Book Worm Series: Love Letters To The Dead by Ava Dellaira

Hey ya'll!!

In today's Book Worm Series I'm reviewing the debut novel by Ava Dellaira, Love Letters To The Dead. I have been anxious to read this for a while now because I've heard great things about. This review is going to be short and sweet, mainly because I didn't finish it..... Here's why.

I did not like this book..... at all. I'm so disappointed! I was really looking forward to it. I really tried to like it, I wanted to like it so bad, it just didn't happen. It was very slow, pulling teeth slow. I had looked at different reviews periodically while reading and so many reviewers said things like "It starts out slow, just give it a chance!", "It's like there's two halves to the book, the first half is slow and the second part you can't put it down!", "Once you get past the first half, you'll love it!". Well guess what, I got well into the so called "second half" and I still wasn't feeling it. I wanted to stop reading it well before the "second half" but I decided to listen to the other reviewers and stick it out. I really hate to not finish books. It literally is hard for me to not finish them and I actually feel guilty when I don't. Thankfully it rarely happens that I don't finish one. But if I'm not enjoying myself, then why should I continue wasting my time reading something that I'm not interested in?

I can see why people have liked it and raved about it. The book is not terrible, it really does mean well, it just wasn't doing it for me. I didn't relate to any of the characters, any of the "letter recipients", or to any of the situations the characters were going through. I think the main reason is because Laurel seems so young. She doesn't have any sort of personality, she's very mopey, and just annoying. If I can't relate to a character, if a character is not interesting to me, or if the character fails to have any sort of personality then I simply won't enjoy the book.

Love Letters To The Dead is about a girl named Laurel. She recently started going to a new high school after her sister May died, and her mom left town. She goes back and forth after a week long stay between her Dad's house, and her Aunt Amy's house (her mom's sister). At this new school Laurel meets new friends and tries to move on with her life. She is given an assignment on her first day of school, to write a letter to a dead person. Since her sister recently passed away, she couldn't bring herself to turn in her assignment. Her teacher was understanding, giving her two extensions, but she still didn't turn in the assignment (she may have ended up turning one in towards the end, but I didn't get that far). In her letters she tells stories about her past, and talks about the present with her new life and new friends. Mostly her letters are about missing her sister, and how her sister used to be, but she would never talk about how she died. The so called "second half" that many reviewers referred to was when Laurel reveals how May died. When I got to that part in the book I thought to myself "Ok, I've made it. This is going to get good now". Wrong, I was so wrong. I stuck it out for a few more letters, but it still never ended up interesting me, so I just gave up.

I wish I was walking away from this review telling you to go out and pick this up, but I can't bring myself to do it. I feel like such a Debbie Downer right now for writing a negative review, but it happens sometimes! Let me know in the comments below if you've read this book and what you thought about it!


xoxo,
Casey

Book Worm Series: City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare *SPOILERS*

Waaaahh I can't believe The Mortal Instruments series is over! But good news, there's a new series coming out in 2015 called The Dark Artifices and we are going to see our beloved characters again! Yay!!

City of Heavenly Fire was one of my favorite books from The Mortal Instruments series. All of the characters really shined. The story was exciting from the get go. In some of the books there would be a few chapters where things would get kind of boring and slow, kind of stop and go. But in this last book, things were go, go, go the whole time. It stayed interesting and fun, and I really liked how the chapters seemed to go back and forth to all the different story lines going on. 

My absolute favorite thing about this book was the tie-in to The Infernal Devices. If you have read the first five books in The Mortal Instruments series, but have not read The Infernal Devices or City of Heavenly Fire, then absolutely do not read City of Heavenly Fire first! You have to read The Infernal Devices series before you read City of Heavenly Fire to fully understand what is going on.

We lost a lot of people in this book, but that was expected. Jordan died early on in the book, Maia became a complete badass and killed Maureen, grumpy Raphael was killed because *gasp* he actually showed some feelings and refused to kill Magnus, and Sebastian, along with all the Endarkened and fellow Shadowhunters, died at the very end. I was not expecting Jonathan Morgenstern to surface once Clary stabbed Sebastian. I was really glad that happened though because it allowed Clary and Jocelyn to have at least some kind of closure. 

Not only did a lot of characters die, but Simon had quite the journey.... He was kidnapped right after the Shadowhunters went to Alicante and crazy vampire Maureen locked him in a cage and dressed him up in leather pants and a billowy shirt. Simon is freaking out thinking about how he's going to get out of there when, out of all people, Rafael shows up and helps him escape. He takes him to Alicante to help him represent the Vampires. I started to think that maybe Rafael was starting to be nicer to Simon, until he gave him drugged blood and Simon embarrassed himself to no end. Simon eventually goes to Edom with his crew to help stop Sebastian and he practically is starving the entire time. 

Poor Simon, he was really put through the ringer. You think Simon's bad luck is over until Magnus summons his demon father to help them out of Edom. Magnus's dad wants Magnus's immortality as a price for getting them safely out of Edom. By giving his dad his immortality, Magnus would die immediately because he is over 400 years old and his body would just wither away to nothing. Simon steps up and offers his immortality instead not thinking it through that he too would die immediately because he's undead. The demon says that Simon can live without his immortality, but he has to give up his memories. He would have no memories of his friends, of magic, or of the Shadowhunter world. Once I read that I was like "Noooo!". It was so sad! I've always liked Simon's character, so when they were all going to have to live without him it was just terrible. In the Epilogue, when Clary, Isabelle, and Magnus are waiting for Simon at his school and Clary ends up having a conversation with Simon, he ends it with giving her a flier for his bands concert. When it showed what was on the flier, I did a double take! I got really excited because I just knew they all couldn't just move on

without Simon. I'm really excited  to see how all of their stories progress in The Dark Artifices!

We can't forget about the Faeries. Those dang, evil Faeries. I was pretty shocked at the scene where Sebastian was in bed with the Seelie Queen, because I didn't see it coming! I've been reading, and watching, City of Heavenly Fire book reviews, and the best theory for The Dark Artifices I have heard thus far is that the Seelie Queen is going to wind up pregnant with Sebastian's baby, and that's who is going to be the new villain in The Dark Artifices. Holy moly! Let that one sink it for just a minute.

We were introduced to new characters, which are going to be the main characters in The Dark Artifices series. Emma Carstairs is going to be the new heroin in the upcoming series, along with the Blackthorn children. I really like how Cassandra Clare not only introduced them in this final book, but she gave them a pretty good sized role, making it nearly impossible to not want to read the new series. Talk about hook, line, and sinker! Not only do we know that Emma and the Blackthorns are going to be in the new series, but Jem and Tessa are going to be in it too! Emma thinks she is the only Carstairs left, so I'm really excited to see how Jem is going to tell her that she is not alone, and that he too is a Carstairs. Not only are the Carstairs going to be making a comeback in The Dark Artifices, but Jace has decided to take on the Herondale name! Get it? Will, Tessa, Jem... Jem Carstairs and Will Herondale... So not only will Emma find out she's not the only Carstairs left, but it looks like Jace is finally going to get some good news and learn more about his family through Tessa, since she married Will in The Infernal Devices and they had a family of their own. CAN'T - FREAKIN' - WAIT!

I really enjoyed City of Heavenly Fire. Cassandra Clare did such a wonderful job with both The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices, that I know The Dark Artifices will not disappoint. 

I would love to know all of your thoughts on these series and all of the books. What was your favorite series and what are your theories for the next series?

xoxo,

Casey