This is a four-book review!

*Internal Screaming* If you read one series this year (or next year), MAKE IT THIS ONE. I am so disgustingly obsessed with these characters, this wonderfully complex and unique story, and the overall magical voice of the author, that not only did I take my sweet time to relish it all but I had already pre-ordered the last book in the series just halfway through the third one. Needless to say, this story is one of those rare ones that completely sucked me in and had me running in fear and excitement right alongside those characters. Honestly this is probably my favorite series of all time.

I mean, I am all for a good series. But I have to say, it has been YEARS since I read a series this gripping. The first one is good, BUT THE REST. Just wow.  It's been a long time since I have been on a roller coaster like that! The books took nearly everything you get about the story in book #1, and completely remakes it in a way that left me just pathetically fan-girling. I am hooked on the characters, I am hooked on the love and friendship, deception and danger, I am hooked on this amazing and complicated story and it only took me reading book #2 to know that not only will I be here till the very end, but this is going to be one of those series that just makes me fall in love with reading again.
Thank you Sarah J. Maas for making me an absolute wreck with this series. 


NOTE: Because of it's explicit nature at times, I wouldn't recommend this series for anyone under the age of 18 (MAYBE 17).

"Kids, fiction is the truth inside the lie, and the truth of this fiction is simple enough: the magic exists" -Stephen King


Everyone likes a thing that glitters. When a thing is lovely, you may be hard pressed to find a soul anywhere who would not feel its allure.
Yes, everyone likes a pretty story.
If only "pretty" didn't sour so quickly.
It's true that reality is horror-filled enough. And in it one never finds themselves at a loss for that which makes your skin crawl for very long. But that's where horror novels step in.
In writing such as this, you find an escape for that which terrifies you, by diving into a whole new terror. Or rather, several whole new terrors, as in this case.
Stephen King isn't a name you would read if you were looking for an obscure, needle-in-a-haystack, diamond-in-the-rough, kind of novel. You know his name, and this book is probably the reason you do.

It took me a lot longer than I expected to read IT. I say that only because Stephen King does have a gripping writing style, and the fact I was hooked immediately, gave every indication that I would be finishing close to only a week after starting. However, to my happy surprise, I found that this book developed into so much more than just something to give me goosebumps in the middle of the night. This became one of those books you read slowly just for the sake of it lasting longer. Something you find yourself marking whether or not that is something you do. It became-- as every good book should-- an experience.
Horror writing is a precarious profession. It is not a taste many will take voluntarily on their tongue. However, the way I see it, horror writing is that which offends us. It is that which pokes into our conscious long after we have stopped reading. Yes, it scares us. But it's the thing that scares us most that makes us aware. I do not mean to be a spokesperson for the genre, all I mean to say is that life is too short to be too comfortable all the time. What is this world if it does not seem impossible, and maybe a bit frightening, every now and then?

Anyway, if you have not already moved on from my tedious rambles, I'll get back to talking about the book now. Immediately I favored the way in which it was unique. The horrors were fresh, that which cackled and moaned into the night was deliciously clever, and yet the original setup was so simple that it was comfortable and classic. In a way, it reminds me a bit of the Netflix series "Stranger Things". A group of misfit children facing an evil far greater than anything any adult could believe: a setup anyone could sink their teeth into. However, as the story goes on, the thing adapts itself like a monster in the elements.
Stephen King has based this work of fiction on that which we find so repelling we know it cannot be possible, but that part of the book which causes us to truly recoil in shock and fear are the parts we, in some very real way, are only too familiar with.
This causes an almost spiritual blur between realities. Worlds colliding, if you will.

It's difficult, honestly, to quite explain what lies beneath the cover of this novel. It seems to have plucked every string wound into the bindings of the universe, and sewn itself together of it's own accord. Beginning with childhood, when the mystics are far closer than they will ever be in a person's life, and tying that in with the realities of adulthood, when colors just sort of fade into only black and only white.
You will have to forgive me if I have made it seem a bit complex, it is only my nature when wonders are still so fresh in my head. To put it simply: Here is the place where fears we never knew we had are found, here is a place where bravery is vital, and cowardice is a downfall. Here questions arise, minds are perhaps even stretched a little further. I encourage you to come, and step inside, for here all is brought together
by the words of a great author.

"Fiction reveals the truths that reality obscures." ~Ralf Waldo Emerson

There is nothing so satisfying in this world than a good murder mystery. And none so good (I dare say) than this, the mystery than influenced so many. Agatha Christie is, to me, almost one of the classics. There are very few perfect "who done it?" stories out there, but such a thing seems to have been found right here!
Reading something so gripping as And Then There Were None will make you want to write one of your own! I admit, I wondered while reading it if I would not like it because it was not romantic nor necessarily "action", but I found something truly unique in this book. It really did change my appreciation of books completely, and remind me that books don't have to be just for lazy entertainment, but can be thrilling and altogether stimulating!

This book is only a couple hundred pages, but is fraught with mystery from beginning to the end.
We open by meeting ten strangers. Each has received an odd invitation to spend the weekend on the private island of one wealthy man each assumes the other knows. Each of the ten conceals their own secret-- a scandal they swore they would never admit. But by the time they realize their millionaire host is nowhere to be found, the tide has already come in and all transportation off the island is delayed.
Here, their fate is sealed. As it says so beautifully on the back cover:

 "For each has been marked for murder. 

One by one they fall prey. 

Before the weekend is out, there will be none. 

And only the dead are above suspicion."

Oh but I'll have to stop here, I don't want to give anything away!

I fell in love with this book, and it has remained over the years one of my all-time favorites. Agatha Christie has mastered suspense, and knows exactly how to include those little things that will make your spine tingle.

I encourage all of you to give it a try!

Thank you for stopping by!

Keep reading!

1. “No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. — Lady Montagu

Morning everyone!
Today I have a little young adult piece for you. Only a couple hundred pages long, one could easily finish it in a week. I read The Knight of Redmond by Jennifer Clark when I was young and desperate for anything romantic that reached mother's standards of appropriateness, no matter if it was a serious novel, or more of a "fluff" book. However, that is not to say I did not enjoy it!
This is your classic village-girl-now-on-her-own-teams-up-with-handsome-man-for-the-greater-good-of-the-kingdom kind of book. But in this case, there are some rather gipping plot twists that will keep any young reader engaged!
I loved the battle/fight scenes, the romance, and the overall conflict between the two kingdoms.
The main character, Lily, is not one I particularly connected wholeheartedly to, but still enjoyed her as a heroin.
Lily and her mother have been outcasted as witches, so she is forced to live a life hoping to go unnoticed. However, with royal blood running in her veins, that is far from the high society life Lily is dreaming of, and was destined to claim. When trouble with the invading "Redmond" kingdom forces her to come in contact with a handsome enemy knight with dire commands he must complete, a sort of Romeo and Juliet scenario begins to unfold. Coming from rival kingdoms, danger threatens love and friendship.

It is a fetching tale of shamed reputations, secrets, kidnaping, betrayal, and desperation to end the war that has send thousands up in flames.

Overall, I'd give it about 3 stars. It is a pleasant little book that will keep you reading till the very end.

 "There is nothing to writing.
All you have to do is sit down at a typewriter
and bleed."
~Ernest Hemingway 

Hello, readers!

(You'll have to forgive my picture, I was in too big of a hurry to post I didn't have time to make it look too pretty!)

To start off, I refer you again to the quote above. Though there is a good chance you have read this before, I have chosen it as my heading because I feel it encompasses the theme of this book incredibly well.

Drowning in historical significance, I was more than willing to dive right in to this novel, and am happy to have it on my list of favorites! I have always found that Hemingway, much like Fitzgerald, weaves such raw, yet simple, details of a suffering society into the pages of their novels. Which is why I picked this particular quote. Hemingway has always provided cathartic release to readers through his honesty and simple language. Despite the fact that much of his symbolism and meaning would have been seen as a little too honest, at the time. 

In this story, our characters (without it being explicitly said) are living an aimless life. 

Drinking and traveling from place to place, it is not difficult to feel the numbness of the unhappy hearts wandering the bars of post WWI. 

Most of our characters are veterans (or ex-nurses) of the war and the entire layout of the plot is structured around their inability to find themselves after suffering through what they have. 

It is 1926, and the very idea of what it meant to be a man had been lost. 

The reality of war is that survival did not depend solely on bravery or ‘manliness’. In the chaos,  both the courageous and weak soldiers fell. 

Which is why the (main) men in this novel struggle to cope with feelings of insecurity and inadequacy, and seek to fill this gap inside them through other means. 

Though they know it would be wrong to outwardly speak ill of the war, they are all disillusioned at this point, and left to cope with the angst rendered to an entire generation who all experienced too much too young.

But what appeals and engages me most, is how the characters move through the scenes as though nothing can touch them. This is where the “lost generation” complex comes in with the lack of hope, and living as though nothing they do has or could have an impact, captures another side of a historical decade. 

Moving from the deafening parties of Paris, to the gripping bullfighting rings of Spain, they search for their new purpose and satisfaction in a world -- so open to them-- that yet now will never be seen as anything but empty and cynical.

Here, nothing is forced on you, yet everything Hemingway included has meaning. Their excessive drinking, unrequited love, bankruptcy, spiritual criticism, you name it. Reading between the lines has never been more enthralling. 

"The book to read is not the one that thinks for you but the one which makes you think" -- Harper Lee

Good evening everyone! Today, I have a young adult fiction trilogy I have been meaning to discuss for some time now, all written by the Mrs. Megan Shepard, and each based off a different well-loved classic. The first time I came across these books, they were only meant to be something to occupy some travel time during a vacation. Yet as the series has progressed, these have become favorites of my young adult life. 

The first of her series is titled The Madman’s Daughter (Inspired by H.G. Wells’s The Island of Dr. Moreau) . Now, I read these only a few years ago, and found myself undeniably hooked. Despite any sort of debating opinions I may have had from time to time while reading each book, my heart was far too invested to turn back. 
Right from the start you will notice her style of writing is darkly enchanting, and truly invigorating! It goes well with her heroine, the young, orphaned and abandoned, Juliet Moreau. 

Living in old London, Juliet is an intelligent girl, working as a maid in a medical university. She is versed in anatomy and could likely be a doctor with her know-how if it were not for the times and her finical standing. Her mother died a few years previous, and her father was disgraced for his medical work. Long since forced into hiding, Juliet believes he is dead. 

The beginning is rather raw, as our protagonist is dragged by her friend, Lucy, and several crude boys, into the University after hours, leading her to a shocking discovery which may prove that her father may not only be alive, but also continuing the dangerous, immoral, and gruesome experiments! 

Determined to finally know if he is the monster all his previous colleagues declared he was, Juliet falls into the path of an old friend who may be able to help her. Montgomery, her father’s handsome apprentice lets slip of an island where he has been aiding the shamed doctor. Casting away with them, Juliet has no idea the dangers and madness she is about to descend in to, and the truths she will live to regret. 

Though the book became a little too far-fetched for me, when it came to the actual experiments we find he father dedicated to, the plot and stakes are truly gripping! I really did enjoy the book and found myself actually surprised and at times making hilariously intense expressions as I read. 

The second book in the trilogy, Her Dark Curiosity (with inspiration from Robert L Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), may be my all time favorite book in the series. Without giving much away, in case you have not yet read the previous book, Juliet is back in London. And while she is tiredly trying to rebuild her life, it is suddenly shaken when an unknown murderer seems to be taking the lives only of those people close to her. 
Unnerved by the evidence found at each murder scene, Juliet becomes determined to entrap and put an end to whoever, or whatever, is ruthlessly killing the people of London. 

Impeded by the worsening illness inside her, Juliet’s condition may swing from alarming to critical in a matter of days if she is not able to obtain the serum in which to save her own life. On top of it all, trust begins to run thin and confusions ramped when rumors of a secret organization once founded by her father is thought to still not only be in progress, but powerful as well. 

Now tantalized by more secrets of her family’s past, and thrust again into frightful danger, a torn heart may be the terrible end of it all. 

In a hideous finale, A Cold Legacy is the last book to our gripping trilogy.

Inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Juliet is forced to flee her home and seek refuge with her companions to her relative’s remote manor on the Scottish moors. Right away we fear the mysteries which lie in the house, and those pursuing them beyond its walls. 
Here, Juliet will be forced to confront the darkness inside her, and decide if she is destined to be the madman her father always was, or scramble for the lighter path of her tragic mother. Though, with the basement looking like its own morgue, her own friends developing secrets and lies of their own, and the young children residents becoming more and more strange, it seems it may be too difficult not to fall into the curious madness lurking in every shadow. 

Finally dedicated to the man she loves, Juliet is risking losing it all as her part in the family’s secret seems without escape.

In a book where outside forces threaten the sanctuary of an end, sympathy and pure curiosity may finally turn our to be our character’s downfall. 

In every book I found my head spinning with each new nightmarish creature. But before you turn up your nose to the books, answer me this: who doesn’t love a good monster? Who doesn’t love the contemplative madness we deny is inside us all? And who doesn’t feel that spine-tingling thrill when we turn the page and another body is discovered? 

I loved the intelligence of these books, the questioning of what is actually right and wrong, and the constant movement of the plot that keeps you reading (which is also due to the fact that it is riddled with the guilty-pleasure type of romantic drama you get in young adult novels). Lets face it, these piquant books are loaded with twists and dramatic secrets. And every time I think I disliked an ending, or some slow part, the next book proved to me why the last was so good. They really do make you stop and contemplate the morality of something you never thought you would. And in the end, although you will fall in love with the characters, just like in Frankenstein and The Island of Dr. Moreau, you will find yourself wondering if you have not also fallen in love with the monsters. 

"Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are." --Mason Cooley 

Every now and then, if you’re lucky, you’ll find that one book that reminds you what reading is all about. For me, The Time Traveler’s Wife did just that. I received this book as a gift and fell in love with it from the get-go. No question, I would give it 5 stars. I found the plot line thoroughly captivating, and found it was only enhanced further by the several lovable, and painfully real, characters. 

My heart became invested almost instantly. I finished it in about a week, but still found myself slowing down so I could enjoy it longer. This book is the kind of book you want to relish in. This is the book that takes you away for a moment, but also will bring out the nostalgia you feel for life and for the past. 

This book, as it has been said, is a twist on your average boy-meets-girl plot line. It is a fantastic love story with diverse characters, and many painful obstacles which must be overcome. 

It is not what I expected, and far more real than I could have predicted. Though it is fictional (I hope), it is completely connectable. From wondering childhood, to fearful adolescence, to the threats of adulthood, the depicted times easily bring back old aches and forgotten laughters of personal years. 

Here, you are reminded of the pains people keep behind closed doors, the beautiful passions to immerse yourself in, the important chances and choices there are waiting in life, the mistakes that make us all human, and the love we are all capable of— the love which, if we allow it, can surpass all else.