Feb 28, 2014

Why I Think I Hate Series

bookishthoughts

I've had this problem for a long time, but I really think I hate series. My biggest issue with them? I can never finish them. I can only think of a handful of series that I've actually gotten through, which of course includes Harry Potter, The Hunger Games (which I only finished last week so it's not much to boast about,) a few romance series, etc. But there are a ton of other firsts that I've started and still haven't gotten to the second one even though it's been years (Delirium, The Immortal Rules, Hush Hush, etc.) and even though I really want to read the rest of these series, I can't seem to get myself to pick them up.

I think there are a few reasons to my whole hating series thing though. For one thing, I hate when I don't know that a book is part of a series until I am a good portion into it or done with it. That drives me crazy! I don't know how this happens, but I have a good idea that it might be because I buy so many books at once, put them on my bookshelves and then don't touch them until several years later. During this time that these books went untouched, several others in the series came out along the way and somehow missed the memo. Then I'm stuck with yet another series that I might never finish.

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I also don't like the idea of a story ending. This is kind of weird because every book has an ending right? But a stand alone just ends. There's no expectation for more and you can just deal with all the feels afterwards and know that the characters lived (sometimes) happily ever after. But with a series, for me it's like "Omg I already read book #1 and #2 and now #3 is the last one and I am not sure if I am ready for this to end." It's just so difficult for me to let these characters go, especially if I've been reading them for years and finally the last book is here and it will finally end. It crushes me.

I think one of the biggest reasons why I don't like series is when I feel like the first book has ended and then all of a sudden it turns into a trilogy or saga or something. I try not to think of it like this because I have heard from so many authors that when they first started thinking of their stories, they always pictured it as a three book thing or something, and then they got a deal for three books and there you go. But I feel that series have become so popular these last few years, especially with so many books being made into movies, that authors now choose that route instead of sticking to stand alones. And sometimes I just feel like a book was good enough to end like that.

The reason behind this post, I think is because I just finished Mockingjay. And you know what? I was disappointed. I read The Hunger Games in 2010. The third book wasn't out then yet, but I originally planned (like I always do) to finish the series, like, immediately. Instead, I didn't pick up Catching Fire until late last year because the movie was about to be released and I had to be at the midnight premiere and all. But it took me three years to get to the second book. During those years I loved Katniss and I loved Peeta and I struggled with the idea that she might choose Gale and what would I do without the boy with the bread? And then finally I picked up the last book and I read it and I cried and I finally found out how it ended and it wasn't enough. That ending wasn't good enough for me. And when I review it I will go into more detail, but my final thoughts were, after all these years...that's it? That's all I get? And it wasn't exactly that I wasn't satisfied with it, but I had put so much love all these years into these characters and now they're gone. Of course, I'll one day re-read these books and I'm exaggerating a bit, but that's what it feels like to me when I finish a series. And that's why I sort of dread both starting new ones and continuing ones I have already started.

How about you out there? Do you love/hate series? Are you just as terrible as I am about finishing them or do you speed read through them?

Feb 24, 2014

Review | 100 Ghosts: A Gallery of Harmless Haunts by DoogieHorner

The best way I can describe 1oo Ghosts: A Gallery of Harmless Haunts is both funny and adorable. Maybe it's just me but I couldn't find any of the ghosts anything but cute! I was laughing out loud through most of these but I was also spazzing out on how ridiculously adorable I found them as well.

100 Ghosts  is a book you can quickly look through in one sitting since it is all just images of ghosts plus their caption. I found it fun to try and guess what each ghost was named before looking at it's actual name. Definitely something fun to have on your coffee table for others to enjoy.

Here are a few of the ghosts found inside this book. Can you guess which one is my favorite? :)

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Feb 7, 2014

Literary Fashion | Surface + Let the Sky Fall + Beautiful Bastard

So I only did a two of these literary fashion posts before my unexpected hiatus, so I decided to show off a few of the sets I created from the books I have recently (ish) reviewed. I don't consider myself fashionable or anything, I just find creating these sets a lot of fun, so I decided to incorporate them into my blog along with the books I've read.

This first one I created for Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren, which I read and reviewed yesterday. I am also giving away an ARC of the book, so check that out! For this set, I wanted something dark and sexy, like the cover but also professional since Chloe dresses really nice for work.

Literary Fashion | Beautiful Bastard


Since Surface is about sirens, I wanted the outfit to match the cover, but also have some sea aspects to it. The accessories have seashells, and the heels are "mermaid" ones. The clutch is also scaley to look like maybe a mermaid tail? This one was a lot of fun to put together.

Literary Fashion | Surface


For this Let the Sky Fall set, I definitely wanted to incorporate Audra's wardrobe. She normally wears a leather jacket and boots, regardless of the heat. Since she also uses a sword, her accessories include swords. I don't remember exactly why I added a black dress to this set...maybe she wears one in the book? This one wasn't a favorite, but I loved the colors used for the cover, so I included those as well for the more casual look.

Literary Fashion | Let the Sky Fall


I've created a few more sets based off books, but I am not sure how regularly I'll be posting these. Maybe only once a month or something. Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed this edition of Literary Fashion.

Feb 6, 2014

Review | Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren



Title: Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren
Series: Beautiful Bastard #1
Genre: Romance
Publication: February 12, 2013 by Gallery Books
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher
Rating: ★★★

Synopsis: An ambitious intern. A perfectionist executive. And a whole lot of name calling.

Whip-smart, hardworking, and on her way to an MBA, Chloe Mills has only one problem: her boss, Bennett Ryan. He's exacting, blunt, inconsiderate—and completely irresistible. A Beautiful Bastard.

Bennett has returned to Chicago from France to take a vital role in his family's massive media business. He never expected that the assistant who'd been helping him from abroad was the gorgeous, innocently provocative—completely infuriating—creature he now has to see every day. Despite the rumors, he's never been one for a workplace hookup. But Chloe's so tempting he's willing to bend the rules—or outright smash them—if it means he can have her. All over the office.

As their appetites for one another increase to a breaking point, Bennett and Chloe must decide exactly what they're willing to lose in order to win each other.


Thoughts: The first thing I want to say about Beautiful Bastard is that I only picked it up because I read that it was originally written as fan fiction of Twilight and I needed to see what that was about. While Twilight might be bashed endlessly, I will always be a fan of the books. Not a hard core fan, but a fan nonetheless. Anyways, I am not an erotica fan and have tried several different books and authors of this genre and always felt they were sort of...not my cup of tea I guess. I find them a bit tasteless and overflowing with sex scenes, but again, that's just my opinion. Regardless, I wanted to give Beautiful Bastard a shot so I accepted a copy for review.

It was, for one thing, not what I expected. First off, I actually enjoyed it for the most part. But it is also not even remotely like Twilight. Of course it's ridiculous of me to think that they would even be a bit similar since in the summary itself it says that it was extensively revised before publication, so that definitely implies that it would basically be nothing like Twilight. But still, it wasn't anything like that, and I have to admit I was a bit disappointed. Is that weird or what? Okay, moving on. While the basis of the story consists of Chloe pretty much hating her boss Bennett, then constantly having sex, until eventually fall in love (very predictable stuff here as you can tell), I have to admit it was quite entertaining. The sexual encounters between these two got a little repetitive, but overall, I found their interactions to be interesting and their back and forth banter actually made me laugh out loud a few times.

The characters aren't deep or anything, so I didn't become attached enough to actually want to continue the series after reading the first one, but it definitely satisfied my curiosity so I am glad I at least finished the whole thing. Overall, I would probably recommend Beautiful Bastard to some fans of erotica, not necessarily hardcore fans because I read a few reviews by some big fans of erotica, who just snickered at everything in this book. I say give it a shot if it sounds like something you would enjoy!

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