crooked kingdom: stardust reviews

Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows #2)
Leigh Bardugo

☆☆☆☆☆

goodreads/b&n/amazon

Kaz Brekker and his crew have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn't think they'd survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they're right back to fighting for their lives. Double-crossed and left crippled by the kidnapping of a valuable team member, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz's cunning and test the team's fragile loyalties. A war will be waged on the city's dark and twisting streets―a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of magic in the Grisha world.

full review under the cut! 

top ten tuesday: nameworthy characters

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted over at The Broke and the Bookish! This week's theme is "October 18: Ten Characters I'd Name A Child/Dog/Cat/Car/Etc. After -- we did this topic back in 2011 and thought it might be fun to revisit it...feel free to spin it how you need!" I love this topic! I already have a dog named after Hazel Grace Lancaster from TFIOS, so that is first on the list, but I do have a ton of other ones that I love!

1. Hazel from The Fault in Our Stars
2. Jo from Little Women
3. Percy from Percy Jackson and the Olympians
4. Arin from The Winner's Curse
5. Celaena from Throne of Glass
6. Alina from The Grisha trilogy
7. Laurent from Captive Prince
8. St. Clair from Anna and the French Kiss
9. Inej from Six of Crows
10. Ani from The Goose Girl

what's on your list this week?

xx
Caroline

spotlight on: totally should've booktag

Welcome to another month of "Spotlight On" posts here at Stardust and Words! This is a monthly feature that I head up here, where each post has a different bookish theme. You can find the rest of the spotlight posts here! This month, I am doing a booktag for my spotlight post. I saw this tag first on Katytastic's channel on youtube, but it was created by Emma at emmmabooks! If this tag appeals to you, I tag you in it :) Hopefully y'all will enjoy this, I just love doing tags!

The Totally Should've Booktag

1. Totally should’ve gotten a sequel 

 I'm cheating and putting two books here, and NO ONE can stop me! I love a good contemporary that makes me have all of the feelings, but they are never long enough for my taste! Both The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord and Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda were AMAZING!!! Two of my favorite contemporaries ever. And I loved their endings a lot, so I don't necessarily want them to be longer. However, I would LOVE to see a sequel to either one of these, perhaps with the characters in college or something! I would love to read about Paige and Max or Simon and Blue again, they are some of my absolute favorite characters! (Emery Lord or Becky Albertalli or both... PLEASE?) That is the dream.
 

2. Totally should’ve had a spin off series

Maybe I'm just selfish when it comes to my favorite characters, but I definitely did not want to let this series go. I understand that the main arc of the trilogy is over, but that definitely doesn't mean that there couldn't be another series to go along with this one. There are tons of possibilities with this world. I would love to see Damen and Laurent rebuilding after the events of Kings Rising, or a spin off about Jord, or about one of the other empires that we didn't focus on in this series, or about a future where Damen and Laurent's successors are ruling. There is a lot of potential here, and  I would love to read another series in this world.

3. An author who totally should write more books

Jandy Nelson! She is so incredibly talented, her ability to put words together into magic is unparalleled. She only has two books out right now, and it has been SO LONG since I'll Give You The Sun came out. I need some more of her magic words in my life. I know that she has another book coming out in early 2017 (*I think*) but I need it to be sooner. I would just love to read absolutely anything she writes. 



 

4. A character who totally should’ve ended up with someone else  

I won't say anything too spoilery here, in case you haven't finished this trilogy, but I wasn't 100% happy with who Alina ended up with in Ruin and Rising, at the end of the Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo. It made sense, following from the events of that book, but I might've  had her end up with someone else. That being said, I wasn't unhappy with the end, per se, but it wasn't as satisfying as I wanted it to be. Honestly, I really wanted Alina to end up being by herself and being fine with it, but I understand why the book took the route it did! 

  

5. Totally should’ve ended differently

I think that we can ALL agree on this one. When I first read this book, I couldn't believe what was actually happening, I just kept on reading to the end, hoping that it was a sick joke. Then, when there were no more pages, I closed it, threw it across my bedroom, and just started crying. I mean, this was total BS, right?? It was unnecessary to cause us that much pain, especially after the series had spent three books building and characterizing?? I will literally never get over the fact that this one ended the way that it did. Insanity. 

  

6. Totally should’ve had a movie franchise  

How awesome would it be to see the world of the Lunar Chronicles on the big screen? The high tech, futuristic world, mixed with the multiple settings that come with the installments of these books? Plus, the characters are so diverse, I just think that this could be a blockbuster. I also think it could work well as a TV show, but the settings lend it perfectly to a movie. Plus, there's the added feature of them being fairy tale retellings, which would attract another audience altogether. PLEASE hollywood, make these books into movies, and if you actually do, please do a good job.

 

7. Totally should’ve had a TV show

I think that we can all agree that the Percy Jackson movies sucked. I mean, they literally did not even attempt to make them good. They could've had another Harry Potter franchise on their hands, but they chose to make stupid decisions which made it pretty much impossible for them to keep making the movies. However!!! There are 10 books in the PJO and HOO series, which would make for a really really awesome TV series! If they started out with younger kids and let them age up naturally, I think it could be so awesome and different. I mean, look at Shadowhunters! The TV show is already doing better than the movie did. PJO could benefit from that as well. 
 
8. Totally should’ve had only one point of view

I honestly don't have an answer for this one. I generally like books with multiple POVs. The only one that I could maybe think of is Allegiant, but even that I didn't really mind! 
 

9. Totally should have a cover change

I usually would say that nothing should ever have a cover change, because I hate it when my books don't match, but I seriously cannot believe that they made six books with these covers for Vampire Academy. They're cheesy and actually kind of creepy, and I just think that there are so many more, better options for this series. The books are really good, but the covers actually suck. 



 

10. Totally should’ve kept the original covers

I WILL NEVER BE OVER THIS. LOOK HOW PRETTY THE COVER FOR UNSPOKEN IS! Then look how utterly underwhelming the cover for Untold is. I literally stopped reading this series partially because they changed the covers and I was so mad about it. Also because the ending of the first one made me so sad, I surpassed sad and when into furious, but also because of the covers. 

11. Totally should’ve stopped at book one     

I'm sorry, Maggie Stiefvater, but The Wolves of Mercy Falls was not my cup of tea. I think she is a great writer, but I just could not get into the characters or the plot of this book, and then she wrote THREE MORE! This was just a no, from me. 







 I hope y'all enjoyed this! 

xx
Caroline   

top ten tuesday: books for mythology nerds

 Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted over at The Broke and the Bookish. This week's theme is: "April 12: Ten Books Every X Should Read (up to you! Examples: every history nerd, memoir lover, ballet lover, feminist, college student, etc etc.)" I chose to do my list for people who love mythology of all sorts– Greek/Roman, Egyptian, Norse, Indian, etc – because I am obsessed with mythology myself, always have been!

1. Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series– Rick Riordan 

Okay, I'm just going to go ahead and cover my bases here with the Rick Riordan series. Riordan is technically middle grade, but read one of his books without cracking up and then get back to me on that label. Percy is the OG demigod up in here: he's a bamf, even when he's like 12. This series has five books. If you haven't read it already... literally where have you been? One of my all time favorites EVER. 

2. The Heroes of Olympus Series – Rick Riordan

Just when you THINK you're done with Percy... NOPE. Uncle Rick gave us this beautiful and amazing and expansive follow up series of five books which follows Percy and Annabeth and Nico and Grover and our fave gods, then gives us some incredible new characters as well. Five books in this one also, a close runner up to the first series. 

3. Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard Series– Rick Riordan

 This is Riordan's most recent addition to his canon of mythology, this one following Norse gods and demigods instead of the Greek/Roman/Egyptian ones that he has explored in the past. There is only one book out currently, with the second, The Hammer of Thor, coming out later this year. Though I did not fall directly in love with this one quite like I did with the Greek and Roman series, it was still AWESOME and hilarious, in true Riordan fashion. 

4. The Covenant Series– Jennifer L. Armentrout 

More Greeks, more demigods here, but YA instead of MG this time. This series is very similar to the Vampire Academy series, but I honestly love them both. I read Covenant before VA, and I seriously fell head over heels in love with the characters. Five books in this series, mythology less directly involved, more implied and effused. 

5. The Song of Achilles– Madeline Miller

The story of Achilles and Patroclus, from the time that they meet as youths, until both of their untimely demises in the Trojan war. (that's not a spoiler, it's literal, mythological fact) Sweet, adorable, cute, stabby... what more could you want? Patroclus is a cinnamon roll, too good, too pure for this world. Achilles is a sinnamon roll. This is all we need to know. 

 

6. The Chaos of Stars – Kiersten White 

Hello, Egyptian mythology! Welcome, take a seat here with your Greek and Norse counterparts. This is a standalone novel where the main character is the daughter of Isis, Egyptian goddess of marriage and many other things. This book is super romantic, and honestly pretty short, but definitely one of my faves. It could be a quick beach read for you this summer! 

7. Cruel Beauty – Rosamund Hodge

 I don't know if I'm cheating here, because honestly this isn't *about* Greek mythology, specifically. It is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. BUT! It is super interesting and different because there are elements of Greek and Roman culture woven into the tapestry of this fairy tale retelling. It is a lot more subtle than the rest of the books on this list, but it's beautiful and captivating, so I included it.

8. The Wrath and the Dawn – Renée Ahdieh

 Also don't know if this one is cheating... but I don't really care, because it feels like it belongs here, to me. This book is a retelling of 1001 Nights, which, in itself, is a little hazy over whether it is classified as a "classic book," a "legend," or a "myth." I like to think of it as a Middle Eastern, Persian myth, and this book has other elements of that culture as well. Gorgeous, gorgeous writing, beautiful characters, engaging plot. LOVE it. 

9. The Grisha Trilogy – Leigh Bardugo 

Though this is set entirely in a fantastical world called Ravka, there are definite influences of Russian culture upon it. There are also echoes of Russian myths, such as that of the Firebird, so if you're looking for something with definite allusions to Russian folklore, this is your book. Also, just a kickass series all around.

10. The Raven Boys Series – Maggie Stiefvater 

Here we come to the last book on our list, which includes some elements of Welsh mythology! Something new and different for us. I know there is like a cult following for this series, but I'm totally not caught up yet, I haven't read Blue Lily, Lily Blue yet!!! So no spoilers. I'm waiting til I get my hands on The Raven King to finish this series. 

I hope you enjoyed this list :) link me to your posts this week!

xx

Caroline

top ten tuesday: characters I just don't get

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted over at The Broke and the Bookish. This week's theme is "March 8: Ten Characters Everyone Loves But I Just Don't Get or Ten Characters I LOVE But Others Seem To Dislike." I'm doing my top characters that people *love* but that I could never get behind. Also: these all ended up being boys because I'm 100% more distrustful of boys than girls lol!

1. Morpheus – Splintered Series by A.G. Howard: I know that everyone loves Morpheus so much, but I tend to latch on to the first male protag that I see, and I stayed loyal to Jeb through this entire trilogy. I just got creepy vibes from Morpheus, I can't explain it. 

2. Theo – The Firebird Trilogy by Claudia Gray : Okay, this one is less strong because I know most people love Paul, but I have seen a few people pining for Theo, so I put him on here. Even though he kind of redeems himself in the second book of this series, I still don't love him

3. The Darkling – The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo: I never really liked any of Alina's options in this series, I really just wanted her to be by herself and fine with it, but I knew with certainty that I didn't want her to be with the darkling. 

4. Dorian – Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J Maas: I love Dorian as a character, for sure. I want for him to be happy! But I follow tons of people who ship him with Aelin, and I do NOT want that to happen at all. Total Rowaelin girl right here. 

5. Kaden – The Remnant Chronicles by Mary E Pearson: I love Rafe!!! I love him!!! I like Kaden okay, but I don't feel as protective over him as lots of people do. I think this is probably an unpopular opinion, but hey, what can I say?

6. Jacob – Twilight by Stephanie Meyer: as a fourteen year old, which is the last time I read Twilight, I was totally into Edward's creepiness and didn't care for Jacob like, at all. There's no telling what I would think if I read these now though...

7. Sebastian – The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare: I know there were a ton of people that wanted Sebastian to be redeemed, and that believed that he was really good underneath the demon influences or whatever but I was totally fine with the ending that he got. I wasn't particularly bothered with his soul because I wasn't attached to him like the other characters. 

8. Gale – The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: Gale is just selfish and makes me go NO. 

I understand that some of these are unpopular opinions, so feel free to disagree with me! It won't bother me at all :) Love a spirited debate about fictional characters. 

xx

Caroline

look at her go: reviewin; reviewin': six of crows

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
☆☆☆☆☆

goodreads/b&n/amazon

synopsis: Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can't pull it off alone...

A convict with a thirst for revenge.

A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager.

A runaway with a privileged past.

A spy known as the Wraith.

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.

A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.

Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz's crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don't kill each other first

full review under the cut! 

september wrap up

I know, I know, it is past the first week of October, but it truly doesn't feel like I can start a new month of blogging without doing a wrap up post, just for the fact that I need to actually remember what I read the month before! September was a super hectic month for me, and I know that it reflected here in the blog. I had midterms and projects and things of that sort, and so I am sorry for the fact that there weren't that many posts last month. I managed 9 posts on here, with two reviews, and I actually read nine books as well. Overall, a pretty solid month! I've also upped my yearly challenge on Goodreads to 110, which I am really hoping to get to, so cross your fingers for me! Anyways, here we go with the wrap up!  

Queen of Shadows – Sarah J Maas
 ☆☆☆☆☆

(spoilers!) The queen has returned.

Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she’s at last returned to the empire—for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past…

She has embraced her identity as Aelin Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen. But before she can reclaim her throne, she must fight.

She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die for her. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen’s triumphant return.

The fourth volume in the New York Times bestselling series contrinues Celaena’s epic journey and builds to a passionate, agonizing crescendo that might just shatter her world.
 

Queen Song (Red Queen Novella) – Victoria Aveyard 
☆☆1/2



Queen Coriane, first wife of King Tiberias, keeps a secret diary—how else can she ensure that no one at the palace will use her thoughts against her? Coriane recounts her heady courtship with the crown prince, the birth of a new prince, Cal, and the potentially deadly challenges that lay ahead for her in royal life.

Infinite In Between – Carolyn Mackler
☆☆☆

Printz Honor author Carolyn Mackler returns with this striking new novel that chronicles the lives of five teenagers through the thrills, heartbreaks, and joys of their four years in high school.

Zoe, Jake, Mia, Gregor, and Whitney meet at freshman orientation. At the end of that first day, they make a promise to reunite after graduation. So much can happen in those in-between years….

Zoe feels like she will live forever in her famous mother’s shadow. Jake struggles to find the right connections in friendship and in love. Mia keeps trying on new identities, looking for one that actually fits. Gregor thought he wanted to be more than just a band geek. And Whitney seems to have it all, until it’s all falling apart around her.

Echoing aspects of John Hughes’s The Breakfast Club, Carolyn Mackler skillfully brings the stories of these five disparate teens together to create a distinct and cohesive whole—a novel about how we can all affect one another’s lives in the most unexpected and amazing ways.

Everything, Everything – Nicola Yoon
 ☆☆☆☆1/2

My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla.

But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black—black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly.

Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster.
  

Better off Friends – Elizabeth Eulberg

For Macallan and Levi, it was friends at first sight. Everyone says guys and girls can’t be just friends, but these two are. They hang out after school, share tons of inside jokes, their families are super close, and Levi even starts dating one of Macallan’s friends. They are platonic and happy that way.

Eventually they realize they’re best friends — which wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t keep getting in each other’s way. Guys won’t ask Macallan out because they think she’s with Levi, and Levi spends too much time joking around with Macallan, and maybe not enough time with his date. They can’t help but wonder . . . are they more than friends or are they better off without making it even more complicated?

From romantic comedy superstar Elizabeth Eulberg comes a fresh, fun examination of a question for the ages: Can guys and girls ever really be just friends? Or are they always one fight away from not speaking again — and one kiss away from true love?

Fans of the Impossible Life – Kate Scelsa (2)
☆☆

Ten months after her recurring depression landed her in the hospital, Mira is starting over at Saint Francis Prep. She promised her parents she would at least try to pretend that she could act like a functioning human this time, not a girl who can’t get out of bed for days on end, who only feels awake when she’s with Sebby.

Jeremy is the painfully shy art nerd at Saint Francis who’s been in self-imposed isolation after an incident that ruined his last year of school. When he sees Sebby for the first time across the school lawn, it’s as if he’s been expecting him.

Sebby, Mira’s gay best friend, is a boy who seems to carry sunlight around with him like a backlit halo. Even as life in his foster home starts to take its toll, Sebby and Mira together craft a world of magic rituals and impromptu road trips, designed to fix the broken parts of their lives.

As Jeremy finds himself drawn into Sebby and Mira’s world, he begins to understand the secrets that they hide in order to protect themselves, to keep each other safe from those who don’t understand their quest to live for the impossible.

A captivating and profound debut novel, Fans of the Impossible Life is a story about complicated love and the friendships that change you forever.
 

Shadow and Bone – Leigh Bardugo
 ☆☆☆☆

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.

Shadow and Bone is the first installment in Leigh Bardugo's Grisha Trilogy. 

Siege and Storm – Leigh Bardugo
☆☆☆☆☆

(spoilers!) Darkness never dies.

Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land. She finds starting new is not easy while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. She can’t outrun her past or her destiny for long.

The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling’s game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her--or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm

Ruin and Rising – Leigh Bardugo
☆☆☆☆☆

(spoilers!) The capital has fallen.

The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Now the nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.

Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.


What did y'all read in September??

xx
Sunny 

spotlight on: fantasy

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

There is something that I've been wanting to bring to These Stardust Words for quite some time, and that is a spotlight series. every month, I want to take a different facet of the bookish lifestyle and highlight it. Be it genre, covers, shipping, writing styles, etc, every month there will be a different theme under our spotlight! 

For March, I want to spotlight a genre, and specifically fantasy. Usually I can manage one or two fantasy books a month before I feel myself slumping and have to go for a more contemporary feeling, but lately I have been tearing through some truly amazing fantasy, one after the other. 

Though I know fantasy is an acquired taste for some, I truly believe that there is a fantasy book or series out there for everyone. So in an attempt to lead those who are less fantastically-inclined in their reading choices to some magical worlds, I've included middle grade, young adult and adult selections. In the adult section, there are some picks for perhaps the more adventurous souls. 

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

top ten tuesday: badass book heroines

Hello all! I'm sorry I've been relatively absent from the blogging sphere for the past couple of weeks, but I've had midterms and an insane amount of writing to do, so that took precedence. But I am back and my schedule is clear for the next couple weeks, so lets talk heroines!

judging books by their covers

Admit it. It's something we all do. As much as we want to claim that we are fair and objective when it comes to books, everyone forms opinions about books based on how they look. That's why we cringe so much when bad covers happen to good books, and when covers change to something that we don't think represents the story. It's also why we happy-tears cry over covers that are just so gorgeous they HURT.
I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. There are so many amazing YA books out there today, there is no way you can walk into your local bookstore and spend hours combing through the section, reading every single synopsis and ignoring the covers. I think covers are our first filter for the books we think we might like. I know I am definitely drawn to certain books over others because they have a pretty or interesting cover. And most of the time, my cover senses end up being pretty dead on in picking good books. So, maybe not such a bad thing, as long as we don't completely rule out books that don't have those amazing covers.
I thought I would share a few of my most favorite covers!

Best

1. These Broken Stars and This Shattered World – Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

2. Throne of Glass Series – Sarah J Maas

3. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe – Benjamin Alire Sáenz

4. I'll Give You The Sun – Jandy Nelson

5. The Chaos of Stars – Kiersten White 

6. The Grisha Trilogy – Leigh Bardugo

7. Starry Night – Isabel Gillies

8. Unspoken – Sarah Rees Brennan (a cover change I will NEVER FORGIVE)

9. The Fault In Our Stars – John Green

10. A Thousand Pieces of You – Claudia Gray











Those are just a few of my personal favorites. Let me know some of yours!

xx
Sunny