Reading Update

Hey everyone!  Just thought I would pop in for a quick reading update.  I haven’t had a lot of spare time for reading lately so I’m pretty behind on my 20 Books of Summer TBR.  So I’ve decided that any book I read during the challenge timeline will count towards my 20 books.  I have some ARCs I need to read this summer and we are in the process of boxing things up and getting our house ready to sell.  So lots going on this summer.  So even though I’ve only read 4 books from my TBR, I’ve read 6 books total.

I recently finished reading No Ordinary Stars by M.C. Frank and it was really great!  It’s a scifi dystopian world taking place on the cusp of the year 2525.  Check out my review here in case you missed it!  I also finished Dark Matter by Blake Crouch and the hype did not let me down at all.  That was an incredible book!  I posted my review yesterday which you can check out here.

  

Last night I started my ARC of Godsgrave, which is the sequel to Nevernight by Jay Kristoff.  If you’ve been following me since last year, you’ll know how much I loved Nevernight.  I am so stoked to get to read Godsgrave early.  We’re taking a mini getaway this weekend to go up north and spend the weekend with my parents at their condo on Lake Superior so I’m hoping I’ll have plenty of reading time.

In other news, I joined Litsy yesterday!!  I am having a lot of fun with it.  Feel free to follow me there and I will follow back!

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How is your summer of reading going?

Top Ten Series I’ve Been Meaning To Start

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  Each week there is a new topic and this week’s topic is: Top Ten Series I’ve Been Meaning To Start But Haven’t.  

I have so many series that I’ve been wanting to start but haven’t got around to yet.  Some of them are completed and some are still being written.  All of the ones that I chose for this post are series that I own at least the first book.  Click on the photo of book one of each series to be taken to the Goodreads page.

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The Lotus War trilogy by Jay Kristoff

I have become a huge fan of his since reading Illuminae and Nevernight last year.  I own the entire trilogy but haven’t picked it up to read yet.  I really need to get on that soon!

Falling Kingdoms series by Morgan Rhodes

I’ve heard so many good things about this series and it sounds like something that would be absolutely perfect for me. So I own all of the books that have been currently released (1-5).  But of course, I still haven’t started the series yet.  Maybe knowing that the final book comes out later this year will get me moving on it.

The Kingkiller Chronicle series by Patrick Rothfuss

I love adult high fantasy series so this one was a must have for my collection.  I’ve heard great things about it but haven’t been reading as many longer books lately so I’ve been passing this one over for shorter reads.  I’m trying to take an easier go at my reading and not feeling like I need to read a huge number of books per year so that I feel better about taking longer with these bigger books.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy by Laini Taylor

This trilogy has such a huge following that I had to put it on my TBR list.  And I ended up getting the whole set from Book Outlet so now I just need to read it.  I read her other book, Strange the Dreamer, and fell 10000% in love so I really can’t wait to read more of her books.

Starbound trilogy by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

I bought the first book after reading Illuminae because I wanted to read more Amie Kaufman.  But alas, it has continued to sit on my shelf unread.  Hopefully knowing they are starting another series together will push me to read this one sooner rather than later.

Worldwalker trilogy by Josephine Angelini

Initially what drew me to this trilogy was the covers.  They’re absolutely gorgeous.  Especially after the redesign.  Ordinarily I’d be a little peeved that my covers don’t match but this one doesn’t bug me so much.

The Diviners series by Libba Bray

I’ve never read any of her books yet but I loved the premise of this series.  Supernatural and the 1920s…. YES PLEASE!  I have had the first book for awhile but haven’t gotten around to reading it.

The Gold Seer trilogy by Rae Carson

Again with the gorgeous covers!! I also love blending fantasy with historical fiction so this seemed like a really great trilogy for me to read.  I own the first two books and the third one comes out this fall so hopefully I can get this trilogy started this year.

Reckoners trilogy by Brandon Sanderson

I became a fan of Brandon Sanderson when he did a fantastic job of finishing Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series after Jordan passed away.  I also read Mistborn and thought it was fantastic so I’m excited to read more of his books.  I have the first two books.

Three Dark Crowns series by Kendare Blake

This was one of my most anticipated books of 2016 but I guess I hyped myself up too much and ended up choosing to not read it yet.  That also happened to me with Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas.  I tend to get overly excited about a book releasing but then not reading it right away when it is released.  I am still very excited to read this one and the second book comes out soon.

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What series have you been meaning to start but haven’t yet?

 

 

 

20 Books of Summer Progress

We’re about halfway through the first month of the 20 Books of Summer challenge so I thought I would do a quick progress report.  I was hoping to be a little further along but some I’ve had a few things come up that require my attention more urgently in my free time.  We’re getting our townhouse ready to sell so we have a lot of cleaning, painting, and decluttering to do.

What I have read so far has been a pretty mixed bag.  I started the challenge off with The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon.  I have to admit I was a little disappointed in it.  I loved her debut novel so I was hoping to love this one just as much.  You can read my review here.  Next, I decided to switch things up from cutesy YA to gritty NA with Bad Mommy by Tarryn Fisher.  I had heard how crazy this book was from a few people and after loving F*ck Love, I knew I would probably like this one.  And I did!  It was so messed up and had a few unexpected twists that threw me!  Read my review here.

While reading challenge books I also have some ARCs that I need to read so I also read and enjoyed Here and Gone by Haylen Beck.  It is a compelling thriller due to be released on the 20th of this month.  Read my review here.

Getting back to the challenge, I chose Everland by Wendy Spinale to be my third book.  I had this book forever sitting on my shelf unread.  I love Peter Pan so I was really looking forward to reading this retelling but unfortunately it fell really flat for me.

Currently I am reading Dark Matter by Blake Crouch.  I’ve been dying to read it since it was released and I finally got a copy when I started my Book of the Month Club membership.  I’m not very far into it because my weekend was spent moving boxes and getting painting supplies but I am really intrigued by it so far.  I also joined a street team for M.C. Frank recently so I’m currently reading her book, No Ordinary Stars, which is dystopian set in 2525.  So far it is a really fascinating dystopian world and I’m excited to continue reading it.

I haven’t quite decided yet if I’m going to count my side reading towards my challenge goal or not.  I am notoriously bad at sticking to TBRs so I might just have to.  But we’ll play that by ear and see how the rest of the summer goes.

How is your summer reading going?

 

WWW Wednesday – June 7, 2017

WWW Wednesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World Of Words.
Each week we answer the following three questions:
-What have you recently finished reading?
-What are you currently reading?
-What are you reading next?

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Last Thursday I started my summer reading challenge.  It’s called the 20 Books of Summer challenge and it is hosted by Cathy @ 746 Books.  Check out my TBR post here for more info on this challenge.  Since then I have read two of the books from my selected TBR – one YA and one adult.  So far I think I’m on a good track to complete this challenge.  On average I would need to read 1.5 books every week so I’m off to a great start with two books complete in the first week.  Let’s hope that I can keep that pace up!

     

I was a little disappointed with The Sun Is Also A Star.  It wasn’t as good as I was hoping it would be, but maybe that was just my own hype getting in the way because I know lots of people loved it.  Bad Mommy was a total whirlwind of crazy! Definitely an interesting story with intriguing characters!

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Currently I am reading Everland.  I got this book a long time ago in an Owlcrate box and haven’t picked it up until now.  It is also on my challenge TBR.  So far I’m not really feeling the book one way or the other.  I’m not that far into it though so we’ll see how it goes.  I also started an ARC that I got last week.  It releases on June 20th otherwise I probably would put it off longer haha.

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Up next I’m not really sure what book I will choose.  I have a couple of ARCs that I need to read soon but I also want to keep up on my challenge.  Decisions, decisions…  So from my main challenge TBR I still have 17 other books to choose from.

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What have you been reading lately?  Any suggestions on which book I should read next from my above TBR?

20 Books of Summer – 2017 Edition

Cathy @ 746 Books is once again hosting the 20 Books of Summer challenge!  This year I’ve decided to give it a shot and see how well I do.  I originally said I wasn’t going to join any challenges or readathons this year but I’ve been reading a lot more than I thought I was going to so I might as well go for it.  The goal is to read 20 books from June 1st through September 3rd.  I have divided my main TBR into two categories: YA and Adult.  I am notorious for not being able to follow a TBR so I’m going to add a bit of fluidity to mine and add 10 alternates: 5 YA and 5 adult.  One of my personal goals for this challenge is to read 10 from each category.  If I’m not feeling one of the YA books on my main list then I can choose one of my YA alternates.

YA

• Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas
• The Rose Society by Marie Lu
• Windwitch by Susan Dennard
• Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
• The Crown’s Fate by Evelyn Skye
• The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon
• A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir
• Wayfarer by Alexandra Bracken
• Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
• Everland by Wendy Spinale
  

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Adult

• Into the Water by Paula Hawkins
• Vicious by V.E. Schwab
• Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness
• Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
• After You by Jojo Moyes
• A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
• Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane
• Bad Mommy by Tarryn Fisher
• Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
• American War by Omar El Akkad

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Alternates

• Caraval by Stephanie Garber
• Carve The Mark by Veronica Roth
• Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes
• And I Darken by Kiersten White
• Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake
• Room by Emma Donaghue
• Euphoria by Lily King
• The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
• The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
• The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer

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So those are my books for the summer!  I’m really excited to dive into these.  I will also have a few ARCs I need to read as well so those will be mixed in throughout the summer as well.

Are you participating in this challenge?  Even if you aren’t, do we have any of the same books on our summer TBRs?

And one last photo for good measure of the whole lot that surprisingly fit on one shelf!