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Showing posts from May, 2017

Review: The Raven Boys

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The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater My rating: 3 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 3/5 stars. I promise I would've loved this if; 1. It wasn't ONLY available on my phone in tiny font (I love reading on my kindle; but on the iPhone it just makes my eyes hurt). 2. It wasn't a 40°C day and I'm melting. It was just super hard to follow when I was hot and in pain (my eyes looking at my iPhone screen). I'm still really confused so if anybody can actually explain the plot that'd be great thank u! All I understood; - she's clairvoyant - Noah is a mystery - I like Adam and his storyline (tbh honest it's a bit Nate from GG S1) - Gansey is as interesting as his name (why is he usually the person in focus? I thought Blue was????) - Whelk is bad - 2 of them are roommates (but I didn't gather much from it) Right? Help me somebody I really wanna love this series View all my revi...

Review: How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire

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How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire by Kerrelyn Sparks My rating: 3 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 3/5 stars. It could've been worse; but it could've been better. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. But this was published in 2005, and since 2005-- the world of vampire FanFiction was evolved, and my standards have too. Honestly it wasn't as cringey as I thought it'd ever be?? I feel indifferent to this book. It had 2 enjoyable, lively characters, it was just the author's narration that was a bit bazaar. But that's a romance novel for you-- the author words things with strange synonyms and hits the thesaurus hard. Their love story was only slightly too superficial for me. They had a very cheery journey. Pretty much fluff. The smut scene was extremely underwhelming- so if you're reading it for this reason, ignore it. The first half is basically in the mind of a denti...

Review: Lord of Shadows

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Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare My rating: 4 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads First half of the book was 4 stars. Second half of the book was 5 stars. 4.5/5 stars overall. I have sat on my bed for half an hour trying to gather my thoughts. Any spoilers ahead will be tagged, if possible. Overall, this book was good. I've been reading a lot of SJM lately, so switching to CC's writing was a bit hard. I found Cassie's writing to have a lot more dialogue ; which I have developed a disliking to. Many chapters in this book made me feel like I was reading a script. I certainly preferred the latter half of the book; the drama finally picked up. The last 200 pages had me hooked, but for any newcomers to Clare's work, I wouldn't be surprised if they DNF after the first 200 pages. I didn't mind, because I'm used to her character building nowadays. Positive stuff: The diversity in this book was ...

So Close to the Ending

I'm in the last hundred pages of Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare; and I don't want it to end. We have to wait TWO YEARS for the ending. I can already feel myself dying. I'll be in my 20s by then??????????????????????????????????????????????????? CASSIE; GURL. I AM NOT OKAY WITH THAT.

Review: The Chemist

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The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer My rating: 4 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 4/5 stars. This was such an awesome read! For anybody having doubts because, ohhh, it's written by the Twilight author-- forget about it. This is adult fiction at its finest! It was written beautifully and smoothly, such a pleasant read. It had some humorous scenes, but what I loved most was the suspense. My only other note is that I hate Kevin. Which you're supposed to. So well done, Steph. Another fantastic read! View all my reviews

Review: Never Always Sometimes

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Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid My rating: 4 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 4.5/5 stars. I loved it! It's promoted like CRAZY for "John Green fans". I'll tell you what: it's even better than John Green. It's his work; but with realistic, un-pretentious teenagers, who have decent epiphanies (okay JGreen still has good writing, in just saying, I have a slight disdain to his books- especially the older I grow, but this book was superb!). The first part was 2.5 stars. But by the end, it was thrilling. It portrayed teenagers dead-on. I loved it. I highly recommend for a quick contemporary read!! :) View all my reviews

Review: The Van Alen Legacy

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The Van Alen Legacy by Melissa de la Cruz My rating: 3 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 2.5/5 stars. That's right. This is the first one that I've actually raised the rating. This instalment was way better than the rest! I enjoyed the tension and build up. It wasn't AS predictable. View all my reviews

Review: Revelations

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Revelations by Melissa de la Cruz My rating: 2 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 2/5 stars. I do admit, these do get better the further you go along the series. However the main issue is; they have so many subplots and other lives BUT ONLY 200 PAGES??? It is not going in nearly enough detail. It's pathetic. View all my reviews

Review: Masquerade

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Masquerade by Melissa de la Cruz My rating: 2 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 2/5 stars. This was better than the last. But to quote page 155: "Yawwwn". View all my reviews

Review: Blue Bloods

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Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz My rating: 2 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 2/5 stars. I'm super disappointed in this one. I thought I'd like it so much I borrowed half the series. I'm still going to read on, but please note: I also DNF this within the first 20 pages. It's bland, it's dull, predictable and poorly constructed. It's like a very, very bad version of VA (a fave of mine). It was written way too immaturely. View all my reviews

Review: Me Before You

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Me Before You by Jojo Moyes My rating: 4 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 3.5/5 stars. From the reviews I knew it was going to be a sad ending. And I like Will's choice. It was sucky, but I respected him a lot. I think I would relate to his attitude. And yes. This all happened within 6 month. You know what? I still classify that as instalove, and I wasn't terribly attached. It still made me feel my feels though. Fantastic afternoon read while I'm PMSing. View all my reviews

Daily Log

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Good evening, bookworms. TGIF! I hope you've had a productive week. I just spent 11hrs doing my EDUC assignment, Aboriginal Studies homework, and other readings for history classes. I'm knackered. My legs won't stop quivering. I was so tense... My reward? I reborrowed the entire series of Throne of Glass.  That's right ladies and gents; I'm giving this series another go. Why? I simply adored  SJM's other series; ACOTAR. You can read my reviews for book 1 and book 2 here. Book 3 will be posted sometime in August/September, according to my queue. Have a happy weekend! I'm gonna indulge in (hopefully) a rekindled love, the other one

Review: The Hating Game

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The Hating Game by Sally Thorne My rating: 5 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads Review to come. I just need a second to process how much I love this book. Clue; look at my updates. I LOVE THIS BOOK. REVIEW: 10000000/5 stars. Yep. My first favourite of the year. So idk where to start in reviewing this. I found this book because it popped up on my feed that somebody liked one of their friend's reviews about it. I remember they loved it dearly, but I checked out their account and saw they were addicted to smut. I'm typically a YA reader, so I was pretty much turned off it. Still, I added it to my TBR pile. In no way was I in a hurry to read it, but as I was rushing out from my closing library a few days ago, I caught my eye and I knew I had to borrow it. I don't know what it was. But that bloody book was calling to me. Okay so I think I'm going to review this book by going through what happens in ...

Review: The Immortal Rules

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The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa My rating: 4 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 3.5 stars. This was awesome and a good old fashion, well written and in depth journey into the realm of vampires. I loved the whole world's set up. I could rave about it for days. The only think I didn't like? Was the boring, 2D character… Dear old, bloody Zeke. He's predictable and useless in the story. That's all. View all my reviews

Review: State of Grace

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State of Grace by Hilary Badger My rating: 2 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads Okay so I don't really like reviewing books I didn't enjoy, so here's a brief list of what I thought: - very similar to the Uglies by Scott Westerfield - Blaze is so bland - it's supposed to be a YA fiction, but I really suits a middle grade audience if it weren't for the infantile manner of how they refer to sexy, drugs and other adult themes (lightly touched, you could skip over many of them without realising what the concept was) View all my reviews

Review: Too Young to Die: 20th Century Icons That Moved Generations/20e Eeuswe Iconen Die Generaties Beroerden/Icones Du 20e Siecle Qui Ont Emu Des Generations

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Too Young to Die: 20th Century Icons That Moved Generations/20e Eeuswe Iconen Die Generaties Beroerden/Icones Du 20e Siecle Qui Ont Emu Des Generations by Birgit Krols My rating: 4 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads I loved that it had a mix of European and American stars. View all my reviews

Review: Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children

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Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs My rating: 2 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 2.5/5 stars. Wow what a disappointment??? I really didn't like the writing IM SORRY! I know how popular this book is. But it felt way too immature for me to read, and the main protag is 16??? 1 year younger than I????????? I'm not usually a fan of pictures in my novels either. Idk I will still see the movie after this point idc I can't see how this is so popular?? The writing style reminded me of when I tried to read Narnia when I was 12. Needless to say; I don't like that series. I don't like the format nor the style. Could somebody please convince me otherwise? Why do so many people love this series? View all my reviews

Review: Beautiful Redemption

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Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia My rating: 3 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 3.5/5 stars. It would be a 4 but the ending BROKE MY LIL DARN HEART. This was a lot of back and forth communication, with a bit of a mystery. But the ending didn't really resolve anything IMO. I'm sad. I do, overall, love this series! I'm sad it's ended. But I will always stick by this; these books were all unnecessarily long, and easily could've been shortened to 300 pages each. View all my reviews

Review: The Retribution of Mara Dyer

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The Retribution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin My rating: 4 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 4/5 stars. This book was amazing!! It reminded me a lot like Beautiful Creatures-- with the flashbacks to the 1800's. I loved how the book went full circle. I loved that we finally get to understand their powers. I love the twist of Jules. Daniel was a pain I s2g. Mara was SUCH A BADASS!!!!!! She was awesome to read. I'm happy this series has ended :) View all my reviews

Review: The DUFF

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The DUFF by Kody Keplinger My rating: 3 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads I still haven't decided if his book deserves 3 or 4 stars. There's a lot of "blurgh" moments that I hate reading in my paranormal fantasy books. But this is a contemporary, so there isn't the element of the paranormal to change that initial setting. But the angst around from 3/4 in really hooked me. I liked how realistic and dark Bianca was. Her fantasy basically came true, so it was a sweet 'meh' ending. I really want to watch the movie now. View all my reviews

Review: Awaken

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Awaken by Meg Cabot My rating: 3 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 3/5 stars. Okay, in my defence, I had 2 really loud students in the library talk almost the entire time I read this. I only started to comprehend anything from page 189. Around when Seth kisses Pierce. So I basically missed most of the story. That's why I don't think much happened. It's a 'meh' story. When John met Pierce's mother-- I was cracking up in the library (oops). I liked the ending. I can't believe it just… stops there??????? I would've loved a lot more drama. This should've been a spin off novella tbh. View all my reviews

Review: Wool Omnibus Edition

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Wool Omnibus Edition by Hugh Howey My rating: 3 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 3.5/5 stars. This book had an interesting premise, but it was hard for me to read the flow of the writing most of the time. I enjoyed the backstory at the beginning, as well as when Juliette reaches another silo. I didn't really understand what was going on around the 3/4 mark, but that could be because I was falling asleep (it's late here). I don't think this should be promoted the 'next Hunger Games' phenomenon. It's just a simple YA post-apocalyptic dystopia. Where there's the threat of radiation and the infamous IT/technology antagonist. I could picture this being turned into a miniseries on TV. That would be good! View all my reviews