Crown of Midnight Review

Rating: 5/5 stars

From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.

Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.

Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena's world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie... and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for

Wow. What a sequel.

I think Sarah J. Maas is in danger of being sued for pain and suffering, emotional instability, and over all mind blowing content.

Celaena has easily become one of my favorite characters. She is such a bad ass! She is the friggin' Assassin of Adarlan and King's  Champion. And one with a conscious all of a sudden I might add. She has the Crown Prince and the Captain of the Guard, two of the most eligible bachelor's, eating out of her hands! Let's not even mention her love of books So much accomplished at eighteen. I'm behind compared to her. 

Now the King is a scary and intimidating dude. He does what he wants to and does it well. I think the king and the Commandant would get along swimmingly. Celaena barely wants to cross him and we all know what she's capable of. But we really see what she can do when she is royally pissed. WARNING: DO NOT PISS OFF A DEADLY ASSASSIN. Like how stupid are people really? 

Speaking of which JUSY WHHYYYY??!!! There is one part of this book that absolutely....ugh...If I were a crier I might have shed some tears. This book has one hundred and one plot twists that I did not see coming at all! Well Done Maas. Well done. Because some things are foreshadowed, but so subtlety that when it hits you, you're dumbfounded and caught off guard.

And the feeelsssss. The fangirlinggg. I have a new team now and I need a banner immediately to add to my collection. I' have been for this couple from the very beginning and HA I was right.

This is such a great read and highly recommend it. Yet another series to obsess over.

The Invasion of the Tearling Review

Rating: 4.5/5

With each passing day, Kelsea Glynn is growing into her new responsibilities as Queen of the Tearling. By stopping the shipments of slaves to the neighboring kingdom of Mortmesne, she crossed the Red Queen, a brutal ruler whose power derives from dark magic, who is sending her fearsome army into the Tearling to take what is hers. And nothing can stop the invasion.

But as the Mort army draws ever closer, Kelsea develops a mysterious connection to a time before the Crossing, and she finds herself relying on a strange and possibly dangerous ally: a woman named Lily, fighting for her life in a world where being female can feel like a crime. The fate of the Tearling —and that of Kelsea’s own soul—may rest with Lily and her story, but Kelsea may not have enough time to find out.

In this dazzling sequel, Erika Johansen brings back favorite characters, including the Mace and the Red Queen, and introduces unforgettable new players, adding exciting layers to her multidimensional tale of magic, mystery, and a fierce young heroine. 

I have to start by giving a shout out to Audible because I listened to both audio books from this series.  I preferred the first narrator to the second but it was still well done nonetheless.

So this book is a continuation of where we left the Tearling in the last book. War and siege is on the horizon and Kelsea has to evaluate the decisions she's made. Despite being only nineteen, she has to do a lot of growing up because she is the Queen of this place that is in utter shambles.

So Queen Kelsea does everything that she can to prove that she isn't her mother that sold away her people to a witch queen. But we also come to realize her mother may have not really had a choice. There is a slight possibility that Queen Elyssa knew giving away her citizens was the lesser of two evils. I felt bad for Kelsea because she is forced to realize that though she stopped the shipments with great intentions she is still the cause of the Mort coming to invade the Tearling. And she doesn't even have a clue that the Red Queen only did it because her citizens kept questioning her! She almost didn't give a damn.

I loved all the insight we got to the past Raleighs, the power of the Sapphires, and the friggin' Pre-Crossing! That was just awesome! How Johansen imagines America in the future is something I certainly don't look forward to. But I can certainly see it. It was so well thought out. It was almost as if it was two books in one.

WHO IS HER FATHER?!?!?! WTF! It better be in the first sentence of the third book. What is the huge secret if he was "a good man"? Also, Kelsea is do damned stupid for basically selling her soul to the devil! I realized everything that transpired with Kelsea and the Red Queen would have happened regardless because she remembered her FROM THE PORTRAIT! So all the fireplace dude did was slightly gear her in the right direction! Once she saw her she was going to say "Hey. I remember you. You're the sad looking Raleigh bastard child I saw a week ago." Then BAM she would have had her. So Frustrated. 

I loved this book and once again I'm going to hate waiting a year to find out what the fate of Kelsea, her sapphires, and her kingdom is. 

Bad Language in Books

Being an avid Goodreads member and belonging to several YA groups on it, one of the topics that is being discussed is BAD LANGUAGE IN BOOKS

When I first went into this discussion I was thinking this would be mostly people ridiculing those who found is sooooo offensive.
But I was met with a jumble of different views. The three that I was greeted with most often was being completely for it because it just simply realistic (my view), seeing its purpose not feeling an abundance took away from the story, or those who were completely against it.

Now for those who didn't like too much cursing for no reason, that's just fine. I can completely understand that. It can get annoying if F bombs are just being dropped for no reason here and there.

And then when I turned to those who were not at all for it, I had to chuckle. Because I felt it to be unrealistic. If a YA novel doesn't have any swear words in it I won't feel cheated. I won't really care. 
But when it does, I feel as if it enhances the writing and then more people can connect with the story.

I'm not saying those who don't like the cursing are wrong, everyone is entitled to their opinion and I can't judge anyone's values. But casting a book aside based upon a few measly curse words is horrid. 

Let me know what you think about this topic

Guess What I Got....

I have officially broken onto the Twitter scene!
Yeah I know its late. But this is my YA/NA account soooo of course I had to share the news
And I want to follow you all! So let me know if you me to take a look at your page

https://twitter.com/aread_aholic

BOOOOKKKKKK HAAUULLLLLLLLL

Despite my mother threatening my life if another book was brought into the house, I went to B&N anyway. Why? What they hey, I'm 19 and I'm going back to school in less than a month.

On to my purchases...

 Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor is one of the Books on my Series bucket List. I've heard so many great things about this books and the style of Taylor's writing. I am very excited about this read

 Why I have not read this series before now is beyond me. The only bad thing I've heard is about Some different covers when it first came out. Other than that, I heard the writing is very poetic. This is another book I have on my Series bucket list.

 This stand alone book (to my knowledge) is one that I discovered from the loveliness of BookTubing. From the summary I believe this book is bout a young Indian girl. I recently finished the Tiger's Curse series and I loved the incorporation of Indian culture in the series. Plus, great cover and a great way to get my attention.

Series Bucket List!

While I was at Barnes and Noble the other day I realize that even though I have read plenty of books, there are many series that I had never delved into. And there was really no reason for that at all. Something I can't quite explain. I just simply had not.

Now there are some series that I will not be finishing due to plain dislike or PEOPLE WHO SPOIL ENDINGS. NOT COOL. Story time shall we...

If a movie is based on book and I want to see it, I tend to want to have at least read it first. So then I can be angry in the theater and contemplate asking for my money back when they get everything wrong. So this applied to Divergent. I wanted to make sure I at least read the first book, if not the whole series by the time it came out. So once I finished Divergent, I noticed one of my friends holding Allegiant. So I shared with her that I just finished DIVERGENT. And then she goes on to say  (Spoiler)"Oh, that's great! Tris dies." I almost threw her and the book off the bus I was on.
A similar story happened regarding the Hunger Games. Now could I have gone on anyway despite these spoilers? Mhmm. But I just saw no point. The fun had been taking out of finishing those series.

Also in this category is the Selection series. The way this was spoiled for me was in the funniest way. Epic Reads YouTube channel depicted the entire series, book by book with, get this....Barbie Dolls (Most Popular Girls cred). HILARIOUS

annnddddddd here you go https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tRmanz1cS4


Two series that I won't finish are the Beautiful Creatures and the House of Night series. Beautiful Creatures was another book that I wanted to read before the movie came out. And I actually really liked it. I mean I didn't worship it, but I was going to continue to the next book. But after reading the summary of Beautiful Darkness, I foresaw the impending doom of the series. I decided to stop while I was ahead in the game. Same for the House of Night. I loved Marked. I thought it was interesting and I like the concept. But I could tell I would grow wary of the series and end of not liking it anymore.




But.....Resolutions!

Once I finish the Throne of Glass series I am going to basically binge on all the series that I have been interested in but just never read. I feel like I will be more connected to the blogging world after this. I can't participate in many male/female elimination games. I don't understand many relationship references either.
So, without further ado my series bucket list is as follows:

• Shatter Me Trilogy
• Delirium Series
• Lux Series
• Mara Dyer Trilogy
• Lunar Chronicles
• Ruby Red Trilogy
• Grisha Trilogy
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy

My Reading Slump is No More!

Finally my reading slump has disappeared and because of this I have (finally) started the Throne of 

Glass series! I just finished  ToG, and now on to CoM. I've heard nothing but great reviews when it 

comes to this series and Sarah J. Maas as well. I can't wait to binge on this series and be caught up.

Book Hangovers

I'm so busy wallowing in misery because I just ended The Queen of the Tearling and The Wrath of the Dawn. Because of this huge book hangover I can't start Throne of Glass. I'm already 3 years behind schedule and I need to catch up!

I need this to end like...yesterday

Help!! Book Subscription Boxes

So every month or so all of my favorite BookTubers get a lovely little package in the mail and are greeted with a new book and lovely little bookish things along with it. And many of these books were ones I had or were planning on getting anyway!

Now has come the time...WHICH ONE DO I CHOOSE?!?! I don't think I can have more than one. College student= already broke. Most of the BookTubers get them for free for a few months for reviews.

The two I am most interested in so far are OwlCrate and Uppercase. But which one to do.. *scratches chin has if I had a beard* But there are so many out there I'm sure!

I will end up making my decision by the end of this month so that I can have one on the way once I get back to school next month.

Book Pics I Love

New Blog

Hey all. My name is Nicolette. This is a new blog of mine that I've been wanting to start, but never really thought I could.

So far this summer I've read about seven books. The first was Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. The

 second was Tiger's Curse by Collen Houck. YES, this book came out 5 years ago, but I've been

intrigued by it since then and I'm just now getting around to reading it. But I read the entire series in a

 bout a week. I'll probably do a series over view on that. After those I read An Ember in the Ashes by

 Sabaa Tahir. Then to finish the month of June off I completed A Court of Thorns and Roses.

So I guess we'll see how this book blog goes...