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

The Iron Tome-A-Thon TBR

Hi booklovers

Tomorrow announces the start of the MedievalAThon and I'm very excited to start my first read :-)

Today, however, I came across another readathon that will be perfect to combine with the MedievalAThon: the IronTomeAThon. You can find the announcement post here.

This readathon is hosted by Aimal from bookshelvesandpaperbacks and wil run from July 1st 'till July 31st. As I've said before, I'm all for month-long readathons :-)

For this readathon you solely read adult fantasy books. Since a lot of the books on my MedievalAThon TBR are adult fantasy books, I might as well use them for some of the prompts of the IronTomeAThon as well :-)

These are the prompts I'll be reading books for:

(As usual, I've given myself options!)

King's Landing:

A book about or involving royalty, politics or government.

*Half a King by Joe Abercrombie.

*King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence.

*Malice by John Gwynne.

Oldtown:

A book about or involving an institution 

of knowledge or training.

*Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

*Red Sister by Mark Lawrence.

Valyria:

A book about or involving dragons.

*The Red Knight by Miles Cameron.

Asshai:

A dark/grimdark or urban fantasy.

*Half a King by Joe Abercrombie.

*King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence.

*Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson.

I'm very excited to combine these two readathons :-)

Will you be participating in either or both readathons? Let me know in the comments.

Apparently, my summer break reading will consist mostly of readathon books because in August I'll be taking my NEWTs :-)

Bye for now

Annelies