Top Ten Tuesday: Fandoms!

                Hello everyone!  Top Ten Tuesday is just how it sounds, a topic is picked and we put our Top Ten for that in a post and share and check out everyone’s answers.  Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

The top ten today is:  Fandoms I’m a part of!

La Femme Nikita- I was maybe a smidge too young to really watch this but I remember loving it so so much.  I remember trying to record all the episodes on VHS (before seasons regularly came out or there was Netflix) and being mad hey wouldn’t fit.  I could name every episode in order of every season.  It was serious.  I didn’t know what a fandom was then and had the internet been like it is now I would have found it!

Moonlight- This TV show really made me understand what a fandom is.

Twilight- I fell hard into this one when I first marathoned the books and it will always have a special place in my heart.

Disney- I’ve always been a huge Disney fan and still as an adult today love all my childhood Disney tales and watch them on the regular.  I get all gooey when I see cute Disney merch and kids finding my favorites for the first time.

Harry Potter- Do I even need to explain this one?  I found it a little later than many but I was so glad when I finally gave in and fell in love.  I still haven’t been to the park yet, but that is a goal of mine in the near future, maybe even this year. 

Sarah J. Maas- Both of her series because I can’t pick just one.  The amazing talk about these and the artwork that fans much more talented than I have created…it’s intense and I love it.  She has also nearly broken all of our hearts several times over so yeah.  I would be broke if I allowed myself to shop on some of the beautiful and amazing sites.  I just reviewed and caught up on Empire of Storms in the Throne of Glass series but A Court of Mist and Fury just....it got to me on such a level I can't process! 

Veronica Mars- I didn’t watch it until it was over sadly.  I didn’t have the channel at first and then once I did I couldn’t start it from the middle (I just can’t) so I watched it when they came out on DVD.  You know because streaming wasn’t as popular and I lived in the middle of the country with snail internet speed.  Bright side when I did get to watch I was able to marathon through and have done so several times and it’s always a fall back to put on and just love.  I was a huge Veronica/Logan shipper!  I was thrilled about the movie and the subsequent books.  I’m a happy little marshmallow.

Vampire Academy- This series…it just blew me away.  I waited until it was over to read and I’m glad I did because it just blew me away.  I read them all pretty quickly and just fell in love with the characters and the story and was rooting for my favorites from the start.  I remember being upset that most of my friends hadn’t read these yet and I had no idea who to talk to about it having not yet discovered all the joys of the bookish community.

Supernatural- I’ve been watching this for so long and it regularly ends up in everyday conversation even if the other person doesn’t know it.  My friends and I send back Supernatural memes and such it’s always great.

The Shadowhunter Universe- I love all of these books.  This deep and never ending world full of characters that we love is amazing.  I love how things in one era may come into play in the present day and how some immortal characters can cross over between them all.  It’s such an amazing world!

General Hospital- This is a soap which I have been watching all of my life.  I kid you not when the 50^th anniversary came about there was a special People edition for it and it have time lines for each decade and such and I was reading my copy because of course I have one and I saw plot points for stories I remember and when I saw the year I actually had to stop and look it up.  Like verify I hadn’t lost my mind.  I did in fact remember story/plot points from when I was 5 years old.  WTF? Everyone watched so it was always on each day in the background and eventually I started paying close attention to it but I apparently retained much more than I thought.

                I could really have just listed all the shows/series/books/things I love and filled pages and still never had enough but I figure picking out a couple of the top/active ones was enough.  I can’t really think too hard on it though because even as I get ready to post I want to add/change things.  It’s like picking a favorite book, impossible!

                 Tell me what you think of my list in the comments below.  Also please link back to your Top Ten as well so I can check out your list and see what I missed!

Doppelganger by Milda Harris

                I have been reading up a storm this month and loving it.  No dent in the TBR list really as I added about 3 for every book 1 finished.  A solid point for the, pro eternal life, debate I always hear coming up.  One of the books I read recently was Doppelganger by Milda Harris thanks to NetGalley.  I first clicked on this title because, I admit the idea of doppelgangers intrigues me; and the cover reminded me of something from my past and to even now it drives me crazy that I am unable to figure out what that something is.  I’ll remember it at the most random time and shout it out for whoever is in the vicinity to look at me like I’ve lost my mind.  Either way I was excited to receive this book for an honest review. 

                This book is not a brand new release.  Which is great for me because that meant book 2, aptly named Doppelganger 2, was already out.  So I really read both books before I could review.  I had to know what happened next.  Though that simply means I am now waiting for book 3.  I’m focusing my review on book 1 so don’t worry about spoilers.  I read through it pretty quickly, the premise is that of a girl, named Citrus, starting out a normal day, all be is a bit badly as she is running late for school.  She has a run in with her least favorite person and then shows up unprepared for a test only to see herself through the door already taking the test.  Trippy.  Is this a dream?  Is she crazy?   Is it an alien invasion?  As she struggles to cope and figure this mess out she finds someone else out in the hall who happens to also be taking a test inside, a guy she happens to have a huge crush on, Aedan.

                 

                The idea of the book sounded pretty good and the story moved along well enough.  They say everyone has a twin somewhere in the world.  What would you do if you ran into your doppelganger?  Once I got over the name of the lead character, I give a lot of leeway with names but that was a new one.  There was also another character constantly calling her Orange instead.  It was a bit of a strange name in a present day non-dystopian novel, to wrap my head around but after the first few chapters it just blended in.  She was a bit of a spaz too, which at times could be a bit repetitive but she’s a high school girl who is trying to deal with this supernatural mystery that took over her life and with her teenage girl crush issues.  It made me laugh how she is able to realize her train of thought drifts on occasion and how with everything going on thinking about the cute boy beside her should not even be on her mind; which made it enduring.  Honestly, I’m not sure my mind wouldn’t wonder in that mess; a way to think about something less freaky and more normal.  Because let’s face it in high school what could be more normal than dealing with a crush.

 

                If you found out a doppelganger had taken over your life and at least a handful of others, what would you do?  Confront them?  Run?  I can’t say too much more about the plot without giving away the story.  I can say that I think the author did a good job at weaving in fear, the mystery, and the unknown nicely to keep the reader engaged in the story and what happens to the characters.  Clearly I enjoyed the book if as soon as I finished it I went to Amazon and bought book 2 to keep reading right away.  I give it a solid 4 Stars and look forward to book 3.

Divine Vices by Melissa Parkin

                I'm back again with my thoughts on another book.  Divine Vices by Melissa Parkin was not originally on my TBR list, not because it didn’t sound interesting or anything but I had never heard of it.  There are so many great books out there that are not huge releases and as such may get overlooked.  I'm glad I was contacted about this book and able to check it out because I really enjoyed it.

                The story is a thriller/mystery/suspense type that follows around high school junior Cassie Foster.  She has been in New Haven, Maine for the last seven months and is still the new girl and is happy in her life with her best friends Gwen and Ian.  She is taking everything well and trying to be normal, well as normal as one can be in high school.  Then comes the new guy, Jackson, who takes over the new kid role.  He is sexy, arrogant, sarcastic, and cocky which is not her type at all.  When they get thrown together and their bond intensifies it is hard to ignore even with the craziness that is happening in town.  The unexplainable events, a string of disappearances, and cult related murder, lead to many questions and coincidence of timing with Jacksons arrival in town and mysterious past.

                This book was very interesting and I like the cloak and dagger of it all.  One thing I find amazing is that it was listed as having a paranormal/supernatural/fantasy aspect to it but I forgot all about that as I read.  It wasn't until the last part of the book when I was on the edge of my seat trying to fight the rational part of my brain that said I needed to sleep before work the next day that it came about.  That can work for those who are just starting to get into a supernatural type of story.  I've had people ask me about books that I think they would enjoy but without too much 'way out there fantasy'.  Finding those based more in reality with a slight twist is always a good place to begin and dip your feet in.  And this one fits the bill because I believe it can be easily enjoyed by anyone. 

                Cassie is a girl who is trying to get over a tragedy.  She has found comfort in two friends and she just wants to finish high school and have as normal an experience as possible.  Her attraction to the new guy is a whole other story, she doesn't want to like him.  She battles with herself constantly.  She doesn't want to like him and she wants to strangle him sometimes but then as things happen her views shift but she still doesn't know what to rust.  And as she starts to open up and trust, he becomes her best friends prime suspect given his questionable past.

                The best friends Gwen and Ian are also very relatable.  They are people I remember going to high school with.  I think everyone knew that one people who knew everything.  The person that could tell you what was happening with everyone in school and even the news around town because they had the hook up.  If you wanted info you went to them to get it.  And the eccentric person who dressed to their own beat and seemed a bit out there and even took pride in being the different one.  I admit I was not that person.  I'm all about comfort and common sense.  I'm clumsy and trip on flat surfaces unhindered and I'm 5'7.  I don’t need to wear 4-6 inch heels every day.  That is a safety hazard.  Do I own them and like to dress up on occasion where I might care more about the outfit than my 100% comfort?  Yes.  I was friends with people at school who dressed like that though and I admired their courage to wear it when I knew others would joke about it. 

 

                The mystery of Jackson and what is happening around school all flows together seamlessly.  It' impossible not to question it and get caught up in the mystery even when it scares you.    Can you figure out what is going on before the characters do?  Is it going to work out the way you think?  I admit I didn’t get this one figured out, which is pretty big for me.  I normally have it all clued in before the first half.  So enjoy the mystery and see if you're smarter than the characters.

                I don’t want to give too much of the story away so I think I will close it up saying simply that I give this book 5 Stars.  Once I started I didn’t want to stop.  And it stops at a very unfriendly place let me warn you.  I almost dropped my poor kindle trying to make more appear but it said book complete at the bottom and that was it for now.  I am eager to read book 2 and see where the story goes and will make an update when I learn anything about the next book.