The Girl and the Machine by Beth Revis

Rating: 5 Stars

Summary: Short story about a time traveler. It's a short story, I can't say more than that without spoiling.

Beth Revis is my girl. I've loved everything she has ever written. (You can read my review of her latest book here btw). T]his is part of a bigger collection of stories I need to get to. I got this story for free from a giveaway on her newsletter a while ago and read it right after but kept forgetting to write a review until now.

It was definitely not what I expected. At all. I was sitting at lunch and gasped out loud and then I had to tell everybody the entire story. It's different from most sci-fi. I'm trying not to spoil anything I'm sorry I'm being so vague. The main character is so badass, I was rooting for her so much. This is actually the first anything I've read anything with a asexual main character (maybe any character). I recommend this to everyone and anyone and already have recommended it to a few.

Glory O'Brien's History of the Future by A.S. King

Summary: Glory O' Brien doesn't care about her future. When Glory drinks a dead bat's ashes she begins to see the history of the future and her viewpoint begins to change.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

I've been meaning to read a A.S. King book for ages. I dont think I've ever seen anyone not like any of her books. This did not disappoint. It's so much different from anything else I've ever read. I've read magical realism before, but not this extreme. It was great, flipping the pages so fast and being shocked when realizing I was almost done.

The sub plot of the book she was writing was almost more interesting than the main story. I would love a whole book of just that story.  It was also the first time I've read a book where they talk about feminism and it not be the focus of the book. It's good to see it be mentioned as easily as saying you're favorite color is blue (and I have a shirt that says the same thing Glory's dad's bumper sticker which made me happy). There is romance in this, but it's a sub-sub-sub plot which I enjoyed.

The story was incredibly interesting. original, and entertaining. There was never a time where I got bored or thought the story was going slow. I would definitely recommend and plan on reading more of King's books.

In the Age of Love and Chocolate by Gabrielle Zevin

Summary: The third and final book in the Birthright series.

The first book was good, the second okay and this one was just disappointing.

Everything was spelled out in long dialogue or narration that made you roll your eyes from the cheese and bluntness. A lot of repetition. The same things have been repeating for the past three books.  The ending was cheesy. Anya is annoying. She thinks she's grown so much since the first book but really hasn't. Choices she made and then complained about how horrible they were for a hundred pages I didn't understand. They weren't really that bad?? Or bad at all??Also, no world building. At all. Again.

This series confuses me. How can her other books I've read, like Elsewhere and Memoirs of A Teenage Amnesiac (and I've heard nothing but good things about  The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry) be amazing and this not be.

This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

   Rating: 3.5 Stars
Summary: The second book in the Starbound series, although it does not focus on the same characters as These Broken Stars. As this is a sequel there will be SPOILERS.

This book didn't have a fair start. These Broken Stars, the first novel in this series was amazing. Because of that I had really high expectations which were let down. However, I did enjoy this book.

I didn't enjoy this story overall as much as These Broken Stars. It wasn't as interesting, wasn't as complex and wasn't as sci-fi-y. It took forever for the two to get together (then another forever after that for them to actually get together). I'm also not quite sure if I buy in to their relationship either. Another thing that really annoyed me (afterwards not while reading it) was their were too many deaths that didn't have any affect on the main characters but should have.

Other than that I think it is an entertaining book and a good addition to this series.

My True Love Gave To Me edited by Stephanie Perkins

Rating: 4 Stars
Summary: Twelve holiday themed stories, Christmas, Hanukkah, New Years, Winter Solstice, by some really talented and famous authors.


All together I really enjoyed all of the stories, even if some less than the rest. Unlike most short story collection I didn't hate any of them, or even completely skip any. They were all really different and not just Christmas themed, which I appreciated. Some of them were confusing or really really cheesy (they were all cheesy, they have to be), or just not that interesting, which is why I'm not  giving it a full five stars. really sure how to review this so I'll just make lists.


Favorites:

• Midnights by Rainbow Rowell
• It's A Yuletide Christmas, Charlie Brown by Stephanie Perkins
• What The Hell Have You Done by Sophie Roth

These aren't very surprising though since I already liked these authors. 

Really Good But Not Enough Time To Explain The World So It Was Confusing: 

• The Lady and The Fox by Kelly Link 
• Krampuslauf by Holly Black
• The Girl Who Woke The Dreamer by Laini Taylor

I think this would be a very good was to be exposed to new authors and find new books. I would definitely recommend this to people, even if it wasn't around the holidays. 

The Retribution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Rating:4.5
Summary: The third and final book in the Mara Dyer trilogy There will be small spoilers, beware.

    Overall I thought it was a satisfying wrap up to the story, even if I thought the problems from the last two books could've have been more surprising and twisted. It was funny, even with the lack of Noah in most of the book. It was really good at the suspense and keeping me engaged for the entire book. It was action packed as well and I loved the dual perspective.

 However I did not think this was the best of the series. Mostly, because of the story, which I though could've been better. Some smaller things that bother me were also the reason for taking it down half a point. The pop culture references were weird. They made me uncomfortable and seemed out of place. Also, they've been stuck in that compound for who knows how long and before that they were in a mental hospital, How do they know about ebola? I also wish Mara acknowledged the visions/dreams whatever (the other POV) more.

All together this was a really good final book, better than most I've read. Would definitely recommend this series.

Top Books of 2014

These are my favorite books I've read in 2014. They aren't necessary books that came out in 2014, but ones I read during 2014. These also aren't really in any order.

• I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson.  I've talked about this books so much everywhere. I love it so much it's insane. It's definitely the best book I've read this year. The writing style is amazing and I love dual POVs.  I still tear up thinking about it. It's soooooo beautiful if you haven't read it, go now. Read my full review here. 

• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. I finished this book in the middle of my first period class and began to cry. This book broke my heart so many times. It's an Iliad retelling and knowing how the book would end just made it 10 times worse (in the emotional section). The writing is beautiful, the characters are beautiful. This book is beautiful. Read my full review here.

• Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. I remember finishing this book, closing the back cover slowly and then just sitting there for a while in astonishment. I know I've described every book so far as beautiful, but this is the last one. All three of the books so far has had such beautiful writing its insane. 

• The Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J. Maas. This is a fantasy series that has three books so far but I've heard it's going to had at least five. I'm kind of cheating by grouping these but who cares. Because of these books I wanted to be an assassin for a while. The main character, Celeana is so bad ass and cool and amazing I love her so much. This story is going to get so huge and dimensional I can't wait. I think I like the second books the most but was disappointed about the third one, but that was mostly my fault. My favorite was the novellas though. Read my full review of the third book here. 

• Cress by Marissa Meyer. Is the third book in the Lunar Chronicles. Although I liked the second one, Scarlet, more I still loved this one. They're science fiction fairy tell retelling, this one focusing on Rapunzel, who lives in a space ship and is a hacker. These books are great, they're funny and action packed, and I highly recommend. 

• Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. It's a series of graphic novel and the drawing style is amazing as well as the story. The story is so coll and weird and kind of creepy yet hilarious. It's funny and heart tugging and cute and the story is so big and getting so big it's going to be great.  I have a small review of the first volume here. 

• The Lux Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout. This series is laugh out loud funny. I would find myself laughing in the most serious situation which was just great. I binge read these so fast, knowing they aren't that good (as in contributive to the human race) but not being able to stop reading them. The main character doesn't take any shit it's great and I would be fine with the entire series being just dialogue the dialogue was so good. Although It did have some sore spots, like the first and last books being not that great, it still belongs on this list for how much joy it gave me. This seriees was also the inspiration for this blog. Read a review of all five books here. 

• The Vampire Academy and The Bloodlines Series by Richelle Mead. Grouping eleven books together I guess isn't that fair but *shrugs*. This was definitely a really rocky series, with some being five stars and others two, but all together they were really entertaining. Looking back at and while I was reading them I knew they weren't that good. Like the Lux series I binge read these, but this was worse. I finished all eleven books in about two weeks. It was over the summer and I would stay up to 5 in the morning reading, get up at twelve and then read some more.