Sunday 27 May 2018

TBR readathon - update #2

Hi booklovers

This is my update for the second week of the #TBRreadathon, created by Irina from Beautiful Pages on YT. You can find my TBR post here

I finished Strange the Dreamer and I really, really enjoyed it. That ending really got to me :-s
I also read The Tales of Beedle the Bard. I found the different fairy-tales to be very interesting, but I enjoyed the footnotes by Albus Dumbledore even more. I'm counting this towards the 'read 12 books' challenge. I also picked this up because I needed something short and light to read after finishing Strange the Dreamer.
After finishing The Tales of Beedle the Bard I started reading Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb for the challenge 'read a book from a series you're in the middle of'. I'm currently on page 107 of 648. I'm enjoying it a lot. 
I'm not sure if I'll be able to read anything else besides this chunck of a book this week, we'll see, but since I'm on my fourth book of the readathon, I think I'm doing pretty good :-)

Bye for now

Annelies

Sunday 20 May 2018

TBR readathon - update #1

Hi booklovers

This is my update for the first week of the #TBRreadathon, created by Irina from Beautiful Pages on YT. You can find my TBR post here.

The readathon started on Sunday 13th May, but I was still reading The Queen of the Tearling, which I finished on Monday.

So, on Tuesday I was finally able to start reading for the readathon.

The first challenge I chose is 'Read a book with a pretty cover'.
I had only one choice for this challenge, which is Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor. I'm so in love with this cover and the blue sprayed pages. (And this weekend they announced that Muse of Nightmares is going to be orange and there is an edition with orange sprayed pages!!)

This edition has 536 pages and at the moment of writing this post, I've read 398 pages. I took me a couple of pages to get used to Laini's writing style, but once I did I was quickly immersed in the story.

I also started listening to Quidditch through the Ages. I finished this already. This was such a fun story to listen to, especially the 1,5 hour of extra material.
This book fits the challenge of 'Read a short book'. 
I hope to finish Strange the Dreamer this week. I'm not sure yet what I'll pick up next. I might read The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which could count for challenge 9 'Read 12 books'. :-)

Are you participating in this readathon? If so, how was your reading this week? Let me know in the comments.

Bye for now

Annelies

 

Sunday 6 May 2018

TBR readathon - Announcement + TBR

Hi booklovers

I know I said in the past that readathons and I don't get along at all, but then I came across this two month long TBR readathon, created by Irina from Beautiful Pages. You should definitely check out her channel! 

You can find her announcement video here

The readothon starts on Sunday the 13th of May, and finishes on Sunday the 8th of July.

Challenges
There are 9 challenges:
1. Read a book from a series you're in the middle of.
2. Read a book you own for a while.
3. Read a book you got recently. 
4. Read a short book.
5. Read a long book (over 500 pages or around that).
6. Read a book you're excited about. 
7. Read a book out of your comfort zone (or a book from a genre you don't normally read).
8. Read a book with a beautiful cover. 
9. Read 12 books It is preferable if you choose 9 different books for the challenges and then have other 3 books of your choice :)


TBR's are dangerous for me because as soon as I put a book on a (readathon) TBR I tend to lose interest in it. Plus, I'm a mood reader.
So, to counteract that I decided to write down a number of books for each challenge, that way I have ample choice and don't put myself in a slump.

TBR
1. Read a book from a series you're in the middle of.
*Royal Assassin - The Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb (I've just reread the first book 'Assassin's Apprentice' so I can continue with the trilogy).
*The Alloy of Law -  The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson.
*The Invasion of the Tearling - The Tearling trilogy by Erika Johanssen (I'm rereading The Queen of the Tearling at the moment).

2. Read a book you own for a while. 

For this I could actually choose almost every book on my TBR, but I've narrowed it down... All of these books have been on my TBR for more than a year.

*Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor.
*The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken.
*Stars Above by Marissa Meyer.
*The Lies of Locke Lamore by Scott Lynch (I might pick this one up in May because the theme for the #OfWonderland bookclub is 'Books everyone has read but me').
*Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence (I actually started this a few years ago, but I couldn't get into the story. I do want to give it another try, though.)
*The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks (although it's more likely that I will choose this book for challenge number 5).
*The Crown Tower by Michael J. Sullivan.
*Spellwright by Blake Charlton.
*Priestess of the White by Trudi Canavan (this trilogy is one of the trilogies I've had on my TBR the longest ) 

3. Read a book you got recently.
*Restore Me by Tahereh Mafi (that is if I can reread the original trilogy).

*A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas (I preordered this, but it still hasn't arrived. Fingers crossed it arrives this week).

The next ones are books I still need to order, so I'm not sure if I'll get them in time:
*Legendary by Stephanie Garber.
*Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody.
*Lifelik3 by Jay Kristoff.

The next one I've won in a giveaway by Lisa from lisaswestcoatreads and I chose this one. Hopefully it will arrive in time.
*Thunderhead by Neil Shusterman.

4. Read a short book.
*The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchet.
*The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling.
*Lock & Key Volume 2 by Joe Hill(if I can reread volume 1).
*Transmetropolitan Volume 3 by Warren Ellis.
*Quiditch Through the Ages by Kennilworthy Whisp (J.K. Rowling). I recently got the audiobook for this one.
 
5. Read a long book (over 500 pages or around that).  
*Priestess of the White by Trudi Canavan (if I don't choose this for the 2nd challenge).
*Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb (book 3 in the Farseer trilogy).
*The Way of Kings part 1 by Brandon Sanderson.
*Malice by John Gwynne (another one I picked up quite a while ago but I put it down again and I didn't feel like continuing at that time)
*The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks.

6. Read a book you're excited about.
*Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor.
*Restore Me by Tahereh Mafi (again, if I don't chose them for a different challenge)
*Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor (although I'm more likely to pick this for the beautiful cover challenge).

7. Read a book out of your comfort zone (or a book from a genre you don't normally read).
Classics
*Emma by Jane Austen.
*Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.

Historical Fiction
*The Lady Risks All by Stephanie Laurens.
*The Scandal of the Season by Sophie Gee.

8. Read a book with a beautiful cover.

*Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor (I might pick this one up for the #OfWonderland bookclub this month too).

9. Read 12 books: it is preferable if you choose 9 different books for the challenges and then have 3 other books of your choice :)

I'm going to try and choose different books for each challenge and then read three more and I will probably choose them from the ones listed above. That will depend on how well my reading is going and if I'm enjoying the books I'm reading.

How do you feel about readathons? Let me know in the comments.
Feel free to join us :-)

Bye for now

Annelies

Friday 4 May 2018

Anticipated releases - May 2018

Hi booklovers

Contrary to last month I have 5 books I'm looking forward to this month.

May
1st: A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas
This is the novella between the original trilogy and the rest of the series.
The Winter Solstice. In a week. I was still new enough to being High Lady that I had no idea what my formal role was to be. If we'd have a High Priestess do some odious ceremony, as lanthe had done the year before. A year. Gods, nearly a year since Rhys had called in his bargain, desperate to get me away from the poison of the Spring Court to save me from my despair. Had he been only a minute later, the Mother knew what would have happened. Where I'd now be. Snow swirled and eddied in the garden, catching in the brown fibers of the burlap covering the shrubs My mate who had worked so hard and so selflessly, all without hope that I would ever be with him We had both fought for that love, bled for it. Rhys had died for it.

3rd: The Beast's Heart by Leife Shallcross
A sumptuously magical, brand new take on a tale as old as time—read the Beast's side of the story at long last.

I am neither monster nor man—yet I am both.

I am the Beast.

The day I was cursed to this wretched existence was the day I was saved—although it did not feel so at the time.

My redemption sprung from contemptible roots; I am not proud of what I did the day her father happened upon my crumbling, isolated chateau. But if loneliness breeds desperation then I was desperate indeed, and I did what I felt I must. My shameful behaviour was unjustly rewarded.

My Isabeau. She opened my eyes, my mind and my heart; she taught me how to be human again.

And now I might lose her forever.

Lose yourself in this gorgeously rich and magical retelling of The Beauty and the Beast that finally lays bare the beast's heart.

15th: Onyx and Ivory by Mindee Arnett 
They call her Traitor Kate. It’s a title Kate Brighton inherited from her father after he tried to assassinate the high king years ago. Now Kate lives as an outcast, clinging to the fringes of society as a member of the Relay, the imperial courier service. Only those most skilled in riding and bow hunting ride for the Relay; and only the fastest survive, for when dark falls, the nightdrakes—deadly flightless dragons—come out to hunt. Fortunately, Kate has a secret edge: she is a wilder, born with magic that allows her to influence the minds of animals. But it’s this magic that she needs to keep hidden, as being a wilder is forbidden, punishable by death or exile. And it’s this magic that leads her to a caravan massacred by nightdrakes in broad daylight—the only survivor her childhood friend, her first love, the boy she swore to forget, the boy who broke her heart.

The high king’s second son, Corwin Tormane, never asked to lead. Even as he waits for the uror—the once-in-a-generation ritual to decide which of the king’s children will succeed him—he knows it’s always been his brother who will assume the throne. And that’s fine by him. He’d rather spend his days away from the palace, away from the sight of his father, broken with sickness from the attempt on his life. But the peacekeeping tour Corwin is on has given him too much time to reflect upon the night he saved his father’s life—the night he condemned the would-be killer to death and lost the girl he loved. Which is why he takes it on himself to investigate rumors of unrest in one of the remote city-states, only for his caravan to be attacked—and for him to be saved by Kate.

With their paths once more entangled, Kate and Corwin have to put the past behind them. The threat of drakes who attack in the daylight is only the beginning of a darker menace stirring in the kingdom—one whose origins have dire implications for Kate’s father’s attack upon the king and will thrust them into the middle of a brewing civil war in the kingdom of Rime.

29th: Legendary by Stephanie Garber
Stephanie Garber’s limitless imagination takes flight once more in the colorful, mesmerizing, and immersive sequel to the bestselling breakout debut Caraval

A heart to protect. A debt to repay. A game to win.

After being swept up in the magical world of Caraval, Donatella Dragna has finally escaped her father and saved her sister Scarlett from a disastrous arranged marriage. The girls should be celebrating, but Tella isn’t yet free. She made a desperate bargain with a mysterious criminal, and what Tella owes him no one has ever been able to deliver: Caraval Master Legend’s true name.

The only chance of uncovering Legend’s identity is to win Caraval, so Tella throws herself into the legendary competition once more—and into the path of the murderous heir to the throne, a doomed love story, and a web of secrets…including her sister's. Caraval has always demanded bravery, cunning, and sacrifice. But now the game is asking for more. If Tella can’t fulfill her bargain and deliver Legend’s name, she’ll lose everything she cares about—maybe even her life. But if she wins, Legend and Caraval will be destroyed forever.

Welcome, welcome to Caraval...the games have only just begun.

29th: Lifelik3 by Jay Kristoff
On a floating junkyard beneath a radiation sky, a deadly secret lies buried in the scrap.

Eve isn’t looking for secrets—she’s too busy looking over her shoulder. The robot gladiator she’s just spent six months building has been reduced to a smoking wreck, and the only thing keeping her Grandpa from the grave was the fistful of credits she just lost to the bookies. To top it off, she’s discovered she can destroy electronics with the power of her mind, and the puritanical Brotherhood are building a coffin her size. If she’s ever had a worse day, Eve can’t remember it.

But when Eve discovers the ruins of an android boy named Ezekiel in the scrap pile she calls home, her entire world comes crashing down. With her best friend Lemon Fresh and her robotic conscience, Cricket, in tow, she and Ezekiel will trek across deserts of irradiated glass, infiltrate towering megacities and scour the graveyard of humanity’s greatest folly to save the ones Eve loves, and learn the dark secrets of her past.

Even if those secrets were better off staying buried.

I preordered ACOFAS in April and it was supposed to be delivered on Wednesday, but it still hasn't arrived :-s

I'm also definitely going to preorder Legendary (I enjoyed Caraval and I'm curious to see where the story will go) and Lifelik3. I love Jay Kristoff's Illuminae files and Nevernight trilogy (the books that are out yet, anyway).
Like with Caraval, the hardback versions of Legendary will come with four different covers under the dustjacket.

Which books are you looking forward to in May? Let me know in the comments.

Bye for now

Annelies 

Wednesday 2 May 2018

January - April 2018 book haul.

Hi booklovers

I've been on a bookbuying ban since October 2017 and I have been really good about it, except for the month of March where I caved and ordered 9 books. I'll talk more about that later in this post. 

Let's take a look at the books I bought during the first four months of 2018:

January

*The Cruel Prince by Holly Black - this was the January Fairyloot book.

February

*Immortal Reign by Morgan Rhodes. This is book 6 in the Falling Kingdom series. I read it as soon as I got it :-)

*The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert - the February Fairyloot book. This was one of my anticipated releases for this year.

*Angelfall by Susan Ee. This was actually a gift from a former pupil :-)

March

So this is the month where I totally fell of the wagon. In my defence: I had a 10% discount code from BookDepository and out of the 9 books I ordered 4 of them I had already read as e-books or listened to as an audiobook. One book was also a gift for a friend's birthday.

*Unravel Me - Unite Me - Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi. I have read these before as e-books. I already own Shatter Me, so I wanted to complete the series. I also pre-ordered the paperback of Restore Me, but it was released in April.

*Etched in Bone by Anne Bishop. I listened to this one last August and I had to wait until this year for it to come out in paperback.

*The Way of Kings part 1 and The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson. I love the Mistborn trilogy, so I want to continue with the spin-off series and venture on to another one of his series.

*Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I wanted to see the movie but I needed to read the book before that. I managed to finish the book a couple of hours before seeing the movie :-)

April

*Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, another one of my most anticipated releases of 2018. I actually ordered the special Obsidio box from TheYAChronicles. It took about two weeks for it to arrive but it was worth the wait. The items in the box were so cool and I loooooved the book. It was a great conclusion to the trilogy.

*Restore Me by Tahereh Mafi. Like I said, I ordered this in March but it wasn't released until April.

*The April Fairyloot box was delayed, so I'll be adding this to my May haul. I've actually cancelled my subscription of Fairyloot for the time being, because I have been really disappointed with the boxes lately. The April box sounded interesting, but the May one didn't. At first I wanted to look for a different subscription box, but I won't be doing that.

Which books did you get in the first four months of 2018? Let me know in the comments.

Bye for now

Annelies

Tuesday 1 May 2018

March - April 2018 - wrap-up.

Hi booklovers

The other day I realised I never posted my March wrap-up, so today I'm combining both my March and April wrap-up.

During these months I read 11 books: 2 graphic novels, 4 audiobooks and 5 physical books.
Let's take a look at what I've read:

March

After reading Transmetropolitan volume 1 last year, I finally got around to reading the second volume. I enjoyed it, but it also sometimes confused the hell out of me. I am going to read the third volume, because I'm still not sure if this is a series for me. I'm also borrowing these from a colleague, so I need to return them before the end of the schoolyear :-)

After struggling with Saga volumes 4 and 5, really enjoying volume 6 and having some mixed feelings about volume 7, I was a bit anxious about picking up volume 8. But I really enjoyed this volume and I can't wait to get my hands on volume 9 later this year.
I really enjoyed The Final Empire and The Well of Ascension, so in March I read The Hero of Ages and I really loved it. I can definitely see Sanderson becoming an auto-buy author. 
After listening to the first two books in the Wayward Children's series I was really curious to see what/who the next one would be about. I really enjoyed Beneath the Sugar Sky, even though the main character Rini got on my nerves sometimes. I'm really happy there will be more books in the series.
The last book I read in March I've had on my TBR for over a year. After doing a second edition of the 'Try a chapter' tag, I was the most interested in continuing Scythe. When I asked on my IG story what my next read should be, a lot of people voted 'yes' for this book. I really enjoyed this book and I want to read the sequel - which I won a giveaway - very soon. The concept of a world where people don't die but are gleened was really different. 

April

For the April theme of the #OfWonderlandBookClub on Goodreads - Books with movie adaptations - I listened to Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda and I ended up enjoying it more than I thought I would. Even though I liked it, I did realise that (YA) contemporary isn't really my thing. I occasionally enjoy it, but fantasy will always be my preferred genre.
The next book I picked up was Ready Player One and I loved it. This whole book was a trip down memory lane because I'm an 80s kid :-) Even though there are a LOT of differences between the book and the movie, I loved both!! (I also read this book for the bookclub.)
The third book I read in April was one of my most anticipated releases of 2018: Obsidio. I had ordered the Obsidio box from TheYAChronicles, so I didn't get it until 2 weeks after its release date. Needless to say I dove straight into it as soon as I received it. Even though this book wasn't as action-packed and fast-paced as the first two, this was the perfect conclusion to the trilogy. This book will most probably end up in my top 10 favourite reads of 2018.
In order to prepare myself for the release of A Court of Frost and Starlight, I reread both A Court of Mist and Fury and A Court of Wings and Ruin. I can totally see that these books have flaws, but I really enjoy them a lot nonetheless.
ACOMAF
ACOWAR
And the last book I read - I should say listened to - in April was again one for the bookclub and that was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I've read this book a very long time ago and apparently I had totally forgotten how weird this book is. I still enjoyed it though and I will eventually listen to Through the looking-glass.
I'm really happy with the number of books I've read and with what I read.
What was your favourite read in March and/or April? Let me know in the comments.
 
Bye for now
 
Annelies