Top Ten Tuesday Archives - Page 10 of 12 - Brooke's Reviews and Sweeps

Books I Meant to Read in 2018 But Didn’t Get To

By Brookelorren on January 22, 2019January 21, 201942 Comments

Welcome to another edition of Top Ten Tuesday! It’s hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today’s topic is “Books I Meant to Read in 2018 But Didn’t Get To”. I have way more than 10, but I’ll keep it at that.

The last three Throne of Glass Books: Empire of Storms/Tower of Dawn/Kingdom of Ash. These books are super long and even though I wanted to read them, I just didn’t get around to it. I finished reading all of Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunter’s books, and that was 12 really long books, and that was all I could handle last year. I’m reading these now. I have finished Empire of Storms now, but I still have the other two to get to.

I really wanted to read The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang. I got the Kindle version of the book when it was on sale; I even scheduled the review in my blog schedule. Alas, a slew of library books showed up and I have to read those first. So, I never read it. It’s in my TBR jar for this month, but it hasn’t been picked yet.

A Thousand Perfect Notes is another book I bought on sale and haven’t read yet. Along with the remainder of the Throne of Glass series, this is another book that was on my Fall 2018 TBR that didn’t get read. It’s now on my Winter 2018/19 TBR and it’s the next book I’m supposed to read from my TBR jar, so I should get to it soon?

I still haven’t read Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman yet. This is another book that I bought on sale and wanted to read (I think there’s a trend here) but didn’t.

I pre-ordered The Light Between Worlds because Laura E. Weymouth is such a nice lady, and I wanted to read her book. Plus, this book is supposed to be about Susan from Narnia. I was in the middle of reading something else on the day it was uploaded to my Kindle, and I didn’t read it last year. I just finished reading this book last week because it was in my TBR jar and got picked.

Rora has been on my TBR for so long, it’s not even in print anymore. I did buy the book last year though. It was even on my TBR Wipeout Challenge. Still, never got around to it. This is another book in my TBR jar.

Isle of Blood and Stone is another book that I bought on sale that I didn’t get around to reading last year (again, in the TBR jar).

I got And I Darken and Now I Rise on sale at Amazon.com too. This is kinda like a retelling of the real story of Dracula? It sounds really interesting. Every time I see this I want to read it. I guess when the time is right, I will.

Every time I see a VE Schwab book on Top Ten Tuesday, I think “I have to read her books!” Yet I own two of her books (both purchased on sale) and haven’t read either. This Savage Song is one of the two I need to read. I will read some of her books this year.

Yes, I bought Three Dark Crowns on sale too. Maybe I’ll read it in time for the fourth book to come out? And maybe the other two will go on sale before it does? I read one of he short stories last year and it was good.

You would think that maybe I should stop buying books on sale? But I actually do eventually read many of these, and I’d rather get it on sale for $2 or $3 than wait for it at the library, or pay full price for it. I can get five books on sale for the price of one at full price, plus I’m supporting more authors. It’s kind of nice to have all of these books on my Kindle… like having a bookstore at my fingertips. So I’ll keep getting these books when they’re on sale, I’m sure.

Next week, we’ll talk about the ten most recent additions to my Want-To-Read list. Let’s see if I do any better with those than I did reading these in 2018.

New to Me Authors I Read in 2018

By Brookelorren on January 15, 2019January 14, 201928 Comments

It’s Top Ten Tuesday again! Today’s topic (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is “New to Me Authors I Read in 2018”. I mentioned last year that I just found out how amazing Goodreads was last year, which allowed me to discover a lot of fantastic authors, so this list will be a little embarrassing. You may read this list thinking “how could she not have read that author before?” Anyway, here are some of the new-to-me authors that wrote the most highly rated books last year:

I’m not embarrassed that I had never read Gita Trelease before last year. After all, her book isn’t even officially out yet! I was so excited when I was selected to receive an ARC of her debut, Enchantée. I am so happy that this book will have a sequel as well. She wrote my favorite book last year.

Who has written more than a dozen books, has a movie and a television show, and I never heard of before 2018? Cassandra Clare. Out of all the new-to-me authors from 2018, I think it’s my biggest embarrassment that I had never read her books before this year. I don’t think that I’ll end up buying everything that she ever writes — some of the storylines don’t interest me immensely — but her core Shadowhunter books are on my auto-buy list. Which means that I’ll be buying at least six more books from her in the foreseeable future.

Holly Black is another new-to-me author from last year. She’s written several other books, but from what I can tell, The Cruel Prince was a runaway hit for her. I absolutely loved this book (and The Wicked King, which I read last week) and am looking forward to reading more of her books in the future.

Sabaa Tahir is another new-to-me author from 2018. Her Ember books are amazing, and I’m definitely looking forward to reading the final book in this series. She’s also a really nice person on Twitter – you should follow her.

Laini Taylor is another new-to-me author from 2018, and I actually got ideas from her in the book I’m writing. One day, she tweeted that there was a city in France called Malicorne, which of course was where evil unicorns lived. You may not see any malicorn in the book I’m writing, but they do make an appearance in “Brenna Morgan and the Silver Portal“, a fanfic I wrote with characters from Katie Masters’ book, Clary and Jace from the Shadowhunters books, and a couple characters from my book. Strange the Dreamer and Muse of Nightmares were great books, and I’m looking forward to reading more from her!

Another new-to-me author that’s embarrassing that I never heard of before 2018 was Sarah J. Maas. She’s only written two of the most popular YA book series in the last several years! But prior to 2018, I got my book recommendations from movies mainly, so I guess it’s understandable that I never read her before. I have a lot of catching up to do now!

Renée Ahdieh has had several books out so far, including the amazing Flame in the Mist. New to me last year. I read three of her books in 2018, although I still have to read the sequel to The Wrath and the Dawn. Maybe I’ll get around to reading it this year.

Caraval and Legendary were books that I loved last year, and Stephanie Garber is another new-to-me author from 2018. These books were magical, and I can’t wait to read Finale when it comes out. One thing about reading so many amazing new-to-me authors last year is that there are so many books that I’m looking forward to!

Another author that has been wildly successful in recent years that I hadn’t heard of before was Victoria Aveyard, who wrote the Red Queen series. I ended up reading all four books last year.

Last year I also read Amanda Foody for the first time. Ace of Shades is not her debut, but I think that it’s been her most successful book yet. I plan on reading the sequel to this book, King of Fools, sometime this year.

So there you have it — ten authors who were new-to-me in 2018. Since I’ve been book blogging for a little while now, there probably won’t be as many “wait, what? I never heard of that author” on next year’s list, but there are still plenty of amazing authors out there that, sadly, I’ve never read before. I hope to fix that at least a little bit, this year.

So what authors were new to you in 2018? I’m looking forward to seeing your Top Ten Tuesday this week.

Best Books I Read For the First Time in 2018

By Brookelorren on January 1, 2019January 1, 201942 Comments

Welcome to another edition of Top Ten Tuesday! This is also my annual “Best Books I Read for the First time in 20XX” post. I’ve done this for several years now, even though only the last two years have made it to my blog. If you’re interested, here are my lists from 2017 and 2016. Oh, and even though I’ve been blogging on other blogs for a lot longer, and I wasn’t active on this blog for a long time, this is the 2nd year anniversary of this blog (technically).

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

I have specific rules that I follow year after year for this annual list of mine:

The book can be released any year, but I had to finish reading it for the first time in the year it makes the list.
Translations of books I already read don’t count (sorry Las Marcas de la Muerte, I read Carve the Mark in 2017).
Series can be combined together to make one entry, as long as they all were great books (The Fifth Wave‘s sequels didn’t make the list, but the entire Divergent and Legend series did make the list in their respective years). This year, I combined series that were set in the same universe and shared characters, but that’s not normal.

So here’s the list for 2018!

10. Flame in the Mist (Duology) – Renee Ahdieh. I absolutely loved Flame in the Mist. I was very happy that the Smoke in the Sun pre-order gift was a paperback copy of the first book, since I checked it out of the library initially. Smoke in the Sun wasn’t quite as good as the first book, but it was good enough to be combined with the first book to make my end-of-the-year list.

9. Throne of Glass (first 4 books of the series) – Sarah J. Maas. I haven’t read Tower of Dawn, Empire of Storms, or Kingdom of Ash yet, so they’re not eligible for the list this year, but they might make it to next year’s list. These books are massive – and epic. I love the worldbuilding, the fey are fun, and the main character (I don’t want to give away too much if you haven’t read it) is badass. It definitely deserves a spot on the year-end list.

8. The Fates Divide – Veronica Roth. I loved the conclusion to this book (unlike to another conclusion to a Veronica Roth series that I chose to drown my sorrows with fanfiction). I’m sad that I have to wait until 2020 for another book from this author.

7. Strange the Dreamer (duology) – Laini Taylor. Part of me has to wonder whether there’ll be so many full series on my list next year. When I read Strange over the summer I just had to pre-order Muse of Nightmares. If you ever want to read what beautiful prose looks like, take a look at this series. It was wonderful.

6. The Ember Quartet (first three books) – A Reaper at the Gates seemed to be all Twitter talked about in the late spring, and I started the series this year with An Ember in the Ashes. I’m looking forward to reading the final book when it comes out. This series kept me occupied all day for three days in a row, until I finished it. I’ll probably give them all a reread before Ember 4 comes out.

5. The Midnight Star – Marie Lu. I absolutely loved Adelina and Magiano, and I started (but haven’t finished) two fanfics involving them last year. Hopefully I’ll publish both in 2019. I bought the book in Spanish, but I haven’t read the translation yet.

4. The Cruel Prince – Holly Black. Whoever created The Incorrect Cruel Prince Twitter account is a marketing genius and deserves to be paid. It probably moved this book up a few notches on my TBR. Nevertheless, if the book itself wasn’t amazing, it wouldn’t have achieved a spot on my end-of-year list. The Wicked King is on my must-read list for January.

3. Mortal Instruments/The Infernal Devices/The Dark Artifices – Cassandra Clare. I read all three of these series for the first time this year, and rather than have them take up three spots on my end of year list, I just gave them one spot. Although City of Bones didn’t thoroughly impress me, it was good enough for me to continue with the series, and they’re now one of my favorites.

2. Wildcard – Marie Lu. This absolutely was my most anticipated book for 2018. Warcross was my favorite book of 2017, and Marie Lu is one of my favorite authors. I definitely wasn’t surprised to see this book make the number two spot.

1. Enchantée – Gita Trelease. If you had asked me in January what book I thought would make the top spot on the 2018 list, I would have probably guessed the sequel to Warcross. A lot of bookish things happened this year – including my relaunching this blog as a book blog. I didn’t expect to like this book so much, but I think any book where you seriously consider coming in late to work so you can finish it deserves serious consideration for the best book of the year. And so it is.

2018 was an amazing reading year, and it was so hard to limit the books to ten. This year, for the first time ever, I’m also going to put out a list of top 2018 releases. It will have a few repeats from this list, but will have several newcomers as well.

What were your favorite books from 2018?

Books I Hope To Find Under My Christmas Tree on Christmas Morning

By Brookelorren on December 25, 2018December 16, 201836 Comments

Merry Christmas! Not only is it Christmas, it’s also Top Ten Tuesday! Can you believe that it’s already the last Top Ten Tuesday post of the year? I’m so glad that I found all you wonderful book bloggers this year, and I can’t wait for another year. But first… here are books that I hope to get for Christmas this year! Oh, and Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! Thank you!

My parents did ask me for a list of books I wanted, so this is a mixture of that and what I would get if they weren’t Amazon-averse (I don’t think they’d know how to do a pre-order). My dh will probably just give me a gift card.

So the Legend graphic novels are on my list of books I’d like to see under the Christmas tree. They look absolutely adorable. And of course, I love the regular books. So all three of these graphic novels are on my Christmas list this year.

Also on my list of books I’d like to get for Christmas this year are the Shadowhunter’s books from The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, and The Dark Artifices that I haven’t already purchased. I have four of the books already, but there are twelve books total from this set. These are books that I definitely want to get, and more than likely, I’ll probably order any books that I don’t have to get later on today. I really think that it’s funny how I love this series so much when I think I gave the first book three stars. The worldbuilding is outstanding.

I know The Wicked King will not be under my tree this year (although I put it on my Christmas wish list) because it doesn’t come out until January 8th. I’m sure my parents didn’t pre-order it for me either. That’s okay. If I get any Amazon gift cards, I’ll probably pre-order it later on in the day. This is a book I’m planning on reading next month.

Earlier this year, I had a Sabaa Tahir review marathon, where I read and reviewed the Ember in the Ashes books, starting at book one. I got the first two books from the library, and purchased A Reaper at the Gates. Later, I found Ember on sale for $2.99, so I got that. Still, I don’t have A Torch Against the Night. I’m going to probably want to reread these books before Ember 4 comes out, so I’ll probably want to get it. While I don’t always feel the need to reread books before the next one comes out, there is so much to this book series that I think I need to.

If you’ve read this blog for very long, then you know I love Marie Lu’s books. She has a short story in A Tyranny of Petticoats that I haven’t read yet… so of course I have to add this to the list of books that I have to get. I’ve read a few anthology books this year, and they tend to be pretty interesting. I like getting to read the stories by other authors, some of whom are new to me, as well. So this is on my wish list.

So these Shadowhunters bookmarks aren’t books, but they are on my Christmas wish list this year (and the missing Shadowhunter books on my list comprise of a total of eight books, so that’s already a ton of books already (almost literally a ton since those books are huge)). These are absolutely adorable, and I also like The Infernal Devices and Dark Artifices bookmarks as well.

And these Day and June bookmarks made it to my Christmas wish list as well. They’ll be perfect to read Legend 4 with later on in 2019!

Well hello! You can already pre-order Chain of Gold on Amazon.com. It’s not out until November 2019, but yes, please! Obviously this won’t be under my tree (and I won’t be rushing to buy it later today either), but I already ran out of book ideas, and this is on my TBR, so here you are.

You can stop laughing now. Obviously, I know that this will not be under my tree this year, nor will a note be wrapped in a box saying that I got this as a pre-order, nor can I take any Amazon gift cards that I hope to be getting and buy this book either. We’re in the realm of fantasy now, but at this point, I’m just going through Goodreads to see what looks good.

I didn’t put The Seekers on my Christmas wish list either, but this is another book that I’d like to read someday. I really liked the other books by Daniel J. Boorstin that I’ve read. I’m sure that I am going to love the books under my tree (and there will be books), and I have so many amazing books on my Kindle that I’ve gotten this year that this one will probably have to wait.

So what books did you put on your wishlist for this year? I really hope that you have an amazing Christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate). This isn’t my last blog post for the year, but if I don’t see you before then, I hope your New Year has an amazing start.

Next week on the first edition of the 2019 Top Ten Tuesday: The Best Books I Read in 2018. This will include books from 2018, books from earlier that I didn’t get around to reading until this year, and there’s one 2019 release that I was fortunate enough to read as an ARC. Next week I also hope to do a list of my favorite 2018 releases as well, in a separate post. See you then!

Winter 2018/19 TBR

By Brookelorren on December 18, 2018December 18, 201835 Comments

Welcome to today’s edition of Top Ten Tuesday! This week we’re going to talk about the books on our Winter TBR. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

First, we’re going to talk about how well we did on our Fall 2018 TBR. How many of those did I read?

Wildcard – Marie Lu: Read
Addicted to Outrage – Glenn Beck: Read
The Mortal Instruments – Cassandra Clare: Read. Not only did I read that book, but I also read all of The Infernal Devices and The Dark Artifices. So I was wildly successful on this particular TBR item.
Legendary – Stephanie Garber: Read
Muse of Nightmares – Laini Taylor: Read
Fawkes – Nadine Brandes: Read
A Thousand Perfect Notes – C.G. Drews: Unread.
Children of Blood and Bone – Tomi Adeyemi: Read
Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn – Sarah J. Maas: Unread. See above where I read the rest of Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments, plus TID and TDA. And Queen of Air and Darkness was 880 pages. I think fall had its share of monster-sized books as it was.
My True Love Gave to Me: Read

8/10 books read from my Fall 2018 TBR is pretty good.

Since I didn’t get the chance to read Empire of Storms or Tower of Dawn last season, I still plan on reading it this winter. Now I need to read Kingdom of Ash too. All ginormous books.

I also didn’t read A Thousand Perfect notes either. Just because I didn’t get the chance to read this book yet, doesn’t mean that I don’t want to. I hope to read this one soon.

Shelly Goodman Wright is a friend of mine, and has been teaching my son’s writing class for a couple of years now. I’ll be taking a writing for publication class with her in February, and she’s going to help me improve my book, The Brightness of Shadow. She gave me a copy of her book, Twisted Roots, a couple of years ago, and I think maybe I should read it? So it’s on my TBR, and I plan to read it before February.

I got permission to read an ARC of The Girl King by Mimi Yu, so of course this book is on my winter TBR. I was approved for this book about a month ago, and haven’t read it yet because of NaNoWriMo, and also because publishers don’t like you to write your reviews too early. Since I’m in the time frame where I can post reviews, I’ll probably read this one soon.

Another ARC I was approved for is The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi. I haven’t read it yet for the same reasons I haven’t read The Girl King yet. This one has a later publication date, so I’ll probably read the other one first, but I plan on reading it this winter.

The Invisible War is a graphic novel that I got from Netgalley. It looked interesting, so I requested it. I’m pretty good about reading my ARCs, so this is one of the books I’ll be reading soon.

On many of the Top Ten Tuesday posts about cozy and wintry reads, The Grisha Verse trilogy showed up multiple times. I’ve wanted to read it for a while, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. I want to read it before I get to Six of Crows too. So onto the TBR it goes.

Since I plan on finishing the Throne of Glass series this winter, I thought I’d follow it up by reading A Court of Thorns and Roses, and the books after that. This was another series that found its way onto the Cozy/Wintry reads edition of Top Ten Tuesday. Perhaps I should make an attempt to read it before the winter is over.

I got so many books on Black Friday this year it’s shameful. Okay, maybe not shameful, but I did get a lot of books. One of the books that I bought was The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden. It definitely has a wintry feel to it — I mean, look at the cover. This isn’t exactly a book that I want to read in the middle of July.

Sky in the Deep was another Black Friday purchase. It’s been one of those books that I’ve been looking at for months, but never got around to reading. Now that I have a copy on my Kindle, I don’t have an excuse for not reading it. Besides, this story is about Vikings… can we get anything more wintry than Vikings? It’s cold up in the North! I should probably get to this book before the weather gets warmer again.

So there’s my Top Ten Tuesday list for this week. What are you planning on reading this winter? Did you knock out a big portion of your fall 2018 TBR, or did you end up throwing that thing out the window and just read whatever sounded good at the time?

Next week is Christmas Day! I’ll be talking about books I hope to find under my Christmas tree. If I don’t… well, there’s always Amazon gift cards!

Books I Read that Need More Love

By Brookelorren on December 11, 2018October 5, 201934 Comments

Hello! It’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday! Today is a freebie topic, and I was thinking I’d do a post on books that need a little more love. I guess it’s a similar topic to Hidden Gems, which we did in September, but I’m first focusing on books that I read as ARCs. Did you know that the average traditionally published book only sells 3,000 copies in its lifetime? More than likely, a lot of the books we talk about on Top Ten Tuesday sell more than that, but there are books that get mentioned on occasion that probably don’t. So today I’d like to talk about some books that probably need more love.

Frequency by Christopher Krovatin is one of those books that I think about when I think about books that need more love. I thought it was fantastic, and I loved all the musical influence in the book. I don’t really hear much about this book, and figure it probably needs some more love.

Into the Hollow by Lynn Vroman was another book that I really loved. It had a unique setting, I loved the characters, and the story, about a girl who had a messed up family who falls in love with another kid with a messed up family, was really good. I was sad to see this not get more attention than it did.

The Wren Hunt by Mary Watson was a beautiful book. I loved the unique setting, the magic was different than what I’ve seen before, and it had something of a Romeo and Juliet kinda vibe with the feuding families and all. I’d love to see this gaining more people’s interest.

I’m not sure what it is about books named after birds not getting enough love, but I loved Crow Flight by Susan Cunningham. I mentioned in my review that this book had me at computers, but I loved the mystery surrounding this, as well as the characters. Too bad this book didn’t have much marketing behind it, because I thought it was great.

The next three books ended up on my Hidden Gems list, but I think Echoes by Alice Reeds deserved a little bit more love than it got. I absolutely couldn’t put this book down, and read it in a day. I really wish that it could have a sequel (there is a little bit of a cliffhanger at the end) but it probably won’t. I saw Ms. Reeds pitching another book idea during #PitMad, so it looks like she’s doing something else. I’d love to read more of her books, because I loved this one.

My Real Name is Hanna, by Tara Lynn Masih, also got a mention during Hidden Gems week, but this is another book that deserves more love than it did. Maybe the whole Holocaust setting was a little too dreary for some people. I thought the book was great though.

I didn’t read Never Stop Walking, by Christina Rickardsson, as an ARC, but this is another book that I thought should have gotten more attention than it did. We read about hellish fictional places all the time… this book is about an actual hellish place that still exists today — slums in Brazil. It also talks about her adoption and going to live in a wildly different culture. Maybe it’s too real for people to actually want to face.

I can’t tell you how much love Ever the Hunted and Ever the Brave got, but I haven’t heard a great deal about Once a King, the last book in the Clash of Kingdoms series. Ever the Hunted is number 55 on the Goodreads YA Novels of 2016 list (Ever the Brave is number 123), so I’m guessing that these books could have used a little more love at the time as well.

When Elephants Fly by Nancy Richardson Fischer could have gotten a little more attention than it did as well. Lately there has been a lot of emphasis placed on mental health, and books that talk about it, and the main character of this book is worried about her own mental health. I let my daughter read it, as she’s been struggling with depression. I guess that publishers can only promote so many books…

Fawkes by Nadine Brandes might have gotten a little more attention than some of these other books, but there were quite a few huge releases over the summer, and this book seemed to get drowned out by a lot of the bigger names. Nevertheless, it was a pretty good book, and probably could have used a little bit more attention than it did.

So there’s my list this week of books that I read (mostly as ARCs) that could have used a little more love than they did. I’m looking forward to see what ideas everybody else came up with this week for Top Ten Tuesday! Next week I’m going to talk about my Winter 2018/2019 TBR! And we’ll see how I did on my Fall TBR as well! See you then!

Wintry Reads

By Brookelorren on December 4, 2018December 3, 201831 Comments

Brrrr! It’s really cold outside! It’s also Tuesday! You know what that means, another edition of Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! This week we’re going to talk about cozy, wintry reads. I’m not sure if all of these will be all that wintry, but I’ll do my best!

The Immortal Nicholas – Glenn Beck. Ever wonder if Santa ever had anything to do with Jesus? What about that Krampus dude? This is a beautiful story that incorporates both. The first time I read this book, I was in tears for the last 50, 100 pages or so. It was just so sad. And the ending is beautiful too.

My True Love Gave to Me – various. This was on my fall TBR from earlier this year. I still haven’t finished reading all of the stories (I’m on this insane mission to read Clockwork Angel, Lady Midnight, Lord of Shadows, and Queen of Air and Darkness back to back) but so far these are pretty good, and Christmassy too. Out of the three stories I’ve read so far, I think I like “Midnights” by Rainbow Rowell the best.

The Long Winter – Laura Ingalls Wilder. There’s something about the Little House on the Prairie books that make me think of the winter. Some of the books are very summery, but there are several books that are not. The Long Winter and Little House in the Big Woods are books from this series that have a lot of wintry appeal.

Carve the Mark – Veronica Roth. For the last couple of years, I’ve always thought it was a shame, because Carve the Mark and it’s sequel, The Fates Divide, came out in the beginning of the year, when I’m less likely to think of them by the time I start thinking of my Top Ten Books I Read for the First Time in 20xx List. Nevertheless, this book belongs on the wintry list because of the cold climate that a lot of the book is set in.

Game of Thrones – George R.R. Martin. I read this in the spring and summer, but this is definitely a wintry read. Most of the story happens either in a cold climate or when “winter is coming.” This series takes forever to read, so you just might finish this one up by the time spring is here.

Frostblood – Elly Blake. The title literally says “Frost” in it. Perhaps that should give you a clue that this is not a warm, summery book.

The Midnight Star – Marie Lu. This is the third book in The Young Elites series, so I wouldn’t start here, but most of this book takes place in the cold (see the cold mountains on the cover). I bought the Spanish edition of this book in the summer but haven’t gotten around to reading it yet… maybe now, when it’s nice and cold, would be a good time to do it.

The 5th Wave – Rick Yancey. Don’t feel bad if you don’t want to read the remaining books in this series, but the first book in The 5th Wave series was really good. Not all of this series takes place in the winter, but part of it does, and perhaps I associate this book with winter because I read it in the winter. It will suck you in and make you forget that the wind is howling outside your house.

Legend – Marie Lu. This is another book that I associate with winter. I guess this series mostly does occur in the winter (the book starts on November 28th, 2031), but it takes place in Los Angeles, so it doesn’t really feel all that cold. Maybe one of the reasons why I associate this book with winter is that I read the Spanish edition at the very end of December one year, with the snow flying and all that.

Caraval – Stephanie Garber. Why does Caraval remind me of winter? I have no clue? I don’t know why, but for some reason it does. Perhaps it’s because Christmas is a magical time, and this book is full of magic. Even though this might not be specifically a wintry book, this is a book that you can certainly snuggle up under a blanket with a cup of hot tea and read.

I hope you liked this edition of Top Ten Tuesday. Now that NaNoWriMo is over, I need to start writing these farther ahead of time than 12 hours before it’s due! That being said, next week is a freebie edition of the series, and I’m planning on writing about books that I read as ARCs that need a little more love! A lot of books don’t get the marketing that they should, but they’re still really good! I’ll be writing about some of those.

Platonic Relationships in Books (Top Ten Tuesday)

By Brookelorren on November 27, 2018November 26, 201824 Comments

It’s Tuesday again, and that means another Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl). NaNoWriMo has been keeping me busy, and I’m writing this a lot closer to the deadline than I would like, but I’ve got my 50k in (now I just have to finish writing the book). Today’s topic is Platonic Relationships in Books. In most books, the main ship is what makes or breaks the book for me, but there are a lot of books with platonic relationships as well. Some books do an amazing job with both types of relationships. These are the books that came to mind.

Caraval – When I first thought of this topic, the first book that came to my mind was Caraval. Even though they both find love in these books, Scarlett and Tella’s sisterly relationship is really at the heart of these books. Stephanie Garber does a great job depicting how they care for each other.

Little House on the Prairie – Another book that came to mind when thinking about platonic relationships was Little House on the Prairie. Almost the entire series features platonic relationships. The early books mostly focus on Laura’s relationship with her parents and sisters; it isn’t until the very last of the series that we see Laura’s relationship with Almanzo develop.

Fangirl – A lot of Fangirl focuses on Cath’s relationship to her twin sister, Ren. Although there is a love interest in this book, it isn’t the only focus, and is certainly not the most dramatic relationship in the book either.

Fawkes – Fawkes is another book with a bit of romance in it, but it’s not the only relationship of note in this book. Much of this book focuses on Thomas’s relationship with his father, the notorious Guy Fawkes. We all want our parents to be proud of us (well, most of us do) so it’s a relationship that we can relate to.

Strange the Dreamer – While a lot of Strange focuses on Lazlo’s relationship with Sarai, there are a lot of other relationships highlighted in this book. Lazlo and Sarai don’t even meet until well into the book, after all. Lazlo has relationships (some good and some not-so-good) with the people around him, and Sarai has relationships with the other blue gods that she’s stuck with. Without all of these supporting characters, this book would certainly be lacking.

The Mortal Instruments – This series wouldn’t be the same without Clary and Simon’s friendship. It goes through a lot of testing in this six-book series, and I love them for it. While a lot of this book focuses on Clary and Jace, without Simon, this book would be lacking. In fact, this series contains several great friendships. Without them, this series definitely wouldn’t be the same.

Red Queen – Mare in Red Queen is close to her family members. Even though we see a lot of the evil Maven and want to know what is going on with her and Cal, these aren’t the only relationships of note in the book. Mare is close to her best friend Kilorn and her siblings, and develops friendships with other characters throughout the series.

Chronicles of Narnia – The Chronicles of Narnia is full of platonic relationships. The Pevensie siblings have the most important platonic relationships in the series, but there are definitely others to look for.

Lord of the Rings – I think the most important platonic relationship in the Lord of the Rings series is that between Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee. Good old Sam is always at his side supporting him. There are other great friendships in this series as well.

Carve the Mark – When I think of Carve the Mark, I admit, I do think of Akos and Cyra; however, they’re not the only great relationship in this book. Akos cares a great deal for his brother, as well as his childhood friends. The supporting relationships help drive the story and make this a much more interesting book.

What do you think? What are your favorite platonic relationships in books? I still have a lot to write in my NaNoWriMo novel, but at least I hit my 50k goal and can spend more time reading what you have to say.

Next week: Cozy, Wintry Reads. Brrr! It’s so cold outside, and the roads can sometimes be hazardous! I actually spun my car around while driving home from work Saturday night (and I was only going about 20 mph; good thing nobody else was around). I’d rather stay home if at all possible. Next week we focus on some books to read while avoiding the cold and hazardous road conditions!

Bookish Things I’m Thankful For

By Brookelorren on November 20, 2018November 19, 201823 Comments

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday! Since this week is Thanksgiving, our topic is thankfulness. There are a lot of things that I have to be thankful for today.

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

Goodreads – I’m thankful that I’ve started to take advantage of all the goodness that Goodreads has to offer this year. It is such a useful tool. I wouldn’t have found all the amazing books this year that I’ve read without it.

Amazon.com $1.99 book sales. I absolutely love Amazon.com’s monthly book sales. Get Kindle books that are on my TBR for only $1.99? Yes, please! I’m really thankful for this cheap way to get books.

I’m thankful for Book Twitter. Where else can you hear from your favorite authors? I learn about tons of new releases this way too. Not only can I hear from some of my favorite authors, but I’ve also met many nice unpublished authors here as well.

I’m thankful for Top Ten Tuesday. Top Ten Tuesday posts are so fun! I love to read about all of the things my fellow readers have to say about books.

I’m thankful for my local public library. They always have books for me to read and they have meeting spaces available for my Russian meetup group. I absolutely love this place.

I’m thankful for writing. I’ve written a lot this year! If you would have asked me in January what I would have accomplished by the end of the year, I would never have guessed that I would have written more than 250,000 words this year. That’s a quarter of a million words! Thanks to all of the amazing people on Twitter and on the internet giving advice, my writing has gotten better this year as well. I have to be thankful for that.

Writer with cats I’m thankful for my favorite authors. Where would we be without all the wonderful books that they create for us? I’ve seen people bad-mouth authors before, and I wonder why they would do this if they want them to create more books? Nobody has to write books. The big names probably don’t need the money, and the smaller names could probably make more money elsewhere. So for all of you amazing writers that I’ve read this year, thank you for what you do.

I’m thankful for my Kindle – I like hardback books, but it’s really easy to check out books on the Kindle. I actually don’t really have a preference, although for the same price, I’d rather have a physical copy.

I’m thankful for ARCs! This year my life has taken a lot of twists and turns. In February I got a note from someone asking me to continue writing Like Normal People, and shortly after that I found that Goodreads had amazing lists to help you find books, and then I found out that people actually let you read books ahead of time if you’re willing to review them! ARCs provide me with a steady stream of things to read, and it’s also pretty cool to get to read a book before everybody else does. So these are definitely something I’m thankful for.

Finally, I’m thankful for you! Yes, you! I’m thankful that you came to visit my little site today. I’m thankful when you leave comments. Most of the people that leave comments here are book bloggers, and I’m thankful for your book blogs. They help me find new books to read and give me ideas and inspiration. Plus, most of you are so darned nice! There have been a lot of things about this year that have sucked, but the biggest thing this year that has been completely awesome is being part of this writing/reading/blogging community. I haven’t been doing book blogging for that long, but I’m glad that I’ve found you.

Thank you for stopping by this week. What are you thankful for? Next week on Top Ten Tuesday, we’re going to talk about platonic relationships in books. Sisters, brothers, moms, dads, most books have them somewhere!

Bookish Things I’d Like to Own

By Brookelorren on November 13, 2018November 12, 201828 Comments

Welcome to another edition of Top Ten Tuesday! Today’s official topic is “Bookish Items I’d Like to Own.” This may be a little different than a lot of people’s posts (and this is a really difficult topic for me) because there really aren’t too many things I want to clutter up my house. My parents are always asking me for Christmas gift ideas, so I can’t wait to see other people’s lists! Really, all I ever seem to do is read, write, go to sleep, and go to work, so there’s not really much on my Christmas list other than Amazon gift cards.

As always, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Here’s my list (in case I win the lottery for most of these items):

Life After Legend (the Warcross pre-order gift) – I don’t know if this technically counts as a “book” or a bookish item, but I’m going to call it a bookish item because I want it for my collection. This seems to be as difficult to find as an original Van Gogh painting. Fortunately, I have read the story because I went and bought the paperback copy of Warcross so I could read it, but I still want the original. If you ever see this on eBay or know of someone who would like to sell their copy, please send me a message. It would go nicely with Life After Legend II, which I am fortunate enough to have.

The waterproof Kindle Paperwhite – my current Kindle Paperwhite works fine, so this isn’t something I plan on rushing out to buy any time soon. However, it is four years old, and I’m sure that someday, I’ll need to get another one. I don’t really want a Fire, because I like the way the Paperwhite reads, so something like this would be the replacement.

Bookshelves – I currently don’t own a bookshelf. We used to have some really nice ones that we bought in Italy. We got rid of them after we had a house fire years ago. I don’t really have any room for them in my house; that’s why we don’t have any right now.

A New House – okay, so now we’re getting a little crazy here. I certainly don’t need a new house, although one day I hope to move to a house that has room for bookshelves. My husband bought a Powerball ticket the other day when the jackpot was way up there, and he had fun dreaming about what he’d do if we won. If we did win, I’d get a really big house with a library.

Here’s another one of those bookish things that I absolutely don’t need: a new laptop computer. The one I have right now is a little slow, but it’s okay. This one would be more for me to write on rather than to read on, but writing is a part of my bookish life too.

These magnetic bookmarks might be more what That Artsy Reader Girl had in mind when she came up with the bookish merchandise topic. These are Shadowhunters in pajamas, and they’re pretty cute. Although they are adorable, I tend to lose my bookmarks fairly easily. I usually keep then around for the entire time I am reading the book, and then I lose them. That’s why I usually just use scraps of paper. Maybe I should give this idea to my parents for Christmas.

Scribbler Subscription box – This is another idea I might give my parents for Christmas. I think that most subscription boxes would have a lot of things I didn’t need in them, but these boxes are designed for writers, so they might have some things that are actually useful.

Composition books – I bought some of these at the beginning of the school year, so I don’t really need any at the moment, but these are great for writing. I keep one in the backpack that I take to work. My job primarily consists of staring at people and thinking up stories in my head. They don’t pay me to think up stories, but I do anyway. At any rate, on my breaks, whenever I come up with something that I might want in my latest WIP while I’m at work, I write it down while I’m on my breaks.

Bluetooth keyboard – Here’s another item that I already have, but is absolutely wonderful for my bookish life. I take my Bluetooth keyboard to work and use it on my breaks. Mostly to tweet quickly. So far, I’m well ahead of my target wordcount for NaNoWriMo, but if I did get behind, this Bluetooth keyboard could be used to write The Brightness of Shadow while I’m on my breaks for NaNoWriMo. Because it works with my iPhone. And I don’t want to take a laptop to work. A laptop wouldn’t even fit in my locker.

Mini three ring binder – These would fit in my backpack, like the composition books. They’re better though, because you can take the pages out and move them around. Which is good when you have writing ADD like I do, and work on several projects at once.

So there’s my list. This one was really difficult to do. Next week’s list should be much easier, because we’re talking about thankfulness for the American holiday of Thanksgiving! I have a lot to be thankful for. So I’ll see you then, unless you stop by before that!