Friday 28 August 2015

Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

Incarnate by Jodi Meadows
Published: Katherine Tegen, January 31st, 2012
Pages: 374
Source: Hardcover, purchased
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 3.5/5

How I Felt: This was such a cool book! As soon as I heard this was about reincarnation my interest was immediately piqued because it's has always been something that interested me! The concept of this world is so unique I couldn't help but read it! It's set in a world where over a million souls reincarnate, then one year Ana is born. A newsoul, here to take the place of another soul everyone thought would come back.

Jodi's writing is beautiful, I loved the way she crafted the world and introduced the characters. I love Ana as a main character, her voice is so relatable and realistic for her situation and world and I really appreciated her character development. Her relationship with Sam was amazingly written. For once in YA I feel like I've found a couple who doesn't rush to be together and instantly know things will work out for them. Again, it was very realistic.

This world is so complex and full or amazing fantastical elements such as dragons and sylph. I'm so happy this book had dragons in it because it made me want to read more books with them! I understand why we didn't figure out too much about the world outside Heart in this book because Ana is figuring all this stuff out for the first time, so I'm interested to learn more in the next installments!

I didn't give this book a higher rating because while I really enjoyed the writing style, it wasn't the easiest for me to read. I found the pace to speed up and slow down multiple times so this book took me longer than expected to read.

Also, I found some of the concepts to be confusing so I hope they'll get cleared up in the sequels. I hope we get to learn more about sylph too because I've never heard of them before and I'm a wee bit confused.

Those were the only problems I had with this book. I loved everything else about it! I highly recommend it if you love fantasy. I can't wait to pick up the next book and see what happens!


Favourite Quotes:
  • “There's always the option of deciding for yourself who you are and what you'll become.”
  • “Did you have friends?"
    "I've read about them, but I don't believe they exist."
    "Your cynicism is amazing.”
  • “Music overwhelmed me, soaked into my skin like water. I didn’t have words for the squiggles and dashes across the pages, or the way his fingers stretched across the keys to make my heart race. If I could hear only one thing for the rest of my life, this was what I wanted.”
  • “It's difficult to focus on my studies when my best friend is struggling to get through the hour."
    He hesitated. "So I'm your best friend now?"
    My cheeks heated, and I shrugged. "It was between you and Sarit, and you have the piano. She just has honey.”
  • “I think I died to be reborn with you”
  • “Simple things are often the most challenging.”
 
Thanks for reading!
~Birdie

***Quotes taken from Goodreads.com and Incarnate by Jodi Meadows***
*Info on book taken from Goodreads.com*

*Images taken from Google.ca

Wednesday 19 August 2015

Rating System

I thought I'd make a post about my rating system and how I rate books. This goes along with my review policy that you can check out by clicking here.

First I do want to point out that I rate books differently according to genre. For example, I will generally judge a fantasy book differently than a contemporary one. This is because I have different standards and factors I look for in each genre (i.e. world building). The same goes for series and standalones. I will judge and rate them differently because things like world building or character development are much more crucial in a standalone novel because there isn't as much room to expand. With all this in mind, here's my rating system!

Every book I read gets a rating out of 5 stars. The meaning of each rating is as follows:

5/5: Loved this book! I recommend it to everyone! Go tell your friends! Alert the presses! Serious fangirling going on, clear the area! Not necessarily a perfect book, but such good characters/world etc. I'm willing to overlook minor issues!

4/5: A really great read! Really enjoyed it! Still really recommend it! The book was great, but I had a few issues here and there. Full of potential, but a few ideas or plot points fell flat. Still definitely worth the read and I still recommend it! I've rated a lot of my favourite books of all time 4/5 stars.

3/5: An okay book. Enjoyable, but not the best book ever. Books that had a great concept, but not all aspects of it pulled through. A book in which nothing really surprised me and the plot kind of flat-lined.

2/5: Didn't like this book. Not really enjoyable. Had a few redeeming qualities that allowed me to push through it. A lot of annoying things happened to either tick me off or bore me. Don't really recommend. In special cases, book is recommended to lovers of specific qualities or genres.

1/5: Horrible book. I absolutely detested it. Never recommend to anyone ever. Don't go near this book with a 10 foot pole. Never speak the name of this book in my presence. Something obviously went wrong in this book if I gave it 1 star because I'm usually very generous and give most books I don't like a 2.

I hope this clears a few things up when you read my reviews! Like I mentioned, this system is subject to differ when jumping from genre to genre, but this is the main format. Is your rating system similar?

Thanks for reading!
~Birdie

Saturday 15 August 2015

The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White

The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White
Published: HarperTeen, September 10, 2013
Pages: 276
Source: Paperback, purchased
Genre: Paranormal/mythology
Rating: 3.5/5

How I Felt: The only other books I've read by Kiersten White are the ones in the Mind Games duology. I really enjoyed the writing and characters in that book, as I did this one. Isadora went through tremendous character development, and I felt like that was shown and developed nicely. Kiersten's writing is so easy to read and I just flew through this book. I couldn't even put it down at some points!

I loved the fact that this book was based around Egyptian mythology. Any type of mythology really intrigues me so that was definitely a big selling point for me. I loved the way Kiersten incorporated the mythology into the plot and the characters. It was just so fun and interesting!

I would've liked to know a little more about Isadora's childhood and just get more knowledge about how her family works, but the information we were given was sufficient. I also would've liked to learn more about her other living siblings and how they're relationships just to clear a few things up.

Throughout the book I kept forgetting who was Hathor and who was Horus and it was so funny to read a sentence thinking it was the other person.

I really liked Ry, he was my favourite character! I just wish we could've spent more time getting to know his family because I found it odd that Isis didn't know they existed.

There was a lot of foreshadowing in this book and I was quite surprised I picked up on it because I usually don't.

I felt like that because this book is a standalone it could've been a little longer. Interactions between characters, action scenes, and foreshadowing scenes could've been elongated for a more 'end' feeling when the story wrapped up.

I'm only giving this book three stars because while I really enjoyed it, it wasn't the best book I've ever read and there were a few minor issues with it. But overall, it was a really great and interesting read! I highly recommend it for fans of mythology or just unique, cultural reads!


Favourite Quotes:
  • “I didn't fall in love with you. I walked into love with you, with my eyes wide open, choosing to take every step along the way. I do believe in fate and destiny, but I also believe we are only fated to do the things that we'd choose anyway. And I'd choose you; in a hundred lifetimes, in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality, I'd find you and I'd choose you”  
  • “I can't seem to keep my heart from leaking out of the cracks, like sand clutched in a fist.”  
  • “It's all a matter of perspective. And maybe we thought we were living one story, when if we look at it a little different, we can reframe everything - all out memories and attributes and experiences - and see that we're actually living a different story.”  
  • “Boys suck. Even when they have perfect blue eyes and ridiculously cool trucks. Maybe especially then.”  
  • “Soap operas got nothing on my family history.”  
 

Thanks for reading!
~Birdie

***Quotes taken from Goodreads.com and The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White***
*Info on book taken from Goodreads.com*

Thursday 13 August 2015

Summer Book Haul!

I really want to do this post because I'm kind of stuck and run out of ideas for posts so I thought this would be fun and an easy fix! These are all the books I've acquired in July and August. I won't be buying any more books in the month of August because as you will see I've gone crazy in the book buying department these last two months! I won't bore you any longer, here are the books!
 
   

 
 
 

Yup, I know. Quite a few books. That's why I've put myself on a book buying ban (the only exception being Queen of Shadows) until my TBR pile shrinks. Although, I have already read quite a few of these books already!

Let me know what books you recently bought!

Thanks for reading!
~Birdie

*Images taken from Google.ca*

Monday 10 August 2015

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
Published: HarperTeen, February 10th, 2015
Pages: 383
Source: Hardcover, purchased
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 3/5

How I Felt: This book was pretty good, this series has a lot of potential. I don't think this book was worth all the hype though. I was really entertained while reading this, though I found it difficult for me to read this book for long periods of time. 

I didn't really like any of the characters and I didn't find myself getting attached to any of them. I'm really interested to see where we go in the next book, there are so many questions left unanswered and so many things I want to know about.

I feel like this is one of the few fantasy books I've read where the queen is the evil one and not the king, and I found this really interesting and refreshing.

I really want to learn more about the Silvers and how they came to get there powers, and how so many variations came about.

I didn't give this book a higher rating because I found a lot of the plot points to be very predictable. The betrayal at the end I saw coming from a mile away, it was just the obvious outcome and was hinted at many times during the book. Also, the thing Mare realizes at the end I thought might happen at the beginning of the book when it was first mentioned.

I will have to say that I loved the scenes with Mare's family, they're all just so close and I loved to get to see them together. My favourite character, if I had to pick, would be Julian, I hope we get to see more of him in the next book. I also really liked Kilorn in this book, out of all the 'love interests' (because they really can't even be called that) he's my favourite for Mare.

I really liked the battle at the end, it was action-packed and kick-butt and I really enjoyed reading that! I'm looking forward to learning more about the rebels and the Scarlet Guard, but more specifically, Farley.

I can't wait to learn more about this world, and I'll probably pick up the sequel when it comes out. A good, fun, quick read. Good if you like fantasy. But it sadly didn't live up to all the hype for me.


Favourite Quotes:
  • “Anyone can betray anyone.” 
  • “The truth is what I make it. I could set this world on fire and call it rain.” 
  • “Rise, red as the dawn.” 
  • “In the fairy tales, the poor girl smiles when she becomes a princess. Right now, I don't know if I'll ever smile again.” 
  • “If you know someone's fear, you know them.
  • “I see a world on the edge of a blade. Without balance, it will fall.”
Thanks for reading!
~Birdie

***Quotes taken from Goodreads.com and Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard***
*Info on book taken from Goodreads.com*

Saturday 1 August 2015

Zodiac by Romina Russell

Zodiac by Romina Russell
Published: Razorbill, December 9th, 2014
Pages: 319
Source: Hardcover, purchased
Genre: Science fiction/fantasy
Rating: 4.5/5

How I Felt: I really loved this book! I picked it up because the concept was so unique and I've never read anything like it before. It certainly didn't disappoint! Rho was such a great, realistic protagonist. The plot was so interesting and full of twists! One of my new favourites!

The beginning of this book took me a while to get into because of all the new terms and the new universe and everything, but once I got past that I really started to enjoy myself and get into the story.

The setting is very interesting. It's in another galaxy called the 'Zodiac'. There are 12 planets (also known as 'houses') that govern themselves with their own politics and leader. The planets are based off the zodiac signs, and people on each planet share similar physical and personality traits. I found this really cool and I loved how the author explained it. I loved that we got to see almost every house, and get to see how separated and distant they are from each other and the big difference in culture.

The characters were all so different and unique in this book; I loved getting to learn about all of them! Rho was such an amazing protagonist. A lot of heroins get thrown into her position and they all seem to take it in stride, and adapt easily with a group of people on her side to support her, but Rho is different. No one trusts her, not even her own guard and loyal adviser. They all see her as a delusional child. The struggles she went to were very realistic for her situation and I appreciated that. Hysan was a very interesting character, there's still a lot lurking beneath the surface and I'm looking forward to learning what it is! Mathias bothered me a lot because of how much he didn't trust Rho's judgment, but he redeemed himself at the end for me when he finally believed her and told her the things she needed to hear.

I can't wait to learn more about the Zodiac, the houses and Ochus in the next book!

This book was full of mystery, intrigue, heartbreak, and action! Such a great and strong debut from Romina Russell! I can't wait to get my hands on the sequel when it comes out and I look forward to reading more of her books in the future!

Overall, this was a great sci-fi/fantasy book! I absolutely loved it! I highly recommend this to anyone and everyone! Definitely worth the read!

Thanks for reading!
~Birdie

*Info on book taken from Goodreads.com*

Popular Posts