Review of Pandora Hearts Volume 2 by Jun Mochizuki

Link to book: Pandora Hearts Volume 2

Holy crap. That is the best cover I have ever seen. This guy is awesome (in both character and looks). If he existed in real life, there would be mobs of women going completely insane. Ah, Gilbert Nightray, you are one attractive dude.

Whoo, now that's out of the way (you seriously don't understand how heavily I was fangirling about this cover), I can move on to the excellence that is this book. This is seriously one of the best mangas I have ever read. Right up there with Ouran High School Host Club.

(Fangirl mode on: I'm getting the first volume of Attack on Titan very soon [hehehe yes, best anime ever] and then Fullmetal Alchemist.) Sorry. Ahem, back to the review.

Minor spoilers ahead for this book and the previous one. 

Review of Pandora Hearts 4 (Pandora Hearts) by Jun Mochizuki

This story... It never fails to surprise me just how incredibly complex it can be. Mochizuki-san is an incredible author. I couldn't for the life of me be able to ever create something as intricate as this story.

Okay, that bit's over. Let me just express my love for this series. Awesome plot line and awesome characters.

And my favorite character. Oh yes, the ever eccentric and lovely: Xerxes Break.

Xerxes is literally the most fun character and his strangeness makes him so intriguing, especially when he obviously knows what he's doing (even though he acts like he doesn't). Also, I think it's especially awesome when he brings out his creepy side and his protective side and his many, many sides. Yes, Xerxes is my favorite.

Oh ok, a close second would be Gilbert. Aghhh his fear of cats and his protectiveness and his badassness... yes, Gilbert is a close second. I mean, look at the adorable idiot.

Okay, on to the story. Just wow, there was so much going on in this installment. Reading these are purely a pleasure because just watching the story unfold is fun. The reader is slowly learning more about the characters and the deep and intricate past of the Pandora Hearts universe. And damn, we ended on a cliffhanger, one that certainly makes things much more interesting.

Yes, this book is a great installment in my ever-favorite Pandora Hearts series and it is very good.

Basically my review for this is done, but I just want to address Mochizuki-san's brilliant ability to draw hands. She is so good at it. I seriously love how she draws them. (Sorry, that may have been pretty random.)

If you made it through this review, I thank you. This was done extremely late at night and I am not exactly coherent whenever I do reviews for books that I love (or at this time in the day).

How many stars? Oh, of course 5.

This review was originally posted on my GR account, but it's here now as well. (I updated it a little bit too)

Review of Black Bird Volume 4 (Black Bird #4) by Kanoko Sakurakouji

Link to book: Black Bird Volume 4

This book was… not really what I expected.

I don't really look at the ratings on mangas. By that, I mean the little tiny thing on the back that says for what age group the book is directed. I don't read those for several reasons: 1) I'm a badass and I can read it whatever it's like (both untrue), and 2) I didn't even notice the rating thing until halfway through finished this book.

Yeah, I should pay attention to those from now on.

(This review contains minor spoilers for the previous books in the series and this book as well.)

Review of Don't Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Link to book: Don't Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Wow. Just wow. This book was a lot better than I expected. And I really enjoyed it.

Though I've never read any other books of Ms. Armentrout's, I am familiar with them. The first book of her Lux series, Obsidian, has been on my to-read list for a while. Maybe I'll go out of my way to read it now that I have seen what this author can do.

I picked this book up at the library several days ago, and decided that it was THE CHOSEN ONE and I would read it first out of all the other books sitting on my little stack.

Let me tell you, I was up until 1AM reading this book and I could hardly put it down. The characters were real, the plot was hooking (I'll talk about that later), and the emotions were raw and real.

Let's get down to it.

Minor Spoilers.

Review of Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #1) by Laini Taylor

Shelved as disappointed, what a nice cover

Link to book: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

I'M TRYING MY BEST TO AVOID SPOILERS BELOW.

I always feel a little bit more than awkward when I read a renowned book that everyone seems to love, and I seem to be almost the only one who didn't really like it.

Don't get me wrong, this book had a brilliant concept and enviable writing. But when a story is so focused around a love story, I can't get more than a little bit… well, you know… yawn.

Sorry. I couldn't help myself.

Let's get into it.

Review of First Day on Earth by Cecil Castellucci

Shelved as disappointed, reviews, what a nice cover, that was pretty deep

According to Goodreads.

Link to book: First Day on Earth by Cecil Castellucci

Link to Goodreads review: My older review of First Day on Earth

Imagine the look on my face when one paragraph in, one of the first sentences I see says,

But you don't know shit.

I can assure you that I was not happy nor amused.

This book seemed to make a huge effort to be philosophical at any chance it could. Once in a while it made it. Sometimes I would read something like this:

Always solace in a book.

But most of the time it was more like this:

My life sucks. So I shave my head.

I think this is pretty self-explanatory.

Review of Prince of Wolves (The Grey Wolves #1) by Quinn Loftis

Shelved as did not finish, disappointed, reviews, what a nice cover

According to Goodreads.

Link to book: Prince of Wolves by Quinn Loftis

Link to Goodreads review: My older review of Prince of Wolves

Two main reasons why I read this book.

It was free.

It had wolves.

But sadly, there were so many things wrong with this story, I’m not really sure where to begin. So let me begin with the most obvious thing: the grammatical errors.

GRAMMAR

Maybe I got an ARC. Or maybe I got the final version and the editor is a baby howler monkey. Whatever it is, I’m sure I know some small children that know how to use a comma better than whoever was fixing this book. Periods were virtually nonexistent. Vocabulary was simple and quite boring.  So many repeated words it was difficult to understand the plot. Speaking of…

Review for Crescendo (Hush Hush #1) by Becca Fitzpatrick

Shelved as disappointed, guilty pleasures, love triangle, reviews, what a nice cover
According to my Goodreads account.
Link to book: Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick
Link to Goodreads review: My older review of Crescendo

SPOILERS FOR THE PREVIOUS BOOK AHEAD.

This was an extremely disappointing book for me. I kept building myself up for this great book and then I got this. I can assure you, I was not satisfied.

CHARACTERS

Though many of these characters in the first book seemed interesting (yes, I know that can be argued), there was just a underwhelming amount of character development.

Nora Grey

Ah yes. Nora.Our lovely Nora becomes a whimpering ninny, and not just in this book. This all started at the end of the previous book.  Specifically, Nora sacrificing her life (or attempting to) in order for her precious Patch to live. At this point, she doesn't even know the guy that well. But she doesn't care. Because this is true love goddammit and it will succeed!

More sarcasm if you didn't notice.

Review for Dragonswood (Wilde Island Chronicles #2) by Janet Lee Carey

Shelved as did not finish, disappointed, unfortunate cover
According to my Goodreads account.
Link to the book: Dragonswood by Janet Lee Carey
Link to Goodreads review: My older review of Dragonswood

Well I think I can safely say that I wasted part of my day reading this instead of doing homework or something.

 VERY MINOR SOMEWHAT SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

I like the fact that this book is supposed to be a companion book to another book by the same author, Dragon's Keep. That's what the author bio says on the back cover. But throughout the 80 or so pages that I managed to choke down, I was confused by everything. Companion books are not sequels. You do not need one book to read the other. They simply take place in the same realm. But I constantly felt as though I was missing something, which is never a good thing to feel while reading a book.

Characters

Haha characters.

Well, this is new.

Hi there. My name is Aly and I live in the sunny state of California. That's all I'm gonna tell you about on that front though. For now.

I love to read and write reviews on all kinds of books. That's the main reason I started this: so I could express my thoughts on a wider base.

I also love to watch all kinds of different shows, though mainly Doctor Who and Sherlock.

This is where I will be talking about books and other things that seem to be evading my thoughts. I hope you enjoy the ride.