Monthly Roundup: August 2017

August started off slow. I was kind of in a book slump--nothing really caught my interest and I went through a lot of first chapters. Plus, we were moving for the first week and then unpacking the rest of the month, so I was tired from that. But towards the end of the month things picked up again! It helped that I got some good ARCs via NetGalley!

In total, I read eight books this month! And one that I mostly read but could not bring myself to finish...

The Tiger's Watch - Julia Ember (2 stars)
The Jane Austen Project - Kathleen A. Flynn (4 stars)
The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue - Mackenzie Lee (5 stars)
Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones (5 stars) [reread]
Book of a Thousand Days - Shannon Hale (5 stars)
Nyxia - Scott Reintger (4 stars)
The Fire Queen - Emily R. King (4 stars)
Into The Dim - Janet B. Taylor (3.5 stars)
A Jigsaw of Fire and Stars - Yaba Badoe (0 stars - DNF)

Quite a few 5 stars! In truth, Howl's Moving Castle has always been a favorite of mine, so that's no surprise. Book of a Thousand Days had been on my radar for awhile. It's more Middle Grade, but oh my goodness it made me cry from both despair and then happiness. What a gem of a book. And The Gentleman's Guide had me literally laughing out loud at the hilarious antics and clever lines, but was also full of character depth and growth. That's definitely going on the list for best of the year!

I read four books via NetGalley this month, which provides Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) in exchange for honest reviews. It's a way to generate buzz and promote books. Two of them were... Not my favorite. The other two, Nyxia and The Fire Queen were excellent and I really enjoyed them!

Next month there are a LOT of books coming out that I've been looking forward to! It's also going to be a super busy month for me so we'll see how much I actually read!

What were some books you read this month? What are you looking forward to in September?

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Monthly Roundup - January 2017

In January I read 6 books, which is keeping with the pace I need in order to read 80 books this year. 1) The Reader - Traci Chee (3 stars) 2) Wayfarer - Alexandra Bracken (3.5 stars) 3) Windwitch - Susan Dennard (3.5 stars) 4) The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead (3 stars) 5) Behind the Throne - K. B. Wagers (5 stars) 6) Queen of Shadows - Sarah J. Maas (4 stars) I say that's a pretty good start to 2017! I recently started a new job, so posts have slowed while I rediscover the work/life balance, but overall I really enjoyed the books I read this month and would recommend them all (especially Behind the Throne !!! Gahh!!! Review coming soon!). My TBR pile for February is a mile long, but I'm especially excited for A Conjuring of Light, the conclusion to the Shades of Magic series by V. E. Schwab. I've also got the February Book Club pick, Daring Greatly by Brené Brown, and I'll finally finish up Empire of Storms , the latest book in Sarah

Ensnared

Ensnared by Rita Stradling I received a free ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis ( from Goodreads ) "Alainn’s father is not a bad man. He’s a genius and an inventor. When he’s hired to create the robot Rose, Alainn knows taking the money is a mistake. Rose acts like a human. She looks exactly like Alainn. But, something in her comes out wrong. To save her father from a five year prison sentence, Alainn takes Rose’s place. She says goodbye to the sun and goes to live in a tower no human is allowed to enter. She becomes the prisoner of a man no human is allowed to see. Believing that a life of servitude lies ahead, Alainn finds a very different fate awaits her in the company of the strange, scarred recluse." Review The premise sounded very interesting: Beauty and the Beast retelling in the near-future with robots and AI. But it really really fell flat. I read the first few chapters, then put it down for a couple of months .

Arcanum Unbounded

Arcanum Unbounded - Brandon Sanderson Synopsis A collection of Sanderson's "short" stories and novellas set in his Cosmere universe. Review It's no secret that Brandon Sanderson is one of my favorite authors. His writing is stupendous, his stories are incredible and his plot twists are mind-blowing. Rarely can I figure out exactly where the story is headed, but I am always exceptionally pleased when I get there! Sanderson isn't as known for his "short" stories. Probably because they aren't short. Two of them in this collection clock in around 40k words, which is approaching the line between a novella and a novel. A few of the stories ( The Emperor's Soul, Sixth of the Dusk, Shadows for Silence ) can be read with no knowledge of his other books, and would perhaps be a good introduction to his writing. Those ones you can get individually or are published in other anthologies. I myself had already read a few of the stories, but withi

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