Category: Lexi’s Library

Recently, I’ve really been thinking about the Folk of the Air series, or as it is more popularly known, The Cruel Prince series.

Written in 2018 by author Holly Black, The Cruel Prince follows the story of Jude Duarte, a 17-year-old mortal girl who lives in the land of Faerie. She lives here because her stepfather killed her mother when she was young and took Jude and her two sisters to live with him. Needless to say, it’s a bit of an awkward family dynamic. Jude grows up wishing for nothing more than to be one of the fae and struggles her whole upbringing with fitting in and proving herself to those around her. Her entire character arc in the first book actually ends up with her realizing that if she can not be better than the creatures around her, she will “become so much worse”. Jude’s other half in the book is our other main character Cardan. I say that he is her other half not because they are best friends, but because they’re so similar. That is one of the main things about this series that I love talking about. Jude and Cardan and their realtionship. I think that both of their characters are so well written and that their entire relationship is interesting because they’re the same person in different fonts. They both play mind games and try to best everyone and anyone. They both were not raised with love so they both have stranged and warped perceptions of what it is. They see it as a weakness becayse it was something that gave them a vulnerability that could be exploited, so when they fall for eachother, they mistake it for hatered. Eventually they come around to the idea that maybe love is not a weakness and maybe it is in fact strength. In the final book, it is even an act of love from Jude that saves Cardan in the last book. I just really think its amazing how these two characters who hate the idea of love, end up loving eachother. There is something sweet about the way that they swore off love and then they found eachother and decided that they would be the person that the other broke that oath of never loving for.

If you’ve been on any social media platform in the past year, you’ve probably heard of the book “It Ends With Us” by Colleen Hoover. I read this book during my senior year of high school and it genuinely might be one of my favorite books I’ve ever read.

It Ends With Us tells the story of a young woman named Lily Bloom. Lily is an outspoken, caring young woman who is just trying to get through life. The book begins with Lily meeting a very angry Ryle one night as they both contemplate life on the roof of a parking garage. From there, the two meet again and again until they become friends and eventually even start to date. Now, this is where our story gets a little different than most YA books. We slowly start to sense that something isn’t quite right with Ryle. The way he reacts to things is usually out of proportion and he makes comments that are off putting. Colleen doesn’t just sweep these aspects under the rug or write them off as him “caring”. She has lily acknowledge these things and even call Ryle out at some points. The two work things our, and even decide to get married. But it is far from happily ever after, as the book goes on, we see Ryle for what he truly is, an abuser. Going so far as to Push lily down the stares and then lie to her when she regains consciousness, telling her that she tripped. More and more events like this happen and we watch as lily goe through it all. This is all happening while an old friend from lilys past comes back into her life. Atlas, the sweet boy she met and took care of from her childhood. He’s returned and is now a very well known and successful chef. Atlas watches Lily as she goes through the abuse, and wants nothing more than to help her, but he knows that he can’t help her unless she wants it. Eventually, Lily leaves Ryle, only to discover that she is pregnant with her and Ryles child. She decides to keep the baby, but after giving birth, tells Ryle that she wants a divorce. She asks Ryle to look at their child, and what he would tell their daughter if she ever came to him and told him that a boy had abused her. Ryle understands, and leaves. We end the book with a glimpse of the future. Lily and Ryle successfully co-parenting their daughter, and Atlas and Lily starting a relationship.

I love this book. Not for the romance or dramatic moments, but because of the lesson it teaches. This book is a cautionary tale for young girls who view relationships through rose colored glasses. In the beginning of the book, Ryle is perfect. He’s handsome and charming, he’s funny and intentional with his time. He cares about Lily and her dreams. He is everyones ideal book boy. And then, when he hits Lily for the first time, all of that charm starts to fade away and we begin to see right through it as Lily does. This book doesn’t write off toxic behavior as romantic, a problem in a lot of YA novels, it calls it out for what it is, abuse. I also love this book for the real best book boyfriend, Atlas. Atlas not only defends Lily as soon as he realizes what is going on, he then backs off when he realizes that lily needs to make her own decisions. He understands that he can’t make the decision to leave for her. He doesn’t insert himself into her situation in order to be a hero or her knight in shinning armor. This also allows the readers to see something rare, the idea that sometimes, you have to want to be saved and you have to be willing to save yourself.

As we have established, I love reading. If I could get paid to read books, then I would never have to worry about my future career ever again. All that being said, I was never fond of being told what I had to read. I’ve gotten over it as I’ve gotten older because I recognize that required reading material is just a part of life as a student. The first time I remember running into a major required reading that went with a class was in 6th grade. The book was The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. Here’s the thing, when I first heard the name of the book, for some reason, I thought it was about football. Don’t ask me why, I have no idea. So I was not looking forward to it, I was actually sort of dreading it. So imagine my surprise that it is now one of my all time favorite books that I recommend everyone reads at least once in their life. The Outsides, contrary to 12 year old lexi’s thoughts, is not about football, but instead is about gang and socioeconomic tension in Tulsa Oklahoma in the 1960’s. It’s written from the perspective of 14 year old Ponyboy Curtis and we find out at the end of the book, that the entire story was written by him for his english final project. Ponyboy writes about the traumatic events that have unfolded that involve the death of two of his close friends. Throughout the book, he attempts to understand his place in society and his friend group and come to terms with the fact that life is rough regardless of where you grow up. A big key takeaway from the book is that everyone struggles. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you live, at the end of the day, we all see the same sunset. This book had such an impact on me that even now, 7 years later, I still think about it. Each character in the book has their own unique personality. I think the two characters that stuck out to me the most were always Dallas and Johnny. They’re so interesting to me because they’re two sides of the same coin. We learn in the book that both of them have been through some pretty rough and painful lives. That pain caused Dallas to become hardened and tough while it made Johnny timid and afraid. Dallas is cool and angry and dangerous while Johnny is soft, quiet and keeps his head down. I just always thought that it was interesting that they were both so different and yet their fate of death was ultimately the same.

The Outsiders by S.E Hinton is an absolute classic that is going to always be applicable to life no matter how much time passes because at the end of the day, we all see the same sunset.

Sarah J. Maas is the author of some of my all time favorite book series. She has written A Court of Thorns and Roses, Throne of Glass and Crescent City, all of which I have read in their entirety and love. Here’s my issue, the last book she released was the second book in the Crescent City series, House of Sky and Breathe and it ended in perhaps the biggest cliffhanger that I have ever read in my entire 19 years of living. (Spoiler alert from this point on, just so you’re warned) This woman had the audacity to separate Hunt and Bryce, the two main characters, at the very end of the book while putting them both through extreme pain. She then has Bryce escape through a portal in an admittedly very confusing chase scene, to disappear into what she thinks is Hel. When then figure out alongside Bryce that she is not in Hel, but in Prythian, the main world for the A Court of Thorns and Roses Series. The final line of the books is Rhysand introducing himself to Bryce and then boom, book ends, just like that. When I tell y’all that I wanted to throw the book across the room. Did I do that? No. I just stared at the page in disbelief. The way I have had the suspicion that all of her worlds are connected for years and now it’s being confirmed? Iconic. I have never been more excited for the next book in a series in my life. I personally am hoping that SJM doesn’t only combine A Court of Thorns and Roses and Crescent City, but also throws in Throne of Glass. I feel like there are a few characters (Mannon and Dorian) that didn’t quite get a clear ending, and it would be incredible to see more of them. I also think it’ll be interesting to see how Mrs.Maas combines the futuristic setting and technology of Crescent City, with the medieval and fantasy setting of her other two series. There are so many intersting ways to take this crossover and I cant wait to read all about it!

All my love,

-Lexi

Since I’ll most likely be writing about books a lot on this blog, I should probably give some context on my passion for reading.

I’ve loved to read since I was a little girl, in-fact, in one of my first baby pictures, I’m “reading” a book. Obviously I haven’t been reading since I was that small, but sometimes it feels that way. For as long as I can remember I’ve read like I needed to do it to survive. In kindergarten throughout all of elementary school, library days were my favorite. I loved that there was an entire room dedicated to housing stories. Picture books, chapter books, graphic novels, it didn’t matter, I loved it. If I had to credit the moment I felt the root of my love for reading take place though, it would have to be when I was reading the Percy Jackson books in 3rd grade. My older brother had been reading them and walked into the living room, handed me the book, and told me I should read it. I sat down as I read those iconic first words, “Look, I didn’t want to be a Half-Blood”, I immediately fell in love. I remember reading and for the first time, it felt as if I were watching a movie in my head. Since then, as I’ve grown up, I’ve fallen more and more in love with reading and have come to understand that it’s more than just because I enjoy the story. I love reading because it allows me to go places that I can only dream of, meet characters that I feel I know as if they were my best friends, and go on adventures right from the comfort of my room. The thing about reading is that, while it may be all in our head, the emotions that the stories make us feel our very much real. We love with our characters as well as mourn with them and that is something that I think is truly special about reading, the ability to experience complex emotions and learn real lessons from words on a page.

Reading has always brought this extreme sense of comfort to me, like as long as I was reading and in that world, nothing could touch me. It has been my safe place to go when I felt overwhelmed and when I felt alone, I always had my books to retreat into. I’ll forever be thankful to my older brother for lending me the Percy Jackson books, because I can’t imagine how bored I’d be today without them.

At the beginning of this summer, I began reading “The Inheritance Games” by Jennifer Lynn Barnes and absolutely fell in love with it. Just a few days ago, I finished the sequel, “The Hawthorne Legacy” and it did not disappoint.

I want to first discuss the character that Mrs.Barnes has created because they are some of my new favorites of all time. Our main character, Avery, is witting, cunnings and genuinely a smart character. Jennifer Barnes doesn’t shy away from that and it’s something that I noticed and appreciated. I also loved that she’s was strong enough to keep going but also to admit when she had made mistakes or was wrong. We also have the stars of the show themselves, the infamous Hawthorne brothers. Nash, Grayson, Jameson, and Xander are all so different and yet we clearly see their love for each other throughout the books. What I really liked was how each of them are written in ways that didn’t shy away from highlighting their faults and yet you can’t help but love them anyways. I enjoy each of their personalities and characters thoroughly, however I would have to say that Jameson is my favorite. I love his character growth and development so far. We’ve seen him go from a kid who only cares about the game and winning, to a young man who still cares about the game, but he’s allowed himself to care about certain other people more. We’re beginning to see him willingly and openly put others before the game and I can’t wait to see where Mrs.Barnes takes his character in the future!

As for the actual plot of the book, I loved it! Just when I thought I had figured out the plot twist, I would be completely caught off guard and thrown for another loop. Jennifer accomplishes something unique in the sense that she was able to write a book that kept me on the edge of my seat and hooked without making me super stressed to the point of discomfort. She has written an incredible mystery book and I am so excited to read the third installment!

Okay so now for the fun part, the love triangle. I have incredibly strong opinions on this so buckle up. Out of Avery’s two love interests, Jameson and Grayson, Jameson Hawthorne is clearly the correct choice. Grayson tried numerous time to keep Avery from doing anything to help her get answers and although it came partially from a place of concern, it also came from a place of him thinking he knew better. Jameson, from the beginning of the series, has seen Avery as an equal, and by the start of the second book, he no longer wants to beat her to the answers, he wants to solve the mystery along side her. I could go on and on about why I believe in Jameson supremacy but we would simply be here for hours if I did that.

All in all, The Inheritance Games does a great job of continuing the mystery and thrill from the first book. It has great twists and turns that keeps the reader engaged while managing to tell a cohesive story about what family really means.