Books!

Gen Con Wrap Up

/ daniellethamasa / Leave a comment

Hey all, Dani here.

This past weekend was a crazy yet fun weekend of reveling in being a geek. Okay, I guess I should be specific and say that Saturday was a day filled with thousands of other geeks all trying to stock up on games and more in Indianapolis for Gen Con.

For those who don’t know, Gen Con is a gaming convention that started back in 1967 and was originally held in Wisconsin. Since 2003 though, it has been held in Indy and is scheduled to remain there at least through 2021. It brings together many companies and designers and such to celebrate gaming. There are panels and demos and such at the Indianapolis Convention Center, but there are also events going on in hotels and other buildings around the city, so that it is actually 4 complete days of gaming. Yes, you can find wonderful geeks playing games any time of day or night during the convention.

While I was in Indy during the weekend of Gen Con in 2016, I was there for a Dungeons & Dragons live stream, not for the convention itself. So this year was my first experience at this particular Con, and I was lucky enough to attend with my boyfriend and one of our other geek friends.

We woke up at 6:00 am on Saturday morning, loaded our things into our rental car and set off for the 3.5 hour drive to Indianapolis. After a pit stop at an IHOP for breakfast, and checking in at our hotel, we drove towards the convention center, parked the car at one of the many parking garages, and headed into the Con.

It was packed! Seriously, getting around the exhibitor hall was sometimes a bit of a struggle. Then again, this was the big 50th year of Gen Con. We did manage to see quite a few awesome booths, and collected a few business cards for the places we plan to shop from in the coming months, and of course we did buy quite a few supplies for D&D and Pathfinder. (And yes, I bought myself 7 new sets of dice. Did I need them? Not really. I already owned like 14 sets. But I wanted them and they looked really cool. Also, the one set is actually gemstone, turquoise to be specific).

When we were at the Lone Wolf Development booth, which also featured displays for Syrinscape and Kobold Press, we were actually approached by one of the new guys on the crew and he told my boyfriend and I that if we had any ideas for a book or a campaign to get in contact with him and pitch the idea. That naturally led to he and I exchanging business cards. So that was pretty cool.

We also made sure to stop at the booth for Green Ronin Publishing, and grabbed our pre-ordered copies of the Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting book based on the show Critical Role.

After several hours of wandering the floor and hauling bags that got heavier as we added more and more merch, it was time for us to go to Lucas Oil Stadium for the Critical Role signing. So we dropped our bags off at the car, grabbed a quick drink at Starbucks, and then headed over to a football stadium to wait in line for a few hours.

Waiting in line actually wasn’t that bad, honestly. Because we had purchased tickets in advance, the three of us were able to sit in the stands, and the Gen Con staff brought us down one row at a time to go through the signing line.

I know a bit about sports, but obviously I am not a huge follower of them. But I will say that it was so awesome to see the home of the Indianapolis Colts filled with geeks playing board games and talking about geeky things.

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Now, I had met most of the Critical Role cast last year during my trip to the live show, but Liam O’Brien was absent then. This year he was there, but Ashley Johnson wasn’t due to filming for the show “Blindspot.” So I was able to get Liam’s signature in my Player’s Handbook, completing my set. I also was able to get everyone to sign my Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting book.

And because the cast are amazing people and actually spent a minute or so talking with each of us, I was able to tell Matthew Mercer, the Dungeon Master for the show the story of my boyfriend and I getting together. You see, we met playing Dungeons & Dragons, with me as a player and my boyfriend as the Dungeon Master. But more than that, when we had our first date, I introduced him to the Mythica series of movies, and we watched all five of them on that date. This is relevant because Matthew Mercer played Szorlok, the villain in the series. And Matt being the amazingly big-hearted geek that he is, feels so touched when he hears stories like that.

Oh, and when I talked to Sam Riegel (who plays bard Scanlan Shorthalt in the show) again, I actually gave him a copy of a book I thought he’d enjoy. The book in question: Pop Sonnets. It is a collection of popular songs that have been turned into Shakespearean sonnets. What was really cool about that interaction was that Sam said he would use it for inspiration. See, bards have an ability where they can inspire other characters by playing music, singing songs, reciting poems, etc. And in the past Sam has used poetry books and books of jokes, so it’s entirely possible that he might use my gifted book on the show.

The cast (from left to right): Travis Willingham, Laura Bailey, Sam Riegel, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Taliesin Jaffe, and Matthew Mercer.

Needless to say it was an absolutely wonderful and geeky day, and myself, my boyfriend, and our friend are already planning to go for all 4 days of the convention in 2018.

AMA Answer Time!

/ daniellethamasa / Leave a comment

Hey all, Dani here.

Thank you so much to Michelle and Elaina, who each asked me a question over the past few days. I really appreciate it. Let’s not waste any time with introductions. I’m jumping into the answers right now.

michelleltaylor94 asked: What are your must reads right now?

I think there’s two possible answers here: the must reads I can recommend for you all to read, and the must reads meaning books that I desperately need to read right now. For the first part, my go-to recommendations include: Dreamworld by Rachel E. Kelly, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, and The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. To answer the second part: The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee, The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell, and The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss are all books that I really want and need to read soon.

Elaina Lucy asked: What is the number one book that you’ve read that has the deepest emotional hold on you? It could be either that the book itself is amazing, or for other reasons (a gift from someone special, the first book you ever read, etc).

Wow, this is a fabulous question, and I’d love to know how all of you would answer it as well. Okay, so I’m going to try not to constantly answer with the same books, so I’m actually going to go with a non-fiction choice: You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day. This book was so lovely and inspirational for me. Follow that up with getting to meet her during her book tour for the paperback release (Yes, I own a first edition hardcover, and a first edition paperback of this book) and this book will always hold a special place in my heart. Meeting Felicia Day, considering how long I’ve followed her awesome nerdy career and how much I loved the book, is definitely one of the top moments of my life. You can read more about my fangirling and the signing at these links.

This was a fun idea, and I’ll probably try this again in the future, but if at any time you have a question, feel free to ask. I’m pretty much an open book.

Just for fun though, I’ll also throw in a few random fun facts about me, because I know sometimes people probably wonder about it.

Danielle Thamasa is a pen name. I chose it by taking all the letters from my legal birth name and rearranging the letters. (Okay, fine. I had to add in an extra ‘l’ and ‘e’ or else I would have been Daniel). I’ve been using this name for book related things on the internet for around a decade now so I answer to Dani as easily as I do my birth name.

Some of my other hobbies include board games, RPGs (like D&D, Pathfinder, Fantasy AGE, etc), LARPing, comic and gaming conventions, photography, ghost hunting, and traveling (though I don’t do as much as I’d like).

I’ve started watching anime and I’m enjoying it so far. I’m into My Hero Academia, Fairy Tail, Death Note, Trigun, and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. When I was younger I watched Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, and Fullmetal Alchemist, and in college I watched Inuyasha because of my roommate.

I’ve already surpassed my original reading challenge goal on Goodreads. I started the year with a goal of reading 75 books, but now my goal is 100 because I have finished 77 books so far.

Okay, well that’s all for now. Tomorrow I’ll be talking about my time in Indianapolis over the weekend for Gen Con 50.

Ask Me Anything!

/ daniellethamasa / 4 Comments

Hey all, Dani here.

I have been posting to this blog for almost two years now, which is awesome and a little crazy. In that time I’ve shared a lot of posts about books and other nerdy interests. And in the past few months I have watched as my comment counts and my follower counts rise and rise. Thank you for joining me here.

Anyway, I feel like sometimes it is good to take a step back and just chat. The book community is great and we spend a decent amount of time talking to each other.

With that in mind, I’m going to offer you lovely people the chance to ask me anything at all…about me, my writing, my reading, my hobbies, literally anything. Have you wondered how I came up with my pen name? How I choose books to read? Here’s your chance to ask whatever you’d like.

I’ll take questions from now until end of day Sunday, August 20th. Then I’ll have my answer post up on Monday the 21st.

Let’s spend some more time getting to know each other.

Oh, and this weekend I’m traveling to Indianapolis with my boyfriend and another friend of ours, to attend Gen Con. Sadly we can only make it for one day on Saturday, but it should be a great time, and I’ll be picking up a couple gaming books and some other gaming accessories and such, plus I’ll be getting the Critical Role cast to sign my new hardcover copy of the Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting book. So I’ll have a fun little convention wrap up post coming as well.

The Book Titles Tag

/ daniellethamasa / 5 Comments

Hey all, Dani here.

I’m back with another book tag, and I can admit that some of the questions on this one were a bit difficult to come up with. I’ve seen this post on several different blogs and vlogs, but most recently I saw Kristin at Kristin Kraves Books’s post, so you can check out her answers by clicking the link here.

Basically for each of the questions you pick a book title to answer it with. Some of these were fairly easy, with the answers just popping in my mind after just a second, and for the most part I tried to stick with recent reads, though there were a few older titles that snuck in here and there.

Anyway, let’s just jump right in.

1. Title the story of your life

Obviously the story of my life has to revolve around fandom and being a geek in some way, and while this wasn’t my favorite read in the world, it was a good guide to being a fangirl, so The Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy is my answer.

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2. Title that describes your perfect weekend

So this is absolutely a book series I’ve been wanting to read for a while because it sounds like something I’m going to love. It is also basically how I spend a lot of my weekends…playing D&D, so Level Grind, a collection of the first four books in the Twenty Sided Sorceress series is my choice. Collection two is also out; it is titled Boss Fight.

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3. Title of an adventure you’d like to go on

Wouldn’t it be nice to go on an adventure around the world? I think that would be cool. Around the World in Eighty Days.

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4. Title you want to name your child

Okay, so I actually haven’t thought up names for children; I spend most of my “baby names” on characters for stories or for D&D. Besides, when it comes to my future child(ren), I plan on deciding names with the father of said children. However, for this question my choice is Alex and Eliza.

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5. Title of your ideal job

This one was actually fairly easy. It is also one of my favorite books/authors so…Libriomancer. Of course this also makes the assumption that I live in a world where magical things can happen, because Libriomancers can pull objects out of books.

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6. Title of a place you’d like to visit

I had to go with a place I’d enjoy visiting, despite the fact that it is not at all real. I’d love to meet up with Kaz and the crew, so yeah, I have to pick Crooked Kingdom.

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7. Title of your love life

Again, this was a fairly easy one to answer, made even more so by the fact that this was a recent read. Lucky in Love is a title that definitely fits with my current situation. I have an amazing boyfriend and I am so incredibly lucky to have him in my life.

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8. Questions you ask yourself

This one might be a tiny little stretch, but I feel like it answers this tag question fairly well: No Plot? No Problem! Revised and Expanded Edition: A Low-stress High-velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days. I’ve been quite lax in my writing of late, though not really due to any sort of lack of plots. More like a lack of motivation. Either way, this book is helpful to have.

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9. Title of a kingdom you want to rule OR a kingdom you’d like to name

Man, it was hard to try and come up with the name for a kingdom based on a book title. I did the best I could, so my kingdom is Chimera.

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10. Title you’d name your band

Oooh…okay, so I probably wouldn’t be in a band like this question means; I was a band geek in school, so you know: marching band, concert band, orchestra, etc. But, I think I picked a pretty decent name for this fake band I’ll never have: Queens of Geek

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11. What is your current mood?

Again, easy choice: More Happy Than Not

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12. What is your favorite color?

All right, so again, this one might be a tiny bit of a stretch, but my favorite color is in the title. This is also a book that I actually still need to read; I love the movie though. (I know, blasphemous to have seen the movie without reading the book). Anyway, The Green Mile

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13. How do you feel about 2017 so far?

 

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14. Where do you want to travel?

Fine…I couldn’t come up with a book title for this one. I want to travel everywhere. I love learning about new cultures and trying new cuisines and experiencing all the awesome stuff the world has to offer. I want to go to museums and galleries, and go on bus tours and boat tours and train tours. I just want to enjoy life.

15. What are your summer plans?

Summer is actually starting to wind down, but based on the past couple sessions in one of my D&D campaigns, I feel like I made an appropriate choice: Gameboard of the Gods. Several characters have a decently formed plan to ascend towards godhood in the campaign.

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16. What are your 2017 goals?

Fine, maybe I don’t have specific goals for 2017. I want to keep reading and blogging and chatting with all of you. And I like where my relationship is and look forward to seeing what the future holds. So Someday, Someday, Maybe, I’ll publish my next book and get married and have kids and all of that. For right now I’m content where I am and am cool thinking about the possibilities of someday.

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That’s all for the Book Titles Tag. If you’d like to do this tag, then please consider yourself tagged. I look forward to seeing what titles you find to answer these questions.

Review: Click’d by Tamara Ireland Stone

/ daniellethamasa / Leave a comment

Hey all, Dani here.

I’ll be honest and admit that I have several middle grade book reviews coming in the next couple weeks. There were quite a few at BookExpo and BookCon that just sounded really cute. Now, today’s review is for an author that first came on my radar because of her time travel duology, but it was her YA contemporary that I truly loved. Her next release is her first middle grade book and I made sure that I made it to her signing so I could get a signed ARC for Click’d.

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Summary

Allie Navarro can’t wait to show her best friends the app she built at CodeGirls summer camp. CLICK’D pairs users based on common interests and sends them on a fun (and occasionally rule-breaking) scavenger hunt to find each other. And it’s a hit. By the second day of school, everyone is talking about CLICK’D.

Watching her app go viral is amazing. Leaderboards are filling up! Everyone’s making new friends. And with all the data Allie is collecting, she has an even better shot at beating her archenemy, Nathan, at the upcoming youth coding competition. But when Allie discovers a glitch that threatens to expose everyone’s secrets, she has to figure out how to make things right, even if that means sharing the computer lab with Nathan. Can Allie fix her app, stop it from doing any more damage, and win back the friends it hurt-all before she steps on stage to present CLICK’D to the judges?

New York Times best-selling author Tamara Ireland Stone combines friendship, coding, and lots of popcorn in her fun and empowering middle-grade debut.

My Thoughts

Rating: 4 stars

This was a cute book, and a fast read. I like that it has a focus on girls interested in STEM fields of study; we need more of that in the world.

However, this book just didn’t grip me as fully as Stone’s previous novel. Every Last Word has had a lasting impact on my heart and mind. I still find myself thinking of it, and I only read it the one time. And yes, this is Stone’s first middle grade novel, and I think the next installment will probably still be a good read, but I could not rate it higher than 4 stars.

I need to talk about Allie and Nathan and the Games for Good competition. This book covers a week of time leading up to this contest. And basically on the first day back to school their teacher has them present their projects to the rest of the computer technology/coding class. Nathan’s project/game is set up so that you can build virtual homes and while doing that, sponsors for the game will end up donating money to build real homes for Habitat for Humanity. Then Allie presents her game and it is a scavenger hunt to make new friends. While yes, friendship is admirable and can do good for the world, I definitely feel like Nathan’s game does tangible good in the world.

I will say that I liked the idea of this story, and I liked that a decent portion of it focused on Alli and her friends, and how this game affected their friendship. The friendships and drama of middle school can be so volatile and changing, so it was nice to see that portrayed in the book.

Overall, I would recommend this book, and I did enjoy it, but I have read a number of really great stories this year and that does tend to affect ratings.

Where to Buy

You can pre-order Click’d from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, Book Depository, or your local indie bookstore. It hits shelves on September 5, 2017.

Make Me Read It Readathon Wrap-Up

/ daniellethamasa / 13 Comments

Hey all, Dani here.

I think the post today is going to be a little shorter than normal. So, the past week I participated in the Make Me Read It Readathon, and the order of my TBR was determined based on the number of votes you lovely readers gave to my options. I’ll have links to the books I’ve finished and reviewed throughout this post.

I started off strong…reading all 6 books in the Scott Pilgrim series on Sunday and about the first half of Monday. That meant my next book was The Dragons of Nova by Elise Kova. Now, I did read a few chapters of this book, and so far I am enjoying it as much as I did the first one, but I’ll be completely honest, reading it basically felt like a chore. Again, I’ll reiterate that I am enjoying it, but I guess it just wasn’t the book I really wanted to be reading just then.

So I switched off to Matilda by Roald Dahl, a switch that only lasted for the hour to hour-and-a-half that it took me to read the whole book.

At the same time I was trying to push ahead with my readathon TBR, so I was listening to the audiobook for The Black Prism by Brent Weeks. I figured I could listen to it while doing chores around the apartment or during my ten minute commute to work. So over the course of the week I’ve listened to about 7 hours of the audiobook and have about 14 hours left to go. It’s not as much progress as I would like, but it’s something.

I did also manage to finish reading the Sandman series. So I read Volumes 7-10.

Oh, and during the week I also finished reading Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo and wrote up my review for it. That wasn’t on my TBR so I shouldn’t exactly count it for this readathon, but it still was reading I accomplished during the week, so I’m actually going to count it.

Finally I also read an ARC for Click’d by Tamara Ireland Stone. That review will be up tomorrow.

I consider it a fairly productive week of reading. I finished 13 books in the week, and made progress in two other books. I’m happy with that, though part of me is starting to worry that pushing myself to keep up this crazy reading schedule is going to lead to reader/blogger burnout soon. Though I have enough plans and idea to literally have a post every day for the next couple months, I think I’m going to have to scale back a tiny bit, so for right now I’m going to give myself a couple days off each week…most likely those will be the weekends.

That’s also why I’m probably going to hold off on finishing the new Elise Kova book for now. I have some ARC reviews that I need to be sure I finish, and I want to make sure the bonus books I’m reading during the month are the ones my bookish heart truly wants to be reading.

I do hope to finish the audiobook of The Black Prism by the end of the month, though. We’ll just see what happens.

All right everyone, so let me know down below how your readathon went if you participated, or if you didn’t, let me know if there’s a great book you’ve finished recently.

Sandman Series Review

/ daniellethamasa / 1 Comment

Hey all, Dani here.

Well I’m back with another review of a whole series, this time the Sandman comics by Neil Gaiman. I read the first five volumes in 2016, and really wanted to finish the series then but I had an influx of other books I needed to acquire and so these collected volumes had to wait. I recently bought volumes 6-10 and could barely restrain myself before diving in to finish them. For the summary and the links to purchase, I’ll be giving the information for the first volume only so as to avoid any potential spoilers.

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Summary

New York Times best-selling author Neil Gaiman’s transcendent series SANDMAN is often hailed as the definitive Vertigo title and one of the finest achievements in graphic storytelling. Gaiman created an unforgettable tale of the forces that exist beyond life and death by weaving ancient mythology, folklore and fairy tales with his own distinct narrative vision.

In PRELUDES & NOCTURNES, an occultist attempting to capture Death to bargain for eternal life traps her younger brother Dream instead. After his 70 year imprisonment and eventual escape, Dream, also known as Morpheus, goes on a quest for his lost objects of power. On his arduous journey Morpheus encounters Lucifer, John Constantine, and an all-powerful madman.

This book also includes the story “The Sound of Her Wings,” which introduces us to the pragmatic and perky goth girl Death.

Includes issues 1-8 of the original series.

My Thoughts

Ratings: 5 STARS for EVERYTHING!

This is such a wonderful and complex, diverse and expansive, sometimes whimsical, sometimes dark, sometimes absolutely lovely, series. Honestly, I have no idea why it took me so long to get these graphic novels. Weirdly enough, this was also my introduction to Neil Gaiman…well, unless you count seeing the movie Stardust years ago. But I had always heard about Neil Gaiman as this great storyteller, and this is an amazing example of his creative range.

I love the characters, and there are a lot of them. Some will only show up in one issue of one volume, but some are regularly occurring. Even the random tertiary characters seem to breathe on the page. I had no issues at all seeing them all as real people/creatures/etc. There is diversity in color and belief systems and sexuality and philosophy, which truly makes this a memorable reading experience.

Oh, and the artwork. Depending on the tone of each particular tale, the artwork changed to fit that mood. Some of the characters even have speech bubbles and speech font differences from everyone else. It is just a visual feast, a smorgasbord that you will want to devour whole.

Okay, I will say that Dream and Death are my favorite characters, but each of the Endless are fascinating in their own ways. Plus you run into other fun characters like Lucifer, you know, the same Lucifer that currently has a television show about his exploits on Earth, which is now heading into its third season? Yeah, the Sandman comics are where his storyline began, up to him leaving Hell to come up to our realm. Obviously the adaptation from comic to TV show made some changes but honestly they seem relatively minor (Lucifer is blond in the comics, but I think Tom Ellis is doing amazing in the show).

Anyway, back to the Endless. They are god-like, but they are older than the gods. There are seven of them and they are fascinating. We spend most of our time with Morpheus, otherwise known as Dream, though his older sister, Death, is also a frequent guest throughout the series. As it progresses you meet the rest of them: Destiny, Desire, Delirium, Destruction, and Despair.

Oh, and if you’re a fan of DC comics, you’ll note that a number of characters from there appear in Sandman as well, including but not limited to: John Constantine, Batman, and Hawkman. There are also numerous characters from biblical lore that pop up as well, including Cain, Abel, and Eve.

Basically I could gush about this for many more paragraphs but I don’t want to risk spoiling anything, and with the complete collection of ten volumes, there’s a lot of potential spoilers. I’ll just say that I highly recommend this amazing graphic novel collection.

Where to Buy

You can pick up Sandman in a number of different volume collections or other bound collections from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, Book Depository, or your local indie bookstore. I should also point out that you could likely pick up any of the Sandman tales from a comic book store as well.

Review: Matilda by Roald Dahl

/ daniellethamasa / 7 Comments

Hey all, Dani here.

Today I am here to review one of my most beloved stories from childhood, whether that was the book or movie version, because honestly both are great. I was able to re-read this fantastic children’s book thanks to my participation in the Make Me Read It Readathon. So far I’m doing quite well with my reading. I’ve finished the whole Scott Pilgrim series and Matilda, and am really close to finishing The Dragons of Nova. I can also say that I’ve been listening to The Black Prism whenever I have time for it. I’ll probably have to pick up my paperback copy and put in a few reading hours at some point this week, but so far I’m feeling good about being able to finish my entire TBR. Anyway, let’s just jump into the review.

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Summary

Matilda Wormwood’s father is a mean crooked crook. And her mother’s just plain stupid. They think Matilda is nuisance who should watch more TV and read fewer books! But her lovely teacher Miss Honey thinks Matilda is a genius. Matilda has a few extraordinary tracks up her sleeve, so her horrible parents and even more horrible headmistress had better watch out.

My Thoughts

Rating: 5 stars…obviously

I reread the book and watched the movie on the same day, and yes, there are some differences between the two, but I think the scenes the movie added in remained true to the heart of the story and only enhanced it. Both the book and the movie made me laugh and cry and have all the nostalgic feelings of a beloved tale. Matilda the book was released in 1988, the year I was born, and the movie came out the day after I turned 8 years old in 1996, so I have a close connection to this story.

Matilda is one of my all-time favorite little bookworms. The joy she gets from books and from learning is just adorable and infectious. Considering I have always been a lover of books, sweet little Matilda was one of the first characters I truly identified with.

Also, one of the joys of reading books by Roald Dahl is the artwork throughout. They are just so cute and really made the reading experience even more fun. I flew through my reread of this book, and yes, part of that is because this is a children’s book, but it’s also because you just want to follow Matilda’s story as she goes to school and gets involved with Miss Honey, all the while having to deal with the antagonists of this tale: her parents and Miss Trunchbull.

Part of the magic of Matilda is that most of it is based in reality, but then about halfway through the book, she discovers that she has the power to move things with her mind, or as it say in the book, with her eyes. Being that Matilda had basically raised herself on a large helping of great classical literature, she decided to use her power to help those around her.

This is a book I can’t wait to read to children, which right now means that I have to wait for my boyfriend’s niece to grow up a little bit. She’s only a month old right now. But I am definitely adding this book to her library.

Where to Buy

You can pick up your own copy of Matilda from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, Book Depository, or your local indie bookstore.

Rapid Fire Book Tag

/ daniellethamasa / 3 Comments

Hey all, Dani here.

Today I am here with another book tag. I keep finding more and more of these that I’d like to do, even though I don’t really get officially tagged. Anyway, I saw that Holly from Nut Free Nerd posted this book tag a couple weeks ago and it sounded like a fun and fairly easy one to get through so I figured I would just do it. And I tried my best to just answer with the first thing that popped in my head.

  1. E-book or Physical book? Physical Book
  2. Paperback or Hardcover? Hardcover to look at, but Paperback to read
  3. Online or In-store book shopping? In-Store!!! I love browsing through the stacks.
  4. Trilogies or Series? Oooh…tough one…I’ll say trilogies, because then there is a definite conclusion and you don’t worry that the story will start to drag just to make more books happen
  5. Heroes or Villains? Heroes
  6. A book you want everyone to read? Dreamworld by Rachel E. Kelly. Seriously, it is one of my absolute favorite books
  7. Recommend an underrated book. For this I have to go with The Queen’s Bastard by C.E. Murphy. If more people had read this and its sequel The Pretender’s Crown, then she would have been able to write more in the series/world. I loved these books
  8. Last book you finished? I’m writing this up a little early, so I think at the time this posts my last finished book should be either The Dragons of Nova by Elise Kova or Matilda by Roald Dahl
  9. The last book(s) you bought? My Lady Jane by Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand, and Jodi Meadows, and Sparks of Light by Janet B. Taylor. Oh, also, the audiobook of The Punch Escrow by Tal M. Klein and narrated by Matthew Mercer
  10. Weirdest thing you’ve used as a bookmark? A postcard announcing a possible upcoming appearance for Jury Duty. I like to use them as bookmarks when I get them because then I know I won’t forget the date.
  11. Used books: yes or no? Yes…if they are in pretty good condition.
  12. Top Three Favorite Genres Fantasy, Paranormal, and Sci-Fi
  13. Borrow or Buy? Buy. I dream of having a huge personal library someday.
  14. Characters or Plot? Characters. If the characters are good then sometimes plot doesn’t matter as much because I want to know more about the people.
  15. Long or Short books? Absolutely long
  16. Long or Short chapters? Short chapters
  17. Name the first three books you think of I seriously had a brain freeze on this one…okay, The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee, Invictus by Ryan Graudin, and The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss…coincidentally all books I need to read.
  18. Books that make you laugh or books that make you cry? Oooh…books that make me cry
  19. Our world or Fictional world? Fictional world
  20. Audiobooks: yes or no? I’m not a huge audiobook person but if I have the time and I like the narrator then absolutely
  21. Do you ever judge a book by its cover? A little bit. A good cover can make a person pick up the book
  22. Book to movie or Book to TV adaptations? I guess Book to TV adaptations. They have the option to include a lot more from the source material, whether as part of a 10, 13, or 22 episode season, over a 2-2.5 hour film.
  23. A movie or TV show you preferred to its book? iZombie for sure. I love the show, but found the first volume of the graphic novel to just be okay…and yes, I did read the graphic novel first
  24. Series or Standalone? Series

Whew, okay well that is it for this book tag. I don’t know who all has done this tag already so sorry if you have. And if you have done it or do decide to do it, make sure to let me know because I’d love to check out your answers. Anyway, I am tagging Sofii at A Book. A Thought., Flavia at Flavia the Bibliophile, Kristin at Kristin Kraves Books, Nika at Bookster, Katie at Never Not Reading, and Krista and Dawlyn at Little Blind Book Finds. And if I didn’t tag you but you’d like to do this tag anyway, consider yourself Tagged!

Thanks for reading everyone and I’ll be back soon with another bookish post.

Review: Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo

/ daniellethamasa / 6 Comments

Hey all, Dani here.

I’ve seen the Wonder Woman movie twice, and I loved it. This made me very excited about the book I’m reviewing today, especially after I heard that one of my favorite authors was the one writing the book. But I’ll just start this off with a warning: if you’re expecting this book to follow the basic timeline and/or story of the movie, then you’ll be disappointed. This tale stands completely apart from what we saw in theaters.

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Summary

She will become one of the world’s greatest heroes: WONDER WOMAN. But first she is Diana, Princess of the Amazons. And her fight is just beginning. . . .

Diana longs to prove herself to her legendary warrior sisters. But when the opportunity finally comes, she throws away her chance at glory and breaks Amazon law—risking exile—to save a mere mortal. Even worse, Alia Keralis is no ordinary girl and with this single brave act, Diana may have doomed the world.

Alia just wanted to escape her overprotective brother with a semester at sea. She doesn’t know she is being hunted. When a bomb detonates aboard her ship, Alia is rescued by a mysterious girl of extraordinary strength and forced to confront a horrible truth: Alia is a Warbringer—a direct descendant of the infamous Helen of Troy, fated to bring about an age of bloodshed and misery.

Together, Diana and Alia will face an army of enemies—mortal and divine—determined to either destroy or possess the Warbringer. If they have any hope of saving both their worlds, they will have to stand side by side against the tide of war.

My Thoughts:

Rating: 4 stars

Let me just say that yes, I really enjoyed this book. It was cool to look at a different take on the girl who will become Wonder Woman. This tale takes place in the modern day but Diana is still a younger girl, a teenager. So obviously this book does not at all fit in with the timeline of the film.

There were a few chapters in the beginning spent on Themyscira, and learning about the Amazonian way of life, which I rather like learning about. It is just such an interesting culture of badass women warriors. I’d probably be okay reading a whole novel spent on the island.

Diana has all the makings of someone who will someday become an amazing superhero. From the beginning after she met Alia, all Diana wanted to do was protect her and help her. It was fun to partner the isolated young Amazon with a modern girl, because their ideologies were so different. But they also complemented each other fairly well.

It was exactly the kind of adventure you would expect for a not-quite-superhero. Diana takes on this mission, this quest, to save someone that she believes in turn will save the world and help prevent future wars.

If you are a fan of Diana/Wonder Woman, or if you are a fan of Leigh Bardugo, I recommend this book. The only reason I lowered the rating for this is because I didn’t feel as compelled to devour this adventure tale as I have in past Bardugo books, nor did it hold my interest quite as well as the Wonder Woman film. Yes, I know I shouldn’t compare the book to the film, as there have been numerous iterations of basically every superhero, but as they both came out about the same time, I found I couldn’t help myself.

Where to Buy

You can pre-order Wonder Woman: Warbringer from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, Book Depository, or your local indie bookstore. This book hits shelves on August 29, 2017.