Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Author: Lee
First Lines Fridays: March 23, 2018
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:
The grease-slicked hair is a dead giveaway — no pun intended.
Interested? Scroll down for the cover and summary!
Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
(Anna, book 1)
Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.
So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the future and friends at bay.
Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.
Yet she spares Cas’s life.
Completed: The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
To Reread or Not to Reread…
I was trying to explain The Darkest Minds to my husband because we might go see the movie of it this summer, but now all I want to do is reread the series….
Help…
First Lines Fridays: March 16, 2018
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:
Morgarath, Lord of the Mountains of Rain and Night, former Baron of Gorlan in the Kingdom of Araluen, looked out over his bleak, rainswept domain and, for perhaps the thousandth time, cursed.
Interested? Scroll down for the cover and summary!
The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan
(Rangers Apprentice, book 1)
They have always scared him in the past—the Rangers, with their dark cloaks and shadowy ways. The villagers believe the Rangers practice magic that makes them invisible to ordinary people. And now 15-year-old Will, always small for his age, has been chosen as a Ranger’s apprentice. What he doesn’t yet realize is that the Rangers are the protectors of the kingdom. Highly trained in the skills of battle and surveillance, they fight the battles before the battles reach the people. And as Will is about to learn, there is a large battle brewing. The exiled Morgarath, Lord of the Mountains of Rain and Night, is gathering his forces for an attack on the kingdom. This time, he will not be denied….
First Lines Fridays: March 9, 2018
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:
Everything changes when Tiffany Quinn disappears.
Interested? Scroll down for the cover and summary!
Cryer’s Cross by Lisa McMann
The community of Cryer’s Cross, Montana (population 212) is distraught when Tiffany, a high-school freshman, disappears without a trace. Plagued by OCD, sixteen-year-old Kendall is freaked out by the empty desk in the one-room schoolhouse, and is relieved when her boyfriend Nico takes the seat. And then he goes missing too. An increasingly anxious Kendall finds herself drawn to the desk. If she sits there, will she also vanish? But instead of vanishing, something appears: eerie graffiti messages on the desk’s surface that could only be from Nico. Desperate to help him, Kendall stumbles upon some ugly—and deadly—local history. And she’s about to find out just how far the townspeople will go to keep their secrets buried….
Completed: Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas
February 2018
God I don’t really have the energy to make this post so it’s going to be short…
Non-Reading Stuff
I did leave the house a couple times in February, hubby and I went on a date to see Black Panther on it’s opening day and I went to the chiropractor. I’m back to being in pain every day, and the doctor doesn’t seem to have any ideas about what to do there so… And I’m still having allergy symptoms every day for no apparent reason (this has been since November at least) which is really not enjoyable. All of this stuff is combining to make my mental state be…. not great.
Reading Stuff
I finished 4 books in February!
You can view the list of books and my fave/least fave things about them here.
I didn’t do nearly as well this month as I did in January, but I’m not too upset with myself. Considering my physical and mental state, I think I actually did quite well. Normally when I feel this bad I wouldn’t read at all, and instead I read 4 whole books. And I’m still ahead on my Goodreads goal by 2 books, so I don’t feel stressed on that front.
Blogging Stuff
Oh man I was so bad at blogging in February!
Partially I blame the Throne of Glass series, because despite being a decent story, it’s not super quotable, which is my main source of posts.
But mostly it’s just because I feel like crap. My energy levels are stupid low right now…
I’ll try to do more in March.
February 2018 Reading Wrap-Up
Elske by Cynthia Voigt
(Tales of the Kingdom, book 4)
Rating: ★★★★★
Review: Yes
Reading Dates: January 30 – Feb 5
Read Count: 4
Favorite Thing: Elske just defying everyone’s expectations over and over.
Least Favorite Thing: Beriel’s friendship skills need work.
So now that I’ve finished rereading the Tales of the Kingdom is it too early to start rereading them all over again?
Note: Also published as The Tale of Elske, which is the version I read since I don’t have access to my own copy right now.
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
(Throne of Glass, book 1)
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Review: No
Reading Dates: February 6 – 11
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: When Celaena won the sparring match without even drawing a weapon!
Least Favorite Thing: Only one named black character (and the only unnamed ones were that character’s body guards that get mentioned in passing a few times…).
I decided to reread Throne of Glass so I can read the parts of the series I hadn’t gotten to yet.
My Posts About Throne of Glass
Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas
(Throne of Glass, book 2)
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Review: No
Reading Dates: February 14 – 21
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: Celaena rescuing Chaol and fucking up a whole room full of dudes.
Least Favorite Thing: Just talk to each other!!! Everyone in these books gets all offended when their friends keep secrets from them, but then they keep secrets from those same people! Just communicate!
It’s a good thing I reread this one because I didn’t remember many of the finer details.
My Posts About Crown of Midnight
Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas
(Throne of Glass, book 3)
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Review: No
Reading Dates: February 27 – 28
Read Count: 2
Favorite Thing: Abraxos!
Least Favorite Thing: Maeve a lil bish…
Hahahaha I remembered almost nothing of Aelin’s story or anyone from Adarlan. I only remembered Manon and her witches! Good thing I reread it!
First Lines Fridays: March 2, 2018
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:
Some of the most exciting things that happened in my life took place before I turned six years old.
Interested? Scroll down for the cover and summary!
Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham
In this collection of personal essays, the beloved star of Gilmore Girls and Parenthood reveals stories about life, love, and working as a woman in Hollywood—along with behind-the-scenes dispatches from the set of the new Gilmore Girls, where she plays the fast-talking Lorelai Gilmore once again.
In Talking as Fast as I Can, Lauren Graham hits pause for a moment and looks back on her life, sharing laugh-out-loud stories about growing up, starting out as an actress, and, years later, sitting in her trailer on the Parenthood set and asking herself, “Did you, um, make it?” She opens up about the challenges of being single in Hollywood (“Strangers were worried about me; that’s how long I was single!”), the time she was asked to audition her butt for a role, and her experience being a judge on Project Runway (“It’s like I had a fashion-induced blackout”).
In “What It Was Like, Part One,” Graham sits down for an epic Gilmore Girls marathon and reflects on being cast as the fast-talking Lorelai Gilmore. The essay “What It Was Like, Part Two” reveals how it felt to pick up the role again nine years later, and what doing so has meant to her.
Some more things you will learn about Lauren: She once tried to go vegan just to bond with Ellen DeGeneres, she’s aware that meeting guys at awards shows has its pitfalls (“If you’re meeting someone for the first time after three hours of hair, makeup, and styling, you’ve already set the bar too high”), and she’s a card-carrying REI shopper (“My bungee cords now earn points!”).
Including photos and excerpts from the diary Graham kept during the filming of the recent Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, this book is like a cozy night in, catching up with your best friend, laughing and swapping stories, and—of course—talking as fast as you can.
Darkestwings Reads