My guilt has kicked in and told me that I can’t keep avoiding another culling of my ridiculous TBR forever, so here I am. Back again with a list of books from my Goodreads TBR that is now a whopping 1,072 books(don’t judge me, I added more books to my TBR since last week)! I thought I’d make it clear again thatjust because it’s on my Goodreads TBR doesn’t actually mean I own copies of the book (that’d be way ridiculous even for me)! Let’s see what we can get rid of today, eh?
Down the TBR Hole is a weekly book meme created by the wonderful Lia @ Lost in a Storythat attempts to organize our ridiculously long Goodreads TBR list by choosing either to keep or eliminate the books we’ve saved on there. Here’s how it works:
Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
Order on ascending date added.
Take the first 5 (or 10 (or even more!) if you’re feeling adventurous) books. Of course, if you do this weekly, you start where you left off the last time.
Magneto and Professor X. Superman and Lex Luthor. Victor Vale and Eli Ever. Sydney and Serena Clarke. Great partnerships, now soured on the vine.
But Marcella Riggins needs no one. Flush from her brush with death, she’s finally gained the control she’s always sought—and will use her new-found power to bring the city of Merit to its knees. She’ll do whatever it takes, collecting her own sidekicks, and leveraging the two most infamous EOs, Victor Vale and Eli Ever, against each other.
With Marcella’s rise, new enmities create opportunity–and the stage of Merit City will once again be set for a final, terrible reckoning.
Holy heck. What can I even say?! I loved Vicious but I’m surprised to say that I might love Vengeful even more?! I just finished reading it earlier today (when I wrote this on Saturday) so my thoughts are still a jumbled mess but I’m going to at least try writing something semi-coherent. Also, sorry but there will be spoilers for Vicious as this picks up after that!
Welcome back to another Friday Favourites, dear friends! 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 authors.
Well, this list could go on forever, couldn’t it? Did I mention that I’m quite terrible at picking favourites? I’ve actually done a few posts mentioning some of my favourite authors (like this one and this one) so I thought I’d take a bit of a different spin for this week’s author topic by focusing on authors that have a potential to be favourites. I say potential because I’ve only read one book by these authors but they absolutely wowed me and I could see them becoming a favourite if I end up enjoying their other books just as much. I hope that explanation made sense! 😂 Here we go…
Ugh, just look at this gorgeous cover! I mean, isn’t that reason enough to love this?! Kidding… Sort of. The content was just as enjoyable as the cover and I sped through this heart-wrenching story. The characters were so real and relatable and I loved these two cinnamon rolls so much 💞 I just wanted to hug them forever. I’m so excited to read Choi’s second book released last year!
I love historical fiction and am partial to reading books set during the Holocaust or WWII. I’d never read YA historical fiction before but I was really taken with Sepetys‘ evocative writing. I learned a lot about the atrocities that occurred in other nations during this period and it was eye-opening. I have a good feeling I’ll really enjoy her other books too!
Yes, this book is making another appearance on my lists this week because I absolutely loved it and like I said in my review, I highly recommend it! Sorry not sorry 😉 I adored this book and I’m looking forward to trying Clayborn’s other books because of how she managed to so captivate me and my feels!
I don’t know what I expected when I went into this but it wasn’t what I got–and I mean that in the best way too! This was such a great sci-fi thriller that really kept me on the edge of my seat and on my toes the whole time. James managed to reel me in with how she set the atmosphere and always had me second guessing myself while reading! Definitely keen to try her other work.
This book quickly captivated me with the magic, world building and books, but the characters had me speeding through the pages to find out what happens next. I adored this book so much and I’m really looking forward to trying Rogerson’s other work. I hope I love it just as much as I did this 😍
Who are authors you want to read more of and who have the potential to become a new favourite? Would any of these authors make your list?
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?
So remember how last week I challenged myself to read all those romances? Well, I didn’t manage to read ten but I did get through eight! Although the majority of romances I read were on my possibility pile, I did stray and pick up a dystopian romance series on a whim (hmm). Plus I read two other books so in total I’ve read 10 books since last Wednesday (who am I even). As always, you can check out my mini-mini reviews below!
Kingshold (The Wildfire Cycle #1) by D.P. Woolliscroft ★★★★☆ This is a fantasy that’s not to be missed!There’s great world building, the writing is infused with humour and is easy to follow despite there being so many characters. Everything came together seamlessly and nothing felt forced. My blog tour review will be posted on Saturday!
A Pizza My Heart (Slice #1) by Teagan Hunter ★★★☆☆ Y’all know how much I loved Hunter’s ‘Texting’ series because I can’t stop gushing about it, so I was a little disappointed with my lack of feels for A Pizza My Heart. It wasn’t bad, but it was missing the cheeky sass and spark I’d come to expect from her writing!Check out my mini review.
I Knead You Tonight (Slice #2) by Teagan Hunter ★★★★☆ The sass and banter came back in the second book of this series and I was living for it! I didn’t particularly care for both characters when they’re intro’d in book one, but I grew to love them so much in this book! They’re both such strong characters and it was super a satisfying read.Check out my mini review.
That Secret Crush (Getting Lucky #3) by Meghan Quinn★★★★½ I’d been waiting for this release since finishing book two and it really didn’t disappoint. I didn’t think much of Reid before but I loved his no-filter character and Eve was his perfect match! I loved their love 😍 All I know is that I can’t wait for the last book now. I needed it yesterday!Check out my full review.
Well Met (Well Met #1) by Jen DeLuca ★★★★★ All the swoons for me when I was reading this book! I was definitely kicking myself for not reading it sooner. Who knew that a Ren Faire romance is what I needed in my life? I adored Emily and Simon so much and I really enjoyed their character development! 💞 Check out my full review.
The Rain Trilogy by B.B. Easton ★★★☆☆ (average) With book one I knew this book wasn’t for me. I just couldn’t with the super insta-love but I also couldn’t stop reading it until and I can’t explain why. It did get *marginally* better as the story progressed and the ending was satisfying but I still don’t think I’d recommend it…Review coming soon.
Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn ★★★★★ I fell hard and fast for Meg & Reid and their love story. This book gave me all the feels and I had a much deeper connection to the story and characters than I expected to when going into it. It’s a wonderful read that I know I’ll be recommending, especially to you romance lovers out there! Review coming soon.
Friends with the Monsters by Albany Walker★★★½ – ★★★★☆? So… I’ve never read a Reverse Harem romance before but one TTT post led to Goodreads to Amazon searches through books I’ve never even thought of reading before and I ended up on this. The cover is what really caught my eye coz it’s just really cool and dark? I’m surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It was a dark read with monsters, supernaturals and magic. Plus the heroine was vicious. Obviously it goes without saying there was a lot of sex. Not sure if I’ll continue reading Reverse Harem romances but it was definitely interesting!Review (maybe) coming soon.
My guilt has kicked in and told me that I can’t keep avoiding another culling of my ridiculous TBR forever, so here I am. Back again with a list of books from my Goodreads TBR that is now a whopping 1,073 books! I thought I’d make it clear again that just because it’s on my Goodreads TBR doesn’t actually mean I own copies of the book (that’d be way ridiculous even for me)! Let’s see what we can get rid of today, eh?
Down the TBR Hole is a weekly book meme created by the wonderful Lia @ Lost in a Storythat attempts to organize our ridiculously long Goodreads TBR list by choosing either to keep or eliminate the books we’ve saved on there. Here’s how it works:
Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
Order on ascending date added.
Take the first 5 (or 10 (or even more!) if you’re feeling adventurous) books. Of course, if you do this weekly, you start where you left off the last time.
We’re back with another Top 5 Saturday! I might’ve missed last week’s topic but I will come back to it at some point 🙂 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 about mermaids!
I don’t know about you but I’ve always loved the idea of mermaids and especially of being one! I surprisingly (or not) can’t recall having read many books about mermaids but I do have several on my TBR now (and they’re not all of the pining-teenager Ariel variety but more like the will-eat-you-alive kind)! Here’s what’s on my list:
I was lucky enough to get picked for the blog tour for The Deep. It looks and sounds sufficiently creepy and since we all know I’m a chicken, I’m starting to wonder what business I have reading a book that’s guaranteed to terrify me? I guess I just won’t step into the ocean for a while (not at all hard to do when living on a tropical island *cough*)!
I’ve been really looking forward to giving Sea Witch a try. I have to be honest and say the gorgeous cover is what initially caught my eye but I’m hoping the content will be just as good (although I have heard some mixed reviews)!
All the Stars and Teeth isn’t only about mermaids but I thought it still counts. Again it’s mostly thanks to the insanely good looking cover that caught my eye that this was put on my radar, and I’m only convinced to read it even more now because I’ve seen so many reviews for it lately. They are mixed reviews but I’m hoping I’ll enjoy it all the same!
I’ve heard a lot of great things about Christina Henry’s books and a few of them have admittedly been sitting on my Kindle library for quite some time now… The Mermaid is one of them and I’m really curious to see what her writing is like!
I’ve been looking forward to giving Coral a try ever since I first heard about it but I heard it can be quite triggering as it’s quite heavy on the mental health issues. I’m looking forward to finally picking it up once I feel ready for it though!
Upcoming Schedule:
02 Feb 2020: Dystopian books
08 Feb 2020: Mental Illness
15 Feb 2020: Books about Mermaids
22 Feb 2020: Books about spies
29 Feb 2020: Books inspired by mythology
Do you like reading books with mermaids? What are some of your favourites? Share your recs down below!
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 five books and that’s mostly thanks to my binge reading the rest of the Texting series by Teagan Hunter over the weekend. I may just have discovered a new favourite romance author!
To Kill A Mocking Girl (Bookbinding Mystery #1) by Harper Kincaid ★★★★★ This was my first ever cosy mystery and it had me strongly questioning WHY I hadn’t picked up these types of books before. It had so many things that I love in a book–supportive close-knit communities, a loveable family dynamics, entertaining MCs, a budding swoon-worthy romance, doggos, and an intriguing mystery! I adored this book and I’m gutted it’s not even out yet (and won’t be until May 2020) because I’m already looking forward to the rest of this series. This was Kincaid’s debut mystery too, although she does write romances so I’m tempted to check them out.My full review will be out closer to the pub date!
Nils: The Tree of Life by Jerome Hamon ★★★☆☆ While the illustrations blew me away (seriously gorgeous art work!) the storyline of Nils was weak and I often found myself confused with what was happening, especially towards the climax. The story felt disjointed at times, jumping too quickly from one fast-paced scene to another, without proper explanations and that was a bit of a let down. Can’t recommend the illustrations more though! If this illustrator put out a book of just their drawings I’d so be down to read it.Check out my full review.
Texting Series by Teagan Hunter ★★★★☆(average) I was looking for a lighthearted romcom and this series ticked all the boxes! It’s been a while since I’ve laughed so much reading a romance and I loved every minute of it. The titles are pun-tastic and the cheese is strong in pretty much all of the books but the geeky humor, swoon worthy heros and super sassy heroines make for some deliciously fun (not to mention steamy) times! Check out my full series review.
Yes, I know I’m late to update. Life has been happening and in typical panda fashion, I also started to slack off a little with recording my reads on my challenge spreadsheet! Oops? Thankfully there’s the Goodreads Reading Challenge which has helped me to recall what books I’ve read over the last month and what challenges they’d fit under! So let’s take a look at how I’ve been doing for the *many* challenges that I decided to participate in this year…
I’ve been using many of the same books I’ve read to fulfil the prompts in different challenges and I think that’s OK although sometimes it feels like “I’m cheating” although I know that’s just the nay-sayers I’ve encountered whose voices are ringing in my ears 😂
I managed to read four ARCs in January and while that’s not a whole lot (at least compared to others) it’s more than I thought I’d read last month, so I’m happy there’s some progress, no matter how small!
Goodreads: Nils: The Tree of Life Publish date: 11 February 2020 Publisher: Magnetic Press/Diamond Book Distributors Genre: Graphic Novel, Young Adult, Sci-Fi & Fantasy Panda Rating:
A dystopic Nordic fantasy world, where spirits of light are the key to life, but seemingly have abandoned the world. Young Nils and his father set out to discover why the ground has grown infertile, heading north where the drought seems worse to find the cause. Far along the way, they find signs of fresh and vibrant life, caretaken by these little light spirits. But before they know it, a large metal creature arrives and attacks the creatures, apparently hunting and gathering them.
From out of the woods, a woman attacks the creature, bringing it to its knees… apparently the plant was bait for the spirits, which in turn were bait for the metal creature, which serves the high-tech Cyan Nation. This huntress, named Alba, takes Nils and his father into their tribe, where the battle between the shamanistic people and the Cyan Nation is paramount, a battle over the protection vs exploitation of the light spirits power…
Meanwhile, three goddesses watch these events, lamenting the fact that man had abandoned all belief in their power long ago. They watch but do not intervene, despite the fact that the spirits are being harvested en masse by the Cyan Nation, wreaking ruin on the world outside their city. Realizing that this conflict will in one way or another change the very fabric of this world, they slowly begin to intervene…
As they continue their travels, Nils has a dream (seeded by one of the goddesses) about the World Tree, Yggdrasil, which is being consumed by a metal plague. He knows he must now find and save the tree, and in the process, save the world. But the high council of the Cyan Nation would have otherwise…
Having been separated in their quest, Nils’s father finds himself a guest of the Cyan Prince, where he learns that they do indeed understand the power of the spirits, which they call Ethernum, serving as the power source for their technological advancement. More sinister than that, however, is the fact that they’ve used the Ethernum as a means of near-eternal longevity, having wiped out all competitors to their power and resource long ago. And now, they believe they have unlocked the secrets for using the Ethernum to revive the dead…
And for the goddesses, that is a step too far. They intervene, but in the process find one of themselves surprisingly captured by the Cyan royalty… and then killed. The remaining two goddesses are torn by this affront. One vows to wipe mankind off the planet for good, while the other goes to help Nils save the Life Tree.
High fantasy adventure combining science-fiction with pseudo-spiritual magic, posing dramatic examinations of man vs nature, life vs death, fact vs faith, and man’s desire to play god.
This was an interesting graphic novel that had a fascinating mix of Nordic mythology and fantasy elements that shared a story about a dying earth due to corruption, exploitation of resources, and the troubled Goddesses that are affected by the effects of human greed and technological advancement.
I enjoyed how Nils started but as more elements of the story were introduced I became confused with the direction it was going but also the erratic flow of scenes towards the middle and end. There were many scene jumps that made the climax feel disjointed and since there was a lot of action in these parts, it only left me feeling confused with everything that was going on. I did go back to re-read scenes in case I missed anything but I still didn’t get the clarity I was looking for. I had plenty of questions about the whole world and the characters in it — Nils, the goddesses, the Cyan nation and how it came to be, and Alba’s tribe of women hunters and how they survived. I wish that these elements were better explained so that we could have a better understanding of the story. There was also some romantic notions that were hinted at between one of the goddesses towards Nils which seemed unnecessary and didn’t make me feel more sympathetic towards her fight to save him and human kind. It honestly creeped me out a little bit lol…
That said, the artwork is simply stunning and it’s what made me want to continue reading despite not fully understanding what was going on in the storyline. The color palette was well chosen and really reflected the ‘cold tundra’/Nordic feel alongside dying nature and technologically advanced city vibes that the story presented. The details were wonderful and I loved the distinctive look of all the different characters. There were some illustrations, particularly to do with nature and the spirits, that really gave me Princess Mononoke / Miyazaki vibes and I loved it!
While Nils had an interesting and promising premise it unfortunately didn’t follow through for me. The artwork was beautiful and I’d love to see more graphic novels illustrated by this artist however, I wish that the storyline had been more clear and easy to follow/understand!
Thanks to NetGalley and Magnetic Press/Diamond Books Distributor for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. This graphic novel is out 11 February 2020. Have you read Nils: The Tree of Life or is it on your TBR?
It’s been a hot minute since I’ve done a monthly wrap up (I didn’t do one for December) but here we are once again! The first month of a new year has come and gone already. If you’ve been following my blog (or Twitter!) this month you’ll know that my year hasn’t started off on a very high note. I’ve been facing a lot of health issues and it has impacted not only my work life but my every day activities such as reading/blogging. I didn’t think I was going to read more than 10 books this month but I finished off on an even 12 books and I’m quite happy with that progress 🙂
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