Lips Touch – Laini Taylor

Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal, Supernatural

My Rating:

I bought this book a little while back, it was shown in one of my Sunday Summary posts and I was so excited to own it, because I love Laini Taylor. I adored her series Daughter of Smoke and Bone and so I decided I should buy her short story collection after loving the short story she had in My True Love Gave To Me. It was not what I expected. I think after reading Taylor's short story in My True Love Gave To Me I was expecting shorter stories like she did as part of that collection, so when I was reading, the stories were not short little twenty minute escapes, they took longer and were more in depth.

One of my biggest complaints with other short story collections is that I want more, that the stories don't give me enough story, you don't have this issue with Lips Touch. There are just three stories to the collection, they are rather in depth, the first is quick and short, a taster of what's to come. And then you get two more multi-chapter ventures. One thing I must say to you is if you want nice happily ever afters, this is not the collection for you. These stories are dark, there is no good and bad, just black and white and bad choices or worse ones. The characters can be selfish and they can do the wrong thing and they are human.

After reading the DoSaB trilogy by Taylor you come to expect that nothing is going to be happy and bright, good is not clear, nor is bad. The same is true from these collections, people are just doing the best with what they are given in the stories, and you understand when people act stupidly because people are flawed.
I think my favourite part of these stories is that the explore so many different things, there are folktale elements to the stories, and look at ancient religions and there is a whole world of mythology being used in them. Taylor even acknowledges how she has taken various elements of different religions and manipulated them to how she wished to use them. Whilst it may not all be accurate, it sure makes interesting and unique storytelling.

I really enjoyed the collection, but it certainly isn't what you expect, and that can sometimes be the best thing for books. I would recommend it to anyone that enjoys mythology and folktales because you get the best of both in these three stories.

Todays Top Ten Tuesday from The Broke and the Bookish is all about romance, and I adore romance. It’s about what we love and hate about romances in books, and there is a long list of both from me, but these are the ones I can explain best.

1. I hate insta-love, I want to see the romance develop not just they saw each other and it was true love

2. I hate the unnecessary conflicts that always occur because people don't talk. I'm not saying that all secrets must be revealed instantly but you just know when someone thinks they can solve something on their own

3. When someone does something to protect the other with no discussion. Lack of communication in romances is so annoying. I don’t expect couples to reveal all their deep dark secrets at the drop of a hat, but no one ever seems to trust anyone and I get trust issues, but these people take it to a whole new level.

4. Love triangles. I hate love triangles. They are always so unnecessary, and I always feel bad for the one that ‘loses’ in the end. I just feel like they are always put in a book to give a bit of interest, especially in trilogies and series, add a pit of conflict to mix things up a bit… boring.

5. When a couple gets together too soon in a book (this is more specific to romance novels) but when they get together too soon and then the rest of the book then gets tangled up with creating troubles for them that are completely unnecessary. I understand there are struggles in relationships, but books often make it unnecessarily complicated.

6. I don’t tend to like cheating in books, if it’s done well, and I don’t end up hating someone and it’s not for some dumb reason the great, but it’s definitely a thing that can put me off a book’s romance.

7. I hate when the romance ruins friendships, when girls fight over a boy, when boys fight over a girl, when any friends fight over anyone really. Friends should always come first, everyone knows this, and they certainly shouldn’t be ruined, or take over, because of a silly little romance.

8. It gets repetitive. It all ends up feeling like romances are following the usual formula, and that gets boring.

9. Sometimes the romance seems too obvious, nothing surprises you. It goes on from the formulaic bit, but you can see it all happening, as soon as a character is introduced you just know that’s the romantic interest and there is every chance that character will not get to develop out of that box created for it.

10. I hate how much I adore romance in books, like you’d think I’d get bored of it, but I just don’t. I love how cute and adorable a good romance can be, and it never gets old.

So I substituted a Sunday Summary for a Monthly Wrap Up last week and I’m sure you all missed my lovely rambling post about my comings and goings of the week. I can’t say I’ve done much. I’ve been waiting around for a book order to come in all week and it hasn’t been delivered yet, which is annoying, but I’ll give it until Monday. I’ve bought some fairy lights for my room, to get some pretty lighting for when I’m watching films. And I’ve binge watched The 100, I’m four episodes away from being all caught up with the series so far. All I can say is why on earth has no-one been shouting louder about this show? It’s amazing. I am now a massive Bellarke shipper, they are so cute and adorable, and Bob Morley? Yum. It’s kind of why I haven’t been around here so much posting things this week, my social life got in the way (I know, like I have a social life?) and I’ve been absorbed in TV watching. I was excited to have gotten the first Author Addiction post up, but then I wasn’t home to be able to be all excited about it.

Touch Of Power – Maria V Snyder (I love this woman’s books so I hope I like this series)

A Court of Thorns and Roses – Sarah J Maas (Thank you Bloomsbury for approving me on Netgalley, this is my book for next week)

Take Me On – Katie McGarry

Lola and the Boy Next Door – Stephanie Perkins (after getting recommendations to read it on my TTT I figured why not?)

Perfect Chemistry – Simone Elkeles

Lips Touch – Laini Taylor

Sorry I don’t have more to say this week, but I’ve got a ton of things to do at home so I feel all up in the air, but then I wanted to give you an update and promise I’ll be back next week (hopefully) with a few more posts, I’ve got a ton of reviews written (I know, am I the same person, I never post reviews) and I’ve got a few ideas for ramblings from me so see you soon.

I like it when books and music are brought together. I know plenty of people that don’t like to listen to music when reading, they say it’s too distracting. Others, I know, like to listen to instrumental music, so they have background noise, but nothing to distract them. Then there are some who like to have the TV on or the radio, something that they can tune out but they like the sound of something around them to help them concentrate. Then there are people like me that love to have their iPod blasting when they’re reading because tunes are what I need to read. Sure, it means sometimes I’m completely distracting singing at the top of my voice to one of my favourite songs, but I treat such moments as a reading break, it’s even better when I can get my groove on to a particularly good song, but it does occasionally lead to embarrassing moments of people walking in on me dancing around the room, but it’s totally worth it.

I find music and reading to be closely linked, there are still songs that I completely relate with a certain book, be it from playlists I was listening to or because they were playing at a pivotal scene when I was reading, or simply because the song was mentioned that one time. Music and books are related for me. I know there are blogs which feature playlists for songs and I love that, because I love music that can make me think of a book, if I was better at it I might try and do the same thing. Maybe I will one day when I’m a bit more confident in my music picking ability.

Anyway, it was Since You’ve Been Gone that got me thinking about books and music because playlists were a feature in this books, the music sort of ran alongside the book. I found myself creating playlists featuring the songs in the book and became just as obsessed with the music in the book as the story itself. Then, when I was reading Amy and Rogers's Epic Detour I did the same thing, the music was a big thing in this book too. I found myself creating playlists, searching out songs from old CDs to be able to play tunes, it was a thing I had to do. I like when books and music are linked, when I read Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover and found out it had a soundtrack to go with I was thrilled, I love that about books. I love searching out fan playlists for books to listen to when I’m reading. When I visit author blogs and discover their own playlist for a book I’m instantly there listening to it and trying to picture how it fits in with the book. Are the songs meant to set the tone for a scene or are they simply a song the author pictured one of the characters listening to. I like both a thematic playlist and character playlists because both help me get into a book, either into the mood of it or into the mindset of the characters themselves. I don’t know if I’m unusual in my music searching was but it’s who I am. I’m the person that needs that song that was playing in a pivotal scene of a TV show or movie. I will search out music whenever I hear it and am continually paying too much money to buy an album when I’ve only heard one song by a band.

I am continually amazed at how music can transport you. I can listen to a song and have it invoke memories of a book for me, be it from a playlist that I found online for a book, or just because that song was playing when I was reading a significant scene in a book. I’ll hear that song and instantly be transported to the pages of that book. I love how music can do that, not just for books, but for everything. It can so easily transport you to a different moment and invoke memories for you. I love that I can have that link between books and reading.

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, and this weeks theme is all about the books that I can’t believe I haven’t read from a genre, and the genre I have chosen is contemporary young adult fiction. Not all of these books are necessarily classics of the genre, but they are books which I see mentioned a lot on other blogs, or simply books which I've been dying to read which make up the YA contemporary genre. I thought I might get more general and just pick the YA genre, but that is such a broad spectrum of books with numerous subgenres making it up that it would be impossible to limit it down to just ten books.

And those are my picks for the week. I hope to eventually read some of these books, but with my never-ending list of books TBR who knows when I’ll find the time.