Bookish Goodness: Green Smoothies by Fern Green

Every student knows that mornings can be a hectic time. The choice between just a few more minutes of sleep and eating a health breakfast sometimes doesn't feel like a choice at all. Being a senior hasn't made deciding any easier for me. More often than not, I choose to sleep for as long as I possibly can and end up grabbing some kind of breakfast bar of skipping breakfast altogether.

A trend I had seen pop up on the internet a while ago was drinking smoothies instead of eating breakfast. This appealed to me for several reasons. First, I had the option of making a smoothie the night before and leaving it in the fridge for a quick departure in the morning. Second, I also had the option of making a bulk batch and freezing it, only defrosting a smoothie when I wanted to have it. Third, I've never really been a big eater in the morning (even when I did eat a normal breakfast regularly) so a smoothie seemed like a lighter, better option. All of these reasons made me want to try smoothies for breakfast, the hard part was finding healthy options, which is why I was super happy to receive a copy of Green Smoothies by Fern Green from Blogging for Books to review.

As the cover says, this book includes recipes for more than just smoothies, it includes recipes for juices, nut milks, and tonics as well. This made me even more excited to try the recipes out because there is more variety! The book starts out with an introduction that overviews the benefits of drinking smoothie, choosing between a smoothie or a juice, the various ingredients that can be put in to the different recipes, and the basic equipment you'll need. As an added bonus, there is a seven day juice detox plan and a page of tips for making your detox as effective as possible.

The recipes themselves are divided in to three sections: smoothies, juices, and shots & milks. One of my favorite aspects of this book is that each recipe details the health benefits that come along with drinking each. I also like that there is no added sugar to any of the recipes; each recipe is fruits, nuts, veggies, and herbs only! All of the recipes I've tried so far have been really yummy too!

Overall, I would give this book a rating of 5 out of 5 stars. The cover is pretty cool and the layout is logical and intuitive. I like all of the extra information we are given beyond just the recipes, but my favorite part is that all of the recipes are healthy and, of the ones I've tried, delicious!

ARC Review: The Last Place on Earth by Carol Snow

So, I think you all know by now that I lurk on Emma of Miss Print's ARC adoption page, waiting to snag any interesting looking/sounding ARCs. :D I might have a problem...said no book addict ever! The book she sent me this time is The Last Place on Earth by Carol Snow, which has a release date of February 26, 2016 (YAY for early access).

I had never heard of this book before I saw it on Emma's page, but I thought I would really enjoy it after I read the synopsis. I'm warning you now though, this review is super heavy on the spoilers, so stop reading here and skip to the end if you want to go in to it unaware! I mean it! I'm going to give away most of the book!

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Warning: There are spoilers for the book contained in this review.

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This book, to me, had a lot of potential. Daisy was a dynamic, fun character to read. For a book that started off with a mystery, she was a good choice as narrator because she was freaked out enough to be believable but she was determined enough to keep investigating. The idea of her friendship with Henry was really interesting too, mostly because we initially only see it through her eyes.

Henry himself started out as an interesting character too. We hear enough about him from Daisy and the other characters to really feel like you know him, but he's ultimately missing, and so his true characters isn't really revealed until Daisy finds him. That's when we find out that everything we thought we knew about him, everything Daisy thought she knew, wasn't right. And that is exactly when this story went bad.

If the author had stuck to the synopsis, I think this book would have been amazing. Instead, everything the synopsis hints at plays out in the first couple of chapters. After that, the story devolves into a weird semi-but-not-apocalyptic comedy routine. We find out that Henry's family are preppers and that he has definitely drunk the cool-aid. The family is living on a compound with several other families (including one that is the stuff of kidnapping nightmares). The author sets it up as them being not-quite-right-in-the-head. Then we find out that, surprise, Henry and his parents are right and there is a massive plague that is killing everyone off. Not only that, but as suddenly as everything starts, it ends just as suddenly.

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End Spoilers

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 Overall, I did not like this book. The cover is gorgeous and the synopsis is intriguing. Actually, it had a lot of potential, but the author took the story in a weird direction that I just couldn't get in to. My biggest problem with it was that the synopsis was misleading; it really only covered the events of the first couple of chapters. Therefore, I had to give The Last Place on Earth 2 out of 5 stars.

Bookish Goodness: The Time Garden by Daria Song

When I first started hearing about "adult" coloring books, I was skeptical. Don't get me wrong, I love coloring, but I couldn't imagine how coloring could be made any more awesome and fun than it already was. Not surprisingly, adult coloring books (the ones I've seen) really are an improvement! The pictures are more complex and the books seem to have more continuity within their picture sets. One coloring book that I really enjoyed, and reviewed, was The Time Chamber by Daria Song. After I had such a great time coloring it in, I just couldn't wait to get my hands on The Time Garden, which is by the same artist! Once again, it was the lovely folks at Blogging for Books who came through for me and sent me a copy!

 

 

Like the first book, both the front and back cover are (apart from the copper leaf) completely colorable! This feature was one of the main things I liked about the first book, so I'm glad to see it make a return. Also, like the first book, this book has an actual story with words. I liked the story, but I didn't find it necessary to my enjoyment of coloring in the book at all. Finally, this book also includes a Visual Index in the back! This was honestly my favorite feature from the first book and I am beyond happy to see that they included it in The Time Garden as well!

 

Overall, The Time Garden was an excellent addition to this series of adult coloring books. The pictures are gorgeous and it has a lot of handy/fun additions. I gave The Time Garden 5 out of 5 stars; I can't wait to see what Daria Song publishes next!

ARC Review: Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Hi all, long time no see! I hope you all had a happy holiday season! I had a great winter break. I was able to go home for two weeks for Christmas and New Years and then came back only to find out that I was getting expanded hours and responsibilities at work (YAY!)! I was able to finish off my 2015 goodreads reading challenge, coming out with a total of 155 books read. With the new University semester (my last) starting tomorrow, I knew that my reading was going to slow down considerably. I also knew that there were a couple of books that I needed to read before the beginning of the semester. One of those books was Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys.

The wonderful Emma from Miss Print was kind enough to send me an advanced reader copy to review. As of right now, this book has a release date of February 2, 2016, and it should definitely be on your TBR list! Recently I have read several books that had misleading summaries on goodreads, so I was very happy to find that this books summary was very accurate.

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According to goodreads: The author of Between Shades of Gray returns to WWII in this epic novel that shines a light on one of the war's most devastating—yet unknown—tragedies.

In 1945, World War II is drawing to a close in East Prussia, and thousands of refugees are on a desperate trek toward freedom, almost all of them with something to hide. Among them are  Joana, Emilia, and Florian, whose paths converge en route to the ship that promises salvation, the Wilhelm Gustloff. Forced by circumstance to unite, the three find their strength, courage, and trust in each other tested with each step closer toward safety.

Just when it seems freedom is within their grasp, tragedy strikes. Not country, nor culture, nor status matter as all ten thousand people aboard must fight for the same thing: survival.

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WWII is one of my favorite time periods to learn about but I don't usually like reading historical fiction set during this time period for several reasons. First, books set in this time period are often extremely graphic and negative. I know that the war years were horrible and things happened that would turn most anyone's stomach and that it is important to know about the atrocities that were perpetrated so that they never happen again, but they lack any type of hope or humanity and that makes them difficult to read. Second, if the books aren't graphic and negative then they are overly cheerful and gloss over everything negative. As much as I don't like reading books that are overly graphic, I dislike the WWII books that make everything seem like a walk-in-the-park even more. WWII was a war, horrendous things happened, and to ignore those things is wrong. Salt to the Sea did not have either of these problems. It addressed the terror and hardship of WWII in a tasteful, purposeful way.

It jumped around between several characters in short chapters which made the book seem much shorter than it actually was. I liked that we got to see several perspectives of the events because it showed that there are multiple sides to every story. However, I did not enjoy reading Alfred's chapters because I felt that they didn't really add much to the story (other than the fact that he was the only pro-Nazi character).

My only real complaint about the book was the ending. The whole story was very detailed and progressed slowly right up until the last chapter. At the very end, the author skipped forward 24 years and introduced a new character. It almost seemed to me that someone told the author that the book was too long, so she skipped the rest of what she was going to write and tried to wrap it up in two pages. I would have much rather read several more chapters, or even another book, to get the same level of detail for the rest of what happened.

Overall, I really liked this book, and I gave it 4 out of 5 stars. It had its good points and its bad points, but I am glad I read it. I would definitely recommend reading it!

Bookish Goodness: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

My sister and I are cat sitting and my laptop had run out of battery so I couldn't do schoolwork or work on my NaNoWriMo project. Which means that I marathoned Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I didn't mean to; it just kind of happened. It's pink cover was glaring up at me, begging to be read.

I've actually read, or at least attempted to read, every other Rainbow Rowell book (except Carry On). My problem isn't that I don't like her books, its that I like them a whole lot and then the ending ruins everything for me. I had an inkling that Fangirl would be different, but I couldn't be sure, so I put it off. It's actually kind of funny that I finally got around to reading this book right now though. In junior high/high school, I was a huge fanfiction reader. It was my top source of entertainment. As I got older, I still read fanfiction, but not as much as I used to. My life has been kind of difficult for the last couple of years though and I have been increasingly falling back into fanfiction (I fully realize that this may be a less-than-healthy coping mechanism, but it is helping me cope). Then, I saw a tweet about NaNoWriMo. In my fanfiction heyday, I did try my hand at writing fanfiction (one stand alone that was half decent and another multi-chapter fic that I abandoned [and was not very good to begin with]) but I didn't stick with it for long. For years afterward, I would write down ideas as they came to me for other fics, but I never actually tried to take them anywhere. So, I decided to dive right in and try to actually write a fanfiction based on one of my ideas. Basically, over the last couple of days, my life has been reading fanfiction, writing fanfiction, and now reading about a girl writing fanfiction.

There are a lot of things, besides the fanfiction, that I liked about this book. I liked that Cath was kind of lost and weird when she first got to college. I like that she made mistakes and misunderstood things and just generally kept to herself. I like that her sister was a total bitch. I like that Levi messed up. I like that Reagan stuck by Cath. I like that some things worked out in the end and that some didn't.

There wasn't a lot that I didn't like about the book. I didn't like how Cath and Wren's Dad seemed kind of thrown into the story sometimes. I didn't like Courtney. At all. Period. I didn't like that we didn't get to see more of Professor Piper's class or more of the ultimate final project.

So, this is, by far, my favorite book by Rainbow Rowell. I really couldn't give it anything other than 5 out of 5 stars. Now, I absolutely cannot wait to dive into Carry On; I really hope it lives up to the standard Fangirl set.

Bookish Goodness: Chasing Merlin by Sarah White

Between NaNoWriMo (my word count is at 800, but I'm happy with that because it's more than the 0 I started out with), schoolwork, and the craziness going on on campus (I go to the University of Missouri), I haven't had a lot of time for reading. But I decided to take a little break from everything and dive into a book I have been wanting to read that has been sitting on my shelf for a long time: Chasing Merlin by Sarah White.

Merlin is one of those characters who, in one form or another, has been written about more times than a person can count. In my experience, there is no in-between portrayal of Merlin, it is either good or bad. This story is one of the really good ones. I liked that the story addressed both Merlin as myth and Merlin as man and that both aspects were worked into the story. I liked that there was magic present in the story but that it wasn't the main focus and didn't drive everything that happened. One problem I did have was how Emrys treated Dyllan, which was completely rude, and how she just accepted it without any anger. I also had a problem with how the relationship and conflict between Emrys and Ryan just suddenly cut off, almost as if it didn't matter, when it was actually a driving plot point behind the last part of the book. My biggest complaint though is the ending. The entire book was filled with clues and foreshadowing of where the story was going, who the characters were, and what their motivations were. Then the ending came, with no warning, and it wasn't what had been hinted at from the beginning. The other did make mention of a foretelling that made the ending make sense, but it felt contrived. Nevertheless, I loved this book! I gave it 4 out of 5 stars and would definitely recommend it!

Outside My Norm: NaNoWriMo News and a Daria Song Book Review

Hi All! It's November, and you know what that means: NaNoWriMo! I've actually been signed up on the NaNoWriMo website since 2012, quietly lurking in the shadows, watching other people's progress, but I've never actually tried to write anything of my own before. Sure, I've had ideas for stories, both fanfiction and original, but I've never had the (drive, time, patience) to actually attempt to flesh it all out in writing. This year, and last fall, has been very changing for me though. I went through, and am still going through, some things that made me realize that I have to go for what I want. In light of that, I decided to try writing some of my ideas out. Most recently, I have had several ideas for novels but, if I'm being perfectly honest, I don't think I have the experience/technical ability to do them justice. So, I decided to start by working on a Harry Potter fanfiction idea I came up with almost eight years ago.  School of course comes first, so my writing has been pretty sporadic, but I'm having fun anyway. If you're participating in NaNoWriMo (or want to, there is still time to sign up!), I'd love to be buddies! Here is my NaNoWriMo page. Good luck to everyone participating!

Because I'm juggling school and NaNoWriMo, my reading has slowed down some. But reading is my stress outlet (writing could be if I wasn't so type A about it). Luckily for me, Blogging For Books sent me a copy of The Time Chamber by Daria Song to review.

If you couldn't tell from the cover, this is an "adult" coloring book! I have been wanting to try one for a very long time, so I was doubly happy to receive this copy. The first thing about this book that caught my eye, and made me super happy, is that the cover (besides the copper leaf) is fully colorable on the outside and on the inside! The second thing that I noticed is that the book isn't just a coloring book! It has an actual story, with words, on the inside. There aren't so many words that it bogs you down reading, but just enough to drive your imagination forward! I also really liked the Visual Index in the back. Sometimes, when the pictures are big with lots of tiny details, I get overwhelmed. It's helpful that I can get an idea of the overall picture and what I want to do with the picture without being caught up in the minutia!

As for tools, I specifically bought Crayola Twistable Colored Pencils for this book. However, those are more blunt tipped and the pictures have many fine details that I think classic pencils that can be sharpened would be better to use. All in all, I am super happy with this coloring book! I give it 5 out of 5 stars. The pictures are gorgeous and I cannot tell you how much I enjoy adding color to them.