Friday Reads

Happy weekend everyone! I'm so glad that the weekend is here because that means that there is more time to read! This weekend I'm planning on starting Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes. It's an epic high fantasy story that has been marketed as the YA version of A Game of Thrones. I read Falling Kingdoms my senior year of high school, but I never continued on with the series. Now that it's getting a bunch of hype, I decided to continue on and catch up!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Happy reading!

Stars Above Book Review

After I finished Winter, I was speechless. Though I loved the entire book, I couldn't believe the ending! I'm not going to say anything that would spoil you if you haven't read the Lunar Chronicles (a series that I highly recommend you check out), but if you've read Winter you know what I'm talking about. I was left wanting more from the story and its lovable cast of characters. Later it was announced that Marissa Meyer was coming out with a short story collection from the Lunar Chronicles that included an epilogue to Winter. I'm not lying when I say that I screamed. I was so excited! I finally got to see what happened to all of my favorite characters since the aftermath of Winter. The day Stars Above came out, I braved the pouring rain and trekked to my local bookstore near campus, and picked up the only copy on the shelf. As soon as I got back to my room I dove back into the world of the Lunar Chronicles, reading all eight stories in a day. Once I started I couldn't put it down! It's safe to say that I loved this book and would highly recommend picking it up, especially if you loved the rest of the series.




My favorite stories were:
1.) Something Old, Something New (the epilogue to Winter)
2.) The Mechanic
3.) The Princess and the Guard
4.) Carswell's Guide to begin Lucky
5.) Glitches
6.) The Keeper
7.) After Sunshine Passes
8.) The Little Android (only because I read it on Wattpad the year before).

I love Marissa Meyer's writing style and how she creates her characters. All of the stories offered more information to the already lovable characters. It was nice to learn more about their backgrounds and how they became the way they were in the main four books of the series. Each story gave me "all of the feels," and I'm pretty sure I cried during "Something Old, Something New."

After Stars Above was released, it was announced that Marissa Meyer would be creating a new graphic novel with Iko, the android from the series, as the main character with the other characters, like Cinder, Kai, Thorne, Scarlet, Cress, and Wolfe making appearances. This means that there is still more Lunar Chronicles to come and I couldn't be more excited! I have loved all of her books and can't wait to read more!

The Girl From Everywhere Packs a Punch

The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig doesn't come out until February 16, but I was lucky enough to snag an ARC, and I'm so glad I did. I absolutely loved this book! It was such a fun adventure/pirating story with great characters and plot development. The story follows sixteen year old Nix who has grown up on her father's pirate ship, the Temptation. This isn't the typical pirate ship though. Nix's father has the ability to navigate through time and history. With original maps, he can travel anywhere in the world and sometimes even fictional places, and to any time period. The crew of the Temptation uses this skill to travel through time, collecting different objects and maps that will hopefully lead them back to Hawaii in 1868, back to Nix's mother before she died. They are about to give up when a prospective map comes to their attention. Now it's up to Nix and the crew to get that map. Though it may sound confusing, the story sucks you right in. It is magical and mystical. The writing is poetic and entertaining, keeping you captivated throughout the entire story. I would highly recommend checking this out!

Spoiler Section Ahead:

Where Have I Been?

Hello internet world! It's been a while since you've last heard from me on this blog. I don't really have any excuses other than that I was busy and didn't feel like writing. Lately, I've been wanting to write again and express my thoughts on books and other things! In order to do that, I'm reviving the blog (hopefully...). Though I'm super busy still, I want to make this one of my priorities. It's important to me to get my thoughts out there on different books, especially since I want to get into the publishing industry some day.

 Since I'm reviving the blog, some are probably wondering what to expect. I hope to write book reviews more frequently, still do Top Tuesday, but also add more creative aspects to it, like taking book tags from YouTube and writing responses to the questions. I want to have fun on here and use this space to share my thoughts.

Thanks to those who have been so patient and have stuck around! Look forward to new content coming soon!

Homemade Iced Vanilla Latte Recipe

My favorite drink to get from Starbucks is a tall iced vanilla latte. It has just the right amount of coffee and tastes like heaven. Whenever I would try to make an iced coffee at home, I could never get it to taste as good as my go-to Starbucks drink. Recently, I discovered how to make my own iced vanilla latte that tastes just as good as the one from Starbucks. If you're looking for a new drink to try or you love the iced vanilla latte as much as I do, this recipe is for you. Enjoy!

What you'll need:
-Milk
-Regular coffee (not anything flavored)
-Ice
-Vanilla coffee syrup

To Make:
-Fill a large glass with ice (think venti size)
-Brew a small cup of coffee (I took a French Roast k-cup and used the smallest cup size on my Keurig)
-Take 1 1/4 cup of milk and either keep it in the measuring cup or put it in a separate glass. Keep in mind that there has to be room to add the syrup and mix it in without the milk overflowing.
-Add 2 Tbsp. of vanilla syrup to the milk and mix well
-Pour the vanilla/milk mixture over the ice
-Add the coffee until you reach the desired taste
-Enjoy!

Yes Please by Amy Poehler Book Review

4/5 Stars

Amy Poehler is one of my favorite celebrities. She's funny, creative, and honest. She knows how to laugh at and be confident in herself. When this book first came out, I hadn't known much of Amy Poehler. I had watched many of her Saturday Night Live sketches and had seen her in Mean Girls but that's about it. I was drawn to the cover of her book and knew that I had to pick it. In March of 2015 I started watching Amy's show Parks and Recreation. Through this show, my love for Amy Poehler grew. As soon as I finished all seven seasons of the show, I picked up her book. It is a memoir that Amy writes herself. There are a few guest author sections (for example, Seth Meyers has a section) but for the most part, the book is written by Amy herself. She talks about her childhood and how she always knew that she would be making people laugh. She details her life on SNL which was really fun and entertaining to read for me because my family watches almost every show. She also talks about her kids and her divorce. She may have seemed okay on the outside but on the inside she was so upset. My favorite section of her book was about the different friendships that she has made over the years. Obviously she talks about Tina Fey and Seth Meyers, but she also includes the entire cast and crew of Parks and Rec and shares different stories from working on the show.

Canada Trip 2015

This past week, I attended the Stratford Festival with my best friend Kianna and her family. After months of planning the trip, we finally left Monday afternoon and arrived in Stratford, Ontario Tuesday morning. It was a long six hours in the car that was filled with Disney sing-alongs and trying to fall asleep while driving through construction.

Tuesday was the busiest day. We had two shows scheduled while also trying to unpack and eat. The first show we saw was The Sound of Music. I love the movie version of this and have watched it numerous times. I know all of the songs and I was really excited to see the stage performance. It did not disappoint. All of the actors and actresses were incredible. They hit all of the notes in the songs and the story was beautifully told. They had one main set and then different props were brought in to make it seem like there were multiple rooms around. My favorite part of the performance was the actress who played Maria Von Trapp. I lost my program so I don't remember her name but she was incredible.

The set of Sound of Music 

The second show we saw was Hamlet. I read Hamlet in my Humanities class my senior year of high school. My teacher is obsessed with Hamlet and she passed her love and obsession onto her students, myself included. I've only read a few plays from Shakespeare, but Hamlet is my favorite. I had high expectations going into this show and it was fantastic. The actor who played Hamlet was the perfect choice. He could be moody, angsty, and mad all at the same time. I didn't know whether to love or be annoyed by him. My other favorite character was surprisingly Polonius. He was incredibly sarcastic and fun. He had a few great one-liners and expressions that drew laughs from the audience. Although I would have preferred to see Hamlet first and then The Sound of Music, both were incredible performances.