ya lover

Fiend by Peter Stenson **WARNING: Spoiler In Last Paragraph**

Posted on

IMG_7676
Book Description:

There’s more than one kind of monster.

When Chase Daniels first sees the little girl in umbrella socks tearing open the Rottweiler, he’s not too concerned. As a longtime meth addict, he’s no stranger to horrifying, drug-fueled hallucinations.

But as he and his fellow junkies soon discover, the little girl is no illusion. The end of the world really has arrived.

The funny thing is, Chase’s life was over long before the apocalypse got here, his existence already reduced to a stinking basement apartment and a filthy mattress and an endless grind of buying and selling and using. He’s lied and cheated and stolen and broken his parents’ hearts a thousand times. And he threw away his only shot at sobriety a long time ago, when he chose the embrace of the drug over the woman he still loves.

And if your life’s already shattered beyond any normal hopes of redemption…well, maybe the end of the world is an opportunity. Maybe it’s a last chance for Chase to hit restart and become the man he once dreamed of being. Soon he’s fighting to reconnect with his lost love and dreaming of becoming her hero among civilization’s ruins.

But is salvation just another pipe dream?

Propelled by a blistering first-person voice and featuring a powerfully compelling antihero, Fiend is at once a riveting portrait of addiction, a pitch-black love story, and a meditation on hope, redemption, and delusion—not to mention one hell of a zombie novel.

My Rating: 3/5

I first picked up this book in the bargain section at work (Barnes & Noble shoutout) and it was initially the cover that drew me in (usually the case when I’m browsing for any random book).  The pink!  The yellow!  The skull and cross needles!  You’ve got me intrigued Mr. Stenson, bravo!  Then, the inside book jacket – that first line, “When Chase Daniels first sees the little girl in umbrella socks tearing open the Rottweiler, he’s not too concerned.”  If that doesn’t have you reading more into this, it’s CLEARLY not the book for you so just go away while I enjoy this interestingly silly book jacket.  Then we get into a drug + zombie combo for this book.  Sold.  What a concept, I think this is going to be a hilarious and VERY entertaining ride ahead of me.  I’m also feeling that anyone who goes into this book with a notion that it’s serious is just a complete moron and doesn’t deserve to enjoy it the way it should be.  As I’m writing this, I have not yet started this book.  I wanted my first impression to be raw and not by any means influenced.  Let’s see how wrong I am:

Well, I wasn’t too far off!  This book starts off slightly comical and tends to get more serious the deeper in we go.  One of my favorite quotes from this book is from pg. 6 where Chase describes a bloodied, undead child: “I turn to see Typewriter at the top of the stairs and then look back to the girl sitting there like a used tampon.”  I’m glad I didn’t have any liquids in my mouth at the time because this line had me cracking up XD

One thing I have to complain about though – lack of quotations, arghhh!  It drove me nuts, but luckily, it was never confusing knowing who you were reading as so it wasn’t too bad.  This really could have made for an annoying read.

Finally, my rating dropped from a 3.5 to a 3 because the ending sucked.  It was left open ended and not in a good way.  I literally said what the fuck? after I read the last sentence… so his girlfriend KK just leaves him and doesn’t off herself so presumably she’ll eventually do it or rot to death in the prison.. alone.  Then Chase is left in the real world.  Alone.  Will he off himself eventually?  Does he continue north like he was planning on doing?  Does he sit there high as fuck until the chucks get him?  Don’t like this.  I would have rather it been told for me.

Overall this was a fun read.  If you’re into zombies and cursing like a sailor while reading about people trying to survive off of dope, this is your book!

Happy Reading! xo

Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

Posted on Updated on

IMG_6720

Book Description:

“A line that should never be crossed is about to be breached.

 
It puts this entire castle in jeopardy—and the life of your friend.”
From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.
Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.

Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena’s world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie… and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for.

My Rating: 5/5

THIS SERIES IS TOO GOOD FOR WYRDS!!  <—heh heh heh…

But seriously, just like the first book (Throne of Glass) and the novellas (The Assassin’s Blade), it’s full of the feels!  I’m happy, I’m ‘dawwwww‘ing, I’m angry, I’m crying – reallllly crying, I’m gagging cause it’s so awesomely disgusting!  When we first start this book, Celaena is throwing severed limbs on to the floor – how awesome is that?!  I totally love how brutal these books can be!  And the throwback to the Endovier slaughter is badarseee >:]

I love that we can go from gore and blood and slashing to complete heart melting moments.  This is what I really love about these books is this diversity.  I thought it was sooo cute of Dorian to give Celaena Fleetfoot, granted he could save ALL the puppies from there on out, but whateves.  And my SWOONWORTHY moment – when Chaol catches Celaena sneaking off from her post only to find her dancing by herself and then JOINS HER!!  I’m a Chaol/Celaena fan all the way so this scene had me grinning from ear to ear and hugging my book to my chest whilst rocking it back and forth.  Totally not weird.

Then the “ERMERGERD!” moments – being 2 huge ones!  I’m not even going to get into the one but it was insane, is was gross, it was sad.  Lastly, the way this book ends revealing a HUUUUGE secret is insane!!  I’m so excited to jump in to Heir of Fire – you can’t just say these type of things and leave me hanging!  I also kind of wish I waited till ALL of these books are out because this seems to be a common theme and I don’t want to have to wait!

HEIR OF FIRE, HERE I COMEEEE!!

 

+Side note:  I LOVED how the Throne of Glass picture turned out, that I think I may have found a theme for my book reviews!  For more random pictures – please see my bookstagram found on the right of the front page or via my Get To Know Me page!

2015 November Wrap Up

Posted on Updated on

IMG_6150.PNG

Total Books = 4
Average Rating = 4

Uuuuuberrrrr slow month for reading.  Between the holidays and work and other lifey things there just wasn’t as much time as I normally have to devote to this wonderful world *le sigh*

With that being said, here’s my sad, little finished reads for the month of November:

1.)  Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl – 5/5
2.)  Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl – 4/5
3.)  The Witch’s Kiss Ep. 1 by Antara Mann – 5/5
4.)  The Witch’s Kiss Ep. 2 by Antara Mann – 3/5

Hope you guys who celebrate had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Identity Crisis!

Posted on Updated on

FullSizeRender(1)

Formally:  Kay_Reads

So as you can clearly tell, I’m having a sort of “identity crisis..”  When I originally started this blog, I was so eager to write my book reviews that I just picked the most uncreative name I could think of.  I was never a fan of “Kay_Reads,” it didn’t speak to me, it didn’t stand out… it was just something to use for the time being.  I read everywhere that changing your identity was a bad idea, blah blah blah.  But the only thing I had to change with every platform I was using were the user names!  I didn’t lose any of my wonderful followers, I didn’t have to ask anyone to ‘like’ this one, follow this new page, and the best part of all, I didn’t have to spend several hours customizing and reposting everything 😀

So I apologize for any confusion, but the new name is here and it is here to stay!

So with that, I re-welcome you to the not-so-new:

TheNerdyBookmark

Thank you for your understanding & Happy Reading!

Far Far Away by Tom McNeal **WARNING: Slightly Spoilery**

Posted on Updated on

IMG_5825

Book Description:

It says quite a lot about Jeremy Johnson Johnson that the strangest thing about him isn’t even the fact his mother and father both had the same last name. Jeremy once admitted he’s able to hear voices, and the townspeople of Never Better have treated him like an outsider since. After his mother left, his father became a recluse, and it’s been up to Jeremy to support the family. But it hasn’t been up to Jeremy alone. The truth is, Jeremy can hear voices. Or, specifically, one voice: the voice of the ghost of Jacob Grimm, one half of the infamous writing duo, The Brothers Grimm.

Jacob watches over Jeremy, protecting him from an unknown dark evil whispered about in the space between this world and the next. But when the provocative local girl Ginger Boultinghouse takes an interest in Jeremy (and his unique abilities), a grim chain of events is put into motion. And as anyone familiar with the Grimm Brothers know, not all fairy tales have happy endings…

My Rating: 3.5/5

Although I enjoyed this read, the first 3/4 of the book are not that entertaining. I wouldn’t call it boring – because I wasn’t bored – but it definitely lacked any inkling of excitement. Let’s just say the ending really made this book for me. A majority of the story is rather s-l-o-w. I want to say the author did this on purpose though because there’s a few hints throughout the majority of the book as to what’s leading up to the end. It’s almost like he purposefully wants you to forgot so you can get smacked with a nice surprise in the end!

On to the plot twist – !!! I was SO happy and lost in the tranquility of this story and then BAM! I completely forgot about the past references to even connect the dots.. I’m thrilled and heart broken at the same time.. I believe I forgot because they didn’t really focus on the missing children but more so on Jeremy and Ginger – which I came to love.

And I swear those prince cakes kind of had me disappointed. I really thought they were going to be made of children.

I did yearn for the ending to be a little more dramatic though. Why didn’t the baker get whats coming to him? Why did all of the kids, including Possy live? I feel like there should have been SOME type of death or sad/brutal/shocking moment and for my taste, there just wasn’t -_-

All in all, this story lacked and left a lot of questions hanging in the end. Speaking of the end, this is what made me go from a 3 to a 3.5. Maybe not a huge jump to some, but to others it makes the difference (like myself). I’m not sure if I’ll ever re-read it again, but I might hang on to it for a bit. I wouldn’t cross it off that list just yet. I would definitely recommend it to people who want to read a lighthearted “creepy/spooky” book but aren’t interested in gore or really the horror genre in general.

Notes that have nothing to do with the story:

  • The book jacket = pretty sweet. Simple but effective.
  • Beautiful cover. It’s what drew me in (like most of my books, teehee).
  • Love the perspective through Jeremy Johnson Johnson’s ghost, Jacob Grimm. Clever way to tell the story!
  • Pg. 160: The Dauntless reference.. I recently finished the Divergent series – WEIRDUH! – Okay, maybe not that weird but I enjoy little tie ins like dis ^_^

IMG_5851

Happy reading!

2015 October Wrap Up

Posted on Updated on

IMG_5760

Total Books = 7
Average Rating = 4

Overall, a great month for reading! 😀

1.) City of Words by Steven J. Carroll – 3.5/5
2.) Allegiant by Veronica Roth – 5/5
3.) Four by Veronica Roth – 4/5
4.) The Ice Dragon by George R.R. Martin – 4/5
5.) Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl – 5/5
6.) Breed by Chase Novak – 3/5
7.) Far Far Away by Tom McNeal – 3.5/5

How many books did you get through this colorful month?

Four by Veronica Roth

Posted on Updated on

IMG_5615

Book Description:

Two years before Beatrice Prior made her choice, the sixteen-year-old son of Abnegation’s faction leader did the same. Tobias’s transfer to Dauntless is a chance to begin again. Here, he will not be called the name his parents gave him. Here, he will not let fear turn him into a cowering child.

Newly christened “Four,” he discovers during initiation that he will succeed in Dauntless. Initiation is only the beginning, though; Four must claim his place in the Dauntless hierarchy. His decisions will affect future initiates as well as uncover secrets that could threaten his own future—and the future of the entire faction system.
Two years later, Four is poised to take action, but the course is still unclear. The first new initiate who jumps into the net might change all that. With her, the way to righting their world might become clear. With her, it might become possible to be Tobias once again.

My Rating: 4/5

Thank you, thank you, thank you for making this book! It was the perfect remedy for my hangover ending the Divergent series! If you’re like me and REALLLLY enjoyed the series, then definitely get your hands on this book. After finishing Allegiant, I really learned to enjoy reading as Tobias so this was a great way to indulge in his life that much more.

I, personally, enjoy when the author releases more books that tie into the series – IF – it’s done well, and I feel this did just that. Although some people like when series end *ehhhhh*, I really enjoy getting one more book to celebrate it; I enjoy getting one more piece of cake before it’s gone – especially when it’s really good cake like chocolate, and this was my chocolate cake :]

A fun fact when I bought this book: I ordered it off of Amazon because it offered the best price. I also ordered it with a few other things. Anyway, upon receiving the book (which everything was in perfect condition), I noticed the jacket of the book was tucked away a couple pages in. Naturally, I open to that page because I want the jacket to be lying where it’s suppose to be lying and to my surprise, I find my book’s signed by the marvelous Veronica Roth herself 😀 WOOHOO! Of course it said this on the outside of the book as well, but I did not pay attention to that by any means. So unknowingly, I guess I ordered a signed copy! I is so heppy >:]

Now to the book itself: There wasn’t really much I didn’t enjoy. I think you get this book knowing what you’re getting in to so I feel you already have that idea knowing if you’re going to enjoy it or not. I was super stoked to grab it and naturally, I came out of this book super stoked that I nabbed it.

When we read with Tobias on BEFORE he meets Tris, we are introduced to him going through his simulations. I LOVE what they did here because we did not get this in the series. Here it shows Tobias going through his Marcus simulation. In the original series, it’s just regular ol’ Marcus being cruel as usual. But when Tobias first starts using the sims, we learn that Marcus didn’t always look like Marcus. Tobias was so fearful of him that he saw him as the monster that he is. He was Marcus but not Marcus having dark pits for the eyes and the mouth with razor tip fingers. Now that is something to be terrified of! But further in, as Tobias confronts his Marcus sim over and over again, Marcus tends to become more human like as Tobias realizes that Marcus ISN’T a monster, but just his father. His cruel father. So overtime, Marcus loses these holes for eyes, for his mouth.. and eventually becomes. . . Marcus.

Fast forward now the when Tobias has met Tris. There’s a scene in particular that they recall from Divergent where Tris is breaking down somewhat over the fear simulations and Tobias kind of snaps at Tris instead of comforting her. Now to the reader, I felt just as shocked as Tris felt with his reaction – not knowing what Tobias was really intending. And in Four, they clear this up. The reason he responds to Tris in the ways that he does is because Tobias knows more than what we’re led to believe in the series. He knew they were being watched – ACTUALLY being watched! He knew there were cameras, he knows where they are and that they can see and hear anyone whenever they choose to tune in. Because of this, he can’t talk about certain things and because of this, he has to be stern with Tris at times, to protect him. . . to protect her . . . to WARN her. Even if she doesn’t know it or particularly like it.

I really enjoyed these 2 scenes in particular. They brought a sense of “ah-ha!” and were cleverly done. They fit in to the past stories very well which I am so grateful for!

All in all, if you LOVED the Divergent series as much as I did but have NOT grabbed this book, then my question to is: WHY?! What are you waiting for? Go get it now! RIGHT MEOW!

Insurgent (Movie Edition) **WARNING: Kind Of Spoiler-y**

Posted on

Insurgent Poster

Directed by Robert Schwentke

My Rating: 4/5

I’d like to start by saying apart from the book, I enjoyed this movie wholeheartedly and if I did not read books, it would easily get a 5/5! But because I DID read the book and because, well, this is a book blog with book-to-film comparison reviews, I can not give it a 5/5 sadly :[

I feel like with this movie, they changed way too much. The further you get into the movie, the more it strays from the book itself.

Peter Eric Amity Betrayal

We see this in the very beginning of the movie when Tris, Tobias and Peter make it to Amity. One of the scenes added to the movie that was NOT in the book was Peter betraying Tris and Tobias and the Amity compound. When Eric and the rest of the Dauntless traitors show up for an unexpected raid, Peter, Tris and Tobias are caught upstairs with nowhere to go. Once they decide their only option is to climb out of a window to escape, Peter claims he’ll be the lookout for them until he shouts at Eric that they’re all upstairs and he needs to come get them quick (as if he wasn’t a runner himself…??). Can anyone say c-o-w-a-r-d. I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy this scene. I really did, that cheeky bastard. I love to hate Peter. BUT it wasn’t in the book!

Kate Winslet and Shailene Woodley in a scene from the motion picture "The Divergent Series: Insurgent." CREDIT: Andrew Cooper, Lionsgate [Via MerlinFTP Drop]

They also tweaked the scenes where Tris is getting tested to open to box. In the book, the machine Tris is hooked up to is no where near as intricate or spider like as they painted it in the movie. Again, nothing I disliked, just NOT IN THE BOOK.

Tris and Tobias Amity

Oh and can we talk about Tris and Tobias? Their relationship in this book in particular was confusing. They had only recently met, fell “in love” and were now arguing with each other. Wuuuut?? Das a lil cray and completely unrealistic. But they did not decide to go this route for the movie. Instead, Tris and Tobias seem to be their same happy go lucky selves in a shitty “Imma keel yew” world. Now this is one thing I’m glad they didn’t portray into the movie BECAUSE IT WAS AWKWARD TO READ! They should not have been in that state throughout the book, IMO.

Now I know there was a lot of nonsense written throughout Insurgent that they wouldn’t/couldn’t have the time for, therefore, screenwriters have to condense and make the story make sense, which means, adding new scenes or tweaking for the sake of visual stimulation so I am not going to be too harsh with this one because I was not angry with this movie. At all. It was still a fantastic watch and I would recommend it to both readers and non readers a like! GO SEE THIS MOVIE IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY!

2015 September Bookhaul

Posted on Updated on

IMG_5176
First Ever Bookhaul of September 2015!

SO MANY BEWKS, SO LITTLE TIME! And to think I was holding back because I had to purchase plane tickets to visit home next month. I’d hate for you guys to see what I can do when I’m not holding back heh… heh…. YEAH SO… I’ll have a list below of each book pictured, where I got them, paperback or hardcover, special editions and how much my total purchase at each place was! If you have any more questions – or comments – about this month’s haul, please feel free to leave/ask them below 😀

Total Books: 29 (30 if you count both books in the 2-in-1)
Total Amount Spent: $128

BookOutlet = $42 (includes shipping)
1. ) A World Without Princes, Bk.2 (School for Good and Evil) by Soman Chainani; hardcover
2.) Beautiful Redemption, Bk.4 (Caster Chronicles/Beautiful Creatures Series) by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl; paperback
3.) Everneath, Bk.1 (Everneath Series) by Brodi Ashton; paperback
4.) Everbound, Bk. 2 (Everneath Series) by Brodi Ashton; paperback
5.) Far Far Away By Tom McNeal; paperback
6.) Frostfire, Bk. 1 (Kanin Chronicles) by Amanda Hocking; paperback
7.) Hemlock, Bk. 1 (Hemlock Series) by Kathleen Peacock; paperback
8.) The Bone Season, Bk. 1 (The Bone Season) by Samantha Shannon; hardcover
9.) The Brilliant Light of Amber Sunrise by Matthew Crow; hardcover
10.) The Ice Dragon by George R.R. Martin; hardcover
11.) The Nethergrim by Matthew Jobin; hardcover

Amazon = $20 (free shipping @ $35 – also bought a DBZ Pop Vinyl for my main squeeze)
1.) Allegiant, Bk. 3 (Divergent Trilogy) by Veronica Roth; hardcover
2.) Four (Companion Novel to the Divergent Trilogy) by Veronica Roth; signed hardcover

The Book Exchange (my local 1/2 price bookstore) = $28 (including tax)
1.) The Maze Runner, Bk. 1 (Maze Runner Series) by James Dashner; paperback
2.) The Scorch Trials, Bk. 2 (Maze Runner Series) by James Dashner; paperback
3.) City of Bones, Bk. 1 (The Mortal Instruments) by Cassandra Clare; paperback
4.) Divergent, Bk. 1 (Divergent Trilogy) by Veronica Roth; paperback
5.) Insurgent, Bk. 2 (Divergent Trilogy) by Veronica Roth; hardcover
6.) Lord of the Clans, Bk. 2 (WarCraft) by Christie Golden; paperback
7.) Beautiful Darkness, Bk. 2 (Caster Chronicles/Beautiful Creatures Series) by Kami Garcia & Margart Stohl
8.) The Lightning Thief, Bk. 1 (Percy Jackson & The Olympians) by Rick Riordan, paperback

Barnes & Noble = $38 (including tax)
1.) Beautiful Creatures, Bk. 1 (Caster Chronicles/Beautiful Creatures Series) by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl; paperback
2.) Are You There Vodka, It’s Me Chelsea? by Chelsea Handler; paperback
3.) The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick; paperback
4.) Undead (2-in-1/Night of the Living Dead & Return of the Living Dead) by John Russo; paperback
5.) Breed by Chase Novak; paperback
6.) The Isle of the Lost (A Descendants Novel) by Melissa De La Cruz; hardcover

Giveaway Books = (free)
1.) Waking the Dead by L. Sydney Fisher; signed paperback
2.) City of Words by Steven J. Carroll;signed paperback