Three men are killed. The only clues are tiny cuts all over their bodies. At the same time, seven students are thrown into an environment that no man had ever dreamed of.

This is Micro.

See this picture? It's beautiful isn't it? You would think a book with such an amazing cover would have an equally amazing story, but no. I made the mistake to judge a book by its cover and I got very disappointed. 


WARNING this review may contain spoilers

Here are some very important quotes, they are in fact, the best quotes of life. Take notes my friends.


''What if I'm in charge of my own damn light switch?''
I'll give you the sun

''You can't trust a guy showing off more cleavage than you''

With the upcoming sequel of Winger by Andrew Smith, I just hade to make a review on the amazingness of this book!
Actually, fun fact about me: Andrew Smith is one of my favorite authors! Now moving on to the review.

I used to do volunteer hours at a library and one afternoon as I was waiting for my mom to pick me up, I grabed Winger, and I mean, how could I not? Did you see the spine? Those who read the book will know what I mean when I say that my eyes were drawn to it. Anyways, I grabed Winger and started to read it. Not gonna lie, I wasn't a huge fan at first and I left the book there with no second thought. Thankfully! I later came across Winger again in a used bookstore for five dollars: best five dollars I have ever spent!

So let me situate you guys a little bit here:

Ryan Dean West is a fourteen-year-old junior at a boarding school for rich kids in the Pacific Northwest. He’s living in Opportunity Hall, the dorm for troublemakers, and rooming with the biggest bully on the rugby team. And he’s madly in love with his best friend Annie, who thinks of him as a little boy.

With the help of his sense of humor, rugby buddies, and his penchant for doodling comics, Ryan Dean manages to survive life’s complications and even find some happiness along the way. But when the unthinkable happens, he has to figure out how to hold on to what’s important, even when it feels like everything has fallen apart.

Winger was a wonderful book so let's go over the good and the bad things about it.

The GOOD

- A main character that was real.
I keep going back to this, but if a character is too perfect or too dumb, only made to fit in the story, I don't like it. Ryan Dean West was funny and awkward. He made mistakes like all of us. He was flawed and he was REAL.

-A plot that pas believable.
No crazy obstacles just to fill the gaps. Again, it seemed REAL.

-A plot that was entertaining until the end.
You can't help but fall in love with everything and everyone in Winger and I wanted to know what would happen to all them! Plus, there was no reading slumps!

-The writing style.
Andrew Smith has mastered the art of puting himself in the head of his characters. With Winger, I read a story told by Ryan Dean West, not a story told by Anderew Smith trying to write what Ryan Dean West would say or do. Which is difficult for a writer.

-The dialogues.
I said I wasn't a big fan at first. Not because it wasn't interesting, but because... Okay, it's a bit embarassing to tell because it seems so childish now, but it was because of the curse words. I don't curse a lot, and it was the first book I read that had the word ''fuck'' in it instead  of ''fudge'' or ''silly crackers!'' as replacements. And you know what? It made sense and it made the dialogues interesting and... You guessed it, REAL!
Some people don't like curse words in their books, and I respect that. But at the same time, I dare you to go in a highschool hallway for a day and listen to how teenagers talk when there are no adults involved in the conversation. Do they say ''schnitzel''? No, they say ''shit''. As a teenager myself, I assure you that what I say is true. Trust me. Because it's the truth.

-Character development
Need I say more?

-Humour
I laughed out loud, which happens even less than me crying.

The BAD

-...
Okay, there is no bad in this book. I wanted to try and do a more ''structured'' review, by opposing the good and the bad, but I can't because it doesn't exist!
This book is perfect in its unperfect way, and you my friend, should read it.

“And then it's always that one word that makes you so different and puts you outside the overlap of everyone else; and that word is so fucking big and loud, it's the only thing anyone ever hears when your name is spoken. 

And whenever that happens to us, all the other words that make us the same disappear in its shadow.” 

And this?  This is a tiny exemple of Andrew Smith' genius mind.

Sophie

Why not favorite books? Because series and stand alones are not comparable. A series is an item, and it has its own category. Also, with a series, I develop this attachment that I rarely get with stand alones. Which is normal because I have five books to get to now the characters and the universe instead of one.

It was a tough choice to make, but here it is. my five favorite series of all time (for now at least!)

5: Gone, by Michael Grant

A was hooked by the end of the first page of book one till the last page of book six. I don't cry often, but I got so attached to the characters that in the end, I did cry. Because so many were lost over the course of the series, and because it was over. I strongly recommend Gone to everyone. I was 14/15 when I read this and it made we think over a lot of things. What would I have been like in the FAYZ?

4: Vampire Academy, by Richelle Mead

I mentioned Richelle Mead in a previous post, saying how much I loved her so it's not a surprised her famous series Vampire Acdemy is in my top five! I have to admit to you guys that I had a lot of trouble choosing between VA and Bloodlines. Both are amazing, but VA was just kick ass until the end, and it was my first Richelle Mead series.
I really enjoyed following Rose and ALL of her friends in their adventures!


3: Les Guerres du Miroirs, by Frank Beddor (or as it was originally published in english, The Looking Glass Wars)

I went on Goodreads to find the original title and was really surprise to see how many people hated this trilogy! Some complained about the story itself. To the contrary, I loved the new take on Alice in Wonderland. I confess, I never actually finished the original story by Lewis Caroll and my opinion on this particular subject is strictly based upon the disney cartoon. Moving on, others were complaining about the writing style. Considering I read this series in French, I can only say that the translation was, for once, really good.


2: Le Pacte des Marchombres, by Pierre Bottero

I don't think I mentioned it yet, so here it is: I'm French Canadian! And this french trilogy was just A-MAZING!

It had everything going for it: never before seen world and concepts, all invented by the author itself. GREAT characters that were relatable, funny and badass, but most importantly, a writing style that blew me away! It can only be describe as magical. The dialogue is usually the parts a reader looks forward to, but in the case of Pierre Bottero, even the descriptions were interesting! The world that he created was mesmerizing and had it been longer than three books, it would probably be in number one.



1: The Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus series, by Rick Riordan

I know I cheated, these are two different series. But they're part of the same world and they have the same characters, making it impossbile to decide which one is the best!
Because they both are the best! For the generation right before mine, Harry Potter was THE series that everyone read and enjoy. It's with Harry, Ron and Hermione that my older sister grew up. But for me? It was Percy, Grover and Annabeth.
I started reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians in seventh grade (when I was twelve like Percy!) and then had the chance to grow up with the characters through the Heroes of Olympus series. It all came to a conclusion last year, and it made me sad because I had spent five year of my life with those guys. They were far from perfect and I loved them for it. They made me laugh and cry, I faught by there side at every battle, I defeated Chronos and Gaia with them. They made me beleive in this, this wolrd, this universe, this other reality that was so cool! They gave me an escape from the real world, which is the best things a book can give. They found a way into my heart and I will never be able to thank Rick Riordan enough for those two incredible series.

Sophie

This book… I hated it.
There, I said it. And the thing is: I really wanted to love it, but instead I had to refrain myself from throwing this book across the room, through a window and into the ocean (even though I don't live remotely close to the ocean).

My face while reading this book

My previous experience with Becca Fitzpatrick was great. I enjoyed the Hush Hush series very much and I'm still hoping for some kind of adaption. But Black Ice?

I don't kow what happened!

Ok, let's go over everything:

The characters were dumb and not plausible at all. Britt and her friend CLEARLY miss the day when common sense was explained...   

• Britt: I did not like her at all.
  You know, now that I think about it, we don't have enough kick ass female MC in YA literature. Aside form Rose from Vampire Academy, no one else comes to mind. Why am I bringing this up? Because Britt was FAR from kick ass. In fact, she would have to take a plane and fly across the globe to Australia to get close to being kick ass.
  She had her mind set on climbing a mountain and even when there was a freakishly huge storm going on, she decided go on out anyway!
  And seriously, you're trap with two men (keep that in mind, men, not teenage boys) who are criminals capable of killing you and all you worry about is if you got a chance with one of your captor?  Four days are hardly enough to develop stockholm syndrome, and even if it was, Brit did not have it. What she did have were crazy, raging teenage hormones and a serious lack of brain! But hey! Everything's fine because one of the men is really dreamy!

“There was something about almost dying that made me desperate to feel alive - and Jude’s touch was the only thing that made me feel alive right now.”  Really? Ok, keep telling yourself that...

“I tapped my cup to his, grateful to have found Shaun, because for a minute there, I'd thought I was going to have to save myself. Instead, I'd wandered into the protective care of a sexy older man.” What was I saying? FAR from being kick ass.

• Korbie: What a b**ch. 
  My definition of a best friend (taken from Urban dictonnary): Best Friends are very special people in your life. They are the first people you think about when you make plans. They are the first people you go to when you need someone to talk to. You will phone them up just to talk about nothing, or the most important things in your life. When you’re sad they will try their hardest to cheer you up. They give the best hugs in the world! They are the shoulder to cry on, because you know that they truly care about you. In most cases they would take a bullet for you, coz it would be too painful to watch you get hurt. 
  Korbie's definition: The prettiest and most important friend brings the other one down. Also, she only cares for herself and will call dibs first on any attractive guy she meets, because she is clealry better than the other person taking part in this best friend relationship.
  Let's just say I was happy she was left behind because at least, I didn't have to read any more scenes with her in it!

“She was turnig this into a competition, like always. I would never tell Korbie, but last summer, during a sleepover, I had peeked in her diary. [...] Imagine my surprise when I found two side-by-side lists comparing Korbie and me” What a great demonstration of friendship people!

• Jude: He was just there, being all dark and mysterious and all. Alone, he was allright. But the story was so ridiculous that he became ridicoulous too.

Now the plot... The ending was predictable, the situations the characters found themselves in were absurd and it was just bad all around.  I can't even summarize this book for you guys; I blocked everything after I (finally) closed it. What I can tell you is that the synopsis makes the story looks a gazillion time better than it is.

This was more a rant than a review, and disliking a book like this is rare for me. But Black Ice? It brings out the worst in me. Sorry Becca Fitzpatrick, you wrote good books, but this ain't one of them.

Sophie

So I recently finished Waiting for You, by Susane Colasanti. My intention with this book was to enjoy a light summer read, aka chick lit for me. I had just finished reading an intense thriller and I was looking forward to a good easy-read, but I ended up by being disappointed.

With all the hype surrounding the new Shadowhunters series, I decided to review The Mortal Instrument series.

If you haven't heard about this series (there's just six books and a movie... nothing major;) ) let me draw, or rather write, you a picture:

-MC named Clary finds out she has powers

-A witty, dark and mysterious boy, Jace, take her to the ''Institute'' to be trained.

-Clary is attracted to Jace (what a surprise!)

-She learns that her father is the bad guy of the story.

Here is the base of book one and two. Then we get into this HUGE mess about who's related to who and who belongs with who.

I've been wanting to read The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer for a while now, thanks to Little Book Owl's youtube channel, and I finally got around to it!

Before I say anything else, can I just mention the cover? I'm not one to judge a book by its cover, but this one certainly did grab my attention. It is gorgeous! Ok, now moving on.

It's hard to resume this book; there's just a lot going on and I don't want to give any spoilers away by accident so I'll just copy paste the synopsis.

Mara Dyer believes life can't get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can. 

She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her strangely unharmed. There is.

She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love. She's wrong.

Music or no music?

As readers, that's a question we get all the time. On almost every literary site I join, I'm either ask  in my ''bio'' to say what music I like to read with, or there is a raging debate going on in the forum. So let's list the pros and cons of reading with music right here and now and decide which one is better: with or without. I'll start with the pros, just because.

Pros:

It can set the mood. Some people appreciate reading with a song that matches the book or part they're reading. There are tons of playlist on the web to fit any genre or scenarios. Some even like to take movie soundtracks.

It helps to keep you focus. It's going to sound weird, but sometimes silence can be louder than words. When you're alone, you can start to focus on every little noise, from the tic-toc of the clock to the floor creaking, or the AC starting and stopping at any given moment.  Music can be a great, steady background noise that can help you keep your concentration.

It creates a connection with the story. A girl a know once told me that she could not read without music and that she did a specific playlist for every book she read. After that, every time she would listen to one of the songs on her playlist, it would bring her back to that very book.

Now the cons:

It is distraction that can get in the way of your reading bubble. As much as it can help you focus, it can also be a major source of distraction. Some people need silence to get in the zone, to truly get into a story.

It can make you read the same line a gazillion times. And yes, it's part of losing your focus, but I had to put it in a separate line. Because music can do that to you. And it needs its own line. Deal with it.
''Lary walked slowly down...'' Oh! Bastille is on! What a great band! Ok, back to the story. ''Lary walked slowly down the hall, his gun pointing...'' Eh, Eh Oh, Eh Oh, Eh, Eh Oh, Eh On. Man, such  good song. I wonder if they'll ever come back to Canada. That concert was A-Mazing! Now, where was I?
See what I mean?

So ok, there might be more pros than cons when it comes to reading with or without music. But in the end it's up to you. For myself, it depends. I like a background noise: people talking in the other room, TV on not too loud or music playing softly.

What about you? Music or no music? Let me know in the comments!

Sophie

I just love Richelle Mead!

I first discovered her with Vampire Academy, which I loved, and then continued reading her with Bloodlines, which I adored even more! Now, I decided to grab her newest adult series, The age of X.

In this first book, we meet Mae Koskinen (does anyone even know how to pronounce it?), a badass praetorian with a mysterious past. After a little... mishap let's say, she's assigned as Justin's bodyguard, an  investigator of religious groups and supernatural claim for the RUNA (Republic of United North America). The crime they are trying to solve soon turns out to be more complicated than they anticipated and everything Mae was thought to believe will be challenged.

When I started reading this book, I went in with an open mind because I knew it was completely different from the other Richelle Mead books I had read in the past. And like the previous two series, I really enjoyed Gameboard of the Gods.

First I need to warn you about the title. Religions and gods are an important part of the book, but don't do as I did and think it's going to be like American Gods or Percy Jackson because it won't.
In the RUNA, religion is something that is strongly discouraged and could even lend you in trouble if you don't respect the rules. It's one of the many differences between our world today and the one in the book, which is completely ok considering it's a bit of a sci-fi. The new rules are easy to understand and I was never completely lost when a new concept was introduce, so A+ for world building!

Now for the plot. It started it off great you know, with a normal initial situation and all. But then I got to the middle and found myself in a bit of a slump. The investigation was going nowhere and the characters did not have any interesting conflicts. Fortunately, this slump didn't last too long and soon, we were back in business! Everything slowly picked up again until the end, where I was left wanting more. We did get answers as the book was getting to an end, which was nice as there was many unanswered questions. Some were left that way, which is fine too.

A lot of those questions were concerning our two main characters : Mae and Justin. I wish I could have liked Mae more than I did. It just didn't feel like she was the MC and I wish she would've had more depth. But Justin... Not gonna lie, I might have a crush on him! Yeah, he falls into the bad boy category, but he was real. His struggles were real, his feelings were real, everything about him was real and relatable, which is something really important for me when it comes to characters. 

And Tessa! Who could not love Tessa?

''I understand bitchiness in any language'' I died!

All in all, it was a really good read and I will be grabbing The Immortal Crown, Age of X book 2.

Sophie

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson is one of my favorite books of all time and I’m here to convince you to read this book because it’s worth it.

First let’s talk about the plot in general. It’s a good enough plot to make you want to continue reading. 

In short, it's the story of two twins, Noah and Jude, who used to be really close. Something happened and now, they barely speak to eachother. 

Without putting my personal feelingsinto it, I can say the the author created her story in such a way that you would want to continue reading. Now putting my personal feelings into it: the plot was flipping AMAZING! Every time a chapter ended, I wanted to skip the next POV to see what happened next. But then I started reading the next POV and I didn’t want to stop. 

This was one of the great element of this novel; the point of views. 

Reading a story told by two person who end up meeting somehow at the end is nice. Reading a story told by two person who are part of each other’s story is really nice. Now add to that the fact that the two person are siblings, even better right? Because you don’t read a lot of stories about siblings. Now for the last straw, add the fact that the story is told in different time frame: one where the siblings are 12 and another one where they are 16 and you get a freakishly great story telling!

Now, let’s talk about the characters. I, for instance, had a preference for Jude. Since I’m 16 - her age in her point of view, and a girl, I could relate to her much more than Noah. BUT! I could also relate to Noah. That’s the magic of Jandy Nelson’s writing. I just got attached to every character. Their passion for art, their teenage struggle, their dreams and their pains… Everything was just so real!

And let’s be honest: anything with a good looking English Guy is destined to be pretty good! And I have to add that while he may be a ''bad boy'', he is not cliché. Trust me when I say that this cliché annoys me to the point where I don’t want to finish a book. But Oscar… I couldn't help but fall in love with him.

As for the story itself, I loved the themes explored by the author: first love, family, homosexuality, art! 

This last one really did get to me. Every book has a focus like that. I mean that every main character has a passion for something and  it is present throughout the book: music, dance, photography, cinematography, art, and the list goes on. In my reading experience, art like the one explored in I’ll Give You the Sun is not often seen in books. In this on, I absolutely adored the way it was included in the story: as part of the plot, the characters, the description… I just loved it. 

Not gonna lie, the way the author uses art to describe things is not for everyone. Some people will hate it. But I loved it.

If after 20 pages you like the book, it probably will become one of you favorite. But if after 20 pages you don’t like it, it’s probably just not for you, and that’s fine too. But give it a try before choosing your category ok?

Sophie