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:
We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl.
This week’s topic is Ten Most Recent Books I Did Not Finish (Feel free to tell us why if you want, but if you do please be nice to the authors and don’t tag them when you mention your post on social media!)
Hello, friends! It’s a little past the mid-year mark but I thought why not jump aboard the mid-year check-in train anyway? I’ve been seeing lots of these posts recently and well, compared to previous years, mine is probably not going to be very exciting but I still love this tag so here I am doing it anyway! 😂
As I’ve mentioned a time or three since I started blogging again last week, I’m still trying to find my reading groove after so much disruption this year, especially this past month. Hopefully, coming back to the community and surrounding myself with fellow book lovers will motivate me again. Plus, I’ve missed you all a lot! 💜 On that note, let’s get to The Mid-Year Check-In!
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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 spent your time curled up reading in bed with or which book you wish you had time to read today!
I’ll be spending the rest of Sunday reading either of these three books:
Happy Saturday, friends! Today I’m excited to share my review for Academy Arcanist by Shami Stovall as part of the blog tour hosted by The Write Reads.
Special thanks to the tour organisers for having me on tour and to the author for providing a digital copy of the book in exchange for an honest review!
Academy Arcanist (Astra Academy #1)
Publisher: Capital Station Books
Publication Date: 23 August 2022
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Panda Rating:
(4 pandas)
Hopes. Dreams. And literal nightmares out to kill a young boy.
Gray Lexly, son of a candlemaker, wants to escape his life of old-world technologies and study at the prestigious Astra Academy, a school for arcanists—those who can wield magic. But Gray has a major problem. Every night, as he sleeps, he’s visited by monsters. When they injure Gray in his dreams, he wakes with the same wounds in real life…
On the night Gray might finally die in his nightmares, he is saved by the kind and mysterious Professor Helmith, a powerful arcanist. She offers to protect Gray and invites him to attend Astra Academy.
Before that can happen, Gray must bond with a mystical creature to become an arcanist himself. Will he bond with a unicorn? A pegasus? A kitsune? Whatever he bonds with will determine his magical abilities, so he must choose wisely.
And when trouble finds Professor Helmith, Gray must become powerful enough to help her and fend off the terrible nightmares, before it’s too late…
Blood, gore, death
TL;DR: Academy Arcanist is a fast-paced YA fantasy that’s a little bit dark and filled with a lot of magic! If you love magical creatures/companions in your fantasies then there’s no doubt that you will love this world and the magical system linked to forming a life-long unbreakable bond with a supernatural animal. The characters were intriguing, the plot was mysterious (if not a little predictable) and I adored the found family vibes that always come with starting a new life in a magical academy. Although I struggled with the main character and his perspective at times, there was never a moment I didn’t root for his success. This is a great start to a series and I can’t wait to see where this goes next!
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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:
“Oh, Mis Whitmore. Just look at this horrid place.”
As she alighted from the coach, Clio took in the narrow, cobbled passage between two rows of warehouses. “It looks like an alleyway, Anna.”
“It smells of blood. Lord preserve us. We’ll be murdered.”
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:
We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl.
This week’s topic is Books With One-Word Titles (submitted by Angela @ Reading Frenzy Book Blog)
Hello, friends! I’m back and diving straight in with a blog tour review for The Third Daughter by Adrienne Tooley. Special thanks to the TBR & Beyond Tours team for organising the tour and including me in it!
Thanks to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Click here or on the banner above to check out the rest of the fantastic bloggers on tour!
The Third Daughter
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: 18 July 2023
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Rep: Lesbian, Queer, Bi, Gay
Panda Rating:
(3 pandas)
A sweeping YA fantasy about legacy, betrayal, sisterhood, and politicizing emotion in the quest for power—all balanced by a slow-burn LGBTQ romance.
For centuries, the citizens of Velle have waited for their New Maiden to return. The prophecy states she will appear as the third daughter of a third daughter. When the fabled child is finally born to Velle’s reigning queen all rejoice except for Elodie, the queen’s eldest child, who has lost her claim to the crown. The only way for Elodie to protect Velle is to retake the throne. To do so, she must debilitate the Third Daughter—her youngest sister, Brianne.
Desperate, Elodie purchases a sleeping potion from Sabine, who sells sadness. But the apothecary mistakenly sends the princess away with a vial of tears instead of a harmless sleeping brew. Sabine’s sadness is dangerously powerful, and Brianne slips into a slumber from which she will not wake. With the fates of their families and country hanging in the balance, Sabine and Elodie hurry to revive the Third Daughter while a slow-burning attraction between the two girls erupts in full force.
A must-read for fans of the BookTok sensations Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard, Dance of Thieves by Mary E. Pearson, and These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong.
TL;DR: The Third Daughter is an interesting start to a new duology(?) that I think holds a lot of potential. Tooley’s prose is compelling and it’s easy to become absorbed in the world she has created. Elodie and Sabine are complex, morally grey and not always the easiest to like or even empathise with at times but it makes their arcs even more engaging to follow and their characters feel more realistic. The book takes on a surprisingly darker tone that I wasn’t really expecting, especially in regard to faith and politics and how often and easily those two are mixed to the detriment of society. While I think there were elements that could’ve been written better to make the story even stronger, I’m definitely looking forward to seeing where it goes next.
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 spent your time curled up reading in bed with or which book you wish you had time to read today!
I’ll be spending my Sunday in bed reading A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. I first read this in 2017(?) and haven’t re-read it since and when Becky said she was also planning to re-read it I immediately jumped on! I was worried I wouldn’t enjoy it as much as the first time but so far, so good. I love Schwab’s writing! 😍 I’m not the best buddy-reader at the moment with work and Zelda keeping me occupied—sorry, Becky!—but this book makes me want to disappear into reading!
dinipandareads 