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If We Were Having Coffee: Life Lessons at 24

Welcome to my first coffee post of 2017! My birthday was this weekend so I figured it’d only be fitting to use a coffee cake image for this post. I hope you all are enjoying 2017 so far. 

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I officially started back to work this past week. So far, it’s been okay. It’s actually been pretty slow there so most of our hours are being cut. I don’t mind too much though because I’ll be working from 8:30 to 5:30 instead of my usual 10:30 to 7:00. So I’ll actually be getting done earlier, exactly like I wanted. I also haven’t been stressing out too much about the problems at work since I’ve been back, which has probably helped me significantly. It’s almost as if the storm has already passed and we are simply just drifting out to sea. I know having Monday off will definitely help. 

I think what’s helped though was I had time off away from work. Speaking of which (if I haven’t already), Christmas break went well. My grandmother was down through all of it so I spent my days with her doing whatever she wanted, whether it be baking cookies or decorating the Christmas tree. It was nice seeing her, even when she was getting on my nerves like she sometimes tends to do. The only disappointment with Christmas break has been my laptop. First my Internet connection wasn’t fully functional, now my charger doesn’t work anymore. So that’ll need to be taken care of at some point. Hopefully, I’ll just need to get a new charger and not have to replace it completely. But for now, I’ve been using my tablet for all my Internet needs, including my blog posts. And it’ll continue to be that way until the laptop situation is handled. 

Speaking of writing, I have some news for the new year. The platform I’ve been using for some of my video game posts and other posts, Creators is creating another platform. It’s going to be for Indie gaming and is going to be a great way for gamers and developers to interact with each other. If you want to know what I’m talking about, here you go. Anyway, I received an email after I signed up about that they are looking for writers and people to interact in the community, to email back if your interested. So I emailed back letting them know I’m definitely interested. So I’ll be doing that now too, which is really cool and exciting to me. This platform is supposed to launch this month so I can’t wait to see how this’ll work out for me. I think it’ll be an amazing opportunity to be able to write about one of my passions and hopefully make good connections within the video gaming industry. If you want to see some of my posts already on the Creators platform (some of which aren’t on my blog because I’m taking their Creators Academy course to become a Verified Creator), here is the link. 

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I feel like I’m doing well with writing more this year. I’ve already written so much and we’ve just gotten halfway through January. And this is just the beginning. I saw a Flash Fiction Challenge the other day I’m very interested in doing. I’m not going to spoil you with the details because I want you to read it. All I’ll say is it’s probably going to be super personal. Either way, expect that to come as soon as I publish this coffee post because that’s what I want to write about next. Hopefully, I’ll be able to continue writing at this magnitude, but only time will tell. 

I’d like to also tell you that I think I’ll reach my reading goal for this year. Already, I’ve finished reading Lair of Dreams and The Book Jumper and am getting started with Crown of Midnight, the second book in the Throne of Glass series. I’ve also recently been playing The World Ends With You and just recently finished watching A Series of Unfortunate Events on Netflix. I plan on continuing to play this game and watch Criminal Minds whenever the mood sets me. 

I know I’ve already mentioned my birthday, but with getting older, I usually like to quickly reflect on what I think I’ve learned. What I can currently say about being 23 is that there were quite a bit of ups and downs. I know a part of my problem was that I was stressing out about work too much. To the point where it affected me emotionally both on and off the job. I also had a new friendship begin to form that’s continuing to grow in completely unexpected ways. At the age of 23, I was also struggling to continue to let my broken heart heal, to let go of the past and embrace the future and just not worry about things too much. In essence, I was somewhat emotionally unbalanced and reaching to my breaking point. 

But after some much needed thinking, I’ve been looking at things with a different perspective. And I’ve come to realize that there are only so many things that I can control. What other people do or say is beyond my control. How I react to situations is what matters. So what I’m hoping to do now that I’m 24 is not let things easily get to me. To try and stop the unneeded drama at work from  causing me stress and continue to realize I can’t please everybody. 

I’ve also come to realize I’m much stronger than I think. That I’m going to be alright even when things seem dark in the world. That my dreams are possible as long as I continue working towards them. I know I’m already healing and am proud of what I’ve accomplished this year alone, both with my writing on my blog and taking care of myself. I hope that with turning 24, life will continue to bless me in unexpected ways and I’ll be able to accomplish my dreams to the fullest. 

With this in mind, I wish you all a good weekend. I hope 2017 hasn’t been too bad for you so far and hope you have a wonderful weekend! 

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Book Review: The Book Jumper

                                       Rating: 2 stars

Amy Lennox doesn’t know quite what to expect when she and her mother pick up and leave Germany for Scotland, heading to her mother’s childhood home of Lennox House on the island of Stormsay.

Amy’s grandmother, Lady Mairead, insists that Amy must read while she resides at Lennox House—but not in the usual way. It turns out that Amy is a book jumper, able to leap into a story and interact with the world inside. As thrilling as Amy’s new power is, it also brings danger: someone is stealing from the books she visits, and that person may be after her life. Teaming up with fellow book jumper Will, Amy vows to get to the bottom of the thefts—at whatever cost.

This book wasn’t quite what I expected. Told from the perspective of Amy Lennox, a girl whose family has the ability to jump into books, I was hoping this would be a much better read. 

But before I get into what was bad, let me quickly tell you what I enjoyed about The Book Jumper. I found the story itself to be interesting. Even though I’ve read a book similar to this one (Inkheart), I find the idea of being able to immerse yourself into your favorite stories and meet some of your favorite characters to be very exciting. As someone who hopes to one day publish a story of my own, books like this remind me why I love reading and writing so much. They bring out the love in storytelling for me and make me interested in reading books I haven’t enjoyed in a really long time. 

I also liked the characters. Despite any of them having any sort of development, I found the characters to be relatable. I also loved finding out how they were connected to each other in Stormsay. Each of the characters had an important role to play and it was interesting to see how everything turned out in the end. I liked getting to meet some of the literary characters because it was nice to see how they interacted with each other. 

One of my favorite aspects of this book was seeing Amy’s ability in action. I was curious about how the author was going to incorporate book jumping into the story and wasn’t disappointed. It was interesting to see that book jumping had zero affect of the original plot of the books unless jumpers themselves decided to interfere with the story. 

I also like the book cover and the little paragraphs before each chapter. It looks really beautiful, like the story came out of a fairy tale.  I found the little paragraphs before each chapter to be very captivating. After reading this story, you understand their purpose and see how they connect to the overall plot.

Sad to say but there were so many things with this book that made it hard to enjoy it as much as I’d have liked. I found the writing to be too dense, almost as if the author was trying to pack everything in at once. And it showed. The reader can see it in the story when it comes to the plot. It’s all rushed, like the author had no time to continue writing this story. 

There’s also a lack of character development and morals in this book that bothers me. I find that even though the characters can be relatable, they don’t really learn from what happens in this story. They don’t change or progress in any way that shows that what happened in the story affected their lives. The only exception to this is Amy since she didn’t know about her abilities until she and Alexis came to Stormsay. What also bothers me with The Book Jumper is the way protecting the stories is portrayed. Throughout the book, Amy again and again is telling everyone that something is going on in the literary world. But nobody believes her or listens to her, except for Will. Instead, they get mad she’s using her abilities to go to other literary world’s when she’s been assigned to watch over one of them. Even when a literary character loses their life in the real world, nobody bats an eye. They continue moving on as if nothing happened. In many ways, it’s as if the events in this book happened in a small vacuum because nobody else in the real world is affected by the outcome. 

Even though I enjoyed reading The Book Jumper, I’m sad because it’s not as good as it could be. It had so much potential, but the author didn’t manage to pull it off. 

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Book Review: Lair of Dreams (The Diviners #2)

                                                                

                                               Rating: 3 stars

The longing of dreams draws the dead, and this city holds many dreams.

After a supernatural showdown with a serial killer, Evie O’Neill has outed herself as a Diviner. With her uncanny ability to read people’s secrets, she’s become a media darling, earning the title “America’s Sweetheart Seer.” Everyone’s in love with the city’s newest It Girl…everyone except the other Diviners.

Piano-playing Henry DuBois and Chinatown resident Ling Chan are two Diviners struggling to keep their powers a secret—for they can walk in dreams. And while Evie is living the high life, victims of a mysterious sleeping sickness are turning up across New York City.

As Henry searches for a lost love and Ling strives to succeed in a world that shuns her, a malevolent force infects their dreams. And at the edges of it all lurks a man in a stovepipe hat who has plans that extend farther than anyone can guess…As the sickness spreads, can the Diviners descend into the dream world to save the city?

Lair of Dreams was a great read for me because the story and characters made me want to find out more. I enjoyed this book because the story centered around the ability for Diviners to walk through dreams. In particular, it centered around my favorite character’s friend Henry and introduced us to Ling, both whom can walk through dreams. I found this part of the story to be interesting because readers found out more about Henry and also learned how the dream world played a role in the events that followed. I also find dreams to be a fascinating subject, which allowed me to enjoy this book even more. Especially when Ling discovered a new ability she could harness in the dream world. I liked learning Henry could walk through dreams because it’s a nice tidbit of information that Libba Bray didn’t include in The Diviners. It also allowed me to learn more about his character before he and Theta had become friends. I also liked learning more about Theta and how she plays an important role in the story. 

I also enjoyed this story because the dream world felt so real. Bray really did a good job of making dreams so powerful that nobody would want to wake up from them. She really made the place Henry and Ling went to feel so real as if I was there myself. But she also did well at showing the dark side of dreaming and how it can affect the mind. This can be seen through Henry who starts visiting the dream world more frequently because the love of his life is there. He then starts staying in the dream world for longer periods of time to the point where it affects his everyday life. You as the reader also see this through the sleeping sickness. This sickness is the main root of our character’s problems as the sickness spreads and affects one of their own. It’s up to them to stop the cause before the sickness can spread through the whole city. 

I also enjoy the mystery of the series surrounding Project Buffalo and Blind Bill. Bray gives us little details about Project Buffalo that make us continue to be invested in the series. I also like the way Blind Bill’s character is portrayed and can’t wait to find out what his main role will be in the rest of the series. 

While I don’t particularly like the ending of Lair of Dreams, it has many more flaws that’ve caught my attention. One of my biggest criticisms of this book is Evie’s character. In The Diviners, I really didn’t mind her character too much. However, I feel like she’s devolved since then. She’s now famous because of her powers and goes on the radio to show off her ability to read objects. She also no longer wants anything to do with her uncle and starts going to parties almost every night because of her celeb status. I feel like all of these things made me like her character less because she becomes shallow, vain and selfish and allows her fame to get to her head. While I understand why she’s doing all of these things, I just had a hard time sympathizing with her and wanting to read her role in this book. She becomes so caught up in city life she fails to realize how much danger she and the people she loves are in, causing her not to play as much of a vital role in the story. 

I also disliked the role Will’s character plays in the story. I hate it because Bray doesn’t really tell us where he’s gone off to and the only time we see his character after he leaves causes the reader quite a bit of confusion. I find this to be a serious flaw in the story because it leaves me with a lot of questions that don’t get answered by the end of the book. It would’ve been nice to have some answers instead of feeling more confused than when I started. 

While I very much enjoyed reading Lair of  Dreams, there were so many issues I had with it that I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as I’d hoped. 

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First Impressions: The World Ends With You

Released in 2008 by Square Enix and Jupiter, The World Ends With You is an action, role-playing game. The story centers around a young boy named Neku in a city called Shibuya, one of the biggest cities in Japan. He wakes up in the middle of the city with no clue who he is and how he got there. He quickly realizes as he explores the city that he’s in the Reaper’s Game, a seven day challenge where the players have to complete one mission a day under a time limit or face being erased from the game. As Neku continues exploring Shibuya, he also fights these creatures called Noise and makes allies with other players in order to survive.

In The World Ends With You, you are partnered up with another player in order to fight Noise and given unique pins. These pins give you powers that allow you to defend yourself against Noise as well as scan the people around you to read their thoughts and further complete your missions. These pins are one of the things I enjoy most about this game because they give you a unique battle experience.

Here are some of the pins from The World Ends With You.

When battling Noise, you are given slots for your pins. Each pin you put in a slot are the ones you can use when fighting Noise. You can put whichever pins you want in a slot as long as they aren’t the same type of pin. This gives the player the opportunity to use a unique set of pins to fight off their foes and level up their pins.

During each fight, you and your partner are on separate screens while battling the Noise. The great thing about this is you can control both characters during your fighting in order to give out more damage. However, whenever you receive damage, your health is depleted from the same bar and controlling both players isn’t always the most ideal because one player could be losing health while your controlling someone else. This can easily be fixed in the menu screen so you can focus on controlling Neku and not have to worry about your partner losing health.

While I enjoy this fighting style, one of its weaknesses is controlling the pins. When fighting Noise, sometimes the pins don’t always work even when you’re doing things correctly. I know part of the problem is because all of the controls during battling involve using your stylus, which can be quite a big turn off during gameplay. I know I definitely can find it annoying at times when I know I’m using a pin correctly, but it’s not doing what it’s supposed to.

What I also enjoy about playing The World Ends With You is the unique art style and storyline. When playing the game, the art really catches my eye. I find it to be beautiful and completely immersive because it reminds me of comic books. I’m also enjoying the storyline because the plot doesn’t give everything away at once. With each day, you learn a little more about the characters you didn’t know before. But you also find out more about this Game and understand why the players are in it.

Overall, my experience with The World Ends With You has been a good one so far. I hope to continue playing this game to find out what other secrets have yet to be unlocked for me.

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Bringing Hope Into the New Year

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“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re doing something. So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make new mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life. Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, do it. Make your mistakes, next year and forever.” -Neil Gaiman

Since the end of 2016 is here, I want to use this time to reflect on what this year has brought for me. While I know a lot of people say this year has been a terrible one, it really hasn’t been quite as awful to me. Yes, it hasn’t been a very great year either, but I’ve had a lot worse happen in my life in comparison to what I’ve had from this one year alone.

In this year, I feel proud of what I’ve managed to do. Now, I didn’t do a whole lot to really be proud of, but I’m proud of myself for my continuous effort to blog on here even at times where I didn’t think any writing would get done. I know I didn’t keep up my promise to write multiple blog posts in one week. I know that was something I genuinely wanted to do. But I understand now with my writing that I’d rather it not be rushed and that I’ll always be looking to improve myself like this with each new year to come. I’m proud that I kept up my blog during the year, despite all of the different things that happened during this time and that I haven’t lost any followers since I’ve been here on WordPress. My goal for this new year is to continue putting up work on my blog that people will continue to enjoy. And if there’s anything I can do at all to make sure that continues to happen, don’t hesitate to leave a comment in this post below with ideas or suggestions of things you’d like to see here. I’m always open for new ideas, new topics to be explored and want to do the best I can to make sure that happens.

Besides continuing to improve my blog, I hope in the new year to continue improving in my writing as well as continue working on improving myself. While I know most of the writing I do ends up here on Vook: Books + Video Games, I still want my writing to get better. I want my writing to improve each year in some small way or another, even if there’s nothing wrong with the way I write. I also want to write more too. I know there’s never any guarantee of that happening, but I always want to hope for the best whenever I can. I also want to work on improving myself too because there’s always room for self-reflection in life.

I know how critical I can be of myself. I know it’s mostly because of the troubles I’ve been dealt in life. I haven’t always had things as easy as I do now and know how fortunate I am to still be here. I think about my past, about what I’ve been through in such a short amount of time and am proud of how strong of a person I am. I know at times I blame myself for the things that have already happened, as if I had control of those situations and could stop them from happening. But I know now that there wasn’t anything I could do and that I’m the person I am today because of it. So with this new year, what I want from myself is to continue letting go. To stop criticizing myself every time I make a mistake. To stop saying “I’m sorry” to people when you haven’t really done anything wrong. To stop thinking of the troubles of the past and continue embracing what is to come in the future. To live like every moment will be your last breath. To stop letting the past break you down and leave you with scars that will never heal. To never forget, but remember that there is more to life than what you were once dealt. To stop letting your emotions get to you and realize that you are surrounded by people who love you. To continue giving chances even when you get hurt because you know you are strong enough to pick yourself back up again. I hope in this new year to come, I’ll be able to do these things and feel confident enough to share stories of my past without breaking down into tears.

While 2016 is ending, I’d like to bring hope into the new year. I know 2016 has been a rough year for a lot of people, either because they lost someone they loved or because of other personal traumas they might’ve experienced that they are still coping with. While I know this year didn’t turn out the way people wanted, know that you will be okay. Things might seem rough and difficult now, but know there are people that if you let them will be there for you when you need them. I say this, both to everyone following my blog or not. For those who are struggling, I am here. To listen, to learn, to understand—to be here when you need someone close by.

What I’m trying to say but realize now I’m not doing such a good job is that I hope things get better for you in 2017. Look at this new year as a fresh start. If you see certain things in your life aren’t working out and you know what you can do to change them, then do so. Make those changes, make things a little easier for yourself. And if you make mistakes along the way, that’s okay too. Embrace those mistakes and learn something from them so that you can continue on your way.

Happy 2017 everyone. I hope this year you are able to get accomplished everything you want and more. That all of your dreams come true and have a fabulous year.

 

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Book Review: Thirteen Reasons Why

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Rating: 3 stars

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker–his classmate and crush–who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah’s voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out why.

Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah’s pain, and as he follows Hannah’s recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever.

I remember being introduced to this book by an old friend of mine when I was in high school. At the time, I remember reading it, becoming so engrossed with Hannah’s character. She was a mysterious girl because when reading, you didn’t really know too much about her. She told you about the things that happened to her during her freshman year of high school and that she wasn’t the type of girl the rumors portrayed her to be. But I also felt a connection to her, having been in high school at the time and understanding the struggles she was going through.

I felt that I could relate to her. Even though I never had rumors like that about me flying around school, I was bullied during my early years of education. So I completely understood where she was coming from and could see how the events that transpired turned her whole world upside down. Even though I’m no longer in high school, reading Thirteen Reasons Why a second time around didn’t change that perception for me.

Hannah Baker is a very sympathetic character. She attends a new high school, trying the best she can to fit in only to find her peers never taking the time to get to know her as a person. They are so busy believing the rumors about her to realize how alone she was and to see that their actions unintentionally lead to her death.

Another reason this story pulls at my heart is because it’s a very sensitive topic. Suicide isn’t something a lot of people feel comfortable talking about, due to people not understanding how the smallest things can have a big impact on a person’s life. Like mental illness, people don’t know how to talk about suicide and don’t understand it as well as people who’ve felt that pain before. Despite how hard suicide as a topic is to discuss about, these discussions need to be had and I appreciate Jay Asher, the author of Thirteen Reasons Why, for writing about it. It makes me hopeful that one day, suicide won’t be such a big stigma.  This book also brought up a lot of other key issues, such as rape and drunk driving, which aren’t heavily talked about either and are just as important to discuss.

I also enjoyed this book because of the way the story is told. The novel is from the perspective of Clay Jensen, who receives cassette tapes one day after school with Hannah’s voice on them explaining why she killed herself, saying the responsibility lies with those who receive the tapes. The people involved also receive a map of their town, marked with stars of locations where the events Hannah mentions take place. I enjoyed reading this book through Clay’s thoughts and actions and Hannah’s voice. It made it seem more in depth and personal. I also liked that Asher used cassette tapes for Hannah’s death note. As a 90s child, I grew up using cassette tapes and a Walkman whenever I wanted to listen to something on the go. It made the story a little nostalgic with those elements, considering how far technology has advanced in today’s day and age.

However, I do have a couple criticisms for Thirteen Reasons Why. While I enjoyed the way this story was told, I felt like Asher had Hannah more telling the story than Clay. Yes, he’s the one who had the tapes and his thoughts about what transpired where pretty clear, but I felt like there was more telling in the story than showing. I also didn’t really see a whole lot of character development in any of the characters in this story. I think part of that is because of hearing from Hannah her thoughts about the people who affected her life made it hard for us to really get a good understanding of the other characters. We knew Hannah didn’t really like them, but I wish we could’ve learned more about them and why they were such terrible people.

I also just didn’t really get how Clay is supposedly a nice guy. He’s included in the tapes and the story is told from his perspective, but you don’t really get to know him as a person outside of him listening to those tapes. Throughout the book, he only interacts with a couple people and even those few interactions didn’t give us a real glimpse of his character. Yes, he did some nice things, helped people out, but that isn’t enough for me to truly believe someone is a nice person. I also didn’t see how this whole thing really changed his life either. I get he had a better understanding of what Hannah was going through after the tapes, but he didn’t seem all that different to me than before. But I did sympathize with him because it was evident in the story how much he cared about Hannah and wanted to help her in any way he could.

I felt like I knew more about where Hannah and the rest of her classmates lived than the characters in this story. Part of that was because of Clay going to some of the locations Hannah mentioned in the tapes and Asher describing those places in perfect detail. While I don’t mind knowing more about the world characters live in, it’s a little frustrating with this story because I wanted to know the characters better other than knowing all the terrible things they did to Hannah.

While I sympathize with Hannah, I sometimes find her character to be very weak. I understand how depression works on a person’s mind, making them feel completely helpless, but I just didn’t always understand some of her actions. For example, the incident with the sign I felt like she could’ve very easily done something about. I know she had called the police, but I felt like she should’ve told them who knocked the stop sign down. I felt this way with some of the other incidents that happened in the book too because they were things she could’ve very easily done something about. Especially all of the things that happened towards the end where she’s still struggling to make up her mind about whether to take her own life. Despite these issues with her character, I understand that she was probably already too far gone at these moments in the story to really do anything about these situations. I feel like that is probably why she didn’t stop certain things from happening and why I feel myself questioning some of her actions.

While I have all of these criticisms for Thirteen Reasons Why, I still enjoyed reading it again. It left me sad knowing the story was over and remembering Hannah being dead, but I still found it as good of a read as the last time I read it. I hope others read it with an open mind and find themselves understanding suicide being a much more complicated issue than it seems. Because even though the reasons Hannah gave seem very small and insignificant, together they created a snowball effect that resulted in her not able to get any help until it was too late.

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Book Review: Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass #1)

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Rating: 4 stars

After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.

Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king’s council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she’ll serve the kingdom for four years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilarating. But she’s bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her … but it’s the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.

Then one of the other contestants turns up dead … quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

I remember the first time I read this book. My sister had come home to visit from college and gave me a copy, telling me a friend of hers from school thought I’d enjoy it. I remember reading it, feeling completely mesmerized by the story within its pages, wanting to find out what happened next to Celaena. Reading Throne of Glass again, I still remember those feelings, which have returned just as deeply.

The first book in a series I have yet to continue reading, Throne of Glass made me wonder what it would be like living as an assassin. An assassin well-known for her abilities, Celaena is more than she appears, which is why I enjoy her character so much. She’s very headstrong, good with any weapon in existence, and knowledgeable about the world she lives in. Even though she’s an assassin, she cares very much about protecting the people around her, despite the circumstances she’s currently dealing with. While at times I could find the way she talked to certain characters annoying, I overall enjoyed seeing such a strong character that I can’t wait to see how she continues to develop in the rest of the series.

I also enjoyed seeing this book from Dorian and Chaol’s point of view. Having their points of view allowed the reader to better understand their characters and how they both changed as the competition continued. While both Dorian and Chaol’s loyalty belongs to the kingdom, it gets tested when Celaena’s life is at stake during the final moments of the competition. I also loved their perspectives because you could see how conflicted both characters could be. As prince of the kingdom, Dorian knew he shouldn’t trust Celaena, but at the same time you could see the relationship he had with his father was pretty rough. This resulted in him being conflicted between doing what was right for the kingdom versus his own happiness, which I believe will continue to play an important role in the series as it continues.

I enjoyed reading this book too because of the competition and how magic came to play in the story with the competitor’s mysterious deaths. Sarah J. Maas did a wonderful job at weaving both these elements together to create a unique story that keeps the reader wondering what happens next. However, I did sometimes find these elements could be a little too much because I felt like there was already a lot going on in the story. But at the same time, Maas does a good job of connecting these two things together in order to allow more possibilities to exist in the world Celaena lives in.

I overall enjoy Throne of Glass because it kept me coming back for more. I can’t wait to read the rest of the books in the series to find out what Celaena does next.

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Book Review: Fell (The Sight #2)

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Rating: 4 stars

Among the wolves of Transylvania walks a fearful legend: a black wolf with the power to see into the minds of other animals. Fell is a Kerl, a loner, separated from his pack by the power of the Sight and by his guilt over the death of his beloved sister Larka.

One day, in the darkness of his cave hideaway, Fell hears a voice from his past calling for him to help a human child, a marked one with a great destiny. Thus begins the black wolf’s journey into the world of men.

The villagers call Alina a changeling, a creature left by the fairies, and they fear her. Malduk, who rescued her from the snows, makes her dress as a boy and work twice as hard as one. It is a bitter, lonely life, haunted by terrible dreams, until the day Alina learns some of the truth of her past. She sets out into a world fraught with danger to find her real home. And stalking her every step is a mysterious black wolf…

The sequel to The Sight is probably my favorite out of the two in this short series. I find the world to be even more in depth because we are able to see the events unfold through Fell and Alina’s eyes as well as get a greater understanding of the world they live in.

The story in Fell is very enriching. I enjoy it because of its rich retelling of fairy tales and the way these stories are an important part of wolves and human’s lives. Both wolves and humans use storytelling as a way to calm their own fears as well as brighten up their day, which is something I can relate to very well. Sharing these stories also shows their love of the art of storytelling and the written word as some of these stories continue to be passed down to each generation.

I love reading this book because of Fell and Alina’s growing relationship. Both characters belong to different worlds, yet form a strong connection to each other despite their differences in order to bring peace into their universe. Their connection to the Sight only drives them closer but can also be seen to affect their relationships with others due to human superstition. Both Fell and Alina are headstrong, willing to do anything to protect those they love even if it means putting their own lives at risk. Their growing connection only adds more reasons to love their characters and this series.

I also love how Morgra’s character is weaved into the story. She’s another favorite character of mine because of her complicated history and her villainy. Her relationship with Fell, both in The Sight and Fell is extremely powerful, resulting in her decisions in this book to turn in a direction the reader doesn’t expect. Yet, she’s someone the reader can deeply sympathize with because of the lot she was given in life and expected to be dealt with in death.

While I enjoy the ending of this book better than its predecessor, I was sad when I finished reading this story. I wanted to find out where all of the characters were after the events that unfolded and was sad to see the story end.

I highly recommend Fell to those who’ve read The Sight and want to see where his story continues. But I also recommend this book to wolf lovers and those who want to watch a fantastic tale unfold.

 

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If We Were Having Coffee: Prepare for Christmas Break

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I’d like to wish you all Happy Holidays. I know not everyone celebrates Christmas, so I want to wish everyone a good holiday, no matter what you are doing this year.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that I’ve just completed my last week of work for the year. My job doesn’t start back up until January 2017 so I’ll be off for the next couple weeks. Unless I’m able to find something else close to home or a job using my degree, I’m hoping to spend the next couple weeks enjoying my time off and look for another job. But these last couple weeks went okay. My crew did a secret Santa of our own, which was very enjoyable. I like exchanging gifts with people because I enjoy seeing the look on a person’s face when they open their gift. I also like the act of giving gifts because I like getting things for people that they want or need. Yes, getting gifts is just as exciting too, but I really enjoy giving gifts to people more. Just the idea of making someone’s day with a simple sign showing I care fills me with so much joy.

But I’m also glad this semester is done because it’s been a very trying one. A lot of things happened at work this school year that really tried my patience, made me realize I need to get a job elsewhere as soon as possible. While I’m extremely thankful that they’ve kept me on, it’s my time to move on. I need to start my career now. I need to work somewhere I enjoy, around people with similar passions and interests. Somewhere I know my hard work will be appreciated instead of taken advantage of. I know I’m not happy with this job anymore so it’s time for me to say goodbye as soon as possible. I just need to get a job somewhere else first, which is something I sincerely hope I’ll be able to do during this short break. So I’m hoping to really buckle down on job applications these next couple weeks while I’m at home so I can leave for good. Fingers crossed I’m able to find places hiring and get scheduled for an interview soon.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I’ve continued watching Criminal Minds and playing Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. I’d also like to tell you I finished reading Fell this afternoon and plan on writing my review once I’ve completed this post to publish on my blog.

I’d also like to apologize for not writing as much too. I know I’ve probably already apologized so many times for this, but I just haven’t been writing a lot lately. There are times where the flow of words come out of me very quickly. During these moments, I’ll have something to write about and you’ll notice more posts on my blog. But when I’m not writing as much, you’ll see my writing schedule is all over the place. I’ll post every couple weeks, sometimes go two or three weeks without any writing being done, or just stop posting altogether except for whenever I have a review ready.

I know my blog is mostly for book and video game reviews, but I really want to branch out with my writing a little on here too. Maybe even do more Flash Fiction Challenges or poetry, when the time feels right. Or short stories too. I don’t know. But either way, I want to have more content to publish on my blog. Because I feel like I just haven’t been posting quite as much. I don’t know. I think I could just be very critical of the way I’m blogging right now, which is also possible because I know how hard I can be on myself at times. Regardless, I want you all to continue following my blog because you enjoy the content I post. So I want to do more on my blog whenever I can. But until I figure out what that is, I hope you all stay here a little while yet. Even during the moments when I don’t have much to write about because my mind is moving all over the place.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you we are getting ready for Christmas here. I sent out my Christmas list a little while ago and Mom and I have started Christmas shopping for our family Friday night. We continued doing some of our shopping today too and will probably be doing some more in the next couple days as we prepare for my sister and grandmother to be here with us. We have yet to put up any Christmas decorations though so I’m sure we’ll be doing that too soon enough.

This will probably be the last coffee post for 2016, since next weekend will be Christmas and the one after we’ll be entering into the new year. So I would also quickly like to say too that I hope you’ve all had a wonderful 2016 and wish you all good luck in 2017 and what’s to come! I also hope this weekend and next will be a good one and I promise to be writing more on my blog again soon.

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