Top 5 Wednesday || Series to Start in 2016

Starting the rejuvenated blogging off right with Top 5 Wednesday! This week's topic is "Series I Want to Start in 2016".

1. The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson
It's getting to the point that it's almost embarrassing that I haven't read this yet. I own all three of the books. I know I'm going to like it. I keep meaning to read it. What is wrong with me?

2. The Broken Earth Series by N.K. Jemisin
Jemisin's work has been on my radar for a while now. All her stuff sounds really interesting. But I've heard some excellent things about The Fifth Season in particular, and the sequel is coming out in 2016, so!

3. The Captive Prince Trilogy by C.S. Pacat
This one seems to be notoriously difficult to find, so I'm probably going to have to buy it online. Adriana from Perpetual Pages has raved about this book and series--and come on, queer fantasy? Yes please.

4. The Remnant Chronicles by Mary E. Pearson
I got The Kiss of Deception for Christmas last year... so I really need to get around to this. I've heard spectacular things, and the idea of not knowing who is the prince and who is the assassin sounds SO cool.

5. The Worldbreaker Saga by Kameron Hurley
Another really interesting sounding series that I've heard great things about. This list is so fantasy-biased anyway, might as well keep up the trend!


There are a ton of series I want to finish in 2016 as well, but that will have to be a separate post!

What are you wanting to start in 2016? Any of these look interesting? Let's chat in the comments!

Well.

Hi.

Listen, I know I've been atrocious about blogging for the last year, but in my defense, 2015 was really hard. I'd just moved, I had all new courses to teach--which were a combination of really academic and really not, both of which are challenging for different reasons. And I kept getting really sick.

But I've still been reading. I've still be watching way too much BookTube. And with all the cool year end videos coming out now, I was really wanting to share some of my thoughts again.

I've archived a lot of collected posts (reviews, challenges, etc) from 2014 so that I can make room for the new-and-improved 2016 versions. I've still been keeping things up to date on my Goodreads profile, so if you're curious, you can check that out.

I know I'm probably screaming out into the void. There weren't that many people following this blog anyway, and I can't imagine many of you stuck around through that indefinite hiatus. But whatever.

I'm here. I'm going to try again. We'll see how this goes.

Review Archive 2014

Here are all the reviews I posted on the blog in 2014.

Alphabet Challenge 2014 Archive

Here is the archive of my 2014 Alphabet Reading Challenge!

Seriously Series 2014 Archive

Here is the archive of my Seriously Series 2014 Challenge!

Review || Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood

Born Wicked (The Cahill Witch Chronicles #1) by Jessica Spotswood ★★☆☆☆

Everybody knows Cate Cahill and her sisters are eccentric. Too pretty, too reclusive, and far too educated for their own good. But the truth is even worse: they’re witches. And if their secret is discovered by the priests of the Brotherhood, it would mean an asylum, a prison ship—or an early grave.

Before her mother died, Cate promised to protect her sisters. But with only six months left to choose between marriage and the Sisterhood, she might not be able to keep her word... especially after she finds her mother’s diary, uncovering a secret that could spell her family’s destruction. Desperate to find alternatives to their fate, Cate starts scouring banned books and questioning rebellious new friends, all while juggling tea parties, shocking marriage proposals, and a forbidden romance with the completely unsuitable Finn Belastra.

If what her mother wrote is true, the Cahill girls aren’t safe. Not from the Brotherhood, the Sisterhood—not even from each other.

I kept setting this book down because it just wasn't really holding my interest. When I thought to pick it up again, I usually breezed through 100 pages or so before setting it down again. 

Not that it was a bad book, but it just wasn't anything super exciting. The premise is really interesting and the world becomes more complex as things get going, but overall things faltered because of mediocre execution.

Cate is an interesting narrator, but she holds up the progression of the story for chapters at a time because of her stubbornness and unwillingness to yield to change. It becomes exhausting at times. And there's a little too much, "everyone knows something you don't know" going on here for my tastes. I don't mind a good mystery, teasing out the unknown from the narrative. But Cate throws up roadblock after roadblock that it's almost impossible to get at those hidden details until they're basically right on top of you.

There are some interesting plot threads that have yet to be tied up, but I'm not sure if I actually want to go through the trouble of reading the next two books in the trilogy or if I'd rather just seek out spoilers on the internet.

Review || Shattered Souls by Mary Lindsey

Shattered Souls by Mary Lindsey ★★★☆☆

Lenzi hears voices and has visions - gravestones, floods, a boy with steel gray eyes. Her boyfriend, Zak, can't help, and everything keeps getting louder and more intense. Then Lenzi meets Alden, the boy from her dreams, who reveals that she's a reincarnated Speaker - someone who can talk to and help lost souls - and that he has been her Protector for centuries.

Now Lenzi must choose between her life with Zak and the life she is destined to lead with Alden. But time is running out: a malevolent spirit is out to destroy Lenzi, and he will kill her if she doesn't make a decision soon.

3 stars is absolutely too generous for this book, objectively.

The writing, plot and characters are nothing special or memorable. It does not do anything unexpected. It has a huge number of extremely problematic moments.

Objectively.

Subjectively, I gobbled this book up. Light, fluffy and mostly mindless, it was not only exactly what I was in the mood for at the time, but features one of my favourite tropes of all time.

If your blurb goes anything like this, "Character A sworn to protect Character B, but Character B can't remember their past lives together." I am 110% down for your book.

It's an affliction.

I'm trash.

And this book is kind of trashy too. But whatever. I'm under no illusions about it. It's ridiculous, I'm ridiculous, and I had a good few hours reading it.

The end!

Review || The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan

The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan ★☆☆☆☆

Jake Marlowe is the last werewolf. Now just over 200 years old, Jake has an insatiable appreciation for good scotch, books, and the pleasures of the flesh, with a voracious libido and a hunger for meat that drives him crazy each full moon. Although he is physically healthy, Jake has slipped into a deep existential crisis, considering taking his own life and ending a legend that has lived for thousands of years. But there are two dangerous groups--one new, one ancient--with reasons of their own for wanting Jake very much alive.

1.5 stars?

Basically, my reaction to the whole thing can be summed up with this gif:



Because really. Now, I get that Jake not being a likeable narrator is 100% the point. And that's not even what I minded about him. It was more that I don't think Jake's a relateable narrator if you're not male.

A lot of people slag off on this book because it's "literary fiction about werewolves". And by that, they take issue with the pretentious writing. Which, I'll give them, because at first I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get past it. I did, though, because you adapt to it.

But if you're going to criticize this book for being "literary", let's do it because it falls down all the same trappings: horrible representation and characterization of women, tortured male angsting--oh sorry, brooding, sex and drink and drugs just don't do it for me, recycled familial drama. And most bizarrely, insta-love. Which, I'll be honest, I expect to some degree in YA, so it seemed jarringly out of place here.

I'll admit, my interest was peaked with the addition of Tallula, but I mostly spent the next few chapters wishing we were telling her story instead of Jake's. But the way the book ended doesn't make me want to read on despite this. Mostly because I'd want her story, but as told by someone else.

But whatever. I read it. I didn't particularly enjoy it for any considerable stretch. And now it'll go in the 'to donate' pile. There it is. (I'll admit, this was a cover buy anyway and I mostly picked it up to read to see if it was worth keeping around. And it wasn't. So.)

Review || To All The Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

To All The Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han ★★★☆☆

Lara Jean keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her.

They aren't love letters that anyone else wrote for her, these are ones she's written. One for every boy she's ever loved—five in all. When she writes, she can pour out her heart and soul and say all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed, and suddenly Lara Jean's love life goes from imaginary to out of control.

This book is pretty much what it says on the tin: a cute contemporary read.

It doesn't do anything unexpected and it isn't really a novel with much depth. The romantic angle the book takes isn't exactly what you're anticipating at the start, but from there it becomes fairly conventional.

One of the highlights is Lara Jean's relationship with her family members. There's a strong bond of sisterhood--and the novel spends time looking at how distance changes that relationship. Lara Jean's father is also fairly present and involved in the goings on of his daughters, which is nice to see.

I also appreciated Han's intentional choice to make Lara Jean Korean American. I'm a huge supporter of more diversity in books.

I didn't mind the "open" ending here as I know some people did. Though, I've heard this is going to be a duology and I'm not sure how I feel about that. While the ending here didn't necessarily offer any definite conclusions, I liked how things were sort of left up to the reader. We'll see how book 2 goes, I suppose.

That said, I would've liked to have had more complexity overall in the book. I expected Lara Jean's letters to be longer, and for more time to be devoted to reading them and understanding why she'd written them. There were also a number of common high school drama themes the story touched on, but never really did much about in the end.

Still. If you need a feel good book that doesn't require effort to read, I'd pick this up. It was cute, fluffy and perfect for my mood at the time.