THE RAVEN BOYS (The Raven Cycle #1) by Maggie Stiefvater

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Release Date: September 18th, 2012
Source: Gift from friend
Format: Paperback
Pages: 408
Buy it: Amazon|B&N|Book Depository

“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark's Eve. Either you're his true love...or you killed him"

Every year, Blue Sargent stands in the churchyard, next to her mother waiting for the soon-to-be dead to walk by. Usually, only her mother can see the people that will die in the next twelve months, but this year she sees a young boy in an Aglionby sweater come out of the darkness––Gansey.

I am absolutely in love with this book from head to toe. The characters in are all so unique and complex. At first, this book was very confusing to me because there were so many characters introduced all at once and the writing style was very hard to get used to. It took me about 70 pages before I fell into the story and could not stop reading. Blue lives in a house with her mother, her aunts and a few of their friends who are all psychic. The only one who is not is Blue, but she when she is around them, she enhances their abilities. Gansey compares her to "...the table everyone wants at Starbucks...the one next to the wall plug."

credit to tumblr user eitherfearorlove

Then there is Gansey and his eccentric group of friends, Ronan, Adam and Noah, who attend Aglionby all boys private school.

Gansey comes from an extremely wealthy family, but is not your typical rich kid. He has an obsession with the supernatural. His quest is to find Welsh King Owen Glendower, who was supposedly buried under this energy line (ley line) and Gansey's hope is to find him. He tries so hard not to be the politician his family raised him to be because he does not want to be that pretentious ass hole rich kid, but you cannot help but hear the politician in him when he speaks. He speaks so beautifully and with such charm and charisma. Like when he says, “My words are unerring tools of destruction, and I’ve come unequipped with the ability to disarm them,” my heart stopped and wondered how a young boy can speak so exquisitely. He is the group leader than everyone adores and will never give up on. Even the way that Blue describes him, "He strode over to the ruined church. This, Blue had discovered, was how Gansey got places - striding. Walking was for ordinary people." 

Ronan comes off as the bad ass of the group. I kinda pictured him as being Jackson from Teen Wolf. The one who could care less about what you think of him. You see these moments of anger and violence in him, but then you also see these moments of anguish and sorrow from him as well.

Adam is going to Aglionby on scholarship and will not accept any finical help from any of the other boys. All Adam wants to to not be the poor boy anymore. He wants to make a name for himself without anyones help and getting into Aglionby was the first step.

And finally there is Noah who is the watcher who knows the most, but says very little. The slouchy shy one that people seem to forget. I loved the moments with Noah and Blue because he is just to sweet and comforting towards her.

You would not normally put a group of boys like this together, but when you do you get a friendship like no other. There is such a brotherly love between these boys and it makes my heart melt. They all care for each others so much even though they may not have much in common.

I have fallen in love with this series and cannot wait to read more and more. There are quite a few mysteries that will slowly unfold throughout this series and its extremely refreshing to know that yes, this quest for Glendower is the main problem, but there are other little problems to face along the way. I liked the paranormal feel the book had to it. It was very creepy and mysterious and you never knew what was going to happen next.

The one complaint I have is Blue's fashion sense is atrocious. As I read what she was going to wear I could help, but go with "Really? You're stepping out of the house in that?" It's small stupid thing, but other than that I was obsessed with this book while reading it. The sequel The Dream Thieves came out on September 17th, 2013 and I will be posting my review of that very soon. I gave this book 5 our of 5 stars. This paranormal thriller had me on the edge of my seat and left me wanting more.

Let me know what you think!
Lee Chand

Some face claims I made

Blue:

Gansey:

Adam:

Ronan:

Noah:

THE DARKEST MINDS by Alexandra Bracken REVIEW

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
Release Date: December 18th, 2012
Published by: Hyperion
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardback
Pages: 488
Buy it: Amazon|B&N|Book Depository

“There's this word. Nothing like it exist in the english language. It's Portuguese. Saudade. Do you know that one?... there's no perfect definition. It's more of an expression of feeling––of terrible sadness. It's the feeling you get when you realize something you once lost is lost forever, and you can never get it back again... Because the lives you had before––that we all had before––we can never get them back."

I don't even know where to begin with this book. At certain points of reading it I had to close the book and take a break because my heart was full of too many emotions. I had the pleasure of meeting Alexandra Bracken at BEA/BookCon in May of 2014 and she was so sweet and adorable. She has accomplished so much for such a young author and she is still just exceptionally polite and joyful. She created this world that is so beautifully built and is so unique. She brought every single character to life. You grew to love these characters as if they were your own flesh and blood. You felt their emotions, their pain and their passion.

In the Darkest Minds, one by one children of all ages being to die of Idiopathic Adolescent Acute Neurodegeneration disease (IAAN). The government starts to put restrictions on the entire United States, but they were not scared of the children that might die. They were scared of the ones who lived. They discovered that the ones that lived had a rainbow of specific powers that ranged from being extremely smart to mind control and telepathy. When Ruby wakes up on her tenth birthday her parents ship her off to a “rehabilitation camp” named Thurmond where each child is classified by color. Ruby spends six years in that camp without speaking a word when one day she escapes. She finds Liam, Chubs and Zu who escaped from another camp nearby and together hope to find East River; a place were everything is supposed to be better for these kids with special powers.

This book had everything from action to romance to comedy! It pulled at my heart strings in so many different ways, but the one thing that really got me was the friendship Ruby, Liam, Chubs and Zu shared.
Liam, the group's daring leader, is one of the most lovable male characters who cares for everyone as if they were his family. That boy was perfection bottled up into one cute blonde boy. And the Southern accent made my heart melt every time. Like when Zu had a nightmare and he comforted her in the middle of the night. OH LORD!
Chubs is just a bowl of sarcasm. He acts like he does not care about Ruby, but towards the end you can see how grateful he is that she found them. He is so wise and yet you see those venerable childish moments that remind you that he is still just a kid. He goes from saying things like, "The darkest minds tend to hide in the most unlikely faces." to doing something like this, "When a girl cries, few things are more worthless than a boy. Having two of them just meant that they stared at each other helplessly instead of at me. Chubs and Liam stood, up to their ears in awkward, until Chubs finally reached out and patted my head like he would have patted a dog."
And Zu. Just so cute and innocent, until she electrocutes everything. But yet still she is a child and Liam, Chubs and Ruby all take care of her and love her so much. She does not even need to say a word and she is still the cutest thing on the planet.

The romance is so beautiful and slow. It was not rushed at all and it made my heart melt. 
“Did you know...you make me so happy that sometimes I actually forget to breath? I'll be looking at you, and my chest will get so tight...and it's like, the only thought in my head is how much I want to reach over and kiss you.”
And then came the last 30 pages of the book. The last 30 pages had me crying for days after I read the book. That ending just ripped my heart out of my rib cage and shattered it into a million pieces. I did not expect it at all and it just made me cry because I could not believe that is how it ended. I kept looking to see if pages were ripped out, but no. It just left me with heartbreak.

Overall I thought this book was phenomenal. Beyond brilliance. I rated it 5 Million out of 5 stars if that is possible. This dystopian had me laughing, crying and in suspense. So amazing and there are just no words to describe my love for this book.

Let me know what you think!

Lee Chand

Just a little bonus these are the faces I pictured for the main characters
Ruby: Danielle Campbell

Liam: Mason Dye

Chubs: 

Zu:

WE WERE LIARS by E. Lockhart Review

We Were Liars By E. Lockhart
Realeased: May 13th, 2014
Published by: Delacorte Press
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 225
Buy it: Amazon|B&N|Book Depository

“They know that tragedy is not glamorous. They know it doesn't play out in life as it does on a stage or between the pages of a book. It is neither a punishment meted out nor a lesson conferred. Its horrors are not attributable to one single person. Tragedy is ugly and tangled, stupid and confusing."

  

Before you scroll down and read my review of We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, I recommend that you pick it up without knowing anything about it. That is exactly what I did and I honestly find it better to read a book this way. Jump in without even knowing an inkling of what may happen. All I knew was that it was a contemporary book and many people loved it. Even the synopsis on the back did not give away much. This book is very short and will not take long to finish, so I recommend reading it before you look at any reviews. If you do not want to go into this book blind then this is what I thought of it.

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The Sinclairs are a very rich all-American family. They are all tall, blonde and gorgeous, but behind closed doors they are not all fine and dandy. Every summer the Sinclairs spend the summer on their private island just off the coast of Massachusetts. This story follows a young girl named Cadence or Cady, who was in a tragic accident during her fifteenth summer on the island and does not remember a thing. Throughout the book she tries to remember the details of summer fifteen with her two cousins Johnny and Mirren and their good friend Gat.

This contemporary novel is short, but it doesn't feel that way. E. Lockhart has this amazing writing style where she can fit a huge part of the story (that feels like 40 pages) into just four or five pages. This book is only 225 pages but it felt like 300-400 pages long. The style of writing is also very mysterious and keeps you guessing. Christine from polandbananasbooks (watch her review here) said this book had a Mara Dyer feel and I couldn't agree more. There is such a huge mystery that you are trying to solve and Lockhart's writing is so descriptive, but yet you cannot paint the entire picture. It is like you are trapped in a fog and you see lights in the distance but you can't make out what is ahead until its to late and the headlights are right in front of you and the car hits you smack in the face. That being said, it is not the normal lovey dovey contemporary. Though it does have some romance, the whole plot is about trying to solve this mystery of Cady and her memory loss.

The friendship between Cady, Johnny, Mirren and Gat is just so sweet and cute. The moments they share together are some of the best parts of the book for me. There is one part where they are all talking about their mottos and they are all giving very serious answers and Johnny just goes, "Never eat anything bigger than your ass." :)

I enjoyed this book a lot and rated it 5 out of 5 stars! I loved it. Contemporaries aren't usually my style, but this was like no other. It kept you in suspense and kept you looking for more and more. Plus I love this little note on the inside jacket cover. 

Let me know what you think!

Lee Chand

GoodReads

WELCOME MUNCHKINS!!! :)

Hello beautiful people! I'm Lee and this is where I will be blogging and writing all about the wonderful and joyous books that I have read throughout my life time. A place to share my love for books with the world. I will post my opinions and how I personally feel about each book. That being said, this entire blog is my own opinion. Yours may differ and that is fine. Please respect my opinions and I will respect yours.

Just a little about myself. I'm from Long Island, New York. I love big and busy cities because there is always something to do. My birthday is August 4th and I'm hoping to receive more book that my shelves can cary. I'm a photographer and I play both guitar and piano.

I mostly read young adult books, but I also do read adult fantasy, contemporary and dystopian. I get on certain kicks. Some days I feel in the mood to read a lovey dovey contemporary and other days I feel the need for a kick ass story with some bad ass characters.

You can find my lists of books I've read, my TBR pile and my favorite books on my GoodReads (Lee Chand). My favorite books include, but are not limited to:

• Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling

• The Mortal Instruments Series by Cassandra Clare

• The Infernal Devices Series by Cassandra Clare

• The Darkest Minds Trilogy by Alexandra Bracken

• Looking for Alaska by John Green

• Divergent by Veronica Roth 

• The Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J Mass

• Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

• The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater

With this blog I hope to share with you all of the books I read and to help you choose a book that you will just fall in love with. Later on I will be posting more posts about many of these books explaining my love for all of them.

I am currently reading We Were Liars by E. Lockhart (I don't know about you, but whenever I hear that name Lockhart I think of that horrid professor from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.) I heard nothing but great things about it from my fellow reading buddies and when I went to Barnes and Nobel the other day I saw it and grabbed it immediately! I am about half way done and am loving it so far. I will post a full review later on when I finish with a non spoiler section for those who have not read it yet. 

I hope you join me on this adventure and share your thoughts and ideas with me as well!

Thank You

Lee Chand