1. Book Review! Share your latest favorite reads!
It’s been awhile since I caught up on my most recent list of book I’m reading. I was in a major slump back when I tried to love Harry Potter, but now I’m on a roll! Listening to audiobooks has also helped a ton. I turn one on nearly any time I’m in the car alone, getting ready in the morning, editing pictures, etc. Here are some of the more recent books I’ve finished!:
1. Too Late by Colleen Hoover
“I guess that’s the difference between being loved the right way and the wrong way. You either feel like you’re tethered to an anchor…or you feel like you’re flying.”
Synopsis:
Sloan will go through hell and back for those she loves.
And she does, every single day.
After finding herself stuck in a relationship with the dangerous and morally corrupt Asa Jackson, Sloan will do whatever it takes to get by until she’s able to find a way out.
Nothing will get in her way.
Nothing except Carter.
Contemporary love stories might be my least favorite kind of stories to read.. This one is heavy with domestic abuse and Colleen Hoover as usual keeps you turning pages, but I had a lot of unanswered questions and it felt like it ended abruptly.
My Rating: 3 Stars
2. Heartless by Marissa Meyer
“It is a dangerous thing to unbelieve something only because it frightens you.”
Synopsis:
Catherine may be one of the most desired girls in Wonderland, and a favorite of the unmarried King of Hearts, but her interests lie elsewhere. A talented baker, all she wants is to open a shop with her best friend. But according to her mother, such a goal is unthinkable for the young woman who could be the next queen.
I love classic stories told from the villain’s point of view. In this book, The Queen of Hearts was so likable and sweet as a young girl. Throughout the entire book I was trying to figure out when the transition into “OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!” would happen. And it definitely did happen.
My Rating: 4 Stars
3. The Bird and the Sword by Amy Harmon
“You chose me because I am of use. But I chose you because I wanted you. All I ever wanted was for you to love me in return.”
Synopsis:
The day my mother was killed, she told my father I wouldn’t speak again, and she told him if I died, he would die too. Then she predicted the king would trade his soul and lose his son to the sky. My father has a claim to the throne, and he is waiting in the shadows for all of my mother’s words to come to pass. He wants desperately to be king, and I just want to be free.
This book series was a complete surprise for me. I’m not even sure how I stumbled into it, but I loved it!
My Rating: 4 Stars
4. King’s Cage by Victoria Aveyard
“He is a monster still, a monster always. And yet I can’t stop myself from listening. Because I could be a monster too. If given the wrong chance. If someone broke me, like he is broken.”
Synopsis:
Mare Barrow is a prisoner, powerless without her lightning, tormented by her lethal mistakes. She lives at the mercy of a boy she once loved, a boy made of lies and betrayal. Now a king, Maven Calore continues weaving his dead mother’s web in an attempt to maintain control over his country—and his prisoner.
This is the series I should stop reading, but can’t. Each book I’ve read so far is slow moving until about the last quarter of the book where things pick up and then snag you on a cliffhanger.
My Rating: 3 Stars
5. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
“I’ve risked my life for you. I’ve walked half the length of Ravka for you, and I’d do it again and again and again just to be with you, just to starve with you and freeze with you and hear you complain about hard cheese every day. So don’t tell me we don’t belong together.”
Synopsis:
Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.
This was another surprise series I loved. It begins with a story of two poor orphans who grow up together and are separated when one is swept away to train to save the world. Or will she be used? And will they be reunited? And will things ever be the same between them again now that she is different?
Rating: 4 Stars
6. The Queen and the Cure by Amy Harmon
“The very best things in life are born of difficulty. Whatever comes too easily is easily abandoned.”
Synopsis:
Kjell of Jeru had always known who he was. He’d never envied his brother or wanted to be king. He was the bastard son of the late King Zoltev and a servant girl, and the ignominy of his birth had never bothered him. But there is more to a man than his parentage. More to a man than his blade, his size, or his skills, and all that Kjell once knew has shifted and changed. He is no longer simply Kjell of Jeru, a warrior defending the crown. Now he is a healer, one of the Gifted, and a man completely at odds with his power.
Kjell was the King’s right hand man in the first book of this series (The Bird and the Sword). This second book focuses on his own journey. I didn’t like him in the first book so I wasn’t sure if I would care about his journey, but sure enough he wins us all over and Amy Harmon nailed it again with the second book in her series.
Rating: 4 Stars
Currently I’m listening to Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, reading And I Darken by Kiersten White on my Kindle and tackling All The Missing Girls by Megan Miranda in real life book form. What are you reading?
John Holton says
I see Marissa Meyer lives in Tacoma. Ever been tempted to drop in and say “howdy”? Allegedly, Iris Johannsen lives near me, but I’m afraid I’d end up a dead person in one of her books. Hey, there’s an idea: An author who’s also a serial killer…
I doubt I’ll read any of these, but I like the cover art on “Shadow And Bone.”
Gigi says
I just finished Stephen King’s newest, The Outsider. So, so good – if you are into Stephen King. If you aren’t, I wouldn’t recommend it. Currently, I’m slogging through The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt – it has four stars on Goodreads, so I’m hoping it picks up the pace a bit.
Angie says
You are going to LOVE a book I just Beta-read. I’ll give you a heads-up when the author is ready to send out ARCs so you can snag one. I only read Fantasy when I’m writing on a deadline, but I couldn’t put this one down. And yes, it’s the first of a series. I’ll keep you posted!