Hello! It’s Friday again, and once again, it’s time to Fangirl with #Fangirling on Friday hosted by Books in the Skye!. Today we’re going to talk about retellings. I know some people absolutely adore fairy tale retellings, and usually it doesn’t matter to me one way or another. There are some retellings that I like quite a bit though.
As I was reading A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, there was something that seemed a little familiar with it. Why? I found out it was a Beauty and the Beast retelling. It’s not predictable though. I haven’t read any of the follow-on books, even though I plan to at some point. These books are really popular at my library and there are so many other books I want to read. Someday.
Ms. Maas tends to get a lot of her inspiration from history. As I was reading Tower of Dawn, I noticed that the people of the Southern Continent were a lot like the khans of history. As a writer, I also get inspired from different real things. Sometimes I’m inspired by history, other times I’m inspired by our daily headlines.
I’ve actually never read Les Misérables, but I know I really should at some point. I really enjoy the retellings and books inspired by this story, such as Sky Without Stars and Legend. Plus, historical France in this time period was fascinating.
With really old books like this that are in the public domain, sometimes it’s difficult to find a translation/edition that is good. If you’re okay with an abridged version, there are plenty of editions out there, but if you’re looking for a good unabridged version, that can sometimes be a little difficult. I downloaded a few copies of Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire before I found an edition that worked for me.
One retelling that I still have to finish is Renée Ahdieh’s duology The Wrath & the Dawn. I read the first book in the series, and really liked it, but I haven’t gotten around to reading the second book in the series, The Rose & the Dagger. I would like to, but there are so many other books out there that I want to read that I haven’t really gotten around to the second one.
That’s all I have for this week. Next week we’re going to talk about Animal Sidekicks and Shapeshifters. I’m going to have to think about that one.
It’s Friday again, which means it’s time to fangirl! Today’s Fangirling on Friday topic is “Favorite of March”. I read so many great books this last month, so even though I have one book in mind, I also have several honorable mentions.
So I think I’m going to give the favorite book of the month award to Sky without Stars by Jessica Brody and Joanne Rendell! This was a great book. I loved the main characters, Chatine and Marcellus, and I hope that when the next book comes out I get to see more of them together. Of course, Alouette is an interesting character as well, but I’m hoping for Chatine and Marcellus to get together.
The book is described as Les Miserables meets The Lunar Chronicles. I need to read both of those books, but I haven’t yet. Why? Well, maybe because of the other 300 books on my TBR…
I read so many good books last month, but I should give an honorable mention to The Grisha Verse books by Leigh Bardugo. So I started reading Shadow and Bone in February, but in March I read Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising. I completely ship Malina! I also listened to Six of Crows on audiobook (same universe, different story). They were all good.
In March I found out that Leigh Bardugo is releasing a book on October 1st (what’s up with that date… it’s also the date Rebel and The End and Other Beginnings comes out) called Ninth House. I want to pre-order that book, but I looked at my budget for this month, and since I’m meeting Sandhya Menon next week, I’m getting When Dimple Met Rishi instead. I’m sure I can pre-order her book next month, but October is still six months away, so there’s plenty of time to come up with $22 between now and then.
So that’s my favorite from March. What were your favorites?
It’s Friday again, which means it’s time to Fangirl. Fangirling on Friday was started by Books in the Skye. Every week, we have something new to fangirl about.
Last week, we talked about our favorite tropes, and this week, we’re talking about our least favorite tropes. These sometimes even appear in my favorite books even, but they get overshadowed by the things I love about the books.
Unnecessary Love Triangles
Some love triangles are done well. Cassandra Clare handled the Will/Tessa/Jem and the Mark/Cristina/Kieran love triangles well; the book I’m writing right now, as well as a fanfic that I hope to write this year have love triangles in them. It’s just when a love triangle is thrown in there for no reason other than to increase tension that I’m not a fan.
In Divergent, there seems to be this hinted love triangle between Four/Tris/Uriah… fortunately, it doesn’t go very far, but in Allegiant, we get Nita and Matthew that seem to barge in. Do people really get jealous that easily? In Prodigy, all of a sudden Tess develops an interest in Day now that he’s fallen for June? The Anden/June relationship seems more realistic in that book, at least. I thought the Magiano/Adelina/Enzo love triangle in The Rose Society seemed realistic enough though.
If an author is going to do a love triangle, it should feel realistic… not just thrown in there to create tension.
Bad Boys Without a Soft Heart
No pictures, because I don’t spend a lot of time reading these kinds of books. I guess 50 Shades of Gray would be an example of this (I haven’t read it)? There are some boy (and girl) characters that I love that have done some bad things, but the bad is not typically who they are. Chatine from Sky Without Stars, who steals to survive, is an example (she’s a girl, but same concept). You don’t get into a relationship to reform a boy, right?
Weak Girls
So last week I said that I liked to read about strong girls, but on the other edge of the coin, I don’t like to read about weak girls. It’s probably a good thing that I never got around to reading Twilight, because I’ve read that Bella is the kind of girl that hangs onto her man and doesn’t really act much for herself.
While I thought The House of One Thousand Eyes had good historical information that was important to know about, there were aspects of the main character that frustrated me to no end. Lena, the protagonist, was foolish and allowed herself to be assaulted without doing something about it. I guess a corollary to not liking weak girls is I don’t like foolish, stupid girls either. Or boys.
Fortunately, I don’t read too many stories where the main premise of the book happens to be one of the above tropes. Maybe I’m lucky, those kinds of stories don’t appeal to me in the first place, or they’re just not popular enough with my reading friends to attract my notice.
Next week is already April, and I’m going to talk about which book was my favorite this month.
It’s Friday again, which means it’s time to fangirl. Fangirling on Friday is hosted by Books in the Skye. This week, we’re talking about favorite tropes.
Cinnamon Roll Boys
I’m not a big fan of bad boys in fiction. I was never attracted to them in real life, and I don’t really care for them in fiction either. That doesn’t mean that they can’t be strong either, I just love when they’re super-sweet, even though they might have gone through some things.
Maybe this is why I just love certain authors? I just love Four and Akos from Veronica Roth’s Divergent and Carve the Mark, or Magiano from the last two books of Marie Lu’s Young Elites series.
Enemies to Lovers
I tend to love the enemies to lovers trope as well. Bonus points if the boy is a soft, squishy cinnamon roll! I think this might be one of the reasons why I enjoyed Echoes by Alice Reeds. Fiona and Miles didn’t really have a reason to be enemies, and once they figured this out, they discovered they were into each other. Marie Lu’s Legend is a classic enemies to lovers story that I just have to read again every once in a while. I have my fingers crossed that Chatine and Marcellus from Sky Without Stars will have their own love story in the sequel.
Strong Girls
I don’t think all girls need to be deadly and kick butt like Aelin in the Throne of Glass series, but I do prefer girls that have some spine to them, like Keralie from Four Dead Queens or Nathalie in Spectacle. A lot of Cassandra Clare’s female characters aren’t pushovers either, even if they don’t always make the smartest decisions (but who does?).
Perhaps I tend to like strong female characters because I tend to be pretty stubborn myself. Whatever the reason, a strong female character will often give a book bonus points in my mind.
Next week for Fangirling on Friday, we’ll talk about my least favorite tropes. See you then!
It’s Friday again, which means it’s time for us to fangirl over one topic or another. This week’s Fangirling on Friday topic is Badass Heroines. As with every week, FoF is hosted by Books in the Skye! Here are two of my favorite badass heroines!
No matter what you call her, Calaena Sardothien, Lilian Gordaina, or Aelin Galathynius, the main character of the Throne of Glass series is definitely a badass heroine. I wouldn’t want to be on her bad side.
She is a trained assassin, but even though she’s a ruthless killer, she’s also definitely a girl. She loves fancy clothes and shopping (an interest I don’t share with her). She loves reading books. She’s smart and calculating. While I still haven’t had the opportunity to finish Kingdom of Ash, the final book in the series, I already know that somehow she’s going to find a way out of the mess she’s in and will rally to save the country.
Another name that comes to mind when I think of badass heroines is Emma Carstairs, the main female protagonist in The Dark Artifices series. She trains like crazy, in addition to having natural strength as a Shadowhunter to begin with.
I love how Emma is not just a killing machine. She loves vintage clothes (again, another thing I don’t have in common with her). Sometimes she makes stupid decisions (she is a teenager, after all). She loves her friends though, and she tries to make the right choices, even if making them is a courageous decision.
Some other characters that I think of when I think of badass heroines include Chatine from Sky Without Stars, Tris from Divergent, Adelina from The Young Elites (she might be evil and have mental issues, but she’s still pretty badass), and Alina from the Grisha Verse books. I’m sure I could think of more if I tried.
Who are your favorite female heroines? Next Friday, we’ll talk about favorite tropes.
Today is Friday again, so you know what I’m going to do… fangirl! Today we’re going to talk about my favorite book I read in February. Fangirling on Friday is hosted by Books in the Skye!
And my favorite book from last month was… Four Dead Queens! I saved the best for last in February, considering this book didn’t come out until the 26th and I technically didn’t finish it until 2:30 AM on March 1st. But I hadn’t gone to bed yet, so I still consider it to be part of February.
Anyway, I read eight books in February, and while a few of them were very good, there were three that were just “meh”. So overall, it wasn’t a great month, but Four Dead Queens was definitely one of the highlights.
I had been hearing about this book since last May, and that’s a lot of early buzz for a debut author. I was a little bit nervous to start it, but I was not disappointed.
The book takes place in Quadara, which is a unique world where the inhabitants live in different quadrants and have different traits (a little like Divergent). While I first thought all the different queens and quadrants would be confusing, it really wasn’t.
The ending had something of an Enchantée vibe to it, where I knew the character had to get out of the mess somehow but the pages were ticking down and… how was this going to end?
Anyway, this isn’t my review to it, I just want to say how much I loved it, and I’m glad that it lived up to it’s hype!
Next week, for Dr. Seuss week, we’re talking about children’s books! I think.
It’s Friday again, so it’s time to do a little fangirling. On today’s edition of Fangirling on Friday (hosted by Books in the Skye) we’re talking about slow burn romances. It’s still February, after all!
An Ember in the Ashes was one of the first books that came to my mind when I thought about this topic. Elias and Laia have been interested in each other for what… nearly three books now? Something always seems to keep them apart. I don’t want to give spoilers away though.
Ms. Tahir better allow them to at least stay together at the end, but I’m pretty nervous. She’s always talking about all the characters she’s killing in Ember 4. Once she posted a list of all the people who were dead or hurt, with just the last fraction of a letter showing. I have a guess about who one of the dead people will be, but I’m not saying. She could have change it by now anyway.
The Rose Society and The Midnight Star feature a slow burn romance between Adelina Amouteru and Magiano. I was surprised (and a little sad) at the end of The Young Elites at what happened at the end of that book, but the surprise turned out to be a happy one after all.
However, Magiano and Adelina are friends for over a year between the end of The Rose Society and the beginning of The Midnight Star. Magiano is a very patient boy, I tell you. Anyway, I just love those two together… I love them so much, I’m writing a fanfic from Magiano’s perspective and another AU fanfic where they meet over World of Warcraft.
How appropriate that I get to fangirl about Fangirl today. This is an adorable story and I loved how Cath and _____ grew to be a couple. No spoilers though, because there’s more than one option if you haven’t read the book yet.
“Midnights,” a short story by Rainbow Rowell, is also a kind of slow burn romance, as it takes the place over several years (even though it’s a short story). It’s absolutely adorable.
The final book I want to fangirl over today is Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth. I’m excited that The End and Other Beginnings is going to have two Carve the Mark short stories in it! Akos and Cyra are a great couple, but since they start out as enemies it’s understandable that it takes a while for them to warm up to each other. Lately I’ve really wanted to read this duology again, since I’ve only read The Fates Divide once (on release day last year) and I’d love to read their story again before Ms. Roth’s new book comes out. October first! Yay! That’s going to be an amazing publishing day.
So there are some books that I really loved with some couples that it seems like ages before they become a couple. What are your favorite couples? I’ll see you again next week with my favorite book I read in February!
Welcome to another Top Ten Tuesday! Valentine’s Day is coming up, so this week we’re talking about favorite couples in books! Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.
Fangirling on Friday’s topic is also about couples in relationships, so I’m combining topics, so consider this my Fangirling on Friday post too (a few days early)!
Dune (Day/June) – Legend
Day and June are absolutely my most favorite couple! They’re so cute together. They both go through so much, and they both are willing to sacrifice for each other. I just love them. After Champion, I was heartbroken because of what happened. I love them so much, I’ve written a lot of fanfiction about the two of them.
I loved Life After Legend and Life After Legend II. I’m eagerly anticipating Rebel, the fourth Legend book, this fall!
FourTris – Divergent
Four and Tris were probably the very first Young Adult couple that I fell in love with. I absolutely loved them together, and for me, they belong together forever.
Of course, the ending of Allegiant was heartbreaking to me. I wasn’t about to accept it. That’s what got me into fanfiction. Divergent fanfiction is fun to read, and I’ve written some Divergent fanfiction myself.
Adelina/Magiano – The Young Elites
Another couple that I’m absolutely in love with is Adelina and Magiano from The Young Elites. Even though Adelina is evil, Magiano is a good influence on her. It seems like I have a thing for cinnamon roll boys and the girls that love them… anyway, this is another story that broke my heart, but I’ve also written fanfiction to heal my heart. I haven’t published it yet, but I’m working on it.
Clace (Jace/Clary) – Mortal Instruments
Clary and Jace are a couple that I love as well. I ship them so much. Even though there’s other couples in The Mortal Instruments, they’re my favorites. Over the course of this six-book series, they go through so many trials, but they are always there for each other.
One of my favorite lines from Jace is “Break up with Clary? Are you insane?”
Akos/Cyra – Carve the Mark
I love Akos and Cyra together as well. They’re perfect for each other. Cyra causes pain to anybody that touches her because of her currentgift, and Akos disrupts the currentstream, which helps take away her pain. It’s a good thing that they end up liking each other!
I’ve written fanfiction for all five of the above couples. I guess that’s just a thing I have… if I don’t have enough of them, I write more!
Mariko/Ōkami – Flame in the Mist
Do I really need a reason to like them together? I just think they’re kinda hot as a couple. They had sparks flying even before Ōkami realized that Mariko was not a boy — which he found disturbing.
Will/Tessa – The Infernal Devices
I loved Will and Tessa together, and it was one of the reasons why I ugly-cried through the last two chapters of Clockwork Princess. Cassandra Clare masterfully dealt with the whole mess of how Tessa loved both him and Jem. I can’t wait to read more of their family’s story in Chain of Gold later this year.
Elias/Laia – An Ember in the Ashes
I feel for this couple so much. They just can’t seem to get a break. And now we have to wait until 2020 to find out what happens to them! Ms. Tahir, you have to put them together! If she doesn’t, there’s always fanfiction. Because they need each other. I need them to be together, finally.
Lazlo/Sarah – Strange the Dreamer
I love Lazlo and Sarah together. It’s so sweet how they meet in dreams and have their first kisses together and all that. And then they have to be broken apart…
But this story ends on a hopeful note. And there’s always fanfiction?
Free/Cole – Into the Hollow
There wasn’t a tenth couple that really jumped out at me when I thought of couples in books. I didn’t want to say Jude/Cardan because although I like them together, they’re a fairly toxic couple. But I really liked Free and Cole in Into the Hollow. This is a book that I didn’t think got enough love when it came out.
Free and Cole are such a wonderful couple together. They both come from dysfunctional homes that they’re embarrassed about, but they want to make a better life for themselves. And they’re good for each other as a couple. They might not be the first couple that I think about when I think of book couples on Valentine’s Day, but I loved this book, and I loved them together.
So what about you? What OTPs do you dream about or love? Yes, I’ve literally dreamed about some of these (and one dream became the basis for my book, The Brightness of Shadow). I can’t wait to see what everybody says this week.
On next week’s edition of Top Ten Tuesday, we’re going to talk about books that I loved that have less than 2000 ratings on Goodreads. Most of these books aren’t eligible for that (although I was surprised about one book). For Fangirling on Friday, we’ll be talking about slow-burn romances. A couple of these might show up again there. Be back then!
It’s Friday, so that means… it’s tie to Fangirl! Today’s topic is Favorite Diverse Reads. To be honest, I never really pay too much attention to whether a book is diverse or not, but I know that representation matters to people who are underrepresented in books, so it’s good for authors to think about diversity.
I’m just going to lump Marie Lu’s books all together, because they’re all diverse. Day from Legend is primarily Mongolian, while June is part native American. Although The Young Elites is a fantasy novel set in a fictonal world, Adelina Amouteru could probably be described as Middle Eastern-ish while Magiano is black. In Warcross, Emika is Chinese while Hideo is Japanese. There is also a nonbinary character in the sequel, Wildcard.
The Ember in the Ashes Quartet is set in a Roman-ish type of land with characters of various races. Laia is a character with Middle Eastern-ish roots (the Roman Empire at its height controlled Northern Africa and a good deal of the Middle East anyway). This series also has a lot of folklore from the Middle East as well.
Flame in the Mist is a book resembling the setting of feudal Japan. I absolutely loved this book and it’s setting.
Probably diversity is not the first thing that you think about when you think of Enchantée, which was set in France right before the French Revolution. Most of the people there are going to be European and white, right? While Enchantée does have a lot of historical accuracy to it, despite it being a fantasy book, France wasn’t 100% white at the time. France was already expanding its colonies, and Lazare, the main love interest, was the child of one of the guys that left to colonize India (I think) and one of the natives there, so yes, even this fantasy book set in Europe has it’s own diversity to it.
So there are some books that I love with diversity in it. Next week, I’m going to combine Fangirling on Friday with Top Ten Tuesday for my favorite couples in books. Since Top Ten Tuesday is out out on Tuesday, I’ll be posting a few days early.
It’s Friday, so guess what we’re doing today? We’re fangirling! Fangirling on Friday is hosted by Books in the Skye. Since it’s the first of the month, we’re going to talk about the best books I read last month.
Is The Queen of Nothing out yet? Because I’m definitely in need of an ARC of that book. Stat. The Wicked King was an amazing book. If you liked The Cruel Prince, you won’t be disappointed in it’s sequel.
Books that come out at the beginning of the year are sometimes at a disadvantage when it comes to my “Best Books I Read for the First Time in 20XX” list, because by the time the end of the year comes around, I sometimes forget how great the books I read at the beginning of the year were. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if The Wicked King ends up making my “best of” lists this year.
What is it that makes books set in historical France so good (and so popular) this winter? Spectacle was another great book that I read in January. Other books set in historical France you might be interested in are Enchantée and The Gilded Wolves.
Spectacle was one of those books that was hard to put down (but I had to, because I had to go to bed). Will it make my end of year list? Maybe. Again, this book is at a disadvantage because I read it in January, but whether it makes my end-of-year lists or not, I’m pretty sure it’s going to get a lot of mentions on Top Ten Tuesdays this year.
Well, that’s enough fangirling for now! Next week, we’re going to talk about favorite diverse reads. I might have to list several because some of my absolute favorites I already fangirl over all the time, So maybe I’ll fangirl over those AND some others just for there to be a little more variety.
