The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda’s Voice and the rules are simple:
It was a week later that the letters came: two of them, thick and bound with black ribbon, stamped with an ornate red seal.
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 Cursed Queen (The Impostor Queen, book 2) by Sarah Fine
I’m not loving the way cutting is being addressed so far, but I’m only in the first chapter. I hope this book will turn out to not glorify self-harm…
That aside, I’m definitely looking forward to learning more about the world outside Kupari. When I was reading the first one I found myself wondering what the rest of the world must think of them.
I don’t know if I will struggle with this book, but if I do, I have Dicey’s Song, the second in the Tillerman Cycle, to reread alongside this.
Recently Finished: Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer, book 1) by Laini Taylor
I loved this book! It hurt me a little, but I forgive it because the story was so lovely and enjoyable.
The problem with loving this book though? Now I have to wait ages for the next one to find out what on earth happens to all those beloved characters! I’m so worried about them!
Actually, reading this one has me wanting to reread Laini’s other books, so I grabbed them from the library too.
I actually managed to write a review for Strange, which can be read here.
Specials (Uglies, book 3) by Scott Westerfeld
This whole series is so easy to breeze through, I’m glad I chose to reread it.
I very much wish I could be a special, only I hope they wouldn’t adjust my brain because I already have problems with anger management and impulse control!
I still don’t know if I want to reread Extras (book 4), but I might…
Trigger Warning: Self-harm (cutting, some passing mention of burning). Only one character really treats it like it’s a bad thing, everyone else treats it as normal and/or good for the majority of the book.
Homecoming (The Tillerman Cycle, book 1) by Cynthia Voigt
I honestly didn’t intend to read this so quickly. I meant to read it in-between reading The Cursed Queen, but once I started I couldn’t read anything else until I’d finished it. And I also couldn’t bring myself to put it down for any significant amount of time.
There is some indescribable quality in Cynthia Voigt’s books that always leaves me feeling great and looking at the world in a very specific way (that also happens to be indescribable). It’s really so enjoyable.
I also really love the Tillermans. I feel, and have felt since the first time I ever read this book, like they are somehow my family too.
Reading Next: Ash by Malinda Lo
I’ve had this one from the library for a while, long enough that I can’t remember when I got it, so I think it’s time to actually read it! I always love a fairytale retelling.
I’ve heard good things on tumblr so I’m fairly confident going in that this will be a decent book. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing where Lo has taken the classic Cinderella story. I’m also especially excited at the prospect of a non-heterosexual protagonist. YA Fantasy is my favorite genre and it’s so rare to find queer representation in it so the existence of this book is already refreshing.
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?
First Lines:
Aisling’s mother died at midsummer. She had fallen sick so suddenly that some of the villagers wondered if the fairies had come and taken her, for she was still young and beautiful.
Interested? Scroll down for the cover and summary!
Cinderella retold
In the wake of her father’s death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.
The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King’s Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash’s capacity for love-and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.
Entrancing, empowering, and romantic, Ash is about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.
Darkestwings Reads