Top Ten Tuesday: Books Set in Snowy Places

It almost isn’t Tuesday anymore, but Happy Tuesday anyway! It’s been almost two months, but I’m back participating in this post!

Anyway, without further ado, let’s get started!

Winterspell by Claire Legrand
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawsett
Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber
A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
Snow Drowned by Jennifer D. Lyle
Otherworldly by F.T. Lukens
Echo North by Joanna Ruth Meyer
A Winter’s Promise by Christelle Dabos

Do you like books with a snowy setting? If so, what are your favorite ones? What kinds of books do you like to read during the early winter?

As always, thanks so much for reading, and I hope that you have an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Wish I Could Read Again for the First Time

It’s barely Tuesday anymore, but Happy Tuesday anyway! Two weeks in a row!

Anyway, without further ado, let’s get started! In no particular order, here comes my list!

Among the Beasts and Briars by Ashley Poston: One of my favorite books ever. A fantastic fall read – it had all the right vibes. It was one of the best things I read in 2020.
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab: Another one of my favorite books ever. I was so jittery with excitement when I was reading it. I actually read this one in the late fall as well, as well as 2020.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke: One of my newer favorite books – I read this last year in 2024. I loved the experience of reading it for the first time – the unique way it was written, the unreliable narrator, the clues for what’s actually going on laid out for the reader. It’s wonderful.
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness: I’m always singing the praises of Chaos Walking – I just love this trilogy. I first read this series way back in 2010.
The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima: I adore the Seven Realms Series, and I haven’t been shy about it. Honestly, I wish I could experience this series again for the first time, it was so good. One of the highlights of 2015 for me.
This Monstrous Thing by Mackenzi Lee: An awesome Frankenstein retelling. Another book I read in 2015.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: I’m just about positive that I read this in 2009. A great read.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: One of my favorite books ever, and one of my oldest ones at that. I read this in 2010. Such a classic.
The Other by Thomas Tryon: Another one of my oldest favorite novels. It’s pretty obscure nowadays, but no less great. I read it back in 2009.
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens: A classic that I was looking forward to reading for a long while by the time I actually read it. This was back in 2009, around Christmas. I used to love watching different adaptations of this book, and honestly I still like them, though I haven’t seen one in years.

What are your favorite books? Which books do you wish you could read for the first time?

As always, thanks so much for reading, and I hope that you have an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Top Ten Tuesday: Satisfying Book Series

Helloooo everyone! Happy Tuesday! It’s been awhile since I’ve participated in Top Ten Tuesday – there’s been a lot going on lately, outside of the blog – so I’ve been a bit iffy with my posts for the past few weeks. But I decided it’s been way too long since the last time I properly engaged with this post, so here I am again!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It celebrates lovely lists, wonderful books and the bookish community. This week’s topic is Satisfying Book Series. This one was surprisingly a bit difficult for me, as I haven’t really read – or at the very least finished – too many series in the last several years. So most of this list is gonna be YA, both because I still read it pretty often even as an adult, and also because I read about half of these series that I’m about to list as a teenager.

Anyway, without further ado, let’s get started! In no particular order, here are some of my favorite book series (when I read them, at least – some of them might not hold up for adult me, lol)!

The Seven Realms by Cinda Williams Chima: Definitely one of my favorite high fantasy series – absolutely of the best I’ve ever read. I also think it’s Chima’s best work personally, considering I ended up DNF-ing her other series before I could finish them, haha.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: And for this one, I mean the original trilogy – I haven’t gotten around to the standalone prequel novels yet! (It doesn’t help that I also see the prequel books as supplemental and sort of an ancillary part of the series, especially considering both came out over a decade later.) But I think that the original trilogy is a super solid set of three books; they’re some of the best written books I’ve ever read period.
Chaos Walking by Patrick Ness: I’m always gonna adore this trilogy. No crappy movie adaptation – of which I will never ever see but am unfortunately very aware of – can ruin it.
Emily Wilde Series by Heather Fawsett: This trilogy is just fantastic. It’s so well written and is such a wonderful and refreshing take on faerie stuff.
The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer: I love fairytale retellings and this series is the pinnacle of that, and with a bit of a sci-fi twist to boot. Admittedly, I haven’t gotten around to reading the prequel novella nor the book of short stories, but again, I see them as supplemental and ancillary to the original series. And the original quadrilogy is solid.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan: What can I say – I adored these books as a teenager. Technically, this series is ongoing again, but since these five books have their own overarching-but-self-contained story and the three new books that Riordan is writing have their own overarching-but-self-contained story, I kind of consider them to be two separate things, and supplementary and companion novels to the original five books. Even if they’re technically considered part of the same series. The new books have been solid so far, though – for once I’ve actually read them, lol.
Fablehaven by Brandon Mill: I loved this when I read it like fifteen years ago, and I loved its sequel series Dragonwatch when I read it over the last few years. This is a very engaging and well-written middle grade fantasy series.
The Summoner Series by Taran Matharu: Very solidly written trilogy. It’s not super unique in regards to high fantasy, but I still enjoyed it, and it does stand out a little compared to a lot of the stuff I usually see in the YA section. It’s also one of the few series I’ve actually read and finished in the last decade, so there’s that too. Once again, I have not yet read the prequel companion book, but we all know how I feel about those by now, so I’m not gonna repeat myself. I’m thinking about re-reading this trilogy, honestly, it’s coming up on the tenth anniversary for when I read the first book and I’m feeling nostalgic.
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas: For what it is, it’s fine. Is it the most well-written fantasy ever? No. Did it start a writing trend and genre that I hate but love making fun of? Yes. But I ate this entire series up when I read it (which was over several years, but I did read the first two books in the original years they first came out). And the original trilogy is decently solid, which is what I’m basing this list on. The novella and the Nesta book are technically supplemental.
The Darkest Powers by Kelley Armstrong: Some of her earlier work, and the only novels of hers that I’ve ever read. I liked these a lot as a teenager, even to the point of re-reading them once or twice. They’re very fast-paced, but the plot and characters aren’t sacrificed in order for the books to be that way, which is also great. I know that technically there’s another trilogy of Armstrong’s that falls under the Darkest Powers umbrella, but the two trilogies are still considered separate to a degree, so I’m going to consider them separate as well.

What are your favorite and most satisfying books series? Do you like or want to re-read them?

As always, thanks so much for reading, and I hope that you have an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Things to Cook With (Non-Bookish Freebie)

Hey everybody and Happy Tuesday! It’s been a couple of weeks, but I’m participating in Top Ten Tuesday again.

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It celebrates lovely lists, wonderful books and the bookish community. This week’s topic is Non-Bookish Freebie. Since it could be just about anything, it was a bit difficult for me at first, but I ultimately decided on Favorite Ingredients to Cook or Make Food With. I’m also defining “ingredient” very broadly here: as in anything used to make any kind of meal.

Anyway, without further ado, let’s get started! In no particular order, here are my ten favorite things to use whilst making food!

#1: Butter

Butter is fantastic. You can use it to grease pans, complement bread, as well as in cooking and baking.

#2: Brown Sugar

I didn’t know that brown sugar could be so versatile until recently. I used to mostly use it while baking, but I’ve discovered that it also has an excellent use in creating sauces or marinades.

#3: Onions

I add onions to a fairly decent amount of stuff that I cook. They just have a flavor that I love, and they complement most things very well.

#4: Tomatoes

Though I don’t use them nearly as often as onions, I still like how useful they can be. I mostly use the sauce or paste versions of them, but I also find small tomatoes to be excellent additions to salads and such.

#5: Cinnamon

I love cinnamon. Particularly in the fall, which is coming up. I’ve found that it’s mostly useful for baking or seasoning, but I also love how it’s a great scent for your house, too.

#6: Cream Cheese

Cream cheese is something else that I really love. I love putting it on bagels and bread, as well as dipping stuff into it. It’s also a great ingredient for baking – particularly cheesecake as well as some cookies.

#7: Eggs

You can put eggs in so many things. They’re great on their own, in whatever form you prefer to eat them, but they’re also great for baking.

#8: Milk

I love milk. It’s great for both baking and cooking, and the heavy cream version of it can be even better.

#9: Noodles

Noodles are awesome. I love using them in pastas, as well in stir fry.

#10: Bread

Bread is so useful. You can eat it on its own, or you can smooth stuff on it like butter and cream cheese. You can also toast it and add these things. It’s also crucial if you want a sandwich of any type.

Do you like to cook or bake? What are your favorite things to cook or bake with?

As always, thanks so much for reading, and I hope that you have an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I’d Like to Re-Read

Hey, wow, it’s been a hot minute since I’ve participated in this post. Almost three months. Geez. Anyway, Happy Tuesday!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It celebrates lovely lists, wonderful books and the bookish community. This week’s topic is Books Guaranteed to Put an End to Your Book Slump. But seeing as I am in the midst of my second reading slump this year I’m not really feeling this week’s post, so I decided to go rogue.

I’m going for an easy one since it’s my first time back with this post in a while, a TTT prompt from earlier in the summer: Books I’d Like to Re-Read. Specifically, books that you enjoy re-reading or books that you’d like to re-read again at some point. I’ve decided to split this between the two: so I’ll do five books I like re-reading and five books I’d like to re-read someday.

Anyway, without further ado, let’s get going!

Book Series and Novels That I’ve Read More Than Twice

I read basically all of these back when I was a teenager. I re-read stuff a lot more back then, not only because I had more time, but also because I unfortunately kind of feel out of the habit as an adult.

The Warrior Cats Series by Erin Hunter
The Caster Chronicles by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
The Other by Thomas Tryon
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Books Series and Novels That I’d Like to Re-Read in the Future

I’d like to get back into re-reading stuff again eventually. Because there are a decent amount of books and series that I would love to revisit again sometime. Here are five of them.

The Seven Realms Series by Cinda Williams Chima
The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
This Monstrous Thing by Mackenzi Lee
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Among the Beasts and Briars by Ashley Poston

What are your favorite books/series to re-read? What books/series would you like to re-read but haven’t yet?

As always, thanks so much for reading, and I hope that you have an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Top Ten Tuesday: Ways in Which My Blogging and Review Styles Have Changed

Hey there everyone! It’s been a couple of weeks since I last participated in Top Ten Tuesday!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It celebrates lovely lists, wonderful books and the bookish community. This week’s topic is Ways in Which My Blogging/Review Style Has Changed. By the looks of the prompt, I’m pretty sure you can either talk about how your blogging has changed, how you’ve changed how you write reviews, or both. So I’ve decided to go with both. I’m gonna try to go back and forth with my top ten list.

Anyway, without further ado, let’s get going!

#1: My Featured Image Graphics for Weekly Wrap-Ups

I used to do more colorful thumbnails/featured images for my Weekly Wrap-Up posts, and honestly, more colorful thumbnails/featured images in general. But after I came back from my break from doing Weekly Wrap-Ups, I decided to redesign my thumbnails/featured images for the post to match the coloration of my blog more. I also made it look… nicer I guess, and gave it a bit more elegant flair.

#2: My Featured Image Graphics for Book Reviews

I’ve also changed my thumbnail/featured image style for when I do book reviews. This one has actually gone through a few iterations, since I first started the blog about two and a half years ago. At first, I attempted to do catchy titles, but they were usually too long and didn’t work super well with SEO, so I put the catchy title in the thumbnail/featured image instead. I’d also put a close up of the book’s cover of the novel that I was reviewing in the background. Eventually though, I kind of got tired of this format and completely overhauled the whole thing, and my new thumbnail/featured image for book reviews matches the coloration of my blog, clearly states it’s a book review and mimics the font of the title on the book cover.

#3: The Original Posts That I’ve Created and Stuck With

I’ve created a few original posts on my blog, though I haven’t really stuck with them. Bewitching Book Covers was actually the first original post I created, and was formerly known as Tasteful Tuesdays, and before that, Majestic Mondays. The post focuses on book covers that I like, and it’s specifically where I gush about them and then attempt to analyze them. Then, I got tired of trying to commit the post to a specific day of the week, and renamed it so it wouldn’t be weird to post it on a specific day.

I have a couple of other posts that I’ve created since I’ve been blogging. One of these is Popular Books That I’ve Read Never: where I highlight books I’ve never read, don’t plan on reading and why I don’t think I’ll ever read them. Another post that I’ve created but haven’t stuck with was Reading & Recipes: a post where I go over a recipe to something I cooked or baked recently and also do an update about what I read the day I made that recipe.

#4: The Way I Organize the Content in My Book Reviews

This has changed quite a few times since I first started the blog. At first, I kind of spat out my entire review in one huge several-paragraphs-long chunk. Soon after that, though, I’d add a quote I enjoyed from the novel I was reviewing occasionally throughout in order to break up the review a bit.

Eventually, I started breaking up the review even more and I’d talk about specific things from the book – characters, plot, romance, writing – in a specific order complete with headings separating all these sections. At this time, I also started posting the quotes I liked at the end of the review, rather than spread throughout.

Now I’ve gone back to threading favored quotes throughout my reviews again, and unless the book review is longer or it’s a book series review, I tend to leave out the headings dividing the sections of stuff from the book that I discuss in my reviews (characters, plot, etc). Who knows, maybe I’ll go back to distributing headings to sections again eventually.

#5: The Frequency of Specific Posts

I used to try to do a post of all the weekly/monthly posts I created/participated in every week/month, but I’d burn out. So I decided it was far less stressful and much more sustainable to just do them when I felt like it. I also dropped a few posts.

#6: The Weekly/Monthly Posts I Participate In Have Changed a Little

As I just mentioned above, I had created several posts that I used to try to make regular and recurring. I’d do the same thing with every single weekly/monthly post I found and liked. But, as I also mentioned, it just wasn’t sustainable for me, so I had to pick and choose which ones I’d drop.

This wasn’t particularly hard for me to do or anything, as I just kind of naturally stopped doing posts I wasn’t as into. It’s just interesting to me which posts I’ve stuck with, which posts I haven’t and which posts have gone and come back later.

I used to do W.W.W. Wednesdays often, but when I brought Weekly Wrap-Ups back I felt it was redundant, so I stopped doing it. I tried both Spell the Month in Books for a while, before stopping Spell the Month in Books entirely. Something similar happened with Top Ten Tuesdays, as I paused it for a couple of months where I spent time considering whether I wanted to continue with it or not, ultimately deciding to keep with it. And of course Weekly Wrap-Ups left for almost a year before I brought them back. It’s just interesting to me what posts I’ve done throughout my years with this blog.

#7: The Way I Post About New Books Coming Out Soon That I’m Interested In

The format of this post hasn’t changed at all since I started it almost two years and four months ago, but the frequency of it has. I used to do this post quarterly and list and highlight books releasing in the next few months that interested me. But at the beginning of this year I decided to do this monthly instead. And so far, it’s been great – I’ve been loving it.

#8: How Much of My Life Outside Blogging and Reading I Share

I am, and always have been, a very private and introverted individual. This is especially true with how I treat my online persona; I’ve tried my best to obscure my name, age and gender and the names, ages and genders of my loved ones and aquainteinces. I’ve never been comfortable sharing about things in my “real life” beyond this blog and in regards to reading, both because I’m very private about things like that and she to paranoia.

But, in the last few months or so, I’ve decided to be a little bit – just a little bit! – more open about a few things I do outside the blog in my “real life” as well as share a few more of my interests beyond reading and books. I don’t think I’m ever gonna do more beyond this, though. I’m just too private and paranoid and the Internet is scary.

#9: I No Long Post or Reference Everything I Do On My Blog On Instagram

I used to do an Instagram – or Bookstagram – post for every post I did on this blog, save for Weekly Wrap-Ups I believe. Eventually, I started to think that it might be cluttered up my Instagram, so I decided to just do Bookstagram posts on my book reviews, book tags, book hauls, Monthly Reading Wrap-Ups and book pictures I’d take for Instagram posts specifically.

#10: I Generally Post Less Often Than I Used To

This is just something that I’ve noticed has happened. I used to post something almost every day for the first several months after starting this blog, but as the months wore on I started to get burnt out by this. Now, I try to do a Weekly Wrap-Up as well as three or four additional posts of any type every week, and try to give myself about two days off from blogging. Frequently, I end up posting less than this, however, and it kind of annoys me almost every time it happens. I wanna do four to five posts a week, dammit!

How has your blogging style changed if it’s changed at all? How has the way you do your reviews changed if it’s changed at all? What do you think might change about your blogging or review style in the future?

As always, thanks so much for reading, and I hope that you have an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with the Word “Thief” in the Title

Hi everybody! It’s pretty late at night here, but there’s still time for a Top Ten Tuesday!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It celebrates lovely lists, wonderful books and the bookish community. This week’s topic is Books with the Word “[Insert Word Here]” in the Title. Basically, just pick a word and then find ten books with the word you chose in the title. The word I chose – as you can already tell by the title of this post – is “Thief” (or its plural form), a word I see a lot in titles of books. (Can you tell that The Stardust Thief has been on my mind lately because of the sequel?)

So without further ado, here are ten novels with the word “Thief” in their titles!

The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch
Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick
The Thief Queen’s Daughter by Elizabeth Haydon
Thief’s Covenant by Ari Marmell
The Spirit Thief by Rachel Aaron

What word did you pick for your post? Which words have you noticed tend to be in book titles?

As always, thanks so much for reading, and I hope that you have an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Top Ten Tuesday: Unpopular Bookish Opinions

Hey everyone! Happy Tuesday! It’s been a few weeks since I participated in Top Ten Tuesday!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It celebrates lovely lists, wonderful books and the bookish community. This week’s topic is Unpopular Bookish Opinions. This is in regards to being a reader, a book reviewer or it can be about opinions you have on books that go against the grain.

Anyway, without further ado, let’s go!

#1: Relationships in Romance

I’m not into romance novels. I think most of them aren’t really realistically written to what relationships are actually like and what kind of people that people would actually dare/marry and actually have a successful relationship with. It’s just… ugh.

#2: Large Guys

This one is kind of similar to the first one, in that it’s very closely related to romance novels (as well as romantasy), but I’m so tired of huge guys. And I don’t mean guys with supernaturally large 🍆 – though that’s gotten annoying as well – but guys that are like mountains next to their love interest. I also garw it when they’re also described as being humongously tall, but then the author actually adds height descriptions in like inches or something, and the guy turns out to be like 8 inches taller than the girl or something. Then why are you describing him like he’s three feet taller than her or something!!!!

#3: Listening to Audiobooks

Now I’m not saying that I don’t consider using audiobooks as reading because that’s absolutely not true. Listening to audiobooks definitely counts as reading novels! What I’m talking about here is that I personally don’t care for listening to audiobooks. It kind of gives me a headache for whatever reason.

#4: Booktok

A lot of people seem to be obsessed with Booktok and it’s recommendations. Well I’m tired of the biggest recs from this platform being either not-very-well-written romantasy or dark romances. Like, I’m glad that people are reading, but I want to learn about other books that are my type! Come on!

#5: Organizing Bookshelves by Color

Now I think that bookshelves organized by color can be very pretty. I like seeing what some people’s look like when I’m on Instagram or YouTube or whatever. That said, it also tears me apart to see books from the same series separated in order to do this. I could never violate the series I own in such a way.

#6: Re-Binding Books

I hate this. I’ve seen people make some really nice looking covers on Instagram and stuff, but it feels like they’re mutilating the book and I can’t stand it.

#7: A New Cover Release Based on the Upcoming Adaptation (Movie or TV Series) of a Book/Series

I think this one is pretty self-explanatory. I hate movie covers – they always look terrible to me.

#8: When Authors/Publishers Release a New Cover for a Book or Series That is Less Than 10 Years Old

Let the books/series have at least a decade! It never seems like the books/series are old enough to justify a new cover, otherwise. It doesn’t help that I often find the original covers to be better.

#9: Romantasy Book Titles

The titles based off of A Court of Thorns and Roses and A Curse So Dark and Lonely are getting really old. Actually, they got old about five years ago. Recently, I saw a book with a title that was almost a mix between these two books specifically and it hit me then how much I despise this way of titling things. It’s not new and fresh anymore guys – it’s overused and annoying, and it’s certainly overstayed it’s welcome at this point.

#10: Most Blurbs/Book Descriptions on Books

And last – but certainly not least! – this. This is absolutely my biggest pet peeve when it comes to books. I actually love the idea of book descriptions in books to entice and attract the reader and get them pumped for reading books. But I’ve found so often nowadays that the blurb either outright lies or misconstrues things that happen in the book, OR the blurb is talking about and spoiling something that happens in like the second half of the book. The worst ones are the book descriptions that do both! Ugh!! I hate this so much! There’s just so many bad blurbs in books lately!

What are your unpopular bookish opinions? Are they about books and social media? Are they about what people tend to think or like or dislike about books?

As always, thanks so much for reading, and I hope that you have an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Did Not Finish

Happy Tuesday everybody! Also – yay! – double post!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It celebrates lovely lists, wonderful books and the bookish community. This week’s topic is Books I Did Not Finish. Like last week’s prompt, I feel it’s rather self-explanatory. Of course, I’ve chosen to DNF several books in my life – more than ten, definitely – so I’m going to pick the ten most recent ones.

Here we go!

Witchmark by C.L. Polk: This one… I dunno, I was intrigued by the premise, but I think I was just so distracted and stressed by my job at the time that I couldn’t get into it (I’m pretty sure it was the holiday season). I remember distinctly not being in the mood for reading at the time as well. (Attempted to Read: 2020)
The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins: So yeah, I know everyone loved this book, but I just couldn’t get into it. To be fair, I couldn’t get into Jane Eyre either and I know they have their differences, but… I dunno, I guess it’s not really my genre or whatever? (Attempted to Read: 2021)
Children of Ragnarok by Cinda Williams Chima: This one hurt. This was one of my anticipated reads of November 2022, and it just wasn’t doing it for me. I’m not even really sure what it was about it in particular; honestly, I think it was several different things. (Attempted to Read: 2022)
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree: I wanted to like this one. Actually, I wanted to love it. But it was waayyy too slow for me. I think I made it to around 16% before I threw in the towel. I was bored. (Attempted to Read: 2022)
The House Witch by Delemhach: I loved the premise for this one too… but the writing killed it got me. Like I loved the world and the characters, but this book needed an editor. It has a lot of potential though… (Attempted to Read: 2022)
Gods of the Wyrdwood by RJ Barker: Yet another one of the books on my anticipated reads list – this one for July 2023. I couldn’t even make it past the first couple chapters. This one just didn’t grab me at all. (Attempted to Read: 2023)
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson: I’d been wanting to get into The Stormlight Archive for a while, though I was extremely apprehensive about it because all the books are over a thousand pages long each. Annnd… I couldn’t get into it. I gave this book over two hundred pages, as well. I think I got so burned out from it, actually, that it put me in a reading slump. So yeah, it wasn’t for me. (Attempted to Read: 2023)
Stars and Smoke by Marie Lu: And a third representative from the anticipated reads list appears – this novel from the March 2023 list. I just… I dunno, I think I got a third of the way through this before the characters just irritated me too much. I’ve also found that as I get older, I can’t stand how Marie Lu writes hyper-intelligent characters. (Attempted to Read: 2024)
Ordinary Monsters by J.M. Miro: I dunno, I just couldn’t get into this one. I didn’t grab me at all, really. And I gave it over a hundred pages. I just don’t think it was for me, unfortunately. Dunno what it was about it, though. (Attempted to Read: 2024)
I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle: This one… I might actually go back to, eventually. Even though it was slower, I enjoyed a lot of what was going on here. But I made the unfortunate decision to start reading this a few days before Christmas, a holiday that – as much as I love it – always distracts and/or stresses me out. So maybe I’ll give this one another shot someday. For now, however, it will remain unfinished. (Attempted to Read: 2024)

What books have you DNF-ed recently? What are DNF-ed novels that bother you the most? Why do you typically DNF books?

As always, thanks so much for reading, and I hope that you have an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Top Ten Tuesday: Spring TBR

Whoops, it’s been a couple of weeks. Oh well, Happy Tuesday everybody!

I have a lot of books that I’ve acquired recently. Firstly, because the holiday season was just a few months ago and I got several books for Christmas. And also because I went to a book fair a few weeks before that where they were practically giving the books away, so I accumulated several there. So yeah, who knows which of everything I’m eventually going to end up reading, but several of these novels are on my TBR nonetheless.

So anyway, in no particular order (because I don’t really have a planned order of reading most of these), here are the books on my spring TBR!

Luminous by Silvia Park: I’m not sure when exactly I’ll read this, but I’m hoping in the next month or so. This one looked interesting to me.
The Keeper of Lonely Spirits by E.M. Anderson: I’m not super sure when I’ll read this one either, but I’d also like to read it in the next month.
The Bones Beneath My Skin by TJ Klune: I’d definitely like to get to this one sometime this spring.
A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallero: I’d actually been planning to read this one earlier this year in like January or February, but it didn’t happen. It’s also one of the books I got during the holidays. Now I’m not sure when I’ll get to it, but it’s still on my more immediate TBR, so…
House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas: This one has been on my To Be Read Pile for forever. Like, at least a year or two. Hopefully I’ll at least get started on this book by Easter, but I’m definitely planning on finally knocking out the Crescent City novels sometime this year.
Flamecaster by Cinda Williams Chima: This is something I’m going to read very soon, actually. It’ll probably even be what I read next. I’m feeling nostalgic for The Seven Realms quadrilogy, so what better to read than its sequel series?
The Ashfire King by Chelsea Abdullah: I really enjoyed The Stardust Thief when I read it a couple years ago, and I’ve been watching for the sequel ever since.
A Crown of Ivy and Glass by Claire Legrand: This is another book that I’m not sure when I’ll get to. I’m hoping sooner rather than later, however.
The Wren in the Holly Library by K.A. Linde: This is another novel I got during the holidays. I’m not sure when I’ll get to it, but like the rest of the books here, I’d like to read it sometime this spring.
Drwgonfall by L.R. Lam: Once again, yet another novel on my To Be Read Pile that I’m not sure when I’ll get to. Hopefully soon, though.

Are you looking forward to spring? It’s just a few days away now – March 21st is this Friday! How’s the weather where you’re at? What new books are coming out this spring that you’re excited for? What’s on your TBR this season?

As always, thanks so much for reading, and I hope that you have an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar