First Lines Fridays: 23 September 2016

It’s almost the end of the month and ??? I just don’t know where the month has gone. I’ll try and cram as much reading into this weekend! I miss reading and having time to read, but at the same time I’m glad to be where I am right now, job-wise.

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book!

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Anna Latham tried to disappear into the passenger seat.
She hadn’t realized how much of her confidence had been tied to having Charles beside her. She’d only known him a day and a half, and he’d changed her world… at least while he was next to her.

The Sunshine Blogger Award (◕∇◕✿)

Mucho thanks Michelle @ Addictively Turning Pages for the nomination! Do go ahead and check her out!!

Rules:

-Thank the person/people who nominated you
-Answer the questions from your nominations
-Nominate 11 other bloggers and give them 11 questions

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Michelle’s Questions

Who is your ultimate OTP and why?
You– you– WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?? But fine. Right now it’s Aelin and Rowan because FEELINGS OK!! Even if Titus and Iolanthe come close, Aelin and Rowan incite a much more impassioned response from me because apparently, Rowan isn’t very popular. And when something isn’t popular I’m more inclined to root for them, especially if I already liked them to start with. And I just completely dodged the “why” part of the question, lol. What is it about OTPs that reduce people to incoherent messes??

Review | Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder (+ book swap footnote)

Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder (Study #1)
Published October 1, 2005 by MIRA, 431 pp.
Summary:

Murder, mayhem and magic…

Locked in a coffin-like darkness, there is nothing to distract me from my memories of killing Reyad. He deserved to die—but according to the law, so do I. Here in Ixia, the punishment for murder is death. And now I wait for the hangman’s noose.

But the same law that condemns me may also save me. Ixia’s food taster—chosen to ensure that the Commander’s food is not poisoned—has died. And by law, the next prisoner who is scheduled to be executed—me—must be offered the position.

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Ahh I love Yelena’s world! Even if I wouldn’t want to be in her shoes, I definitely want to explore more of Ixia. I thought Maria V. Snyder’s writing was great and her characters were all written pretty well, even if I couldn’t connect to them in this book. So glad I decided to start this on a whim while I was waiting and managed to finish this overnight!

So Far, So…. Good! #1

It’s quite a challenge to keep up a regular reading schedule when half of you just wants to sleep whenever you have a chance to, and it’s that half that kind of wins most of the time. It’s like you want to find out if Rowan finally gets his head out of his ass regarding Aelin but then again oh god I want to sleeeeep.

It’s like I want to read and then I’ll want to keep reading and reading but then I remember – I need my sleep. So I don’t read as much as I want to, but I do get some reading done!! Just not enough to keep up with my former posting schedule. So in lieu of my review posts, at least while I haven’t finished the books yet, I’ll be starting So Far, So…… in which I share my thoughts on the books I’m reading so far! This also has the added perk of allowing me to vent, without the Goodreads character count.

I’m reading three books right now: Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas, Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder, and Confess by Colleen Hoover.

First Lines Fridays: 9 September 2016

Ah I think I missed out on a couple of Fridays, but I’m back!! Things have been a bit busy at work, so I can’t quite read as much as I’d like to. I’m trying to balance it out though, by allotting time in the evenings to reading!

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book!

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The bone drums had been pounding across the jagged slopes of Black Mountains since sundown.

That’s it. Because if I type anything more it’s a dead giveaway.

Review | The Immortal Heights by Sherry Thomas

The Immortal Heights by Sherry Thomas (The Elemental Trilogy #3)
Published October 13, 2015 by Balzer + Bray, 432 pp.
Summary:

In a pursuit that has spanned continents, Iolanthe, Titus, and their friends have always managed to remain one step ahead of the forces of Atlantis. But now the Bane, the monstrous tyrant who bestrides the entire mage world, has issued his ultimatum: Titus must hand over Iolanthe, or watch as his entire realm is destroyed in a deadly rampage. Running out of time and options, Iolanthe and Titus must act decisively to deliver a final blow to the Bane, ending his reign of terror for good.

However, getting to the Bane means accomplishing the impossible—finding a way to infiltrate his crypt in the deepest recesses of the most ferociously guarded fortress in Atlantis. And everything is only made more difficult when new prophecies come to light, foretelling a doomed effort…

Iolanthe and Titus will put their love and their lives on the line. But will it be enough?

With The Immortal Heights, Sherry Thomas brings the acclaimed Elemental Trilogy to its breathtaking conclusion.

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If there’s one thing I will say about this series, it’s that this probably has one of my favourite romances ever. I love that Titus is so lovestruck and has zero qualms about expressing his love for Iolanthe.

That being said, The Immortal Heights is a satisfying end to the series: the characters we have come to know all have neatly tied ribbons around their stories, villains get their comeuppance, and I have another series finished under my belt!! Yay!

Bookish Bingo: Fall Edition

Yay! I caught the summer Bookish Bingo too late, and I was hoping there’d be one for fall. This bingo (I love saying ‘bingo,’ it sounds so fun, haha) is by Bekka @ Pretty Deadly Reviews. Details and the card below the cut! 😀

September TBR✧・ﾟ: *

Yaaas ladies and gentlemen, we’re back with another month chock-full of series! One of these days I’ll have to gather up my (few) standalones and dedicate a whole month to them.

Confess by Colleen Hoover

Auburn Reed has her entire life mapped out. Her goals are in sight and there’s no room for mistakes. But when she walks into a Dallas art studio in search of a job, she doesn’t expect to find a deep attraction to the enigmatic artist who works there, Owen Gentry.

For once, Auburn takes a risk and puts her heart in control, only to discover Owen is keeping major secrets from coming out. The magnitude of his past threatens to destroy everything important to Auburn, and the only way to get her life back on track is to cut Owen out of it.

The last thing Owen wants is to lose Auburn, but he can’t seem to convince her that truth is sometimes as subjective as art. All he would have to do to save their relationship is confess. But in this case, the confession could be much more destructive than the actual sin…

Guys I trekked through 2 malls and 4 bookstores to find this book. THIS HAS TO BE GOOD, OKAY. IT HAS TO BE. The staff was as puzzled as I was since there apparently wasn’t any stock. Staff (to other staff on phone): “What do you mean there are no more copies?? Even if there were so many??”

Farewell to August, Random Life Updates™, ETC. (ﾉ^∇^)ﾉﾟ

Well would you look at that! I read more books than I expected, even if most of them aren’t from my TBR…. *looks around shiftily* With the end of August I’ll once again pretend we have fall here, even if all the weather does until the end of the year is alternate between raining cats and dogs to scorching summer heat.

Review | Every Falling Star by Sungju Lee and Susan McClelland

Every Falling Star by Sungju Lee and Susan McClelland
Published September 13, 2016 by Amulet Books, 336 pp.
Copy provided by publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Summary:

Every Falling Star, the first book to portray contemporary North Korea to a young audience, is the intense memoir of a North Korean boy named Sungju who is forced at age twelve to live on the streets and fend for himself. To survive, Sungju creates a gang and lives by thieving, fighting, begging, and stealing rides on cargo trains. Sungju richly re-creates his scabrous story, depicting what it was like for a boy alone to create a new family with his gang, his “brothers”; to be hungry and to fear arrest, imprisonment, and even execution. This riveting memoir allows young readers to learn about other cultures where freedoms they take for granted do not exist.

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Honestly, other memoirs or accounts of people who have escaped North Korea read very academically. They describe the gulags, the bleakness of the places perfectly, but it all seems clinical. There is nothing wrong with this, and this does not diminish their ordeal in any way, just that for me as a reader, I tend to feel detached, and it’s like I see theories and numbers rather than people.