Top 5 Wednesday: November 14, 2018

November 14, 2018November 12, 2018LeeLeave a comment

Books You Want to Read Before 2019

Our Goodreads goals are quickly closing in. What are you prioritizing for the end of the year?
To participate in Top 5 Wednesday, head over to their Goodreads Group!

Muse of Nightmares (Strange the Dreamer, book 2) by Laini Taylor

This goes at the top of the list because technically I’m already reading it. I loved Strange, but it left me with such high expectations that it’s nearly impossible to read Muse! So I’m annoyed with myself, but I intend to finish this before the end of the year.

A Court of Frost and Starlight (A Court of Thorns and Roses, book 4) by Sarah J. Maas

I was so excited for this one and then I did that same stupid thing where I have all these expectations and it keeps me from even being able to read the book I wanted to read so badly!

A Map of Days (Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, book 4) by Ransom Riggs

ARE YOU SEEING A THEME HERE???? Someone just end me. I finally got to preorder some books and I haven’t even touched them because I suck. I’m actually a little worried on this one because it has a lot to live up to with how much I loved the series up to now.

Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix (Rise of the Empress, book 2) by Julie C. Dao

This just came a few days ago and I can’t wait to enjoy it. I’m interested to see how I like a book more focused on Jade than on Xifeng, because I really dug the sympathetic villain angle. I am fully sympathized!

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

I’m really to give this book a chance since I saw the Netflix series. I’m a little nervous because it’s not my usual type of book. In fact, it’s the type of book I usually avoid. I’m determined not to put it off like I usually would so I’m going to get to it by the end of the year.

What books are you guys hoping to finish by 2019?

Book Haul: Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix by Julie C. Dao

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Top 5 Wednesday: April 11, 2018

April 11, 2018April 10, 2018LeeLeave a comment

Auto-Buy Scifi and Fantasy Authors

This month’s crossover topic is your auto-buy authors that write SFF.
To participate in Top 5 Wednesday, head over to their Goodreads Group!

Cynthia Voigt

I know she’s only done the one fantasy series, Tales of the Kingdom, but they are my favorites (it’s not often that I find a non-magical fantasy in the YA genre) and she’s my absolute favorite author so you know I had to bring her up! And anyway, if she ever published another fantasy novel I’d be trying to buy it before the ink could even dry.

Julie C. Dao

After Forest of a Thousand Lanterns, I am so in love with Dao’s writing I absolutely have to have her future novels. It’s rare that I would call someone an auto-buy after only one book (or at all actually, I have very few auto-buy authors), but that’s how good it was to me so there you have it.

Laini Taylor

If you had asked me before Strange the Dreamer I might not have mentioned Laini, since I’d only read her DoSaB trilogy at that point, but now? I don’t think I could resist buying anything she came out with at this point.

Shannon Hale

Shannon was the first author that I liked something of theirs so much I had to search out everything else they’d written. I got Shannon’s novel The Goose Girl in 6th grade at the book fair and it introduced me to one of my favorite genres (fairytale retellings). And her take on magic is a strong favorite of mine.

Ransom Riggs

He’s only got the one Peculiar Children trilogy so far, but it was so good that I’ve already decided to buy the untitled book he’s got listed for publication this year (hopefully this year).

What sci-fi and fantasy authors do consider worthy of automatically buying anything they come out with?

December 2017 Reading Wrap-Up

December 31, 2017December 31, 2017LeeLeave a comment

The Waterless Sea by Kate Constable
(The Chanters of Tremaris, book 2)
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review: No
Reading Dates: December 11 – 12
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: Chanters vs. Pirates from the beginning.
Least Favorite Thing: Ooomg so many sexist desert-dwellers!

I started to reread this series earlier in the year and then just totally got side-tracked, but I’m back now! (Also I think I completely blocked out the end….)

My Posts About The Waterless Sea

The Tenth Power by Kate Constable
(The Chanters of Tremaris, book 3)
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review: No
Reading Dates: December 12
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: The reveal about Cal’s family 🙂
Least Favorite Thing: Um… Keela’s entire original personality?

Man I zipped through this one! I was so anxious because I couldn’t remember in detail how this book went so I just devoured it!

I definitely recommend the Chanters of Tremaris series to anyone who likes YA Magical Fantasy and those who, like me, love stories about nature magic.

My Posts About The Tenth Power

The Swan Maiden by Heather Tomlinson
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Review: Kinda?
Reading Dates: December 12
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: Lavena had me cackling!
Least Favorite Thing: Seriously why does her entire family have to be Like That?? I just wanted to climb into the novel and systematically throttle them all…

I was actually surprised by how little of this story I remembered from when I first read it years ago.

My Posts About The Swan Maiden

The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan
(Trials of Apollo, book 1)
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Review: No
Reading Dates: November 23 – December 13
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: Actually dealt pretty well with the portrayal of a relationship between a child and their abusive parent.
Least Favorite Thing: Apollo is so fucking annoying. I miss Percy.

Seriously the only parts of the book I truly loved were the parts with Percy. I didn’t even realize he was my favorite, but he’s obviously my favorite. Lovably sarcastic dork….

My Posts About The Hidden Oracle

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
(Brian’s Saga, book 1)
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review: No
Reading Dates: December 13
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: I love the way Brian thinks about things, like referring to the fire as his “new hungry friend”.
Least Favorite Thing: That moose was a dick. (Honestly, I can’t think of anything I didn’t like about the story/writing.)

I’m really glad I decided to try rereading this again. I wanted to see if I still liked it after all these years and I think I actually like it more now.

My Posts About Hatchet

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao
(Rise of the Empress, book 1)
Rating: ★★★★★
Review: Yes
Reading Dates: December 15 – 18
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: Had me totally rooting for someone I knew was technically a villain!
Least Favorite Thing: I really didn’t need the mental images of killing small animals… (To be clear, it’s not often and it’s not like gratuitous slaughter, it’s just the descriptive language Julie C. Dao is good at made things a little too vivid for me for that particular couple scenes.)

I was so excited to get my hands on this book and it didn’t disappoint! I feel like wandering around town yelling about this book like a street preacher. Seriously, I recommend it to everyone, especially if you like fairy tale retellings.

(I almost put that my favorite thing was that there was literally zero white people in this entire novel, but I thought that might be a little tactless…oops!)

My Posts About Forest of a Thousand Lanterns

Mind Games by Kiersten White
(Mind Games, book 1)
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Review: No
Reading Dates: October 22 – December 23
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: Fia being all small and kick-ass.
Least Favorite Thing: It just didn’t hold my attention very well…

I think it’s a pretty decent book, there was just something that made it hard to stay in the story. Still it ended on a minor cliffhanger so I guess I’ll be reading the sequel at some point!

My Posts About Mind Games

Hold Still by Nina LaCour
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review: No
Reading Dates: December 23 – 26
Read Count: 1
Favorite Thing: The photography.
Least Favorite Thing: I’m surprised to find there isn’t really anything I didn’t like from this book. Everything felt very honest.

I was afraid this book would be really hard to read because of the subject matter, but it moved really well and was a very honest portrayal of grief and recovery.

My Posts About Hold Still

In Progress

Review: Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao

December 23, 2017LeeLeave a comment

Xifeng has always been told of her great destiny, but she doesn’t know if she believes in it. When she travels to the Imperial City she will have to choose between warring urges. Will she marry Wei and live a simple life or embrace the darkness that draws her and chase a powerful destiny?

Rating: ★★★★★ – it was amazing
Genre: young adult fiction, ya fantasy, fairytale retelling
Pros: #OwnVoices, beautifully written, excellent spin on an old story
Cons: somewhat slow beginning (but this is barely a con, and I’ll explain why)

An Own Voices novel and a fairy tale retelling, what could be better? Well, it could be beautifully written, as Forest of a Thousand Lanterns most certainly is.

The most interesting thing to me is how Dao had me completely forgetting that this was the story of the evil queen! I was rooting for Xifeng the entire time, constantly hoping she would find ways to outsmart her enemies and get more powerful. It wasn’t until the very end that I started to remember I was cheering on someone who is technically the villain of the story! And even once I did I found it impossible to dislike her.

This is not the first time I’ve read a book about this fairytale character’s origin, but never have I found myself rooting for her or liking her, or even feeling all that sorry for her for that matter. But with FOTL I knew from the beginning who Xifeng was, and I still didn’t think about it until almost the end of the novel because I cared about her the whole time.

There was a short time at the beginning of the book (basically, the parts leading up to Xifeng’s arrival in the Imperial City) where I felt like things were moving kind of slowly. It wasn’t unenjoyable to read or anything; I never felt like I was forcing myself to keep reading. I just found myself wondering if some of the stuff I was reading even needed to be there.

However, I don’t actually think it was a real problem, because later on I came to believe those things did need to be in the story. I think all the stuff in the beginning which made it seem a bit long before the action really began may be what helped to build that great empathy I felt for Xifeng that let me forget she was supposed to turn into a villain.

I honestly never expected to get so excited over a retelling of Snow White, since it’s a really well known and oft retold tale, but Julie C. Dao did an amazing job. The new setting and the dark fantasy aspect really made this story better than any others I’ve found.

Another great thing was the descriptive language the author uses. It painted such a vivid picture that I never had trouble staying in the story and I often found myself stopping to reread a line or two because it was just so beautifully written.

I pretty much recommend this book to everyone, but specifically fans of fairytale retellings & YA Fantasy, or anyone wanting to read more books with non-white characters/authors. Because the only real drawback to this book is having to wait to read the sequel!

Goodreads | Book Depository | Author’s Website

Question About Snakes in Forest of a Thousand Lanterns

December 19, 2017LeeLeave a comment

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Teaser Tuesday: December 19, 2017

December 19, 2017December 19, 2017LeeLeave a comment

How their slippery hearts had scorched her throat, how the hot metallic tang of blood had given way to a roar of satisfaction that shook her whole being.

– Julie C. Dao, Forest of a Thousand Lanterns (Rise of the Empress, book 1), page 210

Version:
Hardcover, 363 pages
Published October 10th 2017 by Philomel Books

Welcome to Teaser Tuesday, hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker, the weekly Meme that wants you to add books to your TBR, or just share what you are currently reading. It is very easy to play along:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! Everyone loves Teaser Tuesday.