QuickFire Fantasy Book Tag | Some of my favorite fantasies!

The time has finally come for me to do this tag (almost a year later… Sorry, Jack!). In October last year, I was tagged by Jack @Jacksbedtimereading to do the QuickFire Fantasy book tag. Thank you so much for tagging me! Even though I do my tags late, I still love to participate in them, so thank you very much for thinking of me. 🙂 

Fantasy and Sci-Fi are the two genres I read the most every year, although I do love Literary Fiction and Mysteries as well. However, I can’t call myself a fantasy expert. There are still so many fantasy worlds I haven’t visited and so many fantasy series I want but haven’t read! 

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The Rage of Dragons(The Burning, #1) by Evan Winter | Can’t wait for the next installment!

«The Rage of Dragons» by Evan Winter, the first book in the epic African-inspired fantasy, was one of the most intimidating books on my TBR last month. [Well… together with «A Time of Courage» by John Gwynne.] After reading one African-inspired fantasy last year that I didn’t love and had to DNF half-way through, I was rather apprehensive to try again. Besides, the first book is always the most challenging to dive in – there is a new world to get accustomed with, new words, new social and magic systems.

Who would have thought that I’d be able to finish an epic fantasy book with more than 500 pages in just 2 days?! I didn’t!

5 Reasons why you need to read the «Winternight Trilogy» by Katherine Arden!

I’m starting a new type of posts of my blogs! [and I’m very excited to finally share this first one with all of you!] I always struggled to write reviews for sequels – not many people are interested in reading a review for a 2nd, 3rd or 10th book in the series when they haven’t even started the series yet or aren’t caught up to the point where they can freely read the review and not being afraid of spoilers. 

Besides, how much information is enough to convey my thoughts and not spoil the previous books? 

Incendiary by Zoraida Córdova | Inquisition Spain, Assassin’s Creed and a new favorite YA series?

Maybe I’m not allowed to say that, but holy *** the very early parts of this story gave me huge Assassin’s Creed vibes and I was LOVING it! Okay… maybe it was the fact that there is one scene where the characters decide that roofs are the lesser crowded spaces, and use them to get to the center of the square, but like… isn’t that what you supposed to do while playing Assassin’s Creed?! Climb and jump down from all the roofs you can find?! 

And the second important point [that has nothing to do with the story] is how gorgeous this UK edition is?! Once again, the UK publishers did it much better than the US ones (sorry, guys! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ). I much prefer some intricate design vs. a levitating girl, even if that girl is supposed to be Renata Convida, our main character.

5 Popular Fantasy Series I want to binge-read!

Hi, guys! I hope you’re staying safe and healthy and reading tons of books! [or not, as long as you’re doing something equally pleasing and exciting]. 

Usually, Tuesdays are reserved for Top Ten Tuesday meme, but this week I wasn’t really feeling the theme and decided to explore other memes! So here I am, joining in on Top 5 Tuesday instead! 😀 Follow the link to the Bionic Bookworm Blog to find out more about this weekly meme! 

The Diviners (The Diviners, #1) by Libba Bray | An amazing cast of characters & entertaining roaring twenties!

Oh, man! «The Diviners» was such a roller coaster of emotions! 

The beginning of the book wasn’t as exciting as I hoped it would be, which translated into me starting this book twice. For the second time as I passed that first chapter (prologue) about the party and spirit summoning, I met Evie and fell in love with her character. The book just kept getting better and better from there. However, by the end, I was started to feel tired of reading the same story and the last 100 pages took me a couple of days to finish.

Wicked Saints (Something Dark and Holy, #1) by Emily A. Duncan | Feeling disappointed by my most anticipated book of last year!

«Wicked Saints», the first book in Something Dark and Holy trilogy, was published in April last year. I remember it being one of my most anticipated releases at the time when I first saw it on NetGalley and the fact that it was inspired by Eastern European culture immediately drew my attention. As someone from Eastern Europe, I often find these books very nostalgic to read, as they tend to reference a lot of Slavic folklore or events that I used to study in my history classes. 

Emily A. Duncan said in one of her interviews that Leigh Bardugo was her favorite YA author, and you can easily see by the way the book is written where she drew her inspiration from.  «Wicked Saints» reminded me of the Darkling, Mal and Alina – not the plot of events but the characters and their interactions. 

Maybe every single YA fantasy inspired by Eastern European culture will always remind me of The Grisha trilogy now? 

Book Series I’m afraid to commit to | Ft. Book series & Books on my TBR I’m avoiding reading

As I sat down this Saturday to prepare my posts for the upcoming week, I instantly realized how perfect this week’s TTT (Top Ten Tuesday) topic is – Books On My TBR I’m Avoiding Reading and Why (maybe you’re scared of it, worried it won’t live up to the hype, etc.)! 

I’ve recently started a blog series about book series (this is my favorite phrase! 😀 ) with the first one being Book series I need to finish, focusing primarily on the unfinished trilogies that I have quite a lot of. 

P.S. I still haven’t read any of the last books in the trilogies mentioned in that post. I will! I promise I will! It just takes me a while to actually get to them.

I thought I’d take this opportunity to combine book series with the TTT topic and talk about Book Series I’m afraid to commit to! 

Book series I need to finish | Why don’t I read final books in trilogies?!

In order to get my TBR, especially the book series TBR, under control, I’ve decided to post a little series about (1) series I’ve started but haven’t finished yet, (2) series I’ve started but have no intention to continue with, (3) completed series I still need to read, etc. etc. 

Me not finishing the series has become a serious problem, send help if you’re reading this post! 

I’m sure many of you can relate to how easy it is to start reading a new book series. The key word in that sentence is EASY! And there are a number of reasons for that:

1. The first book is usually always the best;
2. The first book is usually the shortest and the least intimidating of the series;
3. The excitement to start the new adventure is very palpable;
4. Learning about new world, magic system and getting to meet the characters adds this addictive element to the book when everything is new and shiny, and you can’t get enough of it. 

*list any of your reasons in the comments below! 

In Deep Water by Sam Blake | Not as fast-paced or thrilling as I expected it to be

There were years in my reading life when I solely read crime, thrillers, and mysteries. I’ve accumulated quite a collection of books in that particular genre and sometimes the need for something a little bit more mysterious comes knocking on the door, making it impossible to resist.

During one of those whims, I’ve requested «In Deep Water» by Sam Blake on NetGalley. Thank you to NetGalley and to Bonnier Zaffre for a free ARC of this book.

Epic Fantasy series I am interested in!

It’s been what feels like a very long time since I properly dove into the great fantasy worlds, full of magic, castles, knights and epic wars. And there is a great variety of new and old fantasy series and standalones to choose from!

These are just a few of the books I’ve got my eye on for quite a long time. I would love to hear your thoughts on any of them in the comments down below!

Most Anticipated Releases | June 2017

This post is a little bit late this month, but there are some VERY good books coming out in June and I just have to share them with all of you!

As you all know, May was an amazing month of popular book releases. June will be a little bit quieter and there are a few books that I am not as excited about as everyone else, but I will include them in a separate category for people that might be anticipating.

The Series I Started Reading But Didn’t Keep Up With!

This is going to be a long one. Make sure to brew a cup of coffee to keep you awake while powering through a list of ALL OF THE SERIES I’VE STARTED BUT AM YET TO FINISH. To make my (and your) life a little bit easier, I decided to split them to three categories (A) series I am absolutely 100% carrying on with, (B) series I might consider reading in the future, and (C) series I will never pick up again.

I am already scared to begin this crazy revelation because by the end of this post I might end up on BookDepository buying all the books in all the series and we cannot let this happen!

Knights of the Borrowed Dark (Books 1 & 2) by Dave Rudden

This year has been full of new and diverse reads, and I am happy to announce that this is my first book by an Irish writer and might be the best middle grade / YA I’ve read this year.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House UK for giving me the chance to be one of the first ones to get my hands on the sequel in the magical series.

Political Issues in Illea | Interesting Concept in the Selection Series

Once upon a time, in a peaceful kingdom far far away, there lived a young girl. Raised in the family of artists, she’s seen and experienced what it was like and what it takes to survive in the world divided in castes.