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Winter 2019/2020 TBR

By Brookelorren on December 17, 2019December 5, 201932 Comments

Hello! It’s Top Ten Tuesday today, and it’s time for the quarterly TBR post. I love doing quarterly TBRs because it gives me books to get excited for over the next three months! Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl!

I ended up reading everything from my Fall TBR with a few weeks to spare! The books I read for fall were:

Rebel – Marie Lu
The End and Other Beginnings – Veronica Roth
Ninth House – Leigh Bardugo
The Beautiful – Renée Ahdieh
Always Forever Maybe – Anica Mrose Rissi
This Savage Song – Victoria Schwab
Call Down the Hawk – Maggie Stiefvater
Thousands – Pepper Winters
The Queen of Nothing – Holly Black
Sea Witch – Sarah Henning

I did the same thing for this winter that I did for the fall. I made a list of books I absolutely needed to read, then I made a list of books I was interested in reading and had a TBR lottery using a random number generator. The TBR lottery idea was adapted from the TBR jar idea I found at Destiny at Howling Libraries. It was just easier for me to list all the books on one sheet of paper than to write them all on slips of paper. There were 66 books in the lottery and 6 were chosen.

In addition to the books listed here I already know I’m going to read 10 Things I Hate About Pinkie and The Vanishing Deep. The first I have an ARC for and the second I pre-ordered the audiobook for.

In May 2018, back when I first learned about ARCs and The Kingdom of Back was supposed to come out this year, I set a goal to get an ARC of this book. Then it looked like I wouldn’t get it… but… eek! It was on Bookish First and I was able to claim one! They have my undying loyalty now. I don’t know when it will arrive, but I’ll probably read it in late December or early January.

Laura E. Weymouth is a sweetheart and I promised her that I’d write her a crossover fanfic with A Treason of Thorns and Sorcery of Thorns. I’m sure they’ve forgotten I’d said I’d do it but I have every intention of writing it. First I have to read the books. I pre-ordered this book but didn’t put it on my TBR so it didn’t get read yet.

I won Light from Distant Stars as an ARC, but it didn’t arrive until after its release date. So I hadn’t gotten around to reading it yet. Since I didn’t get it as an ARC, I couldn’t schedule it with my ARC reads, so it’s going on my TBR instead.

I thought I was going to have to wait to read Chain of Gold after I finished The Kingdom of Back, but getting the ARC took care of that problem. Now I’ll get to start reading it on March 3rd as soon as the stupid UPS truck arrives (which is about 8 PM… grr). I’m rereading the Shadowhunter books before this book comes out.

The rest of the books on this list, including Descendant of the Crane, were TBR lottery winners. I wanted to read this book before it came out, found it on sale, and haven’t had time to read it yet. It looks like such an amazing book I’m glad I’ll get to read it (yet still sad as I look longingly at the books that didn’t get picked).

Kim Chance is the lovely host of Chance2Connect on Twitter, and when I found her book on sale, I couldn’t pass it up. The second book in this series is already out, but I’ll start with Keeper.

I found 99 Percent Mine on sale this summer and had to pick it up. Looking forward to reading it. I haven’t read anything by Sally Thorne before.

Tell Me Everything was recommended to me. I don’t have my own copy but my library does. It’s currently available, so I don’t think I’ll have too much difficulty getting this book when I’m ready to read it.

The main reason I want to read Disappearing Earth is that it takes place in Russia. I don’t own this one either, and all the copies are out at the library. I put this one on hold and suspended the hold so I can read this sometime after the first of the year. Who knows how many copies the library has?

My library has several copies of Broken Throne available, so it won’t be difficult getting to read the last TBR lottery winner, Broken Throne. It’ll be fun to get back into the Red Queen universe again.

Well, that’s my Winter 2019/2020 TBR! Will you be reading any of these books in the upcoming season? Have you read any of these? Next week we’re going to talk about books I’d hope to find under my tree… well, since my parents are averse to pre-ordering, I’ll probably tweak it slightly.

ABC Book Challenge – X

By Brookelorren on December 15, 2019December 15, 2019Leave a Comment

Welcome to Sunday, and another edition of the ABC book challenge! I found it over at Me, Myself, and Books, but I believe it was started by The Thrifty Bibliophile. Today’s letter is X, which I think is going to be the shortest entry of the alphabet, because I only have one book:

The only book I can think of that starts with X is Xenocide by Orson Scott Card. I normally haven’t been posting the third book in a series during this ABC book challenge, but there really aren’t that many candidates for this letter. Xenocide is the third book in the Ender’s Game Saga.

I read this book a long time ago, but I absolutely loved Ender’s Game. I don’t remember much about this particular book, other than it was part of Ender’s story.

That’s about all I can remember that start’s with this letter. Do you have any favorite books that begin with this letter? There are more books for the letter Y next week.

Netgalley Book Tag

By Brookelorren on December 14, 2019December 14, 20192 Comments

I recently found the Netgalley Book tag. Do I care that it’s from 2016? Absolutely not! Some book tags are timeless. Anyway, this was started by Kourtni Reads and I found it over at Booked J. It sounded like a lot of fun so I’m doing it!

The Rules:

Link back to the tag’s creator (Kourtni Reads)
Thank and link back to the person who tagged you
Answer the questions the best you can. If you don’t use NetGalley, you can substitute other sites or places where you get books!
Tag a few people to do this too

Auto-Approved: Who’s one author whose books you automatically want to read, regardless of what they’re about?

Marie Lu. I have literally no clue what Skyhunter is about, it doesn’t come out until October 6th, 2020, but I already pre-ordered this book over a month ago. So if I got auto-approved, I’d be really happy. I’m ecstatic that I’m getting an ARC for The Kingdom of Back.

Request: What makes you want to request a book that you see on NetGalley?

There are a lot of things that make me request a book on Netgalley. Is it by an author I love? Does the book sound amazing? Do I need a book coming out around that pub date for my blog? I have more than one place I get ARCs from now, so I have to keep all this in mind because if I request it, I make every effort to review it on time.

Feedback Ratio: Do you review every book you read? If not, how do you decide what books to review?

I review every Netgalley book I request (most of the time before the pub date). I review almost all the backlist books I read. Sometimes I make exceptions for those.

Wish for It: What’s one book that you are absolutely dying to read?

There are several books I’m dying to read, and most of them I’ve either pre-ordered or am planning on pre-ordering. Chain of Gold is one of the books I’m dying to read that I’m sure I won’t be able to read before its release date. But… since I’m reading The Kingdom of Back early and I’m reading The Vanishing Deep on audiobook (all three are March 3rd releases) I’ll start this on its release date!

NetGalley Challenge: What was the last book that you received as an ARC that you reviewed? If you’ve never received an ARC, what’s the last book you reviewed?

I reviewed Of Curses and Kisses on Goodreads, but the author requested I wait until release week to review it on my blog. I reviewed Every Other Weekend on Netgalley, but I’ve been busy working on book edits and haven’t reviewed it here yet. The last book I reviewed on my blog was Reverie? NaNoWriMo happened, which is why I haven’t done many reviews lately. And now I’m trying to get THE BRIGHTNESS OF SHADOW ready for beta readers so I can have it polished for Author Mentor Match…

So that’s the Netgalley Book Tag! Do you want to do it? Tag, you’re it! If you do the tag, I’d love to see what you’re answers are.

Books I Hope to Reread in 2020

By Brookelorren on December 10, 2019December 7, 201935 Comments

It’s Tuesday again, and that means it’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday! It’s hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! Today is a freebie, and it’s too early to post the “best of” lists, but I’ve been thinking about 2020. One of the things I’ve been thinking about is the books I want to reread next year! So that’s the topic I chose.

I’ve been rereading the Shadowhunter books in anticipation of Chain of Gold coming out on March 3rd. I read a little over 30 pages a day. I should be up to The Dark Artifices at the beginning of the year. I know I’m reading Clockwork Princess right now, but I plan on reading some of the short story books between now and the first of the year.

It’s been a while since I reread Divergent. Well, a year. I love these characters and would like to read the trilogy next year, including Four. I might pass on “We Can Be Mended”. I’m not a fan of everything past chapter 50 of Allegiant.

One of the comp books to my (still untitled) NaNoWriMo 2019 book is Sky Without Stars. Plus, I loved the book. I’d love to give this a reread before Between Burning Worlds comes out on March 24th.

Another book I’m looking forward to reading next year is Liberté, the sequel to Enchantée. I have a while before I have to reread this one though: Liberté doesn’t come out until Bastille Day (July 14, 2020).

Another series I hope to reread next year is The Young Elites. I still want to finish writing my Young Elites fanfic, which tells this story from Magiano’s point of view and is over 300 pages already, but to do that, I need the character’s voices to be fresh in my head. Besides, I really love this story.

There’s only five pictures here, but they represent ten books, so I think I’ll stop here. This year I probably will have reread 23 books (some were quite short). It’s possible I may reread that many books next year, but I don’t want to make plans to reread a lot of books that I won’t get around to. These books are those that are pulling at me and I have a strong desire to reread, and I’ll do my darndest to finish again next year.

ABC Book Challenge – W

By Brookelorren on December 8, 2019December 8, 2019Leave a Comment

Hello! Once again, it’s time for the ABC book challenge! This is where I go through the books on My Books on Goodreads and I pick out the books I really liked or really want to read. Today we’re on the letter W. I first found this over at Me, Myself, and Books, although I believe it was created by The Thrifty Bibliophile.

I loved Warcross, and it was my favorite book that I read in 2017. I read it on the last day of the year. I love the character of Emika, and I loved the whole hacking/gaming aspect of the book. My major was in computer science, so when I first heard about it I was excited about it.

Sandhya Menon was the speaker at the Colorado Teen Literature Conference this year, and since I was going to meet her, I figured I might as well read her books. So I read When Dimple Met Rishi, and I loved it.

When Money Dies is a nonfiction book that deals with the hyperinflation that occurred during the Weimar Republic. I’ve always thought it was fascinating how people dealt with the times when it took a wheelbarrowload full of money to buy a loaf of bread. Along similar lines, a really good book that gives a first-person account of how a teenager lived through this time was Defying Hitler by Sebastian Haffner (although that’s only a small part of that book).

Wicked Fox had me at the cover. Plus it’s a book set in modern-day Korea.

I read the Wrath & Righteousness series several years ago and really liked it. It’s one of those apocalyptic kinds of books. I’ll probably reread it again sometime, because when I first read it, I read each episode as they came out. There’s ten small books in the entire series.

So that’s the letter W! Can you believe I only have one book for the letter X next week? I might come up with one more between now and then, but I doubt it. Z is my most difficult letter, but I’m combining that week with letters that start with numbers or letters that are not normally in the US alphabet.

Christmas Songs Book Tag

By Brookelorren on December 7, 2019December 7, 20194 Comments

Hello! I hope you’re having a great week! I saw the Christmas Songs Book Tag over at That Artsy Reader Girl and it sounded like a lot of fun! So before we get too involved in the holiday season, I’d like to post my list for you.

1. “All I Want for Christmas Is You”: Favorite bookish couple.

Anne at Head Full of Books posted a bunch of Jane Austen couples, so is it okay for me to post a couple ships by one author? I’ll do it anyway. I adore Day and June from Legend as well as Adelina and Magiano from The Young Elites. Both books by Marie Lu.

2. “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”: Name a book where a character is away from home (school, vacation, etc.).

I’m reading Of Curses and Kisses by Sandhya Menon right now! It takes place at a boarding school!

3. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”: Name your favorite “little” book (children’s book, short story, novella, etc.).

There are a few of them that I really love, but I’m posting one for the holiday: “Midnights” by Rainbow Rowell. I just borrowed the little book Almost Midnight by her from the library today and I can’t wait to read that story again.

4. “Santa Claus is Coming to Town“: What book(s) do you hope Santa brings you this year?

I pre-order most of my books, and my mom doesn’t really like to pre-order books, so I asked her for books that are already out. My husband is going to give me an Amazon gift card so I can pre-order more books. But since Santa knows how to pre-order books, I’d like for him to get me Liberté by Gita Trelease. I haven’t pre-ordered that one yet, but I plan to.

Oh, and if Santa can do the impossible, I’d love for him to find me a copy of Life After Legend, the pre-order gift that came with Warcross. I periodically look on eBay for someone willing to sell one, but it’s never for sale.

5. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”: Which book turned your nose red (made you cry)?

When I think of books and ugly-crying, the first book that comes to mind is Clockwork Princess. I’m rereading it right now, and I haven’t gotten to the epilogue yet, but I just know I’m going to bawl my eyes out again.

6. “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year”: Your favorite book/kind of book to read during the holidays.

This one’s tough. I loved The Immortal Nicholas, but I also loved My True Love Gave to Me. I typically read only one Christmas book each Christmas season and I don’t plan on rereading either this year, but I really love those.

7. “We Three Kings”: Your favorite trilogy.

I had to check Goodreads to ensure Divergent is considered a trilogy, because there are some short stories written in addition to the main three books. Now that Legend is a tetralogy, it’s up there at the top.

8. “Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow”: A character you would love to be snowed in with.

This one is tough, because when I read a book, I always picture myself becoming the character in the book. Me, myself, wouldn’t really want to be snowed in with a book character because I have an amazing husband. But if I could become a Tessa Gray and become any character to be snowed in with any other character… tough one. Any of the ships listed above? I also wouldn’t mind becoming Clary and being snowed in with Jace either.

9. “Last Christmas”: A book that seriously let you down.

I really wanted to like Children of Blood and Bone. There’s nothing wrong with this book… I could tell as an objective reader that it was well-written and had all the elements of a good book. It just didn’t resonate with me, and I think it was because I’m not familiar enough with the culture it derived from.

10. “White Christmas”: An upcoming release you’re dreaming about.

I dream a lot about my books, LOL. But those are way off into the future.

But as for books that are coming out next year, I suppose there are three I’m looking forward to more than anything: The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu (I can’t believe I’m getting an ARC!), Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare, and Skyhunter by Marie Lu (the only thing I know about the last one is that it comes out on October 6th and I saw a picture of one of the MCs). I’ve pre-ordered all three of these.

That’s the tag! There’s a linky over at That Arsy Reader Girl if you decide to do this one. If you want to leave me a link too, I’d appreciate it.

Blue Lily, Lily Blue

By Brookelorren on December 6, 2019December 6, 2019Leave a Comment

Blue Lily, Lily Blue is the third book in the fantastic Raven Cycle. I could just save you the time and tell you to read the entire series, but then this review would be really short, right?

Instead, I’m first going to warn you that this post contains spoilers for The Raven Boys and The Dream Thieves. If you haven’t read them yet, then don’t read on unless you want spoilers.

Okay, so now that I’ve got all the people who don’t mind spoilers, let’s move on. Blue’s mother is missing! This series is getting a little dangerous. So now the search is getting a little more desperate. In addition to looking for the Welsh king, they now have to find Blue’s mom. Fortunately, they’re probably both located in a magical cave.

In this book, we get to meet Gansey’s older friend Malory, along with a few other characters. Like the rest of the books in this series, the characters are great. I absolutely love how Stiefvater deals with the friend dynamics in this story. Blue and Adam were once an item, but over time, she and Gansey start having feelings for each other. That whole transition phase takes a bit of an adjustment, but I think in real life you’d see that too. We have another couple with a developing relationship in this book, but I’m not giving away spoilers… and this series is a very slow burn in the romance department. But if you’re Blue, do you blame her? If she kisses her true love, he’s going to die!

They’re getting closer to graduation, and some of them have to start worrying about their futures. Blue and Adam have to start worrying, in particular. Blue realizes that her family just doesn’t have the finances for her to go to any school that she’s interested in, and Adam has to worry about finances now. That’s going to cause problems. Adam’s father is a jerk too… more problems.

And then we have another villain, of course.

I don’t want to give out any spoilers, but I will say that, even though I borrowed most of the books from this series from the library, I bought The Raven King. I think it was because the library didn’t have it immediately available and I didn’t want to wait. And you’re going to want to finish this series too, because the book ends in a semi-significant cliffhanger. Blue Lily, Lily Blue does wrap up a lot of its issues, but more are coming. You’ll want to have the next book available if at all possible. At any rate, this is a great series and I wanted to continue reading straight through this one.

I have reviewed the earlier books in this series:

The Dream Thieves

By Brookelorren on December 5, 2019December 4, 2019Leave a Comment

2019 has been a pretty good reading year. One of the books I got to read this year was The Dream Thieves, the second book in The Raven Cycle. This book centers around Ronan. Before we continue, this book contains spoilers for The Raven Boys (link is to that review). So don’t read on if you haven’t read the first book and don’t want spoilers for it.

Okay, so now that we only have people that have read book 1 or are okay with spoilers, let’s continue. The Dream Thieves focuses on Ronan, whom we discovered can take things out of dreams. Being a dreamer can be dangerous, we find out in this book. A treacherous man is searching for him. Although they’re sometimes wild and uncontrollable, Ronan learns how to better harness his dream power in this book.

In addition to Ronan’s dreams, The Dream Thieves further unfolds the drama surrounding Blue and the true love she’ll kill when she kisses him. From the first book, we know who is destined to be Blue’s true love, although she’s with Adam. She won’t kiss him because she doesn’t want to kill him, but she doesn’t want to tell him about her curse either. There is a little bit of kissing in this book (not Blue and Adam though). Nobody dies from kissing yet. You’ll have to read on in this series.

Aaaah! How will this end? Fortunately, since the entire series is out, you don’t have to wait to find out. I loved this book and this series. These characters are great. The book is humorous. I wrote down more than two pages of quotes and reactions from this book in my book journal, including passages like:

Matthew Lynch was a golden, indiscriminate pit into which the world threw food.
The Dream Thieves, p. 170

This book makes you want to keep reading more. Will Blue realize who her true love is? How will that work out? Will Ronan be safe? And they’re still looking for the Welsh king… will Gansey find him and get his wish?

Oh, and you’ll be glad you don’t have to wait another year to read the next book. You might want to be prepared to read that right after this one.

If you liked The Raven Boys, then I highly recommend you continue on with The Dream Thieves. Especially if you like Ronan (but who doesn’t like them all?). It has magic, romantic drama, family drama, killers with a soft side to them, rich private school drama, and more.

My review of the first book in the series, The Raven Boys, is available here.

Holiday Reads

By Brookelorren on December 3, 2019December 2, 201924 Comments

Hello and welcome to another edition of Top Ten Tuesday! It’s hosted every week by That Artsy Reader Girl! It’s December, which means it’s time to think about Christmas and all those wonderful holiday books! I probably won’t be reading any Christmas books this year, but I do sometimes! Here are some holiday books that I liked.

My True Love Gave to me is a gorgeous holiday book full of short stories. I also recommend the summer edition, Summer Days and Summer Nights. This has some lovely stories, including “Midnights” by Rainbow Rowell. I absolutely love “Midnights”. Such an adorable story.

I’ve read The Immortal Nicholas twice and it put me into tears, especially the first time. This is a Santa origin story that includes Jesus and Crampus.

The Long Winter isn’t actually a Christmas book, but it’s one of those books that you want to cuddle up under a blanket while reading. Now I want to read this book again!

When I was little, my mom would read me a story called Christmas Every Day. It’s a cute little story, and you can google it and read it online for free. It’s about a girl who wished that it was Christmas every day… but be careful what you wish for!

One of my teachers in middle school read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever to us. I loved the book. Evidently, so did a lot of people because I was in this play twice: once as an angel, another time as Beth.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas is a classic story by Dr. Seuss. I’m not a big fan of the more recent movies, but I love the book and the original cartoon that went along with it. Fun fact: if you try to buy the original cartoon movie from Walmart, the cashier has to verify that you’re 17 because it’s not rated. Or at least that was the policy last year. Although if I was still working there, I’d approve the purchase for anyone old enough to scan the video. I’d be willing to get fired over selling that movie to a five-year-old.

Perhaps there’s something about Christmas that makes me want to read short stories and children’s books. The Gift of the Magi is another short story, but it’s really sweet. You’ve probably heard this story before, because it’s a classic. It’s the one where the girl sells her hair and the guy sells his watch to get each other Christmas presents.

I don’t read many poems, but The Night Before Christmas is a classic poem about Santa Claus.

At this point in my list, I have to say I’m getting desperate for holiday stories. All I can come up with is eight books! I need your help to find more! I have never read Christmas with Anne and other Holiday Stories by L.M. Montgomery, but I think I’d like to. Thank the birthday boy (Jesus) for Goodreads and their Listopia! That’s where I found this one.

I haven’t read Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce either, but it sounds like it would be amazing to read. If you’re unfamiliar with what happened, during the early days of World War I, the soldiers were fighting, and it was Christmas Eve, and they defied orders to declare an unofficial Christmas truce and celebrate the holiday together. It’s amazing that two groups of people, who were supposed to be enemies, were able to get together like this.

So that’s my list of holiday books! As you can tell, I really need help finding some new ones! Hopefully some of your wonderful lists will help me. What are some of your favorite Christmas books?

Next week is a freebie and I don’t know what I’m doing yet. See you then!

ABC Book Challenge – V

By Brookelorren on December 1, 2019November 30, 20192 Comments

Welcome to December, and the last month of the ABC book challenge. Today’s letter is V. I first saw this challenge over at Me, Myself, and Books, but it was started by The Thrifty Bibliophile. Here we go over the books I really liked and the books I really want to read.

I loved Astrid Scholte’s debut Four Dead Queens, and am looking forward to her next book, which comes out on March 3rd. It happens to be the same date that Chain of Gold and The Kingdom of Back comes out. I’m getting an ARC for The Kingdom of Back from Bookish First (although I’m also getting finished copies) and may get an ARC of this book; if not, I’ll be getting this on audiobook.

I got the Target edition of A Very Large Expanse of Sea because it had a bonus chapter in it. It was a good book that takes place after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

I finally read a book by V.E. Schwab last month, after talking about reading her books for about a year. I read This Savage Song, but I haven’t read Vicious yet. It’s in the Winter 2019 TBR lottery, but so are 59 other books, and I think I’m randomly picking 5.

Well, those are books that start with the letter V that I’m either interested in reading or really liked. What books did you like that start with the letter V? See you next week for the letter W!