Genre: Fantasy

Mini Reviews: Of Beast and Beauty and Second Time Around

Posted February 8, 2016 / Book Reviews / 5 Comments

A couple of very random mini reviews for you! Both backlist: one YA retelling and one Adult “chick lit” type. Here’s what I thought of Of Beast and Beauty and Second Time Around.I definitely expected a lot from this book, and I think that wasn’t very fair of me. The biggest fault with this was comparing it too much to Princess of Thorns. The other story I read by Stacey Jay featured non-stop twists and new information and swoooons, even after a very slow beginning. With this one, there were less twists and turns and jaw-dropping moments…and I just expected too much. It started off slow but I kind of thought that might just be Jay’s style? But, it took about 75% of the book for me to really make me eager to keep reading. The ending was solid and interesting, for sure. If I try to be a little more objective, this was REALLY good. Same slow-burn, complex story with great world-building. I totally need more Stacey Jay in my life. I’m not sure if this was a case of the right book at the right time, or if I just really loved this one, but either way- so glad I read it. I needed something with no hype and non-YA, and this delivered in spades. I loved the cozy, college campus vibe (even though they were all 10 years out of college, just living somewhat on the campus) and the theme of second chances. There were four main characters […]

Blog Tour | ARC Review: Reign of Shadows

Posted January 29, 2016 / Book Reviews / 8 Comments

MORE LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Indiebound | iBooks | The Book Depository Oh man, what a book! Within the first few pages, I didn’t want to stop reading. I had pulled it up on my Kindle and wanted to see how the beginning would go and kept reading for 10 minutes (even though I had somewhere else I needed to be). I didn’t expect to be so interested and engaged within the first few pages of the book! This feeling did not end; I couldn’t stop reading until I reached the last page. The book reminded me a bit of Princess of Thorns, which I absolutely adored. There was a journey with someone who didn’t necessarily want to journey with another person, a tiny bit of gender-bending, and interesting creatures/people along the way. I just love stories like this apparently. (Any recs for other journey-style fantasy books?!) I loved Luna and Fowler. The set-up for the story was fantastic, with Luna living in her tower, letting Fowler and his companions into their lives, and starting their journey. I shipped them kind of immediately. I couldn’t help it. I liked that the two of them took a little while to get to the same place as me, re: their feelings for each other. I shipped them before they even knew they liked each other. Like I said above, this book featured a cool journey in the DARK because there’s a perpetual eclipse over the kingdom. I think this plot point […]

Blog Tour | Mini Review + Cover Colors: The Impostor Queen (Giveaway!)

Posted January 20, 2016 / Book Reviews, Cover Colors, Features / 23 Comments

LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Indiebound | iBooks | The Book Depository It’s no secret that I’m obsessed with book covers. I love the colors, the typography, the different designs that cover artists can create. I even have a guest post feature where people share their favorite book covers and bookmarks! I decided to start up this random feature where I draw color inspiration from my favorite book covers. I may create an outfit, pick out some nail polish, or design a quote graphic. Today’s cover is… The Impostor Queen by Sarah Fine This cover has some cool bright red and peachy tones, mixed with black and very light blue. I usually don’t go ALL out with the makeup aspect, but her makeup on the cover is too pretty to ignore! I thought it would be fun to show some similar colors to the ones she’s wearing on her face. I chose a dress to match the “Queen” font and some black and light blue accessories. The Imposter Queen by bookmarklit featuring a holiday nail polish Mini Review I have been trying to get better about reading more fantasy books. I always say how it’s one of my favorite genres, but I find that over half of the books I read every year are contemporaries. It’s one of my major goals of 2016 to have a better distribution of book genres, and THE IMPOSTOR QUEEN was the first fantasy book I read this year! (Well, aside from finishing up my […]

ARC Review: Truthwitch

Posted December 24, 2015 / Book Reviews / 7 Comments

PHEW. That was quite a read. I honestly had no idea what to expect with this one, but whatever my expectations were – they were definitely exceeded. I should definitely preface this review with: I don’t read high fantasy. Like, ever. I’ve come to realize that I tell people I like fantasy, but have really read a small amount of the genre. I prefer lighter fantasy or paranormal reads. This book, which is definitely a high fantasy, was kind of a stretch for my brain. The world-building was very complicated. I was confused at the beginning, but some things started to click into place within the first 70-100 pages. I think that hardcore fantasy readers won’t have a problem with this. I liked being thrown into the action though; it was interesting to see the two girls kicking ass but wondering why they were on the run. The whole premise of the book was just too cool. Essentially, there are people in their world who have powers and people who don’t. Some powers are more valuable than others, so Safi, the Truthwitch, is hiding hers. There are so many twists involving people wanting her, chasing her, or trying to kidnap her. She’s best friends with Iseult, a Threadwitch (meaning she can see the threads that tie people together or make up their feelings). Again, it took me a while to figure out what certain powers were and how everyone came together. I don’t think I could even describe anything else about […]

Reread Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Posted December 18, 2015 / Book Reviews / 6 Comments

I remember getting this one in the mail as a preorder… and reading it right away! My parents were reading them after me, so they would always bug me to finish right away. Of course, that was never a problem. I usually raced through these! Ugh, the feels again. This book and the previous totally slayed me the first time around. I mean, honestly. I couldn’t believe that she KILLED THEM BOTH. So cruel. (It was so hard to keep this information to myself the first time I read them too… I kept being like MOM PLEASE FINISH I NEED TO DISCUSS THIS WITH SOMEONE!) I also remembered that this is the one where Harry finally gets an idea of what it will actually take to kill Voldemort. The quest for horcruxes kicks off. Can my answer still just be: Harry Potter + reread = DUH. I mean, really, who do you think I am? I’m pretty surprised I didn’t reread these sooner honestly. Jim Dale’s narrator voice is totally bae. SAD AS USUAL. Ugh. I have to say, it feels weird to finally be at this part of the reread! Only one book left. Unfortunately I remember not loving the 7th book much until about halfway through. That period of time where they’re literally walking around and setting up camp was so boring. ANYWAYS BACK TO THIS BOOK. So there were actually lots of things I forgot about! I didn’t remember that he and Ginny started dating in this book […]

ARC Review: Six of Crows

Posted November 13, 2015 / Book Reviews / 9 Comments

I personally didn’t enjoy this book as much as I had hoped. I can absolutely, unequivocally say that (objectively) this is an amazing story written by a talented author that I generally love… but the heist aspect was just not for me. It is genuinely the most stereotypical case of “it’s not you, it’s me.” I started reading my ARC from BEA in September and seriously struggled for the first 30 pages. It was interesting but confusing. I liked the writing (DUH) but wasn’t sure the heist aspect would keep me engaged. I decided to put the book aside after continuing to struggle through 100 pages, because at this point the book was being released. I decided to use an Audible credit to see if that helped. It kind of did, but not really. Here’s my progress through this book: Like honestly it took way too much effort and time to read this book. I barely feel like I even know what happened. I just could not focus for the life of me. However, all of that negative aside – I can truly appreciate this story and am really interested to see where Bardugo takes us next! Great things I can appreciate: Super character-driven, even when they’re essentially a ragtag crew of criminals MULTIPLE SHIPS SETTING SAIL, oh god Leigh Bardugo’s amazing, gorgeous writing style The end (last 20-40% or so) of the book moved faster and was more enjoyable in general Things that didn’t work for me: The pacing […]

Mini Reviews: Magonia and The Good Girls

Posted July 3, 2015 / Book Reviews / 3 Comments

I don’t really even know what to say about it, except that it was incredibly unique and unlike anything I’ve ever read before. I actually HATE birds and am very afraid of them, so I’m surprised this book worked for me at all. We chose this one for my book club and pretty much all agreed with that. Overall, I enjoyed this book, but I did have a few major struggles: It was hard to picture Magonia and the bird people. I feel like most fantasy books have the issue of too much description, but this one could have used a bit more. When writing about a land that’s technically an ocean with ships and different bird-creatures, people are going to have a tough time picturing it. I needed more detail overall. I know that Aza was trying to learn what the issues were in Magonia, as well as her reasons for being there, but it was hard to grasp. They didn’t really tell her anything, and thus the reader didn’t know anything. It would have been better to have a bit more information and explanation. Aza’s reaction to Magonia was not believable. Obviously most of the book is pretty unbelievable, but what struck me the most was that Aza just accepted it. She literally learned that she was basically a bird person in this crazy place above the clouds… and she just went with it! I would have been screaming “what the fuck” repeatedly. Same with Jason. How did […]

Review: Stardust

Posted June 25, 2015 / Book Reviews / 8 Comments

I finally read a Neil Gaiman book! And the bonus is that it was an audiobook narrated in his lovely accent. I picked this one on a whim when Alyssa recommended some to me (and showed me her blog post with specific recommendations). To be totally honest, I don’t have much to say. I really enjoyed listening to this but think I would probably need to listen again and/or watch the movie to figure out a lot of what happened. It seems kind of weird to give this one four stars, when I was fairly distracted throughout, but it was so good! His writing (or, in this case, narrating) style was excellent. I loved it. The fairytale elements were so cool and following Tristran on his journey reminded me of all of those classic stories. After finishing Ella Enchanted right before this (which is obviously not the same exact thing, but kind of similar!), I couldn’t help but love the feeling of following someone on a magical journey. Tristran ventures out of his small village called Wall and into the land of Faerie. He meets a lot of interesting characters along the way, in search of the star that he saw fall. He wants to bring the star back for the girl he loves, in order to prove his affection. I loved all of the side characters and how their stories intertwined with Tristran’s. I definitely didn’t see that ending coming and frankly I feel like I should have. It was all […]

Reread Review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Posted June 6, 2015 / Book Reviews / 6 Comments

I don’t remember if we preordered this one or if I went to the store and bought it. I can’t imagine that I waited to read it for any reason, so I have a feeling it was delivered on release day. I really can’t believe I was 13 when I first read this. I vividly remember sitting around the pool or on our back porch reading this during the summer vacation. UGH OBVIOUSLY I REMEMBER THE ENDING OF THIS. The first very very very sad death in the series. Ugh. Stop reading here if for some reason you haven’t read the series: I was so heartbroken when Sirius died. Harry finally had a family, and maybe even a chance to live with him (because finally the Ministry believed them about Voldemort’s return)… and it got plucked away. You cruel woman, JK Rowling. Otherwise I truthfully didn’t remember that much about this book, except for hating Umbridge and everything she did to the school. My answer stands: because HARRY POTTER! I didn’t think I was mentally ready to reread about Sirius though, so that wasn’t fun. This book is honestly the one that I wasn’t looking forward to rereading as much. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loooove the creation of the Order and Dumbledore’s Army – but everything else (Umbridge, Sirius, etc.) depresses me. It’s hard to read a book with such a vicious antagonist (sometimes I think I hate her more than Voldemort). It goes without saying that I […]

Reread Review: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Posted May 15, 2015 / Book Reviews / 5 Comments

This is the first book I had to anxiously await reading! Since I finished the first three books before this one’s release, I had to wait and wait for it to come out. My parents were pretty good about letting me preorder the books (especially because they were addicted to them at this point, too!) and I remember being so damn excited for it to arrive. This book is huuuuge in size and I remember walking around everywhere with it in my hands, barely able to fit. I also loved the Triwizard Tournament aspect of this book. It was such a cool idea and kept the action dispersed throughout the book. I knew that this was kind of the “turning point” in the series, where Voldemort is officially back; the books get much darker from here on out. Duh, Harry Potter! I always wanted to reread this series. Beyond that, though, I was almost the most anxious to reread this one out of all of them. I knew that #3 and #4 were close favorites of mine, but I always said Prisoner of Azkaban was my favorite. I wanted to reread this one to see if my reigning favorite would remain, or if this one would take its place! Well, I’m pretty sure this one has officially become my favorite! It feels weird to say that, but I guess my tastes have changed. I just LOVED the whole tournament, the new characters, and the fact that this book is THE book […]