Fire and Flood by Victoria Scott

Fire and Flood by Victoria Scott
Published: Scholastic Press, February 25th, 2014
Pages: 305
Source: Hardcover, purchased
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating: 5/5

How I Felt: This book was so good! I love Victoria Scott's writing, it's so fast paced and fun and funny! I flew through this book, it's a great one-sitting read! Definitely the best book I've read in a while!

I knew I'd like this book as soon as I heard the premise which is why I kept putting off reading it. I knew I wouldn't be able to put it down and that's exactly what happened. I was trying to do chores and read this at the same time; I brought it everywhere with me! This book is pitched as Pokemon meets The Hunger Games and that is 100% accurate! The concepts worked really well together and the addition of the animal companions (Pandoras) made the book so much more enjoyable and interesting.

I'm a little confused as to what genre this would be categorized in because to me it has a little bit of everything, this is literally the only problem I have with this book so that says a lot.

I honestly could talk for hours about how much I love Tella's character, she's one of the most (if not the most) relatable character I've ever read about. She accepts the fact that she's not athletic, and she's not as strong as everyone else, but she tries her hardest and she grows. I feel like in most YA books all protagonists have this hidden strength and fortitude they never knew about but just happens to show up in perilous situations. Tella is the first one to say she doesn't possess these qualities and I respect that. While she's running through the challenges she complains and says she'd much rather be getting a massage  among other modern luxuries and I thought this was a perfect representation of what any normal person would do in these circumstances. Another thing I love about Tella is that she's kind to everyone. All the Pandoras, and the people who tried to kill her. She kept her humanity despite what was going on around her.

Relationships. There were a lot. I loved Tella's relationship with her brother, Cody. It made me tear up to hear how much she loves him and what she's willing to do for him. I also loved Tella's relationship with Guy and how it progressed. Seeing them together also made me cry! Too many feels! I loved how the group of Contendors Tella met bonded and were really there for each other. I can't wait to learn more about all of them. And I can't forget precious Madox! The coolest Pandora around!

I can't wait to learn more about Tella's mom and discover more about her family and backstory, and about the situation with Guy. I hope we see more of Harper!

I really do love Scott's writing, and I have to admit, this book made me laugh out loud more than once!

I honestly have no complaints at all with this book. I'm actually still in awe. Victoria Scott is one of my new favourite authors now. I need Salt & Stone immediately!!

If it's not already clear I highly recommend you go read this book. Right now. Go forth and read! You won't regret it.

Favourite Quotes:

• “If my hair gets any frizzier, I'll shave it to the scalp. Or light it on fire. Whichever is easier.”
• “But there’s often more truth found when we sleep than when we wake. Dad used to always say that.”  

Thanks for reading!
~Birdie

***Quotes taken from Goodreads.com and Fire and Flood by Victoria Scott***
*Info on book taken from Goodreads.com*
*Images taken from Google.ca
 

2015 Reading Progress

I originally wanted to do the Mid-Year Book Freak Out tag but since it's now September and that time has passed I'll just talk about progress but use most of the same basic questions.

2015 hasn't been the best reading year for me so far. I've just been very busy and haven't had a lot of time for reading or blogging so it's become frustrating.

As of now, I've read 62 books this year (not counting re-reads) and am 9 books ahead of my 75 book goal. I'm okay with this number considering the circumstances but I really wanted to push myself to read 80. As of right now I don't think that's possible, but I'm going to keep trying anyway.

Looking back on my reading resolutions for the year, I haven't done too bad. In fact, I'm quite proud of myself. One of my goals was to expand my reading tastes by reading books from different genres. And I've done that a lot this year. I've read my first two graphic novels this year, and while I was a little underwhelmed, I'm glad I dove into this form of literature. I've also read quite a few fantasy and paranormal books this year, which at this time last year, were not generally books I gravitated towards. Now, I'm always looking for great fantasy recommendations, and some of my all time favourite books are now fantasies (*cough cough* Throne of Glass).

In terms of the books I've read this year I've read quite a few amazing ones. First of all I finally picked up Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas and have become completely obsessed. Another stand out read is Fire and Flood by Victoria Scott; it's been about a week and a half since I've read that book and I still can't stop thinking about it! Victoria Scott has definitely become one of my new favourite authors! I can't wait to read more from her!

I haven't seen too many book to movie adaptations this year, and the ones I really liked were based off books I haven't read yet so I can't say anything about those. I think the only two book-movie adaptations I've watched so far this year were Insurgent and Paper Towns and I didn't really like either of those movies. But out of the two I liked Insurgent the best (or disliked it the least).

As of books I have yet to read but really want to get to, there are quite a few, as always.

• A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
• I Was Here by Gayle Forman
• Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge
• The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows
• The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
• The Glass Arrow by Kristen Simmons
• The Cage by Megan Shepard
• Queen of Shadows by the Queen.

And the list could go on forever.

That's pretty much all I wanted to wrap up. I will do another one of these at the end of the year just to see everything I've read and accomplished.

Thanks for reading!
~Birdie

Birdie's Books Update

Hello everyone, I just wanted to write this post to let you know why I haven't been reading or reviewing in a while.

School recently started again for me and things have been quite hectic. I've just been swamped with homework and haven't had a lot of free time to spend reading (or sometimes even sleeping). So as soon as I get settled back into the school routine I'll definitely be picking up some books and hopefully get some things put up on the blog.

And another, horrible reason for why I haven't been posting a lot recently is that I've just come to a point where I've run out of ideas for posts. I haven't been reading so I don't have any new reviews to put up and I didn't want to put up a sloppy post that was full of rambling nonsense.

I hope you can bare with me as I settle back into things. There should be a few posts going up within the next week or so, so look out for that!

Thanks for reading!
~Birdie