Empire of Storms

April 2018 Reading Wrap-Up

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Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
(Twilight Saga, book 3)
Rating:  ★☆☆☆☆ – did not like it
Review:  No
Format:  E-book
Reading Dates:  April 1 – 2
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  It could have been longer, but it wasn’t and I’m grateful.
Least Favorite Thing:  Bella’s doormat impersonations…

Lordy this book was obnoxious. There were a lot of parts I hated, but all of them in some way tie-in to the whole “Bella as a doormat” crap so… Like seriously I kept wanting to climb into the novel and shake her like “just stick to your guns about literally anything, just stand up for yourself, just stop letting these idiots run right over all your boundaries!” and then scream for an hour.

My Posts About Eclipse

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
(Twilight Saga, book 4)
Rating:  ★☆☆☆☆ – did not like it
Review:  No
Format:  E-book
Reading Dates:  April 2
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  Bella is slightly more tolerable as a vampire.
Least Favorite Thing:  Nessie. Both the name and the concept.

I read all of the Twilight books and my head didn’t even explode it’s a miracle! Never again.

My Posts About Breaking Dawn

Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas
(Throne of Glass, book 5)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  March 8 – April 4
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Lorcan being like “I hate Elide, but if anyone ever even thought about hurting her, I would kill everyone in this room and then myself.”
Least Favorite Thing:  Up until the very end of the novel, it was like “everything that can go wrong, will go wrong” and that made me tired.

My least favorite thing is actually why I rated this book only 3 stars. It was good, interesting, and there were a lot of parts I enjoyed, but it felt like for every good thing there were two bad things and it just starts to wear on me after a while and make me tired so it limits my enjoyment of the novel.

Also can I just say, why are they like “oh obviously someone has to die to forge the lock” when they have two heirs of Brannon? It takes all the power of one heir of Brannon to forge the lock, they have two heirs of Brannon. Halfsies, bro. Everybody lives.

My Posts About Empire of Storms

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
(Books of Bayern, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it *
Review:  Yes **
Format:  Full-Cast Audiobook
Reading Dates:  April 5 – 7
Read Count:  5-ish
Favorite Thing:  Vicious Attack Geese!
Least Favorite Thing:  Um literally all of Selia’s guard friends. Too skeevy, blech.

* Please note that this rating is for the novel as a whole, not the Full Cast Audio version.
** This review is for the Full Cast Audio version, not the novel as a whole.

My Posts About The Goose Girl

Life and Death by Stephenie Meyer
(Twilight Saga, book 1.75)
Rating:  ★☆☆☆☆ – did not like it
Review:  Yes
Format:  E-book
Reading Dates:  April 10 – 13
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  The alternate ending.
Least Favorite Thing:  So boring.

Please tell me she’s done beating the dead horse that is the Twilight Saga???

My Posts About Life and Death

White Oleander by Janet Fitch
Rating:  ★★★★★ – it was amazing
Review:  No
Format:  E-book
Reading Dates:  April 5 – 15
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  The amazing prose.
Least Favorite Thing:  Literally every male past puberty that ever came in contact with Astrid….

This was recommended to me as part of the Buddy Reads activity in an online Book Club I am a part of. My “buddy” recommended this to me because I wanted to try more books outside of the YA genre this year. I am so incredibly glad I signed up for this activity because I got an excellent recommendation here. A recommendation which I happily pass along:  Read this book!

My Posts About White Oleander

Once and for All by Sarah Dessen
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it (real rating: 3.5)
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  April 15 -17
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Snarky wedding planner comments.
Least Favorite Thing:  Ambrose’s habit of writing everything off as being somebody else’s fault. Fucking obnoxious…

I read this book for my book club’s April Challenge (Read a book with a pastel cover.) and also because I’ve never yet met a Dessen novel I didn’t like. I wish I could give half-star ratings on Goodreads though.

My Posts About Once and for All

What’s Left of Me by Kat Zhang
(Hybrid Chronicles, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  April 20 – 28
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Sisterly bond? Is that an accurate term for the bond between two souls sharing the same body?? Whatever. That’s what I’m calling it.
Least Favorite Thing:  Slow? Kind of slow… Not slow enough to DNF, but still slow.

April Challenge #2 complete with the finishing of this novel! Yay! (I don’t know how quickly I’ll move to the sequel though.)

My Posts About What’s Left of Me

Heartless by Marissa Meyer
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  April 29 – 30
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  I took sick pleasure in angry, vengeful Cath.
Least Favorite Thing:  Peter Peter.  Actually that’s not even the thing I hated most, but the real thing is a big spoiler.

It took me a minute to get into it, but once I did I couldn’t put it down! And April Challenge #3 successful by the skin of my teeth!

My Posts About Heartless

In Progress

WWW Wednesday: April 11, 2018

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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:  White Oleander by Janet Fitch

This book was recommended to me by a friend in a Book Club I am in as part of a “buddy reads” program. This is absolutely not my usual genre, and I was pretty nervous about that, but so far I am loving it.

I’ve had to take a bit of a break from it for a few days because the excellent writing which easy drew me into the main character’s world and mind, also makes for excellent dissociation fodder. By which I mean, I over-empathize and get so caught up in the emotions and thoughts of the character that I get stuck in them and it takes me a little while to recover. This is how I know a character/book is really well written, because a poorly written novel wouldn’t suck me in so deeply. But it also means that if the subject matter is a little darker or the protag a little more troubled than my usual YA genre novels, then I need breaks to keep from being overwhelmed by it.

Totally fucking worth it though.

Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined (Twilight Saga, book 1.75) by Stephenie Meyer

Welp, I’m reading another Twilight Saga novel, and before you ask, yes I am Suffering. Honestly I’ve been having trouble going through this one as quickly as some of the others because I keep having to stop and reorient my thinking due to the gender and name swapping. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve taken to keeping a list of each character and their new gender swap name so I can refer to it when I get confused.

Of course, I also keep getting held up by the amount of times I have to stop and heave an exhausted sigh or roll my eyes or groan or some combination of the three.

I’m in the middle of this one, but will definitely finish it by the end of the day today.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

*** Audiobook ***

So basically I have very little self-control, so when I learned of the existence of full-cast audiobooks I was incapable of stopping myself from checking them out. I listened to one full one already, and then started this one because it was recommended to me as a quality FCA.

I have to say though, listening to some man reading me that Bilquis scene was pretty damn awkward!

Right now I’m paused at the part where Shadow is at the funeral and he’s about to learn some hard truths!

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

I’m still reading this technically, but I’m taking a short break because I have 5 other books I have commited to reading this month, and 2 others that I’d like to finish within the week. Because moderation is for quitters!

Recently Finished:  Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass, book 5) by Sarah J. Maas

Well it took me like a month, but I did finally finish it. Don’t even talk to me about the ending I’m not dealing with that right now. I refuse.

I had some troubles which I’ll talk about in my April Reading Wrap-Up, but one thing I have to say is like…. Why is everyone having sex every 10 seconds? Like I was trying to read a book about magic and war and all that. And my husband and I have theorized that if you cut out all the sex scenes the book would lose like half its volume so seriously, why was all that necessary?? Can we just chill even a little bit because I didn’t sign up for erotica at this time.

The Goose Girl (The Books of Bayern, book 1) by Shannon Hale

*** Audiobook **

I decided to listen to this on a whim. As I mentioned earlier I have only just learned about full-cast audiobooks, and when I discovered that one of my favorite stories had been done in that way I had to try it.

I wrote a Mini-Review, specifically about the audiobook version I listened to, not about the story itself. The story itself was as enjoyable as I have always found it to be.

It was more of a test of the FCA format, so I probably won’t keep going with the entire series at this time, especially since I’ve got so many other books to read right now.

Reading Next:  Once and for All by Sarah Dessen

I’ve been meaning to get to this one, and I found the perfect motivator. That book club I’m in has monthly challenges, and one of them is to read a book with a pastel cover.

I have some others that I need to read this month, but I’ve also been reading a lot of fantasy this year so I figured I should extend my genre break by reading a Dessen novel.

And if I’m honest, all the talking about Dessen novels I’ve been doing I’ve been considering a reread anyway, but I can hardly justify a Dessen reread if I haven’t even read the two newer novels of hers yet.

What Are You Reading Wednesdays: April 4, 2018

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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. Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass, book 5) by Sarah J. Maas
  2. And despite the Fae Prince armed beside him, despite the ghost leopard with unsheathed claws sniffing at him, the sight of Aelin’s fire made his face go deathly pale.
  3. As beautiful as the world seems, it’s just got too much evil for me! No thanks.

 

WWW Wednesday: April 4, 2018

LeeLeave a comment

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:  Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass, book 5) by Sarah J. Maas

So I’ve been working on this book for like 3 weeks now, which is frustrating since it’s the first one of the series that I haven’t read before, but I feel like I’m finally getting back to making some progress on it.

I’m about a quarter of the way through, and my main thought right now is “oh no, Manon!” so we’ll see where that goes. I’m pretty worried right now.

I’m hoping to finish this within a week so I can move on to the next one.

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

I’ve only barely started this one, but I’m aiming to take it a chapter or two at a time so I’m doing pretty well.

I learned when I read Persuasion last year that I pay a lot better attention to the minutia of a classic text when I read it really slow. Not to mention, a lot of them have a very dense feeling to them because of how people spoke and wrote at the time, and reading them slow helps to not get sick of that.

So far I’m really liking it, even though nothing much has happened yet. Mostly just a girl met some ladies. But I’ve seen a screen adaptation of this so I know when things will start happening and I’m not discouraged in the least.

Recently Finished:  The Twilight Saga // Stephenie Meyer

I hate myself for rereading these, but they served their purpose.

I explained the purpose in this post, but basically I wanted to punish myself for being stuck on Empire of Storms for weeks.

Of course I also had an ulterior motive. That is, I am a lot more likely to make a post complaining about something I hate than I am to make a post about something I like. Because the things I like I’m engrossed in, and the things I hate I want to procrastinate on! So I hoped that reading a book I knew I’d want to complain about would make me blog more.

Oh look, it totally did! Success!

Reading Next:  Tower of Dawn (Throne of Glass, book 6) by Sarah J. Maas

To be honest, I’m not sure what to expect here so there’s not much to say. I’ve heard both good and bad things, but I’m hopeful.

If anyone has read this and has an opinion I’d love to hear it.

Teaser Tuesday: April 3, 2018

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Lysandra approached Ship-Breaker, still lowered under the surface, twirling and arcing, banking alongside rocks as if getting a feel for her new form.

– Sarah J. Maas, Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass, book 5), page 310

Version:
Hardcover, 693 pages
Published September 6th 2016 by Bloomsbury Children’s 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.

March 2018 Reading Wrap-Up

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Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas
(Throne of Glass, book 4)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  March 3 – 7
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  GHOST LEOPARD!!!!
Least Favorite Thing:  Chaol’s shit-ass attitude for the first 2/3rds of the book drove me crazy. I mean I think it’s good writing for a character to have flaws and not always be likable, but his change in attitude just seemed so damn sudden and jarring…

This was the last one that was a reread, the rest of the books will be entirely new to me!

My Posts About Queen of Shadows

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
(The Darkest Minds, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  March 20 – 21
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  IT’S OBVIOUSLY ZU. ANYONE WHO CLAIMS OTHERWISE IS A BIG FAT LIAR!
Least Favorite Thing:  You-Know-Who with his creepy mind twisty creeps!

I randomly decided to reread this after seeing something about the film version coming out this August and being unable to get the story out of my head. I’m glad I did, I actually enjoyed it more this time around and raised my rating from 3 to 4 stars.

My Posts About The Darkest Minds

Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken
(The Darkest Minds, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  March 21 – 23
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  Rrrredssss! (I’m a fan of anything that just sets shit on fire lol)
Least Favorite Thing:  I CAN’T SAY IT BECAUSE IT’S A BIG SPOILER, BUT I’M STILL TEARY-EYED ABOUT IT!!!

I’m so happy because I didn’t really get Second Book Syndrome from this one like I did the first time I read the series.

My Posts About Never Fade

In the Afterlight by Alexandra Bracken
(The Darkest Minds, book 3)
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  March 24
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  SU-ZU-MEEEEEEEE
Least Favorite Thing:  The fact that no one just put Clancy out of everyone’s misery…

Oh wow! So I just looked back at my old rating of this book and it was apparently 2 stars??? What??? This series is clearly one that improved with time. I’m really glad I reread it. Hope the films do them justice!

My Posts About In the Afterlight

Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  March 28
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  She is so funny and surprisingly verbose. (I’d never seen her in anything where she was being herself and not acting, so I had no idea her vocabulary was so enjoyably vast. I even learned a new word or two.)
Least Favorite Thing:  Um, it ended too soon.

I actually listened to the audiobook version of this book (though I had the physical copy with me to mark quotes and cool words). I am not usually a fan of audiobooks just because they don’t hold my attention all that well, but Anna reading her book was very engaging and I never once lost my concentration even though I was doing other things the whole time. I definitely recommend everyone try the audiobook whether or not they intend to read the physical copy. This is officially one of my top 3 favorite autobiographies so far.

My Posts About Scrappy Little Nobody

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
(Twilight Saga, book 1)
Rating:  ★☆☆☆☆ – did not like it
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  March 30 – 31
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  It ended.
Least Favorite Thing:  Gosh it’s so hard to pick just one… Possibly that fact that she’s like “I should be freaked out that he literally stalks me and breaks into my home on the reg, but I think it’s adoooorable”?

Well considering I set out to reread this specifically as a way of torturing myself into wanting to read better books again… It was exactly as painful as expected and pretty damn effective.

My Posts About Twilight

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer
(Twilight Saga, book 1.5)
Rating:  ★☆☆☆☆ – did not like it
Review:  Yes
Reading Dates:  March 31
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Emmett overacting when he and Edward scheme to get Ben and Angela together. I swear I thought I was reading fanfiction for a minute there, but it was hilarious.
Least Favorite Thing:  Eddie-boy is a self-obsessed, uppity lil bitch. Every thought he has is like “oh this human did a thing, but not as well as I do it” and “oh that human had a feeling, but of course it is nowhere as strong as MY emotions”

Welp… What can I say… I kept having to stop and scream into a pillow or rant at my husband so that probably tells you what you need to know right?

My Posts About Midnight Sun

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
(Twilight Saga, book 2)
Rating:  ★☆☆☆☆ – did not like it
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  March 31 – April 1 (Putting it here, because it was barely after midnight on April 1 that I finished.)
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  Edward wasn’t in a good chunk of it. That was nice.
Least Favorite Thing:  She still monologued about him the whole time. That was less nice.

I spent a solid 30 minutes just trying to figure out what she could have said to a therapist that would have allowed her to talk openly about the vampire crap without an involuntary psych hold…

My Posts About New Moon

In Progress

Twilight Torture

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I’ve been stuck in the middle (not even the middle, like 20%) of Empire of Storms for weeks now. I’ve actually read like 4 other books since I got stuck… Which is good, because if I stop reading entirely while I’m stuck I’ll wind up in a full-on slump, but I’m getting really frustrated since I’ve been trying to finish the Throne of Glass series for literal years…

So basically I’ve been thinking about torturing myself.

Sometimes when I’m stuck for things to watch I will watch something really comically bad to sort of reset my brain. And I thought maybe I should try applying the same technique here.

Which brings me to the method of torture:  Twilight

I’m not sure I’d even be able to get through one of them because of the cringe factor, but if it works like tv/movies then it might reset my brain and let me get back into Empire of Storms. (Mostly because I would appreciate that it wasn’t Twilight…)

Musing Monday: January 9, 2017

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Musing Mondays is a weekly meme, hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker, that asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer:

I’m currently reading…
Up next I think I’ll read…
I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
I can’t wait to get a copy of…
I wish I could read ___, but…
I blogged about ____ this past week…

THIS WEEK’S RANDOM QUESTION: What do you think about books being made into movies or tv shows and do you always read the book first?

I wish I could read Empire of Storms, but… I keep trying and can’t seem to get into a SJM novel without thinking about, hoping for, and expecting to see Feyre and Rhys and all the lovely Night Court! I just can’t put my head in the correct world!

As for book-to-film adaptations, I honestly don’t have as big a problem with it as I probably should. Yes, it’s awful when they don’t do the book justice, but maybe I’m just used to that so my expectations are low… I really like the book-to-tv adaptation trend though. It has so much more time to play out the book, and so much more leeway to focus on developing the characters!

I don’t have a hard and fast rule for reading or watching first. Whichever I come across first gets experienced first. The only rule I have is that if the premise of a film version is good, but the execution poor, I always check into people’s reviews of the book to see if there is a good version of that story out there somewhere!

What are your opinions on Book-to-Film/TV adaptations?