A Clash of Kings

A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire #2) 
Author: George R.R. Martin
Publisher: Bantam Books
Pages: 1010
Genre: Adult, Epic Fantasy
Published: November 16, 1998
Rating: 4/5 stars
Goodreads link

Description

A comet the colour of blood and flame cuts across the sky. And from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns. Six factions struggle for control of a divided land and the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms, preparing to stake their claims through tempest, turmoil, and war. It is a tale in which brother plots against brother and the dead rise to walk at night. Here a princess masquerades as an orphan boy; a knight of the mind prepares a poison for a treacherous sorceress; and wild men descend from the Mountains of the Moon to ravage the countryside. Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, victory may go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel...and the coldest hearts. For when kings clash, the whole land trembles.

Audacious, inventive, brilliantly imagined, A Clash of Kings is a novel of dazzling beauty and boundless enchantment—a tale of pure excitement you will never forget.

Top 5 Wednesday: Favorite Spooky Settings

Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly meme created by Lainey @ GingerReadsLainey on YouTube and hosted by Sam @ ThoughtsOnTomes. Every Wednesday there is a new topic, and you list your top 5 related to the particular topic. This week's topic: Favorite Spooky Settings. For more information on top 5 Wednesday and the Goodreads group click HERE.

This list is in no particular order.

1. The Wasteland from Defiance by C.J. Redwine
But I think this whole world is kind of spooky and dark. This is a place where a monster that breathes fire lives. Well the monster lives somewhere under the ground but it comes out from under the ground in the Wastelands. If you are in the mood for a good dystopian, this would be a great pick. I read it 2 years ago when I was really in to dystopians and it didn´t disappoint me.
Click here for my review

2. Abandoned mines in Bitterkingdom from A Girl of Fire and Thorn series by Rae Carson
This series is one of my favorites. In this last installment they travel through a dark abandoned mine that is in some parts full of water. There are more spooky places in this book, but this would be my nightmare, to travel through these mines.

3. Westoros from Geoge R.R. Martin

Westoros would be a spooky place but more because of the gruesome dead’s. Any place beyond the wall would probably be spooky but also Harrenhal and the Dreadford. A lot of the places are scary in this world. But none would be so scary as the people in it. :P
I think I use A Song of Ice and Fire series in almost every T5W post from the last few weeks. I should get more original en use different books, but this series is just so good!

Click here for my review

4. The Boundary in the Wizard's First Rule from Terry Goodkind
The Boundary is a place where the death tries to lure you in this wall of green light, and when you go through this light you enter the underworld. It is the boundary between Westland and The Midlands and it keeps magic away from Westland. This is an epic fantasy with dark places. This is the book series that got me into reading. And I recommend this first book for every high fantasy fan!

5. The Belgrave in Avalon by Mindee Arnett
The Belgrave is a place in space like the Bermuda triangle. People that go in don’t come back out again, or come out with weird stories of what happened there. I’m not a big fan of space because it goes against nature for people to go there. We won’t survive there without technology that keeps us alive there, and that stuff can break. So don’t sign me up for any space travel. :P

Click here for my review

Top 5 Wednesday: Favorite Non-Canon Ships

Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly meme created by Lainey @ GingerReadsLainey on YouTube and hosted by Sam @ ThoughtsOnTomes. Every Wednesday there is a new topic, and you list your top 5 related to the particular topic. This week topic Favorite Non-Canon Ships. For more information on top 5 Wednesday and the Goodreads group click HERE.

So this means ships (romantic relationships) that don't happen in the book. This could also be in series that aren't finished yet. So you don't know if they end up together, but you really want them to. 

Keep in mind that I’m not much of a shipper. So I only have a top 3 for you today.

This list is in no particular order.

1. Bran Stark and Meera Reed in A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin

I’m aware of the age differences, but in this series everything is possible. It is not weirder than most marriages in this world. I think they fit well together, and been through a lot together. The series isn’t finished yet, so who knows, maybe they end up together?

2. Arya Stark and Gendry Waters in A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin

We’re staying in Westeros with this one. My answer why, would be the seem as with Bran and Meera. I think they fit together well, and I can’t wait were this story will end!!

3. Eragon and Arya in The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini

I haven’t finished this series so it might be something that will happen in the end, or not. I only read the first 2 books. The second one left me disappointed so I haven’t continued yet. Tell me what you thought, is this series worth it or not? 

Top 5 Wednesday: Books That Took You The Longest to Finish

Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly meme created by Lainey @ GingerReadsLainey on YouTube and hosted by Sam @ ThoughtsOnTomes. Every Wednesday there is a new topic, and you list your top 5 related to the particular topic. This week topic is books that took you the longest to finish. For more information on top 5 Wednesday and the Goodreads group click HERE.

This list is in no particular order. 

I didn’t post a top 5 Wednesday last week because I got so busy with school. But I am back this week so I hope you enjoy this post.

1. The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan

I started this book back in March and I finished it last month. So, it took me about a half year to finish this book. I put this book down a lot because this book contains short-stories and essays. So it is perfect for reading here and there a short story.

Check out my review here

2. The Martian by Andy Weir

I started this in January and finished it in the end of March. I read this book because of the hype, but I didn’t enjoy this book. So it took me a long time to finish it.

 

3. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

This book is a big book, that is the main reason why it took me so long to read it. I read the prologue in February 2014, after that I kind of put it down and picked it up again this summer. So on Goodreads it looks like it took me more than 2 years to read it, but in reality I read it in 1 month.

Check out my review here

4. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

This book took me a month to read. That is long especially when you know that this book is just 125 pages. The writing isn’t difficult like most classics. But it was the subject and how the story got told that made it slow. This book made me realize that book about time travel are just not my thing.

5. My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories

I started it around Christmas time in 2014 but I didn’t finish it in January, and I didn’t like to read this after the holiday season. So I saved the last 3 stories for Christmas in 2015 and finished it. So, technically this took me a year to read. 

A Game of Thrones

A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire #1) 
Author: George R.R. Martin
Publisher: Bantam Books
Pages: 837
Genre: Adult, Epic Fantasy
Published: August 6, 1996
Rating: 4/5 stars
Goodreads link

Description

In A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin has created a genuine masterpiece, bringing together the best the genre has to offer. Mystery, intrigue, romance, and adventure fill the pages of the first volume in an epic series sure to delight fantansy fans everywhere.

In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes of the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom's protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

My thoughts

If I read this book before the TV series it would probably have been a 5 out of 5 stars book for me If I read the book first.

Because I saw the TV series first, I knew which way the story would go. That was probably the reason why I wasn’t blown away by this book. I knew constantly what was going to come, so there were no surprises. The first season of Game of Thrones the TV show is a very faithful adaptation to the first book.

I really like the writing. There were so many quotes that I liked. But there were some slow parts too. I love the parts of Jon, Arya and Tyrion the most. They are my favorite characters. 

I heard that the 2e book differs more from the TV series, so I hope I am more surprised by that book. Still, this book was a really good read.

September Wrap-Up

This was a month of finishing books that I already started earlier this year. I read a lot of books but they had fewer pages than normal. I also wanted to read a divers book this month, because of diverseathon this month. I didn’t have the time to participate but I wanted to read at least one divers book. 

So here are the books that I read in September and how I rated them. I added links for books I have a review on.

Stats

Read books: 6

Genre: 1 New Adult Romance, 1 retelling, 1 non-fiction, 1 collection of short stories,

1 Science fiction and 1 Graphic novels

Pages: 1.670

2 stars – it was okay

The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories by Marina Keegan Review

3 stars – I liked it

Avatar: The Last Airbender – Smoke and Shadow by Gene Luen Yang

Pride and Prejudice and zombies (Pride and Prejudice and zombies #1) by Seth Grahame-Smith Review

The Deal (Off-Campus #1)

4 stars – I really liked it

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Nogzi Adichie Review

Avalon (Avalon #1) by Mindee Arnett Review