The Darkest part of the forest by Holly Black

2015 is the year of discovery for me. For many years I heard about some great books and authors, but I didn't read their books. As soon I heard that this book was coming out, I decided to discover the magic of Holly Black.

This is a fantasy /fairy tale book about a magic town where fairy tales were real and the main attraction for tourists, where fairies can be tricky and sometimes dangerous, and where a beautiful fairy prince that was sleeping for many years in a Chrystal box until somebody woke him up.

This is also a book about two young brothers discovering the magic of the town and the fairies and playing to be knights protecting the town. Things begin to get complicated the day that the fairy prince woke up, things are the town began to get dangerous and changes were affecting to everybody.

I loved the book, I loved the way everything worked and how the book showed the two parts of the traditional fairy tales, the beauty and the dangerous of the fairies. I will recommend this book to everybody that love fairy tales and fantasy, to people that is not afraid of dream and let the imagination fly. It is a young adult book that will work the magic to all the ages. I didn't find any age restriction for the book, no nudity but yes a little of violence in only few lines, nothing to disturb the mind of any reader :)

Here a little video introduction of the book :)

Books reading for the 24 hrs Read-A-Thon

OK.. For a person that is working in go back to read, this was the best option, I forced myself to read in a 24 hours Read-A-Thon. I was afraid, I had no clue of what I have to do while the hours are going, I did mistakes and at the end, I learned how fun and productive they are.

My first mistake was begin a day early, I misunderstood that it was Friday at midnight and not the beginning of Friday at midnight.. for that reason, I can say that I did 48 hours Read-A-Thon.

My original list of books was with extra two books (one was almost in the last 25 pages) and the other was a half book, they were finish the first night, so they are not counted.

The day before i waited almost all day for midnight, so you can imagine how silly was that, so when then I notice at 8pm that I was in the wrong day, I rush to bed to wake up at midnight and begin in the right day (I was not able to sleep until 11:30), so when my alarm woke me up at midnight... I was already with almost 24 hours over my head and not coordinating so good.

So here the new order for the books:

The Read-A-Thon had some series of challenges that you can complete in some specific hours. I was not able to complete all of them, but I did some:

The first one was the list or To Be Read list, that It is the same that you have at the top.

Next challenge was to create a rainbow... I was so sleepy that I was not able to find the right colors.

Hour 8: Make a poem using book titles

17 Hours challenge: Create a Book Tower

And this is the way that you combine E-Books and physical books in a tower :)

At 9:30 pm, I decided to get help again from my survival kit to stay awake. More black tea and my determination to accomplish a 24 hours Read-A-Thon

One of my Kindles got out of battery, so I decided to begin one of the physical books that I have while my batteries were charging.. Big surprise, when I went to add the book to my Gooreads page,  it said that the book has 592 pages, when the copy that I had in my hands only 202. 

Later my husband found the book in the pile of garbage and he notice that the book was complete, all the book was divided in 3 and that was the reason the last page said 202... I need to pay more attention to what I do, or maybe I was falling asleep :P

Here is the recount of my 24 hrs Read-A-Thon

Time Read: 23 hours
Total Pages Read: 543
Books Read: 1
Challenges Completed: 4

Splintered (by A.G. Howard)

If I will have to think in a magic twist for Alice in wonderland.. I will have never guessed this one and I am so glad. I love how different and surprising was. I am a lover of twist in classic fantasy books, maybe that is one of the reason I love the movie "Maleficent". so now I can dream to have this one in a movie adaptation.

Spoiler comment from here Down.

I love the idea that the book is adapted for young adult. All the triangle love between Jed, Alyssa and Morpheus made me get mad in some parts and other actually captivated me. Sometimes I got mad at Alyssa indecision about who she loves and who she will believe, but, aren't all of us in the same way? How many times in our young adult life we couldn't decide who we really want in our life and who to believe.

I am happy with the end, yes also knowing that Morpheus still being a "bug" in Alyssa's head to leave her totally let her love for Jeb grow and be complete.. Well, I still need to read the next book of this trilogy and know if it still happening.. or what changes are coming, or maybe the story is totally different and none of the same personages are included.. We will see :)