Pokémon Go Book Tag with Bayram from Never Ending Books (SBPT)

This summer, We Live and Breathe Books (Kiersten in particular) is participating in the Summer Blog Promo Tour hosted by The Book Bratz! That means, every Sunday in July and August, we'll be hosting a different blogger to spread the love.

Today, Bayram is here from Never Ending Books, and we decided to come up with a Pokémon Go book tag! We both love playing Pokémon Go, so it seemed like a fun idea for this post. If you enjoy this book tag, we tag YOU to complete it! Go catch 'em all!

The Pokémon Go Book Tag

Pick your starter Pokémon

Squirtle: a book set near a body of water

Charmander: a book with a warm, fuzzy romance

Bulbasaur: a book set in nature

Bayram: Charmander, ACOMAF may not seem like a fuzzy romance movie but it certainly had it

Kiersten: Squirtle (I'm a sucker for water types) - I think I'm going to have to go with Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. Since they sail across the ocean in the book, it definitely counts. (On a side note, I also just wanted to say that I think Squirtle is possibly one of my favorite named Pokémon - It's a turtle with a squirrel tail, and squirt also refers to water type moves. Just brilliant.)

Pick your team

Mystic: a book with an educational theme

Instinct: a book you picked up because of the cover
Valor: a book with a kick-butt heroine

Bayram: TEAM VALOR, definitely Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Kiersten: TEAM MYSTIC!!! (It's ok, we don't let our team differences get between us) - Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins is such a fun book about a magical boarding school.

Pokéstop
A book you bought recently

Bayram: I didn’t buy this book but the latest one I received was Reawakened by Colleen Houck

Kiersten: I feel like I never buy books anymore (I'm trying to read books I already own and use the elibrary), but I did receive an ARC of We Know it Was You by Maggie Thrash at Blogbound Con last weekend!

Pikachu
A book that shocked you

Bayram: Riverkeep by Martin Stewart

Kiersten: I'm normally not a huge fan of contemporary romance, but I was shocked by how much I absolutely loved Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum.

Psyduck
A book that you don't understand the hype about

Bayram: This is a bit of an old movie but definitely the Twilight movies

Kiersten: And I Darken by Kiersten White is a book I really wanted to love but I just couldn't get into it. It's not that it was bad, it just didn't work out for me.

Magikarp
A book that was hard to get into but you ended up loving

   

Bayram: Illuminae was a bit confusing at the start but I ended up LOVING it

Kiersten: I'm going to cheat a little and do this one as a series. The concept for Cinder by Marissa Meyer put me off of reading it for a long time, but I ended up really loving the series!

Snorlax
A slow paced book that was still great

   

Bayram: Its been a while since I read Passenger but it did seem to be slow throughout but still amazing

Kiersten: The Diviners by Libba Bray is definitely a slow paced book, but the way Libba Bray builds up all these layers in the story makes it so wonderful.

Gastly
A book with ghosts

   

Bayram: I think The Archived by Victoria Schwab had ghosts in it but thats the only one I can think of

Kiersten: The Accident Season by Moïra Fowley-Doyle is not only perfect for this category but is also one of my favorite books.

Dragonite
A book with dragons

   

Bayram: Talon by Julie Kagawa

Kiersten: The Sweetest Dark by Shana Abé. Hands down.

Prestige
A book you'd consider a new classic (released in the 2000s)

Bayram: Any of the Harry Potter books

Kiersten: I feel like The Hunger Games are already starting to be taught in schools. I feel like it's definitely a staple of the YA genre and especially dystopian as a whole.

Revive
A book that you had to recover from

Bayram: ACOMAF!!!!

Kiersten: Definitely A Court of Mist and Fury. All my feels, man. I also remember being a pathetic heap after Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare.

Poké egg
An upcoming release that you're dying to get your hands on

Bayram: Nevernight by Jay Kristoff, it sounds AMAZING

Kiersten: I'm dying to get my hands on Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas! Also, these aren't upcoming releases because there is no news on when they will come out, but I would love the sequel to Courtney Eldridge's Ghost Time and the final book in The Sweetest Dark series by Shana Abé (please happen soon please).

Lure module
A book you want everyone to read

Bayram: Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, everyone needs to read it

Kiersten: The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone by Adele Griffin is basically always my go to for things like this. It sounds like a strange book, but it's so good.

About Bayram

I am a senior in high school who LOVES to read, especially YA and sci-fi genre books. I started my blog more than two years ago and regularly post reviews of books I have enjoyed and received to review. I have had a passion for reading ever since I was in kindergarten and have only strengthened it ever since. I love talking to the book community and discussing various books with them.

Do you play Pokémon Go?

We'd love to hear your picks for this book tag!

Review: Vanishing Girls - Lauren Oliver

Vanishing Girls
Lauren Oliver
Series: N/A
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Suspense
Publisher: HarperCollins
Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars
Goodreads

I know I'm super late to the game with Vanishing Girls but just be proud that I got around to reading it before Replica comes out. I'm so happy I finally read it because it definitely pumped me up for Lauren Oliver's newest book and had me reeling at the ending.

Lauren Oliver's writing has always interested me -- I think you can definitely see it develop and mature with each book she publishes, while still keeping her own recognizable voice. In Vanishing Girls, the writing was as compelling and poetic as I expected it to be, and also more descriptive/detailed than some of her previous books. It made for an excellent novel and an immersive read. I found myself going through page after page without realizing how much I'd read. I think the writing style threads the whole book together and brings the story up a notch, making it more interesting to read.

The book itself is about two sisters, Dara and Nick, once thick as thieves, now barely speaking in the wake of a terrible car accident. It's told in both dual points of view and in two time frames -- before the accident and after. It took a while to get into the whole point of the story and for the plot to really go anywhere other than point of view shifts describing summer jobs and resentment. And while I did really enjoy all that insight into our characters and didn't feel bored or anything, I was wondering where the story was going. Fortunately, the story did go somewhere, the pacing was just kinda slow until the ending. I think it's around the halfway point when things start really ~happening~ but I could be wrong, it's been a few weeks since I finished it.

Because the book takes its time telling the story, it gives us room to get to know our characters. The characters in this book were truly well-developed. Dara and Nick are telling the story, so they get the most focus and it was such a raw and real relationship Lauren Oliver showed. They both thought so highly of the other, thinking the other couldn't possibly share the sentiment. The relationship was so honest and then after the car accident it was heartbreaking exploring how each sister felt and couldn't share with the other. The side characters were all great too. Parker, the Boy in the story, was cute and funny and I appreciated that he wasn't some random insta-love insert, or that his love didn't immediately Fix All Problems or something else lame. Everything with him was so realistic and so well-done. Nick's coworkers were all great too and I enjoyed seeing her make new friends and seeing them become close to her as the book progressed.

I didn't see the direction the ending was headed which surprised me a little because I can usually figure this type of stuff out. I think I was just so engrossed in the book that I didn't have room to think about anything other than the information presented at face value. Personally, I thought the ending was shocking and unexpected and brought closure to the whole story in an interesting way. I can understand that others might find it gimicky or hackneyed -- and I definitely agree that there is a fine line -- but I thought it worked for this book.

Also, some of the other factors that were explored more towards the end seemed a little disjointed, like the photographs and the necessity/significance of Madeline Snow. However, overall, I really enjoyed the book and spent a lot of time engrossed in the story. I also appreciated that the overarching theme in the book always went back to their sisterhood. I think Lauren Oliver has a beautiful talent for prose and for writing characters and I can't wait to read more from her.

- Noor

What are your favorite books about siblings?
Let us know in the comments!

Review: This Raging Light - Estelle Laure

This Raging Light
Estelle Laure
Series: N/A (Companion Novel coming soon)
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Goodreads

I said in a post once that sometimes when I read a book, everything feels right. It makes me feel exactly what I needed to feel in that exact moment, and This Raging Light was it for me. The writing is genuinely heartfelt, Lucille (the protagonist) is broken and strong and the real deal, and the only complaint I have is that it was too short.

I'll get out my only real criticism of the book here at the beginning so I can gush afterwards -- too much happened in the book for it to be crammed into less than 300 pages. It took me all of two hours to read this book (some pages aren't even like, full of words, if you know what I'm trying to say) and honestly there was so much plot and so much character development that I feel like could have been hashed out more. Also, the ending left a lot to be desired -- an extra 200 pages would have totally been warranted. This book doesn't have a sequel but it does have a companion novel, so maybe things will get hashed out there? I guess we'll wait and see. In summation: I'm only mad at this book because I wanted more.

Lucille, our main character, along with her little sister Wren, were abandoned by her parents with no money (they left her with the house though), no notice of their return, and no phone calls. So, she gets a job and leans really heavily on Eden (her best friend) and Digby (Eden's twin brother who Lucille has a crush on). Things are obviously really complicated. Lucille needs someone to watch her ten year old sister so that she can work on school nights and make $100+ a night bussing tables. Lucille makes a lot of money so that the book works but she ends up with a job at a Hooters type deal to explain the extra cash. Obviously there ends up being family drama and romance drama and friend drama because even when the world is crashing down around you, drama somehow still happens.

There's a lot of character development in this book that doesn't necessarily happen when you're paying attention. It seems like nothing and then a lot all at once, but Estelle Laure does it in a way that doesn't seem like one aspect of a character's personality is fixed and therefore now, they'll live a happy life. I touched on how well Lucille's character is written, but honestly, I think all of the characters were written really well. Everyone had their lows and their highs and the book somehow managed to show that there was decency where it was least expected to be. I really hated Eden's character and her whole plot line, but she developed nicely and while I didn't appreciate her character, I enjoyed how she fit into the larger plot.

This book was damn good. It made me really feel for the characters in a way that not many books can do -- Estelle Laure is immensely talented and I really can't wait for the companion novel to come out, because I just want more explanations for some of the things that happen in the book.

- Amrutha

What books have you read at the exact right time?
Let us know in the comments!

Top Ten Tuesday: Facts About Me

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Here at We Live and Breathe Books, two of us choose five books each week. This week's topic is...

Facts about me!

Because the topic is facts about us, three of us decided to do ten facts because getting to know us is fun.

Kiersten's Facts

I'm mad that I put myself first for these facts but read everyone else's before I wrote mine because now I feel like there's so much pressure to have actually interesting facts but I'm not good at thinking of them. I'll do my best.

1. I really like Hello Kitty. My freshman year of college, kids on my floor came into my room and called it Hello Kitty Land. People tend to think I love pink because most of my Hello Kitty stuff is pink, but I wouldn't say that it's my favorite color.
2. Speaking of favorite colors, I don't really identify with a color as my favorite. I feel like all the colors have purpose in the world and I like different colors for different reasons. I'd say in terms of colors I most gravitate towards, I've always liked blue - I'm the kind of person who always picks the water type starter, and I'm Team Mystic all the way. In terms of clothes, I think I have an affinity towards black and red. But also blue, again. So maybe blue is my favorite color, but I don't acknowledge it as such. 
3. I really like glitter and I closely identify with this gif:

4. Sometimes when I do my makeup, my inner monologue thinks I'm taping a makeup tutorial for YouTube.
5. I automatically default to being stressed out (I'm kind of just intense and high strung all the time), but when there's actually something worth stressing about and I'm really stressed out, it doesn't feel any different than normal. While other people freak out, I just continue to be stressed as per usual. 
6. I've taken the Pottermore sorting quiz on three different occasions - I took it when the site first opened, when they redid the quiz, and when they added the Ilvermorny sorting because I forgot the account information for the previous account - and I've gotten three different results: Hufflepuff, then Gryffindor, then Slytherin. Despite all this, I identify most with Ravenclaw and I'm sticking with it. 
7. Even when I listen to music with headphones in public and seated, I sort of dance while I'm sitting there. I guess it's kind of like marking the movements with my upper body. People who see me always think it's strange because they have no idea what I'm doing. A lot of the time I'm attempting to work on choreography for the dance organization I'm in at school.
8. When I was younger, there was a solid few months where I would only answer to Kiersten Mulan. If you called me Kiersten I'd pretend I didn't hear you until you amended to Kiersten Mulan.
9. My favorite movie is the Disney Channel Original Movie Go Figure, and I'm still upset about the fact that it was never sold on DVD. And they never show it on TV or put it on Netflix or anything like that. The only option is to stream it online.
10. I love going to concerts. Some bands I've seen in the last year are Imagine Dragons, Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, and Dashboard Confessional, and I'm seeing Motion City Soundtrack and Blink-182 later this summer!

Noor's Facts

1. After living in the United States since 2001 (minus a brief stint in New York a little earlier), yesterday I had my citizenship interview and exam and will be taking my official oath to become a U.S. citizen this Friday, July 15th!
2. One time I had on a Taylor Swift wristband and I told a little girl it was my medical alert bracelet and that I was actually Taylor Swift and I had the bracelet so if there was an emergency and she had to call 911 she would know to tell them that that's who I was. 
3. I haven't driven in three years because I'm epileptic and my license is technically suspended until I'm six months seizure-free so I make my 18-year old brother drive me everywhere like a chauffeur. However, I'm going to be commuting to college starting this fall and if I don't figure out public transport I'm going to be a junior being dropped off by her mom or her younger brother every day... #lame
4. If I have children, I am going to name them after fruit. Papaya and Mango are my top two choices, but I just realized olives are fruit so it's a top contender now too and will probably edge out Mango for the number two spot.   
5. Like many people I know, I have an abundance of pretty journals and notebooks and keep purchasing (or receiving) more and more because I have a severe problem. One of my favorite journals is one I use 80% for just writing down fun words. I just have an ongoing list of words I like, and if I'm out without the journal and I remember or come across one, I have a note in my phone where I write them and transfer them in later. It's probably the most Me thing I do. I also have a list of words I hate. I think my favorite word is dossier and my least favorite is hubris. 
6. Throughout the day (and night) I'll be hit with random snippets of ideas for poems or stories and I know I'll 100% forget them if I don't write them down so I usually write notes on my phone, but sometimes even though I think they make sense at the time they're so vague and nonsensical when I read them later I have no idea what I'm talking about. I have a note that says "license plates," which I actually vaguely remember and one that just says "Anthony," which is completely lost on me because I don't even like that name all that much so I doubt it was a reminder to name a character; maybe just a fragment of a dream???? Who knows. 
7. I'm convinced I am a ghost. This isn't some weird ~~~quirky~~~ metaphor or anything; I honestly, truly believe that I am a ghost. My corporeal form is a lie. I'm not quite sure how to explain it, but I have a few reasons, I didn't just wake up one day deciding to be a ghost. I started to realize it last year and it solidified even more when I realized that my internal monologue isn't consistent with my actual life. That isn't so much a way I realized it as it is a way to back up my claim, but all the same, I stand by it. 
8. I might get brain surgery which is kinda cool. It's all tentative right now and I have a few more tests to do and it wouldn't happen until next summer at the earliest because I'd need recovery time before I went back to school (and I don't want to take more time off so I'd rather wait until summer when I have three months off) but it's a potential Thing that may or may not happen in my life. 
9. I get really stressed out whenever someone has the same name or birthday as me and immediately see the person as an enemy. Yes there are Noors/December 23rd-born people I like and am friends with, but the unrelenting hatred usually goes towards Relevant people who have social media I can stalk to see how much further they're getting in life than me (bonus hatred if they're doing things I wanna do with my life and doing them well). 
10. I feel like my voice doesn't match my typing. I'm not sure if the way I worded that made sense -- I feel like if someone were to read the things I post on the Internet (whether the platform is blogging or Twitter or something else), taking into account the style in which I write those things, the voice they would imagine me having in their heads would be drastically different than my voice in reality. I know no one likes their own voice, and it isn't about that, I just feel like my physical voice doesn't make sense saying things the way I type them.

I hope you enjoyed my facts and I apologize if they got a little rambling or weird. I have lots more weird, rambling thoughts and fun facts but I think I've probably made you question my sanity enough for the moment. 

Amrutha's Facts

1. When I was 12, I loved Bobby Flay. Like, I would watch his shows obsessively, I followed blogs and news articles about Bobby Flay, I tried to get my parents to take me to Food Network shows all the time. Short of having a life size Bobby Flay poster on my wall, I was just as bad as 90% of the girls my age were about the Jonas Brothers. This is all very confusing because Bobby is a BBQ/Burger guy, and I am a vegetarian. But alas, for a short time in my life, I was his #1 fan.
2. I perpetually open water bottles and only drink some and then just leave them next to me at my night stand. And in my car. And on my dresser. And on the ground next to the couch. And literally everywhere. If I've been there, I have probably left a water bottle there. I know it's horrible for the environment and I am ~the worst~ but it is a bad habit of mine. 
3. I hate geese. I really really hate geese. Some people call it a "fear" but they're wrong, it's a natural survival instinct. Geese are predators. THEY HAVE TEETH ON THEIR TONGUES. Look at this photo and tell me this isn't some direct descendent of a velociraptor.
   
4. I was born in India but then I moved to Kansas. Looking back at my Kansas days it feels like I was roleplaying as Laura Ingalls Wilder. Down the road from my elementary school there was an old one room school house. We spent a week in fourth grade doing the "one room school house week experience where we had spelling bees and played with marbles and made rag dolls. 
5. I'm obsessed with those food videos all over Facebook, I could literally watch them for the rest of my life and never make the food and never do anything else but still somehow be happy and satisfied.
6. I have this thing called "height confidence" where I believe I'm the tallest person in the room. I can look at someone like 6ft tall and still believe that I am taller than them. 
7. When I commit to something, I commit to it really hard. Like, I spent like two weeks eating basically just grapefruit (I now hate grapefruit). If I like a song I'll put it on repeat for a couple weeks while dancing to it or something. 
8. I really hate pennies. In ninth grade I watched John Green's video on why pennies are a suck on the American economy and I made a powerpoint presentation so I could tell all my friends why I hate pennies. They cost more to make than they're worth, we lose millions on them every year, no one would care if they're gone, etc etc. Honestly, the pennies thing comes up a lot.
9. So I mentioned earlier in this that I'm a vegetarian. So I grew up in a family of all vegetarians and most of my friends growing up were from my Indian Classical dance class, so most of those girls had families that were vegetarian too. When I went to one of my only meat-eater friend's houses, I came across some tuna cans in the garbage as I was throwing something out. Now, this friend had cats. So, it was my instinct to ask if the tuna was for the cats. I seriously thought tuna was only consumed by cats up until this point in my life (I was probably like 8 or 9). Needless to say, when she corrected me, it was a little awkward.
10. I'm super super good at remembering stories. Like, if you tell me a story about a girl named Sarah who once wronged you in 2012 and then months later tell me about seeing her at the supermarket or something, I'll remember Sarah's backstory. If I ever meet Sarah without you around, I'll put together that you hate her and put together the present with the story you told before. This is true for literally even the most random and irrelevant of people. 
    
    

What are some facts about you?

Let us know in the comments!

Series Review + Giveaway: The Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer

The Lunar Chronicles Series

Marissa Meyer

Genre: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Retelling, Romance

Publisher: Feiwel and Friends

Overall Series Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Goodreads: Cinder | Scarlet | Cress | Fairest | Winter

I apologize in advance for how long this is, but it does encompass a review for five books, so bear with me :)

When I first heard about The Lunar Chronicles, I'll admit that I wasn't particularly interested - a cyborg Cinderella story? It just seemed a little too sci-fi for me at the time - I was expecting all these robots and things, and it didn't appeal to me. As the buzz was building around this series, I decided to give it a shot and ended up getting a few of the books as Kindle Daily Deals. I'm glad that I eventually gave this series a chance because it was absolutely incredible!

I read the first three books in the series last summer and finally read Fairest and Winter this summer, so the review will probably lean towards those two books; however, this review will be spoiler free for the entire series!

Starting with Cinder, I was pleasantly surprised that this series was nothing like I expected. Yes, it has a cyborg main character and it's set in a futuristic world, but it's also infused with a lot of feeling and a dystopian feel at times. Cinder was the first fairytale retelling that I read, and I really enjoyed the way Marissa Meyer brought the sci-fi elements into the classic fairytale.

Before I read Cinder, I thought all the books in this series were just companions - different fairytales told in the same world - but I was so wrong. Going into Scarlet, I wasn't sure how much of the characters of Cinder there would be, but it ended up being a fusion of both of the stories! While Cinder's plot line was continuing, we were also introduced to Scarlet and a Little Red Riding Hood retelling. As Scarlet progressed, I realized that this series was so much more than I had initially expected - there were MANY THINGS happening and HUGE REVELATIONS on what to expect in the rest of the series.

Next in the series is Cress, and I think that this book is where things really start to happen in terms of the overall story arc of the series. Throughout Cress, the remaining main characters of the series are introduced, and we finally see where things will be going in terms of the ultimate end of the series. I liked how Marissa Meyer incorporated elements of the Rapunzel story in Cress, but I'd say this book was the farthest from the traditional story (at least the story of Rapunzel that I know). Nonetheless, the great thing about this book was how much perspective readers gained about The Lunar Chronicles world. In Cinder and Scarlet we get a glimpse of the countries where they live, but in Cress we get to see another country as well as more information on Luna, the civilization on the moon.

At this point, a year passed before I finally read Fairest and then Winter. Fairest is a short, prequel novel to The Lunar Chronicles, and it's the main villain Levana's origin story. At first, after having waited a year to finally read Fairest, I had trouble getting into it, especially since it was from Levana's point of view; however, as I got into it I really liked it. I've seen people often talk about the nature of human beings and whether they are inherently good or evil. In my opinion, I've always felt like people were inherently righteous - doing what they think is right, which they would typically think is good or would benefit the greater good. Fairest is a great example of this. It's clear through the story that Levana has done everything she has because she thinks it's the right thing to do for her country. Reading Fairest really humanized Levana but did not dismiss how misguided and wrong her actions were. Overall, I think that Marissa Meyer was so successful in the way she wrote Fairest.

Besides just giving insight on Levana, Fairest also allowed even more insight into Luna's culture. Having this information before going into Winter was really helpful in understanding and anticipating what would happen in the series finale, so I highly recommend reading the prequel before finishing the series.

Winter is a Snow White retelling, and it shows us where Levana really fits in as the evil queen in this story. I didn't realize how long Winter was until I started reading it, but the pacing in this book, as well as for the entire series, continues on at a good pace, mixing action and heartfelt moments to create a vivid representation of the characters and the situation they've been thrown into.

One thing that Marissa Meyer does so brilliantly in all the books in this series is the way she structures the book. Within each book, there are "books" of chapters that she heads with big plot points from the original fairytale. Using these dividers, she foreshadows what will happen next, which adds to the excitement when continuing to read. It's really fun to see the juxtaposition between the original story and how Marissa Meyer modifies it to fit into her world.

Like I said when talking about Scarlet, as each book and set of new characters were added to the series, the plot lines became more and more complex. I'm honestly in awe over how complex this entire series became. I never expected all the different stories to intertwine so fluidly, ending up all fitting together like a big puzzle. The way Marissa Meyer found a way to tie all these stories together was just so cool, and I really loved it.

Besides the plot being so epic and complex, the characters are also equally interesting and complex. Not only do we get strong female characters and charming princes, but all the characters are so much more than they seem on the surface. From different prejudices that some of the characters face, to mental illness, to having to be fully submissive to a leader you don't believe in, all the characters have so many layers of complexity, coming so much farther than the characters they are based on.

Overall, I must say that The Lunar Chronicles was so much more than I ever expected. I didn't know how complex and immersive this world would be, and I'm so glad I gave it a chance. If you have reservations about this series because of the sci-fi element, I'd definitely say to give it a chance because you might be surprised by how much you like it like I was. The series as a whole was so satisfying, and I highly recommend it!

- Kiersten

Giveaway

I happened to have picked up a signed copy of Cress at a Fierce Reads tour a long time ago to do a giveaway with but I never got around to it - until now!

All you have to do to enter is fill out the Rafflecopter below. The giveaway is open US only, unless you are willing to pay the shipping, and is open through August 1st. You must be 13 or older to enter or have a parent enter for you. The winner will be selected shortly after and will have 48 hours to respond before a new winner is selected.

Good luck! :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What's one series you're glad you gave a shot?

Let us know in the comments!