Top Ten Tuesday #399-Reindeer Book Tag

Hi all! I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these. I arrived in Australia on Thursday morning and have been having a great time so far. I went shopping with my sister on Saturday, and we went to quite a few cool bookshops which was great, my favourite was one called Coventry Bookstore, a small independent bookshop owned by a married couple, one of the owners John, was super helpful in recommending books for my dad’s Christmas present and his wife Belinda was doing gift wrapping, which I very gratefully took up as I am a horrible present wrapper! We went to a couple of other bookshops as well, one was called Hill of Content and it was really lovely too, I swear if I didn’t have limited space in my suitcase, I would have bought quite a few books from here because they had a great selection. The final one we went to was the Paperback Bookshop, and that one is the kind of bookshop that you imagine just lives in a book lover’s mind as their ideal place, it had that book smell as soon as you walked in and there were books stacked everywhere in no particular order, it was kind of like a bookish maze! Not so good if you were looking for something specific, but really great to browse. I also went to the State Library yesterday and that was really cool, it’s such a gorgeous building.

In non-book related outings, we went to a couple of the wineries in the Mt Macedon regions on Sunday, and that was really lovely, it was a beautiful day, and the wines were generally all really good. I’ve also got a trail ride booked for tomorrow (because of course I had to fit some riding in somewhere), and we’re going to see Hamilton on Thursday, so all in all it’s shaping up to be an exciting week!

Anyway enough of my rambling, it’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week is meant to be our annual Books I Hope Santa Brings This Year, but since I generally don’t get all that many books for Christmas, I am once again going rogue and doing a Christmassy book tag instead! It’s become a tradition over the last few years and it’s always fun to do, so I thought why not do it again? This year, I’m doing the Reindeer Book Tag, inspired of course by Rudolph, and this one was created by booktuber Hailey in Bookland. So here we go:

Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer: An Underdog Or An Inspiring Book/Character

Not a character but a real person, Chanel Miller’s story of her sexual assault and the aftermath of that was many things. Infuriating in places, when you see what survivors have to go through in order to get justice (and even then how they don’t), emotional of course, funny in places, powerful and even hopeful despite everything she went through. I found it really inspiring reading this, listening to her reclaiming her identity and power and also just in how brave she was to go public with her story because it can’t have been easy.

Dasher: A Book You Read Quickly Or A Fashionable Character

I finished this one in about four days, and granted it’s a really short audiobook, just over 4 hours, so it probably doesn’t seem that fast, but it’s very quick for me. It was a super funny and engaging read, and though I was mainly in it for the Gilmore Girls stories, I found Graham’s pre-Gilmore Girls stories of her life as an actress equally fun.

Dancer: An Artistically Inspiring Book Or A Character Who Loves To Party

I’m not really one for artsy books, so character who loves to party it is! This one was pretty obvious for me: Evie O’Neill from The Diviners Series. Evie is definitely the life and soul of the party to a damaging degree as her partying tendencies can be a little self-destructive and are definitely a coping mechanism to deal with her underlying depression (which is addressed more as the series goes on).

Prancer: A Light-Hearted Book Or A Conceited Character

What could be more light-hearted than a book about two very loveable Labradors? Olive and Mabel brought smiles to so many people over lockdown and I couldn’t stop grinning when listening to this book all about their adventures and their rise to Internet fame!

Vixen: A Trickster Character Or A Deceptively Hard/Easy Read

I know a vixen is meant to be a female deer, but as soon as I saw this prompt, there was only one name to come to mind: Kaz Brekker. Kaz is a criminal mastermind and in this book undertakes a tricky heist with the help of his crew and breaks into the infamous Ice Court to retrieve a hostage being held captive there. Kaz definitely fits the trickster definition as his whole life is about running cons!

Comet: A Book That Is Out of This World Or A Children’s Book

Given that the movie version of the stage musical released fairly recently, I thought that this would be an apt choice. Matilda was one of my favourite books as a kid, I really loved Roald Dahl and obviously this was my favourite because I could see a lot of myself in Matilda, but it’s also just a really fun read!

Cupid: A Couple That You Really Want To Be Together Or A Hyped Book That You Liked

It’s not my absolute favourite Schwab book I’ve ever read, that title still goes to A Darker Shade of Magic, but I really enjoyed Addie LaRue, a lot more than I was expecting to given that slow, lyrically written books generally aren’t usually my kind of thing!

Donner: A Book You Constantly Shout About, Or An Opinionated Character, Or A Character Who Lacks Tact

Katniss was the first character to come to mind for this as her lack of tact is quite prevalent throughout the books!

Blitzen: A Powerful Book Or A Quick Read

I already did a quick read further up the tag, so I thought I’d go for powerful book for this one. Laura Bates’ 2020 release, Men Who Hate Women was an incredibly powerful read, I learned a lot about the different communities of extreme misogynists and their online worlds and how that spills into offline action. It was quite scary in places reading about the activities of some of these groups and how they have inspired horrific violent murders of women. Still I definitely did feel a lot more informed after reading it!

Olive: A Self-Effacing Character

Is Olive a reindeer? I swear I’ve never heard that name in the song! Anyway, this one was a little more challenging for me to do as the books I read tend to have more brash characters, but I thought Charlie from The Perks of Being A Wallflower fit well here. He’s shy, modest and doesn’t really like to stand out, preferring to blend into the background.

So there we go, that was my 2022 Christmas book tag, the Reindeer tag! If you’re reading this and want to do a Christmassy tag before Christmas, then consider yourself tagged! Has anyone heard of Olive the reindeer? Have I just missed something all these years? What are your plans for Christmas this year? Let me know in the comments!

I’ll be back next week with my final Top Ten Tuesday of 2022, which will also be my 400th Top Ten Tuesday ever! Feels like a nice one to end the year on. Our final topic of this year is Most Recent Additions To My Book Collection, an evergreen TTT as those shelves are always growing! In the meantime, I’ve got quite a bit planned for the end of the year, though we’ll see how we go as I am on holiday and I might be having too much fun doing other stuff to write blog posts. I’ve got three reviews to catch up on, so I’m going to do my best to get those up before the end of the year, I’ve got my last Quarterly Rewind post of 2022, which will probably be coming your way on either Thursday or Friday, and my End of Year Survey and End of Year Check In which will be coming your way once I’m back in the UK I think! Either way, there’s lots of content coming for you between now and the end of the year.

Merry Christmas everyone, and I hope you all have a lovely one however you’re celebrating!

Midnights Book Tag

Hi everyone! As has become tradition whenever Taylor Swift releases a new album, I have another Taylor Swift themed book tag for you all. However, this one is a little different, as I’m doing my own prompts for this. There are other Midnights tags out there, but I had some ideas I wanted to use for it, and I thought it would be fun to try and do my own original tag, as I’ve not done one of those in years. I’m not sure if I loved Midnights as much as either folklore or evermore, but I’ve only actually listened to it once through so far, so I’m sure the songs will grow on me as I listen more. My current favourites are Anti-Hero, Mastermind, Snow on The Beach and You’re On Your Own Kid, but honestly, my favourites definitely change around from the first listen, so I’m not expecting that to stay the same the more I listen to the album.

Feel free to use my prompts if you want to, just credit me if you do!

1. Lavender Haze-A book that you felt completely engrossed in

I remember sitting outside on my uni’s campus in Stirling, the weather was really beautiful for once, and I just sat for hours and hours reading this book, I could not put it down. I had to know how the Gangsey’s story ended and I was not disappointed!

2. Maroon-A book that has stuck with you over the years

I first read this book when I was about 11 or 12, and it’s definitely one that has stuck with me over the years. I’m not sure I’ll ever be over the ending of this book to be honest, it was the first book I remember being completely crushed by.

3. Anti-Hero-A book character who is constantly causing problems

I love Lila Bard, but when I first heard the line “It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me”, I was like this is Lila to a tee! She’s constantly causing problems and running headlong into trouble, but we love her anyway!

4. Snow On The Beach-A book with an unexpected premise

Life After Life is definitely an unusual kind of story, with the protagonist Ursula Todd, dying and coming back to live her life over and over again, each time trying to avoid the mistakes which killed her in the previous life. It didn’t always work for me, but it was definitely a very different kind of book to what I usually read.

5. You’re On Your Own Kid-A lonely character

Osla was the first character to come to mind for this one, loneliness and her longing for love and family is such a huge part of her storyline in this book and it’s one of the reasons why the girls’ friendship breakup hit me so hard because Osla had finally found the family she longed for and then it all fell apart and she was back to being alone.

6. Midnight Rain-A couple that were too different to work

I never really understood what Ada and Camille saw in each other, they hardly seemed to like each other most of the time! They seemed so ill-suited to each other and they were always so much happier apart than they seemed together, so it was definitely a case of a mismatch of personalities for me.

7. Question?-A couple who just cannot communicate

I mean, I could have chosen a lot of books for this one, because YA characters always tend have issues with communication, but Laila and Severin from this series have to take the cake! I really hope they managed to get their act together in the final book of the trilogy because reading their endless streams of miscommunication in the second book was a challenge!

8. Vigilante Shit-A character who is out for revenge

This song SCREAMS Marcella Riggins. If I was to try and describe Marcella Riggins as a character to anyone, and I wanted to point to a song that encapsulated what her character was about perfectly, it would be Vigilante Shit.

9. Bejewled-A book cover that really stands out

This is one of my absolute favourite book covers, and I feel like it’s got that slightly shimmery quality that fits well with Bejeweled.

10. Labyrinth-A book that was an emotional rollercoaster

I was warned that this was an emotional read before I read it, and yet it still hit me like a gut punch. But it was a true rollercoaster journey to get to that inevitable end, and I swung between laughing and crying more than once in my time reading this book and was never quite sure which way I was going to go!

11. Karma-A character who got what they deserved

Rene, the main villain of this novel, definitely got what he deserved in the end, and both Eve and Charlie (the protagonists) got the happy endings that they deserved.

12. Sweet Nothing-Favourite Cinnamon Roll Character

Colton is a sweetheart who must be protected at all costs, that is all.

13. Mastermind- Favourite criminal mastermind

Much like “Vigilante Shit” screams Marcella Riggins, I feel like “Mastermind” has Kaz Brekker written all over it. Nothing left to chance, everything planned out in minute detail, and anything that you think is up to chance has actually been engineered by him? Yes, if Kaz Brekker was a song, Mastermind would definitely be it.

14. The Great War-A couple who are constantly in conflict with each other

Ah Enne and Levi. They have such great chemistry, but it is basically impossible to imagine them ever being happy together because they always seem to be involved in some kind of conflict or misunderstanding, or general angst and hardly ever actually seem happy with one another. It’s the kind of relationship which is constantly exhausting because it feels like both parties are always wired at 100, and never seem to calm down!

15. Bigger Than The Whole Sky-A character death that hit you hard

I won’t go into specifically which one here, because spoilers, but if you know you know! To be honest, I’m still not over any of the deaths from this book and I read it a good ten years ago now.

16. Paris-A book set in Paris

I know this song isn’t literally about being in Paris, but I’ve read quite a few great books set in Paris over the past few years, and Enchantee does work with the actual meaning of the song too as a major part of the story is Camille escaping her regular life in the bleakness of 1780s Paris to the glittering court of Versailles.

17. High Infidelity-A book containing an affair

One of the main characters in this book, Greta Lorke, engages in an affair with her later husband, Adam Kuckhoff, for part of this book. I don’t know if the affair has any historical accuracy, I’ve not seen any mention anywhere of Adam Kuckhoff having a first wife, so I imagine that the author maybe invented the affair for dramatic effect, but either way, it works for my prompt!

18. Glitch-A book that shouldn’t have worked for you, but did

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll know that romance really isn’t my thing. I don’t even know why I picked up The Time Traveler’s Wife, I think my mum and sister had both read it and I was feeling left out? Anyway, it’s generally not the kind of book I would ever read but I ended up enjoying Clare and Henry’s story way more than I ever thought I would (however it is the exception, not the rule, I still largely don’t like romance-heavy stories!).

19. Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve-A Book You Think You Would Have Liked More If You’d Read It At A Different Time In Your Life

When I read Shadow and Bone in 2018, I liked it but didn’t LOVE IT. I do think part of that was having read Six of Crows first and seeing how much Leigh Bardugo had improved as a writer since her debut, but I also think that timing did come into a play a little here. I was 21 when I read Shadow and Bone, and had read a lot of YA fantasy at that point, so it just didn’t compare to other, better books I had read at the time. Had I read it when it came out, when I was 16/17, I reckon I would have had a very different opinion of it than I did at 21.

20. Dear Reader-A book with a diary format

I’m not usually a big fan of epistolary type books, but I did find The Princess Diaries series really fun to read when I was a teenager (I absolutely wouldn’t now, they’re not my kind of thing anymore, but at 14/15, I gobbled these books up).

So there we go, my first original book tag in a while! It was really fun coming up with my own prompts but it did take a lot longer than I expected, so kudos to the people who create tags all the time, it’s not easy!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the tag, and if you would like to have a go using my prompts (and maybe do a prettier design than me, I’m not so good with the graphics, so different coloured fonts was the best I could manage!) then feel free to do so!

Have you listened to Midnights? What were your favourite songs? Let me know in the comments!

Mid Year Freak Out Tag (2022)

Hi everyone! It’s been ages since I’ve done a book tag, my last one was just before Christmas last year, so I thought it was about time to do another one and I saw Cait @ PaperFury’s responses to this tag earlier today and figured it had been a couple of years since I last did it, so it might be fun to do it again! We’re a little past mid-year, but hey, the first year I did this, I did it in September, so end of July is still better than that. So here we go:

Best Book You’ve Read So Far This Year

My only five star read of the year so far, and to be honest, it’s going to be a tough one for anything else to live up to! Chanel Miller’s memoir is such a strong, painful and powerful read and hearing her tell her story in her own words was definitely an experience I will never forget.

Best Sequel You’ve Read So Far In 2022

It’s not entirely a sequel, it’s a collection of short stories, some which are prequels, some sequels and some which take place during the events of the main book series, but it’s the closest thing I’ve read so far this year to a sequel (as I haven’t finished Good Girl, Bad Blood yet) so I decided I’d count it. I really enjoyed this one, some stories were better than others but it was overall a fun return to the Daevabad world.

New Release You Haven’t Read Yet But Want To

I have quite a few of these, but I decided to be good and stick to just the one! As a journalist myself, Nellie Bly’s story has always been of a lot of interest to me, and I’m excited to see Maya Rodale’s take on it.

Most Anticipated Release For The Second Half of The Year

This one comes out tomorrow and I’m so excited! The Last Bookshop In London was a surprise favourite of last year, so I’m so excited to see what Madeline Martin has in store for us next. Plus, when you combine librarians and spies, you have two of my favourite things in the world, so how can this book really go that far wrong?

Biggest Disappointment

This book should have been everything to me. Female rage, dragons, feminism, everything about it sounded like something I would love. And then it ended up being the MOST BORING BOOK IN THE WORLD. My expectations for this one were so high and then they ended up hitting the floor.

Biggest Surprise

I wasn’t expecting S.A. Chakraborty to do anything more with the Daevabad world after finishing the trilogy in 2020, so this book’s sheer existence was a surprise, I only found about it I think because someone in my Goodreads book club was reading it, I didn’t even know it was coming out! And what a lovely surprise getting more Daevabad content was.

Favourite new author

As this is my favourite book of the year so far, I had to put Chanel as my favourite new author. I hope she gets the chance to write more books in the future as she’s a really great writer and whilst obviously her story is incredibly powerful and important and I’m so glad she decided to share it with all of us, I do hope that she gets the opportunity to write more books that aren’t about her assault.

Out of your Comfort Zone (I’m borrowing PaperFury’s prompt for this as I wasn’t feeling the fictional crush prompt)

Much as I loved this one, it was very difficult to read in places and did push me out of my comfort zone quite a lot whilst reading.

Newest Favourite Character

This might be slightly cheating as Mila Pavlichenko was a real person, but Kate Quinn’s fictionalised version of her has to be my favourite character of any book this year. She sounds like she was quite a firecracker of a woman and I only wish I’d ever been able to meet her, as I’m sure she would have been a very fun (if quite scary!) person to hang out with!

Favourite New Audiobook Narrator (I wasn’t feeling book that made you cry so I kept the prompt I made up last time)

I’ve listened to a lot of previously liked audiobook narrators this year, so I didn’t have too many to choose from who were new, but I’m currently listening to Life After Life by Kate Atkinson and although I’m not loving the book as much as I’d hoped (I really enjoyed the TV show, but they definitely slim-lined a lot of it for the better!), I am really enjoying Fenella Woolgar’s narration (yes, that is Sister Hilda from Call The Midwife).

Book That Made You Happy

I’ve read quite a lot of fairly serious books this year, or at least books covering fairly serious content, but this one was just a whole lot of fun that made me smile and laugh the whole way through. Nothing like listening to the antics of two loveable Labradors to act as a palate cleanser!

Most Beautiful Book You’ve Bought This Year

I bought this one at YALC a couple of weeks ago, and I will freely admit, part of the pull to buy it was definitely the cover. That deep purple is just…..*chef’s kiss*. I can only hope the inside is as lovely as the outside!

What Books Do You Need To Read By The End of The Year

I will most likely only finish one or two of these given how slowly I’ve been reading this year, but that’s okay! They’ve all been on my shelf for a while and I’d really like to get them knocked off my list soon as they were all books I was really excited for (and the first and third have sequels coming out, which I’d quite like to get to!).

And that brings us to the end of this year’s (slightly later than mid year) Freak Out Tag! I never know who to tag for these things, so if you see this and would like to do it, then have at it. And let me know how your reading year is going in the comments!

Top Ten Tuesday #347-The Christmas Movie Book Tag

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these! I arrived up in Stirling to join my family for Christmas yesterday, and me and Mum spent yesterday evening decorating the tree, which is always one of my favourite parts of Christmas so that was really nice.

Anyway, it’s Tuesday, so I have another Top Ten Tuesday for you guys, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Now this week’s topic is meant to be a Bookish Wishes post where we share our wishlists, but I wasn’t really feeling that topic so instead I’m going rogue (as I always do this time of year anyway!) and sharing a Christmassy themed Book Tag, as has become tradition in the last three years! This year’s tag is The Christmas Movie Book Tag, courtesy of Aoife at Pretty Purple Polka Dots, you can check out Aoife’s post here: https://prettypurplepolkadots.wordpress.com/2019/12/19/the-christmas-movie-book-tag/

Here we go, the Christmas Movie Book Tag:

Elf-Choose a book that puts you in the Christmas mood

I’ll be honest, I don’t really read Christmas themed books much, I tend to watch Christmassy films more, but if I had to choose (and I swear I wouldn’t use She Who Must Not Be Named if I could think of any other options), Harry Potter always puts me in a Christmassy mood because the films are always on TV at Christmas.

It’s A Wonderful Life-Choose a book with a character who goes through some serious character development

All three girls in this book go on quite a journey, but I have to highlight Beth Finch for this prompt. She starts as a painfully shy and withdrawn young woman who is completely controlled by her emotionally and physically abusive mother, and by the end of the book, she is practically a different person, she grows so much in confidence and in her abilities as a cryptanalyst and the moment where she confronts her mother and leaves home was possibly one of the most satisfying parts of the book. Also is this the time to admit that I’ve never actually seen It’s A Wonderful Life? *withdraws slowly and carefully*

A Christmas Carol-Choose a book/series with a character you didn’t like at first, but grew to love

When we were initially introduced to Ali in The City of Brass, I didn’t really like him much, I thought he was uptight and obnoxious and I didn’t really feel like he was going to be someone I could root for. However as the book went on, and we got to know him more, I ended up liking him more and more and by the end he had definitely achieved cinnamon roll, must protect at all costs status.

Home Alone-Choose a book where the parents aren’t present and if they are, they’re not a good influence

Unwind is probably the best example of the WORST PARENTS EVER. Connor’s parents basically decide that they can’t deal with him anymore so the best solution to this is to have him unwound (basically taken apart and all your organs are donated to other people so you’re not technically “dead”). Risa is an orphan, so we don’t really know what her parents are like, but her guardians at the group home she’s in send her off to be unwound so that they have less mouths to feed, and Lev’s parents decide to sacrifice Lev for unwinding as they are religious and believe that having him be unwound is for the greater good. Basically it’s bad parents/guardians all round here!

Frosty the Snowman-Find a book with a snowy cover

This was a no brainer for me, it’s the most wintery cover I’ve ever seen! Plus this cover is so pretty, I take any opportunity I can to share it.

Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer-Choose a protagonist you couldn’t help but root for

Eve from The Alice Network is definitely the kind of protagonist that could rub people up the wrong way, she’s quite abrasive but she’s the kind of woman that I absolutely love, she doesn’t care about being liked, she says what she thinks, she’s super funny and brave and determined and I was absolutely rooting for her the whole way through this book!

Polar Express-Find a book where characters travel somewhere cold

I just finished this book yesterday, and the characters travel all over Europe, but one of the places is Iceland which is obviously very cold, so fitted the prompt perfectly!

How The Grinch Stole Christmas-Choose a villain you can’t help but love

I mean I love a good villain, so honestly I could go for like 90% of villains I’ve read here, but I decided on Marcella Riggins because I just loved her so much. She’s got epic “I’m done with men” energy and is just so tired of being underestimated and wants to claim her own power. Obviously this is turned up to 10,000 and manifests in killing people, which I can’t relate to but I can definitely relate to being ambitious and wanting to prove people who underestimate you wrong!

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation-Choose a character with a goofy sense of humour

I don’t know if his sense of humour is exactly goofy, but Enrique is definitely one of my favourite funny characters from the last couple of years. He adds a much needed levity to Severin’s crew, and I just have such a soft spot for funny characters, so I fell in love with him almost instantly when reading this book.

Lifetime/Hallmark movie-Choose a book with the cheesiest romance

I’m not really one for cheesy romances, and I read this series a long time ago, but I do remember thinking that the romance in The Princess Diaries series was very cheesy. To be honest, the whole series is quite cheesy (but fun, if you’re into those kinds of books).

So there we go, the Christmas Movie Book Tag! I’ve actually not watched quite a lot of these films, so clearly I’m not as up on Christmas films as I thought I was. What are your favourite Christmas films? What are everyone’s plans for Christmas this year? Let me know in the comments!

I’ll be back next week with the last Top Ten Tuesday of 2021, as always talking about my favourite books of the year. In the meantime, I’ve got a lot of content planned as ever for this final couple of weeks of 2021, I’ve got my last Quarterly Rewind of the year, I’ll have my End of Year Survey and End of Year Check-In, I’ve still got a couple more book reviews to do…..so keep your eyes peeled for lots more content coming your way in the next couple of weeks.

Merry Christmas everyone and I hope however you’re celebrating, you have a great time!

Evermore Book Tag

Hi everyone! You could probably guess this one was coming, Taylor Swift released another surprise album Evermore in December (she’s had a more productive quarantine than the entire world combined). Surprise, surprise, I loved it, it’s got quite a different feel to folklore, but it’s still quite clear why it’s a “sister album”. As always my favourite songs change the more I listen to them, but at present my favourites are: no body, no crime, champagne problems, happiness and long story short.

This is an original tag created by Ahaana @ Windows To Worlds, who also created the graphics that I’ll be using in this tag, which are super beautiful so thank you for allowing us to use them. Here are the rules for the tag:

-Link back to the original creator, Ahaana’s post.

-Tag at least 5 people.

-Thank the person who tagged you and link back to their post (I wasn’t actually tagged to do this, I just wanted to, so I guess I self-tagged!)

-Feel free to use Ahaana’s graphics (as I have done) but make sure to credit her in your post if you do.

I dare you to read this book and not fall in love with Percy, Grover and Annabeth! I dare you. This series will always be super special to me, as it was how me and Hannah became friends, so even though I feel I’ve aged out of Rick Riordan’s books, Percy will always have a special place in my heart.

This was the first book I thought of when I saw this prompt, as Sephy and Callum’s relationship is doomed to be broken from the very beginning due to the society they live in. Also it fitted quite well for me because Champagne Problems is a heart-breaking song and this is an heart-breaking book.

I will admit that gold rush is one of my least favourite songs from evermore, so “love with all my heart” doesn’t really fit how I feel about the song. Still, it had to be A Darker Shade of Magic, it’s one of my all time favourite books, it has everything, memorable characters, fantastic world building and a brilliant plot. Plus it had to be a Schwab book for this one, she’s one of my all time favourite authors.

Ali returns to Daevabad after five years away, so this seemed like quite a fitting book to use for this one as a lot of it finds him trying to reconnect with his brother and sister and the city that he left behind in the first book.

I’m not talking about Feyre and Rhys here, rather I thought Feyre and Tamlin was quite fitting for this prompt. Feyre suffers so much because of Tamlin in this book.

There are plenty of bodies and crimes in this one, it’s a murder mystery revolving around Jack The Ripper! In fact all of the books from this series could have fitted with this prompt as they are all historical murder mysteries.

I didn’t want to go for Harry Potter because it seemed too obvious, so instead I went for this one as I really did enjoy The Princess Diaries series when I was a young teenager, but it’s not the kind of series I would go for anymore, far too romance heavy for me now!

One of my favourite female friendship books, this seemed like the perfect one to choose for this prompt as Carmen, Lena, Bridget and Tibby have basically been friends since birth and this series is all about their friendship.

I notoriously do not cry at books, this is one of only two that I’ve ever cried at, both were WWII based books. The bit where Lina exchanges the pocket watch for her brother’s life really got to me, and there were so many other truly harrowing moments in this book, particularly when you remember that what happened to Lina in this book, really did happen to millions of people under Stalin.

My Sister’s Keeper was not my usual read, I didn’t really read adult fiction before I found this book when I was 13 and I definitely wouldn’t have thought a contemporary book about a girl who was born to save her dying sister would become a favourite of mine, but it’s a really heart-breaking, beautiful story and I ended up really loving it.

I could have gone for Six of Crows for this one, but I wanted to highlight my other favourite gang of thieves here! I really enjoyed this heist romp last year and can’t want to read the sequel next month.

Were you a bookworm child if you didn’t read Matilda? Anyway, Roald Dahl was a childhood staple for me (though of course we now know that he was pretty terrible person) and Matilda was definitely one of my favourite childhood books.

This is such a moving book in general but I found the Rabbits’ stories particularly moving, which were based on real women who were experimented on under the Nazis and were left with horrifying physical damage, if they survived at all. It was definitely an incredibly moving and emotional read.

I’ve been impatiently waiting for this one since I read the first book in September of 2019, and it’s finally going to be here in March. I can’t wait to see how Tavia, Wesley, Saxony and Karam’s story ends.

I don’t know if 5 books counts as a long series, but since I mainly read trilogies, 5 is quite a lot of books for one series to me and the final book in the first arc of the Camp Half Blood universe was a really perfect and satisfying finale.

I don’t really know who to tag, so if you’d like to do this then consider yourself tagged!

Top Ten Tuesday #295-Christmas Songs Book Tag

Hi all! I hope everyone’s okay after the UK Government’s most recent announcement and that however you are now spending your Christmas that you still manage to have the best Christmas possible under the circumstances. I will spending Christmas at home with my family, thankfully we had always planned to spend Christmas just the three of us, but I know not everyone is lucky enough to be able to spend Christmas with their families (or friends) this year, so if that applies to you and you are now finding yourself spending Christmas alone, I’m sending you all the love and hope that you still manage to have a good Christmas.

Anyway, after that slightly sombre note, onto happier things, it’s the last Tuesday before Christmas, and so that means it’s time for the annual Christmas TTT topic, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. As with last year, instead of talking about Books I Want Santa To Bring, I’m doing another Christmas Book Tag! This time it’s the Christmas Songs Book Tag, which is a book tag created by our host Jana, so it actually fits very well. You can check out Jana’s original tag here: http://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/2020/12/2020-christmas-songs-book-club/

So here we go, the Christmas Songs Book Tag:

1. All I Want For Christmas Is You-Favourite Bookish Couple

Percy and Annabeth

My answer for this is always the same, I love Percy and Annabeth so much and they’re my favourite slow burn, friends to lovers couple ever!

2. I’ll Be Home For Christmas-Name a book where a character is away from home (school, vacation, etc.)

The main characters in the Chestnut Hill series (which I loved when I was about 12/13), all live at a boarding school with a big focus on riding.

3. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas-Name your favourite “little” book (children’s book, short story, novella etc).

The copy of Black Beauty I have is only 183 pages long, so a very short book, but that’s one of the reasons why I love it so much, classics are usually so chunky! Also it’s a beautiful story, if very sad.

4. Santa Claus Is Coming Town-What book (s) do you hope Santa brings you this year?

Santa tells me all year round that I have too many books so I’m pretty sure that I’m not getting any books for Christmas, but if I was, I would love this one to complete the series and so that I have it ready for when I’ve read Book 2!

5. Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer-Which book turned your nose red (made you cry)?

This is one of only two books that have ever made me cry (the other is Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys if you’re interested). It’s truly so horrific what so many people went through under the Nazis during WWII and reading about the Rabbits (Polish women who were used for medical experiments in Ravensbruck), I couldn’t stop crying.

6. The Most Wonderful Time of The Year-Your favourite kind of book to read during the holidays

I don’t really read Christmassy books, so I decided to share one of my favourite Wintery books instead. Ironically, I read Six of Crows at the height of summer 2017 when I was in Amsterdam visiting my sister!

7. We Three Kings-Your Favourite Trilogy

I mean is anyone surprised? I’ve made no secret of how much I love the Shades of Magic trilogy, and it will take some beating for another trilogy to surpass it.

8. Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow-A Character You’d Love To Be Snowed In With

I reckon Izzy O’Neill and I would have a ridiculous amount of fun being snowed in together, I can picture ridiculous amounts of junk food and movies!

9. Last Christmas-A Book That Seriously Let You Down

I was so excited for this one as I loved the first book when I read it two years ago, but this sequel was a massive letdown. I hope the final book is better!

10. White Christmas-An Upcoming Release You’re Dreaming About

I’ve been waiting almost four years for this one, so I’m super excited to finally read it. I got approved for it on Netgalley, so should be getting to it soon!

So that’s the Christmas Songs Book Tag, thanks to Jana for creating it, it was a super fun one to do!

What books are you hoping to get for Christmas? Any other presents people are hoping for? Let me know in the comments!

I’ll be back next week with my final TTT for 2020, talking about my favourite books of the year. In the meantime, I should have my review of Good Omens up for you guys tomorrow, so keep an eye out for that.

The folklore book tag

Hi everyone! So if you’ve been on the internet in the past few days, you’re probably aware that Taylor Swift released a new, surprise album on Friday called folklore, and yes, I loved it. If like me, you prefer Taylor’s slower songs (not that I don’t love the more upbeat ones, they’re great for my running playlist) then this album is definitely for you! I’ve only actually listened to it once all the way through so far, but my favourites at this point are betty, the last great american dynasty, mad woman and my tears ricochet, though of course as I listen to the album more, that will probably change.

Anyway, this is an original tag created by Ilsa at A Whisper of Ink , who also tagged me, thanks Ilsa! (https://awhisperofink.wordpress.com/2020/07/24/the-folklore-book-tag-original/) and here are the rules for the tag:

• Link to the original creator: Ilsa @ A Whisper Of Ink
• Tag at least 3 people.
• Declare the rules and list of prompts in your post
• Thank whoever who tagged you and link to their post.

So here we go, the folklore book tag!:

The 1: a book with an ending that left you speechless

I couldn’t go with anything other than this book for this one, the YA thriller to beat all other YA thrillers. Seriously, it kind of ruined (in the best way) all other thrillers for me because I was so blown away by that ending. It’s seriously messed up but in the most brilliant way possibly and you will not see it coming.

cardigan: a book that makes you feel happy and sad all at once

Honestly this book was tailor made for this prompt, it’s devastating and heartbreaking of course (how could any book set in WWII not be?) but Maddie and Queenie’s friendship is one of my favourites I’ve ever read and Queenie is brilliantly witty so even among the heartbreak, there’s a lot of joy as well.

the last great american dynasty: a book with a fascinating and well told story

The way VE Schwab crafted the beautifully intricate a-linear timeline in this and brought all of the disparate threads together into one brilliant story? I am both envious of the skill and also love it so much. VE Schwab is such a talented writer and I look forward to every new book of hers that comes out (so excited for Addie!).

exile: a book you wish you hadn’t read

Ah Lord of The Flies, my old nemesis. If I hadn’t had to read this for my GCSEs at school then I never would have and it’s time that I cannot get back. It’s so boring and I’ve read contemporary dystopia that’s so much more creative and fun and quite frankly more interesting than this one.

my tears ricochet: a book that made you cry uncontrollably

Honestly, I really don’t cry at books very often, I don’t know why, I think it’s because I’m not a visual reader. But this one really got to me, of course any book set in a concentration camp is harrowing, but I found the stories of the Rabbits so heartbreaking, the fact that real women had to go through what they went through, it definitely brought a few tears to my eyes thinking about it whilst I was reading.

mirrorball: a book that feels like it was written for you

A Darker Shade of Magic is basically everything I love about fantasy, all rolled into one book. It has a brilliant female lead, several awesome magical worlds, fantastic villians and an engaging story.

seven: a childhood book that makes you feel nostalgic

It’s kind of hard to do this one when so many of my favourite childhood authors keep turning out to be kind of terrible people, but I have super fond memories of this series, I would go to the library every week to get the next book when I was younger, though sadly I never finished the series as my library didn’t have all the books, I think I made it up to book 10!

august: a book that reminds you of summer

These books are quintessential summer reads, when I was a teenager I loved diving into Tibby, Lena, Bridget and Carmen’s lives and seeing what each summer would bring for them and their friendship.

this is me trying: a book that deals with loneliness and sadness

It’s very out of my usual wheelhouse of books, but P.S. I Love You deals with the lonelines and sadness that comes with Holly’s grief over the death of her husband and her attempts to move forward with her life after her loss very well.

illicit affairs: a book that gave you a book hangover

The hangover I had after finishing this book, honestly I’ve never experienced anything like it! The end of this series was such perfection and it took me so long to move on from this world and these characters to find something that came anywhere close to living up to it.

invisible string: a book that came into your life at the exact right time

I found Percy Jackson just when I moved to a new school and didn’t know anyone, and without it, I wouldn’t have met my best friend Hannah, Percy Jackson was a big bonding point for us and cemented a friendship based on a mutual love of books and fangirling.

mad woman: a book with a female character you adore

I could have picked about ten thousand different books for this one, because I have so many female characters I adore but I decided to go with Izzy O’Neill, she’s just so funny and confident and stands up for what she believes in and I can relate so hard to her!

epiphany: a book that is haunting

I dare you to read the line “That day my brother’s life was worth a pocket watch” and not be completely haunted for the rest of your life. I dare you.

betty: a book couple that fills you with yearning

Sephy and Callum……..another time, another place, a different world and the two of them could have had an ending that didn’t shatter everyone’s hearts into a million pieces. Alas this is not that book.

peace: a book character you’d die for because you love them so much

Okay, being serious, I’m not sure I’d be willing to die for any fictional character, but if I was going to, then Severin, Laila, Zofia, Enrique, Hypnos and Tristan would be the ones. Their group dynamic is just the absolute best and I can’t wait to read more of their adventures in The Silvered Serpents when it comes out.

hoax: a book you thought you were going to love but didn’t

Okay I mean technically I’m not finished yet, but I’m far enough through to know that I’m not going to love this one. It should have been so good, the cover is gorgeous, the blurb sounded great but the actual book has not lived up to that promise.

So there we go, that’s the folklore book tag! Thanks to Ilsa for creating it, and if you would like to do it, then consider yourself tagged!

 

 

 

Mid Year Freak Out Tag (2020)

Hi everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve done a book tag here, in fact not since Christmas which feels like far longer than six months ago, and I’ve not done this particular tag since 2018, so thanks to my friend Hannah at Books, Life and Other Oddities for tagging me!

Best Book You’ve Read So Far This Year

I’ve read a lot of books I’ve really enjoyed so far this year so it was tough to pick a favourite but I decided to go with this one. It’s wonderfully diverse (written by a WOC and featuring almost an entirely POC cast), it’s super fun with an incredible found family/squad dynamic and offers some really great discussions of colonialism and identity within a historical context, which I of course loved!

Best Sequel You’ve Read So Far In 2020

I can’t say I’ve had the best luck with sequels this year, most of them have been kind of mediocre but I went with this one because I really enjoyed this historical murder mystery set on a cruise ship. The Stalking Jack The Ripper series is kind of uneven with its sequels, but this one was really great!

New release you haven’t read yet, but want to

I’ve been meaning to read this since it came out back in May, but it’s a lot chunkier than I was anticipating and I just haven’t got around to it yet. It’s on my TBR for this month though, and I’m really looking forward to reading it, even if the reviews have been wildly mixed!

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

I mean is anyone at all surprised at this one? It’s the newest VE Schwab, everyone who has been lucky enough to get advanced copies has been raving about it and all of the snippets she’s released have just made me more excited. Roll on October!

Biggest Disappointment

I so wanted to love this one as much as the first book and I was so excited for it, but sadly it just didn’t live up to my expectations at all. It was classic middle book syndrome unfortunately, the characters backslid a lot in their development and it felt like the plot was going around in circles most of the time. I’m hoping the third book will be back up to the same standard as the first one.

Biggest Surprise

I’ve never read anything by Addie Thorley before and I’m not familiar with the original The Hunchback of Notre Dame so I wasn’t sure what to expect from this retelling, but I ended up really enjoying it! It was a super creative world, I loved the characters and I can’t wait for the sequel to come out next year.

Favourite new author (debut or new to you)

I read The City of Brass back in April and since then I have devoured the second book and am currently reading the final book. SA Chakraborty is definitely a new favourite author I’ve discovered this year and I will be excitedly looking forward to seeing what she has coming next now that the Daevabad trilogy is done.

Newest Fictional Ship

Enrique and Hypnos definitely seemed to have a spark going in this book and I look forward to seeing where that goes, if anywhere, in this next two books.

Newest favourite character

Without meaning to be a broken record here, my newest favourite character(s) definitely came from The Gilded Wolves. I can’t really pick between Enrique, Laila and Zofia, I loved them all for very different reasons, so I’m going to say all three of them for my favourite characters of this year. Though honestly I could say pretty much everyone from the squad in The Gilded Wolves because I loved them all.

Favourite new audiobook narrator (this one I made up because I wasn’t feeling the Book That Made You Cry)

Soneela Nankani who narrates the Daevabad audiobooks has a really relaxing voice and I love listening to her read, she really has a way of taking you out of whatever you are doing and transporting you into the world she’s reading about.

Book That Made You Happy

I read so many long, quite dark fantasies that this one was a nice change of pace. It was a super fun little ghost story that I could just get easily immersed in and didn’t take very long to read. It reminded me why I enjoyed middle grade books in the first place, short, fun and focused more on friendship than romance.

Most Beautiful Book You’ve Pre-Ordered This Year (I changed this from bought or received as none of the books I’ve bought this year have had particularly “pretty” covers)

I love this cover so much, it reminds me of Christmas, which is my favourite time of year, so I can’t wait to have this book on my shelf come September!

What Books Do You Need To Read By The End of The Year

Aside from all the books on my #RockMyTBR Challenge list which I obviously intend to get finished by the end of the year, these are some of the others that I really want to get read by the end of the year.

Favourite Book Community Member

Hannah (who tagged me) from Books, Life and Other Oddities is my IRL best friend, we met at school almost ten years ago, bonded over a shared love of books (Percy Jackson in particular) and are still fangirling together now!

I don’t really know who to tag for this, so basically if you want to do it, then please go ahead!

Top Ten Tuesday #243-12 Days of Christmas Book Tag

Hi everyone, Happy Christmas Eve! I hope you’ve all had good weeks since I last did one of these, I went to the Edinburgh Christmas Market with my friend Nicola yesterday, which was great fun, we hadn’t seen each other since graduation, so it was nice to get a chance to catch up after so long.

Anyway, as it’s Tuesday, I’m back with another Top Ten Tuesday for you all, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week was meant to be Books We Hope To Find Under The Christmas Tree, but as Santa spends all year telling me I have too many books, I’m pretty sure I won’t be getting many of those! Instead, I’m going to be doing the 12 Days of Christmas Book Tag, which was created by Falling Down The Book Hole, since I haven’t done a Book Tag in a while and I wanted to still be Christmassy!

1. On The First Day of Christmas, My True Love Gave To Me: A Partridge In A Pear Tree.

The Partridge stood alone in the pear tree. What is your favourite standalone?

As a general rule, I tend to prefer series, as I love getting to know characters and worlds over the course of multiple books, but if I had to pick on favourite standalone, it would definitely be The Book Thief. It’s such a beautiful story, told in a unique way, with characters I completely fell in love with.

2. On The Second Day of Christmas, My True Love Sent To Me: Two Turtle Doves

Love is in the air! Who is your one true pairing?

Long time followers of this blog could probably have guessed this one pretty quickly but my OTP is of course, Percabeth! They have such a sweet relationship and it’s actually a loving and healthy one, which is far rarer than it should be in fiction!

3. On The Third Day of Christmas, My True Love Sent To  Me: Three French Hens

In the spirit of threes, what is the best trilogy you have read?

In a surprise to exactly no one, my favourite trilogy is of course VE Schwab’s Shades of Magic Trilogy. So well plotted, one of the few trilogies I’ve read that doesn’t have a middle book slump, it has brilliant world building, wonderful characters and is just one of my favourite fantasy series of all time.

4. On The Fourth Day of Christmas My True Love Sent To Me: Four Calling Birds

Since series usually consist of four or more books, what is your favourite series?

I might get more and more disappointed every time JK Rowling tweets anything (seriously someone needs to take away her Twitter) but I still love the Harry Potter series, it’s the series I grew up with, the books that made me the reader I am today and it will always have a special place in my heart.

5. On The Fifth Day of Christmas My True Love Sent To Me: Five Golden Rings

One ring to rule them all! Who is your favourite Villain/Antagonist?

Going with a more recent one here, Vianca Augustine from the Shadow Game trilogy is one of my favourites of the last few years. I love female villains and definitely think there need to be more of them and Vianca is a truly terrifying villain, whose power strips people of their free will.

6. On The Sixth Day of Christmas My True Love Sent To Me: Six Geese A Laying

Creation is a beautiful thing. What is your favourite world/world building?

 

I reckon pretty much everyone could have seen this one coming, of course my favourite world/world building is the Londons from VE Schwab’s Shades of Magic Trilogy (yes I still love Hogwarts). I love how each of the Londons becomes a character in its own right and they are all so different in feel but the world still feels like one cohesive thing? Truly masterful worldbuilding.

7. On The Seventh Day of Christmas, My True Love Sent To Me: Seven Swans Are Swimming

Who needs seven swans when all you need is one good animal sidekick? Who’s your favourite animal sidekick?

I could have gone for several for these but I decided to go with Buckbeak from Harry Potter. I mean who wouldn’t want a Hippogriff, flying one looks like so much fun!

8. On The Eighth Day of Christmas My True Love Sent To Me: Eight Maids A Milking

Milk is so 18th century. Which book or series takes food/beverages to another level?

I couldn’t pick anything else for this, Heartless is definitely a foodie’s dream! Cath bakes so many delightful sounding things in this book and I would like to try them all!

9. On The Ninth Day of Christmas My True Love Sent To Me: Nine Ladies Dancing

Dancing is just one skill of a Lady. Who is your favourite kickass female lead?

She would definitely not describe herself as a Lady, but Lila Bard is definitely my favourite kickass female lead! I wish I had half the confidence that she does.

10. On The Tenth Day of Christmas My True Love Sent To Me: Ten Lords A Leaping

How about your favourite leading lad?

In a surprise to once again, exactly no one, my favourite male protagonist is of course Percy Jackson. He’s sassy, slightly dorky, incredibly loyal, what is there not to love?

11. On The Eleventh Day of Christmas My True Love Sent To Me: Eleven Pipes Piping

What is your favourite book or bookish thing with a musical influence?

Schwab’s Monsters of Verity duology not only have musical themed names, but the Sunai (a type of monster in the books) steal souls through using music. They’re also structured like music with a prelude, several verses and an elegy.

12. On The Twelfth Day of Christmas My True Love Sent To Me: Twelve Drummers Drumming

Drumroll please…what is your favourite read of the year?

Okay this is a cruel question as I’ve read so many books I’ve loved this year, but if it had to pick one favourite, it would be VE Schwab’s Vengeful. It took everything I loved about the first book and made it even better, I loved the new characters, the story was so compelling and it was definitely some of the best writing I read this year.

So there we go, that’s the Twelve Days of Christmas Book Tag, thanks to Falling Down The Book Hole for creating it, and PaperFury for giving me the idea to do it!

What books are you hoping to get for Christmas? Any other presents people are hoping for? Let me know in the comments!

I’ll be back next week with my final TTT of 2019, talking about my favourite books of the year! In the meantime, I’ll be taking a bit of a break from the blog for the rest of this week over the Christmas period, so Merry Christmas to everyone and I’ll see you all next week with various end of year wrap up lists!

 

The Lover Book Tag

Hi guys! It’s been forever since I last did a book tag, and so when I saw this tag on Vicky (What Vicky Read)’s blog, I thought it would be perfect since I love Taylor Swift, I love books, it’s the perfect combination. Her last album, reputation, wasn’t a favourite of mine, but I have been seriously loving (pardon the pun) Lover, I think it’s my favourite album of hers since Red (not that I didn’t enjoy 1989, I did, I just didn’t love it as much as her earlier stuff). My favourites off the album so far are Soon You’ll Get Better, Daylight, Miss Americana and The Heartbreak Prince, Cornelia Street, The Archer and Lover, but that might change as I listen to the album more. So without further ado, here are the rules of the tag:

1. Thank the creator, that’s Vicky from What Vicky Read.
2. Tag 5 friends.
3. Have fun!

So here we go, The Lover Book Tag:

1. I Forgot That You Existed-A book on your TBR that you had completely forgotten about

This could honestly be like half my TBR, but I think I’ll go with Pegasus and The Origins of Olympus, by Kate O’Hearn because I bought the book like four years ago after finishing the first three and I still haven’t got around to reading it yet. I forget quite a lot of the books that I have because I have too many to store them all in one place!

2. Cruel Summer-A Perfect Summer Read

I don’t tend to go for your typical “summer” books because they tend to be contemporary romances that aren’t really my kind of thing, so instead I’ll go for something that is both summery and a bit more my speed and say Dangerous Girls, since it takes place in sunny Aruba, and I think psychological thrillers make pretty great beach reads because they are so fast to read.

3. Lover-Your favourite book/series

OUCH. I hate having to pick favourites when it comes to books, so I will caveat this by saying that this is just ONE of my favourite series. I love the Shades of Magic trilogy, I think it’s one of the few trilogies I’ve read where the standard is consistently high across all three books, and it has one of the most satisfying conclusions I’ve ever read.

4. The Man-An Amazing Female Character

Without meaning to repeat myself, I have to go with a character from the above series, and say Lila Bard. She’s an absolute BAMF, and has my entire heart, defying the gender expectations for women in her time period, whilst fighting to save the world(s) from the brink of disaster.

5. The Archer-A book from your childhood because you never grew up

I could go with Harry Potter, but since that one is kind of a given, I’ll go with one of my other childhood favourites, and say Matilda, by Roald Dahl. I loved Roald Dahl’s books when I was a kid and Matilda was one of my favourites, I mean a bookworm girl with telekinetic powers, who uses them to punish all the evil adults in her life? What’s not to love?

6. I Think He Knows-A book everyone knows you love

At the risk of repeating myself, I have to go with A Darker Shade of Magic. My Schwab love is pretty evident to anyone who reads my Top Ten Tuesday lists, and A Darker Shade of Magic has made multiple appearances on said lists since I read it three years ago.

7. Miss Americana and The Heartbreak Prince-A book that makes you so sad, you could paint the town blue

I’ve only ever physically cried at two books, and I’m going to go with Rose Under Fire for this one. It makes me so sad and horrified that there were real people, like Rose, who actually went to Ravensbruck and weren’t as lucky as she was, and that the Rabbits were actually real women who were disfigured and experimented on by the Nazis. (For those who are interested, the other book I cried at was Between Shades of Gray, another WWII book).

8. Paper Rings-Your favourite OTP

Percy and Annabeth from Percy Jackson, obviously!

9. Cornelia Street-A book that lived up to the hype

I read The Gentleman’s Guide To Vice and Virtue this year, after two years of seeing hype for it around the blogosphere and it was SO GOOD. Such a fun, brilliant, historical adventure, with an extremely shippable m/m romance and a female main character who was absolutely down for smashing the patriarchy.

10. Death By A Thousand Cuts-A book that saying goodbye to is death by a thousand cuts so you just have to reread it again

I’ve not really reread much since joining the book community in 2014, but without meaning to copy Vicky’s answer, I’m going to go with Harry Potter as well, it’s the first book series I’ve read that I actually remember ending and whilst it was so sad to say goodbye, returning to the series is like going back to an old friend.

11. London Boy-A book based in London

So that I don’t repeat myself by using the Shades of Magic books again, I’m going to go with Samantha Shannon’s The Mime Order, which entirely takes place in a dystopian version of London.

12. Soon You’ll Get Better-A Book That Brightens Up Your Sky

The Percy Jackson books never fail to make me smile, I love the world and the characters so much, plus they are just so funny.

13. False God-A book you could reread over and over again because it still does it for you, babe

Again, I don’t really reread much anymore because I don’t have the time, but I think if I was going to reread a series over and over again, I’d go with one of my favourites from my teenage years, and one that I’m still enjoying now, and go with the Skulduggery Pleasant series.

14. You Need To Calm Down-An LGBTQ+ book you’d GLAADly recommend

I’d go with Tara Sim’s Timekeeper for this, it’s one of my favourite LGBTQ+ books, and where else are you going to get an m/m romance between a human and a clock spirit?

15. Afterglow-It’s Not The Book, It’s Me (a book that wasn’t for you)

I’d heard so many good things about Uprooted, but in the end, it turned out not being for me, I had a lot of issues with it and just didn’t really enjoy it.

16. ME!-A Character You Relate To

For me, this is definitely Izzy O’Neill. We have a very similar sense of humour, we both really love food and have absolutely no patience for the patriarchy, I think we’d get along very well.

17. It’s Nice To Have A Friend-A Book Character You’d Love To Be Friends With

Hermione Granger! We could talk about books and unlike Harry and Ron, I’d actually be interested!

18. Daylight-A book that you weren’t sure of at first, but turned out to be amazing

The Priory of The Orange Tree started out really slow for me, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy it, but it got better and better the further I got through the book.

Bonus: Favourite Taylor Swift Album-It’s a toss up for me between Fearless and Speak Now, both have some of my absolute favourite songs on them and there’s honestly not a single dud on either. I think if I had to choose though, I’d go with Speak Now, she wrote the whole thing herself at 18/19 and that is SO IMPRESSIVE.

If any of my followers are Taylor Swift fans, then I tag you to do this! What did you think of Lover? What was your favourite song? What’s your favourite Taylor Swift album? Let me know in the comments!