So, we’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: Love Freebie (come up with your own topic having to do with love).
I was planning on doing something a little more fun with this freebie today but time got away from me at the weekend and last night saw a family emergency that had me up until 6am only to start work at 9am and so… I’m exhausted! Therefore, I’m keeping this short, sweet and maybe a little boring with a list of ten romances I’m really looking forward to reading ASAP. I discovered the majority of these thanks to Nick who keeps my romance TBR fully stocked at all times and I’m here for it! 😍
Goodreads: The Deep Publisher: Saga Press Published: 05 November 2019 Genre: Adult SFF
Panda Rating: (4.5 pandas)
Yetu holds the memories for her people—water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners—who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one—the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu.
Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities—and discovers a world her people left behind long ago.
Yetu will learn more than she ever expected to about her own past—and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity—and own who they really are.
Inspired by a song produced by the rap group Clipping for the This American Life episode “We Are In The Future,” The Deep is vividly original and uniquely affecting.
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 time curled up reading in bed with, or which book you wish you had time to read today!
I’ll be wrapping up my Sunday in bed reading The Witch, The Sword and the Cursed Knights by Alexandria Rogers. I didn’t make as much progress on this as I’d hoped and it took me a little while to get into it but I’m really enjoying the magical school vibes and an exciting twist on Arthurian legend!
Happy Friday book lovers! We’re back with another First Lines Friday, a weekly featurefor 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:
Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
Finally… reveal the book!
First lines:
“It was like dreaming,” said Yetu, throat raw. She’d been weeping for days, lost in a remembering of one of the first wajinru. “Then wake up,” Amaba said, “and wake up now. What kind of dream makes someone lurk in shark-dense waters, leaking blood like a fool? If I had not come for you, if I had not found you in time…”
Do you recognise the book these first lines come from?
I’m excited to be shining a spotlight on The Counterclockwise Heart by Brian Farrey today! This middle-grade fantasy sounds really good and I actually started it on a whim the other day. I’m already getting slightly dark but very magical fairytale-gone-wrong vibes from it and I can’t wait to dive back in whenever I have to put it down. I can’t wait to see where this story goes 😄 Also, how cool is this cover?!
Special thanks to Algonquin Young Readers for having me on tour and providing an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Goodreads: The Counterclockwise Heart Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers Publication Date: 01 February 2022 Genre: Middle-Grade Fantasy
Tick . . . tick . . . tick . . . Time is running out in the empire of Rheinvelt.
The sudden appearance of a strange and frightening statue foretells darkness. The Hierophants—magic users of the highest order—have fled the land. And the shadowy beasts of the nearby Hinterlands are gathering near the borders, preparing for an attack.
Young Prince Alphonsus is sent by his mother, the Empress Sabine, to reassure the people while she works to quell the threat of war. But Alphonsus has other problems on his mind, including a great secret: He has a clock in his chest where his heart should be—and it’s begun to run backwards, counting down to his unknown fate.
Searching for answers about the clock, Alphonsus meets Esme, a Hierophant girl who has returned to the empire in search of a sorceress known as the Nachtfrau. When riddles from their shared past threaten the future of the empire, Alphonsus and Esme must learn to trust each other and work together to save it—or see the destruction of everything they both love.
Hello, friends! Today I’m excited to share a short update on my Pondathon reading progress, Pompom’s updated character card and most importantly… Pompom’s blossoming garden! 😍
For the first round of the Pondathon, I managed to complete all the objectives for Xiaolong’s Side Quest, including the bonus and secret achievement. This means that Pompom gets their first badge for their character card plus some exciting decorations for the garden. Yay! 😃
I’ve also started to fill up the garden. I surprisingly only got two flowers last month but I got a lot of planter boxes and garden beds, so at least I’ll be ready to add flowers to my garden as the year progresses 😄 I’m pretty happy with how it’s looking and y’know, I think Pompom is too!
Now that it’s February, there’s an exciting new side quest to tackle: Planting Saplings with Gen! The quest expires on 19 February 2022, 8:00PM NZT. [?]
Click on the banner for more information about Gen’s side quest!
The objective of the quest is to read a book by a Black author for Black History Month. If you read at least three books by Black authors, you’ll receive the Sleepy Sapling badge. You complete the Secret Achievement if you read a book by a Black author with one of the following themes: friendship, family, community, nature.
As I’m not one for fixed TBRs, here’s a big possibility pile from my existing shelves that I’m hoping to finally tackle this year:
Are you reading for the Pondathon? Did you complete Xialong’s side quest and will you help Gen with his side quest? If you are, what books are you planning to read for it?
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:
What did you read last?
What are you currently reading?
What will you read next?
Since last week I’ve finished 4 books. Well, it was inevitable at the rate that I was reading last month that I’d slow down at some point and I’ve finally hit that point 😂
Blackout by Various Authors ★★★★★ I literally have nothing bad to say about this anthology. I loved the way the stories were interconnected and I enjoyed every minute of reading them. I only wish that they could’ve been longer because I didn’t want to move on at the end of each one! Highly recommended 😍
Well, this prompt reminds me of one from a bookish tag that I was tagged in yesterday and it was the prompt I was probably going to struggle with the most… but not anymore! I digress though 😬 Was it just me or did anyone else have a hard time finding books for this prompt?
Since I’m attempting to tackle the TBR this year, I decided to focus on books that I already own. I tried to find ones that have been on my shelves the longest but that got too complicated so I’m just listing the ones I came across as I was scanning my shelves! 😌 Without further ado, let’s get right into it.
Well, now that the first month of 2022 is over, I wonder just how quickly the rest of the year will pass by? If it’s anything like 2021, it’ll be a blink! 😂 This was a pretty quiet month on the life front.
I very quickly got a consultancy gig from Jan-May. It’s twice a week and not a lot but at least I have a little something!
We had one major trip this month and that was coming back to Jakarta from Bali. I love our Bali house (I miss our pool!) but ah, it feels so good to be back with my fur babies and my books! 😍
I’m still obsessed with T.Swift and if I continue to obsessively listen to her music throughout the year, I’m pretty sure she’ll take top spot on my Spotify wrap up (again).
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 time curled up reading in bed with, or which book you wish you had time to read today!
dinipandareads 