7 BOOK SERIES I WANT TO RE-READ

Hello!

I was just reading the final book of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan, "The Last Olympian", and a random thought occurred to me:

I want to re-read the Raven Cycle series.

Don't ask me why I was thinking that when I was so engrossed in the battle between Greek gods and Titans. My brain just works like that. 

Why are you writing a blog post about your random thought, Adelle? You might ask.

Well, the idea of actually wanting to re-read a book, much more an entire series, is quite new to me. 

I don't normally feel the urge or need to re-read because there are far too many books I want to read and there will always be new releases. I feel like reading what you've already read is a waste of time. Unless, of course, if it's your absolute favorite book and you can literally get stuck on an island with just that one book to read over and over and you won't go crazy because it'll keep you grounded by being everything to you. 

Anyway, here's the list of book series I want to re-read soon or someday. 

Because I can never call them a waste of time.

1. The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater

GOODREADS 2016 READING CHALLENGE

Can you tell I'm excited to say hello? *wink wink*

I'm just really excited because I just accomplished something today:

I FINISHED MY GOODREADS READING CHALLENGE FOR 2016!

With 216 days left.

To be fair, I've only commited to reading 50 books for this year. It's not that many considering I knew I'd just be at home reading the entire year. 

It's just that 2014, I signed up for reading 100 books but I only managed to read a measly 12 books that year! It was really sad and embarassing. I didn't even have an excuse why I didn't read book because I had all the time in the world afte graduating college that year.

But I lowered my goals by 2015 and signed up for reading just 30 books. I finished it... But I almost didn't make it! I read the 30th book on December. It was a close call.

So for 2016, I decided to commit to just 50.

And now we're not even halfway through the year and I'm done with it! So happy. 

Here are the books I've read:

*From Latest book I've finished reading to the ones from the start of the year

If you're interested to see my ratings for each book. feel free to add me on Goodreads! Click HERE.

I'm really happy to say that 2016 has been a great reading year, so far. 

I've read some of the books that were great enough for me to consider putting them on my Top Favorite Books Of All Time list!

Some of those favorites from this list are: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, Carry On by Rainbow Rowell, Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab, The Dream Thieves and The Raven King both by Maggie Stiefvater.

What are your favorite 2016 reads???

I'm excited for what else I'm going to read for the rest of the year. 

I will try to read another 50 books.

REVIEW: Carry On By Rainbow Rowell

Carry On

By: Rainbow Rowell

Published: October 2016

Publisher: Macmillan

Pages: 528

Edition: Paperback

Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Romance

Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who's ever been chosen.

That's what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he's probably right.

Half the time, Simon can't even make his wand work, and the other half, he sets something on fire. His mentor's avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there's a magic-eating monster running around wearing Simon's face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here -- it's their last year at Watford School of Magicks, and Simon's infuriating nemesis didn't even bother to show up.

Carry On is a ghost story, a love story, a mystery, and a melodrama. It has just as much kissing and talking as you'd expect from a Rainbow Rowell story -- but far, far more monsters.

For so long, I have taken pride in the fact that I've read everything that Rainbow Rowell has published. But then one day, I remembered that I haven't read "Carry On" yet. 

It's just that based on the snippets about Simon and Baz from "Fangirl", I kind of wanted to cringe whenever their characters were mentioned.

I was, at first, insulted by the fact that it's sort of a parody to Harry Potter and that did not sit well with me, being the Potterhead that I am. 

I also really disliked "Fangirl" so out of spite to Cath, I didn't want to read anything she loved! (Yes, I know that's crazy because she's a fictional character and she doesn't care about my opinion of her).

BUT I AM GLAD I GOT OVER ALL THAT PETTINESS AND READ THIS MASTERPIECE!

Ask anybody who is close to me and they'd tell you that this is my 2nd favorite book of all time -- right after "Eleanor & Park" which is also by Rainbow Rowell.

You can never go wrong with a Rainbow Rowell novel.

I'm not good at describing or commenting about an author's writing style, but I will try.

Rainbow Rowell writes beautifully, if you ask me. She gets people. She knows how to write about people like they're actually real and not just characters she made up in her brilliant mind. 

When you read her books, you can't help but feel alongside the characters and not just read about them. What they go through, you go through. It's either you become the character yourself or you're a close friend who sympathizes -- you're no longer the reader who is just watching from afar. 

You get sucked into their world and become one of them.

How many authors can you honestly say create the most authentic fictional characters ever? For me, there's only ever been Rainbow Rowell. I have yet to read a book of hers where I don't feel like crying when the characters are sad, laugh when they are laughing, and to fall in love while they themselves are falling in love too.

It's magical.

I really loved the story of "Carry On"! You can very clearly see where and what the references to Harry Potter are but you learn to just read over it because it's also different and beautiful in its own right, especially with Rowell's writing style.

I admit, I find the concept of magic in this story a bit ridiculous. But because of that, I laughed. And once a book gets me to laugh out loud and have people look at me weirdly as I was just silently reading a while ago, rest assured that I will remember and love that book for a very long time... because I can count with my fingers just how many books have accomplished making me laugh.

There were a lot of moments where the story got predictable and usually I really hate it when that happens (because I love a good mystery!) but then the characters will do something stupidly crazy and say something really funny and I'd forget to hate it for its predictability and go back to loving it all over again.

If you're looking for a typical high fantasy book, this isn't the book for you.

It's really just a book to read when you want to have fun while reading, to laugh, and to fall in love with the characters! Keep in mind that it was meant to be the way that it is, not because Rowell is lacking the imagination to create an entirely new magical world for us readers.

I found the beginning a bit slow because we were only just reminiscing all the previous years of Simon at Watford. But when Baz showed up, I did nothing but flip page after page after page! 

Another thing I loved about this book? The abundant and sometimes not-so-subtle sexual innuendos! That just made the story funnier for me. 

It's a 500-page smile, giggle, snort, and laugh until people look at you weirdly kind of book.

The best part of this novel is definitely the set of characters!

Rainbow Rowell is really great with creating characters. Not only do they have distinct individual characteristics, they are also really easy to relate with.

My favorite character is Baz. No competition.

Since the very first sentence he uttered, I have done nothing but laugh and swoon. It didn't even matter if we're reading from his point of view. So long as his character is conversing with the person we're reading as, you know it's a great chapter!

He is smart, funny, ridiculously sassy, and handsome. He's also mean and snarky but that just adds to his charm, if you ask me. What more can you ask for?

Whenever Baz is around, I smile like an idiot. I just know that sooner or later, he'll say or do something so smart or stupid that it'll leave me in awe. 

I love his relationship with his family. How he threatened his little sister that he will close of all chimneys at their house during Christmas Eve so Santa Clause can't come in; how he calls his stepmother Mom; how close he is to his aunt Fiona (who is kind of the Bellatrix to his Draco).

Honestly, I would've disliked Simon if it weren't for Baz. I got the whole feels I had when I was reading about Malec (because I would've never liked Alec if it weren't for Magnus). I only really started to like him after he kissed Baz! I literally almost threw the book across the room when that happened. I kid you not. 

But I learned to love Simon when throughout the book, he just kept coming back to Baz and just wanting more for the two of them. I'm so happy he didn't go through all the typical denial stage that teenagers (gay or straight) go through whenever they realize that they like the person they swore to forever hate or keep their distance from. He was just so cool with everything and was so sweet to Baz. It melted my stone cold heart.

Penelope, is, of course, the stubborn smart friend. You can't not have a character like that in a book where there's a magical school.

Agatha, is, of course, the pretty girl who snitches on her friends and flees. Again -- can't not have one of those.

Special mention to that guy Gareth who has a magical belt buckle! The one who has to thrust his pelvis around to cast a spell or make magic work. Hahahahahaha! 

Best part, though?

Simon & Baz together.

I ship them so hard. 

I can't believe this is a standalone novel.

Especially since we didn't get to find out what really happened to Mage and Lucy and Simon never got to learn about his past.

Okay, but I'm NOT done yet! Allow me a few more moments to gush about Simon & Baz!

I really loved how they just yell "Anathema!" at one another whenever one of them appears to want to physically attack and/or injure the other. You'd think that they're afraid of being roughed up but when you think about it, they just don't want to lose one another as a roommate!

I also loved how when Baz was comforting Simon after he lost his magickal powers. How Baz was thinking of and said that he will turn Simon into a vampire and keep him and love him forever.

I loved how Simon felt so insecure when he lost his powers and said that he isn't good enough for Baz anymore because he's no longer the Chosen One. To which Baz replied "Simon Snow, I choose you."

And honestly, ALL the Simon and Baz moments have killed me. (This is my ghost typing the blog post)

I highly recommend this book!

I can't gush enough about it. I'm literally fangirling as I write this post.

Now I want to reread it.

WHAT BOOK HAS TOTALLY TAKEN YOU BY SURPRISE AFTER READING IT WITHOUT ANY EXPECTATIONS FROM IT???

Happy reading!

BOOKISH NEWS: Magnus Bane and Six of Crows

Hello!

You may be wondering what is going on with this title's post.

Magnus Bane and Six of Crows???

In what universe do those two even cross, much more be together?? 

Well, note the "Bookish News" part. From this point on, I decided to post news about the book community -- specifically about the things that I can't help but fangirl over!

And Magnus Bane and Six of Crows are two very different things I seriously fangirl over.

I stumbled upon these two announcements/news on Twitter and I literally squealed upon reading them. Ask my sisters, they looked at me weirdly and as if they aren't used to my being like that.

A Trilogy About Magnus Bane

Where do I even begin with this? According to an article posted by Entertainment Weekly, Cassandra Clare will publish an adult series based on our beloved and favorite glitter-obsessed warlock.

Click HERE for the complete article.

They said that it's going to revolve around Magnus' past, present, and future! 

I don't know about you, but I am as obsessed about Magnus' past as Alec always has been. And I sure as heck am obsessed about his present and future with his family! 

Malec is one of my ultimate OTPs. 

The obsession about them hit me like a brick to the face after watching Episode 11 entitled "Malec" of the Shadowhunters TV series. I don't care what people say: I love Harry Shum Jr. and Matthew Daddario together as Malec. I will continue watching that show as long as those two are in it.

I went to read "The Bane Chronicles" a day after just so I can read more about Magnus and hopefully, a little bit about Alec. 

Then I skipped over the other short stories of "Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy" so  I can read the specific short story revolving around Malec. 

I've always loved Magnus as a character. He was really entertaining and kind of cooled my ever growing hate towards Alec. I never liked Alec as a character. Not until Magnus came into the picture. 

So reading about this warlock is something I'm really looking forward to! 

November 2017 can not come any sooner!!!

Six of Crows Duology Boxed Set

"Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo has become one of my Top 10 Favorite Books Of All Time after I read it earlier this year. 

So it's not a surprise that I am looking forward to finally reading the 2nd and final book to the duology.

I loved all the characters (which is really rare of me), the setting, the plot, the banter, even the villains.

It also didn't hurt that the physical hardbound copy of the book is such a work of art!

The cover and the freaking black pages just tugs at the inner bookworm in you. Try as you may to not judge a book by its cover, it's really hard to do it for this book. 

Now that "Crooked Kingdom" is on its way to being published and released, we all can't help but be excited about it. 

But then Leigh Bardugo posted a photo of the Duology boxed set and once again today, I squealed.

Not only is the cover for the second book as beautiful as the first one... it has freaking red pages!

I can't even deal with this right now. I mean, look at it!

How can you not want something so beautiful to be in your bookshelf? 

Especially for a series that's so well loved and approved of by majority of the bookish community.

September can not come any sooner!

These are the bookish news I've heard and fangirled about today. 

What book-related news/announcements have you heard today?

BOOK BUY: A Court of Mist and Fury

A Court of Mist and Fury

By: Sarah J. Maas

Hello!

You may be wondering what this whole "Book Buy" thing I'm starting up on my blog is.

I know many BookTubers and book bloggers tend to post book hauls. But the thing is, sometimes (most of the time, really), I don't buy enough books in a month to be considered as a haul. I don't have a job so I ask my parents, grandfather, and sometimes my sisters to buy me the books I want. I highly doubt they'll be supportive when I ask them to buy me 5-10 books a month! 

So far, they've been supportive, though. I'm really grateful. 

All things considered, I'm actually blessed with my family. I've read a blog post by a bookish girl who says that her parents don't allow her to buy books! That they say "books are a one-time thing" so it's better that she just borrow books from the library. 

I can't imagine how that must feel. 

So yeah, BOOK BUY! Just one. 

For the month of May, this is the only book I've acquired. And it actually has a funny (for me) story behind it. 

Yesterday, while we were eating dinner at a restaurant, I asked my grandfather to buy me a book. I intended to buy a copy of "All The Bright Places" by Jennifer Niven. She'll be having a book signing here in Manila this weekend and I want to attend it. I've read this book before in eBook format but I can't have my cellphone signed, now, can I? However, the bookstore in the mall we were at didn't have a copy of the book. 

But before I even got the chance to go inside the bookstore and look for it, I saw THIS book on the window display! 

I ran to the bookstore. Literally. 

You see, when the entire bookish community was celebrating the birth of the 2nd book to "A Court of Thorns and Roses"  by Sarah J. Maas, I was sitting at home wondering why the social media accounts of Philippines' local bookstores weren't posting anything about the book. It's a known fact that this book will be a best-seller around the world, so how come we don't get to celebrate alongside everybody else?

I waited a week. Maybe the shipments were late? Still, nothing. I almost went ahead and order online which would've cost a lot more money. Thankfully, I didn't.

After running to the bookstore, I searched high and low in all of the store's bookshelves! I found nothing. I started wondering if maybe I was hallucinating. So I went out the store again and looked at the window display -- it was there. I went inside and searched the shelves again and found nothing. 

I then asked one of the employees if I may buy the book on their window display. I know that sometimes they don't sell the books on display yet because it hasn't been inventoried or priced yet. But I sweet talked the employee, nonetheless, in case they weren't officially selling the book yet. 

Thankfully he was kind enough to go to the window and take out the book himself. 

I was allowed to buy and take the book home!

You won't believe how happy and excited I am right now. It doesn't matter if this is the only book I got to purchase this month (May is almost at its end). ACOMAF is one of my most anticipated releases for 2016. 

I may be late on having and reading it, but you better believe that I will fangirl as hard as all you people have. 

Rhysand has always been my OTP.

And I know that this book will have lots of him.

It's probably going to take me a while, though. I have this weird thing where I need to be in a certain mood to read through a Sarah J. Maas novel. I mean, her books are thick as heck! 

Have you ever looked forward to getting a certain book but was disappointed that they didn't release it in your town, city, or country alongside every other place? 

I know I have. 

BOOK SIGNING: Victoria Aveyard

Hello!

Have you read "Red Queen" and "Glass Sword" by Victoria Aveyard? 

If you haven't, what are you doing with your life?

Kidding! 

But seriously, if you haven't read it, I'm pretty sure you've heard about it or seen it in bookstores, on Twitter, Instagram, and what other social media you find bookish people on.

It's quite a popular series.

  

I'm not going to write about the books because I intend to write individual book reviews about them. But I want to share the very first book signing I ever went to.

This isn't a recent event, though. It happened last March 6, 2016 at National Bookstore Glorietta, Makati City. 

I went there alone and I was honestly really nervous becaue I didn't know anyone going to the signing. I wish I had online friends who were fellow fans of the book series that wanted to meet up with me, but alas, I am not friendly enough. 

But I did something totally out of my comfort zone as I commuted to the event place that morning: I approached a stranger who was holding a copy of Glass Sword. We rode the same van on our way to the bookstore. I saw her grab a copy of her book from her bag and start reading it. I've been wanting to tap her shoulder and ask her if she was on her way to the book signing. But then I kind of wondered if maybe she was just reading the book and was on her way to work or meet up with her friends. So I didn't talk to her then. When the stop to the mall arrived, she went down and started walking. I followed her. 

I thought to myself that what I was doing was literally stalking so I had to stop. I then walked faster and tapped the girl on the shoulder and asked nicely if she was on her way to the signing. She said she was. The relief of not having made a fool out of myself was so amazing! I asked her if I can walk with her to the bookstore because I really didn't know how book signings worked because it was the first one I have ever attended and she said sure. 

We got to the vicinity of the bookstore and was surprised to see a line so long that it snaked around the entire mall and was so close to making a full circle around the area! It was crazy. To think that it was only 8 o'clock in the morning and that the signing itself will not start until later that day at 2 o'clock in the afternoon!

When we got our number stub, I laughed at myself. All week long before the event, I kept stressing myself out how crazy I have to be for wanting to go there so early by myself. For sure not many people will be there by then. Boy, was I wrong!

Apparently, there are 500+ people crazier than me. People who fell in line earlier than me. 

After getting our number stub, we decided to go to all the 5 different bookstores in the mall. We also ate and just hang out with 2 other girls we met in line. 

I was honestly surprised and overwhelmed by the fact that bookish people and fellow fangirls are generally nice people!

Due to the fact that there were over a thousand people who arrived to meet Victoria Aveyard, my newfound friends and I got to have our books signed around 6PM. We were there for 10 hours.

But all in all, the experience was worth it! 

I got to meet new friends who fangirled over books the same way I did. We exchanged book recommendations and even made plans of going to the next book signing together and then the Metro Manila Book Fair on September!

And Victoria Aveyard is such a lovely person! She looks beautiful and she's nice. She asked me how my day was. I was super starstruck that I told her something which I can't recall now but she laughed. Glad to know I can entertain authors with my fangirl blumberings!

I know a lot of people were disappointed by all the hype surrounding the Red Queen series but I honestly enjoyed it, albeit the tropes and similarities to other novels. At this point, with all the books I've read, there aren't that many unique books anymore. Eventually you'll run into stories similar to ones you've read and loved before. 

Why hate on the new one if you enjoyed the stories it reminds you of?

Let's all just love and appreciate the authors who work hard on writing the stories that we all get to love, hate, be sad about, be happy about, and give us the chance to choose our OTPs and ship them! 

I want to go to other book signings in the future and be with my friends again and maybe meet new friends too! 

I like meeting the brains behind the books on my bookshelf.

Have you ever met your favorite author?