Welcome to Litsy!

Hail the bail 🤷🏼‍♀️ I could not get into this book!

#SchoolSpirit @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @eggs
#BoardingSchool

i picked this book up because a friend recommended it, and she loved this book. but unfortunately, the writing style isn‘t for me and I could barely get past the first few pages. so far it‘s just been a bunch of info-dumping and rambling from the main character. ill really attempt to continue reading it, but for now, im dnf this book because i highly doubt I‘ll be able to push any further. the story idea is great, but the execution just isn‘t it

While it took me a while to get into the story and the world, it turned out to be quite a nice book. The magic system and the school are still beyond vague and weird, but it worked well in the story. I liked the MC, but didn't like her relation to others. I hope the sequels dive more into her powers.
Side note- I was pleasantly surprised by the occasional second person writing style!
(audiobook)

I loved this book, I really related to the MC and throughly enjoyed the authors take on a Magic School.
El must try to navigate a school filled with monsters and monstrous teens as she denied her destiny and tries to be a good person. Relationships form, alliances are made, and lots of monsters are killed.
5/5 read for a first person narrative of a deadly school where magic is both burden and power

Not pictured: the three exceedingly kind women I approached after a cricket jumped at me and scared me into spilling some of my latte, one of whom killed the cricket like a badass.
"I'm so sorry to interrupt y'all, do any of you happen to be chill about crickets? I'm very afraid of them and one is by me. I know this is a wild thing to ask a room full of strangers."
Meanwhile Galadriel is fighting giant, magical, deadly beasts on the regular. ?

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Omg I loved this so much! I loved the character development, the friendships, and the magic! This was so much fun! There is a ton of info dumps about the magical systems and monsters and different type of magic users in the first couple chapters, but once you get through that and wrap your mind around everything, it is so good! I loved the MC and how witty and sarcastic she is but also really does have a good heart. 5/5

A lil book haul from yesterday 😝🥰

This was a low pick for me. I love a dark academia story but found this world almost too confusing. Our FMC is very snarky which I loved and enjoyed her storyline of learning to trust others and learn more about her own abilities. The setting was just weird and took away from the story instead of adding to it I think. I will maybe read the next book in the series just to see where it goes. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ #serieslove2024

I read this one when it first came out a few years ago and really enjoyed it. Now that the entire trilogy has been published, I've been meaning to get to them, so I chose Novik as my January #BacklistReadathon author. I stick with my original feelings about this one: If, like me, you actually kind of enjoy info-dump-y, snarky narrators, you'll probably enjoy this. There IS some action, but it's sandwiched between large sections of El explaining ⬇

On to this one now. Late to the party. Hopefully it‘ll be good. #fantasy #readingreadingreading #grchallenge plus a potted fig tree

More great fan art with these two. 😂 I loved their relationship and banter.

If you can get past the massive info-dumping for the first 20-30% of this book, you‘ll find a fun dark academia novel with really unique world-building and magic system. I imagine The Scholomance like the school in Legacies, monsters included haha. The main characters El and Orion give major Meg/Hercules vibes which I absolutely ate up. If you don‘t like stories with lots of inner monologue and slower pacing, you might not enjoy this one. 3.75/5

#whimsicalreads
*November Book Club Pick*

@Linsy @ShelleyBooksie @gracielee8 @SamAnne @MrsRoberts96 @joolz_92 @RedxoHearts @Clwojick @Read4life @wanderinglynn @Allylu @AbigailJaneBlog @persephone1408 @KristiAhlers @GirlNamedJesse @BooksNBowls @Liatrek @PageShifter @ozma.of.oz @BrittanyReads @tokorowilliamwallace @BookBelle84 @Catsandbooks
Has anyone started this one yet?! If so, how are you liking it?!

Starting this :')

#whimsicalreads

It was a rainy fall day all I did was read, crochet, do laundry, play video games, and meal prep for the week. This was the second book I read today. It was fun, I will have to see how the following book is.

My first Naomi Novak novel. In the Scholomance, survival is the only way to graduate and in a school trying to kill everyone, El is the scariest thing in it. When Orion, the school hero saves her life, 1,2,3…times (who‘s really counting?), El needs to figure out how not to kill him in retribution. It would look bad, especially if they are dating. A Deadly Education cast a weird wonderful spell on me. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#BookBinge

I really like #DarkAcademia but I seem to buy a lot of it & not get it read.🤷🏻‍♀️ These 11 books are mostly loaded on my Kindle with a few in my physical #TBR stacks.

Hoping to get to the tagged book & Babel soon but are there others here that I should bump up the TBR line for my fall reading plans? 🍂

I went into this with low expectations as I've tried many Novik novels and never care for her style. This one did keep me entertained, I enjoyed the school and all of the evil creatures, even if she didn't entirely explain the world. The whole novel is written in a telling rather than showing style internal dialogue, which does make some of it tedious. I'm curious enough to pick up the next book.

I was not expecting to enjoy this as much as I did. It is dark, but absolutely gripping. El is such a reluctant hero it‘s hard not to love her and root for her.
Naomi Novik is now firmly one of my favourite authors.

Happy Tuesday everyone! Here are the #Two4Tuesday questions. Everyone is welcome to play!

My answers:
📘 School started yesterday for most. Not sure when Clamson classes start. I do know the athletes involved in fall sports are already on campus.
📘📘 Tagged.

Want to play? @Eggs @dabbe @Read4life @Gissy @ozma.of.oz @AmandaBlaze @Cupcake12 @Kshakal @OriginalCyn620 @JenReadsAlot @Vansa @BookwormAHN

Unpopular opinion: I found this incredibly boring.

There was just A LOT of internal dialogue and info dumping about the world. I kept reading/listening in hopes something would happened but it just dragged.

Oops, I meant to post this a while ago! My April #bookspinbingo board. No bingo of course but I MIGHT be able to manage one in May?! 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

I really enjoyed this, a YA that does without the teen angst and concentrates on action and character. The school the kids are tossed into is indeed deadly, although being outside it is even worse. It's all about survival.

No surprise, I loved this! El is a great narrator due to her inner conflicts and the amusing dichotomy of her ability to read rich subtext into anything about the school while entirely missing more interpersonal stuff. The setting is a great deal of bloody, exciting fun. Though I really don‘t know how anyone learns anything at this school! Glad I was able to get the sequel right away.

My April #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

Woof, what a powerhouse of a book! Somehow covering only a couple of weeks of actual time, there‘s an unbelievable amount packed into a small space. I loved how the world building unfolded with the story, and the narrative MC may not be MEANT to be particularly likeable, but IS — determined and feisty and sympathetic. The magic is splendid and the plot is zero to one hundred. Definitely going for books 2.

Galadriel is an outcast at the wizarding high school, Scholomance…despite having incredible magic powers. How does she navigate a school that actively tries to kill their students, her social life, and the golden boy, Orion Lake, who has suddenly taken an interest in her? A great fantasy debut!

I have read quite a bit in March and not really talked about any of it…so it's time for a review catch-up! This book was a reread - one of my favorite series at the moment. The pacing, the character work, the plot development, it all really works for me.

While this read has amazing world-building, the stand-out bit for me was how our isolated narrator finds and deepens connections. I love a character arc focused on community.

I don‘t know how to start something new after Piranesi, which I think I‘ll be getting over for a while, but when I do, it will be this. TBR diving ftw!

I remember this one receiving such flack. I'm going to love it anyway. It has the best first line that pulled me in from the very start: "I decided that Orion Lake needed to die after the second time he saved my life." It has everything you'd want from a story set in a magical school, deadly magical creatures, enemies and allies, and a snarky but likable protagonist. I'll definitely read the whole trilogy, an anomaly for me.

I forget where I am in the pattern, how many stitches I've done, which kind of stitch I'm on, what I'm trying to make, why I haven't stabbed out my own eyes with the hook yet. It's brilliant for building a truly frothing head of rage.
🤣🤣🤣

She says it's too easy to call people evil instead of their choices and that lets people justify making evil choices. Because they convince themselves that it's okay because they're still good people overall inside their own heads. And yes, fine. But I think that after a certain number of evil choices, it's reasonable shorthand to decide that someone's an evil person who oughtn't have the chance to make any more choices...

Well this was a fun one! Had a bit of trouble grasping the world it is set in for the first chapter or two but by the end I had a very clear picture of what was going on. I liked the character development within the book and am excited to see where the story goes with the subsequent novels.

Thanks so much @monalyisha for organising and @Larkken for the reading list! I love this idea and will be continuing reading throughout the year! I'm currently reading the tagged book on kindle, and bought the top 4 this month :-) I didn't have a great reading month, so just ended up re-reading (and buying as my previous read of it was via audiobook) Bunny which I love! Thank you again #auldlangspine

Well, that was fun.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

#NaomiNovik #Fantasy #TheScholomance

The #Jolabokaflod package is here 🎉. Thank you so much @galueth28 for the lovely book (what a beautiful cover!) and the chocolate. I love KitKat. And many thanks to @MaleficentBookDragon for organizing this #Christmas book swap.

#HappyReading #holidays #catsoflitsy

January #Bookspin #Doublespin @TheAromaofBooks

Oooh, I‘m so so excited this is being adapted! It‘s probably my favorite fantasy series of the last few years. I hope it actually happens and that they do it justice!

https://deadline.com/2022/11/meera-menon-to-helm-a-deadly-education-film-for-uni...

I just couldn't get into this one. It felt like we're thrown into a very weird world and the narrator is too aloof to actually explain it. People compare it to HP, but it is more like Holden goes to a magical school that kills its students.

✈️Layover Meal : breakfast tacos and tagged book (safely out of sight to keep it clean)

Reread via Libro.fm audiobook! With the third and final volume of The Scholomance Trilogy coming out this month, I had to revisit one of my favorite series! Through Anisha Dadia‘s pitch-perfectly sarcastic narration, I was just as hooked as I was the first time. The prickly, heart-of-gold reluctant heroine, the exciting magic system, and the adorable, funny, delicious slow burn romance got me all over again!

I loved this book so much and I can‘t wait to read the next of this series. I would definitely recommend this to someone who wants magic in their life. Novik made a fantastic setting and I really love how much work she put into the school.

Finally got to try out the Libby app. Although I still prefer physical books, I‘m getting used to and appreciating kindle reads more. Anywayyyy, I didn‘t know what to expect from this book, it was just recommended. It did not disappoint and the cliffhanger at the end had me diving into the sequel. Enjoying the characters and their development alongside the creative, fantastical and magical world that Novik draws you into.

📩 February 5th, 2022
I already knew some of the work of Naomi Novik, and this book is FRESH! It's really the hint of realism and darkness that the Harry Potter series lacked for me.
I will continue reading the saga :)