I was super excited for this month’s Fairyloot box as I’d guessed what the book was and it’s one of my most anticipated releases of the year!
Fairyloot is a UK-based YA fantasy subscription box. If you subscribe, you get a box a month which includes a hardback book and 5-6 exclusive goodies around a theme.
The theme for August is ‘Let The Games Begin’, though I’m not really sure how the items connect to this theme. Perhaps there are more subtle connections that someone who has read the books the items are inspired by would understand? Also, this unboxing photo is missing an item as I took out the bath bomb straight away because the smell was so strong!
So August wasn’t a great month. I had an infection in my eye which got really bad. All one side of my face was swollen and I was in a lot of pain. I also couldn’t see anything. So I had a week off work, didn’t read for a week, didn’t do much of anything actually. Because the medication I take effects the immune system, when I get ill, I get really ill, and it also takes a while for me to recover. So even though my eye was almost better after a week or so thanks to antibiotics, I’m still recovering energy-wise.
I’m really hoping September is going to be a better month because I’ve not been doing great health-wise lately.
Because I couldn’t see anything, I couldn’t read. So I ended up signing up for the Audible free trial and trying out audiobooks. I haven’t listened to an audiobook in years. I chose The Tales of Beedle the Bard and Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, both of which I’ve read before. The Northanger Abbey audiobook had a full cast and I quite enjoyed it as it’s one of my favourite Austen novels. I have to say that I much prefer reading a physical book, though I can see audiobooks having benefits.
When I was able to see again, I read Forest of Souls by Lori M. Lee which was amazing. It’s a plot-driven YA fantasy with an intriguing magic system. It ended on a cliff-hanger so I’m really excited for the sequel!
A Heart So Fierce and Broken by Brigid Kemmerer was a really anticipated read for me as I loved A Curse So Dark and Lonely, but unfortunately I didn’t like it as much as the first book which was a little disappointing.
Finally, I read Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo which just blew me away. It was absolutely brilliant and I loved it even more than Six of Crows.
This month I shared my book haul as a separate post because I ended up with so many thanks to winning a massive AtHomeYALC giveaway! You can see what books I got here.
Since I couldn’t see for part of the month and have been feeling pretty rubbish, I’m fairly happy with how much I’ve managed to write. I’ve written about 16,000 words for my King Arthur retelling and I’m nearly halfway through the book which is pretty exciting. My goal, so long as I don’t get ill again, is to finish it by the end of October. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to achieve that, but I’d certainly hope to have finished it by the end of November.
What have you been up to this month? What books have you enjoyed? Chat with me in the comments!
I usually include my book haul in my monthly wrap up as I don’t usually buy many books, but I ended up with a massive haul this month thanks to a YALC giveaway! I’m really excited to read all these books! So let’s see what I got…
As part of AtHomeYALC, Hodderscape ran a competition on Instagram. You had to find 10 Pickwicks hidden in stories. I was lucky enough to be randomly selected to win the prize of 10 books! I really could not believe it when I saw the message. I’ve never won anything before! This is an amazing bundle of books. It was also lucky that I didn’t already own any of these and I’ve only read one as I had an eARC of Incendiary. I’m most excited for Girl, Serpent, Thorn as I’ve seen lots of great reviews for it and it sounds really interesting!
Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth
Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust
Incendiary by Zoraida Córdova
Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan
Emily Eternal by M. G. Wheaton
Nocturna by Maya Motayne
Light Years by Kass Morgan
10 Things I Hate About Pinky by Sandhya Menon
The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski
The Extraordinaries by T. J. Klune
Amazingly, I also won two giveaways on Twitter as part of AtHomeYALC! I won an ARC of Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar from a Harper360 giveaway, which is one of my most anticipated releases of the year! I also won an ARC of Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco from Hodderscape, but that one hasn’t arrived yet as the ARCs were due to be printed this month.
I had a Waterstones gift card for my birthday so I also ordered a few books this month. I miss going in physical book shops! Although shielding is paused at the moment, I’m still being super careful and not going in shops.
Plus, I received Shielded by KayLynn Flanders in Fairyloot’s July box. I’ll hopefully be posting an unboxing of that this weekend.
The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman
Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
Midnight’s Twins by Holly Race
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Unravel the Dusk by Elizabeth Lim
Shielded by KayLynn Flanders
I think I’m still stunned from winning that competition. It was amazing to open the box. It arrived while I was really ill so it was great timing as it cheered me up!
Harper has freed Pronce Rhen from the curse that almost destroyed his kingdom. Bit all is not well in Emberfall: rumours are rife thatthete is a rival heir with a stronger claim to the throne and that ‘Princess’ Harper of Disi is nothing but fraud.
Grey has fled the castle carrying a terrible secret. When he is discovered by soldiers and returned to Ironrose by force, Grey’s allegiances begin to shift. And as he grows closer to an enemy princess, he is forced to decide whether he will stand against Rhen for the crown he never wanted …
A Heart So Fierce and Broken is the anticipated sequel to Brigid Kemmerer’s A Curse So Dark and Lonely, which was one of my favourite reads of the year so far. I had high expectations for this book and while I enjoyed it, I didn’t love it quite as much as A Curse So Dark and Lonely.
While the first book is told in the alternating perspectives of Harper and Rhen, the sequel focuses on the POVs of Grey and Lia Mara. Grey is such a great character so I was excited to get to see his perspective, but I didn’t feel like he developed enough in this book considering a lot of the focus was on him. Lia Mara is a new character, daughter of Karis Luran, the queen of Syhl Shallow. I did like her, but didn’t connect with her as much as I did with Harper.
I liked getting to know some characters from the first book more, such as Jake, as well as meeting new characters like Tycho and Nolla Verin. Harper was my favourite character from the first book, so I did miss her in this one. She only has, I think, one POV chapter and pops up a couple of times but that’s all. Although the first book was told from Harper and Rhen’s perspective, I still felt I got to know Grey through their POVs. Whereas in this book, I felt very disconnected from Harper and Rhen. Also, Rhen seemed really different. I know a lot happened in book one, and I always liked that he was a bit of a grey character, but he was portrayed essentially as a villain in this one and that shift was kind of strange. I think the book would have benefited from including more chapters from Harper and Rhen’s perspectives.
Publishing Info: June 2020 by Page Street Kids (Fairyloot edition)
Pages: 385
Star Rating: 4/5
Back Cover Summary:
Sirscha Ashwyn comes from nothing, but she’s intent on becoming something. After years of training, she plans on challenging her rival for the position of the queen’s next royal spy, but she’s forced to abandon her plan when shamans attack and kill her best friend Saengo.
And then Sirscha, somehow, restores Saengo to life.
With her mysterious ability uncovered, Sirscha is summoned to the domain of the Spider King—the only person powerful enough to control the haunted Dead Wood that separates the kingdoms and, ultimately, enforces peace. But the Spider King’s hold of the Dead Wood is weakening, and he needs Sirscha to use her newly awakened powers to obliterate the bloodthirsty forest. As war looms on the horizon, it’s up to Sirscha to learn what she can do and who she can trust before time runs out.
Forest of Souls is a fast-paced fantasy novel with an Asian-inspired setting and I absolutely loved it. I’ve read a lot of character-driven YA fantasy recently so I enjoyed reading something that was more plot-driven and a bit faster paced. The Dead Wood is so spooky! Some of the scenes were really atmospheric and creepy! The way the trees partly come to life and grab at the characters as they’re trying to get through the forest was really gripping. The world is painted really vividly and I loved learning about the various peoples, their cultures, history and magic, as I read.
There was no romance in this book and I have to say I was really happy about that. Every YA book seems to be either romance-heavy or at least have a main romantic subplot. So it was refreshing to read a fantasy novel that didn’t focus on romance or try and shoehorn a romance in.
Theyen was hands down the best character. He’s so full of sass and has some amazing lines. He really brought the scenes he was in to life. However, most of the supporting characters just didn’t seem very complex. By the end of the book we know hardly anything about them as the focus is so much on Sirscha. While I appreciated the book focused on her personal journey, I would have liked to have known the other characters more. Even though this book is clearly plot-driven, it would have benefited from the supporting characters having more depth. Having said that, I did love all the characters and can’t wait to see them again in the sequel.
June is my birthday month so I was excited to get this box since it was due to come around my birthday. Unfortunately, it was delayed a couple of weeks due to the coronavirus so it didn’t come until about mid-July.
Fairyloot is a UK-based YA fantasy subscription box. If you subscribe, you get a box a month which includes a hardback book and 5-6 exclusive goodies around a theme.
The theme for this box was ‘A Different Kind of Magic’ and they revealed it would be a two-book box which is always awesome!
Today’s Top 10 Tuesday topic is books with colours in the titles! I found a lot of books with red/crimson/ruby in the title when I was looking, that seems to be a popular colour.
Top 10 Tuesday was originally created by The Broke and the Bookish, but has now moved to That Artsy Reader Girl. If you’re interested in taking part click here.
First, here are five books that I’ve read.
Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare (I was thinking of midnight blue for this one)
The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman
The Rose Society by Marie Lu (I’m counting ‘rose’ as a colour…)
Blood Red Road by Moira Young
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
And here are five books with colours in the titles that are on my TBR!
Red Rising by Pierce Brown
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Splinters of Scarlet by Emily Bain Murphy
Dragon’s Green by Scarlett Thomas
Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare
Have you read many books with colours in the titles? Let me know in the comments!
This month I should have been going to YALC! I was so looking forward to it so was really disappointed it had to be cancelled because of coronavirus. Instead there was a digital version of the event called #atHomeYALC which was fun! There were giveaways and panels and lots of other fun bookish things on Twitter and Instagram. Hopefully we will be able to attend YALC in person next year!
I had a great month for reading as I loved all the books I read! My first read of July was Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim which I really enjoyed. Next, I read Burn by Patrick Ness which was just so creative and unique. I never knew quite what was going to happen next. Plus it had dragons!
I read the third book in Sarah J Maas’s Throne of Glass series – Heir of Fire. This series just seems to get better and better! I love her writing and stories.
I just finished reading an eARC of The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow. I’ll be posting a review of that soon!
I received copies of Forest of Souls by Lori M. Lee and The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna in Fairyloot’s June box which arrived a few weeks late. My Fairyloot edition of The Damned by Renee Ahdieh also arrived. The Beautiful was one of my favourite reads of 2019 so I’m really looking forward to the sequel.
This month I took part in Camp NaNoWriMo with my King Arthur retelling and I smashed my goal of 16,000 words! I wrote 18,552 words in July which I am super happy with. I’m loving working on this project so I’m excited to continue writing it.
How had your July been? What books have you enjoyed this month? Chat with me in the comments!
Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books and Dani @ Literary Lion. Today’s theme is ‘How have your reading habits changed over time?’.
I have loved reading for a very long time and my reading habits have certainly changed. Before I went to university, I read quite a mix of books. A lot of YA but also some more literary books. Then when I went to uni to study English Literature with Creative Writing I didn’t have much spare time for reading outside the course material. So I read a lot of classics and literary fiction for those three years. I read some great books and I enjoyed my degree, but I did miss being able to choose what I read.
Then when I finished uni (3 years ago now!) I didn’t want to see another classic! I’ve read almost solely YA since then. I’ve also read mostly fantasy and sci-fi. I think having read so many literary and challenging reads during my degree, I just wanted to be sucked into a great story again. I just wanted to be swept up in a fantasy adventure.
Having spent 3 years reading as part of studying, it did take me a little while to get back into reading for fun. At first, I didn’t enjoy reading as much as I used to, because while I was studying it was something I had to do and I had to read particular books. Having the freedom to choose what to read again was great, but it did take me a little while to get back into it.
Over the last year or so I’ve got back into really loving reading for pleasure again and consequentially I’ve started reading more too. Having my love of reading rekindled again has been wonderful.
I’ve also done a lot of reading this year thanks to lockdown. Even though I’m still working full time (from home) I’ve had a lot more free time since I’ve not been able to go anywhere! I expect the amount of reading I do will go down again a bit whenever we finally get back to ‘normal’. So I’m making the most of the time I have to read and write.
I’m actually reading a classic at the moment though – Emma by Jane Austen. As I’ve read a lot of fantasy lately it is nice to read something different. There are a lot of classics I want to read, but I probably won’t read them that often. At the moment I’m reading about one a year. Maybe that will change though. It will be interesting to see how my reading habits have changed in a few years time!
Have your reading habits changed over the years? Has the kind of books you enjoy shifted? Share your thoughts with me in the comments!
This week’s Top 10 Tuesday is a freebie so I’ve decided to do a theme from a few weeks ago that I missed. It was interesting to look at which authors I’ve read the most books by. I don’t seem to be very good at finishing series, so even though there are some authors I have loved, I’ve not read many of their books!
Top 10 Tuesday was originally created by The Broke and the Bookish, but has now moved to That Artsy Reader Girl. If you’re interested in taking part click here.
Cassandra Clare (10)
Sarah J. Maas (7)
Anthony Horowitz (7)
Michael Grant (5)
Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman (5)
Rick Riordan (5)
Patricia A McKillip (5)
Lauren Oliver (4)
Suzanne Collins (4)
Leigh Bardugo (4)
It’s really not a surprise that Cassandra Clare is top of this list! I’ve been reading her books for a long time and she has written so many of them! I was surprised however how many Sarah J Maas books I’ve read even though I only started reading her books a couple of years ago. It tends to take me quite a while to get through series as I don’t usually like reading them one after another, so I’m amazed I’ve read so many already.
Which authors have you read the most books by? Let me know in the comments!
The Last Book On The Left 