February 2019 Wrap Up

I got so many books read this month, but not as many as last month and I gave myself an unrealistic TBR for February and I read about half of the books on that pile. The rest were read during the school days. 

1. Beauty and the Beast by Gabrielle-Suzanna Barbot de Villenueve

2. Rabbit & Robot by Andrew Smith

3. The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

4. Thisby Thestoop and The Black Mountain by Zac Gorman

5. RoseBlood by A.G. Howard

6. Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally

7. Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu

8. The Polar Bear Explorer's Club by Alex Bell

Review: Batman: Nightwalker

Finally read this and I enjoyed it. When I finished Wonder Woman and was ready to read this one, I had the expectations of wonder Woman being included or mentioned. I wanted the stories to connect. They didn't and I was not disappointed by it.

Bruce Wayne has just turned 18 and been granted access to his trust funds. he is on his way to a birthday event and he has a so not great encounter with an old friend who ruins the night and Bruce drives away from his party. He comes across a heavy police presence and the Nightwalker gang. he gets involved and makes a citizen's arrest which in turn gets him put on probation.He community service is to become a janitor and the notorious Arkham Asylum.

The action definitely made me think of James Bond with the technical aspects in the car which was an Aston Martin. I read these characters imagining the voices of Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman and it brought so much more enjoyment to the story.

I also loved the acknowledgements from Marie Lu and I got a good laugh when she gave thanks to her Husband and she said that "it's like we love each other or something". Cayce and I have definitely said that to each other.

Overall, I give this a 4 out of 5. It lost a star for being to short.

Review: Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally

I remember back in 8th grade, that I was given extra credit if I read this or watched the movie and summarized it. I didn't do it because I was in that phase where I didn't care about my assignments and plus this was after my first heart break and my grandpa's passing.

I have been wanting to read this book for the past 5 or 6 years after I watched the movie for the first and only time when I had directv and it was on TNT. It was a date night with Cayce and we had chinese food and I remember watching it and getting sick after because of the movie.

It was depressing and I did a lot more research after watching the movie to see if it was fictionalized or if it was true and how much of it was true.

When I put this onto my February TBR, I figured that I would fly through it because I am interested in WW2 books. I read this so sluggishly and it's not because it was boring, but all of the German words and names was confusing. I wish that this had a glossary and phonetic descriptions. Some of the SS ranks I could pronounce because I watch The Man In The High Castle.

The ending was sweet and a little crazy. He had this up and down life and he didn't give a shit about his wife but she was still a saint. He went bankrupt twice and had to have the Schindler Jews help take care of him so many times. I got the feeling that some of them might have been experiencing Stockholm Syndrome. Yes, Schindler saved them and kept them safe but I would not have raised money for him every time he went bankrupt or needed contacts.

Overall, I give this a 4 out of 5.

Review: Roseblood by A.G. Howard *SPOILERS*

One of my favorite reads of 2019. I absolutely LOVED this book. I was hesitant to read this at first because The Phantom of The Opera is one of my favorite movies and I didn't want to read a chopped up story that wouldn't do it justice, but I was completely shocked that it kept to the story and made it far more creepy and romantic in a modern setting.

Rune is an American teen who is on her way to Paris to attend Roseblood Academy which is housed in the old Parisian Opera House.She has a gift of singing and whenever she hears opera music, she has to purge the music from her body or it will kill her.

Thorne is our male main protagonist/ antagonist. He is both. You don't know which side he will eventually choose. He is the son of Erik and they both live below the school. Eric is a benefactor of the school who built it after the fire.

This story introduces a theory that maybe the original phantom was maybe a vampire and the author weaves that into this story and it fits.

I was also connected to this story in many ways. My love of Phantom of the Opera and my hubby loving it as well. The cat Diable aka Ghost Kitty, he wears a collar with a bell and the author describes that bell as his jingles and that is what my daughters and I call our cats bell when we call her in from outside. "I hear the jingle". There was also a part that really hit home and made me cry, and it was the premature birth story and lungs not being fully developed.

A.G. Howard did really well on this re-telling. If there were to be a sequel, then I might have conflicting thoughts. I want to read more on the relationship between Rune and Thorne and if the Phantom tried to exact revenge, once again. And I am completely fine with it being a stand alone as to not ruin the story.

Review: The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

Why have I not read this sooner. This is now on my favorite books of the year list, it's the beginning of said list for this year. I absolutely loved it. I heard so much hype about it last year and I kept my expectations low and didn't listen to much about it. I only knew going in to this book that there were these girls called Belles and that had the power of beauty.

I went in knowing only that and from the first chapter, I was hooked. The beautiful writing was so lyrical. The descriptions that Dhonielle Clayton wrote was stunning and mesmerizing. The setting made me think of New Orleans and Paris. There was suspense and I have a lot of questions that are unanswered and were answered near the end. The mythology aspect that was the focal point of The Belles was the main thing that I really enjoyed.

We follow 6 girls who are on their way to the Palace to compete in a Beaute Carnaval to become the favorite belle and be assigned to the Palace. Camellia, our leading lady doesn't follow the rules, but she desperately wants to follow in her mothers footsteps and become the favorite in the Palace, only she gets beat out and becomes second best and is placed in the teahouse in the city center now far from the Palace.

BOOKS I READ IN JANUARY | WRAP UP

OWLCRATE: Limited Edition Vengeful Box: SEPTEMBER 2018

This is long overdue. This was the first Limited Edition box that OwlCrate released back in September. The box was for Vengeful by V.E. Schwab. It's the second book in the Villians series with the first book being Vicious. I really enjoyed Vicious and I absolutely loved this box. 

February 2019 TBR

I have already filmed my February TBR and at the end of the video, I ended up adding a book that I have been wanting to read for a year, and then before I started writing this post, I added another book which put this TBR at 12 books. This is a very ambitious TBR and February is the shortest month. I did get through 11 books in January, so I am hoping I make it through these ones. 

Review: Gone by Michael Grant

After having this on my TBR's for many months, I have finally read it. I have wanted to read this series every since I first heard about it, but I never had the time to pick it up from my library. I had it on my shelf thanks to a Little Free Library that was new in my town and Cayce picked up the first two books in this series and I liked it enough not to hate it but I didn't enjoy it that much.

It's about this group of kids 14 and younger that are left in this town to fend for themselves when one day all the adults and kids aged 15 and up go "poof". They then realize they are trapped underneath a dome that is centered around the town and the nuclear power plant. The kids then start developing special abilities they dub "powers".

It is not an original story at all. Stephen King wrote a brick of a book titled Under the Dome, about a town who becomes trapped in a small hick town by a dome. This book also has a blurb that mentions Stephen King...

" If Stephen King had written Lord of the Flies, it might have been a little like this."
- VOYA

This blurb irritated me to no damn end because it shows that this reviewer had no idea that Stephen King has written a book about a town being under a dome and it having the same characteristics and personalities and religious aspects.

This is a teenage dumbed down Under the Dome.