The Summer Book Tag

Introduction

Hello-Hello! Right now my life requires a hero so, of course, I had to take out my superhero costume from the dusty attic. The moment real life decides to diminish its flirting with me I will return on the world wide web with more posts. ^_^

Scout's honor! (Although, I was never a scout... Oops! ^^')

Also, thank you Abi (What Makes A Good Book) for tagging me eons ago! 

Now, let's return to the actual post 'cause "Winter is coming!" (Yes, I just binge watched GoT.)

Summer

1. Lemonade: Pick a book that started bitter but got better.

Hmmm... I actually love Lemonade. The less sugar the better!
I will bend the rules a bit for this category and I am going to choose the Cormoran Strike (<- link) by Robert Galbraith - aka J.K. Rowling. The first book was so slow I was so close to not finish it and give up on the series. Blame the author for keeping me hooked. What can I say? I was biased when I took that decision and I am so glad I did. The series only gets better with each book.

image source: my Instagram.

2. Golden sun: Pick a book that made you smile beyond compare.

Why LA? Pourquoi Paris? by Diane Ratican is a book I am currently reading. It is an entire laughing session every single time I am opening it for a read. Why? Half of it is written in French while the other half is written in English. And both are not my mother tongue. Despite my fluency in English, it is an amazing challenge to relearn and read French while my brain is set to operate in English mode.
The graphics, the story and the way it is written offer an unique experience especially for bilinguals and multilingual. You get to experience translation barriers and differences first hand.
(Yes, I speak French at a very basic level. ^_^ )

image source: Goodreads (link above, book title mention)

3. Tropical flowers: Pick a book set in a foreign country.

Does another planet count? Kidding! (But just in case, check out Return Once More by Trisha Leigh. Shhh!)

I see London, I see France by Sarah Mylnowski is another book I am currently reading. It takes place in multiple countries across Europe (e.g. France and U.K.) and U.S.A. So far, it is... alright. A tad of too much teenage - even though the protagonists are in college - drama for me. I shall see. ^^

 images source: Goodreads (link, books title mention)

4. Tree shade: Pick a book in which a mysterious or shady character was first introduced.

I am bending the rules again and I am going to pick two characters: Raffe from Angelfall (<-link), and Seth from The Red Pyramid (<-link).
Well... Seth is Seth the Egyptian god of... violence, disorder etc. etc. So no more introduction there although there is more to him than it seems.
Raffe, on the other hand, is more mysterious and secretive, and less shady than Seth. At least that is what I think.

5. Beach sand: Pick a book that was grainy and the plot barely developed.

Vernal (<-link) by Randi Cooley Wilson. For a detailed explanation feel free to check my full review by clicking the book link.

image source: Goodreads  

6. Green grass: Pick a character(s) that were full of life, making you smile.

Sadie and Carter from The Red Pyramid.
 Kaia and Levi from Exist Once More.

7. Watermelon: Pick a book that had some juicy secrets.

Exist Once More by Trisha Leigh. Time Travel. History. Secrets? Well, duh! Obviously! Wink-Wink. Warning! This is the second book in a duology. Read the synopsis on your own risk.

image source: Goodreads (link, book title mention)

8. Sun hat: Pick a book that had a vast, big universe/setting.

It looks like this is a Rick Riordan post. The Red Pyramid  by Rick Riordan and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay  by J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter Universe, duh! Pretty Big. Quite H-U-G-E, I will like to say. Wink-wink!)

images source: Goodreads (links, books title mention)

9. BBQ: Pick a book where a character was portrayed as a hunk.

Can I say every single romance - historical romance to be precise - book I ever read?

Oz from the Return Once More.
(Ok, this post is shared between Trisha Leigh AND Rick Riordan. I fell better now.)
Darien from Geekerella.
Hades and Aries (and every single god) from Daughters of Zeus series, Persephone.

10. Tag people!

You just have been tagged! BAM!

I hope you enjoyed this post. Let me know in the comments below if you decided to do this tag or if you read any of these books.

PS

I will see you soon!

Until next time you can check out my latest posts about books and music -->HERE and HERE<--

Aphrodite by Kaitlin Bevis Where Spoilers Are Inevitable

Aphrodite (Daughters of Zeus #4) - Kaitlin Bevis

 

Being perfect isn’t easy, but Aphrodite is determined to live up to the ideal. So when Poseidon asks her to investigate strange happenings on several cruise ships, she jumps at the chance to prove herself. Demigods are going missing, and no one remembers them having been on board. Aphrodite charms herself into the best room on the ship, prepared to investigate in style. Unfortunately, the room belongs to the one man immune to her charm. Adonis. When Aphrodite realizes that he could be the next target, her investigation gets more complicated. Worse, whoever is responsible for the missing demigods charmed the passengers and armed them with long-forgotten weapons designed to kill gods. When the ship goes dark, Aphrodite and Adonis have to work together to discover who is behind the mayhem before Poseidon decides their ship, and every charmed and armed human on it, are more trouble than they’re worth. Aphrodite

 

 

 

My Opinion

3.60/5 stars

My opinion... My opinion... My opinion... I got into the Daughters of Zeus in March 2016 (Thank you Goodreads) and I was pumped about the series. The first three books center around Persephone and Hades. And boy, oh boy, I fell in love with those two.

We meet Aphrodite in the second book. In the beginning, I got mixed feelings about her and I still have some. Alright! Alright! Those of you who read the Persephone "trilogy" will say that it is understandable. And I could not agree more although I cannot click with her the same way I clicked with Persephone.

I cannot believe I am going to say this about a character... Aphrodite is shallow with a great personality and she is not afraid to tell the hurtful truths. Surprisingly, I liked her more when I was able to read her PoV because... lots of insight in the brain. (I made it sound like a brain dissection >:]).)
 

(Aphrodite from Kaitlin Bevis book/website) 



This book follows up the events of the Iron Queen and the gods go to investigate the "bomb drop" given by Zeus to Hades. Aphrodite volunteers and she becomes the investigator.

I am trying to keep this review as spoiler free as possible and it proves to be a very difficult task...

A good part of the book moves rather slowly. It is a build up for the grad finale which was extremely rich in action. And only for that, I am glad I gave the book another try after a couple of months; although, I wanted more Hades and Persephone. Ha-Ha-Ha!

Spoilers 

I know that the main ship is Aphrodite and Ares but the fact that we do not see how they click it makes me hard to believe in their relationship. Do not cut short my ship, I need feels. Ares and Aphrodite are great characters by themselves and they need more story time. Probably, I am the only person being sympathetic towards Adonis and that is because I had a classmate in 7th and 8th grade called Adonis and he was (and is since he is still alive) beautiful to the eye and a nice person sooo... I have high hopes for him. Ha-Ha-Ha! He does not seem bad. He just took bad decisions.

End of Spoilers

As a warning for those who got addicted to the series, I recommend taking a break after the third book and then read the Aphrodite books. Aphrodite is not Persephone and Kaitlin Bevis does a great job at keeping them distinctive.

I recommend the series if Greek mythology is you cuppa tea or should I say cup of ambrosia?

These books deserve more credit if you ask me.

 

This is my sole opinion. ^_^
 

P.S. I dare you to eat a pomegranate for every single time I used the words click, clicked or clicks  - including now.
  

Link to Goodreads -->Persephone by Kaitlin Bevis 

Link to Author's site -->Kaitlin Bevis

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Greek Mythology Romance
Language: moderate
Sexual content: moderate to heavy
Violence: moderate to heavy
Drugs/Alcohol: moderate to heavy