Oh man I forgot I got tagged in this, I suck! Thank you for the tag, Scarlet @flamingmirrorbookish!

1. Best book you read so far this year
I’m tempted to mention one of my favorite books again, but I won’t, I’ll choose one that was new to me this year: White Oleander by Janet Fitch. The prose is absolutely beautiful and I loved the way the main character, Astrid, looked at things.

2. Worst book you read so far this year
Guys obviously it was the Twilight books. The worst of all of them was the partial from Edward’s POV, Midnight Sun.

3. Completed any series?
Oh sure. Most of the books I read are part of a series anyway. As for complete series I read this year, they are all rereads:

• Tales of the Kingdom // Cynthia Voigt
  My favorite all time book series. These are loosely-connected, non-magical fantasy. I recommend it to everyone, always.
• Twilight Saga // Stephenie Meyer
  My least favorite series, which I recommend to literally nobody. Love yourselves.
• The Darkest Minds // Alexandra Bracken

4. Anticipated read for the second half of the year

Oh! Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor! I have it pre-ordered and I am so eager to have it!

5.A book that disappointed you
Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman. I loved the film, but the book just didn’t click with me even a little. I don’t even know if I’ll read the one about the aunts now…

6. How many books have you read so far this year?
I’m glad to say I managed to reach half my goal for the year this month, by just a hair. I have read 38/75 books this year!

7. A book that made you laugh
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. I know technically it’s called a children’s book, but really any age group can enjoy this book and I recommend it to all.

8. Estimated read count for the year?
I think I’ll definitely meet my goal of 75 if I can keep this up!

Alrighty I tagged some people on tumblr, but I actually want to tag all my WordPress readers. Give me the deets on how your 2018 goals are going at this halfway point in the year! Either comment or make your own post and drop me a link.

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas
(Throne of Glass, book 4)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  March 3 – 7
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  GHOST LEOPARD!!!!
Least Favorite Thing:  Chaol’s shit-ass attitude for the first 2/3rds of the book drove me crazy. I mean I think it’s good writing for a character to have flaws and not always be likable, but his change in attitude just seemed so damn sudden and jarring…

This was the last one that was a reread, the rest of the books will be entirely new to me!

My Posts About Queen of Shadows

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
(The Darkest Minds, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  March 20 – 21
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  IT’S OBVIOUSLY ZU. ANYONE WHO CLAIMS OTHERWISE IS A BIG FAT LIAR!
Least Favorite Thing:  You-Know-Who with his creepy mind twisty creeps!

I randomly decided to reread this after seeing something about the film version coming out this August and being unable to get the story out of my head. I’m glad I did, I actually enjoyed it more this time around and raised my rating from 3 to 4 stars.

My Posts About The Darkest Minds

Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken
(The Darkest Minds, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  March 21 – 23
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  Rrrredssss! (I’m a fan of anything that just sets shit on fire lol)
Least Favorite Thing:  I CAN’T SAY IT BECAUSE IT’S A BIG SPOILER, BUT I’M STILL TEARY-EYED ABOUT IT!!!

I’m so happy because I didn’t really get Second Book Syndrome from this one like I did the first time I read the series.

My Posts About Never Fade

In the Afterlight by Alexandra Bracken
(The Darkest Minds, book 3)
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  March 24
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  SU-ZU-MEEEEEEEE
Least Favorite Thing:  The fact that no one just put Clancy out of everyone’s misery…

Oh wow! So I just looked back at my old rating of this book and it was apparently 2 stars??? What??? This series is clearly one that improved with time. I’m really glad I reread it. Hope the films do them justice!

My Posts About In the Afterlight

Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  March 28
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  She is so funny and surprisingly verbose. (I’d never seen her in anything where she was being herself and not acting, so I had no idea her vocabulary was so enjoyably vast. I even learned a new word or two.)
Least Favorite Thing:  Um, it ended too soon.

I actually listened to the audiobook version of this book (though I had the physical copy with me to mark quotes and cool words). I am not usually a fan of audiobooks just because they don’t hold my attention all that well, but Anna reading her book was very engaging and I never once lost my concentration even though I was doing other things the whole time. I definitely recommend everyone try the audiobook whether or not they intend to read the physical copy. This is officially one of my top 3 favorite autobiographies so far.

My Posts About Scrappy Little Nobody

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
(Twilight Saga, book 1)
Rating:  ★☆☆☆☆ – did not like it
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  March 30 – 31
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  It ended.
Least Favorite Thing:  Gosh it’s so hard to pick just one… Possibly that fact that she’s like “I should be freaked out that he literally stalks me and breaks into my home on the reg, but I think it’s adoooorable”?

Well considering I set out to reread this specifically as a way of torturing myself into wanting to read better books again… It was exactly as painful as expected and pretty damn effective.

My Posts About Twilight

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer
(Twilight Saga, book 1.5)
Rating:  ★☆☆☆☆ – did not like it
Review:  Yes
Reading Dates:  March 31
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Emmett overacting when he and Edward scheme to get Ben and Angela together. I swear I thought I was reading fanfiction for a minute there, but it was hilarious.
Least Favorite Thing:  Eddie-boy is a self-obsessed, uppity lil bitch. Every thought he has is like “oh this human did a thing, but not as well as I do it” and “oh that human had a feeling, but of course it is nowhere as strong as MY emotions”

Welp… What can I say… I kept having to stop and scream into a pillow or rant at my husband so that probably tells you what you need to know right?

My Posts About Midnight Sun

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
(Twilight Saga, book 2)
Rating:  ★☆☆☆☆ – did not like it
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  March 31 – April 1 (Putting it here, because it was barely after midnight on April 1 that I finished.)
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  Edward wasn’t in a good chunk of it. That was nice.
Least Favorite Thing:  She still monologued about him the whole time. That was less nice.

I spent a solid 30 minutes just trying to figure out what she could have said to a therapist that would have allowed her to talk openly about the vampire crap without an involuntary psych hold…

My Posts About New Moon

In Progress

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A post shared by Lee (@darkestwings)

]]>/2018/03/25/tts-mar25-2018/feed/0darkestwingsreads/2018/03/25/the-darkest-minds-quote-2//2018/03/25/the-darkest-minds-quote-2/#respondMon, 26 Mar 2018 01:00:15 +0000/?p=10529

When a girl cries, few things are more worthless than a boy. Having two of them just meant that they stared at each other helplessly instead of at me.

– Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds, page 332

Version:
ebook, 552 pages
Published December 18th 2012 by Hyperion

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

View all my ratings on Goodreads

Lee is 50% done

Ooooh man so 2 things:

1)  I have just realized I remember very little about the events of this book.
(Related: Why do I always do that with series? I always remember the first book with crystal clarity and then remember less and less of each successive installment. Shouldn’t it be the other way round since I have read the last ones most recently?)

2)  Ruby is stressing me TF out with this Not Realizing thing she’s doing! How many chunks of lost time does she need to think something isn’t right???
(39% done? Try 100% done with Ruby’s oblivious ass!)

I felt it then — the way that the hold I had on her had suddenly sprung free. I had the strangest sensation of floating, of drifting farther and farther away with nothing and no one to cling to. I was standing right beside her, but the distance between us had split into the kind of canyon I couldn’t jump across.

– Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds, page 48

Version:
ebook, 552 pages
Published December 18th 2012 by Hyperion

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

View all my ratings on Goodreads

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

View all my ratings on Goodreads