SPRING BREAK!!

Hello All!

Don't get too excited, I'm not actually doing anything fun or interesting for Spring Break, I'm just going home and (hopefully) going back to work to make some money so I can eat for the rest of the semester.

I just wanted to check in because I haven't been around much, being a little busy producing a show and all *hair flip*

My homework has also kind of been piling up on me a little bit, too, but that's mostly my fault and a little bit of my professors' faults, too, because they have the stupidity of not consulting with my other teachers about when they want their exams/midterms to be due. #stupid

So right now I'm about to go work on a paper about Madame Bovary and how it's not art or it is art or it's Realistic and Romantic and how Flaubert was a man who was a woman in his mind...or something like that, I don't really know, I'm just going to start typing.

I also have a big Final Revision for my Non-Fiction class due on the same day that my Bovary paper needs to be finished.

Oh, and a Finance/ecomomics midterm in class on five chapters. Same day. #dying

However, I wouldn't be me if I wasn't distracted from ALL OF THIS by something!
I have started a new blog, all about my reviews for books, TV shows and movies. You should check it out! I'm hoping for it to be really cool!

The Blonde Reviews

Okay, that's it for today!

Thanks for reading,
Amy Liz

Book Review: The Raven Boys

Hello All,

If you saw my last post, you know that I've had a LOT of time on my hands to read a few books in my preferred genre, YA fiction. My newest review, following my review of Graceling, is on Maggie Stiefvater's The Raven Boys, the first book in the Raven Cycle series.

The Raven Boys -Maggie Stiefvater

Blue Sargent, the daughter of the town psychic in Henrietta, Virginia, has been told for as long as she can remember that if she ever kisses her true love, he will die. But she is too practical to believe in things like true love. Her policy is to stay away from the rich boys at the prestigious Aglionby Academy. The boys there — known as Raven Boys — can only mean trouble.

[WARNING -this review may contain spoilers.]

Indeed, the Raven Boys, Gansey, Adam, Ronan, and Noah, prove quite a bit of trouble for Blue, who is just trying to make it through high school without falling in love. 

As always, I love Stiefvater's writing, and I couldn't resist the urge to ask for this book for Christmas -I would have bought it myself back in September when if first came out, but I had a lot going on in my fall semester. Anyway, Stiefvater manages to write both mundane and disturbing instances sound like poetry, or lyrics in a song. If you haven't read any of her other books, I encourage you to pick up The Scorpio Races -it was so incredible and such a great story, and can't stop talking about it, a year after reading.

Things that I liked:

I really appreciated the different personalities and characters of the three main Raven Boys (we don't see a heck of a lot of Noah in this first book, so I can't really talk about him that much). One of the things that I really admire so much about Stiefvater's writing is her ability to balance a number of different characters and their own personal stories into the major storyline of the book.
I utterly loved Gansey's unintentional insults and obliviousness to other people's feelings and principles, despite his obvious intelligence and focus on his passion. 
Adam is a little too self-depricating for my taste, but overall I really liked him and his personal principle to make his life what he can by his own power; and I'm not-so-secretly rooting for him and Blue to get together, and not the hinted Gansey-Blue future romance. Although, I am a little concerned about how he survived the weird ritual and what it means about his "person" in the coming books.
Ronan is a little hard to love, as he is in the story, but not because he's aggressive, gloomy, violent, but because his character is full of unresolved secrets! GRRR! I just want to know how his father died and what kind of strange power he really has to make ravens out of his dreams and his thoughts.
Blue is less of a mystery than her mother and aunts and weird family psychics living in her home. I would, however, love to know if her power-that's-not-a-power is going to transform in anyway to help the Boys find their ancient king.

The story is a new kind of quest that I haven't really seen done this way before, and that intrigued me a lot, especially because I picked up this book for the author, not so much the story. I liked how the individual aspects and journeys of each character sort of fell into place as the book moved along, and the mystery that came along with the magic Blue and her Raven Boys discovered helped make the story even more interactive.

What I didn't like:
Not finding out who Blue's father really is.
Not finding out how Ronan's father died. Or what his problem with his brother and the rest of his family is.
Not knowing what the heck is happening with that weird tree.

Getting so lost in the story that I didn't realize there wasn't enough time/pages in the book to actually get to plot points that have been hinted at earlier in the book, and then failing to accept that this book was the first in a series that has yet to be fully published, and not a stand-alone novel.

Overall Impression:

While I was extremely disappointed to discover that this was the first in a series that I'll have to wait for, I was enamored by the mystery in this book, as well as the characters and their personal histories, of which readers haven't completely uncovered just yet.

Amy's Rating: 4/5
Amazon/Goodreads Rating: 4/5

Thanks for reading!
Amy Liz

Book Review: Gracling

Hey All,

I've gotten the chance to do a lot of reading lately, and I just want to talk about one of the books I just finished recently.

Graceling -Kristin Cashore

Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight—she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug.

She never expects to fall in love with beautiful Prince Po.

She never expects to learn the truth behind her Grace—or the terrible secret that lies hidden far away . . . a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.

I had been looking at Graceling for a long time, usually in favor of a series sequel I'd been looking for in the first place. But again, it kept getting my attention, and for good reason.

This book had a lot of elements that I'm fond of, and I'll go through these in order: 

[WARNING: there may be spoilers in this review.]

A strong heroine: Katsa is a strong, stubborn, intelligent protagonist, with a formidable sense of righteousness. Being socially isolated from those who fear the Graced (and fear her killing Grace, in particular), Katsa had to develop a thick skin, and has few friends in her life. Those she does have -her cousin, the Prince Raffin of the Middlums, her uncle's best spy, and one of his commanding officers -are completely loyal to her and she to them. Together they start an organization called The Council, which helps to right the wrongs of the rulers of the seven kingdoms.

A vibrant and unique world: Graceling is set in a fantasy world much like it's in a renaissance-era. The lands' politics are laid out in a simple-to-understand way and the landscape descriptions are vivid yet unobtrusive. The secondary characters are believable, with unique personalities that keep them from becoming flat, despite their brief roles in the whole of the book.

A great writing voice and a surprise twist: The writing and storytelling is clear and easy-to-read. Cashore doesn't bother with over descriptions and long and winded prose. And the twist 3/4s of the way through the book was, to me, unexpected and brought the story to a huge new level.

Things I didn't like so much:

There were some boring parts that I found lasted a little too long, like the section of time when Katsa and Po are simply training and fighting each other and nothing much is happening story-wise besides Katsa's obvious affection for Po growing. There were moments that would prove useful later, but these could have been brought up in other ways. The walking through the woods also lasted a long time, as well; it gets to a certain point when you begin thinking "okay, it's cold, you're ill-equipped and you might die -either get out or die already." Maybe this is a bit harsh, especially because Cashore does eventually have Katsa strap Bitterblue onto her back and run over the top of the mountains, probably as a way to hurry things along.

I still haven't decided if I like Katsa's relationship with Po. I understand that you can't always help when you fall in love, but I think with her realization came a sudden leap in dependency on Po's strength and his Grace that she had never felt she needed, even after she'd figured out what his true Grace was. While the romance didn't really alter the storyline or delay the major events, I wonder if it was necessary? I don't know, some days I don't mind it as a sprinkling of entertaining romance, and other times I wondered why Katsa was suddenly so infatuated that she couldn't think of anything other than this boy she's known for a few weeks, or how quick she was to give over her control of her mission to Po.

Overall Impression:

Despite my annoyance at some points, these bits were the smallest of blips in this 500-page story, and i have to say most of the times my romantic side gets the better of me in the end. However, this romance between Katsa and Po is hardly the main event in this action-packed book, and it's merely a minor hindrance in the story, if you're not into that kind of thing. Cashore really takes you into this world of Graces and kings and unique personalities, and I will definitely recommend it to others.

Amy's Rating: 4/5

Average Amazon/Goodreads Rating: 4/5

I hope you guys pick up this book, as I did, and I hope you find it as enjoyable as I did. I'm currently reading the second book in the Graceling series, Fire, which seems to be taking place before Katsa and Po's and Bitterblue's time, and in a different part of their land overrun with colorful and powerful versions of normal animals called "monsters." So far it's pretty exciting, and I hope to have a review of that up soon.

Thanks for reading,

Amy Liz