Author: Dee’s Reading Tree

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My favorite series (after Harry Potter of course)

Dee’s Reading Tree

The Infernal Devices -by Cassandra Clare

Let me start by saying that these book covers are absolutely gorgeous. Each cover has one of the main characters, therefore it is easy to picture them in your mind’s eye as you read. Not that they’re not perfectly described and jump off the page, but it always helps when the covers enhance the reading experience.

Life was an uncertain thing, and there were some moments one wished to remember, to imprint upon one’s mind that the memory might be taken out later, like a flower pressed between the pages of a book…” -Sophie

This series is a prequel to the Mortal Instruments series, also by Cassandra Clare, and even though I really liked Mortal Instruments; this prequel stole my heart. The books are set in the year 1878. Tessa Gray arrives in London after being summoned by her brother and soon finds herself caught up in dark supernatural events involving warlocks, vampires, and demons. Shadowhunters take Tessa under their protection, and she befriends Will and Jem. Together they fight against the Pandemonium Club and its horrible clockwork creatures.

Life is a book, and there are a thousand pages I have not yet read. I would read them together with you…” -Will

Clare’s rendering of London was very real to me. I can picture the dirty cobbled streets under near constant smog and rain, and I can almost smell the smoke and pollution emitted by the nearby factories. I can imagine the beautiful dresses and horse drawn carriages.

One must always be careful of books…and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us.” -Tessa

The characters were so real, even the minor character like Sophie, and I of course can relate to Tess the most, since she is a book lover and avid reader. Both Will and Jem are swoon-worthy, and like me, you will surely find your heart split in two directions when it comes to these guys. Will is the broody bad boy who puts up walls to keep people away, except his parabatai Jem.

When two souls are as one, they stay together on the wheel. I was born on this world to love you, and I will love you in the next life, and the one after that.” -Jem

Jem is kind and sweet, and he plays the violin which makes him even more endearing in my eyes. Even though the characters are all sixteen through seventeen, they are all very mature, and their dialogue is memorable and insightful. As you can see here, some of my favorite quotes came from this series. I always highly recommend this whole series to all my young adult fiction and fantasy fan friends.

You want this?” His voice was hoarse.

“Yes,” she said. “Do you?”

His finger traced the outline of her mouth. “For this I would have been damned forever. For this I would have given up everything.”

-Will and Tessa

Leave me a comment and let me know what your all time favorite series was!

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Wicked -by Jennifer L. Armentrout (Wicked #1)

Dee’s Reading Tree

⭐️⭐️⭐️


When I started reading this book, I was really in the mood for something light, fun and entertaining, and this did not disappoint. The cover is gorgeous, and I was instantly drawn to it. Once I began, it was impossible to put down. This book is about twenty-two-year-old Ivy Morgan who is juggling college classes during the day and killing faeries for an organization called the Order at night. When Ren Owens joins the Order, Ivy finds herself paired up with him. Ivy, who is still hurting after the loss of her parents and her long-term boyfriend Shaun, struggles to resist her obvious attraction to Ren, while they both attempt to investigate the recent appearance of dangerous faeries called Ancients in the city of New Orleans.

Armentrout has a quirky way to describe her characters which makes it easy to immediately picture them in your mind. One of my favorite passages is when Ren calls Ivy “Merida” from Disney’s “Brave,” due to her unruly red hair and “kick ass hotness,” a statement which just makes her threaten to stab him. Another character who I found absolutely hilarious was “Tink,” a very dramatic brownie (tiny ken doll sized faerie with wings) who Ivy rescued and keeps as a “roommate” in her flat. I found myself laughing like a lunatic at work, earning me weird looks from my co-workers, and then there were further questions upon my sanity when I attempted to explain what I was laughing at. I’m going to go ahead and confess now that I might be a little biased when it comes to Ren Owens because I have a thing for green eyed guys, (my husband has green eyes), that said, Ren did not disappoint. I found his straight forward, no non-sense attitude very alluring. The playful banter between him and Ivy was also very entertaining to read. On a side note, this is not a book for those who are averse to foul language or explicit sex scenes, as demonstrated by my quote above.

There are some cons to this book. If you are looking for something deep and insightful then this is not the book for you. Having just gotten through “Flowers for Algernon -by Daniel Keyes” and “A Cure for Suicide -by Jesse Ball,” I needed some light reading in my life, and this is exactly that. Also, if you have read enough Fantasy books like I have, then you will find this plot predictable. I will not go into details about the plot because I don’t do spoilers. Let’s just say everything from the big secret reveal to the ending I was already expecting, but once again this is what I wanted from this book. I picked it up while in search for an entertaining story, some hot romance, and the fun dialogue I’ve come to love in Armentrout’s books, and it left me so satisfied that I’ve been putting off reading book two. The characters and their interactions were enough to keep me engaged until the bitter cliffhanger end.

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How I became a reader

Dee’s Reading Tree

I learned to read before I started Kindergarten. My fondest memories of my mother were made in the late hours of the night, cuddling up in bed, her soothing voice and the smell of a dusty book lulling me to sleep. I remember the books she chose always had a moral to the story, and she would make sure I knew what it was. Not surprisingly, a lot of them were about listening to your mother. I vividly remember the time she read “Little Red Riding Hood,” the wolf gave me nightmares for weeks. I grew up in a very small coastal town in Cuba; since Cuba is a communist country, the general public has very limited options when it comes to reading material. In my small-town Elementary School, the book options were even scarcer. By the time I finished fifth grade I was best friends with the school librarian, and I had read every book inside the library. The poor lady had to resort to bringing me her own books from home in order to keep my reading thirst satiated. These are the people that influenced my love for reading when I was a child.

Right before I turned eleven, my mother, my sister and I came here to the United States to join my dad, who had been here for seven years. It was here in a tiny cockroach ridden apartment, which we shared with another family, that I first got my hands on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone -by J.K Rowling, the Spanish version since I could not read English yet. I cannot begin to describe how I yearned to receive a letter from Hogwarts on my eleventh birthday, but unfortunately my birthday came and went, and no such letter arrived. I then resolved to beg my father to take me to the Library, and I got my very own Library card instead. To me it was my passport into worlds unknown, and it offered the escape I so desperately needed.

By the time I was thirteen I could read and write English at an acceptable level, and I no longer needed ESOL classes (classes in which the teacher spoke Spanish). I breezed through Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in English, and then the rest of the series as it was released throughout the years. These books shaped me into the reader I am today. In books I have found comfort and solace from anything I might be going through in my life, and I am one of those people who believes the meaning of life can be found within the pages of a good book.