2015 End of Year Book Survey

Survey hosted by Jamie at The Perpetual Page Turner

Number of books you read: 134 books.

Number of re-reads: 9 re-reads.

Genre you most read from: Probably fantasy, with contemporary as a close second. 

1. Best Book You Read In 2015?
Contemporary: The Start of Me and You, by Emery Lord
Sci-fi: Illuminae, by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Mythology based: Cruel Beauty, by Rosamund Hodge
Retelling: The Wrath and the Dawn, Renee Ahdieh
Fantasy: The Impostor Queen, by Sarah Fine

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?
A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas

3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read?
In a good way Vengeance Road, by Erin Bowman, I was never really a fan of westerns movies or had read any before so I was surprised when this book hocked me up right from the first chapter. On a bad way there were a few two and one stars that I didn't expected, like The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller.

4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did)?
Well, I don't really know the answer to this one, The Girl at the Midnight was my most viewed review this year so probably this one.

5. Best series you started in 2015? Best Sequel of 2015? Best Series Ender of 2015? 
Best series you started in 2015: taking the ones I already talked about on my best books of 2015, I will have to go with the Seven Realms series, by Cinda Williams Chima
Best Sequel of 2015: The Vanishing Throne, by Elizabeth May
Best Series Ender of 2015: Winter, by Marissa Meyer

6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2015?
This one is hard, there was so much new authors I discovered this year (as always) but on the note of not mentioning authors/books I already mentioned before I'll go with Becky Albertalli

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?
This isn't technically a book, but I'll go with Saga, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples, because I only started to read graphic novels this year.

8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year? 
Through the Ever Night, by Veronica Rossi, I remember that when I finished this one I felt like it had read more like a novella than a book because it had passed so fast.

9. Book You Read In 2015 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?
Any book from series that are going to have books published on 2016 really.

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2015? 
I'll kind of cheat on this one and go with the unpublished cover of Da Vinci's Tiger, by L.M. Elliott, I really, really don't understand publishing things sometimes.

11. Most memorable character of 2015? 
Ruby Oliver from the Ruby Oliver series, by E. Lockhart.

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2015? 
Making Pretty, by Corey Ann Haydu, this one isn't written on a lyrical beautiful kind of way but I found myself coming back to its words even after I had finished it.

13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2015? 
The Art of Being Normal, by Lisa Williamson

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2015 to finally read? 
The final books on The Mediator series, by Meg Cabot, I started reading this series when I was like 12 and never got around to finishing it until this year.

15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2015?
I don't really save quotes, but this one stayed with me and I know it to my heart: "Why is straight the default? Everyone should have to declare one way or another, and it shouldn't be this big awkward thing whether you're straight, gay, bi, or whatever. I'm just saying".

16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2015? 
Shortest: The Holders, by Julianna Scott
Longest: Winter, by Marissa Meyer

17. Book That Shocked You The Most (Because of a plot twist, character death, left you hanging with your mouth wide open, etc.)
Illuminae hands down, it had more than one twist that left me like "WHAT WHAT WHAT EVEN WTH WHAT IS HAPPENNING" actual this was me the entire time while reading it, so yeah.

18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!) (OTP = one true pairing if you aren’t familiar) 
This isn't fair, this is even harder than choosing my favorites books, I have to many ships oh god. Okay, so I'm gonna go with Mia and Michael, from the Princess Diaries series because of all the happy things that happened to them on Royal Wedding.

19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year
This is extremely hard too, I really, really, really love the friendship between Roar and Aria, always good to see two straight people of opposite sex being friends and that's it.

20. Favorite Book You Read in 2015 From An Author You’ve Read Previously 
The Fill-In Boyfriend, by Kassie West, she knows show to write contemporaries perfectly for me.

21. Best Book You Read In 2015 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure
I ended up reading The Scorpion Rules, by Erin Bow because of one very positive review from a trusted GR friend, from peer pressure I read Queen of Shadows, by Sarah J. Maas.

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2015? 
LOL, okay, if you're gonna go with the newest it will have to be Elli from The Impostor Queen, by Sarah Fine.

23. Best 2015 debut you read?
I'm cheating on this one, my best 2015 debuts are on my faves already so I'm going with a 2014 debut that I read on 2015 which was 17 First Kisses, by Rachael Allen.

24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?
A tie between the Grisha trilogy, by Leigh Bardugo and Dark Caravan Cycle, by Heather Demetrius, both worlds were so unique and fantastical.

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?
Love and Other Foreign Words, by Erin McCahan was full of awkward social moments that gave me good laughs.

26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2015?
Oh, I'm a crier so there is plenty to chose for this one, I cry at nearly every book like seriously but probably the one that I cried during the longest time while reading it was Not Otherwise Specified, by Hannah Moskowitz.

27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?
I think that The Lies About Truth, by Courtney C. Stevens didn't get as much atention as it should when it was released.

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?
Tell the Wind and Fire, by Sarah Rees Brennan, so I totally could have used this one on the book that made you cry category because oh my god, this book made me ugly sob like so much BUT I think that it was more fitting on this question because it also crushed my soul too, pretty hard.

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2015?
The Heartstrikers series, by Rachel Aaron, I definitely had never read anything similar to these books before, it's urban fantasy but it takes magic and dragons on a totally new and unique way.

30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?
The Art of Being Normal, by Lisa Williamson, there were quite a lot of familiar drama and bullying that made me a rage beast while reading it.

1. New favorite book blog you discovered in 2015?
Artsy Musings of a Bibliophile and The Daily Prophecy.

2. Favorite review that you wrote in 2015? 
Probably the one about Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda, by Becky Albertalli.

3. Best discussion/non-review post you had on your blog?
My discussion on the World Suicide Prevention Day.

4. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, memes, etc.)? 
I didn't really took part on anything this year.

5. Best moment of bookish/blogging life in 2015? 
Idk, probably when I stopped feeling bad about not blogging constantly and accepted that this is my way of doing things.

6. Most challenging thing about blogging or your reading life this year? 
Keeping a balance between my studies and my hobbies.

7. Most Popular Post This Year On Your Blog (whether it be by comments or views)? 
My review of The Girl at Midnight, by Melissa Grey.

8. Post You Wished Got A Little More Love? 
Again my discussion on the World Suicide Prevention Day.

9. Best bookish discover (book related sites, book stores, etc.)?
Idk, probably starting using twitter.

10. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year? 
Yes and no, I completed my GR challenge of reading 130 books and my Flights of Fantasy challenge to read 30 fantasy novels (I ended up reading 44), but I didn't complete my re-read challenge of re-reading 12 books (ended up with only 9).

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2015 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2016? 
Seraphina, by Rachel Hartman, I have this books for ages and a few months ago I finally got its sequel, now I'm planning on this being my first read of 2016.

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2016 (non-debut)? 
All of the sequels of my series, but especially The Raven King, by Maggie Stiefvater (I mean, this one is a given already).

3. 2016 Debut You Are Most Anticipating? 
There is quite a few fantasy debuts that are on my TBR list already, one of my most anticipated is probably The Girl from Everywhere, by Heidi Heilig.

4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2016? 
The Raven King, by Maggie Stiefvater.

5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2016? 
Just keep blogging fun and as a hobby, I always love to write down a review and put my feelings out there so I hope to keep with this.

6. A 2016 Release You’ve Already Read & Recommend To Everyone:
The Impostor Queen, by Sarah Fine, seriously SO GOOD, you want to read it.

The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Published on September 20, 2011 by Bloomsbury Publishing

Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the court of King Peleus and his perfect son Achilles. Despite their difference, Achilles befriends the shamed prince, and as they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms into something deeper - despite the displeasure of Achilles' mother Thetis, a cruel sea goddess.

But when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, Achilles must go to war in distant Troy and fulfill his destiny. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus goes with him, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they hold dear.

Oh boy, this book was such a disappointment for me, it had everything to make me love it: a revival of a well know mythology character, ancient history and a gay ship to give me all the shippy feels but in the end none of this actually worked for me. I think that what killed this for me was the writing, all of the sentences and paragrafes were too fragmented, written on short sentences which annoyed me and the scenes were all short too, so this didn't let me get a good pacing while reading the story because I could pick it up, read a scene of a page or two and put it back down again, usually if I have to push myself to finish chapters at least I have more progress on my reading.

Other thing that didn't worked for me was the fact that tried too hard to be like an actual myth - if you already had to read one for a history class you know what I'm talking about, it's all very formal and detached and centered on the conflicts, leaving things like characters on the second plane to the plot,  and this ended up giving me a sense of detachment with its characters and their stories. I guess the wrong on this was me, since I was expecting pure fiction while going into this and with these expectations I wanted all the feels and etc. Or maybe it was just the hype towards this tittle.

I would recommend this if you like history/mythology and is looking for a new read and/or is interested on ancient history for fun/class/work, but as a work of fiction alone it didn't worked for me and I'm not sure to who it would work, if you're interested on this one but isn't sure it's gonna work for you probably just pick it up on the library or read an excerpt here.

Dressing Up The Part: Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl

Hey guys, today I'm here again with the feature Dressing Up The Part, this time around I'm getting to dress up an old favorite character of mine: Blair Waldorf from the Gossip Girl series. I gathered influences from both the books and the tv show, since I was completely obsessed with both of those on my teen years. For the collages I used the site Polyvore. There may be mild spoilers. 

This one is a daily look, for when she is going to shop with Serena on the 5th Avenue or Soho, or even just chill on the Central Park. I mixed the colors, the print and the glittered detail on the shirt because I think that Blair always risked on her looks mixing different tendencies and bold colors. The hair is on a more elaborated way because even being an informal occasion Blair would never be that informal.

When I was doing this I was thinking on Blair on law school or already having her own office. The jewels of pearls are always a classic but mixed with the fur and the floral skirt it gave the look more life and more of a Blair face to it, always classy but also always launching new trends.

Now, couldn't forget about date night with Chuck and Blair will want to look her best for those of course. I chose more of a clear aspect this time around, with white and pink, the only stamp being on the shoes. The jewels are what give the finale touch for this look and that really stand out, because obvs Blair will want everyone to see the giant rock that Chuck put on her finger and get jealous.

That was it for this edition, I hope you guys enjoyed this one I really had fun since Blair has such a unique fashion sense. There will probably be a Serena edition too, so stay tuned for that and until next time! 

2016 Reading Challenge

Hey guys, today I'm here to announce the challenge that I will be partaking during 2016. Since I'm not sure how much I will be able to read during 2016 I don't want to compromise my reading with lots of challenges that I may not follow through so I'll be only participating in one that I'm highly excited.

A Series A Month, hosted by Danielle at Love at First Page

I'm so excited to take part on this challenge! It always seems like YA books are much more series than stand alone, but even thought it seems that I'm always reading series I hardly ever finish them, there is also that finished series that I didn't get around to read while they were being published so now with this challenge I have the perfect chance to catch up on all the books that I've been dying to read for some time already. 

Some of the series that I already own, completed (Song of the Lioness by Tamora Pierce, Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson, Every by Ellie Marney, Newsflesh by Mira Grant - I think this one is not finished yet, but there is already a ~original trilogy out, Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, Legend by Marie Lu, Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor), there is also some others that I own only part of the series (like Graceling by Kristin Cashore, His Fair Assassin by Robin LaFevers, Shattered Sea by Joe Abercrombie, The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani) and/or the last book of the series is gonna come out on 2016 (like Reckoners by Brandon Sanderson, Red Rising by Pierce Brown, The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey).

 So as you can see I have quite a lot of series to catch up to, you could probably call me a book hoarder because omg there is more than 12 series on this list and I only put the books visible on my bookshelves imagine if I had logged into Goodreads and looked into my "want to read" list there oh my god let's not think about this. You can get to know all the tidbits and details about this challenge on it's official sign up post here, but the basically guide lines is to read a series new to you each month, but if you don't manage to read one series every month there is no stress you can still keep participating. I suck at being active at challenges, I usually do try on my reading year to keep track and achieve my challenges but hardly ever update things around here but this year I'll try to do series reviews of the series that I manage to read. Let's hope I succeed. 

Well, that is it for me, tell me all about it on the comments bellow!

#CRAMATHON

Hey guys, so this is very last minute but I decided to join in on the fun of the Cramathon, it's a read-a-thon hosted by Whitty Novels and you can get to know more about it on this video. It goes from December 19 to December 22 and there is some challenges, so let's get into my TBR.

1. Read an audibook or ebook: For me is quite easy to read an ebook since I read them for the majority of the time, but I'm putting "This Savage Song" by Victoria Schwab here because I've been dying to read something by her and this one is up on Edelweiss. Other likely options are: anything available at Edelweiss or from my Kobo.

2. Read a bindup: When I got the Losing It series I got it on a bindup edition and I still have Finding It & Keeping Her to read. I have some other options on this one but they are 1000+ pages so yeah, this one is the more likely to happen.

3. Finish a series/Read the last book of a series: I just downloaded "Remembrance" by Meg Cabot from Edelweiss and it fits perfectly this category since it's the (maybe) last/newest book on the Mediator series. Other probably option is "Lady Renegades" by Rachel Hawkins, the third and final book of the Rebel Belle trilogy.

4. Read a book under 200 pages: "Beasts of no Nation" is actually my only option of book and not novella/short story so yeah. But maybe I read a novella from one of my series if I don't feel like reading this one.

5. Finish a book you DNF'ed: this is actual a cheat since I did put "Onyx" but with every intention of picking it up again, another option for this category would be "Saving Francesca".

6. Read a graphic novel series (or as many as you can): I read the first volume of Ms. Marvel a while back and I definitely want to pick it up its sequels, so this is a great opportunity. Other options are Amulet and Fables.

7. Read 5 books total: well, I would love to this to happen but it seems unlikely I'm not a speed reader and have things to do like, every day of this read-a-thon but still I hope that getting into this will give me a gas to read a bit more this week. 

That's it for my Cramathon TBR, tell me on the comments bellow if you're participating and what is your TBR for it. 

Calvin - Martine Leavitt

Calvin by Martine Leavitt
Published on November 17, 2015 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

As a child, Calvin felt an affinity with the comic book character from Bill Watterson’s Calvin & Hobbes.

He was born on the day the last strip was published; his grandpa left a stuffed tiger named Hobbes in his crib; and he even had a best friend named Susie. Then Calvin’s mom washed Hobbes to death, Susie grew up beautiful and stopped talking to him, and Calvin pretty much forgot about the strip—until now. Now he is seventeen years old and has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Hobbes is back, as a delusion, and Calvin can’t control him. Calvin decides that Watterson is the key to everything—if he would just make one more comic strip, but without Hobbes, Calvin would be cured. Calvin and Susie (is she real?) and Hobbes (he can’t be real, can he?) set out on a dangerous trek across frozen Lake Erie to track down Watterson.

It's been almost two months since I finished Calvin and I honestly can't say how I feel about it, I guess the good outweighs some of the problems I had with it and I would definitely recommend to some people but at the same time I don't know if I really liked it. Oh, well, let's make a list and see how this goes.

• This book is super short, like really short, my eARC version of it had about 70 pages and while reading/thinking back on my experience with this story I don't think such a short amount of pages is enough to deal with such a hard topic as schizophrenia, it doesn't give the author the time to really make the reader, that don't know about this decease, to understand how it works and the whys. 
• But still, the part that I thought most suffered from this shortage of pages was the ending, it was incredible rushed. I liked that this one ended in a happy tone since there was so many times where I thought things were going down but, since it's written on a letter format, we just get some pages of Calvin telling us what went down and how he is dealing with everything and them boom it ended, I don't know if it was the way it was told us and not showed us or if it was the number of pages that had to fit such a amount of information but things felt rushed and brushed off. 
• The romance. When it comes to books about mental health I'm always wary about the way romances are portrait, never in a million years I'm willing to accept the love interest as some kind of savior for the mental health problems but in this case it kind of did happen that, but it didn't at the same time. Okay, this is problem the part that most confused me if I enjoyed this story or not, I'll try to make myself clear but it will be hard. So Susie, the love interest, does help Calvin while he is at his worst and her help is a BIG part of why he gets better, but at the same time they have a good relationship dynamic, yes she helps him getting better but she isn't the whole reason why.
• Also, I was so happy with the way the ending showed how important it's to get proper help, like medication and doctors, and how that isn't a bad thing at all.
• This was funny, like laugh out loud funny at a lot of scenes.
• Parts of it is written on letter format, but most of it is on a kind of script way and this made it even more quickly to read since is basically only dialogues.
• The plot is totally insane, we have two teenagers crossing a frozen lake on winter and is cold as shit and is dangerous and as crazy as that may sound they find things and people on the middle of this crossing, so yeah, it was quite fun to read about Calvin and Susie adventures. 

Overall the good is bigger than my personal peeves and I think that maybe if you're looking for a book about mental health that isn't dark and heavy, but light and fun while still managing to create good characters dealing with their problems they you have found the right book, but if you want a deep look into schizophrenia I don't think this will be your best shot.

Faking It - Cora Carmack

Faking It by Cora Carmack 
Series: Losing It #2 
Published on June 4, 2013 by William Morrow Paperbacks

Mackenzie “Max” Miller has a problem. Her parents have arrived in town for a surprise visit, and if they see her dyed hair, tattoos, and piercings, they just might disown her. Even worse, they’re expecting to meet a nice, wholesome boyfriend, not a guy named Mace who has a neck tattoo and plays in a band. All her lies are about to come crashing down around her, but then she meets Cade.

Cade moved to Philadelphia to act and to leave his problems behind in Texas. So far though, he’s kept the problems and had very little opportunity to take the stage. When Max approaches him in a coffee shop with a crazy request to pretend to be her boyfriend, he agrees to play the part. But when Cade plays the role a little too well, they’re forced to keep the ruse going. And the more they fake the relationship, the more real it begins to feel.

I dived in Faking It right when I finished Losing It, its prequel, having heard so much praise for this one I was super excited to be getting into it, but unfortunately some parts didn't worked for me while others did. This one as its predecessor is a super funny and quickly read, these books are the perfect reads for when you want some brain candy but I for me Faking It loosed a little of its fun by giving their characters a complicated past, especially Max. Max is a supposed trouble maker because of *reasons* on her past and this weighted down my enjoyment on some parts of the story, this isn't a book problem more of a me problem, since I came into this one expecting only fun sexy times and got drama on a way that is pretty common among New Adult books.

Nonetheless this was still super enjoyable on its fun and sexy parts, I was super happy when I discovered this one was about Cade because he was such a good guy on Losing It and I couldn't wait to see him get his happy ending. The faking dating trope is something that always works for me, it's always fun to see the couple struggling to keep things on the fake side but you already know there is no turning back, and oh boy all the banter and hilarious scenes this leads us to.

In the end of the day this was a pretty good book that I would recommend to anyone looking for a fun, quickly and sexy read but be warmed this series does tend to be pretty predictable and more on the drama side at times.