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.

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 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 Review: Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout

I've recently started reading the Lux series by Jennifer L. Armentrout, and I cannot recommend it enough. I literally could not put it down, to the point where I was pulling out my phone and reading a few paragraphs on my Kindle app while at the store with my sister or hanging out with my friends.

• Addicting: 10/10
• Originality: 7/10
• Fast Paced: 7/10
• Funny: 8/10
• Romance: 10/10
• Overall rating: 42/50

Do not pick up this book unless you have the time to read all of Obsidian and the sequel, Onyx, in a row.  While it would be optimal to marathon the entire series in one go, most people, myself included, have things like work and sleep and laundry that prevent us from making the commitment to reading 5 books nonstop. I personally found the end of Onyx to be the best stopping point to resume my normal life, and once I read the rest of the series, I will let you know about the other stopping points that worked best for me.

Pick up this book if you like

• Paranormal romance
• High school dramas
• Funny pop culture references
• Romances where the couple has a love/hate relationship

Skip this book if you hate

• Cliffhangers

If you are not sure if you will like it and you have a Kindle or the Kindle app, I recommend you download Obsidian from the Kindle bookstore because it is currently available for free. It's a no-risk trial of the series! You literally have nothing to lose by getting this book (other than hours of your life due to reading it nonstop).

That's it for the non-spoiler part of this book review, click the link below to reveal my discussion including spoilers.

Book Review: The Demon's Covenant (Spoilers!)

Spoiler filled book review! You know the drill, just highlight the blocked-out text below if you've read the book already or if you want to be spoiled.

But before we get to the spoilers, I will first provide a link to the author's talk about this series, which I will be addressing a bit in my review.

Book Ramblings: Divergent (Spoilers!)

I should stop making promises about when I'm going to post my reviews.

I feel like I was a bit hard on Divergent in my non-spoiler review, so for my spoiler-filled ramblings about it, I'm going to talk about all the things I liked about it. Just highlight the blocked text below if you don't mind being spoiled.

Book Ramblings: The Madness Underneath (Spoilers!)

Remember how I said over 7 seven days ago I'd post this later in the week? Past Katie, I love the way you lie.

Anyway, back to the book! Today I'm talking about Maureen Johnson's newest book, The Madness Underneath, the second book in the Shades of London series, and if you missed the warning in the title, this one has spoilers. I've hide the spoilery text below the cut, so just click on the "Read more" link below if you've already read the book (or want to be spoiled, I won't judge).