Series I Won’t Finish – Part 5

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these and since then, I’ve started some more series that I’m just not interested in continuing. I will obviously not be mentioning any of the series I mentioned in previous posts, you can check those out if you’re interested.

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Caraval by Stephanie Garber

I have not been shy about how much I hate this book. It was just not a good time for me, I didn’t enjoy anything about it. I have a spoiler free review and a spoilery rant about it. Check those out if you want to know my thoughts, but I have 0 intention of ever continuing with this series.

Legacy of Orisha by Tomi Adeyemi

Read Children of Blood and Bone and it was just such a disappointing book. I didn’t hate it exactly, but it was so mediocre and boring and just not well written. Which is a shame cause it had so much potential. I have also reviewed this. So I have no intention of reading the upcoming books in the series, I even unhauled this one.

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

Same as Children of Blood and Bone, I just did not enjoy this series. I thought I would, I was excited by the synopsis. But it was so underwhelming for me. I just didn’t care. I unhauled it as well. There’s a sequel coming out next year and I just have no intention of picking it up.

The Rime Chronicles by Mindee Arnett

I got the first book Onyx and Ivory in a Fairy Loot and I read it and was completely underwhelmed by it. I could tell that the author knew about horses, which I enjoyed. But otherwise it was just a lot of meh and wasted potential. The next book comes out this June, but I’m not going to pick it up.

These Rebel Waves by Sara Raasch

I have tried reading two of Sara Raasch series and they both fell really flat. Her story ideas are always so cool, but then the execution falls flat for me and I don’t feel compelled to continue. I don’t remember whether I mentioned Snow Like Ashes in one of my other posts, but that’s her other series that I’ve tried and just have no interest in continuing.

Grace & Fury by Tracy Banghart

Again, this book was completely underwhemling. I don’t care in the slightest what happens to the characters. I just… meh. I don’t care.

 

November-December 2018 Wrap Up

The end of 2018 was pretty tough for me. I had a lot of work and also a lot of personal things going on. So I didn’t get to read as much as I would have liked. I still managed to finish 8 books in the final two months of the year, which is not too bad.

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Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie

This is the sequel to The Blade Itself which I read earlier in the year and still haven’t reviewed. I’ve been comparatively good with continuing with series this year. And I’m hoping to carry that into 2019. I’m actually currently reading the next book in this series and thoroughly enjoying it. Anyway, to talk about Before They Are Hanged, it was not as good as the first book in my opinion. It was still really good, but I did find it had a bit of a second book slump. Still, so much happened in this book. The world was expanded on, we met some new and fascinating characters and got to explore some old ones. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I am now a Joe Abercrombie fan. I gave this book 4/5 stars. 

Hunting Prince Dracula by Kerri Maniscalco

In the spirit of continuing with series, I finished listening to this on audio. Once again, it was not as good as the first book. I still really enjoyed the characters and the narration. However, I did have a little issue with it because it was set in my homeland of Transylvania and liberties were taken with folklore and the language and stuff like that. Still, it was enjoyable and I do look forward to continue with this series. 3/5 stars.

City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab

This is by far my last favourite Schwab book. It’s probably because it’s middle grade. I don’t feel like Victoria can do middle grade as well as she does YA or adult. It had an interesting concept and it was entertaining, I liked the characters and the setting. But I just wanted more from it. 3/5 stars.

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

I finally finished listening to this. It was a good book, but sadly not really my kind of book. I’m just not so much into these stories of middle class drama. It was really well written and set in Amsterdam, which was really cool to read about. But I tend to like my stakes higher in my books. This is not an epic story. It did have an interesting mystery and as I said, it’s really well written. Just not my cup of tea. I ended up giving it 3.5/5 stars, because I just had to appreciate the skill that went into writing the book.

The Wicked and the Divine: The Faust Act by Kieron Gillen

I’d heard a lot about this graphic novel series and was intrigued so I picked up the first volume. I was not as wowed by it as I was expecting to be. I really enjoyed the art in it. It’s absolutely stunning and the concept is really cool. But the execution left something to be desired in my opinion. It was just confusing. And I usually don’t mind being dropped into the middle of a story. But the way that things happened didn’t seem to flow to me. It was kind of fragmented in a way. Like we were missing chunks in the story. Characters showed up out of nowhere. And I think it was intentional and this sort of storytelling can be very gripping. But there was just something missing. It didn’t feel smoothly done in my opinion. I’m still interested in continuing with the series though. 3.5/5 stars. 

Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas

I finally, FINALLY finished this book. It took me over a year to read. It was good, except that chaol was in it. If it had been someone other than Chaol, this would have been like a 4 or 4.5 star read. But because I hate Chaol so much, it was a 2/5 stars.

These Rebel Waves by Sara Raasch

Sara Raasch Has cool concepts but her books always fall short for me. They’re just meh. And this one was no exception. The characters were stereotypical, the plot was predictable. It was just… meh. 2/5 stars

The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett

I finished the year with a bang. I am so glad I chose this as my final read of 2018. I’ve been putting off reading Terry Pratchett for some time now, but I shouldn’t have because it was just as brilliant as everyone told me it would be. I had a blast with this book and I can’t wait to continue with the Discworld books. 5/5 stars

My TBR Shelf

I’ve never had a designated TBR shelf before. I usually kept read and unread books together. But I recently moved to a new flat and I have this little shelf right next to my bed, so I decided to put my unread books on it. These aren’t all of my unread owned books, because they wouldn’t all fit, so I kept my unread non-fiction books separately.

A great photographer, I am not, but this is what the shelf looks like at the moment.

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The books on here aren’t actually sorted in any particular way except that the hardbacks are at one end and I kind of grouped the white books, but other than that I just shoved them on in whatever order. The little shelf at the top holds the books that I’ve already started but have yet to finish.

In case you are for whatever reason curious as to what books are on my TBR shelf, they are as follows:

Top shelf (started but not yet finished)

Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas – I’ve legit been reading this for a year now. Since it came out last year. I’m just really not enjoying it, mainly because I cannot stand Chaol. I just want to get through it so I can get to Kingdom of Ash. I’m almost halfway through it (I know, I hate Chaol that much).

The Black Prism by Brent Weeks – This is another one that I just couldn’t really get into. I was actually expecting to enjoy this book and series as I’ve heard great things about it from people I trust. And I am intrigued by the plot and the world, but again, I dislike the main character and it just puts me off reading it. Every time I pick it up, I read a few pages and I put it back down. I’m 135 pages into this one.

Looking for Alaska by John Green – I started reading this at the start of September, but then I just really haven’t been in a contemp kind of mood, so I haven’t been picking it up much.

The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis – This is the non-fiction that I’m currently reading and as usual with Lewis’ books, I’m really enjoying it. Though I have to say at least so far, this one is my least favourite of his books that I have read.

What If? Serious Scientific Answersto Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe – This is another non-fiction that I’m reading, though not as actively as The Four Loves. Because of the nature of this book, this is what I pick up when I have only 5 minutes and want a quick pick me up as each chapter is very entertaining and usually quite short.

These Rebel Waves by Sara Raasch – You can’t actually see the spine of this one, but it’s the one with green pages. This is my meh book of the moment. Am I the only one who has a book that’s just kind of mediocre that you read when you’re too tired for anything that requires more than a quarter of a brain and you don’t want to read a book you love because you won’t be able to focus, but you want to read? Or when you just finished an awesome book and you know you won’t be able to focus on a new one, but you also want to keep reading? No? Just me? Anyway, this is my second Sara Raasch book and I didn’t really like the first one either.

The Bat by Jo Nesbo – Final book on the little shelf. I’ve been reading this book even longer than ToD. I’m debating just admitting that I’m never going to finish it. But… it was recommended to me by someone special and I just really wanted to like it.

Bottom shelf

I haven’t actually read any of these, so I don’t have much to say about each one. I’ll just list them, from left to right:

Hardbacks

Catwoman: Soulstealer by Sarah J. Maas | Heart of Thorns by Bree Barton | Turtles All the Way Down by John Green | The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett | State of Sorrow by Melinda Salisbury | Vengeful by V. E. Schwab

Paperbacks

The Crow Girl by Erik Axl Sund | Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pincola Estes | Elantris by Brandon Sanderson |A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by G. R. R. Martin | Origin by Dan Brown | Down River by John Hart

Wild Embers by Nikita Gill | The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood | City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab | The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett | Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu | Mark of the Thief by Jennifer A. Nielsen | A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas | Waking Gods by Sylvain Neuvel | American Gods by Neil Gaiman

A Huge Book Haul

I haven’t actually made a haul post since April. That’s 6 months of acquiring books. So… I don’t even know how many books there are going to be. A lot.

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Heart of Thorns by Bree Barton | These Rebel Waves by Sara Raasch | Angry White Pyjamas by Robert Twigger | Catwoman Soulstealer by Sarah J. Maas | Origin by Dan Brown

The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett | The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett | Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie | Elantris by Brandon Sanderson | A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle

City of Ghosts by V. E. Schwab | Vengeful by V. E. Schwab | The Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred Year Old Man by Jonas Jonasson | Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik | Down River by John Hart

Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel | Waking Gods by Sylvain Neuvel | Lifelike by Jay Kristoff | Wild Embrace by Nikita Gill | The Killing Moon by N. K. Jemisin

That’s it, unless I’m forgetting something. Which is entirely likely. Actually not as many as I was expecting. I was on a book buying ban for a couple of months though, so that’s probably why the total only comes up to 20. And some of these, I didn’t even buy myself!

Even MORE Series I will probably not finish (Part 4)

Well, I was bound to have another one of these sooner or later. You can check out parts one, two and three if you like.

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1. Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch

I didn’t particularly like this book. It was too wishy-washy and insta-lovey for me. It had a pretty cool world concept, but it just wasn’t enough  to hold my interest. You can read my full review of it here if you are interested, but yeah… not likely to ever pick up the other ones.

Goodreads | Book Depository

2. Legend by Marie Lu

It’s not that I didn’t like this. I enjoyed it. It’s just that my focus has sort of shifted away from dystopian in the past year and I really don’t read dystopia anymore unless it’s some mindblowingly amazing one. And Legend was good, but it wasn’t by any means mindblowing. So I just don’t think I will ever get around to reading the other two books. I’m still holding out for The Young Elites though. It was so much better than Legend and it’s a fantasy dystopia and I don’t know why I haven’t read the rest of it yet, but I hope it won’t end up on my next “will not finish” post, because it would be a shame.

Goodreads | Book Depository

3. Stealing Snow by Danielle Paige

UGH! I do not know how to tell you how much I hated this book. I actually haven’t even finished it because it’s so boring and annoying and Snow is so whiny and insufferable and stupid. *deep breath* Yeah, no. Not going to happen.

Goodreads | Book Depository

4. The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

I really enjoyed this book. But I read it quite a while ago and I haven’t picked up the other ones and I just don’t really see myself doing that anytime soon. I still might get around to reading it eventually. Though realistically, I probably won’t because you know… so many books, so little time. It’s like Robert Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken. “Oh, I kept the first for another day, But knowing how way leads on way,/I doubted if I should ever come back.” I really like that poem.

Goodreads | Book Depository

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There are a few other candidates for this list, but I’ll hold out on them a little longer. Still, I reckon it won’t be too long before I have another one of these posts.

The Sims Book Tag

It’s been foreverrrr! I’ve been super busy and been neglecting this place for the past couple of weeks. Hopefully, I’ll be able to ease back into it now that the crazy couple of weeks have gone. And what better way to do that than with a book tag? Thank you to Heather @The Sassy Geek for tagging me!

So, let’s get into it!

The Original Sims – The best author debut.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It’s hard to believe this is a debut.

The Grim Reaper – Saddest character death.

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo. You know who I’m talking about! *sobs uncontrollably*

Sims Getting Stuck – A character that just got in the way.

Mare Barro from Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard. My hatred for her knows no bounds. I feel like the whole world would have been better without her.

Simlish – A book with amazing writing.

Anything that Laini Taylor writes.

Expansion Packs – A series where the books keep on getting better.

I am DYING for ACOWAR! I NEED IT!

Sim Romance – The worst case of insta-love.

Meira and that prince guy. Forgot his name. I mean, Snow Like Ashes is just the most recent horribly insta-love-y book I’ve read. I’m sure there are many others.

Cheats – A book that was entirely unrealistic.

Pale Highway by Ncholas Conley. I mean… talking slugs?

Needs Fulfillment – A character who made all the wrong decisions.

Tamlin. TAMLIN. Tamlin. T a m l i n.

Error Code 12 – A series that started off great but went downhill from there.

I mean, I wouldn’t say it started off great, but compared to Glass Sword, Red Queen was much better.

The Sims Vortex – A book/series that completely engrossed you.

I would start reading and next thing I knew, it was dark, I hadn’t eaten all day and I really had to pee.

That’s it for this tag. Thank you once again to Heather for tagging me. And if you love the Sims, then you are tagged to do this!

Autumn-Winter Book Haul

It’s been a long while since I’ve done a book haul. So I thought I’d show you the books I’ve acquired recently. I’ve been pretty sensible, I think. I’ve only got about 15 new books since September.

I’m going to show them to you in fives, because I’m too lazy to show you every single one of them. Plus, that would be a very long post. So here are the first five books. If I have a review for a book, I’ll link to it, so you can click on the title and see where that takes you.

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo  | An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir | Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch | Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas | Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

I  only bought 4 of the following 5 books. I won Fear the Drowning Deep in a giveaway.

The Diabolic by S. J. Kincaid | Fear the Drowning Deep by Sarah Glenn Marsh | A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness | The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss | The Wise man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss 

And finally, the last five books of which I actually only bought 3. So really, that brings my total for the last 4 months to 12 books. Which is reasonable. I’m actually kind of proud of myself.

Avatar The Last Airbender: The Lost Adventures by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dimartino | Avatar the Last Airbender: The Promise Part 1 by Gene Luen Yung | A Toaster on Mars by Darrell Pitt | Clancy of the Undertow by Christopher Currie | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling

This concludes my book haul. I have been very sensible about buying books. Surprisingly sensible.

November & December Wrap up

For some reason, I didn’t do a November wrap up (probably because I didn’t really read in November), so I’m doing a combined wrap up. Which shouldn’t be too long, because I’ve been reading very little.

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

This is the first book that I read probably back in November. I really loved it, it lived up to all the hype around it for sure. I have a review of it if you’d like to read all of my thoughts on it, but all around, I would say it’s a good fantasy, has an amazing setting and an interesting story. The characters weren’t my favourite, I feel like they were a bit too trope-y for my taste, but I still gave it 5/5 stars and I’m still looking forward to reading the next one.

Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch

This one was a bit of a disappointment for me. I was expecting more from it. It had a lot of potential; it had a brilliant setting and a decent plot to begin with, but the characters were insipid and the story was all over the place, as if Raasch wasn’t really sure what she wanted to do with it. I also have a review of it, if you’re interested to know more of my thoughts. I don’t think I will be continuing with this series. It was just too meh for me to be interested in the rest of it. 3/5 stars

The Diabolic by S. J. Kincaid

This was a surprisingly good sci-fi, considering it’s a standalone. So kudos to Kincaid. I’d never read one of her books before, but I might do just that now. I really enjoyed the story and the characters and overall, I just really enjoyed reading this book. It was very well balanced in terms of plot vs worldbuilding, which is something I really appreciate, especially that it wasn’t a particularly long book. I have a review of this one as well, so check that out for more details. 5/5 stars.

Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Lost Adventures

This was probably the best thing I read recently in terms of pure entertainment value. It’s a great graphic novel with awesome artwork and I really do recommend it for any fans of The Last Airbender. It’s one of my favourite shows and somehow, this managed to capture the essence of the show so well I could hardly tell the difference. I have a full review of this one as well, so check that out. 5/5 stars

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

This book was a masterpiece. Like honestly, I hardly feel qualified to judge this book. It was just SO. GOOD! So masterfully written, so rich and powerful and just beautiful. I just want to have it scrubbed from my brain just so I can read it for the first time all over again. It’s that kind of book. I have a full review of this one as well, so be sure to have a look. 5/5 stars. But of a completely different caliber than the other 5/5 stars in this post. This series is in a league of its own, really.

The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

And finally, the last book I read in 2016. And what a book! Of course I had to immediately read the sequel to The Name of the Wind. And now I of course have to wait forever for the next one. As if ASOIAF wasn’t enough frustration for me. Anyway, I read this mammoth of a book and I loved it every bit as much as its predecessor and I want the next one yesterday. I haven’t had the time to review it yet on account of it being huge and I want to do it justice. But I’ll have a review of it coming up soon, so keep an eye out. 5/5 stars.

 

 

Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch – Book Review

Rating: 3/5 stars

Genre: Fantasy, YA

First published: 2014

Author: Sara Raasch

Synopsis: Sixteen years ago the Kingdom of Winter was conquered and its citizens enslaved, leaving them without magic or a monarch. Now, the Winterians’ only hope for freedom is the eight survivors who managed to escape, and who have been waiting for the opportunity to steal back Winter’s magic and rebuild the kingdom ever since.

Orphaned as an infant during Winter’s defeat, Meira has lived her whole life as a refugee and she would do anything for her kingdom. So when scouts discover the location of the ancient locket that can restore Winter’s magic, Meira decides to go after it herself.

Book Depository | Goodreads

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I was kind of disappointed by this book. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t that good either. It was very predictable and it also didn’t really seem to know what it was doing. It was like the author started out writing one story and then decided at some point to write another one, but didn’t bother to change the first part. For a 400-something page book, there wasn’t really anything going on.

Another thing that really annoyed me and made me just skim the last half of the book was Meira whining all the time about how much her life sucked. Which is one of my biggest pet peeves. I really didn’t like her as a character. I actually didn’t really like any of the characters. I didn’t dislike them or anything, I just didn’t care about them. Except for Meira, who annoyed me. And of course, there had to be an unnecessary love triangle that didn’t make me feel anything other than an intense desire to roll my eyes.

What I really enjoyed about the book though, was the setting. It’s a really cool world. I love the idea of season kingdoms and it’s an interesting magic system as well, in which the magic linked to one kingdom can only affect the citizens of that kingdom. I feel like this could have been a much better book if it had been better written, better planned out maybe? Because the idea was cool.

All in all, this was one of those books that will look really pretty on my shelf, but that will probably soon fade out of my memory.