July: Chris Colfer Month!!

Chris Colfer Month
In other words July 

I decided for the month of July to read Fairy Tale retellings starting with Chris Colfer's series. 

Every year at the start of July I read Chris Colfer's Land of Stories series before the new book in the series is released. I started doing this back in 2012 and have done it ever since. I will be reading the whole entire series leading up until the release of the final novel on July 11th. I will also be reading the companion books that go along with the series.  

Chris Colfer's Land Of Stories Series:

The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell

The Land of Stories: The Enchantress Returns

The Land of Stories: A Grimm Warning

The Land of Stories: Beyond the Kingdoms

The Land of Stories: An Author's Odyssey

The Land of Stories: Worlds Collide- Finally!!

The Land of Stories: A Treasury of Classic Fairy Tales
Adventures from the Land of Stories: The Mother Goose Diaries
Adventures from the Land of Stories: Queen Red Ridding Hood's Guide to Royalty 
The Curvy Tree: A Tale from the Land of Stories 

And also his book Struck By Lightning


This is going to be a great month of reading. 

Anticipated Reads for Summer 2017 :)

📚 Books I am Anticipating for Summer 2017  😊

This is going to be a short post for today because I just want to show the books that I am looking forward to reading so much over the next couple of months. I will write reviews for each of these books once I finally read them. 

1. The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzie Lee: Was released on June 27th

It came to my house yesterday and
 I'm already half way through it. It's great so far. :)

2. Because You Love to Hate Me edited by Amerie: Will be released July 11th. 

3. Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley: Was released on June 6th.

4. The Crowns of Croswald by D. E. Night: Will be released July 21st

5.  The Wendy Project by Melissa Jane Osborne: Will be released on July 18th


And the one I am anticipating the most is...

The Land of Stories: Worlds Collide by Chris Colfer: Will be released July 11th.   

Heartless by Marissa Meyer

Heartless by Marissa Meyer- Read June 6th-9th

 📚📚📚📚📚

"Perhaps we know each other in the future and you're only remembering backward."- Jest

This book was incredible and is one of my favorites so far of the year. I adored this book and it was hard for me to read it at times because I knew what was going to happen to Catherine the whole time. This is the origin story of the Queen of Hearts one of the memorable characters of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Throughout the story, each of the denizens of Wonderland is shown and we learn how they ended up where they are and how they are in the novel. Catherine is the future Queen of Hearts who has the affection of the King of Hearts who deeply loves the young woman. Catherine does not want his love or to become queen, she wants to open up her own bakery. She is known throughout the kingdom for her wonderful treats. At the ball, that she is supposed to be proposed to at, she meets Jest, who she falls hard for. She and Jest secretly court each other because of her family and the king. Catherine wants nothing more than choosing her path but she has fate to fight with. She will be the future Queen of Hearts even if she does not want it. 

I knew how this book was going to turn out, though I hoped with everything in me that maybe Catherine would have a somewhat happy ending. This book was a beautiful take on her story and I could not get enough of her story. She was such a wonderful character throughout. Also, the other Wonderland characters were represented well throughout. It was really awesome to figure out some of the characters that were from the original story. I will not spoil what happens in this novel for those that have not read it but I will highly recommend this story. 

This is one of the best retellings I have ever read, though it's more of an origin story. I love how this was my first Marissa Meyer read and I will definitely be picking up The Lunar Chronicles sometime soon. She is a great author who wrote an amazing novel. I'm happy that she decided to write this novel and got the idea. Amazing! 

Gosh and now the white roses bring on a whole new meaning. Marissa Meyer has now changed my whole perspective of Wonderland and the Queen. Also the title Heartless sort of breaks my heart so darn much. I love this novel. 

Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi

📏  Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi- Read May 1-3rd  🦊

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

This book met my every expectation for it and I am so glad I picked to read it this week. I fell in love with the characters in this piece and also the worlds that it took place in. I cannot tell you enough about how much these worlds took me in. So good!

The main character of the novel is named Alice Alexis Queensmeadow (I love her name) and she is a very intriguing girl. She was born with almost pure white skin and hair. Her world, Ferenwood, is a world filled of color and she is the only person there that does not have any color besides her eyes. In her world color shows magic and many of the people there do not believe that she has any magic because of this. They also believe that she is strange. Many people would let this get to them but not Alice. She is full of confidence and is herself all the time and is not afraid to say so. 

Alice's father went missing three years before this story and she feels that no one else cares for her after this. Her mother is distant and many of the people in town are constantly making rude comments about her. She is determined to find her father and will set out on any adventure to do it. Along with a boy named Oliver, Alice sets out to a world named Furthermore that is different from what she was expecting. There they will do anything to find her father and bring him back safely. 

This story is geared towards Middle Grade but I cannot help but think that anyone would have a fun time reading this (I believe anyone can enjoy a good Middle Grade novel. I don't care what age you are). Not only is this a great adventure story but it also is a story about individuality. Alice is never afraid of being herself and will let anyone know this. She, I believe would be a great inspiration for younger readers and even older readers.

This was a great novel and it makes me want to read more of Tahereh Mafi's works. She writes in clever prose with beautiful lyrical writing. Also her asides are quite funny along with the chapter introductions. I must say I am very happy that I started my reading this month with such a wonderful book. I hope she will write more books like this if not a sequel. I know that I would definitely read it. 

Review of Disney Beauty and the Beast Vol 2 and Pickup Catchup Readathon

The Beast's Tale (Disney Beauty and the Beast Vol 2)  by Mallory Reaves - April 23rd

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

I can honestly say that I enjoyed the second volume of this Manga more than the first. If you do not know what these volumes are about I will give you a brief summary. The first volume is about Belle's perspective of the events that occurred in Beauty and the Beast. This focuses on the live action movie version of the story. The second volume also is about Beauty and the Beast but from the perspective of the Beast. There is something about the Beast's thoughts and also what happens to him during this that really drew me in. I love the story and both of the characters. It was a great idea to show both of the perspectives because it brought a whole new dimension to the story. Beforehand we had never seen their thoughts but now we get a glance into their thoughts. 

The drawings done in this Manga are so beautiful. The only thing I wish about these is that they were colored because that would be absolutely beautiful. The beast's story is one of my favorites and I think that the author did a great job depicting it in this volume. 

I was given this book for a honest review. 

Pickup Catchup Readathon

I was watching a video on YouTube today made by one of my favorite BookTubers Peter Likes Books and decided to participate in his readathon with him. If you want more information about the readathon here is a link to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byb1tsSwxBk. It started today, April 24th and will continue until Sunday, April 30th. 

The goal is to finish the books that you want to before the end of April and to just devote time that you may not have been spending on reading. 

For this Readathon I have four that I want to finish by the end of the month: Moby Dick by Herman Melville, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, Ex. Libris by Paula Guran, and Quest for the Stolen Arrow by Carrie Jones.  I have already started the first two for my classics reading month and just need to finish them. I hope to be able to finish these all by the end of the month. 

Happy World Book Day- Reviews and Thoughts

Stitched # 1 by Mariah McCourt and Aaron Alexovich- April 22nd

           Rating:  📚📚📚📚       

I really love graphic novels so when I got the chance to read this book I was happy. This was a cute little story that I enjoyed. It is about a girl named Crimson Volania Mulch who wakes up in a crypt and cannot remember who she is and what has happened before. Over the course of the story she meets many interesting characters and wonders about what has occurred before she could remember. 

The illustrations were also great and pretty.  I would recommend this book for anyone that loves a cute little graphic novel. This would be great for middle grade readers but I can also say that I really liked it myself. All I can say is that I really want to read the next graphic novel. 

 I was given this book for free for a review. 

Belle's Tale (Disney Beauty and the Beast #1) by Mallory Reaves- April 22nd

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

I have been wanting to read this book since I had first seen it on Goodreads under my recommendations. The story of Beauty and the Beast has always interested me and the original animated movie is one of my favorite Disney movies of all time.  I also have wanted to read a manga for a long time so why not start with something I know so well. This manga is very close to the new live action movie that came out last month. The illustrations are close to the live action characters but are different. This artist has done a great job with this story and it was a very good interpretation of the story. I like how she split the story between Belle and the Beast's perspectives. I will be reading the second one next and will be doing a review for it when I finish. 

I recommend this for anyone that likes the story of Beauty and the Beast and for anyone that is interested in getting into the story. This was a great version of the story. 

I was given this book for free for a review. 



Happy World Book Day everyone. Have a great day of reading and thinking about books.