Top Ten Books To Travel in Time

For Time Travel Lovers:

Tempest is a debut novel and you will notice. It seems a bit weak at the beginning, but the ending will blow you away. The writing is SO much better in Vortex, the action really gets going and it makes your head spin! Certainly for lovers of action, time travel and conspiracy theories!

For Historical Fiction Haters:

These books are way too action packed to bore you, but still introduce you to a historical setting that is featured in so many other books that you might even develop a taste for it!

These books again make the absolute best of their historical setting while still being immensely action packed, full of romance and really fast reads that keep you on the edge of your seat!

For Historical Fiction Lovers:

This book will tear your heart out and at the same time tells the story of a people that - in my opinion - is overlooked at a lot in historcial fiction.

And finally, if you're more one to look into the future, I recommend these two awesome series to you! I haven't finished either of them yet, but while All These Things I've Done is just a very crazy, very realistic seeming portrait of our future world, Ashes and Shadows are plain creepy, disguisting and scary - good!

Review: Are You There God, It's Me Margeret by Judy Blume

Margaret Simon, almost twelve, has just moved from New York City to the suburbs, and she's anxious to fit in with her new friends. When she's asked to join a secret club she jumps at the chance. But when the girls start talking about boys, bras, and getting their first periods, Margaret starts to wonder if she's normal. There are some things about growing up that are hard for her to talk about, even with her friends. Lucky for Margaret, she's got someone else to confide in... someone who always listens

I picked this and one other book up, simply out of curiousity. Everyone seems to have read Judy Blume and I like to be part of the club.

Uh, well, I guess I chose...the wrong book? Nah, kidding, calm down, I liked it.

I just wasn't obsessed with it. 

Because the main character was like..eleven. And she cared about eleven-year-old's issues.

The way she did it - and the way Judy Blume portrayed it, was amazing, I must say.

She really has the ability to see into a girl's head and write down what she finds there.

From my perspective the book was cute. And it made me wish I'd had it on my hands when I was eleven.

I will keep this review short simply because I know most of my readers are older than eleven, too, but just in case you're interested - or have maybe kids who are eleven - this book handles growing up and the beginning of puberty in the most beautiful way.

The language was very nice and friendly, the issues Margeret dealt  with were fitting for a girl her age and I think the way she dealt with all the changes going on in her life would encourage other girls reading this to feel more secure and confident, too.

I haven't read very good books this year

This post just came to me as I was scrolling through my goodreads list of read books.

Last year this time around, I was obsessed with reading and the bookish world. The new JK Rowling book had just come out, I remember loving All These Things I've Done (Gabrielle Zevin) shortly after. I know I spend hours in front of our fireplace, curled up devouring Beautiful Chaos. 

I mean, there was also Sweet Evil (Wendy Higgins) which I read for a Read-a-long and hated, but overall, I just really enjoyed reading and I loved most of the books I chose. 

This year went good at the beginning. January and February were packed with good reads  - and then it just went downhill.

Admittedly, school and finals really stressed me out at the time, but I also think that the books I did read weren't really motivating me to pick up the next one. So very few of them really amazed me.

( These two I can only recommend if you're looking for awesome fall reads!!)

My pickiness is a problem, I know. I wasn't this choosy last year. Back then, my expectations towards books weren't as high. But still. If I were to choose to reread this year's or last year's books - I'd absolutely choose 2012.

What I don't want to say with this post is that this year's releases were worse than last years - they really were not. But I didn't buy a lot of new books, I read mostly older ones.

I just think I choose my books wrong. I have changed so much throughout the last year and I guess I should just start picking the kinds of books the older Booksmartie would like to read.

(mhm...this one was amazing and I do have the sequel on my shelf...)

So, what do you guys think about my emotional issues? And which books could you recommend to someone like me who is desperate for a real loving relationship with a new book??

Suggestions are not welcome, they are NEEDED!!!

NaNoWriMo (yup, caught that bug), Inspiration and Youtube

So, because I clearly have nothing else to do and manage blogging so well and reading - ha, a breeze, these days - and Uni basically doesn't exist, I decided to write a novel in a month.

That logic makes sense to me.

If you have any more specific questions to the whole NaNoWriMo - thing, just comment down below and I might make a post about that. What I'm doing, how I plan on pulling through, my writing experience as a whole...

Right now I'm just going to tell you about a special bit of inspiration - and information - that I found today, which is a Youtube channel. To be exact, it is Ben Kenower's Youtube channel. What he does is just interview a bunch of different authors, and he asks really interesting questions and they give awesome answers :)

I personally think it is - as I said - motivating and interesting to hear how authors work, think, what they do on a daily basis, where "ideas come from" (the infamous question). And not just for NaNoWriMo - people, either. I am pretty sure, everyone's favorite YA author has at least one video featured on this amazing channel!

I Met Veronika Roth and I sort of Didn't Have a Lot to Say

So, I met the bestest author in YA this Wednesday. I, and a whole theater full of booklovers, as well.
On her trip through the UK, she made a stop in London to read a part of one of her short stories from Four's perspective, then answered questions and then the BIG surprise (no, really, it was huge!).

I tried to take pictures with my phone but I'm not exactly a professional. Which means the pictures I did take were super blurry and halfway through, my phone just died.

You might not have seen what the BIG surprise was because my pictures are bad like that, but you should recognize her on these next pictures...

Okay, still nothing? Let's see...

Yeah, turns out some people know how to take decent pictures.... :)

They did a little interview-thingy together that was really interesting to watch and towards the end they showed us the teaser trailer for the Divergent movie which I hadn't seen before and I LOVED it! I personally think it looks really promising!

And I took about a million pictures of the signature, because I COULDN'T RUIN THIS PICTURE, TOO!

As she was signing the books most people asked her questions or talked to her and I oh, well...couldn't think of anything at all to say! Yeah, pretty embarassing. I was just fevereshly thinking of a good question to ask, but I couldn't think of something she hadn't already talked about on her blog/interviews etc. so instead of asking her one of the normal questions everybody asks, I just didn't say anything at all.

Yeah, I know. Let's just don't even....

But the signing was amazing!!! It was my first time meeting ANY kind of author, but I will definitely be on the lookout for more!! 

Put Your Big Girl Panties On...

You know those days when you feel like fate and life and everyone wandering this earth is against you? When you feel so utterly, annoyingly, frustratingly alone and hopeless?

Yeah, last night was one of those days for me.

And I don't share this on the blog because I feel the need to be whiny and annoying. I share this because of something I realized last night - not for the first time, but I guess I needed the reminder.

Nothing in life is ever easy.

Nothing will ever come to you easily.

And if you want something, you've got to work for it.

It's strange really, that I seem to forget about this sometimes. So many things in my life I have only achieved because at some point, I just started believing in hard work. In self - discipline. And in never, ever giving up.

However, lately I have come across a lot of giving up.

I think what frustrated me most is that I've come so far in certain areas of my life. This is the first time ever that something huge happened for me, just because of all the hard work I put in. This is the first time ever that I got a bit of the life I wanted to live.

What shuttered me so much was that it didn't make me happy. At first, yes. And still, there are a million things that are SO much better than they were before. But now, whenever I come across a hill I have to climb up or a bump in the road, I feel utter disappointment. A hopelessness that is hard to overcome.

Somehow, my mind seems to expect everything to come easy, now that I have made this one big step.

I realize I don't take challenges as well anymore. I realize I am not that good at working hard anymore. I feel like giving up more often that I ever have, because I realized that not everything gets better at once. That even if some things get better, others stay the same, or get worse.

That's what I was whining about to myself last night. And god! was I whiny! I bathed in life-loathing and self-loathing like I haven't done in a long time.

Then I realized something else. Yes, I know. My mind is brilliant like that.

I realized that life is not supposed to be easy. 

It will never be easy.

And you can never stop fighting.

Because, what do they say? If your dreams don't scare you, they aren't big enough?

It's true. 

I've always had big dreams. It takes guts to have big dreams. It takes guts to sacrifice, to let go, to commit to hard work and the challenges of the day, every day.

And yet, it's good to have dreams like that. To want to achieve something, to want to change the world in the tiny little ways that we can. It is worth fighting for and I can't throw tantrums and cry like a baby just because things don't go the way I want them to.

I have to put on my big girl panties and just deal with it.

So, do you guys have those moments when you feel like you. just. can't. handle. one more problem? What do you do to keep motivation levels up and the spirit flowing?

  I'd love to hear in the comments!

Review: Star Cursed by Jessica Spotswood

With the Brotherhood persecuting witches like never before, a divided Sisterhood desperately needs Cate to come into her Prophesied powers. And after Cate's friend Sachi is arrested for using magic, a war-thirsty Sister offers to help her find answers—if Cate is willing to endanger everyone she loves.

Cate doesn't want to be a weapon, and she doesn't want to involve her friends and Finn in the Sisterhood's schemes. But when Maura and Tess join the Sisterhood, Maura makes it clear that she'll do whatever it takes to lead the witches to victory. Even if it means sacrifices. Even if it means overthrowing Cate. Even if it means all-out war.

In the highly anticipated sequel to Born Wicked, the Cahill Witch Chronicles continue Cate, Maura and Tess's quest to find love, protect family, and explore their magic against all odds in an alternate history of New England

If there is one book this year that I will look back on twenty years from now it is Star Cursed. I seriously don't know why I waited so long. I mean, I do know. I expected it to be good, so I saved it for later. 

And it was good. Just...WAY better than I had thought.

Jessica Spotswood keeps the action going from the first to the last page. I was on the edge of my seat/bed the whole entire time! 

And that does not only have to do with plot. Something you get really rarely in YA, I think, are shivers down your spine. And I don't mean just one little action scene at the end. No, no. In Star Cursed you have that shiver on every page, in every scene, because you have NO idea who to trust, what is going to happen, who will live, who will die. 

As I am reading more and more YA (heyo, 1.5 years of blogging, right?) it gets easier and easier to just guess plots. You just now what's coming, or at least, you have a very secure guess.

For example, I am reading Allegiant right now - one of the best YA novels ever, I am sure - but even with that book I feel like I know what's coming.

In Star Cursed everything was a surprise. And what made it even better was that those surprises were realistic ones! They fit into the plot, without feeling superficial or just randomly thrown in to keep the suspense.

Something else that Spotswood does beautifully is characters and development. Admittedly, the ongoing tension between the main characters was extremely nerveracking. BUT - well done. 

It was visible what Cate, Maura and Tess were feeling, how their lives and personalities led to their choices and to  how they treated each other. It was not some random rivalry or allegiance between some of the sisters and I felt like their relationships were ever changing. 

I have to mention Tess seperately, because I was almost proud of her. I don't know how to explain, I know it sounds weird. In the first book, I found her very bland and stereotypical. She seemed to be nessecary, but not involved.

In this book, not only her role as a character developed, she herself grew into such an opinionated, interesting girl - I was impressed by both, the author's talent of including her into the story more and at the same  time her steady, but beautiful development.

Then, of course, there is the romance. Although I find Maura's situation interesting, it wan't really the main point of the book and was - of course - overshadowed by Finn and Cate. I won't spoil anything, but just say that Spotswood is the queen of romance, as well as the queen of everything else, really.

And then the ending. The ending killed me. It broke my heart. It tore me into pieces. And I'm not just saying that. Read for yourself, really. I'm pretty sure you have never encountered an ending even a bit like this one.