Hey everyone!! I hope you guys are doing great! I’m back today with the form for my 400 followers Q&A and my 3rd take on The Liebster Award.
I was tagged for the award back in January by the amazing Jane @ Blogger Books, and in total Rukky fashion, here I am finally doing it 8 months later. Many thanks to Jane for tagging me!! These questions are pretty reflective, so we’ll see how it goes.
But first, be sure to fill out my 400 follower Q&A form so I can do a Q&A!! (it’d be really sad if I get only 3 questions lol) I do have some feedback questions at the start, but none of it is required except the one where you ask me your questions. But I’d appreciate it if you gave your feedback as well! Thank you guys so much! The link is above, and I will include the form itself embedded at the end of this post.
Hey guys and welcome back! Today is the 7th day of 2020 and life is finally getting back to normal. Yesterday was the first day of school again, and to be honest, I kind of missed having classes and assignments. I know. I can barely believe that I even thought that myself. But of course, when assignments properly start, I’m going to be wishing for another break once again.
Anyways, today I’m going to be wrapping up my 2019 reading year.
To help wrap up my past reading year, I’ve decided to do Jamie’s End of Year Survey with a twist. Instead of answering all her questions (46!!), I’m going to pick a handful to answer, and also do a wrap-up my way. Initially, I was going to do 2 different posts, one with the survey and the other with my wrap-up, but that’s going to be repetitive, so I’ll be combining both.
This is probably going to be rather long, so without further ado, let’s get started!!!
2019 Reading Stats
Number of Books Read: 98
Number of Re-Reads: 3
Genre You Read the Most From: Mystery/Thriller/Suspense
I didn’t make it to 100 books. But that’s okay. Because I got to 98, which is still a pretty good number and I’m really proud of myself for making it that far.
The re-reads were The Fixer and The Long Game, both by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, and Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter. The first two were great, and I loved re-reading them. The third one was a little cringey, and I can see why it appealed to a Younger Rukky, but it was not for Current Me.
Lol, no surprise. Mystery/Thriller/Suspense was by far the genre that I read the most from, with Fantasy coming in second, and Contemporary in third.
I made a little pie chart to break down my reading even further, and I’m so relieved that it turned out looking okay.
if it’s a little fuzzy, I apologize!
I also did another chart showing my year in books by rating, so here you go:
I like how most of my books were 4 or 3 stars. The books were either mediocre or pretty good, just not super great, and I’m happy with that. I think it also shows that I’ve figured out what books work for me, and what don’t, and so hopefully next year, this will have much less 2 or 1 star books.
I did have a couple of DNFs (Did-Not-Finish), and most of them, I plan on trying to re-read another time, while some I absolutely did not like.
For Blanca and Roja, Ninth House, and Blindsighted, I don’t think i was in the right mood when I picked them up, so I was really bored and impatient with them. These are the ones I plan on picking up some other time.
Marshall Law just wasn’t for me. I got it for review from Reedsy, but I didn’t like it and never finished it.
Captive Witness was disappointing, because I loved Nancy Drew once upon a time, and when I picked this up, I couldn’t get over how old fashioned it was. I was cringing so much, and decided to stop so that I wouldn’t ruin all my great memories of reading all the various series.
The Perfect Husband was a nightmare. I am so done with that book. Usually, when there is extra stuff going in books, especially in thrillers and mysteries, I just skim past and move on. But this book had stuff in pretty much. Every. Single. Chapter. I can’t believe I got to 74%. SEVENTY-FOUR, guys. And you’d think that they don’t have time for any of this extra drama, and so called “romance” when the MC is being hunted by a pure 100% psychopath. But no, they can’t stop their “love” for five seconds.
So yeah. 3 of them, I might try later, 2 of them were just not for me, and 1 of them was a true nightmare. But I’m still pretty glad that I only had 6 DNFs the entire year.
This was more of a political thriller, but I still loved the mystery of who was behind the attack. I’m also a huge fan of any book with “secret agents” and Mary and Stone were amazing and made me love the story even more.
It was interesting being told what happened to Frank in bits and pieces, and what brought him to that beach. There was so much suspense, as things were slowly revealed and I liked that. The book wasn’t perfect in other aspects, but the suspense was really great.
This is a master thriller. It was honestly the first time that I’d been truly petrified and nervous, and anxious about how things would end in a book. It was a little over the top, and would probably be better as a movie than a book, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it.
I loved this. I loved the characters. I loved Kaz’s cunning ruthless and brutal, I loved Inej, Jes, Wylan, Nina and Matthias, I loved everything about it. Well, it was slow until the heist at the end, but I liked the build-up and relationships between the characters, and how we got to know them so well. This is honestly my top fantasy book of 2019.
This is a fantasy that I loved because of it’s worldbuilding. The way Allomancy was described, the way the Empires and cities felt so real that I could literally picture everything happening clearly, that was amazing. I loved the heist, and was shocked at how things turned out, but what I loved the most about this was how real, and possible, and well-thought out the world and Allomancy was.
I got a recipe for November Cakes. That’s honestly enough to bribe me into loving this book. But really though, I sincerely enjoyed the story. The happiness, calm, and peace that came after I finished reading it. The deadly but utterly beautiful horses. Puck and Sean fighting for what they want, what they love. It was really beautiful, and I’m so glad that Meegs pushed me to read this.
He’s grumpy. He’s strict. He’s mean. But underneath that tough exterior, Ove is hurting. And this book is about what caused it, and what happens when a new bustling family, with a fiery and delightful mother, moves in next door. I loved this because of the characters, and because the found family relationship that all the neighbors built with one another. Ove is also really endearing, and it was heartbreaking reading about everything that went wrong in his life. Even if it was fictional. This book made me so happy, because Ove learned to live and love again.
I may have loved this solely because the ending shattered my heart. But I’m also a big fan of coming-of-age novels, and this is one of them. At first, I didn’t like many of the characters, and I was a little annoyed, and maybe bored. But as the story continued, and the years passed, and the war dragged on, I began to feel for all these characters. I began to understand them, love them. And when that ending came, even though I knew, even though I’d been warned, it still shattered me when that happened. It’s a book that made me laugh, made me smile, made me cry. And I don’t think a book has ever done all three to me.
This was a great book about a woman fighting society’s sexist and racist views through a newspaper column in 19th century Georgia (aka the 1800s). Jo was a great main character, and I loved Old Gin, Noemi, and Nathan so much. She’s brave, she’s fierce, and she was risking so much to write her Miss. Sweetie column and using it to inspire change in her community. This was one my most anticipated books this year, and it did not disappoint.
I’ve already read the first book, A Darker Shade of Magic, and even though it was slow in the beginning, I loved the magic and the world, and I can’t wait to read the second book.
Best Sequel of 2019?
Vengeful by V.E. Schwab. This was such an awesome sequel, and I loved the new villains, as well as Victor’s search for a cure. The ending was really great, but I hope that there is still a 3rd book! Mitch, Syd, and Victor were so sweet together, and honestly, this book was just perfect.
Best Series Ender of 2019?
Nope, none. The only Series Ender I read in 2019 was The Queen of Nothing, and that was most definitely one of the worst I’ve ever read. I’m just really disappointed and salty about it.
Favorite new author you discovered in 2019?
My new top three authors that I discovered in 2019 are:
Maggie Stiefvater (The Scorpio Races), V.E. Schwab (Vicious), and Brandon Sanderson (The Final Empire).
Favorite cover of a book you read in 2019?
It’s a tie. I can’t pick one over the other! Both covers are just so beautifully gorgeous.
Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2019 to finally read?
One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus. I’d seen it in my library a lot, and I can’t believe that I never picked it up until earlier this last year. It was one of the first YA mysteries that I read, and I really loved it.
Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2019?
This post is already over 1,500 words long, so I’m going to stop here. I think I’ve covered all the major questions, and if you’d like to see all the books I read last year, check out my 2019 Year in Books on GoodReads. I’ll probably be doing a Blog/Life Wrap-Up next, and I may do a Most Disappointing Books of 2019. Not sure yet, but keep an eye out for another wrap-up!
That’s it for this post! What was your favorite book of 2019? Have you read any of the ones mentioned above? What did you think? How many books did you read in 2019? Chat with me in the comments below!
Good morning dearest readers and welcome back! Today, I’m going to be doing a book recommendation post (my very first one!!!) and sharing with you some of my favorite books.
At first, I wasn’t sure whether to do this in a “if you liked this, then I think you should read…” format, or if I should do it in a “here are all my favorite books! I highly recommend you read them” format, or if I should do it by genre.
I’ve finally decided to do it by genre and I’m going to try to do them monthly. To start it off, I’m going to be sharing some amazing mystery and thriller books.
I have another idea which is to recommend books to characters from other books (inspired by Meeghan’s Overwatch recommendation posts! Definitely check them out!!!!) but I’m not going to do that for now. Let me know if you’d like to see it soon though!!
These two books are my all time favorite political thrillers, and I loved re-reading them again this year. Tess, Asher, Vivvie, Henry, even Emilia, were all spectacular characters and I loved following them on their adventures from navigating friendships to terrorists. The twists in both of these books are amazing, and I really wish that there had been a third book.
I definitely would recommend this for a YA political mystery, with some family drama.
Lisa Gardner is one of my automatic-read authors, and this book did not disappoint. The mystery was engaging, and the topics that the story touched on were heart-breaking while also being realistically portrayed. D.D. and Flora were both really great characters, and I loved how different, but also how similar, that they both were. The final reveal shocked me, and it never even crossed my mind that X could have been the killer.
I would recommend it if you like police procedurals and murder mysteries.
Baldacci books and I have a complicated history. I loved the Will Robie series, read one of his King and Maxwell books and wasn’t really wowed by it, and then I read Long Road to Mercy and I was so annoyed and angry about it.
However, Hell’s Corner was a hit for me and I loved the complicated plot and characters. Mary and Stone were really interesting and made an awesome pair. I loved how Stone taught Mary some really important life lessons without explicitly doing so, and watching them both have each other’s back. I was sorely disappointed to find out after I read the book, that this was the last one in the series. The ending was absolutely shocking and kind of aggravating, but in a good way.
I would recommend this, especially if you’re looking for a political mystery with assassins and MI6 agents.
Even though this is technically sci-fi, I’m still going to put it here, because it was definitely a thriller and I loved it. The concept of ExtraOrdinary people, who unlock powerful powers after a near-death traumatic experience, was so intriguing.
I loved reading about how Eli and Victor became EO’s and what led to the thrilling chase and fight between these two ex-best friends. And guys. Victor is not a hero. Eli wants to be a hero but he’s also not a hero. They are both villains, and that made everything much more fun, because there’s no “good guy” to root for.
I also loved the found family relationship with Mitch, Sydney, and Victor. It was really sweet and honestly, I just really liked this book.
I’d definitely recommend this for a science-fiction novel with thriller aspects, and amazing characters!
This was really good. The mystery is not very interesting, but it is really thrilling. Darby was a great main character, and I felt her pain and struggles as she tried to help the little girl, while surviving a horrible blizzard.
The setting and the blizzard added to the helplessness of the situation and increased the terror of Darby, and me as the reader. The ending was rather implausible, but to be honest, I didn’t really care and I was glad that things turned out the way they did. This was one of the first truly thrilling thrillers that I read.
I would recommend this for a short thriller, with a powerful punch.
That’s it guys! I feel like this was not a really good recommendation post, but hopefully it’ll still make you want to pick up one of these great books! I am obviously horrible at this lol.
What are you reading? Have you read any of the books above? What did you think? Do you have any suggestions for great and amazing thrillers? What recommendation post would you like to see next? Was this an utter disaster, or are you partially curious about these books? Chat with me in the comments below!
Am I the only one who doesn’t really have a bucket list?
To be honest, I don’t think I have anything much that I want to specifically do in life before I die…besides read all the books in existence which is impossible. Sadly. Anyways, at least I can share with you a few books that you should probably add to your “read-before-I-die” bucket list. If you have such a list.
Many thanks to the lovely Caitlin @ Caitlin Althea for tagging me!! Definitely go check out her blog and her posts, because they are amazing and I promise that you will not be disappointed.
Rules:
Link back to the original creator in your post. (Tiffany @ Read By Tiffany)
Feel free to use any of Tiffany’s graphics in your post, or create your own!
Tag 7 other people at the end of your post, and let them know you’ve tagged them.
Ok, I wouldn’t suggest you add this to your “read-before-I-die” list. It’s pretty meh, but it is the kind of book that you read just for the sake of reading something funny and light.
I was left feeling disappointed by this. It was good, funny, and I really liked Clare, but that was pretty much it. I guess there are different types of introverts, but to me, Nina was a lot braver and more extroverted than me. And I felt like this book was trying ot cover too many subplots, without really doing one very well. There was so much potential with the family drama with her dad’s family that could have been explored more, or maybe it could have focused on the trivia aspect, or just done the bookshop disaster very well.
But it’s still a fun and lighthearted book. I would recommend you add this to your “read-for-some-laughs” list.
I think this one had a decent amount of hype. I’m pretty sure it did, and I just ignored it, until I heard that it was similar to Six of Crows, and that Séverin and Kaz could be friends and I added it to my TBR without a second thought. Okay, I did check out the synopsis and stuff first, but still…
This was good. Not a spectacular-took-my-breath-away kind of good, but a I-loved-the-riddles-and-some-of-the-characters kind of good. Hypnos, Zofia, and Enrique were my favorite characters, and I loved the relationships between all of them. The riddles were super interesting, but the heists themselves weren’t really amazing. Basically, this book was good, but could have been much better.
Now this is a book that you need to add to your “read-before-I-die” list. I will never stop screaming about how amazing this book is, because it is truly amazing.
The friendships between Tess and Vivvie, and Asher and Henry are amazing, and I love how there is no possible hint of a romance between any of them. It’s all absolutely platonic, and sweet. Asher is the annoying mischievous guy who cares about everyone, Vivvie is a precious ray of sunshine and happiness, and Tess and Henry are the serious and threatening geniuses who do everything to protect everyone close to them.
I loved it the first time I read it, I loved it again when I first re-read it, and I loved it a third time when I did my 2nd re-read. This book is amazing you guys, and I plan on writing a better review than what last-year-me wrote, but in the meanwhile, I highly suggest you add it to your TBR!! If you go read it right now, that’s even better!!! But I won’t push it
The story of Liesel, Max, Papa, Mama, Rudy, oh that saukerl Rudy, was one that brought a huge smile to my face. Because even though Liesel and her family they are in the middle of a war, even though they are trying to hide the fact that they don’t support the Fuhrer, even though they are hiding a Jew in their basement, they still lived and they were still happy at times.
As the story progressed, and Liesel got older and joined Rudy on all his mischievous adventures, I tried to hope that nothing bad would happen, that the war didn’t exist. Mama and her insults, Papa and his accordion, Max and his stories, Liesel and her books, Rudy and his shenanigans, they all made this book into a nice warm hug that I didn’t want to end or break.
And then that ending happened. This book filled my heart with these beautiful stories and people, and then it ended by shattering everything.
Emoni is defintiely a talented chef, and I loved reading about her and her family, and the culinary arts class at her school. The relationships between her and Buela, Babygirl, Angelica, and Malachi was super sweet and I really liked how she narrated the story.
Emoni didn’t make food that just tasted or looked amazing. She made food that brought back memories, that told a story, that went into your soul and brought out all your feelings. I loved her creativity, and the fire that she used to prepare everything she made.
Honestly, I wasn’t really jumping for joy, figuratively or really, about this, or about any book in general, but I do remember that I was seriously excited to hear that JLB was publishing a new series last year. And that’s how I read Little White Lies.
To be perfectly honest, I don’t remember what happened in this book at all. But I gave it 4 stars, so hopefully it was some good. The next book in the series was actually published last month, and since it’s JLB, I want to read it, but I’ll probably have to re-read Little White Lies first so that I know what’s going on.
That’s it for this Thursday! Have you read any of these books? What did you think? Do you have a bucket list? What are some books that you think I need to read right away? Chat with me in the comments below!!
Welcome back! I hope you are having a great day! It is time for my weekly reading update, WWW Wednesday. WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words.
The Three W’s are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
I missed last week’s post, so I’m going to combine last week’s and this week’s WWW Wednesday’s together.
Let’s get started!
All covers are from Goodreads
What I Just Finished:
Crooked Kingdom: I’m so happy everything turned out okay except for you know what. Why Bardugo? Why? That was pretty heartbreaking, and just awful. But I’m glad that everyone got what they wanted at the end. You can check out my possibly spoilery non-official review on GR. (Read: Nov 20)
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill was kind of disappointing. I was just left with a sense of wanting more. However, the story was pretty good. It wasn’t remarkable or anything, and it did try to cover too many subplots all at once without properly doing just one, but it was still a fun read. (Read: Nov 23)
The Long Game was amazing, and I loved all the twists. Even though this was my 3rd reread, I was still surprised and absolutely enjoyed reading this all over again. Asher, Tess, Vivvie, and Henry, they are all amazing characters. (Read: Nov 25)
That was a surprise. Crown of Midnight was so so so much better than Throne of Glass and I’m surprised. I didn’t expect this at all, and I loved how it showed more of Celaena’s assassin side, rather than just telling us how amazing she is. But I wish this mess with Chaol never happened. He doesn’t really deserve this. (Read: Dec 1)
I finished The Gilded Wolves last night, and even though I can see why it gets compared to SoC, I think it’s different in it’s own way. I really liked Zofia and Enrique, and eventually Hypnos (he’s very hard to not like), and Tristan reminded me so much of Wylan and I loved it. The heists are spectacular, and I loved how Chokshi incorporated history and math into it. It made it so much more fun to solve. (Read: Dec 3)
What I’m Currently Reading:
I’m currently reading Hungry Hearts, and I’ll be starting The Lines We Cross hopefully later today.
What I Plan To Read Next:
Next up is The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson, and Lock Every Door by Riley Sager.
That’s it for this Wednesday. What are you reading? Have you read The Gilded Wolves? Do you think it’s really similar to Six of Crows? Have you read any of the books above? Let’s chat in the comments below! (Be sure to link to your WWW’s so that I can check them out!)
Eternity Books 