Transitive Verve

I can't believe it's that time again! Here are the books that came out this year that I enjoyed most. I did not read nearly as many books as I wanted to read, so if you're looking at my list and wondering where X is and why it's not on my list - it could be because I just haven't read it yet. *hides* Please don't throw books at me. (I mean, unless they're good and you think I should read them. But try not to hit my head.) This list is in no particular order, and even though these are all technically YAF books, some of them have some adult content. (I think you will know what I mean, if you've read some of these.) A lot of these books are continuations of a series, which I know can be frustrating if you've never read them, but hey... now you have some things to put on your 2017 reading list. =P

Apparently today is National Siblings Day, and what better way to celebrate (beyond reaching out to my own sibling - Hi Khoa!) than to go over some of my favorite sibling groupings! 

Thoughts at a glance: **** (I really liked it) Summary:  This is the first book of Clare's Dark Artifices  series, but the series itself is a continuation of the Shadowhunter universe, so if you have not read any of the books from her Mortal Instruments  or Infernal Devices  series, you're going to get rather lost. This book takes place five years after the events of City of Heavenly Fire  (the last Mortal Instruments  book), and centers around Emma Carstairs, Julian Blackthorn, and the Los Angeles Shadowhunters Institute. Emma has spent the past five years trying to find clues as to who killed her parents. The Clave believes that it was Sebastian Morgenstern, but she knows deep down that it wasn't him, and that the killer is still at large. When some new clues arrive that tie in to some recent faerie deaths, Emma finds herself in a bind, because ever since the Dark War with Sebastian Morgenstern, any sort of affiliation with the faeries has been pr...

I had meant to do these weekly, after each episode, but life gets in the way sometimes. So here are two of them together. Spoilers for the books and the episodes ahead. When we last left off, Simon had just been kidnapped by the vampires, who offer to trade him for the Mortal Cup. Episode 3 is basically about what happens to Simon while he's being held at the vampires' lair, Hotel DuMort, and the shadowhunter crew's attempt to retrieve him. Notable differences include the introduction of Camille Belcourt, whom I don't think we met in the book series until later (definitely not in the first book). In the book, Raphael is the one who feeds off Simon, and in this universe's vampire mythology, being bitten by a vampire makes the victim want to return to that vampire - kind of like a siren call, I guess? In this case, it's Camille who has Simon under her thrall, and there are heavy hints as to what's in store for Simon, as he drinks up a little of her blo...

Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments  is based on Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments  book series. Previously, there was a movie based on just the first book, City of Bones , but it didn't do very well, and any plans for sequels were scrapped. (See my review of the movie here .) But, since it's still such a popular series, they didn't quite want to give up on it yet, so it is now a TV series on Freeform (formerly ABC family), with an all-new cast. Short summary: The series focuses on Clary Fray, who finds out after her mother's kidnapping that she is actually a shadowhunter, an ancient race of demon hunters. Her mother has been kidnapped by an evil dude named Valentine, who was long presumed to be dead and who is looking for something called the Mortal Cup so that he can create his own army of shadowhunters for his own nefarious purposes. With the help of human best friend Simon and shadowhunters Izzy, Alec, and Jace, she plans to get her mother back and...

Cassie Clare and Holly Black were at Kepler's Books in Menlo Park tonight to talk about their Magisterium series (which I hadn't even heard about, until I heard about this event). The second book just came out, so they were on hand to tell us about the process of co-writing, writing for middle readers (that's the group just younger than YAF, for those of you who don't know), and just anything we wanted to ask. And also to sign books! My dreadful admission is that I've had Holly Black's The Darkest Part of the Forest  on my shelf for quite some time, and I still haven't gotten to it, but now having met her, I think I'm going to have to bump that one to the top of my list, as well as her previous books. Her books sound right up my alley. Both of them were really nice and really funny, and THEY BOTH COMPLIMENTED MY HAIR. (Yessss.) During the Q&A portion, I asked them how they go about researching things like mythology and folklore for their boo...

And here are my smattering of reviews for book-to-movie adaptations! Thoughts on the 2011 adaptation of  Jane Eyre Thoughts on the movie adaptation for  The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones Thoughts on the movies for  The Hunger Games ,  Catching Fire , and  Mockingjay Part 1 . Thoughts on the movies for  New Moon ,  Eclipse ,  Breaking Dawn Part 1 ,  and  Breaking Dawn, Part 2 Thoughts on the movie for  Divergent Thoughts on the movie for  The Fault in Our Stars