Angel Reads

21 Jan

Discussion: Series vs. Stand Alones

Posted by angelreads Discussions 6 Comments

There has always been the discussion of if Stand Alones or Series are better. But in the end it all comes back down to personal opinion. Someone can’t tell someone to like certain books because everyone is different really. They can like whatever they want.

When I am taking about series here I am talking about more than one book, whether it’s a trilogy etc.

I am one of those people that adore series. I think they are absolutely amazing. There is something about reading deeper and deeper into a world each new book. Finding more about characters, discovering new characters. Series does something that stand alones just can’t.

A series can go into so much more depth. The characters can be explored more, the world can. I love being on a journey with characters watching them grow and a series lets you do that.

Lets talk about Harry Potter, readers are able to watch an 11 year old boy, grow to be a 17 year old. The reader is able to watch Harry learn what friendship is, what love is, experience heartbreak and depth. If there was only one Harry Potter book it would have never been as magical and beautiful as it now and will forever be.

Another thing that a series does is let the readers (most of the time) feel closure and satisfaction. A stand alone can leave everything open in the air. But because most series span across a couple of years, readers are able to get a little closure.

One of my favourite, but worst, things about series is the wait. Having to wait for the next book in the series to come out. Months upon months sometimes even years. But when you get that book into your hands the day it comes out, stay up all night and day to read it. Now that to me is an amazing feeling.

Even though I adore series sometimes I do think stand alones work better for certain stories and authors. John Green for instance. The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska are beautiful stand alones that don’t need more books to follow to make them any better.

Nether less it is all up to the reader on what they do prefer to read. No one can tell them what they should like better or that they should not like a certain type of book. It all depends on the person and how and what they like to read.

You can see that I prefer series over stand alones, but what do you prefer?

15 Jan

Book Review: Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson

Posted by angelreads Book Reviews No Comments

Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson

Pages: 449

Publish date: July 3rd 2014

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

ISBN: 1471122662

Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

The Pre-Sloane Emily didn’t go to parties, she barely talked to guys, she didn’t do anything crazy. Enter Sloane, social tornado and the best kind of best friend—the one who yanks you out of your shell.

But right before what should have been an epic summer, Sloane just… disappears. No note. No calls. No texts. No Sloane. There’s just a random to-do list. On it, thirteen Sloane-selected-definitely-bizarre-tasks that Emily would never try… unless they could lead back to her best friend.

Apple Picking at Night? Okay, easy enough.

Dance until Dawn? Sure. Why not?

Kiss a Stranger? Wait… what?

Getting through Sloane’s list would mean a lot of firsts. But Emily has this whole unexpected summer ahead of her, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected) to check things off. Who knows what she’ll find?

Go Skinny Dipping? Um…

Since You’ve Been Gone:

I received Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson from, Simon & Schuster Australia in exchange for a review. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings on the book.

Since You’ve Been Gone is the second Morgan Matson book that I have read. A couple of years ago I read Second Chance Summer and absolutely treasured it to pieces. Let me tell you, I felt the same way about Since You’ve Been Gone.

I love Matson’s writing style. It draws you in and is entirely stunning – the way that she writes is incredible.

Since You’ve Been Gone shadows the story of Emily as she’s on her journey of completing the to-do list that her best friend, Sloane, left after she disappeared. Before Sloane, Emily was shy, didn’t do crazy things, and she barely talked to boys. Sloane brought her out of that shell though. With Sloane now off the face of the earth she leaves a list in her place, which would see Emily do some of the craziest things she has ever done.

I really do love Emily, and I really did connect with her more than I could have imagined. I found that Emily and I are really alike in characteristics, maybe it was just me and I could be all wrong but that really added to my reading experience.

I loved the whole concept of Since You’ve Been Gone. The idea pulled me in from the start and just kept pulling me further and further in. As soon as I started reading Since You’ve Been Gone, I could not put the damn thing down!

I loved going through Sloane’s list. The reader is able to witness Emily’s highs and lows, watch her as she becomes stronger and more independent. You were also able to see Emily not rely on Sloane like she did before.

I loved that we were able to see glimpses of Emily’s time with Sloane and how their friendship was weird but beautiful. It also showed that they really did rely on each other, Emily more than Sloane. You also get a little insight as to how Sloane transformed Emily and helped her let loose a little.

“I don’t think you have to do something so big to be brave. And it’s the little things that are harder anyway.”

Matson’s writing is incredible and it added so much depth and emotion to Since You’ve Been Gone.

Before Sloane, Emily didn’t really have any friends. Even then it was only Sloane and her, but when Sloane left her the list of things to do Emily made new friends along the way. The reader is able to see the journey that Emily travels, and making new friends is one of those stops.

Two of the people who befriend Emily through the story are Frank and Collins. Collins – oh how I loved him! Collins is a comical character that you just cannot help but laugh at pretty much everything he says. He would brighten up any situation. But one thing: he was very protective of was Frank. I adored the friendship between Frank and Collins.

“Real friends are the ones you can count on no matter what. The ones who go into the forest to find you and bring you home. And real friends never have to tell you that they’re your friends.”

The Romance! Gosh! My heart was pulled, and pulled, and pulled! It was slow and burning but completely adorable and beautiful.

Since You’ve Been Gone is a book about self-discovery, growing, and changing. It’s about taking chances and making new friends. It’s simply a fun summer, cuteness overload read. The friendships are beautiful, with a hint of an adorable romance. It will pull a string in anyone’s heart.

Have you read Since You’ve Been Gone? What did you think of it? If you haven’t read it will you dig your hands into it?

07 Jan

What the hell is going to happen? – The Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead

Posted by angelreads Discussions, Features 10 Comments

I decided to start this new feature out of a whim. I have been thinking about starting something new for a while and then, What the hell is going to happen? Popped into my head. This feature is for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. books in a series that I need to gush about and discuss what I think is going to happen, and also what I want to happen in the next book/s. I would also like to read your thoughts, so please leave your thoughts below, or if have made a similar post link me so I can read it.

Without further ado, the first What the hell is going to happen? Is none other than The Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead, which comes out Feb 10^th.

If you know Richelle Mead, then you know that one of the things that she does best is cliff hangers, and the ending of sliver shadows had a cliff hanger indeed.

So what is going to happen in The Ruby Circle? That is the question on everyone’s lips.

There is going to be spoilers from now on, just for anyone that hasn’t read the Vampire Academy or Bloodlines books. Stop! Go read them, then come back. Also, these are all my thoughts and predictions; I may be wrong, I may be right. (I am pretty sure most of these are wrong, but oh well.)

Firstly I know the question that is on everyone’s lips is:

Who the hell took Jill?

After the shock of Adrian and Sydney getting married, now we have the heartache of not knowing where Jill is. If you thought everything was going to be alright, then you haven’t read a Richelle Mead book before because come on no one is ever safe in the hands of Mrs Mead.

I was one of the first readers to finish Silver Shadows as I received it for review, (you can check out my review here) and I had all these ideas flowing through my head on what had happened, but I could not talk about it to anyone so it was really hard keeping my mouth shut, but once everyone started to read it I started to doubt my thoughts.

Pretty much everyone assumed it was the Alchemists and it just didn’t strike me as something that the Alchemists would do. What does Jill really have to do with anything? They try to stay out of the vampire world as best as they can, so why try to steal someone so important. It could not really have been for a bargain to get Sydney back because this pretty much happened at the same time as Sydney’s escape and the standoff at court.

So who really took Jill? I have no real clue, I just have a feeling that it wasn’t the Alchemists. It might be an Alchemist as a lone wolf but I highly doubt that.

Furthermore, I do have a feeling that whoever took Jill does have magic, because even though Angeline is unstable and still learning the tricks of the trade, she would in my thought protect Jill with everything she has. (I may be delusional but I think that she would.) So it has to be more than one person or one person with magic and I am heading to the magic part.

I just really want to know who really took Jill and why.

For all we know it could be some rogue Moroi that doesn’t want Lissa to be Queen. We know that they exist; maybe they have found where Jill has been hiding and have taken her. Who knows? Well Richelle Mead does.

More Spirit

I want to know more about spirit, especially how to use spirit and not go insane or turn your bonded pair insane.

I want Lissa, Adrian, Sonya and everyone else with Spirit to learn how to control it, so they are not hurting themselves and their Spirit-bond pair.

Also Adrian is alarming with me the way he ‘talks’ with Tatiana. I know that he loves her, but she is dead and he needs to walk away from all this or else I am afraid that something horrible is going to happen. I know it’s going to be a long road for him but I want this all sorted in this book. I’ll be alright knowing that spirit uses can survive on their own and won’t go insane.

Nevertheless, I also don’t want Jill to do a Rose on us and let the darkness take over. Jill does not have the strength like Rose does to forgive herself. It will haunt her forever. Don’t get me wrong, I am not calling Rose heartless, but she was trained to kill her whole life and I think she is handling it a lot better than Jill would.

Furthermore, I don’t won’t another broken bond. I really want the bond between Lissa and Rose to rekindle, but I highly doubt that. In saying that Adrian and Jill’s bond cannot be broken, I refuse to believe that this can or will happen. They both need each other. At the start Adrian wasn’t really bothered on how his life was effecting Jill but then he came to care. It might have been the influence of Sydney, but it was good for him and Jill.

Tag Teams

Your ex and your wife are certainly awesome Adrian pg 322 #RubyCircle

— PenguinTeenAus (@PenguinTeenAus) December 6, 2014

This tweet is all that needs to be said. Come on, I loved the banter and friendship between Rose and Sydney and now from the sounds of it they are teaming up. Hell to the yer. This I cannot wait to read! I also need more Christian and Rose tag team. Come on, whoever says they don’t love these two working together is lying. I am telling you. We also need more Badass Belikov and Rose together these two. Pow wow.

More Eddie

Eddie is pretty much one of my favourite characters and I need more and from Penguin Australia Teen spoiler free reaction tweets I am guessing we are going to see a lot more Eddie and nothing makes me smile more than that. Expect maybe Romitri babies but that is for another time.

Sisterly love

I really hope that Zoe sees the bright side and realises what the Alchemist are really doing. She needs a good knock on the head. I want her to see how unhappy both Sydney and Carly were and how, even if it’s only slightly, happier they are now. Sydney is married! Isn’t that saying something? I also want more Carly, we got, what, not even 5 minutes of her and I loved her. I really want her to team up with our beloved VA/Bloodlines members and kick her daddy’s ass. And maybe fall in love on the way (okay I can’t help it. I am a sucker for happy endings).

I also want more connection between Lissa and Jill. My heart breaks for both of these girls but I want Lissa to be the older sister and stand up and just be there for Jill. If we ever see her again.

More badass Sydney and Adrian

Do I need to say anything more? Come on, who didn’t love how aweosme Sydney and Adrian were at the end of Silver Shadows. They were sassy and fierce. The Ruby Circle needs more of this.

#Sydiran

I need some sexy time with these two. Come on they are married now and we all know what that means: honeymoon time. Okay they might not have time for one, but we need some romance and beautiful scenes. We just need them okay.

Burn Baby Burn

I need Christian setting things on fire okay. Actually, I need Moroi to use their powers and kick ass. Imagine everyone teaming up, enemies burning to crisp or falling through the group, drowning. Okay, pretty horrible deaths but how awesome would it be.

Epic Ending (or not)

The Ruby Circle is going to be epic, and I just need everyone to be happy, well not the bad people obviously. I hope that most loose ends will be tied up and we can finally have a little peace. I also need to find out what this means!!!

Get ready for the biggest of big bombshells to hit a VA/Bloodlines couple pg 341 #RubyCircle — PenguinTeenAus (@PenguinTeenAus) December 6, 2014

Until Richelle answers all our prayers and writes another at least 6 book series. I say this directly to Mrs. Mead herself. Pretty please with very sexy Dimitri on top, please write some more.

What are your thoughts? What the hell is going to happen? Are you ready? Because I am in no way ready.