Re-reading for August: #ReadThroneOfGlass and #TLCReadAlong!!

Hello there guys!

Today I don't have a regularly scheduled Saturday Pages review but I'm gonna be babbling about books anyhow because that's what us bookwyrms do when given half a chance!

Before I fell into the rabbit hole of Goodreads and eventually book blogging I still read and devoured books as much as I do now, but since my TBR pile wasn't as life threatening, I used to re-read my favourite books for comfort. There are some books that I must have read over 20 times, like The Eight or Miguel Strogoff...

But since I started discovering so many new books and series and authors I haven't really given myself time to re-read books, and I decided I needed to change that this year.

I've decided to give myself permision to re-read and not worry about the ever growing TBR pile or the ARCs that I get approved for on NG or anything else! Re-reading books that I loved is a joy that I need to allow myself to enjoy more often!

And to nudge myself into it, I decided to join two re-readalongs! #ReadThroneOfGlass and #TLCReadAlong!

The #ReadThroneOfGlass is a readalong or re-readalong to prepare ourselves for the release of Queen of Shadows on September 1st.

I must say, I couldn't be happier that I have joined the readalong!

I finally read my hardcover of Assassin's Blade because I had read the Kindle versions of some of the novellas only, and reading them all one after the other, inlcuding the new one was fantastic! Highly recommended for anyone wanting to start the Throne of Glass series: READ THE NOVELLAS FIRST! They give a much better understanding of Celaena and her character and her career as an assassin and her complex relationship with Arobynn. And we meet some characters that we'll be meeting again in upcoming books, Queen of Shadows onwards!

I read Throne of Glass first and the novellas later, and at first it took me a while to understand Celaena and cheer for her. And then I read the novellas, and I understood her so much better!

Re-reading Throne of Glass was such a different experience, with so many little details that I had not noticed or had forgotten about and that will have such a relevance in the upcoming books! And some definite foreshadowing and hints that I missed on the first read! I loved reading about the interactions between Chaol and Dorian and Celaena and her meeting and growing friendship with Nehemia, her hate for the King and her intense fear of the man... So many things that make sense from the very first moment in a way that the didn't the first time!

The same thing happened with Crown of Midnight, I was so shocked to realize how many important things I might have missed and how I had forgotten about some of the things that happened! Of course that the revelations aren't as shocking, at least not the big ones, but there are plenty of things you read hoping to find more clues that you might have missed the first time, and some are really ominous knowing what we do know now! But even knowing what will happen doesn't lessen the heartache or the pain of the bad things when they happen, and the one thing is that at least I know that Fleetfoot WILL be okay!

Now I am re-reading Heir of Fire and I'm hoping to finish it this weekend so I can have it fresh in my mind when I read Queen of Shadows next week!

The #TLCReadAlong is hosted by Britt from Book Addicts Guide!

To prepare myself to reading Winter when it releases, I decided to join this low pressure read along because I have a month to read each of the books, so I'll manage to squeeze them in between whatever other books from the TBR pile and ARCs I plan to read without worrying about "I should be reading this or that instead of re-reading"!

Cinder was a surprise the first time I read it because a retelling of Cinderella with a cyborg and in a futuristic science fiction dystopia? But this time I already knew what kind of book it was gonna be, so I had less trepidation that let me enjoy the book more. And of course I also managed to notice the lil details here and there that didn't seem as relevant at the time of reading and maybe forgotten when reading the next books.

Some of the obscure mentions make a lot more sense and the first time we meet Cress? My poor adorable Cress! Cinder didn't know what to make of her! And of course the big reveal is not surprising any more, but I think it's fun to see the clues you might have missed at first!

And of course it was simply a joy to read again all the interactions between Cinder and Prince Kai and of course my fave lines had to be the ones by Iko! I still giggle when I think of "Do you think she's seen him in the nude?", her crush on Kai is so delightful!

Now I cannot wait to re-read Scarlet starting next month!! =D

Friday Reads: Firewalker by Josephine Angelini and The Girl with the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts!!

Happy Friday guys!

I've been reading loads as of late, which is great of course, but I've been really remiss at writing reviews, and now I have a backlog of reviews to write and publish, but hopefully I'll manage to sort that out!

I'm starting with two reviews for this week's Friday Reads! I'm having an ARC review that counts towards my ARC August goals first!

Firewalker by Josephine Angelini

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Last year I read and loved Trial by Fire, so getting my hands on an early copy of Firewalker was one of my top priorities at BEA, the fact that I met the author and got a signed ARC were one of my highlights of the event!

Firewalker starts pretty much where Trial of Fire left us, and so you might expect some spoilers for the first book in this review but I will try my best to avoid spoilers for this one.

Lily and Rowan are back in Lily's own universe and her own version of Salem, having escaped Lillian... more or less. Being back means having to deal with the consequences of her disappearance and having to explain a lot of things to her family and friends, the first one Rowan and her burns, even if her mum does help with everything in very unexpected ways.

But the respite of reality does not last long, and Lily find herself facing some really tough choices and keeping secrets from everyone, even from Rowan, which she knows is a very bad idea, but once started doesn't how to stop or explain.

Firewalker was a brilliant sequel because it takes us in a direction we really weren't expecting to go, with Lilly finding herself a new coven and being able to be who she really is with her family and friends.

We learn more about Lillian and her motivations for her despicable actions, and although we might still not agree with her genocide and killings, we do understand better her reasons and the fear behind what she's doing. Things stop being clearly black and white for Lily and for us, and she has to make her choices in what's clearly more in the grey spectrum and finds herself having to choose between the lesser of two evils. And she finds herself keeping more and more secrets, some with the power to break those she love.

But Lily proves that she's herself and not Lillian, no matter how she can understand the tough choices she made, and she finds herself trying to find an answer to the Woven to try and save Lillian's Salem and that reality from turning into a cinder world with her friends and some of her old allies, but not all of them.

Firewalker has plenty of new information, loads of unexpected twists and some hints at even more baffling reveals to come. Plenty of heartbreak and jarring revelations. The world building is expanded in many ways, the characters are challenged in different ways, the plot moves forward in unexpected ways and we are never sure what will happen next.

The ending was shocking, heartbreaking and a proper game changer and although I'm not a fan of cliffhangers, I have to say that Josephine Angelini really managed to left me both speechless and excited, shocked and intrigued and quite a bit shaken!




And then as my second Friday Reads review, I have August's book for The Midnight Garden Classic MG & YA challenge!

The Girl with the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This month I read the #tmgreadalong book on time and I really enjoyed it!
I keep on thinking how much I would have liked to have read this one as a young girl and how I would have dreamed that I could also move things with my mind, like Katie does.

Katie has just moved into a new place with her mum and she's having to adapt to the new place and living with her mother and a new place and new people. Something that might be hard for any kid, but Katie has never been a normal kid, and adults tend to be wary of her.

She finds herself dealing with unwanted babysitters, nice neighbours and others that are certified jerks and she makes some friends, and finds some acceptance to her oddity but still finds herself very much alone.

It was hard for me to read about how alone Katie really was, not able to confide in her mother or having her support, but instead feel like she was judged weird and held at arms lenght. She entertained herself and even if she tried to hide how she was "peculiar", she still felt like she shouldn't have to be ashamed of it.

I loved to see how resourceful she was once she found a hint of answers for her being different and how determined she was to finding someone else that would maybe be like her and would understand how she felt.

Seeing Katie use her powers for both good and mischief was a lot of fun, and I kept rooting for her to get rid of the babysitters and instead hang out with her neighbour, who would lend her books and was kind and understanding for a change. And once more silver eyes enter the fray, it was a lot of fun to see them understanding each other and working together.

It was quiter heartwarming seeing Katie's mum proving herself reliable and a better mother figure than appearances led us to believe at first, even if something dramatic had to happen to shake her into it.

All in all, a great read, both fun and with enough depth to hold its own well with younger and older readers alike! Well deserved 4 stars!



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Cover Reveal: Cursed by Christina Bauer!!

Hello there guys!

It's Friday and the weekend is almost here!

And to celebrate it, I'm taking part of the cover reveal for Christina Bauer's new book, hosted and organized by Xpresso Book Tours!


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Cursed by Christina Bauer (Book One of the Beholder series)

Published by: Ink Monster LLC
Publication date: March 29th 2016
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult


Although Elea’s the most powerful necromancer in history, she’s spent most of her nineteen years imprisoned in the Midnight Cloisters. Enchanted manacles keep her unique brand of soul magick in check. While the guards and initiates seem contented to torment her, the Cloister’s Mother Superior is obsessed with finding a safe way to destroy Elea, both body and soul.
Escape seems impossible until a handsome hunter named Asher offers to help. Elea takes a chance and soon develops feelings for the mysterious stranger. However, Asher may not be who he claims. Then again, Elea may not be, either…

 Preorder links:  Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo.

 About the author:

Christina graduated from Syracuse University's Newhouse School with BA's in English as well as Television, Radio, and Film Production. Her day job is in marketing for companies like Microsoft, Cisco, and Brainshark. Back in the go-go 90′s, she founded her own software start-up, Mindful Technologies. Christina believes that, upon close examination of Tolkien's text, it's entirely possible that the Balrog was wearing fuzzy bunny slippers.

Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Facebook 

September is for Sequels Challenge by Lisa Loves Literature!!

Hello there again!

Today is the day for challenges it seems! Not only I have the recap for ARC August, but I'm also doing the sign up post for the September is for Sequels Challenge!

This is my third year signing up and I really hope I will do better than I did last year because to my shame and horror, some of the books that were in my original pile, STILL remaind unread, so I do hope to do much better this year and READ THEM ONCE AND FOR ALL!

If you want to know all about the challenge read Lisa's post HERE! But long story short, Lisa from Lisa Loves Literature has this challenge for the month of September where we go pay attention to all those poor ignored sequels of books we loved!

So there's my pile, rather ambitious this time, but I really hope I can finally finish some of those series, because I really loved the first book and I want to read the sequels and finish the series too! I hope having Mini-maug and Morrigan in charge this year, they'll keep me accountable!

The Rules For Breaking by Ashely Elston (#2 and final book)

Unravel by Imogen Howson (#2 and final book)

Altered by Gennifer Albin (#2 in the trilogy)

Unraveled by Gennifer Albin (#3 and final book)

Kinslayer by Jay Kristoff (#2 in the trilogy)

Endsinger by Jay Kristoff (#3 and final book)

Let's hope I reach the end of September with all or most of these read!

ARC August: Third Week Recap!

Hey guys!

This post should have been done yesterday, since it's the recap for last week and all that, but since I was unplugged at the cottage, it'll have to be done a day later!

Clearly I do much better with my reading when I don't get distracter with Twitter and logging my reading progress on GR, so whenever I need to kick the TBR pile real good, I need to pack my books and head off for the cottage!

I finished Into The Fire before going to the cottage and I hope to review it soon! While at the cottage I read A Curious Tale of the In Between, Firewalker, Walk on Earth a Stranger and started Tonight The Streets Are Ours! (I also finished one book and read another two, but they are finished copies and therefore don't count towards this challenge).

Now... now I need to get my arse in gear and WRITE ALL THE REVIEWS!!

How did you guys do??

ARC August: Second Week Recap!

Hey guys! Welcome to my recap of the second week of ARC August!

This week I haven't done as well as I would have wanted, but being the mood reader than I am, I got through two re-reads and read a newly released book and started another... and so I only finished two ARCs, one physical : The Copper Gauntlet, the review will be up tomorrow and an eARC: The Bollywood Bride, review HERE.

I gave up on Legacy of Kings so I've DNFed that one, and will write a short DNF review after its release. Now I've started two ARCs and I hope to finish them early next week: A Curious Tale of the In-Between by Lauren DeStefano and Into The Fire by Manda Scott!

Into The Fire is one of my backlogged ARCs and I cannot believe I had forgotten about it because it's an adult historical fiction mixed with actual events novels by an author I love and I'm completely immersed in the book now!

Let's hope my mood reading is better and I can get through more ARCs since I'll be spending a few days at the cottage!

How did you guys do this week?

Saturday Pages: ARC Review of A Bollywood Bride by Sonali Dev!!!

Hey there guys!

Happy Saturday! I came back from spending a pair of days (mostly) unplugged at my parents' cottage, getting loads of puppy love, getting pampered by my mum and watching shooting stars at night with my mum and bro. And reading, loads of reading! Less ARCs than I should have, but I despite my best intentions, I'm always a mood reader at heart!

Still I managed to read a pair of ARCs and start another, and one of them is the one I'm reviewing today for this week's Saturday Pages, counting it towards my ARC August challenge and also since it is a diverse read, towards my 105 Challenge!

The Bollywood Bride by Sonali Dev

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I read and loved Sonali's debut last year so when I heard about her next book coming out this year I knew I had to read it! Of course I did a lil jig when I got approved for it on NetGalley by the publisher and after reading it I already have it preordered for myself and for my ex didi.

Ria's story is not an easy one, given what a traumatic past she had to deal with and what she fears will be the sure consequences to her future. She's carved herself a career on Bollywood and she keeps everyone away from her. But when her cousin calls her and begs her to attend her wedding, she feels like she needs to go and be there for the family that loves her, and after a potential scandal, leaving Mumbai for Chicago seems like the best option.

While I don't know all that much about the insides of the world of Bollywood, I have been treated as part of an Indian family both in India and in the US, and reading this book felt like being back there. The descriptions are effortless and vivid and the relationships between the characters always so well developed!

Ria is a very complex character with many different sides to her, and we can very well see them at play when she is just Ria with her family, to when we see her as Ria Parkar, the film star. She's both strong and enormously fragile, always battling with herself and trying to get through everything on her own. I wanted her to finally allow others to help her and seeing how hard her path was through it all really made my heart ache!

The romance here was particularly heartbreaking because of the history between Vikram and Ria and how meeting again after ten years there's a lot of pain and anger and suffering but still an undeniable chemistry and a knowing about each other that was painful to read about. I don't know if it'll be as painful for other people as it was for me, but the emotions jump out of the pages!

Mental health and the stigma still associated to mental health illnesses is also a big component of the book. Ria's life has been defined by that stigma and it's what continue to define how she sees herself and how she shapes her future.

A fantastic book with a wonderfully complex romance and a lot of depth. Bravo Sonali Dev! Very well deserved 5 stars!



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Friday Reads: ARC Review of Beastly Bones by William Ritter!!

Hey there!

Friday is here once again and I'm back from the cottage to get ready to go back to work this weekend, but at least I have some awesome co-workers this weekend, which is always a relief, and even more during the summer months!

For this week's Friday Reads I have another ARC review for ARC August and one that I hope it'll help reach the ever-ellusive 80% ratio on Netgalley!

Beastly Bones: A Jackaby Novel by William   Ritter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


After reading and loving Jackaby last year, I was thrilled to be approved by Algonquin books via NetGalley!

This book is also from Abigail's POV and it starts like any other day in the life of our paranormal investigators, with an intriguing and strange case of dangerous but apparently fluffy kittens.

And with such an intriguing but mostly harmless case we start and things get more intriguing and more dire once there's a murder and then they're hired by the police to help on the investigation because there's been another similar murder at the village where a certain handsome and somewhat canine policeman was destined after the events of the previous book.

We meet a peculiar friend of Jackaby's that has a special love for "unique" creatures and a whole new cast of characters quite distinctive all of them! Some a bit more exagerated than others but not to the point of being ridiculous, even if it was rather humorous at times!

Abigail gets to be more than just Jackaby's assistant because she gets her time to shine when it comes to her passion: paleontology! The murder happened close to a dig with an amazing dinosaur discovery and things start getting more and more mysterious and it seems like they might be related somehow.

I love how Abigail worries about her feelings for Charlie and if acting on them would end up cutting down the freedom she fought so hard for, to the point of crossing the Atlantic on her own. And I loved how Jackaby's reactions and advice were odd but somewhat on point (rather reminded me of the Tenth Doctor in those moments, with a lil of 11th too!).

So threads seemed to be unconnected: Jenny's acting unusually ghoulish, the strange kittens, and odd man that Abigail sees twice, the whole murders case...

It was a super fast read and I was never bored but I did get a bit frustrated because I felt that they took too long to put two and two together and I had guessed something rather big quite early on, although I had not guessed exactly who or how was responsible for it.

I was extremely excited about the end because it opens rather epic possibilities for the next book! A mastermind behind paranormal cases! Jenny's case! Cannot wait!

Well deserved 3.5 stars for this one! Quite recommended to those who want something that mix urban fantasy with historical fiction!



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