Books

2018 | Books I Plan On Reading

Just like last year I decided to set another goal to read 36 books this year even though I sort of… kind of… failed last year’s challenge.

But that’s the idea of a CHALLENGE, isn’t it?

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Here’s a few of the books I plan on reading in 2018;

Zenith is actually by a book blogger and I was lucky enough to get this for review (thanks Amazon Vine)! Wild Beauty and Roseblood were from Owlcrate’s. Heartless and Red Queen were gifts from my Bubba Bear last year and Strange The Dreamer was a purchase (the UK cover is SO MUCH prettier than the US).

The rest of the books I plan on reading are all ebooks on my Kindle or books that haven’t been released yet!

If you’d like to see the full list of my 2018 TBR you can find that [ H E R E ]. This list will change as the year goes on and it does not include separate lists I’ll be making for 2018 reading challenges like my seasonal Halloween challenge or the 2018 Debut Author Challenge and any other bookish challenge I can find/come up with!

There are a few titles I’m absolutely looking forward to!

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Forest of a Thousand Lanterns was released last year and has gotten some pretty positive responses from the bookstagramming community. I had to put it off last year to read books I had for review but I’m ITCHING to dive into this one! It sounds so good and uh can we just talk about how freakin awesome this cover is?!

An East Asian fantasy reimagining of The Evil Queen legend about one peasant girl’s quest to become Empress–and the darkness she must unleash to achieve her destiny.

Say that doesn’t sound super interesting!

 

34275232I might be a little bit biased about my excitement for this book just because my name is in it. Whooooo knows.

This book isn’t released until the end of January and though I keep forgetting what it’s actually about, I’m in love with this cover as well!

Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice’s life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice’s grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood, Alice learns how bad her luck can really get: her mother is stolen away―by a figure who claims to come from the Hinterland, the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother’s stories are set. Alice’s only lead is the message her mother left behind: “Stay away from the Hazel Wood.”

I mean okay, that sounds right up my alley!

Both of these books play into my love for fairy tales. Maybe this year I’ll stumble on a new genre, or try a new genre… who knows.

I hope to complete my reading challenge for this year, I miss reading and falling in love with books — and it’s been YEARS since I’ve actually FALLEN IN LOVE with a book! My boyfriend tries so hard to find books he thinks I may like, or books I’ve mentioned that he agree’s I’d really love and I love that he supports my love for books and reading and fairy tales. I absolutely can’t wait to fall in love with a book and tell him all about it!

Last year he even joined me in my reading challenge though I’m not sure he’s going to this year — he has graphic novels and manga he needs to catch up on and I do love when he tells me about a story he’s read that he wants to share with me too 🙂

So here’s to 2018; finding new genres, new book loves and reading books I’ve put off!

Are there any books you’re looking forward to or planning on reading in 2018?

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Books

October 2017 Reading Challenge

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Over the last few years I’ve set a reading challenge for myself in October — sometimes this extends to September or December but it’s always always been in October. I dedicate this month to read all the “scarier” books I pushed off the rest of the year. And normally I would look forward to this challenge but this year I live alone so reading scary books is a bit of MORE than JUST a challenge for me, especially with my anxiety acting up and making me see things that aren’t there (which it tends to do when I get really stressed out — I just cant figure out the trigger for it this time and it’s driving me nuts).

If you’d like to see the covers to the books I’m mentioning you can check out my Amazon list of it [ H E R E ] as I’m too lazy to figure out a format for these book covers in this entry though I would love to do it, if I could figure it out. Perhaps I’ll edit this entry later and play around with that. Or not. Who knows. But for now you get just a basic list.

Any titles I come across to add to the list that isn’t on this list can be found on the Amazon list. In addition I have 2 1/2 re-reads I try to do every year of my 2 favorite passed challenge reads!

Again, to see the covers click ⇢ H E R E.

⇢ The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey
⇢ And I Darken by Kiersten White
⇢ Roar by Cora Carmack
⇢ The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco
⇢ The Shadow Society by Marie Rutkoski
⇢ Roseblood by A.G. Howard
⇢ Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgans
⇢ Frostblood by Elly Blake
⇢ Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
⇢ Haunted by Alexandra Adornetto
⇢ The Beast Is an Animal by Peternelle van Arsdale
⇢ Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
⇢ Wicked Like a Wildfire by Lana Popovic
⇢ The Crowns of Croswald by D.E. Night

RE – READS

⇢ Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
⇢ Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan
⇢ Twilight by Stephanie Meyer (MAYBE)

Books

Book Haul

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FOR REVIEW FROM AMAZON VINE

  • The Promise of Amazing by Robin Constantine
  • The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith

WON

  • Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy

 
 

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NEGALLEY

  • Herbs for Stress & Anxiety by Rosemary Gladstar
  • Oblivion by Sasha Dawn
  • Sugar Baby by Gesine Bullock-Prado
  • 18 Truths by Jamie Ayres
  • The Break-Up Artist by Philip Siegel
  • Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off by Jill Steeples
  • The Best Kind of Broken by Chelsea Fine
  • Undone by Shannon Richard
  • Sing Sweet Nightingale by Erica Cameron
  • Witchfall by Victoria Lamb
  • Crazy For You by Emma Heatherington
  • My Date From Hell by Tellulah Darling
  • Before I Wake by C.L. Taylor

 

I didn’t snap a picture of the books I bought because they’re all on my Kindle annnnd I forgot haha.

 

What did you get this week?

Books

Book Review: Things I Can’t Forget by Miranda Kenneally

Things I Can’t Forget by Miranda Kenneally
Hundred Oaks #3
Published: March 1st, 2013 from Sourcebooks Fire
Genre
: Young Adult > Contemporary
Rating
: 2 out of 5
Source
: From publisher via NetGalley (Thank you Sourcebooks Fire!)
Summary
:
Kate has always been the good girl. Too good, according to some people at school—although they have no idea the guilty secret she carries. But this summer, everything is different…

This summer she’s a counselor at Cumberland Creek summer camp, and she wants to put the past behind her. This summer Matt is back as a counselor too. He’s the first guy she ever kissed, and he’s gone from a geeky songwriter who loved The Hardy Boys to a buff lifeguard who loves to flirt…with her. Kate used to think the world was black and white, right and wrong. Turns out, life isn’t that easy…

~*~

Things I Can’t Forget is a companion novel to Catching Jordan and Stealing Parker both of which I own but haven’t read yet. Thankfully, this is a series where you don’t need to read the first two in order to get the third one.

Kate as a character annoyed the crap out of me. I’m not big on religion, at all. I grew up a Roman Catholic and in 2006 changed my religion so the talk of God and the intensity at which Kate views God and religion sort of annoys me. It doesn’t annoy me that she believes, it annoys me that she tries to shove it down everyone elses throat. She blames herself for “sinning” when she did nothing wrong, the whole time I kept thinking about how freakin over dramatic she was being. She wasn’t her own person with her own thoughts, everything she did (her views on befriending someone or dating someone) was pulled from something someone else said. She didn’t make HER OWN decisions.

So when Matt steps in — a boy she use to go to religion camp with who is now all grown up and in a frat, she doesn’t know what to believe. Could a Christian still be in God’s good graces and be in a frat? Everything to Kate was black and white until she finds herself back at her old camp with a boy and a new friend who help her see that everything isn’t black and white.

I really liked Matt, he was a decent guy. Although he wasn’t that geeky outcasted kid that Kate remembered, he was still funny and caring and the fact that Kate meant so much to him was apparent. Apparent to everyone but Kate (though isn’t that how it always goes? Strange, right?). He was patient with her while she sorted her feelings and her beliefs and never pressured her.

I also really liked Parker (and now I’m very tempted to read Stealing Parker to know her story), she was exactly what Kate needed in order to move on from the things she was holding on to. Also, I just really like Parker cause she’s intense about animal rights. Whoo! Go Parker! 😛

Though I have to be honest, by the time Kate realizes this, I didn’t really care much for her character at all at that point. Although I didn’t enjoy this read as much as I thought I would, I’m still looking forward to the rest of the series.

Books

Book Review: After Hello by Lisa Mangum

After Hello by Lisa Mangum
Published
: Sept 4th 2012 from Shadow Mountain

Genre: Young Adult > Contemporary
Rating: 3½ out of 5
Source: From publisher via NetGalley
Summary:
What if the first day of your relationship was the only day you had?

Seventeen-year-old Sara is a seeker. She’s always on the lookout for the perfect moment to capture with her ever-present, point-and-shoot camera, especially on her first trip to New York City.
Sam is a finder. He has a knack for finding what other people can’t—a first-edition book or the last two tickets to a sold-out Broadway show. In New York, there is always something interesting to find.
When Sam and Sara’s paths cross, neither one of them is prepared for what they will find out about each other—and about themselves when they form an unlikely partnership in search of a seemingly elusive work of art. They have one day to find the impossible. Fate brought their talents together, but what happens when time runs out? Will love be able to overcome fate? This new novel from award-winning author Lisa Mangum explores what happens after hello.
~*~

After Hello was a hard book to get into in the beginning. I just didn’t really understand what was going on. Like the blurb states — Sara is a seeker and Sam is a finder. The more you read into it, the more their roles begin to make sense and once they unravel themselves, you find that Sara is seeker because she’s looking for answers and Sam is a finder because he’s lost his way. For Sam, finding things for other people and making them happy is what he does best, to make up for things that are too late. He’s confident that he can find almost anything anyone is looking for by trading. It all starts with a sugar packet. Yes, a sugar packet. Impressive, right?

What surprised me the most about this read was even though I was pretty close to giving it a DNF (Did Not Finish) rating, it surprised me by being one of those books that really make you think after you’ve flipped the last page. There’s something comforting about telling a stranger all your secrets. Maybe it’s because they have no prior memories or knowledge of you, so you can be whoever you want to be. After Hello I felt was also about letting go and moving on from things you can’t change in your past. From things you didn’t understand before and from things that aren’t going to change no matter how much you wish they would.

Books

Book Review: Yours Truly by Kirsty Greenwood

 

Yours Truly by Kirsty Greenwood
Published: July 4th, 2012 from Novelicious Books
Genre: Fiction > Contemporary > Chick Lit
Rating: 4 our of 5
Source: Bought on Amazon for Kindle
Summary:
Your bum does not look big in that dress.

Mmm, it tastes delicious!

Of course you’re better looking than Jon Hamm.

 

Newly engaged Natalie Butterworth is an easy-going girl. She’ll do anything for a quiet life and if telling a few teensy white lies keeps her friends and family happy, then so what? It’s not like they’ll ever discover what she’s really thinking…

Until one night, thanks to a pub hypnotist, Natalie’s most private thoughts begin to bubble up and pop out of her mouth. Things get very messy indeed. Especially when some sticky home truths offend her fiancé.

Natalie must track down the hypnotist before the wedding is officially cancelled. So along with bad influence bestie Meg, Natalie finds herself in the Yorkshire Parish of Little Trooley – a small village bursting with big secrets, nosy old folk and intriguing Wellington-wearing men.
When the girls get stranded in the village with no means of escape and no way to break the hypnotist’s spell, Natalie is forced to face the truths she has been avoiding her whole life…

 

 

Yours Truly follows Natalie, a newly engaged… pushover. I guess that was sort of mean. But she is! Natalie has a hard time letting people down or well, telling them when she’s not pleased and I do mean PEOPLE. Not just family members, but anyone and everyone. Her fiancè Olly is a total tool. The guy makes food that tastes like cardboard, requires that you shower before you sleep with him (and he showers before AND after) and has a habit of asking if it was good when he’s done. I mean, COME ON! Then there’s Natalie’s mom and sister who just irritated the utter crap out of me. How — why — I mean — seriously these two were just infuriating!

Natalie’s friend talks her into going to a hypnotist show as moral support to be hypnotized but the hypnotist doesn’t want her friend, he wants her so he pretends to hypnotize her friend only in reality to be hypnotizing Natalie! Natalie doesn’t realize this until she goes home later to find that she can’t filter her mouth to stop saying what she really thinks.

This begins her journey hours away from home to a small town where she ends up snowed in trying to find the hypnotist to reverse it all but in the process realizes a few things about herself, her fiancè and the people around her.

I will say I really enjoyed this book. Even though Natalie frustrated me, I was rooting for her the whole time. I loved her snarky attitude and I loved the heavy British slang that goes on in this book! I always tell myself to read more chick lit and I’m glad I finally am!

Books

October Reads

Every year I put together a challenge in October of books to read. The first year I did it was to push myself to read scary books. I use to LOVE scary books when I was a kid but it’s so much harder for me to read scary books now. Strange right? But the challenge isn’t for just scary books, it could be anything that also falls into the paranormal category. My list this year is a bit longer than it is most years, but I’m pretty confident I can finish the majority of these reads.

  • Paranormalcy (Paranormalcy #1) by Kiersten White
  • Kiss of Frost (Mythos academy #2)by Jennifer Estep
  • Flight (The Crescent Chronicles #1) by Alyssa Rose Ivy
  • Demons (Seers #2) by Heather Frost
  • Spellbound (Hex Hall #3) by Rachel Hawkins 😦
  • Team Human by Sarah Rees Brennan & Justine Larbalestier
  • Amber House by Kelly Moore, Tucker Reed & Larkin Reed
  • The Whispering House by Rebecca Wade
  • Under My Hat by Various Authors
  • The Legend of Sleepy Hallow by Washington Irving
  • Unraveling Isobel by Eileen Cook

I probably won’t be able to post reviews of all of these books on the blog, but I’ll be picking my top 4 and posting reviews of those!

What’s a book you’re itching to read this month?
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