Hi! I’ve been trying to blog for the whole week but to no success. I always end up sleeping in my bed whenever I got home. Thank goodness for weekend.
So here I am with a wrap-up for the books that I have read from January to March. I only read 4 books for 3 months. It’s quite shocking even in my part. And I’m behind my reading challenge in goodreads. On the other hand, I’m enjoying myself with reading and relaxing so I feel like it is not that bad that I’m not reading much lately.
And before I rumble other stuff in this wrap-up in an attempt to make it longer, I present to you the books that I finished in the past three months.
ALL BY MY SELFIE by Jo Noelle
Rating: 4 out of 5 moons
Thoughts: I thought that this book was a cutesy contemporary but it offers more than that. It is short but sweet. I like the romance though it is quite a typical trope. The touch of magical realism in this story adds to the historical fantasy side of the book. Highly recommending this to people who is quite intimidated with the Outlander series. It is set in Scotland and the male character in this book speaks the same as Jamie Fraser. It takes quite some time to get used to the Scottish language in this novella, which is the same issue that I have with Outlander, but I feel like after reading this I finally get the hang of the misspelled words just to emphasized the accent.
Synopsis:
While on vacation at McLeod Castle in Scotland, Gwen Mackenzie has nightly dreams of an ancient warrior bound by a curse. During the day, she sees Niall, nicknamed #ScottishBoyfriend. Oh, and can that man rock a kilt! As she gets to know him, she realizes that Niall is the warrior from her dreams, cursed to live as a ghost for the past five hundred years, to see life around him but never sense any of it—except Gwen.
Niall McLeod has been a prisoner, a ghost, for centuries. When he meets Gwen, he wonders if she is the key to releasing him, but Niall’s quest for freedom may cost Gwen her life.
MILK & HONEY by Rupi Kaur
Rating: 1 out of 5 moons
Thoughts: I am one of the minorities who dislike this book. The writing style is another story for another time but shall we talk about the content? I’ve been hearing good things about this book and I decided to give it a try. I am disappointed because the synopsis on goodreads is quite promising; it talks about love, loss, survival, violence, abuse, etc.? But all I get are sexual scenarios to represent each emotion. I feel like “femininity” in this book is poorly represented and has been marginalized as a sexual thing or sexual being who uses sex as a means of expressing one’s being and coping up with one’s pain.
If this book inspires you in some ways, then good for you. But it’s not for me.
Synopsis:
milk and honey is a collection of poetry and prose about survival. It is about the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity. It is split into four chapters, and each chapter serves a different purpose, deals with a different pain, heals a different heartache. milk and honey takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because there is sweetness everywhere if you are just willing to look.
A STORM OF SWORDS by George R.R. Martin
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 moons
Thoughts: I don’t know how George R.R. Martin does it but each book in this series gets better and better. The plot twists in this book will get you on the edge of your seat. Just by reading the book, you would understand that it took a lot of planning (and probably years) in putting a single book this brilliant. House Lannister all the way!
Synopsis:
Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and still the wars rage as alliances are made and broken. Joffrey sits on the Iron Throne, the uneasy ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. His most bitter rival, Lord Stannis, stands defeated and disgraced, victim of the sorceress who holds him in her thrall. Young Robb still rules the North from the fortress of Riverrun. Meanwhile, making her way across a blood-drenched continent is the exiled queen, Daenerys, mistress of the only three dragons still left in the world. And as opposing forces manoeuver for the final showdown, an army of barbaric wildlings arrives from the outermost limits of civilization, accompanied by a horde of mythical Others—a supernatural army of the living dead whose animated corpses are unstoppable. As the future of the land hangs in the balance, no one will rest until the Seven Kingdoms have exploded in a veritable storm of swords…
GEMINA by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 moons
Thoughts: This book does not disappoint and exceeded my expectations. The plot as a whole is so good and even though I am expecting a plot twist, I did not see it coming! Almost gave this book a perfect 5 but I feel like there’s something rush about it. But compared to the first book, I have to say that I’m one of the minorities who like this better than the first book. I’m looking forward to the next book because Amie Kaufman gives an epic wrap-up to Starbound trilogy and seeing how Kristoff & Kaufman are a perfect tandem, I have a good feeling that they would wrap-up this trilogy with a bang!
Synopsis:
Moving to a space station at the edge of the galaxy was always going to be the death of Hanna’s social life. Nobody said it might actually get her killed.
The sci-fi saga that began with the breakout bestseller Illuminae continues on board the Jump Station Heimdall, where two new characters will confront the next wave of the BeiTech assault.
Hanna is the station captain’s pampered daughter; Nik the reluctant member of a notorious crime family. But while the pair are struggling with the realities of life aboard the galaxy’s most boring space station, little do they know that Kady Grant and the Hypatia are headed right toward Heimdall, carrying news of the Kerenza invasion.
When an elite BeiTech strike team invades the station, Hanna and Nik are thrown together to defend their home. But alien predators are picking off the station residents one by one, and a malfunction in the station’s wormhole means the space-time continuum might be ripped in two before dinner. Soon Hanna and Nik aren’t just fighting for their own survival; the fate of everyone on the Hypatia—and possibly the known universe—is in their hands.
But relax. They’ve totally got this. They hope.
Those are all the books that I have read in the last three months. I’ll be posting more in-depth thoughts about those books this week so stay tuned for that!
Have a great day & a great week ahead of you guys!
Till next time!
Maria ❤
P.S. If you’re wondering about the “moon” rating instead of stars, I switched my rating system to moons emoticons rather than stars. 🙂
A Daughter of Parchment and Paper 