Welcome to Litsy!

fell behind on doing these monthly, so this bad boi has all the books i finished in july, august, and september '23 📚

five stars for the hazel wood, phantom plague, lavender house, and the romantic agenda, four-ish stars for the rest ✨️

happy spooky season to all who celebrate 👻

I listened to this for bookclub. I‘d been kind of dreading it, because I‘m usually not much of a fan of fairy tale stories. But I actually liked this one 🙂. I‘m not sure really why this worked better for me. Maybe the main character‘s sometimes snarky confidence? Anyway, it was fun.

I've been in a bit of a YA stint since moving a month ago. Began The Hazel Wood last night after finishing The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh (which made me insane. I need the sequels!). Not that far into it but it has my curiosity!

Ventured out for some dumplings and a golden milk latte for lunch today! NC is currently in code Orange for air quality, due to the smoke drifting across the continent from the West Coast and Canada. 😲 My asthma is not happy, so I‘m staying indoors until it passes.

I just couldn't finish it. Alice is a whiny entitled brat with serious anger issues that she uses as an excused to do and say all sorts of stupid sh*t included attempted vehicular manslaughter and sitting silently like a 3 year old does after a tantrum when she doesn't get her way. The story was slow and I just couldn't do it anymore.

Up next is The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert because it's another hold that came in but first, cat snuggles. I was gonna play Destiny 2 but Peregrin had other ideas.

I‘m posting one book per day (catching up today!) from my ever-increasing TBR. No description. No explanation. Just books to read. Join the fun if you want.

Days 93 & 94

#fromthetbrstacks ebook edition

Tonight's snowy audio-walk: The Hazel Wood.

I read this a couple years ago and was really disappointed, but I'm giving it another go because when I read the description I just don't understand what went wrong lol maybe I was in a weird mood.

I‘ve been meaning to read this for awhile but dismissed it as your average YA fairy book. I was so wrong. It may even start out that way but this book is so atmospheric I literally had to turn the lights on once in a while when I was reading before bed. Such a unique premise (that I won‘t go in to because *spoilers*). Can‘t wait to get into the next book.

This was amazing. I can‘t believe I wait this long to read it.

@AkashaVampie This is the book chosen for me by the BookRiot quiz. #Fallbackintoreading

AkashaVampie's post on Litsy https://litsy.com/p/emJEVWZyTmNU

I enjoyed this! I liked the dark elements mixed with fantasy and the alternate universes. The story was nice and twisty. I did feel like the end wrapped up well and it didn‘t feel like the start of a trilogy, but I‘ll read The Night Country with an open mind.

#Screamathon @4thhouseontheleft

A solid 4 star read. Such an intriguing and dark fairytale world. It started out as a pretty average YA book and then took a dark, twisty turn. So glad I also have the second book from the library. I've heard it's even darker, so perfect for October! #screamathon2020

My October picks for #Screamathon2020. I am probably starting The Hazel Wood earlier than October and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get Southern Book Club in time, so it may change a bit. I might add another short story in there and also re-read The Physik Book of Deliverance Dane. @4thhouseontheleft

#BookSpin September This started and ended well but had problems in the middle. I didn't get answers until much later in the book and the main characters remained mostly as they were in the beginning, until an afterthought hint of late MC arc saved the story for me and made me still interested in going on with the series.

⭐️⭐️⭐️/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This book started strongly. Alice and her mother Ella are constantly running from something or someone; Alice‘s grandmother, Althea Proserpine is the author of a legendary book of fairytales. When reality and the fairytale worlds collide the results are dangerous. I felt let down in the latter part of the book, when Alice enters Hinterland, the fairytale kingdom, I could not visualise the surroundings or people.

I feel like I've just emerged from a Dreamland. This amazing tale kept me turning pages from beginning to end, just like any good fairy tale should. I couldn't wait to hear the next part while simultaneously dreading what would happen.

Such end papers! 😻

Book mail!! I will be posting a separate post about Beauty and the Beast it‘s such a beautiful book!!

"...a girl doing nothing in a fairy tale ends up dead or worse, but a girl who makes a decision usually gets rewarded."

❤❤❤

Great modern lit with magic and fairytales, plus dark and spooky horror action. Melissa Albert drew her characters well, and I wasn't deprived of description, like other contemporary work I've read. Just the kind of book I love! I look forward to more...

How to tell when you‘ve left your garden for too long unattended? When your books can disappear into them 😵

Did some gardening today because I could no longer justify putting it off when we‘ve been ordered to stay at home and I‘m running out of things to clean inside

Rating: 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Wish I could rate it 10 stars!!! OMG I loved this book so much!! Alot of Alice in Wonderland feels to it!!

Starting Book 7 of March and Book 32 of 2020!!

I originally picked up this book to see if it would be a good teen book club read for work. I don't think it will be suitable for my middle school students, but I am loving this book! I am devouring it at this moment.

Never knew I loved dark fairytales until now. I think I just found my new favorite author.

Ok here goes my #unpopular opinion. I liked it but didnt love it. The writing was great but there were chunks of the story where I zoned out. I didnt feel like the imagery was there and some parts needed expansion. However, it was a good story with some twists I never saw coming.

Finishing this one tonight!

Then I was falling end over end like Carroll's Alice...

(Alice in Wonderland ref)

...her eyes spun like pinwheels.

Althea laid out her words like a dealer lays out cards, with a distant, mesmeric precision.

Loneliness clung to every surface, thick as dust.

...sounding older than salt.

Gonna read myself to sleep.

Kohl and rouge melted into candy swirls on her cheeks...

You might think its strange, but you get used to those karmic moments in the book business. Books want to be read, and by the right people.

...full of books lying open like butterflies.

A boy whose eyes were the alert, shiny color of sunlight through Coke...

My own nerves were raw as rope...

...her eyes swirled like cirrus clouds.

My voice seesawing like the deck of a ship.

My memories of Iowa are as flat as the state.

Hers was the liquid loveliness that held a secret...

Oh sweet lunchtime why must you end!

Happy Friday!

I really enjoyed this book so I‘m not sure why it was something of a slog to get through towards the end. Maybe because I‘ve been so busy I haven‘t been able to immerse myself fully in the story.

This is the kind of book that I would have LOVED when I was a teen- which is appropriate I suppose. Albert is good at finding the surreal fairytale horror of modern life & also at describing prosaic pleasures & ordinary encounters in fairytale land.

Love this dedication

These endpprs!! 😍😍

Book 19 of 2020
#tbrlist