Me Before You Review

Hello book lovers, it's been a REALLY long time since I last updated this blog. I didn't really have any books I would like to review, so thus the semi-hiatus on this blog.

However, there is a book that I recently read in April, and I LOVED it, the movie is also coming out in June 2nd, so I thought why not just do a review on this book, to get you guys pumped up for the release of the movie?

NOTE: This review is non-spoiler in the first part, and the remaining will be spoiler, BUT I will let you guys know beforehand that the spoiler is coming in red, so just stay clear from it, if you haven't read the book and would not like to be spoiled (which I recommend you to do so).

So the title suggests everything, so let's get started with the review!

Synopsis (from Goodreads) :
Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.
What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane.

Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that.
What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time. 

There are a lot of things that I love about this book, and things that makes this book unforgettable for me, even after I finished reading it, I will still be thinking about it. Although there are some slight issues that I didn't like, I still love the book so much!

Thus the rating: 5/5 stars

What I love about this book:
I really enjoy reading about the characters, they were really the main event of the book, where you try to get to know them more as you dive deeper into the book, flipping the pages filled with curiosity trying to find out more about them. My favourite character definitely has to be Lou and Will, we will get to why soon.

I also love the whole plot of the book, where everything is planned out in a way you will not be able to predict anything, and the story is really unique and interesting, something that I have not read about before.
Just the introduction itself blew my mind away, with all the actions and coming at you all of a sudden.

I like how the author actually did her research before writing this novel, giving as much details as she could about the issue at hand with our main character, trying to stick true to things, and trying not to gloss over anything.

Characters:
As mentioned previously, I really love our main characters, Lou and Will.

Lou:  As a main character, she really shines and makes you really feel like you are her. Although she is very different from people in real life, just looking at her being so genuine with everything, you can feel like she is really someone you know, and not just some fictional character. Always being cheerful and optimistic, handling things clumsily, but always never give up and trying her best to do her things makes you feel like looking up to her as a role model.

Will: Our next main character you will be reading about frequently is Will Traynor. He is those typical guys who think they look good and have the money, thus they can do anything they want, (which is kind of true in a way). He is very hyper and loves the thrill to life by doing the most dangerous yet exciting things in life before something happened to him. Even after what happened, he still really tried his hardest to deal with life even though there are many obstacles he has to deal with. He is a character that you will definitely grow attached to by the end of the book, and is someone whom you will never forget about.

Nathan: This character is our caretaker in the book, and he appears not as often but still holds a really important role in the book. I didn't really like him at the start of the book, and my opinion of him only really changed when it is nearing the end of the story. He has this arrogance aura around him, which makes him less appealing to me, which started to change after I get to know more about him in the book. (Which I have to say is a huge change).

Katrina: Now this character here is Louisa's sister, and I have to be honest and tell you guys that I despise her a lot, not just a little, but even nearing the end of the book, there is still this rage in me whenever I see her name in the book. Don't get me wrong though, she is a really cool and smart character, but then, her personality is just really bad.

Camillia: This character is Will's mother, and I have to admit, I hated her in the first half of the book. I really hated her presence, the way she treats Lou, and how the world just revolves around her and everybody has to bow down to her. However, as the story goes, and you understand what she really thinks and feels, it really changes your opinion of her!

This are just some of the characters that are more unforgettable than the others, but there are still some characters that I don't really like but they mostly appear for a few scenes, so I feel like you should get to know more about them yourself!

What I dislike about this book:
There is actually nothing about this book that I hate, besides the characters, and some parts of the book (which I will not talk about).
So for the characters, some of them are just really a pain to read, and they are just so annoying. Sometimes, when I read and they come into the scene, I feel like just dragging them out of the room and throw them down to hell. Some of them I am just so glad that they got out of Will's life, because my baby doesn't need this kind of people, they can just rot in hell.

Let's move on to something happier about this book.

My thoughts on this book:
Although the synopsis of this book is very simple and doesn't let you know too much, to be very honest with you, when I read that synopsis, I wasn't a huge fan of it, and it doesn't strike me as a book that will be so unique and interesting. I was almost put off by that synopsis, thinking that this book isn't as good as it will be, and that it might even be boring. But nonetheless, the reason I picked this book up is because of the movie trailer.  (FUN FACT: If you haven't read the book yet, please don't watch the trailer, it's full of spoilers here and there. The editor edits the video in such a way you don't even know that it's a spoiler from the book)

Mostly the reason why I enjoyed this book was how genuine the characters are, Jojo Moyes makes the characters come alive, and you can really feel them being in this world, and that they could even be around you. The characters were all so unique and interesting, and their thoughts are most definitely different from how normal people thinks, and that might sometimes even surprise me, since I wasn't expecting it from them.

This book felt like you are hiking towards the top of the mountain, the first parts were a little slow as it builds up the introduction and the scene and dropping small little details here and there in the book, and as you slowly get to the middle of the book, that's where things starts to pick up their pace and you know, that things are finally exciting and worth to continue reading.

This book got me laughing (like really laugh out loud) and even giggled, and obviously I swooned over that hot guy in the book (Will) and yes, I eventually cried at the end. (From a happy cry or a sad cry? Who knows. You will just have to read the book to know what I mean)

Okay, so with this, I will end the NON-SPOILER review here. You can read on, ONLY if you have finished reading the book, because the next part that I am getting to is the spoiler details.

So thank you for reading this non-spoiler part of the review, and hopefully it makes you feel like reading the book! With that, I will end off the first part of the review!

(SPOILER AHEAD!)
(SPOILER AHEAD!)
PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!!

Characters:
I'm pretty sure you guys already know that this book is focused heavily on the characters, so of course there will be some characters that I just can't stop myself from hating. Let's see if we have the same opinions!

Rupert: My hate for this character is just so strong, that it's not even funny. I hated him so much, because let's be honest here, if it wasn't for him, calling Will and rushing him, he wouldn't have jay-walk, and he wouldn't have had that accident, which was partly this guy's fault. However, you can argue to defend him about how he didn't know that he would have jay-walk. And I was okay with him at first, until he suddenly came to visit Will with his girlfriend, Alicia, which I should remind you was Will's ex. Really, Rupert? Are you seriously that desperate? And he came to visit him, making himself look good, trying to show that the whole accident wasn't him who caused it, and acted very innocent.

Alicia: This girl have my anger rising to the brim. I detest her as much as I love Will, and that says a lot. I never hated on a character this much, and this is a first. She acted so innocent, and made it sound like the whole "let's-abandon-Will" thing look like it wasn't her fault for leaving Will's side (which I am very glad that she left him, he don't deserve this person). The way she cried to Lou saying how she tried really hard to get him back to living life, but he won't look at her like how he did before the accident, and all this made her "disappointed" and had no choice but to leave? This is just excuses, and I cannot deal with it.

Katrina: So just now in the first part I mentioned that this person is Lou's sister, and let's be real here, I hated her from the beginning, and maybe my opinion of her changed slightly at the ending, but not much really. She was just so over-dependent on Lou, expecting Lou to sacrifice everything for her, as if Lou didn't have a life to live. She always act as if she needed help, and that her life is the most important, and nothing else should be mattered, which kind of got really irritating after awhile. She got to have everything that is good in life, while Lou has to suffer and yet, the sister is always the right one.

Patrick: Okay, this guy is not even a human, he is just heartless, and someone I would like to bash when I see him, if only he was a real person. He is just not understanding, expects Lou to listen to him, constraining her from doing what she loves, and keeps forcing her to become a personal trainer, or to start training, something along those lines. And it was just so irritating after reading about him. He is so petty about everything, and wants to dominate over every single little thing, which was really tiring to read about after some time. In the scene at the dinner party for Lou, he was just so annoying, and he kept being so sarcastic to Will about his problems. 

Favourite scenes:
So let's talk about some of the scenes in the book, that happen to left me with a very vivid memory.

• When Lou first met Will, and he starting acting crazy, crying and shouting, and it turns out to be an act to scare Lou off was just hilarious. I loved that scene and it was just a really wonderful scene, which in my opinion, I feel like Will did that to see if she is the right person to take care of him.

• At the wedding of Rupert and Alicia, where Will brought Lou along to congratulate them, and she found more things about Will, and even got to dance with him was just the best scene ever. Although after the wedding when things went downhill wasn't what I expected, but still, that scene was just glorious.

• This scene was my favourite out of all the other scenes, when Lou was feeding Will to eat, and she actually hide the vegetable from him behind the other food, to "trick" him to eat it, and he ended up finding out about it was just the funniest and perfect scene. It was all a habit after having to feed Thomas for years and he didn't like to eat his vegetables, which suddenly came out when trying to feed Will. I will never be able to forget about this scene.

Ending:

I am very speechless about this ending, although I already expected it to happen, I still didn't want it to be this way. Everything they did together, everything they went through together just went out to the drain after he left this world. Maybe everything wasn't for nothing as it left Lou with all the wonderful memories she would never have if she never met him, but still... I didn't want it to be this way. And the way she actually left him before he even had the chance to say goodbye and left for Switzerland was even sadder. 

The last part where he was on the bed and she laid down beside her, and she knew that nothing she say will ever change his mind, and she just stayed quiet, suffering on the inside as she listened to Will talk, which makes the whole scene even sadder and I just want to cry. (writing this review seriously makes me want to cry once more)

Fun fact:

I cried after reading this book, and then went to watch the trailer of the movie and the feels was so strong that I cried again because I couldn't accept the fact about Will, and then I went back to the book and read the ending once more, and it just left me hanging and I can't even handle it, and as expected, I cried the third time.

Alright, with this, I will end this blog post here. Thank you for taking your time to read this, I know I haven't been posting much, but this book, I can't just read it without posting my thoughts on it. Now after writing this review just made me so excited for the movie, but at the same time, I don't want the sad feelings to hit me again in the cinemas. 

Until the next post is up, happy reading! =)

Inside and Out Book Tag!!

Hello book lovers! Today I'm back here with a new tag, and I saw it on someone's book blog, and found it interesting, so I decided to do this tag as well!

I Inside flap / Back of book summaries
--> Too much info? Or not enough? (Discuss)
That depends! Sometimes, there isn't even any information, only reviews by magazines and other authors, while on the other hand, sometimes the summaries just spoil all the events that happened in the book for you, which is annoying! However, most of the time, I would say the book summaries are mostly not enough in general. Most of the books that I've seen are just full of good reviews of that book instead of real information about the book...

N New book 

--> What form do you want it in? Be honest: audio book, e-book, paperback, or hardcover?

Definitely hardcovers! I just love the look of hardcovers, the feel of hardcovers in my hands, and they are just so much more easier to read, at least, that's the case for me. When I bring the book out with me, it just leaves me with a peace of mind that the book will not be destroyed in my backpack with other million stuffs in it since it is a hardcover, however if it's a paperback, things will turn out even more worse than you can ever imagine! There will be dents on the cover, a tear of the page of the corner of the cover, and even worse, a huge fold on the beautiful cover, leaving a mark even after you unfold it. (THE HORROR!!!)

S Scribble while you read?

--> Do you like to write in your books, taking notes, making comments, or do you keep your books clean clean clean? (Tell us why)

Well that really depends! Sometimes I just tab the pages of the books with a post-it tab to mark the things that I want to look at when I read the book again, Other times, I will just write on the book itself. I basically just write about my feelings, and my thoughts on the side of the page and even underlined the quotes, and guess what, I even dog ear the pages instead of tabbing it,to mark the page of where the writings are. (I did this for my copy of The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black!) No reasons as to why, I just felt that since it's my copy and after reading a good book I will always love it, I just want t o mark out the things that I really like when I read it, and I just really use any sort of format to mark out what I want in the book! 

I In your best voice, read for us your favourtie first sentence from a book.

Since I'm doing this tag on my blog, I can't exactly read out my favourite first sentence of a book in person to you! So instead, I will just write out the sentence and which book is it! However, another problem arises. I have never paid much attention to the sentences in the books, I just read the book as a whole, at most I find the quotes that I like in the book (which can be hard to achieve sometimes when I'm reading too!) So let me do this instead, I will use my favourite book, and give you the first sentence from it instead!

"I am an hourglass." (Well since it's too short, let me add the next sentence in it while we are at it.) "My seventeen years have collapsed and buried me from the inside out" 

Yep, such a great start to a book! This is from Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi! One of my favourite books!

D Does it matter to you whether the author is male or female when you're deciding on a book?What if you're unsure of the author's gender?

Seriously? Of course it doesn't matter! Regardless whether the author is male or female or an alien, I will read it as long as it is a good book! 

Well, if you have read my answer to the carefully again, you will know that regardless of the gender, I will still read it. Yes, even a book written by aliens!

E Ever read ahead? Or have you ever read the last page way before you got there?

In the past when I was about 11 or 12, I ALWAYS read ahead, and read the ending of the book, which always end up with me not finishing with the book, since I already knew the ending. (This happened to me when I was reading the Trylle trilogy by Amanda Hocking which consisted of Switched, Torn and Ascend! I read all the way till Torn and I just read the ending of Ascend, never picked the book up again to read from the beginning since I already knew the ending.) Really ashamed of myself. Since then, I always had to control myself from flipping the pages to the back to read the end of the chapter or the end of the book so as not to spoil the content, which will prevent me from finishing the book!

O Organized bookshelves, or outrageous bookshelves?

Both I guess, I don't really mind as long as I have a place to showcase my beautiful babies!

U Under oath

--> Have you ever bought a book based on the cover (alone)?

Not really, unless you count the fact that I look at the cover of the books before determining which editions I should purchase (eg hardcover or paperback, UK or US). Usually I don't buy books from their cover unless I knew that I will love the book or I have another edition of the books in the same series. (I bought the new UK edition paperback of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban only, while the other books in the series are the US signature editions. I got the UK one mostly because of the cover...)

(I also bought the hardcover of Percy Jackson and the Heroes of Olympus mainly because when the hardcovers are naked, they are just BEAUTIFUL!)

T Take it outside to read, or stay in?

Well, wherever I go, the books go with me too. So the answer is, both!

And there you guys, this is my Inside and Out book tag! I hope you guys enjoy it! Have a great reading time! =)

Katrine

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black Review

Hey book lovers! So as promised, I am now back with another book review. I just finished this book, and I decided to do a review on it. This review will be different from the usual reviews that I always do, I will be putting a spoiler review at the end of my non-spoiler review part of this book. However, no worries, I will be putting a really big warning just to warn you guys from getting spoiled if you haven't read this book yet. 

I give this book about 4/5 stars

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Children can have a cruel, absolute sense of justice. Children can kill a monster and feel quite proud of themselves. A girl can look at her brother and believe they’re destined to be a knight and a bard who battle evil. She can believe she’s found the thing she’s been made for.

Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once.

At the center of it all, there is a glass coffin in the woods. It rests right on the ground and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives. Hazel and Ben were both in love with him as children. The boy has slept there for generations, never waking.

Until one day, he does…

As the world turns upside down, Hazel tries to remember her years pretending to be a knight. But swept up in new love, shifting loyalties, and the fresh sting of betrayal, will it be enough?

Published on : February 5th 2015 by Indigo

Review:
This book was really good, let's be honest here. However, there are just some parts which I didn't really enjoy, but I will get to that later. When I was reading this book, I really want to continue this book, but for some reason, I didn't have any motivation to push through this book, it was a real struggle. I had to go to a cafe just to sit down for hours in order to push through it and try to finish it in one sitting, because I know, I KNOW that I won't even finish it even if I read it for 10 years.

What I enjoyed about this book:
The way the whole mystery was revealed bit by bit in the book. (Don't worry, the next information I'm giving away is said in the first few chapters, so it's not considered a spoiler!) 
The part where there was this acorn found inside Hazel's pocket with handwriting was really weird and cool, but at the same time, it was kind of confusing since it was suddenly mentioned in the book. However, it as the whole mystery was revealed throughout the book like how the acorn came about and why was it there. Everything was just so awesome!

The characters are really interesting, especially the siblings - Ben and Hazel, and also the horned boy. He is just a mystery to everyone and I was just so intrigued by his every move. I wanted to know what he was thinking, and why did he even do what he did sometimes. Also, Jack was just so cool but his character can be really depressing sometimes as he talked about himself and his family, which was kind of sad yet at the same time, it made me understand him more and allowed me to reach out to him even more.

What I disliked about this book:
The pace in this book was kind of slow. Not like there was nothing interesting, but the way the book was written, it wasn't meant to be a fast paced book. There was just so many details inside the book where you have to really read the sentence word by word in order not to skip out any crucial information of the mystery. It wasn't bad, but it just made me lose all my motivation as I progressed through the book. Which was kind of a disappointment...

Also, this book was just REALLY confusing sometimes. Like I will be reading about 10 pages but I will have totally no idea what just happened. It's not like I'm not paying attention to the book, but sometimes this just happen while I'm reading the book, and I will have to re-read parts of the book again before I finally grasp what it was trying to say. Which is annoying after awhile.

Overall:
I enjoyed this book but not that much that I will give it a 5 star rating since the book was really kind of slow and hard to get into at first. However, I would still recommend it if you are up for a cool and interesting plot, with amazing characters. The revelation of the mystery and the acorn was really worth it when you finally managed to finish reading the book.

If you guys like Fantasy, Romance, faeries, LGBT, adventure, then this book will definitely suit your taste! Definitely pick it up, the ending will be worth it.

Next I will be moving on to a small part of a spoiler review on my thoughts of the book. Only read on if you have finished reading the book so as not to get spoiled!

[SPOILER ALERT] 
[SPOILER ALERT]
Get off this paragraph if you don't want to be spoiled
(keep scrolling till you see the next sentence that has red!)
So for the part that I really enjoyed and has been on my mind ever since I put down this book was the ending. I was so overwhelmed by the ending, especially when Severin confessed his love for Ben, it was just so beautiful! The way he linked his confession back to the part where they had their first conversion in Ben's room, it was just played out so beautifully, showing how he actually remembered the words that Ben has ever mentioned. 

Can we also talk about how the mystery was revealed, it just left me speechless, I didn't expect that at all! Especially the part where it explains how the acorn came about, and the pact she made with the faerie was just so unexpected. However, it's like her effort were all meaningless when Ben destroyed his hand and was dropped out from school, it made her promise with the faerie all go to drain. And when it revealed that the acorn was written by her own night self was just so shocking! I didn't expect it to be her own self to have written that.

Also the epilogue was just priceless. I was so amazed at the ending of the epilogue, it just blew me away. I did not see that coming, and it was a really interesting way of writing an epilogue. The way Holly Black talked about what happened to the characters without even saying their name was just so cool! She just used description to describe the characters and what they are doing is just so mindblowing. It made me smiled at the last paragraph because it was a really interesting way of writing an epilogue, something that I have never really seen in most of the young adult books which was super awesome!
End of spoiler section!

All right, so with this, I will end the post here. I hope you guys will be interested in the book after you read my review, and be sure to pick it up if you are intrigued by my thoughts on the book and the synopsis written! Until the next post is up, happy reading! =)

HUGE Book Haul! :O [November'15]

On Sunday, 8/11/2015, which was two days ago, there was a book sale going on in the West. I had no idea there was going to be a sale, until my best friend who saw the announcement on Facebook started to freak out and even called me, saying that we have to go to this sale.

And so we did, and now I'm going to show you what books I got. 

But before that, I just want to let you guys know that I got 12 books for... $52. Can you believe it? If it weren't for the sale, I would have to spend almost $200 for 12 books. 

So first of, let me tell you something that happened there. At first, me and my friend couldn't find the right location where the book sale was held, took us about five minutes to find it. We then spent about an hour looking for books, until I realized that there was a banner which says "Young Adult", and it was over at the other section.

I went to told my friend about it, and we had to put down the books that we found in a basket, before heading off to the other section, since we could not bring the books from this section to the other part of the section, which was REALLY inconvenient. I ended up spending another hour to find books, which to be honest, the books are in a pretty decent condition. I thought since this is a book sale, the books which are really cheap, will be in a beat-up condition. I'm really glad that that was not the case at all. So, shall we get started on the books that I have gotten at the book sale there? Let's start!

1. The Raven Boys by Maggie Steifvater

I was hesitating whether to get this book, but as i walk down the aisle, I saw the sequel, The Dream Thieves for only $2, so I thought why not just get these two books!

So the next book I got is... You guessed it!

2. The Dream Thieves by Maggie Steifvater

However, the more I walk down the aisle, I couldn't find a single book that catches my eye. 

Suddenly, as I turned towards my right, on top of the other books on the table is the Grisha trilogy. I think someone actually left the books there because it was stacked up nicely and the books are in pretty good condition. However, the only downside to this stack is that, Ruin and Rising is slightly bigger than the other two books...

So I decided to hold on to it first while I continue to look for other books. I ended up getting that whole stack of books! 

3. Shadow and Bone

4. Seige and Storm
5. Ruin and Rising

All these three books are by Leigh Bardugo!

6. Fire & Flood by Victoria Scott

Next, I saw this book and I remembered how it was being hyped up last year, being compared to the Hunger Games and the anime, Pokemon. So many people from booktube and bookstagram have been going on and rave about this book, it was just so overwhelming! There were also really good reviews on the Goodreads, so I thought, why not pick it up? 

I can't wait to read it now that i have this book!

7. Far from You by Tess Sharpe

Next, I came upon this book, sitting inside the box full of other books, and the cover just caught my eye. Intrigued by the book cover, I checked the rating on Goodreads, and surprisingly, it has a 3.98 rating, which is quite high! 

However, there aren't any booktubers or bookstagrammers that have read this book yet, but based on the community's review, it seems like a really good book! So the next book I got is...

8. Landline by Rainbow Rowell

The next book is a standalone. I was talking to my best friend recently about wanting to buddy read a book with her. We happened to talk about Fangirl and Carry On by Rainbow Rowell, however, she doesn't have those books, so it will take awhile for her to purchase it before we can even buddy read a book together. 

So while we were at the book fair, we came across a book that we both didn't have, and we decided to use it for our buddy read. So this book is...

While I continue to walk 

down the aisle, wandering aimlessly, without a single idea which book to find, I saw this book. And the first thought that came to my mind, was that I remembered seeing videos on YouTube by those famous booktubers saying that the duology will soon be out of print. It could have already stopped printing, who knows! I immediately grabbed the two books and I'm pretty sure you know which two books they are, right?

9. The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke

10. The Pirate's Wish by Cassandra Rose Clarke

2nd book in the trilogy

3rd book in the trilogy

Next, I was going to go checkout, until I realised I need 2 more books to get a cheaper price, so I wasn't sure what to get and was rushing for time, I was panicking at that time already, until I remembered something. I saw a trilogy on my way to the checkout somewhere on the table hidden amongst hundreds of books. I immediately went to get it and even though the trilogy only had the last books in it, I still got it, since I was intrigued by the synopsis and also it has quite a high rating on Goodreads, so I thought why not just pick it up.

                                       11. Fire with Fire by 

Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian

12. Ashes to Ashes by 

Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian

So these are all the books I got at the book fair, and I will show you guys a picture of the books stacked together. Also, in case you guys want to read the synopsis, just click the book titles besides the numbers, and you will be diverted to the Goodreads page! Alright, that is all for this super long post! If you managed to read till here, I'm really happy! *virtual hugs to you* if you do read till here! I will have a next post up soon, so until then, happy reading! =)

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas (NON-SPOILER) Review

Hello book friends, so as mentioned in my previous post, I'm going to have a review up soon, and this is the book that I will be reviewing today!

So this book took me awhile to read, it wasn't bad or anything, but it's just with my Finals preparation and school work, I just wasn't able to power through this book as I wished I could. So this book took me about a month to read, but nonetheless, I finally finished it!

I gave this book 5/5 stars

Synopsis (from Goodreads) :

Meet Celaena Sardothien.
Beautiful. Deadly.
Destined for greatness.

In the dark, filthy salt mines of Endovier, an eighteen-year-old girl is serving a life sentence. She is a trained assassin, the best of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake: she got caught.

Young Captain Westfall offers her a deal: her freedom in return for one huge sacrifice. Celaena must represent the prince in a to-the-death tournament—fighting the most gifted thieves and assassins in the land. Live or die, Celaena will be free. Win or lose, she is about to discover her true destiny. But will her assassin’s heart be melted?

Published on: August 2nd 2012 by Bloomsbury

Review:
This book is just pure epicness, everything from the beginning of the book to the end just kept me sitting on the edge of my seat! I felt so overwhelmed by how easily I was sucked into the book, right from the moment I picked the book up and I just could not put the book down!  I have some small issues with this book, but we will discuss about that after I talked about this things that I really liked about this book.

What I loved about this book:
I love how this book was such an easy read, even though it was a high fantasy. I came across some high fantasy books before in the past, and it was really hard to get into it with the really weird and foreign world the book was set up in. Surprisingly, this wasn't the case for this book! 

The romance inside this book was just so spectacular, but maybe the "spectacular" is an understatement. The love triangle was so funny sometimes at how the two male characters are trying to find out the things hidden between them, as one tries to secretly show his love to Celaena, while the other is trying to bring his love across to Celaena in the public eye, like it's a warning to the others that she belongs to him (at least that's the vibe I got from the guy when he acts all sweet with Celaena) However, if you are wondering, which guy is which, I won't tell you, after all, this is a non-spoiler review. So you will have to read the book to be able to find out! =)

Also, I really like how this book was filled with so many action scenes, and it was just so amazing, looking at how Celaena beats her opponents with the sass she has got, hidden within her. Although I enjoyed the tests given to them, I still liked the duel at the end of the book even more. As she beats her opponent as if it was breaking a branch from a tree, the whole scene was just so breathtaking and overwhelming to read! 

This book also made me feel like everything was so real, like I was one of the side characters inside this book, watching everything like it was a reality. I felt so attached to the characters, the scenes seemed so realistic to me, it was like I knew the characters and they are a part of my life. Maybe it was the way the book was written or it was the writing style, but it was just a job well done!

What I disliked about the book:
I didn't like the way the characters were introduced in the book, especially Dorian and Chaol. With their titles being mentioned only at the first chapter, and all of a sudden we have their names being announced to us, readers, was just really confusing. At least for me it was confusing at the start. I didn't know who "Captain Westfall" was, and that it was actually Chaol... However, as the book progresses, this isn't a very serious problem, so it was still okay. 

I also didn't like how the book randomly jumps its point of views from the characters. One moment I was reading Celaena's point of view, and in the same chapter but different paragraph, we are now in Dorian's point of view. There wasn't anything in the book to give you a signal that we are going to have a change in the point of views of the characters, sometimes it was just so confusing, and I had a hard time processing the fact that we are now no longer in the point of view of Celaena but some random characters inside the book. It took me awhile to get used to it, but as it got near the ending of the book, I pretty much understood how this book was progressing, and so this wasn't a really big issue as well near the ending.

Overall:
I really enjoyed myself when I was reading the book. I loved the characters very much, especially Celaena, she just has all those sass within her, I really admire her with how she is so sassy and how she is so mesmerizing when she is fighting her opponent. 

If you guys like High Fantasy, Romance, a bit of Magic, a sprinkle of Paranormal and maybe a slight Adventure, then this is the right book that you should be picking up now!

All right, I shall end my review here now! I hope this review will let you guys be more hyped up and would want to go and read this book. I seriously hoped I had picked this book up way before in the past, because it was just so good and I felt like I was just missing out! So you guys better go get this book and then read it as soon as possible!

I will have another post up soon, so stay tuned! I hope you guys will have a great weekend! Until the next post is up, happy reading! =D

Life Updates

Hello book friends! I have been away for almost half a year, and I'm really sorry for going MIA on you guys! However, I have a few reasons as to why I disappeared so suddenly! Call it excuses if you want, but I hereby sincerely apologize for my sudden disappearance!

So I was going to have my Finals this year, aka GCE 'O' Levels, and to me, this is something really important and I need to have absolutely no distraction or anything. Although I was still posting some photos on Instagram, which you guys can follow me there at Diveintobooks and I will be mostly active there!

Secondly, my computer seems to have a few problems, and it just keeps shutting down on me. I will be buying a new one next year January, so although I will try uploading some posts here, it won't be consistent as my computers still keeps failing me, and it is really frustrating and irritating.

Thirdly, with my Finals this year, I didn't have much time to read, so I couldn't post any reviews during this period of time. However, I promise you guys, that I will try to read more books from now till the end of the year, and fill up my blog with more reviews which seems to be lacking from the disappearance in the past six months...

That is all from me, I will be putting up a review of a book that I finished at the end of last month, so stay tuned for that. After this is put up, maybe the review will be up either today or in a few days time, depending on fast I type in the review! So Stay tuned for that!

June'15 Book Haul!!!

Hi guys, so I'm finally back with a book haul after like 4 months? I bought a lot of books from this book sale which was held on the first week of June. I also bought some books off from the Book Depository and it only arrived on the second week of June. So are you guys excited to know what I got? If you are, then continue to read! :D However, this post is going to be really long! So do prepare some snacks before you start reading!

So you may have known that I went to this 3-day book sale and they had this mega book sale, and I do mean MEGA book sale.
The books there are all 5 for $20, what even?! Each book only cost $4!
They are brand new, but because they weren't place onto a shelf, people just treat them without any love and care, the books turned out to be a little wrecked, some were destroyed so badly that they don't even look like books anymore.
I tried my best to find some books that looks brand new, and even though the books I picked out are not in their tip top conditions, at least they still look like books.

So let's go through the books in a timeline on how I managed to find the books.

Firstly, I was walking through the adult section, looking lost as the place was huge and there weren't any signs to signal me to the young adult section. So there I am, lingering around the middle part of the room where all the adult books are located.
I just started looking around and I saw some Sophie Kinsella's books. I have been wanting to try and read Sophie Kinsella's books as I just heard so many good things about her books and it just intrigues me to want to read her books!
I was walking around and I saw I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella just chillaxing inside one of this box waiting for me and I just have to go and pick this book up!
As I continue to walk around, I wanted to get her Shopaholic's series but couldn't find the first book and just decided to walk around and see what I could find. I was pretty disheartened at that time because I couldn't find any book that I wanted. That was when I saw another Sophie Kinsella's book, and that is Remember Me? The plot sounds really interesting so I thought, why not pick this book up as well!

Next, I finally found the Young Adult section and I went straight ahead to look through the books. I wasn't able to find anything at first and just lurked around the area, until I landed my eyes on some Tahereh Mafi's books! Yes you got it, the Shatter Me trilogy! Whoop Whoop!!!
So I got Unravel Me, Unite Me and Ignite Me! I already got the first book "Shatter Me" last year at another book sale. I immediately grabbed those and continued walking around.

Next I saw Clipped Wings by Helena Hunting and my hands were immediately on the book and putting it into the pile of books in my hands. I heard so many good things about this book, and I have read the first chapter on my phone, and oh my is this book so good! So of course I had to grab this book immediately as soon as I see it!

Then I tried finding some other books, trying to find the sequel to Clipped Wings. Sadly, I couldn't. I walked to the adult section and my hands were tiring me, so headed to the basket area and grabbed one before heading back to the area that I was at earlier. As I was walking, something caught my attention. It's the sequel to the previous I got, Inked Armor by Helena Hunting! I nearly squealed in joy! Thus this book immediately went into my basket of books as well.

I said a basket and you might think, "Woah! She got so many books!" But really, it's only 7 books inside the basket. I walked for 2 hours inside that room of books, yes, I reached at about 1pm and only got out at 3pm, I tried finding some other books, picked one but put it back in the end because I saw some mixed reviews and didn't want to buy a book that I wasn't sure if I would read it or not.

So in total for this book haul, I only paid $36 for 7 books, which is so rare! It's really a mega sale! I'm so glad I went there to look around!

Next, we're moving onto the book that I got at the Book Depository!
So there are 3 books that I got, not a lot but still, I bought some books. They was suppose to come last month, but I think I messed up the mailing address and all those 'fun' stuff happened, I had to reorder the books again and they only arrived this month.

So the first book that I got is really hype up since last month. I'm sure you guys can guess it, the book is A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J.Maas! Whoop Whoop! I have been obsessed with the story 'Beauty and the Beast' lately, so without a doubt, I knew I had to get this book as well, although I haven't read any of the books by Sarah J.Maas... YET! Also, I received two of this book because the first one got damaged (slightly), so that's why! :D

So the next book I got is The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson! I was so intrigued by the synopsis and I just had to get it! Plus, I bought this book in HARDCOVER!! Expensive, but it was really worth it! It looks so beautiful on my shelf! I can't wait to read this book!

And last but not least, the book I got was The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black! Again, I was intrigued by the synopsis in this book so I just bought it and decided to see how good it is for myself! Also, I got this book in hardcover as well! However, I wasn't sure why but the height of this book is shorter than all my other hardcovers although they are all hardcovers. Does it make any sense? It's so weird, isn't all the hardcovers suppose to be of the same height? Oh well, it is still beautiful!

And I still have one last book haul that was an unexpected purchase. Well I kind of already planned to buy it for a really long time but it wasn't because of a mega sale or a purchase from the Book Depository. I was just at my local bookstore strolling and I happened to see this book just lazing on the bookshelf and waving at me so I just had to get it!

And this book is Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson! I started jumping around when I saw that my bookstore had this book! I heard so many great things about this book so I knew I just had to get it!

And lastly, I got a box set. This is actually a duology, and that is the Just One Day collection by Gayle Forman! I know that Christine over on Booktube really love Gayle Forman's books, so I knew I just had to buy this collection to see for myself how good this book really is! The books inside the collection are Just One Day, Just One Year and Just One Night!

I will be linking the synopsis of those books down below! So if you are interested in any of the books, just click on it! :D

1. I've Got Your Number by Sohpie Kinsella
2. Remember Me? by Sohpie Kinsella
3. Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi
4. Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi
5. Unite Me by Tahereh Mafi
6. Clipped Wings by Helena Hunting
7. Inked Armour by Helena Hunting
8. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
9. The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson
10. Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson
11. Just One Day by Gayle Forman
12. Just One Year by Gayle Forman
13. Just One Night by Gayle Forman

All right, that is all for this post. I'm really grateful if you have managed to stay until now to finish reading this post. It really means a lot to me! So if you did, kisses to all of you! *Virtual Hugs* too! I will be posting soon, so stay tuned for that! Until then, happy reading! MUACKS! XD