It dawned on me, while rethinking the direction of my blog, to do the blog equivalent of the BookTube wrap up, creating one video (post) in which I review my recent reads. Of course, I'll still review certain books individually, like I did this one (link!) and this one (link!). However, I like the idea of talking about them all in one go. Such posts, dubbed "A Girl Who Reads", will be frequent but not monthly or any other specific span of time. Just once I've read a few, I'll compile what I thought into a single post.
My True Love Gave To Me by Stephanie Perkins et. al.
A collection of holiday-themed short stories that was definitely worth the read. There were stories that I pushed through a bit and other's a flew through but hey, I feel like that's expected with various authors. Regardless, I solidified my love for some authors and got introduced to some new ones. MTLGTM was the book club book of the month for December so check out the FULL REVIEW here!City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare
The perfect ending to The Mortal Instruments Series. I can't say I was nervous about it - I'm not usually nervous about final books in series and Clare's final Infernal Devices book was perfection so there was trust - yet still, it did not disappoint. Everything concluded really well. Clare gave each character the ending that was true to their character and just when I thought it was over, she had a few more twists up her sleeve. I was also damn near tears seeing some Infernal Devices characters again - the feels!I ordered this book off BookOutlet but couldn't control myself so I read it on my iPhone. Legit read it on my phone in the bed in like 3 days. A 700+ page book. Now that I have it, I'm probably gonna read it again because I breezed through it so fast I feel like I need to.
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
GAAHHH! This was technically my first read in 2015 (I was basically done My True Love Gave To Me by the 1st), and purposely so. I always hit a reading slump of sorts towards the end of the year, and I picked up the tip of rereading a favorite at the start of each year from Ariel Bissett. Of course, Fangirl didn't disappoint in the slightest. I loved it even more the second time around! Rainbow's characters are just so full and hopeful and real and magnificent. And her writing is so straightforward and relatable. I don't know what I'm saying. I need to do a full review on this eventually. Gaaahhh!Burn for Burn by Jenny Han & Sioban Vivian
Burn for Burn was a fun read. That's the best way I know to describe it. The story centers on the lives of three high school friends, each burned (get it?) by someone somehow and each looking for revenge. It's like Gossip Girl meets Revenge, except truly not as good as either, honestly. But that doesn't mean I didn't like this novel, I just love me some GG :) I have the sequel Fire with Fire on my actual shelf and the final book, Ashes to Ashes, on my metaphorical shelf and I plan to get to them both.Four: A Collection by Veronica Roth
I purchased this book not even a week after it released back in July 2014 and it's just been sitting on my shelf. Maybe it was the other books I was excited to read or the fact that Allegiant threw me into a reading slump (oh hey, Allegiant!), but I wasn't jumping at the chance to read it.Four is a collection of short stories from Four's point of view. Aside from the final book, we don't get to see inside Four's head and then even Allegiant, we aren't really seeing the faction world through his thoughts. Although I can't say that I absolutely loved this book, I am glad Roth wrote it. I remember not really liking Four's POV in Allegiant because I couldn't get a clear grasp on his voice; it all sounded like Tris to me. I think that without the distraction of jumping into Tris' head every other chapter, Roth does a wayyy better job of giving us Four's story in a voice that feels unique. There were definitely times when that voice annoyed me, but still. My only criticism would be the lack of Four's POV from the series. Roth delves into Four's life before Divergent and what drove him to make the choices he made, which I liked seeing, but I also really wanted to see the relationship unfold more in his eyes and how he perceived the big moments of Divergent and Insurgent.
Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover
Ugly Love is the book club book of the month for February, so mums the word. The only thing I'll say is that I didn't hate it. Full review coming soon! (March 3rd to be exact.) And I hope you're reading it along with us!
Fairest by Marissa Meyer
OMG. The only way I know how to describe this novel (novella?) is to say that it's kinda 'trippy'. At least once per scene I found myself thinking "no fucking way" or "Is this real life?", which of course it's not. But still, sometimes I just couldn't believe that the character/the author went there. It wasn't a bad thing that she did, just surprising. This is the story of Queen Levana, the villain in all the Lunar Chronicles books, explaining how she came to be who she is. Teeny tiny spoiler: Meyer doesn't completely redeem Levana in Fairest by finding a way to rationalize her later villain-ness. Reasons are given and as a reader, you can see the things that made Levana who she is, but Meyer doesn't make excuses. It doesn't make it okay, but it kinda makes it better. I like that.I'm currently reading The Assassin's Blade by Sara J. Maas. I've only got about 75 of the 300+ pages left and I already know what happens at the end, so I could include it here. But on technicality, I'll save it. That makes it seven books (almost 8!) that I read since the beginning of the year. At this rate, I'll hit my Goodreads goal, a thought that excites me more than it probably should. On the other hand, I do realize that every single one of these books is a YA novel. I should really start branching out. We'll see next wrap-up.
What have you read recently? I'm totally open for suggestions because you know, I could always use more books. (Not true. I have zero space for more books, but, you know, so what? Literature, yo!)
