The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌖🌑

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Published: May 19, 2020

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 528

“Wars are won with heads, not hearts.”

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Synopsis:

Ambition will fuel him.
Competition will drive him.
But power has its price.

It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.

The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined—every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute . . . and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Published: August 24, 2010

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 398

“It takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart.”

-Finnick Odair

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Synopsis:

My name is Katniss Everdeen.
Why am I not dead?
I should be dead.

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss’s family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans—except Katniss.

The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss’s willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels’ Mockingjay—no matter what the personal cost.

Mid Year Book Freak Out Tag 2021

Hello, bookworms! Can you believe that we are already halfway (more than halfway) to 2021? Also, Harry Potter’s birthday!

Anyway, for 2021, I only managed to read 23 books so far. I am taking it nice and slow. I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself this year, so that’s that.

I would cut my intro short since there are a lot of questions for this tag. Let’s just get into it!

Book Recommendation for Fans of You’ve Got Mail

Hello, fellow bookworms. As you have read from the title of my post, I am here to recommend you some books, but not just any books. These are books that would sate your movie hangover if you have marathoned You’ve Got Mail a million times.

If you clicked this blog post and don’t know what movie I am talking about, it’s the 1998 films starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. But if you still don’t know, and haven’t watched it yet, you have to watch it, like right now!

You’ve Got Mail is one of my all-time favorite RomCom movies. Not only that, but it also enlightens me as to what type of romance I want to consume in terms of books. After rewatching the movie tons of time, I suddenly have the urge to read something with a similar plot to sate my movie hangover.

As a result, I scoured the internet for book recommendations with the same plot or trope. Let me tell you, some of those books turn out as a flop. So my book recommendations today are all the books that I have read. I will let you know what aspect of the story reminds me of You’ve Got Mail in the book, and how much I enjoyed them.

In addition to that, I also added a couple of recommendations on the last part of this blog dedicated to those who simply love the mysterious pen pal trope even if they are not similar to You’ve Got Mail.

So without further ado, let’s get into the recommendations.

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone

RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌘🌑

Publisher: Saga Press

Published: July 16, 2019

Format: e-Book

Pages: 209

Synopsis:

Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.

Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them. There’s still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war.

Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire

RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑

Publisher: Tordotcom

Published: January 12, 2021

Format: e-Book

Pages: 174

Synopsis:

A young girl discovers a portal to a land filled with centaurs and unicorns in Seanan McGuire’s Across the Green Grass Fields, a standalone tale in the Hugo and Nebula Award-wining Wayward Children series.

“Welcome to the Hooflands. We’re happy to have you, even if you being here means something’s coming.”

Regan loves, and is loved, though her school-friend situation has become complicated, of late.

When she suddenly finds herself thrust through a doorway that asks her to “Be Sure” before swallowing her whole, Regan must learn to live in a world filled with centaurs, kelpies, and other magical equines―a world that expects its human visitors to step up and be heroes.

But after embracing her time with the herd, Regan discovers that not all forms of heroism are equal, and not all quests are as they seem…

When in doubt: Try a Chapter!

One of every bookworm’s problems is hauling books that we didn’t know if we would actually like or not. In the past year, I have read books that do not live up to the synopsis or how the books are pitched.

So to avoid disappointment, I decided to do the Try a Chapter trend that’s been quite popular in the book community for some time.

The books that I have chosen for this blog are mostly the books that I have been eyeing for quite some time. I have found a very cheap set of these books secondhand, but I cannot buy it all. Also, I wanted to make sure that it will be worth my money.

Without further ado, let’s get into the books and my thoughts about the first chapter!

March 2021 Wrap-up & Book Haul

Hello fellow bookworms!

Happy April! I have a good reading month in March even though I only managed to finished 4 books. On the bright side, I finally read my most anticipated book of 2020.

In addition to that, I will also be sharing a very exciting book haul. It’s a series that I have contemplated for a long time if I will read or not. But I feel like I am ready to get into this series now. So I am excited to share that book with you!

I’ll quit blabbering, and let’s get into the wrap-up and the book haul!

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕

Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers

Published: September 17, 2011

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 418

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“Have you asked yourself, do monsters make war, or does war make monsters?”

Synopsis:

Around the world, black hand prints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grows dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherworldly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real, she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious “errands”, she speaks many languages – not all of them human – and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

RATING: 🌕🌕🌑🌑🌑

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Published: May 30, 2017

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 380

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Synopsis:

Dimple Shah has it all figured out. With graduation behind her, she’s more than ready for a break from her family—and from Mamma’s inexplicable obsession with her finding the “Ideal Indian Husband.” Ugh. Dimple knows they must respect her principles on some level, though. If they truly believed she needed a husband right now, they wouldn’t have paid for her to attend a summer program for aspiring web developers…right?

Rishi Patel is a hopeless romantic. So when his parents tell him that his future wife will be attending the same summer program—wherein he’ll have to woo her—he’s totally on board. Because as silly as it sounds to most people in his life, Rishi wants to be arranged, believes in the power of tradition, stability, and being a part of something much bigger than himself.

The Shahs and Patels didn’t mean to start turning the wheels on this “suggested arrangement” so early in their children’s lives, but when they noticed them both gravitating toward the same summer program, they figured, Why not?

Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.