50/50 Friday - Favorite/Least Favorite YA Paranormal Book

50/50 Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Carrie @ The Butterfly Reader.

What is 50/50 Friday?

Everyone has a favorite and then we also have something we dislike. Like a coin, there are two sides to every question. Example: best sequel you've read/worst sequel you've read. So that's what 50/50 Friday is all about. Carrie posts a new topic every Friday so be sure to check out her post to see the topic for the following week!

Topic for the Week

Favorite/Least Favorite YA Paranormal Book

Favorite YA Paranormal Book

This is hard because for a while YA Paranormal Romance was my favorite book genre and there are so many books that I love. But I reread this one every New Year's Eve so I think it's safe to say it's one of my top favorites.

Least Favorite YA Paranormal Book

Least favorite is so much easier than favorite because I really did not like this book and thought it added nothing to the Fallen series.  

Topic For Next Week

Favorite/Least Favorite Book of November

Throwback Thursday Book Edition - 29 November 2013

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to my U.S. Bookdragons! Welcome to Throwback Thursday: Book Edition, a weekly meme hosted by Taylor Fenner's Bookish World.

How It Works:

Each week we'll go through our Goodreads stats and throwback to what book we were reading on that specific date years earlier and what we thought about it then.

Elegy

Hereafter Book 3

by Tara Hudson

Format I Read In: Hardcover

Pages: 386

Published: June 4, 2013 by HarperTeen

Blurb:

A stalker ghost, misguided Seers, and spellbinding wraiths—Amelia Ashley has faced them all. Now her greatest hope is to spend the rest of her afterlife with her living boyfriend, Joshua. But the demonic forces return to give her an ultimatum: turn herself over to the darkness or watch them murder one living person per week until she does.

Amelia fears she might really be doomed, until the forces of light give her another option. She can join them in their quest to gather souls, with a catch: Once she joins them, she can never see Joshua again.

Faced with impossible choices, Amelia decides to take her afterlife into her own hands—and fight back.

Throwback Questions

Started Reading: November 28, 2013

Finished Reading: December 2, 2013

My Rating: 3 Stars

Shelved as on Goodreads: Paranormal, Ghost-Stories

Have You Reread This Book?: No

Would You Reread This Book?: No

Do You Still Own This Book?: No

Have I Read Other Books By This Author Since Reading This Book?: No

Things You Remember Liking About this Book:

From the beginning of the series I loved the ghost-falling-in-love-with-a-living-boy aspect, I liked both Amelia and Joshua as characters.

Favorite Character:

Joshua

50/50 Friday - Book Read in a Day/Book You DNFed

50/50 Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Carrie @ The Butterfly Reader.

What is 50/50 Friday?

Everyone has a favorite and then we also have something we dislike. Like a coin, there are two sides to every question. Example: best sequel you've read/worst sequel you've read. So that's what 50/50 Friday is all about. Carrie posts a new topic every Friday so be sure to check out her post to see the topic for the following week!

Topic for the Week

Book Read in a Day/Book You DNFed

Book Read in a Day

The last book I read in a day (that wasn't a novella or a graphic novel) was Rules for Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall. I read it as an ARC a few weeks before it released and couldn't stop reading!

Book You DNFed

The sad thing is I was really looking forward to The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher but it was so slow and boring and not at all what I was expecting. 

Topic For Next Week

Favorite/Least Favorite YA Paranormal Book

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Unpopular Bookish Opinions

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and The Bookish and currently hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl.

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Unpopular Bookish Opinions

This week's TTT I'm letting you in on a few secrets. Unpopular bookish opinions to be exact. But shhhhh you can't tell anyone what I really think on a few of these books... it will be our little secret. You, me, and the entire interwebs...

1. I thought The Cruel Prince was overrated and I only bought The Wicked King because I heard it was better than TCP.

2. I love Sarah J. Maas's books, but I DNF'd A Court of Wings and Ruin. I thought it was boring compared to ACOMAF and could have been wayyyyy shorter.

3. I actually really love "love triangles" in books

4. The Keira Knightley adaptation of Pride and Prejudice is my favorite. While I think Colin Firth is lacking just enough in personality to play Mr. Darcy, I just can't get behind him as a love interest. *gags*

5.I thought the adaptation of To All the Boys I Loved Before was really cheesy and I don't understand the hype over the movie/books. 

6. I love Erin Watt's Royals Series and I disagree that it promotes toxic teen relationships.

7. I liked Twilight as a teenager. And yes, I was team Edward. *shrugs* There. I said it.

8. I read all the Harry Potter books but they'll never be my favorite books/series. 

9. I find people who think certain fantasy books are insensitive are idiots. They're fantasy... they're not meant to represent any true culture even if they take basic influences from them. Furthermore, books should never be burned just because you don't like them.

10. Escaping from Houdini is my least favorite book in the Stalking Jack the Ripper series so far.

 What are some of your unpopular bookish opinions? Are any as big of doozies as mine?
Let me know in the comments or drop me a link to your TTT!

Happy Reading Bookdragons!

The Sunday Post - 9 June 2019

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

⚜ Bookish and Not So Bookish Thoughts - June 6, 2019

⚜ #FridayNightFrights: Book Spotlight and Movie Rec
⚜ The Saturday Review - 8 June 2019

🍀 The usual Monday-Saturday Weekly Memes

🍀 Ten Unpopular Bookish Opinions

This week I got:
All Eyes On Us by Kit Frick (Preorder)
The Beholder by Anna Bright (audiobook)
Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (Audiobook)
Finale by Stephanie Garber (audiobook)
She Was the Quiet One (Used Book)
Chicagoland Vampires Books 1-9 (Used Books)

💀 This Week I Bookmarked: DIY Galaxy & Floral Painted Book Edge | Sea Lemon

I rearranged my room at my grandmother's again yesterday! I swear I do this monthly, it's like an OCD thing for me!

The Sunday Post - 26 May 2019

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

Hey Bookdragons! It feels like forever and a day since my last Sunday Post. I let life and exhaustion get in my way but I'm determined to get back to my old blogging self. 

⚜ It's Monday! What Are You Reading? - 20 May 2019

⚜ Top Ten Tuesday: 8 Books I Refuse to Let Anyone Touch
⚜ I Can't Wait for... ALL EYES ON US

🍀 The usual Monday-Saturday Weekly Memes

🍀 Ten Favorite Books Released In the Last Ten Years (one book for each year)

🍀 The Kingdom by Jess Rothenberg (Book Review)

This was a good book buying week for me... I went to Barnes and Noble on Thursday and got a bunch of books (left photo) then I ordered three more from Amazon (because they were cheaper) and received an ARC from Simon & Schuster that I won on Goodreads a few weeks ago (Mine by Courtney Cole, out May 28th!)

💀 This Week I Bookmarked: Feature: Mental Health Awareness Month – On a Scale of One to Ten by Ceylan Scott

I'm still not over last weekend's Game of Thrones finale. Why did it have to end that way???? 

Bookish & Not So Bookish Thoughts - 9 May 2019

Bookish (And Not So Bookish) Thoughts is a Weekly Meme hosted by Christine @ Bookishly  Boisterous.

Happy Thursday Bookdragons! It's another Bookish and Not So Bookish Thoughts and today I'm trying to distract myself and keep my nerves down until tonight.

1. The ApollyCon 2020 Tickets go on sale tonight and I am really nervous. I definitely want to go, already have my hotel room booked, I just need my ticket. There are 600 tickets available for the tier I'm looking at and my fear is that they will sell out within seconds and I'll be fighting with my wifi to get a transaction through. Wish me luck!

2. I seem to be getting past my book rut. I started my ARC of Rage by Cora Carmack yesterday and read 111 pages in one day. It's been weeks since the last time I was able to do that. I've also been listening to a couple audiobooks that I'm enjoying.  

3. I did a guest post this week on BookCrushin's Blog talking about writing through depression. It just went live today so go check it out!

4. The apartment we looked at earlier this week didn't work out. We were told (no joke) that I made too much money to be eligible for the apartment. I've never heard that one before...

5. I mentioned last week that I was listening to the audiobook of We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia and I finished it earlier this week. I definitely recommend it if you're a fan of The Handmaid's Tale (like I am). It definitely has those vibes as well as a latinex rep! 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? - 25 March 2019

#IMWAYR is a weekly meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at The Book Date.

What I Read Last Week:

I loved this one! It comes out tomorrow so if you haven't gotten your copy, go preorder now!

I binge read a bunch of ARCs this weekend and I really enjoyed You'd Be Mine! It's a country musician romance!

This one is dark and paranormal and completely awesome.

This one is majorly hyped up... I just didn't like it.

Hands down this is my favorite 2019 release so far! I can't wait to get a finished copy in June when it releases!

What I Am Reading Now:

Another one of my ARC reads. This one is for a blog tour in May and I'm really enjoying it so far!

Up Next:

I need to get on this one by the end of the week to finish it for my book club with my grandmother. She just finished it and we need to discuss it.

The Sunday Post - 10 March 2019

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

⚜ It's Monday! What Are You Reading? - 3 March 2019

⚜ Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Character I'd Love to Swap Lives With

⚜ I Can't Wait for... Last Things
⚜  Bookish and Not So Bookish Things - 7 March 2019

⚜F is for Friday  - 8 March 2019
⚜ The Saturday Review - 9 March 2019

🍀 The usual Monday-Saturday Weekly Memes

🍀 Top Ten Standalone Books That Need A Sequel

🍀 99% Fake by Chris Cannon (Book Review)
🍀 Bloodleaf by Crystal Smith (Book Spotlight)
🍀 Behind the Cover... A look at Sammy Yuen, cover artist of Gravemaidens by Kelly Coon (Artist Spotlight)
🍀  Irish Roots: My Favorite Books Set in the Emerald Isle

Priory is my preordered Illumicrate edition, Daisy Jones I ordered after seeing it on Strahan and Sarah, Rayne and Delilah's Midnite Matinee was recommended to me by almost all of my Beat the Algorithm ladies, All We Left Behind is my March Book Club book, and Teeth in the Mist is an ARC by one of my favorite authors!

💀 This Week I Bookmarked: How to Start A Book Club on Bookish

I am finally feeling better but I had the worst cold I've had in years for over a week. It was awful.

The Saturday Review - 9 March 2019

The Saturday Review is a weekly meme hosted by me (Taylor Fenner's Bookish World) where fellow book bloggers and readers can share what books they've recently reviewed. 

The Shadowglass by Rin Chupeco

Blurb:

In the highly anticipated finale to the Bone Witch trilogy, Tea’s life—and the fate of the kingdoms—hangs in the balance 

Tea is a bone witch with the dark magic needed to raise the dead. She has used this magic to breathe life into those she has loved and lost…and those who would join her army against the deceitful royals. But Tea's quest to conjure a shadowglass—to achieve immortality for the one person she loves most in the world—threatens to consume her heart.

Tea's black heartsglass only grows darker with each new betrayal. And when she is left with new blood on her hands, Tea must answer to a power greater than the elder asha or even her conscience...

My Review:

Cover: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 (I have loved all of the covers for this trilogy. The cover artist is amazing, and these covers are so eye catching and beautiful.)
Summary/Tagline: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 ("I am sorry for many things, but I am not sorry about this." This sounds like Tea's battlecry for the series. Yes, she has done things that she regrets, but she should never apologize for trying to right the wrongs done by others... no matter how bad it may make her look.)
Characters: 🌟🌟🌟 🌟 🌟  (Tea is a wonderfully complex character and I've loved watching her grow from a young girl who accidentally raised her dead brother to reluctantly training to be a bone witch, and coming into her own. Fox, the Bard, Kalen, and the ashas are all well rounded characters and I especially love The Bard's conflicted feelings toward the bone witch. To the world Tea is hated, but he sees the other side of her.)
Worldbuilding: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 (This has been one of the things I've loved about this series from the beginning - the worldbuilding. The settings, the different cultures and beliefs, the clothing, the Daeva... I can see it all so clearly.)
Story: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 (Going in, I knew The Shadowglass would be bittersweet. On one hand I was dying to see how it would all end and fill in the remaining blanks of Tea's journey from bone witch to exile but at the same time I'm sad to let this world go. The Bone Witch was the first book I was approved to review on Netgalley as a beginning book blogger so this trilogy will always hold a special place in my heart. This book was so easy to get engrossed in, flipping back and forth between Tea's past and the present events. Parts of this book will break your heart but Tea will rebuild it and make you cheer for her fierce persistence. Overall, I really loved this book and found it to be a perfect end to the trilogy.)
Overall: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 🌟 4.8 of 5 Stars!

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 

4.8 of 5 Stars!

The Black Witch by Laurie Forest

Blurb:

A new Black Witch will rise…her powers vast beyond imagining.

Elloren Gardner is the granddaughter of the last prophesied Black Witch, Carnissa Gardner, who drove back the enemy forces and saved the Gardnerian people during the Realm War. But while she is the absolute spitting image of her famous grandmother, Elloren is utterly devoid of power in a society that prizes magical ability above all else.

When she is granted the opportunity to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming an apothecary, Elloren joins her brothers at the prestigious Verpax University to embrace a destiny of her own, free from the shadow of her grandmother’s legacy. But she soon realizes that the university, which admits all manner of people—including the fire-wielding, winged Icarals, the sworn enemies of all Gardnerians—is a treacherous place for the granddaughter of the Black Witch.

As evil looms on the horizon and the pressure to live up to her heritage builds, everything Elloren thought she knew will be challenged and torn away. Her best hope of survival may be among the most unlikely band of misfits…if only she can find the courage to trust those she’s been taught to hate and fear.

My Review:
Cover: 🌟🌟🌟 (The cover is just okay for me. It doesn't stand out too well from other books and I honestly don't know if I hadn't specifically wanted to get this book if it would have grabbed my attention on a shelf of other fantasy books.)
Summary/Tagline: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 ("Some echo of her power courses through my veins... waiting to be released." I love the tagline, but after reading the book it doesn't really fit with this particular book in the series. Perhaps a future book in the series but Elloren is powerless for the most part in this book.)
Characters: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 (In the beginning I had a hard time liking Elloren, which almost made me DNF this book early on. She's been sheltered her whole life which makes her very prejudice against other races, but she does transform throughout the book and becomes friends with a diverse cast of characters she previously would have steered clear of. This book has a plausible villain (the Mage Council, Elloren's aunt, Marcus) which adds fear and tension to the story. And I particularly liked the secondary characters - Especially Diana. She may be my favorite character in the book.)
Worldbuilding: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 (This isn't the best worldbuilding I've ever read but I did get a good sense of the Gardenarian world, their prejudices and practices, the relationship with the other races - Lupine, Icaral, Kelts, the mention of the fae. )
Story: 🌟🌟🌟🌟(Once I really got into this book I loved it. We watch Elloren go from a sheltered, ignorant girl to one who sees the flaws in her safe little Gardnerian world and wants to save her friends and herself from the horrors to come. There's romantic tension, a love triangle+, a nasty female rival, sassy characters, and just the right amount of danger lingering. Overall, I would recommend this book.)

Overall: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 3.8 of 5 Stars!
My Rating:
🌟🌟🌟🌟
3.8 of 5 stars!