'm just taking that as a sign where I'm reading the right books. I have seen it in a few books, though, and I'd like to talk about why I don't like this trend, and how City of Bones, City of Ashes, and City of Glass are the only books which have made this work.

There is a big difference between a female protagonist fighting with another girl, and a protagonist merely disliking another girl. Contrary to popular belief, I have a problem with the second case. When two characters are fighting, it is usually relevant to the plot. The protagonist needs at least one antagonist to provide opposition to drive the story. When a female protagonist puts down the girls she considers her friends and/or allies, that's just annoying, useless girl-hating. The protagonist may be trying to tell me that so-and-so is a useless flirt because she wears too much makeup, but what I've actually learned is that the protagonist is insecure about herself and bolsters her shaky confidence by judging other women. Unfortunately, most of the cases I've seen use girl-hate don't even bother addressing this problem with the protagonist's outlook, which normalizes the damaging behavior. 

Which brings me to The Mortal Instruments series. 

If you have read the first three Mortal Instruments books (City of Bones, City of Ashes, and City of Glass), click for spoiler-filled discussion below. If you have not, let me just say that while the book series may at first appear to fall into this girl-hating trap, it actually addresses that issue beautifully.

Book Talk: Love Interests, Parents, and Dead Bodies (Women and Men in Media)

While writing my review of The Watersong Quartet by Amanda Hocking and gushing about my love of all the female characters*, I started thinking of all the male characters and how they compared. I realized that the biggest male characters were the two love interests and the dad, and the minor male characters were dads, love interests and/or dead bodies (with the exception of the professor in Elegy, as I'd just remembered him now).

This reminded me of something I'd read a while ago saying that media often portrays women as fitting into one of three categories: girlfriend, mother, or dead body. I thought it was interesting that this book series seemed to do (almost) exactly this, but with boys instead of girls, and I made an offhand comment on how I loved that inverted trope.

I'd like to expand on that point a bit, as I am often careless with words and may have come across in a manner I did not intend. I do not think that men should only be portrayed as one of these three categories. I believe in gender equality, not in an oppressive matriarchy to replace the existing patriarchy. Men, women, and all other genders, all deserve to see themselves represented in entertainment as multi-faceted characters.

That being said, women are not being equally represented in entertainment**. There are tons of movies, TV shows, and books that

• use female characters lives and deaths solely for a male character's development and growth
• include a token woman as a love interest, while the rest of the background cast is male
• sexualize female murder victims (specifically crime shows and murder mysteries)

Entertainment that relegates guys to the background in order to let girls get the spotlight may not be reflecting a gender equality utopia, but it would definitely bring some balance to the current entertainment choices, which I think is a necessary step in leading to such a utopia in real life.

Either way, can anyone really deny us girls something meant specifically for us when there is already more than enough stuff catering specifically to the boys?

*In that I love many of the characters that are female, and I love that there are so many female characters (the main characters, the villains, the friends/allies)

**Non-gender binary people are practically invisible in entertainment, but that's a topic I'm not well-versed in, so I won't comment further.

Book Series Review: Watersong Quartet by Amanda Hocking

I finally finished The Watersong Quartet by Amanda Hocking recently. While the series didn't make it into my favorites, I did find the series satisfying. I loved the two romances blossoming over the course of the series, I loved the minor characters Marcy and Lydia, and I loved how the character list was a reverse of the standard stereotypical cast, with default characters being female and the guys only existing as love interests, dads, or dead bodies.

• Originality: 9/10
• Fast-paced: 8/10
• Mythology: 7/10
• Funny: 6/10
• Romance: 8/10
• Overall rating: 38/50

Pick up this series if you like

• Paranormal romance
• Hot love interests
• Killer ladies
• Siblings relationships

Skip this series if you hate

• Revisions to mythology

While I love just about any take on mythology, I can understand that not everyone is going to like every re-imagining. Furthermore, there was one part of the series that was not fully explained, and while I was able to come up with the reasoning that held with both the rules of the mythology and make sense in the world, a lot of other people did not come to that same conclusion. (read more under the cut)

Well, that's all for my non-spoiler review. You can check under the cut for some discussion on a very specific spoiler-filled part of Elegy, book four of the Watersong Quartet.

Book Series Review: The Lynburn Legacy (Unspoken, Untold, and Unmade) by Sarah Rees Brennan

Due to the stomach bug making its way through my family, I didn't make any posts last week. But I'm going to try to make it up to you by doubling up on posts this week. So here's the first of today's two reviews. I hope you enjoy!

Last Tuesday, one of my most anticipated books of the year was released. The Lynburn Legacy was one of the few book series I found out about right after book one was released, and I really enjoyed waiting for sequel releases, and then immediately buying and reading the sequels. While I agree that some series require binge reading (Vampire Academy, I'm looking at you), I love the opportunity that the breaks between books give me and other fans to anticipate the sequels and express that excitement through fan art or fan fiction or fan mixes. While The Lynburn Legacy doesn't have as large of the fan base as a lot of other book fandoms, the fans are so dedicated to the series, and it makes me so happy to find new people who have also heard of and love this series.

The Lynburn Legacy trilogy is a gothic mystery series with fantasy elements. It is my favorite series by Sarah Rees Brennan, and I have already reread the first two books in the series, and plan on rereading all three books again in the future.

• Addicting: 10/10
• Originality: 10/10
• Suspense: 10/10
• Funny: 10/10
• Romance: 10/10
• Overall rating: 50/50

Pick up this trilogy if you like

• YA mysteries
• Spunky protagonists
• Awesome female friends
• Jokes
• Siblings relationships

Skip this book if you hate

• Plots hinged on miscommunications

I realize that I am biased, but I really think everyone who likes YA books would love this book series. Unfortunately, since it is a lesser known series, it might not be available at your local bookstore, but you can always order online, or request that your local bookstore order a copy.

Book Raves: The Turn of the Story

So somewhere in between trying to finish The Lux series and City of Glass and considering whether or not I have time to reread Unspoken and Untold before the release of Unmade next Tuesday, I decided it would be a good idea to abandon all my other reads and go back to reading The Turn of the Story.

Sorry, everything else I've been excited for lately! Y'all are taking a backseat to this.

The Turn of the Story is a serialized story written by Sarah Rees Brennan (same author as Unmade, so I feel slightly less guilty about overshadowing its upcoming release), that was written as a present to her readers and is posted on her livejournal. While she has the brevity of George R.R. Martin (this 13 part series started as a short story), she also has the wit, imagination, and humor of Terry Pratchett at his best. Her words make me laugh out loud, fall into despair, shriek in frustration, and make me consider the politics of war and the dehumanization of our opposition in order to justify our own means while neglecting to see our shortcomings in reaching those ideals we insist make us better, sometimes all in the span of a few sentences. 

You should go read it right now, though you should know that the story does not end with part 13 on her blog, but with a separate short story all on its own. Wings in the Morning picks up right where part 13 leaves off, but from a different character's point of view, and is included in the anthology Monstrous Affections edited by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant, which I bought on my Kindle immediately after finishing part 13. I must say I prefer Elliot's POV to than that of the character in Wings in the Morning, but they both are fantastic. 

I have far too many things to talk about this series to fit into one post, but I will figure out a way to share everything with you sometime soon!

Happy reading,

Katie

Book Talk: Hating on Twilight

In the last few years, it has become very popular to make fun of Twilight. These criticisms usually come with the rationalization that the Twilight books and movies deserve the hate because they have problematic issues (romanticizing an emotionally abusive relationship, depicting the nonwhite characters as animalistic alongside depictions of white people acting civilized, etc.). However, I've heard of many cases where people use these reasons to rationalize making personal attacks against the author and fans.

Whether or not you liked Twilight, you have to admit that it is a household name in young adult literature. Though I never finished the series, I did read and love Twilight, and I have watched the movie twice in theaters and several times on DVD*. Though I never considered myself being a diehard Twilight fan, I am a diehard fan of young adult literature. My paperback copies of the Hunger Games and City of Bones, two YA books series that became giants of their own, have recommendations from Stephanie Meyer printed on the covers. Stephanie Meyer is hugely responsible for the current popularity and breadth of YA literature, and yet the treatment towards her basically forced her out of her career as a book author. I can't help but find that incredibly unjust and sad.

I won't deny that the Twilight series has its problems, but there is a huge difference between finding fault with something you personally didn't enjoy, and bashing everyone who has ever dared to like that thing.  Furthermore, this is a book series that resonates with a lot of people, and I think it would be far more useful to examine the society which perpetuates the idea that controlling boyfriends are not only normal, but desirable, rather than to tell the fans they are stupid for liking the things society has trained them to want**.

Part of becoming an adult, for me at least, has been discovering that there are problematic issues with a lot of things I love, and I've found that it is much healthier for me to acknowledge the problems that exist while also pointing out the things that were done right, rather than disowning everything I've ever liked. If you are interested in checking out a way I think this is done successfully, I recommend checking out Ana Mardoll's Deconstruction of Twilight posts on her blog.

Well, that's enough preaching from me for one night. Thanks for listening to me rant!

Happy reading,

Katie 

*That movie is comedy gold and no one will convince me otherwise.
**For those of you that don't believe me that this is an issue larger than Twilight, watch Brenna Twohy's slam poem entitled "Fantastic Breasts and Where to Find Them. If you scared off by the title, all you need to know is the quote hidden under the cut.