July wrap-up!

Today I'm going to be doing my July wrap-up, where I talk about all the books I've read this month and give ratings for them all, and discuss whether or not I'd recommend them. I've only read 4 books this month so this will probably be a bit short.

The first book I read this month was Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. I hadn't read this book before all of the Hunger Games movies came out, so I guess I'm a late bloomer with this. I read the first book, The Hunger Games, back in 2012 when the first movie came out. I loved it and bought the second book, Catching Fire, and got Mockingjay for my birthday that year from my best friend. I had tried reading Catching Fire on multiple occasions and couldn't get into it. It was just boring for me and not as good as the first book. I've been putting off reading it for a few years, and I finally finished it in June. I actually really enjoyed it after I got through mostly the first quarter/half of the book. After that, I started Mockingjay, and to be honest, I didn't like it at all as much as I did the first two books. I give Mockingjay 3/5 stars, mostly because it just felt so rushed like Suzanne didn't know what to do with the last book, but she knew she had to end it, so she just came up with a bunch of random stuff and threw it in there and ended it in a terrible way. Although I must admit, the last sentence of the book will definitely haunt me forever. "There are much worse games to play." Anyway, overall I loved the Hunger Games trilogy. I'd recommend it to anyone who loves action and has seen the movies. If you haven't seen the movies or read the books, I don't know what's wrong with you. You're probably like one of the 5 people in the world to do that.

The next book I read was Legacy of Kings by Eleanor Herman. I requested this book and received a signed ARC directly from her which was so cool. I have a review for this book posted so you can go back to the home page and click on "Legacy of kings review!"

Next, I read Paper Towns by John Green. I originally was putting off reading this because I "read" (I didn't fully read the book) The Fault in Our Stars by him and couldn't finish it. It wasn't very good, so I put off reading Paper Towns because I assumed John Green was a terrible writer, but after reading it, I immediately fell in love with his writing. I guess I just picked up a bad batch of his work. I also have a review for it posted as well so go check that out along with my blog post about my "Night on the Towns" movie experience, where I talk about my time seeing the Paper Towns movie.

Lastly, I read Isle of the Lost by Melissa De La Cruz. This is the prequel to the new Disney Channel Original Movie Descendants. Descendants is about some of the children of Disney's greatest villains being chosen to go to prep school in Auradon with the children of Disney heroes. The Isle of The Lost talks about what happened before this event, where the villains were banished to an island with a magical barrier around it to keep magic out, so the villains have no magic. Some of the villains have children and these children grow up to want to be just like their parents. The time comes for them to prove themselves when Carlos (son of Cruella De Vil) and Evie (daughter of Evil Queen) manage to temporarily burn a hole in the barrier, and magic is restored for a moment. There is another island across the river called Isle of the Doomed, where Maleficent's Dragon's Eye scepter roars back to life and so does her castle that guards it. Back on the Isle of the Lost, Mal (daughter of Maleficent), Jay (son of Jafar), Carlos and Evie go on a quest to retrieve the Dragon's Eye in hopes that they will bring back magic to the island so they can prove to their parents they are worthy of being their children. I gave this book 3/5 stars because while I enjoyed it, I couldn't relate to any of the characters. This book is aimed at children and young adults, but the characters are geared more towards children. The characters act very childish to me and have very childish thoughts, which made it hard for me to truly enjoy the book. I did enjoy it, just not as much as I had hoped to.