Review: The Fall

My Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

     I was extremely excited to read The Fall, especially because lately I kept seeing and reading about it everywhere. The synopsis seemed interesting, the cover is nice and it is labeled a horror book. I don't usually read horror books but I absolutely love horror movies, therefore I was excited to read such a book.

     However, my enthusiasm was cut short. This book was awful. I didn't like it one bit. I think that it was the worst book that I have ever read. It was way too long and much too boring. To make myself absolutely clear, nothing happens in this book. Absolutely nothing.

      Meet Madeline Usher, who lives in a haunted house. A house that lives under a curse which practically forces her to live there, without ever being able to leave. And that's about it with this book. Basically, everything that happens in it is Madeline saying "this house is haunted", "this house is cursed", "I cannot leave this house", "I should not upset the house."

     I can't even begin to say how frustrating it is. I don't even know why I read it all. I guess that I kept expecting and hoping that something would actually happen, but nothing did. Madeline also has a brother, Roderick. They are twins, but he doesn't seem to believe or be affected by the house too much. Can you believe that the most interesting thing about this book is that there's an almost incest idea in it?

      I am extremely disappointed. I must say that when I started reading it, I was pretty pumped up, thinking that this book will be awesome and that it will make the hairs on my arms rise. It did not. I don't even know why this book is categorized as horror, because I think that even the story about the big bad wolf that stalks a little girl is scarier than this.

     I am stunned that I actually managed to finish reading it. I really regret wasting my time on it, but I guess not all the books that you read are good. I honestly don't recommend reading this book to anyone. I think it's best that you stay away from it. It's, unfortunately, a waste of time.

January Books

Here are the books that I have read this month:

• Vain by Amelie Fisher; my rating: ★★★★★

• Ruin by Rachel van Dyken; my rating: ★★★★★

A New Year

     Hello, everyone! I know that it's been almost a month since I've last posted anything on my blog but the holidays were a time for being with friends & family, less for blogging. Now, you might say that the holidays are long gone - and right you are! But I think that I speak for everyone when I say that after the most magical time of the year, which is the holidays, comes the most tragic time of the year, which is...finals. So I only now have a little bit of free time and I decided to write here to let you, my readers, know that I have been absent from my blog because I'm extremely busy with finals.

     I know that I've said that I have many plans for the blog in my last post, and those plans are not forgotten. In fact, I think they grow a little bit bigger and crazier everyday, but unfortunately I just didn't have time to think any of them through. I still don't and won't - for about two more weeks. But I promise that, when I finally finish all my finals and have some time for myself, that I will get right back to the blog because there's so much to do!

     I barely even had time to read at all this month. I started reading Matched at the beginning of January and I think I literally didn't make it past page 60, which is extremely annoying and sad because I usually read 3-4 books per month. But with January almost gone, I'm looking forward to February, which I hope will be a much better month. I am also "reading" another book, which is Vain, although I doubt that I will finish any of these in January. I believe I also have some books that I have yet to review, but I promise it will all come as soon as I have the time.

     Until then, thank you for being with me in the past year and I really hope that you'll stay with me for another year, because I have great ideas for the blog, which is all very exciting! I'll see you as soon as possible and for those of you who are confronted by the same situation as mine, good luck in your finals and may the odds be ever in your favor! 

My Top Three: Best & Worst of 2014

2014 is almost over and I thought that I should summarize it by listing the best and worst of my reading experience this year. This is not about books released in 2014, but about book that I have read in 2014. My goal for this year, as seen on Goodreads, was to read 50 books. I didn't really believe that I would actually achieve it, but I did and I even surpassed it, with a total of 65 books read in 2014! 

I read stand-alones and series, romances and dystopias, good and bad books. I had favorite heroes and heroines and also least favorite ones. Overall, I am very pleased with my readings of 2014, the books I read I feel like they have enriched me. I laughed and I cried with them, I got happy, angry and sad. My goal for 2015 is to read at least as much as I have this year. I have other objectives and goals as well for the year that follows, and I wish that with time and a little bit of effort I will achieve them, but more details will come next year.

With that being said, I will also let you know that this is the last post that I will write this year. I would like to wish you all Happy Holidays, a new year at least as good as 2014 and if your 2014 sucked, I wish that your 2015 will be far better! For the remaining of the holiday season, may you all be safe and happy beside your loved ones. Happy New Year!

Review: Finale (Hush, Hush # 4)

My Rating: ★★★☆☆

     I'm going to go ahead and just say that Finale was better than its unworthy predecessor also known as Silence. But don't get me wrong, this book was about as good as that meal that you don't like but you're constantly forced to eat by your mother and you do it just to satisfy her. Who was I trying to satisfy while reading this book (or this entire series, while we're at it)? God only knows.

     All is well in Nora's world. Her big, bad daddy is dead - at her hand, mind you! - and she unexpectedly became leader of a big ass army, the Nephilim, responsible of leading them to war against fallen angels and getting them victorious on the either side. Just how convenient is that? And so cool! What could go wrong in putting the fate of hundreds of Nephilim in the hands of a seventeen year old girl who just learned that she's also descending from a bloodline of Nephilim?

     So that's about everything that's going on in this book. During about 3/4 of this book, all you'll get is Nora struggling to accept her Nephilim origin, battling the urge to gulp down on devilcraft, an almighty drink that makes her extremely strong and powerful, and trying to become the leader of this army, because she and her mother will otherwise die, thanks to the oath she swore to her dying (real) father. Doesn't this all sound like a soap opera? On top of it all, everyone in this book is Nephilim. Every single one, with the exception of Nora's mom and maybe the janitor in her high school.

     Moving on, everyone in this book is unbearable. Nora, Vee, Dante, at times even Patch and Scott. Let's not even mention Marcie, because unbearable is her middle name. And, because this is the final book, the conflict must be solved. And it is, in the last few chapters of this book. Literally. It all comes down to burning some feathers and when that fails, going for the most obvious way: slaughter between two supernatural races. Afterwards, all is well once more in Nora's world. And she and Patch may even be together for a little while!

     With all this being said, I am extremely pleased and happy to say that I finally finished this series. I don't know how I made it to the end, but I did and I am so relieved. I was so ready for it to be over. This series was, unfortunately, a major disappointment in my reading experience. As much as I tried to like it, I couldn't. I honestly feel like I've wasted too much time reading it and I think I can safely say this is one of the worst series I've read this year.

Review: Silence (Hush, Hush # 3)

My Rating: ★★☆☆☆

     I don't know how to say this gently, so I'll just say it: this book was awful. I absolutely hated it. I really, really don't want to be mean but I just couldn't bring myself to like this book one bit. It was exasperating! I literally wanted to scratch at my eyes and rip my hairs out every time I read a chapter.

     First of all, the good things about Silence. I have to be honest and solemnly thank the author for making this a fast read, otherwise I don't think I could've been able to finish this book. I'm not kidding. Thank the heavens that the writing style was easy to follow and that the overall action was extremely easy to read.

     Also, let me just point this out: thank God that there wasn't a love triangle! That's about the only good thing about this series, overall. Love triangles are usually cheap, corny and frustrating and this book didn't have it, which I can only praise it for. 

     Now, moving on, I must say that I was frustrated during 3/4 of this book. Really, memory wipe? Okay, that's actually pretty cool if you think about it. But, really, Patch would rather let Nora mumble alone in complete darkness - or, silence, if you wish - than fight for their future and fight for her? Granted, Nora is a terrible person but still. Patch swore up and down that he loved Nora and that nothing would keep them apart, and yet, here he was ready to just let go of it all. 

     I'm honestly getting mad just writing this review. Seriously, we're book 3 into this series and I don't know if there were 100 pages combined of Nora and Patch actually being together, without fighting or "letting go" of each other. This is not okay, not at all! I've said it before and I'll say it again - drama is alright. Everybody likes it, everybody wants to read a little of it and maybe even shed a few tears. But this book just went over the top. And don't even get me started on Vee - worst bestfriend of all times.

     On the other hand, I have mixed feelings about the action. The truth is, this book didn't keep me interested too much, which is why my mind kept slipping when reading it. Therefore, I don't really remember much of what happened, except the basics. I know that at times I felt like nothing was really happening. However, things changed a bit towards the ending and it all felt a little more fast-paced. 

     To sum this all up, I'm not going to pretend that this isn't a fit of rage where words start pouring out of me. Yes, I am very mad with this book. Yes, I am also very unimpressed and still wondering how on earth I was able to finish it but mostly, I'm wondering what would make someone want to read the final book after reading this one?

Review: Crescendo (Hush, Hush # 2)

My Rating: ★★★☆☆

     When I read a series, I usually expect the second book to be at least somewhat better than the first one but this wasn't the case with Crescendo. I really tried to like this book - this series, to be honest - but I feel completely on the outside when it comes toHush, Hush. Everyone said it was an amazing series but it really didn't get to me at all.

     So, the initial conflict is gone, everything is well in Nora's life and she and Patch proceed to live a normal life, happily in love like two teenagers. Um, nope, wrong book. That's what you would expect from a book like this, no? And maybe that's exactly the reason why the author chose a different path for this sequel. And I would be okay with that because everyone likes some dramatic twist of events in a romance, except this one was so poorly done that I literally rolled my eyes at least once per chapter.

     Marcie Millar? Seriously? I get it, everyone hated her from the beginning of the story and introducing her even further to the plot will make readers despise her even more, but why should she be involved with the fantastic/paranormal stuff that's going on in this book? It just didn't make sense at all. Of course, the author provided explanation for it but it still felt unnecessary to me.

     On the other hand, the character of Scott brought some interesting conflicts to the book. Even though he was very frustrating or even exasperating at times, I think that without him the book would have been much more dull. Naturally, it was obvious from the beginning that his involvement would be bigger than the author initially let on, thus I suspected from the beginning that he was supernatural. His introduction was interesting but predictable. 

     I was expecting something much more interesting from this book when I first started reading it. The fact that things got more heated towards the ending didn't make up for more than half of the book which was extremely boring. I wanted to see more of Nora and Patch but instead I got more of Nora/Scott and Patch/Marcie, which was not interesting. At best, it was frustrating, and not in the good way.

     Overall, this book was quite boring and frustrating most of the time but it did have some good parts. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't good either. I guess that if you started reading this series, you could continue and read Crescendo as well but don't get your hopes up - this book won't make you turn page after page in the urge of finding out what happens next.