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

Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Favourite Quotes:

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

 

Thanks for reading!
~Birdie

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

Rating System

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks for reading!
~Birdie

The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Favourite Quotes:

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

 



Thanks for reading!
~Birdie

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

Summer Book Haul!

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

 

   

 

 

 

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

Let me know what books you recently bought!

Thanks for reading!
~Birdie

*Images taken from Google.ca*