Cynthia Voigt

First Lines Fridays: May 25, 2018

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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:

Gwyn stood crowded in among the women. She held the hood of her cloak close around her head, covering her hair, shadowing her face.

Interested? Scroll down for the cover and summary!

Jackaroo by Cynthia Voigt
(Tales of the Kingdom, book 1)

In a fantastical kingdom ravaged by famine and poverty, the prospect of hope lies with a mythical masked hero in this, the first book in the Tales of the Kingdom series from Newbery Medalist Cynthia Voigt.

In a distant time, a kingdom is starving. With winter upon them, there is little hope, except for the legend of Jackaroo: a masked outlaw who comes at night to aid the destitute and helpless. But Gwyn, the innkeeper’s daughter, is too practical for false hopes. She believes Jackaroo is nothing more than a fairy tale told to keep children hopeful till the next sunrise.

Then Gwyn is forced to seek refuge in an abandoned house, and while scavenging for supplies, she comes across…a mask? A sword? A cloak? Could these belong to the fabled Jackaroo? As Gwyn searches for answers, she discovers that the heart of a hero goes far beyond a mask.

Top 5 Wednesday: May 9, 2018

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Characters You’d Want as Family

You can say this in a broad way or be specific (i.e. _______ would be a cool aunt, ______would be a great older brother, etc.)
To participate in Top 5 Wednesday, head over to their Goodreads Group!

Almost every main character from The Tillerman books // The Tillerman Cycle by Cynthia Voigt

This is probably cheating to be like “oh yes the entire extended family unit from 7 whole books” but whatever! I love the Tillermans more than I’ve ever loved any characters from any media.

I don’t even think I can properly explain it, but if a god came down from some heaven and was like “I will reset the world and let you invent a family for yourself, tell me what you want” I would just dump these books in their lap and just:

“I want Dicey, Sammy, James, Maybeth, and Gram first of all. And I still want my real Granny too because I think she and Gram would get along scarily well, so just keep that in mind. Secondly, Bullet needs to be alive and HAPPY and if you have the time to make Miss Liza not go crazy and die that would be great. No no, I have no need for John the abusive husband, that bitter prick can die. I don’t want Francis Verricker either. He doesn’t count as a part of that family and if you bring him to life I will kill him myself so don’t waste your time. Feel free to throw in Mina Smith’s whole family AND Tamer Shipp (and his family probably he seems to like them) and Jeff Greene’s too. Actually wait, just Jeff, Brother Thomas, and the Professor. Melody’s whole side of the family can choke. Okay great get crackin’ on all that I’m going to go reread the series.”

And whatever god offered me this option would completely regret it, but I would insist we shake on it as soon as possible so they’d be locked into that whole deal.

The Gangsey // The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater

Yep, I’m still cheating. But honestly after my last answer this one probably seems like nothing at all. In fact, you might even let me get away with having Blue’s Fox Way family and the Gray Man? Yes. Excellent. So all the decent humans from The Raven Cycle. Check.

Ripred // The Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins

Who wouldn’t want a GIANT FUCKING RAT who is excellent at killing as family?

Honestly though, he would be excellent to have around. He’s sarcastic and rude which I can dig because I too am sarcastic and rude, he can kill anyone so Guard Rat, and he mostly just wants to eat shrimp in cream sauce and read books so like…. A nice companion all in all.

Dashti // Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

She’s so kind and loyal and a great friend. Plus she has healing magic that can also help relieve the pain of chronic injuries so… Useful. Fuck you Mr. Chiropractor my new fam Dashti the Mucker can help me by just laying her hand on me and singing me a nice song. Eat it.

And like she’s lovely and brave and I always thought she’d be an excellent friend.

Mr. & Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy // Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Okay so first I was torn between the two. The sassy lady or the most awkward man to ever live… And then I decided I’d just take them both!

I’d get to enjoy the sass of Eliza Bennet and the awkward kindness of Fitzwilliam Darcy AND if we were related…um….you know… HE’S SUPER RICH AND I WANT TO BE SUPER RICH BY PROXIMITY SO DEAL WITH IT. But mostly I just like them. The money is only a bonus.

Wow I am very demanding in my list of potential family… What about you? What book characters would you wish to have as family?

April Acrostic

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I saw a version of this on another blog and thought it looked like fun so I adapted it just a little. They didn’t know who had come up with it originally, so I obviously don’t either. But I thought it was neat so here it is, to celebrate the end of the month:  April Acrostic!

To play, just spell the word “April” with some of your favorite titles! (Be sure to link me to your post if you do it!)

For my April Acrostic I chose:

Top 5 Wednesday: April 11, 2018

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Auto-Buy Scifi and Fantasy Authors

This month’s crossover topic is your auto-buy authors that write SFF.
To participate in Top 5 Wednesday, head over to their Goodreads Group!

Cynthia Voigt

I know she’s only done the one fantasy series, Tales of the Kingdom, but they are my favorites (it’s not often that I find a non-magical fantasy in the YA genre) and she’s my absolute favorite author so you know I had to bring her up! And anyway, if she ever published another fantasy novel I’d be trying to buy it before the ink could even dry.

Julie C. Dao

After Forest of a Thousand Lanterns, I am so in love with Dao’s writing I absolutely have to have her future novels. It’s rare that I would call someone an auto-buy after only one book (or at all actually, I have very few auto-buy authors), but that’s how good it was to me so there you have it.

Laini Taylor

If you had asked me before Strange the Dreamer I might not have mentioned Laini, since I’d only read her DoSaB trilogy at that point, but now? I don’t think I could resist buying anything she came out with at this point.

Shannon Hale

Shannon was the first author that I liked something of theirs so much I had to search out everything else they’d written. I got Shannon’s novel The Goose Girl in 6th grade at the book fair and it introduced me to one of my favorite genres (fairytale retellings). And her take on magic is a strong favorite of mine.

Ransom Riggs

He’s only got the one Peculiar Children trilogy so far, but it was so good that I’ve already decided to buy the untitled book he’s got listed for publication this year (hopefully this year).

What sci-fi and fantasy authors do consider worthy of automatically buying anything they come out with?

February 2018 Reading Wrap-Up

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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.

My Posts About Elske

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!

My Posts About Heir of Fire

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Beriel shone with it, like a sun, the Queen in her Kingdom. It was as if each breath she drew increased her pleasure, breathing that air. It was as if each hoof the chestnut planted onto the earth increased her strength.

– Cynthia Voigt, Elske, page 255

Version:
Paperback, 384 pages
Published May 26th 2015 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers

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Beriel gave this gift to Elske carelessly, as if to be trusted were the common fortune. But Elske opened her heart to take the gift into her care as if it were a babe.

– Cynthia Voigt, Elske, page 252

Version:
Paperback, 384 pages
Published May 26th 2015 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers

WWW Wednesday: February 7, 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:  Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, book 1) by Sarah J. Maas

I have been planning, and talking about planning, to reread the Throne of Glass novels so that I could read the newer ones for I think two years now. And finally I’m getting started on it!

I’ll probably read them a bit slower than I would normally, just because I read them once before and didn’t retain the information very well. Major plot points, I still got, but everything else is just too fuzzy.

Wish me luck, y’all!

Recently Finished:  Elske (Tales of the Kingdom, book 4) by Cynthia Voigt

I hated ending this book! I tried to read it as slow as I could to make it last, but it still feels like it zipped by too fast!

I love the Tales of the Kingdom so much. In fact, I think I love them more every time I reread them, which doesn’t usually happen for me.

I know I say this a lot, probably more than anything else I blog, but seriously if you like YA Fantasy, or even just YA Fiction of all types, you should totally give these books a try. They are older so most people don’t even know about them, and they are so worth knowing!

  OR  

Reading Next:  Undiscovered Gyrl by Allison Burnett OR Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass, book 2) by Sarah J. Maas

I’m torn. I can’t decide if I should jump straight into the next Throne of Glass novel or break up my reread by reading other books inbetween, such as this book Undiscovered Gyrl.

I grabbed this book because I saw the film adaptation. (Sometimes when I’m stressed I like to watch movies that make me dissociate. How’s that for unhealthy coping mechanisms?) And I figured since I’ve been trying to read some different sorts of books, I might as well give this one a try.

I guess I’ll have to decide based on how easily I get through ToG and how I feel afterward, but I’d rather know ahead of time.

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At Beriel’s silence she turned around — and fury crashed against her like a wave thrown by a storm against the rocky coast.

– Cynthia Voigt, Elske, page 180

Version:
Paperback, 384 pages
Published May 26th 2015 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Teaser Tuesday: February 6, 2018

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As best she could, in her secluded position, she was considering how she might secure further choices, and what they might be — once this, her first free choice, had played itself out.

– Cynthia Voigt, Elske (Tales of the Kingdom, book 4), page 106

Version:
Paperback, 384 pages
Published May 26th 2015 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers

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.