The Raven Boys

Top 5 Wednesday: September 27, 2017

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Books You’ve Read Because of Booktube/Blogging/etc.

Discuss the books you’ve picked up because you’ve heard of them in the online book community or platform you use.
To participate in Top 5 Wednesday, head over to their Goodreads Group!

  1. The Raven Cycle // Maggie Stiefvater
    Well I had to put this series first because it’s the one I’m the most grateful to booklr for convincing me to read. I had seen The Raven Boys (book 1) on a shelf before, but had specifically not even picked it up because of the title. Then even when I did pick it up and read the blurb, I remember thinking it would be just a dumb romance about private school boys and setting it back down! (I’m ashamed to even admit that…) So it wasn’t until several posts from booklr peeps and direct cajoling from a reader friend that I finally decided to give it a chance.
  2. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
    This book comes second because I think it’s the second most important in that it taught me not to blindly trust booklr hype! I reviewed it, if you want to know more, but long story short: booklr straight lied to me about this book; it was trash.
  3. The Lunar Chronicles // Marissa Meyer
    I was pretty resistant to reading this one, but now that I have I can’t remember what my reasoning was… I should have known I would enjoy a sci-fi fairytale retelling series!
  4. Snow Like Ashes (Snow Like Ashes, book 1) by Sara Raasch
    Anyone on booklr knows how all over this series the community was for a while there. I bought into the hype of course, because I’m weak, and found this to be a pretty enjoyable book. I was reading it when I went to sign my pre-trial diversion paperwork and my lawyer and I talked about it at length. (Apparently it’s one she recommends all the time.) Unfortunately I couldn’t get into the sequel despite repeated tries and wound up abandoning the series.
  5. Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children // Ransom Riggs
    This is another series I am so grateful to the booklr community for recommending! There’s just so much to love about this series. The first time around, back in 2014, I really liked the story, but I don’t think I appreciated it as much as I did when I went back and reread it at the beginning of this year.

I’d love to know about some books the online book community you are a part of convinced you to read! Comment or make your own post and leave me a link.

June 2017 Wrap-Up

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A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
(A Court of Thorns and Roses, book 3)
Rating: ★★★★☆
Reading Dates:  June 8 – 9
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Feyre’s extremely satisfying manipulation of the Spring Court in part one OR sassy Azriel.
Least Favorite Thing:  Tamlin’s entire personality….

I may write a review of this book later, but at the moment I’m not sure I can do so coherently, so I’ll just leave a few thoughts here:
Once again Sarah has upped the amount of smut! Overall the book was well-written (and wow I especially loved the fights), but there were some brief instances of iffy stereotypes that rubbed me the wrong way. And as always, Tamlin-heavy scenes gave me anxiety attacks, but Inner Circle banter made it all better.

My Posts About A Court of Wings and Ruin

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
(The Raven Cycle, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Reading Dates:  June 9 – 10 & June 10 – 30
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  Sass sass sass sass SASS!
Least Favorite Thing:  Barrington Whelk.

So I read this book twice this month, once on my own and quickly, and the second time with a friend a little at a time while reading the rest of the series myself.

If you are interested in the magical realism genre, you should definitely try The Raven Cycle books.

My Posts About The Raven Boys

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater
(The Raven Cycle, book 3)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Reading Dates:  June 12 – 19
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  That entire scene in the Dollar City.
Least Favorite Thing:  Kavinsky is deeply annoying… (Um “substance party”? Ugh…)

I also really loved The Gray Man. I just enjoy the way he thinks about things, it’s so calming to read. And every interaction between him and the Fox Way ladies is just gold.

I have to admit — and I feel terrible about it — I don’t like Adam in this book hardly at all. He’s occasionally frustrating in the The Raven Cycle, but in The Dream Thieves he crosses the line to just plain unlikable.

My Posts About The Dream Thieves

Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater
(The Raven Cycle, book 3)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Reading Dates:  June 20 – 26
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  Greenmantle dialogue!
Least Favorite Thing:  Greenmantle actions…

I love Jessie Dittley, I would like to request a Jessie Dittley from the universe, please.

My Posts About Blue Lily, Lily Blue

WWW Wednesday: June 14, 2017

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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 Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater (The Raven Cycle, book 2)
This is only my second time reading the Raven Cycle so I’m noticing a lot of little things I didn’t get to enjoy the first time around and that’s always fun.
My favorite thing about The Dream Thieves is how much more we get to learn about Ronan. Despite his proximity to Kavinsky, Ronan is definitely my favorite Raven Boy.

I’m also still technically reading Crashed by Robin Wasserman. And by technically reading I mean, sitting with the book near me, but not actually reading it because I hit a slump and I just want to read things I already know I like.

Recently Finished:  The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (The Raven Cycle, book 1)
I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the way Maggie writes dialogue! I consider myself a pretty snarky person (I’d say other people in my life would agree), but I’ll never achieve the perfect sass so easily tossed around between characters in this series. The only drawback is that as good at Maggie is at writing characters I love, she’s also very good at writing characters I can’t do anything but hate! (Looking at you, Barrington Whelk, you massive creep!)

I read The Raven Boys directly on the heels of Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Wings and Ruin, which was so good it left me in a good enough mood that I was able to start crawling out of my most recent reading slump!

Reading Next:  Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater (The Raven Cycle, book 3)
One of the things that happens when I read a series is that everything not in the first book and the last book tends to blend a little bit, so I’m actually not 100% sure of every detail even though I’ve read this once before. So I get the experience of rereading a book I know I liked, but also some surprise, which I’m looking forward to in this case especially.

Update: The Raven Boys / The Dream Thieves

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I didn’t sleep last night because of The Raven Boys! It was so fucking great I cannot believe how long it took me to actually give that book a proper chance!

Then I discovered the second book (Dream Thieves) can’t be checked out for at least a week so I got desperate and am now listening to Will Patton mispronounce words on the audio book because I absolutely cannot wait a week…