Reading Right Now! (130)

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

-- Black Bird of the Gallows by Meg Kassel -- I signed myself up for a blog tour for this, so I'm obligated to read it. Don't take that the wrong way, I was planning on reading it anyway because it looks good. My Blog Stop tour will be September 21, 2017, and it will be a review post. This book comes out September 5, 2017, so thank you to Entangled Teen and NetGalley for providing me with an e-arc to read. 

My thoughts so far... I LIKE IT! It's very addicting and I need to know what's going on and what's going to happen next. I like the writing. I'm hoping that I continue to enjoy it, because right now it's solidly in that 4 star range.

I can't even really explain what this is about, because I don't know. What I'll say is that this girl Angie gets a new, hot next door neighbor, but things are weird about him. Since he's shown up, weird things have started happening. That's all I've got for you.

I think my next read will be...

-- The Siren Chronicles: Book 1 by Douglas J. Sloan -- I was offered a chance to be on a blog tour for this one was well. I'm not for sure if I'm on it or not, but I need to read it anyway. It's another e-arc that I have from NetGalley. I was mainly drawn to this one because of the cover and the fact that it's about Sirens. I was intrigued. I don't know what it's about, but I hope to finish it as well. It's only 197 pages, so it should be doable. This book is also already out.

So that's my Reading Right Now! plans. What are you Reading?

Review: Y: The Last Man, Volume 8: Kimono Dragons by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, Goran Sudzuka, and Jose Marzan, Jr.

Title: Y: The Last Man, Volume 8: Kimono Dragons

Written by: Brian K. Vaughan

Pencillers: Pia Guerra and Goran Sudzuka

Inker: Jose Marzan, Jr.

Published by: DC Comics

Released: 2006

Source: Library

Summary: Welcome to Japan! Yorick and Agent 355 are on the trail of a monkey who's the key to saving the world. Unfortunately, Ampersand is in the hands of a very powerful person, and it might take more to save him then first thought.

Meanwhile, Dr. Mann decides to take a stroll down memory lane. And an old villain returns (?) Just another day for Yorick and the crew.

My Thoughts: I enjoyed this volume, but it wasn't my favorite. My favorite parts of it had to be Yorick and Agent 355 being together and sharing stuff. I like them as a duo.

I wasn't really the biggest fan of getting Dr. Mann and Israeli Crazy Chick's backstories. Maybe because I just don't like those characters very much. I just don't enjoy the time I spend with them. I've never really liked Dr. Mann though, so that's no real surprise.

I also don't think a whole lot happened in this Volume. It was nice filler, I enjoyed reading it.

I'm getting closer to the end of Y:The Last Man, and I'm excited to see how everything ends! This is definitely a comic series that I enjoy. Yorick is fun and Agent 355 is awesome!

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 3.5/5

Not bad.

Review: Emma In The Night by Wendy Walker

Title: Emma In the Night

Author: Wendy Walker

Published by: St. Martin's Press

Released: August 8, 2017

Source: Review Copy via NetGalley and St. Martin's Press

Summary: Two sisters go missing. A car is discovered at the beach, shoes left in the sand. The car belongs to the older sister Emma. Did she drown herself in the ocean? Was she taken? Where's her younger sister Cass?

Three years later, Cass returns to her mother's house, but not Emma. Cass has a story to tell, a sister to save, and secrets to expose.

My Thoughts: I want to thank St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with an e-arc to review. I'm always really grateful to read and review books early. This is going to be an honest review, like all of my reviews are, and all opinions are my own.

I'm just kind of meh about this book. I really enjoy mysteries and thrillers, and I really enjoyed the idea for this one. If I had to describe my feelings for this book in a couple words, they would be interesting, but dull.

Emma In the Night is very much a tell instead of a show. It's pretty much just Cass telling her story and experience in order to find her sister. All that telling made it a little dull. It definitely is not the most exciting mystery thriller I've ever read.

The story switches perspectives between the characters of Cass and a psychologist/therapist who works for the police named Dr. Winter. Neither character was a very exciting voice to follow.

Cass definitely gives that feeling of an unreliable narrator. What she's telling everyone is constantly referred to as a story, which made me question just what to believe.

Dr. Winter is kind of consumed by this case, mainly because of one aspect. She believes that Cass and Emma's mother suffers from a severe narcissistic personality disorder. Dr. Winter has a lot of bias in this assessment, because she believed her mother suffered from the same thing. I don't think Dr. Winter was able to separate her past from the case.

I thought the Narcissistic Personality Syndrome was interesting, but I do feel I got hit over the head with it. It seemed to be always mentioned, always brought up. I must have read the word Narcissistic at least 50 times. 

I will applaud this for its twists and turns. I wasn't expecting how things were going to go, how it all was going to end. It did a great job with that.

I thought this book was okay. I enjoyed the mystery of it and not knowing who or what to trust. I wish it had done more showing and less telling, although, maybe the story Wendy Walker was trying to tell wouldn't have worked out like that. I did find parts of it a little dull. I'm interested in reading more from Wendy Walker, I think she can tell a good mystery. Thank you again St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for letting me read and review this!

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 3.5/5

Interesting, but a little Dull.

Reading Right Now! (129)

What I'm Reading Right Now! is...
Or I should say that my Reading Right Now! Plans for this Weekend Are...
Honesty is always the best policy... right? haha

 

and maybe...

As you can see, I'm always indecisive. I like a mix of books, even though, in reality I'll probably only get to one of these haha.

-- Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller -- I've had my eye on this one for awhile, ever since I saw it as a selection for an Owlcrate Box. My main reason for wanting to read this is PIRATES!!! I love Pirates! I've heard it's like a lady Jack Sparrow, and that's the draw right there. I love Captain Jack Sparrow. I could watch movie after movie and I would be happy. I've already started this one, read the first chapter, and I enjoyed what I read so far.

-- Zero Repeat Forever by Gabrielle Prendergast -- This is a review book through NetGalley that I really, really, really want to get to. It comes out August 26th, 2017, I think. I fell in love with the cover mainly, and it sounds like a sci-fi kind of thing, which I really do enjoy. I've been trying to get better with my NetGalley books.

-- Black Bird of the Gallows by Meg Kassel -- This one I need to read because it is a NetGalley book and I'm on a blog tour for it! This one comes out September 5th, 2017. My blog tour date is September 21 and it's going to be a review. In a perfect world, I'd read this and have it done by September 5th, but I'm realistic and know that probably won't happen. What I know about this is Harbinger of Death! And the reviews that I've seen on GoodReads so far have been pretty good.

So that's my Reading Right Now! plans. What are you reading?

Review: Lies I Told (Lies I Told #1) by Michelle Zink

Title: Lies I Told (Lies I Told #1)

Author: Michelle Zink

Published by: Harper Teen

Released: 2015

Source: Library

Summary: To anyone else, Grace's family looks normal. A mother, a father, a brother, and a sister. They show up in town, they have money and good clothes, but they also have a secret.

Grace and her family are con artists, grifters. She and her brother Parker were adopted by Cormac and Renee to play out the best cons. The family scopes out their victims, gets close to them, steals their valuables, and then moves on to another place.

Playa Hermosa is the place of the next job, and it's a big one. Grace's job is to get close to Logan Fairchild and his friends. Grace is having more trouble with this con though, her conscience is starting to bug her, and she's developing feelings for her mark. Is Grace destined to lead a life of crime or can she be something else?

My Thoughts: Not bad, not bad. I love stories about criminals, heists, and questionable characters. I love reading about characters who are doing wrong things, but I end up rooting for them anyway. I just find stories like this to be a lot of fun.

I did have a weird reading journey with Lies I Told. I was reading it during the holiday season, and was just reading it very slowly. There was nothing wrong with the book, I just don't think I was in the reading mood at the time. That slumpiness probably had an effect on my enjoyment and reading, but I managed to get over my slumpiness eventually, and devoured the rest of the book.

I just found the whole concept very interesting. It kind of had the slight feel of the TV show Revenge and the TV show Leverage.

I found the parents kind of despicable most of the time, because they only adopted these kids to further their cons. That's just not right. I also appreciated Grace's struggle with the life she's been brought into. She doesn't want to be bad, but she feels this gratefulness for her adoptive parents. She also knows what she's doing is wrong, but she still does it. It's an interesting conundrum. 

The story really hit its high point for me in the middle. The action started to pick up and I had to race to the end to see what would happen. And what an ending! What's going to happen next? I must know.

I enjoyed this book. If you like stories about cons and criminals, then I would definitely recommend it. I will be checking out the sequel ASAP.

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 3.8/5

What A Heist!

Top 5 Wednesday: Top 5 Books From Before You Joined Bookish Social Media

I'm finally posting another Top 5 Wednesday! Sometimes I don't post because I'm lazy, sometimes I don't post because I can't really think of books for the topic. I liked this week's topic though. This week is the Top 5 Books From Before You Joined Bookish Social Media! That's kind of a cool topic to think of. Booktube/Blogs/Bookstagram/GoodReads have introduced me to a lot lot lot of books, but before I joined those, I was most definitely a reader. So I tried to think back to books I read and loved before I even knew what Bookish Social Media was. Here's the books I came up with!

 

  

-- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling -- I really don't remember exactly how old I was when I read this, but it was definitely before the bookish social medias. I would imagine this is on a lot of peoples' lists, especially people that are around the same age as me.

-- Twilight by Stephenie Meyer -- I like to be a little bit of a hipster about this one, because I read it before it was super popular. I saw it on an end cap at Barnes and Noble, picked it up, and was hooked! I really like Twilight. I really need to reread it. I get tired of hearing all the hate people say about it. They act like it's the worst book ever, which just annoys me, especially from people who claimed to like it at one time. That is a rant for another time though. 

-- The Hero's Guide To Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy -- I want to say this series was at that point right before I joined some of the bookish social medias. I saw this on my library's new book shelf, picked it up, and was hooked. I think this series needs more love definitely! I love it so much. I want Christopher Healy to come out with a new book!!

-- The Merchant of Death (Bobby Pendragon series) by D.J. MacHale-- I remember this one from seventh grade. My friend bought it from a Scholastic Book Fair for her sister, and I ended up reading a couple of chapters. I think I ended up buying my own copy because I liked it so much. I finished the whole series, which I think is an accomplishment, because it's kind of long. I really like this series. I probably need to reread this one too.

-- Arteimis Fowl by Eoin Colfer -- I'm pretty sure this one came from a Scholastic Book Fair too. I was drawn in by the cover, it was pretty and gold. I really like this series too. I haven't finished it yet and I need to. I like Artemis Fowl because he's kind of an anti-hero. He starts off the series as not a good guy, I mean, he had that whole plan to steal a fairy! 

So those are my picks. What are yours? What books did you discover and love without the help of bookish social media? If you want to join in on the Top 5 Wednesday fun, you totally should! Each Wednesday is a fun, new topic to contemplate and post about. Check out all the other Top 5 Wednesday-ers HERE!

#TheReadingQuest Progress Post #1

Here's my current progress for #TheReadingQuest
A sad, sad fact about me is that I'm not too skilled at doing readathons. I see them floating around, I get really excited about doing them, but in the end, I just don't end up reading a ton of books during them. I think it's just because of how I read. There was a time when I considered myself to be a fast reader. I felt I was knocking out books left and right. Since joining booktube, bookstagram, goodreads, and starting this blog, I've discovered that the one skill I thought I had, I'm not a champion of. Oh well.

So far, I have finished one book for my Rogue Quest. I have ideas about what to read for the other Quests, but I haven't started them yet. The book I finished was...

Title: We Were Liars

Author: E. Lockhart

242 Pages

Challenge/Quest: A Book Cover With A Partially Obscured Face

Hooray for me! I'm planning on posting a full review for this book, but I can say that I was underwhelmed by this. The hype let me down.

Now for my updated HP and EXP, if I've done this right.

ROGUE ASHLEY

20 EXP

35. 2 HP

Are you participating in #TheReadingQuest ? If you are, how are you doing?