Anticipated Releases of 2019 | Expectations vs Reality

The end of 2019 is here and it’s about time that I started all these end of year/year wrap-up/top 10 books etc.. posts. As you can already tell by the title, today I’m going to be sharing with you my anticipated releases for this year, and whether they lived up to my expectations or not.

I did 2 posts earlier this year in which I shared my most anticipated books for 2019, and my most anticipated books for the second half of 2019. Out of those 20, I’ve only read 5, and I just got a sixth one, so maybe I’ll finish that by the end of this month. To be honest, the lowest rating I’ve given a book I was excited for this year is 3 stars. So none of them have truly, really disappointed me, but there were still some that I was expecting much more from.

Let’s get started!!

My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing

4 Stars | GoodReads | Review

This was really good. Initially, I was kind of bored, and I thought that the Husband was a bit annoying, but it was still pretty good and I loved the suspense and the mystery.

However, I was expecting more, and the plot was pretty similar to other books that I’d read. The POV was definitely unique, and it was interesting seeing how the murders happened and why. However, it was just not a amazing as I anticipated it to be. I was just expecting more.

In the end, this was a dark and twisted thriller with an unconventional narrator, and a surprising ending.

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We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal

4 Stars | GoodReads | Review

I seriously was super excited for this book. I was looking for a heist, with some diversity, and also a fantasy book, since it was out of my comfort zone at the time.

And this was good in some ways. I loved Nasir and Altair (seriously, there’s no way not to love Altair. He’s obnoxiously awesome!!!), I respected Zafira and the other characters, and I loved the descriptions and the culture.

However, it was seriously lacking in the plot department, and until the very end, not much happened. Honestly, the characters were the only thing that kept the story going, at least for me.

In the end, this was an amazing Arabia inspired fantasy with phenomenal characters.

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Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus

4 Stars | GoodReads | Review

I read this right before One of of Us is Lying, and I’ve gotta say, it was pretty good. Not spectacular like I’d been expecting, but it was still a decent mystery.

The pacing was a little slow, but the family drama, and the several mysteries were pretty interesting to follow. I liked some of the characters, but now that it’s been 10 months, I really don’t remember much, except that it was just good. Which is kind of disappointing.

In the end, this was a suspenseful mystery with great characters and an amazing twist/plot.

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The Lovely and the Lost by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

3 Stars | GoodReads | No Review Yet

When I initially heard about this, I was super excited because I seriously loved The Naturals and The Fixer series by JLB. I was sure that this was going to be another awesome book, and I was pretty disappointed.

Book wise, it was ok. However, I came in with the wrong expectations, and didn’t get a mystery, but more of a search-and-rescue, which is the point of the book. I wasn’t expecting the search and rescue to be the main focus, so that added to my disappointment.

I didn’t connect much to Kira, the main character, either, but I thought she was cool and different from the usual YA heroines. Free and Jude were such a welcome relief and I loved them for that, but honestly, they were all just meh. This book was really just meh. Really disappointing.

In the end, this was a good book with okay characters, and a meh plot.

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The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee

5 Stars | GoodReads | Review

This was truly one of the best books I’ve read this year and I loved it. The idea of the story, the setting, the time period, the characters, it was all so splendid and I couldn’t have been happier.

This was one of the few Historical Fiction novels I’ve read this year and it was the most perfect. I loved Jo, I loved the atmosphere, and I loved how she was determined to make a change in a society that did not want that kind of change. I loved all the side and semi-MC characters who supported Jo through everything and made this book the beauty that it is.

In the end, this was an amazing historical fiction novel that tackles diverse topics, with an amazing cast of characters.

That’s it! These were the five books that I had on my list that I managed to read, and hopefully I’ll be getting to a sixth one (The Queen of Nothing!!!!) before this month’s end.

Have you read any of these? What did you think? What were your most anticipated releases for 2019? Did they live up to your expectations? Which books surprised you and why? Did you read as many books as you hoped to this year? Chat with me in the comments below?

Monthly Wrap-Up: October 2019

Good morning!! I hope you had a great weekend. It is already the second week of November, and I’m just posting my wrap-up for October, but I guess it’s better late than never!

October was a pretty good month, especially reading wise. I was lacking in the blogging department, but I managed to read a lot more, and I did write some posts, so I guess it was still somewhat a success.

Let’s take a deeper look!

Books:

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Covers are from Goodreads

Guys. I read THIRTEEN books. In ONE month. *goes off to squeal proudly and excitedly* I feel like I deserve a medal for this accomplishment. This was the first month that I had a TBR, and I’ve actually read most of the books on it, except for a few. I’m definitely going to have another TBR for November. I’m now only 6 books behind on my GR challenge, and I have 20 books to read to reach my goal of 100 by the end of December, so wish me luck guys!

The titles lead to my unofficial reviews on Goodreads (a few include a good deal of crying and excitement and there is also a rant…)

Books	Author	Rating	Book Type
Palace of Spies	Sarah Zettel	★★★☆☆	E-book
Dangerous Deceptions	Sarah Zettel	★★★☆☆	E-book
Three Days Missing	Kimberly Belle	★★★★☆	E-book
Girls Like Us	Gail Giles	★★★★★	E-book
The Victim of the System	Steve Hadden	★★☆☆☆	E-book (for review)
Before We Were Strangers	Brenda Novak	★★★☆☆	E-book
The Wrath and the Dawn	Renée Ahdieh	★★★★☆	E-book
The Rose and the Dagger	Renée Ahdieh	★★★★★	E-book
Escaping From Houdini	Kerri Maniscalco	1.5 stars	E-book
Throne of Glass	Sarah J. Maas	★★★☆☆	E-book
Vengeful	V. E. Schwab	★★★★★	Hardcover
The Lovely and the Lost	Jennifer Lynn Barnes	★★★☆☆	Hardcover
Assassin’s Masque	Sarah Zettel	★★★☆☆	Hardcover

I also wrote a few official reviews (linked below), but I’m still behind on so many.

The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee // Rating: ★★★★★ One sentence summary: An interesting historical fiction novel with amazing characters and diverse topics.

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman // Rating: ★★★★★ One sentence summary: A heartbreaking, yet funny book with beautiful characters.

Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim // Rating: ★★★★☆ One sentence summary: A great fantasy with awesome characters, and a few flaws.

The Victim of the System by Steve Hadden // Rating: ★★☆☆☆ One sentence summary: This was a meh thriller with disappointing characters, and some unbelievable twists.

Total Number of Books Read This Month: 13

Total reviews: 4

Tags:

I took part in Bookending Autumn 2019, and wrote three posts. Technically, I only did one tag, but who cares about technicalities?

Garden of Evil (Prompt by Jamsu @ Jamsu Dreams)

Study Group (Prompt by Meeghan @ Meeghan Reads)

Spicy Pumpkin Latte Book Tag (Prompt by Meeghan @ Meeghan Reads)

Let’s Talk Bookish:

October 4: Star Ratings – Are they fair or necessary?

October 11: Sexual Content in YA – Is there too much sexual content in YA books? (suggested by Ruqs @ Many Things Bookish)

October 18: What are some tropes/characters that you think are poorly or under represented in books?

October 25: Are TBR’s necessary to be considered a book blogger, or reader? (suggested by Heran @ Be Frisky)

Great Posts From Around the Blog-O-Sphere:

Caitlin discusses Why Reading Is So Unpopular and honestly, all her points are pretty accurate, but I still love reading anyways.

Christina is back and I’m so excited!! Check out her amazing review of The Toll!

Line wrote an amazing post about Underrepresented Tropes and Characters in Books.

Marie talks about what How to Make it as a Book Blogger.

Anything Else?

I hit 200 followers!! I’m planning on doing a Q&A soon, so if you’d like to ask me a question, head over here to ask! I also had over 1,000 views which is another accomplishment that I’m really proud of, especially since my posting was pretty irregular. So thank you guys so much for that!!

IRL, it’s so cold. Like really really ice-on-the-grass-and-roofs kind of cold. Which is something because this is Georgia that we are talking about. I’m semi-loving it, semi-hating it because now it’s not burning hot, but it’s also a little too cold for comfort.

Anyways, school is kind of stressful, but it’s not as bad as testing season, so I’m pretty happy about that. I’m feeling really good about the number of books that I read, and I really hope to do just as good this month, and also get back to properly blogging and maybe get rid of my backlogged reviews.

That’s A Wrap!

That’s it! In the end, I read 13 books, did 4 reviews, 3 “tags”, and 4 discussion posts. 5 of the 13 books were either 4 or 5 stars, which I’m pretty happy about, especially since most of the others were 3 stars, and only 2 of them were below that.

I met most of my goals for October, so hopefully for November, I’ll read at least 10 books, do 4 reviews, 3 or 4 tags, and 3 more discussions.

And that’s it for this wrap-up! How was October for you? Did you get as much reading as you wanted done? Have you read any of the books that I did? Did you take part in BE Autumn? Is it freezing where you are? What’s you #1 most anticipated release for this month? Let’s chat in the comments below!

Spicy Pumpkin Latte Book Tag | Bookending Autumn 2019

Hello, and how are you? I hope your week has been great so far! Today, I’ll be sharing with you my last #BEAutumn2019 post. You can learn more about BE Autumn, see the rules and the rest of October’s topics, and sign up over on Sam’s page @ Sam Fictionally.

You can also follow them @bookend_events for more updates!!

Today, I’m going to be doing the Spicy Pumpkin Latte Tag hosted by the amazing Meeghan @ Meeghan Reads.

Spicy Pumpkin Latte Book Tag: Autumn is when the beverage names at the local coffee shop start to look more like a harvest produce list than anything from a drinks menu. What better way to celebrate this oddity than to do an autumnal drinks book tag?!

I’ve never had a latte, or coffee for that matter, or any of the drinks listed below. I’m more of a black tea, juice, soda, or water kind of girl. But this still sounds super fun, so let’s get started!!

Pumpkin Spice Latte: A book you didn’t think you’d love

My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows.

I really did not expect to love this as much as I did. When I read it, I wasn’t really a big fan of fantasy, however I loved it. The humor, the plot, the fantasy/paranormal aspects, it was all so awesome.

I loved, G, Jane, Edward (especially Edward), and all the other various characters. They were all hilarious and I love how the authors based it on history, and then changed it in such an amazing way! Humor + historical fiction (based on history) + fantasy = awesomeness!!!

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Hot Apple Cider: A book that got you a bit hot under the collar

A Spy in the House (The Agency Series) by Y. S. Lee

This isn’t really much? But it does get a little bit more…passionate in the later books 🙂

Anyways, this still has an awesome plot, and it’s set in the Victorian Era. It’s a great series. and I love Mary and her fierceness. She’s also a new and interesting character who is different and considered inferior in her time. She’s a pretty great detective and is really determined and brave.

The mysteries are pretty great, and I finished the whole series pretty quickly. Oh, and James is an absolute darling 💖 Absolutely, annoyingly, handsomely, a bit over protective, but also super kind, and definitely a perfect darling.

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Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate: A book that felt like a warm hug

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

I really loved this book for its representation, the great characters, the food, and the writing style. It was super heartwarming to read about Emoni’s struggles, how she overcame them, her family (Buela and Babygirl are the sweetest), and her awesome friends, especially Angelica.

I also really loved the way the book was written-it felt like I was in Emoni’s head and reading her words, not just being told a story in a more formal way. And let’s not forget the amazing food in this book. There are no words to describe the deliciousness of it all. It made me want to fly into the kitchen and whip up a mess lol.

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Maple Pecan Latte: A book you enjoyed that was hard to get into

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

It took me 19 days to finally get past the first 10%. It was slow. Like, really slow. The murder mystery is interesting, Kya’s life is interesting, the back story is interesting but wow, it is so so slow, and it was until around the last third-ish of the book that the pace began to pick up.

However, I still gave it 4 stars because this is supposed to be a slow read, that is heavy on the description of the Marsh, and of Kya’s life before the murder. The murder mystery was a pretty small aspect of the book compared to the rest of it. But I still enjoyed it. I pushed myself to finish it (and I did skim some of the description), and I’m pretty glad that I did, because I eventually liked Kya and all her friends, and it saved me from DNFing. The only reason that I picked it up, was because of the mystery and the odd characters, so it was disappointing to see that it wasn’t a major part of the story, but I ended up liking the characters and the coming-of-age aspect much more instead.

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London Fog: A vanilla character

Nobody by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

This was such a disappointing book. Absolutely disappointing. I hated Claire. I hated Nix. The idea of the story was okay, but the execution was horrible. This was more like a horrible Disney princess movie with a dark boy who falls in love with a girl who has never been noticed. And this girl is the most annoying character ever.

As soon as Claire meets Nix, she falls in love with him because he’s the only one who has noticed her. Hello? He noticed you because he was supposed to kill you. But obviously that’s just a technicality that doesn’t matter. And then after that, all Claire can think about is her darling Nix, and her new super powers… It’s just a horrible book, and Claire is annoying and intolerable.

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Hot Buttered Rum: A book that was velvety smooth to read

Palace of Spies by Sarah Zettel

I don’t think this is really velvety smooth? But it’s an easy espionage story and I liked it. Nothing super amazing, but good enough that I’ve continued on with the series.

The ending does get intense, and the court drama and intrigue is very interesting, but I also feel like it was just meh, nothing super remarkable, but pretty nice to read. I don’t really like Peggy, I wish Olivia had a bigger role from the first book (she’d make a great spy), and the drama with Sophy Howe is maybe a bit much, but it’s also kind of hilarious to read.

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Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew: A character whose temperament is icy cold

The Great Lady Sarnai from Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim

She’s cruel. Unbelievably so. It’s kind of interesting, while terrifying to read about at the same time. She has no sympathy or feelings for anyone (besides the guy she loved and whom she now can’t marry) and she terrorizes everyone wherever she goes.

But she’s also sad, lonely, being used as a peace pawn, and her way of life being discarded so that she can become a woman she doesn’t want to be. So it’s also kind of understandable. But then, her heart is obviously made of ice, because there was a certain point in the book where I though she might change, but instead she was absolutely brutal.

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Salted Caramel Mocha: A book that you’re salty about

Escaping From Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco

This book was a mess. An utter mess. Audrey Rose completely went off the rails in this one. She stopped trusting our dearest Cresswell, and trusted a self-confessed liar and con man. Think about that for a minute. Cresswell who has been with her through hell and back, Cresswell who’s never attempted to cage her, and has always respected and admired her, Cresswell who would probably walk across a volcano barefoot to save her life, was deemed not trustworthy enough to keep/properly react to the secret Audrey Rose was trying to keep with a LIAR.

This makes no sense, and honestly, if you want to read the full rant head right over here, because the above is only part of the tragedy that is this book. It’s definitely the most disappointing book from the series so far.

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Honey Bee Latte: A character who is sweet

Jude from The Lovely and the Lost by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

To be honest, JLB always manages to write amazing characters, the serious ones, the destructive/rule breaker ones, and the sweet-bring-a-smile-to-your-face kind of ones.

Jude is the latter. He is eternally optimistic and he always finds the good or bright side of things. I also love him because he was there for Kira, always supported her, and diffused situations spectacularly. He’s just a super sweet warm bun who cares more about others and about their feelings than for his own. And he forgives so easily and never holds a grudge against anyone.

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Gingerbread Latte: A character you’d take home for Christmas

I have no idea? I don’t celebrate Christmas, and honestly, I’m not sure if I want to bring any character home for any celebration because it would probably end up in a disaster. An absolute disaster. It’s either they are super fun but destructive, or they are the kind to just sit there glowering and being absolutely unreasonable (and possibly the ones who someone might decide to pick a fight with, and then I have to make sure they don’t end up dead). Neither is a very good option for a party…

Tagging

Caitlin @ Caitlin Althea | Kat @ Novels and Waffles | Evelyn @ Evelyn Reads | Jane @ Blogger Books | Charlotte @ Bewitching Books, Ravenous Reads

*P.S. No pressure if you don’t want to do the tag!!

This was so much fun to do, and if you’d like to do the tag, go right ahead! Be sure to link back so I can see your answers as well!! See you guys tomorrow!

WWW Wednesday #36

Hey friends! I hope you are having a fantastic 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?

Let’s get started!

All covers are from Goodreads

What I Just Finished:

I finished The Lovely and the Lost over the weekend, and it was a good book. I was a bit disappointed, because I was expecting more (JLB is one of my favorite authors) of a mystery, but this was more like a search and rescue book. It was still pretty good nonetheless.

What I’m Currently Reading:

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I’m on page 334/416 of Assassin’s Masque, and this is definitely the most thrilling book out of the trilogy. The twists, the politics, everything is very delicate right now and it’s kind of like waiting for the timer to tick down to the moment of doom.

I am 12% into The Book Thief, and I love Papa and his relationship with Liesel. It’s definitely so sweet, and Rudy is hilarious, Rose is terrifying but also funny at times, and I’m so excited to continue!

What I Plan To Read Next:

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Next up is Beartown by Fredrik Backman or The Lines We Cross by Randa Abdel-Fattah.

That’s it for this Wednesday. What are you reading? Have you read any of these books? What did you think? Let’s chat in the comments below! (Be sure to link to your WWW’s so that I can check them out!)

WWW Wednesday #35

Good morning friends! I hope you are having a great week so far! 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?

Let’s get started!

All covers are from Goodreads

What I Just Finished:

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Escaping From Houdini was the worst book in this series. Well, I haven’t read the last one yet, but I’m hoping that it’s so much better than this mess. Ugh. Here’s my mini unofficial review.

Throne of Glass was 3 stars for me. I’m a bit nervous about this possible love-triangle-that-maybe-is-not-going-to-be-a-love-triangle. I kind of liked Celaena, but not that much, but I really hope that Dorian and Chaol stay friends. I really love Chaol so much.

Vengeful was awesome. I loved it, just as much as Vicious, and I’m pretty upset that some people died, and I still don’t know who June is, and Marcella creeped me out, while still being super awesome. I just loved this book.

What I’m Currently Reading:

I’m currently reading The Book Thief, and I’m loving Death as the narrator.

What I Plan To Read Next:

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Next up, is probably The Lovely and the Lost and The Assassin’s Masque.

That’s it for this Wednesday. What are you reading? 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!)