Review: The House of Hades by Rick Riordan

Hey everyone! 

I am aware that this book came out about 5 months ago but I am still posting a review because I just finished it. I know, I know, "Did it take you five months to finish the book?!?", well yes, it did.

I am going to explain why below and I am warning anybody that has not finished the book yet, there will be spoilers! 

Before I start, I want to say that you might not agree with my opinion and thats perfectly fine. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and I would greatly appreciate it if you respected mine.

I am not a huge fan of this book. It took me a long time to finish, when I would normally read a book like this is a few days. I feel as though it drags on.

Part of the reason I don't like this book that much is the characters. I feel like it is difficult to connect with them because there are so many. We know their stories and background, but it doesn't create the same connection as I felt in the Percy Jackson series. I personally don't care about any of the characters besides the originals. I am especially not a fan of the Frank/Hazel/Leo triangle; although, I am glad that Leo gets over that when he goes to Calypso's island (that was one part of the book that I really love).

Basically, there are two parts to this story: Percy and Annabeth, and the other  characters. As I already established I am not a huge fan of any of the other characters, so I felt that their part of the story goes quite slow. I had to stop halfway through the book and I didn't pick it up again for a few months because I was so bored with the other characters.

 However, I did enjoy Percy and Annabeths part of the story. I found it very entertaining eventhough I was extremely pissed of they were in Tartarus in the first place. Throughout the whole series we hear all of these stories about Tartarus and we finally got to experience it! The one part I don't like is how Annabeth can always work her way out of things just by tricking people. I feel like we have seen this so many times in the series that its starting to make me a bit annoyed that it always works, but I guess they have to do what they can to survive.

I did enjoy, as much as I am not a fan of them, the development of the characters throughout the story. The development about Nico was crazy!!! I did not see that coming, and I never pegged Rick Riordan for making his characters gay, but people are suprising. I enjoy how he made everyone think that Nico loved Annabeth, when it was really Percy he was pining for. I also liked Leo's development, as I mentioned before, the part on Calypso's island is one of my favorite parts of the book. I used to really dislike Leo, but I have a more positive opinion towards him now. I think that Hazel's mist manipulation trick is a bit confusing, and I wish the explanation was more clear.

Lastly, the ending of the book is very calm. I was expecting the whole time that we would get another jaw dropping ending, but it was pretty calm. I enjoy that, and it is a nice change from the normal cliffhangers.

I hope you guys enjoyed this review! Make sure to leave a comment, and share this post if you want others to see it. 

~ The Green Bookshelf

My Dream Bookstore

Hello book readers! Today I bring to you a tag about what my perfect bookstore would be. I found this post here:

http://livedonethousandlives.blogspot.com/2014/02/my-dream-bookstore.html?m=1

Go check it out and leave a comment!

On with the post.

My ideal bookstore would have a dark green exterior and it would be on the corner of a street in London. The outside would be a bit circular with windows that have flower pots. Right inside the windows would be a reading ledge with some pillows where people could enjoy their favorite books. 

As you walk in the brown door with the golden knob you would hear the chime of a bell. In the middle of the first floor there would a spiral staircase; books fill the rest of the space from floor to ceiling. There would be multiple table displays as well, and the cash register would be on the right side of the door. 

Whilst traveling up the wooden stairs you can hear the creek of the worn down steps. Upon entering the second floor, you see a reading nook near the window seat to the left. There is a brow cushioned chair and a tall red chair. Behind the stairs is the children's section which has a bookshelf covering the wall. In front of this bookshelf is a dark blue rug that covers the wood floor. On top of this rug is a circle of small, children sized chairs. To the right of the stairs are more bookshelves, and in front of the stairs there is a small, carpeted, square area that contains older books. At the end of this area you find a small glass covered shelf with the original version of the Harry Potter series. There would be a rocking chair to the right of it and a petite table to the left that contains a plant.

The bookstore would be located on the corner of a busy road leading to Piccadilly Circus, in London, that gets a lot of visitors and a smaller side street. 

I hope you guys enjoyed this description, let me know it the comments what your ideal bookstore would be!

The Green Bookshelf 

March BOTM

Hey everyone! Sorry this post is going up a little but late. As many of you readers may know, lots of people tend to do book(s) of the month. Today I am going to share with you the books i plan on reading this month and I hope you will all read them along with me!! I am going to have a few different categories

New Book

My new book of the month, which is the first book of a series or a standalone book, is going to be...

The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey

I am already about halfway through this book so this review should be the first one up.

Series Book

The book in a series that I will be reading this month is...

City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

Re-Read 

The book that I am re-reading this month, in honor of the new movie coming out, is Allegiant by Veronica Roth.

Reason: Divergent is coming out soon and I don't want to reread that right before I go and see the movie; however, I am going to re-read Allegiant because it is one of the books that I want to write a review for, but a read it awhile ago, and I read it very quickly. 

School Book

English class just began reading this book so I decided to include it in here. The book I am reading for school for the next couple of months is...

A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

If you have read this book or have any knowledge you may know that it is split into three parts; as a result, I will most likely split my reviews for this book into three parts as well.

Please, if you have read this books DO NOT leave any spoilers.

I am looking forward to reading these and I hope you guys are looking forward to my reviews!

I will probably have book review up in a few days so be on the lookout for that!

Book and Movie Review: The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

 Hey everyone! I recently watched The Silver Linings Playbook about 2 weeks ago, and I read the book about the month ago. So, I decided to do a book and movie review of The Silver Linings Playbook and I will compare the two as well.

Book

Synopsis: This book is told by a man named Pat who just got out of a psychiatric hospital and moved back home to his parents house. Pat believes he was only in the hospital for a few months, little does he know that he was there for three years. Pat firmly believes that he will be reunited with his wife Nikki and he wants to prove to her that he is a changed man. This book takes the reader on Pat's troubling and emotional, yet interesting journey.

My Review
To begin, I am a huge fan of this book. I read it in one sitting and it was one of those books that after I finished it I could not read anything else because I felt like nothing else compared. This book was phenomenal. T The characters are very refreshing. I enjoyed the storyline. Tiffany and Pat show that people aren't perfect. We are troubled, confused, and delusional. I loved Pat's relationships, it was interesting to see how he develops his feelings towards everyone surrounding him. Overall, this was a great book and I would highly recommend it to everyone. I would give this a 9/10.

 

Movie

I watched this movie a few weeks ago, and, having already read the book, I knew what to expect. I think that this movie stayed very true to the book. The storyline was, for the most part, the same. However, they did cut out some parts or make them a bit more brief. Of course, this is completely understandable for a book to movie adaptation. I enjoyed all of the castings. Jennifer Lawrence, who plays Tiffany, was very convincing and played the role perfectly. I don't think there could have been a better choice. Bradley Cooper did a great job as well. He conveyed most of the emotions that I felt in the book. The one thing I did not like about the movie was one of the ending scenes. if you haven't seen the movie or read the book I would recommend not reading the rest of this. The scene I am discussing is when Nikki shows up at the dance performance. I felt like they should not have added this in, it made Pat's letters to Nikki seem pointless because I felt like the whole point of the letters is so that Pat does not end up seeing Nikki in the end. I preferred the closure Pat receives in the end of the book over the movie.

 

In summation, I think the movie was good; however, I prefer the book. I would give the movie a 7.5/10.

 

I hope you guys enjoyed this review! Leave your comments and suggestions on what else you want me to review below.



Review: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

Hey Everyone!

I just finished this book and here are my thoughts.

My Synopsis:

This book, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, is about a girl named Mara who is going insane after an accident in an empty insane asylum. The building collapsed with Mara, her two friends, and her boyfriend inside. Mara woke up in a hospital and she did not remember a thing. Her family moves to Florida where Mara is enrolled in a private school and meets a boy named Noah. Throughout the book Mara recovers many secrets about the night in the asylum, and about herself.

Overall:

I thought this was a great book. Normally I am not a huge fan of creepy books, and believe me, this book was very eerie; however, it kept me entertained the whole way through.

If you haven't read this book I would recommend reading it because I am going to include some spoilers from here on out.

            ***Spoilers Ahead!***

A few things I want to mention in this book.

    First of all, Mara's power is super creepy.

It was a but predictable once her Spanish teacher died, but very riveting. She can just murder people if she thinks about it. I wasn't really suprised when she realized what happened in the insane asylum and how she killed her friends. 

    However, what did suprise me was Noah's power. He's the antidote to Mara. I think it's super cute, the whole opposites attract thing.

    I am a huge fan of Noah. I love his attitude, his story, and just his character in general. The one thing that got kind of annoying though, was the constant description of how perfect he was. It was a bit annoying after awhile, but manageable. 

    Okay! Let's talk about the ending. Jude is alive!!! I did not see that one coming. I don't think anybody did. Wow. It raises so many questions, like was Mara really hallucinating him all the time and what if she didn't cause the building to collapse, what if it was Jude's fault? What if Jude has powers too? But when Mara saw Jude it changed everything. I cannot wait to see how this plays out it the next book.

   I really enjoyed this book but there are a few things that I feel like are unanswered or that left me confused. I want to know more about Noah's powers because I feel like it was rushed over.

As a whole, this book was great. Its about 450 pages but i completely flew through it. I think i finished it in about 6-8 hours. I can't wait to read the second book in the trilogy, The Evolution of Mara Dyer.  I would give this book an seven out of ten, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for something with a little but of a creep factor in it.

Let me know your thoughts about this book in the comments, and please, if you are going to include spoilers let others know!!!

About Me

Hi guys! 

Just a quick intro here. My name is Gina, I'm in high school, I am an honors student, cheerleader, the second of four children, and I love to read. 

I don't think reading is nerdy or weird. I love opening a good book and not putting it down until its 2 am and I have finally finished it. Or the after book shock you get when you just finished a series, and you don't know what to do with your  life. That is how you can tell you love to read.

So, I decided to start a blog. I had a different blog a few months back that was just on general topics, but I never wrote much because it was such a open category; as a result, I decided to narrow my focus to books.

Here on my blog I will be posting anything to do with books: reviews, favorites, maybe a book of the month, or a read-a-long. Anyways, I really hope you all enjoy my blog. I think its most important that everyone has fun with it and it encourages you to read new things and have new experiences.

~Gina