Book Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (ACOTAR #1)

Genre- New Adult, Fantasy, Romance

Hardcover Edition-416 Pages

5/5 Lily Pads

Would I Recommend It? Yes!

Some Spoilers!

Hey guys I'm back with a review. Today I am reviewing "A Court of Thorns and Roses". First of all I want you to know that I wasn't the biggest fan of her "Throne of Glass" series. I loved the first book, the second one was fine and I hated Heir of Fire. I decided to stop reading that series. However, I really wanted to give this book a try because I love Fairy-Tale Retellings and I love Fae books. This one sounded amazing and I heard so many amazing things about it, so I decided to pick it up. I'm so glad I did because I loved this book! Let's get on with the review.

The Plot(Goodreads Summary)

    When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it... or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

My Opinion

I really enjoyed this book you guys! I'll admit that I was a little scared going into this book because of the hype. This book didn't disappoint me at all, it was awesome. 

First I'm going to talk about the writing. Even though I didn't love her other series, I loved her writing style. It's hard to explain, but I just really like it. It's simple and can be descriptive at times. In ACOTAR, I really liked the writing. The writing is slower than I'm used to, so it took me a while to read this book. I wanted to read the book really slowly to enjoy it. Overall, I really like her writing style. She has her own unique style. I loved that this book was in first person.

 I really loved the plot for this book. If your wondering, this book is a retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" and "East of the Sun, West of the Moon". I love retellings so that intrigued me to read it. I also love the world and I love books with Fae in it. I just love my Fairy books. I loved the setting of this book. I loved that most of the book took place in a castle. I loved reading about Feyre living there with Tamlin and Lucien. I just love castles which is why I'm a huge Fantasy lover, it's my favorite setting to read about. 

 

The pacing of this book was pretty good. I'll admit, it was slow but not in a bad way. I don't mind reading slow paced books. I don't need a lot of action to be happy so the pacing didn't bother me. I liked that it was slow, because she took a long time developing the characters and I loved that. I tend to gravitate towards books that mostly focus on the characters. Speaking of characters, that's what I'm going to talk about next.  

Now, let's talk about the characters. Characters are the most important part of a book to me. I really liked most of the characters in this book. 

First let's talk about the main protagonist, Feyre. I really liked Feyre. She was such a great character. She's very kind and I like that she's tough too. In the beginning of the book Feyre lives with her father and two older sisters, Elain and Nesta. Even though she is the youngest, she has to go out and hunt to provide food for her family. Let me just say I am totally against that. I couldn't stand that the youngest kid had to go out and provide the food, it's not right! I hated her sisters because they were spoiled brats and they didn't do anything! All they did was complain about how they wanted nicer and better clothes, and Feyre's clothes were worse and falling apart. How can you live like that? As someone who helps out a lot in my family, how can you just sit around and not help out with anything? I would never make the youngest child go out and do all the work. Ugh, that irritated me so much! That's why I hated her sisters. I seriously thought that Feyre was the oldest because of what she does for her family. I can't believe her Dad didn't help out either! Yes, he was injured but still, he could have  done something. Why did Feyre have to do all the work? If I were her, I would wanna leave her family. Anyway, I felt a lot of sympathy for her. So basically after that, she goes out in the woods and sees a wolf and eventually kills it. She doesn't know who the wolf was. After she gets back to her family, a beast breaks into her house. He tells Feyre she has the choice to die or come live with him. Obviously she chooses to live with him, and so she lives with him for the rest of the book. 

So Tamlin is the beast that Feyre lives with. I really liked Tamlin. He wasn't very creepy and he was actually pretty nice. He doesn't really act like a beast should. I liked how he really tried to make an effort to get to know Feyre. At first she doesn't want anything to do with him, but after a while, she begins to open up to him and they form a relationship. At the end of the book you find out why Tamlin acted the way he did. I still liked him at the end. Right now I am Team Tamlin but that might change when I read the second book. 

Speaking of them, another thing I want to talk about is the romance. Since this is a fairy-tale retelling, I was expecting for the romance to be insta-love, but it wasn't. It was actually a slow burn romance which I loved. You guys know I hate insta-love, who doesn't? I just really liked the romance. Feyre went from not liking Tamlin to loving him by the end of the book. 

Another character I want to mention is Lucien. He didn't have much character development so I didn't love him at first. He wasn't in the book enough for me to love him. I did like him though. Hopefully I'll get to know him better in the next book. I don't have too much to say about Lucien. He was a good character. I sort of liked her maid, Alis. She was kind of rude but she did have a nice side. I liked her but not as much as maids in other books like "The Selection" series. 

The last character I wanna talk about is Rhysand. I don't know what to think of him honestly. He wasn't in the book much, so I don't know how I feel about him. I'll admit I'm sort of drawn to him because he's a little mysterious. I don't know if he's good or bad. I guess I like him but I don't love him. I can't wait to see more of Rhys in the second book. I'm sure his character development will be a lot better. He's sort of creepy and weird but I think he has good intentions. So yeah, hopefully I'll like him better in the second book. 

My favorite part of the book was definitely the end. At the end Feyre has to do Three Trials to break a curse and I loved reading that part. It reminded me of "Goblet of Fire" for some reason. I just loved it. I didn't know the riddle at all.

I think this book would've been a great stand-alone. It ended really well, but I'm glad there's two more books. 

Overall, I really loved this book. I can't wait to see what happens in "A Court of Mist and Fury". Hopefully I like that book because I've heard it's way better than the first one. If you love fantasy books and fairy-tale retellings I really recommend this book. This book is definitely worth a buy, even though I got this book for free with a gift card. I definitely would've paid full price for this book though, it's worth it. Anyway, thanks so much for reading this long review. I'll have a review up for the second book in the future so stay tuned for that. Have a great day and happy reading! Bye :)         

Book Review: Stealing Parker

Stealing Parker by Miranda Kenneally (Hundred Oaks #2)

Paperback Edition-242 Pages

Genre- Young Adult, Contemporary

5/5 Lily Pads

Would I Recommend It? Yes!!

No Spoilers!!

Hey guys, I'm back with a review. Today I am reviewing "Stealing Parker". This is the second book in the "Hundred Oakes" companion series. If you guys didn't already know, Miranda Kenneally is one of my favorite authors. Catching Jordan is one of my favorite books so I really wanted to read her other books. This one didn't disappoint me, I loved it! It was amazing! Read on see why I loved it.

The Plot

 
Parker Shelton pretty much has the perfect life. She’s on her way to becoming valedictorian at Hundred Oaks High, she’s made the all-star softball team, and she has plenty of friends. Then her mother’s scandal rocks their small town and suddenly no one will talk to her.

Now Parker wants a new life.

So she quits softball. Drops twenty pounds. And she figures why kiss one guy when she can kiss three? Or four. Why limit herself to high school boys when the majorly cute new baseball coach seems especially flirty?

But how far is too far before she loses herself completely?

My Opinion 

I loved this book so much you guys! This book was awesome, I liked Catching Jordan better but this one was so good! 

First of all, I love Miranda's writing style. It's really simple and easy to read. Her books are the perfect beach reads because I can fly through them so fast. I just love her style and she writes a lot of dialogue which I love. 

The plot of this book was awesome. It reminded me of Catching Jordan because it revolves around a sport. The main character Parker plays Softball. I loved reading about it because I played Softball for a year when I was younger, and I used to always go to my sister's games. But yeah the plot is very simple. It's basically just about Parker finding herself and wanting to stay true to herself. This book taught me to be who you want to be. Don't be someone people want you to be, be yourself basically. It's such a simple message but honestly I really needed to hear that right now. 

The Pacing was perfect. This book is really short but it was wrapped up perfectly and I was never bored.

Last but not least I wanna talk about the characters. 

One of the reason's why I love her books so much is because she's so good at developing characters. Her characters are so amazing and likable. 

First of all, I really liked the main character Parker. She was a typical girl and she used to be a really good Christian girl. First off, I loved that she was a Christian because I am and I'm from a Christian family. A lot of times in the book she was at church and she was questioning her faith. I just loved the religion part of the book and I feel that more books need to have religion in them. Even though she was a Christian, Parker wasn't perfect. There were times where she didn't act like one. I just really liked her character, she changed a little at the end which was awesome. Just like with Catching Jordan I loved all of her guy friends. Parker's friends ditched her because of something that happened in her family. I'm not gonna say what it is because I don't wanna spoil it for you. Basically something happened and they don't wanna be friends with her anymore. I hated the girls, they were so mean and they went to Parker's church. They didn't act like Christian's at all, they were really mean to her. I loved her guy friends. She has a best friend named Drew and I really loved him. I absolutely loved her friend Will(Corndog is his nickname). I loved him so much because he was such a great guy! He is a Christian and he's from a Christian family and he was so nice. I loved reading about his family and I loved that he has an autistic little brother, he was so cute. The romance was so amazing! I was rooting for them the whole time. I just loved their chemistry. I'm not gonna say who she ends up with but I liked that it wasn't the "cliche" romance. She ended up with someone different. There was sort of a love triangle in this book. Parker manages for the boys Baseball team and there's a new young coach named Brian. Parker falls for him and she becomes torn over two guys. I wasn't a huge fan of Brian. I liked him at first but I found the student teacher relationship creepy because she's seventeen and he's twenty-three. Let's just say, I didn't want her to end up with him. 

Another reason why I loved this book so much is because my favorite characters from Catching Jordan are in this book. I loved Sam and Jordan and I'm so glad they were in this book. It was so cool to see them again. I missed them after finishing Catching Jordan. 

Overall this book was amazing of course. If you guys love Contemporary books you need to read this series. It's so good and very underrated. Please read these books, Miranda needs more recognition. If you wanna read a quick easy Contemporary, I would highly recommend these books. If your interested in this series, I recommend to read Catching Jordan first. You don't have to, but it's a companion series so I recommend it first. So that was my review. This book is definitely worth a buy and thank you so much for reading! I'll have more posts coming up soon so stay tuned for more. I love you guys :)

Review Mashup: The One, The Heir & The Crown

Hey guys, I'm back with a review! I recently just finished the last 3 books in the "Selection" series. I was planning on doing one post for all 3 books after I finished the series. I finally finished the series and finished "The Crown" last night, so here's my review. 


First I'm going to review "The One". Don't worry, my reviews are spoiler-free. 

In case you didn't know this is the 3rd book in the series. What did I think of it? I really enjoyed this book! This is my favorite book out of the first three. This book was a great conclusion to America's story. I love America so much, she's such a great protagonist. I love how down to earth she is. I love her and Maxon's relationship. I loved reading about the last 4 girls, they were fun to read about. Overall, this book was amazing and obviously I gave it 5/5 Lily Pads. 

Next I'm going to review "The Heir".

This is the fourth book in the series, and it's all about America's daughter, Eadlyn. I'm not going to explain much about the characters because I'm sure you guys know what this book is about. But I want you to know that I love Eadlyn's character. I don't understand why everyone hates her. She's a likable character. She's a good person and I find her very relatable. I liked that she was distant because I'm like that too. Yes, she is spoiled but that's because she was brought up in a castle! Also, keep in mind that she didn't want to do "The Selection" she was forced to do it. She didn't think she needed a husband to be happy and I'm the exact same way. I don't need a man to be happy in life, I like being single. It was hard for Eadlyn to get to know the guys at first because of that reason, and I would be the exact same way if I was in her situation. I wouldn't know how to talk to the guys, I wouldn't know what to do at all. I think she did really well. Overall, stop hating on Eadlyn! She's a good person and everyone should see her that way. She didn't bother me at all!
This book was absolutely amazing! It's one of my favorite books now! I loved it because it was basically "The Bachelorette." I loved reading in the perspective of the girl that was in charge and I loved seeing her opinions about the guys. I loved that it was a different situation from America's story. The guys were all so nice and I loved all the guys that were in "The Elite". Overall, this book was so fun to read and I just loved it so much! I obviously gave it 5/5 Lily Pads. 
 
 And now finally I'm reviewing "The Crown".

This is the final book in the series. I can't believe it's over. This isn't my favorite series, but I did love it. I thought this book was a great conclusion to the series, but it was a very short book. I actually spoiled myself before reading it so I knew who she ended up with. I liked all the guys. I had my favorites and was a little disappointed. I'm not gonna say who she picks because I don't wanna spoil anything. I liked the guy but I didn't absolutely love him. He was a good character but his relationship with Eadlyn wasn't developed enough. I really think there should've been one more book so she could take the time to get to know the boys more. It felt rushed. So I'm happy with who she chose, but at the same time I was a little upset that my favorite wasn't picked because of a huge plot twist. If you wanna know which guy I was rooting for, leave me a comment and I'll tell you. 
But Eadlyn is happy and that's all that matters, the other guys seemed fine with it. I felt attached to the guys, they were so nice and awesome. Overall, it was a good conclusion but I wished there was another book because I wanted more. I gave it 5/5 Lily Pads.

So yeah, I finally finished this series. I would really recommend this series to everyone. It is an amazing series! You should really give it a try. That's my review, thanks so much for reading and stay tuned for more coming soon. Bye :)
 

April Wrap-up!

Hey guys, I'm back! It's been a couple weeks since I last posted a review. I've actually been sick the past 3 days and I'm finally getting better. I did a lot of reading the past two weeks. If you read my last review you'll know I mentioned that I want to start doing monthly wrap-ups on this blog. I usually film them on my channel and I'm gonna keep filming them. I also wanted to post them on my blog because I follow other bloggers that write them and I love reading them. So yeah, I'm feeling better now and I've done so much reading the past 3 days. April was probably my best reading month so far this year. Anyway, let's get on to all the books I read in April!

 The First book I read in April was actually a reread. I decided to reread this trilogy because I love it and I was in the mood to reread it. The book I'm talking about is "Clockwork Angel" by Cassandra Clare. 

 This is the first book in The "Infernal Devices" trilogy which is one of my favorite trilogies! I love these books so much!! I never wrote a review for this book on this blog because I'm going to do a review for the whole trilogy once I read "Clockwork Princess". I really enjoyed this book the first time, but I loved it so much more the second time. It was so good! I loved getting back into this amazing world with all of my favorite characters. I love Tessa, Jem and Will so much! I just loved this book so much! I obviously gave this book 5/5 Lily Pads. If you haven't read this trilogy yet, you need to read it now!

 The next book I read was "The Fill-In Boyfriend" by Kasie West. I have a full review for this book on the blog if you wanna read it. I also have a review on my BookTube channel if your interested. This is the first book I've read from her and I loved it so much!! I've been reading so much Fantasy lately and I've really wanted to read a Contemporary because it's my favorite genre, besides Fantasy. I randomly picked this book out of my TBR Jar and I'm so glad I did! It was the perfect book for me at the time. It was such a cute, awesome book! I loved the plot! This book is all about "Fake Dating" and I love "Fake Dating" so much! It was just so fun and easy to read. The characters were amazing. I loved the main character, Gia and the love interest, Hayden was so awesome and swoon-worthy. I loved him so much! He is such a great, nice guy. Overall this book was amazing and obviously I gave it 5/5 Lily Pads. If you love Contemporary, you need to try this one. 

 The next book I read was the third book in a series. It is "Yellow Brick War" by Danielle Paige. This is the third book in the "Dorothy Must Die" series. I absolutely love this series. It's really good. I love retellings and I love "The Wizard of Oz" and that's why I love this series. This book didn't disappoint. I loved the first two books but this one is probably my favorite out of the three. There is a fourth book coming out next year, I can't wait to read it! I really enjoyed this book. I don't have too much to say, so overall I gave it 5/5 Lily Pads. If you guys haven't read this series yet and you love "The Wizard of Oz" you need to read this series. I also have a full review for this book on the blog. 

 The next book I read is "City of Lost Souls" by Cassandra Clare. This is the 5th book in the "Mortal Instruments" series. I've finally read this book! I read the 4th one two years ago. I loved this one! I really loved the first two books but the third and fourth books weren't that good to me. I was a little nervous going into this book because I thought I wouldn't like it and I was so wrong. I loved it so much! It was so good and entertaining! I was never bored. I love this series and I love the characters so much! Cassandra Clare is one of my favorite authors and I love how she does such a great job at developing characters. I love all of her characters and she's a great writer. I obviously gave this book 5/5 Lily Pads. I'm planning on doing a review for the whole series like with the "Infernal Devices". I just have to read the last book "City of Heavenly Fire" and then I will post a series review. Overall, if you haven't read this series I really recommend it because all of her books are amazing!

 The next book I read was a recommendation from my lovely sister. It is "The Book of Ivy" by Amy Engel. My sister really loved this book and she wanted me to read it, so I did. And I really enjoyed it. It's been a long time since I read  a Dystopian book because I'm not a fan of the genre. I prefer Fantasy. But my sister told me this one doesn't have a lot of world building and it focuses more on the characters and that made me decide to pick it up. It was a good book. I really enjoyed it but for some reason I didn't love it. I don't know why, it didn't give me that feeling I get when I love a book. I really loved the main character, Ivy and I loved Bishop. He was the perfect guy. I loved everything about the book. The plot was so cool and the romance developed really slow which I liked. Since I didn't have any problems with it, I gave it 5/5 Lily Pads. I will probably read the sequel "The Revolution of Ivy" some day. If you love Dystopian books with a good romance, I really recommend this book. I do have a full review on this blog. 

 And then finally, the last book I read in April was "The One" by Kiera Cass. This is the 3rd book in "The Selection" series. This  was definitely my favorite book of the month.  It was amazing! I really love this series!! The characters are amazing and I just love everything about this series. I love her books so much! I'm currently reading "The Heir" right now and it's amazing! I obviously gave this book 5/5 Lily Pads. I haven't written a review for this book because I'm gonna wait until I read the last 2 books and then I'll post a review mashup for all 3 books. If you love "The Bachelor" and Dystopian books, you need to read this series! The characters and the romance are so amazing and well developed. 

 Those were all the books I read in April. I did start "Cruel Beauty" by Rosamund Hodge but I ended up DNFing it, so I didn't count it toward my wrap-up. It wasn't bad, I just couldn't get into it at the time. Thank you so much for reading this long post. Stay tuned for more coming soon. I hope you guys like these wrap-ups. I would love to do these every month, I hope that's okay. Anyway, have a great day and happy reading!