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.

January 2019 Wrap Up

January was a successful reading "year"...lol. It was a really great reading month. I got through 11 books and I am so proud to start the new year off on the right foot. I got through 2 nonfiction books and I am in the middle of reading Beauty and the Beast with the kids which is the classic of the month even though I will be finishing it tomorrow on the 1st of February.

1. Walking the Americas by Levison Wood

2. Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian

3. Lady Smoke by Laura Sebastian

4. Jungleland by Christopher S. Stewart

5. One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus

6. What Elephants Know by Eric Dinerstein

7. The Train To Impossible Places by P.G. Bell

8. A Circle of Elephants by Eric Dinerstein

9. Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson

10. City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

11. Gone by Michael Grant