Mid Year Book Freak Out Tag

I AM ALIVE, and so incredibly sorry that I haven’t posted anything in ages. This month I started working, and it has been just a hell a lot of stress, let me tell you. But now I am back, and I have an awesome tag for you guys: The Mid Year Freak Out Book Tag. I hope you enjoy it!

Here are the Questions:

1. Best book you’ve read so far in 2015.

This is really hard to decide. I have so many favorites … but I think I might go with „Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda“ by Becky Albertalli. This book was simply fantastic, and I am so happy that I picked it up!

 
2. Best sequel you've read so far in 2015.

„Ignite Me“ by Tahereh Mafi. This book was just fantastic (yeah, the whole series was great, but THIS BOOK). I couldn’t put it down, nor could I think of anything else the weeks afterwards. It was fantastic!

3. New release you haven't read yet, but want to.

„The Wrath and the Dawn“ by Rene Ahdieh; in fact, this book is already on it’s way to my house and I am so excited to finally hold it in my hands and read it!

4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year.

That would be either “Origin” (german version) by Jennifer L. Armentrout or the third and final part of the Silver trilogy by Kerstin Gier.

5. Biggest disappointment.

“Push” by Sapphire. I had to read it for school, and I just disliked it so much, I can’t even tell you.

6. Biggest surprise.

“More happy than not” by Adam Silvera. I mean yes, I expected that I would like it, because it deals with very interesting topics, but this book completely blew me off. It was just perfect and it is definitely one of my favorites of all time!

7. Favourite new author. (Debut or new to you)

I can’t choose one, so I will choose my favorite three. Adam Silvera (More happy than not), Becky Albertalli (Simon vs. the homo sapiens agenda) and Sabaa Tahir (An Ember in the Ashes). These are all debut-authors but they all became my auto-buy authors, let me just tell you!

8. Newest fictional crush.

Ohhh this one is easy. Elias from “An Ember in the Ashes”. Did you read that book? Then you know what I mean … Elias though ...

9. Newest favourite character.

Ash from the “Iron Fey” series by Julie Kagawa. I was fascinated by Ash from the first page on, and I still really like him as character (I am on book three of the series, and hell does he change).

10. Book that made you cry.

I think I never cried more when reading a book than I did when reading “More happy than not” by Adam Silvera. I even cried during the first chapter, and throughout whole part "zero" ... so that’s a thing.

11. Book that made you happy.

I am happy and thankful to say that there are quite a few books which made me happy this year, so I am just going to list a few: (the obvious three first) More happy than not, Simon vs. the homo sapiens agenda, an Amber in the Ashes, City of Heavenly Fire (indirect happiness. The Sebastian still didn’t happen to me, what do you mean?), Eleanor and Park, The Shatter Me series etc etc.

12. Favourite book to film adaptation you saw this year. 

I think this would have to be Insurgent. I wasn’t a huge fan of the book, but the movie was AWESOME. I can’t wait to see what they do with Allegiant.

13. Favourite review you've written this year.

The “More happy than not” review (wow, I mention this book a lot), I am SO SORRY, but Adam Silvera HIMSELF read this review, and replied me on Twitter, which is still one of the best things that happened to me this year so far.

14. Most beautiful book you've bought so far this year (or received)

Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe; this cover is just absolutely gorgeous, right? I love it!

15. What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

The Wrath and the Dawn, The Raven Boys, Ready Player One, The Iron Knight, Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe, I'll give you the sun, and just so many many more!

That's it for the tag, and I tag YOU to do it! Yes you, who is reading this! :)

I promise you guys that I will post more regularly now, especially more reviews, so look out for that! But until then, have a great day and I will see you next time! Bye!

Review: FOUR by Veronica Roth

“I want some kind of reminder that while wounds heal, they don't disappear forever- I carry them everywhere, always, and that is the way of things, the way of scars.”

Summary:

Two years before Beatrice Prior made her choice, the sixteen-year-old son of Abnegation’s faction leader did the same. Tobias’s transfer to Dauntless is a chance to begin again. Here, he will not be called the name his parents gave him. Here, he will not let fear turn him into a cowering child.

Cover:

I think the cover is great. If you have read the Divergent series you know that the Ferris wheel plays an important role in Four’s and Tris’s relationship, so I think the choice of putting it on the cover is great.

My opinion:

This book made me realize how much I missed Four and the Divergent world in general. 

When I read this series last year I really enjoyed it, but so far I didn’t have any interest in reading this book whatsoever. I thought that I was done with this series and this world, especially after not really enjoying the third book in the series. But once I started FOUR I immediately fell in love again.
It may not be the best written book or have the best and most thought-out plot, but it once again made me realize many important things. It showed me that you need to face your fears, and you need to be able to handle or even conquer them. It's not about overcoming a fear; it's about facing it and somehow also accepting it. And I realized this in a time, where I really needed the strength that this book gave me in the end. What I also really enjoyed was seeing what happened in Four’s life before Tris transferred to Dauntless. I always enjoyed his voice more than Tris’s to be honest, so I was happy for that change.

Conclusion:

This book was a real surprise for me, and I really enjoyed it.

Rating:

5 | 5 stars

★-★-★-★-★

Wrap-Up: July 2015

Books I read in July:

◇ The Spook's Sacrifice - Joseph Delaney {218 pages read in July}
◇ The Infinite Sea - Rick Yancey {347 pages}
◇ Midnight Heir (BC #4) - Cassandra Clare {60 pages}
◇ More happy than not ★ - Adam Silvera {304 pages}
◇ Red Queen - Victoria Aveyard {501 pages}
◇ Dreamless - Josephine Angelini {505 pages}
◇ Stolen - Lucy Christopher {84 pages read in July}

All in all: Finished 5 books, started 1, 1 short-story

Total pages: 2019 //

★ → Highlight of the month

My a bit too ambitious BookTubeAThon TBR

Hello everyone and welcome to my Blog! The BookTubeAThon is comming up, and I am so excited, so I am going to show you my (actually a bit too ambitious) Read-a-thon TBR today!

If you want more information on the BookTubeAThon, the challenges or discounts you can check out the official YouTube channel HERE: -> https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZhmQgR4l0MMisH-OGO729Q

The challenges:

1// Read a book with blue on the cover

My book for this is FOUR by Veronica Roth. This book has been sitting on my shelf for months now, and I think it’s time that I finally get to it.

2// Read a book by an author who shares the same first letter of your last name 

I have been searching for such a book for ages on my shelf, but I just don’t have one. My last name starts with an L, but none of the authors on my shelf share this letter in their last name, so I unfortunately can’t complete this challenge.

3// Read someone else's favorite book

For this one I chose I’ll give you the sun by Jandy Nelson. This is a lot of people’s favorite book, so I thought I might as well check it out.

4// Read the last book you acquired 

For me this would be It’s kind of a funny story by Ned Vizzini. I bought this book just last week (Thursday it was, I believe) so I am going to read this one.

5// Finish a book without letting go of it

This basically means to read a book in one sitting, which is almost impossible for me, because I never do that. So I chose the only book with illustrations on my shelf for this, which is Fairytales of 1001 Nights. I think I will be able to finish this book in one go, just because it has a lot of pictures and stuff in it.

6// Read a book you really want to read

For this one I chose Cinder by Marissa Meyer. I wanted to read this book for a long time now, and because it’s (fairly) short I am going to try to read it during this Read-a-thon.

7// Read seven books

As I said, this TBR is already too ambitious, but in case a miracle happens, and I read all these books already before the Read-a-thon ends, I will pick up either Stolen by Lucy Christopher, or Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan.

As soon as the BookTubeAThon ends I will post a Wrap-Up to let you guys know how I did!
Until then, thank you all for visiting my Blog, and I will see you next time! 

Review: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

“In the fairy tales, the poor girl smiles when she becomes a princess. Right now, I don't know if I'll ever smile again.”

 

Synopsis:

The poverty stricken Reds are commoners, living under the rule of the Silvers, elite warriors with god-like powers.
To Mare Barrow, a 17-year-old Red girl from The Stilts, it looks like nothing will ever change.
Mare finds herself working in the Silver Palace, at the centre of
those she hates the most. She quickly discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy Silver control.
But power is a dangerous game. And in this world divided by blood, who will win?

Cover:

The cover of the English version looks amazing. I love the crown and the red on it, which probably symbolizes Mare herself as a Red. I love it.

My opinion:

I have mixed feelings about this book.
On one hand I really had a good time while reading it, and I also read it pretty fast, which is always a good sign, but on the other hand I have a lot of problems with it. The writing-style was very fluent and easy to read. Although it took me a few pages to get into the book I overall really enjoyed it. Furthermore, there were a lot of really great quotes. Also the action-scenes were written very nicely, I loved that.

But now let’s start with the problems I have with this books.
Problem #1: I didn't connect to any of the characters; in fact, I didn't even like them as much as I would've wanted to. While reading the last chapter I kind of didn't even care if this one person is going to die. The one who came close was Shade, but he appeared in like 2 pages. I really hope that we get to see more of him in the second part.
Problem #2: I was kind of confused with the world-building. I hope that Victoria gets more into depth with the world and the royalty system in the second book, because I felt like it was kind of cut short in this one.
Problem #3: It was nothing new. It reminded me of every YA book ever. There was the rebellion part of The Hunger Games, the fighting kind of reminded me of Divergent, the royalty seemed like the one in the Grisha trilogy, the powers reminded me of Shatter Me or the X-Men, because they all were pretty similar. But especially Mare’s power reminded of Helen’s power in the Starcrossed trilogy. The choosing of the queens was very similar to The Selection, etc. Throughout the whole book I just felt like I’ve seen this already.
Problem #4: The betrayal didn't surprise me at all. I knew that something was wrong with that person, because it’s like that in every YA book, right? Otherwise it would've been too perfect. So, the plot-twist wasn't a plot-twist for me.

I am very torn about this book, and I honestly don’t know how to rate it. I enjoyed it overall, and I won’t let the problems I had destroy it. I am looking forward to the next book in the series!

Conclusion:

I did enjoy the story, and although I had problems with the book it overall was really good.

Rating:

3.5 | 5 stars

★-★-★-✬-☆

Review: More happy than not by Adam Silvera

“Memories: some can be sucker punching, others carry you forward; some stay with you forever, others you forget on your own. You can't really know which ones you'll survive if you don't stay on the battlefield, bad times shooting at you like bullets. But if you're lucky, you'll have plenty of good times to shield you.”  

Synopsis:

In the months after his father's suicide, it's been tough for 16-year-old Aaron Soto to find happiness again--but he's still gunning for it. With the support of his girlfriend Genevieve and his overworked mom, he's slowly remembering what that might feel like. But grief and the smile-shaped scar on his wrist prevent him from forgetting completely. When Genevieve leaves for a couple of weeks, Aaron spends all his time hanging out with this new guy, Thomas. But Aaron can't deny the happiness Thomas brings or how Thomas makes him feel safe from himself. Since Aaron can't stay away from Thomas or turn off his newfound feelings for him, he considers turning to the Leteo Institute's revolutionary memory-alteration procedure to straighten himself out, even if it means forgetting who he truly is.
Why does happiness have to be so hard?

Cover:

Although the cover is really simple, it kind of sticks out to me, and it’s really beautiful. The “happy face” kind of is a theme throughout the whole book, and so I think the choice of this cover is perfect.

My opinion:

I wanted to read this book since it came out, just because it sounded really amazing, and one of my favorite authors of all time (Becky Albertalli) really enjoyed it too. I trust her, and so I pre-ordered the book. And man, it was the best thing I could’ve done.

Let’s first start off with the writing. I enjoyed Adam’s writing-style so much, because he just was so honest about everything. And these honest words made it feel like you really read from a teenage-boy’s POV. It was absolutely beautiful. No complaints whatsoever.

Moving on with the story and plot itself: I did not expect these things to happen, and it went a completely different way than I thought it would. Yeah, I was expecting that I would be heart-broken by the story, but this book crushed me. I cried like 7 times, and all throughout "Part Zero". From Chapter one on I felt such a strong connection to these characters, as if I knew them my entire life and that never happened to me before. I was rooting for Aaron from page one on. This isn’t just a story about being gay, and trying to figure out how to deal with it, when the environment that surrounds you doesn’t support it, but it has many more aspects to it; like how to deal with memories and pain. Yes, we all have these memories that we kind of would like to block or erase, but if you had the chance to do so, would you really do it? The past can be hard and painful, but in the end the memories make us to the person we are right now. This book showed me, that happiness can be found also in the small things in life. Happiness can be found in comics, books, paintings, even in just a small conversation. Life can be hard and painful, in fact it most of the time is, and when you think that it can’t get worse, it shows you that it actually can. But even then, the memories we hold are important, and sometimes they are the only thing we have left. And the main thing is to choose to be happy and to accept the past and move on, right? This book just touched me and made me think about my own life, and my own memories and it definitely gave me the feels (in a good and bad way, I guess). There are also other aspects to it, like how to deal with an illness, or how to deal with it, if you actually have tried to commit suicide, but it didn’t work. I think these topics are dealt with in a great way too in this book. The characters in this book were all very authentic and great too, especially Aaron. He was so honest with himself, and courageous too. So many bad things happened to him in life, but he stays strong. And overall, the story is more happy than not. (see what I did there? Haha)

This book was just fantastic; I do not have enough words to describe how great it was.

And Aaron: I will never forget you. I promise.

Conclusion:

A fantastic, amazing, brilliant, honest, beautiful book. I am speechless.

Rating:

5|5 stars

★-★-★-★-★

Wrap-Up: June 2015

Books I read in June:

◇ Clockwork Angel - Cassandra Clare { re-read; 415 pages read in June }
◇ Zac & Mia - A. J. Betts { 330 pages } (not on the picture; I do not own a physical copy)
◇ Vampires, Scones and Edmund Herondale - Cassandra Clare { 56 pages }
◇ An Ember in the Ashes - Sabaa Tahir { 507 pages }
◇ The Spook's Sacrifice - Joseph Delaney { 150 pages read in June }

All in all: 3 1/2 books, 1 short-story
Total pages: 1458