Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books Which Feature Badbutt Characters Who Kick Butt

Hello! This week’s feature for Top Ten Tuesday by The Broke and the Bookish is Top Ten Books Which Feature Characters Who ____, so this was another ambiguous topic that tested the book blogger’s creativity. For this week I chose Ten Books That Feature Badbutt Characters, so strong heroes/heroines that can kick butt. Not too original, but these are always my favorite characters and I thought it’d be easy for me to pull books and share. Hope you all enjoy! (Did you guys notice the obvious blue theme? It’s my favorite color, hehe.)

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Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix
by J.K. Rowling

This may be an unpopular opinion, but this was actually my favorite Harry Potter book and film. So I decided to feature this one. And I think why I chose Harry is kind of self-explanatory. I mean you all know of my obvious case of potterhead syndrome for always featuring HP in every Top Ten Tuesday post. XD

 

 

Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow

Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow
Series: Strange Angels #1 (1/5)
Published by Razorbill on May 14, 2009
Genres: [Young Adult] Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Horror
Pages: 293
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books a Million

2 Stars, Completed April 19, 2015

– highlight* to view SPOILERS –

*Quick warning: If you’re using WordPress’ Reader the white text will remain as visible black text and you’ll see spoilers regardless of whether you highlight the text or not. Make sure to read this post on my actual blog for the white text to appear and therefore the spoilers to be concealed; this is the only way for this method to be effective. Sorry for the inconvenience!

I’m the reader that revisits books that I couldn’t get into initially or didn’t enjoy the first time around. Sometimes the time and mood affects the overall enjoyment, and I don’t want to miss a great book. This was one of those books. I tried reading Strange Angels when it was first released but couldn’t get through it. So, yes, it’s been collecting dust on my shelf for roughly 5 years. When I recently picked it up again, I was reminded why this was so difficult to get into and couldn’t help but hate myself for doing this yet again.

Exploring My Bookshelves: April

I can’t believe it’s already the last Friday of April and my last day of spring semester classes. Lately my life’s been hectic with studying for finals, so I almost totally forgot to participate in Exploring My Bookshelves, a weekly meme by Addlepates and Book Nerds (but because of school I’ve adapted it as a monthly meme where I post on the last Friday of each month)! It’s super late in the day where I live, but I hope you guys enjoy! ^.^

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So it’s recommended to include a picture of your bookshelf, so here is mine as of how it currently looks. (It’s so different from last month, huh? Forever rearranging the shelves… I’ll never be satisfied.)

 

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6. April 3, 2015: Your Favorite Author

This is a tough one, but I just fell in love with the shadowhunter world since the first time I read City of Bones. So I’d have to pick Cassandra Clare. She’s definitely an author in which I’ve invested a lot of money in. I usually buy her books once they’re available for pre-order (well accept for The Bane Chronicles, I don’t own that just yet). I know TMI isn’t for everyone, but I loved Clare’s storytelling since reading it.

The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead

The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead
Series: Bloodlines #3 (3/6)
Published by Razorbill on February 12, 2013
Genres: [Young Adult] Paranormal, Urban Fantasy
Pages: 401
Format: Hardcover
Source: Borrowed

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books a Million

4.5 Stars, Completed March 26, 2015

– highlight* to view SPOILERS –

*Quick warning: If you’re using WordPress’ Reader the white text will remain as visible black text and you’ll see spoilers regardless of whether you highlight the text or not. Make sure to read this post on my actual blog for the white text to appear and therefore the spoilers to be concealed; this is the only way for this method to be effective. Sorry for the inconvenience!

I was greatly disappointed in Bloodlines and liked The Golden Lily but still thought it could have been better. I am so glad I continued with the Bloodlines series and got to The Indigo Spell. This was the book I was waiting for. I actually felt the same way about Vampire Academy. I loved the VA series, but I thought the first book was underdeveloped. I gradually started to like the series after the first book though, especially Shadow Kiss, which was actually my favorite book of the series. So I guess third time seems to be the charm with Richelle Mead for me.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten ALL TIME Favorite Authors

Hiya! This week’s Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish, topic is Top Ten All Time Favorite Authors. I will try my best to pick a variety of authors from different genres/subgenres. Because of how lengthy the blurbs about the writers will be I think I’ll skip with the extra graphics this time around. Hope you guys don’t mind.

Man, this one is going to be so hard for me…

As always I’ll try to link all the authors, series, and books mentioned to goodreads so you guys can click on them at your convenience.

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Cassandra Clare is my absolute favorite young adult urban fantasy writer. I know that there are readers that don’t care for her writing and think that City of Bones is just a published fanfiction of hers, but I love it. She’s also one of the few writers that can pull off what I call the Conglomerate-of-Supernaturals subgenre (a book that contains all types of paranormal races in it like vampires, werewolves, fae, etc).

I recommend: The Infernal Devices trilogy, The Mortal Instruments series

Want to read: The Bane Chronicles, The Dark Artifices series

The Midwife’s Revolt by Jodi Daynard

The Midwife’s Revolt by Jodi Daynard
Published by Lake Union Publishing on April 7, 2015
Genres: [Adult] Historical Fiction
Pages: 426
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books a Million

3 Stars, Completed April 9, 2015

– SPOILER free –

I think the main reason why I have the habit of judging books by the covers is because I often do not read the synopses. Or when I do, I skim them briefly. However, I do tend to revisit the blurb after reading the book to judge its accuracy and level of spoilery. This tactic usually makes the plot more enjoyable for me.

The Midwife’s Revolt was no exception to this routine. I wasn’t expecting much since the cover is pretty plain, but this was an absolutely great read. The book is about young Elizabeth “Lizzie” Lee Boylston and her contribution to the American Revolution. Being the dense non-history buff I am, I had no idea some of the main characters were real people until John Adams and John Quincy Adams were introduced in the story. Anyhow, in this Lizzie recounts her life living in Braintree, Massachusetts (now called Quincy I think) as a midwife. The revolt part of the title comes in when she decides to help with the Cause by disguising herself as a man to spy in Loyalist taverns. There’s even some mystery as more events ensue, and Lizzie experiences loss, love, and betrayal.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Inspiring Quotes from Books

Hello! This week’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, topic is Top Ten Inspiring Book Quotes. I debated whether or not to participate in this week’s feature, just because I honestly never think about quotes or make notes/stickies as I read. However, with the help of goodreads I was able to pull out some. There’s not much variety but I decided to post anyway.

Hope my handwriting in marker isn’t too illegible. I apologize in advance.

Have a great Tuesday, everyone! 🙂

Big Hero 6

When Big Hero 6 was released, all of my nerdy engineering friends were going to see this. I’m not a huge fan of robotics in general, so I decided to sit this one out. Months later, my expectations were still low despite the awards and rave reviews the film received, because the creators of this film also produced Frozen, a movie I wasn’t too fond of and found to be overhyped. However, now that I’ve watched it, I regret waiting this long to see it. This beautiful animation way exceeded my expectations. Big Hero 6 is, hands down, my new favorite animation of the year (not that I watch that many to begin with but that’s beside the point).

Liebster Award (2nd and Last One)!

You guys are going to knock me upside the head for making such a terribly long post.

So I was nominated for the Liebster Award several more times after my first one by these amazing bloggers: Honya, Joey, Shannon, Erika, Sam, Analee, Leanna, and Poulami. Thank you guys so much for the nominations! They all run wonderful book blogs with very different blogging styles, make sure to follow them if you haven’t already.

Oh and I also included the responses to Bani‘s (I told you I would ☺️) questions here as well. She runs a really great writing/poetry blog, so make sure to check her out!

So 99 questions here I go. Feel free to skim or jump to your questions. I’m sorry it’s so long!

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The Liebster Award is a chain award that was created by bloggers, and is a tradition to make new friends in the blogging community.

The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead

The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead
Series: Bloodlines #2 (2/6)
Published by Razorbill on June 20, 2012
Genres: [Young Adult] Paranormal, Urban Fantasy
Pages: 418
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books a Million

3.5 Stars, Completed March 25, 2015

– highlight* to view SPOILERS –

*Quick warning: If you’re using WordPress’ Reader the white text will remain as visible black text and you’ll see spoilers regardless of whether you highlight the text or not. Make sure to read this post on my actual blog for the white text to appear and therefore the spoilers to be concealed; this is the only way for this method to be effective. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Do you usually write reviews on books right after you’ve finished reading them or do you take a couple of days to process your thoughts? Well, it’s obviously the latter for me. It took me 2 weeks to make this review because I needed to gather and finalize my thoughts (and honestly, I’ve been swamped with school work and final midterms).

I was much more satisfied with this installment in comparison to Bloodlines. The Golden Lily begins with Sydney in Virginia, where she is called by higher ranking Alchemists to see Keith Darnell in confinement and judge his mental state. From Bloodlines, readers would know that Keith illegally worked with vampires to run a celestial tattoo business. It was bad of him to use these supernatural tattoos, but, in the Alchemists’ eyes, even worse to be in cohorts with vampires, since they view all types of vampires as evil creatures of the night. During this visit Sydney was also able to meet a delirious human man obsessed with becoming strigoi, the most evil vampire race. Once she sees him she’s reminded as to why Alchemists have to keep the divide between humans and vampires.