Ten Thousand Skies Above You by Claudia Gray

Ten Thousand Skies Above You by Claudia Gray is the second book in the Firebird trilogy following Marguerite Caine as she travels through different universes to save her friends, family, and her own universe. That’s really all I can say as a synopsis since this is a second book in the series. But I devoured this book as well. It’s such a fast-paced read and left me wanting more. I am so disappointed that I don’t have money right now to buy the third book in the series, but I’m even more disappointed that my library doesn’t have ANY books from the Firebird trilogy.

*SPOILERS*

Marguerite is such a bada$$ character. I don’t know if I would be able to do everything that she did to get Paul back and help Theo. I probably would’ve given up. But she is such a strong person and nothing can get in her way. Not even Paul’s that hate her in other universes!

I love thinking about the concept of other universes, so I absolutely loved the stories of Marguerite in other dimensions. But I feel like I would feel like I’m violating my other me’s by going into my body in another dimension. So, when I found out that Marguerite got the Russiaverse’s Marguerite pregnant, I felt so bad for that Marguerite! She didn’t even get to enjoy that Paul and now she has her baby to raise by herself. I probably wouldn’t have been as sad had that Paul been alive.

I couldn’t believe it when we found out that the Marguerites in other universes were actually able to recall everything that happens to them. Like, now they can feel even more violated and helpless! But, it added to the story and made me think even more of the concept.

The original reason Triad started this whole thing to get Marguerite to participate is RIDICULOUS. They are being so selfish in wanting to destroy other dimensions! I can’t imagine the pain they feel, but how do they think they could ever pull this off? I really hope our Marguerite can fix this!

My last thoughts, I NEED THE NEXT BOOK NOW because the Marguerite from the original Triad figured out how to get into our character’s body. WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN?!?

Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley

Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley was a surprising read for me. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, yet it wasn’t the most amazing book that those who recommended this book to me made it out to be. This book is focused on Cullen Witter, who lives in a small town in Arkansas. Nothing ever happens in this small town, until a birdwatcher comes to town and claims to have found a type of woodpecker thought to be extinct. Upon the claim that this man has seen the Lazarus Woodpecker, the town goes wild. They create new ways to bring tourism to the town from this bird, including Lazarus haircuts, Lazarus burgers, and even a Lazarus Festival. During the chaos of trying to find this bird, Cullen’s little brother disappears without a trace. Multiple viewpoints tie together to show how and why Cullen’s brother disappeared, and follows Cullen’s journey to finding his brother.

I was certainly surprised by this book. I loved the writing style and the way the story was told. But, as much as the multiple viewpoints helped to tie the story together, I felt as if they were not necessary. I had a hard time connecting the dots as to how each character connected to either Cullen or his brother’s disappearance. I feel like I would have enjoyed the book more if it would have had only Cullen’s perspective, although I do understand why the author wanted the other perspectives.

I gave Where Things Come Back a 3.75 stars.

*SPOILERS*

I found Cabot Searcy to be a little too insane. I really could not imagine someone being insane enough to fly to a little Arkansas town and after his wife tells him to leave, to not actually leave but try and stalk her date. It was very unexpected to me that Cabot wouldn’t even try and verify that Gabriel was Cullen. I have read quite a few psychological thrillers, yet I have never seen someone so insane not think through a crime as big as this.

OwlCrate June Box

Last week, I got one of the most highly anticipated book boxes, according to myself, in my mailbox. I finally did it! I ordered an OwlCrate subscription! Now, what led me to this decision was a variety of factors. First, I saw that there was going to be a bath bomb in the June box; then, I saw that they were including a second book in the box as well. A second book, but the price was still the same?!? I thought I’d stumbled upon Heaven! While debating if I should really get this subscription or wait until I had more money, my aunt sent me the amount I needed as a “thinking of you” because I was having a surgery at the beginning of June. So, I decided “hey, I’m getting my stomach cut into, so I’m gonna treat myself with an OwlCrate!” And I have never been happier that I decided that! The box was all that and even more than what I expected. And I will continue to subscribe to OwlCrate for as long as funds shall find me.

Here is a list of everything that came in the box, and my thoughts on them: (SPOILERY)

• ·      An Ember in the Ashes magnet created by Little Inklings Design to “channel your inner bravery” (I am getting these quotes from the Spoiler card I received). I absolutely love magnets, and this past school year I lived in an apartment. I was really upset because I didn’t have any cute magnets to put on our fridge, I just had the magnets my school gave me. So now I am so excited to go back to school to decorate my fridge with An Ember in the Ashes gorgeousness!

• ·       A double-sided bookmark from Hey Atlas Creative. This bookmark was inspired by ACOWAR by Sarah J Maas; the spoiler card says this is because “When thinking about survival, Feyre from A  Court of Thorns and Roses series definitely comes to mind!” I normally don’t spend money on bookmarks, and most of mine are from independent bookstores. So, this is by far my favorite bookmark I own (along with my Lillytales bookmark!)

• ·       The bath bomb was created by Fizzy Fairy Apothecary and is Divergent inspired and “contains a charm which will sort you into one of the different factions”. I have yet to use this (I can’t take a bath because of my surgery), but I am SO EXCITED to use this!! I have actually thought about just filling up a sink and seeing which faction I’m in, but I love bath bombs too much to not actually USE it.

• ·       This next item was my favorite item in this whole box (despite the books). It is a zombie sleep mask from Archie McPhee! Because “You’ll need your rest to survive the apocalypse!” I have about ten sleep masks and I am one of those ‘high-maintenance’ people that sleeps better with a sleep mask on. I am so excited to go back to school and surprise my roommate with a zombie sleep mask! (Ignore the low-quality picture, my camera is not letting me edit any of the pictures I took of this mask, and this is the best one I have).

• ·       The last item was an iron-on patch from Laserbrain Patch Co. This was inspired by The Giver and  “features the red apple that Jonah discovers in the book.” I thought this was a unique item, and although I don’t have anything to iron this patch on, I am going to keep it on display on my bookshelves! I first read The Giver when I was 12, and Lois Lowry was my favorite author growing up, so this patch has significant meaning and nostalgia for me and I can’t wait to show it off in my #shelfies!

• ·       The second book that was included in this box was New World Rising by Jennifer Wilson and published by Oftomes Publishing. According to the synopsis of this book, it is a dystopian featuring Tribes that live outside of the city and the motto is “Join or die”. The main character wants to survive and doesn’t know who to trust. I had previously heard of this book from Benjaminoftomes on Youtube, as he published this with his company. It sounded interesting and I put it on my Goodreads TBR as a book to get in the future, but now I have an immediate reason to read it!

• ·       The featured book in this month’s OwlCrate was The Sandcastle Empire by Kayla Olson. This book also has an exclusive OwlCrate cover design, signed bookplate with a letter from the editor, and exclusive The Sandcastle Empire stickers, as well. This is also a dystopian, and it follows Eden, who was alive before a revolution that changed the world. Before this revolution, Eden lived in what sounds like a world that is close to what we live in today, which is a new take on dystopian that I am excited to read. One of Eden’s friends goes missing and she and her friends brave the post-revolution jungle to look for this friend. I had only heard of the title before I received this book, but now after receiving the book and reading the synopsis, I am really excited to read this! I am one of the few that did not get burnt out from the dystopian craze, so I’m excited to have more dystopian books in my hands!

Next month's OwlCrate theme is Wanderlust!

This post is in no way sponsered by OwlCrate, I just really loved the box and wanted to put my thoughts on it out to the world.

If you'd like to check out OwlCrate, here is a link: https://owlcrate.com/

City of Saints & Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson

City of Saints and Thieves, by Natalie C. Anderson, follows Christina aka Tiny Girl and her adventure throughout Africa to find her mother’s killer. Along the way, Tina finds out the truth about her mother’s past before coming to Kenya as a refugee. Tina is a thief involved in a gang called the Goondas, and she enlists her gangs help to get revenge on the man who killed her mother. But… things don’t end up going quite per plan as she learns more and more about her mother’s life.

I didn’t read the synopsis at all before reading this book, I just knew it involved a thief, and I honestly thought it would just involve a heist. But this book is so much more than that. When I first read that the setting is in Kenya, I was very surprised, but excited to read a book in this setting; as I hadn’t read any books in this setting before. I love learning about other cultures, so books set in other countries interest me. But my expectations did fall a little short. I loved the integration of the Swahili language into this book.  Besides this integration and the author stating that the setting was in Kenya, I felt that this could be set in any country, despite the war on gold. I honestly imagined Sangui City to be like any city in the United States, and it very well may be like that in the author’s mind. I expected more of a cultural influence in the book, though, and I feel as if I didn’t learn much about the cultures of Kenya and Congo.

This is a great story, and a very quick read. I did enjoy it. Overall, I’d give this book a 3.75 stars.

*SPOILERS*

The story itself was great, and I found little about it that I didn’t like. I felt like Tina is a strong character, and you can see that in the way she cares for her sister; like when she went to such depths to save Kiki from Omoko killing her. However, I thought the characters needed a little more description when being introduced. This may just have been me not catching on, but it took me until around 300 pages to figure out that Mr. Greyhill was a white man from the United States. I thought he was born and raised in Africa, and could not figure out why someone would call Michael a mulatto.

Another aspect of this book that I found lacking was the suspense. I felt as if the author was trying to bring suspense into the book, but I only found myself holding my breath when Christina was breaking into Mr. G’s office. There was some suspense when Boyboy couldn’t get hold of Mr. G, but I had faith that he would have a plan. 

Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare

Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare is the second book in The Dark Artifices series. This series is set in the Los Angeles Institute (and the characters travel to the London Institute), and follows Emma Carstairs and her friend, Julian Blackthorn, and his family. It’s hard to describe this book without spoilers, but it starts off where Lady Midnight ends, with Malcolm Fade’s death. I absolutely loved this book, as much as I love all of Cassie Clare’s other works. However, I did feel I liked Lady Midnight more. There was a ton of action scenes in this book, which I love, but I felt the middle of the book moved too slowly for my liking. This could honestly be because I decided to read this book while I recover for surgery, so I couldn’t just sit down and binge it; I was interrupted from my reading by my need to sleep and my pain. Overall, I gave this book a 4.75 stars.

SPOILERS

Right away, the book started off with a bang when the gang had to fight off some sea demons. The fight scene on the Ferris wheel was the perfect depiction of what I imagine a fight on a boardwalk would look like.

I absolutely love Kit, and I’m excited to watch him grow as a Shadowhunter and teach Emma and the Blackthorns more about modern life. As an example, I knew from Ty’s behavior in Lady Midnight that he is autistic, as I’ve grown up working alongside autistic children my whole life. I literally dropped my book when I read the scene where Kit pointed out that Ty is autistic. I’m so glad that Cassie is incorporating not just diverse sexualities, but diverse ‘disabilities’ as well (I use the term disability lightly here). I was so excited when Julian mentioned that Kit has a family now. I have heard some theories about Kit and Julian as a ship, but I did not get that vibe at all from this book. I honestly spent this whole book thinking about what a great parabatai couple Kit and Ty would be.

Now, Zara and her Cohort; I hated them. From the beginning, I knew that she and her friends would bring nothing but trouble to LA. I was very angry when Zara made the claim that the kids at the Institute could do the Centurions laundry while they were out doing more important things. Emma and the others are just as much Shadowhunters as the Centurions. And I was irritated that they could not help with the case, even though they were the ones that figured everything about Malcolm out. And I am still enraged that Zara is claiming she killed Malcolm the second time.

Speaking of Malcolm dying a second time. I think I am the ONLY one that didn’t see that coming. At the end of Lady Midnight, I figured he wasn’t dead for good, but I thought that he wouldn’t come back until later books in the series. I was shocked when Annabel killed Malcolm. I could not wrap my head around why she would do such a thing. I thought she had been persuading him to give her life again so that she could kill him and get the Black Volume, but I was wrong. Upon hearing her reasoning, I don’t blame her for killing Malcolm. But, I still hate her for the ending. LIVVY WAS SUCH AN INNOCENT CHILD THAT DESERVED TO LIVE. I still don’t understand why it was Livvy, though, I hope her death is explained and avenged in later books.

Now, Kieran. I sighed with relief when Mark said he wouldn’t save Kieran. I expected him to drop everything to go back to save his love. Although, I did have a feeling he would try and sneak out and do it alone anyway. I figured Cassie wouldn’t put this scene in the book if Mark did not go after Kieran.

With Emma’s battle to get Kieran, I knew Emma would win, but I was expecting more of a struggle. It seemed her only struggle was when she saw it was her dad she was fighting; although I knew it was an illusion. I thought that was so cruel of the Unseelie King, but have now learned not to put anything past him. I mean, he was going to kill his own son…

I still am unsure of Diego, if I like him or hate him. I don’t trust him, that’s for sure. I understand his reasoning for being engaged to Zara, and that’s awesome of him to be able to put up with her, but I still feel like he has to have feelings for her.. And Jaime seems way too suave, I don’t trust him either. I really think they were lying when they took Kieran away at the end of the book. Where did they really take him? Was the whole thing planned?

And what is with the token? What is it?

I was so excited to know that Julian figured out that there is a curse between parabatai love, and thought he and Emma could figure it out together now that they both know. Then, we find out that if you destroy one parabatai bond, you destroy them all?! Who would do such a thing? Now I don’t know if I should root for them to destroy it or want them to hate each other so the other parabatai can stay together. And finally, upon watching Emmmabooks review on Youtube, she reminded me that since Robert Lightwood is dead, so is the chance of him helping Emma and Julian figure out the curse. Now I have no idea which way Cassandra Clare is going to take this problem in the next book.

This book took me on a wild ride, and I cannot wait another two years for The Queen of Air and Darkness.

Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

OVERVIEW: I'm going to try and keep this short, because I think that if you read it without knowing everything, it makes the book better. So, Lady Midnight is about Emma Carstairs and the Blackthorn family five years after the Dark War from TMI. I would suggest reading TMI before reading Lady Midnight, but I don't think it would be hard to figure out what's going on if you don't. But, Lady Midnight did feel like a continuation.

MY THOUGHTS: I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK. Cassandra Clare has grown so much in her writing since City of Bones came out, and you can really tell in reading Lady Midnight. The plot was so complex. I was so glad that some of the characters from the other Shadowhunter books were mentioned in LM. I feel like that's all I can say without spoiling the book.

SPOILERS: So, I thought that Malcolm was being really odd about the investigation, BUT I did not see him as being the Guardian!! I honestly thought the Guardian was Diana, and I'm still confused as to why she's been going throughout the entire book. At first, I thought the relationship with Julian and Emma was kind of immature, and only because they lived together. But, as the book went on, I felt really bad that they can't be together. I still don't understand why it's such a big deal, I feel like the Clave should want powerful Shadowhunters. But, if it drives them to ruins, that makes sense. I went back and forth throughout the whole book thinking that Mark would stay in the Institute or go back with the Wild Hunt. I thought that Mark would fall in love with Christina, and she would be the reason he stayed. But then Diego ruined that for me! I could go on and on about how much I loved this book, and how many plot twists I experienced, but I already feel like I'm rambling. So, I'm going to leave with WHAT DOES MARK MEAN WHEN HE SAYS "Why pretend?"?!?!?!?

I give this book a 98%!

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

OVERVIEW: Aristotle is a loner, he calls himself a pseudo-only child because his siblings are all 10+ years older than him, and his brother is in prison. Ari has no clue about his brother, his family never mentions him; they don't even have any pictures of him on their walls. When Ari meets Dante, his life changes. Dante teaches Ari to swim and they become best friends.

MY THOUGHTS: I was really excited to read this book because 1. the cover is GORGEOUS and 2. it was really hyped up. But I did not enjoy this at all. The storyline was okay, but I felt that both Ari and Dante were very immature, which really annoyed me. I felt like their wasn't even any character growth in the book at all, Ari was still as immature at the end as he was at the beginning. And the writing style of this book was unappealing to me. The author uses mainly simple sentences, with ten words or less. I felt like that made it difficult for me to even connect with the characters or even get into the story.

SPOILERS: So when I say Ari was still immature at the end, I mean, he really didn't change. He just accepted the fact that he was in love with Dante. And the whole story was revolved around their relationship, but I honestly just wanted to know more about why the family never mentioned their brother. When it was revealed that Bernardo was in prison for killing someone, all I could think was, that wasn't even like a big bomb drop. It was very anti-climatic, as was the rest of the book for me. I went into this book knowing that it was about two boys in love with each other, but they didn't even acknowledge their love until the last chapter. I feel like that made it even harder to get into.

I honestly don't even know what grade I'd give this book; but I did give it one star on Goodreads.