A Throne of Books

3/5 stars
*Disclaimer: I won this book from Goodreads First Reads, all my opinions are my own.*

Overall I enjoyed the book, though I think I was hoping for more. The story is split between the present day and back when Merlin was young living in the Welsh mountains. For the majority of the book I much preferred the story of Megan to Laura's. This made the story tough to read because I would get into the story then it would switch to the other time period drawing me out of the moment. So up until the last fourth of the book I couldn't maintain my interest.

I can't find much to say about this book but I did tend to enjoy the writing style overall. My plan is to try a different Paula Brackston story and hopefully relate to the story more than I did this time.

And the randomly selected winner is

Congrats! I can't wait to see what book/books you choose! :D

I felt bad that I'm too cheap for shipping two separate books internationally, but good news everyone! *DRUMROLL...*

I'm going to giveaway any book or two books (probably gonna have to be paperbacks to manage that) totaling $20 or less from thebookdepository to any country that they ship to for free. The list of countries that qualify is here.

Turns out I have plenty of money to show you guys how awesome you are even if you don't live in the United States! :D

Just comment below if you'd like to participate, and good luck.

Rules are as follows:

• I will close the contest and choose a winner on Sunday the 23rd!
• International this time as long as they ship to you for free!

• Must be at least 13 years of age to enter.
• If under 18 you need parental permission to enter.
• No Purchase Necessary to win.
• Winner will be chosen randomly.
• If selected you will be messaged on here to provide shipping info.
• I am not responsible for any lost or damaged items.
• Void where prohibited by law.

I felt bad that I'm too cheap for shipping two separate books internationally, but good news everyone! *DRUMROLL...*

I'm going to giveaway any book or two books (probably gonna have to be paperbacks to manage that) totaling $20 or less from thebookdepository to any country that they ship to for free. The list of countries that qualify is here.

Turns out I have plenty of money to show you guys how awesome you are even if you don't live in the United States! :D

Just comment below if you'd like to participate, and good luck.

Rules are as follows:

• I will close the contest and choose a winner on Sunday the 23rd!
• International this time as long as they ship to you for free!

• Must be at least 13 years of age to enter.
• If under 18 you need parental permission to enter.
• No Purchase Necessary to win.
• Winner will be chosen randomly.
• If selected you will be messaged on here to provide shipping info.
• I am not responsible for any lost or damaged items.
• Void where prohibited by law.

So I've been too busy lately to get much reading done. Usually I would be sad about that but I've gotten some other important things done such as working and making money, getting my website posts up to date, trying to get a giveaway together to celebrate, and on and on. I don't have the giveaway up yet but I'm going to go ahead and show you guys the site (note at this time it's pretty much the same as my booklikes blog) any criticism on the style would be awesome! :D Also I have two books to giveaway just to you guys here if you are interested.

Here is the site: http://www.athroneofbooks.com/

And here are the books:

The book I just reviewed. And an ARC of The Accident Season because I wound up with 2.

They aren't in perfect condition, I wish they were but hey, free books! :D I'll post pics at the bottom so you can see the issues at hand. The Language of the Bear's cover won't lay down and it's signed by the authors to me. (Don't make me feel bad! I'd rather one of my awesome friends get to read it rather than it sit on my shelves gathering dust. So read and enjoy it!) And The Accident Season's corner got messed up when it was in the mail on the way to me.

So If you want to enter for either or both of them let me know in a comment below! :D

Now for rules because I'm too broke to fix anything that could go wrong at the moment.

• I will close the contest and choose a winner on Sunday the 23rd!
• US only (Sorry, I wish I could afford to ship something farther!)

• Must be at least 13 years of age to enter.
• If under 18 you need parental permission to enter.
• No Purchase Necessary to win.
• Winners will be chosen randomly.
• If selected you will be messaged on here to provide shipping info.
• I am not responsible for any lost or damaged items.
• Void where prohibited by law.

Now for the pictures :)

I apologize about the quality, my phone has been messing up lately.

3.5/5 stars

*Disclaimer: I received this book from Goodreads First Reads, but all my opinions are my own.*

This is not my usual genre of book, but how in the world do you turn down a book about an English colonist and a Native American going on an assassination mission?! Such an interesting concept in my opinion, and the writing style was generally enjoyable which isn’t always so in books with multiple authors. Green and Ronan did a good job of working their styles together rather than having them compete for the limelight.

The characters were likeable, or quite the opposite depending on who we’re talking about, and their motives for their actions were clearly discernible. I can still clearly remember the scene that got me fully invested in the book:

“Omnia vincit amor.”

“Is this another saying of dead people?” he asked.

“It means we just might survive.”

The Latin phrase means love conquers all. He sees that because they are both there for the woman they love they stand a chance. Even most romance novels don’t make me aww like that scene did. From that point on I was rooting for Pyke and Wolf Tongue all the way. I hope you’ll give this book a chance if you enjoy historical fiction and let me know how you liked it.

5/5 stars
*Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

This is the final book in the Heartland Trilogy and I can honestly say that this has become one of my favorite series I’ve ever read. Wendig has an interesting writing style that manages to make me care about characters, even secondary ones. He seems to understand people and in my opinion he made everyone equally complex. It’s a series I just want everyone to read so I can babble on about it with them. Seriously I’m dying inside to say my favorite parts but I’ve made a promise to myself not to spoil anything from even the previous books. No my job with this review is to convince you that from book one to the finish it is a great adventure and one that you should give a chance. And I know what tons of people will say: “You read this book for free, how can I trust that you would have liked it the same if you paid for it?!” To that I say shut up, I was actually thinking about buying a hardback set for my bookshelves until I remembered I redid my room and I don’t have any right now, but rest assured it is worth the money in my opinion.

I actually started off giving this book 4 stars and then I sat there for a while and really thought about it, why?! It was good, it wrapped things up enough to satisfy me and in a way I don’t feel as cheap. Wendig treats his characters like real people, yes they may have strengths, but they also have major noticeable flaws. It’s not like many books classified as Young Adult that the main character seems to be some superhuman creature. It has diversity, speaks volumes about how those different from you aren’t automatically bad and those like you aren’t always good, but rather that you judge each individual person on the content of their character. It was just good in every way I can think of looking back and even made me think at times. I changed my rating to 5 stars and I believe it earned all of them. Of course if you read this and don’t enjoy it don’t be made at me, we all have different tastes but this book happened to align perfectly with mine. I’m considering looking into some of Wendig’s past books now.

And since I’m dying inside not getting to post some of my favorite quotes I’m going to hide them, they don’t give huge plot points away or anything but I know I personally love to experience a book for myself and I don’t want to take that away from anyone. Note: They may hold no significance out of context.

This month I was in a bit of a slump and didn't manage to get much reading done. I have had a fun time interacting with everyone when I actually was around though and am hoping to read some of the books you all recommended for me on this post.

I managed to read 5 books and didn't rate any below a 3, so I'd call it a good month in the end.

Best of the Month: Blightborn by Chuck Wendig & A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas (I told myself I was going to have to choose between the two but I never could decide which I liked more, both were great reads!)

Worst of the Month: Hoodoo by Ronald L. Smith (It wasn't really a bad book at all, just wasn't  a style of storytelling I personally enjoy.)

Favorite Cover this Month:   

Reviews:

The Selection by Kiera Cass

Muirwood: The Lost Abbey by Jeff Wheeler

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas

Blightborn by Chuck Wendig

Hoodoo by Ronald L. Smith

3/5 stars

*Disclaimer: I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Set in Alabama during the 1930s, Hoodoo tells the story of twelve-year-old Hoodoo Hatcher, who is born into a family with a rich tradition of practicing folk magic, or Hoodoo, as most people call it. But even though his name is Hoodoo, he can’t seem to cast a simple spell. When a mysterious man called the Stranger shows up in town Hoodoo starts having dreams of a dead man rising from the grave. Even worse, he soon learns the Stranger is looking for a boy. Not just any boy. A boy named Hoodoo.

This book is not an easy one for me to rate, it never seemed to fall in just the middle for me. The first part of the book irritated me to no end and I didn’t really want to continue the story. At some point the story switched to readable and became genuinely enjoyable as I had hoped it’d be. At the most basic it’s an interesting story about a little black boy who lives with his grandmother in a time when they still had to have a separate day for colored people at the fair. In the end I decided to go with just a middle rating of 3 stars. It reminded me quite a bit of the Series of Unfortunate Events Series which to a number of people would be a great thing. To me it reminded me of a story I found a great idea but overall repetitive and aggravating. The biggest problem I had with the Lemony Snicket series was the definitions followed by the same phrases every time. Hoodoo had a habit of defining something followed by if you didn’t know, if you didn’t know. It totaled about 30 times throughout the story. I don’t know why it bugs me so much but it’s not a kind of storytelling I enjoy.

Once the story gets rolling it becomes much more enjoyable and a fun story for kids who like scary stories. It really is an interesting and slightly creepy at times. All in all if you didn’t mind the repetitiveness of Lemony Snicket’s book then this is probably one you would enjoy.

Fair warning this is super long and I apologize times a million in advance! Sorry, sorry, sorry!

So I'm always looking for books to read. Below I think I'm going to list some different categories and feel free to recommend any number of books for that category. I was going to make a limit of 1-3 but I'm not going to complain when given more awesome books to check out! :D Seriously it's going to be a ton of categories so just pick and choose the ones you have awesome recommendations in. If a book you recommend fits multiple categories feel free to list it again. Please and thank you, also don't bother trying to pick things you think I would like. I have very varied tastes so I'm sure some of your recommendations will make it to my TBR.

Also I apologize if any of them are repeated I tried to have a mixture of broad sections and more specific ones. Feel free to skip as many as you want and don't bother worrying if a book is too popular or one you think I've read already. Seriously thank you if you give me any recommendations at all

1. Favorite books in all categories

2. Start to a series
3. By an author who's written over 5 books total
4. Classic Literature
5. Banned Books
6. Featuring an assassin
7. In a world with Dragons
8. Male Main Character
9. Female Main Character
10. Retelling of another story
11. Book with a Gorgeous Cover
12. Debut book of any author
13. Fantasy in general
14. Finale for a series
15. Graphic Novel
16. That you paid over $15 for (and was worth every penny)
17. Published after 2010
18. Featuring a Pricess/Prince or Queen/King
19. Thriller
20. You read because it was a bestseller
21. Involving drugs
22. Memoir

23. Favorite completed series as a whole

24. Book with witches/warlocks
25. Historical Fiction
26. Ugly Cry book
27. Realistic Fiction
28. Dystopia
29. Time Travel
30. Elf or Dwarf Main character

31. Favorite incomplete series either by you or not yet finished by author

32. Literary Fiction
33. Non-Fiction (Anything, cookbook, self-help, etc)
34. Middle Grade Novel
35. Includes sword/knife fighting
36. Something mysterious is afoot
37. Diverse Reads (main character non-white/non-straight)
38. Wanderlust book
39. Unreliable Narrator
40. Character with mental illness
41. Sci-fi in general
42. Paranormal Main Character
43. Horror
44. Books with murder in them
45. Set in a time of war (real or fictional)
46. Set in the place you live
47. Book with servants in some manner
48. Book eventually adapted to a movie
49. Book you've read more than once
50. A Good Zombie Book
51. A love story
52. Set in space
53. Multiple POV
54. Erotic for people who don't read erotic novels

55. Written by an author who has died (recently or a very long time ago)

56. Written by an author who is still living

57. Childhood favorite

58. A long book (Let's say at least 450 pages minimum)

59. Young Adult book in general

60. Adult book in general

So this newer book subscription is looking at getting an online store and the rewards on Indiegogo are pretty awesome. The option that I opted for was 5 months of their 3 book service for $50 dollars (saving $40 dollars overall) so that means I'm getting 15 books for $50 dollars over the next few months and helping get this interesting new subscription box of the ground! :) Also I've talked to the guy in charge and he's a nice guy, part of why I didn't hesitate in donating the money. I'll leave some links below and look into it if you think it sounds interesting at all. :D (Sorry to bombard y'all with advertising in a way, I figured if any of the groups of people I talk to would be interested it'd be my booklikes friends!)

The main bookcase site.

The indiegogo page

If anyone has any questions feel free to ask me and I'll do my best to answer you.

5/5 stars
*Disclaimer: I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Are you looking for a book that will crush your soul into a million pieces, not just once, but multiple times throughout the pages? If you answered yes then this is definitely the book for you. I’m not even kind of joking. At one point I actually set my kindle down with tears in my eyes and quietly asked “Why Chuck, why are you doing this to me?!” to my empty room.

That being said this IS the second book in the series so I’ve decided not to talk about what happens throughout the book. My review for the first book in the series, Under the Empyrean Sky, is located here. Just know if you do read Under the Empyrean Sky and like it that this one is better than its predecessor. Seriously I liked the first book a ton, I told everyone who came within a five mile radius of me that it was great and that I needed to get my hands on the second book immediately. And now I’m DYING inside not having any one to talk about this series with. Please, for the love of Jeezum Crow (you’d understand if you read it :() read the book so I can talk about it with somebody.

Again there were minor flaws throughout that I noticed but very, very few and as it is an uncorrected proof it’s safe to assume those miniscule issues would be corrected if you purchased the kindle copy. I can see why someone may have issues with this book but for me everything worked. The relationships, amazing, the jumpiness that comes with multiple POV, super well done, and the dialogue, I loved it to bits. This trilogy was one I started on a whim because of an interesting cover featuring a floating city above a cornfield and has become dear to my heart. Now to find a copy of the final book in the series, The Harvest.

So I've been failing at actually getting any reading done lately BUT I did get a photo of my current to-read & reread list, well my current list excluding ebooks! How should I prioritize these bad boys?

“We need hope, or else we cannot endure.”

If you look at my 5 star ratings lately it’s mostly a bunch of Sarah J. Maas books, she is just a fabulous writer and never fails to interest me in the story she tells. While this book took me much longer to finish than it normally would have, that is not because it was bad, rather because as we all know life sometimes gets in the way. If life hadn’t I would’ve read this book in one sitting and been raving about my love for it a week ago!

So Beauty and the beast has always been my favorite fairytale; I love it as much today as I did when I was six. And I think Maas did a wonderful job turning the story I loved so much growing up into something beautiful now that I’m grown. This is a lot more romantic than most of my reads but I was never put off by that. A mixture of great writing and fantasy made me interested in reading whereas most romance novels tend to lose me.

Maas paced the character development well, made you warm up to the setting and the story before getting to the main conflict (something several people complained about but if she rushed in her worldbuilding would have been criticized), and told this great story that got more exciting to read page by page. I’m sure I’m not alone, but I’ll be on the list with everyone else buying every book Sarah J. Mass releases.

“Don’t feel bad for one minute about doing what brings you joy.”

3/5 stars
*Disclaimer: I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

This is a review over the first issue of the kindle serial titled Muirwood: The Lost Abbey. The art had a nice, dark style going on that fit the story being told perfectly. The transitions from page to page and even at times panel to panel felt jumpy to me. This may have something to do with my inexperience with the Muirwood stories in general. That being said, it presented a first look for me at an interesting world and now I can’t wait to read some of the novels by Jeff Wheeler. I do hope to follow this serial as they are all released. It’s a good start to what could be a great story, but that’s all this was, a very brief introduction to the story the serial will tell. Hopefully as the story goes on I will follow it and raise my rating as the tale unfurls.

3.5/5 stars

“One can never help being born into perfection.”

World’s worst character name goes to...*Drumroll*…America Singer! Congratulations Mer, you earned it. It took me pretty much the whole book to adjust to her name. And FINALLY around 60% they give a reason for why she was named America. Makes it much easier for me to deal with, even though it didn’t make me hate her name any less. Of course there’s much more to a book than character names.

The banter and conversations between America and Maxon felt fun to me. They sound like countless conversations I’ve had in my life. I read a few reviews that called the dialogue unrealistic and I just laughed. Maybe to you, but not to me.

My guilty pleasure has always been reality tv. I have a habit of saying oh goodness that show looks stupid, then proceeding to put it on and bingewatch the whole season. When I heard what this was about I was so excited, reality tv in a book? Count me in! I can see why people may have found the book unlikable or annoying but it was fun for me. It was my guilty pleasure in a whole new form. The contestants you root for and the ones you want to stab are in the book. And with the setting being a competition you always wonder if you can really trust the others.

My only big complaint about the book was how long it took to get a real description of how the world came into being. I believe it was at 63% before they explained everything that had happened to create the new world Illea. Up until that point I was like I love this, but how the hell did it come to this caste system and monarchy in what used to be the USA?

Even if I hated every other aspect of the book, which I didn’t, I would have still loved Maxon. He’s sweet, clueless, funny, and next in line to rule the country. I felt like another contestant who was unnoticed by the prince and was jealous of all the attention he gave to America. NOTICE ME MAXON, PLEASE!

Yes a lot of people stated that this is a book that’s all fluff, no substance. Sometimes that’s what I want. I had a shitty week and wanted to enjoy a book, get lost in a world where I’m not cleaning floors and having back pain. And this book did that. I don’t generally pick up a YA reality tv-esque book when I want substance. Though I wouldn’t be upset if it offered that as well. So to sum up, this book brought me the relaxing evening away from my worries that I was hoping for when I opened it up.