Tag: book blog

Reviews

Flame in the Mist Review

by amyleighreads2 Comments on Flame in the Mist Review

23308087I really loved this book!

Marika is on her way to the imperial city to meet with her betrothed. A marriage her father a prominent samurai arranged for her as she had known would happen her whole life. On the road her convoy is attacked by the Black Clan, a rogue group of bandits, who’ve been hired to kill Marika. As the lone survivor Marika makes the decision to take her life into her own hands, track down the Black Clan and find out who wants her dead.

I really enjoyed Marika’s character. She wasn’t naïve or overly innocent and immature which I kind of don’t like in female protagonists. I thought she was quite forthright and speculative and unwilling to bend. She asks questions, she wants to be informed, she doesn’t want to be in the dark or unaware and she pushes for information. Her growth over the course of the book was great to read. She has decided she doesn’t want any man to make decisions for her. She is in charge of her own destiny. I also really liked how self-aware she became towards the end of the story. She understood how much she overlooked as the daughter of a samurai and how skewed her perception of the world and those around her were.

At first I didn’t find any of the members of the black clan to be likeable. I didn’t really connect with any of them until around the half-way point of the book. When they decided to trust Marika and we got a few more details about who they are and what they are doing and that’s really when I started to be more invested.

I loved reading about the backstory of Ranmaru and Okami. Everything about their father’s and the emperor and how it wove together into the plotline was beautiful. I loved that their friendship was based on loyalty and honour. You could really get a feel for the lengths that they would go to protect each other and the rest of the Black Clan.

I love that this book is so unique and different culturally, learning about the samurai’s and the different clans in the empire. Seeing the political manipulations of the emperor and his son’s and how they interact with others around them. How the plot unfolded and the way the characters interacted kept me highly entertained. Though there were passages at the start where it got a little boring and I was skimming a few paragraphs but overall the actual story was fantastic!

⭐️4.5/5 Twists and turns, samurai’s and sword fights!

Book Lists

5 Fantasy Series I Want to Start in 2019

by amyleighreads2 Comments on 5 Fantasy Series I Want to Start in 2019

These are 5 series that I have had on my TBR for the longest time now and I definitely want to try to get to them this year. I love epic/high fantasy series that span multiple books and I think these books are everything that I love to read so I’m hoping I’m potentially finding some new all-time favourites!

The Seven Realms Series by Cinda Williams Chima

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The Falling Kingdom Series by Morgan Rhodes

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The Witchlands Series by Susan Dennard

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The Lightbringer Series by Brent Weeks

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The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb

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Reviews

To all the Boys I’ve Loved Before Review

by amyleighreads3 Comments on To all the Boys I’ve Loved Before Review

item_xl_8917056_9117895I liked it, I didn’t love it….

This book follows the story of Lara Jean, she is a quiet, shy girl who wrote a letter for each of the guys that she had crush on. Unfortunately somehow the letters got mailed and she now has to face the consequences.

For the first half of the book Lara Jean kind of got on my nerves. She read a little younger than what I was expecting to be quite honest and she was a little too naïve for my liking. She kind of grew on me the second half of the story though, when obstacles started propping up and she was finding herself in the middle of various problems she has never had to deal with before I thought she worked her way out of things well and stood her ground.

I loved Chris. I thought her character contrasted with Lara Jean perfectly. The fact that they has so much in common back in middle school yet Chris evolved and rebelled and they somehow still remained friends was a nice element to the plot. I liked the fact that she wasn’t always around all the time but she still made an appearance at crucial moments in the plot to have Lara Jean’s back, which made me really like her. She is unaffected by what people think of her and she is true to herself which I think are pretty decent characteristics.

Peter and Josh I haven’t quite made up my mind yet between the two. I like the separate relationships they share with Lara Jean and how the counteract. I like that we see so many different sides to the two characters and I felt they differed enough from each other to be distinguishable. I just don’t have a distinct favourite of the two though, they both had there cute and obnoxious moments so I’m not convinced on either just yet.

I love the relationship that Lara Jean has with her family though. I thought they were very supportive and open with one another. Her father in particular I really liked! I thought he was present in her life without being too overbearing and really wants her to experience high school, which I found super endearing.

It was a cute, light, fluffy contemporary with just the right amount of conflict and cringe to keep me entertained.

⭐️3.75 I just need Lara Jean to be a little bit more self-assertive!

Reviews

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer Review

by amyleighreads2 Comments on The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer Review

11194970I loved this!

We follow Mara Dyer after she has woken up in the hospital. She was involved in an accident that killed her best friend, her boyfriend and another girl in her year but she doesn’t remember anything about that night. Eager to move on her family agree to relocate to give her the space to heal.

I really liked Mara as a character. She was deeply flawed, yet still so persistent and dedicated to trying to pick up and continue on with her life. She hasn’t lost touch and completely succumbed to her condition, she is still trying to maintain some form of normality, which I thought was commendable. I thought she was witty and the banter she has with Noah and Jamie was fun to read.

I loved Noah… I found his surety and his arrogance very appealing. I think he was written in a way where you can’t help but find him likeable, even when he’s kind of being duchey. I like that we get such a thorough backstory and we see that there is this completely different side of him that he doesn’t show.

I also really liked Jamie. I thought that he was a great friend to Mara and I think it was purely the fact that he only wanted to be friends with her. There were no strings attached, he just seen a kind of awkward, new girl in his year and was nice to her. He gave her some pretty sound advice based on his personal experience but he still let her make her own decisions and still supported her regardless. You don’t really see a lot of these characters and I appreciated him a lot in this book. It kind of sucks how his arc sort of ended abruptly but hopefully he makes a reappearance in the rest of the series.

I also really enjoyed the relationship Mara has with her brothers, especially Daniel. I thought he was so supportive of Mara and didn’t judge her in any way. They still had the typical big brother little sister dynamic but there was a protectiveness that he has for her that I found very endearing.

I was very much sucked into the book from the start! I liked how it was paced; it started off pretty slowly but gave me enough information that I still needed more and that really kept me turning the pages. That paranormal element to the story I felt was executed very well. That aspect of the story was always kind of floating around the edges and then finally when Mara came to the realisation of her powers it was thrilling.

I think this a highly entertaining read and honestly after that plot twist at the end it just made me want to pick up the next book and start reading it right now!

⭐️4.5/5 I loved my experience reading this!

Updates

2019 Reading/Blogging Goals

by amyleighreadsLeave a Comment on 2019 Reading/Blogging Goals

I wanted to start off my year right and set a few goals for myself for 2019!

I want to continue blogging every weekday! I have been really enjoying my blogging journey and reading, writing and posting have become the norm for me now. In a way it’s helped me put a lot more structure into my time and sort of forced me to be more productive. I would like to grow my blog a bit more and produce even more fun, detailed, bookish content that you all will enjoy!

I would like to read more books that I actually interest me. I’ve made a bit of a habit of just buying and reading books because they are super hyped and popular even though the actual book doesn’t interest me. I could be a genre that I don’t usually read from or the premise doesn’t intrigue me but because everyone is talking/raving about it I still pick it up and read it anyway and I usually don’t enjoy it. I just think it’s a waste of time and I could be reading a book that I actually want to read.

I’ve set my Goodreads goal for 2019 at 100 books. Last year my goal was 70 books and I surpassed that with a few months left over so I thought I would extend it a little and see how I go. I usually read around 9-10 books every month so if I continue my progress throughout the year I should make it!

Find a balance between reading/blogging and life. I find that currently my life isn’t as balanced as what it should be. I tend to sacrifice my health and fitness to kind of sit around and read and blog. So for 2019 I would really like to find a way to balance out my life in a way that ensures I am healthy and happy.

The last goal I wish to set for myself this year is to just be happy. I think if I accomplish the rest of my goals it will make for a great year and that will definitely make me happy!

Happy Reading📚