Category: discussion

Top Five: Autobuy Buzzwords

DeAnneLeave a comment

We all have those buzzwords or tropes that are autobuy for us, those concepts that we just have to dive into when we read about them. This could be just about anything depending on the person, a certain plot construct, certain type of retelling, certain storyline trope. So here’s some of the ones that are highest up on my list.

  1. Ghosts/Ghost stories – Anything that has ghost stories woven in will immediately draw me in. I love reading real ghost stories and legends, so when it is included in fiction I just grab it up.
  2. Secret Societies – Ok, many people are intrigued by secret societies. There’s just something about the mysticism and darkness of it that provides intriguing story lines and drama. It doesn’t have to be paranormal, even something about societies such as the Freemasons are interesting to me.
  3. Mythology – I love reading about different mythologies and also re-imaginings that are inspired by those stories. It doesn’t matter which culture it is, I will give pretty much anything a shot.
  4. Asian inspired – I have a deep love for anything and everyone Asian inspired, especially if they dive into the culture, mythology and are own voices.
  5. Retellings – Ok, this is super broad and I know some people are sick of retellings, but there are certain ones I love such as Beauty and the Beast retellings. I will pick those up pretty much everytime. I also love retellings that are based on a certain author’s writing.

So those are just my top buzzwords/concepts, but there are a ton more. What are some of the things that will make you pick up a book immediately?

Happy reading!

Anticipated Releases for the Rest of the Year

DeAnneLeave a comment

There aren’t a ton of books coming out in the next month and a half that I need to have, which my bank account thanks me for, but there are a few titles I’m hoping to pick up. Here’s what I’m looking forward to and their respective blurbs.

Eight Will Fall by Sarah Harian
Release Date: November 26, 2019

Pitched as Six of Crows meets Suicide Squad, this dark YA fantasy follows eight criminals as they battle their way through a subterranean realm of horrors and certain death.

In a world where magic is illegal, eight criminals led by rebellious Larkin are sent on a mission to rid their realm of an ancient evil lurking beneath the surface. Descending into a world full of unspeakable horrors, Larkin and her crew must use their forbidden magic to survive.

As they fight in the shadows, Larkin finds a light in Amias, a fellow outlaw with a notorious past. Soon, Larkin and Amias realize that their destinies are intertwined. The eight of them were chosen for a reason.

But as the beasts grow in number and her band is picked off one by one, Larkin is forced to confront a terrible truth: They were never meant to return.

Scared Little Rabbits by A.V. Geiger
Release Date: December 3, 2019

We stand in a tight cluster, high above the lake. One-by-one, we made our way up the narrow trail from the edge of campus. Now, we wait shoulder to shoulder behind the police tape. Nineteen summer students.
 
All but one.

When Nora gets accepted into her dream summer program at the prestigious Winthrop Academy, she jumps at the chance to put her coding skills to use. But then a fellow student goes missing—and the tech trail for the crime leads back to Nora. With no one else to trust, Nora must race to uncover the truth and clear her name…or she might be the next to disappear.

Would Like to Meet by Rachel Winters
Release Date: December 3, 2019

In this charming, feel-good debut novel, a cynical assistant at a screenwriting agency must reenact the meet-cute scenes from classic romantic comedy movies in order to help her #1 client get his scriptwriting mojo back–but can a real-life meet-cute be in store for someone who doesn’t believe in happily ever after?

After seven years as an assistant, 29-year-old Evie Summers is ready to finally get the promotion she deserves. But now the TV and film agency she’s been running behind the scenes is in trouble, and Evie will lose her job unless she can convince the agency’s biggest and most arrogant client, Ezra Chester, to finish writing the script for a Hollywood romantic comedy.

The catch? Ezra is suffering from writer’s block–and he’ll only put pen to paper if singleton Evie can prove to him that you can fall in love like they do in the movies. With the future of the agency in jeopardy, Evie embarks on a mission to meet a man the way Sally met Harry or Hugh Grant met Julia Roberts.

But in the course of testing out the meet-cute scenes from classic romantic comedies IRL, not only will Evie encounter one humiliating situation after another, but she’ll have to confront the romantic past that soured her on love. In a novel as hilarious as it is heartwarming, debut author Rachel Winters proves that sometimes real life is better than the movies–and that the best kind of meet-cutes happen when you least expect them.

So, do any of these sound good to you? What are you looking forward to?

Happy reading!

End of the Year Book Tag: 2019

DeAnneLeave a comment

I see this tag all over booktube this time of year, but I thought the questions translated well to blogs as well, so here goes!

  1. Are there any books you started this year that you need to finish?
    Oh yeah, multiple books. There have been a few books that I’ve partially read and need to finish, such as Robots Vs. Fairies.
  2. Do you have an autumnal book to transition into the end of the year?
    I’m still somewhat in the mood for spooky books, but I don’t really have any plans for transition books. I’m very much a mood reader in a lot of things, so other than books for review I just go with what I’m feeling.
  3. Is there a new release you’re still waiting for?
    I cannot wait for the final book in Julie Kagawa’s Shadow of the Fox trilogy. I am scared of it, but I also can’t wait to get it in my hands next year.
  4. What are three books you want to read before the end of the year?
    I would really like to finish some of the books on my currently reading list, but more importantly I really want to get through a number of review books. The last two months have been very rough reading slump wise so I’m trying to turn that around.
  5. Is there a book you think could still shock you and become your favorite book of the year?
    Teeth in the Mist, Violet Tendencies, Call Down the Hawk.
  6. Have you already started making reading plans for 2020?
    Oh yeah, I have plans that I hope come to fruition. I need to set up a journal I bought specifically for use to better schedule my review books, blog posts and reading, so fingers crossed!

What are some of your answers to these questions? Happy reading!

NaNoWriMo Week Two Update

DeAnneLeave a comment

Well, another week has already passed and sadly I am not keeping up with what I need to write. I keep telling myself each day that this will be the day I make significant progress, but alas. I’m really hoping to power through this weekend as I do not have any major plans, so for the most part it will be me and my laptop spending time together.

I have been writing every day so that’s a win, but just not in the amounts that I need. Here’s hoping my muse drinks some caffeine and gets her groove on.

Also, though I’m not getting a ton written on my actual project, I have been jotting down notes and scene outlines in my notebook that I carry with me, so once I really get going I have quite a lot of material ready to be put to the page.

I’m hoping that this weekend will be super productive, so we’ll see. How’s everyone else doing?

Happy writing!

Discussion: Some Of My Favorite Booktubers

DeAnneLeave a comment

While I only blog for now, I’ve been watching booktubers for a long time and toyed with the idea of making my own channel. Over the years I’ve found some booktubers that I absolutely love whose videos I pretty much auto-watch. Now, these are nowhere near all of the channels I watch (there are tons more) but these are some of my favorites.

Booksandlala: I watch Lala’s videos for noise sometimes, to the point where my boyfriend asks if it’s a new or old video. I love her humor and sass, and the matter of fact approach she has to books and her content. She comes up with some of the most creative ideas and I love following her on her journeys when she does them.

Chelseadolling Reads: Chelsea is one of the many who I’d love to be friends with in real life. Her vlogs are amazing, especially her new series where she reads the rainbow. In her videos we also often get cameos from her boyfriend Aldo and their cats Dot and Booger.

Pages and Pens: Julie is a writer herself so her reviews of books are thoughtful and delve deeper. She’s also super fun and great to follow if you’re looking for someone who reads a broad spectrum of books and is very passionate about her favorites.

Aprilius Maximus: April is another one I’d love to be friends with (let’s face it, I’d love to be friends with all of them) but I also feel like she’s a kindred spirit in a lot of ways. She is very open about her anxiety and is a Caucasian in a relationship with a Korean, which is similar to my relationship, so in those ways we are twinzies. Her weekly reading vlogs include a lot of her real life as well as her pets and are amazing.

Who do you like to watch? Do you have some different favorites?

Happy watching!

NaNoWriMo Update: First Week

DeAnneLeave a comment

How’s everyone doing now that we are six days in? To tell the truth I am not doing well at all. With my day job requiring a lot of my mental capacity and planning for things requiring a lot of what is left, I’ve not had a ton of free time to devote to Nano.

While I have managed to write every day, my word totals have been sorely lacking which is disheartening. The last two years I’ve started incredibly strong, so it worries me that it’s not the same this year, but I will push through it.

My plan for the next week is to try and hit hard and make up the difference of what I’m missing while also hitting my daily goals. I know it won’t be perfect since I have a number of things coming up in the next few days, but I’m going to try my hardest.

Is everyone else hitting their goals? If you aren’t, don’t get too discouraged. You can always catch up! Heck, if my muse decides to hit me over the head I could catch up in one day. It’s not over until the end of the month.

Happy writing!

Bookblogtober Day 31: The End

DeAnneLeave a comment

What a month it has been! This was my first time making sure to post at least once per day and it is definitely something I would like to keep up with, but with a full time job and other obligations it can sometimes be a challenge. The key thing I learned was that it is definitely better to try and pre-plan some stuff, but that’s not always feasible.

Bookblogtober has been a lot of fun and if you want to get in a better groove regarding posting on your blog I definitely recommend doing a monthly challenge such as this. Next time I do something like this I may try to preschedule as many posts as possible, even if I might write some of them out of order. This month I did everything in order and that may have been a mistake, so in the future I may switch it up.

I feel like I was able to be much more conversational this month, which was definitely fun, so I will continue to try to incorporate that as I can. All in all I’m happy with how this month went, even though there were some stressful moments. I’m eager to move into November and the madness that is NaNoWriMo even though my November is super busy.

Happy reading!

Bookblogtober Day 30: What Are You Afraid Of?

DeAnneLeave a comment

Everyone has those things that they are afraid of. Some of those fears may be surprising or irrational to others, but they are very real for those who experience them.

I am very claustrophobic. While I’m not afraid of the dark, if you mix darkness and confined spaces I am not okay in any way. This made parts of Tunnel of Bones very interesting for me, which tells you that Victoria Schwab’s writing was amazing since it evoked those feelings.

I’m also not the biggest fan of heights, but it’s weird. I can be perfectly fine standing on a roof, but standing on a step ladder? Oh boy, the fear is real. I don’t understand it, it just comes as it wants to. I do have a lot of fear and anxiety over being on planes, but that is more because I have a loss of control over the situation and apparently my anxiety is not okay with that.

In most instance my fears do not really affect my reading, though there are cases such as with Tunnel of Bones where they may make me a little uncomfortable while reading, but it’s not going to stop my reading progress or make me stop reading a book.

Do your fears affect your reading? What are you afraid of?

Happy reading!

Bookblogtober Day 29: Spells You Wish You Could Cast

DeAnneLeave a comment

Whenever you read books that include magic or spells, you find yourself wishing that such things could really be used, it could definitely make some aspects of life easier. We find ourselves fantasizing what we would do if we could use such talents.

Though it’s not a spell, the one thing I wish existed would be a time turner. There are never enough hours in the day to get everything done that I want to get done. A time turner would make things so much easier, and allow me to accomplish so much more.

I also would love the powers of being able to tell the future, it would allow me to know if I’m going to enjoy something I read before I read it, but then again I suppose that would take the fun out of reading. So maybe not now that I think about it.

What about you? What spells or magical items would you want to be real?

Happy reading!

Bookblogtober Day 28: Witchy Reads

DeAnneLeave a comment

There are tons of books out there with witches as a central theme, or at least a major part. If you’re looking for classics, The Crucible not only concerns witches but also the human condition and mob mentality. There are also some anthologies featuring witches as well, such as Toil and Trouble. Some of my favorites may be a little lesser known, but they’re enjoyable to me.

Three Sisters Island Trilogy – Nora Roberts has a number of books that deal with witches, but this is my favorite of the ones that she has written. It’s set on an island off the Eastern coast of the United States (think New England) and follows three different women who must work together to undo a curse that was created by their ancestors. Each book follows a different woman in the trio as they deal with their own personal demons as well as form romantic relationships. Each of them deals with different issues and have very distinct personalities.

The Hollows Series – I’ve only read the first book in this series so far but they are a fun ride. The main character is a witch, but there are all manner of supernatural beings in the series. The main character’s sense of humor is amazing and the writing is easy to read, which makes it a fast book experience. This urban fantasy series has a great starter and I’m excited to continue on in the series.

Mercy Thompson Series – Ok, the main character in this series is not a witch; however, there are witches in the series. This is another urban fantasy series that includes a main character who can shape shift into a coyote. She’s a mechanic and is surrounded daily by other supernatural beings. The relationship that Patricia Briggs create, even the friendships, are deep and full fledged. Serious events that happen in earlier books continue to have repercussions in future books instead of being ignored.

These are all series that I’ve enjoyed and are comforting rather than creepy to me. All of them are worth diving into and in the last two cases there are a number of books to keep you busy.

Happy reading!