Reading

First Lines Fridays: September 6, 2019

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First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for 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?

  • 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:

Gregor had pressed his forehead against the screen for so long, he could feel a pattern of tiny checks above his eyebrows.

Did the quote pique your interest? View this book on Goodreads!

Review: Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

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Rating: ★★☆☆☆ – it was ok

I found this book difficult to finish, but it wasn’t all bad. And I know a lot of other people loved this book, so who knows, you might too.

The mythology and blend of fairytales (think rumplestiltskin + beauty and the beast + greek mythology + something else) was pretty interesting and the writing was decent. Unfortunately that’s about where my praise ends.

The whole plot of her “mission” really drags and drags and gets nowhere for the majority of the book. At one point the author resorts to changing an entire character’s personality out of nowhere in a desperate attempt to move the plot along.

And of course there’s the unexplained fact that Nyx is extra special and “not like other wives girls” that is never even remotely justified in the text, just commented on and forgotten.

What really got me, though, were the romances. They were both extremely insta-lovey and contrived. Like she kisses one for no reason after just meeting him and now she’s in love and then the other she hates except his shoulder? was? attractive? and now she has to fight her love for him and also have sex in a magic sky garden? The only redeeming factor of the world’s most unromantic love triangle was the way it wound up being resolved. I have definitely never seen that in a story before and I have to admit it was interesting, if not entirely surprising.

The ending was odd in that it felt both rushed and too long at the same time. It felt like the elements were kind of jumbled and then there had to be a little up-and-down that was meant, I think, to play on the reader’s emotions, but actually just tried my patience.

All in all I wanted to give it three stars, but I could only justify two and I can’t imagine I’ll read anything by this author again soon.

August Wrap-Up

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Non-Reading Stuff

God you guys so much has been going on in my life. So many changes! Divorce, dating, working, taking care of my mother, moving house, moving whole towns, etc etc… I have been hard pressed to get everything done for sure. But surprisingly I’m feeling pretty happy lately so it’s all good!

Reading Stuff

I finished 7 books this month! Check out my favorite and least favorite thing about them.
I’m much happier with August reading-wise than I have been the past few months. I’ve been struggling to read while juggling all the other crap I have to get done every day, but this month I got really in to reading and made more time for it. (Possibly I was reading when I should have been doing other things…Shh.)

Blogging Stuff

I haven’t been blogging much at all because of life stuff, but I’m getting back into it finally. I really hope I can keep it up.

August Reading Wrap-Up

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Walking Disaster by Jamie McGuire
(Beautiful, book 2)
Rating:  ★☆☆☆☆ – did not like it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  July 30 – August 3
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Ha!
Least Favorite Thing:  The fact that I actually read this with my own two eyes.

Honestly, I only read this book because my books were all packed and I had nothing else to read. It was even more trash than the first book!

My Posts About Walking Disaster

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater
(The Raven Cycle, book 4)
Rating:  ★★★★★ – loved it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  May 24 – August 4
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  The beautiful friendships. I dream of having a friend group like this.
Least Favorite Thing:  Piper is so annoying… (I know, I know, she’s meant to be obnoxious, but still.)

This was my third time reading The Raven King and I think I loved it even more this time than before.

My Posts About The Raven King

Elske by Cynthia Voigt
(Tales of the Kingdom, book 4)
Rating:  ★★★★★ – loved it
Review:  Yes
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  June 9 – August 9
Read Count:  5-ish
Favorite Thing:  Elske’s way of thinking through problems.
Least Favorite Thing:  Beriel’s way of thinking through problems.

I have such a soft spot in my heart for Elske…

My Posts About Elske

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Format:  eBook
Reading Dates:  August 14 – 20
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Interesting pace of the author’s voice.
Least Favorite Thing:  Casual incest… Not even joking.

I read this book because I watched the film (because I love Saoirse Ronan) and I had to see if the book had the same off-kilter quality as the movie. It didn’t exactly, but it did have an interesting pace to the writing that kept it from being a two star book.

My Posts About How I Live Now

Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  August 13 – 23
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Interesting take on the Wicked Stepsister’s story.
Least Favorite Thing:  The romance was annoying…

This was a pretty good take on the classic Cinderella story. I liked that the Wicked Stepsisters got redemption arcs and that Ella wasn’t actually just perfect all along.

My Posts About Stepsister

Imposters by Scott Westerfeld
(Imposters, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  August 26 – 27
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Watching Frey grow into her own person.
Least Favorite Thing:  Hello, Insta-love…

I loved the little moments where you saw how they viewed the events from Tally’s books now. And I loved the little sprinkling of pretty-speak.

My Posts About Imposters

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  August 28 – 30
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  TUCK IS PSYCHIC OK???
Least Favorite Thing:  [SPOILERS] That creepy yellow-suit mother fucker was going to make Winnie drink from the spring and then injure/kill her in myriad ways to prove she was immortal like my god can you imagine the trauma! [END SPOILERS]

I decided to reread this book because of my fond memories about it from when I was in school. (And also because I got into an argument about whether the book or film was better. Which was ridiculous because obviously the book is the best one.) I am so glad I reread it because I really got a lot more out of the text than I did when I was a child.

My Posts About Tuck Everlasting

In Progress

QuoteLeeLeave a comment
The ownership of land is an odd thing when you come to think of it. How deep, after all, can it go? IF a person owns a piece of land, does he own it all the way down, in ever narrowing dimensions, till it meets all other pieces at the center of the earth? Or does ownership consist only of a thin crust under which the friendly worms have never heard of trespassing?

– Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting, page 7

Version:
Paperback, 139 pages
Published August 21st 2007 by Square Fish

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My whole life, I always thought that I was the only imposter. That everyone else was certain they were real in some way that I could never understand. But what if they’re all just faking too?
Maybe none of us know who we really are.

– Scott Westerfeld, Imposters, page 262

Version:
Paperback, 405 pages
Published April 30th 2019 by Scholastic Press