Sunday Sum Up

 Am I back here again??? I am indeed. This past week has been interesting on a reading level. While I've started a number of books, only one is really working for me so far. I am loving the second book in The Firebird Chronicles by T.A. White. The book is called The Age of Deception. I've been trying to pick this book up all year and it has finally clicked with my reading mood. The second book picks up almost immediately after we finished book one. - I think we are in the same room as the last scene. I like this series for a number of reasons, but our main character, Kira, is the biggest one. She has some very interesting abilities and she keeps me guessing even though I'm following along in her mind. 

 

 My other two reads are Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky and  Saint Death's Daughter by CSE Cooney. Neither of these have grabbed my interest yet. I'm about 10% into both, but I am struggling with both. 

 

Tap Tap - Is this thing on?

Hello Blog - It has been a WHILE since I've even opened this page or thought about posting here again. However, I miss sitting down to share more of my thoughts and updates on what I'm reading and doing. I can't promise updates will be happening often. This could be a one off post. Who knows if I'll keep this going or if this moment will flare out like so much of my creativity this year. 

 Most recently I've posted a TBR on youtube for August - I'm playing a TBR game and making some changes since the above mentioned low creativity has been making all of these endeavors harder than usual. 

 

 

 

Most recently I finished Deja Brew by Celestine Martin and had a good time with it. Thoughts below.

 

 ARC Review: 3.75 Stars

A very enjoyable cozy fall read with a delightful setting! I had a lot of fun with this book. After have mixed results with the first two books in this series, I wasn't sure what to expect. Our two main characters won me over. Sirena Caraway was a witch after my own heart and was very relatable to me. There were several quotes in her inner monologue I related to strongly and I enjoyed that her struggles with her magic weren't a quick fix. She really had to dig into her problems to figure out what was going on with her magic. Her love interest, Gus, was a big improvement on the first two books for me. In the first two installments the male main characters were very focused on hiding things from their love interests. The focus was different here and I appreciated this very much. The atmosphere in all three of the installments was fantastic. This was definitely the best one in the series for me and I enjoyed the wrap up of family affairs as well. Very sweet series with a few spicy scenes in each book!

 

 

 

Faithbreaker by Hannah Kaner

 

 Final rating: 4.5/5

What a phenomenal end to a debut series. The stakes of this series increased in each book and this finale was just the same. We saw the characters take on an epic war and race to acquire allies in order to preserve their home. It was full of tension, twists and turns!

Our main characters go on epic journeys throughout this book and I loved seeing the growth in each one. Comparing the characters from the start of the series to the end is an amazing amount of growth. I loved seeing these changes develop over the series since we are in each of their POVs throughout. The balance between perspectives is well done for the most part even though there were perspectives I preferred a bit more than others especially late in the series.

There is part of the storyline I didn't find wrapped up in a completely satisfactory way. I still had questions! And the end of the book wrapped up a bit too quickly. - However, overall I adored this last installment in the series. I even had to cry several times throughout the book!

I will be watching for Hannah Kaner's next project with much anticipation.

A Drop of Curruption by Robert Jackson Bennet

What an incredible next installment in this series. I absolutely adored this story and cannot wait for more.

The story has very complex and interesting characters that I was happy to return to. I was pleased to see they had grown between books, but we also saw character growth within the story. Both Din and Ana are incredibly smart and watching them work is a treat. I was also endeared to many of the side characters and wanted to know more about their stories.

The world building in this series is fascinating and intricate in a way that kept my attention the entire time. There are so many small details that make their way into the story - some of which circle back in the end which was very satisfying! Complex magic, politics and social graces made the story very interesting and fun to watch unfold.

Just like the last book, the mystery is layered and I loved I could figure out which pieces were important without knowing exactly what the solution was.

*I received an ARC of this title for a fair and honest review. 

 

Goals Wrap Up from 2023

 

Reading, Channel and Personal Goals for 2024!

 

November TBR - Pile of Possibilities

 

Weekly Wrap and Coffee

Hello everyone! 

It has been a long week. Anyone else think so? I've been busy with personal events and work is about to get very demanding. So, I'm hoping this weekend will be productive one at the house. 

What's New? 

I haven't been reading very much in the past few weeks. After reading 20 books in August, September was a lot slower and I haven't finished a book in October yet. I'm currently working on two audiobooks and a graphic novel. I'm really hoping to start Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner this weekend because it is a book club pick and book club is coming very fast! 

New Content? 

If you are curious what I read in September, I posted my Wrap Up for the month this week. 

I'm hoping to post a Spooky TBR video this upcoming week and film a get to know me video since I recently hit 500 subscribers on the channel! 

That's it for me this week! - Let me know what you're currently reading for Spooky Season in the comments! 

Mid Year Stats and Goals Update

 

Welcome to a Mid- Year Goals Update (never mind I never posted the goals here in the first place) 

August Wrap Up 2022

Hello! 

It has once again been a while since I posted here. I will not promise that it will continue, but I'm here at the moment. I've had quite a busy summer with travel and life, but this is the most successful reading year of my life. 

August was quite a month for me. I spent a lot of time reading because of two readathons. The first was the Magical Orillium Readathon and the Avengers Reading Challenge. I talk about them both a bit in my end of month wrap up. More updates on my progress will be coming later this month. 

Will Darling Series Review

 

January Wrap Up (2022)

 

Goals Wrap Up for 2021

10 Romance Books I Want to Read

Over the past year I have been more and more interested in the romance genre. I've alway mixed some romance into my reading, but 2020 really increased my desire for Happily Ever Afters. Romance has always been a fun was to tear through books and make myself happy without too much stress. Therefore, there are more romance books on my TBR than ever before. These are just 10 I've been interested in because of romance booktubers (something I've recently discovered) as well as recommendations and scouring my library's collection online. 

I'm a little late for Valentine's Day, but we read romance year round!

  

    

Series Review: Whyborne and Griffin by Jordan L. Hawk

Series: Whyborne and Griffin

Genre: Paranormal Romance/Historical

Age Group: Young Adult

Source: Purchased

Published: 2012-2019

Add it // Buy it 

Overall Rating: 4/5

Trigger Warnings for the series: Internalized homophobia, societal homophobia, family rejection, PTSD, flashbacks to trauma, night terrors, sexism, murder, sexual assault on and off screen. 

At the beginning of August I innocently started Widdershins, the first book in this series, on whim. I quickly devoured the first eight books and enjoyed every second of this historical fiction paranormal series. What I found was a delightful cast of characters who grow and change over the course of the series as well as a dark and harrowing story of how they try to save the world. 

The world building is excellent over the course of the series. The first few books follow a "monster of the week" format, but the world opened up and a larger undercurrent to the story became apparent. Throughout we encounter a variety of monsters and creatures and eventually uncover a deeper plot that could cause the end of the world. 

Hawke's writing also improves over the course of the series. Even though I was delighted by the first few books, I enjoyed seeing the improvements in pacing, plotting and general skill over the course of seven years of writing. It has darker undertones than most of the urban fantasy I've read and there are serious consequences for characters. Hawke makes the characters work for any wins they achieve. 

Overall this series impressed me with the character development as well. I took a short break between books ten and eleven due to a reading slump. When I returned to the world, I ended up appreciating this even more. Whyborne and Grffin go from budding romantics who just met to one of the most realistic long term couples I've seen in a series like this. Over the course of the series they develop a found family and each minor character's growth is also evident. 

In short, this series was a delight and I recommend it highly. 

2020 Reading Stats

 Last year was a strange year for the entire planet. It was also a strange year in my reading life. After reading over 125 things in 2019, I expected to hit that again in 2020. Ha! Instead my entire job changed and COVID hit in March. After spending a month working at home, I was back in the office in entirely new environment. Like so many of us, it really affected my mental health and the way I read throughout the year.

So, I made a video about my reading statistics in 2020. 

Of course, I tracked a few more things than what I talked about in the video and I didn't actually compare any of my 2019 to 2020 reading before starting the video. It was interesting to see what I did compare the two years, many of my percentages were close to 2019. This surprised me so much because I felt so different about the two years. In 2020 I felt like I struggled to read audiobooks so much and I know I read very few graphic novels. However, when it came down to the actual percentages, there was less than a 5% difference in both! 

Anyway, this is all to say that after comparing 2019 and 2020 I actually feel better about my reading from 2020. I can't wait to see what my reading year looks like in 2021!

Top Ten Tuesday - Anticipated Releases of First Half of 2020

 Happy New Year Friends! Once again it has been an age since I posted on here. I have recently missed blogging very much and want to attempt to integrate it back in my life. I don't want to make promises because it is so easy to slip out of the habit of posting. However, I have missed this in recent weeks unlike I have before. So in true ABBA fashion...here we go again. 

These are ten books released in the first half of 2020 that I'm excited for. I doubt I'll purchase all of them up as I'm trying to reduce my book buying this year. However, I may try to use my library more than I did in 2020 since...they were closed. 

  

  

 Unfortunately, I'm not up to speed on a lot of new releases so I only have six releases to talk about. I intentionally haven't been paying attention to releases 

As always please visit That Artsy Reader Girl for topics and to check out other Top Ten Tuesday Posts. 

Happy Reading!

 

Top Ten Tuesday - Books On My Fall 2020 TBR

 It has been a long time since I participated in Top Ten Tuesday and it has been even longer since my heart has been in it. Typically these TBRs are a bust for me because I am a mood reader through and through. However, I'm really excited about all of these books and I hope I can read them all before the end of the year.

One thing I realized when I was making this TBR is so many of the covers have a dark color scheme. I guess fantasy has covers with darker color schemes, but my fall TBR is very appropriate.

  

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Check out That Artsy Girl for future Top Ten Tuesday Topics. 

Wrapping Up Last Week: September 13th

For month's I've thought about talking about the books and media I consume each week in some kind of wrap up post. I love to talk about books as well as other media. I'm honestly not sure what will get included in these each week so I'd love some suggestions. 

We'll start with the obvious. Since this is a primarily a book blog, I'll start with the books I finished this past week. 

Books: 

The 5th Gender by G.L. Carriger - (#SpaceOperaSeptember Read) 

This was a good. For some reason I didn't expect it to be as sexy as it was which is totally my fault because Carriger warned us it would be sexy. However, her San Andres series is sexy, but it also has a complex plot. There was plot here but there wasn't a lot of nuance to it and the book was mostly about our characters. Overall I gave this four stars and would definitely read more in this universe. 

Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce - (Fantasy, #3 The Circle Reforged)

One of the worst things is to be disappointed by a book written by a favorite author. I adore Tamora Pierce, but this book just didn't do it for me. Because this is the third in a loosely connected series of books, I had a good idea what would happen in this book. I knew we were getting back story to some stories Briar, Rosethorn and Evvy talk about in the other two books. However, the execution left a lot to be desired. Pierce took on a lot of mature topics like war, torture and PTSD, but a lot of it felt glossed over. There were also several plot points that weren't well developed or resulted in plot holes. 

Currently Reading: The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson 

Podcasts:

Mansplain Baseball Elsewhere:

Recently I found this podcast about baseball and hosted by three ladies. Though the hosts are all Braves fans and I am a Yankees fan, I love listening to their commentary on baseball and they do interviews with women in the baseball world. I cannot wait until I can listen to more. 

Movies/Television 

The Good Witch (Movie and Show) - 

Earlier this month I started The Good Witch show on Netflix and I really enjoyed it. However, I felt like I was missing a LOT of context. I found out there are several movies on Hallmark about Cassie and her history in this town. So I watched the original movie and enjoyed that too. The story has a modern witchy vibe that reminds me of Practical Magic, but it is a little lighter and has less murder. 

I hope you all have a good week. If you've enjoyed any of these, I'd love to chat about it. Hopefully 

Some 2020 Favorites

As promised, today I bring you my favorites. Though 2020 has been a heck of a year, there have been a few things that have been bright spots. I hope you are all doing well in this year and I hope you have a few things that have brought you joy. 

Cold Brew - I've loved iced coffee for years, but this year I've been obsessed with cold brew. I've even tried making it myself a few times since we were in quarantine and I was trying to avoid going out to coffee shops to get a cup. 

Painting My Nails - This year my job has changed a little bit so I'm not destroying my nails by opening boxes and packing up textbooks as often. Therefore I've been painting them more often and trying really hard to grow them out. I've always been a nail bitter especially when I'm anxious so having longish nails and healthy cuticles is a big accomplishment for me. I've really enjoyed doing different combinations of nail colors and trying to match them to my books lately. 

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Jedi: Fallen Order - Earlier this year I devoured this video game. It was enough of a challenge that I never got bored, but I didn't get overly frustrated either. (Rage quit is real with video games my friends) This game totally absorbed me for a few weeks and I definitely want to replay it at some point so I can attempt to find more hidden things now that I know what I'm doing. Our hero is fantastic and the game itself is beautiful. The graphics are *chef kiss* 

 

Tik Tok- If you told me last year I would spend more time on social media, I would be appalled. Somehow I don't care with Tik Tok. I learn things, I get book recommendations and most importantly I laugh. There is so much comedy on this app that isn't offensive or gross. I love the creators I follow and how creative they are. I've spent a lot of screen hours on Tik Tok and it doesn't seem like I'll stop anytime soon. 

My Kindle/Reading on my Phone - Over the past year I have been reading quite a few ebooks which has really helped my reading. It has been really interesting to discover ebook reading on my phone which I didn't do very much until the end of last year. I haven't looked back since I started doing this. Since I have a Kindle that isn't backlit, reading on my phone has been something I can do no matter what the lighting. Why didn't I do this before? The only issue has been I feel like I'm reading fewer of the physical books I've purchased. 

These are a few of my favorite things in the year of 2020. I think I'll wait to talk about any of my favorite books until the end of the year since we are well over half way through the year at this point. We'll see if I'm still around the blog at the end of the year. 

What are your favorite things from this year? What's been helping you through 2020?