I do a lot of book challenges, so I decided to start blogging about some of them. I'm in a group on Goodreads that does challenges every year, and this year we are doing a monthly one where we have a different type of reading challenge for each month. For January the challenge was titled New Year, New Books. We were to read as many books published last year or this year as possible. It's an ongoing challenge so we can add anything later that we want. I posted reviews on here for some of the ones I read already. My list included-
I also added The Vow to the list after it was published this month.
I read a few others that I haven't already posted reviews for. I probably won't get around to writing a review for every one of them, but here are three that I really enjoyed reading.
Home: Habitat, Range, Niche Territory (The Murderbot Diaries #4.5) by Martha Wells
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Category: Adult
Genre: Sci-fi
Content: Nothing I can recall
This was a short story set in the Murderbot series. I love this series and I'll take whatever I can get. I mostly enjoyed this because I got to see from Dr. Mensah's perspective following the events of Exit Strategy.
Cast in Firelight (Wickery #1) by Dana Swift
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Category: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Nothing that I can remember
Adraa is the
royal heir of Belwar, a talented witch on the cusp of taking her royal
ceremony test, and a girl who just wants to prove her worth to her
people.
Jatin is the royal heir to Naupure, a competitive
wizard who's mastered all nine colors of magic, and a boy anxious to
return home for the first time since he was a child.
Together,
their arranged marriage will unite two of Wickery's most powerful
kingdoms. But after years of rivalry from afar, Adraa and Jatin only
agree on one thing: their reunion will be anything but sweet.
Only,
destiny has other plans and with the criminal underbelly of Belwar
suddenly making a move for control, their paths cross...and neither
realizes who the other is, adopting separate secret identities instead.
Between
dodging deathly spells and keeping their true selves hidden, the pair
must learn to put their trust in the other if either is to uncover the
real threat. Now Wickery's fate is in the hands of rivals..? Fiancées..?
Partners..? Whatever they are, it's complicated and bound for greatness or destruction.
I haven't read much YA lately, mainly because I've had a hard time getting into them after focusing so much on books written for adults. They also have so many of the same themes over and over, that I got bored with them. I would also like to find one that is well written that doesn't feel like it's pushing an agenda. I read to escape, I don't want to have to read something that is hitting me over the head with a message, and that's how I feel about most of the YA stuff I've tried to read lately. Weave the message into the story in a more subtle way and let me come to my own conclusions about it. So when I picked up this book, I wasn't really sure how much I was going to like it. Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised.
There really isn't anything new here. It still follows the same old formula that a lot of YA fantasy follows, but I found it to be a fun and entertaining read. Both Adraa and Jatin were easy to like and I enjoyed the way they turned from being enemies to developing love feelings for each other. The ending left me a bit frustrated, but the second book has already been released. Now to see if my library will pick up a copy of it...
Feathers of Snow (Kingdom of Birds and Beasts #1) by Alice Ivinya
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Category: Adult, Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy, Fairy Tale
Content: Some animal cruelty, but nothing is actually shown
In Brianna’s new world of ice and snow, the coldest things by far are the eyes of her betrothed...
Brianna
bears a deadly secret: she’s not the princess she is pretending to be.
If the prince finds out, her life will be forfeit and her country
plunged into war.
But there is more to the icy prince than meets
the eye, and Brianna slowly unravels the secrets of his dark past while
surviving in a strange culture.
However her goodness and wit will
only get her so far. Terrifying beasts stalk the border and a murderer
is at work in the town. They know the truth of Brianna’s identity and
will stop at nothing to destroy all she has fought for.
This is a Goose Girl retelling, and that's one fairy tale I honestly have never read, so I can't really say how it compares to the original, but I loved this book. I had already read Queen Avan by this author and loved it, so I was really happy to get to read this one too. I like the easy writing style this author has. She has a way of pulling me right into her stories, and I find them hard to put down. I've already read the second book in the trilogy and will post a review for that one later. I'm looking forward to reading the last book when it's published.
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