August was a pretty good reading month for me, I read 10 books and I managed to add some of them to my favorites pile. So here are the books that I read, and some-what-spoiler-free thoughts I have on them:
Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson - This book follows Emily after her best friend, Solane, suddenly disappears and leaves behind a list of things for Emily to do. I had read Morgan Matson first two books a couple of months ago and she has yet to disapoint me with her writing. This story was so cute and I absolutely loved it. I really enjoyed reading Emily as she grew out of her shell, and stopped relying on Solane. As much as I loved this book, I wasn't a huge fan of the ending and I wish it had been a little more conclusive.
Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour - This book revolves around Emi after she finds a letter from a famous actor. I don't see enough books featuring lesbian protagonists and I was really excited to pick this one up. I really enjoyed the story and reading about the film aspect of this book. The mystery aspect of the books is what drew me in and I was a little disappointed that it was solved so conveniently and quickly. I liked how determined Emi was and I really liked seeing her artistic visions, but I wasn't a huge fan of Ava's character and I didn't like how immature she was at times. Overall I enjoyed reading this book, and I hope to read more of Nina LaCour's books soon.
For Darkness Shows the Stars and
Across a Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund - This is a dystopian series that follows a world where the human society has been divided into an elite upper class and a "reduced" working class. This series is in a world of it's own; the world is so unique to dystopian literature and the everything is so beautifully written. I am a fan of slow building stories and these two books crafted one of the most beautiful stories. One of the things I found really interesting about this series is that they showed how two sets of people split up after a war and developed there own, completely different societies on different continents. In the first book, When I first picked up the second book, I was very confused as too how the story fit in with the first, but everything merged together so seamlessly. These books also have some of the coolest female protagonists I've ever read; there's Elliot, who is single handedly managing her family's estate, and Persus, who is secretly a spy and has formed the greatest cover behind a shallow personality. The romances in these books were practically perfect, and I was pretty much swooning while reading them. I love these two books so much, it's definitely one of my favorites and I highly, highly recommend them.
Pivot Point and
Split Second by Kasie West - This series takes place in a society where everybody has powers and the main character, Addison, can see two different versions of the future. The first book is actually told switching between two futures, and I found that aspect of the books really interesting. I liked this series, the characters and storylines are interesting enough but I didn't like it as much as I like Kasie West's contemporaries.
Legend Trilogy by Marie Lu - This is a dystopian series that follows a world where the US has been divided into two countries at war with each other. This series is one that I could hardly put down, I consumed these books in a span of four days. I absolutely fell in love with this series, I found the plot and conflicts so interesting and I really loved the two lead characters, June and Day, but Metias also holds a special place in my heart. The ending of this series was really frustrating for me, about 5 pages from the end I was ready to throw the last book, but everything came together so well and I ended up being really satisfied with the ending. Overall I'm so satisfied with this series and I really enjoyed reading it.
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver - This book follows Samantha after she dies, and has to relieve the last day of her life seven times. I found the premise of this book really interesting, but I really didn't like the beginning, really liked the middle section, and absolutely hated the ending. I ended up giving this book a 3/5 stars on Goodreads because it wasn't horrible, I thought it was a good store and well written, but I was so disappointed with the ending.
This review on Goodreads pretty much sums up all of my feelings after I read this book.
And those are the books I read in August. Even though were only a couple of days into September I already started reading three books and it's looking up to be a good month for fantasy books. I've started reading some of Sarah J. Maas' books and I've started the
Half-Bad Trilogy. As always, feel free to follow me on
Goodreads to see my reviews on these books and I see my progress during September. - Jessica
