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What’s on my TBR List This Year?
Hello and happy not-so-new year! I was just looking through the books I read in 2020, and I realised that despite my extended absence from the blogosphere, I was able to read over 120 books (I stopped counting at 127). Since I’m on a roll, I decided to share the titles that have made it to my 2021 TBR list so far. The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty “The final chapter in the Daevabad Trilogy, in which a con-woman and an idealistic djinn prince join forces to save a magical kingdom from a devastating civil war…“ I’ve read the first two books in this series, and so far, I’m…
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Mixed Feelings // Spin the Dawn Mini Review + Aesthetic
AMAZON — GOODREADS — BARNES & NOBLE — BOOK DEPOSITORY I feel like I should start paying more attention to book descriptions because the first few lines of marketing spiel can be quite deceiving. * “Project Runway meets Mulan in this sweeping YA fantasy about a young girl who poses as a boy to compete for the role of imperial tailor …” * That’s the first (and only) thing I saw about this book that prompted me to read it. It’s probably what’s made several other people eager to read this book, because who wouldn’t be drawn in by the promise of a Mulan kind of story? However, I think…
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Book Review: A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi
CONTENT WARNING: BULLYING, XENOPHOBIA, AND GENERAL DISPLAYS OF ASSHOLERY AMAZON — GOODREADS — BARNES & NOBLE — BOOK DEPOSITORY I’d been wanting to read a Tahereh Mafi book for a while (I tried reading Shatter Me, but couldn’t get past the first few pages), so this seemed like a good place to start. And I must say, I devoured this book in a few hours and loved every minute of it. * “I was stuck in another small town, trapped in another universe populated by the kind of people who’d only ever seen faces like mine on their evening news, and I hated it.“ * Right from the second page,…
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On the Topic of YA Not Being True to Its Audience
This isn’t a new topic as far as discussions in the book community go, but I’ve seen a few Twitter threads floating around that seem to be talking about this. So, I decided to add my tuppence. *** I honestly have a problem with the category being called Young Adult, and that’s mostly because technically, young adulthood is from late teenage years to mid twenties (some people say it ends at mid thirties, but I draw the line at 28). That is very broad, but it’s a bit more accurate, because thirteen year olds are not young adults. But in the book world, young adults are age 12-18. So, for…
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Book Series I Started (and loved) but Never Finished
I haven’t finished a lot of series, and I realised this when I was gathering books for my 20 Books for 20 Years post. So, here’s a list of book series I started, enjoyed, and plan to finish. Eventually. The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer Cinder is one of the many books that have sparked joy in my life, and I can’t really say why I haven’t finished reading this series, especially since I have Winter, which is the book I’m yet to read. The Premonition by Amy Bartol It always helps when I have all the books at once, and that was the problem with this series. I binge…
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Book Review: Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart
AMAZON GOODREADS BARNES & NOBLE BOOK DEPOSITORY *** I think what prompted me to skip all the books on my TBR list for Grace and Fury was the fact that it seemed to be about strong females defying odds in their various positions (at least, that’s what I got from the synopsis). To give you a little background, the story features Nomi and Serina. While they’re both sisters, they’ve been raised completely differently, with Serina being groomed to be a Grace in the palace, and Nomi being trained to be her sister’s handmaiden. Serina, who is satisfied with the future that has been carved out for her doesn’t understand Nomi’s…
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Thoughts I Had While Reading The Wicked King
Warning: I copied this non-review straight from my notes while I read the book. So, my apologies if it’s not very coherent. There will be minor spoilers ahead, especially for those who are yet to read The Cruel Prince. *** Cardan is quickly becoming my favourite character. Of course, I have to get over how much I disliked him in The Cruel Prince. There’s no clear good vs bad in this story. Everyone does morally questionable stuff. I guess it’s all about who has the best intentions. The only clear rules that Jude and maybe Cardan subscribe to: don’t kill your family and always be there for your siblings (unless they killed your family, of course). Locke is probably going to reveal…
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Book Review: The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
AMAZON — GOODREADS — BARNES & NOBLE — BOOK DEPOSITORY *** I was first introduced to Holly Black through a cereal box. I was about ten years old, and Simon and Schuster did a special promo with a cereal company. So, I found myself with a mini edition of the Spiderwick Chronicles, which was a pretty cool read. After that, nothing life changing happened. I didn’t read any other Holly Black book until late 2018 when I decided to succumb to the Cruel Prince hype. The Cruel Prince features Jude, a human who lives among fae. She’s reminded daily of how she’s worthless because she’s human, and so she yearns…
