Tag: new adult romance

books i would like to read this year

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It’s been so long since I’ve spoken about books on this page. I had briefly spoken about why I’ve been in a long reading slump on Twitter. However, I wanted to share it here and please be advised that word vomit will now commence: I’m no longer in love with YA (young adult). For a very long time I didn’t want to accept it. I didn’t want to accept that I had fallen out of love with a genre that made me fall in love with reading in the first place. This is not to say that I’ve completely cut off YA. However, it’s to say that my reading taste has changed. I forced myself for over a year trying to read YA and found myself constantly bored. Alongside this huge year long reading slump, being an author and dedicating time to my books/deadlines has become a priority. Also life but life always happens right? And yeah, letting go of YA has been very freeing. I accepted that letting go of a particular genre does not mean I’m letting go of the book community and that’s okay.

Any-who, I know I’m super late but these are books that I would like to read this year. I’m so excited to get to these. I’m not sure if I’ll post reviews for them because I’m still slowly figuring out what I want to do with this blog and I’m also not sure if I’ll get to all these books but I think I can do this. *crosses fingers*

The books are not in order of what I want to read, I did try to group them by genre though. The titles of the books will link you straight to Goodreads.

 

  • The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker
    Genre: New Adult Romance
    City girl Calla Fletcher attempts to reconnect with her estranged father, and unwittingly finds herself torn between her desire to return to the bustle of Toronto and a budding relationship with a rugged Alaskan pilot. (full synopsis on goodreads)
  • Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren
    Genre: Romance, Fiction
    After a decade apart, childhood sweethearts reconnect by chance in New York Times bestselling author Christina Lauren’s touching, romantic novel Love and Other Words…how many words will it take for them to figure out where it all went wrong? The story of the heart can never be unwritten. (full synopsis on goodreads)
  • Until It Fades by K.A. Tucker
    Genre: New Adult Romance
    And then one foggy night, on a lonely road back from another failed attempt at a relationship, Catherine saves a man’s life. It isn’t until after the police have arrived that Catherine realizes exactly who it is she has saved: Brett Madden, hockey icon and media darling. Catherine has already had her fifteen minutes of fame and the last thing she wants is to have her past dragged back into the spotlight, only this time on a national stage. So she hides her identity. It works. For a time. (full synopsis on goodreads)
  • Crown of Lies (Truth and Lies Duet #1) by Pepper Winters
    Genre: Dark Romance
    THREE YEARS
    Since I ran away for the night, danced in New York streets, and almost got killed in an alley by two thieves. Until he showed up and saved me.
    THREE DAYS
    Since I threw a drink at the man my father expected me to marry, then found myself slammed against a wall with Penn Everett’s seductive voice whispering a proposal I couldn’t refuse.     (full synopsis on goodreads)

 

  • Into the Water by Paula Hawkins
    Genre: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller
    In the last days before her death, Nel called her sister. Jules didn’t pick up the phone, ignoring her plea for help. Now Nel is dead. They say she jumped. And Jules has been dragged back to the one place she hoped she had escaped for good, to care for the teenage girl her sister left behind. But Jules is afraid. So afraid. Of her long-buried memories, of the old Mill House, of knowing that Nel would never have jumped. And most of all she’s afraid of the water, and the place they call the Drowning Pool . . .
  • Ink and Bone by Lisa Unger
    Genre: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller
    In this explosive psychological thriller by New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger, a young woman’s mysterious gift forces her into the middle of a dangerous investigation of a little girl’s disappearance. (full synopsis on goodreads)
  • Sadie by Courtney Summers
    Genre: YA Mystery
    Sadie hasn’t had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she’s been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water. But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie’s entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister’s killer to justice and hits the road following a few meager clues to find him. When West McCray―a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America―overhears Sadie’s story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie’s journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it’s too late. (full synopsis on goodreads)

 

  • The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
    Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance
    Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now? (full synopsis on goodreads)
  • Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
    Genre: Historical Fiction, Music
    Everyone knows Daisy Jones & The Six, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.
    Book is told in interview format. (full synopsis on goodreads)
  • Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatolv Pass Incident by Donnie Eicher
    Genre: Nonfiction, History, Mystery
    In February 1959, a group of nine experienced hikers in the Russian Ural Mountains died mysteriously on an elevation known as Dead Mountain. Eerie aspects of the incident—unexplained violent injuries, signs that they cut open and fled the tent without proper clothing or shoes, a strange final photograph taken by one of the hikers, and elevated levels of radiation found on some of their clothes—have led to decades of speculation over what really happened. This gripping work of literary nonfiction delves into the mystery through unprecedented access to the hikers’ own journals and photographs, rarely seen government records, dozens of interviews, and the author’s retracing of the hikers’ fateful journey in the Russian winter. A fascinating portrait of the young hikers in the Soviet era, and a skillful interweaving of the hikers narrative, the investigators’ efforts, and the author’s investigations, here for the first time is the real story of what happened that night on Dead Mountain.

 

  • The Girl in the Tower (Winternight Trilogy #2) by Katherine Arden
    Genre: Fantasy, Historical Fiction
    The magical adventure begun in The Bear and the Nightingale continues as brave Vasya, now a young woman, is forced to choose between marriage or life in a convent and instead flees her home—but soon finds herself called upon to help defend the city of Moscow when it comes under siege. Orphaned and cast out as a witch by her village, Vasya’s options are few: resign herself to life in a convent, or allow her older sister to make her a match with a Moscovite prince. Both doom her to life in a tower, cut off from the vast world she longs to explore. So instead she chooses adventure, disguising herself as a boy and riding her horse into the woods. When a battle with some bandits who have been terrorizing the countryside earns her the admiration of the Grand Prince of Moscow, she must carefully guard the secret of her gender to remain in his good graces—even as she realizes his kingdom is under threat from mysterious forces only she will be able to stop.
  • King of Scars (Nikolai #1) by Leigh Bardugo
    Genre: YA Fantasy
    Nikolai Lantsov has always had a gift for the impossible. No one knows what he endured in his country’s bloody civil war—and he intends to keep it that way. Now, as enemies gather at his weakened borders, the young king must find a way to refill Ravka’s coffers, forge new alliances, and stop a rising threat to the once-great Grisha Army. Yet with every day a dark magic within him grows stronger, threatening to destroy all he has built. With the help of a young monk and a legendary Grisha Squaller, Nikolai will journey to the places in Ravka where the deepest magic survives to vanquish the terrible legacy inside him. He will risk everything to save his country and himself. But some secrets aren’t meant to stay buried—and some wounds aren’t meant to heal.
  • Muse of Nightmares (Strange the Dreamer #2) by Laini Taylor
    Genre: YA Fantasy
    In the wake of tragedy, neither Lazlo nor Sarai are who they were before. One a god, the other a ghost, they struggle to grasp the new boundaries of their selves as dark-minded Minya holds them hostage, intent on vengeance against Weep. Lazlo faces an unthinkable choice—save the woman he loves, or everyone else?—while Sarai feels more helpless than ever. But is she? Sometimes, only the direst need can teach us our own depths, and Sarai, the Muse of Nightmares, has not yet discovered what she’s capable of. (full synopsis on goodreads)

And that is all for this post! Any of these books you’ve read or interest you? I think I’m most excited to read Taylor Jenkins Reid and K.A. Tucker. Fun Fact: It’s my first time reading Taylor Jenkins Reid! I cannot wait to read her books, all I’ve heard is praise. Hope you all have an amazing day/evening/night on whatever side of the planet you’re on! xo

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A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas Book Review/Rant

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please note that this review will contain minor “spoilers”
quotations because some things shouldn’t be viewed as spoilers, in my opinion.

Title: A Court of Wings and Ruin (Book #3)
Series: A Court of Thorns and Roses
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Genre: New Adult Fantasy
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Format: Hardcover
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

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Synopsis from Goodreads:

A nightmare, I’d told Tamlin. I was the nightmare.

Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, determined to gather information on Tamlin’s maneuverings and the invading king threatening to bring Prythian to its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit—and one slip may spell doom not only for Feyre, but for her world as well. As war bears down upon them all, Feyre must decide who to trust amongst the dazzling and lethal High Lords—and hunt for allies in unexpected places.

if you read this book and loved it, please don’t take this as a personal attack. this is just my standpoint and personal opinions. i’m going to be real here and just say that after this book, i will no longer be supporting this author due to the reasons below. let’s get started!

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i was very excited for this book! especially after how much i absolutely loved A Court of Mist and Fury (book 2). and after seeing the ending of book 2, i was left with the ultimate book hangover. i had found myself scrolling through tumblr days after looking for fan art, aesthetics, conspiracies for ACOWAR…EVERYTHING… but then, Empire of Storms which is the 5th book in SJM Throne of Glass series happened and i saw a lot of similarities to A Court of Mist and Fury. i had my speculations, i thought that maybe Sarah J. Maas was really tired of the Throne of Glass series and just wanted to spend her time on her newer stuff. no, i was wrong. A Court of Wings and Ruin happened and that proved my little theory so wrong.

i’m not going to lie and say that i hated ACOWAR from beginning to end. i was really into the first 200 pages or so till i started rolling the hell out of my eyes noticing a lot of inconsistencies in the plot and it was dragging as well. i completely understand that the plot is going to drag on, now that more books are going to be added but c’mon! this could’ve been sooooo good! i feel like this book had so much potential to be great.

i also noticed that she was still pretty much copying and pasting from one series to the other. there’s a theory out there that Throne of Glass and ACOTAR are parallel universes to one another and i’m starting to semi-believe it. or maybe it’s just that SJM has gotten lazy. she started adding witches and pirates into this series too…ahem…ToG
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it doesn’t stop there though!!! FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING THAT IS GOOD PLEASEEEEE STOP MAKING YOUR CHARACTERS HISS AND GROWL. i already had to endure it with ALL OF THRONE OF GLASS.

i’m still not done ranting. i have a lot more heavier things to discuss like sexuality, race, and abuse. but in the meantime can we discuss how Rhys and Feyre were having sex all the freaking time while there was a war going on?!?!? hoooowwwww, whyyyyyyy, like who has sex in the middle of a war camp?!?! i’ll tell you who! Rhys and Feyre. there’s just some things i don’t understand at all. when it came to book 2, i completely understood the angst and them getting with one another. but in this book?! they’re preparing for war  and there is war, like Sarah…i do not care about the page long sex scene between the two..there are more important things than how they make love to one another after fighting in a war. YA NOT TIRED FROM ALL THE FIGHTING?! CAUSE I SURE AM!! issa no from me.

which leads me to two things…sexual favors and pinching. Sarah has this way of twisting her characters around out of the blue, like i found Rhys and Feyre a little too different for me. now, i completely understand growth with characters but SJM loves to switch on them. i can name a few characters from both series but i’m going to keep my focus on Rhys who’s like the biggest softy in book 2 but yet is asking Feyre for sexual favors when something is done and it’s like wait what? and i feel like he’s being a complete douchebag and wanting Feyre on the sidelines at all times and i was like “where’s Rhys from book 2 who was all about equality and feminism?”

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and the pinching which i consider abuse..they kept pinching one another and it was so disturbing to me. regardless of the context and how “playful” it was, i couldn’t deal with the two pinching one another a few times throughout the book. stop pinching one another, some people associate that with abuse. also, although this book is New Adult, Bloomsbury targets this as YA and i think about the audience that reads this book..i don’t find it appropriate for teens to read about pinching their significant other. this was normalized behavior in this book.

now can i talk about race for a second here?

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sarah j. maas is known for her lack of people of color (PoC). like literally, they are in the books and don’t last much. or they’re usually in the background..like we always are in media…and i say we because if you don’t know, i’m Puerto Rican *waves the flag high and proud*

i was already pissed off and wanted to DNF this book with everything else that was mentioned above but then my blood started boiling when the war had just started and the first people that get attacked is the court that’s filled with PoC. this is when i have a problem because in media, when you have white people who are the main characters, the first ones to die are us PoC. this is a fact. this has become an actual joke between us PoC. we can watch a movie and be like “how much you wanna bet that the first person to die is the PoC?” i obviously cannot speak for every PoC but with my interactions with others..this is a thing that happens.

and i cannot support authors who keep doing this and making it okay to use us for their advantage and plot point. i know this is something that a lot of us in the book community speak up about. i also know that it’s our fault as consumers that we keep purchasing these books. because it gives the okay to publishers to keep pushing these types of books out.

which leads me into my next point…sexuality.

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so people are going to dismiss the fact that SJM literally stereotyped the living shit out of a bisexual character by stating that he wanted a foursome with other characters? like if bisexuals in real life don’t get enough shit by people who think they’re promiscuous and confused and just want to sleep with everyone?

annnnnnnd let’s not forget that Mor all of a sudden is lesbian and SJM seriously wrote that scene like a fucking PLOT TWIST. sorry not sorry but umm stop making the LGBTQIA+ community as a plot twist.

issa fail.

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and i am sure that SJM pulled this when she realized their was a deal of adding more books because she obviously needs to extend the series and it’s characters. BUT SHE COULD’VE DONE SO MUCH MORE THAN PULL THAT CRAP! like her main plot was already being pulled into a million different directions and so were the characters. so now all of a sudden, Mor is lesbian and you had to tell us that in book 3? FOH! annnnd it’s also still a secret cause she only told one person. therefore, SJM now has you stringing along to keep buying her other books to see how Azriel finds out about her being lesbian.  mmmmm k.

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the only reason why i gave it a 2 star was because SJM definitely builds it up for the future books to come and she knows how to keep you on edge. there are characters that i care for and liked what she did with SOME of them. she definitely left me with tons of questions which i feel like will eventually be answered in the next 3 books but i won’t be reading them. i will forget about this one in a few days.

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and that is it for my ranty review. any thoughts? let’s chat in the comments ❤

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e-book haul!

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I haven’t hauled any books since my December/January Book Haul post!! Therefore, I will be doing different type of book haul post (e-book, poetry, and physical copy). Let’s get started with what I accumulated per month!

February:

March:

April:

i also accumulated some poetry e-books but i will be placing them in the poetry book haul. stay tuned for more hauls! have you read any of these books? let’s talk in the comments!

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Mini Review Monday – Ugly Love (Spoiler Free)

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Hey everyone! Here I am with another Mini Review Monday created by me, where you write a short review for a book/series you haven’t reviewed on your blog. Because either you read the book before you started blogging or you never got around to it. If you decide to participate in this new meme, please feel free to leave a link to your post in the comments below. Also! Let the people know if it’s a non-spoiler/spoiler review.

Title: Ugly Love
Author: Colleen Hoover
Genre: New Adult, Romance
Published: August 5, 2014
Read: August 2014
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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Synopsis from Goodreads:

When Tate Collins meets airline pilot Miles Archer, she knows it isn’t love at first sight. They wouldn’t even go so far as to consider themselves friends. The only thing Tate and Miles have in common is an undeniable mutual attraction. Once their desires are out in the open, they realize they have the perfect set-up. He doesn’t want love, she doesn’t have time for love, so that just leaves the sex. Their arrangement could be surprisingly seamless, as long as Tate can stick to the only two rules Miles has for her.

Never ask about the past.
Don’t expect a future.

They think they can handle it, but realize almost immediately they can’t handle it at all.

Hearts get infiltrated.
Promises get broken.
Rules get shattered.
Love gets ugly.

If you want to read a sucker punch New Adult novel, then you need to pick this one up. Cause this one will have you in all your feelings. I literally kept yelling at the book with all the wtf moments going on.

Tate and Miles meet and there’s an attraction, but neither want to get serious. Tate is busy moving in with her brother, trying to get her masters degree while Miles is a airline pilot. Miles ask her to never ask about his past and Tate is fine with that. Till things get heated between them and Miles past starts crawling along.

Ugly Love is told in dual prospective, Tate’s and Miles. One thing I enjoyed about Miles chapters were that sometimes they were told in verse. Also, Miles chapters are told in past tense while Tate’s is present. Which I thought was really great and heart wrenching because it started connecting and that’s when your heart gets broken.

I loved how relatable Tate was too, I feel like a lot of women can just connect with someone like Tate. Her insecurities, her doubts and worries were just the nail on the head for me. Especially in those moments when Miles was a total douchebag to her.

I also had my laughing out loud moments in this book too, don’t mind the title, there is some funny in here. The reader also gets to meet this elder man Cap and I looooooved him so much because he’s like a grandfather to everyone.

This book is about forgiving yourself and others around you when you’re a little too hard to love.

Character driven story? Yes
Plot twist? Yes
Recommend for first time New Adult readers? Yes!

“Love isn’t always pretty. Sometimes you spend all your time hoping it’ll eventually be something different. Something better. Then, before you know it, you’re back to square one, and you lost your heart somewhere along the way.”

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