Shon's January Reading Wrap Up & Book Haul

Hello Bookworms!  This is my January Reading Wrap Up & Book Haul.  

January Reading Wrap Up

This month I readed a total of 3 books.

A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston 
A Thousand Nights is a retelling of the classic Arabian Nights: Tales from One Thousand and One Nights.  It about a nameless 17-year-old heroine who takes her sister's place as wife to a murderous king. And so she is taken in her sister's place, and she believes death will soon follow. But thanks to her sister's prayers she acquires godlike powers. She discovers that the king, Lo-Melkhiin, is possessed by a demon fascinated by her newfound powers.

I think I was expecting a little more from this book.  

One thing I did not like about the story was nobody had names except Lo-Melkhiin. All the characters in the story were referred to as my sister, my mother, my sister's mother, my youngest brother, my father, it was a little confusing and I found it to be more than a little distracting.

I did enjoy parts of it and it did keep my attention. I'm just not sure how I feel about the ending.


Not If I See You First by Eric Lindstrom
Not If I See You First is about Sixteen-year-old junior Parker Grant who lost her sight and her mother in a car crash. Parker has some strict rules to keep her life manageable. Some of the rules are warn her before touching her, don’t assume blind means stupid, don't deceive her.


For the most part, I enjoyed Not If I See You First. I enjoyed Parker voice and the relationships she had with other people.  It is towards the end of the book where things go downhill. Parker's narration of her struggles turned into a pity party, and you started to lose interest.


School Spirits by Rachel Hawkins
School Spirits is about fifteen-year-old Izzy Brannick was trained to fight monsters. For centuries, her family has hunted magical creatures. But when Izzy's older sister vanishes without a trace while on a job, Izzy's mom decides they need to take a break.

This was a fun read. School Spirits is a spin off of the Hex Hall series by Rachel Hawkins.  

Izzy goes on her first solo mission. Stop a ghost from haunting a high school. A simple job, all she has to do is to find out who the ghost is and pour some salt over the grave at the end of the month.

There is just one problem, Izzy have never be to school before. This is where all the fun start.  Watching Izzy negative thru high school and learning how to make friends is funny. 


One thing I love about  School Spirits, Izzy had no clue about high school. She kept comparing her interactions to moments from a high school drama she watched, that her mom bought her so she could see how kids in a high school act.

January Book Haul 

This month I pick up a total of 18 books.

  To All the Boys I've Loved Before                            P. S. I Still Love You                            A Court of Thorns and Roses 

                Sword and Verse                                               Truthwitch                                             Thief of Lies

             An Ember in the Ashes                                       Shade Me                                           The Heir and the Spare 

           Luckiest Girl Alive                                   This Is What Happy Looks Like                      You Know You Love Me

                  UnWholly                                                    UnDivided                                           They All Fall Down

           Name of the Wind                               Written in My Own Heart's Blood                A Once Upon a Time: Reawakened

The 5th Wave Book Tag

The 5th Wave movie is out this week ~ We felt inspired to try it out.

1st Wave: Lights Out. A book with a black cover. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

2nd Wave: Surf's Up. A book that destroyed you emotionally. Angelfall by Susan Ee - ouch Pen's little sister.

3rd Wave: Pestilence. A book with an infected population or place. The Young Elites by Marie Lu

4th Wave: Silencer. A Sci-Fic book. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

5th Wave: Intrigued. A book you are intrigued to read. Truthwitch by Susan Dennard

Tina's Yearly Reread of Daughter of Smoke & Bone [SPOILER ALERT]

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

Usually around this time of year (end of December or early January), I would either do a reread of the first book or the entire series. Daughter of Smoke & Bone is a well developed story with great world building that makes one fall heavily into the world of angels and chimeras.

I've read this book so often, falling back into the story is like drifting off into the land of nostalgia. The first few times I read it, I eagerly devoured with a grin and a clean picture of how each scenes are displayed. This time, I've forgotten how much happens in book 1. Literally, a lot of sh*t happens!

You are first introduced to the playful free-spirited freehand artist Karou and her pixie-sized best friend Zuzana. You meet her egotistical hot ex Kaz and Zuzana's new beau violinist Nick.

Slowly, the story unravels to reveal a mysterious world that Karou belongs. Her foster family are chimeras. She's never seen the chimera world. She only knows she was raised in a shop that deals with teeth and magic. And she often runs errands in the human world for the shop keeper Brimstone.

She learns martial art skills from all over the world. She collects languages as hobbies. She deals with traders for Brimstone. And he collects all sorts of teeth from mammals to avian to reptiles. Why does Brimstone collect teeth? and what are they for?

Ah. She catches the attention of an angel Akiva who was on a mission to close the portals between their worlds. They fight. Twice. Then the angel fights on her behalf against other angels. This just gets juicier and juicier (yes curiouser and curiouser!).

He knows who she is.
She remembers who she really is.

Karou and Akiva were lovers. Two different species, caught in the same war, separated by heartbreak and time. And unknowingly, they hurt each other...bad.

The book could have ended here or a section before that but it continues on to talk about their lives before modern day. So much of their selves are revealed yet the mystery of the angels and chimeras remain.

I love this book so much~ the heart ache, the humor, the flirting, the easiness of youth. And the way it's written, it doesn't matter what I was doing, as soon as my eyes fall onto the pages, I'm immediately transported into the story. I've always mentioned how much I enjoy the flow of this story and I'm a sucker for well developed ones at that! Each read gives me such a different feeling. Since much time has passed from my last reread, this time Daughter of Smoke & Bone leaves me in awe and fills me with wonderment.

Books Shon Want to RE-read in 2016!

Hello Bookworms!!

As you can tell from the title, this post is about books that I really want to re-read in 2016.

I re-read books all the time. This might be one of the reason my TBR keeps going up. When I find a book I love, I like to go back and re-read over and over again.

Here are the top 4 books that I want to re-read in 2016.

1. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. I know, I posted this book a lot last year but this was one of my favorite reads of 2015. And with Glass Sword, one of my most anticipated releases for 2016, book two in the Red Queen series coming out in February; I just have to re-read this book.

 2. The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski. Another book I talk about a lot year. I L-O-V-E this book! This book was so good!

3. The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski. EVEN BETTER THAN THE FIRST BOOK! With book three, The Winner's Kiss, coming out in March. I want to re-read both the The Winner's Curse and The Winner's Crime.

4. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. With the new TV Show, Shadowhunters, I feel like I want to give The Mortal Instruments series another try. I original read TMI when the movie (which I did not like) came out in 2013. I think enough time has passed that I can re-read City of Bones and not remember to much of the plot.

What book(s) are you planning to re-read in 2016? Let us know in the comment below.

Top Ten Tuesday #14: Top Ten Books I've Recently Added To My TBR (January 19)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Top Ten Books I've Recently Added To My TBR.

Tina
1. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith (I need to read read read. The movie is coming out in two weeks!)
2. Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson (I took a peek at it and I'm hooked! It's super badass.)
3. The Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen (the story sounds hilarious; trolls??)

Wendy
4. Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard 
5. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
6. Passenger by Alexandra Bracken 

Shon
7. Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke

8. This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab. I hope this book is good. I read my first book by Victoria Schwab (V.E. Schwab) last year and I did not like.  Here hoping Victoria is better then V.E.

9. Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan

10. Sword and Verse by Kathy MacMillan

End of Days by Susan Ee

End of Days by Susan Ee             
Published May 12th 2015 by Skyscape
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance, Paranormal, Dystopia
Page: 344
Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Review by: Tina

Synopsis
The final conclusion to Penryn & the End of Days trilogy. After a daring escape from the angels, Penryn and Raffe are on the run. They’re both desperate to find a doctor who can reverse the twisted changes inflicted by the angels on Raffe and Penryn’s sister. As they set off in search of answers, a startling revelation about Raffe’s past unleashes dark forces that threaten them all.

When the angels release an apocalyptic nightmare onto humans, both sides are set on a path toward war. As unlikely alliances form and strategies shift, who will emerge victorious? Forced to pick sides in the fight for control of the earthly realm, Raffe and Penryn must choose: Their own kind, or each other? 


Review
Oh. My. is this book freaking goood!!!

To sum up the books, here's the short version of the series:

Book 1 - Normal human girl saves her family by distracting a group of angels in the streets. Not knowing that she witnessed the bullying of another angel, she finds herself in the middle of angel politics. She befriends the bullied angel and spends the entire book helping him reclaim his clipped wings.

Book 2 - The human girl and angel separates. While the girl stays with the human resistance unable to decide whether she wants to help them eradicate the angels from Earth, he goes back to his angel society and uncovers the strange gory events that are happening in the human world are actually created in the laboratory.

Book 3 - Human and angel finds each other and enters hell.

The right amount of ass kicking. A touch of gore. The sweetness of romance. This book is too good to be true. It has it all.

An evil archangel named Uriel has made a mess of mixing species to use in his political propaganda "the Apocalypse" to persuade his people to follow him and name him as "Messenger." In order to do that, he nearly annihilated the entire human race. Rafael finds himself without anyone he trusts. To fight against Uriel's campaign, he needs his Watchers. He enters the Pit with Pen's help to find his soldiers and rescue them from the Pit.

This final battle is amazing. I finished the book last night and I'm still rereading the final chapters. Wow. How does a person fight against an angel? Well Pen found a way to save both mankind and the angel race.

Shon Reviews School Spirits

Title / Author: School Spirits by Rachel Hawkins

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Year Published: May 2013

Genres: Young Adult, Paranormal, Fantasy, Romance

Source: Bought

Rating: 4/5 stars


Synopsis

Fifteen-year-old Izzy Brannick was trained to fight monsters. For centuries, her family has hunted magical creatures. But when Izzy’s older sister vanishes without a trace while on a job, Izzy's mom decides they need to take a break.


Izzy and her mom move to a new town, but they soon discover it’s not as normal as it appears. A series of hauntings has been plaguing the local high school, and Izzy is determined to prove her worth and investigate. But assuming the guise of an average teenager is easier said than done. For a tough girl who's always been on her own, it’s strange to suddenly make friends and maybe even have a crush.


Can Izzy trust her new friends to help find the secret behind the hauntings before more people get hurt?


Rachel Hawkins' delightful spin-off brings the same wit and charm as the New York Times best-selling Hex Hall series. Get ready for more magic, mystery and romance!




My Review

This was a fun read. School Spirits is a spin off of the Hex Hall series by Rachel Hawkins. I have not read the Hex Hall series yet!


School Spirits is about Izzy (supernatural hunters), who goes on her first solo mission. Stop a ghost from haunting a high school. A simple job, all she has to do is to find out who the ghost is and pour some salt over the grave at the end of the month.


There is just one problem, Izzy have never be to school before. This is where all the fun start. Watching Izzy negative thru high school and learning how to make friends is funny.


One thing I love about School Spirits, Izzy had no clue about high school. She kept comparing her interactions to moments from a high school drama she watched, that her mom bought her so she could see how kids in a high school act.


School Spirits is a good book, full of lively characters.

Top Ten Tuesday #13: Top Ten 2015 Releases I Meant To Get To But Didn't (January 12)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Top Ten 2015 Releases I Meant To Get To But Didn't.

Wendy
1. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
2. Life and Death by Stephanie Meyer
3. The Rose Society by Marie Lu 

Shon
4. Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, Book 1: The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan

5. The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

6. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

7. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

8. A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston

9. The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

10. Illuminae by Amie Kaufman 

Shon Reviews Not If I See You First

Title / Author: Not If I See You First by Eric Lindstrom
Publisher: Poppy
Year Published: December 2015 
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Source: Bought
Rating:  3.75/5 stars

Synopsis

The Rules: 

Don't deceive me. Ever. Especially using my blindness. Especially in public.

Don't help me unless I ask. Otherwise you're just getting in my way or bothering me.

Don't be weird. Seriously, other than having my eyes closed all the time, I'm just like you only smarter. 

Parker Grant doesn't need 20/20 vision to see right through you. That's why she created the Rules: Don't treat her any differently just because she's blind, and never take advantage. There will be no second chances. Just ask Scott Kilpatrick, the boy who broke her heart.

When Scott suddenly reappears in her life after being gone for years, Parker knows there's only one way to react-shun him so hard it hurts. She has enough on her mind already, like trying out for the track team (that's right, her eyes don't work but her legs still do), doling out tough-love advice to her painfully naive classmates, and giving herself gold stars for every day she hasn't cried since her dad's death three months ago. But avoiding her past quickly proves impossible, and the more Parker learns about what really happened--both with Scott, and her dad--the more she starts to question if things are always as they seem. Maybe, just maybe, some Rules are meant to be broken.

My Review

I was a little skeptical about reading this book, I usually don't read contemporary. The book starts off a little depressing, the author hit you with some much stuff in the prologue. 

The story is about about sixteen-year-old Parker Grant, who lost her mother and her sight when she was seven, and she lost her father at the end of her sophomore year of high school.

So, once you get past the very depressing and slow start the story really picks up and I found myself laughing out loud. 

I love the beginning of the story. There wasn't to much world building and the backstory was fun to read about, and I got a feel for who everyone was quickly.

For the most part, I enjoyed Not If I See You First.  I enjoyed Parker voice and the relationships she had with other people. In particular, I liked her friends and her little cousin.

It is towards the end of the book where things go downhill. Parker's narration of her struggles turned into a pity party, and you started to lose interest.

Shon Reviews A Thousand Nights

Title / Author: A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston

Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Year Published: October 2015
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Retellings
Source: Bought
Rating:  3.75/5 stars

Synopsis

Lo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to her village, looking for a wife. When she sees the dust cloud on the horizon, she knows he has arrived. She knows he will want the loveliest girl: her sister. She vows she will not let her be next.

And so she is taken in her sister’s place, and she believes death will soon follow. Lo-Melkhiin’s court is a dangerous palace filled with pretty things: intricate statues with wretched eyes, exquisite threads to weave the most beautiful garments. She sees everything as if for the last time. But the first sun rises and sets, and she is not dead. Night after night, Lo-Melkhiin comes to her and listens to the stories she tells, and day after day she is awoken by the sunrise. Exploring the palace, she begins to unlock years of fear that have tormented and silenced a kingdom. Lo-Melkhiin was not always a cruel ruler. Something went wrong.

Far away, in their village, her sister is mourning. Through her pain, she calls upon the desert winds, conjuring a subtle unseen magic, and something besides death stirs the air.

Back at the palace, the words she speaks to Lo-Melkhiin every night are given a strange life of their own. Little things, at first: a dress from home, a vision of her sister. With each tale she spins, her power grows. Soon she dreams of bigger, more terrible magic: power enough to save a king, if she can put an end to the rule of a monster. 

My Review

I think I was expecting a little more from this book.

I remember when this book was released, plenty of people compared it to The Wrath of Dawn (which had only came out few months before), but I haven't read that book so I can't do a comparison.

One thing I did not like about the story was nobody had names except Lo-Melkhiin. All the characters in the story were referred to as my sister, my mother, my sister's mother, my youngest brother, my father, it was a little confusing and I found it to be more than a little distracting.

The magical aspect of this story was also confusing. It just came out of nowhere. 

The demon factor felt a little glossed over and perplexing at least.

There is a point in the story where you think the author is going to throw in some romance, but later down the road, she changed her mind and never went back to delete that part of the story. So in the back on your mind you are waiting for the romance to happen and it never did.

The book itself is an interesting and enjoyable read. I did enjoy parts of it and it did keep my attention. I'm just not sure how I feel about the ending.

Top Ten Tuesday #12: Top Ten Resolutions We Have For 2016 (January 5)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Top Ten Resolutions We Have For 2016 (can be bookish, personal resolutions, "I resolve to finally read these 10 books, series I resolve to finish in 2016, etc.).

Tina
1. I resolve to quit starting a fresh book each time I read 50% of another book thus going thru the pains of completing 5 books by the end of one week.
2. I resolve to expand my literary genre.

Wendy
1. I resolve to expand my book collection :)
2. I resolve to stay organized, in life, and in book series.
3. I resolve to make this blog extraordinary for our viewers!

Shon
Series I'm resolve to finish in 2016
1. The Red Rising Trilogy
2. The Half Bad Trilogy
3. The Ruby Red Trilogy
4. The Remnant Chronicles series
5. The Lunar Chronicles series
6. The Grisha series
7. The Monstrumologist series
8. The Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy
9. Percy Jackson and the Olympians series
10. Bloodlines series

Shon's Bookish Goals + January 2016 TBR & Most Anticipated Releases!!

Happy New Year's, Bookworms!!


I going to start posting my monthly TBR and warp up on the blog, I'm a book blogger and that what book blogger do. 

                           Here my bookish goals for 2016

1. To complete my Goodreads challenge + PopSugar's 2016 Reading Challenge.
2. To write a review for every book I read (minus the comics and manga).

3. To finish a least 10 series (there are some series that I have only one book left to read).
4. I'm not going to stress myself about reading, blogging and posting. (We started this blog for fun, and I am going to have fun. No more forcing myself to read a book, just so I can post a review.
5. Buy a bookshelf.




       These are the books I'm planning to read this month.


1. A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston
Lo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to her village, looking for a wife. When she sees the dust cloud on the horizon, she knows he has arrived. She knows he will want the loveliest girl: her sister. She vows she will not let her be next.

2. Not If I See You First by Eric Lindstrom
The Rules:
Don't deceive me. Ever. Especially using my blindness. Especially in public.

Don't help me unless I ask. Otherwise you're just getting in my way or bothering me.

Don't be weird. Seriously, other than having my eyes closed all the time, I'm just like you only smarter.

3. The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
 
After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.
Now, it's the dawn of the 5th wave...
4. Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do.

This afternoon, her planet was invaded.

The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe.

                              Most Anticipated Releases!


All of these books will be releasing some time this month.
Passenger by Alexandra Bracken
Truthwitch by Susan Dennard
Sword and Verse by Kathy MacMillan
Shallow Graves by Kali Wallace
Thief of Lies by Brenda Drake
The Heir and the Spare by Emily Albright
Shade Me by Jennifer Brown













Have you read any of these? What books are on your January TBR? What books are you excited for this month? Let us know in the comments!