Reading round up (57)

Reading round up is a weekly journal where I record my daily reading progress, my thoughts on each book as I read it, and any books I've acquired during the week.

15th December

I desperately want to finish A Great and Terrible Beauty. It feels like I've spent a whole week reading it! AND I FINISHED IT!!! Huzzah! A whole 198 pages!

16th December

Currently Reading: The Jewel | Amy Ewing

Current page/percent: 14%

Read today: 4%

Thoughts: Either I've not invested enough time in this or it's really not for me. I'm finding it hard to actually get into the rhythm of reading.

17th December

The Jewel is long and slow and not for me. It took me 2 hours to read 5%. DNF at 20%. I started Illusionarium (5%, read in half an hour, my actual rate of reading) and it's pretty great so far.

18th December

Currently Reading: Illusionarium | Heather Dixon

Current page/percent: 27%

Read today: 22%

Thoughts: Okay now I see why everyone loves Heather Dixon.

19th December

Currently Reading: Illusionarium | Heather Dixon

Current page/percent: 58%

Read today: 31%

Thoughts: I HAVE AN OTP!! Sadly, it's a M/M OTP in a world of heteros.

20th December

Finished Illusionarium (42%) and it was crazy cool. Alternative London, fanciful illusions, dashing heroes!

21st December

I started Talon by Julie Kagawa and read 20%. I'm liking it a fair bit so far and I actually like one of the love interests!!!! (the person I shipping with Kagawa's last MC was her brother so ... yay less awkward times in this series!)

Books finished this week: 2.5

Nightbird | Alice Hoffman

Talon | Julie Kagawa

Got these from Netgalley for review! I am really excited for Talon (Kagawa, God bless!) and Nightbird sounds pretty awesome too. Thanks to Simon & Schuster UK and Mira Ink.

A Great and Terrible Beauty

The Jewel

Illusionarium (scheduled for May 13th 2015)

The Jewel (DNF mini review)

The Lone City: The Jewel | Amy Ewing

Published by: HarperTeen, September 2nd 2014

Genre: YA, Fantasy?, Dystopia? (Not honestly certain)

Pages: 358

Format: Ebook

Source: HarperTeen, via Edelweiss

The Jewel means wealth. The Jewel means beauty. The Jewel means royalty. But for girls like Violet, the Jewel means servitude. Not just any kind of servitude. Violet, born and raised in the Marsh, has been trained as a surrogate for the royalty—because in the Jewel the only thing more important than opulence is offspring.

Purchased at the surrogacy auction by the Duchess of the Lake and greeted with a slap to the face, Violet (now known only as #197) quickly learns of the brutal truths that lie beneath the Jewel’s glittering facade: the cruelty, backstabbing, and hidden violence that have become the royal way of life.

Violet must accept the ugly realities of her existence... and try to stay alive. But then a forbidden romance erupts between Violet and a handsome gentleman hired as a companion to the Duchess’s petulant niece. Though his presence makes life in the Jewel a bit brighter, the consequences of their illicit relationship will cost them both more than they bargained for.

From the get go, The Jewel and I weren't really well matched. It seemed to take an entire day to read just 10% of it, and it was slower and longer from there on. Maybe all I read was the build up and I should have given it a bigger chance to get started, but nothing about it gripped me in the first 70 pages and a lot of it made me frustrated and fed up. 

DNF at 20%