Throwback Thursday Book Review: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

The Throwback Thursday review is where I take a book I recently reread and review it with new eyes. It could be a book I’m reading for the second, third, fourth or millionth time. Some books haven’t been read in years so its fun to throwback and see if my opinion has changed!

The final novel in the Red Queen series, War Storm, comes out next month in May. I read the first novel and LOVED it, but got stuck in reading the rest when I hit a huge reading slump so I figured I should reread this one before moving on to Glass Sword!

Please keep in mind that Throwback Thursday reviews are based on reread books. They most likely will contain spoilers as the books have already been released for some time. This is your only warning if you want to avoid spoilers for these books. 

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The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies Black Carpet Premiere in Los Angeles!

Hello everyone! It is finally time to talk about The Hobbit Part 3: The Battle of Five Armies. I’m pretty sure that’s not the EXACT title but meh, order that’s what I’ll call it. I’ve been so MASSIVELY busy this week and I’m finally ready to share my awesome day at the premiere!

I was so excited to finally go to a Hobbit premiere and I’m sad because it was the very last one. It was a very bittersweet feeling, even though I’d never been before.

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Setting up for the black carpet. They had all these posters and white trees and it looked really awesome.

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I spent the day with my girls Cassandra and Ally. The premiere took place at the Dolby Theater on Hollywood boulevard. Its right next door to the Chinese Theater and home of many movie premieres and the Oscars. Premieres there are always kind of wacky so we lined up across the street. We spent lots of hours there, as per usual.

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They had a MASSIVE jumbotron. They showed the trailer for the movie, and then showed the action on the black carpet once the actual carpet event started.

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We waited awhile to see what the deal was going to be. We talked to our friends from SPEC, who run the security and they told us our  best bet was to go across the street so that’s exactly what we did. By this time, we were tired, dirty from the LA streets haha and just ready for the carpet to start already.

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Before the carpet started, there were all kinds of people handing out things. They had these really cool flags that had the hashtag #OneLastTime. I wanted one SO bad but they completely skipped us and so I didn’t get my hands on one, unfortunately. Then I spotted people giving away wristbands. I had NO idea what they were for, but I knew I wanted one. The people handing them out seemed to be looking for something in particular, while handing them out. I noticed that they seemed to be going for Hobbit stuff. Luckily, I was wearing my Thorin shirt for the premiere and I pointed it out to them. I totally guessed right and they came right up to me, asked how many people were in my party. The wristbands were for the screening immediately after the carpet! Yay!

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Fangirling SO hard. Meeting the great Andy Serkis. In the LoTR and Hobbit sagas, he plays Gollum/Smeagol. He’s just all around BADASS. He was the first person that I met on the carpet and I was STOKED.

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The absolutely GORGEOUS Lee Pace, who plays Thranduil in the film. He was pretty much my #1 goal to meet once we had figured out that Benedict, Martin and Ian weren’t coming to the premiere. Look at that face. Seriously. YUM.

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This is Mark Hadlow, who plays the dwarf, Dori.

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The lovely Stephen Hunter, who plays Bombur!

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MY LIFE. I adore Evangline Lilly. I think she’s one of the first actresses that I had a crush on before I realized I also liked girls. I used to watch the first few seasons of Lost and she plays a seriously badass female elf, Tauriel. I was SO excited to meet her and get her autograph. I liked her in the second movie, but I had some issues, but after seeing the movie, I’m so sold on her character. She was even better in the third one.

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I fangirled SO hard on this. I’ve had a crush on Orlando Bloom since he played Will Turner in Pirates of the Caribbean, when I was like 13 years old. I was a little bummed that he didn’t sign my book. I’ve heard that he doesn’t really do that. Not sure why. But I got a picture with him and that was pretty awesome. He plays Legolas, of course.

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My awkward, blurry selfie with Richard Armitage in the background. He, of course, plays Thorin Oakenshield. He signed for us, but wasn’t taking pictures so I had to do this. I get creative sometimes ;)

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William Kircher, who was a totally sweetheart. I seriously adore him. He plays the elf, Bifur, and I’m just massively in love with him. He was really just SO nice.

Also, mad props to that photo bomber in the background haha.

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Jed Brophy, who plays Nori! He was such a delightful guy!

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Me and Cassie and Graham McTavish, who plays the badass dwarf, Dwalin in the film. Apparently he is also in Outlander as well but I haven’t had a chance to watch that show yet. He was seriously awesome in his kilt!

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Be still, my fangirl heart! Meeting Peter Jackson was INCREDIBLE. He wasn’t doing pictures so hence the super awkward, blurry, funky selfie but I’m stoked beyond belief that I got to meet him and get his autograph. I mean, he’s the brains behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Hobbit trilogy and he’s just genius. My mind is still BLOWN that I met him.

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My beautiful beautiful beautiful book signed by:

Andy Serkis (Gollum)
Lee Pace (Thranduil)
Richard Armitage (Thorin)
Mark Hadlow (Dori)
Stephen Hunter (Bombur)
William Kircher (Bifur)
Jed Brophy (Nori)
Graham McTavish (Dwalin)
Evangeline Lilly (Tauriel)
Peter Jackson (Director)

I was really bummed because Elijah Wood (Frodo) and Billy Boyd (Pippin) were there. I was fangirling SO hard but they completely skipped our section. It made me incredibly sad. James Cameron was also there and he directed one of my favorite movies ever, Titanic, and he just waved as he passed by. Sad face. It was a bit disappointed that actors like Cate Blanchett, Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan and Luke Evans weren’t there, but it was just the LA premiere, not the world premiere, so it made sense.

After the premiere was over, there was parking drama with my car and I had to run to my car, drive it to a different parking lot and then practically run to the movie theater. Cassie and I grabbed our seats, and our super cool Hobbit 3D glasses and settled in to watch the movie.

I LOVED it. There will be an actual full reviews to come BUT I truly loved it. I think everyone did a fabulous job. After the film was over, no one wanted to leave. No one. They stayed all the way until the very end, once the credits had ended and the screen went blank. Its always very sad when a series ends that way. Saying goodbye and all that. I was a little emotional but not nearly as emotional as I was when I saw Deathly Hallows Part 2.

All in all, it was one of the easier premieres that I went to, and I had a fun time. I’m glad I decided to go and I’m urging you ALL to go see the movie when it releases next week! A review is coming this weekend so watch out for it!

Favorite and Least Favorite City of Heavenly Fire Moments! (Spoilers!)

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I don’t really think I need to warn you but I’m going to do it anyway because I know people just don’t pay attention.

This entire post is literally spoilers for City of Heavenly Fire. If you havent’ finished the book, buy more about or don’t want to be spoiled, sildenafil please turn back now!

Okay, buy information pills jumping in. With both of my spoiler filled vlog and my spoiler free review here on the blog, I tried to be as vague as possible, to talk about as much as I could in a short amount of time and space. So I wasn’t really able to get into all my favorite and least favorite parts. That’s the purpose of this post, to share exactly what I loved and what I didn’t.

I hope you’ll share yours as well!

FAVORITE:

Isabelle’s Vision

When Jace, Clary, Alec, Isabelle and Simon enter into the demon realm to rescue Luke, Jocelyn, Magnus and Raphael, and find Sebastian, they are immediately stopped by a demon that force them to see sort of visions. Clary sees the family that she could have had: Jocelyn married to Luke, a real brother in Jonathan, a little sister. Alec sees himself as loved by everyone that he’s wanted to love him, to be appreciated and praised, and to be the person that is the center of attention. Isabelle’s is the most heartbreaking because its the one that you honestly wish was real. Its her birthday and Simon has thrown her a party, and at her party is Max. Max, frozen at 9 years old, when he died. And I lost it. I couldn’t stop crying. I was so heartbroken. Max’s death has been the most hard hitting in all six books for me, and it hurts when you know how much he is missed and how responsible Isabelle feels for his death. It was beautiful.

Simon’s Band Name

Simon’s memories have been taken from Magnus’ father, as payment for them returning to their world. Its heartbreaking (until you read the epilogue), but when you see the flyer for Simon’s band’s show…I just had this half laugh, half sob thing going on, because I thought it was SO funny and so awesome. His band name? The Mortal Instruments. It was too perfect. It’s been a fan theory for so long and its one of those things that I was actually kind of glad made it into the book.

Jace and Clary-Cave Scene

Um, can we say about time? I mean, I know, they’re like 17 years old, and that’s not exactly old or anything but we’ve all been hoping for some steamy Clace sex for six books now and I’m glad it finally happened and IN A CAVE. The first thing I thought of when they had sex in the cave was…did they really just have sex in a cave like the way Will and Tessa did in Clockwork Princess. Plus it was just beautiful. It was the right moment for it to happen. The world was falling apart around them, and they could die at any moment, and they truly love each other, and it was perfect. I could never write a scene like that, and that’s okay. My sex scenes are going to be a bit rougher, realistic, but Cassie’s are beautiful and I loved every detail of it.

Sebastian’s Redemption

I didn’t expect that, and while it was cheesy, I actually liked it. When Clary stabs Sebastian with the sword that contains the heavenly fire, and Sebastian momentarily becomes Jonathan Morgenstern, complete with green eyes. He expresses his grief, his wish that he hadn’t been born with the demon blood and his hope that there would be another dimension where he was the good son and brother. It was SO cheesy but I actually kind of liked it. It was sweet, and sad, and it was another blow of loss to Jocelyn and to Clary, of what could have been. It was both expected and unexpected and I enjoyed it.

Jem and Jace Talking For the First Time

I LOVED THIS. I had to stop and breathe in and out about this. I loved hearing Jem talk about his past, the people in his life, and all of that. If I had thought for even a moment that I was okay with the feels that Clockwork Princess had brought me, I was so very wrong. All the feelings from just the CP2 epilogue alone came rushing back, and it was beautiful to see him again. I loved his reuniting with Tessa and their appearance and Luke and Jocelyn’s wedding. Just all those feels from Clockwork Princess. I couldn’t handle it.

Maia’s Transformation

I was talking to a few people and they weren’t happy with the Maia thing in the book. I do admit, her relationship with Jordan was weird, especially since he died, and she appeared to be making something happening with Bat, but I was just proud of her as a character. Having the guts to take over the NY wolf pack, and to lead it, and to inform the Shadowhunters of the plans going down. I was really proud of her, and the way she stepped up and became a force to be reckoned with. I think Maia has always been sort of a background character but she really proved herself in this book and I honestly really loved it.

Jem Stealing Church

You don’t really need to go further than that. I honestly just couldn’t stop laughing. It was such perfection.

Clary and Jace Fighting Side by Side

I LOVE THIS. Before this, Clary and Jace had an inequality about them. Jace was an amazing Shadowhunter, Clary had her rune powers but there was always something kind of separating them in the Shadowhunter world. But watching them fight side by side, was just truly beautiful. I really felt like…its not about Jace protecting Clary physically or Clary using her powers to save Jace…they’re equals and fighting together and taking on the world together. They can protect each other. They recognize the strengths in each other and I think its awesome. There no angst, none of that struggle. They had finally reached a balance in their relationship and it was all about keeping themselves safe while taking Sebastian down.

Simon’s Sacrifice

I really liked this part, until the epilogue, which you’ll see later. By the time we had gotten to this part, I was kind of disappointed that no one had died. Again, see later. But when Simon steps up to sacrifice not only his immortality as a vampire, and his memories of everything of the shadow world, I was heartbroken. This, to me, was even worse than death. Simon had found his confidence in being part of that world. He would never remember his absolute best friend, Clary. He wouldn’t remember the girl he loved, Isabelle. That would be all gone. What a fate to fall upon one of the best characters in this series.

Anytime Emma is On the Page

OHMYGOD. I am absolutely adoring of Emma. I have been excited for so long for The Dark Artifices. This is the Shadowhunter world in Los Angeles, the place that I love. This is my home. Of course, I am so excited about it. But now after reading CoHF, I’m even more excited about it. We got to see so much of Emma, Julian and the Blackthorn children and so many hints at what to expect in TDA. I adore Emma. She’s a little spitfire and she’s going to be a great Shadowhunter and I want to see her climb rooftops again…haha. I can’t wait to see her grown up in TDA. I eagerly await it.

LEAST FAVORITE:

Lack of Deaths

Seriously? Who dies? WHO DIES? No one really. Jordan. Maureen. Amatis. Raphael. Andrew Blackthorn. Sebastian. All sad deaths, to be honest. Well, not Maureen. She was just insane. But none that hit me. None that made me feel heartbroken. I felt…like Cassie went way too safe with this ending. They were in the demons realms, there was Endarkened EVERYWHERE, and no one hugely important died? That bothered me. A really good author knows when to make a good sacrifice. Look at JK Rowling. Its war, and the deaths that she did: Sirius, Dumbledore, Mad-Eye, Fred, Tonks, Lupin, Colin Creevy, Hedwig. All important deaths that make cringe just typing them.

But Cassie went super safe and that made me sad. I wanted to feel the heartbreak, I wanted to feel the true loss of war. People lose friends, family members, lovers when there is war, and no one really had that. I honestly felt that Jocelyn, Luke, Jace, Clary, Alec, Magnus, Simon, Isabelle…one or two of those people should have died. It would have made the story that much better.

Simon’s Memories Coming Back

Which brings me back to Simon. I was feeling the disappointment in the lack of sacrifice in this book, when Simon decides to give up his memories and I almost felt like that was worse than death. Simon is one of the VERY first characters you meet, right after Clary. He’s important, and to have him lost to them, and have him lose all memories…it was heartbreaking. It was perfect. Then I read the epilogue, and I was disappointed again. I could see Simon having some memories buried deep, look what happened with Clary and her memories. But the idea of Simon ascending and suddenly remembering a good amount of Clary, Jace and Isabelle just kind of bothered me. It was TOO happy. It was a great sacrifice that was wasted by being wrapped up too quickly.

Magnus’ Dad

Did anyone expect way more than what he was? I expected this big scary guy that was mean, someone that Magnus didn’t want to claim himself to, someone that he was afraid of but it didn’t really turn out that way. He was just kind of silly, and Magnus seemed more annoyed with him than frightened. So that was a slight letdown.

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So what do you guys think? Share your favorite and least favorite moments in the comments! I love to hear from you but BE NICE. No hating on anyone for anything. Remember rule #1

Allegiant-A Spoiler Filled Discussion

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Now that I’ve written my spoiler free review, website I’ve decided to jump into the books and discuss the moments that have been discussed all over the internet, doctor and discuss why I loved this book.

This is your last warning! I will be discussing spoilers from this point on, search so if you haven’t read it yet, I’d suggest you stop reading this and go over to my spoiler FREE review here. 

All right. Moving on.

There has been a TON of hate and extremely negative reviews for Veronica Roth’s last installment of her Divergent Trilogy.

And her’s the thing: I was insanely surprised at the ending that she presents to us. She kills Tris Prior. Tris Prior who is the MAIN character of her novel. That’s almost unheard of. Almost.

This caused tears galore for me. I couldn’t stop crying, some of it was shock and some of it was just pure heartbreak at the thought of this character that I’ve grown to love and admire as dead. It was incredible. I never thought that she would do that but I honestly felt like it was the most logical solution to the situation that was happening in the book.

So I expected people to be surprised, upset, heartbroken. I thought that there would be a little anger but this outpouring of heartbreak and that all the Divergent fans would come swooping together to mourn together.

Yeah, that’s not what happened. People are PISSED, they are angry. They are saying its the worst ending to a series ever, they’re threatening Veronica on Twitter and Instagram. The reviews all over the interwebs are just awful, AND people are going up to Veronica at her Allegiant events, and telling her straight to her face, how much they disliked the book.

And I think so much of it boils down to the fact that she killed off Tris Prior.

I understand. I do. I almost wanted to throw the book when it happened too. I was in so much shock. There’s a small chunk of book left after her death, so there’s some processing time. I knew I liked the book immediately, but in the aftermath and recovery process of the book, I discovered more and more why I liked the book and why I agree with the choices that Veronica makes.

She kills off four characters that have been with us since the very first book: Edward, Tori, Uriah and Tris. And each of their deaths were hard to bear, the last two especially for me. But I think that Veronica recognizes what other authors have recognized: that in a war, a rebellion, a battle, a fight…people die. You can’t be picky and choosy on who dies in something like that. I think she took a page out of JKR’s strategy and definitely George R.R. Martin’s strategy, and realized that important people were going to die.

I mean, have read Game of Thrones? The main character dies in the VERY FIRST BOOK. Yeah. All these people insulting this book and Veronica Roth? Don’t read the first Game of Thrones book…or any of them really.

Tris’s death, to me, makes a lot of sense. The way it plays out is a bit awkward but I don’t think her actual death is unexpected. I mean it is because she’s the main character and I don’t think people expect the main character to die. But Tris, as a character, sacrificing herself for her friends and her family, the people that she loves? That is incredibly expected of her. When everyone accepts that Caleb will be the one to die, to sacrifice himself for the good of everyone else, I was surprised. I wasn’t surprised that Christina or Matthew or Peter or Four or anyone else would be okay with that, but I was incredibly surprised that Tris was okay with that. Despite his betrayal, Tris loves her brother, unconditionally, and she’s the reason they saved him from his execution at the hands of Evelyn. I couldn’t imagine her letting Caleb die, I just couldn’t.

So it made sense to me that Tris decided to task the risk and she died, in the hopes that the people she loved would be safe. She offers herself up in Insurgent to die to keep others safe, why would it be such a surprise that she does it in this novel? It was a VERY Tris-like action, and I think that her dying is more plausible than Four, who I think a lot of people believed would die.

Besides, we need to look at Veronica Roth as an author and as a person. She’s a Christian and a born-again Christian and she has some strong religious views that we do see peeking out of her story at times. She has not hesitated to thank God in every single one of her novels. I think that she used the sort of allusion as a sacrificing Christ figure in her book, and it honestly makes sense. Sure, Tris doesn’t resurrect like Jesus does but I think that Veronica was going with the more realistic approach, and I think its beautiful. Its a beautiful sacrifice. It reminds me of the sacrifice that Harry Potter makes in going into his death. Again, Harry lives but I think Veronica took more of a risk and I personally thought it was absolutely beautiful.

I think also we need to think of Veronica herself. She is my age, only 25, and even though she’s incredibly popular and has been reviewed so highly, she is still a person with feelings and emotions. She has expressed her concern over things like this, and has sought out help due to anxiety and stress. Whether or not you agree with the ending, to attack an author, and to say the things that have been said to her…its just ridiculous and absolutely immature. A book is an author’s baby, the same way a painting is to an artist or a song is to a musician. Whether you like a book or not, you should never attack it or the author.

Which brings me to this point: who are you to say that you know better than the author, the creator of the world and the characters? My friend Paulina said something, like, people get confused on the differences between a bad book and a book that simply does not end the way you wish it to. I think that happened a lot with this. People expected it to end a certain way…they wanted to be surprised, shocked, they knew it would break their hearts, but I’m sure everyone expected Fourtris (Four and Tris, for those not in the know) to live together happily ever after. Don’t they always? But they don’t, and I think a lot of anger comes from that.

Look, these are Veronica’s characters and she can tell the story, and treat them as she sees fit. And you don’t have to agree with that. One of my contributors is not a fan of the ending, but the way in which she handled her disappointment and dislike was done in an incredibly mature way. You may not like what Veronica has done with her characters and that’s okay! I’m not saying you’re wrong. I disagree with that, but we are allowed to disagree.

What I do disagree with is the disrespect being shown to Veronica Roth and her books, the amount of hate mail she is getting, the threats and the all around immaturity that I’m seeing from readers. I have seen one person on Twitter, tweeting Veronica incessantly, offering payment for a better ending to the book. That’s just ridiculous. Handle this like a mature adult, accept that this is the ending of the series whether you enjoy it or not, and move on.

I could go on and on about this. Its not necessarily my job to convince you that I’m right and that the ending is a good one, even though it is in my own opinion. I was heartbroken, I cried, and I definitely will be reading the book again, eventually, after I get through my insane stack of books waiting for me to read.

My job is to convince you that we all need to be respectful when in regards to someone else’s work. We may not always like what we see or what we read or what we hear but this is someone’s hard work. Someone poured their soul and hard work and their heart into something like this and we cannot sit here and presume to know better than them. Veronica Roth wrote the book that she set out to write, and she obviously took the time to make sure that it was the right book and the right story, because quite a bit of time has passed since the release of Insurgent.

And here’s my last thing: if you don’t like the ending of Allegiant, write yourself some fan fiction and move on.