Cascade by Lisa T. Bergren

Title: Cascade
Author: Lisa T. Bergren 
Genre: YA, Historical Fiction, Christian Fiction, Time Travel, Adventure
Series: Rivers of Time #2
Rating: One Tree

The Premise

My Thoughts
Going into this book, I have to admit I was excited. I really enjoyed the first one, and while I never really thought it was beyond fabulous I still thought it was a decent book.

But then I started this one and I was not feeling it at all.

Like at all….

There were some major flaws that I found, flaws that only seemed to affect me as a reader. For this book I was the black sheep. After finishing I was messing around and I started to read some reviews. Most were glowing. Within a few minutes I realized the overwhelming number of reviews on both Amazon and Goodreads were EXTREMELY positive.

That’s not really the point of this review though. It’s more of a warning….

If you were one of those that enjoyed the book, then you should probably just close out of this page because I am not holding back any punches. I need to rant.

***This review will be composed of LOTS of quotes…. You have been warned…*** (I read it on my kindle from the library and forgot to write down the percentages and by now I returned it…)

"Medieval bug or medieval hottie?"

*Laughs so hard* In the 1300s hygiene was the pits. I don't think anyone was sanitary and did they even brush their teeth? Or bathe? That smell! Woah, total hottie, ALL THE WAY! (Did the author research this at all? Or did she just hope that maybe SOMEWHERE in the 1300s there would be a town of really hot, sanitary people?)

"Mom wouldn't like my hatred. She'd always taught us to love everyone,"

LOVE! YES! LOVE THINE ENEMY! I mean why not? It's not like their asking for your head or anything! Nope! Love them despite their faults!

"Freaks, I thought. Who keeps piles of dead petals anyway?"

*laughs to self, once again* Well, first there is this thing called potpourri, which smells good and I believe involves dried petals. Also, drying flowers, I'm pretty sure anyways, was a popular thing in the 1300s. They helped with the odors. (I believe I have already established the INCREDIBLE smell of the 1300ss...)

There is a part where Gabi suffers severe hydration. She can't even move or speak and it's just terrible. I don't think it was even two days before this occurred. Thankfully, the amazing Marcello came to save her and gave her a sip of water. Within minutes she was completely revived and totally okay with running and fighting and all. First please note that in The Hunger Games, Katniss managed to go far longer. And survived much better than our dear little Gabi. But Katniss had a far lower pain tolerance than Gabi.... How does this make any sense?

"I was hated here. Really hated for what? They didn't know me! All I had done was fall in love with a son of Siena! And also help my sister escape an evil lord. I hadn't really done anything that any of them might not have done in my pace, had the tables been turned..." 

Ahhh! I see now! So all those men you killed, you thought would have no ties? I understand so much more! You see Gabi is so privileged and special everything, even killing, is right, but when they do it, noooo! IT IS SO WRONG! HOW DARE THEY! This just screams hypocrite... I mean I'm not saying that if I had been in the same situation and my brother was in danger and likely to be killed, I would have done the same thing as her. But not understanding that there are two POV, bothered me. These people are angry because people they know and loved were killed and injured by her They have a right...

"So it is true," I said. "The men of Firenze must always resort to violence."

Didn't you have someone's ears cut off? That's not violence at all! *HYPOCRITE*

"Dude. This is SO Nancy Drew. And Harry Potter. Nancy Potter."

This quote doesn't seem too bad, right? But WAIT! Here's the context of it!

"I heard the dull sound of a metal latch unhooking, and a door opening behind a moth-eaten tapestry in front of me.

Dude. This is SO Nancy Drew. And Harry Potter. Nancy Potter.

I pulled aside the cloth and glanced at the small door in the wall beyond it, back to Marcello. "A hidden passageway."  

Even that doesn't sound monumentally bad, but first of all she never really addresses the thought again. It's kind of like the author went, hmmm... I should throw in some references to popular books that my readers might have enjoyed! They'll love this quote! And then she might have though and why not throw in a Dude! I mean it isn't like I've written the ENTIRE book and he book before that, using purely medieval language even in my characters thoughts! This won't seem random at all!

My problem with it, was just that it was so out of place!

""I raised a brow. "What's not to like? He's funny. You love funny guys. And handsome, in that California-dude (my bad... I guess they do use dude a couple other times... but still...) look you're into. And loyal.Not to mention clever and strong. He's way better than that guy in Boulder who always texts you."

"Well, yeah...but you can hardly compare them. Their lives are so different_"

"So are ours, with these guys. Marcello, Luca. They're men, Lia. Not boys. It takes guys at home another ten years to have the maturity that these guys have."" (I was having an extremely difficult time not laughing at this part... I mean smelly, unsanitary guys? That's so hot! Right.....)

So this is Gabi trying to convince Lia that she's in love and that they should stay in this time to forever be with those they love.... If I was Lia, I'm pretty sure there would have been a point when my fist connected with Gabi's face. Like, who is she to tell Lia who to love. And also lets take note that it was for Gabi's own selfish purposes. (Staying with her beloved Marcello, forever and ever and ever and ever and then ever again because most likely they'll go to heaven for all eternity and be there forever and ever ad ever....)

Also during the course of the story, the lovely Gabi manages to break a couple ribs, bruise a couple others, and then did something to her thigh (I forget what) and all through this because of her incredibly high pain tolerance she can go on and fight and run and do all that she could before and then every once in a while  say, oh, I am in so much pain. Darn. Because that's super believable!

"Let's look for some foxglove," she said. "Remember how last year Mom made us that tea every time we got a headache?"

Interesting fact. Foxglove is EXTREMELY poisonous. It can kill! (Remember that episode of Psych where the murder weapon was foxglove in someone's tea...) And I even looked it up. As far as I can tell there is no making Foxglove tea.... I might be wrong here, but I just don't think it's possible. And if it is, does someone want to let me know? =D

Can we also take note on how dependent Gabi was on Marcello? The entire book she doesn't want to leave this time period because her beloved Marcello is still here! (And she's known him for how long?) She wants to give up her entire life in the 21st century (i.e. normal clothes, good hygiene, education, a period where women weren't treated as inferior, a time where you'll live past 40, ect...) and live in the 1300s constantly in danger, with a bunch of idiots? Such a smart girl! She is trying to convince her mother and sister to stay, and never once considers taking Marcello back to their time where they would all be a whole lot happier and healthier...

Personally I think that I was the only rational person throughout the book.... I mean why should the oh, so, wonderful Marcello get everything?

At this point I’m kind of hoping that most people who loved this book have just stopped reading. But right now I just to rant a little and it could potentially offend some people….

Going into this book I did not realize that this was Christian fiction. And oversight on my part perhaps. I did after all read the first book and it did have that mega religion feel, but the books are set in the 1300s, so of course they should have that whole Christianity feeling. I get that and in no way did I hold it against the book and go into it thinking: “Since there is religion, I SHALL HATE IT!” Because no! I didn’t care.

And maybe since it was Christian fiction I have no right to be offended by this quote…. But I was.

"I knew a few agnostics and atheists, too, but most of them took the title to get attention."

It might not even have been so bad if it was someone from the 1300s saying it, but it was the main character. A girl from the 21^st century.

Repeatedly throughout the book I found slight… digs almost about religion. As if Christianity is the only possible religion. As if those of us that don’t believe in a god don’t have the right to believe that.

I also hate the fact that agnostics were included in this slight. Atheism is an extreme, I get that. I get that people might not respect it… But agnostic?! C’mon now….

Throughout the book it felt as though my beliefs were being trashed while the entire time I had nothing but respect for the beliefs shown throughout the book.

Religion in books doesn’t bother me. I respect what others believe, but I expect that same right and after reading this book…. I don’t think I’ll ever purposely pick up a Christian Fiction book again, just because I don’t want to be insulted.

In no way did the last part about religion effect my ENTIRE decision about the book. There were many other factors that contributed to a one star.

I hope that I didn’t offend anyone with my talking about religion. That was in no way my intention. I completely respect others opinions on that topic and no way does this book effect my opinion about religion as a whole.

The Rating

Waiting om Wednesday: Hung Up

Waiting by Wednesday is a meme hosted by Breaking the Spine!
This post highlights a book that I am dying to be released!!

 

THIS WEEK I'M WAITING ON:
Hung Up
By Kristen Tracy


Can you fall in love with a voice? This witty romance, told entirely through phone calls, chronicles the tale of a wrong number gone right.

It all started with a wrong number. The voicemails Lucy left on James’s phone were meant for someone else—someone who used to have James’s digits. But then when James finally answers and the two start to talk, a unique bond forms between the two teens.

Gradually Lucy and James begin to understand each other on a deeper level than anyone else in their lives. But when James wants to meet in person, Lucy is strangely resistant. And when her secret is revealed, he’ll understand why…





RELEASE DATE: March 4th, 2014
Why I'm waiting: This book sounds adorable! I can't wait for it to come out. It kind of reminds me of This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith... So with any luck it'll be super cute! 

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

Top Ten Blogging Resolutions for 2014

Top Ten Tuesdays is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish!

THIS WEEK'S TOPIC IS:

Top Ten Blogging Resolutions

So this post is a bit late, but the topic for today is a rewind post and since I skipped doing this at the beginning  of the year I figured I might as well go back and post this! (I even had the entire thing written up already... but I forgot to post it!) Anyhow here are some of my blogging resolutions for the upcoming new year.

1.) COMMENTING... I am the absolute worse at doing this... and it's a terrible habit because truthfully how would book bloggers get along in blogging without comments. Comments are extremely IMPORTANT and the fact that I am not a blogger that goes out there and comments on as many blogs as possible is just wrong... How should I expect to succeed if I don't try and help others to as well?
How I'm going to do this~ Each day I have time in the morning and afternoon where I'm not doing stuff and I'm just hanging out on Twitter or something... I'm going to make sure I spend at least 15 minutes a day commenting on other blogs. (Okay maybe not everyday because homework and stuff... but most days!)

2.) I'm going to clean out my inbox...So I follow A LOT of blogs by email. (And when I say a lot I really do mean A LOT) and most I love following, but some I'm just like, I have no clue why I follow them! We don't even have the same taste in books! So I'm just going to work on hitting the unsubscribe button for some of them, even if it kills me.. I hate unsubscribing!

3.) Commenting back on my blog~I'm absolutely terrible at doing this on a regular basis, sometimes I do massive ones for posts dating back from forever... Definitely must work to break that habit and I'll be setting a couple of minutes aside to comment back each Friday....

4.) Posting 5 times a week...~ To a lot of people this may not seem like much! (Lots go for daily posting) but I just can't handle more. For me, school AND reading always will come first, but I do know that for the most part if I use my time wisely I should be able to do this. (Not counting midterms, AP test and the couple weeks leading up to it, and finals because there is no way I can handle ALL of that!) What this would include would be a Top Ten Tuesday, Waiting on Wednesday, a review, a discussion, as well as a Teens Take Over post or a new idea I will be working on.

5.) Get back into Teens Take Over~ I never really got out of this, but what happened is I sent out a whole bunch of questions to people and then I never got them back... which is cool because I know how busy they are, but it just meant that I never had more to post. So I'm going to work on finding more people interested in doing this feature.

6.) Work on interacting with new people~ This kind of goes in real life too... I need to talk to new and different people MORE! (Not that I don't love the people I already talk to...)But I really want to get out there more and meet new bloggers as well as new people.

7.) Read more...~Okay, recently I have been falling a bit behind on the whole reading thing. Why? Cause of school plus everything else I have to do ad I really need to remedy that. So with any luck I'll be able to get out of this little reading slump...

8.) Keep my reviews on Amazon and Goodreads updated~ I write reviews and then I don't ever post them to Amazon and Goodreads... And I really need to do it instead of doing it all at one tme because let's face it, that's killer!

9.) Reread some of my favorite books~Because I just need to do this... Okay???

10.) Promotion~ Another of the million things I'm terrible at! I normally tweet about my posts once... at midnight when it automatically tweets it for me... Sometimes I completely forget to link up my WoW and TTT.... Embarrassing right? SO I'm going to work on doing that more often.

11.) Spelling and Grammar~ (I literally just spelled spelling wrong too...) Knowing me, this could always use work!

12.) Redesign and Name Change...~Well the redesign is a definite... And I'm seriously considering a name change... (That might be because the amount of spam comments I've gotten about greeen living has skyrocketed...)

What are so of you blogging resolutions?

March Blogging Awards

Okay! I am so excited to announce this new thing....

I have decided to hold an award ceremony type thing. What this is, is you can nominate different blogs for different awards. A lot of the categories are on the sillier side of things.

With any luck this will be a goofy award thing that will show off different blogs as well as help people discover new blogs!
The rules for this is that each person can nominate a blog for each category ONCE!
Each blog will only get a final nomination and make it to the voting round for one category. This is to make it so that the maximum number of blogs possible get the chance to participate.
Filling out the form below will mean that you nominated blogs/bloggers. When filling out the form please include the bloggers name and the name of their blog!

In order to make this even more fun (as I'm sure you're already thinking of all of it's amazingness) it would be really helpful if you helped spread the word! I know that potentially I might not get enough nominations to have some for every category. I know that potentially there might not be enough nominations for each category to get it to come to a vote, so even just letting other people know would be really appreciated! 

What I plan to do is leave nominations open until March 15th. I will then have people vote for the blogs that they think deserve the award!

If you can only think of a blogger/bog for one or two categories, that's totally fine! Fill out the form anyways!

Also if you want to let the person who you nominated know, that would be awesome and really would help spread the word about this!

Hopefully this will be a fun event for everyone! Let me know what you think of it and make sure that you fill out the form below!
I really hope that I get a good response to this and also find out about some new fantastic blogs! My goal is for people to nominate blogs that they are closer to instead of going straight to nominating the well known blogs. (I mean that's awesome if you do that, but I would love to get the word out about smaller blogs!)

So feel free to nominate WHOEVER YOU want!

SO LETS GO AND HAVE A BLAST! I can't wait to see who you all nominate!

Did I read it wrong?

My question today for you all, is have you ever read a book and completely hated it. You found flaws EVERYWHERE and it you have actual textual evidence to support why you despised the book SO MUCH! But then you look on Amazon and you see 132 five star reviews, 25 four star reviews, 4 three star reviews, 1 two star review, and 1 one star review. And WAIT FOR IT....

The one star review was just a review about the injustices of kindle books and how they couldn't lend the ebook to other people.....

Well, right now this happened to me. I read this book that shall currently remain unnamed, and I completely hated it. I had so many issues with it and I have so many sections highlighted and notated with problems I found in the book.
So my question is DID I READ THE BOOK WRONG?

I mean 132/163 reviews ADORED it on AMAZON! How is that possible. So then I headed over to Goodreads to see if maybe the reviews over there were more on my side. 1202 people gave it five stars, 656 people gave it 4 stars, 282 people gave it 3 stars, 52 gave it 2 stars, and EIGHT PEOPLE gave it one star (One of which was me...)

My first response was a snort. Because it had to be a mistake, right? But then I started reading reviews. Some of my favorite authors LOVED it. The reviews for it were positively glowing. EVERYONE, but me loved it. And at first I just couldn't understand why.

For the most part I'm a pretty favorable reviewer. I didn't feel out to get the book, I actually for the most part enjoyed the first one. (There were major flaws, but I gave it a solid three stars) And then this happened.

I am the black sheep of this book. I have to say I'm a bit surprised. This is definitely a new... shall we say experience for me.

My second reaction for this entire experience was: Did I read the book wrong? How can this really be possible?

The truth is I still have no clue how this happened. Even as I reread sections of the book while writing my review, I found that extreme dislike I had for it again and again.  I tried and I tried to look at it with fresh eye, but all I could see were the obvious flaws.

Like FOXGLOVE is poisonous, not a tea that will instantly heal you.
Or the incredibly high pain tolerance of this chick. If I broke and bruised a few ribs and then pulled a muscle or something (can't remember quite what) in my thigh, you would see me on the ground, screaming in pain, not scaling walls and killing (or should I say trying to kill) people like a boss.
Or the blatant trashing of agnostics and atheists.

Yeah... that all plus a lot more.

And I'm not saying that I can't understand why people DO like this book, because if I could overlook some of this I think I might find it a bit more enjoyable, It's the fact that NO ONE else sees it my way. This book has been out for about three years, and yet no one has written a review that even remotely agrees with my opinion. (The one two star Amazon reviewer did comment on the high pain tolerance though...)

I guess that this post was more of a rant post. It's been a few months since I actually read the book, but today I was going over some old draft posts and saw my review. (Which is a whopping 3,000 words) I never posted the review just because I hate being the back sheep. I don't like being wrong. And somehow it just kind of scares me that my views were SO DIFFERENT then everyone else's. (I also mentioned some issues with the bashing of people who don't believe in G*d, and I didn't want to get any hate about that part....)

So have any of you read a book and been the black sheep? 

Lady Thief by A.C. Gaughen

Title: Lady Thief

Author: A.C. Gaughen

Genre: YA, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Retelling, Romance

Series: Scarlet #2

Rating: 5 trees

***Warning: This review might contain spoilers for Scarlet so consider yourselves forewarned....***

The Premise

Scarlet’s true identity has been revealed, but her future is uncertain. Her forced marriage to Lord Gisbourne threatens Robin and Scarlet’s love, and as the royal court descends upon Nottingham for the appointment of a new Sheriff, the people of Nottingham hope that Prince John will appoint their beloved Robin Hood. But Prince John has different plans for Nottingham that revolve around a fateful secret from Scarlet’s past even she isn’t yet aware of. Forced to participate at court alongside her ruthless husband, Scarlet must bide her time and act the part of a noblewoman—a worthy sacrifice if it means helping Robin’s cause and a chance at a future with the man she loves. With a fresh line of intrigue and as much passion as ever, the next chapter in Scarlet’s tale will have readers talking once again.
(Summary via Goodreads)

My Thoughts
STORY TIME! Yesterday I was in Barnes and Noble and I was contemplating buying a few different books. Lady Thief was one of them. For me Scarlet was nearly perfect. I completely adored the book, but I wasn't sure about Lady Thief. I am not a person who likes series that much and as much as I was anticipating Lady Thief, I wasn't sure I was ready, as I was so sure I was about to be disappointed.

I really should have more faith in the author.

There is so much I could say about Lady Thief. So many extremely spoilerly things, like: OMG THAT ENDING?! But since I don't want to ruin it I shall refrain from saying anything that could potentially ruin it for you... (But on a side note: OMG THAT ENDING?!)

One of the things that I really enjoyed about the book was Robin and Scarlet. Robin and Scarlet are my OTP. I love the two of them together and watching their relationship grow and change throughout the book made me become an emotional mess. Robin was always there for Scar whenever she needed him. She went through so much and suffered so much more than anyone ever should. Rob was also suffering from some MAJOR PTSD from the Crusades. He slowly opened up to Scar about his fears and slowly began to get over his insane nightmares. 
The two of them would always run to each other when they needed comfort and help. The two of them have gone through so much and I desperately wanted them to just get that happy ending so that they could run off into the sunset together. 

I think that the fact that they were willing to put so much effort and risk their lives just so they could end up together was beyond amazing. In the first book, for all that I loved them and shipped them together, I never really saw that they trusted each other beyond all else. I mean they clearly loved each other a ton, and they trusted each other with their lies, but they never seemed to develop a strong emotional trust. I could see that they really loved each other, but in this book their devotion and growth as a couple was both believable and just... perfect.

The characters of Lady Thief made me remember one of the reasons why Scarlet happened to be one of my all tie favorite books. I loved Much and his devotion to the band. I love how he fought through so much even though he was at a disadvantage so often. I loved his devotion and love to Scar. I pretty much love everything about Much. And then there was John Little, his character growth and the change that the reader saw made me fall that much more in love with him. He made choices that I fully supported and I just adore him.And then there were all the people that Scar was forced to deal with in the castle. They each had their distinct personalities and I loved the layers and depth to each of them. 

Gaughen is the master of twists and turns. In Scarlet, I had guessed the twist pretty early on and was completely prepared, but in Lady Thief I figured it out the page before it was actually stated. Looking back it was completely obvious with all of Gaughen's subtly placed clues and hints, and personally it completely made the book for me. There is no doubt in my mind that Gaughen is a masterful author and I am so excited to see what she does with the last book.

I think the author has managed to stay remarkably close to the legend of Robin Hood, but at the same time has put her own twists and turns on the legend and made the story unique and completely her own. She has once again left the book at a complete cliff hanger, one that makes me desperately NEED the next book. The ending left me heartbroken and a complete emotional mess. What makes it worse is I finished it at 1:30 in the morning and I could not fall asleep for forever just because the entire thing was just TOO BEAUTIFUL AND PERFECT. 

In Conclusion
Lady Thief was an emotional roller coaster. It was dark with bits of happiness shining through leaving you rooting for the success of Scar and Rob. Each page had happy and sad and hope and despair and it seem so... possible. You know when you read a book and it's just sunshine and daisies and everything works out and everyone gets a happy ending, but you know that it's not possible? Lady Thief is not that book. There is pain, but there is hope and it is all so beautifully interwoven that it gives you hope in the darkest of times. For me, I found no fault in Lady Thief. It was beautiful. It was a journey. It was perfect. And it gave me hope. 
At the end I cried.... I never ever, ever cry when I read books and even right now I'm tearing up a bit. Because this book was beautiful. I don't think there is anything more I can say to try and convince you that you need to read it even more. There was so much that I never even touched upon in this review, but for me this was the perfect next installment to one of my favorite series based on my all time favorite legend. I am highly anticipating the final book and I think that fans of Scarlet will be extremely pleased with this fast paced, gripping sequel.

Two of my favorite quotes:

He broke it off with a heavy sighing. "I love you Scarlet. Go on, now, before you steal my sanity too," he said.
"Too?" I questioned
His grin by the moon were wicked and handsome. "Thief of my heart." 

"Scarlet," he murmured. His hands squeezed my waist. "I've told you all along, I knew who you were from the first. I know your heart. Names, titles, hair, odd clothing choices, none of that changes who you are. And I am madly in love with who you are."

My Rating