Secret Garden: 5th Mini Album

| Release Date: January 7, 2018 |

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

★★★★★

I am absolutely blown away by this comeback, I have absolutely no words! For my first album review of 2018, we're off to a great start. I loved Closer and have been waiting for them to release another album with a similar concept. Guys, the MV for Secret Garden is literally the most magical thing ever! 

For 2018, I was debating on whether I wanted to change the way I did these album reviews so they would be a bit more in depth but I haven't quite decided. I'm going to keep the format the same for this one though because I just need a space to fangirl because (note: this paragraph was inserted after the original review was written) Oh My Girl won TWO awards for Secret Garden. I have watched so many different fancams and then the actual award show videos and honestly, it made my week. Might have even shed a tear or two.

The B-track that they promoted was Love O'Clock and I just wish that we could have gotten a full stage because I just want to Mimi rap!! I loved that she sang in Secret Garden but I also love her rapping skills. My second favorite track in the album has to be Butterfly. It's just such a pretty song and I can't find the right words to describe it, it's just beautiful :)

Purchase on iTunes:

Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett

| ISBN: 978-1534404946 | Pages: 390 |

Publication Date: April 4, 2017 | Source: Own

| Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars |

★★★☆

The one guy Bailey Rydell can’t stand is actually the boy of her dreams—she just doesn’t know it yet.
Classic movie fan Bailey “Mink” Rydell has spent months crushing on a witty film geek she only knows online as Alex. Two coasts separate the teens until Bailey moves in with her dad, who lives in the same California surfing town as her online crush.
Faced with doubts (what if he’s a creep in real life—or worse?), Bailey doesn’t tell Alex she’s moved to his hometown. Or that she’s landed a job at the local tourist-trap museum. Or that she’s being heckled daily by the irritatingly hot museum security guard, Porter Roth—a.k.a. her new archnemesis. But life is a whole lot messier than the movies, especially when Bailey discovers that tricky fine line between hate, love, and whatever it is she’s starting to feel for Porter.
And as the summer months go by, Bailey must choose whether to cling to a dreamy online fantasy in Alex or take a risk on an imperfect reality with Porter. The choice is both simpler and more complicated than she realizes, because Porter Roth is hiding a secret of his own: Porter is Alex…Approximately. 

This was a total splurge on my part, but after watching Xan from Twirling Pages talk about this in her Best Books of 2017 video, I had to pick it up. I figured, what better way to ease back into the busy schedule of school than with a cute contemporary that I can fly through.

First thing's first: that cover is a big no no - it's not a bad one by any means, it just doesn't do this book justice at all. In my opinion, this cover should have a food truck that sells churros on it because after reading this, the one thing I craved the most was churros (and sunshine cause it's snowing here in Massachusetts). 

“Sometimes you have to endure painful things to realize that you're a whole lot stronger than you think.”

Alex, Approximately is a spin-off of You've Got Mail which, don't shoot me, I've never watched before. I decided to go into this mostly because I adore the "pen-pals turn real life romance" trope, it's a guilty pleasure of mine. This entire novel is full of cheesy YA romance tropes which usually would have been a bit much for me, but I kinda loved it.

“We all really do contradict ourselves and contain multitudes. How do we even figure out who we really are?” 

I'm going to attribute my lack of "ughs" towards all the cheese to Jenn Bennett's writing style. She makes everything seem so fun and easy to read that you don't really realize how cliched some of the events are. I mean, haters turned lover is as cliched as you can get with YA. I watched a book review on Sophia from thebookbasement's channel and she described Jenn Bennett's writing as being summed up into "chatty" which honestly is the best way to describe. It's chatty in the best way possible because the style makes the story so enjoyable.

“If you don't pay attention to things, they wander off.” 

Now, I loved the first 75% of the novel, actually loved it because of how great the story was. I almost decided to binge read it, but decided to go to sleep like a normal person and finish it the next day. That last 25% was a big let down for me, and I've seen a lot of other people echo my thoughts. I understand the reason some events happened, but there just seemed like so much excess drama that happened in the last quarter of the novel that I just wanted things to dial back down so I could enjoy the sheer cuteness of the characters.

“She’s got the strength of a tater tot.” 

The chemistry between Bailey and her archnemesis Porter is amazing - they have this great banter that is so fun to read and while they do argue a lot, they also have this respect for the other person that their fights don't ruin their relationship. I adored their relationship throughout the story as well as the other relationship dynamics throughout the novel. Bailey's relationship with her new best friend Grace, a pixie sized British-Nigerian superwoman, and her father are just so heartwarming and beautiful.

“Before, my anxiety was singing solo. Now all this weird anticipation and jumbled excitement has added some strange harmonies into the mix. I’m a barbershop quartet basket case.” 

The cast of characters in Alex, Approximately is also incredibly diverse with Grace (like I mentioned before) being British Nigerian, Bailey's father's girlfriend being Latina, and Porter being half Polynesian. The novel also delves into some touchy topics like PTSD and drug abuse. There are some aspects that I feel like could have been addressed better (the drug abuse...) instead of conforming it to societal expectations.

To sum it up, Alex, Approximately was a blast - I chuckled at passages, rolled my eyes at the witty banter, and cried internally at the heartwarming passages. While I'm not a huge fan of how the novel wrapped up, I still thoroughly enjoyed myself and I'm glad I picked this up.

Zenith by Sasha Alsberg and Lindsay Cummings

| ISBN: 978-0373212590 | Pages: 544 |

Publication Date: January 16, 2018 | Source: NetGalley

| Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars |

★★★☆

Most know Androma Racella as the Bloody Baroness, a powerful mercenary whose reign of terror stretches across the Mirabel Galaxy. To those aboard her glass starship, Marauder, however, she's just Andi, their friend and fearless leader.
But when a routine mission goes awry, the Marauder's all-girl crew is tested as they find themselves in a treacherous situation and at the mercy of a sadistic bounty hunter from Andi's past.
Meanwhile, across the galaxy, a ruthless ruler waits in the shadows of the planet Xen Ptera, biding her time to exact revenge for the destruction of her people. The pieces of her deadly plan are about to fall into place, unleashing a plot that will tear Mirabel in two.
Andi and her crew embark on a dangerous, soul-testing journey that could restore order to their shipor just as easily start a war that will devour worlds. As the Marauder hurtles toward the unknown, and Mirabel hangs in the balance, the only certainty is that in a galaxy run on lies and illusion, no one can be trusted.

This is going up a bit late, but at least it's still being posted on release day! Happy book birthday to Zenith - this long awaited novel is out right now and you can click the cover up above to head to Amazon to pick up a copy if you're interested :)

Zenith was a novel that I wasn't sure if I was going to read because it wasn't a storyline that typically captured my attention but I was tempted because I have been a huge fan of Sasha's channel for years. That being said, this review isn't swayed by that fact, I'm still going to deliver my honest thoughts. Upon first reading it (note: I did not read the short version published earlier), I was actually really in love with the story.

Everything felt incredibly fast paced and I generally really liked the characters and the world. Then, came the processing period, the time that comes after finishing a novel where I try to gather my thoughts. I flipped back through the novel for some reference points and in that process came to some realizations that I hadn't noticed before.

So the obvious thing is that this novel is written by two authors which mean two different writing styles. While I haven't read anything by Lindsay Cummings and this is Sasha's "debut," I noticed a couple of discrepancies with the writing style that make it very clear that this novel was written by two people. While that may seem like stating the obvious, with these moments, the story itself didn't flow as well as it could have which affected the impact the plot was aiming to achieve.

Jumping into the world - Zenith is a space odyssey and while I'm not a huge fan of space-centered plots, I did enjoy the descriptions, the first couple of times. There are several passages that seem overly repetitive which added to the overall length of the novel. As I was reading this on my Kindle, I didn't know that the entire novel was 544 pages until I checked Goodreads. For me, this can be both a good or bad point - I was able to lose myself in the story enough that it didn't feel like it was dragging, but there were a lot of moments that could have condensed if not for these repetitions.

In addition to the world, Zenith brings to life a wide cast of characters that are honestly just so lovable. I admired Androma's strength at times but felt that she could have grown more of a backbone. I loved the rest of the crew, and how the authors created such an awesome group of fearless heroines. Dex was a headache at times but you can't help but love him. And Valen...oh Valen...I have no words.

I feel like this review goes back and forth but that's honestly just how my thoughts are towards Zenith. I did enjoy reading through the novel, but going back, I'm noticing things that I didn't pick up on before that would typically have bothered me so my verdict is left kind of hanging. I do believe this will be an exciting series and I'm interested to see how it continues.

The only reading goal I really set every year is my Goodreads Challenge. Last year I set my goal to 50 books and was able to surpass that with a total of 66 books read which was such a surprise. I feel like this year is only going to be busier but I still went ahead and ambitiously set my goal to 65 books. As of right now, we're 9 days into 2018 and I've already completed 3 books so this might just work out (fingers crossed).

I slacked off so much on Instagram last year, posting only once a month which was such a fail. While I can't guarantee that I'll be as active as the other bookstagram accounts, the goal is to post a bit more often and just be more present on the bookstagram community.

My last goal in the realm of books has to do with this blog and my newly revived YouTube channel. I want to continue posting on both platforms frequently with 1-3 posts a week on the blog and 1 new video a week on the channel. I also want to make sure that I'm creating content that I enjoy creating as last year (particularly with YouTube) I felt restricted in what I could share with the world. 

My blog and channel are primarily focused on books because that is one of my biggest passions, but I also want to be able to share some other snippets of my life and interest that might not be book related (and not feel restricted from doing so).

That's pretty much all I've got in the realm of reading goals for this year. It's not too ambitious and doesn't have a lot of guidelines so I hope I'll be able to accomplish everything. Here's to a hopefully great and successful 2018! :)

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

| ISBN: 0399160302 | Pages: 393 |

Publication Date: February 2, 2016 | Source: Library

| Rating: 4 out of 5 stars |

★★★★

#1 New York Times bestseller and winner of the Carnegie Medal! 

Based on "the forgotten tragedy that was six times deadlier than the Titanic."--Time

Winter 1945. WWII. Four refugees. Four stories.

Each one born of a different homeland; each one hunted, and haunted, by tragedy, lies, war. As thousands desperately flock to the coast in the midst of a Soviet advance, four paths converge, vying for passage aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that promises safety and freedom. But not all promises can be kept...