I have to say there are a million heroines I could choose for this. I am insanely tempted to do TV heroines, but I would undoubtedly pick your expected selection of bad asses and kickass women from TV, and I really do prefer to feature books for these top ten Tuesday moments The Broke and the Bookish throw at us. So, instead, I will try and pick as many bookish badasses as I can think of. When I was first doing my bookish thinking for this I thought it would be a collection of fantasy badasses, but then I decided to choose the heroines who most inspire me from books.
Allyson – Just One Day
The book itself was an inspiration, leading to a stung sense of wanderlust within me, making me want to go travel and see the world, but it was Allyson herself that truly inspired me. I could relate to her a lot in the book. The pressure she was under to follow a certain path and struggling whilst she was doing, her daring to do something different, even if it broke her heart in the end. She was inspiring as she learnt who she was as a person and came into herself.
Glass and Clarke – The Hundred
I know I’ve been all obsessed with the TV series, but I have also been reading the books. In the books there are two female main characters, Clarke and Glass, and both of them are inspiring in different way. Clarke is one of my favourite heroines because she is so strong, despite the losses and heartbreak she has suffered, and the adversity she continues to face on earth. Then Glass is also inspiring due to her strength, she has lived such a privileged life, but then she lost so much, and she somehow managed to get through. She struggled through so much, and continues through out the book and I love her for it.
Feyre – A Court of Thorns and Roses
Feyre is amazing, she struggles to keep her family together through all their difficulties growing, helping to get money, put food on the table and to to keep her family alive. Then she gets thrust into the world of the fae due to one action which alters her life. She lives and adapts their, and when given the opportunity to carry on as she wishes to care her family she fights her way back to help those she loves. I don’t want to give too much away, but the last third of the book all you can di is cheer Feyre on.
Yelena – Poison Study
Yelena gets convicted for a crime that is completely unfair to her. You see her struggles, she had a terrible upbringing and now is in a new prison being forced to stay in a realm where she will be shunned as she discovers she has magical abilities. She finds a family she never knew she has and learns about a world she never knew she belonged to and possesses abilities no-one realised she has and she struggles through and stays being that strong person you met at the beginning, who was attempting to do the best for those she cares for.
Paige – The Bone Season
This girl grows up in a world where she is hated for what she is, and yet she is still struggling to protect it because she knows there is a greater evil out there then the government who hates her. She struggles to protect those she cares for, even when it ends up putting her in danger, and that is pretty badass.
Claire – Outlander
That woman struggles with the fact she loves two men. She has to figure out how to deal with being sent to the past after a really weird day. Fights and claws to make her way back home. Tries to figure out how things work in the 1800s without getting herself killed for one thing or another, all whilst being an English woman in Scotland during a period when the English are hated. It’s amazing
Kestrel – The Winner’s Curse
Kestrel is amazing because she makes the tough decisions, even when they may not necessarily be best for her. She is someone who makes the sacrifices others aren’t willing to make, even when it doesn’t end well for her. She is tough and hard on the outside and she certainly doesn’t come across all warm and fuzzy, which makes getting to know her in the book even better.
Ananna – The Assassin’s Curse
Ananna is tough, but she is also young and careless and selfish and so innocent. As you follow her story in the book she grows on you as she learn how her brain works. She is so strongly independent and she knows what she wants from life, but she has so much to learn, and I think that is what I loved in this book.
Penryn – Angelfall
Penryn is such an inspiring characters for one reason and one reason only, everything she does is for her family. She suffers so much, and she forces herself to go to hell and back for her sister. She does everything she can, and things she probably never wished to do for her sister, and she struggles with everything she does and I just adore her for that.
I hope you like my list, and I always love to see what you all have to say so please let me know.
Hi Guys, miss me? I know I’ve been a bit absent the past couple of weeks, but unfortunately real life has been kicking my ass and leaving me so tired on the evenings that any motivation I might have had just leaves me. I wish I had a better excuse than that, but it simply I’ve been so tired lately I’ve just not felt let blogging, instead I have been feeding my complete obsession with The 100. Even my reading has been affected, I’ve read about four books in the past two weeks, that’s the same number of books I would normally read in a week.
I also had a minor quarter life crisis with my approaching birthday, but internal age dilemma will not be discussed on here because that is just taking it too far. I do have a rather large case of wanderlust lately. Ever since I read Just One Day and Just One Year I’ve felt a strong urge to just travel somewhere, because I’ve never really done much travelling, but unfortunately travelling alone scares me half to death and so I’m trying to persuade friends they should take frequent holidays with me. It doesn’t help that at no other time in my life have I had the disposable income to do so, but now I have the money but I don’t have the holiday time from work. I just can’t win. You know you’ve read a good book when it motivates you to want to travel, though.
Anyway, I have been alive and well obsessing over Bellamy and Clarke from The 100 in my spare time the past couple of weeks. But when I’ve not been obsessing I have also been reading, below are my books bought and read from the past two weeks.
New To Me
What I’ve Been Reading
And that is it from me for the week, I have some ideas of post to come, and a couple of posts I was tagged in ages ago that I need to finish writing. Also, I have about 40 blog posts from the past week alone that I need to get around to reading, I’ve really let me slack with blogging lately.
I mentioned in one of my Sunday Summary posts that I received A Court of Thorns and Roses on Netgalley to review, and it got me thinking about book reviews in general. I’m going to be honest, I’m the worst when it comes to reviewing books, unless I’m near my computer at the time of finishing, and thus able to expel my thoughts onto screen as quickly as possible, there is every chance I won’t get around to finishing writing a review. I get bored. I move on quite quickly from books, they will quickly leave my thoughts (apart from the really good books, that linger with you for weeks afterwards) and I’ll forget about the things I loved and hated and there is every chance I will forget the characters and everything that goes along with the book.
But my inability to commit to reviewing books is not so much what I was thinking about as what is the best way to feature a book on your blog? When you visit a blog, what is the thing that makes you want to read a book mentioned on there?
I’ve thought long and hard about this, actually. I’ve been trying to pin down what makes me want to read a book when I visit other blogs. I mean, a lot of the time it is simply I’ve read other books by the author and am interested, but this is not the only thing that makes me want to read something. Sometimes it is simply I see the cover and the blurb on people’s blogs, like on Waiting on Wednesday features, and that makes me interested. Other times it is simply reading someone else's excitement about a book makes me want to take a look, either they’ve just read it and loved it, or they’ve just found it and are excited for it. Even featuring it in a Top Ten Tuesday post can be enough to make me look a book up.
I was just thinking about it really because whenever I get ARCs to review I put so much pressure on myself to write a review for the book to feature on my blog around the time it’s released and there is really no need, because reviews are probably the posts people read least over here, and I like writing from time to time, to show my thoughts on books, but sometimes I think I put too much pressure on myself to write them when I know I could do a bunch of different features for books to try and get you guys interested in the things I’ve read. I just sometimes think there must be better ways of featuring books when reviews are not my favourite thing to write, mostly because I feel I should write more, but this is not about my feelings on reviews, this is a different post.
It’s stupid really, because I try and avoid reviews for books I haven’t read because I hate getting preconceived notions about a book before reading, so why on earth do I pressure myself to write a review for books when they aren’t released yet? It’s partly what motivated me to want to do author features on my blog, to try and find new ways to get people interested in the things I'm reading without writing a review.
The reason I discovered book blogs is because I was trying to find recommendations for books to read, I wanted to find good books and find more to read, because before book blogs I knew there were so many books out there, but I didn’t know of a way to discover them all. When I found book blogs, and saw features like Top Ten Tuesday (one of my main sources of new books for my TBR lists) I knew I had found the perfect place for me, a place to talk about books. But since I’ve started blogging I’ve found myself posting the same kind of things, I’m excited about books, but I sometimes I feel it’s only in Top Ten Tuesdays I have the chance to show my excitement about books I’ve read or want to read, I don’t feel it always comes across best in reviews.
Has anyone else noticed reviews don’t always seem to be the best way to feature a book? Do you have your own way of featuring books you love without actually reviewing, and if so tell me what they are? I’d love to see everyone's method of featuring books without reviewing, it might inspire me.
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal, Supernatural
My Rating:
Three tales of supernatural love, each pivoting on a kiss that is no mere kiss, but an action with profound consequences for the kissers' souls:
Goblin Fruit
In Victorian times, goblin men had only to offer young girls sumptuous fruits to tempt them to sell their souls. But what does it take to tempt today's savvy girls?
Spicy Little Curses
A demon and the ambassador to Hell tussle over the soul of a beautiful English girl in India. Matters become complicated when she falls in love and decides to test her curse.
Hatchling
Six days before Esme's fourteenth birthday, her left eye turns from brown to blue. She little suspects what the change heralds, but her small safe life begins to unravel at once. What does the beautiful, fanged man want with her, and how is her fate connected to a mysterious race of demons?
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 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.
Ten Things I Hate About You Romance
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.
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