I Have Bookish Problems: Spoiling Myself

Hello, I'm Ashley and I have a Bookish Problem. I keep SPOILING myself while I'm reading. This is a very specific instance of SPOILING that I do. I won't deny that I do get SPOILED on the internet all the time, but sometimes I can't help that.
The kind of SPOILING I do to myself is when I take a book I'm currently reading, I flip to the back pages and read like the last paragraph or the last page. I don't really understand why I do this to myself, but I continue to do it. And I don't do it because I'm not liking or enjoying a book, sometimes I'm so curious as to how the story will end that I don't even want to wait to see, if that makes sense. I know I shouldn't do it, I know I should get to the end by reading ALL the pages, but my hand involuntarily starts flipping and suddenly I'm reading the last paragraph.
I really started thinking about this Bookish Problem of mine while I was reading my current read. Watching You by Lisa Jewell.

This is a thriller and thrillers are notorious for throwing you a curveball at the end that you weren't expecting. So Why Oh Why would I turn to the end pages? In my head, I guess it was because I wanted to see if a main character had a good ending with her life. So I accidentally on purpose, because of stupidity SPOILED myself. So I found out who the villain was waaaay before I was supposed to or wanted to. I genuinely did want to be surprised my the twists and reveals, and then I go and SPOIL myself for no reason. I don't understand me.

I thought it would make an interesting post to explain and share my Bookish Problems. To see if anyone else has similar Bookish Problems. Can you relate to me?

I don't think I'll ever be able to fully stop myself from flipping to the end before I'm finished with the book. I mean, I guess it would be harder to do with ebooks, but print books are my faves. Does anyone else do this? Am I alone?

So thank you for listening to my sad, sad tale. If I think of more Bookish Problems I have, I'll be sure to share with another post.

Reading Right Now! (191)

What I'm Reading Right Now! is...

Watching You by Lisa Jewell: I was lucky enough to win this from BookishFirst which is a website where you can write reviews giving your first impressions of upcoming releases and be entered for giveaways. If you win, they'll send you an arc to read and review. I love this website. Getting arcs is one of the most fun things (to me) of being a book blogger/book reviewer. I mean, of course I love reading all the books too, but there's just something about holding an early copy of an anticipated release in your hands and knowing you'll be one of the first to read it. I would love to one day just be on a publishers list where they'd send me all the books. So anyway, I highly recommend you join the website.

So, as a DISCLAIMER: I received a free copy of Watching You for honest review.

I'm not very far in yet, so I really don't know what to think. It's a thriller, I think there might be a murder, and it centers around this neighborhood of painted houses. The chapters so far have been very quick and interesting. I'm curious to know just what all is going to happen. I have no guesses as to what the twist will be. I'm enjoying it so far.

Oh and if you want to pick up a copy of Watching You by Lisa Jewell, you can. It's already out and available for purchase or library checkout (if your library has a copy).

So that's what I'm Reading Right Now! What are you Reading?

Review: Promises I Made (#2) by Michelle Zink

Title: Promises I Made (#2)

Author: Michelle Zink

Published by: HarperTeen

Released: 2015

Source: Library

Synopsis: Grace Fontaine was trained to carry out perfect crimes. But when a mistake was made the night her family tried to execute their biggest heist yet, her world fell apart. Now her brother is in jail, her mother has disappeared with the entire stolen fortune, and her father is determined to find a new mark, no matter the cost. 

Haunted by the way she betrayed her friends—and Logan, the only boy she’s ever loved—as well as the role she played in her brother’s arrest, Grace decides she must return to the place every thief knows you should avoid: the scene of the crime. 

Returning to Playa Hermosa as a wanted criminal is dangerous. But Grace has only one chance to make things right. To do it, she has to use everything she’s been taught about the art of the con to hunt down the very people who trained her: the only family she’s ever known. (Synopsis From Goodreads)

My Thoughts: Yayy for First Book Read of 2019! And Double Yayy because this also finishes a series, technically a duology, but still I finished something I started.

I enjoyed this. I enjoyed the first book when I read it. I won't say it was anything spectacular, but it was interesting. It centers on a family of grifters, con-artists who move to different places and target a rich person or family to steal from. Grace and Parker were adopted by Cormac and Renee for help with the cons. Teens are able to get into places where the two adults would have trouble. In the first book, Grace helped her family con a boy named Logan, and during the con, she fell for him. The heist went all wrong, with someone getting caught and someone taking off with all the money. The remaining members of Grace's "family" are now in crisis mode.

In this sequel, Grace returns to the scene of the crime to rescue her family member that got caught, but getting someone out of prison is hard. I feel like that's all I can say without spoiling anything.

I thought this was all right, I liked it. Grace is on the run through pretty much the whole book, she's laying low. It's a very interesting subject matter, but in reality, it doesn't make for a lot of action in the book. She's hiding, she's trying to find leads, she's always on alert looking over her shoulder, and she's trying to free the one person she cares about the most. Luckily she gets some help.

I'm glad I got to see how Grace's story played out. I really enjoyed the subject matter of the book, the conflict that Grace goes through because of her lifestyle. Her "parents" are selfish people and I felt bad for Grace. She wants so bad for a real family and these people are just using her to steal. The book also brings up the part Grace plays in the cons, and just what all she's guilty for. I did enjoy how it all ended too. It was a good ending.

I'd definitely recommend this series for people interested in Con Artists and Grifters. It presents an interesting type of life.

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 3.5/5

A Nice Ending

December 2018 Wrap-Up!

A belated December 2018 Wrap-Up. I'm thinking about doing my favorite books of 2018 too, but it would be sometime a little later. 
My reading in December was slower than I wanted. I think the Holidays and stress of that impacted my reading. I did pull through at the end of the month and had a decent number of books read. I read seven books in December, which brought my grand total to 77 books read in 2018. Not the best I've done on the Yearly Reading Challenge, but it wasn't awful. One year, I would love to say I've read 100 books, but 2018 was not that year.

  

  

-- Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao: I found this to be kind of boring. I didn't hate it, I didn't love it. I also read this slower and I think that was just because there wasn't a lot of action within the pages. It's an Asian re-imagining of the Evil Queen from Snow White and how she came to be that way. It was a villain origin story and I had no trouble seeing how she became a villain. The main character wasn't my fave. She wasn't very nice and it was alllll about how pretty she was. It's like that beauty was all she had going for her and she was going to protect it at all costs. I'm probably going to read the sequel, not because I loved the first book, but just so I can see what happens.

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 3.3/5

-- The Dark Intercept (#1) by Julia Keller: This was an okay read. It reminded me a lot of the show Person of Interest but instead of the all-seeing machine spying on everyone, this technology used emotions and memories as deterrents for crimes. If you commit a crime, your brain would be bombarded with your worst memory and incapacitate you. It was interesting. I do feel that everything wrapped up a little too smoothly in the end. I got the sequel as an arc free for review from the publisher, so I'm interested to read that to see where everything goes.

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 3.5/5

-- The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw: Enjoyable, but nothing that will really stick with me. It did have a bit of a Hocus Pocus vibe which was cool. It had a nice twist. I did think the main character could be very selfish and not fair to other people.

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 4/5

-- Bird Box by Josh Malerman: I wanted to read this before I watched the Netflix adaptation. I liked it. It didn't scare the socks off of me, but I did find it a kind of scary concept for a post apocalyptic world. Sight is important.

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 4/5

-- Black Hammer, Volume 1: Secret Origins by Jeff Lemire, Dean Ormston, Dave Steward, Todd Klein: I liked this one more than I thought I would. It's an interesting start to the series and I'm curious to know more.

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 4/5

-- Unaccompanied Minor (#1) by Hollis Gillespie: This was a little hidden gem of a book. I wasn't expecting that much from this one, but I really did enjoy it. The main character is something else. She is one of the most annoying, long-winded teenagers I've met, but I kind of like her. She's funny. This book was funny. I really enjoyed it.

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 4/5

-- Serenity, Firefly Class 03-K64: No Power in the 'Verse by Chris Roberson, Georges Jeanty, Stephen Byrne, Dan Dos Santos: I've already posted my review for this one, so you know my thoughts on it. I was disappointed. I wanted to love it so much more than I did. I love Firefly. The art just didn't please me and I didn't like what was happening in the story. The only thing that saved it was the story included at the end, which was beautiful.

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 3.5/5

FAVORITE BOOK OF THE MONTH:

That was my Reading Month for December 2018. It wasn't bad. Did you read anything good? Let me know!

Fresh Releases: January 8, 2019

Fresh Fresh Releases!!! Look at them beautiful, new books!

 

In An Absent Dream (Wayward Children #4) by Seanan McGuire

An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

Evidence of Desire by Lexi Blake

Get them while they're FRESH!!

Review: Serenity Firefly Class 03-K64: No Power In the 'Verse by Chris Roberson, Georges Jeanty, and Stephen Byrne

Title: Serenity Firefly Class 03-K64: No Power In the 'Verse

Created by: Chris Roberson, Georges Jeanty, Stephen Byrne

Executive Producer: Joss Whedon

Front Cover and Chapter Break Art: Dan Dos Santos

Published by: Dark Horse Books

Released: 2016

Source: Library

Synopsis: Tough times haven't ended for Mal Reynolds and his crew aboard the Serenity. When a call for help to find a missing friend takes them to an Alliance post on the Outer Rim, they encounter a new force building strength to fight the battle of the Browncoats--soon leading the crewmembers to question their individual values . . . Discovering that their friend is in Alliance custody and that an Alliance Operative is on the way, Mal concentrates his energy on the problem at hand and strikes an uneasy partnership for a daring rescue. But this is only the beginning of the story. Success will be when the Serenity's crew makes it off this planet alive and all accounted for . . .

Georges Jeanty (Buffy Season 8, Season 9, Serenity) returns to the 'verse!

iZombie creator Chris Roberson writes the continuing adventures of Mal and the crew.

Follows the film Serenity, and the comics series Serenity: Leaves on the Wind.

Executive Producer Joss Whedon!

Collects: Serenity No Power in the 'Verse #1-6, and Free Comic Book Day 2016 "Serenity: The Warrior and the Wind" (Synopsis from Goodreads)

My Thoughts: I love Firefly, but I was a little disappointed by this comic. It just wasn't everything I wanted it to be. No offense to the main artist, but the art really didn't capture the characters very well. I really noticed it with all the girls, they didn't look like them. The worst capture was probably River, followed by Kaylee, and Inara. Even Zoe didn't look exactly right. Mal 10% of the time looked like himself, the other 90% was just weak, it just wasn't even close for most of the characters. I'm not saying the artist was bad, but he did not capture these iconic characters for me. Other comics in this series have done a much better job of making the Firefly crew look like the Firefly crew.

The overall story was just kind of meh too. It seemed like everybody was mad at one another. All the relationships were going through turmoil. It just wasn't a happy time on the ship, they didn't feel like the family they are.

I've also heard that there will be no more comics in this series after this. I think it'd been bought out by someone else. So there will be no continuation to this story arc, and this Volume ends on a cliffhanger/call to action note.

The only thing that saved this for me was the addition of The Warrior and the Wind, which was a little bonus story at the end. It was beautiful. It gave me all the feels. I liked the art style of it. It was River telling a fairytale to Zoe's baby about how Zoe and Wash met, and just Wash's legacy. It was the best thing out of the whole Volume.

I love Firefly, but I just felt very meh about this Volume in the series. It didn't give me that feeling that I wanted and the visuals weren't up to par for me.

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 3.5/5

Not as Shiny as I wanted it to be.

Reading Right Now! (190)

What I'm Reading Right Now! is...

 

I'm trying that whole reading two books at once thing again. I just don't know how people do it successfully. I'm almost done with Promises I Made (#2) by Michelle Zink. I think I might even finish it in the next couple hours. It's the sequel and conclusion to Lies I Told, which is about a family of grifters who have a big job planned, and then the aftermath of that job. And I'm also reading Honor Among Thieves (#1) by Rachel Caine and Ann Aguirre. I'm about 100 pages into it, just getting ready to start Part 2. I've heard from people that it's a little weird, so we'll see what I think of it. Usually I'm okay with weird. I'm really enjoying the writing so far.

So that's what I'm Reading Right Now! What are you Reading?