June Monthly Wrap-Up

By Brookelorren on 12 Comments

I wasn’t planning on doing one of these, but I decided that I would do one anyway, which is why this is late.  Here is what happened in the month of June:

Books Read:

I read 15 books and wrote reviews on all of them.  They’re not all published yet though.

  • Indianapolis – Lynn Vincent
  • The Wrath and the Dawn – Renée Ahdieh
  • Smoke in the Sun – Renée Ahdieh
  • Use of Force – Brad Thor
  • Never Stop Walking – Christina Rickardsson
  • An Ember in the Ashes – Sabaa Tahir
  • A Torch Against the Night – Sabaa Tahir
  •  A Reaper at the Gates – Sabaa Tahir
  • Far Forest Scrolls Na Cearcaill – AAAAA (that was what was listed as the author)
  • Ace of Shades – Amanda Foody
  • My Real Name is Hanna – Tara Lynn Masih
  • Friction – Jeff Rosenblum and Jordan Berg
  • The Kiss Quotient – Helen Hoang
  • Echoes – Alice Reeds
  • Strange the Dreamer – Laini Taylor

Blog Stats

  • So in June I passed 1500 Twitter followers :-).  I gained 50 followers.
  • I didn’t set up Google Analytics until halfway through the month, but I’ve seen an increase in blog traffic.
  • Pinterest monthly views rose from about 2.3k views per month to 6k views per month.
  • I finally figured out how to add my blog to Bloglovin’.

Writing

  • I finally finished the first draft for Chapter 22 to Like Normal People (a Legend fanfic)!  I’ve had writer’s block on that thing for a couple of months now.  It needs quite a bit of work, but now that I have gotten past that little hurdle, I can finally finish the book.  The fact that I started this story in early 2016 with the intention of “throwing this thing together in an evening”, and it didn’t quite turn out that way, is why I’m no longer publishing any part of my WIPs on AO3 until at least the first draft is done.  I hate to make people wait while I have writer’s block.
  • I started a new work in progress, Gamers, which is a Young Elites modern day AU.  I wrote 38 pages.  I have a glimmer of an idea of what I want to do with the story, but I don’t know everything at this point.
  • The first draft of Saving Adelinetta (a Young Elites fanfic) is at 249 pages, and is now about 2/3 of the way done.
  • The AO3 Writers group on Facebook is having a challenge for July called fandom roulette: they want me to write a gen fusion fanfic.  I wrote 21 pages on July 1st, and it’s going to be a Legend/Divergent fusion.  I’ve never written anything like this before.  I already know the end… the story is going to stay gen (no romantic relationships) until the last page, LOL.  Don’t know how long it’s going to be, but I have to finish it this month for the challenge.

Life

I took a leave of absence from work for the entire month of June, which is why I got so much done.  Unfortunately, the LOA was due to family issues which are still ongoing, but I had to go back to work.  One good thing about going back to work is that my job really only takes about half of my brainpower, so I can dream up scenes while I work.  Today I mused over the last scene in my Legend/Divergent fusion, and while I will probably tweak what was in my brain today when I finally get there, I really like how it’s going to end.

Not much else is going on… other than my car’s starter stopped wanting to start, and I have to take it in to get fixed tomorrow.

Nine Reads for Independence Day (Top Ten Tuesday)

By Brookelorren on 16 Comments

Today’s Top 10 Tuesday list is books with Red, White, and Blue covers, but since I don’t really care about the color of the covers, I thought I’d write about Books to Read on Independence Day instead.  These books make me feel blessed to live in the United States or make me feel patriotic for one reason or another.  They’re in no particular order.  Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

I read A Patriot’s History of the United States, by Larry Schweiker, a long time ago.  I do remember that it was really good, and I still have it.  Someday, I might read it again.

It’s a fairly large book (1000 pages, I think), so you’re not going to read it in one day, but if you’re looking for a pretty good history book of the United States, this is one that I recommend. It covers the time period from Columbus’s discovery of the Americas to the recent present.

Legend coverI actually didn’t throw in Legend because I think it’s a wonderful book series (although I do think it’s wonderful); there’s actually a reason why I picked this. It’s the one completely fictional book on this list (I thought about Divergent, but that one is set so far into the future that it loses most of its ties to the United States as it is now). The book is set in California in the year 2131. The United States government is no more, and the government that has come to replace it is corrupt. Reading this book makes me thankful for our own government, even though it has it’s own share of problems. It also reminds me of what Benjamin Franklin said when someone asked him what kind of government the people at the Constitutional Convention came up with: “A republic, if you can keep it.” Even though the government in Legend is called The Republic, it’s nothing like a republic should be. If the people of the United States continue to bicker and can’t get along, we might end up with a government like this. ::shudder::

Never Stop Walking CoverIf Never Stop Walking doesn’t make you thankful to be living in the United States (if that’s where you live) or in a safe country where you don’t fear for your life, I don’t know what will.  As a child, this lady literally watched her good friend get shot by corrupt police because her friend was a poor street child.  There are probably still places where this is going on to this day.  Last month, there was an uproar about how the United States is separating children from their parents (which is terrible) but as far as I know, they’re not shooting them.  The US does have its problems, but things aren’t this bad, yet (again, a Republic, if you can keep it).

The American Miracle: Divine Providence in the Rise of the Republic, by Michael Medved, tells of all the amazing “coincidences” that took place in the shaping of the American Republic.  The book contains several stories about miracles that occurred in the history of the United States.  There were miracles in play that led to the pilgrims survival, the survival of George Washington’s army, the freeing of the slaves, and more.  Even if you’re fairly well-versed in American history, there may be something in this book that you’re not familiar with.

Heavenly Man CoverThe Heavenly Man, by Brother Yun, is a book that makes me happy to live in the United States today.  Brother Yun was thrown into prison because of his beliefs, and didn’t even have access to a Bible as a kid (he prayed for a Bible and one miraculously came).  Freedom to believe in whatever way you want can sometimes cause strife in this country, but I do hope that we can allow people to follow their conscience, even if we disagree.  If we live by the attitude of “I wholly disapprove of what you say and will defend to the death your right to say it” maybe we would be better off.  Whether that quote was originally made by Voltaire, Patrick Henry, or someone else, doesn’t matter, the sentiment is good.  I would think that the sentiment should also apply to freedom to live according to your dictates (as long as they’re not hurting anybody).

It’s a shame that The Five Thousand Year Leap isn’t available in print any more (it’s still available in ebook form though).  The founding fathers didn’t just pull their ideas out of their butts… the ideas behind the United States republic had been fomenting in civilization for thousands of years before they were put into practice.  The ideas that were put into the Constitution changed the world.  I recommend this book if you are interested in finding out how revolutionary and amazing the concepts behind the founding of the US really are.

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy is one of the three books on this list that center on Nazi Germany during World War II.  World War II was such a traumatic period in our world’s recent history, and its lessons should not be forgotten.  Bonhoeffer could have saved himself; he was living in the United States after he knew about the dangers that Hitler presented, but he went back to Germany anyway.  His courage is inspirational even today.  We could use more people that will see evil for what it is and still have the courage to speak out against it.

I believe that In the Garden of Beasts is slightly fictional, but it’s based on real events.  This is the second book of the three set in Nazi Germany.  It’s important to know what the world was like as Adolph Hitler came into power, because it’s not something that we want to see again.  This book is about an American ambassador and his family that were living in Nazi Germany as Hitler rose to power.  It’s amazing to see how the transformation took place.  I read it once, but I’ll probably read this one again someday.

Defying Hitler, a memoir by Sebastian Haffner, is the third Nazi Germany book on this list.  This book is powerful because it is a first-hand account of someone that lived through the Weimar Republic and the rise of Hitler.  It is unfinished, because Haffner moved out of Germany before things got too bad and never managed to finish the book, but his recollections of what happened to his friends and even his time in a Nazi propaganda camp are worth reading.  It’s a shame that he didn’t end up writing more.

So here are nine books to read if you want to feel a little glad to be living in the United States today (and several of these are good reads if you don’t live in the US but live in modern society).

Enter to Win a New Book This July!

By Brookelorren on Leave a Comment

A new month means that there are new books to win, as well as a new book of brand new book releases.  Yay!  In the July of Books Giveaway Hop, you have several chances to win a new book.  I don’t have any sweepstakes to offer, but I want to let everybody know about these great sweepstakes anyway.  Most of the sweepstakes end on July 31st, but you’ll want to get your entries in as soon as possible so you don’t forget.  This giveaway hop is sponsored by It All Starts at Midnight and FLYLēF.

Those are the ones that are available now, but any one of the above links will take you to a post with a linky that will list all of the others.  Good luck!

Welcome to the Summer 2018 TBR Wipeout Challenge

By Brookelorren on 15 Comments

Summer 2018 TBR Wipeout ChallengeWelcome to the Summer 2018 TBR Wipeout Challenge, hosted by The Candid Cover.  It is the chance for you to get some of those books off of your Want to Read list.  Signups will be going on until July 5th.  Plus, you could win a prize just for signing up!  Good deal, yeah?

I have set a goal to read 10 books between now and when this challenge ends, on August 12th.  That’s about two per week.  If I read more, great!  If not, The Candid Cover is going to come to my house and flog me (well, not really; this is a low-pressure challenge).

So what am I going to read for the summer TBR challenge?  I’m not 100% sure, but I am on the waiting list for several books at the library and Amazon is delivering a few more.

Here are the book series on my waiting list.  If they become available, I will read them:

  • Throne of Glass Series – 6 books
  • Mortal Instruments Series – 5 books (I read City of Bones already, you can read my review here)
  • Red Queen Series – 4 books
  • Caraval Series – 2 books

I’m currently reading Origin by Dan Brown and will probably finish that in the next day or two.

I checked out Ever the Hunted from the library and am on the waiting list for Ever the Brave by Erin Summerill.  I’m #5 on the waiting list for the second, so it may not become available during the Summer TBR Wipeout, but if it is, I’ll probably end up reading it.

With part of my birthday Amazon credits, I recently bought:

  • Batman: Nightwalker – Marie Lu – I am normally not into superheroes or anything, but I like every other book that she has written, and I guess I’m wondering if she could do the superhero theme justice.
  • Rora – James Byron Huggins – this has been on my TBR for more than 5 years.  I figure I should probably read it.
  • This Savage Song – Victoria Schwab – it looked interesting and it was on sale for $1.99, so I figured that I should get it.

Outside of the books listed above, I don’t have any top priority books at the moment for the TBR Wipeout Challenge.  There are a  few books coming out on September 18th that I want to read fairly badly, but they’re not out yet.  So, for the most part, I will probably let serendipity be my guide as I pick books to read.  I’m trying to read about one pre-release ARC per week, so I’ll probably pick out books from there that sound good at the time.  Lately, I’ve been seeing quite a few sale announcements on Twitter for books I want to read (I’ll try to remember to post them here when I see them); if I see a book that I’ve been thinking about reading and I can get it for cheap, I’ll probably end up getting that.

I hope you join me for the TBR Wipeout Challenge and get some of those books off your TBR list!

This Savage Song ON SALE

By Brookelorren on Leave a Comment

This Savage Song coverToday, This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab is ON SALE for $1.99 (ebook version)!  I don’t know how long this sale is supposed to go on, but for all I know, the sale might end tonight, so if you’re interested in it, now would be the time to get it.

I haven’t read it yet, but it looks interesting, and one of my Twitter friends alerted me to this deal, so I figured I’d probably want to read it.

From Goodreads:

 

There’s no such thing as safe in a city at war, a city overrun with monsters. In this dark urban fantasy from author Victoria Schwab, a young woman and a young man must choose whether to become heroes or villains—and friends or enemies—with the future of their home at stake. The first of two books.

Kate Harker and August Flynn are the heirs to a divided city—a city where the violence has begun to breed actual monsters. All Kate wants is to be as ruthless as her father, who lets the monsters roam free and makes the humans pay for his protection. All August wants is to be human, as good-hearted as his own father, to play a bigger role in protecting the innocent—but he’s one of the monsters. One who can steal a soul with a simple strain of music. When the chance arises to keep an eye on Kate, who’s just been kicked out of her sixth boarding school and returned home, August jumps at it. But Kate discovers August’s secret, and after a failed assassination attempt the pair must flee for their lives.

If you’re interested in reading this book, I hope this finds you before the sale ends!

Legend is One of My Favorite YA Trilogies

By Brookelorren on 7 Comments

Legend coverLast week I wrote about Marie Lu’s latest book, Warcross; today I’m writing about her debut trilogy, Legend.  The series consists of three books: Legend, Prodigy, and Champion.  If you haven’t read them yet, you are missing out.  Go read them right now.  I’ve read them several times myself, and I love this universe so much that I have published three fanfics about it on Archive of Our Own (with a fourth sitting unfinished on my desktop).  Since this is a completed trilogy that I’m not reading for the first time, I’m reviewing the trilogy as a whole, and not the books as separate entities.

Plot

The story begins on November 28, 2031 (which is a Wednesday, in case you’re curious).  Legend begins with the memorable line “My mother thinks I’m dead,” which immediately hooks you into the story.  Daniel Wing, now known as the notorious criminal “Day”, is hanging out with his best friend Tess.  They both live on the streets, eking out a living as best as they can.  The plague patrols are coming through, and Day is watching his family’s house, worried that his family might be sick.  It turns out, his younger brother Eden does have the plague.  Being the loving brother that he is, Daniel breaks into the hospital in order to try to steal some plague cure, setting off a chain of events that will change his life (and the country) forever.

June (our other protagonist) is a brilliant girl in her final year at the military academy.  She doesn’t fit in with the rest of her classmates because over the course of her childhood, she’s skipped several grades, and everyone around her is older than she is.  Her family is also about as wealthy as Day’s family is impoverished.  When tragedy strikes her family, she is sent to track down the person responsible.  In the process, she ends up meeting Day, and they develop a relationship with each other.

The trilogy deals with political corruption, deception, love, and war.   It deals with the problems caused by class disparities when the privileged aren’t aware of the plight of those that are less fortunate than them (while I was reading Never Stop Walking, I thought about this story and how there are people living lives similar to what Day had, except in reality, not fiction).  If I go into too much detail, I’ll give away spoilers, but there is a lot going on in this story; you’ll just have to read it until its exciting conclusion.

Characters

The story is told from Day and June’s points of view.  These two characters (as well as the supporting characters) make the story come alive.  Day is street smart and agile, able to climb buildings in a single bound (okay, that’s a little of an exaggeration).  He suffers from a few physical problems (courtesy of the government), and when his world intersects with June’s, the cultural differences can cause a few problems.  June is wealthy and wickedly smart.  She has an almost obsessive-compulsive fixation on time and minute details (which is why I can tell you when the story begins, even though the book never outright states it).  She’s a good fighter, and her attitude can sometimes get her into trouble.

The supporting characters are also great.  Tess, Day’s best friend, is a caring healer.  Metias, June’s older brother, teaches June not to judge people just by their life’s circumstances.  Thomas, Metias’s friend, is a soldier that is blindly loyal to the government.  Joining them is a whole host of other characters.

Themes

The Legend trilogy has many themes underlying the story, which is one of the things that makes it so enduringly lovely.  It speaks of sacrificing your own wishes because of your love for other people.  It speaks of not holding someone in judgement just because they’re not as well off as you.  It speaks about how blind loyalty to a cause can be dangerous.

I guess that one of the themes in this story can be summed up by these two lines of dialogue between June and another character:

“I will die with honor for sacrificing everything — everything — for my country.  And yet, Day is the legend, while I am to be executed.”

June’s response to his confusion about why Day, a criminal, was being held up as a good guy, and why the other character was being sentenced to death for following orders, was “Because Day chose to walk in the light.”

One Final Note

Legend has a very… complex… ending.  It’s not a story where the ending leaves you seeing flowers and rainbows and puppies and kittens, but it’s also not an ending that leaves you crying as you crawl into bed at 4 in the morning (yes, I’m still talking about you, chapter 50 of Allegiant!).  When I initially reviewed Champion on Goodreads, I gave it four stars.  I have since upgraded my review to five stars, because the ending grew on me a little (it helps that I write fanfiction in this fandom).  After reading the ending, I wanted more, which is why I chose to create more on my own.  I didn’t want to let the story go as it was.

If you like dystopian YA stories and haven’t read this one yet, you’ll want to read these.  All three of them.  I absolutely love this trilogy, and I think you will too.

Series I Want to Finish Someday (And One I Don’t)

By Brookelorren on 34 Comments

Today is Top Ten Tuesday, sponsored by That Artsy Reader.  Today’s theme is Series I’ve Given Up On, but since I don’t really have many of those, I’m modifying it a bit, and am doing Series I Want to Finish Someday (And One I Don’t).  Since a lot of the series that I have been reading have recently finished, I don’t have a full 10 to give you, but I’ll give you what I have.

Ace of Shades CoverI just recently finished reading Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody (I hope to review it next week).  This is the first book of a planned trilogy.  Since the other two books in the series aren’t out yet, I can’t exactly read them yet.

I don’t know if I will buy the follow-on books or get them at the library yet, however.  I only paid $1.99 for the first book on my Kindle; although I do plan on reading the remaining books in the series, I don’t know if it’s a book I want to read over and over and over again, like some of the books that I buy.

City of Bones CoverCity of Bones is a series that I am currently on the waiting list for at the library.  I’m currently #7 on the waiting list for the next book, City of Ashes.  At some point I’ll get to the top of the waiting list and I’ll probably review a bunch of books from these series in quick succession.

While I didn’t give this book a five-star review, I did enjoy it, and (I peeked ahead) I’ve read some excerpts from her later books and am looking forward to getting to them.  Someday…

An Ember in the Ashes CoverAn Ember in the Ashes is the first book of Sabaa Tahir’s tetralogy.  I just read her first three books for the first time this month, and I absolutely love them!  I’m looking forward to the last book coming out next year, especially since the characters are still in distress, and I’m hoping that Ms. Tahir helps them save themselves and at least lets them be a little happy (if not, there’s always fanfiction).

I definitely plan on pre-ordering this one as soon as it becomes available.  Since the last book in the series A Reaper at the Gates, just came out, I don’t know when that will be.

Warcross coverWarcross is the first book in Marie Lu’s latest series.  I pre-ordered this on April 10th this year (only reason I know is because it was the day that The Fates Divide came out, which was another book that I eagerly looked forward too).

Out of the three series that I’m looking forward to reading, this is the one that I’m looking forward to the most.  Fortunately, I only have to wait until September to read it (less than 3 months now!).

The One Series I Don’t Plan on Continuing…

I won’t say that I will never read the rest of the Illuminae series, but I don’t have any plans to do so any time soon.  If I do continue reading these, it will not be on the Kindle.

This book was really difficult to read on my Kindle.  The concept is pretty cool.  There are different files to read, and it is very graphic.  It doesn’t translate to the Kindle well at all, because I wasn’t able to resize the pages, making it hard to read.  There were graphic pages where the words swirled around, which were also difficult to read on a Kindle.

I think what disappointed me the most about Illuminae, however (the Kindle visual problems are quite easy to fix by reading these books in hardback) was how in the very middle of the book, the story completely pissed me off.  I can’t say why without giving away spoilers, but I went to google the ending in order to find out whether it was worth finishing or not; even then, I put down the book, went to bed, and finished it the next day.

As far as I know, the next books aren’t continuations of this story, but tell the story from a different angle, I don’t think I’m going to finish.  I’m not interested enough to continue reading this book at the moment.

Never Stop Walking Was Great!

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments

Never Stop Walking CoverNever Stop Walking: A Memoir of Finding Home Across the World, by Christina Rickardsson, is an outstanding book.  It is a story that everybody with a heart should read.  This book may even cause you to see the world in a different light.

Never Stop Walking is the true story of a girl who grew up on the streets in Brazil and was later adopted by a family in Sweden.  In a way, it is a literal rags-to-riches tale.

Christina’s telling of her childhood growing up, first in caves, then in the slums of São Paulo, is fascinating.  She witnesses horrors that most first-world adults couldn’t even imagine.  In order to survive, she witnessed (and caused) violence, endured extreme hunger, and was treated worse than most people treat animals.  After she is adopted, she has to deal with fitting in with people that have no clue what she’s been through.  Her story ends as an adult, returning home to find out the truth about her family and what actually happened.

Never Stop Walking is a story that should make you think.  What Christina went through as a girl is still happening today.  There are still desperately impoverished children in Brazil, even today.  There are places in the world, like Venezuela, that are becoming more and more like the world of this story.  People are being displaced from their homes through war and terrorist activity; what are their lives like?

This book is not one of despair, however.  Never Stop Walking is, above all, a story about how love can carry people through even the most difficult of situations.  The love of Christina’s friends, of her mother, and even from the occasional caring adult, kept her from being completely torn up and destroyed, even after all that she had been through.  Most of us will probably never have to worry about being rounded up and shot by the police, or will have to fight over scraps of food after not eating for days, but when we do go through difficult times, the people around us can help us through.  We can care for others and help them through their difficult times.

Never Stop Walking is a book that made me feel thankful.  Bad things happen to everybody, but if you’re reading this book review, you probably will never have to go through what people living on the streets of Brazil go through every day.  I enjoyed reading this story, and I feel like I am a better person because I read it.  I hope you like it as well.

City of Bones was… Good

By Brookelorren on 16 Comments

City of Bones CoverSo I’m late to the party.  I just got around to reading City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, which is an 11 year old book.  I found it to be… good.  It’s not great, but it’s good.

I saw this book while looking through Goodreads 2018 releases, and found that Clare’s Queen of Air and Darkness is listed as highly anticipated.  I can’t start in the middle of a series, of course, so I clicked around and found this book which started it all.  Fortunately, my local library had it (although now I’m waiting to read book #2 and I’m tenth on the waiting list).

The book is about a girl, Clary, who stumbles upon a murder that only she could see.  Shortly after that, her world is completely upended when she discovers that the world that she believed to be true isn’t all there is.  Not only are there demons, werewolves, Nephilim, and vampires, but her family is a part of that world.  Over the course of this book, she discovers the truth about this world around her, and about her family.

I did enjoy this book.  Enough that I immediately got on the waiting list at the library to read the second book in the series.  I’ll probably end up reading all of the books, although that might take a while, since there’s quite a few books in this series, and there’s a waiting list at the library for most of them.  I didn’t enjoy the book enough to go out and buy the entire series.

There were a lot of things I liked about this book.  I liked the characters and their relationships.  I liked the imagery and the world-building.  I enjoyed the plot and kept wanting to read more.  The mythology was interesting.

There were some things that this story could have done better, however.  This wasn’t one of those books that sucks you in and grabs you and won’t let you go.  I’m not going to be fangirling over this book years from now after I’ve read it for the fourth or fifth time.  There were a couple of things that I found a little odd — the main character’s life was uprooted over the course of 24 hours, nearly everything she had is gone — you would think she would have a stronger emotional reaction to it.  The mythology was a little mishmashed, and that could have been better.  The final thing that I think could have been written better was, towards the end, where the characters are finding out these big revelations and… I would think that their emotional reactions would have been a little more pronounced.

This being one of Clare’s earlier works, I’m looking forward to continuing on with the series and seeing her develop as an author.  Since I’ve waited so long to read the first book, I can quickly catch up.

Joining the Mini Blog Ahead Challenge!

By Brookelorren on 6 Comments

Blog Ahead Challenge graphicToday’s my birthday!  Woo hoo!  I generally don’t give out my age, but three years ago my kids had first birthday balloons for me so I guess I’m turning 4!  Yay!  Today is also the first day of the Mini Blog Ahead Challenge, hosted by Herding Cats and Burning Soup!  It’s happening just at the right time too, because I have to return to work from my Leave of Absence soon.  So it would be good to get some posting ahead of time done.

The goal of this challenge is to have fifteen extra blog posts ready by July 6th (more than we already have scheduled).  I currently have five posts scheduled, so I’ll want to have twenty by July 5th.  That’s 1 extra post per day.  Hopefully I can do it!

I have a few blog posts that I had planned to write (without reading any new books) so it’s time to start tackling those, as well as reading more books so I have something else to blog about.  That way, when I do go back to work, it won’t be quite so busy (I asked for reduced hours, so hopefully that will help me get these done as well).

Head on over there if you would like to join.