Throne of Glass Review

In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king's champion. Her name is Celaena Sardothien.The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass--and it's there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena's fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.

Throne of Glass. Oh all the feels and all the love that I have for this book could never be put down into words. I will start off by saying if you have not read this book go buy it and buy the other ones that go to this series as well because you will want to continue as soon as you put the book down. Sarah J. Maas is really good at making you wish you had the next book after you read the last few pages. The cliff hangers hang grab hold of you and will remain until the next year when the next book releases. I really enjoyed this book. I picked it up thinking that it sounded interesting but didn't expect to love it the way that I do. I didn't think it would be what it turned out to be which is one of the best books that I read in 2014. I immediately picked up book two, Crown Of Midnight. I really enjoyed Celaena as a character. I felt like everything wasn't handed to her, she worked extremely hard in this whole book to try to get somewhere other than where she was. I had heard this was similar to the hunger games but that is not the case. She was a bit rough around the edges in the beginning of the book but to understand why she was the way she was you would have to understand what she had been through and everything that had played a role into her being that way. You will see her make changes through this book and more changes through the rest. I really enjoyed the fact that she was not always so rough around the edges and "I'm a badass assassin" we also got to see a girl who loves dresses, and dancing. I enjoyed the fact that she was well rounded with her personality and for that I could relate.This was a real aspect to her character because in real life not every girl is a tom boy or just a girlie girl. Some times you have girls like Celaena and myself who have a bit of both to them. For me that was a refreshing change compared to other characters in other books I have read lately.  As you do have people competing really that is the only similarity.  There was action, a bit of romance and political aspects to the story. The romance wasn't heavy through the book which is what I enjoyed as well considering there is a lot of YA right now that has a lot of romance thrown into the story lines. You are not told a whole lot of the political things until later on in the books but there is a little bit thrown in there. I will say that if you have read this book and haven't picked up book two yet because you didn't love this book then please give the second book a chance because the books get better and better as they go along. More and more action take place with this story. I did really enjoyed Chaol who is the Captain of the Guard. At first I didn't think I would like him what so ever because he was very hard toned but I grew to love him. As far as the Prince, Darian I really enjoyed seeing him through his journey. Though we do not see much character development in him it was still a character I loved regardless. I will say if you enjoy fantasy, kick butt female lead characters, a bit of magic and action within a story definitively pick this book up. As a reminder if you did read this book and not sure if you want to move forward within the series pick up Crown of Midnight and after that book I would say if you still don't like it then this book series isn't for you. Just at least read the second book because while I think this book is great it gets better and better as it goes along. 

Gone Girl Book Review

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer? 

I read Gone Girl in 2012  before everyone jumped on board and the hype took place. Gone Girl was something different for me to read because I had never read an adult mystery or thriller book before this one. I will be honestly I was a bit worried and felt a bit out of my comfort zone. I picked it up anyway and I am so glad that I did. This book is written in two perspectives, one being Nick in the current time and the other being Amy's Diary entries. So every other chapter you see current time with Nick while the next chapter you read what Amy has written in her Diary from the day they met until the day she has gone missing. This I think was a wise decision to make on Gillian's part. It worked out well for this book. I don't think I would have enjoyed it quite as much if it wasn't written in this way. I found myself reading this book until 4 A.M in the morning. I just couldn't put it down until I discovered what happened to Amy and even when I did I still couldn't put it down. So even after the mystery is gone you still have such a drive to continue reading because at this point you need to see how the Chess pieces are moved and how the outcome plays out. There is not much I can say about this book without giving things away. I will say that while a lot of people didn't like the ending of the book I actually loved it which I am not sure what it could say about me lol. There is a lot of he said she said in each chapter and I think that really confuses you as a reader because you really aren't sure what to think. While I do have my thoughts about Nick again I really can't say anything without giving it all away. This was the best book of the year when I read it back in 2012. This is definitely a book for mature readers only. I loved how when you are reading the book you get Amy's point of view on certain things and when Nick is discussing it you get a different story of what happened. Gillian discussed that she wanted to write a book that dove into the idea that you really don't know who your married to. That people only allow you to see or know what they are willing to share. I think this is a great concept. After reading this book it really made me think about my own marriage and my husband. The idea that there could be things that husband has done or something about him that I am not aware of only because he doesn't want me to know. It really makes you observe your own life and household. I would definately recommend this book because as I stated before I really enjoyed it.

The Kiss Of Deception Book Review

I was so excited to get my hands on this book when it was hitting the shelves. The Kiss of Deception was put on shelves July 2014 but I had it on my shelve for a while before I finally read it. The Kiss of Deception written by Mary E Pearson is about a Princess who decides she will run away from her arranged marriage on the morning of her wedding with her best friend. After she leaves someone hires an assassin to come kill her while the Prince she was suppose to marry that she never met comes to find out what this princess is like. He feels the need to meet a Princess who had the bravery to escape an arranged marriage. During this book (over half) you do not know who the assassin is and who the prince is. This book is written in three perspectives, the prince, the assassin and the princess. We only get a couple pages for the assassin and prince per chapter in their perspective. We mostly see the perspective of the princess.This book was very well hyped and did not disappointment me what so ever. I rated it a 5 out of 5 stars. I will admit that during the book it was definitely driving me crazy not being able to identify the prince and the assassin. But this sure made me want to push through faster and made me stay in the book for longer periods of time. This book does consist of a love triangle so if you do not like love triangles I would encourage you to still give it a try as this book does not revolve around it. There is so much more going on in this book other than that. We did get a lot of world building and introduction to characters and some understand into each one. There was action, adventure, and a lot of story telling that revolved around self-  discovery. We did find that we finally have a protagonist who is not written as a perfect character with very little flaws if not any at all. As reading this book I found myself connecting with the Princess in a few ways. She feels like someone I would meet in real life verses a made up character. She was a very real life character. We did find that she did have many things she was not good at, didn't see herself as a princess who demanded to be treated like one or yet acted like one really.  The world building was wonderful to me. It was not too much at once. I also feel in love with all the characters. I did find myself loving the prince and the assassin but towards the second half of the book I found myself not liking one any longer. I will also say that this book is a great book for high school students considering that it was not nasty written in any way and did not have any nudity scenes or inappropriate scenes. The second book was released in July 2015 which I did purchase as soon as it hit the shelves. I will be reading book two and doing a review of it as well. Book Two is called Heart of Betrayal. With that being said I would recommend this book for everyone to read. If you like the Royal times settings, fantasy, politics, or just a book that makes you think this is the book for you. I also have a video on Youtube discussing this book. I will not go too much into detail due to spoilers but feel free to let me know if you would like a full discussion of this book.

A Court Of Thorns And Roses Book Review

A Court of Thorns and Roses written by Sarah J Maas was not a disappointment at all. Honestly I have to say that she is by far one of my favorite authors ( one of 2) and she did not let me down. This is a Beauty and the Beast retelling about a girl named Feyre who lives with her two sisters and father in a little cottage home in the woods. Due to circumstances with her father's business they lost everything and now it is up to Feyre to take care of her family and see to it they have food to eat and money coming in. While out in the woods hunting she comes across a deer big enough to feed her family for a couple weeks but before she can kill it a wolf approaches. Now she must decide how to secure the deer for her family to eat. She kills the wolf and takes the deer home for her family to eat. There is a treaty between humans and fairies that she just broke. Humans are not to kill  fairies as fairies are to leave the humans alone as well. So there is a wall separating the two types. Not knowing that the wolf she just killed was in fact a fairy now she must pay with her life as well. So when the High Lord Fairies comes to collect the debt Feyre is not so pleased with the options she is left with. Either she is to be killed in her home right then or she is to come live with him and Fairies in their part of the land for the rest of her days. She decides to live her days out in the Fairies land but now she must come to terms with the decision she made and leaving her family to fend for themselves which is something they do not know how to do. This circles around the story of Feyre and Tamlin the High Lord and how they must work out this arrangement if they even can and deal with the treats that surround them. 
I will say that I seen a lot of the Beauty and the Beast in this story. Sarah did a great job spinning it into a story of her very own. It was a nice change to see more of an adult setting to her writing compared to her writing compared to her Throne of Glass series which is A Young Adult series. Though this was a retelling I still did not expect the ending of the book to turn out the way it did. While there was somethings that were to be expected from the story there was still some things that I didn't expect at all. Feyre is a character that we can relate to. She is not good at everything, and is not made to be perfect that most female characters are made in books. She had her flaws and she also had her strengths. I found myself not really attached to her as a character as much as I found myself attaching to Tamlin. I found that he was a great addition to the story. Normally I find myself more attached to the main lead but in this case I found it was different. We also are introduced to other side characters that I really enjoyed as well. This book had me laugh a few times, made me worry a couple times and even broke my heart for a moment or two a couple times. This did not focus only on the romance as it had a lot of action and other issues at hand. We mostly focus on the issue that there are threats to the land and their world. I rated this a 5 out of 5 stars and will be continuing the series without a doubt. This is a must read especially if you love fantasy or even Beauty and the Beast. 

All The Bright Places Book Review

Soon to be a major motion picture starring Elle Fanning!
 
Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him.
 
Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister’s recent death.
 
When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it’s unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the “natural wonders” of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who’s not such a freak after all. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink.
 
This is an intense, gripping novel perfect for fans of Gayle Forman, Jay Asher, Rainbow Rowell, John Green, and Jenny Downham from a talented new voice in YA, Jennifer Niven.


 As I began to read this book it felt a little flat to me. I will start by saying that I was not sure what to expect. I knew what the description told me and what I was hearing from the girls at EpicReads over on youtube but that was about it. I am not a big fan of books such as this one. Books that circle around suicide, depression, eating disorders etc. The sad books that surround these topics are heavy to the heart to read. I was not really sure what people really mean't when they said a book was heavy while they read it. I now understand as this was my first dive into a book such as this. Finch was such an interesting character to get to know and watch as he grew. I did catch myself learning things I had never known before as far as little facts of real world people. Statistics in this book was fairly educational and I did enjoy how the author placed them within the story. As I did not relate to Finch I did find myself attaching to him and hoping that he in fact would improve in this condition. I love the fact that though Finch was considered an outcast at school he still carried the vibe that he was one of the cool kids at time. Violet was a character that I really enjoyed to get to know as well. We got to dive into a world of a teenage girl who was completely heartbroken and lost due to the loss of a sibling. I feel as if she handled herself rather well considering what she had went through. Violet was a strong character but of course she had to be for this story. Violet is a character that develops into a strong lead within time. It did take me some time to really warm up to her character and really see who she was as a person. Finch I didn't have that problem. He was pretty much an open book from the first chapter. Though Finch has an addiction to death and statistics revolving around death I really enjoyed him as a character. This book was told in both points of view from Finch and Violet. It was a great choice in my opinion to apply that to the story line. Both characters had different things they were going through so you get to see that and really take in the experience. I was really captivated by Finch and really loved reading about him. After 200 pages in I did begin to get a little bored with the story line and it begin to fall flat for me. The story began strong and once it starting to fall flat I did put the book down for a couple weeks before I picked it back up again. This story is not a 5 out of 5 stars for me but I did rate it a 4 because I felt like the author did handle the subject of the story very well. I did not enjoy the ending and to be honestly it will probably take me a couple days to really get over the ending as it did not end the way I thought it would. I do understand and respect the author for choosing the ending that she did and feel like she did a great job at how she managed it.  I can say with confidence that I would pick up another one of her books when she writes more of them. This is a subject that I feel does not get enough discussion. I do recommend parents to read this book as well because it does give some great insight on what teenagers today can be going through and in the author's notes are numbers that can be called if you notice any signs in your children. I would recommend this book for anyone who is interested in this story but would say I wouldn't recommend it to those who may be suffering from suicidal thoughts. The writing style for me was okay, it was average for your typical YA book. This is just a hard book to give a review for because giving too much information would be spoiling you on this book and the feelings are really hard to come to terms with or explain. The Author herself did suffer from a lot of the issues  that was written within the story line, so it was pretty accurate to the feelings of one that would be suffering from these illnesses. You can definitely tell it comes from a real place. It does have some dark elements but did not lack the good. I really enjoyed that the author made a real website that was created in the book. You can check out the website online  with  http://www.eleanorandviolet.com/ and get the full experience of seeing what Violet was discussing and also get to see a bit of her sister's personality which is something we really didn't get in the book. As always feel free to let me know if you read this book and what you thought of it. I will try to put a youtube video review up on thenelsonway channel if you want to check out that as well. 

Welcome to TheNelsonWay

Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! To start this blog off I first want to introduce myself and tell you somethings about me. First off I am Mom, Wife, Book lover, Book hoarder, and everything else books. I am also a Southern girl by birth, heart and soul. You can tell these things by my personality and Accident, or so I am told by others. I am a lover of Dogs so of course I own a Black Labrador Retriever and a Golden Retriever. My house is proof of this. I also dream of writing a book eventually and having it published. Don't ask me when I see this in my future because I continue to right the outline and details out for my first book. I have started a Booktube channel be sure to check it out TheNelsonWay. So far all I am currently getting my first video posted and it's taking FOREVER to upload. I will cover book hauls, book reviews, monthly wrap ups, and monthly favorites that will also include movies, music and etc. I love children ( your probably thinking" I sure hope so if you have one") :) so I also buy children books and read with my daughter at times when she is not reading herself. With that being said I have a playlist of which I have already started filming for called The Children's Corner. This playlist will consist of me reading books for children. I know that some parents either 1. Do not have the financial funds to continue buying different books for their children. 2. Do not feel the need or desire to read to their children. As sad as it is to say these parents do exist. 3 Do not have the time to read to them due to busy lifestyles. Whatever the reason maybe I am there for the children. The idea that when a child is sitting in a doctors office playing with their parents phone waiting, they could be having a book read to them. Whatever the reasons of them being on devices they have the opportunity to have the books read. I guess what I am trying to say is I am here for all ages in different ways. I just love books, people, and getting to know others with my same interest. Oh I also live in Florida. The sunshine state that has more rain then sunshine lol. I read all different types of books. I do not discriminate against one genre. With that being said here is a little bit about me as time goes by you will learn a lot more as you follow along.  https://twitter.com/TheNelsonWay1