2014 Wrap Up and Best Book Awards

Hey everyone!

So we've finally got there- the illusive 2014 wrap up is finally here.

Over the course of the year I've read 39 books (41 if you include the two I read in school for English) just 11 short of my reading goal for the year which actually I'm pretty proud of!

Here's the list of books I read

If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Cross My Heart And Hope to Spy by Ally Carter
Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover by Ally Carter
Only the Good Spy Young by Ally Carter
Out of Sight, Out of Time by Ally Carter
United We Spy by Ally Carter
City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare
City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Looking For Alaska by John Green
Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
Frostbite by Richelle Mead
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
Blood Promise by Richelle Mead
The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare
Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare
Where She Went by Gayle Forman
Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead
Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead
The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan
The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan
The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan
The Scorch Trials by James Dashner
City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare
The House of Hades by Rick Riordan
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Paper Towns by John Green

Holes by Louis Sachar*
Billy Elliot by Lee Hall and Melvin Burgess*

*Read in English at school

The first 10 are only in rough order since I didn't actively record when I read stuff back then

Wow that took a good 15 mins to type up!

So most of my year has been dominated by a few key authors- Cassandra Clare and Rick Riordan who wrote The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices (series) and the Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus (series). All of these series have quickly become some of my favourites of all time.

I ended also being pretty dominated by fantasy/paranormal books this year and I also read a fair few contemporaries (more than I usually do) with a few dystopians thrown in there for good measure.

Best Book Awards:

Rules:

-Each book can only be mentioned once
-All books mentioned must have been read in 2014

(A/N: I actually wrote most of the comments for these out of order because I couldn't decide which books to choose and was running out of time so some of them might be a little repetitive sorry! It's currently 23:47 as I write this!!)


Best Series Opener: This has to go to Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead. I absolutely adored this book and loved all the characters especially Rose to pieces. She was so brilliantly snarky, smart and bad ass- just a brilliant female kick butt protagonist. I fell in love with the world and the story and just everything about it that I bought the entire series before even finishing the second book which obviously means it's made it onto my all time favourites for sure

Best Series Instalment: I really can't decide and I'm running out of time!

Best Series Finale: City of Heavenly Fire- So close to quite a few others ( so I have given them their own award) but this is the one that I have really been looking forward to and craving for such a long time. It was so funny, charming, interesting, sad and emotional all rolled into one. I do

Best Fantasy: Spirit Bound Again a ridiculously hard decision to make but this book was so much fun blended with enough action and suspense to make it brilliant. Loved all the couple-y moments and read this within just a day or two

Best Contemporary: Fangirl. Such an amazing and cute read. I really love stories with lots of growth and character development and this has to be up there with one of the best. Just the right balance of cuteness and deep stuff. I've come back to this one a couple of times since reading it to read m favourite parts when I'm feeling down. This has to be one of the best reads this year and has made it onto my favourites shelf.

Best Middle Grade: The Mark of Athena/The House of Hades. I've allowed myself to ut two here just because they're from the same series, too close and I'm running out of time to get this up before New Year's! Again this was a really difficult decision but I loved all the Percabeth moments in this as well as all the character arcs in this so much plus I sped through both of these within just a few days.


Best Book Overall: Clockwork Princess- This was such a difficult decision to make as I can never quite list favourites as they tend to change all the time. This was very narrow but it just pipped City of Heavenly Fire and the others to the post but  I have mentioned them elsewhere. I was so emotional reading this book because I just love all the characters to pieces and found the plot so interesting to read.Once again I can barely put into words how much this book means to me and

Worst Book: The Perks of Being a Wallflower or Looking For Alaska. I really hate or even talking about books I don't like but these...I know there are loads of people to LOVE both of these book and I don't mean to offend those of you who do. For both of these I wasn't expecting them to be the way they were and they just  weren't quite my cup of tea.

Most Anticipated Book: Lady Midnight- one of the easiest decisions of all these awards. I actually hardly know what's coming out in 2015 book-wise to be perfectly honest but holy crap, I am SO excited for this I can't put it into words!

Best Book to Movie Adaptation: The Fault in Our Stars. This was a toss up between Mockingjay as well but I've given that some credit too (see below). This is was such a true-to-the-book movie adaptation and it was brilliant to see it play out on-screen.

Most Anticipated Book to Movie: Mockingjay Part 2 hands down. I barely know what else is coming out in 2015. Okay I sort of do but this overshadows them all by far I actually can't

wait and it'll probably be one of the best book-to-movie adaptations of all time. So pumped!


Yeah! I actually did it AND before 2015 (in the UK with 5 mins to spare)!

Hope you enjoyed!
See you next year,

Amber xxx

December Wrap Up

Hey everyone!

So I feel like I'm finally making progress with these wrap ups since I've published the ones for both October and November. I know I normally do these within the first week of the month after, but I feel like I need to have the last few done and dusted before the new year which is only a couple of hours away now -eeek!

This month I read two books, a little less than what I expected but progress none the less

It's been a while since I've read a book surrounding witches and magic so I decided to pick up Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, the first book in the Caster Chronicles series. To sum it up quickly, it's another YA paranormal/fantasy book told from the POV of a boy called Ethan Wate who starts dreaming of this girl before he even meets her. He lives in a small town neighbourhood where nothing out of the ordinary ever really happens but when she turns up at his school everyone thinks she's some sort of devil. Magic and chaos ensue. I guess that's probably best to not say any more about the plot. I actually really enjoyed this book- more than I was expecting to, given the mixed reviews. I'd say about an 89% from me, a solid 4 stars on Goodreads.

There's also a movie adaptation that came out in 2013. It was actually the trailer that initially made me want to read the book but looking back I don't think that I'm going to watch the movie. Not that it looks bad or anything I just think it will spoil the way I picture everything in my head.

Read my booktalk for Beautiful Creatures (Coming Soon)

The final book that I read in December (and in 2014) was Paper Towns by John Green. Ever since I read The Fault in our Stars earlier on this year I've wanted to read some of John Green's other books. I did end up reading Looking For Alaska which really ended up  not being my cup of tea but I liked this one more. Mid way through I was almost thinking that I didn't like Paper Towns either because it was getting sort of... I don't know... kind of depressing? I don't think that's the right word but I ended up liking it much more, later on. Now that I think about it I actually enjoyed all of it except for a couple of chapters towards the middle but overall it was a good book. An 82% from me, another 4 stars.

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Paper Towns by John Green

That's it for my December wrap up and for the monthly wrap ups for 2014. Only the last yearly wrap up to go!

Hope you enjoyed!

Bye for now,

Amber xxx

November Wrap Up

Hey everyone!



So today I'm doing my November wrap up. even if it is a month late. I did a fair amount of reading this month, reading 3 books total which is actually loads for how busy I was- especially taking into account the size of them





The Scorch Trials is the second book in The Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner. I'm not too sure what I was expecting from this book- I'd heard lots about it and that it wasn't as good as the first book; even from people who love the series. Honestly I did like this one but I found it a little slow, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but it had a sort of Insurgent feel to it- it wasn't as gripping as it was supposed to be. I was mainly reading to figure it out rather than caring for the characters ( which I have a whole rant/ discussion written on my phone, that'll eventually go up in a booktalk). I'm definitely NOT saying I hated the book though, as I do intend to go ahead and read the last book, The Death Cure, and then probably The Kill Order. As for final thoughts I think I'm going to give it a 75% on my scale which is just over 3.5 stars on Goodreads. Also sorry about not having any of my own photography for the Scorch Trials- I don't own a copy and the one I read has already been returned to my friend.

Read by full booktalk for the Scorch Trials (Coming Soon)
See more about The Maze Runner series Booktalk: The Maze Runner by James Dashner


The next book I read I can barely talk about, let alone type about without wanting to shake and do a happy dance- City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare, the sixth and finally book in The Mortal Instruments series. I got this book  for my birthday (thanks Mum) and I literally read it in just over a day - even though my copy is the giant, tall paperback edition that's over 700 pages long.I absolutely adored this book to pieces and was really emotional when it ended- I'm finding it difficult to describe how incredible this book is without going on a long discussion about it so just go read by booktalk for it once it's up, to read all the details but I will say that it was the finale I was looking for to wrap up the series and I can't wait for Lady Midnight to come out  in 2015. A huge 97% from me.


Read my full booktalk for City of Heavenly Fire (Coming Soon)
Read my booktalk for the prequel series Booktalk: Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare


And finally, the last book I read, just before the month finished was House of Hades by Rick Riordan, the fifth book in the Heroes of Olympus series. Again, I can't really talk about plot or anything like that but I'm just going to say that it's one of my favourite ones so far and that I actually was just craving Percy Jackson as soon as I had finished it but I'm just going to have to wait until I can get The Blood of Olympus which came out on October 7th for those of you wanting to buy it. To keep this spoiler free I'll just link my booktalk below for you to read once you've finished the book. Final ratings for House of Hades are at 96%.

Read my full booktalk for The House of Hades (Coming Soon)
Find out more about The Heroes of Olympus series (Coming Soon)
Find out more about the Percy Jackson series Booktalk: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan



The Scorch Trials by James Dashner*
City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare
The House of Hades by Rick Riordan

*Already returned book so no photography


Once again there's no TBR list, this time for December, as it's already New Year's Eve but if everything goes to plan, my December and 2014 wrap up should be up before the year is out -here in the UK at least :)

Hope you enjoyed!
Bye for now,

Amber xxx

October Wrap up

Hey everyone!

So hopefully I'm keeping on track with getting all the wrap ups done by the end of the year. There won't be any TBR list this time since well... it's the end of December already.

Here's October's Wrap Up!

Only two of my reads this month were new reads and both were from the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan.


Son of Neptune  and Mark of Athena were absolutely amazing and I zipped through them straight away, finishing them in a day or two each.. It was really nice to have Percy's POV again - you I know I love me some Percy Jackson. I swear I didn't realise how much I missed him until he came back. Due to spoilers I'm not going to give away any of the plot but I'll say that Son of Neptune picks up within a week of the end of the Lost Hero while Mark of Athena picks up that same day. If you've read the first Heroes of Olympus  book and didn't enjoy it maybe as much as you would've, definitely carry on and pick up this one because it's well worth the read. I'm going to give Son of Neptune  91% and Mark of Athena 96%

See more info about the Percy Jackson series Booktalk: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
For more info on The Heroes of Olympus series  (Coming Soon)

Read by full booktalk for The Son of Neptune (Coming Soon)
Read by full booktalk for The Mark of Athena (Coming Soon)

As pretty much all of you know, Mockingjay Part 1 came out in November so I had planned to reread the book in October. However after reading The Mark of Athena, I wasn't quite ready to go back into reading, especially a book I knew had some very heart-wrenching points in. So I ended up falling into a little bit of reading slump for a while.

But I did eventually come around, mainly with the help of the trailers to get me excited for the movie. And I'm really glad I did reread it since I realise now that I'd forgotten a bunch of important info as well as the little details and definitely enjoyed the movie way more after having  fairly recently read the book again. I'm not going to give a synopsis for this one, just because I'm pretty sure all of you know it already. As for rating I'm giving it an 87%.


The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins


Okay so that's it for the October wrap up! I know these are usually much longer but there's not much I can say in order to stay spoiler free and I'm writing this long after October is over.


Hope you enjoyed and I'll see you in my next post,

Bye for now,

Amber xxx

Another Update

Hey everyone....

Merry Christmas to everyone who's celebrating it and Happy Thursday to everyone who doesn't.

So I'd like to apologise (once again) for basically no posts up for a long time. For the past couple of
months I've had some serious technical issues and in my last PE lesson I injured and almost broke my finger so typing was a bit of a nightmare. But now I'm back.I realise that I say this every time there's a lack of updates, but I'm really hoping I can get back on track before the new year,and yes, I know that's less than 6 days from now...But I'm off from school and currently ill in bed so I have a some time on my hands to get it done

Since it's been so long, here's a list of books that have been read since The Battle of the Labyrinth which is the last booktalk I put up.

The Last Olympian                Rick Riordan *

Fangirl                                   Rainbow Rowell

The Lost Hero                        Rick Riordan

The Son of Neptune               Rick Riordan

The Mark of Athena               Rick Riordan

Mockingjay                            Suzanne Collins **

The Scorch Trial                    James Dashner

City of Heavenly Fire            Cassandra Clare

The House of Hades.              Rick Riordan

Beautiful Creatures                Kami Garcia and                                                    Margaret Stohl 

*Written, needs to be edited
** Reread, no booktalk coming

As I'm sure you can count, that's 9 booktalks that need to be written, edited and published in time for 2015 plus I also want to upload October,November and December wrap-ups and and overall one for 2014 which is going to take some work. What I'm just to say is to not judge too harshly for the next 10 odd (God that does sound like a lot) posts since they will be fairly short and sweet;bordering on a little rushed.

I'm also thinking of starting a new series called "Reader Rambles" or "Reading Rambles" which will be random  posts where I'm, you've guessed it, rambling,discussing  or just sharing my thoughts about something. They're likely to be highly unedited, unlike  my usual posts butt they'll be *hopefully* pretty interesting . I'll explain more about why I'm doing this in my main post on it.

Hopefully this cleared a few things up, I'm off to work on this massive list of blog posts :/

Enjoy the stream of updates coming your way!

Amber xxx

November Update and New Post Idea

So once again I've fallen behind with booktalks. This is just a quick update just to say what's been going on, what;s coming up and a bit of a ramble. Unfortunately tomorrow is my last day of half term and I've got a bunch of exams and rehearsals first week back. On a happier note, it's my birthday during this month so I'm super exited for that.

Here's a list of the books that I'm read *fairly* recently that I'll hopefully get around to writing at some point.

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan
The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

I didn't even realise that I hadn't published the Last Olympian until yesterday. It is't even read through or have any of the photos on yet... Yep I'm a fail at book blogging.. :/

Also I have this little idea to do these posts where I just kinda ramble about my reading without editing the post really. I have actually written one of these already so I might post that soon. I'm thinking about calling them 'Reading Rambles' or 'Reader Rambles'. Any ideas?

Anyways I hope you enjoy,

Amber xx

Ps. Oh I forgot to mention that I am doing NaNoWriMo this year and have signed up for both the adult and the young writers site. But I don't really know how much time I'm actually going to have to do any writing so we'll see how that goes.

Booktalk: The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

Hey everyone!

So today I've finally got around to getting this booktalk for The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan, the fourth book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. So lets jump right in!


"Honestly, blowing up another school was the last thing I wanted to do,

As the son of a Greek God, I've had my share of near death disaster- and now my arch-enemy Luke wants to invade our camp via an ancient labyrinth.

If he succeeds, thousands if bloodthirsty monsters will attack. So it's goodbye sunshine, hello darkness as four of us descend into the terrifying underground and beyond..."

-From the blurb of the Battle of the Labyrinth



So I really don't have anything negative to say about this one. I absolutely loved it and immediately went onto read the last one!

A very easy to give out 97% from me.

Once again I really can't say too much without spoiling you so, if you haven't read the fourth PJO book yet, get on that. As for those who haven't read any of the PJO books and would like to know more, check out my booktalk for the first book in the series.

Booktalk: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Okay so that's it for the non-spoiler section. Bye non-spoiler peeps!

Byyyyeeee.


*Spoilers for The Battle of the Labyrinth ahead*



Okay!

So we start off the book with Percy back in the mortal world with him going to his high school orientation for his freshmen year. But very quickly, he attracts the attention of two monsters who obviously want to kill him but also give away some information about what Luke and Kronos are up to. We also bump into Rachel Dare again ( the girl from Hoover Dam) who alerts him to the monsters.I realise that I called her Elizabeth in the last book talk but I feel like she'll be quite a big character in the next book too.  Annabeth also joins in in the action and I'm pretty sure she was upset about not being able to go to the movies with Percy plus a little jealousy at Rachel. I mean, I would would be too.

So back at camp we have a few new faces including Quintus and his hell hound Mrs O'Leary. Right away I was pretty suspicious of Quintus, I mean, he's this unknown guy who's just randomly appeared at camp who Chiron had allowed to be a teacher. It almost felt like a Snape/Dumbledore relationship thing but obviously that isn't the case. And there's always his hell hound too. You wouln't expect a hell hound of all creatures to be almost like the camp pet but in a really sweet way that's what he ends up being.

So both Percy and Annabeth find this cave entrance and right away I knew that was the Labyrinth. Maybe it was the blurb that gave it away? If there had to be an entrance to the Labyrinth in CHB than this was it. As expected they're given a Quest to go into the Maze to find Daedelus, the creator of the maze so hopefully find a way to stop Luke's army from entering Camp.

What I didn't expect was the way that the majority of the book took place actually inside the Labyrinth but I actually really enjoyed that. There's also the sub-plots of Daedelus' backstory and what Kronos was up to, appearing in Percy's dreams which I found really interesting to read.It's such a smart way to get that information to readers without slowing down the story or making it boring. You get different bits and pieces scattered throughout but hen hey all link up and make sense.

We also get to learn a bit more about Nico diAngelo. In the last book he was about nine-ish but by this book he's matured A LOT and feels more like the age of fourteen by the way he acts and dresses. Before now, we haven't really gotten too much info about Hades or what his children can do but apparently they can raise the dead -as well as opening up the ground to swallow up skeletons ;).

Just a side note. I wanna mention the chapter titles. I have no idea how I haven't talked about it before but even as someone who's a little older,than say, the target audience of the book, they crack me up every single time. Whether it's "Nico buys happy meals for the dead" or "I Scoop Poop" it's always hilarious.

So as I said before, we're in the maze. I feel like we got lots more monsters popping up in this one. I'm not sure whether that's because its the maze or because a war is brewing though. As much as it was really interesting to read about all these new ones, sometimes it was a little difficult to keep up and remember them all. But maybe that's because I haven't read the Demigod Files which is supposed to be a companion novel to the series but yeah....

A little later on we meet the God Hephaestus who gives Percy and Annabeth a sort of mini quest type thing to see what's been going on in Mount St. Helens. I actually really liked that whole scene especially where they were talking about how Annabeth had been born. I'm sort of curious to find out more- is that weird? And of course there's the kiss. I don't think it specified whether it was on the lips or cheek but I feel like it was a peck on the lips type situation. Yay for Percabeth!

Actually after that was where I got a little mad at Percy. He was there on the island with Calypso and slowly falling for her and the whole time I was like "There is no way you are falling for this girl when there's Annabeth" Seriously though was I the only one? And when he was talking about how she would always be his "what if?" grrrr. Percy get your butt back to Camp Half Blood, man up and ask Annabeth out! Phew now that I've got that  out of my system...

We've also got this running storyline about Rachel who can maybe tell the future? Or is she just super good at seeing through the Mist? Either way she is able to find where Kronos is.

About that... When Percy was about to lift the lid of the coffin I don' really know what I was expecting to see- an automaton, a deformed body? But when it was Luke I was just in shock whatever I had been expecting this wasn't it. And of course we've got the whole Annabeth thing where she didn't want to harm Luke when he was just Luke but now that he's Kronos..... well we'll have to see how that goes...

Then Rachel throw a BLUE PLASTIC HAIRBRUSH at Kronos. Of all things :)

There's also the Pan storyline which I'm not too sure how I feel about. I mean obviously I empathise with Grover but that whole storyline felt a little underdeveloped throughout all the books, probably because there were bigger things going on. So that felt a little off for me but obviously I didn't HATE it or anything.

So the final battle Camp Half-Blood faces! That was intense. I must have read that whole thing within a few minutes I was literally turning pages as fast as I could so I don't really have that much to say on that- sorry!

I feel like Percy and Annabeth are getting to that point where they need to decide where they're going from here -friends or more than that. Obviously you know what I want them to be.

But when she didn't turn up to Percy's birthday I have to admit I was a little disappointed but I mean, we got Poseidon so the situation wasn't too dark for me ;)

So what did you think of The Battle of the Labyrinth? Personally I LOVED it but what did you think- leave your thoughts below.

Hope you enjoyed!

Bye for now,

Amber xxx

September Wrap up and October TBR

Hey everyone!

So it's the beginning of another month which means a new Wrap Up and TBR so lets jump right in!



Once again, this month really wasn't that great reading-wise because of school starting back up and all that but I did manage to read two books that I really wanted to read.





After I finished the Last Olympian (PJO #5) I definitely went into severe book withdrawal and book mourning *again*. Almost straight away I made a Pinterest board for PJO which I'll link here if you want to see it

My PJO Pinterest Board

 And then went back and reread all my favourite parts from the book...and watching a bunch of booktalks on Youtube for the series...Yeah...seriously bad times. It was getting to the point where I was just craving Percy Jackson and it was right up there with my Post Potter depression.

So I really needed something to pull me up out of that reading slump and normally contemporaries do that for me. One that I had really been wanting to read for a while was Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl.

I found this book so adorable and pretty relatable and just an amazing read overall. All of Rainbow's character's are so cute and so amazing to read about I just wish it was longer!

The story follows two twins, Cath and Wren who have just moved to college. Wren is your typical new college student and wants to all the freshman things- go out to parties, drink and meet boys. But Cath is way more introverted and wants to hang onto her life of writing fiction about Simon Snow which is this book's equivalent to Harry Potter. It's her journey about finding herself, writing and love.

I found this book so incredible.I discuss this in my booktalk but I'm pretty extroverted and have lots of areas of interest but I'm still a huge bookworm and still intensely related to Cath and loved her story to pieces.

A five stars on Goodreads and a 96% from me. Definitely would recommend. If you'd like to know more about my opinions or about the book (and read the blurb) head over to my booktalk for this book

( Booktalk coming soon!)

Towards the end of the month The Lost Hero finally came in at the reservation desk in my library so I FINALLY started the Heroes of Olympus series! Whoop Whoop!

I actually really liked this book. As much as I've heard amazing things about the series overall, there had been mixed reviews of the first book. But honestly I didn't have too many issues, maybe because I knew some of them going into it but who knows? For those of you who don't know, The Heroes of Olympus is basically a continuation/ spin off, to the Percy Jackson series.

Without going into too much detail, its been a little while after the events of the last PJO book - The Last Olympian new troubles are a brewing. We have three new characters, Jason, Piper and Leo and we get to go back to our favourite summer camp, Camp Half Blood. I'm really not going to  say much because you know, spoilers!

But I will way that I really enjoyed this book and would, once again, recommend it. 4.5 stars on Goodreads and a 92% from me.

If you do want to find out more, check out my booktalk

(Coming soon)


Here's a final list of the books I read this month:

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan



To be Read...


Currently I'm reading The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan, the second book in The Heroes of Olympus series, so that'll be the first book I'll be finishing this month. Knowing me I'll probably go onto reading The Mark of Athena- the next book in the series. Not really a surprise there really.

Because the Mockingjay Part 1 movie is coming out during November, I definitely want to get around to re-reading Mockingjay before the movie comes out, preferably during October so I can get super exited for the movie again.

If I'm in the mood I might also go ahead and read a contemporary in the middle or carry on/ start another series that I've been putting off but I haven't decided anything and it'll only happen if I'm in the mood to be honest.

I'm off to carry on reading and get on with some homework.

Hope you enjoyed and I'll see you soon,

Bye for now,

Amber xxx

Bloglovin'

Hey everyone,

Just a quick admin update, don't worry about it :)

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/12928251/?claim=9vwrehjxvdr">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Amber xxx

Booktalk:The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan

Hey everyone!

So I'm still catching up with all these booktalks, so lets jump right in. Today we'll be discussing *drum roll please*....... The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan, the third book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.


"It's not every day you find yourself in combat with a half-lion, half human.

But when you're the son of a Greek God, it happens. And now my friend Annabeth is missing, a goddess is in chains and only five half -blood heroes cab join the quest to defeat the doomsday monster.

Oh and guess what. The Oracle has predicted that not all of us will survive..."

-From the blurb of The Titan's Curse



After finishing the Vampire Academy series, I was pretty much craving to go back to Camp Half Blood and Percy Jackson so I decided to pick this one up. And let me tell you  absolutely LOVED it. It just made me love this series and all the characters so  much more than I did before.
I feel like they matured a lot and it felt more compelling and relatable.

Definitely a 97% for me- just amazing.

If you haven't read any of the PJO books yet, first off, are you living under a rock? And second I'd highly recommend it so check out my booktalk for the first book for more info

Booktalk: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Okay that's it for the non-spoiler section so go ahead and read The Titan's Curse if you haven't already so we can discuss!


*Spoilers for The Titan's Curse ahead*



Okay!

So we open up in a different place than we're used to for this book. It's around the Christmas holidays rather than the Summer and Percy, Annabeth and Thalia are going to this school to help bring in two demi-gods, Bianca and Nico di Angelo. I actually didn't realise that the demi-gods could go out to look for or to help rescue, other demi-gods. Was that just me? But anyway, as they're trying to get the di Angelos out of the school, one of the teachers shows it's true monster form as a manticore, a half lion, half human., who seems to be working for Luke. Unfortunately the rescue mission doesn't exactly go to plan with Bianca joining the Hunters- more on that in a sec- and Annabeth being taken, presumably to Luke. This is the part that I was just like "nooooooo!" because she's one of my abolute favourite character's, especially when she's interacting with Percy.

So about the Hunters. Basically, they're a band of girls who's leader is Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt. I actually can't remember too much about what they do apart from hunt monsters but I do know that in order to join, they have to swear off all romantic interests with men and have eternal maiden-ship as they become immortal. I was a little mad at Bianca for just abandoning her brother like that.
I see where she was coming from but she just kind of went off without a second thought.

The God Apollo (twin brother of Artemis) also pops up in this book and we get to know him a bit better. He's just too funny and the haikus make me die of laughter every time. Plus he's really nice to help them later on in the book.

We also get to know and understand Thalia a bit more. Since she was a tree for the first two books but at the end of Sea of Monsters, the Golden Fleece heals her. She sort of gives off this punk rock vibe to her and you have to love that scene where she was driving the sun car. I wasn't too happy with her at the beginning, especially at the Capture the Flag scene- she was actually pretty annoying there. But you do grow to like her more and learn more about her weaknesses, like her fear of heights, which conflicts with her being the daughter of Zeus- God of the Sky.

So back at camp they get a prophecy from the Oracle about the quest to save Artemis. Percy, being the kind of person he is, doesn't get himself on the quest the first time around. Enter Blackjack, the horse Percy saved in the last book from Luke's ship. He's just so funny and sort of reminiscent of Martha and George (Hermes' caduceus snakes). So he finds the rest of the quest team, Thalia, Zoe Nightshade, Bianca and Grover and they eventually let him stay. He says he's there to rescue Artemis but I think we all really know that his main incentive is to rescue Annabeth.

One of my favourite scenes while they were on the quest was the one at Hoover Dam. Especially those dam jokes ;) . We also meet Rachel Elizabeth Dare, a mortal who can see through the Mist, who helps Percy escape the monster skeletons. I feel like she'll be important and pop up again in the last two books. There's also a sneaky cameo-type appearance of Athena who poses as a tour guide at the Dam- what part when I realised it was her made me a little sad because Percy and Annabeth are separated and we've barely heard from her.

So skipping a little ahead to the end, we find out that it was the Titan Atlas who had kidnapped Artemis and the manticore Dr. Thorn was working for him so Annabeth was there too. Atlas had escaped from his curse of holding up the sky and there was this big battle between him and team good. Eventually he was trapped back under the weight of the sky by Percy but not without fatalities. Zoe ended up being killed by her father- Atlas- just like the Oracle had said which was a big turnaround to what we all first thought about Zeus or Poseidon. I think Zoe was one of the most complex characters that we saw here, especially given that she was only really in this book. She had such a rich back-story and everything just fit in so perfectly.

I'm not sure if it was just me, but I definitely sensed the hormones sneaking up on all the characters and their relationships altering into more complex ones. Percy and Annabeth's more specifically. He was actually really mature after the talk with Athena and he definitely dealt with it better than he would've in the first two books. One of my favourite scenes at the end was where they were slow dancing in Olympus which pretty much brought the story full circle from where they were dancing at the beginning.

If you think not much can happen in the last chapter (or last few pages) of a book you're sadly mistaken (and obviously haven't read City of Lost Souls). We find out that Nico, and Bianca, are both the children of Hades he fathered them BEFORE the Oath was made because they were stuck in the Lotus Casino for a long time. So Nico could be the child in the Prophecy! And that isn't great because he seems pretty unstable and reckless at this point so we'll see where that goes.

What did you think of The Titan's Curse? I know lots of people didn't like this one too much because of the lack of Annabeth action in it but I really enjoyed it! Leave your thoughts below in the comments

Bye for now,

Amber xxx

Quick Update and Coming Soon

Hey Everyone!

So this is more of a quick update plus apology more than anything else.

I'm not gonna go off on a tangent with excuses and a story but what I will say is that I'm getting less and less time to blog so don't worry, I'm still here, just maybe not as often as I'd like.

I have pre-written The Titan's Curse and The Battle of the Labyrinth so they just need to be edited and previewed before they get published. The Last Olympian is definitely getting done as soon as I get a chance and before I have to give it back to the library.


For those of you wondering if I'll be doing a Mockingjay Trailer Review/Discussion.... Yes I'd love to but do you want to see that before or after the late Booktalks? Comment what you'd like below.

As for how my reading is getting on, I should be getting The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan any day now, from the library.

Sorry for all the delays but the posts will come eventually...even if it does take a while :/

Hope you guys understand,

Bye for now,

Amber

Booktalk: Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead

Hey everyone!

So today we'll be reviewing and discussing.... The Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead. The final book in the Vampire Academy series! A little late since I finished this early August but better late than never.Oh and just a heads up, the first part will be spoiler free but after the warning they'll be major spoilers for the entire series. Okay then, lets get started.

"Murder, love jealousy and the ultimate sacrifice.

The Queen is dead and the Moroi world will never be the same.

Rose Hathaway is awaiting wrongful execution and there exists only one man who can stall this terrible fate.

Rose must look to both Dimitri and Adrian, the two great loves of her life, to find him.

With her best friend, Lissa, in a deadly struggle for the royal throne, the girls find themselves forced to rely upon enemies and questioning those they thought they could trust...

But what is true freedom means sacrificing the most important thing of all?"

So I absolutely LOVED this book and the entire series as a whole. Definitely a 97% from me. The ending was a little bittersweet for me since this has fast become one of my favourite series and I was sad to see it end but glad things tied up nicely. Plus there's always the spin-off series to look forward to, Bloodlines.


If you haven't picked up this series yet, first of all where have you been if you've been on this blog before? and second, go ahead and pick it up.

Here's the booktalk for the first book if you want to know more :Bookalk: Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead



That's it for the non-spoiler section, a little short I know but I've got so much to discuss so if you haven't already go ahead and read it and if you have, brilliant.

Bye non spoiler peeps!


*Spoilers for The Last Sacrifice ahead*

Okay!
So we started off the book with Rose in prison, awaiting her execution. To be honest I sort of hated this bit. Okay so hate is a bit of a strong word. More like I was actually in the prison with her. I'm a little claustrophobic in real life, so the descriptions were great from a writing perspective but were very visceral so I had to work a little to get through that.

As soon as there was the block on Lissa's mind I knew that he gang was planning something.But one thing I wasn't expecting was Dimitri joining in on the action. I'm too sure why that was, given that I totally ship those two- I guess it was just at the back of my mind.... Sorry I'm rambling :). So Rose is watching through Lissa's mind, watching the Queen's funeral and then the statues just explode and the whole Court is in chaos. Trust Abe and Adrian to get hold of a bunch of explosives *rolls eyes*

I actually really liked the scene where Rose and Dimitri had split up and she was in the Mall and it sort of reminded me in a roundabout way of the scene where Lissa and Rose were shopping together in the first book. And Sydney turns up! I absolutely loved Rose's one liners all though the book, especially near the beginning since she's more than a bit ticked off at hiding away. While they were in the motel I just knew she'd pull the kissing stunt since as much as she tries to forget, she is in love with Dimitri.

One scene I loved with those two, was where they were in the library and it was almost like old times with them just joking around and talking without the whole Strigoi thing looming over them


Did any of you expect Victor and Robert to come up with the plan for Lissa to go for the throne? I knew their whole input on the situation was a little suspicious and I definitely wasn't upset when Victor died. As for Robert... well I feel like he might be turning up again in the Bloodlines series.

Rewinding a little- I also didn't expect Sonya Karp to be back in the picture. It seemed to bring the whole thing full circle and give it some closure which was really great. And it was also nice to have another female on Rose's side (with her on the road at least). Plus it was pretty helpful to have her around in general once Victor had died.

So the missing Dragomir child was Jill!  It was one thing I definitely didn't see coming. The planning was so good that even though we all knew that the illegitimate child would have to be someone big I never really thought about her. Yes she was a character that we knew, but I for one completely skipped over her and what I knew about her when trying to guess who it was.

So the whole running for Queen thing. Personally I wanted Arina Szelsky to get it, just because Lissa is so young and has enough drama what with the Spirit and really doesn't need any more pressure, especially at the end of the series. But after Ariana failed one of the tests I had a feeling it would go that way.

All the way through the book, I was pretty much agreeing with the characters about who the real murderer was but when Daniella Ivashkov (Adrian's mum) was a suspect I wholeheartedly believed it was her without a shadow of a doubt. But right before Rose said who it actually was and looked over at Christian... I just knew then but was in complete denial "No no no no it can't be Tasha no no-way she is on their side she can't be the one oh god oh god oh god!" But once she actually says the words, it just makes so much sense- she was very passionate about everything especially her campaign about Moroi fighting. So if she had a grudge against Rose because she was also in love with Dimitri.... If she wasn't Christian's only close relative and if she hadn't been so close to the gang....I wouldn't have put it past her except she had even Dimitri and Rose fooled right up until the end.

And oh my gosh she fooled we well because when she threatened Mia it was so out there and ugh!

Can we just talk about the shooting for a second? When Rose jumped in front of Lissa.... I was terrified to turn the page. I so certain that this would be her "Last Sacrifice" like the title of the book. More than once her it had been foreshadowing her death- her not wanting to have her death date pencilled in on someone's calendar, wanting to die in battle, when Lissa was seeing her fears and one of them was Rose dying- lots of things that seemed to be important. I was so scared that the next chapter would be from Lissa';s or Dimitri's or even Adrian's point of view and they would be saying goodbye to Rose.

Luckily that wasn't the case and I can tell you now that I did sigh with relief right then. One thing that I wasn't in love with though, was the fact that the bond broke between Lissa and Rose. It just felt like a huge part of their friendship and with it gone I feel like something huge would be missing. Plus Lissa can't be healed any more by Rose since there's no bond. I'm still not sure how I feel about that.


Plus I really didn't expect Rose to cheat on Adrian. Of course I'm overjoyed that Romitri got back together sooner rather than later but I still had better expectations of Rose. But I guess you can't have things both ways. Hopefully he'll get together with Sydney maybe? But he might have some competition with the Alchemist Ian.... we'll see....


So that was the Last Sacrifice! As nit picky as I seem in this booktalk, I did really  enjoy this book and the entire series and I even own my own copy of them now.

What were your thought of this book and the series overall? Leave your thought below.

Hope you enjoyed this booktalk!

Bye for now,

Amber xxx

August Wrap up and September TBR

Hey everyone!



So I really didn't get all that much read this month, even though it  was  four books (on target for my 52 by the end of the year) three of them were less than 300 pages....BUT I did finish two series that I ended up completely LOVING so much (more on that in a sec).




If you follow me on Goodreads, -just a little plug there...haha :) - you'll know that I finished The Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead in early August. It's the last book in the Vampire Academy and absolutely amazing. I'd give it a 97% so highly recommend it, and the rest of the Vampire Academy series. There's also a spin-off series called Bloodlines that I'm definitely looking forward to reading as soon I can get around to it.

Click to see my booktalk for the first Vampire Academy book: Booktalk: Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
Click to see my full  booktalk for The Last Sacrifice: Booktalk: Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead

After this, I really wanted to go ahead and read the third book in the Percy Jackson series, The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan. I found his book to be the first book where I felt like I was really sucked into the series instead of just being "pretty good" for me. It started, pulled me in with it's paper and and it's printed words and didn't let me go, even after I finished it. I'm giving this book a 97% and once again definitely recommend this book (and the rest of the series so make sure you read them in order...obviously :)  )

Read my full booktalk here: Booktalk: The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan

Because I was so immersed in the PJO world by now, I went to reserve and get the next (and last) two books in the series. The next book was The Battle of the Labyrinth. I feel like I'm getting a little repetitive by now but I enjoyed this book so much and all of this series just gets better and better and you go along. So just to save myself from sounding like I broken record, I give this book a 97% . Go ahead and read my full booktalk if you want to know more.

Read my full booktalk here: (Coming soon)

And finally, I read The Last Olympian, the final book in Rick Riordan's incredible series.I gave this book a massive 100%. I'm still in a bit of a PJO withdrawal after this book- it just gives you all the feels but it's absolutely amazing. But luckily for me and the rest of the fandom, there is another series called the Heroes of Olympus which is basically a continuation of Percy Jackson and the Olympians but told from lots of points of view? I'm not too sure about the specifics since I haven't read it yet but I'm so psyched to dive right in. The last book, The Blood of Olympus, is due to be released in October of this year so not too long of a wait.

Read my full booktalk here: (Coming soon)

If any of this talk of Percy Jackson sounds even vaguely interesting or you're just plain nosy, go read my booktalk for the first book- The Lightning Thief- where I go into more detail about the plot and such.

Click here to see that: Booktalk: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan




Here's the final list of book I read in August:

Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead
The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan
The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

Okay! That's it for this month's wrap up. Onto the TBR List




To be read...

So last month I said I would definitely read The Last Sacrifice (which I did) and hopefully City of Heavenly Fire. As for the latter, I didn't because of me being OCD about my books. But hopefully this month I'll be able to do better.

If everything goes to plan, (aka I get all my posts that I've got behind on, written before I go back to school on Wednesday) I'll be off the hook for the "no reading any more books" ban so I should be able to get going and read more this month.

I've already got Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell ordered so that should be coming in within the next couple of days. I've heard lots of good things about this book and need to jump of this band-wagon soon. Plus I've read barely any contemporary this year (I'm more of a fantasy/dystopian gal myself). So little in fact that I might even do a blog post about it- maybe look out for that? So I'm looking forward to reading this one.

That's one that I'm practically certain I'm gonna read.

I'm hoping that I'll get The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan this September, but I'm third on a waiting list at the library so unless I'm able to buy the series, things aren't looking too good for that.

So if that doesn't work out I'll probably try and reserve Bloodlines by Richelle Mead.

That's already two to three books but if I get time -given that I'll probably be logged down with homework and extra-curricular- I'll update you to what I'm reading either here or on Goodreads so make sure you're following me there.

My Goodreads Profile



Hope you enjoyed the August wrap up and this month's TBR! What books are you planning to read in September and what do you think of my choices? Comment your thoughts below. Oh also subscribe to this blog if you enjoy these posts!

Bye for now,

Amber xxx

Booktalk: Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead

Hey everyone!

So I'm trying to catch up on all the booktalks I've got behind on, before I go back to school. I'm not even letting myself reserve any more books 'till I'm done which is pretty difficult. But getting back to the point, here's the booktalk for Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead, the fifth book in the Vampire Academy series.


"Rose's life will never be her own

Rose Hathaway has been outrunning death ever since she swore to be the protector of her best friend, Lissa, no matter what.

She's finally back to the haven of St. Vladimir's Academy but with Dimitri, the boy she once loved, stalking her, Rose can only run so far.

She failed to kill him when she had the chance, and now her worst fears are about to come true. Dimitri has tasted her blood, and she knows in her heart that he is hunting her. And if Rose won't join him, he won't rest until he has silenced her.

Salvation has it's price..."

-From the blurb of Spirit Bound


So Oh. My. God. This Book. This was just SO amazing, a huge leap up from Blood Promise. I feel like I almost  say that but honestly this book was so kickass and just ugh SO GOOD!

Definitely a 98% LOVE LOVE LOVE. I honestly couldn't put it down and read it in like, a day? Yeah it was pretty amazing.

So that's it for the non-spoiler section. PLEASE go ahead and read it so we can come back and discuss!

Byee!

*Spoilers for Richelle Mead's Spirit Bound ahead*


Can we just take a moment to bask in the epic-ness that was this book. Just uhh... amazing

So at the very beginning of the book Rose has to take her final trials to become a Guardian and being Rose she completely kicks ass- aka the bridge scene. We also get a little tid-bit on the Hathaway family dynamic with Abe being back in the picture and Adrian dating Rose. The little moment with her mum was so sweet but like Rose, I did wish Dimitri was there for her before the Trials. But she definitely proved she doesn't need a man by her side to kick butt.

So Rose gets her promise mark and very quickly is at the Royal Court. And I'm sure most of us knew that she'd chase down any way for Dimitri to turn back into a dhampir, especially since it was mentioned in Blood Promise. So it wasn't exactly surprising that she'd even go to the length of breaking out Victor Dashkov, the man who kidnapped and tried to make their lives a misery, just to find his brother.

I was actually pretty surprised and proud of Lissa when she managed to do that much magic and wield Spirit so well because she really hasn't been doing stuff that big before. And especially the way it didn't affect as badly as I did in the first book.

 When  they're in Las Vegas we find out that the only way to bring back a Strigoi is to charm a stake with Spirit and a Spirit user must be the one to stake the Strigoi. This actually brought be back to the second book- I think- when the wards on a Moroi house had been broken by a stake and Rose realises that they're only infused with the common magic, Earth, Water, Fire and Air, and NOT Spirit.

They end up losing Victor and Robert but I'm pretty sure they'll come up again in the next book.

Skipping onto where Lissa and Christian get kidnapped by Dimitri to bait Rose. I think that's part of what makes him such a threat to Rose is the fact that he knew her so well that it's so easy to target her weaknesses. So Lissa manages to stake Dimitri with the special stake which she somehow was able to hide from Rose! I'm not too sure how this happened given that I feel like Rose would've sensed Lissa using that much magic but I'm not complaining here- it got Dimitri back and that's what counts.

But the way both Lissa and Dimitri acted after he had been changed back got me worried because it almost seemed like he was then bonded to her or that he wouldn't be the same as he was before and way more vulnerable. 

A few chapters on I realised that wasn't true but I was SO annoyed at Dimitri for ignoring her and even going to the extent of lying to her about the way he feels. I mean its so obvious he's got feelings for her but he's just too darn stubborn to admit it! And I get it,he's still shocked about what he did and would've done to her and about all the death he cause. But she freakin' broke a high security prisoner out of JAIL for you! Risked everything to try and save him and all he says back is that he doesn't love her any more... grrr. :/ (Yeah I'm not sure if he actually knew about the whole prison break thing at this point, but still, he knows Rose and what she's capable of).

Okay so Rose goes through a bunch of drama and things finally seem like they're settling (okay yeah the Age Law thing is bad but still....) and then Queen Tatiana is KILLED. I was in complete shock and even worse, Rose was framed and locked in prison. But right before that we find out that Lissa has a half brother or sister because of an affair that her dad had. Argh! Man I had no clue about what to do after I finished and basically just stared at the wall for a good ten minutes after! What an ending!

I'm lucky in the fact that I don't need to wait to read the next one and actually ended up reading Last Sacrifice the next day since it was already out, unlike everyone else to had to wait about a year.

So what were your thoughts of Spirit Bound? Were you shocked at the ending and who did you think killed Tatiana? Who's Lissa's half brother or sister? Share your thoughts below.

Bye for now,

Amber xxx

Booktalk: Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

So about a month ago I finished the last book in the Infernal Devices trilogy by Cassandra Clare - Clockwork Princess. Okay so I know what you're thinking, how come it took you so freakin' long so put up a booktalk?! Long story short, there was a bit of an issue with the Sea of Monsters Booktalk not going live so that set everything back. Plus a little laziness too- I mean it is my summer holidays here!

If you haven't read the first two Infernal Devices don't read on because the blurb might spoil you.

Click here to read the booktalk for the first book : Booktalk: Clockwork Angel

"Tessa Gray should be happy- aren't all brides happy? Yet as she prepares for her wedding, a net of shadows begins to tighten around the Shadowhunters of the London Institute. A new demon appears, one linked by blood and secrecy to Mortmain, the man who plans to use his army of pitiless automatons, the Infernal Devices, to destroy the Shadowhunters. Mortmain needs only one last item to complete his plan. He needs Tessa. And Jem and Will, the boys who lay equal claim to Tessa's heart, will do anything to save her."

-From the blurb of Clockwork Princess


Wow this book! It made me laugh, made me cry, gasp with shock and go into book withdrawal- just all the emotions! I was just a complete mess by the end the whole book made me love this series intensely. If you thought Clockwork Prince was good this is just another huge leap into awesome-ness.

I really can't explain how much I ADORED this book. Ugh just too many feels to put into words.

 But what I can say is that this has to be one of Cassie best books to date -excluding CoHF, which I still haven't  got yet ;( - and this has to be like a 100% which I haven't given to any book on this blog so far because I just couldn't fault it AT ALL.

I can't really say much more without spoiling you so go pick up this book if you haven't already, you won't regret it. Then come back so we can discuss without getting spoiled because I'd hate for such an amazing book to get ruined like that.

Okay? Okay!

Bye non spoiler peeps!

*Warning, spoilers for Clockwork Princess ahead*

Okay!

Oh my gosh this book! I don't even know where to start. How about Will and Cecily?

In this book we learn more about Cecily and see her bond with Will and its just so cute. Their whole dynamic is adorable and so relatable. Myself and one of my brothers have a very similar relationship where we'll be bickering and insulting each other all the time but we care for each other a lot, just like Will and Cecily. And when he gave her the ruby - aww, my heart just melted.

We also see the whole Cecily/Gabriel relationship hit off and she ends up marrying him and into the Lightwood Family. I think most of us suspected that would go down after the few hints in the last book and especially after the giant worm incident. At that scene I just I knew she had to be related to Isabelle. And she is, which makes Alec and Izzy distant cousins of Jace . I also loved their last scene where they kissed and she just threw out a random number, a throwback to where they first met.

Another quick mention to the other "side" relationships with Sophie/Gideon  and Charlotte/ Henry who were both adorable.

So throughout the book we get these letters from Consul Wayland to various people including Charlotte and the Council but it's from the latter that we learn his real reasons for appointing Charlotte head of the London Institute and really... just what an awful person he is. I'm not even kidding but I was CONVINCED he was sort of possessed or being controlled by Mortmain in some way since they completely fell in line with what would be good for him and was such a 180 from what we had heard about him before. But nope he's really just a complete jerk. I have to admit, I was pretty darn happy when he died.

So we have the scene where Tessa jumps out of the carriage so get away from one of the Dark sisters and falls down a ravine. But wait! The Clockwork Angel saves her yet again. We find out later on that the Angel Ithuriel is inside that automaton and is bound to protect Tessa. Can we just hold up a second? Is it not that same Ithuriel who is locked away under the Wayland Manor my Valentine? And may or may not me the Angel whom Sebastian/Jonathan got the wings from? Seriously Inthuriel, how are you even getting trapped by all these people?! Even a MUNDANE?!

So we've got to talk about the Cave Scene here. It was a long time coming but Will and Tessa finally get together. It manages to be the scene that many of us have been waiting for but also sad and hilarious at the same time.I completely died when Magnus walked in on them and the conversation that unfolded. Oh and we also see that the Angel leaves a mark on Will from where it was pressed against him which is the birthmark all Herondale men then have, including Jace.

And we finally learn what Tessa is! Aloysius Starkweather's grand-daughter was taken by the faeries and swapped with a sickly mundane as a changeling who was then called Adele. His real grand-daughter was called Elizabeth and grew up a mundane with a mundane family. She married Richard Gray but a demon disguised himself as Elizabeth's husband and she got pregnant with Tessa. Normally Shadowhunter/demon babies are stillborn becuase of the runes but because Elizabeth thought she was a mundane -not unlike Clary- she didn't receive any and therefore managed to have Tessa. That's also the reason she has no mark and can have children.

About that: From the family tree (and by obvious similarities between Will and Jace) we know that his ancestors are Tessa and Will. With Tessa technically being half demon, everyone who comes through her line also has part demon heritage and that includes Jace. So what does that mean for Jace given that he also has angel blood?

Did anyone else see the whole Jem being a Silent Brother thing coming? I know there were lots of theories circulating about that but even then it was such a good plot twist. When we read about the connection break with Will and everyone else grieving for him I honestly thought he was dead and that was it and was so heartbroken. Then BAM! We see him as a Silent Brother!

Ugh the epilogue! We're suddenly fast forward over 150 years and we're hearing about Will and Tessa's life together and their kids and his death and I'm seriously just a hot mess, tearing up and disgusting face included. Even thinking about it now.... Then we get to the Jem half of the epilogue and he's suddenly mortal again and not a Silent Brother. Then they get together and.... its just the best possible ending we could've hoped for.

I don't think I can praise this book and put into words how moving and wonderful this book was and it will always be on my list of favourite books of all time. I'm not gonna lie, I definitely wouldn't have minded another three books Cassie. I would be on that bandwagon 100%. But I guess we still get lucky with The Last Hours. Plus The Dark Artifices comes out sometime next year with protagonist Emma Carstairs, a descendent of Jem's.

What were your thoughts on Clockwork Princess and The Infernal Devices trilogy? Comment below!

I'd also like to mention that if you enjoy my booktalks and the other content on my blog, check out my other posts and subscribe so you can be notified when posts go live. Plus it really helps me get motivated to get these up on time.

Anyways hope you enjoyed!

Bye for now,

Amber xxx

Booktalk: Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riorden

Hey Everyone!


So...this happened.....

Yeah- I didn't realise that I'd forgotten to publish this once I was done. But here it is anyway even if it is more than a little late. Here's the booktalk for Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters.

"You can't tell by looking at me that my dad is Poseidon, God of the Sea.

It's not easy being a half-blood these days. Even a simple game of dodge ball becomes a death against a ugly gang of cannibal giants- and that was only the beginning.

Now Camp Half-Blood is under attack and, unless I can get my hands on the Golden Fleece, the whole camp will be invaded by monsters. Big ones..."


Unfortunately I read this a while ago... so I don't remember too much or every detail- oops. So this'll be way shorter than normal...sorry!

So I did enjoy this book but at some points it felt too much like the first book ( I'll talk more about this later). For me, this was a bit of a drawback but the story was still great and I especially loved seeing the characters develop.

A 88% for me- a little higher than the first book since I did still really enjoy it.


For me,parts of it felt way too similar to the first book, with scenes just being in different places with different characters but the overall feel was the same. I'm not really too sure how to describe it but it just felt a little off. 

Okay so that's it for the non-spoilery section. If you haven't read the book come back once you have so we can DISCUSS!


*Warning- Spoilers for Sea of Monsters ahead*


Okay so lets just talk about favourite scenes here. I LOVED the Siren's scene plus where both Annabeth and Percy and Annabeth are under the water and where Percy harness his power.

I really enjoyed the scene with Hermes, Martha and George- the dialogue is hilarious so I'm hoping to see him pop up in the next few books.

As for other characters, it was fun to see new ones like Tyson and I loved the chariot race at the end!

So the whole thing with Thalia. Earlier in the book Annabeth had said that Percy and Thalia would either be best friends or worst enemies given how similar their personalities were. Personally I think they'll have a sorta love/hate thing (as in friendship-wise)  because A- best friends would be too easy and B- Percybeth- I mean come on!


I realise that this is RIDICULOUSLY  short in comparison to my other booktalks but I'm become seriously backlogged as far as booktalks go. Sorry about that :/

Anyways, more booktalks coming soon

Bye for now,

Amber xxx

Book Mourning and Withdrawal

After going back through this just now, I realise that it's more than a little rambly and pointless- so if that's not your cup of tea, go ahead and read one of my other blog posts and a new Booktalk will be coming soon-thanks!


So I'm sure this has happened to you guys too but it's definitely hitting me hard right now

Book Mourning and Book Hangover

Recently I finished the last Vampire Academy book ( I say recently I mean almost a week ago by now) and I was just hit by the feeling of, what the hell do I do now? What did I do before reading this book- eat sleep? It was really odd.I wouldn't let myself go back and reread favourite chapters or scenes 'cause I felt like that would make it worse.

So I had to distract myself.

I was looking online at all my favourite bookstores and saw that the BookDepository they had City of Heavenly Fire in paperback- whoop FINALLY! Because I'm weird I needed it to match the rest of the series -and the rest of my books- so it needed to be paper back, and not just the tall paperbacks that come out a few months after the initial release of the book but the regular ones. So now I'm waiting till November...

So I may... have slipped back into rereading parts of Cassie Clare's books again......?

Trust me it started off fairly innocent with looking back on Clockwork Princess and me telling myself that it was so I could do a booktalk since I'd gotten behind (again). But of course, for those of you who have read it, you know it gets pretty emotional....So I went on to read bits from City of Lost Souls...then Fallen Angels... then a massive chunk out of City of Glass.... Opps!


Yeah....not a good time :/

So now all I want is another Cassie Clare book and I want Jace and Clary and Tessa and Jem and Wiiillllllll! I want to be in the Shadowhunter world again-is that too much to ask?!

I think I'm picking up Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse tomorrow from the library so I'm looking forward to get stuck back into the PJO world with all those funny lines and fun scenes- so that should get me out of this little reading slump and get me back up to date with Booktalks- sorry 'bout the lack of them recently guys!


Anyways, I hope you didn't mind this little ramble- I'm *hopefully* gonna go ahead and get the Sea of Monsters booktalk written and hopefully up by tonight three other booktalks excluding that one to do -better get on to that then...

Bye for now

Amber xxx

July Wrap-up and TBR

Hey Everyone!


So this month has definitely been a busy one but somehow this happened....

Yup- that's eight books in July- don't even ask me how that happened?!

So the first book I read was Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare, the first book in The Infernal Devices. For those of you who don't know much about this series, it's a tie-in/prequel trilogy to The Mortal Instruments and is set in the same Shadowhunter world but in 1878.

I really  enjoyed this book, as you can probably tell, and went on to give it an 88%. To learn more about Clockwork Angel and to see my full booktalk here: Booktalk: Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

I love Cassie Clare's writing and the Shadowhunter world and would definitely recommend this and all her other books. I also went ahead and read the rest of the series later in July.

In between reading the first two books in The Infernal Devices however, I read Blood Promise by Richelle Mead which is the fourth book in the Vampire Academy series. Since it's in the middle I'm not going into too much detail about the plot but I can say that it picks up a couple of weeks after the events of Shadow Kiss (the previous book).

It's another great book that I'd recommend reading if you haven't already so I gave it a 92%. Read my full booktalk here: Booktalk: Blood Promise by Richelle Mead

If you haven't  read any of Richelle's book yet, check out my booktalk for the first book, Vampire Academy: Booktalk: Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

After that, I went back to The Infernal Devices and read Clockwork Angel. Once again I'm not going to say anything about plot of characters or anything to not spoil you so if you'd like to hear more about it, read my booktalk here : Booktalk: Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

Later, I finished Clockwork Princess which I thought was absolutely amazing and will have a booktalk up soon for.

( Update: The booktalk is can now be read by clicking here - Booktalk: Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare )

I also went ahead and read Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters, the second book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. I know I'm incredibly late to the PJO bandwagon and will get around to doing a booktalk soon which I'll link once it's done. But for now I'm giving it an 88%.

( Update: Booktalk can be read here - Booktalk: The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan )


As a sort of "in between" book I read Where She Went by Gayle Forman, the sequel to If I Stay. At first I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy it and it seemed a little depressing at ( also, side-note I didn't realise that it was narrated by Adam rather than Mia, awkward!). But I did get into it at about halfway and loved the end. I'd say probably about a 78% for me.

And lastly I finished Spirit Bound, also by Richelle Mead, which for me, was a step up from the other books and I absolutely flew through it. Again, I'll have a booktalk up for that soon. Oh and a 95% for me.

Read the full booktalk here: Booktalk: Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead

So these were the books I read this month:


Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan*
Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
Blood Promise by Richelle Mead
Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare
Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare
Where She Went by Gayle Forman
Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead

*Okay so this one's a little bit of a lie- I started it just before July but finished it on the 1st. Also I had to give it back to the library 


To be read...

As for what I'm reading next it'll definitely be Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead, book six and the last in the vampire academy series. I'm also -hopefully- getting City of Heavenly Fire so if I do that'll be amazing.. There'll probably be a few random light contemporaries to get be through those book mourning periods after finishing both the TMI and Vampire Academy series.


If you enjoyed having a little nosy into what I've read recently comment below and subscribe ;)

Bye for now,

Amber xxx