Tag: CityofAshes

Reading + Writing Update

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Happy Sunday!

Thank the blogging gods that I prewrote this past week’s blog posts because I had absolutely no time to sit down and write. I also didn’t have the mental energy or creative juices because this week was my first week back at school, and that always means chaos. I started my first day of senior year on Tuesday and my first day of college (I’m taking a writing class) on Thursday. However, now it is Sunday and I have recovered enough from the week to sit down and update you all on my reading and writing progress of this past week!

As expected, not much reading really happened this week. I read about 100 pages of To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo this week which is more than I expected and so far, I am still loving the story and ruthless characters. It is an entertaining and yes, slightly violent twist on the Little Mermaid in Ancient Greek times. Maybe it isn’t supposed to be influenced by the Little Mermaid, but I’ve noticed quite a few relations and I am really enjoying it overall! For my classes at school this year, I am taking a few that have required readings so it will be a new challenge for me to fit my own personal reading into my schedule while still getting readings for school done. As far as I know, I have to read a book called Indian Horse by…I’m not sure who exactly, Traplines by Eden Robinson, The Life of Pi, Writing Home by David Carpenter, and a few others. That’s kind of a lot but I am still determined to read for my own personal enjoyment here and there, and I will make sure to update you all on those readings as the year goes on! Apart from To Kill a Kingdom though, I also listened and finished the City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare audiobook this past week. I re-read the first book during the BookTubeAThon and really wanted to continue on with the series but this time in audiobook format. I do plan on starting City of Glass this week so I am excited to listen to that whenever I go for walks or just on my commute to school.

As for writing…I did no writing. This week, like I said, was a hectic craze of new schedules, places, and people. I do have a few personal deadlines I really want to hit this month though, so I need to get a move on that before time slips between my fingers. I am re-writing the firsts 20 pages of my WIP for a fellowship (its deadline is September 30th) and I want to get that done in the next two weeks so I have time to thoroughly edit it. I also want to submit those pages to a local scholarship for a writing conference and that has a deadline of September 15th…I did get some writing done today though, about 3 pages of my WIP, and I am really happy with that! I want to keep that up for the rest of the week, and hopefully, by next Sunday I will have something writing related to update you all on. Secondly, I have a writing assignment for my writing class that will be assigned to us on Monday and basically, they just give us a prompt and we have to write a 200-300 word flash fiction story based upon that prompt. Since it is such a short length, this shouldn’t take too much time out of my day, but I do want to put a lot of effort into making it well, good because after all, it is my first writing assignment of the year.

That is all for my reading and writing update and I hope you enjoyed! Don’t forget to check out my last blog post as well as my social media accounts which are all linked below, and I will see you in my next post tomorrow 🙂

Last Blog Post: Books I Want to Read Before College

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July 2017 Wrap Up!

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July was a busy, busy month full of working, reading and writing, and I cannot say that I am sad it is over! However, I am happy with the writing I got done and the books I read, and here is the complete, final list of them all:

City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

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I re read the first three books in The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare, and really enjoyed diving back into the world! City of Bones, the first book, takes place in this magical world of angels and demons, where Shadowhunters (part human and part angel) slay demons to keep the world safe. In this book, we follow fifteen year old, Clary Fray, whose mother is kidnapped from their New York apartment one afternoon. Clary sets off to find her mother, and along the way discovers that this magical world is within her own, and that it is tied to her mother’s kidnapping. If you want a fast paced read with a broad cast of characters this book would be perfect for you! CoB – 4/5 stars, CoA – 4/5, CoG – 4.5/5 stars

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

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It was one of my best decisions to go out and buy this book because once I started reading it, I couldn’t stop! Eliza and Her Monsters follows Eliza, a girl who is the creator of a popular web comic called Monstrous Sea, and while her online life is thriving, her offline life…not so much. That is until she meets Wallace, Monstrous Sea’s biggest fanfic writer and she realizes that maybe her offline life could be just as good as her online one. This is a really cute and relatable read that is impossible to hate, in my opinion! 5/5 stars

Alex and Eliza by Melissa De La Cruz

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I was really looking forward to reading this book because well, Hamilton. If you didn’t know, this tells the love story of Alexander Hamilton and Eliza Schuyler, who both played huge roles in the shaping of the United States we know today. I loved the musical so I was really excited to jump into this. Although, while it was a slower pace than I prefer, it was still interesting and enjoyable. I don’t think I would pick it up again but I am glad I read it! 3/5 stars

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

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This was a book I had no expectations going into, and I was extremely surprised by how much I loved it! I appreciated the middle eastern influence in this story because I have not read many books influenced by this culture and I really enjoyed it. The Wrath and the Dawn follows our main character, Shahrzad, whose young king takes in a wife every new day only to have her killed the following night. But when Shahrzad’s best friend is the new victim of the king, she volunteers to be the king’s wife in order to avenge her friend, but things do not turn out the way she initially thought. I cannot wait to dive into the next book because I know The Rose and the Dagger will be amazing! 4.5/5 stars

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

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During BookTubeaThon, it is a great idea to have at least one book, if not more, that is less than 300 pages, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower was my choice for that. Being a 211 page book, it follows high school freshman, Charlie, who has always struggled when it came to making friends and fitting in, but eventually he is taken under the wing of a two seniors, Sam and Patrick, and he finally feels like he fits in. This book deals with mental illness but is usually a really light hearted and fast paced read. This was a re read for me, and I loved it just as much as the first time! 4.5/5 stars

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

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The Raven Boys was a book that had been sitting on my shelf, gathering dust, for a while now, and also going into it I had no expectations. Again though, I was pleasantly surprised by how whimsical and entrancing book this book was, and it made me definitely want to continue on with the series! In The Raven Boys, it follow Blue Sargent who every year stands with her psychic mother and watches blindly as the soon-to-be-dead walk by, but when the day comes when she an actually sees a spirit she approaches it and learns that the reason she can see this spirit is because they are her true love, or the person she killed. Conflicted and confused, she continues on with her life, until she meets the boy of the spirit and is flung into his adventure seeking world. This book contains a really fun cast of characters who were very different and unique in their own ways, and overall I thought it was a very solid book! 4/5 stars

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

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Obviously this is a re read, as I have talked about this book a lot on my blog. I needed a light hearted and fast paced read to push through the last day of BookTubeAThon and as always, this book delivered exactly what I needed! Anna and the French Kiss follows an American girl named Anna who is sent off to a boarding school in Paris for her senior year of high school. Terrified in this new element, she eventually meets a group of tight friends who welcome her into their group, but she can’t help but fall for the one of them, the charismatic, English Etienne St. Clair. If you enjoy contemporary, then you have to read this book because you will fall in love with it! 4.5/5 stars

Once and For All by Sarah Dessen

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I finished this book on the very last day of July and just flew through it like most Sarah Dessen books. While I wouldn’t say it was my favourite Sarah Dessen book, I did enjoy it and loved the characters! Once and For All follows Louna, a seventeen year old girl who is spending her last summer before college working for her mother, a famous, local wedding planner. One night at a wedding, she meets charismatic, serial dater, Ambrose. He tries to woo her but it is a lot harder than he thought, but he isn’t giving up now that he knows what he wants. This book is really fast paced and while it was fun, it was also really sad at times! It talks about some issues that are current in the US, but it is important that books acknowledge them, no matter how devastating they are. 4/5 stars

It is crazy to see that I read a total of 10 books this month because it has been so, so, so long since I have accomplished something like this. The BookTubeAThon has to take a lot of credit for that though, and I had so much fun participating this year for my second time! I hope you enjoyed this blog post and don’t forget to check out my last blog post: July 2017 Book Haul!

 

 

Reading/Writing Update!

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For the next month or so, I will be in the process of packing up my room and moving, but I did pick out quite a few books to keep with me, so that I always have something to read. Those books are City of Ashes, City of Glass and City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare, Once and For All and the Moon and More by Sarah Dessen, The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh, The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, and Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. Anyways, but for what I have accomplished reading wise, is that I am now over half way through City of Ashes! Zoe Herdt from the BookTube channel @readbyzoe, is hosting a 24 hour readathon today, which I will be participating in in hopes of at least coming close to finishing this book.

Writing has also been very successful because from Monday to Friday, I have so far written just over 5,000 words, and I am hoping to reach a week goal of 8,000 by the end of the weekend. My story is kind of at a slow bump in the road, so I am going to go back, fix that, figure out where I want the story to go, and then keep on writing! Good luck to any others participating in Camp NaNoWriMo because the month is half over which means we need to start raking in those word counts! I put my word count goal as 30,000, but I am only about 9,000 from completing that so I am sure I will easily complete that. However, I did want to be at 50,000 words for my entire story by the end of July, so that last week of the month will be me writing hard!

That is all for my reading and writing update, and I hope you enjoyed. Don’t forget to check out my last blog post: Books I DNF…

Reading/Writing Update!

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I have had the desire to read lately, which is great considering I was in a reading slump for the longest time. I finished re reading City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, and then started two other books, The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen and City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare. I am really excited to jump into both of them and hopefully will finish them within the next week. BookTubeaThon is also happening this month, which if you didn’t know, is a reading event over social media such as YouTube, Twitter and Instagram, where you try to read as many books as possible in the span of a week. This year, the BookTubeaThon will be held from July 24-30, and I am so excited to participate for a second time! Stay tuned for my TBR for that week because that will be coming in about two weeks.

Writing has also been a productive part in my life which is also fantastic. I have been keeping up with my new daily goal of 1,600 words, and am at about 22,000 words already which means I only have 38,000 words until I reach my goal of 60,000 words! By the looks of it, as I am only in the midst of my beginning, I will end up somewhere in the 100,000’s…but yeah, hopefully all of you participating in Camp NaNoWriMo or just doing some writing, are having a good, productive time and I will give more updates throughout the coming week!

That is all for my Reading/Writing Update and I hope you enjoyed. Don’t forget to check out my last blog post: Book Writing #1!

July 2017 TBR!

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I got a long list of books I want to get through in July and I think I will be able to finish them all because I believe the BookTube-a-thon is happening this coming month, and I always get a lot of reading done then. Anyways, here are the books I want to read in the month of July!

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City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass by Cassandra Clare – These are the first three books in The Mortal Instruments series, which follows a girl named Clary Fray who has to set off on a journey in this world of angels and demons to find her mother who was kidnapped. Along the way, she realizes she has more of a place in this strange and deceiving world that she thought. This series is a lot of fun and is action packed, so I am excited to be giving the books a re read because it is much deserved!

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The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen – I have been slowly making my way through Sarah Dessen books, which is a long journey because there are a lot of them. The Moon and More is one I haven’t read though, so I am excited to finally pick it up and give it a read. This book follows a girl named Emaline who is spending her last summer before college in the little beachside town she lives in called Colby. One day while working in her parents shop, she meets an artistic boy from New York who is not her type whatsoever, but she can’t help but develop feelings for him over the course of the summer. Its summer time so what a perfect time to dive into this summer contemporary!

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Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen – I am reading this book on the side at the moment, but I am hoping I will completely finish it by July. Pride and Prejudice, if you didn’t know, is a comedy/romance book that follows a British family in an era where marriage and money is everything. I have seen movie adaptions of this book and really enjoyed them, so I decided to give the book a read because I feel like you have to read at least one Jane Austen book in your lifetime.

Those are all the books I am planning to read this coming month and I hope you enjoyed. Don’t forget to check out my last blog post: Reading/Writing Update!

 

Summer Reading Recommendations!

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Summer is within arms reach so make sure you have your sunglasses, sunscreen and a pile of books ready to be read. If you need some help figuring out which books to read though, here are a few recommendations that are perfect beach reads!

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Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson – This book is the perfect summer romance story to indulge in during the summer. It follows a girl named Emily whose best friend, Sloane, has mysteriously disappeared, leaving behind only a summer bucket list for Emily. As Emily sets off to complete this list, in hopes of it leading her to Sloane, she runs into some unexpected new friends that help her live an unforgettable summer. I love Morgan Matson books, but this one is definitely by favourite and I recommend you read it if you love contemporaries like myself!

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Paper Towns by John Green – I am not a huge John Green fan, but I didn’t mind Paper Towns and I thought it was a great beach read. It has a summer adventure and fun characters to follow so it is definitely worth a shot. Paper Towns follows this boy named Quentin, who is determined to find the girl he has been pining after for years, after she mysteriously disappears. Along with a few friends, they work together to follow the clues Margo left behind, to figure out where in the world she is. There is also a movie adaptation of this book which is also entertaining so I recommend you watch it after you read the book if you already haven’t!

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The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare – Since its summer, start a new series! I recommend The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare because it is fantastic, and even if you have already read it, re read it! There six books in this series, and the first one, City of Bones, follows a girl named Clary whose mother disappears and we follow her as she sets off on a journey to find her. Along the way, she realizes the world she lives in is really a world of demons and angels, and discovers that she has more to do with this world than she thought. This series is action packed and has a great cast of characters so I really recommend you jump right into this series and enjoy the fun ride!

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Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan – This is also a great series to read during the summer because is witty and extremely fast paced. You also learn a lot about mythology in this series, considering it is based around Greek mythology. The first book of five is called The Lightning Thief, and it follows a young boy named Percy Jackson who discovers he is the son of a Greek god and is being accused of stealing Zeus’s master lightning bolt. Now he has to go on a quest to find the real lightning thief along with two friends, Annabeth and Grover, and find the bolt before the end of the summer solstice. I love, love, love this series and think it is something anyone can enjoy!

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Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen – I am currently reading this along with Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare, and I am really enjoying it so far! It takes a few pages to adjust to the language, but once you have you don’t want to stop. Pride and Prejudice follows the Mr and Mrs Bennett and their five daughters, and how they find love during this completely different era. There are witty characters and romances and I cannot wait to continue diving into the book!

Those are all of my summer reading recommendations and I hope you enjoyed. Don’t forget to check out my last blog post: Reading/Writing Update!

 

Summer 2017 Reading List!

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There are quite a few books I want to get to this summer, and I am really excited to have some time to dive into them! Even though I never stick to any reading lists I make, I do enjoy making them and I am waiting for the day that I do actually follow it!

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The Dark Prophecy by Rick Riordan – This book is the sequel to The Hidden Oracle, which follows the god, Apollo, as he is cast down to earth as a mortal. This is a really fast paced and funny series, and I know I will enjoy it! I have started it, and I am a little over fifty pages in, but I got distracted by other books so I will need to pick it back up soon. I love Rick Riordan’s books so I am excited to continue loving them!

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The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare – Yes, that is right. I plan on reading the entire Mortal Instruments series this summer and I am so excited. Of course I have already read the series, as I talk about it a lot on my blog, but I love to re read it so why not since I have some time? The first book, City of Bones, follows a girl named Clary Fray whose mother goes missing and on her journey to find her, she uncovers the mysteries of her life and realizes her mother may have not been honest with her about who she truly is. This book has demons and angels, and amazingly sarcastic characters that you can’t help but fall in love with!

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The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen – I do have a lot of things planned this summer, so I need a quick, easy contemporary. Straight away I went for Sarah Dessen because her books are perfect for the summer! Plus, I feel like the summer is incomplete without a good contemporary or two. The Moon and More follows Emaline, who is spending her last summer before college in her small, home town, Colby. While working for her family’s rental business, she meets a city boy who is someone she would never have gone for, but she suddenly feels herself drawn to him. I love Sarah Dessen books so I am excited to try this one out!

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The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han – Yep! Another contemporary by another favourite contemporary author of mine, Jenny Han. The Summer I Turned Pretty is a really fun and light-hearted book that follows our main character, Belly, who is returning to her mom’s best friend’s beach house after a few years. There, she sees the two boys she spent her childhood with and all three realize how much they had grown up. This is a great beach read and something you can finish in no time!

Is this slightly ambitious for my crazy summer? Yes, completely…but I am really excited to see how many of these books I can read! There are a few readathons I want to participate in, so hopefully that will help me get through the a little quicker. Anyways, that is all for my Summer 2017 Reading List and I hope you enjoyed. Don’t forget to check out my last blog post: How Blogging Helps Novel Writing!