Anna and the French Kiss- Stephanie Perkins

Cover

Title: Anna and the French Kiss
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Release Date: December 2010
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Rating: GO READ IT!

Goodreads Description

Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris--until she meets Étienne St. Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Étienne has it all...including a serious girlfriend.  

But in the City of Light, wishes have a way of coming true. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with their long-awaited French kiss?

This was a reread for me. I wanted to read it in honor of Isla and the Happily Ever After coming out this year (I didn't remember her that much from Anna, where she already appears) and I was also REALLY in the mood for an awesome Contemporary.
Anna and the French Kiss is an AWESOME book, it makes you sad (not so often) and VERY happy (more often) and I you keep on getting this fuzzy feeling in your tummy when there is a really great love story.

And that is exactly what's between Anna and St.Clair. I'm calling him St.Clair because I honestly prefer it to Étienne and also, I didn't earn the right to call him that (You can't just call him that, okay?!).
So let's talk about St. Clair now. Even though he isn't perfect, he is such a great character. And especially when he's embarrassed or if he's in an awkward situation, he is so CUTE. Honestly, St.Clair is one of my favorite love interests and with Anna he's just perfect.

And also, the side characters. I really liked the friendship in the group and how they all had their one problems to deal with. Josh was one of my favorites from the group (he's an artist) and this made me just so excited for Isla and her story. (If you don't know, Josh is the love interest in the book.) 

Also, PARIS. I love how Perkins describes the city, how she teaches us something about it without us really noticing. It's awesome. I'm really in the mood to go to Paris now and stand on Point Zero to make a wish. (Read the book and you will understand!!)

Just basically, I LOVE Anna and the French Kiss. I love how it is a mix between the love story between Anna and St.Clair but also how Anna earns confidence and Paris. 

So, if you like Young Adult Contemporary Reads, you should really pick this one up. I also recommend the companion novel Lola and the Boy Next Door, even though I personally could relate more to Anna and would recommend reading it first (because it is also first in order)

Just go pick it up. 

The Winner's Curse (The Winner's Trilogy #1)- Marie Rutkoski

The Winner's Curse Cover

Title: The Winner's Curse (The Winner's Trilogy #1)
Author: Marie Rutkoski
Release Date: March 2014
Rating: 7.5 stars
















Goodreads Description

Winning what you want may cost you everything you love 
As a general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions. 
One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction. Arin’s eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It’s not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin. 
But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined. 
Set in a richly imagined new world, The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski is a story of deadly games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is whether you will keep your head or lose your heart

Okay, so when I read the synopsis of The Winner's Curse I was really intrigued. I really like these stories where two people of different classes/enemies fall for each other. I really like it here too. The story is told from both Kestrel's and Arin's point of view which let us see all the sides of the story. It is set in a world where the Valorians (Kestrel's people) have conquered a lot of countries. They enslaved the Herrani and they really do have a lot of slaves. Right when I started the book I could just shake my head because it seems like they are begging for the Herrani to start resisting the Valorians.

I really liked Kestrel for the largest part of the book. She is really good at strategy, but doesn't want to enlist to the military which her father wishes for her to do. That means that she has to marry when she is twenty (Military or marriage- how awesome to be a woman in this world -.-). She is really nice and treats the slaves better than the other Valorians. At one point of the book she started to annoy me for a bit because she just didn't do anything, but for the most part she is a really great character.

With Arin I had my problems. I don't know why I didn't like him. He seems like a good person and he only wants his people to be free but... yeah. Also some of the actions he takes just seemed a bit unbelievable to me. If I wanted my people free so badly, would I risk it for love? I don't think so, to be honest.

There were also some side characters I really liked, but they could've been made more important because right now I feel like there were just Arin and Kestrel.

The story was really good but it seemed to me that the Climax came already in the middle of the book. This doesn't have to be bad because we know what to expect until that point and after that not so much anymore.

I really don't know how the Trilogy will continue and even though I didn't LOVE it, I'm excited to see how things will develop.

Sisters Red (Fairytale Retellings #1)- Jackson Pearce

Sister Red Cover

Title: Sisters Red
Author: Jackson Pearce
Release Date: June 2010
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance(?)
Rating: 6.5 stars















Goodreads Description

Scarlett March lives to hunt the Fenris--the werewolves that took her eye when she was defending her sister Rosie from a brutal attack. Armed with a razor-sharp hatchet and blood-red cloak, Scarlett is an expert at luring and slaying the wolves. She's determined to protect other young girls from a grisly death, and her raging heart will not rest until every single wolf is dead.Rosie March once felt her bond with her sister was unbreakable. Owing Scarlett her life, Rosie hunts ferociously alongside her. But even as more girls' bodies pile up in the city and the Fenris seem to be gaining power, Rosie dreams of a life beyond the wolves. She finds herself drawn to Silas, a young woodsman who is deadly with an ax and Scarlett's only friend--but does loving him mean betraying her sister and all that they've worked for?

I was really excited for that book. I love fairytales and fairytale retellings as well. And I really liked the book, but it couldn't really bring me to love it.

It tells the story from the sisters Scarlett and Rosie whose Grandmother was killed by a Fenris. It's told from both their POVs in the present. The story is really interesting and the fighting scenes are really action packed and also let me hold my breath sometimes.
I really liked the writing as well. Jackson Pearce has an easy writing style that makes it easy to continue reading.

My main problem was actually that I didn't couldn't identify with the characters AT ALL. I just didn't feel it and it took away a lot of what this book could've been to me. The same with the love story, I just didn't care about it.
Also, some of the secrets were so painfully obvious and they didn't see it that I wanted to go and slap the characters sometimes.

All in all Sisters Red is a entertaining read with good fighting scenes and an okay love story which I probably won't remember for that long.

Poison Study (Study #1)- Maria V. Snyder

And another post today! I'm sure all my imaginary followers are very happy now.

Poison Study Cover

Title: Poison Study (Study #1)
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Release Date: March 2004
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Romance
Rating: 4.5 Stars (I'm going to change my rating system really soon but for now it's still what I rated on Goodreads)













Goodreads Description

Choose: A quick death…Or slow poison...
About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.
And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust—and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.
As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear...

I read that book together with a friend and after a couple of chapters we always discussed it. And it was such a great book!

Yelena is our protagonist in this book and the story is told from her first person POV. The story plays in a area where we have Sitia, where magic is accepted and Ixia, which is ruled by a Commander who overthrew the king a couple years ago and who banned magic from Ixia. The story itself sounded from the beginning really great to me.

I love Yelena, she is so smart and she has a really strong mind. Another really important character is Valek, the chief of security who is a close friend to the commander. The two of them have to work close together and he really grows on you during the story.

The characters were really believable build. They weren't black or white and I absolutely loved that. There was a part where I was just suspecting about everyone and it was really fun talking about it with my friend.

But sometimes I just wanted to slap her because some of the things that were going on seemed pretty obvious to me and even though they suspected it NOBODY DID SOMETHING and it was so frustrating that I couldn't just reach into the book and be like "Okay guys, I'm here, I'm handling everything."

The magic became (and probably will even more in the following books) more and more important during the book and it didn't seem rushed or irreal or anything and I just really loved this as well.

Okay, what can I say. I really loved this book. There were some scenes that were written (and the action was really intense) so great that I just had to stop for a moment because I couldn't continue for a moment because in that moment I really felt it.

It was an awesome book, go read it.

Rebel Spring (Falling Kingdoms #2)- Morgan Rhodes

This is the second book of the series so there will be Spoilers for the first one!!

Rebel Spring Cover

Title: Rebel Spring
Author: Morgan Rhodes
Release Date: December 2013
Genre: YA Fantasy
Rating: 3.5 Stars








Goodreads Description

Love, power, and magic collide with war in the second book of the Falling Kingdoms series
When the evil King Gaius announces that a road is to be built into the Forbidden Mountains, formally linking all of Mytica together, he sets off a chain of events that will forever change the face of this land, forcing Cleo the dethroned princess, Magnus the reluctant heir, Lucia the haunted sorceress, and Jonas the desperate rebel to take steps they never could have imagined.

Auranos has fallen and the three kingdoms—Auranos, Limeros, and Paelsia—are now united as one country called Mytica. But still, magic beckons, and with it the chance to rule not just Mytica, but the world...

I started this book in February and wasn't really in the mood for it, but then this month I picked it up again and made it till the end.
So, I really like Morgan Rhodes' writing style, the book is very easy to read and it never gets boring.
We pick up pretty much were the first book ended. Princess Cleo is a prisoner in the palace trying to figure out how the ring works her father gave her, while Magnus is still waiting for Lucia to wake up again and Jonas is gathering Rebels for King Gaius' downfall.

We meet, as you can see, our old protagonists again, as well as a couple of new faces. I personally didn't really started to care much about most of the new ones, but I have to say that I changed my mind about some of the old (Magnus). The story picks up quickly again and the changes in POV keep it very interesting.

We also learn a bit about the countries that are not Mytica but farther away across the sea somewhere and I really liked that part. I'm also pretty sure that this will become even more important in future books.

However, there are some things that really, really bothered me. I read somewhere that this series is Game of Thrones for teens and I just feel like the author tried very hard to let it seem that way. If a person dies that is kinda important I'm just always thinking that the author might have done this to let her series seem heart wrenching and somehow similar to Game of Thrones because mostly it just seemed unnecessary to me.
This is only my opinion and it is a good YA series so far but somehow this comparison bothers me.

There are also some developments I didn't like. For example a really, really cheesy kind of insta love, which may be important for the story, but should have been more realistic because I just thought it was ridiculous.
Also, sometimes I couldn't understand the actions of the characters and just wanted to slap the stupidity out of them.

In conclusion I have to say that this is a enjoyable read with a great writing style, but definitely not one of my favorites and I'm not sure if I will continue the series.

Panic- Lauren Oliver

Panic Cover

Title: Panic
Author: Lauren Oliver
Release Date: March 2014
Genre: Contemporary YA
Rating: 3.5 Stars
On the back:
"What will you do if you win?"
Heather shook her head.
She wanted to say:
Run until I burst.
Build miles and miles and miles between me and Carp. Leave the old Heather behind;
Burn her to dust.
Instead, she shrugged.
"Go somewhere, I guess. Sixty-seven grand buys a lot of gas."

Goodreads Description

Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a dead-end town of 12,000 people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do.
Heather never thought she would compete in Panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She’d never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought.
Dodge has never been afraid of Panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game, he’s sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he’s not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for.
For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them—and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most

My opinion 

 I actually read it because a couple of my favorite book tubers made a Panic-Read-Along this month and I thought why not. I also didn't read a stand-alone in a while, so that was perfectly timed too and I am a big fan of Lauren Olivers Delirium Trilogy (well, most of it).

I loved the way the story was told. It was third person point of view in turn of Heather and Dodge and sometimes there were passages in which a noninvolved narrator would describe things that happened in Carp. This passages were probably my favorites.

I really liked the challenges of which the game Panic consisted, even though they were extremely dangerous and I'd consider everybody to participate in something so deadly crazy. These moments let me hold my breath and were really compelling and made the book totally worth reading.

I had problems with the characters. There were quite a lot of them in Panic, mostly unimportant ones, but at the beginning I got pretty confused with all the names. There were some characters I really liked, like Heather's best friend Bishop and the nice old lady Anne, but others, like Heather's other best friend Nat, or Dodge, I couldn't stand at all.

But there was a problem I had with all the characters. Their stories were pretty flat and therefor I couldn't really bring myself to care about most of them. Sometimes I also couldn't understand the motives behind their actions which made them seem a bit implausible

I also feel like a couple of the questions that came up while reading the book weren't answered or that story lines started but were never wrapped up.

The end in general seemed rushed and I would have liked to know what happened in the time between the last chapter and the epilogue.

Conclusion

While Panic was a light read for me with flat characters which I will probably forget pretty fast again, the challenges were awesome and it was really entertaining to read it.