read this a while ago, I loved this boooooooook

Having reread this, I have decided to change my rating to three stars because I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I did at the age of 14. (Which I feel so horrible about, but whatever, I've grown up, I guess.) Anyway, I'm going to write something up on the blog about my feelings for all three of the original books soonish.


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Rating: ***** Suggested Age: 14

This wonderful series by Ransom Riggs couldn’t have ended better. I was extremely pleased with Library of Souls, but apparently not pleased enough to write this review on time (oops, it was finals week). Anyway, I loved this book. Everything tied up perfectly, which I usually can’t say about a finale. The characters stayed just as amazing as they were when I first picked up the series. The world evolved to fit the plot of the final book, but kept it’s unique and exciting qualities. It also had plot twists, which always make me happy as I can’t stand predictable books.

Furthermore, Riggs writes extraordinarily well. I’m so glad I met him when I was at Yallwest because he’s become one of my favorite authors. He flawlessly incorporates time travel within his story, which isn’t an easy thing to do when it creates so many paradoxes, and writes such well-developed characters. I think Emma is my favorite because she doesn’t let anything stop her.

I’ll always rank this book and series really high on my favorites list. It’s like no other series out there and everything about it is spectacular. I highly recommend checking it out, you won’t regret it (I hope)!

My favorite quote: “No one can hurt you as badly as the people you love.” -Miss Peregrine herself, page 356. I love this quote because it so perfectly describes what life is like. Always the wise one, Miss Peregrine.

-Book Hugger

For more reviews like this, check out my blog at http://www.bookhuggerreviews.com

This book is literally candy. It had no substance whatsoever, but I enjoyed it nonetheless (I did read it in a day, you know). And I started it this afternoon, so I'm going to consider that #skills. Anyway, I probably won't write a review for this because *Shrug* it isn't going to long or worth my time to write one.

-Book Hugger

For real reviews, check out my blog at http://www.bookhuggerreviews.com

A Darker Shade of Magic was e v e r y t h i n g. It was so much more than I expected, even given that one of my friends screams her praise of it to the rooftops. Honestly, when it comes down to it, there's no words to describe how amazing this book is, which is probably why I couldn't have expected this. It was beautiful, strong and aching and epic. From the instant we met Lila Bard, I fell in love with her. She's so strong and kick-butt and fearless. I aspire to be her and it'd also be pretty dang cool to get to know her.

“I'm not going to die," she said. "Not till I've seen it."
"Seen what?"
Her smile widened. "Everything.”

The world, with four Londons, and coats made of coats, and naive princes, was remarkable. I fell in love with it almost instantaneously. Its description was so flawless and perfect, fully entrapping me into the story with the mysteriousness of it all. I cannot wait to see more of this world in the following two books.

The characters were everything I've ever wanted. Lila, whom I already spoke of, was spectacular. Kell, was brave and crude and I love him beyond words. Rhy was precious and the scenes with him made my heart ache. I am so excited to read more about him and get to know his character better.

“Aren't you afraid of dying?" he asked Lila now.
She looked at him as if it were a strange question. And then she shook her head. "Death comes for everyone," she said simply. "I'm not afraid of dying. But I am afraid of dying here." She swept her hand over the room, the tavern, the city. "I'd rather die on an adventure than live standing still.”

The plot was the least developed portion of the book, but maybe because it was so much more character driven and world driven. It was more like Schwab decided to put us into the world she saw inside her head, and the plot came second to everything else. The magic system was fully-fledged and made complete sense--it was one of the first times I've well understood one in a novel. The plot, however, was on the weaker side, but I can see where it is headed and it has the bones to become so much stronger with A Gathering of Shadows. I couldn't drop a star for this because despite it all, I couldn't stop reading it and don't exactly find the plot to be a problem. Sure, it was weak, but it didn't feel underdeveloped. It felt as though Schwab had fully intended for A Darker Shade of Magic to be more of a character study, an introduction of sorts, and to further develop everything with the novel that follows.

I highly recommend this book. And as a note, don't be turned off if you see it shelved as an adult book. It could easily be young adult, but the characters are older and the writing has more depth to it, which is probably why it's not. 

“You know so little of war. Battles may be fought from the outside in, but wars are won from the inside out.”

-Book Hugger

For other reviews, check out my blog at http://www.bookhuggerreviews.com

Sadly, I didn’t find The Da Vinci Code as entertaining as I had hoped. It took me more than two weeks to read when it should have taken me a week at most. I couldn’t bring myself to read for more than fifteen minutes because nothing about this book captured my attention. At some points, I felt as though it was interesting enough, but my opinions never went farther than that. Overall, I was extremely disappointed with this book.

THINGS I LIKED

I found the premise of the book really interesting, which is why I was compelled to read it in the first place. I once watched a documentary that was also about the Holy Grail and this book. Since I enjoyed the documentary (surprisingly, I’m not actually a documentary person).

I enjoyed the occasional chapter or so because they were sometimes interesting. I’m a sucker for a good mystery when it comes down to it, so I found some parts decent enough to rate it two stars instead of one.

That’s about it for the parts of The Da Vinci Code that I liked, but I honestly wish there were more. Rating a book with this few of stars really disappoints me.

THINGS I DISLIKED

Dan Brown wrote this book as though he held up a thesaurus during the editing process and replaced every word with a synonym of it. From the first paragraph, I was already annoyed.

The chapters were really short. I’m not actually sure what my opinion on chapter size lengths is. I suppose, I don’t like them drastically long (think, thirty pages) or obnoxiously short (think, three pages). I like something in between that. This book’s chapters were in between one page and six pages, with maybe one or two actually making a comfortable size length for me. When I read books with short chapters, I feel like everything’s too rushed and it messes with the pacing way too much.

I didn’t like the romance that much either because I seemed really contrived. I don’t exactly believe that every book needs to have a love interest in it, not if it’s not essential to the plot. Love was not essential to the plot in this book.

I found the writing bland and the story boring. I went into it hoping for an exciting mystery, especially with my mom raving about it. It wasn’t exciting. I just found everything rather plain. Maybe I needed more magic or maybe I was hoping for more character development (I live for character development).

Lastly, I found all the constant switching from point of view confusing and unnecessary. Some authors can switch POV really well, but Dan Brown is not one of them. The worst part about POV switches is when you can’t stand reading one of the character’s parts. That was how I felt about reading Silas’s POV. His part was dry and unexciting (a trend here).

OVERALL

Like I said, this book was a huge disappointment to me. I don’t really recommend it, unless you want to be disappointed as well (or maybe not, it depends on who you are). Also, I’m not sure if I’m interested in watching the movie anymore, not when the book fell so flat for me.

-Book Hugger

HEY GUYS, I CHANGED MY POSTING FORMAT, BE PROUD

For more reviews like this, check out my blog! http://www.bookhuggerreviews.com

You might be wondering why I'm reading this or why it's taken me so long to read this and allow me to tell you a brief story. When I was in sixth grade, we had the choice between band and literary...something. I did band, not because I didn't enjoy reading, but because I liked flute and my friends were doing it and it was just the "thing to do." Of course, I ended up hating flute, but that's another story. My sixth grade teacher had the rest of the class (those that weren't in band) read Where the Red Fern Grows. I was close to this teacher, we both shared a love of literature, knew each other's families, and she really pushed me as a writer and acknowledged my talent. She told me that even though I hadn't read it with the class, I should read Where the Red Fern Grows. She passed away the next year. I still haven't read it, but I go to college in less than two weeks and I think she's probably up in Heaven shaking her fist at me for having not read it yet, so this is for her, honestly. I hope I love it, even though I know how it ends. It would just feel wrong of me to hate it.

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I have since finished and while it is definitely not going to become a favorite of mine, it will nevertheless hold a place in my heart. I am glad to have read it.

-Book Hugger

It's been so long since I've written a review (so many apologies for this) and it's been ages since I finished King's Cage, but let's see how I can do here!

As usual, I LOVED this Victoria Aveyard masterpiece. It was filled with plot twists and angst and Maven Calore. Unfortunately, I cannot stand the primary love-interest Cal, who is as flat as a piece of cardboard...so, I go for Maven, the troubled and sadistic guy. I think I have a problem, but no shame, right? I'm also a member of the I-Don't-Hate-Mare-Barrow Club. I still can't really see why people find her irritating. Sure, she complained a fair amount in Glass Sword, but it was 100% called for. She had been through a TON and of course she was a bit damaged. Though, if you didn't find her likable then, never fear, she really has grown since then and was a million times more strong in King's Cage.

My main problem is that I feel as though I read it too quickly to understand a lot of what happened. The plot is complex and detailed, which means that if I don't pay attention to every single word, I'll probably end up a little confused. I can't really rate this lower for that because that was my fault...maybe I'll just reread this series before book four.

A slight complaint as well, but I really didn't enjoy reading about Cameron. I also was confused here because 1-I didn't remember her at all from Glass Sword and 2-I thought she was a guy for a decent amount of time. Both of those are my fault, but it was not my fault that she lacked personality and complained way too much. I lived for Mare's chapters, which were EVERYTHING (and usually Maven was present).

I also started liking Evangeline? What can I say, things have changed. One thing Aveyard does really well is her character arcs and she builds really, really realistic characters. Applause to her for that! And when we found out Evangeline's love interest, I was so so surprised (but not in a bad way, don't worry)!!

Last little thing, but I loved the "subtle" references to other authors. Some of the soldiers were named after Aveyard's friends and I thought it was so cute. Author goals, if you ask me!

Anyway, I highly recommend this series! It's not for everyone, but it's definitely for me! At least give it a shot, you might end up falling in love with it (and Maven Calore). Not to mention, WHERE'S THE NEXT BOOK??? I DO NOT LIKE CLIFFHANGERS!!!

-Book Hugger

For more reviews like this, check out my blog at http://www.bookhuggerreviews.com

I thoroughly enjoyed being enveloped in the Wizarding World again, but I was also disappointed. Maybe my expectations were too high and maybe I was expecting something different. I wasn’t expecting a story that resembled fanfiction. I certainly wasn’t expecting many of the plot twists that change the way I looked at some of the characters in the original series. However, given this is a work at least inspired or touched by J.K. Rowling’s hands, I cannot give it any less than five stars. I devoured this book and being with my favorite characters once more was worth the disappointment. I loved the new characters as well, specifically Scorpius, who makes my heart want to sing and fly and hug him. Okay, I really love Scorpius and I have no shame.

The plot was exciting, keeping me hooked the entire time in true Harry Potter fashion. The characters were slightly unlike themselves, but I credit that to it being a play and not completely written by J.K. Rowling and the characters being adults. Harry is no longer the eleven year-old boy that stole our hearts, he is older, wiser, and an a fully-grown man. The same goes for Hermione, Ron, and Ginny, but Ron is the most in-character of them all. Even when he’s older, he manages to get just as jealous as when he was 17.

Also, here’s one of the most beautiful quotes that perfectly captures the friendship between Albus and Scorpius (which I just so happened to love…a lot): “That’s the thing, isn’t it? About friendships. You don’t know what he needs. You only know he needs it. Find him, Scorpius. You two–you belong together.” Their friendship was one of my favorite things about the book. I loved how unlikely it was, but how perfect it was at the same time. I appreciated that it brought Harry and Draco closer as well, showing the brighter sides of Draco Malfoy (and there are brighter sides).

While I had problems with Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, ultimately I adored it. I had waited six years for this to come out and I think it’s understandable that I was disappointed. That doesn’t lessen my need to shove it in everyones’ faces, demanding that they read it, though. To all the Potterheads in the world, this play is for you. Oh, how I’d love to see it…but alas, at least we have been given the privilege of reading it.

-Book Hugger

For more reviews like this, check out my blog http://www.bookhuggerreviews.com

I think the first half was a lot better than the last half; idk, I had trouble connecting with Aaron and his decision-making process. Everything felt very impulsive and abrupt. But anyway, it was a solid read for this morning when I didn't want to get out of bed.

-Book Hugger

I'll be honest and say this book got a lot better towards the end. The last 150 pages were REALLY good. Although, the main character infuriated me and I still wish some characters were held accountable for their actions. All in all, a poignant novel about coming of age and losing innocence, just needed something more for me.

Also I highly recommend this for fans of Dear Evan Hansen—it has some DEH vibes!!

Not going to do a full review because college kicks by butt, but if you like me, check out my blog at bookhuggerreviews.com

-Book Hugger