OTP Book Tag

I saw this over on Books for Thought  (go check her out!) and thought it looked fun. OTP, for those that don’t know = One True Pair.

1. An a unpopular OTP that you ship

Clary & Simon from The Mortal Instruments series. I felt bad for Simon that Clary led him on for so long. At the end of the day, though, I think Simon is too good for Clary, so I guess I don’t ship it all that much. But I couldn’t think of anything else.

2. An OTP that you didn’t ship but now you do

Warner and Juliette from the Shatter Me series. The first book was obviously Adam Forever, but book two totally changed that.

3. Your most hated OTP

Hayley and Bryce from Blackmail Boyfriend. Hayley is a complete psycho and needs therapy, not a boyfriend.

4. An OTP that took way too long to get together

Jennifer and Anthony from The Last Letter from your Lover. It took decades.

5. Your favourite non-canon OTP

  

Cricket and Anna from the Anna and the French Kiss series. Cricket is my favorite and he deserves much better than Lola. And while I do like Anna and St. Claire together (once he finally dumped his girlfriend), I always thought she and Cricket would work.

6. Your favourite BROTP

The Raven Boys, hands down.

7. An OTP you adored in the books but not as much in the movies or tv adaptation

Sookie and Eric from the Sookie Stackhouse Series/True Blood. They were a major thing for many of the books, but barely a thing in the show (though I never saw the last two or three seasons of the show).

8. A popular OTP that no matter how hard you tried you just can’t ship it

Cole and Ali from The White Rabbit Chronicles. I just can’t even. I’m on the third book right now and every part I read that’s about their relationship makes me want to throw my Nook. I don’t think I’m going to be able to finish this series (so if anyone wants to give me a spoiler on how it all ends, I’m all ears!)

9. Your favourite LGBT + OTP

Simon and Baz from Carry On.

10. Your all time favourite OTP

Kami and Jared from The Lynbun Legacy series

Cinder and Kai from The Lunar Chronicles

I tag anyone who would like to participate.

2015 End of Year Book Survey

This survey is created by The Perpetual Page-Turner.

Number Of Books You Read: 123 (as of 12/27/15 – this will probably go up a book or two by year end)
Number of Re-Reads: 24 (not counted in the above answer)
Genre You Read The Most From: YA

 

1. Best Book You Read In 2015?

I don’t think I can pick one book, but I have narrowed it down to my three favorite (which were also the ones I got for Christmas):

1. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
2. Black-Eyed Susans by Julia Heaberlin
3. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (This book will be referenced a lot from here on out, BTW)

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway, Pretending to be Erica by Michelle Painchaud, and The Magician’s Lie by Greer Macallister

 3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read?  

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh – in a Good way!

 4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did)?

The Fill-in Boyfriend by Kasie West. I’ve had a few different people tell me they read it because I kept talking about it.

 5. Best series you started in 2015? Best Sequel of 2015? Best Series Ender of 2015?

Started – Six of Crows (Six of Crows) by Leigh Bardugo

Sequel – First Frost (Waverly Family) by Sarah Addison Allen

Ender – Winter (The Lunar Chronicles) by Marissa Meyer

 6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2015?

Allison Leotta – The Anna Curtis series

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell – I don’t read a lot of books that have LGBT romance.

 8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

Six of Crows!

 9. Book You Read In 2015 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?

Big Little Lies

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2015?

The book only got 2 stars from me, but I adore the cover of A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray.

11. Most memorable character of 2015?

Kaz Brekker from Six of Crows. He’s everything.

 12. Most beautifully written book read in 2015?

First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen

13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2015?

This year I read for pure enjoyment purposes. I can’t say I read anything that was life-changing.

 14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2015 to finally read? 

Missing You by Harlan Coben. Not necessarily that book, but the author. I have never read him before and I know I’ll definitely be reading more of him.

 15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2015?

I don’t keep track of quotes. It’s not my thing.

16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2015?

Shortest – Ten Rules for a Call Girl by Allison Leotta

Longest – Winter by Marissa Meyer

 17. Book That Shocked You The Most

You know, there were several books that had some small twists or surprises, but there is not anything that stands out to me as being really shocking.

18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!)

(OTP = one true pairing if you aren’t familiar)

Cinder & Kai from Winter

Kaz & Inej from Six of Crows

19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year

The Six of Crows gang as a whole, Cinder & Thorne

20. Favorite Book You Read in 2015 From An Author You’ve Read Previously

Six of Crows – previously read The Grisha series by Leigh Bardugo

21. Best Book You Read In 2015 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure:

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas – because ALL THE HYPE

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2015?

Kaz Brekker. Obviously.

23. Best 2015 debut you read?

Unbecoming by Rebecca Scherm

24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?

The Wrath and the Dawn

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?

The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord

26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2015?

While it definitely wasn’t the sob fest that was Me Before You, After You by Jojo Moyes had me a little teary at the beginning.

27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?

Aimee and the Heartthrob by Ophelia London was pretty cute.

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

I didn’t read a lot of heavy hitting reads this year. I’m not actually upset by this.

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2015?

You by Caroline Kepnes. This book was just Messed Up.

30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?

Vendetta by Catherine Doyle because it was RIDICULOUS!

1. New favorite book blog you discovered in 2015?

I’m not entirely sure if it was this year or last year, but I’m pretty sure it was this year that I discovered Brandie is a Book Junkie. We don’t share the same tastes in everything, but we both love Suspense novels and if she gives a Suspense a favorable rating, it’s automatically going on my TBR. She is also the reason I read my first Harlan Coben book this year. And we also figured out that we live in the same county, which is pretty cool!

2. Favorite review that you wrote in 2015?

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

3. Best discussion/non-review post you had on your blog?

If My Life were Like Chick Lit…The Wedding Date and All the Ways in which I am not a Proper Book Nerd/Blogger.

4. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, memes, etc.)?

I went to a book signing/talk by Linda Castillo (of the Kate Burkholder series).

5. Best moment of bookish/blogging life in 2015?

I had my first publisher provided giveaway – for a copy of Black-Eyed Susans.

6. Most challenging thing about blogging or your reading life this year?

I’ve had several book slumps throughout the year and that bled over into not having anything to post on the blog. I’ve also had lots of Low-Blog-Self-Esteem moments where I kind of hate everything about my blog/blogging.

7. Most Popular Post This Year On Your Blog (whether it be by comments or views)?

My review of The Ice Twins by S.K. Tremayne has the most views of the year. I don’t have any idea how to search by comments or likes.

8. Post You Wished Got A Little More Love?

I don’t really know. I wish every post got more likes/comments/views. But what can you do?

9. Best bookish discovery (book related sites, book stores, etc.)?

Many new blogs

10.  Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year?

For the Good Reads Reading Challenge I wanted to read 115 books and I surpassed it.

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2015 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2016?

Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone. I bought it when it was on sale, but haven’t read it yet. It’s first up after I get some library books and ARCs out of the way.

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2016 (non-debut)?

The Raven King!!!! How many times has this been pushed back?!?

3. 2016 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?

I can’t think of anything at the moment. I’m not super attuned to those yet, I guess.

 4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2016?

The Raven King, obviously, and Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows #2)

5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2016?

Request less ARCs unless it’s a book that I know I REALLY want to read. I hate DNF-ing ARCs, but I also hate forcing myself to finish books I don’t like and then try to write coherent reviews about them.

6. A 2016 Release You’ve Already Read & Recommend To Everyone:

So far I’ve only read one and a half 2016 books and I wouldn’t necessarily recommend them to everyone.

 

Review: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Synopsis from Good Reads:

Simon Snow is the worst chosen one who’s ever been chosen.

That’s what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he’s probably right.

Half the time, Simon can’t even make his wand work, and the other half, he sets something on fire. His mentor’s avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there’s a magic-eating monster running around wearing Simon’s face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here—it’s their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon’s infuriating nemesis didn’t even bother to show up.

Carry On is a ghost story, a love story, a mystery and a melodrama. It has just as much kissing and talking as you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell story—but far, far more monsters.

I am almost physically unable to type this about a Rainbow Rowell book, but I had a lot of doubts about Carry On. And while Rowell – obviously – put me to shame on most of them, I can’t say that I loved this one.

Doubt:

The Simon and Baz parts of Fangirl were my least favorite parts. Pretty much every time I’ve re-read Fangirl I skipped right on over those parts. While fanfiction and the fictional books were a HUGE part of Fangirl, I thought it completely unnecessary that there were so many excerpts of her fanfiction. I just didn’t care about Simon and Baz. I wasn’t sure I wanted a whole book of them.

Reality:

It did take me a bit to get into the story and the characters, but I eventually got to the point where I couldn’t put it down. I felt the set-up took a little too long to get to the actual story. One thing I’ve read in a lot of reviews is that a lot of people didn’t like that there were bits of information thrown at you about things that happened prior to the events of this book, like you’ve missed out on all these things. However, I kind of liked the style. It reminded me a lot of an episode of Community where it involved all these flashbacks, but the flashbacks weren’t from previous episodes – it was like the characters have lives outside of the episodes we see them in and I like it.

Doubt:

I’m just going to say it (and please don’t hate) – The Romance. Generally gay romance in books aren’t my thing. I don’t have a problem with them (which I also hate saying – like the straight white girl is fine with it, you all can read it now), but I don’t go out of my way to be all diverse about it. I’m straight, I like reading about straight romance. Just like I imagine someone who is part of the LGBTQIA community enjoys reading romance they identify with more than they enjoy a straight romance.

Reality:

What Rainbow Rowell does best is bringing the cute romance and she always delivers – gay or straight. I did not really enjoy this book at all until Baz shows up. Simon is better when Baz is around (and not just because when Baz was missing Simon incessantly whined about it) and I enjoyed every page where they’re interacting. Their Enemies to Temporary Allies to Romantic Partners relationship was so fun to watch unfold and I ship it.

So now that the doubts are out of the way, let’s get on with the rest of it. I really liked that it’s told in Multiple 1st Person POV – my favorite style. I didn’t think the voices were super-distinctive, but I rarely got confused about who I was reading about.

If this book wasn’t by Rowell I wouldn’t have picked it up, just because of all the comparisons to Harry Potter. I’ve never read Harry Potter (yes, I know) and honestly I probably never will. I read a lot of paranormal, but I’m not a huge fan of full out fantasy. So when I step back from the characters and look at the overall plot, I’m kind of underwhelmed. I thought a lot of it was predictable, honestly. I cared about Simon. I cared about Baz. I even cared about Penny. But the rest of it…eh.

Overall, I did enjoy Carry On, but I didn’t love it like I do most Rowell books. While the first 30% or so I was almost ready to DNF, it really picked up once Baz shows up and I did really enjoy reading about the characters and the relationships from that point on. This is a good example of a book that’s generally out of my comfort zone and I’m glad that I read it.

Overall Rating (out of 5): 3.5 Stars

Top Ten Tuesday: Books On My Fall TBR

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by the Broke and the Bookish, is: Top Ten Books On My Fall TBR.

1. Beastly Bones (Jackaby #2) by William Ritter. Published September 22.

2. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. Published September 29.

3. Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter. Published September 29.

4. Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, and Deborah Biancotti. Published September 29.

5. A Madness so Discreet by Mindy McGinnis. Published October 6.

6. Carry On by Rainbow Rowell. Published October 6.

7. These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly. Published October 27.

8. Winter (The Lunar Chronicles #4) by Marissa Meyer. Published November 10.

9. Oblivion (Lux 1.5) by Jennifer Armentrout. Published December 1.

10. Backstage (Boy Band #2) by Jacqueline E. Smith. Published December 8.

What books are you looking forward to this fall? Are you looking forward to any of the above?