Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead
Rating: 3/5 stars

**I know I haven't been reviewing lately but I had no time with the holiday season because I worked everyday. Now that i'm done with work and it is a new year, i'm going to try my best with keeping up with reviews.**

Bloodlines is a spin off series from the Vampire Academy series that include characters like Adrian, Jill, Sydney, Eddie and appearances from other characters. Adrian is the main reason I started reading this series. When I found out that this series included Adrian, I knew I just HAD to read it. He was my favorite character in the Vampire Academy series and what happened between him and Rose broke my heart. I was 100% team Adrian. Why chose someone that’s extremely boring like Dimitri when she could have Adrian?! It still makes no sense to me. In this book you find out that he is STILL extremely hurt from it and it broke my heart even more. 

I don’t know how I feel about this book. It was boring and I felt like it was missing something but at the same time I couldn’t stop reading it. It was addicting, just like the Vampire Academy Series. There was surprising twists but some of it was predictable. 

Anyway, I was disappointed that there was barely any romance in this. Lee and Jills romance was just weird to me from the beginning and I wanted something to happen between Trey and Sydney but nope, nothing happened. Even though I personally think Sydney is boring, I hope she grows on me in the next book and that she opens up more. Despite the fact that I didn't find this book as exciting as I wanted it to be, it was a great start for a spin-off series and I have a feeling its only going to get better.

Specials by Scott Westerfeld

Specials by Scott Westerfeld
Rating: 3/5 Stars

Will contain spoilers!!!

It pains me to say that I am extremely disappointed by this book. There was a decent amount of action in it but I was still very bored while reading it. I just wasn’t feeling it and I was just reading it so I can finish it faster. There was barely any romance in this book either, which is what I was expecting considering it’s the last book. There was a big question everyone wanted answered, who would Tally choose? Zane or David? But it doesn’t even get answered. Zane dies and she stays with David and they don’t even kiss once in this book. Zanes death was also so unnecessary and it broke my heart.

I have a love/hate relationship with this series. It got confusing at times and Tally annoyed me but I loved the concept of it and some characters. Overall, there were more things I hated than liked in this book but I still enjoyed it. One thing I hate the most is the ending because it was not satisfying. I don’t like how Tally stayed as a Special Circumstance either but whatever. I’ll probably read “Extras” sometime in the future and I heard that Tally appears in that so hopefully I get a little closure from that book.

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

WILL CONTAIN SOME SPOILERS!!!!!

Allegiant by Veronica Roth
Rating: 3/5 Stars

I started this book off with four stars but after thinking about it for a while, I changed it to three, even though it absolutely kills me. I don’t think I can ever write a proper review for this book. I finished this over 2 weeks ago and I still don’t know what to write, so this “review” is just going to be one big rant and I’m sorry.

First of all, the Divergent series is one of my favorites of all time but this book is definitely my least favorite out of the three. The other two books, Divergent and Insurgent, took me no longer than two or three days to finish and this took me over a week. I’m not sure if it was because mentally I didn’t want to finish it or if it was just really boring and not as exciting. I also felt like it was very rushed and that Veronica Roth just wanted to get it done with.

The beginning started out really slow and I was a little confused since they didn’t start off where Insurgent left off. I honestly did not get into the storyline till towards the end. A lot of irrelevant events happened and it had a different vibe from the other two books and I did not like it. I wanted a lot from this book, considering it is the last in the series, but one thing I really wanted but didn’t get was more Peter. Even though he was an absolute horrible person in Divergent, he redeemed himself for me in Insurgent and I started to love him. I wanted Tris and him to become friends or for Peter to admit that he had a crush on her. BUT HE WAS HARDLY IN. None of their friends were in it as much either and that pissed me off. I wanted more Christina too, and Uriah was in it for like 5 seconds than died. How was that even fair?

Caleb is a special snowflake and gets his own little paragraph. Even though he was not there for Tris in Insurgent and basically led her to her death, for some reason I still had a soft spot for Caleb. I knew from the minute Tris suggested that Caleb go into the room, I knew she would go instead. My heart broke a little when he let her go. I don't think he will ever recover from that but a part of me still wishes that Caleb been the big brother he should have been and went instead.

I loved the romance. I saw a lot of negative things about both Tris and Tobias and how they were both annoying in this book but I didn’t mind the fighting, even though it was frustrating at the time. The fighting made it seem more realistic and I loved seeing them get through the rough parts together. With all the fighting,  you see that they truly love each other and can get through anything.

The ending is what the hype of this book is about. I honestly saw something like this coming, especially since they did the deed, but I still cried. A LOT. I did not agree with the ending but I respect it. It was a bold move to end it that way because Veronica knew she would most likely get hate for it and it was not like every other Dystopian novel where the main characters get together in the end. It was nice to switch it up even though it killed a part of my soul.

I wanted to love this book with all my heart but it just didn’t happen for me. This book wasn’t her best but I will still read anything Veronica Roth writes. Divergent will forever be one of my favorite series, even with that heart-breaking ending.

Wallbanger

Wallbanger by Alice Clayton
Rating: 3.7/5
Finished reading: October 18, 2013.

Caroline Reynolds has a fantastic new apartment in San Francisco and she has a successful interior design career but she is missing her “O”. On the first night at her first apartment she is awaken by thumps on the wall and this goes on for 3 nights and each night gets weirder. A couple weeks later, it happens again and she gets furious when she is woken up and goes over and banged on his door till he answered. It’s pretty basic from here, they obviously feel some kind of connection when they meet, and the rest of the story is them starting off with a truce when they meet unexpectedly at a party, becoming friends and obviously eventually falling for each other. Within the story you also get to know Caroline’s friends, cat and even Simon’s friends.

After a stressful week, I wanted to read a book that was fun and quick. Going off the cover and title of this book, I thought I was going to hate it but based on the reviews, everyone said it was hilarious and a fast read so I thought I would give it a try. It actually wasn’t as horrible as I thought it would be. I thought it was going to be like another 50 Shades of Grey but it wasn’t even close, it was completely different from what I thought it would be about. There were things I liked and disliked about it.

One thing I love is how the all the characters are so easy to love; I surprisingly didn’t hate any of them. Simon was especially very swoon-worthy. I liked his old school music choices, how much he loved Caroline’s baking and that wherever he traveled he collected bottles of sand from the beaches.  The banter between the characters was great and I loved the slow romance and how they didn’t get into a relationship right away. Another thing I loved is Caroline’s cat and I’m not even a cat person! His involvement in the story was great and creative.

One small thing that annoyed the hell out of me was how Caroline would always be slapping him, flicking his ear, pointing her finger at him, ruffling his hair etc. Another was the “O” thing. I’m not even going to get into this but I know it was supposed to be funny but it was just annoying and strange. “I think O even popped her head up for a moment, like a groundhog. She took a quick glance around and pronounced it much closer to spring than she’d been in months” So. Weird.  She also personified her nerves, vagina, brain, etc. which made me cringe.

Overall, this book was perfect for a quick enjoyable read. I liked it a lot. It was hilarious, drama-free, sexy, light and I had a giant grin on my face the entire time I was reading it. It was easy to get into and it flowed easily. I definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a fun light read.

“Always take a compliment. Always take it the way it was intended. You girls are always quick to twist what others say. Simply say “thank you” and move on.” – probably one of the lines I would always remember from this book.