It’s a new week once again. And not only that, but April is also upon us. Yay for a month (possibly) filled with rain, lol.
Last week was a bit all over the place. Totally not my fault – I got sick on Thursday morning and couldn’t bring myself to do anything! Even watching something streamed on our TV was too much for me, I was that fatigued.
But that’s neither here nor there. Let’s go over the last week.
Monday 3/27: A Court of Frost and Starlight Review
Last Monday, I was finally able to post my review for A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas, which I did in lieu of a Majestic Monday. I gave it ★★✫☆☆.
Wednesday 3/29: A Court of Silver Flames Review / WWW Wednesday
On Wednesday I double posted. Firstly, I posted my review for A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas, finally capping off the ACOTAR series. I gave it ★★★★☆. I also participated in WWW Wednesday, a weekly feature hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words.
Sunday 4/2: The House in the Cerulean Sea Review / March 2023 Reading Wrap-Up
Yesterday I was finally feeling better, so I was playing catch up. I double posted to help with the process. (It didn’t help that the weekend was the start of a new month, haha. How convenient.) I posted my review for The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, which I gave ★★★★✯, as well as my Monthly Reading Wrap-Up for March.
I kinda wanna just keep doing what I’m doing. Aside from being sick last week, I think that it’s been working out well for me.
I definitely want to get my Most Anticipated Books for 2023’s second quarter out by tomorrow, since that’s the first Tuesday in April, and Tuesdays are when new books are released, so… yeah. Other than that, I’m not sure. More book reviews, obviously, but I’d also like to participate in my favorite book blogging features, too.
Anyway, thanks as always for reading, and have a wonderful day/night!
It’s April now, and spring is in full swing! But that also means that March is over. So I’m gonna go over March’s statistics on The StoryGraph!
I read waaayy more books last month than I could’ve hoped for. Especially compared to how much I was able to read in the first two months of the year. Six books! That’s two whole books more than February (and January too, now that I think about it).
Now, on with the stars…
March 2023 Reading Stats
😐 MOODS:Adventurous was once again a huge chunk of my Moods graph, but Emotional and Hopeful were the other two big ones. Which is waaayy different from February’s, which has Mysterious as one of its big chunks. (Dark is on both graphs.)
👢 PACE: Over 80% of this chart is medium-paced, so I’d say that’s still my favorite type of book to read.
🔢 PAGE NUMBER: The ACOTAR series mostly consists of long books, and seeing as I read over half of them in March, it’s no surprise seeing that a third of the graph is given to 500+ books. Once again, my preferred length seems to be between 300 and 500 page books.
📖 FICTION/NONFICTION: 100% fiction once again. I swear I have a couple of nonfiction books on my TBR. I swear.
🎭 GENRES: Fantasy was once again the frontrunner of the Genre bar graph, being featured as a genre in all of the books that I read in March. Not as much YA this past month either, but definitely more Romance than usual.
📄 FORMAT: The StoryGraph Format graph is once again wrong (I need to try to fix that… Maybe). 50% of the books that I read were digital, and the other 50% of the books I read were print.
⭐ RATING: I had two average ratings in March: 2.75 stars and 4.0 stars. I was a bit all over the map last month with how much I enjoyed the books that I read.
📉 PAGES READ DAILY: I was a little more consistent with my reading this past month, as opposed to February. I didn’t read nearly as much as I’d have liked during the first half of March, but I was reading a lot during the second half.
I read a lot more in March compared to the first two months of the year, so I’m pretty satisfied. Of course, I’d like to read another six books this month (April), or maybe even more! We’ll see what happens.
What books did you read in March? What did you think of them? Did we read any of the same books?
Thank you, as always, for reading, and have a marvelous day/night!
I’m on a reading roll lately! I’ve already read more books than last month and I’m still going strong.
WWW Wednesday is a meme that used to be hosted at A Daily Rhythm, but has been taken over by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words. Now, without further ado, let’s get into the 3 Ws!
Sarah J. Maas’s sexy, richly imagined series continues with the journey of Feyre’s fiery sister, Nesta.
Nesta Archeron has always been prickly-proud, swift to anger, and slow to forgive. And ever since being forced into the Cauldron and becoming High Fae against her will, she’s struggled to find a place for herself within the strange, deadly world she inhabits. Worse, she can’t seem to move past the horrors of the war with Hybern and all she lost in it.
The one person who ignites her temper more than any other is Cassian, the battle-scarred warrior whose position in Rhysand and Feyre’s Night Court keeps him constantly in Nesta’s orbit. But her temper isn’t the only thing Cassian ignites. The fire between them is undeniable, and only burns hotter as they are forced into close quarters with each other.
Meanwhile, the treacherous human queens who returned to the Continent during the last war have forged a dangerous new alliance, threatening the fragile peace that has settled over the realms. And the key to halting them might very well rely on Cassian and Nesta facing their haunting pasts.
Against the sweeping backdrop of a world seared by war and plagued with uncertainty, Nesta and Cassian battle monsters from within and without as they search for acceptance—and healing—in each other’s arms.
Power lay in her hand. Death gripped her by the other.
As I’ve said many times by now, I have a complicated relationship with this series of books. I think some are good. And I think that some others… aren’t.
A Court of Silver Flames was one of the former. It’s definitely one of the better books in this series, though I still preferred A Court of Mist and Fury a little more.
The Characters: Pros
Once again, I hated almost all of the characters. The exception this time was almost solely Nesta, with the exception of Eris. Sure, he’s an absolute a-hole, but I’m definitely sensing character development in his future. (He’s also done some despicable things, but considering the horrible things that the main cast has done and deemed acceptable behavior, I’m not sure how much those things matter, particularly in the long run.)
“Whatever you need to throw at me, I can take it. I won’t break.”
Nesta was a breath of fresh air after reading first person Feyre. She’s sassy, and she’s processing stuff in a relatable way. I loved reading about her journey of her grief and trauma, and how she healed and grew stronger from them. And everyone goes through grief and trauma differently, so it pissed me off how some of the other characters expected her to get her act together. Like, come on, you can try to help a little, but please let her process on her own?!?
The Characters: Cons
Rhysand once again wins the award for Most Awful Character. Everything he does in ACOSF sucks. He’s too overprotective of Feyre (nearly Tamlin levels), and he shows Feyre no respect and takes away her agency by keeping crucial information from her (worse than Tamlin levels).
Feyre already had a shield around herself courtesy of Rhys.
Feyre sucks just as much as she always has, but SJM seems to be trying to retcon a few things. These are regarding her relationship with her sisters. In the first books in this series, her relationships with Nesta and Elain weren’t very defined. Even so, it really didn’t seem like she cared about them. At all.
But here, she just won’t shut up about how much she loves and cares about Nesta, and how much she wants to help her get over her trauma. Like, where the hell did this come from? In the first book, Feyre only took care of her family because of a promise she made to her mom on her death bed, but now she’s always cared? What?!?
Anyway, Feyre sucks, that’s not new. But this time Amren sucked too, which is something that surprised and disappointed me. She was such a great character that I really liked. But no, she has to side with Rhys with his keeping of critical secrets from Feyre.
Not to mention, Rhys and Feyre’s absolutely stupid promise to die together no matter what. Guys, you have a small country to run. And people are considering appointing you guys the equivalent of an emperor and empress. What the heck is wrong with you people!?!
The Voice
“I’m talking to the House. Which is a considerable step up from talking to you.”
“It doesn’t talk back.”
“Exactly.”
The voice in ACOSF – and the POV – was much better than in all of the other books in the series. Maybe because it was third person and that’s harder to eff up, but it was definitely better.
Nesta and Cassian both had distinct feeling voices, especially compared to Rhysand and Feyre in A Court of Frost and Starlight, both of whom felt like the same character was narrating. Nesta’s and Cassian’s personalities both shone through their POV chapters pretty nicely.
The Setting and Plot
There was no answer in Nesta’s heart except one.
For the ACOTAR books, I’ve decided to combine this section from here on out. (Hopefully I’ll remember this by the time the next one comes out. Whenever that is.) There’s never much to say about either, so I thought it’d be easier.
I liked some of the world building that Maas decided to add. Though it was kind of expisition-y (as usual) it was still nice to have. And there’s a lot of interesting things revealed here.
There really didn’t feel like there was a ton of plot here, especially for a 750+ page book. (SJM had to make room for all the smut, I guess.) I added a specific colored tab to the book every time something plot relevant happened, and there were very few of them until the very end of the book.
I also hated how A Court of Silver Flames completely dropped the ball on any plot hintyed in the last book. There was definitely some potential with those plot points introduced, but I guess Maas decided on a completely different story in between releases. So most everything that was set up the last book was pretty much resolved off screen which sucked.
The Romance
It was… meh. I guess that Cassian and Nesta had some chemistry, but it really wasn’t clicking for me. And they were ridiculously horny. I have 43 tabs for every time something horny or porny happened. FORTY THREE!! That’s nearly twice as many tabs I had for marking plot stuff! Take a cold shower, you horndogs!
Az took a bite. “You let her suck your 🐓 in the middle of the dining room. At a table I’m currently using to eat my dinner.”
Thank you, Azriel! I haven’t said it before, but I’m tired of the characters banging on the table. Particularly the kitchen table, you know, the one that people eat at? Yeah, please stop.
I felt Nesta had more chemistry with her new friends, honestly. And the freaking House of Wind, which is alive I guess?
But yeah, I loved the bromance between Nesta Emerie and Gwyn. Their friendship was so sweet and one of my favorite parts of the novel.
Closing Thoughts
“I like to read. I cannot survive without reading.”
When I finished reading A Court of Silver Flames I had:
43 pink tabs for smut/horniness or whenever something remotely sex-related occurred or was mentioned.
29 orange tabs for whenever something made me angry or just when characters were being annoying in general.
18 yellow tabs for whenever “like calls to like” was used along with a few other repetitive phrases, that I noticed.
25 green tabs for whenever something plot related happened. (And that’s pretty much it.)
30 blue tabs for whenever I read something I liked of varying degrees. It could’ve been a phrase or character interaction.
So in total, I had 135 tabs in all!
A Court of Silver Flames was a fun, wild ride, and is definitely a step up from the last couple books in this series. Nesta had a strong voice, and was a much better character to follow than Feyre.
I definitely recommend reading this one if you’ve read the other ACOTAR books. It’s one of the better ones, and I think that it’s worth reading, despite its length.
Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day/night!
It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve taken part in this, but last week I just happened to be in between books and I didn’t know which one I’d read next. But this week I’m locked and loaded with a plethora of options!
WWW Wednesday is a meme that used to be hosted at A Daily Rhythm, but has been taken over by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words. Now, without further ado, let’s get into the 3 Ws!
Current Feels: 🤔 (unsure, but definitely willing to read and finish!)
I’m currently buddy reading this series with my mom in a bid to get her into reading (and to give me some motivation to finish the ACOTAR books). I know what shows she likes, so I knew what kinds of books she’d like. (I was right. Lol.)
Depending on how I feel after I finish ACOFAS, I’ll either read this next and finish off the series, or take a break and read it next month. (My mom’s barely started ACOWAR, and it’ll probably take her a month to finish a big book like that, so… yeah.)
This series is what I’ll read next if I choose not to go for ACOSF right away. It’s a series that I originally read over a decade ago and never finished. (Inheritance wasn’t even out yet!)
I’ve always had a desire to finish The Inheritance Cycle, though, and it has a special place in my heart. So it’s getting read no matter what – whether before or after ACOSF, not withstanding.
What books have you been reading lately? What have you thought of them? Do we have any overlap?
