I've been addicted to books for about thirty plus years! Too bad I didn't track all the books I've read. 😬 Follow me on Twitter: @ylmpastmidnight , Instagram: @ylmpastmidnight and Facebook: ylmpastmidnight
First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?
Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
Finally… reveal the book!
Hello wonderful people! It’s Friday, our first week of December is almost over and wow, it’s 19 days until Christmas! Woohoo! It’s very exciting!
I went to the library this week and broke my borrowing ban. Oh well! I couldn’t resist haha. So I’m going to choose the first line from one of those books. Ready?
“Be still, Little Priestess.”
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Did you get guess it? I love this cover! And I can’t wait to read this. Have you read this book yet? What did you think of it?
Categories: Romance, Depression, Suicide, Young Adult
Eighteen-year-old Devon longs for two things.
The stars. And the boy she fell in love with last summer.
When Ashton breaks Devon’s heart at the end of the most romantic and magical summer ever, she thinks her heart will never heal again. But over the course of the following year, Devon finds herself slowly putting the broken pieces back together.
Now it’s senior year, and she’s determined to enjoy every moment of it as she prepares for a future studying the galaxies. That is, until Ashton shows up on the first day of school. Can she forgive him and open her heart again? Or are they doomed to repeat history?
From debut author, Ronni Davis, comes a stunning novel about passion, loss, and the power of first love.
I chose this book as my YA Book of the Month choice for November. I wanted to read a contemporary YA book with romance and look at that cover. 🤩
Devon and Ashton meet one summer and it is insta-love, but at the end of summer it was also insta-heartbreak. Two years later, Devon is pretty much over him until Ashton ends up at her school. The feelings and memories come rushing back for both of them but Devon doesn’t want to get her heart broken again. Devon is at the top of her class with dreams of being an astrophysicist to study the stars! But Devon and Ashton get swept up in their feelings. Underneath it all though, Ashton isn’t so stable and Devon finds out the challenges in their relationship go below the surface.
The cover definitely caught my eye. I love the color palette and the title sounds romantic.
There is sex in this book, and I do like that Devon’s mom raised her in a sex positive environment. When Devon and Ashton are leading up having sex, Devon’s mom asks her questions. They have an honest relationship which is very refreshing and her mom hands her condoms and information. I love their trusting relationship.
There are deep subjects in this story, but it gets revealed slowly. Ashton deals with depression and it shows the impact of it on their relationship. It shows how Devon chose to help him and it threw off her focus at school. But the depression is talked about in this book and explained and that’s what stood out in this story. I think the therapy scenes for both Asthon AND Devon, was very impactful.
Devon is bi-racial and Ashton comes from a rich white family so there was some tension there that added challenges to their relationship. Ashton’s family had certain requirements for the girls he dated but I’m glad he stuck to Devon, at least…this time around.
I loved the parts in the book that went into Devon’s passion: astronomy. I thought those parts were fascinating.
Triggers: this is a trigger filled book because there is heartbreak, a death of a family member, depression and attempted suicide.
I struggled through the beginning and middle because I thought okay, another insta-love story with a break-up and here they go back together again but the story at least got better near the end. Unfortunately by then I was just reading to finish it but learning about Ashton’s depression really kept me in the story.
Although their love is all consuming (they think about marriage in the future) I felt detached from Devon and Ashton. Their romance was quick, getting back together was quick and I just didn’t get swept away in it like they did. There were sexy scenes that didn’t give me feels at all. I can’t pin point why but I think because I wasn’t invested in these two characters until way later in the book that it their relationship just fell flat for me. It might be the writing, these two characters don’t exactly pop off the page.
This is not a happy story. For the most part Devon’s main struggle outside of her relationship with Ashton is trying to get into the college she wants to attend. But Ashton…he has depression, on top of a dysfunctional family life and he hits rock bottom.
Devon being in a co-dependent relationship with Ashton was heartbreaking to see, maybe because we know it’s going to cause heartbreak again.
The best part of this book was learning about depression and what it would take to get Ashton in a better place. I felt sad most of the time reading this book but I’m glad Devon had such a supportive cast of family and friends. As for Ashton, I wanted to reach inside this book and help him, but he needed to do the therapy work himself, like he said. The depression and therapy scenes in this story are impactful, if you can handle reading about the subject. Overall, it was an okay book maybe I needed to be in the right mood to read it.
Hi everyone, so yes I almost forgot about my monthly wrap-up post! I read much more than what reviews got posted in November. I decided to post later publication titles closer to when they will be released because when I post them right away, I think they get forgotten.
Thanksgiving weekend was wild! I had lots of fun and took a break from reading really – I had a weekend filled with socializing and lots of food. So I need to get back in gear, stop eating desserts, and get some exercise in. I can’t believe Christmas and Hanukkah (because we celebrate both) will be here in about twenty days! Then it’s the New Year and my daughter turns 3! Where does time go? Really…
Anyway here is what I reviewed in November!
If you want to check out the reviews for these books please check out my archives or do a search.
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. Check out their blogs for more awesome bookish content!
Holiday Reads
(Books You Love Reading During the Holidays)
I haven’t done one of these TTTs in awhile! This week’s topic is Holiday Reads-Books You Love Reading During the Holidays. I’m usually in the mood to read romance books during the holidays but not necessarily Christmas holiday romance. A few here and there is good for me. And of course I still read my young adult fantasy books. But because I slowed down in November, it feels like I’m playing catch up in December already, so I’m just going to list what I’m reading.
I posted about this title in last week’s WWW Wednesday but I gotta be honest…it’s been slow going. So far there is insta-love and a major heartbreak, and the couple reuniting which you can guess is not going so well. This book so far has been kinda depressing and I don’t know if it’s one I want to finish in December. 😞
I have the eARC of this book and it publishes in January so I’m reading a little but each day. It’s fascinating…a female version of Shakespeare’s Henry IV but whatever…I don’t even REMEMBER Henry IV, did I even have to read that in high school? There are lady knights!! Lady knights having sex with other lady knights! It’s a pretty amazing undertaking storewide because there are so man characters to follow. I finally hit 20% of the book (it took me all weekend). I’m determined to finish this by this week!
I really need to get a move on this story, I think I’m a fourth in. It’s a good story so far, I just was in the mood for romance and put this down to read the romance novels in my NetGalley shelf haha.
I just finished Wintersong, the first book in this series and I’m going to jump into this one before another book sucks up all my attention.
And yes because I need romance this month, I also started another NetGalley eARC. I’m on chapter two with this one but honestly, I think I’ll finish this one first out of the titles I just listed. 😅
Another eARC on NetGalley that I got started on and I’m at 30%. This is the second book in the Crown of Feathers series and I’m not feeling it as much as the first book in the series. Maybe I’m just not in the mood because it is the holidays? Not sure but I have some time to finish this one, it publishes in February 2020.
There you have it, 6 books I am reading when I feel like it! Haha…I don’t usually have that many open at once, but it is what it is. 🤷🏻♀️ It’s December, I’m not in a rush to read anything really unless it’s an arc that’s about to be published soon. I’m just going to try and just chill for the rest of the year. ☺️ Thanks for reading!
Categories: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Dark Fairytale
The last night of the year. Now the days of winter begin and the Goblin King rides abroad, searching for his bride….
All her life, Liesl has heard tales of the beautiful, dangerous Goblin King. They’ve enraptured her mind and spirit and inspired her musical compositions. Now eighteen and helping to run her family’s inn, Liesel can’t help but feel that her musical dreams and childhood fantasies are slipping away.
But when her own sister is taken by the Goblin King, Liesl has no choice but to journey to the Underground to save her. Drawn to the strange, captivating world she finds–and the mysterious man who rules it–she soon faces an impossible decision. With time and the old laws working against her, Liesl must discover who she truly is before her fate is sealed.
Dark, romantic, and powerful, Wintersong will sweep you away into a world you won’t soon forget.
Wintersong is a perfect fall read and winter read actually, I mean it is called Wintersong.
When I heard this was part Labyrinth (one of my favorite movies) and Beauty and the Beast (one of my favorite Disney movies haha) I knew I had to read this…and I tried when it first published but for some reason it didn’t catch my interest at the time. I heard some good things about it lately and decided to give it another go and I can see how readers can be entranced by this story! And why didn’t anyone say it’s part Phantom of the Opera too? Without the opera of course.
In this dark, sexy and magical story, the Goblin King has been eyeing Liesl since she was a child. He is entranced with the untamed music that lives inside her and he sees someone who maybe can appreciate the wildness in him. We follow Liesl and learn how close she is with her exceptionally and musically talented brother. Whereas her beautiful and passionate sister, Kathe is left to her own devices. As Winter approaches she is reminded by her grandmother about the Goblin King coming to take a wife. When he steals Kathe away and makes a bargain with Liesl, she knows she has to win or pay the consequences. Who will Liesl choose? Her family, the Goblin King or herself?
This book is sexy…I mean, it has sex and though it’s not explicitly described because this is a YA book, I like that it went there because this is a dark attraction between a human and the Goblin king, who is basically fae and powerful. You can’t deny the connection between Liesl and the Goblin King.
This story is dark and the story telling is enchanting. The writing is lyrical and poetic. I loved the folklore Constanze told about the Goblin King, it’s that spooky fairytale, not the ones with a happily ever after. There is nothing very happy in this book, Liesl is consumed with music, so much so that it brings her absolute joy but she is obsessed about it. Same with the Goblin King and how he covets Liesl and her joy with music. They both desire and want but you also see it in Liesl’s family, her brother the musical virtuoso, her sister Kathe who dreams of finer things and a rich husband. This story explores desire, and what length one goes to attain them.
It’s interesting that the book ends with a Beethoven quote, because music is central to this story. I mean the Goblin King plays Liesl body like a violin (ahem-ahem 🔥🥵) – talk about sensual. But music IS sensual, it’s full of emotion and this story wove it’s enchantment on me like Beethoven’s music does (he’s my favorite). Liesl is a genius composer, her brother is a gifted violinist and the Goblin King is a musician as well.
The love story between Liesl and the Goblin King as mentioned is scintillating. It is full of dark desire and sweetness too, but tragic.
I enjoyed the games Liesl and the Goblin King would play because the stakes were high. It was interesting and maybe predictable what path she chooses but she did kind of give in pretty quick.
Liesl and the Goblin King…had that push and pull relationship that kind of made me crazy. I wanted them to make up their minds, especially when she decides to go all in and then he backs off. I understood why it was that way, but I also got tired of it too.
I would like to know more about the Goblin King. I know he is all mysterious but I was getting confused about how he is the Goblin King but his looks keep changing when he is with Liesl. She sees a boy of her age and then he looks like the fae he becomes. I mean her grandmother wanted to be the Goblin King’s wife at one point and I’m just hoping it wasn’t HIM has the Goblin King that time. 😅 Because…awkward. He is a fascinating character because he used to be human, worshipped God and brought some of those customs with him into the Underground. But I’d like to learn more about him.
The ending was…okay? I guess in a sense it was the right thing to do, but damn did I just want them to go all in and make it work. If I was Liesl, I’d be all about being the Goblin Queen and never leave and die a dark death. 🤷🏻♀️ I mean, the story was dramatic in every other aspect, might as well make the ending one too!
Triggers: mind manipulation (I mean, the Goblin King does mess with Liesl!)
Even with the few issues I had with the story, it wove its dark enchantment around me. I feel like I’ve been waiting so long for a story about the Goblin King (ever since Labyrinth) and wow, there haven’t been any that I remember reading about. I’m about to pick up the second book in the duology so stay tuned for my review on that one soon. If you like dark fairy-tales written in a poetic, lyrical style, you might want to give this one a try.
Thank you to Emer at A Little Haze Book Blog for my first nomination for The Lobster Award! If you don’t know who she is, click on the link to check out her blog, she is genuine, real and her posts are fun to read.
What is The Liebster Award?
(and yes this info is all copied from Emer’s post since she always does an amazing job researching these awards and I have no patience hahaha)
“The Liebster Award is an award that exists only on the internet and is given to bloggers by other bloggers. The earliest case of the award goes as far back as 2011. Liebster in German means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.”
Rules:
Say thank you to the person who has nominated you for the Award.
Answer the 11 questions the person has asked you
Nominate 11 people
Ask the people who you have nominated 11 questions
Questions from Emer:
What is your favourite all time music video? Share a link.
Honestly…I’m a kid of the 80’s and I was glued to MTV when music videos started being a “thing” and I’m sure I could go scour youtube for more recent music videos of current songs but THIS video…brings me back to being a kid, and I thought it was so innovative when I first saw it.
If you could spend a year living in another country where would you choose and why?
Italy because of the food and history.
If you could switch places with any character (book, TV show, or film) for a day, who would you switch with and what would you do?
Seriously? So hard…I’ll say Elizabeth Bennett in the Pride & Prejudice version with Keira Knightley. Haha, I want to be in THAT exact movie though, like I want Darcy to meet me across the field at sunrise and say “I love, I love, I love you…”. Yes just like that, sigh.
What is the best snack food in your opinion?
Potato chips.
Do you like to read the book before you watch its film adaptation?
If I read the book first, then sometimes I will watch the film. But if I watch the film first, most likely I will not read the book.
What’s on your list of top three books that you have read so far in 2019?
Queen of Nothing by. Holly Black
Vow of Thieves by. Mary E. Pearson
Patron Saints of Nothing by. Randy Ribay
What are three things you love most about being a member of the online book community (blogs, book twitter, bookstagram, Goodreads etc.)?
Making new reader friends and finding books I’ve never heard of!
Do you have a bucket list? If yes, what are the top five items on your list? If not, what do you think would be in your top five?
write a book
travel bucket list: Greece, Iceland, China, Japan
Britney Spears concert (yes…I love her. I don’t care if she lip-syncs, I just want to dance my booty off and her music makes me do that.)
Take my kids to the Philippines one day
??? gosh…I better make add some things to my bucket list – I used to have things like see Prince in concert (but he passed away before I could! 😢)
If they were making a film of your life who would you like to cast as yourself?
Hmm, it would have to be a short filipino actress, I just don’t know many in Hollywood. Vanessa Hudgens? I don’t know, I know she’s half filipino and she’d make me look gorgeous right? LOL
What would you do if you were invisible for a day?
Muahaha, follow my son around at school maybe, just to see how he acts with his friends and teacher. And not in a way where I hope he’s behaving (I know he is), I just want to see his face when he and his friends are laughing or the interesting things he tells his teacher, etc…he’s a good kid.
If you could pick someone to write and perform a song inspired by you, who would you pick?
HARD question!! I’ll say Bruno Mars, because I love him. He’s from Hawaii too so I think he would get me. 😍
I am nominating (and no you are not obligated to do this!):
Hi everyone! Okay, I have a combined unboxing, meaning this is the unboxing for September, October and November and that’s it. Because I cancelled my subscription to YA Book of the Month. So quick, I know!
If you don’t know about the Book of the Month club, every month they feature five books you can choose from. The monthly subscription is $14.99 with shipping already included, so you get charged on a designated date, then you have a credit in your account. The first week of the month, they show the books you can choose from and then you make your choice and use up your credit. It repeats every month until you cancel, like me. But I do believe you can skip months as well.
This is the cute hot pink box the YA books come in. I think the adult fiction books comes in blue? Anyway, it’s a little bit beat up because I assume this box takes quite a journey to get to me. It takes almost a month to get to me and it’s the main reason I cancelled my subscription. 😞
My November book choice was When the Stars Lead to You by Ronni Davis. Every box I’ve received had a blue bookmark that says Book of the Month, which is nice since I always need bookmarks.
All of the BOTM books have smilier characteristics. They all have the logo on the cover and when you take off the dust cover, the naked cover is embossed with the logo, month and year the book was featured as choices.
The books are a certain size, they are larger than the books from the publisher companies and the print I feel is larger too, which is nice!
These are the three books I have from BOTM. My first book was The Ten Thousand Doors of January which I haven’t read yet. I just finished The Beautiful this month and my newest book is Where the Stars Lead to You.
I think it’s a nice subscription if you live on the mainland USA. I think shipping out to me in Hawaii (still part of the USA but in the middle of the Pacific Ocean), shipping just takes too long. For other box subscriptions, especially the crates I’ve tried so far, it comes with priority shipping so it gets to me so quick. Shipping is included with BOTM and $14.99 for shipping and book is really good! But I’m just impatient waiting for it – so it’s not for me.
To cancel my membership for the subscription there is no feature on their website to do that – there is a number to call to cancel.
Anyway, it was cool to try it out! Are you a BOTM subscriber? How do you like it?
First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?
Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
Finally… reveal the book!
Quick Friday Update:
It’s BLACK Friday, for those of you doing some major Christmas shopping. I usually avoid it, I could do it when I was younger and single haha, but now with kids, nah…
But I do have one Black Friday event I want to attend. My cousin makes earrings and she’s selling her items at an event in town and I want to support her and buy earrings for gifts and honestly…for ME. We shall see if I have time to make it out there today.
Okay, let’s get to the lines!
“You’d think someone who wanted to study the stars would know better than to wish on them.”
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It’s my YA Book of the Month club pick and will be reading it this weekend! I hope it’s good, don’t you love the cover?
Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers and bloggers who celebrate, and to all of you around the world as well even if it’s not a holiday you celebrate. I’m so grateful and thankful to all of you who have stopped by on my little space on the internet blogging about books. 🤷🏻♀️ The fact that you even take one minute to give me a like, follow me or even read what I write…seriously…I am thankful and it means a lot to me. THANK YOU!!!
I had this whole Thanksgiving post written and of course, my hubby had to do something to the router right now or whatever and guess what…my post didn’t auto-save SO…I’m not even going to try and re-write it. 🙄
Just know, I appreciate all of you and I wish blessings upon you and your loved ones this holiday season.
The idea is pretty simple, every week you dedicate a post to the three W’s:
What are you currently reading?
What have you just finished reading?
What are you going to read next?
What are you currently reading?
I am finally working my way through this book. I know I had it months ago but I’ve been reading NetGalley arcs so now I’m finally getting to the book I bought. I’m 1/4th of the way in and Burleigh House is a fascinating entity.
What have you finished reading?
Tweet Cute by Emma Lord is so cute and it made me crave grilled cheese and desserts. I started it and finished it yesterday! I think I’ve been devouring more contemporary romances lately because it’s the holidays and in the mood for sweetness. For some reason my YA fantasy selections aren’t holding my interests as usual. Anyway, review for this will be posted closer to it’s publication in January 2020.
What are you going to read next?
Since I’m in a lovey dovey contemporary romance mood, I’m going to read this book that I just got yesterday. Have you read it?
Let me know what you’ve read, are reading now or will be reading next! I’d love to hear from you.
