Heart Full of Ink: July 2016

Fangirl of Fangirl

6:26 AM

Summary of Fangirl

A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love.

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan...

But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

Review

I'll admit it, I put off reading Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell for a long time because of the description of the book. Specifically the lines "Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories? And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?" For whatever reason, when I read those lines my reaction was, "I don't want to read a book about a girl who writes fan fiction because she can't handle reality." It wasn't until I was asking someone for suggestions of audiobook readers they liked, that I decided to finally give Fangirl a chance. I am so happy that I did. Not only do Rebecca Lowman and Maxwell Caulfield do an excellent job of narrating the book (which is high praise considering I am very picky when it comes to audiobook readers. I blame this on the fact that my first audiobook narrator was Jim Dale reading the Harry Potter books, thus spoiling me for all other narrators), but the book is filled with relatable characters and two love stories which made my heart happy while reading them. Why oh why did I put off reading this book??? I am totally going to fangirl about Fangirl for the rest of this review because I loved it.

I absolutely adore all of the characters. For starters, the main character Cath is so gosh darn relatable. Reading her thoughts and reactions to different scenarios felt like I was doing them instead of her because she and I share a lot of the same personality traits. The scene where Cath doesn't know where the cafeteria is on campus and doesn't want to be the annoying freshman asking her older roommate for help so she just eats energy bars in her room is totally something I would do. In fact, Cath actually made me feel a bit better about some of my personality traits that I haven't always liked about myself like how I sometimes lack confidence, worry too much, and go through bouts of not wanting to interact with other people. Thank you, Rainbow Rowell, for creating Cath. It's rare for me to find a character in which I see so much of myself.

All of the supporting cast in the book were well written as well. Levi is so freaking adorable. Can I please request my own person Levi? Seriously, the way Rowell describes his smiles makes me swoon. His labrador retriever, happy to make other people happy personality is such a refreshing change of pace. My only complaint was that he did seem a bit too perfect, but as soon as I thought that, he did make a mistake (which is good because I love his character and would've been disappointed if he was perfect because everyone has flaws). Reagan, Cath's roommate, is confident and tough but caring. Cath's twin sister Ren is a complicated character. Cath's dad not only plays a huge role in the book, unlike most parents in YA, but he is also a complex character—a single father whose manic episodes sometimes interfere with his life—and his storyline is just as fascinating to read as Cath's. I could go on and on about how much I love the characters in this book, but I'll move on to the fan fiction aspect Fangirl.

I've only ever written one piece of fan fiction before and that was for a writing contest on Figment where the prompt was to write about your own Sorting at Hogwarts. After reading, Fangirl, I found myself itching to write some real fan fiction (i.e. Harry Potter Fan Fiction without me as the main character because frankly that's just a little bit weird). The sections of the book that had excerpts from the Simon Snow books and Carry On (Cath's Simon Snow) fan fiction were some of my favorite parts of reading Fangirl. I haven't even read Carry On yet and I'm already shipping Simon and Bas like crazy.

As I'm sure it will come as no surprise, I will be reading Carry On soon. I am glad I can finally jump aboard the Rainbow Rowell hype train, and declare that this girl *points both thumbs at self in a super cheesy way* is a fangirl of Fangirl.

Red Riding Hood and The Big Bad Wolf

4:34 AM

Summary of Scarlet

Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She’s trying to break out of prison—even though if she succeeds, she’ll be the Commonwealth’s most wanted fugitive.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn’t know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother’s whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.

Summary from goodreads

Review

Sequels can be tough to pull off. It's inevitable that readers will compare the second book in a series to the first book, the second book to the third book and so on and so forth. In the case of Scarlet by Marissa Meyer, I definitely found myself comparing it with the first book Cinder and found Scarlet to be wanting. Though I still enjoyed reading Scarlet, I didn't connect with the characters Scarlet and Wolf as much as I did Cinder and Kai.

The relationship between Scarlet and Wolf wasn't my cup of tea. It happened way too quickly, and there was a little too much of Wolf being manipulative and controlling for my taste. I also rolled my eyes while reading about his fight with his brother over Scarlet in which Wolf growls, "She's mine." After reading Cinder, in which the relationship between Cinder and Kai progresses slowly and builds over time (in other words, a realistic relationship), I felt let down by the romance between Scarlet and Wolf in Scarlet. I realize that it is a retelling of a fairy tale and that fairy tales often depict people falling in love with each other after knowing one another for one day, but this book is a retelling. Meyer could've slowed down Scarlet and Wolf's relationship, but for whatever reason she chose not to do so.

While I wasn't impressed by Scarlet and Wolf, I did enjoy continuing to read about Cinder, Kai, and Thorne. It was nice to continue with Cinder and Kai's stories because the end of the first book left both of them in a lurch. I was pleasantly surprised to be introduced to the character Thorne, a shameless flirt who keeps insisting people call him Captain much like a certain Captain Jack Sparrow. I am excited to read more about Thorne, Cinder, and Kai in the next book.

As with Cinder, the plot of Scarlet was predictable yet still enjoyable to read. I gave Scarlet by Marissa Meyer 3 out of 5 stars on goodreads.

Summer Comment Challenge-August 2016

8:17 PM

The Comment Challenge

What: A way to connect with other bloggers and challenge yourself to comment on other people's blogs.
Who: This was created by Lonna @FLYLēF and Alicia @A Kernel of Nonsense but anyone is encouraged to sign up and participate!
When: Every month during the summer. August is the last month (and my first time participating) so be sure to sign up soon!
Why: Reading people's comments on my blog and interacting with other bloggers is one of my favorite parts of blogging. Why not spread the joy?
How: Once you sign up, you will be paired with another blogger and be encouraged to comment on each other's blog posts.

The Nuts and Bolts

This is the final month to sign up for this challenge for the summer.

Bloggers will be paired up and are required to comment on each other’s blog posts.

To allow a bit of freedom, you will be able to choose how often you would like to comment on your partner’s blog (options include 5-10 or 11-20 posts).

Social Media Option: If you’d like to give your partner further encouragement through social media, we will do our best to connect you with bloggers who are active on the same platforms.

Giveaway: at the end of August, we will be giving away two bookish prizes. Please note: this giveaway will only be open to participants

Sign Up: Starting today through the 21st, you can sign up for this challenge for August. Just answer a few questions on the Google Doc on one of the hosts' blogs. We will be emailing you a couple of days before August 1st to inform you of your partner.

Create a Sign-up Post: We will be posting a link-up on the 15th for participants to share their posts. What you should include:
Announce your intention to participate and what you’re looking forward to for this challenge
Let us know how often you intend to comment on your partner’s blog
Tell us if you participated in June or July and what your experience was like
Link back to your hosts: Lonna @ FLYLēF and Alicia @ A Kernel of Nonsense
Include the Comment Challenge banner
Spread the Word: We’d love to see this challenge take off, so let other bloggers know about it. We’ll be using the Twitter hashtag #commentchallenge2016
Comment: When August 1st rolls around, get to commenting on your partner’s blog!

The Moth

6:10 AM

Summary of The Winner's Crime

Book two of the dazzling Winner's Trilogy is a fight to the death as Kestrel risks betrayal of country for love.

The engagement of Lady Kestrel to Valoria’s crown prince means one celebration after another. But to Kestrel it means living in a cage of her own making. As the wedding approaches, she aches to tell Arin the truth about her engagement... if she could only trust him. Yet can she even trust herself? For—unknown to Arin—Kestrel is becoming a skilled practitioner of deceit: an anonymous spy passing information to Herran, and close to uncovering a shocking secret.

As Arin enlists dangerous allies in the struggle to keep his country’s freedom, he can’t fight the suspicion that Kestrel knows more than she shows. In the end, it might not be a dagger in the dark that cuts him open, but the truth. And when that happens, Kestrel and Arin learn just how much their crimes will cost them.

Summary from goodreads

Review

If you haven't read the first book in this series, The Winner's Curse, stop reading this review and go read it. I'm going to do my best not to include any spoilers in this review, but if you haven't read the first book, reading this review of the second book will definitely spoil a few things for you. I hate it when I accidentally pick up the second or third book in a series at a bookstore and read the description and unintentionally ruin the first book for myself, so I'd like to save you from the same fate. Seriously, books in a series should have a numbering system on the spine so you know the order and don't screw things up. Okay, now that I've given you fair warning, I'll get on to the review.

The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski is the type of book whose characters constantly delight and frustrate you at the same time. Throughout the entire book, I found myself eager for Kestrel to tell Arin the truth about why she agreed to marry the Emperor's son, and I was desperate for Arin to realize that Kestrel cares about him and is doing the best she can to make decisions which will result in minimum loss of life. There were several times while reading that I wanted to shake both Kestrel and Arin and tell them they're being idiots and to just kiss and make up already. At the same time, as a writer, I found myself enjoying the emotional turmoil Rutkoski puts these two characters through. The tension of will they or won't they encourages the reader to keep reading.

The pacing of the book slowed down a little too much in places for my taste, and Arin made some decisions I didn't agree with, but overall, I did enjoy reading the book. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars on goodreads. I'll be placing a hold on the last book, The Winner's Kiss, and can't wait to see what finally happens with Kestrel and Arin.

Snazzy Snippets #5

4:23 AM

It's July and that means I have once again signed up to participate in the craziness that is NaNoWriMo. For July's Camp NaNoWriMo, I have started writing a new project, whose very much working title is The Vizier's Apprentice, with the goal of writing 50,000 words of it by the end of the month. I'm only about 13,000 words into the story (yes, I know I'm behind where I should be, ssshhh). To celebrate at least getting this far into the story, I thought I'd participate in Snazzy Snippets to give you a sneak peak of The Vizier's Apprentice. It's a YA Fantasy story about a shapeshifter who must hide her shifting abilities in order to become the next Vizier's Apprentice.

What: It’s an opportunity for writers! Every two months, Alyssa at The Devil Orders Takeout and Emily at The Loony Literate post a prompt or question for you to share a snippet of less than 500 words. It’s designed to let you have fun, analyse your work on a smaller level, or just write something to join in.

Here are this month's prompts.

A snippet where characters consider their backstory
or

A snippet featuring a child (i.e. a freebie for you YA and MG writers)
or

A snippet from something you wrote more than 2 years ago

A snippet where characters consider their backstory (It was a bit difficult to find much backstory when I've only written three chapters, so Hayat always following the rules is the best I could do).

Hayat hesitated and Samara knew the reason why. Since she’d been a young child, Hayat had always been a rule follower. She not only respected her parents, and any person of authority, but she enjoyed the structure and order her life had when she obeyed orders. Hayat didn’t lie to her parents. She did her schoolwork without prompting, and she did it to the absolute best of her ability.

“My parents know I want to be a soldier. I’ll tell them the truth. I’ll tell them that I want to go to the palace to train as a soldier. They’ve always told me they’d support me no matter what path I take in life. I’m going to trust that they truly mean that.”

“Wow,” Tahani said, nodding her head. “You are seriously making me feel like the worst daughter ever. I totally lie to my parents all the time. Half the time, I don’t even think about it. I just do it. I wonder what that says about my relationship with my parents? Either they trust me too much, they’re unbelievably unobservant, or they just don’t care enough to call me out on my lies.”

A snippet featuring a child (well, most of the characters are young adults, so I'm counting them as children)

Scooping up a new bowl, the worker turned his attention to Oma. He smiled at her and gestured with his chisel to the various flavors. “What will it be, pretty little lady?” he asked.

Samara winced. She hoped Oma would ignore the “little” comment. It didn’t matter that the man was easily two times as large as Oma and nearly two feet taller with thick biceps from chiseling ice all day long. Oma hated it when anyone pointed out how small she was.

Oma gave the man a sickenly sweet smile that Samara knew meant her cousin was gearing up for a fight. “The lime,” she said.

Unaware he was treading on thin ground, the man beamed back at Oma and began chipping green ice into a bowl. Sticking a spoon into the bowl, the man held the bowl of lime flavored ice out to Oma. Samara tensed. This was it. This was the moment it was all going to fall apart.

A snippet from something you wrote more than 2 years ago (Because I only just started writing The Vizier's Apprentice on July 1st, I'm going to use a different work in progress that I started two years ago but never finished. The WIP (work in progress) is called The Water Dragon Scrolls.

The moment she passed through the gate and caught her first glimpse of the house, Mackenzie fell in love. Unlike the other houses on the street, 1139 wasn't trying to impress anyone with its owner's wealth. This was a house that had been built to please its owner and no one else. The sweeping, gabled roof had a quiet gracefulness about it that inspired a sense of tranquility and safety. In the small courtyard before the house, a low fountain chortled, the water gleaming silver in the dark night as it leapt into the air before arcing back down into the pool. Mackenzie's fingers twitched with the urge to go to the fountain and trail her fingers through the water, but she clenched her fist. She had a job to do.

Cinderella the Cyborg

3:04 AM

Summary of Cinder

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. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.

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.

Review

Retellings of fairy tales hold a soft spot in my heart. I grew up reading books like Ella Enchanted, The Storyteller's Daughter, Beauty Sleep, and Snow. When I heard Cinder by Marissa Meyer was a retelling of Cinderella set in futuristic New Beijing with a cyborg for a protagonist, I knew I had to read it. I am happy to report that I enjoyed reading the book and particularly liked the world building and the characters.

Part of what I enjoyed so much while reading Cinder was the futuristic setting. I have't read too many Science Fiction books, so I found myself fascinated with the world building in this book. I love the way Meyer incorporates details about what it's like to be a cyborg into the theme of Cinderella feeling like she didn't fit in with her stepsisters and stepmother.

I was never really a big fan of the original Cinderella story or the Walt Disney animated film (the live action one they recently released was so visually stunning in comparison). The character of Cinderella was always too meek and mild mannered for my taste. In this book, however, Cinder is smart and capable. She is a mechanic and a whiz at fixing things. Her best friend is an android named Iko whose faulty personality chip means she loves to gush over pretty shoes and the Prince. Unlike Iko, and her stepsister Peony, Cinder has no desire to meet the Prince or go to the ball. In addition to Cinder's characterization, I also liked that Meyer made Prince Kai into a well developed character instead of a cardboard cut out Prince Charming. She also made sure to give Cinder's stepmother and stepsisters clear motivations for their actions.

Though I was able to predict a lot of the major plot reveals, I still enjoyed reading Cinder. I can't wait to read the rest of the books in the series!