Here I am. Doing my due diligence with posting my September reading wrap-up for 2024 at a reasonable time in October. By which I mean within the first week. Yay!
I’m very happy with the reading I was able to do last month, and not just because I read (and finished) more books than I did in August. It just felt like I read a good amount of novels and that feeling is good enough for me. And I enjoyed all the books that I read in September, too, which is the best part about it.
But yeah, without further ado, let’s get into my StoryGraph statistics from last month!
September Reading 2024
I read 5 books and 2,299 pages
😐 MOODS: The reading Moods for September were fewer than in August, but there were still five of them. Adventurous was of course the biggest chunk of the pie chart. The second biggest slice is Lighthearted, which I’m not sure has happened before. The other three Moods were Tense, Mysterious and Funny.
👢 PACE: My books from last month were mostly fast paced, but around a quarter of them were slow paced.
🔢 PAGE NUMBER: Everything I read was between 240 and 672 pages.
📖 FICTION/NONFICTION: It was once again all fiction in September. As is my usual.
🎭 GENRES: There were less Genres in September than there were in August. Fantasy was the Genre I read there most of, which is always the case. The other four genres were Young Adult, Manga, Middle Grade and LGBT+. (BTW, in case you were wondering, the genre vs. demographic thing still bugs me.)
📄 FORMAT: This particular pie graph is once again wrong. (As it always is.) Almost all the books I read were physical copies, but one novel was digital.
⭐ RATING: My median star rating for last month was 4.35. The ratings I gave were between 3.35 stars and 5.0 stars, so yeah.
📉 PAGES READ DAILY: I read a lot during the last two thirds of September. My biggest reading spike of the month was the 23rd, though my reading on the 19th and the 20th were nearly as high. I also read books between the 11th and the 17th, as well as between the 26th and the 28th.
So yeah, I’m pretty satisfied with the stuff I read during September. It was a good month for me this year – and not just because a new Legend of Zelda game came out. The books that I did read, I liked, which is unfortunately something that doesn’t always happen.
I’m not sure what my reading is gonna look like for October this time. I think it’s gonna be more than last month, though, even though I’ve hardly read at all this past week. (Sorry, whenever a new Zelda game comes out, it usually takes up most of my attention for at least a week. That’s just how it is and I’m totally fine with it! 😁🎮) It’s ’cause I have plans to read specific books this month, and there are more of them than what I read in September. So that’s why. But we’ll see what ends up happening.
Anyway, thanks for joining me in checking out my StoryGraph stats for my September reading in 2024. Thank you also for reading, and I hope you have an wonderful day/night!
The Shadowhunter Chronicles meets Chinese diaspora folklore in Darker by Four, the first in an epic contemporary fantasy duology from Jade Fire Gold author June Tan.
A vengeful girl. A hollow boy. A missing god.
Rui has one goal in mind—honing her magic to avenge her mother’s death.
Yiran is the black sheep of an illustrious family. The world would be at his feet—had he been born with magic.
Nikai is a Reaper, serving the Fourth King of Hell. When his master disappears, the underworld begins to crumble…and the human world will be next if the King is not found.
When an accident causes Rui’s power to transfer to Yiran, everything turns upside down. Without her magic, Rui has no tool for vengeance. With it, Yiran finally feels like he belongs. That is, until Rui discovers she might hold the key to the missing death god and strikes a dangerous bargain with another King.
As darkness takes over, three paths intersect in the shadows. And three lives bound by fate must rise against destiny before the barrier between worlds falls and all Hell breaks loose—literally.
Perfect for fans of This Savage Song and Only a Monster, Darker by Four will pull readers into a world of love and desperation and revenge—a world where every deal has a catch, no secret stays buried, and no one is exactly who they say they are.
My Review
Yiran turned from the road. “Why is it that when something bad happens, it’s always the three of us?”
“The hell would I know,” Zizi muttered.
So I found Darker by Four to be… Pretty good. It wasn’t my favorite book of the year by any means, but it wasn’t even close to the worst one. I actually enjoyed most aspects of it. Since it was on my second quarter of anticipated books of 2024, I’m especially happy. Particularly after how The Lost Story and The Girl With No Reflection went for me.
Anyway, the things I primarily liked were (some of) the characters, parts of the plot, some of the world building and the writing. But I also disliked parts of these same aspects of the novel. It’s a little complicated, I guess.
I ended up really liking Rui, which surprised me since I thought I wouldn’t. I’m very picky about the female lead characters that I read about, because most of the time I find that people don’t write them well (regardless of what gender the author is). But I actually really enjoyed her story and character arc, and found her to be decently written.
My least favorite character – and one of the other leads – was Yiran. There were just some things about him that I couldn’t stand, and aspects of his personality and decisions he made annoyed me often. But it seems like most of his stuff was merely building up his character arc for the sequel, so maybe he’ll be more tolerable then.
Nikai is a character that I don’t really have any feelings for. He appeared fairly infrequently and usually only when the plot needed to happen, so he felt more like a plot device sometimes rather than a character. So yeah, I don’t really know what to think about him.
Honestly, Zizi felt more like a main character than Nikai did. He was also one of my favorites and I enjoyed his personality and sass. The eccentric , sassy genius with a secret heart of gold is a character archetype I never get tired of following. His relationship with Rui was also something I loved following.
“You’re not wearing pajamas,” Rui burst out.
“How good of you to notice,” Zizi said.
The romance here was hit or miss for me. As I mentioned above, I really enjoyed what Rui and Zizi had going on. Their banter was great, and everything about their friendship and evolving romance felt very natural. I thought they were a good couple. And there was no love triangle BS going on here, which was something I was concerned about for a time while reading.
I didn’t like the romance between Yiran and Yuki though. Like, it literally came out of nowhere, and was one of the least natural things I’ve read in a while. I’m sure it was put here to set up the other half of the duology, but it still felt like it didn’t really belong here.
Zizi was cradling her face in his hands, gently wiping her tears. “That’s the difference between you and me, Rui,” he said, voice rough. “You want to save the world and the innumerable fools in it, whether they deserve a chance or not. But I— I would give up this entire world for a single breath to leave your lips again. And I don’t need you to feel the same way about me to do it. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
The plot was pretty okay and I enjoyed it well enough. Tan clearly wore her inspirations on her sleeve – like certain anime, xianxia, and other eastern influences – but I didn’t find it to be a bad thing. I liked getting the references, haha. I always enjoy reading how an author turns a story with a lot of common and well used tropes to their own. I also predicted most of the twists waayyy ahead of time (like within the first ten chapters early), which was a bit disappointing, but I ultimately didn’t mind too much.
My favorite thing about Darker by Four, however, was definitely the writing itself. There are enough descriptions where you can imagine everything well enough, but there aren’t so many that they’re cluttering up the novel and making it drag. The dialogue also felt very natural and snappy. I liked reading how the characters interacted.
I did find some of the descriptions themselves to be a little lacking, though. I didn’t like how the author described a couple of things, particularly faces. Just… the words used just didn’t feel like they worked too well. Other than that though, everything else was pretty alright.
“She means a lot to you, doesn’t she?”
“She means everything.” Zizi had spoken so bluntly it could only be the truth.
So yeah, all in all, I thought that Darker by Four was pretty okay. And the ending was interesting enough that I’m actually interested in reading the sequel to see how everything ends. Against all odds, I’m a little invested in these characters and how their stories will end.
I recommend this to people who enjoy Asian fantasy, YA, and anime. I think it works as a good read for anytime of the year – no particular seasonal vibes stuck out to me.
Anyway, thank you all for reading, and I hope that everybody has an amazing day/night!
First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words, but I saw it over at One Book More.
What if instead of judging a book by the cover, author or most everything else, we judged it by its content? Its first lines?
If you want to join in, all you gotta do is:
📚 Take a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open it to the first page 📝 Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first 📙 Finally… reveal the book!
Here are the first lines:
It was a harrowing climb to the high school. Eight hundred twenty-one steps.
Do you know the book? Here’s another hint or two if you don’t know what it is yet…
Still don’t know? Here’s some gorgeous pics of books to admire, whilst you consider…
Annnd the book is… 🥁🥁 The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang!!
Better to die sharp in war than rust through a time of peace.
A mother struggling to repress her violent past, a son struggling to grasp his violent future, a father blind to the danger that threatens them all.
When the winds of war reach their peninsula, will the Matsuda family have the strength to defend their empire? Or will they tear each other apart before the true enemies even reach their shores?
High on a mountainside at the edge of the Kaigenese Empire live the most powerful warriors in the world, superhumans capable of raising the sea and wielding blades of ice. For hundreds of years, the fighters of the Kusanagi Peninsula have held the Empire’s enemies at bay, earning their frozen spit of land the name ‘The Sword of Kaigen.’
Born into Kusanagi’s legendary Matsuda family, fourteen-year-old Mamoru has always known his purpose: to master his family’s fighting techniques and defend his homeland. But when an outsider arrives and pulls back the curtain on Kaigen’s alleged age of peace, Mamoru realizes that he might not have much time to become the fighter he was bred to be. Worse, the empire he was bred to defend may stand on a foundation of lies.
Misaki told herself that she left the passions of her youth behind when she married into the Matsuda house. Determined to be a good housewife and mother, she hid away her sword, along with everything from her days as a fighter in a faraway country. But with her growing son asking questions about the outside world, the threat of an impending invasion looming across the sea, and her frigid husband grating on her nerves, Misaki finds the fighter in her clawing its way back to the surface.
What books have you been reading lately? What’s on your TBR that you’re currently the most excited about?
As always, thank you for reading, and I hope you have an amazing day/night!
GENRES: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction
PUBLISHER: Orbit
RELEASE DATE: 2 April 2024
BOOK DESCRIPTION:
Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke award-winner Ann Leckie is a modern master of the SFF genre, forever changing its landscape with her groundbreaking ideas and powerful voice. Now, available for the first time comes the complete collection of Leckie’s short fiction, including a brand new novelette, Lake of Souls.
Journey across the stars of the Imperial Radch universe.
Listen to the words of the Old Gods that ruled The Raven Tower.
Learn the secrets of the mysterious Lake of Souls.
And so much more, in this masterfully wide-ranging and immersive short fiction collection from award-winning author Ann Leckie.
My Review
“The days are longer near the end, are they not?”
The Lake of Souls short fiction collection by Ann Leckie has been on my radar since it came out earlier this year, in April. I’ve been interested in reading it since; I don’t read collections of short stories super often, and I’ve wanted to read more of them. So when I found out about this one, it immediately caught my eye.
And… it was pretty good. I liked most of the stories included here, and some of them I even really enjoyed. I’ve also been interested in picking up something by Leckie for a while, but wasn’t quite sure if I wanted to dive into anything, or which of her works I wanted to. This collection gives a very nice glimpse into her style and the way she writes. And I’m very glad I read this just for that. I wish more authors would do this, it gives a great look into the way people write without committing to something too large or time consuming, and allows a reader to experience a smaller sample of their writing.
A good chunk of these little stories were extra tales from universes that Leckie has already published works for, so I think a few things might have gone over my head, or I otherwise enjoyed some of the stories less than I might’ve because of this. All the stories were very followable, however, and I never got confused with anything that was going on with any of them. So if you’ve never read any of the author’s other stuff, you don’t have to worry about not understanding things. They’re all written in such a way that a newcomer shouldn’t feel overwhelmed.
“There are hard ways to do things, and easy ways,” said Saest. “The hard ways cost more. If a god makes a general statement, it could easily come true the hardest way possible. And it might have other consequences.”
Speaking of the short stories featured in Lake of Souls, these are my favorites:
Footprints
The Justified
The Sad History of the Tearless Onion (Note: This one is my favorite.)
Night’s Slow Poison
The Creation and Destruction of the World
The Nalender
The Unknown God
Saving Bacon
All the others are at least very interesting, though they didn’t grab me as much as these. All of the little tales included here are all very diverse, and I think that anyone will find a story to enjoy here.
I especially loved all of the varied settings and characters included in all of these different stories. Even the ones from universes the author had already created were all very distinct from one another, at least to some degree. Honestly, reading this collection made me interested in someday maybe picking up one of Leckie’s other works. (Which was definitely one of the goals of this short fiction collection, I’m sure.)
Can you speak of a thing without naming it?
I enjoyed my time with Lake of Souls and I’m glad I read it. Genuinely, I kind of recommend this to anybody – as long as you enjoy sci-fi or fantasy, that is – because I feel like everyone might find something to like here (as I mentioned earlier).
Anyway, as always, thanks to everybody so much for reading, and I hope you have an incredible day/night!
See ya ~Mar
“All humans die. The question is only when and how. Would you prefer a death you chose knowing the true circumstances? Or would you prefer to die deluded?”
First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words, but I saw it over at One Book More.
What if instead of judging a book by the cover, author or most everything else, we judged it by its content? Its first lines?
If you want to join in, all you gotta do is:
📚 Take a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open it to the first page 📝 Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first 📙 Finally… reveal the book!
Here’s the first line:
The first time Eliza Grey laid eyes on the baby was at dusk in a slow-moving boxcar on a rain-swept stretch of the line three miles west of Bury St Edmunds, in Suffolk, England.
Don’t know? Here’s another hint for you if you need one. Or two.
Need to give it some more thought? Admire these beautiful pictures of books while you think about it…
Annnd the book is… 🥁🥁 Ordinary Monsters by J.M. Miro!!
England, 1882. In Victorian London, two children with mysterious powers are hunted by a figure of darkness ―a man made of smoke.
Sixteen-year-old Charlie Ovid, despite a lifetime of brutality, doesn’t have a scar on him. His body heals itself, whether he wants it to or not. Marlowe, a foundling from a railway freight car, shines with a strange bluish light. He can melt or mend flesh. When two grizzled detectives are recruited to escort them north to safety, they are forced to confront the nature of difference, and belonging, and the shadowy edges of the monstrous.
What follows is a journey from the gaslit streets of London, to an eerie estate outside Edinburgh, where other children with gifts―the Talents―have been gathered. Here, the world of the dead and the world of the living threaten to collide. And as secrets within the Institute unfurl, Marlowe, Charlie and the rest of the Talents will discover the truth about their abilities, and the nature of the force that is stalking them: that the worst monsters sometimes come bearing the sweetest gifts.
With lush prose, mesmerizing world-building, and a gripping plot, Ordinary Monsters presents a catastophic vision of the Victorian world―and of the gifted, broken children who must save it.
What books have you been reading lately? What’s on your TBR that you’re currently the most excited about?
As always, thank you for reading, and I hope you have an amazing day/night!
A young woman chosen as the crown prince’s bride must travel to the royal palace to meet her new husband—but her world is shaken when she discovers the dark truth the royal family has been hiding for centuries—in this lush fantasy debut perfect for fans of Song of Silver, Flame Like Night and Violet Made of Thorns.
Princess Ying Yue believed in love… once upon a time.
Yet when she’s chosen to wed the crown prince, Ying’s dreams of a fairy tale marriage quickly fall apart. Her husband-to-be is cold and indifferent, confining Ying to her room for reasons he won’t explain. Worse still are the rumors that swirl around the imperial palace: whispers of seven other royal brides who, after their own weddings, mysteriously disappeared.
Left alone with only her own reflection for company, Ying begins to see things. Strange things. Movements in the corners of her mirror. Colorful lights upon its surface. And when, on the eve of her wedding, she unwittingly tears open a gateway, she is pulled into a mirror world.
This realm is full of sentient reflections, including the enigmatic Mirror Prince. Unlike his real-world counterpart, the Mirror Prince is kind and compassionate, and before long Ying falls in love—the kind of love she always dreamed of.
But there is darkness in this new world, too.
It turns out the two worlds have a long and blood-soaked history, and Ying has a part to play in the future of them both. And the brides who came before Ying? By the time they discovered what their role was, it was already too late.
My Review
“You and me. We’re like yin and yang. Dragon and phoenix. Two halves of one whole.” He took her face in his hands, caressing her. “One of us can’t exist without the other. You are water and fire. And I’m the wood and the mountains. It’s all related that’s what the alchemy is.”
For me, The Girl With No Reflection ended up being… a bit of a disappointment. Which kind of sucks, because I was really looking forward to this one. A magical world of reflections and mythical money? Traveling between the two? A mystery? It all sounded so intriguing and exciting. And it mostly fell flat for me.
First off, I’m gonna talk about the stuff I liked. I really love the cover – I think that the cover artist and designer did a phenomenal job. It’s beautiful and very eye-catching and it did its job very well. I love all of the ribbons and little dragons and flowers and carp, and the way the mirror is shattering looks amazing.
Another thing I enjoyed was the initial setting and the way the magic system was first presented. It makes you want to read more to find out how the magic system is defined and what’s going on. Because there’s a bit of a dark mystery afoot. Honestly, I think the beginning of this novel is the best part of it. Which is unfortunate.
Because I was either indifferent to, or I disliked everything else pretty much. Which sucked, because again: I really wanted to love this book. Ugh.
“Wait.” Mei Po stopped Ying with a wrinkled, icy hand on her forearm. She gestured for her to come closer.
“Remember,” she said. Her breath was cool. “Remember who the monsters are.”
Ying and Prince Zhang were very promising characters at the beginning, I will give them that. But they either got fairly unlikeable as the story went on (Ying) or they just got boring (Zhang). The other characters didn’t really have anything interesting about them (they were either blah or angry) either – besides the Mirror Ying, Prince Prince and Mei Po, and even then Mei Po was really the only interesting one.
The romance in The Girl With No Reflection was also terrible. I absolutely hated how it was written. I’m also really tired of characters suddenly getting horny for each other at ridiculous times – like when their lives are in danger or something. In the end, I didn’t want anyone to end up with anybody. It sucked.
The plot also stops and starts with no rhyme or season, except for when the story needs it to. The main character, Ying, also had basically everything handed to her, the conflict came from her being either too stupid or too arrogant to figure something out. Which, by the way, was annoying to follow. The writing was also not the best, and the dialogue nearly always felt clunky to me. This felt like a second draft at best.
I will say this though: something this novel could’ve done to improve itself was to have more than one point of view. Ying’s just… wasn’t enough. The story would’ve been more compelling or interesting if it was a dual POV novel, with the other one being Zhang. It would’ve fleshed out the book more and probably even would’ve improved the romance – because in the novel as it is, Zhang and his feelings feel weirdly disconnected from the story sometimes.
To Ying, it was as though she finally felt it, really, truly felt it: she was the Fish, she was a dragon, and she would save her own world and all the people in it.
So yeah, that’s how I felt about The Girl With No Reflection by Keshe Chow. It wasn’t the novel that I’d hoped it would be, unfortunately, but someone’s probably gonna like it. I think that at least a few people that like YA and fantasy and romance and don’t mind the most annoying tropea and stuff that comes with them (’cause all of the most annoying tropes are in here, trust me), then you might enjoy it. Also if you don’t mind mediocre writing and dialogue.
As always, thank you for reading, and I hope everyone has a wonderful day/night!
I missed a week, but I’m not gonna miss another one. Here’s another First Line Friday.
First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words, but I saw it over at One Book More.
What if instead of judging a book by the cover, author or most everything else, we judged it by its content? Its first lines?
If you want to join in, all you gotta do is:
📚 Take a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open it to the first page 📝 Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first 📙 Finally… reveal the book!
Here’s the first line:
Everyone knows about the island of Sawkill Rock…
Any ideas on the novel? Here’s another hint or two if you’re having trouble figuring it out…
Still need a bit to consider it? Here’s a few beautiful pics of books to admire while you do…
Annnd the book is… 🥁🥁 Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand!!
GENRES & DEMOGRAPHICS: Fantasy, Horror, YA, LGBT+, Fiction
PUBLISHER: Katherine Tegen Books
RELEASE DATE: 2 October 2018
BOOK DESCRIPTION:
From the New York Times bestselling author of Furyborn comes a breathtaking and spine-tingling novel about three teenage girls who face off against an insidious monster that preys upon young women. Perfect for fans of Victoria Schwab and Stranger Things.
Who are the Sawkill Girls?
Marion: The newbie. Awkward and plain, steady and dependable. Weighed down by tragedy and hungry for love she’s sure she’ll never find.
Zoey: The pariah. Luckless and lonely, hurting but hiding it. Aching with grief and dreaming of vanished girls. Maybe she’s broken–or maybe everyone else is.
Val: The queen bee. Gorgeous and privileged, ruthless and regal. Words like silk and eyes like knives; a heart made of secrets and a mouth full of lies.
Their stories come together on the island of Sawkill Rock, where gleaming horses graze in rolling pastures and cold waves crash against black cliffs. Where kids whisper the legend of an insidious monster at parties and around campfires. Where girls have been disappearing for decades, stolen away by a ravenous evil no one has dared to fight… until now.
What books have you been reading lately? What’s on your TBR that you’re currently the most excited about?
As always, thank you for reading, and I hope you have an amazing day/night!
Happy Friday everybody! Here we are again with a familiar post, but It’s slightly different than it was before. And before that. ‘Cause this post has had a few… evolutions, you could say.
I’ve decided to drop all pretenses – I’m clearly not gonna stick to a day of the week. This post is just gonna happen on whatever day of the week it happens on. So I’ve renamed it for the final time – Bewitching Book Covers!
For anyone who doesn’t know, Bewitching Book Covers (formerly Tasteful Tuesdays, and before that, Majestic Mondays), is a series where I highlight an awesome looking book cover and talk about what I like about it. That’s it, that’s pretty much the point of this post.
This week, the book cover I’m gushing about is Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White by Amélie Wen Zhao.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The epic sequel to the book Song of Silver, Flame Like Night, is a fast-paced, riveting YA fantasy inspired by the mythology and folklore of ancient China.
The Demon Gods have risen. Skies’ End has fallen to the colonizers. And Lan and Zen have chosen sides.
But they will not fight together.
Though Lan inherited the power of the Silver Dragon, she understands the path she must take. She believes the Demon Gods to be the cause of war, conflict, and turmoil, and that the future of the Last Kingdom depends on their being eliminated forever. Worse, she knows that if the Elantians manage to bind one of the legendary beings, their army will be unstoppable. To save her kingdom and her people, Lan will need to find the only mythical weapon capable of destroying the Demon Gods: the Godslayer.
Zen is sure that the only way to free the Last Kingdom is to use the power of the Demon Gods. When he bound the Black Tortoise, he paid the ultimate price: to inherit its strength, he will forfeit his body, his mind, and his soul. Yet one Demon God is not enough against the might of the colonizers. In the ruins of the northern Mansorian lands slumbers a magical army of demonic practitioners capable of facing off against the Elantians—but Zen must find the Seal to awaken them to fight by his side.
At the center of both Lan’s and Zen’s journeys is one city: Shaklahira, a former stronghold of the Imperial Court that vanished without a trace when the Elantians invaded. Its location is a mystery, and both are sure that it holds the answers they need, but the past it hides might be more dangerous than anything they’ve faced yet.
The battle for the Last Kingdom rages on. But to win the war, Lan will have to decide: Can she face the boy she loves again? And when she does, can she kill him to free her people?
Book Cover Rating: 🪶🪶🪶🪶🪶 • 5 gorgeous plumes
Like its predecessor, Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White has an simply breathtaking cover. It’s absolutely beautiful honestly, and is one of my favorite new book covers from this year.
First off, I adore the colors. The way the shades of pink pair with the red and the orange is so pretty. I also like how the bits of blue, green and yellow complement the rest of the artwork. This novel’s cover also both contrasts and complements the cover of Song Like Silver, Flame Like Night because of this. I also like how this cover art depicts another one of the four great Demon Gods that are important to this series – this one depicts the phoenix, much like how book one is focused on the dragon.
I also loved the Chinese characters in the bottom left corner of the cover. They just add so much to the artwork just by being there – which is something even I can tell, as someone who can’t read it. The font used for the title and author for these books is awesome, and also complements the cover art very well. I just love this book cover!
So yeah, that’s another beautiful book cover. What do you think about this cover art? Have you read Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White or Song Like Silver, Flame Like Night? What did you think of it/them?
Anyway, as always, thank you to everyone who reads my posts. I hope that you enjoyed this one as well, and that you have a amazing day/night!
Anyway, First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words, but I saw it over at One Book More.
What if instead of judging a book by the cover, author or most everything else, we judged it by its content? Its first lines?
If you want to join in, all you gotta do is:
📚 Take a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open it to the first page 📝 Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first 📙 Finally… reveal the book!
Here’s the first line:
Once upon a time in West Virginia, two boys went missing.
Do you know what the book is? Here’s another couple of hints if you still have no idea…
Still need some time to think about it? Here’s some lovely photos of books to admire while you think about it…
Annnd the book is… 🥁🥁 The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer!!
Inspired by C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, this wild and wondrous novel is a fairy tale for grown-ups who still knock on the back of wardrobes—just in case—from the author of The Wishing Game.
As boys, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell vanished in a West Virginia state park, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they’d gone or how they’d survived.
Fifteen years after their miraculous homecoming, Jeremy is a famous missing persons investigator with an uncanny ability to find the lost, while Rafe is a reclusive artist unable to stop creating otherworldly paintings and sculptures he shows to no one. He bears scars inside and out from his disappearance but has no memory of what happened while they were gone.
Jeremy alone knows the fantastical truth behind their time in the woods. While the rest of the world was searching for them, the two missing boys were in a magical realm filled with impossible beauty and terrible danger. However, Jeremy has kept Rafe in the dark since their return for his own inscrutable reasons.
But the time for burying secrets comes to an end when vet tech Emilie Wendel hires Jeremy to find her long-lost sister… the long-lost sister he and Rafe knew while living in that hidden kingdom. Now the former lost boys must confront their shared past, no matter how traumatic the memories. Alongside the headstrong Emilie, Rafe and Jeremy return to the enchanted world they called home for six months… for only then can they get back everything and everyone they’ve lost.
What books have you been reading lately? What’s on your TBR that you’re currently the most excited about?
As always, thank you for reading, and I hope you have an amazing day/night!
I’ve wanted to join in on Top Ten Tuesdays for a long time now, and I’m finally taking the plunge! It’s always seemed like a bunch of fun, so I’m excited to participate!
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 Ten Things I Loved About [Insert Book Title Here] – basically pick a book and mention ten things you loved about it!
The book I chose is Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett. (I feel like I’m always bringing this one up somehow, even though I’m not. There’s just so much to love about it though!)
Emily Wilde: She’s such a unique and refreshing protagonist, and I found her intelligence endearing, and her tendency to hyper fixate relatable.
Wendell Brambly: He’s just so… you know.
The banter and romance: It’s sooo good – I just can’t gush about it enough! And Emily and Wendell’s chemistry is amazing.
That the story is told in journal entries: It’s something I don’t see often (or at all) in books I read nowadays. (The only other recent book I read with consistent journal entries/letters was Lydia Bennett, Witch.)
The atmosphere/tone: Fawcett absolutely nails this. It’s perfect – especially for a fall read – and it always felt cozy sitting down to read the book.
The cover(s): The cover – and the alternative Barnes & Noble edition (that I have) – are both gorgeous and eye-catching. I love them both, but I think that I love the B&N just a little bit more. I love the blue and purple and green on the white background.
The way that faeries are portrayed: So many books focus on the smuttier aspects of fairy stuff nowadays, and ACOTAR (as much as it’s guilty pleasure trash for me) really encouraged the publishing landscape to focus on the elf-like with big 🍆 that it kinda invented. It was a breath of fresh air to read about more traditional and lore accurate things.
The plot itself: I would be remiss to finish off this list without mentioning one of the most crucial parts of the book. The plot is fantastic.
The footnotes: I loved the option for extra information on faeries, magic or lore that were frequently at the bottom of pages. It made more descriptions available if one wanted to read more, but made them optional for those who wanted to opt out. Plus, they meant that the paragraphs weren’t over cluttered with information and drawn out.
The ending: The ending is simply *chef’s kiss*. 🧑🍳💋
