Milking The Cow

Hello guys! How are you doing today? It's a lovely Saturday here in Argentina. It won't last much though, cause I have finally decided to go out tonight. That means that a tornado, avalanche and tsunami will hit my city soon. 

Onto more interesting things, I found out the other day that Cassandra Clare is coming out with a 10th anniversary edition of City of Bones. And I thought "haven't you had enough?" So today, we're talking about how I think Cassie is just milking the cow right now.

I used to be a HUGE fan of the whole shadowhunters world, I read the first 5 TMI books and all three of TID. In fact, I still watch the TMI movie when it's on tv and I'm on season 2 of Shadowhunters. So don't tell me that I haven't experienced the world or whatever other crap. I just think that after so many books, it's time for a change. 

I want to do an inventory of what CC has launched related to TMI/TID/TDA:

• The Mortal Instruments (6 books) (3 different editions) (+Movie Tie-in and Show Tie-in)
• The Infernal Devices (3 books) (2 different editions)
• The Dark Artifices (2/3 books so far)
• Infernal Devices: Manga Series (3 volumes)
• Tales From The Shadowhunters Academy
• The Bane Chronicles
• The Shadowhunters Codex
• The Mortal Instruments Coloring Book
• Shadowhunters and Downworlders: A Mortal Instruments Reader
• An Illustrated History of Notable Shadowhunters and Denizens of Downworld
• The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (movie)
• Shadowhunters (TV-show)
• 2 official apps (Shadowhunters & Emoji Keyboard)
• A whole selection of official merchandise

PLUS 10th Anniversary Edition of City of Bones (Nov 2017) AND The Mortal Instruments: The Graphic Novel, Vol. 1 (Oct. 2017.) As if that wasn't enough, on her website you can find The Last Hours, an upcoming trilogy that follows the characters from The Infernal Devices (2018.) 

Do you see what I mean?

You've created a fantastic world, Cassie, no one will deny that. But don't you think that coming up with more and more books set in it is a bit... tiring? I would love to see you create something completely different. 

*disclaimer: I know she has the Iron Trials but that's middle grade*

Anyway, those are my feelings today. I'll update you on the climate around here ;)

Do you still read CC's books? Which is your favorite character? Mine's probably Magnus.

Book Review: The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel

The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel

Release date: March 7th 2017

Publisher: Crown

Pages: 279

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Summary

From Goodreads:

Roanoke girls never last long around here. In the end, we either run or we die.

After her mother's suicide, fifteen year-old Lane Roanoke came to live with her grandparents and fireball cousin, Allegra, on their vast estate in rural Kansas. Lane knew little of her mother's mysterious family, but she quickly embraced life as one of the rich and beautiful Roanoke girls. But when she discovered the dark truth at the heart of the family, she ran fast and far away.

Eleven years later, Lane is adrift in Los Angeles when her grandfather calls to tell her Allegra has gone missing. Did she run too? Or something worse? Unable to resist his pleas, Lane returns to help search, and to ease her guilt at having left Allegra behind. Her homecoming may mean a second chance with the boyfriend whose heart she broke that long ago summer. But it also means facing the devastating secret that made her flee, one she may not be strong enough to run from again.

As it weaves between Lane's first Roanoke summer and her return, The Roanoke Girls shocks and tantalizes, twisting its way through revelation after mesmerizing revelation, exploring the secrets families keep and the fierce and terrible love that both binds them together and rips them apart. 

Review

“You know your family’s fucked up, right?” he asked. “Like, seriously screwed.” 

But damn, no one warned me of how much. 

Wait a second, my background music isn't setting the right mood for me to write. *Try by Pink comes on* Okay, we're good now.

Sometimes I think that it's better 

To never ask why 

Funny how the heart can be deceiving 

More than just a couple times 

Why do we fall in love so easy 

Even when it's not right 

If this song does not describe the sick and twisted "love" that goes on in this novel, then I don't know what does. But you're probably thinking "what the hell's going on?," so let's start at the beginning. You can come back once you've read it and understand a little better.

This is an extremely dark book, yet I devoured the last 150 pages in the span of a couple of hours. It kinda makes me wonder what's wrong with me.

*this will be a spoiler-free review because I don't want to ruin it for you*

The story already starts with quite disturbing news: Lane's mom committed suicide and now she has to go live with grandparents she's never met in the house her mom calls a nightmare. Delightful. And then it just keeps getting worse.

The story is told from different time periods, one from the summer Lane spent at Roanoke when she was young and one 11 years later, when she has to go back after her cousin goes missing. This  will often make you want to just skip parts to find out what the hell happened. I suggests you don't, though, because all the hints are there for you to see. 

The writing is fantastic, it hooks you up immediately. I promise there isn't a single boring moment in here. Or maybe there are and my mind erased them to fully appreciate the other amazing parts.

You won't find a single morally correct character in this book. And it's one of the best parts of it. 

What surprised me was that despite how awful the situation in this book is, it wasn't graphic. Not even a little bit. And to lighten the mood a little bit, there is also a healthier love story going on.

This is not a happy story, okay? I wouldn't suggest reading it if you're under 18, but that's on you. The plot is extremely dark and deals with themes that may be too much for some of you. 

Me when I finished it

Rating

5 out of 5 stars

Rating System

About the author

Amy Engel is the author of THE BOOK OF IVY young adult series. A former criminal defense attorney, she lives in Missouri with her family. THE ROANOKE GIRLS (March 7, 2017), is her first novel for adults.

Site: http://amyengel.net/

I received this book from Blogging For Books for this review.

Do you enjoy  books with dark topics? This one's for you! Do you recommend any books like this one? Let me know. 

Book Traveling Thursdays

Hey guys! I'm here today with a new segment. It's not going to happen every single Thursday cause that would be boring. But it's a great way to spice things up a bit.

This is what it consists of: Pick a book that fits the theme, explain why I chose it and then include pictures of the original cover, the cover from my country, my favorite cover, and my least favorite cover.

 I thought this would be fun since, as I'm from Argentina, covers will probably be different (UK covers ar still the prettiest.)

This week's topic is: Favorite contemporary read.

For this one I chose:

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

Some summers are just destined to be pretty.


When each summer begins, Belly leaves her school life behind and escapes to Cousins Beach, the place she has spent every summer of her life. Not only does the beach house mean home away from home, but her favorite people are there: Susannah, her mother's best friend, and her sons, Conrad and Jeremiah. Belly has been chasing Conrad for as long as she can remember, and more than anything, she hopes this summer will be different. Despite distractions from a new guy named Cam and lingering looks from Conrad's brother, Jeremiah, Belly's heart belongs to Conrad. Will he offer his to her? Will this be the summer that changes everything?

This is book 1 of the Summer trilogy, which I read when I was 15 or so. I remember them being fluffy yet serious enough. It's about growing up and all the dramas that we, as teens, thought were the end of the world. They are the perfect summer contemporary read. 💘

The one up there is the original US cover.

This book is not available in my country, but if it were, it would probably be imported from Spain:

There are quite a lot of covers for this book but my faves are either the original or the Polish one, which is quite similar:

My least favorite is definitely the Dutch one:

It's quite fun to do! Thank you to Danielle and Cátia, the creators of the meme, for their work and ideas!

Have you read the trilogy? Which book and cover is your favorite? Let me know

Top 5 Wednesday

Hello there! Don't worry, I'm not as angry as yesterday. How are you guys doing? I'm here today with another T5W! This week's topic is: 5 authors you want to read more from.

I'm not really loyal to authors in particular, but if I have enjoyed a book by them, then I will probably check out their other stuff. There's only a few of them who I'm actually devoted to. If you have read some of my previous posts, you'll probably guess who one of them is (hint: she's blonde). 

Let's get started, shall we?

1) R.S. Grey

Yes, I know I've mentioned her several times before. I absolutely adored Scoring Wilder but then didn't really like Settling the Score. I'm not discouraged by that though, she has plenty of other books. I just need to find the right ones. Definitely looking forwards to checking some out. She is one of the very few New Adult writers I like.

2) Rick Yancey

There will be a pattern here, you'll see I've talked about most of them before. I have read the first two books in the Fifth Wave trilogy. I loved them so I'm definitely going to read the third... at some point. I also want to see what he comes up with next!

3) Benjamin Alire Sáenz

I've only read one book by him, but it's all it took for me to fall in love with his writing. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe was one of my favorite 2014 reads and it has stuck with me. So I really want to check some of his other works.

4) Tahereh Mafi

Oh boy, where do I start with this amazing woman. I have read 3 books by her, so she's not entirely new to me. The Shatter Me trilogy is one of my all-time faves. It's so dark, full of twists and character development. If you haven't already, check it out. I heard she's releasing a new book called Furthermore. Despite it's beautiful cover, I don't really think is my sort of book. We'll see.

5) Sarah J. Maas

Did you guys guess it? Mis SJM is my queen and I shall read anything that she writes. I'm such a sucker for her characters, especially her fae males (wink wink.) I have read all her published books and I got so happy when the Throne of Glass saga got expanded to 7 books. I'm sad to see that the ACOTAR series is coming to an end but I'm so excited to see what's next!

There you go!

See you next time

What's one author you would read forever and ever? Let me know!

Netflix Rant

Hi guys! How're you doing? I'm happy and angry. I'll explain why in a second. It's raining today and I hadn't brought an umbrella with me to uni so I ended up soaked. That's not the reason I'm angry (an umbrella would have been nice, though.) Stick with me if you want to know why.

I'll first tell you why I'm happy. I got home today and found that my Goodreads' giveaway package had finally arrived! After a month and a half of waiting, the glorious book was waiting for me on the table. It's as gorgeous as I thought it was. It's the first time I have ever won anything, so I was quite stoked when I got the email. That's not the best part, though. Hannah Ellis, the author, is the loveliest person ever. Not only did we get to talk a bit through emails and messages, she also had the gesture of signing the book and attaching a sweet letter. I'll leave pics below! So, Hannah, if by any chance you're reading this, THANK YOU!

 Okay, enough mystery. You probably haven't bothered reading my about page, but I'm currently half-way through my Public and Literary Translation degree at university. And, not to brag, but I consider myself a pretty good translator. I found out a month ago about a Netflix subtitling test through a professor. She translates for them and suggested we did the test because they were looking for translators. A couple of my friends and I did it. I found it a bit hard but thought that I had done pretty good overall. I got my test results today, later than when they were supposed to arrive. I failed it. That's not the reason I'm angry, though. I can accept I'm not good enough. My problem is that all I got was a "failed" on the results. No explanation of what my mistakes were and no score. How am I supposed to learn and avoid them if I don't know what I did wrong? From what I've heard, the system got saturated, but that's not our problem. They should have known and prepared some type of filter to reduce the amount of applicants. I don't know if my test was actually that bad or if they just hired the first applicants that passed it. I sent them an email to see if they can tell me something about my test. Guess I'll have to wait and see. 

Update: They uploaded the scores. I got a 64%. From what I've seen on Twitter, you needed an 85% to pass. So, I was quite far. I also received an answer to my email and they said they only shared the scores and not your mistakes. So I have no idea what I did wrong. 

Thanks for standing my rant, guys. I'll update if I get an answer.

Isn't Hannah the sweetest? Have any of you done the Netflix test? Let me know!

Book to Movie Monday: Movies You Probably Didn't Know Were Based On Books Part 1

Hey guys! How are you doing today? I'm posting late, as usual. Oh, well. 

I decided to spice it up a little today, so instead of my usual book to movie, I'm going to try and surprise you with some movies you probably didn't know were based on books.

Let's get started!

1) Pitch Perfect/Pitch Perfect by Mickey Rapkin

Goodreads.

2) Legally Blonde/Legally Blonde by Amanda Brown

Goodreads.

3) Mrs. Doubtfire/Madame Doubtfire by Anne Fine

Goodreads.

4) The Parent Trap/Lottie and Lisa by Erich Kästner

Goodreads.

5) The Shawshank Redemption/Different Seasons by Stephen King

Goodreads.

6) Psycho/Psycho by Robert Bloch

Goodreads.

7) Clueless/Emma by Jane Austen

Goodreads.

8) How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days/How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days: The Universal Don'ts of Dating by Michele Alexander and Jeannie Long

Goodreads.

9) The Birds/The Birds by Daphne Du Maurier

Goodreads.

10) Cruel Intentions/The Dangerous Liasons' by Pierre Chorderlos de Laclos

Goodreads.

I was shocked my 90% of these. Literally. I only knew about Pitch Perfect. There's a part 2 coming next Monday!

Did you know about any of these? Do you feel betrayed by movies you thought were original? Let me know.

Book Review: Shoebox Funeral by Elisabeth Voltz

Hey guys, sorry I didn't post anything yesterday. I really wasn't feeling it and I preferred to avoid posting something just for the sake of it. But I'm back, so don't worry!

Shoebox Funeral by Elisabeth Voltz

Release date: May 16th 2017

Publisher: Animal Media Group LLC

Pages: 310

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Source: Netgalley

Summary

From Goodreads:

Growing up with ten siblings on a farm in rural Grove City, PA, Beth Voltz came in contact with many animals, as one would expect when you live on a farm. But the Voltz family farm would usually have a few additions each week—the townspeople would often drop off their unwanted, or worse, dying animals for the Voltz family to take care of. Shoebox Funeral: Stories from Wolf Creek (Grave Tales) is a heartfelt collection of short stories about the ducks, cats, dogs, and birds that Beth would befriend, all the while knowing that they wouldn't be around for very long.

Review

I picked this book because I, as an animal lover, thought I would enjoy reading about a girl who refused to let helpless animals die. Unfortunately, it was a bit too depressing for me to fully enjoy.

If I'm being honest, I didn't finish this book. I thought you should know. 

While the writing was exceptionally good, the stories were just so graphic that I couldn't stand reading death after death.

Another element I liked, were the illustrations. They are fantastic and really sweet. The style would be great for a children's book. 

As with the previous Animal Media Group I reviewed, the edition I received has some format issues. I'll leave a picture for you to see:

There are also some letters missing throughout the book. I assume it's because of it being an ARC. You can appreciate here the beautiful art I mentioned before, isn't it stunning?

It's fantastic how innocent and pure kids can be and how they help selflessly when adults wouldn't even consider it. So, thank you, Elizabeth for what you've done and for sharing your life story. I hope everyone gets inspiration out of it. I know I did.

Rating

3 out of 5 stars

Rating System

About the Author

Elisabeth Voltz was born on a farm in Grove City PA, the tenth child to a horticulturalist and a mathematician/exorcist. There she collected unlucky and even suicidal animals, accumulating tragic death stories until she moved to Pittsburgh twelve years ago to become a video editor at Animal Inc.

What I've said shouldn't stop you from checking it out! Make sure to do so. What did you think? Would you have survived with 10 siblings?

Book Tag: 7 Deadly Sins of Reading

Hey guys! How's everyone doing? I'm...tired. Won't lie. But I'm here anyways. It's book tag Thursday, and I chose the 7 Deadly Sins of Reading tag. It sounds really cool so...

Let's get into it!

1) Greed: What's your most expensive book and most inexpensive book?

Do dictionaries count? Because those are certainly expensive and I own quite a few... I'm so boring. I'm sorry, but translators gotta translate, you know? My most inexpensive ones are probably the 3 House of Night books by P.C. Cast I own. I paid $50 (Argentine pesos) for each one, which is like $3.50 us dollars. 

2) Wrath: What author do you have a love/hate relationship with?

Hmm, I think I'll go with R.S Grey. As I've said in a previous post, I absolutely adored Scoring Wilder, but then I was left quite unimpressed with The Summer Games. I haven't given up on her yet, though. Do you have any good recommendations? 

3) Gluttony: What book have you deliciously devoured over and over again, with no remorse whatsoever?

I think I have mentioned this, but I'm not a re-reader. I prefer reading new books. But if I had to, I would re-read The Hunger Games. In fact, I'm planning on doing so. I really enjoyed those books, so why not?

4) Sloth: What book have you neglected reading due to laziness?

Which one haven't I is the better question. I'm always lazy when it's time to pick a book up. I end up enjoying them... most of the time. So, I don't know why it's so hard for me. I have been postponing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for quite a while now. Don't ask why, because I don't even know.

5) Pride: What book do you most talk about to sound like an intellectual reader?

Well, any classic, really. Or any from my lit class at university. The most complicated book I've read is Rayuela by Julio Cortázar. His books are compulsory reads in my country. His novels and short stories demand a deep analysis. Whenever you read one, you have to pause every 5 minutes to look a term or a reference up. So, if you want to feel really stupid every 5 lines, read that book. You get bragging rights after you finish it ;)

6) Lust: What attributes do you find most attractive in male or females characters?

Sense of humor. Well, that was easy. For love interests, I like it when they're dark and moody but with a good hidden heart. #basic. And for best friends, I like like honesty. And, again a good sense of humor. 

That t-shirt is 90% boyfriend material

7) Envy: What books would you most like to receive as a gift?

I'd like to get the new illustrated Harry Potter books. All of them, when they get released. They are just SO PRETTY. But, there are so many other books I want too! I can't pick.

That was it! Hope you enjoyed it. Now I can finally go get my much needed rest.

I saw this tag on Lauren Reads YA and was originally created by BookishMalayza.

What did you think? Do you agree with any of my choices? If you could ask for any one book, what would you pick? Let me know.