It’s that time of the month again! Time for one of my favorite posts.
Leslie @ Books Are the New Black created a fun monthly post called Birthstone Book Covers. Each month, she features book covers that are either the same color of that month’s birthstone or include the color in the title.
February has one birthstone – Amethyst. Which means it’s time for purple book covers! I love purple!
Rules: 📚 Mention the creator (Leslie @ Books Are The New Black ) and link back to her so she can check out your post. 📚 Pick 5+ book covers that match the current month’s Birthstone. 📚 HAVE FUN! 📚 Nominate people if you want!
Darker By Four by June CL Tan
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
Hollow by Karina Halle
The Swan’s Daughter by Roshani Chokshi
The Captive Kingdom by Jennifer A. Nielsen
The Crown by Kiera Cass
What are your favorite books with purple book covers? If you participated in Birthstone Books, which books did you choose this February?
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have the most amazing day/night!
I’m posting this a bit later than I wanted, but it’s sooner than last month, so I’m taking it as a win. Let’s get into my reading wrap-up for April 2025.
So far, April is the best I’ve been with reading books, so I’m therefore the happiest I’ve been all year with my reading. I know I can still do better, though, and would’ve still liked to have read an additional novel or two than the three books I ended up reading.
Anyway, let’s just start talking about my StoryGraph statistics from last month!
April Reading 2025
I read 3 books and 1,019 pages
😐 MOODS: I had four Moods in April, which is the same amount as the month before. The Moods from this past month were: Adventurous, Tense, Mysterious and Funny.
👢 PACE: All three of the books I read last month were fast-paced.
🔢 PAGE NUMBER: The novels I read last month were between 331 and 352 pages.
📖 FICTION/NONFICTION: It was once again all fiction. As usual.
🎭 GENRES: There were two Genres in the books I read in April. They were Fantasy and Young Adult.
📄 FORMAT: This pie chart was correct for once (but I admittedly did meddle a bit when I noticed it was slightly off, lol). All of the novels I read last month were on my e-reader.
⭐ RATING: My median star rating for last month was 3.42, as I rated the three books I read 3.0, 3.5 and 3.75 stars.
📉 PAGES READ DAILY: My reading for April was a little sucky throughout the month, but with high peaks occasionally, as I read each of these books over three days but one day per whole book. It spiked the most on the 4th because that was the day I read the longest of the three novels. The other two spikes were the 15th and the 19th.
So yeah, even though April was definitely an improvement compared to the other months of the year so far, I think I still could’ve done better. I think I could’ve done better with my blog activity last month either, but that’s neither here nor there. Here’s hoping I manage to do better in May, though. 🍀🤞
For May, I already have two books ready to go on my immediate To Be Read Pile. The first is Impossible Creatures, because I have other family members interested in reading it so I have to read and finish it pretty soon. The other book is The Ashfire King, which I’ve had since it came out last month but still haven’t gotten around to reading yet, but I’ve really wanted to.
After those two, I’m not as sure. There are a few books this month that I’m pretty interested in, so there’s a good chance I’ll read one of those. But I’ve also been really meaning to continue with One Piece for a while now, so hopefully I’ll get around to reading the next arc of that later this month.
Anyway, as always, thank you for joining me in checking out my StoryGraph stats for my April reading in 2025. Thank you also for reading, and I hope you have a great day/night!
So last week was, uh… Yeah, it wasn’t the best. I didn’t read or post as much as I’d have liked. So this wrap-up is gonna be one of the shorter ones.
Anyway the Weekly Wrap-Up is a bit late again, as you can see. I dunno what was up with me last week. At the very least, I had planned to get one more post out (the April Reading Wrap-Up), but that didn’t end up panning out. And I read a lot last week, but I didn’t read any novels. Ugh. I’m so annoyed with myself.
Anyway, I’ll shut up now. Without further ado, let’s get on with the weekly wrap-up!
Tuesday 4/29: Top Ten Tuesday
Last Tuesday, I participated in a Top Ten Tuesday for the first time in a few weeks. Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It celebrates lovely lists, wonderful books and the bookish community. The prompt for last week was Books With “[Insert Word Here]” in the Title.
Saturday 5/3: The Ascendance Series Books 1, 2 & 3 Review
On Saturday, I finally, finally, posted my review for the first three books in the Ascendance Series. This review was really hard for me get out for whatever reason, and is probably the reason why my activity on the blog took a dive last week. Because I had trouble getting into the writing of it.
As a whole, I thought that what I read of the series was pretty decent. I found it to be a decently written middle grade fantasy-adventure trilogy of books (and it was originally a trilogy, before the author went back and wrote a couple more books for it several years after it was first published). I have the three books altogether ★★★✯☆.
So yeah, my productivity concerning the blog as well as reading books was pretty shot last week. I’m really hoping to do better this week.
Regarding the coming week, for the blog I want to publish my April Reading Wrap-Up for 2025, and I definitely want to get out my list of most interesting new book releases for May 2025, the latter as soon as possible. I’m also hoping to do at least one of my other weekly posts, as well as a book review.
For books and reading, I have a book that I’m borrowing from my mother-in-law to read – Impossible Creatures – and I have to read that like right now. Cuz there’s kind of a waiting list in the family (my spouse wants to read it after me, and then my sister-in-law and my father-in-law), and I don’t want to hold it up. Then I’ll finally read The Ashfire King – I would’ve been reading it already if not for the family waiting list for the other book.
For the stuff outside the blog and reading, nothing else is really going on except for my diet. Which has been going on for almost a month now, which I’m happy about. Oh! My sibling did get a house a few weeks ago and is closing on it this week. So that’s cool.
Anyway, I’ve talked more than enough here. As always thank you for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful day/night!
BOOKS:The False Prince, The Runaway King, The Shadow Throne
COLLECTIVE LENGTH: 1055 pages
GENRES: Fantasy, Middle Grade, Fiction
PUBLISHER: Scholastic Press
RELEASE DATES: 1 April 2012 – 25 February 2014
DESCRIPTION ON BOOK #1:
New York Times bestseller The False Prince thrills with wild twists and turns, danger and deceit, and the revelation of hidden identities that will have readers rushing breathlessly to the end.
In a discontented kingdom, civil war is brewing. To unify the divided people, Conner, a nobleman of the court, devises a cunning plan to find an impersonator of the king’s long-lost son and install him as a puppet prince. Four orphans are recruited to compete for the role, including a defiant boy named Sage. Sage knows that Conner’s motives are more than questionable, yet his life balances on a sword’s point — he must be chosen to play the prince or he will certainly be killed. But Sage’s rivals have their own agendas as well.
As Sage moves from a rundown orphanage to Conner’s sumptuous palace, layer upon layer of treachery and deceit unfold, until finally, a truth is revealed that, in the end, may very well prove more dangerous than all of the lies taken together.
My Review
“Don’t make this a fight.”
“I won’t, but you make everything a fight.”
The Shadow Throne
I’m finally posting this book series review. Yay! Getting this review written took so long. I dunno what it was about it, I just had a bunch of trouble getting myself together and sitting down to get this review done. But I’ve finally done it, so here it is!
Anyway.
I first read part of The Ascendance Series several years ago, back when it was still The Ascendance Trilogy. Back then, I read the first two books and the first few chapters of the third. And then I stopped reading for some reason; I’m not actually fully sure of the reason why at this point anymore.
But about a month ago, I found out there were new books in this series and felt the urge to go back and finish at least the first three books. So I did that. And now I’m reviewing the original trilogy of this series as one whole review. I’m also really considering reading the last two books in this series sometime as well, maybe even later this year (I just wanted to take a break after book three and stuff – I was getting slightly burnt out on this series). Anyway, without further ado, here’s the review for The Ascendance Series Books one, two and three!
The Characters
“Have you come here to kill me?” I asked. “Because I’ll scream when you do and it’ll wake up the princess and probably a whole lot of other people and you’ll get into trouble.”
“You’ll be dead.”
“Yes, but you’ll be in trouble.
The False Prince
The characters in the Ascendance Series were okay. There were really only a few standouts, and only what I’d consider to be a couple really strongly written members of the cast; but I’ve also long conceded that this is also a middle grade series of books, so there was never gonna be anything like that anyway.
Let’s discuss the characters a little bit…
Sage 🧩 is the main character, throughout the entire series. He starts going by another name after the first book, but I’m not gonna tualk about it here ’cause it’s a spoiler. Anyway, he kind of irritated at first, but he really grew on me as the story went on, though. He really starts to shine as a character in book two. Sage is a sassy teenager with a strong heart. Though he did continue to do something in all of the books that continued to irritate me throughout my time reading trilogy – however I will say that this is more of an issue with the writing than Sage himself. (We’ll get to this specific issue in a bit.)
He starts to show his true colors as the novels go on, and even from early on it’s established that he’s brave and determined and highly intelligent, and he’ll do anything for those he cares about. This is when he started to be more compelling for me to follow as I read the books. Anyway, I think kids will really enjoy following him – and I actually did start to enjoy his personality and character more in the second book.
Sage’s friends Tobias 📚 and Roden 🗡️ are also pretty important. They don’t have a lot to them though, and I didn’t find myself interested in either of them really. I also didn’t really understand why they bonded and became friends, as everyone is constantly flip-flopping on everything in book one when they first meet and do the bulk of their interactions with one another. Out of the two, I guess that Roden is the more compelling character, however. I really wish we got to see more of their characterizations.
Bevin Conner 💰 is the one who sets the events of the series in motion and he’s definitely one of the more interesting characters here. Even though I kind of had him and his allegiances figured out pretty early on, I’m an adult reading middle grade, and I think younger readers will be questioning his motives throughout the trilogy. His servant Mott 🛡️ is a bit less interesting, but I still liked him and the familial bond he and Sage started to forge. Mott is also the most rational character in the series, and it was always refreshing when he’d interject his perspective on things.
And yes, there are also female characters in this series, although only two of them matter. Imogen 💞 is the first of these, and unfortunately her only purpose is to be a motivation for Sage. She doesn’t get that much page time, and I couldn’t take her and Sage’s budding romance seriously at all throughout any of the three books. I’ll get into it more in a bit, in another section. Anyway, the other relevant female character is Amarinda ✨ , who I liked a lot more than Imogen and thought was far more interesting, even though neither of them had that much of a personality aside from being kind and brave. I felt like Amarinda had a bit more to her character, though – probably because she wasn’t stuck in Middle-Grade Protagonist Love Interest Hell like Imogen was.
The Story
What’s the point of gaining peace if it costs us our freedom? I won’t trade the one for the other.
The Runaway King
I think that the plot – especially for the first book – is pretty intriguing and will draw people in, as it did me like seven years ago when I first read part of this trilogy. The False Prince 👑🔷 has a very compelling premise and the way the writing is keeps readers pretty engaged. Even if you know the big twist ahead of time, there are still little nuggets carefully placed throughout the novel that hint at it and make a reread interesting, too.
My favorite of the first three books of The Ascendance Series was The Runaway King. ⚔️💚 I don’t really know why, I guess because I already knew the big twist of book one ’cause I’d read it years before (though I figured it out almost immediately when I read The False Prince the first time as well). I also preferred Sage’s character during the second novel – he was far less of an annoying brat, though he definitely still had his moments that really irritated me.
The Shadow Throne 🗝️🔴 is also pretty good, and works well as the second half of the story set up in The Runaway King as well as an engaging climax. Almost all of the loose ends in the trilogy were also all tied up by the end – there were basically no hanging threads left over – which is always really nice to see. I love it when series do that.
The Romance
Villains and plots and enemies are simple things to me. But friendships are complicated, and love is harder still. It has wounded me deep.
The Shadow Throne
Even though it wasn’t a big focus in this series – the adventure was the main thing here – I still gotta talk about the romance. Because I don’t think any it was really that great.
There were two couples that have focus so far in the first part of The Ascendance Series, but one doesn’t really happen until the third novel, so I’m not really gonna talk about that one. That’s not the one I’m really annoyed with either, as it’s more of a side pairing and both of the characters in this relationship get equal screentime. No, the romantic relationship I’m talking about is the main one, between Sage and Imogen.
I don’t like this romance. For one thing, Imogen is barely a character, and for another, her and Sage only have like one or two interactions before they’re suddenly extremely protective and interested in one another. And this felt really weird to read, both times I went through the books. Not to mention, particularly in The False Prince and parts of The Runaway King, Sage makes Imogen uncomfortable quite a few times and that kind of made me uncomfortable to read.
I want to stress that he wasn’t being weird or anything – he was being pretty kind actually! – it just seemed like he overwhelmed her and would pile a lot of changes on her shoulders. Their relationship definitely moved too fast for two barely fifteen year-olds, though. Not to mention, Imogen didn’t really show up that often in any of the books, which didn’t help their relationship feel like it was evolving. So yeah, their romance basically never felt like it got any development, really. I do understand and acknowledge that this is a middle grade fantasy-adventure series that is likely primarily targeted towards boys, and that I’m definitely not the audience intended for these books though, so it doesn’t bother me that much.
The Writing
Nobody gives you respect in this life. You must take it, you must earn it, and then you must hold it sacred, because no matter how hard respect is to attain, it can be lost in an instant.
The Shadow Throne
I think that the actual prose itself in The Ascendance Series – as well as the dialogue – was pretty good. I felt that it was great for middle grade novels. Nielsen is a pretty good writer, and her writing really starts to shine in the second and third books.
I don’t like the way that the author has Sage narrate the books, however. Yes, I understand that Sage is meant to be an unreliable narrator… in the first book. And the way that he’s an unreliable narrator bothers me the same way that Gen is an unreliable narrator from Megan Whalen Turner’s The Thief – I’m not gonna say how because that would spoil the twist of both novels. But anyway, I don’t think that Sage should still be as unreliable (but in a different way) as he is in the subsequent two books that I read.
In books two and three, Sage is unreliable in the same way that I’ve heard Bryce Quinlan from the Crescent City novels is unreliable: they both do stuff off screen. Yeah, Sage basically always makes plans without telling the reader what he’s doing and then it almost always comes together in the end. And I hate that, when characters are written like this, because I think it’s a way that authors use when they’re trying to make their characters seem smart and clever, but they either aren’t skilled enough to do this in a better way and/or are lazy. So yeah, I’m not fond of this at all, and it’s the main thing that annoys me about Sage in the second and third novels.
Final Thoughts
With introductions out of the way, Erick got down to the business of having abducted me.
“Why were you asking Fink about the priest?”
“I have some sins to confess,” I said. “For ruining the life of the last man to kidnap me.
The Runaway King
All in all, I think that The Ascendance Series is a pretty solid middle grade fantasy series. Again, as I mentioned earlier, I’m definitely not the target audience for this series, but I was able to get some enjoyment out of it as an adult.And though there were some writing decisions that bothered me, they probably won’t bother middle schoolers – heck, they likely won’t even notice them! I think that kids in the intended age group will really enjoy it, actually.
And though there were some writing decisions that bothered me, they probably won’t bother middle schoolers – heck, they likely won’t even notice them! I think that kids in the intended age group will really enjoy it, actually.
Anyway, with everything in mind, my star rating for this series as a whole is:
Anyway, as always, thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have an amazing day/night!
See ya ~Mar
My Star Ratings for Each Book
Some Other Quotes I Enjoyed That Have Spoilers (for the First Book)
“From all I’m told, the prince they sent away was selfish, mischievous, and destructive. The king who returns is courageous, noble, and strong.”
“And a fool,” I added.
Mott chuckled. “You are that too.”
The False Prince
“You should thank me for tolerating you. I had hoped that becoming a royal would cure your foul manners.”
“That’s interesting. My father hoped that stripping me of royalty would do the same thing.”
The Runaway King
“It’s your storm, and the future of us all depends on you now. So who are you? Sage, an orphan boy who cares only for himself? Or the undisciplined, rebellious prince your father sent away? Life has tested your resilience and strength and willpower, and you have succeeded in ways nobody ever thought possible. But the storm has never been worse, and it will either destroy you, or define you. When everything is taken from you, can you still stand before us as Jaron, the Ascendant King of Carthya?”
Yes! I finally posted a Weekly Wrap-Up on time again! Woohoo!
Last week my blog activity wasn’t too bad. I’m pretty happy about it honestly, even though it was only three posts and I didn’t do a book review. I didn’t really read any books though, and I’d really like to post another book review (it’s been almost four weeks!), so those are my main goals for the coming week.
Anyway, I’ll shut up now. Without further ado, let’s get on with the weekly wrap-up!
Wednesday 4/23: Can’t-Wait Wednesday
Last Wednesday, I did another Can’t-Wait Wednesday for the first time in a couple of weeks. There’s been a lot of new books coming out lately that I’ve been interested in.
Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme currently hosted by Tressa @ Wishful Endings. It focuses on books you’re looking forward to reading, usually new releases.
Last Friday, I participated in First Line Fridays again – two weeks in a row for the first time in a while. First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words.
Yesterday, I posted another Bewitching Book Covers for the first time in a while – I think it’s been almost two months, haha. Bewitching Book Covers (formerly known as Majestic Mondays and Tasteful Tuesdays), is when I gush over a book cover that I like as well as analyze it (sometimes).
So yeah, even though I didn’t get to posting that book review that I really wanted to finally get to or read any books really, I’m still happy with my blog activity from last week. Yeah, I would have rather been able to do four blog posts (and have one of those be a review), but I’m still content with at least doing three.
As for this coming week, I have two main goals. Firstly, to finally finish that freaking review for the first three books in Jennifer A. Nielsen’s Ascendance series and post it. And secondly, to start and finish a new novel (specifically The Ashfire King by Chelsea Abdullah). My smaller goals for the week are just to do some of my usual weekly blog posts.
Concerning stuff outside the blog… I don’t really have anything going on. I’m still continuing with my diet, but that’s really about it, honestly. I don’t really have anything to really bring up.
Anyway, I’ve talked more than enough here. As always thank you for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful day/night!
So the Weekly Wrap-Up is a little late this week (as in: not posted on Monday like it should have been), but I’m still okay with it. What with Sunday being Easter and me being sick last week, I needed a bit of a break.
Last week, my blog activity and my reading were both up. So I’m very happy with that. I would’ve liked to do one more blog post – and have it be a book review at that – but with the holiday and busy weekend I’m okay with how everything turned out.
Anyway, I’ll shut up now. Without further ado, let’s get on with the weekly wrap-up!
Tuesday 4/15: Top Ten Tuesday
Last Tuesday, I participated in a Top Ten Tuesday for the first time in a few weeks. Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It celebrates lovely lists, wonderful books and the bookish community. The prompt for last week was My Unpopular Bookish Opinions.
On Thursday, I participated in 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 April, and its birthstone is diamond. So the color generally used for this month is white.
Last Friday, I participated in First Line Fridays for the first time in a few weeks. First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words.
On Sunday, I actually didn’t post anything on the blog. But it was Easter. So to those who celebrate, Happy Easter!! 🐇🐤🧺🥚 We had a nice afternoon spending time with family – for us it’s one of the few times of the year when everyone is able to get together, so it’s important to me for pretty much that reason alone. There was also a lot of good food for dinner and some wonderful desserts.
Books I Read Last Week
💖🎁 Wrapping It All Up 💖🎁
So yeah, this past week was better in regards to both blog activity and reading books. I would’ve liked to have been able to post a book review, but with the holiday weekend, I’m not surprised nor am I that disappointed about it.
Concerning what I wanna do this coming week with reading and the blog… Well, I want to read The Ashfire King by Chelsea Abdullah. And for the blog, I want to do a few of my usual weekly posts, as well as a book review.
Regarding stuff outside of books and the blog… This week is cleaning week. It was supposed to be last week, but since I got sick I wasn’t able to make it happen. But this week I will! I’m also still doing the diet, so I’m hoping that that continues to go well.
Anyway, I’ve talked more than enough here. As always thank you for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful day/night!
