Book Overviews: Beautiful Creatures Series

Hey everyone!
A little while ago, I read the first book in a series, Beautiful Creatures- the first book in the Caster Chronicles by Kami Garcia and Marga Stohl. I loved the idea behind the book and our main character, Ethan, was great! I got the box set for my birthday and finished up reading the rest of the series. (Spoiler free!)

Top 5 Series I Want to Start But Haven't Yet

Hey everyone!
I saw this popular video going around on YouTube and thought it would be fun to do it here. I have all of these series except one, and I can't wait to start them all.

The first series I'm excited to start is the Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan. Rick Riordan is probably one of my favorite authors so I'm excited to read more of his work! The Son of Sobek will be relasing as an Ebook in June (AND IT HAS A HOUSE OF HADES EXCERPT!) and I'll be reading that as well!

Next, I'm looking forward to starting the Mara Dyer series by Michelle Hodkin. The first two are out and I have been waiting to start these books for a long time!

The third series is the Across the Universe series by Beth Revis. I heard great things about this trilogy and I own all three, so I hope I do like it! (Except I got them all in the new covers- at least I ordered them that way, but my Million Suns copy is the old cover- which is really pretty- but now it's even more weird looking!)

After that, we have The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken. I got the first one, since it's the only one out, but I also heard amazing things about this series! It sounds really interesting, and I based my buying of this book off of the recommendations without knowing too much, so I hope it's good!

Lastly, the fifth series is the Unearthly trilogy. Like I said, I've also heard great things about these books, so I really want to buy them and read them.

Thanks for reading! -Kait

My Writing Progress and Tips

Hey everyone!
I haven't done a writing related post in a while, so I thought I better update you. To read my story, click here! The past month or two, I've been really into writing after taking a longer break in the winter. A surprising turn of events happened Sunday, which I'm really excited about. I haven't told many people about my story- I mentioned it to my mom and friend, but otherwise, that was all (besides the Internet :)). I mentioned it to my other friend who is a great writer herself. She's now editing my story! So far, she's finished with chapter one. She sent me a picture of it and I think I saw more red than ink. Although there will be many (and I mean many) changes, I'm really excited to watch They Chose Me evolve! So my recommendation to fellow writers: Find a critique partner! There are websites, like

this one that specialize in critiquing. If you do use someone you know, make sure they're not the kind of person to sugar coat things! My friend and I are going to have weekly meetings once summer starts and school is out of the way. This way, we can really go in depth about changes.
Chapter 9 will be posted soon! Most likely by Saturday or Sunday. If you ever want to know, look to the right at my "News" section, click the link above (or just go to They Chose Me (My Story) above), or follow me on Wattpad! -Kait

April Wrap Up and May TBR

Hey everyone!
As May begins, it means a new wrap up and TBR post! This is a little more productive, for lack of a better word. I hope you all had a great April and are looking forward to May.

APRIL WRAP UP
I reread three books: Percy Jackson and the Olympians 1-3: The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, and The Titan's Curse. I read four new books this month as well.
The first book I read was Unravel Me by Taherah Mafi- the second book in the Shatter Me trilogy. You can read more of what I have to say here, but overall I enjoyed it!
The next book I read was a stand-alone: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I also have have a review here, so I'm not going to go in detail. To be honest, I was expecting more of this book, but I still loved it!
After that, I finally got around to reading Rise by Anna Carey which is the third and final installment of the Eve trilogy. Coming from a point of view where this trilogy isn't my favorite, I did enjoy Rise. I think Eve is still my favorite, but I liked it more than Once. And the ending- I had to look it up on Goodreads to make sure I wasn't inferring the wrong thing!
The last book I read was Cinder by Marissa Meyer- the first book in the Lunar Chronicles. I loved the concept of this book, with all the fantasy and sci-fi mixed! I definitely recommend it!

MAY TBR
I planning on finishing the Beautiful Creatures series. I'm currently reading the second one, but I've been having no time to read lately! I loved Beautiful Creatures- I read it in two days. I'm really excited to see where this series goes!
Next, I'll be reading Scarlet by Marissa Meyer, the second book in the Lunar Chronicles. I'm also excited to see where this series will be turning to and about our "Red Riding Hood" this time!
I'm not planning on thinking about what book I'm going to read next. When the time comes, I'll probably pick one. But I think I'm going to try to get to The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken. I hear amazing things about this book and I can't wait to read it! If I still have a lot of reading time, I'll probably start the Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan! Thanks for reading! -Kait

Book Haul (16 Books) Birthday Addition

Hey everyone!
As some of you may know, my birthday recently passed and I was fortunate enough to be able to buy some books with gift cards to Amazon (I also purchased two at the bookstore :)). I'm really excited to read all of these books so I'm just going to list them instead of gush over my excitement with every book. Two things though: I'm not tyring to brag and some of you may realize I already read Beautiful Creatures so why did I get it? I originally had it on my phone, so I thought it would be nice to obtain a physical copy as well as the rest of the books- in hardcover!

• Beautiful Creatures Complete Collection (Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl)
• The Kane Chronicles Box Set (Rick Riordan)
• The Darkest Minds (Alexandra Bracken)
• The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Michelle Hodkin)
• The Evolution of Mara Dyer (Michelle Hodkin)
• Rise (Anna Carey)
• Cinder (Marissa Meyer)
• Scarlet (Marissa Meyer)
• Across the Universe (Beth Revis)
• A Million Suns (Beth Revis)
• Shades of Earth (Beth Revis)

Many book reviews coming soon! Comment down below to tell me what books you want to see reviewed! Also, quantity vs. quality? Would you like book reviews on all these books, but more general, or more in depth but less? -Kait :)

Tag: Yearbook Hall of Fame

Hey everyone!
So I saw this tag going on in the YouTube community and thought it would be fun to bring it to Blogger. This was created by Kat and you can watch her video here! If you're familiar with the high school concept of who has the best smile, or is friendliest, etc., this tag follows that, but in book form! Let's get started:

 

1. Best Dressed
2. Best Eyes
3. Best Hair
4. Best Couple
5. Class Clown
6. Biggest Flirt
7. Most Dramatic
8. Most Musical
9. Most Likely To Succeed
10. Valedictorian

 

1. For best dressed, I have to award Adelice from Crewel by Gennifer Albin. Because of her role, she gets many luxuries such as her fancy outfits. I remember her talking about what she was wearing several times in the book.
2. I'm going to have to say Tobias from Divergent. Tris always mentions how Tobias has deep blue eyes.
3. It's hard to imagine hair via book and my answer isn't that great, but I'm going to say Jocelyn from The Mortal Instruments. Clary wishes that she had the same beautiful, vibrant red hair of her mother's.
4. Percabeth all the way! (Percy Jackson and the Oympians) Percy and Annabeth are just so perfect...
5. Since I already mentioned Percy, I'm going to have to go with my other favorite character from PJO/HOO world and pick Leo Valdez! If you read the Heroes of Oympus series, you know what I'm talking about.
6. Finnick Odair from Catching Fire. I mean, seriously, we're talking about Finnick.
7. This one was a little harder to think of, but I'm going to say Nora from Crescendo, and only Crescendo in the Hush, Hush books. She was way to dramatic over Patch and her; she didn't really think about it through all the way.
8. I'm going to pick two for this one. First, I want to pick Lena from Beautiful Creatures. She's not extremely musical, but she does play the viola like me, and it's rare to have someone else play the viola! Otherwise, I'm going to pick Risa from Unwind because from what it sounds like, she's really good on the piano.
9. June Iparis from Legend/Prodigy by Marie Lu. When we last saw her, she was headed in a direction that would be good for her. Personally, I don't want her to do what she's going to do, but if you want to learn more you can search for my Prodigy review in the upper left-hand corner. June has the ability to get back on the Republic's side, whether it's intentional or not, but she's also very smart, agile, strong, etc.
10. Hermione Granger. I feel like so many people pick this, but how true can you get?

 

Thanks for reading! I TAG YOU, and if you do it, leave it in the comments so I can go check it out! -Kait

Book Review: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Hey everyone!
So today I have a short book review on a great book! I heard a lot of great things about The Book Thief, which is what we're discussing today, and I thought I should get it. This will be a spoiler-free review, except let me say one thing: the ending made me cry. Anyways, here's the synopsis from Goodreads:
"It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.By her brother's graveside, Liesel Meminger's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Grave Digger's Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up and closed down.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time."
 
First of all, I heard amazing things about this book, and don't get me wrong- I did love this book, yet I was expecting something to amaze me. Unfortunately, I didn't get exactly what I was looking for, but I still loved this book. One thing that I liked what the unique narrator. This book is narrated by Death. How cool? Secondly, I loved the characters. Every one we ran into I liked, even if their personality's themselves weren't wonderful. My favorites have to be Liesel, Rudy, Hans, and Max. They were just likable and well-developed. The writing was really nice, too. It was simple, but there were so many metaphors and similes, and very creative ones, for that matter. But the ending. It wasn't like it was bad or anything, it was just so sad. So heads up! I really enjoyed this book, and I would still give it a 5/5 stars. I thought everything was great, but I heard that this a book, that NY Times says on the cover, is "Life changing". Anyways, thanks for reading! -Kait