Books I read and movies I watched in January

January has been a killer reading month for me. I read 10 books this month.

Here are the books I read and my thoughts!

Books

The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan: 2 Stars
This book is about how an American falls in love with the prince of England.

I picked the audiobook up 1. because I heard good things about this book and 2. because my radio is broken in my car. I cannot drive for long periods of time in silence. I picked this up on New Years Day because I had to drive from my mothers house back to my apartment, which is an hour and a half to two hour drive.

I regret reading this. It set me in a bad mood. I thought that this was going to be some fluffy romance that I would fly through but every time I turned this audiobook on I just kept hoping that I would be done quickly.

This book was way to long. I could sum up the entire story for you in a paragraph. I think I would have given it a higher rating had the book been more condensed. I felt like the authors were just dragging the story out for no reason.


Roomies by Christina Lauren: 4-4.5 Stars

Holland loves listening to this musician, Calvin, who plays guitar in the subways of New York. She takes time out of her day just to hear him play. One day when she goes to listen to him she gets up the courage to tell him that she really likes his music. After she tells him that she likes his music this guy in the subway chases after her and she ends up on the subway tracks. Calvin helps Holland but when the ambulance arrives he is no where to be seen. Holland later finds out that Calvin is in the United States illegally and she wants to help him.

I loved the relationships in this book. Holland has an amazing relationship with her gay uncles.

I liked that Holland and Calvin's relationship took time to grow.

I enjoyed that writing process and the personal growth that Holland had in this book. It was great to see a character go through the struggles of finding themselves while also finding what to write.

This was just a good read. I was so invested in this book and in the relationships that I saved the last 30-40 pages until this morning (January 7th) because I did not want to finish it. I could have finished all of it last night but I just did not want to let go of the story.



The Girl in the Spiders Web by David Lagercrantz: 2 Stars
I don't want to give a synopsis of this book because it is book four. Book one is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Book one is about how a disgraced journalist gets pulled into investing an old murder case and on his journey to find the killer he enlists the help of a female hacker. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a book I enjoyed and would recommend. Be warned though, these books are for mature audiences. They deal with rape, abuse, murder, and much more so just be prepared.

If you want to read my full thoughts I wrote a very lengthly review because I had a lot of thoughts on this book and the series as a whole. Be warned my review is rambly and kind of stream of consciousness. My review: http://plethora-of-nonsense.blogspot.com/2018/01/thoughts-on-girl-in-spiders-web-by.html



Sublime by Christina Lauren: 2-3 stars
I wanted more from Christina Lauren so I borrowed the audiobook Sublime by the writing duo. This one was just not for me. It wasn't bad but was not as enjoyable as Roomies.

This book is about how Lucy can only be seen by Colin. They find out that Lucy died and then came back. They both try to figure out why. Colin and Lucy start developing a relationship. Lucy and Colin cannot touch or be close because Lucy is a ghost. One day they find out that they can be together if Colin has near death experience.

I enjoyed the beginning of this book. I found it interesting to figure out what happened to Lucy but when the book started to be about these near death experiences it just became a hard story to listen to. It was hard because Colin wanted to die or almost die to be with Lucy when she was already dead.



A List of Cages by Robin Roe

This is a survival story. Adam Blake is an aid to the school psychologist for his senior year of high school. One of the duties as the aid is to try and bring in a student who will not show up to the school psychologist's office. This student is Julian and Adam realizes that Julian is the same person that used to live with him. Adam's mother was Julian's foster parent for a time before Julian's uncle Russell came to take Julian away. Julien's uncle is not a good guardian.

**Be aware that this story does deal with abuse.**

I am very conflicted on how I feel about this story and the characters. I loved the main characters Julian, Adam, Emerald (sometimes), Charlie, Jesse, etc. The group of friends in this book is amazing. The characters that I could not stand in this book were the adults. I disliked almost every adult except Adam's mom. Every other adult was a complete asshole. There were many times where I was literally yelling at the book because of something that was said or how an adult handled a situation. It was so infuriating.

I don't think I am going to give this book a star rating. I don't know what I would rate it if I wanted to.

This book is one that will stay with me for a while. I finished this book out in my car while I was waiting for it to warm up and have thought about this book all day.
I have taken this book with me for the past few days. It has bends in the cover and coffee spilled on the spine. This book is easily one of my favorites. I want to go back one day and just take a highlighter to it.

This book teaches a valuable lesson of how people can drastically affect someones life for the better.
I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone.




Dear Martin by Nic Stone: 3 Stars
This was one of my most anticipated releases of last year and I can't believe that I just read it now. I wish I read Dear Martin as soon as it was released.

This book is about Justyce McAllister writing letters to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. about the ongoing racism that is happening in society today. Justyce wants to be more like Dr. King and implement his teachings in his everyday life.
This book does deal with racism, it talks about police brutality, racial profiling, and much more.

Go read it if you haven't. Its very short and will probably take a couple hours to finish. I listened to it on audiobook and the audiobook is 4 hours long.

Rating:
I know that 3 stars is not considered a high rating but don't be fooled. I really enjoyed this book. The only reason that I docked some stars is because it was not long enough. I felt like I was just really getting to know all these characters and then it ended. I want more.

Subject Matter:
Don't fooled by its size this book may be short but it packs a punch. So much happened. I had to listen to some of it twice because I could not believe the things that were happening. This book shocked me so much that there were times that I was listening to this book and I said out loud "There is no way that that came out of that persons mouth". There were many times where my jaw dropped at some of the discussions that were happing.

I listened to this on audiobook and that is how I would recommend people consume this amazing story.


Maybe Someday by Colleen Hover: 3.5 Stars

I thought that this book was okay but the topic is what made me dock it stars.

This book is about people in relationships cheating on each other. Not one character has a good relationship in this book. Every time that Ridge and Sydney would have a cute moment I would just feel so bad for Maggie.

The reason that I rated it as high as 3 stars is because Colleen Hoover's writing is addicting. I finished this book in like two days.

One thing that I like is that there are song lyrics written down. I found the songs on YouTube as well so that added an interesting experience to this book.

Not my favorite Colleen Hoover book but it was okay.



The next few books are the ones that I read for the Biannual Bibliothon. 


Maybe Not by Colleen Hoover: 1.5 stars (A book under 200 pages and a sequel)

This is book 2 (or 1.5 according to Goodreads) in the Maybe series by Colleen Hoover. This book focuses on the two other roommates, Bridgette and Warren, that were in the first book Maybe Someday.

This book was not good. I liked that there was more of a backstory for Bridgette but this just isn't Colleen's best work.


Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren: 1-1.5 Stars (A back list title)

Synopsis:
Chloe Miller is interning for Mr. Bennett Ryan as a requirement for her MBA. She does not like her boss and calls him Beautiful Bastard around her friends. Well one day Mr. Ryan and Chloe decide to just start sleeping together. She calls him an ass and a bastard a lot. He is also constantly rude to everyone and yet they keep sleeping together.



I did not intend to read Beautiful Bastard for the Biannual Bibliothon but I wanted to read something that would be quick to get through. I started The Light of Paris by Eleanor Brown and I am liking it but it started out slow. I could barely make it through the first chapter because it is about a women who is married to a possessive man and that is not something I want to read about at the moment.

This book is not what I expected at all. I went in only knowing that it was Twilight fan fiction.



But I soon found out that this book is Fifty Shades of Grey.
I had no idea going into this that it was going to be some erotica romance between an intern and her boss.

Just exchange the names Christian Grey and Ana Steele for Bennett Ryan and Chloe Mills then you get the same story.
This book started out with a sex scene which was abrupt. I was 10-20 pages into this book and they are already having sex with each other..

I think I am going to give it a 1.5 stars because it kept my attention but there was absolutely no plot to this. (I guess Chloe getting her MBA could be the plot but other than that there was nothing to this book.)

I looked and saw that this is an anthology series so the other books focus on different characters. I don't think that I am going to continue with this series.

I feel betrayed by the people who rated this book. It has over 4 stars on Goodreads! I don't understand...

I would not recommend this to anyone.


Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson: No Rating (A book about mental illness)
I enjoyed listening to this book and I would recommend that everyone listen to this book.

This is a book about how the author deals with her mental illnesses.

This truly is a book that everyone should read. If you are thinking about reading any of the books that I have read this past month, read this one.

                                                                          Movies

Big Eyes

I was scrolling through Netflix trying to find something to watch and I found the movie Big Eyes. I remember hearing about this movie when it came out a few years ago.

This movie is about this women who paints these children with big eyes. That is all I want to tell you.  

For ninety-nine percent of the movie I was angry I just wanted it to be over. I sat through the torture just to find out if she was going to do what I kept hoping she would do. 

The ending made up for the anger I felt throughout this movie. 

I will tell you that this is not the best movie that I have seen and I'm not entirely sure I would recommend it to someone unless they enjoyed movies that turned out good in the end. 

It was just an okay movie for me.


Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
I saw this in IMAX and it was amazing.

I was worried at first because I enjoyed the first one as a kid and I was afraid is was going to be a bad remake.

The guy with the gun in the first movie was down right terrifying to me as a child. So I went into this movie expecting a thriller/action type movie. Nope. This movie was more of a comedy then anything. I laughed so much while watching this. Kevin Hart made the movie. His character is great.

I would 100% recommend this movie.

On The Blog

Normally I would not do an "On The Blog" wrap up of the month but I have posted quite a lot this month and would like to show you what I have posted if you haven't already seen it.

What Happened in December
I talk about the movies, books, and TV shows that I consumed in December.

Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2017
I wrap up what I read for the challenges.

6 Books That I Would Like To Read in 2018

I feel like the title is self explanatory.

Thoughts on Book 4 in The Millennium Series
I rambled through my feelings on The Girl in the Spiders Web.

Winter Biannual Bibliothon 2018
I made a TBR (to be read) pile for the Winter Biannual Bibliothon.

If you have made it this far thank you for reading. Let me know what books and movies you read and watched this month.

I hope you have a good day.
~Mariah