Sweet Potato Soul by Jenna Claiborne Short review

This features vegan recipes made from Ms.Claibornes upbringing in the south. And it features nutritious  sweet potato recipes anywhere from Breakfast to Drinks. I recently went vegetarian in January so I've been looking for cookbooks and videos teaching me how to cook to suit my needs. When I received this book from Bloggingforbooks in exchange for an honest review I knew I found a gold mine. Although I'm vegetarian and this is a vegan cookbook, it can be altered to suit what I need. The pictures are absolutely beautiful and make me so hungry, and the introduction gives me all the information I'll need to operate the cookbook. Such as, materials and products I might need, what is a staple for vegan diets, and a heartfelt intro  from the author herself

How to Behave in a Crowd by Camille Bordas

The story follows the Mazal family, and is told through the Narration of eleven year old "Dory", although he prefers "Izzie"! It goes through heartbreak, family loss, reality, school, and the sometimes cruelness of children. I loved the condescension fests the whole family took part in, because it was one of the only things that brought them together. And while Dory isn't the smartest he is the most empathetic and honest characters in the book. I loved it. I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Three Dark Crowns- Book Review

Three Dark Crowns is about three sisters who must fight and kill each other for the throne. Arsinoe is the "Naturalist" who can control animals and plants. Only her gift doesn't show. Her best friend- Jules- is the toughest and best Naturalist in the last few decade, so her best friend kind of protects her and urges her to use her gift. Her story line in my opinion has the most diverse characters, great world building and is overall my favorite sister.

Mirabella is the toughest sister with the most advanced gift. Shes also the only one who doesnt want to kill her sisters, she loves them. Her emotions for her sisters could be her downfall leading to the throne.  The religous faction of the island kind of control her, and the people around her suffers consequences if she doesnt do as they say. (For those who have read the books- ahem- HANDS.) I would find her to be a better character had there NOT been a love story attached to her. When you read the book her character is thrown into a situation with a man and is instantly in love with him. I didn't care for that, it was as though the love story was thrown together. 

Katherine is the poisoner, only she doesn't have a gift either. She is constantly pricked and is constantly forced to ingest poison to strengthen herself. As a result she is scarred mentally and physically. 
                       ***SPOILER ALERT LEAVE NOW IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK****



















Okay so I totally think Arsinoe and Kat were switched at birth, considering Arsinoe is a poisoner. However I do NOT believe Kat is a Naturalist. I believe she has the war gift, which would make sense because shes so determined to kill her sisters and has endured the poisoning for so long. ORRR Jules is the Naturalist but the poisoners didn't want there to be another Naturalist Queen so they switched Jules with Arsinoe and then grabbed the wrong Poisoner child. 

Review of "The Sun is also a Star" by Nicola Yoon

When I think insta-love I picture a small book with two people spontaneously falling in love throughout the pages. I dislike those books.

However, Nicola Yoon beautifully creates these two characters that just spark and leap out of the pages. Daniel, a Korean-American boy who believes in fate, and true love. He writes poetry from the heart and has his heart directly on his sleeve. He struggles living under the aspirations of his Korean parents, who want him to become a successful doctor.

Then we have the serious, science driven Natasha. A Jamaican immigrant who is in the USA illegally. Her father gets stopped drunk driving, which is how the New York immigration services find her. She makes it clear she doesn't dream or hope for things to happen. They either do or they do not.

I wont spoil the book, but just know the ending had me crying tears. Sad or happy I wont tell!!!


This weaves together some amazing elements such as: growing up under parental stress (The parents were actually present in this book and not cast off like in so many other Young Adult novels), the power of love (sounds corny but this book makes it clear anyone can find love. Just open yourself to it.), finding ones identity...

This is a must read. I would rate this at least a 5 out of 5 stars.

Lets talk about The Magicians by Lev Grossman... If you like dark fantasy this is the book for you.

Basically schools for magicians are real, there is a super whiz kid named Quentin who knew he would go to an ivy league school. Only not academically... he got recruited into a magic league school, with intense training and rigorous mental exercises. 


He goes through four years of high-school, an adventure and finds another world ( named Fillory) within this first book. It is extremely fast paced, beautifully written and entertaining throughout the whole book. There are demons, and monsters, and magic and even romance. 


***Literally the only thing this book has in common with harry potter is that there is magic involved.***

I would rate this a 5 out of 5 for me. I thought it was action packed, fast paced, well written, the characters made me fall in love with them (Especially spunky Alice), and it was just incredible.