Author: theetherealjourney

This summer has simultaneously felt as if it has been a 100 years and just a blink at the same time. I honestly don’t even remember what happened in June, so I really have no excuse on why I didn’t post an wrap up. July on the other hand was hard for me. My company decided to move my store location to a bigger store so we closed the last week of July and packed everything up, moved and then unpacked and staged for the next two weeks and then finally reopened last Friday. So I was working a lot in July and it left me physically, mentally and emotionally drained. With the store reopened my schedule is finally getting back to normal so I am starting to feel like normal. So with out further adieu here are my June and July reads.

Aurora Burning was one of my most anticipated releases of this year and it did not disappoint me. Since this is a sequel I won’t be going in depth on the plot to avoid spoiling the first one, but I will say that this book broke my heart in the best way possible at the end. I laughed, I cried, I screamed. Finian is still my favorite. Kal and Auri are one of my favorite couples of all time. Everyone please for my sanity go read this series. Its on my all time favorites. Not surprisingly this was a five star read for me.

I have so many feelings about the ACOTAR series that I literally have not been able to shut up about them since June (though technically I read A Court of Frost and Starlight in July). I even have a playlist on Spotify that I update regularly (https://open.spotify.com/playlist/265tcEUdIEQVQ9NIAXPfyN?si=OUq8XDicSDazdU74Em-k-Q) with songs that remind me of the series. I do plan to do an in depth analysis and review of this series cause I think there is a lot to unpack with these books. This series has my #1 spot on my favorite series list. I have already pre-ordered A Court of Silver Flames. Nesta is one of my ABSOLUTE favorite characters and Cassian is my man! Again unsurprisingly all three of these were five star reads.

I’m not going to lie to you this book felt very strange to read in today’s political climate. I will give it props for pointing out that Civil War reenactments are inherently racist and that there really isn’t anything romantic about a Plantation home. I read this directly after A Court of Wings and Ruin which was both a good thing and a bad thing. Compared to the masterpiece that is ACOWAR, Confederates Don’t Wear Couture doesn’t hold a candle to it, but it is so different that it did help me avoid a reading slump. This is also a sequel to Pilgrims Don’t Wear Pink. As far as contemporary romances go it was cute and easy read. I don’t think I would recommend it to anybody unless they were looking for something hella specific, but I did enjoy it so I did give it 3 stars.

Now for a contemporary romance that I absolutely LOVE!! Love & Gelato is the perfect summer read, especially during a pandemic where none of us are going anywhere remotely vacation-y. After the death of Lina’s mother she gets sent to live with the father she never knew about in Italy of all places. Lina is less then thrilled about leaving her best friend, Addie, and everything she has ever known behind, but she soon learns that there is more to her move to Italy then Lina thought. She comes into possession of the journal her mom kept during her time in Italy and Lina begins to unravel the mystery of what happened between her parents and along the way she makes some friends and even meets someone that maybe more. I loved the romance in this book not only between Lina and Ren but Lina’s parents as well. It was so cute and I cannot wait for the third one in this series, Love & Olives, to come out later this year. Love & Luck (which I read in March) is the second one in the series and Love & Gelato is the first, Though it you don’t have to read them in order. If you are a fan of Anna and the French Kiss trilogy then you will adore these books. 5 stars from me!

As you probably have noticed I have been trying to finish up series I have started. Here’s yet another sequel. The Rose & the Dagger is the sequel to The Wrath & the Dawn. I will forever love Khalid and Shazi, but I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I loved the first. I wanted more romance, more magic, more conflict, more tough choices. Just more. It was still a 4 star read though.

Oh look another sequel! I honestly didn’t realize I read this many sequels in the pas couple of months. This book gave me MAJOR The Surface Breaks vibes. Their plots and themes were incredibly similar. I did love the story and much like The Surface Breaks I want more. I felt as if this book was a build up to something more and it ends right before everything goes down. Sea Witch Rising takes place about 50 or so years after Sea Witch and had a backdrop of the very beginning of WWI. I did love the first one better, but this was still 4 stars.

This book was given to my mom by my Great Aunt and then my mom passed it down to me a few years ago when I was going through a hard time. This is a children’s picture book and yet I will never read it and not cry. It has such a beautiful message for those who suffer from depression or any other mental illness. It always makes me feel less alone and reminds me that I do mean a lot to my friends and family and how sad they would be with out me in their lives just like I would be sad if they weren’t there. Its a great tool to discuss mental illness with children and a great story to remind adults that they are loved even when the darkness doesn’t let them feel that love. Five stars for me!

I cannot even begin to tell you how much I love the Caraval trilogy. Legendary is no exception. I normally am not a fan of love triangles, but this one was just so well written that I loved both and wanted her with both I’m not going to lie. I fell even more in love with Julian and Scarlett. Five stars!

I have my reading mojo back, baby! May was a really goo reading month for me and I was able to read 6 books. 6 seems to be my cap for the amount of books I read in a month but I am hoping to break that in June.

I read the Legend Trilogy by Marie Lu when it first came out years ago and I loved them. Last year she released a new book in the series, Rebel, and I wanted to reread the first three to remind myself what happened, cause it has been awhile, before I read it. I still love this trilogy and it is very reminiscent of things that are going on in the world today. The story takes place years in the future and the United States has been divided into the Republic of America and The Colonies of America and they have been shaped by massive floods. The Republic and The Colonies have been at war for decades and The Republic has devised a system to create the best soldiers based on genetics and skill called the Trial. June is The Republics prodigy. She comes from an affluent family and is the only person to score a perfect score on her Trial. Day is The Republics most wanted criminal, but they have no idea who he is. He is basically The Republic’s version of Robin Hood. Through a serious of events they are thrown together and they uncover evidence that suggest The Republic may not be what it seems. This is a classic enemies to lovers romance full of espionage, conspiracies, and dystopia realness. I gave this four stars mostly because the romance, despite the enemies to loves plot, it was a bit insta-lovey and it is paced kinda slow. There is a lot of action in it but it was just a tad bit slow. If you love the Divergent series or The Hunger Games series then you will love Legend and I will pretty much always recommend it to people looking for a good YA dystopian.

I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS ABOUT THIS BOOK! So much so I literally sent my friend a copy and made her read it too. This is the first Kathryn Purdie novel I have read and she is such a beautiful writer and I am totally hooked and ordered another one of her books while I wait impatiently for Bone Crier’s Dawn. Bone Cries’s Moon is based off the French folklore Les Dames Blanches or The White Witches (which is the same folklore that Serpent & Dove is based off, but trust me they are very different stories.) The story is told from the point of views of Sabine, Ailesse, and Bastien. Sabine and Ailesse are Leurress’, or Bone Crier’s, that gain the graces of the animals that they ceremoniously hunt, by taking, carving, and wearing the animals bones. They then use these graces are then used to ferry the dead to either Tyrus’s underworld or Elara’s heavens. Sabine only has one grace bone and finds it difficult to take the life of the animals she needs to. She is sweet and loyal and Ailesse’s best friend. Ailesse is fierce and passionate and dreams of joining her mother in ferrying the dead through the gates. To do this she must collect three grace bones and then complete a ritual to lure her amouré, or her soulmate, and then killing him in order to prove her loyalty to Tyrus and Elara. Bastion hate Bone Crier’s ever since one of them killed his father. He has dedicated his entire life, along with his friends Jules and her brother Marcel, to learning about them and waiting for his chance to kill one of their kind. Of course neither Ailesse nor Bastian’s plans go to plan and everything goes awry. If you loved Serpent & Dove you will adore this book! Sabine was my favorite character cause I love her strength and her loyalty to her friend and man she has some MAJOR character development. I love the romance between Bastion and Ailesse. This is the creme de la creme of enemies to lovers (the trope I will die with). I CANNOT wait for February 2021 for the squeal! 5 stars and everyone needs to go read it like ASAP!

This is just a cute little read about two Star Wars nerds in a line and what that means to them. Its about 60 pages long and just a super cute short bit of fluff. If I am being 100% honest I would love more from this story, but I love it for what it is. Perfect if you are in a reading slump.

Poison was actually published posthumously which is pretty cool. This book gives me like Princess Bride/Monty Python vibes. It has nods to modern life, like apartments and room service, but in a definitely in a middle age type setting. Kyra is a Master Potioner who is on the run for trying to assassinate the the princess… who happens to be her best friend. Unfortunately her assassination attempt failed and in order to save the kingdom she must succeed in killing the princess. In order to try again she needs to find the princess, so with the help of a very adorable pig and an incredibly handsome, slightly annoying stranger named Fred she sets out to do just that. This again was a good quick, fun, fluffy read. The pacing was a bit off and it does feel like it was missing some things, like it wasn’t 100% flushed out. I would definitely recommend it if someone was looking for something specific but I wasn’t really like a mind blowing journey. It was a three star read for me. It was good and it was enjoyable but it was no Bone Crier’s Moon.

So this was a combo between Tik Tok made me read it and Tik Tok made my best friend read it and thus made me read it. And I am so glad that I did! There is so much to unpack with this book cause really its just a moment. Feyre’s family has fallen from wealth and now can barley put food on the table. It is up to Feyre to put food on the table since her father can’t move with his busted knee and her sisters are too busy lamenting over their old life and how far they have fallen. On a hunting expedition Feyre kills a wolf that ended up being a faerie in wolf’s clothing. The fae are a vicious and cruel race that humans fought a war against 500 years ago and have a fragile peace with. To atone for the fae’s murder Feyre is whisked away to the land of Prythian to live out the rest of her days in the Spring Court. Tamlin is the master of the house that serves as her gilded prison. I loved this story so much! The first half of the book is the Beauty and the Beast story we are all familiar with; the second half is where everything gets flipped on its head. Lucian is my man and I love him. He is just the epitome of a sass king and snaps for Lucian. Feyre on the other hand isn’t my fav heroine in a book. She can be annoying at times and I feel like she needs to pay attention more. I love Tamlin I do, but if you are at ALL failure with the hype that is the ACOTAR fandom you know there is better (and there is better). This was another five star read for me and everyone needs to pick it up ASAP. Like seriously go and read it right now. I mean it.

I read this book back in August of 2019 and I RAVED about it. Well….. I STILL LOVE IT. This book gives me life and if you want to read my full review it is in my August wrap up. This is one of my all time favorite books and again everyone needs to read it yesterday.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled quarantine programming for some bookish content (I know finally, right?). I have been in a bit of a reading slump in April not going to lie as I have mentioned before all of this quarantine business has really messed with my schedule and has just thrown me for a complete loop. So, unless I finish Legend by Marie Lu today, I will have only read 2 books for April (Spoiler, I did not finish Legend.). March on the other hand was a very different story, I read 6 books total. Six for some reason tends to be the number I just cannot get past. It is the greatest number of books I have read in one month since I started keeping track. I really want to beat it, maybe May will be the month I do.

I can’t even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed this book. It was such a joy to read and it had everything I need in a book. It is funny at parts, dramatic at others, and emotional in others. I was a bit concerned going into it cause it’s an adult sci-fi novel and I thought I wasn’t going to be able to get passed all the science jargon, but I was actually able to keep up better than I thought I would be able to. Now I cannot explain what Watney did or how he did it, but I could visualize what he was doing so I was not getting lost in the science and math of it all. Weir is a beautiful writer that combines the technical aspects of what he is writing about and the entertainment aspects into a vivid and imaginative story. I also loved how the book jumps back and forth from Mars to Earth I think it really added to the story and it gave way for some truly beautiful one liner. As soon as I finished the book I did go back and watch the movie (again). I saw the movie when it first came out and I had not read the book yet, but I had not seen it since it came out and I wanted to compare it to the book. Lucky for me I was not disappointed at all! For the most part the movie is about 90% book accurate. There were a few things that differed but nothing major and I could see why they took out what they took out and put it in what they put in. They did change one characters last name and his religion, which I do not know why they did, but at least they kept him Indian cause he was Indian in the book. So, nothing was whitewashed which was nice to see. Overall, I give the book 5 stars and the movie 4 stars.

There are spoilers in this review.

The Surface Breaks is a feminist retelling of The Little Mermaid by Has Christian Anderson. I enjoyed this book, a solid 4 stars, as far as the feminism goes that really doesn’t come into play till the last 100 pages or so (maybe even 50 pages) but it does make some great commentary about societies view on the place of women in society throughout the book. I wish Gaia had found her inner power a bit earlier in the book I think it would have made for a more compelling plot, but because she didn’t find her strength till closer to the end I really want a sequel of her exploring that strength and bringing down the patriarchy. Alas this book is a standalone and not likely to get a sequel. I did like that as far as retelling go I love that O’Neill incorporated parts of the original story that tend to get left out of retellings, for instance in the original fairy tale when he tail gets turned to legs every step she takes feels like pins and needles and is incredibly painful. It was nice to see O’Neill include this detail. It added to the story as the cost of the magic and a way to manifest the emotional pain she had been suffering for years at the expense of her place within the merpeoples society. Spoiler, but this story does not have your traditional fairy tale ending. Gaia does not end up with the prince in the end in fact she does not even really end up alive. They originally also don’t have a happy ending, she the prince marries another and she turns into sea foam. In O’Neill’s version she ends up turning into a rusalka, which is the Slavic version of a siren. They sing out and lure sailors to their death to seek revenge for how they were treated in their human life. Overall, the story was great and the only reason that it was 4 stars instead of 5 was because it just felt rushed in the end and there could have been more depth to it.

I cannot even begin to tell you how much I love this series! Carriger just does such a brilliant job with world building and character development that it’s just such an enchanting read (or in my case listen). I have been steadily working my way through the Finishing School series on audio book and I just adore the women who reads them, Moira Quirk, she just has such a lovely voice and it just adds a lovely element to the story. In this installment Sophronia finds herself and her friends mixed up in a Picklemen plot quite accidentally as her original mission was to get Sidheag to Scotland to help her wolf pack. I love Sophronia so much! She is quick witted, strong, adventurous, and loyal, but if I had to pick a favorite it will forever and always be Dimity. I love how her goal is to be the wife of some noble and travel the world before coming back to England and being a staple in society despite going to a school for espionage and all of her friends respect that about her and don’t try to change her. I also love the friendship she has with Sophronia. Even though she isn’t the best intelligencer she always has Sophronia and Sidheag’s backs no matter what. I will say that I am totally Team Soap, but I do adore Felix and Sophronia does not give him enough credit. But Soap is her perfect match, they are always on the same page and they read each other like books. Five Stars!

Tigger Warning: Themes of Abuse and Rape

Recipe for a Perfect Wife is an absolute must read! I enjoyed it so much. It offers such great commentary on what it means to be married and what it means to be married to the correct person and to not lose yourself in your marriage. Alice Hale is a publishing executive, or at least was until the incident, and lives with her husband in their minuscule apartment in New York City, or again she did till the incident. The Incident changed Alice’s life and had her trading in her minuscule, but beloved apartment, in for a mid-century home that had seen better days (but at least it had a beautiful garden) and trading her extra high work heels for a spatula and ovulation kits. Nellie Murdoch on the other hand is a 1950s housewife. She lives in her modern home with her husband Richard and spends her time tending to her beautiful garden, the best on the block, and making mouthwatering meals. At first glance these women have nothing in common but as Alice delves deeper into fixing up her house, she learns more and more about Nellie’s life in it, but Nellie has her secrets and Alice has her own problems. Brown did a brilliant job crafting a beautifully poignant story about two women decades apart but yet so eerily similar. While Nellie and Alice do not necessarily have the exact same marital issues their husbands harbor some of the same red flags. Richard, Nellie’s husband, tends to be controlling and demanding as well as violent at times. While Nate, Alice’s husband, is never shown to be violent he is demanding and controlling. While Nellie was such a joy to read and I adored her character it was Alice’s character that I resonated with. She is at a point in her life where she is just lost and not sure where the next step all the while dealing with a husband whose life plan is not what she thought it was going to be. Alice had always seen herself as a city girl with a big job in publishing and sure wanted kids but wasn’t ready for them and then all of a sudden she is whisked off to the suburbs to be a housewife and trying for a baby. This book was quick to end up on my favorites of 2020 list! Highly recommend it to anyone looking for something entertaining with some depth to it. This also made me want to start baking and gardening while wearing vintage clothes.

There is nothing I want more in this world to be a Victorian lady in a Historical YA novel. I love me some Victorian vibes, it is my favorite era other than the reign of the Henry the VIII, and this book brings them hard. I enjoyed Audrey Rose as a character. She is headstrong, determined, quick witted, and fashionable. I do wish she was bit less of the “I’m not like other girls’ trope” though. She doesn’t really have any female friends which I always love to see and there is a bit of insta-love between her and Thomas Cresswell but I will forgive it cause honestly if faced with Thomas Cresswell I would fall in love instantly too. I love the friendship these to have and I also love that Thomas is always impeccable dressed and yet seems to have a complete disregard for all of societies norms. The flirting between these two is absolutely A+. I really enjoyed it and look forward to reading the rest of the series. The only reason I gave it 4 stars and not five is that it was pretty easy for me to figure out who the killer was based on the blurb on the back of the book, which is all the fault of the publisher and none on the part of the author. Had that blurb not been there I would not have even begun to guess the identity of the killer till much closer to the end. High recommend to anyone who loves a good historical mystery!

Addie, out heartbroken heroine, is in Ireland for her aunt’s wedding and after the wedding she is supposed to board a plane to see her best friend in Italy with her brother Ian, but Ian has other plans. In order to secure her future Addie ends up trekking across Ireland with Ian and Ian’s cute mystery friend all the while following a travel guide of Ireland for the broken hearted. When I say this book made me want to go to Ireland I wanted to jump on the next plane. This is the first book I ever read from Welch and it is part of her Love & Gelato series, which is a series like Anna and The French Kiss is a series, meaning you can read any book in the series without reading the other but if you do read the others your favorite characters may make an appearance. Love & Luck is the second one with Love & Gelato being the first. As soon as I finished Love & Luck, I immediately bought Love & Gelato. This was such a light and fluffy read that was just super quick and easy which is perfect if you are in a bit of a reading slump. I fully expected this to be romance heavy, but it was more focused on friendship and family which was really refreshing. Now there is an implied romance, but nothing is really explicitly said or done about it. I loved how the focus was on mending Ian and Addie’s relationship, Addie learning how to heal form heartbreak and lean on her friends and family when she needs to. This is also a favorite of 2020!

Sophronia once again finds herself in at the center of a Picklemen plot, only this time it involves the school. What is an intelligencer to do? Put on her most stylish ballgown and save the school of course! Again, I listened to Manners & Mutiny on audio book and I loved it. This whole series was five stars for me, and it is one of the best series I have read in a while. I was delighted by the ending and how everything played out. I have such a deep love for all these characters that I want nothing more to read more of their story. I know some of these characters show up in the two other series that take place in the same universe and I cannot wait!  

Soulless is the first book in The Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger. It takes place 26 years or so after the events of Manner & Mutiny and follows Alexia Terabotti, who has the unfortunateness to be half Italian and soulless (but only the supernatural set know about the soulless part). This is also an adult series as compared to the YA prequal. This was also an audiobook for me and at first, I was a bit put off because the narrator is not the same narrator from the Finishing School series. I kind of grew attached to Moira Quirk’s voice and how she pronounced certain names and the women who narrates The Parasol Protectorate series, Emily Gray, pronounced things a bit different and it through me for a loop at first. I eventually settled in and was able to get into the story and now I do not even notice. I love Alexia! She is smart and her sense of humor is so undeniable British it makes for some scathing retorts. He inner dialogue is utterly fantastic. I love the relationship she had with Lord Maccon (Sidheag’s grandfather). They have such great banter and chemistry! I also love how he loves her just the way she is even though all of English society seems to want to change her in some way. I also love the fact that Alexia had a knack for getting into trouble without really trying. Several characters from the prequals make an appearance in the first book, such as Lord Maccon and Lord Akeldama. It was always a thrill when one would show up. One of the things I love most about Carriger’s world is the way the supernatural are portrayed and the natural laws that they have to follow and I love how one becomes supernatural and the role Alexia plays in it! Not shockingly this was another five-star read for me!