News! Candymakers Sequel

There's going to be a Candymakers 2 book! Yay!

You probably can't guess how excited I was when I found out this little morsel of information on Wendy Mass' (the author) website. I absolutely adored the first book with all the compelling characters. When I finished the first books a part of me was reluctant to leave the characters behind because I just wanted to know more about them, but another part of me was satisfied with the ending knowing that their story was just beginning but it didn't demand a sequel (but we all wouldn't mind one). As a reader, books with endings like that are my favorite because it's a perfect balance between wanting to spend more time with the characters and feeling as if the story is complete and over.

News! Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard

This isn't really a review because the book hasn't come out, but I wanted to say a few words on what I think of the future book series. I was in Barnes and Noble the other day and as I was looking at some books I saw little book samples for Rick Riordan's new book Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Summer Sword. I have previously read Rick Riordan's other mythological stories (as has much of the younger population) such as Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Kane Chronicles, and most of the Heroes of Olympus series. My favorite is no doubt the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, most likely due to the fact that I read them first and they introduced me to the wonderful, colorful writing of Rick Riordan.

Review! Goddess Girls: Persephone the Daring

Authors: Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams
257 pages-Ages 8-12
Published by Aladdin on August 6, 2013

Summary (from Amazon):
Orpheus is a mortal rock god, and the girls at Mount Olympus Academy are wild about him! With his lyre and singing voice, Orpheus can charm pretty much anything—even things like stones and trees. But Hades and the other MOA boys aren’t charmed. In fact, they are less than thrilled that the girls are so gaga over this guy.

His fans are especially excited about his latest song about the girl he loved and lost, Eurydice. Orpheus was devastated when he lost Eurydice to the Underworld, so he asks Persephone to help get her back. Though it means breaking some very serious Underworld rules, Persephone pushes Hades to return Eurydice to the living world. But restoring Orpheus’s one true love might jeopardize Persephone’s own chances with her biggest crush...

Review! Grimmtastic Girls: Cinderella Stays Late (Book 1)

Authors: Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams
192 Pages--Ages 8-12
Published by Scholastic Inc. on March 25, 2014

Summary (from Scholastic):
The authors of the hit Goddess Girls series put a fun and girly twist on another super-popular theme: fairy tales!
Once upon a time, in faraway Grimmlandia?
A Grimmtastic girl named Cinderella is starting her first week at Grimm Academy on the wrong foot. Cinda's totally evil stepsisters are out to make her life miserable. The Steps tease Cinda, give her terrible advice about life at the academy, and even make her look bad in front of her new friends, Red, Snow, and Rapunzel! But when Cinda overhears the Steps plotting a villainous deed that could ruin Prince Awesome's ball, Cinda, her new friends, and a pair of magical glass slippers have to stop them--before the last stroke of midnight.

Review! Hades and the Helm of Darkness (Heroes in Training #3)

Authors: Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams
Illustrated: Craig Phillips
128 pages--Ages 6-9
Published by Aladdin on April 02, 2013

Summary (from Simon and Schuster):
The Heroes in Training are entering the Underworld—if Hades can conquer his canine fears, that is.
The Underworld usually isn’t really meant to be a fun place—but tell that to Hades! He loves the dark and the stinky smell of sulfur. However, there is one thing that Hades is not a fan of: dogs. And when Zeus and his fellow Olympians encounter Cerberus—a snarling, three-headed dog—Hades must conquer his fears and tame the hound so everyone can continue into the Underworld and deposit their Titan prisoner, Oceanus, back where he belongs!
But with magical water that causes forgetfulness, hot beds of lava, and another epic battle with two more Titans standing in their way, will Zeus and his heroes make it out of the Underworld with everyone intact?

Review! The School for Good and Evil: The Last Ever After (Book 3)

To be honest, I don't really have many feelings toward this book (or really about the whole series in and of itself). The books keep me entertained when I read them and I don't have any trouble finishing the books, but once I finish them I have no desire to read them again. In addition to that, after a few days I don't really remember what has happened in the novel. Also, I don't really like most of the characters.

I had hoped that this book wouldn't rely too heavily on what happened in the previous books even though the stories are directly connected. Soman Chainani does a great job of not relying on the details from the previous books to build this story (mostly). Of course, that's not to say you can/should read this book without reading the first two.
One of the only things I remember from the first book was Hort and how he fell for Sophie. In the second book I vaguely remember Hort being Sophie's friend when Sophie was a boy. In these two books Hort was definitely my favorite character, so I was psyched when he showed up in this book and that he had a relatively large role. That being said, I was sad that in the end Sophia, Agatha, and Tedros got their happy ending but poor Hort didn't.

(Possible) News on Disney's Descendants Book Sequel

I was skimming the news section for Disney's Descendants and I saw that someone had posted an article about a possible sequel to Isle of the Lost: A Disney Descendants Novel by Melissa de la Cruz. This was originally posted on the blog A Stitch Kingdom, who calls themselves: "The number one unofficial site for news on The Walt Disney Company." Since they are unofficial, the news that they deliver is questionable, but according to them during Bookcon Melissa de la Cruz announed that she is working on a sequel titled Return to the Isle of the Lost. 

Review! Murder is Bad Manners

Pre-Reading Thoughts:
Recently, I’ve been having trouble finding any books that looked good enough to read. I have been in the mood to read mystery or adventures books, and to be honest, I’ve been having trouble finding anything that looked good. Don’t get me wrong, I was able to find many books that are part of the mystery or adventure genre, but none of them looked really interesting. I saw this one amazon, and after reading a few customer reviews decided to go to my local library and check it out.

Review! Isle of the Lost (A Disney Descendants Novel)

Pre-Reading Thoughts:

I’ve read some reviews on Amazon for this book and I have also read the 17 page preview. I’m extremely excited about this book, but I am a bit worried that the characters won’t be consistent with the movie. I had the hardest time deciding whether I wanted to read the book before the movie or watch the movie before the book. Obviously, no matter what I do one will influence the other and I figured that if I read the book first then I would have preconceived notions about how each of the characters look and I would be disappointed (probably) with the movie counterparts, but if I watched the movie first then I would already know what the characters look like and I would just imagine them when I read the book.

From the reviews on Amazon, I am confident that I will like this book and I can't wait to start reading!

Review! Disney Descendants Movie

Pre-Viewing Thoughts:

After viewing the trailer I must admit that my interest has been peaked in the movie. Although this isn't a high budget film that will be shown in all the theaters, I still have hopes that it won't be completely terrible. I can't say that I am a huge fan of the costumes, because they look kind of...cheap/tacky. The costumes seem to be designed well in terms of style, but making them actually look good in reality is a bit more difficult.
Judging from the trailer, there will be a romance between Mal (daughter of Maleficent) and the Prince whose name I currently don't know (son of Belle and the Beast). Can't say I'm really psyched for this either. Romance is always so hard in a Disney film, because in my opinion Disney TV can't really do it justice and for most of the time I just feel awkward when the romantic scenes play. In fact, often times when I re-watch movies with those kinds of scenes, I just skip them altogether.

Review! Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library

(This book was the first review I wrote, so there isn't really a pre-thought and post-thought section; I sort of combined them into one)

 

 

This book originally piqued my interest because of the interesting premise that the inside cover summary presented to me. I was hoping that this book would be a real adventure with lots of puzzles and witty solutions. Unfortunately, this book wasn’t everything I hoped it would be. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t bad by any means, it just wasn’t something that kept me at the edge of my seat like other stories of its kind can normally do.

Hello world! I'm under construction!

I've just started this website, so there isn't much on it (as you can see). The point of this website is that it's for me to share my thoughts on current media. I will mostly be posting reviews on books and movies, but I will occasionally post on other topics related to media!

Sorry for all the clutter as I get this website up and running! And I hope you check back with me soon!