★★★☆☆ – liked it

UPDATE:  Having read this again…. I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much. There’s a lot that just made me uncomfortable actually…. I have changed the rating to 3 stars, but I will probably never read this again.

I was so hesitant to read this because I was afraid it wouldn’t be as good as Hale’s YA/Middle Grade books that I had loved since I was younger. I was so dumb. I should have known better than to doubt Shannon Hale’s ability to sweep me up in a beautiful story.

If you want a novel with healthy relationships and a focus on platonic love, read The Actor and the Housewife ASAP.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Check out my Mini-Review!

View all my ratings on Goodreads

❀ This tag is for those books that came to you in an unusual, interesting, funny, or sweet way. Pick 5 (or more if you want) books from your shelf and tell us the story of how you came to own that book. If you’re a public library user and don’t really own any books, you can still participate. Just tell us the most interesting/funny/sweet ways you came to find a particular library book.

Tag your posts with #ShelfHistory so I can see them all!

When you’re finished, tag 5 (or more) readers whose Shelf-History you’d like to know about! This one can easily be done on any blogging/vlogging platform so feel free to tag cross-platform if you really want to. ❀

I’ll go first as an example and also just because I want to play too:

Book 1: Jane Austen: Seven Novels + Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

I received these two as a gift from the pastor’s secretary at the church I used to work at (but before I worked there). They are both beautiful volumes, but especially the gilded Seven Novels collection. I was in high school, so this was about 10 years ago) and had never read Jane Austen before and Ms. Judy highly recommended them. I wasn’t sold so she went out and bought them for me and asked only that I give them a chance. They have sweet little inscriptions in them and I will definitely cherish these for a long, long time.

Book 2: The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

My copy of The Goose Girl was purchased from the Scholastic Book Fair back in middle school. I bought it because the cover was beautiful and the title was interesting. (And because I always bought tons of books from the book fair lol) I took it home and read it right away and it totally swept me up. It was my first fairytale retelling novel and I was totally hooked. At the time I wasn’t reading very much, I was really struggling with everything, and this book got me into reading again. The Goose Girl will always have a special place in my heart, and I hope I can hold on to this particular copy until it falls apart and then some.

Book 3: A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb

Did you ever own a book that you had no idea how you got it or why you have it? One day I was rearranging my books and I found one that I didn’t remember reading (this was back when I had a lot less books). I read the back and it didn’t ring any bells at all. Despite this, it was clearly my book, since it was on my shelves. Over the years I have unhauled it at least twice, and yet somehow it always winds up back on my shelf. That’s not me being cute. I mean I literally don’t know how it winds up back on the shelf. I put it in the box of books to get rid of and it just doesn’t get rid. I guess I figure I’m supposed to own this book…

Book 4: The Tenth Power by Kate Constable

This is my only Advanced Reader Copy. Oh lucky me, I got an ARC, right? Wrong. I ordered the hardcover version of this book online and received the ARC anyway. It wasn’t a huge deal, but it bothered me slightly because hardbacks are expensive and because it didn’t match the others from the series that I had. So I wrote to the seller and they offered to send me the copy I actually ordered and I could do with the ARC whatever I wished. Well lo, and behold, two weeks later, here comes a book in the mail. But is it the hardback copy that I ordered? No, bitch, it’s ANOTHER ARC copy! At this point I just gave up. It was both too funny and too dumb to care about any longer.

Book 5: It Happened This Way

I don’t know where or how I got this book, but I’ve had it since I was about 2 years old. The thing that makes this book truly special to me is that it’s the book my mom used to teach me to read. The best I can figure, she found it at a garage sale or got it from one of the classrooms she used to interpret in before I was born. I don’t know how I’ve managed to hold on to it all these years, but I still look through it every so often and love it so much. My favorite story in it is the story of Mark Park (who the kids called Mark Park Walk in the Dark). It will probably always make me smile.

Alrighty those are my Shelf History picks. Not the most interesting stories, but I’m betting that some of y’all have some really fascinating ones!

I’m tagging: Purple Manatees, Lauren @ Northern Plunder, Amanda @ Between the Shelves, Sionna @ Books in her Eyes, & Words in the Rain. But feel free to do it even if you aren’t tagged!

/iˈnimək(ə)l/
adjective

1. tending to obstruct or harm
2. unfriendly; hostile

“They’re written and signed by the queen of Kildenree and detail inimical intentions, with dates, numbers, places, all stamped with the royal insignia.”

– Shannon Hale, The Goose Girl

/’pwēsnt,ˈpyo͞oəsnt,ˈpwisnt/
adjective

1. having great power or influence

“Look,” said Terne, sounding as thought he spoke through clenched teeth, ” are you begging for a private audience with her puissantness?”

– Shannon Hale, The Goose Girl

/prəˈfəndədē/
noun

1. deep insight; great depth of knowledge or thought

The next morning, Ani noticed how many of the guards now looked at her with the same wariness that marked their eyes when they contemplated the dark profundities of the forest.

– Shannon Hale, The Goose Girl

/’səkər/
noun / verb

1. (noun) assistance and support in times of hardship and distress
2. (verb) give assistance or aid to

She had not sought his comfort in years, trying as she was to grow up, to be independent and queenly enough not to hurt, but she longed for his succor now.

– Shannon Hale, The Goose Girl

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:

No one who knew Charlotte Constance Kinder since her youth would suppose her born to be a heroine. She was a practical girl from infancy, only fussing as much as was necessary and exhibiting no alarming opinions. Common wisdom asserts that heroines are born from calamity, and yet our Charlotte’s early life was pretty standard. Not only did her parents avoid fatal accidents, but they also never locked her up in a hidden attic room.

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

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:

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a thirty-something woman in possession of a satisfying career and fabulous hairdo must be in want of very little, and Jane Hayes, pretty enough and clever enough, was certainly thought to have little to distress her. There was no husband, but those weren’t necessary anymore. There were boyfriends, and if they came and went in a regular stream of mutual dissatisfaction — well, that was the way of things, wasn’t it?

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

Young Widows Club by Alexandra Coutts
Rating:  N/A
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  March 20 – April 4
Read Count:  1 (DNF)
Favorite Thing:  None.
Least Favorite Thing:  Blah.

From the summary I was expecting an interesting look at what it’s like to be widowed at a young age, and what I got was “teen widow goes back to high school”. Sigh. I couldn’t even finish this book.

My Posts About Young Widows Club

Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater
(The Raven Cycle, book 3)
Rating:  ★★★★★ – it was amazing
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  December 10, 2018 – April 18, 2019
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  Mr. Gray & Blue’s friendship.
Least Favorite Thing:  Over too soon.

I can’t seem to stop myself from rereading The Raven Cycle books! Unfortunately I only own two of them, so it may be a minute before I can get my hands on the last book to reread it.

My Posts About Blue Lily, Lily Blue

Tea for Two by S.W. Stromberg
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  Coming Soon
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  April 16 – 25
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Seeing myself so clearly in a character was amazing.
Least Favorite Thing:  I CAN’T SAY BECAUSE IT’S A SPOILER, BUT I CAN’T BELIEVE SHE DID THAT.

I was a little nervous reading a book written by a friend in case I didn’t like it, but luckily this one turned out to be really good! I’ve never been able to see myself so well in a character, it was awesome. I recommend this book to anyone looking for LGBT reads that aren’t just another coming out story!

My Posts About Tea for Two

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  April 25 – 29
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  The healing songs.
Least Favorite Thing:  Saren…

I know, I know, without Saren the story isn’t even possible. And yet…. She just annoys me, I can’t help it. I can’t even feel bad for her really, even though I know I should. But at least Dashti is precious enough to make up for it.

My Posts About Book of a Thousand Days

In Progress