Lady Danielle

Oh! This is going to be very difficult because I've read so many amazing YA lit last year (2012 was the author's year because, wow!).

Here's a few of my five star reads that's hard to choose from:

1. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
2. The Diviners by Libba Bray
3. Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

Now I had plenty of five star reads last year but these are the three that's stuck with me till this day. I think about these books a lot because it was something new, fresh, fun, and original. But, I can only choose one... so..... The Diviners by Libba Bray. This book is my all-time favourite. This book belongs with my Harry Potter books -- yes, it was that good. 

I've been in-love with the Jazz Age (aka The Roaring '20s) since I was 14 when I picked up Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen. Reading about the scandals, the flappers, the parties/speakeasies, the Jazz, the language... ever since then I've always wanted to be a flapper/live in the 1920s, that was the best era. After reading BYT, I've been doing research and reading about the Roaring '20s; I've searched for more YA lit based on this era and discovered Vixen by Jillian Larkin. Though it was somewhat like BYT, I let it slide because, again, the writing was vivid and I enjoyed it just as much.

When I saw the New Releases section on Goodreads, this gorgeous cover caught my eye: 

Curious, I read the description: 

Evie O’Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City—and she is pos-i-tute-ly ecstatic. It’s 1926, and New York is filled with speakeasies, Ziegfeld girls, and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is that she has to live with her uncle Will and his unhealthy obsession with the occult.

Evie worries he’ll discover her darkest secret: a supernatural power that has only brought her trouble so far. But when the police find a murdered girl branded with a cryptic symbol and Will is called to the scene, Evie realizes her gift could help catch a serial killer.

As Evie jumps headlong into a dance with a murderer, other stories unfold in the city that never sleeps. A young man named Memphis is caught between two worlds. A chorus girl named Theta is running from her past. A student named Jericho hides a shocking secret. And unknown to all, something dark and evil has awakened.

It was then that I knew the book found its way to me. Not only would I be reunited with the language, Jazz, speakeasies, and flappers, I would be introduced to a paranormal/supernatural twist: Magic as well as the occult. I snatched the book up and began to read... after reading the last sentence, my mouth was left hanging open and there were stars in my eyes. 

I will forever praise this book. You can read my review of it here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/419662202

The subject is crap but Dawid's comment makes it awesome so you have to see it.

AnHeC managed to make it on STGRB's brand spanking new BookLike's Sidebar of Popularity for no reason other than her Friends list.

Dawid's comment deserves All The Likes:

http://anhec.booklikes.com/post/498412/did-you-know-that-a-list-of-badly-behaving-booklikers-was-created-

I can't express how relieved I am that someone gives a damn about our safety on this site. I am honestly choked up with emotions because this site honestly wants us to be safe.

I wish I had known about this site sooner. 

[REBLOG]

Though A Game of Thrones is unbearably slow, it really is a rather interesting read. So far, my favourite character is Tyrion (though I can bet he's everyone's favourite, as well). And I really love reading Daenerys' scenes, it's more entertaining than the others. 

I... I... I just.... WTF?!?!?!



Stopped on page 25 I can't finish this. I... this book is weird and disgusting and gut wrenching. I decided to read this book because I read in a group comment that it was the weirdest thing they've ever read. So I decided to give it a try... no. Just fucking no.

Stories about some kid sodomising himself with a fucking carrot and some Vaseline; a teenager jacking off with some candle wax -- THROUGH HIS PISS HOLE. The storyteller jacking off in a pool hovering over the pool's suction shit so it's basically eating his ass whilst he jacks off and next thing you know it's sucking up his guts and he has to eat his asshole out to save himself. Occasional sentences about doing what the French do or some weird shit...

No.
Stop.
What the fuck. 

"My goal was just to write some new form of horror story, something based on the ordinary world. Without supernatural monsters or magic. This would be a book you wouldn't keep next to your bed." -- Chuck Palahniuk



Mr Palahniuk, this isn't horror, this is some vile shit, sir. Vile, vile, shit. I get you wanted horror without supernatural monsters or magic, but these stories are not it!. Read some of Stephen King's works for some real ordinary world horror -- Misery, for example. That's some nerve-racking stuff. That's horror. This... (shakes my head). My eyes felt as though they were about to pop out my head whilst I was reading. 

Excuse me, going to brush my eyeballs and brain to remove the images and thoughts I've just read.





The author was right about one thing:
This is a book I will not be keeping next to my bed.

Why BookLikes dominates that other book site...don't remember it's name. 

Crown of Midnight, you're going to be very difficult to review because there's so many things I want to talk about and explain, but I can't since I'll spoil it. So, I'm going to keep this review short. I've read a lot of reviews saying this tops Throne of Glass, I'm going to have to disagree on that part. But I do understand why most people will say this: 

♠ In Throne of Glass, people wanted to read some assassination scenes since Celaena's an assassin; in here, she lives up to her title now that she's King's Champion.

♠ In Throne of Glass, people did like the pretty dresses, but, honestly -- Celaena the assassin wearing and drooling over them? Where's her bad ass clothes? Don't worry, in Crown of Midnight she's wearing the tight pants, tight shirt, with a hooded cloak; two swords, some daggers... you get the picture. Her imagine in here is pretty awesome. 

♠ In Throne of Glass, people felt there was a love triangle; here, she finally chooses. In my review for the first instalment I said I had a feeling the love triangle would take full effect in here and things will get angst-y. I'm so glad I was wrong.

♠  Fundamentally, the problems readers had with Throne of Glass will go away once they've read this. 

♕ So why am I giving it three stars? ♕

♦ The mystery wasn't thoughtfully played out. I predicted who-really-did-what and who-is-who and my predictions were correct. Maybe I have a gift (or curse) to predict things and turn out to be right because the ending wasn't shocking.

♦ Though I had a problem with the magic slowly creeping its way in Throne of Glass, I've accepted its effect here. However,  certain characters in here had 'magic' and I found it unnecessary -- we'll see how this all turns out in the next book.

♦ I didn't like how the story dragged on at times. One minute I was bored; the next I wasn't.

♦ The banter between Chaol and Celaena (as well as Dorian and Celaena) weren't nearly as funny as it was in Throne of Glass. Maybe because things are starting to get a little more dark and serious....

♦ Celaena pissed me off a lot, but I won't go into details.

.... and that's pretty much it. 

I enjoyed Throne of Glass more. Even though the books go from this:

To this

Thank you for this site, I feel like I can call this place 'home' and a 'safe haven'. You guys have been so polite -- replying to everyone, working on some of the things we've suggested, etc. 

I think I speak for everyone with this gif about how we feel:

http://kaia.booklikes.com/post/417708/what-bullying-really-looks-like

Reblogged from Debbie's Notes

I'm sure all these goodreads posts are of no use to existing booklikes members.  And I've seen a few postings from them wondering about all these new followers (please don't blames us -- signing up for a booklikes account makes us initially follow 25 members that booklikes assigns us.  We'll eventualy sort it out to only follow others with similar reading tastes or whose posts we enjoy).

Please don't think we all came over here to post offensive, threatening material.  Allegations of bullying, rape threats, etc. sure do make good headlines.  And good headlines go viral.

Some of us never wrote reviews on goodreads.  Or had any shelf names worse than "Western" "Memoir" etc.

We already love booklikes for daily update posts and quick response to comments and email.  It's incredibly soothing compared to our experiences with goodreads.

We are booklovers.  Avid booklovers.  We're the ones who worked tirelessly making goodreads  immense database and membership a takeover target for amazon.  Now that amazon has our data, they don't want us.  Just to market our data to customers buying new kindles and amazon fire.  They killed Shelfari who used to be the kindle integrated book site and now are replacing Shelfari with goodreads.

Some of us are here just to protect our book catalogs, as in we seriously have no idea what will or won't be deleted at goodreads.   Likely very quiet members at that.  

I don't how I'm feeling right now. It's like I'm enjoying this book; then again I'm not at all.

view spoiler

This is exactly the kind of person I want to read.

This is the last thing I wanted to see: https://www.facebook.com/jenniferlaurensauthor?hc_location=stream

I will not be reading her books.

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Oh that author is growing some balls now she knows we can't shelf her books as 'shitty author behaviour'. I'll be rating her books one-star, as well.

I'm settling in very well to my new space here... But y'all need a mobile app or a mobile friendly version of the site for iOS and Android users.