MedievalAThon / IronTomeAThon / July wrap-up

Hi booklovers

Yesterday was the last day of both the MedievalAThon and the IronTomeAThon, so let's take a look at what I managed to read.

MedievalAThon

*Nevernight by Jay Kristoff: this was a reread in preperation for the release of Darkdawn in September. Still a solid 5 star read. Hopefully I'll be posting my review soon.

This earned me the rank of peasant and my daggers.

*Legendary by Stephanie Garber: again a reread because I want to read Finale. This, however, I didn't enjoy as much as the first time around. 

I became a squire by reading this one and I got my breastplate.

*King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence: this was a very hard book for me to rate. Immediately after finishing it I was leaning towards 3 - 3.5 stars because I didn't feel the same connection to the characters as I did with Prince of Thorns. But while writing my review I realized I did enjoy the story a lot and that it actually was a solid 4 star read. I'll be posting my review soon. (I have a review for Prince of Thorns.)

Next rank: knight. I earned my crown with it.

*The Sword Volume 1 by the Luna Brothers: I really enjoyed Alex+Ada and Girls by the Luna Brothers, so when this was recommended to me at the comic book store I wanted to give it a try. I really enjoy the artwork and the storyline is pretty cool.

I became a countess with a cloak by reading this graphic novel.

*The Sword Volume 2 by the Luna Brothers: I again enjoyed it a lot and I'll be picking up volumes 3 and 4 at some point :-)

Next rank: princess with a sword.

I was hoping to finish Malice by John Gwynne which would have made me a queen and earned me a pair of leggings. Alas, that didn't happen: I managed to read 504 out of the 628 pages.

When I tweeted about this, I got a really cool response from John Gwynne himself.

I love it when authors interact with their readers like that.

IronTomeAThon

*Nevernight: Oldtown + 428 pages.

*King of Thorns: King's Landing + 597 pages.

*The Sword Volume 1: 100 pages.

*The Sword Volume 2: 100 pages.

Total number of pages: 1225. (I'm a bit sad that I can't add the 504 pages I read of Malice :-/ )

I'm really pleased with how both these readathons went and I hope they'll become annual readathons :-)

I read another book that I couldn't count for either readathons:

*Masquerade by Nyrae Dawn. I needed a break from the fantasy genre after the epicness that is Nevernight, so I picked up this NA contemporary. It is the final book in the Games trilogy and I enjoyed it.

How was your reading month? Did you participate in either of these readathons? 

This month I'm taking my NEWTs, I'm curious to see if I'll become a librarian.

Bye for now

Annelies

WWW Wednesday July 24th - Readathon Updates

Hi booklovers

"Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three questions below and leave a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. No blog? No problem! Just leave a comment with your responses. Please, take some time to visit the other participants and see what others are reading. So, let’s get to it!"

I found this on Nadine's blog.

The Three Ws are: 

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently reading

This is the fourth week of both the MedievalAThon and the IronTomeAThon.

I finally started Malice by John Gwynne.

I tried to read this a couple of years ago, but I found it too confusing and I couldn't invest enough time in it to fully immerse myself into the story, so I put it down. But I definitely wanted to give it another try. So, this week I decided to pick it up again. 

I'm only 90 pages in and it's going very slow because my copy has very small print and I don't have the audiobook for this one (I can't find it anywhere :-s ). It's also a story that has a lot of characters. I'm writing down all the character names, just so I can keep track of them. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it before the end of the month/readathons *crosses fingers*.

This one would award me the rank of Queen for the MedievalAThon and get me some leggings. For the IronTomeAThon I would count it towards King's Landing (and then I would use King of Thorns for Asshai). This would also grant me 628 points.

Recently finished

Last week I finished King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. At first I didn't really know how I felt about it. I didn't feel as connected to Jorg as I did in Prince of Thorns. But I let it sink in a bit and I wrote a review about it. While writing that review I realised I did really enjoy it.

I became a knight with a crown *LOL* in the MedievalAThon. This goes towards the prompt of Asshai for the IronTomeAThon and I earned 597 points.

Because I felt like my reading was going so slow, I decided to pick up a graphic novel. I have read Alax + Ada and Girls by the Luna Brothers. Last week I went to Brugge and I visited a comicbook store and they recommended The Sword, so I bought the first two volumes.

I picked up The Sword Volume 1 to help me get a cloak and the rank of countess for the MedievalAThon.

I really enjoyed this. I really like the artwork, it's very 'calm'. It's also very similar to the artwork of their other graphic novels.

This awards me 100 points for the IronTomeAthon. (Graphic Novels only count for 100 points with a maximum of 5 graphic novels.)

I immediately picked up Volume 2 and this got me a sword and the rank of princess for the MedievalAThon and it again awarded me 100 points for the IronTomeAThon.

I'm definitely going to pick up the next two volumes very soon.

What's next?

Malice will probably keep me occupied until the end of the readathons so I'm not 100% sure yet what I'll pick up afterwards.

I'm going to take my N.E.W.T.s in August (you can find my tentative TBR here) and I think I'm going to start with my reread of Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff.

How's your reading going? Let me know in the comments.

Bye for now

Annelies

WWW Wednesday July 17th - Readathon updates

Hi booklovers

"Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three questions below and leave a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. No blog? No problem! Just leave a comment with your responses. Please, take some time to visit the other participants and see what others are reading. So, let’s get to it!"

I found this on Nadine's blog.

The Three Ws are: 

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently reading

This is the third week of both the MedievalAThon and the IronTomeAThon.

On Monday I started King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence and I'm currently on page 306 out of 597. 

I feel so slow because it took me nearly 20 chapters before I realised that when it says 'Four years earlier' the entire chapter is a flashback and when it says 'Wedding Day' it is the present day *insert face palm emoji here*.

Now that I've figured it out, I'm actually enjoying the book a lot more!

I'm alternating between listening to the audiobook and reading the physical copy.

This goes towards the prompt of King's Landing for the IronTomeAThon and the prompt that will earn me a crown in the MedievalAThon and grant me the rank of knight (meaning I've read three books).

This is only the second book I'm reading for the IronTomeAThon.

Recently finished

The first book I read for both readathons was Nevernight by Jay Kristoff. 

This is the second time I've read this and it is still a very solid 5 star read. I'm rereading NN and Godsgrave in preparation for the release of Darkdawn in September. I'm going to want to read that one as soon as it comes out, even though I know my heart is will be ripped to pieces and I'll probably suffer from a major bookhangover.

I love this book, it's dark, it's gritty, it's graphic and it has tons of humour. And even though I knew what would happen towards the end it still got to me big time!

MedievalAThon: I earned the rank of peasant and my daggers with this book.

IronTomeAThon: Oldtown + 428 points.

Because I knew nothing fantasy related would live up to NN immediately after finishing it, I decided to pick up a contemporary NA story: Masquerade by Nyrae Dawn. 

I enjoyed it and it was just what I needed to not go into into a reading slump. This is the final book in the Games trilogy and we follow Maddox, Layne's (the MC from the second book) brother. All three books are companion novels with appearances of the characters from the previous books. Since this is the third one, I can't say much more about the plot. What I can say is that both MC's have their pasts haunting them and they need to find ways to deal with it. This one leans heavily on the one-night-stand turning into something more trope. It was the right balance between angst, drama and sexy times (without the sexual content being too graphic).

Then I read my second book for the Medievalathon, Legendary by Stephanie Garber. 

Even though this is also a reread it took me much longer to finish than I'd anticipated :-s I also didn't enjoy it as much as the first time around. I think my reading tastes have changed a lot over the last two years. This makes me fear for Finale, the last book in the trilogy. I've chosen that one for the prompt to earn me a cape, but I'm not sure if I'll be picking it up this month.

MedievalAThon: I earned the rank of squire and a breastplate with this one.

IronTomeAThon: nothing because this is YA.

What's next?

I still have a few books I want to read for both readathons, but I'm not sure which one I'll be picking up. Here are some of the most likely ones:

The Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks.

Malice by John Gwynne.

Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames.

Traitor's Blade by Sebastien de Castell.

Any suggestions on what I should pick up first? Let me know in the comments.

Bye for now

Annelies

Medieval-A-Thon TBR

Hi booklovers

I have only one more week of the schoolyear left and then I have a two month break in which I'm going to spend a whole lot of my time reading :-)

That's why I was over the moon when Holly over at HollyHeartsBooks on BookTube announced her Medieval-A-Thon readathon.

This is a month-long readathon which will take place from the 1st of July 'till the 31st of July.

There are different prompts with which you can build your own armour. You can also choose your weapons and raise your nobility the more you read.

I made these pages for my book bujo and every time I finish a book, I'll colour in the corresponding clothing item or weapon.

As usual I'm going to give myself some choices for most of the prompts, just to make sure I feel like reading at least one of the books.

Since taking the photos this week, I've already made some changes.

Hopefully I'll be able to read 10 books, but I might end up using one book for two prompts. We'll see.

Now on to the TBR.

Build your armour:

Crown:

A book where a character fights for the throne.

*Half a King by Joe Abercrombie.

*King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence.

*Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake.

Helmet:

A book with a dragon on the cover.

*The Red Knight by Miles Cameron.

Breastplate:

A shiny book.

*Legendary by Stephanie Garber (this would be a reread).

Leggings:

A thick paperback.

*Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson.

*The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks.

*The Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks. (I still need to get this one.)

*Malice by John Gwynne.

*The Painted Man by Peter V. Brett.

(*King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence)

(*The Red Knight by Miles Cameron)

Boots:

A book that has yellowed over time.

At first I didn't know which book would fit this prompt, but when I took the photo for the previous prompt I noticed that the edges of Malice have yellowed.

Cloak:

A book with red on the dust jacket.

*Finale by Stephanie Garber.

*Red Sister by Mark Lawrence.

Choose your weapon(s):

Sword:

A book with something pointy on the cover.

*Traitor's Blade by Sebastien de Castell (there is a slight possibility that I (re)read this before the readathon starts).

(*Malice by John Gwynne)

(*King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence)

(*Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson)

(*The Red Knight by Miles Cameron)

Daggers:

A book with assassins.

*Nevernight by Jay Kristoff (this would also be a reread in preparation of the release of Darkdawn).

(*Red Sister by Mark Lawrence)

*Grey Sister by Mark Lawrence (if I've read Red Sister for another prompt).

Bow and arrow:

A book with elves.

This will probably be the prompt I won't get to.

*De Elfen by Bernhard Hennen (this one is in Dutch).

Axe:

A book with mercenaries.

*Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames (I still need to get this one as well).

(*Traitor's Blade by Sebastien de Castell (if I haven't read it before the readathon).

*Knight's Shadow by Sebastien de Castell.

As for the nobility, I'm aiming for Queen which means I need to read 6 or more books. We'll see how it goes, because a lot of the books I can choose from fit the 'Leggings' prompt because they are over 500 pages.

Are you interested in taking part in this readathon? Any recommendation on which of these I should definitely read or pick up first?

Let me know in the comments.

Bye for now.

Annelies