Shatter Me Trilogy

I promise my next review won't be combined, but school is stealing my life away from me at the moment. Anyway, here's yet another review of an entire trilogy. This time around, I review the Shatter Me Trilogy.

The Shatter Me Trilogy by Tahereh Mafi

I'm gonna be honest with you, it took me some time to get into these pretty little boxes of words. The main character has a lot of character development, which is good, but character development requires a weak start, which requires patients. I don't know if you've noticed, but I don't have 'patients'. I want it and I want it now. The writing style is beautiful and very poetic and unique, but this also kind of placed a gap between me and Juliette. (I'm going to misspell her name so often in this review.) I needed until about half-way through the second book to really like her and root for her. It's a pretty 'artistic' book and I really liked that, so I would say this is actually worth picking up.

The Grisha Trilogy

Am I ever going to write reviews on time again? But I did love love love love love this series. It's one of my new favorites. As usual: first part no spoilers, second part spoilers. Let's do this.

The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo

This is going to be a fangirling review. I LOVED this book so much. The covers are gorgeous, the characters are awesome, and the world is a work of art. It had been a long time since I adored a book so much and wanted to add it to my favorites. (The last one was the Winner's Crime and I read that baby in May.) This series is the highway of emotions I demand from my fiction. I loved everything: the romance, the world, the Russia, the unlimited shipping possibilities, the politics. This book is haunting, worth a reread one day, and will temporarily ruin your life. Do I have to say more?

Fanfiction

Her arms are wrapped around me, warm and familiar, while my world falls apart. The wind has taken control of my hair, sending it dancing over my face and crawling against my mother's chest.
The waves crash against the small boat with so much force I feel like they try to swallow it. Drag it into the depths of this sea and take us with it.
I turn my eyes to the faces around me. Frightened little children holding on to their parents or older siblings. A woman holding her toddler. He can't be much older than three. The grown-ups look like they're made of stone. Ready to be the crosses for our graves in the deep water. They knew. When we stepped onto this floating graveyard, they knew we might not get to our destination. That we could become food for the sea. A sacrifice to the blue. Turn it red.
"Beatrice. Beatrice, are you okay?"
"Yes, mom."
I'm going to die. Six years old and I'm going to die.
"Caleb?" I ask. My voice is tight, unwilling to give away my fear.
"Yeah."
"Can you tell me a story?"
"You can't ask--"
I look him in the eyes, pleading. This one time. This last time.
"Fine. Once upon a time--" he begins.
The women with the boy in her arms starts a story too, and I tune Caleb out and turn to her, hungry for new material. The Abnegation rarely tell stories, but Caleb  used to sneak into my room when I couldn't sleep. When we still had a house. When we were still safe.
The woman talks quietly first, but I manage to catch the words.
"Once, when dragons still lived in the sky and kings still ruled our lands, a boy was born. His father and mother were poor..." It's a folks tale, old, retold over and over by the fire. Whispered into small ears. A tale of a hero.
The wind howls harder and fear finally overcomes me. I hold my mother tighter, my skinny arms like a cage around her waist. Tears stream down my cheeks.
"Mom, I don't want to die."
Can I be forgiven for all I've done to get here?
I want to be.
I can.
I believe it.

How to Read at Night

I personally love midnight reading. (Is that a thing? I want it to be a thing.) And let's admit it, we all love to read in bed, watching the alarm clock hit 00:00, sneaking out of bed to check if we can see the stars, and trying not to sob to loud when our favorite character dies. No matter how important sleep might be, to us, reading will always top it. But many of you, have become helpless prey to parents and fatigue, so let me share some tips with you.