Me Thinks #9: It Ends With Us

Title: It Ends With Us
Author: Colleen Hoover
Pages / Year: 367 / 2016
Discription Here

First things first: I am still recovering from this book so expect a review filled with tears and rethorical questions and also a little bit of fangirling.

I chose It Ends With Us to read during my first week at my new job, especially because I've been spending 2 hours of my days in the subway (oh joy!) and I finished this one so quickly and I loved it so much. To be honest with you, I wanted to have written a post about my first impressions of the book but I always get home around 8pm and I also always want to read more and more so finally, on saturday, I saw down and I finished this baby.

And I cried so much!


('But, Cat, weren't you the one who didn't cry over books?'.... yes, honeys, but bare with me, this book left me very sensitive!).

I'll begin by praising this beautiful cover, it's so amazing and I love it so much that, in part, I feel like I might have started this book because of it considering I didn't know anything at all about the story at the start. Like you probably know, I have a hate-love relationship with Mrs. Colleen since I adored "Ugly Love" but hated "Slammed" with a passion.

I started reading this book slowly and careful, looking out for signs I hated on "Slammed" and as I went over I began wondering why the heck was this book called "It Ends With Us".... but what, what ends with us, Colleen??? And will you believe that I had no idea what the title meant until I got right to the end, when Lily basically explained it to all of us??? Oh my. I felt so in love and so blinded by how this book is (and yes, by some tears that made my vision blurry) that I didn't even associate the title with the stuff that was happening! Even now, as I recall that scene, I get goosebumps.

(I told you I was sensitive!!!)

This book tells us the history of Lily's parents but mostly of Lily, Ryle and Atlas and is one of the best, most subtle and sublime love triangles that I have ever seen in books. It's so intelligent and well written that only after you stop for a bit and think about it, you realize you are torn between Atlas and Ryle. Yes, I was torn between choosing Ryle or not because no matter what he does, I felt exactly like Lily: lost, confuse and thinking 'dammit, but you love each other so much!'.... and exactly like Luly I was also one of the people who always thought that the person who stayed, the victim, was the silly one. [I'm being a little vague about it because I don't want to spoil it!!!]

I feel like that was the main reason why this book touched me so much, because the message was so well transmitted and it was a book that hold our hands and walked with us through the story showing us what was happening instead of just telling us. I am so glad I was home alone, this saturday, when I finished this book because I was bawling!!!


Besides the story being really good, the writing is delicious with amazing passages (yes, I will have to make a post with my favorite quotes from this book because there were way too many to only choose one) and the characters were so real, they could be our friends, our family, our parents, even.

This is such an important book and I feel like it should be read by all the young girls and women, by people who suffer any kind of abuse and by people who, like I used to be, think situations are all black and white, that either things go our way or we walk. Please, please, read this book!!! Believe me, it's going to change your view of the things and relationships. 


I have so many favorite quotes, but I'll leave you with this one:

 "There is no such thing as bad people. We’re all just people who sometimes do bad things."

Me Thinks #8: Girl Against The Universe

Title: Girl Against The Universe
Author: Paula Stokes
Pages / Year: 400 / 2016
Discription here

4/5

The title of this post was, up until a few hours ago, "First Thoughts" but then I lost myself in the book and I finished it so fast that suddenly my thoughts weren't the first aymore, they were the last. Final opinion, here we go.

This book is so delicious, so good, so beautiful, so...so...so.... (I know perfection does not exist but I honestly can't find anything bad in this book!)

I got this book solemnly for the cover (yes!! I am one of those people, oops) and because I completly adore tennis (as in, obsessed!) so obviously I didn't even think twice about starting this book when I had to travel into the city and I was automatically hooked! I honestly couldn't put it down while I didn't finish it and then I felt kinda glum because aww...  wanted more from Jordy and Maguire.

The book tells the story of Maguire, the unluckiest luckiest person that I have ever met (?? read about, more like it) who is always getting herself into accidents but always manages to get away without a scratch even if people around her, end up suffering in double. Maguire is in therapy so she can overcome a lot of the bad things that happened in her life. She is a 16 year old who has PTSD and who meets a young tennis player who feels lost about who he really is and they will develop a friendship (and obvi, something more) while helping each other with their therapy homework.

This story is mostly about Maguire's menthal health problems, always written with a loveable humour but also in such a profound way that we can't help but feel for the characters. This book is so easy and light to read but has such an important and subtle message and...okay, I confess, I kind of cried at the end????!

I adored Maguire and Jordy soooo much. I thought Maguire's rituals were so fun and how she always connected everything with luck and badluck to feel better! And what I loved the most was that Maguire's personality and rituals were never put aside and forgotten so the romance could shine, no! Maguire's problems were always front and centre and it was so refreshing.

I confess that when it was written how Jordy was feeling so tired all the time me, an hypocondriac, started to go into alert mode and being like "PLEASE DON'T YOU DIE!". Man, this book!! But I'll talk more about this down below in the spoilers!

And now off you go, to get this book and binge read it like I did! You'll love it so much and you'll really laugh out loud at some parts, promise!


As one of my favourite quotes, I choose:
"Sometimes terrible things happen and it's no one's fault. Sometimes we do the best we can but still have bad outcomes."

***************SPOILERS BELLOW***************

Me Thinks #7: The Summer Garden

Title: The Summer Garden
Author: Paullina Simons
Pages / Year: 746 / 2006
Description here

AHHHHH *insert a river made of tears* holy molly guacamole, what an amazing book!

To start this review off, let's all gather together in a minute of silence because I finished this trilogy. I did say I'd read all these books this year but I didn't expect to read them all so quickly especially when I wanted them to last forever (and since I read them all in english, I have already started my quest and going to the stores to search for the books in portuguese...tho this 3rd one isn't translated yet :( :( )

What to say about this book?? Simply fascinating. I am now suchhhh a huge fan of Paullina Simons and of her writing. And more than that, of Tatia and Shura *hearts* *hearts*

At the beginning, we read about the daily routines of Tatiana, Alexander and Anthony, the 3 of them in their own lives, living, growing, loving and travelling through the United States and at the start I even thought this would be 700 pages of sweetness and cuteness and lots of love and that we would get to the middle of the book with 40 kids and 300 discussions about banal stuff (all hail banal stuff, in the other books they'd go to the war and almost die!) and that kind of stuff. I thought this would be a book written simply because Paullina loved these two so much that she didn't want to let go of them and wanted to give us a book filled with piece and love.

HA HA HA HA, to me..

THIS BOOK!!!!! THIS BOOK!!!!! Oh my God.

So when in the middle of the book, Alexander starts having his existential crisis because Tatia is not like the wives of his buddies and works and is basically ahead of her own time, a person (as in, me) kinda gets upset with Alex and wants to hurt him because he is so unreasonable and unfair, and a lot of emotions arise in those moments. I mean, let's not forget that Shura is only alive because Tatia is Tatia and does everything in her Tatia way!

But then... THEN!!!! Then we forgive Alex for everything because...BECAUSE!!!! I'll tell you about it in the spoilers, yes? Because if you haven't read this baby yet, then you have to go and read it. And if you have read it, then let's debate the most stupid, idiotic and heart-wrenching decision ever taken, below the cut, yes?

I'll also tell you that I have a bunch of favorite quotes because the writing is so good but this one is my fav (it's possible that I'll make a top 10 fav quotes by Paullina Simons post sometime):

"I’m getting off the boat at Coconut Grove. It’s six and you’re not on the dock. I finish up, and start walking home, thinking you’re tied up making dinner, and then I see you and Ant hurrying down the promenade. He is running and you’re running after him. You’re wearing a yellow dress. He jumps on me, and you stop shyly, and I say to you, come on, tadpole, show me what you got, and you laugh and run and jump into my arms. Such a good memory.
I love you, babe."

Read everything I think about this trilogy: 
First thoughts on "The Bronze Horseman" [book 1]
Opinion on "The Bronze Horseman"
Favorite quotes from "The Bronze Horseman"
First thoughts on "Tatiana and Alexander" [book 2]
First thoughts on "The Summer Garden" [book 3]

****************** SPOILERS BELLOOOOOW****************** 

First Lines #5: The Summer Garden

The day for which many of us (well, me) were waiting for has arrived: I have started to read the last book of "The Bronze orseman" series by Paullina Simons.

Yes, let's reflect on that and have a minute of silence for me.


Well, this baby is called  "The Summer Garden" and is a 'little' book with about 700 pages and to be honest with you all, I'm not even in the first lines anymore, I'm kind of in the middle of the book right now at page... 350?!


 And what I have to say so far is: I LOVE IT SO MUCH I WANNA MARRY IT.


"But Cat, what's new? You love all of these books!" That's true, my darlings, that's very much true. This book doesn't really bring anything new to the table (so far) but after the other two, filled with action and where my heart was ripped countless times, it's kinda good to read this one. You know when you're a writer and you just want to write sweet cheesy scenes because you love your characters so much? There. This is that book.

Lots of Alexander. Lots of Tatiana. Lots of Anthony.

Buttttt, I wouldn't be myself if I hadn't freaked out a thousand times with the possessive-agressive-sexist-uneeded-i-rule behaviour from Alexander (excuse you, Mr.Barrington-I-rule-the-world but would you even have gotten this far without Tatia? NO. No, you wouldn't have, you'd be dead in a ditch somewhere! AND NOBODY WOULD CARE) and this bothers me because Tatia has saved him so many times but he keeps thinking she is naïve and he wants to take all the decisions when, honestly, she is the smartest? For Christ's sakes... and then that boss of his!!!!

Sexist men, follow the way and get out of here, c'mon.

In the end, I' simply sorry for Tania who is such a strong woman, ahead of her time and with these monumental balls and she is sometimes misunderstood along the book. The exception being Anthony who worships her like she deserves!

Oh and there are these flashbacks with Pasha (knife in my heart) and with Dasha (knife in my heart) and with some other doutbful characters that you can totally skip but that I am meticulously reading because I am a masochist.

Alright, let's see how many more hairs I'm gonna pull off before this book is over!

Read everything I think about this series:
First thoughts on "The Bronze Horseman" [book 1]
Opinion on "The Bronze Horsemen"
Favorite quotes
First thoughts on "Tatiana and Alexander" [book 2]

Me Thinks #6: A Court of Thorns and Roses

Title: A Court of Thorns and Roses
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Year / Pages: 2015 /380
Discription Here

Today, I am here to tell you about this beautiful, amazing, spectacular and charming book!!! A book that brought back my spirits after the flop that was The Raven Boys and that made me soar.

I really, really, really liked this one.

I am talking about "A Court of Thorns and Roses" by Sarah J. Maasas you have probably seen by the image I put at the top. Look how cool the cover looks!

Guys, WHAT A BOOK!!!! Seriously. Just to tell you a little bit about this book without spoiling it too much, this is an adaptation of "The Beauty and the Beast", this greand classic and the majority of us grew up with. I confess I never really liked the Disney movie but this book...oh this book!

The story focus on Feyre, a mortal, and in her first degree meeting with a fantasy world, with a lot of faeries and other supernatural creatures, in particular: Tamlin. Feyre, unlike Belle, can't read to save her life but she is a good paintor and a great hunter, since she always had to take care of her family and feed them. Until she hunts a friend of Tamlin's. Yup. I suppose you can see in what kind of mess she got into, right?

I can tell you that I picked up this book because I was bored and I had the ebook on my phone and I even dropped it when I got home but then, on this particular day, I had some interviews and some problems to deal with and I knew I'd spend a lot of time in waiting rooms so of course, I devoured this book!!!! I even went by some bookstores to get the physical version, but unfortunetly this hasn't yet been released in Portugal :( 

I want to delve a little more into the characters and talk about them, Tamlin, Feyre, Lucien and Rhys but that would be soooooo spoilery for you guys that haven't yet read this book so, go, go ahead. Go buy it, go download it, just...read it. You won't regret it.

(This is coming from someone who never ever reads or likes fantasy!)

Below the cut, I'll write spoilers. So... don't say I didn't warn you ;)


My quote of the book:
"I was as unburdened as a piece of dandelion fluff, and he was the wind that stirred me about the world."

Me Thinks #5: The Raven Boys

Title: The Raven Boys
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Year / Pages: 2012 / 409
Description aqui

According to my maths (or better yet, according to the date on my last post), I haven't posted a review since May (!!!) and I can't even explain why but maybe I haven't read good books and the ones I did read, I almost gave up on them (I'm talking about you, "Slammed" by Colleen Hoover, oh yes I am!) or maybe I was just lazy. But I'm baaaaaack! 


And I'm back with a bang. Or "The Raven Boys" by Maggie Stiefvater, to be more exact. Everyone and their mother seems to have read this book and everyone is talking about it and raving about it. Going into this book I knew it dealed with magic and supernatural and stuff like that, which I'm not very fond of, I got to be honest, but there was so much hype and so much "you gotta read this!!!!!" that there I went and got the book.

And...yeah, okay. I don't get the hype.

This book tells us the story of Blue Sargent, who lives with her mum and her aunts (or her mum's friends??? I didn't understand a lot of this book) and they are psychics. Blue is the only one who doesn't have the gift of seeing things although she does amplify them for everyone. Then there are these 4 boys, the Raven Boys, who want to find a ley line (some sort of energy source thingie) and obviously they are going to meet and cross paths!

But Cat, you may ask, what was your problem with this book? And I can't even really tell you. On one hand, I feel like it was so discriptive, there were sooooo many discriptions and I was kind of like 'yeah, okay, okay' and moving on from them (that I might have lost some important discriptions) and I love to read and I like a good amount of discriptive but it was too much. I have heard people saying that it gets better with time, but the beginning was honestly the part I liked the most.
Obviously, then you get into the plot and it's interesting and I read this book until the end but... I kind of felt that I knew everything ahead of time??? (cough Noah cough).

And then, what about Glendower? And who is Blue's father? And wasn't somebody supposed to die from a kiss?

There were so many questions and NO answers!!!

I did like the characters. I loved Blue and how she bickered with Gansey (Team Blue+Gansey... Glue?? Bansey???), I really liked Adam and I even liked the nutjob that is Ronan. I adored the girls at 300 Fox Way, but it just... I couldn't relate with anyone??? I wouldn't defend any of these characters to death.

Maybe I just had too many expectations about this book because of the hype (which reminds me why I never read anything when it's too hyped) or maybe it's not really my genre. However, I still want to read the next book and find if I like it more than the first. I'll let you know then.


(Also someone should turn The Raven Boys into a tv show because that would be super kickass, really!).

My quote of the book is:

"Blue tried not to look at Gansey's boat shoes; she felt better about him as a person if she pretended he wasn't wearing them."

First Lines #4: Tatiana and Alexander

Remember the hundred posts I wrote about what, up until now, was my favorite book of the year? Yes, I am talking about "The Bronze Horseman" by Paullina Simons. (If you don't remember, you can check out here my first impressions, final opinion and my favorite quotes!).

Okay, so I started reading the 2nd book this week. YAAAAAY. Mini-dance party!!!! I actually decided that I wouldn't read the 3 books in a row, even if I wanted to do so bad, because I loved the 1st book so much that I wanted to spend a little more time with this trilogy. However, after trying to read "Slammed" by Colleen Hoover and hating it, I entered a little reading slump which was what led me, on this subway ride, to start "Tatiana and Alexander" so I could warm my heart.

As of right now, I'm at page 135, chapter 15 and....blaaah. Okay, okay. Don't throw rocks at me just yet! The truth is that I adored the first book and I had read some reviews claiming that this 2nd book was even better so I was got extremely excited and with very high expectations but to be honest.... I'm not liking this one as much as I did the first but I'm not hating on it either. I feel like this beginning is very tirying because it's retelling in more detail what happened at the end of the first book!

And I really don't like when that happens. I always feel like the author is treating me as if I have a 0.02 seconds memory or that they are trying to include something that they didn't remember for the previous book so that the current book's plot makes sense. If I learnt about Alex's parents, if I already know about Dima, if I already know about the runway... why do I need more 100 pages telling me about it???

Right.
I'll explain better: there are two kinds of chapters. Some of the chapters are from Tatia's POV which is really interesting and brings a lot of new elements to the table; the other chapters are written from Alex's POV and these chapters are split in 3 moments: the present, the past related to Dasha/Dima/Tatia, the past related to Alex's parents. And everything is very interesting but it gets really confusing, because all this info is crammed into a chapter so we keep jumping the years. It gets a little all over the place.

I feel like this could have worked better if the author wrote one chapter where she told us all about Alex's parents (again, but still) and another chapter about the whole Dimitri/Dasha/Tatia story that we already know about (and thus could skip it more easily). And then write chapters only from Alex's POV in the present which is what interests the most, because it tells how is his life in prison!

As for Tatiana's part, up until now, is very interesting. There is this ??? moment where I felt like when Tatia was speaking english with Alex, her english was perfect but suddenly it's crooked??? But oh well, details, details. And also, I just wanna hold Anthony and pinch his cheeks. Ayyyye. The sight of the two of them leaves me with heart eyes.

Whenever I finish this book, I'll tell you allllll about what I thought and I'll post my favorite quotes. And I'll probably cry. And scream at Alex. But hey.... what's new about that?

Me Thinks #4: We Were Liars

Title: We Were Liars
Author: E. Lockhart
Year / Pages: 2014 / 312
Discription here

Rating: 4 de 5 pastilhas-elásticas

WHAT THE EFF??? WHAT IS THIS? WHAT EVEN HAPPENED IN THIS BOOK? JESUS H. ROOSEVELT, SWEET MOTHER OF CHRIST....WHAT HAVE I JUST READ????

I just finished this book this mornin. It's a book that you read super fast, I did it in 3/4 days.... I know that there are people who are on their toes waiting to see what happens next but to be honest, I didn't feel that with this book and I didn't really feel excited to finish it.

I didn't know what was going to happen, even though I did imagine that nothing good was going to come out of this book but I can't exactly say that I was very surprised about this ending either! I feel that it might have been because I had a hundred theories on my mind (and none of them came true but still!) and I was more like WHAT THE FUCKKKKK.

To be honest, at the start I wasn't understand anything about this story and this family. And even now, that I have finished the book, my friend asked me what I thought of it and I can only tell her that this is one of the most weird books I've ever read! It is certainly worth for the writing but the story in itself and the characters are really strange and there are so many metaphors that I sometimes wondered if things were real or not (Well, at the end we learn about everything there is to know!).

To make a little summary of the book (NO SPOILERS), the Sinclairs are this rich class that belongs to the creme de la creme of NYC. Grandpa Harris is the head of the family, he has 3 daughters and those daughters have several childs. The most important of these children are: Mirren, Johnny and Cadence; later on (well, pretty early on in th story), one of the daughters gets together this man who has a boy, Gat. The problem is that Gat and his dad aren't caucasian and that created a lot of troubles in this typically american family. Everything about the Sinclairs is about appearances and all the rules are set by grandpa.

The Sinclairs have a private island where they spend all their summer holidays and on summer 15 there is a huge accident with the eldest granddaughter, Cadence, that leads herto lose her memory. Basically, the book is about finding what really happened on summer 15 so I think you can easily tell how nothing good can come out of here. Yup.

WHAT I LOVED [NO SPOILERS]:
- The writing: the writing of this book is sooooooo good and it's definitely what led me to give it 4 stars! SO. MUCH. WORD. PORN. I know that not a lot of people will love this writing style but I did and it was what made me read the whole thing. I feel that if this book had a normal writing style, I'd have drop it in the first pages.
- The personification of emotions: you will know when you read it, everything feels so real.
- Cadence's mum: you will also understand when you read the book. You will probably hate her at first, like I did, but at the end you'll be like *hugs* and *hearts*

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE [NO SPOILERS]:
- The title: I don't feel like it made much sense (will talk more about this one bellow the cut, with the spoilers);
- Too many characters at once: I read this article where it said that the author shouldn't introduce too many characters at once (max. 4!) and that happened here. There were so many names that I didn't learn any of them and I feel like it might have made me be lost in the story most of the time. Since I was reading in ebook it wasn't easy for me to go back to the start to check the family tree.

- The characters:  I wasn't able to connect with any of the characters, none of them had traits that were relatable. They were manipulative and awful and I honestly wasn't even able to feel sorry for them.

And that's it! My spoiler-free part ends hereeeee!!! You already know that bellow the cut there will be spoilers because I have SO MUCH to say about the final. Oh, God, I have so much to say!!!

p.s.: this book has a lot of GOOD reviews but also a lotof BAD reviews, so my advice is: pick up the book, give it a try and decide if you like it for yourself :) and do not read spoilers!!!!!!

p.s.s.: my favorite quote of the book is this oneeee (considering I have already shared my top favorite in my 'First Lines' post):

“We read all twenty-eight emails. 
When she is finished, Mirren kisses me on the cheek. "I can't even say sorry," she tells me. "There is not even a Scrabble word for how bad I feel.”

****************THERE ARE SPOILERS BELLOW THE CUT ****************

First Lines #3: We Were Liars

THE INTERNET IS FOR (WORD) PORN, 

THE INTERNET IS FOR (WORD PORN), 

WHY DO YOU THINK THE NET WAS BORN? 

(WORD) PORN, (WORD) PORN, (WORD) PORN!

I'm currently reading 'We Were Liars' by E.Lockhart and honestly, WORD PORN is all I can say!


What kind of writing is this, my Lord? Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Okay, it's weird, you may tell me but I have come to realize and accept that the weirder the writing is, the more I am likely to love it.

These full stops. In the middle of the sentences.  (See what I did there?)
I really like it!!!! I think sometimes people tend to overdo when they want to have a more poetic writing styles so they put full stops and paragraphs all over trying to be more dramatic but in this book, it's soooooo perfect and sooooo well done.

And so what if I have understood zilch about this story? And so if some of the metaphors leave me wondering: 'is this real? is this a metaphor? is anything real?'

I haven't been able to connect very well with the characters yet, may be because they are not very relatable or simpy because I have understood zilch about this book but I am already tempted to give this book a positive rating just for the writing.

Also, I am already picturing how that Cady accident wasnt just an accident. There is probably something hidden about it and everyone is probably involved seeing as every single person in this book acts wayyyyy sketchy. Either that or the whole story is just a dream and nothing ever happened. Maybe the Sinclairs aren't even real. I have no idea. I'm probably very wrong about it.

After all I am in love with the writing. And I understand zilch about the story.


p.s.: I'll leave you one of my fav quotes, this one left me with heart eyes and is very word porn:

"Mirren. She is sugar. She is curiosity and rain.

Johnny. He is bounce. He is effort and snark.

Gat, my Gat, once upon a time my Gat—he has come out to see me, too. 

He stands back from the slats of the fence, on the rocky hill that now leads to Clairmont. He is contemplation and enthusiasm. Ambition and strong coffee."

p.s.s.: have you noticed how I always post First Lines on Mondays? Seems good, first lines, first days of the week. It fits.

p.s.s.s.: has someone else had the same thought as I when they read the main character was called "Cady"?

Me Thinks #3: The Bronze Horseman

Title: The Bronze Horsemen
Author: Paullina Simons
Pages / Year: 811 / 2009
Discription Here

 Ahhhh, after sharing my euphoria about this book when I was still at very beginning (here, here, here), I am now here to give you the final review of this book! I gave it 5 STARS but I will warn you: this review is loooooong and it will have spoilers (but I'll put them under a cut and let you know beforehand so you can stop reading if you wish!)

I finished this book last week but this is a book that, no matter if you like it or don't (I've read several reviews and there were a lot of mixed opinions), it leaves us exhausted after reading it! There are people who complain about repetition in events, either about war or hunger or even the love scenes but, in my opinion, the amount of those scenes and how repeated some of them were was what made me live in that book during the 3 days I read it. It's a book that you can't help but live intensely, I felt so many emotions throughout the pages from anguish to nerves....there was even a moment where I wanted to stop reading because I was affraid of what would follow. I got to the end so tired, it was such a ride, and that is why I have decided to have a week off between reading and writing about it so I could get my head in the game, again.

I felt as if I was a member of Tatiana's family, as if I lived in the little room she had, as if I walked everyday to the store to get their food. I felt as if I had only 200g of bread per day to eat and as if I had to put on every single clothing piece in my dresser to not freeze to death. If you are waiting for an easy romance book, you won't find it here!

This is, above all, a story about war. A story told from the battle front but also from the people who don't carry weapons but feel the effects of the war everyday. The writing is beautiful, to me it's one of the most easy writing styles I've seen and I think that because the author was born in this time period in Russia, it was so easy for her to write so well the scenes and the whole vibe of war.

I fell in love with Tatiana! She is the main character and I must tell you that I have never seen a better written character that has grown so much along the story! It's very likely that when you begin, you will find yourself frustrated with this 17 year old, very naïve, very selfess and helpful to the point where she suffers with it but I can also guarantee you that you will feel as if you have to protect her. About other characters, I will talk in the spoilers.

Which will start now. So, if you don't want to read any spoilers, this is where you should stop reading. From here down, I will yell and scream and probably spoil a few facts of the story for everyone. Eventhough the book is split in 4 parts, I will split it in 3: Pre-Lazarevo; Lazarevo; Post-Lazarevo.

If you're not reading further, I have to say that I reccomend this book SO bad. It consumed me, I got angry with some characters and I rolled my eyes sometimes but this is such a beautiful story, especially if you love History and the Soviet Russia period. This book will present you the communist life from the eyes of someone who has always lived there (Tatia) and from the prespective of someone who came from USA (Alex).

p.s.: there isn't even a love triangle here!!!!

********* THERE ARE SPOILERS BELOW THIS LINE!!!!! *********

Me Thinks #2: The Player and The Pixie

It's official: Penny Reid and LH Cosway, take my soul, I surrender my life to this "Rugby" saga!

I finished this precious jewel last week but I had just posted about the first book of this saga, The Hooker and The Hermit, and I wanted to wait a bit before posting this. Plus, all my feelings for this were still so present that I couldn't be rational about it.

I confess that in the beginning I was so in love with this book, I was ready to swear this was the best book I had ever read and it was far more interesting than The Hooker and The Hermit, to which I had sang praises. I simply adored Sean and Lucy, their chesmitry, their relationship and all their bickering, it was something that left me laughing for minutes but even if I loved all this, it's also true that I kind of began to kind of fall out of love as I moved on in the book?!

Don't get me wrong, I ADORED this book and I found the story so interesting, like the 1st book, there are no clichés and you can't predict what is going to happen because there's something unexpected at every turn (which is great since I usually can figure the whole book in the first pages and that makes things less interesting), however as I turned the pages I understood why I sang high praises to Hooker, I loved the characters so much more.

Things that I found interesting that I just have to mention: during Hooker, I hated Sean and thought he was such a dolt but now, during Player, I kind of got pissed off at Ronan! I feel like this comes down to the good writing of the authors, they make us see both sides of the same coin and feel compassionate about them. Another thing that I loved was to see this huge player, mega playboy be bad in the sack. AH AH AH. I loved this twist!


We can't all be good at everything and we all have the right to learn, like Sean. I feel like it's really important to pass this message in books especially since lately there are masters of sex coming at us from every corner. There's the Christian Greys, there's the Gideon Cross's, there's the masters of BDSM, there's the masters of his street. Enough! We want men who aren't good in the sack at all and need a little hand (no pun intended?), men who can live without slapping a bum with a paddle and men who look a bit more like the ones we find in real life.

I'm giving this book 4 stars and a huuuuuge round of applause to these 2 ladies. I am now super anxious for the 3rd book!!!!



p.s.: psssttttt, you thought I would forget about one of my fav things ever? Aka a book quote? Naaaah. Check out this sweet one:

"I don't want to close my eyes when I could be looking at you."

First Lines #1: The Bronze Horseman

Today, I am writing this to let you guys know that I am in love. In love in enough to walk down the aisle and get hitched (aka to give this book 5 stars and place it in my shelf of favorite books, the one I dust
more often than not. kidding.). I am not going to write a full review (hence why this entry is called 'First Lines') because I am still at page 131 of 720 according to my Aldiko, and so I imagine that a lot of things will still happen that will make me freak out.

(Settle down, pet, I will tell you allllllll about it when the time comes)

I read somewhere that this book was reccomended to people who had loved Outlander and of course I felt that was a comment directed at me so I picked up this book right way. You may have noticed that I am a bit of an history gig and I have always said that if I had chosen an History degree at uni, I would have liked to be a specialist on Soviet Russia. This Bronze Horsemen is  spent exactly during that time, in USSR and so I obviously feel very attracted to it. The story unravels during the II World War and focus on the Metanov family, composed by the grandparents, the parents and their 3 teenagers: Pasha and Tatiana, both 17, and Dasha, a few years older. Tatiana is the main character alongside Alexander, a 'Russian' soldier (who is actually an American).

I'm not going to resume the story because that's why the Goodreads book description exists. No, I came here to proper fangirl about this book. In the beggining of this book, Tatiana seemed so silly to me. You know those times where you are actually menthally screaming "Tatiana, no!!!" and Tatiana goes and says "Tatiana, yes!!!".... at least she hasn't gotten into any troubles (so far). From missing her bus stop to getting lost to wasting the money her father gave her to buy provisions on ice-cream to who knows what else, my maternal instinct (if I have that) was anxious to hold Tatiana's hand and tell her "no, child, this is the way... come on, my petal".

I think Tati is a dreamer and she is very innocent and in love with an Alex that is supposedly dating her sister, Dasha, who is...very rude!!!! Have I been the only one to have noticed that? Sometimes I feel very physical and want to slap her family silly (especially her mum, urgh! You go wash the dishes, Irina!) but Dasha seems like she is always trying to embarrass her sister. What a dolt! And Tatiana is always aiming to please her family and her sister....yeah, fine enough, family love and all that but enough with the humiliations! Stand up for yourself, Tati, or at least steal the blankets during the night so Dasha stops being so grrrr.

I find everyone so charming and beautiful and even if I want to slap Tati's mum and pull my hair out due to frustration, I love this story and this book SO much already. I love it so so so much that I am even gonna leave you photos of who I imagine to be the characters (which i never do because I usually don't imagine them). Supposedly, this is a love triangle Tatiana-Alex-Dasha but for me it's a love-square so here's a bonus of Dimitri:

Tatiana (Noémie Schmidt) // Alexander (Alexander Ludwig) // Dasha (Anna Popplewell) // Dimitri (Borna Coric)

(let's just imagine a blonder, almost white haired Tatiana and a brunnete Alex, shall we? I have no idea if Dimitri is blonde or not but Borna Coric just has the PERFECT face for a bad boy who isn't bad at all).

Also, let's just stop a minute (or twenty) to drool over this book's cover! It's soooooo pretty, honestly. Which is very surprising considering good books always have the most awful covers of all times. Yikes. I'm so happy that this is a trilogy and that the 3 books are HUGE. I feel ready to give away my whole year and become a slave of these books.

p.s.: yeah I know that Tati isn't actually Tati and they call her Tania/Tatia/Taneschka but I have formed a bond with this little one so leave me be.

p.s.s.: come and be fangirls in the comments bellow! I may take a week to reply. I gotta read all this first ;)

p.s.s.s.: I am going to cry, ain't I?

Me Thinks #1: The Hooker and The Hermit

Name: The Hooker and the Hermit
Authors: L.H. Cosway, Penny Reid
Warnings: few sex scenes; mentions of agression

After seeing various people on Goodreads reading and giving 5 stars to this book, I decided to check its profile and see what was it about this book that attracted so many people. The name, The Hooker and The Hermit, immediately made me think of a dirty classless erotic romance where a prostitute (hooker) became involved with an agoraphobic.

I was somewhat aprehensive. We're reaaaaally giving this thing 5 starts? I instantly imagined an even worse version of 50 Shades, very kink and naughty but not very well written. But then, I looked at the cover and saw this guy, a rugby player. Weird, I thought. Then I read two lines from the synopsis and understood it was a blog entry. With so many weird factors, I just HAD to grab this book.

And I'll tell you, I loved it. L-O-V-E-D IT!!!!!! There was no prostitute, no, hooker is apparently a rugby position and the hermit wasn't an agoraphobic but a girl with this super duper secret blog who works for an advertising/marketing/crisis control agency.

I was very dubious of this romance at the start. I think the title and the cover are horrible and they definitly don't sell the book, but the story is SO GOOD. I don't want to get too much into the story because I don't want to include spoilers of any kind, but trying to be spoiler-free: there's this rugby player, Ronan, who has to clean his image and Annie, the Hermit, is going to help him do so....obviously, they end up having some smooches. The worst is that, even before they met professionally, Annie writes about Ronan on her blog and obviously, Ronan sends her a very long email with a rant. From the first line, I thought I knew how this story would play out but I was wrong, wrong, wrong.

I thought this book was going to be the biggest cliché ever, boy meets girl and falls in love and I was already foreseeing a preface with a lot of babies running through rugby fields while blogging but I was wrong. I thought Ronan would freak out when he found out the whole truth or that Annie would react differently but no. I loved it so much because this book was so different from all these New Adults I've read that have pages and pages of smut! I read it in 2 days, the writing was so good and it was fun and light but still with a bit of drama... and yeah, it has some 50 Shade-ish moments but they are high class and not exagerated at all!

p.s.: I googled (or I goodread-ed) the author, Penny Reid, and I learned that I have several of her books on my TBR list! Will she be my Alice Clayton 2.0???

p.s.s.: I'm a lover of quotes so obviously I couldn't let a book like this one, with so many fun quotes, go without a little something. Here is one of the many messages Ronan sent to Annie:

"Dearest Annie, 
Roses are red. 
Violets are blue. 
I’m using my hand 
But I’m thinking of you. 
- Ronan 
P.S. Just to clarify, I’m using my hand to write this note…get your mind out of the gutter."