October Tune

Read this review and more on my blog October Tune.

I have always loved mystery books, so when I heard about Dangerous Girls, I knew I had to read it as soon as I could. When I finally started it a couple of days ago, I found myself being sucked into the story.

During the first part of the book, I was mainly confused - I didn't really get what was going on because it was all happing right through each other. One chapter, they'd be in court and then they were back in school with Elise still alive and then all of a sudden Anna was in jail. While reading the book, I started to get used to these chapters more and more, and I even started liking it - even though I am not fond of flashbacks. It worked for this book.

Like with every other mystery book I read, I suspected everyone; at first I was convinced it was Tate, but then a chapter would happen and I would lean more to Mel or even AK. I even remember writing down, in my notes, that I thought Elise could have staged everything at one point. But hey, that's what a mystery book is for, you start your own little investigation, put on that deerstalker and walk around with your magnifying glass looking for clue.

I liked the fact that the story happened on Aruba, because that island is part of the Netherlands and there was a lot of talk about Dutch stuff and yeah as a Dutchie it just makes me happy that my country is mentioned in a book or movie or TV show.

Reading about all those grown-ups (*cough KLAUS DEKKER *cough*) being complete dicks (pardon my words) to Anna, and especially that show of Clara Rose (two of my favourite Doctor Who companions, by the way!), that made me really angry because that is what happens in real life; when someone gets taken in for question, the world already has their opinion ready on this person and they will always remain guilty in the eyes of these people until they are proven to be not. And the way her friends (especially AK) just dropped her immediately after she got arrested, so much for friendship guys. DO NOT READ THIS SPOILER UNLESS YOU HAVE READ THE BOOK!! In the end, they all turned out to be right, of course, but still I got so angry, because it would have been even more awful if Anna had been innocent.

The way this book was written just made it really easy to read, I think I read more than half of it in one day. There was the normal story of course, the flashbacks of Elisa and Anna's (whose names reminded me of Elsa and Anna from Frozen too much, I was kind of expecting them to start singing Let it Go together) friendship and some important scenes that were relevant to the trial. There were transcripts from the 911 call, Clara Rose's shows, police interrogations; I really loved the way those were written in this book.

I personally loved the ending, it made me gasp and put down the book for a while. It also made me unable to concentrate on the other book (Heir of Fire, I am so sorry I abandoned you baby) I am currently reading and I think I need to go to sleep as soon as I finish writing this review (I wrote it yesterday evening, right after I finished the book). And it also made me want to buy her other book, Dangerous Boys, which I think and hope will be just as thrilling as this one.

If you are looking for the Young Adult version of Gone Girl (imo: this book is WAY better and much more exciting than GG), Dangerous Girls is THE book for you! I do suggest you go for the edition of the cover I have, (ISBN: 9781471119149), because it's the prettiest cover that this book has (honestly, if the book hadn't had this cover, I would have been much more reluctant to pick it up). So everyone go and get your copy of Dangerous Girls, and read it!

My opinion on this book in one gif: 


(gif credit)

Read this review and many others on my blog October Tune!

I have loved Doctor Who for several years now, and when I found out there were novels with complete new stories written about the Doctor and his companions, I knew I had to read them all (or well, at least a couple of them). My first Doctor Who book was The Stone Rose, and it made me fall in love with these stories. Recently, three new books were released, all featuring the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and his companion Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman). I didn't know which one I really wanted, but I ended up going for Silhouette because I just loved the cover so much - and it features the Paternoster gang (aka Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint and Strax)!

Silhouette is about strange murders happening in Victorian London. The Doctor and Clara end up there after they follow a strange energy spike, and find Vastra, Jenny and Strax investigating these murders. Personally, I am not a huge fan of Victorian London, but I do love the Paternoster gang so I really enjoyed reading about them in this book.

I have to say, I found this book a bit predictable; I had known who had been behind the murders from the beginning already. That was probably because they weren't really secretive about it, or because they did their best to look odd and guilty. Anyway, when I looked past the predictableness, I found the story very enjoyable. There were scenes with Strax that I found absolutely hilarious (he is really one of my favouite characters), including the quote at the top of this review. Strax isn't very good at seeing the difference between males and females, so I guess he just called everyone 'boy'.

I enjoyed reading about the Twelfth Doctor and Clara, because I really love the new season and the new Doctor, even though he can be a bit of an ass sometimes. I didn't enjoy the villain that much though, he was just another typical alien (spoiler, perhaps?) who wants to destroy the earth in a very 'brilliant' way and he thinks NO ONE can stop him and yeah well we all know how that ended for all the other aliens who think no one could stop them. But yeah, after fifty years, nothing is really original anymore.

There were some action scenes, one including Clara being attacked by 'homicidal wood-pulp assassins' as Strax called them. I really would have loved to see this in an episode, but of course, it would have been changed a bit because the show hardly ever shows people bleeding (and Clara was definitely bleeding after being attacked by those things); so that wouldn't really have worked. I guess the authors of these Doctor Who books do their best to make these stories sound as gruesome as they can, because they aren't allowed to do that for the actual episodes (it's still a family show after all).

In the end, I really enjoyed Silhouette, even though it was a bit predictable and the villain wasn't that exciting. I really loved the Paternoster gang, the Doctor and Clara; I loved the other characters and the carnival. (And I am going to say it again, when will I find a Doctor Who book that is NOT so good? When?!)

My opinion on this book in one gif: 

Meh. Didn't like Aspen before I read this story, still don't like him after I've read it. That will be my review. Oke doei.

Read this review and more on my blog October Tune.

About a year and a half ago, I read a book called Life As We Knew It. I loved it so much, I finished it within twenty-four hours after starting it. I went to check Goodreads and found out there were two other books in the series, and I quickly purchased them and read them as well. Then I found out there was going to be a fourth book, but at that time it would only be released in hardcover. In September this year, The Shade of the Moon was finally released in paperback, and at the beginning of this month, I finally purchased it and read it. I have to say, it is not my favourite book in the series.

This fourth book is told from Jon's point of view. Jon is the little brother of Miranda who was the main character of the first and third book. It has been nearly four years since the moon came closer to the earth, three years since they've left their home in Pennsylvania to travel to a safer place to live. Jon, his stepmother Lisa, and baby Gabriel are now living in an enclave - where they have enough food, domestics cleaning and cooking for them, and plenty of breathable air. The rest of Jon's family - his mother, his sister Miranda (who is eight months pregnant), her husband Alex (who we met in The Dead and the Gone), his brother Matt and his wife Syl - live outside of the enclave, having to work six days a week, twelve hours a day to earn enough money for food.

Jon is not my favourite character of this series, so I wasn't really looking forward to be reading from his POV. Actually, this was the only book in which I was actually hoping for a multiple POV story, but alas, we only got Jon. I actually just wanted to know more about Miranda and Alex, especially now that they are married and expecting a child. As I was reading this book, I started to dislike Jon more and more. I even actually started hating him at one point. After he basically admitted he'd tried to rape Julie, and that that was the actual reason she got paralised at the end of the third book, and then he tried to justify it. No. If a girl says 'no', she means 'no', she doesn't mean 'oh Jon please do continue doing whatever you are doing'. Even though she'd been saying 'yes' the time before, NO MEANS NO. But Jon didn't listen and he still tried to do stuff to her in that empty house. No wonder Julie got frightened and chose the storm rather than staying in a house with him. Asshole. (Pardon my words). He also kept on being a bitch about the 'Grubs', the people who don't live in the enclave, who need to work six days a week to earn their food. His family were grubs, how the hell can he talk about them like that? I really wanted the little Jonny back from the first book, I liked him a lot more than this privileged 'Claver' Jon.

He also got so mad at his sister who'd 'murdered' Julie at the end of the previous book (She'd given Julie sleeping pills and then pressed down a pillow on her face to make her stop breathing). Because sure, Jon, Julie would have miraculously healed from her injuries and then you could have forced her to marry you and then you could have sex with her whenever you wanted because that's what you wanted right? Jfc. I personally think Miranda did the right thing because Julie was paralised, she couldn't move anymore from the neck down. They were about to leave Pennsylvania to travel to the enclave by BIKE or perhaps even by foot and Julie would have to be carried. YOUR DAD DIDN'T EVEN MAKE IT, he died along the way and do you really think a girl like JULIE would have survived? Honestly Jon, think about it.

The storyline didn't really interest me that much, apart from the parts where we saw Miranda, Alex and Laura (Jon's and Miranda's mum). I was not at all interested at the things that Jon did, which was basically playing football, defeating all the 'grubs' and getting wasted on potka (potato vodka, lol). And then doing whatever he wanted to grub girls, yeah that made me hate him even more. The only part where I actually started 'liking' Jon a bit more was near the end, when he did something for Miranda and Alex that just made me extremely happy.

In the end, I liked The Shade of the Moon, but I wasn't satisfied at all. The ending was a bit abrupt and I yeah I still don't have the feeling the series ended. Though I am not really interested in a fifth book, perhaps just a short story to find out what happened to the other characters (I would love to know what happened to Opal, to Miranda and Alex and their baby, to Matt and Syl and Gabe/Gabriel, yeah a short story would be nice).

If you loved the Last Survivors series, you should just read this book, because it's still a book in this series, and it's still about that same world, but I wouldn't expect something awesome to come out of this if I were you.

Read this review and more on my blog October Tune.

I've been trying for several days already to write a good review for this book, but I failed miserably. But here I am, trying again, and this time I am determined to make it into something good. (This might also partially be because I finished the book right before we went to RingCon and I think RingCon kind of broke my brain).

The One starts off a bit more exciting than the previous two books; with a rebel attack. Unfortunately, this attack was the same as the previous ones, very boring. Basically nothing happened and it was just the girls spending time hidden away while the guards fought it out with the rebels. But I do have to admit, this book had a bit more action than the previous books had, and that made me happy. The last couple of chapters were so thrilling, that I finished those in almost one sitting (there was a moment where I had to get up and walk back to the car but when we were driving I finished the last couple of pages). If the rest of the book had been as exciting as those last couple of chapters, I would have definitely given The One more stars. But unfortunately, it wasn't so.

America still isn't my favourite character in this book; she was still not sure if she loved Maxon or Aspen, she still cried a lot, and she still made stupid decision after stupid decision. Seriously, I really don't get how this girl is still in the Selection by this point. (Oh, yeah, Maxon loves her. Okay). I also still don't like Aspen, I kind of liked him at the beginning because he made America happy; but then the whole Selection happened and I started to dislike him more and more. I am 100% Team Maxon right now (even though I really despise the whole 'Team [insert love interests name here]' business), are there even people who are team Aspen? Anyway, as for the other girls in the Selection - I wasn't really a fan of them at all, though I think I started liking one a bit more near the end (I'll talk about her later).

The thing is, like I said before, I don't get how America was still in the Selection in this book, because she kept on doing stupid things, like still hanging out with Aspen for example. There are several moments in all three books where I was like 'Okay now you are going to get caught by either a guard of the king or Maxon and then you'll get killed for being an idiot. But hey of course, she's the main character, so she nothing bad ever happens to her, and she gets to do whatever she wants. Grr.

Like I said before, this book was a bit more exciting than the previous two. There were some more rebel attacks; America actually went outside of the castle for I think the first time since she arrived there, and people died. There were at least four major deaths in this story that felt very unnecessary in my opinion. 1, 2. The King and the Queen (that's two in one), okay sure I wouldn't have minded if the King died, because he was an asshole, but the Queen.. WHY?! Sure their deaths were needed so Maxon and America could become King and Queen immediately after the story ended, but still, why not just kill the King and be done with it, why take that incredibly sweet Queen with you as well? 3. America's dad. Someone on Goodreads said this death was added only to take America away from Maxon so he could realise he couldn't spend another day without her. I kind of agree with that, because it felt to me like his dead wasn't needed at all. Maybe for America to find out he was a Northern rebel, but hey we could have found that out in a different way. Kiera Cass could have made her main character a bit cleverer by finding this out without her father dying. 4. Celeste. She was a bitch in The Selection and in the Elite, and for the majority of The One as well; but in this last book she finally started to realise how awful she'd been. She apologized to the three remaining girls and they kind of became friends. They did nice things and they felt a bit like sisters. I started to like Celeste more in this book, and then she died. It happened so quick, actually, that I spend at least five minutes rereading that exact sentence. Her death, as unnecessary as it was, should not have been this quick. I apologize for that long spoiler-filled part, but I just had to talk about this. I am just so angry about these deaths.

The last couple of chapters happened very quickly and it actually made me a bit angry, because something that big and thrilling should not have been dealt with that quickly. Of course, with another rebel attack, America was whisked away to a save place. After the danger was over, it all happened very quickly and then there was the epilogue. And it just made me feel very 'meh'. I had been expecting it, so it didn't really make me feel as happy as I thought it would. I am not sure if I'm going to check out the next book in the series, called The Heir, and which apparently will be about Maxon and America's daughter, but I will surely admire the B E A U T I F U L cover (seriously THESE COVERS!!!!!!). I don't really care about their children, or whatever the last (fifth) book in the series will be about. The Selection series ended with The One for me, and that's that

My opinion on this book in one gif: 

Read this review and others on my blog October Tune!

When I finished The Selection, I found the kind of open ending a bit annoying, so I immediately started The Elite. I was hoping this book would focus more on the rebel attacks, and on Maxon trying to eliminate more people and that we'd finally find out who was going to be the One at the end of this book, unfortunately I was yet again a bit disappointed.

This book was just as exciting as the last one, meaning that it wasn't really that exciting at all. There were two (or actually three) more rebel attacks in this book, but like with The Selection, we spend it in shelters. There was only one scene where we found out more about the rebels, when America fled into the (apparently massive) forest inside the castle walls. Seriously, this forest must have been huge, because she actually got lost. She ran so far into it that she couldn't find her way back to the castle anymore. For that entire scene, I just kept asking myself how big the forest must have been. Anyway, she encounters two of the rebels who are carrying a lot of stolen goods from the castle... Books. They stole books. That does not sound that exciting at all?! I imagined them stealing jewels, money, and all kinds of other valuables; but books? (Okay, books can be valuable but still).

Then the other exciting part was a whipping. Because on of the Selection girls was a bit naughty. I will not tell you which character it was, of course, but let's just say I was really surprised! This was also the scene where I started to like America a bit more, because of her reaction to this whipping. But I think the book revolved too much around the love triangle, which is something I hate. I was hoping for more frequent (or at least, more violent) rebel attacks and we got only one more than the previous one (and those first two attacks were by the same group of rebels, so it kind still was only one rebel attack).

The rest of the book was a bit, well, disappointing. It was a lot of America crying (seriously this girl cries A LOT) and going back and forth between Maxon and Aspen. Because then one moment she'd be like 'Maxon is perfect for me', and then Aspen would appear and say something and she'd be like 'Aspen is even more perfect'. Even after the whipping scene she fools around with Aspen, like - did you learn NOTHING from that? I bet next time the King/Maxon won't be that friendly and you could be killed! But what does America do? She meets Aspen in hidden places all over the castle. Stupid stupid stupid. And she just kept doing stupid stuff throughout the book and I was kind of surprised that she wasn't kicked out (yes I already know how the last book is going to end, but still). In fact, I don't think any of the girls was eliminated in this book, or did I just miss something? (okay, the girl who was whipped was send away obviously but other than her).

Even better, when she sees Maxon hanging around and going on dates with the other girls of the Selection, she gets mad! Because Maxon confessed his love to her, and that means he can't do stuff with the other girls. Yeah, you're still in the Selection girl, he hasn't chosen you yet. And besides, with you being so stupid to him, he'll have to go through his other options right? This girl is really... UGH!

There were some nice parts about this story though. I still liked Marlee and Maxon (apart from some minor parts, but yeah every character has flaws). And the fact that this book was just very simply written and very easy to read; I finished it really quickly and I felt like I just flew right through. Unfortunately, that didn't really make up for the rest of the book, but it also wasn't so bad I wanted to give it two stars. I will read The One, and I might try out the two available novella's, but this won't be one of my favourite book series.

If you enjoy The Bachelor, you should definitely check out The Selection series; if you're not too big on love triangles, you should avoid this series. Avoid it big time.

My opinion on this book in one gif: 


(me talking to America every time she thinks about being with Aspen).

Read this review and others on my blog October Tune!

It's not much fun reading a book series when you already know how it's going to end. Or at least, when you think you know how it's going to end. Of course, that's the problem with stalling to read several book series because you feel like reading other books instead. This was my problem with The Selection. I think I added this book to my to-read list a long time ago, but never really picked it up at a bookstore. Until a couple of days ago, when I decided to just go for it. Unfortunately, I wasn't really convinced by this book.

I immediately was confused by the whole 'Caste' thing, with people being 'Fives' and 'Sixes' and 'Twos', I had no idea what it meant, except that apparently Fives are artists and Sixes are cleaners. Eventually, I read in someone else's review that the author had made a page on her website explaining what each 'Caste' did; which in my opinion is not a good world building. You need to do the world building in your BOOK, not on your website as an afterthought.

Then, I started to realise this book felt a lot like the Hunger Games, which I had been expecting already because loads of people called it 'The Hunger Games meets the Bachelor'. But seriously, the girls get chosen and taken away from their families to travel to the palace. There, they get greeted by a lot of people who are already rooting for several of the girls; and then they get a make-over. There is also a guy who interviews the girls and reminded me a lot of Caesar Flickerman. But hey, at least these girls aren't fighting in an arena but instead they are fighting over a boy. Pff.

I didn't like America very much (seriously, her name is America Singer, and what does she do for a living? Take a guess. That's right. She sings). She was very unkind to the prince from the beginning, screaming at him and kneeing him between the legs. Seriously, that is not going to get you bonus points girl. And then there's Aspen. Her one true love. I swear, she's what, sixteen? And you are already convinced you are going to spend the rest of your life with this guy? Nah bro. I liked her friendship with Marlee and some of the other Selection girls, and eventually her friendship with the Prince as well; but yeah I'm not really a fan of her.

And let's talk about the romance. Okay. America and Aspen. I liked them at first, until Aspen started acting weird right before she went to the Selection. Then, there was Prince Maxon of course - and I was really hoping at first that they would just stay at being friends and that neither of them would start having feelings for each other. Eventually, I think I can say I kind of ship it, though I am not 100% convinced yet. Maybe something nice will happen in The Elite. Yes, I'm hoping for that.

The writing was very quick and very easy to read, and I think I read the majority of the book in one day, so that wasn't really a problem. My problem was the lack of action, actually. There were two scenes where rebels attacked the castle, but we didn't really see much of that because the first time the girls and the royal family were in the Great Room hiding and it was mostly America talking to Prince Maxon; and the second time they were hiding in some cellar and there was more of America talking to Maxon. Yeah it was a bit boring. But hey can we talk about how GORGEOUS that cover is? I love gorgeous covers and this one is just beautiful wow wow wow I want to frame it and hang it in my room!

In the end, I found The Selection nice, but lacking action and world building. And nice characters (okay I liked Marlee and Maxon, and perhaps May (it's the M, I swear); but other than that, nah). But yeah, if you are into the Bachelor and the Hunger Games, you should give this book a try!

My opinion on this book in one gif: 

Read this review and others on my blog October Tune!

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, this has not changed my opinion in any way.

I am a member of the Not Just Any Book book club, and I got an email about this book. It was being translated into Dutch (or it had already been translated but was republished). I was curious, so I send an email back that I was interested in reading it. I got chosen and received the book not long after that. As I am not a fan of romance, I was reluctant to read it, but I was hoping this book would surprise me. Unfortunately, it didn't really.

First of all, I noticed that the book was written in multiple POV's, which is something I despise, especially if the POV change happens in the middle of a chapter. Sometimes, it felt like it changed in the middle of paragraph; like one part would be from Mel's point of view, and then suddenly, it would be from Jack's. The fact that the story was written in third person narrative made it even harder to understand whose POV I was reading from.

I couldn't really identify with any of the characters either; at first I found Mel very annoying - you decided to leave LA and live in a tiny town called Virgin River, OF COURSE you won't be staying at super amazing house. She also felt very childish at some points, I didn't have the feeling I was reading about a twenty-something (or thirty-something? I don't know) year old woman. As for Jack, yeah well - I don't really have much to say about him. Doc was very annoying, but I think I liked him best in this book. Honestly, it felt a bit like I was reading the American version of the Casual Vacancy (ok, I know this book was released in 2007 and TCV in 2012 so technically it would be the other way around). There was also the lack of action in this book, which of course is kind of obvious in a book that mainly revolves around romance. The 'action'-filled parts (including a drug-addict holding a knife to Mel's throat) were very quick and not that exciting at all.

The reason I hardly ever read Dutch translations, is because I find them all so childish. I had thought it was only the Young Adult books, but unfortunately adult books have fallen prey to this too. It just felt way too childish for a grown-up story in which people have sex (which was very detailed, by the way, and it made me feel a bit uncomfortable (yes reading about sex makes me uncomfortable)). I probably would have given it three stars if I had read it in English, but alas, I didn't. I do think that the fact that the book was Dutch made it easier for me to read. If it had been in English, I probably would have stopped reading at some point, and not have picked up the book again (okay no, I would have continued reading it because I got it to write a review about). But still, the whole story didn't really make it better.

In the end, I liked Virgin River, but I can't really say I enjoyed it a lot. I won't be reading the rest of the series (which has about twenty books or so, wow). If you like an adult romance story set in a small village somewhere in the mountains in America, I definitely recommend Virgin River to you!

My opinion on this book in one gif: 

Read this review, and many more on my blog October Tune!

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This has not changed my opinion on the book in any way. This review might also have some spoilers, so if you haven't read the book but you want to, be careful. 

You all probably know how much I dislike Cassandra Clare. But when I heard about her writing a book that was NOT about the Shadowhunter world, I was both interested and not interested at all. When I read she was co-writing it with Holly Black, I was a (tiny) bit more interested. I had read one book written by Black (The Coldest Girl in Coldtown), and though I wasn't a huge fan of it, I found it likable. So yes, I decided I might give The Iron Trial a try, if I could find if for cheap.

And then, one day, I was surfing around on Netgalley, just looking at some of the books, when I came upon a galley for this book. I requested it, expecting I would never get accepted, but I did, and so I started reading it. Personally, when I read the summary, I found it very Harry Potter-ish, even the cover looked like it. The left kid (Callum) looked like Harry, the middle one (Aaron) looked like Draco and the girl on the right (Tamara) looked like a darker-skinned Hermione. The guy behind them looked a lot like a death eater. But all that aside, I was still curious to see if it really was like Harry Potter. And personally, I thought it did.

Right from the start already, there was a tragedy in which Callum lost his mum, there was someone trying to stop him from going to 'magic school', and there was a snobby kid that reminded me so much of Draco Malfoy. Throughout the story, I just started comparing a lot of things to Harry Potter, including the trio (yes Callum, Aaron and Tamara are a 'trio' hurray) hiding a chaos-ridden wolf puppy in their dorms which reminded me of Hagrid and Norbert(a) the Dragon. Sure, I might have been trying to compare everything to HP but if you know the history Clare has with stuff like this, you'd probably do it too. (I have a whole list of things that happened in this book that reminded me of events that happened in the entire Potter series, but I will not bore you with that right now).

To me, it felt like the entire book was written by Clare, because I couldn't really feel any of Black's influence, though that might have been because I've read two and a half books by Clare and just one by Black. Still, I would have loved to see more of a collaboration rather than this. The writing was just like TMI which I wasn't a fan of, and I found myself sighing a lot of times when there was an unnecessary word added to describe something (like 'his amber goggles', there were pretzels 'sparkling with salt', someone's bald head was 'as smooth as a macadamia nut' (seriously stop comparing people to food, you are not called Hannibal) and so forth).

Besides, I found the entire book boring and predictable (I had kind of figured out the ending already halfway through the book; okay, it kind if surprised me but not as much as the authors would have wanted it to I guess). Yes, some small exciting things happened, but other than that it was just them learning magic. And that happened very slowly. There were days where they were only moving sand, organising it into different colours. I even found the more exciting parts kind of boring, because I thought they weren't described really well. It all just felt weird and yeah I was just bored while reading this book. That is probably why it took me so long to finish it, it was boring and I really felt like not finishing the book and reading Harry Potter instead because there even the 'boring' parts are exciting. There were also so many things that didn't make sense. One of the Iron Year kids went missing, so they rallied up the entire school (including twelve year old kids) to go and search for him in the middle of the night, inside a forest that was apparently crawling with chaos-ridden animals.

Also the food at the school made no sense. They had weird looking food, like 'lichen' and mushrooms (that did taste like normal food, apparently) at the cafetaria, but at some point in the story the 'trio' got pizza for dinner and a normal breakfast after the incident with the kid going missing. Why not just give them actual food in the cafetaria as well? Is that so hard? This book felt like a trainwreck, honestly.

I did not relate to any of the characters at all, I found them to be bland and boring. Callum was a bit of a dumbass; sneaking a chaos-ridden animal into the school after being told they are dangerous and he could get thrown out of school for bringing one in. Sneaking into his Master's office to talk to his father after being told he had to wait until he was more settled. Stealing a damn chaos-ridden lizard from his Master's office and trusting that thing to take him back to his dorm. Seriously, Callum was a very dumb kid and I honestly don't get how he ever got into the Magisterium (okay, near the ending it kind of made more sense, but still). Sometimes, the twelve-year-olds didn't feel like they were twelve, but they felt much older by the way they acted and talked; and then at other points they felt a lot younger, like little kids. That really annoyed me, a lot.

In the end, I really disliked The Iron Trial, and I am not sure if I am going to continue reading the series. Perhaps if I can get them on Netgalley again, or at the library, but I will not be purchasing any of the books in this series.

My opinion on this book in one gif:

Read this review, and many more on my blog October Tune!

After finishing Throne of Glass, I knew I had to get a copy of Crown of Midnight, the second book in the series. So I ordered as soon as I could, and started reading it not too long after it arrived. And wow, CoM completely blew me away. I loved it even more than I did ToG, which is why I gave it a star more.

I just loved this story so much, I kept on making weird noises while reading certain scenes and ended up hugging the book a lot of times after finishing a chapter. It felt as if I had fallen through the book and into Erilea, because I just got so into the story, that at some points I forgot to eat/drink/sleep. I wanted to know what was going to happen in the next chapter, and the next. Like with Ruin and Rising, I put down the book around the last couple of chapters for a bit, because I felt anxious and I didn't want bad things to happen.

Celaena is really one of my favourite characters, and also one of the bamf-iest characters that I've read about. I haven't read many stories about a female assassin, and even if I did, I can safely say that Celaena is my favourite of them all. She just made laugh at the right moments, made me feel sad at the right points, I just love her. And my other two favourite charaters, Nehemia and Chaol were amazing as well. I fell in love with them more and more throughout the story. When Nehemia was killed I might have cried a bit and I prayed to the Gods that no one touched Chaol.

There was also a new character, named Mort, who I just adored. He was a bit annoying at some points, but also very funny and he actaully reminded me a bit of a rude/annoying version of Olaf from Frozen. Of course, I liked Dorian as well, but seeing as I turned into a Chaol/Celaena shipper (which I will talk about in a bit), I found him a tiny bit annoying every time he thought about Celaena sometimes, because I wanted him to just be friends with her. I really liked their friendship. When I found out he had magical powers, I wanted to protect him as much as I wanted to protect Chaol, so yeah I started to like him a bit more in this book.

I'm not sure what I 'shipped' when I was reading the previous book, I think it was Celaena and Dorian, but everything was thrown away at the beginning of CoM because of Chaol. Chaol Chaol Chaol. I said in my review of Throne of Glass that I imagined him as a younger version of Richard Armitage, when he played Guy of Gisborne in the Robin Hood TV show (and not long after that, I said the same for the Darkling from Shadow and Bone, shh) and I kept imagining him the same way. Oh yes, I definitely ship Chaol and Celaena now. D e f i n i t e l y.

The writing was amazing again, and I found it a bit less predictable than the previous book. There were some minor things that I guessed before they were actually confirmed, but they weren't really big things like in ToG when it was obvious who the champion killer was long before it was confirmed. I also still had a minor issue with the changing POV's, but I was glad it mostly stayed to Celaena, Chaol and Dorian; with some small parts from the POV of other characters.

In the end, I loved Crown of Midnight to bits, and I have added both Heir of Fire and The Assassin's Blade to my basket to purchase as soon as I've got money again. Because the ending left me really really sad and confused and u g h, yeah. Let's pretend 'ugh' is an emotion.

My opinion on this book in one gif:

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A couple of months ago, I decided to try out the book called Shadow and Bone, that author Lauren DeStefano kept talking about on twitter. It was one of the best decisions I made this year, because I completely fell in love with the Grisha trilogy, with Ravka and Alina and Mal and even the Darkling. I read the first two books as quick as I could, but when I received Ruin and Rising I hesitated. Because a lot of people had given it one or two star ratings, and because it was the last book in the series. I really wanted to read it, but I also didn't. But when I finally did, I fell in love with the series even more.

Like the previous book, this one has some nice action in the first couple of chapters that got me really excited, and it has some other battles throughout the entire book, which I loved, because I am a person of action. I can't really say which of the battle scenes were my favourite, because they were all amazing and thrilling.

There weren't really any new characters in this book, apart from the Soldat Sol but not a lot of them were actually called by name so I didn't really remember any of them until the end. Then there was Baghra's servant boy who was called Misha (which made me laugh out loud, because I imagined an eight year old Misha Collins after this), who I loved a lot because he was adorable. Of course there were all the old characters, including Genya, David, Tamar, Tolya and Zoya. I have to say, I got used to Zoya a bit more in this story, and I actually started liking her a bit. There was one particular scene where Alina was feeling awful because of something she'd seen, and there were Genya, Nadia, Zoya and Tamar looking after her and trying to make her feel better. I loved them even more after that.

As for the romance, there was still a bit of a love quartet going on, which I still didn't really enjoy. I still ship Alina and Mal a lot and I was really rooting for them throughout this book, even though they've had some rough times in the second book.

The writing was, as usual, amazing and I just wanted to keep on reading and reading, until the last couple of chapters, which kind of took me a whole day to read. I didn't want it to end, and I didn't want it to end badly, so I just read really slowly and put the book down at least five times in an hour so I could watch some TV or check the internet. But that was just me being extremely nervous.

I have to say, I am very happy with the way the book and the series ended, it did give me a lot of emotions and I kept on shouting 'no' and 'omg' in the last couple of chapters, but I loved it, and I think Leigh made the right choices. Some things really surprised me, and other didn't really, but it was just really really good. Yes.

In the end, I loved Ruin and Rising a lot, and I am so glad I decided to follow Lauren DeStefano's advice and pick up the first book. If you love books about magic (although it's not really magic) set in a world similar to Russia, you should definitely check out the Grisha trilogy!

My reaction to this book in one gif: 

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I remember buying this book because I was really intrigued by the summary. I told myself I would read it as soon as possible, over a year ago, oops. But a couple of days ago, I finally decided to read The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, mainly because a friend of mine absolutely loved the book. And boy did I like it!

The book starts off with a very thrilling scene, one where Mara and her friends - Rachel and Claire - decide to use the Ouija board Rachel got for her birthday. Not only did I find that a really bad idea already, the question that Rachel asks made me facepalm even more. Because you do. not. ask. a spirit how you're going to die or when you're going to die, because the answer will most likely freak you out. A lot. This is also one of the reasons I never ever want to touch an Ouija board.

When that was over, I started to really enjoy the story. It was very thrilling and I found myself wanting to read on and on and on way past my bedtime. There were some fandom related mentions, one of which I quoted at the top of this review, which made me really happy. They talked about Parseltongue (the ability to talk to snakes) and Elvish, there was a pug which just made me squeal when I read it and there were some funny parts that actually made me laugh out loud, which doesn't happen a lot when I am reading.

However, there were some flashbacks that I didn't really enjoy in the beginning. They were executed well, with a little 'before' right underneath the chapter number, and it was very obvious that they were flashbacks. In the end, I started to like them more, mainly because they were telling us what actually happened to Mara and her friends at the beginning of the story, and I found them very exciting.

The characters were awesome, and I found myself liking Mara's brothers right from the start, just like Jamie. I disliked Noah a lot in the beginning of the story, found him very annoying and kind of had the idea he had an insta-love thing for Mara. In the end, I started to like him a bit more, when he started to reveal the 'real' him. I absolutely hated Anna and Aiden and I wanted them to be punished for what they'd done, and hopefully they will in the second book.

Personally, I found the romance a bit overpowering in this story, it kind of pushed the real paranormal part of the book back at some points, and I can't really say I ship it yet, but I did like them more at the end of the book than I did when it first started. And can I just say that cover looks amazing! I love underwater photography and this picture just looks so amazing. Not really sure if it fits the story, but it's just an amazing picture and when I first got this book in the mail, I spend a good couple of hours just staring at the cover.

The writing was very nice, and like I said before, it made me want to read way past my bedtime, which I did on several occasions. Lately, I haven't really been wanting to read a lot of books, but I think The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer pulled me right out of the land of reading slumps and put me back onto my feet. I will certainly be purchasing a copy of the second book, but I will wait with reading it for a bit, so I won't have to wait that long for the third book, which comes out in November this year. (I do think The Evolution of Mara Dyer kind of sounds like she's a Pokémon. "What? Mara is evolving!").

I definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves paranormal books with a bit (well, I should say a lot) of romance in it.

My reaction of this book in one gif: 

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I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This has not changed my opinion on the book in any way.

When I heard about a TV series based on a book that was yet to come out, I got very curious. But like with almost any book that gets made into a movie or TV show, I wanted to read the book first. I kept adding it to my basket on Book Depository and deleting it, over and over again, until a couple of days ago when I logged into Netgalley and saw the full book there as a 'read now'. I decided to go for it and started reading it almost immediately. I was quite disappointed. So disappointed in fact, that I stopped reading the book at about 53%.

First of all, I noticed that the story was written from a third person narrative. This is not my favourite narrative style at all, I am more a first person narrative person. But I guessed I could get over that, and I did. That was not the thing that bothered me the most. There were four different point of views in the part that I read, and I don't know if there were more added in the part that I didn't read, but actually I don't care about that. I dislike multiple POV's a lot, especially if it's not executed well. The only thing I might have liked was Glass' (what the hell kind of name is that?) point of view, because she was the only one who stayed behind on the ship so we could have *sings* the best of both worlds. Not that it was good, Glass' chapters were really boring actually, basically just her and her friends buying fabrics for some party and her pining for her ex-boyfriend who already has a new girlfriend.

Clarke (a girl, I thought this was a boy at first), Wells (a boy), and Bellamy (another boy, I thought this was the girl) (the names, the names!!!) are the other three who are blessed to have their own chapters, but personally two of them could have been eliminated, because they are all in the same place, they are all on Earth. Of course, they do all kinds of different things, but still I didn't think all those POV's were needed. I would have been fine with just two POV's, from - for example - Clarke and Glass.

When I got over those two dislikes, there came another wave of dislike, flashbacks. I H A T E flashbacks. Sure, they were executed well, they were in italics instead of normal like the rest of the story, but still, I do not like flashbacks at all. I basically skimmed most of the flashbacks that were in the part that I read, and after a while I just stopped reading them at all. Sure, I would love to find out more about their lives, but not through flashbacks. Let them tell someone or something like that, but no flashbacks please! Especially since I thought these flashbacks didn't really add anything to the story. Some of them might have, but I hadn't paid enough attention to actually realised that.

And then there was the bomb called a love triangle. Perhaps there were two, I don't know, I stopped paying attention after the first one became clear. I guess you can guess who the love-triangle is between, yes, exactly. In case you can't guess, it's between Clarke, Wells and Bellamy, surprise surprise! Needless to say, after a while I just stopped caring for this book, and telling myself that I would read 'one more chapter', and then I would see if I wanted to read on or not. I did this for about four or five more chapters, before I just completely lost my ability to care.

I have to admit, the writing was quite good, the story just didn't interest me at all. I thought it would be an awesome science fiction story, with maybe a bit of romance (as usual in a Young Adult book), but what I got was a romance book with not so much spacey-wacey stuff I had hoped for. Such a shame. Maybe I'll just watch the TV show instead.

My opinion on this book in one gif:

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Warning, this review might have some minor spoilers for the first book in the series!

After reading Anna Dressed in Blood, I was both curious and not curious at all for the sequel. I wouldn't have minded if the story had ended with the first book, because to me it was a very good ending. But the story didn't end there. No, there was Girl of Nightmares, the second and last book of this series, where apparently Cas was going to try to rescue Anna from wherever she got dragged into.

To be honest, I was quite reluctant to read this book, mainly because of the 'romance' in the first one. I mean, he falls in love with a ghost, seriously? I know I'm not the biggest romance fan, but this kind of felt weird to me. I liked the rest of the book enough to not give it two stars, but the romance just ruined it for me. Still, I was curious for the rest of the story, so I got Girl of Nightmare.

The first half of the book, I was annoyed at Cas' determination to get Anna out of Hell. The girl is dead, let her be dead. She may not be in peace, but there is nothing you can do about it. I felt frustrated every time he ignored his friends' advice, his mother's advice, basically everyone's advice. I wanted to grab him by the shoulders, shake him and tell him to let her go. But of course, Cas did not let her go. He spend most of the book wanting to get her out of Hell, and he actually risked his life a couple of times because of this, and it just made me really angry. Sure, I get it, he's in love with her - but she's a ghost, she's been dead for decades, and she's in Hell. There is a very small change they will ever get together again.

During the second half of the book, things started to get more exciting, and I started to read with more pleasure. Carmel started acting really odd, and the guys were planning on opening a door to Hell to get Anna out. Seriously, these guys have probably never seen a Supernatural episode. BAD IDEA, BAD IDEA! Anyway, we got introduced to a new character - Jestine, whose name just sounded really odd to me (I mean, Jestine and Carmel for an English and American girl - but Anna for a Finnish girl - I don't hate the names, but I just thought it was funny). I didn't like Jessy - I am going to call her that - at first, because she felt like a complete show-off at first, but she kind of grew on me in the end.

When I got to the last couple of chapters, I started to feel really anxious, because there were only about fifty pages left, and nothing had really happened yet. I got more and more stressed, the more I read on, and the ending actually left me a bit.. yeah, well, unsatisfied I guess? I don't know, I just didn't like the way it ended, and I had kind of hoped for more closure. In the end, I think the characters started to grow on me more than usual, I even started to like Cas a bit more, but yeah I want to know more about them. Maybe a novella, Ms Blake? That would be really nice.

In the end, I liked Girl of Nightmare, but I wouldn't really call it one of my favourite reads of this year. If you're into horror stories, like Miss Peregrine's, I recommend this series to you - unless you're totally not into weird romances.

My opinion of this book in one gif:

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I had heard that this book was being made into a movie a couple of months ago, and I got curious. I watched the trailer and I decided I wanted to try out the book. So when I saw it for only 6 euros on Bol's website, I decided to add it to my cart. I have to admit, I didn't love it as much as I thought I would.

I really like mystery books, where a murder has happened and it needs to be solved. Of course, there is always a story around it, about either one of the detectives (like with the cuckoo's calling) or about (one of) the suspect(s), which is what this book is about. We can also read entries from Amy's diary between Nick's chapters.

And that is one of the things I didn't like. I am not a big fan of flashbacks, though I think it was very necessary in this story, to fully understand what had happened, but still - I didn't like it. In fact, I was so annoyed by all the flashbacks in the first part of the story, that I considered putting the book down and watching the movie instead. The only thing I wanted to know was 'where is Amy'.

In the second part of the book, things got more exciting, and I found myself reading more easily and with more interest. There were no more diary entries, though still a couple of flashbacks, which was still a bit annoying, but the story got more thrilling in my opinion.

Like with any other mystery novel, I suspected a lot of people, but never the right ones, though some of them did their best to make themselves look very guilty. I can say, I wasn't very surprised when we finally found out what had happened, but as I read on, it started to sound extremely ridiculous and way too extreme. But I liked it.

The writing was very nice, and it made me want to read at least one other book by Gillian Flynn, but I have to admit I hope it will be easier to read than Gone Girl.

In the end, I barely got through the first half of Gone girl, but I ended up really liking the second part, which is why I gave it three stars (instead of the two stars I had been thinking about giving it). If you like mystery novels with a lot of flashbacks, I definitely recommend Gone Girl to you.

My opinion of this book in one gif:

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After finishing Shadow and Bone last month, I immediately ordered Siege and Storm because I had to know the rest of the story. I regret not buying Ruin & Rising immediately as well, because now I finished S&S I just HAVE to get the last book. I HAVE TO.

Nine out of ten times, the second book in the series is not just as good as the first book, and I hardly ever find a second book that is better than the first, but this time I can say that I love Siege and Storm just as much as Shadow and Bone; maybe even a bit better, though I'm still not sure. But I loved it I loved it I loved it so much!

A lot of the characters from the first book make their appearance in this book as well, but we also meet some new characters, like Sturmhond, Tamar and Tolya. I didn't really like them in the beginning, but I grew kind of attached to them throughout the story, mostly to Tamar and Tolya because they were just really awesome. They are brother and sister (twins? I thought they were but I'm not sure), and they are really good at fighting and they are both Grisha as well. Yes they were my favourite two characters from this book.

And yeah, the Darkling. Wow. I both love and hate him a lot. I think this is the first time I actually love a villain, instead of hating him but thinking he's attractive. I mean, yes, of course I hate the Darkling for what he did (especially for what he did to Baghra and Genya, S E R I O U S L Y ?!); but I just can't stop imagining him as Richard Armitage and I just love that guy so much. Yeah. Thank you Leigh for making me love a villain for the first time (in foreveeeeeeeer *sings*).

Though I thought there was a lack of action (some in the beginning, some near the end), I really thought the story was very thrilling and I couldn't put it away. The action parts that were in the book, were described amazingly and when I read those parts I didn't dare put the book down because I wanted to know how it ended. When I reached the last sixty pages, I actually read until it was around 1 am even though I had my alarm clock set for half past eight the next morning. I ended up not sleeping at all that night because I kept on thinking I had to get my hands on Ruin and Rising.

Spoiler ahead: There was one thing that I didn't really like though, and that was the fact that there was another (or perhaps two) love-interest for Alina. We got Mal and the Darkling in Shadow and Bone, and in Siege and Storm we got Nikolai (aka Sturmhond), the prince that was never there in S&B. And we might also add Vasily, because he 'proposed' to Alina as well, even though it felt to me he only did that because his brother did it. Yeah, not really a fan of this. I just want her to end up with Mal, ok.

The writing was very good, just like in Shadow and Bone, and I really hope Leigh Bardugo is going to write more books after this series, because I want to read everything she writes. The world she made up in the Grisha trilogy is just so amazing, and the maps, THE MAPS! As you all know, I LOVE maps in books, and in this book the map is even more extended, to the lands across from the sea, not just Ravka, but Kerch and Novyi Zem, I just love it! I would love it to become a poster, so I can hang it up in my room, just like my map of Middle Earth.

But everything was just so well written, from the characters to the action scenes to the love scenes and everything in between; everything just made me so happy. I wish I could write such an amazing story as Leigh Bardugo has written, because wow wow wow. After finishing the book, I actually sat in bed for a while, clutching it to my chest (did the same with the Hunger Games series, Harry Potter and the Divergent series). The Grisha trilogy is definitely going onto my 'favourite series of all time' shelf.

In the end, I just loved Siege and Storm, and I am definitely getting myself a copy or Ruin & Rising this month because I NEED TO KNOW HOW IT ENDS! And I definitely recommend this series to everyone. Just everyone. (I am very bad at writing reviews of books that I love. Because I just can't stop saying that I really love the book and that I really love the writing. Meh).

My opinion of this book in one gif:

(In which I am the Doctor, and everyone else is Rory).