Casanova Progress: Oct - Dec 2016

I was going to post a 2016 reflection, but honestly, I don't feel like it. I think we all know how 2016 has been. I don't have anything all that much different to report.

But I do have this I can do! This is at least something I'm proud of from this year.

October wasn't all that productive for Casanova (only 3k words), but I was also trying to stockpile ideas and prevent myself from burning out before NaNo even started. I dedicated a lot of my time into getting all my ducks in a row for November. (Whether or not it was successful is a toss-up, I guess.) 

NaNo itself was a success! This was my second-highest word count in the four years I've been doing it. (The highest was the first time I did it, and I'm not sure I'm ever going to beat that lol.) I followed my outline and was a lot more productive in terms of getting the story itself down on paper, instead of just writing 2k worth of filler / character exploration every day like I did in 2015. 

I was also a lot more productive at staying on task lol. I kept up my word count steam for a couple days even after I won, and I only wrote 3.5k for projects other than Casanova. Last year's chart for comparison: 

 Last year after NaNo I had a really bad burn-out and got less than 5k written during the entirety of December. I was determined not to let that happen again this year (mainly because I've been keeping with my "500 words every day" goal and I'm a sore loser). NaNo and a lot of writers also talk about giving your manuscript some time to rest before you come back to it, so I actually set out at the beginning of the month with the goal to write nothing for Casanova in December.

I was hoping to turn around and start drafting Sugar Plum, which was something I wanted to do last year. That didn't go as planned but at least I got some progress for it.

This screenshot is from the 29th, before I did my writing for the day

I've actually started writing for a couple different newer projects (most of which are just nested under Duality) and I've decided I want to keep going with this theme of exploring new ideas. Usually I don't start writing for anything until I've spent a lot of time brainstorming and such, but it's been fun to just jump into ideas without really knowing where I'm going.

The other day I did finally sit down and try to put Casanova's draft in readable order, since I'm awful at writing chronologically. The only problem is that 24k of it was never assigned a place in the outline and therefore takes some more work to stick into the timeline 눈_눈 I'm hoping to keep working on that soon but I haven't had much motivation since then ... I might just read through the in-order draft as-is and then go back and fill it out with the other 24k and any other writing that I've done in the past and can still use.

All in all, I've written 139,100 words for Casanova this year! I'm really proud of the progress I made towards it in 2016 and I'm hoping to keep that momentum going. I'm gonna try and devote 2017 to revisions and sharing it with other people (which is ......... stressful lol) but I'm definitely looking forward to polishing this mess up!

Savor by Megan Duncan

TL;DR just another vampire bandwagon book

TBR #1392, added Aug 3, 2015

finished 12/23/16

Whatever copy everyone else on Goodreads got, can I get my hands on that? Because I clearly did not read the same book as them.

Savor was pretty solidly "okay" at the beginning. The premise and execution of the first few chapters were a little hard to believe, but it wasn't all that bad if you weren't taking it super seriously. Aaaand then it just got steadily worse once the plot started to move.

My biggest complaint is the "**Now professionally edited!**" on the book's Amazon page. That actually gave me some faith when I started the book, because hey, it means it's been revised! Any errors that might've been there before should be fixed up, right?

Nooooooo.

A screenshot for posterity, taken on Dec 23, 2016. I added the little red box around the phrase in question. 

I didn't notice anything at the very beginning, but as I continued further into the book, the grammar and overall editing took a very noticeable nosedive. The "professional editing" had definitely disappeared by the halfway mark, making the second half read like a rough draft than a polished final copy. I finally started using Kindle's note-taking feature, and thanks to the wonders of Goodreads, you can see the (non-spoiler) comments that I made publicly visible. By the time we get around to Claire's debutante ball, there are so many misplaced commas and character inconsistencies that the only reason I finished was to see how much it could continue spiraling downwards.

(At least I don't regret that decision. The last 10% of the book or so was ... wild to say the least. Nothing like throwing most of the action and two lackluster plot twists into the last two chapters of the book.) 

The book starts off with Claire donating blood to the ruling vampire family of her region that's never actually given a name, and then the next day the vampire family is like, "Surprise! We're making you our new daughter and future heir" even though this concept had obviously never been brought up before. And then everything that follows is increasingly more contrived. Nothing felt like a natural progression of events -- everything was obviously stacked together to make the plot more ~dramatic~. We do eventually get some info-dump explanations at the very end but those reasons also feel completely contrived to make this story work. And, you know, would have worked a lot better if there had been any groundwork laid in the first 85% of the story for those ~revelations~, but alas. 

The characters were also all completely contrived. Somehow they were all caricatures of character archetypes and inconsistent at the same time. None of their motivations were convincing and by halfway through the book they were all obviously marionettes making the plot move along its railroad. 

(It's a phrase I stole from playing D&D all of three times, but I think it's relevant: none of the characters have any real motivations that conflict with the plot. They exist to further the plot. What do all the other characters do when they're not thinking about Claire? Who knows! Why does Claire suddenly change her mind and mourn her human life? As a reader I was given no reasons why she should really miss her absent mom and shallow friend, and Claire's dream of "making a difference in the world" was never specified more than that. No specifics like wanting to be a doctor or a politician or an inventor. Just a bland hand-wave-y goal that isn't even mentioned until 64% into the book.) 

I also feel the need to discuss the huge lack of worldbuilding or general consideration for this setting as a whole outside of what's going on with Claire. There's no real explanation of how the Noire family actually got into power, or how they've kept it for so long when they're obviously not doing anything but taking up resources in a large palace. There's no mention of them being actual politicians or appeasing the humans, and yet somehow a good majority of the population is still willing to donate blood to them once a month? 

And as a geography major, I feel particularly slighted at the complete oversight of how the real world functions and how that would differ from this vampire-ruled society they set up. Obviously the vampire ruling families have cut the regions off from one another, and yet the world Claire lives in has all the modern wonders of globalization like TVs and Mercedes cars. (The Mercedes was specifically mentioned by name.) There is one region that's given a name, and that's not until the last 2% of the book during one of the plot twists. 

Spoiler alert: even if the isolation was a fairly recent thing (which based on the Noire's rule, it's not), this America-coded setting would not survive on its own. We import more than we export. We could collapse in a heartbeat if we were ever cut off from the rest of the world. 

*ahem* /end geography rant

As a final note, the attempt at the plot twists was kind of amusing. The first one is such a cliche that you can catch it at the first instance of foreshadowing (not to mention that it's about as subtle as Claire's mood swings). The second one was just a nice way to completely dismantle everything that had been established in Savor, basically making the entire read a waste of time. 

TL;DR I was completely misled by the Amazon description boasting the book has been "professionally edited". The whole story felt like jamming various elements together to force them to work, instead of characterization and narration and plot etc. being woven together. 

Happy Holidays! [mini update]

I did write a book review in enough time to post it today, but it's a pretty rant-y one-star one, so I figured I wouldn't post that right before Christmas.

This December hasn't really felt all that ~festive~, which has been kind of disappointing. This semester was harder than I expected, both in terms of schoolwork and being an adult in general, and I just haven't felt in the mood to do much of anything recently. I don't know if it's seasonal depression or complete burnout.

I've also finally reached that "broke college kid" phase lol. I do feel a little lucky I made it this far before I started feeling so jaded about being an adult. It's kind of ironic that I started feeling more broke after I got used to working consistently, but maybe it's just because I've been spending a lot recently. Being social with friends almost always means buying something, whether it's dinner or something from a store, and the whole thing is starting to get tiring.

I'm hoping to get some solid rest in during this winter break so I can get some things done that I've been putting off the whole semester, but honestly, I'm not sure I'm gonna catch a break in the action. My last exam was on the 15th and I definitely feel like I haven't had a solid day to myself since then.

I'm definitely ready to move onto 2017 lol.

I hope everyone has a good holiday season this year! ♥

The Shadow and the Rose by Amanda DeWees

TL;DR artistic boarding school ends up having supernatural characteristics

TBR #1803, added Dec 5, 2016

finished 12/10/16

I'm gonna be 100% transparent and admit that I decided to download this book because the main character has the same name as me. The only other instance of that I've encountered so far is Joy the Summer Vacation Fairy by Daisy Meadows, which, ironically, was uncannily on point with the inclusion of Jack Frost into the plot. But that's besides the point.

The characters in The Shadow and the Rose were pretty good! It took a little bit of time to get used to seeing my name everywhere (since it was 3rd person narration) but I really enjoyed Joy Sumner and Tanner. They showed more depth than I was expecting and definitely changed for the better over the course of the story, and I did enjoy the secondary characters. Other than the name thing, the narration was easy to read and was definitely the first thing that made me decide to read past the first chapter.

The plot of this was a little simple, but at least it had it together. It flowed nicely and wrapped up nice and it never felt like too big of a story scope (ie having a huge society that magically nobody knows about). It also had paranormal elements that I've rarely ever seen (if ever) as the main driving force of the plot, which was nice.

I'm definitely willing to pay to continue reading this series, but I've been spending much more than I anticipated recently, so I'm gonna pace myself. (And I keep buying physical books which I should probably consider touching during winter break ...) It's definitely one of the first ebooks on my list to buy once I shave my TBR down a little more lol.

TL;DR it's not nearly as dramatic as other Paranormal Romance books so it was definitely a refreshing read. And I finally found another fictional character with my name that wasn't a one-off from a massive series!

Flight by Alyssa Rose Ivy

TL;DR don't accept drinks from strangers

TBR #1379, added Aug 3, 2015

finished 12/13/16

I'm gonna admit right now I didn't really get along well with this book. Most of that is probably my fault for picking up a Paranormal Romance book when I know I rarely ever like them. (The only reason I really went through with this was because it was higher up on my TBR. Not that 1379 out of 1804 is "high" ...)

I feel like Flight could have used more revision. The characters were one-dimensional and not-compelling and the plot and narration weren't nearly as strong as they could have been. There was a lot of room for potential in terms of character development and worldbuilding and it just was never there.

Allie was an idiot and Jess and Hailey were more token best friends than being realistic characters. Levi wasn't consistent as a character at all and he was usually a jerk more than he was anything close to a decent love interest. I didn't see any chemistry between Allie and Levi and I was irritated at the romance more than anything else.

Especially because of the contrived-ness of the latter half of the book. There's no plot for the first half other than the romance, and then everything just suddenly happens when it realistically shouldn't -- for a paranormal, Levi was awfully daring in trusting Allie. Especially considering one of the other boys in the group (Owen?) had his own little backstory paragraph about how his didn't work out.

There was very little about their society, too. Paranormal Romance implies more than just boys with wings, y'know? I would've been significantly happier if we'd gotten more structure about what the heck the shifters (capital Shifters?) were but we didn't see anything outside of Levi and his friends except for one party with werewolves that lasted maybe two pages and a party at the end of the book.

I would say I'd do things a lot differently if I'd been Allie, but honestly, I never would've gotten into her situation in the first place. I would not have stuck around in an uncomfortable position just because my friend was flirting with a guy, and I definitely would have pulled the "I'm the daughter of someone important" to get Levi to back the hell off.

Also, he and Hailey bought Allie drinks? On more than one occasion? Knowing she's a minor? And Hailey was a minor too! Do they just not card people in New Orleans or something? And why was Allie stupid enough to accept multiple drinks from a guy she didn't know who refused to tell her what was in them???

TL;DR I read the whole thing but it can all be summed up with "Allie was stupid enough to get in a bad position and then got mad when she couldn't get back out of it". And all of this could have been avoided if she was smart enough to not accept a drink from a man who was obviously older than her.

Kaleidoscope by Mindy Hayes

TL;DR average "turns out I'm not human" coming of age

TBR #1804, added Dec 5, 2016

finished 12/10/16

It wasn't too bad of a read, it just wasn't all that dynamic.

There were some minor editing errors, which aren't so bad if this is a self-published book, but I'm surprised that they stuck through the book all the way through revisions. Things like word confusions ("him" in place of "his") and awkward grammar (missing commas or having too many) and some quotation marks being dropped at the end of dialogue or being tacked onto the end of a narration paragraph. That stuff isn't that bad in the long run. It didn't hamper me reading much more than me stopping to look at them.

The characters weren't all that bad but they felt one-dimensional. They felt like fictional characters, you know? Honestly I didn't like any of the guys that were hinted to be love interests (though I will give props for having three, that's a new one). I found it a little hard to believe that Calliope rolled with the punches after only a few days of denial, but whatever. Maybe it's just me that would have been kicking and screaming a lot more.

(That's not true. I'd probably be overjoyed if I learned I could do magic.)

I also feel like I should acknowledge that Calliope's parents were both alive and well and in the picture in the story. And they actually did have more than one appearance each! And contributed to the plot a little bit! That's so rare.

The dialogue was a little stilted in a few places -- the semantics didn't contract things sometimes, which made it feel a little robotic, but other than that it wasn't too bad. The message of what was being said usually felt realistic enough.

I had been hoping for some good insight about Faylinn, so I was a little disappointed that all we got in Kaleidoscope was the boys talking about it. There wasn't really any action until the very end and it wasn't all that satisfying in terms of establishing anything; it's too much of a "you have to read the next book to find out!!" cliffhanger to be useful, and those are usually just off-putting for me.

TL;DR It's an easy enough read but most of the plot is talking and worrying rather than anything really being done. At this point I doubt I'll continue with the series unless I can find the sequels for free.

I downloaded my copy of Kaleidoscope for free from Amazon via Bookbub, so I do have a little hope that the next books might show up as deals one day as well.

The Mermaid's Sister by Carrie Anne Noble

TL;DR family isn't always blood

TBR #1793, added Nov 12, 2016

finished 11/15/16

I downloaded this because it was included in Amazon's Prime Reading. I'm glad I decided to check it out!

The aesthetic of the book was very cute and fairy tale-like, which was what I was hoping for. I really enjoyed the relationships the main characters had with each other. I was a little disappointed that Maren wasn't as big of a character as I was expecting, though. Like, she's the driving force behind the plot, but she's just kind of there for a lot of the book.

The plot also didn't have as much ... momentum as I was expecting? I was hoping for all sorts of adventures and shenanigans but they get stuck with one problem for most of the rising action. I mean, it was a good challenge for them, and it was interesting, but I thought there would be more variety in what they faced. Maybe it's just me.

This is a standalone book so it's perfect if you want a good read without committing to a series!

TL;DR I enjoyed my read but the plot and one of the characters weren't quite what I was expecting, and that was a little more disappointing to me than it should have been. Other than that it's a great book.

I Forgot Today's Blog Post

I was supposed to have a blog post go up today. I forgot. To be fair I did finish all of my final projects that were due and handed them in this week ...

I'm in the middle of reading a few books but I haven't finished any of them yet :/ Today's post was supposed to be a review. I've been making about the same progress in all three of the books I'm picking at so I might finish them all around the same time.

Sorry I messed up my schedule a little bit! I have two more school obligations next week and then I'll be done for the semester, so hopefully I can get back into reading a bunch of books and writing their reviews before I forget. (Ha.) I'm so ready to have a bunch of free time to myself. I'm exhausted.

10 Free Amazon Kindle Books [Dec 2016]

So I may have a problem of downloading free ebooks because they're available. They're like my dragon hoard.

I found all of these using Bookbub! Some of them were from emails as I was cleaning out my inbox, and I decided to check their webpage afterwards to see if there were any more. (There were.) I haven't had the time or motivation to read ebooks from my library, so I figured I would stockpile the free ebooks to have since they wouldn't expire on me.

(I hope.)

I'm also pretty sure I have iBook copies of at least half of these (also downloaded for free through Bookbub) which means those have been sitting on my iPod Touch for over a year ... I got my HTC last December and I've switched over to the Kindle app instead of iBooks.

So here we go! All of these I downloaded on December 3rd, so the deals should still be active. Some of them I think are free all the time as a hook to the series. I couldn't tell you which ones those are, though.

All of these links go to Goodreads (I wasn't paying attention when I was drafting this post), but all of these pages should have buttons that will take you to their Amazon page. They're under the description and the info like publishing date.

Jake and the Gingerbread Wars by E.G. Foley, TBR #1798*

Golden Blood by Melissa Pearl, TBR #824

Dirty Blood by Heather Hildenbrand, TBR #1387

Ever Shade by Alexia Purdy, TBR #1392

Flight by Alyssa Rose Ivy, TBR #1379

You Are Mine by Janeal Falor, not on TBR*

Forbidden by Amy Miles, TBR #1802*

The Shadow and the Rose by Amanda DeWees, TBR #1803*

Kaleidoscope by Mindy Hayes, TBR #1804*

Savor by Megan Duncan, TBR #1394

The starred books were ones I added to my TBR because they were free. (I had been making good progress at shrinking my TBR list ...) Jake and the Gingerbread Wars is book 3.5 in the series, so that's probably going to be an adventure to read, jumping into the middle of the story like that. I think all the others are the first in their series.

I started reading You Are Mine before I added it to my TBR. I was really curious about the execution of the premise. It's been ... interesting so far. I think I'm about 15 or 20% in by now.

I'll probably come back and update this post with my reviews as I upload them. (Hopefully. No promises.) My fall semester ends on the 15th so I'm hoping to get a lot of anti-social resting done between my last exam and Christmas. I haven't finished reading any more books since Nov 15th so I'm looking forward to devouring ebooks like candy again lol.

Let me know if you guys have read any of these! I'd love to hear more about them.

NaNo 2016 Reflection

Time for another NaNo recap! This month went by so quickly (;° ロ°)

This year I did Casanova again since I'd done some development for it since last November. I hadn't made as much writing progress as I'd wanted, so I knew NaNo was my only real chance of getting the ideas into any semblance of a working draft. This year I actually made an outline and everything and actually used it!

And I can officially say that the outline helped me through the month! I got through the outline a lot faster than I expected, so the last week or so of my writing is completely filler, but that's better than last year lol. I haven't tried to put my draft together in readable order (I made it about three days of writing chronologically before giving up) but if everything went well I should have everything I need to get from the beginning of the story to the end! 

Well, the end is still kind of open-ended, but I'm planning to fix that up after reviewing the draft. I'm also expecting to pull some of my writing from this past year (and even 2015's NaNo) to stick into the draft because there are some scenes I still like but didn't re-write this past month. 

Here's my chart on their website! I made consistently better progress than I have the previous three years. Now that I'm in the habit of writing every day, it was easier to push myself to reach the daily word count goal. And I did it up until I won! I slacked off the last four days after that lol. 

Here's what it looks like day by day.

I'm really glad that I decided to do Casanova over a newer idea. I'm really looking forward to getting it together to share with people, and hopefully someday I can maybe get it published. I've been going to Barnes and Noble a lot so that idea keeps popping up lol. Looking at all the books on the shelves is really inspiring tbh (•̀ᴗ•́)و ̑̑

This year I also did much better at staying on topic. I only wrote for Aperture once before I won. I celebrated my win by writing up an outline of Sugar Plum, which is a sci-fi Nutcracker retelling I wanted to write last December and never got around to. I don't know that I'll get around to it this year either, but at least I made a step towards it.

So yeah! I'd definitely call this month a success, and so far it looks like I can avoid the burnout I got last December. Ideally I'd love to get at least a minimal draft of Sugar Plum this month before Christmas, and then I'll jump into Casanova revisions in January during winter break. I guess we'll see how things go.

A Shade of Vampire by Bella Forrest

TL;DR Twilight, but with kidnapping

not on TBR

finished 11/14/16

I downloaded the 2015 extended edition via Prime Reading.

I borrowed this book on a whim because it was free for me. It was easy enough to power through in about a day (even if it was too awkward to try and read in class). The narration is agreeable, but the structure of a lot of the sentences felt awkward. I've googled a whole bunch of grammar terms to define it (to no avail) so I'll share an example instead:

Hoping to relieve some of the tension, I reached for a tissue and stood up. Cautiously, I placed a hand on his broad shoulder. He looked up at me and took the tissue, wiping his mouth. There was a small area that he missed, so I pulled out another tissue. (page 196 / 70%)

It feels kind of ... clunky? I think a lot of the sentences could be rearranged to get rid of the commas, like "I cautiously placed a hand on his broad shoulder". This particular example feels boring in how it outlines what's going on. I don't think there needed to be this much detail to cleaning blood off Derek's mouth.

(Ironically, I'm pretty sure this is the same kind of sentence structure I use the most ...)

Sofia was a little uninteresting as a main character, but at least she had some bravery to her. She adapted to her situation better than I expected. (Stockholm Syndrome, maybe?) The vampires were also uninteresting, and I'm not sure if they're really supposed to be the villains of the story. They're definitely not as evil as I was expecting based on the Amazon blurb.

(Maybe my expectations were just wrong overall?)

There's very little action and a lot of just sitting around. Like, at least Sofia is smart enough to not risk an escape she knows won't get her anywhere, but a good part of the book is her sitting around the treehouse and hanging out with the other girls that were kidnapped. It's not very dynamic.

I do feel the need to point out that there was a murder that was probably just for the shock factor (which was ineffective, since I wasn't attached to the character) and a reveal towards the end that wasn't as shocking as it probably should have been. I was wondering more about the implications of the reveal outside the realm of the story than how it necessarily related to Sofia's immediate story.

The setup for a love triangle is also awful and I hope it doesn't actually happen. I don't particularly like either of the boys, or the third boy that's only a stakes to the plot than an option. He's only there to scare Sofia and cause drama with Derek.

Amazon recommended me a bunch of similar books and I decided to look it up on Goodreads -- there are thirty-four books in this series. The first seven are of Sofia and Derek. That's a little too many. Like, they're not that long, but I have no idea how you can find seven books' worth of drama to include, let alone extending this world and lore across thirty-four more books.

Although I will admit that I'll probably read more if I can get my hands on them for free. Just out of curiosity. I really do want to see how such a long series is attempted.

I'm going to admit that I haven't made a successful re-read of Twilight since I finished it the first time back in 2009, but it's impossible to deny that they have the same kind of vibe. Derek has the same "silent brooding type that the heroine somehow finds endearing" thing going on, and for as brave as Sofia is, I don't think she's much smarter than Bella. The remainder of the vampires in A Shade of Vampire are exactly like the Twilight ones to me. I will admit that I enjoyed A Shade of Vampire more. (But I also hated Twilight, so the validity of my statement is a toss-up.)

TL;DR It was easier to read through than Twilight, and the characters do have some of their own traits, but it's also pretty standard for a post-Twilight vampire book. I don't think there's much to stand out from all the others except for how freaking massive this series is.

Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas

TL;DR high fantasy assassin girl

TBR #223, added Mar 1, 2013

library ebook hold placed 8/16/16; #59 in queue; received 10/3, #3

finished 10/17/16

I decided to give Throne of Glass a chance since I've enjoyed the ACOTAR series so far. I put it off since high fantasy doesn't seem to be my thing, but since I liked ACOTAR, I figured it didn't hurt to at least attempt reading it.

Throne of Glass definitely isn't something I'd normally read. I wouldn't have made it all the way through without having first read ACOTAR and ACOMAF and having the faith in Maas that she would make it worthwhile.

I do think it was a worthwhile read, but I don't know at what speed I'm going to get through this series. I'm willing to continue on with it but I'm much more invested in ACOTAR at this point ... I think just because of the fairy tale-ness of it. ToG has its own strengths and is nicely different (rather than having the same aesthetic). The main character was more than I expected -- I haven't had much success with similar high fantasy books before, I guess -- and I liked the prince, too. And his guard guy. I can't remember any of their names :( I'm hoping to see more of the girl's past as the series progresses.

Wow, I really don't have much to say OTL. I didn't retain all that much about my read. School has been kind of killing me lately, and I've been doing NaNo, so I've deleted a lot of info out of my head ... I really need it to be winter break already.

TL;DR it was worth the time (and the wait) but I'm more biased towards ACOTAR. I'll give the second book a try but I don't know when I'll get around to getting my hands on it.

Under Different Stars by Amy A. Bartol

TL;DR orphan turns out to be important alien

TBR #1373, added Aug 2, 2015

finished 11/13/16

I distinctly remember reading Cuddlebuggery's review of Under Different Stars when they first published it. However, I was at a family function recently and discovered Prime Reading, and Under Different Stars was one of the books I could get for free. (Once I got home I discovered it was on my TBR already, anyway, since I rarely ever delete books off of it.)

I was actually surprised by the fact I was willing to sit down and read the entire book. I was more than willing to give it a chance -- curiosity stemming from Steph Sinclair's review more than anything -- but as I got further and further in I realized I wasn't going to DNF it.

That's not to say that the book was necessarily great. The characters kept changing their stances on things and the drama of the second half of the book felt drawn out for the sake of suspense. And the romance wasn't good no matter how you looked at it, from Kricket's choices in men to their opinions of her to the age differences between all of them.

Kricket herself, aside from the romance stuff, wasn't too bad as a main character. She kept her chin up and did everything she could to survive in the situations she was thrown into. And I think she was doing pretty well until all the romance was thrown into the mix and made her decision-making take a nosedive.

The world was interesting enough to become the main reason I kept reading, but it wasn't anything that stood out from the rest of similar YA books. I was curious about some of the logistics of their world, specifically how their societies worked in relation to their geography. (I'm a nerd.) The whole patriarchal sexism present in apparently all of their cultures was a pretty big drawback to all of that.

I will admit that I'm willing to continue with the series if I can find the other books for free, solely from curiosity I still have. Reviews of the other two books on Goodreads aren't convincing me that I would want to pay for them, unfortunately.

TL;DR I ended up liking this more than I expected, but it's still got some flaws to it.

CWs: implied / mentions of abuse, sexual harassment, injuries / death. The abuse and sexual harassment seem to be a trend in the series overall, not just this book. I'd be careful on who I would recommend this to.

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

TL;DR The Selection aesthetic but with actual stakes

TBR #934, added Sept 2, 2014

library ebook hold placed on 8/17/16; #60 in queue; received 10/8/16, #4

finished 10/12/16

Yet another review I waited a month to write.

I downloaded a sample of Red Queen from Google Play at some point, and it was interesting enough that I was willing to let it take up one of my ebook request spots for two months. (I can only place holds on six ebooks at a time.)

I think Red Queen was such a good read for me because Mare didn't dig in her heels and make stupid decisions at every move. She realized the position she was in, and more often than not she played the part that the Silvers were forcing her to. She didn't do stupid rebellions like America did in The Selection.

Red Queen definitely had a similar aesthetic to The Selection, but the setup of the world was more interesting. Probably because the Silvers had powers. That's always a plus to the story in my mind. I also got the sense that their world was supposed to be set in a version of ours, so far after a dystopian event that it was obviously nowhere near being anything American anymore.

(Note: there's a map in the cover of King's Cage, book 3 of the series. I saw it on the publisher's twitter. I don't know if it's necessarily a spoiler to the second book.)

Honestly, if nothing else, I want more people to read Red Queen so I can discuss the ending of the book. Holy cow. I think there was one point where I picked up on foreshadowing, but I actually dismissed it. The ending surprised me so much and it was so good. Red Queen was definitely an improvement on The Selection aesthetic in that the stakes were actually legitimate, and not empty threats to create drama. Stuff actually happens.

TL;DR I enjoyed this a lot and I'm definitely going to continue with the series, hopefully sooner than later.

Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine

TL;DR libraries are actually evil

TBR #1100, added Nov 4, 2014

library hold placed 10/1/16, #18 in queue; received 10/10/16, #13

finished 10/20/16

I was completely amazed by Ink and Bone. Like, jaw-dropping amazed. This was such a good read for me.

I think what sold it the most for me was the characters -- it was so easy to sympathize and connect with them. I ended up rooting for them so much, even for the ones I initially thought I wouldn't like. All of the characters had many facets and it was so easy to feel for them.

The world was interesting, definitely in concept, and also in how it diverges from our world. Obviously the Great Library's restrictions altered how their history conspired compared to ours -- and yet they still had a lot of technological innovations. I mean, I guess it's possible that all of them came from librarians (capital Librarians?). There were some times that I doubted they really would've had innovations like steampunk bullet trains and yet not planes. Maybe there was a purpose in that. I know very little about steampunk, so I don't think I could've identified any influences or aesthetics of it if they were present.

The plot felt very high-stakes, and yet not overdone. I felt that the danger was totally believable, based on how their world had been set up through the narration, and it did keep me intrigued and coming back to read more.

I probably had more to say, but yet again I didn't write my review fast enough to remember those points. Sorry. One day I'm gonna get better at this.

TL;DR I really enjoyed this and I'm definitely going to continue with the series.

The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau [DNF review]

TL;DR Generic Dystopian YA Book

TBR #326, added Apr 7, 2013

library ebook hold placed 9/25, #2 in queue; received 9/28 #1

I'm going to admit, after the first few pages I was expecting to DNF this.

The narration at the beginning is just so dull. It's like The Hunger Games or Twilight was for me; it wasn't interesting or compelling at all, and the lack of personality in the first-person narration was killing me.

Cia in general wasn't an interesting main character to me. It didn't feel like she had any real personality -- like the seemingly-utopian setup of her world had just leeched that out of her. Or never let it develop in the first place. At the point that I stopped reading, she still was too bland for me to care about. The rest of the characters all felt the same way.

I made it through at least the first cull in the Tests before I stopped reading. I procrastinated so much on reading The Testing because of the dull narration, and it got to the point where my claim to the library book was about to expire. I decided to let it expire and focus on other books instead of force myself to get further in.

There was no explanation or even any hint to why the testing was so brutal to the kids or so exclusive. At least The Hunger Games used the concept of the Games as a means of complacency. It's hard for me to believe that their world would restrict higher education so much when they obviously need people good with STEM to recover from whatever ecological disaster they had. The disaster is never explained, either, or why people are split up into colonies that are awfully like the districts of Panem.

I initially marked this as 'maybe later' on Goodreads when my copy expired, but in writing this review, I realized I have no interest in finishing this book or the rest of the series. (The Goodreads descriptions of the following books don't sound like they'd be worth the hassle.)

TL;DR The first 20% or so of the book felt like a generic version of The Hunger Games trend and didn't have anything spectacularly unique about it that made it worth reading.

Paper Towns by John Green

TL;DR Quentin gives up the last two weeks of high school for Margo

TBR #1782, added Sept 17, 2016

library ebook hold placed 10/15, #2 in queue; received 10/17

finished 10/28/16

This is going to be a short review for right now! I've been too busy to sit down and write my reviews recently. Hopefully I can improve this post once I get home tonight!

~

I read this specifically so I could make a map of it lol. My cartography class had a "literary map" project, and I couldn't think of any books I owned that I wanted to do, so I checked out a Paper Towns ebook.

I didn't connect with any of the characters, and Quentin got on my nerves from how much he focused on Margo. I didn't like Margo as a love interest and the focus of the remainder of the book, but I can appreciate her own motivations outside of Quentin.

The book had a lot less action outside of the one night of shenanigans, but there was some nice character reflection and growth.

All in all I don't regret reading it, but it definitely wasn't as hypable as pop culture made it seem. So far I haven't absolutely loved John Green's writing--but I can understand why some people enjoy it.

NaNo Progress: Days 1 - 8

I have four book reviews I still need to write and post ... but have this post instead.

I did actually try to write the reviews, but I wasn't making any headway on them. I'm writing this post the night of the 8th, and the election results are really stressing me out. (But really, who aren't they stressing?) I did manage to channel this anxiety into my most productive daily word count so far this NaNo. 2,788 words! I specifically wanted to beat the 2.7k I had on the 8th last year.

So far I've been doing well at beating the daily average NaNo tells me I have. I've been lucky enough to exceed 1,667 words every day, and on the 7th I even reached that goal in under an hour. I'm doing my very best to pad my word counts in case my month starts going downhill.

Luckily, I've got most of my school deadlines out of the way for right now, so I'm feeling pretty confident so far. My only worry is my outline -- while I did make one this year, and put a lot more detail in than normal, I'm going through it faster than I expected. I'm worried that I'll get to the middle of the month and have no more ideas because I've written everything I had in my outline.

Of course, last year was completely BSing any direction I had, so I'm not too worried about what will happen if I do reach the end of my outline before I expected. I can also always go through and make sure I fill in scenes that I skipped. I was doing really well at writing chronologically the first couple of days, but I'm starting to skip around again.

At this point I'm confident that I can put together at least the first few chapters and have something that can be read by someone that's not me. My ultimate goal for NaNo is to get the entire book that way, but I'm happy that I made at least a start on that.

I've been posting daily screenshots of my writing on twitter. I might compile them at the end of the month in my review blog post (or at least the ones I like the most). I'll probably make another update post in about a week since I've hit a blogging lull recently ...

Firstlife by Gena Showalter [DNF review]

TL;DR mary sue-like MC and nothing else interesting

TBR #1699, added Jul 1, 2016

library ebook hold placed 9/28/16, #47 in queue; received 10/1, #46

DNFed 10/15/16, ~20%

This is the first book that I've specifically DNFed in a while, and I figured I had enough to warrant thoughts to warrant giving Firstlife its own blog post. This is still going to be pretty short since I didn't make it too too far into the story.

The main character wasn't interesting or compelling. She kind of annoyed me from the very beginning, which was not a good sign whatsoever. The introduction at the beginning - before the story even started - introduced the two agents in a way that removed any kind of subtlety they were probably supposed to have. The agents' roles in the story were heavy-handed and pretty obnoxious to read.

The only other saving grace would've been the setting and worldbuilding, which we completely missed out on, because she's in prison. All we get is descriptions of their universe through narrations and flashback, which wasn't nearly enough for what I was hoping for. The concept was unique enough that I was willing to try it out - despite the possibility of cliches - and I was really disappointed.

All in all, almost nothing happened up through the 20% mark, and I decided I would rather check out my reserved books that were then available than try to suffer through Firstlife. 

TL;DR I didn't like the main characters and we had very little plot or setting / worldbuilding up until the point I quit reading.

I would love to have a second opinion on this book, whether you actually did enjoy it or just made it further than I did. I highly doubt I'm going to give Firstlife a second try but I would like to discuss it more if I had the chance.

Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen

TL;DR Sydney finds her own shadow to cast

TBR #1211, added May 1, 2015

library hold placed 9/18/16, #10; received 10/1, #8

finished 10/11/16

I've had such a long streak of fantasy books that I definitely needed Saint Anything. The last contemporary book I'd read before it was All the Feels back at the end of July. Which is actually a pretty solid streak for me, to go for so long without getting anything relatively fluffy to lighten things up.

And I was a little scared going into it, because with my past experience of Sarah Dessen books (and ones like hers), they're never quite as fluffy as I want. There's always something that goes wrong and gives the books a somber tone -- which isn't bad, theoretically, but it tends to be predictable and definitely keeps the book from being truly fluffy.

I was actually wrong about Saint Anything in that regard. I was waiting so much for everything to come crashing down, and it never really did. There were roadblocks and setbacks but they were never earth-shattering; they felt normal. They felt like everyday things and not "my world is ending". It was nice and just what I wanted out of the story.

I liked the characters and their growth over the story, and I think it was realistic that they didn't really change all that much. It wasn't a very long period of time but we got to see the changes in Sydney's family and her own branching out into her own identity. She ends up with such a good group of friends and they're not always in agreement with each other. They fight and try to head in opposite directions sometimes and that felt lifelike to me.

The subplot regarding Ames wasn't resolved as well as I was hoping but I think it's also fairly realistic in how it just dropped off -- both because it would drag the plot out longer and because, unfortunately, those kinds of subplots in real life tend to get swept under the rug. Which is very disappointing. But, because it wasn't quite the main plot of the book, I'm willing to let it be left unresolved for the most part.

TL;DR I think the ending in general was a little lackluster, but overall I really enjoyed reading Saint Anything and I'm glad that Sydney had an overall happy ending. I think I'm most likely to recommend this one out of all the Sarah Dessen books I've read. (Which, to be honest, I think it's been a while since the last one I read.)

NaNo Plans 2016

NaNo starts tomorrow!! I'm so excited and yet totally unprepared at the same time lol. I think that's how it always is, though.

NaNoWriMo is a challenge to write 50,000 words for a novel during the month of November. This will be my fifth year participating, and hopefully my fourth win! I've found that NaNo works perfectly with my writing process, so I've been looking forward to this since, like, February.

I flip-flopped with my decision for this NaNo a couple times. I was torn between some new ideas I've had and doing a complete overhaul of Casanova, which was my NaNo last year. One of my new ideas seemed like it would be a lot of fun to tackle, but I also knew that based on my track record so far this year, NaNo would be my only hope to get any revisions done for Casanova. I haven't made nearly as much progress this year as I hoped I would.

So Casanova won the decision.

"But isn't that cheating?" you might ask. To purists, sure. It's not a brand-new-sparkly idea. But I'm not breaking any NaNo core rules -- I've never used old writing or writing for outside projects to count towards my word count goal during the challenge.

My ideas for Casanova have changed a lot since last year, where I was essentially just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see if anything was good enough to stick. I've gotten a much better sense of the characters and the plot, and I have a much better understanding of the setting after our trip to Dallas in December. (Which, honestly, I'm still in shock about. If nothing else I felt like I needed to pick Casanova again to honor that lucky break and the jump my parents took on the project.)

This year I'm actually going into NaNo with an outline!! I honestly don't think I've done that before. The past years that I've won have been complete literary abandon, as they say, and in the past three years that I've won I haven't been able to piece together an actual manuscript. I've got a bunch of writing, and a lot of ideas that I've ended up keeping, but nothing that can be read beginning to end.

My hope this year is that I can attack Casanova with a little more purpose this time and get at least one draft of every single scene I know I need to make the story flow from start to finish. I have a feeling I'm going to resort to a lot of bare-bones, uninteresting narration just to make sure I at least state what's happening rather than skip over it completely. I want to have something that I can hand off to someone and not feel like there's a whole bunch of unexplained stuff that I need to mention before they start reading.

My biggest challenge (aside from keeping focused) is going to be managing my time effectively. I've been doing a really poor job of it recently and I know it's going to take a lot of sweet tea and sheer determination to get me through November lol. I also have three final projects that I have to get done during the course of the month ...

Here's to hoping for a successful NaNo!

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

TL;DR Feyre's life gets a little less hell-ish

TBR #1776, added Aug 21, 2016

library hold placed 8/21, #58 in queue; received 9/28 #5

finished 10/6/16

I went into ACOMAF knowing a few spoilers thanks to Pinterest, but wow even those did not ruin the experience of the book. I liked this one even more than I liked ACOTAR.

ACOMAF is just so solid. Like, it's got a good plot, it's got a relatable and flawed main character, and such an amazing extended cast of characters. And Rhys -- I thought Pinterest was over-exaggerating about him and I was wrong. I don't think he could be any more perfect as a love interest.

A lot of the reason that I liked ACOMAF is that there's so much focus on character interactions and character growth. We learn a lot about Feyre, and Rhys, and all of his inner court, and we get to see Feyre open up and start to heal after what happened in ACOTAR. I think that's the most important part -- that they all help her to heal, and they understand where she's coming from and support her as her own independent person.

(Unlike someone else in the book, cough cough.)

I'm also really loving the world they're in. We get to see so much more of it this time and it's definitely one I want to see so much more of. I'm usually not one for high fantasy or anything close to it but this is just so good. (The geography nerd in me has been appeased. Aside from the fact the maps look so tiny on my Kindle app :c )

There are also some ....... really steamy chapters this time. Even more so than ACOTAR. There were a couple times that I felt like I was reading a smut fanfiction -- the beginning and end of the book are definitely not to be read in public lol. And I think there's a chapter or two in the middle of the book that are a little questionable. I'd definitely classify this series as more New Adult than Young Adult.

Despite being like an eight-year-old and hating even makeout scenes, I can definitely appreciate the ... detail? that's been included in the relationship. It depicts such a healthy and balanced relationship -- which isn't always something we get in YA / NA. And hey, body positivity! They're more mature than YA couples tend to be, which is so refreshing, but yeah this definitely isn't something I'd readily recommend to someone still in high school.

I'm excited to continue on with this series and I'm kicking myself because now I have to wait for the third book to come out. I'm kind of dreading the wait but I'm sure it's gonna be worth it.

TL:DR this completely exceeded my expectations and I'm officially hooked on this series. It's got some R-rated scenes in it, but other than that this series is really high on my recommendations list so far.

New Music Playlist - October 2016

Hi guys! I'm back with another music playlist to break up all the book reviews \(۶•̀ᴗ•́)۶/ I've done so many recently ...

This was a playlist I put together back in September, but it got pushed aside in favor of posting book reviews. So here it is now! I found all of these songs through Google Play's "Pop Before It Breaks" playlist, though some of them might have made their way to the radio by now.

I've embedded the playlist below, but you can also find it on YouTube here. It's seven songs, so it's not too long. It's all I could fit on my little sticky note lol.

I'll have a post about my NaNo plans coming up on the 31st! It starts soon and I'm so excited but I don't think I'll ever feel prepared enough lol. All of my geography classes have final projects that are due in early December, so I'm going to be working on all of those and slaving away on my writing ... it's gonna be a hard month.

Here's to hoping for a good month to come ♥

The Cage by Megan Shepherd

TL;DR teens kidnapped for a zoo run by aliens

TBR #848, added May 8, 2014

library ebook hold placed 9/17, #1 in queue; received 9/25

finished 10/4/16

This really wasn't my thing and I probably should've just DNFed it to save me the hassle.

It definitely has some good points -- I haven't seen a human zoo used as a YA topic before this -- but I didn't enjoy it. I think I could've kept my opinion at "yeah, it's okay" if I'd DNFed it, but by the time it even occurred to me, I was 85% done and to quit then would be a waste of the effort I'd put in to purposefully read The Cage over other ebooks I had.

The biggest problem for me was that the narration and the characters weren't interesting enough for me. The narration felt dull and I didn't like any of the characters. I can understand a degree of contrived-ness since they were specifically chosen for the program, but they felt inconsistent and their actions benefited the plot (which also felt contrived) much more than it ever did their own character growth. The narration also felt impersonal from being third-person, and despite being multi-POV, it focused so much on Cora that any of the other characters' chapters felt thrown in like Four's did in Allegiant. (Not quite as bad, though.)

The plot didn't quite feel like it had a solid direction, and the revelations at the end of the book were boring. I also did spoil myself by glancing at the sequel at Barnes and Noble and double-checking its synopsis on Goodreads. The ending didn't justify all the events that had lead up to it. I have no interest with what's supposed to happen after the end of The Cage, and I didn't even before I looked up spoilers.

TL;DR there wasn't any point where I really enjoyed reading this, and it's definitely not the kind of book I like, so I'm not going to continue with the series. It's definitely not the worst book I've read but I'm struggling to decide if I would recommend this to anyone.

Entwined by Heather Dixon

TL;DR Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling

TBR #195, added Feb 21, 2013

library ebook (no hold) 9/17/16

finished 10/1/16

I had no idea this was on my TBR when I found it in my thorough search of the library's ebooks. Most likely because it was so high up on the list.

Unfortunately, I did have some struggle with trying to finish it. I think part of it is from reading so many fantasy / sci-fi books lately -- I know I'm starting to burn out with my trend. I've also been marathoning through books like they're going out of style, and I've been feeling worn-out from school, so it's definitely not all the book's fault.

The plot did feel somewhat stagnant, or at least not as action-y as I was thinking it'd be (for whatever reason). The stakes didn't feel all that high until the end of the book. The ending was fun and action-y, at least. I enjoyed the final scenes.

Azalea was a nice enough main character but I don't the narration worked for me. I don't remember what exactly it was, but I think most of my problem was the mindset I was in when I read it. It fit the mood and story but wasn't really what I was wanting to read at the time.

(I owe this book an apology tbh. I was not the best reader.)

Azalea's sisters were all interesting and I was able to tell most of them apart, but that did rely a lot on simple characteristics (like Kale chewing on everything). They did have a surprising amount of variety for a set of 12 siblings. I had trouble telling apart the two main guys that weren't Mr. Keeper, the clock guy and the funny one. For some reason I couldn't keep their names straight in my head.

This is a standalone (as far as I can tell), so I definitely recommend this as a contrast to the YA trend of "series galore!! even though we don't need 5 books!!" I'm also trying to think if I've read any other Twelve Dancing Princesses retellings, and off the top of my head, the answer is only Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George. (Also, my only other knowledge of the original fairy tale comes from the Barbie movie, which ....... is probably not good to admit. This seems to be a trend of mine, only knowing fairy tales through children's movies.)

I do hope at some point there's another book set in the same universe as Entwined, because it's kind of a shame we didn't get to see much of it outside of the castle. I think there's a lot of promise to the glimpses of history that we got to see and I'd love to go back and revisit it.

TL;DR I wasn't in the right kind of mood to read Entwined when I did, unfortunately, but I'd still recommend it. It's a good standalone fairy-tale retelling that retains a childhood story aspect rather than being "gritty". Hopefully one day I'll be able to give it another go.

As a final note, I recommend checking out the author's website. She's got some super cute art.

The House of the Stone by Amy Ewing

TL;DR Raven is a better heroine, tbh, but this is all we get of her

TBR #1794, added Sept 17, 2016

library ebook (no hold) 9/22/16

read 9/23/16

I decided to check out the novella for The Jewel because I hoped that Raven's story would be more dynamic and more ~gritty~ than Violet's.

Yeah, I should've known better.

I mean, if you liked The Jewel, then I think it's pretty standard. It definitely is a little darker, but not in the way I wanted. It was just a little crueler without any true reasoning behind it than the Countess being masochistic.

The unfortunate thing was that it was so short. There wasn't any actual story to it -- it's just the first few days from Raven's point of view. It passes faster than Violet's narration does (which is unfortunate, because I enjoyed Raven's voice) and abruptly ends without any resolution.

So, like the novella, I have very little to say (lol).

The sad thing is, I think I would've enjoyed The Jewel a lot more if it had been about Raven instead of Violet. She was a lot braver and her situation was so much more dystopian. Raven's experience was what I was expecting from the story, not Violet's pampering. Raven has so much more to fight for and even in the 89 pages (supposedly) that I got to read about her, I cared for her more than I did Violet.

And unfortunately, because the main series is about Violet, I think it's pretty unlikely that I'll continue it. I even considered it if The Black Key looked promising ... but it really doesn't. Maybe it's just me being a heartless only child LOL. I don't care enough about Violet, and I certainly don't care about her siblings from the chapter or so that we got to see them in person.

I'll probably still recommend The Jewel to people who are just getting into YA or as a "read The Selection? Need more? Read this!" kind of thing. It's not absolutely terrible, but I found it a letdown.

TL;DR Raven's story would've made The Lone City series more interesting to me, but alas, we only got a novella I breezed through in an hour even though I was dead-tired. I'm calling it a loss and moving on.

CWs: torture, injuries, loss of autonomy / forced submission (... I really don't know how to describe this. This review -- the one that made me decide to read The House of the Stone, ironically* -- described it as "bordering to BDSM". Except it's missing the whole consent is key concept.) (*The review got my attention because it didn't really match all the others on Goodreads, and based on The Jewel, I was wondering how they were defining BDSM. Torture and BDSM are two different concepts.)

Soundless by Richelle Mead

TL;DR turning a village upside down in a period of, like, four days

TBR #1179, added Apr 15, 2015

library ebook hold placed 9/17/16, #12; received 9/18/16 at #11

finished 9/23/16

I actually finished two Richelle Mead books in about a week lol. I was actually a little uncertain about it, because Vampire Academy is such a veteran to the YA genre (meaning it's that pre-2012 group I still haven't blogged about), and because Soundless didn't have as strong reviews as I was hoping for since the concept sounded so unique.

And the concept definitely was refreshing in being so new. It definitely kept me on my toes, and the progression of the story took different directions than I was expecting from it. (Which is good!)

... but I do have to agree with a lot of people on Goodreads that it wasn't dynamic (read: kind of boring) and that I did a lot of the mental picture-building myself. I was never as interested in the book as I wanted to be and I had to purposefully sit down and decide to read Soundless as opposed to the other ebooks I had checked out. (I got through Vampire Academy, Dearest, and The House of the Stone since I started Soundless.)

There also wasn't any cultural worldbuilding to it. They had Chinese-sounding names, and apparently all looked Asian, and wrote with characters. That's really all I got from it. Maybe there's something to be said about their social dynamics that makes them different from a Western society, but I think that was superficial and stereotypical. This wasn't really something I noticed while I was reading but it definitely stands out now that people on Goodreads have brought it up.

I also don't really agree with Fei miraculously getting her hearing back. I was a little apprehensive about that even before starting the book, and while it was explained better than I was expecting, I was also hoping that she would be the only exception. I don't think it's a good narrative to have deafness be something that can be magically cured.

I think some of the problem with Soundless was that the whole plot was shoved into the course of a single book, which made everything happen too quickly to feel realistic, and didn't give any time for worldbuilding. (Well, we actually did have some good chances for it, and we didn't get it.) I think it could've been more interesting if it didn't feel artificially rushed.

TL;DR it was pretty dull, but I don't feel right rating it just one star. I think the fact that I never felt like throttling any of the characters (or other aspects of the book) earns it that second star.

CWs: violence, death, injuries. These aren't terrible but the book is a little violent towards the end.

Dearest by Alethea Kontis

TL;DR v cute The Wild Swans retelling

TBR #1001, added Sept 15, 2014

library ebook (no hold) 9/17/16

finished 9/22/16

This was surprisingly hard to write a review for, so this is going to be really short. I apologize. (I worked more hours than normal the week I wrote this and I'm still trying to adjust to having evening classes. I've felt pretty zombie-like the past month.)

This is part of a series, which up until now I thought was a trilogy, but is actually bigger. I'm really excited that I have the chance to continue with the series and continue with more of the characters we haven't seen much of.

I think Dearest could be read without reading the two books that come before it, but it definitely helps to understand the story. I've read those them and still I had a few moments where I had to search my memory for what was being referenced. (I also have a pretty bad memory. All of them were vaguely recognizable, but I was trying to look for more specific details, and I suck with those.)

Friday was an enjoyable main character and heroine and she was so pure, like, she's practically like a saint. She spent almost the entire story helping other people out (instead of the story being about herself) and she worked so hard for them and never complained and like ... I could never do that lol. I liked her flock of children and her flock of boys (lol) a lot even though there were too many to get a good sense of all of them.

I think the pacing of the story might've been a little slow at times. (I think I read the book pretty quick overall, so I don't remember exactly.) There isn't really much action but there's definitely a lot of anticipation and working towards their goal. I don't think any specific scenes dragged out all that much. The story did wrap up well within the course of the book and had a satisfying ending. The ending surprised me a lot, actually. I was :OOOO the whole time. (Though I think an argument could be made that it was a little out of left field compared to the rest of the book.)

The romance was pretty cute even for being insta-love. I guess I'm willing to forgive that since there was actual framework in their worldbuilding for it to be legitimately fate and not just "oh, ~swoon~". They respected each other as people and sacrificed a lot for each other, which also gave it a lot of points in my opinion. And I mean, it's based on a fairy tale, so I'm willing to accept some suspension of disbelief since it was a pretty close retelling.

The series is interesting in that it seems to adapt the fairy tales closely (at least to how I know them), but there are so many being put together that there are a lot of interesting crossovers in them. It's a little bit like The Lunar Chronicles to me, but TLC takes a lot of liberty in terms of worldbuilding and interpretation of the story. The Woodcutter books exist within a fairy tale-like world and keep a lot of that magic to them, but they add to the story by including threads of other fairy tales going on at about the same time.

(I'd live in their world, tbh.)

That was more than I expected to be able to write lol ;; Overall I'm really enjoying this series so far, and I'm considering re-reading the beginning books if I get a chance. I don't know if any other books are out in the series just yet but I'm definitely going to continue with it.

TL;DR I read through the book pretty quickly and it was a nice read, and it's been a nice series. It's definitely worth checking out if you like fairy tale retellings that are closer to the source than recent trends have been and aren't all dark and depressing.

So far this is only the second retelling I've found of The Wild Swans, so if you'd like another, Spinning Starlight is a sci-fi one that focuses more on the sister of the family and her journey.