New blog?

Hey guys!

I haven't uploaded anything in almost a year...

Panhellenic exams have been looming over my shoulder this past year. Fortunately, in a little over a month, I'll be done.

Although I have been reading and reviewing, I haven't had any time to fine-tune & upload these reviews.

I was always planning to upload everything as soon as I had some spare time, but I've been putting it off so long that, coming back now, I feel like I migh've outgrown this blog. I didn't think there was such a thing as too much pink and yet...

I still am going to upload a year's worth of reviews come July.

But I may just set up a new blog when I get to university in a few months.

Until whenever,

XOXO

Aggie Pearson

Ruin and Rising

The Grisha Trilogy By Leigh Bardugo

Rating

5 perfect stars

Date Read

16/7/16 - 23/7/16

Age Group

14+

General Thoughts

The perfect ending to the Grisha Trilogy, delivered in a flaming red hardcover. There's not much left to say except endless praise to the author because I hadn't expected to join all the raving fans who adored the Grisha Trilogy and yet here I am. I opted for the page by page review again, so here it goes:

Page 65: Dialogues

Siege and Storm

The Grisha Trilogy By Leigh Bardugo

Rating

4.5 stars

Date Read

14/7/16 - 15/7/16

Age Group

14+

General Thoughts

So.

Most readers seem to have enjoyed siege and storm even more than shadow and bone but i can't get over my fascination for first books. Did it suffer from FBB? No. But there was something vital missing from it and the heroine kind of made a mess of things. Also, the last two or three chapters went by in a haze where i couldn't really shallow what was happenning.

So what vital thing could possibly have been missing from a book brimming with trips on the True Sea, flying ships, mythical golden dragons, pilgrims sanctifying Alina, volcra nests and royal princes?

Him.

Shadow and Bone

The Grisha Trilogy By Leigh Bardugo

Rating

4.5 stars

Date Read

11/7/16 - 13/7/16

Age Group

14+

General Thoughts

Impeccably imagined, imaginatively painted, complex characters and a dark, magical world. From the plot to the world-building, to the dialogues and the characters, this is a trilogy that will leave its readers breathless and thirsty for more.

Letter to my one Russian friend (Whose name happens to be Alina!):

The Book Of Ivy

Amy Engel

Rating

4.5 stars

Date Read

8/7/16 - 8/7/16

Age Group

14+

General Thoughts

A mix of Divergent, Matched and Cruel Beauty, and still a gorgeous book all on its own this dytopian is a must read for fans of post apocalyptic YA. 

I didn't expect to like this so much that I couldn't put it down but like it I did. It's the kind of book you read in one sitting and marvel about afterwards. I don't know what made it so good. It is dystopian but can't really be called dystopian at it's best (although i wouldn't mind calling it so). The premise is good but not reallly original and the heroine is, at times, too opinionated.

Coming to think of it, it was probably Bishop and his relationship with Ivy that I fell hopelessly in love with. Like, best book boyfriend ever. Scratch that, book husband ever.

Let me explain.

The Vincent Boys

By Abbi Glines

Rating

3.5 stars

Date Read

6/7/16 - 7/7/16

Age Group

16+

General Thoughts

This is the story of three childhood friends, Ash, Sawyer and Beau's. Sawyer and Beau are cousins, the Vincent boys. Ashton Grey is the preacher's daughter and she started dating the polished and perfect Vincent boy (meaning Sawyer) at fifteen, and so Beau was  diminished to an idea, a lovely childhood memory.

Until now.

Angels and Demons

By Dan Brown

Rating

3.5 stars

Date Read

18/6/16 - 4/7/16

Age Group

16+

General Thoughts

Before Robert Langdon got around to solving the Da Vinci Code he got sweeped up into another, different mystery. His first adventure, while still tightly connected to religion, church and ancient brotherhoods is a lot less grounded than the second instalment of the series.

Futuristic technology, scientific breakthroughs and weapons of mass destruction. CERN, the Vatican, conclave and ambigrams. And, in the end, the most devastating twist of all.

Wild Reckless

By Ginger Scott

Rating

3.5 stars

Date Read

13/6/16 - 17/6/16

Age Group

17+

General Thoughts

Such a cute cute book! Everything about it screams YA to NA and it fits into its genre neatly, with the nice girl meets bad boy theme. And yet it's not exactly a peaceful read. It scratches the surface of serious problem like family issues addiction and mental illness (without being too heavy since the genre itself wouldn't permit that).

Me before you

Jojo Moyes

Rating

4(?) stars

Date Read

10/6/16 - 11/6/16

Age Group

17+

General Thoughts

I didn't cry. At least, not until the epilogue. I could no longer hold back the silent tears then.

I read this in two days.

I am currently in shock and incapable of forming any more coherent sentences, let alone turning my thoughts to words.

A Thousand Pieces Of You

Rating

4+ stars

Date Read

3/6/16 -9/6/16

Age Group

15+

General Thoughts

Mystery, murder, fate, interdimentional traveling, Russian royalty, and a whole new level of spying.

Pretty epic, if you ask me. And what a cover...

Legacy of Kings

 By Eleanor Herman

Rating

3- stars

Date Read

23/5/16 - 1/6/16

Age Group

13+

General Thoughts

Fantasy indeed.

A new take on the story of Macedon's pivotal king, Alexander the Great, who conquered all of the known world back when the date was followed by BC. Follow a sixteen year old prince, Alex, as he begins to uncover his destiny, his half sister as she tries to make his best friend betray him, a couple of newcomers to his palace trying to navigate life in court and succeed in their respective goals and his unmet betrothed overseas as she fights to change her destiny.

The Power (Titans, Book 2)

By J L Armentrout

Rating

3 stars

Date Read

14/5/16 - 22/5/16

Age Group

17+

General Thoughts

DAD, GET OUT OF MY BLOG

Moving on:

Predictable.

And so cheesy.

There wasn't anything wrong with the book. But it didn't offer anything either. Then again, I'm currently in a bad mood so I can't promise to be objective.

The Power annoyed me.

The Return (Titans, Book 1)

By J L Armentrout

Rating

3 stars+

Date Read

9/5/16 - 12/5/16

Age Group

17+

General Thoughts

The Fates are cackling their bony asses off…

Another book on Gods, Sentinels, Hematoi, Daimons and Titans, this time around starring Seth and taking place a year after the the showdown with Ares. A year after he lost Alex for good. A year after he bargained his life and soul to ensure her happy ever after.

I've put off reading this way unexplainably long.

The Anatomical Shape Of The Heart

or Night Owls (UK Edition)

Rating

4 stars+

Date Read

5/5/16 - 9/5/16

Age Group

15+

General Thoughts

A petite, artistic misfit and a dark and gorgeous rebel. A witty wallflower of a girl and a rich, prep-schooled, rockabilly guy. A gruesome, cadaver-painting teenager falling in love with a charming, if troubled, minor criminal. A reimagined Wednesday Addams and a buddist -

I'm out of ideas. You get my point.

Any way you put it, this book shouts of YA in its best form.

Wuthering Heights

By Emily Bronte

Date Read

21/4/16 - 4/5/16

Age Group

16+

General Thoughts

It seems silly and, frankly, rather self indulgent, to consider rating a novel that has already proved itself by transending time and become a classic, a symbol for the passionate, intense grief of separation, be it a product of cruelties, mortal nature or, if you please, fate.

Wuthering Heights is a masterpiece of English literature from prose to writing to narrating.

And love it or hate it, that much is broadly accepted.

The Girl From Everywhere

Rating

4 stars+

Date Read

14/4/16 - 20/4/16

Age Group

14+

General Thoughts

The kind of girl that can time travel, on a daily basis, with a magic ship, is the kind of of girl I'd like to be friends with.

The Girl From Everywhere got to a four and a half star rating working up from three, without my even realising it.

Turns out I like myths about ancient magical creatures and faraway places almost as much as I love confusing my brain with notions of time I cannot begin to shallow; fate and destiny are passé, instead giving way to "history already written" or time not existing at all and to coexisting timelines and parallel universes, where sheer belief can make a place and time come to life.

Rebel Of The Sands

Rating

4 stars

Date Read

11/4/16 - 13/4/16

Age Group

14+

General Thoughts

Awesome awesome book!!!

A rebel prince. Djinn and their daughters. Galan armies and Mirajin soldiers. A secret weapon, a silent war brewing...

Travel to the ends of the world, to the middle of the desert. To faraway kingdoms that speak of Arabian nights and scathing sun, and sands, sands that get stuck onto your skin and deep into your soul.

Meet a fierce, fiery Mirajin, more gunpowder than girl, and follow her as she escapes her Dusty town and crosses the desert on a magic horse with a convicted traitor.

Follow the rebellion, the fight for freedom, for a better life, for a new desert. 

And fall in love with a strong, stoic warrior and his countless secrets.

The Love That Split The World

by Emily Henry

Rating

5 stars!!!

Date Read

4/4/16 - 10/4/16

Age Group

15+

General Thoughts

I came into The Love That Split The World expecting a chicky love story, an easy, quick fun read. Instead I was treated with a masterpiece on time and love, and a love that transcends all time, and brain freezing notions on relativity, alternate realities and the wormholes.

Numero Zero

Umberto Eco

Rating

3 stars

Date Read

19/3/16 - 2/4/16

Age Group

15+

General Thoughts

"Suspicions never go too far. Suspect, always, suspect, that's the only way you get to the truth. Isn't that what science says?"

Unhooked

By Lisa Maxwell

Rating

4 stars

Date Read

14/3/16 - 3/4/16

Age Group

14+

General Thoughts

''Welcome to Neverland'...'

...a world magnificent and dangerous, with a sea full of monstrous mermaids, a jungle that comes alive, a villain who calls himself a hero and an unapproachable but honest pirate taking up the role of the bad guy.

A refreshing retelling of the classic fairy tale, a wonderful, terrible description of what Neverland means, of the devastating poignancy of losing one's memories, of having them distorted until you start to lose your grip on your sense of self, until the reader realises how truly fitting it is to call those boys trapped there lost.

A girl who's spent her whole life violently uprooted from each and every place she's learnt to call home, who doubts her mother's sanity and leans on the support of her only friend, suddenly finds herself inside a fairy tale.

Only it feels more like a nightmare.
(TEASERS BELOW!)