#escaping eleven

[libertyreads]

October Wrap Up--

If you can believe it, this is just half of the things I read this month. Though, to be fair, most of my eBooks and eARCs were pretty short. I started the month with the pace of finishing one thing every other day and I kept it going throughout the entire month. Part of that was spurred on by the fact that I got approved for the new Truly Devious ARC and need to get through a few things first. But the months of November and December are hectic at my work so I’m going to enjoy my voracious reading this month with the knowledge that I won’t get nearly as much read for the rest of the year.

Comics/Graphic Novels-- 1. Cowboy Bebop: Supernova Swing by Dan Watters-- 2.5 stars.

Novellas/Short Stories-- 1. When Snowflakes Fall by Tara Wyatt-- 3.25 stars.

2. Like Fresh Fallen Snow by Tara Wyatt-- 4.25 stars.

3. Until the Sun Sets by Tara Wyatt-- 2 stars.

Novels-- 1. Spellslinger by Sebastien de Castell-- 3 stars.

2. Pucked by Helena Hunting-- 3 stars.

3. The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher-- 4 stars.

4. Escaping Eleven by Jerri Chisholm-- 3.5 stars (original rating).

5. Cupid for Hire by Lila Monroe-- 2.5 stars.

6. None Shall Sleep by Ellie Marnie-- 3.5 stars.

7. Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher-- 4 stars.

8. Love Next Door by Helena Hunting-- 4 stars.

9. The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson-- 4 stars (original rating).

10. Order of the Phoenix-- 5 stars (original rating).

11. Missing Clarissa by Ripley Jones-- 3.25 stars.

12. The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson-- 4.5 stars.

The average star rating for the month of October was 3.52 stars. It hasn’t been the best reading month, but I got a lot of things I’ve been meaning to read off my Kindle so I’ll take the win.

[libertyreads]

October TBR--

It’s finally spooky season and I’m so ready for it. I have quite a few spooky/mysterious books to read this month. I’m planning a couple rereads, a few new to me authors, and a NetGalley read.

1. Spellslinger by Sebastien De Castell-- This one I’m picking up on recommendation from Jade from JadeyRaeReads on Booktube. It’s a YA Fantasy novel about a magical clan called the Jan’Tep. Kellen is moments away from starting the four trials that will make him a spellcaster. The problem? His magic is gone. He’ll have to fall back on his cunning to avoid total disgrace or learn from a mysterious Argosi named Ferius Parfax about a different path forward.

2. None Shall Sleep by Ellie Marney-- This one was pitched on Tumblr as Criminal Minds meets The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes which had my attention immediately. GoodReads says it’s: “a psychological thriller about two teenagers teaming up with the FBI to track down juvenile serial killers.” Say less. You have me.

3. The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher-- Kingfisher is an author who is getting all of the attention right now so I decided to dive into the hype. This is the one that I think I would enjoy the most out of everything they’ve written. Kara is freshly divorced and living back at home when she accidentally discovers portals to countless alternate realities. But they’re haunted by creatures that seem to hear thoughts and the more you fear them, the stronger they become. Shut the front door, right now! This sounds so good. And it’s not too long. 

4. Escaping Eleven by Jerri Chisholm-- This is the first reread I need to do in October. The final book in this series comes out in December. It’s not the best dystopian series I’ve ever read, it’s actually pretty derivative, but it has such a nostalgic feel for me because I love the dystopian genre so much. This one is about a girl who is forced to fight for the entertainment of those above her station. But when she’s forced to face off with someone from the upper floors she realizes there’s more than fighting to survive. She wants to fight for her freedom and this boy may be what she’s been waiting for.

5. The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson-- The second reread I need to get to in October. I’m rereading the whole series before the fifth book comes out in December. This is a mystery series about a boarding school on a mountainside in Vermont, a nearly 100 year old missing person’s case, and a new murder. I think that’s vague enough since this is the second book in the series.

6. Pucked by Helena Hunting (Kindle)-- This one is mostly a joke, but hockey season DOES start up this month. (FINALLY!) I found Helena Hunting through her Spark House series and decided to grab this one when I saw a hockey romance in her backlist. I don’t expect to enjoy it as much as I’ve enjoyed the Spark House series so far, but I think it’ll be a fun and quick read.

7. Missing Clarissa by Ripley Jones (NetGalley)-- In August of 1999, a popular girl goes missing in Washington state. Thanks to Clarissa’s beauty, the mystery captures the attention of the nation. But the case soon grows cold. Over 20 years later, two high school juniors start a true crime podcast, determine to get to the bottom of this mystery. But, in their sleuthing, are two teenage girls about to destroy the life of an innocent man? And help the true killer walk free?

8. Order of the Phoenix Illustrated (New Release).

[libertyreads]

February TBR 2021-

The February TBR is full of books I think I’m going to love. I’m rereading three books this month out of eight total reads so I think it’s going to be a much more fun time than January was for me.

1. Counting Down with You (NetGalley ARC) by Tashie Bhuiyan-- This looks like it will be a cute YA Contemporary/Romance with a fake dating trope. I LOVE a good fake dating trope. It’s all about the angst and the pining. The resident good girl agrees to help out the resident bad boy by pretending to be his girlfriend. Only thing is....he’s doing everything right. I had to request this so I could read it for Valentine’s Day. I just had to do it.

2. Down World (NetGalley ARC) by Rebecca Phelps-- I’ll try not to get into the synopsis too much because this does have elements of the mystery genre. As well, this book ventures into Sci-Fi when a girl discovers that her new school was the site of experiments with time and space. This seems to explore alternate realities and multiple universes. It looks really good.

3. The One by John Marrs-- I have heard so many people (okay, mainly Lala from BooksandLala) talking about how much they love this book. This seems to be a Mystery/Thriller whose premise is that there’s a DNA test you can take to find your soulmate. But the repercussions of doing so may be too much for some people. I wanted to read this for Valentine’s Day as well without it leaning too much into the romance genre. So, I thought this was perfect.

4. Escaping Eleven by Jerri Chisholm-- This is a YA dystopian novel that I only heard about days before its release date in December. This is about a girl who lives in a compound where there is a hierarchy based on which floor you live on. On her floor, they fight. But when her ass gets handed to her by a newcomer to the fighting circuit, she realizes that she needs to fight for more than survival: she needs to fight for her freedom. AHHH. How is everyone not jumping on this book? Oh, I’m the one who has loved dystopian novels since I was 12 Gotcha gotcha. This one has less than 100 ratings as of me writing this post which is just sad. So, I hope to get to it this month.

5. The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George-- So, I’m pretty ashamed to admit that this book was on my TBR last February. And I had already owned this book for a few years by that point. Whoops. This is also on my Read It or Leave It list. This is a literary fiction (which is probably why I haven’t picked it up yet) about a grumpy old man who runs a bookshop in Paris who goes on a trip to help heal himself from an old heartache.

6. Fable by Adrienne Young (Reread)-- I’m rereading this one before the next book comes out in March. This is a pirate-y story about a girl who wants to work for her father who is the most powerful trader of the Narrows. But after his wife dies in a storm he can’t stand to raise Fable. Instead, he drops her on a nearly abandoned island. She spends the next four years working to find her father and to demand her rightful place on his crew.

7. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Reread)-- I feel like everyone knows what this story is about so I’ll try to keep it short. A YA dystopian novel. In Panem, every year there is a violent game played to remind the citizens that they are at the mercy of their government. In this game, children must kill each other to try to be the last one standing. When Katniss’ sister Prim is chosen, she steps forward to take her place instead.

8. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (Reread)-- Continuing from The Hunger Games, Catching Fire is a story of what happens when your assumed safety is ripped away from you.

[readingwithwrin]

June 2022 Reading Wrap-Up

June 2022 Reading Wrap-Up

Hello everyone! I decided that I want to try and do reading wrap-ups every month. I’m hoping it’ll be fun to look back in a couple of years and see what I was reading and if I was enjoying it each month. I love reading other people’s wrap-up so it’s about time I started doing my own. When I can I will provide links to the reviews if I have posted them already.  For the month of June, I only…

View On WordPress

[thestarlesscircus]

I might be drunk, but that doesn't make Eve Hamilton less of a great character

[libertyreads]

Book Review #11 of 2021-

Escaping Eleven by Jerri Chisholm. Rating: 3.5 Stars.

Read from February 10 to February 11.

This was the book on my February TBR that I was looking forward to the most and it was kind of disappointing. I think part of the problem was my own excitement for it before I ever opened the book. This is a YA dystopian novel about a world where humans had to build compounds to live in once the world became too harsh for life above ground. I love dystopian novels and I think that probably didn’t do this book any favors.

I like the idea of this world where the lower classes fight for the entertainment of the upper classes and how one girls just wants to be free. It also does a good job of exploring the ideas of privilege, class struggles, entitlement, and power. And I think that the author does a good job of portraying a world where fighting is the number one source of entertainment and what that could do to a population. The characters themselves are mostly just alright. I wish we had gotten to explore more of their personalities.

My main complaint for this one, however, is that the world building just wasn’t enough. I felt like I could do a decent job piecing it together because of the giant stack of dystopian novels I’ve read in my life (especially The Fringe series by Tarah Banner). Part of it is that I feel like I have a lot of questions about this world that didn’t get explored or even mentioned in this novel. I know this is only the first book in the series so maybe that’s intentional, but it felt like there should have been a solid 50 to 100 more pages throughout the first half of the novel to ground the reader better. I’m also kind of ‘meh’ when it comes to the relationship aspect of this one and it’s just because I want more build up and more scenes where they’re just enjoying each other and learning about each other.

I wasn’t planning on picking up the next book in the series because of my overall ‘good but kind of meh’ feelings about this one, but then I read the synopsis for the next one and I think a lot of the things I struggled with in this one could have a remedy in the next. Plus I think if you’re not usually a dystopian reader you’ll probably be fine with this one. I sincerely believe part of my problem was what I brought to the table with my depth of dystopian novel knowledge.

[libertyreads]

Today's plans.