Tag: Reading

Book Releases, Book Review, Books!, Recommendations, Signal Boost

Review: Furyborn by Claire Legrand

daniellethamasa

Hey all, Dani here.

It is review time once again, and today I can actually admit that I’m glad I didn’t get an advance copy of this book, because it would have made the wait for the sequel that much more difficult. This was such a good read and I finished it in a day because I needed to know what was going on and what would happen next.

Let’s just jump into the review.

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Summary

Follows two fiercely independent young women, centuries apart, who hold the power to save their world…or doom it.

When assassins ambush her best friend, the crown prince, Rielle Dardenne risks everything to save him, exposing her ability to perform all seven kinds of elemental magic. The only people who should possess this extraordinary power are a pair of prophesied queens: a queen of light and salvation and a queen of blood and destruction. To prove she is the Sun Queen, Rielle must endure seven trials to test her magic. If she fails, she will be executed…unless the trials kill her first.

A thousand years later, the legend of Queen Rielle is a mere fairy tale to bounty hunter Eliana Ferracora. When the Undying Empire conquered her kingdom, she embraced violence to keep her family alive. Now, she believes herself untouchable–until her mother vanishes without a trace, along with countless other women in their city. To find her, Eliana joins a rebel captain on a dangerous mission and discovers that the evil at the heart of the empire is more terrible than she ever imagined.

As Rielle and Eliana fight in a cosmic war that spans millennia, their stories intersect, and the shocking connections between them ultimately determine the fate of their world–and of each other.

My Thoughts

Rating: 5 stars

The way that this story is weaved together just keeps you intrigued. It jumps back and forth from Rielle’s story to Eliana’s, and both narratives slowly start to weave together as you learn more details and begin to figure out the connections between the characters. Okay, to be fair, yes, I did figure out the connection between the two ladies quite a bit before it was actually revealed, but that did not make it any less enjoyable.

The characters were rather interesting, and both main ladies have their issues and struggles, despite living in completely different circumstances. And both Rielle and Eliana are strong and powerful in different ways, though they both have the same hint of rage issues. But I loved how complex they were because they felt so incredibly real. Their romances and friendships and alliances were all so engaging for me. I did not want to stop reading.

I enjoyed the world-building, especially considering that Legrand had to envision the same word a thousand years apart. It was fascinating to see what changes happened to the politics, the magic, the economy, and the people. This attention to the details is also what made the magic system and the trials so compelling.

Basically, I loved this book and I look forward to reading the rest of the trilogy in the next couple of years.

Where to Buy

You can pick up this fantastic novel from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, Book Depository, or your local indie bookstore.

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What I’m Reading (18)

daniellethamasa

Hey all, Dani here.

We are seriously already about halfway through June. This feels like the fastest year I can remember experiencing. I hope you all have been reading some awesome books this year, because I certainly have. In fact, I am looking forward to sharing my top ten reads from January to June with you all very soon.

Before I jump into the actual content of today’s post, first I have to talk about a book cover I saw earlier today. Honestly, I don’t know how I missed this stunningly gorgeous cover, especially since it is a book I am very much anticipating, but now that I have seen it, I am so very excited to have it in my hands. Okay, so they had a cover for the ARCs of the second book and they ended up changing it a tiny bit before the official release, mostly the coloring. So that might happen again, but no matter what, I think the cover is beautiful and I definitely needed to take this minute to gush about it. The book I’m talking about is The Shadow Glass by Rin Chupeco.

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Do you see why I am drooling over the cover? It perfectly goes alongside the other two books in the series, and I already know the story within will definitely live up to the wonderful cover. I’m excited to see where the story goes, though I’m pretty sure I have to wait until 2019 for this book.

So…I have been a bad little reader the past week. I’ve only managed to read something like 100 pages. Because, see, I’ll be honest…my fiance and I downloaded game emulators on our phones so we could play Gameboy Advanced versions of Pokemon. I’ve been playing that quite a bit lately, and it has been fun. But I feel a little guilty for ignoring my TBR, especially with all the great books I keep hearing about and want to get to soon.

But I have read about another 100 pages in Dread Nation by Justina Ireland, and I am really enjoying the story, so I’m hoping to keep going and finish that book soon. I also need to finish reading The Unbinding of Mary Reade by Miriam McNamara so I can get a review up for it soon.

Okay, so that means that all I have left to discuss is what I’m hoping to read next. I think I am feeling like I want to read a science fiction story, so I’m probably going to pick up one of my Pride month TBR books, but then I’m also sort of in a swashbuckling adventure type mood, and I just bought this fantasy book that is inspired by The Three Musketeers, so it should be arriving to my apartment on Saturday or possibly Monday. With any luck I’ll fly through the rest of my current reads and then get through A Closed and Common Orbit so I can dive into The Traitor’s Blade as soon as I get it.

Oh, I guess I should just go ahead and bookend this post with another announcement, since I started this with that lovely cover reveal. I have been talking with my fiance, and he may be starting to write up some posts for this blog as well. Most of his will likely be manga reviews, but there could be some other content as well. He’s still trying to figure out his rating system and review style, so it might be a little bit before his posts start showing up, but I’m excited to have him join me here on the blog.

And that is all for today. Let me know in the comments if you are reading anything awesome, because I’m always looking to add to my TBR.

Book Releases, Book Review, Books!, Signal Boost

Review: The Brightsiders by Jen Wilde

daniellethamasa

Hey all, Dani here.

Woohoo, it is time for another book review. Not only that, but today’s book is full of wonderfully diverse characters. I read Wilde’s debut novel, Queens of Geek, last year and I loved how awesome and geeky it was. In fact, the book made my top ten reads list for the first half of 2017. I can say that I am pleased that many of those characters make guest appearances in this novel, so you get to check back in and see how their lives are doing now, which is awesome.

Okay, let’s just get started before I start reviewing the book here in the intro section.

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Summary

A teen rockstar has to navigate family, love, coming out, and life in the spotlight after being labeled the latest celebrity trainwreck in Jen Wilde’s quirky and utterly relatable novel. 

As a rock star drummer in the hit band The Brightsiders, Emmy King’s life should be perfect. But there’s nothing the paparazzi love more than watching a celebrity crash and burn. When a night of partying lands Emmy in hospital and her girlfriend in jail, she’s branded the latest tabloid train wreck. 

Luckily, Emmy has her friends and bandmates, including the super-swoonworthy Alfie, to help her pick up the pieces of her life. She knows hooking up with a band member is exactly the kind of trouble she should be avoiding, and yet Emmy and Alfie Just. Keep. Kissing.

Will the inevitable fallout turn her into a clickbait scandal (again)? Or will she find the strength to stand on her own?

My Thoughts

Rating: 5 stars

So I’m going to start this off by saying that much like Wilde’s debut novel, this is a great book for those trying to read more diversely, or those who want a good read during Pride month. Emmy is bisexual, and Alfie is genderqueer, and there is also a character discovering that they are bisexual, as well as a character who uses they/their pronouns.

There is a lot of drama and conflict in this book, not just a fun romance. Emmy has relationship drama and problems with her parents, not to mention all the paparazzi and the issues that creates.

I flew through this book. Honestly, like most of the books I read over Memorial Day weekend, I read this in two sittings–I took a break to sleep, I think. Honestly that weekend is sort of a blur to me now. I did a lot of reading and a lot of walking. But I enjoyed all of it, and I’m glad that I had this book to read with the stack of fantasy books I took with me. This was a nice contemporary read and I hope to read more like it in the future.

Anyway, the characters in this book are not perfect. They make mistakes and bad decisions, but they also learn and grow, and by the end I feel like Emmy actually is in a better place in her life.

Honestly if Jen Wilde wants to keep having characters from her books have cameos or guest appearances in future books, then I am perfectly fine with that. It would by nice to catch up with The Brightsiders and their friends again in the future.

Where to Buy

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

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Review: Ship It by Britta Lundin

daniellethamasa

Hey all, Dani here.

I love being a fangirl. I love going to comic conventions. And I love reading books that feature nerdy characters. So I was pretty excited when I heard about this book, because it seemed destined to become a favorite, like some other geek-centric reads I’ve enjoyed in the past couple years. Perhaps considering all that, I put too much pressure on this book to be amazing. It was good, but not my favorite.

Let’s just jump into the review.

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Summary

Claire is a sixteen-year-old fangirl obsessed with the show Demon Heart. Forest is an actor on Demon Heart who dreams of bigger roles. When the two meet at a local Comic-Con panel, it’s a dream come true for Claire. Until the Q&A, that is, when Forest laughs off Claire’s assertion that his character is gay. Claire is devastated. After all, every last word of her super-popular fanfic revolves around the romance between Forest’s character and his male frenemy. She can’t believe her hero turned out to be a closed-minded jerk. Forest is mostly confused that anyone would think his character is gay. Because he’s not. Definitely not.

Unfortunately for Demon Heart, when the video of the disastrous Q&A goes viral, the producers have a PR nightmare on their hands. In order to help bolster their image within the LGBTQ+ community-as well as with their fans-they hire Claire to join the cast for the rest of their publicity tour. What ensues is a series of colourful Comic-Con clashes between the fans and the show that lead Forest to question his assumptions about sexuality and help Claire come out of her shell. But how far will Claire go to make her ship canon? To what lengths will Forest go to stop her and protect his career? And will Claire ever get the guts to make a move on Tess, the very cute, extremely cool fanartist she keeps running into?

My Thoughts

Rating: 3.5 stars

First off, let me start by saying that I loved the difference between fans, like Claire and Tess are both huge fangirls of “Demon Heart,” but their philosophies about being fans are different. To me, this is great and realistic representation. I honestly have a friend who is that sort of intense fangirl that Claire is, which might explain why I had such issues with her as a character. She felt very real to me.

I think I’m more of a Tess type of fangirl. I love my shows/movies/etc and I am very passionate about them, but I’m not going to go to the lengths that Claire does trying to get my OTP to go canon.

That was my main problem with this book. Claire took things way too far, and honestly, to me this book shows the dark side of fandom. Yes, we all have our pairings for characters, canon or otherwise, and yes we all have ideas for plot points we would love to see become reality in our favorite shows or books. And there are some amazing fanfictions out there (as well as some just okay ones–but there is nothing wrong with that).

I should probably also mention that both Tess and Claire fall on the LGBTQIAP+ spectrum, though Claire hasn’t figured out her identifier really. At the beginning of the story Claire thinks of herself as straight, and she hates it when people assume that she is something else because of the way she dresses or acts or whatever. But then she gets super upset when one of the lead actors as well as the producers of “Demon Heart” don’t accept her theory that the two main characters are gay. She then goes on to write up all sorts of posts online and to try and push her belief/pairing on them, trying to get them to see that they should make this perceived gay context canon in the show.

And I guess that is realistic too, because so very many of us are hypocritical. Claire doesn’t like others assuming that she isn’t straight, but then turns around and tries to convince a group of others that two characters are gay.

This was an interesting book, and the concept certainly drew me in. It really does show how much social media can influence and affect a creative endeavor like making a television show. It also does a lot for exploring labels and perception (how we are perceived and how we perceive others). So I enjoyed it for that. I just feel like Claire became too much of an unlikeable protagonist for me to become a true fangirl of this book.

Where to Buy

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

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What I’m Reading (17)

daniellethamasa

Hey all, Dani here.

Well, here we are at the midpoint of yet another week, which means that it is time to talk about books…the books we’ve finished reading recently, the books we are currently reading, and the books we are hoping to start reading soon.

So, I haven’t actually finished any books in the last week, but that’s okay. The month is just getting started and I’m really enjoying my current reads, so I predict that next week’s post will be filled with lots of fun reading progress. Honestly, I guess that means we should just move on to the current reads section of this post and I can talk about where I am in my reading at the moment.

My current reads are: Dread Nation by Justina Ireland, The Unbinding of Mary Reade by Miriam McNamara, and Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon. Hmm…I guess I was in a historical reading mood without really realizing it.

Dread Nation is doing a fine job of setting up this alternate history, where the dead started to rise and now there are actually young women who are trained in etiquette as well as combat, who are hired by wealthy families to serve and protect them. The main character is pretty good at the combat portion of the job, but struggles with the poise and etiquette stuff. I’m really enjoying it and look forward to seeing what sort of trouble she’s going to get herself into.

I just started The Unbinding of Mary Reade yesterday, but it is proving to be a very quick read. I am liking the dual timeline of the novel too, because we get to see more of Mary’s past, while also enjoying her current pirate adventures with Anne Bonny and Calico Jack.

Finally, I am still working on Dragonfly in Amber. I’m fine taking my time with this series. I know that if I sat down and put my mind to it, I could finish a book each weekend, but then I would completely catch up on the series and have to wait a few more years for the next installment. But, I would like to at least get myself caught up on the show, and I’m not letting myself watch season 2 until I’ve finished this book, so I probably need to spend a little more time reading this one.

As for what I’m hoping to start reading soon, I think my next read will probably be either The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli or A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers. After all the historical fictions, I think I will need either a contemporary or a science fiction for a nice change of pace. This is especially true seeing as how I actually have two other historical fiction reads on my June TBR– The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee and And I Darken by Kiersten White.

I suppose that is all for today. I will be back soon with more bookish content. Until then, let me know what book(s) you’re reading right now.

Book Releases, Book Review, Books!, NetGalley, Signal Boost

Review: Final Draft by Riley Redgate

daniellethamasa

Hey all, Dani here.

Okay, so first off, Happy Pride Month! Also, Happy GLBT Book Month. I try to read diversely through the year, but there are some months where I try to highlight those reads a bit more than other months. This is one of those months.

Also, it has been a little while since I last posted an ARC review on here. So, I should of course give a big thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me early access to this book. As always, I need to state that receiving a digital galley did not influence my rating or review at all.

Now that the disclaimers are out of the way, let’s jump into the review, shall we?

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Summary

The only sort of risk 18-year-old Laila Piedra enjoys is the peril she writes for the characters in her stories: epic sci-fi worlds full of quests, forbidden love, and robots. Her creative writing teacher has always told her she has a special talent. But three months before her graduation, he’s suddenly replaced—by Nadiya Nazarenko, a Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist who is sadistically critical and perpetually unimpressed.
 
At first, Nazarenko’s eccentric assignments seem absurd. But before long, Laila grows obsessed with gaining the woman’s approval. Soon Laila is pushing herself far from her comfort zone, discovering the psychedelic highs and perilous lows of nightlife, temporary flings, and instability. Dr. Nazarenko has led Laila to believe that she must choose between perfection and sanity—but rejecting her all-powerful mentor may be the only way for Laila to thrive.

My Thoughts

Rating: 4 stars

As a reader and a writer, the concept of this book definitely intrigued me. Plus, I read Noteworthy by Redgate last year and enjoyed it, so I was excited to read another of her novels.

I related to Laila pretty easily in the beginning. She had a group of friends, the typical relationship with her parents and her sister, and she had a teacher/mentor who greatly supported her and her writing endeavors.

Then comes the incident that leads to her teacher no longer being able to teach, and he is replaced by an award winning novelist who–honestly–doesn’t have any clue how to really teach. This is where I started to dislike the book, but not through any fault of the author. I didn’t like the spiral that Laila falls into as she tries to impress her new mentor. She pushes away her friends and gets so wrapped up in trying to perfect her writing that she starts to lose herself.

Now, for where this books fits in to GLBT Book Month. It is not really a main focus or in the spotlight, but Laila does for a time pursue a relationship with one of her best friends, who just happens to be a female. And actually, I liked that it was just something that happened more in the background to the writing obsession. It normalizes the relationship, which is excellent, because there is nothing odd about any romantic relationship options.

So, pretty much, my lowering of the rating for this book is because Laila’s unhealthy spiral into overly obsessed writing and editing. I thought it was well written and executed, but it also made it a little more difficult for me to enjoy reading the book. I had to set this one aside a few times before I was finally able to finish it.

Where to Buy

You can pre-order this book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, Book Depository, or your local indie bookstore. It will be released very soon, on June 12th.

Book Releases, Book Review, Books!, Manga, Signal Boost

May Wrap Up and June TBR

daniellethamasa

 

Hey all, Dani here.

Just one more month until I’m releasing my top ten reads of 2018 (so far) post. Wow, we are seriously almost halfway through the year. It has been a pretty darn good year so far, both in terms of books read and released and in the goings on of life.

If I’m being truthful, for at least half of the month I thought that I would not have a very good reading month, because I wasn’t completing a lot of books. But I started to hit my stride there at the end and I think it really helped. I may not have done as well as I did in May 2017 (31 books in 31 days), but I still did really good.

So let’s jump into the wrap up portion of this post.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Vol 2 by Kame Yamazaki (5 stars)

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Vol 3 by Kame Yamazaki (5 stars)

Ship It! by Britta Lundin (3.5 stars) — review coming June 8th

Final Draft by Riley Redgate (4 stars) — review coming June 5th

The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Vol 4 by Kame Yamazaki (5 stars)

One-Punch Man, Vol 4 by ONE (5 stars)

The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen (4 stars)

Blue Exorcist, Vol 1 by Kazue Kato (5 stars)

Blue Exorcist, Vol 2 by Kazue Kato (5 stars)

The Fandom by Anna Day (4 stars)

The Brightsiders by Jen Wilde (5 stars) — review coming June 12

Furyborn by Claire Legrand (5 stars) — review coming June 15

Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody (5 stars) — review coming June 19

And now it is time for the book haul and OwlCrate unboxing portion of this post. Considering I started with a book haul at the very beginning of the month, I ended up getting quite a few books this time around, but you know what, it is okay, because I also did a pretty decent unhaul this month as well.

As for the Owlcrate this month, it came with two books, so that is pretty darn exciting. I have already read Sky in the Deep and I absolutely loved it. The wall hanging and the print of Inej are both fantastic, and I’m really looking forward to relaxing in the tub with the bath bomb. And I think I know what book will be in June’s box, so I’m excited to get it as well.

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Finally, it is time to announce my TBR for the month. Now, just as a heads up, June is GLBT Book Month. I have participated in it for the last couple of years, so I’m still going to try and do my best with it this year. I’ll be trying to read some books with characters across the LGBTQIAP+ community, and also posting up reviews for them (which is why my reviews for a few books weren’t posted this month). So, if you have any LGBTQIAP+ books to recommend, let me know in the comments. I have a recommendations post here as well, in case you are looking for some book recs.

And I do believe that is all for this post. Thank you so much to everyone who has followed my blog and/or left comments on posts. I try to like or respond back to all of my comments at the very least. I wish I had the time to go and keep up with all of your blogs in return. I know last year I spent pretty much 1-2 hours each day (Monday thru Friday) reading and commenting on other blogs. Last year I worked in a position that gave me that extra time, but my position this year just leaves me feeling physically drained by the end of the day, so I haven’t been able to focus as much on being super active in the book blogging community. I’m just waiting until I can get one of my backup jobs to become a permanent one…or you know, to find a job in a library. That would definitely work as well.

All right, well I’ll be back soon with more bookish content.

Books!, Reading Challenge, Signal Boost

What I’m Reading (16)

daniellethamasa

Hey all, Dani here.

This past week was actually pretty darn productive for me, at least when it comes to reading and such. Of course, this is because of an extended holiday weekend in a place where I wasn’t really able to play around on my phone or the internet for most of it. I packed 5 books with me, and I ended up spending quite a bit of time reading, which was actually really nice.

Okay, so let’s just jump into my weekly post where I talk about what I’ve recently read, what I’m currently reading, and what I hope to start reading very soon.

My weekend of reading included starting and finishing The Fandom by Anna Day, The Brightsiders by Jen Wilde, Furyborn by Claire Legrand, and Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody. Then I continued working on reading more of Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Galbadon, but I didn’t make it all that far at all. Oh well, it isn’t a high priority read for me, just something I’m casually reading when the mood strikes.

Currently, I am reading Dread Nation by Justina Ireland, because it has been taunting me from where it was shelved in my library. This book just sounds really interesting, and I’m not really a fan of zombie books, movies, or TV shows, so I’m hoping it is as awesome as the cover makes it look.

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Pretty soon I think I am hoping to start some of my reads for GLBT Book Month, but I haven’t decided which one I’m starting with. It depends on my mood after I finish my current read.

Well, that is all for today, and I will be back soon with more bookish content. Let me know in the comments if you have any great books you’re reading now.

Book Review, Books!, Manga, Signal Boost

Manga Review: One Punch Man Vol 3

daniellethamasa

Hey all, Dani here.

Oh man, I’m already reviewing the third volume of this manga series, and I’ve only read a total of four volumes out of the 13 currently released in the US. I might need to read a few more of these soon.

Not that I mind that. I very much enjoy reading about Saitama. And with pretty much every manga I’ve read, they don’t take that much time to get through. Then again, I do also have some volumes of The Ancient Magus’ Bride to review as well, so I may have those up soon and then go back to this series. We’ll see. I still have a lot of Manga Monday reviews to write up.

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Summary

A manga series that packs quite the punch!

Nothing about Saitama passes the eyeball test when it comes to superheroes, from his lifeless expression to his bald head to his unimpressive physique. However, this average-looking guy has a not-so-average problem—he just can’t seem to find an opponent strong enough to take on! For three years, Saitama has defeated countless monsters, but no one knows about him… That’s because he isn’t in the Hero Association’s registry! Together with Genos, Saitama decides to take the Hero Association’s test! But can they pass?!

My Thoughts

Rating: 5 stars

So this volume is one of the ones I read at the very end of 2017–December 29th, according to Goodreads. Wow, I can’t believe I took an almost five month break from this series. There was no reason to, because I am still very much enjoying the story. It probably comes down to the fact that I got distracted with new novel releases.

Anyway, we continue with Saitama as he tries to mentor Genos to become more like him…and let’s be honest, most of the time Saitama has no idea what he is doing or how to actually teach or mentor someone to follow in his footsteps.

But in this volume we get to continue on with seeing Saitama as someone who is pretty much perpetually bored, but then panic when he discovers that the reason nobody knows about him or talks about him, despite the number of monsters he has defeated, is because he is not in the registry, which means that he is not officially a hero.

This leads Saitama and Genos to go and take the test to become official heroes, which also comes with a paycheck, so that’s always nice too.

Honestly, I wondered how Saitama managed to do all of his hero work for the past three years when it seemed like he didn’t have a job to earn an income.

What I loved about this was the actual testing process. Because looking at Saitama, nobody expects him to really amount to much, and to have him show just how strong he is–to where he is breaking pretty much all of the physical test records was entertaining.

And then he has to take the written test.

It just amuses me. I love how humorous this series is. And I know that it was started as a web-comic to parody those all-powerful characters from some manga/anime, but I think that One-Punch Man excels at bringing together some intriguing characters, a nice amount of action, and of course the humor balanced so well with the bored mentality of Saitama.

I am so glad that I got into this series. It is a good read when you need/want to finish a volume quickly, and you want some laughs and some entertainment. I look forward to actually catching up with the series…hopefully sometime soon.

Where to Buy

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

Books!, Reading Challenge, Signal Boost

Why Are These Still On My TBR?!

daniellethamasa

Hey all, Dani here.

Okay, so today’s post is maybe a bit different from some of my other ones, mostly because I just wasn’t in the mood to prep up a couple more book reviews. Instead I want to talk about the bane of a book lover…the never-ending TBR. Because it is a growing problem for many of us.

More specifically, today I want to talk about a few of the books that I really REALLY wanted to read before they were released (or as soon as I found out about them)…and yet somehow they are still sitting on the shelves of my home library, just waiting to be picked up and read.

Why do I do this to myself? Why do I put off books that I’m pretty certain will be amazing to read? I don’t know. And I’m sure that is actually a long conversation–likely a rambling one–for another day.

Today I’m going to talk about five reads (and one re-read) that I probably need to try and squeeze into an upcoming monthly TBR or something.

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Each of the books on this list is intimidating for one reason or another, so let’s just get talking about them. Obviously they are all pretty much an intimidating size–I think they are all at least 500 pages, but book size isn’t that big of a deterrent for me. It just makes me enjoy the book longer.

I suppose I’ll start with the re-read: Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey. I read this one a number of years ago, and it actually took me a few months to finish, and I had to pretty much force myself to keep going so I could finally reach the end. But see, here’s the thing, I had really been enjoying it before I put it down for a couple months. I think if I gave it another go, and tried to read through the whole thing without weeks between the beginning and the end, I would probably enjoy it enough to continue on with the series. This would also be really good considering that I already have books two and three sitting on one of my shelves.

Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley is the next book I’ll talk about here. For a few years now I have heard many in the fantasy realm rave about Hurley and her apparently amazing epic fantasy, so I picked up the first one…and I still haven’t read it. I love fantasy, and I really enjoy epic fantasy, so why haven’t I read this one yet? Honestly, I have no clue, but maybe I can try to squeeze that in sometime soon-ish (like maybe I can try to read all of these before the end of this year).

Next up, I have to talk about A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab. First off, technically I have started reading this one. Well, all right, I read something like 100 pages last year, so I’ll probably need to re-read them now. Why did I never finish this? Well, at the time it was because I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to these characters and this world. But then I heard the announcement that there would be more books set in the world. So what excuse to I have for putting off this book even longer? I need more Rhy in my life, so I’m hopefully going to read this one very soon.

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor was definitely a hype buy, though the cover is really nice, and I think the concept sounds interesting. But this book has pretty much been sitting on my shelf since shortly after release day. For this one I know why I keep putting it off. I was not a huge fan of Daughter of Smoke and Bone, and though I have decided to give that book a reread to see if I just wasn’t in the right mood to read it, I’m still worried that this book might end up disappointing me. But, with the sequel coming, I might need to get over that worry and just read it.

Fine, so this next one is actually probably the most recent release and that is Renegades by Marissa Meyer. I’ve actually still never read a single Meyer book, so it’s possible that I should have put the Lunar Chronicles on here instead. Maybe I’ll do a post for series I still need to read. But I actually read the first few chapters of this book thanks to a sampler I received at Book Expo in 2017, and I liked what I read, so I was looking forward to reading this when it came out. Only, it has just been sitting on my shelves instead. Of course now it has been announced that this will be a trilogy instead of a duology, so I probably need to read this before the second one comes out so I don’t fall even farther behind.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss is the final book I’ll talk about today, and I haven’t started reading this one because I’m worried that I’ll love both it and the sequel, and then be stuck waiting like pretty much every other fan, hoping that the announcement will come that Rothfuss has finally completed the trilogy. But I keep hearing everyone talk about how great this book is, and Rothfuss seems like an awesome guy, and I just want to read it. Plus, look at the 10th anniversary edition. It is absolutely stunning. Why wouldn’t I want to read such a gorgeous book?

That’s all for me today. I’m curious though, are you in the same situation as me? Are there books you’ve been wanting to read but they’ve just ended up sitting on your bookshelves for months, and then you wonder why you put them off for so long? Let me know in the comments, and I’ll be back on Monday with another Manga Monday review. Have a great weekend everyone!