#WWWWednesday: 19 January 2022

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:

  1. What did you read last?
  2. What are you currently reading?
  3. What will you read next?

Since last Wednesday I’ve managed to finish eight books! It’s been a week of romances and graphic novels!

Dirty Hookup (Slayers Hockey #2) by Mira Lyn Kelly โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ
I got this freebie from the author so I thought I’d give it a try and I enjoyed it! It was a slightly angsty frenemies to lovers/second-chance romance and while some elements were a bit difficult to believe and I wish we got more interactions with their friends/family, I enjoyed George & Quinn’s banter and their chemistry was fire! RTC.

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Blog Tour Review: Bound by Firelight by Dana Swift

Today is my stop on the TBR & Beyond Tours for Bound by Firelight (Wickery #2) by Dana Swift.
Special thanks to Delacorte Press for providing an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

Click here or on the banner above to check out the rest of the amazing bloggers on tour!

Goodreads: Bound by Firelight (Wickery #2)
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: 18 January 2021
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Panda Rating:

(3.5 pandas)

After a magical eruption devastates the kingdom of Belwar, royal heir Adraa is falsely accused of masterminding the destruction and forced to stand trial in front of her people, who see her as a monster. Adraa’s punishment? Imprisonment in the Dome, an impenetrable, magic-infused fortress filled with Belwarโ€™s nastiest criminalsโ€”many of whom Adraa put there herself. And they want her to pay.

Jatin, the royal heir to Naupure, has been Adraaโ€™s betrothed, nemesis, and fellow masked vigilante… but now heโ€™s just a boy waiting to ask her the biggest question of their lives. First, though, heโ€™s going to have to do the impossible: break Adraa out of the Dome. And he wonโ€™t be able to do it without help from the unlikeliest of sourcesโ€”a girl from his past with a secret that could put them all at risk.

Time is running out, and the horrors Adraa faces in the Dome are second only to the plot to destabilize and destroy their kingdoms. But Adraa and Jatin have saved the world once already… Now, can they save themselves?

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#TopTenTuesday: 2021 Releases I Was Excited to Read But Didnโ€™t Get To

So, weโ€™re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This weekโ€™s prompt is: 2021 Releases I Was Excited to Read But Didnโ€™t Get To.

This week’s TTT list is probably one of the easiest for me to compile because there are so many books that were released last year that I wanted to read but didn’t get the chance to for one reason or another. The only difficult part was narrowing down which books to list here because there are definitely way more than ten! ๐Ÿ˜‚ These titles have wormed their way to the top of my list and I’m hoping to read them sooner rather than later in 2022 (note to self: remember these words!)!

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Blog Tour Review: Coming Back by Jessi Zabarsky

Today is my stop on the TBR & Beyond Tours for Coming Back by Jessi Zabarsky.
Special thanks to Random House Graphic for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Be sure to click here or on the banner above to check out the rest of the amazing bloggers on tour!

Goodreads: Coming Back
Publisher: Random House Graphic
Publication Date: 18 January 2022
Genre: Graphic Novel, LGBTQ+

Panda Rating:

(3 pandas)

A beautiful graphic novel fantasy romance that follows two young women who have to go on their own separate adventures to discover the truth about themselves and about each other.

Preet is magic.
Valissa is not.

Everyone in their village has magic in their bones, and Preet is the strongest of them all. Without any power of her own, how can Valissa ever be worthy of Preetโ€™s love? When their home is attacked, Valissa has a chance to prove herself, but that means leaving Preet behind. On her own for the first time Preet breaks the villageโ€™s most sacred laws, and is rejected from the only home sheโ€™s ever known and sent into a new world.

Divided by different paths, insecurities, and distance, will Valissa and Preet be able to find their way back to each other?

A beautiful story of two young women who are so focused on proving theyโ€™re meant to be together that they end up hurting each other in the process. This gorgeous graphic novel is an LGTBQ+ romance about young love and how it can grow into something strong no matter what obstacles get in the way.

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Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUp

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 spending the rest of my Sunday in bed with… Silver Shark by Ilona Andrews. This is the second novella in the Kinsmen series. I recently picked up my first book by IA and I really enjoyed the balance of sci-fi and romance! I’m looking forward to reading more from them in the future ๐Ÿ˜Š

Talent is power. And revenge is sweet.

In a distant, future world Kinsmenโ€”small powerful groups of genetically and technologically advanced familiesโ€”control vast financial empires. They are their own country, their own rulers, and their only limits are other Kinsmen. The struggle for power is a bloody, full-contact sport: in business, on the battlefield…and sometimes in the bedroom.
Claire Shannon is a killerโ€ฆand her weapon is her mind.

Born on a planet torn by war for over 300 years, Claire is a soldier: a psycher, with the ability to read, control, and destroy the minds of enemy psychers and to infiltrate the biological network where they battle to death.

When Claireโ€™s faction loses the war, she barely escapes extermination from both sides, as her talent brands her as too dangerous to society. By so-deeply burying her ability that she avoids detection, Claire is instead deported to Rada as a refugee, where she must find work to remain. She finds a job as personal assistant to Venturo Escana, a premiere kinsman; one of Radaโ€™s most wealthy entrepreneursโ€”and most powerful psychers.

She thought she had left war behind, but now she must hide her skills and her growing feelings from Venturoโ€ฆand this battle might just cost her everythingโ€ฆ 

What are you currently reading?

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Book Review: King of Battle and Blood by Scarlett St. Clair

Goodreads: King of Battle and Blood (Adrian X Isolde #1)
Published: 30 November 2021
Genre: Fantasy Romance (Romantasy)

Panda Rating:

(4 pandas)

Their Union Is His Revenge.

Isolde de Lara considers her wedding day her death day. To end a years-long war, she is to marry vampire king, Adrian Aleksandr Vasiliev, and kill him. โ €

But her assassination attempt is thwarted and Adrian threatens that if Isolde tries kill him again, he will raise her as the undead. Faced with the possibility of becoming the thing she hates most, Isolde seeks other ways to defy him and survive the brutal vampire court. โ €

Except it isnโ€™t the court she fears mostโ€”itโ€™s Adrain. Despite their undeniable chemistry, she wonders why the kingโ€”โ€”fierce, savage, mercilessโ€”chose her as consort. โ €

The answer will shatter her world.

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Let’s Talk Bookish: Book Buying Bans – Yea or Nay?

Letโ€™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 otherโ€™s posts! You can check out these pages for January 2022 prompts & a full list of the past prompts!

Now without further ado… The topic asks us about:

DO BOOK BUYING BANS WORK FOR YOU?

(SUGGESTED BY JILLIAN @ย JILLIAN THE BOOKISH BUTTERFLY)
Prompts:ย The book community is full of consumerism. People want to not just read their favourite books, but own them as well. Sometimes this can getโ€ฆa little out of hand. How do you control your spending/buying books you donโ€™t have time to read? Does setting a book buying ban work for you? How long do you usually ban yourself for?

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Book Review: The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

Goodreads: The Wolf and the Woodsman
Published: 08 June 2021
Genre: Fantasy, Romance

Panda Rating:

(3.5 pandas)

In her forest-veiled pagan village, ร‰vike is the only woman without power, making her an outcast clearly abandoned by the gods. The villagers blame her corrupted bloodlineโ€”her father was a Yehuli man, one of the much-loathed servants of the fanatical king. When soldiers arrive from the Holy Order of Woodsmen to claim a pagan girl for the kingโ€™s blood sacrifice, ร‰vike is betrayed by her fellow villagers and surrendered.

But when monsters attack the Woodsmen and their captive en route, slaughtering everyone but ร‰vike and the cold, one-eyed captain, they have no choice but to rely on each other. Except heโ€™s no ordinary Woodsmanโ€”heโ€™s the disgraced prince, Gรกspรกr Bรกrรกny, whose father needs pagan magic to consolidate his power. Gรกspรกr fears that his cruelly zealous brother plans to seize the throne and instigate a violent reign that would damn the pagans and the Yehuli alike. As the son of a reviled foreign queen, Gรกspรกr understands what itโ€™s like to be an outcast, and he and ร‰vike make a tenuous pact to stop his brother.

As their mission takes them from the bitter northern tundra to the smog-choked capital, their mutual loathing slowly turns to affection, bound by a shared history of alienation and oppression. However, trust can easily turn to betrayal, and as ร‰vike reconnects with her estranged father and discovers her own hidden magic, she and Gรกspรกr need to decide whose side theyโ€™re on, and what theyโ€™re willing to give up for a nation that never cared for them at all.ย 

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#WWWWednesday: 12 January 2022

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:

  1. What did you read last?
  2. What are you currently reading?
  3. What will you read next?

We’re halfway through the month of January (can you believe?) and since last week’s check-in, I’ve managed to read seven books. I’m surprisingly reading a lot of graphic novels but I ain’t mad about it cos I enjoyed them all! ๐Ÿฅฐ This was mostly winning, save for one that ended up being the first 1-star rating I’ve given in a while… ๐Ÿ‘€

The Wedding Setup: A Short Story by Sonali Dev โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…ยฝ
This short story made me upset that I hadn’t yet read anything else by Dev but I plan to rectify that right away. I loved the writing, the cultural references, the way Dev explored loss/grief, mother-daughter relationships and intercultural relationships. The romance had me swooning (Emmitt was ๐Ÿ˜) and I had such a fantastic time reading this! Check out my review.

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#TopTenTuesday: Most Recent Additions to My Book Collection

So, weโ€™re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This weekโ€™s prompt is: Most recent additions to my book collection.

After years of saying “I’ll catalogue my books”, I’m happy to say I’ve made a start and I finally finished cataloguing all my eBooks yesterday! I’ve already made a fair few (eBook) purchases this year (welp! ๐Ÿ™ˆ) but I’m staying on top of things and adding them directly to my catalogue after each purchase. It might seem like no big deal but I’m feeling pretty freaking accomplished right now ๐Ÿ˜‚ But I digress…

After seeing so many amazing yearly wrap-ups and being tempted by others’ favourites that were already on my wishlist, I decided to treat myself since I actually didn’t go wild buying that many new books last year (ebook and otherwise). I might be making up for that this year (probably even this month alone lol, jokes, maybe).

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