2016 Reading Challenge: A Book You've Already Read At Least Once

A Book You've Already Read At Least Once

Choosing for this category was surprisingly hard, because I have read so many good books in the past, and re-read them already.  I ended up inadvertently choosing The Giver because I saw some students at my local library reading it for class and it made me want to re-read it.

Title:  The Giver
Author:  Lois Lowry
Rating:  4/5

Summary:

In a world with no poverty, no crime, no sickness and no unemployment, and where every family is happy, 12-year-old Jonas is chosen to be the community's Receiver of Memories. Under the tutelage of the Elders and an old man known as the Giver, he discovers the disturbing truth about his utopian world and struggles against the weight of its hypocrisy.

Wordables #1

Alright guys!  I'm starting a new thing here.  These pictures are not original to me, nor is the concept "wordables."  Everything can be found here.  I'm posting some of my favorite words in various posts from now on because I LOVE weird words I've never heard of.  I love expanding my vocabulary!

Enjoy!

 I didn't know a word existed for this smell.  It's probably my favorite smell in the world!

Like when you come to the end of a good book, but you're not ready to let the characters go and live without you.

Review: The Wrath & the Dawn

Title:  The Wrath & the Dawn
Author:  Renee Ahdieh
Series:  The Wrath & the Dawn (#1)
Rating:  5/5

Summary:

One Life to One Dawn.

In a land ruled by a murderous boy-king, each dawn brings heartache to a new family. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, is a monster. Each night he takes a new bride only to have a silk cord wrapped around her throat come morning. When sixteen-year-old Shahrzad's dearest friend falls victim to Khalid, Shahrzad vows vengeance and volunteers to be his next bride. Shahrzad is determined not only to stay alive, but to end the caliph's reign of terror once and for all.

Night after night, Shahrzad beguiles Khalid, weaving stories that enchant, ensuring her survival, though she knows each dawn could be her last. But something she never expected begins to happen: Khalid is nothing like what she'd imagined him to be. This monster is a boy with a tormented heart. Incredibly, Shahrzad finds herself falling in love. How is this possible? It's an unforgivable betrayal. Still, Shahrzad has come to understand all is not as it seems in this palace of marble and stone. She resolves to uncover whatever secrets lurk and, despite her love, be ready to take Khalid's life as retribution for the many lives he's stolen. Can their love survive this world of stories and secrets?

Inspired by A Thousand and One Nights, The Wrath and the Dawn is a sumptuous and enthralling read from beginning to end.

Review:

I have seen this book reviewed on nearly every book blog I follow so I finally decided to give it a chance.  It's not that I wasn't excited about the plot, I was, but I was afraid of it being predictable.  I was so wrong about that!

Every time I thought Shahrzad or Khalid would react one way to each other when another layer of the other was pealed back I was surprised.  Not always happily surprised, I will admit, but if I was happy with every direction of the characters of a book than I would hate that book.

Through the first half of the book I was strongly rooting for Tariq, but I admit I switched sides.  Khalid is simply too beautifully broken not to love.  I also love Shazi, she is so strong!  Not only does she do everything without looking back, she is cunning and determined.  However, she is not blind and she doesn't let hatred cloud her judgment.

Towards the end I'll give away only one thought:  why Jahandar?!?

Can't wait to read the sequel!  And I highly recommend.