Burn by Patrick Ness | The most weird dragon book you’ll ever read!

I have a very special relationship with Patrick Ness’s books. They either break my heart in the smallest pieces [«A Monster Calls»] or leave me dumbfounded, wondering what the heck did I just read?! [«The Rest of Us Just Lives Here»]. «Burn» definitely falls more into the second category. While I liked the characters and the story more than in «The Rest of Us Just Lives Here», it was still a very weird book. 

That’s probably why I’ve been staying away from the Chaos Walking trilogy for now. I really want to love it, but I’m scared that it might be too weird for me and I won’t be able to connect to the characters the way I want to.

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.

Most Anticipated Releases | May 2020

Are you excited for May? 🎁🌸 I sure am! It’s my birthday month and I’m planning to buy a bunch of books as a gift for myself. Most likely the quarantine will still be in force and I will be celebrating at home, but I don’t mind it at all as I will be surrounded by the people I love the most ❤

May is often a very good month for new releases, but this year I was only able to find 8 books I’m excited about. Maybe I missed some? Make sure to leave your most anticipated releases of next month in the comments below!

The Fantastical Exploits of Gwendolyn Gray (The Chronicles of Gwendolyn Gray, #2) by B.A. Williamson | Middle Grade books are the answer to the reading slump!

Tell me honestly, do you love reading Middle Grade? I’ve been escaping into these whimsical worlds since March and loving every single experience! No other genre can make me feel so warm and fuzzy inside. So, of course, I had to jump on the chance of reading the sequel in the middle-grade series by B.A. Williamson. 

The first book, «The Marvelous Adventures of Gwendolyn Gray» came out in 2018 and I had a lot of fun trying to come up with adjectives to describe Gwendolyn that would start with the first letters of rainbow colors. I know! I have the craziest ideas sometimes! 😀

Since Gwendolyn lives in a Gray world that has no colors, besides her wonderful red hair, I thought it would be appropriate to bring some color in her life that way.

Most Anticipated Releases | April 2020

I don’t know about you, but sitting at home drastically increased my desire to buy new books. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Somehow I managed to control myself and not buy every single book off every single website, but I feel my control starting to waive. 

April will be one of the best months for bookish releases! Between Mark Lawrence’s new fantasy book, the continuation of Founders trilogy and the final installment in the “Of Blood and Bone” trilogy by John Gwynne, I surely won’t have much time for anything else (except all my other OWLs books… 😀 ).

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? 

Most Anticipated Releases | March 2020

Every month I look forward to making this type of post. Who doesn’t like to get excited about new books?! There are tons of new amazing books coming out in March and I feel like people are mostly excited about the new Sarah J. Maas and Cassandra Clare books.

I said earlier this year that I won’t be picking up any new books by these two authors, because lately I’ve been disappointed by their new releases, even though I loved the Throne of Glass and the Mortal Instruments series.

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! 🙂

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!). 😀

What Kind of Girl by Alyssa B. Sheinmel | The contemporary book that you might be “forced” to like

When I first started blogging, I threw myself into every book I heard about online. It didn’t matter if it was mentioned on youtube or on one of the blogs I followed, as long as the book was “hyped enough” I had to get my hands on it. 

This led to me reading a lot of YA contemporary novels that I wasn’t a big fan of.Lately, I try to avoid YA contemporaries as Adult Fiction tends to be so much more interesting and more relatable in a way as well, as I’m sloooowly approaching my 30s (did I just say this out loud?!)

Most Anticipated Releases | February 2020

This is one of my favorite posts to prepare every month! It helps me discover new books that maybe weren’t on my radar yet, and it also allows me to share my excitement for all new books with you, guys!

February will be the “thriller” month – from new Mary Kubica book (who doesn’t love Mary Kubica?!) to some amazing debuts that sound incredible – I just hope that I’ll be able to purchase / get most of these and read this year.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott | The sweetest, most heartwarming book I’ve ever read!

I never thought that I would fall head over heels for the March sisters! Just a couple of chapters made me care deeply for Meg, Joe, Bess, and Amy, and I wished to be their friend, to see them grow up and set foot into adulthood! 

«Little Women» is a perfect book to read during childhood and early teens. And I’m actually sad for not reading it sooner. It is slightly “childish” in terms that the author feels the need to explain all the lessons to her audience, the hints and the acts would have been enough for me, but I do understand why the younger audience might need less subtle explanations.

Ashlords by Scott Reintgen | The most epic phoenix horse racing!

If you haven’t read the Nyxia trilogy by Scott Reintgen, what are you doing with your life?! Scott Reintgen’s work deserves so much more attention than its getting, and I won’t get tired to spread the word about his amazing skills to write the most exciting YA Sci-Fi and Fantasy competitions!

Everyone who loves the Hunger Games, Divergent or The Maze Runner, YOU NEED TO READ THE NYXIA TRILOGY. And after you are hooked, just as I am, immediately pick the first book in his new YA duology – «Ashlords»!

Caraval (Caraval #1) by Stephanie Garber | Surprisingly, it’s not a bad book!

«Caraval» will definitely be on my list of most surprising books of 2020! I don’t go into my books hoping to hate them, of course. But I always stayed away from «Caraval» thinking that it wouldn’t be for me or it would be filled with cliche YA tropes that would ruin my enjoyment of the book. And generally, circuses and carnivals, and performances are not something I seek in my books. 

But here I am, two days after finishing «Caraval», questioning myself if I loved it enough to continue reading this trilogy.