My Top 5 Favorite Series

Hello Everyone, I am here to share my top five favorite book series. It was a really hard decision, but I narrowed my list down to 5 and I am very happy with how it turned out. So keep reading if you are curious. By the way, these are all completed series, because I feel like I cannot decide about a series if it hasn't finished yet.
5. The Selection series by Kiera Cass - I knew that I want to see this series on my top five list although The Crown wasn't my favorite, I absolutely love the first three books.
4. The Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella - A series about a woman, who cannot stop shopping and gets into all kinds of funny and sometimes awkward adventures?! Yes, please! This is one of those series, where you will laugh and will be able to relate to a the characters.
3. The Precious Stone trilogy by Kerstin Gier - I just cannot stop re-reading this series, because it is so cool with all the adventures and time-traveling. Plus, I love Gideon, but who doesn't? And plus the first two books were already made into a movie and the third one is coming out in less than two weeks. The only problem with it is that it will be a while until we can see it in English....
2. The Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter- I recently did a review about this series, if interested go check it out: https://booksdreamsandlifestyle.blogspot.hu/2016/05/gallagher-girls-series-review.html No need too say how much I love this series, not just because it's about a bunch of spies, but because it has mostly strong female characters and it's very rare to see that in books.
1. Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan - I never thought I will enjoy books, written from a 12 year olds point of view at 19 years old, but I did. Plus, I learned so much about Greek-mythology from these books, so I definitely recommend it.
These were my favorite series at the moment, but it always changes, so I will update this list every once in a while. What are your favorite series, or if you have read any of the series above, did you like them?
Until next time,
B

Me before you movie review

Hey Everyone, today I have a movie review for you, because I just saw the Me before you movie. and also this week I finished all of my exams so it's officially summer for me, so I hope I can read more, because June wan't my best reading-month.
Anyway, I liked the movie, but it wasn't as heart wrenching as the book was. Don't get me wrong, I was still crying, but not as much as I cried reading the book. Sam Claflin was one of my favorite actors since the Hunger Games-movies, so I got excited, when I saw that he is going to play Will. And he was a perfect Will in my opinion. It couldn't be easy to play a character, who can barely move his body, but he managed it. I haven't seen Emilia Clarke act, I have only seen a couple of interviews with her on TV and those interviews were really funny and I thought she kind of has a similar personality like Louisa has, so I was excited to see her act. And I was not disappointed, because she was great for the role of Louisa Clark. I think that in the book the family had a bigger role, but in the movie the focus was on Lou and Will and their relationship, but I would have liked to see a bit more of the family dynamics, which I loved so much in the book.
The scene on the beach wasn't as painful in my opinion in the movie as in the book, but the Switzerland scene was just as heart-wrenching. There were also a couple of changes in the movie, but it wasn't disturbing, it just made the story go on more smoothly.
Altogether I think it was a great movie and if you love these type of movies, just go ahead and watch it, you'll love it. I have a full book review up on the blog, about Me before you by Jojo Moyes, if you're interested: https://booksdreamsandlifestyle.blogspot.hu/2016/04/hi-i-just-finished-this-amazing-book.html
Also I have to mention that the director of this movie Thea Sharrock is going to direct the Selection movie, which is based on a book by Kiera Cass. After watching this movie, I can't wait to see the Selction movie.
What did you think about the movie if you have seen it? Are you excited about the Selection movie?Please share your opinion in the comment, because I am really curious.
Until next time,
B

Salt to the sea by Ruta Sepetys

Okay, I had this fear of ships already, before reading this book, but now I hate them even more. I don't think I will ever be able to go to a cruise ever again in my life. Everyone knows about the Titanic in my opinion, but the story of the Wilhelm Gustloff is just a hundred- times more heart wrenching.
Salt to the sea by Ruta Sepetys made me cry a lot and making me cry over a book is not easy. I expected this book to be more about the shipwreck, but in reality it is really about the people in this book running for their lives into safety, because no one really protects them in the war anymore. It takes place at the end of WWII. Germany is falling, but no one really admits it and the Russians are coming. In the center of the story there are four people, one thinks he is hero and is helping Germany, his name is Alfred. Joana is a nurse from Latvia, but she was allowed to go to Germany, because she had Germans in her family. She is wandering with a small group of people. Emilia, the Polish girl doesn't really know where she is going. Florian is running as well and tries to stay alive. He saves Emilia from a russian soldier and from that point Emilia follows him. And soon they meet the group in which Joana is and it turns out Emilia is eight months pregnant. The group pretty much goes together through the book from that point. Alfred is the one, who is in the harbor and he is preparing the ships for the people.
At firls I was afraid that, it will be disturbing to have the story told from four perspectives, but it tied together very well. The characters in this book were strong and captivating and they all had their own stories. The mutual thing to tie them together was the war and how much they have lost, because of it. They became a family on the road and they were holding on to each other. It's really interesting, that these people wouldn't have met if there wasn't a war. This is the example of, how something good can come out of something so wrong and tragic. Besides the four main characters there were so many other interesting people in this book, the Shoe Poet, who always talks about shoes, a little boy who joins the group one day from the woods, because his grandma didn't woke up.
The part when the ship sank was for me scarier than it was the Titanic movie. And that was on a screen and we saw the water and the ship sinking. But here it is told from peoples perspectives and it is also described, but you see the picture through emotions of people . And that made it so much different and so much more realistic in my opinion.
Lately I have read a lot of YA historical fiction and compared to this one, they were a little bit holding back on the shocking side of the war. This book just made me cry and feel thousands of emotions and it never let me down, because even if I only had time to read one or two pages, something always happened on those two pages.
If you haven't read this book, what are you waiting for?! And if you have read this book, what did you think of it? Please tell me in the comment below.
Until next time,
Bianka

Winter girls by Laurie Halse Anderson book review (World Eating Disorder Action Day post)

I just re-read Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson, because it just makes me think about so many things every time I read it. And June 2nd was World Eating Disorders Action Day, so I thought why not post this review. This  is a story about two girls, who are having eating disorders. One of them has anorexia and the other has bulimia. This book might be triggering at some points, but it really shows, what it's like to live with an eating disorder. At the same time it is about friendship, family, love and overcoming mental-illness as well as eating disorder. It is about the time, when you are not dead yet, but not alive either.

The story is told from Lia's point of view, she is the girl with anorexia and her best friend Cassie, the girl with bulimia just died in a motel room and Lia wasn't answering the phone, when Cassie called her. So Lia has to deal with the fact that her best friend died, but it is still not a wake-up call for her. It is perfectly clear that she is hungry, but she doesn't want to eat. Eating is something she can control and as she says in the book "empty is good, empty is pure". Everyone around her thinks that she is finally getting better, but in reality she is just really good in pretending. She is seeing Cassie's "ghost" and she wants her to join. Throughout the book we get to read about Lia's and Cassie's friendship and honestly it was a toxic friendship. Cassie started to throw up and then Lia kind of "followed" her into it, except she just started not eating. They promised each other they will be the skinniest girls in school, they kind of started to compete with each other.
I read this book a million times and I read it from two perspectives: the first couple of times I read it, when I couldn't imagine not eating for a day or two and I couldn't imagine, how could I not eat, when I am hungry. Recently I read it and now I fully understand this book and Lia's character. Some of those thing Lia feels, I feel too.  That is what makes this so realistic.
At the end I think this book is mainly about Lia, finally getting a wake-up call and finally being able to stand up. And it really shows that even though she wants to get help, she wasn't ready or wasn't strong enough to get better until this time. And that is what matters at the end.
This story is so captivating, because it shows a world which not a lot of people know, although it would be important to talk about these types of problems. Some people don't go and get help, because they feel ashamed and at the end that may lead to tragedies. If you're fighting with any kind of eating disorder stay strong and know that you're not alone and take one step at a time.
I hope you liked this post and if you have read this book, tell me in the comment if you have liked it or not and please write some book recommendations for my summer TBR, because I have no idea, what to read.
Until next time,
 Bianka

Gallagher Girls series review

Okay, I didn't plan doing this review, but I recently saw that this series is turning 10 years old this year, so I thought why not do it and if you become interested after reading my review you will be able to pick up the new 10th anniversary editions in June. Because although I have read all the books in this series, I for sure going to be buying the new editions, because there are brand new epilogues in the books.

So you probably assume that already, how much I love this series. I started this series when I was fourteen, I wasn't even speaking English at that time, so I read the first two books, because those were the only ones translated to Hungarian. and then at 16 when I was in England I saw the third book in the bookstore and I thought, why not? And it didn't let me down.

This series is taking place in a boarding school, except this is a school for spies. This is an all-girl school and everybody here is preparing to be the next super-spy. And the outside world doesn't know anything about it, they only assume it's just another girl-school for the "elite". It is like your childhood dream coming true, right?  Or at least I was always watching Totally Spies and I would play with my friends spy games, I know it's weird....
Anyway, our main character is Cammie, the "Chameleon", she is the daughter of the headmistress of the school, so she is from a family of spies. Her father disappeared years ago on a mission and they never found him. We get to read the story from her point of view. She has two best friends: Liz and Bex, Liz is the genius and Bex is also from a family of super-spies. And their team is going to be completed by someone, who arrives at the beginning of the first book: Macie McHenrie, daughter of a senator and she doesn't know anything about the Gallagher Academy being a school of spies and she is not very happy to be there at first. And there is the hot new Special Operations teacher Joe Solomon, who also happened to work with Cam's father, before he disappeared. And spoiler, there is also a spy boy involved... We get to follow these character trough many adventures and if you pick these books up you won't regret it. In the first two books the story is just slowly building up, but from the third one the actual big adventure will start. The first two books are fun, but in the ones after there is also a little bit of fun and besides that there is action, danger, romance and international conspiracy theories. And I didn't even realized how much I enjoyed this series from the 3rd book, I only realized how fast I read the books and how often I had to go online and buy the next book in the series. So yes, I love this series a lot. It has everything that spy novels should have, but it has that extra amount of girlyness and humor to it. Plus this book is full of kick-ass strong girls, who most of the time don't need a man to save them.

If you have read the series, comment down below your favorite scene or character, or if you haven't picked it up yet, what are you waiting for?!
Until next time,
Bianka

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein book review

Hey Everyone,
 I am here with another book review, which is going to be very emotional, I assume. I just finished reading Code Name Verity and I absolutely loved it. It moved me and it made me think about so many things. This book takes place in World War II., mainly in France, which is occupied by Germany by that time. I don't know why, but these days historical fiction taking place in WWII or between the two wars is my favorite type of book to read. Growing up I was never a big fan of history, but in the past two years I grew fond of it. I always had the greatest history teachers of all time in my opinion, but it was never my favorite subject. And then we started studying about World Wars and the time after them and between them and it is just very interesting what human kind is capable of doing with each  other. I think it didn't caught my attention before, because it wasn't so close to our lives and our "world". Even my parents and my grandparents can talk about some of the World War II and the fact that they had experienced this is horrifying. And there comes the question: is our world getting better or we are making the same mistakes again?!

The story of this book is told from two point of views, in the first part of the book a British spy girl tells her story, who is held as a prisoner of the nazis and in the second part her best best friend who dropped her off tells her story in the same time. In the center of this story there are two best friends, who share an amazing friendship, which survives everything, even war. The girl, who is held as a prisoner is told to write down everything she remembers, so she does from the beginning, except she tells her best friend's story, which will kind of include hers as well. She is kind of cooperating with the nazis, tells them codes, because she thinks she cannot get out of there anyways. All along she makes us believe she is cooperating with enemy. So after she finishes her story, until the point she got to France, we get to read the story from Maddie's point of view and it gives an entirely different look at everyone in Queen's/Julie's story. In Maddie's story we get to see some of the see the people who are around Julie in the prison and some of them are not really evil or aggressive at all. It shows that in wars no one really has a choice, they are all doing what they can do, because they want to survive somehow. And here is a controversial question in wars: What would we do in a situation like that? Would we save ourselves and do things opposite from our values or would we take the tourchure and the suffering, which comes with "doing the right thing"? It makes it hard to decide at the end of the book, who is good and who is bad.

Maddies and Julies friendship is such an extraordinary one and they are both very powerful persons and leading characters. It is very rare that a book has two strong leading female characters. They come from different backgrounds, but somehow they are equaling each other and they are both ready to do what has to be done. Maddie's decision towards the end showes that sometimes hard choices has to be made in wars and there is no way getting around it and you don't get to be selfish. And they way Julie knew Maddie is around just showed us how strong relationship they have.
Julie as a character was one of the most interesting to me, because I could never figure out, who she really was. Telling her story from Maddie's point of view never really gave us a full picture about her and even her days in the "prison", it turned out she never wrote down all the things that has happened. 

As I said in the beginning it is a book, which will make you think, about a bunch of questions and feel a thousands of feelings. It is great if you are into historical fiction or even f you are just looking for an interesting book. But I am warning you: you will not be able to put it down.
This book also showed a very realistic picture of the life in war and the details about the pilots lives and codes were definitely my favorite parts of the book.

If you have read this book, please share you're thoughts in the comments and I will "see" you soon! Also I am thinking about doing a Get to know me post so if you have any questions please ask them in the comments or on Instagram or Twitter.

Bye

Bianka

The Crown book review

Hey Everyone, I am here with an other review and this one is about my most anticipated book in 2016. This series started when I started high school and it ended this year just when I graduated high school. This series is so near and dear to my heart, because it is not only a great and entertaining series, but good memories are in connection with it.
This series is the Selection series by Kiera Cass. And today I am going to review the last book in the series, The Crown. I am not going to lie: The last two books (The Heir and The Crown) weren't as good as the firs three, but I was very happy to see everyone from the first trilogy again, I didn't even mind Eadlyn being a very annoying character. Because in my opinion she was and although this gave the possibility of her developing as a character in a good direction, she didn't seem to be such a strong character as America is/was. In my opinion, before we go to the spoiler section, if you liked the previous books, go read this it's very short and a fast read, but don't expect too much.

Okay, so this book caught me in a very bad mood, just because I have this decision hanging over my head, a big, life changing decision and somehow I expected this book to get me in some sort of way, because Eadlyn has to do her life-changing decision as well in this book. And it was only making me angry. The end, the actual choice was really rushed in my opinion, and although we got the emotional roller-coaster towards the end like in the One, I didn't feel like it was real and reasonable enough. I know that some people knew from the beginning, who Eadlyn is going to marry, but for me it was very insta-love between them. They have talked a couple of times, they had a little chemistry and suddenly Eadlyn thinks they are soulmates. It' either true love, and they are meant to be or it is another insta-love case. I would have even liked the pair of them if there had been more time to see them actually together. In the announcement scene, where Eadlyn finally did the announcement, Eikko seemed very passive for me and I don't know why I feel that way, because his character could have been one of the most lovable ones in this book, but I feel like I didn't get to see enough of him to form a whole opinion about him. The scene where Eadlyn says goodbye to Kile my heart was definitely broken. And it wasn't because I was shipping Eadlyn and Kile together, but they had a more developed relationship and for me it was more believable. I definitely think this book could have been longer. The good part was to see Eadlyn finally make some development a change of heart, but a little bit more determination concerning her choice, would have been better. America and Maxon weren't present in this book as much as I would have liked it, but less is more and they are still adorable.
I think this wasn't the best closure to the series, but I am grateful for Kiera Cass for making me go back into this world once again for the last time.
Let me know your thoughts about the book and I'll see you soon.
Bye, Bianka