Friday, June 16, 2017


CARRY ON - by Rainbow Rowell


“And one will come to end us / and one will bring his fall, / let the greatest power of powers reign, /may it save us all”


Simon Snow is The Chosen One. The Greatest Mage of all time. His magic has more power than anyone has ever seen. He is prophesied to defeat the Insidious Humdrum and save the World of Mages. There is just one problem; he cannot control his magic or his power. 

To really be able to sink your teeth into Carry On I think you first need to understand its multidimesionality. First and foremost I see it as a spin off (and the Lord above knows I much I LOVE a good spin off) of the previous book I reviewed by Rainbow Rowell, Fangirl. 
Secondly, I see it is a full, novel length Fan Fic (which, being someone who used to read fan fics back in my day I find absolutely crazy insane amazing). 
And last, but definitely not least, it is a fans depiction of the last installment of a FICTIONAL book series, 'Simon Snow' (A book series within a novel! Bookception if there ever was such a thing), which anyone who hasn't basically been living under a rock since 1997 would notice is so very loosely based on Harry Potter you cannot help but smile. 

It is a world, within a world, within a world. Rowell is a fictional genius to be able to fit all of that into only 517 pages. This book exceeded all my expectations. 

I love the use of first person p.o.v. to tell the narrative. It allows you to get a massive insight into each character in such a short space of time. You get into their heads and understand their motives and I loved every second of it. Simultaneously there are parts where you'll find out information before the rest of the characters do, or Rowell will leave you hanging coming to the end of one characters chapter and then throw a twist you never saw coming as your begin the read a new one.

The emphasis of using "magic words" because words carry so much power to cast spells is also BRILLIANT! How many times as a kid were you asked to "use the magic words please" when asking for something. Imagine being able to cast spells just by saying a turn of phrase, I think this was one of the aspects I loved most about the book because I love reading and words so much, so this idea of words having power was just awesome. 


SIMON AND BAZ! I couldn't have loved this pairing more, nor could I be more in love with Baz myself. Not just because I have definitely been in his position before (and that sounds super narcissistic of me, but whatever!) but also because who wouldn't want a super dapper, super rich, Vampire Magician boyfriend!? To have them be so hopelessly obsessed with each other and think it's because they're "mortal enemies" was just too easy - you couldn't come out the other end of that and NOT have them fall in love. To be fair, Baz was always in love but to read along as Simon realizes that yes, He does actually love Baz gave me the warm fuzzies.

Carry On is jam packed with everything I love. Teen Drama. Romance. Mystery. Magic. Shady characters. Adventure. An unstoppable evil. And a happy ending. This book gets a 10/10!   

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

 F A N G I R L - by Rainbow Rowell
Fantasy. Mystery. Thriller. Horror. Epic Novels that exist in worlds very distant from our own. These are the worlds I LOVE to lose myself in, it's the genres I tend to stray towards when I'm looking for a new book to read. But we can't always exist in these worlds - and after reading a full series set in these worlds I find I need to give myself a break. I'd just finished reading the first installment in 'The Dark Artificies' series; Lady Midnight (which I plan on doing a review on in the near future once I've read the whole series), and I have yet to procure my copy of the next installment Lord of Shadows. 

As I've mentioned before, having a best friend who is as into reading as I am is great because she's always giving me books to borrow and just a week before finishing Lady Midnight she'd given me Fangirl to read as a sort of 'palate cleanser' if you will. 
It's a classic teen, kinda-coming-of-age story about Cath, who's just started college with her twin sister Wren. Cath and Wren are about as different as twins can be which has never been a problem because they were always joined at the hip (as twins are); until College that is. 

I could easily read this book over and over, it is super easy to read and I know that if I plopped myself down in front of the fire or heater with a cup of steaming coffee, or took it down to the beach while I tanned, I could finish it quite easily in one sitting. I saw a lot of myself if both Cath and Wren. Wren is the social butterfly, parties, new friends, booze; the College Experience. That was definitely a bit of me when I was in University. But at the same time a see a lot of myself in Cath. Social anxiety, introverted. Writes Fan Fiction (about a character called Simon Snow who is so very loosely based off Harry Potter which makes me love the book even more), lives in her head a lot. A home body.
Fangirl made me feel like I was 17 again. Getting excited for Cath when new boys immerge on the scene. Laughing at Reagan, Cath's roommate, who is the sassy, take-no-shit friend we all wish we had. Falling in love with Levi, the love interest, who is exactly the kind of unintentionally cool but secretly dorky guy who would steal my heart. I loved everything about it - the only critique I could give is that I wished there was a little bit more. 


I'd give it an 8/10.

Sunday, June 11, 2017

B I B L I O P H I L E

If you are someone who knows me well, then you know that I love books. I am obsessed with books. I love everything about books. I love reading books. I love the look of books stacked up on the floor. I love how books look all neatly arranged in shelves. I like the feel of books (both hard cover and paperback). I love the crisp feel of the pages. I love the sound the pages make when you flip through a brand new book as well the smell. I equally love the dusty, musty smell of an old book. The translucent pages, the tiny writing. The old font. Everything. So it's safe to assume that I collect a lot of books (probably more like hoard). Anyway, my best friend is the greatest because she helps fuel this obsession (she thankfully loves books just as much as I do) and this weekend she just added to my ever growing pile of TO BE READ. So with that being said - I've decided to set myself a challenge; which is to essentially chow through my TO BE READ pile as soon as possible and read EVERYTHING before I head over to Canada. I am going to try and write about the books I read as well. The challenge has started. The the next few books on my list are:
Carry One - Rainbow Rowell
Wonder - R.J Palacio
Perfect - Cecelia Ahern