Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Boyfriends/Girlfriends

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish.

This week’s theme is pretty straightforward! I did add “Girlfriends” to the title since I did include one female character but a majority here are book boyfriends! Let’s just get right to it!

Lucy/Lucifer (The Wicked + The Divine)

My only bookish girlfriend on the list but I HAVE to add her because I love her character so freaking much! Lucy was such a badass in the first volume of The Wicked + The Divine and also extremely attractive in general.

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Sevro Au Barca (Red Rising)

Is it weird that I adore Sevro to bits and pieces? Hopefully I’m not the only one! He’s just so…unique, I loved his character.

P.S. I also adore Pax…

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Jon Snow (A Song of Ice and Fire)

Because I mean…..come on…. who doesn’t love Jon Snow?

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Tyrus (The Diabolic)

While I completely ship Tyrus and his love interest I wouldn’t mind having him for myself either! He’s ruthless, deadly, and extremely smart and I tell you any character that can play around with all that court intrigue is attractive as hell.

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Brack (Kingdom of Ash And Briars)

Definitely a  lesser known book and definitely a lesser known character! Brack isn’t the main love interest but he is an important side character and I just loved him, if you read the book you may know what I’m talking about!

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Dr. Pellinore Warthrop (The Monstrumologist)

I really do just swoon at the mention of this character! He’s just so dark, broody, and intelligent and while he does come off as a little standoffish there is a lot more to him than that.

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Kaz Brekker (Six of Crows)

Yet another character I’m pretty sure anyone who has read this book will love! I think Kaz is the definition of roguishly handsome.

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Adrian Ivashkov (Vampire Academy)

I read this series AGES ago but I still remember Adrian being one of my favorite characters! He’s so suave, sometimes an asshole but still not that bad of a guy.

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Fred & George Weasley (Harry Potter)

Probably my all time favorite set of bookish boyfriends, I have had a crush on these two since I was a kid reading Harry Potter for the first time! What’s not to love about them, honestly?

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Victor Vale (Vicious)

I loved Victor when I was reading through “Vicious”, I loved how he thought he was playing the part of the villain but in reality he was a pretty good guy. I adored his soft spot for Sydney and Mitch!

Do we have any bookish boyfriends/girlfriends in common?

Any that are from the same books listed?

Who are some of your favorite bookish boyfriends or girlfriends?

Let me know in the comments!

 

Hype or Like Friday: Magical Items From Harry Potter

Hype or Like Friday is a weekly meme that discusses hyped books and was created by Jillian @ Rant and Rave About Books, Larkin @ Wonderfilled Reads, and Britt @ Geronimo Reads.

August is Harry Potter month! Check out this month’s discussions on the Hype or Like Friday’s Goodreads page!

Today’s discussion topic is: If you could choose 3 magical items from any Harry Potter book, which would you choose and why? Explain what you would do with them and how you would use them to your advantage.

This is my first Hype or Like Friday post so bear with me!

1.) A Wand

I know this isn’t very creative or thoughtful but come on it’s a wand! You can do pretty much everything with a wand! I would use a wand for lazy things like shutting lights off, cooking, cleaning, or getting the remote after I’ve sat down. Those things are pretty advantageous right?

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2.) A Broomstick

Once again I’m not exactly breaking the mold here but flying on a broomstick would be amazing! I would probably use it to fly to work and pretty much fly anywhere I’d need to go, there isn’t exactly a lot of broom traffic……so that’d be quite the advantage of a broomstick right there.

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3.) A Pensieve

I think out of all the magical items and trinkets that a pensieve would prove to be one of the most useful and potentially the most fun. I would use mine to store all of my best memories and relive them, how does that not sound fun? If I needed to remember something particularly important then the pensieve would come in handy then as well!

What are some of your favorite magical items from Harry Potter?

What would you use them for?

Let me know in the comments and feel free to link up your Hype or Like Friday as well!

The Harry Potter Tag

I was tagged to do this by both Michelle @ Book Adventures and Ariana @ The Quirky Book Nerd , these ladies are both absolutely fantastic bloggers so make sure you head over to their blogs and check it out! Seriously, do it.

This tag and all of these lovely Harry Potter themed images were created by Lashaan and Trang from Bookidote! The only rule of the tag: you cannot use Harry Potter books for any of your answers.

A book where you found the theme interesting , but you’d like to rewrite it.

Unhooked by Lisa Maxwell

A darker Peter Pan retelling with a potential love triangle between the MC and young adult versions of Hook and Pan? Yeah that drew me in right away, but it was not dark or twisted, the love triangle wasn’t as great as it should have been, and these versions of Hook and Pan were boring. If it were up to me to rewrite it I would actually add some darker, creepy elements to the story as well as make Hook and Pan a little more swoon-worthy.

You can find my review here. 

The first book in a series that got you hooked.

The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1) by Maggie Stiefvater

I haven’t finished this series YET but as soon as I finished the this first book I went out and bought ALL of the other 3 books. So yeah, I guess you could say I was hooked and I can’t wait to finish!

You can find my review here. 

A book you wish you could have right now.

And The Trees Crept In by Dawn Kurtagich

There sure are a lot of books I wish I could have right now! Normally I would probably go with “Gemina” but I REALLY need some good old fashioned creepy horror right now and this book is sure to be perfect! I really enjoyed Kurtagich’s other book “The Dead House” and I’m sure I won’t be disappointed with this one either.

A killer book. Both senses. Take it as you like.

Alice (The Chronicles of Alice #1) by Christina Henry

This book definitely falls under both senses! It was a five star read for me it had everything I wanted: a dark, twisted plot, morally ambiguous characters, and fantastic writing. Not to mention it is a horror book so it definitely is “killer”.

You can find my review here. 

 

A book that you found really confusing.

Bliss by Lauren Myracle

I read this book a looooong time ago and never reviewed it but I do remember when I read it that I was confused as hell! I felt like there was too much trying to be crammed in and at the same time nothing was explained well enough which all lead up to an unsatisfying ending. Not a fan.

Your spirit animal book.

Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff

I am a sucker for fantasy novels. Especially when they contain 100% badass heroines, unique and in depth world building/mythology, Thunder Tiger companions, and chainsaw katanas. There’s a lot going on but seriously best way to sum up this book: badass. I just really feel like “Stormdancer” is my spirit animal book, read this and you will know me! Not really but you should read it anyways!

A dark, twisted book.

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

Dammit! I already used “Alice” by Christina Henry….well just so you all know that’s my real answer! The next best thing to that, though, is anything Gillian Flynn writes especially “Dark Places”. It shows the very dark and twisty side of human nature.

You can find my review here.

A book that surprised you in a great way, reveals to be more than it is.

So at first glance at both the cover and the description you’d think this is some sappy, trope-filled, romance book when in fact it’s so much more. While it IS a very romance focused book it’s very unique, the writing is absolutely gorgeous and the stories are filled with original mythology. This was such a wonderfully surprising book!

You can find my review here.

***No obligations to do this tag and sorry if you’ve already done it before, if that’s the case please leave a link to it so I can check out your answers!!***

Brooke @ Brooke’s Books

Isabella @ The Book Pandas

Esther @ Chapter Adventures

Beth @ Reading Every Night

Nessa @ Bookish Nessa

Cassidy @ The Little Book Cottage

Lauren @ Wonderless Reviews

Christine Joyce @ The Book Harpy

Britt @ Geronimo Reads

Hannah @ A Mortal Reader

Donna @ Chocolate ‘N Waffles

Carrianne @ Carrianne’s Cuppa ‘N Critques

 

Top 5 Wednesday: Mothers/Maternal Figures

Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Thoughts on Tomes and created by Lainey @ Ginger Reads Lainey. You can check out the group’s Goodreads page for this month’s topics!

This week’s topic is mother’s and maternal figures which, after a lot of thought, I decided there weren’t very many. Usually in YA the main characters have: either zero parents at all and do everything solo or with other teenagers, just a father figure, or the mother/maternal figure is evil and/or sucks. So there was a shallow pool for me to pick from…..very, very shallow. More of a puddle really.

So thanks to my slim pickings I won’t be elaborating on my picks as much as I usually would, but I’ll still try and include some sort of comment.

5.) Athena (Percy Jackson & The Olympians)

Athena isn’t exactly a major maternal figure in this series but whenever we do see her I feel like she shows a little more affection with her children (such as Annabeth) than some of the other gods and goddesses.

*shrugs* I just like her and remember what I said about having a shallow pool to select from?

4.) Issa (Daughter of Smoke & Bone)

I’m actually half way through “Daughter of Smoke & Bone” so NO SPOILERS PLEASE. Regardless I adored Issa and thought she was a great maternal figure for Karou, she’s always taking care of her and keeping her company.

3.) Miss Peregrine (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children)

Ok how can I not include Miss Peregrine? She takes care of entire home of children! Plus I LOVE Eva Green and she’ll make a fantastic Miss Peregrine. Look at her! She’s perfect!

2.) Catelyn Stark (A Song of Ice and Fire)

Catelyn Stark is a fierce mom, OK? She would do anything for her children, I mean it, anything. Like grab a knife and slice her fingers all down to the bone or steal dwarfs and hold them hostage. Catelyn Stark is seriously one badass mama.

1.) Molly Weasley (Harry Potter)

I have looked through a couple other Top 5 Wednesday lists today and damn near everyone had Molly Weasley as #1! As she should be! I mean do you see the gif? Do you? Molly Weasley is a badass. You do not fuck with Molly Weasley.

Who are some of your favorite bookish moms?

Are there any on my list that you love as well?

Is Molly Weasley your #1 pick?

Are there any moms that you like that weren’t included on my list?

Let me know in the comments! Feel free to leave a link to your T5W as well!

 

Book Tag Thursday: The Pastry Book Tag

I was tagged by Michelle over at Book Adventures to do this tag, so do us both a favor and go check her blog out! This tag, as far as I know, was created by Writing On A Vintage Typewriter.

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1.) Croissant: Name A Popular Book/Series That Everyone (Including You) Loves

Harry Potter

Honestly, is anybody going to do this tag and NOT say Harry Potter? Usually I’m not one to read a whole series just because everyone else loves it, but Harry Potter is the only exception. The ONLY exception!

2.) Macaroon: Name A Book That Was Difficult To Get Through But Worth It In The End

A Song of Ice and Fire Books

Normally I wouldn’t have said any of the ASOIAF books were hard to get through, but since the question is asking to select one that was worth it in the end then I will definitely pick these books. Pretty much all of the books in this series are at least 1,000 pages plus they’re fantasy books with TONS of information. It took my a while to read each one but ultimately they were worth it in the end.

3.) Vol Au Vent: Name A Book You Thought Was Going To Be Amazing But Fell Flat

With as much love for this book that’s out there you’re dang right I expected to love this book! And it was awful, horrible, and tedious to read through.

4.) Pan Au Chocolat: Name A Book That You Thought Was Going To Be Something But Turned Into Something Else

Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

Um…I usually know what a book is going to be about all the way through. So I’ll go with this book since I THOUGHT it was going to be all about zombies, killing zombies, zombies eating people, and running from zombies. What I did end up getting is a very touching and emotional tale about two brothers trying to keep their brotherly bond and survive in a post apocalyptic world. Are there still all of those other zombie things? Of course. I just wasn’t expecting all the feelings that came with it.

5.) Profiterole: Name A Book/Series That Doesn’t Get Enough Attention

This series needs more love! It’s thrilling, it’s gory, and it’s down right fascinating. Jasper “Jazz” Dent was raised by his father to be the world’s next greatest serial killer, but can he overcome this in order to prove to everyone he’s not his dad? Classic tale of nature vs nurture. If THAT doesn’t scream “Read Me” I don’t know what does.

6.) Croquembouche: Name A Book/Series That Is Extremely Complex

Okay first off I’d like to say you could use ANY fantasy series for this one, but since I already used the ASOIAF books then I’ll select something different. The Inkworld Series is pretty complex for something that’s supposed to be middle grade. There’s many different locations in the worlds and a wide cast of characters to keep track of.

7.) Napoleon: Name A Movie/Series That You Liked Better Than The Book

Literally none, I tried to think of some I really did! But there are absolutely no movies or shows that I like BETTER than the book.

8.) Empanada: Name A Book That Was Bittersweet

It’s about a girl who makes tapes of the thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. If this book isn’t bittersweet then I don’t know what is. I don’t read a lot of heart wrenching contemporary books.

9.) Kolompeh: Name A Book That Takes Place In A Country Other Than Your Home Country

I never realized how many books I read take place in the United States…..like almost every single one. I’m assuming they wanted a REAL country and not a completely fictional one so I’m going with Italy! Rome, Italy to be specific. I would absolutely love to go to Rome and I will tell you a completely geeky fun fact about why, because I love Assassin’s Creed II and Brotherhood. “Angels & Demons” amplified on that however, I love reading anything where Italy is the setting.

10.) Pat Au Choux: Name A Food From A Book/Series You’d Like To Try

Butterbeer from the Harry Potter Books

Yes, I know people make real versions of Butterbeer and no I have not tried it yet. It kills me on the inside, I must know what you taste like Butterbeer!

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I tag anyone who reads this post and wants to do it as well! Feel free to leave a link to your Pastry Book Tag so I can check it out!

Book Tag Thursday: Ultimate Harry Potter Book Tag

This is a new book meme I discovered today called “Book Tag Thursday” created by Book Adventures!

Who doesn’t love doing book tags? I know I LOVE doing book tags, mostly because I love to ramble about bookish things I adore.

If you read this you can consider yourself tagged to do it as well!

This week is “The Ultimate Harry Potter Book Tag”, I’m sorry I don’t know who actually created this tag so if you did or you know who did please comment so I can credit you/them!

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The Ultimate Harry Potter Book Tag

1.) Favorite Book

I know, I know it was the most heart breaking book of them all, but you know what? It was still my favorite because it really brought everyone and everything together one last time. I don’t know about you guys but I really love a good ending especially when they come full circle and everything is tied together with no loose ends.

2.) Least Favorite Book

I just remember being really confused and half bored during this one, I did read it in the 5th grade but…..still. For me “Order” is just the least exciting book, period. Plus Sirius died in this one, and for that I cannot forgive this book.

3.) Favorite Movie

Now I know a TON of people disliked “The Goblet of Fire” but it, personally, was my favorite. I loved the book and I thought they did a decent job with the movie, plus I love all these Dumbledore jokes. I also thought this movie had the most action since we got to actually watch all the trials and the Yule Ball, it was awesome.

4.) Least Favorite Movie

I don’t think I really actually have a least favorite movie since I do love all of them, but I’m going with “The Prisoner of Azkaban” I just felt like they didn’t do as good of a job with this one. My one big problem being that they cut out the best Quidditch match I ever read, you know the one were they had to keep “censoring” Lee Jordan and everyone was playing dirty? It was hilarious and I missed it being cut but I also understand why. Just not my favorite movie.

5.) Favorite Quote

“We’ve all got both light and dark inside of us. What matters is the part we choose to act on, that’s who we really are.”

That quote from Sirius Black, my favorite because it’s very true and fits perfectly with the entire series as a whole. Plus I really love Sirius.

6.) Favorite Weasley

I opt for picking two favorite Weasleys because you can’t pick Fred without Geroge or vice versa. I have always loved the twins the most, they’re hilarious and I could always relate to them better.

7.) Favorite Female Character

Luna Lovegood hands down. She was so quirky and sweet I can’t help but love her the most.

8.) Favorite Villian

Because Voldemort isn’t the only crazy, homicidal, evil wizard/witch. I really just loved Bellatrix because of all of those things, she showed that men weren’t the only villains. I also really love Helena Bonham-Carter portraying her…..

9.) Favorite Male Character

Fred and George again?

No?

Fine. Then Sirius Black!

I don’t really have a specific reason that he’s my favorite, he just is…..because he’s Sirius Black.

10.) Favorite Professor

Because Professor McGonagall is a badass, that is all.

11.) Would You Rather: A.) Wash Snape’s Hair or Spend a Day Listening to B.) Lockhart Rant About Himself?

Honestly I didn’t mind Lockhart that much and I love Kenneth Branagh. Besides I wouldn’t want to touch Snape’s greasy locks with a ten foot wand….nooo thank you.

12.) Would You Rather: A.) Duel an Elated Bellatrix or B.) An Angry Molly?

Bring on Bellatrix! I honestly think I would fair better in a duel against her crazy ass than against Molly protecting her babies! I would rather wash Snape’s hair in the previous question than go up against Molly.

13.) Would You Rather Travel To Hogwarts Via The Hogwarts Express or Flying Car?

Definitely the Hogwarts Express! I get to at least travel in comfort that way and why would I want to miss out on this?

Yeah that’s right, the trolley.

Besides remember what happened to Harry and Ron when THEY took a flying car to Hogwarts?

Flying cars? No thank you.

14.) Would You Rather: A.) Kiss Voldemort or B.) Give Umbridge A Bubble Bath?

I’m pretty sure drowning Umbridge in the bath tub is cheating so I’m going to go with kissing Voldemort, because he’s Ralph Fiennes so I’d just think about that.

15.) Would You Rather: A.) Ride a Hippogriff or B.) Ride a Broom?

Both have a good appeal to them but I’d definitely go for a Hippogriff. I also feel like that would be way easier to sit on than a broom……

16.) Is There Any Character You Felt Differently About In The Movies?

Fleur Delacour. In the books she was pretty badass, I mean she did get picked to be in the Triwizard Tournament right? And she rocked that shit in the books, but in the movie? No. She was pretty lame and came off as being kind of weak and annoying. Book Fleur is so much better.

17.) Is There Any Movie You Preferred To The Book?

Oh come on now, I’m a book lover of course I’m going to pick books over their movies! The books are ALWAYS better! Always. Get it? Sorry that was a bad joke.

18.) Richard Harris or Michael Gambon as Dumbledore?

I was very young when I went to watch the first two Harry Potter movies so I had Richard Harris imprinted into my mind as being Dumbledore at a young age. Michael Gambon was great too but  I will always view Richard Harris as my Dumbledore.

19.) Your Top Thing (Person or Event) That Wasn’t In The Movie That You Wanted There The Most?

The one thing I’m the most upset about was that the sphinx in the Triwizard maze wasn’t included. A sphinx was guarding one of the closest routes to the Triwizard cup and Harry happened to cross her path and was made to answer a riddle. I would have LOVED to see that in “The Goblet of Fire”.

20.) If You Could Remake Any of the Movies Which Would It Be?

I wouldn’t remake any of them, I think they did the greatest job they could do with the movies. Besides I’m lazy and re-making an entire movie would be exhausting.

21.) Which House Was Your First Gut Feeling You’d Be a Part Of?

I always knew I would be a Ravenclaw, for sure, all the way. Ravenclaw.

22.) What House Were You Actually Sorted Into On Pottermore?

Yep. Called it.

23.) Which Class Would Be Your Favorite?

Care Of Magical Creatures! Because the textbooks are cool, Hagrid is your teacher, and there’s magical creatures (obviously).

24.) Which Spell Do You Think Would Be The Most Useful To Learn?

Because then I’d never have to get back up for the remote again. Ever.

25.) Which Character Do You Think You’d Instantly Become Friends With?

We would definitely hit off, plus we’re both Ravenclaws.

26.) If You Could Own One of the Three Hallows, Which Would It Be?

The Elder Wand. Because ultimate power!!!!

27.) Is There Any Aspects of the Books you’d want to change?

Besides changing the deaths of all of my favorite characters? No I wouldn’t change a thing.

28.) Favorite Marauder?

You can probably already guess if you’ve read all the other answers in this tag.

Sirius Black.

29.) If You Could Bring One Character Back To Life, Who would It Be?

Can’t I pick all of them minus any villains?!! No? Fine, then I pick Fred Weasley because my heart aches the most for George.

30.) Hallows or Horcruxes? 

Hallows, because Horcruxes get you killed….eventually….by people who have the Hallows.

Thanks for reading the long post, guys! Like I mentioned earlier if you read this consider yourself tagged!

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Characters You Just Didn’t Click With

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, this week’s theme is “Ten Characters You Just Didn’t Click With”.

This is both easy and hard for me to answer because I find a lot of characters to be super annoying or just bad, but coming up with ten that really stick out won’t be easy, but here goes.

10.) Ginny Weasley (The Harry Potter Series)

I don’t hate her, I just never really was a fan of her character. She was always just so….blah. If anything would have happened to her in the Harry Potter series I really wouldn’t have cared at all, I didn’t find her to be impressive. I will never understand why Harry wound up with her.

9.) Tris Prior (The Divergent Series)

Not a fan. I don’t really have a lot to complain about her …… I just didn’t click with her character. I didn’t care about her, I didn’t care what she did, I didn’t care that she looooves Four. I don’t care. She’s the reason why I STILL haven’t picked up the second book in the series “Insurgent”.

8.) Prim Everdeen (The Hunger Games Series)

I didn’t really think she was this adorable, cute, never do wrong little girl. We were supposed to feel so great when Katniss volunteers for her and then some other bad stuff happens and you have everyone going like this:

And I’m just like:

Because Prim is only there to make us like Katniss. I don’t like Prim. Sorry.

7.) Alice Dean (The Last Apprentice Series)

I don’t like Alice, if any of you have read even one book of the Last Apprentice series then maybe you’ll agree. She literally does NOTHING but make TROUBLE. And our hero keeps trying to be BFF’s with her when she is NO GOOD! I spend all of my time yelling at Tom Ward for trusting her! She acts like she wants to help but goes about it in STUPID WAYS!

6.) Sam Temple (The Gone Series)

He thought he was the shit. Just because you got super powers and you try to do good with it doesn’t mean you’re the world’s greatest person…..that is all.

5.) Iko (The Lunar Chronicles)

Now I don’t really like any of the characters from “Cinder” but the most annoying one by far was Iko, Cinder’s little android friend. She forgets that she isn’t human a lot and this isn’t as endearing as you think it’s just ….well… annoying. Yeah that word is really the best one to describe why I disliked Iko.

4.) Alina Starkov (The Grisha Trilogy)

One again I rant about why I dislike Alina Starkov, basically you can see this week’s segment of “Making Up for Monday” if you want to know why she made it on this list or you could see my review of “Shadow and Bone”. She really gets me all fired up…with hatred.

3.) Edward Cullen & Bella Swan (The Twilight Series)

Do I even need to explain this one? They’re both equally dis-likable, they act like the world revolves around them. We have Bella: “Oh no I haven’t seen Edward all day! How am I alive?!” And then we have Edward: “Instead of talking to her I’m just gonna go creep into her bedroom and watch her sleep.” That’s why I don’t like either of them. That’s the whole thing summarized basically.

2.) Zoey Redbird (The House of Night Series)

She is literally the worst heroine ever, Zoey is the definition of a Mary-Sue AND a special snowflake. If there’s a male character in this series Zoey HAS to get with him. I am dead serious. Every. Single. One. Why did I even read 7 books from this series?

1.) Everyone From “City of Bones”

Yep, that’s right. Everyone. They’re all horrible, annoying, and unimpressive. I just want to Hulk out and go into a rage just thinking about this sorry excuse for a book!

That completes my Top Ten Tuesday for this week! I now realize that I barely have any male characters on here but …oh well. So what do you guys think of my list? Do you agree or disagree with any characters?

Top Ten Tuesday: YA Fantasy 101

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Top Ten Books That Would Be On Your Syllabus If You Taught X 101 (examples: feminist literature 101, magic in YA 101, classic YA lit 101, world-building 101).

After some thought I’ve decided to “teach” Young Adult Fantasy 101. This is my syllabus:

1.) We shall start my class with the mother of all fantasy books:

 

Harry Potter! This counts as Young Adult Fantasy right? Of course it does because I’m the Professor and I said it does, so sit back down. I can’t possibly teach a class about YA Fantasy and NOT talk about the perfection that is Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling is a goddess of writing ya’ll. Do we have time to read all 7 in this syllabus? We will make time my dear pupils. The Harry Potter series cover one of the MAJOR fantasy necessities: magic. You don’t have to have magic to be in the fantasy genre but it is a big element and Harry Potter is all about that magic. It also has an imaginary world (Hogwarts) and magical creatures (Hippogriffs, etc.). With these books we can concentrate on the magical aspect of the YA Fantasy genre.

2.) The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien:

Now if we can’t have YA Fantasy 101 without Harry Potter then surely, SURELY we absolutely cannot have it without anything by Tolkien!! Now you may be wondering why I picked “The Hobbit” over any of “The Lord of the Rings” books, and the reason is that “The Hobbit” quite simply is easier to follow and understand. If this was Fantasy 101 then we’d probably switch them out but this is YA Fantasy 101 and “The Hobbit” just fits better. With this book we have all the classic fantasy traits: different races (men, elves, dwarves, hobbits), magic, it’s 100% imaginary world setting, and the traditional good vs. evil. So that should be all the reason I need to include this into my syllabus.

3.) Half a King by Joe Abercrombie:

This is a perfect example of a YA Fantasy book that blends many of the fantasy subgenres together. Epic Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, High Fantasy, and so forth. Once again it shows traditional elements of magic and magical races (elves). But then it shows the grim atmosphere of Dark Fantasy with its royal politics and betrayals and such.

4.) Eragon by Christopher Paolini:

Dragons. This is included because there’s dragons…..I’m sorry doesn’t that count? Fine. “Eragon” demonstrates the fantasy element of magical creatures very well because obviously…dragons. But it also has the traditional races such as elves and men, and contains magic.

5.) Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes:

This is essentially the Young Adult version of “Game of Thrones”, and since that is definitely an adult fantasy book I’m including “Falling Kingdoms” as my replacement. You have your magic, royal politics, different POV’s, and so forth. I think the whole YA “Game of Thrones” is enough to convince you that it NEEDS to be included into the syllabus.

6.) Throne of Glass by Sara J. Maas:

This series is HUGE in YA Fantasy. It’s set in an imaginary world, with royals, battles, all that good stuff. It needs to be included. It just does.

7.) Graceling by Kristin Cashore:

Same as with “Throne of Glass” I think it’s very hard to think about YA Fantasy and not include “Graceling” on the list. It is a staple of YA Fantasy in my opinion.

8.) Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch:

A fairly recent addition to the YA Fantasy genre but a very, very good one. It’s fantasy because you have your basic sword and sorcery type stuff going on and it’s young adult because you get your love triangles and male eye candy! Ta-Da!

9.) Percy Jackson & The Olympians by Rick Riordan:

Again, I’m including the entire series….because I can. These books contain everything you need in a fantasy series: magical creatures (Pegasi), magic, different races (demigods, gods, cyclops, etc.). It’s awesome. The Percy Jackson series focuses on Greek mythology, and combining them with our modern day world. They will help us focus on the aspect of magical races and creatures in the YA Fantasy genre. (I know this is technically Middle Grade but I don’t care!)

10.) And finally, Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo:

I think I’m putting this one in as a “What Not To Do If You Want A YA Fantasy”. There’s very light world building. There is magic though so there’s some points. I also don’t feel right doing a syllabus about YA Fantasy and not having this one here.

So what do you guys think? Would you want to take my YA Fantasy course?

Top 5 Books That Made Me Cry

(…….yeah these made me cry….nothing wrong with it…..)

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

That’s right, I read this book with a continuous stream of tears gently rolling down my cheeks, which then turned into hysterical sobbing. Ok, maybe not the entire time but definitely that last bit. Battle of the Five Armies, anyone? Yep everyone you love dies. So tell me….have you read “The Hobbit”? Did you cry? If not please, PLEASE tell me how you managed.

Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

This book really, REALLY tugs at the heartstrings. I was attempting to do my hair while reading this and then I just wound up sitting and sobbing over the book instead of finishing my hair. Yeah. That happened. A lot of shit goes down during zombie apocalypses ( I assume…) and this book depicts that very well. Children getting left behind, losing your loved ones, seeing your loved ones as zombies, you name it. Doesn’t all that sound depressing? Because it is.

Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch

While this book isn’t technically supposed to make you cry, it does have it’s moments. This story revolves around the people of the kingdom of Winter trying to reclaim their homeland, there’s only a small group of refugees that aren’t enslaved. Therefore the enslaved Winterians are the part that really got to me. I won’t really say anymore about it in case of spoilers, just know that there’s one or two parts that might get to you…..like they got to me. Oooooh ominous.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

I believe I don’t even need to explain this one. If you read Harry Potter then you cried. Period. End of Story. Moving on. Next book!

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Also this is another book that I feel doesn’t need a whole lot of explaining. If you read the Hunger Games series then you cried. But also the fact that this book DID make me cry really says something about how attached I got to the characters, it takes a lot to make me tear up but at the same time….it doesn’t. I’m weird like that.

Have any of these books made you cry?

Any others that have made you cry?

Let me know in the comments!