The hype got me a little bit on this one, because I had so many people tell me that it was their favorite and this was the book where things got really dark and good and I spent like the first 75% of the book waiting for the good, dark stuff to happen. That last bit was really quite good, I have to say, and really redeemed a lot of it for me, but I honestly hope this isn’t what I consider the best in the series. I’m definitely intrigued by the new things I learned though and I’m really looking forward to book #4.
Rating: 4.5 Stars (was more like 3.5 or 4 until that end)
Top Ten Tuesday topic is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Today’s topic is Top Ten Books I Read In 2014, and this list is counting up to my favorite read of the year.
Top Ten Tuesday topic is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Today’s topic is Top Ten New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2014, and this list is in order from least likely to seek out a new book by this author to most likely, based mostly on their writing style and the subjects/stories they choose and not taking into account sequels I am anticipating.
Noteworthy runner-up for this list: Elizabeth Wein, Code Name Verity
Kate Morton’s The Distant Hours was different from my typical YA fare, but that’s one of the reasons why I think I might seek out more of her works in the future. Sometimes, you just need something different.
I like that Jennifer actually knows about psychology and uses that in her writing, but when I was reading the blurbs for her other books I felt sort of meh about them. Plus, I’d be worried about more love interests that I could care less about. But there’s still a pretty decent chance I’d pick up a another (non-The Naturals) book by her one day.
I have to say, I want to read more Scott Westerfeld, but at the same time, I’m not really interested in his other already published works. I thought I might want to read Uglies and/or Afterworlds, but there are things I have heard about both that make me less sure. Maybe I will, but I would really like to see him do more alternate history/steampunk!
I just finished Keith’s debut and I think it’s safe to say I will want to read more by her. She definitely has room to grow as a writer, but the sweet romance and interesting world in The Land Uncharted is leaving me wanting more.
Even though Steelheart was just a four star read for me, I think I’ll like some of Sanderson’s other books more, plus, there was definitely plenty I did like in Steelheart. I also want to continue to support the writer whose podcast (Writing Excuses) has encouraged me in my writing!
OK, I sort of lied. Rachel Hartman is this high on the list because I need Shadow Scale yesterday. But considering she created characters I loved so freaking much, I’ll be happy to read anything she puts out.
Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Today’s topic is Top Ten Books On My Winter TBR. I am a little less sure of what I plan to read this winter than I have been the past couple of seasons, but here are some I know I want to get to… in no particular order…
A YA science fiction story I remembered Kelley mentioning, I got a deal for the Nook book on this one as well, but of course I found out five seconds later I could have borrowed the e-book from my library. Fail. But if I enjoy it, then I’ll borrow the sequels! I’m also much more likely to read it now that I own it.
This is a “risky read” since none of my blogger friends have read it and I think it might be self-published, but it has positive reviews on Goodreads and it sounds SO ME that I had to download it on Nook when I saw it for a good price. Plus the author is local! I hope I end up enjoying it!
I am terrible at getting around to reading short stories and novellas, despite my intentions, especially if they are online. But the last two have been on my Nook for a while (and I got them both for free!), and the former I put a hold on with my library. I haven’t read anything by ANY of the authors in My True Love Gave to Me (yes, despite the fact that so many of them are so well-known), so at first I wasn’t very interested, but then I thought, hey, they’re short stories! And if I don’t like how one’s starting, I’ll skip and go to the next one. It might be fun to read some cute, contemporary holiday stories this season.
New Releases Coming Before March 20 (AKA the start of spring)
(Let’s face it, I won’t read all these by then since I don’t get ARC’s, but still…)
I went to what felt like my first legit YA author event on November 9: Leigh Bardugo at Parnassus Books in Nashville! It’s about a 45 minute drive for me and it was completely worth it! (Not to mention that I got to pick up a slice of my absolute favorite cheesecake before I headed home… but anyhow…) Last year I saw Kat Zhang at a local Barnes & Noble when she was part of a local author signing, so I got her to sign the first two books of The Hybrid Chronicles, neither of which I had read yet at the time, and chatted with her briefly.This event was more like what I have seen other bloggers post about, and I was glad to finally have one of these experiences of my own, especially since I just came to love the Grisha trilogy so much this year!
Some bloggers take good notes during these events, but I didn’t, so here’s just a quick recap:
She shared about what her younger self thought via some of her old diary entries. I have to say that was brave; I can’t imagine sharing my old journals with a crowd of people like that! But then again, maybe I would share a snippet or two to make a point, just as she did. She used it as a segway to discuss…
She talked about why she’s proud to write genre fiction. One thing younger Leigh pleaded with older Leigh was to remember how important young people are, which I thought was so neat for someone who grew up to YA fiction. She talked about how while, yes, genre fiction may be escapist, really so is ALL FICTION. She talked about how readers of genre fiction are the ones who will always be waiting for that letter from Hogwart’s or looking for the door to lead to Narnia, and considering when I was younger I was always hoping to find that door to Narnia, that really resonated with me. Some people (probably not anyone reading this now though) might think that’s silly and childish, but it’s about imagination. Anyhow, I just really appreciated it.
She read a decent-length excerpt from Six of Crows. It was hard for me to pay attention to the whole thing just because I’m bad at listening to things being read in general, but the concept is definitely interesting (a heist in an underworld trade society within the Grisha universe) and I’m looking forward to it.
She answered questions about characters and writing. I don’t have anything specific to note here, except it’s always nice to hear authors share their struggles with writing.
When it was all over it was time for the signing part! So, if you follow Leigh on social media you know about the dice you could get if you bought one of her books from the hosting bookstore. So of course I wanted to get on that, so I bought another PB copy of Shadow and Bone as a present for a family member. Well, apparently everyone else who was buying their books did it beforehand (smart), but since I waited until after, I ended up the back of the signing line. BUT I did get the dice, which is important, and I still got to meet Leigh and get my stack of books signed plus other swag, also important! I had not really thought of what to say to her, but I decided at the last moment to mention my Grisha wedding inspiration post that I knew she had seen (thanks to tumblr), and she remembered it and said she loved it! I told her it made my day when I saw she liked the link, and she said it made her day when she saw the post! So that was a cool moment. (Then recently I tweeted her a link to the other posts because she said she wanted to see more and she tweeted me back saying she loved them all!)
And of course, pictures or it didn’t happen…
Leigh and me!Leigh asked for my favorite character before she started writing book quotes inside. I said Sturmhond was my favorite, of course.Books + swag, picture obviously not taken with my phone. So the band around the first two books was described to me as a bookmark/headband. 🙂A better look at the dice and pins.
Have you ever gotten to meet one of your favorite authors? What’s your favorite memory from an author meeting?
The hype got me a little bit on this one, because I had so many people tell me that it was their favorite and this was the book where things got really dark and good and I spent like the first 75% of the book waiting for the good, dark stuff to happen. That last bit was really quite good, I have to say, and really redeemed a lot of it for me, but I honestly hope this isn’t what I consider the best in the series. I’m definitely intrigued by the new things I learned though and I’m really looking forward to book #4.
