I thought it was about time for another WWW Wednesday
I am currently reading Gathering Darkness which is the third book in the Falling Kingdoms Series by Morgan Rhodes.
The last book I finished was Paper Towns by John Green. Kind of a mediocre read for me!
I am hoping to either pick up Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo or Supernova by Marissa Meyer
This may be a little polarizing…. when I seen the prompt for this week’s Top 10 Tuesday was to pick out my favourite bookmarks, I couldn’t help but cringe a little as I honestly don’t really use bookmarks at all, I dog-ear a lot of my books. I do have quite a collection of bookmarks that get sent when I purchase books but I never use them. I will either dog ear my books or I just lay the book down wherever I am on the page I’m currently on and then leave it there until I come back to it. I know some people are quite funny about dog earring books and trying to keep their editions pristine, but the way I see it books are meant to be read, and a little wear and tear doesn’t affect me at all. I just think it shows how well loved a book is!
Paper Towns is a YA Contemporary following Quentin Jacobson a high school senior living in Florida and his neighbour Margo Roth Spiegelman whom he has had a crush on his entire life. Margo enlists Quentin’s help in a series of late night pranks and when she goes missing the following day Quentin finds clues he thinks Margo has left him to find her whereabouts.
Quentin’s character at times felt a little unrealistic to me. His obsession for Margo and figuring out her clues just seemed a little improbable. He seemed like the kind of student who would not let anything get in the way of his studies and school and a few times over the course of the storyline we see him missing school and even skipping his graduation ceremony in order to find Margo.
I just thought what did Margo really do to deserve this kind of spotlight? I kind of found her to be a little spiteful and vindictive right from the get go and she seemed the kind of person who would manipulate people in order to get what she wants. I think maybe Quentin is seeing her with some rose coloured glasses and is projecting his own feelings onto her personality. Even at the end when they travel all that way because they were so worried she may have killed herself only for her to tell them to wait a sec. It just left a bad taste in my mouth.
I liked the pacing of the book, it did keep me entertained and I was invested in figuring out the clues alongside Quentin. I found the characters to be quite distinct and diverse and they all complimented each other well.
It wasn’t a favourite of mine but there really wasn’t anything inherently wrong with the story either. I just found at times I was thinking what the purpose of this book is, was it about Quentin’s growth over the course of the story or the fact that sometimes his expectations don’t match the outcome?
⭐️3/5 a little unremarkable
All These Beautiful Strangers follows multiple perspectives with the main being Charlie a 17 year old girl who is attending a prestigious prep school for the elite called Knollwood Academy. She is struggling to overcome the dark legacy of her family and is trying to become a member of the school’s elite secret society called the A’s.
I liked the multiple perspectives and the way we time jumped from present day back to the summer that Grace went missing; slowly piecing together all the details really made me engaged in the story and eager to read on to find out what was going to happen. Is Grace alive, did Alistair kill her, did something else happen? Having this story woven into the present day situations that Charlie has to deal with kept the anticipation at an all time high!
I actually really liked Charlie’s character. I think her being one of the rich kids and getting that perspective was quite refreshing for me. Her not really having to worry about money and blending in so well with the other wealthy kids at the school and seeing how they function was fascinating and a point of view that really isn’t explored a whole lot in YA. I like that she is so unaware of how much she really does manipulate those around her to get what she wants and the fact that it is thrown back in her face unexpectedly was gratifying!
I liked the pace of the book, there was definitely tension built up throughout the story line. Mixing in the initiation process for the A’s and having that come full circle was really entertaining. All of the characters are very morally ambiguous and you really can’t predict what anyone is going to do next as they all have the means to be able to pretty much get away with anything!
School setting are always a favourite of mine and even though I never went to somewhere as prestigious as Knollwood it did bring around feelings of nostalgia for me.
⭐️4/5 stars Suspenseful, unexpected, tragic!
I’ve seen this tag floating around booktube and the blogosphere and since it’s now the start of November I figured why not give it a go!
No, every book I have started this year I have completed. I will interpret this as series I started that I need to finish and for that I am going to go with the Falling Kingdom’s Series by Morgan Rhodes. I’ve read the first 2 books and I have 4 more to go!
I do have seasonal TBR’s that are kind of like my guide for the next three months but I don’t really coordinate what I’m reading to match the weather… it’s currently Spring here in Australia and I’m planning to read a whole lot of fantasy books the last few weeks of this year, so I don’t know!
I am really excited to read Girls of Storm and Shadow by Natasha Ngan! I loved Girls of Paper and Fire when I read it back in March and I can’t wait to see where the story will go next!
The three books I really want to read before the end of 2019 is The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton, The Astonishing Colour of After by Emily XR Pan and Vengeful by V.E. Schwab.
Ever since I finished The Seven Realms Series by Cinda Williams Chima I have been eyeing off her spin off series The Shattered Realms which I believe is set in the same world but in the future! The first book in the series The Demon King was my favourite and I have a feeling the first book Flamecaster might top it!
Lately I’ve just been taking it month by month and only reading what I’m excited to read. I think because I’ve been going so well with this method I will continue on the same way in the new year!
