Christmas Book Haul!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! I know I certainly did and I am very grateful for my family and friends that made it great! So for Christmas I received a lot of books. Probably too many in my parent's opinion but in MY opinion you can never have enough books! So here is my Christmas book haul! Enjoy!

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell 

I've read both Fangirl and Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell and absolutely loved both of them. This book is an adult book rather than young adult like Rowell's previous books I've read by her but I know I'll love it anyway. I don't know much about the plot except the little blurb on goodreads but I do know it's a love story. Can't wait to read it!

My True Love Gave to Me edited by Stephanie Perkins

I know the holidays are mostly over but I could read a bunch of holiday short stories any day. Especially, when the authors of said stories include Rainbow Rowell, Gayle Forman, David Levithan, and a bunch of others! I'll probably start this as soon as I'm finished with the book I'm reading now! 

The Silence of Six by E.C. Myers

I've wanted to read this ever since I saw the trailer of the book, which you can see here. Usually, I never watch book trailers because they're cheesy most of the time and they make me not really want to read the book. But then I pick up the book anyway and realize the book is good and the trailer just sucked. HOWEVER, I was watching one of polandbananasbooks book haul videos and she mentioned this book and its trailer. So I looked it up and I was instantly pulled in. So go watch the trailer and then look up the book because you will instantly want to read it after seeing the trailer. I just hope the book lives up to the trailer because if not I will be very disappointed. The basic premise of the book is that it's about computer hacking and some other stuff. It's definitely a mystery/thriller that I can't wait to read.

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

I have seen and heard nothing but amazing reviews of this book since it came out. I've never read anything by Jandy Nelson before. I purchased The Sky is Everywhere at a book sale in the summer but I still haven't gotten the chance to read it. I suppose I haven't been in the mood for a contemporary. However, I'll Give You the Sun sounds like a really interesting story that I am 100% sure that I will enjoy. It's a YA contemporary and I definitely will be reading it soon. Also I am obsessed with the cover of this book. 

The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare, Maureen Johnson, and Sarah Rees Brennan

I can never get enough of the Cassandra Clare's shadowhunter world. People complain that she doesn't know how to write anything besides this world. WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT? Her writing is fantastic and her stories are amazing. I haven't been this invested in a world like this since Harry Potter. This specific books chronicles the life of Magnus Bane through eleven short stories. I don't really know who are or what the stories are about except they involve Magnus. I really wanted the to surprise myself with who is in the stories. Some Herondales perhaps? Blackthorns? Lightwoods? I CAN'T WAIT.

Landline by Rainbow Rowell

This is the newest book by Rainbow Rowell. It's another adult contemporary/romance that I'm sure I'll enjoy. It actually won the Goodreads Choice Award for best fiction this year. I'll be reading this soon!

The Romanov Sisters by Helen Rappaport

This book just came out in June and I am so excited to read it. I've always been fascinated by the Russian Revolution and the turmoil that surrounded it. The daughters of Tsar Nicholas and Alexandra have always been interesting to me as well. This book also won the Goodreads Choice Award in best history and biography this year so it must be good!

American Presidents: A Dark History by Michael Kerrigan

I have always loved learning about the presidents. For some reason when I was little I was obsessed with them and for every christmas or birthday I'd receive a book or something that had to do with the U.S. Presidents. But soon that obsession faded and I got into different parts of history. Anyway, next semester I'll be taking a history class on U.S. Presidents and my mom thought it would be a good idea to get me this book to brush up on my facts. I already started reading it and can't believe some of the stuff I'm learning.

That's it! There is my Christmas book haul! I hope some of these books caught your attention! Happy Holidays friends! 

Review: Bleed Like Me

Title: Bleed Like Me
Author: C. Desir
Genre: YA Contemporary
Rating: ★★★★

I loved this book. While Bleed Like Me is another YA contemporary, it's different in that darker issues occur throughout the book. There is a romance but an unhealthy romance that circles around addiction and mental health problems. The main characters are Amelia Gannon (Gannon) and Michael Brooks (Brooks). The story is told in Gannon's point of view and the reader learns from the beginning that her life is in shambles. Gannon feels invisible in her life. Her parents focus lies on her three adopted brothers who have major discipline issues. She only has one friend, Ali, who is only her friend because they both have no one else. Gannon constantly feels alone and to deal with this she cuts. But then she meets Brooks and that's when everything changes. 


Does everything change for the better? No. Rather than be addicted to cutting, Gannon just becomes addicted to Brooks. And as time goes on Brooks becomes addicted to Gannon. However, in the beginning their relationship was ok to me, even cute in a way. While Brooks straight up told Gannon that he would not be able to fix her and her problems, he kind of did in a bit of a twisted way. The whole cutting thing with him cutting her kind of freaked me out a bit, I have to admit. I really liked Brooks up until that point. But that's when I realized that Brooks was totally incapable of helping Gannon because he really needed to help himself instead.


The second part of the book is when you really start to dislike Brooks because of how much he changes because of his time in juvie. Juvie had definitely broken Brooks and we see a different side of him that had been lying dormant in the beginning of the book. I'm still debating in my mind if Brooks really loved Gannon or he just loved her dependency on him. I want to believe that he loved Gannon but now I'm not so sure. At one point Gannon wants to go get food because she's hungry but Brooks makes a big deal out of it accusing her of not really loving him. He makes a big deal out of her wanting to leave and it just seemed ridiculous. But then you realize how dependent on Gannon he really is. While in he beginning of the story it seemed like Gannon was the weaker of the two, Brooks has now shown that he is the weakest. He is constantly paranoid that his father is going to come after him or that Gannon will leave him. Brooks is afraid to be alone and in the end this is what causes his episode at the end of the book. 


 

When reading this book the relationship between Sid and Nancy definitely comes to mind. Sid was the bassist in the band The Sex Pistols in the UK in the 1970s and Nancy was his girlfriend. They both were addicted to drugs, heroin being the biggest one. It was a relationship based on addiction essentially and in the end they both died because of it. I definitely recommend the film. While the relationship between Gannon and Brooks didn't exactly revolved around drugs it did revolve around addiction because of their addiction to each other. 

I really just cannot get this story out of my head. This happens a lot when I read darker contemporary stories. People usually ask me why in the world I would want to read a book about this topic, and most of the time I just tell them I find it interesting. At first I thought this book was going to be a bit like Willow by Julia Hoban, which I read a couple of years ago. Both books deal with mental health and the effects of cutting but they are totally completely different stories. I do recommend both books very much. However, if you are sensitive to darker issues that involve mental health and abuse it might not be the book for you.

Where have I been?

It's been a busy couple of months. As soon as midterms hit, school just became busier and busier and finding time to read became a problem for me. But this is just making excuses  for myself, which I do not want to do. Since it's winter break now, hopefully I can get on my game and update the blog and get some more reading done. I definitely know I'll be getting a lot of reading done this vacation! 

Anyway, I think I'll post some reviews of books that I read recently to get my head back in the game. So look out for those and some more blog posts!

Happy Holidays my friends! 

~Whitney