Snowflakes and Spider Silk

This is a meme hosted by Rinn Reads where anyone can join in and talk about anything Fantasy! This week, I'm talking about book covers. I love how fantasy book covers usually have painted/illustrated covers instead of photographs. I'm usually put-off by book covers that feature people's faces, because I like to imagine my characters. That's another reason I love fantasy book covers - they usually feature silhouettes or landscapes, which helps me imagine the world even better without being too imposing. One of my favorite book covers are the ones from the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series. I love the US Daughter of Smoke and Bone book covers, but I like the elegance of the UK editions. They both fit the story in different ways - the US covers capture the raw emotion and intensity, while the UK covers hint at the elegant beauty of the prose. I really love the cover of The Way of Kings. It's so beautifully drawn, and I love the suggestion of possibilit...

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish . This week's theme: Free for all! I've decided to do Top Ten Unexpectedly Enjoyable books. These are books that aren't in the genre I usually read, or books that I wasn't expecting much from but blew me away. They're books that I was prejudiced against (ahem paranormal romance ahem hem) but ended up liking anyway. So here's to giving books a fair chance! I'd heard good things about Mira Grant's Newsflesh trilogy, but I'd never read anything by her. I didn't have any expectations going into this, but I loved it! I really enjoyed the characters and the technology, as well as the sticky ethical questions and conspiracies. The ending was predictable, but this book was a lot more enjoyable than I was expecting. Click on the cover to see my full review~  The cover of this book would usually have me running the ot...

Title:  Half a King Author:  Joe Abercrombie Genre: Fantasy My rating: 4 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary : Prince Yarvi has vowed to regain a throne he never wanted. But first he must survive cruelty, chains, and the bitter waters of the Shattered Sea. And he must do it all with only one good hand. The deceived will become the deceiver. Born a weakling in the eyes of his father, Yarvi is alone in a world where a strong arm and a cold heart rule. He cannot grip a shield or swing an axe, so he must sharpen his mind to a deadly edge. The betrayed will become the betrayer. Gathering a strange fellowship of the outcast and the lost, he finds they can do more to help him become the man he needs to be than any court of nobles could. Will the usurped become the usurper? But even with loyal friends at his side, Yarvi finds his path may end as it began—in twists, and traps, and tragedy. I'd never read anything by Joe Abercrombie, but I had heard lots of good things a...

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish . This week's theme: Best Bookish Friendships I'm so excited for this week's theme - there are so many books where the characters have such incredible friendships and it makes me so happy that my favorite characters will always have someone to watch their back. Friendships are one of the greatest things in life, and bookish friendships are often what makes me love a book or its characters. (Please excuse the lack of pictures - I've had an incredibly busy week and I slapped this together last minute) Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch Ptolemy's Gate by Jonathan Stroud Daughter of Smoke and bone by Laini Taylor Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta More Than This by Patrick Ness Bruiser by Neal Shusterman Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers

Title:  The Republic of Thieves Author:  Scott Lynch Genre: Fantasy, adult fiction My rating: 4 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary (MILD SPOILERS FOR BOOK 2): With what should have been the greatest heist of their career gone spectacularly sour, Locke and his trusted partner, Jean, have barely escaped with their lives. Or at least Jean has. But Locke is slowly succumbing to a deadly poison that no alchemist or physiker can cure. Yet just as the end is near, a mysterious Bondsmage offers Locke an opportunity that will either save him or finish him off once and for all. Magi political elections are imminent, and the factions are in need of a pawn. If Locke agrees to play the role, sorcery will be used to purge the venom from his body - though the process will be so excruciating he may well wish for death. Locke is opposed, but two factors cause his will to crumble: Jean's imploring - and the Bondsmage's mention of a woman from Locke's past: Sabetha. She is the love of his...

Have you ever read anything by Brandon Sanderson? If you have, you know that his books are always brilliantly realized, with incredible worlds, complex and multi-faceted characters, incredible magic systems, intricate plotting, and a lot of fun . And if you haven't, you're in for a real treat. Either way, you should join in this readalong! We'll be reading the first book of Sanderson's Stormlight Archive, The Way of Kings  starting June 22. It's quite a large book, so I'm aiming to split it up into about 200 pages a week. The tentative schedule is below: June 22: Read through Ch12 (201) June 29: Read through Ch28 (405) July 6: Read through Ch42 (600) July 13: Read through Ch57 (810) July 20: Finish book (1002) July 27: Final thoughts If epic fantasy intimidates you, don't be overwhelmed by the size of this book! Sanderson is the guy that got me back into fantasy after years of putting it to the side because I got t...

This week's theme:   Ten Books I Almost Put Down But Didn't 1)    - This is going to be a controversial one, because I know a lot of people that love this series. There was a lot that bugged me about this book (mostly logical inconsistencies and writing style), and you can read my rant review here . 2)   - I knew this book would be strange, but I wasn't prepared for how strange it was. I got bored in the middle and almost stopped reading, but kept hoping for things to pick up. They did, I suppose, but the ending was so strange it just put me off the whole book. 3) I loved Lauren Oliver's writing in Delirium, so I picked this up. At some point in the middle, I got a little tired of the stereotypical mean girl trying to redo her last day seven whole times and continue to be a stereotypical mean girl through it all. I kept waiting for her to grow and change, but nope.  Full rant here . 4) I enjoyed the first book in this ...

Title:  The Falling Woman Author:  Pat Murphy Genre: (science fiction), magical realism, historical fiction My rating: 3 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: Winner of the Nebula Award: An archaeologist with a strange power risks death to unlock the secret of the Mayans When night falls over the Yucatan, the archaeologists lay down their tools. But while her colleagues relax, Elizabeth Butler searches for shadows. A famous scientist with a reputation for eccentricity, she carries a strange secret. Where others see nothing but dirt and bones and fragments of pottery, Elizabeth sees shades of the men and women who walked this ground thousands of years before. She can speak to the past—and the past is beginning to speak back. As Elizabeth communes with ghosts, the daughter she abandoned flies to Mexico hoping for a reunion. She finds a mother embroiled in the supernatural, on a quest for the true reason for the Mayans’ disappearance. To dig up the truth, the archaeologist who...

First of all, thank you to everyone who stopped by for my blogversary - now I have plenty of great recommendations and two lucky winners for my giveaway! Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction  won a copy of Mistborn: Fall of an Empire  and Dre @ Sporadic Reads won a $10 Amazon Giftcard! Congratulations to both of you :) Now that I'm in my second year of blogging, I was thinking of doing a read-along. Anyone interested in a read-along of Brandon Sanderson's Way of Kings? I was thinking of doing a summer month (June or July) so that people would have time to read it in a month - this is a pretty large book! Or if you have any suggestions for a book you've been meaning to read and would like to discuss/do a read-along, let me know! I'd prefer fantasy/sci-fi suggestions :)