Every Heart a Doorway – Amy Leigh Reads

April Wrap Up

April 30, 2020April 29, 2020by amyleighreadsLeave a Comment

For some reason I have had the best reading month of my life! I know at this time a lot of people haven’t been able to focus on reading with everything happening in the world but it has really become an escape for me. This month I have never felt the need to take a break from reading or had to force myself to pick up a book, it’s been quite lovely actually. I ended up participating in two readathons this month the Smutathon hosted by Riley Marie on YouTube and I completed the OWL’s Magical Readathon which I will post a separate wrap up for tomorrow!

You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendriks & Sarah Pekkanen – ⭐️4/5 stars

My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite – ⭐️3/5 stars

The Crown’s Fate by Evelyn Skye – ⭐️4/5 stars

Vengeful by V.E. Schwab – ⭐️3/5 stars

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert – ⭐️4/5 stars

The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson – ⭐️4/5 stars

The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan – ⭐️4/5 stars

House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J Maas – ⭐️5/5 stars

Heartstopper Volume 1 by Alice Oseman – ⭐️4/5 stars

Pines by Blake Crouch – ⭐️3/5 stars

Wayward by Blake Crouch – ⭐️3/5 stars

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling – ⭐️5/5 stars

The Last Town by Blake Crouch – ⭐️4/5 stars

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo – ⭐️3/5 stars

An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson – ⭐️3/5 stars

Enemies by Tijan – ⭐️3/5 stars

Angry God by L.J. Shen – ⭐️3/5 stars

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire – ⭐️3/5 stars

Hate the Game by Winter Renshaw – ⭐️3/5 stars

Bennett Mafia by Tijan – ⭐️3/5 stars

I Bet You by Ilsa Madden-Mills – ⭐️3/5 stars

I Dare you by Ilsa Madden-Mills – ⭐️3/5 stars

The Dare by Harley LaRoux – ⭐️3/5 stars

The Lies We Tell by Becca Steele – ⭐️3/5 stars

Theirs for the Night by Katee Robert – ⭐️3/5 stars

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling – ⭐️5/5 stars

Reviews

Every Heart a Doorway Review

April 28, 2020April 27, 2020by amyleighreads3 Comments

25526296 Didn’t quite live up to the hype….

This book revolves around a school that takes in wayward children who have travelled to different worlds and have stumbled back to reality and can’t cope.

This book just didn’t quite gel with me personally. I went into it only really knowing that everyone absolutely loves this book and you don’t really get a lot of negative reviews but it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. Even though the book is quite short I thought it would go into a lot more details about the different worlds and the adventures that each of the children had whilst they were there and how it contrasts to the current world.

There wasn’t really any point in time where I was invested or all that engaged in the story. I think the development stage was a tad rushed and I wasn’t really settled into the plot at any point. I was definitely intrigued and once the murders started occurring I was eager to figure out who was behind them, but the pacing and the structure of the story felt a little fractured I guess.

I wasn’t all that attached to any of the characters either. They were all very diverse and distinct and had a voice and a story of their own but it was never to the point where I was developing any emotions or commitment to them. They all felt a little one dimensional to me as well, and again I think it was just due to the length of the book and that underdevelopment factor.

The premise is definitely original and now that I read this book and I understand kind of how it has been written and the purpose of the story I think I will enjoy the rest of the series. As a high/epic fantasy reader it just wasn’t fleshed out enough for me. I am used to a lot more world building and magical elements which this did have just not to the extent that I was expecting.

⭐️3/5 stars promising, needs a bit more oomph!

TBR

✨O.W.L.S Magical Readathon TBR ✨

April 1, 2020April 1, 2020by amyleighreads2 Comments

For April I decided to take part in the O.W.L.S Magical Readathon hosted by Book Roast on Youtube, for any information regarding the readathon see her announcement video HERE. I’m not 100% sure what my career is going to be so I am going to try and complete all of the prompts for this round and then when it comes to the N.E.W.T.S I will announce which career path I choose in that TBR!

The prompts & my tentative TBR for the OWLS include:

OWL prompts 2 2020

ancient runes copy

Heart rune: heart on the cover or in the title

40234899._SY475_

arithmancy

Magical Qualities of number 2: balance/opposites – read something outside your favourite genre

48110356._SY475_

astronomy

Night Classes: read majority of this book when it’s dark outside

45240918

care of magical creatures copy Hippogriffs: creature with a beak on the cover

44778083

charms copy

Lumos Maxima: white on the cover

40139338._SY475_

DADA copy Grindylows: book set at the sea/coast

43263680

divination

Third eye: assign numbers to your TBR and use a random number generator to pick your read

27211901._SY475_

Herbology copy

Mimbulus mimbletonia: title starts with an M

38819868._SY475_

history of magic copy

Witch hunts: book featuring witches/wizards

36484081._SY475_

muggle studies copy

Book from a perspective of a muggle (contemporary)

31145133

potions copy

Shrinking solution: book under 150 pages

25526296

transfiguration copy

Animagus lecture: book/series that includes shapeshifting

42952728

Book Lists

Books I Wish I Read this year

December 26, 2019December 16, 2019by amyleighreads2 Comments

I honestly don’t know where this year has gone! It’s now Boxing Day and it will be 2020 next week, like huh? With that being said there are a few books I had every intention of reading this year but time has gotten away with me and it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen, so I thought I would list them here, that way I will have a reference to look back on for next year!

So this is 5 books I wish I read in 2019

The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan – this was a ‘me’ issue. I feel like I have to be in the right frame of mind of read this book and I just haven’t been there!

35604686

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton – this has been on my TBR for ages now and I have been meaning to pick it up every month but it just hasn’t happened yet.

36337550

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas – I really wanted to read this book this year! It was so hyped and I don’t think I’ve heard a bad review for it; I just didn’t get a chance to get to it…

35887567

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire – The Wayward Children series is so well loved and I had every intention of giving at least the first book a read this year to see if I feel the same way, but again it didn’t happen.

25526296

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi – This was another book that was super hyped at the start of this year and I ended up buying it because of that. I wanted to read it to see if the hype was justified or not but I haven’t had the time to get into it yet.

39863498