Tag: Aftermath: Life Debt

June Wrap-Up: Reviews, Reading Challenges, etc.

June was a decent reading month for me as I started my Smashing Series Round 2. I focused mostly on catching up on or finishing series that I had already started. I’ll be continuing that Smashing Series through this month, so expect to see more series reviews!

I did start listening to audiobooks for the first time ever in June and can now say that I actually love them. I listen to them all day while I’m at work so if it seems like I speed through them faster than normal, that’s why. Also, if you know of any good ones then please let me know!

Books Read

  • The Lost Letter by Jillian Cantor – 4/5 stars, audiobook
  • Glass Sword (Red Queen, #2) by Victoria Aveyard – 3/5 stars, REVIEW
  • Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan – 3/5 stars, audiobook
  • Ten Thousand Skies Above You (Firebird, #2) by Claudia Gray – 5/5 stars, REVIEW
  • A Million Worlds with You (Firebird, #3) by Claudia Gray – 4/5 stars, REVIEW
  • Aftermath: Life Debt (Star Wars: Aftermath, #2) by Chuck Wendig – 4/5 stars
  • Aftermath: Empire’s End (Star Wars: Aftermath, #3) by Chuck Wendig – 4/5 stars
  • Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee – 2/5 stars
  • The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman – 4/5 stars, audiobook
  • Pure (Pure, #1) by Julianna Baggott – 4/5 stars, audiobook
  • The Crown’s Game (The Crown’s Game, #1) by Evelyn Skye – 4/5 stars, REVIEW

I think that’s a pretty damn good reading month, but that’s just my own personal opinion of course haha! However, I do freely admit that my reviews are lacking a bit. I’ve decided not review my audiobooks but if there is one that you’d like me to review, then let me know!

Total Books Read: 11

Overall in 2017: 36

Reading Challenge Updates

POPSUGAR

  • First book in a series you haven’t read before – The Crown’s Game (The Crown’s Game, #1)
  • A book set in two different time periods – The Lost Letter
  • A book with a title that’s a character’s name – Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore
  • A book involving travel – Ten Thousand Skies Above You (Firebird, #2)
  • An audiobook – The Graveyard Book

Previous:

  • A Book of Letters – We Are Still Tornadoes
  • A Book by a Person of Color – A Torch Against the Night (An Ember in the Ashes, #2)
  • A Bestseller from a Genre You Don’t Normally Read – Big Little Lies
  • A Book Published in 2017 – Caraval (Caraval, #1)
  • The First Book in a Series You Haven’t Read Before – Truthwitch (The Witchlands, #1)
  • A book by or about a person who has a disability – The Architect of Song
  • A book that’s been on your TBR list for way too long – Red Queen (Red Queen, #1)
  • A Book by an Author Who Uses a Pseudonym – A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic, #3)
  • A Book Involving a Mythical Creature – Heartstone

Beat the Backlist

  • The Graveyard Book
  • Glass Sword (Red Queen, #2)
  • Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore
  • Ten Thousand Skies Above You (Firebird, #2)
  • A Million Worlds with You (Firebird, #3)
  • Aftermath: Life Debt (Star Wars: Aftermath, #2)
  • Aftermath: Empire’s End (Star Wars: Aftermath, #3)

Goodreads Challenge

  • Total: 36/100
  • Previous Total: 25/100

Blog Posts

Teaser Tuesday

WWW Wednesday

Hype or Like Friday

Discussions/Misc.

How did your reading/blogging go during June? Did you read any good books? How are you doing on your own reading challenges?

WWW Wednesday – June 7th, 2016

Welcome to WWW Wednesday which is currently being hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words. It’s really just a place to do little update on what all you’ve been reading lately. Anyone is welcome to join, just leave a link to your post in the comments and be sure to give the appropriate credit to Sam!

The Three W’s are:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

What are you currently reading?

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 A Million Worlds with You (Firebird, #3) by Claudia Gray

I can’t even tell you how much I’m addicted to this trilogy. I’m seriously kicking myself for putting off finishing it for so long. IT’S SO DAMN GOOD. Also, those covers are freaking stunning.

I’ll also be starting Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee tonight for my book club. I’m not real thrilled about it… Blahhhhhhhhh

What did you recently finish reading?

  • Aftermath: Life Debt (Star Wars: Aftermath, #2) by Chuck Wendig
  • Aftermath: Empire’s End (Star Wars: Aftermath, #3) by Chuck Wendig
  • Ten Thousand Skies Above You (Firebird, #2) by Claudia Gray

I really enjoyed the Aftermath trilogy. It was exciting, full of action and political intrigue. I can see where people might have an issue with his writing style in the first book, but I think it gets a lot better in the following two books. If you’re a Star Wars fan, or just a science fiction fan in general, I recommend these for some fun reads! But if you like your science fiction with a bit of contemporary and a whole lot of swoony romance, then pick up the Firebird trilogy. Seriously, Paul is a total book boyfriend.

What do you think you’ll read next?

  • Glass Sword (Red Queen, #2) by Victoria Aveyard
  • King’s Cage (Red Queen, #3) by Victoria Aveyard

I’ll be carrying on with my Series Smashing June by catching up on the Red Queen series. I didn’t want to like the first book in the series when I read it back in January, but I did find it very entertaining. I’ve heard mixed things about the following books though. It’ll be really disappointing if they aren’t very good.

What are you currently reading? Have you finished any books this week? Did you enjoy them? Have you read any of the books of my list? What did you think of them? What are some series that you need to catch up on? Leave a link to your WWW Wednesday in the comments below!

WWW Wednesday – May 31st, 2017

Welcome to WWW Wednesday which is currently being hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words. It’s really just a place to do little update on what all you’ve been reading lately. Anyone is welcome to join, just leave a link to your post in the comments and be sure to give the appropriate credit to Sam!

The Three W’s are:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

What are you currently reading?

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Aftermath: Life Debt (Star Wars: Aftermath, #2) by Chuck Wendig

I started this one last night and am about 50 pages into it. I’m enjoying this one so far, as it started with a really fun opening that was full of action. I will say that it is taking me a bit to get reacquainted with Wendig’s present tense writing… I will never understand why he does that.

What did you recently finish reading?

  • Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer, #1) by Laini Taylor – 4/5 stars, FULL REVIEW
  • Heartstone by Elle Katharine White – 4/5 stars, full review will be posted tomorrow

I had a very good reading week. I finished up Strange the Dreamer for the Hype or Like Friday May BOTM. I really enjoyed it, though I do feel that it was a little too dragged out for me personally. It’ll be interesting to see how the sequel does, as Taylor originally had it as a standalone but has now changed it to a duology. I also really enjoyed Heartstone. I thought it was a fun twist on the classic, Pride and Prejudice. It was groundbreaking or perfect in any sense, but it was an entertaining quick read. I also find myself craving some more dragon books so if you have any recs, please leave them in the comments!

What do you think you’ll read next?

  • Aftermath: Empire’s End (Star Wars: Aftermath, #3) by Chuck Wendig
  • Ten Thousand Skies Above You (Firebird Trilogy, #2) by Claudia Gray

June begins my Smashing Series Round 2, even though I started 2 days earlier (hey, it happens!). So all month I’ll be catching up or finishing series that I’ve already started. You can read my original post about it HERE. As you can see, I’ve decided to go with 2 sci-fi trilogies to start the month off with. I really enjoyed A Thousand Pieces of You when I read it back in December and I can’t wait to see how the story ends.

What are you currently reading? Have you finished any good books this week? Have you read any of the books on my list? What did you think of them? Leave a link to your WWW Wednesday in the comments below!

Teaser Tuesday – May 30th, 2017

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme currently being hosted by Ambrosia @ The Purple Booker. All are welcome to participate!

Rules:

  • Grab your current read.
  • Open to a random page.
  • Share two ‘teaser’ sentences from somewhere on that page.
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! You don’t want to give too much away so as to not ruin the book for others!
  • Share the title and author so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.

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Aftermath: Life Debt (Star Wars: Aftermath, #2) by Chuck Wendig

“‘That’s exactly right. This is war. It’s easy to get caught up in the swell of it. The medals, the parades, the garlands of lorachid petals on the victors’ brows. But it’s important to remember that war is mostly this: destruction and death. We are killers.'”

-page 157

I haven’t actually started this book yet but I’m looking forward to it. Give me anything pertaining to Star Wars and it’s love at first sight. I’m a big old nerd and I’m not even ashamed to admit it.

What are you currently reading? Are you a Star Wars fan? Have you read any Stars Wars novels? Leave a link to your Teaser Tuesday post in the comments below.

Smashing Series Round 2: June Summer Smash TBR!

So I’ve been looking over my stacks of TBR in preparation to start packing to move, when I realized that once again, I have a butt load of series to read. Now when I say series to read, I mean any series that I need to finish or catch up on. Such is the curse of being a bookworm! With that being said, I thought June would a good month to try and do a little summer cleaning on the old TBR. I originally came up with Smashing Series back in September and it was a success. I got caught up on and finished so many series! You can go read my announcement and wrap-up posts, HERE and HERE.

Now anyone can join if you’re interested! This is a very casual and fun way to help clear out some series from your TBR. It’s like a reading challenge but more of a personal one! If you’re like me, then you know how crazy those TBRs can get and it’s always nice to check some of those books off that list!

My June TBR

Aftermath: Life Debt (Star Wars: Aftermath, #2) & Aftermath: Empire’s End (Star Wars: Aftermath, #3) by Chuck Wendig

I will finally get to finish this trilogy after reading the first book. I’ve heard that the final book is fairly good so I can’t wait to see how it all ends!

Glass Sword (Red Queen, #2) & King’s Cage (Red Queen, #3) by Victoria Aveyard

I thought the first book was fun, if lacking on originality. However, the ending was really my favorite part as I love a good plot twist. Now I haven’t heard great things about the next two books in the series but hopefully they aren’t too bad.

The Bone Season (The Bone Season, #1), The Mime Order (The Bone Season, #2), The Song Rising (The Bone Season, #3) by Samantha Shannon

I read the first book back when it was first released but I plan to reread it before diving into the rest of this series. I’ll be honest and admit that I don’t remember anything that happened. Oops!I can’t wait to dive back into this series!

Ten Thousand Skies Above You (Firebird Trilogy, #2) & A Million Worlds with You (Firebird Trilogy, #3) by Claudia Gray

I really enjoyed the first book in this trilogy when we read it for the Hype or Like Friday December BOTM. I honestly cannot believe I waited this long to finally finish this series! I wish I had a good excuse for putting it off, but I don’t. Also, can we all just gush over these insanely gorgeous covers? LOVE LOVE LOVE.

To say that my TBR for June is setting the bar extremely high, would be a bit of an understatement. But my reading has been really slow since I came back from my break and so I’m hoping this will finally kick it back into gear, especially since I’ll be revisiting series that I’ve already started. The first time I did was a resounding success and I flew through my TBR list, so I hope I can recreate that this time around!

What do you think of Smashing Series? Do you have tons of series that you’ve started but haven’t finished? What series do you need to finish? Have you read any of the ones on my TBR? Would you like to participate in this round of Smashing Series?

WWW Wednesday – May 24th, 2017

Welcome to WWW Wednesday which is currently being hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words. It’s really just a place to do little update on what all you’ve been reading lately. Anyone is welcome to join, just leave a link to your post in the comments and be sure to give the appropriate credit to Sam!

The Three W’s are:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

What are you currently reading?

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Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer, #1) by Laini Taylor

Yes, I know… I had hoped to finish this book this past weekend but I just had a whole lot of stuff going on which cut into my reading time. However, I’ve got my fingers crossed to finish it by this weekend! Don’t worry though, it’s really good so that isn’t the issue!

Strange the Dreamer is the story of:

the aftermath of a war between gods and men
a mysterious city stripped of its name
a mythic hero with blood on his hands
a young librarian with a singular dream
a girl every bit as perilous as she is imperiled
alchemy and blood candy, nightmares and godspawn, moths and monsters, friendship and treachery, love and carnage.

Welcome to Weep.

What did you recently finish reading?

I haven’t finished anything since last week, unfortunately.  This should change for next week, thanks to a long weekend! Whoop, whoop!

What do you think you’ll read next?

  • Heartsone by Elle Katharine White – This is retelling of Pride and Prejudice but with DRAGONS. Yes, you read that right. Yes, I’m pretty damn excited about it.
  • Aftermath: Life Debt (Star Wars: Aftermath, #2) by Chuck Wendig – The second book in Wendig’s trilogy following the defeat of The Empire at the Battle of Endor. I know this series gets a lot of hate due to Wendig’s writing style, but I found the first one enjoyable. It was fun getting follow completely new and different characters.

What books are you currently reading? Have you finished any good ones this week? What’s next on your TBR? Have you read any of the books on my list? If so, what did you think of them?

WWW Wednesday – May 17th, 2017

Welcome to WWW Wednesday which is currently being hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words. It’s really just a place to do little update on what all you’ve been reading lately. Anyone is welcome to join, just leave a link to your post in the comments and be sure to give the appropriate credit to Sam!

The Three W’s are:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

What are you currently reading?

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Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer, #1) by Laini Taylor

Strange the Dreamer is the story of:

the aftermath of a war between gods and men
a mysterious city stripped of its name
a mythic hero with blood on his hands
a young librarian with a singular dream
a girl every bit as perilous as she is imperiled
alchemy and blood candy, nightmares and godspawn, moths and monsters, friendship and treachery, love and carnage.

Welcome to Weep.

I’m enjoying this book so far. It’s whimsical and mysterious with an interesting cast of characters. I’m really curious to see where this story leads and I hope that I enjoy it every step of the way!

What did you recently finish reading?

  • Startup by Doree Shafrir – 4/5 stars, REVIEW
  • Armada by Ernest Cline – 3/5 stars, review will be posted Thursday

I really enjoyed both of these novels. I found Shafrir’s debut novel to be a fun and realistic social commentary on the tech scene. It had some funny moments and then a few moments that punched you in gut. I also enjoyed how sarcastic her viewpoint on millennials came out, so funny!

I was LOVING Armada, until it reached the ending. Something about the ending just really didn’t sit well with me. It seemed a bit rushed and wrapped up too perfectly, which is something that really annoys me in stories. However, I think this book is still a really fun read and fans of Ender’s Game will especially enjoy it. It definitely is chock full of sci-fi pop culture references, just like Ready Player One, but these references are much more universal and less obscure. I do believe that this novel has sold its movie rights, just like its predecessor, so be on the look out for that in the next few years!

What do you think you’ll read next?

I’m just going to get real with y’all – I shall be reading a buttload of Star Wars novels in the coming months, at least once a month. I’ve gotten really behind due to all of the new releases and so now I’m trying to play catch-up. If you’re not a Star Wars fan, you’ve been warned!

I will be reading Go Set a Watchman for book club. I’ll be honest and say that I’m reallyyyy not looking forward to reading this book. In fact, it gives me a headache just looking at the cover of it. I think I’ll just plan to read one or two chapters a night so I won’t put myself into a reading slump over it. I WILL NOT DO IT!

What are you currently reading? Have you finished any good books recently? Have you read any of the books on my list? Leave a link to your WWW Wednesday in the comments below!

May TBR: Where I Try and Play Catch-Up

I’m really terrible about sticking to TBRs because I’m such a mood reader. However, let’s see if I can stick with one this month to help get me back on track with my reading challenges! It’s nice to have a goal, right?

My May TBR

I think I have a very varied TBR for this month, which will hopefully help keep me pulled into what I’m reading and not get too bored. I will admit that I’m not looking forward to reading Go Set a Watchman, like at all. Luckily, next month is my month to get to choose our book club pick! FINALLYYYYY!

What are y’all reading this month? Have you read any of the books on my TBR? What did you think of them? What books do you think would be a good choice for book club?