Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             This is the third book in The Raven Cycle, but there will not be spoilers, but a synopsis will probably have ones.  Rating: 4 Stars                      

   I really enjoyed this book. I love the characters, the plot is interesting, the villains complex. However, like the rest of the series I would always feel myself drifting off. I think it's the writing style as I heard other people have this problem. Like always, I loved the switching POVs. I think Piper, the main antagonist's wife, was my favorite character in this book. She made me laugh and loud and was very relateable. Another compliant I had with Blu Lily, Lily Blue is I feel like not much happened. I was really short, I finished it in a few hours and other than the last 50 pages nothing much happened. It still kept me entertained, but it makes me angry  have to wait another year for the next one. I'm not satisfied enough during this wait, unlike the last time, after The Dream Thieves.

  Overall, I think you should really check out The Raven Boys, the first book in The Raven Cycle. This series is very good and very original.

Favorite Fall Books

Beth Revis, author of one of my favorite books, Across the Universe, is hosting a giveaway. Check it out. Anyway, to enter it you had to explain your favorite fall read and i couldn't just choose one, so here they are:

I'll Give You the Sun  by Jandy Nelson, I have a full review here, but to sum it up a few weeks ago I read this and fell in love. It's definitely now on my all time favorites list. It's two stories sliced together about twins. One story from the boy's POV at 13, the other story from the girl's POV at 16. It's beautiful, it's relatable, it's emotional, it's funny, it's artsy. It's brilliant.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, is like watching watching a Baz Luhurum movie. It's takes you into a different world where magic is real and the traveling circus breaths. Eery, dark and mysterious making it a October read.

The Coldest Girl In Coldtown  by Holly Black, is the best vampire book I've ever read, and ever want to read. A contemporary, so you don't have to deal with the usual series long love angst. It makes fun of its self just enough. It's also hilarious. Laugh-out-loud-funny. Even if you hate vampire books, pick this one up.

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld

Two stories, one about a girl who drops out of college to publish and rewrite her novel in NYC, the other story, the novel she's writing

     Rating: 4 stars

     After hearing about this books months ago, I was hooked. Even though I HATED Uglies, another book by Westerfeld, I knew a lot of people loved it and wanted to give him another chance, especially with this plot. This won't be a long review as even though I really liked it, I don't have many strong feelings.

  I really enjoyed Darcy's POV, the realistic one. I thought I was really real, relateable, and funny. Lizzie's however, i didn't like. It was kind of confusing and felt rushed. I think I missed something because the couple met and then their next meeting they were making out. Insta love on steroids. Although, the novel did have one of the best first chapters.

  Overall, even though one story was a lot better than the other, I still really enjoyed it, thought it was really cool and would recommend it.

The Blood Of Olympus by Rick Riordan

This will have spoilers. It is the fifth and final book in a series of 5, which follows a series of 5 other books.

Rating: 3 stars

    I didn't like this. The choices he made made me angry and just seemed wrong. Before I go into the nitty gritty of my dislike let me give you some background. I've been reading Percy Jackson since I was in 4th grade. Percy Jackson was and is my childhood. I read this in about six hours and still feel numb to it days later. Although some of it made me angry overall I just feel...I dont know what word i'm looking for, monotone? okay? the book was just there.

  First off, I didn't like the POVs he chose. I think we should've gotten at least one POV from everyone and have less Reyna. Although I do love Reyna I think the info dump wasn't necessary. It seemed rushed trying to do it in so little time, with no foreshadowing in the before books. I think it was out of place in this book, the final one, and was a misuse of space. Since i'm already talking about characters i'll do a quick review of my thoughts on each.

Nico: He seemed out of character sometimes, and they used Nico falling asleep to skip time at least twice, which was annoying, but  I really liked his chapters.Will Solace/Nico is one of the cutest things ever and Nico telling Percy about his crush may be the best conversation in  the Heroes of Olympus series as a whole.

Jason: I really reallly enjoyed all the Jason getting knocked out jokes. The parallels between Percy in The Last Olympian and Jason in this book were kind of weird, wasn't done well and I honestly dont remember anything else.

Piper: Is my favorite out of the seven, but I don't really understand/remember why she had a POV. She didn't really overcome anything or have major character development like the others and she didn't really have that many chapters.

Leo: Okay, Calypso and Leo were my favorite ship in HOO (not counting percabeth of course) but Leo's inability to shut up about her was soo annoying. His plan was stupid and not telling Piper and Jason until the last minute was stupid and dangerous. How he came back to life was a stupid loophole. Stealing the death cure was selfish and stupid. How once he came back to life his first plan after finding Calypso wasn't find his friends was stupid. Leo still calling himself the seventh wheel is stupid. 

Hazel, Frank, Annabeth, and Percy: Didn't do anything. More so Annabeth and Percy. 

   I understand the lack on focus on Hazel and Frank, they did their big character development in the last book but Percy and Annabeth just came out of hell and there was little of showing them coming back from that experience. They seemed forced, "The rivalry ends here," Percy said, "I love you, Wise Girl." may be the worst line I've ever read and was probably pulled straight out of a fanfiction. The whole scene in general was awkward since it was in Piper's POV. The most important thing Percy did was get a nosebleed and Annabeth talked about Percy to Piper. This book, to my knowledge, definitely did not pass the bechdel test. 

  My overall complaint is the simplicity of the book. Riordan had so many choices (I forgot to add why was Frank's death fire stick so anticlimactic?) but chose the most simple, boring ones. The end of Gaea was quick and not surprising, the lack of death was predictable with it being technically a children's book. (PJO is targeted to a younger audience but has more death, but whatvever). 

   I should probably add some good things. It was really funny, and....I can't really think of anything else. I know I enjoyed it, I didn't stop drop the book. I'm not even as sad as thought I would be with my childhood over but the total lack of Percy and lack of good writing made me not connect with it and not feel like I just read the final Percy Jackson book. (Even though they'll probably be in the next series).

 

I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson

         Two stories from the point of view of twins, one story from the point of view of 13 year old Noah, the other from 16 year old Jude. Rating: 5 Stars

Beauty in the form of a book. The whole entire book I was on the edge of tears, but only now as I am writing this do I actually begin to cry. This book is so beautiful I don't know where to begin. Reading most of it I was in 40 degree weather with barley a jacket on, but I didn't care. This book consumed me, and I am internally grateful.

   This book had dual-POVs, which I love in general, and only increases my love of this book. I would hate the current POV I was in a few pages into it, yearning to get back the previous one, but the hate was gone within 10 pages and it only restarted the next transition. I think overall I liked Jude's better, I think I related to it more. Both Jude and Noah were amazing characters and so relateable and when they were together my heart grew 10 sizes. The supported characters where also always so complex and fully fledged you couldn't help but fall in love with them, except a certain bastard I can never forgive, but let's ignore that.

  The mystery unraveled itself so slowly but so quickly it was breathtaking. The interchanging of knowledge switching between POVs was such a perfect example of dramatic irony that I've never seen before. I didn't think it was too obvious, but I think some of them you were meant to conclude.

  I think the thing I love most about I'll Give You The Sun, other than the beautiful characters was the writing style. Each POV was so much different from each other, not just in maturity, but in tone and personality and word choice.  Each twin had their own little quirk which made the writing different from the usual, which i loved. Especially how Noah would title situations like they were a painting. They're really good writing/ drawing prompts, my favorite being,

(Self portrait: Boy Rowing Madly Back Through Time).

To sum this up, go read I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson.