Books Lately

3rd anniversary of this link up! Time flies when you're having fun, and this is the most fun I have in blogland every month, so thank you Steph & Jana - also, please never ever ever ever stop.

I am still on my romance kick.. honestly, I'm always on some sort of romance kick, but I don't always talk about the romances I read during the link up because I know they aren't everyone's jam. I normally just talk about the ones I really enjoyed or think other people will like. So when I am on a bigger than normal romance kick, I have more to talk about. If you ever want to see all the books I read but don't talk about here, lets be friends on goodreads!

Black Dagger Brotherhood - J.R. Ward - 3/4/5 Stars

romance series about vampire brotherhood

My friend Sara (hi Sara!) recommended this series to me and I gobbled it up. I liked some books more than others, I don't know if I will continue because it started getting too samesies, but if you like fantasy romance (romance people), I recommend. The characters names are absolutely ridiculous though (Wrath, Phury, Rhage, Zsadist....), but you get used to it. I only read the first 6, my favourites were 1, 2 and 3.

Kulti - Mariana Zapata - 5 Stars
soccer romance.. but way better than that sounds
This one was good, really good, I enjoyed it more than Under Locke but nowhere near as much as The Wall of Winnipeg and Me. It was hilarious and I adored Sal. Her inner dialogue was fabulous. Zapata's books are slooooooooooooow burns, you really get to know the characters and watch them build a friendship/relationship. That's good for people who don't like any adult scenes in their books, but it can get a little frustrating (ahem) when you know it's coming eventually. Again, I really enjoyed this, wanted to stay up all night to finish it but had to function at work the next day so I didn't. Still not as fantastic as Winnipeg, but I'll take it.

The Vixen and the Vet - Katy Regnery - 5 Stars
beauty and the beast retelling with veteran 
Ignore the cover. I LOVED this book. It's short, quick, sexy, adorable. It's a Beauty and the Beast retelling, so it's ridiculously unrealistic and predictable but if you like romances I highly recommend. And by romance I mean romance so make sure that's your jam. Also, this author regularly uses her books as fundraisers with proceeds going towards charities that are related to the book (for example, this one donated to Operation Mend and Pets for Vets) so high five to her. I also read Never Let You Go (Hansel and Gretel retelling) and Don't Speak (The Little Mermaid retelling) which are also in the 'series' though they aren't connected in any way. I enjoyed them both.

69 Million Things I Hate About You - Kira Archer - 5 Stars
romance, girl wins lotto, decides not to quit but to see how far until boss fires her
Oh my goodness. Nadine recommended this and I am so glad she did!  This book made me actually laugh out loud, several times. This is a romance so if that's not your jam, stay away. Basically it's a hate to love story, in the challenge of who can blink first they end up falling in love. It's not overly dramatic or angsty but it's not boring either. This is such a cute, light, quick story and I highly recommend it. Bonus, it's only 99 cents on amazon (not an affiliate link!).
Received copy from NetGalley

Just One Damned Thing After Another - Jodi Taylor - 4 Stars
time travel but with humour, romance, mystery and adventure
Took me quite a bit to get into this one, but then I was waiting on my friend and reading this to keep me occupied, so when she arrived I was like DO YOU MIND I AM READING and couldn't wait to get back to it. There are a lot of characters and normally when it's a super character focused book the plot isn't really heavy but there was a lot of plot and things going on. I loved the writing, very simple but enjoyable. There was one page I literally read like 7 times and then when I finished the book, kept going back and reading that page. So good. I requested the rest of the series from the library.

The Trials of the Honorable F. Darcy - Sara Angelini - 4 Stars

modern day pride & prejudice but with lizzy a lawyer and darcy a judge

You know I love a good P&P retelling. If, like me, you just like any semblance of similarity to P&P at all, or you like romances and don't mind a few adult scenes, you might like this. I almost didn't read it but I'm glad I gave it a go as it was seriously enjoyable and fulfilled my P&P retelling need. Not for the Austen purist, honestly you could change the names and no-one would compare it to P&P, so it's good for the non-fans as well.

Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe - Melissa de la Cruz - 4 Stars

modern day pride & prejudice but with darcy a girl, lizzy is a guy named luke

Oh look another one! I really enjoyed this one, it was super quick and easy, it wasn't too christmassy to be reading in September. It actually hardly felt like a P&P retelling because of the whole Darcy is a girl and Lizzy is a guy named Luke, I kept forgetting who was supposed to be who. It was fun, light and cute, don't be turned off by the P&P title if you're not a fan, just think of it as a cute christmas romance about childhood enemies becoming lovers.
Received copy from NetGalley

The Things We Wish Were True - Marybeth Mayhew Whalen - 4 Stars

secrets in a small neighbourhood
I liked this one more than I expected to when I began it. It was a bit boring at first, but all of a sudden I really like and care about all of the characters (and there are quite a few of them). You see some of the twists coming and are surprised by others. It was an enjoyable read.
Received copy from NetGalley

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie - 4 Stars

teenager living on reservation transfers to an all white school

This was a cute, quirky book. It was also pretty heartbreaking and I definitely teared up a time or two. I liked it more than I thought I would. This was an interesting book and I thought it talked candidly about a lot of heavy subjects, skated over some seriously heavy things like I'd accidentally skip a line and someone had died. Overall, I recommend it, it was the right mix of happy and sad.

Everything, Everything - Nicola Yoon - 4 Stars

girl has disease where she can't go outside, everything will kill her
The hype with this one meant I had super high expectations and I was really preparing for a super intense read, which I don't think I got. It's still good, interesting and surprising, I do recommend it. It's a quick feel good with a dash of wtf read.

Rugby series - L.H. Cosway & Penny Reid - 4/5 Stars
romance series about guys in a rugby team
I loved Penny Reid's series with the beards and this series was just as good. I asbolutely loved the first one, 2 & 3 weren't as good but still funny. Cute little romances that pass the time just fine.

Good Omens - Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman - 4 Stars

good & evil try and stop apocalypse - but funny and sarcastic
This book took me FOREVER to get through. KC was reading it on one of our long flights and kept reciting funny lines and telling me I should read it. So I did, and then he didn't even finish it (rage). This book was hilarious, interesting and very unique. But something was missing for me, I kept getting distracted easily or putting it down. I switched between the ebook and audio several times, neither clicking with me. Overall, glad I read it, doubt I'll ever read it again, not inducted into the cult of good omens lovers, but still recommend.

 Jane, Unlimited and Mansfield Park (gonna be honest, bored out of my mind right now) 

Here's where I'm at with Erin's challenge - one book left!

• 5 points: at least 200 pages – My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella (448 p)

• 10 points: starts with the letter “B” - Bully by Penelope Ward (333 p)

• 10 points: a (mostly) yellow cover - The Look of Love by Sarah Jio (286 p)

• 15 points: a picture of an animal on the cover -Lingus by Mariana Zapata (275 p)

• 20 points: published in 2017 - Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh (393 p)

• 20 points: a compass or cardinal direction in the title – East by Edith Pattou (507 p)

• 25 points: one of the most commonly banned books – The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (230 p)

• 30 points: fictional book about mental illness - Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson (278 p) 

• 30 points: non-human main character – Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout (299 p)

• 35 points: based on a Disney movie - The Vixen and the Vet  by Katy Regnery (295 p)

Linking up with Steph & Jana.

TL;DR - I recommend....... well.... if you like romances, any of the ones I talked about. If you don't, I recommend Just One Damned Thing After Another if it sounds like your jam (it's really not too sci-fi-ish at all), The Things We Wish Were True and Good Omens.

Read anything decent lately?