Month: August 2016

August Wrap-up And September TBR

Joana @ BookneedersLeave a comment

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Hey guys!! This month I finally got time for more reading! I read 6 books. Actually I read 4 books and re-read other 2. I could have done better but one ALMOST put me in a reading slump >.< But I passed it and I had the best time reading some others!

Also, since I bought two that I long wanted to read this month I kinda changed my last month TBR that will actually move almost all to September!

I realized that I can’t end my summer reading list in the summer but almost!! So it Looks like this now:

  1. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
  2. Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
  3. Isla and the Happily Ever After  by Stephanie Perkins 
  4. Cress by Marissa Meyer  
  5. Winter by Marissa Meyer  
  6. The Storm by Virginia Bergin 
  7. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
  8. Hollow City by Ransom Riggs
  9. Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs
  10. The One by Kiera Cass 

I am missing one book to read that I will do in September!

So, this month I read: Isla and the Happily Ever After and Allegiant that was in my TBR for this month. But to read Allegiant I had to re-read Divergent and Insurgent because I was not remembering a thing! I Also finally read Cress and Winter and OMG I loved it so so much!!! I still remembered all of Cinder and Scarlet so it was pretty easy to go into the world again and I am so happy I did!!!

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  1. Isla and the Happily Ever After – Stephanie Perkins – ★★★★½☆
  2. Divergent – Veronica Roth  (re-read) – ★★★★★
  3. Insurgent – Veronica Roth  (re-read) – ★★★★★
  4. Allegiant – Veronica Roth – ★★★☆☆
  5. Cress – Marisa Meyer – ★★★★★
  6. Fairest – Marisa Meyer – ★★★★☆
  7. Winter – Marisa Meyer – ★★★★★

I think my favorite book for the month is Winter! It was so freaking amazing!!! If you haven’t read this series yet, I totally recommend!! It’s easily one of my favorite series!

– You can check my page: https://bookneeders.wordpress.com/my-2016-reads/ for more information about all the books I read through the year; and about the books themselves through the links to Goodreads!

I am putting the reviews that are missing for them in September!

 

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For my August TBR hopefully I will at least re-read and continue with the selection series!

So my plans are:

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I am super excited to end The Selection Series although I am a bit afraid of the last two books since the reviews I saw are making them seem a bit too much since it was originally a trilogy but either way I really wanna read them! Have you read them?? What is your opinion on them?? 

Also I want to read The Monster Calls in September or first thing in October before the movie release! SO EXCITED!!!!

 

What books do you intend to read in August???

Review: Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Joana @ Bookneeders3 Comments

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Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Series: Divergent #2

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Genres: Young Adult, Dystopian, Science Fiction

Pages: 592

Format: Paperback

Buy: Book Depository | Amazon

One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Tris’s initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

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After re-reading this book I still love it as much as the first time!! I just couldn’t put it down.

So, the story picks up right where Divergent left off, Tris, Tobias (Four), Caleb, Marcus and Peter have managed to escape from the Erudite attack on the Abnegation and are headed to Amity to regroup and decide what to do next.

Tris is devastated by the loss of so many of her family and friends and she feels guilty about Will’s death. So she is becoming more and more reckless in her behaviour and is putting her life at risk.

As the first time I read I felt that the principal character here was Four and not Tris, not to mention that Tris was awesome, she was strong-willed, smart, enduring. She was truly dauntless. And of course Divergent! But that was in Divergent… In this one she was destroyed… (what you can’t totally get after what she is being thought but she always forgets that she is not the only one with problems). But Four. He is amazing in this book! Tris made loads of stupid and irrational decisions, that could have cost her life and Four’s.

Tris and Tobias have this incredible chemistry that is impossible not to see. They belong together. But Tris always decides that only she exists… That she is the one that has to face all obstacles alone and to put her self at risk and for Four to act like a dog trying to protect her because she is stupid. But I do like them together, I just do like her irrationality and stupidity…

One of my favourite things about Insurgent was learning more about the different factions, Amity in particular was one we knew very little about from the first book… You get to see the positive side to each of the factions but you’ll also see all the flaws they have. We also learn more about the factionless and the divergent. It’s an incredible world!

Everything I loved about Divergent was multiplied in Insurgent! It has loads of the action and suspense. Loads of twists and it’s oh so awesome!!!! For sure I loved to re-read this book; it’s a lot different from divergent and still completely blows me away! I learned to love some characters and to really hate others that I wouldn’t expect I would, and I  want to kill them as much as I did before!

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What is your favorite character so far?

Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Joana @ Bookneeders4 Comments

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Divergent by Veronica Roth

Series: Divergent #1

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Genres: Young Adult, Dystopian, Science Fiction

Pages: 487

Format: Paperback

Buy: Book Depository | Amazon

In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she’s kept hidden from everyone because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

Veronica Roth is the New York Times bestselling author of Divergent, the first in a trilogy of dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance.

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After all the time I read this book… It still has a special place in my heart and it always will. I’m glad I finally decided to re-read it, because I needed to, before reading Allegiant. Which I am now very worried about. But I still cannot wait, because I do have high hopes for it. And I just want more of Four. ❤

Since it’s a re-read and probably everyone already read them by now I will just talk about what happened that I loved and so on.

Divergent is told from the point of view of Tris. I really liked her. She’s strong and weak. She’s kind and cruel at times. She changes a lot in this book and I loved that. She’s an amazing person and I loved reading about her.

There are five factions in this book. Dauntless, Abnegation, Candor, Amity and Erudite. I loved reading about all of them, especially Dauntless although all of them have many flaws, and the fact that you can’t talk in between them is just stupid… I would never be able to live in this world, but if I had to I would love to choose dauntless although I don’t know if I would survive).

The character I love the most in this book is Four. He is amazing. He is a broken person that only needs some love. He is soft but strong and I think that’s why I like him so much! I loved getting to read about his life; and how he ended up being Dauntless. Though I wish there had been even more. I loved reading about him and Tris together, because I think she can show her the love he needs since they are so alike.

Tris’ friends are awesome. Especially Christina, but she can also be kinda bitter sweet. But I loved reading about her and Will together. Then there are the mean people, Peter, Molly and Drew, and of course Eric. I hated them so much. Molly is just a boyish girl that thinks to much of herself. Peter is just awful but even so Eric is probably more. And Drew his stupid. They are the rotten apples of the book.

There is so much I loved in Divergent. It’s such a touchy book!! I’m not sure how I felt about Tris’s brother yet, he seems distant and reserved but I guess thats the Abnegation way.

There is a lot of amazing things happening in this book. The dauntless type of living is just catchy…

I’m happy super happy that I re-read Divergent. I still love it like crazy!! Totally one of my favorite trilogies!!

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What’s your favorite faction? Why?

Top 5 Books of 2016 So Far

Joana @ BookneedersLeave a comment

IMG_5841.JPGHey guys! Today I wanted to talk about my top 5 favorite books of 2016 so far! All of these books are either 4.5 or 5 star reads ! Here we go!

In no particular order:

This book was amazing!! It was just so intense! It’s one of those rare books that just make your heart pound! I consumed this book, I was opening it everywhere to continue to read, I was just so filled with emotions that I had to read it all asap. It was truly captivating!! Totally worth the hype!

This book is about a girl named Laia, that when her grandparents get killed and her brother arrested by the martial empire, she turns herself to the rebels, but for them to help her, she has to help them. Laia is sent to spy on the ruthless Commandant of Blackcliff, the Empire’s greatest military academy. She has now to survive to a task that none had until now for the sake of her brother! In the academy she will make some friends and some enemies… Elias, the academy’s finest soldier wants to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia realize that their destinies are intertwined – and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.

 

  • Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1)  by Marisa Meyer

Ah this book… Who doesn’t love retellings?! It is an amazing, AMAZING retelling!! To join scifi and Disney characters? Yes please!! This book is a wonderful and surprising twist on the Cinderella fairytale. It has an amazing story that is both realist and totally impossible that will break your heart to pieces for the characters! It’s a slow passed book just like in a fairy tale but it grows faster in the end and the next book.

This book is about a girl named Cinder, a gifted mechanic that is a cyborg, living in New Beijing. But not the New Beijing we expect to see, this one is full of androids and of course their humans. From space, a ruthless lunar people are awaiting their glorious moment. That’s when a deadly plague ravages the population. Cinder is a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with Prince Kai’s, she finds herself in between love and duty. All she wants is to be free, but her misty past might not let her in order to protect the future of the world!

 

I will start by saying that I love Percy Jackson and that world, and the only reason why Percy’s books are not here is because The Heroes of Olympus created much more impact in me although they were almost all in between 4 and 5 starts. The House of Hades was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL. It’s fast passed full of things happening a lot of amazing characters. Rick Riordan has an amazing writing that is both simple and full of emotion that projects you in that world in every page. I love these stories freaking much, and I totally want to continue to be in this world!! Also, he is one of my favorite authors ❤ (review with briefing here)

 

This was difficult to choose. I loved Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, just not as much comparing to the following ones. The first book is kind of an introduction to everything and it was awesome, truly. But it didn’t had much happening and it was super slow passed, although it was amazing all the pictures and those peculiar persons, made me fall in love with this world! But… They just got better and better, Library of Souls was so beautiful, they develop a lot of twists, and heartbreaking moments and I really cared about the characters, and all the places that were described where so amazing to literally see! It’s just that that cute story of the begging turns itself into a super complex world where you can either live or die. (review with briefing here)

 

This book. This book is EXCELLENT!! Everything in it is gorgeous!! Anna is amazing, Étienne is perfect, the writing is beautiful, it has cute moments, stress moments, cry moments, ahh it’s just full of everything you need! I fell in love with this book so quick! And for sure the following ones too! They are all so unique and romantic and and ahhhh ❤ ❤ If you haven’t read these books yet, I totally highly highly recommend! Especially Anna and Lola!! This is a book that for sure I will re-read over and over! (review with briefing here)

 

Okay guys those were my top 5 books of 2016 so far! Let me know in the comments if any of your favorite books made this list! 

Review: Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

Joana @ Bookneeders1 Comment

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Isla and the Happily Ever After

Author: Stephanie Perkins

Publisher: Usborne Publishing

Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary

Pages: 375

Format: Paperback

Buy: Book Depository | Amazon

The café is boiling. The atmosphere is clouded with bittersweet coffee.
Three years of desire rip through my body and burst from my lips: “Josh!”
His head jolts up. For a long time, a very long time, he just stares at me.
And then…he blinks. “Isla?”

Hopeless romantic Isla has had a crush on brooding artist Josh since their first year at the School of America in Paris. And, after a chance encounter in Manhattan over the summer break, romance might be closer than Isla imagined. But as they begin their senior year back in France, Isla and Josh are forced to face uncertainty about their futures, and the very real possibility of being apart.

Set against the stunning backdrops of New York, Paris and Barcelona, this is a gorgeous, heart-wrenching and irresistible story of true love, and the perfect conclusion to Stephanie Perkins’s beloved series.

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Isla’s book is awesome, but comparing to Anna and Lola’s book I think it’s not as good at least half of the book anyway.
Anna and Lola build the relationship and it has tension and drama and awesomeness, this one, okay – we already knew about Josh and Isla but still… It was too easy, too predictable… So that’s why I like the others more.

Although after 50% (or a bit more) of the book it starts to have some stresses and heartbreaking moments that make the book not so dull. Not that it’s nice to have fights but… in the case it was just too boring of a romance, no basis or friendship, they basically didn’t know each other when they started right?!

But after that some parts turned it much better, I cried, I laugh, I was angry and I was happy… It was a mix of emotions just like I was expecting to have during all the book… but it was worth it! I loved the end and I love the build-up of the characters around Isla and not only the couple.

I love Stephanie Perkins’ writing, it’s one of the best I’ve read. It’s smooth, easy and just lovely. It makes me smile all the way till the end always!

I love these books because they’re easy to read and at the same moment they’re just so damn good. You just don’t notice the time passing while reading them! I just can’t get enough of these books. For sure one of my favorite “trilogies”.

The settings are perfect. The characters are once again perfect and the story lines are just extremely lovely.
This are dream stories that you just can’t forget. And if you could have you wouldn’t let that happen 😛

 

!WARNING: SPOILERS ahead!!

 

Some artwork find on Pinterest for the lat book ❤

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Which one was your favorite???

Review: Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Joana @ Bookneeders2 Comments

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Lola and the Boy Next Door 

Author: Stephanie Perkins

Publisher: Usborne Publishing

Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary

Pages: 384

Format: Paperback

Buy: Book Depository | Amazon

Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion… she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit – the more sparkly, more wild – the better. And life is pretty close to perfect for Lola, especially with her hot rocker boyfriend.

That is, until the Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket return to the neighbourhood and unearth a past of hurt that Lola thought was long buried. So when talented inventor Cricket steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally face up to a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door. Could the boy from Lola’s past be the love of her future?

Fall in love with the international bestseller from queen of young adult fiction, Stephanie Perkins.

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When I started reading this book, I saw a looooot of people saying that they love this one even more than Anna and the French Kiss… Of course I didn’t believe 😛 how could it?? …

Well this book is amazing!!! Because it not only has a new principal awesome character, Lola, it also had Anna and Etienne! And of course a new boy hihihi. But this book??? It as an AMAZING storyline, dialogue, everything! And of course the writing is once again spectacular.

When I started reading about Lola and Max I actually liked him… And it actually looked well with Lola since she is super unique. But than Cricket happens. And I was oh so wrong!

Cricket! That story! Lola! Ahh they are perfect!! Lola is wow… I love her!! She is so cool and she has the most perfect style ever!! And Cricket? Well he is so damn perfect! >.<

This book is touching and it made my heart melt and cry and explode.
I love that we have all the characters joining, it’s just perfect!
It’s super easy to read, flowing story that you just can’t stop reading!
These books are so sweet so perfect!

Highly recommend!!!
LOVED IT!!

!WARNING: SPOILERS ahead!!

Look at this cuties that I found in pinterest! ❤ ❤

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Have you read this books?

What’s your favorite character so far?

Review: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Joana @ Bookneeders4 Comments

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Anna and the French Kiss

Author: Stephanie Perkins

Publisher: Usborne Publishing

Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary

Pages: 400

Format: Paperback

Buy: Book Depository | Amazon

Anna has everything figured out – she was about to start senior year with her best friend, she had a great weekend job, and her huge work crush looked as if it might finally be going somewhere… Until her dad decides to send her 4383 miles away to Paris. On her own.

But despite not speaking a word of French, Anna finds herself making new friends, including Etienne, the smart, beautiful boy from the floor above. But he’s taken – and Anna might be too. Will a year of romantic near-missed end with the French kiss she’s been waiting for?

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AHH I loved it so freaking much!!!!
It’s so cute so easy to read and it really causes so many feelings!!

I loved the characters, they were amazing, super realistic, super different from each other!
I loved the building of Anna’s and Étienne’s relationship as friends first and cute moments in between and some tough times also. It was nice to see them as more than boyfriend and girlfriend, I loved that they didn’t start dating right away, made it much more interesting.
They had to fight to be together and it was something many people would be able to relate to.
Even the friends’ moments are super relatable, I saw myself a lot in Anna with her friends. Not so much for the “Étienne” part, sigh 😛

I love Stephanie Perkins writing, it’s beautiful and her words all flow so easily that time just flies and you end the book… I loved it, I just don’t know why I didn’t read this before!

 

!WARNING: SPOILERS ahead!!

 

Let’s sum up this in two images I found in pinterest, shall we?

So this is Anna and her life…

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And this… is Anna’s new life. Meet Étienne St. Claire!

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The best sentence in this book was definitely:

For the two of us, home isn’t a place. It’s a person. And we’re finally home.

 

THINGS I LIKED

  • Anna and Étienne! Duh…
  • Their friendship. It’s perfect, magical!
  • The writing is truly beautiful.
  • That END. I LOVED IT!!! ❤

THE THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

✘ What things? ahhh….

 

FINAL WORDS

I loved this book super much and I am terribly excited for the next ones!! It was amazing!

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QOTD: What’s your favorite type of book to read in summer?? 

Mine is for sure contemporaries now, butt before I didn’t even notice that 😛 They are just so cute and simple, it’s perfect!!

Review: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Joana @ Bookneeders3 Comments

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The Girl on the Train 

Author: Paula Hawkins

Publisher: Black Swan

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Adult

Pages: 409

Format: Paperback

Buy: Book Depository | Amazon

THE RUNAWAY SUNDAY TIMES NO.1 BESTSELLER AND THRILLER OF THE YEAR

‘Really great suspense novel. Kept me up most of the night. The alcoholic narrator is dead perfect’ STEPHEN KING

Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She’s even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. ‘Jess and Jason’, she calls them. Their life – as she sees it – is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy.

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough.

Now everything’s changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she’s only watched from afar.

Now they’ll see; she’s much more than just the girl on the train…

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People compare this book a lot with Gone Girl. Sure it’s an adult mystery/thriller in which a woman goes missing, but it’s way different!

This book is amazing! I kept holding my breath several times and I couldn’t put it down!

It’s an incredibly fast-paced and engrossing psychological thriller.

Rachel is lonely, drowning the sorrows of her failed marriage with grim determination and canned gin and tonics and endless bottles of wine. She lost her job because of her drunkenness, but rather than tell her flatmate, she keeps taking the train into London EVERY DAY, pretending to go to work, but actually she is just drinking over and over while fantasizing about the young couple she watches every day from her train window; a couple who live a few doors down from her old house, where her ex-husband Tom still resides with his new wife and baby.

Still reeling from Tom’s infidelity to her, she dreams of what could have been. In this couple she observes from the train, calling them “Jess and Jason,” she sees a perfect life, the one she could have had with Tom.

One day, while commuting, she witnesses “Jess” on her front lawn with another man, in what appears to be a romantic moment. Her life gets again upside down. She is outraged at this display, as personally offended as if the infidelity were being committed against herself. Shortly after this episode, she learns that “Jess,” actually named Megan, has disappeared, and feeling connected to this couple she has never actually met, she insinuates herself into the investigation, meeting with both the police and Megan’s husband, Scott.

This story is told from 3 perspectives:Rachel’s, Megan’s, and Anna (Tom’s new wife). And none of them is actually sane. It kinda seems Desperate Housewives.

This book is just full of secrets. Everyone has them. What happens on behind closed doors? How much can you ever really know/trust a person? What horrors exist in that black spot of your memory from Saturday night?

For the mystery of Megan’s disappearance itself, it has a lot of going back and forward. Full of twists. You start out about everyone. In some moment the character you thought you trusted, you doubt. This mystery keeps you in the dark long enough to let you come up with your own theories, which made it awesome.

It’s fantastic, and the mystery elements and the character development are amazing; great attention to detail and fully established backstories and motivations.

It’s terribly addictive, fascinating, gripping and oh so very creepy.

The Things I liked:

  •  I loved the perspectives of past and present mixed from the 3 point os view.
  • The mystery was terribly well done, you just can’t stop reading but you sure can stop breathing!
  • The fact that the characters are very difficult to like or dislike you just can’t feel the same about them all the time.

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Also this book will became a movie pretty soon in October 7, which I am dying to see!! *.*

here is the trailer:

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Have you read this book?

If so, did you see that end coming? >.<