2021 Bookish Resolutions

 

1) Post 2 -3 times a week

 For this one I want to post at least 2-3 times every week and not let the blog fall to the wayside. Whether its memes, reviews, promo for upcoming releases, I want to have the content like I used to. 

2) Be more active

Get back to being more active with the book community that I have been a part of on Twitter. I have met lots of amazing people on there and I want to get back on there and participate more. 

3) Start a Book Tok
Ok so I have a TikTok account. Really who doesn't anymore though and I don't post videos but I see a lot on BookTok, I just see a lot of the same books being promoted. So this one is a long shot but possibly start a BookTok for books that I don't see on there. 

4) Come up with new ideas
I want to come up with some new ideas for my blog for some different ideas to keep it fresh and exciting. I do have some plans already in mind so this shouldn't be too hard to do, I hope. 

Book Review: The Falling In Love Montage

Title: The Falling In Love Montage 

Author: Ciara Smyth 
Publisher: HarperTeen 
Release Date: June 9th, 2020 

Synopsis: 

Saoirse doesn’t believe in love at first sight or happy endings. If they were real, her mother would still be able to remember her name and not in a care home with early onset dementia. A condition that Saoirse may one day turn out to have inherited. So she’s not looking for a relationship. She doesn’t see the point in igniting any romantic sparks if she’s bound to burn out.

But after a chance encounter at an end-of-term house party, Saoirse is about to break her own rules. For a girl with one blue freckle, an irresistible sense of mischief, and a passion for rom-coms.

Unbothered by Saoirse’s no-relationships rulebook, Ruby proposes a loophole: They don’t need true love to have one summer of fun, complete with every cliché, rom-com montage-worthy date they can dream up—and a binding agreement to end their romance come fall. It would be the perfect plan, if they weren’t forgetting one thing about the Falling in Love Montage: when it’s over, the characters actually fall in love… for real.

Review: 

My first book and review of 2021 everyone. This book was everything, so let's get into it. 

Saoirse was a great character to follow along with, she may not believe in happy endings but watching her fall in love and see how she grew was an adventure and there was a lot of emotions seeing her follow along with the plan to just have fun with Ruby. Ruby to me was the opposite of Saoirse and which is why I felt that they were able to click as well they did. Their chemistry was there and I wanted so much for them. 

The writing was very well done and flowed well. The humor and emotions that went into the story brought it to life, so that it felt like was there with the cast. The story also went into some heavier topics such as early onset dementia and seeing how they was put on the page was well done from what I know of. 

The ending of the book really got to me and I'm not going to say why because of spoilers but it left me emotional in a good way. Its definitely a story about falling in love and realizing how great of a feeling it is. 

Rating: 4 Stars 

It's 2021!

 Well 2020 is officially behind us now (at least the number is), so I'm kicking off the new year with bringing myself back back. I'm hoping to post every couple of days like I used to and be better about it. So welcome back and here's to the blog's comeback. 

Book Review: Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

Title: Girls of Paper and Fire (Girls of Paper and Fire 1) 

Author: Natasha Ngan
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson Books
Release Date: November 6th, 2018
Rating: 5/5

Goodreads Summary:  

Each year, eight beautiful girls are chosen as Paper Girls to serve the king. It's the highest honor they could hope for...and the most demeaning. This year, there's a ninth. And instead of paper, she's made of fire. 

In this richly developed fantasy, Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most persecuted class of people in Ikhara. She lives in a remote village with her father, where the decade-old trauma of watching her mother snatched by royal guards for an unknown fate still haunts her. Now, the guards are back and this time it's Lei they're after -- the girl with the golden eyes whose rumored beauty has piqued the king's interest. 

Over weeks of training in the opulent but oppressive palace, Lei and eight other girls learns the skills and charm that befit a king's consort. There, she does the unthinkable -- she falls in love. Her forbidden romance becomes enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens her world's entire way of life. Lei, still the wide-eyed country girl at heart, must decide how far she's willing to go for justice and revenge. 

My Thoughts:
Yes for all the queer girls!!! I was so excited reading this book. Lei is strong and more than capable of kicking butt when she needs to and watching her discover her love for Wren made me extremely happy and Wren's character was one that I would want to read about time and time again.

Seeing how the girls navigated their new lives and kept themselves going in the face of the turmoil and changes that were brought upon them, kept me turning page after page, along with rooting for the girls to fight back and win their freedom. Getting themselves through the nights with the king and wanting to just be together without endangering their families and themselves. Oh and that ending. That ending left me wanting so much more, that was such a cliffhanger.

Until next time.

Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews  where we showcase books we've won, purchased, been sent, etc, that we have on our shelves now. So this week September 1-September 7, I have gotten: 

Physical: 

Crowfeather's Trial (Warriors Super Edition 11) by Erin Hunter 

Shadows of the Dark Crystal (Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal 1) by J.M. Lee

E-Books:

Vortex Visions (Air Awakens: Vortex Chronicles 1) by Elise Kova 

For Review:
The Map from Here to There by Emery Lord (Thank you Bloomsbury!!) 

Book Review: Before She Ignites by Jodi Meaows

Title: Before She Ignites (Fallen Isles 1)
Author: Jodi Meadows
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: September 12, 2017
Rating: 4/5 Stars

Goodreads Summary:

Before

Mira Minkoba is the Hopebearer. Since the day she was born, she’s been told she’s special. Important. Perfect. She’s known across the Fallen Isles not just for her beauty, but for the Mira Treaty named after her, a peace agreement which united the seven islands against their enemies on the mainland.
But Mira has never felt as perfect as everyone says. She counts compulsively. She struggles with crippling anxiety. And she’s far too interested in dragons for a girl of her station.

After  

Then Mira discovers an explosive secret that challenges everything she and the Treaty stand for. Betrayed by the very people she spent her life serving, Mira is sentenced to the Pit–the deadliest prison in the Fallen Isles. There, a cruel guard would do anything to discover the secret she would die to protect.

No longer beholden to those who betrayed her, Mira must learn to survive on her own and unearth the dark truths about the Fallen Isles–and herself–before her very world begins to collapse.

My Thoughts: 
I'm a fan of Jodi Meadows "The Orphan Queen and The Mirror King" and I didn't realize this series was out in the world until earlier this year. I kind of disappeared from the book world. Anyway I loved this story.

Being able to see a main character with anxiety was nice because as a reader with anxiety, I could understand everything that Mira was going through. Learning to adapt and not let her anxiety rule everything she did and every little decision rocked. And we have dragons! Dragons! I loved that the dragons play such an important role to Mira and the story and how much they mean to the Seven Isles. Seeing the dragons and the role that Lex had was pivotal in how much Mira discovered about herself.

I know this is short but I'm a little rusty and I can't wait to continue the series soon.

Until next time!

September Reading List

Hi everyone! This is going to be my *hopeful* reading list for the month of September. I say hopeful because there's a lot going on this month family wise. A whole week of birthdays occur towards the end of the month. I'm not kidding there's 6 of them within a week and half. 

So onto the list: 

Finish:
Before She Ignites by Jodi Meadows
The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco 

Start: 

As She Ascends by Jodi Meadows
When She Reigns by Jodi Meadows

Impostors by Scott Westerfeld 

Shatter City by Scott Westerfeld
Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan 

Maybe: 

The Heart Forger by Rin Chupeco