The Caffeinated Book Nerd

I received an ARC of this book from Simon and Schuster Teen for free for review.

Hey Book Nerds! I just finished reading this novella bind up from Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunter world and I loved it! Some stories I liked more than others, but they were all pretty entertaining. Some of them gave me all the feels! Here is a short look at my feelings on each story.

****Warning: May contain some mild spoilers****

• Cast Long Shadows – 3/5 ⭐️ This story was just ok for me. I couldn’t connect with Matthew’s character throughout the story and I just felt like he was being reckless and selfish with his actions.

• Every Exquisite Thing – 5/5 ⭐️ This story was magnificent. I loved watching Anna blossom, fall in love, get her heart broken and then rising from the ashes to be who she was always meant to be! I loved her parent’s reactions at the end as well! I may have teared up a bit as well.

• Learn About Loss – 4.5/5 ⭐️ I loved meeting Sister Emilia in this story and the ending! My heart!

• A Deeper Love – 4.5/5 ⭐️ This was such a fun look into a difficult era with both Tessa and Catarina being nurses during the war. I enjoyed this story immensely.

• The Wicked Ones – 3.5/5 ⭐️ I was really annoyed with Celine’s blind feelings for Stephen. He treated her so poorly and she couldn’t get over him. Her selfishness was the only thing that really made me not enjoy this story as much. I thought it was interesting looking back at Valentine and his circle again. Valentine was such a horrible person. What a great villain.

• Son of the Dawn – 3/5 ⭐️ I liked that we got to see the moment when Jace was introduced into the Lightwood family. That was fun, but the story just didn’t grasp me as some of the others did. It was just okay.

• The Land I Lost – 5/5 ⭐️ Wow. I am so in awe my the love that Alec and Magnus have to give. Also, learning about the story of The First Heir to tie everything together was very interesting.

• Through Blood, Through Fire – 5/5 ⭐️ Seeing Tessa do her change again was fun. I had forgotten that she could do that! Haha it’s been a while since I read TID. I was so scared for her and Jem for a while there and then the surprise at the end!! Had me in happy tears!! 😭

• The Lost World – 4/5 ⭐️ OMG I had almost forgotten what happened at the end of Lord of Shadows and this just brought back so many memories. I absolutely love Ty and Livvy and I’m really interested now to see what will happen in Queen of Air and Darkness after this. Plus, the Carpathian lynx sounds adorable!

• Forever Fallen – 4.5/5 ⭐️ I love the family dynamic going on with Jem, Tessa, Mina and Kit! And anytime I can see Malec and fam is a good time. They are adorable! I’m not sure what to make of Janus and Ash at this point and I hope I find out more in Queen of Air and Darkness.

Have you read these stories? Let me know your thoughts on them in the comments below!

Happy Sunday Book Nerds! 🤓 Here is a spoiler-free review of the first book in this trilogy for you!

I’m happy to report that I was very pleased with this one! I didn’t know what to expect going into this book, but it really kept me interested and wanting more! And there wasn’t even any magic in it! This is more like a classic fantasy adventure novel with medieval type wartime and traveling adventures. It gave me some Game of Thrones vibes with all the war and gore, but it also had some softer slow-burn romance which was enjoyable. I must admit I was a little confused when certain revelations came about, not only for the main character, but for us. That quickly resolved itself as the author used other characters to explain the situation and all was right again. I am interested to see what will happen in book 2 because everything seemed to wrap up pretty nicely at the end of this one. Overall, it was a fun, fast-paced read! 4.25/5 stars!

Have you read this one? Let me know your thoughts about it in the comments below!

Hello Book Nerds! I’m finally bringing you my spoiler-free review for this bad boy! I was provided an ARC of Kingsbane from Sourcebooks Fire for free in exchange for an honest review.

As you all probably know, Furyborn was my #1 read of 2018 and I had been highly anticipating Kingsbane for some time now. I am so happy to say, that it did NOT disappoint! We were able to revisit all of our favorite characters, and some of our not-so-favorite ones, and we met new faces as well! As much as I loved the trials of the first book, this book had all the political intrigue and romantic subplots that I didn’t know I needed. Claire writes such beautiful scenery and I really felt transported into the world as I was reading. I really did not want this book to end! I am so shocked and speechless by that ending and now I don’t know how I will wait for the final book! Please give me more! I need more Audric, more Eliana, more Remy, more Zahra! I really enjoyed the backstories we were able to delve into in this book and I enjoyed reading the progression of each character’s arc (even though I now despise one character so much it makes me fume!). If you’re thinking that you will find second book syndrome here, guess again. This book was everything I wanted it to be and more! 5/5 stars!

I was provided an ARC of this book by Gallery Books for review purposes — 4.5 Stars!

This book arrived to me at the perfect time. It was the perfect lighthearted breather I needed from all the fantasy that I read. I have never read anything by Christina Lauren before and this book has set the bar pretty high!

I loved all of the Harry Potter references and the nod to The Walking Dead. My geeky heart is happy <3. I have to admit, the enemies to lovers trope is one of my all time favorites and this one did not disappoint! It also features a Mexican-American family and I am here for it! It’s nice to see your own culture represented in a book. I really loved the Spanglish and cultural references throughout. The big family (that is always in your business) was perfection. My sisters are twins and the MC is a twin, so that was interesting as well! Seeing how they are usually complete opposites in many regards, but also very similar in others was interesting and accurate.

This book kept me laughing and wondering what kind of trouble these characters would bump into next. It was swoony and romantic in all the right places and I just didn’t want the story to end! I would love for this to become a film! I really think people would love to see this story on-screen!

This book comes out on May 14, 2019 and I highly recommend pre-ordering it! It will be your new favorite rom-com!

Have you read other books by this author duo? Which ones are your favorite? Give me a recommendation on which one to read next!

5 stars to this fast-paced, fun, heisty, sci-fi, adventure with the best squad in the Milky Way! Thank you so much to the publisher for sending a free e-ARC of this book for review! The amazing duo, that is Jay and Amie, managed to pull it off again! You are pulled into the dramatics of this story right from page 1 and begin to wonder, what in the universe is going on here? I was immediately intrigued by Auri and wanted to unravel her story to find out more. If you put a group of ragtag misfits together and make them learn to work as a team, I am here for it! There was so much snark, sass and sarcasm, but also some beautiful moments among the squad members. Also, in true Jay and Amie fashion, they will undoubtedly rip your heart to pieces. You’ve been warned. I highly, highly recommend this daring, space opera to anyone looking for an exciting read that is out of this world! It comes out on May 7th so go pre-order it NOW!

Have you read AURORA RISING yet? Are you planning on picking up a copy? What are you most excited for about the series? Let me know in a comment!

Nikki

Wow! I never put my review up for this book the first time I read it. I wasn’t doing many reviews back then, but I just finished my reread of this amazing story and it was even better the second time around! Claire is a genius. I love the century apart POVs and the way she connects the two stories. The elemental magic and angelic history are all so interesting and fun! The characters are also done so well. I have to say, I was not a fan of Rielle’s attitude through most of the story, but then you just get a deeper look into the character as the story goes on and start chipping away at that outer shell to find the beauty of the character’s soul. I have to say I felt something like pity for her towards the end. Eliana is, by far, my favorite of the two main characters. She is so fierce and strong. Her love for her family knows no bounds. I also love little Remy! He is just the little brother with the giant imagination that we all love and want!

I am ready to dive into Kingsbane and find out what happens and find even more connections between these characters separated by 1000 years! ALL THE STARS!!! I highly recommend picking up this book before the next book comes out a month from tomorrow!

Have you read Furyborn yet? What did you think? Leave me a comment below with your thoughts!

4.5 ⭐️

I was sent an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

We Were Beautiful is an emotionally driven, coming-of-age story about a girl who has experienced many different forms of loss in the past year of her life. It’s about forgiveness and trust, love and hope. I found myself flying through this book and really connecting with the characters. I really enjoyed the way that Heather unraveled each character’s past. The pacing was perfect; I never found myself to be bored or that the story was dragging at any point. Just as I suspected, emotions are high stakes here and I found myself overwhelmed with both sadness and happiness at certain points. This is a beautifully written novel and I really hope many of you get to read and experience it. Highly recommend for anyone who has ever known how hard it is to forgive yourself or has ever felt hopelessness.

TW: domestic violence; mentions of: suicidal ideation, sexual assault.

This book will be released on April 2, 2019.

Happy Saturday! So I just finished reading The Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller and it was so much fun! I had forgotten how much I loved stories about pirates! I used to be obsessed with Pirates of the Caribbean! Alosa was a really fun character to read as well! She is strong and fierce, but also stubborn and sarcastic. I loved it! I really can’t wait to see what happens in Daughter of the Siren Queen! There is still so much adventure to be had in this story!

Have any of you read this book? What were your thoughts?

Bibliophile_nikki

Hey guys! I’m finally done with school for the summer and back to posting regularly on my bookstagram and hopefully here as well. Pictured above are the physical books I plan to read this month. I’m trying to include at least one FairyLoot book and one Owlcrate book per month, so I chose The Last Namsara and Daughter of the Pirate King, respectively. I also chose one other physical book that is not an OC or FL book, One Dark Throne. I recently read Three Dark Crowns and really enjoyed it, so I’m excited to see what happens next for these three young queens. Finally, for my physical books, I started my reread of the Throne of Glass series. I’m hoping I can complete the series in anticipation of the final book coming out in October!

As far as ebooks go, I’m currently reading an eARC of The Mermaid by Christina Henry. I loved her book, Lost Boy, and this one is just as good so far!

For audiobooks, I’m waiting for some library holds to become available. Hopefully I’ll be able to get to Quidditch Through the Ages by J. K. Rowling and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander (aka J. K. Rowling).

What do you all plan to read this month? Do you typically stick to one genre during the summer? Or are you like me and just read whatever sounds good? Let me know! Until next time….

Bibliophile Nikki

I’m back! Sorry for the ultra-long hiatus. Things have been really busy with school lately! I’ve still been able to find time to read, but not to do much else. I have been sadly neglecting my blog and my bookstagram lately and I am excited to get back into the swing of things as the semester comes to a close and summer begins! I’ll be posting some book reviews in the meantime of books that I have read since the beginning of the year to give you guys some new content. I’ll also be posting up my (late) April TBR and my March wrap up very soon.

I listened to the audiobook of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods at end of January/beginning of February. It was a very fun, lighthearted, yet informative read and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I love that it was told/read by Percy Jackson because it just made it that much better. I have always loved Greek mythology (I even took a Greek mythology course my first year of college!). Percy Jackson’s take on all of the Greek Gods and myths was so much fun! The narrator was also a perfect fit; easy to follow and understand. I found myself laughing out loud many times throughout this one (guys, seriously, I listened in the car and people in the lanes next to me probably thought I was crazy…I mean, they aren’t wrong…). Even if you have only ever read the first Percy Jackson book, this book will keep you entertained and educated about the world and myths surrounding it. There is a lot of Greek history in here, but with Riordan’s own flair/twist on it. Highly recommend!

Bibliophile_Nikki ❤