Gillyweed'sReads

  January Wrap Up: Part One 🟆🟆🟆  ❆  🟆🟆🟆 A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik I started out 2021 on a not so good note...  Sad day... 😔  I haven't picked up a Naomi Novik book yet but I've been dying to read one!  I maaaaaaay have picked the wrong one to start with...  This book has been getting all the hype and it sounded like it deserved it!  School setting, magical studies, strange creatures, school that tries to kill off it's students.  Many who enter don't come out alive.  dun dunnn DUNNNNNNN!!!  How's that for an amazing premise?!  But seriously?  I couldn't get past the awful, whiny, annoying, cocky, jerk of a main character.  I absolutely could not stand her. 😭😭😭  I thought I could just get through it but I couldn't.  Not only was there that.. but the pacing of the story was off and the writing was just mega clunky.  Meh.  What a way to start off my reading year!  Oh well.  This one was a DNF for me and I only got about halfway through.  I sti

⛄ ❅ 🔔   D e c e m b e r   W r a p   U p   🔔 ❅ ⛄ Part Two The Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer ⭐⭐⭐⭐ What with this being the sixth book in the series this review contains some major spoilers!   Be ye forewarned! Artemis Fowl is back after having been gone for three years from his family's lives.  After his last adventures take him away from home for these three years a lot has changed!  He now has twin brothers!  Unfortunately, we don't get to see a lot of them in this book, but I have a feeling they will be popping up a lot more in the next few books, which makes me excited.  All seems to be going well until Artemis's mother contracts a very rare illness that is life-threatening.  Now he must find the cure, and quickly, if he wants to save her in time.  The only problem?  Artemis made the mistake of, in his past, killing off the last lemur that has the antidote.  So, now what???  Well, obviously, time travel of course!  This book was such a fun time.  I always enjoy reading th

🎅 ❄ 🎄D e c e m b e r W r a p U p ! ! !🎄 ❄ 🎅 Part One Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐   What a way to start the month out reading!!!!!  I started reading the Nevermoor series in October and fell head over heels for it.  To say I was ecstatic to pick up this next book would be an understatement.  Have I already ordered the third book?  Uhhhhh yaaaaaa!!!!!!  And it's just sitting on my bookshelf looking all pretty and begging me to read it..... 💗💗💗  So back to Wundersmith ... 😉  In this second installment things are, for real, going down.  It's Morrigan's first week of being in the Wundrous Society, and it's not going the way she thought it would.  A family she could be herself around, friends she could count on, a school where you can learn to harness your talents, a place where she can belong..  All things that were promised her when she entered. But, unfortunately, that's not what she finds.  Her Unit she was assigned to d

 ★✦ November Wrap Up ✦★ Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I've decided to start up another re-read of Harry Potter!  It's that time of year again. 💗  I absolutely love this series.  But then again... Who doesn't?  And what better way to start off this re-read than to read the new MinaLima edition!?  If you haven't picked this edition up yet I can't implore you enough to do so.  The detail that went into it, and the interactive sections, are superb!  I have to say.. This is my all-time favorite edition that has come out yet.  Wow.  Legit.  I can't even. 😅  Go pick up a copy!!!!  You seriously won't regret it.  Oh, and I suppose I should talk about my feelings on the book...  It's Harry Potter.  I loved every second of reading it.  End of story. Finale ⭐⭐⭐ Ok, so this book... It's not super memorable.  Not gonna go into too much detail as it's the ending of a series, but this last book focuses on both sisters and we get both of the

 October Wrap up #2 The Queen of Attolia ⭐⭐⭐ I gave this book three stars because I'm kind of in the middle of the road about it.  I didn't love it.  I didn't hate it.  It was just ok for me.  The first book, The Thief , was such a fun adventure and this second one felt like a totally different book entirely.  The first half of the book was just about Gen moping around, (which is understandable given the circumstances...) but I got a little bored with it.  Then we get into the wars between the kingdoms and I felt like we were only being given the facts, and I just wasn't able to be as immersed in the story.  It started picking up a little after that but not enough for me to give it that extra star.  Also... That ending?  With the romance thing?  Did not even see that coming...  My feelings on that are a little iffy to say the least. 😬  Overall, not super impressed but I do want to continue on and see if this story gets better. LODESTAR ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The fact that I've give

The Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snicket Hmmmm... Well, a lot went down in this next installation to the series.  I'm still not even sure if I really liked this one or not.  It definitely wasn't a favorite.  In this second to last book we come across so many different characters from all the previous books.  I really enjoyed having everyone cross paths and seeing some of these crazy people back again.  However, I felt like this book kind of dragged on a bit.  Maybe I just wasn't in the mood to read it or something... (Don't judge me.  I really can't help being a mood reader. 😉)  I usually find myself laughing out loud in every single one of his books, but this one just didn't make the cut... unfortunately. (No pun intended hehe. Okay okay. It may have been kinda sorta intended.)  Following the Baudelaire orphans, we see them start their new jobs as concierges at the Hotel Denouement.  A place where you reeeeeally have to know the Dewey Decimal System to get arou