Month: January 2020

Tag: Bookish Would You Rather

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Thank you to Katie for tagging me to do the Bookish Would You Rather tag! I have done a couple Would You Rather tags before (here and here), but not this one! This should be fun. 🙂

The Rules:

  • Answer the questions given to you by your nominator.
  • Make up your own questions and tag others.

Questions from Katie:

Would you rather only read ARCs, or only read backlist titles?

Definitely only backlist titles. Eventually ARCs will become backlist titles, but I could never get to anything that’s currently on my TBR if I committed to only reading ARCs!

Would you rather own all the books you read, or only loan books from the library?

I’d rather only borrow from the library. Books look pretty on a shelf, but my bank account cannot afford buying 200 or so books every year.

Would you rather lose your place in your book every time you put it down, or get a papercut every time you read?

I gave myself a papercut at work a couple days ago and it keeps reminding me of its presence every so often, so I’m thinking I’d rather lose my place.

Would you rather only read in the dark or read books with tiny text?

Tiny text, I guess. That seems easier than reading in the dark.

Would you rather drop your favorite book in the toilet, or throw it into a woodchipper?

Throw it into a woodchipper, I think. It seems a more dignified way to go. (Ideally, obviously, neither.)

Would you rather read only the first page of a book or only the last page of a book?

The first page, then I’d just be left wanting more. If I only read the last page, I’d probably just be confused.

Would you rather read a book that ends in a cliffhanger, or a book that ends with heartbreak?

Cliffhanger. I generally do not like books that break my heart.

Would you rather read a manuscript from your favorite author and have to tell them it was awful, or read 50 Shades of Gray out loud in public?

Read 50 Shades of Gray out loud. I wouldn’t want to make someone who’s made me so happy sad.

Would you rather never be allowed in a bookstore again or never be allowed in a library again?

Never be allowed in a bookstore, because, see above… my bank account cannot afford all these books I read.

Would you rather read only one genre for the rest of your life, or never repeat the same genre after reading it once?

Only one genre. I feel like I’d run out of genres pretty quickly if I could never repeat them.

Please feel free to steal this tag and link back to me if you do! I’d love to see your answers! Cliffhanger or heartbreak? ARCs or backlist? Let’s talk in the comments!

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Book Review: Lucky in Love by Kasie West

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Lucky in Love by Kasie West
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Links: Amazon • TBD • Goodreads
Publication Date: July 25, 2017
Source: Borrowed

Maddie’s not impulsive. She’s all about hard work and planning ahead. But one night, on a whim, she buys a lottery ticket. And then, to her astonishment —

She wins!

In a flash, Maddie’s life is unrecognizable. No more stressing about college scholarships. Suddenly, she’s talking about renting a yacht. And being in the spotlight at school is fun… until rumors start flying, and random people ask her for loans. Now, Maddie isn’t sure who she can trust.

Except for Seth Nguyen, her funny, charming coworker at the local zoo. Seth doesn’t seem aware of Maddie’s big news. And, for some reason, she doesn’t want to tell him. But what will happen if he learns her secret?

With tons of humor and heart, Kasie West delivers a million-dollar tale of winning, losing, and falling in love.

I’ve had the same TBR for like three years, so I decided that 2020 is my year. I’m going to read as many books from it as I can. I started with Lucky in Love by Kasie West. Now, I can go either way with her books. I loved The Distance Between Us and cringed all the way through Listen to Your Heart. I wasn’t sure which way this one would go, but I figured that her books are short and easy, so why not.

Well.

It turned out to be pretty bad, honestly.

The whole premise of this book is that newly eighteen-year-old Maddie has the worst birthday ever — her brother eats her birthday cereal (yeah, I don’t get it either), her parents take her out to eat and can’t afford the bill, her best friends all stand her up and don’t even come to her birthday party — so she goes out to a gas station and buys a lottery ticket on a whim. There’d be no book without her winning, so she’s suddenly $30 million richer.

She proceeds to do exactly what you might expect an eighteen-year-old high school student to do with $30 million. Waste it. Wildly. Illogically. Stupidly. I’m talking a Corvette, a yacht party, designer clothes, a diamond necklace, half a million to a relative she’s never met… the list goes on. Maddie, who once just wanted to do well in high school so she could get a scholarship to a good college, completely forgets about her classes and fixates on being popular. I was annoyed.

But what was possibly even more annoying than her wildly irresponsible wasting of money was her family. Was I supposed to empathize with any of these people?

  • A father who has sat at home, unemployed, for three years because he claims he can’t find a job? Right, I’m sure there are zero companies hiring in California. You might not be able to find a job in your field or a job making as much money as you want to be making, but you know what? Making something is better than making nothing. (And somehow his teenage daughter found a job with no experience so what’s his excuse??)
  • A mother who’s worked double shifts for years because her husband can’t be bothered to find employment? I should have been able to sympathize with her, but all she ever did was complain and argue and yell. And she has the audacity to ask her daughter, the new multi-millionaire, if she’ll be able to take care of them in the future after that daughter already gave them TWO MILLION DOLLARS and PAID OFF THEIR DEBTS? WHAT?
  • And don’t even get me started on the brother. (Really, I can’t even get into him without spoilers.)

The majority of the book is just Maddie spending money, Maddie angsting over whether to tell her love interest that she’s won the lottery, Maddie wondering if everybody who knows she won the lottery is using her for her money, and a romance that kind of feels like an afterthought.

I added a star because I appreciated that the love interest was Vietnamese and that there was a conversation about the very racist “no, where are you really from” question. I also liked the zoo. But overall? Definitely not recommended.

Have you read Lucky in Love? Is it on your TBR?
Let’s talk in the comments!

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WWW Wednesday

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It’s time for another WWW Wednesday!

WWW Wednesday is hosted over at Taking on a World of Words and just involves answering the 3 Ws!

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

(Same as last week because my TBR got derailed, as usual.)

Have you read any of these books? Are any of them on your TBR? Did you do your own WWW Wednesday post today? Let’s talk in the comments!

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Top Ten Tuesday: Book cover clones

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Happy Top Ten Tuesday! This week’s theme is a book cover freebie, so I went with book cover clones. You know, when you see a book and you think, “Wow, that cover sure looks familiar!” That’s what I’m talking about. (I had some help from Goodreads, Google reverse image search, and some vague memories for this one.)

Bonus: same couple, different pose

  • Easy by Tammara Webber

Did you do your own Top Ten Tuesday post today? Feel free to leave your link in the comments and I’ll check it out! Can you think of any books that share similar covers? Let’s talk in the comments!

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Book Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

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A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Links: Amazon • TBD • Goodreads
Publication Date: May 5, 2015
Source: Borrowed

Feyre’s survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price …

Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre’s presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.

I’ve really enjoyed all of the Sarah J. Maas books I’ve read before, so I decided I might as well try out A Court of Thorns and Roses. I bought this book a year or two ago but ended up listening to the audiobook while I was at work. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy it. At all, really.

I had a lot of problems with this book, but I’m going to try to keep this review short and as non-ranty as possible because I know that a lot of people love this series and I don’t want to make them sad.

The first problem I had was that nothing that happens makes sense. I mean, I guess things are sort of explained at the end, but Feyre literally kills a fae and then she’s just whisked away to a life of luxury as “punishment.” I mean… okay?

The second problem I had was that Feyre needs to go see a gastroenterologist because all she ever does is throw up or get watery bowels and I got really sick of hearing about it.

The third problem I had was that I couldn’t even tell if Rhysand or Tamlin was supposed to be the love interest because Feyre seemed equally obsessed with them.

I’m not going to lie, I’ll probably read the next book in the series. I’m just not sure if it’ll be any time soon.

#romanceopoly: mystery #1

Have you read A Court of Thorns and Roses? Is it on your TBR?
Let’s talk in the comments!

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