Hello Mondays, welcome back to #5OnMyTBR, a meme created by the wonderful E @ The Local Bee Hunter’s Nook. This bookish meme gets us to dig even further into our TBRs by simply posting about five books on our TBR! You can learn more about it here or in the post announcing it. You can find the full list of prompts (past and future) at the end of this post!
This week’s prompt is: Historical
Read More »Welcome back to Goodreads Monday! It’s been a very hot minute since I did one but I figured I might as well get back into it! This weekly meme was started by @Lauren’s Page Turners and it invites you to pick a book from your TBR and explain why you want to read it. Easy enough, right? Feel free to join in if you want to! I’ll be using a random number generator to pick my books from my insanely long GR Want-to-read list.
This week’s featured book is The Survivors by Jane Harper. This is mystery thriller that was published a few weeks ago and has a 4.18 star rating on Goodreads.
Read More »We’re back with another Sundays in Bed With… meme! This meme dares to ask you what book has been in your bed this morning and is hosted by Midnight Book Girl. Come share what book you’ve been you’ve spent time curled up reading in bed with, or which book you wish you had time to read today!
I have plans to spend the rest of my Sunday cosied up reading The Puppetmaster’s Apprentice. My focus has been whacky at best lately and I’ve struggled to fall into books over the last week (despite still reading a fair bit). I’ve had this one going for over 3 days now (I think) and it’s not because I’m not enjoying it, I’m just having trouble focusing. My mind has been wandering constantly! I’m hoping to tuck into it and finish it tonight though!
Pinocchio meets Frankenstein in this dark fairy tale retelling where a young girl is commissioned to build an assassin for a dark-hearted tyrant.
Impressed by the work of the puppetmaster and his apprentice, Tavia’s ruler, The Margrave, has ordered dozens of life-size marionette soldiers to be sent to Wolfspire Hall. When the orders for more soldiers come in with increasingly urgent deadlines, the puppetmaster’s health suffers and Pirouette, his daughter and protégé, is left to build in his stead. But there is something far more twisted brewing at Wolfspire—the Margrave’s son wants Pirouette to create an assassin. And he wants her to give it life.
With Tavia teetering on the brink of war and her father dying in the dungeons, Pirouette has no choice but to accept. Racing against the rise of the next blue moon—the magic that will bring her creations to life—she can’t help but wonder, is she making a masterpiece…or a monster?
What are you currently reading?
Read More »Welcome back to another Top 5 Saturday! Just in case you don’t know Top 5 Saturday is a weekly meme created by Mandy @ Devouring Books and it’s where we list the top five books (they can be books on your TBR, favourite books, books you loved/hated) based on the week’s topic. You can see the upcoming schedule at the end of my post 🙂 This week’s topic is actually: feminist themes!
Saturday has come and gone and I’ve only just realised that I never finished my post 🙃 So, I’m going to keep it short and simple today. I think the topic speaks for itself! But really who doesn’t love a good empowering read about women rising up against the patriarchy or simply advocating for women everywhere by speaking up about experiences that we all face? All of these are on my TBR and I’m looking forward to reading them all, but especially Roxane Gay’s book and of course, Michelle Obama’s book 😍
(book covers are linked to the Goodreads pages!)
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Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by Rukky @Eternity Books & Dani @ Literary Lion, where we get to discuss certain topics, share our opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! I’ve listed the upcoming topics in brief at the end of my post, but check out these pages for more information on October 2020 prompts & a list of past prompts!
Now without further ado… This week’s topic asks us:
(SUGGESTED BY RAFAELA @ THE PORTUGUESE BIBLIOPHILE)
Examples: Is there a specific trope you can’t stand? A plot twist that will make you drop instantly? How many pages do you usually give a book to capture your attention? How many books do you give a series before deciding if it’s worth your time? Do you count books as read on Goodreads if you DNF them?
Before 2020 my answer to this question would’ve been: I don’t DNF books. It wasn’t because I avoided books I knew I wouldn’t enjoy (lmao please I’m not that smart) it was more that I always thought “maybe it’ll get better”. But I also felt a lot of guilt at the thought of DNFing a book. I’ve never had a problem understanding why people decide to DNF, I just couldn’t figure out how to not let the guilt get to me. But after years of working up to it, I finally did it!
So far in 2020 I’ve chosen to DNF 4 books. I know that’s not much for regular DNFers, but for someone who would normally force myself to finish a book, even at the risk of putting myself in a reading slump, it’s an achievement! Is it still hard to DNF a book? Yes. Do I still push on for longer than I “should” because I’m fighting the guilt? Probably. But I’m slowly letting myself be okay with deciding that a book isn’t for me. It’s a WIP. Baby steps and all that, you know?
But what makes me decide it’s time to abandon a book? NGL, I’m still working out what does and doesn’t work for me. There are tropes I don’t like but coming across disliked and overused tropes isn’t enough reason for me to DNF (currently anyway). It might make me roll me eyes and dislike a book more but unless I can’t stand another minute of it, I’ll keep reading. Looking back on the books I’ve DNF’d this year I’ve found some common reasons for why I put them down:
Having likeable characters is a big draw for me and I find it so hard to get through a book when I can’t stand the main character, or even worse all of the characters. Even in plot driven books, characters are key to feeling invested in what happens in the story. This also applies to how a character speaks — some dialogue is just so cringeworthy I can’t take anything seriously.
This is especially the case when it comes to romance. I get insta-lust and fiery sexual chemistry, but don’t tell me it’s love and expect me to believe it just because you said so. I want to see what makes a character so loveable and I want to see why these they’re good together (outside of the bedroom!).
When I say this it’s more about the world building and info dumping. If you dump a boatload of information on me and I’m still confused about how things work after reading a good chunk of the book, I’m gonna have to reconsider finishing it.
The reason why I’d dread picking a book back up probably has to do with a combination of all of the above, plus some other things like slow pacing or awkward writing. But once I start making excuses to avoid continuing a book, it’s a good sign I’ll probably DNF it.
Based on my (limited) experience with DNFing, I tend to read up to 30% of the book before deciding it’s not for me. Again, it’s not a hard and fast rule but I like to give it a proper shot before putting it down otherwise the guilt would eat me up.
I don’t count DNF books as read because, well, I didn’t really read them. As of right now, I still haven’t marked the books I DNF’d on Goodreads but I’d probably make a shelf for them whenever I get around to it. I also don’t count them as part of my weekly or monthly wrap-ups, although I mention if I have DNF’d something.
Do you DNF books? If so, what are your reasons for DNFing a book? Do you struggle with DNFing books and what makes you hesitate to DNF?
Happy Friday book lovers! We’re back with another First Lines Friday, a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines? Here are the rules:
First lines:
“Casia hated thunderstorms, because they reminded her of the night she had watched her mother kill her father.“
Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?
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I’m back with another blog tour with The Storytellers on Tour for Children by Bjørn Larssen. Thanks to SoT for organising this tour and thanks to the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Be sure to click on the banner below to check out the rest of the bloggers on tour!
Goodreads: Children (The Ten Worlds #1)
Publication Date: 03 October 2020
Genre: Fantasy Retelling, Mythology
Panda Rating:
Magni never wanted to be like his father, a murderous, absent, cheating alcoholic: Thor – the feared and beloved God of thunder. When Thor destroys everything and everyone his son knows and loves, Magni vows to stop the violence. His dream is to bring peace and prosperity to the Nine Worlds, then settle down with the man he loves. But is it possible to remain good in a place this bad? How do you escape cruelty in a universe built on it, or the shadow of your father when everyone calls you by his name?
Maya knows she’s a failure and a disappointment to her foster-parents. How could a child raised by Freya and Freyr – Goddess of love and God of sex – have no interest in the greatest of pleasures? Obviously, it couldn’t be the torture they subjected her to, or treating her as a tool that might someday be useful. Maya, her rage at their games more powerful than she knows, wants freedom to pursue her own destiny. But how do you forge your own life away from your God-parents when you’re nothing more than human?
A retelling of the Norse myths unlike any other, Children will answer all the questions you never knew you had about the heathen Nine Worlds… before leading you into the Tenth
BUY NOW: Amazon (UK)
I’m back with another blog tour today with Xpresso Tours for A Royal Christmas Quandry by Samantha Hastings. Thanks to Xpresso Tours for organising this blog tour and to Netgalley and the publisher for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Be sure to click on the banner below to check out the other bloggers on tour!
Goodreads: A Royal Christmas Quandry
Publisher: Swoon Reads
Release Date: 06 October 2020
Genre: Young Adult Historical Fiction
Panda Rating:
When you spend Christmas in a castle, anything is possible.
1860. Lady Alexandrina Gailey is looking forward to a cozy holiday at Windsor Castle with her best friend, Princess Alice, and her long-time crush, Lord George Worthington. But Drina’s plans are all but dashed when Alice’s parents, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, declare that Alice must choose one of two royal princes to become engaged to before Christmas.
There’s just one problem: George, a junior member of the Foreign Office, has accidentally misplaced one of the princes.
Together, Drina and George scour the town of Windsor for the missing prince, desperately hoping to deliver him to the royal dinner party with the queen none the wiser. They might just need a royal Christmas miracle to pull it off.
BUY NOW: Amazon (US) | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo
Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words, which means I’ll be answering these questions:
Since last Wednesday I’ve managed to read 7 books. Still going with lots of romance but also quite a bit of historical fiction, too!
Taken to Sasor (Xiveri Mates #3) by Elizabeth Stephens ★★½
This story was set apart from the world we’re introduced to in the first two books in the series and I’m sad to say that it’s my least favourite one. While I loved the heroine and the awesome side characters, I didn’t really care for the hero. The high point of this series continues to be the diversity and amazing world building–the intro to alien cultures, social norms, mythology/folklore is all so well done! I’ll be writing mini-reviews for the whole series once it’s finished.
I’m back with another blog tour today with Rachel’s Random Resources for A Bachelor’s Pledge by Penny Hampson. Thanks to Rachel for organising this tour, and to the author for providing the book in exchange for an honest review.
Be sure to click on the banner above to check out the other bloggers on tour!
Goodreads: A Bachelor’s Pledge
Release Date: 07 October 2020
Genre: Historical Romance, Mystery
Panda Rating:
The woman who haunts his dreams
Secret agent Phil Cullen is upset when he discovers that the young woman he rescued from Mrs Newbody’s establishment has absconded from his housekeeper’s care without a word. Thinking he has been deceived, he resolves to forget about her… something easier said than done.
The man she wants to forget
Sophia Turner is horrified when she is duped into entering a notorious house of ill-repute. Then a handsome stranger comes to her aid. Desperate that no one learns of this scandalous episode, Sophia flees to the one friend she knows she can trust. With luck, she will never see her mysterious rescuer again.
But fate has other plans…
Months later, Phil is on the trail of an elusive French agent and Sophia is a respectable lady’s companion when fate again intervenes, taking their lives on a collision course.
Traitors, spies, and shameful family secrets – will these bring Sophia and Phil together… or drive them apart?
BUY NOW: Amazon (US) | Amazon (UK)
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