Books And Their Theme Songs - Volume 22

FIRST BOOKS AND THEIR THEME SONGS BLOG POST!!! So, let's start as we mean to go on. HERE'S THE MUSIC! I hope you enjoy the songs and "get" why their songs became my soundtrack to these reads...

RUBY RED by Kerstin Geir
"When The Darkness Comes" by Colbie Caillat & "Heart By Heart" by Demi Lovato



FROZEN by Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston
"The Flood" by Cheryl Cole


THESE BROKEN STARS by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
"Gravity" by Pixie Lott and "Young Blood" by Sophie Ellis-Bextor



UNBREAKABLE by Kami Garcia
"Howl" by Florence and the Machine & "Strange Days" by Bryan Ellis



THRONE OF GLASS by Sarah J Mass
"Once Upon A Dream" by Lana Del Rey


LEGEND by Marie Lu
"Bella Lugosi's Dead" by CHVRCHES


DIE FOR HER by Amy Plum
"The Deer And The Wolf" by Sophie Ellis-Bextor

GoodRead - Die For Her

After reading Legend (review here!), I wanted to read something super fast and slightly romantic over the Valentine weekend before I dive head-first into Cress by Marissa Meyer and a few other reads. So it was this or Life Before Legend so I decided, impulsively, to read Die For Her.

Which might have been a bad move but am going to explain why in a tick.

Die For Her follows revenant Jules, best friend to Vincent, throughout the first two books within the Die for Me trilogy, Die for Me and Until I Die. As Vincent slowly falls for Kate, Jules worries for his friend and for his fellow revenants. But as he gets to know Kate, something happens to him that Jules doesn't see coming...

Ok, as I stated in the previous paragraph, this follows Jules through the first two books in twish he series, so if you haven't read the first two books in the series, AVOID! As I read the first and forgot to read books 2 and 3, I should have listened to fellow book bloggers advice a few months/years back when I bought this and NOT READ IT! FOOLISH MORTAL, I AM!

But, saying that, I really enjoyed reading this. I forgot how much I enjoyed reading Amy's writing. It was so easy for me to slip back into this world, even though I read Die For Me YEARS AGO (yes, years! I read Die For Me back in 2011 - so over 2 years ago!!!). And it's Paris - If you remember my review for Die For Me (review here if you haven't), I love Paris. Never been but I REALLY WANT TO GO! It's one of those places I want to go that's on my bucket list (Paris, Rome, New York to name three).

It made me wish I have read the whole series. Maybe I should run back and read the whole series. Or should I wait and scare Amy's new novel, After The End... Decisions, Decisions...

SMILE - Reading In The Shower

My thanks to Christina at PolandBananasBOOKS for this! Dare we try this out in the near future...?

When Should One Quit Reading THAT Book?

So, earlier this week, I started listening to an audiobook that I have heard very positive things over - Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty. Yesterday, after listening to under 3 hours of this audiobook (3 hours out of around 13 hours), I had to stop listening to it. I COULDN'T BEAR IT ANY MORE!!! I disliked the writing style, have serious hatred for the characters and, for a reason I don't understand, I didn't warm to the narrator.

And because of this decision, I began thinking about all the books/eBooks/audiobooks I have stop reading within a few chapters within 2014. And I have counted 1 true book which I have stopped reading because of hatred: Apple Tree Yard for the reasons I stated above (oh, believe me, I could easily go on a rant about that - just ask my other half). For the books I started but I wasn't in the right frame of mind to read, I have counted 3/4 (Frostbite by Richelle Mead, The Dead Girls' Dance by Rachel Caine and Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz from the top of my head [as I can't remember the fourth]) and there was one I nearly gave up on but Twitter ordered me to keep going (thanks for that, Twitter. Throne of Glass was ok once it got going. Let's hope Crown of Midnight is better than the first, like everyone seems to be saying...)

But that got me thinking: how long do you stick with a book before you stop reading it? Do you struggle on with a book even though you seriously hate/dislike it? Do you give yourself a page mark - say page 100? - before you decide to keep going or stop? Or do you do what literary agents do which is read the first 3 chapters and take it from there?

And what do you do with eBooks? Do you give it a certain percentage (20%? 25%? 15%?)? And then what do you do? Do you create a folder for those unfinished stories?

Leave what you do with books as I am really intrigued over what everyone does...

SMILE - When People Tell Me I Have A Book Problem....

And I Regret NOTHING!!! 

SMILE - I Don't Like Problems...

How I am going to live my life now, me thinks...

THANK YOU GILMORE GIRLS! (and because I love you guys, let's show another Gilmore Girls gif, shall we?)

GoodRead - Legend

You've guys have caught up with me and my reading. CURSE YOU WORK!!! So, looks like the next few weeks/months/FOREVER, you guys will get my reviews on books as soon as I have finished the book. 

So, Legend. Legend was actually chosen by my other half. After reading Throne of Glass (Review here, by the way), I asked him to choose my next read. I like it when I don't have to pick my next read, and I seemed to be in a weird book slump mood. Nothing excited me! So, I was going to ask Twitter, but other half took over. He demanded a few random books and then he would choose one. And he choose Legend because of the "shiny cover". 

In Los Angeles, Republic of America, there's a boy and a girl. Day and June. They haven't met. And why would they? Day is a criminal and June is the Government's prodigy. When the plague hits a member of his family, Day decides to break into a hospital for a cure. This sets off a chain of events in which June's brother is killed and she vows to find his murderer. And all the evidence is point to Day... 

I am going to admit this: I knew very little about this. I know that might sound weird, but all I knew was the vaguest details (the synopsis on book and on some reviews), it's a trilogy and it's a dystopia (something I haven't read in a while because... well, I got sick of dystopian books and needed time away). That's it. So, I went into this kinda blind. 

And you know what? I was genuinely surprised how much I enjoyed reading this. 

I got caught up in the world and the pacing was great once June and Day actually meet. Before that, I felt it was a bit slow, but once they met, it was like reading a thriller with the fastness and the chapter point-of-views going back and forth. I liked reading from both their point-of-views (that's rare, I think. To like both characters equally) so I never felt like I had to rush back to a character as the other was boring it. There was always something happening and that kept me turning pages. 

I admit this now, the first few chapters were a tad slow for my taste. I just wanted them to meet and I wanted the fireworks! I wanted see how it would happen and the fall-out. And the relationship - I'm not 100% certain that I buy it. It feels a bit like insta-love. But this is a trilogy, so Marie could explore this in the next two books (and with the film rights bought by the team that bought us the Twilight Saga, I think the movie's in safe hands). 

I am surprised how much I enjoyed the mad ride. I do hope I get to read the second book in the series, Prodigy, soon. Not sure when, but I did accidentally buy the "prequel" eNovella Life Before Legend (stupid iPhone! I wanted "Try A Sample", not "Buy Now"!) soon. Am oddly looking forward to seeing what these characters were like before the events of Legend. 

SMILE - Don't Worry About Finding That Special Someone...

My thanks goes to the Welcome To Night Vale podcast (not sure who made this gif but thanks to you too!)