Ransom Riggs

First Lines Fridays: February 7, 2020

LeeLeave a comment

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:

Never have I doubted my soundness of mind as often as I did on that first night, when the bird-woman and her wards came to save me from the madhouse.

Did the quote pique your interest? View this book on Goodreads!

October 2019 Reading Wrap-Up

LeeLeave a comment

Betrayed by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast
(House of Night, book 2)
Rating:  ★★☆☆☆ – it was ok
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  September 28 – October 1
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  I’ve been enjoying my casual liveblog of the series.
Least Favorite Thing:  Every non-homosexual male she encounters instantly wants to bone her like…why? It better be some magical power because otherwise I refuse to accept it as remotely logical.

Guys I’m just… I’m so…

My Posts About Betrayed

Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris
(Sookie Stackhouse, book 6)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  October 1 – 3
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  SOOKIE FINALLY FOUND OUT THAT BILL IS TRASH GOD I HOPE THAT MEANS SHE’S DONE WITH HIM NOW
Least Favorite Thing:  Do these people have any control over their libidos??

I am really enjoying these books and I get more and more surprised by that every time I finish one lol

My Posts About Definitely Dead

All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris
(Sookie Stackhouse, book 7)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  October 3 – 6
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  lol Everything was so ridiculous I loved it so much.
Least Favorite Thing:  REALLY THERE’S A BOMB THREAT AND YOU DON’T FIND THE MYSTERIOUS SUITCASE EVEN REMOTELY SUSPICIOUS???

To be honest this book didn’t leave as much of an impression as the others, but I still enjoyed it.

My Posts About All Together Dead

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
(Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  October 7 – 8
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  Creepy Hollowgast descriptions.
Least Favorite Thing:  Stupid movie cover kept making me think about the stupid movie.

I really wish I had a different copy of this book…

My Posts About Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Hollow City by Ransom Riggs
(Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  October 9 – 12
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  They BONDED lol I can’t believe how cute I find that shit.
Least Favorite Thing:  The kids met a lot of annoying people/animals in this book.

I totally forgot about the twist at the end! How could I forget that!?

My Posts About Hollow City

Chosen by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast
(House of Night, book 3)
Rating:  ★★☆☆☆ – it was ok
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  October 13 – 17
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Aphrodite is my problematic fave.
Least Favorite Thing:  Three boyfriends. Hey, did you know Zoey has three boyfriends. Zoey has three boyfriends, by the way. THREE BOYFRIENDS.

Literally how many more times did they mention that she had three boyfriends and the publisher was like “please edit some of these out” because they mentioned that shit A LOT.

My Posts About Chosen

Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs
(Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, book 3)
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  October 17 – 22
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  STILL JACOBS HOLLOWS
Least Favorite Thing:  Jacob’s parents are rude. Like even if he was mentally ill, that is not how you should treat mentally ill people…

Now I can finally get around to reading Map of Days!

My Posts About Library of Souls

From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris
(Sookie Stackhouse, book 8)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  October 23 – 24
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  ERIC REMEMBERS AND NOW HE’S CALLING HER “LOVER” AGAIN AND ALSO I AM TRASH
Least Favorite Thing:  I actually can’t think of anything I didn’t like this time around…

I’m enjoying this series more and more the further it gets from being anything like the tv series lol But seriously this junk food series is definitely one I recommend.

My Posts About From Dead to Worse

A Touch of Dead by Charlaine Harris
(Sookie Stackhouse, Novellas)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  October 20 – 24
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  The Christmas one had me dying laughing! What a gift!
Least Favorite Thing:  The joke of “Bubba” is getting a bit old…

I hadn’t even realized there were novellas with this series so I had to go back and get them from the library… Oops.

My Posts About A Touch of Dead

Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris
(Sookie Stackhouse, book 9)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  October 24 – 31
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  lol Accidental marriage.
Least Favorite Thing:  Arlene, I think. That kind of hate just strikes me as worse than all the supernatural stuff that happened, especially given their friendship previously.

I’m like four books from the end of the series! Oh crap!

My Posts About Dead and Gone

In Progress

First Lines Fridays: July 26, 2019

LeeLeave a comment

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 monster stood not a tongue’s length away, eyes fixed on our throats, shriveled brain crowded with fantasies of murder. It’s hunger for us charged the air.

Did the quote pique your interest? View this book on Goodreads!

 

Top 5 Wednesday: November 14, 2018

LeeLeave a comment

Books You Want to Read Before 2019

Our Goodreads goals are quickly closing in. What are you prioritizing for the end of the year?
To participate in Top 5 Wednesday, head over to their Goodreads Group!

Muse of Nightmares (Strange the Dreamer, book 2) by Laini Taylor

This goes at the top of the list because technically I’m already reading it. I loved Strange, but it left me with such high expectations that it’s nearly impossible to read Muse! So I’m annoyed with myself, but I intend to finish this before the end of the year.

A Court of Frost and Starlight (A Court of Thorns and Roses, book 4) by Sarah J. Maas

I was so excited for this one and then I did that same stupid thing where I have all these expectations and it keeps me from even being able to read the book I wanted to read so badly!

A Map of Days (Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, book 4) by Ransom Riggs

ARE YOU SEEING A THEME HERE???? Someone just end me. I finally got to preorder some books and I haven’t even touched them because I suck. I’m actually a little worried on this one because it has a lot to live up to with how much I loved the series up to now.

Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix (Rise of the Empress, book 2) by Julie C. Dao

This just came a few days ago and I can’t wait to enjoy it. I’m interested to see how I like a book more focused on Jade than on Xifeng, because I really dug the sympathetic villain angle. I am fully sympathized!

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

I’m really to give this book a chance since I saw the Netflix series. I’m a little nervous because it’s not my usual type of book. In fact, it’s the type of book I usually avoid. I’m determined not to put it off like I usually would so I’m going to get to it by the end of the year.

What books are you guys hoping to finish by 2019?

April Acrostic

LeeLeave a comment

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

LeeLeave a comment

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?

First Lines Fridays: February 23, 2018

LeeLeave a comment

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:

We rowed out through the harbor, past bobbing boats weeping rust from their seams, past juries of silent seabirds roosting atop the barnacled remains of sunken docks, past fishermen who lowered their nets to stare frozenly as we slipped by, uncertain whether we were real or imagined; a procession of waterborne ghosts, or ghosts soon to be.

Interested? Scroll down for the cover and summary!

Hollow City by Ransom Riggs
(Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, book 2)

September 3, 1940.

Ten peculiar children flee an army of deadly monsters.

And only one person can help them – but she’s trapped in the body of a bird.

The extraordinary journey that began in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children continues as Jacob Portman and his newfound friends journey to London, the peculiar capital of the world. There, they hope to find a cure for their beloved headmistress, Miss Peregrine. But in this war-torn city, hideous surprises lurk around every corner. And before Jacob can deliver the peculiar children to safety, he must make an important decision about his love for Emma Bloom.

Hollow City draws readers into a richly imagined world of telepathy and time loops, of sideshows and shapeshifters – a world populated with adult “peculiars”, murderous wights, and a bizarre menagerie of uncanny animals. Like its predecessor, this second novel in the Peculiar Children series blends thrilling fantasy with never-before-published vintage photography to create a one-of-a-kind reading experience.