Top Ten Tuesday: 3/17

TOP TEN BOOKS ON MY SPRING TBR LIST

1. After We Fall by Emma Kavanaugh | I received this from NetGalley forever ago but have been waiting until it gets closer to its publication date to read it.

2. Angelfall by Susan Ee | I’ve never actually read a book about angels, so this should be interesting!

3. At the Water’s Edge by Sara Gruen | A historical novel by the author of Water for Elephant’s, this one is set in Scotland. It’s about some socialites who are hunting the Loch Ness monster, so we’ll see about this one.

4. Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center | There’s something about spring that screams renewal and goals to me. This is about a lady who goes into the remote wilderness for three weeks to find herself (sound like Wild, anyone?) so I’m pretty excited.

5. An Uncertain Choice by Jody Hedlund | I’m most excited for this one. I’m a little nervous it will be a love…square, though.

Basically my NetGalley shelf is full of TBRs that I HAVE to read ASAP!

6. Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch | This was a belated Christmas present that I got back in late January and I still haven’t read it. I’ve been hearing nothing but rave reviews though!

7. The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan | I won this in a Goodreads giveaway and started it in January but haven’t been able to finish it yet, so it’s first on my list! Also, the cover is GORGEOUS.

8. The Glass Series by Maria V. Snyder | I read Shadow Study a couple of weeks ago and it took place after this series so there were a lot of tidbits I didn’t understand. I need to read these 3 books so I can!

9. A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray | I started this awhile ago as well, and got sucked into it but had to put it down when my schedule got busy. It’ll be nice to finish it!

10. 20 Something, 20 Everything by Christine Hassler | This is described as “a quarter-life woman’s guide to balance and direction” and that is something I’ve desperately been looking for in my life lately. Even though I’m in school and working full time, I feel like I don’t know what to do with my life or where to go from here. Hopefully this helps me as much as it’s helped others!

Looks like my Spring Break will be full of fantasy novels! I can’t wait to get a break from school and just READ.

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by the Broke & the Bookish. Check out more Top Ten features on their site.

The Winner’s Crime by Marie Rutkoski

The engagement of Lady Kestrel to Valoria’s crown prince means one celebration after another. But to Kestrel it means living in a cage of her own making. As the wedding approaches, she aches to tell Arin the truth about her engagement…if she could only trust him. Yet can she even trust herself? For—unknown to Arin—Kestrel is becoming a skilled practitioner of deceit: an anonymous spy passing information to Herran, and close to uncovering a shocking secret.

As Arin enlists dangerous allies in the struggle to keep his country’s freedom, he can’t fight the suspicion that Kestrel knows more than she shows. In the end, it might not be a dagger in the dark that cuts him open, but the truth. And when that happens, Kestrel and Arin learn just how much their crimes will cost them.

You know those books where you hit the last sentence and just stare? Yeah, that’s what happening with this one.

Seriously, my heart is in shreds. My feels are all over the place. My anxiety is through the damn roof. Please raise your hand if you’ve ever felt personally victimized by Marie Rutkoski. *raises hand*

This book was the saddest, most devastating emotional roller coaster I’ve ever been on. I’ve never understood and hated characters so much in my life.

This is like Game of Thrones, in the terrible anyone-can-die type of way. Seriously, the emperor is such a Lannister, it’s not even funny. He’s basically Joffrey Baratheon reincarnated. Never have I hated an antagonist so much (except for maybe Umbridge).

If you haven’t read my review of the first book, go here. The Winner’s Crime is the second in the trilogy. Kestrel has made sacrifices since the first book in order to save Arin’s life and his people. Of course, Arin is thickheaded and doesn’t connect the damn dots and totally tortures her over it. Emotionally, of course. Though some poor sod had the skin from his fingers peeled off while being tortured, so that happened.

The entire book consists of Arin and Kestrel loving each other but lying to each other’s faces to keep the other alive. It’s terrible in the best way. The lengths that Kestrel goes to to make sure the emperor doesn’t kill the one thing she loves most…I can’t. I just can’t.

In an effort not to give away any more important details, I will leave you with this: this book broke my heart. Every single page made me want to cry. Every single page made me burst with anxiety for these characters. I actually feared for them. They definitely grew on me. I have to read a happy book now to make up for the sadness.

The writing is beautiful. It flows, it’s emotional, it’s gripping. I love Rutkoski’s writing so much, and I think it really contributes to how much emotion I felt while reading it. I also love the intricacy of the strategy and political steps that Kestrel, her father, and the emperor take—it’s very much like The Art of War.

I don’t even know how I’m going to handle book three. Its expected publication is 2016, so I have some time to prepare. I rated this book 4/5 on Goodreads—the hurtfulness and massive, terrible, unsatisfying cliffhanger at the end became a bit much.

DNF: Life Is Too Short To Read Books You Don’t Like

When I first started blogging, I finished everything I picked up. Whether it took me a day or a week to slog through something I hated, I finished. I viewed myself as a failure if I didn’t finish.

Guess what? I’m no longer afraid to slap DNF @ 25% (because I always give it until at least 25% before setting it down) on a book. It’s a classic ‘it’s not you, it’s me situation’—there are books out there that other people rave about and I just can’t get into. And visa versa. I’ve liked plenty of low-rated books.

Here’s the deal. If you were to read every book logged by The Library of Congress, it would take you about 60,000 years to finish them all. Let’s scale it back for moment. If you were to read every book released in the span of one week (roughly 2,800 books), it would take you about five years and four months to read them.

Damn! I’m constantly adding to my TBR pile, and there is about 511 books on my Goodreads list. That alone would take me about five years to complete, if I were to read at my current pace. That doesn’t account for the number of new books I add to my list as they’re released or I discover them. My point? Ain’t nobody got time for books they don’t like!

Do you guys DNF? Or do you soldier on?

Happy Saturday, folks!

Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper

Avery Roe wants only to claim her birthright as the witch of Prince Island and to make the charms that have kept the island’s sailors safe at sea for generations, but instead she is held prisoner by her mother in a magic-free life of proper manners and respectability.

Avery thinks escape is just a matter of time, but when she has a harrowing nightmare, she can see what it means: She will be killed. She will be murdered. And she’s never been wrong before.

Desperate to change her future, Avery finds a surprising ally in Tane —a tattooed harpoon boy with magic of his own, who moves her in ways she never expected. But as time runs out to unlock her magic and save herself, Avery discovers that becoming a witch requires unimaginable sacrifice.

Avery walks the knife’s edge between choice and destiny in Kendall Kulper’s sweeping debut: the story of one girl’s fight to survive the rising storm of first love and family secrets. – Goodreads

I finished Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper last weekend, and I’ve been mulling over my thoughts on it ever since. It’s very hard to explain exactly how I feel about it, but I will say that it was GOOD. I got really into it, and felt exactly how Avery was feeling (and I LOVED her name), especially about her mother. Her mother DROVE ME CRAZY. I wished many times that I could reach through the book and smack her. At the same time though, since I’m not a teenager anymore, I feel like I could see where her mom was coming from in taking Avery from her grandmother’s, and why she did everything that she did. She still annoyed me though. I feel bad for Avery that her mother wasn’t honest with her about getting her magic until… well, I don’t want to spoil it for you so I’ll just leave it at that.

The story itself is suspenseful, and sometimes it moves quickly and sometimes slowly which I actually really loved because it kept me interested and intrigued. Once I picked it up, I HAD to know what was going to happen with Avery, and after Tane came along I HAD to know how his story would play out as well. I really loved Tane’s character and how he came to Prince Island, and the way that he helped Avery is exactly what she needed all along. It’s incredible how much one person can totally change your life, and that’s what they were for each other.

The only thing I really didn’t like was the ending. A certain plot twist occurs that, looking back on, I probably could have seen coming but it broke my heart nonetheless. I can’t say much more without giving it away, but I do wish that it had ended differently except the way everything ended up with Avery and her mom – that was actually one of my favorite parts of the book. Overall, I rated this book 4/5 on Goodreads and I definitely recommend it!

Book Tour: The Reluctant Midwife by Patricia Harman

The Great Depression has hit West Virginia hard. Men are out of work; women struggle to feed hungry children. Luckily, Nurse Becky Myers has returned to care for them. While she can handle most situations, Becky is still uneasy helping women deliver their babies. For these mothers-to-be, she relies on an experienced midwife, her dear friend Patience Murphy.

Though she is happy to be back in Hope River, time and experience have tempered Becky’s cheerfulness-as tragedy has destroyed the vibrant spirit of her former employer Dr Isaac Blum, who has accompanied her. Patience too has changed. Married and expecting a baby herself, she is relying on Becky to keep the mothers of Hope River safe.

But becoming a midwife and ushering precious new life into the world is not Becky’s only challenge. Her skills and courage will be tested when a calamitous forest fire blazes through a Civilian Conservation Corps camp. And she must find a way to bring Isaac back to life and rediscover the hope they both need to go on.

Full of humor and compassion, The Reluctant Midwife is a moving tribute to the power of optimism and love to overcome the most trying circumstances and times, and is sure to please fans of the poignant Call the Midwife series. – Goodreads

I’m always very, very hesitant when a book’s description boasts that fans of Whatever Book or This Show will love it—kind of like when a book’s description says a mixture of This Popular Book and That Popular Book. What can I say? I’m a skeptic.

I’m a huge Call the Midwife fan. (Hint: it’s on Netflix, folks!). So when I read the description for The Reluctant Midwife, I laughed. Just because it says ‘midwife’ in the title doesn’t mean it’s going to satisfy my need while I wait for the next season to show up on Netflix, I thought.

Well, kudos to whomever included that in the description, because it definitely hit the spot.

Disclaimer: I did not read the first book in the Hope River series. I wanted to see how this particular book fared by itself. I’m pleased to say that if you would rather just read this one, you don’t need to read the first to understand what is going on. That being said, I can definitely see how reading the first one would help the reader understand various characters’ backgrounds. I plan on going back and reading the first.

Speaking of characters, I loved them. Betsy is an incredibly real protagonist, who has very real, raw emotions while dealing with Dr. Blum (who, in the wake of his wife’s death, has become catatonic), her new impoverished situation, and figuring out who she wants to be. She experiences plenty of anger, gratitude, happiness, and frustration to make her a very relatable character.

Patience, the midwife, is incredibly sweet and loving, and she’s the primary reason I’ll be reading the first book (she’s the star of that one). Her husband is cool, her son is adorable…I loved them. Even minor characters, like the grocer or the woman on the outskirts of town who Becky delivers groceries to, are important and multi-dimensional.

I found the labor scenes simultaneously horrifying and page-turning. Whether the baby was blue, the mother was shrieking, or the midwives had to do something to keep mother or baby alive, I was transfixed. Naturally, I picture Becky as Jenny Lee aka Jessica Raine (but with an American accent, of course). The imagery is vivid—you can almost hear the grunts, moans, and pain of the women involved.

I did have one gripe: it was very long, with quite a few dull parts in between. Those bits are slow and hard to read. I suppose that’s how life is, though. It’s not always exciting. The book definitely read more like a diary than a novel. Rather than the entries being split up by date, they were broken into small subheads.

Overall, I loved this book and would definitely recommend it to those who are interested in historical fiction based in the 20’s and/or midwifery. I rated it a 4/5 on Goodreads.

I was given a free copy of The Reluctant Midwife by TLC Book Tours and William Morrow & Company in exchange for an honest review. The Reluctant Midwife is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and IndieBound. Learn more about Patricia Harman on her website, Twitter, or Facebook. Check out the other TLC Book Tour Hosts for The Reluctant Midwife here.

Sunbolt by Intisar Khanani

The winding streets and narrow alleys of Karolene hide many secrets, and Hitomi is one of them. Orphaned at a young age, Hitomi has learned to hide her magical aptitude and who her parents really were. Most of all, she must conceal her role in the Shadow League, an underground movement working to undermine the powerful and corrupt Arch Mage Wilhelm Blackflame.

When the League gets word that Blackflame intends to detain—and execute—a leading political family, Hitomi volunteers to help the family escape. But there are more secrets at play than Hitomi’s, and much worse fates than execution. When Hitomi finds herself captured along with her charges, it will take everything she can summon to escape with her life. – Goodreads

I loved this book. Quite honestly, the only thing I hated was the length—142 pages?! There’s nothing worse than a fantastic book being super short. Wait. There is. The sequel won’t be released until this summer at the earliest.

Hitomi is a wild Promise, a fledgling mage with little training. She reminded me a bit of Aladdin, orphaned at a young age, thieving, running from the guards and living on the streets.

She’s part of the Shadow League, an underground movement working to get rid of the terrible Arch Mage Blackflame, who kills people mercilessly and feeds children to fangs (vampires).

When Hitomi is captured in an effort to save several kids, she’s placed in captivity with a hungry breather named Val, who eats people’s lives/souls.

I’m not gonna lie—I was 15% in when I was like, damn it, Ghost and Hitami’s romance is going to be the focal point. Only…they didn’t have a romance. And it was awesome. Hitami was a total badass girl and I appreciated that. She is honorable, brave, and loyal to the League.

It’s a short book, and I don’t want to give much away. I rated it a 4/5 on Goodreads. I definitely recommend it!

I received a free copy of Sunbolt through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Selection by Kiera Cass

For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in a palace and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon.

But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn’t want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks.

Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she’s made for herself–and realizes that the life she’s always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined. – Goodreads

I went into this book with mixed emotions, and now that I’ve finished it, I still have mixed emotions. I’m very confused (emotionally).

Ha, I snickered, as I downloaded this book on my Kindle. She looks like she’s sniffing her armpit on this cover. Is her name really America Singer? That’s terrible. Damn, I thought, as I struggle-read the first 40% of the book. This is an episode of the Bachelor. Seriously, Maxon is Chris. Please tell me there’s a rose ceremony so I can snarkily write about it in my review. This is going to be the worst review ever.

And then out of the blue, I actually started to care about Maxon, America, Marlee, May, and the rest of the crew. I started to root for one particular male love interest. And then I finished it. And promptly bought book two.

This is a fluffy dystopian version of the Bachelor. However, I was okay with that. The characters are enjoyable (though several *cough* Aspen and Marlee *cough* fall short and flat). Even America—who I will now refer to as Mer because her name is ridiculous–was a little bit robotic and awkward at times. The story is a bit slow, though engaging. I actually can’t put my finger on why I enjoyed it as much as I did.

Side note: I disagree with the masses of reviewers on Goodreads. This is not at all like the Hunger Games. It is not a fight to the death, though I can see how people would compare the castes to the districts. That being said, welcome to dystopian fiction.

Anyway. Guilty pleasure read for sure, and I will be finishing the series. I don’t mind the fluff once in a while, and this works for me! I rated it 3.5/5 on Goodreads.

Top Ten Tuesday: 3/10

TOP TEN BOOKS FOR READERS WHO LIKE _______

1. Crime/Thrillers. Made For You is hands down my favorite right now, as well as anything written by the amazing Gillian Flynn.

2. Stories about Best Friends. Grab Firefly Lane – it’s all about growing up together and remaining as close through whatever life throws at you.

3. Lighthearted Beach Reads. Along for the Ride is one of my favorites!

4. Reality TV. Pick up The Andy Cohen Diaries – the perfect way to get all that juicy gossip without reading trashy magazines.

5. History. Between Shades of Gray gave me goosebumps and broke my heart, in the best way possible.

6. Suspense. Check out Luckiest Girl Alive—I still think about it from time to time!

7. Adventure. I satisfied my need to hike by reading Wild...though for some, I think it might have the opposite effect 🙂

8. Apocalyptic reads. You definitely need to get your hands on Life As We Know It, which follows Miranda in a ruined world.

9. Cheeky chick lit. If you haven’t read The Bridget Jones Diary yet, do it. Do it now.

10. Dinosaurs. Two words: Jurassic World.

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by the Broke & the Bookish. Check out more Top Ten features on their site.

Red Queen by Victora Aveyard

The poverty stricken Reds are commoners, living under the rule of the Silvers, elite warriors with god-like powers.

To Mare Barrow, a 17-year-old Red girl from The Stilts, it looks like nothing will ever change.

Mare finds herself working in the Silver Palace, at the centre of
those she hates the most. She quickly discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy Silver control.

But power is a dangerous game. And in this world divided by blood, who will win? – Goodreads

Yes, I get it—I’m so late to the Red Queen game. I will admit, though, that I held off reading this due to the hype—after all, that’s all it was, right?

Damn it, I get the hype. I get it. I got it so much, that I finished this puppy in less than 24 hours. I would have read it in less if not for my ~~needy~~ sweet husband, who begged me to watch Mockingjay with him last night.

I rarely buy hardback books anymore, and prefer to keep tooooons of titles on my Kindle so I can read whatever I want whenever I want. But I made an exception for Red Queen, because I suspected my parents would also want to read it—so I bought the hardcover and waited patiently for two days for it to arrive.

I love the minimalism of the cover art. Stark, white background, simple font, a bleeding crown—it fits the title, it fits the book. I love that. Side note: how many of you take the jacket off of a hardback when reading it? I’m always terrified I’m going to bend the jacket, so I take it off and replace it when I’m done reading.

Within the first page, I was hooked. I was instantly interested in the main character, Mare. I mean, she stole for her family. I do not condone thievery, but would you steal bread for your starving family?

There is a little bit of world dumping in the first few chapters, but it’s spread out alright for the most part. It was a little bit of an information overload, though, so I had to keep rereading and trying to memorize certain things.

The premise is this: there are two castes of people, the Reds and the Silvers. The Reds are the poor, the workers, the soldiers—they are like us, they bleed red. They aren’t deemed special by the Silvers, the upper castes. They’re garbage, they’re disposable. The Silvers literally bleed silver, and have special abilities. The nymphs, who can control water. The techys, who have a gift with electronics and technology. The strongarms, who have superhuman strength. The list goes on. These special people are royalty, nobility, and oppress the Reds.

I will admit, it was a bit Hunger Games-y for me, especially after watching Mockingjay. I had an easy time drawing several parallels, which I tried not to do while reading. Instead of becoming a tribute, eighteen-year-olds are conscripted into the army. Instead of Games, they have Feats, where Silvers fight it out to display how strong they are. There are quite a few more parallels, but I don’t want to ruin it for anyone. This is where it lost half a star for me, though. It wasn’t that original. Some people also compare it to Red Rising, though I haven’t read that series.

The characters were good. I would have liked to learn a little bit more about Mare—she seemed a little flat to me. Prince Cal was your typical brave prince, and Prince Maven was the babied younger sibling. We saw a small glimpse of her family, but for the most part, everyone is very guarded. This is where the other half a star was taken from.

I loved the worldbuilding—it was amazing, to say the least. I could clearly picture everything, and I loved the idea of the Silvers and the Reds.

The romance was not as strong as I would have liked it to be, but it worked. I did not appreciate the love triangle, though. I hope the romance bit develops more in future books.

There are quite a few plot twists, so I’ve left out a lot of the story—in short, it was complex, enjoyable, though a bit predictable at times. It’s been a while since I’ve become so wrapped up in a fantasy world, and it was a much needed escape from real life. I would highly recommend this to those who enjoy YA dystopian fantasy. I rated it a 4/5 on Goodreads and added it to my favorites shelf 🙂 I can’t believe that book two won’t be released until 2016.

Have you read Red Queen? What did you think of it?

Two Review: Shadow Study by Maria V. Snyder

I have been waiting so, so long for this book to come out. I first read the Study series in high school—in fact, so did my parents. It was like a Hooker family book club. I digress.

I reread the series again two years ago, in my senior year of college…simply because I missed the characters. That, my friends, is my idea of a good book—the kind where you miss the characters so much that you reread it. It’s like seeing old friends again.

I had no idea that Snyder would be coming out with a fourth book. In fact, I thought it was only supposed to be trilogy. Naturally, I lost my sh*t when I spotted the untitled fourth book on Goodreads.

I’ve never pre-ordered a book on Amazon. This time, I did. And I’m glad I did. Our original plan was to leave our books unopened and read it together on Friday. However, Amazon messed up Kiesha’s order…which meant I had to open my package ~~that had been staring at me all day~~ and speed-read the book so she could borrow it. After all, what are friends for?

The layout was different than in past Study books. Each chapter is from a different point of view—Yelena, Valek, or Janco (side note: do you pronounce it JANE-co or JAHN-co?). At first, this was odd. After a while, it grew on me, and I enjoyed seeing the world from these characters’ eyes, and getting an all-around view of what’s going on.

In past books, it’s been all about Yelena using her powers and coming to terms with them. In this book, she loses them—which I was fine with, except it severed her connection with Kiki. That made me sad.

One downside to the book was the timeline in reference to the last three—this is eight years in the future, and you’ll have a difficult time understanding what happened during those eight years unless you’ve read the Glass series. There are many references to the events and characters in those books, but reading the summaries should make it a little bit easier. I recommend reading them first.

Overall, I loved this book and am hoping the cliffhanger at the end means a fifth book 🙂 A definite 5/5 on Goodreads for me!

So, Shadow Study. I definitely haven’t been waiting as long for it as Lauren, but I was still absolutely thrilled when I found out Snyder was writing it. I love this world SO much but I will admit that while I did get through the book and understood the references that are made to the Glass Series, I definitely should have read those first. Reading Shadow Study before the Glass Series might ruin them for me because now I know exactly what happens (I will definitely still be reading them though), so for any of you that are thinking you’ll jump right to this one, I would rethink that.

I really, really liked this book but it just wasn’t as good as the previous 3 for me. I’m not sure if it was because of the chapters jumping from one point of view to another (and in absolutely no order) or the huge time jump, but it irritated me more than any of the other books have. I was very impatient, wanting to know what was happening with Yelena and as soon as something crazy happened, the next chapter would skip to Valek (swoon) or Janco (so. annoying.) and I was very tempted to skip ahead to specific chapters.

The other thing that I didn’t like, was the Janco (I pronounce it JANE-co, I can’t do the JAHN-co thing) point of view. I felt like it was very obvious why it was in there, but if not for that one particular reason (I’m being vague so I don’t spoil anything) then his chapters would be pointless. This one particular reason could have easily been shown through Valek or Yelena, who I enjoy so much more. I was also frustrated with Yelena and Leif’s relationship – in Fire Study they’d grown really close and in this it felt to me like they had grown apart and he talked about food way more than I’ve noticed in any other books.

Overall though, this book was great! It’s the same Sitia/Ixia world of amazingness that Snyder writes SO well and that I love so much and it was great to get into it again. I rated it 4/5 stars on Goodreads, mostly because of Janco’s chapters and not being very fond of the new format. I definitely recommend reading this if you’ve read the Study Series and the Glass Series.