I figured it was time for another WWW Wednesday
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi
The Toll by Neal Shusterman
WWW Wednesday
Tag: book blogger
Super Long Book Titles
This week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is super long book titles so I thought I would go through all the books I’ve read in the last year and pick out 10 books that have over 5 words in the title!
The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic by Leigh Bardugo
A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown
A Heart So Fierce and Broken by Brigid Kemmerer
The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
The Girl the Sea Gave Back by Adrienne Young
Percy Jackson and the Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas
A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Children of Virtue and Vengeance Review
After battling the impossible, Zélie and Amari have finally succeeded in bringing magic back to the land of Orïsha. But the ritual was more powerful than they could’ve imagined, reigniting the powers of not only the maji, but of nobles with magic ancestry, too.
I have to admit I wasn’t as enthralled with this installment as I was with Children of Blood and Bone. It was a lot shorter than the previous book but I felt like it just wasn’t as immersive, which is mostly to do with the characters.
All Zélie cares about is her betrayal by Inan. It rules over her emotions and she is unable to see reason when he is involved in any plans. All she wanted to do is kill him for betraying her. As an elder now I feel like she definitely should have been able to see beyond her own prejudice and do what is best for her people.
Amari I can understand how frustrated she became after they joined with the resistance. I feel like she was frozen out of the plans almost immediately and wasn’t trusted by any of the maji even though she was integral in bringing magic back to the land. But instead of building rapport and trying to gain friendships naturally she was petulant and combative.
Miscommunication was the main source of conflict in this book and that frustrated me. If Amari and Zélie had just sat down and worked through their issues I feel they could of probably come up with a foolproof plan that would have saved a lot of lives.
⭐️3/5 Had a bit of the second book syndrome for me!
Watch Over Me Review
Watch Over Me is about a girl named Mila who has just aged out of the foster care system. She has been offered a job on a remote farm tutoring young foster kids who live there. She loves it there but is haunted by the past traumas that threaten to overwhelm her life.
This is not what I was expecting at all. I thought this was going to be a young adult thriller/horror novel where kids keep disappearing or found murdered on this farm, but really it was a contemporary with a speculative twist.
I think this book was structured perfectly. From the present timeline where Mila is being introduced to life on the farm and finding her place within this already established family. To the flashbacks of Mila’s time with her mother and Blake giving us much needed context and displaying how these events still have an affect on Mila all these years later.
The ghosts added the perfect touch of edginess to this otherwise quite rudimentary storyline. Had they not been there and having the mystery surrounding why they are haunting this farm I think I would of otherwise been a little bored with this book.
Mila is an endearing character. I found the relationship she developed with Lee to be touching and I feel she may have using him as a surrogate for her younger self and how she wished she would have been treated by her mother. We are only given a glimpse of what she had to endure in her past and we definitely see how some of the decision she made back then have just compounded on her conscious and are brought to the forefront for her to deal with.
This was a touching story about guilt and remorse and how someone who has been dealt a tough life is still able to move on and gain a family and a place to feel welcome and comforted.
⭐️3/5 stars haunting, poignant & moving
Quarterly Reading Recommendation
I can’t believe it’s already been another three months since my last recommendation post! This is going to be my third instalment for 2020 where I will be listing my top 10 favourite books I read during those months and then at the end of the year I will be compiling my list and picking out my top ten overall of 2020! If you want to check out my second quarterly reading recommendations click HERE!
My recommendations for July – August – September are:
Take a Hint Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert
The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller
The Weight of the Stars by K. Ancrum
The One by John Marrs
Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia edited by Anita Heiss
Well Met by Jen DeLuca
Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed
Kingsbane by Claire Legrand
The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty
Blood Heir by Amelie Wen Zhao
Amy Leigh Reads 