lattes_lipstick_literature's reviews
404 reviews

This is the first book in Butcher's planned The Cinder Spires series. The second book has yet to come out and but is currently called The Olympian affair. Most people state that Butcher is trying to cash in on the current Steampunk phase I honestly don't think he is. I've read multiple steampunk books and it seems like Butcher is genuinely trying to write because he enjoys it. Since this is the first book in the series it seemed slow to start but I didn't expect it to be as slow as it was. I kept stopping and reading something else hoping it will pick up. It eventually did but because it took so long my interest waned a bit. I will say the second half of the book was a lot better than the first, it had more action and you started to piece things together.
I wish that Butcher had kept control of how many characters he had, I kept having to go back and see who was from where. It seems as if there are a total of 4 main characters, I could be wrong. The book had alternating points of view, even from the enemy, which despite the long list of characters I didn't have a trouble with. I really liked Folly who is Master Ferus apprentice, and I hope the book expands more on that character and make her a little less childlike. The character who I didn't like reading her POV was Gwen.
Reading about her from other people's point of view she is a strong female character. From her point of view she is bratty and rash and seemingly imperious to fear. I didn't dislike any of the characters too much (expect the villian, you have to dislike the villian).
Even though this book only got 3 stars from me it was not a bad book in any sense, I just wished it was a bit shorter and faster paced. I will be reading the second book when it comes out (hopefully it's better since it doesn't have to set too much up.)

This book was a bit of fresh air to read. A lot of books have become a bit predictable lately, and while not the authors fault as it seems the only the cliche-ish of books seem to get popular (at least to me). I really did enjoy this, but I am really happy that it was short stories as opposed to one long story. I like that I was not able to predict what was going to happen. I was also eager to check out every new story to see where the author would take it.

Of course you know that when you have a anthology filled with stories not all of them could be great and I did not like every single one of them. I wont list them here but I will list a couple of my favorite stories

On Loving Bad Boys: A Villainelle by: Valya Dudycz Lipescu
Single, Singularity by: John Hornor Jacobs
Chosen by: Anton Strout
Santa CIS (Episode 1: No Saint) by: Alethea Kontis
The First Blood of Poppy Dupree by: Deliah S. Dawson

While there were much more I like, these were the stories I wish the author would expand upon. I would love full books on this especially the Santa CIS. The stories I did like far out-weighed the stories I didn't like. I recommend this book for anyone who is tired of the everyday fairy tale and needs something new

Libby and May's friendship was something I dreamed of having as a child, I still wish I was able to become such good friends with someone that if something happened to them that well I would still be reminded of them no matter what. It was heartbreaking to think of Libby's passing in the book and how everything May went through, how she also lost Princess X, the story and drawing that May and Libby created together, that very same week.

Suddenly years later it just appears again, causing May to get pulled along in search of someone who she thought was lost forever, but is this Libby? Or is this someone who has taken their precious character and now has creative control? The story itself while you would think is far fetched actually isn't and Priest is an author who keeps you turning each page wanted to find out more, leaves you hoping (alongside May) that we could solve this mystery and have closure.

It's been a while since I've read a book that has so many up to date references that it was slightly refreshing to read. Usually so much pop culture in a book has me rolling my eyes, but more of these are said in passing or taken as a everyday thing. Priest's writing didn't feel forced, but organic and had the story flow really well.

One of the things I loved was the lack of romance, this was a mystery and friendship book and Priest did not try to force two characters into something that would have stuck out like a sore thumb, and would have been obvious that it was added for the purpose of just having a romance. I like that she leaves it to your imagination if you wanted two characters (which surprisingly I did) to develop romantic feelings.

There were two things that stopped me from giving this review a full 5. One was that it took a little while before May actually started to get anywhere in her investigation, I would have liked her to start things up a bit sooner and maybe add a bit more action into some of the elements. While it was not devoid of any action, there were a couple of scenes that were really action packed and had me continue reading (despite my bed time), but I felt there could have been more. Another thing was the ending, while it wrapped up the current story it still left me feeling like I didn't have enough closure, what will happen to these characters? I need to know if everything would be okay!!! I don't think Priest will be writing a sequel, it would be hard to picture what it could be about. For Priest's first YA book I think she did a really good job

So did I love The Maze Runner? No. Did I hate The Maze Runner? No. This book was enjoyable, while I did not fall in love with it, it entertained me enough to want to read the next book. I can really see why so many people liked it and why it was made into a movie. I have yet to see the movie, but I'm interested to see it and compare.

I won't lie but this book took me a ridiculously long time to get into, I would read one or two chapters then put it down. It wasn't until about a third of the way into the book that it finally became interesting to me, however even then it did not spark me to pick up the book. I decided though that I would finally pick it up and finish it all the way through no stopping.

One thing that made me not be able to get into The Maze Runner, is that I can quite understand the whole tossing kids into these experimental situations where they die or have to fend for themselves. While I hope that did not give anything away for someone who has not read the book, it's kind of easy to understand from the first couple of chapters that this is what is happening. Even when I was a kid or teenager reading books, I never understood why kids? My guess is that it's a easy way to write about kids and teenagers in a dystopian society.

The Glade, Runners, Shank Face, Klunk, Baggers. It was all so weird to me, the language that these kids had adopted. They know proper words and language, yet they need these weird terms to describe things. Most of the time I felt just like Thomas, Confused and angry. What the hell was going on!? Considering that the longest person has been there for two years, you would think they would have handled 'Newbies' and 'Greenies' better than they were. There was a distinct lack of communication on everyone's part. I understand they wanted to maintain order (it was a huge thing) but most refused to answer any questions about anything. Why so secretive? Didn't they all technically have the same goal? Survive and escape? They were working together, but not at the same time.

Most of the plot developments were quite obvious, although I am assuming that it was not meant to be a surprise. I even guessed at most of the deaths as well. I'm sorry but yes people do die in this book. I was also disappointed in the character Teresa. The only freaking girl in the whole book and she's comatose for most of it. I really hope that she plays a bigger role in the other books.

Overall not a bad book and I'll try to find the sequel next time I go to the library.

*DNF 58%*

Usually if I don't finish a book I don't post a review, however in this case I read more than I normally did. I tried, I really did try, but I just could not get into it. Reading over half of the book and I just did not like the characters, nothing really happened at all and ultimately I just started not to care. This book put me in a huge reading slump too! I didn't want to start another book on the off chance that I will finish this one, but I decided to just drop it off at the library ad pick up one other.

One of the reasons I think I couldn't get into this book is because most of the stories are told in flashbacks, while I was more interested in the present, ultimately I just started skimming the flashbacks. Plus, a took such a long time for anything to truly happen, I literally yawned with how boring it all was. The characters were just not my cup of tea and while I did like Clarke sometimes, having one okay character is not a book saver. Half the time I got a headache over how frustrating everything made me.

Since this was made into a series on the CW, it must have been a popular book, people must have liked it and I think that's why I kept reading because I thought maybe I'm missing something. Alas, I don't think I did, I was really excited to read this but maybe I just overhyped the book. If you read the book and did like it let me know why, I am interested to see your point of view.

This book perfectly captures teen romance and angst. Is that a good thing? Yes. Does that mean I liked it? Eh. This had nothing to do with Rowell's writing, in fact she did a really good job capturing the feel of teenage emotions and insecurity. I loved that she incorporated music and comic books as a way for Eleanor & Park to bond and start their whirlwind romance. The feelings and love may have been quick after that however their teenagers, teenagers are delicate and emotional. Their hormones make them insecure about their appearance, which make them emotionally insecure which translates to romantically insecure, so when they find someone to bond with they immediately latch on, and I saw that in Rowell writing.

It wasn't instalove, more like a quick love that rollercoastered. Honestly, I am just too old for the book to have any emotional effect. My favorite parts were when she incorporated music and comic books because I remember them from when I was young and knew exactly what she was talking about. Good ol' nostalgia. Another thing I like was that the ending was not predictable. On the first page it lead me to believe one thing, and I kept reading with the intention of the book turning out a certain way, but it didn't and I like that.

While it did mention some racial issues, which Park being Asian American during the 80s and all, it seems like she sugar coated what could have been a really been something big. I am a product of a Bi-racial relationship so I know the tensions that can come with a relationship like that, add on bullying and the other issues presented in this book and wow this could have turned into something supremely meaningful. I can fault Rowell however, since can authors really completely understand and writing about things they have not encountered in their life?

Overall this is a YA book, and I think any young adult would love it which why this book is so popular. So if you’re a Young Adult go ahead and read this. Tell me what you think

This book is a rollercoaster ride so if you are emotionally exhausted like I was you may want to wait until you are ready. While I did love the poetry, I would have liked it more if I was a teenage girl in high school. Since I technically saved myself and went through a majority of what Lovelace went through I could appreciate what she was writing, but I am healed from what I have endured.

It would have been amazing to read this in high school when you are just going through so much, and you don't even know who you are, what you should be doing, or even how to love. When emotions are fragile and you just need a savior (however you will learn to save yourself). This would be a good book to keep as a art journal, drawing next to the poems in a way that helped the emotions let loose.

My favorite part was III the queen. This is where you start to believe in yourself and Lovelace has a way of writing so that it reaches down into your soul and picks out those chunks that need to be healed. Despite liking the poetry I just couldn't give it a 4 or 5. Like I said if those wounds were fresh or if I was experiencing these problems, it would have spoken to me more. I also felt like something was missing, for me, from the poetry, what it was I couldn't tell you