Another play I had to read for a class and it was such an enjoyable, if some times confusing, read!

We follow Allegra and Suzy as they navigate their own problems as well as their new found friendship. At the same time, we are introduced to Joe, an autistic guy who loves ballet and Marco, a con man who's looking for his next big "job".

All of these people make a very intriguing array of characters, and the conversations they have are very interesting and some of them are definitely worthy of a double take.

My favourite character would have to be Allegra, I saw quite a lot of myself in her and it's the character I also picked for my performance in class. I found her very complex and interesting, a girl trying to find her own voice in a sea of people deemed, by her, more worthy or more interesting.

Overall, it's a play I would really love to see a production of, Szymkowicz seemed very set on the way he would like for it to be directed and I believe it would be a very intriguing and peculiar performance!

Actual rating: 4.5 stars

Another day, another play I had to read for class! I was so happy that I hadn't read the play, nor watched the movie before, because I went into it completely blind and it was an interesting experience!

A play that focuses on 4 people, their relationships with each other and their relationship with themselves. It was raw, brutal, didn't shy away in the use of language or themes and it really brought into perspective what it means to be a human with flaws, looking for love in others and in yourself.

I cannot say that I had a particularly favourite characters among the 4 of them. I definitely enjoyed the conversations they had, the way their minds worked and the extent they went to get what they wanted. Someone might find them quite extreme, but then again, isn't a person's nature extreme on its own?

All in all, I really enjoyed my time with this play, I think it's definitely worth a second read and maybe some annotation as well, cause there's plenty food for thought here!

A magical and heartbreaking tale about a girl that didn't want to be forgotten and a kingdom bathed in blue light.

I will admit, even though I really liked this book, I enjoyed the parts that took place in the Kingdom of Back way more. The story about the lost siblings, the whole imagery of every peculiar thing surrounding the Kingdom and of course, Hyacinth himself, made these parts of the book all the more enticing.

Throughout the story, my heart broke for Nannerl so so much. I had only briefly heard of her before and I'm so ashamed that I didn't know of her sooner, of a person with the same talent, same aspirations, same dreams as the great Wolfang A. Mozart that was denied everything he had, just because she was a woman.

The book played with the concept of who's actually a villain and you'll be surprised to hear that I hated Nannerl's father more than I hated Hyacinth. Hyacinth had his own motives all along, so I can kind of excuse him for being the way he was. Her father on the other hand and his blatant favoritism towards Woferl really made me tick. He had two bright lights of music in front of him and he actively chose to see only one of them. I think I feel so strongly against him, because he was her father, he taught her everything, he should have loved her equally with her brother!

All in all, I enjoyed this book a lot! It's my first of Marie Lu's and her writing really impressed me, so I'll be definitely checking out her other works as well!

Actual rating: 2.5 stars

A beautiful, whimsical winter fairytale, perfect for fans of old fashioned tales with a more traditional approach to magic.

We follow Elizabeth as she travels to the Underground, where the Goblins live, in order to save her sister from the Goblin King. Overall, Elizabeth is a very character, she's interested, loves her people and you really want to see her story unfold. Unfortunately though, she suffers from "oh I'm so plain, why do you love me, I told you I'm so plain" syndrome. I could excuse it at first, but in the middle of the book, when the whole romance is slowly starting she says that so many times, that I had to mention it.

The sibling relationships are very true and fun to read, because they feel realistic and I could relate to her love for her brother or her rivalry with her sister, for example. The romance was very intriguing as well, it was quite mature for a YA book in the sense that I felt that both partners respected each other and held each other to equal standards.

Even though the book had a very strong beginning, I was literally turning the pages like crazy, I found the middle part dragging a lot. The ending was satisfactory in a sense that, although it was sad, I was quite content with how everything turned out. I know there's a sequel out, but I'm not sure I want to read it, since I don't feel like the story actually needs it and it's refreshing to read a YA book with a sadder ending than what we are used to.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I think the timing was amazing, because I was reading it as summer was slowly approaching and it really helped get me into the mood. Santa Maria was the perfect summer setting, the descriptions of the board walk and the caves, of Elle's orchard and driving in the summer heat, where all aspects that enhanced the atmosphere of the story and added an extra layer for the reader's enjoyment!

As for the characters, they were definitely interesting, I wanted to learn more about them and their backstory. Mayhem as a heroine is very intriguing, head strong and mature for her age and her relationship with her mother is something that really warmed my heart. Another character that I found extremely intriguing is Neve, even though we didn't get to explore her character as much as I hoped! She's definitely multi-layered, you can see that there's so much more to her than meets the eye, so whenever I read chapters centered around her, I was always enjoying them even more!

The whole book is laced with an underlying cult theme and has some very action packed and thrilling scenes, which even though I wasn't expecting, I savored! On the topic of the action packed scenes, I will admit that I found Mayhem's training and acceptance of her calling quite rushed, it's such a big issue that I hoped more time would be given to it, to explore it properly!

Now it's time to address aspects of the book that I found a bit lacking, in my own personal opinion. Firstly, it was a bit hard getting into it, because of the writing style. I presumed that it was used that way in order to amplify the mystical feeling of the whole story, but it took me a few chapters to feel accustomed to it and start really grasping what's going on in the story. Something else that didn't really sit well with me was the pacing, as I mentioned briefly above. Some parts of the books felt overly explored and some others were quickly brushed off, in order to get to more "interesting" parts of the story.

Provided from PRH International in exchange for an honest review

Literally the last book I finished in 2019, I read it in one sitting on Dec 31st, before I had to get ready for our New Year’s Eve Annual Get Together!

Let me tell you, I wasn’t disappointed at all! It really gripped me from the first few pages and I loved that the Bayview 4 make an appearance, because they are characters I loved in the first book!

This book follows a new set of characters, there’s a new “villain” or maybe two? I’ll say no more, because you should really go into this one blind!

The only thing I’ll say is that the character I was rooting for ended up being way more sinister than I thought and also what was the last chapter??

Me and romances: a combination 90% of the times miserably fails. And so I'm extremely happy to announce that this book restore my opinion on romance books, because I absolutely loved it!!

Apart from great representation regarding people of colour, disability, past trauma and therapy, it's a very heartwarming, very real and very sweet book.

Our two main characters, Chloe and Red are both two very wholesome human beings, that make mistakes, say sorry, care for each other and for other people in their lives, and overall are two very mature and very intriguing adults, that I loved seeing fall in love.

It's a book filled with humour, with self deprecating, sweet, cute, sexy moments and it's so amazing seeing two complex and real people fall in love with each other and navigate their feelings towards each other.

It's a romance novel that doesn't only center around the romance, it takes its two main characters on a journey of self discovery, a journey that forces them to face their worst fears and emerge better and stronger on the other side.

Overall, it's a book I totally recommend to anyone, even if you are not particularly a fan of romance novels. I'm sure that this one will be a lovely way to spend your time and delving into this story isn't something you'll regret!

Okay, this book was really controversial for me, in the sense that I wasn't sure how much I collectively liked it!

Let's start with the fact that the synopsis hooked me from the first few lines, I knew this was going to be right up my alley, so when I started reading I was pretty excited!

Upon finishing it, I realized that I loved some parts so so much, while I deeply hated others. Starting with what I loved, the writing and the way C. Benjamin weaved the story was amazing, she's an author I'm definitely going to follow and I'm certainly going to try another one of her works, hopefully soon. She definitely has a beautiful way with words and know how to tell a story.

What I didn't like, unfortunately, was the characters. And this is such a character driven book, that me not liking any of our 4 main characters made it a bit difficult to enjoy it. The two worst in my opinion were definitely Simon and Klara, I don't think I can explain how enraged these two had me. What more, it's revealed to us pretty early whether the psychic's predictions are going to come true or not, and since I found that out, I could kind of see how the rest of the book would go and that hindered my enjoyment as well.

All in all, it's definitely a book worth reading, but I just hoped it would end up being so so much more!

Say it with me: another play I had to read for class!

All jokes aside, I really love that I had to revisit this one, since I think it's one of the cleverest works of Shakespeare's, as the "solution" at the end always gets me!

This is a lighthearted play, filled with humour and a light dose of tragedy as well, because would it be Shakespeare without some drama?

I don't specifically have a favourite character in this play and tbh I think this is mostly because I felt like we didn't have enough time to explore each character and their motives, relationships, etc. I would have loved just a tiiiny bit more time was spent on the different relationships, but I recognize that this is a play, so this can't be done as easily as it would in a novel.

Portia is a character though that I really admire, I love how witty and determined she is, she's a very independent woman and my two favourite scenes with her are definitely the court room scene (what a badass!!!) and the last scene where she's "torturing" her husband about their ring.

Overall this is a lovely play. I would have to note though that I was very uncomfortable reading the way the Jews were depicted, it was very stereotypical and almost close to a caricature, but I'll have to recognize that it was written a looooong, long time ago, so I'll cut Shakespeare some slack.