Get Lost in Literature

"...instead we entered battle with an enemy I'd thought were only folklore last week, and now we're... well, we're here..." Violet Sorrengail returns to Basgiath War College after surviving a war game that turned real and cost her friend his life. Her and the other survivors must pretend like everything is normal to protect themselves and the rebellion and she's miserable lying to her friends. Xaden has graduated and is at the warfront, still smuggling weapons in his spare time, while Violet tries to survive her second year of school without him. I actually thought this book was better than the first. Rebecca Yarros just assumes no character intros are needed if you made it to book two, and with introductions out of the way the adventure intensifies. Like the first book, this story included a few plot twists but these ones I didn't see coming. I enjoy it so much more when a story is unpredictable, it's easier to sink into it.  When not worried about sc...

Hi all! I hope you are having a fabulous weekend! The Sunday Post is a weekly news meme hosted by TheCaffeinatedReviewer . I will be posting on the first Sunday of each month and I hope you will join me. The weather in October was completely October weather. It was chill enough to suggest long sleeves and sweatshirts were a necessity, but just warm enough that people unwilling to admit summer was over (by people I mean me) could still wear t-shirts and pretend like they weren't getting cold. My reading successes were unambitious, only having the time to get through two books: Kiss the Girls by James Patterson Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros But I didn't have time to post a review for Iron Flame  so that will be posted tomorrow morning. I will say I loved it so much, I've already purchased book 3 of the Empyrean series, Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros . The Empyrean series is not my first romantasy, but the plot isn't obsessively fixated on the romance... Which is kind of re...

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday  list was Halloween Freebie , and I struggled to pick a bookish theme other than Top Ten Horror Novels which is what I did last year.  So this year, I decided to deviate from bookish lists to go with My Top Ten Halloween Movies , which is completely biased because I’ve probably only seen ten horror movies to begin with. While horror movies are not my forte, when October rolls around (which it has, so much so it's almost over) and I'm in the mood to set the mood, these are my go-to movies. 1. The Exorcist (1973) . Probably not the scariest possession story by today’s standards, but Linda Blair put on a convincing performance. 2. The Omen (1976) . Yeah… I would not have let that nanny within a mile of my child… She was creepy from the moment she introduced herself. 3. The ‘Burbs (1989) . There’s an argument to be made that this is not horror it’s just a comedy. But I was too young the first time I saw it, and it gave me nightmares. Now I quite l...

Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic was listed as Cozy/Atmospheric Reads. I couldn't really think of anything cozy, and only a few popped into my mind as atmospheric. Instead, I will be sharing my Top Ten for the list posted on September 9th, which was  Villains (favorite, best, worst, lovable, creepiest, most evil, etc) and I'm super excited about it. Who doesn't love a good villain? They can make or break a plot. 1. Spitz from Call of the Wild by Jack London . I won't call him evil because he was a product of his environment, but he was definitely villainous. 2. Voldemort from Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling . Without Voldemort there'd be no story. 3. Victor from Vicious by V.E. Schwab . Victor is great because he knows he's a villain...and he likes it. 4. The Crooked Man from The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly . A creepy little man, reminiscent of Rumpelstiltskin, luring the main character to doom. 5. Richard Strickland from The Shape of Water by Gui...

"He knew that I was here in Durham. He knew who I was." Alex Cross's niece, Naomi, has gone missing from North Carolina. She hasn't been heard from in four days. His family makes it his responsibility to find her, and since he helped raise her in childhood, he is more than willing to join the search. But his quest to find his missing niece introduces him to a serial killer that hunts in the area, and the fear that Naomi may be another victim. My first impression of this book was that it has a lot of graphic violence, mostly against women, including rape, beatings, and murder. If you are sensitive to any of these things, this is definitely not the book for you.  The further I read, the more disenchanted I became with the book... I mean, it's James Patterson, right? Extremely popular murder-mystery writer. And Kiss the Girls is one of his most hyped-up novels. So statistics implied I was going to really enjoy this book. But honestly, I like a lot of suspense in my ...

From October 5th to the 11th, settle in with a banned or otherwise challenged book. It's that time of year to read something that someone else doesn't want you to read. It's time to celebrate your freedom to choose your own books and to honor those 1st Amendment Rights. Right now, in this country it isn't legal to truly ban books from public consumption, but it is possible to have them pulled from libraries, schools, and certain bookstores, making them harder to access. However there are people who are actively fighting for that to change, that is for books that they find offensive to be pulled from shelves everywhere.  Which to me is ludicrous. You can't currently and shouldn't ever be allowed to tell other people what they can and cannot do because you won't do it yourself. I, for example, don't eat onions, but I'm not refusing to let other people eat onions nor am I advocating that farmers be forbidden from growing onions. If you're wondering ...