Month: June 2018

Book tag: Beauty and the Beast

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I was tagged by Rebecca to do the Beauty and the Beast book tag. It always makes my day to find that I’m tagged in something, so thank you! Please check out her blog when you get a chance. 🙂

Tale As Old As Time: A Popular Theme, Trope or Setting You Will Never Get Bored of Reading

I’m never going to get sick of friends-to-lovers. Like, ever. Some recent friends-to-lovers books I’ve really enjoyed:

Belle: A Book You Bought For Its Beautiful Cover That’s Just As Beautiful On The Inside Too

I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it, I love everything about Starry Eyes! It has such a nice cover, which is really the only reason I requested the ARC, and what I found inside totally blew me away. ❤

Beast: A Book That You Didn’t Expect Much From But Pleasantly Surprised You

I had never read anything from Tara Sivec before when I requested this ARC, but I loved it! I did not expect a book about feminism, finding yourself, and friendship, but that’s exactly what I got.

Gaston: A Book Everyone Loves That You Don’t

I wanted to love The Wedding Date. Given my reading history, I should have loved The Wedding Date. I did not love it. I did not even really like it. I was really disappointed.

LeFou: A Loyal Sidekick You Can’t Help But Love More Than Their Counterpart

I don’t know if I’d really call them “sidekicks,” but I loved Dylan and Fitz from Airports, Exes, and Other Things I’m Over and honestly couldn’t have cared less what happened to the main characters.

Mrs. Potts, Chip, Lumiere, and Cogsworth: A Book That Helped You Through a Difficult Time or Taught You Something Valuable

These are three really quick books (all less than 200 pages) that I feel like I learned something from:

Something There: A Book or Series You Weren’t Into At First But Picked up Towards the End

Renegades by Marissa Meyer! There’s just so much going on in this book and everybody has two names and you have to keep track of whether they’re heroes or villains and it’s just a lot. But once I got everything straight in my head, I loved it.

Be Our Guest: A Fictional Character You’d Love to Have Over For Dinner

Michael Phan, please and thanks. 🙂

 

I’m going to tag anybody who likes Beauty and the Beast, or tags in general, to do this one! I think I’ve already tagged at least 20 people in the last week, so I’ll give you a break. 🙂 If you do the tag, please link back to this post so I get a notification!

Tag: Secret Life of a Book Blogger

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I was tagged by Bibi for the Secret Life of a Book Blogger tag! Bibi is one of the friendliest book bloggers I’ve ever met, so please go check out her blog when you get a chance! 💜

1. How long have you been blogging?
There are two answers to this question! (Maybe three, actually.) In general, I’ve been shouting out my feelings on the internet since like 2004, when I made a really cringey, really emo Livejournal account. Let’s just not talk about that, though. 😳 I started this blog specifically on Tumblr in 2013, and then I moved it here in March of this year. (Best decision I’ve made, honestly.)

2. At what point do you think you’ll stop blogging?
I suppose I’ll stop blogging if I stop enjoying it or if it gets too stressful, but I don’t really see that happening any time soon.

3. What is the best thing about blogging?
Making new friends who love books as much as I do! Every comment, message, friend request, tag, like, new follower notification… it all makes my day, so thank you!

4. What is the worst thing? What do you do to make it okay?
Honestly, I think the worst thing is hating a book that I wanted to love. What makes it okay is being able to channel my rage into a really good review of what exactly I disliked.

5. How long does it take you to find make/find pictures to use?
I don’t really use that many pictures. I mean, sometimes I’ll throw a gif in a review, but that’s pretty rare and it’ll only be because I already knew the specific one that I wanted to use. I don’t make book aesthetics or anything. I guess I make a lot of header images for tags, but I use Canva for that, so it only takes a couple minutes!

6. Who is your book crush?
Who isn’t my book crush? I said before that I fall a little bit in love with almost every character I ever read about. And even if it’s not swoony love, it’s like “let me hug you and adopt you and keep you safe from all of the evil in the world” love. But anyway, some book crushes:

7. What author would you like to have on your blog?
Just the idea of having an author on my blog is enough to give me some palpitations, but let’s see.

  • Christina Lauren
  • Jenn Bennett
  • R.S. Grey
  • Sally Thorne

I would honestly be honored to have any author on my blog! I wouldn’t even know where to start, but it would make me feel very cool, that’s for sure. 🙂

8. What do you wear when you write your blog posts?
Haha, is this like an obscene phone call? Should I be worried? I’m going to steal Bibi’s terminology for a second here and say that I don’t have a “blogger uniform” that I change into to get ready to write a post. I just wear whatever I’m already wearing. If I’m sneaking in a quick review before work (or on my lunch break, on the off chance that I actually get one) I’m probably wearing scrubs. If it’s a day like today when I’m off, I’m probably wearing jeans and a t-shirt. If I’m being 100% honest, though, I write most posts in my pajamas because I like being comfy. 😊

9. How long does it take you to prepare?
Well, I’m the biggest planner you’ll ever meet, so… kind of a long time. When I first started blogging, I overcommitted myself a lot, so I devised this very sophisticated system of planning. 🙂 I put a sticker on each day of the month when I already have a post scheduled or planned, and then I make a checklist for myself on the weekly view so I can make sure I actually finish everything I’ve started. Also, I like how my planner is literally telling me to “CHILLLL OUT” next week. I always need that reminder.

I also keep a list of thoughts and quotes and things that I might want to include in a review while I’m reading, so the actual review usually only takes me 10-15 minutes (unless it’s one of my novel-length rants, which take a little longer).

10. How do you feel about the book blogging community?
I love it! Everyone is so supportive and friendly and I can’t say enough about it. I’ll be shouting from the rooftops about how much I love the book blogging community for as long as I can. 💕

11. What do you think one should do to get a successful blog?
There are a few different ways to take this question.

Are we talking successful like “I can quit my job and live off of my blog?” Because if that’s the case, go ask someone else, I have no idea, I’m just here responding to comments while my boss isn’t looking.

Are we talking successful like “I have a steadily increasing number of followers and regular interactions on my blog?” Because in that case, I also really don’t know. My stats have definitely been increasing lately, but I’m not really sure what I’m doing to make that happen. All I can figure is that I’ve been really bored at my job lately (we still don’t have a doctor so there’s not a ton of stuff for me, the biller, to do!!) and I’ve been spending a lot of time on the WordPress app liking and commenting and finding new blogs to follow. I guess the more I put myself out there, the more traffic I get on my blog. And, obviously, the more traffic I get, the more likes/comments/etc.

Or are we talking successful like “this blog makes me really happy and I get a sense of accomplishment when I think about it?” Because that’s something I can definitely address! I’m really happy with my blog right now because it’s the way that I want it to be. I’ve kind of stopped worrying about “what will people think if I post ____” and just started doing it. I have a lot of thoughts and opinions about books and just being able to share them with people who actually care makes me feel successful. 🙂

 

I tag: Daniel | Becky | Maddie | Graham | Ginny

As always, no pressure! Let me know if you like being tagged and also if you hate it.

Book review: Introductions by C.L. Stone

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Introductions by C.L. Stone
Series: The Ghost Bird #1
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Links: Amazon • Goodreads
Publication Date: December 23, 2012
Source: Kindle freebie

With an agoraphobic mother and a barely-there father, Sang abhors the isolation keeping her in the shadows. The only thing Sang craves is a fresh start and to be accepted as ordinary by her peers, because for her being different meant being cast out alone.

When her family moves to a new school district, Sang infiltrates a group of boys nearly perfect in every way. Grateful for an influence outside of her parents’ negativity, she quickly bonds with the boys, hoping to blend in and learn from them what it means to have a natural relationship with friends.

Only the boys have secrets of their own and they’ll do anything to keep her safe from the knowledge of the mysterious Academy that they’ve sworn allegiance to. Bit by bit, Sang discovers that her friends are far from the normalcy she expected. Will her loyalty change when she’s forced to remain in the dark, or will she accept that she’s traded one house of secrets for another?

Meet Kota, Victor, Silas, Nathan, Gabriel, Luke and North in a story about differences and loyalty, truth and mystery, friendships and heart-throbbing intimacy.

The Academy, ever vigilant.

I don’t even remember where I saw this book or why I decided to download it, but it’s a thing that happened and now here we are. Three months later. Trying to decimate my TBR by marathoning one book after another. It’s been a bad month for this.

MAYBE MINOR SPOILERS BELOW.

I’m not really sure what the point of this book is. It’s a girl who meets a new boy in every chapter. Every boy is amazing. So perfect. They’re all fifteen years old, but they look like models, are built like professional athletes, and wave around their black AmEx cards to purchase their custom Armani suits.

I’m not sure that any of the characters understand the concept of time, because everything happens in approximately thirteen seconds.

“I make a halfway decent friend if you give me a chance.”

Okay, I mean, so do I, but I also don’t invite random strangers into my house four seconds after meeting them for “hot cocoa” and to “clean their wounds” because I’M NOT A MURDERER. Sang is, to her credit, at least a little bit worried about being raped and/or kidnapped, but she figures that rapists and would-be kidnappers wouldn’t go through the hassle of making her hot cocoa first. She’s clearly highly intelligent.

“We’re friends now, aren’t we?”

Well, you just met three minutes ago, but okay. Every boy in this book is about to lay his life down for Sang the second he meets her. I’m not sure what’s so special about her, but just wait… it’s coming…

“You’re not like other girls, Sang.”
“You’re far from normal.”
“I mean different.”
“It’s not a bad thing.”

Maybe stop talking, Silas. Or just keep digging yourself in deeper, whatever works. I figured this scene was coming because of course it was, but somehow I’m still disappointed. Just once I’d like to read a YA book that doesn’t use the “not like other girls” trope.

Also, everything is green. Green poncho. Green shirt. Green eyes. Green tie. Mr. Green. Is there some significance here that I’m missing? And one of these fifteen-year-old boys is taking particle physics, so that’s really interesting too. It ends with a cliffhanger that’s some real nonsense, but I honestly don’t care enough to find out what happens next.

Somehow this book has a 4.12 average on Goodreads, so it’s possible that I’m just cranky today or that I just didn’t get it, but yikes. This was a mess. At least it didn’t even take two hours to read it.

#killingthetbr: 3 months on shelf

Tags: Sunshine Blogger Award (Take 3) + Lunar Chronicles

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I was nominated by Hamad for the Sunshine Blogger Award! Thank you for the nomination and definitely go check out his blog, The Book Prescription!

(Check out Take 1 and Take 2 if you’d like!)

The Rules

  1. Thank the blogger who nominated you by linking their blog
  2. Answer the questions
  3. Nominate 11 blogs with 11 questions
  4. List the rules as well as display the Sunshine Award Logo on your post

My Questions

1. Who was your first Book crush?
Good question! I feel like I fall a little bit in love with every character I ever read about. The first book character that I remember really swooning over was George in The Song of the Lioness quartet by Tamora Pierce.

2. When did you start reading?
My family still to this day teases me about how much I liked books even before I could read. I would ask my grandma to read me piles and piles of books every night when I was little. I started reading on my own in kindergarten and I guess I never really stopped.

3. What is the last book that made you cry?
I teared up a little at Head Over Heels by Serena Bell and I think I may have full-on cried at one point during Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren.

4. How many hours do you read per day?
Usually at least two hours, might be more if I can’t sleep, which happens a lot. I also listen to audiobooks while I’m cleaning and while I’m traveling.

5. If you were a book/ movie character, would you be a main or secondary one?
I’d probably be a secondary character because I really don’t think that I’m interesting enough to carry a whole plot by myself.

6. What book you wish you have never read?
Any book I’ve ever one-starred, but especially City of Fallen Angels, The Dumont Diaries, and Ignited.

7. What is your favorite food?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, HOT STONE BIBIMBAP. I could eat it every day and I would never get sick of it.

8. What is your hidden talent?
I don’t know if I’d really consider it a hidden talent, but I’m really good with names and faces and I also remember almost everything people tell me about themselves. So, for example, I’ll see someone in the grocery store that I haven’t talked to in like five years, and I’ll just think, “Oh, hey, it’s Caitlin. I wonder if she ever figured out that toast for her brother’s wedding.” But I usually don’t say anything other than hi because I don’t want to be that creepy person.

9. What are some of your favorite words?
Persnickety, spiffy, nifty, snarky.

10. What do you do when you are not reading?
I work. I try to have some semblance of a social life, but I usually don’t succeed. I also like to sew and I really like going to concerts!

11. What was your favorite school subject?
In high school, I always liked English and actually took double English classes my junior and senior years. In college, my favorite class I ever took was probably Portuguese! I tutored Spanish and one of my coworkers convinced me to take this intensive Portuguese class with her and we had so much fun! Basically all we ever did in that class was do capoeira, watch movies, and have these big discussions about current events, but somehow we all left knowing enough Portuguese to survive in the world.

Nominations:

(not 11 because honestly tagging people stresses me out, I always feel like I’m annoying you so please let me know if you like tags!!)

Leslie | Shivani | LaRonda | Jamsu | anyone else who wants to do it!

11 questions from me:

  1. How do you decide which book to read next?
  2. Do your friends/family know that you have a blog?
  3. What’s one genre that you have trouble getting into?
  4. What’s the last book you added to your TBR?
  5. Which fictional character (book or otherwise) would you want to meet in real life?
  6. In general, do you like to watch film adaptations of books?
  7. What’s the last book you finished?
  8. What’s the last book you re-read?
  9. Do you prefer series or standalones?
  10. What’s your favorite book by your favorite author?
  11. What’s your favorite kind of blog post to read?

I was tagged by Lori to do the Lunar Chronicles book tag! This was really hard, but I had fun with it!

Rules:

  • Link back to the creator: Lori
  • Tag 5 other bloggers to do this tag
  • Copy the rules

1. Cinder | The Cyborg: a book that’s often misunderstood or underappreciated

I feel like Beauty Queens by Libba Bray is often misjudged based on its cover and its title, but it’s so good! It’s about a plane full of beauty pageant contestants that crashes on a deserted island. The girls have to learn how to survive on their own and work together and it’s all about loving yourself and each other and it’s just really good.

2. Adri | The Evil Stepmother: A book with a horrible/cringeworthy parent

I mean… every YA book ever?? But recently, Turtles All the Way Down by John Green. Worst. Dad. Ever.

3. Iko | The Spunky Sidekick: A book with your favorite happy-go-lucky character

I think Lola in Lola and the Boy Next Door pretty much embodies that whole “happy-go-lucky” thing.

4. Scarlet | The Rescuer: a book with a character on a mission

Zera is on a mission to steal a prince’s heart (literally) in Bring Me Their Hearts by Sara Wolf.

5. Wolf | The Fighter: a book with a brutal fight (with words or fists or weapons)

Well… I don’t read a lot of books with fighting because I like cute, fluffy romances. BUT I guess I could go with The Foxhole Court for this one since all the characters ever do is punch each other??? I’m even going with the original terrible cover here since I don’t have the energy to devote another second of my life to this terrible book.

6. Levana | The Villain: a book with the absolute worst villain

Dark magic became an actual living being and started terrorizing the world in V.E. Schwab’s Shades of Magic series.

7. Thorne | The Rascal: a book with the biggest schmoozer

Is there even a bigger schmoozer than Thorne? I suppose maybe Barrett from Rumor Has It.

8. Cress | The Hacker: a book about technology or sci-fi

The Word Exchange is about people who become too obsessed with and dependent on their phones to understand basic conversations and actually come down with a “word flu” because of it. It was okay, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it.

9. Erland | The Doctor: a book with an illness or revolving around medical issues
There are a million, but for this tag, I’ll go with Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon. I suppose I also read a fair amount of medical journals at my job, but I’m not sure I can use those in a book tag…

 

 10. Winter | The Unsound Mind: a book with the craziest character you’ve ever read
This would probably have to be any Chuck Palahniuk character ever? I’m starting at my bookcase trying to think about who fits this prompt, and this is the best I can come up with.

 

 11. Jacin | The Soldier: a book with a military theme

I don’t read a lot of military books, so I think I’d have to go with Ignited by Kaylea Cross (which I hated) which is about an ex-military guy who falls in love with this girl he’s protecting and it’s just a super racist book with a terribly flawed premise.

I’m tagging anybody who likes The Lunar Chronicles to do this one!
Please link back to me so I can see your answers!

Debut Author Challenge Check-In

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The Debut Author Challenge is a yearly reading challenge hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. Participants are encouraged to read twelve or more middle grade, young adult, and new adult debuts. To count toward the challenge, the books must be published in the year they’re read. Jana provides a helpful list of debuts if you’re interested in participating!

My last Debut Author Challenge update was kind of disappointing. It was back in March and I’d only read three books toward my goal of twelve, which I suppose means I was on track, but it still felt wrong. Now, I’m happy to report that I’ve read a whole bunch of debuts and I have a whole bunch more waiting to be read.

Read so far: 

  • I Stop Somewhere by T.E. Carter
  • Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young
  • A Conspiracy of Stars by Olivia A. Cole
  • Frat Girl by Kiley Roache
  • The Exact Opposite of Okay by Laura Steven
  • Kiss of the Royal by Lindsey Duga
  • Love Scene, Take Two by Alex Evansley
  • Always Never Yours by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka

Not yet read, but next up:

Taunting me from my nightstand–

  • The Queen’s Rising by Rebecca Ross
  • The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan
  • How to Breathe Underwater by Vicky Skinner
  • Running With Lions by Julian Winters
  • Down and Across by Arvin Ahmadi

Taunting me from my library–

  • People Like Us by Dana Mele (which has been on hold forever)

Still hoping to read:

  • You’ll Miss Me When I’m Gone by Rachel Lynn Solomon
  • Nice Try, Jane Sinner by Lianne Oelke
  • Love, Hate & Other Filters by Samira Ahmed
  • Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann

Have you read any debuts this year? What’s been your favorite so far?
Am I missing any great debuts or should I strike some of these from my list?