Seven Deadly Sins Tag

Kirsty tagged by in this seven deadly sins tag post!! Thus, I ramble!! I love questions.

1. Greed – What is your most inexpensive book?
So this afternoon I got Kinslayer by Jay Kristoff in hardcover. From the pound shop. Yes. A pound. That is my bargain for the month.

2. Wrath – What author do you have a love/hate relationship with?
Leigh Bardugo. I like her books, I like her characters, I like her world, but I just?????? I've read so many reviews about book three and I can't abide how she ended it. The convenient solve of the love triangle makes me mad (girl sacrificing great power and magic to be with a boy? GIVE ME A BREAK.)

3. Gluttony – What book have you devoured over and over with no shame?
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. My love.

4. Sloth – What book have you neglected reading due to laziness?
Last month I would have said Cinder, but I did actually read that. So I'll go with The Eternity Cure. It's sat right there on my immediate-tbr-shelf and I am just overlooking it.

5. Pride – What book do you most talk about in order to sound like an intellectual reader?
I don't read intellectual books ... I actually spend most of my life making myself aware of social issues and bullshit so I try to avoid books that are serious or intellectual. Maybe I would throw out some cosmology stuff, though.

6. Lust – What attributes do you find attractive in male or female characters?
I like tall people. If you're tall and either a) super cute or b) the meanest asshole ever, I will love you.

7. Envy – What book would you most like to receive as a gift?

Right now I'd love to get Everything Leads to You by Nina Lacour, since her essay on love made me cry at least twice.

I'm tagging (as per usual)

Stasia @ StasiaLikesCakes
Jen @ Maizeandbooks

aaaaaand that's it because everyone else I'd tag has gone on holiday. 

Reading round up (39)

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. Clean blog, messy reading schedule.

11th August

Finished Cinder (102 pages read) and I LOVE IT. I also started Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater (65 pages). I missed these assholes so goddamned much. Still hating LA though.

12th August

Currently reading: Sinner | Maggie Stiefvater

Current page/percent: page 185

Read today: 120 pages

Thoughts: I don't know if I like this or not. If it weren't for Maggie's writing and being long invested in the characters, I'd have bailed by now.

13th August

Being dumb I left Sinner in my living room, so I started reading Sworn to Transfer by Terah Edun (21%). It has a dragon in it. It's pretty cool (despite the odd grammar/spelling errors)

14th August

Went on with Sinner and I really do love it but I also don't. Read 165 pages. I've finished it and I don't care about it at all? That ending was rushed and just ... ?????

15th August

Currently reading: Sworn To Transfer

Current page/percent: 39%

Read today: 18%

Thoughts: I'm finding this really hard to get into and read at my normal pace. So far not enjoying as much as book one.

16th August

Terrible day. Didn't wanna read that much so I read a quarter of The Girl Who Kissed A Lie by Skylar Dorset (30 pages). It's alright. I'm fed up.

17th August

I've totally lost all motivation. Started Heir of Fire to balance out Sworn to Transfer since I think it'll take a while to get through this. I'm in a bit of a slump after Sinner and Cinder. Read 6% and my shitty mood is slightly perking up.

Books finished this week: 3

(Ughhh.)

I lost control and spent all my money in one night.

Praefatio | Georgia McBride

Blackfin Sky | Kat Ellis

I can't even explain these. I'm not sure I'll like them. I was having a bad day - I'm a stress shopper. The girl on the cover of Praefatio looks like Emilie De Ravin.

Accession | Terah Edun

Branded | Abi Ketner & Missy Kalicki

I loved Terah's Sworn To Raise, and I've been meaning to read more of her books. This one is, I think, about modern day witches? Also people keep talking about Branded. It sounds bullshit but whatever.

Breath of Frost | Alyxandra Harvey

This is only the second of these I think I'll like. And it was on sale so... Also the cover reminds me of Caroline Forbes for come reason. Precious vampire sweet. That's mostly why I bought it.

I also got a tonne of free iBooks including Dangerous Girls (Finally caved to peer pressure) and Grave Mercy (hella) but I'm too lazy to post them all here.

I'm still bugging you to donate to the campaign for printing and shipping of The Wandering. To persuade you, there are REWARDS! Donate a pound for your name in the acknowledgements. Donate £3 or more for extra cool stuff, bracelets, bookmarks, rare paperbacks etc. Help me give people more free books!!

Sinner (Review)

Wolves of Mercy Falls: Sinner | Maggie Stiefvater

Published by: Scholastic, July 3rd 2014

Genre: YA, Romance

Pages: 368

Format: Hardback

Source: Purchased

A standalone companion book to the internationally bestselling Shiver Trilogy. 

Sinner follows Cole St. Clair, a pivotal character from the #1 New York Times bestselling Shiver Trilogy. Everybody thinks they know Cole's story. Stardom. Addiction. Downfall. Disappearance. But only a few people know Cole's darkest secret -- his ability to shift into a wolf. One of these people is Isabel. At one point, they may have even loved each other. But that feels like a lifetime ago. Now Cole is back. Back in the spotlight. Back in the danger zone. Back in Isabel's life. Can this sinner be saved?

I didn't enjoy this book by anyone's stretch of imagination. I'd built Sinner up to be an amazing fix for the gaping hole of not knowing what happened to Cole and Isabel, and in a way it was but it also wasn't. It gave me the closure I craved, and I'm happy to know the end of their stories, but this was far from a Wolves of Mercy Falls novel - because it had no wolves in it.

I think the massive hiccup with this is that it was marketed, obviously, as a spin off of WOMF, but it's absolutely not. Sure it follows two of the Shiver characters, but it's not paranormal romance. It's straight up contemporary romance. Which, I'm sure you know, is not my deal. The first line, if cool and hooky, is a complete lie. Cole isn't a werewolf in LA, he's a guy with issues and problems and addictions in LA. If this book hadn't been written in Maggie's wondrous way I wouldn't have finished it, I'm sure. But it was, and it was real and raw and aching and I did love the love story ... but it felt severely lacking.

I kept waiting and waiting for the wolf part to become fully integrated in the story ... but it never was. There were a couple scenes where Cole became wolf but the emphasis was still on the realistic, the real life issues. And I didn't like it. I love Cole because he's damaged and needy for love, and I love Isabel because she's frosty and needy for love ... but I didn't love their story, not in Sinner, because of the gaping lack of wolf.

I'm kind of disappointed by Sinner, not gonna lie. I expected fireworks but I got a shitty handheld sprinkler. Not to say this book is shitty - it isn't. It made me cry so many times, and it broke and healed my heart ... but I didn't enjoy it. And I'm not sure fans of Shiver will enjoy it either. I loved it in parts, don't get me wrong, but I just ... meh.

I'm happy to have read it but I wouldn't read it again. Recommended for fans of realistic fiction and contemporary romance.

Characters ★★★☆☆

Setting/world building ★★☆☆☆

Writing Style ★★★★☆

---

(from published copy:)

I am a werewolf in LA.

Blitz: Hidden by M. Lathan (w/ giveaway!)

Hidden | M. Lathan

Published November 12th, 2012

Sixteen-year-old Leah Grant has given up on being normal. She’d settle for stopping the voices in her head, intrusive visions of the future, and better odds of making it to her seventeenth birthday.

That’s the thing about pretending to be human in a world where magic used to exist – at any moment, her cover could be blown and she’ll be burned to death like the rest of the witches.

Everything changes when she loses control of her powers and flees the orphanage she grew up in. She desperately wants to be invisible but finds her face plastered on every news channel as humans panic over the possible resurgence of her kind. And now the hunters won’t give up until they find her.

Making friends for the first time in her life and falling in love with one of them drives her to discover why she is unlike any being she’s ever met – human or otherwise. The dangerous powers inside of her that would repel Nathan, her new, handsome reason for living, are priceless to some. The locked up forever kind of priceless. And to others, they are too dangerous to allow her to live.

Let’s hope she can stay hidden.

 (free on Amazon)

About the Author

M. Lathan is a young adult fiction author. She lives in San Antonio with her husband and mini-schnauzer. She enjoys writing and has a B.S. in Psych and a Masters in Counseling. Her passion is a blend of her two interests – creating new worlds and stocking them with crazy people. She enjoys reading anything with interesting characters and writing in front of a window while asking rhetorical questions … like her idol Carrie Bradshaw.

http://mlathan.com/

Read on for an excerpt from Hidden!

Sienna snatched last week’s Chemistry test from my desk. I hadn’t turned it over. I knew it was a D minus.

She cackled and passed it around.

“Leah, you would think someone who spends most of her time alone would have better grades,” she said. Her birds laughed on cue. “What do you do all day? Obviously not study.” She gasped slowly like she’d gotten a revelation in that blonde head of hers. “You fantasize about us, don’t you? You probably sleep in Whit’s old bed to feel close to her.”

Laughter spread around the room like an airborne disease. Disease. I shivered. That was an intriguing thought; I could almost hear the sound their bodies would make against the floor when it hit.

“Leah, come on. Say something. Scream at me, it’s been a while. At least cry,” Sienna said, laughing and leaning into my desk, closer to danger.

I didn’t cry. I never cry. And if I were going to, it wouldn’t be because of Sienna. I had bigger problems. I’d just broken a promise I’d made to God to not think about hurting His people, His children. And today was not the day to piss Him off.

My old roommate, Whitney Nguyen, graciously returned my test as she cackled with the rest of the birds. She liked the idea of me pining over her, but she knew I didn’t spend my free time thinking about her or sleeping in her old bed. After fourteen years of hard labor as my roommate, she’d given up on being friends or me being remotely normal. The current theory to explain my oddness was that I was in love with all of the girls and consumed by lust.

As long as they didn’t know it was magic.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cinder (Review)

The Lunar Chronicles: Cinder | Marissa Meyer

Published by: Puffin, January 5th 2012

Genre: YA, Science Fiction

Pages: 387

Format: Paperback

Source: Bought

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. 

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

You know those books that everyone loves, and you reaaaaally want to love but aren't sure if you will? This was one of those books for me, and I am extra happy after the mediocrity of Wither and Shadow & Bone to say that Cinder lives up to the hype.

It's a retelling of Cinderella like none you've read before, and I'm thoroughly in love with it. It was a slow burn, and took a while for me to fully appreciate its complexities but once I was proper drawn into it, I was reading at a rate of knots and devouring every last word. Marissa Meyer is a master storyteller. I don't know how she managed to take a lifeless tale such as Cinderella and inject so much excitement and life into it. Cinderella isn't one of my favourite fairy tales, not by a long shot, but Cinder manages to be completely unrecognisable while still retaining the original tale.

Cinder(ella) is a mechanic, is tortured and brave and badass. A mechanic. A cyborg. And the crap she's had to endure from her adopted family is on the top side of extreme. I admired her a lot. I didn't love her, though, which held back the rating on this. I adore Kai, and really did like Cinder but I didn't love them together. Maybe this will change with the next books.

I did love the story, though, and the world, and the villain. I especially loved the politics. I need more books like this and I can't wait to get a hold of the next two books.

Characters ★★★☆☆

Setting/world building ★★★★☆

Writing Style ★★★☆☆