Mini-Reviews (6) On the Fence, The Stepsister's Tale, Lady Windermere's Lover

So ever since June of 2014 I've been failing at writing reviews for the books I read. I know. And because it's been AGES since I read these, I'm just gonna do mini-reviews of them, so as to clear my need-review shelf.

Title/Author: On the Fence by Kasie West
Publisher/Date published: HarperTeen, July 1st 2014
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley

I LOVE Kasie West's writing! She knows how to build an interesting story AND make me swoon over the romance! On the Fence was SO cute, while also dealing with loss and a one-parent family. And I really enjoyed reading about Charlie's family, the siblings really care about each other, I LOVED her brothers! And I loved her dad for trying to also do the girly thing with advice from his 'co-worker' and sometimes failing epicly, but still, he gets bonus points for trying!

I really liked the slowly building romance and how Braden and Charlie have a real history and a foundation for their relationship. They've known each other for ages and I loved the glances and the insecurity and misunderstandings and just the tension! And boys being dumb boys and just all of it! I really cannot recommend Kasie West's books enough, they are amazing!

My rating: 4,5 stars

Title/Author: The Stepsister's Tale by Tracy Barrett
Publisher/Date published: Harlequin Teen, June 24th 2014
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley

I was intrigued by the premise of Cinderella told from the perspective of one of the stepsisters. I mean, history is written down by the victors right? And in the original tale, the stepsisters are definitely NOT the winners. And while I appreciated the concept, the execution could have been better. I almost DNF-ed this several times, mostly because the beginning was SO slow! Seriously, if it hadn't been for hours spent on a train while travelling through Morocco, I probably would have put this down. It really takes forever to take off, and everything was bleak and there was not even the least sense of hope and Ella was ANNOYING and weird and OMG I did not need 100 pages of them being hungry (I don't know if it was 100 pages, but it felt like it).

But then the story started to really come together and things started happening aside from them scavenging for food and it was VERY interesting! And I actually liked the second part of the novel, and there's a pretty cute romance, but I really cannot get over the slowness of the first half of the book. I'm glad I stuck with it for the later part, but I think it will turn a lot of people off.

My rating: 2,5 stars

Title/Author: Lady Windermere's Lover (The Wild Quartet #3) by Miranda Neville
Publisher/Date published: Avon, June 24th 2014
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley

I hate to say it, but I really did not much like this book. And that's mostly because the hero, Damian, is an ass and then the heroine, Cynthia just takes his crap.
So Damian is pissed that he's being forced to marry a commoner to get back the property that he foolishly gambled away as a youth. Ok. Fine. But that's no reason to treat Cynthia, his wife, the way he did! Constantly demeaning her and just being insulting and snobbish and UGH! I really wanted to slap him. And she falls for him ANYWAY because he's 'so handsome'. SERIOUSLY??? I wanted to shake her to wake up and recognize his assness.

Then he leaves her for a year and in that year she decides to flirt with his best friend, who she kisses once and he doesn't believe that they haven't been having an affair all year long when she tells him. But because she's beautiful now he decides to seduce her (WTF?) anyway. There's also this vendetta he has against his best friend that's basically him blaming Julian for something his stupid drunk self did when he was younger. I mean, SERIOUSLY?? I'm not even sure why I finished this, I get annoyed again writing this review.

My rating: 1,5 star (half star extra for cute kitten that's in it)

Get On My Shelf! (3) The February 2015 edition

So, a little over 2 years ago I decided to do a monthly feature of showing you guys what I can't help but (pre)order every month when my paycheck is burning a hole in my pocket.
Let's just say I failed at doing this monthly, but I've decided to revive it :)

My Faire Lady by Laura Wettersten: Rowena Duncan is a thoroughly modern girl with big plans for her summer - until she catches her boyfriend making out with another girl. Heartbroken, she applies to an out-of-town job posting and finds herself somewhere she never expected: the Renaissance Faire.

As a face-painter doubling as a serving wench, Ro is thrown headfirst into a vibrant community of artists and performers. She feels like a fish out of water until Will, a quick-witted whip cracker, takes her under his wing. Then there’s Christian, a blue-eyed stunt jouster who makes Ro weak in the knees. Soon, it’s not just her gown that’s tripping her up.

Trading in the internet and electricity for stars and campfires was supposed to make life simpler, but Ro is finding that love is the ultimate complication. Can she let the past make way for her future?

Lying Out Loud by Kody Keplinger: Sonny Ardmore is an excellent liar. She lies about her dad being in prison. She lies about her mom kicking her out. And she lies about sneaking into her best friend's house every night because she has nowhere else to go.

Amy Rush might be the only person Sonny shares everything with - secrets, clothes, even a nemesis named Ryder Cross.

Ryder's the new kid at Hamilton High and everything Sonny and Amy can't stand - a prep-school snob. But Ryder has a weakness: Amy. So when Ryder emails Amy asking her out, the friends see it as a prank opportunity not to be missed.

But without meaning to, Sonny ends up talking to Ryder all night online. And to her horror, she realizes that she might actually like him. Only there's one small catch: he thinks he's been talking to Amy. So Sonny comes up with an elaborate scheme to help Ryder realize that she's the girl he's really wanted all along. Can Sonny lie her way to the truth, or will all her lies end up costing her both Ryder and Amy?

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas: When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin — one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it... or doom Tamlin — and his world — forever.

The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West: When Gia Montgomery's boyfriend, Bradley, dumps her in the parking lot of her high school prom, she has to think fast. After all, she'd been telling her friends about him for months now. This was supposed to be the night she proved he existed. So when she sees a cute guy waiting to pick up his sister, she enlists his help. The task is simple: be her fill-in boyfriend — two hours, zero commitment, a few white lies. After that, she can win back the real Bradley.

The problem is that days after prom, it's not the real Bradley she's thinking about, but the stand-in. The one whose name she doesn't even know. But tracking him down doesn't mean they're done faking a relationship. Gia owes him a favor and his sister intends to see that he collects: his ex-girlfriend's graduation party — three hours, zero commitment, a few white lies.

Just when Gia begins to wonder if she could turn her fake boyfriend into a real one, Bradley comes waltzing back into her life, exposing her lie, and threatening to destroy her friendships and her new-found relationship.

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi's wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch... she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend.

She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all.

P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han: Lara Jean didn’t expect to really fall for Peter.
She and Peter were just pretending. Except suddenly they weren’t. Now Lara Jean is more confused than ever.
When another boy from her past returns to her life, Lara Jean’s feelings for him return too. Can a girl be in love with two boys at once?

Review of The Forgotten Sisters by Shannon Hale

Title/Author: The Forgotten Sisters (Princess Academy #3) by Shannon Hale
Publisher/Date published: Bloomsbury USA Children's, March 3rd 2015
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: After a year at the king’s palace, Miri has learned all about being a proper princess. But the tables turn when the student must become the teacher!

Instead of returning to her beloved Mount Eskel, Miri is ordered to journey to a distant swamp and start a princess academy for three sisters, cousins of the royal family. Unfortunately, Astrid, Felissa, and Sus are more interested in hunting and fishing than becoming princesses.

As Miri spends more time with the sisters, she realizes the king and queen’s interest in them hides a long-buried secret. She must rely on her own strength and intelligence to unravel the mystery, protect the girls, complete her assignment, and finally make her way home.

Fans of Shannon Hale won’t want to miss this gorgeously woven return to this best-selling, award-winning series.

***POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR FIRST TWO BOOKS IN THE SERIES***

Guys, this series is wonderful. I love the world Shannon Hale has created and Miri is an awesome heroine, funny and witty and intelligent and just a girl I can rally behind.

I really enjoyed reconnecting with this world and all the characters in The Forgotten Sisters and meeting new friends! Cause that's how Shannon Hale's writing makes me feel, like I'm meeting new friends and reconnecting with old ones. It took us some time to get used to each other again, but after that we had a lot of fun. I thought the politics in the first two books were not so easy to navigate, but The Forgotten Sisters adds another layer of intricate plotting and secrets and just a whole lot of WHAT?? when Miri and I discovered what it was exactly that was going on.

I like that we got to explore another part of the world Miri lives in, while holding true to the people and places we've been introduced to before. And like I mentioned before, Miri is pretty awesome. I really liked the bantery relationship she has with Peder. Those two truly care about each other and I think they make a great couple. It's filled with mutual respect and love and it's a great example.

I also really appreciate how much girlpower there is in this series, without being all rah-rah boys are inferior. I mean, Shannon Hale shows how boys and girls can work together and how everyone has their own set of talents, regardless of gender. It's a pretty awesome message to send in my opinion.

Shannon Hale has a real gift for storytelling and I definitely enjoyed myself while reading The Forgotten Sisters, it's sweet and chamring and funny and I would just really recommend this series as whole!

My rating: 4 stars

Review of Diary of an Accidental Wallflower by Jennifer McQuiston

Title/Author: Diary of an Accidental Wallflower (Seduction Diaries #1) by Jennifer McQuiston
Publisher/Date published: Avon, February 24th 2015
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: Pretty and popular, Miss Clare Westmore knows exactly what (or rather, who) she wants: the next Duke of Harrington. But when she twists her ankle on the eve of the Season’s most touted event, Clare is left standing in the wallflower line watching her best friend dance away with her duke.

Dr. Daniel Merial is tempted to deliver more than a diagnosis to London's most unlikely wallflower, but he doesn’t have time for distractions, even one so delectable. Besides, she's clearly got her sights on more promising prey. So why can’t he stop thinking about her?

All Clare wants to do is return to the dance floor. But as her former friends try to knock her permanently out of place, she realizes with horror she is falling for her doctor instead of her duke. When her ankle finally heals and she faces her old life again, will she throw herself back into the game?

Or will her time in the wallflower line have given her a glimpse of who she was really meant to be?

This was a bit of a different twist on the usual historical romance, which features a duke or a viscount or a marquess and a highborn lady who fall in love. In Diary of an Accidental Wallflower, we see love blossom between a highborn lady and a doctor (gasp)!

I liked Clare, though I really wanted to shake her for pretending to be lacking intelligence. I mean, she's obviously pretty smart, but she's pretending not to be because she thinks it won't be as accepted by the rest of the ton and OMG in real life this also annoys me! Playing dumb is never an attractive feature in my opinion. But she does use her smarts in the end and I liked it. She's fiercely protective of her brother and sister and though she might be a bit overbearing in her protectiveness, I loved that she cared so much about them.

I had some issues with Daniel. While I really liked that he calls Clare out on her bullshit, the way he's attracted to a patient and decides to act on it while he's still treating her is a big HELL NO. I mean, I'm a doctor myself and that is just not done. I think you can even loose your license to practice medicine when you do something like this. So that bothered me. But I do like how he's determined to find a way to use anesthesia on patients and how he's conducting experiments on himself (which didn't seem the wisest decision to be honest, but I do appreciate his not wanting to kill a test subject by accident). Other than that, I liked how he also cared about Clare's siblings and gave them some advice and just a good example.

Clare and Daniel definitely had the banter down and I always appreciate that! They had some chemistry, but not as much as I would have liked and the conflict at the end made me roll my eyes for a bit. I mean, come on, that just felt like filler for the last couple of pages, while it could hav easily ended neatly right there. But they were good together and I kinda loved how though there was the real problem of their difference in station and how they would have an income sufficient to provide for them both, it all worked out in the end. It might be a little too convenient how the stars all aligned to make this happen, but I like a happily ever after, so I was ok with it.

There was a lot of build-up towards the taking off of the romance and I was a bit bored for the first half of the book, but after it started getting better and I could start rooting for their relationship to work out, so in the end it was a pretty ok novel, not as good as I though Summer is For Lovers was, which was AMAZING, but still a decent read.

My rating: 3 stars

Top Ten Tuesday: All Time Favourites From the Past 3 Years

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by my other blog The Broke and the Bookish

These are the books that I would count among my all time favourite list from 2012 till now. I'll admit that I cheated a bit by listing series, but I cannot list one of the books without talking about the others!

1. Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight and Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas: it is really no secret that I have all the love for this series. It is amazing and I love Celaena and Dorian and Chaol and ROWAN and just this whole world that Sarah J. Maas has created and OMG I cannot wait to see what will happen next! These books always leave me with the worst hangover and it is GLORIOUS.

2. Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo: another fantasy series I have completely fallen in love with and which is already finished and just writing this post makes me want to go grab the books and dive back into the Grisha world!

3. A Night Like This and The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn: I discovered how much I love Julia Quinn's writing over the last 3 years and these books are just *LOVE*. She's amazing and I just swoon and laugh at the stories and it's perfection.

4. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein: wow, this book! I had not expected to love it as much as I did, but it punched me right in the feels and it was just AMAZING.

5. A Storm of Swords and A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin: I have so much love for this series! I'd read the previous books in the series before 2012, but I'm definitely counting these for the list!

6. For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund: I had feels all over this book! It was SO good and OMG THE LETTER! I DIED!

7. The Crown of Embers and The Bitter Kingdom by Rae Carson: I'd read The Girl of Fire and Thorns in 2011. This series has such a hold on my heart! I love Elisa and Hector and all the other characters in this book, they've all wormed their way into my heart and I still cannot process that this series is finished and I won't be going on anymore adventures with them! It was amazing to see Elisa grow and come into her own!

8. Golden by Jessi Kirby: such an unexpected love! Golden blew me away and I really cannot for the life of me think of a good reason why I don't own a shiny copy of this book myself! I will forever fangirl over the beauty of the writing in Golden.

9. Splintered, Unhinged and Ensnared by A.G. Howard: I have so much love for this re-imagining of Wonderland and all its inhabitants! I loved seeing Alyssa grow into a true queen of Wonderland and while I may not be exactly satisfied with the way my ship went, I do get it and I still love this series as a whole.

10. The Bone Season and The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon: this series! It's just amazing and intricate and ok, The Bone Season was a bit heavy on the information we had to process, but it totally worked for me and I will just read the crap out of the rest of the books in this series that are still being written!

So that's my list, any we have in common? Anything you'd recommend based on my list? Let me know!

Mini-Reviews (5) Boomerang, For All Time, The Vanishing Season

So ever since June of 2014 I've been failing at writing reviews for the books I read. I know. And because it's been AGES since I read these, I'm just gonna do mini-reviews of them, so as to clear my need-review shelf.

Title/Author: Boomerang (Boomerang #1) by Noelle August
Publisher/Date published: William Morrow, July 8th 2014
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley

I enjoyed Boomerang, I'll admit that I wasn't as big a fan as some other people whose reviews I've seen floating about the blogosphere, but it was really fun! I liked both Mia and Ethan and could root for them to get together, and I liked that there was some real conflict, I mean, a job on the line is something that will effectively stop you from being together if the company doesn't allow coworkers to date. Which is a really annoying rule in my opinion.

The reason that Boomerang doesn't get more than 3,5 stars is that I felt that it started to drag towards the end, I thought that they were making it unnecessarily hard to be together and it was kinda annoying. Also, I could have done with a little less of them thinking about how hot the other person was. Ok, they're both hot, I get it, moving on. Please just start thinking about all the other stuff you like about each other.

But I did really like that Boomerang dealt with real people, real friendships and real jobs.

My rating: 3,5 stars

Title/Author: For All Time (Nantucket Brides Trilogy #2) by Jude Deveraux
Publisher/Date published: Ballantine Books, July 1st 2014
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley

I really liked True Love, the first book in this series and was itching to get back to Nantucket and see others find their happily ever after. I need some good fluff in my life every now and then. But Toby and Graydon just didn't work for me the same way that Alix and Jared did. I never really FELT their chemistry enough to believe in it and sorry, but being together just because you can tell Graydon apart from his identical twin and that means you're "meant for each other" *insert eyeroll* is just not enough for me.

I do enjoy a good prince story and there was something real keeping them apart, but it just felt so old-fashioned! I mean, I get this in my historical romance novels and also in fantasy series and such, but in a contemporary romance? I was constantly wanting to yell at them to start living in the 21st century. Though I do realise that this might be the way things still work for royal families, it was still annoying.

So while this was an ok read, I was waiting for that wow factor that never came.

My rating: 2 stars

Title/Author: The Vanishing Season by Jodi Lynn Anderson
Publisher/Date published: HarperTeen, July 1st 2014
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley

I'd never read anything by Jodi Lynn Anderson before, but I've heard amazing things about Tiger Lily and was excited to start The Vanishing Season. I did like The Vanishing Season, and I can see the potential of Jodi Lynn Anderson's writing, she really has a way with words. The plot for The Vanishing Season just wasn't as exciting as I had liked it to be.

I wasn't really invested in Maggie, Liam and Pauline and could see from MILES away where this was going, there was this sense of doom over the whole story for me. I don't really want to tell you about what happened, cause it will ruin the surprise and shock effect and that in itself was perfection. The ending of The Vanishing Season was basically what saved this novel and I am glad I stuck with it for that.

My rating: 3 stars

Daisy Update (58)

Hi guys!

So over the past couple of weeks, I've basically been pretty busy, working the night shift of doom last weekend, which wasn't all that bad in the end, but working 13 hours a day is not my idea of fun.

On Monday I headed over to my mom's, because she and the new man in her life (though maybe not as new anymore as they've been together for 1,5 years already) were having a registered partnership ceremony on Tuesday and it was REALLY early and I didn't feel like getting up at 5AM in order to be on time because it's a 2 hour drive from our home to theirs. So we had dinner together and after the boyfriend also came over and it was nice.
On Tuesday my brother and his girlfriend and some other family came and we spent the day together. The original plan had been to go for a walk, but because of icky weather, we decided to go to a gardening centre instead and the boyfriend and I bought a pretty flower vase set thingy and I've just been staring at it ever since, it's so pretty :) And I needed some more colour in our home, so the pink and purple is really making me happy. We went out to dinner that night and it was lovely, I always love spending time with my mom and my brother, my brother and I have the same sense of humour and usually end up annoying our significant others because they can't follow all of it.

Wednesday was filled with sitting on the couch, reading Grave Mercy and cuddling the kitty, who felt neglected cause we'd been gone a full day. She's never before been alone for that long, but it seemed like she managed ok, nothing was damaged, but she clearly felt we'd offended her by being gone a night and a whole day. I did make up for it by giving her a little extra attention Wednesday and Thursday, so we're good.

On Thursday the boyfriend had the brilliant idea to go out for dinner instead of eating leftovers and we went to the other restaurant in our town that we hadn't yet been to and it was wonderful! The owner is really friendly and the food was yummy. It has the added benefit of being only a 5 minute walk from our house, so the rain didn't much bother us.

Friday was book club day! :D I met up with Debby and Mel for dinner and we talked about everything and anything and also a bit about Grave Mercy, which we all enjoyed, yay! I had Korean food for the first time ever and it was good, but not really all that special to me. But Debby has had it before and said it might be the restaurant. I love spending time with these girls!

Yesterday I thought the neighbours were coming over to our place for dinner and they thought we were coming over to theirs, so in the end we decided to have dinner at their house and we brought the desert:

It's a pavlova with strawberries romanoff and raspberries and it was SO GOOD! I'd never made this before, but OMG, it was surprisingly easy and YUM! I love trying out new recipes :) We have some leftovers in the fridge, which will probably miraculously disappear sometime today.
Oh, and I decided to take up knitting again! I've been watching a lot of tv lately and I feel so inactive if the only thing I'm doing is just sitting there watching something, so I'm knitting. It's pretty relaxing, I'm just getting back into it at the moment, making a blanket for our kitty and then I'm gonna move on to bigger projects such as leg warmers and other things :)

I hope you're all having a great week!