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Showing posts from April, 2017

Review: Hard Choices

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Hard Choices by Hillary Rodham Clinton My rating: 4 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 4/5 stars. What an AMAZING book! This only reaches up to 2014, I'd love to read a more updated one. This was fascinating, esp since I'm some Australian girl who had really never heard of her before the 2016 Pres Elections. She wrote wonderfully. That's all I can say. View all my reviews

Review: The Pain, My Mother, Sir Tiffy, Cyber Boy & Me

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The Pain, My Mother, Sir Tiffy, Cyber Boy & Me by Michael Gerard Bauer My rating: 1 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads No other way to say this aside from that is sucked???? It?? Was???? Crap???????? This is basically a girl from year 10, writing in her diary, a week before her semi formal. Now I've only just graduated, and that may have been 2 years ago for me, but this was pathetic. She seems completely self absorbed, desperate for high achievement and a boy to validate her during the semi formal. She's a bit of a brat. Completely 2 dimensional. And I kept wondering why isn't this matching a proper Year 10's perspective. Oh yeah. It was written by some middle aged guy. Of. Course. This was a terrible read. I forced myself to read it because my book club bought it for he library and were curious. Ugh. View all my reviews

Review: A Million Suns

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A Million Suns by Beth Revis My rating: 4 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 4/5 stars HOLY FREX!!! I can't believe that is it for the 2nd novel. I NEED MORE!!!!!! (Luckily I have the sequel in my lap right now) A few notes: 1. I didn't enjoy Amy and Elder breaking up. That seemed abrupt and unthoughtful. 2. I didn't enjoy how the majority of this book was set in Elder's mind. He's too biased. 3. I had so much fun trying to figure out the clues from Orion!! That was intense the entire time. THE PLOT TWIST AT THE END????? Gah! Love it. 4. I can't believe they trusted Doc. Again. He's no good????? Why do they believe him????????????? 5. Victra can die bye. It was almost 400 pages but felt like 200. I need to read more! I cannot believe it didn't end with them landing on the planet. After all of that??? My final thought is that I liked that we finally found out the rest about the P

Review: Secret Vampire, Daughters of Darkness, and Enchantress

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Secret Vampire, Daughters of Darkness, and Enchantress by L.J. Smith My rating: 3 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 3/5 stars. Wasn't something I'd rave about, but good if you're wanting some cliche vampire romance. The writing reminds me of Steph Meyer's in Twilight (but just the first book). But less entertaining. Book 1 was completely predictable and I felt like it had a lot of similarities to her other series, TVD. It was just 2 alpha males battling for most of the time over a dying girl who had cancer. Book 2 had a terrible beginning that I loathed but the ending was so sweet and not cliche at all?????? Loved it. Book 3 was boring and about the ugly duckling who finally gets a boy to choose her over the 'Aphrodite' witch. They were both petty and I didn't enjoy it. View all my reviews

Review: Nona & Me

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Nona & Me by Clare Atkins My rating: 4 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads What a beautiful story! It was lovely to read such an Aussie centred book :) I'm just gonna say it; Nick sounded like a total dag and I can't believe he was the love interest. I got shivers as the end when it was Sorry Day. Ugh!!!!!!! I'm tearing up now. View all my reviews

Review: Empire of Storms

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Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas My rating: 3 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 3.75/5 stars Yeh alright this is fine. It wasn't the worst I've read from SJM, but in no means was is terribly epic for me. I'm sorry but everything is so predictable?????? Oh except for a certain hook up. Manon. Dorian. Gross. Sorry (not sorry). Once again, SJM introduces characters that I don't care for, and can't follow??????? Why??? Does? She?? Do!? THIS?!!!!! Idk guys, her writing has improved and she wrote the action really well, but now her romance scenes are lacking. Like I swear every dramatic moment HAS to be written in truncated, obvious statements. Do you know what I mean? An actual scene most likely: He wanted her. All of her. Fire. Passion. The moon was shining. It wasn't that he wanted (some profound, unrelated notion), it was HER. Do you see the BS???? Why does nobody see the BS???????? I

Review: Beauty Queens

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Beauty Queens by Libba Bray My rating: 2 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 2.5/5 stars. This book is trash?? Like I know it's supposed to be cynical and funny, but I kept thinking: if this book was made into a TV show, I would strongly oppose EVER watching it. I appreciated the sarcastic tone at the start, but eventually it got tiring after almost 400 pages, ugh. I'm glad I've finally read it, tho. But guys; it had footnotes. DO YOU KNOW HOW KICH I HATE THAT????????? Trash. Such trash. View all my reviews

Review: Beautiful Chaos

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Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia My rating: 4 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 4/5 stars My favourite instalment YET!!! This was so interesting and I loved how much Lena and Ethan love each other <333 Their story is EPIC! I'm sad have only 1 book left, now :/ View all my reviews

Review: The Young Elites

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The Young Elites by Marie Lu My rating: 3 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 3/5 stars. It wasn't bad but I wasn't terribly excited from it??? The writing reminded me of of Divergent! Which I would've looooved 5 years ago. Now… not so much? I was heartbroken about Enzo's story. This character has a lot of hate and I'm interested by that. "Now it's my time to hurt." Mmm okay group of murderers, have fun XD. I'd definitely recommend this book to somebody who loves history and Divergent. And possibly Hamlet?? (I saw quite a few similarities, particularly the time period, loyalty to father, he GHOST?!!!). View all my reviews

Review: The Guy, the Girl, the Artist and His Ex

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The Guy, the Girl, the Artist and His Ex by Gabrielle Williams My rating: 2 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 2.5/5 stars. This wasn't bad?? But it wasn't really interesting. I liked the idea of it, but most of this was pretentious crap about 4 young people from Melbourne, who all seemed like hipsters (from 1986). View all my reviews

Review: The Glittering Court

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The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead My rating: 4 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 4/5 stars. Aw. What a fluff piece that was lol. Very cliche. Very romantic. It's a feel good sort of book. I have nothing to complain about, I really enjoyed the world. The gossip was cheeky and hilarious, "why are you drinking cinnamon thorn tea". That was probably my favourite scene. Idk where Mead comes up with this stuff; but I love it! View all my reviews

Review: Passenger

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Passenger by Alexandra Bracken My rating: 4 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads WOWOWOW! This book was AMAZING! It was so interesting with such sassy characters, it was really enjoyable to read (yay!). I really hope there's a sequel??? This couple is adorable. Overall, it's just a bunch of fluff. But I like it. It has hot pirates, time travelling and a sizzling (but still Teen rated) romance involved. I am also a history buff so this journey was really cool to read about too. BLESS THIS BOOK!!! Such a great book. Would I read it again? Probably not. It's one of those books you wish you could forget bc so much happens that's a plot twist, but I know all of it now :/ maybe I'll have to wait a year to be surprised again :) View all my reviews

Review: Pride and Prejudice

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Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen My rating: 3 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 3.5/5 stars. This isn't as good as Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights, but still a lovely story! I only knew to follow on because I've seen half of the miniseries. Without it, I think I may have been extremely lost while trying to follow the story. View all my reviews

Review: Cinder

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Cinder by Marissa Meyer My rating: 2 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 2.5/5 stars. Meh? I had high hopes for this book bc of the ratings on GR, but guys???????? What happened?? I REALLY LIKED THE ENDING!!! That was perfect :) But this was high key boring and predictable? It seems like it suits younger YA readers more, so maybe that's why I didn't enjoy it as much. For me, Cinder as a character was very 2D. So was Prince Kai. I read the blurb and thought this book was a great idea! But… meh. I'll read the sequel maybe, like I did for the ToG series, just because everybody likes it. View all my reviews

Are You Seeing Me? Review

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Are You Seeing Me? by Darren Groth What a beautiful book!!! I enjoyed that it was from an Australian author-- I don't see many in the YA genre. This book wasn't eye opening for disabilities, but it was still a valued read if you're looking for a diverse book. It just isn't as educational. Perry was such an awesome character. His thoughts and points were stuff I like to think about. I realised this when he discussed Hurricane Katrina vs the Haiti earthquake, and which was worse. I'd recommend this read, sure! I probably won't reread it, though.

Review: Wintersong

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Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones My rating: 5 of 5 stars Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's YA Reads 7 BILION/5 STARS. Me, currently and forever more: (I'm sorry if you don't like gifs I swear there's only 1 more pls don't let it stop you from reading how much I love this book) I AM IN TEARS. S. JAE - JONES; YOU ARE EVIL. I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS BEAUTIFUL BOOK ENDED LIKE THAT. I have tears running down my face as I write this review... THIS BOOK HAS RUINED ME. Let's take a trip down memory lane, aka my notes/updates while reading this book, to see how far I've come: 1: Goblin's aren't my thing but this book is super popular atm and it looked nice in the library so let's give it a goooo :) 2: "OKAY I ONLY READ THE PREFACE AND I LOVE THIS BOOK (but ew Goblins how are gonna turn into sexy mythical creatures that teens fawn over????) 3: I'm confused who was the little girl from the preface was? W

Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1) Review

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Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer 2.5/5 stars. Meh? I had high hopes for this book bc of the ratings on GR, but guys???????? What happened?? I REALLY LIKED THE ENDING!!! That was perfect :) But this was high key boring and predictable? It seems like it suits younger YA readers more, so maybe that's why I didn't enjoy it as much. For me, Cinder as a character was very 2D. So was Prince Kai. I read the blurb and thought this book was a great idea! But… meh. I'll read the sequel maybe, like I did for the ToG series, just because everybody likes it.

New Blog Theme

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Hello readers, A few days ago I updated my blog theme to one of Blogger's new default settings. Usually I'm against the default settings, but these one's are new and most importantly, compatible with mobile devices. I hope you enjoy the new look, it should  look something like this: from the other one