A (mostly) Spoiler-Free Review of A Time to Rise by Nadine Brandes.

So I received ATTR in the mail on Friday evening. (Two weeks before its release date, but who's complaining? Definitely not me.) I finished half of it before I had to give in to sleep (sigh) because of a particularly bad headache. But I finished it Saturday, less than 24 hours after I started it. #noshame

So I'm going to write a little review! I've never written an actual review before, so this is going to be...interesting.

PROS:

*Jude flashback(ish) scenes. (For those of you that don't know, Jude is pretty much my favourite book character ever). Those scenes made me so happy but sad at the same time. (I may have gotten teary eyed..)

*Solomon. I'll be honest with you, I despised him in ATTS. I think * SPOILERS * Jude's death was too fresh on my mind * END SPOILERS *, and I may have (accidentally) imagined Sol looking like a ugly Westley (from the Princess Bride). But I like him much better now, and don't imagine him like an ugly Westley. :)

*Russia. I have this really weird obsession with Russia. I don't know much about it (yet) but it intrigues me. (Mostly because in one of the novels I'm writing is set in Russia, and the main character is Russian) Yeah, I don't fully get it either. But anyways. That part of the book made me happy.

*The Ending. The ending was happy. I am so not used to happy endings in books, so this was a nice surprise. And the last line made me so happy (those who have read it know what I'm talking about).

*Skelley Chase. I love how his storyline ended SO MUCH. That is all.

*The Cover. Again, I'll be honest with you, I wasn't to crazy about it when it was first revealed. But it is so much prettier in person.

CONS:

*Parvin (kind of). I felt like she was kind of wimpy in this book. After all she's been through, I guess I'd imagine her more...brave, maybe. I'm not sure how to word it, and it may be just me feeling that way. But anyways, yeah.

*Solomon. (yes, he was on the pros list too. Shhhh.) As I said I definitely grew to like him more, but he seemed way too perfect. I mean, I get that he loves Parvin and wants to save the world and all, he just seems too flawless. Again, that may be just me.

*Erfinder Hawke. He annoyed me to no end and the way he treated Sol made me sad.

Overall, I really liked this book. It was a great end to an amazing trilogy. 4.5/5 stars.

You can buy the first book in the series here.

E.C.

I Disappeared...Again.

Well, I seemed to disappear of the face of the earth. Again. Sorry about that.

I don't even have a valid reason. I knew about my blog, I just didn't feel like posting. Sorry again.

Here are some things I would like to put up posts about in the near future:
>Book Reviews
>Character Interviews (?)
>Fellow Blogger/Book/Writer lovers in general Interviews (?)
>Possibly some art

E.C.

Genderbent Bucky Barnes Cosplay!

Hey Everyone! *insert Spidey here*

So I found out that my dad and I are going to be able to go to a comic convention next month! We are only going for a day, not the whole weekend, so I only needed one cosplay.

I was (and am) super excited and I immediately knew who I was going to cosplay.

I am going to do a genderbent version of The Winter Soldier AKA James Buchanan Barnes AKA Bucky AKA my favourite character ever.

As soon as I knew that I was going to be able to go, that it wasn't just a "maybe", I drew what I wanted to do.

(this is technically the second draft of what I wanted to do but whateves)

Once I looked up about 17 tutorials for Bucky's arm, I decided that I was going to crochet the glove and hand. (I was already planning on doing the little glove thing he has, but I wasn't planning on doing the fingers.) Thankfully it worked out great and was quite easy!

 (I crocheted a fingerless glove, making holes for the thumb area and the space in the middle. After crocheting up the space in the middle, I did the thumb and the fingers. It's a snug fit but I think that that will be good.)

My mom took me that night and we got the things that I needed. (except I forgot the glue, which was highly necessary, of course). First thing that I made was the skirt.

(You can't see it (going to make sure you can when I go to the con), but there is red tulle underneath.)

Using this tutorial (with a small bit of altering) Bucky's mask was made. 

Instead of using pleather I used leftover fabric from my skirt and instead of velcro I used elastic (To keep it on my head).

I found a leather jacket at goodwill (you'll be able to see it in the final picture) and cut off the left sleeve. I also found a wide belt there, where I'm going to have a holster for a foam knife and possibly a gun though I might find a way to put it on my back.

The arm wasn't challenging once I figured out how in the world I was going to make this thing.

First I made a 'cast' of my arm so I'd have a form to work on when I was attaching the foam to my arm. I used plastic wrap and tape and stuffed it with grocery bags (tape off the top but not the bottom). Then I slipped it on a paper towel holder to hold it up while I was working on it. I used craft foam from walmart (about 4 sheets all together (I used it for the arm and the mask)) to make the metal strip-things. Worbla would work well but it is somewhat expensive. I began using E6000 to glue it on. Don't use this. I am planning on taking it to the con for repairs but other than that I won't use it. It does not stick well if you're doing it on a sleeve like I did; not sure about other mediums. We went and bought Gorilla Glue sticks (the kind you put in your hot glue gun) and that worked great. Make sure you leave a small space on the inside and outside of your elbow so you can bend your arm. After glueing everything on I used Rust-Oleum metallic silver spray paint- about 3 coats. I then used a gloss top coat but I would not recommend using that.

I'm super happy with how everything turned out! (I may have almost cried when I finished it...) Especially since this is my first time making a costume (and going to a con. :)

Here is the (mostly) finished product. I don't have the props yet and the star was not painted on at this point.

and here's a random picture with the star. *jazz hands*

I hope you enjoyed, sorry for the long post! :p

E.C.

Edit: made and painted a foam knife but I haven't found a play gun to paint for a reasonable price. Grrrr. 

Captain America: Civil War "Review"

Hey guys!

So I got to see Captain America: Civil War last Thursday! I went as AoU Scarlet Witch and my dad went as Tony Stark (I painted the arc reactor on a shirt). :D

Here is a small review. Mostly just saying what I like and didn't like about it.

Pros:

Bucky bucky BUCKY buckyyyyy

STAN LEE'S CAMEO

I loved Falcon and Bucky's friendship! (Can you move your seat up?)

Wanda and the Vision!

Spidey was awesome

the Vision in actual clothes

Did I mention Bucky?

Backstory for why Bucky did what he did 

Cons:

SHARON CARTER I CANT LIKE no

The movie felt kind of anti-climactic to me

Spidey's suit

That funeral scene... I didn't like it. It didn't feel very.. heartfelt to me.

The guy that I thought was the main villain died like two minutes in???

Martin Freeman's American accent

All in all, I thought that it was good. 3.75-4 out of 5 stars.

E.C.

Hi everyone! There's going to be a synopsis for another one of my books on this post! I'm farther along in this novel but I'd still love your feedback. (Aka I've written three chapters but I need to go rewrite them before I go on because I wrote them last year and they're so bad. XD). I have two titles for this one: Five Hundred Lives or Death in High Heels (it's not /that/ dark, I promise XD). Tell me which title would make you more likely to pick up the book!

Second, I've been reading and getting so many books lately! (I have read like 13 books within 2 weeks) I've been in a reading slump (for about the same time as my writing slump) and it feels so good! I'm in an art slump now but hey, you win some you lose some.

Are any of you reading any good books right now? Tell me in the comments!

Here's the synopsis:

Aria Treader changed her ways and become part of END, an organization to help 'troubled' people- some retired assassins, some with struggling because of other  tragic happenings. It was all going pretty decent until her close friend betrays her, turning her and her friends into the government. As said friend starts making the government stronger, END starts to crumble and everyone's lives are at stake. Aria is forced to forget her past and face the future..which is hard if you've killed everyone you love...or loved.



E.C.

Here's that book idea I said something about in my last post! Tell me, honestly, what you think. Comment questions if you have them as well! You have no clue how helpful those are to me :)

The synthetic air that the goverment deployes send everyone who breathes it in to a hallucination-like state, making the world around them seem to be perfect. The bottled emotions just make it worse. 

Vienna Bex is one of the dwindling Awares.  She has to smuggle goods to keep her and ones like her alive. She sees the world as it really is- quickly swirling into chaos. 

Can she, along with her ragtag group of outcasts, save the UnAwares before it's too late?

E.C. 

Hello All!

I have been thinking and praying about this quite a bit recently.

You know how we always hear at church about how God has plans for your life, and about following His will?

I thought I /had/ been following His will, concerning careers. I thought I knew that I was going to go to college, majoring in either illustration or costume design. But know I'm wondering if that's /my/ will, not God's.

I've felt uncertain about it. I still don't know and I'm going to keep praying about it.


As most of you know, I write- or I used to.

I was convinced that my writing wasn't very good. I'm still doubting it. But I think that's what God wants me to do. I want to spread God's love in the writing industry. I want teens my age to be able to read books that are clean but not boring.

That being said, I'm not going to stop doing art. I just want to focus on writing right now.

I'm going to be working on my 3rd(?) draft of my novel, Worlds Away, seeing if I can salvage it. AKA major rewrites. I also have another book idea that I might pursue.

I will keep you updated! Prayers would be much appreciated. <3

E.C.