If you followed my Goodreads updates about this book, then you already know I didn't like it. I wasn't expecting not to like it tbh, because I've heard only good things about it, so I was ready for an epic tale full of adventure and dragons. Boy, was I wrong.

First of all, the writing style makes this book hard to read. The exposition is unreal, more than 75% of this book is exposition and I felt I was reading a story within a story. I understand that the readers need context but I believe it could be done differently, because I almost died of boredom. The action scenes were few, compared to the portion of characters talking, traveling and then more talking!

Our main boy, Eragon, is stupid. And I can back up that statement. Let's start with the fact that he decide to find his uncle's murderers and kill them, without having battle training or sense of direction. Monsters were pursuing them and he decided to try and kill them all with magic, when he'd only been training a few days and almost killed himself. He went into a temple knowing he might meet the bad guys (even though they were supposed to be incognito) and he was utterly surprised when they found him and almost killed him. He was in a prison cell and was complaining that the food wasn't good enough and that the soldiers were making noise and wouldn't let him rest. He broke his hand falling from a rock. Need I say more?

I believe that even the author knew that Eragon would be useless alone, that's why we don't see Eragon doing anything by himself in this whole 600+ page novel. First he had Brom, then Murtagh. He didn't survive A SINGLE FREAKING DAY by himself and I am to believe he's the grand hero the world is waiting for. For me, Brom was the real MVP, without Brom, Eragon would know nothing and I'm not exaggerating one bit. Even though I liked Brom, every time he would open his mouth and I realised it was another humongous part of exposition, I died a little inside.

All in all, I think it's clear I won't be continuing with the series.

It was high time I read a historical fiction novel and I'm so glad I chose this one! To say that I loved it is definitely an understatement, this book made me think so much, I had hour long debates with myself, trying to explore both sides of the coin, German and English.

Our main characters are so different from each other yet so similar, each of them has a unique voice, which I appreciated so much, because it was more than easy to distinguish one from another. Even though I understood him, I just couldn't completely agree with Lewis' kindness, because in the end, this kindness bit him in the hand and had different consequences for his family and his circle of friends. One of my favorites had to be Herr Lubert, I think he really tried to make the best of things and he knew his place from day one, never wanting more than being able to continue living with dignity.

As for the kids, one of the most interesting characters was Frieda. I'd love to know more about her, what happens when she was training with the Nazi youth and what happened when the war finished and what will happen to her, because even though the book finished at a certain point, I think her story has so much more to give! My heart broke for Ozi and his friends though and I want to know more about what happened to Germans when Hitler was finally defeated. I think this book gave a small glimpse of a huge subject and now all I want is to know more!

Lastly, the romance was good in the sense that it wasn't either overplayed or underplayed. I think it was enough to make the plot even more interested and I was so invested in it, even though I knew it was probably doomed from the start. Also, the plot twist had me turning the pages like crazy!

All in all, I really loved this book. It rekindled my passion for historical fiction and for that, I'm grateful!

"Field Notes On Love" is a very fun book that I read to relax and get out of a reading slump. It's a sweet story about two teenagers discovering themselves before they head off to college. I think this story will appeal to anyone who's not sure about their future after high school yet.

Our main characters, Mae and Hugo had very distinct and nice personalities, I loved reading about them and I also loved both family dynamics. To be honest, I felt closest to Mae because she had a clear vision in her head about what and how she wants her future to be, and even though this mindset isn't always ideal, I really sympathized with her and her struggle. Hugo on the other hand was so confused and conflicted that my heart felt for him. I completely understood his need to "escape" his family, I cannot even begin to imagine how it is to be a sextuple and always do everything with your siblings. One more thing, I did find the whole "sextuple thing" a bit overboard, but I believe it served the plot well, with the whole scholarship thing.

Even though I generally liked this book, it didn't go the extra mile for me. I wanted something more to fall in love with it and say that I would read it again. I definitely recommend it though, especially since it's summer and I think it can be an excellent summer read for many readers!

Anything I say about Snicket's writing won't be enough to completely articulate how much I enjoy his work. I love the way he uses words, I love his quirky and interesting characters and I just wish he had written double the amount of books, so I could read more of him!

This book is part of a mystery series, which is something very intriguing because the way Snicket writes mysteries has you guessing all the time what's going to happen next! Of course, this is a middle grade novel, but I believe it's done masterfully and that why I had no problem reading it, even though I'm not in that age group anymore.

As far as the characters go, I love that fact that the author makes them as interesting and as authentic as possible. The characters are easily distinguishable, their different personalities are very well shaped and you can root and like or dislike even the minor characters! This is one of my favorite things in books, because I believe that minor characters shouldn't just be there to drive the plot and assist the main character, they should be there to exist in their own accord.

Lastly, I think it's clear how much I enjoyed the book and I'm hoping to continue with the series, to find out what will happen next!!

Let's see to who I could recommend this book to... I could recommend this book to anyone who loves love triangles between brothers, selfish characters with no redeeming qualities whatsoever and people who are willing to hurt even people that never harmed them!

So enter Molly, the worst character I've ever read about out, and that says a lot. Molly was in a relationship with Patrick, then slept with his brother Gabe and now she's back in her hometown for a last summer before college. No surprise no one really like her, eh? But what does Molly do about that?? She starts a relationship with Gabe, then befriends Tess, Patrick's new girlfriend and then repeatedly cheats on Gabe with Patrick... If someone can please find on braincell inside the head of this girl, I'd love photographic proof of it. Molly is so selfish, she cares about absolutely no one except for herself and every time the author tried to convince me otherwise, I just wasn't having it.

The book is trying to portray the double standard, of calling a girl a whore when she's sleeping around and not bothering with the boys she did it with. But it's so lost in the plot, because I cannot forgive Molly. She didn't utter a single "I'm sorry" to anyone and if that doesn't scream "entitled" I don't know what does! Also, the fact that she knew Patrick and Gabe's family so well since she was a kid and called them "her second family" should have been enough motivation to stop her from doing what she did. Because I can understand making one mistake and feeling sorry for it, but making the same mistake again and again, becomes a choice.

All in all, I think this book is so toxic, it's message is awful for teenagers that are in search of a relationship, because it normalizes cheating and not apologising and in the end, Molly just left happily for college, like the whole summer didn't even happen.

This was my first novel of Mrs Miller and I have to admit, I know want to read all her works! This is the definition of an easy read, for me, because even though it didn't have an "easy" plot, it flowed so nicely, so effortlessly that I didn't want to put it down!

The story of Circe is unfolded before our eyes, we watch her grow, learn, face troubles and punishment, we watch her fall in love, fall out of love, seek revenge and in the end, finding peace. I will admit, that up until the 11th chapter, I wasn't Circe's biggest fan! I didn't know what to make of her character, I thought she was too naive, etc. After reading more though, I certainly appreciated her character development, I started liking her way more and in the end I was definitely rooting for her! I think it was very interesting the fact that I didn't like her immediately, because it made her character growth so much more intriguing for me!

Circe meets an array of characters, some I really liked, some I didn't. For me, the character I didn't like the most was Telegonus, because of his incredibly ignorance not only of the world, but also of other people's feelings. Of course, I attribute some of that to the way he grew up, but also I was expecting him to better handle some stuff that happened. Not alter his decisions, but have a different attitude about them, especially since he could he was hurting Circe!

At last, even though I loooved this book, I ended up giving it 4/5 stars. It would have a 5/5 for sure, if I didn't already know 90% of what happened in the book. I'm Greek so we are taught Greek mythology in school and apart from that, I have a huge interest in it as well, so read extra material on my own. Even though the writing was superb, I wasn't as surprised or as shocked, if you will, by the plot. I can definitely see how it would appeal to someone that knows little about Greek mythology, but for me, it didn't go the extra mile. Having said that, though, I still really loved the book and Circe as and individual!

What can I say about this book! First of all, I didn't expect to like it as much as I did, because I didn't like any of the characters! For me the characters of a book are so important and I always try to connect with them, but with this particular book, I couldn't find a connection with anyone and nevertheless, I ended up loving it!

What I loved most is the fact that you know who dies from the prologue, so from the first time you meet this character you just know how he ends up! You don't know why though and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, trying to figure out why his friends would kill him!

The writing was superb, Tartt is definitely a skilled storyteller and even though the book is long, I didn't find myself feeling bored it unable to continue. The way she weaved the story was excellent, her use of words, the Greek here and there, the whole atmosphere of the small college in Vermont, everything felt so real! I felt like I was there with them, a fly on the wall, observing their every move!

The characters I hated most were Bunny and Henry. Bunny was sponging off of anyone with money, he had simply no sense of propriety and I just couldn't like someone who feels entitled to money and being rich and instead of working his way towards that goal, decides to simply spend his friends' money! Henry on the other hand, was so controlling and full of himself, he got them all into so much more trouble than necessary, especially Charles, who almost lost his mind. And let us not forget how swiftly he trapped Richard, leading him to believe that he was part of their group, while in fact he was ready to blame everything on him! He got the ending he deserved though and I'm quite satisfied with that turn of events!

All in all, I loved "The Secret History"! It's a book that I think people will either hate or love, there's no middle ground! Something that everyone can admit though is that the writing is so good and that Donna Tartt knows how to craft a story!

Actual rating: 2.5/5 stars

I cannot tell you how much I wanted to like this book more than I did! For the first 10 chapters or so, I loooved it, I was reading it consistently and I was very eager to know what would happen next! After the tenth chapter though, I just couldn't bring myself to finishing it... And it's such a shame, because it's a really short book, I should have finished it in a matter of hours!

Tbh, sci-fi isn't my preferred genre, I don't really enjoy it, but I thought I'd give it a try and see how I felt about it. Let me tell you, I loved Astra, she's was definitely a very spunky and interesting character and I'd love to read more from her POV! Felix was also an interesting character, I loved his exasperation with Astra and I also really admired his dedication to her, because even though he was a soldier for the biggest part of his life, he took Astra under his wing and felt for her more than he would have liked to admit!

I think that my main problem with the book, was the length! I would have loved it to be longer, because then many things that sparked my interest would have been explored more in depth! For example, I really wanted to know more about the current state of the world, it's clear we are in the future and more than one planets are habitable, but I wanted more than that! I had so many questions regarding the plot, and almost none were answered. Maybe the author purposefully didn't want to reveal to much or write this book with too much detail and also maybe I'm way too used to reading books that are over 400 pages that this one felt like it was missing something.

gifted - Εκδόσεις Πατάκη http://www.patakis.gr/

Το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο ήταν η απόλυτη συντροφιά στις φετινές μου διακοπές και δεν θα μπορούσα να ήμουν πιο χαρούμενη που έφτασε στα χέρια μου! Διαβάζοντας την περίληψη δεν ήξερα ακριβώς τι να περιμένω, οπότε ξεκίνησα την ανάγνωση του με ελάχιστες προσδοκίες, περιμένοντας από την ιστορία ή να με καταπλήξει ή να με απογοητεύσει.

Χαίρομαι πάρα πολύ που τελικά η ιστορία με κατέπληξε, πραγματικά δεν ήθελα να σταματήσω να διαβάζω, γύριζα τη μια σελίδα μετά την άλλη ασταμάτητα! Αυτό που πιστεύω πως είναι το δυνατότερο του σημείο, είναι ο τρόπος γραφής της S. Perry, ο οποίος όχι μόνο έχει τη δυνατότητα να σε ταξιδέψει, αλλά είναι τόσο απέριττα όμορφος και απλός, που η ιστορία κυλάει αβίαστα. Κάτι ακόμα που θαύμασα, είναι τόσο πόσο διακριτικά δίνονται οι λεπτομέρειες, η συγγραφέας "αναγκάζει" τον αναγνώστη να σκεφτεί και να συμμετέχει ενεργά στην εξέλιξη της πλοκής, τίποτα δεν παρουσιάζεται ξεκάθαρα, αντιθέτως ο ίδιος ο αναγνώστης πρέπει να ψάξει πίσω απ' τις λέξεις και τις παρομοιώσεις για να ανακαλύψει κάποιο κρυμμένο στοιχείο!

Όσον αφορά τους χαρακτήρες, υπήρχε μεγάλη ποικιλία ανθρώπων, οι οποίοι είχαν όλοι ξεχωριστή "φωνή", ξεχωριστή προσωπικότητα, κανένας δεν χανόταν για χάρη κάποιου άλλου, κανένας δεν είχε λιγότερη αξία στα μάτια της συγγραφέως και κατά επέκταση, στα μάτια του αναγνώστη. Ομολογώ πως δεν ταυτίστηκα ιδιαίτερα με κάποιον συγκεκριμένα, αυτό όμως δεν στάθηκε εμπόδιο στην αγάπη μου για το βιβλίο και την ιστορία!

Τέλος, ο μόνος λόγος για τον οποίο δεν έδωσα 5/5 αστέρια, είναι πως το τέλος μου φάνηκε κάπως άδειο. Οι χαρακτήρες μας ξαναγυρνούν στην πρότερη τους κατάσταση, σαν να έκλεισε ένας κύκλος, χωρίς όμως να τους έχουν επηρεάσει τα γεγονότα όσο εγώ θα περίμενα. Δεν κρύβω ότι περίμενα κάποια κατάληξη με μεγαλύτερο αντίκτυπο, ειδικά οι δύο πρωταγωνιστές μας, η Κόρα και ο Γουίλ, επιστρέφουν στις ζωές τους με μια αταραξία, σαν να μην γνώρισαν ποτέ ο ένας τον άλλον, σαν να μην έγινε ότι έγινε! Παρόλα αυτά όμως, η συγκεκριμένη παρατήρηση δεν στάθηκε αρκετή για να μην απολαύσω το υπόλοιπο βιβλίο και ευχαριστώ πολύ για άλλη μια φορά τις Εκδόσεις Πατάκη για την ευκαιρία που μου έδωσαν να συνεργαστώ μαζί τους!

Περισσότερα για τις εκδόσεις Πατάκη, θα βρείτε στον σύνδεσμο στην αρχή της κριτικής.