Vacation

Good afternoon! This is just a small post to tell you that I haven't been posting anything here because I am on vacation in Spain at the moment. I have been reading and I am back home next Wednesday so I will write another review next week! Until then :)

xoxo Janina

Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls #1) by Maggie Stiefvater

"For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—is a chilling presence she can't seem to live without.
Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human… until the cold makes him shift back again.
Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It's her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human—or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever." - Goodreads

Before I started reading Shiver I read a lot of reviews on Goodreads claiming that this book is just like Twilight. I have read three Twilight books when I was around 15 and I really liked them so I decided to give this series a go. 
After reading for a while I could also notice some similarities between Shiver and Twilight: Grace is a girl who is in love with a werewolf. One summer Grace finds her wolf, Sam, who has yellow eyes, on her porch and that's where their love story begins. The difference between Shiver and Twilight is that in Twilight the werewolves can change their form whenever they want but in Shiver they can't. They have limited time as humans and at some point they will stay wolves forever.

“I said uselessly, "Sam, don't go."
Sam cupped my face in his hands and looked me in the eyes. His eyes were yellow, sad, wolf, mine. 
"These stay the same. Remember that when you look at me. Remember it's me. Please.” 

I think that the book and the story was somewhat interesting but it just reminded me too much of Twilight. Grace was also very obsessed with Sam and she couldn't bare a minute without him and his presence which I thought made the book quite annoying. Everything revolved around Sam. When the book was told from Sam's point of view (just like in one of the Twilight books) it was all about Grace and how much he loved her. Sam was also a fan of poems so you could see some of them in the story. He also wrote songs about Grace.

"I fell for her in summer, my lovely summer girl,
From summer she is made, my lovely summer girl,
I’d love to spend a winter with my lovely summer girl,
But I’m never warm enough for my lovely summer girl,
It’s summer when she smiles, I’m laughing like a child,
It’s the summer of our lives; we’ll contain it for a while
She holds the heat, the breeze of summer in the circle of her hand
I’d be happy with this summer if it’s all we ever had.” 

All in all I think Shiver was an okay book. I don't regret reading it but I could do without it. I am not sure if I will finish the series but we will see.  

My rating: 3 stars ★★★



xoxo Janina

The Summer I Turned Pretty (Summer #1) by Jenny Han

 “Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer – they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one terrible and wonderful summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.” - Goodreads

(First: I hate blogger because of the white background behind the text above and because even though I set a certain font, it doesn't change to it so this post and the other posts as well have a lot of different fonts...)

The Summer I turned pretty is the first book in Summer trilogy. It was published in 2009 and belongs in YA and romance genre. I haven't read a lot of romance books besides The Fault in Our Stars and Twilight, if you can count that (I think it depends on person). After reading this book I just have to read the other books of the trilogy!

I could really identify with Belly who is a summer loving teenager. She is always waiting for summer and I am also like that: summer is the best time of the year. Every summer Belly goes to the beach house with her mother and brother and her mother's friend and her children, Jeremiah and Conrad. Belly has had a crush on Conrad since she can remember and the summer she is about to spend at the beach house is going to be everything else than she could ever imagine.

"For me, it was almost like winter didn't count. Summer was what mattered. My whole life was measured in summers. Like I don't really begin living until June, until I'm at that beach, in that house."

The story isn't told just in present. Belly also goes back in time in the book, to the age of 9 and 11 for example. That's how you get a lot of background to the story and you can see her journey to this day.

I think a good age to read this book is around the age of 20 or before. It may be easier to identify with Belly if you are young and still learning to be on your own and building your identity. Belly expresses her feelings of frustration, jealousy and affection. I could see myself in her when she got mad and I could feel it when she experienced affection towards someone. 

"Just as suddenly, everything in me was alert. The sleepy feeling was gone; every part of my body was awake now. I was holding my breath, waiting for what he would say. I didn't answer him. I didn't want to break the spell. That's when he dipped his head low and kissed me. I didn't let go of the door handle. All I could think was, I wish this had been my first kiss."

When I was reading that part, I could feel the tension rising in the car and Belly's feeling. I think almost everyone who has had a crush can relate to Belly's feelings in that moment. As I said, I could also feel her sadness and understand her:

"I wondered if it was possible to take someone's pain away with a kiss. Because that was what I wanted to do, take all of his sadness and pour it out of him, comfort him, make the boy I knew come back."

I was reading reviews of this book on Goodreads and there are also a lot of people who don't like this book (average rating 3.97). Someone thought for example that Belly was very immature, self-focused and petulant child. I think that's why this book is better for younger audience: most 16-year-olds aren't very mature and they can be quite self-focused. I was like that at least and maybe that's why I could see myself in Belly. In many reviews people were annoyed by Belly and her self-centeredness but it didn't really bother me. The only thing that bothered me was that she was showing her tongue all the time, haha. 

All in all, this book got me in the summer mood and I gave it 5/5 stars! 

"I floated on my back counting stars and listening to the ocean. When the tide was low like this, it whispered and gurgled and it sounded like a lullaby. I wished I could stay forever, in this moment. Like in one of those plastic snowballs, one little moment frozen in time."

My rating: 5/5 ★★★★★

                                                                        xoxo Janina

The House of Hades (The Heroes of Olympus #4) by Rick Riordan

“Oh, did you expect me to play fair?" Cupid laughed. "I am the god of love. I am never fair.”

I need to tell you right away that I love Rick Riordan. I love this series so much and it got me into the world of gods. Basically for all of you that aren’t familiar with this series, The Heroes of Olympus is a sequel for Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I made a mistake starting the Heroes of Olympus without reading the first series. The Heroes of Olympus has quite a lot of references to Percy Jackson and the Olympians but luckily they explain what has happened before so I get the hang of it. I am planning on reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians sometime (and no, the references didn’t spoil it for me since my memory is quite bad :D) and maybe someday reread the Heroes of Olympus so I can get even more out of it.

  “At the conclusion of The Mark of Athena, Annabeth and Percy tumble into a pit leading straight to the Underworld. The other five demigods have to put aside their grief and follow Percy’s instructions to find the mortal side of the Doors of Death. If they can fight their way through the Gaea’s forces, and Percy and Annabeth can survive the House of Hades, then the Seven will be able to seal the Doors both sides and prevent the giants from raising Gaea. But, Leo wonders, if the Doors are sealed, how will Percy and Annabeth be able to escape? They have no choice. If the demigods don’t succeed, Gaea’s armies will never die. They have no time. In about a month, the Romans will march on Camp Half-Blood. The stakes are higher than ever in this adventure that dives into the depths of Tartarus.” – Goodreads

The House of Hades is the 4th book of the series and you need to read the other books first in order to understand it. The whole series is basically about 7 demigods that unite to protect the earth from Gaea who is the goddess of Earth and plans to destroy it. In order to succeed, the Greek Camp, Camp Half-Blood, and the Roman camp, Camp Jupiter, need to work together. The book is told in all of these 7 demigods’ point of view: Percy, Annabeth, Hazel, Frank, Leo, Piper and Jason’s. In the first book you only follow 4 of these characters and in the second one 3 (if I remember correctly), so you can get to know the characters well and see they develop.

After reading the first book of the series I got very interested in mythology and gods. I never really knew which god did what but now I remember some of the gods and their Greek and Roman names. In the end of the book you also have a glossary with all the gods and other words they use in the books so you can easily check there if you don’t remember what god they’re talking about (of course this isn’t as handy if you have an e-book). I loved the beginning of this book so much:

“To my wonderful readers:  

Sorry about that last cliff-hanger. 

Well, no, not really. HAHAHAHA. 

But seriously, I love you guys.”

When I read that, I thought that it was the best beginning I have ever seen in a book. When I go deeper into the story and the characters, I realize that I really love the fact that I can follow the story in 7 points of view. Also, in this book Annabeth and Percy are in Underworld so the setting is a lot different. I also really liked the fact that this book contained a lot of traveling. The 3rd book also had some traveling in it but the two first books were completely in America if recall correctly. In the House of Hades we get to visit for example Roma, Africa and Malta. Leo also gets kicked on an island so there’s that. I was sometimes so emerged in this book I noticed last night that I felt sad and I could really feel Leo’s sadness. That doesn’t happen for me that often! Rick Riordan’s books also have weird but funny humor and I think you can see that the characters in these books are teenagers.

“Keep climbing,' he told himself. 'Cheeseburgers,' his stomach replied. 'Shut up,' he thought. 'With fries,' his stomach complained.” “You’re that lady,” Leo said. “The one who was named after Caribbean music.” Her eyes glinted murderously. “Caribbean music.” “Yeah. Reggae?” Leo shook his head. “Merengue? Hold on, I’ll get it.” He snapped his fingers. “Calypso!”

You can also see the characters getting known to each other and catching feelings. Romance isn’t a very big part of these books but it is there and I love it.

“Annabeth's voice caught on the word friend. Percy was a lot more than that. Even boyfriend really didn't cover it. They'd been through so much together, at this point Percy was part of her -- a sometimes annoying part, sure, but definitely a part she could not live without.”

“For a moment, Percy actually remembered what it was like to be happy. He had an amazing girlfriend. They could have a future together.”

All together I liked this book just as much or more than the other ones in this series. It is hard to review the 4th book of the series separately since it is a part of a series and I haven't reviewed the other ones so I felt like I should give you some background! I still like the first book the best (maybe because the world was new for me and I got so excited about it) and I am excited to read the last book of this series hopefully still this year!

My rating: 5/5 ★★★★★

                                                                           xoxo Janina

Introduction

Welcome to my new blog!

I think it is always very hard to start a new blog: you need to come up with a name and get a nice layout (mine is still under process) and the first post is always so hard. I felt like I should write an introduction of me even though most of the people who read this are probably my old followers.

Before this blog I have always had a lifestyle blog but they always kind of died and I have become

quite lazy when it comes to taking pictures about everything I do. I wanted a blog that doesn't go that much into my life and is a bit less personal. I have been reading actively for 2 years now. Last year I read 30 books I think, which is a loooot for me! This year I have finished just 4 books this far but I am planning on catching on. I read mostly fantasy, sci-fi, YA and crime. Some of my most loved books are the Hunger Games trilogy, The Heroes of Olympus (I am hooked on books of Rick Riordan) and A Game of Thrones. If you know a book you think I would love, please let me know!

While writing this blog, I want to read more classic and popular books like Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia as well as read less known books. I have just joined a book club on Goodreads (add me as a friend if you like!) and I will try to read the book they select every month. It is just a bit hard to get an access to all of the books here in Finland.

My blog will probably change a lot and expand once I get the hang of this. If you have any tips or ideas, please let me know! :)

xoxo Janina