Emmy and Oliver by Robin Benway ~ Book Review

Title: Emmy and Oliver 

Author:  Robin Benway

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary Fiction 

Published:  June 23, 2015

Hardcover:  352 pages 

Brief Synopsis:

Emmy and Oliver have been good friends their entire life. They live next door to each other, their mothers are best friends, and they were even born on the same day. In second grade, tragedy strikes when Oliver is kidnapped by his father and is never heard from again. Ten years later, Oliver is found! This book explores the journey of Oliver returning home. It shines an interesting perspective on kidnapping and shows the challenges of rebuilding a friendship that was lost and now found. 

My Thoughts

I am not including the Goodreads Summary in this review for a good reason. I think it gives you a little too much information. So stay away from the summary on the book! 

I really, really enjoyed this book! I felt it was a little slow to begin. This has been a thing lately in my reading. ALL the books I have read lately have started out slow. So it may just be me and my reading mood. I fell in love with the characters right away, especially Oliver and Emmy. I thought they were both so sweet. I loved to see how their relationship developed and how they learned to build back their friendship. 

Things I LOVED About This Book

- I loved the family dynamics in this book. Family was a huge theme in this book. The parents were very present in the book and it was very refreshing. 

-One theme that is very central to the story is communication. The characters all struggle with communication barriers and it was frustrating to read about at times, but it made the story very real. 

-I loved the interesting perspective that this story presented. It allows you to see a side of kidnapping that was unexpected and intriguing. 

- The ending was beautiful! I was worried that I was not going to like the ending. I really enjoyed the direction the author went with the characters and I was extremely satisfied with the ending. 

Things I Did NOT Love

- Nothing really stood out as bad to me in this book.

 If I had to pick something it would be that the book started out a little slow. 

My Favorite Quotes:

"The more you start to love someone, the more you ache when they're gone, and maybe it's that middle ground that hurts the most, when you can see them and still not feel like you're near enough."

"Sometimes loves isn't something say, it's something you do."

"An earthquake would have been better. At least during an earthquake, you understand why you're shaking."

Goodreads Rating

Thanks for visiting today!! 

I hope you check out this great book. Have you read it yet? Are you planning to add it to your TBR? 

Happy Reading!!

Magonia By Maria Dahvana ~ Book Review

Title:  Magonia 

Author: Maria Dahvana

Pages: 320 pages

Published: April 28th, 2015

Goodreads Summary:  

Aza Ray is drowning in thin air. 

Since she was a baby, Aza has suffered from a mysterious lung disease that makes it ever harder for her to breathe, to speak—to live. 

So when Aza catches a glimpse of a ship in the sky, her family chalks it up to a cruel side effect of her medication. But Aza doesn't think this is a hallucination. She can hear someone on the ship calling her name.

Only her best friend, Jason, listens. Jason, who’s always been there. Jason, for whom she might have more-than-friendly feelings. But before Aza can consider that thrilling idea, something goes terribly wrong. Aza is lost to our world—and found, by another. Magonia. 

Above the clouds, in a land of trading ships, Aza is not the weak and dying thing she was. In Magonia, she can breathe for the first time. Better, she has immense power—and as she navigates her new life, she discovers that war is coming. Magonia and Earth are on the cusp of a reckoning. And in Aza’s hands lies the fate of the whole of humanity—including the boy who loves her. Where do her loyalties lie?

Thoughts: 

I will try to keep this as organized as possible. I have a lot of things to say about this book and I will try to stay on topic. I have a lot of positive and negative feelings about this book and I am struggling with how to rate this book. So let's just do this! 

Why did I pick up this book??

• First of all, the cover. It is stunning! Pictures do not even give this cover justice. It is one of the most prettiest covers ever. Five stars for the artist who designed this book. It definitely played a role in how quickly I picked this one up.

• Epic Reads was saying that it was a mesh-up between: The Fault in our Stars, Daughter of Smoke and Bone and Stardust. I have not read Stardust but I have read DOSAB and it is one of my favorite series of all-time and I enjoyed TFIOS. 

• The synopsis sounds amazing! I love urban fantasies and I could not wait to read this one. 

What did I love about this book??

• The beginning of the book was very well written. I loved her writing style in the first part of this book. 

• Aza's story was heartbreaking. She has a rare lung disease that will eventually kill her. She has had it her entire life. She is almost 16 years old and has a great family and an awesome friend named Jason that supports her through it all. 

• The relationship between Aza and her friend Jason is fantastic. Their friendship is refreshing and much needed in the YA world. I loved their dialogue towards each other.

• Jason is such a well developed character. He is very unique and likable. He has OCD/autism characteristics. Even though the author does not go into details about it. 

• I loved the IDEA of this world. It was very whimsical and intriguing.

This image kept popping into my head while reading this book. :)

What did I NOT like about this book??

• The world building was VERY lacking. I felt like their was not enough details and explanations. The author basically just steers aways from the world and only focuses on the plot and characters. Which is really sad. She had such a great opportunity to make an incredible world and it was not even explored. Such a brilliant idea, but not executed throughly.

• The plot line was very predictable. I was waiting for something grand to happen or some big twist, but I was not surprised at all and I usually do not see anything coming in a book. This one was a little flat.

• The book was very rushed, especially the ending. The beginning was so great, but after that, the book was way too fast. I feel like she tried to fit a 500+ book into 300 pages.   

• The writing style was very inconsistent. It was very poetic and whimsy in the first part. The second half did not seem to have the same tone or voice. 

• The ending was not believable to me. I know this is a fantasy, but the author did not convince me. The author has to believe in their world so that  their audience will believe in it too.

• I wanted more. Way more. I feel like this was the draft of the story. It had some great bones but there was so much missing. 

Did this book meet my expectations? 

In a nut shell. No.

I can see why they compare it The Daughter of Smoke and Bone but the execution is completely different. The world in DOSAB is so vivid and detailed. Every characters, every piece of magic, and element is so well planned and described. You feel like you are in the world. I did not feel like I was in Magonia. 

Final Thoughts:

In the end, I did enjoy this book. I did have a lot of negatives but I hope the author really makes a come-back with the second book. She still has a opportunity to open this world up! I have not seen anything about a sequel, but the ending definitely does leave it open for another book. 

I would still highly recommend this book. It is original and has some great themes and characters. Definitely worth reading. I think my expectations were way too high. Since this is my favorite genre, I do feel that I am being a little too critical of the story. 

Goodreads Rating: 

The first part of the book definitely was a 4 stars. Once the book shifts to Magonia the rating went down for me.

I would love to hear your thoughts about this book. Have you read it?? Are you planning on reading it in the future?? 

Thanks for visiting! 

Happy Reading!!

The Wrath and the Dawn By Renee Ahdieh ~ Book Review

Series: The Wrath and the Dawn, #1

Published: May 12, 2015

395 Pages, Hardcover 

Goodreads Summary:

A sumptuous and epically told love story inspired by A Thousand and One Nights

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.




Thoughts:

This was one of my most anticipated books of the year. I fell in love with the story line as soon as I read the synopsis on Goodreads. I knew I had to read it and really soon. Let me just say, it did not disappoint. It was an absolutely beautiful story. I cannot wait for the second book "The Rose and the Dagger" which is supposed to be released sometime next year. 

I liked the characters from the very beginning. They are not your typical YA Fantasy characters and I liked their uniqueness and intensity. They have very strong, mysterious attributes and they captivated me right away. The story is very well written, especially for a debut novel! It reads like a historical fiction and I really liked that. 

Things I Loved About The Book:

• The setting was told with such details. It feels like you are there in the story and I can see all the details of the castle and the surrounding area. 

• I loved the mystery in the book. There are many secrets and things that are unrevealed in this story that keep you on your toes. 

• I loved the intensity in the story. The characters and story line are very strong and captivate you.

• This felt like you were reading a true, original fairy tale story. I loved that element!

• I loved the element of magic in this book. I wish the magic was better explained but I think we will see more of the magic shine through in the sequel. 

My Favorite Quotes:

“There is no one I would rather see the sunrise with than you.” 

“Love is a force unto itself, sayyidi. For love, people consider the unthinkable...and often achieve the impossible. I would not sneer at its power.” 

“Some things exist in our lives for but a brief moment. And we must let them go on to light another sky.”

“When she wound her fingers in his hair to draw her body against his, he stilled for breath, and she knew, as he knew, that they were lost. Lost forever. In this kiss. This kiss that would change everything.”

Goodreads Rating:

If you have read this book, I would love to hear your thoughts! Do you plan to read it soon? Thanks for visiting!

Happy Reading!!

My Most Anticipated Reads For 2015

There are so many wonderful books being released this year! These are my top 5 most anticipated books that I plan to read as soon as they come out. 

#5.  The Raven King
Final book in The Raven Cycle Series, By Maggie Stiefvater
(no cover yet)

Release Date: September 29th, 2015

Goodreads Link to Book 1: The Raven Boys 

I have not started this series yet. I plan to start reading this series before the release date of The Raven King. I have heard mixed things about this series, but I am so excited to read it. If you have read this series, I would love to hear your thoughts about the book series. 


#4. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

Release Date: April 28, 2015

Goodreads Link 

This is a stand-alone YA fantasy novel. It is very rare to find an awesome stand-alone fantasy book and this one sounds like it going to be fantastic!! 


#3 A Court of Roses, Book #1 by Sarah J. Maas

Release Date: May 5, 2015

Goodreads Link 

I will read ANYTHING that Sarah J. Maas writes. This one mixes Beauty and the Beast with fairies! This book is the first in a new trilogy series.


#2 Winter
Final Book in The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

Release Date: November 10, 2015 

Goodreads Link to Winter       Goodreads Link to Book #1: Cinder

I am soon excited to see how this series is going to end!! I need this book now! I plan to start re-reading the series in October so everything will be fresh in my mind. If you have not started this series and you love fairy-tale books, you need to right now!

and my most anticipated book is...


#1 Queen of Shadows 
Book #4 in the Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J. Maas

Release Date: September 1, 2015

Goodreads Link to Queen of Shadows      Goodreads Link to Book #1: Throne of Glass 

This is one of my favorites series of all-time!! This story is so epically amazing and the world is so unique and intricate. This series builds, and builds, and builds on itself! The first few books lay a foundation for the rest of this amazing fantasy series. The last book was incredible and I cannot wait to see what happens next. 


Happy Reading!! Please let me know what are your most anticipated reads for 2015???