Welcome Back...Me..?

Hi Everyone,

It's been so long since I have posted in this blog. After barely touching this blog for over a year sporadically, I can blame many excuses and reasons for myself not being able to post. With schoolwork, finding an internship and keeping my grades up, the art of posting was an impossible task for me to accomplish. As of now, I have graduated college and I am ready to take the plunge and start again.

Woohoo! Time to celebrate!

As we can know since the last time I have posted, things have changed in regards to me acquiring books. Since books are a somewhat expensive hobby, I have stopped buying books new unless it is a really heavy desire. Plus after stopping my buying of books at Barnes and Noble and Target, I started rediscovering the public library and continued to buy books new in Dollar Tree or a used bookstore.

Too Broke for the Good Stuff

In my opinion, many new books I have encountered while buying regular or somewhat discounted have disappointed me and were worthy of a mediocre score between 3-3.5 stars. 

Since the blog is now back around, I will try to conquer my love for books by borrowing from the library, reading my unread books in my house or purchasing a used book. I will also review free books of the week from Riveted Lit. 

I hope to see you all around with my new book journey!

Thanks,

Dennise

Between the Sea and Sky

     Hi guise, this is a review of a book I bought in Dollar Tree two months ago. Astonishingly, I bought 10+ books costing $1 a piece.

So amazing. Ten books for the price of one!

     This post's book is a YA book as per usual. Honestly, it has a similar premise to a story I wanted to conceive, but it did it's job anyways. Beyond the Sea and Sky is a fantasy-romance young adult novel. It takes place in a somewhat fairytale world in the past where mermaids and flying people exist.

Yes, FLYING PEOPLE!!!!

Yeah, for real.

     The main character Esmerine is a young mermaid who becomes a siren.  While she is young, she is far from naive. She seems somewhat educated after a childhood friend, Alander teaches her to read. She makes her way to the human world after her sister Dosia, also a siren, has been missing for awhile. When she enters land, she encounters Alander, or Alan Dale currently. As she meets her friend again, she realizes that he is not the same boy she befriended during childhood. While they have their differences,  Alan strives to help his old friend find her sister. Can both find Esmerine's sister within the week she stays on land or will she never find the answer she look's for?

      Okay, I have a few things to say about this book. I honestly loved and enjoyed it, but it was very incomplete and somewhat rushed on the vital areas of the book. First of all, the book spent more time on Esmerine trying to be human and working and less time on her finding her sister. Second, the development seems to push every angsty person into a nicer personality all of the sudden. Third, Alan is a human who could fly was not well detailed. Maybe I read too fast or did it speed rapidly? I don't know! Fourth, Dosia just quickly adjusted to get married quickly. Honestly, Dosia does not really seem like she had a personality of a mermaid and was perhaps human in her whole life. Fifth, how Esmerine was rarely close to water on the human world. This is actually ridiculous due to the fact that she should have been aloud to bathe or at least soak in a tub to survive rather than just giving it all up.
     As much as I like this book, it was not the best written. Though it's a personal four stars for enjoyment, it's a three for actual plot and development. I hope you guys enjoyed this review.
XOXO,
Dennise

Royally Lost Review

Ok guise, it's time for me to review another book. It's been a while due to personal stuff, but I'll try to make up this month. I recently borrowed this book in my local library. It was on my to read list for a while but I decided to give it a go since it was practically in front of me.

Yay! I'm so excited to read this!

                                    The book I borrowed is Royally Lost by Angie Stanton.

Behold the cover!

     The book is about an American girl named Becca who is dragged on a family trip to Europe. Becca would rather spend her college-bound summer at home than at boring tours of European structures. Her father is emotionally distant, her stepmother is overeager and all her brother cares about is hooking up with European hotties. Becca is miserable until she meets Nikolai, a mysterious but caring guy. Enter Nikolai, heir to the throne and crown prince of a country. He is everything a girl wants but does not have freedom to be himself. When Becca and Nikolai meet, it's love at first sight.Unfortunately for both of them, the adventure ends as Becca's vacation ends soon. Will Becca and Nikolai say goodbye as his destiny catches up to him or will they change history together?

     I'm a complete sucker for any books about an average girl falling in love with a prince-like figure. Also, since it was short, I knew that this would be an easy read. I thought this would be a cute easy read in regards to the situations regarding the plot. But boy was I wrong.

Such a bitter disappointment.

    Okay.... this book is utter rubbish. Like seriously. Becca cannot do anything but whine and complain about how boring Europe is. She could not find at least one ounce of Europe to like but instead misses McDonalds and American food. She literally cannot stop whining about that instead of sucking it up. She literally whines about how her life sucks constantly and seems very uncultured for a typical American. I question how smart she is because she ends up in Northwestern University. Then suddenly at the end, she ends up being cultured by being in Costa Rica.

    Enter Nikolai. The crown prince of Mondovia. After his parents decision  to send him to military school, he decides to run away from responsibility. (Actually, I would honestly run away this instead of staying.) It seem like his parents seem like to only care about their country by holding lavish state dinners instead of caring about the welfare of the country. (Though in reality, most countries think of abolishing monarchies due to them being symbolic leaders.)

    Regarding Nikolai himself, his relationship with Becca is unrealistic. Literally, he crushes on her at first sight and somehow follows her to every city she passes in Europe. How about creepy stalker alert! It's really creepy! In reality if this ever happened, local authorities or Interpol should have been called.

Creepy much? Nah, it's love at first sight.

      Overall, the book was all cliche and lacked in character development. Let's see, we have a stepmother/mother like figure who wants to keep everything. The father who seems cold and only having an extremely perfect life, a girl with the typical perfect personality and a brother who is a play boy. Also, a prince who wants to get out of his life and a sister who wants to rebel like her brother. I love that this book is very original. Not. I've watched better films that portray this situation a lot better than what this book did. That is why I rated this book two stars on Goodreads. I had difficulty keeping up with the book due to character development but also the situations that happened in the book were completely generic based on previous forms of media I've seen.

     I hope you guise enjoyed the review. Ttfn,

Dee

How to Get Dressed - Review

     Hi guise, this is really late. I should have posted this review weeks ago, but I kinda became neglectful of this blog as usual. 

Yeah, lack of inspiration.

     Due to finals and overload of work, my current content is reviewing how-to books due to the ease of their content. I hope by soon that I can get back to reading normal fiction. But I won't be posting anything in July due to school. 

      On wards to today's review.  Today's book is How To Get Dressed: A Costume Designer's Secrets for Making Your Clothes Look, Fit, and Feel Amazing by Alison Freer. This book was sent to me by Blogging for Books.

Really nice display.

     I chose this book because I am an avid shopper trying to improve the way I dress. So, I decided to give this book a go. The book follows sections of advice from Freer's experiences as a costume designer. The book provides advice on how to wear something according to your body type or how to wear something properly. Though most of the content of this book is quite helpful, it can often be redundant at times. The book emphasizes the importance of tailoring a lot. Despite this, I think it is a good read for those who want some advice from time to time for how to get clothes properly fitted rather than personal style.

Just Add Watercolor Review

Hi guise,
Today's review is a book I received from Blogging for Books. I will be reviewing Just Add Watercolor by Helen Peck. In light of my previous review of Daily Painting, this is also a painting book. Unlike Daily Painting, this book focuses on painting with watercolors.

Such a pretty cover!

     Just like the previous book, I ordered this in hopes of possibly having inspiration and perhaps learning some techniques with watercolor painting. The cover itself makes a pretty first impression of what to expect with the book. But I was a little surprised with the book.

Really surprised with the content

    Okay, I honestly cannot say bad things about this book but I have to give some criticisms. First of all, the book is tinier than what I thought it was. Not that there is a problem with tiny books. It was a little unsettling for a how to book teach some watercolor techniques. But it's quite convenient with this size when you are on the go. But overall, the size of the novel does not bother me. I'm just pointing out that it's somewhat surprising compared to other painting how-to books.

   Secondly, are the main points. While the book shows different styles of techniques and paintings, I feel that the book fails to truly draw in a person with instructions on how to paint. When opening the pages of Just Add Watercolor, you notice the pages are filled of stunningly beautiful paintings on the right pages with a brief paragraph on the left side of the pages. Though there are little hints and explanations on how to paint these paintings, I feel that this book is more of a book to provide an inspiration rather than to instruct someone on how to paint. (Additionally in the back of the book, there's a materials list.)

    Though the book's purpose is to inspire, Just Add Watercolor is not an instructional how-to book. I initially expected to learn techniques, but you would have to look deep within the surface to find instruction. Personally, I would not recommend this for beginning painters or those wishing to learn how to paint.This book would be suited for artists who are more familiar with painting with watercolors to find a style or for non-painters to have a stunning art-style coffee table book. But this book is not a blunder as it showcases 50-ish stunning works of painters of different calibers and styles. Still, despite the blunder, I still will take a look at it for inspiration.

Thanks for reading,

Neko

This Is So Late-Daily Painting Review

     Two months ago, I ordered a book called Daily Painting by Carol Marine. I was going to review it last month, but I got very busy with life. I ordered it at the time because I'm currently taking Intro to Painting in college. My skills currently as a painter are decent, but overall it is an enjoyable class. Though I am reviewing this book, to truly experience this book is to challenge yourself with daily painting. At this moment, I cannot do daily painting due to my responsibilities as a student. But I will try to do it on a break though.

                                             An interesting perspective on improving artwork.

     To define the ideas of this novel is all about inspiration. The novel despite being an instructional, also tells about the daily experiences of a daily painter. When the author first started daily painting, she was in a rough time period. From past experiences, the author was discouraged by her art upbringings, causing her to be lost and experimenting with different fields.  She also lost her motivation and  inspiration to go paint a piece. As her son was young, she discovered the movement of daily painting from another artist 's blog. The artist sold $100 from small daily paintings he made. This made a spark within the author to try doing it. The art of daily painting takes a more simpler approach according to one 's taste. By painting one small painting per day, the author managed to strengthen her skill and confidence to paint once again. She eventually started selling the paintings and blogging them.

     The book really explains the common art techniques to be focused on when daily painting and also provides additional support with saturation of colors and show cases other artists. Though I could not experience daily painting myself as a whole, I will indeed try in the future.

Marissa Meyer's Fairest Article Review

     Hi guise, this is a review of Marissa Meyer's Fairest, which is the prequel for The Lunar Chronicles series.

Let us squee over excitement for the cover.

    I am a huge fan of the series that for every time I read the books, I feel a joyous happy feeling. Unfortunately, I did not feel that way for Fairest. Maybe, it was because the novel was not supposed to be happy. But overall, I wasn't really fond of the book. I would have written a review for this blog around early February when I read this but I had to work on a review for my college's paper. It was agonizing and I could not be as personal or in depth to detail compared to my looser reviewing. Since this was for a paper, I had to write it for someone who has never read the book and remove personal possessives such as I and we. Underneath this paragraph will be the article I wrote. Hope you guise enjoy!
XOXO,
Dee

    Over the recent years, a series has taken a hold for readers and fans alike. The Lunar Chronicles is a New York Times Bestselling Series written by Marissa Meyer. Currently it is #2 on the bestselling series list. The series takes place in a dystopian futuristic world in which the citizens are affected by massacres and deadly plagues. Refreshingly compared to other dystopian series such as The Maze Runner, The Hunger Games and the Divergent series, The Lunar Chronicles does not have the theme of being in a sorted society. It is based more on the struggles of the four protagonists as they work together to fight for honor, freedom and independence.

   

     Each novel within the series is based on a fairy tale character with four different central protagonists. Though there are some parallels to the manga Sailor Moon in Cinder. Despite the shift between protagonists, Meyer seems to magically center each novel, linking the current main protagonist, the past protagonists and minor characters from separate plots that eventually become a universal story web. Starting in the series is Cinder which is based on the fairytale Cinderella, revolves around Cinder, a 16-year-old mechanic who deals with struggles with her family and being a cyborg. Moving onto Scarlet, based on Little Red Riding Hood, 18-year old-Scarlet is searching for her missing grandmother when the authorities refuse to help. Cress, which is based on Rapunzel, follows 16-year-old hacker Cress and her journey to freedom. Closing off the series will be Winter, based off of Snow White. Winter, will face her stepmother, Levana in her tirade of overpowering her.

   Fairest is the latest addition to the series. The novel follows the beginnings of the main antagonist of the series Levana and how she became a menacing queen. As with the other characters, Levana parallels the evil queen in Snow White. Though for fans of The Lunar Chronicles, the release of Fairest fills in the long gap in between Cress in February 2014 to the upcoming release of Winter in November 2015. It serves as the book that answers the questions left unattended in previous novels and the origins of the characters Cinder and Winter, protagonists of their respective novels.

   

      When encountering Levana first in Fairest, she appears to be a naïve, spoiled version of the person she currently is. Recently, her parents were killed by assassins and the throne will be handed to her beautiful, cruel older sister Channary.  Levana is jealous and resentful of her sister becoming the queen since she fools around with romantic escapades and neglects her duties. She struggles to find her own happiness since her sister denounces and tortures her and deals with heavy body issues with mutilations on her face from an accident. Insecurely, Levana hides her face with the illusion of the Lunar gift with the scars. Additionally besides the inhumane treatment, the relationships between Levana and the people around her is deflected by a psychological barrier that isolates her into lunacy. The barrier eventually leads to her current motives and personality in the current novels.

    
     This was not the best piece of work written for this series. Comparing Fairest to the first three novels of The Lunar Chronicles is like tasting a dry slice opposed to a whole frosted cake.  The lengthy, well-detailed chapters of the regular novels were reduced to sections that were back-to-back within each other. It is understandable that the context of Fairest would not contain the quirky, happy moments in Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress that balanced serious moments. But considering the novel was not meant to be a completely happy one, it would have been preferable to see Levana with happier moments to completely empathize with her. There were also moments that weresickening in Levana’s character such as manipulation and sexual situations. Additionally, some of the questions answered from previous novels could have been answered in the novels themselves.

   Though Fairest is a prequel to Cinder, Scarlet, Cress and Winter, it does not contain the same whimsy and adventure the usual novels did. The prose of the novella is a total blow to the buildup of the first three novels. But there is hope with Winter to make up the blow with the style similar to the first three novels. But the novel is a good placement to answer questions not answered within the first three novels and the final novels. It is recommended for a person who has never read the first three novels to consume this between Cress and Winter in order to gain a full understanding of past references. The novel itself is not worth a buy or reread since the basic ideas of plot can be absorbed in one sitting. To be fair, the novel was a miss for the excitement of the series. But, do not hold the opinions of this novel to be on the same structure of the main novels. Overall, the main series is an exciting one that should not be missed.