Comic Book Tuesday #8: Blood Stain Volume 1 by Linda Sejic

Author: Linda Sejic
Series: Blood Stain
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: 19 Apr 2016
My Rating: 4 cups
Source: Netgalley
Blurb (from Goodreads):

Mad science at its finest. Chemistry major, Elliot Torres has been unable to keep a steady job and eventually accepts a job by a rumored mad scientist Dr. Vlad Stein. Humorous hijinks ensue as their collaboration becomes epic.

*Disclaimer: I received an eARC of this book from Netgalley and Image Comics in exchange for an honest review. This does not influence my rating or my opinion of the book.


This book had me at "mad science" and "chemistry major". I am always interested in seeing what people deem "mad science", so I was very curious about this comic book. That and I was sure I've seen the author's name before, but more on that at the end of the review.

I adored the art in this comic book. I spent a huge amount of time just staring at each panel, they were so gorgeous. The lines were well defined, the colors used were rich and vibrant. I also liked how the colors used seemed to emphasize the mood of the scene. We see most of the panels involving Elliot, the heroine, in light, bright colors, while the panels for the doctor are dark and cold.

Elliot was such a relatable character. I felt her despair at not finding a job that fulfills you, I understood her feelings toward herself when a job offer fell through or when she just couldn't hold a job that had nothing to do with her intelligence or her studies. I feel like most people are Elliot at one point or another. So it was easy for me to like her. Not just that, but I completely understand her tendency to overreact and to interpret stuff in the creepiest way possible. Another character that I liked was Serge, which you meet later in the story.

One thing Linda Sejic did that I completely enjoyed was to include some extra material at the end of the book regarding her creative process. I knew even before reading those pages that creating comic books can be difficult, but I never imagined just how much. Between the pencil sketches and the drawing and the creation of the story itself, it takes an incredible amount of time and effort to put together a good comic book, so I'm really grateful the readers get to have a little sneak peek into that process. As to why I knew the author's name, it's because her husband is the author of the Death Vigil comic, among other comic books as well. In case you're wondering, my opinion of Blood Stain has nothing to do with my feelings for Death Vigil, it was just a detail that got my attention towards this book.

All in all, I'm really happy I got to read this book and I cannot wait to see how the story continues. I hope we get to know more about the doctor, so I'll definitely be waiting impatiently for volume 2.

Hamilton Book Tag

Hey guys! I recently decided to listen to Hamilton, because I was insanely curious about it. Tons of bloggers that I know love it, so I went ahead and did it. I'm halfway through it, but I adore it so far. I hope I'll be able to see it live one day, because, as I said, I adore what I heard so far.

Because my new love for this musical, I decided to do the Hamilton Book Tag, created by Maureen over on her booktube channel. There are 10 questions, as well as 6 bonus questions if you want to answer them. I'll try to do them all. Here we go:


THE QUESTIONS:
1. The Room Where It Happens: Book world you would put yourself in
I'd love to be in the Dark Hunter world. Because vampires, demons, ancient gods and all of that. Also, ACHERON!

2. The Schuyler Sisters: Underrated Female Character
I had a really hard time answering this question, mostly because the majority of the books I read are about strong, powerful women, and not just the MCs. Even women who are secondary characters receive enough attention in the books I read. With that said, I feel like Christina from the Divergent series by Veronica Roth could have been a little more in the spotlight. Molly too. Of course, I didn't finish reading the trilogy, so I don't know how their story ends beyond Insurgent.

3. My Shot: A character that goes after what they want and doesn't let anything stop them
I feel like this is the description of almost every villain I've read about. Hmmmm... I remember reading the scene when Tris steps forward and is the first one to jump off the building after she chose Dauntless. I remember admiring her and thinking "Man, I wished I had her courage." So I'd say Tris from the first book of the Divergent trilogy. And I say the first book, mainly because I felt like she was affected too much by what happened at the end of that first book and became kind of a shell of her old self as the story moved on.

4. Stay Alive: A character you wish was still alive
HA! Spoiler alert for Harry Potter!

Fawkes. We only get to see this bird a few times in the story, but for me, his death was harder to take than the death of Dumbledore. Of course, we just can't forget about Fred Weasley *ugly sobbing*

5. Burn: The most heartbreaking end to a relationship you’ve ever read
Landon and Jamie from A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks, and Tudor and Mihaela from Invitation To Waltz by Mihail Drumes, a Romanian author. These are two of the books that basically destroyed me when I read them, and while beautiful, I could never read another book like that again, because it is just painful and heartbreaking.

6. You'll Be Back: Sassiest villain
He's not...well...*sighs* He's not a villain, he's just a... would it be insanely cliche to call him misunderstood? I'm talking about Seth from the Covenant series by Jennifer L. Armentrout. He is one of those characters I fell in love with, completely ignoring what he did during the last two books of the series.

7. The Reynolds Pamphlet - A book with a twist that you didn’t see coming
Interred With Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell had a pretty awesome twist at the end and even though everyone said they saw it coming a mile away, I didn't. And I think I reread that book about 3 times already, and it still takes me by surprise.

8. Non-stop: A series you marathoned
The Vampire Academy, Dark Hunter, Covenant, Southern Vampires Mysteries, I've marathoned so many series in the past. Most of the books I read are part of a series, and I love getting lost in the world of a series so much that I binge-read as many books as I can from that series.

9. Satisfied: Favorite book with multiple POVs
Ooooh. Return of the King just popped into my brain when I read that question. There's a beauty in having more POVs that I adore, and that novel, as is the case with the first books in that trilogy, is full of multiple POVs.

10. Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story: A book/series you feel like will be remembered throughout history
Harry Potter. No question. It's just one of those series that become classic.

BONUS QUESTIONS (short answers): 
1. Helpless: A relationship you were pulling for from the very start - Elena and Clay from Women of the Otherworld. There's just something about those two that made my shipper heart go wild.

2. Ten Duel Commandments: Favorite fight scene - The Battle of Hornburg, also known as Helm's Deep, from The Two Towers will always be my absolute favorite fight scene.

3. Say No To This: Guilty pleasure read - I've said this before and I'll say it again: I don't believe in guilty pleasure reads, so I don't have one. There's no book that I've ever read that makes me ashamed or feel guilty for reading it.

4. What Comes Next: A series you wish had more books - Women of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong needs another full length novel. That being said, if the author herself doesn't feel like there are any stories to tell there, I'd rather keep wishing there was, than get a book that isn't as good as the entire series.

5. Right Hand Man - Favorite BROTP - I gotta give it to Gimli and Legolas. There's just something unique about those two.

6. What’d I Miss: A book or series you were late to reading - HA! I started reading Women of the Otherworld when the last book was released, so I was VERY late.

So that was a fun tag! Long, but fun. If you want to do this, go ahead. And if you've already done this tag, share the link for me to check out your answers.

ARC Book Review: Girl Against The Universe by Paula Stokes

Author: Paula Stokes
Series: N/A
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: May 17th 2016
My Rating: 5 cups
Source: ARC
Blurb (from Goodreads):

Maguire is bad luck.

No matter how many charms she buys off the internet or good luck rituals she performs each morning, horrible things happen when Maguire is around. Like that time the rollercoaster jumped off its tracks. Or the time the house next door caught on fire. Or that time her brother, father, and uncle were all killed in a car crash—and Maguire walked away with barely a scratch.

It’s safest for Maguire to hide out in her room, where she can cause less damage and avoid meeting new people who she could hurt. But then she meets Jordy, an aspiring tennis star. Jordy is confident, talented, and lucky, and he’s convinced he can help Maguire break her unlucky streak. Maguire knows that the best thing she can do for Jordy is to stay away. But it turns out staying away is harder than she thought.

From author Paula Stokes comes a funny and poignant novel about accepting the past, embracing the future, and learning to make your own luck.

*Disclaimer: I won a physical ARC copy of this book. This does not influence my rating or opinion of the book.


I had really high expectations when I started reading this book. Mental illness and characters going to therapy are themes that I usually shy away from, because of my own profession. I find it hard not to focus on the technical aspects of these themes when reading, or on the fact that sometimes some of the stuff mentioned is inaccurate. So, as I said, really high expectations here.

Since I mentioned therapy first, I have to rate that. Major props to Paula Stokes for nailing the heart of therapy. I can't remember the exact quote (and like the idiot that I am I didn't write it down or anything *smacks self*), but Maguire's therapist says at one point something along the lines of "You're doing the hard work, I'm just here to guide you". Which, to me, as someone who's thinking of working in the field, is insanely gratifying because people, we are not wizards. That sentence (or the real version, from the book, not my memory of it), made me squeal in delight because YAY! Someone gets it!

I fell in love with Maguire right away. I admired her so much, from start to finish. She might seem like a weak individual at first, because of her PTSD and her other issues, but holy crap is she strong and brave! I love how she decides to start fighting her demons, how she decides to live instead of hide away from the world. I also loved the fact that there are a few bumps along the way, because it showed not only how strong mental problems are, but also that you have to be strong no matter what.

I also loved Jordy. He was a pretty complex character, but I loved the fact that he just provided the tiny push Maguire needed to start fighting her PTSD, and not the cure. Jordy was also really strong and I liked that he too managed to find himself along the way. I'm now going to pester Paula and bribe her with virtual cookies to maaaaaybe write a novella from his POV. Not a full novel (although I can hope!!), but just a glimpse into his psyche, how he got to the point we find him at the start of the book, how he decided to fight his own demons, how he felt when things got a little bit rough, how he feels now, at the end. Okay, so maybe that is a full novel *blush*.

I also learned a lot about tennis, which I never thought possible. I cried, because what else are you supposed to do when reading some of the most heartbreaking scenes in this book? This was also my first PA novel, and I definitely enjoyed it, enough to be add this author on my watch/must read list. So when this book comes out, grab a copy and read it, because it's an amazing story of how to face your demons by relying on yourself and not take shortcuts or rely on someone else to make the pain go away.

Obsessed With Covers #34: The Keeper Of The Mist, Empire OF Dust, The Otherlife

Y'all know how much I love a pretty cover. I think about...40% of the books that end up on my shelves (be they physical or digital) do so because of the covers. Call me shallow but you have to admit that a pretty, shiny cover will catch your eye faster than a dull, boring one. Two, simple rules that I'll follow:

• 1, 2 or 3 (no more than 3, though) covers per week;
• books should be new-ish; no more than 2 years old.

Oh, before I share the covers that made me drool or want to stare at them for hours and hours, I have to say something. This is a semi-original idea. Why semi? Because almost every book blogger has something similar. The only thing I came up with was the title. If by any chance there's another blogger with a similar feature with the same title, I assure you I'm not stealing your idea. I'm just THAT bad with titles. Believe me, I'd love to be smarter and have a witty name for this feature, but I don't. So, no copyright infringement/theft/steal or anything of the sort was desired. All I can say is sorry :P

It's been a while since I shared my recently cover loves, which is mainly because I've been in a huge blogging slump. I'm back on track though, guys! Here are some of my favorite covers for last week.

How gorgeous is this cover? I love that the background is grey and that the "mist" is colored, while also coloring the elements in the background as it advances and as it touches stuff. That must be some really powerful magic that the person is having and/or controlling. I also love that the mist is concentrating on either entering or enveloping what looks like a stopwatch. I wonder why that is. Also, I want to know the importance of the key and the calligraphy pen. Okay, so I will probably have to read this based only on the cover.






The Keeper Of The Mist - Rachel Neumeier

There's something hauntingly beautiful about this cover. Because, while the three Pyramids are reflected in the mirror of the key, in vivid colors, the key itself seems to be surrounded by snow. At least it looks like snow to me, it might be white sand, but I want to believe it's snow. And that makes me wonder why. Even if it is just really white sand, why is it that the scenery with the pyramids is so warm, and full of color, while the background is so...cold? I read the blurb, so I know it's about Alexander the Great, which makes my inner history nerd bounce around excitedly. I think this book will also end up in my TBR mountain.

Empire Of Dust - Eleanor Herman

I saw this book on Netgalley yesterday while I was browsing idly, just looking at the new books coming out, and it immediately caught my attention. The cover makes me think of darkness and danger, which if you pair it up with the blurb, it makes sense. I love the swirls, the gradient made by the colors used. I also am kind of intrigued on why no other colors were used. I am kind of hoping that there are some embossed elements there in the paperback version, because it just seems like that's what the cover needs







The Otherlife - Julia Gray



What about you? Did you saw any pretty covers lately?

Double Book Review: Replay and Stronger Than Fear by Marc Levy

Author: Marc Levy
Series:N/A
Publisher: Robert Laffont
Release Date: January 1st 2012
My Rating: 5 cups
Blurb (from Goodreads):

On the morning of July 9th 2012, New York Times investigative reporter Andrew Stilman is jogging along the Hudson River when he feels a sudden, sharp pain in his lower back. He collapses in a pool of blood. When he regains consciousness, it's May 7th 2012—exactly two months earlier. From that moment on, Andrew has sixty days to uncover his murderer. Sixty days to find out who wants him dead and why. From New York City to Buenos Aires, Andrew embarks on a gripping race against time. By turns funny and heartrending, this page-turner builds up to a mind-blowing denouement.

Author: Marc Levy
Series: N/A
Publisher: Robert Laffont
Release Date: February 14th 2013
My Rating: 5 cups
Blurb (from Goodreads):

"Once again, Marc Levy proves his undeniable talent for storytelling… This powerful novel is a real pleasure to read." - LE FIGARO

High in the French Alps, amidst the wreckage of a plane trapped for years under ice, Suzie Baker recovers a document that she hopes will clear her family name. But Suzie's discovery catches the attention of the highest echelons of the American intelligence agencies and she soon realizes that there are many powerful, vested interests who want to keep the truth buried at all costs.

When New York Times journalist Andrew Stilman meets Suzie, he is immediately won over by her wicked charm and sheer spunk. Unwittingly, he finds himself lured into her investigation. By the time he realizes how dangerous it is, it's too late for him to turn back. From the underground tunnels of New York City to the North Pole's barren icescapes, Andrew and Suzie are on the run. As they try to outmaneuver their enemies, they risk their lives to expose one of the best-kept secrets of our time.

One of France’s bestselling authors, Marc Levy’s novels have been translated into 49 languages and over 35 million copies of his books have been sold worldwide.

This review is going to be a little bit different that my normal reviews. I usually don't feel the need to review two books *(that are connected), together, but these two books kind of deserve to be together. My parents, who both share my love of Marc Levy, read them before me, and they both warned me to prepare myself to get my mind blown. I wasn't even ready for the awesomeness.

You guys already know how much I love this author, so I may be a little bit biased, but I feel like these are his best books so far. Before I talk about the plots, the characters, the writing style, I need to acknowledge the research put into these novels. With Replay I got to learn a little bit about the darkest times in Argentina's history, a time where breathing the wrong way could get you killed. I knew a little bit about the Dirty War, about the military government and about how thousands of people suffered because of it, but I never knew the finer details. I never knew about the hundreds and thousands of people who disappeared and were never again found, I never knew about how even today there are people who still suffer because of those years. And then with Stronger Than Fear I got to explore the concept of global warming, and the North Pole and it's economic value. I always love reading Levy's books not only for the story telling, but because of his research, the way his books always teach the reader something.

Andrew is, among some other characters, the main hero in both of these books. Funny enough, I read STF first, not knowing that it was a sort of continuation of Replay. Andrew is a really smart and stubborn guy. Throughout both of the books I loved his dedication and his willingness to get to the bottom of things no matter what. I liked how passionate he got about whatever subject he was researching and writing about, how he would stop at nothing to find out the truth about stuff.

Another thing that I loved about both books is not knowing what's real and what is happening in Andrew's mind. Replay tells Andrew's story leading up to him being stabbed on the street, and then how he magically wakes up and he realizes he went back in time and ended up 2 months prior to being attacked. Stronger Than Fear, although focused on a very different story, has a few scenes that happen in Andrew's comatose state, where he's "seeing" things that aren't really happening. So this is basically making me question not the facts of the second novel, but the plot and if it wasn't by any chance something drug-induced. That would be an interesting plot twist! The other characters, while some of them very important (like Suzie, the heroine from Stronger Than Fear) are also really well created and make the story seem multifaceted. However, it's Andrew that held my attention in both novels. Maybe because I was so focused on finding out where the action was taking place, instead of on character development and plot. It's possible that if I was to reread these books, I'd have a very different experience and I'd focus on the rest of the characters, who knows?!

The writing style is, as always, magnificent. Trust Levy to write a complicated story and make it engaging. Both novels are pretty fast paced, and they both gave me massive book hangovers after I finished reading them.

Wednesday Chatter #15: The Art Of Commenting

Wednesday Chatter is a weekly feature at Ruby's Books where we'll be talking about anything and everything related to books and reading. Click here if you want to see what we talked about in the previous weeks


WARNING: Some bad words might be used in the following post. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Happy Wednesday folks! I hope your week was good so far and that it continues to be just as good, if not better. 

Here's a topic that has been discussed again and again by tons of other bloggers: commenting.

For some reason commenting on blogs is hard. I don't know if it's because I'm a shy individual or if it's just my insecurities talking, but most of the time I fear that my comment will either not make sense or that will make people hate me. Or other times I feel like I don't have anything intelligent to say.

My biggest problem with commenting though is my tendency to write a short novel whenever I do comment. It's a strange thing. As much as I struggle to come up with a lengthier post or review or whatever, I tend to go on and on and on when I'm leaving a comment. It's actually made me delete the entire thing in the past, just because I'm sure the blogger would look like this when reading my comment:

Have I also mentioned I'm struggling with shyness? No? Well I am. It doesn't look like it (I do tend to curse a lot) but I am. Anyway, I love reading other bloggers' posts and I usually feel like a giant asshole if I just exit the page without commenting, especially if it's a post about something of interest to me, but at the same time what do I say??? Because I hate saying "Hey, nice post, I agree with you" and then that's that.

The logical side of my brain knows that commenting is basically like having a virtual discussion with someone, but I tend to talk a lot, so...yeah. It's easier with commenting on Twitter because hello limitation, but when I have no fixed number of characters to use, I feel like the floodgates are left open and I'm just a tiny little fish in an ocean....ALL THE POSSIBILITIES!

So I was wondering if you guys have any tips on how to be a pro-"commenter"? Or maybe on how to leave good comments without sounding like an idiot or without writing an answer that's longer than the post itself? Also, do you guys struggle with leaving comments as much as I do? And if so, how do you deal with it? What's your secret?