However I'll try my best to post something in the next week, so don't worry. I'm sorry for this and I'll make it up to you guys! Hope you have an awesome day, and happy reading!
Hello! I'm going to make this short- I won't beat around the bush. I wanted to tell you guys that I may not be posting that much -or maybe not at all- for the next two weeks because I have an exam that's coming up and I have to study. It's fairly important and I'm hope you understand.
However I'll try my best to post something in the next week, so don't worry. I'm sorry for this and I'll make it up to you guys! Hope you have an awesome day, and happy reading!
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The other day I was on Youtube and I found a video on Ariel Bissett's channel that was over a year ago saying that she hated trilogies. I had a good time watching her video and she did a good job ranting about trilogies- why she hated them and that she wanted more stand-alones. I found that to be an interesting topic and so today, I am here to share with you my opinion on trilogies/series and stand-alones. To watch Ariel's video, click here. In my opinion, both series/trilogies and stand-alones are great. As long as they appease my need for a good and entertaining story, I don't have anything against them. However, I do have a few things in mind to say about trilogies/series and stand-alones. Trilogies/series I used to love reading trilogies/series a few years ago. I liked the idea of going on many adventures with the characters because it was so much fun and addictive, and I'd usually go for series instead of stand-alones. Now? Not so much. Usually the first book in a series/trilogy is considered as the most entertaining and exciting, because you're introduced to a fresh idea that you know nothing about. You get to see how the author builds the characters and the world around them, and it's fascinating. But then, I get all excited about the rest of the story, invest my time and money to buy and read the rest of the books, only to find that they're boring and not what I'd expected, which is disappointing. More than often when I'm looking for any new books to read, I veer away from buying series because I don't like to stop halfway through a series even if I don't like it, and if I don't enjoy it I keep hoping or thinking that maybe the next book'll be better. Should I buy it? It's frustrating. Now I get that writing a book is a magical experience. It's okay to write a bad book -not everyone's perfect. However if you're going to write a series/trilogy, make sure that the rest of the books are as good as the first one, or maybe even better. If you get negative reviews on your second book, then be sure to write a better third book. People are counting on you to construct a story that they would love, that they feel it is worth the money, the time used to read your work, and that's important. If you want readers to stay up all night reading your book and get excited about the next one, then be responsible and write a good series. Of course, not all trilogies/series are bad. For example, the Harry Potter series. Trilogies/series are good if you want an adventure or stand-alones are too short for your taste. I love a good trilogy/series as much as I love a good stand-alone -it all depends on the story. Stand-alones Recently I have tried to read more stand-alone books. Why? To be frank with you, IT SAVES MONEY. And if I didn't like the book, then fine. I don't have to worry about the next book. Stand-alones are often a pleasant and easy read. I get to know what happens to the characters all in one book. It's nice. I finish this story, and I get to move on to my next book. Great. One thing that I don't like about stand-alones is that usually, endings are rushed. Sometimes I want to know more about what happens to the characters, sometimes I just can't enough of the book and I WANT MORE!! But the thing that happens with stand-alones all the time is that the endings tend to be vague and hastily written. One thing I've learned from reading is that ENDINGS ARE IMPORTANT. It changes my rating of a book -I could go from meh to THIS IS SO FREAKIN AWESOME!!1!1!! NEVER UNDERESTIMATE ENDINGS. So these are my opinions on stand-alones, trilogies, and series. I like both; when I'm not in the mood for long stories then I usually prefer stand-alones, but if I am in the mood for adventures or just a good, lengthy story then I'm all for trilogies/series. What are your thoughts on series and stand-alones? Do you have a preference? Feel free to tell me in the comments and I hope you have a great day! Happy reading! WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD This month I have been not been reading as much because I have been busy with school - but finally- I have sat down with a book and it is- Panic by Lauren Oliver. I know probably a lot of you guys have read this book, and most of the reviews I read on Goodreads said that this book was okay, acceptable, but not amazing. I for one thought this book was absolutely brilliant. It seems to be a constant occurrence now- books that I find boring are well-liked and vice versa. Gives me another reason not to judge a book based solely on reviews. Anyway, getting to the part where I talk about this book. Panic is going to make me stay up all night typing this review and I don't care. I just have to talk about this book. For me, this book was slow in the beginning. My first impression of Heather was: "another story of a girl who wants to show her ex-boyfriend that she's not useless? Boring." But no, Matt wasn't even a significant character in the book. He was just someone Lauren Oliver had to create for Heather to enter the game, someone to bother Heather from time to time. It was Heather herself that found a real meaning to enter the game that pushed herself to win. To be honest, in the beginning I didn't think Heather would be the one to win Panic. I thought she was this girl who was broken-hearted and only wanted some distraction, which originally, she was. I felt for this character though, I kind of connected to her. Heather had this friend, best friend, Natalie, who I also thought was a bitch at the start of the book. Obviously, she didn't care much about Heather's feelings and I thought Heather was so stupid for trusting her. Let's talk about the judges. Bishop and Vivian. Did you consider them as a possibility at the beginning? I certainly didn't. Heather had mentioned Vivian showing up at the challenges, but I didn't even stop and think about why she was there. I mean, maybe it was true that Panic was a big event and even she'd want to be there. I started suspecting her when she was at Bishop's house, when Heather went to get her phone. I was like, wait. Yes. Bishop and Vivian. YES. I started getting suspicious of Bishop at the challenge where the remaining contestants had to cross the road blindfolded. "There's no one watching us," Dodge said. "No one but the judges, anyway." His eyes met Bishop's across the lot. And again, just for a minute, he wondered. After reading these two lines, I had my own predictions of who would be the judges. I never gave the judges much thought until then. My first guess was Bishop, but I couldn't remember any other characters that would be relevant enough to be one of the judges. But when Heather found Vivian at Bishop's house, everything clicked into place. It was right there, smack in the face. Vivian showing up at the challenges but since she kept a low-profile, no one would suspect it was her. Being sneaky eh, Lauren Oliver? I want to talk about Anne. Anne was like a kind-hearted angel and I liked her to the very end of the book. I even liked her house and her "farm", the way Heather spoke about it almost made me want to live there with her. Almost. I mean, what about the WiFi? Everyone in this book was broken in their own way -what made them enter Panic, how they dealt with their problems. At one point in the story I felt so sorry for Dodge. Dodge did a lot of things for his sister and cared for his sister so much. He was entering Panic because of her, and that's a very good quality in a brother. When his heart was broken by Natalie I wanted to take her head and bang it against the wall. Heather also had her own problems. She's strong though, and I admire her. She doesn't break down when she leaves her house, and holds herself together for the sake of her sister. That's definitely something that I have to learn myself. At the final challenge, Joust, I was so scared for Heather and Dodge. Since it was the last challenge, something big has to happen, right? It was all good when Nat kidnapped Dodge. As much as I hated Ray, I didn't want him to die. Heck, I didn't want anyone dying. But when Natalie said Heather could use Dodge's car for the race, I was horrified. My first thought was: HEATHER CAN'T DIE. NONONONONONONONONONO SHE WAS JUST STARTING TO GET AWESOME AND NOW SHE'S GONNA DIE???? Thankfully, she didn't. BECAUSE IF SHE DIES SOMEONE GETS HURT (Presumably the sofa, because I was sitting on it. No one was near me when I was reading this part so the sofa'll have to do.) Panic was a great book. It gave me a lot of suspense and the characters were interesting - definitely not what I expected. I finished it in a few sittings since it was thrilling and a nice read. I'd definitely recommend this book to you guys. I got my hands on a signed copy of Panic at my local bookstore! SO exciting as I have never gotten signed books before. Yes, you heard that right. This is my first signed book! Getting books that are signed is very hard for me as I live very, very far away, authors don't come to where I live, and I'm not big enough to travel by myself. Books are expensive if I order them online because of the exchange rates. My local bookstore -we don't have a Barnes & Noble here- don't even sell signed copied of books so I don't know what this signed copy of Panic is doing at my bookstore but I'm not complaining. There was just one signed copy, and I found it while I was going through copies of Panic on the bookshelf. If I'd just taken the first one I saw I wouldn't have found this baby. A signed copy of Panic for you to feast your eyes on Look at it. So. Beautiful. Ignore my hand.
I still kind of want to know whether Nat really did become Dodge's girlfriend, and did she change for the better. I'm guessing so. I'm not asking for a second book, but sometimes books just end so suddenly that I never really get satisfied. I'm happy that the book ended, but at the same time, I want to know what their lives are like afterward. I'm going to change my rating system for books. I'm not using stars anymore because they don't accurately represent my feelings for a book, so I'm going to do it Christine's (from polandbananasBOOKS) way. My rating for this book: 93% Thank you for reading my book talk, I hope you have a nice day, and happy reading! Be my friend on Goodreads! If you were preparing to scroll away because of the title, please don't. I'm begging you. This has something to do with books. Well, not so much, but it is book related nonetheless. Have you ever visited my Typography page? Well if you haven't, you can go ahead and click here to view my page. Please do. The page will be opened in a new window so don't worry. If you're just lazy to do that, then here is some of my typography A TFIOS drawing I made, Part of the Shadowhunter rhyme, and one of my personal favorites... My Booktube drawing! If you're worried that everything I draw will be about books, it isn't. Here's a lyric typography for ya'll Problem by Ariana Grande ft. Iggy Azalea. One of my favorite songs. (Just ignore the horrible background) Like what you see? If your answer is yes, you can follow my (new) IG typography account @katerrific_designs for more typography! If your answer is no, ... you should go and follow anyway because I will be posting fabulous drawings there. If you notice that there are only a few drawings, it's because it is a new account! I promise that I will be posting regularly! Of course, my typography will be posted on my typography page too. I really hope you do follow my typography account, because I want to interact with you guys and ask for ideas and such. I will also be selling some of my typography on RedBubble or Society6 someday. Sorry that this was not about books. I hope you have a great day, and happy reading! For more book related posts, you can go here for book talks, here for book tags, and here to read my June Wrap-up! Links: ( @katerrific_designs ) for my Instagram typography account ( @katerrific27 ) for my twitter, and ( katerrific27 ) for my Goodreads account. Time sure flies fast! Another month of reading has gone by, and in this post I'm going to be sharing my June reads with you! NOTE: POSSIBLE MILD SPOILERS AHEAD Books read in June in no particular order My Goodreads profile say that I've read 8 books in June altogether -I could never be trusted to remember numbers! The number of books I've read in the picture above is 7 because I've returned The Evolution of Mara Dyer to the library, but since I found this book to be so awesome I'm going to get my own copy soon. And it's going to be sitting on the bottom shelf where I put all the books that I love. The first book that I read in June was The 5th wave, by Rick Yancey. This book had such a good rating on Goodreads, I decided to read it while waiting for my copy of City of Heavenly Fire to arrive from Amazon. I rarely read sci-fi so I thought I'd give this book a try since everyone thought it was amazing. Everyone loved it. I didn't. Why? Let me start from the beginning, shall we? I'm not going into full detail why I hate this book, but I'm listing out a few. The beginning was okay. In fact, the beginning fascinated me. I wanted to know if Cassie was really the last person on Earth. I wanted to know how she survived. I wanted to know everything. But then, we get to the part where Cassie, her father, and her brother goes to this camp where a few other survivors have gathered after her mom died. And everything just started getting boring for me from that part onwards. It was saddening when she had to let her brother Sammy go. I also liked the part where she escapes from the camp. Other than that, I just couldn't get into this book. I understand why a lot of people liked it. The writing's good, there were a lot of plot twists, and there was good romance in this story. The characters were well developed and weren't tedious. However, I thought it was too fast-paced. I just didn't feel like I was there, in the book. I was just skimming the pages, knowing what happened but never really feeling anything. I have to say, though, because of this book I've gained a new appreciation for endings. The ending in The Fifth Wave was incredible. I was going to give this book 3 stars, but the ending changed my mind. If you liked this book -good for you. I'm not sorry that I didn't like it, but I respect the book and the author. It was good, but it just didn't manage to captivate me. My rating for this book: 4 stars I also read Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier. This book has a different concept than most books that I've read before, so it managed to hold my interest. The time-travel in this book was slightly confusing, but all in all I liked it. I adore the relationship forming between Gideon and Gwyneth, and the story was gripping. I did not expect Gwyneth to be the Ruby instead of Charlotte, although I should've seen it coming. I am definitely going to read the second and third book in this trilogy. My rating for this book: 4.5 stars In my (very) long wait for CoHF to arrive, I have also read The Selection, The Elite, and The One. I already have a book talk on The One, so I'm just going to rate them here. My rating for The Selection: 3.5 stars My rating for The Elite: 3 stars My rating for The One: 3.5 stars Note how my rating for The Selection trilogy doesn't stray from 3 stars? That's because of America, the most irritating protagonist that I have ever read. She was so ridiculous and couldn't make up her mind on anything, I wanted so much to take books off my shelf and haul them at her. (But of course I wouldn't do that, i love my babies too much.) Finally, after two weeks of torturous waiting, I have City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare! You can read my book talk on this spectacular book here. As expected, City of Heavenly Fire was remarkable and did not disappoint at all. One thing I slightly regret is that I was not able to read this book on the day it came out (which is also my birthday!), but I'm grateful to have a copy of City of Heavenly Fire anyway! :) My rating for City of Heavenly Fire: I WANT TO GIVE IT MORE THAN FIVE STARS And last but not least, the last two books I read in June are none other than The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer & The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin! These two books were so good. When I first bought The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer I certainly did not expect it to be so incredible on so many levels. Read my book talks on The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer and The Evolution of Mara Dyer! I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE RETRIBUTION OF MARA DYER. I WANT IT SO BAD. IN FACT, I LOVED THESE TWO BOOKS SO MUCH MY FIRST COLLAGE I DREW WAS BASED ON THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER. Fabulous, don't you think? Also, check out my IG typography account here ( @katerrific_designs ) because I post fabulous typography there more often. You can also visit my typography page on this blog. My rating for both books: 5 FREAKING STARS So that was all the books that I've read in June! Well, according to Goodreads, but I don't think I've missed any. Add me as a friend on Goodreads! Thank you for reading, I hope you have a great day, and happy reading! |
Kat is a voracious reader who enjoys nothing more than losing herself in a good book. Fantasy is definitely her cup of tea. She often complains about never having enough time to read and constantly struggles with keeping her TBR pile a considerably decent size. Read more or keep up with her bookish whims on Goodreads or bloglovin.
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