Welcome back to Goodreads Monday! 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 Romanov by Nadine Brandes. This is a standalone Young Adult Historical Fiction/Fantasy re-telling about the famous Romanov family. This was released in May 2019 and currently has a 3.80 rating on Goodreads!
Each year, eight beautiful girls are chosen as Paper Girls to serve the king. It’s the highest honor they could hope for…and the most demeaning. This year, there’s a ninth. And instead of paper, she’s made of fire.
In this richly developed fantasy, Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most persecuted class of people in Ikhara. She lives in a remote village with her father, where the decade-old trauma of watching her mother snatched by royal guards for an unknown fate still haunts her. Now, the guards are back and this time it’s Lei they’re after — the girl with the golden eyes whose rumored beauty has piqued the king’s interest.
Over weeks of training in the opulent but oppressive palace, Lei and eight other girls learns the skills and charm that befit a king’s consort. There, she does the unthinkable — she falls in love. Her forbidden romance becomes enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens her world’s entire way of life. Lei, still the wide-eyed country girl at heart, must decide how far she’s willing to go for justice and revenge.
2020 note:I was super excited to read this book because there was a helluva lot to be excited for and so I was pretty disappointed that I didn’t love it more. I know it’s a super unpopular opinion because everyone adored this book. So, JFYI, there’s an unpopular opinion coming right up! 😅 Also, soz it’s a bit of a chunky review!
I’m kind of torn on how I feel about this one. I was super excited to start reading it and while I did enjoy it— especially the world that the author created—I think the story just fell a bit flat for me. I’m feeling disappointed because I wanted to enjoy it so much more than I did. That said, with her debut, Natasha Ngan presents a wild fantasy that is not only rich in detail, but has a diverse and representative cast of characters and a very open narrative on sexuality and on sensitive issues such as abuse. There is action, politics, coverage of social issues such as discrimination and poverty, and there is also a blooming f/f romance. TW: violence and sexual abuse.
“We might be Paper Girls, easily torn and written upon. The very title we’re given suggests that we are blank, waiting to be filled. But what the Demon King and his court do not understand is that paper is flammable.
And there is a fire catching among us.”
We follow 17-year-old Lei as she is forcibly taken from her village to become an unprecedented ninth Paper Girl, where on her journey she discovers unexpected friendships and her first love, while also navigating the dark and harrowing experiences that come with being forced to be a consort to the Demon King.
Ngan stated that she wanted to tell a story that has diverse representation, one that more young readers can relate to, and I think she did a wonderful job delivering on that. Even though I’m not “young” anymore (lol), I thoroughly enjoyed reading a YA story that was so heavily influenced by Asian, specifically Chinese-Malaysian cultures, which also have many similarities to my own Indonesian culture.I found it refreshing to read a YA fantasy where I recognized words from my own native tongue and other familiar references from Asia in the text. I found that the cultural influences added an extra special element to the world building, which Ngan creates with a wonderfully bizarre fusion of human and animal forms, mixed with the rich spiritual beliefs and ritualistic practices from Asian cultures. Ngan’s writing offers such rich and vivid imagery that breathes life, not only into the characters, but into the surroundings, making it easy to picture exactly what’s being painted.
This was also the case when we encounter the ‘darker’ scenes in the story that involve abuse (sexual and physical). Although there was a CW/TW at the start, I honestly don’t think I’ve ever read a YA novel that’s as explicitly dark as this. If you’re okay with confronting and reading about these topics, then this book is suitable for you. Though I think that because Ngan is so open about it in her writing, it provides a good platform where young readers can gain an understanding, engage in discussions and explore these difficult issues in private or in safe spaces such as book clubs. Not only that, but I think the openness allows people to gain a sense of empowerment from the main character Lei—who ultimately chooses to not let what has happened to her define her life.
While Lei’s character was admirable in how she dealt with her situation, I have to admit that I didn’t really connect with her—which I think is perhaps the main reason why I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I expected to. Yes, she’s undoubtedly brave for having stood up to the Demon King, but I also felt that (ironically) her character was a little helpless and lacked strength. Her emotions and actions were sodependent on other characters pulling her through and what I found really frustrating was that she would dive into these situations without any forethought into how it would affect others; especially if she failed, which she did almost every time. I know this is YA, and really, Ngan does a great job in capturing the internal coming-of-age struggles of a teenage girl and an even better job at capturing the struggles of a young woman discovering her sexuality. However, Lei’s character just didn’t latch on to me. In many ways, I see Lei as being so far from the typical ‘fierce, strong, warrior, self-saving heroine’ that YA fantasy is full of and this is definitely not a bad thing but for some reason she just didn’t work for me…
It was unfortunate that the majority of the Paper Girls and other characters experience little to no growth, save for one other Paper Girl, Aoki, who goes through just as much change as Lei. It was actually quite painful (in the best way) to see how Aoki’s character develops, especially in relation to Lei’s, and I can see her playing a much bigger and potentially more sinister role in the upcoming book(s). The next one is meant to come out towards the end of 2019 and Ngan will apparently make an announcement about the upcoming book’s title very soon. I personally hope that how I feel about Lei’s character improves or changes in the next book and that the pace of the story picks up a little bit. I felt the pacing was a bit slow for me at times and the climax I was anticipating towards the end, also didn’t hit that ‘satisfying’ spot for me.
Butit really wasn’t all negative for me—even though maybe this review might make it seem so. I did enjoy this book, just not as much as I hoped to. That won’t stop me from picking up the next one though! I look forward to diving back into Ikhara and seeing where the story takes us next 🙂
Have you read Girls of Paper and Fire or is it on your TBR?
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:
“As seems to be the custom, bad news comes with the afternoon mail: the news that his granddaughter was rejected from her top-choice college, then a call to jury duty. Today, though, it is much worse.”
Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?
I was nominated by Veronika @ Wordy and Whimsical for the Liebster Award just last month and this just might be the fastest I’ve ever done an award/tag because usually they’re bookmarked for months to a year *nervously glancing at the long list of tags/awards that I still need to do*! A big thank you for the tag, Veronika 💜
The Rules
Acknowledge the blog that gave it to you and display the award
Answer 11 questions that the blogger gives you
Give 11 random facts about yourself
Nominate 11 blogs and notify them of their nomination
Give these blogs 11 questions to answer
Veronika’s Questions
If you could be put into any bookish universe, what would you choose?
I finished reading about Nevermoor in the Trials of Morrigan Crow a few weeks ago now and wow, I’d love to be put into this bookish universe! It’s magical and weird, and it’s also a little scary. It’s almost our world but a little twisted because Saint Nick and the Snow Queen are real and have yearly battles, dragons are a thing, slightly intimidating talking giant cats magnificats also exist. It’s wild and I’d love to experience the technology and magic in this world!
Are there any genres you wouldn’t read?
I don’t think there are any genres I “wouldn’t” read per se but if I had to ditch a genre it would be horror. I do read it but it’s basically like once in a blue moon? I am the Ultimate Chicken™️ but also a masochist who likes to torture myself by reading things I know will scare me to high holy hell 🤣
What’s your favourite winter read?
Winter isn’t really a thing for me seeing as I live in the tropics but I wish it was! I can definitely picture myself reading comforting reads while cozied up under my doona during the winter. I’ve actually made a list before which you can check out here!
Did you enjoy any compulsory high school readings?
English/Humanities was one of my favourite, if not my favourite, classes throughout all my school years and I do remember enjoying quite a few of the compulsory readings! …Sadly, my memory is really failing me and I can’t for the life of me remember more than these three titles: Wuthering Heights, The Sun Also Rises, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
What’s your most disliked popular book?
Hmm… That’s a good question although I tend to like a lot of the popular books? 😂 I think one book that is very popular is One Hundred Years of Solitude and wow, I did not jam with that book at all! 🙃 I’ve never struggled so hard to get through a book before and I was so disappointed because I wanted to love this book so much! Maybe I’m just not smart enough for it? 🤷🏻♀️
What is your least favourite thing about blogging? (Or the most difficult thing?)
Probably my least favourite thing about blogging is how time consuming it can be sometimes! 🙈 I’m really bad with planning ahead so I usually blog during my work breaks or after work ends, but I always end up taking so much longer than anticipated to actually finish a post! This is probably due to the fact that I’m always so distractible and always seem to be doing a million things at once though…
What’s your favourite book series of all time?
This is always my least favourite question to answer because can I really only pick one? Impossible! So I’m just going to leave you with some covers of the first books in some of my favourite series. These aren’t the favouritest of the favourites but I’m sharing as they come to me lol
(images linked to Goodreads pages)
What book has made you truly angry?
This is a tough one and I’m not really sure how to answer it… But honestly the first book that came to mind was Hot Dog Girl. It has such an adorable cover (I’m such a cover judger) and such a fun sounding premise about summer, growing up and love. I’d heard some good things about it before I bought it so I was excited… Ugh, just thinking about it makes me angry all over again because I was so disappointed with the MC and how she handled EVERYTHING. I mean, I got so angry I couldn’t write a review for it 😂
What’s a bookish trope you wish you wouldn’t have to see anymore?
Love triangles. I know people say when done right it’s really good but just no. It’s not my jam and it won’t be my jam. My feels can’t handle all the angst that usually comes with these triangles and someone always ends up hurt in a love triangle and who needs that anyway?! So it can definitely go bye-bye and I wouldn’t be mad 😂
What’s your most underrated favoUrite novel?
The Shadow of the Wind. I’ve mentioned this book countless times already but it’s so true! More people need to know about this book and read it! It blew me away with its beautiful writing and enchantingly haunted story. It’s not what I’d typically read but a friend highly recommended it and I’m so glad that I listened because wow. This book deserves so much more recognition than it gets!
Which character would you like to swap lives with? And for how long?
Hmm… Another tough question! The first character that came to mind was actually Emika Chen fromWarcross. I think I’d love to swap lives with her for a little while so that I can experience the insanity that is Warcross, but also to experience “our world” where that kind of technological development is possible. I think it would terrify me initially but I don’t know if I’d ever want to leave? (And yes, I’m totally ignoring the fact that some bat shit crazy went down in that book LOL)
11 Fun Facts About Me
I lived in my “home” country (where my passport is from) for the first time when I was 25 years old.
I have lived in seven countries – Bangladesh, Philippines, Australia, Vietnam, Cambodia, UK, Indonesia.
I have a minor obsession with Alaska, New Orleans and Edinburgh.
I share a birthday with Sam Smith (19 May) 😍
I used to be part of the varsity swim and tennis teams in high school!
My favourite musicals are RENT, Phantom of the Opera and Hamilton — but I’ve only seen Phantom of the Opera live (at least 3 times).
I’m a major fan girl of Lin-Manuel Miranda 🥰
We weren’t allowed to have a dog when I was growing up because when our doggo died when I was 9, I ended up crying every day for one month and my parents couldn’t handle it 😂
I am not ashamed to admit that I do quite enjoy country music 🤣 Maybe the artists I like are more “pop” country but I love Sam Hunt, Maddie & Tae, Tim McGraw, Kacey Musgraves, and Lady Antebellum to name a few!
I cannot survive a day without at least two cups of coffee but always before 3pm! I’ve cut down on my caffeine consumption by a lot (I used to drink at least 5 cups when I was at uni LOL)!
I love to bake (especially pies and cookies) but my creations always come out looking just a tad wonky — I wish I had the skills to make my goods look… good? 😂
What’s your favourite comfort genre?
What are three of your most anticipated releases for the rest of 2020 (June-December)?
What genre would you like to read more of?
What’s a book you think everyone should read (or at least try reading)?
What’s re-telling would you like to see more of? (i.e. Robin Hood? Beauty and the Beast?)
If you were to receive an ARC in the mail tomorrow, what book would you like to receive?
If you could live anywhere in the world (outside of where you live) for one/two years, where would you live?
What is your “ultimate goal” for your blog (if you have one!)?
If you could pick someone to write and perform a song about an important moment in your life, who would you choose?
If you could make your own “found family” group, which characters would you include (let’s say up to five characters)?
Spill the tea — what extremely hyped book do you think is entirely overrated?
I’M TAGGING:
A few lovelies here but if tags aren’t your thing then please don’t feel pressured to do this! It’s all good 🙂
It’s been a hot minute since I’ve done some tags so I thought I’d get around to answering one that I was tagged in fairly recently by Leslie @ Books Are the New Black! Thanks for the tag, lovely 🥰 If you haven’t checked out her blog, I strongly suggest you head on over there because her content is great!
If it isn’t obvious from the title, this is a tag that lets you readers get to know me a little better! So if you’re not keen on doing that (which is totally okay), you should probably leave now 🤣 Without further ado… Let’s get to it!
Nominate 5+ bloggers you’d like to know more about, to do this tag
Why did you start blogging? & Why have you kept blogging?
Being very honest, the main reason I started blogging was because I wanted to get (e)ARCs and I thought having a blog was one of the only ways to do that. 😅 When I started I’d already had my bookstagram running for a few months, and I was really focused on that more than my blog, but that’s completely changed now since I’m rarely on there.
I’ve kept blogging because it was so much more rewarding than I anticipated. I used to have a personal blog that I kept for almost 10 years but I stopped because I didn’t feel inspired anymore. Being part of the book community, sharing my thoughts, and having people actually read and relate to them has been so rewarding, but most importantly it’s meeting so many like-minded people that has kept me motivated with blogging! (And I really hope that doesn’t change any time soon!)
What is your favorite type of blog post to write?
I really enjoy writing the weekly meme posts which is what a lot of my blog contains on top of the reviews I write. #5OnMyTBR, Top Ten Tuesday, #WWWWednesday, First Line Fridays and Top 5 Saturdays are so fun to do and even though I’m horrible at choosing/making decisions about favourites, I’ve come to really love making these lists! I think since I blog on top of a full-time job these meme posts are just what appeal to me most because I still have to think but not as hard compared to if I were to write more discussion posts 😂
What are your top three favorite blog posts you wrote?
It’s so hard to pick favourites — I’m rubbish at that! So I’ve just chosen three random posts that I really enjoyed making!
My review for Nevernight (Nevernight Chronicle #1) by Jay Kristoff is probably one of my favourite because I mean, I was proper freaking out about how much I loved the book, but there was also a lot of artwork and reaction GIFs that I included, plus it was my first time writing a review in this way and it was just so fun! 🤣
What are some of your favorite things to do to relax?
Well, reading obviously! But I also really love gaming (although that’s not always super relaxing when you’re in battle or on a quest haha). Another thing that really relaxes me is colouring — it’s just so soothing not having to think about anything except what colour I’ll choose next. I also love to throw on my favourite playlists while doing other things (like colouring) or sometimes simply doing nothing but lying back and listening to the song lyrics (while singing along off-key)!
What are three of your favorite things?
My family & friends (who are basically my family!) 💞
Animals (especially doggos, pandas, and elephants)
Food (especially Japanese, Mexican and Chinese)! 🤤
What are your proudest blogging moments?
As of 20 May 2020!
One of the blogging goals that I set for 2020 was to reach 500 followers and I actually reached that goal yesterday! 😭 I’m pretty shook (understatement) because I didn’t even think getting 100 followers would even be in the realm of possibility for me and my little blog! I’m so thankful for this community, for all the people who follow me, for the new friends I’ve made… It’s beyond anything I ever expected when I started this and (sorry if I’m starting to sound like a broken record but) I’m so grateful for all of it! 🥰
What are your hobbies outside of blogging?
It’s a bit sad but I honestly don’t have many hobbies outside of blogging (and reading)! Um… I do love singing and I’m part of a small community choir here. I also really love to bake — pies and cookies are my absolute favourites to make 😍 If this counts as a hobby, I also love colouring 🤣 One time I got a bunch of colouring books from my friends and I was the happiest little panda 🐼 Sometimes it’s the simple things, right?!
Describe your personality in three words
I really dislike answering these kinds of questions because I always have a hard time coming up with answers! If I had to say… Loyal, Compassionate, and Stubborn (AF) 😆
What are your top three pet peeves?
I wouldn’t necessarily say these are my “top three” but… they’re pretty high up on the list!
People holding very loud and personal conversations in public. Must you really? 🤦🏻♀️
People who walk very very slowly in the middle of the walkway/sidewalk — and to make it even worse, those who don’t move even when you say “excuse me”! 🙄
People who are rude to workers. That’s vague but when I say workers I also mean waiters, cleaners/helpers, etc. Okay, this one is definitely in my top three (maybe even top two!) because I can’t stand those who treat people like trash just because they feel they’re better than them. Reality check: you’re really not. This is the toxic environment that I’m leaving and I couldn’t be happier! 😤
What’s something your followers don’t know about you?
Hmm… Hard to choose because I feel like there’s a lot that my followers don’t know about me 😁 But I’m going with the most random thing I can think of (that a lot of people in my real life probably don’t even know about me): I used to teach hip hop dance and break dancing with a friend when I was in high school. When I was in boarding school in Australia, I started an after-school dance club with a friend that counted towards my extracurricular credits! It was heaps of fun 😊
And that’s it folks! I hope you enjoyed reading those little tidbits about me — not very interesting but hey, that’s me 🤷🏻♀️ This was a lot of fun to answer so thanks again for tagging me, Leslie!
I’m Tagging:
Again, no pressure if tags aren’t your thing 😊 Even if you’re not tagged and want to do this, go for gold! Don’t forget to link back so I can read your answers and learn more about you too! 🥰
Today I’m coming at you with one big review for the three books in The Great Devil War series that I read over the last week! I read the first book, The Devil’s Apprentice (read my review here), when I took part in the blog tour organised by Dave @ TheWriteReads. I thought it was a bizarre book but highly enjoyable and like nothing I’ve read before. This was followed by Andersen contacting me on Twitter a couple of months ago to ask if I’d like to be part of his ARC team and I said yes! So a big thank you to Kenneth Andersen for reaching out to me and for sending me the books to read. Of course it goes without saying that this did not influence my reading experience or review, which is, as always, honest and unbiased.
Now let’s get back to the review before I get even further off track! Despite a slightly slow start with book two, I’ve really enjoyed reading these books and I think book four is without a doubt my favourite in the series so far.
Um, excuse me, how is it already the last Wednesday in May?! Can someone also please tell me where this month has gone? I feel like I’ve done nothing but I *know* I did the things… What are these vibes?!
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 Wednesday I’ve managed to read a little bit more than the previous week. Still not my best reading weeks these days but work has been driving me mental and the added stress of a big island move during this pandemic (admittedly the worst time to be moving anywhere) is making my ‘normal’ levels of anxiety sky-rocket. But I’ve been enjoying my escape into hell these last few days! What am I talking about? Don’t worry, I haven’t lost the plot completely (yet).
I’ve been reading The Great Devil Warseries by Kevin B. Andersen lately and I’m sure you can guess what it’s about based on the series name. I’m planning to share one review for the three books I read later tonight, as the fifth book releases tomorrow! 🥳
So, we’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: Opening Lines (Best, favorite, funny, unique, shocking, gripping, lines that grabbed you immediately, etc.)
Who doesn’t love a good opening line?! I certainly do and I usually share some first/opening lines every Friday for my “First Lines Friday” posts! Since this week’s prompt is open to interpretation I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do since it’s so hard for me to choose “favourites” — there are always so many, how do I choose?!
(Also, my memory is really not that great 😂)
So I decided to keep things simple, especially as I’m writing this during one of my quick work breaks lol, and look at the opening lines from my last ten ★★★★★ (5 star) reads! Yes, some of these might be more than just the first line, but opening lines plural, right? 😂
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!
Welcome back to Goodreads Monday! 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.
Wooh, it’s been a hot minute since I did one of these but I’m glad to be back with it! This week’s featured book is Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw. This is a standalone (I think) Young Adult Fantasy that was released towards the end of last year and it currently has a 3.82 rating on Goodreads!
dinipandareads 