lets talk about YA!
As the days gets colder and the nights draw in on the Northern Hemisphere. Or, hell, as the summer holidays draw closer for the Southern Hemisphere. We’re all looking for things to keep us busy inside. We might all love to read, but sometimes you just want to do something creative. It can be a great excuse to listen to podcasts or an audiobook, and in the end, you should have something you’re proud of.
Or you at least had fun doing it.
Continue reading “Arts and Crafts Ideas For Readers!”
We’re a fair way through October, and that means that NaNoWriMo is on the horizon. It’s something that I always want to do, but it’s not something that I always have time for. I am working this year, but something might happen that’ll mean I’m not in the mood for writing. But I’m trying to keep positive for now.
Last year I tried and once again failed. I’ve only managed to succeed once and only because I was just finishing something off. I’m kind of tired of just feeling like I can’t complete anything.
Continue reading “To NaNo or Not to NaNo?”
As a book blogger, I’m obviously very lucky to get offered indie books to review every now and then. I’m super picky about which I accept though, as I only have so much time. I’m also on the judging panel of the BBNYA awards this year, which has given me the opportunity to read even more indie books.
When it comes to those I accept to review, I seem to have a lot of good luck. These indies books are great and I can happily scream about them.
Yet when I go to buy indie books that I’ve seen online that I’m interested in…I keep DNFing them. I don’t know why this is. It’s not like I’m not ordering books that don’t interest me. But when I actually get to them, they aren’t working.
Examples of this are The Lost Mage by Ben Alderson, Awakening Shadows by Sydney Hawthorn and The Nichan Smile by C.J Merwild.
They’re all fantasy books with intriguing plots, they seem like they’ll all have plenty of romance and I was so excited to read them. Something about the writing in all of them just hasn’t worked. Some of them I’ve not gotten along with the switching perspectives, though I can read fantasy with multiple perspectives, these just have felt too quick.
So I thought, why not ask for your guys help?
I’m looking for fantasy with a lot of adventure and romance. I want plenty of banter, strong relationships and a lot of fun. Action is good too, but I’m very much a character and relationship-focused reader. Most probably YA or NA, but I’ll take adult. I want plenty of romance, but I’d prefer books with a single perspective. Preferably a woman’s perspective, unless it’s queer. Then I’m fine with a male perspective. I’ll read other things too, but this is just what I’m after at the moment.
Any recommendations?
You don’t really see me talking about non-fiction very often because I don’t tend to read it. That’s not because there’s none that interests me. There most definitely is! I adore history and I want to read more on it. There are even a couple of history books that I own, but I struggle to focus on it. I don’t want to be sitting and reading about facts like I do fiction, it just doesn’t work. So the history books I’ve bought just aren’t getting read and I want to change that.
I need to somehow find a way that I can sit and read them. It might be that I need to just read a little bit at a time along side my fiction. It would be very little, not even full chapters, but I really want to do it. I want to learn more history and watching documentaries just isn’t enough. So today I’m going to list the books I own, why and what I’m hoping to learn! There might not be much on some of them, but maybe you’ll be interested too!
Continue reading “Non-Fiction Books I Want to Read”
I’ve been at this book blogging gig for a few years now. I’ve written a guide for new book bloggers looking for ARCs. I recommend checking it out if you haven’t already! But I also know that once you start requesting books…it can be very tempting to request every single one that looks good. Later, when people start contacting you offering you books to review? It becomes even more tempting to accept everything, especially if you’re offered a physical copy.
You can’t do that.
You shouldn’t even request every book you’re interested in.
Continue reading “Should I Request Every ARC I’m Interested In?”
I’ve never read Jane Eyre before, but the moment I stumbled across Within These Wicked Walls, I knew I had to read it. This is a YA historical fantasy retelling of the famous novel set in Ethiopia. It’s fascinating, atmospheric and everything that I could hope for. But even I noticed that aside from a name and a fire, there wasn’t very much of Jane Eyre in it.
Within These Wicked Walls follows Andromeda, a debtera – or exorcist – who creates amulets to rid people of the Evil Eye. Her mentor had kicked her out so now she’s on the look for a patron, and Magnus Rochester is the only one who’s offering. His house is cursed and more dangerous than she expected, but as they slowly fall in love, she knows she would do anything to free him.
Continue reading “Book Review: Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood”
It’s rare for me to review a book on here that I bought for myself. But I have a reason for posting a review for this one…that being that I’m on an Instagram tour for the second book! I’m very excited to get my copy and give it a read, and so I finally got my ass into gear and read this one! It had been in a few TBR piles, but when I had to cut the pile down for various reasons…it kept being the book I removed.
So this is the first book in a prequel duology to De Castell’s Spellslinger series. It follows Ferius, the Argosi mentor from the original books as a child, as she finds her way. Her goal is to hunt down and kill the mages who killed her family, but on her journey, she meets an Argosi wanderer called Durrall, who tries to teach her their ways.
Continue reading “Book Review: Way of the Argosi by Sebastien De Castell”
Way back when I was in high school, I tried reading Eragon and DNFed after a few pages. I didn’t enjoy it and didn’t think of it again. I assumed it was the way Paolini wrote and that I wouldn’t like any of his further work. Yet when To Sleep in a Sea of Stars came out last year in hardback, I was intrigued. This was a first contact adult sci-fi. It sounded completely different to his other work, and it was getting such good reviews.
I planned on giving it a chance from the moment I first heard of it, but it’s taken until now for me to actually get around to it. I was lucky enough to be sent a free paperback copy with a very cute pin in return for a review from Black Crow PR. I’m so glad I requested it as I can finally say that I read it and I enjoyed it. I’m in a bit of a reading slump, so with the size of it…it was a bit of a slog. But I still enjoyed every second.
The book follows Kira, a xenobiologist who accidentally stumbles upon an alien xenome. As she learns how to live with and control the alien, she also learns that a war has begun, and even worse, that she’s the only one who can save the world.
Continue reading “Book Review: To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini”I know I’ve spoken about fanfiction before. I talked about how important it is and how it’s something we should celebrate it. I wanted to do some sort of guide on how it can help writers and I’m still not going to do that. But I do want to talk about how writing fanfiction can affect what I’m reading.
So, I’m in a new fandom now. It’s been a few weeks now, but I’m still catching up on canon and reading fanfiction. It’s been pretty nice and I’m filled with ideas. Weirdly enough, I haven’t slipped into AU territory yet. And that’s kind of what’s affecting my reading.
Continue reading “Writing Fanfiction”
It has been a little while since I posted anything! Sorry about that. I ran out of scheduled posts, and I’ve just not been reading much. That sadly means that I haven’t really had any ideas for what to write. But I decided I’d talk about some goals.
So, obviously, September is a weird time to be talking about goals. But I’ve been looking at the books I have unread in my box right now, and I have a lot. I had 80 unread books at the beginning of the year, and I have 89 currently. That might not seem like too many more. And to be fair, earlier in the year, the number was going down every month. But recently…I’ve been buying too many books.
Continue reading “End of Year Reading Goals”