Love. Art. Thieves.

Hey guys I’m sorry for my lack of posts, I just needed some time to recharge and now I will definitely try to get back on track… again!

Lately I fell in love with the Heist Society series by Ally Carter. I’m not gonna write about each book separately but I will give a review for them as a whole.

Overall rating: 4/5.

You know how you always judge books by their covers? Well this is exactly why I didn’t wanna read this series but they still kinda made me curious. I mean… look at this cover:

You just can’t be attracted to a book that looks like this. And this is just the cover for the first book, I don’t think anyone needs any more details.

So because I can give second chances and a benefit of a doubt, I started reading the first one and could not stop. I love the characters and I love how mature they are. I forget they’re like 15-16 years old! Like how can a 15 year old rob a super safe and secured museum making up a really good plan in a super short time? Most of the 15 year olds play Fortnite so that was not very realistic.

I’m trying to keep this as much spoiler-free as I can but there’s also like a huge drama happening (of course) that might endanger Kat’s dad’s life (Kat is the main character). Of course she solves everything in the end with her squad and there’s a love story starting to sparkle between her and W. W. Hale, the rich and cool one.

In the second book Kat has been conned which was really dangerous because it involves the Cleopatra emerald, she basically steals it for the wrong people and she has to get it back from them but they know any tactic they could approach so it was pretty stressful for everyone (even myself). Long story short, there’s drama between Kat and Hale and a lot of suspense and them being smarter than everybody and we don’t know what Hale’s W. W. stand for!! I love how Kat is always trying to guess them.

Anyways, moving forward, Perfect Scoundrels (book 3) was SO GOOD!!!!This time it has to do with Hale’s family and there’s drama between Hale and Kat again because of course she wants to keep him out of it?! I didn’t like that part. It’s his family and he has all the right to know what’s going on, dear. Now they also have to rob the Henley (the museum from the first book which is even more secured) and a huge bank! I like that they make it a little bit more realistic involving the Interpol and all the travelling and talking about art just adds the perfect details. It involved a lot more complications and the most suspense so far. It has plot twists and a much more developed love story and now there’s family involved too! I think it had all the things I wanted like emotions, plot twists, love story, action and cool characters.

I can’t wait for the 4th book to come out!!

March releases I’m excited about

I’m starting a new series of posts where I will let you know every month’s book releases that I am excited about (you will probably find a lot of YA and Crime/Mystery books so if you love these genres, these posts might be for you).
March 6th: ⋅ More Than We Can Tell by Brigid Kemmerer.
Genre: Contemporary YA Romance.

“When Rev and Emma meet, they both long to lift the burden of their secrets and bond instantly over their shared turmoil. But when their situations turn dangerous, their trust in each other will be tested in ways they never expected.”
⋅The Innocent Wife by Amy Lloyd

Genre: Mystery/ Crime/ Thriller

“A young schoolteacher falls for a man on Death Row whom she believes is falsely accused, only to begin wondering after their marriage – and his release.”
March 13th: ⋅Sometimes I lie by Alice Feeney

Genre: Thriller/ Mystery/ Psychological Thriller

“My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me:
1. I’m in a coma.
2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore.
3. Sometimes I lie. “

⋅Obsidio (The Illuminae Files #3) by Amy Kaufman/ Jay Kristoff.

Genre: YA Science Fiction

“From bestselling author duo Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff comes the exciting finale in the trilogy that broke the mold and has been called “stylistically mesmerizing” and ‘out-of-this-world-awesome.'”
March 20th: ⋅The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X. R. Pan

Genre: YA Fantasy/ Magical Realism

“Alternating between real and magic, past and present, friendship and romance, hope and despair, The Astonishing Color of After is a stunning and heartbreaking novel about finding oneself through family history, art, grief, and love.”

Time travels

Personally, I’m not necessarily a Sci-Fi fan. I’m not a Sci-Fi fan at all but I still gave this one a shot. I have a friend that usually recommends me really good books so I followed his advice when he told me that I HAVE to read this one.

One of the best literary choices I have ever made was picking up Dark Matter by Blake Crouch.

Rating: 5/5.

If you want to know a page-turner, this is the one. I literally had to have some self control and not read it too fast. I had to slow down and read only like a few chapters a day, but that didn’t work as expected… I passed my limit… a lot of times.

*takes a deep breath*

You know from the beginning that this is going to be an awesome experience. It makes a statement from the first pages and you don’t forget it very easily. I’ve never read a book that involved time travelling before and I would start with this one all over again if I could. This was one of the cases when I wished I could delete the memory of a book and then reread it.

I would also like to bring out the fact that Blake is really smart and you can clearly see that by the way he organized the plot and his writing. The plot has tangles and twists and turns but you will never feel like that. He knows how to make the readers UNDERSTAND, and that’s super important since many times a good book can leave the reader unsatisfied because by the end you still can’t get anything that happened in it.

As a conclusion, yes, go read it. It’s a must.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27833670-dark-matter

Thriller/ Crime/ Mystery Recommendations

JUST TO LET YOU KNOW, I don’t read only romance and YA. I also read detective novels, crime, thrillers and mystery and I’m gonna recommend you some of my favorites. Only 5 and 4 star ratings!

1. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. Nothing you have ever read prepared you for what you’re about to go through. It has time travel, a very smart plot and I don’t think that any writer could have written this tangled book but still make the reader understand what is going on. GO READ IT NOW!
2. Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie. There are no mystery/ crime book lists without at least one Agatha Christie book so I thought of skipping the most popular And Then There Were None and recommend you Murder at the Vicarage. This one has been one of my first Agatha Christie books and it just made me realize how awesome Agatha was. Also, it was my first encounter with Miss Marple and she is totally one of my favorite book characters of all time!
3. Angels & Demons by Dan Brown. This is the book that will begin the Robert Langdon series, a must-read in my opinion. Angels & Demons so far has been the best book in this series (although I haven’t read The Lost Symbol and Origin yet). It’s a really good start and a pretty interesting concept behind it.
4. Red Dragon by Thomas Harris. Should I even mention the Hannibal Lecter series?? It’s sooo good! Hannibal is one of my favorite villains ever. So smart and insane and unpredictable! If you like smart psychos, this one will be for you.
5. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. I had to involve a non-fiction book in this list and In Cold Blood is the best option for me. I didn’t really know at first that this was based on a true story, I only found out by the end of it so you can imagine my shock! It’s moving, crazy and I can assure you that you won’t find any true crime book like this one. I actually searched for pictures of the family and the murder scene on crimearchives.net, don’t judge me. I had to see the real persons and that changed my perspective because I imagined them differently. I recommend you to search for them too! It’s a really interesting feeling that it gives you right after you finish it.
6. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. If I added Miss Marple to this list, I have to add Hercule Poirot as well! You can’t have one without the other. I’m aware that this book got more popular since the movie came out and I kinda feel more attached to it after watching the movie, because the movie was perfect! The cinematography and the cast was sooo on point! And now back to the book, Hercule Poirot never ceases to impress and I barely put this book down. If you want a dash of andrenaline, go ahead and start reading this one.
7. The Collector by John Fowles. This one’s that kind of book that gives you goosebumps. Frederick (the main character) is so sick minded, you can’t even comprehend it. Totally one of the creepiest books out there!
8. The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith ( J K Rowling). I’ve posted the review for this one already but come on I have to mention again that you have to give it a try! Cormoran is one of the coolest detectives and Robin and him make one of the best combos in the literature I have read so far!
9. Psycho by Robert Bloch. Ah, good ole’ Norman Bates. Cool in Hitchcock’s movie and he is just as cool in the book. Again, one of my favorite villains. After watching the movie I’ve read the book but Bloch’s writing is so good that I felt like I didn’t even know what the story is about and I can say that I was amazed again by the plot twist. You don’t find this happening with any book that inspires movies.
10. The Green Mile by Stephen King. Ain’t no thriller without the King. This one might be one of my favorite books written by him because I did not find this much emotion in any of his other books that I have read. I was NOT ready for it. It’s really worth it!

I hope I helped some of you find something to read. I really enjoyed all of these so I hope you will enjoy them too!

Has any of you already read one of these? Which one? What is your opinion?

Strike and Robin to the rescue!

Did somebody mention J K Rowling? Did somebody say she wrote a crime detective series under a pseudonym?

Yes, all of that is true and we’re talking about Cuckoo’s Calling (Cormoran Strike #1) by Robert Galbraith *wink*.

Rating: 4/5.

This just became one of my favorite things that happened in the bookish world. I had this book “tucked” somewhere on my kindle completely forgetting anything about it. After a little research on Goodreads, I’ve seen that it’s been written by J K Rowling, so of course, I had some expectations.

First of all, Cormoran Strike has a cool name. It just gives you that mysterious vibe of a detective and I could not write this review without mentioning that I love his name, okay? At first he seemed to me like being clumsy and not that smart. Through all the events in his life he was able to stand up and do his job, not letting his private life interfere with his business. He knew what he had to do and he did not hesitate. I felt like to the world he just looked cool like he got his life together, but nobody expected him to live in his office, wearing a prosthetic leg after he lost his leg in Afghanistan, and all the pain he had to endure and the lack of money.

Second of all, his secretary couldn’t be better, for him and for the whole plot. She’s hard working, smart, intriguing and man she has some guts! I loved her! And when you see them on the scene together they’re the definition of a power couple. I hope they will end up together, I don’t care how and when but I need to know that they are together… some time… in the future.

What I didn’t like about this was the length of the book. It could’ve been a great book even if it would have been shorter but at the same time I liked the fact that it was pretty long because I got to attach myself to the characters and it was easier to make the difference between them and all the twists and turns (which many times is hard to keep up with).

It was interesting to see how everything connected in the end, that’s the best part of these books. I feel some kind of a relief every time the plot is untangled.

I recommend it if you’re a fan of detectives and mystery.

 

 

Miss Marple strikes again

A Murder is Announced.

I love me some Agatha Christie from time to time, she’s always been special and always will be. You can recognize her out of 1000. This wasn’t my favorite nor a book that I would read again but it was an Agatha Christie book so that gives it value.

Rating: 2/5.

If I would have to choose between miss Marple and Poirot, I would go with the lovely lady Marple. She’s unique and her understanding of human character does a great
job when finding the murderer.
Agatha always knows how to play with the reader. I think everyone that reads a “whodunit” type of book tries to guess who the murderer is or sometimes even who the victim actually is and you just can’t guess it. After a while when you learn that you know nothing you just give up and go with the flow. You can’t win. The same goes for
this book, of course.

I didn’t really like it a lot but I have a second reading goal (besides the first one which is to read all the Stephen King books), and that is to read all the Agatha Christie books so eventually I had to read this one too. It seemed interesting at the beginning, something I haven’t seen before. A murder was actually announced in the papers. Let’s face it, you don’t see that a lot in crime books. So that’s something that caught me and pushed me into reading it but the thing that didn’t let me enjoy it so much is all the dizzying twists and turns and rabbits out of the hat and too much talking that just didn’t let me make sense of them anymore probably because I’ve read better like And Then There Were None or Murder on the Orient Express, now those are favorites.

This one was just something to read because I was in the mood for a classic so I ran to Agatha cause I also want to complete my goal duh (tho I have a long long way to run).

I don’t really recommend this one, if you can read something else from her go for it but who knows, maybe you’ll like it. I’ve seen many people rating it a 5/5, it
depends on each and everyone’s taste.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16298.A_Murder_Is_Announced?ac=1&from_search=true

Oddities and darkness.

This wasn’t my first encounter with David Levithan, but by far this one is the most unfortunate one. I’m talking about Every You, Every Me.

Rating: 2.5/5

I’ve had a few thoughts of rating it 3/5 but I just couldn’t. There was too much teenage angst squeezed in it and it’s too morbid for my taste.

The plot itself wasn’t the most horrible ever or stuff like that but David kinda killed it with too many striked-through words and ugly photographs. I love photography and one of the reasons why I chose this book is because I knew it has photography in it. Man but the photos…

UGLIEST PHOTOS IN THE WORLD. I have no idea who took those photos but it should be illegal for that person to hold any device that has a camera.

It kinda felt like he was just exercising writing and he was getting photos to write stuff inspired by them and then…oh well…let’s print a book.

The main character is the most depressive person ever and he makes you cut your wrists. But still, the plot wasn’t very bad, otherwise I wouldn’t have thought of giving it a rating of 3 at one point.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9972838-every-you-every-me

From butterflies to persons.

The trophy for one of the creepiest books I’ve ever read goes to John Fowles’s The Collector.

The author created such a perfect sociopath character it’s unbelievable. The mind of a person is such a dangerous thing. Knowing what’s right and wrong is also fundamental because it’s not easy starting to collect butterflies and end up “collecting” a woman you’re obsessed with.

He just saw her as a collectible. He didn’t want to hurt her, he just wanted to have her at his place he specially bought for them and fall in love. He liked to “dominate” her tho’…but he’s a sociopath in case you forgot. She starts to pity him and every attempt to escape makes him laugh.

The story is told from their both points of view. He tells the story at first and then we find out the rest from the diary she writes and hides.

The ending is not something expected but at the same time you should’ve expected it (if you know what I mean…if not…you’ll get it if you read it).

I really recommend it. It’s not hard to read it, the plot is really simple so it won’t be difficult to follow the story and there aren’t many characters. The author concentrated a lot on their psychological nature.

Rating: 3,5/5

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/243705.The_Collector?ac=1&from_search=true

“I’m a neat monster”.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay.

Rating: 3/5.

If you wanna watch the show, I warn you: you will have to go on a binge because one episode of Dexter is never enough.

Lol, had to post it

This first book was just like watching again the first season, with a few more details. I thought it’s awesome to be in this lovely sociopath’s mind. I always loved his character, thoughts and comebacks.

If you’re a fan of the show tho’, stick to the show. It’s better. But just for your curiosity and if you want to have more Dexter in your life, go for the book too. It has only 280 pages so you can finish it up pretty quick and continue watching the show.

“Another beautiful Miami day, mutilated corpses with a chance of afternoon showers”.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17231.Darkly_Dreaming_Dexter?ac=1&from_search=true