My thoughts of Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick - SPOILERS ALERT

Hi there, it's Filippa! Last fall I read the book Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick, and I loved it! But however I didn't own the sequels to it, so I started to read the Divergent trilogy instead. But this Christmas I got all three sequels from my parents and last Friday I started to read Crescendo, which I finished yesterday.

Almost everyone I know that have read the Hush, Hush series says that Crescendo is a bit like the Twilight saga's New Moon. That is, everything just goes wrong for the main character, and you kind of hate it.

And yes, very many things went wrong for Nora Grey, but I actually really enjoyed the book anyways. It wasn't that I hated the book but only loved the writing, either, I actually really liked the story. That may also've been because I had very low expectation of Crescendo since everyone said that they didn't like it, but I think that it also was because I kind of had a feeling that everything was going to be okay at the end of the book. And also because those friends that told me that I would hate Crescendo also told me that the other ones were better so I kind of knew that this book was just like a bump in the road. 

Anyways, as I mentioned, I really enjoyed the book and if I made a new top seven favourite books-list, the Hush, Hush series would made it to the list this time. The only reason they didn't do that last time, I guess, was that I had only read the first book, and that was like half a year ago, so I didn't remember much of it when I made the list. So before I started to read Crescendo I read a few different summaries of Hush, Hush to remember what had happened. 
So if I made a new list Crescendo would definitely be on it. 

About the plot of this book I thought it was very mysteries, and I never really knew who to trust. Was Patch good or bad? I never really knew. One moment he treated Nora as if she was the only one, the next he dated Marcie, and then he appeared in Nora's dreams, the next she found out about the "Black Hand". She never really knew who to trust and that made me wonder who to trust, as well. 
And Scott; I had my suspicions about him for a time, I thought he was the "Black Hand" for a while and that he had murdered Nora's father. And then there was a time when I thought that Marcie had had something to do with it, since she started to date Patch. It actually never hit me that they were dating because Patch was her guardian angel and had to protect her. Now that I look back at it I feel really stupid. Like, why else would they date? 
Even though I had my doubts about Patch, whether he was good or evil, my gut always told me that he had to be good. Even if it would have been he who had killed Nora's father, I thought that maybe he had changed after that and that the next book would be about Nora forgiving him or not. But as you know, if you've read Crescendo, it didn't turn out that way. 

Becca Fitzpatrick was really clever when she wrote this book, because it never occurred to me that Rixon could be the bad guy. I always thought that he was the nice guy in the series, since Patch was the mysterious and tough guy. But yet again, I was wrong. 
Even though I (as you've read a few times this far) I really enjoyed the book. However, there were a few things that bothered me. First of all I think that Nora was very - I don't want to say stupid, but I think I might have to - yes, stupid. If she just would have made one different choice everything could have gone right. Second, both Nora and Patch were very stubborn. Nora wouldn't listen to Patch when he had to tell her things through her dreams, and Patch chose not to say anything many of the times when Nora suspected he was up to something bad. If Patch would have just tried to explain things Nora would probably have understood, and everything would have been great. He could have told her about that he had to protect Marcie, etcetera, and she would have understood. Maybe she even could have helped him or something. 

But even though I kind of screamed out of frustration when I read these things I really enjoyed the book (there I said it again) and I would give it a 6.5/10. And I gave it a six point five only because I couldn't decide whether I should've gave it a six or a seven. 

So yeah, I hope you guys enjoyed this little entry of my thoughts of Crescendo. If you haven't read the Hush, Hush series you totally should. At least if you like books about fallen angels, romance, or just if you only read reality books you could try this series since Nora actually is in high school and it takes place in the real world, only that angels and stuff exist, too. 
But yeah, that's it I guess. Bye!

~ Filippa ~ 

City of Heavenly Fire - Book review - WARNING FOR SPOILERS

Hi there, it's Filippa! And Oh. My. God. I can't even describe the feels right now. Now that I'm writing this I'm actually at school, and I'm having the worst book hangover ever. I sat up until midnight last night only to finish City of Heavenly Fire. And just a fare warning: there may be spoilers in this entry, so if you haven't read the book and the books before it you're reading this entry on your own risk. 

But I'm going to write a book review of City of Heavenly Fire, and there might be some spoilers from the first half of the book, but most of that will be things that the description of the book spoils as well. Enjoy! 

So basically Sebastian is, with the powers of the infernal cup, turning Shadowhunters into the so-called Endarkened. He's attacking institute by institute, building an army of Endarkened, and all of the Nephilim has to take precautions. So Clary, Jace, Isabelle and Alec goes to Alicante by portal, along with their parents. But then all the Downworld's council representatives disappears (including Magnus, Raphael, Luke and Jocelyn) and they find out that Sebastian's behind it. But not just that; the Seelie Court helped him and has been on his side for quite some time. 

Simon, who was left in New York because only Nephilim and Council representatives were aloud to come to Alicante, was brought to Alicante by Raphael, before he and the other Council representatives disappeared. And when Raphael disappeared Simon was aloud to take his place in the Council for the nonce. But when the council cannot come up with any sort of plan on how to get to Sebastian and bring back the representatives, Clary, Jace, Isabelle, Simon and Alec decides to go to the one place where they believe Sebastian is located along with the people he kidnapped; the demon realms. 

And now I won't tell anymore, because if you've read the book you know what will happen, and if you're reading this only to find out more about the contains of the book I will not spoil anything from the second half of the book for you. 

But anyways, that is basically what the book is about, and of course the things that happens next; if Sebastian will get his will through and rule the world with Clary by his side; or if they will be able to stop him from destroying their world. 

One thing I love about Cassandra Clare's writing is the way she describes the characters; the way she makes them real. It's not just that the characters are amazing separately, but every single one of them has a special relationship with almost everyone else. Some examples are that Clary has her relationship with Jace, her very special friendship with Simon, and Simon has his relationship with Isabelle, his bromance with Jace, his very funny relationship with Alec, and like that it is with almost every one of the main characters. 

Talking about characters, I have a really hard time deciding which one if my favourite. Not that I have to decide, but if someone asked me randomly and I had to ask instantly I would probably say "Alec. And Magnus. And Simon. And Sebastian. And Maia. And Isabelle. And Jordan. And Jace." But just as an reflex I say Alec first. 

He was my favourite character from the very beginning and he still has a special place in my heart. And later on when Magnus became a more and more important and big part of the series I fell in love with him as well. His personality is just perfect from head to toe and I just love everything he says and does. Malec is and will always be my best and biggest OTP. 

Simon and his nerdy-ness also knocked on the door to my heart and invited himself in before I could open the door for him. 

But you may wonder why on earth would I write Sebastian as a favourite character? Well I don't really know the answer myself. Just like Simon he invited himself into my heart. But unlike Simon, Sebastian sneaked in through a window and one day I realized that I had no idea of for how long he had been there, it just felt like he had been there forever. I guess it's just that he is such a special character in a way you can't explain. I would actually want to try to describe him, but if I did he would just sound like any other villain that is evil and funny at the same time, and all of that. But he isn't like the others. He really is an original, a one of a kind. 

I've also written Maia, Isabelle, Jordan and Jace, but for obvious reasons. You know why I love them don't you? They are just really awesome and there's no more to say about that. And I may have a huge crush on Jordan...

Although I didn't write Clary as a favourite, and I have a tendency to do like that; not like the main character as much as the others. It's always the same with almost every book - I like the main character in the beginning, the first book or so, but then I get really tired of her/him. They all get so suicidal and thinks that they have to sacrifice themselves to save others etcetera. I like Clary though, but not as much as the others. 

City of Heavenly fire was a book that always made me think "Wait what, is it like that? Could it really be...? I think I know what's going to happen next, I really do.." But then it turns out in a totally different way. The book always kept me guessing, and so did the five books before. The Mortal Instruments really is an amazing series, it really deserves the place on my top seven list that it got. In my presentation entry I put it on place number four, but I think that if I wrote a new top seven list it would be on first place along with the Harry Potter series and The Maze Runner series, I just can't decide which one of them is better since they are about totally different things. Or I actually think it would take the bronze just because of some certain things that annoys me in the books. But it beats The Hunger Games trilogy (sorry Suzanne Collins...). Not necessarily because of the story, but because of the characters and the world they all live in.  

City of Heavenly Fire made me smile and cry and laugh and scream and feel all the sorts of emotions that could possibly exist inside of me, and the ending really touched me and I still don't know what to think of it - should I smile or cry?. It hasn't even gone twenty-four hours since I finished the book and I think I'm going to freak out. If you've read at least the first five books you know that Magnus and Alec broke up, but when they meet again for the first time since that, and when they later on get back together (should i have said "spoiler alert"?). Just all of their scenes together are perfect. Perfection. There's nothing more to say. If Malec isn't your OTP, then imagine how it feels when your OTP have any scenes together... And then multiply that with a thousand... I mean, it's just indescribable how much I ship them. 

Moving on (I feel like this entry is mostly about Malec...), I simply just loved City of Heavenly Fire. There were some certain deaths that I cried for hours, it felt like, and I really wished that those people hadn't died. 

FOR THOSE OF YOU THAT STILL HASN'T READ ANY OF THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS BOOKS: I highly recommend the series to all kinds of readers. Even if you don't like fantasy, or let's say that you only read sci-fi, I still think you should give the books a chance, because they are so amazing. You can't really compare the books to any other series, it's so unique. And let's say you love reading drama -  then I would recommend the books, too, because there's both drama, action, mystery and humor, and so much more, to it. The only people I would not recommend the series to is maybe the very young readers, since there are some very intimate scenes, in the later books at least. I would give City of Heavenly Fire 10/10 since it was one of the best books in the series, even though some people I loved died. Although the whole series I would give 9/10 because of some things that annoyed me, plus that City of Fallen Angels (the fourth book) was a little boring and tough to get started with. 

This entry was very long but I hope you guys enjoyed it anyways, because I really enjoyed writing it. And if you haven't read the Mortal Instruments series I really hope you do so (it's for your own good) and if you have, then I hope we meet some time and can fangirl together (yep, that's my life). 

~ Filippa ~ 

Pride and Prejudice - Comparison book and movie

Hi there! Filippa here. Today I thought I would do a comparison of the book and the movie of Pride and Prejudice (by Jane Austen obviously), since I finished the book only a few days ago. 

So I'll just compare for example the character's descriptions, some different scenarios, things they deleted or added to the movie and what changes they made. 

Since I watched the movie before I read the book I could already see the faces of the characters in my head while I was reading, and Jane Austen didn't describe the people in a shallow way that referred to their looks; all I remember about the character's looks from the book was that I one time read about Elizabeth's brown eyes. Otherwise Jane Austen mostly described the people with expressions. For example that someone looked very proud or vain. But as for the actors in the movie I think that most of them where perfect for their roles, especially Keira Knightly as Elizabeth Bennet. And if you for some reason wouldn't have seen the movie but read the book I think that Jane Austen's way of writing will still make it possible for you to build a picture of the character's faces, based of their characters and personalities. 

About the plot of the story it was the same in the movie as in the book. There were no major changes that I could see. Although there were a few differences; things they had changed a bit when they made the movie. As for an example the scene where Mr Darcy first proposes to Elizabeth. In the book he comes over to Mr and Mrs Collins's house when only Elizabeth is there and he walks back and forth in the room before he finally explains about how he admires and loves her. Then Elizabeth rejects him by telling him about all the awful things he has done to her sister's relationship, and Mr Wickham etcetera, and Mr Darcy gets surprised of her rejection (since he thought that his feelings were mutual) but then walks out of there. In the movie on the other hand this happens when Elizabeth leaves church and walks out into the rain because she found out about what he did to her sister's and Mr Bingley's relationship. Then Mr Darcy follows her outside and confesses about his love and admiration for her (and she rejects him for the same reasons as in the books). In my opinion the movie version of the proposal was better than the book's, but I guess I'm just week for those romantic kinds of rain scenes. 

About Jane Austen's humorous way of writing I believe that the movie directors and actors got her humorous touch to it even in the movie. Even in the fully normal conversations there is humor because of the character's personalities and differences, and Jane Austen really do know how to form a discussion between two people, and even a whole group of people. And there aren't really any stereotypical main character's. The fact that the book was written in the 1800's may also have something to do with that, and the stereotypical red-haired and green-eyed main character hadn't come to be yet. But the characters all had their own personal touch to their personalities and even though some people may've been a little bit similar to someone else, no one was the other fully alike. 

About deletes or adds that they made to the movie I have to say that the directors made an excellent job. It was a while since I saw the movie so there aren't any major things I can think of that were deleted from the book. Only small things like maybe some dance here and there, or some visit to someone, but those things didn't really matter for the plot to be complete. And as for any adds I don't think there were any. The only thing I can think of is the rainy scene when Mr Darcy confessed his love for Elizabeth, but as I wrote before that actually was a change of the original proposal scene. So that wasn't really an add, but a change. 

I really enjoyed both the book and the movie, so I can't say that I preferred any of them. It just depends on which mood I'm in; if I feel like watching a movie or read a book. Because they are very similar and there are pros and cons with both of them. 

Be sure to comment what you think about Pride and Prejudice - the book and the movie - and let me see what you think. Did you prefer one of them or did you like them equally like I did? Are there any things I missed that were changed or deleted in the movie that I should've mentioned? 

If you haven't seen or read Pride and Prejudice I highly recommend it since it's such an amazing story and you will learn a lot from it about just life in general, and it is so amazing to see how different people lived, acted, behaved and talked in the 1800's. And if you've only seen the movie but haven't read the book I actually recommend that you read it too, even though they were very similar. The book still gives you more of a feeling of how some of the people were thinking. Since it's writing from third person's point of view you will get thoughts from many different people and there are background facts and more details that are really fun to know. So just pic it up in the closest bookstore or library! 

~ Filippa ~ 

Looking for Alaska Book Review- SPOILER FREE

Hi, Emma here! I just finished reading Looking for Alaska byJohn Green, and thought that I would do a review of it. Since I don't want to spoil anything, it will be a fairly short one. But those of you out there who have read it will know what I'm talking about.

I got this book for Christmas, and I had wanted to read it ever since I read The Fault in our stars by the same author, since John Green is a freaking genius. The Fault in Our stars is as you know one of my favorite books, and one would be mad not to love it according to me. Looking for Alaska is also kind of a love story, but it's not as obvious as tfios.
Looking for Alaska is a book about a boy named Miles Halter, but he later gets called "Pudge" by his friends. In the beginning of the book he attends a new school called Culver Creek, and that's where the real story begins. "Alaska" from the title is a person and not the state, but I think most of you already knew that. So it centers around Miles's life at Culver Creek, his new friends and school. It may sound a bit boring, but I promise you, as soon as he meets Alaska, the book will drag you in instantly. At least that's what it did to me.

See, the funny thing about this book is that we hear the story from Miles's point of view, but the whole story is really about Alaska Young in my opinion. My copy of the book is 221 pages long, so it is a fairly tiny book (at least if you compare with a few Harry Potter ones). What is quite unusual about the book is also the fact that John Green hasn't divided it into chapters, but the book is divided in two sections. The first three quarters of the book are called "Before" and the last quarter is called "After". What before and after means, you'll have to figure out when you read the book yourselves. It's kind of a mystery that you won't figure out until you've come to the breaking point between "Before" and "After".
So what would be the equivalent to chapters are called for an example "Ninety-one days before", and then "Four days after". This is very creative, but chapters are easier for me to remember. For an example, if I'm talking to one of my friends and I want to explain to them what part of the book, it's easier to remember "chapter 15" instead of "Ninety-two days before".

I loved this book honestly, but it probably won't make my favorites list. It was great, but it also could have been better. I'm going to try and explain this without spoiling, don't worry. It was a great story about how you never know what's gonna happen until it really happens, and it's a very realistic book. That's what I love most about John Green's writing. He doesn't sugarcoat everything like many other authors. The books don't always have to end with happiness, that's not how it is in real life. No, John Green is honest with his readers, and I love that. It's a great change from fantasy and sci-fi books, which are not realistic.
The book was of course well written, but I got bored when I entered the second section of the book, "After". Thos of you who have read it maybe understand why, but I can tell you that it's because there aren't as many things happening in that part of the book according to me. However it didn't last that long, and I was soon back on track again.
With other words, it was well written, but there was some lack of action sometimes. I'm not one of those people who need action constantly in books, but I easily get bored if there isn't any at all. There were moments when I thought that the story was a bit boring, but then again, so can life be. Life is not always fun, and I guess that that's also a part of the book. Miles's life is not very full of action, he's after all just a student at Culver Creek school.

I give the book a 4/5 :) I do recommend you all to read it though, because it taught me many things. That however, I will leave to you to find out.

~Emma ~

Emma's presentation

Hi! I am the other creator of this blog, and my name is Emma. I have been obsessed by books ever since I was little, and even then I made my family read to me since I obviously couldn't read myself. 
Unlike Filippa, I am one of those book-nerds who don't exercise (Thank you for that by the way friend ;)). Well, I do move I guess but I don't particularly like exercising... I used to practice horse-riding and I love it, but I stopped not long ago because it took up too much of my time. 

I love romance novels, but I am also a big fan of sci-fi books. Here are my top 10 favorite books/book series: 

1. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling 
2. The Fault In Our Stars by John Green
3. Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead 
4. The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare
5. The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare
6. Hush, hush series by Becca Fitzpatrick 
7. House of Night series by P.C & Kristin Cast
8. Emma by Jane Austen 
9. Divergent series by Veronica Roth 
10. Starcrossed series by Josephine Angelini 

My favorite Tv-shows ever moment are: 

1. Friends
2. Game of Thrones
3. True Blood 
4. The Vampire Diaries
5. The 100
6. American Horror Story
7. Hannibal

Movies (cuz I feel like telling you so that I can fangirl with those of you who also like these movies... I'm just gonna stop talking now I think.): 

1. The Phantom of the Opera
2. Sound of music 
3. Pride & Prejudice 
4. Les Choristes (French movie, awesome)
5. The Harry Potter movies 
6. The Silence of the Lambs 

And some random facts about me and what I do in my spare time :) :

• I'm half french so I speak the language fluently. Hence the french movie up there ;) 
• I love writing fanfiction and if you click one of the links to the right you'll find my Quotev page where I post the stories I write. This takes up way more of my time than it should but... It's fun so, whatever :) 
• I also love singing, and I sing constantly. I take classes in singing once a week, and I also take piano class once a week. So yeah, I play the piano too. I love music over all tho :) 
• I love fun people, and that's why Chandler will always be my favorite "Friends" character ;) 
• I'm currently reading "Looking for Alaska" by John Green, and I am really enjoying it so far. I've got like 35 books to read this year, so I might finish this one tonight or tomorrow. I will probably post a review of the book soon! 
• I truly believe that I am a witch but that my parents hid my Hogwarts letter by the way. However big of a genius J.K Rowling may be, one cannot simply "create" a world like that. It has to be real. I have a theory about J.K Rowling herself being a witch, a fugitive from Azkaban or something, that decided to tell the whole muggle population about the wizard world. Try to prove me wrong, bitches. 

That's all I had to say for now... But you'll get to know me soon, I promise :) See you later, alligator!

~ Emma ~

Filippa's presentation

Hi there! 
My name is Filippa, I'm 15 years old and I'm one of the creators of this blog (you thought I was going to say The Maze, didn't you?) and I'm going to do a quick presentation about myself. So here are some thing that I enjoy to do in my spare time:

1. I love reading books. My favorite genres are Sci-Fi, Dystopian and Fantasy. 
2. I love singing and playing the guitar, and play the flute.
3. I'm not one of those book nerds who don't do any sports, because I do. I practice swimming, and sometimes I do yoga (my mom's an educated yoga teacher) or/and the Weightless Warriors Workouts by Kiya Knight. 
4. I am obsessed with many TV series and watch them very often... My parents get pretty mad with me when I can sit for hours in my room and only watch series...

And since I love reading books and watch series so much I thought i would make a list of my favorite Books and TV shows.

So here are my top seven books: 
1. The Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling
2. The Maze Runner series by James Dashner
3. The Hunger Games Series by Susanne Collins
4. The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare
5. The Blood of Eden by Julie Kagawa
6. The Storyteller by Antonia Michaelis
7. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

And here are my top seven TV series:
1. The Vampire Diaries
2. Game of Thrones
3. The walking Dead
4. Pretty Little Liars
5. Avatar: The Last Airbender
6. The Big Bang Theory
7. Gossip Girl

And last but not least; here are some facts about me in general:

• I have a very weird and bad and dry sense of humor... Like for real...
• I write a lot of fan fiction in my spare time, which I forgot to write down on the list of things I love to do in my spare time, but I decided to put it here anyways, don't ask why... :) 
• I am also obsessed with vampires and werewolves and I wish I was a vampire or hybrid from the vampire diaries (because they are much cooler than other vampires). 
• I have a TBR list for this year of almost 40 books that I haven't bought yet... And I'm not a very fast reader so I have a problem... :) 

Well that's all I can think of right now,

Bye! 

~ Filippa ~