The Sunshine Blogger Award #3

It’s been such a long time since I’ve done a Sunshine Blogger Award! Whoaaaaaa!!! Thank you Flavia @ Flavia the Bibliophile for awarding me with this! Her questions are amazing and I cannot wait to read them! Also, definitely check out her awesome blog.

Rules

1.) Thank the person who nominated you in a blog post and link back to their blog.
2.) Answer the 11 questions sent by the person who nominated you.
3.) Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions.
4.) List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post and/or on your blog.

***Before we start, I want to make a note that if you ever tag me, please tag a blog post so that I can see it. For some reason due to my theme, I won’t get a notification/ping-back if you tag my about me or blog link. Thanks so much! Let’s get started!***

1. What are you reading right now?
   Odd & True by Cat Winters
2. What was your favourite read from 2016?
   OMG so many to choose from but I’ll have to say Illuminae by Aime Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
3. What is your favourite read of 2017 so far?
   The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Definitely started off the year with a bang!
4. Do you read more than one book at once? Why? Why not?
   The only time I ever read two books at once is if I am reading a fiction (any sub genre in this category) book and take a break to read a poetry book which doesn’t happen all the time. I cannot read two fiction books or two poetry books at the same time. My mind does not do well at all lol. I admire people who can read multiple books at the same time.
5. Do you enjoy reading classics?
   Nope.
6. What is your ideal reading spot?
   My bedroom, I can read well on my bed or the floor lol.
7. Do you read when you travel?
   No I do not!!! I usually can read on the plane or car ride but I do not read on vacation.
8. How many books do you read in a month (approximately)?
   My reading has slowed down tremendously this year due to being an author now lol. I would say 3-4 books per month.
9. How many books do you read in a year (approximately)?
   About 50 to 60 books per year but that most likely will be lower this year.
10. What is your favourite genre? Why?
    OMG this is so hard! No it isn’t lol it’s a tie between anything YA and poetry. I feel like I connect most to these genres, poetry for personal reasons and YA for the fun. I love reading action packed YA stories, oh it just takes me to another world!
11. Do you read more during a particular season than other seasons?
    I read a lot more during Fall/Winter/Spring seasons because once summer comes, I have a lot of guest in my household *side eye* and that messes with my reading time.

I suck at tagging people and making questions up so I will definitely be passing this part lol. Call me a rule breaker? I would love to chat in the comments though! Do we have anything in common?

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Twitter: @chicnerdreads

October Wrap-Up and November TBR 2016

I’m skipping Mini-Review Monday because I honestly have had a crazy week and just haven’t had time for anything. I apologize for being absent with liking/commenting on blog post. Anyways!! I am so happy that October is over, can the rest of the year move along as well too? K, thanks.

So…
umm..
I only read 2 books lol. I was busy watching Sons of Anarchy.

Don’t mind if I do Jax. (I’m going to get so much
crap for this lol)

On to the books I read in October:

1. Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows #2) by Leigh Bardugo ★★★.75
   Fantasy, Young Adult
   I have not written a review for this book. I just felt really underwhelmed with all of it. That’s the best way to describe my feelings towards this one.
   
2. Gemina (The Illuminae File #2) by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff ★★★★★
   SciFi, Young Adult
   I have a rave review for Gemina here
   

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So this month I went to New York Comic Con with my brother and met up with my fave/book twin/book soulmate/friend Lilly @ Lair Of Books. We scored so many books!! Lol. I split the book haul into 2 parts. For Vol. 1 click here and for Vol. 2 click here

Writing wise, I posted 7 poems. 3 for my People I Once Knew segment and 4 personal. If you want to check out my poetry, click here for the page =)

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November TBR (to be read)

I never have a monthly TBR planned out because
A. I’m a mood reader
B. I’m a mood reader
C. I’m a mood reader

HOWEVER!!! This month I have some ARCs and highly anticipated releases that I am definitely going to get too. So let’s get to it =)

• Heartless by Marissa Meyer is a Young Adult Retelling where Marissa Meyer writes a prequel of Alice in Wonderland featuring Queen of Hearts as the main character. We get to meet a sweet girl by the name of Catherine and this is her story. I’m buddy reading this with Lilly since we snagged an ARC copy at Comic Con, if you want to read the full synopsis click here.
• The Diabolic by S.J. Kincaid is a Young Adult SciFi novel about engineering beings rather humans, an empire, and rebellion.  Which is what I got from the slightly confusing synopsis. I also snagged an ARC of this book at Comic Con and for some reason I thought it released later in November but nope. Ugh!! If you want to read the full synopsis click here.
• Replica by Lauren Oliver is another Young Adult SciFi book, yay to me that I’ve been reading more SciFi lately lol. This book is about clones Lyra and Gemma who do not live near one another at all and all of a sudden things go haywire for both Lyra and Gemma in which makes Gemma go to where Lyra is at. Both girls do not know one another, from what I gathered in the synopsis. If you want to read the full synopsis, click here.
• Midnight Hour (Shadow Falls: After Dark #4) by C.C. Hunter is a Young Adult Paranormal story. I will not be including a brief synopsis because I feel like it would spoil. However, if you like boarding schools, witches, vampires, fairies, werewolves, a mix of everything paranormal then read the first book Born at Midnight =)

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And that is it my friends! I hope you all have a lovely November, let me know in the comments if you’ve read any of these books, your thoughts, etc etc..I love to chit chat, it keeps me sane lol. What do you plan on reading this month?

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Gemina Spoiler Free Book Review

Title: Gemina (Book #2)
Series: The Illuminae Files
Author: Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Illustrator: Marie Lu
Genre: YA, SciFi
Publisher: Random House Children’s Books
Format: Hardcopy (Owned)
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

 

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Moving to a space station at the edge of the galaxy was always going to be the death of Hanna’s social life. Nobody said it might actually get her killed.

The sci-fi saga that began with the breakout bestseller Illuminae continues on board the Jump Station Heimdall, where two new characters will confront the next wave of the BeiTech assault.

Hanna is the station captain’s pampered daughter; Nik the reluctant member of a notorious crime family. But while the pair are struggling with the realities of life aboard the galaxy’s most boring space station, little do they know that Kady Grant and the Hypatia are headed right toward Heimdall, carrying news of the Kerenza invasion.

When an elite BeiTech strike team invades the station, Hanna and Nik are thrown together to defend their home. But alien predators are picking off the station residents one by one, and a malfunction in the station’s wormhole means the space-time continuum might be ripped in two before dinner. Soon Hanna and Nik aren’t just fighting for their own survival; the fate of everyone on the Hypatia—and possibly the known universe—is in their hands.

But relax. They’ve totally got this. They hope.

Once again told through a compelling dossier of emails, IMs, classified files, transcripts, and schematics, Gemina raises the stakes of the Illuminae Files, hurling readers into an enthralling new story that will leave them breathless.

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***please note that this is a review for the 2nd book to a series***

One of my favorites of 2016!!! Just like Illuminae which I read the beginning of the year. Gemina is once again told in a series of documents, IMs, emails, files, etc.
Gemina follows a different set of characters in a different spaceship but still carries the same plot from Illuminae.

Welcome to the future where people now live in Spaceships and there are space pirates, space gangsters, and drug dealers. Yes, drug dealers in space. I had initially asked myself how the hell did these people have access to drugs in space but Ms. Kaufman and Mr. Kristoff obviously answered my question.

“a whole sky of different stars”

Everything was all perfect and dandy. Hanna, daughter of the station captain who lived like royalty worrying about her boyfriend and what she was going to wear for Terra Day. And Nik, the drug dealer, who was just helping his family sell drugs on the spaceship. Till a space pirate came along and shook things up with his crew taking control of Jump Station: Heimdall. BeiTech is here again with their crap, as always.

Once Heimdall is invaded that is when things really start to go down. Then there’s Hypatia, where Kady and Ezra from book 1 are on their way to Heimdall. Man oh man things really start to get good in this book when Hanna and Nik realize that not only do they have to save their own lives, but everyone on Heimdall because they’re all at risk from a universal breakdown a.k.a. dying. But also imagine being stuck on Heimdall where you’re almost dying and this pathetic song is being played over and over and over AND THERE’S NO ESCAPING IT.

I really loved this book and I will not be comparing it to Illuminae because I just loved all of it equally as book 1. This one seriously had me laughing out loud and I love when a book can make me laugh. It also had that “edge of the seat” feel like the first book.

Illustrations done by author, Marie Lu.
Writer of the Legend and Young Elites Trilogy.

The characters of this book are unique and authentic within theirselves. Hanna, although the daughter of the station captain can be easily stereotyped as the brat is fantastic, smart, and selfless. Plus she’s a kickass fighter. Nik who is a drug dealer and can also be easily stereotyped had me balling in laughter, he knows exactly what he’s doing and will not stop till everything is safe in Heimdall. We also meet Ella, omg I love her!!! She was definitely the brains and helps Hanna and her cousin Nik throughout the crises.

The plot is full of action, angst, and just “ohmygod what the hell is going on” moments. I loved how the authors add scientific elements to make the story more real in a sense. I mean this is a scifi book but not everyone executes the science greatly. And with everything that is going on in our real world lately, I wouldn’t be surprised if the future composed of us humans living in a spaceship.

The authors talk about theories in which the title “Gemina” comes in and I don’t want to go into full detail because that would be a major spoiler. But again, SCIENCE, THE UNIVERSE, IT’S ALL GOING DOWN. However, I would like to thank the authors for making a fun, action packed, science based novel.

The writing..what can I say? The story is told by different formats but it just WORKS. And the story is delivered with all the interactions in emails, files, IMs, transcripts. You understand everything that is going on with the flow of it all.

Please read Illuminae and then pick up Gemina if you haven’t done so already.

Credit to myself because I made this lol.

Song that reminds me of Gemina:
High (Young Bombs Remix) by Jesper Jenset (Click here for the YouTube link)

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Friend me on Goodreads: Gretchen (ChicNerdReads)

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking The Spine. On every Wednesday you discuss a book that you are highly anticipating.

One of my anticipated releases for the Fall of 2016 is Gemina (The Illuminae Files #2) by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff.

I will not be writing a synopsis for Gemina because I don’t want to spoil you if you haven’t read the first book, Illuminae. But I’ll place the synopsis for Illuminae instead from Goodreads:

This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do.

This afternoon, her planet was invaded.

The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.

But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet’s AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it’s clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she’d never speak to again.

Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.

I’m personally not a huge sci-fi reader and I wasn’t going to pick this book up because of all the hype but the hype is so worth it. The first book was amazing and although it’s close to 600 pages, you fly through the book because of the format.

Click here for the creator of original photo above.