Waiting On Wednesday – The Goblins of Bellwater

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly blog event hosted by Breaking the Spine. 

Technically I already have this book, but I haven’t started it yet and it hasn’t been published yet. I got a copy of this book from NetGalley. The cover is just so beautiful for this book I couldn’t resist. Be sure to tune back in next month for my review of this book!

Publish Date October 1st 2017.

Find on Amazon and Goodreads. 

Goodreads Synopsis: Most people have no idea goblins live in the woods around the small town of Bellwater, Washington. But some are about to find out.

Skye, a young barista and artist, falls victim to a goblin curse in the forest one winter night, rendering her depressed and silenced, unable to speak of what happened. Her older sister, Livy, is at wit’s end trying to understand what’s wrong with her. Local mechanic Kit would know, but he doesn’t talk of such things: he’s the human liaison for the goblin tribe, a job he keeps secret and never wanted, thrust on him by an ancient family contract.

Unaware of what’s happened to Skye, Kit starts dating Livy, trying to keep it casual to protect her from the attention of the goblins. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Kit, Skye draws his cousin Grady into the spell through an enchanted kiss in the woods, dooming Grady and Skye both to become goblins and disappear from humankind forever.

It’s a midwinter night’s enchantment as Livy, the only one untainted by a spell, sets out to save them on a dangerous magical path of her own.

 

About the Author: Molly Ringle was one of the quiet, weird kids in school, and is now one of the quiet, weird writers of the world. She likes thinking up innovative romantic obstacles and mixing them with topics like Greek mythology, ghost stories, fairy tales, or regular-world scandalous gossip. She’s into mild rainy climates, gardens, ’80s new wave music, chocolate, tea, and perfume (or really anything that smells good). She has lived in the Pacific Northwest most of her life, aside from grad school in California and one work-abroad season in Edinburgh in the 1990s. (She’s also really into the U.K., though has a love/stress relationship with travel.) She currently lives in Seattle with her husband, kids, guinea pigs, and a lot of moss.

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Top Ten Tuesday – Books on My Fall TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly blog event hosted by The Broke and The Bookish.

Oh the ever growing TBR pile, it never ends does it? I calculated how long it will take me to finish all the books one mine (this was weeks ago before I added more lol) and the estimation was around 10-12 years.  So that’s a thing.  But anyway, without further ado here is a small part of the list of books I want to read this fall.

1. This is a NetGalley ARC that I’ve had for waaaay too long.  I’m hoping to finish it this month though!

2. Yay! More Libba Bray. I’m super excited to read the sequel to The Diviners.

3. So I have to finish this book on the 22nd and return it to the library and I’m only 352 pages in it. It’s 973 pages btw.

4. I’m going to do WoW post about this book tomorrow, so this might be redundant. But I’m hopeful to have this book finished soon.

5. This is a book from my old old old TBR pile, I just got this book from the library. Dystopians are fun, so I’m excited for this one.

6. Continuing my theme of reading books off my old 2012 TBR, this is also another library find. The cover is amazing!

7. This one is a reread, I loved it a lot the first time so I’m super excited to read it again.

8. Ooh more books from 2012’s TBR. 😀

9. This book is more of a research book than a fun read, but still looking forward to it.

10. And last, but not least we have another reread. This book I read whilst in high school, I remember liking it and wanted to try it again. 🙂

And there you have it! Or at least part of it. Be sure to leave a comment with a link to your Fall tbr list, I’d love to read it!

The Hate U Give – By Angie Thomas

Goodreads Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does or does not say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

Find on Goodreads and Amazon.

I don’t even know where to start with how good this book is.   It’s been awhile since I read a book that made me care this much.  The Hate U Give will break your heart, you will care about every character in the story, if there’s one book that you must read this year it’s this one.

Though Starr is the main character, the story focuses a lot on her family, which I thought was really awesome. Starr’s family is so wonderful and supportive, her parents are adorable.  I was so glad to see this book did not suffer from non-existent parents, both her mom and dad are great characters.

This book can be hard to read at times, but in a good way.  It’s very emotional, very raw and full of truth.  There were times when I would have to stop reading because I was crying. The injustice of what happened to Khalil, and of what actually happens to too many black people today is never shied away from in this book. The message is strong, but never preachy.

I’m not sure what else I can say about this book. Please read it, read it as soon as you can. Buy the book, buy it for your friends.
I gave The Hate U Give 5 stars on Goodreads.

Top Ten Tuesday – Books I Used To Love

Top Ten Tuesday is weekly blog event hosted by the Broke and the Bookish.

Anyone else singing Gotye’s “Somebody I Used To Know” now? Yes, I am. Sorrynotsorry about that. 😀 So back when I started this blog it was 2013 ish? August? It’s been four years now, but I’m just sort of guessing about when exactly.  Back then I was just getting reading my first YA books, I was a baby book blogger. 😀 But without further ado, here’s some books I used to really love.

1. Rick Riordan. Oh man I was a huge fan of these books, and I’ve actually been meaning to reread his first series to see what I think of it now. I think I read the entire first series in a week.

2. Louisa May Alcott. I first read her books when I was a wee child, but up until the time I finished high school I was still reading and rereading them.

 

3. John Paul 2 High Series. I’m cringing thinking about these books. But I remember liking them because they were about teenagers actually in the modern day, and ones that I could relate to.  I’m 100% sure I’d hate these books now.

 

 

4. L.M. Montgomery. I still love these books, from Anne, to Emily, to her collections of short stories. No one writes romance, and nature and women better than Montgomery. I’ve even read some of her books recently, and they stand up pretty well against the test of time. For her days Montgomery was a feminist, and I appreciate that you can see that in her books.

 

5. Pearl S. Buck. She’s another author whose books I’m still enjoying today. She wrote about America, and China and the world. Her books talk about love, immigration, finding yourself through the past and who you become. I love her writing, characters and all her stories.

 

6. J.K. Rowling. I read the Harry Potter for the first time around these years. I loved them beyond words. Now I’m trying to read them to Grant, and I can’t wait to someday read them to my kids.

 

7. George Elliot. I read Middlemarch by George Elliot back around 2013.  I remember loving the characters from page 1, and I’ve been meaning to reread this book soon.

8. Jane Austen. Who doesn’t love a good Austen romance? Especially when you’re a home-schooled teenager. 😀

9. Suzanne Collins. I would still say that Mockingjay is the best in this series, but then again I should probably read them all again to make sure I like them. 😀 Now that I have more YA books to compare them too.

10. Fyodor Dostoyevsky. I first read a collection of his short stories, falling in love with White Nights. And then moved on to read Crime and Punishment, which blew me away. I need to go back and read more of his works.

And that’s the end of my list! Don’t forget to leave a link to your TTT blog post and I’ll stop by your blog!

Wintersong – By S. Jae-Jones

Goodreads Synopsis: Beware the goblin men and the wares they sell.

All her life, nineteen-year-old Liesl has heard tales of the beautiful, mysterious Goblin King. He is the Lord of Mischief, the Ruler Underground, and the muse around which her music is composed. Yet, as Liesl helps shoulder the burden of running her family’s inn, her dreams of composition and childish fancies about the Goblin King must be set aside in favor of more practical concerns.

But when her sister Käthe is taken by the goblins, Liesl journeys to their realm to rescue her sister and return her to the world above. The Goblin King agrees to let Käthe go—for a price. The life of a maiden must be given to the land, in accordance with the old laws. A life for a life, he says. Without sacrifice, nothing good can grow. Without death, there can be no rebirth. In exchange for her sister’s freedom, Liesl offers her hand in marriage to the Goblin King. He accepts.

Down in the Underground, Liesl discovers that the Goblin King still inspires her—musically, physically, emotionally. Yet even as her talent blossoms, Liesl’s life is slowly fading away, the price she paid for becoming the Goblin King’s bride. As the two of them grow closer, they must learn just what it is they are each willing to sacrifice: her life, her music, or the end of the world. 

Find on Goodreads and Amazon.

I hadn’t heard much about this book before I read it, I just thought the synopsis sounded interesting.

Wintersong is a bit of a strange book. I really liked the first third of the book and for the most part I liked the writing throughout the book as well.   The book has pretty strong characters, Lisel is determined to get her sister back, but she’s not perfect. I throughly enjoyed that. Seeing her not connect with her sister and wanting certain things, but ultimately sacrificing herself for the people she loved.

Here’s what I didn’t like.

First, the love interest, the Goblin King. Talk about a manipulative, abusive asshole. I hated him so much throughout the entire book. And what’s worse is, the author is trying to make him seem like a good guy. Like his poor broken heart makes up for abusive. Newsflash, it doesn’t.  Abusive is abusive and I’m so tired of YA using this troupe.

Second, weird sex stuff. Basically after Lisel and the Goblin King have sex Lisel goes on and on about how she’s a woman now. And magically overnight she’s matured and goes on and on and on and on about it.  It was really dumb.  I wanted to tell her, penises don’t make you a woman. But hey she wasn’t exactly going to listen to me.

Third, the ending. Spoilers ahead! I was really conflicted about the ending. Mostly because it doesn’t make sense! Lisel has to stay underground to keep the world above her from freezing over and everyone dying…except some how she doesn’t? In the end he just lets her go free and nothing happens to the world? All of her sacrifices were for naught? Does the point of the entire book mean nothing? I was just so confused.

In the end I gave this book 2.5 stars, because I did like the writing, some of the characters, and I honestly didn’t have any problems with it till about half way through the book.

The Valiant – By Lesley Livingston

Goodreads Synopsis: Fallon is the daughter of a proud Celtic king, the sister of the legendary warrior Sorcha, and the sworn enemy of Julius Caesar.

When Fallon was a child, Caesar’s armies invaded her homeland, and her beloved sister was killed in battle.

Now, on the eve of her seventeenth birthday, Fallon is eager to follow in her sister’s footsteps and earn her place in the fearsome Cantii war band. She never gets the chance.

Fallon is captured and sold to an elite training school for female gladiators—owned by none other than Julius Caesar. In a cruel twist of fate, the man who destroyed Fallon’s family might be her only hope of survival.

Now Fallon must overcome vicious rivalries and deadly fights—in and out of the arena. And perhaps the most dangerous threat of all: her forbidden yet irresistible feelings for Cai, a young Roman soldier. 

Find on Goodreads and Amazon.

I picked this book up from the library almost solely based on it’s cover. 😀

The Valiant starts off really well. I throughly enjoyed the writing, and was easily swept into the world in the time of Julius Caesar. I always enjoy books where I can easily imagine the world in my head, and feel like I’m apart of the story.

Fallon is a great character. Easy to sympathize with. Her initial capture was written better than I feared it would be, and her time in the gladiator school was also well written. I really enjoyed the side character Elka, I almost liked her more than Fallon and I wish she would have had more time to develop. The rest of the side characters were all fairly well written as well, with the exception of the Roman love interest. I was never convinced that Fallon would have fallen in love with her enemy, plus his personality was pretty bland.

The thing that made me rate this book lower than four stars was the overall plot. I found that while there were a couple of surprise plot twists, everything else felt very coincidental. I won’t say too much so as not give away spoilers, but two characters return in a manner that I just found ridiculous.

In the end I found this book held my attention for the first 2/3, and then the ending was not quite as interesting. Things tied up a little too nicely for me. Still I think others would enjoy reading it, after all I am a very harsh critique. I say read for yourself and see if you like it. It’s not often you can read about female gladiators.

I gave this book 3.5 stars on Goodreads.