Weekly Reading Update

Finished Reading 

I loved Devil's Daughter by Lisa Kleypas. I think it might be one of my favorites of hers. West is definitely one of her best male characters. Phoebe definitely grew on me and I loved having a book from the perspective of a mother. I also loved the ending so much! I will definitely be writing a spoiler free review for this book! 

I have officially found my least favorite Lisa Kleypas book. Again the Magic was not very sweet and honestly the characters were extremely shallow. The fact that there were two romances happening at once did not give enough room for development for any of them. Aline I thought was the most interesting character, but it did not make up for the 360 degree change in McKenna. I loved young McKenna who was sweet and I also loved his moments of vulnerability, but other than that I found him annoying and honestly mean. When I compare him to that of West as I had just finished reading Devil's Daughter, I realized he was just lacking depth. This book honestly is not necessary to any of the series so I wouldn't recommend it when Lisa Kleypas has so many other amazing books to read. 

I finally finished The Awakening by Kate Chopin and I hated the ending just as much as I hated the rest of the book. I respected the symbolism, but my loathing for just about every character, especially Edna, made getting through the story a horrible journey. I did however realize that one of my favorite short stories, The Story of An Hour, is by Kate Chopin. So I guess I don't hate her writing that much, I must just really dislike her characters!

Currently Reading 

I still have not finished Obsidian by Jennifer L Armentrout as I am listening to the audiobook and have about a half an hour left. I totally forgot what the ending is so I am very excited to finish it and continue rereading the rest of the series.  

I am about 3/4ths of the way through Mine Till Midnight by Lisa Kleypas and it might rival Devil's Daughter as one of my favorites! I love Cam and Amelia and how hilarious her writing is in this book! The romance in this book is so fantastic and I love how original all of the characters are. I am really excited to read the entire series and I find myself relating to Amelia so much!

In my Theory of Knowledge Class we are watching The Hunger Games to learn about ethics. It is really just a way to keep us entertained, but I happen to love the movies and rewatching them had  me itching to reread the books! So after school on Monday I spent the afternoon binging The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I totally forgot how simplistic the writing style is and it is kind of refreshing especially compared to the dense, imagery based books I read in school. I am definitely going to reread the whole series (and probably some fanfiction too!). 

Weekly Reading Update

I have decided to start a new weekly post where I give an update on what I have been reading! Sorry for the lack of activity, school takes up so much of my time. The good news is I have been making lots of progress in my creative writing and one of my novels is up to 17,000 words! I am hoping to be able to post more frequently and since the weather is getting nice maybe I can go take some more beautiful book pictures!

Finished Books

This week I plowed through The Risk by Elle Kennedy. She is one of my guilty pleasure authors because her writing is so entertaining! I have to say I did not like The Risk as much as I liked The Chase because I felt like the plot fell kind of flat. I did really like Brenna's strong personality and I enjoyed having the setting change from Briar to Harvard, but I felt myself wishing more would happen plot wise. It probably didn't help that this book really focused on hockey and I am not really into sports. I would recommend the Briar U series and the series it spun off from, the Off-Campus series to anyone looking for a fun and entertaining New Adult read. And if you love hockey then its a bonus because basically all of the male characters are obsessed with it! 

I also finished Scandal in Spring by Lisa Kleypas this week. I swear I have become obsessed with Lisa Kleypas recently! I love how she recreates history and I have actually learned so much about old England it is kind of crazy. Scandal in Spring was a great book and the Wallflowers series is just so good. I think it may be my favorite series of hers so far. Scandal in Spring I thought was better than Devil In Winter, but oh my gosh It Happened One Autumn was so good! Daisy as a character was so relatable and I loved how this plot actually kept me on my toes! While I do feel like Lisa Kleypas follows a very predictable plot line of characters who don't like each other or are secretly in love with one another are forced together and then fall in love and then something terrible happens proving their feelings for each other, the characters are one of a kind. I would highly recommend reading the Wallflowers series if you love historical fiction and romance and you like having a little bit of humor in your books. 

Currently Reading

I am currently reading Devil's Daughter by Lisa Kleypas (do you maybe sense a theme in my reading recently?). I am loving it so far. I had no idea this would be a Ravenels and Wallflowers crossover! honestly I just started the book so I don't have too many thoughts, but so far it is exactly what I love about the Ravenels and the Wallflowers all wrapped up in a tiny package. The only thing is I don't really like Phoebe that much, but I have a feeling she will grow on me.

I am also rereading Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout. I love the Lux series and I am actually listening to Obsidian on audiobook. The recording is really good and I had forgotten just how funny Armentrout is in this series. For me the Lux series feels kind of like the vampire diaries (The TV Show because wow were those books mediocre) where it gets very complicated so you honestly cannot remember how it ended, which means rereading is exactly like reading it for the first time! I would highly recommend Obsidian to anyone loves paranormal romance because this book checks off so many boxes by being swoon worthy, creative, unpredictable, humorous, and strong in both plot and character development. 

Due to schoolwork I am also currently reading The Awakening by Kate Chopin. I usually love feminist before their time 1800's-1900's writing, but my goodness this book is hard to get through. I think if I was in the time period the idea of a woman being bored as a wife and mother and pursuing an affair would be shocking (which it was as this book was banned from libraries and critics called it disgusting and horrendous), but unfortunately it is 2019 and the book just moves too slowly. Additionally all of the symbolism works towards one message, which just gets way too repetitive for a book with no plot and only one character with any development. I can understand the point of reading this in school, but I just find myself grasping for any sort of excitement in the book or humor or minor themes other than the one major theme being shoved in my face.

And that concludes my weekly update! Have a great week and happy reading!

Poetry

I have a love hate relationship with poetry. As you can tell from the writing section of this blog (which hopefully you have checked out by now...) I really enjoy writing poetry. It is a fantastic way to share complex emotions and it is very similar to the song writing process which I also adore. Reading poetry however is another story. While I have some lovely memories of pondering the writing of Pablo Neruda, most of my poetry experiences have been ones of annotation and literary analysis. Now do not misunderstand, as I jump for joy every time I get to write an English paper (yes I am a nerd, if you just figured this out then you obviously did not realize you were reading a book blog...), but sometimes I feel lost in the breaking down of poetry. In trying to evaluate how to prove my interpretation of the author's work, I feel like I lose touch with the actual purpose of the poetry. Am I alone in this feeling? Is poetry meant solely for feeling or also for our intense literary analysis?

What are your feelings on poetry anthologies? One poem can be emotionally draining and I have never actually attempted to read several from an anthology, just for fun. Comment with your thoughts on poetry and feel free to share any recommendations. Happy reading!-Becca 

From Twinkle, with Love by Sandhya Menon Full Review

Spoiler Free Review:

From Twinkle, with Love by Sandhya Menon
My rating: ❤❤❤❤❤
Similar Books: The Kissing Booth (Girl falls for her best friend's older brother causing general chaos in her life)
Romance, intrigue, drama, humor, and movie making, if you haven’t already picked up From Twinkle with Love just from that sentence, then what are you waiting for? Twinkle has two dreams, to become a famous and impactfull director, and for Neil Roy to acknowledge her existence and fall in love with her. So when Neil’s twin brother Sahil approaches her about making a movie together, Twinkle realizes maybe both of her dreams could come true! But as the movie making progresses, Twinkle finds herself having feelings for the wrong person, and just when it seemed like Neil had noticed her! This book is exactly what a contemporary YA romance novel should be. It has great character development with a totally original story, that provides great entertainment, while still giving exposure to greater world issues. Twinkle is very relatable, and while her drama sometimes feels a little unrealistic, it only adds to the story. I was really impressed by how satisfying the story was, as I am usually left wanting more after a standalone. It takes a lot of talent to effectively wrap up a story and still have it end with a bang. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a cute contemporary!

Recommended Mindset For Reading 

This is not a book to pick up and put down again! I would set aside a few hours to just read the whole thing because it goes by pretty quickly. If you are in the mood to get into a whole series then this book is not for you because it is fast and its a standalone. If you just want a cute summer read or something to get you out of a reading slump, then I would start reading as soon as possible! This book is pretty PG so if you like romance without all the, well, romance, then this book is for you.