Month: February 2020

January was STRESSFUL for me. So over Christmas I got the flu (like literally on Christmas Eve) so because of that I missed a week of work and a week of pay. This caused me to panic on how on earth I was going to pay for school and a very ill timed vacation. All of this was going on while I thought that I would be loosing my job for a few months because we are closing the location we have now to open a new location. So I was very stressed which lead to very little reading. However, I managed to pay for school, go on vacation (where I got all my reading done) and kept my job! So it all worked out. Here’s to February being much better! (where have we heard that before?)

The first book on the chopping block was The Afterlife of Holly Chase by Cynthia Hand. Fun Fact about this book is that when I went to go and read it I realized it was signed by the author (I got the book from thrift books) so I put it on my Instagram stories and tagged Cynthia Hand and Thriftbooks and Cynthia Hand shared it to her story and Thriftbooks reacted to it and it was just about the coolest thing that has ever happened to me! The book itself was three stars for me. I like it enough and the concept is really cool, but I felt like Holly Chase, the protagonist, didn’t grow and had a lot of character growth at the same time. She wasn’t unlikable but I wouldn’t say she was likable either. I just felt kinda blah about it. I liked her romance with the romantic interest, Ethan, who was also the Scrooge they were trying to help and I think that helped her grow a lot. It just wasn’t everything I thought it was going to be, but it also wasn’t a bad read. I enjoyed the aspect that there was a secret organization that picks a “Scrooge” every year and gives them the Christmas Carol treatment. I just wish some more had been uncovered but there are just things that we never get answers for.

Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature is a reread for me and it is honestly one of my favorite books. It deals with petty high school drama, boys, religion and science in a way that isn’t preachy or making you lean one way or another. Mena is a freshman in high school ans wants nothing more then to be completely invisible, after all half of her ex-church and possibly her parents are being sued because of her. I love Mena. She is smart and she has a big heart (one of the reasons why everybody is being sued). She just wanted to do the right thing and doing it had major unintended consequences but because of it she was able to see the world from a different point of view. The main event in the story is that Mena’s ex-church and therefor her ex- friends are protesting the teaching of evolution in her biology class, but because she has been ostracized she doesn’t participate and she actually realizes that she A) likes biology B) gets the chance to make friends with her lab partner Casey and subsequently his family and C) realizes that science and religion get to coexist. I would like to think that Mena and Casey are still together and Casey is this world famous author and scientist like his dad and Mena is a theological scholar with a minor in biology and she sometimes helps Casey out and they have tons of black lab puppies. The one thing I dislike is how Mena’s parents treat her. They ice her out after “the incident” and they don’t even stand up for their own daughter and punish her for what she did. If my theoretical child did what she did I would fight hell hounds for them and reward them for doing the right but hard thing. Her ex-church and her ex-friends totally had it coming to them in my opinion.

Etiquette and Espionage is my second ever audio book. One of my goals this year is to listen to more audio books. So I listen to them when I shower and when I do things around the house and so far I really enjoy it. I loved the Narrator for this one she does different voices for the different characters and it is absolutely perfect. I love that is steampunk-y and has female spies and evil geniuses and werewolves and vampires. It literally has everything I ever want in a book. Sophronia is a very interesting protagonist. I usually don’t like protagonist who are so much younger then me, Sophronia is almost grown up acting. I mean she still causes shenanigans, but shes going to spy school so. I also really enjoy how 99% of the cast of characters are female and it really focuses on the friendships between them. There isn’t really any romance which is pretty refreshing actually. There are just a bunch of girls who are loyal to each other and kick some serious ass. I am completely here for it!

I read a total of 5 books in October ,1 in November and 1 in December. At the end of October I got a new job and it has thrown me for a loop and way off my reading game, but I am working on getting back on the horse as quickly as I possibly can. I started working a retail job and the holidays are our busiest season. I think I had like 5 or 6 days off total during November and December. It was a lot of long hours and I was just too exhausted to do anything, but I am LOVING my new job and I am a lot happier then I was at the hotel.

The first book I read in October was a carry over from my September TBR. This is a book that Mina had been trying to get me to read since high school. Like our Junior year of High school (for anybody wondering that was 8 years ago). So I finally read it… AND LET ME TELL YOU I WAS SLEEPING ON THIS BOOK! It is one of the best books I have ever read and not only is it on my favorites of 2019 list it quickly made it to my favorites of All Time list. I don’t even know where to begin with this book honestly. Its like if Charles Dickens wrote a book that was actually understandable. The book takes place in the late 1800s and early 1900s and is told mostly in the third person but follows the story of Celia, Marco and Bailey. Celia and Marco are forced to be adversaries in a game where they have little control and don’t know the rules. The venue of the game is a Night Circus that pops into towns all over the world and is only open at night. Nobody knows where it goes next but true fans have their way in. The writing is nothing short of lush and beautiful. I felt as if I could almost smell the caramel popcorn and magic. I was immersed in their world and I to became a rêveurs instantly.

Caraval by Stephanie Garber was my second book of the month. Also a left over from my September theme. I wanted to read Night Circus and Caraval back to back because they often get compared to each other, or well Caraval gets compared to Night Circus. While they do have some things in common such as magic, circuses, games, and romance that’s where the similarities end for me. I loved Caraval I gave it five stars and it ended up on my favorites of 2019 list. I did not, however, end up on my favorites of all time list. Its a fantastic read. The story is amazing the characters are well flushed out and I love the romance between Scarlett and Julian, but the world wan’t quite as immersive as Night Circus. While Night Circus is definitely suitable for teen readers but it was written for adult one; Caraval is written specifically written for teen readers thus giving it a slightly different vibe to it. I still loved and would most likely reread it again and again.

What happens when a Witch marries a Witch Hunter? Fireworks. This was my MOST anticipated release of this year (2019 that is because it is totally 4 months later. oops) I got mine in my Fairy Loot subscription box and when I say its absolutely beautiful that’s cause it is. It has beautiful gold sprayed edges and custom art on the reverse dust jacket. This book did not disappoint. Lou was a fantastic heroine. Shes brash, loud, foul mouthed, loving, compassionate, and loyal. She refuses to change who she is even if it would make her life easier. Shes a great foil to Reid who is reserved, proper, a rule follower, loyal, kind, and patient. Reid also refused to bend on his way of being and although he tries to tame the wild child that is Lou (shockingly it doesn’t go as he plans.) They grow into a trust the turns into friendship that turns into love. They each desire to make the other happy. They were forced into a marriage, but it works cause of them. Mahurin is a fantastic author and she came out with one hell of a debut novel. I cannot WAIT to read Blood & Honey which is the sequel to Serpent & Dove.

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea was a reread for me. This book is what made me fall in love with April Genevieve Tucholke’s writing. She is a master of the slightly unsettling Gothic vibe I love so much. Violet and her twin brother Luke live in a crumbling mansion, named the Citizen, in a small town on the coast somewhere while their parents are off in Europe being bohemian artists in Paris. To make ends meat Violet rents out the carriage house to River a handsome boy her age with a mysterious past and a slick tongue. Strange things happen when River is around; kids start to hunt the devil in the cemetery, men with hairy teeth appear in abounded tunnels, and Violet feels inexplicably drawn to River like a moth to the flame. This book is full of a Southern Gothic aesthetic that makes my heart jump for joy! I did only give it 4 stars though mostly cause I wanted something more. It was just lacking something.

Between the Spark and the Burn is the sequel to Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. Last Summer the Redding Brothers (Neely, River, and Brodie) brought mayhem, violence, and love into Violet’e life and now River is missing and Brodie has disappeared. Now Neely, Violet, Luke and Sunshine go on a cross country road trip to find River and stop Brodie. This is also full of the Gothic horror that makes my heart happy, but it did not play how out how I truly hoped it would. I also gave it four stars because of that.

The Merciless is also a reread for me. I read it way back in 2014 and I actually it in about 8 hours. This go around it did take me a bit longer… about a month longer. This book wasn’t as enthralling the second go around. It was still really creepy and gory and I loved those aspects but for some reason it didn’t suck me in the way it did the first time. I will say that this would make a fantastic horror movie that I would pay to see! Sofia is new in a small military town in the deep south. Sofia is used to being the new girl and tries to hid away from the attention it brings, but she finds herself friends with the popular girls in school. The only problem these girls are not what they seem. Their leader Riley is deeply religious and has a sick and twisted way of worship, one that involves an ex-friend tied up in a basement of a abandoned house in a exorcism gone horribly terribly wrong.

The Wedding Date is my first adult romance novel and I have to say I absolutely fell in love with it. It was just adorable! Alexa and Drew were so cute together and I loved how the handled their relationship for the most part (this is a contemporary romance). It was light and fun and was a good way to get me out of the reading rut I fell into. Alexa and Drew meet in an elevator and she agrees to be his date to his ex girlfriends wedding, but then they start making excuses to be with each other and well we can all see where this is going to go.