Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

Rating: 4 Stars
The third book in the Throne of Glass series.

     I was really really really excited for this book. But, then it mailed a couple weeks late and school got in the way and I was reading the first half kind of slow, which once I really got in it I was confused and it was a whole mess. I read Crown Of Midnight a couple months ago and I didn't quite remember what happened which made me confused but I hope to re-read the whole story again which will probably make me like it more. Overall it was really good, it was my own fault for not liking it as much. Okay from now on, SPOILERS.
 

   Heir of Fire was definitely a transition book. It was all about getting Celaena to accept her crown, and along with it her powers. It had A LOT of world building and i'm soo excited for the next ones, Maas has set up something great. It had intertwining story lines, which I love, and here's my thoughts on  each one.

   Celaena: I love her, and all her badass assassin skills. And now her magic skills. It was obviously my favorite  She overcame so much and has embraced her role as future queen. My heart broke over and over for her, when Rowan calls he a coward, when the king kills all the slaves, when Sam and Nehemia whip her. The last two especially, they teared me up.

   Speaking of Rowan, I heard people loved him so I knew he would eventually warm up, but it didn't stop me from from hating him. His complete loyalty to her aunt and he was so cruel and oblivious to her past. I did eventually start to like him and I loved their relationship. It was such a great example of a platonic relationship and i really hope they dont get together. I can't deal with a Celeana-Rowan-Chaol-Dorian-Aedion love pentagon thing.

  Aedion: I really liked him, I wish we got more of Adarlan then how much of Manon we got. I was never fooled by his asshole persona, or a loyalty to the king. His complete worship of Aelin and how he was shameful of himself, and him she later revealed to be shameful. It broke my heart. AND how he would rather be imprisoned and maybe die than tell Celaena her lover was dead. Next book, I need a Aelin/Aedion reunion.

  Chaol: Okay. I've been "Team Chaol" since the beginning but Chaol really annoyed me in this book. He could never make up his mind between the King and Dorian and Celaena, when the answer was obvious. He also distanced himself so much from Dorian, which annoyed me. I don't have much else to say since he wasn't in it much.

  Dorian: Got the shortest end of Heir of Fire stick. We got little of his storyline, which wasn't that interesting. Instead of learning to use his powers he was just shutting it down, which wasn't anything super inciting. I didn't hate Sorsha, she was nice and I thought was good for Dorian. Although, I am "Team Chaol" I still like Dorian and want him to be happy. I did accidentally see Sorsha get decapitated but did not expect her to be a spy, which I thought was kinda out of the blue, useless, and then swept under the rug. But, Dorian's now a slave or something? I was a little confused and thought he was one of the prince thing Celaena defeated, until I heard differently. I just am very scared for Dorian.

  Manon: I liked her story line, it did a lot to make me hate the King more, which everyone needs, and did a lot for world building. I though she was really interested except she took her up way tooo much space. I thought that story-line would be the antagonist of the story, but no. Or that she would somehow intertwine with something in this book, but no. All she did was take away time from the Adarlan boys.

  Overall, I really enjoyed it. It was a great set up for the next on, I just read it wrong.


 

Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

Rating: 4 Stars
Final Anna and the French Kiss. Girl who attends a French boarding school starts dating her long term crush, a senator's artistic son.

I didn't really want to read this. I heard bad reviews, the synopsis didn't sound interesting, and I've read contemporary a lot lately. But I knew it was going to probably be good as both of Stephanie Perkins last 2 were amazing (although I didn't remember Lola I know I liked it) and I knew both Anna and Lola were in this and everyone needs more St.Claire in their lives. So I picked it up, put I down for a while and then one night I wanted to read for about 5 minutes before I go to bed. And then next thing I know I'm at the acknowledgments and it's one in the morning.

I fall for it every time. Its a problem.

I really liked Josh. He’s definitely my favorite out of all of the Perkins boys, but that might just be because of his art. My favorite part of the book was the graphic novel. It not spoilers if you haven’t read it, but you know what i’m talking about if you have. His art was really easy to imagine and I need fanart of his art right now. I wish the cover was something he did in the book, that would be sooo cool. I was very happy how they got together so quick, it was a good refresher to most contemporary where it takes seven years for the couple to get together.  

Although I really enjoyed it, but not as much as Anna (again, I don't remember Lola) I did have some problems with it. I liked her relationship with Kurt, her best friend, but I thought she talked about him too much to others (no wonder people thought they were dating) and after being friends for so long I thought it was rude of Kurt to cut her off after only a month of Isla being absent. I didn't really like Isla, I thought she didn't really have a personality or defining characteristic and I thought the whole insecurity trope in the end was out of character and out of the blue. It was a little long, I would something find myself skimming to see when things would start to happen.

Overall, really enjoyed it even though I had some problems with it, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it without read Anna or Lola.

Let's Get Lost by Adi Alsaid

Rating: 4 stars

Mysterious girl on a road trip on the way to Alaska meets four people, changing their lives forever. 

    I knew going in it was going to be cheesy and cliche and it was. I picked it up for the cover and only read it because I needed something for school. It was a lot better than I expected, most of the characters being very relatable. The writing was standard, nothing extraordinary, but not horrible. It was engaging and sometimes really funny. I'm also a really big fan of multiple perspective books and enjoyed the postcards at the end of each section.                                                                  Some of my complaints about it was I really hated Elliot, the third perspective, he wasn't interesting, he was whinny, and he had the whole "nice guy" persona. I thought all of the stories, except Leila's, were cliche and overused. I didn't think Leila was sincere about Hudson until later in the book when she talked about him and the postcards. Altogether, I really enjoyed it and thought it would be a good quick summer read.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Rating:5 stars

An Iliad retelling, Patroclus is exiled from his kingdom and soon finds Achilles as a best friend and then lover. In the backdrop of the Trojan War you can hear my tears.

I loved, loved, loved this. I loved everything. The characters, the writing style, the setting of war. I don't even want you to read this, I want you to go read this book now and then come back and cry with me.

The Song Of Achilles made me very emotional. Going in I knew basic Greek mythology, including the ending, which only made it that much sadder. So even during the cute parts I was crying about how the ending. I loved the writing style and the description, it was almost lyrical and felt like I was dreaming. Patroclus descriptions of Achilles were amazing and perfect and heartbreaking. Achilles character development, the way Patroculs realized he was slowly turning into a complex person, was so good. The war backdrop made the story so much more epic and much more deep (and heartbreaking).

The few unfavorable things were the lack of structure of time, but I think it's like that in the Iliad too and sometimes I got the minor characters confused.

  I've been meaning to pick The Iliad up as I love Greek mythology and I think this is the motivation I needed. It drew me in from the first chapter with the beautiful writing and had gotten me out of a reading slump that was sufocating me.This also isn't my usual get-out-of-a-slump book. I usually read cute contemporary romance things. It wasn't as I expected either, I thought it was a young adult romance and it was so much more and so much more complex, which made it so much more great.

If you love Greek mythology read it. If you don't, still read it. If you don't even know who Zeus is, still read it. It was good at explaining the more obscure and not common knowledge myths and there was a glossary at the back, but I didn't know about untill I finished the book.  

P. S. I started to cry in the middle of class when I read the ending, not a good idea. I was also disappointed I didn't get the full crying effect.

Because It Is My Blood by Gabrielle Zevin

Rating: 3 Stars 
 Sequel to All These Things I've Done. Mafia princess has an on and off relationship with mafia in the slight future.
Eh. I read it a couple weeks ago but I just realized I didn't put up a review and don't remember much but I will trek on. It definitely wasn't as good as the first, it was really predictable and the "plot twists" weren't interesting or shocking. Anya annoyed me because she never did anything but whine or doing the stupidest option available, while in the last one she was badasss and I loved her. My favorite part was when she was in Mexico and I the boy she met there was my favorite character. Win and Scarlet also got annoying, especially in the end with their stupid decisions. I know I enjoyed it, I gave it 3 stars and read it considerably fast but i think its just me wanting to know what happened, but to stubborn to look it up. Overall I thought it was okay, i'll be reading the last one, but i'm not sure if i'd recommend it.