Bout of Books 16 Read-a-thon 2016

I am so excited to announce my participation in Round 8 of The Bout Of B0oks read-a-thon taking place from Monday, May 9th  to Monday, May 15th! I have not decided what I want to read for this read-a-thon, because I want to wait until closer to see what I haven't read yet, but I will post a TBR soon! 


The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 9th and runs through Sunday, May 15th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 16 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team


I hope you join me in this read-a-thon! Click here to learn out how to sign-up!

#RYBSAT 2016 Round 8 TBR

 Tomorrow #RYBSAT Round 8 will start and I am so pumped!!! RYBSAT or Read-Your-Book-Shelf-A-Thon is hosted by BooKss101 on Youtube and a whole lot of other Booktubers. For this read-a-thon you basically pick a spot/ book on your bookshelf to start at and you see how many books you can read from there in a week.

When: May 1st, 2016 - May 8th, 2016 

Click here to find out more information!

For this read-a-thon I am planning on starting on the 3rd book in The Mortal Instruments series and reading as much of the shadowhunters books I can from both The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices.  I don't know if I'll get  all of the books below read and I might even get more of the series read than I thought, so we will see how much of these I get read this week!

Here Is My TBR:

I hope you will join me in this read-a-thon and knock off some of the books on one of your bookshelves!!! Happy Reading!

Summer Reading 2016

 I am done with my first year of college and my Summer Break starts in just five days, which means almost three and a half months of me being able to read as many books as I want and it allows me to read all of the books I've been dying to read for a while but haven't got around to yet.  I am off from school for about fourteen weeks and I am hoping to read about two books per week and if I do that I'll read about 28 books.  Some weeks will be more productive, because some weeks I'll feel like reading more, some weeks I will be less busy and some weeks I will be participating in read-a-thons. However, my goal is to read 20 books this Summer, just incase I am not as productive as I think I'll be, but If I read more that will be amazing!

Here are the Read-A-Thons I Am Planning On Participating In This Summer:

(Be on the look out for future blog posts to find out more information)

 

Here Is My Summer To-Be-Read List:

TBR Jar Pick For June

TBR Jar Pick For July

Most of the time when I make a TBR list I don't read all of the books, but I like to have a lot to choose from. While I may not get through all of these books this summer, as long as I get through a lot of them I will be happy! What are you reading this summer?

"The City Of Ashes" : A Fallen Angel From Above

*Do Not Read This Review If You Have Not Read The First Book, City of Bones!!!*

"Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what's normal when you're a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires, and faeries? Clary would love to spend more time with her best friend, Simon. But the Shadowhunters won't let her go--especially her handsome, infuriating newfound brother, Jace. And Clary's only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insane, certainly evil--and also her father. When the second of the Mortal Instruments is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor suspects Jace. Could Jace really be willing to betray everything he believes in to help their father?"

Ahh this series just keeps getting better and better, I loved the first book, but this book was even better.

One of the things I loved about this book was how Cassandra Clare let us know more about the different types of downworlders. While these creatures were mentioned in the first book, in this book we got a closer look into the lives of the Faeries, the Vampires and the Werewolves and their worlds.

How Cassandra Clare describes both the downworlders and the demons and her use of imagery, definitely made this story more vivid for me and it made me feel like I was also a Shadowhunter fighting the fight against demons.

I also liked how this book let you see into the different point-of-views of all of the characters instead of just Clary's. While Clary is somewhere doing something, Cassandra Clare also shows what the other characters are doing at that same moment.

I also loved seeing more of the interaction between Clary and Simon. In this book, there were a lot more scenes where Simon and Clary are by themselves without Simon being on the sidelines all of the time like he was in the first book.

The key theme in this book was forbidden romance. First, we have the forbidden love between Jace and Clary after they found out they were brother and sister in the first book. Then, we have Alec and Magnus, who can't be together, because of Alec being afraid of his parents' disapproval if he comes out to them. Lastly, we have Luke and Clary's Mom, Jocelyn who don't know how the other one feels about them. There were a lot of couples I hardcore shipped in this book, like Clary and Jace, Alec and Magnus and even Luke and Jocelyn. There were moments that made me gush and swoon and there were moments I really was pulling for them to get together. Even though Simon is in love with Clary, and Maia and him aren't even close to getting together, we see their friendship grow a lot in this book and I totally want them to get together!

This book was so fast pace and I couldn't put it down.  Every page was filled with so much action and things happened right after each other. I felt kind of bad for Clary and the rest 0f the gang as one conflict arises after the other, but that did wonders to the plot and it caused me to never be able to stop reading it. I constantly wanted to know what would happen next.

The characters begin to grow and develop even more in this book and we learn so much more about them. One interaction between characters I love is the interaction between Jace and Simon. They were just hilarious and the way they argued all the time and the things they said to each other made me laugh so many times. The line "Every time I annoy him, he retreats into his No Mundanes Allowed tree house" describes Jace's and Simon's relationship perfectly.

The amount of sarcasm both Magnus and Jace give out in this book was tremendous and it made the book for me hilarious and I couldn't stop laughing hysterically.


This book was beyond amazing and if I could give it a hundred stars I would! I can't wait to read the rest of the series and I will do it very soon, because I now own the whole series. This book doesn't contain just one paranormal creature like normal YA fantasy books, but it is any creature you can think of combined into one book, which I absolutely love! I highly, highly, highly recommend this book and the rest of the series to everyone!

My Rating: 5 Out Of 5 Paw Prints

"Outsiders": A Book That Thinks Outside Of The Box

"Jaylen Hayes knows that she is different from all other seventeen-year-old girls. Possessing extraordinary intelligence, she is also uncannily powerful and inexplicably hated by wild animals. But it is not until she transfers to Trinity High that she learns the truth about who—and what—she really is. 

Instinctively drawn to two new classmates—the intense and passionate Indigo, and the charismatic and breathtakingly gorgeous Michael—Jaylen soon learns the shocking secret of their shared heritage, and the bloodline that extends to the stars. However, all is not what it seems, and Jaylen soon finds her newfound security threatened when a trusted friend becomes a dangerous and vengeful enemy. "


*I received a pdf copy from the author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my review. All my opinion.

First off, I want to thank the author for allowing me to read this wonderful book!

In my book reviews I normally start off with a synopsis of the book I read, but this is the type of book that is so much better when you go into it blind.

At first, the beginning of the book dragged a little for me, so I had to take a break from it for a few months. After I took a break from it for a couple of months and got closer to the middle of the book, I instantly got hooked and couldn't put my iPad down. When I started reading it again I read it in only a day.

This book is a YA contemporary with a really cute romance that you constantly are pulling for, aspects of Sci-fi and fantasy,and tons of mystery and suspense. Through out the book there were so many moments that made my heart drop to my stomach because of the suspense and there were also heart wrenching moments that shocked me and made me feel the loss and heartbreak the characters felt. This book was never predictable and I was constantly surprised by how the events ended up happening and I constantly was on the edge of my seat to find out what would happen next.

In this book, the protagonist Jaylen never felt like she belonged and always felt different from the people around her. When she starts going to Trinity, she meets overbearing Indigo and dreamy eyed Michael who are just like her and she finally feels like she belongs somewhere and doesn't feel like such a freak of nature anymore.

When Jaylen finds out why she is so different and what she is, she automatically accepts it and doesn't freak out very much. If I found out I was anything other than a human, I probably would have a moment of denial, before I either cried or had a panic attack. The fact that Jaylen never really freaked out about what she was made Jaylen's character not as relatable for me.

However, I do appreciate how Tammy Ferebee doesn't use cliches that are normally used in most movies and books about the thing/creature that Jaylen is.

The characters in this book were well developed and I really appreciated Tammy Ferebee including characters that were very unique and were the minority.  Jaylen is an atheist who is attending a Catholic School. I love the diversity aspect of this book! Most authors shy away from the whole religion aspect in books, but Tammy Ferebee shows that not everyone is Christian or believes in the same things through the characterization of the characters. The protagonist in this story, Jayden is African-American which is different from what we normally see in books. That could have been enough diversity in one book, but there is also an LGBTQ+ aspect to it as well. Diversity being included in this book really makes this book more realistic and relatable.

I wish the ending didn't end the way it did. I thought the book should have at least two more chapters of the book left, but it just ended abruptly.  The characters didn't even solve the central conflict or even decide what they were going to about it before the book ended. I just wanted to scream "What happened?". I heard that there is going to be a sequel, which I am beyond ecstatic about, but I can't believe I have to wait so long to find out what happens next.

Overall, this was an amazing book not only about aspects of fantasy and love, but also about real life issues. I can't wait to read the sequel and I am so glad I got a copy from the author to review! I definitely recommend this book to everyone!

My Rating: 4 Out Of 5 Paw Prints

Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon 2016 Wrap Up

Pages Read: 87

Status after Read-a-thon: Finished

Pages Read: 119 pages

Status after Read-a-thon: Not Finished Yet (but close to finishing)

Pages Read: 35 pages

Status after Read-a-thon: Currently Reading

TOTAL PAGES READ: 241 pages

While I didn't get everything read I wanted to during Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon, I am still supper proud of what I accomplished. I finished City of Ashes by: Cassandra Clare (which is an amazing by the way), I am almost done with Outsiders by: Tammy Ferebee (which I started a long time ago and never got around to finishing it) and I got some laughing in when I read Grace's Guide. I am so proud of myself for not only finishing all of my homework yesterday, but also getting reading done. This year's Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon was definitely a success! How did everyone else do?!