Review: Unravel Me

Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

wow wow wow somehow this book ended up being even better than the first!!!!!

Juliette is now working for Castle and trying to deal with being a weapon for him and deal with her feelings for Adam and her confused thoughts on Warner.

Basically, this is the book where Juliette realizes that there are more boys in the world except for Adam. Kenji ended up being such an amazing friend, staying by her side even when everyone else in the area didn't want to be near her.

Also the change in Juliette was awesome. She's still this weak girl, but she's getting so much stronger and not leaning on Adam anymore and I'm just so proud of her.

Of course, the writing was amazing and intoxicating. I wish this author had a lot more books like this series because I would eat them up.

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Review: The Color Purple

The Color Purple by Alice Walker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I normally don't read classics because they just remind me of the ones I suffered through in grade school and parts of high school. The only reason I own this book is because at obscure used bookstores, I tend gravitate towards books I've heard of (instead of finding new books I could potentially be interested in). I'm so glad I got this!!!

The Color Purple is about a woman named Celie who has been raped and abused most of her life. She and everyone around her think very lowly of her until a famous singer named Shug Avery winds up in her home. Shug helps Celie deal with her past and present abuse, her confused sexuality, and her self-image. In The Color Purple, you get to see what a great change of character can occur when someone finally becomes loved.

The growth of Celie was amazing to read about, and I feel #blessed to be able to read this story. Literally the first page of this book is about her stepdad raping her. It only gets worse from there. She's beaten and given away to a husband who beats her even more. She also has to leave her sister, Nettie, which was the only light in her life at the time. Her children (from the stepfather) were given away, so she never gets to really know them. This whole first half of the book broke my heart. It was so amazing, after Shug coming along, seeing her grow more comfortable in her own skin. She became happier, too, which was very evident in the writing style of her letters to God (and later to Nettie).

"I am so happy. I got love, I got work, I got money, friends and time. And you alive and be home soon."

This start of a letter actually had me choking back a sob because I was just so happy for Celie. She deserves the world.

The writing was different, but not bad. First, the story is told in a series of letters from Celie (and some from her sister) to God, which initially had me hooked. There's something about books told in letter or diary form that intrigue me. They're a lot more personal and you get to learn so much more about the characters and what they're going through than even a regular, first-person story. Second, the writing wasn't perfect English. It was written sort of how the characters talked (ex. instead of "asked" it was "ast"). This made the book a bit more immersive, because the story may have been a lot different if I was just reading it in perfect English?? Does that make sense???

I would recommend this book to everyone. It does get graphic with the rape and other abuse scenes, though, so if those could be triggering topics, I'd stay away. But overall, the story isn't about the abuse; it's about overcoming abuse and sexuality and self-image. It's about finding your voice and finding love.

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Review: The Falconer

The Falconer by Elizabeth May
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received a free e-book copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for this opportunity!

The Falconer by Elizabeth May is a great fae fantasy book about Aileana, a girl whose mother was murdered by fairies. She seeks revenge for her mom's murder while also trying to fit into the constricting lifestyle of women in 1844.

This was a good book and a quick read for me, but there were some parts that didn't sit well with me. First of all, the main character Aileana reminded me a lot of Adelina from The Young Elites, in which her history and reasonings were very similar and the personalities were pretty similar. Sadly, I didn't like Adelina and didn't care much for Aileana either. I also didn't really like Aileana's bloodthirstiness. With all the other kick-butt assassin characters I've read in other books, they don't necessarily like killing people. Here, Aileana loves and craves killing the fae, which could've been an interesting aspect, but it just ended up a bit annoying.

The romance was very lacking in this book, and it would have been better if Gavin or Kiaran were more fleshed out characters, or even if there was no romance at all. The buildup to the romance with Kiaran seemed lackluster and didn't have me excited at all.

The plot itself was very intriguing! I just wish they went more into the "falconer" aspect (I mean it literally is the title). The name was thrown around a lot, but not much happened with it. Like it did, but it didn't. Where were the falcons???

I think four stars is a generous rating, but here it is.

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Review: A Dog's Purpose

A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a really cute book! It's all about the lives of one dog, who prefers the identity of Bailey the most. He keeps reincarnating until he discovers his purpose in life.

It wasn't anything too profound or deep, and I rolled my eyes a lot at this book, but also, this book was so funny and cute and I actually almost cried every time he got put down. (Typical me, emotionless w/ people but crying w/ dogs). I would recommend this book to any animal lover!

Also lmao the cat hate was so real

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Review: Blood and Ink

Blood and Ink by Stephen Davies
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received a free e-book copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for this opportunity!

I FINALLY FINISHED THIS BOOK AFTER A WHOLE MONTH. I do feel bad for putting off this book for so long, but things happen. Putting it off doesn't mean that this book was bad, though!

This book is about Ali, a Defender of the Faith, and Kadi, the daughter of a man who has illegal manuscripts. I don't know much about this history, so I can't say how accurate this is or how it compares to the actual story, but it was a pretty good historical fiction story.

The first 65% of the book was really slow, and I was actually thinking of DNF-ing this book, but, as I do, I hoped the story would get better and powered through it. I ended up liking the last part a lot, which saved this book from a one-star rating.

There wasn't much character development with anyone but Ali, which surprised me. I had an idea that Ali would become a better person, but he was just so headstrong that I just didn't know. I ended up really interested in his character and his reasoning for it all. It was intriguing seeing how both Kadi and Ali thought they were in the right. It was also a bit scary how extreme the Defenders of the Faith were, and how into the cause they were. Scary to think that this was based on a real event. I'm still not entirely sure what harem is, but I'm assuming from context it's similar to "sacrilegious." Davies didn't include it in his helpful glossary. :-(

There was some romance in this book, and I feel like it was required to push the story and character development forward, but it just didn't seem real. Kadi falls in love with Ali, the boy who had been harassing and targeting her, her family, and her friends this whole time. Their meetings were never really cute and flirty--they were pretty dark and violent. I just can't see how she fell for him.

Overall, the characters were decent, the story is slow and takes a long time to pick up, the romance a bit unbelievable, but this book still isn't bad. It isn't amazing and mind-blowing, but I ended up enjoying it.

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Review: A Court of Wings and Ruin

A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thoughts before reading this book: (1) this book cover is so green wtf (2) this books gonna fuck me up
Thoughts after reading this book: (1) this book is still so green it's distracting (2) this book fucked me up

A Court of Wings and Ruin is the third book in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series, and it was probably one of my favorites in the series. I still think is my favorite because it was so mystical and new, and this one was more brutal, but I still loved this to death and is my second favorite now.

THIS REVIEW IS NOT SPOILER-FREE. LEAVE NOW IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THIS (but let's be honest I think everyone's read this by now. it's all over my home page)

When I finished this book, I was just lying in my chair staring at the wall for a good half an hour, not knowing how to process all of my emotions. I WAS FEELING A LOT OF THINGS. I read the last 100 pages in one sitting and oh man did that break me. I never come close to crying when reading books, but this had me tearing up.

Just warning you now that there are going to be spoilers from here on. Just in case you decided to read on and ignore my previous warning.

Every scene with Rhysand towards the end broke my heart. He's definitely one of my favorite fictional characters of all time now, and he's been through SO MUCh, aND HE WAS WILLING TO GIVE HIMSELF UP FOR PRYTHIAN AND I SORT OF GUESSED THAT HE WAS GOING TO GIVE HIMSELF UP BUT OH MY GOD I WAS A PUDDLE OF SADNESS DURING THAT ONE SCENE (YALL KNOW THE SCENE).

I grew to love the Court of Dreams bunch even more through this book. More storylines were explained, and the character development was so real with some characters (Mor and Nesta).

I also found out I absolutely 100% love and support Nesta. Her pissed off stage at the beginning was actually one of my favorite parts of her, just because she was so different than the nice Night Court happy friends we were getting used to.

There's so much more to talk about, but so little time (and such bad memory, tbh. I don't want like one sentence reviews on scenes).

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