First Lines Fridays: December 1, 2017

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:

Nerve thrum and screaming blood, wild and churning and chasing and devouring and terrible and terrible and terrible —

Interested? Scroll down for the cover and summary!

Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor
(Daughter of Smoke & Bone, book 3)

Two worlds are poised on the brink of a vicious war. By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera’s rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her.

When the brutal angel emperor brings his army to the human world, Karou and Akiva are finally reunited – not in love, but in a tentative alliance against their common enemy. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people. And, perhaps, for themselves.

But with even bigger threats on the horizon, are Karou and Akiva strong enough to stand among the gods and monsters?

The New York Times bestselling Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy comes to a stunning conclusion as – from the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond – humans, chimaera, and seraphim strive, love, and die in an epic theater that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, friend and enemy.

Thursday Quotables: September 28, 2017

This weekly feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week; whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written.


The despair was entire, complete as a possession, but fleeting. It released her, and was gone, but it left Karou gutted, guttered, feeling for all the world like…
…a candle flame extinguished by a scream.

Summary:

Two worlds are poised on the brink of a vicious war. By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera’s rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her.

When the brutal angel emperor brings his army to the human world, Karou and Akiva are finally reunited – not in love, but in a tentative alliance against their common enemy. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people. And, perhaps, for themselves.

But with even bigger threats on the horizon, are Karou and Akiva strong enough to stand among the gods and monsters?

The New York Times bestselling Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy comes to a stunning conclusion as – from the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond – humans, chimaera, and seraphim strive, love, and die in an epic theater that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, friend and enemy.


Thank you Bookshelf Fantasies for this fun book meme!

What Are You Reading Wednesdays: September 27, 2017

What Are You Reading Wednesdays #WAYRW is a weekly feature on It’s A Reading Thing. Everyone is welcome to participate.

Grab the book you are currently reading and answer three questions:

  1. What’s the name of your current read?
  2. Go to page 34 in your book or 34% in your eBook and share a couple of sentences.
  3. Would you like to live in the world that exists within your book? Why or why not?

  1. Dreams of Gods & Monsters {Daughter of Smoke & Bone, book 3) by Laini Taylor
  2. Here it was, then, a restoration to the natural order: hostility.
  3. Oh… too late. Back during the first book I decided I wanted to live in that world, but as predicted, I died quickly and now cannot answer this question again.

WWW Wednesday: September 27, 2017

Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at Should be Reading and revived on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three W’s!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?


Currently Reading:  Dreams of Gods & Monsters (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, book 3) by Laini Taylor
I’m halfway through this book and I have the worst feeling!

As I admitted previously, I don’t remember much of the goings-on in this book, just a few major plot points. So I can’t actually say that something bad is about to happen, but… I feel it! I feel the bad thing coming, y’all.

As it is, I’m mostly enjoying reading this one, even if I find the Stellians annoying and wish the narration wasn’t always so vague and mysterious!

I’m also, as always lately, working my way slowly through Persuasion by Jane Austen.

Recently Finished:  The Runner (The Tillerman Cycle, book 4) by Cynthia Voigt
Ah, man, it was nice to be in Bullet’s stubborn head again.

I’m still sad from the last chapter though. I’ll probably never get over the need to cry every time I read it. I’ll be rereading this book for the 57th time when I’m 80 and I’ll cry like a little baby over the Phone Call.

I will never understand how Bullet can draw me in so well. He’s not exactly a likeable person, and yet I love him. I’ll credit that to the magic of Cynthia Voigt’s writing. In fact, I give the magic of Cynthia’s writing credit for many things I care about.

Reading Next:  Unmade (The Lynburn Legacy, book 3) by Sarah Rees Brennan
Well, I managed to get this one on Interlibrary Loan, and faster than I expected, too.

I have no idea what to expect from the end of this trilogy… Goodreads promises the ending will be shocking, but that could just be hype to get people into reading it? (Yeah, even I don’t buy that.)

All I really hope for is an ending that makes sense, plenty of that banter I love, and for Jared to not stay where he was at the end of the last book because that would be awful!

I also plan to get to the next book in The Tillerman Cycle and then I’ve been thinking of rereading another series from back in high school. This one, The Gallagher Girls series, I actually can’t remember very well, but I do remember enjoying the two books I read of the series. Some posts on tumblr reminded me of it and I got it from the library in a fit of nostalgia. My only hesitation is wondering whether I will like it as well as I did when I was younger…

Teaser Tuesday: September 26, 2017

The two of them were stoic and stone-faced and ten feet apart, currently not even looking at each other, but Zuzana had the impression of a pair of magnets pretending not to be magnets.

– Laini Taylor, Dreams of Gods & Monsters (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, book 3), page 20

Version:
Hardcover, 613 pages
Published April 8th 2014 by Little, Brown & Company


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.

Friday 56: September 22, 2017

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda’s Voice and the rules are simple:

  • Grab a book, any book (I, personally, prefer to use my current read.)
  • Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader (If you have to improvise, that’s ok.)
  • Find any sentence, (or few, just don’t spoil it)
  • Post it

Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor
(Daughter of Smoke & Bone, book 3)

The air was so rich it had body, fragrance seeming to carry in it as easily as sound: perfumes, birdcalls, every breeze as alive with darting songs and scents as the sea was with fish.

WWW Wednesday: September 20, 2017

Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at Should be Reading and revived on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three W’s!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?


Currently Reading:  The Runner (The Tillerman Cycle, book 4) by Cynthia Voigt
This is one of my favorites of the Tillerman Cycle books. It focuses on Bullet Tillerman, the Tillerman Children’s late uncle, back before he left for the war in Vietnam.

I can’t wait to get back in Bullet’s head, honestly; he’s such a defiant little shit. Plus, it’s interesting to see how Gram was back when her husband was still alive and she wasn’t “crazy Abigail Tillerman” yet.

And as always, I’m also still working my way through Persuasion by Jane Austen. It’s not quite as torturous as it was originally, but I don’t know if that will last… I hope it will.

Recently Finished:  Days of Blood & Starlight (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, book 2) by Laini Taylor
I literally just finished this book 5 minutes ago… This was my second time reading it.

I had a little trouble halfway through the book because Karou’s situation feels so hopeless that I started feeling hopeless too. Luckily, all I needed was a short break and I was able to get right back into the story.

I have forgotten a few things from last time I read it though. Like the whole bit with the White Wolf towards the end. I won’t get into details because it’s spoilery, but damn.

Untold (The Lynburn Legacy, book 2) by Sarah Rees Brennan
I finished Untold just before DoBaS. I was a little nervous about Second Book Syndrome, but that didn’t happen and I enjoyed Untold quite a bit. Especially the banter between characters. I really am such a sucker for funny, sassy banter in novels and Sarah Rees Brennan excels at it!

I reviewed it too.

It looks like I will have to wait a while to read the third book though, because I have to get it through an Interlibrary Loan to get it. My local library only has the first two books in the trilogy for some unknown, but deeply annoying reason. (They do that a lot actually.)

Reading Next:  Dreams of Gods & Monsters (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, book 3) by Laini Taylor
Try as I might…. I’m not sure I really remember anything specific from this book?? Which I didn’t realize until just now…

So I guess it’s a good thing I’m rereading the series, huh?

I never bothered to read the novella for the series, but I think I might this time around? But I still haven’t quite decided if I should read it before DoGaM where it fits chronologically, or read it after I finish the whole series the way it was published.