Marissa Meyer

Top Ten Tuesday | The Best Books I Read In 2018

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ Leave a comment

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and is designed to combine two great things: books and lists. This Week’s topic is…

The Best Books i Read In 2018

  1. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
    This was one of the first books I read in 2018. The story is simultaneously heartbreaking and beautiful, and it lends a lot of perspective to the issue of racial discrimination in our society. If you’ve been putting off reading this like I did for a long time, stop it, and go read it now! You will not regret it!
  2. Ace of Shades (The Shadow Game #1) by Amanda Foody
    I’m gonna be honest… I don’t really remember much about this book, but I rated it four stars on Goodreads, and I do remember being absolutely enthralled with the writing as I listened to the audio book and packed up my life to move to college. It has pretty writing, and gambling, and a crazy magic game played with Tarot cards, okay! You should all go read it, and tell me how it ends so I don’t have to reread it before starting the second book! Just kidding… I actually want to reread it.
  3. The Belles (The Belles #1) by Dhonielle Clayton
    Once again, I really do not remember the ending to this book… I’m starting to realize that I retained very little of what I read during the first few weeks of school, and I foresee a couple of rereads in 2019! I do remember absolutely adoring the characters, plot, and writing style, and the only note for it in my book review notebook is, “Think Hunger Games meets Uglies“, so if you’re into that, you should read this!
  4. The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air #1) by Holly Black
    This book has crazy royal fairies and murder! also, Holly Black wrote it! Need I say more?
  5. The Hazel Wood (The Hazel Wood #1) by Melissa Albert
    This book features a book full of dark and twisted stories that turn out to be real! Enough said!
  6. City of Ghosts (Cassidy Blake, #1) by Victoria Schwab
    This book seems to be targeted at a middle-grade audience rather than my typical young adult genre, but I still love it, and I gave it five stars. I absolutely adore all of the characters, it made me laugh several times during a super crazy time in my life, and I will never turn down a book about ghosties!
  7. A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic, #1) by V.E. Schwab
    This was another five star read even though there is an aspect of it that simultaneously enrages and entertains me. This book is pretty dark, but it also had me laughing at several points. I don’t want to say much more about it here because I plan to review it in great detail later.
  8. The Lovely Reckless by Kami Garcia
    Okay, so, the romance plot in this book is gag-inducing instalove, but it’s still adorable. Also, there is a car thieving ring and illegal street racing which automatically makes it awesome! Oddly, I remember reading this on the way to my high school graduation whilst unable to breathe through my nose due to a sinus infection. I’m pretty sure that’s the weirdest reading situation I’ve been in this year.
  9. We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
    This book almost made me cry, so it automatically earned four stars for evoking so much emotion in my heart of stone. The story is simultaneously beautiful and sad, and… I don’t actually remember if it ended happily or not, but you should read it…
  10. Heartless by Marissa Meyer
    Okay, I actually DO remember the ending of this book, and it ripped my heart out!!!! Like I nearly cried, and that doesn’t happen! It had me laughing up until that point though, and I still gave it five stars because speaking as a writer, that plot twist was brilliant!

The Emotions In Colors Book Tag

~ Cheyenne Raphael ~ Leave a comment

Hey, bookish and writerly people!
School has almost officially ended for me, therefore I might actually have time to blog again! I need to review a ridiculous number of books, but I’m going to kick off my blogging comeback with The Emotions In Colors Book Tag created by Cait @ Paper Fury. I wasn’t officially tagged for this; I just thought it looked cool and decided to do it!

In this tag, you are given ten prompts consisting of a color and the emotion associated with it. You are then asked which book, (or books), you associate with that color and emotion.

1. Blue: A book that made you sad.

Salt to the Sea by Rita Sepetys is the last book that I remember crying over. It’s heartbreakingly hard to read, but you should all go read it anyway because it’s SO good!

Also, Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow completely ripped my heart out and put it back together again because it’s so beautiful and sad at the same time!

2. Red: Bookworm problems that make you angry.

◦When authors kill off their main characters. If this serves a writerly purpose, I have no issue. If it’s blatantly obvious that the author was thoroughly sick of writing that story and wanted an excuse to end it, I’ll probably never read anything by that author ever again. *Refrains from ranting about very popular series*

◦When my iPad dies in the middle of a page. This is just obnoxious and needs no further explanation.

◦Running out of Audible credits and being forced to wait a number of days before starting a new book.

◦Accidentally touching my iPad screen and sending the Kindle app scrolling off to who knows where. This is even worse when you accidentally read a spoiler in the process of trying to find your place again!

◦Not being able to find a book in an accessible format. This is a blind bookworm problem that will not apply to the majority of readers, but it’s THE WORST! 😤

3. Yellow: Upcoming book you’d be happy to have right now.

If Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor could just go ahead and exist already, that’d be great!

4. Green: Favorite unlikely friends.

Can I nominate Adam and Niko from my own book for this one? They’re basically the definition of unlikely friends! No? I have to pick something published? Fine…

I’m going with the gang from The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater. None of these characters should work together, but they totally do!

5. Grey: A book you are totally emotionless about.

◦The Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard. I read the first three or four books in this series and decided I didn’t care anymore. I don’t even remember what it’s about except that it was like The Hunger Games with aliens, which sounds cool in theory but definitely does NOT work in reality.

◦Basically all of John Green’s books. It’s not that I don’t think they’re good books; they’re just not my genre.

◦Everything by Rainbow Rowell except Fangirl. I loved Fangirl because of the writerly aspect; I just don’t have enough Hufflepuff in me to enjoy her other books. Again, they’re not my genre.

6. Pink: Book ending, (no spoilers though), that you loooove.

◦The Raven King: I didn’t expect it to end like that, but I love it anyway!

◦Crooked Kingdom: There isn’t a single thing that I would change about this ending! It’s just SO perfect! 😍

◦The Cruel Prince: This ending provides the perfect amount of closure and manages to leave the plot open for the sequel at the same time.

7. Purple: Book you never really understood??

My favorite color is purple; does that make me hard to understand? The answer is a resounding, “YES,” if my unedited writing is any indication. Anyway, here’s another list:

◦Great Expectations by Charles Dickens: Once upon a time, I did a massive book report over this book. I guess my teacher didn’t understand it either because I passed the class with an A!

◦Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe: What even is this? 😖 It makes my brain hurt…

◦All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr: Before you yell at me in the comments, I am fully aware that this is an unpopular opinion, and I do not care! I have tried to read this book twice, and I still do not understand it or the hype surrounding it. There’s just something about the writing style, pacing, timeline, or head hopping that prevents me from focusing on it enough to understand it. It may also be that historical fiction just is not my thing, and I don’t exactly agree with the portrayal of the blind character in this book.

8. White: Author you’re scared of (they’re just SO mean to their characters!)

Since when is white a scary color? I associate white with purity and goodness! Oh well… here’s another list:

◦J. K. Rolling because what she did to Dobby proves she’s heartless.

◦Laini Taylor because she kills off everybody I get attached to.

◦Marissa Meyer because… I’m not going to spoil Heartless, but if you read it, you’ll understand.

◦Maggie Stiefvater because she has to possess some kind of dark magic in order to rite like that!

9. Black: Book you think is powerful and influential.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas is probably going to be everyone’s default answer to this, but that’s what I’m going with! It has SO much significance in the context of the real world, and you should all go read it if you haven’t because it will give you a new perspective!

10. Orange: Playful characters who are just too adorable.

◦Jest and Catherine from Heartless by Marissa Meyer. I just love them!!!!

◦Marco from The Lovely Reckless by Kami Garcia. I wouldn’t really call him playful, but he’s adorable!

◦Noah from The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater. Noah is under appreciated, okay?! He deserves recognition for being the smudgy Hufflepuff that he is!

◦Nina from Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. She’s just SO bubbly!

Have you done this tag? Drop me a link in the comments so I can check out your answers! Also, let me know what authors scare you and why, and recommend me a book that you think is powerful. I’d love to see your thoughts! 🙂