The Friday 56 (With Book Beginnings): Spellslinger (Spellslinger #1) by Sebastien de Castell + 50/50 Friday

On Friday's I take part in three weekly link ups - The Friday 56, hosted by Freda's Voice, Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader, and 50/50 Friday is a new weekly link up and it is hosted by Carrie @ The Butterfly Reader and Laura @ Blue Eye Books. For The Friday 56, you choose a book, a book you have just finished, a book you are about to start, your current read, and share a line or a few lines that grab you (but don't spoil anything) from page 56 or 56% of the way through the ebook. Post it and share your post's url on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post. As for Book Beginnings, you share the first sentence or so and your initial thoughts, impressions, or whatever else it inspires, and then link up your post's url with Rose City Reader. Then, for 50/50 Friday, every week there's a new topic featuring two sides of the same coin - you share a book that suits each category and link up on the hosts blogs.

Happy Friday everyone!  This week I'm spotlighting one of my current reads, Spellslinger (Spellslinger #1) by Sebastien de Castell, which is one of my 2020 Popsugar Reading Challenge books.  I've had this on my tbr for years and I'm glad I'm finally getting around to it because it's pretty fantastic so far.

Beginning:

The old spellmasters like to say that magic has a taste.

56:

My father walked back to the door, picked up the card I'd hit him with and then slowly collecteed the others and placed the deck on the table.

50/50 Friday: Favorite/Least Favorite Review You've Written

Favorite - Vicious (Vicious #1) by V.E. Schwab - Still hands down one of my favorite books and favorite reviews!

Least - Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick - You know, sometimes I like going on a good rant, but reading this review even though somewhat entertaining still brings back memories.


What are you reading this week?  Have you read any of these books?  As always, thanks for visiting my blog and perhaps even commenting down below!

Top Ten Tuesdays: Best Authors I Discovered In 2019

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Welcome to the Top Ten Tuesday now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.  This week's topic is Best Bookish Discoveries of 2019, but I'm narrowing that down to Best Authors I Discovered In 2019.  Without further ado, here we go (in alphabetical order by author name):

Virginia Boecker

S.A. Chakraborty

Mike Chen

Jennifer Estep

Theodora Goss

Alix E. Harrow

Fonda Lee

Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Rebecca Roanhorse

Dan Stout


Who are some of your favorite new-to-you authors you read last year?  As always, thanks for visiting my blog and perhaps even commenting down below!

Music Monday: Star Wars, A Bad Lip Reading

Happy Monday everyone and welcome back to Music Monday! Let's share some songs we've been enjoying lately!  If you would like to play and I really hope you do, please see the rules and link up below.

Rules:

Every Monday share a few songs you've been enjoying lately.  It doesn't have to be a specific genre, new, or one of your favorites - just something you'd like to share with others.  If possible, share a music or lyric video of the song and your thoughts on the song(s), artist(s), and/or music video(s).

If you would like to participate in Music Monday, please join the link up by sharing your post's url.


Happy Monday everyone!  This week I'm spotlighting a couple of my favorite Star Wars Bad Lip Reading videos.  Check out "My Stick!" A Bad Lip Reading of The Last Jedi and "SEAGULLS! (Stop It Now)" A Bad Lip Reading of The Empire Strikes Back.  I'm pretty sure those seagulls are out to get Yoda!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

The Friday 56 (With Book Beginnings): Call Down the Hawk (The Dreamer Trilogy #1) by Maggie Stiefvater + 50/50 Friday

On Friday's I take part in three weekly link ups - The Friday 56, hosted by Freda's Voice, Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader, and 50/50 Friday is a new weekly link up and it is hosted by Carrie @ The Butterfly Reader and Laura @ Blue Eye Books. For The Friday 56, you choose a book, a book you have just finished, a book you are about to start, your current read, and share a line or a few lines that grab you (but don't spoil anything) from page 56 or 56% of the way through the ebook. Post it and share your post's url on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post. As for Book Beginnings, you share the first sentence or so and your initial thoughts, impressions, or whatever else it inspires, and then link up your post's url with Rose City Reader. Then, for 50/50 Friday, every week there's a new topic featuring two sides of the same coin - you share a book that suits each category and link up on the hosts blogs.

Happy Friday everyone!  This week I'm spotlighting one of my current reads Call Down the Hawk (The Dreamer Trilogy #1) by Maggie Stiefvater which is one of my Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge books (it will fulfill the task to read a book in a rural setting).  I'm so happy to have just started in on a new Stiefvater book.  Ronan quickly became my favorite from The Raven Cycle and I can't wait to see where his story goes.

Beginning: 

This is going to be a story about the Lynch brothers.  There were three of them, and if you didn't like one, try another, because the Lynch brother others found too sour or too sweet might just be to your taste.  The Lynch brothers, the orphans Lynch.  All of them had been made by dreams, one way or another.  They were handsome devils, down to the last one.

56:

"I don't know if you're real or a figment of my imagination," Ronan said.  "But I'm trying to work here."

50/50 Friday: Best/ Worst Read of 2019

Best - Storm of Locusts (The Sixth World #2) by Rebecca Roanhorse - I read a lot of great books in 2019, but I think this sequel takes the cake.  This series has been brilliant and it deserves more than five stars.  I can't wait to see what happens next. 

Worst - A Simple Favor by Darcey Bell - I'm not sure about the absolute worst, but this was easily one of the most disappointing.  I absolutely loved the neo-noir crime comedy movie adaptation with an awesome soundtrack, then I tried to read the book and ended up DNF'ing it at only 20% in.


What are you reading this weekend?  Have you read any of these books?  As always, thanks for visiting my blog and perhaps even commenting down below!

Top Ten Tuesday: Book Adaptations I Would Love To See

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Welcome to the Top Ten Tuesday now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.  This week's topic is Most Anticipated Book Releases for the First Half of 2020, but since I just recently shared my winter tbr featuring upcoming releases I'm doing something completely different.  I'm going to share books that I've read recently that I would love to see adapted into a movie or tv series.  Here we go, in alphabetical order by title:

An Assassins Guide to Love and Treason by Virginia Boecker - This was exactly the kind of historical fiction I love.  It's perfect for fans of Mackenzi Lee and A Knight's Tale.  It would be so much fun to see a film adaptation of this standalone.

The Girl With Ghost Eyes (The Daoshi Chronicles #1) by M.H. Boroson - This series is essentially Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, Spirited Away, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, so I have a feeling you can see why I'd like to spend more time with these characters on the big screen.

Jade City (The Green Bone Saga #1) by Fonda Lee - I would die for my clan and I would kill for a long lasting Netflix adaptation of this. I need to see the world of Kekon!

Kill the Queen (Crown of Shards #1) by Jennifer Estep - Move over Game of Thrones!

Night Terrors (Shadow Watch #1) by Tim Waggoner - This is basically Supernatural meets Men in Black and it was so much fun.  I wouldn't say know to a Netflix series adaptation this series.

The Spectral City (The Spectral City #1) by Leanna Renee Hieber - I've loved the first two books in this historical fantasy series and it would be so cool to see it get a Netflix adaptation.  Just think it's set 1899 features ghosts, mediums, and psychics as well as the police procedural aspect - even young Theodore Roosevelt appears in the series!

Strange Practice (Dr. Greta Helsing #1) by Vivian Shaw - I just finished this series and it was a marvelous gothic urban fantasy featuring that a present day descendant of that Helsing and her work as a highly specialized doctor to supernatural creatures.  Basically, I just need to see more of these characters.

A Study in Scarlet Women (Lady Sherlock #1) by Sherry Thomas - I'm a sucker for anything Holmesian and I think as a tv series this could rival my love of Jeremy Brett's take on the classic detective.

Trail of Lighting (The Sixth World #1) by Rebecca Roanhorse - This post-apocalyptic urban fantasy series is fabulous.  I need at least a five season tv show stat!

Westside by W.M. Akers - I loved this author's brand of alternate 1921 in this debut fantasy with a strong mystery.  I really enjoyed all the little details as well.  I think this could be made into a great movie with the right cast and crew behind it.


Have you read any of these books?  What books would you like to see adapted on the big or small screen?  As always, thanks for visiting my blog or perhaps even commenting down below!

Music Monday: The Witcher (2019)

Happy Monday everyone and welcome back to Music Monday! Let's share some songs we've been enjoying lately!  If you would like to play and I really hope you do, please see the rules and link up below.

Rules:

Every Monday share a few songs you've been enjoying lately.  It doesn't have to be a specific genre, new, or one of your favorites - just something you'd like to share with others.  If possible, share a music or lyric video of the song and your thoughts on the song(s), artist(s), and/or music video(s).

If you would like to participate in Music Monday, please join the link up by sharing your post's url.


Happy Monday and welcome to the first Monday of 2020!  This week I'm spotlighting a couple of my favorite songs from the first season of Netflix's The Witcher (2019).  I finished the season just after Christmas and it was a pretty great series.  I didn't really know much about it aside from the trailers from Netflix, but it looked really cool especially this one.  Is it just me or should Henry Cavill get into the audiobook game?  He'd have a great voice for it!  I'm glad I took a chance on it because it really delivered.  Henry Cavill gives one of his best performances and my favorite aside from Napoleon Solo in The Man from U.N.C.L.E.  One of these days I hope they'll make a sequel to that movie, now that would be fun.  Anyway, I became really invested and attached to the characters we got to spend eight episodes with in this new series and I can't recommend it enough.  I plan on devour the book series it's based on before the second season is released sometime in 2021, and I might even try the video games while I'm at it.  Anyway, the songs I'm sharing below are "Toss a Coin to Your Witcher" performed by Jaskier (Joey Batey) and "The Song of the White Wolf" performed by Declan de Barra during the end credits of the season finale.  Toss a Coin to Your Witcher is incredibly catchy and Geralt's (Cavill) reaction to it is priceless when he hears it.  Of all of the characters, I enjoyed watching Geralt and Jaskier share the screen.  I'd go so far as to say that they have an almost Shrek and Donkey dynamic going on - where Geralt is Shrek and Jaskier is Donkey - and it totally works.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Mini ARC Reviews - Blood Countess, The God Game, Scavenge the Stars, & The Vanished Birds

Today I'm sharing four mini ARC reviews with you: Blood Countess by Lana Popovic (available January 28, 2020), The God Game by Danny Tobey (available January 7, 2020), Scavenge the Stars (Scavenge the Stars #1) by Tara Sim (available January 7, 2020), and The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez (available January14, 2020).  I received all of these ARCs from NetGalley in exchange for honest reviews.  Read on to see my thoughts on them:

❋ ❋ ❋

Blood Countess by Lana Popovic is a YA horror novel about Elizabeth Bathory, aka history's Blood Countess. Honestly, that's entirely what sold me. I was really into the first perhaps fifty percent of the novel, especially as we meet and follow Anna's journey - and yes, she does some awful things to get what she wants. The second half though became quite boring. I suppose I was expecting more in terms of horror, blood, and guts than we ended up getting considering that Elizabeth Bathory was a real life mass murderer and probably an inspiration for Dracula along with Vlad the Impaler. Either way, the story is probably not best for the squeamish.

My review can also be found on Goodreads.

❋ ❋ ❋

The God Game by Danny Tobey was one of my most highly anticipated January releases. While it didn't quite deliver to my expectations, it was still a good entertaining story with short chapters which keep the story moving right along. I liked getting to see just how far the developments of AI have come as well, but the rules of the world aren't quite clear enough for me as a whole. The author's brand of horror in terms of the AI worked for me (even though I've seen far too many horror movies to fall for a lot of the schemes). I think my primary issue was with the cast of characters. I wasn't all that interested in them at any point in the novel, but I was quite interested in figuring out the end game. You know when the G.O.D. Game straight up tells you that it thinks "killing feels good" right from the outset that that would be a big, old red flag. If you enjoyed Nerve, I have a feeling you may also like this novel.

My review can also be found on Goodreads.

❋ ❋ ❋

Scavenge the Stars by Tara Sim is the first of a new YA fantasy duology genderbent retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo. That's one of my favorite classics, so I was quite intrigued by what Sim would do with this retelling. It never quite managed to live up to my high expectations though. What I did like was getting to know our diverse cast, Amaya (aka Silverfish) and Cayo. Everyone is really well drawn and they all feel like they could practically right off the page. And, that's really saying something because there are a lot of characters popping up here and there. My main issue with this novel is the flat world-building. The world the characters inhabit is big place and we hear of them on and off, but we never get a real sense of them and how they operate. There's just so much more I would have liked to know about Moray, and the various empires and republics, and I'm sure that information could have further improved the story. Even though this novel wasn't as impressive as I was hoping for, I still want to continue this duology in the as yet untitled sequel.

My review can also be found on Goodreads.

❋ ❋ ❋

The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez has so much potential, but it just never quite lived up to all of it for me. There were parts that I quite loved, but others that just seemed to stick out like a sore thumb. There are also moments where it goes from moving right along to dragging as slowly as possible. The language though is certainly beautiful overall and the story as a whole offers much to think about. While this wasn't quite what I was expecting, I can still say for sure that I will be keeping an eye on Jimenez's future works.

My review can also be found on Goodreads.


Have you read any of these books or do you plan on giving them a try?  As always, thanks for visiting my blog and perhaps even commenting down below!