Books Via Ashley

And another month has come and gone! Sometimes I feel like I get the most reading done during my busiest months? I don't know how that works because it seems like a paradox, but maybe my mind just needs to chill more when I'm busier. Anyway! In August I read ELEVEN books! Your Soul is a River - Nikita Gill (5 stars) Red Sister - Mark Lawrence (4.5 stars) Meet Cute - Various Authors (4 stars) The Rogue Not Taken - Sarah McLean (4 stars) Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik (5 stars) Wicked and the Wallflower - Sarah McLean (3 stars) Because You Love To Hate Me - Various Authors (2 stars) Alanna: The First Adventure - Tamora Pierce (4.5 stars) [ reread ] In The Hands of the Goddess - Tamora Pierce (4.5 stars) [ reread ] The Woman Who Rides Like A Man - Tamora Pierce (4.5 stars) [ reread ] Lioness Rampant - Tamora Pierce (4.5 stars) [ reread ] So, first of all, I reread one of my FAVORITE series from when I was younger, The Song Of The Lioness quar...

July has come and gone! It was a busy and slow month for me, reading-wise. I only read 5 books! Outrun the Wind - Elizabeth Tammi (3.5 stars) The Princess in Black - Shannon Hale and Dean Hale (3.5 stars) Lifelike  - Jay Kristoff (4.5 stars) Circe - Madeline Miller (4.5 stars) You Are A Badass - Jen Sincero (4 stars) The last three books of the month were really good. I buddy read Lifelike and Circe with a friend and they were great to read along with someone else! Badass  was a really good boost and motivator and just what I needed to read right now! I started a lot of books in July, but haven't finished them yet, or finished them in the last couple days (so they don't count for July). On my August TBR... So many books! Seriously! I've got some great ones on hold at the library, plus a few interesting ARCs to read. Looking forward most to Foundaryside by Robert Jackson Bennett. A seriously amazing author (Brandon Sanderson blurbed him sooooooo...

June was a bit slow in terms of books. I feel like June went by SO FAST but I was so busy I didn't get that much reading done. I mean, I still read 5 books (though one is technically a novella that I read in a day), so that's not nothing, but I definitely felt like my momentum from the previous months waned. The Queens of Innis Lear - Tessa Gratton (5 stars) Beneath a Sugar Sky - Seanan McGuire (4 stars) The Dream Thieves - Maggie Stiefvater (4 stars) Blue Lily, Lily Blue - Maggie Stiefvater (4 stars) The Raven King - Maggie Stiefvater (3.5 stars) Geekerella - Ashley Poston (4 stars) So first off, the Queens of Innis Lear was stunning. I did a buddy read and it was perfect! It's definitely going on my top books of 2018. You can read more on my full review, linked in the title above. Sugar Sky was the third novella in a series, and again some beautiful writing. I finished the Raven Cycle series and it was so good and unique. Look for a review of the ...

May was a CRAZY month. It was my birthday at the beginning of the month, and then we went on vacation at the end, with lots of work in between! I had so much going on, and yet I still read ten books! Sky in the Deep - Adrienne Young (5 stars) The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller (3 stars) A Court of Frost and Starlight - Sarah J. Maas (3 stars) Down Among the Sticks and Bones - Seanan McGuire (4.5 stars) The Raven Boys - Maggie Stiefvater (4 stars) Every Heart a Doorway - Seanan McGuire (4.5 stars) [ reread ] Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman (4 stars) The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid (4 stars) Nothing But Sky - Amy Trueblood (3 stars) Beyond a Darkened Shore - Jessica Leake (4 stars) I finally seem to be getting out of my book slump! I really enjoyed most the books I read this month. Most Anticipated was Sky in the Deep . What a beautiful story about love and redemption. The plot itself is simple, but the characte...

This was a BUSY month, lots of work and other things going on! This month was quite varied with my reading. I read some AMAZING books, and some that were meh. Also read a few long books (600+ pages), but that was interspersed with some quick reads (~300 pages) A Court of Mist and Fury - Sarah J. Maas [reread] (4.5 stars) The Wicked Deep - Shea Ernshaw (4 stars) Isla and the Happily Ever After - Stephanie Perkins (3 stars) The Sun and Her Flowers - Rupi Kaur (4 stars) Daughter of the Siren Queen - Tricia Levenseller (3 stars) Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda  - Becky Albertalli (4.5 stars) A Discovery of Witches - Deborah Harkness (2.5 stars) One Of Us Is Lying - Karen M. McManus (4.5 stars) Obsidio - Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (5 stars) Okay, first off, Obsidio was AMAZING. It's the third in the Illuminae trilogy and holy cow... So many feels. I was on the edge of my seat while reading. Up until 3 am. The whole she-bang. I would HIGHLY recommend t...

Well my book slump certainly ended... I also read a lot of shorter books this month. This month felt like it went by so fast, but also looking back it seems like the beginning of the month was so long ago! What is this weird time warp?! Anyway, I read 11 books this month! Sourdough - Robin Sloan (4 stars) The Hazel Wood - Melissa Albert (4 stars) Robots vs Fairies - Dominik Parisien [editor] (4 stars) Percy Jackson's Greek Gods - Rick Riordan (3 stars) The Demigod Files - Rick Riordan (3 stars) The Demigod Diaries - Rick Riordan (3 stars) the princess saves herself in this one - Amanda Lovelace (4.5 stars) The Radical Element - Jessica Spotswood [editor] (4 stars) The Queen's Rising - Rebecca Ross (4.5 stars) Women & Power - Mary Beard (4.5 stars) A Court of Thorns and Roses - Sarah J. Maas [reread] (4.5 stars) I was still on a slight Rick Riordan kick this month. There's just so much out there to read! And I liked reading some of the l...

February was kind of a crazy month. We traveled for a friend's wedding (which was so fun and lovely), and then upon our return home I was sick, got slightly better, then my husband got the flu and I also got sick again (though I had never really gotten better). So my energy level has just been really low. I also had a lot of books to read from NetGalley which I had procrastinated and then was trying to frantically read, but I was also kind of in a book funk this month. Nothing really satisfied what I was craving (not even sure what it is!), so I started a LOT of books, only to move on to something else. I'll go back to those books eventually, but I didn't finish them last month. However, in February I read 7 books! So that's something for being in a reading slump. The Blood of Olympus  - Rick Riordan (4 stars) The Sword of Summer  - Rick Riordan (3.5 stars) The Hidden Oracle  - Rick Riordan (3.5 stars) The Cruel Prince  - Holly Black (2.5 stars) Percy Jack...

Well, I certainly started off the year with a bang! Even though I got home from our holiday and went straight back into working and life, I still had enough time to read quite a bit! It was great having my library card reactivated. SO MANY BOOKS! And for FREE! I check out ebooks through Overdrive and they just arrive on my Kindle. Technology is truly amazing. I read a total of 12 books this month! If I keep up that pace I'll definitely overshoot my goal of 100 books this year. The Red Pyramid - Rick Riordan (3 stars) Lola and the Boy Next Door - Stephanie Perkins (3.5 stars) Retribution Rails - Erin Bowman (4.5 stars) Mother's Milk - Rachel Hunt Steenblik (4 stars) The Macedonian - Nicholas Guild (3.5 stars) The Battle of the Labyrinth - Rick Riordan (4 stars) Warcross - Marie Liu (4 stars) The Last Olympian - Rick Riordan (4 stars) The Lost Hero - Rick Riordan (4 stars) The Son of Neptune - Rick Riordan (4 stars) The Mark of Athena ...

I hit my goal of reading 100 books this year! And of course read a few more beyond that ;) My month was mostly taken up by work and then travel for the holidays, but I still got a good number in! They were all great books too! A Perilous Undertaking - Deanna Raybourn (4 stars) The City of Brass - S. A. Chakraborty (4.5 stars) Tropic of Serpents - Marie Brennen (4 stars) The Sea of Monsters - Rick Riordan (4 stars) The Titan's Curse - Rick Riordan (4 stars) Vengeance Road - Erin Bowman (4.5stars) I finally renewed my library card and I was able to check out the last three books from there. I'm loving the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan! I've got the rest on hold at the library! Vengeance Road was the last book of this year, and it was a fun and exciting Western adventure! The City of Brass was a wonderful historical fantasy set in a world inspired by Eastern cultures, filled with djinni's and magic. What were your favorite books of Dece...

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 h...

October! What a busy month for me! My sister visited and then I had a couple very busy work weeks, but I still got a LOT of reading done! Though I guess this is actually becoming fairly average for me. All in all, I read 10 books this month! I've now read 90 out of my goal for 100 for the year! Let's take a look: Invictus - Ryan Graudin (4.5 stars) The Tiger's Daughter - K. Rivera Arsenault (2 stars) The Last Namsara - Kristen Ciccarelli (4 stars) Even the Darkest Stars - Heather Fawcett (3.5 stars) House of Shadows - Nicola Cornick (4 stars) Artemis - Andy Weir (4.5 stars) Angelfall - Susan Ee (4 stars) World After - Susan Ee (3 stars) End of Days - Susan Ee (3 stars) Forest of a Thousand Lanterns - Julie C. Dao (3.5 stars) I read a lot of ARCs from NetGalley this month (most of which were October releases), including The Tiger's Daughter , The Last Namsara , House of Shadows , and Artemis .  Angelfall and the subsequent two books were a ...

September was a busy month for me! We took a trip at the beginning of the month to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary (yay!) and then we had TWO weddings to attend! A month full of love! All these trips meant I was able to get a fair amount of reading in though! In total I read nine books! Burning Glass - Kathryn Purdie (3 stars) Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng (4.5 stars) Tower of Dawn - Sarah J. Maas (4 stars) Moxie - Jenniefer Mathieu (4.5 stars) Godsgrave - Jay Kristoff (4 stars) 4:50 from Paddington - Agatha Christie (4 stars) Hanna Who Fell From The Sky - Christopher Meades (3.5 stars) Wicked Like A Wildfire - Lana Popovic (4 stars) Code Name Verity - Elizabeth Wein (4.5 stars) A few books really stood out this month. Moxie was incredible and awesome! I finally ready Wicked Like a Wilkdfire , which I received in the August FairyLoot box, and I really really liked it! I got an ARC of Little Fires Everywhere and it was just as beautiful as Celeste ...

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,  Ho...

Wow. I felt like July was reaaaallllyyy   long this year. Anyone else feel like way? It's probably because for once I wasn't  traveling! We had a lot of big changes though, including getting a new apartment and packing everything! But I still found the time to read TWELVE books! Roar - Cora Carmack (4 stars) Always and Forever, Lara Jean - Jenny Han (3.5 stars) Hunted - Meagan Spooner (4 stars) A Natural History of Dragons - Marie Brennan (5 stars) The Summer of Impossible Things - Rowan Coleman (4.5 stars) No Good Deed - Kara Connolly (5 stars) The Crowns of Croswald - D. E. Night (4 stars) The Fifth Doll - Charlie N. Holmberg (3.5 stars) Anna and the French Kiss - Stephanie Perkins (4.5 stars) Skullsworn - Brian Staveley (4 stars) Daughter of the Burning City - Amanda Foody (3.5 stars) Ready Player One - Ernest Cline (4 stars) [ reread ] It was a really good month for books! As you can see, I have a few 5 stars from this month! Five st...

I read a total of 7 books this month! Fairly good, since I was traveling for the main part of June, doing photography and service work in Tanzania! Nevertheless, I still managed to read five books on my trip, in addition to a couple others! 1) Nevernight - Jay Kristoff (4.5 stars) 2) A Penny Lost - Aspen Bassett (2.5 stars) 3) Gemina - Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (5 stars) 4) Dark Matter - Blake Crouch (4 stars) 5) Grave Mercy - Robin LeFevers (4 stars) 6) Dark Triumph - Robin LeFevers (4 stars) 7) Mortal Heart - Robin LeFevers (4 stars) As you can see, I read the entire His Fair Assassin trilogy  by Robin LeFevers during my trip. It was such a good series! I really enjoyed it and would highly recommend it. I finally read Nevernight  and it was amazing. I'm looking forward to the sequel! And Gemina was the sequel to Illuminae , which I read last month, and was just as amazing as the first. Can't wait for the third and final installment, Obsidio ! I'm c...

Here I was, thinking that I wouldn't have as much time to read in May, with the two busy vacations that were planned this month, and yet I read eleven books. That brings my current total of the year up to 44! I actually changed my book goal on Goodreads. It was originally 80, but I moved it to 100 since that's obviously the track I'm on. I hope to beat my record of 101 from last year! This month, I read a LOT of good books: To All The Boys I've Loved Before - Jenny Han (4 stars) A Court of Wings and Ruin - Sarah J. Maas (4 stars) Beneath a Burning Sky - Jenny Ashcroft (4 stars) The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas (4.5 stars) Defy the Stars - Claudia Gray (5 stars) The Hundredth Queen - Emily R. King (4.5 stars) Ensnared - Rita Spalding (2 stars) Leviathan Wakes - James S. A. Corey (4 stars) Flame in the Mist - Renée Ahdieh (3 stars) Illuminae - Jay Kristoff & Amie Kaufman (5 stars) PS: I Still Love You - Jenny Han (4 stars) I started the La...

Notice something different? I changed the layout of the blog! What do you think? There are a few kinks I'm still trying to work out, like now the sidebar is only visible from the menu button at the top left side of the page, but I'll figure it out ;) This month I read seven books! I'm now actually four books ahead of my goal for the year. I thought that with working, etc., I wouldn't have as much time to read, but I've also learned that you have to make time to read, which I do every night. It wasn't a *great* month for books, in terms of quality. There were a few books I had high expectations for and they didn't quite meet them, though I still enjoyed them! If you need a refresher for what the various star ratings mean, then you can check out the "Ratings Guide" at the top of the blog. Reviews are coming soon! Beyond the Savanna - Maryann Martinsen (2.5 stars) Empress of a Thousand Skies - Rhoda Belleza (3 stars) Norse Gods - Neil ...

Well, this month I read a lot  of books. I thought working again would slow down my reading, but it doesn't seem that way! I read some incredible books this month. When Breath Becomes Air was heartbreaking and fantastic and I highly  recommend it to everyone (it's not very long). Daring Greatly  was this month's Book Club pick and it was amazing in so many ways. And A Conjuring of Light , the third and final installment to the Shades of Magic series, was everything I had hoped for and more. SO MANY FEELS! I finished it a few days ago and I'm still thinking about it. It was perfect. 1) Empire of Storms - Sarah J. Maas (4.5 stars) 2) The Assassin's Blade - Sarah J. Maas (4 stars) 3) Everything, Everything - Nicola Yoon (3.5 stars) 4) Carve The Mark - Veronica Roth (4 stars) 5) Caraval - Stephanie Garber (3 stars) 6) When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi (5 stars) 7) After the Crown - K. B. Wagers (4.5 stars) 8) A Gathering of Shadows - V. E. Schw...

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 b...

To me, November is always synonymous with 'gratitude', due to Thanksgiving and the approaching Christmas/holiday season. This month, I reflected on how thankful I am to be able to read. It blesses and enhances my life in an immeasurable way. It allows me to travel to distant lands, see inside someone else's mind, and have adventures, all while curled up on my couch. It inspires me to take action and to be a better person. My goal this year is to read 100 books. If I take a step back, how amazing is it that I can make--and most likely achieve--that goal? Reading and books are such an amazing blessing, and I'm grateful to have that in my life. I read 7 books this month, putting my total at 89. 1) Labirynth Lost - Zoraida Córdova (3.5 stars) 2) The Forgetting - Sharon Cameron (4.5 stars) 3) Six of Crows - Leigh Bardugo (4.5 stars) ( Reread ) 4) Crooked Kingdom - Leigh Bardugo (5 stars) 5) And I Darken - Kiersten White (2 stars) 6) Heartless - Marissa Meyer ...