2015 Reading Challenges

Hey guys, how you doing in this holiday season? Everything here is pretty good and I'm just enjoying this month to really read A LOT but anyway, today I'm here to announce that I'll be participating on some exciting reading challenges during 2015! I'm usually terrible at making TBR's and following them but I think this challenges will work out first, 'cause I'm not gonna try to achieve some crazy numbers and second 'cause I have good motivations to do them (aka amazing & exciting books to read).

The first challenge will be Flights of Fantasy hosted by Alexa & Rachel which is a very low key challenge to basically just read as much fantasy as you want through 2015, amazing right? You can join in and get to know more about the challenge on the sing-up post. I have always been a fantasy reader, since childhood my favorite books were Harry Potter and LOTR but since these last years I just found myself not as much immersed on this gender as I would like, so this challenge is perfect! I will attempt to read 30 fantasy books which is 10 more than I read this year but I specially hope to tackle some high/epic fantasy weapons monsters books that I already have on my shelves like third GoT, and some Brandon Sanderson. 

This challenge came from heaven! I love to re-read books but with so many books always on my TBR I find myself guilt for spend my time re-reading some books, but now I have a pretty good excuse to take my favorites from the shelves and curled up with them again. This challenge is hosted by Hannah & Kelly and you can join in & find out more about this challenge on the sing-up post. I'm aiming to re-read 12 books next year, at least one at each month to give the pleasure to break from schedule when I fell like it or am in a sort of slump, some of the books that I'm hoping to get to are: all of the Harry Potter - it's been years since I re-read them all, it's about time to re-visit my favorite series of all times! -, some Tolkien - this will count for both challenges! Also I read The Hobbit, and The fellowship of the Ring and The two towers but never got around to read The return of the King, so it's about damn time to re-read those to finish this series -, also on the note of re-reading to finish a series is Percy Jackson - I read all of them except for the last two of the Blood of Olympus series, so yeah re-read to read! 

That was it for now guys, but I hope you're all having an amazing end of year and that 2015 will bring even more exciting books & blogging things for our lives!

The Lynburn Legacy - Sarah Rees Brennan

Unspoken, Untold & Unmade by Sarah Rees Brennan
Series: The Lynburn Legacy 
Published by Random House for Young Readers on September 11, 2012 | August 29, 2013 | September 23, 2014
Pages: 384 | 336 | 384
Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance
Format: eBook | eBook | eARC
Source: Purchased | Purchased | Netgalley 

Summary from Unspoken: 

Kami Glass loves someone she's never met... a boy she's talked to in her head ever since she was born. Having an imaginary friend has made fitting in hard - but that's never bothered Kami. She has her best friend, runs the school newspaper, and is only occasionally caught talking to herself. Her life is just the way she likes it.
But all that changes when the mysterious Lynburn family return to Kami's village, along with teenagers, Jared and Ash, one of whom is eerily familiar to Kami...
As life as she knows it begins to unravel, Kami is determined to get to the bottom of every mystery. Who is responsible for the bloody deeds in the depths of the woods? What is her own mother hiding? And now that her imaginary friend has become a real boy, does she still love him?
And can she trust him?

Book 1 -  5 stars: 
THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD GUYS! I still think it was the best of this trilogy because it was banter-fluffy and snarky and funny all the way through and it was glorious. The characters in here are the kind of people I want to be friends in real life: Angela & Rusty  with their laziness and ferously loyalty to Kami, Holly with her bright positivity, Jared with his emo way of living, but especially Kami -- she was the star of this book, this girl doesn't wait around to things to fall over her lap which is such a relieve and chance from the usual heroines on the paranormal gender, she has a Nancy Drew/Veronica Mars spirit and goes find the answers for herself.

Book 2 - 4.5 stars:
This book was a tensy bit worse than the first one. The plot on this book thickens and things go to a much higher stake, the tension was palpable and it was so hard to put this book down BUT at the same time the characters infuriated me at times. Jared and Kami are so full of angst (which is something that I do not appreciate on my romances) with their I-can't-live-without-each-other but at the same time can't-touch-each-other and can't-accept-love, ugh just make out and have your HEA already I'm tired of waiting! On a more happy side we got a little bit of Holly's POV and I have to say that I loved her even more on this book and wish there was more of her POV's.

Book 3 - 4 stars:
This is hard to put on words but I had the same problems that in book 2. In this book there was even more angst and Jared was still full on emo and Kami still didn't get him and ugh, it just frustrated me because I really thought we had got over this on book 2 and them it felt like it was backtracked again just so that the couple would suffer 'till the very ending just not okay. Also there was a scene when Ash did something that I was just like WTF IS HAPPENING? Because I thought we had gotten over that too. But the plot really saves this since there was a lot of heartbreak and oh-my-gosh and holly-crap-how-are-they-going-to-survive-this, the stakes are so high and Brennan really doesn't care to torture our hearts, so yeah painfully worth the read.

Summing up:
If you like the paranormal gender I think you're gonna love this series! (despite the fact that it's actually fantasy it reads A LOT like paranormal books, except better than most that is out there). It's full of funny moments and the characters have such a banter together that is just gold, despite some frustrating moments this quickly became one of my ultimate favorite series of all times and I'm sure that in a few years I will have the need to revisit Sorry-in-the-Vale and Kami and her group.

For Real - Alison Cherry

For Real by Alison Cherry 
Published by Delacorte Press on December 9, 2014 
Pages: 304
Genres: Contemporary, Reality show, Romance
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley

Amazon • The Book Depository • Goodreads 

From Alison Cherry, author of 

Red, a novel PW declares “sparkles with wit,” comes a terrific new book about two sisters and one big question: how do you know who’s for real?

No parents. No limits. No clue what they’re in for.

Shy, cautious Claire has always been in her confident older sister’s shadow. While Miranda’s life is jam-packed with exciting people and whirlwind adventures, Claire gets her thrills vicariously by watching people live large on reality television.

When Miranda discovers her boyfriend, Samir, cheating on her just after her college graduation, it’s Claire who comes up with the perfect plan. They’ll outshine Miranda’s fame-obsessed ex while having an amazing summer by competing on Around the World, a race around the globe for a million bucks. Revenge + sisterly bonding = awesome. 

But the show has a twist, and Claire is stunned to find herself in the middle of a reality-show romance that may be just for the cameras. This summer could end up being the highlight of her life . . . or an epic fail forever captured on film. In a world where drama is currency and manipulation is standard, how can you tell what’s for real?

Despite the enormous quantity of reality tv that are throw on us daily I find interesting that "For Real" is the first book that I read about this theme - and like what it's show on tv, this book delivers a quickly, mindless read that will make you entertained for hours without noticing it!

Claire our main character stars the book pretty naive and at some points she made just blank stare at the pages of my e-reader because of some things she was thinking/doing, through the entire book she is trying to pass as a mature person but the way she acts (keeping her feelings from her sister & not having an honest conversation with her) is really childish. Honestly the entire relationship between Claire and Miranda is very childish, I get the older sister wanting to protect the younger one but oh boy did Miranda pissed me off so many times, they both should have just sat down and talked through their problems. We sorta of do have an happy ending for their relationship but I wasn't sold on that - they had major problems and never worked on them. 

Other relationship that leaved me unsatisfied was Claire and Will's. Like I said above Claire is pretty naive from the start until almost the end of the book but there are times that I just rolled my eyes so much because of the level of immaturity from her character, it was like she needed to pass through the same things over and over with her sister and her crush to finally get the memo  - let's just say I was never on board for this ship and am glad for that. 

Overall this book was quickly, at some points even laugh out loud funny but the impressions will not last long enough, just like last season of whatever reality show you watch. 

Recommended to: fans of reality tv, fans of contemporary books with trips on it (there are lots of trips on this one, did I mentioned it?), fans of coming of age stories.