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Brave Book Tag

By Brookelorren on June 9, 2019June 7, 20194 Comments

I was tagged by Novelties to do the Brave Book Tag (thank you!). This tag was started by Book Princess Reviews.

Scotland: Land of Magic, Castles, and will-o’-the-wisps

Name a Magical Book Setting

For this prompt, I’d have to go for the world of Caraval by Stephanie Garber! The whole premise of the world of Caraval is that everything is magical and you don’t know what is real.

There’s magical dresses, time that seems to slip away, people that end up trapped in playing cards, and villains who can end your life with just a kiss. What could be more magical than that?

Clan Dunbroch: Merida’s family clan

Name Your Favorite Bookish Family/Gang

For this prompt, I’d have to go with Kaz Brekker and his literal gang in Six of Crows. While they don’t all choose to be part of the group at first (Matthias certainly wouldn’t have chosen to begin this adventure with the rest of them) they all seem to belong together by the end. They all have faced hardship in their lives, and with the help of their friends, they become better people. I just love this group together.

Merida: princess, brilliant archer, and doesn’t need any man

Name a Heroine Who Doesn’t Accept Her Fate

Do evil people count as heroines? I don’t know, but I’m gonna go for it anyway. Adelina Amouteru of The Young Elites certainly doesn’t accept what fate was going to throw her way.

Her dad was going to sell her to a guy who was going to use her as a mistress and then probably throw her away, she runs away and is almost burnt at the stake, and then she ends up becoming one of the most powerful people in the world… I would call that not accepting your fate.

The Highland Games: Eligible Fight for Merida’s Hand in Marriage

Name a Book Where the Stakes are High

Literally, the fate of the world is at stake in City of Heavenly Fire. I can’t think of any higher stakes than that. We learn later, when reading Queen of Air and Darkness, just how high the stakes in this book really were. Thule (the world where they don’t win during this time period) is a complete nightmare. Good luck to these people, because I don’t want to live in the nightmare world where they lose.

Elinor: Mama Turned Mama Bear

Name a Character that Goes Through a Big Transformation

This particular prompt doesn’t say that it has to be a good transformation, so I’m gonna go with Catherine from Heartless. She goes from this sweet girl that just wants to bake to the ruthless Queen of Hearts. Is there any bigger transformation than that?

You have to feel sorry for her. And a little angry with her parents. But ultimately, we choose our own fates.

Bear Brothers: Adorable, Mischievous Baby Bears

Name Some of Your Favorite Scene-Stealing Characters

For this prompt, I’m going to have to go way back. I’ll nominate Tasslehoff Burrfoot from the Dragonlance Chronicles. He’s a mischievious kender who is innocent like a child, but at the same time, always manages to rob you blind (although he’d say he was just borrowing things).

While he’s not the star of this show, he’s definitely an important part of the story and these books just wouldn’t be the same without him.

Mor’du: Demon Bear, Secret Prince

A Villain with a Complex Backstory

There are actually multiple villains in Muse of Nightmares, and quite a few of them have complex backstories. One of the villain characters is Minya. She’s angry about what happened, and from her perspective, she has a right to be. But she also doesn’t see the full story.

One of the things I like about this story (in addition to the gorgeous writing) is that as readers, we see that both sides are harboring unnecessary grudges and have misunderstandings about the other side. And fortunately, it all works out.

So that’s the Brave Book Tag. If you’d like to do this tag, I pick you! If you decide to do this one, please let me know so I can see what you came up with!

Aladdin Book Tag

By Brookelorren on June 2, 2019June 2, 20196 Comments

I’m going to see Aladdin tonight with the family, so I thought, what better time to do the Aladdin book tag?! I found this tag over at A Great Read, but it was actually started by Amber at Du Livre.

The creator of this tag would like you to link to the original post (Du Livre, listed above).

There are so many good fantasy books out there, but I think that one fantasy book that ended up not getting enough appreciation was Veronica Roth’s Carve the Mark. I don’t really blame readers for not wanting to give this book a chance… after all, the ending of Allegiant didn’t exactly give me the warm fuzzies and drove me into fanfiction. Then, the tagline for The Fates Divide is He’d die for her. She’d kill for him. I don’t blame people for not wanting to read it.

But… this is not an Allegiant part two. I actually liked the ending! I’m also looking forward to The End and Other Beginnings, which comes out on October 1st.

No offense to Mr. Haffner (I’m assuming this is is face) but the cover to Defying Hitler leaves a lot to be desired. Fortunately, I heard about this book from a podcast, not by browsing the shelves. This book is about a guy who was a teenagers in the years leading up to Hitler taking over Germany. It’s really interesting because the people around him started off normal, but then they started getting sucked into the Nazi propaganda. Towards the end of the book, it even tells of his time in a forced Nazi boot camp.

Definitely more interesting than the cover implies.

This tag has some difficult questions! So many characters in books I’ve read either turn evil, simply develop as characters, or come to a bad end as a part of their redemption. I had to go with Jesper from Six of Crows for this question. He made a lot of stupid mistakes and almost loses his father’s farm, but he ends up examining himself, figuring out how to turn his life around, and he does just that. Plus, he doesn’t die as a part of redeeming himself!

So I think I have to give this one to Day from Legend. He grows up poor, last sees his dad on his eighth birthday, spends his tenth birthday in the morgue, spends the next five years living on the streets, then is almost murdered by the government! Oh, and then he nearly dies, gets amnesia and loses the love of his life. Still, he manages to maintain his humanity and become a hero in the process.

I really hope he gets a happy-ish ending in Rebel.

I might have a good time hanging out with Cath from Fangirl. We both like to write, and we’ve both written fanfiction. Plus, we both really don’t like hanging out with strangers. So there’s that too.

Besides, there’s safety in numbers, even for those of us who’d rather spend our time sticking needles underneath our fingernails than going to a party full of strangers. We could both find the cafeteria together, and then we wouldn’t have to eat energy bars to keep ourselves from starving to death.

So that is the Aladdin book tag! If you want to do this tag too, please do! Don’t forget to tag Du Livre if you do, and I’d be happy to see what you have for this tag too!

Spring Has Sprung Book Tag

By Brookelorren on May 19, 2019May 13, 20192 Comments

The other day, I was visiting several new blogs from a thread that I was participating on Twitter. I ran into so many book tags! One of them was the Spring Has Sprung Book Tag. I found it on Foxes and Fairy Tales, but I don’t know where it originated. I traced it as far as Bookish Paige. Either way, spring is going to give way to summer soon (even though it snowed a little over a week ago) so I better do it now before I have to wait another year to do it.

1. Flowers

Look on your bookshelves. What is the most beautiful book both inside and out?

I loved Sky Without Stars. I adored the characters and the storyline, and the world was so unique – like revolutionary France in space. And the first printing (which I pre-ordered to make sure I got) has a beautiful foil crown embossed on the cover underneath the dust jacket. Even though I read the ARC, I made sure to pre-order the book and get the special first printing. I know this is a book I will reread (perhaps when the next book comes out).

2. Grass

What is a book that you find that others like way more than you do?

I know a lot of people liked Circe, and I thought the writing style was nice enough, but I know that a lot of people like this book way more than I did. I wasn’t particularly enamored with the main character. She wasn’t particularly intelligent and I just couldn’t identify with her motives. The book also didn’t seem to have this arc where I had to know what was happening next in the book. It seemed more like a collection of short stories about the same character than a novel.

3. Rain

What’s a great book that lifts your spirits when you’re down?

So far, I’ve only read Enchantée once, but I can see this as a book that I might want to read if I wasn’t feeling so good. This book seems to give me warm, fuzzy feelings, with hot air balloons and magical dresses and falling in love with cute boys. I loved it so much while reading it I seriously considered showing up late to work so I could finish it. With less than two weeks left of work now, I would call in late if I was reading it for the first time now.

^{4. Dew}

What’s a book that made you feel alive?

I’m not exactly sure what the question is supposed to mean, but When Dimple Met Rishi was such a sweet, funny book, I couldn’t put it down. I was so glad that I read it, and I know I want to read more books by Sandhya Menon in the future.

This would probably be a good book to read during the summer (it takes place over the summer). I wonder if the sequel novella, As Kismet Would Have It, also takes place over the summer?

5. Storms

What’s a book that you found unpredictable?

There are lots of times that I find a book unpredictable. I definitely didn’t expect the ending of Storm and Fury, however. I think if I had read the series that comes before this one, I might have had some idea of what was going on, but even then, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have guessed what happened at the end. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in this series to find out what happens, whenever it happens to come out.

6. Rainbow

What was a book that you struggled with, only to be happy that you read it in the end?

Queen of Air and Darkness was a very long book. I loved the entire book, but the length started to get to me. It didn’t help that I literally read Clockwork Prince, Clockwork Princess, Lady Midnight and Lord of Shadows pretty much back-to-back before getting to this book. They’re ALL long books. I suppose that by the time I got to this book, I was ready for something shorter. I’m all ready for Ghosts of the Shadow Market in June, but I know better than to read a lot of long books beforehand (and that one is only in the 600-page range anyway).

7. Chilly Weather

What’s a book that you couldn’t finish or didn’t enjoy?

I read Far Forest Scrolls Na Cearcaill as an ARC, and even though the story was okay, I really couldn’t get into it. It seemed like it needed a little more editing. There were amateurish pictures in the story and I just couldn’t mesh too much with the characters. The conversations seemed on the Middle Grade level when it was aimed at young adults. I was glad to finish this book so I could start reading something else. Sorry.

8. Warm Weather

What’s a book that you loved and wanted more of?

The Wicked King was one of those books that I couldn’t put down. I absolutely loved it. And oh the ending! How could Ms. Black leave us like that?! I’m happy that the release date for The Queen of Nothing was moved up from January to November (especially since Chain of Gold‘s release date changed from November to March). I’m looking forward to the release of these books that I have pre-ordered!

9. Green

What’s a book that you haven’t read yet, but really want to?

The cover reveal for Marie Lu’s Rebel was released a little over a week ago, and isn’t it pretty? I can’t wait to read it, but I have to wait until October first. At least I have several other amazing books to read beforehand (and I discovered that Legend is out in German, so I’ll probably try to tackle that one auf Deutsch before this one comes out). There’s a lot of great books coming out this year, but I think I’m most impatient for this one.

10. Pink

What’s a book in which you felt a strong connection to the characters?

I don’t think I’m a lot like Tris and Four, but I did feel a strong connection to the characters in Divergent. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why I loved the book so much. It’s probably why I like to write in first person present a lot of the time now. This book was written in first person present tense, and I could really see the characters though their eyes in a way that I hadn’t seen before. And I absolutely loved it (until the end of Allegiant).

So there’s my contribution to the Spring Has Sprung book tag! I’m not big on tagging other people, but if you’d like to do it, please do so! I’d love to see what you came up with, so if you do this tag, please send me a link.

The Catch ‘Em All Book Tag

By Brookelorren on May 11, 2019May 12, 20194 Comments

Hello! Books in the Skye created a Catch ‘Em All Book tag based on Pokémon that looked like a lot of fun. If you’d like to do it too, all you have to do is follow these rules:

Copy and Paste these rules. Link back to this post so the originator of the tag can read your answers
Choose your starting Pokémon
Tag 3 people you would want to travel with on your adventure to catch all the Pokémon.

I’d love to see what you come up with too!

Choose Your Pokémon!

I have to choose Pikachu. I have one sitting next to my bed right now.

Ash

Most Ambitious Character

For this one, I have to choose Adelina Amouteru from The Young Elites. She starts out as this girl who’s about to be burned at the stake, and then she ends up dreaming of becoming queen and taking over the world? I’d say that that’s pretty ambitious.

Pikachu

Best Supporting Character

This one was tricky for me. Where do you draw the line between the main character and the supporting ones? For this one, I probably would say Levi from Fangirl. The story mainly is about Cath, but Levi plays a very important part in the story as well.

Brock

Character that Acts Like The Parent

I’m going to have to agree with Books In the Skye here and say that Julian from The Dark Artifices deserves this award. I couldn’t imagine having to take care of all those siblings and pretty much run the Los Angeles Institute all by myself. He deserves a huge reward for all the work he ended up having to do.

Misty

The Underdog

I’ll have to go with Free and Cole from Into the Hollow for this one. Both of them had so many obstacles to overcome. Free’s father was really irresponsible and forced her to be in a situation that she really shouldn’t have had to. Cole’s family was into drugs and trouble. Yet both of them did their best to make a better life for themselves. I couldn’t help but to root for them to find their happily ever after.

Team Rocket

Best Duo

Nothing leapt to my mind at first, but one of the duos that I really liked was Britta and Cohen from Ever the Hunted. They hated being away from each other, which happened for a lot of the book, but once they were able to be together, they worked well as a team. Also, they made a really cute couple.

Meowth

Best Animal Character

I picked Church from the Shadowhunter’s Chronicles. I actually don’t know very many animal characters, so my options were slightly limited. Church doesn’t play a big role in any of the books, but look at his picture here! He looks quite badass for a cat. This photo was taken from the inside jacket of Queen of Air and Darkness.

Gary Oak

Best Rival

I’ll have to pick The Darkling from the Grisha Verse trilogy. He was quite evil, yet a lot of people like to ship Alina with him. I’m not sure if this is a good use of the world rival, but they were both competing for the amplifiers, and ultimately, whose vision of Ravka would emerge victorious.

May

Best Adventure

When I think of epic quests and adventures, I can’t help but think of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. These adventures take you into new lands full of new terrain and new creatures.

So there you have it. The Catch ‘Em All Book Tag. I’m horrible at tagging people (sometimes if I don’t get tagged I feel left out, and if I do get tagged sometimes I don’t want to do it)… so… if you think this tag sounds like fun, do it! If you link to me (as well as Books in the Skye) I’d love to see what you came up with.

Easter Book Tag

By Brookelorren on April 21, 2019April 21, 20194 Comments

Hello! I just heard about this wonderful book tag from The Bookish Chick! I just had to do it because I thought it was so cute. It was originally created by Theresa @ Calico Books. And Happy Easter!

Here are the rules:

Answer the prompts.
Tag some friends.
Link back to this post, and be sure to mention the creator (Theresa @ The Calico Books)
Have fun!

Because I review a lot of ARCs, I end up reading a lot of books that don’t get a lot of hype. There are some authors that I absolutely adore and talk about all the time, but there are also some books that I like to feature that not as many people know about. One of the books I loved that didn’t get a lot of publicity was Frequency by Christopher Krovatin.

J’adore this book! I was lucky enough to read Enchantée as an ARC, and I thought it was wonderful. I’d definitely read more by this author!

I definitely didn’t want Sky Without Stars to end! I just have to find out what happens next! I guess that’s what the authors are using to get us to buy the next book.

I’m the queen of getting books for cheap. I bought Ace of Shades for $1.99 on Kindle. I shop the Kindle Monthly Deals every month, as well as take advantage of the free books that Amazon gives through their First to Read program.

When Dimple Met Rishi was such a sweet book! And the author is sweet too. I definitely hope to read more of Sandhya Menon’s books, even though I mostly read more dark fantasy.

Since this is the church tag and it is Easter, I will say that the Bible changed my life. But as a bonus, I’ll add another book: Divergent. There are several reasons. For one, I started to fall in love with YA books after reading this one. But second, I hated the ending of the third book Allegiant. Yes, even after an ending I loathed, I still love this series. I’ve read at least 50 pages of this book in 4 languages. And Ms. Roth is one of my auto-buy authors.

The reason why an ending I hated changed my life was that it got me into fanfiction. Which got me to start writing the book I’m editing now. So yes, a series I loved with an ending I loathed changed my life.

There are a lot of books that have surprises for me, but the one I’ve read recently with the biggest surprise was The Wicked King. I was not expecting that ending!

I have to find out how this one ends. The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare might have made this category too, but I looked it up ahead of time and I kinda had a good idea of what was going to happen. I didn’t know the full details, however.

So there you have it! The Easter Book tag! If you want to do one of your own, consider yourself tagged! Have a great week!

The Twelve Days of Christmas Book Tag

By Brookelorren on December 9, 20189 Comments

Christmas is just around the corner and now that I’ve finished my Shadowhunter book marathon, it’s time to get Christmasy! I was tagged by Laurie’s Bookshelf to do the 12 Days of Christmas book tag! It was started by Nicola over at The Fantastic Book Dragon. I’ve read so many amazing books, especially this year, that I hope I can do this without being too repetitive.

On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: a partridge in a pear tree.
The partridge stood alone in the pear tree. What is your favorite stand alone?

I might put something different on another day, but today, I’m putting down Fangirl. It didn’t get a slot anywhere else on this list, so that’s an advantage to putting it here.

On the second day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: two turtle doves.
Love is in the air! Who is your one true pairing?

In order to keep from being repetitive, I’m going to say Four and Tris. There’s another OTP I could put here, but I want to give these two some love too. I still love FourTris fanfiction.

On the third day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: Three French Hens.
In the spirit of threes, what is the best trilogy you have read?

I know I haven’t actually read the entire trilogy yet (the third book isn’t even written at the moment) but I’m going to put The Cruel Prince down here. It was an amazing book, it’s part of a trilogy, and it didn’t go anywhere else yet. If we want a completed trilogy, I’ll say Divergent, but I’ve used them elsewhere in this tag…

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: four calling birds.
Since series usually consist of four or more books, what is your favourite series?

Legend. This was originally going to go under the trilogy category, until I realized that Legend 4 is going to come out next fall, so technically it’s no longer a trilogy. Plus, there’s Life Before Legend, Life After Legend, Life After Legend 2…

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: five golden rings.
One ring to rule them all! Who is your Favorite Villain/Antagonist?

Adelina Amouteru. Marie Lu makes her so… human. You can’t help but like her. Maybe you can, but I wanted the best for her, at least.

On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: six geese a laying.
Creation is a beautiful thing. What is your favourite world/world-building?

If I would have answered this a month ago, I might have said a different book, but I think the worldbuilding in the Shadowhunters books by Cassandra Clare is amazing. I really didn’t see it until I started reading The Infernal Devices, but I love the way the world has a history, alternate universes, it’s great. I love how she links the series’ too. Gives me worldbuilding goals for my own writing.

On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: seven swans a swimming.
Who needs seven swans when all it takes is one good animal sidekick? Who’s your favourite animal sidekick?

I actually can’t think of that many animal sidekicks at all. I don’t know if this counts as a sidekick, but Church from the Shadowhunter’s novels is pretty cool. And if you get the chance to take a look at the inside of the dust jacket to Queen of Air and Darkness… wow. Church looks AMAZING in it. The whole picture is awesome.

On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: eight maids a milking.
Milk is so 18th century. Which book or series takes beverages/food to a whole new level?

Heartless has some amazing cake descriptions. I’ve heard there’s some foodage going on in A Thousand Perfect Notes, but I haven’t gotten to reading that one yet.

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love sent to me: nine ladies dancing.
Dancing is just one skill of a Lady! Who is your favourite kickass female lead?

Aelin Galathynius, AKA Celaena Sardothien. She kicks a lot of butt.

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love sent to me: ten lords a leaping.
How about your favourite leading lad?

Hmmm… I would say maybe Day or Jace. Either way, they’ve been listed elsewhere here, but I really love both of their books.

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me: eleven pipes piping.
What is your favourite book or bookish thing with musical influence? (It can be about music, reference music a lot etc.)

When I think of musical books, I think of Frequency. It should have been a better-known book, IMO.

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me: 12 drummers drumming.
Drum roll please…what is your favourite read of this year?

It’s not out yet… but here’s a sneak peak for my list on January 1st… Enchantée. When I was 1/2 hour from the end, according to my Kindle, I thought about going into work late just to finish it. There’s still 22 days left in the year, so this could change… but I doubt it.

So there’s the Twelve Days of Christmas book tag. Do you want to do this one too? Consider yourself tagged! Also, I tag Sam, A.J. Sterkel, Greg. If anybody does this tag, let me know!

On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: a partridge in a pear tree. The partridge stood alone in the pear tree. What is your favorite stand alone?

On the second day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: two turtle doves. Love is in the air! Who is your one true pairing?

On the third day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: Three French Hens. In the spirit of threes, what is the best trilogy you have read?

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: four calling birds. Since series usually consist of four or more books, what is your favourite series?

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: five golden rings. One ring to rule them all! Who is your Favorite Villain/Antagonist?

On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: six geese a laying. Creation is a beautiful thing. What is your favourite world/world-building?

On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: seven swans a swimming. Who needs seven swans when all it takes is one good animal sidekick? Who’s your favourite animal sidekick?

On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: eight maids a milking. Milk is so 18th century. Which book or series takes beverages/food to a whole new level?

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love sent to me: nine ladies dancing. Dancing is just one skill of a Lady! Who is your favourite kickass female lead?

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love sent to me: ten lords a leaping. How about your favourite leading lad?

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me: eleven pipes piping. What is your favourite book or bookish thing with musical influence? (It can be about music, reference music a lot etc.)

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me: 12 drummers drumming. Drum roll please…what is your favourite read of this year?