The Christy Miller Series

The Christy Miller Collection by Robin Jones Gunn, one of my all-time favorite series. Christy is a normal girl with a normal life until she spends the summer in California with her super-rich aunt and uncle. There she gets a new makeover, new friends, and potential boyfriend (Todd) and newfound faith. It’s a three-in-one book, and there are four of them, which means you get to read twelve different stories. There is also the Christy Miller the College Years, the Married Years, and the Baby Years and another series about Sierra Jensen, her newfound friend from book 12 in the Miller series.

This series gives hope and is one of the few YA Christian fiction books. It takes you through Christy’s happiness, hardships, love, faith, and pain. These are things that people experience every day of their lives and while we may not have a Todd in our lives (literally my favorite fictional character ever), his realness makes it seem like you’re right there talking with him. I am thankful that this series has not been made into a movie because I believe not actor could ever be able to portray the likes of Todd, who is so different than any other fictional character I’ve read about (and trust me I’ve read too many books to count). This series is a definite must-read.

"A God-thing is when something happens in your life, and you look at it and can't explain how or why it happened, but you know there's a reason for it. You know that God is doing something in your life, and it changes you. There's no other way to explain it except to see it as a God thing."

-Robin Jones Gunn

~A. Quill

Best Book Subscription Boxes

Now, I know there are a lot of book subscription boxes out there, and I'm here to list my favorite ones and tell you a bit about them.

For starters, there is the Fairy Loot Box, the #1 YA Fantasy subscription box. This box 5-6 themed items in each box plus an extraordinary hardcover book. They even revealed for the April Box there will be a blanket (which I'm super excited for, I have a very strange love for fuzzy blankets). The books are always amazing because fantasy is one of my favorite genres and the book usually comes signed by the author or has an exclusive cover or has sprayed edges! The box itself is pretty cute it's all black and has the outline of a fairy in white sitting in what looks to be a tree/nest. I'm excited to get the April Box this month!

Another favorite is the Once Upon A Book Club which offers both young adult and adult boxes, and they both have amazing themed items. Each box has about 4-5 themed items and each come prewrapped with a page number on them. So the page number represents a quote on that page that matches with what item you will get. Pretty cool, right?

Finally, there is Owlcrate which offers young adult boxes and children's boxes as well. Owlcrate does give smaller items like socks and pins and mugs, but it doesn't make it any less cool. The books are signed by the author and you get the exclusive Owlcrate edition of the book. On the other hand, there are about 6-7 items, plus the monthly book. So although these items are smaller, you get more of them.

Each pricing is a bit different than the others but I encourage you to check them all out and find which one you like the best!

"I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a book."
-J.K. Rowling

~A. Quill

The Best Hot Chocolate Recipe and Books to Read When it's Raining

Best Hot Chocolate Recipe Ever (at least in my opinion):
Ingredients:
-1/2 cup of sugar
-1/4 of baking cocoa
-A dash of salt
-4 cups of milk
-1/3 cup of hot water
-3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
-Marshmallows (for topping)
-Cinnamon (for topping)
Preparation:
In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, baking cocoa, and salt. Then stir in the water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture boils. Boil and stir for 2 minutes then add the milk. Heat to serving temperature, stirring occasionally. Do not boil. Remove mixture from heat and stir in vanilla. Beat with a whisk until foamy. Serve hot and topped with marshmallows.

There are many variations including Cinnamon Cocoa (which is my favorite) where you just add 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon. There is also a mint variation where you add 1/2 a teaspoon of mint extract OR 3 tablespoons of crushed hard peppermint candy. For Mocha Cocoa, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of powdered instant coffee.

This recipe is originated by Hershey's and does not belong to me.

Best books to snuggle up with when the weather is cold and wet outside:
-The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
-Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
-Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler
-The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
-Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
-In Some Other Life by Jessica Brody
-Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

"A cup of hot chocolate in one hand and a pile of good books surrounding you...can help you forget everything..."
-Ek Awaj

~A. Quill

I Want To Be Where The Dancers Are

I Wanna Be Where You Are, by Kristina Forest. "Chloe Pierce is a terrible daughter." Chloe's dream is to go to this prestigious dance school so she can become a dancer, but her mom shuts the door on her dreams when she says that Chloe can't go. But Chloe is persistent and forms a plan so she can drive two hundred miles to get to the closest audition. But what happens when she hits two roadblocks named Eli and his dog, Geezer. So now Chloe is on the road with an amazing playlist, two unwanted (although admittedly cute) passengers and motivation to get to the audition.

This book gives people the inspiration to follow their dreams, although technically it does involve Chloe lying to her mom to get there. At the beginning of the book, it mentions Chloe got injured and couldn't dance as competitively as she used to, and even though she had nightmares about it, she still kept persevering and wouldn't stop until she got to that dance audition and crushed it. I enjoyed how it gave a testament to being brave, even though Chloe broke more than a few rules. It also showed a "don't judge a book by it's cover" theme because at the beginning Chloe was totally against Eli and Geezer coming, but once she started talking to them, she found out that there's more to them (more specifically Eli) than meets the eye. For the most part I really enjoyed this book, although I definitely wasn't as invested in this book as I have been in other books. Some parts were rather slow but others kept me enraptured and time flew by (although I won't tell you which parts because it could give away spoilers).

Similar books to I Wanna Be Where You Are are Bunheads by Sophie Flack and Attitude by Robin Stevenson.

"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."
~E.E Cummings

-A. Quill

"So Many Books, So Little Time"

Hello, I'm Anonymous Quill and this blog, as you probably guessed by the name, is about books. I'll list books that I think others should read and some that maybe you shouldn't read, and I'll do reviews. Of course, there have been many reviews on books, so what makes this so special? I'm going to try and do more obscure books, maybe ones that are stand alones instead of a series, but I might do a few popular books. I'll give a summary of each book and I'm also going to compare books to the movies (which trust me, I can go on about how the movie is different for hours if someone would let me). I will also compare books to other similar books. I'll do a variety of genres (although my favorites are fantasy, historical fiction, and realistic fiction). I'm also going to review audiobooks, although probably not as much as hardcopy books. A different quote will be at the end of each post, and they may or may not have to do with anything in the post. I will also post monthly reading challenges, to try and get you to read something you normally wouldn't.

If you want to know a bit about me, here it is: I LOVE BOOKS. Books are one thing that has been constant in my life, and I know they will always be there for me. I don't have many friends, and I'm a major nerd and a dork. I also love to bake, write, sing, act, and hang in my room and watch Netflix. I'm apparently anti-social, and because of this and my love for writing, there was a suggestion that I should start a blog. Overall, I'm a nerdy booklover who probably needs to express her feelings more often and what better way to do that then through reviewing books?

"So many books, so little time."
-Frank Zappa

~A. Quill