So, I've recently become Hamilton TRASH. I RAP ABOUT THE FOUNDING FATHERS AND I HAVE NO SHAME, NO REGRETS.

I remembered that Maureen created this tag a few months ago, so I decided that I'll do it. I may re-do this post in video form just because I love the songs so much, but we'll see. 

If you don't know what Hamilton is, it is basically a hip-hop/rap musical about Alexander Hamilton, which is a very odd combo, BUT IT WORKS! Sophia made an awesome video about it, so check it out, she does a great job of explaining the whole concept and whatnot. ALSO HERE'S THE PLAYLIST!

I'm going to slightly edit one or two questions that Maureen came up with, but it'll be pretty much the same. On with the tag!

1. The Room Where It Happens: A book world you would put yourself in. For this one, there's so many worlds I'd want to go to, but I'd honestly want to go to Hogwarts (duh). I'm still waiting for my letter, don't worry, it's just stuck in the post. 

2. The Schuyler Sisters: *Angelica! E-li-za! ...and Penny* An underrated female character. Clarisse from the PJO series, I feel like no one appreciates how strong of a person she is. She wasn't in any of the Heroes of Olympus books and I missed her dynamic. Clarisse is a confident female, even though she's tough and doesn't have many genuine friends.

3. My Shot: *I am not throwin' away my shot! You know, I'm just like my country, I'm young, scrappy and hungry and I am not throwin' away my shot!* A character that goes after what they want and doesn't let anything stop them. Celeste from The Selection series. I just read all the novellas from The Selection and a short feature story was from Celeste's point of view. The entire time, she kept pushing herself to become the queen, even though it wasn't for her happiness but rather because she wanted the title.

4. Stay Alive: A character you wish was still alive. SPOILERS FOR THE OF POSEIDON SERIES BY ANNA BANKS! I honestly wish Rachel was still alive, she added such a fun dynamic and lightheartedness that was missing from the last book. Her death's effect on other characters also contributed to why I didn't enjoy Of Neptune.

5. Burn: The most heartbreaking end to a relationship you’ve ever read. SPOILERS FOR SARAH'S KEY BY TATIANA DE ROSNAY! I couldn't think of any romantic relationships, but I do know about the brother-sister relationship in Sarah's Key. The fact that Sarah's brother died thinking that she'd come back for him was just so heartbreaking to me, I wanted to curl up into a ball and cry my eyeballs out.

6. You'll Be Back: *And if push, comes to shove, I will send a fully armed batallion to remind you of my love! Da da da da DA! da da da da DAY ya da dada da da DA-A-A* A time when a character tried to become independent, but you knew it wouldn't work out (CHANGED). SPOILERS FOR NEW MOON BY STEPHENIE MEYER! Characters always have that stage when they don't accept that they're the "chosen one," but I thought it was hilarious when Edward tried to leave Bella in New Moon. I knew that there was no way he'd leave her to flounder in her own stupidity, so I had to laugh at that one. 

7. The Reynolds Pamphlet: A time you wanted to slap the main character (CHANGED). MILD SPOILERS FOR CITY OF ASHES BY CASSANDRA CLARE! In the first chapter of City of Ashes, Simon tried to pretend that he was dating Clary, which bothered me so much because he never actually got her consent or anything. I don't know who I wanted to slap more: Simon for doing that or Clary for letting him.

8. Non-Stop: A series you marathoned. I've marathoned a lot of series in my lifetime, but the marathon I distinctly remember is the Percy Jackson challenge I did in August, which was one Percy Jackson/HOO book per day leading up to Percy's birthday. It was definitely exhausting, but I had fun doing it and it was a great refresher!

9. Satisfied: *My name is Angelica Schuyler. Alexander Hamilton. Where's your family from? That's unimportant but there's a million things I haven't done and just you wait, just you wait!...Handsome, boy does he know it! Peach fuzz, can't even grow it!...I know my sister like I know my own mind, you'll never find someone as trusting or as kind.* The biggest plot twist you've read (CHANGED). We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. DANG THE PLOT TWIST! I did NOT see that one coming!

10. Helpless: A relationship you were pulling for from the very start. MALEC :))))))))))) HONEY I WAS ON THAT STUFF FASTER THAN YOU CAN SAY OTP! The moment they met, I knew it was too good to be true (also I kept envisioning Magnus as an old man, which didn't exactly help, but it's all good now). Yes, they are my loves and my beautiful baby cinnamon rolls.

11. Say No To This: Guilty pleasure read. I don't really have guilty pleasure reading, I'm pretty loud and proud about what I read. Some people judge me for liking contemporaries, but they amuse me and help me out of reading slumps. The book world is a no judge world.

12. What Comes Next: A series that gave you major book-hangover (CHANGED). I've had book hangover a lot, and while I know it doesn't fit the exact definition of book hangover, any time I drop a book I just don't feel as keen to start another one. I'm not sure if it's just fear of dropping another book or because the world feels incomplete. Let me know in the comments whether you feel the same way. When I dropped Beautiful Chaos, I had major book hangover and I can't even look at the shade of yellow on the spine without getting a headache.

13. Right Hand Man: Favorite BROTP. I love Percy and Blackjack in the PJO books, but I also love Leo and Percy (the sass levels are way too high to handle). I also love Percy and the sass (because the sass is enough that it counts as one full person) to make Persassy.

14. What’d I Miss: A book or series you were late to reading. Um, I read the Mortal Instruments and Infernal Devices last year, but I'm caught up now. It was fun and I'm kind of glad that I waited just because I got to experience reading them for the first time and appreciate it, too.

So that is it for the Hamilton book tag! Please go listen to Hamilton and change your life for the better!!! I guess I'm supposed to tag people, so I TAG SOPHIA FROM THE BOOK BASEMENT AND ANYONE ELSE WHO WANTS TO DO IT! Link it in the comments so I can read/watch you do the tag, too.

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Comment below any of your answers to these questions and what your favorite/least favorite songs from Hamilton are!

So, I wasn't tagged for this but...that's not going to stop me!

Hello,

Sorry I've been so inactive lately, I've just been busy with a lot of stuff, but mainly school. Everything kind of seemed to pile into one week, where I had a forensics competition, finals, solo and ensemble, HOSA, another forensics competition and my piano exam. So yeah, rough stuff.

Anyways, I am back and will hopefully be reading more soon. Today I decided to bring you the totally should've book tag because it looks like a lot of fun and I haven't done a tag in a long time! The tag was created by Emma from emmmabooks so make sure to check out her video.

Without further ado, here's the tag!

1. Totally should've gotten a sequel
I know I'm going to get hard-core judged for having read this book, but the Cinderella Society by Kay Cassidy. Even though the author did re-write the book and make it Christian fiction, I miss the old series which was not religious and I really want the book that she originally had planned. I'm not really a religious reader, but I truly want to continue with this series.

2. Totally should've had a spin off series
For this one, I have to go with Harry Potter. Don't honestly tell me that you wouldn't have loved a Marauders series, which would've been so much fun! I know we're getting Fantastic Beasts and I love Eddie Redmayne, but it's just not the same as waiting for a new book. Besides, teenage Sirius Black is my life.

3. An author who totally should write more books
Obviously I need a few more Diary of a Wimpy Kid books from Jeff Kinney (*wink, wink*)

4. A character who totally should've ended up with someone else
Romeo and Mercutio was totally going to be a thing. I blame a one William Shakespeare. It's just RUDE to mess with my OTP like that.

5. Totally should've ended differently
Even though I'm not as big of a fan of this book as other people, my answer is one hundred percent Eleanor & Park. I really would've liked to just get some closure on the characters. I completely understand why Rainbow ended it the way she did, but it just kills my heart to think of all the loose strings just hanging from the pages. Please, I NEED CLOSURE!!!

6. Totally should've had a movie franchise
I'm going to have to go with the obvious choice here and say the Mortal Instruments series. Even though we have the TV show, I want the premieres that we got for all the other YA series, just because you don't really get that with a TV show. Also, I know that they messed up the movie once but I honestly think that they could get it right if they did it again (and kept most of the TV cast because I love most of them). Don't you touch my Infernal Devices, though. Leave that perfection alone.

7. Totally should've had a TV show
Does anyone else think that Mara Dyer would be an amazing TV show? I feel like it wouldn't really work for movies just because there's so much going on, but it could be this really creepy TV show. We need more borderline horror TV shows out there and I'd love to see Mara Dyer translated into a TV format, just because they could do a really cool play on her PTSD and write it so that we don't know which episodes are hallucinations and which aren't.

8. Totally should've had only one point of view
I honestly don't know about this question, so next?

9. Totally should have a cover change
Trying my hardest not to be rude here, but...Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer. Off the Page is nice, but Between the Lines honestly just looks bizarre and kind of uninteresting. I don't know what they were thinking with doing waterline for her makeup and her legs are crossed, which makes her look like a mermaid. It's creepy and doesn't match Off the Page. Please, change it.

10. Totally should've kept the original covers
Ummm, the Across the Universe series. The original covers were beautiful with the galaxy and the new ones are just blobs. To make it even worse, they changed midway through the series, so the books don't match. KEEP THE SPARKLES, THEY'RE MESMERIZING!!!

11. Totally should've stopped at book one
The Syrena Legacies series, although technically Of Poseidon and Of Triton should've been combined into one book and just made Of Neptune a spin off or even just omitted it. I felt like Of Neptune wasn't really neccessary and wasn't as fun as the first two.

So that's all I have for the Totally Should've book tag! Let me know whether you agree or not with what I have to say in the comments.

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I'll talk to you guys soon!

Hey guys,

Sorry I've been away for so long, it's been a crazy past few weeks. I just started school, and we've been having homework, spirit week, homecoming, and all that other crazy goodness. I haven't really gotten time to just sit down and read, so I'm trying to get back in the swing of things. A bunch of my most anticipated books of 2015 are coming out really soon, so I'm hoping that helps me bounce out of this slump.

I wasn't actually planning on doing a top 10 list, I was hoping to do something like a top 15 books I read in 2015 in December, but it's a new post so yay! Basically, I got an assignment to write what my favorite book is and why, but I talked to my teacher and she's letting me do a top 10. The following books have changed me as a person, gotten me through rough times or are just go-to books when I'm sad or in a slump. I'm going to put them in age order, so starting with the youngest books I read and going up in age.

1. The Harry Potter Series: Of course I was going to put Harry Potter. Did you really think I wasn't? These books have played a HUGE role in my life, and (although it may sound really corny) I wouldn't be the person I am today without them. These books started the reading itch, and really got me into picking up other books. It introduced me to fandoms, which were this great big world of other people who loved these books as much as I did. The writing style is very poetic, yet comprehendable, which makes them even more nostalgic to read. All the characters made me think about who I am and who I want to be. It taught me so many values and things I just wouldn't otherwise know. Harry Potter is something that will always have a special place in my heart.
2. The Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus Series: The next big thing to come along were the Percy Jackson books. Now, I did read and love the Percy Jackson books when I first read them, but they didn't mean as much to me then as they do now. It took me a bit for them to start to matter more, but I'm so glad I really valued them. They've influenced my sense of humour, and just my overall perspective on life. 
3. Tuck Everlasting: I read this book a long time back and, although it's not very popular, it's a book I hold near and dear to my heart. It made me question myself and asked about choices I never thought of before. It's very thought provoking, but has a great storyline, too.
4. The Hunger Games Trilogy: When I read the Hunger Games, it suddenly wasn't cool to read anymore (at school), but these books kept me from leaving the book world, which will keep me forever grateful. It might be generic YA, but the books have definitely left their mark.
5. The Divergent Trilogy: I actually read the Divergent books with one of my friends, and it was the first real experience I had in a book club type scene. They came right before a very hard time in my life, and I remember going through it all, only thinking of Tris.
6. Karma: Karma was the first novel I read in verse, and I'll always remember it. This book really showed me that I wanted to write in verse and it exposed me to that whole platform. I actually did it as a forensics piece as well, and it just fueled my love for the style of poetry.
7. The Help: The Help is one of the only books I remember reading with my mother. She got it on audiobook and we would just sit in the car listening to it, never with a destination in mind. I always associate this book with those memories of my mom and I, so I always feel nostalgic when I read it.
8. The Mortal Instruments/Infernal Devices Series: When I started these books, it was right around the time I discovered book blogging and other people like me. They changed my views on sacrifice and always feel like the first books I read when I started blogging.
9. Fangirl: I like to joke that Fangirl is my biography, but it really is more than that. It really helped me come out of my shell, and gave me a glimpse of what life in the backseat is like.
10. The Anna and the French Kiss Trilogy: This trilogy is my go-to series. I always look to it when I'm on a slump or just feeling down, because they just lift me right back up.

So those are the top 10 books that are my favorites/have impacted me. I know my descriptions got shorter as I went on, but I felt like I was getting too repetitive. Of course, this list will change as I grow and read more books, but these books really have stuck in my mind to this date.

Comment down below what your top 10 books are and, if you've read any of the books I talked about, let me know what you thought of them.

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I'll talk to you guys soon (if I don't collapse from homework),

Bye!

Hi guys,

Today I am here with Ava, one of the greatest people ever! We're doing the unpopular opinions book tag (if you cannot read titles). My answer is going to be in blue, Ava's will be in red and our joint opinions will be in purple. I'm sorry if you're colorblind (or if you're reading the mobile version, the colors will not show up, please scroll to the bottom of the page and change the view from mobile to web). Please don't be offended by anything we say, if you are sensitive, go talk to Gazelle.

1. A popular book or series that you did not like:

Throne of Glass. After about 60 pages, I just could not read anymore. Not only was Celaena arrogant, but she couldn't even hit someone with a flower pot, yet they still call her the best assassin in the country?!?!?!?!? Also, instead of practicing knife throwing or something for a battle to the death the next day, she chooses to read and play the piano. Why? *doubt*

The Maze Runner. I made it through about eight pages, and was ready to throw myself out a window. This book came out of the gate at a hundred miles an hour, without making sure that it's passengers were ready for the ride. How rude of you, James Dashner.


2. A popular book or series that everyone else seems to hate, but you love.


The Selection series. I didn't hate the whole series, just America Singer. Usually, you hate a book when you can't stand the MC, but all the other characters (basically Maxon) made this book okay. I also hated Aspen but it's alright. I do like the series and I do care about the characters (except for Aspen, his soul is trash).


An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. This book is not often talked about, but many people are not fans because it was very happy, and no one died in the end. This proved to be problematic for John Green fans, but I still think that it is adorable and a fun read all the same.



3. A love triangle where the main character ends up with someone you didn't want them to end up with.

We had a joint answer on this one which is the Harry Potter series. We both wanted Harry and Hermione to end up together. Ava doesn't really like Ginny and we both didn't appreciate the insta-love between them. One day she's too shy to talk to him, next thing you know, they're snogging at Christmas. Ron and Hermione seem like a couple that would get divorced before they hit 40. They have a great friendship dynamic, but that's all it is: friendship. Harry and Hermione on the other hand are seriously cute together. Even J.K. Rowling agreed that she should have put Harry and Hermione together. http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/02/showbiz/rowling-hermione-ron-revelation/


4. A popular book genre that you hardly ever reach for.


Dystopian books. I feel really tired of dystopian because they were all the rage a few years ago, and now it feels like other authors are just trying to repeat the success of really big dystopian series and it gets on my nerves.


Supernatural books. I honestly cannot remember the last time I read a supernatural book, and thinking about it now I realize that it was probably when my age was only one digit. However, since then, werewolves, vampires and other monsters are of no interest to me. I don't find those characters appealing or like, attractive (looking at you, Twilight fans), nor do I find stories about them interesting in the slightest. Also, the main character always seems to be a ditzy girl who falls for (insert your favorite bad-boy- supernatural-creature-heart-throb here) to spice up her boring life in a rural town. And yes, I am still talking about Twilight.


5. A beloved character that you cannot stand.


Simon from the Mortal Instruments. I don't hate him, but I didn't really love him either. The moment he just claimed Clary for his girlfriend and didn't even ask her about it really pissed me off. Then he had the audacity to try and date Maia and Izzy at the same time. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, SIMON LEWIS? Tell me, I would love to know. I do ship Sizzy, but I don't like Simon. 

Christina from the Divergent series. She was just really annoying, and always seemed to be around when no one needed her to be. She had a habit of saying cringe-y things, and was overall arrogant and extremely irritating. 


6. A popular author that you can't seem to get into.


Marie Lu. I did really like Legend, but I never really got into Prodigy, and I haven't read The Young Elites either. I want to read them eventually but I just can't seem to do it right now.


Cassandra Clare. I've attempted to read City of Bones about three times, and have failed every time. I really wish I was able to, but unfortunately it is extremely difficult to get through the first few pages.


7. A popular book trope that you're tired of seeing.


Insta-love is something I absolutely hate. So often, the MC meets someone that they're convinced is the one for them and blindly fall in 'love' with them without seeing that they're a total dirtbag of trash. I'm going to try and name as many insta-love books as I can: The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things (Shage), Twilight (everyone), The Lost Hero (Jasper), If I Stay (Mia and Adam, Madam?), The Hunger Games (6 year old Peeta), Across the Universe (Elder), Paper Towns (Quentin), and Looking for Alaska (Miles).

While there are countless book tropes that irritate me to no end, the one that sets me over the edge doesnt really have a name, so I'm going to try to explain it as best I can. The male character in a relationship is doing all that he wants in life, but when his girlfriend decides to go for what she wants, he gets angry with her for not consulting with him about it first. I saw this most recently in If I Stay, with Mia and Adam. It bothers me to no end.


8. A popular series that you have no interest in reading.


The Lying Game. Everyone has read it but I've already been spoiled for it and I don't really care too much for Sara Shepard books. The characters seem really stuck up and bratty and I have other things on my TBR I'd much rather read.


Throne of Glass. I honestly just have no interest. That's all.


9. What movie or T.V. show adaptation did you like better than the book?


The Help. I really liked the book but it had slow parts where it dragged on and I wasn't super engaged. The movie, on the other hand, was really interesting to watch and they cut out the parts that dragged. The movie is something I can watch over and over again but I don't think I would re-read the book. But I do love the book, don't mistake me.


The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Hate me all you want, but the characters felt so much more real in the film. This may be because I saw the film before I read the book, but the movie version seemed to have a much bigger impact on me. I felt for the characters more, and was really able to get into their world. 


So that's all for this tag, please comment if you want Ava to come back! (You know you do). If we dissed your favorite book...too bad. Just don't get offended. 


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Caramel