Empire of Storms Short Stories.

I know that not everyone can afford to get each different version of Empire of Storms, so I took the liberty of taking pictures of the Barnes & Nobles and Target versions. Enjoy.

                                         Target Short Story By Sarah J Maas.

Barnes & Nobles Short Story By Sarah J Maas

 Enjoy!

The Kricket Series.

Starting from a young age, I have always had a love for books. I find it to be so easy for me to get lost in a story for hours. The characters become real, and their emotions become our own. Through reading lots of books, I have found that I love books written by self-published authors. It has become a thing of mine to look for books self-published, and that is how I came across the author Amy A. Bartol. 

When I found her, she had only written three books, all in a series. It was a paranormal series, which I usually steer away from but I gave it a shot, and boy am I glad I did. Her writing has a way of drawing you in from the first sentence.

Recently she released a new series, the Kricket series, and I was hesitant to start it because she has yet to finish her last series and I didn't want that to happen again. Even with my reservations I gave in and bought the first one on audible, Under Different Stars. 

It took me a while to get into it because I usually have a hard time listening when someone else reads to me, and to top it off I hated the voice reading the book. Eventually I got into it and I fell in love. 

It follows a young girl named Kricket, and she is an orphaned child after both her parents died. She is under 18 so she has been on the run from the foster care system. She has two friends she relies on, and they are the only ones she relies on. She soon finds out that she isn't from earth but another world. She is taken there against her will, and she is caught between two different types of people in her new world, Ethar.

The second book, Sea of Stars, picks up where, Under Different Stars, ends. She finds she has powers to see the future, and tell lies from truths, passed down to her from her mother. She has men who have decided to protect her from the people of her mother who want to use her for her gifts, while some of her fathers people seem to want to do the same. You get to see a war ensue between the Alameeda, her mothers people, and the Rafe, her fathers people. Each side wants her, and two men want her the most. Trey, from the house of Rafe, and Kyon, from the house of Alameeda. For two books Kricket has been in Rafe with Trey, so you don't get to see much of Kyon until the third. And that brings me to the point of this post. 

I was recently given the opportunity to read the third book more then a month early from the publisher on netgalley.com, in exchange for an honest review. 

I have to say this book has to be my favorite of them all. We finally get to know Kyon more, and find out that he isn't as bad as we had thought all along. I loved Kyon, and wanted her to chose him over Trey. We also see a different side of Trey, where duty seems to be the most important thing to him, even over Krickets' safety. I was sad that every person seemed to abandon Kricket, except for Kyon, and that is why she has such a stone heart. An all out war is waging all over the planet Ethar, which is the alternate world, and there are people who blame her for it and know that she needs to die. 
This book brought out strong emotions in me, that I ugly cried a few times. The author has said that this is the last book in the series, and that is why I am only giving this book a 3-star rating. To me the ending is not an ending, and it leaves you with more questions then you started with. So many characters weren't given their due and I really feel there has to be more to the story. If there were to be another book I would gladly give it a 5-star rating. There is no doubt that the author really truly has a gift for writing and knows how to bring out the emotions in every book I read. Here's hoping Amy gives us one more book!

Hurt Feelings.

Hurt feelings are a funny thing. Well not really, but in this sense they are. Some people can handle being made fun of, and it doesn't faze them. Others want to fall apart when they are the brunt of a joke. 

Feelings are just as different from person to person, like fingerprints. We all have our own thoughts that play into how we react to what people say to us. And every single person on this earth has had hurt feelings, and knows how it feels. So why is it that we always seem to have a hard time understanding that we might be in the wrong when we hurt someone else, intentional or not. 

If you say something and it hurts someone’s feelings it doesn’t make them sensitive, it could just be that they have heard the same thing several times, and it finally reached a boiling point for them. Or they could be sensitive, but why should that matter? 

Why do we always try to explain away why it shouldn’t have offended someone? Why do we get mad or offended ourselves, when we said something less then nice to begin with? Why do we have such a hard time admitting our wrongs? 

We all want to be treated kindly and with respect, so why aren't we more careful with our words? 

Every persons feelings are valid, even if they are different from our own. We can’t want to be treated a certain way, and then continue to talk to and treat people less than desirable. We can’t expect something from people, that we aren’t willing to give back. 

I know none of us are perfect and that we all make mistakes, but we all need to make more of an effort to think before we act, or speak. We as humans need to try harder to put more good out, in a world where there is so much hate and misunderstandings. Friendships and families are all too important, and we should all take better care of these relationships.

It’s all too easy that after feeling so let down after a while, to just want to stop caring, but we can’t let others get us so down.If you need too, cut those that hurt you the most out, and surround yourself with others who want the same things you do. We all have a purpose on this earth, and we should all strive to fulfill it. What is that saying? Put good out, and get good back? I know it's something I need to work on, but I am willing too, in hopes of living a better, happier life. 

-KJ