Try a chapter tag #1 - in review.

Hi booklovers

I don't know why, but for some reason I want to do some 'in review' posts. 

I'm trying to decide what I'm going to read next so I wanted to do another 'Try a chapter' tag. While looking at my first 'TaC' tag post, I thought it would be nice to first take a look at which books I ended up reading.

In that post I organised the books from 'I'm not going to read this' to 'This is the one I'm going to read first'. Obviously, I read my number one book, but what about the other books in between those two?

Let's take a look:

#6 The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer. Like I said in the original post, this wasn't my cup of tea, so I returned it to the library.

#5 The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett. I haven't picked this one up yet :-s Shame on me.

#4 A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray. I've actually read the whole trilogy, which I think is quite the achievement. I really enjoyed the trilogy and the covers are stunning.

#3 Graceling by Kirsten Cashore. Nope, I haven't read this one yet.

#2 Bloodlines by Richelle Mead. Same here.

#1 Legend by Marie Lu. When I read this one, I didn't have the other two in the trilogy yet. But, I enjoyed this book so much that I went and bought the other two and I've actually read them as well. *pets oneself on the back*

Not too bad, especially since I actually finished both trilogies I started :-)

Have you ever done the 'Try a Chapter' tag? Does it help you to decide what you want to read? Let me know in the comments.

Bye for now

Annelies

Anticipated releases - March 2018.

Hi booklovers

I'm hopelessly late with this, but I'm posting it anyway.

These are the books on my radar for the month of March.

 

March

6th: Restore Me by Tahereh Mafi. 
Book 4 in the 'Shatter Me' series.
I ordered this one, because I really enjoyed the first three books.

Juliette Ferrars thought she'd won. She took over Sector 45, was named the new Supreme Commander, and now has Warner by her side. But she's still the girl with the ability to kill with a single touch—and now she's got the whole world in the palm of her hand. When tragedy hits, who will she become? Will she be able to control the power she wields and use it for good?

6th: Lake Silence by Anne Bishop. 
Book 6 in 'The Others' series.

In this thrilling and suspenseful fantasy, set in the world of the New York Times bestselling Others series, Vicki DeVine and her lodger, the shapeshifter Aggie Crowe, stumble onto a dead body . . . and find themselves enmeshed in danger and dark secrets.

Human laws do not apply in the territory controlled by the Others–vampires, shapeshifters, and paranormal beings even more deadly. And this is a fact that humans should never, ever forget . . .

After her divorce, Vicki DeVine took over a rustic resort near Lake Silence, in a human town that is not human controlled. Towns like Vicki’s have no distance from the Others, the dominant predators that rule most of the land and all of the water throughout the world. And when a place has no boundaries, you never really know what’s out there watching you.

Vicki was hoping to find a new career and a new life. But when her lodger, Aggie Crowe–one of the shapeshifting Others–discovers a dead body, Vicki finds trouble instead. The detectives want to pin the man’s death on her, despite the evidence that nothing human could have killed the victim. As Vicki and her friends search for answers, things get dangerous–and it’ll take everything they have to stay alive.

13th: Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. 
Book 3 (and the final book) in the Illuminae Files. I pre-ordered the YAChronicles box a couple of months ago.

Kady, Ezra, Hanna, and Nik narrowly escaped with their lives from the attacks on Heimdall station and now find themselves crammed with 2,000 refugees on the container ship, Mao. With the jump station destroyed and their resources scarce, the only option is to return to Kerenza—but who knows what they'll find seven months after the invasion?

Meanwhile, Kady's cousin, Asha, survived the initial BeiTech assault and has joined Kerenza's ragtag underground resistance. When Rhys—an old flame from Asha's past—reappears on Kerenza, the two find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict.

With time running out, a final battle will be waged on land and in space, heroes will fall, and hearts will be broken.

27th: Ice Wolves by Amie Kaufman.

Everyone in Vallen knows that ice wolves and scorch dragons are sworn enemies who live deeply separate lives.

So when twelve-year-old orphan Anders takes one elemental form and his twin sister, Rayna, takes another, he wonders whether they are even related. Still, whether or not they’re family, Rayna is Anders’s only true friend. She’s nothing like the brutal, cruel dragons who claimed her as one of their own and stole her away.

In order to rescue her, Anders must enlist at the foreboding Ulfar Academy, a school for young wolves that values loyalty to the pack above all else. But for Anders, loyalty is more complicated than obedience, and friendship is the most powerful shapeshifting force of all.

27th: The Continent by Keira Drake. 

For her sixteenth birthday, Vaela Sun receives the most coveted gift in all the Spire—a trip to the Continent. It seems an unlikely destination for a holiday: a cold, desolate land where two nations remain perpetually locked in combat. Most citizens lucky enough to tour the Continent do so to observe the spectacle and violence of battle, a thing long vanished in the peaceful realm of the Spire. For Vaela, the war holds little interest. As a smart and talented apprentice cartographer and a descendent of the Continent herself, she sees the journey as a dream come true: a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to improve upon the maps she’s drawn of this vast, frozen land.

But Vaela’s dream all too quickly turns to nightmare as the journey brings her face-to-face with the brutal reality of a war she’s only read about. Observing from the safety of a heli-plane, Vaela is forever changed by the sight of the bloody battle being waged far beneath her. And when a tragic accident leaves her stranded on the Continent, Vaela finds herself much closer to danger than she’d ever imagined—and with an entirely new perspective as to what war truly means. Starving, alone, and lost in the middle of a war zone, Vaela must try to find a way home—but first, she must survive.

Soooo, March is the month in which I totally fail my bookbuying ban :-s 

I ordered 9 books. In my defence: I got a 10% discount code and technically I'm only adding three books to my TBR. I'll be talking about this some more in my March book haul.

What are some of your anticipated releases of this month? Let me know in the comments.

Bye for now

Annelies

Book hauls revisited - February 2016 - 2017.

Hi booklovers

I'm running a bit behind with these book haul revisited posts, so it's time to take a look at my bookhauls for February 2016 and 2017.

February 2016

*A Memory of Lights by Brandon Sanderson / Robert Jordan. I actually ordered this from Abebooks because I couldn't find the mass market paperback anymore.

*Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini. I've since heard mixed things about this book.

*Mystic City by Theo Lawrence. Same story as with Trial by Fire.

*Fire & Flood by Victoria Scott. This was supposed to be a trilogy, but apparently the third was never released.

*Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. This was a gift from one of my best friends :-)

*Abraham Lincoln, vampire hunter and Last America Vampire by Seth Graeme-Smith. These were both gifts from a close friend as well.

 

*Six of Crows, Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo. I already owned and read Shadow and Bone and I loved it, so I ordered the other two books in the trilogy.

*Ice Like Fire by Sara Raasch. I had already read the first book in the trilogy.

February 2017

*Fables volume 3: Storybook Love by Billy Willingham.

*Saga volume 4 by Brian K Vaughan.

*Alex+Ada volume 1 by Jonathan Luna.

*Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas. Book 5 in the Throne of Glass series.

*Gilded Cage by Vic James. I got this in MyBookishCrate bookbox.

*The Novice by Taran Matharu.

*Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton. 

*The Great Hunt by Wendy Higgins.

These are the ones I've already read.

*Six of Crows. I loved this book and Leigh Bardugo has become an (almost) auto-buy author.

*Siege and Storm. I really enjoyed this a lot.

*Ruin and Rising. I went into this book with really high expectations and for the most part it was really good, but I found the ending to be a bit anti-climatic.

*Ice Like Fire. I've actually read this twice. I really enjoyed it the first time around, but I really struggled to get through it the second time. But I wanted to finish it because I wanted to read the third book.

*Fables 3. I enjoyed this, right up to the final pages and I'm probably not going to be continuing with this series.

* Saga volume 4. I found this to be less good than the first three. I did want to continue with the series.

*Alex + Ada. I looooooved this so much.

I wasn't kidding last month when I said that I haven't read all the books I bought in the past. 

Have you read any of these? Any recommendations on which one of the unread ones I should pick up soon?

Bye for now

Annelies

February 2018 - wrap-up.

Hi booklovers

February has come and gone, so it's time to post my reading wrap-up.

I read 4 books (3 physical books and 1 e-book) and I listened to 1 audiobook.

I am very proud of myself because two of these books are considered tomes (500+ pages), so to read them both in the same month is a real accomplishment for me :-) *pets oneself on the back*

After rereading The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson I picked up a couple of other books, before daring to continue the series. I hardly every binge-read books in a series, because I don't want to put myself into a slump or feel the need the read something else halfway through the next book (if that makes sense). But at one point early on in February The Well of Ascension was really beckoning me to pick it up and so I did. I only realised that this book has 700+ pages after I had already started it. But I didn't let that intimidate me. I buddyread this book with Lucie.

I will be posting a full review later on, but it's safe to say that I loved this book just as much as TFE. I loved the characters, the world-building, the action. It was really fascinating to find out more about allomancy and feruchemy. I'm currently reading The Hero of Ages and I'm really enjoying it a lot.

Next, I picked up Gemina in preparation of Obsidio being released this month. This was again a reread and this time I listened to the audiobook and I loved it just as much as the first time around. Rereading this has made me a bit scared to pick up the third book, because I don't want this story to end. I'm curious to see how Amie and Jay will wrap up the story, but I'm scared that my heart is going to be broken.

After reading these two massive books I felt like picking up something completely different (and significantly shorter) and since I had a school holiday, I decided to go back to one of my guilty pleasure genres: NA. It's been about 6 months since I last read a book by Becca & Krista Ritchie, so I decided to start Damaged Like Us. This is kind of a spin-off series from the Addicted and Calloway Sisters series, although you don't have to read these to be able to read the 'Like Us' series. I did find, however, that having read both those series it did add something to the reading experience of DLU. Like I said, these kinds of NA reads are my guilty pleasure reads, but I really, really, really enjoy the twin's writing style. Btw, this was the first male-male romance story I've read and I was a bit scared that the sex scenes were going to be cringe worthy, but that wasn't the case at all. On the contrary! The only problem with this book, in my opinion, is that there was a bit too much representation. I know Maximoff, our main character, has a lot of nieces and nephews, but a lot of them seem to be 'different' and/or 'special'. As always with this genre, this book caused serious sleep deprevation, because I can't seem to be able to put down these kinds of books.

I then picked up a new audiobook: Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire. This is a companion story to Every Heart a Doorway. This is completely different from the first one, and despite finding it confusing at times I really enjoyed it. The reason  I found it confusing is that this is the story of how Jack and Jill came to be who they are and why they did the things they did in Every Heart a Doorway, but in the first part of this story their personalities are totally different from their personalities in the first book. I am happy, though, that I listened to it, because it was very nice to get the twin's background story.

The final book I read in February was one of my most anticipated releases of 2018: Immortal Reign by Morgan Rhodes. This is the last book in the 'Falling Kingdom' series and I really wanted to know what would happen to my beloved characters. I enjoyed the book and it was a pretty good conclusion to the series, but I wasn't overwhelmed by it. In my opinion, a lot of the 'issues' were resolved a bit too 'easily' and wrapped up too nicely. Still, it was a good conclusion to the series and I'm happy that I finished it very soon after getting it :-)

How was your reading month? What did you read? Did you enjoy what you read? Let me know in the comments.

Bye for now

Annelies