Books to Brighten your Mood

Important Announcement!

2013-10-14T17:57:00.000+03:00

Hello everyone! It's been quite sometime since you've heard from me... Well, I'm here today to remedy that fact and make a couple of important announcements considering my blogging future.

But, let's take things from the start. Well, my complete absence from the blogging community has a very good reason, I assure you. The last couple of months were so full of changes in my personal life and so busy that blogging was the last thing I had time to do. Add to all that the fact that I felt completely drained and reluctant to write even a single sentence and well, a break was somewhat necessary in order to keep my sanity. So now that everything is finally back to its normal pace and at last I got a much needed break from everything, I'm back and ready to change some things.

First of all, and that wasn't an easy decision at all, I've decided to stop running Books to Brighten your Mood. Like I said, it wasn't an easy decision and I struggled to come to terms with it. But considering all the changes in my life I just wasn't able to keep blogging the way I used to. As all bloggers know, blogging is a really hard and demanding job. It takes quite a few hours to prep all the posts and reviews and to that, I'm not counting all the time it's needed just to catch up with all the review requests and commitments with authors. In the past few months I found myself struggling just to catch up with everything and all I read were just books I had accepted to review. I know that's my own fault and noone else's. But what I realised was that along the way I had forgotten the reason I started blogging in the first place. And that was for the fun of it! But for the past few months blogging felt like a chore, like an actual job with deadlines and a full calendar I couldn't really catch up with. So, where's the fun in all that? I was tired and my blog suffered from that fact. And I realised I hated this more than the prospect of stop blogging altogether.

So, this is the end for Book to Brighten your Mood. I want to thank each and everyone of you that made a dream of mine come real, for your comments and support and for making it possible for me to share my love for books in this really fun community.

But, that's not the end of my announcement. You see, I kept the fun part for the end :P
The end of Books to Brighten your Mood isn't the end of my blogging life. Far from it! Because lovely Stella (and fellow Book Lover) had the awesome idea of joining forces together on Ex Libris!!!!!!!!! Can you say how excited I am about the prospect????? Oh yeah, too excited to even describe it, because Stella isn't only a great blogger but one of the sweetest persons I was lucky enough to meet in the blogosphere! And the prospect of working together over at Ex Libris is reason enough for me to find all that energy to return to my blogging tasks that I lacked the past few months. It was the boost I needed to finally get excited again!

So, if you still want to catch up with my latest reviews and news feel free to join us over at Ex Libris! I can safely say that it will be too much fun :) Along with Stella we will discuss books, bookish news and we will have the occasional dual review that I hope will be so much fun for you to read as it is for us to write :)

Thank you everyone for being with me all this time and hope I'll see you again at my new home :)
Here I come Stella!!!!!!!!!!!!

REVIEW: Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

2013-07-25T16:00:00.000+03:00

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

Series: The Infernal Devices, #3

Publication Date: March 19th 2013

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Hardcover, Collector's First Edition, 568 pages
Useful Info: Goodreads, Author's Website, Book Depository

Danger and betrayal, secrets and enchantment in the breathtaking conclusion to the Infernal Devices trilogy.

Tessa Gray should be happy - aren't all brides happy?
Yet as she prepares for her wedding, a net of shadows begins to tighten around the Shadowhunters of the London Institute.
A new demon appears, one linked by blood and secrecy to Mortmain, the man who plans to use his army of pitiless automatons, the Infernal Devices, to destroy the Shadowhunters. Mortmain needs only one last item to complete his plan. He needs Tessa. And Jem and Will, the boys who lay equal claim to Tessa's heart, will do anything to save her.

Clockwork Princess was one of my most anticipated releases of 2013 and not just for one reason... The previous book in the Infernal Devices series, Clockwork Prince, absolutely left me speechless, so naturally I couldn't wait to read how the story would finally wrap up. And what an ending did Clockwork Princess provide!

But let's take things from the beginning. To every reader that has read even a single book by Cassandra Clare, it's no news that this author knows how to grasp your attention and make you travel in fantastic worlds. And here, after having read and the final book in this prequel to the Mortal Instruments series, I just have to say that Infernal Devices is so much better than the MI and so much more mature. At least it felt that way and in any case I found myself enjoying Infernal Devices much more. And the thing I have enjoyed the most is the way the love triangle was written. Shocking, I know! I usually absolutely hate love triangles. But in Infernal Devices it was one of the best triangles I have ever read in a long time, maybe ever. In this story the triangle was there, centre to everything that happened throughout the whole story but at the same time it wasn't the sole focus of the story. It felt just natural, something that was absolutely essential for the narration and not just a trend.
And now that things have finally ended and I got my answer with whom Tessa finally ended up with and especially after that epilogue I can only say one thing: every reader will feel satisfied with how things wrapped up, at least in the romantic department. But I, felt that it was just too good to be true. That last 15 pages or so were so fitting to the story but they made me feel that I was reading a fairy tale with an ending that was too good for everyone. Yeah, one could say that I'm a bit torn towards that ending....

You see on a deeper level, I wanted for Clare to end her story the way she did. It was the best way for such a triangle to be solved. But still, no matter how fitting, no matter how I wanted it to end that way, I still felt that it was a bit unrealistic. As unrealistic after a moment felt for me the reactions of Tessa, Will and Jem. Who on earth is so civilised when such truths emerge? But that's a matter of preference. Because whether I liked the ending or not, it was written in such a way that I couldn't possibly not love it.

As far as the story is concerned, Clockwork Princess is the most action packed of all three novels in this series and that was to be expected. I loved every twist and turn of the plot and I literally devoured this book in a matter of hours. The best part for me? The genealogical tree at the end of the book. Silly I know to love such a detail from a great book but I can't help myself!I love those kind of details and I only wished that there were more characters' lineage there :)

All in all, Clockwork Princess was one of the best books I read by Cassandra Clare and even if I didn't agree 100% with the ending, I couldn't see how things could end otherwise. Any other ending would be a compromise to an outstanding series. All I can say now is that I can't wait for the new series Clare has in store and takes place after the MI.Something tells me that that series will be the best one yet!

REVIEW: How Beauty Loved the Beast by Jax Garren

2013-07-23T16:00:00.000+03:00

How Beauty Loved the Beast by Jax Garren

Series: Tales of the Underlight, #3

Publication Date: May 13th 2013

Publisher: Carina Press

ebook, 292 pages
Useful Info: Goodreads, Author's Website

It's all been leading to this .

Jolie Benoit has become a skilled agent of the Underlight, relying on her savvy to complete assignments while Sergeant Wesley Haukon was out of commission. But an unexpected clue to the Order of Ananke's diabolical scheme rattles Jolie, and she turns to Hauk for comfort.

It's been years since Hauk took comfort from the touch of another person, though his love for Jolie is deep and powerful. Uncomfortable in his skin, scarred by a terrible fire, he is unable to give in to the pleasures that Jolie so desperately wants to grant him.

Meanwhile, the Order is lurking in the shadows—and when they strike, the blow is swift and terrible. Hauk and Jolie scramble to fight for their community, but with the future of the Underlight threatened, no one is safe. And Hauk will never be the same…

How Beauty Loved the Beast is the much awaited conclusion to the very successful sci-fi series, Tales of The Underlight written by Jax Garren and let me tell you fans of the series won't be disappointed in the least. I know I wasn't! And how could I ever be when Garren's writing style and the way she portrays her heroes and their emotions is simply irresistible!

If you read my reviews of the previous two books in the series then you know how much I loved everything about Jax Garren's writing style and her story. So, there's no need for me to repeat myself by saying what an amazing author she is once more or how much I loved her main and secondary heroes of this story. Even if all the books in the series are rather short, Jax Garren's stories are character driven. Her main focus is her characters and their emotions and that is why I probably love so much this series. Jolie is so much more than a pretty dancer and Hauk is so much more than scars and muscles.

The final book in the series, wraps up the whole plot but here I have to note that there are more things to be said. Maybe most of the basic things were covered but I'm left feeling that there's just more to everything. I don't know if the author did that on purpose and she will return on the same universe with another set of characters later or things couldn't possibly wrap up better, but I sure hope that it was intentional. In my mind there are two characters who would make a perfect couple for a future story but that remains to be seen. After all, The Order of Ananke is far from defeated...

But while I really liked pretty much everything about How Beauty Loved the Beast, somehow, I was left unsatisfied too. Maybe part of that is because of the ending of the story and how I felt that there were more things to be said. Maybe it's because the whole thing wrapped up pretty quickly. And maybe it is because this final instalment in the series was more focused on Jolie's and Hauk's relationship rather than what happened with Underlight and the Order and their final battle. But probably, it's because of all the reasons mentioned above. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed reading about Jolie and Hauk, they are one of my favorite fictional couples but when so many other crucial things kept happening or were on the verge of happening, I just felt that it was wrong for the sole focus of the story to be their relationship. Maybe I'm wrong here, but that's what I was expecting from this final book. And while I did get a closure I still don't know how I feel about that. And the ending.... Well, after reading the author's note at the end I couldn't help but agreeing with her choice of ending but still, I found myself wanting the alternative... But, despite that, the whole ending is a matter of preference. Either one of them would fit the story, so that wasn't any real problem. Any problems I had were purely with the way things wrapped up with the Order rather than anything else.

All in all, How Beauty Loved the Beast is just as amazing as the rest books in this series even if I had some minor troubles with it. Despite what I said I really enjoyed reading it and I just can't wait to read anything else Jax Garren will write in the future. And even if I truly hope that she will return on the same universe again I really want to read something completely different and new too. Whatever the case, there's no way I'm gonna miss Garren's next story!

* Review first published at Book Lovers Inc
* ARC provided via NetGalley for review purposes