On hiatus!~Bonnie

I wish I could say that this is where I have been while on a small hiatus. But unfortunately I have just been at my regular old house. I have been unemployed since April and it's starting get quite depressing. I have been on multiple interviews and I am struggling to find anything. 

That being said I think this is effecting my desire for anything else. Including reading and/or writing about my reading. It started back when I was working reading Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins. I was reading this for a book club I was going to participate in, but I was unable to get through it. The thing is I was really enjoying it. I got to the last 100 or so pages and just quit.

Since then I have read quite a few graphic novels just to finish something quickly like I used to. I read the first two Paper Girls, which I was disappointed to discover that only the two are out. Actually, I just googled that and I see that there are different volumes of this it looks like. I read the collected editions and there are only two of them out. The third comes out in August this year.

I also read the first five collected editions of Lumberjanes. I enjoyed these much more than Paper Girls. While they are vastly different stories; there was something more whimsical about Lumberjanes that I enjoyed more. I have more reserved at the library for me so I can continue reading them.

I of course bought up A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J Maas as soon as it came out. I also read it right away. While I gave it 4 stars it still seemed to fall short for me. I am not sure whether this is the book itself or my mood. With the doubt of it being myself I did feel it fair to mark it lower. I have never disliked a book from Sarah J Maas less. I take that back, I just verified that and see that I did indeed give ACOTAR only 3 stars. So, maybe ACOWAR is the same.

My point being, with the way I am feeling and my lack of joy in reading right now, I do not feel I can correctly, accurately, or enjoy reviewing the things I read. There is nothing in it for me right now. I am waiting for that one book to come along and change my mind. The one to blow my socks off and bring the joy back to me.

I'm currently reading, The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, The Crown's Game by Evelyn Skye, The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan, and sort of reading Royce Rolls by Margaret Stohl. At least two of these should have helped, but I don't feel they are. 

Until I piece things back together, I will be on hiatus.

Thanks for taking the time to read my rambling!

~~~~~Bonnie

The Witches of the Glass Castle by Gabriella Lepore

The Witches of the Glass Castle by Gabriella Lepore

I was sent an ARC of this book by Oftomes Publishing for review. Thank you to them for the opportunity! This review is my own opinions about the book.

I give this first book a 4 out of 5 stars. I thought it was a very enjoyable read. There didn't seem to be a bunch of world building in this which didn't seem to matter much. I think the way it was written was the kind that you can just so easily be immersed in the world that that type of thing just wasn't necessary. The abilities the witches have aren't too complex, pretty standard witchery going on. Again, not a problem, it doesn't need to be complex. You are able to just dive in and fall in love with the characters.

My favorite character is actually Kizzy, who is just on the side lines of this book. But she seemed so genuinely nice and willing to help in any way she could. Then to have things not pan out the way she thought; she really seemed like someone I could personally connect to.

It has the whole brooding boy that supposedly hates the girl, but really they are in love thing going. But that didn't even really bother me. I for some reason tend to enjoy the books with this for some reason. And truthfully, I did really enjoy Colt as the brooding boy.

As for Mia's brother Dino, in the beginning I could not stand him. He was so lost in himself and everything was his problem. No one could help him, no one was there for him (even though they were.) He really redeemed himself at the end though. By the end of it I felt pretty bad for him; instead of hating him like I did in the beginning.

The Witches of the Dark Power is the next book and I am so looking forward to reading this. For reasons I cannot say or I would probably give too much away about the first one. 

These are both out today so go get your copies!

Let me know what you thought about them.

Thanks for reading!!

~~~~~Bonnie

My thoughts on the Remnant Chronicles so far. ~Bonnie

The Remnant Chronicles series by Mary E Pearson

I have read both The Kiss of Deception and The Heart of Betrayal. I even read the little 0.5 Morrighan. I am not sure I should have read Morrighan between these two books. It may have confused me a bit more and I am not even sure it really added anything to the story for me.

I loved reading The Kiss of Deception! I was so mad at myself for getting the assassin and prince mixed up though. Letting the reader decide for themselves who was who, was a fantastic idea. It was a quick and enjoyable read. I was dying to find out how her story panned out.

As for The Heart of Betrayal, well I really struggled to make it through this one. It was all politics and really hardly any action. While I appreciate the politics in books, I mean if you are creating a new world they have got to be in there somewhere, right? But the fact that it seemed that was all this second book was made it really drag for me. It took me over a month to make it through this one.

The ending of book two, I thought was great. Not only was a proud of myself for making it to the end, but that cliffhanger though. The way they get out of there, and then the things going on with some of the characters left behind. It does have me wondering what happens in book three.



I previously mark The Beauty of Darkness as currently reading on Goodreads, I have since taken that off. I really thought I would jump right into with the way book two ends. But now I seem to be re-thinking that. I have read two other books (well almost two) since I put The Heart of Betrayal down. 

I also currently have the physical, e-book and an audio book checked out from the library for this final book. My physical book is due back today and I cannot renew it any more times. So, I have had these books now for three-ish months, something like that. I should have finished them a long time ago.

My question to the world is, should I keep going? After being so disappointed in book two, is this last one worth it? I am completely torn on this. Half of me isn't that interested. The other half kind of wants to see whats going to happen.

Help me out? Let me know what you guys think I should do, pretty please. 

Thanks so much for reading!

~~~~~Bonnie

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton (small spoilers)

  

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

Last year I read this book for the first time. I read the hardcover edition (on the left), which I thought was beautiful. I loved the cover already, then this year they changed it and I am obsessed with the new cover (on the right.) So, I of course had to run out and buy the new paperback. It has to match the second book right?



(I love the book 2 cover as well. The online pic doesn't do it justice. Go check it out in RL!)

Okay, let's talk reading experience now. I didn't really remember this read from last year. Nothing really stuck out in my mind about it. I'm pretty sure I had completely forgotten I had even read it. Until I discovered Traitor to the Throne this year. Last year I gave it just 3 stars on Goodreads.

I had to re-read this because I knew I was missing some major stuff from it in my memory. I remembered the small details, pretty much what is already in the blurb. I knew other little things, like there was a set of twins, but I couldn't remember any details about them. I actually thought one died.

Reading this book the second time was so much more enjoyable then I remember the first time around. I gave it a 4 out of 5 stars this time. I'm really not sure if reading this again was necessary. At the bottom of the blurb for book 2 it says something about, "Forget everything you thought you knew..." Oh well, the re-read was worth it!

If you have read this one let me know what you think! I am really hoping to get to Traitor of the Throne soon!

Thanks for reading!

~~~~~Bonnie

New year, Same habits! ~Bonnie

My niece, Keely pointed out to me the other day, that at the beginning of every year is when I apparently go mad for book buying. Looking back to the day after Christmas until now, this seems to be very true. I have made two trips to Barnes and Noble, two trips to Half Price Books and placed four online orders with Bookoutlet.com. There was also a random buy of The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer at Walmart of all places. I was listening to it on audio and I just had to get a physical copy. Oops!

I have added 30+ books to my collection in just the past few weeks. Some of these I have already read. I have a bad habit of taking books I think I don't want any more to Half Price Books and then immediately regretting it. So, since I found some of these books on Bookoutlet.com cheap during their Boxing day sales I maybe re-bought them. *shrug* The number of books I have added does not include any of the ebooks I purchased recently either. We are not even gonna add those to the list.

There are so many books, I am not going to bother with doing any kind of a haul or anything for them. That is just way too much. I will share with you that six of these books are a beautiful British version of the Harry Potter books. I already own the wonderful ones that the spines that make Hogwarts. But I just had to have these others after viewing them on one of @PeruseProject's videos. I have linked that video here, if you would like to view it yourself. I just need to get my hands on Order of the Phoenix to complete my set. Well, I also need to receive my last two orders from Bookoutlet.com. I current only have Deathly Hallows in this set on my shelves. But they are coming! 

Hopefully I will manage to actually read all of the new books I have added. Hopefully I will actually keep the books I have chosen to re-purchase. I never should have gotten rid of them in the first place. What was I thinking?! Hopefully this year I can manage to be a better blogger. I am trying to start strong and keep it going.

Please tell me some of you have a habit of going crazy buying books around Christmas or the beginning of the year. It can't just be me right??

Thanks for reading!

~Bonnie

A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston Review

A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston

I gave this book 2 out of 5 stars. I was really disappointed in this book in the end. At the beginning I was very interested and it really captured me. Somewhere along the way this was dropped. I am not sure if it was just the fact that I did not have the time to invest like I wanted. Or if the writing just started to fall flat to me.

Sometime after our main character is married to Lo-Melkhiin is when I started to lose interest. There was no excitement in it for me. Even at the end when we near the battle. I should have been excited to see what was going to happen. But I found myself skipping larger and larger sections.

Another thing that bothers me, though maybe minor. Do we ever learn our main characters name? Maybe we do and I just missed this. I draw a complete blank when I try to think of it. I even flipped through a little of the beginning of the book and couldn't find it. I am not really sure why this is so bothersome to me.

I had really hoped for more from this book. I had even already bought the second one in hopes to read them both at once. Now I am not sure if I will keep going. I will keep them for now until I see what people are saying about the second book. Maybe there will be some improvements.

Let me know what you guys thought of the book. Also, if she does have a name let me know please.

Thanks for reading!
~Bonnie

Replica by Lauren Oliver

This story follows Lyra's tale on one side of the book and the other (if you flip it over) follows Gemma's tale. Lyra has been raised at a place called Haven and knows only that she is a replica. She is "disposable" and has had only a few nurses in her life show any kind of affection towards her. Gemma has been raised by her parents but was very sick as a child. She was in and out of hospitals when she was younger and now her parents are extremely strict. Her mother is always drinking and taking pills to cope and her father never seems to be present in her life. 

Through a series of events these two girls end up meeting and their worlds collide. Both girls learn new things about themselves that would turn anyone's world upside down. The truth or at least most of it comes out by the end of both tales.

I was really excited about reading this and being able to read basically two stories. I like the idea of being able to switch perspectives this way instead of just having each chapter switch to someone else in the story. So many books now go back and forth sometimes I seem to get lost when reading them. I chose to read one until I thought I wanted to see what was going on with the other girl. I liked the fact that they do seem to be different stories about the same series of events. And that there was some small overlapping in those events. They are not a complete mirror of stories.

For me, there was more of a connection with Gemma. She seemed to be a typical teenage outcast. Though, I ended up finishing Lyra's story first; her story was just that more interesting and I felt sorry for the things she had gone through. Once I finished Lyra's story though I found it much harder to finish Gemma's. At the point of finishing with Lyra I had of course already pieced together what the outcome of Gemma's would be.

Overall, I found this to be an interesting read. I struggled on whether to give this a 3 or 4 stars out of 5. While I really enjoyed the book I do not think it was anything spectacular. I finally decided on a 4 star rating mostly because of the writing. I love the way Lauren Oliver writes her stories. This book seemed to flow well and it was like there was a movie playing in my head. I was able to pictures the things going on with ease. I also do think this book is worth the read.

Thanks for reading my review!

Happy reading everyone!

~~~~~Bonnie