7/31/2017

Vampire Academy and Why You Should Read It

A year ago I spent 5 straight days in my room binge reading the Vampire Academy series. That's right, 6 books in 5 days. It was the craziest binge I had ever been on and honestly I have no regrets about it and it's so scary to think that although a year has already passed, the series is honestly still so fresh in my head. I am now finally reading the Bloodlines series, it's spin off series (also, it's the books getting me out of this slump). It's been a year but I never really wrote a review on the whole series. I have a draft where I basically fangirled about the series for about 1, 500 words and the draft isn't done yet but I honestly was not about to go through and post that. It's way too fucking long oh my lord. So, I decided to just kind of just write a new post about the series, shorter, and not as spoilery. It's been a whole year since the binge so this is a perfect time for this post. I'll try not to ramble on for too long.

Here is a little backstory. It was summer, the day before my birthday and me and my sister were bored as hell. So we decided to watch a movie and what did we choose? Vampire Academy. I just rewatched the movie and now that I look back on it, no wonder they never picked it up for a second movie. It was just...not the best. At the time though, I was super intrigued by the movie so I decided to see what this book was about. Fast forward, 5 days later and Kaitlin has finished the series and was shook af.

What initially kept me so hooked with this series is how great the general storyline is. I love the world this takes place, how much depth it had, which gave Mead a lot of space to create her storyline. Honestly this series took so many turns I was totally not expecting and each book really got better and better. With the title of "Vampire Academy" you would expect all 6 books to be about vampires bitching around at a high school but oh my lord. Each book the author really built onto the storyline and each book was so addicting. It also did not help that every single damn book basically ended in a cliff hanger so I had no control when it came to immediately reaching for the next book after finishing the previous one. The fact that Richelle Mead knows exactly when to fuck shit up is such a big reason why I love these books so much and why they're so addicting. Unfortunately, I won't talk too much about that because if I did I would reveal every single plot twits but trust me the rollercoasters within this series are very serious. Very.

Not only is the storyline so good but the books mature in a way as Rose matures. In the beginning she isn't immature, but she is very young, as she should be considering she is a teenager unknown to how dangerous her world is. So many things are thrown at her way by the end of the series and because of that she had become so much more mature. Along with that, the books become more and more serious. It looses it's "carefree teenagers" vibe and I didn't find that a bad thing at all because it made sense. Rose experienced so much through the 6 books, if it didn't loose those vibes then it wouldn't represent Rose's growth as well as it should. (Lightweight sad though because it just shows how much had changed between those 6 books) It was exactly like when you finish the 6th season of a show and for fun, go back to the 1st season and see what's changed. When you go back to the 1st season though, you realize that half the characters are dead, the main character is a whole new person, and you kind of just wonder,"What happened?" I guess that was me just now, as I watched the first movie and thought of everything that would happen afterwards. The characters mature, the storyline get's better and more complex, and I honestly think that's why I love it so much. I'm pretty sure I would have loved a 6 books series based on a whole bunch of high school drama but it would have definitely been less memorable compared to how Vampire Academy is to me now.

And not only do the characters change through the series, they do it together. They endure so much through everything but what I love is how through it all, they stick with each other. Yeah, there are definitely bumps here and there but they're all so dedicated to each other, which is one of the reasons why I love the characters in this series. They're all different in their own way. And don't even get me started on the romances oh my god! Going into this series I already knew the couples but I didn't expect half the shit they would experience. And they're just so cute. There is nothing better than cute romance and that's one a small reason why I love this series so much.

Yes, I know this series has been out for ages which is probably why you should get on with and read it. It isn't as big as The Hunger Games or Divergent but oh my lordy to me it's even better than both those trilogies (IMO). If you looking for a long binge, pick up Vampire Academy. It's not as bad as the series title makes it seem. And who knows, you may fall for it as hard as I did. Read it for the great plot, or the characters, or the romance, or the world, or the humor, or *just* read it. Please, thanks :)

Vampire Academy

Author: Richelle Mead

Publisher: Razorbill

Release Date: January 2nd 2007

Format: eBook

ONLY A TRUE BEST FRIEND CAN PROTECT YOU FROM YOUR IMMORTAL ENEMIES… Lissa Dragomir is a Moroi princess: a mortal vampire with a rare gift for harnessing the earth's magic. She must be protected at all times from Strigoi; the fiercest vampires—the ones who never die. The powerful blend of human and vampire blood that flows through Rose Hathaway, Lissa's best friend, makes her a dhampir. Rose is dedicated to a dangerous life of protecting Lissa from the Strigoi, who are hell-bent on making Lissa one of them. After two years of freedom, Rose and Lissa are caught and dragged back to St. Vladimir's Academy, a school for vampire royalty and their guardians-to-be, hidden in the deep forests of Montana. But inside the iron gates, life is even more fraught with danger…and the Strigoi are always close by. Rose and Lissa must navigate their dangerous world, confront the temptations of forbidden love, and never once let their guard down, lest the evil undead make Lissa one of them forever…

Goodreads

7/26/2017

China Photo Diary: Skyscrapers and Skyscraping Trees

Hello and welcome to a super exciting post! So, if you don't know while I was on hiatus I was in China, running around and exploring. Through all this, I took a shit ton of pictures so I was most definitely going to come back and share with you guys these pictures. I already showed a few of them on Twirling Pages but that post was very general. Here, within the next few weeks I will be slowly unrolling pictures I took from my trip and explaining what I did these past few weeks. Today's post will be covering the pictures I took in the cities (skyscrapers) and naturey (skyscraping trees) places that I visited. Also, reminder I am not a professional photographer, I just love taking pictures! Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy!

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I went to about 10 cities: 香港 (Hong Kong), 北京 (Beijing), 广州 (Goungzhou), 九江 (Jiujiang), 景德镇 (Jingdezhen), 庐山 (Lushan), 南昌 (Nanchang), 西安(Xi'an), 张家界(Zhang Jia Jie), and 深圳 (Shenzhen). 8 of those cities were city, cities and I didn't spend much time in three of them. My favorite city had to be Hong Kong. They had good dim sum, egg waffles and good ass food in general (more pictures to come). It was hot the whole time we were in these cities so obviously walking around was not very ideal but we went through it anyway. Okay so there are a variety of pictures here so I will be basically explaining some of the pictures, where they were taken, and the happenings in that city. Enjoy!

About the Pictures

1: This was taken on Ladies Street in Hong Kong! You may have heard of it but it's basically this long street of vendors basically selling cheap things. The things sold on this street range from fake bags, cheap souvenirs, toys (fidget spinners, everywhere), and really just a whole bunch of stuff. It's always super crowded and the sellers there are not most patient people but it's really cool to walk up and down the street though and see what (fake shit) people are selling.

2 & 4: These pictures were taken in Xi'an and 2 is one of the night markets we had visited. We went to two night markets, photographed is the suckier one haha, the other one had better food. It was super busy though, this night market. I think Xi'an was a pretty nice city! I didn't spend much time doing a lot of city things, most were going to the historical sites (them terra-cotta warriors and museums). I don't know maybe I'm tripping but I honestly found Xi'an so much warmer than other cities, maybe because we did so much more walking in the sun there haha. There were soooo many people at the terra-cotta warriors though oh my lord never going back there again. It was hot, everyone was sweating, and we're all pressing up against each other, trying to get places. It was terrible but honestly, I was in Xi'an so seeing the warriors was a must. Got it over with so I won't be going back there again! (Picture 4: Beiling Museum)

3: This was taken in the tallest building in Shen Zhen, 96 floors above the ground. On the top is this little cafe with (kind of expensive) food but it is honestly so chill up there. The ticket to the top includes food so me and my family kind of chilled up there for about 3 hours, sipping tea, eating food, and enjoying the view. Shenzhen has some bipolar weather so the rain was going in and out through the day. We got to see the clouds float through the city at like, cloud level. This picture was taken a little after the clouds started to roll out of the city. I loved the view from the building and how this picture turned out with the city and also the clouds.

5 & 6: These pictures are from Beijing! We spent about 4 days in Beijing since there actually was a good amount of stuff to do. The 4 days we were in Beijing were the 4 hottest days, each day around 100 degrees or even over. (I climbed the Great Wall in 101 degree weather, not a cloud in the sky) It was terrible but I went through with it. We also went and saw Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square (it was very close to our Air B&B), along with Wangfujing street and the snack street! My favorite thing about Beijing was how chill it was at night, well at least the area that I was in during night. It got cooler at night and walking around the streets got so much nice then. I'm glad we spent a few extra days in Beijing because there was so much to do and we had so much time. It allowed for us to be able to see all the historical sites but also chill in the city areas. (Picture 5: A garden near the Forbidden City! Picture 6: A building in a really old city where Beijing opera was born)

The pictures of all the nature and mountains was taken from 张家界 (zhang jia jie) and 庐山 (lu shan). Both cities are on mountains but they're very different from each other.

I went to Lu Shan first and on that day the rain was moving in and out so the whole day was most cloudy. Obviously, this weather isn't the most ideal for sightseeing but it honestly wasn't that bad. It wasn't cold so the whole day the weather was very chill, no sweating from the sun and no jacket required. I'm not even going to lie too, the fog made the mountains look so good. It was so beautiful and I had so much fun taking polaroids of all the scenery around me.

Now, Zhang Jia Jie is a pretty special place, as it is very mountain-y but also has a lot of these canon column things. The weather was a super nice when I was there so I was able to see everything. It's so beautiful, how all the columns have trees growing off them and stuff (Pictures 12 & 14). Through the three days that we were there, we were mostly just looking and hiking around the canyons. On the third day, we crossed a glass bridge between two canyons and think hiked down the side of the mountain and then proceeded to hike between the two canyons. It was about 3 miles in total, took about 3 hours but the whole thing was so beautiful (Pictures 15 & 16). I didn't bring my camera so the whole time I was taking pictures, I had my phone on the lowest brightness and everything because for those three hours, my phone was basically about to die. I'm surprised it didn't! I really loved Zhang Jia Jie though and I would definitely go back.

So yeah, that was the places I visited in China. More pictures to come, as there are 3 more parts to this series and they will be posted within the next months so watch out for them!

What do you think of my trip so far? Any picture you particularly like?

7/21/2017

Next Page Please Turns 3!

Oh ew, my blog is so old now! Just kidding, I still have many years to go with this blog, three years is nothing. This blogiversary is a little different though, as you can tell. Besides the fact that this post is helllllaaaa late, big changes have also come to this blog. It is honestly the right time for this change but here it is: Next Page Please is no longer a book blog. I explain more about it below but it was time for a change in this blog and I am super excited about it.

So...why the change?

You probably didn’t know this but I first started blogging when I was 12. At the time I was obsessed with reading so I was like, why not? I spent a few months on Weebly, writing terrible reviews and mainly posting promotional posts. When I was still at Weebly, my blog was called “Kaitlin’s World.” Kaitlin’s World….sounds like a lifestyle blog doesn’t it? I thought about focusing my blog on lifestyle for a few days but then decided that my life wasn’t really interesting enough for a lifestyle blog. I mean, what was there to talk about in my life other than books? So I just went with the book blog for the next three years.

Now, I’m almost 15 and I’ve been doing this “books only” thing for three years now. Lot’s has changed in three years, considering how young I was when I first started this. This past year itself has been fluctuating when it came to my motivation to read and you’ve heard me say this before but my motivation to blog is a direct correlation with my motivation to read. If I’m reading some great books and finding things to read that I genuinely want to read, then I’ll want to blog more. But that can easily come to a stop when I read a book that throws me into an emotional hangover or I become busy. That’s where some months, there will be 3 or 4 posts out.

It’s a cycle, and I had come to recognize this cycle. And honestly? I hate it. I hate this cycle of me leaving and then coming back just to kind of slowly go away a few months later. So this time around, this time I’m not letting the cycle happen again.

“Kaitlin’s World” was a name that I didn’t end up sticking with (obviously). But I think now is the time to bring Kaitlin’s World to Next Page Please. I want to be able to talk about more things on this blog, not just books because my life is no longer just books. I travel, I try new foods, I obsess over shows and being able to write and talk about these things that aren’t books will allow me to just be more consistent with this blog.

When I was first starting out with this whole blogging ordeal, I read that you should keep your blog specific to a topic. You blog about fashion, you stick to fashion, you blog about DIY projects, you stick to DIY projects. Of course, I was young and a rookie so I listened to that advice. I solely blogged about books. That worked for awhile but now? It doesn’t work for me anymore. Sure, this blog may be more of a mess due to this change and I will be talking less about books, which is probably what you signed up for but at least I will have the motivation to blog again and I will be writing about topics that I might want to write more about compared to books. Plus, it allows you to see more into my life and the things that I like. I’m no celebrity or anything so I highly doubt many people will care about my life but I have come to really love this community. I didn't want to blog about just books anymore, which is why I am opening up Next Page Please to more aspects of my life. It's definitely going to be a new thing for me but I am excited about where it will take me and also what kind of posts I will be posting here.

I want to thank everyone who has stuck with my blog through these years, even if you just found my blog today, thank you for visiting my little corner. My motivation hasn't always allowed this blog to be consistent with posts but I really do enjoy blogging, which is why I'm not about to let it go because I don't have the motivation anymore.

I hope you all enjoy this little relaunch of Next Page Please. Please let me know what you think of it and ready yourself for some fresh new content!

Also, I have more super exciting new, I have joined the Twirling Pages team! I've been such a huge fan of Xan and her blog so when she was looking for co-bloggers I definitely wanted to apply. And I was accepted! I am super excited to be writing for Twirling Pages now so you can also find posts from me there.