Monthly Roundup: November 2017

What the... November went by WAY too quickly! I swear it was just the beginning of October, and now Christmas is approaching!

Well, let's just jump right into it! In November I read eight books! And considering that two of them were over a thousand pages each, which is equivalent to three normal books, that's a pretty good number!

The New Dark - Lorraine Thomson (2 stars)
The Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan (4 stars)
Milk and Honey - Rupi Kaur (4.5 stars)
Words of Radiance - Brandon Sanderson (5 stars) [reread]
Oathbringer - Brandon Sanderson (5 stars)
Gone Viking - Helen Russell (3 stars)
A Curious Beginning - Deanna Raybourn (3.5 stars)
A Treacherous Curse - Deanna Raybourn (4 stars)

So, obviously the highlight of the month was OATHBRINGER. Oh. My. Goodness. This book blew my mind in so many ways... It definitely fulfilled and exceeded expectations. And rereading Words of Radiance beforehand was also great. This series is just incredible. If you haven't started reading Brandon Sanderson, WHY NOT?!

I finally got around to reading The Lightning Thief (I've had the book on my Kindle for two years) and it was just so much fun. Now I'm going to borrow the entire series from the library! Milk and Honey, a collection of poetry, is short but beautiful and impactful. I also read a few ARCs from NetGalley, including The New Dark, Gone Viking, and A Treacherous Curse. The last was a fun find for me, as it is the third in a series, and so I had to read the first one to get an idea of everything, and I thought it was fantastic. Definitely a series I'll keep an eye on for the future!

What were some of your favorites in November? What are you looking forward to in December?

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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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