Happy Tuesday my lovely readers!

I've always wanted to do a Q&A post and thought, well, I've been posting on my book blog for over a year now and so I thought I'd go for it!

I added a little question section to my Instagram story and received so many questions - way more than I thought I was going to get. Therefore, I thought I'd dive into it!

How long have you been blogging?

I've been blogging for almost three years, although with jessreadsalatte and taking blogging seriously, over a year now.

How do you manage your time to post on Intagram. read, blog in addition to doing everything else?

That is actually a really good question that I am kind of trying to get used to myself. I do work a lot, but every time I have some sort of free time, I'm either blogging or reading.

Will you ever try BookTube?

Possibly. I really want to, but I am juggling a lot of things right now. But I've been told by so many of you that I should start a BookTube channel!

Why did you start a Bookstagram?

Mainly to talk to people who love books just as I do. I don't know many booknerds in my personal life so I decided to try the internet, and I made so many new friends because of it!

Do you annotate your books. If so, how do you do it?

I do annotate my books. I was so against it when I first joined the book community, officially. But since this year, I've decided to write and highlight like it's nobody's business. I want to do a blog post on this where I'll go more in depth, but I basically use a matching coloured pen to jot notes and underline, and a highlighter - and they usually match the colour on the cover of the book! 

Does your boyfriend read and if so, what are his favourite books?

Eric doesn't read as avidly as myself but he does read here and there. He's a huge comic book/ graphic novel guy though (He's the reason I am obsessed with Marvel - RIP Stan Lee) and his favourite comic books are The Walking Dead, The Amazing Spiderman, the Superman and Batman comics. He is also slowly but surely getting through A Game of Thrones. 

If you could be friends with any BookTuber, who would it be?

I would definitely say InsaneReader because I think we both have very similar sassy personalities and humour, but also Ashley Outpaged and A Dash of Ash because I have very similar personalities and interests with both of those BookTubers as well!

What books are out of your comfort zone that you want to get into?

I really want to say, historical fiction and non-fiction. I want to be able to read and recommend everything.

Is Eric supportive of your writing?

Very supportive. I run through all of my ideas with him and he tells me if they are dumb or amazing.  He is brutally honest and I appreciate that.

How do you get ARCs?

(ARC stands for Advance Readers Copy) My best advice is to reach out to your favourite publishers about upcoming books. Chances are, they will send you what you are requesting or add you to the blogger list!

Fave Stephen King book?

Just one? I absolutely love IT because of Pennywise and The Loser's Club, but also Desperation, The Stand, The Shining and Night Shift. If I could only pick one, I'd definitely say The Stand.

Ever had a book signed by an author?

I do have signed books but I've never actually been to a signing from what I can remember.

Can I get ARCs if I'm not a Book Blogger or Bookstagrammer?

For the most part, I don't think so. Only because the reason for an ARC is to get the word about the book, out there. I don't think publishers make money off of giving ARCs (correct me if I'm wrong) but I believe ARCs are for promotion almost, so they can make better sales when the book comes out. With that being said, GoodReads does a lot of ARC giveaways so that might be your only option.

How do you choose when to upload?

I try to upload on my blog every day I am free. My blog ideas list grows rapidly and if I'm not consistently posting, I'd have at least 50 posts waiting for me. Some days I'm busier than others or I forget though, so as long as I have a little bit of time, I post a blog post. As for Instagram, it's a very similar idea to my blog but I try to post just a little more on there since the posts require less effort.

Who inspires you to write and why?

Stephen King. I love how easily it is for him to not only write a huge book in a short period of time, but how he constantly gets ideas for new plots.

Advice for starting a blog?

Write what you want to write about. It makes the process so much more enjoyable. And with that, you'll find an audience who loves you for you because they love the voice you have created on your blog. That means, if you want to post only reviews, go for it. You want to post book tags? Go for it. Post what you want.

How do you post so much?

Whenever I get the chance, I pre-write and pre-photograph every photograph I can. It makes it so much easier on the rest of the days I am free; it is just a click of a button. Although, I'll admit I don't think I post as much as I'd like to

Revival by Stephen King

Revival follows our main character Jamie Morton throughout stages of his life: childhood, teenage years, adulthood and even beyond. Through all of these stages, a man named Charles Jacobs, a Reverend at Jamie's church, has impacts Jamie, starting with when he met him as a young boy. When Jacobs' family overcomes a tragedy, the preacher curses God and goes against him, moving away from his local town. Fast forward about 30 years, Jamie is a heroin addicted and was kicked out of his long-time band, when he meets Jacobs again and they find out their bond may seem more devilish than the Devil himself.

This book is so freaking good.

I went into this novel not knowing anything; and honestly, even my review synopsis above doesn't even cover the whole story, because theres so much to it.

I want to start off with the characterization in this novel because that is one of my favourite things about any book, whether its a comic or a novel.

At the beginning of the book, we meet Jamie as he's a young boy; I believe he's around the age of five - he might be a little older or a little younger but I'm sure he's no older than 6.

Right off the bat, I fell in love with Jamie's character. I love King's characters especially his child characters because they are so realistic and easy to love, almost as if I see them as my own. We see Jamie's shy/humbleness as a kid, so innocent, meeting this new guy that he automatically already trusts. 

We also see his relationship with his older siblings; those who car for him, those who bicker with him, etc. and it seems like a genuine relationship between siblings.

I also absolutely love our introduction to Jacobs as well. He's so genuine, especially with Jamie and they seemed to bond together well.

In all honesty, typically in a book, I'll have at least one character that annoys the crap out of me and in Revival, I had none. Maybe Jacobs near the end but it's really his way of grief - which I'll dive into a little later. 

I loved seeing Jamie grow throughout the book with his angsty, bad boy self into a middle aged man, involve with the same girl he first fell in love with. It was also quite heartbreaking seeing Jamie go through this negative transition of addiction, which I wonder if King ever related himself through Jamie's character.

One of the things that really did interest me was Jacobs' engineer-esque builds. One of our first encounters of Jacobs building something to possibly cure is when one of Jamie's brothers loses his voice and he uses this homemade equipment to bring his voice back to life; which is quite interesting.

 This gives the reader an insight as to what happens in Jamie's future and near the middle to end of the book.

The book ends with a very old and dying Jacobs creating this new machine and using it on a technically, but not quite dead women in hopes that he can create a portal to where people go after they die, in hopes that he can talk to his wife and son.

In doing so, Jamie and Jacobs releases this paranormal being called Mother who is quite dangerous. 

I loved this element. It brings the classic King element into a coming of age story. But I was also quite mad at Jacobs - honestly, I strongly disliked Jacobs' character from when Jamie meets him again until this scene where I start to feel sorry for him. But seriously.

This element was also one of the only things I disliked about this book as well. I spent the whole book waiting for a supernatural element, and although the coming of age story was quite nice. I, personally, waited the whole book just to meet Mother and I noticed that was something I had to deal with, with other King novels I've been reading lately.

But other than that, I love King's writing as always. It was a fast read and I overall did love it, I just wished the supernatural element was added a little earlier.

Have you read Revival? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments below or on my Instagram!

I see a lot of conversations or Questions of the Day that involve how long people have been reading, or what were the first series of books they read growing up.

I personally love this topic because I love seeing what people grew up with and if I could relate.

That is how this blog post came about; I was thinking, I don't really talk much about my childhood books as much as I talk about my current favourites - although Percy Jackson has stuck with me since I was a kid and I still love it!

I also started working at a bookstore and it's so interesting seeing what kids are reading these days and seeing new editions of the books I grew up on! It's like nostalgia city!

With that being said, these are the books/series I grew up with as a kid!

The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw

The Wicked Deep is basically about these three witches, whom centuries ago, were sentenced to death for witchery. Now, every year, during the same time they die, they briefly come back to steal three weak souls for revenge. Our main character Penny has accepted this fate of the town. But when a new boy moves into town the day before the sisters' return, he has no idea what he's gotten himself into.

I had such high expectations for this book.

I've been eyeing this book for a little while now because not only does it have an amazing plot, but look at that cover!

So for a while now, I've been looking for witchy-based reads beside The Raven Cycle (which I love and want to review on my blog soon) so when I found out this was a witch-based read, I was sold.

The cover first caught my eye, like I said earlier and when reading the plot, I thought this book was perfect for me.

Honestly, I really tried to like this, you guys. I really did. I sat through this whole book, completely ready to love it but unfortunately, that didn't end up working out for me.

One of the things that really wasn't my cup of tea was the characters. You know I love books with well-loved and well-written characters as it's something I look for in every book I read but I just couldn't stick with this group of characters. I wanted to love every character in this and I couldn't.

For the most part, I thought most of the characters were really annoying..

It's been a little while since I've read this book so I have quite a broad memory of what I thought but I can remember that I didn't find any of the characters entertaining or relatable.

I think the main character was the one who annoyed me the most. I felt so much of her could have been likeable but the way she was written just made me want to close the book and never pick it up again.

Another thing I really disliked was the whole fairytale vibe involving the witches.

It is a very interesting concept to me and I was incredibly excited about this aspect but I feel like perhaps it wasn't executed well and that might be why I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

Something I really wished occurred, that I might have possibly loved more would be if we were able to read the witches' perspective - whether it was in third or first person, instead of the fairytale/story-like concept.

Although it was beautiful, it really threw me off of the actual plot and topic.

I understand what the author was getting at but perhaps it was just poorly executed.

Another thing that also really threw me off was how dull the storyline really was. In fantasy novels, it is really easy to lose the reader in a plot when nothing is occurring. I think that is exactly what happened to me when I read this book.

Every time I changed the page, nothing new would happen to the plot.

I remember the first 50 or 60 pages would be absolutely nothing eventful and at that point, I was about to DNF the book.

I obviously did pull through the book, but there's so many things I would change in order to love the book and perhaps make it more lovable.

A lot of the time, when I don't like a book, I usually say something along the lines of "I didn't like it, but I'll definitely give it another try in the future." because I know I've probably just read it at the wrong time but I know I'll end up loving it again.

In this case, probably not.

And don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to bash on the book. I know so many people who have loved The Wicked Deep.

I also don't think it was the timing in which I disliked the book. I just don't think the book was meant for me. But that definitely doesn't mean this book won't be for you reader!

If you want to get into this book and think you'll love it, as I say with all the books I wasn't a fan of, I say go for it!

If you do, I'll love to hear what you guys think! Definitely let me know on my Instagram or in the comments section below if you've read The Wicked Deep! I want to know your thoughts!

Hello, lovelies!

It's that time of the month, my Monthly Wrap Up!

For those who don't know what that is, my monthly wrap ups are posts in which I go back and talk about the books I read the previous month!

A lot of you seem to love reading this, but I also love looking back at the books I read in each month!

Oh, and they are a lot of fun.

Because it is the month of October, I tried to read as many "spooky reads" as I could, and one of my favourite horror icons Jason is here to help me introduce them.

With that being said, let's get into all the books I read in October 2018!

Night Shift by Stephen King

I absolutely love Stephen King's short stories, as you can probably tell. Night Shift was one of the books that so many of you made sure I read soon - and honestly, I'm quite happy that you guys made me read it. This book had so many amazing short stories that I was flying through. I believe I read this book in a couple of days because it was just so good. I just posted a review of it, so if you'd like to read it, it's here.

Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

I wanted to read as many "spooky" reads as I could in the month of October and well, this one was it. There was a lot of forensic elements in this novel which I was very excited about but honestly wasn't as drawn to the novel as I'd like to be. I'll hopefully have a review of this novel up soon so I can explain my thoughts further. But, I do want to give this book a second try a other time.

The Regulators by Richard Bachman

Another Stephen King book written by his pseudonym Richard Bachman, I loved Desperation which is almost like a parallel universe of this book so I was quite excited to dive into it. I also lacked a lot of Stephen King reading in September so I wanted to read as many King books as I could in October. I still love Tak's character and seeing it almost evolve, in a way, so for the most part, I did enjoy The Regulators as well. 

Revival by Stephen King

Like I said previously, I didn't read that many King books in September so I tried to read a far amount in October. I spent a good while trying to figure out what King book I wanted to read and well, Revival really stuck with me. I went into this book not knowing anything and I'm happy I did. The plot and the characters are so complex yet so heartbreaking. It definitely has become one of my favourites.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

When I think of "spooky reads" the two authors that come into my mind are Stephen King, and Agatha Christie. I haven't read a Christie book yet, but I own a couple so I thought I'd take advantage of this time. I don't think I loved her writing as much as I do King, to be honest. But it was fun diving into the works of a well-loved author that is new to me.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The last book I read in October is The Night Circus. I love circus settings, I'm sure everyone knows that, so I was incredibly eager to dive into this. It reminded me of Caraval by Stephanie Garber, and I loved that book - in fact, I loved both books. I absolutely love circus-based books so if you, reader, have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

And those are all the books I read in October. I thought I read a lot more, and I did, but I didn't finish about three of them, so I won't count them until I've finished them.

How many books did you read in October? Let me know in the comments section or on my Instagram!

Night Shift is another one of Stephen King's collections of short stories. It's one of his first collections, published in 1978 and includes stories like Jersalem's Lot and Children of the Corn.

I have read a lot of King short stories because I love them a lot, as you can tell. I love King's books in general whether they are long or short but his short stories always have a place in my heart.

Like I said in my previous King review, I believe I'm almost done reading all of his short stories; I believe Everything's Eventual, Just After Sunset and Nightmares and Dreamscapes are the last of his collections that I haven't read yet.

I finally decided to read Night Shift which I've put on hold for a while now because I thought I wouldn't be into this book, or enjoy it. Why? I'm not sure, I just didn't think Night Shift would be a collection I would love.

I'm glad I put those thoughts aside though because wow, did I love Night Shift.

Previous to reading this, I had a handful of short stories I really loved but not the overall books until I read Different Seasons. Night Shift definitely almost surpassed that for me. It was an incredible read.

Like I always say, it's starting to become a little repetitive when I say I love King's writing because quite frankly, that's pretty obvious. But this novel is so much more than King's amazing writing! It included so much plot thought and psychological twists that I loved.

One of the stories, which I'll get to later, left me in a huge gasp and I had to sit there, still, as I processed what I just read.

To me, Night Shift is considered "Classic King."

The only reason why it isn't a full five star rating was because I wasn't a huge fan of every short story that was included. Not because they were bad or anything but because they didn't give me that heart pulling feeling that the other stories did.

For this review, because there are many stories in this collection, I'll talk about the stories that really stood out to me - whether it was good or bad per se.

Gray Matter and Battleground were probably my least favourites of the collection that I could remember. I know a lot of people are gasping right now because Gray Matter is probably one of their favourites of the handful but it just didn't stick to me - positively - like the other ones.

I didn't feel much about Gray Matter. When I read it, it felt like my brain consumed the words but didn't bother to process it and that is probably why I'm not a huge fan of it.

As for Battlegrounds, I just found that story a little boring in my opinion.

My favourite of the stories were probably The Boogeyman, Jersalem's Lot, Graveyard Shift and Strawberry Spring.

The Boogeyman and Strawberry Spring both left me gasping by the end of the book because of their ending twist which I absolutely love about Stephen King's writing.

I Know What You Need was also quite an interesting read. That story had me on the edge of my chair for most of it, I had different theories and in the end, I was wrong for them all but I was still shocked by the time the story ended.

The last book I'll mention is Night Surf, which definitely reminded me of The Stand. Maybe it's because I read The Stand shortly before Night Surf but the whole disease element really struck me and I thought it was interesting.

Overall though, I loved Night Shift. I would probably consider it one of my favourite Stephen King collections in general.

I want to know, do you guys love short story collections? Let me know in the comments section below or on my Instagram! 

Hello, my lovely readers!

I hope you all are doing well! It's been a while since I posted on both bookstagram and on my blog - well, only a week but it seems like a while to me!

I've received a handful of direct messages asking me how have I been or where did I go, and I wanted to firstly, thank you all for noticing and perhaps even caring!

I've had quite a week and I know it's going to get busier with the upcoming Holiday season ahead, but I thought I'd give you guys a little update on what has been going on in my life and perhaps an insight on what is to come in the future.

So, to start off, I briefly announced last minute that I would be taking a break from bookstgram; just a little week-long break to even out the algorithm (that darn algorithm) and hopefully start off fresh.

While I was taking a break from bookstagram, I thought I'd take a little break from blogging as well, as they both usually correlate together through my postings.

Since last week, I've been incredibly busy and will probably be even more busy as the weeks fly by.

I recently started working at one of my local Chapters/Indigo/Coles chain (I don't want to specify which one for privacy reasons but I know a couple of you know - and if you do, please keep it private) and it has been amazing. 

I've been trying to get a job at one of these book chains since I was 16, so I bet you can imagine how I'm currently feeling.

With that being said, this holiday season, I am working two retail jobs with no days off - unless I'm not scheduled for a certain day that week. As most of you know, it's quite difficult for me to post when I work often because I don't have time to post on both medias; write out captions and blog posts and take photos - especially since my photos are based off of natural lighting.

My sister had mentioned an app in which I can pre-schedule posts so they can upload for me which I'm going to give a try and hopefully all works out and I can go back to posting more regularly, even with my busy schedule!

Starting today, though, I will be as active as I can through my social medias because I love interacting with you guys so much!

I also have made a few changes to my social media accounts! I've finally changed my profile picture on Bookstagram to something similar to the one above (I am so happy to have a King book in my photo now - I know, it has been a while!) but I've also changed all of my social medias to jessreadsalatte so it will be much easier for all of you to find me on the other socials!

On another note, one of my closest bookstagram besties Johely (ninetieslibrary) and myself created a IG book club called ninetiesreadalatte!

Each month, we read a different book and at the end of the month, we talk about it and have a little trivia where you can win prizes!

If you are willing to join, you can message either one of us!

It is also the month of November which also means NaNoWriMo! Or to some, National Novel Writing Month. For those who don't know, I am writing a novel in hopes of publishing it next year. I'll be taking advantage of this month as well for that reason, hopefully finishing the first draft very soon!

I think that might be all of the general updates that I have. If there is more, I'll have them posted on either my Twitter or my Instagram (both are jessreadsalatte, and links should be really easy to find throughout my blog).

I am so incredibly happy to be back and posting for all my lovely readers again!

It's crazy to say, but we are months away from the end of 2018.

Can you believe it? Less than three months and we will be counting down until the start of a new year.

Around this time is usually when I do my annual rounds of book blogs: my favourite authors, favourite series, etc. and one blog post I noticed I didn't post last year was the books I wanted to give a second chance.

It might have been because I didn't really think of any books I wanted to dive into again or because I didn't think of this kind of blog post last year, but this year, I have rallied books I do actually want to give a second shot and I actually want to go through with it.

I have picked six books that I really want to give a second shot either by the end of 2018 or throughout 2019.

Without further adieu, let's get into the six books I want to give a second chance.

To All The Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

If you have been following me for a while, TATBILB is one of the first reviews I've posted on my blog when I first created it a year ago. It has also been one of my most popular reviews on my blog these days. I was - and still am, genuinely not a huge fan of the book because of the execution of the novel. But, I really did enjoy the Netflix movie adaptation that came out earlier this year. My sister, who is a huge fan of the books told me to just pull through with the rest of the series. Although, I have one problem: I can't remember much of what happened in the first book, I only remember what happened in the movie. Because I did genuinely like the movie and I should probably read the first book in order to finish the rest of the series, I'm saying why not.

The Tommyknockers by Stephen King

I read The Tommyknockers earlier this year and found it to be one of my least favourite King books I've ever read - which surprised me because I haven't found a book by Stephen King that I have rated such a low rating until this one, and another which I'll mention later. I'm part of a Stephen King Facebook group and a lot of people admit they LOVE The Tommyknockers and although I feel a little left out, I feel like this may be the perfect opportunity to re-read and possibly love this book.

City of Ghosts follows our main character Cassidy who can see and talk to ghosts - in fact, her best friend Jacob is a ghost. When Cassidy's parents start filming their ghost hunting show in Scotland, an area in which is filled with ghosts, Cassidy learns the "truth" about her powers and how dangerous her situation may be.

I don't actually read many Middle Grade novels. The only Middle Grade I read are Rick Riordan books although, some of his newer books seem to fit the Young Adult genre a little more.

In all honesty, I generally had no interest in this book when it was first announced because I wasn't really into Middle Grade novels. I thought it was going to be incredibly cliche and basically an overall cookie cut replica of other Middle Grade novels.

A little after this book was announced, I read the first book in Schwab's adult fantasy series (where she writes as V.E Schwab instead of Victoria Schwab) and I absolutely loved her writing. I previously read her Young Adult book The Savage Song, which was also amazing, but it never made an impact or stuck to me like A Darker Shade of Magic did.

Once I read A Darker Shade of Magic and fell in love with not only the world but her writing, I decided to give City of Ghosts a shot as well and I definitely don't regret that decision.

To start off, Schwab's writing progresses every book she writes and you can tell. Some writer's spark dies down and their writing does as well; but some stay the same. Schwab's writing is completely different. I find that every new published book I read by this author, her writing continues to grow and be better.

I think that is one of the aspects that I loved about this novel was how amazing the book was written. And for those who aren't really into Middle Grade but absolutely love Young Adult novels, I find that although City of Ghosts is classified as Middle Grade, I feel like it fits the YA genre quite well.

The writing or plot doesn't necessarily have mature themes per se, but it does have the generalize writing style that can be seen in a YA novel oppose to Middle Grade in which it's not repetitive and it's not overly simplistic either.

Another aspect I really loved was the world building. I would definitely classify this novel as Paranormal but also Urban Fantasy because a lot of the plot takes place in our world - Earth. But the idea of The Veil and how it's basically like Earth but Cassidy could see the ghosts around that no one could, really sparked my interest especially with how it was portrayed in the novel.

This book very much so reminds me of the movie ParaNorman in which our child main character can see ghosts around him and he freely talks to them but the humans who share their environment with Norman and cannot see the ghosts, think he's crazy.

I'm not a huge paranormal book to be quite honest because I find that most paranormal books that I've read are quite cheesy, but because of the way it was written and the whole relation to ParaNorman really made me love this book a million times more.

My readers also know how much of a sucker I am for characters, so of course, I wanted to dive into the character sector as well.

For starters, I loved Cassidy's relationship with her ghost-friend Jacob. I absolutely loved it.

I felt a genuine relationship between them - and my relationship, I mean friendship. There are some Middle Grade novels that have that romance trait, although it isn't as in depth as YA books, they still happen.

With Cassidy and Jacob, I love that they don't put a strain on an actual relationship (I think it would also be weird if Cassidy fell in love with a ghost..) but it was a genuine friendship. Like, they looked out for each other and Jacob knew Cassidy's purpose with seeing ghosts is to send them off (pull ghosts heart string which no longer leaves them a spirit and allows them to rest peacefully.) but he never told her because he didn't want her to send him off because he wanted to protect her and not lose her as well.

And I think Cassidy felt the same for Jacob when Lara Jayne tells her to send Jacob off and she refuses.

You can tell the bond between them is a genuine bond and I'm happy Schwab didn't introduce any love aspects between the two.

I also loved their little bickering because it almost felt like a brother-sister relationship as well.

The only character I had a bit of a problem with was Lara Jayne, (who reminds me a lot of Lara Jean from To All The Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han - but I'm not complaining) she annoyed me a lot when we were first introduced to her in the novel. Although, as her friendship with Cassidy expands and we get to know Lara a little more, she is a very interesting character. If you watch The Good Place, she reminds me a lot of Tahani.

The only reason why I gave it a 4.5 Stars and not a full five is because I'll admit it was a little too simple - not because it's a Middle Grade book, but I would've hoped we would be able to venture off into the ghostly world a little more. Hopefully, we will in the next coming books!

Overall, I loved City of Ghosts. It was absolutely amazing and I cannot wait for the next book!

Different Seasons by Stephen King

Different Seasons is one of King's novella collections that include some of his most popular novellas: Apt Pupil, The Body, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption and The Breathing Method.

You guys know how much I love Stephen King. You guys might also know how much I love short story collections, especially by Stephen King.

Well here we are with another Stephen King short story collection.

I've read a lot of these books in the past year - I believe I only have to read Everything's Eventual which will round up all the short stories King has written so far. So I know the dynamic of how these books work and I can pick apart my favourite stories from each book.

But I'll admit, Different Seasons is a collection in which I loved basically all the stories.

You guys have recommended Different Seasons for so long; so many people have asked "Have you read Different Seasons yet?!" and I am so happy I finally have.

I don't want to constantly say that Stephen King's writing is phenomenal because you all know how much I love King's writing and I'll always think it's amazing, but in this book specifically, I loved every second of reading this.

It's a bind up of a couple of King's infamous works, I mean how could you not love it?

I think my favourites were probably the infamous Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redeption (which by the way, I cannot stop thinking about the singer Rita Ora.. I feel like it fits best here..) and of course, Stephen King's popular coming-of-age story The Body, although all four stories were amazing.

I know a couple of these stories have movie adaptations, although I haven't actually watched any of them. I've seen a few parts of Shawshank because it is on Netflix, but I feel like at the time, I couldn't really pay attention to much of it. With that being said, I can't really compare the two together, but I'm very happy I read the story instead.

One of the things I love about King's collections is that it's not always all on the same theme. Full Dark, No Stars is the only book I can think of where all of his stories were all part of a dark manner.

This collection follows various topics: Hope from Shawshank Redemption, Friendship and Innocence from The Body, Darkness from Apt Pupil, and Misery and Horror from The Breathing Method. And I feel like generally, each of these stories compliment each other in a way where the book never felt like it was going downhill, if that makes sense.

Most of the time with collections like this, all the "good" stories are at the beginning and all the "bad" stories are at the end, or vice versa making the book not as enjoyable but Different Seasons does great with making the books more even.

Now I know what you're thinking, "Jessica, you just mentioned bad stories. I thought you said all are good."

And they are.

But you can tell the weaker stories from the rest.

The weakest story, in my opinion is the Breathing Method. Personally, I felt the story to be quite slow until about the mid to end of the story in which it was a slap in the face with a change of plot, almost.

I know a lot of people feel the same way, but I definitely feel like that ending is what made my rating five stars. If anything different, my rating would've been a four or a 4.5.

Regardless, this book is amazing and I highly recommend you lovelies read this book!

It's so much more than what most outside readers think Stephen King is capable of.

If you do end up reading this novel, let me know in the comments section below or on Instagram! I'd be happy to hear you guys' thoughts!

This book follows a women's journey in colonial New England filled with monsters, almost-human wolves and eerie evil.

**I was sent an Advance Readers Copy by Hatchette Book Group in exchange for an honest review.**

Oh what a journey this book has been.

I was honestly quite a fan of this book, I really enjoyed everything about it.

The writing itself is very lyrical, quite poetic and I loved that aspect about it. It wasn't straight to the point, it didn't run on for hours; it felt just right. It made you think a little bit as well which I really liked the incorporation of that as well.

I've seen a handful of reviews saying they weren't a huge fan of the writing but obviously, I'm not one of those people. I found this format to be almost like a fairytale - but more nightmare inspired if that makes sense.

Not necessarily like a campfire story but a genuine fairytale with creepy aspects.

So far, I don't think I've been introduced to anything like it.

It continuously reeled me in and I had this Alice in Wonderland sensation where I didn't want to be pulled out. Whilst I didn't see very much of a plot, I think the words that flowed well and the well built atmosphere made it worth it.

Honestly, Laird Hunt made the most beautifully atmospheric world that was truly beautiful.

It was creepy, yet beautiful and definitely worth being dragged into the world.

I haven't read much of this author, in fact, I haven't heard about this author until now. But I've become quite accustomed to their writing that I would honestly try other books that this author has.

This book comes out on October 16th and if you are looking for a spooky little fairytale, especially for the season of Halloween, I highly recommend this novel.

The Stand by Stephen King

Can you believe it's already October?!

That means, it's time for a September Wrap Up! I feels like 2018 is flying by so fast, it's crazy. Next thing you know, it'll be Christmas!

I realized I didn't read a lot of Stephen King books this month; not as much as I usually do. But I was able to dive into more Young Adult novels which I haven't been in the move for until recently!

Overall, I'm really excited about all the books I read in the month of September.

September Wrap Up

You're Welcome Universe by Whitney Gardener

My first read of September was You're Welcome Universe which I was really excited for; mainly because it features a deaf character and I was very excited about the diversity. The more you read this novel though, the more you realize how much diversity really provides. I'll definitely post a review for this soon. I have a lot of blog posts I want to write and post on my plate so I'm hoping it'll be up very soon!

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

Oh do I love my demi-god, Rick Riordan reads! I'm currently in the process of catching up on Rick's works and hopefully diving into his Rick Riordan Presents novels very soon as well. I absolutely missed the world of Percy Jackson; my favourite world I grew up in. Growing up with Percy has been my absolute favourite and I think that might be why I love Rick's books the most. I do have a review up for The Lost Hero though, if you'd like to read it, the link will be here.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

I actually haven't read Coraline until last month - I know, I know. I heard the many gasps from that comment. But I have always settled for the movie that I never really thought of reading the book until recently. I want to post my review for this novel soon as I have quite a few key points I'd like to talk about, but overall, it was a great book.

The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw

With Halloween looming around the corner, I've been aching for some witchy, spooky reads and thought The Wicked Deep would be right for me. It was also the first book I actually had the guts to highlight and annotate in (I'm still getting into writing in my other books as well though.) Unfortunately, it didn't meet my standards which again, I'll talk about in my review later on.

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

I absolutely adore Tomi Adeyemi. An author not too much older than myself and successful on her first book, she has been one of my main inspirations when writing my book. I had finally watched Black Panther (I know, finally) and I was having a Black Panther hangover. A lot of people compare Children of Blood and Bone to the Black Panther so I decided to dive into it this month. Needless to say, it was so worth it.

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

I've been in quite a fantasy kick lately and I've seen The Way of Kings and other Stormlight Archive books looming around bookstagram and decided to give it a lot. It was everything I had hoped for. I also love books with fandoms as well and this book is definitely in that category.

Duma Key by Stephen King

As the weeks have gone by, I realized, I didn't read very many Stephen King books which was very shocking, especially for me. I've been eyeing Duma Key since my vacation in July; and for those who don't know, I am a huge mood reader. Meaning, if I'm not in the mood to read a certain book, I usually can't pull myself to finish it and I start diving into other books. Since I was finally in a Duma Key mood, I thought I'd give it a shot and I definitely don't regret it!

After by Anna Todd

In The House in the Dark of the Woods by Laird Hunt

City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

Meddling Kids follows a group of strangers, whom, during a summer, spend their vacation solving mysteries; although their last mystery was the craziest. Over a decade has passed and the group of kids are no longer a group of kids, but adults trying to survive their own life struggles. They suddenly find their last mystery coming back to haunt them and they must join together to finally defeat this monster they have once discovered.

Oh Meddling Kids..

I don't seem to have a lot of thoughts when it comes to his novel to be quite honest because it really didn't stick to me; not as much as I hoped anyways.

So if my review is quite short and quite broad, you know why.

I actually was never planning on reading -- or purchasing this novel in the first place. I believe it was right beside Stephen King's books at the bookstore and the cover caught my eye. I remember seeing this cover a while ago and thinking "hey, that sounds like a fun book to read." but since then, it hasn't really been much of my interest until I picked it up.

I was honestly hoping for something Stranger Things/IT-esque; when I read the synopsis, that is what I thought this book was. And if you know me, I am absolutely obsessed with the both of them so I was ready to love this book.

Unfortunately, it was the complete opposite from what I was expecting.

The group of kids in Meddling Kids felt less like The Loser's Club or Dustin, Mike, Lucas, Will and Eleven; but felt more like the group of friends in Scooby-Doo.

And don't get me wrong, I grew up with Scooby-Doo, so regardless, the whole idea of the book should've allowed me to still love it, even though it wasn't exactly what I hoped for.

Right?

Well, because I really liked the idea and the friend group per se, it wasn't the worst book I've read this year. I mean, by my rating you can tell I obviously still really enjoyed this book anyways. But I still felt this book lacked a lot and that is why I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped.

The main thing that made me rate this book a little lower than expected was the writing style.

I wasn't a huge fan, mainly because of the pacing.

I noticed a lot of the time, this book was really slow. When I think of a plot like this, I think of fast paced chapters, constant cliffhangers between chapters, and overall the need to finish the book in one sitting.

This wasn't provided to me while I was reading. In fact, because of how slow paced this book was, at some points, I really wanted to put it down and not come back to it.

I think if the pacing was a little better, I would have enjoyed this a lot more.

But obviously I don't feel strictly negative about this book as I did enjoy some parts, overall. I really like the idea of the plot. I thought it was indeed fantastic.

One of my favourite things about this book was that there actually were funny parts to it. There were characters that say some pretty funny things and I really liked that because there are a handful of books I can admit actually make me laugh out loud and Meddling Kids was one of them.

Overall, this book was okay. I don't think it would be the kind of book I would re-read again in the future, let alone recommend to anyone, but I'll admit this was, for the most part, quite entertaining with a great concept. 

Dear Evan Hansen by Val Emmich + Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

Dear Evan Hansen follows our main character Evan, an outsider teenager suffering from anxiety. His therapist encourages him to write himself letters to enhance his confidence; so Evan does. That is until a letter Evan wrote is read by a grieving family and suddenly Evan isn't invisible anymore; he is given the chance to belong as long as he lies and says his fellow classmate who recently passed away was his best friend. Evan has a new purpose, a website and is full of confidence until the danger of his secret starts unraveling and Evan has to face his greatest obstacle: himself.

**I was given an Advance Readers Copy by Hatchette Book Group in exchange for an honest review**

I actually really enjoyed this book.

To start off, the writing is great; it wasn't poetic or anything like that but it was entertaining. 

Contemporaries aren't really my thing, theres only a handful of contemporary novels that I really enjoy and Dear Evan Hansen may just be one of them.

Right off the bat, something I noticed is that contemporary novels with mental illnesses tend to romanticize the illness. But I never found that situation in Dear Evan Hansen. Sure, there is a love interest but it doesn't tie in with Evan's anxiety and I really loved that idea.

I haven't had the opportunity to watch the musical just yet as it isn't available in Toronto until early 2019 but from what I know about the musical and the content of the soundtrack, they sound vastly similar.

With that being said, the authors do a great job at portraying all the characters in the musical. From a book to an adaptation seems a little hard to portray since readers have a distinct view of how they believe the characters look like.

From adaptation to novel, may seem a little easier but I feel like can fail if not well executed. 

Val Emmich and the other writers do a fantastic job at being more descriptive, more intuitive at bringing Evan and his mom and Connor and everyone else in that musical, to pages and I quite enjoyed that. 

I've seen the original cast and when reading this book, I feel like I still have that opportunity to make up the characters' visualizations in my head and I like that. I don't see Evan as Ben Platt. I see Evan as my own version of Evan in my head and I really like that concept.

I also absolutely love how well the emotions were drawn out in this book as well. I've talked to people who have seen the musical, I've watched interviews as well and I know this musical is meant to pull at your heartstrings.

The authors do a phenomenal job at creating this almost-atmospheric setting where I feel like I with Evan. I laughed out loud while reading this - yes, I've received many weird looks because of this. But I also cried. That's really important when you bring a musical to pages. 

Dear Evan Hansen is honest, and intriguing.

In the introduction of the advance readers copy, I believe the publisher said she wanted this book to be the new coming of age story. Like Holden in The Catcher in the Rye or Ponyboy in The Outsider.

I'm on that boat with her.

I wasn't diagnosed with depression and anxiety until my first year of high school, and obsessive compulsive disorder until my first year of college, yet I knew I've had those "symptoms," those feelings for years prior.

This book not only gives readers a brand new coming of age story, but for some, a book to relate to.

Almost like, "Wow, Evan's hands get sweaty and he stutters when he talks and his mind is all over the place, but hey, me too."

And yet, Evan overcame the storm in a way, that means, I can too.

Overall, I loved Dear Evan Hansen. I thought it was enjoyable, entertaining and overall just amazing.

If you ask me, I highly recommend you purchase Dear Evan Hansen when it hits the shelves on October 9th.

Misery by Stephen King 

Misery follows our main character, Paul Sheldon, an author who is kidnapped by one of his craziest fans, Annie Wilkes who is upset at the fact that Sheldon killed off Misery in one of his infamous novels. Irritated, Annie keeps Paul Sheldon in prisoned and forces him to re-write his novel, bringing her favourite character back to life.

Misery took me some time to finish, honestly. Which surprised me since it is one of King's smaller books.

It wasn't bad at all, which I'll get into more later. Honestly, I don't know why it took me so long to finish.

I really enjoyed it; I feel like everyone, especially writers, has that fear of being kidnapped for whatever reason. So this was obviously terrifying to read. 

One thing I'll mention right off the bat is that the writing is phenomenal. And I'm not just saying that because King is one of my favourite writers. But I mean it. The writing in this is amazing.

Think about it, this book took place in only one location and followed only two characters the whole way through.

And I feel like only King could have written such a risky format yet executed it so well at the same time. 

Misery makes you nervous, anxious, on the edge of your seat and yet is only fulfilled in one location between two characters. Typically in novels, you need a handful of people to portray this yet King does a great job dominating it with half as many.

Misery also includes one of the most cringe-worthy moments in all of King's works: the axe scene. Whether you have watched the movie or read the books; heck, even if you haven't done either, you probably know what scene I'm talking about since it is so iconic.

That scene terrorizes me through the movie, and will sure as hell terrorize me through the book as well.

You feel Paul's pain whilst reading this book and that is something I love most about King's writing. It's so vivid, you feel like you are actually there.

The characters in Misery clash very well, I feel like. It's weird to say, but since there are only two characters, the balance between them is phenomenal. 

Paul is very passive while Annie is very strong-willed, willing to make Paul do whatever she wants in order to get what she wants.

I think one of my favourite character developments in a King novel, might just be Paul's because, not only does he go through hell and back, you can see his personality evolving in order to save himself.

I also quite liked how the infamous King was quite prominent in this novel. Obviously Misery is one of King's older books that settles the obvious horror, but I seem to love that aspect. Misery is one of King's famous novels and it deserves that title from the content that is provided.

Overall, even though this took me about a month to finish instead of a day, I think the way this book was written, it was well worth it. It definitely is one of King's best books.

You guys know how much I love my book tags; obviously by the amount of tags I put out there. 

If you follow me on Instagram, you'd also know how obsessed I am with Marvel as well, especially with the Marvel Cinematic Universe -- trust me, I think Instagram is annoyed with me talking about the MCU 24/7. 

When I saw this and a Guardians of the Galaxy tag, I automatically had to hop on.

This tag was created by YA By The Way on Youtube and if you would like to see her video, click here.

With that being said, here's my answers for the Avengers Book tag!

Questions: 

Iron Man - Favourite first book in a series.

Hulk - A book that you can't talk about because it would make you angry.

Captain America - A book that takes place in World War II.

Thor - A book based on mythology of any kind.

Black Widow - A side character you wish would get their own movie, or book.

Hawkeye - A book you love, but everyone seems to dislike.

Nick Fury - A character with a ton of sass.

Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch - A book with a great sibling relationship.

Phil Coulson - A book you wish would be adapted for the big (or small) screen.

Loki - A villain you can't help but love.

BONUS: Ant Man - The next book on your TBR.