I'm still working towards my goal of 100 books in 2015 on Goodreads...I think I'm at 75ish now, so I'm a few "behind schedule", but still hopeful!!
It's been awhile since I linked up with Steph and Jana for Show Us Your Books, and today is the one year anniversary of the link up! I love following along with this link up because I always find a few great recommendations to add to Goodreads and maybe even find a new blogger or two to follow.
Looking back on the last month or so, I read a lot of YA novels that are "easier" to read. I have some more adult things coming up soon though to balance that out ;) Here's what I read in September up until today in October - so this is over about 6 weeks instead of a month...(thank goodness Goodreads keeps track for me):
This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen (3.5/5) This was a cute YA read and I enjoyed it for what it was. I will probably try some more Sarah Dessen sometime later in the fall or next year.
Perfect Fifths by Megan McCafferty (4/5) Great ending to this series. I was thrown off at first by the timeline compared to the other books, but I think it suited the final novel well.
The Royal We by Heather Cocks (5/5) I mentioned how much I loved this book before and I'm not ashamed of it. No, it is not literature in the same caliber as Great Expectations, but I loved the take one what it could be to be like Will and Kate (or anyone else in that spotlight).
The Princess Diaries/Princess in the Spotlight/Princess in Love by Meg Cabot (3.5ish/5)...these were quick reads, and I enjoyed them, but eventually I was just kind of finished with the series and I might pick it up again another time. Humorous writing but I needed to read something more adult-ish.
The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith - (3/5) - I read this one pretty quickly, but was a bit frustrated with the ending and it seems like a book that I'll forget
The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay - (5/5) I've mentioned before that I loved this book. It was a captivating read and I know a lot of others loved it too. Would definitely recommend it if you're into YA at all.
Me & Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter - (3/5) this book was OK, but I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. I found it difficult to finish, actually.
Fairest by Marissa Meyer - (3/5) I listened to most of this on audiobook. While I appreciated the unique perspective of this book, I still found it annoying and was a bit outraged at the evil Levana, even though I was interested to learn more information about her sister...this book did serve to increase my excitement about Winter in November though!!
Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson (5/5) - One of my best books of the year. I loved it and I think I will buy a copy so I can re-read it. It was a great story and I loved the writing style too. I'd absolutely recommend it if you are a fan of Regency novels or Jane Austen. I read that the author was inspired by Georgette Heyer (and Jane Austen) and I haven't read any of her books yet but put some on hold at the library!!
My True Love Gave to Me (various authors - edited by Stephanie Perkins) (3/5)- I was planning to read this one closer to Christmas, but the ebook became available at the library for me so I read it this month. I loved some of the stories, and didn't enjoy others, but that's how it often works with anthologies. Still some good reads! Here's my review.
The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg (4/5) - I used to love the Stephanie Plum books but I quit them when they got to about 10 or so... this was written in a similar way, but I liked the characters and story line a lot more. I think I will definitely read a few more in this series.
Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple (4/5) I listened to this on audiobook too, and while I enjoyed it overall, I did find some parts of it annoying. Once I got closer to the end, I was much more inrigued by how it would end and I felt like it wrapped up well. It's definitely not a book for everyone though, and I don't think I'd read it again. Some of the characters were just a bit too much for me.
Carry On by Rainbow Rowell (4/5) - this book isn't for everyone either, but I liked how it paralleled Harry Potter and expanded on the fanfiction the story from Fangirl. I have enjoyed most of Rowell's books, and this one kept me up all night reading it on the weekend.The story, while similar to Harry Potter, is its own as well, and I appreciated it for what it was.
Brown Eyed Girl by Lisa Kleypas (3/5) - Picked this up at the library in the "rapid reads" section and enjoyed all of its fluffiness over the holiday weekend. Apparently it's the 4th in the series. It reminded me a bit of Nora Roberts' Bride series and I liked that about it. Not overly memorable, but a cute read nonetheless.
The TL;DR Edition of this post: I highly recommend The Royal We if you're a fan of the younger monarchy, Edenbrooke if you like Regency novels, and Carry On if you like Harry Potter or Fangirl. If you don't like any of those types of books, give The Heist a try if you're into light-hearted mysteryish novels. :)
Right now I'm reading A Thousand Nights and intrigued so far! It's such a pretty book, too!!
Head over to Steph and Jana's blogs to see the link up and find out what other bloggers have been reading this month!! They also have a giveaway going on today since it's the anniversary of the link up!
Perfect Fifths by Megan McCafferty (4/5) Great ending to this series. I was thrown off at first by the timeline compared to the other books, but I think it suited the final novel well.
The Royal We by Heather Cocks (5/5) I mentioned how much I loved this book before and I'm not ashamed of it. No, it is not literature in the same caliber as Great Expectations, but I loved the take one what it could be to be like Will and Kate (or anyone else in that spotlight).
The Princess Diaries/Princess in the Spotlight/Princess in Love by Meg Cabot (3.5ish/5)...these were quick reads, and I enjoyed them, but eventually I was just kind of finished with the series and I might pick it up again another time. Humorous writing but I needed to read something more adult-ish.
The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith - (3/5) - I read this one pretty quickly, but was a bit frustrated with the ending and it seems like a book that I'll forget
The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay - (5/5) I've mentioned before that I loved this book. It was a captivating read and I know a lot of others loved it too. Would definitely recommend it if you're into YA at all.
Me & Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter - (3/5) this book was OK, but I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. I found it difficult to finish, actually.
Fairest by Marissa Meyer - (3/5) I listened to most of this on audiobook. While I appreciated the unique perspective of this book, I still found it annoying and was a bit outraged at the evil Levana, even though I was interested to learn more information about her sister...this book did serve to increase my excitement about Winter in November though!!
Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson (5/5) - One of my best books of the year. I loved it and I think I will buy a copy so I can re-read it. It was a great story and I loved the writing style too. I'd absolutely recommend it if you are a fan of Regency novels or Jane Austen. I read that the author was inspired by Georgette Heyer (and Jane Austen) and I haven't read any of her books yet but put some on hold at the library!!
My True Love Gave to Me (various authors - edited by Stephanie Perkins) (3/5)- I was planning to read this one closer to Christmas, but the ebook became available at the library for me so I read it this month. I loved some of the stories, and didn't enjoy others, but that's how it often works with anthologies. Still some good reads! Here's my review.
The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg (4/5) - I used to love the Stephanie Plum books but I quit them when they got to about 10 or so... this was written in a similar way, but I liked the characters and story line a lot more. I think I will definitely read a few more in this series.
Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple (4/5) I listened to this on audiobook too, and while I enjoyed it overall, I did find some parts of it annoying. Once I got closer to the end, I was much more inrigued by how it would end and I felt like it wrapped up well. It's definitely not a book for everyone though, and I don't think I'd read it again. Some of the characters were just a bit too much for me.
Carry On by Rainbow Rowell (4/5) - this book isn't for everyone either, but I liked how it paralleled Harry Potter and expanded on the fanfiction the story from Fangirl. I have enjoyed most of Rowell's books, and this one kept me up all night reading it on the weekend.The story, while similar to Harry Potter, is its own as well, and I appreciated it for what it was.
Brown Eyed Girl by Lisa Kleypas (3/5) - Picked this up at the library in the "rapid reads" section and enjoyed all of its fluffiness over the holiday weekend. Apparently it's the 4th in the series. It reminded me a bit of Nora Roberts' Bride series and I liked that about it. Not overly memorable, but a cute read nonetheless.
The TL;DR Edition of this post: I highly recommend The Royal We if you're a fan of the younger monarchy, Edenbrooke if you like Regency novels, and Carry On if you like Harry Potter or Fangirl. If you don't like any of those types of books, give The Heist a try if you're into light-hearted mysteryish novels. :)
Right now I'm reading A Thousand Nights and intrigued so far! It's such a pretty book, too!!
Head over to Steph and Jana's blogs to see the link up and find out what other bloggers have been reading this month!! They also have a giveaway going on today since it's the anniversary of the link up!
Omg, Fairest! When I started, I thought, "Oh, now we'll get to learn how she got the way she is and maybe sympathize a bit." And I really like that, especially in shows like Once Upon a Time, where no one is evil just because - they all got twisted at some point because of something. It's more realistic and it keeps the world from being so black and white. BUT you can't sympathize with Levana. Even after learning what her sister did to her, you still can't.
ReplyDeleteI read a fair bit of YA, too - nothing wrong with that!
I can't wait to read Carry On! I've been looking forward to that one for so long now. I'm definitely going to have to read The Royal We, everyone is saying it's great!
ReplyDeleteI should go back and finish the Megan McCafferty series. I think I only read one and two or one to three, I can't remember.
ReplyDeleteOH MY GOSH. You need to read The Grand Sophy. It's the only Georgette Heyer I have read (so far) but I flipping LOVED IT. If you like Jane Austen and Edenbrooke, then I would bet my life you will love The Grand Sophy. Like, I LOVED IT SO HARD.
ReplyDeleteOkay, stopping the caps. I was not in love with Fairest. I just want Winter! I looked the other day and it says it is like 800 pages, wtf?! I don't care though, I can't wait. I might even pre-order it in hardback. I hate hardbacks, but I really want it.
I was the same with my true love gave to me. Some of the stories were 5 stars, others were 1 stars-can-I-please-burn-this-book lol.
and you know I loved the royal we and the sea of tranquility. sigh! LOVE.
I love Rowell and have Carry On on my TBR list. Bernadette is on that list as well Sea of Tranquility so cant wait to get around to those!!! I keep hearing about Royal We, maybe I need to look in to it?
ReplyDeleteCarry On is on my TBR but I'm in no rush since the Simon Snow parts of Fangirl were my least favorite and I skipped over most of them. I loved Bernadette and a few of the others are already on my list.
ReplyDeleteSarah Dessen is one of my binge read authors for 2016.
I need to read Perfect Fifths! I read all the other books in that series.
ReplyDeleteAhhh Perfect Fifths!! I love, love, love the Jessica Darling series and loved every bit of it. Granted, I started reading the books roughly a million years ago and read them all as they came out. I actually did a re-read this year and they all still hold up perfectly.
ReplyDeleteI have The Sea of Tranquility on my list and Kindle and ready to go—just waiting for the right mood to cry :)
Sea of Tranquility was so good. I keep seeing the Royal We I'll have to check it out!
ReplyDeleteI loved Sea of Tranquility which I recently read. I have This Lullaby sitting on my bookshelf to be read. I've heard so many good things about The Royal We. I wasn't a big fan of Where'd You Go Bernadette. I didn't realize Rowell had a new book out. Fangirl was one of my least favorites of hers, so not sure I'll be into Carry On. The Geography of You and Me has been on my to read list for awhile now.
ReplyDelete75 books is a great accomplishment! Way to go. Sounds like you've read some interesting books as well. I'm looking forward to reading Royal We. It looks good.
ReplyDeleteI just commented on another blogger's post that I like to step up of my comfort zone and read something I wouldn't normally read. I think I'm going to do that with The Royal We. Everyone that reads it seems to really enjoy it. I read The Sea of Tranquility this month. It was one of those books I'd heard so much about, and I thought it deserved all the praise it was receiving.
ReplyDeleteSea of Tranquility has been on my TBR list for a while. I'm excited to get to it in the next few months.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to like the Jessica Darling series, but I finished the 2nd book and stopped for other books because I just wasn't into her. She was whiny and maybe I would have liked the series more if I had read it in high school.
I've really enjoyed Dessen's book, so I'm looking forward to getting into more since they are on my Kindle already.
Look at all of those books. I'm in a different league currently. I'm reading the Fifty Shades of Gray fourth book- Gray. Yup.. I'm a perv. You look great by the way. That is all I have to give.. ;)
ReplyDeleteYou are doing awesome! I have so many of these books on my TBR list! Sea of Tranquility, The Royal We, Carry On. I also really loved the Jessica Darling series!
ReplyDeleteSo many fabulous books!!!! I really love Sarah Dessen. She seems to have really perfected the perfect teen novel. Although, there are a handful that I didn't super love. The Jessica Darling series started to lose me somewhere in the third book. I just didn't love it by the end. I too loved The Royal We. I may or may not have spent time wondering what it would be like to study abroad and have the prince fall in love with me. It was basically a daydream come to life! I was obsessed with The Princess Diaries way back when and never finished the series. I keep thinking that I should go back and finish it, but am afraid that I'm just too old at this point. The Sea of Tranquility is such a fantastic book. I read it years ago and still find myself thinking about it. I really wish Millay would write something else! I'm pretty behind on the Lunar Chronicles, but I loved the first two books. I'm a sucker for fairy tales and love how Meyer weaves in so many. Edenbrooke! That was one of those books that I found myself sighing and squealing over, like a little school girl. haha
ReplyDeleteMy least favorite part of Fangirl was the Fan Fic, so I'm really hesitant to read Carry On.
Edenbrooke is the BEST! I loooooved it. I read it for the Literary Ladies Summer Reading Challenge. So cute, I need to read Blackmoore though I've heard it's not quite as good. :) I really want to read The Royal We, and I am definitely looking into most of the rest of these on goodreads now! :) XO -Alexandra
ReplyDeleteSimply Alexandra: My Favorite Things