New Music Playlist - Feb 2017

Hey guys! I still haven't finished any new books in order to post any reviews, so here's something different again: music! Technically none of these are really new (I've had this list compiled since like October), but I haven't heard any of these on the radio, so I think it's still fair game. 

You can also view this playlist on YouTube itself rather than watching it embedded here.

I hope you guys liked the music! 

Nobody's Princess by Esther Friesner

TL;DR Helen of Sparta as a kid

TBR #378, added May 1, 2013

finished 2/11/17

I don't read historical fiction that often, so I wasn't sure if I was actually gonna finish Nobody's Princess. It turned out to be a good decision after all. 

I'll be honest, the only stuff I know about Greek history / culture is from Percy Jackson and like maybe a week's worth of lessons in 6th grade history class, so I have no idea if any of this was accurate or anything. It was interesting enough to read despite being so far out of my usual genre / topic comfort zones, so I stuck with it. It was cool to read about such an old setting and culture and see how Friesner filled in a period of time of Helen's life that nobody really knows about. 

The characters were all interesting and I'm really glad Friesner took the stance that Helen would have support from her family and others, instead of following historical fiction trends that women aren't allowed to do much of anything. Helen had a lot of agency and it definitely made the read better for me. 

I'm kind of curious about how the Greek gods come into play in the series. Obviously they're a big part of the culture, but in Nobody's Princess it was ambiguous whether they were supposed to be real or if they're just part of the setting. (I mean, if it's supposed to be strictly historical fiction, I'm gonna guess the gods are just a cultural aspect rather than a driving force of anything.)

I don't know if my library will have the second book, but I'm definitely willing to continue reading, as well as try out the other books Kindle recommended to me when I finished reading. I was actually kind of excited when I saw that there were more books like this with similar historical girls / women. 

TL;DR it's a cool historical fiction read and I enjoyed it. 

YA Urban Fantasy Standalones

I haven't been reading books as fast as I had been (thanks to school) so here's something other than a review post!

I'm defining "urban fantasy" as "contemporary setting but with magic or supernatural elements". This, of course, is pretty widely-encompassing and not a perfect definition. Right now this list only includes books that take place completely (or almost entirely) within a contemporary setting. For example, this would include Percy Jackson but exclude The Mortal Instruments and Harry Potter (I would argue that the wizarding world is not a "contemporary" setting).

I wanted to make this list because the overwhelming trend in YA books is trilogies (or even bigger than that), and I'm sure there are people who want to find a book that is complete and isn't going to devour your life while waiting for the next book. I've also compiled this as a list on Goodreads if that's your thing. So here we go!


The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness (my review) - all the "background" characters of a stereotypical high school urban fantasy story

The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White - follows the only human daughter of Egyptian gods

A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn - American high schooler wakes up Sleeping Beauty

Team Human by Sarah Rees Brennan - parody of the Twilight trend

A Fierce and Subtle Poison by Samantha Mabry (my review) - Puerto Rican magical realism*

Devil and the Bluebird by Jennifer Mason-Black (my review) - the aftermath of making a deal with a devil

The Square Root of Summer by Harriet Reuter Hapgood (my review) - time travel via wormholes **

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black (my review) - a town that lives side-by-side with faeries


*Honestly, I'm not sure how to describe the difference between "urban fantasy" and "magical realism" other than the fact that magical realism never seems to make sense to me in terms of logistics.

**This is definitely sci-fi rather than fantasy, but I don't know of any other "contemporary sci-fi" books that I could group it with instead.


I also have posts planned for fantasy and sci-fi standalones, which will be uploaded eventually. I'll do my best to link to them here once they're up. I'm definitely trying to seek out standalones rather than getting sucked into too many series at once, so hopefully I can continue to compile these lists as time goes on.

Inherit the Stars by Tessa Elwood

TL;DR space politics

TBR #1239, added Jun 24, 2015

finished 2/5/17

I bought a paperback copy of Inherit the Stars from Amazon for $1.89 after taxes, thanks to some lucky timing. The price has since gone up to $7 or so since I held onto my copy for like 5 months before doing anything with it.

I read most of the book in the space of an afternoon. This is definitely an easy book to get through if you're looking for something that won't take a week to finish. The narration was easy to get along with, though on the other hand I will admit that it is a little shallow with worldbuilding. Asa's narration focuses on what's necessary for the story, which is good, but I would've liked to see a little more about this world than we got.

The characters definitely made up for some of that. Nearly all the conflict within Inherit the Stars' narration is character-driven; most of the problems that Asa or her family face within the book are created or solved by the other characters, not by their environment or sheer fate. I definitely sympathized with Asa, despite the many questionable decisions she made -- I think her justification for those actions was above average for 16 year old girls in YA books. I also came to like Eagle and I liked seeing how all the adults reacted to the issues faced, even if I didn't like what most of them actually did. It was an interesting power play, you know? I think that's underutilized in YA even with all the dystopian / ~suddenly royalty~ stuff.

Honestly I wish I'd picked a different day to start this book, because I wasn't able to focus on it as much as I would've liked. Good news is, I own a copy of it, so I'm going to hold onto it for a while and hopefully come back to re-read it. I added the second book to my Amazon wishlist so hopefully I can find a good time to buy that book as well.

TL;DR I breezed through it pretty quickly but I definitely think it was worth buying and I'll most likely come back to it again in the future.

[blog post skip]

Hey guys!

I'm all caught up with my book reviews and I didn't have time the past few days to write something, sorry. Hopefully I'll be back on track for the next blog post.

I hope you have a good weekend!

Lifeboat Clique by Kathy Parks

TL;DR it takes an apocalypse to make up for a scandal

TBR #1359, added Jul 22, 2015

finished 1/30/17

I thought this book was supposed to be about the aftermath of a cruise ship wreck. (I also didn't bother to re-read the blurb before I dove into the book so I guess that's my fault.)

I read about 70% of this in my free time between work and class on a Friday, and then came back and finished the last 30% on the following Monday afternoon. I think it killed my momentum the same way it did with The Gathering Storm. I should have finished it that Friday afternoon once class was over.

Other than that, it was really nice! I was a little afraid we would be stuck entirely with the characters on the boat, but that wasn't the case at all. The narration did really well with weaving in the backstory and lead-up to the social catastrophic event during down time -- and I mean, you have a lot of downtime when you're stuck on a castaway boat.

The majority of the book is super character-driven and it was nice to follow how the dynamics changed and how they all moved forward. They all had great layering of their personalities that unfolds as the story progresses. This definitely isn't a fluffy book considering they're actively fighting to stay alive as castaways, but it's not entirely a depressing read. It's got some lighter aspects to it.

Goodreads says this is a standalone, so I think this is perfect for a sunny afternoon when you've got most of it free. It can definitely be read in a time span between lunch and dinner if you've got the time to sit still.

TL;DR it was a nice read and I definitely recommend it. I also suggest reading it all in one sitting, or at least in a few closely-timed ones.

CWs: death (from various causes), injuries / blood, largely damaging natural disaster and its repercussions