Always Me

Happy Thursday, everyone!  Today, I'm sharing mini reviews of five recent favorite fantasy reads: Caraval ( Caraval #1) by Stephanie Garber , Half Lost  ( The Half Bad Trilogy #3) by Sally Green , The Midnight Star ( The Young Elites  #3) by Marie Lu , The Gauntlet by Karuna Riazi , and Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman .  I've been really lucky to have found such wonderful stories and had the opportunity to read them nearly back to back.  Read on for my mini reviews: ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋  Caraval by Stephanie Garber is quite an impressive YA debut! The hype for this novel is sky high, and while I enjoyed this 2017 debut it didn't fully live up to all of the hype in my mind. That being said I was absolutely hooked on Garber's writing style and the world of the Caraval. I loved the dark twists and turns, the magic, and the mystery at the heart of the story, although I will admit that I was expecting a bit more of a carnival story than ho...

Happy Tuesday and welcome back to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish !  This week's topic is a Mother's Day Related Freebie, so I have a some free reign again this week - yay!  I'm going to do something a different route and feature the Worst Moms From Books, Movies, and TV (some of which cross over due to adaptations).  Here we go, in alphabetical order by title: Fiona from American Horror Story: Coven Lucille Bluth from Arrested Development Margaret White from Carrie by Stephen King Linh Adri from Cinder by Marissa Meyer Other Mother from  Coraline  by Neil Gaiman Olivia Foxworth   from Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews Cersei Lannister from A Game of Thrones  by George R.R. Martin Mrs. Zinnia Wormwood from Matlida by Roald Dahl Mrs. George from Mean Girls Norma Bates from Psycho  Have you read or watched any of my picks?  As always, th...

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. This week I'm spotlighting Riders in the Sky , the Cowboy and Western band.  You may not recognize them, but I have a feeling you've heard their music, especially if you like Pixar movies.  They provided the music for Woody's Roundup in Toy Story 2 (1999) (in the video below they also play "You've Got A Friend In Me") and ...

Happy Mother's Day everyone!  Unfortunately, I won't be able to celebrate as much as I'd like to with my family this year as I drew the short straw and have to work.  I can't say I'm surprised though... Oh, well.  As usual, the last couple of week's have been pretty crazy - I've had so much to do.   In bookish news, this past week I've finished up three books - It's Not Like It's A Secret by Misa Sugiura  (ARC won from Epic Reads), Into the Water  by Paula Hawkins , and  Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford .  Of the three, my favorite was easily Sugiura's debut - if you like Becky Albertalli, David Levithan, and Rainbow Rowell, I bet you'll love this novel. On Thursday, I received in the mail my first hardcopy read for review from author, James Morris , for his new release   Feel Me Fall .  I've read two of his earlier novels, What Lies Within and Melophobia , both of which I read for review ...

Welcome to The Friday 56, a weekly meme hosted by  Freda's Voice . These are the rules: 1. Grab a book, any book. 2. Turn to page 56, or 56% on your eReader. 3. Find any sentence (or a few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you. 4. Post it. 5. Add the URL to your post in the link on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post. I'm also taking part in Book Beginnings, a weekly meme hosted by  Rose City Reader .  The rules are pretty simple - you share the first sentence or so and your initial thoughts, impressions, or whatever else it inspires.  Don't forget to link up your post's url with Rose City Reader. This week I'm spotlighting one of my next reads, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford .  This novel isn't my usual pick, but a friend of mine let me borrow this one the other day - it's one of her favorites and she wanted me to give it a try.  I have to admit that the summary and these snippets sound quite enticing. ...

❋  ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ Jason Dessen, a college physics professor, gets abducted and when he comes to he finds himself strapped to a gurney surrounded by people in hazmat suits. People Jason's never met, but they have clearly met him, and they have a lot of questions for him - really weird questions. Jason is able to piece together that whatever world he's woken up in is not his world. For starters, Jason's wife isn't his wife and his son was never born. In this world, Jason just isn't some professor, but a highly celebrated scientific genius who's managed to do the impossible - he's made traveling the multiverse possible. Saying our Jason just hasn't completely broken with reality and that all of his memories are real, how in the world will he manage to make it home to his family? OH MY GOSH! I loved all of the what if scenarios the multiverse presents. I think I need a movie or tv adaptation of Blake Crouch's newest novel! I expect that this novel wi...

Happy Tuesday and welcome back to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish !  This week's topic is Things On My Reading Wishlist.  Basically, these are things I'd like to see more of in books.  I'll try not make this too similar to April 18th's post  of things that will instantly make me want to read a book, so here we go: Alternate history or historical fantasy rooted in the real world like  My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows   - Preferably with a good sense of humor! Book blogger leading characters - This was my favorite part of Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout . Characters in YA contemporary who love listening to big band swing or bluegrass music - These are two of my favorite music genres and I'd love to see them represented in contemporary (or historical fiction, if it's set in the 1930s - 1940s) YA a least a little bit.  The only contemporary I've read that featured ...