// 2017 reading recap //

hey.

i hope you all had a wonderful christmas. mine was fairly good. i’m currently putting together a haul, but i doubt it will be up until the new year because i have another family celebration to attend.

anyway, i saw book recaps on dragon waffles and paper fury and decided to make one myself. after all, i can only go so long without gushing/ranting about what i’ve read.

shout-out to my friend izzy for making me read paranormal/horror books.

so apparently 20% of the books i read this year were romance? that’s a bit concerning because i generally hate that genre. but it’s rare to find a contemporary that isn’t also a romance, so that probably explains it.

i had more books with lgbt+ characters on my tbr, but my mom wouldn’t let me read them. because, you know, i might become more open-minded and accepting and we can’t have that.

i’m very picky when it comes to giving five stars.

also, i don’t think i’ve ever given a book just one star in my life.

2017 favorites

(not all of these were released this year. they’re just the best ones that i read in 2017.)

how to say goodbye in robot – i started sobbing when i finished this one. (this might be because i am extremely emotional and not because the book was sad, although it was.) i really wanted everything to turn out well for ghost boy and robot girl, and it ended much differently than i expected.

tiger lily – peter pan retelling from tiger lily’s pov!! i’ve always loved peter pan and this book gave neverland new depth. it’s a romance, but not a fluffy one — it’s gritty and real and they hurt each other.

all the bright places – i know this one is controversial, but i actually loved it a lot. i read it when i was “asleep,” as finch would say, and it stuck with me because it was like i was reading about myself.

 the empty grave – thanks for ripping out my heart, stroud. i hate you for putting my sweet children through that.

lucky few – homeschoolers with death wishes!! sounds like my autobiography.

heap house – originally, i thought it was just really, really weird, but it’s been growing on me since then.

prettiest covers

(currently still reading the girl who drank the moon, but i can include it because i said so.)

overhyped

i might get hate for this, but i detest most of these and have no idea why they’re so popular.

must read in 2018

 how can i call myself a bookworm if i haven’t read any of maggie stiefvater’s books??

have you read any of the books i mentioned? do you agree/disagree with me on my picks for the overhyped section? let me know in the comments.

xo

loren

// october book reviews //

hey. :)

i read nine books last month, i’m kind of proud of that. i’m going to try and make the reviews shorter this time because of how many there are.

this is where it ends by marieke nijkamp — 2/5 stars

i thought it was really boring. i didn’t care about any of the characters and the shooter wasn’t nearly complex enough to be a mass murderer. i finished it quickly because, although i didn’t think it was a very interesting story, i wanted to know who made it out of the school alive.

it has some really great reviews on goodreads, so maybe this is just a me thing?

tiger lily by jodi lynn anderson — 4.5/5 stars

i am in love with this book and you all need to read it right now. it’s definitely one of my favorites. the characters were fascinating, i felt all of their emotions and ended up crying at the end. there are so many incredible quotes in this book that i want to slap all over my room.

i would have given it five stars, but the very beginning was a little slow, in my opinion.

this book broke my heart. i recommend it 100%.

goodbye stranger by rebecca stead — 3/5 stars

 rebecca stead is one of my favorite authors. all of her books are phenomenal and a little weird. i fully expected to like this one, and i did. but it’s not that different from all the other middle school dramas i’ve read, except that it has a more serious theme.

.

  there’s a feminist character in it, which is great, right? except it wasn’t a very flattering depiction, kind of like le fou representing gay people in the live-action beauty and the beast.

.

 some of the chapters were told from the pov of a mystery character, in second person. i don’t really get why those chapters were in there, because they didn’t add anything to the plot. but it was a cute story about friendship and growing up and i can now say that i have read all of rebecca stead’s books.

.

girls like us by gail giles — 2.5/5 stars

it talked about what it’s like to be special ed and (SPOILER) a rape victim (END SPOILER). i haven’t read many books with characters like that. it was a quick read and i liked the diversity.

my issues with this book: 1) engaging plot? i don’t know her 2) quincy is awful and rude 3) i kept forgetting whose pov i was reading, because they have the exact same voice.

 

wonder by r.j. palacio — 3/5 stars

it was a wonderful (ha) book, the writing flowed easily, the characters sounded their age, etc. but it was just another middle school story with drama and an underdog mc. in my opinion, anyway. i know a lot of people love wonder, so it’s probably just me and not the book.

the overall theme of this is “be kind!!” and while that’s great, it’s sort of simple. i was expecting something more meaningful and emotional, idk. and it bothered me that even though it’s about kindness, most of the characters weren’t kind to august — they just pitied him.

fangirl by rainbow rowell — 2.5/5 stars

.

 i’ve heard great things about rainbow rowell, so i’m a bit sad that this book didn’t click for me. it’s about a fanfiction writer with social anxiety, and it could have been a relatable book about being in a fandom, but it was actually really boring??

 .

it’s a character driven story, and that’s fine, but i thought they were all sort of awful people. real, but awful. (wren and laura are disgusting humans, and cath and levi are just so normal. sorry.) i like reading because i get to hear about dragons and love and wars, not so i can drag myself through 450 pages of unnecessary family drama and not wanting to do your schoolwork.

.

 i didn’t like most of the book, but i enjoyed reading bits of cath’s simon snow fanfics (clearly based on harry potter). rowell has a book about simon and baz (carry on), and i want to read that. maybe a fantasy story will redeem this author for me.

 .

 the empty grave by jonathan stroud — 5/5 stars

.

 this is the last book in the series. i don’t really know how to feel. of course it was amazing, but i’m sad now and the ending wasn’t really satisfying. it’s the kind of ending that makes you immediately want to look up fanfiction, because how could the story end there? (and this is coming from someone who has never purposely read fanfics before.)

 .

 i was so emotionally invested in these characters that i had to stop reading every few minutes and gasp, because what if this character dies, and did he just say what i think he said? i spent the entire time worrying about the cast, because i was pretty sure that someone wasn’t going to make it.

 .

 the strings weren’t all tied up by the end of the book, so i’m going to spend the rest of my life wondering about the skull and what happens to my ships. which is where the fanfiction comes in.

.

 if you haven’t read the lockwood & co. series, you should get working on it. they’re witty and creepy and the characters work so well together. plus, it’s one of my favorite series.

 .

coraline by neil gaiman — 3.5/5 stars

.

 this one is creepy and perfect for reading around halloween. it definitely would have been better if i hadn’t watched the movie first, but it was still worth reading.

.

 the characters are all pretty great, they’ve got a lot of quirks and unique voices. but i felt like i didn’t know anything about them. and i guess it makes sense for this book, because it’s plot driven and the characters’ personalities aren’t super important, but still.

.

i loved coraline and the cat because they’re both sarcastic and sassy, and their banter was pretty amusing.

 .

 this is one of those books that i think everyone should read. even though it’s not my favorite book in the world, it’s a classic.

 .

holding up the universe by jennifer niven – 2.5/5 stars

 .

 jennifer niven wrote one of my favorite books (all the bright places), and she’s an incredible writer, so i picked up this one, certain that i would love it. but i sort of can’t stand it??

 .

 there were lots of good things about this book, like its message of self-love and how libby, former “america’s fattest teen,” knows that she doesn’t have to lose weight to be accepted. i also enjoyed reading about prosopagnosia, which i had never heard of before. and i thought the anxiety and eating disorder rep was pretty good.

.

 but the bad things outweighed the good ones. the characters were freaking annoying. i rolled my eyes at practically everything they did, even if it was normal, just because jack and libby and everyone else bothered me so much. i found a lot of it to be insanely unrealistic, like the bikini scene and the party and the entire romance. and the title had nothing to do with the story, and that always frustrates me to no end. also, jack thinks his younger brother is gay because he carried a purse for awhile. not a stereotype at all.

 .

  it had the potential to be a really great story, but it fell short for me.

---

a lot of my reviews were quite negative, idk what that’s about. sure, it’s possible that all the crappy books in the library found their way into my hands, but i think my mood might have affected some of them, too. so take them with a grain of salt, ok?

.

xo

 .

loren

// feuillemort: the color of a dying leaf //

just some recommendations for autumn.

music:

halloween // be more chill

it’s almost halloween // panic! at the disco

the real world // owl city

forest // twenty one pilots

overgrown // oh wonder

wolf bite // owl city

isle of flightless birds // twenty one pilots

plant life // owl city

november // sleeping with sirens

trees // twenty one pilots

☼

the first two are the only ones that are really related to the season, the others just give me autumn vibes.

books:

coraline // neil gaiman

always october // bruce coville

on the day i died // candace fleming

may bird trilogy // jodi lynn anderson

lockwood & co. series // jonathan stroud

the black cat // edgar allen poe

the witch of blackbird pond // elizabeth george speare

☼

the lockwood & co. series is one of my favorites. i’m reading the last book in the series right now and my friend has given me hints about what happens. i’m a bit scared.

tv/movies:

coraline

the nightmare before christmas

the corpse bride

frankenweenie

over the garden wall (tv series)

☼

lots of tim burton movies. i love them very much and they’re pretty much all i watch around halloween.

---

have some photography. they all have an orange-y hue.

plant’s shadows are so pretty.

i don’t know what this plant is, but i like it a lot. it looks like it has tiny pumpkins growing all over it.

protip: dried pine needles make great fire starters (they’re also one of my favorite colors).

this is the first year of my life where autumn doesn’t signal the beginning of co-op. sometimes i really hated that place, but i miss it now. i would get up early and stand in the yard to watch the sunrise, frosted grass crunching under my shoes and my breath being illuminated by the first beams of light. my mind would become calm and still to match the quiet earth. i needed those numb moments of silence to get through the day, where i would be caught in a buzz of too-loud voices and bodies moving too quickly for me to concentrate on. i have so many memories of co-op, but the ones that stand out to me the most are the yellow lights and dirty tile floors and sitting on wooden boards in the heat while i spaced out and my friends giggled about boys. i remember feeling dizzy and weightless and slow.

i think i made it sound a little awful, but i miss it. i miss my friends.

autumn is my favorite season for a lot of reasons. some simple ones are the chill in the air, apple cider, orange light, flannels and boots, halloween. but i also love autumn because it is lonely. it is beautiful, but it is dying. vibrantly colored leaves can crumble between your fingers. warm days can melt away into long, shivering nights that get into your bones.

autumn is so, so lonely. autumn is cold. i feel like autumn.

xo

loren

// september book reviews //

i rarely have enough to say about a book to write a full review on it. but mini reviews? i can do those. here are my thoughts on the books i’ve read this month.

« inspired by vivian »

the scar boys by len vlahos — 2/5 stars

this book is about a rejected teen, punk rock music, and forming a band with friends, so i thought i would like it. i enjoyed the first few chapters, which focused on the mc, harry jones, being caught in a horrible accident, and how it effected him emotionally and physically. but i began to lose interest once harry and his best friend put together their band, the scar boys. i just found it a little slow and predictable. however, i did love how passionate harry was about music, and how the author was able to put into words how it can make you feel: “music i discovered that night, was a sanctuary, a safe place to hide, a place where scars didn’t matter, they didn’t exist.” 

stargirl by jerry spinelli — 3/5 stars

unconventional homeschool girl shows up at high school and everyone thinks she’s a freak. now that’s relatable (public school sucks, please help me).

i loved stargirl as a character. she plays ukulele (!!), does kind things for strangers, enjoys wandering. i thought she was going to be revealed as some kind of alien princess or something. i was happy to be reading about a homeschooler, but the author made her a walking stereotype: odd clothes, socially inept, that kind of thing. she was clueless, basically. i think the author only made her a homeschooler to emphasize how weird and different she is.

a few complaints: i knew virtually nothing about the main character, leo, and the ending was unsatisfying. but i did love stargirl and the sometimes dreamy writing style.

“events become feelings, feelings become events. head and heart are contrary historians.”

simon vs the homo sapiens agenda by becky albertalli — 4/5

i finished this book in half a day. maybe it was because the internet wasn’t working and i had nothing to do with myself. maybe it was because it’s just a really freaking good book. to put the plot simply, simon has an internet friendship with someone named blue (yay, internet friends!). blue goes to simon’s school, but they write with pen names and won’t say who they really are, in case meeting in person ruins the friendship.

i loved simon. he’s funny, has an adorable personality, and is a theatre kid (!!), but he also overthinks and gets in trouble. i had a hard time liking his group of friends, though. there was too much teenage drama going on.

i had absolutely no clue who blue really was until he was revealed at the end of the story. i was afraid it was going to be a problematic character, but he ended up being the best possible person.

simon made a few really dumb choices throughout the book, which made me want to slap him, and there was one place where blue makes a comment about  “people who are straight and white never having to have identity issues,” which isn’t true and is kind of rude. but besides that, i loved it.

“i try not to change, but i keep changing, in all these tiny ways . . . and every freaking time, i have to reintroduce myself to the universe all over again.”

aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe by benjamin alire sáenz — 4/5 stars

this is the kind of book that you need to sit and think about for a long time before you figure out what it means to you.

first of all, i loved the characters. aristotle and dante’s friendship seemed quite realistic to me, and i got nervous whenever anything happened between them, because i wanted them to be friends for the rest of their lives. dante is such a sweet character. his love of birds, war against shoes, and compassionate personality made him so endearing to me. i liked ari, too. he was angry and confused and started making some bad choices as the story progressed, which made me concerned for this fictional character’s wellbeing. i feel like a worried mother.

there wasn’t much of a plot. there are a few major events in the story, but it’s mostly just exploring ari’s thoughts. i adore the writing style of this book. it’s dreamy and poetic and felt like my internal monologue in many places.

“i wondered what that was like, to hold someone’s hand. i bet you could sometimes find all of the mysteries of the universe in someone’s hand.”

it’s kind of a funny story by ned vizzini — 2 ½/5 stars

i can’t believe i gave something a half star. i feel so pretentious. 

i didn’t particularly like any of the characters. most of them were rude and made horrible decisions and made a few transphobic comments. the characters craig encounters in the psych ward generally had interesting backstories, but that didn’t really make up for it. i felt like the mental illness rep was pretty good for most of them, especially craig and muqtada.

i’m still pretty ticked about the transphobia, and i can’t figure out if it’s the author’s opinion or just the characters’. but i did like how the book sort of offered a plan for how to get help if you feel like committing suicide.

“so why am i depressed? that’s the million-dollar question, baby, the tootsie roll question; not even the owl knows the answer to that one.”

playlist for the dead by michelle falkoff — 3/5 stars

i was considering giving up on this book about fifty pages in, but i had bought it, so i figured i should power through it so i wouldn’t be wasting my ten dollars. that being said, it wasn’t a horrible book, just a little slow in the beginning.

my problems with the book: there are some slightly misogynistic comments, sam thought that suicide is selfish and for attention, the playlist wasn’t as important as i thought it would be, and i pictured astrid as that one scene girl (this one, you know who i’m talking about) and it kind of ruined her character for me.

things i liked: it was from the perspective of someone who had lost their best friend to suicide, which is a pov i haven’t read much of. it talked a lot about music, and yes, that made me happy. it mentioned gerard way’s comics and adam’s song // blink-182, and i freaked out a bit, i’ll admit it.

“people are going to say a lot of things. and some of it will be helpful, and some of it will be annoying, and lots of it will get on your nerves. but they’re saying it because they found it helpful when they lost someone. they mean well.”

---

i know some of you read 15+ books a month, but this is all that i could manage this time. although it’s probably worth noting that i read three of them in one day.

hope you enjoyed this. i might make it a regular thing. who knows.

xo loren

// a tag in which i talk about my favorite characters //

hello, my friends!

there’s a tag that’s been going around for awhile that caught my eye. i haven’t actually been tagged for this, but that was probably an accident, because who wouldn’t want to hear me rant about book characters?

for this tag, you write down the names of thirty book characters, fold them up and put them in a bowl. then you draw two names to answer each question with.

let’s go. :)

1) you have one more spot on your spelling team. who gets it?

max-ernest (the secret series // pseudonymous bosch) vs noah (i’ll give you the sun // jandy nelson)

this one isn’t hard. max-ernest is a huge nerd, and i say that in the nicest way possible. noah’s strong point, that sweet child, is definitely art, not spelling. so i’d want max-ernest to get the last spot (but good luck getting me to join a spelling team).

2) both characters want to kill you. who would you kill first to have a better chance of survival?

lucy pennant (iremonger trilogy // edward carey) vs toothless (how to train your dragon series // cressida cowell)

neither of them are really killers, are they? lucy is just a servant girl, but she does have energy and isn’t afraid to hit people with shovels. our dragon friend toothless does sound a bit scary until you remember that he is lazy as heck and absolutely tiny. i doubt that i would actually be able to kill either of them, but disposing of lucy would keep me safe.

3) you’ve been chosen for the hunger games. who is more likely to volunteer in your place?

yo-yoji (the secret series) vs magnus (magnus chase and the gods of asgard // rick riordan)

i think they’d both rather save their own skin then help me. but magnus, being a demigod, having trained for ragnarök, having special powers, etc. would probably know that he could win. let’s go with him.

4) you are the next marvel superhero. who is your sidekick?

george vs lockwood (lockwood & co. // jonathan stroud)

ah. sarcastic, a bit of a genius, has lots of snacks with him — george would have the quirky sidekick thing down. lockwood is good with a sword, has slightly insane plans, and is an excellent leader. i think that if lockwood was my partner, i would become the sidekick, but he’d still be much more helpful than george.

5) you are stranded on a deserted island and you must engage in cannibalism to survive. whom do you eat?

fishlegs (how to train your dragon series) vs jude (i’ll give you the sun)

jude. definitely jude. i’m not particularly fond of her, and i really couldn’t bear to do that to fishlegs. he’s an orphan, he has eczema and asthma and anxiety, and i would feel awful to add being eaten to that unfortunate list.

6) you’re the manager of an avocado company. who would you fire for poor communication skills?

clod (iremonger trilogy) vs lucy carlyle (lockwood & co.)

they both get fired because i don’t like avocados and i would want the company to fail.

7) you’ve just finished a book in which your favorite character dies. which character would be more likely to comfort you?

hiccup (how to train your dragon series) vs violet (all the bright places // jennifer niven)

they’re both compassionate characters who have lost people, so i think they’d both be willing to comfort me. i like hiccup a bit more than violet, though, so i’ll go with him.

8) your birthday has finally arrived. who would have the nerve to forget?

peter (the chronicles of narnia) vs finch (all the bright places)

finch. he’s probably one of my favorite characters ever, and he’s from one of my favorite books, but he has lots of flaws. he would probably be asleep or thinking too much to remember my birthday.

9) you have just found an upcoming youtube star. who is it more likely to be?

sam (lord of the rings) vs ned (castaways of the flying dutchman // brian jacques)

ned, because he is a dog, and everyone likes dog videos. :D

10) you can only invite one person to your sleepover. who would it be?

cass (the secret series) vs sophie (keeper of the lost cities series // shannon messenger)

can i just not have a sleepover? they make me tired and uncomfortable.

i guess i have to pick. although i like cass a lot, i think sophie would be a better conversationalist, which would be important, since i will not speak until spoken to. plus, sophie would know how to make mallowmelt. and i really want to try that.

11) you have just woken up and it is time for breakfast. your mom has been replaced by . . . whom?

keefe (koltc) vs edmund (the chronicles of narnia)

i’d much rather have keefe as my mother. i don’t think he’d be a very good mum, but he would be much more fun than edmund. (although if mother edmund made turkish delight for breakfast, i would pick him over keefe. [and i would betray my family for turkish delight, too. ])

12) bam, you’re pregnant. who is the mother/father?

kate (the mysterious benedict society // trenton lee stewart) vs emily (emily windsnap series // liz kessler)

neither of them are that attractive, though?? (ha, like i would know.) WHY COULDN’T IT HAVE BEEN LUCY CARLYLE. WHYYY.

emily, i guess? i like her more than kate.

13) you have just written a super important text. who would have the nerve not to reply?

susan (the chronicles of narnia) vs matilda (matilda // roald dahl)

it would be matilda, because she’s five, i think, and why would she have a phone? although i don’t know why i would send a super important text to a five-year-old.

14) you’re on the bachelor/bachelorette and down to two characters. who gets your rose?

lucy (the chronicles of narnia) vs miranda (when you reach me // rebecca stead)

this one is easy.

i’ve always thought that lucy is incredible. she’s so brave and cute and sweet!! on the other hand, we have miranda, who is horribly average (i’m sorry, i still love that book). please just let me have lucy.

15) ugh, it’s high school. who would most likely be part of the popular clique?

camicazi (how to train your dragon series) vs artemis (artemis fowl series // eoin colfer)

artemis is a genius, and apparently high schoolers don’t like those with higher iqs than themselves. (i wouldn’t actually know, i’m a homeschooler.) camicazi is a bit insane, but it would never be boring around her. she would probably be the leader of the popular clique.

☼

hope you guys enjoyed that. if you’d like to do this on your own blog, go right ahead.

i tried to pick books that most people would have heard of already. if i mentioned any books that you haven’t read, i’d get on that, because most of the ones on here are my favorites.

also, did you see my cute succulent? i love it very much, but it doesn’t have a name yet. if you have suggestions, leave them in the comments. :)

xo

loren

// what i’m reading | june //

hello, my friends! thank you for all the amazing book suggestions that you left on this post. i went to the library with a long list . . . and only found three of the books i was looking for. that’s ok, though, i’ll keep trying. here are the books i got, as well as a summary and what i thought of them.

x

 we are okay by nina lacour

you go through life thinking there’s so much you need . . . until you leave with only your phone, your wallet, and a picture of your mother.

marin hasn’t spoken to anyone from her old life since the day she left everything behind. mo one knows the truth about those final weeks. mot even her best friend mabel. but even thousands of miles away from the california coast, at college in new york, marin still feels the pull of the life and tragedy she’s tried to outrun. now, months later, alone in an emptied dorm for winter break, marin waits. mabel is coming to visit and marin will be forced to face everything that’s been left unsaid and finally confront the loneliness that has made a home in her heart.

ellie did a mini review of this book, which was the first time i had heard of it. she didn’t seem to love it that much, and when people say they don’t like a book, i have a weird urge to go read it.

i don’t really know what to think of this book. the way it talked about pain and loneliness and love felt real and beautiful. but the characters didn’t seem as real as the feelings in the book, and i think that’s why i’m undecided on this. maybe i’ll read it again someday, and now that i know the story, it will make more sense.

x

when by victoria laurie

maddie doesn’t have a choice. the forehead of every person she sees is marked by the shadowy digits of their deathdate. her unique, innate skill often feels more like a curse than a gift, and maddie grudgingly puts it to use identifying deathdates for the paying customers her mother reels in. it seems like a straightforward way to help support her family — until one client’s young son goes missing on the exact date maddie has pinpointed, and she gets pulled into a homicide investigation that turns her world upside down.

as more young people disappear and are later found murdered, suspicion swirls around maddie. at once a suspect in the investigation, a target for the murderer, and a partner in a tantalizing dance with a boy who might be connected to it all, could maddie also hold the key to cracking the case?

i’m so glad mason suggested that i read this book. i finished it in maybe a day and a half. i really wanted to figure out who the murderer was, so i sat down and kept reading till it was revealed. the evidence pointed to multiple people, so you didn’t learn who was the murderer until the very end. i couldn’t really connect with maddie, though (the only thing i could really nod my head at and think, yes, i know what that’s like, was when she said she only got to see her crush a few times a year at football/soccer games, but WHATEVER.).

it feels like i’ve seen a writing prompt similar to what this book is about — being able to see “deathdates.” it seems so cool to me that you could write an entire novel based on a writing prompt and then get it published.

x

the fault in our stars by john green

despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. but when a gorgeous plot twist named augustus waters suddenly appears at cancer kid support group, hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

remember when everyone was talking about this book and how great it is and posting bad edits of lovely quotes online? those people never bothered to put up spoiler warnings, so i knew how the book would turn out before i read it.

i didn’t feel compelled to read this until some of you suggested it. romance isn’t something i usually read, so i was a little wary to start this book. but since i’m planning on adding a little romance to my next story, i figured it would count as research. i really loved the humor in this book, but i couldn’t make myself ship hazel and augustus. yeah, they’re cute together, but i think i would have preferred them as best friends.

i didn’t cry at all. there’s probably something wrong with me, huh?

x

the creeping shadow by jonathan stroud

after leaving lockwood & co. at the end of the hollow boy, lucy is a freelance operative, hiring herself out to agencies that value her ever-improving skills. one day she is pleasantly surprised by a visit from lockwood, who tells her he needs a good listener for a tough assignment. penelope fittes, the leader of the giant fittes agency wants them — and only them — to locate and remove the source for the legendary brixton cannibal. they succeed in their very dangerous task, but tensions remain high between lucy and the other agents. even the skull in the jar talks to her like a jilted lover. what will it take to reunite the team? black marketeers, an informant ghost, a spirit cape that transports the wearer, and mysteries involving steve rotwell and penelope fittes just may do the trick. but, in a shocking cliffhanger ending, the team learns that someone has been manipulating them all along . . .

izzy, one of my best friends, was reading this aloud to me. i would laugh at the voice she used for one of the characters, and then i started laughing before said character got to speak. she gave up after a bit because i was laughing too hard to focus on the story.

izzy let me borrow it. at this point, i’m a few chapters in — and it’s amazing, of course. lockwood & co. is one of the best series i’ve read. i need you all to read it asap so we can fangirl together.

x

harry potter and the goblet of fire by j.k. rowling

harry potter is midway through his training as a wizard and his coming of age. harry wants to get away from the pernicious dursleys and go to the international quidditch cup. he wants to find out about the mysterious event that’s supposed to take place at hogwarts this year, an event involving two other rival schools of magic, and a competition that hasn’t happened for a hundred years. he wants to be a normal, fourteen-year-old wizard. but unfortunately for harry potter, he’s not normal — even by wizarding standards. and in his case, different can be deadly.

one time when i was hanging out with izzy, we made butterbeer and watched the movie based off this book. since i saw the film before i read the book, i already knew what was going to happen, and maybe that’s why i had a hard time focusing on this book the first time i tried to read it. but i just got it out of the library again, and i made it through this time. i’m glad that i can continue with the series again.

i don’t really know what to say about this. i mean, it’s harry potter, and i think most people have already read it.

x

the dark prophecy by rick riordan

zeus has punished his son apollo — god of the sun, music, archery, poetry, and more — by casting him down to earth in the form of a gawky, acne-covered sixteen-year-old mortal named lester. the only way apollo can reclaim his rightful place on mount olympus is by restoring several oracles that have gone dark. what is affecting the oracles, and how can apollo/lester do anything about them without his powers?

*

after experiencing a series of dangerous — and frankly, humiliating — trials at camp half-blood, lester must now leave the relative safety of the demigod training ground and embark on a hair-raising journey across north america. somewhere in the american midwest, he and his companions must find the most dangerous oracle from ancient times: a haunted cave that may hold answers for apollo in his quest to become a god again — if it doesn’t kill him or drive him insane first. standing in apollo’s way is the second member of the evil triumvirate, a roman emperor whose love of bloodshed and spectacle makes even nero look tame. to survive the encounter, apollo will need the help of son of hephaestus leo valdez, the now-mortal sorceress calypso, the bronze dragon festus, and other unexpected allies — some familiar, some new — from the world of demigods. come along for what promises to be a harrowing, hilarious, and haiku-filled ride . . .

*

W O W, that was a long summary. i haven’t read this one yet. but it’s got to be good if it’s by rick riordan, right? granted, i think the trials of apollo is one of his worst series, but it’s still much better than a lot of books out there. i’m very excited that leo is playing an important part in this series. out of all of riordan’s books, he’s one of my favorite characters.

*

have you read any of these books? what did you think of them?

*

xo

*

loren