Hey, hey friends! I’m so excited to be back for another @WriteReads blog tour for The Ship of Shadows. This was such a fun and fast-paced read and I’m so glad this was put on my radar because of this tour 😍 Be sure to check out all the other bloggers participating in this tour over here.
Super big thanks to Dave for organising these tours and to NetGalley and Puffin Books for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review! Let’s get to it…
Goodreads: The Ship of Shadows Publisher: Puffin Books Published: 16 July 2020 Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy Panda Rating:
Aleja whiles away her days in her family’s dusty tavern in Seville, dreaming of distant lands and believing in the kind of magic that she’s only ever read about in books. After all, she’s always being told that girls can’t be explorers.
But her life is changed forever when adventure comes for her in the form of a fabled vessel called the Ship of Shadows. Crewed by a band of ruthless women, with cabin walls dripping with secrets, the ship has sailed right out of a legend. And it wants Aleja.
Once on board its shadowy deck, she begins to realize that the sea holds more secrets than she ever could have imagined. The crew are desperately seeking something, and their path will take them through treacherous waters and force them to confront nightmare creatures and pitch-dark magic. It will take all of Aleja’s strength and courage to gain the trust of her fellow pirates – and discover what they are risking everything to find
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?
I’ve been incredibly busy packing for my big “cross country” move from Bali to Jakarta, on top of still having to work as I don’t have anymore leave days left this year, so reading has taken a bit of a back seat. Since last Wednesday I’ve only managed to read three books but I’m trying not to feel meh about it.
Summer Strawberries at Swallowtail Bay by Katie Ginger ★★★★☆ This would be the perfect companion for a hot summer day laying by the pool or at the beach soaking in the sun (with no one else around because we’re still mindful of social distancing!!!). I enjoyed this lovely romance a lot more than I expected. The characters really grew on me and I rooted for them to their HEA because they absolutely deserved it! Check out my full review.
Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow (Nevermoor #2) by Jessica Townsend ★★★★★ I need book three NOW! I think I loved Wundersmith even more than I did book one and that’s saying something because I adored book one. The Nevermoor series continues to sweep me away to its magical and odd world. The characters grew on me even more in book two and the plot becomes even more intriguing. If you want a book that’ll give you those nostalgic and whimsical childhood feels, this is the one! Review coming very soon.
The End of Magic by Mark Stay TEOM has a great premise and presented an interesting idea but I felt that the follow through in terms of world building and characters fell short. There wasn’t much world building and I unfortunately found the characters very unlikeable and hard to root for. This was also a lot more violent/gore filled than I expected. I will say that Stay’s writing style was very easy to read and that’s how I ended up finishing the book despite of the difficulties in reading it. Full review to come (soon-ish)!
So, we’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: most anticipated releases for the second half of 2020.
Well… Considering I have 100+ books marked as 2020 releases, it was definitely… “fun” narrowing it down to just ten for today’s list 🤣 Yes, we should all already be aware of the fact that I have a very problematic relationship with that ‘want-to-read’ button on Goodreads–it’s all too easy to click! Adding books to my already endless TBR only ever became a problem when I joined the book community and I really don’t foresee this problem going away any time soon (unfortunately for my TBR and savings)! Obviously this list of ten is a smol peek at the books I’m looking forward to getting my grabby hand son, but they are the ones that came to mind first. I’m so excited for some of these I can’t even! Also, I tried to mention books that haven’t made an appearance in my more recent posts (even though I’m definitely still very excited for them–especially Cemetery Boys and Cinderella is Dead!)
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:
“Aleja was a girl so hungry for adventure that sometimes she found herself in strange places.“
Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?
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 finish four books. The majority of my reads are still for blog tours, which I’m surprised to have completed well ahead of my dates this week, but I also read two romances because my mood told me to!
The Crow Rider (The Storm Crow #2) by Kalyn Josephson ★★★½ This was a really satisfying conclusion to this duology. We get more strong friendships, some character growth, intriguing revelations, an awesome battle, and plenty more crow magic with a cheeky little crow that will steal your heart. Friday is my stop on the blog tour so be on the look out for my review then!
Walk of Shame by Lauren Layne ★★★½ I picked this up immediately after the lovely Emer suggested it in part one of her rom com recs. This was my second book by Layne and I thoroughly enjoyed it! This was easy to speed through in one sitting and was great for a laugh. I loved the characters and there was just the right amount of angst. Although the ending felt rushed and “too easy” this was still a fun romcom with great banter and quirky characters. Review coming very soon!
I Knew You Were Trouble by Lauren Layne ★★★½ I decided to read another book by Layne after finishing Walk of Shame and again, this was easy to quickly devour in one sitting. The level of angst in this one was a bit higher but the chemistry was undeniable and the antagonistic banter was just as good! I loved our hero, Nick 💜 Although this is book four in a series it can definitely be read as a standalone because I didn’t read the other three before this. Review coming very soon!
I Killed Zoe Spanos by Kit Frick ★★★½ I have to admit to being a bit disappointed that I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I’d hoped especially with the ‘big reveal’/ending. It’s said to be for fans of Sadie and while I get it with the mixed media format, that was a bit of the extent of it. I was surprised by how eerily atmospheric Frick’s writing was though and this was definitely not the typical sunshine and wealth Hamptons that we’re used to seeing. Although I struggled at the start, once the pace picked up I sped through it. I know I’m in the minority with my opinion though and I think it’ll be a big summer hit. My stop on the blog tour is TOMORROW so be sure to look out for my review then 😉
We’re back with 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: books set near/on the sea.
This is a great topic that I don’t think I’ve ever answered in a meme before. Now that I’m thinking about it, I realise that I have a lot of books set near/on/in the sea, so it’s clear I love the idea of a story set by the sea or on the sea. I say I love the idea because these are all on my TBR (*cough*) LOL
It’s funny when I think about it because when I think of books set on the sea I always think of fantasy (mostly YA) and when I think of books set near/by the sea, a lot of the time I think about women’s fiction books that are set in the summer and revolve around quaint sea-side towns and have cute fluffy romances! That said, when thinking about books for this list none were the latter but one was the former 😂 I’m looking forward to reading all of these though and I’m really hoping I’ll be able to get to them them at some point this year!
This is starting to feel a little bit like de ja vu but how is it already Wednesday now? What have I done this week? I feel like I’ve accomplished nothing and… that actually shows in my reading! *womp womp womp*
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 only finished one book. Technically, I read two but for the first time in pretty much ever I purposefully set aside a book and decided to DNF it. Yep, it’s a mood. But anyway, I’m going to focus on the one book I did finish this past week: The Fallen Angel by Kenneth B. Andersen. This is book five in The Great Devil Warseries and while I enjoyed it, it wasn’t my favourite in the series (that title still belongs to book four)! My review will be posted later tonight so be on the look out for that 😊
We’re back with 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: male POVs — I’m taking this to mean male only POVs
Okay wow, I didn’t think I’d struggle as much as I did to think of a list for today’s prompt! Turns out, a lot of the books I own on my TBR aren’t written from male (only) POVs 🙃 I also don’t think I ever properly paid attention to this before (oops! 🙈) but that’s pretty interesting to note! Also interesting was that when I took to Google and Goodreads (as I usually do to jog my memory for these prompts), it turns out a lot of male POV lists are either romance or YA related (or both), with little to no mention of contemporary fiction, mysteries/thrillers, adult fantasy or the sub-genres. So that wasn’t really useful… but after deep-diving into my failing memory (and my Kindle shelf!) I’ve managed to make a list of five books from mixed genres including adult fantasy, middle-grade fantasy and contemporary fiction!
Ah, Disney. Who doesn’t love Disney and the Disney parks? It’s been a freaking long ass time since I went to one of the parks but it’s definitely on my bucket list to go back and experience it as an ‘adult’! A few years ago I discovered some childhood photos taken at Disney (world or land I can’t be sure) and well, while you can’t say much about my fashion sense (coz clearly I didn’t have any and neither did my brother), you can definitely tell these were happy times!
But back to this tag… I was tagged to do the Disney Parks Book Tag by the wonderful Kay @ Hammock of Books and awesome Brittany @ Perfectly Tolerable — go check out both their blogs because they have great content and they’re lovely people to follow so you won’t regret it! Thanks for tags, lovelies and I’m sorry its taken so long for me to get around to doing this tag. First up, the rules!
The Rules
☆ Mention the creator and link back to original post [Alexandra @ Reading by Starlight] ☆ Thank the blogger who tagged you [done above!] ☆ Answer the 10 questions below using any genre ☆ Tag 5+ friends ☆ Feel free to copy the heading graphics
Oof, it took me a hot minute to recall a title set along the river but this heart-stopping thriller certainly ticks that box! I’m still amazed by Caine’s writing versatility 😍 Wolfhunter River is book three in the Stillhouse Lake series — which is crazy and absolutely thrilling!
You guys… I’m kind of shook because scouring the dark corners of mind (and Goodreads), I’ve realised that… I haven’t read (m)any ‘swashbuckling high seas adventures’… Wot wot?! Can it be true? It sadly is. Many of them adventures are still on TBR though! For now, I’m leaving you with A Gathering of Shadows because there’s certainly some swashbuckling in this favourite series of mine!
Ooh, just looking at this cover again already covers me in mad goosebumps and makes me wanna cry! But I have to give a shout out to Rules for Vanishing because even I, most Ultimate of Chickens™️, managed to read this and loved it! Ugh, this book was drowning in eerie vibes.
Surprisingly absolutely no one, the Illuminae Files absolutely takes the cake for this one! Ugh, I love this series so much 💞 Kristoff and Kaufman can take all of my monies!
Ugh, Where the Crawdads Sing was just beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! I loved Kya and the lyrical descriptions of the marsh lands and of nature swept me away to an enchanting but also dangerous world that I’d love to one day see IRL.
I feel like I also have to give an honorary shout out to The Natchez Burning Trilogy for this prompt. This trilogy is one of my all-time favourite thriller/court drama and is just *chefs kiss*!
A Curse So Dark and Lonely was of course the first book I thought of. There’s no Beauty & the Beast (retelling) without that eerie and beautiful enchanted castle!
The Trials of Morrigan Crow, book one of the Nevermoor series, was an utterly enchanting and whimsical read! There were fantastical adventures, magical and terrifying creatures, and otherworldly settings. This was an absolute treat to read! 💞
Okay, I’m cheating a little bit with The Mountains Sing. There is some trekking through mountains but that’s not what the whole book is about. It is an absolutely stunning, heartbreaking and hopeful read though and I would highly recommend this debut for those interested in own voices reads!
I haven’t read very many Spanish inspired fantasy books (I could also be totally wrong because my memory very often fails me) so Incendiary was a refreshingly set fantasy world with a cool magic system that I can’t wait to learn more about in the next book!
Another non-surprise here with Aurora Rising (this is totally a space opera, right?)! This book was a fabulously crazy, fast-paced space adventure that was full of all the things! Seriously, just read it.
No pressure to do this if tags aren’t your thing. Also, even if I haven’t tagged you here, feel free to go for gold if you want to do this one and link back to me so I can check out your answers too 😍
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! 🥳
dinipandareads 