Waiting on Wednesday (51)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that you are eagerly anticipating.

Fear the Drowning Deep by Sarah Glenn Marsh
Genre: Young Adult/Historical Fiction/Paranormal
Page Length: 256 pages
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Publication Date: October 4, 2016

About Fear the Drowning Deep (via Goodreads):

Witch’s apprentice Bridey Corkill has hated the ocean ever since she watched her granddad dive in and drown with a smile on his face. So when a dead girl rolls in with the tide in the summer of 1913, sixteen-year-old Bridey suspects that whatever compelled her granddad to leap into the sea has made its return to the Isle of Man.

Soon, villagers are vanishing in the night, but no one shares Bridey’s suspicions about the sea. No one but the island’s witch, who isn’t as frightening as she first appears, and the handsome dark-haired lad Bridey rescues from a grim and watery fate. The cause of the deep gashes in Fynn’s stomach and his lost memories are, like the recent disappearances, a mystery well-guarded by the sea. In exchange for saving his life, Fynn teaches Bridey to master her fear of the water — stealing her heart in the process.

Now, Bridey must work with the Isle’s eccentric witch and the boy she isn’t sure she can trust — because if she can’t uncover the truth about the ancient evil in the water, everyone she loves will walk into the sea, never to return.

On Monthly TBRs

Hi everyone! As it is the beginning of the month, I thought I would discuss monthly TBRs. I always seem to set a monthly TBR, but 90% of the time, I just don't follow through. So I thought I'd briefly (and I do mean very briefly) talk about why I set a monthly TBR, and a few problems I always seem to have.

Why We Do It:

The main reason why I think we set monthly TBRs is for motivation. A lot of us have goals for reading. Whether we are participating in the Goodreads challenge, simply like to be consistent readers, or want to stay on schedule with our review output for the month, we usually need to have some way to motivate ourselves to stay on task.

Problems:

Mood Reading - I know this is true for me, and I'm sure this is true for a lot of other people as well. Sometimes, we're just not in the mood for a particular book or genre. Or we're in the mood for a very specific type of book. For example, a few months ago I just really wanted to read a book in the vein of Rebel of the Sands. There were plenty of other books on my TBR, but something in my brain told me I had to read it. So I did. It's hard to explain where those feelings come from, but because of this inability to pinpoint it, I think it's all the more difficult to counteract these moods and actually read the books we initially planned on reading.

Life - This is obviously vague, but sometimes life just gets in the way. I know I'd rather be reading a lot of the time, but naturally life will continue to go on whether we chose to be living our own or living through someone else's (although those lives will pick up where we left off), so we sometimes don't always have the time to read as many books as we initially planned. My life always seems to get in the way. I know that I probably could make more time for reading, but I rarely ever meet my reading goals for a month (and I barely scrape by on my Goodreads yearly reading challenges).

Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Review) - A Heartwrenchingly Beautiful "True [Love] Story"

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
Series: Daughter of Smoke & Bone #1
Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy/Paranormal Romance
Page Length: 418 pages
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

About Daughter of Smoke and Bone (via Goodreads):

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor was sublime. It had all of my favorite things in a book: a fantastic protagonist, a searing romance, and an exquisite world. Although the series is a pretty popular one, going into it I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into. However, the book was recently recommended to me by one of my favorite authors, so I knew I had waited long enough, and I chose to finally pick it up. Boy am I glad I did.

The world-building, though not as emphasized in the first half of the book, was one of my absolute favorite parts about Daughter of Smoke and Bone. As each tidbit of information was revealed about the magic system and the other worlds beyond our own, I was drawn further into the story's intricate web of tales. The magic system was so intriguing, otherworldly, and gloriously refreshing. I'd never read about anything quite like it. In addition to the other worlds Taylor built, however, I was also captivated by Prague and the many places Karou travelled throughout the novel. I actually really want to go to Prague now, even though I won't be able to find my own Akiva there to greet me.

The characters were so wonderfully eccentric and I loved them all dearly. I was so fascinated by the chimaera, seraphim, and even all the humans Taylor incorporated into the story, as well as their backgrounds and the history behind everything. I especially loved Karou. She might be one of my favorite protagonists out there! She's just so spunky, sassy, and overall fabulous! I LOVE HER. AND AKIVA. I LOVE HIM TOO. I LOVE THEM BOTH INDIVIDUALLY AND TOGETHER. THEY WERE JUST SO BRILLIANT AND ROMANTIC AND *fans self* PERFECTION.

Another thing I loved about the characters is that none of them are truly "bad guys". Throughout the novel, readers learn both sides of the story, and the lines are so blurred and grey. It's not as simple as black and white. There's hundreds of years of strife and it's hard (if not impossible) to pinpoint who's to blame. And it's brilliant. There is no true villain, except perhaps the concept of war itself.

Everything about Daughter of Smoke and Bone was so elegant and beautiful. The writing style was captivating, the descriptions gorgeously vivid, and the characters vibrant, deep, and perhaps a bit peculiar. Yet I soaked it all in and loved the story with every fiber of my being.

My Rating: 5 stars

July TBR

Can you believe it's already July? I definitely can't! Anyway, I'm hoping to read a bunch of books this month:

1. How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather
2. Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst
3. The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
4. I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
5. The Telling by Alexandra Sirowy
6. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (reread)
7. A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
8. Everland by Wendy Spinale

What are your reading plans for July?

June Wrap-Up

Hey guys! June went by so fast, didn't it? I can't believe we're already a third of the way through summer... On the bright side though, a lot of bookish things happened this month!

HAUL

Books I Bought

1. Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

2. Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor

3. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

4. Ivory and Bone by Julie Eshbaugh
5. Mosquitoland by David Arnold

Books I Won

B-Fest

1. The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon (ARC)

2. Kids of Appetite by David Arnold (ARC)

Giveaways

1. The Telling by Alexandra Sirowy (ARC) - thank you so much, Alexandra Sirowy!
2. A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro (eBook) - thank you again, Tamara!

BOOKS I READ

1. Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin

2. For the Record by Charlotte Huang

3. Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

4. Kids of Appetite by David Arnold (ARC)
5. The Siren by Kiera Cass
6. A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

THE BLOG

Books I Reviewed

The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig (3.5 stars)

For the Record by Charlotte Huang (2.5 stars)

The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner (4.5 stars)

Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin (4 stars)

The Neverland Wars (DNF)
The Siren (2.5 stars)

Discussions I Posted

Wherein I Attempt to Explain the Significance of Secondary Characters

The Complexity of Rating Contemporaries

Guests Who Posted

Shelly shared some book recommendations in her YA LGBT+ Books Start Guide

Other Blogging/Bookish Events

 I thanked some friends and shared some lessons and favorites from the year in celebration of my one-year blogoversary! Thank you to all who have supported me so far <3

I started a bookish instagram (aka a bookstagram)! It's still a work in progress, but I'm enjoying the different outlet for expressing my love of books and exploring a different type of photography.



I was resorted into a Hogwarts house on Pottermore because I forgot my previous account's info, and now I'm having an identity crisis again. So this might get ramble-y, but before I took the Sorting Hat quiz on Pottermore a few months ago, I always considered myself a Ravenclaw. That's what every other quiz I'd ever taken said, that's what I classified myself as to begin with, and I'm pretty sure I randomly stumbled across the Pottermore one online somewhere too and that said I was a Ravenclaw...? Anyway, I took the new official quiz a few months ago after they revamped the site, and it said I was a Slytherin. I was kind of shocked, but I grew to accept and love that I was a Slytherin. Flash forward to Tuesday when I created a new account, and I got sorted into Gryffindor. And then I took the Ilvermorny (North American equivalent of Hogwarts) Sorting quiz and I got Pukwudgie...  WHO EVEN AM I?!?!? 

Waiting on Wednesday (50)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that you are eagerly anticipating.

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
Series: Strange the Dreamer #1
Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy
Page Length: 528 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: September 27, 2016

About Strange the Dreamer (via Goodreads):

A breathtaking new novel by National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author Laini Taylor

Strange the Dreamer is the story of:

the aftermath of a war between gods and men.
a mysterious city stripped of its name.
a mythic hero with blood on his hands.
a young librarian with a singular dream.
a girl every bit as dangerous as she is in danger.
alchemy and blood candy, nightmares and godspawn, moths and monsters, friendship and treachery, love and carnage.

Welcome to Weep.

The Siren (Review) ~ Not Enthralled by This Siren's Song

The Siren by Kiera Cass
Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy
Page Length: 327 pages
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperTeen

About The Siren (via Goodreads):

Love is a risk worth taking.

Years ago, Kahlen was rescued from drowning by the Ocean. To repay her debt, she has served as a Siren ever since, using her voice to lure countless strangers to their deaths. Though a single word from Kahlen can kill, she can’t resist spending her days on land, watching ordinary people and longing for the day when she will be able to speak and laugh and live freely among them again. 

Kahlen is resigned to finishing her sentence in solitude…until she meets Akinli. Handsome, caring, and kind, Akinli is everything Kahlen ever dreamed of. And though she can’t talk to him, they soon forge a connection neither of them can deny…and Kahlen doesn’t want to.

Falling in love with a human breaks all the Ocean’s rules, and if the Ocean discovers Kahlen’s feelings, she’ll be forced to leave Akinli for good. But for the first time in a lifetime of following the rules, Kahlen is determined to follow her heart.

The Siren was a fun summer read. The premise was interesting, and the execution was decent. However, the storyline was predictable, and the characters were not very fleshed out. I saw next to no character development, and the love was way too instantaneous. A major case of instalove, if you will. And I hate instalove.

Kahlen wasn't a bad main character, but she was far from my favorite. Her relationships were decent with everyone, but it irked me that she spent decades with the Ocean and her "sisters", and chose to mope over a boy she'd only known for a minuscule fraction of that time.

To return to the topic of instalove, their interactions were too brief. There were so few scenes actually had Kahlen and Akinli together, so it was hard for me to root for them when there was so little to root for. I couldn't get a clear sense of their relationship, so I had no motivation to cheer them on when so many other people were hurt in their wake.

The secondary characters were tried-and-true friends to Kahlen and to each other, but I would have liked it if they had a bigger role. The scenes they were in seemed to go by too quickly, and they seemed to play such a tiny role in the story despite their long-standing relationship with Kahlen and the sisterhood.

In addition, I would have loved to learn more about the Ocean. She was a very unique "character" and although she irritated me quite frequently, she was so intriguing and kind of fragile, in a sense. I wish I knew more of the mythology/backstory behind her and the sirens.

All in all, The Siren was a decent and quick read, but there was a lot left to be desired.

My rating: 2 stars