February 2, 2017

January 2017 Wrap-Up

Posted by Lauren in Blog

Hey there Literature Lovers, and Happy New Year! I hope you all had a great holiday season.

After being in a bit of a reading slump for the past couple of months, I managed to make it through a good number of books in January. I will be doing individual reviews of some of these so keep an eye out for those.

Please feel free to share what you’ve been reading in the comments below, and let me know if you have read any of these!

NOVELS

•Vlogger Nation (my book!!!)

•A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, Books #1-4

-The Bad Beginning

Review: http://laurenecox.com/the-bad-beginning/

-The Reptile Room

-The Wide Window

-The Miserable Mill

•The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

•The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines

GRAPHIC NOVELS

•Black Canary Volume 1: Kicking and Screaming by Brendan Fletcher, Annie Wu and Pia Guerra

•Uncanny X-Men Volumes 2 and 3 by Chris Claremont

•Radioactive Spider-Gwen Volume 1 by Jason Latour, Robbi Rodriguez and Chris Visions

•DC Bombshells Volume 2: Allies by Marguerite Bennett and Marguerite Sauvage

COMICS

•Superman Family 100-Page Spectacular #167

•Archie #16 by Mark Waid, Joe Eisma and Andre Symanowicz

•Jughead #6-8 by Chip Zdarsky, Erica Henderson and Derek Charm

•Frenemy comics #1-5 by Rashida Jones (Kindle)

•Amazing Spider-Man Clone Conspiracy #3-4 by Dan Slott, Jim Cheung and Gabriele Dell’Otto

Thanks for reading!

January 19, 2017

Character Bios | Huntington Markle

Posted by Lauren in Blog, Novel Notes

Hi there, Literature Lovers! Exciting news: MY BOOK WILL RELEASED SOON!!!! To celebrate, I will be releasing Character Bios up until release day, introducing you to some of our stars. Here is the first one! I hope you enjoy!

* * *

MEET HUNTINGTON MARKLE

Huntington Markle was born in Seattle, Washington on October 27. He is currently 23 years old.

Huntington was the most social kid in his class, and was nominated Wittiest and Friendliest by his peers his senior year of high school

He realized he was gay when he got to college, but didn’t know how to tell anyone. He filmed a video about it while alone in his dorm room. Saying it out loud made it seem more real and helped him come to terms with it. He wasn’t originally planning to post that video on the web, but he thought maybe someone would see it and find it helpful. Since then his channel has centered on the misfits who feel no one understands them and their situations. He also plays a part in various philanthropy projects to help make the world a better place.

Huntington has a degree in communication studies from Seattle University.

Huntington has 9 million subscribers and is one of the most popular personalities on WorldView.

December 2, 2016

November Wrap-Up

Posted by Lauren in Blog

Hi everyone! Here is a quick look at all the books that I read in November. You’ll noticed that most of the things I have listed below are comic books. I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump, and since I have been getting back into comics lately, I’ve just ended up reading those. Hopefully I’ll get out of that slump soon, as there are some books that I really want to get to.

Please feel free to share what you have been reading in the comments down below. Also, do you have any tips for how to get out of a reading slump? Let me know!

Thanks for reading!

Novels

Queen of Hearts by Colleen Oakes

Scarlett Epstein Hates It Here by Anna Breslaw

Plays/Screenplays

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J.K. Rowling

Comic Books

Ultimate Comics New Ultimates: Thor Unborn (#1-5)

What If Aunt May Had Died Instead of Uncle Ben?

Captain America: Steve Rogers #1 (2016)

Spidey #12

The Unbeatable Squirrel-Girl #1-8

Wonder Woman Rebirth: #1&2

Harley Quinn Rebirth: #2

Supergirl: Rebirth #1

Supergirl (#1-4) { This was a four-issue run}

DC Secret Origins #1-7 (1973)

Powerpuff Girls (2016) #4

Archie #14 (2016)

Betty and Veronica #2 (2016)

Jughead #3 (2016)

Josie and the Pussycats #1 (2016)

Ozma of Oz (Marvel) #1-8

Graphic Novels

I Hate Fairyland Volume One

November 2, 2016

October Wrap-Up

Posted by Lauren in Blog

Novels

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

As Old As Time: A Twisted Tale by Liz Braswell

The Geek’s Guide to Unrequited Love by Sarvenaz Tash

How I Live Now by Meg Roswell

Comic Books/Graphic Novels

Flashpoint

DC Bombshells Volume One

Spider-Gwen: Most Wanted Volume 0

The Unbeatable Squirrel-Girl #1-8

September 6, 2016

August Wrap Up

Posted by Lauren in Blog

Hi everyone! Hope you are doing well! I just wanted to share a quick run down of all the books that I read this past month. Feel free to leave your lists and recommendations in the comics below!

Comic Books

New Romancers #1-6

Spiderman / Deadpool #1-6

Plays

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by Jack Thorne, John Tiffany and JK Rowling

Novels

Happyface by Stephen Emond

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

The Secret of Platform 13 by Eva Ibboton

August 2, 2016

June and July 2016 Wrap-Up

Posted by Lauren in Blog

Hello everyone! I hope you are doing well! Today I wanted to share with you everything I read in June and July.

I didn’t have a lot of time to read last month because I was doing an internship for school so the things I did read were short and sweet. Most of the stuff were comic books and graphic novels and a few YA novels on my TBR that I thought I would be able to get through quickly.

Please feel free to share the books that you have read in the past few months. What were your favorites? Also, have you read of the titles listed below? If so, what were your thoughts? Share your thoughts below!

Thanks for reading!

COMIC BOOKS

Jughead #1 & #2

Archie #9

GRAPHIC NOVELS

Young Marvel: Little X-Men, Little Marvel, Big Trouble

Super Mutant Magic Academy

Saga Volume One

Scott Pilgrim #3-6

Amazing Spider-Man: Worldwide

Lumberjanes Volume One

DC Super Hero High Girls: Finals Crisis

NOVELS

Kindred Spirits by Rainbow Rowell

The Art of Wishing by Lindsay Ribar

SeinLanguage by Jerry Seinfeld

June 15, 2016

New Bookshelves

Posted by Lauren in Blog

Hi there Literature Lovers! Today I wanted to share something I’m very excited about: MY NEW BOOKSHELVES!!!

I have two bookshelves that used to belong to my mom. The shelves have begun to bow and they can’t hold all of my books. This is how the majority of my books have been stored up until today:

Over the years I became quite good at arranging books to fit inside these boxes, but started to run out of space to even store these. I recently started my summer internship and was very fortunate to learn right before I started that I would be getting paid. I decided it was time to make the investment and buy myself some new bookshelves from IKEA. I decided on getting the same Billy bookcases that my dad was for his comic books, but in white (his are birch). As you can see in the photos below, I am still figuring out the layout of my shelves, but I am so pleased to have them! It’s giving me the opportunity to look through my collection and decide what to keep and what to donate.

How do you organize your books? Share your pictures and tips in the comments below!

Thanks for reading!

April 5, 2016

Book Review | The Siren

Posted by Lauren in Blog, Book Reviews

Hey everyone! Today I wanted to talk to you about The Siren by Kiera Cass.

The Siren is Kiera Cass’s first novel that she previously self-published and was given the opportunity to re-draft and re-release this year.

The Siren is told from the point of view of Kahlen, a girl who nearly drowned during a cruise with her family, only to be saved by a group of sirens. She agrees to serve the Ocean for the next one hundred years in exchange for her life. We then flash-forward to present day, showing Kahlen while she still has a few decades left of her sentence. Although her siren sisters want to live as much of their life as possible, Kahlen prefers to hide in her room and make scrapbooks of all the victims of the drownings she helped cause as a way to ease her concencious. On one of the rare days she leaves she meets a boy named Akinli, who seems to like Kahlen for more than just the beauty that all the sirens have. He also manages to understand her without a voice (since if she ever spoke it would lead him to the Ocean and he would die). The story mainly focuses on Kahlen and how she isn’t sure if she wants to be a siren anymore, especially after meeting Akinli.

Normally I love Kiera Cass’s writing. With The Selection series I was hooked right away, and even though the main character America Singer was frustrating to read sometimes it still captured my attention and left me wanting more. Unfortunately this story didn’t hold my attention the same way The Selection books did. I just felt like the story lagged in some parts, but maybe that was just because I was busy when I was reading this.

I liked the scenes with Kahlen and Akinli. When they first met at the library. When they baked a cake together. But there was also too much of an Insta-Love vibe for me, especially considering Kahlen left right after their first date and obsessed quietly about him for a couple of months instead of trying to talk to him or whatever.

The relationships between Kahlen and the Ocean and Kahlen and her sisters were interesting. I especially liked how the Ocean was sort of her own person. She could communicate with the sirens as long as they were close to Her, and she was sort of a mother figure to Kahlen, which was sweet.

The last few chapters with the exception of the Epilogue were a little over the top. I’m not going to go too much into it because I want to avoid spoilers, but apparently Insta-love is the cure to any ailment.

I think the prose was great, but the execution just missed the mark for me. I do greatly enjoy Kiera’s work and will continue to support her writing, but unfortunately this one wasn’t totally for me.

3 out of 5 stars on GoodReads.

April 1, 2016

March Wrap-Up

Posted by Lauren in Blog

Hey there Literature Lovers! Hope you are all doing well! I just thought I would share with you the books I read in March. I hit a reading slump during my Spring Break so I didn’t read as much as I would have liked to, but hopefully I can break out of the slump soon.

Like I did last month I’m planning to do individual reviews for a few of these books, which I will put links to once I’ve posted them.

Here’s what I read:

The Siren by Kiera Cass http://laurenecox.com/the-siren/

Betty Cornell’s Teen-Age Popularity Guide by Betty Cornell

*I read Popular by Maya Van Wagan when it first came out and I got this book at the signing I went to, but never read it until now. This is advice from the 1950s, but some of it still could provide helpful tips to girls now, not for popularity necessarily, but for being a well-mannered person.

Billy and Me by Giovanna Fletcher

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Lesyle Walton

I Was Here by Gayle Forman

I also listened to two audiobooks this month: Carry On and The Epic Adventures of Lydia Bennet.
Feel free to share what you read last month in the comments below, and if you have read any of the ones I have listed, please share your thoughts!

Thanks for reading!

March 15, 2016

Book Review | The Chaos of Stars

Posted by Lauren in Blog, Book Reviews

The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White follows Isadora, who is the daughter of Egyptian gods, Isis and Osiris. When she was very young Isadora believed that she would become a god just like her parents, only to learn that eventually she would die and her parents would bury her in a tomb in the family home with her brothers and sisters who have already existed. After that day Isadora’s relationship with her parents is strained. The story then shifts to present day, where Isadora is a teenager still living with her parents in their hidden palace in Egypt. The gods learn there is a dark force at play and send Isadora away to live with her brother in California where she will be safe. Isadora spends her time in California working at a museum where relics of her family members are on display. She makes a few friends, as well as meets a cute boy named Ry, and she tries to help figure out what is going on with this darkness that is taking over her dreams and forced her away from home.

First of all, this cover = GORGEOUS! The navy and the gold are just so so so so so beautiful together!

And as for the inside of the book I enjoyed it a lot (3.5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads). So many books are focused on Greek mythology (which I do find very interesting), and it was very refreshing to have an introduction to another type of mythology that up until this point I knew nothing about, apart from the names of Isis, Osiris, and Anubis.

As for characters, I liked Tyler, Isadora’s friend from the museum. She was feisty and funny, and was always there for Isadora.

Speaking of our main character, Isadora was sort of annoying at times. She was not as frustrating a main character as some others I could think of (America Singer in The Selection immediately comes to mind), but she was very closed off and bitter and seemed to have that #FirstWorldProblems mentality when she didn’t get her way from her parents. However, for the most part I liked her. I felt like I understood her behavior toward her parents because she did love them and wanted to be with them forever, but was “cheated” out of that option.

The writing was fast-paced and I managed to read this book in one sitting. I felt like there were a few things that were revealed towards the end of the story that should have been discussed earlier in the book regarding the love interest’s family (or even adding a few more pages to the end to discuss it), but overall I enjoyed the read. If you have any interest in mythology and enjoy books that have similiarities to the Percy Jackson series (or really anything Rick Riordian has written) then I would suggest checking this one out.

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