Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

WARNING: SPOILERS ARE HERE. DO NOT BE SPOILED. GO READ.


Oh Heir of Fire, how do I even go about talking about you?

The entire plot, characters, setting were, to put it lightly, astonishing. The previous books in this series were amazing, but this book stands out to me.

I am beginning with the stuff I didn't like so that I can fit in all the stuff I loved! The major con of this book was that there was too many POVs. Just as something interesting started to get going and I was all like,"YEAH! YOU GO! KICK HIM IN THE HIND-QUARTERS!" It would change. By the time we got back to that one POV I wasn't very interested in it anymore. Also, I did not find Manon's POV to be very interesting (I may or may not have skipped over it sometimes... Whoops). She was a very neat character to read, but I kind of felt like her scenes were right smack in the middle of the other POVs awesome moments. I caught myself rushing through hers to get back to the other character's scenes. But overall, that was the only major flaw I saw throughout the book.

NOW for the stuff I absolutely love to talk about most, the pros of the book! So sit back and relax because you may be here for a while! 

Celaena. I believe she deserves the traditional awesome female character ballad because THIS GIRL IS ON FIIIIIIRREEEEEEEEE! (Quite literally at some points too I might add!) Celaena had some major character development during the book. She overcame grief and became such a strong independent person LIKE A BOSS! With the help of Rowan (I have a whole paragraph on why I love him in a minute.) she trains and learns to control her fiery fae powers! You go girl! Show your despicable Aunt what you can do! *insert Manon scene here* (haha just kidding! Sort of...) Celaena could perhaps be my favorite female character ever. Her snarky remarks were so hilarious that I had to fight the laughs that threatened to come out of me in public. Though this book was a lot darker for her than the last two books in the series. Celaena does not always win, and she does not always have snarky remarks. She is put through so much that it molds her into almost a different character. Almost. She is still the Celaena we know and love, but she is waaaaay more mature. One of my favorite scenes was when she had just learned about the huge execution Endovier. (Note that this is not my favorite scene, just my favorite character development scene! it was actually very sad!) Her reaction was so heart wrenching. But how she rose above it and became a stronger more determined person really moved me. AWESOME SAUCE!!!!

Now we have Rowan. I was wary of Rowan at first, but as the book progressed, HOLY AVOCADO! I love this guy! He is like a teddy bear with a turtle shell (excuse the extremely bad analogy)! How he reacts to Celaena's sarcasm is so amazing! I wanted to pat this man on the back so many times. When we actually do end up breaking through his metaphoric turtleshell he is even more incredible! His protectiveness towards Celaena gave me all the feels because I personally think that Celaena needed someone with whom she could share anything with and the person would understand. The way Sarah J. Maas created these characters astounds me because they are more than just kind and brave. There are reasons why they are kind and why they are brave. Its like she took a look at every little detail and made it something important. 

About shipping Celaena and Rowan. Honestly, there are very rarely any boy girl friendships in YA genres that do not become romances sooner or later. Though I do see your point, I think this particular relationship should stay a friendship. Sure loving someone romantically is great, but there are things only friendships can have. Rowan and Celaena have such a strong bond that it almost seems ridiculous to turn it into a romantic relationship. In my opinion, it would ruin what they have already.

Woosh! Back on over the sea to where our two male characters are keeping each other at an icy distance (man, I really need to stop using these puns.). I never really loved Dorian until this book. Because i'm a proud Chaolaena shipper, he was not always my favorite. In this book he really stood out to me as a good character. He became a great influence on Chaol (who was being really stubborn and starting to annoy me a bit to be honest.) and kind of taught him to respect all people, Fae or not.

Which brings me to Chaol. Sigh... Such character development in this book! As I said above, he is influenced by Dorian to see things differently. It takes him a while, but eventually he ends up becoming more at ease with the whole "magic" concept. Some reviews say his character development was all in the second book, but it all went away in the third. Sorry, but he changed A WHOLE BUNCH in this book. If you still don't believe me, kindly read this quote:

“Chaol kept his sword drawn. “I will not go to Anielle,” he growled. “And I will not serve you a moment longer. There is one true king in this room—­there always has been. And he is not sitting on that throne.”
Dorian stiffened.
But Chaol went on. “There is a queen in the north, and she has already beaten you once. She will beat you again. And again. Because what she represents, and what your son represents, is what you fear most: hope. You cannot steal it, no matter how many you rip from their homes and enslave. And you cannot break it, no matter how many you murder."

Oh the chills! His eyes FINALLY open to what is going on and he stands up to the king!!!! In the recent books he was so dedicated that he never questioned the king's ruling! But here ladies and gentlemen, here is character development at it's finest!
I am also very interested in seeing what becomes of his relationship with Celaena in the next book! (because I still ship them very hard!!!!!)

The writing in this book was different from the other books too! I feel like it flowed more, and the use of words! *gasp* As a word lover myself, I absolutely LOVED the words used in this book! I shall now give you some quotes which I fell head over heels for!

"And then I am going to rattle the stars.” *chills*

“They have made you into monsters. Made Manon. And we feel sorry for you.” (My favorite Manon part) *more chills!!!*

“Because I am lost," she whispered onto the earth. "And I do not know the way.” *Tears*

"She was the heir of ash and fire, and she would bow to no one.” (ASDFGHJKL)

The words in this book were beautiful! Anyway, to sum up this long review of how much I absolutely love this series (this book in particular!). I am highly anticipating the next book! 

YOU GO SARAH J. MAAS!

I recommend this series for: People who love strong female characters, people who enjoy high fantasy, monsters, magic, assassins, fantasy worlds, etc.

The Young Elites by Marie Lu

HOLY COW.

WHAT JUST HAPPENED?

just... WHAT????? 

Can I just say this book had me hooked on every word that was written down. I. Loved. It.

So basically the main character in this book is Adelina Amouteru. She has one eye, silver hair, and a crooked finger. Two of these were markings caused by the blood fever making her a malfetto. In this book, malfettos are people who survived the blood fever (and are usually marked with something or other) The Young Elites are malfettos with extraordinary powers. In this world, malfettos are looked down upon as dangerous, demonic creatures. At some points it reminded me of the Holocaust due to some of the propaganda that the inquisition tells everyone. This book was very dark and ominous, unlike the Legend trilogy which had its moments, but was never this dark.

Okay so the book starts off with Adelina in prison because she murdered her father. 

"Oh, how horrible!" You might say.

Nah! Actually it was kind of the opposite. Her father was going to sell her away to some cruddy excuse for a man so that he could "use" her, if you know what I mean. He also did many other horrible things to Adelina, so I think that by all means she is excused!

Also, Adelina is an extremely complex character. Usually, YA main characters are described as beautiful looking, and trying to fight for what is right. Adelina however, has physical flaws, and internal flaws that she dealt with during the entire book. She fought for her sister (who is awesome) and The Young Elites, but mainly for herself and with herself. 

"Oh, how selfish!" You may think.

Actually, due to her past, it really makes sense. She also deals with the darkness within her (and believe me, there is plenty.), but I feel like if she had been given a different life (mainly a different father) she would not have had as much darkness. Adelina is not all dark, she can actually be very sympathetic and kind. But not all the time. She was basically taught to hate and be wary to trust others since she caught the blood fever and became a malfetto. 

She escapes her execution and joins the Daggers. A group of Young Elites that are planning to take over the throne. She meets some wonderful characters (and some very not wonderful ones), and trains to control her powers. One of these wonderful characters is Enzo. And lemme just say, Enzo is probably one of my favorite characters ever. He shows no fear or mercy, but at the same time he is hard to not like. He protects the Daggers with such a fierce passion that he would literally do anything to keep them safe (holy guacamole man. I don't even want to go there.). He has that prince Zuko (avatar reference there) kind of feel to him. 

Enzo has some dark secrets of his own, and he is just amazing. Just trust me. Adelina becomes smitten with him, but there romance also has some dark threads tangling through it. It is also not the main focus of the novel which was a breath of fresh air since YA novels all have romance as a key role in the plot. 

AND THEN STUFF GOES DOWN SO JUST GO READ IT BECAUSE I CAN'T SPOIL YOU!
(please note that extreme feels are involved if you love these characters.... Which I did... It is still hurting...)

AND THEN CLIFFHANGERY TYPE THING HAPPENS AND YOU REALLY SHOULD READ IT.
(Still hurts...)

ALSO ENZO IS STILL AWESOME. 
(The pain is real)

JUST GO. READ. NOW.

I recommend this book for anyone who loves: dark fantasy/magic/x-men

Sally Jackson's BLUE chocolate chip cookies

Have you just finished reading the final installment of Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan and are nursing your whatdoidonow faze? Are you getting ready to read it or start the series? Do you have no clue what i'm talking about?

Do I have the recipe for you!

Sally Jackson's blue chocolate chip cookies can soothe any Percy Jackson reading slump! (Or just make you want to read them again, but that is besides the point!) The ingredients you'll need for this godly treat are:

• 1 stick (1/2 cup) softened butter salted or unsalted
• ¾ cup light or dark brown sugar
• 1 large egg 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 
• ¼ tsp salt, or large pinch 
• 1 cup plus ¼ cup flour being careful not to pack down when measuring 
• 1 cup chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate chips, but I recommend semi-sweet!)
• BLUE FOOD COLORING!!!

Alright!!!!! Let's do this!

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees!!!!!!*

First, you need to mix in the butter and brown sugar, like so:

(Num num!)

Then, you need to add the egg and vanilla!

Beat the egg and mix it in! (Oh! By the way, you can use one of those fancy mixers if you want, but i've decided to use elbow grease! Plus I don't have one so.....)

Now! We add Flour, salt, and HALF of the chocolate chips into the bowl

If you're using your trusty spoon like me to mix this step, you may need to enlist the power of the gods because it does get a little tough! If your dough is too wet then you can add a bit more flour!

Here is the step where we add the most awesome ingredient: Food coloring

I added quite a bit of it, but you can go darker or lighter if you want! The choice is yours!

Mix in the rest of the chocolate chips to your blue cookie dough!

It looks so BLUEtiful (haha... I'm so sorry...)

This is the step where people usually tell you to place them on a cookie sheet with about a million directions. All you really have to do is plop 'em on an un-greased cookie sheet far enough apart so they won't bake together.

Bake for 8 to 12 minutes and you have succeeded in baking some pretty awesome cookies! (Tip:

They taste really good the day after you bake them!)

I hope you enjoyed this recipe!

See ya soon raccoon!

DIY Legend Paperclip Ring

 As soon as I read about this I wanted to make one myself. SO today, I will be sharing with all of you patriots out there who loved Marie Lu's fantastic trilogy! Let's get started shall we?

Things needed:


Scissors (You won't need these unless you have very small fingers or a big paperclip.)

A round object that is about the size of the finger you are planning to put the ring on. (Preferably a bit larger. Glue sticks, markers, etc.)

Pliers to shape the paperclip.

And of course, a paperclip! (The smaller ones are waaaaay easier to use)

Okay, first you are going to unfold the paperclip all the way.

Next, you wrap the paperclip around the round object. (Please be careful, for paperclip edges can be sharp!)

Then, you will shape the "base" ring with the pliers to fit your finger better.

Now this is the tricky part. With the pliers, you are going to add a bit of a curly cue to each end. (you can do one end if you want.) Be patient! This takes some time and practice! (It's good to have a few extra paperclips on hand just in case!)

For the finishing touches, flatten out the ring into a more circular ring shape (it usually gets out of place when you are adding the curly cues!)

Aaaaaaaaaand viola! You're done! Doesn't it just look awesome on you? These are great to give as small gifts or just wearing them out and about!

Stay tuned each week for a new DIY craft! 

Don't mind this one either! It's the starter page for fun bookish recipes!

Starting page for the DIY tab! Don't mind this page!

Book reviews coming Soon:

• The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan
• Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
• Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas
• Cress by Marissa Meyer
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
• Graceling by Kristen Cashore