Saturday, January 13, 2018

In My Mailbox #323

Hahaha. I keep getting worse and worse for each week that goes by. Last week it was my lungs. They are lots better after I got antibiotics, and so I don't cough anymore. Which is good. But for this past week I have gotten arthritis pain. Which I have not had for real since I was a child, which I can't even remember. But holy fuck this is painful. Can barely move. Every joint in my body hurts. Worst in my knees and hips. And wrists and shoulders. And every fucking where. I'm so goddamn tired of this. There is new pain ALL THE TIME. I can't take this. I'm trying to stay positive. I am. But it is so hard. I'm tired of being in pain all the time. Sigh. But still, I'm doing okay. For the most part. Blogged a bit this week, and read one amazing book that I loved so much. First I shared a DNF review of The Final Six. First in a long time. This week I'm waiting on Toil & Trouble :) Then shared my review of Reign the Earth, eee. <3 I got some stunning mail this week, which I'm really happy about. And waiting on more awesome things this month, and ahh, I cannot wait :D SO excited. It shall all be awesome. Now just waiting and hoping my body will start feeling better too. Sigh. Fingers crossed for me, please. Now I am just waiting for more stunning mail to arrive :D



Renegades. I loved this book so, and I could not resist getting the gorgeous B&N edition of it too. Eee.
Furyborn. EEE! Thank you so much Ella for trading with me :D SO HAPPY. Fairyloot edition. Love it. <3
Everless. I'm excited about reading this one :D And a little nervous too. Hoping that I will love this book.
Carve the Mark. The new US paperback edition is gorgeous looking :D A little different. Loved the book.
Pop Figures. More pop, eee. I love collecting these. My Wonder Woman collection is huge and gorgeous.


My Plain Jane. YAY! So excited to read this one soonish :D Hope to love it lots. <3 Thank you EW. Eee.
Nightbooks. Yessss. So thrilled about this one :D Reading it very soon; cannot wait. <3 Thank you EW :D


More Instagram photos here. <3

Friday, January 12, 2018

Review: Reign the Earth by A. C. Gaughen

This book was all kinds of fantastic. I had hopes that I would love it, but I never imagined that I would love it as much as I ended up doing. Oh, this book was so good. Also all kinds of heartbreaking and evil. Yet so perfect. I loved every moment of it. And I am now dying for the second one. Wait will be long. But worth it, I'm sure.

Giving this book five stars. Because I could not stop reading this amazing book. Everything about it was thrilling. There were parts that I thought would be an issue for me, but it wasn't, not really. It was only heartbreaking. Yet written so good, that I could not help but love every moment of this story. Have much to share about it.

Will begin by saying that this writing was all kinds of incredible. I loved every part of it. And I had no issues at all with connecting with the story and the characters. It was all beautiful. This world was amazing too, and I loved learning about it at every moment. I'm so thrilled that I loved this book so much. Yesss. I will not be spoiling the story or many of the things that happen, but I will be sharing some spoilery thoughts about the romance. As I have a terrible need to talk about how this romance works. So that will be a bit spoilery, but also something you should probably know about before starting this book. Anyway, though, I really loved this awesome book. Such amazing characters. Stunning story, full of heartbreak. But hopeful too. I felt so much for everything.

This book is told from the point of view of Shalia. She is seventeen years old, and she is about to marry a man she has never before met. Her family is a desert clan, and they have lived in the desert their whole lives. And I loved that part so much, because Shalia was amazing, and reading about her home was the best. Her family was big and oh so awesome. Wish there had been more about them all. Shalia agreed to marry a king from a different place, so that there will finally be peace, and no more war between them all.

And oh, I don't know how I felt about that. Shalia was such a stunning character to read about. She was strong and fierce and just so awesome. In the desert, she was the strongest girl. But then she got married and had to leave the desert, and she changed so much. From strong to broken. But then back to strong again, later on. But yeah, those were some heartbreaking parts. But anyway. About the marriage. I really wish she had not had to do that. But she wanted to, as she wanted to help her family, to keep them safe.

The beginning of this book was pretty fun and safe. Loved reading about the very short time before Shalia got married. Reading a little bit about her best friend, Kata, was all kinds of awesome. I adored her. And Shalia's family was the best. We get to know two of her brothers a lot, Rian and Kairos. I am a bit unsure about Rian, but I did like him a bunch. And Kairos was simply the very best. Fun and protective and just an awesome guy. Loved that he was always there for Shalia. Because she truly did need him there. Ack.

This story was all kinds of incredible and exciting and heartbreaking. I don't know how to talk about it all. There is a bit of magic included. And Shalia ends up getting such an awesome power at the beginning of this book. I loved how she learned how to use it, though it took some time. And learning the past of others with powers hurt my heart more than I can say. There is a lot of mention of torture. It was awful. And yet written so well, and I loved it so much. Sigh. But incredibly sad. Yet exciting too, I loved all of the details.

This book is about Shalia marrying this king, Calix. I liked reading about the wedding, and her time with her family before that. But oh, I was worried about this book. Because of her getting married. Because of her husband not being a kind man, though she did not know that at first. But she ended up finding it out pretty fast. Shalia gets married, and is now expected to have a baby fast. Which means she's having to sleep with him every night. It hurt me so so badly. Because it was never any pleasure for her, no feelings.

Which is where the spoilery parts come in. I cannot help but talk about it a little. I worried I would dislike this book, because Shalia had to sleep with this man every night. Ahh. Yet he is not the real love interest. Though it hurt my heart more than I can say, I was not bothered by this. No love triangles, no feelings for her husband at all, and all I felt about it was pain. Because Shalia deserved so much better. And her new husband was not a kind king at all. He didn't care for her the way she deserved to. Bothered me so much.

Thankfully, though, this man was not the love interest. His brother was, Galen. And while that may sound a bit weird, it really wasn't. This book takes place over several months. And Shalia has no feelings for her husband, only hate. And her slowly falling for Galen gave me the happiest feelings. It gave me hope, that there could be a happy ending for Shalia. But yeah. That happy ending might take some time. So much happens in this book. So much heartbreak and death and other awful things. But it was so amazing too.

I am not going to share much more about this story. While I talked a lot about the romance, I have not shared much about the plot at all. And I'm not going to. Just letting you know that the story was all kinds of interesting and exciting. I loved reading Shalia's story. It broke me, but I am hopeful too. For the most part. The ending was so exciting and evil and I loved it so. Cannot wait to read more about her. Be aware, though, that this book is pretty sad. But there is hope. And there is a lot of amazing characters included.

There were so many characters in this book. I loved Shalia the very most. She was so strong, even when she was broken. Even after everything she had to go through. I loved that about her. And her story was the very best. Sigh. Just, please don't let her suffer more in book two. Ahh. I'm nervous. Yet so excited. I also loved Galen just as much as I loved her. He was incredible to read about. Protective and brave and just awesome. Wish to know him more. And oh, his sister, Danae. I loved her, and I hated her a little too.

Reign the Earth was everything I was hoping it would be and more. I'm so happy with how much I loved this book. Happy that I finally read it too. I loved the writing so much, and the characters were all amazing to read about. This lovely author is all kinds of incredible. I simply cannot wait to read more books by her. Eee. Now just waiting for news about book two. I need that so very much. Reign the Earth had a stunning setting and an exciting plot. Full of surprises and awful and hopeful things. You all need to read this book.


Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Waiting on Wednesday #326

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

TOIL & TROUBLE 
BY JESSICA SPOTSWOOD & TESS SHARPE

Goodreads Description:

A young adult fiction anthology of 16 stories featuring contemporary, historical, and futuristic stories featuring witchy heroines who are diverse in race, class, sexuality, religion, geography, and era.

Are you a good witch or a bad witch?

Glinda the Good Witch. Elphaba the Wicked Witch. Willow. Sabrina. Gemma Doyle. The Mayfair Witches. Ursula the Sea Witch. Morgan le Fey. The three weird sisters from Macbeth.

History tells us women accused of witchcraft were often outsiders: educated, independent, unmarried, unwilling to fall in line with traditional societal expectations.

Bold. Powerful. Rebellious.

A bruja’s traditional love spell has unexpected results. A witch’s healing hands begin to take life instead of giving it when she ignores her attraction to a fellow witch. In a terrifying future, women are captured by a cabal of men crying witchcraft and the one true witch among them must fight to free them all. In a desolate past, three orphaned sisters prophesize for a murderous king. Somewhere in the present, a teen girl just wants to kiss a boy without causing a hurricane.

From good witches to bad witches, to witches who are a bit of both, this is an anthology of diverse witchy tales from a collection of diverse, feminist authors. The collective strength of women working together—magically or mundanely--has long frightened society, to the point that women’s rights are challenged, legislated against, and denied all over the world. TOIL & TROUBLE delves deep into the truly diverse mythology of witchcraft from many cultures and feminist points-of-view, to create modern and unique tales of witchery that have yet to be explored.


Hardcover, 304 pages
Expected publication: August 28th 2018 by Harlequin Teen
Pre-Order here and here

I think I'm going to enjoy these short stories a whole bunch. Because I love reading about witches, eee, and need more stories about them. I'm not the biggest fan of anthologies, but will be reading this. Excited about all of the stories :D Most excited about Elizabeth May, whom I adore lots. Hope to love this book.
What are you waiting for on this bewitching Wednesday?

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

DNF Review: The Final Six by Alexandra Monir

It has been a long time since I decided to not finish a book that I started. But today I had to. I simply could not read more of this book. I read four chapters, and made it to page 42 of 233 of my eARC of this book. I will not be writing a long note, but I had to write a little. Must share the reasons for why I am not reading it.

Sadly, I knew from the first page that this writing wasn't for me. I don't know how to describe it, not really. There are a lot of writing types that I just can't stand. And this was one of those. This book also begins with the main boy trying to kill himself. By drowning. Yeah. It was really not a good first impression for me at all. Ugh.

As I did not read too much of this book, I cannot say that much about it. But I simply could not make myself read more. As I did not like the writing. And in these first four chapters, I did not care for the two main characters at all. They were boring. Boy lost his whole family, now he wants to kill himself. Except that he hears a boat, and swims up, ending his suicide attempt. Then he learns that he is one of the twenty four chosen to hopefully go to space. And now he is thrilled at living. Yeah. Not a story for me at all. Did not care for this boy. And sadly the girl seemed so boring too, and I have nothing to say about her, not really. Her two chapters just bored me so, so much. I wanted to read this book, because I love books about space. And this book looked gorgeous.

But oh, I have learned from peeking, that this book will not take place in space at all. All of it is on earth. And then space in book two. Yeah. I don't have that kind of patience, sadly. And have also heard that the romance will be huge too. And just. I don't see it. At all. I mean, I read really little of this book, but simply cannot imagine reading more of it at this time. Might try it again, one day, but not now. Huge thank you to HarperTeen at Edelweiss for the auto-approval. I'm so sorry I had to DNF this book. But it was not for me.

DNF

Saturday, January 6, 2018

In My Mailbox #322

I can't decide what to feel about this week. I read a great book, which was awesome. I got some pretty mail, which I love. But my health still sucks the very most. I had my hospital visit yesterday, supposed to get another medicine. But I got antibiotics instead, as I had to take an x-ray of my lungs. They found out that I have pneumonia. How rude. So now on a ten day cure, hoping that will help. Trying new medicine, hopefully, later this month. Fingers crossed. And really hoping these pills will make me feel better again. Hmph. But I'm trying to stay positive. Just wish I could stop feeling pain all the time. Still. I'm doing good. Hoping to read a lot more this year :D Fingers crossed. Also blogged a little bit this week. <3 Shared my Best Books of 2017 :D This week I'm waiting on Nightbooks. <3 I shared my review of Onyx & Ivory :D Yay. I'm also waiting on some awesome books to arrive this month, and gosh, how I am excited. Eeee :)



Middle-Earth. EEE. I could not resist buying this huuuge expensive thing :D IT IS GORGEOUS. Love.
Pop Figures. Final black friday figures finally arrived, yay :D More Stranger Things. Moana from Ebay :D
The Girl From Everywhere + The Ship Beyond Time. I have yet to read these, and I want to, so got them.
Gray Wolf Island. I could not resist buying this book. As I have heard great things. Please be awesome.


Onyx & Ivory. Eee! I had to get this via EW this week :D And already read it. And enjoyed it very much.
The Young Queens. Yesss. I cannot wait to read this short story this month :D I am beyond excited for it.


More Instagram photos here. <3