Brooke's Reviews and Sweeps

Thrones

By Brookelorren on February 9, 2020February 9, 2020Leave a Comment

So today I’m going WAAAAY off topic. But it’s Sunday, and I deleted my other blogs last year so I’ll go with it. Before I started this blog, I had a political/religion blog; I also wrote nonfiction articles for Associated Content (later Yahoo! Voices) and some other places. I was thinking about the concept of thrones this morning and thought I needed to write about it. This isn’t book related, but it’s me as an author related, so I’m just going to go with it.

We read about thrones a lot in YA (Throne of Glass, all those stories with royalty in them, etc.). So this morning in church, I was thinking about the thrones in the Bible.

When God was up on Mount Sinai, that was kind of like His throne. Moses was pretty much the only person allowed to go up on the mountain, because everybody else was like:

And then later on, there was the Tabernacle, which was this big tent where God lived. It was later replaced by the temple. God made a rule where only the High Priest could go into the center of the temple, where the Ark was, and there was a whole bunch of ritual involved in him going to the throne, or God would kill him.
Years later, Esther married King Xerxes (known as Ahasuerus in the Bible) and you couldn’t go into his throne room unless he called you. If you did go into the throne room uninvited, he could hold out his scepter to you and then you would be okay, otherwise, they’d put you to death. When Esther went in uninvited, fortunately, he held out his scepter to her.

So today, the Bible compares praying to going to the Throne room of God, but we don’t have to worry about getting killed any more. Because of Jesus. And that’s a good thing.

That’s my random thought for the day. Tomorrow we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming with a review (on Sandhya Menon’s blog tour) of Of Curses and Kisses!

Books on My TBR I Predict Will Be Five Star Reads

By Brookelorren on February 4, 2020February 4, 202020 Comments

Hello! It’s Tuesday again, and that means it’s time for Top Ten Tuesday! Today we’re talking about Books that I Predict will be Five Star Reads. I’m writing this post on January 11th, and I may have read some of these books prior to the time this gets posted. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl!

This book is arriving tomorrow! I’m so excited for that. I expect The Kingdom of Back will be a book I’ll love, because I love almost everything that Marie Lu writes.

Another book I expect to love is Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare. I love the Shadowhunter books and I expect that this will be another amazing story. I’ve already seen Cordelia and James Herondale in some stories and can’t wait to see more of them. I already have Chain of Thorns, Chain of Iron, and the untitled Wicked Powers books on my TBR because I know I’ll enjoy them.

I’m looking forward to Today Tonight Tomorrow by Rachel Lynn Solomon! This is an enemies-to-lovers story set during graduation. I’ve been interested in reading some of her stories before, but this one really sticks out to me.

In November I plan on reading The Scorpio Races (occasionally I’ll plan to read something far in advance, especially if the book happens over a specific date). Based on the other books I’ve read by Ms. Stiefvater, I expect this one to be five stars.

What’s it about? I don’t know. But it’s Marie Lu. I gave Batman only four stars but I’m not really into superheroes. She wrote this beautiful Instagram post the other day about going out into the backyard with her son.

Here’s another book I can almost guarantee five stars to based on the author alone. Her, Marie Lu, and Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunters books are almost always going to be good.

Why have I not read this book yet? I loved the Grishaverse books and expect this one to be awesome too. I probably wouldn’t have to wait long for this one at the library (if at all) yet there are so many other books out there crowding for my time.

If it’s a book about gamers, I’m probably going to like it. I have this ARC and am excited to read it. Hopefully I’ll finish it before its release date on January 28th. I didn’t read a ton of books in November and December and am a little behind in some of the books I want to read, but I’ll probably get to this soon.

The first book in the Lux series, Obsidian, was a five star read, and I predict that the second book in the series, Onyx, will be amazing as well.

March is going to be an amazing month for books, I predict. I have three? (I think, there may be four) books pre-ordered for March 3rd, and then there’s also Between Burning Worlds, which comes out on the 24th (another pre-order). So looking forward to finding out what happens to Chatine. I’m glad I read Les Misérables last fall. Out of the (several, now) books I’ve read inspired by that book, I think this one has the most in common with it. I’m looking forward to this and a reread of Sky Without Stars, so I can compare it to the original Victor Hugo masterpiece.

The Kingdom of Back

By Brookelorren on February 3, 2020January 18, 20202 Comments

I was SUPER excited when Marie Lu’s The Kingdom of Back showed up on Bookish First! Thank you thank you thank you Bookish First and Penguin Teen for this ARC! I have a lot of things to say about this book. But first, if you want the chance to get amazing ARCs like this one, you can sign up with Bookish First too (my referral code is 56cf541090ca608b4 if you want to help me out). I bought this one with points that you can earn on the web site, but you can also win books too (I have good luck with their drawings).

The Story

Nannerl was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s older sister. She was a gifted composer and clavier player in her own right, but because she was female, once she grew up and married, it was no longer appropriate for her to pursue her musical gifts. She invented an imaginary land called The Kingdom of Back which she shared with her brother.

The above paragraph is true and if it stopped there, would be a nonfiction book. A boy in The Kingdom of Back, Hyacinth, started visiting them through dreams… or were they real? Nannerl doesn’t want to be forgotten, and Hyacinth promises her that she’ll be remembered forever–if she completes a few tasks for him. The tasks test her bravery, and ultimately, what she truly thinks is important in life.

What I Loved

I love history, and The Kingdom of Back is full of it. I knew prior to reading this book that Nannerl and Wolfgang had an imaginary place called The Kingdom of Back, because in my NaNoWriMo19 book, my main character plays one of Nannerl’s compositions, and I had to research them. In real life, her works supposedly don’t survive, but my book is set in the future and they discovered them. I looked up some of the history to see if it was true, and almost all of it was (the only discrepancy I saw was when the Empress Maria Theresa died of smallpox, and who cares). Something I found interesting was that the Queen of the Night and Hyacinth are both characters in Mozart’s works.

The characters in this book were great too. Nannerl was a complex character who is torn between various desires: the desire to please her parents, the desire to be remembered, her love for her brother. This story has a great sibling relationship. I had feelings about the father and the brother and the mother. Hyacinth himself had an interesting transition.

This book had some beautiful prose, almost in the vein of Laini Taylor at points. There were places where the story had this dreamlike feel to it that was absolutely gorgeous. Oh, and the maps and the cover! The photo of the cover doesn’t do the actual cover justice. The maps are going to be part of the front and back papers of the finished copies, and they are gorgeous. I hope they’re printed on blue paper.

Finally, The Kingdom of Back had a beautiful message. The message is especially applicable for artists: most of us want to be remembered, for our work to live on. It also has a message for girls, who have historically been invisible and in some places, still are.

What I Liked Less

I have a what I liked less section for a Marie Lu book? I know, that’s shocking. Although the beginning is beautiful, it does have a slow start. For a while, I considered giving it four stars. The final 1/3 of the book was exciting and I didn’t want to put it down though. The last couple of chapters made me weep. And oh! The final line took this book full circle and it was so lovely.

This book is unlike every other Marie Lu book I’ve read. There were a few similarities to her short story “The Journey” (from A Tyranny of Petticoats) and some fantasy elements from The Young Elites (including some similar phrasing), but for the most part, this is a completely new genre for Ms. Lu and although you might like some of her other books because you love dystopians or fast-paced fantasies with morally gray villains, this is different. This is like a historical fantasy with a little Brothers Grimm mixed in.

There really wasn’t much shipping going on in this story. One of the things I like about most Marie Lu books is that she usually has a couple I can root for. It’s not in this book.

Conclusion

I liked this book. Will it be my favorite Marie Lu book this year? My guess is that I’ll like Skyhunter later this year more, mainly because it’s going to be in a different genre with (I’m guessing) a little bit older characters and probably a little more kissing. Am I happy that I’ve pre-ordered both a Kindle copy and a hardback of this book? Yes. The finished copy is going to be gorgeous and I’ll definitely reread this book at some point.

So the question is, will you like The Kingdom of Back? If you like historical fiction, beautiful, dreamlike descriptions, and don’t mind slower pacing at the beginning, probably. The book shares its beautiful insight and compassion into people and their emotions that other Marie Lu books have. Don’t expect a lot of fighting, political intrigue, or couples you love to ship; if you need that, we’ll probably see that with Skyhunter later this year.

When We Were Vikings

By Brookelorren on February 3, 2020February 3, 2020Leave a Comment

I recently read When We Were Vikings by Andrew David MacDonald. A big thanks to Netgalley and Gallery/Scout Press for offering me an Advanced Review Copy! I really enjoyed it, although it was different than anything I’ve ever read before.

Zelda is fascinated by Vikings. Her favorite book is Kepple’s Guide to the Vikings. Early on in the book, she discovers that archaeologists discovered that one of the viking warriors which were once thought to be a male was actually female, and she finds this very inspiring. Zelda lives with her older brother and thrives on rules and routine. She also happens to have fetal alcohol syndrome.

Throughout the book, we watch, through Zelda’s eyes, as she gains independence and even bravely faces danger.

What I Liked

When We Were Vikings has such a unique voice! I’m not sure if I’ve ever read a book from the point of view of someone with an intellectual disability. I did read the Forrest Gump duology, but I think that might be in third person, and that was years ago. Zelda sees the world in a much different way than I do, but she has a fairly good memory, is brave, and is trying to become a better person.

Her brother, Gert, is in a difficult spot, and part of me feels sympathy for him, but part of me doesn’t. He’s faced with the difficult situation of taking care of his sister and dealing with unsavory family members. Gert makes a few bad choices that end up affecting Zelda.

One of the topics that Zelda is interested in is sex. She just turned twenty-one and thinks that she and her boyfriend Marxy might want to try it. It’s a fairly big topic in this book. It’s probably an important topic to include because people some people probably have incorrect ideas about how intellectually disabled people feel on this topic. There is a trigger warning in this book as there is an attempted sexual assault.

Is This Book Controversial?

Although I liked this book, it could potentially be a controversial book. Lately, a lot of people have criticized some authors for writing books with main characters that are unlike them. I personally think we should write the characters in our heart, and if we are writing about someone in another culture, we need to do our best to represent the character well.

I doubt Andrew David MacDonald was born with fetal alcohol syndrome. Nevertheless, I think he did a good job in portraying Zelda in a realistic and compassionate way. I only know a few intellectually disabled people, but I would hope they’d like the book. I haven’t heard anybody say this book has inaccuracies, which I have with American Dirt.

Conclusion

When We Were Vikings is the story of an intellectually disabled girl trying to gain her independence, and I recommend it if you’re looking for that kind of story. It does have a happy ending, for the most part, and I am hopeful for this character’s future. It was interesting to step into her head for a while.

January 2020 Wrap-Up

By Brookelorren on January 31, 2020January 31, 202014 Comments

Hi! It’s the last day of the month, and time to wrap-up everything I’ve done this month. I hope January has been good to you and you have a great February too.

Books Read:

It’s been hard getting a lot of books read lately. I don’t know why. Anyway, I did manage to read 11 books (2 of them were rereads):

Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy – Cassandra Clare and others
The Duchess Deal – Tessa Dare
Ghosts of the Shadow Market – Cassandra Clare and others (reread)
This Light Between Us – Andrew Fukuda
Eliza and Her Monsters – Francesca Zappia
Tweet Cute – Emma Lord
The Kingdom of Back – Marie Lu
Lady Midnight – Cassandra Clare (reread)
Disappearing Earth – Julia Phillips
Don’t Read the Comments – Eric Smith
When We Were Vikings – Andrew David McDonald

Blog Stats:

My number of blog users went back to what it had been but I haven’t had time to post as many reviews as I’d like to. I still have to write my review for When We Were Vikings (which I just finished in the last hour) and I haven’t read Belle Revolte, which comes out February 4. If I can finish that book by Tuesday I’ll be up-to-date on my ARCs. I feel bad, getting a little behind, but I guess that happens sometimes.
For some reason my Twitter followers are up to 2155. It’s strange how sometimes it goes up and sometimes it doesn’t.

Writing:

I haven’t been as productive this month as I would hope. I still have 66 pages to finish with draft #4 of The Brightness of Shadow. I’m going to let my husband read it after this, but I already know there are still changes I want to make before I let anybody else read it, which means a draft #5. I listened to How to Write Best-Selling Fiction this month and I guess the more you learn, the more ways you have to improve your work. But it’s getting closer to how I want it. And I’m cutting out the first chapter.

I did publish the first chapter to Saving Adelinetta, which is a Young Elites fanfic written from Magiano’s perspective. I’m not likely to publish anything else in this story for a while, but since this kinda stands alone and I was really happy with it, I published it. This chapter is the story of how The Boy of Mensah escapes from the temple of Mensah and then names himself Magiano at the end of the chapter. Several details were given in The Young Elites and I used them and filled in some details for this chapter of the fanfic.

Life:

This month was really exciting for books (even though I’m behind in my ARCs and my winter TBR).

So one cool thing I got to do was meet Kiersten White! In October 2018 there was a Top Ten Tuesday post called “Authors I’d Love to Meet.” I had never read any of her books at that point, but she seemed so nice on Twitter that she was on my list. I’ve read two of her books now. Anyway, not only was she really nice, like she seems to be on Twitter, she’s actually very funny. She said she’s judging me a little because I’ve never watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer before, but that’s okay. There’s a character named after her called Pearston in my book, and she thought that was funny (the joke is sometimes bookstores get her name wrong, and one of the wrong names they’ve called her was Pearston).

But wait, there’s more! I was thinking about that post, Authors I’d Love to Meet, and thought that I’d probably never get to meet Astrid Scholte unless I became some big-time author someday because she lives in Australia. The very next day, Penguin Teen announced that Ms. Scholte AND Marie Lu are going to be going on tour together with Melissa de la Cruz. They’re making a stop at the exact same spot where I met Kiersten White! You can imagine how excited I was to hear that, as they were both on that list. It’s open to the public, and even though I’m taking my boy with me to that event (he’s read 8 Marie Lu books himself) I’ll probably have to leave several of my books at home.

Oh, and in other exciting news, I’m getting a Chain of Gold ARC! Can you flippin’ believe that? First, I get an ARC of The Kingdom of Back, and now this! They’re both from Bookish First (I love them). These are literally the two ARCs, if I was going to beg for ARCs for books in the first half of this year, that I would beg for. And both will be mine!

Other than that, I have a cold, my daughter has the same cold, and my dh has the cold, although he made it to work today. It’s probably not the Wuhan Corona Virus because it doesn’t look like we’ll need a trip to the hospital but whatever we had, it looks like we’ll survive.

So that’s it! How was your month?

Don’t Read the Comments

By Brookelorren on January 30, 2020January 30, 20206 Comments

I have had the hardest time staying on top of my reading schedule lately! Netgalley was kind enough to allow me to read an ARC for Don’t Read the Comments by Eric Smith, and I finished it two days after it came out! Maybe that’s normal for some people, but I try to review the books by their release date (I have a couple other books to read ASAP too). Anyway, I have to thank them and Inkyard Press for the opportunity to read this book, which I really enjoyed.

Divya is a famous streamer in the Reclaim the Sun fandom. The game sounds really awesome–you drive a spaceship through the galaxy and try to claim one of trillions of planets. It seems like Minecraft in space, except it’s an MMORPG. It helps pay the bills–ever since her parents divorced, finances have been difficult. Divya earns enough money to help pay for rent, food, and her mom’s last semester in college. Things are going okay–until some trolls, who don’t like her as a female gamer, decide to troll her in real life.

Aaron loves playing Reclaim the Sun as well. His parents aren’t hard up for money, but mom wants him to be a doctor. Aaron wants to write for video games instead. He has a job for ManaPunk, an indie gamemaker, only Jason, the head of the company, hasn’t paid him for a lot of the work he’s done.

Video games with villains and trolls? What more could you want? My guess is that, if you loved the Warcross duology, you’ll love this book too. They have a lot of similarities.

Themes

This book had me at video games. Reclaim the Sun as a video game is well fleshed out and is something I think would be cool to play. So many people love to watch video games stream as well. Mr. Smith also included references to Ultima Online–I loved that game. I had a character named Lorren, who was a mage, and I cosplayed her when I went to the UO World’s Faire one year. Fun times. This book was a lot of fun too. They even went to a video game convention in the book.

On a more serious note, this book also tackles the issue of gender harassment in gaming. It’s never been an issue for me, but I understand that it is an issue that some elite gamers face. Page 84 of the January 2018 issue of Wired talks about women in professional eSports like Overwatch and the ladies at the top do face harassment. Divya’s case is probably more extreme, but people do dox one another and it can have some serious consequences. There’s also the problem of “swatting” in the gaming community, which has resulted in people’s deaths.

Another issue Don’t Read the Comments tackles is companies that don’t want to pay for art. There was a recent case, in fact, where Aaron Carter stole art from Jonas Jödicke–Carter told Jödicke that he should feel complimented that his art was stolen. Umm, no. I hope Jödicke sues the pants off him. Anyway, it’s an issue Aaron has to deal with, and deals with magnificently in this book.

Should You Read This Book?

While you probably shouldn’t read the comments if you write a book and people are reviewing your book, you should read Don’t Read the Comments. You should especially read this book if you enjoy gaming or books with gaming like Ready Player One or the Warcross duology. I admit, I haven’t read Ready Player One, but I did see the movie. This is a great book. I haven’t even had time here to talk much about the great characters or setting, but it’s got that going for it as well. I highly recommend this book.

My Favorite Book Covers

By Brookelorren on January 28, 2020January 27, 202023 Comments

Hello! Welcome to another edition of Top Ten Tuesday, where we talk about books! Today is a book cover freebie, and I’m going to talk about some of my favorite book covers.

The cover of Astrid Scholte’s Four Dead Queens is gorgeous! It is really shiny too. I originally bought this book on the Kindle, but I recently bought a hardback because Ms. Scholte is coming to the Tattered Cover on March 5 and I want something for her to sign (I pre-ordered The Vanishing Deep on audiobook).

Wicked Fox drew me in with its cover. I can read books with lackluster covers, but a good cover can make me want to read the book even if I otherwise might have overlooked it (I wasn’t too sure about the title).

Some covers are more beautiful in person than they are in pictures, and The Kingdom of Back is one of them. In person, the cover is so detailed, it is lovely. AND the maps inside are gorgeous too. I’m looking forward to seeing the finished copy.

Cassandra Clare has some gorgeous covers. Bookish First is giving away Chain of Gold ARCs this week, and I bought one with my points, and I’m so excited to get this one! I’m still getting the hardback I pre-ordered in 2018 though.

Ghosts of the Shadow Market is another cover that is more lovely in person than it is in pictures. The cover is so detailed! And it’s another Cassandra Clare book.

So today is Cassandra Clare day I guess, because I have one final Shadowhunter cover to share: Queen of Air and Darkness. What I’m most impressed about this cover though, is what is on the other side of the cover. There’s a gorgeous picture of the shadowhunters at the Santa Monica Pier. I couldn’t really get a picture of the entire thing, but I do have a picture of Church the cat from the inside:

Part of me is sad because I bought The Guinevere Deception on audiobook, and as a result, I don’t have a shiny cover to look at. I just love this drawing of Guinevere.

Start Here by Trish Doller has such a fun cover! It makes me think of summer and sun and friendship, which is a lot of what the book’s about. It may not be the prettiest cover, but it makes me happy nonetheless.

War Girls has a great cover too. I just love this girl on the cover–she projects so much attitude. It really sets the mood for the rest of the book.

Sky Without Stars also has this beautiful, shiny cover. I love it. The first printing also has a gold embossed cover, which is a really nice touch.

So those are ten book covers that I really think are beautiful. I’m sure I could come up with others too.

So what books did you pick this week? What aspect of book covers did you decide to write about? Since this is a freebie week, I’m guessing that we’ll see lots of creative ideas that I wouldn’t even think about.

Disappearing Earth

By Brookelorren on January 25, 2020January 25, 20202 Comments

I recently read Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips. It was on my TBR lottery because I was interested in reading a book that took place in Russia. The book has won a few awards, but the story itself didn’t really excite me. There were some parts of this story I loved though.

Disappearing Earth fills the slot for contemporary Russia in my Read Around the World Challenge. So far I’ve read contemporary books from 5 countries, so I have a long way to go still.

This is the story of two little girls that disappear on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. It gets into the heads of several different but connected people living in the area. All were affected by this tragedy. The book covers the community for the year after these children go missing.

What I Liked

What I liked about this book primarily had to do with its unique Russian setting. The Kamchatka Peninsula, in case you don’t know, is located on the Eastern coast of Russia, about as far away from Moscow and Saint Petersberg as you can get. While those two cities are quite European, Russia is a huge country and most of its landmass is located in Asia. It also has a very large native population, which reminds me a lot of the Native American population in the United States. Disappearing Earth immerses the reader into this little corner of the world which I haven’t seen too many books about.

The book also briefly touches prejudices that people throughout the world have about “the other.” When the girls go missing, some of whom we’d view as the “typical European Russian” type blame the natives, or people who immigrated to the peninsula after the fall of the Soviet Union. It was interesting to see how people in multiple cultures tend to have the same problems in this way.

What I Didn’t Care For

I didn’t care for the way this story was told. Each chapter is viewed through the eyes of a different narrator. As a result, I never had the chance to become attached to any one person. Their lives pretty much sucked too, and most of them weren’t likeable. Most of them were breaking up with their boyfriends or husbands, cheating on their boyfriends, or making their children stay away from “bad influences” that might have only one parent around most of the time. The one sympathetic character was the little girl whose best friend wasn’t allowed to speak to her anymore. I might have felt a little sympathy for the lady that lost her dog, but then she acted like a total witch, breaking any care I had for her. After reading this book, I’m certainly not going to rush out to find a Kamchatkan pen pal.

In many of these chapters, the characters had something they were dealing with, like a potential tumor or the missing dog or the loss of their friend, and I might want to find out what happened to them. However, each character only has one chapter from their point of view, so you never get to find out what happened to them. Another character might mention them in passing, but we never find out how their situations resolved.

Conclusion

I liked the ending. We do get to find out in the end what happened to the girls (yay!). The setting was great. However, the story itself: the characters, the situations that happened to them, etc., really didn’t draw me in. If you’re reading the book for the unique Kamchatka setting, then you might like it. I find it sad that I couldn’t really click with the characters and their situations.

The Ten Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf

By Brookelorren on January 21, 2020January 18, 202039 Comments

Hello! Welcome to this week’s edition of Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl), where we talk about various book topics every week. Today we’re talking book hauls! I’ve been living my best book life now and have a couple really awesome books in my most recent books. For purposes of this post I’m not going to talk about books I’ve pre-ordered but haven’t received yet (or that are currently on their way in the mail). Let’s get started!

My most recent two acquisitions were Slayer and Chosen by Kiersten White. Back in October of 2018 we had a Top Ten Tuesday topic called “Authors I’d Love to Meet,” and one of the authors I listed was Kiersten White, even though I had never read any of her books before. She always seemed nice on Twitter. I’m happy to report that not only is she extremely nice, she’s also very funny! I got her to sign the two hardback books of hers I own. The others are all digital, which are hard to sign. One out of ten of those authors met, nine to go!

Another one of my recent additions is an ARC copy of The Kingdom of Back! I’ve had the chance to read it already and I had so much to say about this book, my review ended up being 911 words long. It’s definitely different than any of the other books she’s published that are up on Goodreads.

Romanov was on sale for $1.99 earlier this week, and of course, I had to pick it up. I had hoped to get an ARC for this one prior to publication, but was denied, so getting it on sale is the next best thing.

I’m guessing that some of the lists this week might have some serendipitous and strange books on it. Like this one: Legends and Myths from Wales. The book is free on Amazon. Anyway, the book I’m writing is slightly inspired by Wales, and I got this book for research.

I left Audible for a while because I had several books I hadn’t listened to yet and my credits were building up, so I got How to Write Best-Selling Fiction with one of my credits.

Another one of my Audible purchases was 11/22/63 by Stephen King. This book had seemed interesting. I’m somewhat picky at what books I listen to on audiobook. Some books are just easier to absorb through the printed/electronic page, and this one seems like its one that might work well on audio.

Eliza and Her Monsters was another Audible credit I needed to use up. I had been interested in this story for a while, but sometimes there’s not enough time to read all the stories you want. I did have time to listen to the audio version though.

The Summer of Impossibilities is a recent Netgalley acquisition. It’s hard to believe that it’s time to start thinking about summer books again! It is January, and I probably won’t read this for a couple more months, but summer books are on their way!

Finally, Song of the Abyss was on sale for $2.99! It’s one of Kindle’s monthly deals for January. I read Isle of Blood and Stone last year, so hopefully I’ll get around to reading this soon.

I’ve gotten all these books in the last two weeks. I’ve read two of these already and am working on reading a third (How to Write Best-Selling Fiction).

What were the last ten books you’ve obtained? I wonder if this week we’ll see a lot of random books. Next week, we’re talking about books on out TBR that we predict will be five-star reads. See you then!

#CakeFlavouredBooks Book Tag

By Brookelorren on January 18, 2020January 18, 20204 Comments

Hello! Time for another book tag! I was tagged by Elley Otter to do this delicious book tag. It was originally started on Instagram, but Paperfury adapted it for us bloggers. And since this is a Paperfury creation, we gotta put the u in flavour, right? Here are the desserts of choice today:

1. Chocolate Cake (a dark book you absolutely love)

At this point, it’s hard to believe that I read this book in 2018. I’m definitely going to have to read the Ember In the Ashes series again before Ember 4 comes out. Next year, let’s hope? That’s what Goodreads says at the moment. I know Ms. Tahir is working hard on this, and I’m sure the wait will be worth it.

2. Vanilla Cake (a light read)

I haven’t read The Kiss Quotient since 2018 either. Maybe I should just call this the throwback Cake Flavor tag. Despite the math talk (I know talk about quotients and derivatives give you all the feels) it’s a very fun, light read. In fact, I read this shortly after I read the three published Ember in the Ashes books because I had had enough dark books for a little while and I needed a palate cleanser.

3. Red Velvet (a book that gave you mixed emotions)

Now I’m sure I must be digging into Grandma’s recipe box for these cake answers. But I have a lot of mixed emotions about the Divergent series. On the one hand, I absolutely LOVE this series and have read it so many times… in Spanish and German even! I’m doing a reread this year if all goes according to plan. But… chapter 50 of Allegient and beyond is dead to me. It got me into fanfiction the ending upset me so much. But… fanfiction got me into writing original fiction. So it makes sense that I’m conflicted over this book.

4. Cheesecake (a book you would recommend to anyone)

We’re still going with the “Books I read in 2018” theme. It’s hard to recommend a book that I’d recommend to anyone because everybody has such varied tastes. Enchantée has magic, historical France, a story that kept me wondering what was going to happen well into the book… so I suppose that it would make a good choice for many people.

5. Coffee Cake (a book you started but never finished)

Decline and fall of the roman Empire Gibbon cover

I’m not a DNF a book person. And to be honest, I’m still reading this book. But I still haven’t finished the unabridged version of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon. My Kindle says I still have 92 hours and 43 minutes left of reading time in this book. By contrast, Les Misérables has an audiobook run time of about 60 hours. And I’m 9% of the way through the book already. So I haven’t finished it, although I still plan to.

6. Carrot Cake (a book with great writing)

We’re now on book six of this dessert extravaganza and there’s one thing all these books have in common still (that’s not food related): I read all of these books in 2018 (although not necessarily finished: see above). Strange the Dreamer has beautiful writing.

7. Tiramisu (a book that left you wanting more)

Finally! A book I didn’t read in 2018! I read Sky Without Stars last year, and I just have to say… is it March 24th yet? Because I can’t believe I have to wait more than two full months to read the sequel to this book, Between Burning Worlds! J’adore this book and I want the ending! I found out Jessica Brody is coming to the Tattered Cover on March 25th, and I’m so excited. I’m going to have to go, even though it means my husband will have to pick up my boy from D&D that night.

8. Cupcakes (series with 4+ books)

Joel C. Rosenberg’s The Last Jihad series is five books long. So this one counts. Like a dummy, the first book I read in this series was book 5. It absolutely blew me away. So when I realized there were four other books in this series and I read from book 1, I was underwhelmed. It was good, but I learned from this experience that an author often gets more amazing as they write more books.

9. Fruit Cake (book that wasn’t what you anticipated)

So how can I do a book tag without including a Marie Lu book? If you’ve been to this blog more than a couple of times then you probably know that I love her books. I’ve read pretty much every book and story of hers that I know of, including her middle grade book The Evertree and even the short story she posted in the New York Times last year. The Kingdom of Back is a little like what you’d get if you crossed her short story “The Journey” with The Young Elites and added some Brothers Grimm. There weren’t any real ships or fight scenes. It was still good, just different than what I was expecting.

10. Lamington (Favorite Australian book)

The cover to Four Dead Queens absolutely blew me away, and I had to pre-order this book. Astrid Scholte’s book kept me up late and I’ve pre-ordered the audiobook of The Vanishing Deep already (because it’s a March 3 release, competing with Chain of Gold and The Kingdom of Back). But I loved this book, and we’ll see whether this book or her new release becomes my favorite Australian book in a couple of months.

I’m full now! If you’d like to do this delectable book tag, I pick you! If you do decide to do this one, please send me a note so I can see what kinds of book yumminess you came up with!