Starsight (Skyward, #2) by Brandon Sanderson | Continuing my journey through Brandon Sanderson YA books!

Here we go again, talking about yet another Brandon Sanderson book! 2020 is going to be a very Sanderson heavy year and I’m loving it so far. I’m yet to dip my toes into the Cosmere world, but I will be starting «Elantris» very soon as I want it read before the live show of Cosmerealong, which should take place sometime mid-March. 

I have now successfully read and loved all of his YA Sci-Fi books, starting with the Reckoners trilogy and finishing with the 2nd installment in the Skyward series. It feels good to finally be able to cross these books off my never-ending TBR list. 

This review might contain minor spoilers for the first book – «Skyward», so if you haven’t read that one, I’d recommend reading the book (and my review *cheeky self-promotion included*) first and then come back to this post! 🙂

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Skyward (Skyward, #1) by Brandon Sanderson | M-bot & Doomslug are my favorite non-human characters!

I wouldn’t have started this book in January if it wasn’t for Rafaella @The Portuguese Bibliophile. Thank you, for suggesting to buddy read this book with you, and also thank you for going along with my crazy idea to start it immediately and read 100 pages per day to finish this book in less than a week!

This was my first ever time reading a book with someone else. I’ve never participated in book clubs before, I never did buddy reads. I guess I’ve done some read-a-thons, but most of them have prompts to follow, so everyone was reading different books for the same prompts. And I had so much fun! To be able to discuss the “spoilers” was a lot of fun (and also quite weird in the beginning, as my mind kept saying – those are spoilers! you aren’t supposed to say them out loud!). 😀

New Favorite Authors of 2019 | Ft. Books I’m planning to read in 2020!

When I just started this blog, I didn’t even know that it was possible to read books from so many different authors. My reading mentality back then only allowed me to buy and read books from my favorite authors, or re-read all the books I already owned.

I remember how much I loved going to book shops when I was a teenager, browsing through all the new releases, reading the blurb on the back, and then putting the books down just to go and choose something from the author I was already familiar with. 

Hiding by Henry Turner | An attempt at a “Plot Twist” Book.

«Hiding» by Henry Turner is a YA mystery novel, told from the perspective of a teenage boy who snuck in his ex-girlfriend’s house. The events of the whole book happen during a very short period of time, however, we get quite a lot of flashbacks, memories, explanations, and feelings.

Extinction of all Children by L. J. Apps | A forgettable plot and cliché tropes!

«Divergent», «The Hunger Games», «The 5th Wave», «Maze Runner» there was this period of time when authors were coming up with surprising dystopian settings. I’m always on the lookout for more interesting books set in the dystopian world, be it current or futuristic.

I was immediately intrigued by the world without children. The world tyrannized by the president that took pregnant women and their new-born babies away. My questions were: What is the reason for such anger? Or is it protectiveness of some sort? What stands behind her reasoning?

Whisperer family were good friends with President Esther a long time ago. Before she became this radical president. And it so happened that Emma, their younger daughter, is the last child in Craigluy. Every baby born after her has been murdered. What makes her special?

Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell | Literary Fiction disguised as a Thriller

I always thought of myself as a fan of any mystery/thriller premise. Any story revolving around crime. Characters trying to figure out what really happened. These were the main elements that sucked me in.

After reading «Then She Was Gone» by Lisa Jewell, I realized that I much prefer novels centered around the  “Who did it” question than “Why it happened”. There is just something so addicting about gathering clues, brainstorming and constantly questioning who the villain is!

Lisa Jewell gave us a different type of thriller – a character-driven mystery, showcasing the flawed people and their motives, instead of a fast-paced page-turner with an unpredictable turn of events.

Steelheart (The Reckoners #1) by Brandon Sanderson | My first Brandon Sanderson book!

2019 has been the year of firsts.

There was the first book haul of 2019, the first disappointment of 2019 and now the first book by Brandon Sanderson. It’s exciting! What else do I get to try in 2019?

I’m not sure if this series was the best one to start with. I also own the first book in the Mistborn trilogy – «The Final Empire», however comparing these two books, Steelheart is much thinner with a bigger font. Seems like an obvious book choice to me! Besides, I love dystopian settings (I’m very excited to read Scythe which is next on my reading list! Technically it’s a Utopia, but still counts).

An Overly Ambitious TBR | January 2019

I shall start this year strong! Hence, I picked a total of 9 (yes, you heard me right – NINE) books to read in January. It’s been a while since I was able to read more than 6 books per month, and my internship started this week. But I believe in myself! And big books don’t scare me at all. (well.. maybe a little bit).

Sadly, many new books released in January won’t arrive in time for me to read them all in January. They will just have to queue for the next month’s TBR.