Saturday, February 6, 2016

BOOK REVIEW- Glory over everything

This is my book review for:




Glory over Everything: Beyond The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom


My review: 5/5 stars


Anyone who knows me knows I LOVED the kitchen house, it is one of my most recommended books ever. I am a member of netgalley and I was able to read this book before it's release and I was so excited! After reading this book I can honestly say that Kathleen Grissom is one of my favorite authors. This book follows after kitchen house. Now you do not have to read kitchen house to read this book, or understand, and enjoy this book. BUT... Kitchen house was such an amazing book I suggest reading it! With that being said this book was just as good as Kitchen house, I loved reading about Jaime and his life. 5/5 stars, another book I will be recommending to all!

Monday, January 4, 2016

My favorite books that I read in 2015

I read over 100 books in 2015, the following books were my favorite. (These will be a mix of books, not all of them were actually published in 2015, but I read them in 2015)

Lux Beginnings: Obsidian and Onyx (books 1 & 2 in the Lux series)


This is book one and two of the Lux series, and I am obsessed with these books.  The entire series will be on this list.  It is about Aliens, do I have to say more?  haha the characters and the story in these books were amazing and had me hooked!  I am totally looking for all things Jennifer L. Armentrout this year.
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Lux Consequences (books three and four in the lux series)
By Jennifer L. Armentrout 


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Opposition (lux series book five)
by Jennifer L. Armentrout




Ready Player one
by Ernest Cline


This was on my to read list and I received it in my lootcrate!  This is a great book for video game nerds like myself.  I loved it 5/5 stars!!
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Marked 
By Sarah Fine



I LOVED THIS BOOK. I loved the story premise, I loved the characters, ahhhh can I just say I loved everything?? I am so excited for the next book! Five out of five stars. I am definitely going to look into reading more books by this author, her writing is amazing.

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The Remedy Files: Illusion
by Lauren Eckhardt


Oh my gosh, where to start? I loved this book. Evangeline lives in a community where they take these pills called the remedy and they rid them of all feelings. This community called Impetus basically rules over the people and makes all decisions for the people. But Evangeline has a friend who is different and causes her to think differently as well. This book was so detailed and the characters were people who I fell for. The story itself had me on the edge of my seat wanting more, in fact I finished over half the book in one sitting staying up late at night to finish it. Without spoiling anything... at the end I was just left saying out loud WHATTTT?? I need more!!! I can't wait to read the rest of the books in this series. I highly recommend reading this.

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Throne of Glass (Throne of glass book one)
by Sarah J. Maas


If you have not heard of this series you need to read the synopsis, and READ IT NOWWWWWWWW.  Ahhhhh This is one of the best series of all time.  I love love love it.
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Crown of Midnight (book two in the Throne of glass series)
By Sarah J. Maas


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The Assassin's blade
(The throne of glass novellas)
By Sarah J. Maas


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Heir of Fire (Book three in the throne of glass series)
By Sarah J. Maas


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Queen of Shadows (Book four in the Throne of Glass series)
By Sarah J. Maas


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The book thief
by Markus Zusak


This book was amazing.  Literally a piece of art in my opinion.  I loved it so much, it really made me cry.  And I honestly cannot think of ANY other book where I really cried actual tears for.  I actually had to set it down at some points just to let them emotion sink in.  When I have to think of one of my favorite books of all time, I will always and forever think of the book thief.  It is a a MUST read.

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An Ember in the ashes (book 1)
by Sabaa Tahir


After only a few chapters in I looked to my husband and said "This book is going to be so great." I was correct in that statement. This book was an instant favorite. The writing was amazing, the story was amazing, the characters were amazing. There is not one thing I disliked about this book. If you do not own this book I suggest buying it right now! 5/5 stars. I really hope that a sequel is made!!*

Good news there is a sequel being made!!
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A court of throns and roses (book 1)
by Sarah J. Maas



I loved this book so much. Every page was amazing. Sarah J. Maas' writing is just so great. This might be one of my top 5 favorite books of all time.

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Cinder (Book on in the Lunar Chronicles)
by Marissa Meyer

Book synopsis

ANOTHER amazing series book three and four in the series are my favorites.
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Scarlet (book two in the Lunar Chronicles)
by Marissa Meyer

Book synopsis

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Cress (book three in the Lunar Chronicles)
By Marissa Meyer


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Fairest (Lunar Chronicles 3.5)
Levana's story
By Marissa Meyer


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Winter (book four in the Lunar Chronicles)

By Marissa Meyer


What an amazing ending to an amazing book series. This is one of my favorite series of all time. The characters, world, and story...everything was written perfectly. I am sad to be finished with this series.

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SO those were my favorite books of 2015.  I had quite a few favorite book series in there as you can tell.  I think all of these are amazing books, and some of them made me top books of all time.  I hope I can read another 100 books in 2016, and find just as many amazing books this year.  Thanks for stopping by, what were your favorite books of 2015??

Sunday, December 27, 2015

December 2015 wrap up

Okay!  I read more this month, finally!!  I also accomplished meeting my good reads goal to read 100 books this year.  I am so proud of myself haha.

On to the books I read for December (excluding the Ranma 1/2 books that I read, which I think I read 4 of them and then the following books):

Prodigy (book two in the Legend trilogy)
by Marie Lu


My review: 5/5 stars
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Unglued
Making wise choices in the midst of 
raw emotions
by Lysa Terkeurst


My review: 4/5 stars
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Champion (book three in the legend trilogy)
by Marie Lu


My review: 4/5 stars
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The storied life of A.J. Fikry
by Gabrielle Zevin


My review: 3/5 stars 
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The Ghost Bride
by Yangsze Choo


My review: 4/5 stars
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The Miniaturist
by Jessie Burton


My review: 3/5 stars
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Matched (book one in the matched trilogy)
by Ally Condie


My review: 4/5 stars

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Crossed (book two in the matched trilogy)
by Ally Condie


My review:  5/5 stars
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Reached (book three in the matched trilogy)
by Ally Condie


My review: 5/5 stars
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I am so happy with how much I read this month.  I am glad to not be in a book slump again.  I am currently reading Winter the final book in the Lunar Chronicles and so far it is just as great as the others.  I look forward to reading a lot in 2016, I think my new good reads goal will be another 100 books.  The next blog post I will be making will be my favorite books that I read in 2015, so keep your eyes out for that.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays
and have a Happy New Year!!

-Ashley

Ps.  Wanted to add a link to my year in books on goodreads.com



It shows how my year has been in books, which books I've read.  It is a neat little thing!

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

November wrap up

This is my wrap up for November!

I've read a few of my Ranma 1/2 graphic novels, which are such a hoot if you have not read them!  I've only read two books this month, another slow month for me I am not sure why.  I know I can read around 8 books a month but some months I barely read anything.  Ah such is life.  Well here are the two books I have read:

Legend (Legend trilogy book one)
by Marie Lu


My review 5/5
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Prodigy (Legend Trilogy book two)
By Marie Lu


My review 5/5

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I am loving this series it is so great the characters are easy to like and get invested into their lives.  It is duo perspectives from Day and June.  I am already on the third and final book in the trilogy called Champion.  I am going to try and read more next month!! 

Monday, November 2, 2015

October wrap up

Well this is going to be fairly easy since I only read two books in October!


End of days (book three in the Penryn & the end of days trilogy)
By Susan Ee


My rating: 5/5

I really loved this whole trilogy.  I had won the first book on good reads first reads.  It was so good that I had to buy the other two in the trilogy to finish!  
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Then I finally got the newest book in one of my all time favorite series ever.  The throne of glass series:


Queen of Shadows
by Sarah K. Maas
Book four in the throne of glass series


My rating 5/5

Okay I think this book might be my favorite in the series so far.  I really liked the last book (Heir of fire) but then this one I think might have even topped that one.  This series just keeps getting better and better with each book.  It is such an amazing series and if you have not started it yet, then what are you waiting for!?  Go now!!  lol  But yes this book is 645 pages so that is one of the reasons I only read two books this month because this book was super long.  My good reads goal for the year is to read 100 books by the end of the year.  I have only read 74.  So I have two months to read as many books as I can, wish me luck!

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

The gift of reading to your children



As you all know I am an avid reader and have been since I was young.  My mother use to read to me when I was an infant and because of that I am so grateful.  I am now grown with two children of my own and I want to make sure they enjoy and love reading as much as I do.  Well two weeks ago Jane Tanner Co-Founder of BookRoo emailed me about her company.  BookRoo is a subscription box service (who doesn't love that?  Getting a gift in the mail every month?) that is for children and they send books for them!!

How does it work?  First you choose if you want to receive board books (for the younger children) or picture books.  Then you are able to choose the type of subscription: one month, 3 months, six months.  Then you receive your books in the mail!!  It is so simple.

We decided to get a subscription and give it a try ourselves so we could give you our honest opinion on bookroo and how it works.

I ordered the one month subscription, and I choose to receive picture books since my children are a little older (ages 4 and 9).  When you pick the picture book subscription you receive two books, and if you choose the board books you receive three books.  I received my books a week after I put the order in which was very quick, Boxes normally arrive in the middle of the month it says on their website.
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Here is our box, it had a cute little message written on the box, and inside the books were wrapped like presents!
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My daughter opening the first book
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The first book was:
I can be anything by Jerry Spinelli 
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I can be anything by Jerry Spinelli and illustrated by Jimmy Liao.
This picture was under the dust jacket, and on the actual book.  I thought it was so neat!
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Our second picture book:
Bedtime for Monsters by Ed Vere

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Our two books.  The kids loved them both, the pictures were colorful, and the books were high quality hardcover books.  

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Here is a picture of a board book subscription with the three board books. (not my personal picture)

Overall I was very impressed with this company, the communication between Jane Tanner was amazing and I am so grateful for the opportunity to even hear about this subscription box service.   I love reading, and passing that love of reading on to my kids is a must.  If I can help other families do the same by spreading the word about bookroo then I am glad!  This would be a great gift for your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, neighbors and so on. 
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I was able to get a link for the readers of my blog (that means you!) it will give you four dollars off your subscription to Bookroo so you can give it out a try yourself with a discount

Here is the link for four dollars off: http://bit.ly/1Mhbo3U

Here are links to their website if you want to read more about it on their website (which is easy to navigate):

Bookroo's website:  http://www.bookroo.com/

Frequently asked questions about bookroo: http://www.bookroo.com/faqs

Other reviews on bookroo: http://www.bookroo.com/reviews

Pricing on bookroo: http://www.bookroo.com/pricing

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Tyler's reads- Capture the flag


My name is Tyler and I am doing my very first blog about this book called Capture The Flag.this is the first book that I read at home for homework then I had to make a cearel box report.




Capture the flag by Kate Messner

Book synopsis (Where you learn what the book is about)

My rating 4/5

This book was very good and I loved it.There are these three children named Jose,Anna,and Henery that are trying to find the flag and return it back to its spot.In one part of the story henery is to do something and he stops and takes his game thing called a gameprism.:) Oh, and if i had to rate it I would rate it a 4 stars 'couse it was very good but not just about SPECTACULAR.