I Write What I Read

Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.

Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.

Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they'll never see. It's a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.

After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.

Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they'll first need to stay alive.

Rhy sighed. Kell watched him try to answer several ways before he finally said, "There is nothing I would not give you."
Kell's chest ached. "I know."

Rhy frowned. "I love you, Kell, but I had no interest in matching tattoos."

Magic bent the world. Pulled it into shape. There were fixed points. Most of the time they were places. But sometimes, rarely, they were people. For someone who never stood still, Lila felt like a pin in Kell's world.

The world was hers.
The worlds were hers.
And she was going to take them all.

"Does anyone else notice that the ending is really more of a cliffhanger?"

"We take some pictures, trying to capture a moment that's impossible to capture."

PLOT:

With every end comes a new beginning in the fourth installment of Soman Chainani's New York Times bestselling School for Good and Evil series, Quests for Glory. Join Sophie, Agatha, Tedros, and the other students as they begin a new era in the Endless Woods — The Camelot Years — where Evers and Nevers alike must move beyond the bounds of school and into the biggest, boldest adventures of their lives.

The students at the School for Good and Evil thought they had found their final Ever After when they vanquished the malevolent School Master. Now on their required fourth year quests, the students face obstacles both dangerous and unpredictable, and the stakes are high: success brings eternal adoration, and failure means obscurity forever.

For their quests, Agatha and Tedros are trying to return Camelot to its former splendor as queen and king. For her quest, Dean Sophie seeks to mold Evil in her own image. But soon they all feel themselves growing more isolated and alone. When their classmates' quests plunge into chaos, however, someone must lead the charge to save them. If Good and Evil can't find a way to work together, neither side will survive.

THOUGHTS:

I truly did not know that there was going to be / there is a fourth book in the series! I thought it was just a trilogy! Well I am glad that the story goes on but I really want to kick myself for being so ignorant into thinking that that was it. I was not informed or rather I neglect to update and cope with new book releases. Ugh.

And so the happy ending I thought they got turned upside down a few pages down the book. That was depressing for me since I came from the mindset that they have had their happy ending. And finding out that almost everybody has been failing their quests as well did not help. I smell a new evil! Seriously, "the Snake?" how original and profound. The School Master, now that was a formidable name for a formidable enemy. Though The Snake did really prove to be a real pain in the butt.

First off, what was Soman thinking making Aggie dear just sit back and be all princessy? I hate that she was subjected to such. She could have made so much more for the story in the chapters where she was pining over Tedros or discussing about the wedding. Yeah she Captained a ship and all, that was it? I wanted more action from Aggie! She keeps babying Tedros, that brat.

Yes, Tedros is such a brat in this book. Ugh. Yeah I get that he has so much to prove but, dude, was not seeing Agatha really the best answer? Listening to that awful woman, what's her name! He failed at being a King, and taking out Excalibur, he also failed the boyfriend part. I still don't like this guy. He hasn't done one thing that I can say that I like him for Agatha or that I like him as a character. Poor Aggie. She deserves someone better, come on! I need more convincing than a few kisses to say that Agatha and Tedros are really in love.

So it turns out that Sophie gets a brand new love interest! He is handsome and strong and oh so perfect. Are you shock that he turned out evil? Yeah, me too. Like seriously, from the beginning Rhian has that too good to be true aura. And what kind of guy would fall for Sophie? She is still her annoying self, by the way.

Besides, a new evil, there are new characters. Probably the most prominent one is Nicola, a reader from Gavaldon. It's like she was just created out of nowhere. There was no depth as to her connection with Agatha and Sophie since they're all from Gavaldon. I like her character but I think she wasn't given enough justice. She sort of just faded in the end after everything that has happened. I hope there's more if Nicola in next books. I wouldn't be surprised if she gets to save all their butts in the end, which she practically did in this book. As Hort's love interest? Why, yes, please! It's time that Hort get a girl that will really love him. Hort's one of my favorite character, and it always bums me out that he keeps chasing after Sophie. They would make a good pair, I'd think he'd mellow her down a little but this is definitely better.

I've been nothing but complaints but I still love this series to pieces. I'm still very excited for the next book, and I do have favorite part. The fight scenes especially are gold. They're always fast-paced and exciting. Nothing like a good Evers and Nevers camaraderie!

RATING:

★★★★☆

QUOTES:

"Except relationships aren't just about love, Agatha realized. Relationships are about taking off the mask you wear to make someone like you and letting them see the real you. The one you hid all along. The one you never thought was good enough to find love in the first place."

 

"If it were love, I wouldn't have spent my whole life trying to figure out what love is. I wouldn't wake up every day desperate to keep it now that I've found it."

Plot:
Fanboy has never had it good, but lately his sophomore year is turning out to be its own special hell. The bullies have made him their favorite target, his best (and only) friend seems headed for the dark side (sports and popularity), and his pregnant mother and the step-fascist are eagerly awaiting the birth of the alien life form known as Fanboy's new little brother or sister.

Fanboy, though, has a secret: a graphic novel he's been working on without telling anyone, a graphic novel that he is convinced will lead to publication, fame, and—most important of all—a way out of the crappy little town he lives in and all the people that make it hell for him.

When Fanboy meets Kyra, a.k.a. Goth Girl, he finds an outrageous, cynical girl who shares his love of comics as well as his hatred for jocks and bullies. Fanboy can't resist someone who actually seems to understand him, and soon he finds himself willing to heed her advice—to ignore or crush anyone who stands in his way.

Plot:
A generation ago, Constantine Madden came close to achieving what no magician had ever achieved: the ability to bring back the dead. He didn't succeed . . . but he did find a way to keep himself alive, inside a young child named Callum Hunt.

Now Call is one of the most feared and reviled students in the history of the Magisterium, thought to be responsible for a devastating death and an ever-present threat of war. As a result, Call has been imprisoned and interrogated. Everyone wants to know what Constantine was up to—and how he lives on.

But Call has no idea.

It is only when he's broken out of prison that the full potential of Constantine's plan is suddenly in his hands . . . and he must decide what to do with his power.

In this spellbinding fourth book of Magisterium, bestselling authors Holly Black and Cassandra Clare take us beyond the realm of the living and into the dangers of the dead.

"But for all his evil, Constantine had been right about one thing. Death wasn't fair. Aaron shouldn't have died..."

Plot:
In the New York Times bestseller House of Holes, Nicholson Baker, "one of the most beautiful, original, and ingenious prose stylists to have come along in decades" (The New York Times Magazine), returns to the terrain that made him famous with a gleefully provocative, off-the-charts erotic novel that is unlike anything you've read—"a filthy tour de force" (Time).

Shandee finds a friendly arm at a granite quarry. Ned drops down a hole in a golf course. So begins Nicholson Baker's fuse-blowing sexual escapade—a modern-day Hieronymus Boschian bacchanal set in a pleasure resort where normal rules don't apply. House of Holes, one of the most talked-about books in recent memory, is a gleefully provocative novel sure to surprise, amuse, and arouse.

Magnus Chase, a once-homeless teen, is a resident of the Hotel Valhalla and one of Odin's chosen warriors. As the son of Frey, the god of summer, fertility, and health, Magnus isn't naturally inclined to fighting. But he has strong and steadfast friends, including Hearthstone the elf, Blitzen the dwarf, and Samirah the Valkyrie, and together they have achieved brave deeds, such as defeating Fenris Wolf and battling giants for Thor's hammer, Mjolnir. Now Magnus faces his most dangerous trial yet. His cousin, Annabeth, recruits her boyfriend, Percy Jackson, to give Magnus some pointers, but will his training be enough?

Loki is free from his chains. He's readying Naglfar, the Ship of the Dead, complete with a host of giants and zombies, to sail against the Asgardian gods and begin the final battle of Ragnarok. It's up to Magnus and his friends to stop him, but to do so they will have to sail across the oceans of Midgard, Jotunheim, and Niflheim in a desperate race to reach Naglfar before it's ready to sail. Along the way, they will face angry sea gods, hostile giants, and an evil fire-breathing dragon. Magnus's biggest challenge will be facing his own inner demons. Does he have what it takes to outwit the wily trickster god?

Then before I even knew what was happening, she kissed me. She could have bitten off my mouth and I would have been less surprised.

Plot:

Emma Carstairs has finally avenged her parents. She thought she'd be at peace. But she is anything but calm. Torn between her desire for her parabatai Julian and her desire to protect him from the brutal consequences of parabatai relationships, she has begun dating his brother, Mark. But Mark has spent the past five years trapped in Faerie; can he ever truly be a Shadowhunter again?

And the faerie courts are not silent. The Unseelie King is tired of the Cold Peace, and will no longer concede to the Shadowhunters' demands. Caught between the demands of faerie and the laws of the Clave, Emma, Julian, and Mark must find a way to come together to defend everything they hold dear—before it's too late.

Eighteen-year-old Eliza Mirk is the anonymous creator of Monstrous Sea, a wildly popular webcomic, but when a new boy at school tempts her to live a life offline, everything she's worked for begins to crumble.

Scott Westerfeld's Afterworlds meets Nimona in this novel about art, fandom, and finding the courage to be yourself. Features illustrations by the author throughout. Perfect for readers of Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl, this is the second novel by the acclaimed author of Made You Up.

In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, smart, and friendless. Online, Eliza is LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of a popular webcomic called Monstrous Sea. With millions of followers and fans throughout the world, Eliza's persona is popular. Eliza can't imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves her digital community. Then Wallace Warland transfers to her school, and Eliza begins to wonder if a life offline might be worthwhile. But when Eliza's secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she's built—her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity—begins to fall apart.

Cinderella goes to the con in this fandom-fueled twist on the classic fairy tale.
 
Part romance, part love letter to nerd culture, and all totally adorbs, Geekerella is a fairy tale for anyone who believes in the magic of fandom. Geek girl Elle Wittimer lives and breathes Starfield, the classic sci-fi series she grew up watching with her late father. So when she sees a cosplay contest for a new Starfield movie, she has to enter. The prize? An invitation to the ExcelsiCon Cosplay Ball, and a meet-and-greet with the actor slated to play Federation Prince Carmindor in the reboot. With savings from her gig at the Magic Pumpkin food truck (and her dad's old costume), Elle's determined to win…unless her stepsisters get there first.
 
Teen actor Darien Freeman used to live for cons—before he was famous. Now they're nothing but autographs and awkward meet-and-greets. Playing Carmindor is all he's ever wanted, but the Starfield fandom has written him off as just another dumb heartthrob. As ExcelsiCon draws near, Darien feels more and more like a fake—until he meets a girl who shows him otherwise.