Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the Broke and Bookish.

Hey guys!! Hope you all had a great christmas and got everything that you all wanted and had fun rocking around the tree! 🙂 This weeks TTT is top ten most anticipated releases for the first half of 2016 – but I will probably just go for the whole of 2016! So, in no particular order:

10.  The Crown by Kiera Cass. This really is the last instalment in the Selection set and I just cannot wait!

9.  This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp I literally cannot wait to read this book!! I love books with themes like this and I just … need it!

8.  Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard. I think as an official member of the Scarlet Guard, it is my duty to pine for this book… which I was doing even before I became a member!

7.  Heartless by Marissa Meyer This is not the official cover, but good enough for the point – if this book is anywhere near as good as the Lunar Chronicles, then we are in for a treat!

6.  Lady Renegades by Rachel Hawkins. For anyone who read my reviews of the first two, I was less than impressed. Having said that, I am willing to give this series a chance to get the finale right!

5.  Endure by Sara B. Larson. I adore this series and I literally cannot wait for this instalment!

4.  Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi. Again, I adore Mafi’s writing, so I cannot wait to see what she in store for us next!

3.  The May Queen Murders by Sarah Jude. I know nothing about this author – but the premise looks promising! 🙂

2.  Shiny Broken Pieces by Sona Charaiporta and Dhonielle Clayton. I LOVED Tiny Pretty Things!!! So, it is obvious that I need this book!

1. Hoax by C. L. Stone. This doesn’t have any form of cover whatsoever and also no premise! It is, however, the 5th in the Scarab Beetle series and I can’t wait!

Thats it!! What are you guys waiting on? Feel free to leave links and answers below!

Miss Mayhem by Rachel Hawkins

Life is almost back to normal for Harper Price. The Ephors have been silent after their deadly attack at Cotillion months ago, and her best friend, Bee, has returned after a mysterious disappearance. Now Harper can focus on the important things in life: school, canoodling with David (her nemesis-turned-ward-slash-boyfie), and even competing in the Miss Pine Grove pageant.

Unfortunately, supernatural chores are never done. The Ephors have decided they’d rather train David than kill him. The catch: Harper has to come along for the ride, but she can’t stay David’s Paladin unless she undergoes an ancient trial that will either kill her . . . or make her more powerful than ever. (Goodreads)

Again, I read and finished this book in April – actually on my birthday – but I procrastinated on the actual review of it, especially since I hadn’t reviewed Rebel Belle until earlier on today! I liked this book even less than I did the first and I am debating whether I actually want to read the next book in the series (which I only found out about after posting my earlier review on Goodreads!). I felt like this book suffered second book syndrome and just left me feeling more annoyed with my unanswered questions than anything else.

More than anything, I think this book made less sense than the first in the series. The lack of world building, answers to questions etc, made it impossible to actually enjoy. It was jumpy and there was no connection between the characters and the events taking place. It was almost like the characters didn’t care about anything that was going on. The connections that the characters had with each other in the first instalment also seemed to get lost in the muddle.

The events within this book happened way too fast, without any proper explanation as to what was going on and why it was happening. When I reached the end of the book, I was left wondering what on earth I had just read – and at the time, there was no mention of another book. So, to say that the ending was a disappointed is a major understatement. As I mentioned earlier on, I am not entirely sure I want to carry on with this series considering just how confusing everything is!

I really wanted to enjoy these books more than I did, but I feel like the Hype Monster stuck its claws into this one. I gave this book 1/5 stars.

Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins

Harper Price, peerless Southern belle, was born ready for a Homecoming tiara. But after a strange run-in at the dance imbues her with incredible abilities, Harper’s destiny takes a turn for the seriously weird. She becomes a Paladin, one of an ancient line of guardians with agility, super strength and lethal fighting instincts.

Just when life can’t get any more disastrously crazy, Harper finds out who she’s charged to protect: David Stark, school reporter, subject of a mysterious prophecy and possibly Harper’s least favorite person. But things get complicated when Harper starts falling for him—and discovers that David’s own fate could very well be to destroy Earth.

With snappy banter, cotillion dresses, non-stop action and a touch of magic, this new young adult series from bestseller Rachel Hawkins is going to make y’all beg for more. (Goodreads)

So, I read both Rebel Belle and Miss Mayhem in April – and I have been meaning to review both books, but I somehow procrastinated up until this point. I guess I mostly enjoyed this book – I do have a couple of qualms about it, though.

The characters and cliques within this book is what I would call ‘typically American’. Every country has their stereotypes, and the stereotype of what a normal American High School looks like was presented to me in this book. Our MC, Harper Price, is our popular, over achieving Homecoming Queen wannabe. In a way she annoyed me! I don’t know if people like this actually exist within American Schools, but I feel like these people need slaps. Ofttimes I found myself rolling my eyes and wanting her to go and be a normal teenager, without worrying about Cotillion, homecoming and all of the other stuff that she does. She is no normal character, however, because she gets transformed in a Paladin. (I don’t want to go too much into what all this stuff is because I don’t want to ruin it for anyone who still has it on their TBR lists). Her not being normal gives the readers more experience for just how weird things have become for her.

I quite liked David. He was witty and quick and he never had a problem dishing out what other people gave him. I found myself laughing quite a lot at what he was saying and doing. Having said that, I liked the layer that was underneath the front that he was putting on for Harper’s sake, because he showed that he cared, despite the on going feud he had with her. I also felt kind of sorry for him because he was thrust into this role that he didn’t want to have and, for him, there was no way out of it.

I was disappointed with the world building here. Sure, I got the vibes of High school, teen problems etc, but I wanted needed more in order to fully enjoy this book. There were a lot of unanswered questions about the paranormal side of it and I felt like the book was a bit too jumpy to have any real success of pulling the reader into the story 100%.

This book also contained a newly found pet hate of mine. I understand that America took my beautiful language and decided to change some of the words to make it their own: Spanner and Wrench, rubber and eraser etc. However, the constant use of the word ‘y’all’ nearly had me close the book for good. I literally hate this word. It grated on my nerves so much so that I feel the need to make a motion to have this word banned… along with the word Bae. I don’t mind the fact that you guys changed our words to mean something completely different because it isn’t a language that I have to hear on a general basis; when it starts to seep into my world of reading, however, then I have a problem with it. *Breathe*.

While I wasn’t totally won over by this book, it was ok, and I ended up reading Miss Mayhem afterward, the review of which will be up soon! I gave this book 3/5 stars.