The Kiss of Deception | Book Review

Title: The Kiss of Deception
Author: Mary E. Pearson

Series: The Remnant Chronicles #1

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance

Pages: 489 (Hardcover)

Average Goodreads Rating: 4.7/5

My Rating: 2.75/5

When Lia is forced to marry a prince of another country for a political alliance, she runs away to a small town. There she meets two men, the prince and an assassin, and discovers things about herself she never would have guessed would to be true.

Well, I didn't hate it. There is a lot of hype, undeserved hype, surrounding this book. The premise of the story is interesting but nothing special. The first 230 pages were pretty good but after that things went downhill. I usually like to start off with the things I liked but for this book there were none.

Something that really needed improvement was the world building. Throughout the book the audience was given only small glimpses of the what the world is like and what the culture is. There are a lot of references to the culture and beliefs, but those are never fully explained. The culture of the world seems pretty interesting and I want to know more, but there is no information on it. There is also many things going on outside of the main storyline that need more background information. Why is there a war going on? How did the war start? What is the belief system of these countries? The origin story of the world is a pretty important part of the book, but the explanation is very vague.

I also didn't enjoy the characters and the romance. The romance was superficial and surface-level. I didn't understand why the two characters were "in love" when they had no connection. The characters lacked personality and growth. They stayed one-dimensional the entirety of the book. They felt more like character tropes rather than actual characters with real personalities.

 A big part of the book is figuring out who the assassin is and who the prince is. My guess was wrong, however, I felt that the personalities of the two love interests completely switched after the reveal. As if the author thought "Well I don't want the readers to be able to figure out who it is so I'm just going to switch the personalities to trip them up."

There's also too much "telling" in the story. The author tells the readers what is going on rather than showing them what happens. It takes away from the novel and is the main reason I felt no connection to this book. By just telling and not showing, the audience isn't able to feel anything and the romance falls flat.

The Kiss of Deception wasn't terrible. It was actually pretty fun to make fun of with my friends. It was a waste of my time though and I do wish I hadn't read it.

Happy reading!

Hana

Follow me on Bloglovin'

Books I Wanted to Start Yesterday | Top 5 Wednesday

I couldn't think of a fourth and fifth book so here are my top 3 books that I wanted to start yesterday.

The Mistborn Trilogy - Brandon Sanderson

Ever since I read the synopsis of The Final Empire last year, I have wanted to read the series. The premise seems so interesting and I've heard so many good things!

The Raven Cycle Series - Maggie Stiefvater 

So many people have raved about this series and it sounds really interesting!

The Throne of Glass Series - Sarah J. Maas

These books have been sitting on my book since September and I really need to get to them! The books seem so kickass, I need to get to them soon.

Happy reading!
Hana

Follow me on Bloglovin'

Red Queen | Book Review

Title: Red Queen
Author: Victoria Aveyard

Series: Red Queen #1

Publisher: Harper Teen

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Dystopian

Pages: 320 (Hardcover)

Average Goodreads Rating: 4.14/5

My Rating: 4/5

Mare lives in a world where Reds are the poor commoners and Silvers are the rulers of the land. When she discovers she has powers similar to what the Silvers have, her life is flipped upside down and changed forever.

This book was definitely worth the hype. It was gripping and fun to read through. I really liked the characters and the plot. If you haven't read this yet, I definitely recommend it.

First of all, let's just take a moment to admire this cover. So one thing I really enjoyed was the writing. It was really easy to follow and the action sequences were written really well. Usually in an author's first book, the writing is mediocre but I think Aveyard did a pretty good job. There was a ton of badass moments, which is always a plus. Often in dystopian books, the love triangle takes over the story but the love triangle (possibly square) took a backseat and didn't overshadow the plot in Red Queen. Some of the characters were really interesting as well. I enjoyed Mare and her ability to understand her emotions and face them head on rather than deny that they exist, as well as the complex personalities of Maven and Cal(sort of).The plot twist was also well done. I had no idea that was going to happen but thinking back I feel like I should have known.

The main reason this was a four star rather than five was that there were too many similarities to other dystopian novels. Throughout the book I constantly found myself thinking "this is a lot like Divergent/The Hunger Games/The Selection/Shadow & Bone". Normally, I don't like comparing books to each other and I understand that dystopian books have a lot of the same elements. However, I felt Red Queen wasn't too original and was basically what Divergent, The Hunger Games, The Selection, and Shadow & Bone would be if they were one book. I also felt that the world building was a bit underdeveloped but there's supposed be a lot more of it in the sequel so it's not too big of a problem. One thing I didn't like was how the characters weren't very real. Besides the three main characters, the others were pretty one dimensional. Mare, Cal, and Maven also had so much room to grow but that didn't happen. Cal's personality didn't really make sense to me either. In the beginning and end he seemed to have a pretty strong personality but it just faded in the middle, but since the book is from Mare's point of view, it kind of makes sense. The villains also didn't have a real reason to do what they did. They were evil just for the sake of it. Another problem I had was the romance. I didn't think the characters had much of a connection.

It seems like I disliked the book more than I liked it but I really did enjoy it. I think the second book will probably solve most of my problems and I can't wait for it to come out! (in 2016 //cries) 

Happy reading!

Hana

Follow me on Bloglovin'

March Reading Wrap Up

So I read 5 book this month!

The first book I read this month was We Should Hang Out Sometime by Josh Sundquist. It's a nonfiction memoir about a man who realizes at the age of 25 that he never had a girlfriend. I'm not completely sure what to think about this book. I did enjoy it while I read it, but the more I think about it, the stranger it gets. Overall, I'll say it's a decent book. It's not horrible, but it's not great. I liked it on the surface level but when I really thought about it I saw all the problems with it. It was funny and entertaining, but there was quite a bit of creepiness and sexism involved. 3/5 stars. Full review here.

The next book I read was actually a re-read. When I "read" it for the first time I thought I didn't like it because I just don't like audio books. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. I felt nothing for the characters and Hannah annoyed me at times. 3/5 stars.

I really enjoyed Since You've Been Gone. It was a really interesting story and I related to the main character a lot. She went through a lot of character development which was great. The last 80 pages were amazing. I cried so much in those pages. I can't wait to read more my Morgan Matson! 4.75/5 stars.

The last book I read this month was Burn for Burn by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian. This book was a disapointment. I've heard a lot of good things but I hated the plot and the characters. Still, I thought it was a decent book. The writing is fine, nothing special but not bad. It was a pretty quick read and I was somewhat entertained. The characters made terrible decisions and weren't unique at all. The plot was very annoying as well... 3/5 stars. Full review here.

See ya next time!

Hana

Follow me on Bloglovin'

Favorite Jokester/Sarcastic Characters | Top 5 Wednesday

I could only think of 4 characters so I decided to go with what I have.

4. Chubs - The Darkest Minds.

picture credit

Chubs is an amazing character and has some really credit one-liners. He's incredibly sarcastic and always makes me laugh!

3. Leo Valdez - Heroes of Olympus

picture credit

Oh Leo. He's grown so much as a character over the series. Even though he was one of the less "important" characters he's always been of my favorites. He always diffuses tension with his humor and can always offer a sarcastic but honest remark.


2. Kenji Kishimoto - Shatter Me

picture credit

He was my favorite character in Ignite Me. He's so funny and I love his relationship with Juliette. He always lightens up the mood and is just perf <3

1. Will Herondale - The Infernal Devices

picture credit

Will Herondale is one of my all time favorite characters. He's so snarky throughout the entire series and it's wonderful.

Thanks for reading!
Hana

Follow me on Bloglovin'

Burn for Burn | Book Review

Title: Burn for Burn

Author: Jenny Han & Siobhan Vivian

Series: Burn for Burn #1

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Pages: 358 (Hardcover)

Average Goodreads Rating: 3.89/5

My Rating: 3/5

After a series of unfortunate events, Lillia, Mary, and Kat team up to get revenge on people who wronged them.

This book was a dissapointment. I've heard a lot of good things but I hated the plot and the characters. Still, I thought it was a decent book. The writing is fine, nothing special but not bad. It was a pretty quick read and I was somewhat entertained.

However, Burn for Burn had a lot of flaws. The characters really annoyed me. They stuck almost completely to their stereotypes. There was nothing unique about these characters whatsoever. They just made bad decision after bad decision. I also did not enjoy the plot. The whole story is about getting revenge on people who wronged them. Yes, getting revenge instead of communicating and talking it out when there's only one year left of seeing these people while also risking not getting into college is definitely a good idea. I just don't understand why people don't COMMUNICATE. Sure words don't always get through to people. But the characters are never going to see the people they hate after the school year ends! The reasons for revenge were also mostly unjustified. Lillia and Kat bully and hurt their enemies horribly. Yes, they're not the nicest people but you shouldn't stoop down to their level! Mary was the only one whose revenge was justified but what she did was still wrong.

I felt the characters went through no character development or growth. They just got more and more irritating and immature as the book went on. The length of the book was unnecessary as well. It's a fairly large book and felt dragged on. I think the series should just be one 500 page book rather than 3 books.

The paranormal aspect of the book also really through me off. I don't think it fits with the story and feel of the book.

I got incredibly frustrated and annoyed throughout the entirety of the book. That being said, I do plan on reading the next in the series. Life is too short to read mediocre books, but after reading the plot summary of what happens in the next two books, I'm very intrigued and confused so I'll just try to read them as quickly as possible.

Sorry that this became more of a rant rather than a review. ^^

Until Next Time,

Hana

Follow me on Bloglovin'

Insurgent Movie Review and Discussion (Spoilers)

Insurgent was a disappointment. It was enjoyable to watch but after I thought about it, I realized how much I didn't like it. I'd give Insurgent an 8/10 as a movie but a 6/10 as a book-to-movie adaptation.

My first problem was that the movie was really disjointed. It didn't flow well and was very cluttered. The script wasn't very good either. A lot of the dialogue was awkward and uncharacteristic. I expected to love Four and Tris as I did in the book, however, in the movie Peter was my favorite character, someone I loathed and despised in the book. I enjoyed the humor he added but it was much too uncharacteristic.

Shailene and Ansel's acting was on point. The acting overall was great. It was the script and directing that ruined the movie for me. Too many liberties were taken and the story was changed drastically. In the movie, there was a never a box, Tris just underwent experiments. Many minor, but important, characters were taken out or overshadowed. For example, I was so excited when I heard that Uriah was cast for Insurgent. I had loved him in the book but he had about 3 lines and then just died in the movie. Marlene had no lines, but when she died in the movie, the audience is supposed to feel sad. Christina had a much bigger role in the book. Her conflict and anger towards Tris was supposed to isolate her. Tris showed no real regret for killing Will and her PTSD was overshadowed. Tori, again, had about 2 lines and served no purpose. She was supposed to kill Jeanine, not Four's mom-sister. On that note, the actress chosen to play Evelyn was a terrible choice. Her acting was great, but she looks much too young to play Four's mother. When Evelyn came back into play, it was supposed to be a big deal. Not just "oh yeah, btw my mom's actually alive."

Another thing that really bothered me was the head-massager-face-scanning-things. You can't tell what a person's faction is by scanning their face. Factions are a choice, not something genetic. And no one is just 10% divergent. Either you're divergent or you're not.

If I hadn't read the books, I'm sure I would have really liked the movie. However, being a big fan of the series, this movie ruined the book. I was really frustrated and while I enjoyed watching it in the theater with my friends, it probably won't be as good the second time.

Thanks for reading!
Hana

Follow me on Bloglovin'