Month in Review: April

April has came and went and I am so ready for hopefully some nicer weather in May! Bring on the sunshine :D This month was a whirlwind of some INCREDIBLE books, specifically with male protagonists, so I was on a role this month:

What I Read: 

Dorothy Must Die by: Danielle Paige- 4/5 stars
The Outsiders by: S.E. Hinton- 5/5 stars
Devil and the Bluebird by: Jennifer Mason-Black- 3/5 stars
Frayed by: Kara Terzis- 4/5 stars
Cinder by: Marissa Meyer- 4/5 stars
The Raven Boys by: Maggie Steifvater- 4/5 stars
The Dream Thieves by: Maggie Steifvater- 5/5 stars

Favourite book: A toss between The Dream Thieves and The Outsider's. Both of these books were magnificently crafted, that I honestly couldn't pick one over the other!

What I Blogged: 

This month was the month of Conversations in which the fantastic meme hosted by Geraldine and Joan launched! The most recent Conversation, 15 Year Old's and 50 Shades of Gray, was my favourite post this month as I had so much to talk about!

I also participated in Nefarious Tales, a week-long Villain Blog Tour hosted by Mishma! It was so fun to talk about all things evil and the twitter chat was great as well! I talked about Harry Potter Villains.

Favourite Blog Posts of the Month: 

Geraldine asks if 15 year olds are too young to be reading 50 Shades 
Cee discusses women and book prizes 
Megan shares her amazing support system
Annika randomly rambles about her similarities to the characters she reads 
Mishma hosted a villain week blog tour! 

Blogger of the Month: 

This month I'm highlighting a non-bookish blog to switch things up! My cousin Megan, who also graciously designed my blog header, has a wonderful lifestyle and mental health-driven blog in which she shares inspiring posts and personal stories. Most of her posts are related towards strengthening mental health, and she puts such heart into her posts! So, if you're looking for a great lifestyle blog, check out Megan @ Megan Inness!

Personal Stuff of the Month: 

I WON A WRITING CONTEST! Technically, I got in third place, but it was a huge accomplishment for me and I'm so proud that I got this far. I even won a giftcard to Chapters Indigo! Book shopping, here I come.

The physical copy of my book finally arrived! The book I wrote for NaNoWriMo finally came and it was so surreal! I'll cherish it forever.

I'm still in school, I still hate math, but hey, what can you really do? TWO MORE MONTHS!

That was my April! How was yours?

Emily @ Paperback Princess

Rebel Belle (Rebel Belle #1) by: Rachel Hawkins

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Urban Fantasy
Published: April 8, 2014 by: Putnam Juvenile
Pages: 345
Rating: 3/5 stars

Harper is a Southern-belle through and through. Destined to win Homecoming queen, Harper suddenly faces unexpected new challenges when she discovers that she is a Paladin, an ancient warrior sent to protect someone. The person Harper is meant to protect, is her mortal enemy David Stark. As Harper comes to terms with her prophecy, she must learn to create a friendship with David, all while testing out her new powers against anything that could come to harm the people she loves.

This book contained some loveable characters and hilarious southern-charm which made this one of the most light-hearted fantasies ever! It was utterly adorable and a very fun read. I did have some issues with the themes and plot, but this book didn't feel overbearing.

Harper was utterly hilarious in this book! She had a bit of a sass to her that helped her in anything she encountered, and she was incredibly smart. David was also so incredibly adorable and he really cared for the people around him. I found that these two had amazing chemistry.

Hawkins did a great job and keeping this book light-hearted and charming, despite essentially being a fantasy. The comic relief made this not seem like an overly heavy fantasy, and it made it also a bit more relatable.

I didn't really understand this book. not because it was heavy, but because of the chosen fantasy element: Paladins. I didn't think that there was enough background information on these creatures, which left me completely confused throughout the entire thing. This also made me quite uninterested in this topic of fantasy. While it is something never really written about before, it was just quite odd and confusing.

I couldn't really connect with the characters. While they were very cutesy and lovable, Harper didn't really strike out at me as being a kick ass heroine and David was that utterly amazing male side kick. They were just Harper and David, very cute and sassy but nothing else to them. They weren't the strongest.

Overall, this book was quite cute and light, but lacked in power and information. That's why I couldn't really learn to love it.

Have you read Rebel Belle? What did you think?

Emily @ Paperback Princess

Paperback's Pondering's: My 200th Post

Paperback's Pondering's is a weekly discussion when I take a topic and well, ponder about it! This week, I look back and ponder about what life was like, 200 blog posts ago...

Hello there, and welcome to a special Paperback's Pondering's in which I look back on the past 200 posts of my blog! I don't normally keep track of my blog posts, so I only realized that I was at 199 posts last week! I have to admit, I was a little freaked out when I realized it. Have people actually been reading 200 posts? So now, I'm about to look back on my first post, my 100th, and all in between, as well as the memories I've made to get there. Let's take a trip down memory lane: My

My first post: Introduction- July 30th, 2014

I will under no circumstances attach what I wrote in my first post, because It's just so damn awkward and weird! If you're that inclined, I suppose you could go search for it yourself lol! I tried to be quite witty and humorous in my first post because I was told that humour would attract an audience, but I don't think it ever came across. Basically, I just talked about my love for reading, blah blah blah. It was quite generic!

My first book review: Eleanor and Park- July 31, 2014

For some reason I had this idea that I was going to post every single day, boy did that go to hell! My first review was SO CRINGY and had so many errors. I talked in way that I would never talk like now, so cutesy and adorable. Now I feel like I'm more into exclamation points and screaming my feelings through caps-lock.

August, 2014-May 2015: All the Memes!

This is when I got REALLY into memes. Top Ten Tuesdays, Stacking the Shelves, you name it, it was there. Not that these memes aren't awesome now, don't get me wrong, but after April, 2015  I stopped because they started to get pretty repetitive. Seriously, my old posts repeated books dozens of times. It was fun though :D

May, 2015-July, 2015: Paperback's Pondering's and My first Blogiversary!

May was when I introduced some changes to my blog. I made myself a button and customized some things, but most importantly, I started my feature Paperback's Pondering's! I love discussing things and this was the perfect way to do it. I also celebrated my first blogiversary, which I was so proud of the milestone and all the people I had met!

August, 2015-December, 2016: My 100th Blog Post and Some Changes

I finally made it to 100 blog posts which I was so happy about! Although I kind of forgot to put up a proper post, so it just got an awkward mention at the end of a Paperback's Pondering's. I developed my current writing style, and began to pick up the pace on reading. During this time there were some bumps in the road, the blogisphere took a bit of a slump in November, which caused me to slip into a month long hiatus. However I came back stronger and with a new book that I had written during the time! It was during this time when I started to connect with new and some of my best blog buddies, you know who you are!

January 2016-April, 2016

So here we are. During this time period I was able to start receiving my first Arc's, as well as I began to share my interest in creative writing. I now post 2 times a week and have been always consistent, a trait that I am actually very proud of. I'm now coming up on my 2nd blogiversary, and good things are in store, I can feel it!

I'm going to save individual thank yous to all of my blog buddies and readers of this blog on my 2nd blogiversary, because doing so would make this post ages long, but I just want to take a moment now to say THANK YOU. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to the first person who ever commented on a post, to the last person. It is the kind, supportive comments that make all of this worthwhile, and I am so incredibly grateful for all of you.

Here's to another 200...

Emily @ Paperback Princess

Conversations Week 2: Is 15 Years Old Too Young to be Reading 50 Shades?

Conversations is a fortnightly meme created by Geraldine @ Corralling Books and Joan @ Fiddler Blue with a basic theme and a topic to follow! This week’s theme is popular issues, and the topic is: Is 15 Years Old too Young to be Reading 50 Shades of Grey? 

My answer is a 100% YES! Maybe I can't really have a relevant opinion for this because I haven't read the book, as I am only 16 myself, but I CAN'T IMAGINE anyone younger than at least 17 reading this book. Not only because of the sexual explicitness, but of the deeper problems of abuse and feminism that so many have talked about. 

Obviously the sex in this book is something that is definitely NSFW. Children under my age have very limited knowledge of sex ed depending on their life at home, on social media, etc, and a fictional  erotic book is not going to help them get anywhere! Perhaps if children are very curious and have questions, then they should go to an educated professional suited for their age group, but this book would just bring up many unnecessary awkward conversations. I'm not trying to say that learning about sex ed. is a bad thing, because I actually find it very important for teens to be educated, I just think that the level of sex ed that 50 Shades provides is too much, too fast. 

Elaborating on that point, do you really think that 15 year old's will even understand half the stuff that's going on? It's pretty elaborate and descriptive, and contains themes that I certainly didn't know at 15, and probably am still ignorant about. Like I said before, it's not BAD to be educated, but it's definitely not GOOD  in my opinion to be shoving explicit BDSM down a still developing teenager's throat. 

I think that in this case, ignorance is bliss. Teenagers will learn when they're ready about harder topics like this, but I feel as if it is uncomfortable for both teen and probably their parents to see their child reading this book. 

Now there's the whole themes of domestic/sexual abuse and feminism. Again, I have not read this book, so I don't really know if this book is very abusive, contains rape, or if the girl gave consent, but I have read many articles stating otherwise. I don't think that this book is healthy for any teen to read, as it is a very male-dominated book. What message are we giving to girls, that you should do whatever a hot and rich man tells you to do? 

Erotica doesn't interest me and probably never will interest me, and while teens should make their own choices on what they want to read, I personally would like a limit. You may make an argument that if the parents are ok with it, then it should be ok, but I really am curious how many parents are truly ok with it. This isn't meant to be sarcastic, I really am just curious to their reasoning. 

 I guess it all depends on opinion and the important thing is that we do not call out other people's opinions such as using words like "slut" or "prude", because I see those words come up too often when talking about this book. My opinion is no, but I want to know, is your opinion yes?  

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with my points? I'd love to know!

Emily @ Paperback Princess

ARC Review: Devil and the Bluebird by: Jennifer Mason-Black

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Urban Fantasy
Expected Publication: May 17, 2016 by: Amulet Books
Pages: 336
Rating: 3/5 stars

*thank you to Netgalley and Amulet books for allowing me to receive this book in exchange for an honest review*

Blue Riley is on a mission: a mission that requires travelling across the country to find her long-lost sister who disappeared mysteriously following her mother's death. With her guitar and angelic singing voice by her side, Blue must stay in stranger's houses and tunnels as she attempts to fight the devil that tries to overcome her, and to find her sister, and her voice.

This book was a mystical urban fantasy that reminded me a lot of The Love that Split the World in the sense of magic realism. I've been seeing a lot of books lately take on the sort of magic elements weaved into a semi-modern world, and they are always quite interesting to take on. Devil and the Bluebird introduces folklore and family issues into quite a different read. While I did have a lot of issues with the plot, I am happy that this book was out of the box unique!

I first went into this book expecting a lot more contemporary elements, but I think this book handled fantasy and magic in a way that didn't seem like fantasy and magic! It was quite interesting how the author made it seem like a perfectly normal world, but in reality, there were many twists of folklore and magic. This book had the fantasy without seeming like a fantasy, which in my book, is a good thing.

One thing that I liked about the protagonist was her influence of music. I love any book that has musical elements, and this book had nothing short of it. It seemed lyrical in some ways.

Unfortunately, I found this book very hard to get through. Perhaps it was maybe the folklore, but I did find some elements to be kind of boring and unnecessary. I couldn't connect with some parts and I found it hard to pay attention to.

I couldn't completely connect with the main character of Blue. Besides her music, I didn't find that there was much else to her and I would have liked to have seen more of a dive deeper into her mental state with all that she had gone through. Maybe that's where the contemporary elements could come into play.

So overall, I appreciated this book's uniqueness, however it didn't quite effect me. If you like magic realism, I would totally check this out, and I'm looking forward to exploring more of the genre in the future.

Emily @ Paperback Princess

Nefarious Tales: A Villain Week Blog Tour + Giveaway: Harry Potter Villains

Welcome to Nefarious Tales, a week dedicated to all things villainous and hosted by the awesome Mishma @ Chasing Faerytales! Be sure to check out her blog for all of the details and for her corresponding posts. Today, she's Talking about Antiheros! Also be sure to visit the other lovely participating bloggers who have put up posts today:

Lisa @ Lost in Literature is talking about her favourite villains
Maryam @ Once Upon a Story wonders what would happen if villains ruled the world
Crini @ It's All About Books explains why we love villains

 Mishma's also hosting a giveaway all week long so stay until the end of this post and enter!  Without further adieu, here is my villain post, dedicated to the baddest, the meanest, sometimes the funniest villains in the beloved series of... HARRY POTTER!

We all know that the main bad guy in HP is none other than Lord Voldemort, yes I said his name! But he is not the only one! There were so many scheming, slimy villains that sometimes get ignored. I'm going to be breaking them all down, which ones were successful, which ones had a soft spot, and which ones were just down right sadistic.

Lord Voldemort 
Real Name: Tom Marvalo Riddle
Age: 72
Status: Dead
Featured in: Books 1-7

Let's start things off with the main man himself. Voldemort obviously had his faults, wanting to take over the world and having a FREAKING SNAKE AS A PET! But to be honest, this guy was really damn unsuccessful for someone who knew Harry's whereabouts at all times. Seriously though, why did it take the guy 7 WHOLE YEARS to try to kill Harry? He got beaten by an ELEVEN YEAR OLD KID! Not very smart, that Voldemort.

Bellatrix Lestrange 
Real Name: Bellatrix Lestrange-Black
Age: 47
Status: Dead
Featured in: Books 5-7

Now let's get into Voldemort's fearless group of death eaters. Bellatrix was the borderline psychotic one. Escaping from Azkaban to help kill didn't really help her matters, but you have to admit, Bellatrix had ambition, and she always got what she wanted, even if that meant killing Sirius. (sniff, sniff) Overall, she seeked power, that's for sure, but you gotta hand it to her, she was successful in what she wanted until the very end.

Lucius Malfoy 
Real Name: Lucius Malfoy
Age: 66
Status: Alive
Featured in: Books 2-7

Ahhh the Malfoy's, what a controversial bunch. Lucius definitely wins first prize for best hair, look at those locks, but he did earn one not so great title, and that is: coward. Lucius tortured muggles alike since he first appeared, and he did anything to screw up Hogwarts. However once the end came and Voldemort was about ready to kill him and his family, he jumps onto the rebellion's bandwagon as if he's been there all long. Lucius, you need to sort out your priorities.

Narcissa Malfoy 
Real Name: Narcissa Malfoy-Black
Age: 65
Status: Alive
Featured in: Books 6-7

Now to someone who I actually kind of respect in a way. Narcissa was nothing like her insane sister Bellatrix, and all she really wanted was to protect her son. She ended up saving Harry's ass in the end, which was a big plus, and all she wanted was for her son to be happy. You go Narcissa!

Draco Malfoy 
Real Name: Draco Malfoy
Age:36
Status: Alive
Featured in: Books 1-7

Oh Draco, poor little Draco. The poor kid couldn't really help being born into an evil family. and that left him with no choice than to follow their lead. The truth is, I respected Draco. Even though he was a bit of a bully, he didn't know any better, and I think he turned out fine in the end.


Severus Snape 
Real Name: Severus Snape
Age: 38
Status: Dead
Featured in: Books 1-7

Here's the big debate! I'm going to keep this short and sweet: I don't think Snape is a good person. Yes perhaps he was the "bravest man Harry ever knew", but the point is, he was cruel to Harry from day one, all because his mother rejected him. I'm sorry Snape, but I never liked you.

Dolores Umbridge 
Real Name: Dolores Umbridge
Age: 51
Status: Alive
Featured in: Books 5-7

Ending this off by one of the most IRRITATING, the most ANNOYING, the most CRUELEST PERSON EVER IN THE WIZARDING WORLD! Umbridge was straight up horrible, she took pleasure from other people's pain, killed off innocent muggles, and even though she did not support Voldemort, she was equivalent, if not worse than him. Umbridge, YOU GRIND MY GEARS!

That's just my opinions on some of the most prominent villains in Harry Potter! Which ones are your favourite/ least favourite?

And now to the good stuff! Mishma is hosting an INTL giveaway to celebrate, where YOU could win a mystery villain prize pack! Enter here!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

That's it from me! Make sure to follow Nefarious Tales all week long and to grab the hashtag #NefariousTales as there will be a Twitter Chat on Friday at 7 pm EST! Hope you all can join us!

Yours in Villainment,

Emily @ Paperback Princess

An Ember in the Ashes (An Ember in the Ashes #1) by: Sabaa Tahir

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Fantasy
Published: February 9, 2016 by: Razorbill
Pages: 464
Rating: 5/5 stars

Laia is a slave. After her family is torn apart from her by the brutal Martial Empire, Laia will do anything to free her brother from being executed, even if that means being sold as a slave to spy on the empire's military academy for a rebellion that promises to free her brother. Elias is a warrior. Bonded to the empire through his blood, Elias wants nothing more than to escape from the empire and it's hellish ways. But when he is selected to compete for ruler of the Empire, Elias knows that there's no turning back now. Once Laia and Elias meet, they will have to depend on each other more than anything, to free the people, and themselves.

*warning, excess use of caps locks in this review*

OMG THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I HAVE EVER READ! Glad to have gotten that out of the way. Seriously though, Ember was one big thrill ride, full of TWISTS AND TURNS AND LOVE AND BRUTALITY AND IT WAS SO AWESOME! Well, the brutality wasn't awesome, but YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN! Ember will pull you by the heartstrings, wrap you in, and never let go.

As you guys know, I'm not the biggest fan of fantasy. However this book was MORE THAN THAT! It had some romance, some historical fiction, fantasy, action, you name it, it was there! There is truly something for everyone in this book and trust me, this book will FIND A WAY  to get you hooked!

The characters in this book were complex, and cool, and caring and stunning (I'm talking to you Elias) and they were so well written! First you have Laia, who was so awfully kind and determined to get her brother back, that she would have done anything. Poor Laia has been and will be going through so much, and yet she GOT BACK UP AND DUSTED HERSELF OFF EVERYTIME! This book has some serious girl power.

Then we have Elias, oh great, BEAUTIFUL Elias! Not only did Sabaa paint a perfect picture of him in my head, but he was so kind to all of the slaves and so brave too! I loved how even though he was the dominant male, he was such a gentleman and wasn't overbearing at all! This book had the perfect aspects of girl power but also man power!

A strong theme in this book is brutality against slaves, and the people under the Empire. It is loosly based on Ancient Rome, a civilization that both interested me and disgusted me on their treatment. Sabaa did an incredible job at tying in important topics such as rape, family and army brutality, and while everything is very descriptive and will sometimes leave you angry, it's so important to learn about.

The writing in this book flowed like silk, it was descriptive but not too much, beautiful and keeps you hooked. I didn't find this a heavy fantasy at all and yet the writing was STILL SO PERFECT! I honestly don't know how Sabaa did it, I'm starting to question if she's even human.

You need to read this book. Literally drop everything you're doing and read this book. It'll change your life in ways I never thought possible. I don't even know how I managed to string together a somewhat coherent review because honestly my mind is a mess when it comes to this book. I CAN'T WAIT TILL AUGUST!

Have you read this stunning work of art? What did you think?

Emily @ Paperback Princess