Feature & Follow #4: Meeting Fellow Bloggers Blog Hop

Feature & Follow is a weekly blog hop hosted by Prajunkee and Alison Can Read, to help promote author's and blogger's. There is a weekly prompt to follow each week and you can find more info out here.

This Week's Prompt:

What are you favorite humorous books?

I love me some funny and witty dialogue in my stories. Some of my favorite books off the top of my head that had me laughing out loud were; The Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan, The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, The Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan, The White Rabbit Chronicles by Gena Showalter, The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare, and The Iron Fey by Julie Kagawa.

Way's to follow: I prefer through Bloglovin or GFC which can be found on the side bar or can aswell through Twitter which can be found above on social icons :)

-Amanda Margaret

Book Review: Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

Title: Three Dark Crowns
Series: Three Dark Crowns #1
Author: Kendare Blake
Publishing info: September 20th, 2016
Genre's: Young Adult, Fantasy
My rating: 4/5
Add to Goodreads: click here
Provided by: Bought hardback copy from Barnes & Noble
Buy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible
Synopsis: When kingdom come, there will be one.

In every generation on the island of Fennbirn, a set of triplets is born—three queens, all equal heirs to the crown and each possessor of a coveted magic. Mirabella is a fierce elemental, able to spark hungry flames or vicious storms at the snap of her fingers. Katharine is a poisoner, one who can ingest the deadliest poisons without so much as a stomachache. Arsinoe, a naturalist, is said to have the ability to bloom the reddest rose and control the fiercest of lions.

But becoming the Queen Crowned isn’t solely a matter of royal birth. Each sister has to fight for it. And it’s not just a game of win or lose…it’s life or death. The night the sisters turn sixteen, the battle begins.

The last queen standing gets the crown.  

“No one really wishes to be a queen.”    

My Thought's

★★★★

In Three Dark Crowns Kendare Blake brings us a dark twisted tale of 3 magical sisters, all queens, but only one will live to rule when they come of age. When I saw the catching cover and gripping synopsis for this book I just had to get my hands on it. 

Three Dark Crowns has three main characters, our Queens Katharine the poisoner, Mirabella the elemental, and Arsinoe the naturalist. Raised apart these three sisters don't grown with a family love for each other but a building hate knowing one day they will have to kill each other for survival. Out of the three sister's Mirabella was my favorite. She isn't so quick to hate, and there is a strong part of her that yearns to have that family bond sisters should have and not this atrocity they have been born into.

The story features many other characters though, including a love interest for each girl. I love me some multiple characters but with this one it almost felt overwhelming! I got confused alot in the beginning, which wasn't a plus because things seemed to drag. Found myself skimming what I already read to refresh what was going on and skip over the drawn out buildup. I think the book should have been more fast paced a bit and stuck to the pov's of just the three queens. The others is what got confusing, trying to remember who went where and with what queen.

The romance in the book wasn't what I had hoped for either. I am a sucker for shipping couple in stories! I found myself intrigued by Katharine and Pietyr but what he does at the end really has me questioning them. Now I really found myself shipping Mirabella and her beau but it also felt so wrong! I don't know how to feel about that one! Secretly though I am so hoping the hook up officially in book 2 and that makes me feel so dirty!

The ending with Arisnoe really took me by surprise. I loved that twist and it really makes me wonder about Katharine now. I really don't know which sister is gonna win or whom I want to really. Honestly I hope they can figure out a way for one to be queen without the others dying. That would be greatly appreciated :)

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. It took me over half the book to really get into it, but then I was INTO it! I was for a long time gonna rate it 3 stars but the ending really won me out. The last quarter of the book was really great.  I wish the whole book was like that but I'm just glad  pushing myself through the beginning was worth it! Hopefully now that I got all the characters straight and the build up is done, book two will be all kickass! 

Three Dark Crowns might start with a slow build up, and have lots of characters to situate but it's totally worth the read! 

-Amanda Margaret

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Loved More & Less Than I Thought I Would!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. Each week has a new prompt to base your top ten off of. You can find the prompts and more info here.

This week's Prompt:

Books I Loved Less & More Than I Thought I Would 

Happy Tuesday everyone! Hope your reading adventures have been well! I stayed up most of the night trying to finish The Distance Between us by Kasie West! Almost there! Such a cute read too! If you love young adult contemporary romance then I highly recommend Kasie west's stories! Anyways This week's Top Ten list is of books you love less/more than you thought you would. I decided to go with both, and do 5 for each. I don't know if I could think up ten for one category right now. So here we go:

Loved Less than I thought I would:

1. Fallen by Lauren Kate
2. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
3. Cursed by Jennifer L Armentrout
4. A Shade of Vampire by Bella Forrest
5. Never Never Part 3 by Colleen Hoover & Tarryn Fisher

Loved More than I thought I would:

1. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
2. Iron Fey by Julie Kagawa
3. Maze Runner James Dashner
4. Cinder by Marissa Meyer
5. Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

LET'S CHAT! What are some books you liked more or less than you thought you would? Do you agree with any of my choices? Did you do a #TopTenTuesday? If so link up below!

-Amanda Margaret

It's Monday What Are Your Reading? #3- 2/20/2017

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly bookish meme now hosted by Book Date, where you can share what you have been, are, and what you will be reading over the week. It's a great post to help keep your reading progress updated and visit and comment with other bookish peeps.


Hello fellow bookish peeps! I almost forgot to post this! I know it's super late but I didn't want to miss another week. I am determined to keep this blog active! Anyway this week has been a slow one for reading. I ended up D.N.F one book, and it's been hard to squeeze in time for my other reads. I always seem to have so much going on. I am currently reading three books which is a lot but 2 are for reviews and the other is one I have been reading for a bit and I really enjoy it. I just like I said seem to have a hard time squeezing in reading time. I haven't finished any books this week either which really sucks, so this weeks post will only include what I am currently reading and planning to read next. Here we go!

What I am reading now?

The Distance Between Us by Kasie West is the one I have been reading for a bit. I am really loving it. I adore Kasie West's contemporary romance! I received City of Skies by Farah Cook, and Garden of Thorns by Amber Mitchell for an honest review. I have just started both so my feelings on them are unclear.

Up Next

Right now I really don't know what I will be reading next. I have so many possibilities and lately whatever I have put in this category never seems to be what I actually read next. I will be leaving this section open this week.

So how does you reading shelfs look this week? Have you read anything above? Comment below and let's chat! If you have your own #IMWAYR post link me to it below!

Amanda Margaret

Feature & Follow #3 : Meeting Fellow Bloggers Blog Hop

Feature & Follow is a weekly blog hop hosted by Prajunkee and Alison Can Read, to help promote author's and blogger's. There is a weekly prompt to follow each week and you can find more info out here.

This Week's Prompt:

What was the first book that moved you? Scared you, made you cry, disturbed your view of the world?

The Outsiders by S.E Hilton or A Child Called it by Dave Pelzer would be my earliest books I can remember. I read The Outsiders in school and I remember just really being moved by it. I would love to reread it sometime. Now A Child Called it is gut wrenching. I read this one when I was like 13 after seeing my Mom and Aunt emotionally distraught over it. It's not a book for the faint of heart. Its a true story of child abuse and it makes my heart ache just thinking about it, specially since I have my own kiddos now. How anyone can harm children I will never understand! I cried probably 80% of the book! I don't think I could ever reread that one 😢

Way's to follow: I prefer through Bloglovin or GFC which can be found on the side bar or can aswell through Twitter which can be found above on social icons :)

-Amanda Margaret

Book Review: Ensnared by Rita Stradling

Title: Ensnared
Author: Rita Stradling
Publishing info: December 18th, 2017
Genre's: New Adult, Romance, Fantasy, Retelling
My rating: 3/5
Add to Goodreads: click here
Provided by: Received a Galley through Netgalley for an honest review.
Synopsis: A Near Future Retelling of Beauty and the Beast

Alainn’s father is not a bad man. He’s a genius and an inventor. When he’s hired to create the robot Rose, Alainn knows taking the money is a mistake.

Rose acts like a human. She looks exactly like Alainn. But, something in her comes out wrong.

To save her father from a five year prison sentence, Alainn takes Rose’s place. She says goodbye to the sun and goes to live in a tower no human is allowed to enter. She becomes the prisoner of a man no human is allowed to see.

Believing that a life of servitude lies ahead, Alainn finds a very different fate awaits her in the company of the strange, scarred recluse.

“Love didn't seem like something that could be organized or contained; it should be messy and emotional, like exploding and imploding with someone at the exact same time.”  

My Thought's

★★★

*I received a ecopy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review*

I absolutely love retellings of my favorite Disney stories, and when I saw Ensnared I was ecstatic to see it was inspired by Beauty and The Beast. With the movie coming out soon I was just in a B&B mood. Plus who doesn't love the romance of Beauty and the Beast. I mean it's a story of falling in love for what's on the inside not outside. It has always been one of my favorites.

In Ensnared they take a different aspect than a lot of fairytale retellings I've come across, except Cinder by Marissa Meyer. Instead of doing the classic past/historical romance setting, Ensnared takes a futuristic feel. It doesn't seem to be to much in the future. Life seems about the same as it is now except robots play a big part in everyday life. The whole IRobot feel with the IA robots was really cool, and reminded me of the Cinder book as well, but instead of some IA's being cool, in Ensnared they are all more IRobot devilish.

My favorite aspect of Ensnare was the sweet romance between Alainn and Lorccan, two very damaged people. In the beginning it was kind of slow and then it did feel rushed at times which was a weird to get the feeling of but they really gave me Beauty and the Beast feels, and they have some steamy moments that just make you have to fan yourself. *swoon*.
Ensnared really had a lot of aspects that gave it the opportunity to be really great but I ended up having to sadly give it 3 stars. I almost did 2 but I did enjoy it enough it deserves 3. The reason for the low rating is for the plot and world building. It really fell flat. There just wasn't enough details or build up that really made me connect with the story on that greatness level. There also seemed at times it would switch to another character's point of view that I just didn't see necessary but as a filler to make the book longer.

Rita Stradling had a really spectacular idea for Ensnared and while it was cute and sweet I just wish the story could have held up to it's potential.

-Amanda Margaret

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Book Couples!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. Each week has a new prompt to base your top ten off of. You can find the prompts and more info here.

This week's Prompt:

Favorite Book Couples

Happy Tuesday/Valentines Day Everyone! In honor of Valentines day, this week's prompt is a romantic freebie so I went with my favorite book couples! I happen to have an addiction to book couples. I think I ship a couple in almost every book I read, whether it's canon or not. Shipping is my weakness! It was actually really tough to break my list down to just 10 couples. I could do WAY more! This list won't be in any particular order. It was bad enough only choosing ten, I don't want to have to rank them too, haha. So here we go! Here is my list:

Favorite Book Couples:

1. Meghan & Ash - from The Iron Fey Series by Julie Kagawa
2. Magnus & Alec - from The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare
3. Jace & Clary - from The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare
4. Ali & Cole - from The White Rabbit Chronicles by Gena Showalter
5. Tris & Four - from Divergent by Veronica Roth
6. Katniss & Peeta - from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Colins
7. Feyre & Rhyshand - from The Court of Thorns and Roses
8. Cinder & Kai - from The Lunar Chronicles
9. Roth & Layla - from The Dark Elements by Jennifer L. Armentrout
10. Daemon & Kat - from The Lux Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout

LET'S CHAT! Who are some of your favorite book couples? Do you ship any of these couples? Did you do a #TopTenTuesday? If so link up below!

-Amanda Margaret

Book Review: The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West

Title: The Fill-In Boyfriend
Author: Kasie West
Publishing info: May  5th, 2015 by HarperTeen
Genre's: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Contemporary Romance,
My rating: 5/5
Add to Goodreads: click here
Provided by: Bought ebook on Kindle
Buy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible
Synopsis: When Gia Montgomery's boyfriend, Bradley, dumps her in the parking lot of her high school prom, she has to think fast. After all, she'd been telling her friends about him for months now. This was supposed to be the night she proved he existed. So when she sees a cute guy waiting to pick up his sister, she enlists his help. The task is simple: be her fill-in boyfriend—two hours, zero commitment, a few white lies. After that, she can win back the real Bradley.

The problem is that days after prom, it's not the real Bradley she's thinking about, but the stand-in. The one whose name she doesn't even know. But tracking him down doesn't mean they're done faking a relationship. Gia owes him a favor and his sister intends to see that he collects: his ex-girlfriend's graduation party—three hours, zero commitment, a few white lies.

Just when Gia begins to wonder if she could turn her fake boyfriend into a real one, Bradley comes waltzing back into her life, exposing her lie, and threatening to destroy her friendships and her new-found relationship. 

“We rarely find a depth by looking inside of ourselves for it. Depth is found in what we can learn from the people and things around us. Everyone, everything, has a story, Gia. When you learn those stories, you learn experiences that fill you up, that expand your understanding. You add layers to your soul.”

My Thought's

★★★★★

Sometimes I love to read a fun, light, & cute romance read and Kasie West's The Fill-In Boyfriend was the perfect fit. It's like the cute cuddly teddy bear of books. I enjoyed every minute of it. Kasie West has become my go to author for cute, and fun contemporary romance's.

In the Fill-In Boyfriend Gia Montgomery gets dumped in the parking lot before prom, and not only is that bad enough but most of her friends hadn't met him yet nor even believed he existed. Specially the new girl to her group Jules whom Gia doesn't exactly get along with. Desperate and just wanting to have the perfect prom, she does the only thinkable thing right?! She pleads with some random dude in the parking lot who witnessed her humiliation to please pretend to be her now ex, Bradley, and show her friends she wasn't lying, even though now she kind of is. It seems like such a little white lie to Gia though and after the prom she plans on having fake Bradley break up with her anyway and it will no longer be a lie. No biggie right? Wrong! Soon she finds fake Bradley, who's real name is Hayden, intertwined with her life, as well as her sister. To make things even worse she may be actually falling in love with Hayden but that's terrifies her as she is scared of being truthful to her friends whom have slowly been taken away from her by Jules.

I think Hayden aka Fake Bradley and Gia were all kinds of adorable. They had the kind of chemistry and relationship that just brings smiles to your face. When I was in the mood for something fun and cute, this was defiantly my go to. At first I actually thought Gia was kind of annoying and I couldn't really relate to her but throughout the story she grew on me. Her character really developed and matured through the book.

Kasie West takes an aspect on Social Media life that I have seen playing a big part in the world as of the last ten years. It seems more and more, specially our youth have found they care more about their followers, likes, and shares than actually being who they truly are and doing what they truly like. I would be lying if I said I hadn't ever felt the pull of it myself. Who doesn't like to be popular. Takes being Popular in high school and your teen years to a whole new level, and it's scary. I have a five year old & seven year old, and it terrifies me for them to get older. For them to ever feel insecurities or trying to be someone else to fit in, rather than be the beautiful original people they are.

Besides being a beyond adorable romance Kasie West's The Fill-In Boyfriend is about a young girl finding depth within herself and coming to terms with who
 she really wants to be in this world, personality wise! I loved every second of this books and I highly recommend for fans of young adult contemporary romance!

-Amanda Margaret

Feature & Follow #2 : Meeting Fellow Bloggers Blog Hop

Feature & Follow is a weekly blog hop hosted by Prajunkee and Alison Can Read, to help promote author's and blogger's. There is a weekly prompt to follow each week and you can find more info out here.

This Week's Prompt:

What book do you reread the most?

As a over the top Harry Potter geek I would have to go with that series! I reread it almost every year! I am so happy about Goodreads new reread feature so I can keep track of it now! A couple other series I reread more often than others are The Maze Runner by James Dashner, and The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare.

Way's to follow: I prefer through Bloglovin or GFC which can be found on the side bar or can aswell through Twitter which can be found above on social icons :)

-Amanda Margaret

Book Review: Winter by Marissa Meyer

Title: Winter ( The Lunar Chronicles #4)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publishing info: November  10th, 2015 by Feiwel and Friends
Genre's: Young Adult, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Retelling, Dystopian
My rating: 5/5
Add to Goodreads: click here
Provided by: Borrowed Hardback from a friend
Buy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible
Synopsis: Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.

Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won't approve of her feelings for her childhood friend--the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn't as weak as Levana believes her to be and she's been undermining her stepmother's wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that's been raging for far too long.

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters? Fans will not want to miss this thrilling conclusion to Marissa Meyer's national bestselling Lunar Chronicles series. 

“Yeah, but broken isn't the same as unfixable.”

My Thought's

★★★★★

Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles comes to an end with Winter, and this one wasn't lacking the awesomeness! It picks up right after Cress. Cinder and the crew are about to take the war to the planet Lunar so they can save their friend Scarlet and over throw Queen Levana once and for all. They get help from an unlikey source too, Our new main character, Winter whom is also Queen Levana's step-daughter and the Princess of Lunar. Like the other three Main Character's, Winter also represents a Disney Princess, Winter is inspired by Snow White. Marissa really knows to take some of our favorite childhood fairytales and weave them into her own unique story of badass female heroines and epic romances!
I absolutely loved Winter's character! She was batshit cray cray but that was because she never used her powers, believing it wrong to manipulate others. Deep down she had was of the most bleeding hearts out of all the character's. I adored her for that. Like all the other princess's as well she got a prince! His name is Jacin, and he is her guard and protector. We met him either in the end of book 2 or in book 3 I can't remember exactly. I was really unsure of him and it actually took me a bit of this book to warm up to him but by the end like Winter I was in love! Their relationship is all kinds of adorable, and his loyalty and love for her was just epic for my shipper heart!
I am really sad to see this series go! I will miss Cinder, Iko, Kai, Scarlet, Wolf, Thorne, Cress, Winter, and Jacin so very Delete repeated word much! Sometimes when your reading you meet these amazing character's that just stick with you forever. They become apart of you. Influencing you in a way that makes you the person you are. I love character's like that, and Marissa Meyer did just that with this gang of misfits. The Lunar Chronicles was one scfi fairytale adventure I will never forget. I highly recommend this to all fans of young adult, fantasy, retellinngs, and romance!

-Amanda Margaret

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Wish Had more Story/Character/World Building in Them!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. Each week has a new prompt to base your top ten off of. You can find the prompts and more info here.

This week's Prompt:

Books I Wish Had More Story/Character/World Building in Them!

Happy Tuesday everyone! Sorry for my major lack of posting over the last few days. I missed a few feature posts. It was a crazy weekend and I barely got any reading down either :(. Hopefully everyone else had better weekends! Anyway this weeks Top Ten is Books you wish had more or less of something. I went with story, world, and character building because last year I read quite a few books that turned out to be good but they could have been great if not just for more detail on the world, story and characters.  So here we go! Here is my list:

Books I Wish Had More Detail/World Building:

1. Ensnared by Rita Stradling - This one I actually received from Netgalley for an honest review which will be up soon. I really enjoyed it but I can't help but be some what disappointment at the lack of world and character building. It is yet to be published though and I do look forward to buying it once it is and seeing how the finish product is!
2. War of Princes series by A.R Ivanovich - I read this one last year and enjoyed each book but at the end I felt like is was just good yet if it had just did a little more story/character building it would have been great!
3. The Prophecy of Arcadia by M.H Soars - Like the above book I did enjoy this one but it was just good. It needed more world building to be great and mostly character building for this one. I found myself not as attached to the character's as I hope to be.
4. The Holder series by Julianna Scott - I got confused at times or lack of interest because of the lack of detail for building up the story, world, and character's. I had high hopes for this one and was disappointed to be let down. I haven't continued with the series since, but it was still good and one day I will. Hopefully it improves.
5. A Shade of Vampire by Bella Forrest - As a huge fangirl of vampires since Buffy the Vampire Slayer when I was 8, and then went on to love Twilight and Vampire Diaries I had really hoped to love this series as the hype for it all seemed great. I was very disappointed to quit with the series after book 2 and really have no hopes for continuing. The lack of everything but just romance and not even a good one at that really bummed me. It could have been epic! Oh well. Just my honest opinion.
6. Firelight by Sophie Jordan - I really enjoyed this one when I read it. It was my first dragon shapeshifting type book. It wasn't until shortly after that I read a few others that I got kind of bummed because this series could have been so much better with a little more detail. None the less I did enjoy it!
7. Matched Series by Ally Condie - I read this series after going on a dystopian binge and after reading Hunger Games, and Divergent I was disappointed in this one. It lacked the world and character building that both Hunger Games and Divergent had which is a shame because it could have been really great if it did have it.
8. Seeker by Arwen Elys Dayton - I really enjoyed this one, the only thing it was really lack was character building. I really wish the character's were developed more and it could have made it on one of my favorite lists!
9. The 100 series by Kass Morgan - I had decided to read this after watching the tv show which I am a bit obsessed with. It is a lot different than the book, and better. Besides the romance of Bellamy and Clarke which I adored I though the books really lacked the world and character building that the show offered.
10. Lark by Erica Cope - This is another one I really enjoyed a lot. It could have though been that much better as well as on my favorites list if it just had more world and character building.

LET'S CHAT! Have you read any of these? What do you think? Any books you wish had more story/world/character building? Did you do a #TopTenTuesday? If so link up below!

-Amanda Margaret

January 2017 Monthly Wrap-Up: Posts, Discoveries, Challenge Updates, and more!

Well the first month of 2017 has officially come to a wrap and so far it has been a pretty good month! I celebrated my blogs first month anniversary today! I've read some great reads, made progress towards some challenges, caught up on a couple shows, had some fav shows return, and getting more of a handle on this blogging thing aswell as being active on social media! It's been fun! Okay so this is my first monthly wrap up post and I am not exactly sure how I want to do this. It may change a bit over a few months as I get a groove on things and figure out how it works for me. Right now I am thinking I am just gonna share my recent changes or updates, posts this month, What I have read, Challenge updates, and some recent bookish news that made me happy!! So here we go!


Recent Changes/Updates:

• Name Change. When first starting out just a bit over a month ago I went by Amanda Margaret Writes. It's just what I first came up with but it just didn't feel right and I didn't like using my name so I switched it to Hearts Reading. I like it much better.
• New Feature. I started a new feature called Bookish Playlist. I really love making playlist to books on Spotify and I though hey why not share them on here! I only have one post so far but hopefully will share more very soon!

January's Posts:

• Book Review: Cress by Marissa Meyer
• Top Ten Tuesday: Graphic Novels I Enjoy Or Want to Read!
• It's Monday What Are You Reading? [1/30/17]
• Stacking The Shelves #3- January 28th 2017
• Feature & Follow #1: Meeting fellow Bloggers Blog Hop!Beauty of Words #1: 15 Powerful
• Beauty of Words #1: Feminist and Equality Quote's
• Book Review: Scarlet by Mariss Meyer
• Top Ten Tuesday: Character's I will never forget!
• It's Monday What Are You Reading? [1/23/17]
• Stacking the Shelves #2- January 14th, 2017
• Book Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer
• Top Ten Tuesday: New Releases I meant to read but didn't get around to (but totally plan to!)
• Book Review: A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas
• Bookish Playlist: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series Unofficial Soundtrack
• Stacking the Shelves #1- January 7th, 2017
• My 2017 Reading Challenges!
• Book Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas
• 2017 New Releases I'm excitedly anticipating!
• Book Review: Heartless by Marissa Meyer

My January 2017 Read's:

Click titles below to go to my reviews!

• Heartless by Marissa Meyer
• Cinder by Marissa Meyer
• Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
• Cress by Marissa Meyer
• Winter by Marissa Meyer (Review coming Feb 2nd)
• Stars Above by Marissa Meyer (review coming soon)

2017 Reading Challenge's Update's:

2017 Monthly Motif:

January 2017 Motif-Diversify your reading! Kick the reading year off right and shake things up. Read a book with a character (or written by an author) of a race, religion, or sexual orientation other than your own.

• Cinder by Marissa Meyer

2017 Retellings:

I read 4 books towards this challenge this month. They were all apart of a series but represented a different fairytale each. I enjoyed it immensely and highly recommend! It is the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. The four fairytales represented are Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Repunzel, and Snow White.

• Cinder by Marissa Meyer
• Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
• Cress by Marissa Meyer
• Winter by Marissa Meyer (review to come Feb. 2nd)

2017 Beat the Backlist:

The four books I read for the fairytale retellings will also qualify for this challenge as they have been on my TBR for a long time. I have had a friend who had been begging me for months to check them out. I am so glad I finally did!

• Cinder by Marissa Meyer
• Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
• Cress by Marissa Meyer
• Winter by Marissa Meyer (review to come Feb. 2nd)

2017 Flights of Fantasy:

Again my 4 books also qualify for this challenge! These 4 books were the best choices this month! Helped me knock out some on every challenge and I enjoyed them immensely!

• Cinder by Marissa Meyer
• Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
• Cress by Marissa Meyer
• Winter by Marissa Meyer (review to come Feb. 2nd)

January 2017 Bookish News, Events, or Things I Geeked Out Over!!

• A Series of Unfortunate Events tv series was released on Netflix!!! I have only had the time to catch 2 episodes so far, but I am immensely enjoying it! I watch it with my 7 and 5 year old who are also loving it. I loved these books so much as a kid. It's great to share the show now with my kids. Once we have watched the whole season I will be doing a review on here. Have you seen the show yet? What do you think?
• Shadowhunters Season 2 premiered. I still of course think the books are way better but I can't lie. I am really getting into this show. I love Katherine as Clary, and Magnus and Alec are just beautiful! The changes don't bother me to much and I am really looking forward to seeing Sebastian come in and the direction they will take the show! Do you watch Shadowhunters on Freeform? What do you think?
• The Lunar Chronicles coloring book came out!!! I was so happy about this. I had just very recently became addicted to this series so when I saw this it was a bust buy! I am almost done with my first coloring and I will share it! I also am thinking of doing a giveaway for this soon. I am thinking two copies, one on here and one on my twitter. I will have more details coming within the next week.
• Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth came out. When I heard the Divergent Author was coming out with a new book I just knew I had to get my hands on it! Divergent will always be one of my favorite series and I can't wait to see what Veronica comes up with in her new book!
• Wire and Nerve by Marissa Meyer came out. This actually was just released today on January 31st! I should have my copy in the mail soon. I am so excited to see Iko from the Lunar Chronicles again. I just adore this world and the characters!
• A Court of Wings and Ruin the 3rd book in The Court of Thrones and Roses series by Sarah J Maas had it's cover reveal! Click here to see it. I am dying to get my hands on this book. ACOTAR is one of the most intriguing and beautiful paranormal romances ever. I can't get enough of it! I even got a quote from book 2 as a tattoo. I really like the cover of this one, it fits the others nice. I am glad they went with the color green too. It's beautiful.  What do you think

Amanda Margaret

Book Review: Cress by Marissa Meyer

Title: Cress ( The Lunar Chronicles #3)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publishing info: February  4th, 2014 by Feiwel and Friends
Genre's: Young Adult, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Retelling, Dystopian
My rating: 5/5
Add to Goodreads: click here
Provided by: Bought paperback copy from Barnes & Noble
Buy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible
Synopsis: In this third book in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they're plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.

Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl imprisoned on a satellite since childhood who's only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she's just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a higher price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has. 

“Maybe there isn’t such a thing as fate. Maybe it’s just the opportunities we’re given, and what we do with them. I’m beginning to think that maybe great, epic romances don’t just happen. We have to make them ourselves.”  

My Thought's

★★★★★

Stars above! This series has really captivated me! Marissa Meyer is back again with yet another addictive read in The Lunar Chronicles Series, and it is just as adventurous, witty, and romancey! Cress, book 3 picks up after book 2 left off. The gang is gonna go rescue the girl in the satellite. Like with Cinder and Scarlet, our girl Cress will represent a Disney princess. This time it is Rapunzel. She has been locked away in a space satellite most of her life. Now Cinder, Thorne, Iko, Scarlet, and Wolf are going to rescue her as she can help with their plan to overthrow queen Levana. With these guys though things never seem to go exactly as planned and they soon find their group split up and things not looking good for their revolution.


I think one of my absolute favorite things about this series besides all the action, twists, and witty dialogue(specially THORNE!)  would be the romance and princess/prince retelling spin it has. With book one it was Cinder and Kia who I adored and represented Cinderella and Prince Charming, then in book 2 it was Scarlet and Wolf who represented Beauty and the Beast and whom quickly grew on me. In Cress, our princess is of course Cress and she represents Rapunzel and like the other gets her own love interest. Cress is paired with Thorne and at first I was honestly kind of bummed because I was secretly shipping him with Iko but after these two spend most of the book together I found I adored them almost as much as Cinder and Kia. Plus I can totally see it now after thinking of Tangled. Rapunzel's love interest was a thief ;) I am really rooting for these two by the end. Marissa Meyer has a way of writing couples you can't help but fall in love with!


The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer has been a really fun ride I don't ever want to end!!! I am so sad to know the next book will be the last! I know there's a novella book, Stars Above which I will read, but Winter is the last actually book in the series *sigh* I will be sad to see these amazing character's go. They have quickly become apart of me. If you haven't read The Lunar Chronicles yet then you really should! I highly recommend it! It's a epic mixture of scifi, dystopian, romance, and action! A total Star Wars/Terminator/Disney Princess badass story!

-Amanda Margaret

Top Ten Tuesday- Graphic Novels I Enjoy or Want to Read

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. Each week has a new prompt to base your top ten off of. You can find the prompts and more info here.

This week's Prompt:

Graphic Novels I Enjoy or Want to Read

This weeks Top Ten is a about graphic novels. It can be ones you enjoy, ones you want to read, etc. I have decided to do a mixture of both because I have actually only read a few. I have a lot on my TBR but I haven't gotten around to them. I usually only read graphic novels if I am reading my buffy comics. Hopefully I can broaden my graphic novel reading soon. I will do 4 Graphic Novels I have read and enjoyed and then the rest will be ones I want to read.

Have Read & Enjoyed:

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus by Joss Whedon and multiple artist 
2. Vampire Knight Series by Matsuri Hino and Tomo Kimura
3. 30 Days of Night by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith
4. Buffy Season 8 by Joss Whedon and multiple artist

Want to Read:

1. Wires & Nerves by Marissa Meyer and Douglas Holgate
2. Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona
3. Buffy Season 9 by Joss Whedon and multiple artist
4. Buffy Season 10 by Joss Whedon and Multiple artist
5. Charmed Season 9 by Paul Ruditis and Constance M. Burge
6. Batman Vol. 1 by Scott Snyder(Writer), Greg Capullo(Illustrator), and Jonathan Glapion(Illustrator)

LET'S CHAT! Have you read any of these? What Graphic Novels do you recommend? Did you do a #TopTenTuesday? If so link up below!

-Amanda Margaret

It's Monday What Are You Reading? #2- 1/30/2017

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly bookish meme now hosted by Book Date, where you can share what you have been, are, and what you will be reading over the week. It's a great post to help keep your reading progress updated and visit and comment with other bookish peeps.


Happy Monday!!!!! I hope you have had a great reading week! Mine could have defiantly been better but I did finish a series and finally have started another book I started last week but honestly put on halt for the series I just finished. I also finally got a copy of Veronica Roth's Carve the Mark which I will be starting next!!! So that's awesome. Really what made it not so great was the fact it just seemed hard to find a time to read. I'm always with the kids or at work. Most of my reading is done on my breaks at work or in bed after the kids are out which lately has been me passing out with them. I'm just so tired a lot! Hopefully next week I catch a break!!!!

What I read last week?

I finally finished at The Lunar Chronicles series with this one and I am going to miss these characters so much!! I absolutely adored this series! Cinder, Kai, Iko, Throne, Cress, Scarlet, Wolf, Winter, and Jacin were some of my favorite character's ever!

What I am reading now?

I started Three Dark Crowns awhile ago actually but I put it down for The Lunar Chronicles after getting deeply hooked. Now that I am finished with that one I have decided to pick this one back up. The plot is so intriguing so I keep reading but to be honest it's kind of slow and all the character's and p.o.v's is confusing at times. Hopefully it picks up and clears up soon. I have been reading a lot of darker or scfi type books lately which are my favorite of course but I wanted to kind of read something lite and romancey, like contemporary romance. SO I decided to read The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West when I am in the mood. I really loved her scifi romance Pivot Point and have heard great things about her other works. I am a bit in so far and it is so cute and enjoyable. Really what I was looking for.

Up Next

I finally got me a copy of Veronica Roth's new book Carve The Mark. I am a HUGE fan of the Divergent Series and I was ecstatic to hear she was writing something new. I can't wait to dive into this one!!!!

So how does you reading shelfs look this week? Have you read anything above? Comment below and let's chat! If you have your own #IMWAYR post link me to it below!

Amanda Margaret

Stacking The Shelves #3- January 28th 2017

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly reading meme where you share all the new books you have either bought, borrowed, or received as gifts! This meme is hosted by Tynga Reviews, click here for more info!

What's new to the shelves this week!?

I am super excited to share this weeks haul! Not only did I finally get a book I have had preordered I also got some pretty cool fandom swag for some of my favorite series! On one last note aswell before I start sharing is I finally got my first every fancy camera and I am super excited! So I will be doing all my pictures for the blog from now on with it and so my pictures should be a lot more clear from now on! No more smartphone camera! Ok now onto the haul :)

Bought!

Physical Books:

• Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth
• Frostblood by Elly Blake
• Firstlife by Gena Showalter
• The Lunar Chronicles Coloring Book
• Court of Thorns and Roses Series Inspired Candles (Rhysand, Feyre Darling, and Starfall)

Ebooks:

• The Gender Game by Bella Forrest
• Burning Glass by Kathryn Puride
• Torn (Wicked Saga #2) by Jennifer L. Armentrout
• The Distance Between Us by Kasie West
• The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West

I have been waiting very impatiently for Carve The Mark to come out! Sadly I couldn't get it the minute it hit shelves but I finally ordered it last week and got it in the mail yesterday! As soon as I finish the book I am reading now I am gonna start that. While I was ordering Carve The Mark I decided to spoil myself to a few other books and grabbed; Frost Blood which sounds pretty good and that cover is stunning, Firstlife which is by Gena Showalter and I adored her White Rabbit Chronicles, and finally The Lunar Chronicles Coloring book and I just finished that series and fell head over heals in love with it! The candles featured in the pic are actually something I got over a week ago but forgot to include in last weeks posts but I love them so much so wanted to share! These three candles I got on Etsy from A Court of Candles and they are inspired by the series A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas which I am obsessed with! I even got my first tattoo recently and it was a quote from that series! Here's a pic if you want to see it. Okay back to my haul, finally but not leastly the ebooks! Besides spoling myself to a few physical books recently I decided to get some new books on my ereader which I have sadly neglected for a long time. I found all those on sale and I am super excited to check them all out! Specially Torn by Jennifer L Armentrout and the two contemporary romance's by Kasie West. I loved Wicked the first book in the series by Jennifer L Armentrout and pretty much anything by Jennifer! I just adore Kasie West's love stories to! The other two, The Gender Game and Burning Glass had really good sounding synopsis's and I couldn't pass them up on sale!

Have you read any of these? If so what did you think?

What new books have you bought, borrowed, or been gifted lately? Got any swag?

Comment below! & If you have your own #StackingtheShelves post link it up below! HAPPY READINGS EVERYONE!!

Amanda Margaret