Victoria Moschou's Blog, page 93
June 24, 2019
July TBR ~ Or the absence of it…
Hello awesome nerds and happy Monday everyone!
I hope you had a lovely weekend and you had time to relax and recharge your batteries.
I honestly cannot believe how quickly this year is flying by and that June is almost over. I can’t believe that Camp NaNo is only a week away and that all I will do for the next 31 days will be focusing on my WIP, the sequel in The Auras’ Chest series.
Well, I won’t do just that, but I will definitely not have as much spare time to read for pleasure, which means that July’s TBR may not be a thing. Not that June’s was, but anyway… 
July TBR ~ Or the absence of it…
Hello awesome nerds and happy Monday everyone!
I hope you had a lovely weekend and you had time to relax and recharge your batteries.
I honestly cannot believe how quickly this year is flying by and that June is almost over. I can’t believe that Camp NaNo is only a week away and that all I will do for the next 31 days will be focusing on my WIP, the sequel in The Auras’ Chest series.
Well, I won’t do just that, but I will definitely not have as much spare time to read for pleasure, which means that July’s TBR may not be a thing. Not that June’s was, but anyway…
July TBR ~ Or the absence of it…
Hello awesome nerds and happy Monday everyone!
I hope you had a lovely weekend and you had time to relax and recharge your batteries.
I honestly cannot believe how quickly this year is flying by and that June is almost over. I can’t believe that Camp NaNo is only a week away and that all I will do for the next 31 days will be focusing on my WIP, the sequel in The Auras’ Chest series.
Well, I won’t do just that, but I will definitely not have as much spare time to read for pleasure, which means that July’s TBR may not be a thing. Not that June’s was, but anyway…
June 22, 2019
FAIRYLOOT UNBOXING ~ MAY 2019: UNLIKELY ROMANCES
Hello awesome nerds and happy Saturday everyone!
It was a really weird week but it got a little bit better, since I finally received my May FairyLoot box.
For those few of you who don’t know, FairyLoot is a monthly subscription box, in which every month you receive a YA fantasy new release, as well as a bunch of bookish items, revolving around a specific theme.
The theme for the month of May was UNLIKELY ROMANCES and you can bet your significant others that this box was especially designed for me!
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THE ITEMS
An exclusive BAMBOO TRAVEL MUG, inspired by Tahereh Mafi’s Ignite Me and designed by @kdpletters.
An exclusive PENCIL CASE, designed by Literary Lifestyle Company and inspired by Daughter of Smoke and Bone , by Laini Taylor.
An exclusive CROWN KEYCHAIN, created by FairyLoot and inspired by The Cruel Prince , by Holly Black.
An exclusive MAGNETIC BOOKMARK SET, inspired by The Wrath and The Dawn and Flame in the mist , both by Renee Ahdieh, and designed by @lexaarts_.
An exclusive TEA TOWEL, inspired by The Selection series, by Kiera Cass, and designed by @taratjah and @catarinabookdesigns.
An exclusive STARFALL CANDLE, inspired -naturally- by A Court of Thorns and Roses series, by Sarah J. Maas, and created by Little Hearts Gifts and @taratjah. (By the way, I got my box on Summer Solstice so, is this karma or what?)
An exclusive NOTEPAD, inspired by Girls of Paper and Fire , by Natasha Ngan.
An exclusive MAGNUS AND ALEC STICKER, inspired by The Shadowhunters’ Chronicles , by Cassandra Clare, and designed by @obsidiayan. (It’s still Pride Month, after all, and this particular couple is one of my all-time-favourites!)
An exclusive MINT TIN, brought to us by FairyLoot.
EXTRA ITEMS
This month’s tarot cards were designed by @artbyemmilinne and they featured two characters by Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows.
I still haven’t read the series, but if you guys have and you know who these two characters are, please let me know in the comment section down below.
THE BOOK
So, this month’s book was The Beholder, by Anna Bright.[image error]
“Selah has waited her whole life for a happily ever after. As the only daughter of the leader of Potomac, she knows her duty is to find the perfect match, a partner who will help secure the future of her people. Now that day has finally come.
But after an excruciatingly public rejection from her closest childhood friend, Selah’s stepmother suggests an unthinkable solution: Selah must set sail across the Atlantic, where a series of potential suitors awaits—and if she doesn’t come home engaged, she shouldn’t come home at all.
From English castle gardens to the fjords of Norge, and under the eye of the dreaded Imperiya Yotne, Selah’s quest will be the journey of a lifetime. But her stepmother’s schemes aren’t the only secrets hiding belowdecks…and the stakes of her voyage may be higher than any happy ending.”
The FairyLoot edition has pink sprayed edges, foiling on the title and it is signed by the author.
The book sounds really intriguing, but it may take me a while to read it, as I’m currently reading three books simultaneously and I really don’t want to start a fourth one.
As for June’s theme, that is BROODY BANTER and the box will include items inspired by To Kill A Kingdom, The Raven Cycle, The Witchlands, Air Awakens, The Lux Series and more. As for the book of the month, it’ll feature sword-wielding librarians, romance, grimoires filled with magic and broody characters, with top notch banter. So, we actually do know what the book is gonna be. Any guesses? 
June 20, 2019
BOOK REVIEW: The Evil Queen, by Gena Showalter ~ A fascinating, refreshing turn in the classic tale! *SPOILER FREE*
~THE EVIL QUEEN, BY GENA SHOWALTER
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It’s always nice to receive ARCs and it’s even nicer when you truly enjoy the book, because you actually had the chance to read it prior to the publication day. Especially if this book is a modern retelling of the classic fairytale of Snow White, and more specifically the back story of the girl who was supposed to become the Evil Queen, you can’t help but feel simply ecstatic and super, super lucky! 
June 17, 2019
Camp NaNoWriMo: My blogging break and my writing plans for July
Hello awesome nerds and happy Monday everyone.
I hope June has been treating you well so far and I really hope you have time to relax and enjoy yourselves this summer. 
June 15, 2019
Fierce Female Leads ~ A Guest Post by Christine Bottas
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When I was in playschool (don’t ask me when, it was further back in time than you’d believe), I was a huge fan of Wonder Woman. So much so, that I actually had a Wonder Woman costume, complete with accessories. I wore those accessories to playschool and told everyone I was Wonder Woman. She was my first female role-model outside members of my family.
Literature (and movies) has been flooded with women as the secondary characters for ages, taking the role of housewives, mummies, lovers, partners, harlots or victims. How many books or movies have we seen where the female character has either been put in the Madonna or Whore box? Some? Few? A lot? (I’m thinking ‘a lot’.) This is like putting a male character into two boxes, saint or beefcake, and that is not the case. Characters can be so very versatile, just like people are in real life, and if writers forget that then literature is screwed.
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Yet there have always been a cluster of authors who dare slip past stuffing their characters into a box like they were last winter’s over-sized duvet, and write powerful female characters, something that basically shows of just how versatile and colourful those characters can be. This has become something more and more popular nowadays. Some people may find it cliché. But has it ever been cliché to write a strong male character? Get my point?
A female character could be someone who starts off innocent then wades through hell and hard work only to come out triumphant (like Arya from GoT). There are female leads who are ruthless and want nothing more than to watch the world crumble or burn (Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty). We have the single mother who has the strength of a lioness and will do what it takes to care for her family and community (Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games, who’s not really a mother, yet acts like one). Sure, we do have the Madonnas, we do have the Whores, too. We also have a variety of others because female characters are not black or white, there are so many different shades of them it would make a rainbow blush.
What makes a strong female character tick for me is the fact that I see these characters as open door for readers. We see that we don’t have to be princesses if we don’t want to (yet, we still have that choice) as in most fairy tales. We can be the warrior, the mother, the detective, the astronaut, whatever we want. The sky’s the limit (unless you’re an astronaut, in which case there is no limit). Through a powerful character, we see potential, that our futures aren’t about us waiting for someone to come along so that we can begin our own tale, we are shown that we can write our own story.
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A few months ago, I was chatting with a friend’s daughter who’s 8 years old. We were talking about superheroes and what she wants to be when she grows up. She told me she wants to be an inventor and a superhero; she’d be the heroine that rescued boys from the baddies because, “Girls don’t need a boy to save them. That’s silly! We can save ourselves and if we have to, we can save them, too.” When I asked her who her favourite superhero was she said ‘Wonder Woman’! And I smiled.
Keeping strong female characters (especially the ones with the flaws, the ones that learn and grow, and help others, too) is vital. It does not just make good reading, it shows future generations that these characters have some sort of connection to real people, and that will only make the stories we read have more of an impact.
By the way, Wonder Woman is still my favourite superhero.
Huge thanks to my darkling, Christine Bottas, for writing this amazing post.
What do you think, dearies? What makes a fierce female lead tick? Do you find it cliché to have fierce female leads in literature nowadays? Do you think that having strong, independent female protagonists in books (and movies) is vital?
I look forward to reading all your comments, thoughts and feelings in the comment section down below.
Thank you all for stopping by once again. It means the world to me and I want you to know that I most certainly don’t take your presence here for granted.
Have a nice weekend, awesome nerds!
Till next time… Toodles!
June 13, 2019
BOOK REVIEW: Finale (Caraval, #3), by Stephanie Garber ~ The best epilogue to a magical series! *SPOILERS & DISCUSSION*
~FINALE (CARAVAL, #3), BY STEPHANIE GARBER
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Welcome, welcome, you awesome nerds, to the review I’ve been dying on sharing with you from the moment I finished the third and final instalment (at least for the time being) in the Caraval series. I’m talking of course about none other than Finale; the book that was way better than Caraval and just a touch less magical than Legendary, at least in my personal opinion. Still, I ended up rating it with 5 out of 5 stars, and I will explain shortly the reason why.
As per usual, I will start with the non-spoilery section my review and then I will inform you when the spoilers will begin. So, if you haven’t read the book yet and you don’t want to be spoiled, you can leave and then come later, after having read the book, so we can discuss it together.
Beware though, for this review will contain hectic spoilers, both of Caraval and of Legendary.
With all that being said, let’s get to the synopsis of Finale. 
June 10, 2019
The Bookish Community and The Absence of Harassment.
Hello awesome nerds and happy Monday everyone.
I was planning on sharing a completely different post with you, revolving around whether I should keep blogging here or not, but after a very disturbing incident, not only I got the answer to my question, but I decided to write the post you’re going to read today.
So, I was watching a video on YouTube the other day and I left a comment there, only to realise a few hours later that a girl had written a few comments, too, bullying and harassing me.
Naturally, I didn’t respond and I immediately reported her back to YouTube, but still, this made me realise (or actually remember) what a great community we are. The bookish community, whether this is translated to BookTube, Bookstagram, Book Blogs etc, is a remarkably kind community. It is a community that respects its members, it doesn’t bully or harass them, and it respects their opinions and feelings. All in all, the bookish community is a community in which, over the past three years, I started feeling like myself again. I started feeling safe again.
I know it may sound cheesy, but that’s the way I feel. I love sharing with you my thoughts and feelings about books I’ve read. I love posting bookish pics on Instagram. I love watching BookTubers’ videos. Because I know that, at the end of the day, everyone will be kind, they will show love and support, and they will respect my opinion, just as I respect theirs.
And you know why this is true? Because books teach us valuable lessons. They teach us courage and kindness and love and honour. They teach us to never give up, to fight for what we believe in, to be better people than the ones we were yesterday. And just as we have learnt to never judge a book by its cover, we do not judge people simply by what they look like. We have learnt to not be bullies, simply because we sit in front of a keyboard and we’re hidden behind a computer screen. We have learnt that kindness is far better than harassment. We have learnt that love and kindness are always the better choices.
So, am I going to keep blogging here or not, you may ask? Hell yeah!
I know I’m telling you this in every post, but I am truly grateful that you’re all here, that you keep reading my posts and that you share your thoughts and feelings with me.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you!
I want you to know that I never take your presence here for granted. I never will!
Have a lovely week, beautiful creatures!
Till next time… Toodles!
