City of Ashes/City of Glass by Cassandra Clare Review(s)

Holy smokes! I haven't been busy blogging (or commenting on blogs, SORRY GUYS!), but I have been busy READING.

First, I've been meaning to ask you guys . . . Are there any legitimate blogging relationships out there in the blogosphere? I totally get the idea of commenting for comments and followers, but I find that a lot of comments aren't vested in what the blogger has said. They will sort of touch on the content and then go immediately for a plug on their own blog. If that's the case, I may end up being more of a blog follower than a blogger. No sense in recording all of my thoughts on something if the readers just want comments back! Silly.

ON TO THE BOOKS! 
City of Ashes absolutely sucked me into this series. I'll move right into what I loved and didn't love.

What I loved:

• Simon! He gets totally hot in this book. He gets sort of gutsy and speaks up a lot more. I think I wasn't really able to connect with his character in City of Bones (probably because he spent a lot of that book unable to really speak
• The freakin' Seelie Queen! Even though she was a super jerk, she brought the romance (and KISSING) back! Thank you, jerky faerie queen!
• Magnus Bane! He has quickly become one of my favorite characters. 
• I thought there was a really great balance between the action and character-building in this book. After reading City of Bones I just didn't feel truly invested in many of the characters, but that all changed in City of Ashes. 

What I didn't love:

• While I didn't know exactly what the answers were, I knew that a lot of things weren't as they seemed (trying to keep this spoil free - as though there is anyone out there but me that's reading these for the first time). So, there were some parts of the book where I knew things weren't true and wasn't buying into the story line. 
• Sometimes descriptions get very repetitive. I can't say how many times I read about someone shivering, "and not just from the cold." 
• I spotted a decent amount of typos! They distracted me every time!

Overall, I'd give it 4/5 stars!

Check the book description out here.

I actually liked City of Glass better. 

What I loved:

• That I enjoyed this book so much I forgot to really take notes! 
• It was the longest of the 3 that I've read and took me the least time to read
• Clare really helps you to further understand some characters we have and a few we haven't already really gotten to know. Alec's love life becomes more of a focus, Valentine's intentions become more clear, we understand Jace's lineage a whole lot better, Luke and Jocelyn's relationship is defined. In this book all of the things you're waiting to figure out get figured out. It really is the perfect end to the trilogy. 
• Clary really comes into her own in this one. She stops being so darn whiny and really becomes the heroine we've been waiting to see. 
• Sibling sleepovers. I get it, that's weird. It's also so totally right!

What I didn't love: 

• If this is the perfect end to a trilogy, why am I starting Book 4?! Though, I'm glad their story isn't over, I wonder how far extended this thing will go. There's a prequel trilogy as well as a post-trilogy? 
• I missed laughing in this one. One great thing about City of Bones was that the dialogue really kept things light and humorous, but there wasn't a whole lot of that in this one. 
• Again with repeating phrases! I get that it is a long book, but it's not that long! 

I'd still give it a solid 4/5! Check this one out here.

Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have) by Sarah Mlynowski Review

• Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have) by Sarah Mlynowski
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Publication date: 6/7/2011
• Pages: 368

2 girls + 3 guys + 1 house – parents = 10 things April and her friends did that they (definitely, maybe, probably) shouldn't have.

If given the opportunity, what sixteen-year-old wouldn't jump at the chance to move in with a friend and live parent-free? Although maybe "opportunity" isn't the right word, since April had to tell her dad a tiny little untruth to make it happen (see #1: "Lied to Our Parents"). But she and her housemate Vi are totally responsible and able to take care of themselves. How they ended up "Skipping School" (#3), "Throwing a Crazy Party" (#8), "Buying a Hot Tub" (#4), and, um, "Harboring a Fugitive" (#7) at all is kind of a mystery to them.

In this hilarious and bittersweet tale, Sarah Mlynowski mines the heart and mind of a girl on her own for the first time. To get through the year, April will have to juggle a love triangle, learn to do her own laundry, and accept that her carefully constructed world just might be falling apart . . . one thing-she-shouldn't-have-done at a time.

-Overview from Barnes & Noble

What I Loved: 

• A realistic main character! April thought, spoke and acted like a real high school girl. Not only did this help the story to come alive for me, but I can see how it would help speak to actual teenage girls
• A great moral! I think that readers (a little younger than myself) could really gain some insight into real life relationships - with families, friends, and significant others alike
• The book was really funny! It makes me wish my parents ditched me back in high school and let me live with my best friends unknowingly for sure! 
• Though I am a total romance-a-holic, what I really valued about this one were the friendships between the girls
• The ending :) I think a lot of teenage girls lose themselves outside of a boy, and I think Mlynowski does a nice job of making this book about more than that. 

What I didn't love:

• I am definitely not Mlynowski's target audience with this one. It was obviously written for a younger reader. The morals were sort of lost on me toward the end of the book, because they aren't lessons for me to learn. This certainly isn't the authors flaw, however! It's just the issue I sometimes find with being an older adult reading young adult books. 
• "Hells yeah" and "Hells no." C'mon, Vi! Every time she said it I cringed a little. 
• It was a little predictable. I, and I'm sure a number of others, knew where the author was headed at times. So, it made it a little less interactive a read. 

I really did enjoy reading this book. It was a light and fun read for the most part. I think my expectations were a little high for this one considering the rave reviews and ratings I've seen. I'd give it a solid 3.5/5 stars. It served as the perfect book after reading City of Bones. Now off to City of Ashes!

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare Review

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Publication date: 2/19/2008

Pages: 512

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder—much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It’s hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing—not even a smear of blood—to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary’s first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It’s also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace’s world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know. . . .

-Overview from Barnes and Noble

What I loved:

• Very witty dialogue - I actually laughed out loud several times throughout this book. Humor was incorporated into this story very well. 
• JACE! Okay, so, he's this dreamy sort of jerk who would do anything for his leading lady. Just my sort of leading man! (Except for that little bit at the end when he got all nostalgic and weird)
• Vocabulary! There were a few times I had to use the "look up" feature on my NOOK while reading this book. I can really appreciate a YA read that can still offer a challenge here and there
• The action - it came quick and often. Clare did a really nice job helping the reader to envision and engage in the action throughout the story

What I didn't love:

• CLARY! Ugh! I felt like she was so wimpy and whiny during so much of this book. She was in this constant state of despair for most of the book, and then every once in a while she really took some action. When she did it was so unexpected and out of character that I just didn't buy it. 
• The word MUNDANE. Could she have possibly used it once more than she did? 
• Slow start - I think Clare took so much time trying to give the reader insight into the world of Mundanes, then Shadowhunters, then Downworlders . . . that the story just didn't hold my attention until the latter half once all of that had been developed
• Sort of surprise twist - I didn't like it one bit. I'm sure it'll turn around, but I felt like it was such a disappointing end to this one for me being the love junkie reader that I am. 

I heard SUCH great things about this series that I HAD to download it right away. I started this on a day off from work expecting it to grab me and pull me in right away. I spent all morning doing housework, poured myself a tall glass of water, brought a snack with me and plopped down in the corner of my couch with plans to do nothing for the rest of the day but read. I found myself doing everything but reading.

After the first 30 or so pages I found myself browsing the internet, blogging, watching television, listening to my husband (who I usually can ignore pretty successfully when I read, SORRY HUBS!), etc between pages. I just couldn't get into it. DETERMINED to like this book, I kept trudging along. It worked. By the end of the book I did like it. I just didn't love it. 

AM I THE ONLY ONE? Does the series get better or is it a lot more of the same? I still have hope for the other books! Let me know what you think! 

Matched by Ally Condie Review

• Matched by Ally Condie
• Pages: 384 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile; First Edition edition 
• Publication Date: November 30, 2010
•      
•      Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.

    The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

Overview - From Amazon

So, I decided to read this book after doing some thorough research (creeping on everyone else blogs, OBVS!) It has everything that might catch and keep my attention:

1. Dystopia
2. Boys
3. 
   

Well, to be honest, that's really all it takes to catch and keep my attention. 

I do have to admit that upon first glance, this seemed a little more cheesy and far-fetched than even I typically can stomach. Then, in walks Ky Markham. SWOON! He's dark and mysterious. He's always trying not to get noticed - except, of course, by Cassia who he has these secret rendezvous with. This is definitely a book that will suck you in, if like me, you enter it wanting to connect with the characters. After I closed my book I had to remind myself that the world as I know had not ended, and Ky Markham was not my forbidden love.

The world they live in is pretty similar to that of District 13 in The Hunger Games. They all wear the same clothes, food is rationed by calories, etc. I didn't find this world particularly interesting. I actually found it sort of boring until Book 2. 

The love factor is what kept me reading. 

Cassia is supposed to be in love with Xander, her long-time best friend and "match," but dark and mysterious doesn't just entice me! She gets all interested in what she isn't supposed to have in Ky (he's a aberration). So, yeah, there's a little love triangle. In fact, I'll be up front in saying there's a big love triangle. Those of you who find no interest in that should NOT read this book. It's a little less dystopiany and a little more love triangley. Those of you who do? I recommend it! 

I liked it enough that I downloaded the second book in the trilogy Crossed right away. That review will follow! 

Check out the Book Trailer  if you haven't picked this one up yet :)