Hello and welcome to my reading web log! This blog is my reading journey. Here you can find my book reviews, anything related to books, and even some of my original writing. Keep going down for posts and don't forget to look around the blog. Thank you! (this blog is best viewed in desktop mode/web version)
Tuesday, October 26, 2021
The Mortal Instruments Music Vibes
Saturday, October 23, 2021
Review: The Red Scrolls of Magic
The Red Scrolls of Magic by Cassandra ClareMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
View all my reviews
 |
| I got this one from Barnes & Noble too, I think. |
I bought this book when I played the Maricopa Summer Reading Game in the Summer of 2020. I won a $50 gift card to a local bookstore called Changing Hands. I loved it so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This will be the first time I am reading this book and I am so excited for the new adventures! Yaaaas! I just wanna scream AHHHH XD
The narrator, BD Wong, is so handsome and is really great with his words. Today's reading session was so steamy and hot! I loved how the narrator says his lines, if you know what I mean. 😏
For the record, I finished reading this book on 10/23/21 at around 5:30 PM. It's so weird that I marked this book in my Goodreads as "Want to Read" on March 23, 2020. Then I started reading it regularly on September 23, 2021 and finished today, which is the 23rd! It's just like that movie called "The Number 23." LOL! XD PLUS! I read it when I was 23 years old! So weird! I just wanted to note that weird coincidence.
“He felt in need of a drink. He wended his way through the crowd until he found a bar. He took a seat at it, and ordered a Dark and Stormy to match his mood. Catarina’s worry and Hypatia’s horror had left a dent in his usually hopeful heart” (132).
wended = meander
“Alec remembered being younger, and how overwhelming large groups of people had seemed. He came over and leaned against the wall beside the boy. He saw the boy texting, PARTIES WERE INVENTED TO ANNOY ME. THEY FEATURE MY LEAST FAVORITE THING: PEOPLE, ALL INTENT ON MY LEAST FAVORITE ACTIVITY: SOCIAL INTERACTION” (138).
“‘I get shy when there are strangers too,’ Alec told the kid.
‘I’m not shy,’ the boy sneered. ‘I just hate everyone around me and everything that is happening.’
‘Well.’ Alec shrugged. ‘Those feel like similar things sometimes’
...
‘I am trying not to make eye contact with anyone here,’ said Raphael. ‘And I’m not a snitch for Shadowhunters. Or a fan of talking to people, of any kind, in any place’” (139).
These two quotes, I was like MEEEE LOL XD
“She tripped on a trailing line of ivy and Alec caught her.
“Good reflexes!” she said brightly. “Also great arms. Would you be interested in a night of tumultuous forbidden passion, with an option to extend to seven years?”
“Um, I am gay,” Alec said.
He was not used to saying that casually, to any random person. It was strange to say it, and feel both relief and a shadow of his old fear, twined together.
Of course, the declaration might not mean much to faeries. The faerie woman accepted it with a shrug, then looked over at Raphael and lit up. Something about the leather jacket or the scowl seemed to appeal to her strongly.
“How about you, Vampire Without a Cause?”
“I’m not gay,” said Raphael. “I’m not straight. I’m not interested.”
“Your sexuality is ‘not interested’?” Alec asked curiously.
Raphael said, “That’s right.”
The faerie thought for a moment, then ventured, “I can also assume the appearance of a tree!”
“I didn’t say, ‘not interested unless you’re a tree.’ ”
“Wait,” said the faerie suddenly. “I recognize you. You’re Raphael Santiago! I’ve heard of you.”
Raphael made a gesture of dismissal. “Have you heard I like it when people go away?”
“You were one of the heroes in the Downworlder victory over Valentine.”
“He was one of the heroes of the Downworlder and Shadowhunter alliance, which led to the victory,” Alec said.
Raphael stopped looking annoyed and began to look nastily amused.
“Oh, did the Shadowhunters help a little?” he asked.
“You were there!” said Alec.
“Can I have your autograph, Raphael?” asked the faerie lady.
She produced a large, shiny green leaf and a quill. Raphael wrote LEAVE ME ALONE on the leaf.
“I’ll cherish it,” said the faerie. She ran away, clutching the leaf to her bosom.
“Don’t,” Raphael yelled after her” (140-141).
I love that Alec said the words! <3 LOL Raphael is me in some ways.
“Maybe his life could be amazing. Maybe it always could have, and he’d needed Magnus to open the door and let him see all the wonders he held inside himself. All the capacity for joy” (153).
Oh, I love this quote! It is so sweet.
“How are things going with you and Simon?”
“He’s taken a number and remains in the long line of men desperate for my attention,” Isabelle said firmly. “How are things between you and Magnus?”
“Well, I wondered if you could help me with that.”
“Yes!” Isabelle exclaimed with horrifying delight. “You are right to come to me with this. I am so much more subtle and skilled in the arts of seduction than Jace. Okay, here’s my first suggestion. You’re going to need a grapefruit—”
“Stop!” said Alec. He hurriedly strode away from Magnus and Shinyun and hid behind a high hedge. They watched him go with bemusement. “Please don’t finish that sentence. I meant, there’s still that small cult problem I asked you about. I’d really like to get it worked out, so that Magnus can be happier. On our vacation” (191).
Lol I was like omg Izzy! Like what does that even mean?! XD
“Do you tell me all your secrets, Izzy?”
Isabelle paused. “No,” she said in a softer voice. “But I’ll tell you one now. Of all the men standing in line for my attention, Simon may be my favorite.”
Alec looked across hedgerows, glowing green in the cool Italian evening, and white marble statues to Magnus, who was striking poses in imitation of the statues. Shinyun could not smile, but Alec thought she must want to. Nobody could help liking Magnus.
“All right,” Alec said. “Of all the men standing in line for my attention, Magnus is definitely my favorite.”
Isabelle squealed in outrage. Alec grinned.
“I’m so glad to hear you sound like this,” Isabelle said in a sudden rush. “And I won’t pry. I just want you to know that any secrets you have, I keep. You can trust me.”
Alec remembered the old days and the old fears, the way Isabelle had occasionally tried to start conversations about boys and let Alec shut them down. He had always snapped at her, terrified to speak and have someone hear, but sometimes at night when he thought about the possibility of being disowned by his parents, rejected by the Clave, hated by Jace and Max, his only comfort was that his sister knew, and she still loved him.
Alec closed his eyes and told her, “I always have” (192).
“Always will” <3 I was like awwww my heart augh! <3 That was a QAF ref.
“The low friendly growl of the little red convertible filled the air. Alec glanced over to see Magnus put on his sunglasses and rest his elbow on the door as he leaned over the side and smiled at the rush of the wind across his face.
Alec was glad to be able to give Magnus a break. Also, he hadn’t realized this kind of wild, dramatic driving was a thing available to him. When he thought of cars he thought of Manhattan: far too many vehicles, not nearly enough road, chugging slowly and unhappily through the veins of the city. There, being on foot was liberation. Here in the Tuscan countryside, though, this car was its own kind of liberation, a thrilling kind. He looked over at his unbearably handsome boyfriend, hair blown back and eyes closed behind his shades. Sometimes, his life was okay. He willfully ignored the grumpy warlock ride-along in the backseat” (195).
I absolutely loved that Alec had the chance to drive and experience this! It was awesome!
“A slim volume compared to the chronicles of Magnus’s long life” (201).
This is such a sad but true quote.
“Alec held Magnus’s hand even tighter, as if he could rescue him, centuries too late” (203).
“You saved yourself,” Alec said into Magnus’s ear. “You saved yourself, and then you saved so many people. You couldn’t have saved anyone if you hadn’t saved yourself. I would never have found you.”
Alec had been right about the darkness waiting in Magnus, and the pain waiting with it. All that darkness, and all that pain, and Magnus was somehow still a blazing riot of life and color, a source of joy for everyone around him. He was the reason Alec looked into a mirror now and saw a complete person who did not have to hide.
They stayed locked together, the fire beside them dying. All was quiet. Alec held on.
“Don’t worry so much. It’s just a tiny little cult,” he said eventually. “Nothing we can’t handle.”
He felt Magnus’s mouth curve, pressed against Alec’s cheek, as Magnus smiled” (204-205).
I love this quote!
“Alec looked over at her, the curve of her ears and the faint luminous sheen to her skin beneath her Shadowhunter runes. Against the backdrop of a forest, Helen looked even more like a faerie” (241).
This is such a funny thing while I read this section. So I ordered these alpine forest wax cubes from Walmart.com today and I put them in my wax warmer before I started reading. Then while I was reading this Alec mentioned a forest and I was smelling a forest at the same time! That is just so awesome!
“He was so afraid, all the time, and he felt so alone in his fear” (292).
That's exactly how I feel, Alec!
“Oh, hello,” said a Shadowhunter boy, coming to an abrupt stop beside him. “Magnus Bane? I’ve never gotten a good look at you, not up close.”
Magnus snorted. “I’ve looked better.” He gave some thought to his current state, bruised and battered and wearing a bloodstained, ill-fitting jacket. “Much better.”
“Wow,” said the boy. “Will my heart be able to take it? I’m pretty close with Alec, by the way. We were talking about making plans for later. You’d be very welcome to join us. We could do anything you like.” He winked. “Anything.”
“Hmm,” said Magnus. “And who are you?”
“Leon Verlac,” said the boy.
“Well, Leon Verlac,” Magnus drawled. “Keep dreaming” (319-320).
LOL! XD
[Comment on the last chapter, Chapter Thirty-One, The Quality of Mercy, 329]
I just thought that Magnus, Alec, Aline, and Helen should all have a double date! That would be so cute!! XD <3