Month: June 2016

June Book Haul!

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img_3378I was talking on the phone to my sister the other day, and we were discussing books as we often do.  I expressed a little bit of guilt at how many books I buy, compared to how many books I own that remain unread, and something clicked in me.  I realized that never, ever am I going to complete my TBR list.  There will always be new books that are being released, there will always be newly discovered series, and there will always be pretty books that I buy based solely on looks that remain forever unread.

And once I came to this conclusion, I no longer felt guilty about loading up my book outlet shopping cart (they were having a site wide sale, okay?!) and also picking up a few anticipated reads at Barnes & Noble throughout the month.  So without further ado, here is my June book haul!

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Even If The Sky Falls

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Mia García

Published May 2016

eitsf“Well hello you beautiful, perfect, summery book!  You’re coming home with me tonight.” – this is me talking to myself as I pet the bookshelves in Barnes & Noble last week.

*buys book based on cover*

*brings book home to ogle*

*pets book*

*takes pictures of book*

*THEN reads book synopsis*

“Oh, well will you look at that!  This story takes place in New Orleans!”

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Ruined

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Amy Tintera

Published May 2016

Ruined #1

71716475-368-k18884I received Ruined in my May FairyLoot box, and decided to catapult it up to the top of my TBR list for the pure reason that it seemed like a fast read and I was in the mood for quick fantasy. In that sense, Ruined did not disappoint.

Emelina Flores has nothing. Her home in Ruina has been ravaged by war; her parents were killed and her sister was kidnapped. Even though Em is only a useless Ruined—completely lacking any magic—she is determined to get revenge.

Her plan is simple: She will infiltrate the enemy’s kingdom, posing as the crown prince’s betrothed. She will lead an ambush. She will kill the king and everything he holds dear, including his son. 

The closer Em gets to the prince, though, the more she questions her mission. Her rage-filled heart begins to soften. But with her life—and her family—on the line, love could be Em’s deadliest mistake.

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The Unexpected Everything

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Morgan Matson

Published May 2016

17838528I totally gave into the bookstagram hype on this book.  There were several contributing factors to jumping aboard the hype train, and I shall list them below:

  1. This may be one of the more photogenic books I have encountered.  Every single picture this book is featured in is beautiful.
  2. Dogs. Wow. Look at all these dogs!  I love dogs, and there are dogs all over this cover so can I assume this book is about dogs!?
  3. I haven’t read a summer contemporary for as long as I can remember, and this seems like a perfect read to kick off the summer!

Once I started The Unexpected Everything, it took me a whopping 2 ½ days to finish it.  Being an adult and working a full time job, I think this says a lot about how addictive this story is!

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Top 5 Tuesday

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Good morning everyone and welcome to the first edition of DeerTales top 5 series! I thought this would be a great weekly addition to the blog schematic, to not only throw in a bit more variety to reviews, but to also help flex those creative muscles.

For some reason, I get the overwhelming urge to read contemporary and high fantasy books during the summer. (well, if I am being honest with myself here, I just really love fantasy….) So, I wanted to start this series off by talking about my five favorite fantasy series. Some of these are incomplete, meaning we are waiting on the next book (looking at you George RR Martin!) and some of them I haven’t yet finished, but they are all unique and amazing.

So, without further ado, my personal favorites, Top 5 Fantasy Series!

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Big Magic

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Elizabeth Gilbert

Published September 2015

01-big-magic-book-reviewI got the book for Christmas from my mother, who deviated away from our usual book presents of fiction, to self-help and self-awareness book presents this year.  (Thanks Mom?)

I think I should start by saying that I am not a huge fan of self-help books.  I think most of them read like fortune cookies, or horoscopes; they are just fillers that anyone can find some deeper meaning to.  They aren’t personalized to you, or your problems, but you can certainly find points in the book where “the author is just speaking to me I know it!”

“The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them.”

In any other scenario, this probably would have just been shelved away, unread forever, but I honestly didn’t want to hurt my mom’s feelings.  So I started this right after the New Year, and here I am 6 months later, finally finished and writing a review.

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The Paladin

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J.M. Storin

Published April 2016

The Paladin #1

the paladinI want to start by saying congrats to JM Storin for publishing a book.  I cannot imagine the hardship and trials that she must have endured and pushed through in order to make an idea from her mind, put into existence.  I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Storin this year at BookCon, which was great since we have been Instagram friends since I had joined the bookstagram community.

With that being said, I have thought about writing/not writing this review for several days.  The truth of the matter is: I didn’t like The Paladin.  And I didn’t want to write a review on it because I really, really liked the author.  I tossed this idea around in my head of finishing the book, putting it back on my shelf, and that being the end of the experience.  But, I finally came to the conclusion that it wasn’t fair to me to not express an opinion just because I wanted to protect someone else’s feelings.  I cannot imagine the tough skin it takes to write a book and read critical reviews about your brain child, but, at the end of the day, you are inviting both good and bad reviews by writing a book.  It is the circle of publishing, and at times, it is going to be rough.  I am not going to be mean; I just want to express why this book didn’t work for ME.

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May FairyLoot Unboxing!

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fairylootI know, I know: I have a problem.  I have a problem with subscription boxes, and if there was an addicted anonymous meeting for sub boxes, maybe I should attend.  But to the best of my knowledge, there is no such meeting, so I find myself with a lovely Fairy Loot sitting in front of me.

Fairy Loot is a fairly new (see what I did there?) book subscription box based out of the UK.  With me living in the United States, I weighed the options of trying this one out pretty heavily, as shipping is expensive, takes quite a while, and overall is just a giant pain in the butt.  But when the May theme was announced as being “High Fantasy”, oh boy, I was in-like-Flynn.  I love fantasy!  Also, as an added bonus, Fairy Loot differs from other subscription boxes in that each month is purchased separately, unless you buy a three or six month subscription all at once.  There is no ‘subscribe and automatically renew’ feature, so if you purchase a box and don’t like it, there is no long term commitment for you.

Unlike my OwlCrate reviews, I will try to put a price value to everything included in the box, just because with shipping added, it is more of an investment than the other book subscription boxes out there for me personally.  This is in no way to discourage or prevent anyone from ordering Fairy Loot, but to just help if anyone else is on the fence about getting one, just like I was.

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Pax 

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Sara Pennypacker; illustrated by Jon Klassen

Published February 2016

pennypacker_paxMy boyfriend bought me Pax when he saw it on Amazon, because he knows I am a sucker for beautiful covers, and for animals. So with that being said, this was sure to be a knock-it-out-of-the-park purchase for him, right? Well, I really did love the story, but it wasn’t one that I can say made me feel ‘warm and fuzzy’ on the inside. Read on for my mostly spoiler free review! (I am really doing my hardest to keep reviews spoiler free for now on!)

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