Hibiscus Rooibos Tea Pairing

I came home today thinking, "I have a need for some herbal tea in my life."

I think it's stemming from the fact that I thought I was getting sick the other day, but it turns out it wasn't anything to worry my little heart over. Still, the idea of drinking herbal tea to cure any ills that may be lingering seemed too appealing. 

Tonight I will be enjoying the Hibiscus Rooibos from Rishi Tea. This was the one that I was all giddy about having the same root that is used in root beer. I can honestly say sitting here smelling it, I can confirm that the likelihood of it tasting like a Barq's Root Beer is pretty slim.

However, let me tell you about the smell. It is quite amazing. The ingredients are as follows: Organic rooibus (obvi), organic hibiscus flowers (yes), organic sarsaparilla root, organic lemongrass, organic rosehips, organic licorice root, natural passion fruit flavor, essential orange oil, organic orange peel, natural pineapple and mango flavors.

You can definitely smell the roots an orange, the pineapple and mango not so much, but I believe they are just overpowered by the overwhelming amount of orange citrus.

Now on to the taste. Again, you get a lot of root/earthy taste but intermixed with that is a strong citrus. While we know most of it is orange, it's not just that. I can definitely taste the orange, but it is mixed with the pineapple and mango, though if there weren't a list of ingredients in front of me I would have no idea that those were the two other fruit flavorings.

The herbal tea aspect gives off a sort of comfort and definitely feels good for my mind and body. While the added fruit flavors give it a more adventurous feel.

It would appear that the only book I can think of right now to pair with this amazing tea is The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde.

It is a heavily meta book dealing with all things literature with a sprinkle of mystery and adventure. I'd say the Hibiscus Rooibos and The Eyre Affair were simply meant to be.

I do think it's time that I give that book a second reading and I know that when I do it will be curled up on my couch with this lovely herbal tea.

Coming Soon!
I have many book reviews headed your way. I am still working on finishing Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. That thing is 800 pages. I will get to the end come hell or high water.

I also started some ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) that I received in exchange for reviews. The first is by Devyn Jayse called Supernatural Slayer. It is an urban fantasy and so definitely right up my alley. I'll admit I am excited to read this one and I am thankful that I have been asked to read and review it.

The second ARC is Access Restricted by Gregory Scott Katsoulis. I read the first in his series All Rights Reserved and while it started out as a happy experience I can't say I ended it feeling the way I wanted to feel. I did say in my review of All Rights Reserved that if the second book came out and I found out about it I would give it a shot. Well here's me staying true to my word. Let's just hope I'm not let down by my enthusiasm like before.

Other than that I will also have another tea pairing coming your way soon.

Until then Read, Sip, and Be Happy.

Book Review: Ballad - A Gathering of Faerie by Maggie Stiefvater

I feel like I let my guard down with this one. I blame the fact that is started off much stronger than its predecessor and so I got overly confident in it's ability. (If you have the desire to read my review on the first book in this series you can jump back to that masterpiece HERE.) And it is because of this that my ignition in finishing this book petered out fairly quickly. It's taken me far longer to finish this thing than originally anticipated, but now that I have I can finally do this...

...and share with you this horrendous experience. Buckle up.

Summer has come and gone. We are now with James, and if you remember he is supposedly Dee's best friend. We are entering this sequel through his POV now, which honestly I was down with. It was this very thing that had me intrigued from the get go. For all his flaws, which I will happily point out in this post, he was a much more enthralling character. 

Pretty much what I initially thought of James

Both James and Dee are now attending Thornking-Ash a prestigious music academy for the musically gifted. It's revealed later that the school's sole purpose is to protect students with remarkable gifts, such as James and Dee, but they don't really seem to have their shit together when remarkable students actually attend their school, like James and Dee.

Anyway, you know how I was ecstatic that we were able to skip all the love triangle awkwardness from the first book, well it gets made up ten-fold in this sequel. From the very beginning we are told that James hasn't spoken with Dee much over the summer and it is heavily hinted that the reason is more that Dee never responded to James's "I love you" text versus her being in love and sucking face with a another dude. A Faerie dude, Luke, I mean Luke.

GOOD POINT: Luke is nonexistent in this entire novel. Even when Dee thinks she is with Luke, it turns out it's another faerie fucking with her, which honestly she kind of deserved. I mean it is presumed through these weird unsent text messages to James that she is making horrible decisions and she just assumes this Faerie is Luke and immediately begins to suck face with him. It's bizarre. This was like an even more uncomfortable version of Bella dealing with Edward running away.

Okay, maybe not this bizarre, but pretty damn close!

As I mentioned the only communication James and Dee have are these random unsent text messages from Dee to James that the reader is shown every so often at the end of a chapter. There are a few in person run-ins that show how they aren't really communicating. I will say this, Dee is hurting and needs her friend and in order to get James to realize this she goes too far and kisses him while envisioning that it's Luke. Now as other reviewers have pointed out, this is a shit thing to do to James, but lets look at what caused it shall we?

All James can think about is the fact that Dee might not feel the same about him as he does her and instead of him talking to her he blames her for not talking to him. He literally is using the old adage of, "Balls in your court," while not adding anything to the conversation to make this easier on her. In doing this he is also distancing himself from Dee at even just being her friend so she feels like she can't confide in him. Then in a desperate attempt to get him to be her friend again she tries to give him what he wants at great emotional pain to herself. And when she tries to come clean right away, because she feels like shit about it, he immediately turns his back on her. James is the worst representation of a nice guy who got friend-zoned. I'm out of fucks to give for him, but the story isn't over yet.

The James and Dee story line is really a side path, the main trail is that of James and Nuala. Yes lets talk about Nuala. She is a member of the Solitary Fey and is described as "part muse, part psychic vampire" - who came up with that crap?. The muse part is right, but vampire? really? I mean she drinks years, not blood. Basically she gives the gift of art; whatever art you're into, but she prefers musicians. In return she takes away years of your life and this is what sustains her for sixteen years. On Halloween of her sixteenth year she is burned and then starts all over. 

How the book wants you to see Nuala

As Halloween of her sixteenth year is drawing near (convenient) she has her sights on James, who we are made to believe is this pantie tossingly good bag piper. Look, I think playing an obscure instrument is interesting, but I wouldn't know the first thing about what makes a piper the best and I have a feeling 99% of these characters don't either. So their mesmerizing adoration of his abilities rang a little false for me. It all read to me like Nuala had a crazy boner for a bag piper and happened to stumble upon James and her lady bits went "JACKPOT."

Nuala tries to seal the deal by giving James a taste of what she can give him, but having only just survived a freak accident caused by Faeries over the summer James, rightfully so, turns her down hard and multiple times too. However, we are given a glimpse of Nuala's tactics when she is trying to secure a protege. These include, stalking, manipulation, invasion of privacy, and ignoring someones polite request to leave them the fuck alone. I'm not a fan of hers.

James, cool bagpiper

Nuala doesn't give up and through her weird clinging personality she begins to develop feelings for James. I really felt that the only reason for this out of nowhere infatuation is because he is the first to turn her down. Ah yes, the old chase em' till they are exhausted routine always makes the romance more sexy. Who wants someone who has their wits about them and a clear head to tell you they love you, not Nuala!

Actual Nuala

James eventually does get worn down, but not by Nuala. He is pretty clear about his feelings for her. No, he is worn down by his situation with Dee and the fact that in his selfish brain it's not going the way he wants it to, so he defaults to Nuala. Jerk move James. Now he is with Nuala and they make-out and she reads his mind so he can never have an unfiltered thought again, it's a whole bit that is not remotely healthy. 

As I said Halloween is approaching and there are stirrings in the Faerie community. There is an actual Thorn King who rules the dead and sings every night a list of people who are going to die. James along with Dee and his roommate Paul have heard this song each night since they started attending Thornking-Ash.  You're given the impression that something bad is coming, especially since all three of those characters are on the list of the dead, but to be honest it was a bit of a let down. The only person who was even a little bit threatened was Dee and we knew that was probably going to happen.

GOOD POINT: I wasn't sure if this was going to be a good point, but I've decided to add it so deal with it. The weird unsent text messages. While yes they did irk me in the beginning I found them quite useful later on. It gave just enough insight into what Dee was going through to know that James was an awful human. Now, I think it was silly that she never sent them, but the moment that the teacher pulls out Dee's phone and shows it to James because she is missing *kisses fingertips* that was great. 

Additionally, new Queen Eleanor has been hiring humans to kill Solitary Fey for some reason. It all comes back to dealing with the Thorn King, but it's not made clear or digestible from the beginning. The main crux of the story is slowly dished out and instead we have to shovel through 300+ pages of really bad teen angst to get to it.

Eventually (and I mean not until the last 10 pages or so) we are told that Eleanor wants to use Dee to create a new Thorn King. One that would rule the Dead and the Solitary Fey. As Dee is the Cloverhand she is the only logical choice. So she is kidnapped and James has to save her. 

Now I know I harped on Dee in Lament, but at least when James and Luke were kidnapped she gets her shit together and figures out what she needs to do. While she forgets about James momentarily in the heat of all the crazy she does make him a priority without question. Key thing here, she sacrifices the guy she loves to save him, as in she never sees Luke again so that James can live. That is what a best friend does.

On the other hand it takes James FOREVER to decide to help his Best Friend instead of staying with Nuala whom he is only dating because he believes he was friend-zoned when in reality his Best Friend was going through a really tough time and he chose to ignore her. Like here's the thing, Nuala had no chance of dying, none. The only fear was she would forget James after she was burned. Dee on the other hand was very much going to die. Heart cut out of her chest, never coming back from that, dying. And Fuck Boi James hesitates, really?

That is not how you treat a Best Friend and that is not how you treat someone who you said you loved up until 3/4 of the way into this book. This was the moment when I cracked and gave up entirely on this book. It didn't matter that James did go back for Dee eventually. It didn't matter that he saved her and his teacher was made the new Thorn King. I was done with him.

And to make it that much worse, Nuala is returned to him, full memory and all. Because he definitely deserved the happy ending while Dee gets to be all alone and watch him be happy after all she has done for him. Ugh! James and Nuala are the absolute worst!

GOOD POINT: Apparently there is no third installment for this series. There is a hint of a novel called Requiem that was never published and honestly I don''t know if it ever will be published. I just know I'm happy because I finished this "series" and don't have to continue reading about these characters.

BAD POINT: If you weren't going to finish the series with a third book you could have ended the second one a little better.

0.5 stars out of 5 

You should read this instead:

Book Review: Lament - The Faerie Queen's Deception by Maggie Stiefvater

It's fitting that I should start my book reviews with a story involving urban fantasy, but perhaps not so fitting is that it disappointed me.

I would like to first say that this book was recommended to me due to the fact that I enjoyed Holly Black's Ironside Series. That was a false assumption and I hate myself for not just buying the first book in this series, but the second book as well. Review of that one coming shortly after this one.

We have Deirdre, a human teenage girl who runs into a human teenage boy named Luke. Everything seems to happen right away and not much sense is made in the madness. We learn that Deirdre has powers and the extent of those powers are never fully explained. It does, however, make a convenient plot device throughout the book. Faerie dust ex machina.

We then learn that there are some creatures after her, one of them Luke himself, but after hanging out with her for less than twenty-four hours he decides he is going to defy orders and not kill her. Ah yes, the downfall of all YA fantasy, insta-love. It's gross, it's unrealistic, and it has to be stopped!

Don't get me wrong I love love and a well written relationship in a YA novel can be incredible. However, when you constantly have the female protagonist fall for the mysterious guy who might be secretly bad for her, but it's not a secret because he keeps telling her he's bad for her, then it can't be anything other than awful.

Moving on, we quickly learn that Luke is an assassin for the Faerie Queen and when he disobeys his orders she punishes him by sending mental pain that makes him crumble into the fetal position. And we know this because we see it happen exactly once.

Now, why does the Faerie Queen have beef with Deirdre? Well turns out that human Deirdre can take the throne from Queen Deirdre (yes they have the same name, apparently there is a reason that I totally did not fully catch because it was something else that didn't make sense). She is able to do this due to her Freak powers, because she is a Freak and between her and her Best Friend James they will start a Freaks Fan Club and call it the Freakometers.

I wish I had the patience to go back and count all the times the word freak is used in this book, but I don't so I won't.

Yes, I almost forgot the BFF. The third cog of the YA romance triangle that is required in every book in this genre. James, sweet, understanding, cute, lovable, friend-zoned James. He gets Deirdre, like really gets her. He always answers her calls and knows the right thing to say. Honestly the way this kid was written I was so confused why Deirdre hadn't jumped on that yet.

GOOD POINT: We now come to the first good point in this book. Trust me there aren't many so enjoy this. We never ever have the awkward "I'm sorry, but I love the mysterious guy and it doesn't matter that we've always been together, but your still my best friend" moment. I thank you for this author. To be fair it was mainly because James is unconscious for a fourth of the book, but I still say it counts.

There are other faerie characters involved, Eleanor, Aodhan (or Freckled Freak as Deirdre lovingly calls him), Brendan, Una...I think that is all of them. They play parts, they do things, the plot moves forward. Honestly, they do kind of become relevant at the end.

Anyway, the Queen has Luke's soul and in a fit of rage kidnaps James and Luke in the hopes to lure Deidre out. Now mind you, she is still just human who only a few days ago discovered these powers, which include, but are not limited to Telekinesis, mind reading, playing the harp really freaking great, etc. She still does not have control of them and yet it was necessary to set an elaborate trap that brings Deirdre face to face with the Queen.

Luke's soul is a dove by the way

GOOD POINT: Time for the second good point for this book. The entire time Deirdre is forced to be on her own and figure out how to get James and Luke back; it was the best part of the book. Reading it, I wished that James and Luke didn't even exist. This is the part where the minimal research the author did into faerie lore shined through. We also got to see the only character development had by the protagonist. I actually started to enjoy the book, but then the boys came back.

James is on the brink of death and Luke is acting weird because the Queen wants him to love her, but he's rejecting her for Deirdre. It's a mess. Some Faerie that Deirdre just happen to save moments before shows up and stalls the battle between her and the Queen. Deirdre then name drops which is HUGE in Faerie lore and it is basically brushed aside as if it means nothing. How dare you! *Shakes fist*

Deirdre says that the Queen subjects don't love her and is proved correct when the Queen gets a bit full of herself and her entire court devours her. Seriously, they just rip her to shreds, it was pretty awesome.

Now the canon set by the author dictates that Deirdre should be the new Queen, but for some reason Eleanor is chosen instead, but everyone seems okay with this. Eleanor promises not to kill Deirdre and she and Luke just go, "Sounds good." Luke gets back his soul, but there's the whole thing that once it's returned he'll grow old super quick and die.

Deirdre thinks she has a plan to fix that by using up her gift from the Faerie she saved, but OH NO James is still freaking dying because he was all but forgotten during this weird exchange. So begrudgingly (She's such a good BFF) she asks the Faerie to spare James's life.

So BFF is saved, but oh wait, because Luke is pretty much a Faerie at this point he'll just continue to be a faerie once his soul is returned. No extra work required, it just happens. So now he'll live and they dance the night away because it's the Solstice.

GOOD POINT: The third and final one. The writing was easily readable. I find most books that frustrate me are made even harder by horrible writing. I would have to say this was not the case with Lament. While the story was the worst, the writing was nice.

BAD POINT: I could have done with less vomit.

1.5 Stars out of 5

Read this instead: