Throne of Glass

Celaena Sardothien has endured and survived an entire year in Endovier prison camp- a feat most men would never be able to accomplish. But she's not an ordinary girl, She just so happens to be Adarlan's greatest assassin. Then one day she is dragged into an audience with the crown prince of Adarlan, the young Dorian Havilliard, and she assumes that means she's headed straight for the gallows. But then the prince offers her something she never would have guessed- he tells her that the king is organizing a competition where the winner will become his personal Royal Assassin. And the prince wants her, Celaena, to be his champion. His piece in the games. If she wins, she'll be the king's assassin for three years, and then be granted her freedom. But if she loses... she'll be thrown back into wretched Endovier. Even though she hates what the king stands for and what he's done, how can she refuse? She'll do anything to be free. She just has to win.

Holy. Cow.
This book was unlike anything I've ever read! The world building was absolutely amazing. You really get a feel for how awful Endovier was, and how terrible the king is, with his power hungry conquering tendencies. I loved the split point of views in this book, you got to see so much more that you would normally. We get to see pretty much all of the main characters perspectives at some point throughout the book and it really helped move things along! The action was intense throughout the whole book. There really was never a dull moment! And I liked how the main focus wasn't on the events in the competition itself, but rather what was going on around it. I loved how people learned to see Celaena as more than an assassin, and became actual friends to her. I got the feeling that if something happened and she lost the competition, they would do everything they could to make sure she didn't go back to Endovier. I can't wait to read the next book, I think there's going to be some serious changes happening in Adarlan! I was totally gripped the entire time I was reading this, and I'm so glad this is going to be a bigger series! Last I heard, there was going to be 6 books in the series, with the 3rd one about to come out. I'm stoked to be able to enjoy this series for a long time! 5 out of 5 noodles all the way!

If I Stay Movie Review!

A few days ago, I got to go see the movie adaptation of If I Stay, and let me just tell you, it was amazing!! I know what you're all thinking, how did it compare to the book? It stayed true, my friends! I can't help but constantly compare the movie to the book while I'm watching it, and was pleasantly surprised by how close to the book this one was! There were a few differences, but really, nothing major. The acting was wonderful, from everyone! Chloe Grace Moretz did a phenomenal job, she really captured the total devastation that Mia was feeling, I think. And the music was so good! The actor that played Adam, Jamie Blackley, actually sang the songs that were in the movie. And he did it amazingly! It made everything feel so much more real,
and I loved it. Mia's family was so adorable. Her parents were fantastic, and just like I imagined them! And Adam and Mia's relationship dynamic was on point. I felt like they had just walked out of the book! Their bickering and fighting, contrasted with their complete love for each other, somehow just worked. My only complaint was about the crash scene, it wasn't nearly as graphic as it was in the book. But I guess that's understandable. There's only so much you can do! And of course, I cried. A lot. That's kind of what I do in movies... All in all, I think they really hit the nail on the head with this one. If you're looking for a faithful book to movie adaptation, you're in the right place! I honestly think I liked it as much as the book!

Anna and the French Kiss

Anna is shocked when she finds out that her father, a NYT Bestselling Author and all around Bad Dad, is sending her across the ocean to spend her senior year in the City of Lights. She now has to uproot and leave her best friend, the boy she has a major crush on, her mother and her little brother for an entire year. When she finally arrives though, Anna finds it hard to stay miserable in a city like Paris. She quickly finds a new group of friends, among whom is the dreamy, smart, English, and totally swoon worthy Etienne St Claire. But there's a catch. He's got a girlfriend, that graduated from their school the year before. Anna and Etienne become very close friends, and she falls harder than she ever thought possible. But what can she do? He's got a steady girlfriend, and therefore totally unattainable. Right? Paris is a city known for it's romantic whims, and Anna and Etienne just so happen to be in exactly the right place.

Let me just start by saying that all the enormous hype around this book, is completely deserved! I started this book around 9 PM one night, and finished it a matter of hours later. Through the entire thing I was laughing out loud, repeatedly saying "AWWW", and totally swooning over every page. I loved Anna and Etienne, and all their friends. And on top of that, I can't resist anything to do with Paris, so this book was right up my alley! Anna and Etienne go to the School of America in Paris, a real establishment, that I actually dreamed to go to years before reading this! (but of course I could never actually do it) So this book totally did it for me, I got to go to an awesome boarding school in Paris, without even leaving my room! Not to mention the SWOONTASTIC main guy. I mean seriously. He was so sweet! This book was the perfect mushy gushy, adorable, cutesy romance book. The epitome of chick lit! I highly recommend to any girl out there that can't resist an adorable love story, and any and all thing french! 5 out of 5 noodles!

If I Stay & Where She Went by Gayle Forman

I don't want to write too much of a synopsis of these books, because I don't want to give anything away. However, I'll give you a few details!
17 year old Mia is a Cello prodigy. She's so good in fact, that she has an option open her that most musicians only dream of- Julliard. She's torn between her two loves- her love of music, and her love of her family, and her boyfriend- Adam. Does she go to school and pursue her dreams, or say here with her family and her Adam, but lose a once in a lifetime opportunity?
Adam has some choices to face too. His band is just starting to take off. He can either stay in the area and continue playing his music while Mia goes across the country to school, or drop everything and follow her.
Neither wants to make that hard decision.
The something unthinkable happens. A tragedy beyond anything either of them could have imagined, Adam and Mia's lives are thrown into a sharp perspective. Will they ever recover? Suddenly every hour is precious, and not a minute can be taken for granted. Will this new perspective give them the answers they've been looking for? 

I had been hearing about these books for a long time, and had never heard anything bad about them. And what with the movie having just come out, I just couldn't resist. I just had to jump into it! And I have to say- I wasn't disappointed. These books are completely worth the hype! I was floored by the events that occurred in If I Stay, and enthralled with how things turned and were resolved in Where She Went. The concept of If I Stay was something completely new to me. The choices Mia has to make post tragedy (really trying not to give away any spoilers here!) are incredible, and seemingly impossible. Yet she does, and the growth both of these characters experience through it is... exponential.
I loved both of these books so much. I read each one in a single day, completely unable to put them down! I highly recommend these, and I can't wait to see the movie! Who knows, maybe I'll even do a movie review!
I give both of these books 4.5 noodles!

Rating Books on Individual Scales (blog response and bookish rant)

One of my favorite booktubers, Ariel Bissett, just posted a video all about rating books, and rating them individually. I loved it and agreed with her so much, that I immediately had to write a blog post about it.
   In this video, Ariel talks about how books are different, and deserve to be looked at differently.
While I'm reading a book, it's pretty easy to determine if it's going to get a good or bad rating in my mind. I may read a totally mushy gushy contemporary (Like, say, The Fault in Our Stars) that is just light and fluffy and absolutely love it. So I give it 5 stars.
Then I might read a book like say, 1984, (or, she mentions Animal Farm), that is completely different, and is trying to make you feel something totally unrelated to that of the fluffy contemporary. And I give that 5 stars.
Does that then mean that I think that the 5 stars that I gave to the sappy love story are the same 5 stars that I gave to the large scale, thought provoking, ideas that are presented in much more mature selections?
ABSOLUTELY NOT!
Books are different. Much the same as people are different, so are our reading selections. A child is different than an adult. We wouldn't base our opinions of a 4 year old kid's behavior the same way we would a 35 year old man's behavior. So why then, would we be expected to use a uniform scale to rate what we read? If I rated 1984, or To Kill A Mockingbird, which are both highly influential books, with 5 stars, and rated Anna and the French Kiss or The Fault in Our Stars with 5 stars, that by no means means that I think they are great for the same reason, or that I'm somehow lesser for liking a book targeted to teens and liking a book targeted toward adults too. Adults and kids. Love and Theory. Epic and Sonnet. Books are different.
Books are different, and thus should be rated, as Ariel mentioned, by what they are trying to                   accomplish.
If a book was trying to make me laugh, smile, cry, and swoon, and it did all those things, then it's going to get a good rating. If a book was trying to make me think, and question what I know, and it did that, then it'll get a good rating. If it didn't do what it was trying to do, and instead made me cringe the whole way through, then, bad rating.
Every book gets a rating based on itself. Some may think that I just give every book I read a good rating, and then there's no point to it. But that's not how it works. Rating a book isn't, or at least it shouldn't be, a process that is generalized and the same for every piece of literature. I will rate a book based on what it wanted me to feel, what it wanted me to think, and overall, on if I liked it.

Go watch Ariel's video. (linked above) She does a much better job of getting her thoughts across than I do here, but I just had to make a blog response to this because it's so true! She has some very very good points on the matter, and I agree with her wholeheartedly!

If you've stuck around, thanks for listening to my bookish rant, and let me know in the comments what you think! I'd love to hear your opinions!

Throwaway Girl by Kristine Scarrow

Andy knows the meaning of a hard life. Put into foster care to get away from her abusive mother, Haywood Home for Girls has been a true escape. It's the closest thing shes had to a home in her entire life. She's about to turn 18, which means she's aging out of the program. She's been dreaming about this her whole life, of getting out and making her own decisions, but now that it's actually happening, she can't help but be a little scared. Andy has to start a life of her own, and try to evade the homelessness, hunger, abuse, and hopelessness that has followed her for as long as she can remember. 

I was able to read this book in advance through netgalley, and I've been waiting for months to be able to give this a timely review, and to let you guys know that I truly loved it! This story was very touching. I loved getting to see Andy grow, and live her own life instead of letting her past control her. Andy was a very dynamic character, and you really get to see how much she's changed through flashbacks we get through the whole story. I liked how you actually got to see Andy's past, and not just have to guess about it. The background story was very strong, without taking away from the present story. I loved all the characters, and the bond that the girls had at the home, and watching how Andy changed when she finally left. This book earned a spot on the list of the few books that have actually made me cry. I've never read anything with a story like this, and I loved it so much. It made me so emotional, I was happy, sad, laughing, and everything in between. 5 out of 5 noodles!

THIS BOOK WILL BE AVAILABLE IN EBOOK FORM OCTOBER 14 2014

How Reading (Literally) Scarred Me for Life

We all remember the night before our first day of school, unable to sleep, anxious to meet the new teacher, play on the playground, NAP TIME, and the like.
Well, on my night before kindergarten, my dad had to work overtime. Anyone who has spent any amount of time around little kids knows that their patience level is zip (So what if mine still hasn't changed much?).
So while I waited infinitely long for my dad to get home, I went into my room and picked every single book off my shelf that I wanted him to read to me that night. It seemed imperative that he read every single one of these books, or else kindergarten was going to be horrible. It was getting to be a pretty sizable pile, when I heard him finally come through the front door. I quickly scooped the (in my mind, HUGE, but in all reality probably pretty small) pile into my arms and ran as fast as I could, down the hallway, around the corner, and into the living room. Except, I didn't make it to the living room part... Turns out running with a pile of books that you can't see over, plus running in slippery socks isn't a very good idea. Who knew? As I rounded the corner, my feet slipped out from under me and...

SMACK. 

Books went flying, and I ran headfirst into the corner of the wall. It took me a second, once I fell to the floor, to realize what had happened and start the massive wave of hysterics. Blood gushing from my forehead, incredible pain in my eye, and the beginning of a large shiner, I definitely had the right look for the first day of kindergarten. Right?
After that, once I had calmed down a bit, I got to stay up late watching snow white and eating a grape snow cone, so it was all good.
But I do have a tiny scar above my left eyebrow that serves as a reminder not to run while holding a giant pile of books, pay attention to where you're running if you do happen to have a giant pile of books, and the best way to introduce yourself on your first day of school ever, is obviously to do it with a swollen face and a black eye. You'll be the coolest kid in school, right?