Currently reading Gleanings a collection of short stories. I love the Arc of a Scythe trilogy and so far I am enjoying seeing stories of other scythes and how they go about doing their job.

I‘m very very very late with posting this and I apologize (after holiday stress with work) but thank you @The.Great.Catsby for my #jolabokaflodswap package. I‘ve never had Gatsby chocolate before so I‘m looking forward to trying it!

@MaleficentBookDragon

I‘m not sure if you got my email in regards to my swap package. I sent my partner their package via Amazon due to unexpected financial issues. They where shipped in two separate packages one says it was delivered today and the other should arrive on Tuesday. I had wanted them to know this so they dont accidentally open them before the 24th but I also didn‘t want to spoil the surprise of who their gifter was.

Ohhh I hated so many things about this book. The unneeded sex scene at the end really ruined the magical, whimsical feel of the story. While I understand it was a dark adult retelling it just felt out of place. The slow burn romance that lead up to their first kiss was terribly placed and handled in the most unromantic way possible. The plot hole around the nutcracker figurine. It only felt nutcracker in referencing symbolic pieces of the story.

While this was shorter than the first book, I struggled with it. For some reason the story wasn‘t as captivating this time around. The location changed and while more info was provided with what the Iremonger family is up to, it introduced even more new information that now has to be answered in the 3rd book. The writing was still a struggle to follow.

Not what I was expecting at all. This is a mystery story around a young boy and his family who is on the run from a man who is out to get them. I spent a lot of time wondering if the dad was just crazy or if they really were in the witness protection program. It‘s a slower story but i enjoyed how it had shown the struggle Igor went through with being apart of society after being kept from it for so long. The ending was wild.

Entertaining from start to finish. A young boy accidentally gets wrapped up in a situation among the dead. The end got me in my emotions. It‘s straightforward and focuses on one central plot, its addictive and atmospheric, not scary but had those creepy vibes, overall very enjoyable

Amazing illustrations included

3rd book in the series and it just didn‘t manage to capture the same spooky atmosphere that the first did. A series that just simmered out for me. Plot was boring this go around, and the possession story line was so bland in comparison to the one in the first book. Also the narrator for these is terrible, she just yells all the dialogue.

3rd book in the Book of Merlin series following the lost youth years of Merlin. We meet a dragon threatening to destroy everything unless Merlin can stop them. New characters get introduced, and Merlin gets knocked unconscious a lot haha.

A solid start to the vast world of Pern. Does a great job explaining the lore and how the world works. Lessa is a great character who is really head strong. There is talking dragons, time travel, a decent amount of characters the writing is easy to follow but some of the bigger explanations can be a bit confusing. All in all I enjoyed it but I could be bias as I love the world of Pern haha.

Man remember when people use to spend more time on here posting reviews of books… I wish it was like that still.

Anyways, this book was strange, the storyline is interesting a boy can hear objects talking and lives in a house surrounded by trash heaps. The writing style is frustrating to follow, it was really hard finding a good reading rhythm in this. The illustrations are creepy yet fun to look at.

This book absolutely annihilated my heart and left me an emotional wreck. I loved every bit of it and loved every character and I can‘t wait for the next book because I need to know what happens with Vonvalt.

Another video went live today! I unbox 3 books come and check out what books they are!

https://youtu.be/WZhGGQ55vMo

A new video went live just now!

https://youtu.be/aDhbLYyrvXc

It‘s been awhile since I promoted my booktube channel on here but I‘m going to try and go back to doing that. The channel isn‘t doing so good, can‘t seem to get anyone to interact with it, might give up, so this is kind of a last ditch effort to see if it‘s worth the effort.

https://youtu.be/TjTEWRkjf4k

Oh I loved how this ended it honestly felt so unexpected and unique, a direction a absolutely was not expecting. The Hardscrabble children are some the most realistic portrayals of siblings I have read in a long time and I loved them, they were quick to fight but also there for each other when needed. Lots of unexpected dark moments and creepy vibes all through out!

A great story following a Muslim Malay girl who has a Pelesit (a ghost) attached to her. The story does a good job tackling subjects such as the strain of friendships, toxic family, jealousy and loneliness. The creepy factor is also really well done!

I am so hit or miss with this series. This was okay. I didn‘t care for the super abrupt ending with Ollie. I did like that Brian was able to be more of the focus and be useful, we also got a new character Phil. Overall the story jumps very quickly to the spooky stuff but unfortunately it didn‘t feel supernatural, it was just a giant “monster”. The spooky vibes just were not there, making this kind of boring.

Freaking so good!!! The suspension, the creepiness, the mysteries! I was hooked! This middle grade book kept me on the edge of my seat man, I never knew what was going to happen next. The only bad side is the very open and ambiguous ending but I‘ll deal with that since the journey through this was absolutely phenomenal!

My #bookspin and #doublespin for the month!

I have been in a middle grade mood so all my picks are MG related!

I have a ton of backlog photos from previous book bingos that I‘ll be uploading in the next few weeks so sorry if any of you get confused I‘m just way way way behind on posting on here
@TheAromaofBooks

Kanda has dived right into helping his friend during a live performance after his band mates bailed on him. While performing live is still a struggle for Kanda he powers through for the sake of his friend. We met some new pianist who either love or hate Kanda (he is a great pianist who disappeared from the limelight) Also Kanda got to have two kitties in his home as he was cat sitting for a friend and he was ever so happy about it haha.

Kikuzato is now gearing up to join the track and field team at his school. This volume gave us some insight to his past from when he initially lost his leg and how he became depressed, now he is excited and looking forward to running again. It was a little uncomfortable when some new side characters/schoolmates started touching his prosthetic leg without asking, and we got to met his mom and see how she deals with her son getting back into sports

A decent start to a new series following Kikuzato a young man who loves soccer but loses his leg before entering Highschool. This volume doesn‘t tell us what happened to him but from context it seems it‘s going to be slowly revealed to us. There was a lot of plot conveniences to get the story going, but there does seem to be a good amount of research that went into writing a story centered around sports equipment & the sporting events for amputees

This series is going to kill me in the emotions. I cried the whole book. Fukumaru has gotten out & Kanda is distraught over finding him, but while in his search he finds another cat Moja who is lost, beaten & starved, so now Kanda is at a crossroad between saving this kitty or continuing his search for Fukumaru. This series is beautiful in how we get to see the situations from both Kanda & Fukumaru‘s pov.

DNF at 77%
When your female love interest is dwindle down to being a literal sexual object for your male hero, you have lost me. Eve does LITERALLY nothing through this whole book and Lazarus does nothing but complain about how he doesn‘t deserve a mate. Her purpose was literally just to have sex with Laz to help him control his inner demon. They also had zero chemistry and the overall plot didn‘t exist. I won‘t be continuing this series.

I like the idea of the story, Hakaba studies the languages of the Netherworld, so werewolves, lizardfolk & so on, but I think the execution is lacking for me. It‘s a series of small episodic chapters that sometimes feel like a cohesive story and sometimes not. I also spend a lot of time being just as confused as Hakaba because not everything the creatures say is translated because he doesn‘t know, which is interesting but sometimes pulls me out.

An Emotional rollercoster following Tomoyo Shiino has she finds out her best friend Mariko dies by suicide. You learn both their pasts, how they met and what terrible things befell them and it‘s interesting seeing how chaotic Tomoyo reacts to the death of Mariko. I felt the wild and messy art style fit the overall chaotic atmosphere the storytelling was giving off. But there were some softer calmer moments that packed a punch in feels.

May have gone overboard with my first in person library browsing excursion. The library has been open for awhile now I just haven‘t been able to go for personal reasons. I can‘t read Given or Boys Run the Riot yet as I‘m waiting for the rest of the series to come in from holds, but hopefully I can get through these in a decent manner!

Spine on the slipcase.

This set is so dang pretty

Back of the slipcase. I love the little details.

Front of the slipcase they came in!

The spines are also so pretty!!

Illumicrate special edition!

My illumicrate special edition set for Circe and Song of Achilles came in today. I‘m so freaking happy, they are gorgeous

This turned into more of an experiment while reading. I thought “how much sexism/misogyny does one have to wade through to enjoy this? Those 37 tabs all indicate some form of sexism/misogyny & I didn‘t even mark them all since I ran out tabs. This is a good example of a book that is sorely ruined because the world of Xanth is highly imaginative but no one needs/wants to wade through this, & while the sexism is at most dumb it still ruins the story

Got my #bookspinbingo board all set up!

My #Roll100 books for January

24 - Source of Magic
49 - Children of the Drake

Looking forward to finally getting around to these! I do need to read A Spell for a Chameleon before Source of Magic but that‘s okay!

@PuddleJumper

Jumping back into #bookspinbingo for January. My goal is to take part every month for 2022, I have so many books to get through that I own!
#bookspin #doublespin
@TheAromaofBooks

Hey hey all my manga readers, I redid my manga reading challenge from 2021 for 2022. I got rid of some of the prompts that required research to properly fulfill and put in easier more fun prompts that should hopefully open up more responses! So please come join us on Storygraph!

https://app.thestorygraph.com/reading_challenges/01c3f367-17c8-47eb-91ec-723ff66...

I‘m attempting to revive my booktube channel! I do all the recording and editing on my phone since that‘s all I have available to me so views and follows would be super awesome! I know it‘s kind of long but I put a ton of work into it!

https://youtu.be/66qpQlNLpdE

Sadly this didn‘t work out for me. The biggest issue was that the author never explains how the ghost haunting Jake even latched on to Jake, considering his death took place in a completely different school. There was also a lot of ‘convenient‘ moments that crop up when they are needed and then just fade away like they were never really part of the whole story, this includes characters.

A creepy idea that doesn‘t really hit that scare factor, but still interesting. Worm is celebrating Dead Wednesday where he has to “be dead” for a day and is ignored by everyone at school (weird tradition) only he gets the actual ghost of his assigned dead person attached to him. Main take away lessons are live life and don‘t wallow in self pity. A fast read with a Weird idea with some cute moments sprinkled in

3rd book in the Seven Swords novella series and it just keeps getting better! This is fast paced and full of action and the twist to the murder mystery left me impressed! Ryan‘s imagination really shines in this series and he found that sweet spot to make the novella feel like a full story without the length!

Full review: https://intotheheartwyld.wordpress.com/2021/09/18/city-of-songs-the-seven-swords...

Fantastic this was full of heartbreak, fear, unknown secrets & world that is brimming full of fascinating & enchanting life. The end left me stunned & heartbroken & I need book 3 now! This series is amazing it‘s selfpub & deserves all the praise. There are anthropomorphic Birds! I love it. Also this has disability rep with Nella, who is deaf & Bruno worked with members of the community to make sure she was properly portrayed & she is darling!

Look at all these adorable Jinbesan bookmarks I got from my sisters workplace! Ahhh I love them.

I‘m going to be repeating my October reading selection and IG theme where I focus on spooky middle grade books!

These are what I have picked out. I‘m looking for more recommendations. They can be MG horror, thriller, suspense or even Halloween themed!

I‘m gathering them now so I can get pictures done ahead of time. Please give me recs!

A dark and creepy tale that set my heart pounding. It‘s 40 pages long and I think free on kindle but so worth it. It has a melancholy end with a bit hope sprinkled in but I enjoyed that as it shows not everything can be solved instantly.

Please check out my full review I feel like I‘m fighting a losing battle with my blog.

https://intotheheartwyld.wordpress.com/2021/09/01/and-they-were-never-heard-from...

A #redstack just because.

Also that Witcher book doesn‘t have that ugly Netflix sticker on it and I got it brand new at B&N not a used book store! That was an instant buy for me haha

It‘s been awhile since I took part in #bookspinbingo so I‘ll do both #bookspin and #doublespin I have been slacking in my reading the last few months and have fallen behind on arcs and other book commitments. So I decided why not do this as it does get me motivated to read!

@TheAromaofBooks

Adorable and touching all rolled into one. It leaves you feeling like you were dragged off by fairies. There is some mystery as well that is weaved into the story wonderfully and this edition is full of illustrations.

Full Review: https://intotheheartwyld.wordpress.com/2021/05/31/wicked-nix-lena-coakley/