The 100

I hope you enjoy........(contains a few spoilers)

"The 100 by Kass Morgan "book review

Ever since a devastating nuclear war, humanity has lived on spaceships far above Earth's radioactive surface. Now, one hundred juvenile delinquents -- considered expendable by society -- are being sent on a dangerous mission: to recolonize the planet. It could be their second chance at life...or it could be a suicide mission.
CLARKE was arrested for treason, though she's haunted by the memory of what she really did. WELLS, the chancellor's son, came to Earth for the girl he loves -- but will she ever forgive him? Reckless BELLAMY fought his way onto the transport pod to protect his sister, the other half of the only pair of siblings in the universe. And GLASS managed to escape back onto the ship, only to find that life there is just as dangerous as she feared it would be on Earth.
Confronted with a savage land and haunted by secrets from their pasts, the hundred must fight to survive. They were never meant to be heroes, but they may be mankind's last hope. 

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So I was a bit sceptic about this book. There's a series of that book that might go into a different direction than intented and if I as a reader am really caught up with the plot and I start watching a series that is based upon this novel I might feel betrayed if the plot will turn out very different. But it's all fine, because I will of course read all the books first ( update: this is not true) 

Although I was sceptic at first , the second I read the description of this book I instantly fell in love. The storyline is just genius. This book is a dystopian young adult fiction, so people who have read Divergent or the Maze Runner will definitely like this book as well. 

So imagine that a nuclear war contaminated the earth and the survivors of this war now live on a spaceship. There's one spaceship , but it's divided into three sections. There's the Phoenix, the Walden and the Arcadian. The people that live on the Phoenix have a pretty good life. They have enough to eat and to drink and have never had to suffer. The Walden and the Arcadian are like the "District 12". The people barely have enough to eat or even enough water to keep themselves clean.

So to make sure everything goes well, there are these rules that you have to follow. For example you are not allowed to have more than one child. There's only about enough food for only a specific number of people. You are also not allowed to start a relationship with somebody who is on the Walden or the Arcadian, when you're on the Phoenix. Besides that there are many other rules. If you break these rules you will get send to prison and you will most likely be executed.

So there are suprisingly many teenagers in prison. They would have been executed at the age of eighteen, but they can consider themselves as lucky because they are given a second chance. They are send to the earth to see for themselves if life on earth is possible.

So about 100 teenagers are send down to the earth. The main characters Clarke, Bellamy and Wells  are included. There's also a girl called Glass that is one of the narrators but she can run away in the last second possible , so she doesn't have to go to the earth. Basically Clarke discovered that her parents did experiments on children with radioactive rays. They are being forced to do so. Clarke dicovers their work, but keeps quiet about it. The only person she tells  is Wells her boyfriend and the son of the chancellor. He thinks that he can help her by telling his dad(!) . Unfortunately Clarke is also sentenced guilty because she didn't say anyting about the work of her parents. So her parents were executed and she had been in prison before she was sent to earth. Great job Wells, real great. When Wells realized what he had done he tries to save Clarke, he also overhears a conversation of his father and the vize-chancellor that the spaceship is running low on oxygen. So the trip to earth would have been in a year. But due to the fact that Clarke would have been 18 by then Wells does another bad life choice and he damages the shield that basically keeps the oxygen in the spaceship. Then he almost burns a tree,(a very sacred tree, on purpose) and  gets send to earth too. 

Bellamy actually wasn't intented to be send to earth but his little sister was, because she stole pills, because she's a bit of a drug-addict. Bellamy doesn't want her to go alone so he almost kills the chancellor and sneaks on to the ship that brings the people down to earth. In this time Glass sneaks off and she actually gets pardoned of her sentence. She and a boy of the Walden named Luke had a relationship and a baby (which she lost ;( ) But she realizes that there is also a big problem on the spaceship because due to her genius best-friend Wells they might all die due to the lack of oxygen . Meanwhile on earth everybody slowly discovers that they are not alone......

Dam..dam..damm....I really liked this book, not only because of the amazing storyline. I also liked the way the book was written. Every chapter had a different length , which I found very nice because it sometimes annoys me that most of the chapters of books are always the same length. And every chapter was written in a different point of view of the main characters. There always was this flashback, so you learned about the past and about the crimes the characters did, but only as the story proceeded. In the beginning I loved Wells,Octavia,Clarke and Glass and I totally shipped Wells and Clarke. But as the story proceeded I noticed what a complete douche Wells is and I was soo mad at Octavia for being a drug-addict and lying to her brother. I liked Glass till the very end but then in the last chapter or so you realize that she did some really bad sh** as well. The only ones I still liked were Clarke and surprisingly Bellamy. And I totally ship them. #Bellarke

But this is also the part of the stoy that fascinates me. Kass Morgan has written a book that introduces you to characters who have done some  bad life choices. They are not heroes and they might even be bad people, but they all have done these things because of a reason and you as a reader still like the characters although of their actions. But hey who's perfect, right?.....

I really liked this book and I'm really excited to read the next one. Definitely read this book if you haven't already done that.

4.5 out of 5 cupcakes

Wrap-up

July 

Books I have read this month

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton*
The 100 by Kass Morgan#

Wattpad stories I have read this month

The Joker's New Pet by PrincessofNerds
The Billionaire's Price by Ansela Corsino
The Bad Boy , Cupid & Me by Hasti Williams
(Some other bad boy story)

Comics/Mangas I have read this month

One Piece Volume 1 Romance Dawn by Eiichiro Oda#
Harley Quinn (The New 52) by Amanda Conner

*there's a review of this book on my blog
# a review of this book will be coming soon

The Secret Keeper

Last review for today...I hope you enjoy (contains spoilers)
  

The" Secret Keeper by Kate Morton" book review

During a summer party at the family farm in the English countryside, sixteen-year-old Laurel Nicolson has escaped to her childhood tree house and is happily dreaming of the future. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and watches as her mother speaks to him. Before the afternoon is over, Laurel will witness a shocking crime. A crime that challenges everything she knows about her family and especially her mother, Dorothy—her vivacious, loving, nearly perfect mother.
Now, fifty years later, Laurel is a successful and well-regarded actress living in London. The family is gathering at Greenacres farm for Dorothy’s ninetieth birthday. Realizing that this may be her last chance, Laurel searches for answers to the questions that still haunt her from that long-ago day, answers that can only be found in Dorothy’s past.

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I have to admit this is not the kind of book I would normally read. This is a book that contains romance, drama but it's also a bit like a thriller, a genre that I normally never read. But I'm open to everything so I thought why the heck not and I started to read this book. I have never read a book by Kate Morton, so I didn't know what to expect. I started reading this story about six months ago. But after reading the first twenty pages I was kind of bored. So I stopped . A while ago I started reading the book again, but I stopped after about the same amount of pages like the last time. About two weeks ago I started again and after I pushed myself a bit  at the beginning I started to like it .

 As you might or might not have read the description above: This book is about a teenager, that witnessed how her mother killed a stranger. Over the years the girl-Laurel tries to forget what she had seen. She focuses on her career. But fifty years after this traumatic event, Laurel is forced to face her past again. Her mother's life is coming to an end. Dorothy, her mother gives away information in a weak moment that attracts Laurel's attention. She then also gets help from her little brother, who was also a witness of the murder. He was a baby, but he always seemed to know that something was off. 

Laurel learns about the past of Dorothy. When Dorothy was young she always wanted more in her life. She moved to London to fulfill her dreams only to realize that life is a lot harder than it seems. Although her career doesn't work out Dorothy is in a happy relationship with a photographer called Jimmy. He's also not really successful, but it's war and he's lucky with a roof over his head. One day Dorothy meets Vivien Jenkins. She's the wife of a successful author who is twice her age and they live in a big house opposite the house Dorothy works in. Dorothy feels a connection between her and Vivien, both have lost their families due to tagic events and she believes that they are the best of friends. One day, she visits Vivien in her house, but she doesn't seem to recognize her and embarasses her in front of her husband Henry. Dorothy is filled with rage and because of that she wants Vivien to have a taste of her own medicine. She pressures her boyfriend Jimmy into getting to know Vivien. Because of the love Jimmy feels towards Dorothy  he does what he is told and he starts to get to know Vivien. But she is nothing like Dorothy told him she would be. She is kind and selfless and he slowly starts to fall for her. Dorothy gets what she wants and she takes a picture of an intimate moment between Jimmy and Vivianne. She sends a letter to Vivien that pressures her into giving her money. Unfortunately the letter is opened by Vivien's husband. And the thing that nobody knows about him: he is abusive towards his wife and considers her as"his". He doesn't like to share and he doesn't want his wife to have friend or kids because then he would have to share. That explains why Vivien acted the way she did towards Dorothy. It was an act of protection. After almost killing his wife Henry tells her that he has taken care of Jimmy by drowning him. Vivianne who can barely walk makes her way to Dorothy's to tell her that she is in danger and that she has to go somewhere far away. While they talk a bomb hits the apartment of Dorothy. And this is the part that I never saw coming. Dorothy dies due to her injuries. But Vivianne survives and in the right moment she says that her name is Dorothy. She goes to the place that Dorothy wanted to go to and lives a happy life as "Dorothy". She gets a second chance- meanwhile everyone back in London believes Vivien is really dead-including her husband who wants to seek revenge on the real Dorothy. When he finds her he notices that "Dorothy" is actually his wife, but before something can be done he is killed. I had to read this part over and over again because I couldn't believe that this actually happened?! Also if you wondered : Jimmy survived, after almost drowning, barely, but he survived. He also lived a happy life, which he deserved, but he was the first to discover that Vivien was "Dorothy", because he went to see her one time to see if she was doing ok.

It's quite interesting how the book is sectioned. One section includes several chapters- The section begins with the name of a character, for example : Dorothy. The story will evolve around this person, but only a small part is written out of their point of view. So it also includes the point of view of the people around the person. If the section was about Dorothy, the point of view could have also been Laurel's who is searching for Dorothy's past or Jimmy's P.O.V. Another interesting thing is that the story is constantly junping between past and present. At the beginning it was pretty confusing, but after a while you actually started to like this change and this type of writing never gets boring. I was pleasantly surpised how the story turned out and the plot twist completely blew me away! Although this is not my usual type of read I 100% enjoyed it and I will definitely read more books that are written by Kate Morton! Which you should do too ;)

4 out of 5 cupcakes

Slammed

Next review....I hope you enjoy (careful might contain spoilers)

The "Slammed by Colleen Hoover" book review

Following the unexpected death of her father, 18-year-old Layken is forced to be the rock for both her mother and younger brother. Outwardly, she appears resilient and tenacious, but inwardly, she's losing hope.
Enter Will Cooper: The attractive, 21-year-old new neighbor with an intriguing passion for slam poetry and a unique sense of humor. Within days of their introduction, Will and Layken form an intense emotional connection, leaving Layken with a renewed sense of hope.
Not long after an intense, heart-stopping first date, they are slammed to the core when a shocking revelation forces their new relationship to a sudden halt. Daily interactions become impossibly painful as they struggle to find a balance between the feelings that pull them together, and the secret that keeps them apart. 

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I don't know why but every time I  finished a Cassandra Clare series I have always started to read a book by Colleen Hoover. Colleen Hoover doesn't write cutesie-romance books without meaning and she actually also breaks your heart. But her books are like a soothing medicine to me. After clockwork angel I was devastated and I went on for days without reading, because I was just feeling numb inside. But her book kind of helped me to get back on track. So thank you! This book is actually really sad. Layken, the main character just lost her dad and is forced to move due to financial problems. Right after the move she attracts the attention of her neighbour Will. They both have an instant connection. They start falling for each other. Will shows her slam poetry and they both get along perfectly. On her first day of school Layken gets hit by shocking news: Will is a teacher at her school and not just any teacher, he's her teacher. You slowly learn more about Will's past. He had to start working at a really young age, because he has a younger brother to take care of due to the sudden death of both of his parents.
Layken and Will try to stay away from each other, but it's not possible. Layken also needs his support because her mother has been keeping from her that she has been diagnosed with cancer. And that she will die. Layken is devastated. After loosing her father she is going to lose her mother too and added to that her brother , because her mother doesn't trust her with raising him. 
Will supports her and after a while they no longer ignore their feelings for each other. They embrace them. After a long talk with her mom she promises Layken that she can "keep" her brother. The epilogue of this story is showing an event in the future: Layken's mom has died and Layken and Will are celebrating their first Christmas together and Layken is celebrating her first Christmas without parents. They both share the responsibility of raising two children and due to the help and love of Will, Layken slowly starts to process her loss.

I seriously love the books of Colleen Hoover. First of all like I have mentioned it there's never just a basic romance story. Her stories are difficult and twisted, but I wouldn't want it any other way. Second of all they have some kind of creative theme. In Maybe Someday there were these song lyrics that Colleen actually wrote herself. In this book there were two things that were like that. The first one were short parts of songs of "The Avett brothers" at the beginning of every chapter.You can check them out on Youtube , they are amazing!  The second part was the slam poetry. I have always been amazed by slam poetry and I love to watch people slam and it just completely mindblown me how Colleen has managed to write such amazing and heart-breaking slam poetry. Due to the creative magic that Colleen always manages to connect with the story line there's this story that touches your heart in a strange way. And I just love that feeling. I can't wait to read the second book and I definitely recommend you to read a book written by her if you haven't already done that!

4.5 out of 5 cupcakes

Clockwork Princess

Hey guys, I'm back. I'm finally on break, school is finally over and now I have lots and lots of time to read a lot of books and of course to write a lot of reviews. This review is really late, but I have finally written it...sooo enjoy ;) (careful contains spoilers)

The "Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare" book review

A net of shadows begins to tighten around the Shadowhunters of the London Institute. Mortmain plans to use his Infernal Devices, an army of pitiless automatons, to destroy the Shadowhunters. He needs only one last item to complete his plan: he needs Tessa Gray.
Charlotte Branwell, head of the London Institute, is desperate to find Mortmain before he strikes. But when Mortmain abducts Tessa, the boys who lay equal claim to her heart, Jem and Will, will do anything to save her. For though Tessa and Jem are now engaged, Will is as much in love with her as ever.
As those who love Tessa rally to rescue her from Mortmain’s clutches, Tessa realizes that the only person who can save her is herself. But can a single girl, even one who can command the power of angels, face down an entire army?
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So the last book ended with an unexpected visitor........the unexpected visitor is Cecily the younger sister of Will. She ran away from home to find Will and to convince him to come back home to them. I don't know about you but Cecily just reminds me of Isabelle soo much...but we will get to that later. Tessa and Jem are engaged to be married and Will is still madly in love with Tessa, but he thinks that she doesn't love him back which makes him pretty miserable. In the beginning of this book something happens while Tessa tries on wedding gowns. You still remember Gideon and Gabriel , right? Well Gideon was staying in the Institute and Gabriel with his father, who has the demon pox. Well, Benedicte Lightwood actually transformed due to his illness. He transformed into a massive worm. When Gabriel tries to tell his brother what has happend the scene is so similiar to the scene when Simon gets transformed into a rat and Izzy tries to tel her brother what has happened. They defeat the worm and Gabriel now stay permanetly at the Institute. Gideon and Sophie start getting really serious and Gabriel really likes Cecily. This is soooooo cute!!!! Meanwhile Council Wayland, who actually supported Charlotte , wants Gideon and Gabriel to spy on her! I kind of started hating the Wayland family a bit because of him. Gabriel and Gideon actually do it, but they write things that aren't true , because they don't want to spy on Charlotte. Eventually Gabriel really spies on her because he is desperate and he starts writing a letter , but he doesn't send it. But seriously I was so close to changing my opinion about the Lightwoods. 

Meanwhile the inhabitants of the Institute try to find out more about Mortmain, when they are brutally attacked by  Mortmain's automans. Jessamine 

who has been sent back to the Institute, dies  and you really feel bad for her, because she never had an easy life, but I was happy that Will actually was by her side while she died and she could tell him where Mortmain stayed. But she's not really gone...she actually transforms into a ghost and is like a protector of the Institute. In City of Heavenly Fire the London Institute is attacked by Sebastian but there was a force protecting it. I finally got what that was all about. Ok, so back to the attack: Tessa was actually taken away by Mortmain and Will and Jem want to go save her, of course, but Jem is really sick. He has taken a lot of yin fen , just because he thought that Tessa is happier when he's energized and healthy. So due to this stupid action his medicine is gone and there's nothing left, because Mortmain has been using it all up. Jem allows the others to look for a cure but shortly after that he  forbids it again.  Will asks Magnus for a cure and also confesses his love for Tessa.  Jem overhears this coversation and asks Will to save Tessa.

  On Will's journey he suddenly feels the parabatai rune bleeding: Jem is dead. I almost died myself when I read that....how? Why Cassie?! The part when Will describes how he felt how Jem died was even worse. But Will keeps going, although he is full of sorrow he wants to find Tessa. Tessa meanwhile discovers what Mortmain wants her for. He makes her transform into his father, the warlock who finishes the spell on the automans. So now they are half -robot and half-demon which basically means that they are indestructible. He also tells her that her mother was an unmarked Shadowhunter,who was switched with a human at birth*1 and her father was a demon. So Tessa is a warlock but she can have children. While Tessa is alone she also discovers something else. Inside her clockwork angel-necklace is a real angel who has been trapped there. It's Ithuriel. I was so sad when I read about that, because Ithuriel was also the angel who was later trapped inside the basement of Valentine and who then died;( Will actually arrives on time to save Tessa and tells her about Jem, which devastates her. But then she and Will confess their love for each other and then they actually get all serious by "making love"*2( call it what you want)           Tessa, what were you doing?! Don't get me wrong I love Will too, but Jem, your soon to be weeded husband dies and you actually sleep with his best friend/brother?????!!!!!!! 

They get caught by Magnus who came through a Portal that Henry created. Henry is such a genuise. Nobody believed in his inventions but then they are all used in the future. He came with the other inhabitans of the Institute and three Silent brothers. And OMG brother Zachariah is JEM!!!!!!!! He was turned by the others brothers . So now everyone fought against these indestructible automans and Henry almost got killed. I was praying that Henry wouldn't die and thankfully he didn't. Tessa actually saved everyone by transforming into Ithuriel and killing the bad guys with this massive blast of heavenly fire. 

After the fight life goes on. Henry and Tessa and everybody else slowly recovers. But Henry is unfortunately tied to a wheelchair ;( 

Jem aka brother Zachariah leaves without saying goodbye to finish his transformation.But he still comes back from time to time to visit. Everything turns out great. The relationships between Gabriel and Cecily and of course between Sophie and Gideon are a real thing now . That's why Isabelle reminded me of Cecily , she's related to her! Sophie had a ceremony for the transformation into a Shadowhunter which was performed by Charlotte herself, because she is the Consul now, cause Consul Wayland has died during an attack (I was doing a happy dance when that happended)  And of course Tessa and Will finally get together and the ending is quite nice because Will asks Tessa to marry him and later they visit his parents. Now as a reader you think this is it. I was happy with that ending, but then there was the epilogue. And this just killed me. The epilogue is about Tessa. It's the year 2008. And at first you're totally confused. What happended? And then Tessa starts to explain. Will died. They were married for such a long time. They were happy, they loved each other and they had two kids, but Will is not immortal like Tessa and at the age of 78 he died. I was wheeping at this point. I was sitting on the floor of my bedroom and I was just crying hysterically. I cried for about 30 minutes before I was able to continue reading. So, Tessa is actually waiting for someone. That someone is Jem. Jem and Tessa actually met every year on Christmas morning. But this year Jem meets her in his true-human form. And this is the part where you can finally connect all the events of COHF. They kiss and they decide to travel the world together.

*1

Tessa's mom was the grand-daughter of Aloysius Starkweather.

*2

Tessa notices that her clockwork angel has left a mark on Will. Do you remember that mark ? Jace has the same one. So every it's a Herondale thing. This killed me when I realized it.

I know this is a really long review, but this book was just sooo good. I love all the books that Cassandra Clare wrote. But this one really killed me.This is the type of book that makes you think about life, especially the last part. My heart was broken after this , but I finally got all the realations between the books. This is such a great series and you know that I love the Mortal Instruments. But I seriously can say that I worship the Infernal Devices and I will definitely read the books again, because I still haven't really processed everything!

5 out of 5 cupcakes

Wrap-up

June

Books I have read this month

Death's Daughter by Amber Benson

Maria Stuart by Friedrich Schiller

Othello by William Shakespeare

Blueprint by Charlotte Kerner

My Stepbrothers by lightly (Wattpad story)

(there will be no TBR for July because I just had so much to do in July that I couldn't force myself to read something, luckily I still managed to read something so I will still post a Wrap-up)