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Ugh.
So I'm in a dry spell. The last five (five!?) books were all DNFs, and I'm hoping the one I pick up today won't be.
Also it's the end of June, which means it's time to recap what I read so far. According to my Goodreads, I managed to get through 8 books so far this year. My goal is 12. I can't believe I made it more than halfway through.
Anyway, here we go. Hopefully this exercise gets me to my next finished book.
Let me know what you've read so far too!
How to Find a Princess by Alyssa Cole (Runaway Royals, Book 2)
6.5/10 - I mentioned that Cole was my favorite author for last year. Still true. But I just wasn't feeling this book like I felt the first one in this series, along with the Reluctant Royals. I still liked the characters, so I guess I just wasn't feeling the story.
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The Last List of Mabel Beaumont by Laura Pearson
8/10 - Heartwarming story of a reserved elderly woman, who gains female friends of all ages. The characters have their own issues, and different points of view. After the death of her husband, she also comes to terms with a secret she's known about herself for decades. Loved seeing Mabel come out of her shell.
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Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
8.5/10 - At first I was a little spooked, thinking her friend faked her death. Otherwise, it was wildly intriguing. Just the nerve of her taking someone else's work - no regrets, and absolutely no idea of the content she claimed to be hers. It was a good book, though, damn it.
----------------------------------------
The Brown Sisters (series) by Talia Hibbert
7.5/10 - Hm. Typical romance stories, rough guy gets his wall broken down (except for book 2 - it was Dani who had the wall up). But I like how the author did her research to show characters dealing with their mental health and disabilities. They seemed realistic to me.
----------------------------------------
A Song of Wraiths and Ruin (series) by Roseanne A. Brown
9/10 - I've been looking for POC fantasy. This was my first taste, and what a great frickin taste it was. A boy whose people are looked down upon, and a princess who was never supposed to rule, come together to save their people. Trust is gained and lost, and gained. They grow and mature, with still more to do after the story finished (they're like only 17 so). I'll have to reread it, because I know I missed some things - not knowing jack about West African tales. There's only two books and I wish it was longer.
The book even has a map of the fictional country, some areas never mentioned in the story. It just makes me curious about the worldbuilding. Some romance, but I liked how it ended as it was realistic and appropriate for the two main characters.
I have so much more to say, but I'll stop here.
So I'm in a dry spell. The last five (five!?) books were all DNFs, and I'm hoping the one I pick up today won't be.
Also it's the end of June, which means it's time to recap what I read so far. According to my Goodreads, I managed to get through 8 books so far this year. My goal is 12. I can't believe I made it more than halfway through.
Anyway, here we go. Hopefully this exercise gets me to my next finished book.
Let me know what you've read so far too!
How to Find a Princess by Alyssa Cole (Runaway Royals, Book 2)
6.5/10 - I mentioned that Cole was my favorite author for last year. Still true. But I just wasn't feeling this book like I felt the first one in this series, along with the Reluctant Royals. I still liked the characters, so I guess I just wasn't feeling the story.
Makeda Hicks has lost her job and her girlfriend in one fell swoop. The last thing she’s in the mood for is to rehash the story of her grandmother’s infamous summer fling with a runaway prince from Ibarania, or the investigator from the World Federation of Monarchies tasked with searching for Ibarania’s missing heir.
Yet when Beznaria Chetchevaliere crashes into her life, the sleek and sexy investigator exudes exactly the kind of chaos that organized and efficient Makeda finds irresistible, even if Bez is determined to drag her into a world of royal duty Makeda wants nothing to do with.
When a threat to her grandmother’s livelihood pushes Makeda to agree to return to Ibarania, Bez takes her on a transatlantic adventure with a crew of lovable weirdos, a fake marriage, and one-bed hijinks on the high seas. When they finally make it to Ibarania, they realize there’s more at stake than just cash and crown, and Makeda must learn what it means to fight for what she desires and not what she feels bound to by duty.
Yet when Beznaria Chetchevaliere crashes into her life, the sleek and sexy investigator exudes exactly the kind of chaos that organized and efficient Makeda finds irresistible, even if Bez is determined to drag her into a world of royal duty Makeda wants nothing to do with.
When a threat to her grandmother’s livelihood pushes Makeda to agree to return to Ibarania, Bez takes her on a transatlantic adventure with a crew of lovable weirdos, a fake marriage, and one-bed hijinks on the high seas. When they finally make it to Ibarania, they realize there’s more at stake than just cash and crown, and Makeda must learn what it means to fight for what she desires and not what she feels bound to by duty.
The Last List of Mabel Beaumont by Laura Pearson
8/10 - Heartwarming story of a reserved elderly woman, who gains female friends of all ages. The characters have their own issues, and different points of view. After the death of her husband, she also comes to terms with a secret she's known about herself for decades. Loved seeing Mabel come out of her shell.
Mabel Beaumont’s husband Arthur loved lists. He’d leave them for her everywhere. ‘Remember: eggs, butter, sugar’. ‘I love you: today, tomorrow, always’.
But now Arthur is gone. He died: softly, gently, not making a fuss. But he’s still left her a list. This one has just one item on it though: ‘Find D’.
Mabel feels sure she knows what it means. She must track down her best friend Dot, who she hasn’t seen since the fateful day she left more than sixty years ago.
It seems impossible. She doesn’t even know if Dot’s still alive. Also, every person Mabel talks to seems to need help first, with missing husbands, daughters, parents. Mabel finds her list is just getting longer, and she’s still no closer to finding Dot.
What she doesn’t know is that her list isn’t just about finding her old friend. And that if she can admit the secrets of the past, maybe she could even find happiness again…
A completely heartbreaking, beautiful, uplifting story, guaranteed to make you smile but also make you cry.
But now Arthur is gone. He died: softly, gently, not making a fuss. But he’s still left her a list. This one has just one item on it though: ‘Find D’.
Mabel feels sure she knows what it means. She must track down her best friend Dot, who she hasn’t seen since the fateful day she left more than sixty years ago.
It seems impossible. She doesn’t even know if Dot’s still alive. Also, every person Mabel talks to seems to need help first, with missing husbands, daughters, parents. Mabel finds her list is just getting longer, and she’s still no closer to finding Dot.
What she doesn’t know is that her list isn’t just about finding her old friend. And that if she can admit the secrets of the past, maybe she could even find happiness again…
A completely heartbreaking, beautiful, uplifting story, guaranteed to make you smile but also make you cry.
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
8.5/10 - At first I was a little spooked, thinking her friend faked her death. Otherwise, it was wildly intriguing. Just the nerve of her taking someone else's work - no regrets, and absolutely no idea of the content she claimed to be hers. It was a good book, though, damn it.
Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena’s a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.
So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I.
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.
But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.
With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.
So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I.
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.
But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.
With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.
The Brown Sisters (series) by Talia Hibbert
7.5/10 - Hm. Typical romance stories, rough guy gets his wall broken down (except for book 2 - it was Dani who had the wall up). But I like how the author did her research to show characters dealing with their mental health and disabilities. They seemed realistic to me.
Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost—but not quite—dying, she’s come up with six directives to help her “Get a Life”, and she’s already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamourous family’s mansion. The next items?
• Enjoy a drunken night out.
• Ride a motorcycle.
• Go camping.
• Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex.
• Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage.
• And... do something bad.
But it’s not easy being bad, even when you’ve written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job.
Redford ‘Red’ Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than ten-thousand Hollywood heartthrobs. He’s also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day, which Chloe knows because she spies on him occasionally. Just the teeniest, tiniest bit.
But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe’s wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior…
• Enjoy a drunken night out.
• Ride a motorcycle.
• Go camping.
• Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex.
• Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage.
• And... do something bad.
But it’s not easy being bad, even when you’ve written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job.
Redford ‘Red’ Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than ten-thousand Hollywood heartthrobs. He’s also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day, which Chloe knows because she spies on him occasionally. Just the teeniest, tiniest bit.
But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe’s wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior…
A Song of Wraiths and Ruin (series) by Roseanne A. Brown
9/10 - I've been looking for POC fantasy. This was my first taste, and what a great frickin taste it was. A boy whose people are looked down upon, and a princess who was never supposed to rule, come together to save their people. Trust is gained and lost, and gained. They grow and mature, with still more to do after the story finished (they're like only 17 so). I'll have to reread it, because I know I missed some things - not knowing jack about West African tales. There's only two books and I wish it was longer.
The book even has a map of the fictional country, some areas never mentioned in the story. It just makes me curious about the worldbuilding. Some romance, but I liked how it ended as it was realistic and appropriate for the two main characters.
I have so much more to say, but I'll stop here.
For Malik, the Solstasia festival is a chance to escape his war-stricken home and start a new life with his sisters in the prosperous desert city of Ziran. But when a vengeful spirit abducts Malik’s younger sister, Nadia, as payment into the city, Malik strikes a fatal deal—kill Karina, Crown Princess of Ziran, for Nadia’s freedom.
But Karina has deadly aspirations of her own. Her mother, the Sultana, has been assassinated; her court threatens mutiny; and Solstasia looms like a knife over her neck. Grief-stricken, Karina decides to resurrect her mother through ancient magic . . . requiring the beating heart of a king. And she knows just how to obtain one: by offering her hand in marriage to the victor of the Solstasia competition.
When Malik rigs his way into the contest, they are set on a course to destroy each other. But as attraction flares between them and ancient evils stir, will they be able to see their tasks to the death?
But Karina has deadly aspirations of her own. Her mother, the Sultana, has been assassinated; her court threatens mutiny; and Solstasia looms like a knife over her neck. Grief-stricken, Karina decides to resurrect her mother through ancient magic . . . requiring the beating heart of a king. And she knows just how to obtain one: by offering her hand in marriage to the victor of the Solstasia competition.
When Malik rigs his way into the contest, they are set on a course to destroy each other. But as attraction flares between them and ancient evils stir, will they be able to see their tasks to the death?