NaNoWriMo Discussion

It's almost November, meaning the National November Writing Month is almost upon us! This is my first official year participating (last year I just watched every one else and wrote a paragraph...) and I'm almost ready. Let's chat about what I plan to write. 

Title: Purple 

Why? Mostly because you'll see (one day) and I'm a huge fan of mysterious, one word titles. 

Genre: Young Adult Sci-Fi

Why? I'm most experienced in reading young adult and sci-fi, so it fits naturally. 

Synopsis in 5 Words: Weapon Fights in Techno Game

Like Hunger Games? No. Definitely not. No children deaths, no nature aspect, no disturbing outside violence. 

Anything else? My friends have described it as an anti-dystopia, so there's that. Also, I'm doing something cool with colors. 

I'll be doing weekly process updates or you can follow my profile page here.

Good luck!

House of Hades by Rick Riordan Review

Naturally, if you have not read up to Mark of Athena, do not read this post! Avoid spoilers, my friends. 

P.S. I posted this a while ago and it didn't publish. #epicfail 

Plot: Being a Rick Riordan book, we expect certain things from the plot. Tons of action, witty lines, and a heaping of Greek mythology to accompany it all. And he certainly delivers. While most of us were excited for the major epicness probably contained in Tartarus, this was the part I found lacking the most. We didn't get very many fight scenes, more conquering the evils with our brain power. So for that, I am taking off half a star. IT'S TARTARUS, YOU CAN'T JUST TAKE PEOPLE OUT WITH WORDS. Above ground, Frank and Piper just killed it with the destruction of villains. Congrats dudes. 

Characters: So much development I can't even (except for the minor cases of Percy and Piper). Hazel has some new powers that allow her to do some absolutely epic things with the mist, Frank has finally regained some self confidence, our little Leo has grown up and found a love interest, Jason is beginning to realize his mortality (?), Annabeth has finally made me ship Percabeth. It's just a party of character development all around. Except for Percy, who has by now done just about all the growth we could expect from a character, and Piper. Piper is just a lost hope. 

Writing: With seven POVs, stuff should probably get hectic. But, NOPE, none of that happening around here. This book was packed with lots of funny lines (even Jason had one. That's like pigs flying) and action sequences to balance it out. However, it just drove in a straight line, never going up or down, and I'm not sure what to expect from the Blood of Olympus. 

Rating: 4/5 Stars 

And now...

we wait. 

Reading Habits Tag

This tag started out on Youtube, but I decided to bring the questions to my blog. Hopefully, this will also let you get to know me a little more too!

Now - onto the questions:

1. Do you have a certain place at home for reading? Not really. I generally wherever, when ever, but I prefer to read in my reading chair whenever possible. 
2. Bookmark or random piece of paper? BOOKMARK, all the way. I've used the same one for three years and I'd probably have a mental breakdown if I lost it. 
3. Can you just stop reading or do you have to stop after a chapter/ a certain amount of pages? I always stop at the end of a chapter. This has been a recent change. 
4. Do you eat or drink while reading? Sometimes. It's more plausible if I'm reading on my Kindle. 
5. Multitasking: Music or TV while reading? Music, no. TV, yes. Multitasking is life.
6. One book at a time or several at once? One book at a time. I barely have time to finish one a week, I have no idea how I would handle multiple plots. 
7. Reading at home or everywhere? Everywhere! I love reading in the car, waiting rooms, before my food arrives in the drive thru :p
8. Reading out lout or silently in your head? This is a major pet peeve, but I hate when people read out loud. It irritates me so much. So silently for me. 
9. Do you read ahead or even skip pages? Sometimes I look ahead, but I hate when I do that. 
10. Breaking the spine or keeping it like new? Breaking the spine. iT jUST hAPPENS, okay? okay. (that was a total TFIOS reference...)
11. Do you write in your books? No..no..no...i can't even. why would someone do this?

And that's the tag! 

October To Be Read

It's October now, folks, and with that a new TBR list! Last month was my first time with a to be read list set aside for me, and I really liked knowing what book was coming up next. I've decided to make another for this month. This is quite shorter because I'm going to be very busier than normal. Let's just get onto it:

Book #1: Allegiant by Veronica Roth, published 22 October 2013. I'm so excited for the conclusion to this series, even though my life will probably be ruined for the entire week afterwards. 

Book #2: House of Hades by Rick Riordan, published 8 October 2013. Just...so...many....questions to be answered! Another book I'm extremely excited for. It's going to be a good new release month!

Book #3: Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare. I read the first book in this series late July and I've been dying to get back into it. These books are always quick and entertaining reads for me. I hope to finish this series by COHF. 

(Possible) Book #4: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I'm not sure if I'll have time for four books this month, but if I do, this is the next book. I liked Eleanor and Park, her second book, so I'm excited to see what this will bring (plus it's my life in a novel). 

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell Review

5/5 Stars

OMG THAT BOOK WAS SO CUTE! - first reaction

Fangirl is about Cath, sister to Wren (let's give a high five to Rainbow Rowell for best naming of a character ever) who is going to college. She lives with her mean roommate Reagan and Reagan's best friend, Levi, who is there enough that he practically lives there. We also get characters like Professor Piper, her fiction writer teacher, and Nick, who writes with her. 

Oh, wait, she's exactly like us!

Legit, Cath is the fangirl. She writes fanfiction, has a gay noncanon ship, buys merchandise, watches the movies, goes to the midnight release party. this character is us. 

I love Cath and Levi's relationship. It was so cute to see them develop together, from the beginning when they invited her to get out of her room with the protein bars. Just adorable. Wren was one of the most interesting characters with her alcoholism problem. I really liked how that topic was touched on. It was done beautifully and she really redeemed herself and their relationship. Great work!

The plot was much better than Eleanor & Park, in my opinion. The main character was much more human. While she had her faults, they didn't define her. She was strong without being an overdose. It was so hard watching her go through all of the dramas of her freshman year. 

Must read. Seriously, read this if you've ever loved a book. And because you are on Goodreads, then you probably have a favorite book. Just read it, okay?

Okay.

The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey: Review

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

This book has mostly rave reviews, but this one will not be. Mostly because I was so confused throughout the entire book. Cassie skips around a lot in her life story, with the time jumps and the explanations after the event has already occurred. Also, there are dual POVs between Cassie and her high school crush, Ben Parish. Honestly, Ben's parts were a lot better than Cassie's. He was easier to relate to. 

Sammy was probably the actual main character. He was the connection between Sam and Cassie which really were the entire motivations for this book. I always knew that Evan was not right, he wasn't human, Cassie shouldn't trust him. Even when she started, I never believed her, or him, for that matter. Ringer was a fantastic character who really had a lot of power. She was brilliant in her strategies and wins the award for my favorite character in the book. I really wish we had more of her. 

The main reason I didn't like this book was because I had no idea what was going on. The five waves weren't explained very well and I had to keep referring to the chart at the beginning of the book. I don't even know with the fifth wave - although I think I should. This book was very skippy (like the peanut butter) in writing style, which really made it unenjoyable. I still have no idea what happened in the book and I didn't like that. 

Will I be reading the next book in the series? Probably not. If I can't understand what happened in the first book, there would be no need for the second. 

Tithe by Holly Black: Review

Rating: 1/5 Stars

To be totally honest, I didn't finish this book. I got through the prologue and the first chapter, but I had to stop there. So many things were wrong with this book and I could just not push myself through it. I hate to leave books, but honestly I don't know how I could possibly get through Tithe. 

Some reasons why:

1. The language. I have no problem whatsoever with curse words. But, just like any other word, they have meanings. If they are not used with those meanings in mind, that is when I start having problems with it. Every sentence has one thrown in - of every size - and they don't make any sense together. They distract so much from the story. 
2. Kaye is the most irritable human being. She makes me want to pull my hair out. By the first chapter, we should at least be able to identify some reason to like the main character, to feel for them. In this book, I just felt repulsed by her. I can't imagine having to read a book following her around. 
3. The writing is atrocious. It reminds me a lot of Cassandra Clare's, but her's is a little bit more defined. I totally understand why the two of them would be writing a book together. They write exactly the same (which to be honest kind of bothers me a little bit. It's questionable). Everything about this book felt forced. 

Those are my three readings for no longer finishing this book. I picked this out of my book jar, so I'm not too concerned with not finishing it, but it is definitely a disappointment.