Tag: fantasy

Sunday Summary – 1st April 2018

Happy Easter everybody!!
I hope everybody is having a good day today – religious or no. Me? I’m just looking forward to scoffing my Easter Eggs. I only expected to get one from my Mum and Dad, so I treated myself to one too. I was then unexpectedly gifted four more… haha!
I won’t be eating them in one go – that’s for sure!
I didn’t post as much as I thought I was going to this week. I had anticipated to share a Blogger Recognition Award (which is still sat in Drafts as we speak) as well as my Review of Beowulf. I am determined to finish the Recognition post tonight – it is nearly there!
March is now officially over and I didn’t finish read as many books as I had hoped to. The last book on March’s TBR, The Mansions of Murder, remains unread, so I’ll have to pick that up another day.
 

Books Read


 
I have really struggled with Ekata: Fall of Darkness by Dominique Law this week. I would say this book is definitely targeted at a Young Adult audience, which I don’t have a problem with overly. For my taste though, the plot isn’t really all that sophisticated. If you follow me on Twitter then you may have seen a poll I posted about what people think of “unnecessary” love interests in books. I think in this book it really is that.
Asher and Alexis have quite clearly fallen for each other and I am just really uncomfortable with it. If I were to find out my life to date had all been a lie and I was whisked off to save a planet I didn’t even know existed – I WOULD NOT BE THINKING ABOUT HOW ATTRACTIVE THE GUY IS!!!
Ahem.
I nearly DNF’s this book this week. It just got progressively worse and worse until blessedly, the two end up separated for a little while. That made the book more bearable. I’m at 83% now, so I think I’ll read it through to the end. It won’t be topping my list for great books though, it has taken me way too long to struggle through.
On a positive note, I finished An Almond for A Parrot this week! It had a happier ending than I thought it would as well, which is also a bonus! I’ll have to review it here sometime; it was a fantastic audiobook!
 

Books Discovered


I saw Everless available at a discount on Bookbub this week and I loved the synopsis. I didn’t have to think about it too hard!
Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson – oh my gosh I almost had a fit when I saw this was reduced for a limited time too! Steelheart has already been on my TBR for a while so I bought this one without hesitation too.
My most exciting acquisition of the week is Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio. I contacted Gollancz to find out if they had any review copies available and would consider sending one to me in exchange for a review. I picked the book up from the Post Office yesterday and I am so excited to read it! I was completely surprised when Gollancz said yes to my request. It is the first I have made and I fully expected a “thanks for your interest, but…” kind of email. I didn’t dare believe it until the book was in my possession and now it is!
Thank you Gollancz!
 

Coming Up…

Tonight I am going to share that Recognition Award post – and that is a promise! Sorry I have kept hold of that one for so long and promised to post it!
Tomorrow, I’ll be sharing my Reading List for April. This month I did something a little different in dedicating the month to ARC’s. In April, I am doing the opposite! I want to catch up on some of the traditionally published books I love and have been looking forward to for some time. Check out my post tomorrow to find out what I am going to be reading this month!
On Wednesday, I am reviewing Strange the Dreamer, and I seriously can’t wait!! Just thinking about how amazing the book was makes me want to read it all over again!
 
What are you reading in April?
Rebecca mono
 

Sunday Summary – 25th March 2018

Good morning all! I hope my UK friends have remembered to roll your clocks forward!
I think I have – but there always seems to be one I miss… that I find about a week later.
dumbledore shrug
Every time. ANYWAY – moving on!!
Those of you that take your valuable time to look at this little book blog once in a while (and I am ETERNALLY grateful – thank you!) may have noticed a little more going on this week. I’ve been spending the past couple of weeks on the warpath to catch up with my reading, so I wasn’t really posting much. Now I am caught up though, it’s time to see the fruits of my labour!
On Monday I took part in a Blog Tour I have been looking forward to for a couple of months – StoneKing by Donna Migliaccio. This is the third book in the series, so in order to participate properly, I spent February catching up with the first and second books. Therefore, to me, this review felt like it was a long time in the making!
I published another review on Wednesday for Copper Sky by Milana Marsenich. This review was also followed up with a guest post written by Milana herself, so I would really encourage you check these out if you haven’t already!!
I was also hoping to put a post together in relation to a nomination I received, but I was feeling lazy yesterday decided that I would post about this next week instead!
 

Books Read


 
Last week I mentioned that I had just started reading Beowulf… and that was the book I kick-started the week with! It is the first poetry I have read in a long time, so it made a refreshing change actually!
My next (and current) read is Ekata: Fall of Darkness. Admittedly, I am only 16% of the way through this one at the moment; there is definitely a fine balance between reading and blogging that has to be struck! I’ve not read as much as I would like, but I’m sure I can have it read by the end of next week!
Lastly, I have made a little more progress through An Almond for a Parrot by Wray Delaney (Sally Gardener) and I continue to love that!! Now that I am not doing any painting, I have taken to listening in the morning if the news is particularly grim. Also, Piers Morgan. Ugh. Some mornings, I just cannot be doing with that!
 

Books Discovered

Scythe
This was a late add to my discovered list.
I seem to recall having seen this before and dismissing it as a book I wasn’t convinced I would enjoy. However, I read a review on another blog the other day (apologies – neither can I remember who wrote it, nor can I find you – sorry!) and it changed my mind completely! I’ll have to pick this up sometime. If I find the review, I’ll link it here, but in the meantime I’ll just have to keep searching! I really should keep a note of these!
 

Coming Up…

As I mentioned above, I’ll be starting the week with a blog nomination post – it’s great to celebrate blogs and the people behind them, so I appreciate the nomination!
On Wednesday I’ll be reviewing Beowulf, which should appease the Netgalley gods for a little while at least! I’m catching up on a few of my Netgalley reads, so my rating will have improved by this time next month! So many books, so little time…
That’s all for now – what are you reading this week?
Rebecca mono