One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus – Review with Spoilers!

Hello, long time no-see and I’m sorry! I am finally on holidays and I finally have some time to breath. I kind of got One of Us Is Lying for Christmas and I got to read it earlier this month! Here is my review.

Synopsis from Goodreads:

The Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars, One of Us Is Lying is the story of what happens when five strangers walk into detention and only four walk out alive. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide.
Pay close attention and you might solve this.
On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.
Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.
Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.
Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.
Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.
And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app.
Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon’s dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he’d planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who’s still on the loose?
Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.”

Rating: 4/5 stars!

“She’s a princess and you’re a jock,” he says. He thrusts his chin toward Bronwyn, then at Nate. “And you’re a brain. And you’re a criminal. You’re all walking teen-movie stereotypes.”

My Year 2017 in Books

I wish you all a Happy New Year; I hope your dreams and aspirations will come true whether it’s health, money, love or success. Also long time no-see and I’m deeply sorry. I know most people me included don’t hold their New Year’s resolutions but I’m going to try to update more this year.

Unfortunately due to many factors, I only read 17 books, which is a huge disappointment to my initially 50, then 35 books challenge. I will give you the stats Thanks to Goodreads and I will also tell you which were my favorite books, my least favorite ones and general commentaries. Enjoy!

Everything, Everything – Book to Movie Adaptation

Hello everyone!

I read Everything, Everything (by Nicola Yoon and illustrations by David Yoon), two months before seeing the movie so the details were still relatively fresh in my mind. This is a rare case of book-to movie adaptation that I’m not disappointed of. I really liked the book and I gave it four stars out of five. It was very well-written and the illustrations, and “documents’ really made it unique; it was like reading a diary. I particularly liked the fact that Madeline (the main character) was a biracial child. As a black girl, I’m not used to reading about girls who look like me so that was really refreshing. Maddy and Olly’s relatonship was really cute and its exactly what I’m looking for when I read YA novels. Olly, her love interest had a solid and personal backstory which shaped and influenced Madeline’s story and that was really interesting. Also the topic of her disease, which is SCID, an immuno-deficiency disease that prevents peope from leaving their home and interacting with others, was one of the main aspects which drew me to the book and I loved reading about it. It was nice having an insight of what it’s like for the people who have it, and their mindset about it. I understand how the ending can be disappointing for those concerned with the disease.

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff – Book Review (Spoiler-free!!)

Hello lovelies and welcome to my review for Illuminae!

I just finished reading this book and I had so many thoughts about it so here they are!

Title: Illuminae (The Illuminae files #1)

Authors: Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Synopsis: (Jay Kristoff’s words) Illuminae is the  classic tale of Girl meets Boy, Girl loses Boy, parents and planet and ends up on a crippled spaceship with a mad computer, a deadly virus outbreak in the middle of an interstellar war. Isn’t that the coolest plotline ever?

Published: on October 20th, 2015 by Knopf Books for Young Readers

Read: from December 05 to 10, 2016 (I actually read 400 out of the 600 pages on the 10th, so I finished it on that day). It can easily be read in one-sitting

5/5 stars (One of the best books I’ve read so far!!)

MAUS (#1-2) by Art Spiegelman – Comic review (Spoiler-free)

I read this book in one-sitting because I couldn’t put it down.

Title: Maus the complete MAUS (Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale and Maus II– And Here My Troubles Began)

Summary: Combined for the first time here are Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale and Maus II – the complete story of Vladek Spiegelman and his wife, living and surviving in Hitler’s Europe. By addressing the horror of the Holocaust through cartoons, the author captures the everyday reality of fear and is able to explore the guilt, relief and extraordinary sensation of survival – and how the children of survivors are in their own way affected by the trials of their parents. A contemporary classic of immeasurable significance. (Goodreads)

Originally published: January 1st, 1986

The Unexpected Everything By Morgan Matson – Book Review

Morgan Matson’s books are the coin of the realm. (If you read the book, you’ll get it.)

Synopsis:  Andie has a plan. And she always sticks to her plan.

Future? A top-tier medical school.
Dad? Avoid him as much as possible (which isn’t that hard considering he’s a Congressman and he’s never around).
Friends? Palmer, Bri, and Toby—pretty much the most awesome people on the planet, who needs anyone else?
Relationships? No one’s worth more than three weeks.

So it’s no surprise that Andie’s got her summer all planned out too.

Until a political scandal costs Andie her summer pre-med internship, and lands both she and Dad back in the same house together for the first time in years. Suddenly she’s doing things that aren’t Andie at all—working as a dog walker, doing an epic scavenger hunt with her dad, and maybe, just maybe, letting the super cute Clark get closer than she expected. Palmer, Bri, and Toby tell her to embrace all the chaos, but can she really let go of her control?

Published: May 5th 2016 by Simon & Schuster Children’s

Read: from August 4th to 13th, 2016  

Review: 4/5 stars

“If whole galaxies could change, so could I”
― Morgan Matson, The Unexpected Everything

Cinder by Marissa Meyer – Spoiler-free Book Review

My mother offered to buy me a book to cheer me up from my exams results. I always had an eye on this book but never decided to actually purchase it, until now.

Synopsis: Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future. (From Goodreads)

First published: Published January 3rd 2012 by Feiwel & Friends

Read: From July 27th to 31th, 2016

Review: 4.5/5 stars

“Even in the Future the Story Begins with Once Upon a Time.”
― Marissa Meyer, Cinder

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo – Book Review

Hello everyone! I came back from holiday and this is the book I took with me and read on my journey; so I didn’t read it in one-sitting but you definitely should because once you’re in it, there’s no turning back.

Synopsis: Criminal prodigy  Kaz Brekker is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone…Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first. (From Goodreads)

Published: September 29th 2015 by Henry Holt and Company (first published July 28th 2015)

Read: From July 6th to 24th 2016

Review: 5/5 Stars

The Precious Stone Trilogy by Kerstin Gier – Book Review

Hello everyone!

This is the little story of how I came across the series:

Fun fact, my twin sister and I are born in Germany but now we live in France, and my sister’s name is Kerstin, now this name is not common in the world but it is in Germany where the author, Kerstin Gier comes from; consequently my sister and the author share the same name how cool is that?! So my said-sister picked up the books in 2014 and really enjoyed them! Two movies adaptation were made from the two first books  and my sister enjoyed them so much that she shared them with me! And I fell in love with the movies. Accordingly, since the third and last movie comes out this year, I decided to read all of the books before the movie release.

Synopsis: The story is about Gwendolyn Sheperd who unexpectedly inherits the time traveling gene, instead of her cousin Charlotte, and Gideon de Villiers the time traveler from a similarly gifted family that passes the gene through the male line. Together, Gwendolyn and Gideon, unravel secrets from the past and present.

Originally published in: (whole series) 2009-2010

Read: (All three books) during May and June 2016

My review: 4/5 stars (for the three books, even though the third one is my favorite).

Thoughts about the plot: This was my first time reading about time travelling and I am pleasantly surprised! I really enjoyed learning about the past and as Mrs Rossiny would say: it’s all about authenticity. One of my favortie thing about the books were the quotes, or various documents related to the story before each chapter. It enriched the books.I laughed at loud MANY TIMES and I have not been bored one second. I even thought that the first book was too short.

I really enjoyed Kerstin Gier’s writing, it was absorbing and captivating and I thought it ended well too soon. I deeply cherish these books and I wish more people had read them.

“-Bereit?

– Bereit wenn du es bist.”

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes: Spoiler-free book review

I first came accross this gem, on instagram as I follow Sam Claflin and Emila Clarke’s accounts. They star in the book to movie adaptation which came out June 3rd, 2016. Consequently the book became really popular among the book universe. So I decided it was time to pick it up! I knew nothing about the stoy; I had not seen the movie trailer as I did not want to spoil myself.

Synopsis: Lou Clark knows lots of things. What Lou doesn’t know is she’s about to lose her job or that knowing what’s coming is what keeps her sane.Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he’s going to put a stop to that.What Will doesn’t know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they’re going to change the other for all time. (Goodreads)

Originally published: December 31st 2012 by Pamela Dorman Books/Viking

Read: from June 17 to 19, 2016

My review: 5/5 stars

Hey Clark’, he said.’Tell me something good’. I stared out of the window at the bright-blue Swiss sky and I told him a story of two people. Two people who shouldn’t have met, and who didn’t like each other much when they did, but who found they were the only two people in the world who could possibly have understood each other.