Juliet Immortal by Stacey Jay

Title: Juliet Immortal
Author: Stacey Jay
Series: Juliet Immortal Duology: Book One
Star Rating: ★★★★

"Juliet Capulet didn't take her own life. She was murdered by the person she trusted most, her new husband, Romeo Montague, a sacrifice made to ensure his own immortality. But what Romeo didn't anticipate was that Juliet would be granted eternity, as well, and would become an agent for the Ambassadors of Light. For 700 years, she's fought Romeo for the souls of true lovers, struggling to preserve romantic love and the lives of the innocent. Until the day she meets someone she's forbidden to love, and Romeo, oh Romeo, will do everything in his power to destroy that love." -Goodreads.

Over all I was pleasantly surprised by this story. I found it on the bargain shelf at my local bookstore and decided to give it a shot after seeing Ariel Bissett's review of it, saying that she gave it three out of five stars. I was expecting to enjoy it, but not as much as I did. I ended up falling in love with the story, the only thing that really bothered me was the serious case of Insta-love that this book suffers from. As soon as Juliet takes over Ariel's body, she immediately falls in love with this boy, and she goes back and forth between him and Romeo for quite a bit of the book. The thing that I enjoyed the most about this book, however, was Romeo. 

In the original play by Shakespeare, I absolutely hated Romeo. He annoyed me to no end, however in this book, I really enjoyed him. He was sarcastic and witty, and the way that he would push Juliet's buttons just made me giggle constantly. To be honest, the main reason that I want to continue on with this series is the fact that the next book follows Romeo instead of Juliet, and therefor promises me a good time. I definitely look forward to reading it.

I would recommend this book to anyone who didn't really enjoy the play when they had to read it in school. I am sure that some people who did enjoy it would like it as well, but they would have to be open to the spin that this book takes. It was a fun read, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading it.

NaNoWriMo 2014: Day 23

Good Afternoon Everyone!

Today is day 23 of NaNoWriMo, and as of 11:30 this morning, I have 50k words, and Scarlett is officially complete! I still can't believe that everything is said and done, and I am so happy that Scarlett is on paper, even if its a super, super rough draft.

I have spent the last little while working to format it properly for printing so that I can have the manuscript ready for editing and revisions. I love having a printed copy of my manuscript to work on.

This is going to be a super short entry, but I hope that you all are doing well! Have any of you won NaNoWriMo yet, or are you close to winning? Let me know down in the comments!

Lots of NaNo-Love,
Helen.

NaNoWriMo 2014: Day 22

Good Morning Everyone,
Today is day 22 of NaNoWriMo and the word count goal for today is 36,666, and my word count goal is still currently sitting at 40,076. Yes, I know. I didn't write at all yesterday.

I ended up spending some time with my friend Kelly, whom I hadn't seen in almost three weeks, even though we live in the same town and go to the same University. We used to hang out a lot before this month, but things got a bit crazy. We met up at the mall, she helped me with my grocery shopping, we got some lunch, and we went to an early showing of Guardians of the Galaxy which just got to the cheap theatre down the street from my University. We had a lot of fun, although I discovered that Kelly hadn't watched any Marvel movies up until yesterday, so now I have to make her watch everything. Marvel movie marathon, here we come!

Anyway, since I was spending time with Kelly, I decided to take a break from writing for the day (and Isadora gave me permission to do so, since she still hadn't read the three chapters that I had posted on Thursday). Today, I get to finish my last essay of the semester, and then I am going to dedicate my time and energy into writing as much of Scarlett as possible. I think that I can finish it today if I try hard enough, but we will have to see.

Again, this is going to be a short entry, but instead of it being because I'm falling asleep at my keyboard, it is simply because I have said everything that I wanted to say. I hope that you are all having a great time, we are finally in the last week of NaNoWriMo! It is crunch time! Are you keeping up, or is this the week of marathon writing so that you can still get to the 50k goal? Let me know in the comments how your novel is coming along.

Lots of NaNo-Love,
Helen.

NaNoWriMo 2014: Day Twenty-One

Hello Everyone,
Normally I would be writing this when I wake up in the morning, but seeing as its past midnight, and I'm awake, I figured I might as well just get this out of the way. Today is day 21 of NaNoWriMo and the word count goal for today is 35,000 words, and I am currently sitting at 40,076 words!

All of the writing that I did towards that was done by 11:30, so it all counts as yesterday's words, but I plan on writing a fair bit today. I have to write my last essay, and that will be the first thing I tackle (After I go grocery shopping. Seriously, I'm almost out of food and its terrifying), and I have to register for classes this afternoon as well. I have two classes that I REALLY want to take, so I'm going to be in there like a dirty shirt as soon as registration opens up for me.

I am hoping that once I have that essay done and I'm registered for my classes next semester that I will be able to just sit down and write Scarlett for the rest of the day. Maybe even finish it, which would be amazing. I only have six chapters left to write, seven if I decide to do the epilogue. It is a lot to do, but I think that I could get it done if I was motivated enough.

Also, Scarlett hit 100 views on Tablo today, so if you've been reading it at all, I want to thank you. I am so close to being on the emerging page that its kind of terrifying. I hope that things have been going well for you guys!

I'm sorry that today's entry is so short, but I took a sleeping pill about ten minutes ago, and its starting to get increasingly difficult to type. Like the number of times that I have hit backspace over the last couple of sentences is ridiculous. As always leave your Tablo accounts in the comments so that I can check you out and give you a follow.

Lots of NaNo-Love,
Helen.

NaNoWriMo 2014: Day twenty

Hello Everyone!
Today is day twenty of NaNoWriMo and the word count goal for today is 33,333 words! My word count is currently sitting at 35,438 words! I did manage to write another chapter of Scarlett last night, and I also managed to write about 1,200 words towards the essay that was really giving me trouble, so over all, I would call yesterday a writing success.

Around this time of the month is where things start to get crazy for NaNoWriMo. As of today, you can officially validate your novel! Now is your chance to shine! If you have already written 50k words, then go and validate! Get your winner's certificate!

Even though last night was good for productivity, it wasn't necessarily good for me. I finished all of that writing at about one in the morning (I was REALLY having trouble with that essay and wanted to get as far as I could. Getting those 1,200 words took me almost six hours), and then of course I couldn't sleep. I had resigned to the idea that I wasn't going to be able to sleep when I suddenly got a really bad stomach ache, which was at about 5:30 in the morning. I took a Gravol (And not one of the ginger ones. I took on of the old fashioned, will-knock-you-out ones) and finally fell asleep at about six. I just woke up about half an hour ago (it is currently 11:30 in the morning as I type this).

I know that might not seem to bad to a lot of you, especially since it still works out to only being five hours of sleep, but I come from a family of early-risers. I am always awake by eight, so sleeping until eleven feels wrong. However, I at least feel well rested, since I slept like a brick thanks to the Gravol.

I had originally planned to spend my morning finishing that troubling essay and then reading some of the book that I just started (Juliet Immortal by Stacey Jay. I'll have a review up when I finish it!) because I have been really enjoying it, and my class today doesn't start until 2:30. I'm hoping that I can still at least finish that essay, and if I still have some time to read, that will just be a bonus.

In case you are wondering why I don't have writing Scarlett on the list of things that I wanted to do that morning, its because I find that I write better from about 8pm until Midnight. I will still be writing Chapter Twenty-Two, it will just be later tonight after I have had my evening chat with Isadora. She still hasn't read the chapter I put up yesterday on Tablo either, so it will be interesting to see what she thinks of it. It was a pretty fun chapter which just happened to be full of drunken shenanigans.

As always, if you have a Tablo account, link it in the comments so that I can check it out and give you a follow. I hope that all of your stories are coming along nicely!

Lots of NaNo-Love,
Helen.

NaNoWriMo 2014: Day Nineteen

Good Morning Everyone,
Today is day nineteen of NaNoWriMo and the word count goal for today is 31,666, and I am currently sitting at 33,380 words!

As you can probably tell, I did manage to write a little bit yesterday, in fact I did finish a chapter, however it was a very short chapter, coming in at just over 1,200 words. I wanted to try and add in another four hundred or so words, but no matter how I looked at it at the time, I couldn't find anything that I needed to add, so I decided to just let it be. Hopefully chapter twenty-one and twenty-two will be longer since they are more action-y chapters.

I mentioned yesterday that I had reached the end of what I had outlined again (since I didn't manage to finish my outline before November, and when I sat down to get more of it done, I got through outlining seven chapters and then just couldn't do it anymore), so yesterday I also sat down and finished outlining the rest of Scarlett. Yes, I finally have the complete outline finished, so I know what is going to happen throughout the rest of the story and in what order.  It also forced me to finally decide on a concrete ending for the story.

I was tossing around so many ideas for how the story would end. I wanted it to be something that would be fitting, but that readers might not necessarily expect. Isadora (the friend who forces me to do my writing every day) even gave me a few ideas that she had for the ending from reading the chapters as they came along. Some of the details of the endings that she gave me were actually very similar to some of the ones I had thought of, but I ended up choosing the one that I think fits the story best, and hopefully she will see it that way too.

Scarlett is going to have a grand total of thirty chapters, and a potential epilogue. I haven't decided yet if I want to put the epilogue in or not because it might take away from the story, but I'll see how I feel when it comes to writing it. If things keep going as well as they have been, then it looks like I will have written quite a bit over 50k words by the end of the month, which would be amazing.

I hope that you all are having a good day so far, and I hope that writing your novels is going well. As always, feel free to leave your Tablo account in the comments so that I can check it out and give you a follow.

Lots of NaNo-Love,
Helen.

NaNoWriMo 2014: Day Eighteen

Hello Everybody,
Today is day eighteen of NaNoWriMo, and the word count goal for today is 30,000 words! I am currently sitting at 32,583 words! It is just past noon here, and I haven't written yet today, but again I have reached the end of my outline, so I have to continue with that before I can write any more.

Yesterday ended up being a really good writing day for me. I managed to write chapter seventeen before I left for class (I literally finished it with two minutes before I had to leave), and then managed to write chapter eighteen when I got home that afternoon while I was waiting for Isadora to get home from her rehearsal (she is playing a part in a play back home). When she and I finished talking, I even managed to write chapter nineteen!

For those of you who are keeping track at all, between those three chapters, I wrote 4,737 words yesterday! I still can't believe it!

Today, I have a couple of plans. I need to start working on one of my essays for school, because it is due a bit earlier than I thought it was. My class today isn't until 2:30, so I still have a bit of time, and I might even try to start it before I have to leave for it. (We'll see how lazy I feel like being). I also really want to finish the book that has been plaguing me all month: Modelland by Tyra Banks. I started this book near the end of October, and I was really enjoying it at the time because it was so lighthearted and fun, and it was just what I was needing at the time. However, the book has just dragged on and on and on, which is why I still haven't finished it. However, I am down to the last 70 pages, so I should be able to just power through the end of it.

Thank god.

After I finish that, I plan to write chapter twenty of Scarlett (Cross My Heart and Hope to Die? I still can't decide between the two). As I said, I do have to do some more outlining, so I will probably do that while I wait for dinner to cook, and then after my usual evening chat with Isadora, I shall write the chapter. I really want to try and hit my 50k before the end of this week so that I don't have to worry about it while I write my essays over the weekend.

Something else which was kind of interesting, I don't know how it happened, but this morning Scarlett jumped by 20 reads on Tablo! So if any of you have been reading it, then I thank you, because it means so much to me that people are reading it as much as they are.

I hope that you all are doing well and keeping up with your word count goals. As always, leave your Tablo accounts down in the comments so that I can check it out and give you a follow!

Lots of NaNo-Love,
Helen.

NaNoWriMo 2014: Day Seventeen

Good Morning Everyone,
Today is day seventeen of NaNoWriMo, and the word count goal is 28,333, and I am currently sitting at 27,846. I haven't hit the word count goal yet for today, but its only eight in the morning and I haven't done any writing yet.

Yesterday, as you could probably tell from my entry, was a fairly difficult day for me. I was stuck somewhere that I wasn't fully comfortable for most of the day, but when I did finally get back to my dorm, I felt so much better. I got my review for Flashdance written, got to talk to my family, and got to talk to Isadora (who then pestered me until I started writing another chapter of Scarlett, so its thanks to her that I got all of those new words last night).

However, after all of that good, something bad apparently had to happen. I was looking at the syllabus for my Canadian Literature class, and apparently the essay that I thought was due on Monday next week for Peer Review, is actually do on Wednesday, so I don't have as much time to work on it as I thought. I still have no idea how I want to approach this essay, let alone have a full eight to ten page rough draft done for class in two days.

I'll figure it out, I always do...

on a happier note: chapter sixteen is officially my longest chapter of Scarlett so far, coming in at over 2,300 words, and whenever I actually get off of my ass to revise it, it will probably be even longer. I'm still not entirely happy with the conversation that Scarlett and Death had, and I can't wait to be able to fix it.

I'm hoping to write chapter seventeen before I leave for class at one, and then maybe I can write chapter eighteen tonight when I'm chatting with Isadora again. Hopefully I'll be able to write a little bit of that essay too, at least enough that I can bring to that peer review session and have someone look at to get feedback...

I really hate peer review...

I hope that you all are having a fantastic Day Seventeen so far! Let me know in the comments section, I always look forward to hearing from you guys!

Lots of NaNo-Love,
Helen.

NaNoWriMo 2014: Day Sixteen

Hello Everybody,
You may notice that I missed a day of blogging, and that is because yesterday was Flashdance day! I had to leave my dorm at 7 in the morning, travel for nearly three hours, get ready, get picked up, get lost, and finally make it to the theatre, where I watched a FANTASTIC musical. When it was done, we went to dinner and travelled back to my friend's grandparents house, where we spent the night, and where I write to you from now.

Today is now day sixteen of NaNoWriMo, and today's word count goal is 26,666 words. I am currently sitting at 25,836. I haven't been able to do much writing, as you probably guessed from the insane amount of travelling that I did yesterday, and the 400-ish words that I added all came last night right before I went to sleep. Today, I am going to be here until almost four, then it will be onto the 1.5 hour long trip back home to my dorm. I wish I could say that the wait to get back didn't bother me, but it does a bit.

Don't tell anyone, but I'm not entirely comfortable here...

They haven't done anything to make me feel uncomfortable, I just don't really gel with their family all that well. Its always super awkward when I'm with them.

I have been attempting to get as much homework as I can done while in the room that they have been letting me use. I have finished my review of Flashdance, which I have to hand in on Wednesday, and I have also been attempting to write some more of Scarlett, so that I can get ahead again before I have to write two more essays that are all going to be due next week. Maybe I could even finish Scarlett before Friday? Who knows? I guess I'll just have to try and keep writing, no matter how sucky I'm feeling (I have been feeling REALLY sucky lately, not about Scarlett, just in general. Think I might be coming down with a bit of the flu...)

I hope that you all are doing better than me right now. Hopefully I'll feel better when I get home.

Lots of NaNo-Love,
Helen.

NaNoWriMo 2014: Day Fourteen

Good Morning Everyone,
It is day fourteen of NaNoWriMo, and the word count goal for today is 23,666. I am currently sitting at 25,493! As seems to be the trend for the last couple of days, I haven't written yet today. All of my new words came into being at approximately 10:30 last night!

After having finished one of the chapters that I was really looking forward to writing, I realized that I had caught up to myself with my outline. Before NaNoWriMo started, I had tried to finish outlining my story, but had only managed to get to chapter fourteen, which was definitely not enough to get all of the story that was swimming around in my head onto paper. However, since that was what I had on November first, that is what I decided to roll with.

Yesterday, when I went to write my next chapter, I wasn't comfortable with winging it, especially when I know where I want the story to end up. I want it to get there in a way that I will be happy with. So instead of getting down to business (to defeat the huns) and writing right after I put up my blog entry yesterday, I sat down with Scrivener, and just worked out the next 7 chapters. It is still not quite the end of the story, but I could feel the end getting closer and closer as I was outlining the chapters.

To be honest, being able to feel the ending coming closer and closer like that... it was a bit terrifying. Generally speaking, my chapters aren't too long. My longest chapter so far in Scarlett (Cross my Heart and Hope to Die? I can't decide on a title now...) is just over two thousand words. Most of my chapters are between 1600 and 1800 words long. Due to this, I need close to thirty chapters to reach the fifty thousand word goal for NaNoWriMo. Yesterday when I was outlining, I reached chapter twenty-one, and could feel the ending approaching. It makes me worried that I won't hit the word goal at the end of the month, no matter how determined I am to do so.

When I set out to write this story this year, it felt longer than Ruins of the Heart, my novel from last year, in my head. I thought that I was going to surpass the fifty thousand word goal by at least ten thousand words. I feel like I am putting a lot of details into my chapters, I'm not just glossing over things and making the story move along faster than it should. Everything that I wanted to happen (and a few surprises along the way) have all happened and are continuing to happen.

I know that I will be happy if I finish my novel, no matter how many words it is, because it means that I have completed a novel AGAIN! I have never been very good at making commitments to do things and then following them through until the end. In fact, it was the one thing that my mother said would stop me from having my dream of publishing a novel realized. This would have been very true if I hadn't taken part in NaNoWriMo last year, and if I wasn't doing it again to pump out this manuscript, I probably wouldn't have finished it either. For this reason, finishing my manuscript, no matter how many words it has, will be a win.

Although, I really want another winner's certificate to hang on my wall...

I hope that you all are doing well, we are so close to being at the half-way mark! As always, if you have a Tablo account, leave your links down below so that I can give you a follow.

Lots of NaNo-Love,
Helen.

NaNoWriMo 2014: Day Thirteen

Good Morning Everybody,
Today is day thirteen of NaNoWriMo, and the word count goal for today is 21,666, and I am currently sitting at 23,843 words! As you can see, I did manage to get quite a bit of writing done last night, which I am super excited about. I wrote two chapters, and one of them took a turn that I hadn't really been expecting, which made the next chapter change from what I had initially planned out. However, everything in general is still moving along in the way that I had intended for it to go.

I am actually so happy about the two chapters that I wrote last night. Even though the writing in them isn't quite what I want it to be in the finished draft, (I mean obviously, I wrote like 3000 words in just over an hour), the stuff that is happening in them is stuff that is helping my characters to grow, and hopefully readers will enjoy it. Both chapters are now available to read on my Tablo account. If you want to know more about Death's past, then they are going to make for an interesting read!

I'm hoping that I will be able to keep up this pace, and potentially break 30K before the end of tomorrow. I am probably going to be gone for most of the weekend, and I'm not entirely sure how much writing I am going to be able to get done, so I want to try and be as far ahead as possible. It all depends if I can bring my laptop with me, and if I end up actually going. The friend who is planning on taking me to see Flashdance this weekend forgot that she had plans on the day that we were going to travel together, so she wants me to do the travelling by myself, but I have never been to that particular city before, so I don't know how comfortable I am with that whole scenario... I guess we'll just have to see how everything goes.

I am also hoping to have a NaNoWriMo vlog up on my YouTube Channel either later today or early tomorrow morning, that will just be discussing these first two weeks of NaNo-ing and how things are going for me and my story, so if any of you are interested in something like that, be sure to keep an eye out for it!

I hope that you all are having a great day so far (its only 9:30am for me at the moment), and I hope that you get all of your words in for the day! We are almost at the half way mark! Its hard to believe. Good luck to all of you! And of course, as per usual, feel free to leave your Tablo accounts down in the comments so that I can check them out and give you a follow!

Lots of NaNo-Love,
Helen.

NaNoWriMo 2014: Day Twelve

Hello Everybody,
Today is day twelve of NaNoWriMo and the word count goal for today is 18,333, and my current word count is 20,548. You may have noticed that my word count goal has gone up a bit, but only by about 100 words. It is only 6:00pm here right now, so I still have lots of time to write tonight, and I think I have broken through my writers block.

I spent my morning watching Katytastic's day nine liveshow, and for some reason it just made me really excited and really motivated to write again. I haven't actually sat down to write today, those one hundred-ish words are what happened when I forced myself to sit down yesterday and attempt to write at least something. I am hoping that tonight (after watching an episode of Halt and Catch Fire with Isadora), I will be able to finish the chapter I started yesterday, and maybe, if I'm feeling really good about it, get another one done as well. I still want to maintain how far ahead I am because of this weekend being my "write all of your essays at once" weekend.

I know, I'm brilliant, aren't I?

Hope that you guys are doing better than I am right now.

Happy NaNo-ing,
Helen.

NaNoWriMo 2014: Day Eleven

Hey everybody,
I know, its been a while. Its been a really busy couple of days for me. Today's word count goal is 18,333, and I am currently sitting at 20,463! I am still just over one day ahead with the goals, however I haven't written anything today. It is 7pm here right now, so I still have time, but I have been dealing with a major case of writers block all day.

I actually had my friend Isadora come to visit me at University for the weekend. She got here at one o'clock on Friday, and she left at quarter to eight this morning. She is one of my best friends from back home, and I was so happy to have her here for a few days. I ended up not writing anything on Friday, but I did catch up again on Saturday, and on Sunday I got back to being one day ahead and yesterday I managed to get my word count up to two days ahead. Isadora is the same friend who has been super invested in my story as I've been writing, so I wrote a lot while she was here so that she could read the chapters that I was finishing.

Her being here is also the reason why I haven't updated the blog in a few days, and why I don't have a new video up on youtube. I was going to do a week one update, but that kind of got pushed aside since I wanted to spend as much time with Isadora as I could. She and I had a ton of fun while she was here, but now that she is gone I seem to have hit a bit of a block. I did attempt to start the next chapter of Scarlett, which would now be chapter thirteen, but I only got down a couple of sentences before I realized that I had no idea how I wanted to approach the chapter. It is still within the chapters that I had outlined from before the beginning of NaNoWriMo, so I know WHAT will be in the chapter, but I just can't seem to figure out HOW I want to write that content.

This is a really frustrating time for me to be having this because I wanted to write like a machine this week. This weekend I have to begin working on all of my essays for my classes, and I didn't want to have to worry about NaNoWriMo while I was working on them. I was hoping that I could be two or three days ahead when Friday hit so that I could just concentrate on writing the rough drafts for those. Plus, one of the assignments that I have to have done by Wednesday next week is a review for a play. A friend managed to get me tickets to see Flashdance the Musical live this weekend, which I have been super stoked about. I have never seen a musical performed live, and it is something that I have always wanted to do. I love musicals, and I think that seeing one live would just be spectacular. My professor gave me permission to use Flashdance as the play for my review, but now I am going to have a big chunk of time where I can't do any writing for NaNoWriMo because I will be out of town to watch it, and as soon as I get home that night I am going to want to write my review so that the play is still fresh in my head.

If I can manage to get that assignment done, as well as the rough drafts for the other three essays that I have to write done this weekend, then I will definitely consider it a success. I just don't want to fall behind on my novel in the process, especially when I have been having so much fun with this story and the cast of characters that I have given it. (Plus I know that if I don't finish it, Isadora will kill me via Skype call).

I hope that you all are keeping up with your word count goals, and I hope that you aren't having as much difficulty as I am with your last couple of weeks of NaNoWriMo. Chapters nine through twelve of Scarlett are now available to read here, so feel free to check it out.

As per usual, if you have a tablo account, put the link in the comments section so that I can check out your profile and give you a follow!

Lots of NaNo-Love,
Helen.

NaNoWriMo 2014: Day Six

Hello everybody,

I hope that all of you are doing well. Today is the day that we are all supposed to break the 10K barrier! Have any of you managed to do it yet? Its hard to believe that we are one fifth of the way through this crazy adventure!

As I have mentioned in the past, I am trying to stay at least one day ahead with my word count goal. Since the word count goal for today was 10K, I was trying to get past 11,666 words! And I managed to do it! I wrote chapter seven of Scarlett, which can be viewed here. It was my longest chapter so far in this story, coming in at 2,078 words, which brought my grand total up to 12,240 words!

I'm getting close to the number of words where I lost all of my data last year, so I'm starting to get paranoid. I've got my novel backed up on three different hard drives this year.

I hope you are all remembering to back up your novels! Losing your words just over a week in is something that I definitely do not recommend. It was super stressful to get myself caught up again! I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

How have you guys been doing? Have any of you broken the 10k barrier yet? Maybe some of you have even managed to break 20K already? I know that someone on my writing buddies list has on the official NaNoWriMo website! Let me know how your doing, and as always, leave links to your Tablo accounts down below so that I can check them out and follow them!

Lots of NaNo love,
Helen.

NaNoWriMo 2014: Day Five

Hello everyone!

I'm going to try and do one of these posts every day for the rest of the month, but we'll see how that goes. I've never been very good at sticking with things like this. However, I feel like this is a fun, easy way to keep you updated on how I am doing with my novel, and it doesn't take as much time to do as a vlog, which is nice for me because I don't really have enough time to film much right now.

As some of you may know, I am a University student, and I am planning on majoring in English. This semester in particular, I had some issues with my schedule, which ended with me having all English courses, and the majority of them are literature courses. You can imagine the amount of reading and writing I am being required to do. Plus, I have to keep everything straight in my head, and its getting more and more difficult as the semester goes on.

November, as it seems, is Essay Month. Every single one of my classes is requiring an eight to ten page essay to be written, and all of them are due during the same week of November. One of those classes also requires me to write a review for a play, which has to be at least two thousand words. Basically, what this means is that I am going to be writing like a mad woman over the course of the next couple of weekends.

Since I know that there are going to be a couple of days where I can't work on my NaNo novel (I mean really, I have to prioritize something that is worth over one third of my grade here), I have been trying to stay a little bit ahead. So far, that has meant that I am working on the next day's word count.

For example: Day five's word count is 8,333. Yesterday, which was Day Four, I hit a word count of 8,529. If I want to keep this up so that I don't fall too far behind when it comes time to write my essays, then today I have to break 10,000 words! Which I know I can do, because I have a friend who is waiting for my chapter update on Tablo, and if she doesn't get it, then I will never hear the end of it.

I'm just having trouble believing that I'm already almost one fifth of the way through my NaNoWriMo 2014 journey! This whole year seems to have been going by so quickly, and November is definitely no exception.

As of when I am writing this, which is at 9:30 in the morning, I haven't done any writing yet, so my word count is still sitting at the 8,529 from yesterday. I have two classes today, and will probably be home again around 2:30, at which point I will be sitting down to work on the sixth chapter of Scarlett. I will have plenty of time to write tonight, so I think that I will easily be able to hit my 10K goal for today.

How are you guys doing? Are you keeping up with the word count goals? Are you ahead? Maybe you've fallen behind. Don't worry, there is still the majority of the month to catch up if you have! You just have to push yourself a little harder!

Leave any thoughts or questions in the comments section, and as I said in my last post, if you have a Tablo, make sure to link it so that I can check it out!

Happy Novelling,
Helen.

NaNoWriMo 2014: Day Four

Hello everybody!

As you can probably tell from the title of this particular entry, it is day four of NaNoWriMo, which means that the word count goal for today is 6666 words! I am currently sitting at 6,860, and I have yet to do any writing today. (I have to do it after I finish this entry, otherwise my friend Isadora will hunt me down). I have completed the first four chapters of my story! Yay!

I hope that you all are doing well and keeping up with your word count goals! I know it gets a bit difficult after the first couple of days. That is actually why I haven't sat down and written anything so far today, I'm having a little bit of writer's block. I know what is happening next in my story (I have up until chapter 15 outlined, and I am currently writing chapter five), but something about today is just making it difficult to concentrate on my story.

I hope that none of you are having this trouble yet! Save it for after you've hit your 50,000 words! Then you can have a creativity block if you want. I don't recommend having one until that goal is reached. However, if you do find that it happens, relax. Take a break. Spend some time with friends or go watch a movie. Let yourself forget about the stress of writing a story so quickly for a few hours. When you return, try not to let a blank screen intimidate you. Just get your words out: as many or as few as that may be.

One thing I do want to tell you guys about is this site called Tablo. It is basically like Facebook for authors. It allows you to write and publish your stories, and you can gather up your own following of people who like your book! They are also holding a contest throughout NaNoWriMo, where if you use their program to write your novel, there is a chance that it could be picked up by one of five publishers! (That was my understanding of the announcement anyway!) This could be huge for a new author!

Of course, when I heard about this, I had to enter myself into the competition. Even if my story isn't as good as some of the others, at least it is out there and getting seen. Who knows, maybe a publisher will like what they see! Either way, its a great opportunity that shouldn't be missed out on!

I will link my profile on Tablo Here. Feel free to click the link and check out my page. I do have the first four chapters of Scarlett available to be read, and if you like what you see, then please be sure to follow me!

That's everything for today! How have you guys been doing? Do any of you use Tablo? If so, leave a link to your profile in the comments section so that I can check you out!

Keep on NaNo-ing
Helen.

NaNoWriMo 2014: Day One

Good morning/afternoon/night!
As of Midnight this morning, it is officially November, which means it is time for NaNoWriMo to begin. I stayed up until midnight so that I could start my story right away, and actually managed to finish the first chapter by 1:00! Obviously, I'm still not too sure as to whether or not I like the way that it reads as a whole, but there are definitely parts of it that I think are promising, and that I will use when I'm editing and revising this story in the future.

For those of you who would like to know, I am writing a story that is a bit darker than I'm used to, but is going to be riddled with fun and good humor. It follows Scarlett, the title character, who is a highly skilled nurse, but when she meets the figure of Death; she begins to question her morals as she completes tasks in order to meet him again.

I write most of my stories in chronological order because I like following my characters as they grow from beginning to end. This is why the first chapter I wrote this month was also the first chapter of the story.

One thing that I would like to do with these updates, whenever I remember to do them, is to share a sentence or two that I really like from what I have written. If you would like to do the same in the comments of the posts, then please feel free to do so!

"It all started with a heart attack. I should probably clarify: I didn't have a heart attack."

So its been a while...

Hey all!
I just recently realized how long it has been since I've posted on this blog, and I really want to start it up again! Starting at the beginning of November I will be posting book reviews, NaNoWriMo updates, and hopefully some other fun stuff on here as well.

I hope to see you all here again super soon!
Helen (The Book Tree)

City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

This is it folks, the final book in the Mortal Instruments series is finally upon us. This monster of a book holds within its pages the conclusion to a long-loved series. Are you ready for it? I sure wasn't, I can tell you that.

I am going to try to do this with as few spoilers as possible, so as not to spoil anyone who may not have read it yet. I will not be diving into any major plot points or discussing any major events (CHAPTER 24 THOUGH). However, I will be discussing my feelings about this book as a whole, the characters, and how I thought this did as a conclusion to this series.

I would like to start this off by saying that after reading City of Fallen Angels when it first came out, which would have been back in 2011, I wasn't entirely sure that I would continue on with the story. I was satisfied with the end of City of Glass, and Fallen Angels just seemed to be opening a whole new can of worms, and at the time, I didn't think it was necessary. However, after seeing what so many people were saying about City of Lost Souls, I had to see what all of the fuss was about. I am so glad that I did continue with the series because this last book was absolutely amazing.

Cassandra Clare proved once again that she has an amazing talent for writing conclusions to her series. This book was a masterpiece, and I loved everything that happened within its pages. I adored the over all plot, I adored the characters and how much we got to see them grow, and I enjoyed the twists and turns that this book fed to me. I laughed until the point of tears (pg. 532 is a particular favorite), cried from general happiness (Brother Zachariah, enough said), and found myself in tears of sadness (Chapter 24, just... no.). I am so happy with this book, both on its own and as the final instalment of The Mortal Instruments.

Plus, the cover and the poster on the back are absolutely stunning.

STAR RATING: 5/5

The Dead Girls Detective Agency by Suzy Cox

"Pop quiz: What would you do if you had to solve your own murder to get anywhere in death?

Maybe if I hadn't slept through my alarm, slammed into Kristin (my high school's reigning mean girl) or stepped in a puddle, destroying my mom's new suede DVF boots (which I borrowed without asking), I wouldn't have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I wouldn't have been pushed in front of that arriving train. But I did, and I was.
When I came to, I was informed by a group of girls that I'm dead. And that because I died under mysterious circumstances, I can't pass straight over to the Other Side. But at least I'm not alone. Meet the Dead Girls Detective Agency: Nancy, Lorna, and Tess--not to mention Edison, the really cute if slightly hostile dead boy. Apparently, the only way out of this limbo is to figure out who killed me, or I'll have to spend eternity playing Nancy Drew. Considering I was fairly invisible in life, who could hate me enough to want me dead? And what if my murderer is someone I never would have suspected?" ~Goodreads

Honestly, this was a book that I saw on book outlet, and I thought that the premise sounded interesting, so I added it to my cart. It only cost me $2.99, so I figured that if I liked it, then I had scored it for cheap, and if I didn't, then at least I didn't pay full price for it. This is one of many books that I made this gamble on, and unfortunately, this one turned out to be just sort of... blah.

The whole idea is that when Charlotte Feldman was pushed under the F-train when she was on her way home from school, she was surprised to find herself waking up in the lobby of a beautiful hotel with three girls and one boy looming over her. 

Going into this book, I was expecting some really witty dialogue and a lot of over-the-top detective work done by some supremely kick-ass girls. However, this was not what I got. I admit that this book was filled with a lot of amazing pop-culture references, which I loved seeing, however, the tally on witty dialogue was next to zero, the girls were all annoying, and the romance subplot felt half-assed. I know that the author of this book is actually an editor for a fashion magazine, and that came across a lot in her writing. 

I think my main problem with this book though, was Charlotte. Over all, she seemed like a decent person, but being inside of her head for 355 pages was almost tortuous. She thinks in ways that the type of girls I normally don't like to hang out with tend to act, and I think that was why I didn't enjoy it as much. Her voice came off as whiny and ridiculously dependant on those around her.

So my overall thought on this book is that it was okay. It definitely isn't the worst book I've ever read, and I would recommend it to the right kind of person, but I definitely won't be picking up the rest of the trilogy any time soon.

STAR RATING: ★★ 1/2

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

"Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer--they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one terrible and wonderful summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along" - Goodreads

THE STORY:
This was such a cute and fun book, and I really enjoyed the story. I loved following Belly through her summer with the Beck Boys, and watching her grow throughout the story. The whole book was super light hearted, until the last few chapters, where it then decided to hit me with feels. I can't believe it took me this long to read this book, and I can't wait to follow Belly and the boys on more of their adventures.

THE CHARACTERS:
I absolutely adored all of the characters in this book. I loved Belly (even though I did find her annoying at times), I liked Conrad, and I absolutely adore Jeremiah. I even loved Laurel and Suzannah, which is something that I didn't really expect to happen in a YA book. All of the characters were really well developed and had their own personalities, which allowed them to all stand out from each other. I think this book probably has one of my favorite casts of characters in a YA book!

MY THOUGHTS:
I really enjoyed this book, even though I did have some minor problems with Belly.  I own the rest of the series, and I plan on picking up the second book as soon as I finish writing this. I can't believe how short this review is, but it is all I can really think of to say. Jenny Han did an amazing job with this book, and I will definitely be picking up more of her books in the future.

STAR RATING: ★★★★1/2

Tilt by Ellen Hopkins

"Love—good and bad—forces three teens’ worlds to tilt in a riveting novel from New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins.

Three teens, three stories—all interconnected through their parents’ family relationships. As the adults pull away, caught up in their own dilemmas, the lives of the teens begin to tilt….

Mikayla, almost eighteen, is over-the-top in love with Dylan, who loves her back jealously. But what happens to that love when Mikayla gets pregnant the summer before their senior year—and decides to keep the baby?

Shane turns sixteen that same summer and falls hard in love with his first boyfriend, Alex, who happens to be HIV positive. Shane has lived for four years with his little sister’s impending death. Can he accept Alex’s love, knowing that his life, too, will be shortened?
Harley is fourteen—a good girl searching for new experiences, especially love from an older boy. She never expects to hurdle toward self-destructive extremes in order to define who she is and who she wants to be." - Goodreads

THE STORY:
I feel as if this book is filled with really important things that people need to know, especially young people. The three main characters are all dealing with such important and terrible things, and all of them deal with their own dilemmas in totally different ways. This was my first book that was written in verse, and I was a bit surprised by how much I enjoyed the structure. It made the story quick to read, it was still easy to follow, and it was very clever how certain things fit together throughout the pages. 

THE CHARACTERS:
 I ended up really liking all three of the main characters and quite a few of the side characters (aside from the ones who were total douche bags *cough* Lucas *cough*). At first, Mikayla really bothered me because of her co-dependence on Dylan, as well as how her entire relationship seemed to revolve around their sex life. However, I loved watching her grow and become stronger as the story moved forward.

I absolutely adored Shane, as well as his boyfriend, Alex. I thought that they were adorable and that Shane was potentially the most sane out of all three of the main characters. Even though he did some questionable things after what happened to Shelby. I think that he was truly a good guy, and I hope that he and Alex would have a long and happy life together.

Harley, who initially started out as my favorite of the main characters, was my least favorite through most of the book. I hated that she was literally changing everything about herself for some older boys to like her, especially as she is only 13-14 years old throughout the course of the book. She has so much time to find someone who is going to like her for who she is that changing herself for her first boyfriend at such a young age is just terrible. However, I did feel absolutely terrible for her at the end, but I don't understand how she could have possibly been surprised, especially with some of the things that Lucas pulled on her before it happened. 

MY THOUGHTS:
This book was so, so good! I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it, and I will definitely be reading more Ellen Hopkins in the future. I think I need to read the adult companion type novel to this book, Triangles, and see the story from the parent's perspectives. I think that would be really interesting. Over all I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it to readers who are okay with some mature content.

STAR RATING:  ★★★★

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

"The fifty contestants in the Miss Teen Dream pageant thought this was going to be a fun trip to the beach, where they could parade in their state-appropriate costumes and compete in front of the cameras. But sadly, their airplane had another idea, crashing on a desert island and leaving the survivors stranded with little food, little water, and practically no eyeliner.

What's a beauty queen to do? Continue to practice for the talent portion of the program - or wrestle snakes to the ground? Get a perfect tan - or learn to run wild? And what should happen when the sexy pirates show up?" -Goodreads

THE STORY:

I have heard some very mixed things about this book, and so I was a little weary going into it, however I do have to say that I enjoyed it. I love Libba Bray's funny and witty storytelling, and how all of the main girls (and there were many of them) all had different personalities and struggles that they were going through. The only criticism I have towards the plot and the story in general is that the beginning was a little slow, and rather repetitive. I feel as if the story didn't truly start until almost two hundred pages in. That being said, the things that happen within those first two hundred pages were still funny and kept me interested enough to want to keep reading.

THE CHARACTERS:

This is normally where I would discuss my feelings about the main characters of a book, however this book has far too many main characters for me to do that properly, so I am just going to talk about them as a whole. As I already mentioned, I was very happy to see that all of the girls had different personalities and struggles to go with them. I also enjoyed the variety of girls that we were presented with. We had a military trained, religious girl from texas, a feminist, a nerdy lesbian, a transgender, a girl who was hearing impaired, someone who was planning to be a doctor, and even a complete and utter ditz. These aren't even all of the girls that are in here! I found them all to be entertaining in their own way, and loved watching them become more comfortable with themselves during their time on the island. 

I also found myself to really enjoy the pirates when they came into play. I thought that they were funny and witty, and that they added something fun to the story. 

MY THOUGHTS:

Over all, I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought that I would, and even found myself laughing out loud sometimes. While I don't think I will be reading it again any time soon, I definitely enjoyed my time reading it now. Again, Libba Bray has impressed me, and I look forward to reading more of her books.

STAR RATING: ★★★★

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

""Hi, I'm the guy who reads your e-mail, and also, I love you . . . " 

From the award-winning author of Eleanor & Park and Fangirl comes a hilarious and heartfelt novel about love in the workplace.

Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It's company policy.) But they can't quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.

Meanwhile, Lincoln O'Neill can't believe this is his job now- reading other people's e-mail. When he applied to be "internet security officer," he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers- not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke.

When Lincoln comes across Beth's and Jennifer's messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can't help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories.

By the time Lincoln realizes he's falling for Beth, it's way too late to introduce himself.
What would he say . . . ?" -Goodreads

THE STORY:

How does Rainbow Rowell manage to make me turn into a giant pile of melty-heart goo every time I read one of her books? The entire idea of this novel made me happy, and reading it was even better than I could have imagined. I adored learning about Beth and Jennifer through their emails, and I absolutely adored following Lincoln through his life. I loved seeing how both of them were struggling, and even though we only learned about Beth through her emails, we got so much information from them, and we got to know who she was as a person. Every time that she and Lincoln almost met or when she would talk about him as Her Cute Guy in her emails, I would just gush so much. Basically I shipped them ridiculously hard.

THE CHARACTERS:

First of all, Lincoln is my kind of man. He is tall, handsome (in a very strangely specific way), and an absolute nerd. I loved that he was a D & D player, and that his favorite quote came from Lord of the Rings. I loved that he was kind of awkward, like he didn't know that he could get the girl if he simply tried. I absolutely adored him.

I also really enjoyed Beth. I loved how quick witted she was, but she also knew when to stop. She is one of the kindest friends I think I have ever read in a book, and I don't think she even realizes it? Like Lincoln, she doesn't seem to grasp how amazing she is, and how worthy of having the perfect kind of love she is. She seems to know that something is off with her relationship with Chris, but she doesn't do anything about it for such a long time because she honestly believes that is what love is supposed to be like. 

MY THOUGHTS:

Rainbow Rowell was already on my list of favorite authors, but this just cemented it. I adore her writing style, and how she manages to make realistic characters and adorable plots that just make me melt with happiness. I would love to read more about these characters, maybe in something like a novella, or even just a short story? I would really enjoy that, but I am also completely satisfied with this novel and the way it ended. I basically just need more Rainbow Rowell in my life.

STAR RATING:  ★★★★★

Cress by Marissa Meyer

"In this third book in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army. 

Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl imprisoned on a satellite since childhood who's only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice. 
When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has."
 - Goodreads

THE STORY:
First of all, I would like to start by saying that Rapunzel is potentially my favorite fairy tale ever, so I was ridiculously excited for this book, and it definitely didn't disappoint. Obviously I won't dive into too many details so that I won't spoil anybody, but I think this is my favorite book out of the series so far. I loved getting to see more of the characters, and I loved having Cress introduced, and seeing how she saw the world. My love affair with this series is only growing stronger.

THE CHARACTERS:
We had two new characters who were REALLY introduced in this book, and those were Cress and Jacin, and of course we had the whole cast of previous characters, who are all fabulous. I think it is only fitting to start with the title character. Cress is incredible. She is relatively sane considering her time spent alone in her satellite, but still just ever so slightly aligned with crazy. I loved that she was such a fangirl, even if it did get a little bit annoying in the beginning of the book, because it just showed even more of her character. I also loved seeing her grow throughout the book. She goes from being completely obsessive and scared of everything to being rather calm, and willing to put up a fight to save herself, as well as her new found friends.

With Jacin, I still don't really know how I feel. He is a servant of Winter, and he joins the crew for a while as their pilot. We don't really get into his mind much, or see what he is thinking, or even whose side he is really on, but he was an intriguing character that kept me on my toes while reading.

I absolutely loved how big of a part that Thorne played in this book, and I am officially in love with him. Favorite character by far, and he is worthy of many pterodactyl screeches. I can't wait to read even more about him in Winter, and hopefully I can trust Marissa Meyer with the life of my favorite character. I am leaving my heart in her hands. Of course I enjoyed the return of Cinder and Kai, especially seeing them around each other again, and seeing how they act around each other, which has always been one of my favorite things about this series. I adored Iko in this, and loved that she got to play a bigger part again in this book compared to Scarlet. 

MY THOUGHTS:
Basically, if you couldn't already tell, I absolutely adored this book. The Lunar Chronicles are probably going to end up being included in my favorite series of all time, and I am just ridiculously excited for Winter to come out next year. The love affair shall continue, and I don't think that it will be stopping any time soon. 

STAR RATING:  ★★★★★

The Here and Now by Ann Brashares

*An ARC of this book was received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Title: The Here and Now
Author: Ann Brashares
Genre: Science Fiction/Thriller
Release Date: April 8
This title is a stand-alone.

"Follow the rules. Remember what happened. Never fall in love.

This is the story of seventeen-year-old Prenna James, who immigrated to New York when she was twelve. Except Prenna didn’t come from a different country. She came from a different time—a future where a mosquito-borne illness has mutated into a pandemic, killing millions and leaving the world in ruins. 

Prenna and the others who escaped to the present day must follow a strict set of rules: never reveal where they’re from, never interfere with history, and never, ever be intimate with anyone outside their community. Prenna does as she’s told, believing she can help prevent the plague that will one day ravage the earth. 
But everything changes when Prenna falls for Ethan Jarves." - Goodreads

THE STORY:

The Here and Now is a Time Travel story about a group of people from the year 2098 who travel back in time to 2010 because their world is infected with a blood plague. The plan, initially, when they left was to try and change the world so that the future could be better, but something seems to have gone awry. The over all premise of this book was so interesting, and I found myself to be greatly disappointed. The writing was very juvenile, and I feel as if it wasn't advanced enough to handle this kind of plot. The whole story ended up reading very flat, it didn't feel like it had a climax or a darkest moment. In fact, I found myself not feeling anything while reading this book except for general annoyance. The story was executed badly, and so was the "history" I suppose you could call it, of Prenna's future. Nothing was really fleshed out in a way to make sure that it made sense, and everything left me with questions that ultimately would never get answered.

THE CHARACTERS:

There are only really two characters here which are worth discussing, and those are our two main protagonists, Prenna and Ethan. I found Prenna to be ridiculously annoying, and quite often I found that her thought process just didn't make any sense. She would completely jump from one thing to another, or even make jumps in logic that just left me completely baffled. She kept using certain language in her mind that would make her seem a little vain, and then almost immediately after begin thinking about how she wasn't good enough for Ethan. I spent the majority of this book rolling my eyes as I read her thoughts. As for Ethan, I found that he was a fairly stereotypical seventeen year old boy, he couldn't stop thinking about two things (or at least that is what we get from his dialogue), Prenna, and sex. He mentions so many times throughout the book that all he wants in life is to sleep with Prenna, and then he could die happy. Considering these two characters have known each other for a long time, but have only now opened themselves up to the idea of a relationship because the "rules" which had been set forth by the time travellers were almost entirely fake, their relationship moves ridiculously fast. They have only really "been together," if you can even call it that, for approximately a day or two, and already they are making plans to sleep together when everything is said and done, and already progressed to saying "I love you." The whole romance part of their relationship just felt really forced, and I think that the book could have been much better without it.

MY THOUGHTS:

Over all I found this book to be extremely dull, rather annoying, and I couldn't wait until I was done reading it so that I wouldn't have to worry about it any more. I basically spent my entire time reading it thinking about what book I was going to be picking up next, and you should never be doing that while you read. I did not enjoy reading this book at all, and I don't know if I would be willing to pick anything else up by this author if the writing style of this book is any indication to how she writes in the rest of them. I don't really recommend this book.

STAR RATING: ★★

Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen

*I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

The Malediction Trilogy: Book 1

"For five centuries, a witch’s curse has bound the trolls to their city beneath the ruins of Forsaken Mountain. Time enough for their dark and nefarious magic to fade from human memory and into myth. But a prophesy has been spoken of a union with the power to set the trolls free, and when Cécile de Troyes is kidnapped and taken beneath the mountain, she learns there is far more to the myth of the trolls than she could have imagined.

Cécile has only one thing on her mind after she is brought to Trollus: escape. Only the trolls are clever, fast, and inhumanly strong. She will have to bide her time, wait for the perfect opportunity.

But something unexpected happens while she’s waiting – she begins to fall for the enigmatic troll prince to whom she has been bonded and married. She begins to make friends. And she begins to see that she may be the only hope for the half-bloods – part troll, part human creatures who are slaves to the full-blooded trolls. There is a rebellion brewing. And her prince, Tristan, the future king, is its secret leader.
As Cécile becomes involved in the intricate political games of Trollus, she becomes more than a farmer’s daughter. She becomes a princess, the hope of a people, and a witch with magic powerful enough to change Trollus forever." - Goodreads

THE STORY:

The plot of this story was so interesting and unique. At first I had trouble diving into the city of Trollus, but as I spent more time there, I found myself liking it more and more. I found that there were some holes in the story, and the world building was lax, which left me confused during some major plot points of the story, but the development that took place in other areas was just so intriguing that I couldn't help but love it. Where we don't learn much about the world, we learn so much about the Troll Culture and their politics, which I personally found to be very interesting.

THE CHARACTERS:

I still have mixed feelings about the main protagonist, Cecil, but over all I found her to be an enjoyable character. She is stubborn, sometimes to the point of it being annoying, and she definitely has a mind of her own, but she uses these characteristics to help her throughout the course of the story. As for Tristan, the love interest... well where do I begin? I found myself falling in love with him, and he may or may not be a new book crush for me. I loved the different layers and complexity of his character. While the characters in this book, overall, come of as semi-two dimensional, they are a lot of fun to read about.

MY THOUGHTS:

After reading the first couple of chapters, I really didn't want to like this book, in fact, I was sure that I WASN'T going to like it, but boy was I wrong. I ended up truly enjoying my time spent reading this book, and I just flew through it. I can't wait for the next book in this series, and I will definitely jump at the chance to read it.

STAR RATING: ★★★★