A Hasty Read Harder Update

Uh oh, we're leaving for France in half an hour and I just realized I didn't prep this update for while we're gone! May was not a strong reading month for me, but I DID finish Underground Railroad and The Hard Parts, both excellent. I did NOT start Deadly Ever After or Peter Darling, but I have Peter Darling packed for our very long plane ride, so hopefully I make some progress. I tried to download Deadly Ever After, but there was a wait list. Womp womp. I also did not read either of my sci-fi books, and neither of those were available digitally, so again...womp womp.

My June challenges are #2, read a book featured on a "best book cover" list, and #15, read a book written by a librarian. 

For two, I chose Dear Medusa by Olivia A. Cole, That Self-Same Metal by Brittany Williams, and Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley. I've got That Self-Same Metal downloaded, so we'll see if I can make a little progress on my reading there.

For fifteen, I chose These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Card, Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff, and I want to reread To All the Boys I've Loved Before...none of these were available digitally, so I guess I'll be playing a lot of catch up when we get home!

So there you have it, a very rushed update. Fingers crossed I get some reading done on the plane, and if not...hey, I'll be in Paris.

Mystery Book Review - The Light We Lost by Kyla Stone

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆

Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆

Overall: ⭐⭐

From the cover:

"When all lights fail, will you survive? A catastrophic solar flare strikes Earth, plunging half the planet into darkness. Amid the chaos, thirteen-year-old Shiloh awakens to a nightmare: a dead body beside her, her brother missing, and no recollection of what happened.

As she desperately searches for her brother, a killer is hot on her trail, determined to silence the only witness to the brutal crime.

Undersheriff Jackson Cross races against time to catch the killer and save an innocent girl. But the more he uncovers, the deeper he is drawn into a dangerous darkness that threatens to consume him.

With law and order crumbling around him, Jackson's only hope may lie with Eli Pope, a ruthless ex-convict just released from prison. But Eli has a score to settle - he's hellbent on vengeance against the very sheriff who put him behind bars.

With the world on the brink of destruction, the stakes have never been higher. As the killer closes in on Shiloh and her missing brother, they must navigate the devastation to stay alive."

Champions of the Galaxy - Tola Okogwu

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆

Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆

Overall: ⭐⭐

From the cover:

"When a powerful group of aliens threaten Earth, a mysterious species called the Onni offers humanity hope. But there's a catch. Ninety-one children from across the planet must first prove their worth by competing in a series of trials set on a distant planet. 

For twelve-year-old Kola, who has long dreamed of going into space, it's the chance of a lifetime. But once aboard the Onni mothership, Kola finds himself thrown into a misfit team of Champions. As secrets unravel and tensions rise, Kola and his team must decide who to trust and what it really means to be a Champion. Because in the end, it's not about being the smartest or the strongest. It's about standing together."

Currently Reading

This past week was curriculum inventory week at work, which basically means I'm walking back and forth across campus moving huge boxes of curriculum nonstop the entire week. It's exhausting, and it meant that I was too tired to focus on much when I got home from work, which means...very little reading progress. So, here we are, a list of the books I'm currently (very slowly) reading and my thoughts on them so far.

1. The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton - This is a reread, and I know things end up being pretty dire, but I have to say the aesthetic at the beginning of the book...so pleasing. So delightful.

2. Champions of the Galaxy by Tola Okogwu - With any luck, I'll finish reading this ARC over the next week and be able to post a review! So far, I'm kind of on the fence about it, but it has potential.

3. A Stage Set for Villains by Shannon J. Spann - I'm reading this to Joel at bedtime, so it's going to be a while before I finish it, but I'm thirsty for answers to some of the things that have been presented so far. This is sort of a dystopian Greek mythology setting, and...it's good.

4. The Light We Lost by Kyla Stone - Mystery book reveal! I really can't decide if I like this book or not. Like...it's intriguing, but also it's slooooooow. I'm still holding out hope, but I'll just say this - it's a "dystopian thriller" but I'm more than 100 pages in and so far we're still gearing up to the dystopia. Not very thrilling, not very dystopia.

5. The Hard Parts by Oksana Masters - I have to read this book in chunks because it's giving me so many feelings. Oksana's resilience and determination are incredible, and I'm loving learning more about her.

Being Mary Bennett - JC Peterson

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆

Plot/Writing Style: ☆

Overall: ⭐⭐

From the cover:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that every bookworm secretly wishes to be Lizzie Bennet.

A less acknowledged truth is that Mary Bennet might be a better fit.

For seventeen-year-old Marnie Barnes, who's convinced she is the long-suffering protagonist of her life, this revelation comes at the end of a series of self-induced disasters that force her to confront a devastating truth: Marnie has more in common with Mary Bennet - the utterly forgettable middle sister - than the effervescent Lizzie. 

Determined to reinvent herself, she enlists the help of her bubbly roommate and opens herself up to the world - leading lady style. And between new friends, a very cute boy, and a rescue pup named Sir Pat, Marnie realizes that being the main character doesn't mean rewriting your life entirely. It's about finding the right cast of characters, the love interest of your dreams, and, most important, embracing your story, flaws and all."

April was a slow month for reading

April is only thirty days long, and yet it feels so much longer. Not in a nice way, like wow, I got so much done this month! In a "this will never end" way, like I hurt myself and couldn't do any of the things I liked but still had to do all the things I don't like. In the "my aide quit during book fair week because she got some negative feedback for openly not doing her job and didn't like it" way. In the "it's so cruel that there are lots of holiday breaks stacked in the first half of the school year and then none at the end of it" way.

Anyway, in case you aren't picking up what I'm throwing down, I didn't make much Read Harder progress this month. I did START Underground Railroad and The Hard Parts, which are my last April books...but I am nowhere near finished with them. I'll keep working on them this month, though, and at the same time, I'll be working on these challenges:

#9: Read a romantasy with a queer and/or BIPOC main character - For this, I picked Deadly Ever After by Brittany Johnson, which I picked up from the library this past week, and Peter Darling by Austin Chant, which I had to buy and in a very deja vu moment I am once again still waiting on any word re: shipment. I bought it from a different bookstore, who said it was shipping directly from their warehouse, which is actually what the other bookstore told me when they finally answered my email about my other purchased and delayed book, which now has me wondering...do all these local bookstores use the same "warehouse"? And why are their deliveries so slow? I just want my books without supporting Temu Lex Luther, man.

$20: Read a book set in space - You now, this prompt may have helped me realize that I don't particularly love sci fi as a genre. Are there books set in space that I enjoy? For sure. Illuminae, for instance, one of my favorite series of all time. But when I read this prompt, there was no joy in my heart for it. It is not a prompt that excites me. Maybe I'll change my tune when I read my chosen books, Beyond the Red by Gabe Cole Novoa and Do You Dream of Terra-Two? by Temi Oh. But space...books set in it...just doesn't do it for me the way other genres and settings do.

Well, there you have it. Bring on the May.

April Mystery Book review - Witchshadow by Susan Dennard

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆☆☆

Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆☆☆

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I'm omitting the cover synopsis for this one, because Witchshadow is the fifth book in the Witchlands series, so I don't want to give spoilers from the jump to anyone who wants to read the series and hasn't yet. Instead, I'm including the synopsis from the cover of the first book, so anyone interested knows what the series is about, and then I'll talk a bit about the series as a whole.

From the cover of Truthwitch:

"Young witches Safiya and Iseult have a habit of finding trouble. After clashing with a powerful Guildmaster and his ruthless Bloodwitch bodyguard, the friends are forced to flee their home.

Safi must avoid capture at all costs, as she is a rare Truthwitch, able to discern truth from lies. Many would kill for her magic, so Safi must keep it hidden, lest she be used in the struggle between empires. And Iseult's true powers are hidden even from herself.

In a chance encounter at Court, Safi meets Prince Merik and makes him a reluctant ally. However, his help may not slow down the Bloodwitch now hot on the girls' heels. All Safi and Iseult want is their freedom, but danger lies ahead. With war coming, treaties breaking, and a magical contagion sweeping the land, the friends will have to fight emperors and mercenaries alike, for some will stop at nothing to get their hands on a Truthwitch."

📚📚📚 

So, the story centers around Safi and Iseult but involves a whole cast of characters, and the first book starts just as the Twenty Year Truce, which has kept several warring empires from destroying each other for nearly two decades, is about to end. Politically, tensions are high because this collapse of already tenuous peace is looming, and with the end drawing near anyway there's every chance that one of the signers will choose to violate the truce and end it early just to get a jump on the war that will inevitably come soon anyway. Personally, tensions are also high for Safi and Iseult because a Bloodwitch has discovered Safi's magic and begun to track them, so now they have to sneak out of Venaza City without being discovered, something made extra tricky because Iseult is Nomatsi and prejudices against the Nomatsi run high in the city, drawing her added attention. 

Of course, things immediately go wrong when they try to escape Venaza City, and things continue to go wrong from there, but along the way, we meet several fascinating characters, like Merik Nihar, his threadbrother Cullen, and Cullen's heart thread Ryber. We learn more about Aeduan, the Bloodwitch, and his complicated past, delve into the stories of Paladins and the Cahr Awen, and discover long-forgotten Cartorran history. Things get impossibly complicated, and I have to say, I wish I kept a notebook with me while I read to take notes. There's SO much backstory, and it's incredible, but it's a lot to keep track of! Fortunately, losing track of things just means getting rocked by huge reveals instead of seeing them coming.