May Wrap-Up.

Well I set myself a smaller goal this month, and will do so next month too as the wedding is really taking up most of my time now. Of the six reads I set myself, I actually managed three though which I'm pretty proud of!

1. 'The Yellow Wall-Paper' by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It really took me by surprise how much I enjoyed this feminist classic set of short stories. There were three in this 'little black classic' and each was very different but cleverly written with a great plot. I thoroughly recommend to anyone who hasn't stumbled across Perkins Gilman yet! 5/5 Stars.
2. 'The Astonishing Colour Of After' by Emily X.R. Pan. This is a book I had really looked forward to reading, and the writing was as beautiful as I'd heard it was. I liked the plot, the huge exposure to the culture of Taiwan and the magical realism. I think the characters could have used some work, especially MC Leigh, but I'm impressed that this is Pan's debut. 4/5 Stars.
3. 'The Valley Of Fear' by Arthur Conan Doyle. It has definitely been a while since I read a Sherlock Holmes book and I liked dipping into this one. It had a great mystery to solve, an interesting backstory and, as usual, fantastic banter between Holmes and Watson. I wish that Moriarty had been a little more involved and the ending hadn't been so abrupt though. 4/5 Stars.

This month I read three books for the Beat The Backlist Challenge, making my yearly total sixteen.

- The Yellow Wall-Paper

- The Astonishing Colour Of After

- The Valley Of Fear

This month I read zero books for the New Release Challenge, making my yearly total three.

This month I read zero books for the Finishing The Series Challenge, making my yearly total three.

This month I read one book for the Diversity Reading Challenge, making my yearly total twelve.

- The Astonishing Colour Of After *Mini Challenge: (East Asian/Southeast Asian/Pacific Islander)*

Here is the update for Pretty Deadly Blog's Bookish Bingo card.

Warm Climate: And The Mountains Echoed; Khaled Hosseini

Stand-Alone: The Astonishing Colour Of After; Emily X.R. Pan

Large Cast Of Characters: Crooked Kingdom; Leigh Bardugo

Spring Release: The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying; Marie Kondo

Three Word Title: Fierce Fragile Hearts; Sara Barnard

Freebie: -

Novella: The Mirror & The Maze; Renée Ahdieh

Epistolary: The Yellow Wall-Paper; Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Yellow Cover: Rubyfruit Jungle; Rita Mae Brown

A Book I Own: Everless; Sara Holland

School Setting: Myth To The Night; Cora Choi

Mystery Thriller: The Valley Of Fear; Arthur Conan Doyle

April Wrap-Up.

These next couple of months really are going to be light on the reading side of things guys. Wedding planning is taking up all of my time I'm afraid! But I did manage to squeeze in a few good books here and there. In fact, I managed four!

1. 'The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up' by Marie Kondo. I started this as a reaction to watching Kondo's Netflix series and wanting to learn more about her KonMari method! This is a great book to get you started, full of some pretty harsh truths and helpful tools. 4.5/5 Stars.
2. 'A Myth To The Night' by Cora Choi. Sadly, this book wasn't for me. The premise sounded cool, but the execution was pretty poor - stilted dialogue, no character depth, bad plotting and terrible pacing. 1/5 Stars.
3. 'Fierce Fragile Hearts' by Sara Barnard. I liked this book a lot, and was glad to be reading it, seeing as it continues the story of characters from Barnard's debut, 'Beautiful Broken Things'! It was lovely to be back in Brighton and see Rosie again, though I did find myself a little too irritated with Caddy and Suzanne's behaviour in this one. 3.5/5 Stars.
4. 'And The Mountains Echoed' by Khaled Hosseini. My sister has been recommending Hosseini's books for as long as I can remember and other friends told me to read them too. This is my first of his and despite the fact that I don't particularly enjoy vague, sad or bittersweet endings, I liked the build-up a lot. 4/5 Stars.

This month I read three books for the Beat The Backlist Challenge, making my yearly total thirteen.

- The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying

- A Myth To The Night

- And The Mountains Echoed

This month I read one books for the New Release Challenge, making my yearly total three.

- Fierce Fragile Hearts

This month I read two books for the Finishing The Series Challenge, making my yearly total three.

- A Myth To The Night

- Fierce Fragile Hearts

This month I read two books for the Diversity Reading Challenge, making my yearly total eleven.

- Fierce Fragile Hearts

- And the Mountains Echoed *Mini Challenge: (Middle Eastern OR South Asian)*

Here is the update for Pretty Deadly Blog's Bookish Bingo card.

March Wrap-Up.

My wedding is getting closer and closer, and as a result I'm finding less time to read. That's a little sad of course, but I did still manage to get through four books this month!

1. 'The Mirror & The Maze' by Renée Ahdieh. A very short read that I didn't feel added a whole lot to the series as a whole, but it was nice to see Khalid again and briefly re-immerse myself in this world. It reminded me how much I needed to read the next book! 3/5 Stars.
2. 'Everless' by Sara Holland. This was a recommendation from a fellow book-lover and friend and I finally got round to reading it! I enjoyed it too, though I felt that the plot had far too much going on throughout most of the book. I liked the finale though and plan to keep going with this one! 3.5/5 Stars.
3. 'Rubyfruit Jungle' by Rita Mae Brown. This is often hailed as a coming-out classic and so, wanting to read more LGBTQ+ fiction, I gave it a go. I have to say that I was surprised by the super modern ideas and approved of most of them, especially considering when this book was written. The formula was a little repetitive though and there were a couple of bizarre plot elements and damaging stereotypes. 3.5/5 Stars.
4. 'Crooked Kingdom' by Leigh Bardugo. Yaaaaas! Finally I finished this series and it was everything. I loved being reunited with my favourite crooks and con-artists, and seeing them develop even more! I also really love Bardugo's world-building! 5/5 Stars.

This month I read four books for the Beat The Backlist Challenge, making my yearly total ten.

- Thee Mirror & The Maze

- Everless

- Rubyfruit Jungle

- Crooked Kingdom

This month I read zero books for the New Release Challenge, making my yearly total two.

This month I read one book for the Finishing The Series Challenge, making my yearly total one.

- Crooked Kingdom

This month I read three books for the Diversity Reading Challenge, making my yearly total nine.

- The Mirror & The Maze

- Rubyfruit Jungle *Mini Challenge: (#ownvoices OR gender: women in male-dominated genres/non-fiction)*

- Crooked Kingdom *Mini Challenge: (#ownvoices OR gender: women in male-dominated genres/non-fiction)*

Here is the update for Pretty Deadly Blog's Bookish Bingo card.

Planned Reads For March.

There are still a lot of reads from last month that I'm desperate to get to, so I'll be putting them on this month's list! I do also have a couple of other reads this month that I'm looking forward to getting into!

Sara Holland's 'Everless' has been on my TBR forever, and I know the friend that is desperate for me to read it is so disappointed in me for keep putting it off so enough is enough. I am not reading anything else until this book is read!

As soon as I'm done with 'Everless', I will be moving straight onto Leigh Bardugo's 'Crooked Kingdom' which I have been super excited about reading forever. I can't wait to finish this duology and hopefully love this book as much as the first one!

I received this next book as a gift for Christmas and am absolutely head-over-heels in love with the cover. A book about the undead and necromancy with a sugary sweet pink colour scheme is absolutely my aesthetic! 'Reign Of The Fallen' by Sarah Glenn Marsh looks amazing, and I'm particularly excited about this one.

This is also hopefully the month that I'll get to read two of my most anticipate 2019 reads - the first being 'Enchantée' by Gita Trelease! The french revolution, mixed with magic? Amazing! I'm all about the court intrigue and dash of romance that I'm sure to find in these pages!

The second hotly anticipated 2019 release is of course Samantha Shannon's 'The Priory Of The Orange Tree' because everything about this book looks breath-taking. Epic fantasies are my jam and this one is written by a woman so I'm excited to read this!

'Rubyfruit Jungle' by Rita Mae-Brown is deemed to be one of the coming out books, and it was suggested by a friend of mine, whom I record a podcast with. It's actually one of our chosen reads. I'm certainly intrigued, and definitely in the mood for something classic to bury my nose in.

I love Sara Barnard's books. We all know this. 'Fierce Fragile Hearts' is actually a sequel (of sorts) to 'Beautiful Broken Things', her debut! I really adored that first book and look forward to continuing Suzanne, Caddy and Rosie's stories!

I love a good mystery now and again and so Kimberly McCreight's book 'The Outliers' looks awesome! It involves telepathy, being on the run, cryptic clues and a missing friend, but other than that I don't know an awful lot about this book. I have to say though, it has some pretty mixed reviews so I'm hoping it's as good as it sounds!

I also thought I'd take the time to highlight Pretty Deadly Blog's new Bookish Bingo card! Running from March to May there are some awesome categories here! I look forward to joining in.

February Wrap-Up.

February, the shortest month of the year and boy did I feel it! Still, though my reading went a little off track, I managed four great reads!

1. 'Proud' cur. by Juno Dawson. I loved this collection! The cover is a perfect representation of how this book will hit you, and I honestly believe it should be in every school. This anthology of short stories, mixed with art and poetry from some well-known YA contributors has a dash of everything. 4/5 Stars.
2. 'Ash Princess' by Laura Sebastian. Why did I put this read off for so long? It was fantastic! A badass, strong heroine was my favourite aspect of the book, but I also appreciated the brutal, dark world-building and plot that kept me guessing. 4.5/5 Stars.
3. 'Pride' by Ibi Zoboi. I think that this is probably the best contemporary 'Pride & Prejudice' retelling I've ever read and it was full to the brim of what I wanted - culture and diversity. The dialogue was a little choppy, the timeline too condensed, and the MC had the worst personality ever. But I still liked a lot of elements of this story. 3.5/5 Stars.
4. '[Dis]connected' cur. by Michelle Halket. 'Tis the month for anthologies it seems! I knew I wasn't getting through any more big reads this month so wanted something shorter from my NetGalley pile. Amanda Lovelace's name caught my eye - I'd been meaning to read something of hers. I was not disappointed here, and there were some gems in these short stories. 4/5 Stars.

This month I read three books for the Beat The Backlist Challenge, making my yearly total six.

- Ash Princess

- Pride

- [Dis]connected

This month I read one book for the New Release Challenge, making my yearly total two.

- Proud

This month I read zero books for the Finishing The Series Challenge, making my yearly total zero.

As I move up the ranks I will change the badge accordingly, though I technically haven't earned this one yet...

This month I read four books for the Diversity Reading Challenge, making my yearly total six.

- Proud

- Ash Princess *Mini Challenge: (Black/African American)*

- Pride *Mini Challenge: (Black/African American)*

- [Dis]Connected

2018 Release I Missed: Ash Princess; Laura Sebastian

Features Tech: The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet; Becky Chambers

Pink Cover: Feminists Don't Wear Pink; Cur. by Scarlett Curtis

Romance: Glimpse; Kendra Leighton

Male Main Character: Starfighter (Ch. 2); Hamlet Machine

Set In Europe: The Last; Hanna Jameson

Co-Authored: [Dis]connected; Cur. by Michelle Halket

Freebie: --

White Cover: Proud; Cur. by Juno Dawson

Book Was A Gift: Useless Magic; Florence Welch

Spin Off: Stars Above; Marissa Meyer

Religious Minority MC: Sisters Of The Winter Wood; Rena Rossner

Author Of Colour: Pride; Ibi Zoboi

January Wrap-Up.

January normally feels like a really long month to me, but actually I didn't feel that so much this time around! I got through a good few books though and I'm pleased with the four I managed.

1. 'Glimpse' by Kendra Leighton. A likeable paranormal retelling of Alfred Noyes's poem 'The Highwayman'. The glimpses and plot development were the most engaging aspects, though it felt like it ended without a complete resolution. 3.5/5 Stars.
2. 'The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet' by Becky Chambers. It totally blew my socks off and I'm devastated I didn't start this book sooner. Great characters and relationships, and an interesting universe with so much detail! 5/5 Stars.
3. 'The Sisters Of The Winter Wood' by Rena Rossner. An enchanting retelling of Christina Rossetti's poem 'Goblin Market'. I liked the Jewish representation and historical setting mixed with all the magic, but felt there was far too much plot, too many words to look up and not enough likeable characterisation. 2.5/5 Stars.
4. 'The Last' by Hanna Jameson. I hadn't read a dystopian novel in a while and felt that the genre mixed with murder mystery was interesting. This would be a great read for a book club, it provokes a lot of thought and debate, but I think the characters were completely unlikeable and the plot did not conclude well. 3/5 stars.

This month I read three books for the Beat The Backlist Challenge, making my yearly total three.

- Glimpse

- The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet

- The Sisters Of The Winter Wood

This month I read one book for the New Release Challenge, making my yearly total one.

- The Last

This month I read zero books for the Finishing The Series Challenge, making my yearly total zero.

As I move up the ranks I will change the badge accordingly, though I technically haven't earned this one yet...

This month I read two books for the Diversity Reading Challenge, making my yearly total two.

- The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet

- The Sisters Of The Winter Wood *This fit the mini challenges theme: Diverse folktales/ culture/ mythology OR diverse retelling OR non western setting)*

And here is my updated Bookish Bingo card: