#booknerdsanonymous

[charlotteisnotthechosenone]

February Wrap-Up

Books Finished: 2 

Total Pages Read: 1,005 (~36 pages per day)

As expected I wasn’t able to read as much in February than I was in January (that being said, compared to some of the reading months I had last year I am still super pleased with the progress I was able to make). I was totally prepared for this being the case as I had the majority of January off uni whereas I have been back to lectures etc. in February so knew that I wouldn’t have as much time to read as when I am at home. Whilst at home in January I set myself a goal of trying to read 50 pages everyday. After about a week of being back at uni I realised that that was probably not going to happen so I have decided to set myself a new target of trying to read 30 pages a day when I am in uni and going back to my original target of 50 pages a day when I am not in uni/ at the weekends. 

Books Read in January 

The Lady’s Guide To Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee 

Read Between: 24th January 2019-5th February 2019

Genre: Young adult, historical fiction 

Pages: 450

Ratings 

Overall: 3.5/5 stars

Plot: 4/5 stars

Writing Style: 4/5 stars

Characters: 4/5 stars

Setting: 3/5 stars

Cover: 2.5/5 stars

Summary: The Lady’s Guide to Peticoats and Piracy is the sequel/companion novel to the Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue. I use the two terms interchangeably as this story takes place after the events of The Gentleman’s Guide and so is therefore a sequel. It does however instead of following the story of Monty, The Lady’s Guide follows Felicity, Monty’s sister and her journey to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor and work alongside her hero Dr Alexander Platt. 

My Thoughts: 

Unfortunately for me, while the book was still written with such a witty tone, I personally found that this book wasn’t as funny as The Gentleman’s Guide which was a little bit of shame. I think that this may have a little to do with the characters that the book focuses on as I found that when Felicity travels to London at the start of the book and stays with Monty and Percy (a collection of scenes which I absolutely loved!) the humour began to creep into the story again. 

Plot wise it wasn’t until about two thirds of the way in that I really started to find the book interesting. I absolutely loved the plot line about the dragon scales: their abilities, the trading of them on the black market, the actual dragons themselves and I would have loved some more information on this. 

The Reckoning of Noah Shaw by Michelle Hodkin

Read Between: 5th February 2019 - 21st February 2019

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy 

Pages: 379

Ratings:

Overall: 3.5/5 stars

Plot: 2.75/5 stars

Writing Style: 4/5 stars

Characters: 3/5 stars 

Setting: 4/5 stars

Cover: 3.5/5 stars 

Summary: The Reckoning of Noah Shaw is the second book in The Shaw Confessions, the companion series to The Mara Dyer trilogy. To be perfectly honest I can’t really give much more of a summary than that as anything I do say won’t be particularly constructive as I will be walking on egg shells just to avoid spoilers. 

My Thoughts: 

The Mara Dyer trilogy is one of my all time favourite series and so when I heard that The Shaw Confessions was going to be released I honestly could not wait. I have unfortunately been a little let down by this series however. I think the main problem is that I had set my expectations for these books so high that it was going to be virtually impossible for anything to live up to them.

That being said I did enjoy this book a lot more than I did the first one. I found the first book in the series extremely confusing and to me it didn’t really read like the other Mara Dyer books. Both of these problems were rectified in this book with the plot being much less confusing (if lacking a lot of action) and it also read much more like the Mara Dyer books I know and love. The writing took on that mysterious/spooky tone I associate so closely with the previous trilogy and a lot more information from the first series was referenced in this book which definitely helped it to feel more like a continuation of the original trilogy. Conversely, from what I can remember, the first book in the series did not really follow on/reference a lot of the material from the Mara Dyer trilogy and this gave it a very disjointed feel. 

For anyone interested I started keeping a bullet/reading journal at the start of 2019. I completely forgot to mention this last month hence why I am mentioning it here. I use one half of my journal to track my studying/keeping track of what work I have to do but the other half I use to track my reading. While a proportion of my journal is laid out very similar to my wrap-ups with the rating system I use, this is my ‘cover’ page for each month which just basically summaries my progress page wise, even broken down into individual days. I really like using the graph function to track my reading on a day to day basis because it helps me to see at a really quick glance how my reading is going and on which days I tend to read more/less. 

[gracebook-page]

Reading Alone in Berlin, alone in... London?

[charlotteisnotthechosenone]

Review: Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor

Rating: 5 Stars 

For those who are not aware of this series, The Muse of Nightmares is the sequel to Strange the Dreamer, which was released in 2018. As such, I am not going to go into a synopsis as this becomes very difficult without majorly spoiling the first book. 

I think it is safe to say that I absolutely loved this book. Strange the Dreamer quickly became one of my favourite books of all time and its sequel was no exception. The concept for this series is set in a world which is so unique but is so detailed and vivid I would give almost anything to be able to take a visit to dreamer’s weep. 

The Muse of Nightmares picks up straight after the events of Strange the Dreamer, but not before being introduced to two new characters, Kora and Nova who, I am not going to lie, I dismissed slightly at the beginning as they were appearing sporadically, but who proved pivotal towards the final third of the book. Other than this there were not many major developments from the first book in terms of characters etc. and having such a small, tight knit band of characters made me a lot more invested in their individual stories. I feel I don't need to labour the point (as I'm sure this has been mentioned more than once!) that Laini’s writing is utterly unique and so lyrical that the setting for this series marries up perfectly with this. The Muse of Nightmares also managed to succeed in not breaking my heart like Strange the Dreamer did which is something I am extremely grateful for! I feel like I could go on forever praising this series so I will leave you with one final point: I urge absolutely anyone who has not yet read this series to pick it up - I promise you that you will not be disappointed. 

[charlotteisnotthechosenone]

January Wrap Up

Books finished: 3 

Total pages read:  1,442 (~46.5 pages per day) 

January was one of the best reading months I have had for absolutely ages. My plan was initially to finish Queen of Air and Darkness and I managed to complete that and two other books - albeit short books - as well! I’m hoping that the progress I was able to make in January will set a president for the rest of the year and I feel that for the first time in a while I have really got back into books/reading and this is something that I am so so pleased about. Plus I am ahead of schedule on my Goodreads goal and I don’t think that is something that has ever happened!

Books Read in January: 

Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare

Read Between: 26th December 2018 - 18th January 2019

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Pages: 902

Ratings: 

Overall 4.2/5 stars 

Plot: 4/5 stars 

Writing style: 5/5 stars 

Characters: 5/5 stars 

Setting: 3/5 stars 

Cover: 4/5 stars (Instead of the regular cover I actually have a special hardback edition which is black and covered in red metallic parabati runes - fancy!) 

Summary: Queen of Air and Darkness is the third book in Cassandra Clare’s Dark Artifices Trilogy. For this reason I am not going to go into a detailed synopsis as it would obviously be full of spoilers for the first two books but The Dark Artifices series focuses, at its heart, on parabati Emma Carstairs and Julian Blackthorn who we first meet in the prequel of City of Heavenly Fire. 

My thoughts: 

The Dark Artifices remains my favourite Shadowhunter series that has been written so far. I am just such a huge fan of the characters in this book and as it is the most recent series chronologically (for the time being) I love how it incorporates characters from both The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices. 

Unfortunately I wasn’t a huge fan of the section of the story focusing on Thule. Not only did it focus on the story’s of just Emma and Julian - one of the things I like when reading quite a chunky book is the ability to be able to flirt between different characters POV’s which helps the story to feel like it doesn’t drag - I also felt that for me it interrupted the style of story I was used to from a Shadowhunter novel. 

I did absolutely love the ending to this book with all of the characters we know and love from all three series coming together and it just made me so happy. 

A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas 

Read Between: 13th January 2019 - 20th January 2019

Genre: Young adult/new adult fantasy 

Pages: 229

Ratings:

Overall: 3.9/5 stars 

Plot: 3/5 stars 

Writing Style: 4.5/5 stars 

Characters: 4/5 stars 

Setting: 5/5 stars 

Cover: 3/5 stars 

Summary: Again I don’t want to give too much of a synopsis for this book because it is part of a series but to give some background, A Court Of Frost and Starlight is a short novella set after the events of A Court Of Wings and Ruin and follows the characters from this series during Winter Solstice in the Night Court. 

My Thoughts:  

I have read a lot of people saying that they were not a huge fan of this book due to the lack of plot within the story. While I have to agree that yes, there was not a huge amount of action in this book, this did not mean that I did not enjoy it. A lot of fantasy books, especially the last books in series, tend to end with a huge battle and a number of characters lives being turned upside down. What you don’t tend to get a lot of is information exploring what happens after these events in too much detail and this is always something I am a little disappointed by because it is something I find super interesting. I am always intrigued to what happens to the characters after these horrific events and how they are able to re-build their lives and move on and this is exactly what A Court Of Frost and Starlight did. Alongside this I thought that this was just a fun, lighthearted story which reflected a very different and much more down to earth side for the often fearsome characters in this series. 

City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab 

Read Between: 21st January 2019 - 25th January 2019

Genre: Middle grade fantasy 

Pages: 285

Ratings

Overall: 3.9/5 stars 

Plot: 3.5/5 stars

Writing Style: 4/5 stars

Characters: 3/5 stars 

Setting: 5/5 stars

Cover: 4/5 stars 

Summary: City Of ghosts follows Cassidy, who has the ability to see ghosts by passing into Veil. When Cassidy’s parents are offered the opportunity to take their novels from the page to the screen and host a documentary series exploring the world’s most haunted cities, Cassidy is whisked off to join them on the first stop of their tour - Edinburgh. While there she meets a girl who shares her ability and teachers her that there is more to learn about the Veil than she imagined. 

My Thoughts: 

Is no one else getting slight Vicious vibes? Cassidy didn’t develop her ability until after having a near death experience...parents who are authors....

I haven’t read a middle grade novel for absolutely years so I was a little bit worried that I wouldn’t enjoy this book as obviously the story is a lot less involved than a ya/adult fantasy and I was worried that I would find the plot/characters a little boring but that was definitely not the case which I am super pleased about! 

[charlotteisnotthechosenone]

2018 Wrap-Up & 2019 Resolutions

Books Read: 21

Pages Read: 8,751 (~24 pages per day)

Although I did not manage to complete my Goodreads goal of 30 books this year I am not too bothered about that. When I realised a few months ago that I wasn’t going to be able to I stopped pushing myself to try and read as much as I could and by the end of November I had stopped tracking my reading altogether. I didn’t want to finish tracking one year of reading and then jump straight into the next - I wanted a few weeks where it didn’t matter if I forgot to record my page count at the end of every day and hopefully that will make me more motivated to begin to start tracking my reading again in 2019. 2018 was the first full calendar year spent at university so I knew that my routine and therefore my reading routine was going to change dramatically. It was only really in September that I managed to get myself back into a regular routine of reading each night and as a result it was the last few months of the year where my reading was at its best.

While I did read some outstanding books in 2018 I found that a lot of the books I read fell into that fuzzy category. While I was lucky enough not to read a book I completely disliked this year I found there were a lot of books that I read and enjoyed but that there were not enough I absolutely loved and that is one of the things I want to try and rectify in 2019.

Because of this I didn’t want to make a whole post about my favourite books of the year as I honestly don’t know whether I would have that much to say but there are a handful of books I did really love and so wanted to touch on them here. There is a fierce battle for the top spot out of all the books I read this year so I think I am going to have to have joint favourites! The two books I enjoyed most this year were Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff and one of my most recent reads, The Toymakers by Robert Disnsdale. Two books which could probably not be more different plot wise but two books which completely blew me away nonetheless. I also thoroughly enjoyed the Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor and The Diviners by Libba Bray as well as being able to dive back into the world of Mara Dyer with The Becoming of Noah Shaw - a sentence which I am honest I never thought I would write.

For anyone interested the 21 books I read in 2018 (along with my ratings for each one in brackets) were:

(and for anyone that isn’t, my apologies - at least it isn’t that long!)

* Satellite by Nick Lake (4 stars)

* The Becoming of Noah Shaw by Michelle Hodkin (4.75 stars)

* The Fever Code by James Dashner (4 stars)

* Alex & Eliza by Melissa de la Cruz (4 stars)

* Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (5 stars)

* Spare and Found Parts by Sarah Maria Griffin (4.5 stars)

* Replica by Lauren Oliver (4.25 stars)

* An Ember In The Ashes by Sabaa Tahir (4.5 stars)

* Vicious by VE Schwab (4 stars)

* Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas (4.5 stars)

* The Diviners by Libba Bray (5 stars)

* One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus (4.25 stars)

* Angelfall by Susan Ee (4 stars)

* A Court Of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas (4.5 stars)

* And The Ocean Was Our Sky by Patrick Ness (5 stars)

* Hollow City by Ransom Riggs (4.25 stars)

* A Storm Of Ice and Stars by Lisa Lueddecke (4 stars)

* Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor (5 stars)

* Stealing Snow by Danielle Page (4.25 stars)

* The Toymakers by Robert Dinsdale (5 stars)

* Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald - The Original Screenplay by J.K. Rowling (4 stars)

Moving forwards and into 2019 for the first time ever I have set myself a set of reading resolutions I want to try and stick too. Resolutions is potentially even the wrong word for them - they are almost a set of pointers I can look back on to remind myself that reading should be fun and that I shouldn’t be constantly worrying about my page count and that it is ok if I don’t post in a while.

They are:

1. To keep a reading/bullet journal - I have already kind of started this one as I have everything ready and set up to make a proper start on January 1st. While I am not the most arty of people I just find that there is something so satisfying about bullet journals and using it to track my reading is the perfect excuse to start one of my own. I am also hoping to branch out with this and use it as a good way to track my studying as well.

2. To read books that I want to read and not those I feel that I should - by this I mean that when I buy new books I often feel like I shouldn’t read them straight away, even if I am really excited to read them, because I feel like there are other books on my tbr which have been there longer and therefore deserve to be read first. I think this may have been part of the reason I was reading some books that I didn’t have much enthusiasm for in 2018 and I hope that by reading books I am more excited for this may help to rectify the issue of reading books I only thought were ok.

3. To keep up with/be aware of new releases - every January I usually create 12 new shelves on my Goodreads so that I can keep track of all of the new releases that are coming out each month and for the first time ever I feel like I have absolutely nothing to put on these shelves. I do really enjoy watching booktube videos and keeping up with what is being released but with uni I find that I often don’t get the time for this. This year I am going to try to make time, even if it is only 30 mins a week, to relax and watch some of these videos and keep up with what is going on book wise. I find this a much more useful way to keep up with things book wise than using Goodreads as, while I do still use Goodreads to keep track of my reading, I often don’t get a lot of enthusiasm from scrolling through books on there and it kind of makes me not excited to read.

4. To read/prioritise sequels - while it is not always possible to sit down and read an entire series (due to some books in the series not being published etc.) I always find that when I come to read a sequel I am having to google what happened in the book before it so that the sequel will actually make sense to me. This is because I always leave it so long after reading the first book before picking up sequels and so I have completely forgotten what has happened in the previous book. Now I have absolutely no reason why I do this, especially considering that I generally buy sequels fairly soon after they come out so they are always sat on my shelves but I am hoping that by getting to sequels sooner this will mean that hopefully I will begin to enjoy them more.

5. Lastly I want to change up the format of my blog posts - one of the ways I hope to achieve this is by putting a bit more effort into them. I often find myself rambling on, struggling for stuff to say about a book but trying to put words down on the page just so that it will make a decent length review/post. Last year I tried to review every book I read but there are some books where even though I enjoyed them I just don’t have too much to say about them and if this is the case then simple - I just won’t post a review about it. I am going to try and not post am awful post just so that I can say one has gone up. I also again want to try and change up the way I do wrap-ups and TBRs (if I even decide to keep these) so that they are a little more informative and give people a taste for what I thought of a book without having to read loads of text. I am hoping achieve this through a new system of broken star ratings for each book. I maya also try and include some shots from my reading journal if it looks like it is going to fit nicely.

Reading this back I now realise how long this post is so if you have made it to the end, well done! I feel now like I have said a lot of things I have wanted to say for a while and that I can move forward into 2019 feeling fresh and motivated about reading again.

Happy New Year everyone!

[charlotteisnotthechosenone]

October Wrap-Up & November TBR

October was my first full month back at uni and whilst I was at uni last year my reading really nose-dived (and to be honest it hasn’t really picked up since). This year I told myself that I would try and mark out more time in my schedule to actually sit and read and relax - especially in the evenings. While October wasn’t the most productive reading month I have ever had my reading was on par with what I had been reading over the summer and for me that is much more of an achievement than reading hundreds and hundreds of pages.

I managed to finish two books in October (and I am mid way through a further two). I finally finished A Court of Wings and Ruin which I had been reading on and off since the end of August! I think that this one was my favourite yet and I ended up giving it 4.5 stars.

My original plan for the rest of the month was to finish the second and third book in the Miss Peregrine’s series by Ransom Riggs. With it being October I thought that those would be the perfect spooky read for this month. In the end I only ended up finishing the second book, Hollow City and I have it 4.25 stars. I decided not to pick the third book up as I went away for the weekend towards the end of October and only wanted to take one book away with me. As I had not quite finished Hollow City (and I knew that would not last me the whole weekend) I decided to pick up the Muse of Nightmares instead as I was lucky enough to attend an event/signing at my local bookshop with Laini Taylor to promote the release of the Muse of Nightmares.

As mentioned I have already started two books towards the end of October so my plan for this month is just to finish those. I am mid-way through the Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor and I am also about half way through A Storm of Ice and Stars by Lisa Lueddecke. This is the companion to A Shiver of Snow and Sky which I read about the same time last year and really enjoyed it. It is the perfect read to get me in the mood for winter.

This year I have again picked myself out a bunch of wintry books to read over November/December - there are some I have been saving since the summer just for this purpose! Now that it is getting colder and the nights are drawing in I cannot wait to finally dive into this mini TBR.

[charlotteisnotthechosenone]

Review: And The Ocean Was Our Sky by Patrick Ness

Rating: 5 Stars

In its simplest form And The Ocean Was Our Sky is a retelling if literature classic Moby Dick told from the point of the whales. For the purpose of those (myself included) to which that makes little sense - I shall expand. Bathsheba, third apprentice to the mighty Captain Alexandra, is part of the hunt. A relentless fight against men as retribution for the way their kind have been treated. However when they spot a ship floating in the water they think that it will just be another easy arrack. What they do not realise is that attacking this ship will lead them on a trail to come face to face with the devil himself.

As always Patrick’s writing is so poignant and lyrical. I always feel like there is a hidden message in every novel he writes. Not wanting to spoil the book but the ending definitely proves this. While it is only short every time I sat down to read it I fell straight into the pages and the next thing I knew I was turning the last page. What is written on the pages is beautiful but the pages themselves are beautiful thanks to Rovina Cai’s illustrations. The book itself definitely had the feel of A Monster Calls and it is these utterly unique yet fabulous novels that Patrick pulls off so well.

[charlotteisnotthechosenone]

August Wrap Up & September TBR

After a string of quite poor reading months I feel that things picked up again in August with my reading. I managed to finish both The Diviners by Libba Bray and also One Of Us Is Lying by Karen McManus. I ended up really enjoying both of these books as I was really in the mood to read some mystery and both of these books fit that bill perfectly. With one being a contemporary and the other a supernatural novel it meant that while both books fell under the same genre they were both very different and it therefore meant that it didn't feel to samey to read two mystery novels one after the other.

I also actually managed to start both of the books I want to read in September during August (with varying degrees of success!). I am currently around 200 pages into Angelfall by Susan Ee and I am actually getting a lot more into this series than I thought I would. I was also in the mood to jump back into the middle of a series I had already started and so I finally picked up A Court Of Wings And Ruin by Sarah J. Maas. I am hoping I will be able to finish Angelfall within the first week or so of September so I can dedicate the rest of the month to ACOWAR.