What are you reading in 2022?

[Brittany]

I am enjoying the audio and in some ways its easier because I dont have to guess how the names sound. But I do find it harder to remember who is who by name alone. Can figure it out by context and actions though. Narrator is easy to listen to.

[Elena]

Kayleigh {K-Books} wrote: "I got over my slump FINALLY in August.

Throughout the month I read:
"

So great you got over the slump! The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches sounds really good.

[Elena]

Brittany wrote: "Finished and loved it. Such a good conclusion to Catalina's books. Hope we one day get more in this world!

Started on audio for ..."

The First Step sounds like something I'd love to read too :) Just added to my TBR.

[Brittany]

I thought it would appeal to you Elena! Its my first real book of that genre. I like it.

[Brittany]

Finished and did quite enjoy it. I intend on listening on when I can

[Kayleigh {K-Books}, YA Fantasy Fan]

Elena wrote: "Kayleigh {K-Books} wrote: "I got over my slump FINALLY in August.

Throughout the month I read:
[bookcover:Her Majesty's Royal Cov..."

It's my favourite read of the year.

[Gord]

Time for that weekly wrap up again. Not as much as last week and I know it's a day late but it's a long weekend here. I wanted to finish up a couple of things before I made this post. Without further ado here is what I've read in the last week and a bit.

-3 Stars
Another Rogue Angel series and one step closer to getting caught up on this series. This one is set in Botswana which I don't think is a country I've ever visited before in my reading. As for the plot it's kind of bog standard. Long forgotten tribe existing in it's primitive ways, They have a massive diamond, evil white man wants it and will do anything to get, our MC saves the day (kind of). I've mentioned this before but these books are not exactly high brow entertainment but I like them for what they are. They are like the book version of a dumb action movie.

-4 Stars
This book is a great example of this series and other series similar to it. There are moments where the MC gets to show off the stupidly overpowered skills, there are moments of interesting world building, and then there is a lot of feel good fluff. Much like the Rogue Angel series this isn't for everyone but I enjoy it and find it entertaining. The world building elements of this book are hinting at something pretty interesting and I'm really interested to see where this is going.

-4 Stars
I've said this before but it bears repeating here. This was a standard Lackey book. There was 16 chapters and for the first 14 chapters it was essentially a slice of life novel. Then in the last two chapters we had the big conflict and resolution for the series. Maybe it was the book, maybe it was my mood but I was vibing with this book. Sure, looking back in retrospect it's a bit of a weak ending to the series but ehh. I like the characters and I like the setting. I know the next couple of series has the same characters so I'm curious to see where this goes next.

-5 Stars
The next book in this series and it pitches our main characters against a religious cult this time. My comments are just going to parrot my previous commentary on this series. I enjoyed the character interactions, the plot, etc. I really enjoy this series and what it brings to the table.

-3 Stars
This was read for a Buffy challenge that I'm working on and it was alright. It was essentially a collection of short stories that happened between the events of season 3 of the TV series. I'm not the biggest fan of short story collections and having it set between actual bigger events kind of made it all feel kind of pointless. I also wasn't the biggest fan of the art work. It's an issue I have with a lot of comic tie ins to other media franchises. I didn't like the art work in the Mercy Thomson comics, same thing for the Harry Dresden comics. It just doesn't line up for me. For this particular comic a lot of the male characters looked pretty similar as well which led to some confusion. Then there was the ending. This was originally published by Dark Horse comics but then the rights were sold to BOOM!. They then did the legacy collections so that new fans could still read the original works. They ended this book smack dab in the middle of the story. I'm not talking about ending on a cliff hanger or anything like that either. It just straight up ended smack dab in the middle of the story. I don't really care if the original books did this. You collected the stories into a new omnibus format and we are talking 10 pages at most. You could have cut them from this book and included them in volume two or took the remaining pages from volume two and tacked them in here. There was absolutely no reason to end this volume like this. It's just infuriating.

Now for a broader ramble about my Buffy experience so far. I watched and enjoyed the show like many others. I think I watched up to season 4 or 5 honestly. I've heard over the years that the books and comics expand the lore and contain more stories and I've been curious about this. Overall I've found my experiences with the written material to be rather mediocre overall. Maybe I'm just not reading the right stuff but I was expecting this deep and expansive extension to this world and what I've found so far is a tepid shallow puddle. I'll keep poking but my hope is kind of fading to be honest.

As for what is coming up next I've got a lot of books from the library and I'm a little concerned I may have bitten of more than I can read.

For audiobooks I plan to start this week

For novels I plan to start followed by and if I have time.

For comics I want to finish and this week.

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

This past week I finished me re-read of Venom, and today I'll probably be finishing Tangled Threads. I'm still really enjoying myself on this re-read. Lol.

I also finally finished this one, and it was okay. Not my favorite of the series, but also I'm just glad to actually be finished with a series. Lol.

[Elena]

Kayleigh {K-Books} wrote: "It's my favourite read of the year."

Oh I definitely have to read this one!

[Gord]

Sorry for yet another mid week update but I just don't want to spend any more energy thinking of this book a week from now. Yes, it's another dud and I just want to purge it. This is going to be a long one so spoiler wall to save those who don't want to read it.

-2 Stars
Man this book was a bummer. This was one of those books that makes me question why I read. Everything else I have planned just looks like it will disappoint me like this book so what is the point in reading anything else. I wouldn't even call it a book funk as it feels worse.

(view spoiler)[
Before I get into the specifics of this book I feel like I should explain what this book is. This is a splatterpunk book which is a subgenre of horror. For those that have never heard of splatterpunk before it's essentially a horror book with the gore and violence turned up to an extreme level. This is not going to be the go to genre for most if they are looking for a book to relax with. It's a genre that essentially exists in the indie scene only. Small publishers and self publication are about the only ways you will find these books. That is why this book is so hard to find. Apparently the publishing house went under and the book just isn't available anymore. I've dabbled a bit in splatterpunk but understandably there isn't a massive selection of it available through the library. From my experience there are only a couple options on making a "good" splatterpunk book. Option one is leaning hard into the gore and being super creative with the kills that are on the page. Option two is writing a solid story that just happens to contain a metric ton of violence and gore. I've seen both but most just falls some where in between these two and is just meh.

Now for this book. This book focuses on a young boy and his mom. Mom is a single mom who works as a makeup artist on horror movies. She gets an offer to work on a movie but she has to travel to work. All her plans fall through though because she can't find a babysitter for her boy. Her boy though finds an option though and is sent to a bible camp. This first part of the book felt kind of slow but looking back at things it was probably the better part of the book. The camp part of this book is where things just kind of fell apart for me. Almost immediately after arriving at camp the killings start and the killer is the head priest. Why? No idea, he just felt like it. Who is he? No idea, just some priest guy who felt like murdering kids. This murder spree just kind of feels boring and the priest doesn't feel like a threatening character. I feel like I've experienced more intense and scary killers in books like In Death. There was no characterization, there was no motivation, there was no variety to the kills. It was just bland and boring. There was even this scene later in the book that basically repeated itself. You have a scene with one of the female counselors in the shower pleasuring herself while being watched by one the young kids. Priest guy shows up, kills her, blah blah blah. A couple scenes later it's the same thing but it's a male counselor this time. Shower, pleasuring themselves, same kid watching. The only difference is the way they died. I just read this scene a couple of pages ago, why are we here once again?

This whole camp murder spree is broken up by something though. The MC's mom is sending him emails about how she is doing in Toronto. These emails are odd and I'm not sure if she is just eccentric and this is their relationship or if she is just not right somehow. I've seen some reviews stating that is bipolar but I don't remember seeing that mentioned and I don't really care to spend any more energy looking into it. Regardless there are a lot of these emails for the day and a half that the book covers and my mind has two train of thoughts on these. I feel like these emails take away from the whole camp killing aspect of the book as they are just plunked down in the middle of everything else that is going on. It kind of just feels like padding that is filled with random nonsense. Then I also have to question these emails as we discover that she is not sending them directly to her son but to the priests computer. What????? Why?????? Huh?????? Looking back at it I get that cell phones exist but the stuff you sent makes you look more than a little nutty. Especially with this being a bible camp. Also, how were you planning for your son to read these things? It just opens this whole chain of questions. In all honesty this book starts to raise some questions if you start thinking too hard about things. There was a twist ending that was meh, a sad epilogue, blah blah blah. I'm now going to stew in my book funk like thing and wonder why I read at all in the first place. (hide spoiler)]

[Brittany]

Sucks that the book caused the worst kind of funk. Hope you get through it soon Gord..

Lili nice for finishing a series and enjoying your reread

[Elena]

@Gord oh my, that kinda sucks :(

[Elena]

Past few days were so productive for me. I finally settled down a little bit after moving to a new country. though I'm moving once more next week (but the city and country are the same, so it won't take much time).

- 5 stars this manga is pretty old and I wonder why I didn't read it earlier. Oh so good old fantasy series! Loving it.
- 3 stars quite interesting but not very captivating, I have nothing to add here.
- 5 stars for being extremely cozy. I started the series to bring something calm, steady and warm to my life and it helped :)
- 5 stars I don't remember reading this book (probably I didn't) but I watched the movie (loved it) and the book is much better! Amazing story with great writing style.
- 4 stars that one was fun though some parts are pretty heavy. Overall very easy to read and MC is this nice type of weird :)
- 5 stars started one more fantasy series (when is it going to be enough? :D). And this one also a great one. I like the setting and the training aspect here.
- 3 stars nothing special, just a cute romantic story (but honestly I didn't feel anything cute).
- 3 stars - this one is re-read and I keep giving it 3 stars but still loving the book. I lacks of different things and definitely not amongst the best high fantasy books but it has a special meaning for me.
- 3-4 stars I've started this manga some time ago, it's also an old one. Very light, fun and captivating series with all the norse goddesses, pretty rare thing for manga.
- 3 stars I was so angry about this book! It's sci-fi about some memory things and the expectations was so high... like thrilling conspiracy theories, lots of creepy memory things, crazy memory loops and so on... but it turned out to be so weak compared to his other book (Dark Matter).
- 4 stars lovely romantic story with the trope I enjoy (rich person goes to not-so-rich life and struggles at first and likes it in the end).
- 4 stars also very nice and sweet story features the other couple from the previous one. Though I enjoyed the first book more.
- 5 stars actually I might have been a bit over-emotional when I rated this one. It was cute for sure and very romantic, but 5 stars?.. Probably somewhere in-between 3-4.
- 3 stars I'm still into cozy mysteries but this one was kinda meh.
- 5 stars definitely one of my favourites for this year. Very deep romantic story with abusive relationships, I think that one is the first book featuring this topic I've read which is very realistic. (I had the same relationship, though in my case it didn't get physical, and could feel everything the MC felt, how you keep believing that it's one-time thing and never quit when it repeats, it's really hard to confess to yourself that your relationship is indeed not healthy and to quit when it's still possible. What makes it harder is that the other person is not a bad person).

[A Little Mystery Book ᰔ]

I started reading It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover.

[Brittany]

Its never enough fantasy series Elena lol. Also looks like some excellent reading. Hugs about your comments on It Ends With Us. Sorry you've gone through that. Abusive relationships are so hard to get out of.

[A Little Mystery Book ᰔ]

Oh, no I’ve never been in a abusive relationship. I tend to know nothing about the topics in the books I read. Sorry for the confusion!

[Elena]

Brittany wrote: "Its never enough fantasy series Elena lol. Also looks like some excellent reading. Hugs about your comments on It Ends With Us. Sorry you've gone through that. Abusive relationships are so hard to ..."

Indeed, the best approach to fantasy is more fantasy! That's fine, it was a long time ago and never again. It's so hard to maintain and even harder to quit :(

[Kayleigh {K-Books}, YA Fantasy Fan]

I'm currently listening to as a re-read. I really miss how the characters were in book 1.

Also reading

[Brittany]

Elena totally agree with everything you said! More fantasy is always a must lol

[Brittany]

rereads can be fun, also I get that feeling about missing characters as they were in the beginning Kay

[Brittany]

As for me I finished and
Not sure what I am starting in hardcopy or audio yet. I have from the library on audio so I guess it should be that next.

[Elena]

Brittany wrote: "As for me I finished and
Not sure what I am starting in hardcopy or audio yet. I have from the ..."

How did you like Hunted?

[Gord]

Well this has been an interesting week of reading to say the least.

-3 Stars
This book has and is still creating a paradox in my brain. For as long as I remember Goodreads has been recommending me this book to read. I've never been super interested in reading this book as it's another middle grade "horror" novel from the 80/90's. No disrespect to those books but my mileage has varied. There is also the fact that part of my brain is convinced that I've read this book before. Needless to say I found myself with a monthly challenge that this book helped fill nicely while being short so I snagged it. Still not entirely sure that I haven't this before to be honest. The book was originally published in 1986 and it would have been the kind of book that I would have picked up as a child. There are parts of this book that felt very familiar but I'm not sure if that's because I read this before or because of my familiarity with the tropes. I keep bouncing between "nope, never read this before" and "maybe I did read this before" and I'm not sure which one is the correct statement.

As for the book it's a ghost story but the ghost part of it almost feels like a B plot to the actual main story. This is more about two families coming together and the tension that it brings. Dad has a child from a previous relationship and mom has two children. There is tension between the two groups that the ghost basically helps escalate until the climax of the book where everyone, including the ghost, gets a happy ending. It's not a bad book and the message is a solid one. There were times though where it felt like the actions of the characters were over exaggerated to really help sell the message. That and some of their decisions/actions felt kind of stupid. I feel bad criticizing this book though as it's not bad. Still trying to figure out if I've read it before though.

-5 Stars
I'm bouncing back and forth between a five and a four star rating and that is because of the giant elephant in the room. This book is the conclusion to The Immortals quartet and is essentially the final battle between Tortall and the evil emperor. Our MC's are transported to the divine realm and they need to get back to help their allies. Overall I enjoyed this book. The characters, the story, etc, I enjoyed it all. There is this one little thing though that just felt odd and out of place and was a romance between two characters. One of the characters is our MC, Dane, who is 16 and the other character is Numair who is in his 30's and has been her teacher for the last three years. That is the giant uncomfortable elephant in the room. I'm not opposed to an age difference in a relationship but Dane is a bit... on the young side and Numair is her teacher which adds this weird power dynamic. There was also no buildup to the romance over the quartet. It just kind of started in this book. At the end of the audiobook there was a short interview with the author where she said she had this planned for the entire series. It makes me wonder why she didn't change things to build up to this point. Maybe make Dane a bit older or something to lessen the ick factor. I'm not entirely opposed to them being in a relationship. They do have a dynamic and they have been through a lot together. There are just certain elements of things that are a bit uncomfortable at this point in the story.

-4 Stars
I started the week with a book that made me question my love of reading and this was the book that reminded me why I love reading. On its surface this book is nothing super special. Grandfather is sick, mom and her daughter come back to be with grandpa/grandma, the daughter learns of the families history while dealing with a sort of discrimination in present time. This book talked about the plight of Chinese immigrants coming here in the late 1800's and their experience up to modern time. Through reading other things over the years I've learned more about this time but in this one I learned of the term Paper Sons and Daughters which is not something I have ever heard of before. It because of books like this that this history gets a personal tale as well which helps humanize it. It's hard to explain but this book just hit me hard and when things come to a head in the end and I was fighting back tears. I love how books can teach you things you might not have known before and to give you insights into experiences you would have never known about.

-4 Stars
More fun adventures with creepy cat, Flora, and others. This is a fun and creepy little comedy.

-4 Stars
This was the big battle sequence leading up to the final big showdown in the next book. This is where all the side characters get their chance to have their battles. The battles were good and I can't wait to see how this story wraps up.

-3 Stars
This felt like a collection of stories that take place between the larger events in the X-Man world and it was kind of a mixed bag for me in different ways. This collection spans from 1988 to 2003 so the art styles and stories change are varied. For the art there was some of it that I liked, some of it I didn't like (the smeared dark style is not a favorite), and some that are just odd. There are some where the art makes Wolverine look to be about 4' tall, 4' wide at the shoulders, and with biceps the size of his chest. The stories in this range from the super interdimensional threat kind of threats that I don't really care about to the more "grounded" ones where Wolverine deals with spies/thieves/gangsters/assassins/etc which are more my speed. Overall this was entertaining and helped pass a few hours.

As for what is next

On audiobook I will be starting tomorrow

For normal books I've started

For manga I'll probably get to the next couple of volumes of either Undead Unluck or Quintessential Quintuplets.

[Kayleigh {K-Books}, YA Fantasy Fan]

Brittany wrote: "As for me I finished and
Not sure what I am starting in hardcopy or audio yet. I have from the ..."

I really liked Only A Monster

[Brittany]

Elena, Hunted was a good retelling, nothing incredible or anything but well done. I liked Beauty and her strength.

Kay, that's good to hear!

[Brittany]

Gord, I totally agree, I love that books can teach us so much. That is also definitely an ick factor elephant in the Immortals book. I too have no issue with age differences but that is an uncomfortable one

[Jo]

I've almost finished my current read and I can't decide what to read next, I don't really know what I'm most in the mood for from the rest of the books from my Summer TBR. These are the books I'm deciding between, have any of you read them, or are ones you're wanting to read and would like to see what I think?









My vibe this year is apparently all historical fiction and memoirs and to be honest, I'm not mad about it, it's what I'm feeling at the moment!

[Brittany]

I know nothing about any of those ones Jo. Oh! Actually that's not true, Mum read Looking For Jane and said it was really good. Otherwise I think Mad Girls of New York looks interesting

[Brittany]

I finished which was good and I look forward to the next one. Some things I didn't love but the following the monster is a fun twist

Then I finished because I needed something completely different.

Next up on audio is probably

[Jo]

Thanks Brittany, I decided to go for Looking For Jane, which I've just started today. Hopefully I enjoy it as much as your mum did!

[Jo]

Finished , and it was just as good as I'd hoped it would be. I will say it does feel like two different stories for a good chunk of the book but Elaine and Ava's paths do eventually cross and the narrative feels a bit more joined up. I thought Elaine's narrative with the French Resistance was stronger than Ava's initially, but Ava's side of the story does pick up and I loved them both as characters. I learned a lot about the French Resistance that I didn't know before, and I had no idea about anything that happened in Portugal in WWII, so that was very enlightening. Can't wait to read more of Madeline Martin's work.

Moving on to my next audioboook:

[Gord]

I don't see much more being finished this week so I'll just do a small update and then get back to my reading.

-3 Stars
Lets get the summary out of the way and then get to my thoughts. This feels like an homage to the old monster movies. You have these powerful monster clans that are based around vampires, werewolves, mummies, and the family Frankenstein. All these clans have gotten into organized crime and control their own section of the underworld. Our MC is a police officer who gets setup and left for dead. He is given a second chance by a man named Edward Hyde, as in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and is healed with the secret Hyde elixir. He then uses his new found powers to crush these powerful clans.

Alright, I'm a bit of a fan for Mr. Green and I love his off the wall take on the urban fantasy genre. My introduction to him was through his series The Nightside and it's still one of my favorite series to this day. All that being said this book was a bit of a disappointment. I'm not going to say that it was bad but it just didn't come close to its full potential. I felt like this was the prototype or the framework for a longer book or even a series but then it got cancelled so they just pushed out what they had. The book hit all the big set piece moments but nothing felt like it was fleshed out so nothing had an impact and things felt like they just happened because. This could have been so much more if things were fleshed out more. Explain how the clans came into power, go more into what the clans do in the underworld to set up just how bad they are, set up the big villain more, etc, etc, etc. I'm not mad with the book, I'm just disappointed.

-3 Stars
Alright, it's time to address some frustrations with this series. This is a great popcorn series, and if you are a fan of this kind of comedy there are some pretty funny moments. This is supposed to be the final book in the trilogy and man do I just feel frustrated by this book. I've touched on this in my reviews of the last couple of books but here it just irked me a bit to much. I felt like this book just left so many plot points hanging and unresolved at the end. The irritating thing about this is the book had so many opportunities to work on these things but it wasted them on reminding you how hot the main male lead is. The book can't go three paragraphs without going into a paragraph long description about how hot the main male lead is. His muscles, his hair, his eyes, his butt, and on, and on, and on. I get it, he's hot, now please stop reminding me every couple of paragraphs and get to the story already. I know I'm not the target demographic for this book and this might be wanted by that demographic but man is it frustrating. It feels like pointless padding in your story that doesn't need to be there. I have no issue with the book making the male lead stupid hot but I don't need to be constantly reminded about it. Any way, rant over, putting my soap box away. Time for the next book.

-4 Stars
I snagged this off of my Mt. TBR pile to help with my monthly genre challenge. I had few expectations heading into this book as middle grade horror can be very hot or miss in my opinion. Yes, yes, I know I'm not the target audience and all that. I can happily say though that this one landed on the pretty good side of the spectrum. This book had a good level of spook that just worked for me. It tapped into the classic fall setting with Samhain, scarecrows, corn fields, curses, and all that good stuff. It hit the perfect mark for a middle grade horror but with a little imagination it could easily be made spookier for those that want that. The main character was enjoyable and I loved reading things from her point of view. This is an easy recommendation for those that don't mind dabbling into middle grade horror and I plan to check out more in the series.

As for what is next,

For audiobooks I am not 100% sure. I'm once again between books in my series, I have a potential 70 day wait for one book, and looking for things to read. I'm looking for a book for a challenge and I have some potentials lined up. I'll decide tomorrow sometime.

For physical books I started today and I'm still early on but it's looking promising. After that I need to tackle .

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

This is what I've read lately... Last week I was like, I'm probably gonna take a break from the Elemental Assassin series... HAHA NO. That definitely did not happen 😆 Clearly I'm having a great time re-reading this series. Lol.

[Elena]

Liliana wrote: " This is what I've read lat..."

You literally made me add the series to my TBR 🤣

[Elena]

I've been moving to a new apartment and didn't have much time to read, mostly cozy mystery this time.

- 3 stars I enjoyed the book and it's asian fantasy but it becomes really hard for me to rate fantasy having only 1-5 stars. It is definitely not as good as The Stormlight Archive or The Name of The Wind or Tolkiens, Pratchetts, Gaimans books... and much more I've rated 5 stars. But it's a descent one, with some flaws but interesting.
- 4 stars I'm still reading the series and enjoying it. Found out that there is a show on Netflix too, but I love books more.
- 4-5 stars I was so into the series and couldn't switch to something else before I actually ran out of books I have in the series, now I want the rest. The strange thing is that when you open the first book and start reading, the setting seems annoying and some parts are questionable but when you read more, they just disappear and you find yourself unable to stop reading. The cozy cafe setting and old people amateur sleuths fit here perfectly!
- 4 stars I loved the idea, the writing style, the atmosphere is also in the best author's traditions but something was missing. The story developed so fast at one point that you could almost miss the culmination. It would be much better if the book was longer. With such a good idea there might be more to the story.
- 5 stars I finally got to start this series. It's a solid classic high fantasy, which I always enjoy reading but can't read the series in one sitting. Though I loved the book, I might need some time / break before diving into the next book.
- 3 and 5 stars this cozy mystery series is like a roller-coaster, some books are great, some are meh. The setting is pretty but I don't enjoy the romance line much.

[Brittany]

Jo wrote: "Finished , and it was just as good as I'd hoped it would be. I will say it does feel like two different stories for a good chunk of the book but Elaine and Ava..."

Good to hear about the Librarian Spy! I've put a hold on it at the library!

[Jo]

Brittany wrote: "Jo wrote: "Finished , and it was just as good as I'd hoped it would be. I will say it does feel like two different stories for a good chunk of the book but Ela..."

Hope you enjoy it!

[Brittany]

Nice to hear that about Small Spaces, Gord. Not something I often dabble in but it could be fun. I'm glad I never bothered to read the Betwixt series, it would annoy me so badly.


Love how much you are enjoying your reread Lili!!


So many cozy reads Elena! Its fabulous. Also good on you for starting Wheel of Time. Not sure I ever will but it is supposed to be a pretty good series.

[Brittany]

I cleaned out my bookshelves which is always hard but got rid of a lot. Both of things I will never reread and those I have grown away from ever reading.
Then Mum and I went to the big book sale, first time its been running since before covid. She got 65 books, I got 12 and likely I will read a bunch of the ones she got also. So guess its good I made shelf space?

[EdenB15]

Oh wow thats great wish they did more book sales where i live

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

Elena wrote: "Liliana wrote: " This is wh..."

That's my only mission in life 😆😆 Glad to hear I've intrigued you! I hope you enjoy it!

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

Brittany wrote: "I cleaned out my bookshelves which is always hard but got rid of a lot. Both of things I will never reread and those I have grown away from ever reading.
Then Mum and I went to the big book sale, f..."

65 books?? 😱 Honestly, if I had the space I would go crazy in a sale too 😂

[Elena]

Brittany wrote: "I cleaned out my bookshelves which is always hard but got rid of a lot. Both of things I will never reread and those I have grown away from ever reading.
Then Mum and I went to the big book sale, f..."

That's definitely a good thing! Now I tend to borrow physical books from friends and all of the books I own are in digital format. Otherwise moving apartments would have been so painful! And I tend to do it several times a year :D

[Elena]

Liliana wrote: "That's my only mission in life 😆😆 Glad to hear I've intrigued you! I hope you enjoy it!"

Sounds like a perfect mission 🤣📚

[Brittany]

Elena yeah I hate when I have to pack up the shelves to move! If I was moving multiple times a year I would get rid of most of my physical ones too!

Lots of those were books for $1 too! And all proceeds go to childrens hospital

[Jo]

Packing up all my books was definitely the most painful part of moving for me too! It took forever and ages to reorganise them how I wanted in our new place. It was definitely worse when I was shuffling constantly between home and Uni though!

[Brittany]

finished great book
and kind of disappointing but still a good book

[Gord]

This has been a pretty good week of reading for me.

-4 Star
This was one of those random books I requested from the library earlier this year. Trying to give a summary of this book is a but hard. It's basically a warrior culture thinking they are the only people in the world finding out that they are not the only culture in the world and that there is more to the world than they think. That is a super vague and birds eye view of the plot. It's fantasy based and supposedly based on Filipino culture from what I've read but I couldn't say for sure as I'm not familiar with Filipino culture. While this book does contain a lot of familiar tropes, especially for those that dabble in fantasy, it felt like a breathe of fresh air to me. It went the path where the MC wasn't the chosen one, the most powerful one, or even the savior that saves everyone and I like that. Even the end of the book followed this idea. The climax of the book was merely an event in this world. Sure it was an event that will be recorded in the history book but it wasn't that massive event where all the problems are solved and everyone lives happily ever after. I know this review is a bit... vague but I feel that getting into anything specific gets into spoiler territory.

-4 Star
After that YA fantasy series I took a hard left turn into a dark, gritty thriller. This book has been on my TBR pile for some time now and I've been meaning to read it (like everything else on there). There was a buddy read started for this series and I joined in. I'm glad that I did because I really enjoyed this book. Small town Georgia, violent murders, hidden but on the surface racism, secrets, etc. This was one of those books that was an uncomfortable read full of unlikable people but I couldn't look away and couldn't stop reading. The crimes are violent and the author does hold back on the descriptions of what happened. The characters are people that I would not like in real life but as characters I enjoyed reading them in a real weird twisted kind of way. There are some issues with the book though. I felt that there were some plot lines that either needed to be fleshed out a bit or cut. They were there, they did things, but I never felt like we got a full resolution for them. Either that or I just didn't notice the answers. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series that we are reading next month.

-4 Stars
After all the grittiness of the last book this was the perfect book to read next. This was a pretty chill book about giant creatures in an alternative version of Earth. Our MC gets fired from his job and ends up landing this job with KPS (Kaiju Preservation Society) where he sent to this alternate earth to "lift things". Most of the book is about how this place was discovered, how the KPS got set up, how things work in this world, and just the day to day things that happen there. There was some tension towards to the end of the book as sinister deeds took place but that wasn't really the main theme of the book. I love the nods towards the original Godzilla movie that belonged in a book named after kaiju. I loved the humor in this book especially the MC's continued "I lift things" line. This kind of low stakes, day in the life, kind of books are just fun to read every once in a while.

-3 Stars
This was another book from the early days of my TBR and I snagged this one up to finish a challenge off. I am really, really conflicted on this book. I've read a few books from this author before and have good experiences before. This one though just didn't land right with me. Lets start with the positive. I really enjoy reading fantasy that breaks from the typical European model of fantasy. This fantasy is set in Nigeria and uses African magic systems, mythos, and figures. I listened to the audiobook for this and the narrator was Yetide Badaki who is a Nigerian-American actress. The accent used, the pronunciation of names, etc all really helped elevate this book. Now we get into my criticisms of this book. There are essentially four main characters who are all supposed to be around 12 years old. Through their actions, their speech, and what not I would continuously feel that these kids were in their late teens. That is until the book would remind me that they were only 12ish. There is also the ending of the book. The book built up this final confrontation for most of the book and I was on the edge of my seat heading into it. I wasn't sure how the MC's were going to do it as their exact powers were still pretty vague and it had a bit of a meat grinder feeling. They were not the first group heading into this battle and they seemed pretty inexperienced. Any way, time for the final battle. Things start off pretty good, things are escalating, the MC's are getting beat down, how will they rebound from this, oh... oh... the big bad just offed themselves, alright, uhmm, didn't see that coming, oh wait here is the bigger big bad who was pulling strings behind the scenes, the big bad everyone is absolutely terrified of, oh wait our MC just got rid of them by doing something, not sure what but the day is saved. I had to listen to that final scene a couple of times and I'm still not sure what the MC did to defeat the new big bad. They just showed up, MC confronted them, and it was over. This book just felt like set up for something else, especially towards the end. There were all these hints at big reveals and what not but it just never seemed to have a satisfying pay off. I have the second book on my TBR but I'm not sure how much of a rush I am to go out and read it.

Up next for audiobooks I am listening to

As for physical books I'm taking the week to catch up on manga that I haven't read this month.

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

This week I only read 2 novellas in my Elemental Assassin re-read. But I'll probably be starting book 9 tomorrow!

I spent most of the week making my way through this one, which I really loved! I love Alec and Magnus, and I am just so happy that they got their own series. I also loved that the TMI gang got back together in this book, so joining Magnus and Alec on their adventure was Jace, Clary, Isabelle, and Simon. It was just so much fun!

[Brittany]

I finally finished it took me a month. I don't recommend this one.