NaNoWriMo Update – Week Two

Hello my lovelies! How is everyone going with their novels this week?

Again I am happy but not happy with mine. While I can see that my story still sorta sucks, I feel it is more because it needs a whole load of editing rather than me just not being happy with the actual story. I decided on a big plot point when it comes to what is going to fuel parts of the story and I have started writing it in and thus far I am really liking the direction that it is taking my story.

The part I am not so happy with this week is my word count. I had a few long days at work or just long days with life in general and I couldn’t get my brain to focus on writing enough to keep up with the daily word goals. Lets compare some charts shall we:

First of all here is my daily word counter. Please note that some days are a bit off because I forgot to update my time zone location when I moved from Melbourne to Brisbane, so if I updated after 11pm for that first week and a bit the words between my last update and then got counted for the next day. I think I have fixed it now but I haven’t had a chance to test it yet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the daily word count goal charts. The first one is where we ended off last week and the second one is this weeks update.

As you can see there were a few days where I did nothing and even though I pushed out 2455 words this morning before I started writing this blog post, I am still quite behind. I obviously need to take a bit of a mental break now but I hope to write at least another 2000 words today and set myself up for a lot of writing for tomorrow (Sunday). I really want to be over the desired word count by tomorrow because I know I am having another really long week at week and I probably won’t gemuch writing done.

Now lets take a look at my chapter differences. The first picture is where we left off last week, and the second is where I am currently as of 1:19pm on Saturday the 10th of November.

As you can see I have not gone back to look at that first act. I am finding it a lot easier to pump out words for the second act, and as I am umping them out I am finding out more about my character and how their lives work and the people who are in it. I am starting to feel as though I am getting to a place where I can go back and fill in some more of the build up to me turning point between the acts. I was going to try and do a bit before writing this post, but after about 3 hours of straight writing I could feel my mind drifting and decided it would probably be better to try a bit later after my mind has had a rest.

And thats all the update I think I have for you guys this week. As always, link me, tell me how you are going, share any update posts. This community is part of the thing that makes this month so fun.

 

Till Next Time. . .

Book Review – Glass Sword

Title: Glass Sword [Red Queen 2]

Author: Victoria Aveyard

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Length: 440

Rating: 4 Star

Series: 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4

Description/Synopsis:

If there’s one thing Mare Barrow knows, it’s that she’s different.

Mare Barrow’s blood is red—the color of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control.

The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind.

Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors.

But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat.

Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?

The electrifying next installment in the Red Queen series escalates the struggle between the growing rebel army and the blood-segregated world they’ve always known—and pits Mare against the darkness that has grown in her soul.

Review – MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

I really enjoyed this story. Not as much as the first but it was still very enjoyable.

If I am a sword, I am a sword made of glass, and I feel myself beginning to shatter.

In this one Mare sets off to hunt down and save the other ‘new bloods’ as she started calling them. Plot wise this kept me entertained for awhile. She won some, she lost some, and the first few were interesting. This part of the story dragged a little bit for me though so I was glad when it started to move on. I don’t think this book was really supposed to be plot based for the most part. Obviously things do happen or it would be pointless but I think this one was more about character development and the introduction of all the new bloods that are going to hold key points in the story later on.

Oh Mare. I love you, but you tested my patience a bit. There were times in this book I just wanted to shake her because it seems as though as she just hadn’t really learnt anything from anything that happened on the previous book. I get the struggles she was going through, I really do. I also think that there was a lot of the ‘Mare is so evil’ agenda being pushed in our faces again, through fights that seemed a bit pointless and even her own thoughts. But for the love of god, its the same thing that gets her every single time. I am glad she at least she acknowledged just how dumb she was at these moments. I truly hated her a little though when it came to her first interaction with Cam. I just straight up hated Cam though so I can forgive her for it. . . I guess. There was also a part where she killed people who were surrendering that made me sad for the way she was turning.

No one is born a monster. But I wish some people were. It would make it easier to hate them, to kill them, to forget their dead faces.

I really liked the way the new characters changed all the interactions between our old characters, and some of them stood out in their own right as well. Be it because I hated or loved them it didn’t really matter. Shade is by far my favourite side character I think. He is just a lovely person always trying to do his best and he really knew how to speak to Mare when she was taking things too far or being stupid. I really liked his and Farley’s relationship too. I didn’t find Farley very interesting going into this book but I liked the things we learnt about her in this book, it gave her more depth and made her interesting and I want more on her. Kilorn just made me angry most of the book.

SPOILER – Maven popped up in this book more than I expected. I hate him and wish he would die but his popping up certainly kept parts of this book from becoming dull. The first time we see him again and he attacks Mare with the sounder device that pretty much turned her own electricity against her and burnt her up from the inside out was both amazing and horrifying. I was so scared for her and I could almost feel her pain, but I felt so bad for all the people around her who had to watch this happen and then have her beg for death before basically going into a coma for awhile. END SPOILER

The most boring character development person was probably Cal. I feel so bad for him though. He just lost his whole family and his kingdom, the thing he was raised to rule and look after. I think he is completely wrong in thinking its not worth starting a war over change, but he is just stuck between a rock and a hard place. Without turning his back on people who can’t really move on. He has to decide to kill the silver people he loves, or turn against the girl he loves and be an enemy of the people he is staying with. I would probably be just as annoying and mopey if I were in his place. His and Mares relationship annoyed me a bit in this book, the least the both of them could do is decided on their feelings for each other. And Maven. So frustrating to read.

“I’m starting to think you like prisons,” he says, idling knocking his knuckles against the wall. “And that you have the worst taste in men.”

I think I am going to leave this review here. I know it was sort of just a character check in, and it wasn’t even every character, but I cannot really talk about the plot for this one. There are still some unoriginal things going through this book, and to me is seemed slower than the other book. There are things that happen scattered throughout the book, some that make me happy, some that make my heart hurt, but they are all hugely spoilery so I can’t go into them at all. If you liked the first book I think you will like this one and it is definitely worth picking up this book!

 

Till Next Time. . .

Book Review – City Of Ashes

Title: City of Ashes [The Mortal Instruments 2]

Author: Cassandra Clare

Genre: Young Adult, Supernatural, Romance

Length: 453

Rating: 4 Star

Book Series Reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Description/Synopsis:

Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what’s normal when you’re a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires, and faeries? If Clary left the world of the Shadowhunters behind, it would mean more time with her best friend, Simon, who’s becoming more than a friend. But the Shadowhunting world isn’t ready to let her go — especially her handsome, infuriating, newfound brother, Jace. And Clary’s only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insane, certainly evil — and also her father.

To complicate matters, someone in New York City is murdering Downworlder children. Is Valentine behind the killings — and if he is, what is he trying to do? When the second of the Mortal Instruments, the Soul-Sword, is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor arrives to investigate and zooms right in on Jace. How can Clary stop Valentine if Jace is willing to betray everything he believes in to help their father?

Review – MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

I liked this book more than the first one.

And can I just take a random moment to say how much I love the cat Church? They talk to him like he understands and he leads people around the house. He is just awesome. But then again, I like most cats in books if they get a little bit of special personality traits.

Now onto the things people actually care about haha.

Unlike the first book I enjoyed the writing style in this one much more. I think Clare has really gotten into the flow of how the story and all the characters should go and say and all that stuff. It just makes the story easy to follow and enjoyable to read.

I know I said that I thought Simon brought out the best in Clary, that does not mean in anyway shape or form that I think they should be dating. What the hell do you think you are doing Clary???? The only time the two of you dating would be accept is if you were both like 50 and had made a deal to be together if you could find no one else, even then you never know. Its not that hard to find someone better boyfriend material that Simon. Why do people always assume just cause people have a good friendship that means they should date? Even people in real life tend to do this. Its annoying. The relationship was very forced and thought I was a bit upset when Simon basically died, I was jumping up and down with joy because it meant the relationship would end. But of course he didn’t die, but thank you Simon for coming to your senses and ending it. It made me very happy.

We got to meet knew people in this book. I both liked and hated these people. We got a good meeting of the fey and their queen, and anyone by now should know that I like a good/cunning/different kind of evil villain. I got this in her, she’s a bit of bitch, but I love how she messes with their minds. It was pretty funny. And it made Simon sad haha. But then we also met the Inquisitor from the Clave. Oh my god I don’t think I have hated a character this hard in a really long time. Everytime anyone even just mentioned her I instantly become furious. She is just crazy, and not the crazy I like. She is the kind of crazy that hasnt actually lost her marbles but acts upon things that have no basis because thats the way she wants it to be for her own pathetic reasons, despite how wrong she is proven to be.

Other than that there were some really great moments in the book. One of which I feel is worth mentioning is that both Jace and Clary come into their own powers which have been mentioned as a possibility in the first book. Clary really begins to shine because of this. She gets a kind of new confidence that makes her more appealing and enjoyable as a character. I didn’t really get this feeling with Jace because you always knew he was kind of more superhuman then the others. Still enjoyable though.

So yes, I would recommend this book to anyone who likes the supernatural, some good action, and is interested in reading a series rather than a trilogy.

Till Next Time…

Book Review – Endless Knight

Title: Endless Knight [The Arcana Chronicles 2]

Author: Kresley Cole

Genre: Young Adult, Post-Apocalyptic, Supernatural, Romance

Length: 320

Rating: 3 Star

Book Series Reviews: 1, 2, 3

Description/Synopsis:

Shocking Secrets

Evie has fully come into her powers as the Tarot Empress, and Jack was there to see it all. She now knows that the teens who’ve been reincarnated as the Tarot are in the throes of an epic battle. It’s kill or be killed, and the future of mankind hangs in the balance.

Unexpected Allies

With threats lurking around every corner, Evie is forced to trust her newfound alliance. Together they must fight not only other Arcana, but also Bagmen zombies, post-apocalyptic storms, and cannibals.

Gut-Wrenching Treachery

When Evie meets Death, things get even more complicated. Though falling for Jack, she’s drawn to the dangerous Endless Knight as well. Somehow the Empress and Death share a history, one that Evie can’t remember—but Death can’t forget.

Review – MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Oh dear. I had such high hopes for this book and most of them all fell short. I LOVED Poison Princess and I cant express the same feelings for this second book.

A very large section of this book was slow paced. You get sections of action packedness here and there, but it is mostly restricted to the first section of the book. This I think happened because Evie ends up spending alot of time at Deaths place and nothing really happens while she is there. You just get her building relationships with people who live there and thats about it. The bits of action we did get though was great, I loved when they were with the Cannibals and I was really freaking out at certain parts.

And lets just touch on how annoyed I am about the introduction of a love triangle. WHY COLE WHY? I like Death, I think he is a really interesting character and would really like to view quite a lot of things from his perspective, but the fact that the triangle was introduce frustrated me. Now onto a SPOILER I also HATED the fact that Death has such mixed emotions about Evie is because surprise surprise they were married in a previous life and she killed him. I get the life and death are supposed to be together kinda thing but that just blew my mind that that was put in, and not in a good way END SPOILER. Both are left up in the air in a serious way. The ending of the book was not any good at all. Nothing resolved, its just all prolonged.

You get pretty much no Jackson in this book. Once Death comes in he goes. But before all that Jackson’s with Evie is pretty shit house because of things that happened in the book before, things get sorted out, but they take just too long to sort through their rubbish for my liking. Jackson when he is actually caring and being nice to Evie is pretty damn adorable. I also have a theory that I think a lot of people have come to as well. I think Jackson is the last Arcana, the one that is only revealed when they kill another Arcana. It has been set up perfectly. The past between him and the Lovers has been set up perfectly for him to off them and come into his powers, completely get over the differences between him and Evie because there wont be any really anymore (if Death is left out of the picture) and things will end fine and dandy. However there has been thought by others that he is meant to kill my Matthew, to which I think NOOOO! Im glad this seems less likely in my mind because then Evie wouldn’t like him anymore, and she would probably end up with Death instead.

I love the fact that Evie has come into her powers, I think it makes her a stronger person, but I also felt that some of her previous character was left out because of it and that wasn’t a good thing. The whole thing about this Evie is that she keeps her previous personality and thusly pretty much refuses to participate in the games, but then I found that it was lost which annoyed me. I didn’t laugh as much in this book, Evie lost some of her sass and quick wit/bright spirit. I don’t think this was intentional, other things just seemed to take over rather than keeping her character the way it was described to be. I do like though how Cole works through how when Evie uses her powers, she has a hard time remembering she doesn’t want to play the game and just wants to win. I like the struggle.

Though this book fell flat I still am eager for the next one. I hope that Cole has gotten over her malfunctions in this book and the level gets popped back up to its 5 star rating.