After You: A Review (Me Before You #2)

Goodreads Description:

“You’re going to feel uncomfortable in your new world for a bit. But I hope you feel a bit exhilarated too. Live boldly. Push yourself. Don’t settle. Just live well. Just live. Love, Will.”

How do you move on after losing the person you loved? How do you build a life worth living?

Louisa Clark is no longer just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. After the transformative six months spent with Will Traynor, she is struggling without him. When an extraordinary accident forces Lou to return home to her family, she can’t help but feel she’s right back where she started.

Her body heals, but Lou herself knows that she needs to be kick-started back to life. Which is how she ends up in a church basement with the members of the Moving On support group, who share insights, laughter, frustrations, and terrible cookies. They will also lead her to the strong, capable Sam Fielding—the paramedic, whose business is life and death, and the one man who might be able to understand her. Then a figure from Will’s past appears and hijacks all her plans, propelling her into a very different future...

For Lou Clark, life after Will Traynor means learning to fall in love again, with all the risks that brings. But here Jojo Moyes gives us two families, as real as our own, whose joys and sorrows will touch you deeply, and where both changes and surprises await.

My Review:


My heart!

This book hurt my heart more than the first book. Will Traynor was so selfish! He destroyed Lou's life. DESTROYED IT!

She is a complete mess at the beginning of this book. Physically and mentally. She can't handle life. She is stuck in a ruminating state and can't find anything to be happy about. She wastes her nights drinking herself to sleep and watching TV. She doesn't know how to socialize anymore or have real relationships.

Lou has cracked.

And yet, Sam has come to save the day. In more ways than one. Ah! I love Sam!

Sam has comes in and teaches Lou how to be a normal human being again. He teaches her that it's okay to move on from the death of someone you loved more than life. He taught her what it was like to live again.

Oh Sam, you are a lifesaver.

I also appreciate how Lou's Mom stops being an idiot. Her statement at the end of Me Before You ticked me off. Thankfully, Lou is welcomed back and she begins to realize the importance of family.

I won't give away any spoilers, but I will say this--

The ending is so much better in this book than the first!

4.5 out of 5!

Illuminae: A Review (The Illuminae Files #1)

Goodreads Description:

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 Review:

All right, so this book is hard to get used to at first. This series takes place in the future and the story is told from various point of views. The surveillance guy is perhaps my favorite, but let me explain a little more.

So Kady and Ezra are two characters who had to escape the destruction/overtaking of their illegal home planet. We see their story through their journal entries, their communication through their futuristic version of Instant Messaging, and recorded "phone" calls.

Like I said, it is hard to get used to, but once I started reading, I was hooked. I had to know was BiTech was doing and why they were attacking this planet and the survivors. I needed to know what their motivation was for trying to kill all witnesses.

This book was also fast paced despite it's length. There was never a dull moment. Then again, with Kady there is never a dull moment. She is a the best computer hacker that ever existed. And I know she will be the reason for BiTech's downfall.

I won't reveal too much, but the plague absolutely terrified me. Chemical warfare is absolutely horrifying.

If you enjoy espionage and intrigue, cool futuristic technology, and a super computer that seems to have a crush on you, this is the series to read! I'm so excited for the second book!

And something I find hilarious about this series, is that the story "documents" that are turned in to the overseer have been censored. All the curse words are literally blacked out! Haha. I found that awesome.

5 out of 5!

A Court of Thorns and Roses: A Review (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1)

Goodreads Descriotion:

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.
My Review:


Sarah J. Maas is one of my favorite authors. The beautiful way she creates worlds and the cultures within them, the depth of her characters, the beauty of their pasts (bad or good), their talents. She knows how to write a compelling story that draws you in and keeps you stuck.

But I'm really disappointed at the turns she's been taking in her books. I've been a fan of Throne of Glass for a long time, and her sex scenes in there are tame and usually fade to black...

A Court of Thorns and Roses is listed a YA novel, but if I had teenagers, I WOULD NOT let them read this series. I even had to put it away for a while and decide if I could continue listening to it.

Her sex scenes are graphic and descriptive, and honestly, I don't think you need that to make a story good. Sex scenes don't move a story forward, they just attract readers who want a steamy scene.

I read Maas's books for her stories. However, in this book I finally just started skipping the sex scenes.

And guess what! I didn't miss a thing.

This shouldn't be listed as a YA novel.

Now that my rant is over, I will have to say I fell in love with the story. Feyre isn't the strongest female lead out there, but she's got her head on straight. She will do anything to save her sisters and dad, even when they don't do anything to help her.

Tamlin was the beast in this Beauty and the Beast story. Man, I fell in love with him instantly. I loved the culture of the Fae world. It entranced and horrified me.

The trails Feyra must go through as this book progesses gets scarier and scarier. She gets stronger and learns how to kick butt even though she's only human among Fae thrity times stronger than her.

This book was hard to put down (story wise, I did mention I put it away for a while because of the intense sex scenes I decided to ignore).

I love the characters in this book. I need the second one.

3 out of 5!

The Darkest Magic: A Review (Spirit and Thieves #2)

Goodreads Description:

In the second installment of New York Times bestselling author Morgan Rhodes's highly acclaimed Falling Kingdoms spin-off series, danger looms and the mystery deepens as two warring evils vie for possession of one elusive, powerful book.

Modern-day Toronto: Sisters Crystal and Becca Hatcher are reunited after reclaiming the Bronze Codex and narrowly escaping death. They have no one to trust but each other, and the only thing keeping them safe is the book that sent Becca's spirit to Ancient Mytica--the same book that their enemies would kill them for.

Ancient Mytica: Maddox grapples to keep his newly discovered powers under control, while the ruthless goddess Valoria hunts him down.

Modern-day Toronto: Farrell embraces his dark side as he unwittingly falls further under the spell of Markus, the mastermind leader of the nefarious Hawkspear Society, who will stop at nothing to find Crys and Becca--and the remarkable book in their possession.

New York Times bestselling author Morgan Rhodes takes readers into exhilarating new high-fantasy territory with volume two of the Book of Spirits and Thieves series, an epic contemporary saga perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander.
My Review:

Well, this book had a lot of twists and turns I wasn't expecting.

We dive a little deeper into the history of Crys's and Becca's family and just how messed up they are. We learn secrets that will change everything...but will it save them, or help them?

I will say, most of the humor in this book lied with Maddox and Barnabas. They were my two favorite characters. The banter they had, as well as the friendship they had, made for a wonderful comic relief among the tense situations.

And let's not forget the hilarity of the talking head they acquire.

As the series continues, I like Farrell less and less. He is weak-minded, hot-headed, and a push over. He's a weak character who causes havoc from his stupidity. I wonder, now that circumstances have changed (drastically, but I won't spoil) what he will do now.

I have come to really like Becca. She's strong and smart, and willing to get things done. Her older sister Crys, rushes into things and keeps secrets she has no right to. I wonder how strong their sisterhood will be as the series continues.

And most of all, how much will modern day Canada become wrapped into the Mytica world??

This was another great book by Morgan Rhodes. I love the world she has created.

3.5 out of 5!