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]

Summer Passion

5 Favorite First Sentences

At wednesday we (wear pink) have the Top 5 Wednesday weeeee today the theme is "Our 5 avorite First Sentences".

And I mean, I love quotes, I find beauty in a lot of words but there are some first sentences that, man.... those are awesome. They make me freak out and run to get the book and devour it. 

These are my choices: 

(as usual Top 5 Wednesday is hosted by Sam and Lainey and you can find out everything about it here).

---

Blue Sargent had forgotten how many times she’d been told that she would kill her true love.

The Raven Boys, MaggieStiefvater

---

Today I’m five. I was four last night going to sleep in Wardrobe, but when I wake up in Bed in the dark I’m changed to five, abracadabra. Before that I was three, then two, then one, then zero. “Was I minus numbers?”

Room: A Novel by Emma Donoghue

---

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. 

Lolita by Vladimir Nobokov

---

A skydiver,
arrogant in his ability to navigate the heavens, rejects his fragile state
and calls himself a god of the sky. 

Skygods by Sarah Latchaw

---

I could have warned her when she arrived in Russia, this petty German princess from Zerbst, a town no bigger than St. Petersburg’s Summer Garden, this frail girl who would become Catherine. 

The Winter Palace by Eva Stachnia

---

9 Books Spent in the Sports World

Today at Top Ten Tuesday we have an almost freebie theme: "10 Books that are spent in....."!
And okay, maybe I'm a littleeeee away from the theme but I love sports and the Olympic Games are on (I mean, has anyone just seen Simone Biles rocking the gymnastics???) so obviously I couldn't help but choose this: 9 Books About Sports!Hoje no Top Ten Tuesday temos um tema quase, quase livre: "10 Books que se passam em...."!


It's gonna be cool, I promise.

As usual, the Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. Go ahead and check them out and join this party!

So, here we go, if you wanna read about sports, then:



Rafa Nadal: My Story (Rafael Nadal)
This book is an autobiography about the tennis player, Rafael Nadal, of whom I'm a huge fan of.

The Hooker and the Hermit (LH Cosway & Penny Reid)
In this book we are taken into the rugby world, with a lot of comedy going on.

The Player and the Pixie (LH Cosway & Penny Reid)
This is the also very funny, second book of the "Rugby" saga.

Pucked (Helena Hunting)
In this book, we may go inside the universe of ice hockey but the temperature sure rises.

You and Everything After (Ginger Scott)
This book joins sports with MS. It's very emotional and eye opening.

The Deal (Elle Kennedy)
This book (asfhajgfja) presents us Garret, a hockey player.

Open (André Agassi)
Another biography by another tennis player: André Agassi.

The Eight (Katherine Neville)
I have yet to read this book, but this story is all about....chess.

The Longest Ride (Nicholas Sparks)
In this book, the male character is a former champion bull rider. This one has even been made into a movie, check it out:

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."