Another completed Bookish Bingo card!!

I did complete this one earlier in the month but held off writing my wrap up as I was reading a few other books that could cover certain squares if I finished them in time. I did, so here we are with a wrap up post.

Read but not Reviewed

The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey - Purple Cover - 5 stars

The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand - Tearjerker - 5 stars

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdeir - POC Writer -  4 stars

Bone Gap by Laura Ruby - Multi POV -  4 stars

Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas - Magic 4.5 stars

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins - Cover Change (reread - reviewed previously but not reviewed again for this challenge) 5 stars

Read and Reviewed

Sight (Delta Girls #1) Juliet Madison - Face on Cover - Review 2 stars

What We Knew by Barbara Stewart - June July August release- Review 2 stars

Because You'll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas - 2015 Debut - Review 5 stars

Black Iris by Leah Raeder - Out Of Your Comfort Zone - Review 5 stars

Kissing in America by Margo Rabb - Young Adult - Review 4 stars

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson - Beach Read - Review 5 stars 

Hello, Goodbye and Everything In Between by Jennifer E Smith - Title Is More Than Three Words - Review 3.5 stars

Fire in Title or on Cover: Heir of Fire by Sarah J Maas - Review 2 stars

Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman - Free Square - Review 4 stars

Ruby Red by Kirsten Gier - Time Travel - Review 1 star

The Queen (Selection #0.4) by Kiera Cass - Short Story - Review 4 stars

The Devil You Know by Trish Doller - Travel - Review 3 stars

In Mini Review Post

Some of the books I read I didn't feel like doing full reviews but wanted to say something so I did a mini review post for those Bookish Bingo books which can be seen here

Me and Earl and The Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews - Published Over a Year Ago 1 star

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell - Award Winner  3 stars

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge - Retelling 5 stars

Finish a Series - Evertrue (Everneath #3) by Brodi Ashton - 1 star

Life Eternal by Yvonne Woon - White Cover 4 stars

She Is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick - MC With a Physical Disability 3 stars

Made You Up by Francesca Zappia - Blue Cover 5 stars

Best Books

Made You Up, Vengeance Road, Kissing in America, Black Iris, Anna and the French Kiss, Cruel Beauty, The Girl at Midnight, The Last Time We Say Goodbye

Worst Books

Me and Earl and The Dying Girl, Ruby Red, Evertrue, Sight

Honorable Mentions

Heir of Fire, She is not Invisible, The Devil You Know, The Wrath and the Dawn, Life Eternal, Second Chance Summer, Because You'll Never Meet Me

Yesterday I tentatively finished my Summer Bookish Bingo challenge. I say tentatively because while I have read a book for every square now, I'm currently reading a few books that will cover squares I may switch if I finish them before the end of the month when the challenge finishes. (Namely The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand which would cover the tearjerker square and The Girl At Midnight by Melissa Grey which would cover the purple cover square).

Some mini reviews for the books I read which I don't feel like doing full reviews for.

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell - 3 Stars.

I liked it.  I don't really have a lot to say on this one other than I liked it. It didn't wow me, in fact, I nearly DNFed it, finding it a little boring. I don't get why it's such a big deal. The characters were okay, the connection was cute, I liked the dual view points. It was quite moving towards the end. It was just okay for me. Award Winner square. 

My and Earl and The Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews - 1 Star. 

I hated this book. I didn't think it was funny at all. The humor was crass and stupid. I didn't like any of the characters. I pretty much hated them all except for Rachel. Who was the only remotely sensible character. I felt like it was trying too hard to be clever. It also felt like it was a crime to be normal in this book. Every character was supposed to be unique or quirky but it just felt full of stereotypes. Just awful. Don't get it at all. Published over a Year Ago square 

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge - 5 Stars

I just loved this book. It did take a while to get going and some of the Hermetic principle thing was kind of hard to wrap my head around.  The writing was amazing, and I loved the characters in this one. I loved the dialogue. The mythology was rather unique, a mix of Roman and Grecian I've not seen anything like this before. The romance was both beautiful and breathtaking. The characters were amazing. Retelling square. 

Evertrue (Everneath #3) by Brodi Ashton - 1 Star

Oh, Everneath trilogy, what happened?!? I really liked the first two books of this series. I was really looking forward to the last one. Only to be majorly disappointed. I found this boring, and way too coincidental. I didn't like the end, I didn't feel the epic connection between Nikki and Jack and felt Cole got totally robbed of a decent ending. I might have been saddened by the end if I wasn't so damn annoyed with the whole plot line. Racing from here to here, and conveniently getting everything they needed. Including flying about with no passports? Don't see how that happened (unless I missed something which I might have since I wasn't really paying that much attention to it). I just didn't like it. Oh well. Finish a Series square. 

Life Eternal (Dead Beautiful #2) by Yvonne Woon - 4 Stars 

Second book in the Dead Beautiful series explores the mythology from the first book a bit more. Still brilliantly written, and still manages its brilliant trait of filtering in a lot of information without making it info-dumpy. Hard to recap without major spoilers for the first book. The mythology is unique, and for the most part set in Montreal and Vermont during autumn to winter, its creepy and delightfully atmospheric. Still love the characters, though new setting, new school, new mean girl who I didn't really see the point of. But other than that, great sequel. White Cover Square. 

She Is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick - 3.5 Stars

I read this in pretty much one sitting. I'm really not sure what to make of it. I liked it, some of the concepts about coincidences were a little hard to understand, and it did feel a little like info dumping. While I did like Laureth, the main character, I found some of her actions rather stupid and found it a little unbelievable in places. It was a faced paced story, and hard to put down once you work out what's going on. I did really like the family dynamic in this one. Main Character with Physical Disability square .

Made You Up by Francesca Zappia 4 Stars

Oh this was a heart-breaker! One of those brilliant books with a totally shippy romance, fantastic dialogue that could go from being funny to gut wrenching within a few pages. Alex, the main character, has schizophrenia and can't tell what's real or what's not some times. She's got a great voice, I loved her to pieces. Sent to a new school she has to join a community services club where she starts making some friends, and gets the attention of a strange but oddly appealing boy Miles, who is a jerk. At first. A mean girl to defeat and a mystery about a supposed ghost in a scoreboard. It sounds a little silly, but it was brilliant. And had some truly heart breaking moments towards the end. It made me cry a little. I loved it. Blue Cover square.      

First of all, I finally decided to just buy the hard cover. I have waited a long time on the paperback, and then on the release date. POOF, the paperback that I wanted disappeared and the only other paperback was an ugly one that didn't match with the rest of my series. Thus, I bought the hard cover. At least that one has a matching cover. :) Really hate when this happens though. Me, waiting for a long time, and then when it is here and I am all excited it either gets delayed, the paperback disappears, or it turns out the paperback suddenly does have a different cover than when I bought it.

Now for the book!

This is the last book in this series. Throughout the book I was slightly worried if the author could finish it. There was still so much to be said, so much to be done. And the worry grew until the last part, when I saw that all would be good and that this one would have a good ending (more on that ending later in the review).

The story is packed full with exciting turns, twists and events happening. We find out several things about Renée, but also other characters get the spotlight. Lovely characters like: Anya, Dante, Eleanor and Noah! But also characters that, for most of the book, I didn't like. Like Theo.

God, I disliked Theo. In general I don't really like characters who steal from people. I think it is sneaky and a bad quality to have. I also didn't like how big of an ego he had. Seriously, it just got annoying with him acting all superior. Towards the end, when we find out some stuff, I started liking him a bit more, but sorry, never more than just a little sliver of like.

The other character I didn't like was Renée's grandfather. Dear Lord, I already disliked him in the other books, but in this one he is not really helping his cause. He is a dick. I am sure he all means it well for his granddaughter, but let's just face the facts, she is never going to leave Dante.

And then we have a whole slew of fun and wonderful characters. Like seeing Anya again. o/ Anya and her wonderful Tarot readings, it was really interesting to see her do Tarot and see how often she was just right about things. It helped the party out really much. The ending, when we find out certain things, broke me. I am still sniffling a bit when I think about it. No spoilers though, so read it for yourself, be prepared to have tissues ready.
Noah and Eleanor also make a big appearance. I won't spoil anything, just that I was delighted to see the characters make a comeback. Especially after what happened in the last book. Yay, for characters coming back!

Then we still have Dante and Renée left. Renée was, as expected, awesome again. I loved her and how she kept going even though she lost so much that reminded/remembered her of Dante. It was heartbreaking to see her push through, to see her find out that she couldn't remember Dante's voice, or his touch. :( :(
But like I said, she keeps going on. She has a goal in mind, and is determined to get it. To get Dante to live.
I would say more about Renée, but I think I might spoil things then, I am already bordering on that spoil border.

Dante, ah Dante. *swoon* I always loved Dante, however in this book Dante is a bit scary/creepy. You can clearly see that he is reaching the end of his life. When he gets angry, or when you find out he can't really hear or see much. It just broke my heart and I was cheering so hard that he would survive! He and Renée are really a cute couple, and while I wished for more romance, I can also imagine that there wasn't that much of it. After all, when kisses can kill you... that really kills the mood.

The story itself and the setting (from the US to Europe) was delightful and I really enjoyed it. And a lot of plus points to the writer for getting my country's name right. Finally someone who calls it the Netherlands, and not Holland as so many do. I also loved that a bit of the book was about my country. That really cheers me up.

Then we come to the last part I want to mention. The ending. Or should I say, OMG WOW EPIC ENDING. <3 <3 Sorry, it isn't often that I come across an ending that makes me feel happy and sad at the same time. The ending is just perfection. It was sweet, lovely and so much more!

All in all, this was a perfect last book in a series. It made me cry, it made me smile, it made me angry and much more. I would really recommend this book and also this series. Read it!

Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/

This weekend I completed the Holiday Bingo card. I did find this one a lot easier to do than the Summer Card. I sort lost enthusiasm for the last one half way through but this one I knew almost immediately what I wanted to read for each square. While my initial plans changed, I did manage to read something for every square (though two squares were books I DNFed).

Red Cover - The Elite Kiera Cass  - Review

Witches - House of Ivy and Sorrow - Natalie Whipple - Review

Black Cover - Alice in Zombieland - Gena Showalter - Review

Green Cover - Dead Beautiful - Yvonne Woon - Review

Romance - The One - Kiera Cass - Review

Set at Christmas Time - Rocky Mountain Miracle - Christine Feehan - Review

Reread - The Stand, Stephen King - read not reviewed

Set in Space - Blood Crown - Ali Cross - Review

Set on Halloween - Dark Harvest- Norman Partridge - Review

Serial Killers - Darkly Dreaming Dexter - Jeff Lindsay – Review

Snow Ice or Frost in Title – Crown of Ice – Vicki L Weavil – Review

Set in New Orleans – Black Dust Mambo – Adrian Phoenix – Review

Birds on Cover – The Dream Thieves – Maggie Stiefvater – Review

Snow on Cover – Winterkill – Kate A Boorman – Review

Fall or Winter Release – Talon – Julie Kagawa – Review

Mystery – Fiendish – Brenna Yovanoff – Review

Orange Cover – If I Should Die – Amy Plum - Review

Set During Autumn – The Shining- Stephen King – read not reviewed. (Bulk of this story takes place between the end of September and first few days of December and that was all I could come up with for this square)

Book That Was a Gift – The Fall – Bethany Griffin – Review

Steam Punk – Something Strange and Deadly – Susan Dennard – Read not reviewed

Historical – Venom (Secrets of the Eternal Rose) Fiona Paul – Review

Native American MC – Echo Alyson Noel - Review

Freebie Star – The 100 – Kass Morgan - Review

Horror – Coldest Girl in Coldtown – Holly Black – Read not reviewed

Creature on Cover- Sea of Shadows – Kelley Armstrong – Read not reviewed

I created a Goodreads shelf which can be seen here – each book should link to the dates read.

Favourite books of the card this time round – Dead Beautiful, House of Ivy and Sorrow, The Shining, The Stand, If I Should Die, Darkly Dreaming Dexter.

Worst books – Crown of Ice and Talon both DNFed.

Honourable mentions to The Elite and The One which were pretty awful but in spite of the stupidity of the characters I did kind of love them.

I did not expect to like this as much as I did.

I also didn't expect it to get as dark as it did. 

I loved large chunks of the build-up, the creepy feel of the school and the secret societies and just the sheer horror of the premise, once it started becoming clear. This is not strictly a horror novel, but it evokes horror in a way I don't see often in YA.

The main characters grew on me, though I did continue to find Renée kind of clueless throughout. The other characters were interesting enough to follow and fun to puzzle out. 

The ending felt a little little out of place and rushed. It was also a bit of a cliffhanger, but there are more books in the series so I guess that is fair enough. I do intend to pick them up at some point soon just to see how everything plays out. I don't feel like all the mysteries were solved, which I like very much.