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!
My Little Friday Update First:
I can’t believe we are almost done with November! I’m so ready to decorate my house for Christmas and yes this year I will be doing it before Thanksgiving because Thanksgiving comes late in the month this year. Once I’m done dog-sitting Maya, the rambunctious husky 😅, I’ll be able to put up ornaments. If I did it now, I’m pretty sure Maya would pull the round ornament off the tree. This dog loves ball toys. She is OBSESSED with them. She even whines/sings when she hears them squeak. It cracks me up.
So here we go with the lines – –
“On a drowsy Sunday afternoon, a man in a long dark coat hesitated in front of a house on a tree-lined street.”
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Yes, I’m doing a reread of The Cruel Prince and mind you I’ve read this book a few times already when it first published, then before Wicked King was published and finally, finally we will get The Queen of Nothing on Tuesday! Actually I may have to wait a bit longer for my items to ship. I bought the box set and also I think I got the special box from OwlCrate, I forget. 🤦🏻♀️ But I’m so ready to read the final book of this series!
Categories: Coming of Age, Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Kimi Nakamura loves a good fashion statement. She’s obsessed with transforming everyday ephemera into Kimi Originals: bold outfits that make her and her friends feel brave, fabulous, and like the Ultimate versions of themselves. But her mother sees this as a distraction from working on her portfolio paintings for the prestigious fine art academy where she’s been accepted for college. So when a surprise letter comes in the mail from Kimi’s estranged grandparents, inviting her to Kyoto for spring break, she seizes the opportunity to get away from the disaster of her life.
When she arrives in Japan, she loses herself in Kyoto’s outdoor markets, art installations, and cherry blossom festival–and meets Akira, a cute med student who moonlights as a costumed mochi mascot. What begins as a trip to escape her problems quickly becomes a way for Kimi to learn more about the mother she left behind, and to figure out where her own heart lies.
First things first, I’m in love with the book cover because of the cherry blossoms and just the overall color palette. I’m in a ballet pink mode, maybe because of my daughter. But yes, this cover is super cute.
I Love You So Mochi is as sweet as the cover portrays. It’s about a teenager named Kimi, who is a talented artist following in her mother’s footsteps but is it what she really wants? She finds herself wondering what makes her happy, what does she want to pursue after high school and is art still the thing that she is meant to do? Her grandparents invite her to Japan for Spring Break right when she has an argument with her mother and Kimi takes this time to go on the trip and find out what she wants.
The setting of Kyoto, Japan is fantastic. So many people I know love visiting Japan and this book gives the reader a tour of amazing places in Kyoto. I enjoyed seeing it through Kimi’s artistic eyes.
It’s a quick and easy read, the whole vibe of the book is light and happy. Kimi herself is a happy girl who giggles a lot and even when she has some family problems she doesn’t seem to let it get her totally down.
I like seeing Kimi bonding with her grandparents, that was sweet. Kimi meeting her grandparents brought up the issue of parents trying to control the direction of their children’s lives and the consequences that could arise from that. Being asian myself, I understand the family obligation thing, but it was nice to see Kimi bridge that gap and helping mend broken family ties.
Kimi has awesome, supportive best friends – that’s always a plus!
There is a romance in this book and it is insta-love because Kimi is only in Japan for spring break. She makes a connection with Akira right away and I thought their friendship to be believable, but I don’t know about falling in love so fast. Haha, but that’s just me.
This is a quick and light read, so light I felt like these wasn’t much of a conflict to resolve. Basically Kimi needed to find out if painting was what she still loved and she came to the conclusion of what she wanted to do pretty quick, she just had to accept it and realize it was a direction she could go. Even the family drama didn’t seem so bad? But maybe that’s just me reading heavy topic books lately haha. I should say it’s too light for me! 🤷🏻♀️
I Love You Mochi is sweet like the mochi dessert it features in the book. If you like some light reading, and insta-love, you will definitely love this book. It may also make you hungry for mochi. You know what is awesome? Green tea mochi ice cream, YUM. 😋
Disclaimer: **I received this book free from HQN Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
Nothing gets the tongues of London’s high society wagging like a good scandal. And when the personal secretary of the visiting Prince Sebastian of Alucia is found murdered, it’s all anyone can talk about, including Eliza Tricklebank. Her unapologetic gossip gazette has benefited from an anonymous tip about the crime, prompting Sebastian to take an interest in playing detective—and an even greater interest in Eliza.
With a trade deal on the line and mounting pressure to secure a noble bride, there’s nothing more salacious than a prince dallying with a commoner. Sebastian finds Eliza’s contrary manner as frustrating as it is seductive, but they’ll have to work together if they’re going to catch the culprit. And when things heat up behind closed doors, it’s the prince who’ll have to decide what comes first—his country or his heart.
Thank you to NetGalley and to HQN Books for giving me a chance to read this eARC and inviting me to join this blog tour!
The Princess Plan is not quite the Cinderella story. A spinster named Eliza Tricklebank meets Prince Sebastian of Alucia and things happen. And when I say things, I mean…murder and well, falling in love while investigating the murder.
Eliza is a fun character who says what’s on her mind. She’s smart, capable and wishes society didn’t put her on the shelf just because of a scandal (barely a scandal) a long time ago. There is no future of a husband for her now, but she’s come to accept her fate as her father’s caretaker.
Prince Sebastian of Alucia is a typical royal who is used to people doing his bidding, women falling into bed with him and is under the constant pressures of being a future king. He is in England to arrange a trade agreement and find a wife but someone murders one of the people he trust the most, his personal secretary. Sebastian intends to find out who has done it, and enlists the help of Eliza, which is very unconventional.
What I love most about this story is the female friendships between Eliza, her sister Hollis, their best friend Caro and even the maid, Poppy. The girls have a grand time finding content (gossip) for Holli’s women’s gazette. Eliza, Hollis and Caro are the best of friends, and the warmth between them comes through in this story. I also adored the eccentric life of Judge Trickleback’s home. He is blind and Eliza is his main caretaker but I loved the descriptions of the home they live it with the book piles, rope tied from room to room, the scratched table – everything is lived in and cozy, much like their family.
The murder mystery in the story did sometimes make me lose interest because it was a bit predictable. Also I felt like the trade agreement didn’t seem very important to Prince Sebastian because of the murder mystery and him falling for Eliza. Sebastian seems like a man who is strictly bound to duty and the way he chooses Eliza to be his wife seemed a bit easy and a little far-fetched, but by then I was just ready to ready the happily ever after.
The banter between Eliza and Sebastian was fun mostly because Eliza is so quirky and doesn’t fawn over the Prince like everyone else. Sebastian is practiced at controlling his emotions and giving practiced answers. I don’t know that I felt the urgency of their love like I hoped I would and at one point I thought, okay, he’s definitely going to marry a high ranking debutant instead of Eliza because he’d never break the rules. Maybe I wanted him to say to hell with everything and break the rules for her. At least the two of them do share a few steamy scenes together!
Overall, I mostly enjoyed Eliza and her friendship bonds, and seeing her and the Prince fall for one another.
Julia London is a NYT, USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of historical and contemporary romance. She is a six-time finalist for the RITA Award of excellence in romantic fiction, and the recipient of RT Bookclub’s Best Historical Novel.
Top 5 Tuesday is hosted by Shanah at Bionic Book Worm. Check out her blog for more Top 5 Tuesday topics and other bookish content. Here is this week’s topic:
Top 5 authors I NEED to read!
I’m going to list the top 5 authors I haven’t read a book by yet that I NEED to read…so here they are:
Neal Shusterman – I keep seeing this series everywhere and even found it on discount at Book Outlet, but I haven’t bought it yet! But I think I will look for it at the library to borrow.
Jay Kristoff – Another very popular series that I haven’t read. I’ve yet to read anything by Jay Kristoff but I better start. Maybe next year?
Lisa Jewell – I see Lisa Jewell’s books everywhere and I haven’t read one yet, but I know I eventually will.
Helen Hoang – I saw reviews of Helen Hoang’s books all year and I am ready to read one!
Christina Lauren – Another popular author I saw all over my Instagram in 2019! I haven’t read a book by her yet, but I will very soon!
Have you read these authors? Leave me a comment down below!
Categories: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Racial Themes, American Southern History, Suffragists
By day, seventeen-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady’s maid for the cruel daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Atlanta. But by night, Jo moonlights as the pseudonymous author of a newspaper advice column for the genteel Southern lady, “Dear Miss Sweetie.” When her column becomes wildly popular, she uses the power of the pen to address some of society’s ills, but she’s not prepared for the backlash that follows when her column challenges fixed ideas about race and gender.
While her opponents clamor to uncover the secret identity of Miss Sweetie, a mysterious letter sets Jo off on a search for her own past and the parents who abandoned her as a baby. But when her efforts put her in the crosshairs of Atlanta’s most notorious criminal, Jo must decide whether she, a girl used to living in the shadows, is ready to step into the light.
This book sort of got me out of my reading slump, so hooray! Maybe it’s because I just needed a break from YA Fantasy. 🤷🏻♀️
The Downstairs Girl packs a lot into 374 pages. It is a story about a Chinese girl named Jo Kuan, who was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. The story takes place somewhere during the late 1800’s so there is a lot going on and for a city that is divided between the color lines of black or white, Jo being Chinese, always falls somewhere in the middle. We get a little education about the Chinese that were brought in to the plantations in the South after the Civil War. There is also mention of the Suffragist movement, the growing popularity of safeties (bicycles), racial divide between blacks and whites in Atlanta, Jo’s search for her biological parents, horse-racing and a Miss Sweetie advice column in a newspaper that added humor to this story.
I love Jo who isn’t timid in her thoughts and opinions. Actually her opinions gets her in trouble with a job she’s really good at. Jo is talented with her hands and her words. She goes from being a milliner, then a maid, and she rides a horse with skill. She is also the anonymous Miss Sweetie in the newspaper the Focus. What can’t she do? But her life isn’t perfect – she was raised by Old Gin, an older Chinese man who said he found her on his doorstep. She doesn’t know her real parents, they live as secret squatters and if found out could be kicked out or worse. Because they are Chinese, they experience prejudices and work menial jobs where they can find it and try to stay “out of the way” but with more change coming in Atlanta, it’s hard to just stand by, especially for Jo who was a lot to say.
I love the writing and wonder why I’ve never read a book by this author before! I really enjoyed the focus on the power and love of words, with the newspaper and the Miss Sweetie column. Jo is so witty and funny as Miss Sweetie giving her advice to subscribers of the Focus. But I also loved the Chinese parables that Old Gin uses to teach Jo about life lessons. It’s so beautiful and there were so many things I wanted to highlight in this book but I couldn’t because it’s a library copy.
I did not know about the history of the Chinese in the American South. So this book opened my eyes to a lot of things, including race relations in Atlanta around the 1890’s, which I knew of through history class but not about the Chinese that immigrated there. The author added in the Suffragist movement as well, and she showed how even in that movement, racism played a big part. There is a hierarchy in who’s cause took precedence and freedom for blacks always took last place, most notably, black women’s issues was last place. 😔
The horse race in the end, well who would’ve thought it could be so exciting to read! And I almost cried at the end, I just felt so pumped up for Jo, I was cheering her on!
There is a revelation in this book near the end and it was heart wrenching mostly because of the relationships between Jo and Old Gin (her caretaker). And then her usually tense relationship with Caroline her employer, changes in a way unexpected that just made me want to cry.
I enjoyed the other characters in this book like Old Gin who is so wise, and Noemi and Roddy who are her friends. I’m glad Jo had a little support group even though it was so small.
There was a little romance in this story. But I think this book would have been good without it. It didn’t make me like the book less though because I always love a little romance. It’s a very slow burn though.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I was immersed in Jo’s thoughts, her wit, worries, dreams and strong opinions. I love how the author gave us a glimpse of what it was like in Atlanta, Georgia for a Chinese girl in a time when tension was brewing between race and gender. I will definitely be reading more of her work. So many events are taking place in Jo’s life but I think her story ends victoriously. ☺️ Jo handles her search for her true self with courage and later with appreciation for the people who helped her realize her true voice. It touched my heart in ways unexpected.
This prompt is hosted byMandy at Devouring Books so check out her blog for bookish content. 😊
Rules!
Share your top 5 books of the current topic– these can be books that you want to read, have read and loved, have read and hated, you can do it any way you want.
Tag the original post (This one!)
Tag 5 people
Day Zero is a book I’m actually trying to finish this NetGalley arc right now. It takes place in the era of a New Recession and so far there are characters on the run after some doomsday events take place. This book comes out on November 12, 2019.
The Bear is also a NetGalley arc I reviewed a month or so ago and it is a story of two people surviving on Earth after some apocalyptic event. This title will be released on February 11, 2020.
The Nightingale is an amazing story by Kristin Hannah about two sisters in France who survive Nazi occupation in different ways.
I mean talk about a survival story, try surviving a grace year in The Grace Year! 😫
And then of course I can’t forget to put this on the list. Surviving The Hunger Games, let’s be honest I’d have been out in the first round.
And that’s all I got for today! I’m trying to catch up on reading because I have been slacking on my posts. 😩 So here’s to a great reading weekend! Happy reading everyone!
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!
It’s the 2nd Friday of November but I feel like the month is almost over? At least when I look at my calendar and I see Thanksgiving creeping up! I remember months ago I was reading 2-3 books a week and now I feel like I can do only 1 a week. I finally returned library books that I knew I couldn’t read by the time I had to return them (and yes I even renewed them). I’m going to concentrate on the books I bought and my NetGalley arcs.
But I am so excited for Christmas, I already picked out a tree theme (we never do a tree theme 😅) but for some reason, Target has all these pretty blush pink ornament palettes. I also found these super cute little animal ballerina ornaments and since my daughter have been doing the mommy/baby ballet class, I thought it would make a pretty tree theme. Yes…I’m so ready!
Anyway, here are some lines of a book I got as a birthday gift from my mother in law!
“For more than two hundred years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in town.”
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Practical Magic is one of my favorite movies, especially at Halloween time, but really any time of year. I love the sister bond between Gillian and Sally, the curse, the aunts, just the whole movie was fun. So I hope the book is too! Thanks to my mother-in-law for this and another Alice Hoffman book!
Title: The Guinevere Deception (Camelot Rising, #1)
Author: Kiersten White
Format: eBook (NetGalley)
Pages: 352
Publication Date: November 5, 2019
Categories: Fantasy, Camelot, Young Adult, Arthurian Legend
Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
There was nothing in the world as magical and terrifying as a girl.
Princess Guinevere has come to Camelot to wed a stranger: the charismatic King Arthur. With magic clawing at the kingdom’s borders, the great wizard Merlin conjured a solution–send in Guinevere to be Arthur’s wife . . . and his protector from those who want to see the young king’s idyllic city fail. The catch? Guinevere’s real name–and her true identity–is a secret. She is a changeling, a girl who has given up everything to protect Camelot.
To keep Arthur safe, Guinevere must navigate a court in which the old–including Arthur’s own family–demand things continue as they have been, and the new–those drawn by the dream of Camelot–fight for a better way to live. And always, in the green hearts of forests and the black depths of lakes, magic lies in wait to reclaim the land. Arthur’s knights believe they are strong enough to face any threat, but Guinevere knows it will take more than swords to keep Camelot free.
Deadly jousts, duplicitous knights, and forbidden romances are nothing compared to the greatest threat of all: the girl with the long black hair, riding on horseback through the dark woods toward Arthur. Because when your whole existence is a lie, how can you trust even yourself?
Thank you to Delacorte Press and NetGalley for giving me a chance to read this eARC.
I’ve been around long enough to read a fair share of King Arthur and Camelot legends. I remember devouring The Once & Future King by. T.H. White and The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley back in high school! I was obsessed. But it has been awhile since I’ve been interested in the legends and when I heard of The Guinevere Deception, I was intrigued!
This story is told through Guinevere’s perspective and what a view it is! We revisit Camelot through Guinevere’s eyes but deception is everywhere in this book. All is not what they seem at Camelot and magic is forbidden at Camelot, so what does that mean for Guinevere who was sent there for her ability to do magic? Arthur is under threat and she must protect him this time but is she able to or will all her efforts become unraveled?
The familiar characters from the Arthurian legends is nostalgic. It’s hard to resist a story about this boy who pulled a sword out of stone and is now a man and a most beloved, golden king. We have the knights and the villains, the legends have been retold so many times, it was nice to enter the world of Camelot again.
The story of Camelot is really magical with Merlin the wizard, the knights of the round table and Guinevere. I loved the world building of Camelot in this story, it reminded me of why I fell in love with the legends in the first place.
Kiersten White is a talented author and I’ve read a few of her books and love them. Once again, her writing shines and sucks you into the story.
The backstory on the characters is important especially for someone new to the King Arthur legends and I thought it was done well. It helped jar my memory about certain characters I had forgotten.
Love the twists about Guinevere, Lancelot, and even Mordred! I like how this book is reimagined for our current times. The author added LGBT relationships, and tweaked a few things about the story but I really enjoyed the changes.
The book cover is amazing. 😍 I can only imagine what it looks like in real life!
I loved the beginning of the book because we meet Guinevere. But about 15%-20% into the book I felt like I was just waiting for something more to happen. I understand though that the backstories of some characters are important, but after Guinevere gets to Camelot it felt like the story slowed down.
I struggled in the middle of the story because here is Guinevere who is sent to protect Arthur…but her magic seems so minimal. It seems like nothing much happens for a good half of the story, just world building, but the second half has much more action.
I hope we get more character depth in the sequel because outside of Guinevere they were kind of bland. Sometimes even Guinevere was a bit blah…I’d like to see if Merlin comes back into the equation and maybe see Arthur being tested (like he was in other legends) and even Guinevere, the ending shows us there is much to learn about her!
Overall, I enjoyed The Guinevere Deception, but the second half is much more engaging than the first half. It gives a some backstory for newcomers to the Arthurian legends and I enjoyed the changes and twists in the story. It’s a solid debut for this series and I look forward to reading the sequel!
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?
Didn’t think I’d still be reading this! I started on the weekend and I’m only halfway through. It was a new release yesterday so I hope I can finish today.
What have you finished reading?
I’m on the blog tour for this one, so review will come nearer to publication in February 2020, but let me say this…WOW.
What are you going to read next?
Another eARC I’m doing a blog tour for next week so I better read this one next right?
What are you reading or reading next? Leave me a comment below!
Top 5 Tuesday is hosted by Shanah at Bionic Book Worm. Check out her blog for more Top 5 Tuesday topics and other bookish content. Here is this week’s topic:
Top 5 books on my current TBR! (books you’re excited to read right now)
I’m so happy it’s coming out this month! I love this series.
I enjoyed The Wicked Deep a lot so I’m definitely looking forward to Winterwood. This one is out today, but I have to wait to read it at the end of the month when my OwlCrate box arrives. 😦
This is an eARC I just got approved to read on NetGalley, it comes out today also, so I hope I’m finished with this book by the time this post publishes.
Day Zero is a title I’m doing a blog tour for, so hopefully I can finish this one soon.
I got this title at the library last week, so I hope I can finish this one before it’s due back.
What are you excited to read this month? Leave me a comment below!
