Bona Fide Bookworm

 I read the famous Shadow and Bone series and, honestly, it was disappointing. I had previously watched the show so I had some basic information about the Grishaverse.  Let us begin with the characters. Alina is meant to be this poor, orphaned girl who discovers her power years too late. Instead, she feels like she is written as someone who seeks validation from others. While this might be more realistic to how a teenager would react, it is not very fun to read and is annoying. This is totally fine to start but as the story goes on, you would expect to have some character growth and for her to become more independent. However, it feels like she grows more and more dependent on Mal and even sometimes Nikolai. I liked Nikolai as both the captain and the prince because I felt like he had this cavalier attitude that was funny and made it fun to read. He was able to always say the right thing which I think every book should have that character. I feel like the Darkling was kind of ...

 This series shattered a part of me. The father is abusive, and the mother enables him. The first two books follow the only daughter, Shannon, as she starts at a new school. The other two books focus on her older brother, Joey, and his love life. The fifth book follows Shannon's best friend as she falls in love with her long-time neighbor and best friend. The author, Chloe Walsh, was really good at manipulating my feelings. She did an excellent job of making me feel as though I was there and actually experiencing the story. I just read the fifth book, about the best friend, and it might have been the saddest book I have ever read. If you can't tell, I love reading romance and happy endings. These stories had happy endings, for the most part, but not without first tearing my heart out. I appreciated how Walsh portrayed the emotions of the characters in a very relatable way. She allowed me to experience a completely different world while also making me grateful it wasn't mine...