Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

I have a curse.I have a gift. 

I'm a monster. I'm more than human.

My touch is lethal.My touch is power.

I am their weapon.I will fight back.

 

Content:

No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon. But Juliette has plans of her own. After a lifetime without freedom, she's finally discovering a strength to fight back for the very first time—and to find a future with the one boy she thought she'd lost forever.

Cover:

The covers of the English versions are stunningly beautiful. It doesn’t really fit the story in my opinion, but I just love looking at it.

My opinion:

I didn’t know anything about what is going to happen in this book when I started it, but I heard a lot of good things about it. And I wasn’t disappointed. I was very surprised at how quickly the story grabbed me. It was a long time ago since a book captured me and touched me so much. After a few pages I already didn’t want to stop reading. The writing-style of the author is very poetic and beautiful and definitely something special. I kind of felt like that the writing made the story even more intense and touching. The story was interesting and exciting from the first page on. I always wanted to know immediately what will happen next, and it definitely is very action-packed. The best things about this book were the characters though. I loved all of them from the beginning on. Juliette, Adam Warner, Kenji, everyone was just so lovable and funny and interesting. I couldn’t decide whom I love the most. Moreover, I really liked the relationship between the two main characters. It seemed very authentic to me. I just loved everything about this book.

Conclusion:

This was definitely one of the best books I’ve read in my whole entire life. I just can’t wait to read the next books.

Rating:

5|5 stars

★-★-★-★-★

Review: The Iron Trial by Cassandra Clare & Holly Black

“Fire wants to burn, Water wants to flow, Air wants to rise, Earth wants to bindChaos wants to devour”

Content:

Most kids would do anything to pass the Iron Trial.
Not Callum Hunt. He wants to fail.
All his life, Call has been warned by his father to stay away from magic. If he succeeds at the Iron Trial and is admitted into the Magisterium, he is sure it can only mean bad things for him. So he tries his best to do his worst - and fails at failing.
Now the Magisterium awaits him. It's a place that's both sensational and sinister, with dark ties to his past and a twisty path to his future.
The Iron Trial is just the beginning, for the biggest test is still to come . . .

Cover:

I absolutely love the cover. The man with the mask has something mysterious on him and I also love it that you can see the three main characters on the cover.

My opinion:

I mainly bought this book because I am a huge fan of the books by Cassandra Clare, and I was interested in her new book, also if it’s a collaboration. It kind of was a change for me to read something else by her. At the beginning I really couldn’t get into the story at all. It took me a long time to read the first few chapters, because nothing really happened and it was rather boring. Also the characters were very strange at first. Callum behaved like a little child and complaint all the time, and also the other characters were not really great in my opinion. But then, after the first 200 pages, it took a turn and a lot of things happened at the same time and it was a bit more action-packed. Furthermore, even the characters were lovable in the end, especially Callum because he went through a huge character-development in this book. But the best thing about this book was the ending. There was such a huge plot-twist at the end which made me just stop and think for a while, because I couldn’t believe what just happened. And that’s what I loved about this book. It was surprising and breathtaking at the end.
There is something I’d like to mention though. A lot of people seem to think that “it’s same like Harry Potter”, but I can tell you: It’s not! The magic, the school, the tasks that need to be fulfilled are all completely different.

Conclusion:

A very slow beginning but with a breathtaking ending of the first book. I would recommend this books for people around 12-16 years though, because it’s a middle-grade book.

Rating:

3.5 | 5 Sterne

★-★-★-✬-☆

New Years Bookolutions Tag

The New Year just started and I have a lot of resolutions to fulfill. Thus, I wanted to share my bookish-resolutions with you all!

This Tag was done by Bookables on YouTube, here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF51WCI48PQ 

Let's start with the questions!

• A series I plan to begin in 2015 is:

The Shatter Me series & the Red Rising trilogy are definitely two of them, but there are too many. So many series, so little time!

• A series I plan to finish in 2015 is:

Actually I finally want to finish the The Mortal Instruments series. I’m so scared of it, because I’ve been spoiled and know what is going to happen. But this year shall be the year I finish it.

• A book/series I’ve put off reading year after year but will finally read is:

This is probably the Percy Jackson series. For some reason I just didn’t read it yet.

• A book/series I plan to reread is:

The Infernal Devices. I love this series so much and I definitely need to read it again.

• A genre of which I’d like to read more is:

Science Fiction. The last Sci-Fi books I read last year were AMAZING & I definitely want to get more into this genre.

• The # of books I want to read this year is:

My Goodreads goal is 50 books in 2015. I really want to read more this year.

• One of my non-bookish resolutions is:

I just want to graduate with good marks this year and make my driving license ;)

That's it for today. Feel free to share you bookish-resolutions with me down in the comments below.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the Tag & I will see you next time :)

Review: Push by Sapphire

“Every blade of grass has its Angel that bends over it and whispers: "Grow, Grow".”

Content:

Precious Jones, a illiterate sixteen-year-old, has up until now been invisible: invisible to the father who rapes her and the mother who batters her and to the authorities who dismiss her as just one more of Harlem's casualties. But when Precious, pregnant with a second child by her father, meets a determined and highly radical teacher, we follow her on a journey of education and enlightenment as Precious learns not only how to write about her life, but how to make it her own for the first time.

Cover:

The cover is very simple and not very catching in my opinion. If I would see it in the bookstore, I honestly wouldn’t pick it up.

My opinion:

I honestly would have never picked up this book, simply because I don’t like a lot of contemporary books, but I had to read this book for English class. And I really didn’t enjoy it. Let’s start off with the writing style. The protagonist in this book isn’t able to read or write at first, and that is also reflected by the writing style. For me, as a non-native speaker, this was sometime really hard to understand. I found myself reading one page for over 5 minutes, although I’m usually a very fast reader. I just was so fed up with the book when I was only about half way through. Furthermore, there were a lot of grammatical mistakes which were really disturbing. The writing-style also kind of destroyed my feelings for the characters. I couldn’t identify myself with any of them and their stories, although they were touching, couldn’t get through to me, kind of. There was a lot of potential with this story, because it was very tragic and touching, but through the portraying of the characters and the writing-style I felt like it was really just not my type of book.

Conclusion:

Unfortunately, I just really didn’t enjoy this book. I'll give it 1.5 out of 5 stars, only for the story, although for it was kind of a 1 out of 5 stars for me.

Rating:

1.5 | 5 stars

★-✬-☆-☆-☆

Review: Fallen Too Far #1 by Abbi Glines

“Everyone always says that love was enough. It wasn't. Not when your soul has been shattered.”

 

Content:

Blaire Wynn left her small farmhouse in Alabama, after her mother passed away, to move in with her father and his new wife in their sprawling beach house along the Florida gulf coast. She isn’t prepared for the lifestyle change and she knows she’ll never fit into this world. Then there is her sexy stepbrother who her father leaves her with for the summer while he runs off to Paris with his wife. Rush is as spoiled as he is gorgeous. He is also getting under her skin. She knows he is anything but good for her and that he’ll never be faithful to anyone. He is jaded and has secrets Blaire knows she may never uncover but even knowing all of that…

Cover:

I really hate the cover of the English version. It looks so cheesy and cheap. I also think that the people on the cover don’t look like the people in the book.

My opinion:

I really had high expectations when starting this book, because a lot of people seem to love this series. But I kind of was dissapointed. But let's start with the writing-style. It was easy and quick to read and very comfortable. Moreover, I also really enjoyed the characters and their development. Rush seems to be a great guy, and I really loved his way of acting in the last few chapters. Blaire seems to be a great character as well, because she doesn’t just let things happen, but also talks back to rude people. There was one thing, which really disturbed me a lot, though. Rush and Blaire know each other since around one week and they already fall in love so desperately? That really doesn’t seem convincing to me. It was much too fast and it also kind of seemed unreal to me. The ending and Blaire’s decision also were really strange and I didn’t really get why she reacted like this. It annoyed me that she just ignored Rush and what he said (without giving too much away). The scenes between the two protagonists were nice though. It, of course, would have been better if they would have known each other for a longer time ;)

Conclusion:

All in all it was good, but not mind-blowing. I will read the next parts but not in the near future.

Rating:

3 | 5 stars

★-★-★-☆-☆

My Top 10 books of 2014

2014 was a great reading year for me. I read 35 books in total and below I will present you my most favorite books of 2014. (Reviews are up as well for most of the books)

1. Forbidden (Tabitha Suzuma)
   My most favorite book of all time. A great and touching story and relatable characters. Just perfect.
   
   
   
2. The Infernal Devices {all books} (Cassandra Clare)
   I loved the whole series, but especially Clockwork Princess. A wonderful series with amazing characters and a very sad but wonderful ending.
   
   
   
3. The Spook’s Mistake (Joseph Delaney)
   The 5^th book of my favorite series of all time. It was scary and action-packed. Definitely a highlight for me this year.
   
   
   
4. City of Lost Souls (Cassandra Clare)
   I read most of the book in the TMI series in 2014, but I loved CoLS the most. We get to see so much more of Sebastian in this books, and he is (as you know) my favorite character of all time.
   
5. Obsidian & Onyx (Jennifer L. Armentrout)
   I couldn’t decide between these two. I loved both equally. The series is perfect and the author is just brilliant. Definitely worth a read.
   
   
   
6. Will Grayson, Will Grayson (John Green; David Levithan)
   I read this book during a very difficult time in my life, and this book cheered me up again. I just love the humor in it and also the characters.
   
   
   
7. The 5^th Wave (Rick Yancey)
   It was my first alien book, and it was amazing. It was action-packed, fast-paced and just in general a really great book. I can’t wait for the next books in the series!
   
   
   
8. Anna and the French Kiss (Stephenie Perkins)
   Although I’m usually not a huge fan of romance-books, this book was amazing. A little bit cheesy at some points, but also very romantic and funny.
   
   
   
9. The Iron Trial (Cassandra Clare, Holly Black)
   The plot-twist at the end of this book is just amazing. Although the book starts off a little slow, it still is a really great book. I loved the ending!
   
   
   
10. Half Bad (Sally Green)
    This book definitely surprised me. I wasn’t expecting much of it, but it was so unique and also the characters were so great. I’m glad that I picked this book up!
    
    
    
    
    
    
    These were my Top 10 books of 2014. Feel free to comment your highlights of this year!

Movie Review: The Hobbit – The battle of the five armies

“One day I'll remember. Remember everything that happened: the good, the bad, those who survived... and those that did not.” 

Content:

After the Dragon leaves the castle, the people of lake town see a threat coming, the orcs, dwarves, elves and people prepare for war. Bilbo sees Thorin going mad and tries helping everyone. Meanwhile, Gandalf still needs to break out of the orc prison.

Bilbo and Company are forced to engage in a war against an array of combatants and keep the Lonely Mountain from falling into the hands of a rising darkness. (taken from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2310332/plotsummary?ref_=tt_stry_pl)

My opinion:

First of all: A lot of people seem to hate this movie for various reasons. I really don’t understand what all the arguing is about.
I absolutely loved the movie! It was emotional and very action packed. I love how the characters were portrayed in this movie, too. Due to the fact that the book has been split into three parts, the character were able to get more screen-time than they actually did in the book. Thus, we see more people than just the protagonists all the time.
One thing that also has been criticized a lot was the battle itself, because it apparently was “too long”. But let me ask you this: What do you expect from a movie that is called “The BATTLE of the five armies”? The title actually already says that the focus of the movie is going to be on the battle itself and not other things. I really loved it how they filmed the fights, because in the book you don’t really see much of it. In the movie though, you are in the middle of the whole action, which is amazing and exciting.
However, the argument that they put too much into the movie, which wasn’t in the book, is actually invalid. They did that in the first two movies too, and nobody ever complained about it that time. Furthermore, two other books from J.R.R. Tolkien were included too, and thus the audience gets too see a little bit more of the back story of everything.
Looking at the movie now, even if you have read the book, it was amazing what they did with it. In my opinion, it really isn’t disturbing at all that they put some content from other books and also LOTR into the film. For me, as an old fan, it was an amazing and very emotional ending to the series, and I am thankful that Peter Jackson made such amazing movies, which do justice the amazing masterpieces written by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Conclusion:

An action-packed and emotional finale of the trilogy. I absolutely loved every single bit of it.

Rating:

5 | 5 stars

★-★-★-★-★