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Book Reviews

Gemina (Illuminae Files), Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff, Marie Lu

India
Meanwhile, while everything that could possibly go wrong, is going wrong in the Kerenza Sector on the Hypatia. Heimdall Station is going on with life like everything is normal not knowing that they are next in the clean up job being handled by BeiTech Industries. Hanna Donnelly is normal teenage girl who’s hobbies include shopping, being the best in the Dojo, war games with her Dad, the Commander of Heimdall and the occasional “party favor” from our favorite neighborhood drug dealer Niklas “Nik” Malikov. Nik Malikov on the other hand is a part of “The House of Knives” gang, and once you’re in it, you’re in it for life. Heimdall Station is the wormhole jump point that the Hypatia is hoping to make it to in order to survive, but that they don’t know is that they are having a lot of technical difficulties with the wormhole, and that all of their radio transmissions are being filtered by a BeiTech operative on the inside of Heimdall Station With the upcoming holiday of Terra Day a lot of the crew of Heimdall station are either off station with loved ones or they are taking the evening off. They never knew that this would be a Terra Day they would never forget, especially for Hanna and Nik as they try to save their homes and themselves from the BeiTech operatives meant to wipe out the entire station.
 I absolutely loved this book. I don’t know why I don’t read more sci-fi because I have been really enjoying this series. Granted I have been listening to the entire thing on Audible, which is SO MUCH FUN! They use an entire cast on Audible and it just makes it so different than other audiobooks that I have listened to. I love how these books are paced. There’s enough time to know who the major characters are and be able to visualize the surroundings. I also love in this series how the women are not afraid to do what is necessary to save the world, they aren’t waiting for someone to uplift them and make them feel stronger, they know their worth and they kick butt doing it. The men of course are not helpless and do their own things to help, but they never try to put the women down. If at any point they hint that the women are weaker than them, the women are quick to let them know who they are and that they can get this done without them. I definitely recommend this book especially if you’ve already read Illuminae Files. Until next time,
Keep turning the Pages
India
Book Reviews

An Ember in the Ashes, Sabaa Tahir

India
An Ember in the Ashes follows two characters Laia and Elias on their different journeys and how they end up falling in and out of each others orbits. Laia is from a group of people called the Scholars that have been oppressed by the Martials and the empire. Frequently their friends and family go missing in the middle of the night or are killed by raids conducted by the deadly and unfeeling Masks. When Laia’s world gets turned upside down she tries to seek out the group called the resistance, who her parents used to be apart of. Only thing is when she finds them are they going to be the people who she wants and needs them to be, or without her parents guidance have they warped into something different.
Elias is first in his class and on the right path to be the best Mark in Blackcliff history, but he doesn’t want it. Elias wants to be free of all of the non-feeling, brutal, and brutish ways of the Masks, he wants to desert. Punishment for getting caught deserting is death in front of the whole school, so of course Elias can’t get caught. His best friend in the entire world, Helene, suspects something is going on with him, but she has her own feelings to deal with and is loyal to a fault to Blackcliff and the Masks. Elias believes that there is another way to be and he can’t stuff down his emotions anymore.
The two of them find out that they’re lives are not their own and that they have a higher calling to do more than is expected of them. They discover that within all of the hardships they have already faced there are plenty more in front of them, but now they have the chance to do something good and something that can change the world. They just have to survive first.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It honestly gets straight to the good stuff which is awesome because I hate when books take to long to get to where you need to be just to add some pages.  I thought that there was a good mixture of being true to who you are while fulfilling your obligations, but at the same time pushing back at the people who are doing the wrong things. I believed that Laia’s character was believable because even though we always want the heroine in the book to be brave immediately after something bad happens that’s just not always possible. It takes a while to find that inner courage and for awhile you have to fake it until you make it. Elias on the other hand had to make some true life and death situations and then is placed in a situation that he honestly can’t turn down and I loved that we got to see his background to figure out where these thoughts came from. I loved that this book was fast paced and made me keep wondering what the other person was doing at the time. Until next time,
Keep turning the Pages
      India

 

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
Coffee Break, travel

Spending One Day In New York

India
If you only had one day to spend in New York what would you do? Would you go to the Empire State Building, see the Statue of Liberty, stroll through Central Park, or maybe enjoy a show on Broadway. There’s so much to see in New York that only having one day is not enough at all, but of course you have to do something, so what do you do?
New York City Streets
For us we only had a few hours. Literally an afternoon in New York City. It’s been years since I’ve been to New York, but I didn’t feel like I had to do some of the big attractions. There are tons of tours on Trip Advisor and Expedia if you’re trying to find some, but they all leave in the morning, which is why we didn’t end up taking any because we were arriving mid afternoon. My mom and I settled for a stroll the Central Park, which is huge, and I still don’t understand what makes it iconic, but it is, so we stopped by. Being from Atlanta we have Piedmont Park, which is our giant park that I don’t believe has an ice rink in it and does not have the MET, but it does have the Botanical Gardens and a dog park that my dog likes to play in.
Inside Central Park
On our way there we stopped by “Famous Amadeus Pizza” and had an amazing slice of New York pizza. It was literally SO GOOD. If you’re in Manhattan definitely stop by there.
Amazing pizza at Famous Amadeus Pizza
What I didn’t like about being in the park were all of the people trying to get you to ride basically a rickshaw ride through the park because that was something we did not want to do. They were everywhere and they wouldn’t let you breathe. It was probably my fault for having my camera in my hand, so I looked like a tourist, but honestly a park is a park is a park. I just wanted to enjoy the green space. It’s one of the reasons that I remain down south because we are not short of trees and greenery anywhere in the city.  We did not walk the entire park because I’m pretty sure you could do that for days and still not see everything, but we felt like we saw enough. If you’re looking to take wedding pictures there you would not be alone. We saw 4 bridal parties in the park alone all trying to be in the same spaces.
NYC is known for its subway system
Next we took a stroll down 5th Avenue so we could pretend like we have money and can shop at some of the stores that are there. I can definitely shop at the MAC store that’s on 5th Avenue, but I definitely wasn’t going to have breakfast at Tiffany’s.
A shopper’s paradise
After getting some well deserved rest after flying all day and then walking miles around the city we were able to take in a show as the saying goes. We saw The Lion King and it was FABULOUS!! Oh my goodness I can go see that again and again and again. The costumes were amazing and the way they made the safari come to life was absolutely phenomenal. I liked the original songs that were done to fill the production out and of course I sang along to my childhood favorites. I can’t wait for it to come back around to Atlanta and I know I will be seeing it again. There are so many productions going on you have to pick something because that is its own experience.
Seeing The Lion King on Broadway was amazing!
We stayed at the Marriott Marquis in Manhattan and it was wonderful. We were so high up we could see a lot of Times Square. Oh yeah, the location was fantastic. We were very central to anything that we wanted to see and we barely had to leave the hotel to go see The Lion King. I will say that if you want to go to their rotating restaurant “The View” book a dinner reservation in advance or get ready to wait in line to go be in the lounge to see what it’s all about. We did not get to do this, but I’m not sure we were missing much other than the views of the river going around Manhattan, but it’s something you can do in the hotel if you really want a birds eye view of the city.
View from our hotel room
We enjoyed our time in New York because it felt like its own separate vacation instead of a one night stay. We felt like we experienced New York City, but we definitely could have used a couple of more days to see it all, but New York City is way too expensive for all of that lol. I’m glad we got to do it and we had fun exploring! Have you ever been to NYC? What are some of your favorite places to go or activities to do? I need a reason to go back, and BEA and BookCon are not it lol. Let me know in the comments! Until next time,
Keep turning the Pages
India
Book Reviews

Illuminae Files, Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

India
Kady thought that her life could not get any worse. She had just broke up with her boyfriend, Ezra, and she thought that she was going to be able to move on and go off planet somewhere after graduation. Little did she know that going off planet was happening a lot faster than she expected. All of a sudden while sitting in class, all of the warning bells go off alerting the planet to an invasion. It is then that all chaos breaks loose and the everything that Kady knows and loves comes crumbling down around her. Kady is forced to try and find a way off the planet and to stay close to the ones she loves, and who love her. She is forced to flee the home that she knows and grow and learn more than she ever thought imaginable. Kady has to overcome her fears and reservations and become  a leader and warrior in her own right. The system is in the hands of a 16 year old girl and a palm pad.
I absolutely loved this book! I listened to it solely on audible. I did not buy the kindle version or the paper version of the book. They did such an amazing job on the audible version with a full cast and everything that I didn’t feel the need for either of those things.  I heard that if you try and read the actual copy it might be a little difficult to do. I enjoyed the story and the twists and turns that were associated with our main character Kady. I also loved the role that Ezra had to play as kind of her humanity and her voice of reason, and of course her anchor. AIDAN was his own character who also had his own role to play, which turned out to be a giant one. Who knew a computer program system could have so much personality when they are not supposed to. If you haven’t picked up the Illuminae Files by Amie Kauffman and Jay Kristoff I definitely recommend it and do it on Audible! You’ll enjoy it even more, I promise. I can’t wait to read Gemina and Obsidio when I get through some of my TBR. I have a review up on my channel now if you want to listen to it as well. You can check it out here. If you’ve read it what do you think? Any other sci-fi fantasy novels that you can recommend? Until next time,
Keep turning the Pages
India
Bookish

Do you have to be a writer to be on Booktube?

India
The short answer to this is no. No you do not, but you’re looking at this post for a reason. It’s because you see so many of your favorite booktubers talking about writing their first book, trying to find a publisher, “querying” – whatever in the world that means- , and getting an editor and so many more things. You see them getting excited to be a part of the world that you love so much in a different aspect. You see them becoming the hyped book that you want to add to the top of your TBR list. But where does that make you fit? It makes you just like the rest of us. Readers! Readers and critics and free media advertising for your favorite booktubers. Now, I’m not a writer by any means, and I’m pretty sure there are probably so many grammatical errors in this post alone, and it’s because of all of those things I know that I don’t want to be a writer. So don’t let those writing marathon thingys – looking at you NaNoWriMo – convince you that you need to try it out.
Don’t get caught up in the authortube or the how to write your first book videos if you don’t want to be a writer. For some people that’s going to make you anxious thinking that, well if I want to grow in this community I have to be writing a book, and that’s not true! Without readers, writers would have nothing and be nothing, so don’t be afraid to just be a reader. That’s all I am! I read and I enjoy reading! Maybe I’m writing this post to convince myself of that even though in my heart of hearts I know I don’t want to be a writer, and I’ve never wanted to be a writer.
Forever a reader
I guess what I’m saying is that it’s okay to just be a reader and never ever want to write your own book. It’s okay to want to be a consumer and to take the time to read a book. If you want to be a reviewer it’s okay to be a reviewer for pleasure and it’s okay to be a critical reader.  You get to make those decisions for yourself and always chose what makes you happy. I hope this helps to keep you true to what you want to do and not make you feel like you need to be anywhere else, but on Booktube as a reader. Has booktube ever made you feel like you need to change?  Until next time,
Keep turning the pages
India