Reading Diary | January 2016

These will be an update of all the books that I read on January of 2016, with links to reviews already posted on the blog or a small impression on the story.

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
Published on July 1, 2012 by Random House Books for Young Children 

If you can read in Portuguese I suggest you read my full review here. If you don't, which is more possible, then I will try to convey the same feelings, in less words.

I bought Seraphina around 2013 but only got around to reading it this year, mostly because I was intimidated by it - its a fantasy novel and everyone seems to love it, what if I didn't loved it. Well, I didn't loved it but I enjoyed it quite a lot. I was surprised by the plot, which relies much more revile on the mystery. than the fantasy aspects, coming closer to a detective novel and I liked that, it was fun to keep reading and trying to figure out where every piece of the puzzle came together. The fantasy aspects where pretty low key, since the dragons in here are contained in their human forms.

We do have a lot of politics, but it wasn't confusing as I was expecting to be, it was closer to European  feudalism than nowadays politics. And of course the characters completed the story really well, Seraphina was a strong and intelligent main character and I loved being in her head, her relationship with her uncle was amazing and touched my heart so many times <3 One thing that I didn't enjoyed was the romance, it was completely devoid of chemistry for me and the circumstances turn it kind of cheating, like emotional cheating and I don't see it ending well.

Overall it was a good read and I definitely recommend to fans of fantasy and mystery too.

Lady Renegades by Rachel Hawkins
Series: Rebel Belle #3
Published on April 5, 2016 by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
[This book was given to me by the Publisher. This in no way affected my opinion.]

Oh boy, we reached the ending of this series and unfortunately I have to say I'm quite disappointed with it, the first book was so funny and bantery but the other two never lived up to it. This one was better than the second one but it just felt so anti-climatic and unnecessary, this series should probably just have been a one book kind of thing, maybe a longer one book.

This time around we have much less of the ship together, so less ship feels, it's understandable with the end of book 2 but also disappointing. The adventure was okay and the road trip gave room to a great female squad, we surpassed the girl hate and got a pretty weird friendship which is always a win. With that we also got less romance drama in general, not only from the ship, which is also an improvement to book 2.

Overall I don't know to who recommend this series, maybe just read the first book and stop there, because that one is pretty good.

First & Then by Emma Mills
Published on October 13, 2015 by Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

If you like contemporary fluffy books you need this one in your life. I really liked this one, it has a super cute romance, that I wish got together before the very last page because I wanted more of the swoons and I think that the change from friendship to romance was a bit quickly and in the veins of "I always wanted you but couldn't see before", so it wasn't 100% perfect but it was like 99% perfect.

The set of characters and the relationship between then is amazing, seriously if you like books that bring on the family feelings this one will be your heaven. So yeah, basically if you like good books, that are more on the light side this one should be your next read. And if you think it isn't, then I urge you to give it a shot anyway.

Scan by Sarah Fine, Walter Jury
Series: Scan #1
Published on May 1, 2014 by Putnam Children's

I was trying to recall what Scan's plot was and I couldn't for the life on me remember it, so that is a bad point, this wasn't a very memorable story.

What I do recall is that there was a mystery surrounding our main character and its father, that in some way relates to the sci-fi aspects of the story, this made the book really fast paced and it goes along the lines of an adventure movie. There was a romance, which wasn't really my favorite part since it was pretty devoid of chemistry and the character were really one dimensional, so there wasn't any feelings or connection.

I would recommend this one to readers looking for a fast paced adventure, but that is basically it.

I also read two short stories of The Raven Cycle series, A Minor Raven Boys Holiday Drabble and 300 Fox Way Holiday Piece, both were posted by Stiefvater on tumblr and were very short and sweet, great to keep the saudade of these characters at bay. The two other books that I read I actually wrote reviews too (yes, I'm shocked too): Symptoms of Being Human and Unhooked.

Unhooked - Lisa Maxwell

Unhooked by Lisa Maxwell
Published on February 2, 2016 by Simon Pulse

For as long as she can remember, Gwendolyn Allister has never had a place to call home—all because her mother believes that monsters are hunting them. Now these delusions have brought them to London, far from the life Gwen had finally started to build for herself. The only saving grace is her best friend, Olivia, who’s coming with them for the summer.

But when Gwen and Olivia are kidnapped by shadowy creatures and taken to a world of flesh-eating sea hags and dangerous Fey, Gwen realizes her mom might have been sane all along.

The world Gwen finds herself in is called Neverland, yet it’s nothing like the stories. Here, good and evil lose their meaning and memories slip like water through her fingers. As Gwen struggles to remember where she came from and find a way home, she must choose between trusting the charming fairy-tale hero who says all the right things and the roguish young pirate who promises to keep her safe.

With time running out and her enemies closing in, Gwen is forced to face the truths she’s been hiding from all along. But will she be able to save Neverland without losing herself?

Unhooked is a adventure that features some of our favorite faces of Neverland, like Captain Hook and Peter Pan but everything is given a new look by twisting the childish fairy tale into something dark. Neverland in Unhooked isn't the land of never growing up, play every day and having fun like Disney presented us, this time around it looks much more like a land of nightmares with evil faires, a magical and manipulative Pan and a not trusty worthy Captain Hook (or is he the only one that can be trusted, who knows).

My favorite aspect of this story was the pace, it just never slowed down. Since the start, we are only a few chapters in and them boom we already go to Neverland, and after that is just one thing after another. We have a lot of things to explore on this island and so much secrets to undercover that there is just not a time to stop and breath, it truly is an adventure for the reader.

What I would have liked more is to the characters to be more developed, specially Gwen, she is overall a good main character that doesn't wait around for the answers to come to her, she isn't naive or too focused on the Captain's pretty features to forget about her mission but she isn't all that unique or memorable, this unfortunately happened with all of the characters on this one, while Pan and Hook are deliciously twisted and full of shades of gray still, their personalities never surpassed surfaced level.

There is a small romance on this one that was nice, since it goes from a hate to slowly start to trusting to partnership to love, I would have like more if I enjoy the characters involved on it more but it was a nice addition. It was entertaining for me because I kept picturing Hook as Captain Hook from Once Upon A Time and they are definitely similar on their personalities.

Overall this wasn't a favorite read and I would recommend it with some restrictions but it was still pretty enjoyable and always kept the adventure going. Probably a best read for fans of retellings, Peter Pan, Once Upon a Time and those who love a good adventure book. 

The Wrath & The Dawn - Renèe Ahdieh

The Wrath & The Dawn by Renèe Ahdieh
Series: The Wrath & The Dawn #1
Published on May 13, 2015 by Putnam Juvenile 
[This book was given to me by the Publisher and this in no way affected my opinion.]

A sumptuous and epically told love story inspired by A Thousand and One Nights.

Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi's wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend.

It has been a month since I finished reading this book and I still don't know how to put my feelings on words - honestly I don't think it's even possible but I'll try to say what I liked about it.

The best thing, by far, is Ahdieh's writing, she has a way of telling the story as it was a old magic tale I felt like a kid again watching one of my favorite Disney movies for the first time - that feeling of awe and that magic is not only possible but real. Also I had an urge to pick this one back up right when I finished it (and a lot of other times this past month).

I can see the story told in this book not being to everyone but for me it worked since the first page. The first thing that you need to know about this is that the feelings here are <i>intense</i> and they're intense right from the start, so this can be a down side to some readers if they don't get suck into the story right away. There is also some things that you have to hold your disbelief, like the reason why Khalid doesn't kill Shahrzad right away as his other wives, for me this didn't took my enjoyment away at all but just saying.

But I think that even if you don't exactly love these things above, this book has a lot more to offer. Like for instance this is probably one of the best culture diverse books that I have read in a lot of time, this is one rare YA book where we have a different setting than USA and it also doesn't have the other culture making use of american things to make the reader more ~comfortable on the different setting - I felt really immersed on the Arabian culture since there is a lot of words and cultural elements (don't worry, there is a glossary by the end of the book if you don't know the meaning of something).

The other thing that I loved where the characters and their relationships. Shahrzad is an amazing character, she can be totally wrong for the historical accuracy of this story but I say fuck accuracy, I want a strong, kick-ass female lead and that she definitely is. Khalid was an amazing character too, you know he will be a complex one since from the start and it was oh, so good to get to know him. Their relationship doesn't disappoint either, it was intense and gave me feelings since their first interaction and this only grew to epic proportions, I honestly can't even say how I got to this level of shipping, is like I need to create a whole new scale (seriously, I'm not exaggeration, there was one scene that was even before the 30% mark and I was already deep on feelings).

So yeah, I really think you should read this book because it's awesome and there is an epic romance, a intrinsic story that will remind you of classical tales and one of the best writings.

A Wicked Thing - Rhiannon Thomas

A Wicked Thing by Rhiannon Thomas
Series: A Wicked Thing #1
Published by HarperTeen on February 24, 2015
Pages: 352
Genres: Fantasy, Retellings

Format: eARC
Source: Edelweiss

Amazon • The Book Depository • Goodreads 

Rhiannon Thomas's dazzling debut novel is a spellbinding reimagining of what happens after happily ever after. Vividly imagined scenes of action, romance, and political intrigue are seamlessly woven together to reveal a richly created world… and Sleeping Beauty as she's never been seen before.

One hundred years after falling asleep, Princess Aurora wakes up to the kiss of a handsome prince and a broken kingdom that has been dreaming of her return. All the books say that she should be living happily ever after. But as Aurora understands all too well, the truth is nothing like the fairy tale.

Her family is long dead. Her "true love" is a kind stranger. And her whole life has been planned out by political foes while she slept.

As Aurora struggles to make sense of her new world, she begins to fear that the curse has left its mark on her, a fiery and dangerous thing that might be as wicked as the witch who once ensnared her. With her wedding day drawing near, Aurora must make the ultimate decision on how to save her kingdom: marry the prince or run.

This book is the definition of fantasy fun or retelling fun or fairy tail fun idk whichever you want to name it, it was a fun ride. I don't know exactly why it was so fun to just sit and read this book, honestly most of the characters didn't feel all that fleshed out, the plot only started happening at the very ending of the book and there wasn't all that much fantasy to keep me distracted from this flaws, yet while I was reading I kept wanting to pick it up everytime I put it down and now that I finished I found myself wanting the sequel.

Probably the biggest reason for this is Aurora, our princess is nothing like the one from Sleeping Beauty, she just waked up and is confused as hell, everyone she knows is dead and she isn't very found of the idea of marrying some random guy that woke her from her sleep after kissing her, soon she finds out that isn't only for her that she needs to worry but for all her kingdom and who can she trust? I have to say that I liked Aurora, and this was probably one of the reasons that this book didn't dragged for me - even on the middle, when she still doesn't know who to trust and is confused with the current politics of her kingdom and is still figuring out what happened after her curse -, I just always felt her confusion really genuine and liked the fact that despite that she goes on search for answers.

The other characters, unfortunately, didn't felt as real - especially the boys. We have the prince who kissed her awake, Rodric, which I liked he always managed to make me smile on his interactions with Aurora mostly because he was so shy and awkward around her, he is the clear good guy and only wants what is best for his kingdom. Then, there is Tristan, the guy who works on a pub and is the definition of everything Aurora can't have being a princess, he mostly annoyed me they interactions and sudden interest on each other felt fake and forced and I couldn't care for Aurora day dreaming about him. And the visiting prince, Finnegan, which was the one that most interested me, he is ironic and that bad boy type, you know with secrets and maybe he is bad or maybe he is good but who knows? Not me. Also there is a promise of dragons on his kingdom. DRAGONS I'M ALWAYS IN FOR DRAGONS.

For the world building we don't really get one, things are basically there and you have to roll with it, I don't really mind it because it's a retelling so I just imagined some medieval village of sorts but I would have liked a little bit more of descriptions of how the people of that land where, there was one scene with a sort of carnival that was cool, I would have liked more that - cultural things about this land, or geography, or anything really. The plot too wasn't really happening until 90% in and them it happened like it hadn't a yesterday and now I'm at wait of book two for centuries to come.

Recommend this book for readers that like retelling looking for a fresh take on the Sleeping Beauty tale, readers that like fantasy but want something more light or readers that don't usual read fantasy but would like to try it.

Scarlet - A.C. Gaughen

Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen
Series: Scarlet #1
Published by Bloomsbury USA on February 14, 2012
Pages: 292
Genres: Historical Fiction, Retellings, Adventure
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased

Amazon • The Book Depository • Goodreads 

The people of Nottinghamshire know Will Scarlet as Robin Hood’s shadow, a slip of a boy who throws daggers with deadly accuracy and an accomplished thief with an unerring eye for treasure. A select few know that Will is actually Scarlet, a young woman “recruited” by Robin two years earlier as he wandered the alleys of London. But no one knows who the real Scarlet is, what she was doing in London, and how she got that scar on her cheek. That is, no one but Gisbourne, the ruthless thief-taker just hired by the sheriff to capture Robin and his band.

 I'm a strong mood reader, and being like this sometimes can be a pain in the ass because it makes you start about a thousand books and finish one. Well right now I'm in one of those phases and the one book that keep me reading was Scarlet, so let's see what this book has of special.

For starters this book doesn't have a single dull time, seriously this is action packed at it most, we have so much action sequences with Scarlet and her band - the general plot is that the city of Nottinghamshire has a terrible sheriff who will do basically anything to get his taxes, including kill the town people, so is on the hands of the band to steal enough money to pay everyone taxes on time - this ends up giving a lot of room for action, because they are running out of time and need to go stealing a lot and well, they can get caught and things can get ugly. One little complaint is the plot of the series isn't all that clear until the very ending of the book, I mean you can always guess but it's never really defined and it still can not be what I'm guessing it is, so yeah it can be kind of a bump not known where this is going.

But it wasn't all action and kicking ass there was also romance, which I'm torn. Let me explain, there is a love triangle, but it seemed like such an unnecessary love triangle seriously is so obvious for who Scarlet has true feelings that every time the other dude made a move (for more sweet that it was) I would just roll my eyes and pray to this end quickly - gladly (I think) this was resolved by the end of this book, now I hope Scarlet will have eyes only for her one true love and give me lot of swoon scenes on the next installment. Also, it would have been a lot less awkward if the other dude didn't had feelings for Scarlet at all - I mean image he seeing Scarlet kissing and making heart eyes for her actual love #awkward.

Me when my OTP declares their eternal love for each other

Other nitpick about this one is the language because it's writing in a dialect, it was kind of hard to get into it first but the action keep me entertained and when I saw I was totally into the story and without any problem understanding what the hell was going on. The setting too could have been more fleshed out, I guess the language is this way because of the time but taking this from this book it could have taken place anywhere on England, I wish  there was more descriptions of the village and that I could have a felt of this place that Scarlet and the others fight so hard to keep.

But still this one was definitely a winner, I ready it super fast each time I had a chance to pick it up and I can see myself wanting to re-read it over and over. I super recommend this book to everyone but specially for readers who want something fast paced, doesn't mind a little bit of cliche on their romances and love original retellings.