Illuminae by Amie Kaufmann and Jay Kristoff book review

Hello Everyone, in this post we are going to review Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. I am going to be honest, I didn't plan on writing a review about this one, but at the end I loved it so much, I just had to.

What the book is about:

This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do.

This afternoon, her planet was invaded.

The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.

But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet's AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it's clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she'd never speak to again.

Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes. 

My thoughts and review:

I remember the hype around this book, when it came out last year and I wanted to read this book, but as I said in a lot of posts before, overhyped books almost always leave me disappointed. But his book lived up to my already high expectations. This book was genius. I seriously cannot believe how two people can come up with such an interesting format for a book and at the same time make the story so complex. Yes, at the beginning I was afraid that the characters will stay flat and two-dimensional, but this was not the case at all. It surprised me, how the story came  together and how easily I could get to know the characters jut from their messages, e-mails and diaries. Kady was a strong female character and I really liked her sarcasm. I wish we could have seen more from Ezra, somehow I feel I got to know Kady so much better, than him throughout the book. My favorite character was AIDAN, although he wasn't even a real character, since he is a computer. I know that's strange, but it was interesting to see how a computer thinks and how at the end it can mimic human feelings. The drawings of the spaceships really helped to imagine the story and really follow up with the characters. The other thing that made me enjoy this book a lot were the scenes with the captains and leaders.

And I don't want to spoil any of the plot twists, but there were so many and they weren't the ones you could predict. Definitely one of those books, where you won't be bored.

And another thing: This book has an audiobook, that will blow your mind. I am not a big fan of audiobooks, but this one was like a movie without the screen. It made the story so much more enjoyable and a lot more realistic.
If you haven't read this book you definitely should, because it's amazing, plus the sequel Gemina is coming out this October, so you don't have to wait a lot for next installment in the series. Have you read this book? Did you like it?
Until next time,
Bianka

A peek inside my head...

Hey Everyone, how are you doing? Today's post is not going to be a book related one, because I just wanted to do a bit more personal one. I love writing about books, but sometimes I feel like talking about different kind of things, that happen in life. So, today I am going to talk about this year, kind of. As you could read in my wrap-up post (click here to read it) I got accepted to university and although I am really happy, thoughts just come to my head. I am a person, who is not a big fan of big changes. And although sometimes changes are good for you and are inevitable, it's still hard and scary. And this year so far has been the year of big changes. So many things happened in such a sort time and I feel a little bit lost amongst them. Leaving high school was a big change. Although I wasn't the biggest fan of it, it is still a big milestone in your life and it's a big deal. After that you're definitely not a kid. You're an adult. At the time I honestly felt like I don't even know how to be a teenager, let alone an adult. I was always an athlete. And that leads to the other big change: leaving figure skating. And there we are: I am not an athlete anymore. And it doesn't affect my everyday life so much as it affects my identity. It's just weird, because it was such a basic thing in my life, it was like my name or my birth date. Sounds awkward and silly, but think about it: How would you feel like, if you couldn't introduce yourself with your name anymore?! Now, I am laughing at myself for writing such things down. But really, I am still trying to figure out, who I have grown to be besides an athlete. Besides the girl, who loves to write and read books and watch TV-shows. I wasn't a very social-person until this point, but I was always tired, so that explains it. But what if I am a very social person? I am thinking about this so hard, I even questioned my love for my favorite things at one point. I am just trying to get to know this person I am now. Am I an young adult or am I still a teenager? I feel like this summer I finally got to be a real teenager and now I have to be an adult, because that'S everyone says a university student is, right?! Some people have years to be teenagers, I had two months. But at the same time I definitely feel like I am doing great, although I overthink it a little bit and I am doing right know what I want to do. Although it's hard sometimes and I am going to be honest, scary, I wouldn't change anything in my life back to how it was before. Even if I missed out on being a full-on teenager, I never for one second regret it. Because I had the most amazing "childhood" ever. and now it's time to grow up and see how I can use whatever I learned on the ice.
Now I definitely think, that I am overreacting this whole growing up, but this is how I feel. And I am sure I am not alone these feelings or I hope I am not alone... I hope you enjoyed this post and you could relate to it.
See you next time,
Bianka

July Wrap-Up

Yes, it's already the end of another month. It's crazy. This year is going by so fast, I cannot even keep up. So, today I am going to do a wrap-up post and later this week I am going to upload another post, so keep an eye on my twitter or my instagram, because I will notify you whenever it's up. From now on in my wrap-up I am going to tell you about all the books I read in the month, like usually and also I am going to tell you my favorite memory or thing in the month. I think it's a great way, to make these wrap-ups a little bit more exciting and personal.
Books I read in July:
My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jody Meadows: I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed this one. It was a perfect summer read. I gave it 3.5 stars on Goodreads, because the plot was little bit slow at some points, but overall I think its a very enjoyable read. A review is up on the blog, just click here, if you want to read it.
Én vagy senki by Dorka Mészáros: This was a Hungarian YA book, it's not available in English. If I want to translate the title, it's Me or no one. It was meant to be a thriller, mystery book, but I think it was really flat and unrealistic. It seemed very promising and I don't find hungarian YA books promising often, but this in my opinion was not a good book and I honestly wouldn't recommend it. But it's only my opinion, don't hate me, if you loved it.
Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover: For me Colleen Hoopvers books were always a little bit too dramatic, but in this one I truly fell in love with Colleen Hoovers writing. I think in this book the characters behaved a lot more mature than in other NA romances. It was a very enjoyable read, I am going to be honest, I think its my favorite out of her books. I liked that it had music written to it, like actual music, how cool is that?!
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff : I am technically just reading it, but I am almost done with it, so it counts right?! This book surprised me in so many ways. I am going to admit at the beginning it was a little bit confusing, but later on I started to listen to the audiobook and after that I understood everything. I know I said in my 25 bookish facts about me post, that I cannot listen to audiobooks (you can read the post, if you click here), but this one is pretty much like a movie without the screen. And I love it.
Best moment of the month:
I GOT ACCEPTED TO UNIVERSITY!!!!! I cannot believe I am basically a university student now and I am honestly so proud of myself, because all the hard work is just paying off and that feels amazing.
July has been very relaxing and at the same time a really eventful month and I cannot wait to see what adventures are waiting for me in August. How was your July? Please tell me in the comments, because I am curious as always.
Until next time,
Bianka

My Lady Jane book review

In today's review I am going to talk about a book, which was super hyped-up around the book-community. Because of that I am a little bit nervous about writing this review. I have heard nothing but great things about this book and going into it I was super excited, but I think my expectations were too high. It was a great, enjoyable read, don't get me wrong, but I would have loved it even more if there wasn't any hype around it. I am almost afraid to start these kind of books, because most of the time I don't like them as much as I want too. Tell me in the comments if I am not alone, because I start to think that I am just picky.

So lets jump right into today's book review and the book is My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Jodi Meadows, Brodi Ashton.

The synopsis:

The comical, fantastical, romantical, (not) entirely true story of Lady Jane Grey. In My Lady Jane, coauthors Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows have created a one-of-a-kind fantasy in the tradition of The Princess Bride, featuring a reluctant king, an even more reluctant queen, a noble steed, and only a passing resemblance to actual history—because sometimes history needs a little help.

At sixteen, Lady Jane Grey is about to be married off to a stranger and caught up in a conspiracy to rob her cousin, King Edward, of his throne. But those trifling problems aren’t for Jane to worry about. Jane gets to be Queen of England.

Like that could go wrong.

I would definitely want to keep this as spoiler free as possible, so I am not going to go into details about the plot. This book seemed to me kind of a historical fiction novel, with a fantasy twist. Usually fantasy books don't really catch my attention, so why did I buy this exactly?! The humor. All of the reviews I read said, this book has a good amount humor in it.  And they were right. Whenever the plot slowed down a little bit (honestly it happened a lot) and you just wanted to put this book down, a joke or a little sarcasm was there and you wanted to continue on, because it just "hit" you out of nowhere and you were curious if there is more. I don't say often that a book is funny, but this one is, without forcing it. And lucky for me, I even liked the fantasy part of the story. People changing into animals is even cool in my opinion.

The main character, Jane is a book lover and because of that I couldn't hate her when she was annoying. I think it was really funny, that whatever situation they got into, she has read a book about it. G was like any teenage boy and yes, sometimes he was annoying too, but I could understand him and that is always a plus point in a book. I think every teenager feels like running away at some point. Edward is the same, but he has to be a king and he doesn't really care about it at the beginning, but at the end I think he becomes stronger and more like a king. Mary and Lord Dudley were the perfect evil characters with obvious intentions, their characters were enjoyable. Gracie was kind of a side kick to Edward along the way and their romance was definitely the cutest thing in this book. Another good thing was the relationship between Jane and G. It wasn't insta love and it wasn't over-thought and all romantic, it just slowly developed between them and it wasn't too much in the way of everything and everyone else in the book. It was settle and simple.

And the best thing was how almost every character in the book has gone trough character-developement throughout the story. This is why this book got the 4th star on goodreads. Love when characters change throughout a book, because it just gives a lot of different aspects of a character and it is what makes them real and relatable, because let's face it: we all change through life.

I think if you haven't read this book and want to read an enjoyable, funny and cool story this summer, definitely pick this book up, you won't regret it. And if you have read it, tell me your opinion in the comments, because as always I am always curious. I hope you have an amazing summer so far,

Bianka

25 Bookish Facts About Me

In today's post I am going to do a tag, this is going to be my first ever tag here on the blog, so I hope you will enjoy reading it and also getting to know me a little bit better. I wasn't tagged by anyone, but I thought it would be fun to do it. So, here it goes:

#1. I am the only bookworm in my family.
#2. When I was little I hated reading. I remember I had to read Call of the Wild By Jack London in 4th grade and it felt like torture.
#3. The first YA book I read was Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer. And yes, I only read the 3rd and 4th Twilight book.
#4. I never read Harry Potter, but I am going to.
#5. I actually prefer paperbacks over hardbacks, because they are easier to carry around, plus they are cheaper.
#6. I always have a book with me, wherever I go. I am a Rory Gilmore at heart.
#7. When people read in movies that makes me happy. I don't know why it just does. It is also the same when characters read in a book.
#8. I only like to read physical copies of books. No e-books.
#9. I cannot listen to audiobooks, I just can't. I tried, but for most of the time it is not working out for me.
#10. I do most of my reading on the bus or on the tram.
#11. I sometimes forget to get off the bus at the right nation, because of reading a book.
#12. Before going to sleep I always read for about an hour.
#13. The first book I read in English was Allegiant by Veronica Roth, it was a struggle, because my English wasn't the best at the time, but I did it.
#14. I like to read contemporary in Hungarian.
#15. My least favorite genre is probably fantasy. It's just how it is.
#16. I love conspiracy and spy stories the most. And if they have historical fiction elements, thats even better.
#17. My favorite book of all time is Anna and the french kiss by Stephanie Perkins. It doesn't matter where I am, it always cheers me up.
#18. I never eat or drink anything, while I am reading.
#19. I buy most of my books online. Since there are no english books in Hungarian bookstores.
#20. I never start a new book on the same day I finished the last one. I just like to leave time for the endings to sink in.
#21. After finishing a book, I liked to imagine how the story continues for days. The characters just stay in my head.
#22. I never put a book down if it is bad, because I always want to give it a chance.
#23. My goodreads reading challenge goal for 216 is 70 books. And I am far too behind...
#24. I never let my friends borrow my books (not like a lot of them want to), because of bad memories in the past, in connection with friends destroying my books. I don't want to talk about it....
#25. I obviously have a book buying problem. But let's face it, this is the most obvious fact out of the 25 listed above and by the way we probably all have a book buying problem, right?
If you liked this post, please tell me one bookish fact about you in the comments. I hope you enjoyed reading this post, if you did and you want to stay updated on new posts on the blog, please subscribe on the right.
See you next time,
Bianka

The Fixer- Jennifer Lynn Barnes book review

Today I am here with another book-review and I have to say, for some reason it wasn't an easy one to write. Not because the book itself was bad or I didn't like it, but it was really hard to write about it without spoiling you. I gave this book 4/5 stars on Goodreads, so you can imagine it was good, but in order to make this review as good as it can be without spoiling you, I m going to try a different method and I won't try to explain the plot.
The synopsis: 
Sixteen-year-old Tess Kendrick has spent her entire life on her grandfather's ranch. But when her estranged sister Ivy uproots her to D.C., Tess is thrown into a world that revolves around politics and power. She also starts at Hardwicke Academy, the D.C. school for the children of the rich and powerful, where she unwittingly becomes a fixer for the high school set, fixing teens’ problems the way her sister fixes their parents’ problems.
And when a conspiracy surfaces that involves the family member of one of Tess's classmates, love triangles and unbelievable family secrets come to light and life gets even more interesting—and complicated—for Tess.

Sounds good right?! This story was so much more than I expected it to be. It was kind of giving me the same feeling, as the Gallagher Girls series and the Embassy Row series by Ally Carter and also what caught my eyes in one of the reviews I read, it is little bit like Veronica Mars. Do you need any more than that in a book?! The only thing I was missing from this book was a little romance, because there was none. And I am okay with that for now, because this whole book was building up a story, we got to know the characters, but a romance would be adding more to the story. But it is just my opinion. Ivy, Tess's sister was an interesting character all along, although I figured one of the plot-twist before it actually happened, I could understand her and she was a kick-ass female character. Tess was a little bit grumpy for me, but I could understand, why she did what she did. But the most likable characters were Adam and Asher. Both of these characters were an amazing support team for Ivy and Tess and I cannot wait to see them in the next book, hopefully a little bit more. Asher was the funny best friend and was always making the situations funnier. Adam was one of those persons, who you could instantly befriend with in my opinion. Henry was my least favorite, because at some point he was rude and even if he had a reason for that, I didn't like it at all.
The plot in this book was not expectable, although I was afraid it would be. The main "mistery" ws well built up and I cannot wait for what is coming in the next part of the story.
If you have read this book, please tell me what you think about, because as aways, I am very curious.
Until next time,
B

June Wrap Up

Hey Everyone, since June is already over it's time for another wrap-up. I didn't do a May wrap-up, because I only read one book in that month, so I figured it would not make sense to do one. But in June I managed to read three books altogether, which is not too much, but it's enough to write a wrap-up. So, a lot of things happened in June, I have a full post about it, if interested go check it out here . Because of those things it wasn't my best reading month.
The first book I read in June was Salt to the sea by Ruta Sepetys and this book was just amazing. It made me cry, it made me laugh and most importantly made me afraid of ships even more than I already was. I have a full review on this one, so go read it if you are interested, just click here.
The next book I read was Be with me by Jennifer L. Armentrout. I have read Wait for me a couple of months ago and I liked it, so when I saw that the 2nd book in the series is coming out translated to Hungarian, I picked it up. I didn't like this as much as I liked the first one, but it was OK. It was a perfect for reading after my exams, because it'S a really easy and fast read. The story follows Tess and Jase and how they fall for each other, it's pretty basic, but the writing kind of makes it enjoyable. I liked the guy in the first book better, his name was Cam and at the same time I liked Tess in this book more than Avery from the first book. But since Cam and Tess are related to each other, I got where the similarity comes from. So if you're looking for a good romance for the summer, I definitely recommend this one.
And the last book I read in June was The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. I am going to do a review about this book for next week, but I just want to say,it  was very impossible to put this book down. This story gave me the same feeling as the Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter (click here for review) . The only thing I was missing from this book was a little bit of romance, so I hope there will be some in the next book.
This was my very sad and short wrap-up, but I hope I get to read next moth a lot more. I hope you enjoyed reading and if you have read any of these books, please tell me in the comments what you thought about them.
And one more thing is that yesterday I reached a 100 followers on Instagram and I am super happy about it. I am very thankful if you are following me and react to my pictures in some way and I am very excited about this first little milestone since I started my Instagram and my blog.
Until next time,
B