It’s July now, and if you’re in the United States, I hope you had a great holiday. If not, I hope you’re having a wonderful beginning to your summer (or winter if you live in the Southern Hemisphere). I saw the Summer Bucket List book tag and thought it would be fun to do!
Feel free to use any of my graphics in your post, or create your own!
Tag 5 other people at the end of your post, and let them know you’ve tagged them.
The beach is a huge part of Alex, Approximately. One of the main characters is even a talented surfer! I definitely get major beach vibes while reading this book.
Is it weird that I put this book down in this category even though Mariko was running around as a boy for half the story? I don’t know, but I loved these two together anyway. I remember as I was reading this book having to go to work and being so upset that I couldn’t sit down and continue reading.
When Elephants Fly involves a road trip with an elephant in the back of a truck, at least for part of the story.
I’m going with literal stars for this prompt. I absolutely adore the scene with Magiano and Adelina under the stars in this book.
I knew that Enchantée was going to be an amazing book from the first page. When I was getting towards the end, I had to leave for work, and I seriously considered calling in late. I finished after lunch instead, and had such a smile on my face when I was done that one person asked if I was going home (when I was actually going back to work).
I thought the relationship between Cole and Free was sweet.
I’ll have to go with Fangirl on this one. It’s an adorable book and was a nice change of pace from the fantasy books I often read.
Kin in Here and Now and Then certainly had to overcome some obstacles. He’s a time traveler who first gets stuck in the past. Then, after he has a life and family in the past, he is yanked back into the future. He has to help the family he left behind.
I don’t remember whether it was delicious food or not, but The Priory of the Orange Tree talked about food quite a lot. That’s one of the things I need to pay more attention to in my own book, so that’s why it stuck out to me in this one.
Christina Rickardsson went through quite a lot, and her story is quite amazing. She’s quite inspiring.
So… that’s the end of this book tag. I’m not really big on tagging people (I don’t know who’d want to do this and I don’t wan to leave people out) so I’m going to skip that part, but if you’d like to do this one, then consider yourself tagged. If you do decided to do this tag, send me a link so I can visit!
It’s summer now, which means it’s time to get started on my Summer TBR! One of the books on that list was Obsidian. I’ve been meaning to try out Jennifer L. Armentrout’s Lux books since I received an ARC of The Darkest Star last fall (just to be clear, I recieved it from a blogger after the pub date, not the publisher, so I wasn’t obligated to review it right away). I accidentally read Storm and Fury, and I really liked it, so I figured it was time to read the rest of her books.
Katy is the new girl in this fairly small town where everybody seems to know each other. Her mom wants her to get to know her neighbors, while she’d rather stay home and blog (she even mentions Waiting on Wednesday!). The boy next door, Daemon, happens to be hot… but for some reason he seems to have this immediate hatred for her. His sister seems to like her though. Over the course of this story, Katy and Daemon seem to develop this enemies to… enemies that are attracted to each other relationship. Oh, and the neighbors happen to be aliens too.
What I Liked
So what book blogger can’t identify with another book blogger? I’ve never written a Waiting on Wednesday post, but I’ve certainly read them. I thought it was a great touch that Katy actually seemed like a pretty normal blogger. I also really liked Katy’s voice. She had enough of an attitude to be interesting.
Then there was the whole relationship aspect in Obsidian. There’s a good friendship portrayed here between Katy and Dee. Once high school starts, Katy makes some other friends as well. Then there’s Daemon; their relationship is kinda hawt.
What I Didn’t Like Quite as Much
Daemon is a world-class jerk. Katy doesn’t do anything to him the day they meet, and he insults her pretty much immediately. Then they end up having to spend time with each other, and he’s kinda nice, and then he’s a jerk again…
Katy, you deserve better than this!
She’s not a stupid girl. She puts all the clues together and figures out what’s going on. Yet… she still hangs out with Daemon even after he’s been an ass, and he really doesn’t make amends and give a good apology for his behavior. Yes, the book was fun and I enjoyed reading it, but I really had to set this particular aspect of the book aside.
I guess the other thing I didn’t like quite as much about this book was Ash. She’s one of the other students in the school and was formerly in a relationship with Daemon. There’s something of an explanation to her behavior as it relates to the situation and Daemon (which I won’t mention here) but she again was a jerk to her for no reason, and Daemon was again an ass about it.
Conclusion
I know I wrote more about what I didn’t like than what I did like here, but I really did like Obsidian. I’m looking forward to clearing some room in my reading schedule to continue this series. Katy was a great character and I really liked her, and I want to find out what happens to her. But yes, there were some problems with Daemon. I’m willing to overlook it, and there are reasons to explain his behavior, but this isn’t a good example of a healthy beginning to a relationship.
So I would recommend Obsidian, but if you’ve had problems with verbally abusive boyfriends in the past, perhaps this might not be the book for you. If you didn’t like Jude and Cardan in The Cruel Prince series, this probably wouldn’t be a series you’d like either.
I recently read Circe by Madeline Miller. It was on sale on Audible.com. I’ve heard nearly everybody say for months that it was a great book. In eighth grade, we read a lot of mythology and I thought it was pretty interesting. So I thought that I might like this book as well.
It was just… meh… for me. Which doesn’t mean that you won’t love it.
Circe is the daughter of Helios (the sun god) and Perse (a nymph). She’s not powerful like the rest of her family, and as a result isn’t very well-liked. She kinda… hangs out around their dwelling for centuries, as things go on around her.
At some point, she discovers that she has witchcraft powers. She can make potions and things like that. We as the reader discover that she has empathy and compassion. She feels heartbreak over the thought of mortals dying, and shows kindness to Prometheus.
She’s also not very bright. She gets into an argument with Zeus, who banishes her to the island of Aiaia. There she gardens, makes potions, and has visitors.
My Thoughts
The writing in Circe was well-done and descriptive, so I have no complaints there. I just couldn’t get into the story, and I’m not entirely sure why. Perhaps it was because I couldn’t really identify with Circe herself. Maybe it was the audiobook format that I just didn’t care for (although there are some audiobooks I love). I didn’t dislike the story… but I just could never get into it.
My hypothesis about why I wasn’t enamored with this story is that the plot wasn’t really all that exciting. First this happened, and then that happened, and then Circe was exiled to an island, and some people visited… the stakes in this story were never very high. What happens if she doesn’t succeed? She’s bored. And? Towards the end of Circe that’s not quite the case, but for most of the book, it felt like it was just one series of unrelated events after another.
That being said, just because I couldn’t get into it doesn’t mean that a lot of people don’t like it. The writing style was good and it covers a lot of familiar mythological events. It just wasn’t the book for me.
Welcome to another edition of Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl)! Today’s topic is childhood favorites. That can encompass a long period of time, so I’m just going to throw out anything I can think of between elementary school and high school.
I don’t remember a lot of books from when I was really little, but I do remember Are You My Mother? It’s a cute little book where a little bird tries to go find it’s mother.
When I first heard about this challenge, I remembered something about the Berenstain Bears and it was a scary book (well, it was scary at the time, at least). Not remembering the book in the least, I decided to do an internet search. I knew it when I saw it. The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree was a book that I really liked when I was little.
I’ve been reading books for as long as I can remember. Well, for as long as I’ve been able to read, at least. I don’t remember a lot of the books that I read when I was really young though. I do remember reading the Ramona Quimby books. In particular, I read Ramona Quimby, Age 8 when I was 8 years old.
When I was in fourth grade, my teacher was Ms. Cherin. She was an awesome teacher. One thing I remember her doing was reading to us. I don’t know if it was every day or once a week, but it was a regular thing. One of the books she read was Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. I don’t recall much from the book anymore, other than they lived near a park, he had an annoying older brother, and somewhere in this series he had an annoying baby brother too.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was another book that was read to us in class, again, I think, by Ms. Cherin. It was a magical book to me. Even though I really liked the book, I’ve never been particularly fond of the movie(s). The books just seem way more magical in my head. Especially the part with the elevator at the end.
I must have read the Little House on the Prairie set by Laura Ingalls Wilder perhaps about a bajillion times. I had the little blue boxed set (which my kids ended up destroying… oops). Anyway, I don’t think this set was what inspired me to become a writer (I remember a story I wrote about the Care Bears from 2nd Grade) but I think this set made me want to write my autobiography someday. I haven’t done that, but maybe someday. In the meantime, I have this blog.
My grandma let me borrow a lot of her books when I was a kid. One of the books that I borrowed was the Anne of Green Gables set. I borrowed that set more than once. When she died, I ended up inheriting that set. I was fortunate in that the one thing I really wanted from her was some of her books, and nobody else really did… so I ended up with a whole box full of them (which I mailed home using media mail).
Another book I read a lot of in school was Sweet Valley High. I have all of the first umpteen books of this series. I could tell you about all of the characters in the series, and even recognized plot holes and inconsistencies with this series, because I read it so much.
I remember reading a lot of the Nancy Drew books, although I can’t really remember how old I was when I read them. I think they were my mom’s. A lot of books I read when I was a kid belonged to my mom (and a lot of them I don’t remember).
I almost gave up thinking of a tenth book that I read as a kid, until I did a google search. How could I forget Choose Your Own Adventure books! I can’t tell you which Choose Your Own Adventure books I read (not even sure if I’ve read the ones pictured), but I checked these out of the library a lot. These still seem to be pretty popular; my boy used to like getting these from the library, although they’re almost always checked out, so I think he gave up looking for them.
So that’s this week’s Top Ten Tuesday. Which books did you like when you were a kid? Next week is a character freebie, and in honor of Call of the Horizon Day, I’m going to list characters that like to travel or who went on a long journey.
Can you believe it’s June 30th already? We’re almost exactly halfway through the year now.
Since we’re halfway through the year, I figured I’d do the Mid-Year Freak Out Book Tag. I spotted it over at Quite the Novel Idea, although I have no clue who originally started it.
I’ve read 66 books this year so far:
The Best Book of the Year So Far
Ack! Do I really have to choose? Can’t I just say that I read a ton of amazing books and they’re all good? I think I’m freaking out over having to pick just ONE best book more than I am about the year being halfway over!
To be honest, if you ask me tomorrow, I might have a different answer for you. I loved Sky Without Stars though, and it will probably end up as one of my favorite books for the year, so we’ll just go with this one. For now.
Best Sequel of the Year So Far
I was going to put Holly Black’s The Wicked King under Best Book of the Year So Far, but then I realized that it could also fit under Best Sequel. So I’m going to put it here. This book was fantastic and I can’t wait for Queen of Nothing to come out in November!
There were other amazing sequels, like Finale, but if I’m going to keep from putting 10 books here, I have to stop sometime.
New Release You Haven’t Read But Want To
Finally an easy question! It doesn’t ask which new release I haven’t read that I most want to read, just a new release I haven’t read but want to. Since I read an ARC or new release every week, I’ve read a lot of them, but there are always new books to read.
One of the books that I’d like to read but haven’t yet is Christina Lauren’s The Unhoneymooners. That and The Bride Test. But I could only pick one here, so we’ll go with this one.
Most Anticipated Release for Fall/Winter
Did you really have to ask? This one is self-explanatory. I’ve been gushing about how excited I am about this book since October 13th of last year.
Yes, there are several other books that I’m looking forward to this fall (including books by Veronica Roth and Leigh Bardugo that are also coming out on October 1st) but Marie Lu’s Rebel is the book I’ve been waiting for all year. Maybe I should relabel this the October 1st freak out book tag, because that’s when all the books I’m most excited about come out!
Biggest Disappointment of the Year So Far
There were a few books that I’ve read that I gave three stars to that were just okay, but I think I expected more from The Gilded Wolves.
There have definitely been books that I’ve liked less that I’ve read this year, but this book sounded so good. And the cover is gorgeous! There are things I like about this book too. Some of the prose here is gorgeous. It just wasn’t as good as I expected it would be, and that was disappointing to me.
Biggest Surprise of the Year So Far
I had never even heard of Beverly Jenkins prior to this year (now I know that she’s been around forever) but I wasn’t expecting to like her book Rebel so much. It probably wouldn’t have even made it on my radar if Bookish Pisces hadn’t been talking about it on Twitter.
But I really liked this book a lot and I’d read more of her books if I was in the mood for a romance novel.
New Favorite Author
Although Leigh Bardugo isn’t a brand new author to me (I read one of her short stories last year in Summer Days and Summer Nights), I hadn’t read any of her novels prior to this year. I ended up reading both her Grisha Verse Trilogy and the Six of Crows duology earlier this year. I like her writing so much that I ended up pre-ordering Ninth House, which is one of the books I’m excited for that’s coming out on October 1st.
Your Newest Favorite Character
Eden isn’t exactly a new character to me, but he was 12 years old last he was really seen (with the exception of the Life After Legend books and the Champion epilogue). He’s one of the main characters in Rebel though, and I really like him so far.
I don’t want to say too much about him, but he seems to have a good heart, at least from what I read about in the Rebel Sampler. I guess he gets that from his brother.
Book That Made You Cry
The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner had me in tears on multiple occasions. The main character has Alzheimer’s Disease and wants to see her friend Mariko one last time before she dies. The two girls met in the US concentration camps during World War II, were separated at the end of the war, and haven’t been able to see each other since.
I’ve got a little tear in the corner of my eye just thinking about this book. Bring the tissues if you decide to read this one.
Book That Made You Happy
When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon was such a beautiful book! The story was lovely and it was such a fun read. I just flew through it. It’s a great book to read during the summer.
Plus, can you really not be happy when looking at that cover? Ms. Menon said that originally one of the major book retailers didn’t want an Indian girl to be on the cover, but I’m glad that they ended up putting her up there anyway.
Most Beautiful Book So Far
There have been some gorgeous books out there this year, but one of the beautiful books has been Finale by Stephanie Garber. Look at the beautiful heart! It’s gorgeous.
And I guess putting Finale in this slot is doubly appropriate because we’re done with this tag and it’s time to say goodbye for now.
And that’s all I have! If you’d like to do this tag too, consider yourself tagged! I might do this one next year too with an all-new set of answers.
So many good things happen on Fridays. The start of the weekend. Fangirling on Friday. And sometimes, cover reveals to promising books. Woo hoo!
I recently had a spammer, bandarq 365, leave this message on my blog:
I’m gone to inform my little brother, that he should also go to see this weblog on regular basis to obtain updated from hottest news.
Well… I’m flattered, but…
But today is one of those days when I have news. The cover reveal to Marie Lu’s The Kingdom of Back is out!
So head on over to Entertainment Weekly and check out the cover! It’s still supposed to be exclusive over there, so I won’t copy it here, but you can see it now! And you can read a short excerpt too. You can also pre-order The Kingdom of Back over at Amazon.com. I’ve pre-ordered the Kindle edition already (I’ll definitely get a hardback copy too, but there might be a special edition I can get elsewhere). It’s scheduled to be released on March 3, 2020 (the same day as Chain of Gold… why do you do this to me!).
And speaking of Marie Lu special editions, you can pre-order a signed copy of Rebel! This one won’t arrive on release day, but if you’re willing to wait a few days, then you can get one signed. My dh said I was a geek because I was planning on buying this signed copy and then getting a Kindle edition (which will arrive at 10 PM MST on September 30th), but this would be really cool to have.
And since we’re already on the subject of my auto-buy authors, Veronica Roth’s The Chosen Ones is also available for pre-order… but only on the Kindle at the moment. Amazon says the pub date for this one is May 4, 2020. I’ll probably just get this one on hardback, so I guess I’ll have to wait.
So that’s all the news for now!
Update: It’s up on Amazon now so I guess it’s safe to post it here. Isn’t it gorgeous?
It’s that time of year again! Time to make up a new TBR for the new season. This is for Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl!
Before we get started, I’d like to review the books I read from my Spring 2019 TBR:
Kingdom of Ash – Sarah J. Maas: Read
Ruin and Rising – Leigh Bardugo: Read
Priory of the Orange Tree – Samantha Shannon: Read
The Bear and the Nightingale – Katherine Arden: Read
Sky in the Deep – Adrienne Young – Read
King of Fools – Amanda Foody – Read
Spin the Dawn – Elizabeth Lim – Read
The Tiger at Midnight – Swati Teerdhala – Read
Ghosts of the Shadow Market – Cassandra Clare et al. – Read
The Poppy War – R.F. Kuang – Read
10/10! Yay! One of the reasons why I like making these seasonal TBRs is that I can see all the books I really want to read actually get read.
For this season’s TBR, I decided to do something different. There are no new releases that I just have to read right now coming out in the next three months (as opposed to my fall TBR which will have a ton of books I pre-ordered). So I decided to go through my books and find the ones I have been saying I’ve wanted to read for a while. Then I added books by authors I really wanted to read but didn’t own.
I came up with 25 books.
So I let fate decide the rest. I assigned each book a number and chose ten numbers from a random number generator. So these are the books I’m going to read this season:
Allegedly – Every time I see this book I want to read it. A girl is blamed for the death of a baby when she’s nine. She suffers while growing up, and as an adult she has to confront her past.
Ash Princess – I got this book on sale over Black Friday weekend last year. It’s one of those books I had been thinking about reading for a while, but never got around to it. Looking forward to reading this fantasy novel by Laura Sebastian.
Rora – I’ve probably wanted to read this book for about a decade now? A long time. I bought the book last year (I think it’s out of print, so I got it from a third party seller) and am looking forward to it. It’s a true story about Christians that were persecuted (by other “Christians”) a long time ago. I first read about this group of people in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.
Obsidian – I’ve been saying for a while that I need to read the Lux series. This is a book I don’t own, but I shouldn’t have trouble finding it at the library.
Truthwitch – I got this book when it was on sale. I love reading Susan Dennard’s posts on Twitter and people seem to like her books, so I’m giving it a try. A lot of the books on my list this week, like this one, are books that I’ve purchased in the past, but haven’t gotten around to reading yet. I have the first three books in this series (all purchased on sale) so I hope I like them!
The Thousandth Floor – Another book that I got on sale that looked interesting. A story that takes place in New York City 100 years from now.
Isle of Blood and Stone – Another book I got on sale. Every time I hear about it I think “I really need to read that book.” Well, I’m reading the book this summer.
And I Darken – Another book I got on sale, another author that I always say “I really need to read something by her” about (although I have read one of her short stories), and another book I always want to read whenever I think about it. This summer.
Naughts and Crosses – This book was a Goodreads recommendation based on the fact that I liked Marie Lu’s The Midnight Star. It’s not a book I hear a lot about, but it looked interesting. I don’t own this one, so I’ll have to get it from the library.
Dive Smack – This one looked interesting when I first read reviews for it last summer, but I never got around to reading it. It was on sale a couple of months ago, so I picked it up. Originally, the random number generator picked up A Court of Mist and Fury, but I ended up listening to that on audiobook, so this is a late addition to my summer TBR.
So these are the ten books that won the TBR lottery and are at the top of my summer TBR. Of course, I read more than 10 books in a three month period and will probably read more than these, but these are the books that I’ll be making a priority for in the upcoming months.
Next week we’re going to talk about books I enjoyed as a kid.
I recently had the opportunity to read The Storm Crow by Kalyn Josephson (thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire). I enjoyed it a lot, and plan on reading the sequel sometime after that one comes out.
Things are going badly for Thia, the princess of Rhodaire. One day, she’s a mischievous teen about to become a crow rider; the next day, all her dreams fall apart. Worse yet, her sister expects her to marry Prince Ericen from the enemy’s kingdom! All Thia wants to do right now is lay in bed all day. The situation looks hopeless, but if that was the case, this wouldn’t be a very good story.
What I Liked
Thia becomes depressed in this story. She doesn’t have chronic suicidality (I know someone with this problem), but she has a situational depression that can occur after a traumatic event. After our house fire years ago, I felt pretty upset and anxious, although not to the point where I was in bed all day. Still, I can see where she was coming from. I liked how Thia was able to rise above her depression and become the heroine that her kingdom needed her to be.
I like how things aren’t always as they seem to be. The characters that are portrayed as bad guys might not actually be that bad. In addition, there was a revelation that happened towards the end of The Storm Crow that surprised me. I won’t say what it is because… spoilers.
The Storm Crow also had some pretty good friend rep. Thia has a best friend, Kiva, who gets to stay with her, even when Thia is forced to travel into the enemy’s kingdom. Yes, Kiva does work as Thia’s guard, so she’s kind of a subordinate, but they both have a friendship kind of respect for each other, and Kiva isn’t afraid to kick her friend in the butt every now and then shen she needs it.
What Was Not Quite As Good
Although I really liked the story, it did kinda get off to a slow start. The really exciting parts happened towards the end of the book. The last part of the book flew by for me, while I wasn’t as excited about the book during the first part of the story.
Conclusion
I enjoyed The Storm Crow enough that I plan on reading the sequel at some point whenever it comes out. Although the book doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, there are several unanswered questions that I’d like to know the answer to. I don’t know when it’ll come out, but I added it to my TBR.
This book doesn’t come out until July 9th, but you can pre-order it now.
Happy birthday to me! Today’s my birthday, so I’m going to do the birthday book tag. I found it over at Bookish Treats, but it was started by Antonia at Always Books.
1. BIRTHDAY CAKE – a book with a plot that seems cliche but you adore it anyway
I’m not sure that this one qualifies? But I had a hard time with this prompt. What is a cliche plot? I looked through the books I read recently and wasn’t sure what books might work.
But I figured that the bones of this story have been around for over a thousand years, so we pretty much know what’s going to happen. Yet we want to read the story anyway. And I ended up loving it. I still haven’t gotten around to reading the sequel, but I probably will at some point.
2. PARTY GUESTS – your most anticipated book release this year
Day, June, and Eden are definitely invited to my birthday party this year. Is that really a surprise? I wish Rebel would come out earlier, but alas, I’ll have to wait until October 1st.
I did get to read the sampler though, and I loved it (of course). So Eden is a bit of a rebel in this book, but after reading the sampler, there’s a good reason for that. I wonder how this will mesh with Life After Legend II, which came out as a pre-order gift with Wildcard? The timelines seem to overlap.
3. BIRTHDAY PRESENTS – a book that surprised you with how much you loved it
Into the Hollow by Lynn Vroman was one of those “Read Now” books on Netgalley. Like Forrest Gump says, they tend to be like a box of chocolates “you never know what you’re gonna get.” I was pleasantly surprised by this one and I couldn’t put it down.
I tend to talk about this underrated book a lot, but it never got a lot of hype when it came out, so someone has to talk about it, right?
4. THE HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONG – a book that certainly deserved all the hype it got
Last June, hype for A Reaper at the Gates was all over the place on Twitter. I hadn’t read the first two books yet, but I was curious. So I decided to give An Ember in the Ashes a try. Lucky for me, there was a copy available at my library.
I ended up reading these fairly long books quickly. I think they took me a day per book. I couldn’t put them down. So for me, this book truly did live up to all the hype that it was given.
5. HAPPY MUSIC – a book with some very beautiful and truly memorable quotes
I just recently started a book journal, where I copy down some of my favorite quotes. Sometimes I’m just too into the book to stop and write down quotes, but I try. One book that I wrote down a lot of quotes from was Finale.
This was such a beautiful book, and it has some gorgeous quotes in it. It definitely deserves a spot in the happy music slot.
6. GETTING OLDER – a book that you read a long time ago, but you think that you would appreciate it more if you read it as a more mature reader
I remember reading Jayne Eyre so long ago that I barely remember what happened. If I read it now, I’d probably get more out of it than I did when I was in high school or middle school.
Although… I’m not really sure I want to read it any time soon? I know a lot of people like it, but there are just way too many books on my TBR, including some older books like Les Miserables, so I’m not sure if I will read it again. But who knows?
7. SWEET BIRTHDAY MEMORIES – a book that kept you incredibly happy during a sad or demanding period of your life
This is another prompt that I’m not sure how to answer. But I read Rilla of Ingleside when I was in middle school or high school (I don’t remember which) and I remember it was a book with all the feels. I couldn’t help but crying towards the end.
Okay, maybe that’s not a good example? But perhaps if you’re crying from what’s happening to fictional characters, you’re not so worried about your own petty concerns? High school and middle school was a fairly depressing time for me, and I loved this book. Another good thing about this book is that it reminds me of my grandma (she was awesome).
So that’s all the prompts for today! If you decide to do this tag for your birthday, let me know!
::Waves:: Hello! Welcome to another edition of Fangirling on Friday, where we fangirl over something. Today, we’re going to talk about favorite fathers!
I thought this topic might be easier than Favorite Mothers, but now that I’m writing this, I’m not so sure. There aren’t too many parents — period — in YA books! I’ll do my best though.
Jesper’s dad was the first name that came to mind when I thought of good dads. Sure, he wasn’t perfect — he kinda messed up a bit when Jesper was a kid — but he also didn’t freak out too badly when he found out just how badly his son had messed up. I don’t know about you, but if I found out my kid was about to lose my house, had dropped out of college, and now bad guys were after us? I wouldn’t be that cool.
So I don’t remember the dad’s name, okay? Anyway, he gets Bailey a job, fixes up a motorcycle for her, and seems like a cool guy. His relationship with Bailey’s mom didn’t really work out, and now he lives on the opposite side of the country from her, and he eventually starts to have a life of his own again, finding a new girlfriend. Doesn’t seem like such a bad dad to have.
I remembered Kin when I first started thinking about this topic. In this book, the dad is literally the hero. He’s the time-traveler with the daughter he’s trying to save. He doesn’t give up on her, even though he has to break a few rules in the process. Ultimately, he is willing to give up some of his own happiness for his daughter’s benefit. But it does turn out all good.
I almost forgot Cetti’s adoptive dad in Storm Glass (I can’t remember his name). There aren’t too many adoptive parents in YA. I haven’t read any of the other books in The Harbinger series yet, but at least in the first book, he seems like a good guy. First, he takes in this little street girl. Then, he still pursues adoption even though his social circle is against it. And he seems like an understanding and caring guy.
I tried to find some other dads, but I’m drawing a blank for good dads. The dads in Spin the Dawn, Red Queen, and A Court of Thorns and Roses meant well, but they were broken. And let’s not even talk about dads like those in The Young Elites and Heartless — those were awful. Let’s face it, it’s hard to find good parents in YA.
