Tome Thursday: Forest of the Pygmies

 

Hello everyone!

 

Welcome to the final installment of this three-week journey, which began back in the Amazon, stretched across to the Himalayas, and is now coming home to roost on the continent of Africa.

 

Isabel Allende really did a magnificent job with her trilogy, and I, for one, am definitely here for it.

 

Besides, this is the last "normal" book, shall we say, before the Christmas countdown begins on this blog.

 

Yes, just like every year, I'll be reviewing all things Christmas, with any and all influences coming my way! So for the time being, say goodbye to anything that DOESN'T have those gingerbread cookies and candy canes in it.

 

Meanwhile, however, hit pause on it just long enough to read through this blog post, won't you?

 

Because this journey to Africa is kind of important.

 

Especially because it's the last book in the trilogy.

 

Without further ado, let's dive right into Forest of the Pygmies.

 

Tome Thursday: Kingdom of the Golden Dragon

 

Hello everyone!

 

And welcome back.

 

Like I said last Thursday, this November we're travelling through the adventures of two teenagers that basically did a roundabout tour around the world across three different continents, found adventure and danger along the way, and eventually ended up becoming the very best versions of themselves!

 

And the best part?

 

As far as I know, there's absolutely no sequel to this trilogy, as in, Isabel Allende didn't go and write about Alex and Nadia in their adult years, rather keeping the magic alive by wrapping it all up in a neat bow when they're just on the cusp of adulthood.

 

That's what I like. I'm not a huge fan of suddenly reading 'oh, you know that thing you loved when you were younger? Welp, it's all gone now because real life and realism got a hold of it and ruined it'.

 

Anyway. Enough with me yapping.

 

It's time for another trip, and this time it won't be into any warm climate whatsoever.

 

This time, we're scaling mountains in Kingdom of the Golden Dragon.

 

Tome Thursday: City of the Beasts

 

Hello everyone!

 

Welcome back to the book side of this blog, where we pick and choose books that either suit a niche to a T, or we strike out into the wild and try to figure out what kind of chaos we just walked into.

 

Tonight's choice is an OLD one.

 

Like, at least twenty years old.

 

I first read these books when I was about the age of the protagonists within them, so I suppose I definitely felt a certain way about the story as a whole, but now that I'm older, I wanted to sit down and have another go at them to see just what, if anything, I might see differently.

 

... Also, I just wanted to go back into some awesome writing.

 

Without further ado, let's just hop straight into it, shall we?

 

Make sure you've got your passport and you've gotten all your shots, because we're headed down the Amazon river and meeting some very, very indigenous peoples.

 

Then we're swerving right into City of the Beasts.

 

Saturday Snippet: Vampire Academy OFFICIAL TRAILER

 

The first four episodes just dropped this Thursday!

 

xx

*video not mine

Tome Thursday: An Heir Comes to Rise

 

Hello everyone!

 

After pretty much a month or two of just ARCs and books from BookSirens, I come to you with something a little different tonight.

I totally wanted to read more of the series before I started the blog posts but alas!

I needed a book for tonight. This was it.

If you enjoy books like the ones written by Sarah J Maas (who, coincidentally, I still need to finish one series from) then I am pretty sure you're going to LOVE this one.

It has unique world-building, likeable characters, and a pretty spread out array of them to start with.

And the character numbers just keep on growing as time goes by, too.

There are currently four books in the series, with at least one or two more planned based on all that I've read and heard, so you have PLENTY of time to hop on the bandwagon and join the rest of us!

 

C.C Peñaranda came up with something pretty unique in An Heir Comes to Rise. Why don't you go ahead and keep on reading?

Saturday Snippet: What Percy Jackson is ALL about

 

 

Basically ... yeah, that's it.

 

xx

*image not mine

Tome Thursday: Clay's Hope

Hello everyone!

As promised last week I'm back with a review on the mirror image of the book we talked about that time.

If you remember, I'd fallen off the deep end and into the world of werewolves and very unspecified supernatural humans who seem to be able to either see the life force of others or make predictions or stuff like that.

It's one of those things that you either roll with, or you never get the hang of it I think.

Me?

I totally rolled with it.

I'm fine with paranormal and supernatural so long as there's some sort of arc to the storytelling, and this one was a kind of Beauty and the Beast one at that. And we all know how we feel about it!

So now we've heard all about what Beauty thought.

It's time to take a look at Beast in Clay's Hope.

Tome Thursday: Hope(less)

Hello everyone!

Today I'm bringing you something a little bit different, or at least different to what I've been reading recently.

It's been a while since I found a really good supernatural book that I'd actually enjoy to the point where I'd want to immediately gobble down the rest of the series; usually what'll happen is that I'll like the first book, but it won't hold my interest all that much that I'd want to devote more time to the subsequent ones.

Not with this.

I picked this one up at random, I think BookBub suggested it to me and the first in the series was free at the time, so I was like sure, why not.

I don't often like YA books, not anymore at least, because I think I've just outgrown them, and most feature a heroine who runs off at the first sight of problems when all you want to do is shake her and tell her to JUST. COMMUNICATE.

This one wasn't like that, which is probably part of the allure here.

Are you ready for this? Better have some hope, because Hope(less) is up next.

Tome Thursday: The Shield of Nike

Hello everyone!

I'm coming to you live from a VERY snowy country, because our Alps decided they can't keep out everything that Austria's been getting in the recent days, ergo it's a very good thing I haven't taken my winter tires off to exchange them for regular ones.

At least now I'm generally safe!

The roads aren't snowed in, but they ARE slick and freezing, which means driving is a nuisance if you have to go somewhere (like the grocery story or a pharmacy).

Thankfully, I have more than enough books to keep me occupied during this time, and if I ever ran out, I know all I have to do is turn to BookSirens and they'll have something new waiting for me, fresh and interesting.

This is what happened when I randomly stumbled over tonight's blog post topic. I hadn't been looking for the book, but I certainly wasn't going to turn it down once I saw it.

A. P. Mobley isn't an author I'm familiar with, but the topic she covered in the novella I picked up from her certainly is. Greek mythology just so happens to be my absolute favourite, after all!

So let's take a look at The Shield of Nike, shall we?

The Host (Booktober)

"Looks like I'm not the only one who's gone native."

 

So, yeah. Two Meyer books in a month, I know. But unlike the ups and downs the Twilight Saga had, The Host was a book I pretty much fell in love with the moment I picked it up. What happens when we really aren't alone in the universe, and aliens literally take over our bodies? What if some memories, some people, refuse to fade away? This is what we deal with throughout the book, right along with humanity, the universe, and of course love, but it's even better because technically the characters falling in love don't really see one another ... at least, not both of them.

Honestly it's hard to make an accurate description. You should just read the book!

Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of human hosts while leaving their bodies intact. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, didn't expect to find its former tenant refusing to relinquish possession of her mind. As Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of Jared, a human who still lives in hiding, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she's never met. Reluctant allies, Wanderer and Melanie set off to search for the man they both love ...

(from book jacket)

xx

*image not mine

The Bridgertons (Booktober)

The Hound of the Baskervilles (Booktober)

The Infernal Devices (Booktober)

Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter (Booktober)

Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Booktober)
Broken Sky (Booktober)

The Shadow of the Wind (Booktober)

Dracula (Booktober)

Life and Death (Booktober)

ACOTAR series (Booktober)

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (Booktober)

Sepulchre (Booktober)

Pride and Prejudice (Booktober)

Tempting Autumn (Booktober)

Harry Potter (Booktober)

The Hobbit (Booktober)

Tome Thursday: Bellamy and the Brute

Hello everyone!

My first book blog after coming back from vacation, isn't it exciting?

Haha not really, but you know what I mean!

I read quite a few books while I was away and I also started one of Julia Quinn's series a week or so back which I might actually feature here on the blog in its entirety, because I'm getting such a good laugh out of it.

How many Regency novels do you know where you can honestly say the mother is the funniest character you've ever met?

I thought so.

But for today's blog post I'm going for something a little bit easier and one of the books I read prior to my vacation.

As you'll be able to tell, it's a retelling. And it's title is Bellamy and the Brute.

Tome Thursday: Wonder Woman Warbringer

Hello everyone!

For my book review this week I'm going back to basics with DC.

Now, for those of you who may not know me all that well, let me tell you that I frankly don't care too much about all this DC vs Marvel debate or hashtags or whatever.

I can understand that there's some rivalry going on, because, well, two competing comic book houses? Duh. It makes sense even to me. But I'm not one of those people who say YOU CAN'T GO FOR DC IF YOU'RE A MARVEL FAN THAT'S BETRAYAL. Or vice versa.

Me, I watch/read about the heroes I like. Whether they were created by Marvel or by DC means precious little, although I'll also freely admit I kind of like the tone of MCU better than of the DCEU at the moment.

That being said, however, Wonder Woman has become one of my favourites, partly thanks to Gal Gadot's amazing performancein the movie.

Which is why this week's book is all about the Warbringer.

Tome Thursday: The Glittering Court

Hello everyone!

It's time for a book blog again, and boy, did I pick a lucky one this week!

Some of you may know (or you may not, depending) that I'm a Richelle Mead fan. I can't remember at this point how or when I stumbled across her first three Vampire Academy novels, but I did, and the rest is history as I think I have by now devoured every single one of her books, though not all of them, in my opinion, are at the same level of success.

Like, really, Vampire Academy and Bloodlines are probably some of my favourite books with characters I adore, but the Succubus series isn't one I connected with, and Soundless also fell a bit flat. I wrote some blogs on the before-mentioned, and I'm liking them at the end of this post.

I wasn't as inspired with her stand-alone novel, but then news came out that she was once again working on a book series, and I was thoroughly into it even before the first book got published a week or so ago, but I only learned some details recently.

So without further ado, let's dive right into The Glittering Court!