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.

The Impostor Queen - Sarah Fine

The Impostor Queen by Sarah Fine
Series: Untitled #1
Published on January 5, 2015 by Margaret K. McElderry Books 
[This book was given to me by the Publisher, this in no way affected my opinion.]

Sixteen-year-old Elli was a small child when the Elders of Kupari chose her to succeed the Valtia, the queen who wields infinitely powerful ice and fire magic. Since then, Elli has lived in the temple, surrounded by luxury and tutored by magical priests, as she prepares for the day when the Valtia perishes and the magic finds a new home in her. Elli is destined to be the most powerful Valtia to ever rule.

But when the queen dies defending the kingdom from invading warriors, the magic doesn’t enter Elli. It’s nowhere to be found.

Disgraced, Elli flees to the outlands, the home of banished criminals—some who would love to see the temple burn with all its priests inside. As she finds her footing in this new world, Elli uncovers devastating new information about the Kupari magic, those who wield it, and the prophecy that foretold her destiny. Torn between the love she has for her people and her growing loyalty to the banished, Elli struggles to understand the true role she was meant to play. But as war looms, she must align with the right side—before the kingdom and its magic are completely destroyed.

First of all let me say that if you didn't read the synopses of this book yet DON'T READ IT! Seriously, the synopses is like 20 to 30% of the start of it and for me that is a pretty big part of the story to have it spoiled to you. If you already read it them, well be aware that the things said in it will take a good part of the book, but don't worry you'll enjoy it nonetheless because this book is awesome.

The start of this book was pretty slow for me, the first 20% or so, we have a lot to understand about this world and its magic and politic (also I may have to blame the fact that The Vanishing Throne came out right when I started reading this one and I mean, after that cliffhanger I needed to get to that one first) but once some spoilery things happen things get more fast paced and oh my god I finished the other 80% in a day. So what I'm trying to say is, if you think this has a slow start stick with it that will be worth ir, trust me.

Elli, our main character, is a strong heroine in a completely new way, she was raised to be a queen and because of that is selfless but that isn't a weakness on her, there is some pretty funny scenes too when she is getting used to live on her own since she was pampered all her life but it was good to see that this didn't turned her useless, she wants to prove herself and her worthy even if not the way she was expecting. The secondary characters were also amazing, I absolutely loved Oskar (btw I kept thinking his name as Oksar when I was reading for some reason unknown) and his family, there was so much touching scenes with them.

And oh my god the shippy feels, like honestly I'm all in with ships and stuff, I'm of the kind that think a kissing book is always better than a no-kissing book but this one took this to a whole new level, there was scenes that I giggled, scenes that I want to push their faces together and make them kiss already because omg I couldn't deal with all the sexual tension, and scenes where I wanted to punch both in the face for being such babies. Also, plus side Elli is a declared bissexual character, yep that's right finally I read a book about a main character that is bissexual and it was a fantasy one and it was amazing, CAN I GET AN AMEN.

 If you still don't think this book is for you I don't know what else to say to convince you, this is an amazing fantasy story that has a slow start but them starts building up and towards the end you don't know what hit you, since it's an explosion of feels both happy and not so much. There is a ship of goodness, a cast of characters that are incredible build that will make you care about them and a unique fantasy take on magic. Please just get reading this one already so we can discuss all the spoilery things.