2019 Five Star Prediction

Hello all!

I’m finally posting my 5 Star Prediction for 2019. If you don’t know what this is, basically you take books in your TBR pile and list the ones that you think are going to be a five star read, once you’ve read them check back and see if your predictions are right.

Last year I saw this being done by a few booktubers that I follow and I thought it’s cool concept. Therefore, this year I want to do it again. Last year I wasn’t able to read all of the five books I listed, and none of them were a five star read for me. This year, I want to be able to finish all of the books in the list and hopefully get at least one prediction right.

I’m sticking to five books, similar to last year, because I think this is an easy enough goal for me to maintain. Anyways, lets get on with the list. I won’t go into details on any of the books I’m going to list, because I’m really trying to limit my knowledge of the book. I’m also picking mainstream books/hyped books from previous years, so I at least know that someone out there has given it a 5. Also, I’m sticking to first books in order for me to review each book a lot more thoroughly at the end of the year. Oh, and yes, I’m going to be giving myself until the end of 2019 to finish these 5 books. If for some miraculous way I end up reading all 5 books by the end of June then I will try to pick another 5 books to predict for the other half of the year.

I realize that my predictions are mostly fantasy novels, but I do tend to give 5 stars more on fantasy novels, expecially those that include a lot of fantastical and adventurous elements in their novels.

I’m super excited about this years predictions because these are some of the most highly recommended novels out there. These are also five of the top read books within their release year. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that, if not all five, at least one of these will be a five star.

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TBR Challenge 2019: Short Shorts

A Tyranny of Petticoats Edited by Jessica Spotswood

RATING: 4.5/5

THEME: Short Short – Read a Short story

WHY? I’m not the type of person who looks out for short stories to include in my TBR. So for three years now I’ve been struggling to find books that I would enjoy for this specific category for this challenge. I saw this particular book from one of the Booktuber’s I follow and decided to give it a try.

REVIEW: I really enjoyed this book. I rarely recommend short story novels, but I believe my first read of the year will be in my Top Reads of 2019 by the end of this year. I loved almost all of the stories within the book and those that didn’t make as a bigger impact was still a good read. I enjoyed how each author took a different century and wrote on the hardships that woman face within that era. There are some that are my favorites, but this book should definitely be read by all.

One of my favorite ones would have to be the story written by Mary Lu, The Great Land. When I was younger, I read Julie of the Wolves and loved every minute of it. This story reminded me very much of it. At the end of the story, Mary Lu mentions that she used Julie of the Wolves as an inspiration for The Great Land. I also enjoyed that she included some folklore of Native American beliefs. This story made me want to read more books with a similar concept.

Another great story is written by Beth Revis, called Pearls. Although, it could be considered a controversial story, I think it’s a realistic story for women who lived in the 1800’s. The story may be a sad one, but I’m glad that it had a happy ending. Hopefully, all who have faced this ordeal would have a better choice.

These stories are only two of 15 great reads written by 15 awesome authors. Although not all stories are as impact-ful as others, they are definitely a great read. I would love for everyone to get a chance to read these short stories because it does a good job of telling stories of women, their ordeal, and the steps that they took to stand up for their right.

Reading Challenges 2019

A few days ago I posted my reading goals for 2019 and usually I include the Reading Challenges I wanted to participate in for the year with that post. This year I’m a bit late into the game and just got around to finding the challenges that I want to participate in for this year.

As usual I’m limiting myself to four challenges, which are different from last year, except for one. This year I want to focus on reading books that I own or books that I’ve borrowed from the library. Fortunately, I have a wide range of books to choose from, therefore, I don’t think I will run out of books to read. This of course does not mean I won’t buy anymore books, it only means that the challenges that I’ve chosen are more centered on reading books that I own.

Anyways, with not further ado, here are my reading challenges for 2019. Please note, all these challenges are yearly challenges therefore they run from January-December 2019.

***For more information: Click on the name of the host to direct you to the actual page of the reading challenges.

TBR CHALLENGE 2019

HOSTED BY: The Misadventures of Super Librarian

This is the third year that I’m participating in this challenge and I’m hoping that this is the year that I complete this challenge. Each month you are given a theme/genre that you must read for that specific month and then every third Wednesday of the month, write a review on the book you have chosen. Fairly simple right? Well, this is my third year and the last two I have failed miserably.

MOUNT TBR READING CHALLENGE

HOSTED BY: My Reader’s Block

I few year ago I participated in this challenge and enjoyed it a lot. It’s a pretty relaxed yearly reading challenge, therefore, I think it will be just up my alley. However, there are a few rules that you must consider when including a book for this challenge. Please check the link for all the rules information. Also, this challenge has a reading level, which allows you to pick the level you are most comfortable with. For this year I have chosen Pike’s Peak, which is to read 12 books from my TBR pile. That would mean I would have to read 1 book a month to complete this challenge.

THE BACKLIST READER CHALLENGE

HOSTED BY: The Bookwyrm’s Hoard

This is the first year that I will be participating in this reading challenge and I’m actually really excited about it. Not only does this challenge make you read books you own, but it also encourages you to write a review for the books you’ve read. Just like the previous reading challenge, this one has rules as well, which are posted on the creator of the challenge. Please click on the link above for further details.

THE RAGDOLL READING CHALLENGE REGULAR EDITION

HOSTED BY: Ragdoll Reads

This is also a new reading challenge for myself, and I think this is one that I fear the most. There are three editions to this reading challenge, but I’ve decided to pick the regular edition. Basically there are 24 prompts that you must complete in order to finish this challenge. Each prompt is centered on a specific topic that the book must have in order to qualify as being completed. This I fear the most because the categories are all very unique, which is not bad, but just a bit difficult.

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So that’s it for my Reading Challenges for 2019. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this year will be a lot different from 2018, which was horrible! I want to be able to complete all four and I’m rooting for myself this year.

Please let me know if you are participating in any of these Reading Challenges, or other any other ones that you are currently participating in.

 

Disappointing Reads of 2018

Since a few day ago I posted my Best of 2018, I think its time that I post my Disappointing Reads of 2018. Please be aware that this does not necessary mean that the book was horrible or I’m bashing the author, this simply means that the book just didn’t work for me either because the book didn’t excite me or none of the characters or the story attracted me.

I didn’t really read a lot of books this year, so this list won’t really be significantly long.

The City of Lost Fortunes by Bryan Camp

Rating: 2/5 Stars

This book was given to me for my honest review last year. I read it and reviewed it, unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy it. This book was set in New Orleans and it delved into the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. After reading the premise of the book I was excited to pick this up because I’ve never read a book set in that city and I wanted to read more of the survival of people after the Hurricane. The problem is, it doesn’t really talk much about the hurricane or how others are coping with it. That’s fine with me since it’s really not about Hurricane Katrina, but for the premise to focus on it, I thought there would be more information about it. As for the characters, I didn’t get emotionally attached to any of them, which is something I usually look for when reading a book. The magic system is interesting, but it doesn’t really capture my interest to continue reading it.

Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel

Rating: 2/5 Stars

In 2018 I was in the hunt for a good ‘adult’ Sci-fi novel, but since I’m not really a sci-fi buff, I decided to look for one that many people have enjoyed. I’ve seen this book floating around a few years ago and many people have enjoyed it. Unfortunately, this was not for me. Although the story is quite interesting I just can’t handle all the drama, so needless to say, it wasn’t a book for me. The premise of the book is really interesting and it’s what really drew me in, but as I was reading it, I feel that there was too much more drama between characters that I didn’t feel was pertinent to the story. Maybe in the future books, but I’m most likely not going to continue with the series.

The Conspiracy of us by Maggie Hall

Rating: 1/5 Stars

I think out of all the books on this list, this is the one I’m most disappointed of. I guess its really not the books fault, and I feel its a series that a lot of people would enjoy, but this was not the book for me. The reason why I picked this up because a booktuber that I follow described this book as similar to The Da Vinci’s Code, which is one of my favorite books. For me, this was nothing like Dan Brown’s popular book, and that really made me dislike the book. Plus, I wished that there are disclaimers in books letting us know its going to be a love triangle. UGH, I’m not a fan.

Ten Thousand Skies Above You by Claudia Gray

Rating:2.5/5 Stars

Yes, this is the second book to the series and yes, I believe this was one of those series that I said I won’t continue with, but here we are. The cover drew me in, it’s so beautiful, unfortunately this series is really not for me. Like I said, I was in a hunt for a sci-fi novel last year and one of my quest lead me to this series again, but really this is more of a love story than science fiction. There are some developments that happened at the end of the book, that makes me want to check out the last book, but I’ll have to see if I really want to read the whole book just to see what happens to the main characters.

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So that’s it for my disappointing reads of 2018. Not much this year

 

 

January 2019 TBR

I’m a bit late on my TBR. I usually include my wrap-up and tbr together, but since I did a cumulative wrap-up for October, November and December, I totally forgot that I haven’t posted a TBR for this month.

Anyways, for this month I want to take it slow. I’m still getting back into the groove of reading, therefore, its taking me awhile to finish a book. For now, here are the books that I’m planning on reading for this month.

Currently I’m reading A Tyranny of Petticoats and I’m really enjoying it. I’ve been into fantasy novels lately, so I wanted to make my way through some of the ones that I do own this year. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m trying to read as many of the books that I own since I feel that my physical TBR pile has accumulated these past few years.

I’m limiting my choices to three books because I’m really not sure what my current mood is for reading. I’m very much a mood reader and tend to pick up books that I feel I want to read. So far this month I’ve been a bit finicky on which ones I want to actually read.

Hopefully, these three books will allow me to get back into the groove of things.

Best Read of 2018

Hi all! Now that 2019 is upon us, it’s time for my best read for 2018. Although I wasn’t able to read much, there were still a lot of books that I loved and enjoyed last year.

Here are my top seven books read in 2018. I’m not going to be going into details on any of them, but know that I really loved and enjoyed each and everyone of these books.

As you can tell, most of these books are in the sci-fi and fantasy genre. I’m really surprised that I have one Coming of age story as my top reads, and although I did mention that these books does not come in any particular order, Aristotle and Dante is the first on my list of top reads. I loved everything about it. I wasn’t 100% sure on the slow pace of the novel at the beginning, but as the story progressed I was totally hooked. I believe it was my only 5 star read of 2018.

Four of the seven books are books from the series and I am planning on continuing all four series. As for the other books, I’m going to definitely keep my eyes out for more of their books.

I’m hoping that this year will be a better reading year for me since 2018 was a total let down.

 

Looking back on my 5 Star Prediction

Last year I posted this…5 Star Book Prediction. Basically its self explanatory. Pick some books from your shelf or books that’s you want to read that you THINK you will love so much that you will give it a five star. Read it, once that’s done, see if your prediction is correct. Last year I gave myself the whole year to finish five books, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to finish all five.

Here are the five that I included in my 2018 prediction:

I’ve read three of the five books and none of them met my 5 Star expectations. One came close and that the Forbidden Wish. I won’t go into details about it because I’ve written a review for it, which can be found here. In short, I found the world building very well done, the characters are all well written and the relationships in this novel is on point!

Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon series is a hit and miss for me. Origin, his 5th book in the series, falls right in the middle. It was good read, but it didn’t wow me as much as when I read The Da Vinci Code, that being said, it wasn’t a 5 for me.

Last, and definitely the lowest rated from the three, is The Conspiracy of Us. I also wrote a review for this and it goes into details as the reasons why I was unimpressed with this novel. Even now I can feel my disappointment and bitterness in reading this book. ARGH! There was a LOVE TRIANGLE. Booooooooo……

Anyways, that’s my wrap-up for this 5 Star Prediction. In 2019 I’m going to be continuing this Book Prediction because it was fun to see my before and after thoughts on certain books.