The Penguin Hats Are Back!!! (Mayo Penguin Hats Part 2)

Hello!!!!!
This week was particularly slow for me because IT WAS THE FIRST WEEK OF SCHOOL.

WHY CAN'T SUMMER BE LONGER?

I feel like this blog is going to eventually turn into me ranting about the fact that summer is too short.
It will gradually happen, until all the book reviews just disappear.

It's the apocalypse for teen bloggers. We'll just be trolling around on the Internet groaning about how summer break isn't long enough.

I'm sorry. I'm getting REALLY off topic. (It's already happening, people!)
Anyway, way back when in 2014, I did a review on Protostar by Braxton A. Cosby. Supernova, the sequel, came out last year, and I have been meaning to do a review on it since I read it this past spring.
So it is time to put your penguin hats down and get ready for:

William from a summer ago would have frowned upon his current self. William had stayed loyal to Sydney, even now, when their relationship could be make or break. As Sydney approaches the next stage of the Star-Child evolution, she must sort through grief, a broken romance, and odd outbursts that she can't explain. With danger on its way to Earth, can she keep William and herself intact while the rest of the world starts to descend into chaos?

***
Three Stars
This book just straight up confused me. In good ways and bad ways.
Good Ways:

• I could not decide whether or not I hated or liked certain characters.
• Some characters I really hated at the beginning became my favorite characters by the end of the book.
• This one character changed in less than five minutes (book time) and became really flirty and founded my main OTP.

Bad Ways:

• I could not decide whether or not I hated or liked characters.
• This one character changed in less than five minutes (book time).
• Frequent POV changes. And sometimes to people we don't even know exist.
• BRAXTON A. COSBY BASICALLY MADE SYDNEY SOUND LIKE SHE WAS GOING THROUGH PUBERTY AGAIN ALL OF THE BOOK. Her mood swings aren't even accurate. I know they're supposed to be out of the blue because of her evolving, but dude, nobody has mood swings like that even if they are evolving super-alien-people...
• The attempt for character development in a couple of characters crashed and burned.
• Sydney was EXTREMELY stupid in this book, but not in Protostar.
• High School is not like the way it was in this book at all.
• Running into ex-boyfriends whose relationship with you ended badly is not like the way it was in this book.
• For some reason I do not know, I COULD put this book down. That's not good. At all.

Obviously, there are three times more bad things than good things on that list, so that excluded this book from getting on the Five Star Book List. (Which is a thing that I just posted. You will be able to find it in between the Blog Archive and Popular Posts on the right of the page.) Even though this book did confuse me at points, I am still looking forward to Solstice (the third book) this year.

So, just in case you were wondering, this is the Penguin Hat I have been wearing while blogging:

It's super fuzzy.
Anyway, in the spirit of penguins, here is a penguin for each day of the week. Just in case it's a particularly long week for you. (Chibird's stuff is super cute)

:)

Have a great week!
:)

Summer Break and I Are Going on Break.

Well, hasn't the summer gone by fast?
(u_u)
By the time most of you are reading this, I'll be in a classroom starting another year of school.

I really need to stop thinking about that.
Anyway, this week was a lot of fun for me. I went to a concert where my favorite band of all time was playing, and my friend and I were screaming the whole time.

How was your week?
:)

So, since that's the only thing I really have to talk about, I'll get right into the review:

The Girl At Midnight by Melissa Grey

Goodreads Summary

I thought the Goodreads Summary was really good and I'm short on time during the back to school prep, so that is the link to the summary.
****
Four Stars
This was a really really nice refresher from the normal YA books. If you walk through the YA and kids section of Barnes and Nobles, you can sum up almost all action-adventure/fantasy novel with this one sentence:
A normal kid finds out he/she had extraordinary powers and has to go on a large adventure.
(This sentence fits this book in some ways, which if you read the book you will find out why. No spoilers here.)
But with The Girl At Midnight, the main character is a normal, human, seventeen year-old girl. Her friends are a different species, but they are considered normal for their species (except the fact that one of them is good in battle, one is a healer, and the other is an exceptional flirt.)

Jasper, I'm looking at you.

 And yes, they are searching for something, but it's not this HUGE adventure everyone knows about. They try to keep it on the DL.

The action is kickbutt, as is the romance, and the societies of the different species are in so much detail I feel like they actually exist. I haven't seen that sort of thing in an action/fantasy book ever.

And may I just say:

I SHIP ALL THE SHIPS.

ALL OF THEM.

The only reason I didn't give this book five stars is because the beginning did start out a little slow and there were parts of the book that were as slow as the beginning.

But still, overall, a great read!

I'm sorry this was such a short review.

I will try to do MMGM throughout the school year, but if I don't , just assume I have a lot of homework.

:)

Also, I am going to do a review sometime in early September, so stay tuned for that!

Have great week!

:)

Jack Sparrow Doesn't Like This Book But I Do

I must ask all of you a question.
Where has the week run off to?
Actually, where has the summer gone? GOOD GOSH, IT'S THE LAST DAY OF JULY.
For me, school starts in a week. ONE WEEK PEOPLE.
I had plans this summer. I was going to read books. Remember that shelf of books that I haven't read in the post in which I analyzed my bookshelf? Yeah, that shelf was my book goal.
I read three books on that shelf.
THREE.

I'm ashamed of myself.

Anyway, I read a book during the school year that I have been wanting to review for a while now, and yes, that is the book for this post.

A Mad, Wicked Folly by Sharon Biggs Waller

One decision can change your whole life. For Vicky, that decision was posing nude in the French art studio she was secretly drawing at. If she hadn't gotten caught, she would have stayed in France, at the studio, and at the finishing school she was staying at.

But Victoria Darling got caught in the act. And in 1909, doing such a thing was social suicide.

She moved back to England, leaving her one friend and passion for drawing, where a boring scheduled out life waited for her. To cover up the scandal, her parents arrange a marriage with a classy gentleman named Edmund.

For most girls her age, that would be a dream come true. But for Vicky, it's the opposite of what she wants. She wants to attend The Royal College of Arts and expand her drawing skills. The last thing she wants to do is get tied down to a man she barely knows.

Vicky will try everything to get her dream of being an artist, even if it means joining the suffragette movement and engaging in a scandalous relationship with a working class boy.

If it means being able to be an artist, Vicky would go to the moon and back.

******

(Six Stars)

And yes, the scale is still out of five. This book was so gosh darn good that five stars was not enough. There is a certain thing about the way Sharon Biggs Waller writes her books that even what would be the most boring parts of a book are still exhilarating in her books. And the most interesting parts are more emotional than when the Percy Jackson fandom thought Blood of Olympus was the last of Percy Jackson completely.

At certain parts I would just have to put the book down and take a deep breath. And then immediately pick up the book again because not reading it was more torturous than the feels in this book.

So A Mad, Wicked Folly is a historical fiction novel based off the suffragette movemet in England in the early 20th century. It follows the story of seventeen year old Victoria Darling, who is high up on the social ladder and wants to be an artist.

The thing is:

You guys know how much I hate historical fiction. (Shout out to my review of The Friendship Doll part 1 and part 2 and my review on Out of the Dust) This book was completely different. Sharon Biggs Waller captured the brave characters of a great Action Adventure book, the dramatic relationships of all successful romance novels, AND the historical accuracy for that time and for the events going on at that time that are necessary to any historical fiction book.

The feels are too much to handle all the time, and you never want to put the book down. This book made me cry, which says a lot because I've never actually cried watching a movie or reading a book. This book was amazing.

And don't forget, it is based around the events of the suffagette movement, so it is very uplifting and empowering to all girls that read this. (Plus, Sharon Biggs Waller included the Pankhursts in the story as actual characters, and I think that's really cool.)

I do warn you though, a good age to read this book is definetely 13 and up, because there is a descriptive kissing scene.

One of my friends (who was twelve at the time) and I got in an argument about who could gross out who at school. He is absoloutely disgusted by anything romantic, so I brought the book to school the next day, opened to the kissing scene, and made him read it.

He read one word and slammed the book shut. And made this face:

So I do advise if you or the person you might recommend this book to doesn't like romancey suff, than I wouldn't read it just yet, because it is a romance book.

But it is a great book, and if I were you reading this, I would read A Mad, Wicked Folly. (Plus, Sharon Biggs Waller is super nice so you should check out her blog here.)

So, how was your week? Are y'all sad that the summer is almost over?

I will try to do another interview sometime soon, and I will most definetely be reviewing Sharon Biggs Waller's other book, The Forbidden Orchid.

Have a great week!

:)

"The athletic ability of a handcuffed penguin" Q & A with Christopher Healy

This previous week I had the pleasure of interviewing Christopher Healy, the author of The Hero's Guide series.

I absolutely love his books (my second review on the B.O.B. was on his book). So when I found out on his website that other people had interviewed him, I knew I had to give it a shot. I contacted him and he was gracious enough to answer my questions. It turns out that not only is he a great author, but he is a really cool guy!
So my very first author Q & A on this blog just happens to be with one of my favorite authors, Christopher Healy.


A.L. Foster: At what time in your life did you decide that you wanted to write a book?

Christopher Healy: Second grade. Took me about 30 more years to actually do it, though.


A.L. Foster: What were you like when you were in school?

Christopher Healy: I think the word most often used to describe me was "nerd." I had very few friends (though the friends I had were great), the athletic ability of a handcuffed penguin, and mindbogglingly awful fashion sense. As a quite happy and successful adult, though, I can tell you definitively that absolutely none of those things mattered and every minute I spent worrying about them was wasted.


A.L. Foster: If you could be in any of your characters' shoes, whose would you be in?

Christopher Healy: Prince Frederic. He and I wear the same size.


A.L. Foster: If The Hero's Guide series were made into a movie, who would you cast as your main characters?

Christopher Healy: As it happens, Hero's Guide is being developed as an animated film by Fox Animation & Blue Sky Studios. I don't want to jinx it by speculating at any casting choices.


A.L. Foster: In a movie about your life, who would you cast as yourself?

Christopher Healy: Grover from Sesame Street.


A.L. Foster: Where do you get inspiration for your characters?

Christopher Healy: Most of my Hero's Guide characters came from taking pre-existing character stereotypes and twisting them around to make them different and unique. I love turning people's expectations on their heads, and that's what was behind the creation of most of my characters.


A.L. Foster: What's the easiest and hardest thing about writing a book?

Christopher Healy: I don't know that there is an easiest thing, but, for me, the most fun part is probably the plotting at the very beginning, when you can just let your imagination run wild and not worry about how all the crazy scenes you just thought up are going to fit together. The hardest part is figuring out how to make all those crazy scenes fit together—and cutting out the ones that simply won't fit.


A.L. Foster: Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

Christopher Healy: Always keep a tiny percentage of your mind open for inspiration. You never know when that perfect idea will strike.


A.L. Foster: Can you tell us anything about your new book, The Worst Thing About Saving The World?

Christopher Healy: No, but I will tell you a bit about my new book, Perilous Journey, because that one will be coming out first (I need to update my website). Perilous Journey takes place in America during the Golden Age of Invention and tells the story of a couple of young lab assistants who stumble upon a dastardly plot that just may involve some of history's most famous inventors.


Thanks so much to Christopher Healy for taking time out of his busy summer schedule to blog with The B.O.B.!
:)
Make sure to read his books in The Hero's Guide series, Perilous Journey, and The Worst Thing About Saving The World when they come out. You can learn more about him on his website:
http://christopherhealy.com/

Hopefully this won't be the last author Q & A on The B.O.B. If you guys like it, I'll do another one.
Have a great week!
:)