Transitive Verve

Thoughts at a glance: **** (I really liked it) Summary:  Dimple Shah is about to go to Stanford, to study web development. However, if you ask her mother, she's going to either find an Indian husband, or at least to make herself more marriageable. Dimple just wants to get away from the traditional expectations and the pressure, to achieve her dreams and make something of herself. So when the opportunity to go to an app development conference comes up, she goes for it. Little does she know that her future husband (as arranged by their parents) is going to be there as well. Ever the good, dutiful son, Rishi Patel decides to attend the conference as well, in hopes of winning over his future wife. The problem is... Dimple has NO idea who he is. She has no idea about ANY of this.

Thoughts at a glance: ***** (It was amazing!) Summary: This is book... 6? 5.5? of the Throne of Glass  series. Therefore, it will contain spoilers for all the previous books. If you would like to check out all my previous TOG reviews, please help yourself :) Assassin's Blade (collection of prequel novellas) Throne of Glass Crown of Midnight Heir of Fire Queen of Shadows Empire of Storms You have been warned!!! If you haven't read the series in a long time and need some refreshing, I would definitely recommend rereading "The Assassin and the Healer" from Assassin's Blade , as it introduces the character of Yrene Towers (one of the main characters in Tower of Dawn ) and maybe also Queen of Shadows , which takes place right before TOD. So, at the end of QOS, we have a small parting of ways. After the destruction of the glass castle in Rifthold and the subsequent revelations about Erawan and the greater threat to the world, Aelin and her crew (Rowan,...

Soulless is the first book of the series I can't remember if I've ever discussed audiobooks before on this blog, at least in their own separate posts. (I may have mentioned previously how much I LOVE the audiobooks for The Illuminae Files , but they didn't get their own review.) I love audiobooks, but I enjoy them most when I get something extra from the experience that I couldn't get while reading it, you know, traditionally. For me, that "something extra" usually relies really heavily on the narration-- I love different voices and emotion. (Am I weird? I only like to listen to audiobooks for books I've already read. Like watching a movie adaptation.) And that's a big part of what I loved about Emily Gray's narration of Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate  series. Without getting into too much detail about the plot (at risk of spoilers), Gray had to distinguish between so many characters and their accents and personalities: the ever-p...

While my blog post itself does not contain any sexual content, this book does. This is a review for a book that is meant for mature audiences, and therefore is unsuitable for minors. This book was provided to me for free by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for also providing the press kit with the graphics and blurb. Thoughts at a glance: **** (I really liked it)

Disclaimers: while my blog post itself does not contain any sexual content, this book does. This is a review for a book that is meant for mature audiences, and therefore is unsuitable for minors. This book was provided to me for free through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thoughts at a glance: *** (I liked it) Summary:  A year after her boyfriend Jared's death, Kennedy has finally come to his hometown of Lyra Valley to lay his ashes to rest. She doesn't quite feel ready to let go and can't bring herself to spread his ashes right away, so in the meantime, she gets to know some of the people from Jared's former life. Including Aaron, Jared's former best friend, to whom she feels an instant attraction--followed by instant guilt. Aaron, too, tries hard to deny his feelings for Kennedy, considering how his friendship with Jared had ended so many years ago. But as Lyra Valley's thunderstorms keep throwing them together, they find that they can...

20 years ago today, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone  (or the Sorceror's Stone , if you're American like me) made its entrance into the world, and THE WORLD HAS NEVER BEEN THE SAME. I'm a newer HP fan myself, having read them just a few years ago, but my love for this series is boundless, and even though I was late to the party as usual, it's a party I never want to leave. *raises a glass of butterbeer*

A recent issue of Real Simple  magazine featured an article where writers, artists, and other influences described a fictional female character who really helped shaped them as people. Responses ran the gamut from literary heroines and television characters, and even included some whom I would choose as well. I thought I would chime in with a list of my own here, to pay homage to the girls and women who aren't just my favorites, but who actually made me ME. Ramona Quimby Aside from Disney fairy tales, Ramona  books are some of the earliest books I remember reading and getting REALLY into. (I read all the books, I listened to audiobooks, and I even borrowed videotapes of the tv show from the library.) I guess I was "in the fandom" before I knew anything about the idea of being in a fandom. The Quimby household felt very different from mine at that age, when I felt "more Vietnamese" than I did as I got older, but so much of what eventually became my worldv...