Magonia - Maria Dahvana Headley

Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley
Published by HarperCollins on April 28, 2015
Pages: 320
Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction
Format: eARC
Source: Edelweiss

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Maria Dahvana Headley's soaring YA debut is a fiercely intelligent, multilayered fantasy where Neil Gaiman's Stardust meets John Green'sThe Fault in Our Stars in a story about a girl caught between two worlds . . . two races . . . and two destinies. Aza Ray Boyle is drowning in thin air. Since she was a baby, Aza has suffered from a mysterious lung disease that makes it ever harder for her to breathe, to speak—to live. So when Aza catches a glimpse of a ship in the sky, her family chalks it up to a cruel side effect of her medication. But Aza doesn't think this is a hallucination. She can hear someone on the ship calling her name. Only her best friend, Jason, listens. Jason, who's always been there. Jason, for whom she might have more-than-friendly feelings. But before Aza can consider that thrilling idea, something goes terribly wrong. Aza is lost to our world—and found, by another. Magonia. Above the clouds, in a land of trading ships, Aza is not the weak and dying thing she was. In Magonia, she can breathe for the first time. Better, she has immense power—but as she navigates her new life, she discovers that war between Magonia and Earth is coming. In Aza's hands lies fate of the whole of humanity—including the boy who loves her. Where do her loyalties lie?

This book is weird. Like really, really weird. And unique.

At first I didn't knew if I was able to read this because the writing was really hard to get into, it was very emo and trying to be funny-ironic but wasn't working - it also had some lyrical moments that felt really out of place but I got used to it and even found some parts beautiful and touching.

The fantastical aspects also take a while to get used to, it's extremely unique and the images that are described are as beautiful as the cover but still is really weird and it took a lot of my enjoyment and investment on the story.

But what really made this book becoming just okay was the main character, Aza, I just never connected with her making her destine being not as interesting as it should have been. I think Jason was a easier character to connect but there was so little of his POV's that it's practically impossible to know for sure.

I also feel like I missed some point of this book, of course I missed most of the feelings for my lack of connection but I still feel like there is some major plot point or coming of age point or something that makes everything here makes total sense and turn this in an amazing book but I'm not seeing it.

The Girl at Midnight - Melissa Grey

The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey
Series: The Girl at Midnight #1
Published on April 28, 2015 by Delacorte Press
[This book was given to me by the Publisher but this in no way affected my opinion.]

For readers of Cassandra Clare's City of Bones and Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone, The Girl at Midnight is the story of a modern girl caught in an ancient war.

Beneath the streets of New York City live the Avicen, an ancient race of people with feathers for hair and magic running through their veins. Age-old enchantments keep them hidden from humans. All but one. Echo is a runaway pickpocket who survives by selling stolen treasures on the black market, and the Avicen are the only family she's ever known.

Echo is clever and daring, and at times she can be brash, but above all else she's fiercely loyal. So when a centuries-old war crests on the borders of her home, she decides it's time to act.

Legend has it that there is a way to end the conflict once and for all: find the Firebird, a mythical entity believed to possess power the likes of which the world has never seen. It will be no easy task, but if life as a thief has taught Echo anything, it's how to hunt down what she wants . . . and how to take it.

But some jobs aren't as straightforward as they seem. And this one might just set the world on fire.

I started this book with very few expectations, I already lost the count of books comparing themselves to "City of Bones" (for those who don't know TMI is one of my favorite series) and end up being disappointed but on this case I was gladly surprised that "The Girl at Midnight" did lived up to it's praise and also created a new space for itself. Let's talk about the comparisons, I did not read "Shadow and Bone" so can't testify for this book but I found some elements of this book really similar with "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" (which isn't on the summary but still), first Echo starts being adopted by one of the Avicen (people with feathers for hair) and runs errands for them and create portals to go from our world to the Avicen world, this reminded me a lot of Karou and them *something* at the end happened that bothered me by how close it was with DoSaB - like, I already knew what was gonna happen because I had read the other book and this is a little too close for my taste, also some of the amazingness of the ending was lost with that ending.

But on the other side I loved the similar parts of "The Girl at Midnight" with "City of Bones", for me, the thing that makes these two close are their characters a lot of them and their personalities reminded me of characters from the other series and I absolutely loved the characters on this one, and loved even more their interactions. Echo is trying to save the world she loves while not knowing what she needs to do, but still fighting with all her strength, Caius is also trying to save his world and these two end up doing a unthinkably alliance to survive and they do end up on a romance. At first I didn't enjoyed because Echo has already a boyfriend but seems pretty quickly to forget him once she starts to knowing Caius, so I was kind of happy (because yes for less melodrama) but also weirded out that she never thought about her boyfriend (or ex I guess?) but they won me over along the book mostly because there wasn't instalove, also the ending left a open page for their relationship on the next book that could led to a lot of drama and I just don't want that to happen.

So for me the best and most memorable characters were the secondary ones, specially the participants of the gay couple (is that a spoiler if I say their names? Idk) and had such funny scenes and a great banter together, also the final scene of them was just *swoon* is fair to say that I was head over heels for them (also please more scenes with them on the rest of the series). But not only their interactions were fun to read, all the group scenes were funny and a lot of those made me laugh out loud - and this was what made this book a win for me, I completely lost myself reading it and would always come back because I wanted more and more of this characters.

I super recommend this book to lovers of fantasy and fans of The Mortal Instruments series.

The False Prince - Jennifer A. Nielsen

The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen
Series: The Ascendance Trilogy #1
Published on April 1, 2012 by Scholastic

THE FALSE PRINCE is the thrilling first book in a brand-new trilogy filled with danger and deceit and hidden identities that will have readers rushing breathlessly to the end.

In a discontent kingdom, civil war is brewing. To unify the divided people, Conner, a nobleman of the court, devises a cunning plan to find an impersonator of the king's long-lost son and install him as a puppet prince. Four orphans are recruited to compete for the role, including a defiant boy named Sage. Sage knows that Conner's motives are more than questionable, yet his life balances on a sword's point -- he must be chosen to play the prince or he will certainly be killed. But Sage's rivals have their own agendas as well.

As Sage moves from a rundown orphanage to Conner's sumptuous palace, layer upon layer of treachery and deceit unfold, until finally, a truth is revealed that, in the end, may very well prove more dangerous than all of the lies taken together.

An extraordinary adventure filled with danger and action, lies and deadly truths that will have readers clinging to the edge of their seats.

Eh, this book was a mixed bag for me. For one side I had fun with it, but at the same time it never really lived up to my expectations since I was hoping this would be a new (for me) fantasy middle grade series for me to love. It started good, we have a lot going on at the start with getting to know all the boys and the other characters, trying to guess were all of this is going but the pace slowed around the middle, when all the boys are just training was kind of boring, the end did picked up the pace again but some of my enjoyment was already lost.
The world building, so important on fantasy novels never really was alive for me, we have a map that is pretty simple (really is just a stretch of land, three names on it and some cities) and we do know about the political system which was the most common for fantasy novels, a monarchy, so despite trying it never stood out from another fantasy novels out there.
The characters seemed quite nice at first, Sage did had some funny liners that reminded me of Percy (from Percy Jackson) but soon he couldn't hold up the scene all by himself and unfortunately there was no other character to step up and make my interest grown, a big part for me not caring much about any of the other characters are the fact that they're so damn predictable.
This book is supposed to have a lot of twists on their characters but really, unless you're the actual age targeted audience, you will probably see all these twists with a mile range and unfortunately this does took away some of the fun.
In the end I don't regret reading this book and will probably continue with the series because it was a quickly read with some nice fantasy elements but if you're looking for a great middle grade fantasy serie there are better ones out there.

99 Days - Katie Cotugno

99 Days by Katie Cotugno
Published by Balzer + Bray on April 21, 2015
Pages: 384
Genres: Contemporary, Love Triangle
Format: eARC
Source: Edelweiss

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From the acclaimed author of How to Love comes another stunning contemporary novel, perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen.

Molly Barlow is facing one long, hot summer—99 days—with the boy whose heart she broke and the boy she broke it for . . . his brother.

Day 1: Julia Donnelly eggs my house my first night back in Star Lake, and that's how I know everyone still remembers everything. She has every right to hate me, of course: I broke Patrick Donnelly's heart the night everything happened with his brother, Gabe. Now I'm serving out my summer like a jail sentence: Just ninety-nine days till I can leave for college and be done.

Day 4: A nasty note on my windshield makes it clear Julia isn't finished. I'm expecting a fight when someone taps me on the shoulder, but it's just Gabe, home from college and actually happy to see me. "For what it's worth, Molly Barlow," he says, "I'm really glad you're back."

Day 12: Gabe wouldn't quit till he got me to come to this party, and I'm surprised to find I'm actually having fun. I think he's about to kiss me—and that's when I see Patrick. My Patrick, who's supposed to be clear across the country. My Patrick, who's never going to forgive me.

This book you guys. Wow, just, wow. The more I think about this story the more I like it, I started it on a total impulse back on December thinking this would be just another contemporary book with a love triangle that wasn't even trying and end up reading it on one night, this book is addictive, incredible well written and has such a roller coaster of a story that it was impossible to put down while reading it.

This book would never have worked on the hands of another writer, because no one else would have been able to put so many feelings inside of words and transmit it to the readers like Cotugno was able to do. There weren't pretty emotions too, there are raws emotions, twisted and sometimes it made me uncomfortable, there were scenes that made me cringe and others that made me cry and there were also some that made me helpful and smile.

The story takes place on 99 days of summer, when Molly is back to her hometown and is sort of a start over but also a closing for her story with these brothers and all their drama. I felt that her drawn for both of them was so real, I could feel on the appeal of both of these brothers for Molly - how Patrick being her first and only love and how hard it was to see him and know he hated her and wanting to fix things, but also Gabe with his easy ways, always wanting to please her it was hard to not fall for him - and I could see her appeal to them too. I liked the ending, it sort of broke my heart because I was hoping to *something* to happen, which for the reasons that this book is just too real it didn't but yeah, I'm cool with it (quietly sobs).

Some minor pet peeves was that I would have liked more of the flashbacks, especially of the time Molly and Patrick were dating, I think we got those too later on and it would have been better sooner on the story for us to understand what had went down when they broke up but also I would have liked more of them falling in love ('cause I'm a masochist like that I wanted to cry some more). Also Molly's relationship with her mother could have used more pages to be developed, I just wish that they had one honest conversation with each other - especially before her mother consoles her.

The slut-shaming that Molly had to deal with was handled on a good way, I liked that we do get a resolution with Julia and that she has her reasons to being such a bitch at first. The friendships too are good on this one, I liked Molly coming to terms with her old best friend and her developing a relationship with her boss - and how it helped her to figure out what she wanted to do on life.

I recommend this book to everyone, even if you don't think a contemporary romance between a girl and two brothers is your kind of thing (the good new is I didn't think it was mine either!) give it a shot and if the first chapters don't capture your attention I let you quit.

Georgia Nicolson Series by Louise Rennison

Hey guys, today I'm here with yet another series review, this time it's from the "Georgia Nicolson" series and it's long overdue, I re-read it back on December/January  but only now I'm get my shit together (kind of) for review. The summary from the first book: "1. I have one of those under-the-skin spots that will never come to a head but lurk in a red way for the next two years.
2. It is on my nose
3. I have a three-year-old sister who may have peed somewhere in my room.
4. In fourteen days the summer hols will be over and then it will be back to Stalag 14 and Oberfuhrer Frau Simpson and her bunch of sadistic teachers.
5. I am very ugly and need to go into an ugly home.
6. I went to a party dressed as a stuffed olive.

In this wildly funny journal of a year in the life of Georgia Nicolson, British author Louise Rennison has perfectly captured the soaring joys and bottomless angst of being a teenager. In the spirit of Bridget Jones's Diary, this fresh, irreverent, and simply hilarious book will leave you laughing out loud. As Georgia would say, it's "Fabbity fab fab!""

Why You Should Read This Series (even if you aren't the target market anymore):

1. The Humor: one of the best decisions of my life was to re-read this series on the period of time that I did, it was a bad couple of months and theses books did wonders for my mood. The humor of these books are timeless and ageless, it doesn't matter what age you have you gonna laugh your ass off because Georgia can get herself in the most crazy situations always and always get 

buried even more deep on the craziness. Trust me.

2. The Audiobooks: I never owned all the books of this series, only some and they are all wrong like the 1 and then the 5, 6 and 10, so when I was thinking on re-reading I got lucky and found almost all of them on audio - let me say to you that this was the best decision ever! My library had the versions of the audio which Louise Rennison read the books herself, so it was waaay fun to listen than reading, it was like remembering my teen self and the talks between me and my friends, it was even more hilarious! Super recommend getting the audio version if you don't own any.

3. The Slang: for those who once were teens (or are) on England this may not be one of the funny things on this book, but at a lot of times I saw myself giggling over the british slang that Georgia uses - and also over the one she and her friends use, they are sooo creative when it comes to creating new words, like nunga nungas (for bobs), or using german words for her parents or just being excellent at being fabbity fab fab!

4. Angus: this is for all cat owners all over the world, when I was reading it I just had found my cat (my dad found him on a walk on November) and as before I only had owned dogs, this whole new world of cats had just opened itself for me and it was so fun to read about Angus - Georgia's cat - and laugh out loud because my cat would do just the same crazy things! So if you have a cat (or is a former owner of a cat, or really just a lover of these cute things) you will probably love the bits where Angus shows up. 

5. The drama llamas: Oh. My. God. The drama that is contained on this series is so over the top and ridiculous and I loved it! It was really realistic with how I was at that age (maybe not so much on the later books but oh, well, it is Georgia we where talking about), at the early teen years we can be really dramatic and everything is the end of the world and it's true (for that time at least) so it was so fun to get caught up on Georgia preoccupations and laugh my ass off with her mistakes.

6. The Characters: what makes this books so good, Georgia and her gang are some of the most memorable and lovable characters, ever. Georgia is the most crazy person to ever feature a book, like seriously, she is way to much dramatic but also way too much loving and funny and even kind. Her gang of best friends too are great, they all have some crazy traits (you know just to match Georgia's) and complete each other.

7. The Romance: okay, I need to talk a little bit about this because THE RAGE! Okay, not really but kind of, Georgia has a lot of *things* (by things I mean feelings, and by feelings I mean she thinks they are hot) for a lot of boys over the curse of the ten books, and I loved that YAY for sex positive messages for young girls but at the same time I was SO frustrated on the last books. We have this boy that I will not mention the name 'cause it can be spoilery that is just amazing and we all know he is *the one* but Georgia keeps not seeing that and confusing like with hotness until the last second, so yeah, don't get your hopes up like I did on the last few books.

If you still didn't got it this is the kind of series you wan to pick up when you're feeling down and need a really good laugh, all the books are short and it's really easy to read it on one sitting (if you listen to the audios they usually have about 4 hours). Recommended to everyone. Seriously, is so good. 

Do yourself a favor and Treat Yo Self with this series

Popcorn Corner: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003)

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003)
Directed by Donald Petrie
Written by Burr Steers, Brian Regan, Kristen Buckley 
Runtime: 1 h. 55 min.
Rating: PG-13 (for some sex-related material)
Genre: Romantic Comedy 

Two New Yorkers fight the battle of the sexes to a standstill (without entirely realizing it) in this romantic comedy. Andie (Kate Hudson) is a young journalist who longs to cover political stories, but in the meantime she finds herself writing for a women's magazine called Composure, where her editor Lana Jong (Bebe Neuwirth) has her writing a fluffy advice column. After hearing of the latest dating laments of her relationship-challenged friend Michelle (Kathryn Hahn), Andie sells Lana on the idea of writing a piece on the things women do to alienate the men they love, which she'll demonstrate by winning and then driving away a man in a mere ten days. Meanwhile, Ben (Matthew McConaughey) is an advertising man who wants to land a prestige diamond account at his firm. Ben is competing with his pals, Spears (Michael Michele) and Green (Shalom Harlow), for the assignment, so Ben tells his boss Phillip Warren (Robert Klein) that he's the man for the job because he understands the fair sex so well he can make any woman fall for him in less than two weeks. As fate would have it, Andie and Ben end up choosing one another for their mutual assignments, with neither knowing about each other's secret agenda as Ben strives to hold on to Andie while she does everything in her power to annoy him. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days was loosely based on the self-help book of the same name (subtitled The Universal Don't of Dating) written by Michele Alexander and Jeannie Long.

Okay, so this is kind of a classic rom-com already and I had already watched it when it was released (and loved it!) but since I was about 8 when that happened I thought it was time to revisit (also by the plea of a friend that completely love this movie) and see what I thought of it now and well, it was a completely different ride than I remembered. Oh, there will be spoilers on this post so if you have not watched this movie yet and intends too and hate being spoiled it would be best to stop reading now.

Since I already knew the premise of the story I wasn't really that caught up on the... well, silliness of these two finding each other (in NYC! srly, but anyway moving on), I was ready to be totally on board and not question their morals and how this would never, ever happen like never, and like I know this is fiction but still I end up bothered by Ben's bet (of making a girl fall in love with him in 10 days), I didn't remembered his part of the story so it seemed so ultimately lame that his boss would bet an account on it - especially such an important account, it was so ridiculous! Anyway, I tried to pass it and move on, I mean I was hoping swoons and I recalled some funny moments.

Andie's part of the story was doing everything to piss off Ben and get him to dump her in 10 days, and this did resulted on some laughs on my part, she made such over the top drama queen scenes that it made the movie laugh out loud at times. But it was way to far between to make it worth it.

But the worst part of this one was the romance, and unfortunately this is a rom-com that is heavily focused on the romance part. The first part of the movie is basically Andie acting like a total mental case and Ben not letting her go because he needs to win the bet, this part was okay and it went as expected from the premise of the movie. But then we have an scene where Ben and Andie go to Ben's family house and for some reason (okay, it's because Andie is already falling in love with Ben) Andie decides to not act like a completely bitch at that day, so OF COURSE Ben resolves to fall madly in love with her (because you're gonna completely overlook the flaws someone is showing you for seven days, only because of one day, yeah, anyway moving on). Of course that after that weekend Andie decides that she can't write the article because she was completely head over heels with her guinea pig. Of course her editor says to her to quit being a pussy and just write the article she is supposed to (let's not even talk about the levels of unprofessionalism of Andie and her editor).

Anyway, by this point they're both completely in love with each other but of course they find out about each other motives AND THEY DARE TO GET PISSED AT EACH OTHER - okay, so until this point I was like "this movie is okay, not baaaaaaaad, just not for me" but them this whole big fighting scene happened and OH MY GOD I hated this movie and these characters so much, let me explain to you, they both start shouting at each other in the middle of the street (like some big drama build up to make us cry, but we don't, 'cause they are lame) and Ben is like "WAS I YOUR GUINEA PIG???" (like he hasn't done a bet over her) and Andie is all like "WAS I JUST A BET??" (like she wasn't being the most sufferable person to Ben just to write an article). Then this classical phrase happens

And it's supposed to be like "AAAAAH" I guess, but it isn't, is lame, because ANDIE YOU DIDN'T WANTED A BOYFRIEND ON THE FIRST PLACE YOU WANTED AN ARTICLE, REMEMBER A THING CALLED YOUR CAREER? AND HOW MUCH YOU WANTED TO WRITE ABOUT IMPORTANT STUFF? (oh, yeah, Andie is also only writing on a woman's magazine because she can't seem to find a job where she can talk about important stuff, like politics 'cause she is so deep and stuff). Anyway, more things happen and them they get together on the end and I have to tell you THANK GOD, because imagine these two loose on NYC, imagine all the people that would suffer on their hands *shivers* oh no, these two definitely belong together.

Verdict: 1 out of 5 stars 

Fever Series by Karen Marie Moning

Today I'm here to another series review, this time around for the first two books on the Fever series, for those who don't know (where have you been??) this is an adult urban fantasy series super popular amoung all my GR friends and I finally decided to try. The summary from the first book: "MacKayla Lane’s life is good. She has great friends, a decent job, and a car that breaks down only every other week or so. In other words, she’s your perfectly ordinary twenty-first-century woman. Or so she thinks…until something extraordinary happens.

When her sister is murdered, leaving a single clue to her death–a cryptic message on Mac’s cell phone–Mac journeys to Ireland in search of answers. The quest to find her sister’s killer draws her into a shadowy realm where nothing is as it seems, where good and evil wear the same treacherously seductive mask. She is soon faced with an even greater challenge: staying alive long enough to learn how to handle a power she had no idea she possessed–a gift that allows her to see beyond the world of man, into the dangerous realm of the Fae….
As Mac delves deeper into the mystery of her sister’s death, her every move is shadowed by the dark, mysterious Jericho, a man with no past and only mockery for a future. As she begins to close in on the truth, the ruthless Vlane–an alpha Fae who makes sex an addiction for human women–closes in on her. And as the boundary between worlds begins to crumble, Mac’s true mission becomes clear: find the elusive Sinsar Dubh before someone else claims the all-powerful Dark Book–because whoever gets to it first holds nothing less than complete control of the very fabric of both worlds in their hands…. "

Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning

Series: Fever #1

Published by Delacorte Press on October 31, 2006 

I was really bummed by this book, after all the rave I had read about this series I was expecting to be wooed but this book felt really flat. The main problem I had with it was the fact that it was really, really, really slow, it took forever for the actual urban fantasy elements start to play in and since we see everything through Mac's eyes we don't get to know that much about the faery mythology. Mac also can be kind of annoying, she is a very unique main character meaning that she is much more girly (on the stereotypical sense of liking pink, and hells, and make up and girly stuff) and sometimes I just wanted to shake her to stop describing her outfits and get shit done. 

Still, I found it interesting, I haven't read much books about fae and despite being a slow read it was easy to read quickly. And the ending kind of left me no choice besides picking up the next book right away.

Bloodfever by Karen Marie Moning

Series: Fever #2

Published by Delacorte Press on October 16, 2007

Okay, whoa, this book was like one of those fast cars that Mac loves so much, because it went from 0 to 100 km/h in like 2 seconds (is that obvious that not even reading this book I get a thing about cars?). If Darkfever was to slow, Bloodfever more than compensated, it had one plot point after the other, a lot of action-y things and when it ended I was like "what no, this can't be the last page it has to have more" because Moning is the Queen of making cliffhangers that will make the fans cry bloody tears (the first book kind of had one too). 

BUT, there was something still missing for me. I like Mac much more on this book but I still feel like we have one too many descriptions about her clothes, I did felt like her grief for her sister was a bigger part on this one and she is finally realising that she is on a dangerous situation and is toughing up. Barrons on the other hand does nothing for me (sorry, not sorry), he just doesn't appeal to me, he isn't as terrible as I thought he would be but does some things that are  pretty hard to look over. On the fae mythology we do get more answers and also much more questions, I'm liking the way things are shaping up - I did picked up the third book right away when I finished this one, but put it down after a while, still didn't care enough about the characters to continue BUT I do have curiosity about this world and how things will turn out at the end (of the "original" part at least!). Let's see how that will go on the future, recommended to fans of adult urban fantasy and lovers of fae novels - if this isn't your jam I don't really recommend this series as a starting point.