Review ~ "Reign of Shadows" by Sophie Jordan

Title: "Reign of Shadows"
Series: Reign of Shadows, #1
Author: Sophie Jordan

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Published: February 9, 2016
Publisher: HarperTeen
Genres: Young Adult, Retelling, Fantasy
Pages: 304
Format: Hardcover
Source: MeL Cat

Goodreads ~ Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble

Seventeen years ago, an eclipse cloaked the kingdom of Relhok in perpetual darkness. In the chaos, an evil chancellor murdered the king and queen and seized their throne. Luna, Relhok’s lost princess, has been hiding in a tower ever since. Luna’s survival depends on the world believing she is dead.

But that doesn’t stop Luna from wanting more. When she meets Fowler, a mysterious archer braving the woods outside her tower, Luna is drawn to him despite the risk. When the tower is attacked, Luna and Fowler escape together. But this world of darkness is more treacherous than Luna ever realized.

With every threat stacked against them, Luna and Fowler find solace in each other. But with secrets still unspoken between them, falling in love might be their most dangerous journey yet.

Random Ramblings ~ Who Am I As A Blogger?

I've never been very good when it comes to blogging regularly. I'll go through spurts where I'm posting almost everyday. Then I'll reach a point where it's only a couple times, and they're usually Waiting on Wednesday or Top Ten Tuesday posts. And then I'll reach a point where I don't post anything for weeks. It's usually due to being stressed out or not having any motivation or inspiration, with the latter happening when I actually have time.

But now I'm working on actually posting regularly, and this has forced me to think about who I am as a blogger. What do I want to write? What do I want to post? And with this comes my lack of inspiration or self-doubt when I think of various ideas. I'll think of an idea, but then I worry that it might be too similar to someone else's, that it might have already been done, or that it will end of terribly. I'm hoping I can work on this. I've been testing out some ideas and I might ask others what they think about it (but I'm super shy and self-conscious so we'll see how this goes).

Even though this is about blogging, this existential or quarter-life crisis (or whatever you want to call it) wasn't even brought up by blogging. It was caused by this huge talk I had with my mother recently. I'm in my third year of college, with two to go, and I plan to go to grad school for Dance Movement Therapy and to work in a hospital. While I'd like to go to grad school right after I finish my Bachelor's, my mother wants me to wait. She'd rather me stay in school for two more years to get a certification as a Physical Therapist Assistant. And this was certainly not what I had planned. I understand where she's coming from, but then I'd be doing what my parents want, and that's not very appealing to a 20 year old. And I feel like I wouldn't be fully committed to something that I never intended to do. I guess what I'm trying to say is that if I want to do something, I need to be completely committed. I'm 100% focused and determined when it comes to my education (even if there my be changes that I'm not too happy with), so I need to make sure I'm just as focused when it comes to blogging. I can't half-ass it.
 
I know that this probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but maybe I just needed to write this to get all this stress off my chest. Being in college and becoming an adult (sort of) has forced me to really think deep when it comes to my decisions and has forced me to really be committed. And that commitment hasn't fully transferred over to my blogging. I'm hoping that this revelation, or whatever it was, will help push me into becoming more focused on this aspect of my life. I really like blogging, even if I'm not great at it, and I'm hoping I'll like it even more when I reach the level of dedication I'm striving for. And I'm hoping I'll question myself and my ideas less, but we'll see how that goes! 😆

Has anyone else had a weird crisis thing when analyzing their current blogging situation? Please tell me I'm not the only one. 😅

Waiting on Wednesday #31: "Ivory and Bone" by Julie Eshbaugh

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly event, hosted Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Title: "Ivory and Bone"

Author: Julie Eshbaugh

Expected Publication: June 7, 2016

A prehistoric fantasy—with allusions to Pride and Prejudice.

Hunting, gathering, and keeping his family safe—that’s the life seventeen-year-old Kol knows. Then bold, enigmatic Mya arrives from the south with her family, and Kol is captivated. He wants her to like and trust him, but any hopes of impressing her are ruined when he makes a careless—and nearly grave—mistake. However, there’s something more to Mya’s cool disdain…a history wrought with loss that comes to light when another clan arrives. With them is Lo, an enemy from Mya’s past who Mya swears has ulterior motives.

As Kol gets to know Lo, tensions between Mya and Lo escalate until violence erupts. Faced with shattering losses, Kol is forced to question every person he’s trusted. One thing is for sure: this was a war that Mya or Lo—Kol doesn’t know which—had been planning all along.

This book sounds really fascinating with it being set in prehistoric times. I've never heard of any books, let alone YA, that are set in that era. So I think that will be a really interesting setting. However, I've never read Pride and Prejudice, nor have I seen the movie, so I feel like I should probably look it up on CliffsNotes or something. I've seen some mixed reviews, but I'm excited non-the-less! 

Preorder

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What are you waiting on?

Waiting on Wednesday #30: "My Lady Jane" by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly event, hosted Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

 

Title: "My Lady Jane"

Authors: Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows

Publication Date: June 7, 2016

For fans of The Princess Bride comes the comical, fantastical, romantical, (not) entirely true story of Lady Jane Grey.

Lady Jane Grey, sixteen, is about to be married to a total stranger—and caught up in an insidious plot to rob her cousin, King Edward, of his throne. But that’s the least of Jane’s problems. She’s about to become Queen of England. Like that could go wrong.

I absolutely love all of these authors (they've all made me get emotional while reading their books), so they can't go wrong together! I don't know too much about Lady Jane Grey, so I feel like I should do some research before reading.

Preorder

Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble

 

What are you waiting on?

Top Ten Tuesday #56: Ten Books I Feel Differently About After Time Has Passed

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

 
This Week's Topic:

Ten Books I Feel Differently About After Time Has Passed

 

1.

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

I liked it a lot right after I read it. But after I wrote my review, I realized that it wasn't as good in retrospect. I still plan to read the sequel, in case it redeems the series for me.

2.

Winter by Marissa Meyer

I'm not so sure if my opinion went down so much, but looking back I was a little disappointed in things. I really wanted more development with Cress and Thorn's relationship, but there wasn't much with that. My poor heart must go on.

3.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

I really liked this series, until Allegiant came out. Then the Internet was filled with spoilers that I did not like. I looked back at the first two books and thought that they were lacking something. Maybe they were, maybe they weren't, but now I don't like the series as much as I used to.

4.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

I, like many other middle school girls, was a Twi-hard. I was absolutely obsessed. I begged my mother to take me to the midnight release of Breaking Dawn, which I never finished. I'm not sure if I'll ever finish it. Looking back I can't believe I loved it. In my opinion, that relationship was not healthy.

5.

Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepherd

I loved this series at first, and I plan to finish it, but it's gotten tedious. How many secrets can four high school seniors have?

6.

The Selection by Kiera Cass

I was super wary of his series when I started it. I thought it was OK, but looking back, it was not good. I feel like the series just went down hill. Looking back, the series was just teenage Bachelor with vague dystopian elements.

Currently, I can't think of four more, so here are my top six. What books did you change your opinion of after time? Do we have any in common?