COLLAB: Sophie recommends|reading ‘The Raven Cycle’ & watching ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’

Hey loves!

I’m so excited to be posting this collaboration that has been in the works for around two months now!

In late March, Sophie and I started talking about a possible collab and we came up with the coolest idea ever 😉

Both of us recommended a favorite TV series and a favorite book series to the other. Then we both had to read and watch the other person’s recommendations and see how we liked it!

Both of us are posting our reactions to the other person’s recommendations. We’re also posting why we recommended the TV series and book series we chose for the other person!

Sophie @ Me and Ink is definitely one of my favorite bloggers of all time because not only does she produce AMAZING bookish content (like, seriously) but she also has one of the sweetest personalities in this niche. I was so excited to collab with her and it turned out awesome! Check out her post here.

Now, let’s get on with the post!

What I Recommended To Sophie:

I recommended the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and Avatar: The Last Airbender to Sophie!

AVATAR:

 

I recommended Avatar: The Last Airbender to Sophie because it’s probably my favorite TV show of all time! The characters are incredibly well-written, the worldbuilding is fantastic, the animation and music are beautiful, and everything about it is nostalgic and wholesome. I also think that Sophie will enjoy it because lots of our tastes are similar in books, so she might like this as well!

PERCY JACKSON:

 

Rick Riordan is my favorite author, and this is the series where it all started. The characters are amazing, the ships are my favorite of all time (and that’s saying something, given that I ship a lot of characters) and the narrator, Percy, is hilarious. It’s a pretty popular series and it brings me back to my childhood every time I read it. Also, we’re getting a TV series soon, so I really wanted Sophie to read it so we could rave about it together! 

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What Sophie Recommended To Me:

BROOKLYN NINE-NINE:

I recommended this show because I love sitcoms, and this is one of the best. I genuinely find it hilarious, like even after I’ve seen the episode ten times I’m still laughing. Plus, the characters are just as wonderful as the comedy. They display a variety of traits and they have a beautiful found family with lots of healthy relationships. What’s not to love??

THE RAVEN BOYS:

The Raven Boys: This is definitely a unique series, please don’t ever ask me to describe the plot or genre. But the reason I fell in love with it was because of the lyrical writing. There is always something new to discover within the words, whether some new symbolism or foreshadowing. Secondly, I love the characters. There is something very real about them, and they are all so different but bonded by their love for each other. The series is definitely a journey, one I’ve always loved being a part of.

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My Review of ‘The Raven Cycle’:

WOW. This series completely blew me away! I loved each book so much. Here’s what I rated the books:

The Raven Boys (#1): ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Dream Thieves (#2): ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Blue Lily, Lily Blue (#3): ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Raven King (#4): ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Dream Thieves was only a four-star read probably because I started the first part of it and waited a whole week before reading the rest 😂

WHAT I LOVED ABOUT THE RAVEN CYCLE:

• the writing: magical, eery, thrumming (honestly the best way I can describe it)
• the characters are THE BEST (gansey is my boy)
• the plot is amazing! it keeps you on your toes!

I would just like to put a disclaimer that the beginnings of all the books are a liiiittle bit slow but if you push through it, the books are on a whole new level!

I’m so excited that I found a new favorite set of books too so this was a total success for sure! 🙂

MY FAVORITE DETAILS:

• any time we got to see the women of 300 Fox Way was awesome
• the fact that despite being a super confusing mix of genres, it’s! so! good! (it’s sort of paranormal and fantasy-ish sorta?) as someone who normally doesn’t like paranormal, you can take it from me that it’s great nevertheless 🙂
• sargensey!! the angst !! i can’t take it!
• maura + calla + persephone is THE power trio and you cannot make me believe that any of these characters are straight tbh
• Mr. Gray! I love his character lots!
• piper greenmantle. she really lived up to her name tbh. if piper mclean were evil, she’d approve.

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My Thoughts On ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’:

Wow. I thought that I’d never love a series as much as Avatar and while I’m still right (hehe) I loved Brooklyn Nine-Nine much more than I expected to! It’s a sitcom in a police station and I adored the characters from the beginning.

THE CHARACTERS:

Y’all, the characters are great! We have Jake, who’s a great detective but is also kind of a total goofball (<3 ❤ <3) and Amy, the smart, organized detective who he’s always arguing with (<3 <3). And then we have Captain Holt, the new captain who’s strict and completely unlike their old cap, and Sarge, a totally rad role model and dad. Rosa, who’s a badass and completely awesome, and Gina, who’s always complimenting herself and is also hilarious. And, of course, Charles! He’s Jake’s best friend and partner in crime (well, jk, they’re cops. haha). Then there’s Hitchcock and Scully (I ship them lmao).

Also, Peralta-Santiago for the win!!

MY FAVORITE EPISODES in no particular order:

• Basically all the Halloween Heist episodes, especially the first one and ‘HallowVeen’!
• ‘Jake and Amy’, Season 5, Episode 22- it was just a rollercoaster the whole while!
• Any episode with Doug Judy 😉
• ‘Game Night’ or ‘Show Me Going’, both of which involve Rosa and the precinct
• “The Box”!! Honestly, the criminal in this episode was played by an awesome actor even though he’s a guest star 😂

OTHER:

B99 has covered some serious issues, too. It had an episode relating to sexism in the workplace and the #MeToo movement (but it was handled really well IMO) and an episode where Terry gets stopped because he’s a black man. 

Despite that, B99 is a comedic show above all else and it’s a really really fun watch!

That’s a wrap! This collaboration with Sophie was super fun and I’m really glad we did it. I found two new amazing series- both of which are now favorites 🙂 Go read Sophie’s post here, because she’s going to be sharing her thoughts on reading Percy Jackson and watching Avatar: The Last Airbender for the first time!

Have you read The Raven Cycle and watched Brooklyn Nine-Nine? What are your thoughts on them?