Drum roll please…today I bring to you, one of the best YA 2017 debuts of all time…Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones!

Going into this, I had heard some fairly positive things from other reviewers and it was on quite a few ‘most anticipated 2017 releases’ lists but I had no idea that I would love this book THIS much!

I’ve decided to change up the format of my reviews for a little more fun and because I think this would be a much better way of reviewing this book!

Fans of Laybrinth (the movie!) and The Star Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi would absolutely love this!

Book review time!

Today I am going to be sharing with you guys my thoughts on A Tragic Kind Of Wonderful by Eric Lindstrom, who is also the author of Not If I See You First!

I was really drawn to this book after reading his debut late last year which I really enjoyed and I had heard fairly positive things about ATKOW from those who had received early ARCs.

Hey lovelies! 

Today I thought I'd share with you some of my favourite contemporaries! I am a huge fan of contemporaries but lately, haven't been reading them as much! But I thought I'd share with you a few that I have read over the past few years and enjoyed! 

Also, this was originally supposed to be a Valentine's Day contemporary reads post but in usual fashion, I didn't plan it correctly and then didn't end up posting it! #oops

I'm going to keep the intro brief because this post is going to be quite long!

These are in no particular order.

A QUIET KIND OF THUNDER by Sara Barnard

So I wanted to start off with one of my most recently read and absolute favourite ones! I loved loved loved this book for how realistic the romance was, what great representation it had (from what I know!) and how much it changed and taught me.

This book is about a selectively mute girl and a deaf boy and it focuses on their romance and their life struggles – including things like communicating with each other, fitting in with others, figuring out what to do after school, dealing with parents etc.

It was so raw and well written and absolutely amazing and moving. Safe to say it zoomed up to the very top on my favourites list <3 o:p="">

For more thoughts, check out my spoiler free review on it!

EVERYTHING EVERYTHING by Nicola Yoon

This was such a cute, unexpected and loveable book! I loved Maddy and Olly because they were both such enjoyable protagonists. As a reader, you could sense their chemistry and how good they were together but instead of making it too intense, Yoon kept it light hearted with funny conversations and enjoyable quips happening between the two!

EE is about a girl who is allergic to the world and has spent 17 years of her life locked inside her house and until a boy moves in next door called Olly. And Olly is very determined to get Maddy out of the house.

I am aware this has some major representation issues and I am in no way saying this book is perfect. The ableism in this book is not okay and it definitely needs some work so if you do read this, please keep this in mind! And if you are a blogger yourself and are reviewing it, please mention this problematic aspect in your review!

For more, check out my spoiler free review on it! 

FANGIRL by Rainbow Rowell

Rowell is one of my favourite authors because she is such an awesome contemporary writer! Her books are super realistic and enjoyable and her characters are very three dimensional and relatable and that’s pretty much how I felt about this one too!

Cath has never really been apart from her twin sister Wren but when they go to college, Wren decides she wants to separate from Cath to find her way on her own and suddenly Cath finds herself alone for the first time in her life.

More than the romance (even though Levi is great, don’t get me wrong!), I loved the love between the sisters and the love Cath had for her father. The focus on something other than romance added layers to the book and made it all the more enjoyable.

But the romance is pretty darn good because Levi is the cutest, sweetest cinnamon roll in the world!

For more, check out my spoiler free review on it! 

FINDING AUDREY by Sophie Kinsella

I read this one a while ago and really enjoyed it. It’s short, cute, fluffy and light hearted but also has a deeper message.

Audrey suffers from anxiety to the point where she doesn’t go to school anymore and wears dark glasses inside. That is, until her brother’s friend Linus comes into her life. The two instantly connect and she is able to confide her deepest and darkest fears in him and that, ladies and gentlemen is just the beginning.

Kinsella’s unique writing style, Audrey’s loveable personality and the book’s witty and adorable prose was just too much for my poor little heart to handle. If you haven’t read this, I highly suggest getting onto it!

TO ALL THE BOYS I’VE LOVED BEFORE by Jenny Han

Even though I read three years ago, I am counting it on my list because this is the perfect contemporary book to read. It’s filled with love, not just romantic love as the title suggests but also familial and sisterly love.

Lara Jean is an ordinary girl that, like other ordinary girls falls in and out of love. But unlike others, she writers letters to ‘all the boys she’s loved before’ and keeps them in her teal hatbox. Until one day when all her letters get mailed out…

I loved the sisterly love in this book especially. It was a really refreshing read, especially since I could see myself a lot in Lara Jean as I too, am quite a homey person who would rather bake and read and hang out with my family then go out all the time!

ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS by Stephanie Perkins

This is another book I read around three years ago that I am in desperate need of re-reading soon! However when I read it, I remember liking it quite a lot because it was such a perfectly fluffy and enjoyable contemporary!

Anna is sent off to Paris and while she is initially quite bummed about it, seeing she had the perfect life back home in Atlanta, she gets over it quickly when she meets Étienne. The only problem is, he has a girlfriend.

I really, really need to do a re-read of this soon and fingers crossed I can soon! I hope when I do get to read it again it is just as good as I remember!

HELLO, I LOVE YOU by Katie M. Stout

This is a book I read on e-book about 2 years ago and loved it instantly. It was unlike anything I’ve ever read before, having not had much exposure to k-pop in books. It was well written, very cute and had me on the edge of my seat waiting and wanting more!

Grace has escaped from her life in America and gone to the furthest place she could think of – Korea – for a fresh start and wants nothing more to do with music after leaving her famous producer of a father behind, she is surprised to find her roommate’s brother is a rising k-pop singer. Grace finds herself thrust back into the spotlight and has to figure out if that is truly what she wants.

Other than being a great diverse read, this book was well written and simple to read. Ever since I read it two years ago, I have been back a countless number of times to re-read my favourite sections because I couldn’t get over how awesome it was!

SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GONE by Morgan Matson

The main reason I included this book is because of the amazing friendship there is in this book! Emily and Sloane were the perfect best friends and I loved seeing their close, pure and completely raw friendship.

Emily’s best friend Sloane goes missing but she leaves behind 13 tasks for Emily to complete. Thinking that completing these tasks would lead her to Sloane, Emily takes them on only to discover so much more than she originally bargained for.

The fun writing style coupled with the serious summer vibes just reminds me of what a perfect read contemp read this is!

For more, check out my spoiler free review on it!

ARISTOTLE AND DANTE DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE by Benjamin Alire Sàenz

What an adorable book! I loved how this dealt with so much more than just romance. It had such important issues and much needed diversity included. It’s a heart-warming coming of age story that will leave you wanting more even after you finish the final page.

Aristotle and Dante are two loners who are struggling with their own problems. But when they meet each other, they discover they have a special friendship that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And through this friendship, Ari and Dante will learn truths about themselves and the people they want to be.

This was such an insanely beautiful book that was well written and articulated, the characters were so loveable and lifelike. It appealed to everyone, even those that were not going through the same things as these boys and I cannot encourage you enough to read this book if you haven’t!

That is it for my contemporary recommendations! These are so cute and enjoyable and must reads! Some of these are a bit heavier than the others but they all leave you with the happy, light feeling at the end!

Have you read any of these? What did you think? And if not, are any of these on your TBR?

So I’m sure by now you have all heard of Caraval by Stephanie Garber! It’s her debut novel and it has been such an anticipated release on everyone’s lists since mid-2016 to early-2017.

People have been going crazy over this book because:

a) it has such a gorgeous cover + there are 5 editions you can collect. Both the UK and the US editions are absolutely gorgeous and the paperback and hardbacks too!

b) is it sounds absolutely amazing! It has been compared to the Night Circus

c) those that got ARCs of it in late 2016 were absolutely RAVING about it!

Along with just a review, I also decided to spice things up a little by making Caraval inspired red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting!

After the enormously pleasing response I got on Frostblood, I have decided to incorporate more baking into my book blog because it’s so nice to be able to share all these delicious recipes with you all! I also love being able to put my creativity to use in making some bookish inspired sweet treats!

Let’s get started!

*waves dramatically*

It’s only been a week but I missed this so much! So I bet you are all wondering why the heck I went from a consistent blogging schedule to completely AWOL and that is because school just started this Wednesday and I was instantly swamped with work and I didn’t have any pre-written posts ready so it was a mess.

But I am working on having a few pre-written posts ready so I (hopefully!) will not be stuck in a position where I go a week or two without posting because I want to aim to post at least once or twice a week!

Today I am bringing to you a review of the Daughter Of Smoke And Bone trilogy by Laini Taylor which consists of Daughter Of Smoke And Bone, Days Of Blood And Starlight and Dreams Of Gods And Monsters.

I hadn’t heard a HUGE amount about this book but I knew it was popular and loved by many people so I wanted to try it! I also wanted to read it before Taylor’s next book Strange The Dreamer came out in March!

This review is going to be set out a little differently where I am going to chat about each book separately rather than the usual structured review I do because I feel it’ll work MUCH better for what I want to say about this trilogy!

DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE: BOOK 1

So I thought this was an absolutely stunning, mind blowing, beautiful, let’s make a shrine for it kinda book and I cannot recommend it enough! The writing was so whimsical and dreamy and poetic and aha I was in love. Everything about it was beautiful from the cover (which gave me the creeps but in the best way possible!) to the characters, the plot and of course the writing.

I felt the idea of this book was so fantastic. AND THE SETTING! I mean how many books do you read that are set in Prague? It just added that super mystical and mysterious element to it!

I don’t read a lot of magic realism but the way Taylor combined aspects of the real world with concepts from mythology and fiction was so intricate yet at the same time so easy to keep up with and enjoy! Same goes to the plot.

I liked how Taylor just threw us into the book and didn’t have a lot of explanation at the beginning. Rather she got ahead with the story and the explanations came after. The mystery elements of this story were also amazing because it was impossible to guess what was going to happen next because you were just always on your toes!

Aha, the characters! I have never loved characters more in a book. From the main characters (which I don’t always end up loving) to the side characters, everyone was loveable. Even though I am NOTHING like Karou, I still connected with her because it was easy to love her and even easier to feel for her. Akiva, my precious cinnamon roll! How can I put into words how much I love Akiva?

I don’t tend to read books with angels and demons because I have been burnt very badly by some of them before *cough* Fallen *cough* Hush Hush *cough* Unearthed *cough*  where while I didn’t hate them (and might have even enjoyed some) they just leave me super confused with all the technical terms and all that mumbo-jumbo but this book explained everything so simply and easily and it was literally a breeze.

It’s safe to say I very, very much loved this book.

OVERALL RATING:

DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT: BOOK 2

So getting into this, I had heard from friends that after the first book the rest just kinda go downhill but I was very reluctant to believe them because I wanted it to be good after the amazingness that was the first book.

But sadly, I was disappointed.

This just fell flat for me for a number of reasons.

It was draggy. Not much happened in a 500 page book and the fact that it was so long made me want to pull my hair out in frustration because WHYYYYY??? Why would you write a 500 page book in which nothing happens?

It didn’t capture my attention at all. There was none of that magic that was present in the first book for me. Akiva is barely in the book and it just felt so disjointed and boring for me. The chemistry that was present between Akiva and Karou just dissipated and I didn’t feel anything for them anymore.

The multiple POVs didn’t work really well for me at least because it just created so much waiting (not even angst – it was waiting) until I could find out what happened. I was introduced to new characters that I wasn’t able to form connections with and instead of being something I loved, they came a hindrance to me as I had to get through their chapter before getting back to characters I did care (sort of!) about.

The good thing is Zuze though! Zuzana is Karou’s best friend and she is literally a ball of sunshine! She brought in so much light heartedness and fun to the book and became one of my fav characters. But even with her, I was unable to connect sadly. And there is a really good plot twist in here that I was NOT expecting.

Also did I mention this book is pretty huge? It took me 3 days to read, which is slow for me especially during the holidays and I felt absolutely no satisfaction by the end of it.

But I continued to the third book in the hopes that at least something would happen.

OVERALL RATING:

DREAMS OF GODS AND MONSTERS: BOOK 3

What the heck even happened in this book? <<<< basically the one sentence needed to sum up my thoughts on this.

This book started off strongly and was much more interesting than the second one but it’s even longer being 700 pages which is practically a brick (also probably the size of Empire Of Storms by Sarah J Maas).

I was getting more into it, especially during the middle and I was beginning to form (some) attachments to the characters again. There were some action-packed scenes which I LOVED and Mik and Zuze made everything so much fun with their relentless enthusiasm and positivity!

But it wasn’t enough to counteract the negatives such as the pacing which was WAYYYYYY off. There were some extremely dry, ‘I wanna bang my head against the wall’ moments and it really, really diverted from the first book.

You’ll know by now that I ADORED the first book so it diverting from there made me miss the first book a lot. Where was the ‘Karou, the art student in Prague’ narrative? It went so off topic that by the end of the third book I couldn’t even believe they were part of the same series!

And you know how I said the first book was super easy to understand and la de dah. Yeah…nope.

I wasn’t able to keep up with what was happening, the technical terms were just flying off the top of my head, I had no idea what was happening, it was such a mess. I began to skim read parts just so I could get to the end because none of it was catching my attention, the romance was so spotty and odd and barely there and almost forced.

Also, can we talk about the Eliza chapters? I still don’t understand what she was there for! (PS this is not a spoiler it’s literally the first chapter of the book!). I skim read her parts because there was 0 explanation as to why she was there and by the time I found out, I no longer cared.

Basically I was left feeling super unsatisfied because I had to go from DOSAB which I LOVED SO MUCH to DOBAS which was super dry to DOGAM which I didn’t understand.

OVERALL RATING:

FINALLY…

There are some very mixed reviews on this trilogy because some people loved it and others, like me, had no idea what was going on. I’m not sure why exactly I didn’t understand everything but it got super boring and draggy and dull for me that I didn’t even have the energy to try.

I know this review went from gushing to ranting and I’m sorry but this series really frustrated me because I went from loving loving loving to just not having any idea what was happening.

If you wanna take my advice, read the first book and just leave it at that because it explains everything and the second two books were really unnecessary.

But, in the end, it is your choice after all. 

Have you read this trilogy? What did you think? Did you agree or disagree with me?

Thank you to Hachette Australia for sending me review copies of this trilogy. However all thoughts and opinions are my own and this is an honest review.