So with this post, I’ve officially been doing Weekly Wrap-Ups for four weeks now, which is a month of Mondays worth of posting! Yay! I feel like I’m really on track now.
Regarding my reading and posting from last week however… Yeah, it could’ve been better. I really only got through one book, unfortunately, and I posted a little less than I’d have liked as well. Oh well, let’s see what I can do this coming week. Honestly, seeing as this week is gonna be busier ’cause of the holiday, I’ll be happy if I can match my posting from this past week.
Anyway, without further ado, let’s get on with the wrap-up!
Wednesday 11/20: Birthstone Book Covers
Last Wednesday, I participated in my favorite monthly post, Birthstone Book Covers. Birthstone Book Covers is a fun little post created and hosted by Leslie @ Books Are the New Black.
Each month, for the post, you feature book covers that are either the same color of the month’s birthstone or include the color in the title. This month was November, and its birthstones are topaz and citrine. The colors are yellow and gold.
On Friday, I participated in the weekly post, First Line Fridays. Two weeks in a row! Oh yeah! First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words. It’s a fun little post that focuses on guessing books based on their first lines.
Yesterday, I posted my review of Snow Drowned by Jennifer D. Lyle. It’s a pretty recently released horror-fantasy novel. I ultimately gave this book ★★★✯☆.
So yeah, I wasn’t super happy with the amount of posts I did last week. I would’ve liked to have done at least one more. I also kind of wish I’d at the very least started reading another book, but whatever I guess. It is what it is.
Because of Thanksgiving, I’m not sure how much blogging I’ll be able to do. I always get a little busier during weeks with holidays, and this sometimes affects the amount of blog posts I put out. I’m still hoping to do three or four additional posts this week besides this one though. Two that I’m definitely gonna do include: a book review, and my annual Books I’m Thankful For post that I do around Thanksgiving.
Regarding the things I did last week beyond blogging and reading books, there once again wasn’t a lot that I did. My schedule was completely messed up though, my time was managed terribly as a result, and I definitely didn’t get enough sleep as well. (I’m actually pretty sure that this might have affected my reading and posting last week. Whoops.) I’ve already rectified all this though, so hopefully this week will be a lot better.
This week, of course, is the week of Thanksgiving, as well as the start of the Holiday Season, so I’ll naturally be doing a lot with that. I’m also gonna be doing more cleaning.
Anyway, as always, thank you to everyone for reading, and I hope you all have a fantastic day/night!
The pulse-pounding third novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series, The Lightlark Saga, by acclaimed author and #BookTok sensation Alex Aster
Love kills kingdoms…
Back in Grim’s castle on Nightshade, Isla is reeling in the wake of a brutal battle and the devastating truths it exposed. Her future—and the fate of the world—now hinge on a heart split in two.
Past Isla, who fell in love with the ruler of Nightshade, fights to resist feelings she considers treasonous. The Isla of the present, who has seen the ruin her powers can cause, will do anything to save Lightlark and its king.
As the line between enemy and friend is tested, Isla is more desperate than ever to understand the oracle’s final prophecy and change her heartrending fate. But a storm is coming. And with it, a long-buried evil greater than anything the realms have faced before.
With the clock ticking on her destiny and the survival of two warring kingdoms hinging on her own shattered heart, Isla Crown will either save the world—or destroy it.
My Review
“You feel it, don’t you?” The augur said, watching her far too closely. “Power… it’s in the blood, you see.”
So. It wasn’t as bad as Nightbane. But Skyshade wasn’t that great either.
Despite the fact that I made the conscious decision to “hate read” this book (and this series in general), I always have this hope inside me that the book will exceed my expectations completely and turn out to be at least decent. This hasn’t really been the case with the novels in the Lightlark Saga, unfortunately. I’ve found all three books to be disappointing in some way, though some definitely more than others.
Let’s start with the one thing that I legitimately liked – the cover. Whoever the publisher has do the Lightlark book covers does a great job. The book cover art is always eye-catching and gorgeous.
Now for everything else.
Heart. Hers was split in half. One part wanted him more than anything- remembered. Another wanted to stab him through the chest again.
The characters continue to be either insufferable and annoying, or bland and irrelevant. Isla Crown somehow becomes worse. She doesn’t learn from any of her experiences or training really from the last book and continues to eff everyone over with her powers – whether it be her refusing to use them or letting them completely out of control. Also, she’s an actual serial killer now, guys! WTF, I know. It’s just, ugh. I hated her before, so now I don’t know what to feel.
It’s even more annoying because both of the “hot” 500+ year old men that she can’t choose between completely forgive her for this. Grimshaw is absolutely no surprise, he’s even worse than Isla is, but Oro… Dude, you can do so much better than her. (Oro and Isla also continue to have no chemistry, btw.)
“You’re right. I don’t know what love is. I don’t know how to love. If you ever gave me another chance to love you, I would learn. I would learn the right way to love you.”
The other side characters once again didn’t really matter, and the other two rulers – Cleo and Azul – hardly made appearances. (Except for when the plot needed them to be, or Isla needed a plot device.) Also, what the heck happened with the Starlings this book? Did Aster forget about them? Because the Wildlings showed up, but sometimes in Skyshade it seems like she forgot that the Starlings were now Isla’s people too and not just the Wildlings, seeing as I don’t think they show up at all.
The writing still wasn’t the best. There have been some improvements from Nightbane, but it’s still not that great. However, I will say that the majority of the things I noticed while reading had to do with editing. (But these mistakes definitely should have been caught in editing.)
Here’s some weird prose, or writing and editing mistakes I noticed:
“Remember?” the old woman said. “I’m still finding blood stains in my floorboards.”
(I’m pretty sure it should say “on my floorboards”, but I could be wrong…)
She took his hand. Grim’s wide shoulders melted in relief until she said, “Take methere.”
(I swear to you, this IS NOT a typo on my part – this was exactly how it was in the book. There are also several paragraph errors in Skyshade, whether it be a paragraph break where there shouldn’t be one or a lack of a paragraph break where there should.)
“Your blood spoke to me in many tongues. You wear your fate like a crown of blades. Doesn’t it hurt?”
(This one reads very oddly to me. I know there’s something wrong with it, but I guess I’m having trouble putting it into words at the moment.)
(Anyway.)
The story itself… At the very least, it’s fast-paced so it didn’t feel like it lasted too long whilst reading. The actual plot was, hm, meh. It could have been worse. I didn’t like the Big Plot Twist, however, mostly because it wasn’t foreshadowed properly at all. Like, there was pretty much no chance that you could guess what or who it was – it just appears before you and you’re like “Huh?” The way it was handled was just frustrating and bad.
Oh, wait! I just remembered, there was another thing that I did like a little about this book. It suddenly got unexpectedly kind of morbid, which I kind of enjoyed only because it came a bit out of nowhere. But yeah, kudos to the novel for impressing me there, I guess.
“Many would have died. Only the strongest would have made it through. Many did die, in the creation of Lightlark. Their bodies were used as the foundation of the island. It gave it power. Did you know?”
So yeah, even though I hadn’t gotten my hopes up or anything, I didn’t enjoy Skyshade. Lightlark is still the best book in this series so far, guys. It was nice to see that it seems that Asters writing improved a little bit. (But it could be much better than it is.)
Though I didn’t like this book, I think that ACOTAR and Fourth Wing fans, as well as fans of that type of romantasy in general, will probably enjoy Skyshade and the other novels in the Lightlark Saga. People that like YA fantasy and don’t care about how good the pride is might like it as well.
As always, thank you to everyone for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful day/night!
It’s been a few weeks since I last participated, but I’m reading something on a Wednesday again, so… yeah.
WWW Wednesday is a weekly 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!
☆★ Star rating is for all the entire story as a whole, not each individual volume. Also, haven’t posted a review yet, lol (though to be fair I just finished it). It’s coming eventually though! ★☆
The Thing(s) I Might Read Next
The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie: I’ve wanted to read more Leckie ever since I read Lake of Souls a few months ago. I’ve already acquired this book, and am definitely planning on reading it before the end of the year at least.
House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas: I’ve had this book for several months now, and it’s been on my TBR for about the same amount of time. My cousins were also planning on reading Crescent City as of Christmas of last year and I kind of want to discuss it with them, so I’d like to read at least the first book before Christmas.
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie: This series has been on my radar for years, but as with most popular high fantasy series, I’ve been wary about reading it (mostly because I’ve DNF-ed quite a few of them – I’m looking at you A Song of Ice and Fire (got to book two), The Name of the Wind and The Way of Kings). But I’m thinking of giving it a real shot, and am hoping to read it before the year ends.
What books has everyone been reading lately? What have you thought of them? What are you thinking of reading next?
Anyway, thank you to everyone for reading, and I hope that you have a great day/night!
