First Line Reader

Books I’ve Recently Added to My TBR

Posted on March 8, 2020March 23, 2020 by Line

“There was once a young man who wished to gain his Heart’s Desire.”
First line in Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Hi, guys. Today I thought would talk about some of the books I recently put on my TBR on Goodreads. I’ve seen Kristin from Kristin Kraves Books do this and felt inspired to do the same. You need to check out her blog if you haven’t already, of course.

This is really just a way of getting to mention some books I might not be getting to for a while so here we go.

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

Caroline Criado Perez

Synopsis: Imagine a world where your phone is too big for your hand, where your doctor prescribes a drug that is wrong for your body, where in a car accident you are 47% more likely to be seriously injured, where every week the countless hours of work you do are not recognised or valued. If any of this sounds familiar, chances are that you’re a woman.

Invisible Women shows us how, in a world largely built for and by men, we are systematically ignoring half the population. It exposes the gender data gap – a gap in our knowledge that is at the root of perpetual, systemic discrimination against women, and that has created a pervasive but invisible bias with a profound effect on women’s lives.

Award-winning campaigner and writer Caroline Criado Perez brings together for the first time an impressive range of case studies, stories and new research from across the world that illustrate the hidden ways in which women are forgotten, and the impact this has on their health and well-being. From government policy and medical research, to technology, workplaces, urban planning and the media, Invisible Women reveals the biased data that excludes women. In making the case for change, this powerful and provocative book will make you see the world anew.

Goodreads

Why I Want to Read it: I need to be better at reading non-fiction and have learned that feminist non-fiction is the way to go. Emily from BookswithEmilyFox has praised this one very recently and it sounds so interesting.

Noughts and Crosses

Malorie Blackman

Synopsis: Two young people are forced to make a stand in this thought-provoking look at racism and prejudice in an alternate society.

Sephy is a Cross — a member of the dark-skinned ruling class. Callum is a Nought — a “colourless” member of the underclass who were once slaves to the Crosses. The two have been friends since early childhood, but that’s as far as it can go. In their world, Noughts and Crosses simply don’t mix. Against a background of prejudice and distrust, intensely highlighted by violent terrorist activity, a romance builds between Sephy and Callum — a romance that is to lead both of them into terrible danger. Can they possibly find a way to be together?

Goodreads

Why I Want to Read it: …Not sure exactly. It’s an old book with a high rating on Goodreads (4.23) and it has won awards. And yeah, it sounded interesting enough.

Theft of Swords

Michael J. Sullivan

Synopsis: THEY KILLED THE KING. THEY PINNED IT ON TWO MEN. THEY CHOSE POORLY.

There’s no ancient evil to defeat or orphan destined for greatness, just unlikely heroes and classic adventure. Royce Melborn, a skilled thief, and his mercenary partner, Hadrian Blackwater, are two enterprising rogues who end up running for their lives when they’re framed for the murder of the king. Trapped in a conspiracy that goes beyond the overthrow of a tiny kingdom, their only hope is unraveling an ancient mystery before it’s too late.

Goodreads

Why I Want to Read it: Bascially I heard that the friendship in this one is supposed to be similar to the one in Gentleman Bastard between Locke and Jean. I mean what more do you need to know?

The Fascinators

Andrew Eliopulos

Synopsis: A magic-infused YA novel about friendship, first love, and feeling out of place that will bewitch fans of Rainbow Rowell and Maggie Stiefvater.

Living in a small town where magic is frowned upon, Sam needs his friends James and Delia—and their time together in their school’s magic club—to see him through to graduation.

But as soon as senior year starts, little cracks in their group begin to show. Sam may or may not be in love with James. Delia is growing more frustrated with their amateur magic club. And James reveals that he got mixed up with some sketchy magickers over the summer, putting a target on all their backs.

With so many fault lines threatening to derail his hopes for the year, Sam is forced to face the fact that the very love of magic that brought his group together is now tearing them apart—and there are some problems that no amount of magic can fix.

Goodreads

Why I Want to Read it: The synopsis used the words “school’s magic club”. And also that it’s for fans of Rainbow Rowell and Maggie Stiefvater so I have no choice but to read it.

Mark of the Thief

Jennifer A. nielsen

Synopsis: When Nic, a slave in the mines outside of Rome, is forced to enter a sealed cavern containing the lost treasures of Julius Caesar, he finds much more than gold and gemstones: He discovers an ancient bulla, an amulet that belonged to the great Caesar and is filled with a magic once reserved for the Gods — magic some Romans would kill for.

Now, with the deadly power of the bulla pulsing through his veins, Nic is determined to become free. But instead, he finds himself at the center of a ruthless conspiracy to overthrow the emperor and spark the Praetor War, a battle to destroy Rome from within. Traitors and spies lurk at every turn, each more desperate than the next to use Nic’s newfound powers for their own dark purposes.

In a quest to stop the rebellion, save Rome, and secure his own freedom, Nic must harness the magic within himself and defeat the empire’s most powerful and savage leaders.

Goodreads

Why I Want to Read it: Jennifer A. Nielsen has written the only middle grade series I’ve liked as an adult (The Ascendance series) so I want to try one of her other series.

The Bone Ships

r.j. barker

Synopsis: A brilliantly imagined saga of honor, glory, and warfare, The Bone Ships is the epic launch of a new fantasy from David Gemmell Award-nominated RJ Barker.

Two nations at war. A prize beyond compare.

For generations, the Hundred Isles have built their ships from the bones of ancient dragons to fight an endless war.

The dragons disappeared, but the battles for supremacy persisted.

Now the first dragon in centuries has been spotted in far-off waters, and both sides see a chance to shift the balance of power in their favour. Because whoever catches it will win not only glory, but the war.

Goodreads

Why I Want to Read it: Honestly? A couple of months ago I read sooo many glowing reviews of this book that I felt like I had to add it to my TBR. Normally I’m not into dragons but maybe this is the exception.

Neverwhere

Neil gaiman

Synopsis: Under the streets of London there’s a place most people could never even dream of. A city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, knights in armour and pale girls in black velvet. This is the city of the people who have fallen between the cracks.

Richard Mayhew, a young businessman, is going to find out more than enough about this other London. A single act of kindness catapults him out of his workday existence and into a world that is at once eerily familiar and utterly bizarre. And a strange destiny awaits him down here, beneath his native city: Neverwhere.

Goodreads

Why I Want to Read it: I set a goal for myself at the beginning of the year to read at least 4 books by Neil Gaiman. I’ve read one so far and plan for Neverwhere to be the second. Fans of Gaiman seem to praise this one so I’m hoping to like it.

There you have the most recent books that’s gotten me excited. Let’s chat in the comments if you’ve read any of them or also plan to.

Book Review

Book Review: The Library of the Unwritten by A. J. Hackwith

Posted on March 6, 2020March 5, 2020 by Line

“Books ran away when they grew restless, when they grew unruly, or when they grew real.”
First line in The Library of the Unwritten by A. J. Hackwith

Author: A. J. Hackwith

Published: October 1st 2019

Genre: Fantasy

My rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Buzzwords: Books about books, angels and demons, diversity, magical library

Synopsis: Many years ago, Claire was named Head Librarian of the Unwritten Wing– a neutral space in Hell where all the stories unfinished by their authors reside. Her job consists mainly of repairing and organizing books, but also of keeping an eye on restless stories that risk materializing as characters and escaping the library. When a Hero escapes from his book and goes in search of his author, Claire must track and capture him with the help of former muse and current assistant Brevity and nervous demon courier Leto.

But what should have been a simple retrieval goes horrifyingly wrong when the terrifyingly angelic Ramiel attacks them, convinced that they hold the Devil’s Bible. The text of the Devil’s Bible is a powerful weapon in the power struggle between Heaven and Hell, so it falls to the librarians to find a book with the power to reshape the boundaries between Heaven, Hell….and Earth.

Goodreads

Hi, guys. You’ve stumbled upon my review of The Library of the Unwritten. Before going into this book, my expectations were very high. The synopsis on its own presents such a unique concept or rather several unique concepts.

At the center of the story you have this magical library that stores all the books that have only ever been an idea and not an actual book. And oh yeah, it’s in Hell because of course it is. However, what really caught my attention was the fact that characters come to life to look for their authors (or sometimes to just live their own life). Isn’t that the dream of every reader? To talk to fictional characters? Well, all of that made me have really high hopes for this book.

Because of the world’s originality, there’s a lot for the reader to learn at the beginning of the book. However, the author avoids being info-dumpy because the plot takes off pratically immediately so the reader kind of learns things along the way. It left me a little confused in the beginning of this book because there was a lot of information to grab onto and the plot wasn’t all that clear to start with.

It became a little bit of a tough start for me but the further along I got, I became more and more mesmerized by the amount of thought that went into this book. It needed that build-up in the beginning because the pay-off later on is a stroke of genius. Or rather several strokes. You can tell the author cares deeply about books and writing because of it. I love when something like that transcends the page.

Another thing that hooked me was the characters. It’s definitely a character-focused story but not the kind that doesn’t also have a plot though. We follow a group of very (!) different people while they go on a quest-like adventure through different worlds. Every single one of these characters is so well written. They are complex and well rounded with intriguing backstories that kept me invested all the way through. They are now characters that I love with all of my heart and yes, I would die for them.

I just quickly want to touch on the writing. It was something I had to get used to because it’s a little complex with some very long sentences and complicated words. This doesn’t mean that it’s bad by any means. It just meant that I wasn’t able to fly through it and I wouldn’t categorize it as an easy read. My non-native-speaking English mind had to pay attention in this one.

Finally, I want to say that this book not only had such cool themes about books and writing, but also about mental health. You read about some raw and honest emotions throughout the book and I felt all of them. Hackwith makes it all so realistic and relevant even though it’s a fantasy book. She proves that the genre can provide so much more than just escapism.

So those were my thoughts on The Library of the Unwritten which is now one of my favorite books. I can’t wait for the sequel, The Archive of the Forgotten which is out October 6th.

WWW Wednesday

WWW Wednesday – March 4th 2020

Posted on March 4, 2020March 3, 2020 by Line

“Books ran away when they grew restless, when they grew unruly, or when they grew real.”
First line in The Library of the Unwritten by A. J. Hackwith

Hi, guys. Hope you’re having a lovely week. Here you have my weekly update on my reading through WWW Wednesday. It’s a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words, and it’s meant to give you all a little insight into my reading this week. I’ll answer the 3 questions:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish?
What do you think you’ll read next

What did you recently finish?

The Library of the Unwritten by A. J. Hackwith and it was a 5-STAR BOOK! Seriously, people need to read this book. It only has about 3,000 ratings on Goodreads and that’s just not good enough. It’s so well written and perfect for readers who like books about books (who doesn’t?).

I’m currently trying to put my thoughts about this book in order and hope to post a full review on Friday.

What are you currently reading?

During my commutes I’ve been reading Infinity Son by Adam Silvera, which I’m about halfway through. I really want to like it but I’m so not. It almost reads like a middle grade book to me because everything is being explained to me. It’s confusing because the characters are 18 or older so I’m feeling a little bit of a disconnect.

The other book I’m reading is A Touch of Death by Rebecca Crunden. I’m only 40 pages into it but so far I’m enjoying it.

What do you think you’ll read next?

This is the third (and final!) time I’ll mention The Crimson Crown in this section.

Wrap up

February 2020 Reading Wrap Up

Posted on March 1, 2020February 28, 2020 by Line

“Jasnah Kholin pretended to enjoy the party, giving no indication that she intended to have one of the guests killed.”
First line in Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson

Hi, guys and welcome to my monthly reading wrap up for the month of February. It was a mixed month to say the least. Just take a look at my stats for the month:

4 books is not a lot but I’m not exactly surprised. This past month I’ve often had the time to read but then decided I didn’t want to. I don’t really have reading slumps where I don’t read anything at all. Then I just read 20 pages a day instead of 100 resulting in only 4 books read.

However, my page count is quite high (thank you, Words of Radiance) and I’m still on track with my Goodreads goal. But let’s get onto the books and the 4 mini-reviews.

The Exiled Queen (Book 2 in Seven Realms)

Author: Cinda Williams Chima

Published: September 1st 2010

Genre: YA Fantasy

My rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Go to Goodreads to read the synopsis of the first book in the series, The Demon King.

My thoughts

This was a step up from the first book! There was more of a direction to the plot and the characters became more dynamic. It’s just a fast paced and easy read so I really enjoyed reading it. If you’re interested in more of my thougths, I have review and spoiler dicussion right here.

Autoboyography

Authors: Christina Lauren

Published: September 12th 2017

Genre: YA Contemporary

My rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Buzzwords: LGBTQ+, writing a book, Mormon characters

Synopsis: Three years ago, Tanner Scott’s family relocated from California to Utah, a move that nudged the bisexual teen temporarily back into the closet. Now, with one semester of high school to go, and no obstacles between him and out-of-state college freedom, Tanner plans to coast through his remaining classes and clear out of Utah.

But when his best friend Autumn dares him to take Provo High’s prestigious Seminar—where honor roll students diligently toil to draft a book in a semester—Tanner can’t resist going against his better judgment and having a go, if only to prove to Autumn how silly the whole thing is. Writing a book in four months sounds simple. Four months is an eternity.

It turns out, Tanner is only partly right: four months is a long time. After all, it takes only one second for him to notice Sebastian Brother, the Mormon prodigy who sold his own Seminar novel the year before and who now mentors the class. And it takes less than a month for Tanner to fall completely in love with him.

Goodreads

My thoughts

Autoboyography was such a nice surprise. I didn’t know very much about it before starting it and I think that made a huge difference. The Mormon faith was a bit of a gray area for me before going in but I really like how it was portrayed, and how it wasn’t just there to be the “villain”. We saw the good sides too and that especially made Sebastian’s character believable and realistic. I also think it worked really well that our MC, Tanner, wasn’t Mormon but instead an outsider looking it and observing that community. He’s learning alongside the reader.

The development of the relationship felt very natural. It might have been a little rushed in the beginning making it a little insta-lovey but I really didn’t mind that. I mean, it’s what we’re here for so you might as well get the story going. After that, I really appreciated that the relationship had some bumps along the way showing that love doesn’t solve everything.

I had to take a star off because I wasn’t in love with the ending. It seemed like it was dragged out because they couldn’t decide which ending they wanted and therefore went with all of them. I would have loved to see the authors take a chance and just go with one ending.

Words of Radiance (Book 2 in The Stormlight Archive)

Author: Brandon Sanderson

Published: March 4th 2014

Genre: Fantasy

My rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Go to Goodreads to read the synopsis of the first book in the series, The Way of Kings.

My thoughts

It’s unreal how many times I just said “what?” out loud while reading this. This would often be followed by 20 minutes of me just staring at nothing, trying to wrap my head around the epicness of this book.

I don’t think I have much to say about this book and this series that hasn’t already been said. It’s amazing in every way. The world keeps getting bigger. The magic evolves quite a bit in this one but there is still so much that we don’t know.

The reason I only gave this one 4.5 stars is because of Shallan. This is kind of her book as the first one was Kaladin’s… but I don’t like Shallan. My main issue with her is that she seems to be a little too lucky sometimes. Everything she tries just works out and when she makes mistakes they are small and there are no consequences for her. It all just sorts itself out and everybody loves her. It made me loose interest in her chapters because why should I care then? I think it’s especially evident when you see the contrast in Kaladin’s chapters where his mistakes have huge repercussions. So, Kaladin is still my favorite character. His story is just a lot more interesting. Also, a certain scene with him near the end actually made me stop breathing. That was a masterfully written scene!

The Gray Wolf Throne (Book 3 in Seven Realms)

Author: Cinda Williams Chima

Published: January 1st 2011

Genre: YA Fantasy

My rating:

⭐

Go to Goodreads to read the synopsis of the first book in the series, The Demon King.

My thoughts

I did not like this one and I’m so sad about it. I loved reading the first two books in the series but The Gray Wolf Throne just became waaay too tropy for me. I was annoyed with practically every single character and on top of that, the plot moved way to slow. I spent most of the book waiting for stuff to happen. I have a full review and spoiler talk up for it if you want to know more of my thoughts.

Those were the 4 books I read in the month of February. Let me know if you’ve read any of them. Finally, I hope you had a great reading month and have a good week.

Book Review

Book Review and Spoiler Talk: The Gray Wolf Throne by Cinda Williams Chima

Posted on February 28, 2020February 24, 2020 by Line

“Raisa ana‘Marianna huddled in her usual dark corner at the Purple Heron, picking at her meat pie.”
First line in The Gray Wolf Throne by Cinda Williams Chima

Author: Cinda Williams Chima

Published: January 1st 2011

Genre: YA Fantasy

My rating: 1 star

Hi, guys and welcome to my third post about the Seven Realms series, reviewing The Gray Wolf Throne. I debated whether to write this post or not because as you can tell from my rating, I did NOT like this book. This review is therefore going to be a little ranty but I’ll try to keep it brief.

Having liked the first two books in the series, I was expecting this third book to be even better as we’re nearing the end. Now that I’m done, I’m struggling to find something positive to say about it.

My main issue is probably the pacing. This book was waaaay to slow. Too much time was spent leading up to and preparing for significant events (which there were very few of). The dialogue went in circles. The characters would talk and talk and talk but they were having the same arguments with slightly different wording every time. They also spent a lot of time feeling sorry for themselves and it got pretty sickening after 300 pages.

Basically, a lot of this book was not necessary for the plot or the character development. Important parts of this book would probably only take up about 100 pages (out of 517) and so I wonder whether this book should have ever existed.

Another issue for me was the cringey and out-dated romance tropes. There have been a few of those in the previous books but not enough the make me annoyed. In The Gray Wolf Throne, however, they were just piled on top of each other and took up most of the book. I’m not going to describe them here because that would take forever and be kind of spoilery. I go into some of them in my spoiler section if you’re interested. One I want to call out though. The book trying to be “feminist” but then you have female characters hating other female characters purely because they like the same guy. No. Other. Reason. Stop it! The way that it is done in this one is making me especially angry.

Okay, I’m going to stop this here. I’m still going to read the last book in the series because I might as well. This next part is going to be all about spoilers so stop reading if you don’t want to know more.

Spoiler Talk

Very slow start. Did we need to spent this much seeing them travel? It could easily have been condensed.
Why was Crow’s identity revealed at the beginning? Without a spectacle? We got the information and then “oh let’s move on.” There was a build up for a reveal by the end of book 2 so why didn’t we get it there? I’m wondering why he was completely ignored in the last half of the book. They spent to much time talking about him before that.
The dialogue is going in circles. Everybody trying to take the blame for something riddiculus and then feel bad for themselves.
It was such a shock to me that the queen just died! I mean, I expected it to happen at some point but I guess I thought it would actually happen on the page. Not for it to be something we’re just told about. It was expected because we obviously need Raisa to be queen so Marianna had to go.
Not gonna lie… I’m a little creeped out by the Mellony/Micah thing.
Why is it that Raisa hasn’t punched Nightwalker yet? And why is she humoring him? He’s such a jerk and needs to be told. Same really goes for Micah. It’s really the trope of “the guy is hot so it doesn’t matter how he behaves” and it’s frustrating. Also don’t understand why Raisa would accept a kiss from Nightwalker 5 minutes after she’s reminded that he’s still with Night Bird.
There was no ending? Like… nothing happened. It just faded out with the coronation. I expected something to go wrong there as there hadn’t been a climactic moment. Did anything happen in this book? I felt like I was waiting and waiting and waiting. Then I came to the end to find out that I was waiting for nothing. Disappointed.

That was my thoughts on The Gray Wolf Throne by Cinda Williams Chima. Not exactly a good reading experience but I haven’t lost hope for the series. I want to see how it ends. Let me know what you thought of it if you’ve read it.

WWW Wednesday

WWW Wednesday – February 26th 2020

Posted on February 26, 2020February 25, 2020 by Line

“Raisa ana’Marianna huddled in her usual dark corner at the Purple Heron, picking at her meat pie.”
First line in The Gray Wolf Throne by Cinda Williams Chima

Hi, guys. It’s Wednesday! Here you have my weekly update on my reading through WWW Wednesday. It’s a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words, and it’s meant to give you all a little insight into my reading this week. I’ll answer the 3 questions:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish?
What do you think you’ll read next

What did you recently finish?

The Gray Wolf Throne by Cinda Williams Chima and I might hate it. At least I couldn’t find any reason to give it more than 1 star. My review of it will be up on Friday but the short version is that I don’t think this book should have existed.

What are you currently reading?

I’m not working this week (yay!) so I don’t exactly have a commute book. However, that doesn’t mean that I’m not reading two books anyway. I’m slowly making my way through Infinity Son by Adam Silvera and I’m currently at 26%. It’s alright, I guess. I’m not sure I understand everything because important world building aspects are sort of just mentioned in passing. So it hasn’t exactly hooked me yet but I’m not hating it by any means.

I’m also 20% into The Library of the Unwritten by A. J. Hackwith and oh have I been looking forward to this one! A library in Hell with characters coming to life to look for their authors? Um.. Yes please! I’m really liking it so far. A little confusing beginning because the world is quite complex so there was a lot to learn. However, this is definitely the book I’m prioritizing this week.

What do you think you’ll read next?

Last week I put The Crimson Crown here which is the next book in the Seven Realms series but I haven’t actually gotten it yet. Which I don’t mind… I’ll still read it but I think I need something in between. So if I start anything within the next week it’ll be A Touch of Death by Rebecca Crunden.

Book Memes

Top Ten Tuesday – Characters I’d Follow on Social Media

Posted on February 25, 2020March 23, 2020 by Line

“Abandon all hope ye who enter here…”
First line in American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

Hi, guys and welcome to my Top Ten Tuesday post for the week. This week’s topic is so awesome: Characters I’d follow on social media. I had way too many options for this but I managed to narrow it down to 10.

I’ve picked characters from worlds that don’t have social media (mainly fantasy books) and tried to imagine them in our real life world. For each character I’ve specified on which platform they have their account and what kind of content they post. Hope you enjoy!

Wit (The Stormlight Archive)

Social media: Twitter

Type of content: Comedic outbursts that are often offensive. Somtimes, some profound saying that you don’t completely understand but will make you question everything you thought you knew.

Nikolai Lantsov (The Grisha Verse)

Social media: Instagram

Type of content: Mostly selfies (and who would complain) but also pictures of friends caught in embarrasing situations. The occasional political statement.

Peeta Mellark (The Hunger Games)

Social media: YouTube

Type of content: Baking tutorials. Learn how to bake bread with Peeta. Also, cake decorating.

Dandelion (The Witcher)

Social media: YouTube

Type of content: Singing his own songs, often about some dude named “Geralt”. Very intriguing stuff. He also tells stories (but be aware that he will go off on a tangent quite a lot).

Magnus Bane (The Shadowhunter Chronicles)

Social media: YouTube

Type of content: A lifestyle channel. He talks about fashion, gossip and home life. Expect all kinds of guests (seriously, ALL kinds) but espcially family members. Among his followers there has for some reason been a huge demand for a specific video: The Boyfriend Tag.

Jane Eyre (Jane Eyre)

Social media: Blog

Type of content: Her own detailed life experiences. Very relevant if you’ve ever wanted to become a governess. Her blog also has a special feature called “This Month’s Creepy Marriage Proposal” (also referred to as TMCMP).

Albus Dumbledore (Harry Potter)

Social media: Twitter

Type of content: Words of wisdom is the main thing you can expect from him. However, sometimes he will post something that doesn’t make sense. Not even to him.

Haymitch Abernathy (The Hunger Games)

Social media: Twitter

Type of content: Random exclamations that makes you wonder whether he was sober or not when writing it (he wasn’t). Most of them are fun but you’ll also see him question those in power in a way he probably shouldn’t.

Fred and George Weasley (Harry Potter)

Social media: YouTube

Type of content: Pranks on friends, family members and strangers. A lot of the pranks involve people eating something weird (the twins never really explain what) and then they have funny reactions. Well, fun for the people watching at least.

Tyrion Lannister (A Song of Ice and Fire)

Social media: Twitter

Type of content: Roasting people he doesn’t like. He gets very creative with his insults. He mixes it up with some serious political statements and proposals once in a while. Those are mostly ignored.

There you have my post for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic. I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun putting a post together. Now I’m just sad that none of these accounts actually exist. But oh well, I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know your favorite and who you’d follow in the comments.