Hi I'm Gaby and I run a book blog, a bookstagram, and a goodreads page. I mainly read YA and romance novels so if that sounds interesting to you come check out my blog.
For my third book of the Summer I decided to pick up
Girls of Paper and Fire. Girls of Paper and Fire follows Lei, a 17-year-old,
baker who lives in a remote village. Lei is a member of the paper caste which
in a world run by demons means that humans are pretty low on their list of
priorities. Every year, 8 girls are chosen to “serve” the demon King, a
muscular demon who shares some features with a bull. Ever since a raid on her
village took the life of her mother, Lei has been resentful of the demon king
so when she is chosen to serve him, she puts up a fight. During her time in the
palace, Lei makes friends and falls in love and it is because of that love that
she is able to start a fire.
Girls of Paper and Fire is not the kind of book I would normally read. I love to read fluffy contemporary and romance novels, but I really wanted to read Girls of Paper and Fire. This book discusses sensitive topics such as rape and sexual abuse and is a bit graphic when it comes to scenes regarding violence, but overall was a fantastic read. Lei is an amazing character she is stubborn and not afraid to speak out no matter the consequences.
The Paper girls’ official job is to serve the King and learn how to become ladies. However, they are rarely given the opportunity to use these skills. In actuality, the girls are just sex slaves for the King. What most surprised me about this book is that Lei is told that the paper girls hold such high status in the Kingdom and families will do anything to have their daughters become a paper girl and these girls in the paper caste want this job too.
Or that is what we’re told.
None of the girls Lei lives with want to be there, they were either forced by their families or were unfortunate enough to be chosen. However, because they cannot refuse the king, they must do whatever he wants, or they’ll be exiled and even killed. I think that is the most heartbreaking part aspect of this book.
When Lei begins to fightback, I rooted for her because
she reclaimed her power.
This book is incredibly written, and the world of this novel is so twisted and evil it made me want to finish this novel sooner. This book made me uncomfortable, but I couldn’t stop reading it so I give this book 4 out of five stars.
Same hot mess but now with a bachelor’s degree. I breifly fell off the edge of the earth for a bit there, nothing wild happened I just needed extra space and time to focus on schoolwork.
I thought I kick off my new unemployed/ super free status with a review of Jenny Han’s To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. For those of my readers who haven’t read this book or seen the iconic Netflix movie I will quickly summarize the plot. The story centers around Laura Jean Song Covey, a Korean American teen, living on the East Coast. Laura Jean is the 2nd of three sisters and she loves to stay at home, bake, scrapbook, and knit. For the most part Laura Jean’s life is pretty much sheltered, and her sisters are really her only friends. Laura Jean has never had a boyfriend, but she has had plenty of crushes who she writes love letters too with no intention of ever handing these letters out. However, when Laura Jean’s letters are accidentally mailed out, she ends up in a fake relationship with Peter, who she thought she no longer had feelings for.
This story is a slow. After her older sister, Margot
leaves for college in Scotland; Laura Jean spends 30 pages sad about her
departure. At this point I was tapping my fingers on the desk wondering when
Peter would make his grand entrance and the plot would kick off. However, after
the initial excitement of their fake relationship I was bored but I continued
reading anyways. The book continues with not much excitement happening between
Laura Jean and Peter’s relationship until their Ski Trip when everyone becomes
super noisy about their sex life.
Unlike other readers on goodreads who were annoyed by Laura Jean’s personality, I found her to be more boring than anything. I have similar hobbies to Laura Jean, and I like staying home but not to the extent that Laura Jean enjoyed her alone time. Moreover I found Margot annoying, she constantly caused Laura Jean stress about college by reminding her that she was doing things wrong at home. Let your sister be a teen Margot!
Kitty was more interesting than her two sisters, in my opinion, she is sassy and can be a brat but at the end of the day she only wants to help her sisters.
So some of you may wonder how does this book compare
to the movie? In my opinion the movie brought a lot of these characters to life
and made them more interesting. Movie Peter and Laura Jean are the cutest! And
I tolerate movie Margot. The Movie also made Kitty shine even more.
I would recommend this book to readers who are curious
about the story behind the movie or if anyone is impatient and wants to find
out what happens to Peter and Laura Jean after the events of the movie.
I would give this book 2.5/3 stars as it is a pretty
average read and good world to jump into if you need a quick and easy read and
a great distraction.
Until next times friends continue Living in Libros,
Gaby
PS.
I began reading the sequel and I had to put it down after 100 pages because I was so bored. I’m hoping the movies continue to bring life to these characters.
I have been out of touch with the YA community for a long time and
I am know just starting to catch up with the great stories that have been
published since my absent. One such story
that knocked me out into the next galaxy was The Selection series by Keira Cass.
The Selection Series for those who were blissfully unaware like yours truly, are a series of books that follow a young woman named American who lives in a future dystopian version of the United States. In this dystopian society the U.S, now renamed the country of llléa, is basically governed by a caste system. The higher the number you are the poorer you live eight being the lowest and as America describes it those who are eights are basically homeless. Being a one of course means you’re living the good life and in the case of The Selection series you’re basically royalty. This fictional USA is also governed by a Monarchy and once the prince becomes of age women all over the country are invited to compete for him as part of the Selection. America, wanting to please her mother, submits her application to the Selection believing that her chance of being picked will be slim. Additionally, our girl America is dating this guy, Aspen, and they’re practically engaged when she decides to enter the contest. However, a stupid fight leaves America heartbroken and on the other side of the country where she meets Prince Maxon and her feelings about both of men become complicated.
Book 2 starts off with America and Maxon cuddling in the gardens their favorite spot in the palace. After an incidence involving America’s bff the two get in a nasty fight and spend the rest of the book detached from each other. In fact, both end up getting close to other people. America of course rebounds to Aspen, her comforting ex, while Maxon ends up getting close to Kriss, one of the remaining members of the selection.
Book 3 is a whirlwind. America comes to the realization that Maxon’s heart might not solely belong to her and decides to really fight for Maxon and breaks things off with Aspen. Additionally, in this book America and Maxon make an alliance with the Northern rebels after finding out that they want the same things. The King tries to get America to drop out of the competition by any means necessary. Moreover the tension builds when it is revealed that the King is abusing Maxon whenever he makes a mistake. America also decides to tell Maxon the truth about Aspen and her feelings for him. Some drama happens and Maxon comes close to marrying Kriss but alas another rebel attack occurs leaving Maxon the only surviving member of the royal family. Now that his father’s gone Maxon is free to marry America and ascend the throne.
So, let’s
get to the tea.
I stayed up late to read all of these books and I have no regrets
about binging this series.
What I loved about these books was that the writing is pretty easy
to follow none of those loaded words that make you feel smart after looking
them up in the dictionary. The plot itself is very lighthearted. Even though
the world is dystopian nothing overly violent happens. Also, I really want to
take a moment to appreciate Prince Maxon for not being a total jerk that was my
expectation of him when I initial dived into this series. This is the perfect series
to read when you just lose all your focus while studying and need a break.
The big thing that made me disappointed in these books was the
lack of peoples of color. The history of this world is that the United States
was taken over by China and then after few more world wars the U.S united with
Canada, Mexico, and Central America to form Illéa. All of
these countries that have formed to become llléa are diverse
so where are the peoples of color in this series? Did these women of color not
get chosen to compete?
However, after reading book two I discover that Elise, one of the remaining girls in the selection, is Asian! In addition, I also believe that it is briefly mentioned that Maxon’s mother is from a country that sounds similar to Panama, so I am unsure whether that means that Maxon is at least biracial. Regardless I wish the series gave me a more concrete answer for why peoples of color are absent.
Here’s is the map of Illea which I found in collection of short stories about the side characters of these series.
I also felt it
was a bit wack that Maxon and America decide to keep the fact that the King is abusing
Maxon a secret between them as they do not want to worry the Queen. However, after
being with Queen Amberly throughout this series I feel that if she would have
known this was happening, she would have ripped off her husband’s crown so fast
and forced the King to step down. Thus, making Maxon the king and putting an
end to his father’s toxic reign. That would have probably been a more dramatic
ending and more satisfying for me at least.
I did enjoy Celeste redemption arc. I overall enjoy
when evil characters go grinch and have a change of heart. I loved that Lucy
ended up falling in love with Aspen given that the poor girl has gone through
so much. Plus, the way that America describes Aspen, the boy is a cutie.
Although my rant seems like I hated this series that
is a stretch. For me these books were a page turner. I spent the early hours of
the morning reading these books. And after writing this review I will most
likely continue reading this series in order to find out what the sequel “The
Heir” is all about.
Today’s post will be all about my recent trip to México. Unlike my previous trips to the motherland, my trip to the pueblito of San Miguel de Allende was for a poetry conference sponsored through my Uni. This program was set up through a study abroad program, but unlike a lot of study abroad trips, this particular one was for a week rather than a full semester. I liked this because it meant I would not have to be away from my dog, Apollo, for that long 😊. During my trip, I participated in a poetry workshop with other U.S poets who have experience writing and publishing poetry. During the workshops, we would collectively get together and read and critique each other’s poetry. It was super awesome! Even though a majority of my classmates did not have experience in the publishing world, we could still offer valid critiques for these seasoned poets.
Today I wanted to make a non book review given that 2018 is coming to an end I wanted to check on (and let’s be real roast myself) my 2018 goals as well as set new goals for 2019.
Today I thought I would recap my favorite books of 2018.
Some books on my list are absent from this picture. To my Primas, I want my books back.
Emergency Contact
I purchased this book, went to Mary HK Choi’s signing at the LA Festival of Books and then read the book a month later. And it was amazing. Definitely a book I would reread.
2. Labyrinth Lost
This book was amazing. Sure we got famous wizards such as Merlin, The boy who lived but were are our Brujas at? Look no further, Labyrinth Lost has a beautiful mix of different Latinx cultures and religions that make up this world. In addition, we also get a strong Latinx protagonist who is Bi!
3. Warcross
Warcross is amazing! If you were a Sword Art Online lover, like me. This book will blow your mind. This story had me at the edge of my sit and I loved that it was set in Tokyo, Japan.
4. Geekerella
Geekerella was so cute. I loved the way the fandom, cosplay, and the con was written. As a sometimes cosplayers I thought this story captured that aspect well. In addition, the characters in this book were awesome. Especially Fairy Godmother Sage.
5. The House on Mango Street
I had not read the House on Mango Street cover to cover until this year and I really enjoyed it! The collection of small poetic stories were really beautiful and Esperanza’s growth through the story was my favorite part of this book.
6. Six Of Crows
I have been meaning to read Six of Crows ever since I had heard about the series but did not read it until this year. This duology honestly blew away my expectations. I laughed. I cried. (I cried a lot). And I will carry the characters with me forever.
7. Kill the Queen
This book was described as a mixture of Game of Thrones and Black sails and it did not disappoint. There was a lot of action but also betrayal and deception as well as the overall growth of the main character, Evie as she prepares herself to take back her Queendom.
8. The Princess Saves Herself in this One
Another collection of poetry I fell in love with. The poems were beautiful and heart wrenching but what I liked the most about them was the way that they filled me with both inspiration and love.
Compiling this list of favorites was a little hard considering there were other great books I read this year that did not make this list. So here are some honorable mentions.
The Victoria in my head
Alex, Approximately
Daughter of the Pirate King
The Girl from the other side (read my review for this here)
A Dash of Trouble
What was your favorite read of 2018? And what books do I need to check out for 2019?
lol just kidding I think we’d all swerve the neurolink after reading the events of Warcross and Wildcard. That’s the true tea. Anyways I spent my best week putting down my Star Wars fanfiction and instead picking up Wildcard which has been sitting on my shelf since it’s release in September. Now my first impression of this book and I mean page one impression was “dang I missed this world.”
For those of you who haven’t read Warcross let me give you a quick summary. Warcross is a scifi ya novel that is mostly set in Tokyo, Japan and stars Emika Chen, a bounty hunter but also a hacker, who finds people that are doing shady shit in the game warcross, a virtual reality game that is popular in this world. Think Sword Art Online. However, the day that Warcross decides to have their championship game Emika accidently glitches herself into the game and leaves everybody shook but most important she impress Hideo Tanka, the creator of Warcross, who hires Emika to look for a particular glitch in his game. And the rest of that story is a crazy whirlwind and I suggest you add it to your Christmas wish list. Anyways now to the real review.
WildCard picks up right where Warcross left off and Emika is still trying to unravel her feelings for Hideo after he basically revealed himself to have a god complex. He would be such good friends with Light Yagami. Any who, as Emi is pondering her next move to take down Hideo, when she ends up getting swept up into Zero’s crew to take down her ex-lover however, as the story continues everything gets even more complicated.
I finished this book 20 minutes before writing this review and the story is still stuck with me. If you do not want to know my thoughts on the ending look away now. I thought the ending was a kind of bittersweet. Maybe I got a soft spot for villians but Hideo deadass thought mind control was the solution to world peace. However, I was also a bit satisfied that he ends up doing time for trying to mind control everyone and Emika becomes the new CEO of Hideo’s company what a plot twist but I loved it. Emi went from being hated at the beginning of this book to being the person to restart Warcross like what an icon. Additionally I have to say I found it weird that Hideo and Emika’s love story got wrapped in a newspaper blurb at the end. I don’t know how long Hideo is under house arrest for but it’s pretty wild that the news is peachy with the idea that Emika is dating the guy that tried to mind control everyone. Like did they just forget or was Hideo’s name cleared?
Anyways my little shipper heart was pleased I just have one complaint. Hideo and Emika didn’t have enough fluffy scenes together it was mostly angst. Compared to Warcross the two were so cute together but in this sequel they’re always dancing aroud their breakup and wondering if the other still likes them. Y’all are both into each other can you make out now.
My final thoughts are that Wildcard was not what I was expecting. As I progressed through the story everything I thought I knew got twisted into a bitter truth. And things were never what they seemed but I enjoyed that and it really kept me guessing so for that I give Wildcard 5 stars.
Pro-tip if you plan on reading this but haven’t picked up Warcross in a while I recommend a reread because there were times when I was like who, what, when? But if you a rebel and persist anyways can’t blame you I did the same thing.
This past week I decided to abandon my current reads and crack open a book that has been on my Amazon Wishlist for the past 6 months. So I went on the library app, Libby, gotta start saving for Holiday shopping. Anyways it did not take much to get hooked up on this book and I gobbled it up in between classes, during homework breaks, and before bed.
This book follows Rose Asher, a high school Junior who loves to fade into the background. She lowkey hates her friends and holds herself back from doing things that make her truly happy. Rose’s reasoning for living her life in the shadows is that her brother Logan, who died when he was 15 still visits her and she spends a lot of her free time watching old Doctor Who reruns with him. However, things start to change when Rose’s old friend Jaime Aldridge moves back to town and the two begin to date. Suddenly Rose starts to come out of her own bubble and start to live her life however Logan becomes upset that Rose is spending less time with him and makes her choose between her happiness and seeing him.
Laguna Canyon was no stranger to ghosts, both the kind that blew in with the Santa Ana winds and the kind that sat in your classroom looking nothing like you remembered.
There were a lot of things that I loved about this book but let me start with the setting. The city that Rose lives in is called Laguna Canyon which I’m pretty sure is a fictional town but nevertheless the story is set in So Cal, probably somewhere in Orange County. Anyways because of this Rose, on numerous times, mentions the Santa Ana Winds. I wrote down 3 instances in which she mentions them! If you don’t know the legend/story behind the Santa Ana Winds these winds are believed to be supernatural and makes people do crazy things. There’s a whole essay written about this phenomena and it is even mentioned in Emergency Contact, another YA novel. Anyways I thought this was perfect to include in this book given the whole ghosty vibes this book gives off.
Something else I enjoyed was that Jamie’s race is explicitly stated. According to Rose, Jamie is actually part Filipino on his mother’s side. Personally I always enjoy some POC rep in my books so this nod made me pretty excited for the rest of this book. Aside from that Jamie’s entrance into this story is also pretty iconic, Rose explains that he blew back into her life because of the Santa Ana winds which spoiler alert, Rose isn’t the only ghost whisperer in her town. Now that I think about it tying Jamie’s entrance into the story with the supernatural winds foreshadow his own supernatural abilities which are revealed later.
And the last thing I wanted to mention that I enjoyed was that the popular student group are all super nice. Which is refreshing because story after story and show after movie the popular kids are often depicted as mean and bullies. However, the popular crew in Invisible Ghosts are super nice and super supportive of each other as well as Rose even before she joins their ranks. I remember fellow bookstagramer ShelvesofYa pointing out popular mean group cliché so I was surprised that this group of friends were actually super nice and supported of each other.
So why only 4 stars instead of 5 I did gobble up this book after all. Well my main problem was that I hated Logan’s character. I mean for a ghost he was super selfish and did not seem to care that Rose was basically wasting her life away because of him. On top of that homeboy threw so many tantrums when things didn’t go his way. I mean I get that he was 15 when he died but the boy needed to tone down the teen angst.
For today’s post I want to review the first book “The Girl from the Other Side”, a magna series. For those of you who are not familiar with Magna they are similar to comic books except they come from and are translated from Japan. A lot of Magna ends up becoming anime series such as Sailor Moon or Attack on Titan.
So what’s so great about the girl from the other side? In short everything. The series follows a young girl named Shiva who lives in an abandoned village with her demon guardian whom she calls teacher. In the first book we learn that some kind of sickness took over the village and Shiva was left in Teacher’s care. However for some reason Shiva cannot touch teacher or she will catch the curse and turn into some ugly creature…Forever. I know right so crazy.
Anyways Shiva is so sassy! And maybe part of that is because she is so young and kids don’t really have a filter but I found Shiva’s personality refreshing. I also loved that Shiva just rolls with the fact she lives with a demon now as if that is normal. Shiva does not ever show that she’s scared of teacher and I loved that.
The reason I loved this book and this is what originally drew me to purchasing the first story was that the whole series gave me this Hades and Persephone vibe and as I read the magna that vibe was further validated. I mean Shiva may live with a creature of darkness but that doesn’t stop her from napping out in the woods or collecting flowers to make a cute little crown for Teacher. In addition, Shiva not being easily spooked by Teacher’s otherness reminded me of the duality of Persephone as she is both the Princess of Spring as well as the Queen of darkness.
I’m not sure how the rest of this series will go but I do remember reading a summary of the series that Shiva at some point was going to travel away from the other side, which is where she lives with Teacher, in order to find her grandmother and ask her just why Teacher came to be her guardian. And with the way the first edition to this series left me feeling and left me hanging you bet I’m going to purchase the next installments.
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