Top Ten Tuesday: 12/2
Top Ten Books We’re Looking Forward To In 2015
1. Shadow Study by Maria V. Snyder – So incredibly excited for this—it’s made multiple lists of ours! I’m definitely planning on setting aside a weekend to finish this—I know I won’t be able to put it down.
2. Untitled (Throne of Glass #4) by Sarah J. Maas – It wasn’t until I saw this on several people’s Top Ten Sequels list several weeks ago that I realized this was an actual thing. I love the first three, and this one will be no different.
3. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas – Again—I love the Throne of Glass series and all that Maas has to offer, so I will definitely be picking this one up!
4. The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows – She’s a princess, she’s magical, she’s a spy—basically, Princess Wilhelmina is a BAMF. I’ve never head of Jodi Meadows before, but I’m definitely anticipating this release.
5. Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge – It’s inspired by Little Red Riding Hood and sounds like an interesting read.
6. First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen – the Waverly Sisters from Gardenspell are back and I AM SO EXCITED. It comes out in January, so I won’t have to wait very long for it.
7. Shadow Study by Maria V. Snyder – duh. If you’ve been reading my posts for the past month or so, you’ll know I’m completely addicted to the anything Maria V. Snyder writes. This is the beginning of a new series, the Soulfinder Series, but it continues Yelena’s story. Can’t wait to get my hands on this!
8. Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen – I love every single thing she writes, and according to her, this book is different from her usual. I’m very intrigued to see how it’s different.
9. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard – this is a debut novel and I’m very curious to see how it’s written. It’s about a world that is divided by blood – common Red blood and elite Silver blood – and a girl named Mare who is a common thief thrown into the Silver court as a long-lost princess. It sounds very intriguing and different!
10. Wicked by Jennifer L. Armentrout – the first in the Wicked Saga, it’s about Ivy Morgan, a girl that lost everything to evil creatures and has sworn her life to the Order to hunt them down, and what happens after she meets Ren Owens, a handsome man that is demanding to lay claim to her heart and soul. It sounds like something I don’t normally read, but the cover really drew me in. Plus, it takes place in New Orleans so I’m pretty sure I have to read it!
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by the Broke & the Bookish. Check out more Top Ten features on their site.
Kiesha’s Uppercase Review
I’m a huge fan of subscription boxes – I love getting mail (Christmas all year round!) and finding new things to try. I’ve subscribed to quite the array of boxes in past, mostly makeup and beauty type boxes like Birchbox and Julep, so when I came across Uppercase Box I was VERY excited.
Uppercase Box is a YA book subscription box that comes once a month – you can choose from the expert pick ($29) in which a book is chosen that they think everyone will love, or the personalized pick ($35) in which they choose something specifically for you. I ended up choosing the latter because I feel like my taste is a little different than others, and I really liked the thought of someone surprising me with a book they think I’ll like.
I got my first Uppercase Box in the mail earlier this week, and I was thrilled! My package came with Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, some Bertie Botts Beans, and a handwritten letter explaining why the book was chosen for me (which, by the way, was because I love Poison Study so much). I’m super excited to start Shadow and Bone, the first in the Grisha series, and I think it was a great pick based on what I’ve read and liked in the past!
I’m going to have to side with Lauren on this one though, and while the idea is absolutely great, the cost is just too much for me to justify. I wish there was a subscription box like this that was cheaper, I would be all over it! Unfortunately, there isn’t, and I will not be renewing.
Full disclosure – I spent my own money on this subscription service – no perks involved!
Lauren’s Uppercase Review
I am no stranger to subscription boxes—Nailette, PopSugar, ipsy, Birchbox, Petit Vour…you name it, I’ve probably signed up for it. Why it never dawned on me to search for a book themed subscription box, I’ll never know—but Kiesha told me about Uppercase Box and I knew I had to try it!
Uppercase is a YA subscription box service. There are two options: Expert Pick ($29) where they choose a book they think everyone will love, or the Personalized Rec ($35) where they choose something specifically for you. Being a cheapskate and thrill-seeker, I rolled with the Expert Pick.
The packaging is adorable! It was obviously sent in a plastic mailer, not this. I was thrilled to feel a hardcover book.
The Expert Pick option includes book swag, a book, and a book item. My book item was a small box of Bertie Botts Beans, which is extremely creepy because my co-worker and I were reminiscing about booger-flavored beans just this week.
I received Forbidden by Kimberley Griffiths Little. It looks like something I would have picked out myself, so I’m pretty excited about that. I also got an autographed card and a pin. Each Uppercase box includes a handwritten note from the Uppercase creator, so that’s pretty nifty, too.
Overall, I really enjoyed this subscription box. However, I will not be resubscribing due to the cost—it’s a little too steep for me.
I bought this box with my own money—no perks involved!
Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers
I’ve been waiting for months for a book to grab hold of me and not let go—this one was it. It completely swept me up and into its world of politics, history, fantasy, assassination, treason, romance, and mystery.
Ismae is handmaiden to Death. She is an assassin, sent to kill those with the marque of St. Mortain, the god of Death. She is swept away from an arranged marriage at a young age and raised in the convent of St. Mortain, where she is trained in the arts of poison and weaponry.
She is assigned to the High Court of Brittany where she is completely unprepared for the intrigue and treason of court.
This book reminded me very much of Snyder’s Poison Study—but only for the assassin element and the way it gripped me and made me finish in it in a day.
Ismae is a very real and likeable character. After escaping a brute of a father and a violent arranged marriage, she isn’t the biggest fan of men. Though the romantic element did not come as a surprise, it wasn’t as nauseating as I thought it would be. In fact, I loved it.
Ismae is also a total badass lady. She doesn’t need to be rescued by anyone else, in fact, she ends up rescuing other people.
I am so incredibly excited to get my paws on book two and three (and the fact that there are three books). I’m leaving for my honeymoon on Thursday, so I’m waiting until then to break into them—they’ll be fabulous for the plane ride! I rated this a 5/5 on Goodreads.
I received a free copy of this ebook through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
Thirty Day Book Challenge: Day 30
Day 30 (aka the last day!): Your favorite book of all time
Asking me to choose a favorite book is like asking me to choose with arm or leg I’d rather lop off, or if I’d rather give up macaroni and cheese or Nutella for the rest of my life. You simply can’t make these decisions, it’s just cruel!
So, I will cheat. I will cheat and choose a series, because I cannot choose just one.
Drumroll, folks? Harry Potter. Yep, I am a diehard Harry Potter fan and I absolutely choose it as my favorite book(s). Do I care how “mainstream” this is? Hell no. I read the second Harry Potter book when it was released and lived my childhood years waiting for the next to release. My childhood was over when the last book was released, and I cried like a baby during the last chapter of the book, simply because it was over.
Can words do justice the number of times I’ve dressed up as a Harry Potter character for a book or premiere, the number of hours of sleep I’ve lost from staying up late reading HP, how many wishes I made on stars and candles that I would receive my letter on my birthday? I’ve eaten a vomit-flavored Bertie Botts jelly bean, flung around a replica of Harry’s wand, listened to Jim Dale’s voice for hours, and wished with every fiber of my being that J.K. Rowling is indeed a squib, who is actually truly detailing the life of Harry Potter to spite those who made fun of her and kicked her out.
Harry Potter was my childhood, and will always be my favorite.
HOW CAN I ANSWER THIS?! It’s probably the hardest question in the entire world. My favorite books change often, it depends on my mood and what I’m wanting to read, or the person that I’m recommending them to. I feel like my favorite is constantly changing because I read new ones and love them so much…
I guess if I absolutely HAD to choose, it would either be Firefly Lane or The Things We Do For Love, both by Kristin Hannah. Each of these stand out in my mind and are books that I think about often and remember well.
Firefly Lane will always hold that special spot in my heart, the first adult book my best friend and I bonded over, the book that feels like it’s been ripped from our lives and the book that I will never, ever get tired of reading.
The Things We Do For Love sticks in my mind because it feels… so comforting and so hopeful. It reminds me that no matter what you go through, the things that are meant to be, will be. That things fall into place when you’re least expecting them but need them most.
I love them both for different but similar reasons, and it’s impossible for me to choose between them.
Melody Jackson and the House on Lafayette Street by BMB Johnson
I’m going to be totally honest with this, and say that this book was probably one of the hardest books to get through for me. The book itself is about a girl named Melody Jackson who lives on Lafayette Street, and the weird goings-on in the house next door, her parents, and her “friend” Flutter.
Melody herself is a very…eccentric twelve-year-old who in some aspects acts many years older than she actually is, and not in a good way. A lot of twelve year olds act older but only by a few years, Melody on the other hand would rather have lived in the early twentieth century than the twenty-first and acts like she’s about sixty. The way she dresses, the way she speaks, the way she thinks… it all comes off as trying very hard to be older. On the other hand, there are instances in which she acts much younger than her twelve years; throughout the book she is constantly whining about the way those around her are acting, and she has random outbursts that interrupt the storyline for no reason. Much of what she complains about, is actually what she is doing and not what the people around her are.
Overall, I have to say that the book was very weird. There were vampires, Big Foot, ghosts, chickens, aliens, and more, all over the place and I had a hard time actually staying interested in the book because things kept changing. I feel like the story was drawn out and random things were added in to make it longer which ended up adding nothing to the story itself. The one aspect of the story that really intrigued me was Flutter, and I think if the author had focused on telling her story instead of focusing on fantasy creatures and aliens than the book would be much better.
I rated Melody Jackson and the House on Lafayette Street 2/5 on Goodreads – I just could not handle the narrator. It’s saving grace was that the writing was actually done well, even though it was all over the place.
Full disclosure – I was given a copy of this book from the author, B.M.B. Johnson, in exchange for an honest review.
Thirty Day Book Challenge: Day 29
Day 29: A book everyone hated but you liked
I’m judging “everyone hated” by the average rating on Goodreads, and the lowest rated book that received my highest rating was All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner…I was horrified.
I loved this book so, so much. Kiesha and I both reviewed it, actually, as our first review on this blog. Granted, it has an average rating of 3.62. That’s probably not hate, but still. I rated it 5/5, so 3.6/5 may as well be hate!
You can read our reviews, but in a nutshell, All Fall Down follows Allison Weiss through her prescription pill addiction and seemingly perfect life. Things aren’t always as they seem, though, and she goes into a downward spiral of addiction and self destruction. It was a very emotional and moving, and made me cry multiple times.
Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch is the book that received my highest rating (5/5) but the lowest average rating (2.84/5) overall on Goodreads which is totally weird to me.
It’s one of those books that is set in the South that I love so much,about a girl named Sarah Walters. Here is a partial summary from Goodreads: Sarah Walters is a less-than-perfect debutante. She tries hard to follow the time-honored customs of the Charleston Camellia Society, as her mother and grandmother did, standing up straight in cotillion class and attending lectures about all the things that Camellias don’t do. (Like ride with boys in pickup trucks.) When life’s complications become overwhelming, Sarah returns home to confront with matured eyes the motto “Once a Camellia, always a Camellia”- and to see how much fuller life can be, for good and for ill, among those who know you best.
I obviously really liked it, but I like most books set in the South. It was funny and lighthearted, a nice break from all the heavy mysteries/thrillers that I read so often.
The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg
Ceony Twill arrives at the cottage of Magician Emery Thane with a broken heart. Having graduated at the top of her class from the Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined, Ceony is assigned an apprenticeship in paper magic despite her dreams of bespelling metal. And once she’s bonded to paper, that will be her only magic…forever. – Goodreads
The premise of this book sounded incredibly intriguing to me. Paper magic? What does that even mean? Is Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined like Hogwarts?
The climax of the book is when an Excisioner—a dark, flesh magician—shows up, rips Magician Thane’s heart out, and Ceony has to literally go into his heart to save him.
Let me answer some of my previously mentioned questions.
Tagic Praff School is not like Hogwarts. Students essentially go to the school to learn about magic for a year (though they don’t practice it, they just read about it) and are assigned to an apprenticeship upon graduation. They can only bond to one form of magic, whether it’s plastic magic, metal magic, etc. Ceony is stuck with paper magic.
Paper magic is basically origami on steroids. Fold a paper crane, tell it to “breathe” and boom; it’s flying around.
This book was confusing to me. For the last 2/3s of the book, I wanted so desperately to get it over with. It was dull and boring to say the least. Remember how I mentioned Ceony going into Thane’s heart? That was 2/3s of the book—Ceony running around through his heart, trying to escape a madwoman.
Why didn’t I put it down? I loved, loved, loved the writing and prose. Everything was described vividly, but without a windy paragraph. The detail was beautiful and I could picture every scene clearly. Though the plot and story was boring, the writing was not.
I rate it a 3.50/5. It wasn’t terrible, it wasn’t outstanding, but right in the middle. I probably won’t be picking up book two, but would definitely read another series that Holmberg puts out in the future.
I was given a free copy of this book to review in exchange for my honest opinion through NetGalley.
Thirty Day Book Challenge: Day 28
Day 28: Favorite title of a book
lifebetweenreads.com 