Books Archives - Page 14 of 50 - Brooke's Reviews and Sweeps

November 2019 Wrap-Up

By Brookelorren on November 30, 2019November 29, 20199 Comments

Hey! I hope you all had an AMAZING November! Any November that I win NaNoWriMo is a good November to me, K? But on to the rest of the month:

Books Read:

I only finished reading ten books this month. Three of them were rereads. One of them was 1463 pages though (which is forever on audiobook).

This Savage Song – Victoria Schwab
City of Heavenly Fire – Cassandra Clare (reread)
Safe Harbour – Christina Kilbourne
Reverie – Ryan La Sala
Clockwork Angel – Cassandra Clare (reread)
Call Down the Hawk – Maggie Stiefvater
Les Misérables – Victor Hugo
The Queen of Nothing – Holly Black
Sea Witch – Sarah Henning
Clockwork Prince – Cassandra Clare (reread)

Safe Harbour is the most underrated book out of the above, I think. And I finally read a book by V.E. Schwab, after saying I need to do so for about a year now.

Blog Stats:

Blog visits are down and Twitter followers are flat, but it is NaNoWriMo and I haven’t had the chance to visit as many places as I would like to.

Writing:

Do I need to say anything else? I haven’t written much else this month. Next month I need to work on editing The Brightness of Shadow and working on finishing this still untitled book, but I won. I didn’t spend as much time this year on NaNoPrep as last year, but I still finished.

Life:

I got to visit my husband’s family in Arizona for Thanksgiving, so that was good. Homeschool coop is over with for a couple of months, so I’m going to appreciate the break. No hospital trips, fortunately. We had a few big snow days this month.

So that was November. How was your month?

Call Down the Hawk

By Brookelorren on November 28, 2019November 27, 2019Leave a Comment

Happy Thanksgiving! One of the books I’m thankful I had the chance to read this month was Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater. It is a new series that takes place after The Raven Boys tetralogy. You don’t need to read that series first, but you’ll probably enjoy this new series more if you read that one first.

Ronan Lynch, as you might recall, has the ability to take things from his dreams. They’re not always things that make sense in real life: as an example, electronics that don’t need to be plugged in. When he was a little boy, he dreamed up a baby brother for himself. His own mother was dreamed up, by his father, who was also a dreamer.

It turns out, there are several dreamers out there. There’s also a group of people that are out there killing dreamers. The hunters think they are saving the world by killing these dreamers.

We meet more of these characters that can dream in this book. We also meet the people that are hunting down the dreamers. At first, the book is disjointed in a way, with the dreamers and the hunted living separate lives, but at the end of the book, they find their way to each other. And Ronan has to save himself — and his family — from these killers.

While in the same universe, Call Down the Hawk is different from The Raven Boys. Adam, Gansey, and Blue play very small roles in this book (even though Adam and Ronan are still together). The book seems to be slightly less YA. It’s still good, but it’s different. There’s more pieces to puzzle together in this series. At the end of this book, there are still unanswered questions (which you’ll need to read the second book in the series to find the answers to).

Overall, I recommend Call Down the Hawk, especially if you liked The Raven Boys. There were parts of this book where I was rolling with laughter. Plus the Lynch Brothers are great. I’m thankful that I finally got around to reading Maggie Stiefvater’s books, including this one, this year.

Thanksgiving 2019

By Brookelorren on November 26, 2019November 26, 201924 Comments

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, where we post a list of bookish things every week. This Thursday is Thanksgiving in the US, so we’re talking about things we’re thankful for. I did a post like this last year, but there are always more things to be thankful for. A lot of things are the same, but some are different. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl!

I’m thankful for my favorite authors. Specifically, I’m thankful for:

Veronica Roth
Marie Lu
Cassandra Clare

For these authors, it goes beyond writing a good story. You may have seen the end of the decade posts. Where you were at the beginning of the decade vs. where you are now. I found an article from 2009 to illustrate why I’m thankful for these three authors:

In 2009 I was writing content for Associated Content, Squidoo, and a couple of other places. I wasn’t writing fiction. I always wanted to write another novel (I wrote two novella-length stories in high school) but I couldn’t find the story. But then Allegiant came along. I’ve said before, chapter 50 and after are dead to me. At the same time, it changed my life. I got into Divergent fanfiction. Then I wrote Legend fanfiction. I still write fanfiction, but I wrote another original novel. I’m almost at 50k words on another original novel. I wouldn’t know I could do it without the first two authors. And Cassandra Clare has amazing worldbuilding. She’s very inspirational.

I doubt any of these have to write beyond their current contracts, considering they have all had either movie deals or multimillion dollar contracts, but I’m thankful they keep writing.

I’m thankful for my author friends. I love them at all stages of their writing life. I can learn from those who are farther along on the journey than I am. When someone is down, I can encourage them. I can find inspiration from them when things are hard. It’s great having friends that write.

I’m thankful for Bookish First. It’s my favorite place to get physical ARCs. Not only are their odds pretty good in winning a physical ARC when you post a first impression, if you earn enough points, you can use those points to “purchase” the ARC of your choice. Next week they’re having Kingdom of Back as the choice. I’d commit crimes for that ARC. Now I don’t have to, because I have enough points to get it.

Sorry, there may be some overlap from last year. I can’t stop being thankful for my library though. I’m here multiple times per week. It’s where the Russian Meetup Group meets, where they host NaNoWriMo write-ins, where there’s workspace to write while my boy is at D&D… there’s free wifi. How could I not extol the virtues of this place?

I’m also thankful for National Novel Writing Month. When this posts, I won’t have finished my 50k for NaNoWriMo 2019, and even when I do get to 50k, the first draft won’t even be finished, but I’ve completed two novels during NaNoWriMo (one is a fanfic I posted on AO3 and the other is in the editing stage) and should finish this one too. I love the encouragement that NaNoWriMo brings.

I’m thankful for Sandhya Menon. I get to be on her street team! She writes such beautiful stories, and I’m so glad that I’m able to work with her. She’s so nice too! I got to meet her at the Colorado Teen Literature Conference this year, and we get to have street team chats with her about once a month.

I’m thankful for bloggers. Where else am I going to find what books to read? There’s Twitter, I suppose, but blogs are the way to get reminded of those books that you know you want to read anyway. This year I finally got to read I think all of those authors I’ve said “I want to read X author someday” week after week about. I probably can thank bloggers for reminding me about them. And I’m forever in their debt.

I’m thankful for Twitter. I adore this web site. It’s the place where you can meet other writers, meet other readers, join in on chats with other writers and readers, join readalongs with other readers. I’m here all the time.

For last year’s Top Ten Tuesday thankfulness post I didn’t thank Archive of Our Own. They deserve a place here because, like my favorite authors above, they changed my life. A lot of other writers have written fanfiction too, and some have posted it here. This is my favorite place for fanfiction.

Finally, I choose you! I’m thankful for everybody that has stopped by to read my little blog this year. I know I put readers on this list last year too, but you can never be thanked enough. Without you, maybe I’d stop posting? Who else would I share my favorite books with? So I’m glad you’re here.

So that’s ten things. What are you thankful for this year? Next week we’re going to talk about holiday books! I’ll see you then!

The Queen of Nothing

By Brookelorren on November 25, 2019November 25, 20192 Comments

The Queen of Nothing came out last week and… it was so good! If you’ve read The Wicked King, then you know that the ending of that story left you needing this book. If you haven’t read The Wicked King, I recommend you go read it before you read this review, because it will contain spoilers.

Jude is living with her sister in the mortal world now. She might be used to living in the fairy world, but now she has the same problems as the rest of us mundanes. She has no skills and no status with the government either. So to earn money, she’s been taking odd jobs from a fairy.

All of this changes when Taryn shows up at her doorstep. Jude has to return to fairy to protect her identical twin–and then becomes embroiled in fairy politics once again. I don’t want to give away much more than that, but I will say that the cover of this book is perfect for the story.

What I Liked:

What I like most about the Folk of the Air trilogy, including this book, is Holly Black’s voice. She has a style of writing that draws you in. I love the world she paints and the characters she creates. Plus, I love Jude and Cardan. These books have been criticized in the past as portraying their relationship as toxic, but both characters were toxic. In The Queen of Nothing, both the characters grow and so does their relationship.

I can’t think of anything I disliked. The Folk of the Air books tend to run on the shorter side of fantasy books, but they can easily be read in a day or two. Ms. Black doesn’t pad the books to make the book longer.

Conclusion:

Should you read The Queen of Nothing? If you read the first two books, then yes, probably. There’s a lot less toxicity between Jude and Cardan in this book. If you live for that in this series, then you might not want to rush this to the top of your TBR. I loved this book, however, and will definitely want to give this series a reread at some point.

Other books in the Folk of the Air Series:

ABC Book Challenge – U

By Brookelorren on November 24, 2019November 22, 2019Leave a Comment

Hello! It’s hard to believe we’re almost at the end of November, and we’re already on the letter U in the ABC Book Challenge. Since July, I’ve been going through My Books on Goodreads and have been going over books I really like or really want to read. I first found it at Me, Myself, and Books, but I think it was started by The Thrifty Bibliophile.

Unbroken is the true story of Louis Zamporini, who was shipwrecked for a long time in the middle of the Pacific Ocean during World War II, then he was taken prisoner by the Japanese. He was an Olympic hopeful until the World War crushed those dreams. It is a beautiful story about forgiveness. I highly recommend this one.

The Unhoneymooners is on my Winter TBR lottery this year. It’s an enemies to lovers story, and it sounds like such a fun book! I’m tracking the price of this one on EreaderIQ, and am hoping this might go on sale over Black Friday? If not, there’s the library.

Untitled is one of the most common titles in My Books on Goodreads. I have so many on the list! There’s Untitled by Sabaa Tahir, Untitled by Gita Trelease, the three Untitled books in The Wicked Powers series by Cassandra Clare, Untitled Skyhunter 2 by Marie Lu, Untitled by Kat Cho, Untitled by Swati Teerdhala. So many books to look forward to!

Up From Slavery is one of those books that I always say I want to read someday, but I haven’t yet. I finally got around to reading Les Misérables, so maybe I’ll get around to this one too.

The final book that I really would like to read is Uprooted. It looks so pretty! Plus I’ve heard good things about it.

So those are the letter U books! Are there any letter U books you really want to read (or really liked)?

Remember November Book Tag

By Brookelorren on November 23, 2019November 21, 20192 Comments

Hello! I was tagged by Siobhan over at Novelties to do the Remember November book tag! It was originally started by Book Princess Reviews! I love the name of this tag. Last year, I read Fawkes over November 5th to commemorate Guy Fawke’s day. This year, we’ll commemorate November by finding books for some of these holidays.

RULES

pingback to the creator of the tag, @bookprincessreviews
tag the person who tagged you
find an answer to match each prompt
have fun!

Sadie Hawkins Day: First Saturday

a female character who takes her fate in her own hands

There are so many books that could fit into this category, but one of those books that I haven’t mentioned in a while would be On The Come Up by Angie Thomas. Bri wants to be a rapper, but she’s surrounded by some bad influences, plus she has a temper. Her mom doesn’t want her getting into the rap business, but Bri goes and does it anyway. In the end, Bri finds out what’s important to her.

Guy Fawkes Night: November 5

a plot that was stopped at the last minute

For a second, I though about putting Fawkes in this box. That would be funny. But I ended up putting Enchantée here because I remember getting nearly to the end of the book and wondering how the heroine was going to come out of this unscathed. It had such a delicious ending that I named it my favorite book out of the ones I read last year.

Saxophone Day: November 6

a character with an uncommon hobby

I’ve run across a lot of characters that play an instrument of some sort, are into art, like to read, dance, etc. But I think Eden Bataar Wing in Rebel is the only boy I’ve come across that likes to press flowers.

World Kindness Day: November 13

a villain who is changed by kindness

Les Misérables was the biggest book I’ve read this year. Many of us are familiar with the synopsis of Les Misérables, but there are probably a lot fewer of us who have actually read it. We probably know of Jean Valjean as the man who spent twenty years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread, but he could have been the villain of the story: if not for the extreme kindness of one man. Although he was a villain at the beginning of the story, hardened by what society did for him, he instead becomes a changed man, becoming the saint of the story instead.

Use Less Stuff Day: November 18

a character who gives up something in their life (i.e. a dream, a possession)

What can a character give up that’s more valuable than their life? If I recall correctly, there are actually two characters who give up their life in this book. I’m not going to say who though because spoilers. I think this series (The Midnight Star is the third book in The Young Elites series) is due for a reread in 2020. I have an unfinished novel-length fanfic of this series to finish too. A reread should help me finish that one.

Start Your Own Country Day: November 22

a book with its own land/world

I decided to go with a book I read last year for this last question. There are so many books that take place in their own worlds, but we sometimes can stop gushing about books we read a while ago in favor of the books we recently read. An Ember in the Ashes takes place in this whole ‘nother universe. Looking forward to reading the 4th book in 2021. It’s been a long wait, but I know Ms. Tahir has been working on it, so I’ll try to be patient. Writing a book is hard!

So that’s all for this book tag! Feel free to do this one if you’d like! If you decide to do this one, please tag me so I can see what you come up with.

That Night

By Brookelorren on November 21, 2019November 14, 2019Leave a Comment

School shootings are far too common these days. That Night is a story about two families dealing with deaths from a shooting at a movie theater that killed 18 people. It had a lot of humor in it, but it had its serious moments at the same time. I loved the book and find it hard to believe it currently only has 501 ratings on Goodreads.

The shooting caused Jess to lose her brother Ethan. Her mom walks around in a fog and can’t hold down a job, and her best friend is away at another school trying to cope. Lucas, a boy she thinks is cute but doesn’t really know, also lost his brother.

When Jess gets a job at the same hardware store Ethan works at, he initially doesn’t want her to be around. Eventually, they realize they like each other. But Ethan doesn’t know her secret…

That Night is a contemporary love story that I flew through. I loved the characters, and I loved Jess and Lucas together. The survivors of the shooting all have their own ways of dealing with the tragedy. Jess and Lucas’s families are so different, but they work. I loved the small-ish town setting, where most people know each other and look out for each other.

I love how these characters are funny. It helps lighten up a book that was triggered by such a serious event. Its a book that, even though there’s sadness inside, it’s also accompanied by hope. Sometimes we need a little bit more of that.

In another year or two, there won’t be clusters of empty seats at graduation, or an entire “In Memoriam” section in the yearbook. They’ll move on and try to forget about that night.
p. 301

There are a lot of tragic things that happen in the world. As I write this, there was a school shooting today. Even more than that, I know of so many young people that are depressed. Although a book is unlikely to change that, That Night might be a good book for people who who have experienced tragedy in their life and are having difficulty coping. I really loved this book, and it’s a little sad that more people haven’t read it.

Books… Now and Then

By Brookelorren on November 19, 2019November 12, 201934 Comments

::Waves:: Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, where we talk about books! It’s hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! Today’s topic is “Changes in My Reading Life.” I’m not sure what to do with that, so I’m just going to take a time machine through history and come up with books that I really liked, and go through the present time. I don’t know where this journey will end up… you might be less clueless than me! Here we go!

If we go far back enough, we’ll see this beautiful Little House boxed set sitting in the bookshelf in my bedroom closet! Well, not this one specifically, because mine was blue. I still have… most of these books? Somewhere. My daughter kind of tore some of these.

Inching forward in time to high school, you’ll find the Anne of Green Gables books. My grandma had the whole set and I borrowed them from her. My personal favorite from the series was Rilla of Ingleside. These books were the one thing I really wanted to inherit from my grandmother.

Here’s some escapism from college. Sweet Valley University books can easily be read in a few hours. Of course, back then you didn’t to go Amazon, you’d head on down to your local mall to the Brentano’s or Waldenbooks.

I got The Discoverers from the USC University bookstore. I’ve read it twice and will probably read it again someday. Boorstin has read several books and I checked a lot of them out of the library. I still haven’t read his book The Seekers yet. Adding it to my Winter 2019/20 TBR lottery to give it a chance.

There’s a lot of books I could put in this slot… I’ve probably been posting my favorite books of the year now online for… ten years? Maybe longer? But because I used to post them on places like Squidoo, which are no longer up, they’re no longer available. In The Garden of Beasts was a book that I read sometime between college and the time I have records of my favorite books of the year. There are any number of books that could go here. The book I’m writing is partly inspired by this book, so I think it belongs.

Divergent is one of those life-changing books for me. I hated chapter 50 and beyond in Allegiant. So that’s not really a ringing endorsement, but I adored everything that came before that. This book prompted me to get into fanfiction. I won NaNoWriMo for the first time with an alternate version of this story where Tris chose Abnegation. For years I wanted to write books but couldn’t come up with a story. So I have to thank this series for that.

My first post on this blog was January 1st, 2017, where I posted about my favorite books I read for the first time in 2016. The Fourth Turning won that year. I love this book.

Warcross was my favorite book from 2017. I read it on December 31st that year. I knew it had a good chance of taking the #1 spot for the year, which was why I made sure to read it before the year was over. It was a Christmas present. 2017 was the last year before I started pre-ordering books and getting ARCs.

Enchantée was my favorite book from 2018. And I just discovered that I haven’t pre-ordered its sequel, Liberté, which comes out on July 14, 2020. I think I’m waiting until after Cyber Monday. Last year I spent about $75 over Black Friday weekend on books. Maybe I’ll use that “Buy $20 in books, get $5 off” deal that they had last year.

2019 is not over yet, so I can’t tell you what my favorite book of the year is/was, but Legend is another one of the books that changed my life. I have written a lot of fanfiction in this series, including one book where Day and June grew up in the Divergent universe. So it’s only fitting that for the last stop on our trip through reading time, we stop at the 2019 release of Rebel. I loved this book and want to read it again.

What about you? If we were to take a trip on a time machine and take a journey through your reading history, what would we see? Next week, we’re going to talk about bookish things I’m thankful for. See you then!

Reverie

By Brookelorren on November 18, 2019November 18, 2019Leave a Comment

I recently had the opportunity to read Ryan La Sala’s Reverie. I have to thank Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing me with an advanced reader copy.

This book has a strong beginning. Kane is trying to piece his life back together after he was found, nearly drowned, near a river. In addition, he may be in trouble with the police. What can be more exciting than that?

As Kane is trying to put his life back together, he discovers that there were people he was close to prior to his memory loss. Or at least, that’s what they tell him. He’s having difficulty figuring out who to trust and he’s a big ball of confusion. So far, so good.

Unfortunately, for me, this book then tries to do too much. Kane finds himself in a “reverie”, which is like a dream that’s been turned into reality. Everybody around the dreamer gets sucked into these reveries. Most people don’t realize what’s going on, but Kane (and a few other people) are lucid during these reveries, and have to make sure that they go smoothly. If they don’t, people can get hurt in real life (I think).

The book is very imaginative. It is pretty cool, seeing what sort of dreams people come up with, and how Kane and his friends move them along. However, these reveries start coming while Kane is still trying to figure out what happened, has the police breathing down his neck, and… for me it was a little overwhelming.

The characters in Reverie were well done. Kane isn’t always the nicest guy in the world, but he’s a consistent character. His sister, Sophia, seems like the nosy (realistic) little sister type. Plus there are friends and a main antagonist. One of the characters, Poesy, is quite the interesting addition to the small town where this book takes place.

There were a few loose ends in this book for me. What happened with the police? It didn’t really explain how they stopped pursuing his case. Also, the characters at the end of the book seem to still be in some danger, and I was still a little worried about them.

While this wasn’t the book for me, I do think there will be a lot of people that will like it. It was imaginative and different. Being La Sala’s debut, I think as an author he has a lot of potential. Reverie doesn’t come out until December 3rd, but you can pre-order it now.

ABC Book Challenge – T

By Brookelorren on November 17, 2019November 11, 2019Leave a Comment

It’s Sunday again, and time for another letter in the ABC Book Challenge. Every week from July to the end of the year, I go through My Books on Goodreads and bring up the books I either loved or really want to read. I can’t believe it’s already mid-November, and we’re already on the letter T. I first found this challenge over at Me, Myself, and Books, but I think it was started by The Thrifty Bibliophile.

Don’t tell me that Twitter and blogger recommendations don’t get people interested in books. I hear about most books that way. Tell Me Everything was a book I first heard about on Twitter. It’s supposed to be really good, the plot sounds interesting, so it’s in my Winter 2019/20 TBR Lottery. I know there’s still a month between now and the time I start reading my Winter TBR, but I don’t want to leave out a book that I’m interested in.

There’s Something About Sweetie is a great book. While technically it’s When Dimple Met Rishi 2, this is not really a sequel, but more like a book that occurs in the same universe, like 10 Things I Hate About Pinkie. These are great books.

One of the authors I had been saying I wanted to read for months (since sometime around last year, in fact) was V.E. Schwab. This Savage Song was one of the Fall 2019 TBR Lottery winners and so I finally got around to reading one of her books! I really liked it, as I expected to.

Of course, I have to put in Paperfury’s book, A Thousand Perfect Notes. This is a lovely story about a boy with a talent for music that has an abusive mother. It’s a beautiful book!

I read Timeline a long time ago. So long ago, that I forgot who wrote it, and forgot the title. It made such an impression on me that I knew to search for it. At some point, I’ll want to reread this one. I flew through this book the first time.

I read The Twelfth Imam series shortly after each book came out. It was a book I had a hard time putting down. Although it’s a thriller, I particularly remember David’s relationship with Marseilles as a highlight of these books. The world might be coming to an end, but it’s never a bad time to be with the love of your life.

So those are some books starting with the letter T! Do you like any of these books? What is your favorite book that starts with the letter T?