A Penny Lost by Aspen Bassett

| ISBN: 9780998593609 | Pages: 267 |

Publication Date: April 15, 2017 | Source: Author/Smith Publicity

| Rating: 2.75 out of 5 stars |

★★☆

Penelope Grace, usually forgotten under the shadow of her twin sister's perfection, tries her hardest to hide her freakish ability to see into anyone's soul.
Until she senses an unusual energy like a human shaped void in the universe. When Penny investigates the source, she gets tossed through a crack in time along with the cute boy next door. The Void follows them through history, increasing the dangers as if testing Penny. But what is it testing for? And why does it claim to know her better than even she knows herself? Even as Penny searches for answers, she must fight to survive the tragedies of both the past and future in order to get back home. 

I'm still kind of debating about my rating for this book...it's wavering right now between a 2.5 and a 3. I was super excited going into this novel because the premise was really interesting and I fell in love with the cover. 

After finishing this book, I still really like the cover but I'm not so sure about the premise anymore. The ending was just a bunch of confusing things that I need clarification on - guess it's good that there are more books in the series? 

Let me backtrack...we follow Penelope Grace who gets pulled through a crack in time with a boy next door and they go on all these adventures where they need to save someone from a random time period - they travel all over the place including Shakespeare's London, the sinking of the Lusitania, during the American Revoluion, and even 2203.

I really enjoyed the adventure aspect of the story but somewhere along the line, I think I lost interest because I just didn't understand the role of the Void. I couldn't decipher if it was supposed to be good (cause it gave Penny these powers when she needed them to save people) or bad (cause it spends like 75% of it's italicized lines taunting her). 

Amidst my losing interest, I only pushed through because I wanted to see how things wrapped up, but then this "big revelation" happened...I just didn't have any energy to continue investing in this story. However, I do have a sliver of interest in terms of one certain aspect of the story so we'll see if I continue...I think at this point I just need to take some time to process and maybe things will start clicking.

Hello world! It's been a while since I've done a make-up related post and I've picked up quite a couple eye shadow palettes over the past few of months. I thought I'd start this off with a palette that I bought completely on a whim but something about the colors were so intriguing to me at the moment (and it was buy 1 get 1 50%...)

So the Essence All About Vintage Eye shadow has been out for a while I believe, but I never really looked into the various palettes until recently. Just from first glance, the colors don't look like something I would usually pick up, especially that top row with the three different greens.

However, I couldn't pass the amazing deal as these retail for only $4.99 and there was a buy 1 get 1 50% at my Ulta. On the internet, the line claims to have a mix of matte, satin, and metallic shades - however, this palette in particular seems to have more satin and shimmer shades. There are one or two that could classify as metallic if you built it up but they all show up shimmery with one swatch.

The shadows would be best described as powder-y. I've read some reviews that mention the short staying power, but for me personally - the colors seem to say in place with a bit of concealer underneath. The top row (shades 1-4) is composed of various shades of green going from lightest to darkest. The most pigmented is probably the #1 but I really like how they are still wearable especially for someone who isn't accustomed to wearing green shadows.

The bottom row (shades 5-8) is composed of more neutral everyday shades. #5 leans more towards pink while the other three colors are cool-toned browns. I really like this balance and the bottom row allows for anyone to tone their makeup down if they find the green too intimidating. When I first used this palette, I combined numbers 3, 6, and 4 over my lids to create a green-toned look that was still wearable for everyday.

I would give this palette an A- for an overall score. I really like the color selection and how everything blends together. The packing itself is also pretty durable and easy to carry around. The only "down-side" I can think of is the lasting power as well as the powdery texture which could cause some fall-out (especially with the light colors).

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

| ISBN: 978-1101885932 | Pages: 322 |

Publication Date: January 10, 2017 | Source: Library

| Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars | 

★★★★☆

At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.
After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa’s new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.
And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa’s stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.
As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed—this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse’s most frightening tales. 

Fun fact: This is the fourth book that I've given a 5 star rating to on Goodreads this year so you know I absolutely adored this book.

I am eternally grateful to the library spirits for leading me to this book because prior to stumbling across this novel, I had never heard of The Bear and the Nightingale. From the minute this story begins, I was swept into the bitter cold 'Rus winter and found myself sitting with the Vasya's family as Dunya begins her story.

“Nothing changes, Vasya. Things are, or they are not. Magic is forgetting that something ever was other than as you willed it.” 

I've always loved anything to do with folklore and mythology and I have no idea why I never considered researching more about Russian mythology. There's the vazila that taught Vasya to speak horse, the ruslka who agreed to stop drowning men in exchange for Vasya's friendship and flower blossoms, to the vodianoy who stole Kolya's basket of fish - these are just a snippet of the mystical world that is 'Rus.

“We who live forever can know no courage, nor do we love enough to give our lives.” 

Amidst this beautiful world, which by the way, is written in the most lyrical writing style, lives Vasya and her family. Within a couple of pages, I was already in love with her siblings, father, and mother - I felt her father's pain when her mother passed, I felt the protectiveness that Alyosha felt towards Vasya. More importantly, I loved Vasya. 

“You are too attached to things as they are. You must allow things to be what best suits your purpose. And then they will.” 

She spends the entire novel just trying to understand herself, her world, and to save her family. However, she's treated as pretty much an outcast as her father can't bear to be reminded that she's the reason why he lost his wife. Despite that, she still loves her family and does everything she can once she finds out about what is plaguing her village.

“I do not understand “damned.” You are. And because you are, you can walk where you will, into peace, oblivion, or pits of fire, but you will always choose.” 

While I could lose myself in this beautiful book, it would have just been a 4 star if it weren't for Vasya's two "enemies." First off, we have Vasya's pious stepmother and Father Konstantin who spend the whole book blinded by their religious fervor and use tactics such as intimidation, fear, and blame to choke the life of everything that is not Christian out of Vasya's town. Religious nutjobs just make such great antagonists as they are so easy to hate for their close mindness but they also invoke so much thought faith.

“He is full of desire. Desire and fear. He does not know what he desires, and he does not admit his fear. But he feels both, strong enough to strangle.” 

Second, we have the Bear, a thousand year old demon who wants nothing more than the destruction of the world under his control. His ominous presence throughout the novel enhanced the entire mystical feel and brought this book out of straight historical fiction into the world of magical realism.

There is so much I want to say but I don't want to spoil important plot details. At the end of all this, I loved this book for its captivating storyline and ethereal writing that brought everything on the page into real life. Based on Goodreads, the sequel comes out January 9th next year and I cannot wait.