“Thirteen-year-old Daine has always had a special connection with animals, but only when she’s forced to leave home does she realize it’s more than a knack—it’s magic. With this wild magic, not only can Daine speak to animals, but she can also make them obey her. Daine takes a job handling horses for the Queen’s Riders, where she meets the master mage Numair and becomes his student.

Under Numair’s guidance, Daine explores the scope of her magic. But she encounters other beings, too, who are not so gentle. These terrifying creatures, called Immortals, have been imprisoned in the Divine Realms for the past four hundred years—but now someone has broken the barrier. And it’s up to Daine and her friends to defend their world from an Immortal attack.”

I really liked that Diane has a special connection to the animals, since I am an animal lover. I felt like this was an unique story. I did find the writing to be dull and dry in my opinion. Plus, I felt like the audiobook was annoying because between certain scenes and chapters it would play an annoying noise. If I wasn’t doing the readathon and it wasn’t audio, then I would have DNFed it. I read this for the Trick or Treat Readathon for Find Your Familiar prompt.

“Gwen has a destiny to fulfill, but no one will tell her what it is.
She's only recently learned that she is the Ruby, the final member of the time-traveling Circle of Twelve, and since then nothing has been going right. She suspects the founder of the Circle, Count Saint-German, is up to something nefarious, but nobody will believe her. And she's just learned that her charming time-traveling partner, Gideon, has probably been using her all along.
Emerald Green is the stunning conclusion to Kerstin Gier's Ruby Red Trilogy, picking up where Sapphire Blue left off, reaching new heights of intrigue and romance as Gwen finally uncovers the secrets of the time-traveling society and learns her fate.”

I really thought this was an okay conclusion to the series. I think I really out grown these YA books since I didn’t enjoy book two either. I really like the time-traveling elements. I only listened to this because this was my mystery candy prompt, which was to read a book with a color in the title and I automatically thought of this book.

“Evil always seeks a foothold. We must not give it one.
The electrifying conclusion to the New York Times and Indiebound bestselling Serpent & Dove trilogy is perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Kendare Blake.

Lou has spent her whole life running. Now, after a crushing blow from Morgane, the time has come to go home—and claim what is rightfully hers.

But this is no longer the Lou her friends knew. No longer the Lou who captured a chasseur’s heart. A darkness has settled over her, and this time it will take more than love to drive it out.”

This is the third and final book of the Serpent & Dove trilogy and I’m happy it is over with. I freaking loved Serpent & Dove and gave it 5 stars. I was obsessed with it. I read Blood & Honey a year after it came out and thought it was good, but not as great as Serpent & Dove and gave it 4 stars. Can you see a pattern? Each book gets one less star for me. This book was not my cup of tea. The first quarter to half was very slow and felt like the scenes were to long and could have been condensed. But, the last half of the book to quarter could have been expanded on, such as the war. What happened to the witches after the war was over? Are they still persecuted? Also, I felt like things were too easy at times for the characters. I did feel like this book had a lot of filler too. I did like the romance and the found family aspect of this book. This was just eh for me.

“When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder—much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. And she’s more than a little startled when the body disappears into thin air. Soon Clary is introduced to the world of the Shadowhunters, a secret cadre of warriors dedicated to driving demons out of our world and back to their own. And Clary is introduced with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is almost killed by a grotesque monster. How could a mere human survive such an attack and kill a demon? The Shadowhunters would like to know…”

Okay, I bought this book back in 2013 after seeing the movie since I freaking loved the movie. I tried reading it when I got it and couldn’t get into it. Then, a few months later I tried reading it on the plane when I was moving from Maryland to Idaho for college. That didn’t go well either. I hesitantly picked up The Infernal Devices and absolutely loved it. I even read most of all the spin of books (I just need to finish the last two of The Dark Artifices). I love them all, but I never could get into this. Well, this time I had an excuse to read this! I am doing the trick or treat readathon and there is a prompt to read the oldest book on your TBR and this is it! I did audiobook this and devoured it. It was hard to get into it again at first because I feel like the writing isn’t great, but this is her debut I believe. However, I really enjoyed this and thought the characters were great. I can’t wait to actually read the main series!

Release Date: 11/23/21

“The Emperor is Dead. Long live the Emperor.

Lin Sukai finally sits on the throne she won at so much cost, but her struggles are only just beginning. Her people don’t trust her. Her political alliances are weak. And in the north-east of the Empire, a rebel army of constructs is gathering, its leader determined to take the throne by force.

Yet an even greater threat is on the horizon, for the Alanga–the powerful magicians of legend–have returned to the Empire. They claim they come in peace, and Lin will need their help in order to defeat the rebels and restore peace.

But can she trust them?”

I was so excited to get an arc of this! I loved, loved, loved The Bone Shard Daughter last year and this was one of my anticipated reads of 2021. I really love Lin and Jovis with how their relationship grows. The politics definitely picked up in this book and I am a sucker for political intrigue. I love how all the characters have come together and I’m really looking forward to the next book to see what will happen.

“Leading Ladies do not end up on tabloid covers.

After a messy public breakup, soap opera darling Jasmine Lin Rodriguez finds her face splashed across the tabloids. When she returns to her hometown of New York City to film the starring role in a bilingual romantic comedy for the number one streaming service in the country, Jasmine figures her new “Leading Lady Plan” should be easy enough to follow—until a casting shake-up pairs her with telenovela hunk Ashton Suárez.

Leading Ladies don’t need a man to be happy.

After his last telenovela character was killed off, Ashton is worried his career is dead as well. Joining this new cast as a last-minute addition will give him the chance to show off his acting chops to American audiences and ping the radar of Hollywood casting agents. To make it work, he’ll need to generate smoking-hot on-screen chemistry with Jasmine. Easier said than done, especially when a disastrous first impression smothers the embers of whatever sexual heat they might have had.

Leading Ladies do not rebound with their new costars.

With their careers on the line, Jasmine and Ashton agree to rehearse in private. But rehearsal leads to kissing, and kissing leads to a behind-the-scenes romance worthy of a soap opera. While their on-screen performance improves, the media spotlight on Jasmine soon threatens to destroy her new image and expose Ashton’s most closely guarded secret.”

I just thought this was okay and it not my favorite for a rom com. I found the characters to be very immature and I get that they have shortcomings and insecurities, but it was constant and it was just silly why they broke up due to those insecurities and shortcomings. I really liked the Telenovela aspect of the story and thought that was fun. I read this for a book with fall colors on the cover for the readathon. If I wasn’t doing this for a readathon and didn’t do an audiobook, then I probably would struggled with this book to be honest.

Trigger Warnings: Suicide/Death, Rape, Harassment, and Bullying.

“You can’t stop the future.
You can’t rewind the past.
The only way to learn the secret . . . is to press play.

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker—his classmate and crush—who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah's voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out why.

Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah's pain, and as he follows Hannah’s recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever.”

Okay, this is going to get controversial. I didn’t like this book and really struggled with it. I wanted to dnf it, but stuck with it for the readathon I’m in and this is for the banned book prompt. This was a bit triggering for me too. I’m going to list my mental health disorders real quick. I have bipolar 2 disorder, anxiety, and adhd. With my bipolar disorder I spend more time depressed than hypomanic and I don’t get so depressed that I can’t get out of bed or do hygiene. It’s just I don’t like myself, I struggle with liking things, struggle with focus, I’m not happy, I hate myself, and just hate life and I do a lot of times have those dark thoughts, so I know where Hannah is coming from and I know that deep pain that feels like it is swallowing you up and where you don’t want to exist anymore. You feel like know one is there for you and you’re hopeless. I get that. However, I personally feel like and this is what annoyed me with the book as well as not liking it is that I feel like someone who feels that darkness is not going to sit and record tapes. It’s going to take hours to do that. Maybe I’m wrong. I never got to the part where I planned things thankfully. I would just think you would end all and maybe leave a quick note. Then, I just feel like the tapes are horrible because it is bullying back and making people feel terrible about themselves. What they did is wrong, don’t get me wrong, but could it lead to ending themselves too? I just could see a sequence of that happening. I don’t know. I just have struggled with this authors work before too and I struggled with the show as well. The one thing I do like is that this book could get people to talk about mental health and break the stigma about it and about getting help.

“Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who's ever been chosen.

That's what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he's probably right.

Half the time, Simon can't even make his wand work, and the other half, he starts something on fire. His mentor's avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there's a magic-eating monster running around, wearing Simon's face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here—it's their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon's infuriating nemesis didn't even bother to show up.

Carry On is a ghost story, a love story and a mystery. It has just as much kissing and talking as you'd expect from a Rainbow Rowell story - but far, far more monsters.”

My favorite and first Rainbow Rowell book was Fangirl and I loved it for how cute, charming, and how it created discussion for mental health disorders/addiction. If you have read Fangirl, you know Cath loves Simon and Baz. She writes fan fiction on them and we see snippets of these characters. Well, here is Carry On, which is about Baz and Simon. I read this because I needed a book with a vampire and Baz is a vampire. So, it worked and I was planning on reading the series anyway. I really enjoyed the characters, the banter, and most of it. I do recommend this.

“Elle is spending the summer before college at her family beach house with her boyfriend Noah and best friend Lee hoping to have the best summer ever—until new choices about college make her question what her heart really wants. Will Elle have to choose between her best friend and her boyfriend?”

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Okay, I really love this series in books and movies. I just love them, but I’m a bit disappointed in the third book AND movie. If you didn’t know Marco is actually Levi in this book and has a backstory. Anyway, I love Lee and Elle spending time doing the bucket list. I hated Lee and Noah fighting over Elle’s attention and getting annoyed if she spent more time with one and not the other. The biggest disappointment for me is Elle and Noah breaking up. I sometimes want a female character to end up by herself and be independent, but here I spent 3 books cheering them on it made me frustrated and the ending is open ended! So, due to my love for Elle and Noah, I believe they got back together and lived happily ever after. Overall this book was a fast read and fun. I do recommend this series.

“My name is Chloe Saunders and my life will never be the same again.

All I wanted was to make friends, meet boys, and keep on being ordinary. I don't even know what that means anymore. It all started on the day that I saw my first ghost—and the ghost saw me.

Now there are ghosts everywhere and they won't leave me alone. To top it all off, I somehow got myself locked up in Lyle House, a "special home" for troubled teens. Yet the home isn't what it seems. Don't tell anyone, but I think there might be more to my housemates than meets the eye. The question is, whose side are they on? It's up to me to figure out the dangerous secrets behind Lyle House . . . before its skeletons come back to haunt me.”

I read this for the necromancy prompt for the trick or treat bingo readathon. Which, I have like 7-8 books to go before clearing my board! Yay! Also, my team I’m captain over, Team Candy is totally slaying it. Anyway, I remember in 8th grade I remember people reading this book and I wanted to read it, but just never got to it. Now, I finally did and found it well done. I really like how we think the character is experiencing schizophrenia, but really isn’t. The characters were well done and the home definitely would have been a hardship. I did find the main character to be a bit immature for 15, but maybe that was the narrator with how she sounded.