Since it's only January 8th I figured I should quickly recap what I've read so far. (I originally wrote 2014 in the title, read it over for a few seconds, thought to myself "that doesn't sound right", then realized my mistake. I wonder how many time I'll do that until it finally sinks in that its 2015.)
(SPOILERS)
First book I read in 2015!
(Image and synopsis from Barnes and Noble)
Author- Sara Raasch
Rating- 5 glorious star
Song I played while reading- Light Years Away (feat. DBX) [Tiësto & MOTi Remix] By Tiësto
Synopsis-
Sixteen years ago the Kingdom of Winter was conquered and its citizens enslaved, leaving them without magic or a monarch. The Winterians’ only hope for freedom is the eight survivors who managed to escape, and who have been searching for the opportunity to steal back Winter’s magic and rebuild their kingdom ever since.
Orphaned as an infant during Winter’s defeat, Meira has lived her whole life as a refugee. Training to be a warrior—and desperately in love with her best friend, Winter’s future king—she would do anything to help Winter rise to power again. So when scouts discover the location of half of the ancient locket that can restore their magic, Meira decides to go after it herself—only to find herself thrust into a world of evil magic and dangerous politics, and to realize that her destiny is not, never has been, her own.
____________________
So PRETTY *drools*Obviously I lucked out with my first book. Technically, I started this book in December. December 28th to be exact (gotta love Goodreads). BUT I didn't finish this beaut until January 3rd. I know, I know, thats 7 days!!!! For me thats a long time. Usually I can finish a book in 3 or 4 days. But for the first 50 pages, I wasn't really interested. I found the description of the world and how it worked to be a little confusing.
So I set it down and didn't pick it back up until January 2nd. And that just happened to be when Meira started kicking ass. And I mean MAJOR ass. She's in league with Celaena Sardothien (I'll get to that beautiful series in a later post). And maybe my head wasn't really in it when I first started the book, with new years and what I was gonna wear and where we were going all swirling through my head, because once I picked it back up I flew through it. It was amazing. Things just started making sense and I was really thinking about this world and how cool it is! The Seasons?! Just picturing these places took my breathe away. And at the end when Autumn and Summer came to fight with the Wintertians against Spring, it honestly made me cry.
The scene where Meira knocks over the wood platforms and heals that boy… OH MAN DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THAT. I was bawling my eyes out. So so so beautiful. The boys in this were juicy and scrumptious as well, and I'm totally Team Theron (even though it seems that Meria doesn't like Mather anymore, so Theron wins :) ).
Overall, 5 stars to the wonderful Snow Like Ashes. It's one of my favorites this year, and I can't wait for the second book to come out, Ice Like Fire. On her tumblr, http://sararaasch.tumblr.com/snowlikeashes, it says the release date is Fall of 2015. CANT WAIT!
On to the next!
Author- Chris Bohjalian
Rating- None because I couldn't finish :/
Song I played while reading- I'm Not The Only One by Sam Smith
Synopsis-
Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands is the story of Emily Shepard, a homeless teen living in an igloo made of ice and trash bags filled with frozen leaves. Half a year earlier, a nuclear plant in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom had experienced a cataclysmic meltdown, and both of Emily's parents were killed. Devastatingly, her father was in charge of the plant, and the meltdown may have been his fault. Was he drunk when it happened? Thousands of people are forced to flee their homes in the Kingdom; rivers and forests are destroyed; and Emily feels certain that as the daughter of the most hated man in America, she is in danger. So instead of following the social workers and her classmates after the meltdown, Emily takes off on her own for Burlington, where she survives by stealing, sleeping on the floor of a drug dealer's apartment, and inventing a new identity for herself -- an identity inspired by her favorite poet, Emily Dickinson. When Emily befriends a young homeless boy named Cameron, she protects him with a ferocity she didn't know she had. But she still can't outrun her past, can't escape her grief, can't hide forever—and so she comes up with the only plan that she can.
A story of loss, adventure, and the search for friendship in the wake of catastrophe, Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands is one of Chris Bohjalian’s finest novels to date—breathtaking, wise, and utterly transporting.
____________________It's rare when I don't like a book enough not to finish it. Actually it's rare when I don't like a book in general. Even if it is a little iffy, I try to finish it just so I'm not judging it on only half the book. I want the full effect of it, ya know? Anyways, the two that I can think off the top of my head that I didn't finish because I just reeeeeeeally didn't like them are The She by Carol Plum-Ucci and Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham. They didn't catch my attention enough, and I had other books I wanted to read. I try not to waste my time on things I don't enjoy.
Sadly, this book is now added to that list. I picked this one up on a whim, having been drawn to the gorgeous cover while at Barnes and Noble. The summary seemed interesting so I snagged it.
I think the biggest problem for me with this book is how its written. Its all over the place. Each chapter is split into multiple paragraphs, and each paragraph is different. It's not in chronological order. The narrator could be talking about what she was doing right at the moment (the igloo she made, which was where she was sleeping), then jump back to what she was doing when the nuclear power plant exploded, then go forward again to the different places she slept while she was homeless. Or it would just go to a certain memory about her parents or her dog. That's not really my cup of tea, so I decided to put it down.
And finally, what I'm currently reading right now.
(Image and synopsis from Barnes and Noble)
Author- Patrick Ness
Song- New York by The Boxer Rebellion
Synopsis-
Seth drowns, desperate and alone. But then he wakes. Naked, thirsty, starving. But alive. And where is he? The street seems familiar, but everything is abandoned, overgrown, covered in dust. He remembers dying, his skull bashed against the rocks. Has he woken up in his own personal hell? Is there more to this life, or perhaps this afterlife? From the acclaimed author of the Chaos Walking trilogy and A Monster Calls comes one of the most provocative teen novels of our time.
Thoughts so far (spoilers)-
WOAH.
Just… Woah.
I had zero expectations for this book. The summary is trippy enough and the author can go anywhere with this idea. So far, I'm liking it. Seth is in the prison where most of the townspeople are hooked up to the internet world, and is just about to wake up from the pain inflicted on his "damaged node" by the re-actualization beam. I don't know what to expect. Is Driver going to be standing above him, ready to zap him into the afterlife? Maybe Tomasz and Regine will have followed him and they will be dragging him back to their house? I don't know!
Seth and Gudmund are absolutely adorable and I'm rooting for them. Maybe we can get a cliche happy ending. I'll totally cry if they get back together.
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