 The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1) by Maggie Stiefvater Hardcover, 409 pages 5 Stars Amazon | Barnes and Nobel | Book Depository Published September 18th 2012 by Scholastic Press “There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.” It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive. Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her. His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble. But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little. For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore. From Maggie Stiefvater, the bestselling and acclaimed author of the Shiver trilogy and The Scorpio Races, comes a spellbinding new series where the inevitability of death and the nature of love lead us to a place we’ve never been before. My ThoughtsOH MY GOD... This book was so good. I don't know how to formulate my thoughts right now. This book. This book was sooooo good. I sort of regret putting it off for so long. But I feel like that happens to a lot of people. I blame this on that synopsis. So I want to bring you around to the synopsis that Stiefvater wrote after the book was published:
A host of co-dependent teens with a battery of psychological issues comb rural Virginia for a dead Welsh king with dubious magical powers. Trees talk; hitmen put down roots; dead people live; living people die. Cars are described in loving detail. Fuckweasel. A house full of psychics tells everybody the future and drinks a lot on-page considering it’s a young adult series. Nobody kisses anybody, which is weird because everybody loves everybody. There’s rich boys! Poor boys! Sad boys! Angry boys! Raven boys! Collect them all! This description much better suits the books. These characters are so flawed but so lovable. they make decisions that you hate, but can back. It pulls at your heart strings and makes you want to scream at the characters. It is perfect. One of the things that I loved about it the most was honestly how missleading the synopsis is, because since you go in thinking it is more of a romance the desire to follow the mythology, and the paranormal elements were surprising but pleasing. Stiefvater, created such vivid scenes that I actually got creeped out at time, got chills. If you have read it, Noah, the scene with Noah I read that as I went to bed... so creepy! It was great! I would suggest this book to so many people, but know there are heavy themes in it. Including: Poverty, verbal and physical abuse, death, and a possible hint at suicide. But I feel like these theme were approached well and in a believable way. I feel like because of these themes it leans to the higher end of the YA range, but not anything I am opposed to. GO GET THIS BOOK! Katelyn Costello Tell me your thoughts on this one: Twitter: @scripturienting FB: The Scripturinet101 Instagram: @scripturient101 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSEeWBRSsR2aTwC8rDjAXkA
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Hello Bookworms, January has passed clearly lol, we have made it into our first month of 2017 and this month has flown by for me. I am back at school now and am itching to read... just not the books I need to read for school.... oops. But I did get through several books. So how did I do on my list.... not great... 1. Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas 2. The Inquasition by Taran Mathuru 3. Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare 4. Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake 5. Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson I did get through my first book on my list. The review of this one will be up in February. I didn't get through any of the others... mainly because the list of people waiting for it from the library was longer than I was at home. I am waiting on ebooks now so they are still on my list just shifted around a bit now that I have moved on through the month. Check back in next week for what is on my February TBR.  Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses Book #1) By Sarah J. Maas When I read this I went in blind, I knew relatively nothing about it, I just heard how amazing it was. I thought it was pretty good, until I heard that it was a Beauty and the Beast Retelling! Then oh baby oh, it got 10x better for me. It seems more like a romance set in a fantasy world then just straight up fantasy to me. But hey that isn't the worst thin in the world now is it?  Illuminae (Book #1 The Illuminae Files) By Amie Kaufman Rating:4.5 As I said in my review that came out Monday, this was my first Sci-Fi book in a really long time, it did not disappoint. With a very strong, okay a Bad-ass female protagonist named Kady, and a broken Artificial Intelligence named AIDAN they clean up the mess left by higher ups. Review>  Witch and Wizard By James Patterson I did a reread of Witch and Wizard, I have reread the first few books a few times but never finished the series. I am hoping this time I will actually be able to finish the series. I have never felt like there was anything wrong with it, other things just come up first. DNF The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo By Stieg Larsson 2 stars This book, so this book came out in 2008... I wouldn't say I have been trying to read it since then but I have tried to get through it several times.... I just don't think it is going to happen. I made it about 4 and a half hours into the audiobook and I don't really have an interest in following through to the end. So I think this one is going to have to go back onto the DNF pile where it came from. Currently Reading The Race (Issac Bells #4) By Clive Cussler It is 1910, the age of flying machines is still in its infancy, and newspaper publisher Preston Whiteway is offering $50,000 for the first daring aviator to cross America in less than fifty days. He is even sponsoring one of the prime candidates-an intrepid woman named Josephine Frost-and that's where Bell, chief investigator for the Van Dorn Detective Agency, comes in. Frost's violent-tempered husband has just killed her lover and tried to kill her, and he is bound to make another attempt. Bell has tangled with Harry Frost before; he knows that the man has made his millions leading gangs of thieves, murderers, and thugs in every city across the country. He also knows that Frost won't be only after his wife, but after Whiteway as well. And if Bell takes the case . . . Frost will be after him, too.  A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses #2)
By Sarah J. Maas Feyre survived Amarantha's clutches to return to the Spring Court—but at a steep cost. Though she now has the powers of the High Fae, her heart remains human, and it can't forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin's people. Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court. As Feyre navigates its dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms—and she might be key to stopping it. But only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future—and the future of a world cleaved in two. With more than a million copies sold of her beloved Throne of Glass series, Sarah J. Maas's masterful storytelling brings this second book in her seductive and action-packed series to new heights.  The Spy by Clive Cussler
Hardcover, 436 pages Audiobook 10 Hours 5 Stars Published June 1st 2010 by G.P.Putnam's Sons It is 1908, and international tensions are mounting as the world plunges toward war. When a brilliant American battleship gun designer dies in a sensational apparent suicide, the man's grief-stricken daughter turns to the legendary Van Dorn Detective Agency to clear her father's name. Van Dorn puts his chief investigator on the case, and Isaac Bell soon realizes that the clues point not to suicide but to murder. And when more suspicious deaths follow, it becomes clear that someone-an elusive spy-is orchestrating the destruction of America's brightest technological minds... and the murders all connect to a top- secret project called Hull 44. But that is just the beginning. As the intrigue deepens, Bell will find himself pitted against German, Japanese, and British spies, in a mission that encompasses dreadnought battleships, Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet, Chinatown, Hell's Kitchen, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Isaac Bell has certainly faced perilous situations before, but this time it is more than the future of his country that's at stake- it's the fate of the world. My Review I loved this book, it was everything that I loved from a detective fiction. I read quite a bit of detective fiction, and a lot of Clive Cussler so at times I could guess where the story would go but I wasn't dissapointed by it. It is kinda a challege for me to figure it out. I'm just weird like that. This is a book that dabbles in gangs, a new interest for me. I never thought that gangs and mob politics would be interesting to me. Watching the groups working together and against each other, along with Bell was really cool. Any books you would suggest I would love. I really liked the pacing of this book, it felt fast but was not like I was rushed, I felt swept away by the story into the world of 1908 I loved the build up and the way that we found out who the people we wanted to arrest with Bell was interesting, I found it kinda funny but also terrifying that they kept popping up. I was waiting for them to lash out. I did feel this book for me was more about the plot than the charecters. I really enjoyed the themes in this one. I definitly would recomend this book to a friend, but one who likes historical books, because like most of Clive Cusslers books, they can be "bogged down" with the history. I don't mind but I know people that really don't like his books because of it. What are you reading this week? Shoot me a tweet at @scripturienting and let me know. love ya, Kate  The Wrecker (Isaac Bell #2)by Clive Cussler, Justin Scott
Hardcover, 470 pages Audio: 5 hours 3 stars Published November 17th 2009 by Putnam Adult Good Read Summary: In The Chase, Clive Cussler introduced an electrifying new hero, the tall, lean, no-nonsense detective Isaac Bell, who, driven by his sense of justice, travels early-twentieth-century America pursuing thieves and killers . . . and sometimes criminals much worse. It is 1907, a year of financial panic and labor unrest. Train wrecks, fires, and explosions sabotage the Southern Pacific Railroad's Cascades express line and, desperate, the railroad hires the fabled Van Dorn Detective Agency. Van Dorn sends in his best man, and Bell quickly discovers that a mysterious saboteur haunts the hobo jungles of the West, a man known as the Wrecker, who recruits accomplices from the down-and-out to attack the railroad, and then kills them afterward. The Wrecker traverses the vast spaces of the American West as if he had wings, striking wherever he pleases, causing untold damage and loss of human life. Who is he? What does he want? Is he a striker? An anarchist? A revolutionary determined to displace the 'privileged few'? A criminal mastermind engineering some as yet unexplained scheme? Whoever he is, whatever his motives, the Wrecker knows how to create maximum havoc, and Bell senses that he is far from done; that, in fact, the Wrecker is building up to a grand act unlike anything he has committed before. If Bell doesn't stop him in time, more than a railroad could be at risk; it could be the future of the entire country. Filled with intricate plotting and dazzling set pieces, The Wrecker is one of the most entertaining thrillers in years. My Review: I didn't like this one as much as the first one. I like the charecters and the development from the first book. However I wasn't as impressed by the plot. I felt it wasn't as complicated and suprising as the first one. So for me it just wasn't as fast paced and interesting. Having looked into it more I realized that I listened to the abridged audio book which is why I felt it wasn't as complicated (WHY DO ABRIDGED BOOKS EXIST) so at this point I feel I can't give it an adequate review since it was 5 hours shorted than it should have been! Sorry Clive I love you and your books I have since learned my lesson to check and make sure that they are full. Hello Bookworms, It is the time of the month where we go over what I have been reading and how those books were rated in my mind. This month was my first month as a book blogger and I got through quite a few books. I am pretty happy with this number. Seven books is really good for me. Sadly I wasn't able to compleate my goodreads goal. As I write this post on Wednesday I have read 57 of my 75 book goal for the year so I got 76% of my goal. I go through periods of time where I read a lot, or a read very little. A lot of my reading is done by listening to audiobooks. My dad got me hooked when I was young. But anyway the majority of the books on my lists will most likely normally be books I listened to, but hey who doesn't like story time right? This month my ratings had an average of 4.2 with a small issue you will see with the latest book I read which would have brought that rating down to a 4. But because of said issue, with the audiobook. Any way, how did you do on your goodreads goal? Did you complete it? What is on your to be read list for January? I can't wait to hear from all of you Love Kate The Crown- Kiera Cass The first book I read this month was The Crown by Kiera Cass, as I said in the review. I loved the first three books in the Selection series but I wasn't a fan of the books focusing on Edlyn. 3 stars 279 pages Full Review > The House of Hades |
Katelyn CostelloA lover of words, reading and writing. Archives
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