Book Review: Wither

"Wither" by Lauren DeStefano(Chemical Garden Trilogy #1)

Genre-Young Adult, Dystopia, Science Fiction, Romance

Paperback Edition-358 pages

5/5 Lily Pads

Would I Recommend It? Yes. If you liked "The Selection" and "The Jewel" series, you'll love this one

Beware of Spoilers!!

Favorite Quotes:

   “I'll tell you something about true love. There's no science to it. It's as natural as the sky.” 

 “There are lots of love stories here.....They either end happily or everyone dies.”

Hey guys, I'm back with a review. Today I am reviewing "Wither" by Lauren DeStefano. This book has been on my TBR since 2012. I've been wanting to read this book since I first discovered booktube five years ago. I'm so glad I finally read "Wither" because I really enjoyed it. Let's get on with the review.

The Plot(Goodreads summary)

 By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children. 

When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can't bring herself to hate him as much as she'd like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband's strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape--before her time runs out?

Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom? 

My Opinion

Like I said before, I really enjoyed this book. This book has a lot of mixed reviews so I wasn't sure if I was going to like it. I'm so glad I gave it a try and I'm surprised by how much I loved this book. While I was reading this book, it reminded me of "The Selection" series by Kiera Cass which I loved and "The Jewel" by Amy Ewing, which I haven't read yet but want to. 

This is the first book I've read by Lauren DeStefano and I have to say, I really like her writing style. It's very beautiful and unique but simple at the same time. 

I really like the plot for "Wither" even though it's kinda creepy. I was intrigued by the story because Women die at age 20 and Men die at 25 which is so different to read about. As a 22 year old, I would've been dead already, haha. It was just so unique. I usually hate Dystopian books but this one was pretty good. Like I said the plot stood out to me and I just thought it was very cool but wrong at the same time. 

Last let's talk about the characters.

I really liked the main character, Rhine. She was a nice, genuine girl. She really cared for her family and I love that she became very fond of the other girls in the mansion, even though she didn't know them very well. I loved how determined and strong she was. She didn't let anyone get her down and I love that she didn't give up and did what she wanted. She was very compassionate and loyal. One thing that irritated me about her was just that she led Linden on the whole time and she never loved him. I understand why she did it, but it still annoyed me. I just hate when people lead other people on, especially if you don't feel the same way, it's just wrong. Other than that, I really liked her character. 

I really liked the other sister wives. Jenna was a great character. At first I didn't know what to think of her because she was very distant. After awhile I ended up really liking her. She was a nice girl and I liked her friendship with Rhine. It broke my heart when she died, I didn't expect her to die so soon. I also liked Cecily even though she was a brat at times. She was only thirteen so it didn't bug me too much though. I liked her because she was nice when she wanted to be, I liked her relationship with Rhine and Jenna. I hated what she did at the end though. It made me made at her. 

I liked Linden. He was a pretty good character. He was a very, sincere, nice guy. He was very naive at times though. He didn't know what was going on and why his Dad made him marry the three girls. But yeah, even though Rhine was in a terrible situation, it was hard to be made at Linden because he was so nice. I wasn't rooting for him though. 

Now let's talk about one of my favorite characters in this book, Gabriel. I loved Gabriel! He was so sweet and nice. I know I said Linden was nice too but I just liked Gabriel so much more. He was a normal guy but he's such a good guy. Like I said he was so nice and sweet and I loved his friendship/romance with Rhine. I was rooting for them throughout the whole book. I am definitely Team Gabriel. 

As for the side characters, I liked them. I liked the girl maids like Deirdre and the others. I didn't like Linden's father, he wasn't a good guy. 

What I learned from this book: I didn't really learn much from this book. But one thing I did learn is, if your not happy with your life, do something about it. It goes with the story because Rhine was miserable in the mansion, she really didn't wanna be there. She was so determined to leave and she did. I was proud of her for not giving up. 

That was my review. Thank you so much for reading. I really liked this book and it's definitely worth a buy. Obviously I gave it 5/5 Lily Pads. I'm not sure if I'm going to continue the trilogy because I heard bad things about the last two books. It also read well as a stand-alone. I'll have another post up soon so stay tuned for that. Bye and happy reading!         

Book Review: The Sun is Also a Star

"The Sun is Also a Star" by Nicola Yoon

Genre- Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Hardcover Edition-348 pages

5/5 Lily Pads

Would I Recommend It? Yes, it's one of my favorite books!

No Spoilers!!

Favorite Quotes:

   “Stars are important," I say, laughing. "Sure, but why not more poems about the sun? The sun is also a star, and it's our most important one. That alone should be worth a poem or two.” 

 “People just want to believe. Otherwise they would have to admit that life is just a random series of good and bad things that happen until one day you die.”

 “Some people exist in your life to make it better. Some people exist to make it worse.” 

 “We think we want all the time in the world with the people we love, but maybe what we need is the opposite. Just a finite amount of time, so we still think the other person is interesting. Maybe we don't need acts two and three. Maybe love is best in act one."

 “There’s a pure kind of joy in the certainty of belief. The certainty that your life has purpose and meaning. That, though your earthly life may be hard, there’s a better place in your future, and God has a plan to get you there.”

This book has so many good quotes, it was really hard for me to only pick a couple. 

Hey guys, I'm back with a review. Today I am reviewing the second book I read in 2017 and that is "The Sun is Also a Star". I absolutely loved her first book "Everything, Everything". When I found out she was writing a second book, I was so happy and couldn't wait to read it. I'm so glad I finally read this book because it was amazing! This book is seriously one of the best books I've ever read! This book is so special and unique, it really stands out from the other YA Contemporary books. After loving "Everything, Everything" I didn't think I could love this book as much but I was wrong. This book was even better! Anyway, let's get on with the review.

The Plot(Goodreads Summary)  

 Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.

Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.

The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?

My Opinion

I loved this book so much you guys! It's one of my favorite books now and everyone needs to read it.

Of course I love Nicola Yoon's writing style. It's simple but so beautiful. Every single line in this book was so beautiful and meaningful. There were so many amazing quotes and lines from this book. I can't really explain why I loved this book so much. 

I absolutely loved the plot for this book. I've never read a book about immigration before and i'm so glad I did. It's one of those topics that aren't talked about enough and I haven't see it in YA books before. I just loved learning about immigration and racism. I'm not a racist person but this book still really opened my eyes about people from different cultures living in America. I never really thought about how it must feel for a immigrant to live here. It's just something that never occurred to me. I had no idea how hard it is to be one. Besides the plot of immigration I just loved how this book took place in one day and it was also about family and romance. I definitely want to read more books about immigration and my goal this year is to read more diverse books with people of color. My favorite book of all time "The Help" is about African Americans and I just love learning about other cultures, it's just so fascinating to me. 

Now, let's talk about the characters. The characters in this book were so amazing! Our two main characters Natasha and Daniel were so well-developed.

I really loved Natasha. She was a great protagonist. She was such a great person and I loved how strong she was about everything. I can relate to her in a way but I'm also very different from her. I don't think of myself as a strong-willed, intelligent person like Natasha is. She's a realist and she's very smart. She loves Math and Science which are two subjects I was never good at. Her character was just so interesting to read about and I loved learning about her family and culture as a Jamaican immigrant. I've never read a book with a Jamaican protagonist, it was so unique. I love Nicola Yoon because she always writes about topics that are important but aren't really talked about and they need to be out there more. I just love how diverse her characters are. 

I loved Daniel so much!! He's probably my favorite character in this book. He's definitely a new book boyfriend of mine. I just loved his character. He was the perfect guy. He's so sweet and caring. He was such a gentleman. I loved that unlike Natasha, he's a dreamer which is really unique. He believes in fate and destiny and that things happen for a reason. He also believes in true love. He was just a really refreshing character. I loved that he is a poet and loves English. I love to write so I was able to relate to him too. I just loved him to death! I also loved that he was Korean because I love Asia. I love the asian culture so much and I've never read a book with a Korean character so I found that aspect unique. I loved learning about his Korean family and the culture was so interesting. I liked this family but I hated his older brother, Charlie. He was terrible! He wasn't a good person and he was just so mean.

The romance in this book was so adorable. This book takes place in one day and you'd think it would be insta-love but it's not. The book feels like it was more than one day. It was a slow burn romance and the romance was really developed slowly. I liked that Natasha and Daniel were friends first. I'll admit that the ending was sort of heartbreaking, but the epilogue was great. The ending was very realistic and I loved that. Sometimes I get sick of the same "everything turns out in the end" type of story. The ending was perfect. 

I loved that there was religion in this book. I feel like no one ever talks about the religion used in this book. As a Christian I loved that Daniel believed in God and I just loved all of the religion talk with the train driver. It's so refreshing to read when I find a fiction book with religion in it. It's very important to me.  

Last but not least I'm going to talk about what I learned from this amazing book. 

It's hard to say everything I learned about this book, because I learned so much from it. So I'm going to just tell you one thing I learned from "The Sun is Also a Star".

The main lesson is to do what you want and don't do what other people want you to do. Follow your heart, do what you want. In the book Daniel's parent's wanted him to go to "Yale" and become a doctor. But Daniel didn't want to do that. He didn't really want to go to college. His dream is to be a poet, because he loves to write poems and didn't want to be a doctor like his parents wanted. The lesson is to do what you want, your parents can't decide your life for you because it's not up to them, it's only your choice. Only you can control your life and do what you want. That's the biggest lesson I learned from this book. 

Overall, this is probably the most meaningful I've ever read. Everyone on this planet needs to read this book. It's very eye opening and inspiring. This book really made me think. This book is so unique and different. If you want a unique contemporary book that's different from all the other YA books, check out this one. You won't regret it. It's one of my favorite books now and Nicola Yoon is definitely one of my favorite authors. I also recommend "Everything, Everything" if you haven't read it yet. This book is definitely worth a buy and it's one of those books that you should share with your loved ones because it's such an important book to read. I obviously gave this book 5/5 Lily Pads and I will be rereading this book in the future. This is one of those rare books that will stick with me for a long time. It was a very memorable book. Anyway, that was my long review. Thank you so much for reading. Please go read this book. Even if you don't like Contemporary books, please read it. It's amazing and you won't regret reading it. Stay tuned for more posts coming and thanks again for everything, happy reading! :)     

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling(Harry Potter #6)

Genre-Middle-Grade, Young Adult, Fantasy

Paperback Edition-652

5/5 Lily Pads

Would I Recommend It? Of course, it's Harry Freakin' Potter!! 
Some Spoilers!!

Favorite Quotes:

 "It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more.”

 “We must try not to sink beneath our anguish, Harry, but battle on.” 

 “Do you remember me telling you we are practicing non-verbal spells, Potter?" "Yes," said Harry stiffly."Yes, sir." "There's no need to call me "sir" Professor." The words had escaped him before he knew what he was saying.”


Hey guys! It's been a while since I last posted. I was pretty busy with the holiday season so I didn't get to read much. I started reading "Half-Blood Prince" in December but I didn't finish it until now because I haven't been reading much. I wanted to read some HP in December because it's the perfect month to read and watch Harry Potter. I started the book around the holiday time but it took me a while to read and I'm so glad I finally finished it. This book was so amazing! If you didn't know, this is my first time reading the series so this was my first time reading "Half-Blood Prince" and I loved it so much! Let's get on with the review.

Since this is the sixth book in the series I'm not going to describe the plot because I feel it's not really necessary and I don't want to spoil the book for those who haven't read it. So let's move on.

This is the first book I've read in 2017 and it was a great way to start out the year!

I really loved the plot for this book. I was actually spoiled for the whole series so I knew everything that happened but it was still fun to read. I feel this book had more of a mystery aspect to it than the other books. Well, all of the books have mystery in it but maybe it intrigued me the most in this book. Even though I already knew who the "Half-Blood Prince" was it was cool to see the characters figure it out. The pacing was done really well, I liked that this book focused more on day to day life at Hogwarts. I liked the lessons that Harry got from Dumbledore, it was so interesting to learn about Voldemort's backstory. This is definitely one of my favorite books in the series after "Goblet of Fire". I really loved that Snape finally got the position of the "Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher". I wish we saw more of that class though, we only saw one class for that subject throughout the book. I really liked reading about Potions with Professor Slughorn, it was cool to see Harry excel at Potions for once. The whole "Half-Blood Prince" topic was so awesome. The book was just so interesting and it definitely made Potions a lot funner to read. 

Finally, let's talk about the characters. Of course I loved Harry, he's one of my favorite book protagonists of all time. I just love him so much! I don't have to explain why. Of course I love Ron and Hermione and the whole gang. I really like that we got more of Ginny in this book because I love Ginny. She's such a great character. The relationships were interesting in this book. I'm a Ron and Hermione shipper and this book was hard to read because Ron went out with Lavender and Hermione was so heart broken. I felt so bad for her, she obviously really liked Ron but he doesn't see it. I didn't like Lavender, she was annoying and very clingy which I hate. However, I loved Harry and Ginny's relationship in this book. Their friendship and romance was so sweet and cute, they are the perfect couple. I never really liked Draco but this book made me like him more. I sympathized more for him in this book. I felt so bad for Draco, he was obviously going through a tough time. I do like him now, he's a great character. I love him almost as much as I love Snape. Snape's one of my favorite characters in the series. The ending was so sad though. I already knew what happened but it still killed me. I will always love Dumbledore, I will never forget him. Before I end this review, I want to tell you what I learned from this book. 

 What I learned from this book: 
 
I learned that you should never judge or hate an enemy even if they're not a good person because you never know what they are going through in their life. Harry always had a grudge for Draco, and in this book you have to feel sorry for him. Draco gets a task from Voldemort to kill Dumbledore and it completely takes over his life. He's always miserable and he cries in the bathroom. I felt so bad for him because he was in a  tough situation because if he doesn't do the task, Voldemort will kill him and his family. Even Harry felt bad for him. This book even made me feel bad for Voldemort because I learned his backstory and felt bad that he grew up as an orphan. However, it is our choices that make us who we are. And Lord Voldemort chose to make the wrong choices. 

That is my review for this amazing book. I obviously gave it 5/5 Lily Pads. It's definitely worth a buy. Everyone should read the Harry Potter series, it is so amazing and very eye-opening. I can't wait to read "Deathly Hallows" but I don't want the series to end. I'll probably read it sometime in 2017 though so stay tuned for a review for it. Thank you so much for reading this review. I really appreciate it. I hope you are having a great day and I also hope 2017 will be an amazing year for you. Thanks again for reading and happy reading! :)