Showing posts with label Kathryn Purdie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kathryn Purdie. Show all posts

Thursday, March 31, 2016

March Wrap Up 2016

   This month was practically a lead up to Spring Break, and the weekend before hand. Spring Break where my sister, friends and I went to San Fransisco and Monterey for a school trip, like I've
mentioned a few times before. With all the lead up, stress, and hype, I actually didn't get much
reading done. Not to mention, the no reading done at all on my trip.... So I'm a bit behind on everything... again.
   To be honest with you guys, I was behind on all things blog related because I just wasn't feeling it this month. I would feel it here and there, but never enough to keep up with everything. Already as April approaches I'm starting to feel it again, but I don't know how long that will last for. I guess we'll see as we go.
   Let's talk about my trip! We started off by heading to the airport for 4am,  then spending our first 2 hour flight well but eventually learning that everything was being delayed in Toronto. So the first thing that happened was that we were stuck in an airplane for an hour, IN Ottawa then we were stuck in the Toronto Airport for roughly 5 hours because our original San Francisco flight was canceled. You could say that that day was a bust. 
   The next day was great though, we visited the Intel Museum in Silicon Valley. That turned out to be
a blast. The trip went on to visiting Alcatraz, walking across the Gold Gate Bridge, "seeing" the Full House house, Monterey Bay Aquarium ( A day after Margaret Stohl visited according to her Instagram, that didn't stop me from looking for her every turn I made aha), seeing the curviest road in the world, etc. Having my friends and sister there only made the trip better.
   Fun fact, if you're visiting San Francisco with your family or friends then you will get bruises. There were so many Beetles, when I say many, I mean MANY. You would spot one and two seconds later another would pop up in your field of vision. We saw just as many Mini Coopers, and PT Cruisers. 
   Unfortunately our tour group (EF Tours) did NOT know how to pick restaurants to eat at, when we were visiting Fisherman's Wharf we went to Applebees, when we could literally see so many different unique food stalls with so many different forms of sea food. Our tour group was not happy, this struggle went on to face us throughout the whole trip. 
   If you could look past the poor points in the trip, then I would definitely say it was an success and that I would visit again. Just not with that tour group! 
   If you'd like to see more pictures from my trip, then check out my Instagram here. Otherwise that's it for this month! What were you guys up too? Let me know!
   Now for the bookish stats!
   

Books Read:




Book Haul:

   A big thank you McNally Robinson, Dunburn Publishing, and Harper Collins Canada for some of the lovely books listed above. And a big thank you to my sister for finally replacing the copy of Cinder that she lost!

Books Reviewed:




April Books I'm Excited For:



   That's this month, I'll be heading to a few bookish events in April so expect a few posts from those!



Friday, March 11, 2016

Book Review: Burning Glass by Kathryn Purdie

Release Date: March 1st, 2016
Read: March 2nd-9th, 2016
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Series: Burning Glass, #1
Format: ARC, 512 pages
Source: Traded



Description from GoodReads:


   Sonya was born with the rare gift to feel what those around her feel—both physically and emotionally—a gift she’s kept hidden from the empire for seventeen long years. After a reckless mistake wipes out all the other girls with similar abilities, Sonya is hauled off to the palace and forced to serve the emperor as his sovereign Auraseer.

   Tasked with sensing the intentions of would-be assassins, Sonya is under constant pressure to protect the emperor. But Sonya’s power is untamed and reckless, and she can’t always decipher when other people’s impulses end and her own begin. In a palace full of warring emotions and looming darkness, Sonya fears that the biggest danger to the empire may be herself.


   As she struggles to wrangle her abilities, Sonya seeks refuge in her tenuous alliances with the charming-yet-volatile Emperor Valko and his idealistic younger brother, Anton, the crown prince. But when threats of revolution pit the two brothers against each other, Sonya must choose which brother to trust—and which to betray


Review:


   I was darkness personified.
   I had heard a few things from bloggers before going into Burning Glass, excitement, etc. But when my friend received the ARC, she told me to stay away from it. Well she wasn't wrong.
   Going into Burning Glass I immediately felt a similarity to Poison Study by Maria V. Synder, this feeling stuck with me throughout the whole book. Then eventually I started to feel another similarity, this time to Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. When I got to that point all I was was bored and annoyed for everything being so similar to the two.
   Along with being annoyed about the similarities, I was also so aggravated when it came to Sonya and the King. Being abusive, annoying and manipulative, I just could not handle Valko. I hope in most cases it was Sonya feeling his "affections" for her that lead her to him, because otherwise I just don't understand what Purdie was thinking.
   Because I could not see Burning Glass as anything other than knock offs of Poison Study and Throne of Glass, I could not enjoy anything from the novel. Saying that, I do not see myself reading anything else from this series, in the future.


Rating:


Favourite Quotes:


"I'm not a mirror. And I don't break like glass."


Recommend to People Who Enjoy:


Young Adult, Fantasy, High Fantasy, War, Magic, Powers