Reader Rayna

Month: July 2015

  • July 2015 Wrap-Up

    Guys. It’s already the end of July. This year is FLYING by. I don’t know how I feel about that…

    But my birthday’s in 19 days, so that’s exciting.

    ANYWAY, this month was a rough month for me in terms of reading and doing anything really remotely related to reading. But here’s my wrap-up for the month, so let’s check out what I read, reviewed, talked about, and so on.

    So what I read/reviewed this month:

    • “City of Fallen Angels” by Cassandra Clare. Though I read this book back in May, I didn’t actually do a review for it because I was going to wait to finish the others before doing so. And then thought better of it, so there’s my review. As a sequel, I felt that it was mostly filler and that it was a lot of information dumping, but it still brought me back into the world and I still did enjoy it. I rated it 3.75/5 stars.
    • “Rebel Spring” by Morgan Rhodes. This was the second book in the series and it did pick up more than the first book, but it was still a little boring at times, in my opinion. I did like that we got to see some chapters in King Gaius’s point of view, and even Nic’s. I did like it a little better than the first and I plan on continuing on. I rated it 4/5 stars.
    • “The Wrath and the Dawn” by Renee Ahdieh. This retelling of A Thousand and One Nights was full of intrigue, a girl with a silver tongue, a dangerous caliph, and many surprises along the way. Though I did get frustrated toward the end, I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait for the next. I rated this 4/5 stars.

    Woo, what a bad reading month. Oh well, at least I read two books, which brings down my TBR a little bit.

    I attempted to host my own readathon, Themeathon, this month, but it was kind of a flop as I gave up on it the last two weeks and I’m not entirely sure that people were participating with me. Oh well, always next year.

    A couple of talks I had:

    • Half a Year in Review: I talked about some of my favorite books, reviews, and discussions that I held over the last six months. It’s been a surprisingly good year so far.
    • Acclimating to Some Changes: I talk about some life things and blog things and how things may be changing around here for a little while until I get into the flow of things.
    • One Year Blogiversary!: That’s right! I’ve been blogging for over a year now and I’m so excited to see how my blog has changed and grown over that time. I’m glad to have joined the book community as it really brought out my passion and love for books once again.

    I did participate in several Top 5 Wednesdays and Top 10 Tuesdays over the past month, which are always fun.

    I did the Unpopular Opinions Tag, which was a fun tag where I talked about some of my own unpopular opinions.

    And I did my collective June and July book haul! I didn’t get a crap ton of books over the last two months, which makes me proud that I was able to resist the urge to buy ALL THE BOOKS!

    Now, as for my August TBR, I’m not actually going to make one. I’m just going to read what I want and what I’m able to, and hope that I can read as much as possible/doable for me. I am going to try to do the TBR Challenge for the month, which this month is to read a classic, but we’ll have to see what happens!

    How was your reading month for July? Did you have a difficult time reading like I did, or did you fly through book after book? What was your favorite read for the month? Let me know!

  • June & July Book Haul

    Since I didn’t actually do a book haul last month, I’m combining June and July together! I don’t think it’s a lot of books, but we’ll see, won’t we?

    Physical Books

    • “P.S. I Still Love You” by Jenny Han. I’ve already read and reviewed this book, but it’s a cute continuation of the first as it follows Peter and Lara Jean through their attempt at a real relationship after their fake one.
    • “The Witch Hunter” by Virginia Boecker. I started reading this book but didn’t get very far before putting it down. It’s about a girl who has the mark of a witch hunter, but one day she is accused of being a witch herself and so she has to run for her life.
    • “The Wrath and the Dawn” by Renee Ahdieh. I’ve already read and reviewed this book, and it’s about a king who takes a new wife every night, only to kill her before sunrise the next morning. But there is one young woman who volunteers to be his next bride – and she’s determined to live to see the next sunrise, and the ones after that, too.
    • “The Heart of Betrayal” by Mary E. Pearson. This is my current read and I’m enjoying it so far. It’s a continuation from the first and how it follows Lia, Rafe, and Kaden during their time in Venda.
    • “Dreams of Gods and Monsters” by Laini Taylor. This is the third book in the trilogy and I’m so excited to read it! Eventually. Once I read the second one…
    • “Fangirl: The Collector’s Edition” by Rainbow Rowell. I couldn’t resist and I had to get this pink collector’s edition of one of my favorite books from Target. Totally worth it.
    • “The Winner’s Curse” by Marie Rutkoski. I won this as part of a giveaway that was hosted by Thoughts on Tomes, Kap89x, and TheBookLife on YouTube. Was so excited to win this! Love, slaves, crime. Everything comes with a price.
    • “The Girl of Fire and Thorns” by Rae Carson. I won this in a giveaway that was hosted by SharleneSays. I gave a bunch of suggestions and ended up winning! I’m excited to read this because all I know about it is that there’s a wide variety of diverse characters, including an overweight main heroine. Yes please.

    E-Books

    • “A Thousand Pieces of You” by Claudia Gray. I’ve been wanting this book since the first time I saw this cover. There was an e-deal on it so I snatched it for super cheap! I’m so excited to read this story about parallel worlds.

    Audiobooks

    • “Words of Radiance” by Brandon Sanderson. This is the second massive sequel to this series and though I haven’t finished the first one yet, it is interesting to far so I hope to get to it sometime this century, haha!

    I believe those are all of the books I’ve acquired the last two months. I could be missing some, who knows? But yes, not bad for a full two months, if I do say so myself.

    Have you read any of these books? What are your thoughts/opinions/feels on them? Interested in reading any on this list? Let me know!

  • Top 5 Wednesday: Favorite Character Tropes

    Welcome to another Top 5 Wednesday! Today’s topic is all about your favorite character tropes. A trope is a kind of dynamic within a book that you see played over and over again, but you just can’t help but love.

    My list isn’t necessarily in any order, by these are some of my faves.

    5. Kickass Female Heroine

    There have been so many kickass female heroines popping up in YA lately, such as Celaena Sardothian, Katniss Everdeen, Princess Jezelia, and more. I love reading about a powerful woman because, well, women have been greatly underestimated in their strength, wits, and otherwise for long enough.

    4. Love Triangles

    WHEN DONE RIGHT, I love this trope. Sometimes it’s just highly unnecessary and just horrible. But there are some instances where I crave it and I’m rooting for one or the other and it’s perfect.

    3. Best Friends Falling in Love

    It’s just so cute when they grow up together and they gradually fall for each other and it’s just my guilty pleasure. It really is. I don’t read this nearly enough, but I really should. Give me suggestions!

    2. Bad Boy + Good Girl

    Oh, you know what I’m talking about. That guy with the attitude problem, but he’s really a nice and gentle guy down deep. And the girl who’s a goody-two-shoes who wants to live a little on the wild side. Yup. You know exactly what I’m talking about.

    1. Goofy Sidekick

    I love the goofy sidekicks! They just make the story so much better and they’re honestly just the source of comic relief, but I don’t care; they’re amazing. Examples: Ron Weasley (technically a main character, but whatevs), Simon from The Mortal Instruments, Kenji, and so on.

    What are some of your favorite tropes in books? Let me know!

  • Top Ten Tuesday: Characters Who Are Fellow Book Nerds

    Welcome to another Top Ten Tuesday! Today’s topic is about characters from books who are also fellow book nerds. So whether they read, write, own a library, work in a bookstore, whatever, it’s all about those fellow nerds whom you love to read about.

    1. Celaena Sardothian from the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas. Books are a way to escape the harsh reality in which Celaena lives, and she always manages to find solace in reading.

    2. Lia from “The Kiss of Deception” by Mary E. Pearson. Now Lia isn’t necessarily a book nerd, but she has read the Holy Text of Morrighan and she also stole a couple books in order to decipher and learn a language. Hardcore.

    3. Juliette from the Shatter Me trilogy by Tahereh Mafi. Juliette is usually lost in her own world when it comes to books because they were basically her only friends growing up due to her power.

    4. Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. How could she not be on this list? I’m pretty sure she’d curse me if I didn’t include her here.

    5. Cath from “Fangirl” by Rainbow Rowell. She writes fanfiction based on a popular series in her world in which she’s read all of the books. I mean, if that doesn’t qualify her as a fangirl/book nerd, I don’t know what does.

    6. Cleo from the Falling Kingdoms series by Morgan Rhodes. Now she may not be a big reader, but her family does own the biggest library in Mytica, so I’d say that qualifies for being on the list. And I’m jealous.

    7. Lizzie Bennett from “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen. Though I haven’t read the book, I’ve seen the movie, and know that Lizzie is the bookworm of the family. She has her nose in a book often, which is something I wish I could do nowadays.

    Now those are all of the characters I could think of (and I know there are WAY more than this out there), but I think it’s a decent list that encompasses some well read ladies.

    …Wow, my list is all ladies. Huh.

    Anyway, let me know some of your favorite book nerd characters!

  • Unpopular Opinions Book Tag

    It’s been a while since I’ve done a tag, but I’ve finally found one that I’m really interested in doing, and that is the unpopular opinions book tag! It was originally created by TheBookArcher on YouTube, so you can check out her video.

    1. A Popular Book or series that you didn’t like.

    “The Great Gatsy” by F Scott Fitzgerald. Yeah, I had to read this for school and it was just really boring and pointless. Sorry.
    2. A Popular Book or series that every one else seems to hate but you love.

    This one’s hard because I either like or don’t like a lot of the same kinds of books other people I know do… Umm… Probably “The Selection” by Kiera Cass. I know a lot of people loved it, but a lot had problems with it, too. I really enjoyed it, so yeah, I’m going with that.
    3. A Love Triangle where the main character ended up with the person you did NOT want them to end up with (warn ppl for spoilers) OR an OTP that you don’t like.

    I can’t think of anyone where I didn’t root for someone to end up with the person they ended up with… So let me flip it and say this: I hope Lia from The Kiss of Deception trilogy ends up with Kaden. That is all.
    4. A popular book Genre that you hardly reach for.

    I don’t know how popular it is, but I never go for any sort of mystery book. I just find the suspense to be too much, and if there isn’t enough action or romance, then I kind of don’t want to read it. But maybe that’s just me.
    5. A popular or beloved character that you do not like.

    Magnus Damora from the Falling Kingdoms series by Morgan Rhodes. I don’t know why everyone loves him (I’m trying to, but I just can’t). He’s just kind of annoying and mean and cruel and I don’t know.. He just doesn’t sit well with me right now.
    6. A popular author that you can’t seem to get into.

    Garth Nix. I’m trying to read Sabriel and I just can’t get into it. It’s so slow and the writing isn’t really all that captivating… I don’t know, it’s hard.
    7. A popular book trope that you’re tired of seeing. (examples “lost princess”, corrupt ruler, love triangles, etc.)

    I’m tired of seeing the one parent thing. I understand it happens in the real world, but it’s so common in YA it’s like, “Uh, can we pick something new here?” I enjoy reading books with both parents who are active in their child’s life, in good ways and bad.
    8. A popular series that you have no interest in reading.

    The Shiver trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater. I picked it up, read the first paragraph, and put it back on the shelf at the store. I just couldn’t get hooked from the get go, so it’s just not happening.
    9. The saying goes “The book is always better than the movie”, but what movie or T.V. show adaptation do you prefer more than the book?

    As of right now, I’m enjoying the Hunger Games movies, and it’s not because I disliked the books — it’s because I haven’t read them yet, hahaha!

    What are some of your unpopular opinions to these questions? Let me know! And if you want to do this tag, go right ahead, just be sure to give proper credit!