Hello, hello and welcome back to another Friday Favourites, dear friends! This’ll be the first Friday Favourites of the year and there are some small changes to note. Last year this weekly meme was hosted by the wonderful Kibby @ Something of the Book! However, this year Kibby has passed the torch on to Lorraine @ Geeky Galaxy. This week’s topic is: favourite fictional families.
My thoughts immediately went to my favourite found families when I saw this prompt but I felt like I had focused a previous post on found families and I was right. In a previous Friday Favourites I shared my favourite character team ups and in that post I basically shared all my favourite found families 😂 So with that done, I decided to suck it up and focus on plain ol’ fictional families and let me tell ya, I struggled because my memory is so awful *why 😭* But after some scouring of my Goodreads shelves, I came up with this smol list of five that I came across last year and who I absolutely loved!
I adored the relationship between Ryn and her siblings. Their love and dedication for one another, even if they might not always agree with each other, was heartwarming. Their banter was also fun and totally relatable!
It’s that time of the week again, friends! We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: the ten most recent additions to my bookshelf. I’m taking this to mean my actual (physical) bookshelf and not my Goodreads TBR shelf.
Have I mentioned yet how I’m looking to cut down spending on new books in 2020? The plan is not only to save money but it’s also an attempt to cut down on my unread physical shelf! But let’s also be real because I’m only hooman and when it comes to books I have little to no control (and I know I’m not alone in that); especially when it comes to that FOMO feeling! It gets me every time 🙈 So while I have added a *few* books to my shelves lately, I’ve also been doing pretty good at holding back, if I do say so myself! Here’s what I got:
Hello, hello and welcome back to another Friday Favourites, dear friends! This’ll be the first Friday Favourites of the year and there are some small changes to note. Last year this weekly meme was hosted by the wonderful Kibby @ Something of the Book! However, this year Kibby has passed the torch on to Lorraine @ Geeky Galaxy. I’ve enjoyed participating weekly and I was sad when Kibby announced she was no longer hosting, but I’m very happy that Lorraine has decided to keep it going! Now with that out of the way it’s time to look at this week’s prompt: winter reads.
By now we all know I’m a total mood reader so seasonal reading just isn’t my thing. There’s also the fact that I live in the tropics and winter is really not a thing for us 😅 It’d definitely be something to give me cozy, contented feelings. Although I probably also wouldn’t mind reading something a little thrilling since I’m safely tucked away in my cocoon… Here are some favourites that
As I’ve mentioned once or twice already, I’d like to bring more discussion posts to my blog this year. Discussion posts intimidate me because I’m not sure I have any worthwhile thoughts to share and I’m not particularly good at expressing myself well. That said, I’d like to give it a shot, so I’m kicking it off today by looking at how my reading tastes have changed over the last decade. I thought it was perfect timing and although I haven’t read as much in the last decade as I have in the last year itself, I do think my preferences have gone through some changes.
I just moved to Cambodia after living in Australia for five years and I was so happy when I discovered several secondhand bookstores where I discovered classic romance a la Nora Roberts. I also discovered my love for sci-fi with Michael Crichton, and realised I could read some Stephen King. I also dabbled briefly with Haruki Murakami but that didn’t last very long.
It’s that time of the week again, friends! 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 first half of 2020. It’s amazing how one year of immersing myself in the book community has made me so aware of upcoming releases. I still don’t keep track as much as others do, but before 2019 I had zero clues. Honestly, I still don’t even know what or how I’d find books to read before then 😂 On that note, there are quite a few releases that I’m keen to get my hands on this year (unfortunately for me, I’m locking down on my spending this year so I’ll only be adding a select few to my shelves in 2020)! I’ve already mentioned five books in this post, but here are ten more that I’m super keen for:
Goodreads: The Queen of Nothing Genre: Young Adult Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Romance Panda Rating:
He will be destruction of the crown and the ruination of the throne.
Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold onto. Jude learned this lesson when she released her control over the wicked king, Cardan, in exchange for immeasurable power.
Now as the exiled mortal Queen of Faerie, Jude is powerless and left reeling from Cardan’s betrayal. She bides her time determined to reclaim everything he took from her. Opportunity arrives in the form of her deceptive twin sister, Taryn, whose mortal life is in peril.
Jude must risk venturing back into the treacherous Faerie Court, and confront her lingering feelings for Cardan, if she wishes to save her sister. But Elfhame is not as she left it. War is brewing. As Jude slips deep within enemy lines she becomes ensnared in the conflict’s bloody politics.
And, when a dormant yet powerful curse is unleashed, panic spreads throughout the land, forcing her to choose between her ambition and her humanity…
WELL. I closed this book with a lot of new, mixed and surprising feelings for many characters that I honestly didn’t care all that much about to start with. This was a pretty good conclusion although it was really nothing mind-blowing. Honestly, if I had been more invested in the characters from book one, I might even go so far as to say that I might’ve been disappointed with this ending. But if you like clean happy endings (and I mean who doesn’t?), then I think that The Queen of Nothing will tick all your boxes and leave you feeling satisfied.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, BOOK LOVERS AND FRIENDS!!! The last decade has been a helluva journey that’s been full of both high-highs and low-lows. I still can’t believe that we’re already starting a new decade, but I hope that it’s brilliant for all of you. I hope the year ahead is full of light, love, happiness and peace. And of course, all the very bookish things!
So it’s time for December’s last 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?
What did you read last?
With all the family time and holiday festivities fully under way over the last week, it’s not surprising that I haven’t been able to read much. I think I ended the year on a pretty good note though. I finished The Folk of the Air series and I surprisingly enjoyed The Queen of Nothing the most in the whole series.
It’s time for another Top 5 Saturday, a weekly meme created by Mandy @ Devouring Books and this week’s topic is: books coming out in 2020! Ooh this is a fun one because I spent my half-day before Christmas at work scouring Goodreads lists for what’s coming out in 2020 and there are loads that I’m excited for. I’m also participating in one or two blog tours for some of these books so YAY!
Caledon Holt is the Kingdom of Renovia’s deadliest weapon. No one alive can best him in brawn or brains, which is why he’s the Guild’s most dangerous member and the Queen’s one and only assassin. He’s also bound to the Queen by an impossible vow–to find the missing Deian Scrolls, the fount of all magical history and knowledge, stolen years ago by a nefarious sect called the Aphrasians.
Shadow has been training all her life to follow in the footsteps of her mother and aunts–to become skilled enough to join the ranks of the Guild. Though magic has been forbidden since the Aphrasian uprising, Shadow has been learning to control her powers in secret, hoping that one day she’ll become an assassin as feared and revered as Caledon Holt.
When a surprise attack brings Shadow and Cal together, they’re forced to team up as assassin and apprentice to hunt down a new sinister threat to Renovia. But as Cal and Shadow grow closer, they’ll uncover a shocking web of lies and secrets that may destroy everything they hold dear. With war on the horizon and true love at risk, they’ll stop at nothing to protect each other and their kingdom in this stunning first novel in the Queen’s Secret series.
To most people, Quan Diep is nothing but a surly-looking, underachieving playboy. The problem is he’s not any of those things. And now that he’s the CEO of an up-and-coming retail business, he’s suddenly a “catch,” and the rich girls who never used to pay any attention to him are looking at him in a new way—especially Camilla, the girl who brushed him off many years ago.
Anna Sun dislikes Quan Diep almost as much as germy bathroom door handles. Or so she tells herself. She will never admit that she has a secret crush on him, especially because he only has eyes for her charismatic and newly engaged younger sister Camilla. Over the years, Anna has worked hard to overcome her OCD, but she’ll still need to find a way to bury her anxieties and seduce Quan so he doesn’t ruin her sister’s engagement, and with it, a crucial real estate development deal.
Slowly, Anna breaks down Quan’s dangerous and careless exterior while peeling off her own tough, protective shell. But when Quan discovers Anna’s true intentions, he’s forced to confront his own hurtful past and learn to forgive, while Anna must face her greatest challenge: truly opening herself up to love.
Find the heir, win the crown. The curse is finally broken, but Prince Rhen of Emberfall faces darker troubles still. Rumors circulate that he is not the true heir and that forbidden magic has been unleashed in Emberfall. Although Rhen has Harper by his side, his guardsman Grey is missing, leaving more questions than answers.
Win the crown, save the kingdom. Grey may be the heir, but he doesn’t want anyone to know his secret. On the run since he destroyed Lilith, he has no desire to challenge Rhen–until Karis Luran once again threatens to take Emberfall by force. Her own daughter Lia Mara sees the flaws in her mother’s violent plan, but can she convince Grey to stand against Rhen, even for the good of Emberfall?
The heart-pounding, compulsively readable saga continues as loyalties are tested and new love blooms in a kingdom on the brink of war.
First, the bad news: an ancient evil—you know, your standard consume-all-life-in-the-galaxy deal—is about to be unleashed. The good news? Squad 312 is standing by to save the day. They’ve just got to take care of a few small distractions first.
Like the clan of gremps who’d like to rearrange their favorite faces.
And the cadre of illegit GIA agents with creepy flowers where their eyes used to be, who’ll stop at nothing to get their hands on Auri.
Then there’s Kal’s long-lost sister, who’s not exactly happy to see her baby brother, and has a Syldrathi army at her back. With half the known galaxy on their tails, Squad 312 has never felt so wanted.
When they learn the Hadfield has been found, it’s time to come out of hiding. Two centuries ago, the colony ship vanished, leaving Auri as its sole survivor. Now, its black box might be what saves them. But time is short, and if Auri can’t learn to master her powers as a Trigger, the squad and all their admirers are going to be deader than the Great Ultrasaur of Abraaxis IV.
Shocking revelations, bank heists, mysterious gifts, inappropriately tight bodysuits, and an epic firefight will determine the fate of the Aurora Legion’s most unforgettable heroes—and maybe the rest of the galaxy as well.
From the internationally bestselling author of The Simple Wild comes the continuation of a young woman’s journey to the Alaskan wild and a life she never imagined for herself.
What 2020 releases are you excited for? Are you excited for any of these too?
It’s time for another Friday Favorites hosted by Kibby @ Something of the Book! This weekly meme is where you get to share a list of all your favourites based on the list of prompts on Kibby’s page. Sounds fun, right? This week’s prompt is: favorite reads of 2019! Well, I guess I can no longer afford to keep avoiding thinking about this question because… The year is very quickly drawing to a close. It’s the last Friday of 2019 (!!!) and I guess there’s a slim chance of more contenders for my top spot! I’m wondering if I should divvy this up into genres just like I did last week because I honestly don’t know if I can narrow it down to just 10 books in total? So I’m going to look at the top five (max) reads for these genres: Contemporary, Thrillers/Horrors, Fantasy, Romance, Non-Fiction, Graphic Novels… Let’s get to it…
HAPPY TROPICAL CHRISTMAS, FRIENDS! I hope that you have the most beautiful day with your family and friends. May your day be filled with so much love and happiness. Lots of love from the other side of the world!
So it’s time for December’s last 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?
What did you read last?
Since last Wednesday I managed to read four books! My reviews for these are in the works but see my mini-reviews below:
dinipandareads 