Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Six dangerous outcasts and one impossible heist. Kaz is offered a chance at a heist that could make him rich beyond belief. To pull it off he'll need an incredible crew.


Side effects of reading Six of Crows are, but not limited to: Shortness of breath. Heart palpitations. Nausea. Weak knees. Dehydration. Dizziness. Headache. Heartache. Constant sweating. High blood-pressure. Congestive heart failure.

“The heart is an arrow. It demands aim to land true.”   

Six of Crows is 185th book I've read this year. Yes, that means this is the book that put me at my goodreads reading goal this year. I am so happy that this is the book that made me hit my mark. It was the perfect book to reach my goal with. The world has been shouting, praying, and calling for diverse reads... Leigh Bardugo has answered. I liked but didn't love the Shadow and Bone trilogy, but it has nothing on this novel. With how much hype is surrounding this book I was oh so worried about reading it. However if Six of Crows isn't my top pick for the year, it will without a doubt at least be in the top five. It was amazing.

SoC is a novel with six main characters, depending on how you look at it five plus perspectives, breath-taking flashbacks, seamless world building, and twists that will make your tits drop. 

"A gambler, a convict, a wayward son, a lost Grisha, a Suli girl who has become a killer, a boy from the Barrel who had become something worse."

A direct quote and the most perfect sum up of the characters. Each one is so different from the other. Each one is a different race, different background, and has so many layers. Each one has a handful of amazing different aspects, and things about them that will constantly surprise you. I can't believe I'm about to say this but... Squad goals! We have Nina this wild-loud-in your face-curvy firecracker who will have you in stitches. Matthias who is this perfectly wounded warrior who will surprise the crap out of you. Wylan who is this lovable nerdy cutie-pie that had me blushing for days. Jesper the comic relief. And then there are my two favorites... Kaz and Inej. Ahh just loved these two so much. These two gave me everything I wanted in characters and more. Inej background story is lovey, her physical appearance sounds both breathtaking and unique, and her set of skills are completely bad-ass. She is basically a freaking ninja. Oh God, and the stories and quotes from her father!!! Break my heart why dontcha.

“Many boys will bring you flowers. But someday you'll meet a boy who will learn your favorite flower, your favorite song, your favorite sweet. And even if he is too poor to give you any of them, it won't matter because he will have taken the time to know you as no one else does. Only that boy earns you heart.” 

Kaz though. Oh Kaz! He was my favorite of favorites. His thought, his flashbacks, his story, his composure, his street smarts, his everything. I have none-zero-zip-nada complaints about him. How did Leigh managed to give us such a naughty character, make him have a limp, "force" him to wear gloves all the time, and still managed to have me swoon over him was beyond me. I want to have his babies. His bad-ass babies. I really have no complaints character wise. All these characters and their personal stories will shock and then steal your heart. Each will give you a taste of who they are and what they have become and it is truly stunning. I need to shut up about them before I spill all their secrets (which I really want to do right about now). I do really want to comment on my favorite part of this book. This is something that others might have over looked, but it is something that meant a lot to me. That's Inej and Nina's friendship. They aren't two girls that hate each other then become friends. They aren't two women who see each other as fierce competition or having to fight over a man. These two women see each other as equals AND THAT is how all women should see each other. Real women pick each other up not tear each other down. I don't think people realize how important that truly is. This needs to be highlighted in more books.

Even if the characters would have faltered (they don't) it wouldn't have mattered because the plot and world building are so solid. I heard a few people/reviews say the "middle of the book is kind of slow"... WHAT THE F ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?!?? Every part of this book is flawless and demands your respect. There wasn't a moment I wasn't on the edge on my seat. Leigh gives you all these twist and turns without leaving you guessing on what your surrounding look like. She's built a world with so many stunning features. SoC is go go go, nonstop action novel that wont let you up for air. It is a roller-coaster ride of emotions and Wtf just happened moments. The first three parts of this book set the bait out, parts four and five has you snapping for the treat, and part six hooks and pulls you in. My jaw was on the floor for 99% of this book.

You might think you know what coming, BUT YOU WILL BE WRONG! So many well planned out plot  twist. So many ground shaking moments. So many heart crushing scenes. And that ending!!!! YOU CAN'T DO THAT TO PEOPLE!!! You can't leave us hanging like this!!!! OMG and I didn't even get to mention the romance!!!! I want to talk about it. Oh goodness do I want to talk about it! But I wont, and if you've ever read any of my review you know this is unheard of. I love love and not wanting to talk about it must only mean one thing... That it's really really good! Even with the massive amount to sexual tense and stolen glances it still doesn't even overshadow the plot. I'm not just talking about the romance with a certain pair, I'm talking romance among several. Like I can't even believe how much gooey lovey dovey moments she gives us and yet didn't drown us in it. Perfect just perfect. 

This book was EVERYTHING it was hyped up to be. I laughed, I cried, I fell in love, and I have been left a mess.   

This review was a lot longer than I ever imagine it would be. It is filled with cut off and run on sentences... I don't care either. I just had to get my jumbled thoughts down. This book is epic and everything. I already want to re-read it and I could quote it all day long. If Arrow wasn't coming on in a few I would just keep going on about it. If you read Six of Crows and didn't like it then there's only one thing to say about you... You have bad taste. 

10/10 Stars 
-Angela 

Raw by by Belle Aurora

 Raw by Belle Aurora

As soon as Lexi turned sixteen, she left home and took her chances on the street. Now, at the age of twenty-six she's educated, employed and amazing at her job. There's only one thing not amazing about her life now... She's being stalked. Someone that should scare her doesn't. So you're probably  wondering how a person falls in love with their stalker?This is how.

 

"Not everyone can be a fairy-tale hero... The world needs villains too." 

Angela here... To answer the age old question... Are stalkers hot? The answer is YES, yes they are hot.

Pretty sure Raw just moved to my all time favorites list. Everything from the plot to the characters were perfecto! Seriously, girl falls in love with her stalker; PERFECT CONCEPT!

The story focuses around two characters Lexi and Twitch. Lexi, oh Lexi; I loved how strong, independent and hilarious she was. She was an awesome leading lady that gave readers a ton of surprises. Is she insane, probably. She knows shes being stalked but since he has never done anything as far as she knows but watch she's never felt the need to tell anyone. Between the two characters it was very clear that Lexi had by far the most character development. Her emotions were all over the place, strong, then weak, then strong again, and sometimes you wanted to scream "get to the point"... But with the twist and turns that would follow the situation your jaw would be on the floor. Then there's Twitch... Holy sweet tattooed gods above, there's twitch. Everything about him was different from any other leading male I've ever read. He would go from hot too cold so fast it would give you whiplash. I absolutely loved his character. I love that Belle wrote to give him so much development, but did it in such small ways you didn't pick up on it right away, then it would smack you in the face. My favorite thing though was the way he looked. Tall and super tattooed. Like almost every inch tattooed. So when he's being described it made him new and interesting to hear about... and hot so freaking hot. Did I mention he has a candy obsession... Yep if you didn't think you'd fall in love with him when you start reading you will after that. Both Twitch and Lexi are amazing written and dynamic characters.

Their relationship is a flippin mess!!! The whole time I kept going back and forth between if I loved it or if I wanted it too end. Who am I kidding, I loved it so much. I loved that even though he's her stalker he would flip the script.

"Did I seriously just get rejected by my stalker? What the fuck?" 

The banter between the two is amazing, and manipulative. The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thing he has going on was oddly super hot. He owns his evil and doesn't really care whos sees it or when it happens. 

"You wanna know why I lock my doors at night?"..."To protect the people outside of it from me."

The sub character in it are Nikki, Dave, and Happy. None of them are real constant characters, and none of them I was head over heels for, but in this story it didn't really matter. They all brought something too the table and I have no real complaints with them. The times they do present themselves they are funny, and I never questioned their appearance.

As far as the plot goes, going into this story I had no real idea what it was about except for a girl falls for her stalker. I didn't know anything else. I'm really glad I didn't. Going into it blind made it amazing. There was about 100 things that happened that I didn't see coming. The two big twist in the story were AMAZING!!!
One of them is set up from page one so you're waiting almost the whole story to hear it unfold and when it finally does, whoosh, it gets insane. The second twist is thrown in there so fast you had NO idea it was coming... You're just reading along then WHAM!!! I had to stop and re-read the sentence and ask myself if that really just happened... I swear my jaw unhinged and fell to the floor.

The plot, the flow, the characters, the world build all won me over. The story does have a few holes in it that I wont touch base on because of potential spoils, but even the minor things that popped up I was never truly bothered. I can really see people either loving or hating this book... I'm on the loving side I think it was inventive and brought something new to this genre. Raw was like a snowball rolling down a hill... It started small but strong and kept building till it was so  big and out of control that it had the best explosive ending. Because that ending.... THAT ENDING!!!! The last paragraph in a book is suppose to wrap everything up in a pretty bow for you, not completely come out of left field and blow your brains out. That's Raw's ending to say the least... Mind Blowing!!!! 

 10/10 Stars 
-Angela