Book Review: Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

Synopsis:

Sometimes discovering the truth can leave you more hopeless than believing the lies…

That’s what seventeen-year-old Sky realizes after she meets Dean Holder. A guy with a reputation that rivals her own and an uncanny ability to invoke feelings in her she’s never had before. He terrifies her and captivates her all in the span of just one encounter, and something about the way he makes her feel sparks buried memories from a past that she wishes could just stay buried.

Sky struggles to keep him at a distance knowing he’s nothing but trouble, but Holder insists on learning everything about her. After finally caving to his unwavering pursuit, Sky soon finds that Holder isn’t at all who he’s been claiming to be. When the secrets he’s been keeping are finally revealed, every single facet of Sky’s life will change forever.

My Review:

  Reading this book had me go through some really overwhelming experience for the most part. It started out fairly normal but interesting enough and then there was a BAM! And it was hard! It completely took me by surprise and I was left dazzled and with a smile, partially because of the peaceful ending.

   But God! Seriously!? Despite the disheartening experience, I just found the story itself a heartfelt. Nonetheless, one of the obvious negative points about the story though was the epic relationship between Sky and Holder portrayed in the excessive and cheesy kissing scenes that slightly ruined the romantic aspect of the book for me, don't get me wrong I loved their relationship and how it started and everything about it - it was so endearing :/ And I felt a strong connection with Sky and Holder.

   Honestly, it was hard getting out the story , you know. The whole thing just lingered for a long while and whenever I went through what I read in my mind, I would just ache, it genuinely felt like having my heart ripped out. Such an emotional rollercoaster and such a BRILLIANT plot!

   Overall, it might not be the happiest book ever but it was engaging, compelling and I just found the story itself a masterpiece. I enjoyed reading it to pieces! Plus, I had a hard time putting it down as I was just glued to the pages :) So MANY gripping emotions took place but then Holder was perfect in a way that made the story feel surreal - I mean this in a good way. I highly recommend this book because personally I think that it was a book worth reading. It was emotionally draining, cute, well-written & creative!

Title: Hopeless
Author: Colleen Hoover
Series: Hopeless #1
Published: 19th December 2012
Source: Owned
Links: Goodreads | Amazon
Rating: 4.5/5

Happy Reading!
xoxo, Mariam

Choppy Random Talks: The Vampire Diaries

Warning: This is going to be all about season 4 of the Vampire Diaries and the news about a spin off called The Originals and a season 5 - if you want to read about that, you can skip to the third paragraph - but if you haven't already started watching season 4 then this post is kinda not for you, just so as to not give anything away and ruin it for you but then I won't be giving away anything about the season finale so don't worry ;)

 

   So if you guys don't already know, I am a Vampire Diaries addict. Always been. And now that season 4 has come to an end - thought I could ramble and gush about how it was amazing and the finale GOD! Seriously?! You guys HAVE to watch it, if you haven't already. I don't want to give anything away but I will have to only say that Elena.... she actually came around choosing one of the Salvatore brothers but I will leave the WHO? question for you to watch.( Hope you appreciate how hard it was for me to not go on screaming about the whole thing :P )

   Generally speaking though, the season was all PRETTY intense. And one thing that I went all 'AWWWWW! That's so cute!' about was the focus on Klaus and Caroline, no kidding, they would make my heart melt each and every time even though they didn't like embark on a relationship or anything or even went all mushy on each other but still, they were the cutest non-couple in this season - that would be excluding the last episode because it had other calculations - honestly, and don't kill me Tyler fans, I don't fancy Tyler and Caroline being together, they were boring and then he acted all weird and annoyingly during a specific time of the season, I don't hate Tyler himself, maybe a little but just I didn't like his relationship with Caroline but then again, if it weren't for him, things wouldn't have been the same with Caroline and Klaus, and not to forget the almost forbidden affection or whatever between Klaus and Caroline because Caroline always had Tyler in front of her eyes. But then, sad events took place though and I actually shed a tear during the episode where someone REALLY important to Elena died. Nonetheless, it was interesting to see the badass Elena and it was bad, like SERIOUSLY badass. In addition, this season was really action-packed and thrilling, during almost every episode, I would just be sitting at the edge of my seat so just to sum it up, I really enjoyed it. *enough rambling*

   SEASON 5! Yup! There is going to be another season if you haven't already known that - WOOT WOOT! - Here is a link to the official news ( HERE ) AND a show, a spin off, all about the Originals - Klaus, Rebecca & Elijah - called The Originals ( Link HERE and link to the cast HERE ) which I honestly don't know how I feel about it, like should I be excited or is it going to be wierd and not worth it, I don't know but I'll be watching it whenever it is out, just because Klaus is going to be in it though - Yeah well, he is my favourite villian in the show, alhough, he is sometimes really sweet to be called a villian. Wow, I never thought that I would live to see the day where there'd be a kind-hearted Klaus, he actually cared about someone :P

   So that was it! Sadly though, I came to realize that I won't be able to gush about it as freely as I thought I would but it's okay ;) I hope you enjoyed the season as much as I did and if you did watch it, don't forget to comment down below to share your thoughts! And if you haven't but you are making your way through to the finale then I promise you a good one ;)

Happy Reading!
xoxo, Mariam

Showcase Sunday #4



Showcase Sunday is yet another fantastic meme hosted by Vicky

 from Books, Biscuits and Tea where we get to share all the books we received for review, bought, won or borrowed. So as exciting as that sounds we also get to know about tons of new books to add to our ever-growing lists and just visit many blogs and comment on hundreds ;) So enjoy! :D

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Books I Got:

           

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor ( Review HERE )

Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor 

Graceling by Kristen Cashore

Books I Received for Review:

            

Sneak by Evan Angler

The Detective Inspectors by MJ Fletcher

The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa 

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So that was about it this week! Any exciting books that you got? Tell me about it in the comments down below or leave me a link to your own post which I'll be sure to check out ;)

PS: My final examinations finally started this week so I will be MIA for the next couple of weeks but will be back by the end of this month - which means HELLO HELLO summer vacation *dancing* - and hope you are all getting ready as well and try to all make it a fantastic one guys

xoxo, Mariam 

Book Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Synopsis:

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

My Review:

   Don't hate me guys, I know that a lot of people liked this book but after reading it, I don't get where all the hype is from. It was fun and all but epic. The premise wasn't encouraging so it took me a while to get into the story itself. Plus, I had some really high expectations based upon my friends recommendation and the hype but was unfortunately disappointed.

   The story follows a girl named Karou whom was brought up by chimeras, a non-human family. She herself didn't fully get eveything about them but was rather kept in the dark but turns out that she has much of a past. But while trying to live her life as a normal art student, she has got aberrant errands in places all around the world for Brimstone whom she considers her own father, in return she would get to make some wishes. Karou then meets a guy well a seraph solider where they find themselves drawn to each other and from then on, things get harder, weirder and more complicated.

   I liked most of the characters alot. Honestly, they were all captivating, especially Akiva. However, the writing was confusing, took time to know who's talking for instance and I just got lost alot. One thing I really hate about books is when narrated from a third point of view so this was a major turn-off. Nonetheless, the author definitely has a vivid imagination, I mean, she created this whole another world and there were a few parts where I truly felt just inside the book, she was able to exquisitely transmit the picture of her world into our minds. I also liked the fact that the plot was unpredictable - Duh! How could anyone with a world like that - but you get the point. 

   There wasn't much of a romance either, just a love story from Karou's past which I found a bit cliched with the reminiscing part but cute. Then comes Karou and Akiva - in the present - whom had something between them that made it seem appropriate enough for them to be together. Additionally, I am not really into angels fantasy, it kinda really didn't seem a lot like so except for the fact that there were angels but still and the star-crossed lovers thing. Nah.

   Overall, it was good and original but plain bizarre. Would I recommend it? Ah, well not so much. Okay, so here is the deal guys, it was a page-turner, interesting and unique but something was off about the world-building as well as the storyline itself. I have to admit that I enjoyed it and I would definitely be reading the next book in the series because of the cliffhanger. I was left intrigued. So, guess you could give it a try if you are capable of dealing with high fantasy novels.

 
Title: Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Author: Laini Taylor
Series: Daughter of Smoke and Bone #1
Release Date: September 27th 2011 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Source: Owned
Links: Goodreads | Amazon
Rating: 3/5

Happy Reading!
xoxo, Mariam