Shan

Book, books & more books.{Living the best Life}

Last month the unbelievable happened. (more…)

In a shocking turn of events: I didn’t complete my January TBR. 😱

Which for those of you who know me personally or from twitter isn’t that shocking. I never finish my monthly TBR lists. However I did come close this month. The only books I didn’t read were: The Young Elites by Marie Lu , Where am I now?& Legend Of Korra:Turf Wars part 2. The first two I started but couldn’t seem to enjoy. Mainly because I am a mood reader and I wasn’t in the mood for either of them. While LOK is a new addition to My February To buy list.

I did managed to read all the other books on my list and more. In January I read a total of 12 books. Five graphic novels and seven novels. All of them apart from, The Cruel Prince, were queer reads and I’m happy to say I enjoyed them. I didn’t DNF or rate any books lower than 3 stars last month and I call that a win.

Let’s talk about what I read.

( 🏳️‍🌈= queer read( LGBTQIA + main characters)

Good Book but I didn’t love it.★★★☆☆

Style by Chelsea M. Cameron.🏳️‍🌈 Style is a young adult contemporary novel featuring a high school romance between two girls. Stella who is a cheerleader and Kyle, her complete opposite. I really liked this novel and I felt both the girls where good main characters and worked well together. However I did find it a struggle to read just because of how dominant the romance is to the plot. The whole book was just romance without any subplots to keep me entertained for long. The writing was also hard to get into at the beginning. I liked it but didn’t love it.

Gothic Tales Of A Haunted Love.🏳️‍🌈 Gothic tales of haunted love is a diverse graphic novel featuring 16 stories of murder, love, loss and betrayal. Some stories were absolutely amazing. I liked how it featured many stories with POC MC’s &/or queer MC’s.However it was limited. Most of the stories were m/f romances and for a graphic novel with haunted in the title I can count on one hand the number of “horror” stories. It had good representation but wasn’t nearly as scary as I expected. Most stories were also way too short to rate; some less than five pages. However I did really like it and still reccomend.

I Loved these books. ★★★★☆

Young avengers vol 2🏳️‍🌈

Young avengers is a graphic novel featuring new young adult superheroes known as the young avengers as they try to defeat “mother”. An evil entity who feeds on superpowers and has brainwashed all the adults, including the actual avengers. It’s a super fun comic that features POC MC’s &/or queer characters. Also my favorite anti-hero: Loki. In this volume a new superhero joins the team, David aka Prodigy as the team chase down a villain who has Tom, Wiccan’s brother aka The silver surfer. This volume wasn’t as fun as volume one but still equally enjoyable. Also it broke my heart.

The Young Avengers volume 3.🏳️‍🌈

The story continues and concludes with the team finally facing “mother”. My heart was in my throat for most of this volume and I swear I nearly cried so many times. I really enjoyed it and I’m sad it’s finished, very interesting conclusion and I hope the writers decide to give us more volumes in the future.

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black. I really enjoy this novel. I think Holly Black really has a knack for pulling off creepy books with interesting characters. I will admit the only thing I didn’t enjoy about this was the “romance” because it wasn’t romance. It’s abuse and I hope it’s gone by the sequel or I won’t be reading book Number two.

The Abyss That Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie.🏳️‍🌈 There was a lot I really enjoyed about this book, I mean we had a badass villain, fascinating heroine, lesbian pirates and a giant sea monster with a heart. However my favorite thing of all: the wonderful slow burn f/f romance. However it was a little predictable which was why I rated four instead of five stars. I did really like it though. See me gush in my full review.

Far From You By Tess Sharpe.🏳️‍🌈 Far from you both ripped my heart to shreds and left me feeling hopeful. This novel had such strong characters. Sophie’s Arc was amazing. She’s one of the strongest heroines I’ve ever read about. Sophie tackles a drug addiction and grief head on throughout the novel all while searching for her best friends killer. The mystery aspect of the novel was a little underwhelming, however the character and relationships makes up for it. Full review up next week.

Down by Contact by Santino Hassell.🏳️‍🌈 Down by Contact is the second book in The Barons series. It features Simeon Bordeaux, quarterback from The New York Barons and Adrián Bravo, Linebreaker for The New Jersey Predators. It’s an adult queer sports romance that I adored. My full review.

The Edge Of The Abyss by Emily Skrutskie.🏳️‍🌈 – A great sequel and good conclusion to The Abyss That Surrounds Us. Like book one I loved it. I do wish we had of had more defiant answers near the end but I liked the open ending all the same. I’ll be without a doubt reading more books by Emily Skrutskie very soon.

These books blessed my soul. ★★★★★

Aboard by Liz Jacobs.🏳️‍🌈 Aboard is a new adult contemporary romance featuring three main characters. Dex, Nik & Izzy. This diverse coming of age novel is to die for and I can’t recommend it enough . Full Review next week.

Fence #3 by Johanna The Mad & C.S Pacat.🏳️‍🌈

Fence is a sports comic featuring many POC &/or queer main characters. It’s set in an all boys fencing school called Kings Rows and is told mostly from the POV of 16 year old Nicholas Cox as he works to make the schools fencing team, to compete in the national and also deals with rooming with fencing prodigy Seiji Katayama. Okay so that was my formal intro to what the comics are about.

Now for my informal intro– Please read fence because it’s amazing and the team are wonderful and I love all the main characters. Bobby is so precious! Aiden is an ass but I love him so much, Tanner & Kally are couple goals and Nicholas deserves the world. Don’t even get me started on my love for the coach because she’s badass and I love her a lot.

Rock & Riot by Chelsey Furedi. 🏳️‍🌈 This wecomic was so delightful. Picture this: Grease but better and everyone is queer. Just what I always wanted. I loved this so much. See my full review.

That concludes all the books I read in January.

Personally the month of January was very quiet for me so I didn’t do much however I passed an exam I needed to go back to college and I am over the moon. I’m currently still high on life( just life I swear!) and I’m ready to tackle February. This is a hard month for me normally but I have planned a lot of stuff to keep me busy.

I hope you’ve all had a great month. If you’ve read any of these books and want to chat fell free to message me.

See ya in the next post friends. 💕

Book– The Abyss That Surrounds Us. Author – Emily Skrutskie. Genre– Young adult, sci-fi. Published– February 8th 2016 by Flux. Rep: Lesbian MC, POC MC, POC side characters, f/f romance. Trigger warnings: Gore, On page murder, Violence, abduction. For Cassandra Leung, bossing around sea monsters is just the family business. She’s been a Reckoner trainer-in-training ever since she could walk,…

Book– Style Author– Chelsea M. Cameron. Genres– Young Adult, Contemporary Romance. Rep: Lesbian MC’s, F/F Romance. Trigger warnings: Internalized Homomisa. Kyle Blake likes plans. So far, they’re pretty simple: Finish her senior year of high school, head off to a good college, find a cute boyfriend, graduate, get a good job, get married, the whole heterosexual shebang. Nothing is going to stand…

Hello Everyone. ☺️👋 My friend Silvia has written a really important discussion about piracy and the issues involved. Silvia discusses everything brilliantly. I thought I’d share it here with you guys. I recommend everyone checking it out.

Book– The Cruel Prince. Author– Holly Black. Genre– Young Adult, Fantasy. Published– January the 2nd 2018 by Little Brown Books for Young Readers. Rep: Side Bisexual Character, Side queer characters, Side f/f romance. Trigger Warnings: Assault, Physical abuse, Mental abuse, grief, on page murder, extreme bullying, Child abuse, violence, suicide. Jude was seven years old when her parents were…

Last year I lied to myself and said I would re read some of my favourite books from 2016 & 2015. So that didn’t happen. Which leaves me with an even bigger list of re reads for 2018. This year will be different! My circumstances have changed and I now have a lot of reading time on my hands. Plus rereads now count towards your Goodreads challenge. Like they did last year but lets not talk about…

So this post will be a mix of both ‘A year in review’ & ‘The End of the year survey’ I like both ideas but I want to mix them up a little bit. Basically I’m going to talk about my bookish part of 2017. My favorite reads, biggest disappointments, that one author I met, fandoms I’ve joined and online bookish friends I’m thankful for.

Without further ado:

My favorite reads of 2017.

I will be the first to admit I had a great reading year in 2017. I read a grand total of : 128 books. This is the most I’ve ever read and I’m so proud.. 2017 was so much better than most years. I would have statistics but I didn’t actually keep any last year.( New goal for 2018) However I’d say about 70% of the books I read where queer and had queer main characters. About 60% where diverse reads and 20% where graphic novels. I only reread The Captive Prince Trilogy last year so re reads aren’t counted.

Above are all the books I rated four & five stars. They were all fantastic and of course I recommend them. If I had to pick my top five I’d say:

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman. The first YA I’ve ever read about friendship and to make it better the main character is a biracial bisexual women & her friend Aled is demisexual.

Six Of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. Let’s be real you’ve heard of this book!

The Captive Prince Trilogy. If you’ve read book one continue I swear it gets amazing! I’ve already re read twice.

The Raven Boys. I’m not even going to try explain this book. It’s amazing. Read it!

Fence, The Lumberjanes, How To Make A Wish. What? It’s one book I swear. 😁

Book I’m most thankful for: Radio Silence by Alice Oseman. It’s the first time in a long time I felt I related to the main character and her experiences but I also related to Aled. This book just had everything I’ve ever wanted in book. I should have a full review since I read it about two months ago but I’m terrible and don’t. I will soon though!

All month I’ve been asked what’s your favorite read and all month I couldn’t pick just one. Come on! I’ve read Fence & Captive Prince this year. How could I? I mean I picked five above. However if I did have to pick just one. Believe me it would kill me. But No holds bars I’d pick Radio Silence.

Biggest disappointments of 2017.

The award for the first book I ever gave one star goes to: Blue Is The Warmest Color. I know a lot of people loved this( which is completely fine because everyones opinions are different) but I hated it and you can see my review Here.

Two stars both to Timekeeper & The Uncrossing. I expected these books to be so much better than they were. You can check out my reviews for both Timekeeper  & The Uncrossing and see why I disliked them both if you’re curious. They sucked!

Okay so Warcross wasn’t exactly a disappointment. I mean I rated it 3.5 stars and 3 stars for me is good, I enjoyed it. This book was just so hyped up I expected something spectacular. Which wasn’t what I got. Also the romance was creepy.

Now let’s talk about Fingersmith. Which I now noticed isn’t included in the picture. The book I expected to love with all my heart. Victoria lesbians, thieves & adventure, what could possibly go wrong? EVERYTHING! This book was the biggest pile of crap ever. The plot moved at a snails pace and the characters were awful. The “twist” & “turns” were basically nonexistent. I managed about 214 pages before I said fuck it. I’m bitter because this book put me in a slump I’m still not out of.

All these books were rated 2 stars. Apart from One Dnf( Fingersmith), One Star( Blue Is The Warmest Color) & Warcross.

Let’s talk about that one author I met.

Maggie Stiefvater! I was so shocked when she said she was coming to Ireland because my favorite authors never come to Ireland. It’s like a bad omen. So of course I waited in line and got my copies of: The Dream Thieves, Blue Lilly, Lilly Blue & The Raven King signed. Unfortunately they’re signed Shammon apart from I think, The Dream Thieves, because I spelled my name wrong. As you do. I was nervous okay! On a sad note, V.E Schwab was also here but I seen the post too late and couldn’t make it. 😭

Other Bookish Stuff. 

Bookstagram.

For some unknown reason my bookstagram really blew up. I went from 180 followers in January to 637 which is amazing. I’ve never had that many followers in my life and the fact that people like & comment on my pictures is really wonderful.  I’ve made some great bookstagram friends and I’m enjoying being part of the community so much. I love sharing my favorite reads and doing book tags. 2017 has been so great on Instagram and I’m excited to see what 2018 brings!

ARCs.

So last year I started to request arcs on NetGalley, A Novel Take PR and even by emailing some publishers. However this year I think I’m going to tone it down. I was so excited by the thought of ARCS last year that I requested so many. Yes while being approved is wonderful being approved for ten in a row isn’t. Especially when you realize you’ve got to now read and review these ten books. It turns a hobbie into work you don’t want to do.  I liked getting ARCS. However when I’m forced to read something I won’t read it. Which is why I’ve decided to only request ARCs for my most anticipated releases and NOT to accept books from authors to review.

Bookish Friends. 

Due to Instagram & Twitter I made some great bookish friends in 2017. I won’t name them because I’m way to shy for that but if I talk to you a lot you know who you are. I’m so thankful for the friends I made and the fun I had.

To wrap up the bookish part of this post I just want to thank anyone reading this and all the bookish online friends I made in 2017! Chatting to people who love & obsess over the same books as you has really been an experience. I never had that before and I love you all. 💕

Let’s hope 2018 is just as fun!!

Book– Down By Contact Author– Santino Hassell Genre– Sports Adult Contemporary Romance. Rep: Gay MC, Queer characters, POC MC, Bisexual MC, Queer side characters, POC Side characters, m/m romance. Content warnings: Homomisa, Internalized Homomisa, Explict sexual content, F-Slur, Biomisa, Violence.  Two rival football players begin a game with higher stakes than the Super Bowl in this steamy…

Comic– Rock And Riot. Author– Chelsey Furedi. Genre– Historical Contemporary, Young Adult. Rep: POC MC’s, Lesbian MC, Bisexual MC, Transwomen MC, Non-Binary MC, F/F romances, M/M romances, f/enby romance, interracial romance. Trigger warnings: None. My Rating-–★★★★★  With all the fashion and quirks of the 50’s comes the vintage queer love story that you’ve never heard before. Rock and Riot…

January TBR- Maybe I’ll actually complete this one!

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Comic– Kim Reaper: Grim beginnings. Author– Sarah Graley Publication– March 18th 2018 by Oni Press. Genre– Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Rep-POC, F/F Romance, LGBTQIAP+ Main Characters, Interracial Romance. My Rating–★★★☆☆ Part-Time Grim Reaper. Full-Time Cutie Like most university students, Kim works a part-time job to make ends meet. Unlike most university students, Kim’s job is pretty cool: she’s…

It has come to my attention that a lot of the books I’m anticipating next year are being released in January. So with that said I decided to get of my lazy butt and write a post letting you all know what them books are. These are in no particular order as I’m excited for them all. (On a side note. 🏳️‍🌈 beside the book means it’s an LGBTQIAP+ read) (more…)

Ripped Pages by M.Hollis{ The Rapunzel retelling I didn’t know I needed.👭👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩}

Book– Ripped Pages. Author– M.Hollis Genre– Fantasy, retelling, LGBTQIAP+ Published– 22nd Of September 2017. Rep– Lesbian MC, f|f romance, side m|m romance, POC. Trigger warnings– Child abuse, Captivity. My Rating–★★★★☆ Princess Valentina lives a reasonably comfortable life, but after her mother’s death, her father gets tired of taking care of her and locks her in a tower. She spends years on her…

Book– Warcross Author– Marie Lu Genre– Sci-fi, Young Adult. Published – September 12th 2017 by G.P Putnam’s sons books for young readers. Rep– POC, Queer side characters, Japanese- British characters, Character in a wheelchair. My Rating–★★★1/2 For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life. The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the…

Book– Light Up The Dark Author– Suki Fleet Genre– Adult, Thriller/Mystery, LGBTQIAP + Published– 25th of December 2016 by Wildflowers. Rep– Gay MC, Non-Binary MC, M|M romance, f / enby  romance. Trigger warnings– Mental Abuse, Physical Abuse, Drug use, Alcohol use. My Rating– ★★★★1/2 For two years Nicky has wandered the dark empty corridors of the overgrown Thorn Hall, unseen and untouched,…

Book– Gemini Keeps Capricorn Author– Anyta Sunday Genre– NA, Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIAP+ Published– December 18th 2017 by Anyta Sunday. Rep– Gay MC, M|M Romance Trigger warning– Homophobic Parent. My Rating– –★★★★1/2 Sometimes, one stubborn Capricorn is all it takes… to drive Wesley Hidaka to crazy, flirtatious lengths. Wesley loves annoying his RA, Lloyd Reynolds. He just can’t help it.…