My favorite part of starting a new year is looking back and reflecting on the amazing books I read that year. In 2020 I read 27 books. 18 books alone were either 5 or 4 star books. I didn’t have a single 2 or 1 star books. This made for an excellent reading year, especially struggling during a pandemic.
What are some of your favorite books of last year or this year so far?
Cheers bookish friends!
Do you like graphic novels? Do you like fall? Well one of my latest videos is PERFECT for you if you like both graphic novels and fall! In this video I share my 8 favorite graphic novels that are meant to be read during the fall season.
Title/Author: One Year at Ellsmereby Faith Erin Hicks
Genre: Graphic Novel/YA/Middle Grade
Publication Date: July 14th, 2020
Publisher: First Second
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 166
Rating: ★★★★ stars
Was boarding school supposed to be this hard?
When studious thirteen-year-old Juniper wins a scholarship to the prestigious Ellsmere Academy, she expects to find a scholastic utopia. But living at Ellsmere is far from ideal: She is labeled a “special project,” Ellsmere’s queen bee is out to destroy her, and it’s rumored that a mythical beast roams the forest next to the school.
Summary from Goodreads.com
My Thoughts:
I think Faith Erin Hicks is one of my new favorite graphic novelists. I really enjoy her artwork and colors during this novel and Pumpkinheads. There’s something about her illustrations and pastel colors that just makes me hypnotized. I also thought this book was perfect to read during this time as everyone is heading back to school. The boarding school setting just screams fall vibes. I overall really enjoyed this graphic novel and I will be giving it a 4/5 stars. I can’t wait to see what Faith Erin Hicks does next!
Title/Author: House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig
Genre: YA/ Fantasy/ Retelling
Publication Date: August 16th, 2019
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 402
Rating: ★★★★ stars
I’m not familiar with the 12 Dancing Princesses story, so I went absolutely blind into this book (other than the hype I received at ALA MidWinter Conference).
Annaleigh, her 11 sisters, father, and stepmother live in a manor right next to the sea. The 12 girls are princesses that sneak off in the night to go dancing and to get away from their town who thinks the family is cursed. One by one each individual girl slowly gets picked off and dies. As the tension grows and Annaleigh slowly becomes mad, is this all just a horrifying dream or reality?
The cover is beautiful. I love all the detail on it and it gives off a good feel to how I was picturing the book while reading it. I felt this story was a nice slow burning pace seeing how our main character slowly starts to go mad towards the end of the book. The end of the book was very interesting and the stepmother ended up giving me vibes of Melisandre from Game of Thrones.
However, I felt that there was this weird love triangle to be forced between Annaleigh and two other characters. Eventually, I grew tired of the dancing plot and was ready for the end of the book.
Overall this book was definitely interesting and is worth the hype. 4/5 stars. If you liked the Selection series by Kiera Cass I think you would enjoy this book.
I received an ARC from the publishing house at ALA MidWinter Conference.
Since it’s the summer time again, that means a new spooky book by one of my favorite authors gets released. The Haunted by Danielle Vega is one of my most highly anticipated reads of 2019. This book was released on June 4th but I was lucky enough to get an ARC copy at ALA Midwinter Conference in Seattle this year. Below you will find my review which contains all my thoughts, feels, and opinions. Enjoy!
Title/Author: Read This If You Want To Be Instagram Famous by Henry Carroll (Editor)
Genre: Art/Photography, Non-Fiction
Publication Date: May 2nd, 2017
Publisher: Laurence King Publishing
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 128
Rating: ★★ stars
Okay, after finish this book I didn’t realize I would have this much to actually say about it.
First things first the photographs were beautiful to look at and I really enjoyed the technical tangent sections. And that was it. I definitely thought this book would be a more of an insight with more tips and tricks and the only thing I really “learned” from this book is to be yourself (which I already do). It would have been interesting to see their very first photo and compare it to their most recent one because I felt like most of the book it was welp I’m an iPhone photographer turned professional photographer which made me feel unrelatable. I wished we also got more tips and tricks instead of learning just a paragraph about how the Instagrammer takes their specific photo. Also, we needed more CONTEXT. This book lacked so much when it came to the actual point of the book. I want to become Instagram famous not know the background on of a famous Instagrammer I never heard of.
I’m sure there is a YouTube video out there that can provide you with more of a helpful insight look behind becoming Instagram famous in probably five minutes or less compared to this book. Overall, this book is a ⅖ stars for me. If you like a book with beautiful photographs with little to no context or information than this book is for you.
Ah, the month of October was a refreshing spooky month filled with great reading. I ended up reading 4 books and the overall rating was ⅘ stars. I’m also so glad that the Spook-A-Thon had happened this month which got me the drive to read Halloween vibed books.
I’m also sad that October is over. I was getting in this reading groove and it was fun and made reading seem not like a chore. Now that Halloween is over I’m hoping to get back into a schedule where I can make more time to read and also bullet journal my reading progress this month. I also have a few goals that I want to make a list of to try to complete by the end of the year.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy my October Wrap Up and I wish you the very best reading month in November.
Recently I read one of my most favorite reads of 2018 called Fake Blood by Whitney Gardner. It’s a middle-grade graphic novel that’s perfect for this spooky season and Halloween. If you want to hear more of my thoughts and feels be sure to check out my book review I uploaded on my YouTube Channel!
Check out my book review on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKq2JJtbwEs&feature=youtu.be
Title/Author: The Heir by Kiera Cass
Genre: Dystopia, Romance, Young Adult
Publication Date: May 5th, 2015
Publisher: HarperTeen
Format: Hardback
Page Count: 342
Rating: ★★★ stars
Sit down and stay a while because this is going to be one lengthy review.
From the first twenty pages of this book we see how Eadlyn is exactly like her mother and how she’s ten times more of a brat. We also know that deep down inside no matter how much she dislikes Kile, she’s hiding this huge crush for him (which is so predictable). And also Eadlyn starts pulling this “forever alone” crap about a third of the way through the novel which is not okay.
I totally called out the last 20 pages of the book. I strongly (I mean very strongly) dislike how this book/series is so incredibly predictable and I just can’t stand it anymore. I don’t mind if my predictions can be right sometimes, but with every little thing Cass tries to hint at just blows up because you automatically know what’s going to happen next.
Problems that I’m still having with this series include how I WANT more of the world/insight on why the citizens are having an uprising. I want to be shown and told why they’re fighting for this cause and what the actual people are like outside the castle walls besides the contenders for the selection. At this point in the series I’m sick of dealing with this selection crap and I want more politics and insight as to why this is considered a “dystopian” novel, because when I read it I get no dystopian vibe whatsoever. And if it’s considered a dystopian novel because the citizens are rebelling against the government that hardly plays a part in the series, then this is upsetting because this book and series is nowhere near a dystopian novel.
Even though there were so many problems with this book I did have a few likes about this installment. America wasn’t annoying at all and that finally her daughter finally got her crap together towards the end of the book realizing that she’s the problem and needs to actually be a human and show some feelings towards people. And that I also enjoyed characters such as Kile and Hale.
Even though this is my so called “favorite” of the series it still gets a 3 star rating. I enjoy this book way more than any of the other books in the selection series, but there are still way too many problems that I’m having with Cass’ craft at this point in the series. Examples include annoying and irritating main character, no dystopic feels whatsoever, and super-duper predictable plot.
Title/Author: Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman
Genre: Western, Young Adult
Publication Date: September 1st, 2015
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Format: Hardback
Page Count: 318
Rating: ★★★★
This new and refreshing standalone western novel brings light into the YA world. When I first heard about this book I was quite hesitant with western being in YA literature. Over time I started to think more and more about this book, and once the cover was released I was sold. The cover is even more stunning in real life and the hardback resembles a leather book (which makes a reference in the book). Once I picked this book up and began reading it, I fell in love with it. In the beginning it’s basically Mulan meets a Western world which was pretty darn interesting. I also loved all the gunslinging action packed in this book along with the language making it seem as if they’re back in 1877.
Even though I highly enjoyed this novel, there were a few negatives. At times I felt the novel was a bit predictable and there was a tad bit of romance that this novel and I could have lived without.
Overall I rate this novel 4/5 stars. This book was beyond refreshing and it was very nice to see something new in the YA world. If you haven’t picked this book up, then you’re missing out. I highly recommend this novel if you would like to try something new and to go above and beyond your comfort zone.
Pages and Pages Book Reviews 