the evolution of my crappy reading tastes: part two

*this is a long post. if you want me to drag you down memory lane, enjoy.

a couple of posts ago, which in the timeline of this blog is about a month, i wrote about the evolution of my reading and how it has unfolded over time. it was epic, really. now i will conclude what i have started with part one.

after high school typically one goes on to college -- this was 15 years ago (yikes!). i am from the midwest, so going to college after high school was more of an "everyone goes to college, there is no not going to college" thinking. i was one of those people. i went to The University of Minnesota when all i really wanted was go to The University of Wisconsin. Wisconsin didn't accepted me, i was heartbroken. boo! oh, how i planned my whole college life while in high school with the notion that i would be going to Wisconsin. i was devastated. like everything in your youth, it felt like the end of the world.

in college i put reading as a hobby on hold. i was too busy with school work and some drinking, or more aptly i was busy with drinking and some school work. i was an English major, or at least i finally settled on English after spending three years of trying to figure out what i wanted to do for the rest of my life. that's a scary thought, and one i am still working on. what the fuck do i want to do for the rest of my life? ugh! so i had a number of other majors that i went through.

the list:

• Anthropology/Archaeology - because i wanted to be the next Indiana Jones. seriously. 
• Computer Science - because a number of people in my family when this route, and it seemed to make them some money. unfortunately computers are not my thing. 
• Art History - because it brought me back to my Indiana Jones roots. i pictured myself as an art historian, working in a museum all sexy and bookish and smart, but i am not any of those things. what was i thinking? 
• Graphic Design - because i loved art, and i thought this would totally be my thing. i spent a year taking all these classes only to find out i wouldn't be able to transfer into the program at Minnesota and that i'd have to transfer schools. i was like "oh hell no!" let's move on.

by my third year i was looking at what classes i'd taken and noticed that if i went the English route i would be done the quickest and have myself an honest to goodness college diploma. after all, i was already three years in, and i would be damned if i wasn't getting myself a diploma. my time was filled with lots of reading and writing. then i came across the best news ever, if i do do English i could emphasize in Creative Writing instead of English Lit, instead of writing a long-ass thesis paper on some book, i could just write my own crap. that is how i got into writing and came to actually enjoy it.

good lord, this is not my long-winded college history of fuck up after fuck up (or as i like to call it "my time where i pissed away a big chunk of money"). it's a rite of passage.

in college i read all the staples that one in college reads. lots of Shakespeare, lots of British Lit and some American Lit. no recreation reading except for the Harry Potter book series. i loved those books. i never was a hard core Harry Potter fan -- you know the ones because i'm that way with my Jane Austen fandom; dresses, hair and food -- but i did enjoy the read. honestly, towards the end of the series i was just annoyed with Harry. he couldn't get his shit together and leaned on Hermione way too much. she was da bomb. i loved her. we really need to see more characters like Hermione in YA literature. i know Harry was all busy trying to survive Voldemort, but one would think "this crazy-ass guy is trying to kill me and the ones i love. i think i will try a bit harder in my Defense Against the Dark Arts class and all my other classes for that matter." you would never see Buffy back down. she would get her shit together and work out until she could kill the evil demons. i digress. the fantasy world of Harry Potter appeals to me; who doesn't want to find out that they are a witch/wizard and are destined to live in this whole different world/life? i sure did.

after college and Harry Potter, i would read here and there, but nothing really got to me. the boy would suggest books for me, but they just didn't hold my attention. i read some Murakami, but he just didn't do it for me. i know, i know. how can i say that because everyone seems to LOVE Murakami, especially the boy, but i couldn't even finish The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

now that i look back, i just wanted my guilty pleasure books. it all started with Twilight. NO! i remember seeing the teaser trailer for the Twilight movie and thinking that it looked amazing, and i have to find out more. oh Twilight, how you've sparked so much polar fandom. from haters to lovers, this book series is just crazy. i read the entire Twilight series, and i hated it, but i couldn't put these books down. there was just something about them. i couldn't stop. i could go on and on about how terrible the story is, or how Bella is the worst girl ever, or how Edward is the creepiest (like in a lecherous way) vampire ever, or how Meyers is the worst writer ever, but the internet is full of such reviews. my favorite is here, check it out. it's amazing.

the floodgates have opened. i really like The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris aka the True Blood books. they are super easy and fast, and they make me think that i too can write a novel because i am often dumbstruck by how stupid something strikes me as being when i read these books. i like the main character Sookie. she is sassy and strong, and sometimes she just wants to make it through the year without being beat up.

most other books that i've taken to reading recently are from the wonderful genre of YA (young adult for those who don't know.)
the books that i LOVED:

• The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins
• The Mortal Instruments series and The Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare
• The Divergent series by Veronica Roth
• The Graceling Realm by Kristin Cashore         
• any John Green books
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak    

there. the books that i enjoy and love. i could go on an on about each series because i tend to fall in love with book characters, i'm looking at you Peeta, Jem and Four. my evolution isn't very magnificent, but it's a nice little history of my crappy reading tastes. xoxo.

a book report: Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices #3) by Cassandra Clare

*spoilers! 

i really wanted to tie in Clockwork Angel and Clockwork Prince in this book report, but this is looking to be long winded, so i decided to focus on Clockwork Princess.

okay. this book/series has turned me into a total fangirl. i have no idea why--well actually that is a lie, i totally know why. it's all because of Jem. i will state right here right now that i am team Jem (i heart Jem) and the team Jem vs. team Will crap has been insanely crazy (or the reader reviews and discussion topic threads from Goodreads have led me to believe). i feel that this team crap is nothing like the Edward vs. Jacob angst from the Twilight Saga because, let's be honest, there really wasn't a love triangle in those books. Bella only ever loved Edward. it was obvious in the first book. ugh, it all comes back to Twilight somehow. but in all actuality, it was really hard at the end of Clockwork Princess to really be team anyone, because everyone wins at the end. i know die hard team shippers (really fangirls?) are either really pissed or pleasantly surprised with the ending.

i really liked this book. i'm not sure if you could tell. the main reason i liked this book was because of the characters. i love Tessa, Will and Jem (especially Jem if you haven't been able to tell. okay i'll stop because it's getting a bit creepy). there's just something about these characters that struck a chord in my heart, and i haven't been able to find this connection to characters in a lot of books. i can only name a handful.

i started off reading Clare's City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass. i liked them, i liked the whole Shadowhunter thing. it reminded me of Buffy a bit, and who doesn't love Buffy? i picked up these books right after i burned through The Hunger Games trilogy, and i was craving some more bad ass characters. then i learned of another series by Clare that is a sort of prequel to her Mortal Instruments series, and it sounded interesting. then i fell in love. i really liked Tessa. i liked her more than Clary, much much more. i was slightly annoyed with Will because i saw him as Jace, and i knew that Will is supposed to be a distant relative of Jace's, but i was like, "come on." and then there is Jem, who in the first book i liked but by the second book i fell in love with. oh good lord!

so what is it with this book you ask? for me, it's the characters. the plot was just so-so, but i didn't care. i had to know if Tessa was going to marry Jem, and i truly cared deeply for all three of the characters. i wanted the best for them.

so, this is where things get interesting for me, and how i look at this book because Clare brings up a good question that a lot of people do not like. i said earlier that i really liked this book, but when i first finished the book i was a little shocked. both Will and Jem get the girl, not at the same time, but they get her. a lot of readers looked at this as Clare wanting to make everyone happy, to pander to her readers, but really she just pissed off more people than pleased them because people are really pissed, yo. team Will shippers are all like "having Tessa and Jem getting together is disrespectful to Will, and it disregards their love as nothing more than trivial, and how could Tessa tell Jem that she loves him after losing Will because it's like emotional cheating." i wanted to say, "settle down team Will shippers, it's not the end of the world. Tessa mourned Will for 80 years, she is immortal so she will at some point move on." it's like talking someone off a ledge. team Jem shippers were kind of chill and all like "ick, Jem is getting Will's sloppy seconds. but it did suck that Tessa jumped into bed with Will right after she found out Jem had "died". Tessa is a whore. yo." it seams that people don't mind that Tessa can and will move on but not with either Will or Jem. good lord, some people have really high morals. not me because i am evil and amoral.

i personally thought that Tessa loved Will more. i think a lot of that had to do with the fact there was very little, if any, POV from Jem. it seemed that Tessa always thought of Will first, he was always the first boy she mentioned or thought about or worried after, and so as the reader i took the hint and thought Clare is trying to tell us Tessa loves Will more. but i did feel that the interactions between Tessa and Jem in the second book really showed me that he loved her, and i could see Tessa falling in love with Jem because that is what i did. i didn't see any falling in love with Will because i felt that i was always told that he loves her, and Tessa thought Will was super hot, and they both enjoyed reading, and who doesn't enjoy a sexy book nerd?

having Clockwork Princess end with everyone "winning" and getting what they want has upset a lot of people, and i think a lot of that has to do with what Clare is trying to say with these characters. i think she has had a bunch of people ask her about this idea of Tessa ending up with both Will and Jem because she posted a statement on her tumblr about exactly this. this is why i really liked this book (it's a long quote but really great).

We are taught to expect things from love triangles. As you said, there are no rules, but in many ways the purpose and intent of a love triangle is seen to be that a person who is torn between character A and character B makes the statement "I love you, character A, more than I love character B, and so I will be with you. The end."
That is what is expected, and that is exactly what did not happen, and so I am not surprised that it would make many feel a bit uncomfy. The Clockwork series has a love triangle, but it is also about love triangles, and like I’ve said before, is about what I wanted to say about love and about life.
We are taught by many romance narratives that one can feel only one great love in a lifetime. Even if, as in the example here, the person you married, and loved, has been dead eighty years, the idea has been entrenched in us by media that loving someone else next, as much, diminishes or undermines that love. It is the purpose of the Disney “happily ever after” coda — we don’t want to know what happens after the couple gets together: we assume an unclear sort of happiness awaits, but don’t want to know if they fight, or one of them dies first, or any of the things that happen in actual life. Their love story ends when the curtain comes down, and therefore they are preserved in happiness forever, like flies in amber — and none of the messiness of real life, of loss and death, of cycles of happiness and sorrow, of the inevitability of aging, ever touch them at all.
I think this is an actually damaging way to think about love. Love, even romantic love, is not something you only feel once and forever, and to have loved one person does not make love that you feel later less. Love isn’t a zero sum game: we’re not issued a bucket of love at birth and the more of it we give out, the less we have (in fact, the opposite is true.) Very few people remain with their first loves forever; very few people love only one person romantically ever in their lives. Yet we are told that is the ideal we should strive for. That if love is followed by loss life is destroyed, and an attempt to move on cheapens the love we had before. It’s a narrative I’ve seen ruin people’s lives, literally, and so it’s one I both reject, but wanted to explore.

after coming across this quote about the "love triangle" it all just clicked for me and what Clare is trying to accomplish in this series. i think a lot of people won't get it (and chose not to get it) because it comes down to a matter of morals and where one stands when it comes to love and marriage. most people only believe in the "one true great love", in stories and in their actual lives but we all know that it isn't possible. just look at the divorce rate here in America, about 50% of all marriages end in divorce. this is where a big can of worms is opened and a crazy discussion occurs about people believing in "one true love" or not. this is exactly why we have places like Goodreads. i personally believe in love, hell i fall in love all the time, and it is crazy and it breaks my heart, but i do not believe in this "one true love" idea. that is why the ending sits so well with me.

oh good lord! there is so much other stuff i want to talk about this book.
 
to be honest at first i was a bit upset, i wanted Tessa and Jem together. they did end up together, so why does it matter that they hooked up later as opposed to the beginning? then, when i stepped back from the story and really looked at it i saw the love between Jem and Will and i was like "holy cow this is totally a bromance". when Jem left to become a Silent Brother, Will was heartbroken. i believe Tessa was more concerned about Will and his heart breaking for losing Jem than her own heart breaking from the end of their engagement. each person in this triangle truly loved the other two people with all their heart. each love is different and its own kind of love. you can't tell someone, anyone how to love one another, and you can't love two people the same way because each person is different. hell love is different, and it evolves (ask anyone who has been in a long ass relationship, like me and the boy, our love is not the same love as when we first got together.) oh good lord listen to me, i am such a sap. i need to move on otherwise this could get ugly.

i absolutely adored the Sophie and Gideon love story. how Gideon would call for scones just to see and talk to Sophie, and then she finds the pile of scones under his bed because he doesn't like scones. i thought it was super cute and sweet, and when Sophie storms out of the room after finding said scones, and Gabriel had been laying in Gideon's listening to the two of them and was all like "nicely done, brother." i had a chuckle at that. and when Gideon proposed to Sophie, super awkward and precious.

the ending or more importantly, the last few chapters i loved deeply. it was a beautiful end for Will, a wonderful way to say goodbye to a character that many people loved. boy, did i cried my way through the end of this book. i felt that Will lead a long beautiful life with the woman he loves. they had children together and they got to see them grow and have children of their own. then we as readers got to let him go. it was nicely done, and i truly felt as though we buried Will. side note, anyone who thinks that Will wouldn't want Tessa to move on and find another love is crazy. it's unfair to Tessa to not have her move on. it seems harsh but realistic y'all. Tessa grieved for Will for 80 years. what more do you want?

oh good lord! i can go on and on about this book. i just really enjoyed it. it's funny how people's reactions to it are so drastic. if they are a team Will shipper, they did not like the ending at all and if you are a team Jem shipper you didn't mind how it ended. what seems to be an added bonus is we might see Tessa and Jem in some of Clare's other books, which i'm totes excited about y'all. xoxo.

Beautiful Creatures: book vs film

Beautiful Creatures is one of those books that i decided to read because i saw the movie trailer (the same way i came about reading the Twilight saga). yes, i am one of those people. always late to the party, but who the hell cares? i thought the movie looked great. it was right up my alley. a film adaptation of a YA book, i am so all over this. i decided to check out the book before i saw the film, and this past fall i read Beautiful Creatures. the first book in a series of four. oh good lord.

all i can say is that i like this movie much more than the book. i felt a lot was changed from the book; a lot in a good way. most books that are made into movies fall into the trap of needing to get every last bit of the book. that staying true to the book is a must. don't get me wrong, i think that is a good thing and very important especially for a book of which i am a fan. the filmmakers of Beautiful Creatures gutted this book, and i liked what they showed me.

*spoilers!

i am going to start out with a short like/dislike list of the book (well as short as i can for something that i had a few issues with).

• i really wanted to like this book. i gave it 3 out of 5 stars on Goodreads (but have changed it to 2 out of 5 after realizing that i really just thought it was okay).
• i liked that the protagonist was a boy. you don't see that a lot in YA books, and i feel that we need to see more of that.
• i like that it was about Casters (a fancy name for witches). i enjoy the paranormal, but the whole vampire thing is getting stale, and i have a history with witches. hell, i wanted to be one so badly that when i was in high school i was a Wiccan. yes i was one of those girls. we can blame Buffy for that.
• i enjoyed Ethan wanting to leave his hometown and his crappy little life because i was that kid when i was in high school--thinking life was better somewhere else and not enjoying what you have--so i related to that.

now what didn't like about this book.

• i thought this book was just boring and i thought it was too long. it took me a while to read it because i would just get board with it and put it away. i had to force myself to finish this book. (and to think i bought the second book.)
• the ending was all over the place. i just didn't like it. first there was the claiming and then all the kids from the high school showed up for a concert on the same day of the battle reenactment (holy hell). then Ethan's father being forced to commit suicide. then Ethan having to go to the Caster library to get to Ravenwood Manor because it was the fastest (at this point i was like "what the fuck?"). then Ethan dying. then Macon dying. then Lena NOT being claimed (and then i was like "no fucking way. this is how we are setting up the second book. this is bullshit"). ugh.  needless to say, i did not like the ending.
• i thought the whole telepathy between Ethan and Lena was a cop out. if you want to get into the head of more than one character then the story should be told in the third person.
• this leads me to the fact that a lot of weird things would happen between Ethan and Lena but they would never question it or try to figure out why it's happening. (personally, if i could talk to the boy that i liked through telepathy, i would be all over my uncle trying to figure out what the fuck is going on. or the fact that each time we would kiss and make out, said boy would have a hard time breathing or a heart attack. i would want to know what is going on.) but not these kids. it didn't really bother them.

oh good lord i can go on forever.

• when i said that i like that the protagonist was a boy, well it is in theory. the execution did not work in this book. when i started reading this book, i thought Ethan was a girl. i had to go online to double check that he was a boy.

okay. i am going to stop. i feel bad when i don't like a book. the funny thing is i thought i was okay with this book when i finished it. but the more i reflect on it the more i realize that i didn't really like it.

i did like the movie. it was great. it played like Twilight in reverse. and i enjoyed the whole southern gothic thing they were going for.

• the movie didn't play as depressing as i had read it in the book: with Ethan being depressed about his mother's death and father turning into a shut-in; and Lena just being an annoying depressed teen with "something greater" going on with her and no one understands her. whatever! i liked Ethan and Lena better on the big screen. Lena wasn't as angsty as i read her in the book and the same goes for Ethan.
• at times Ethan (played by Alden Ehrenreich) was a bit too hammy for me, and i did find this southern accent a bit much, but i got used to it.
• Emma Thompson who played Mrs. Lincoln was just great. she was beautiful and flawless. i was just taken by surprise by her in this film. bravo Emma.
• the relationship between Ethan and Lena (played by Alice Englert) was more believable in the film for me than in the book.

some big changes from the book was:

• Ethan and Lena's relationship. in the film she had to give him up for the curse/claiming. that didn't happen in the book. so Ethan goes for some time in the film thinking that he and Lena never had a relationship. but of course at the end of the film he finely remembers because their love is so strong. 
• Lena's claiming/birthday/battle reenactment scene where Ethan/Macon die is toned down to where it's manageable and believable.

i do feel that Macon had better lines in the book, but i still liked him in the film. as my friend said after we say the movie, Jeremy Irons played Macon like a Coronal Sanders meets Liberace. she hit it right on the head with that statement.

okay, okay. i am done. good lord it is a lot to take in. but the big question is, "would i recommend the book or the film to anyone?" i would say you can pass on the book but the film is fun. but be warned, it is a teenage angst film. i will more than likely read the second book in the series to see if it goes anywhere (i am a masochist for heaven sake. y'all should know this by now). xoxo.

fangirl obsession: Divergent

i can be a bit obsessive--well, really obsessive, if we're being honest. usually it's with things like movies, television and books. i am not an obsessive crafter or do-er of things because that would require me to be active, and i am not an active person. my pinterest boards would suggest that i have plans to be a crafter and to do many things, but i will never do those things. pinterest is just a place for my intentions to go and DIE. but maybe someday i'll sew that quilt i've been working on for the past 15 years. maybe.

my most obsessive self comes out with books. i have a really REALLY hard time with them because i will hands down fall in love with characters. i become so invested with the story i will go nuts and then my internet stalking will begin. oh the rabbit holes i have fallen down while ingesting as much crap as i possibly can of stories and characters from books that i couldn't get enough of.

one of these said obsessions is that of Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth. i couldn't put these books down and i can't wait for the third book to come out this fall (because all good YA needs to come in the form of a trilogy, of course). and what always comes next for popular YA books? a movie. yay! then the disappointment comes in the form of casting of these characters. because hollywood just can't seem to get casting right in a majority of these movies. just my opinion y'all.

so am i ever gonna get to the point of what i'm posting about?

Divergent the movie is being made. yes i know, i am way way behind the news here. i will always and forever be behind the news, so get over it. if you want up to date info, do not come here (i always get my news from Oh No They Didn't). anyways, the movie will begin filming in Chicago in the spring. yay! Tris will be played by Shailene Woodley (from The Secret Life of the American Teenager) and i'm ok with that casting. who will play Four? (and we will not call him Tobias here!) let's ask Woodley (from MTV news at Sundance),

dude, i want to find him. we have been doing some tests. we've been doing some auditions. we'll see what happens.

but my favorite is what she said about the actor who will be Four,

the thing about Four is that he has to be a man. no feminine actors, please. you cannot walk in that room in pretty little boots and pretend you're a man. i'm sorry. you need to walk in there, and you need to not have muscles that look good and not actually work. there have been a few guys that have this power about them. it's a natural masculine power that some people have and some people don't. there's nothing good or bad or wrong or right about it. this character needs to be extremely masculine, and his eyes need to scream vulnerability and sensitivity. it's really hard to find in a dude, especially a dude who can act.

i love it! and dude, so many dudes.
but i agree with her. i am very curious as to who they will cast as Four. i feel there is a lack of younger male talent in hollywood. like, for example, the casting of The Hunger Games Peeta and Finnick. but that rant shall be for another day. xoxo.

my book list 2012

here is the list of the books i've read in 2012.

my goal was to read 25 books. mission accomplished! and then some.

now just by looking at my list, i read a lot of YA and crap. but it's crap that i enjoy, so get over it (i'm looking at you josh)! i do try to sneak in an "adult" book every once in a while--and when i say "adult," i mean books that have complex plots written by authors who didn't start out in fan-fiction and who can put together a sentence and paragraph like they are writing a poem, ahhh literature. but who am i kidding? "adult" books can be so boring and wordy.

i shouldn't be mean. YA is what got me reading again in the first place. when i was younger (a young adult if you will), i read. a lot. but then college happened and reading as a hobby was placed on the back burner. then the rest of my 20s happened. i should say that i got married and started having children, but alas, it was just my drunk 20s that passed me by. i would pick up a book here or there, but nothing would really hold my interest, so i just stopped reading.

but i love books and bookstores (oh how i love book shopping), so i would buy and buy and buy (i mean look at all my books, it's a bitch to move them all). and slowly, i was drawn to the YA section (all the pretty girls and beautiful boys on the glossy covers). and then i bought a YA book (gasp!). i feel like i am chronicling my descent into hardcore drug use. it's just books, y'all.

39. Fire (Graceling Realm, #2) by Kristin Cashore
38. The Host by Stephenie Meyer
37. Bared to You (Crossfire, #1) by Sylvia Day
36. The Iron Daughter (The Iron Fey, #2) by Julie Kagawa
35. The Iron King (The Iron Fey, #1) by Julie Kagawa
34. You Suck (A Love Story, #2) by Christopher Moore
33. Bloodsucking Fiends (A Love Story, #1) by Christopher Moore
32. Graceling (Graceling Realm, #1) by Kristin Cashore
31. Blood Promise (Vampire Academy, #4) by Richelle Mead
30. Shadow Kiss (Vampire Academy, #3) by Richelle Mead
29. Frostbite (Vampire Academy, #2) by Richelle Mead
28. Looking for Alaska by John Green
27. Good For You (Between the Lines, #3) by Tammara Webber
26. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
25. Vampire Academy (Vampire Academy, #1) by Richelle Mead
24. Where You Are (Between the Lines, #2) by Tammara Webber
23. Between the Lines (Between the Line, #1) by Tammara Webber
22. Rebel Angels (Gemma Doyle, #2) by Libba Bray
21. Easy by Tammara Webber
20. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
19. A Great and Terrible Beauty (Gemma Doyle, #1) by Libba Bray
18. Clockwork Prince (The Infernal Devices, #2) by Cassandra Clare
17. Free Four: Tobias Tells the Story (Divergent, #1.1) by Veronica Roth
16. Insurgent (Divergent, #2) by Veronica Roth
15. Divergent (Divergent, #1) by Veronica Roth
14. Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices, #1) by Cassandra Clare
13. Stone Garden by Molly Moynahan
12. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
11. Fifty Shades Freed (Fifty Shades, #3) by EL James
10. The Big Sleep (Philip Marlowe, #1) by Raymond Chandler
9. Fifty Shades Darker (Fifty Shades, #2) by EL James
8. Fifty Shades of Grey (Fifty Shades, #1) by EL James
7. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
6. City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3) by Cassandra Clare
5. Feed by MT Anderson
4. City of Ashes (The Mortal Instrument, #2) by Cassandra Clare
3. City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1) by Cassandra Clare
2. Dead as a Doornail (Sookie Stackhouse, #5) by Charlaine Harris
1. Ender's Game (Ender's Saga, #1) by Orson Scott Card

i have some thoughts on some of these books, and i would like to write about them but not all of them. some were just okay; others i LOVED. some had characters that i fell so deeply in love with i can't believe myself. what am i, a thirteen-year-old girl? sometimes i think i might be.

so stay tuned. and i might just write about the characters that i fell in love with. that might be fun or really really creepy. xoxo.

currently reading? Fire (Graceling Realm #2) by Kristin Cashore

i've started the second book in the Graceling Realm series.

i'm actually really excited about this book. i loved the first book Graceling, and how couldn't you love a kick-ass girl fighter in a fantasy old-fashioned kind of world? so i thought after having read or having tried to read The Host, i might as well read something that i might like. xoxo.

a book report: The Iron Fey series, books 1 & 2, by Julie Kagawa

The Iron King & The Iron Daughter
and where i will stop reading for i cannot finish this series.

"Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined."

i was totally hooked with this catch line.
secret destinies? check.
faeries? double check.
fates of all hang in the balance of just one girl? triple check.

i really wanted to like these books. i haven't read a lot of faery fiction, and i really wanted to get into them. but i'm thinking i might have to go elsewhere to satisfy my faery lust.

*spoilers will be brandished, be warned

the series starts with The Iron King, where in typical YA fashion, a young girl who just turned 16 finds out she is not who she thought to be (i am hooked). she has her best friend by her side and an adorable little brother, who ends up being kidnapped thrusting Meghan into a world she never knew existed. oh boy!

the story ends up being a bit of Labyrinth and Alice in Wonderland (but i liked it and didn't mind). Kagawa is a good writer and her descriptions of the Nevernever (the faery land) is great because i can really picture what she is writing about.

we find out that Meghan's best friend is that of Puck, made famous by A Midsummer Night's Dream (which i liked). and we can't forget the love interest, Prince Ash (because the best friend can never be the love interest). so of course there will be a love triangle. ugh. okay, i can handle a love triangle, i can.

but as the story goes on, Meghan who stared out as a strong teenager with a brain turns into Bella Swan. ugh again! Meghan and Ash spend time trying to defeat the Iron King so Meghan can save her little brother and bring him back home and in doing so i am told they fall in love. but i really didn't see it. i felt no love, but Ash is super hot and a Prince, so i'm supposed to fall in love with him, right?

and the story ends with a nice little cliffhanger. and i'm like, "okay, this first book was alright. i can see it going somewhere. i want to know what happens with Meghan because i can see some dark things happening with her, and i like that." (i said all that out loud, really i did.)  


now onto book two, The Iron Daughter, which i had a hard time finishing.

what happened to Meghan? there was potential for a strong, fiery teenager who needs to take on the world to save what she loves. instead she turned into a whiny teen who cries all the time. like all the time.

it goes something like this:
Meghan becomes obsessed with Ash, because i am told she is in love with him. please show me, don't tell me. then Ash treats her like crap, telling her that she shouldn't trust him, that he will kill her if his Queen asks him to and he insults her in front of his brothers and his court. at this point i would be like "oh hell no!" f this s! but Meghan doesn't react this way and loses my respect.

so she cries and cries and falls into a coma (what?) and pines for him. he continues to tell her they can't be together, and then she turns to her best friend (poor Puck). ugh! then at the end Ash tells Meghan that he loves her. this after he tried killing her and her family. he was choking her to death for pete's sake (i know, i know, he was under the control of Virus, but still i just couldn't go with it). so at the end she leaves everything and goes off with Ash.

ugh!

up until the epilogue i was done with this series. but what Kagawa is really good at is leaving an opening where i'm all like "maybe i should read the other two books in the series". but no, i am stopping here. i'll just read others' reviews of The Iron Queen and The Iron Knight on Goodreads to get the gist of what happens (my CliffNotes if you will).

some thoughts:

• i really liked Puck. i guess i am team Puck, if you will. i didn't like that sometimes Puck would act all emo and teenagery. isn't he supposed to be extremely old? his angsty teenage years should be beyond him, right?
• i didn't see anything to make me want Ash and Meghan together. hell, he's still in love with his dead ex-girlfriend. i totally forgot about that. what is Meghan thinking? 
• i really enjoyed the talking cat, Grim. his dialog, along with Puck's was needed.
• the action scenes were good. i liked that the books were filled with action, but they got predictable because they always defeated the bad guy.

i really wanted more from this series. but i kept on seeing Bella Swan in Meghan and i was over it.
i hope you enjoyed this report. xoxo.