First Lines Friday (9/06/19)

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!

Friday for me couldn’t come soon enough this week! It was a short school week for my son because it was a holiday week, but we spent the last weekend at a hotel in busy Waikiki which is tourist central on our island. It was SO packed with people and my sister and her family had a room at the hotel as well so it was a family affair!

I barely slept for our two nights there but it was good to get away from our routine for a bit. I haven’t gone on a trip since my son was born, seven years ago! So I have major island fever. But I’m back in the routine and reading again. Let’s see if I can get some reviews up on this blog and some fun book tags that I’ve been seeing on my fellow bloggers’ sites! With that said…let’s get the lines!

“The say there’s a fine line between love and hate. I used to think They were idiots. Most people are. What could some faceless They know about love? Or hate for that matter. But then I dated Veronica Matthews.”

⏬

Doesn’t this one look fun? Gonna start reading this one soon, I was saving it for when we get closer to Halloween but I already renewed it at the library. Haha, so I better get to reading it because I have 7 other library books on my shelf! Have a nice weekend everyone!

WWW Wednesday

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam over on Taking on a World of Words.

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?

This is my first WWW Wednesday so let’s get to it:

What are you currently reading?

I am reading this eARC called Unspoken by Celia McMahon. It is set to publish September 17, 2019 by The Parliament House Press. It’s pretty good so far, check out the link for the book blurb. It’s got a Princess who loves to hunt, forbidden magic, shape shifters and so much more!

What have you just finished reading?

I have finally read Nocturna! It was only on my book shelf for about 3 or 4 months. Haha, not too bad, but I wanted to read it before the summer came to a close. Review will be up before the end of this week.

What are you going to read next?

Going to try and read Descendant of the Crane this week. It’s due at my library soon, so hoping I can finish it quick.

And that’s all I got for Wednesday! It’s been a long weekend as my family and I were staying at a hotel for Labor day weekend. So I’m trying to catch up on everything. And I can’t quite say I had a relaxing weekend…I barely slept. At one point I had 4 kids in my hotel room (I only have 2 children 😂 – the other 2 were my nephews)….SO…relaxing it was not, but getting away from my house for 2 days always makes me feel a bit different. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Top Ten Tuesday

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. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Please check out her website for more TTT topics!

This week’s topic is:

Books I Enjoyed That Are Outside of My Comfort Zone

(i.e., a genre you don’t typically read or subject matter you’re not usually drawn to)

I just got done reading this eARC of Mooncakes which is a graphic novel and I hardly read graphic novels. I saw awesome reviews for this one and gave it a try and LOVED it! I have a review on it coming up this week!

I don’t read middle grade books but I love Catherine Doyle and decided to give it a try. And I was not disappointed!

I’m not a big mystery fan, but I enjoy this series by indie author K.A. Miltimore who reached out to me to read and review her books. I love the supernatural characters and paranormal elements in this series. It always makes me want to move to a small town in Oregon. 🤔 And eat strangely shaped delicious pastries…😬

My comfort zone for the fantasy genre is more young adult fantasy which are broken up into trilogies and so when I borrowed this book I wasn’t sure what to expect. The Priory of the Orange Tree is a hefty book clocking in at 800+ pages. I read it in one week and I felt like it went slow because I couldn’t connect to the characters as I wanted to and I wanted more dragons really. It was pretty epic in scale, the world building , the length, the weight of the book (I felt like I was carrying around a newborn baby!).

I’ve been easing into reading sci-fi but I still enjoy reading it more as a space opera type books. It has to have romance and I definitely prefer it in as a young adult book. If it gets too technical, it loses me, so give me a book with action and emotion, like The Honors series and I can get into it.

Once in a great while I have the urge to read a book like Gone Girl. It’s not my favorite genre, but sometimes, just once in awhile, I need a good scare or freak out – I don’t know why! 😂 Last year I read Sharp Objects because I heard Amy Adams was going to star in the tv series. So I read the book beforehand and ugh…..it’s disturbing and just what I strangely wanted at the time. TOTALLY out of my comfort zone.

I read this one years ago when it came out in 2008 and I was working in a college library at the time and I borrowed from our collection. There was so much hype over it and so I read it and the whole series afterwards. What I really enjoyed about it was the computer hacking and revenge aspects but geez…it has a lot of disturbing scenes.

Apparently I’m digging deep in my Goodreads READ list to finish this topic…😅 but I read this 10+ years ago?! And I wasn’t into dystopia yet, Twilight was SO big that year, I remember falling in love with Vampires (again, you know there is always a cycle haha)…and I picked up this series and was like…whoa. It was just so different from all the vampire stuff I was reading, it was a breath of fresh air.

Bully romances…I actually liked book one Broken Legacy of this series, but after book two I decided to give up on the series and probably bully romances in general. I love the romance genre, it is what made me fall in love with reading in general. But I can take only so much unhealthy relationships in the romance genre. 😂

Reverse harem books are definitely out of my comfort zone – I tried this series because I love indie author Jaymin Eve, I liked book one but by the time I got to book four I stopped. I couldn’t make myself read book five. I just can’t do the whole one girl, five brothers relationship. 😅 It’s just way too much sharing for my taste. I can deal with a love triangle but more than that…it’s too much for me.

That’s my TTT today! I look forward to reading your lists ~ are any of these out of your comfort zone as well? Let me know in the comments below!

20 Questions Book Tag

I saw this book tag on a few blogs but finally decided to do it after seeing it just recently on Nen & Jen check out and follow her lovely blog for more awesome content!

Let’s do this!

How many books are too many in a series?

I think it depends on the series – some just need to stop at three if it’s becoming repetitive or the writing/editing is suffering (I’m looking at you Anita Blake series 😅). In YA Fantasy or Sci-Fi, I love a good, solid, well written trilogy but lately I am in love with duologies. It keeps the story tight and exciting. But for historical romance novels with a whole family and each family member has a story to tell, I want each sibling or whoever to have their own book. So it depends!

How do you feel about cliff hangers?

I used to hate them, because I hate waiting a year for the sequel. Like why do you have to torture us?! 😂 But now that I blog about books, I have so many books on my TBR list, it makes the time go fast reading other books, and now I don’t mind them so much. Out of sight, out of mind haha…

Hardback or paperback?

I’m not picky anymore. Just give me books.

Favourite book?

I don’t have just one…I just have too many I love equally.

Least favourite book?

I don’t have a book I totally dislike. I mean there are a few, but not at the top of my head.

Love triangle…yes or no?

I love them when the girl picks the guy I want her to end up with. 😂

The most recent book you couldn’t finish?

I don’t know why but I just cannot push on to read Ruin & Rising by. Leigh Bardugo. I barely got through Chapter 1! And I just don’t have a desire to finish. I borrowed it twice already and both times I didn’t finish.

A book you’re currently reading?

The last book you recommended to someone?

Outside of my blogging, I recommended, Frankly in Love, by. David Yoon to one of my besties who is looking for more Asian authors.

Oldest book you’ve read (based on publication date)?

I think it has to be Pride and Prejudice. I’m pretty sure I’ve read older stuff in high school and college, does William Shakespeare count? Or Beowulf (wasn’t that a poem? 🤔)? Haha but the one I enjoyed is Pride and Prejudice.

Newest book you’ve read (based on publication date)?

I read a lot of eARCS that haven’t been published yet, but for published books, I’ll say Vow of Thieves by. Mary Pearson that was published on Aug. 6th. And I’m just looking at my NetGalley list.

Favourite author?

I have too many: Mary Pearson, Sarah J. Maas, Madeline Miller, Jenn Bennett, Sarah MacLean, Lisa Kleypas, Karen Marie Moning….way too many haha.

Buying books or borrowing them?

Mostly borrow because of cost and space but I’ve been buying more because I’m trying out book crate subscriptions. And I told my hubby I finally want a nice big book shelf in the house. I didn’t plan on one because my kids would pull off the books. But I do love our library!

A book you dislike that everyone else loves?

Very unpopular opinion but The Grisha series. 😞 I tried but for some reason, it doesn’t interest me.

Bookmarks or dog-ears?

Bookmarks!

A book you can re-read over and over?

Lisa Kleypas books I’ve re-read a lot when I’m in the mood for historical romance. But I also love the A Court of Thorns and Roses series.

Can you read while listening to music?

I have two children. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I’ve learn to read while listening to gaming youtube videos, Dan TDM videos, baby shark videos, Peppa Pig, Blippy…🤦🏻‍♀️💆🏻‍♀️

Multiple POV or one POV?

No preference, I love both, as long as it’s done well!

Do you read a book in one sitting or over multiple days on average?

If the book is good, then in one sitting (well…actually that’s what I used to do before kids-so I’d say in one day because my kids do come first). But if a book is slow-paced, it will take me a few days.

Who do you tag?

Anyone who wants to do this tag! No pressure. 😘

Thanks for reading my post! Hope you enjoyed it and if you do any book tags, please put your links in my comments. I love reading book tag posts!

Monthly Wrap-Up | August 2019

August is over? What?! Where did the time go? I spent a lot of August at the beach folks and in the heat but it was nice because we were visiting with family. My kids had a lot of fun hanging out at the beach or pool – so much that my son already has two absences this month for school. He had so much fun he got a runny nose and sore throat. 😩 And he just started school…oops! 👀

But I am seriously ready for cooler weather and all things fall. We don’t get fall weather in Hawaii so I love all the fall decorations in the store, pumpkin bread in the stores and gearing up for Halloween. I love the holidays. 😍

So let’s get to it! Here’s what I read in August:

I read some awesome books! I do say 2019 have been really good with releases. 💃🏻 If you want to see the reviews for these books, just type the title in the search box or check out my archives menu. I promise I will update my book reviews list sometime this week.

What did you read in August? Leave your link below in the comments!

Let’s move on to September shall we? ☺️

First Lines Friday

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!

Aloha Friday everyone! It’s the LAST Friday of August, hooray! The closer I can get to cooler weather here in Hawaii, the better, except that may not happen for another 2 months. Yes, it’s usually hot and humid even on Halloween – it makes trick or treating really gross.

Speaking of Halloween – I already got decorations from Target, yup and my daughter, bless her sweet little heart, loves pumpkins. She’s been playing with our pumpkin decorations all week and it’s still summer. It’s hot, I’m tired and I’m just trudging through this heat, staying on top of my son’s homework and yesterday I had to take everything out of the closet because we might have termites in the floor. Yup. SO much FUN – not. It was exhausting but I definitely got to throw out things, and I’m going to donate a lot of stuff too. I guess it’s time to rip out the carpet (This house is only 6 years old! ugh 😩) like my hubby and I have been planning and put the nice flooring we’ve been wanting to since we bought the house.

Anyway enough of that – this weekend is the LAST birthday celebration for my son, he had two weeks of cake, fun with family visiting from out of state, more cake and now with our Hawaii family, we are going to hang out in Waikiki for Labor Day weekend to celebrate his birthday with them. Ladies and gents, I will be getting a margarita or Mai Tai or mojito or something tropical that will make me feel like I’m on vacation, because…I deserve it. 🏝🍹⛱ (honestly I’m so tired of the sun though haha)

With all THAT said…sorry…lol…

Can you guess this book?

“Candlelight reflected off the silver anchor etched onto my sister’s necklace. It was an ugly piece of jewelry and something Eulalie would never have picked out for herself.”

⤋

Intriguing! Has anyone read this book yet? Did you like it? Let me know in the comments below and I hope all of you have an amazing weekend!

Unboxing | Fae Crate | July 2019 Box

I love book crate subscriptions, I’ve tried three of them now and am going to continue trying as much as I can. I’m in the shopping around stage but so far each box has been pretty awesome.

I decided to try the July Fae Crate box because I found a coupon code for it. So I thought, why not?

Here is what was inside it:

In the box:

Renegades Sorting Candle by SpideyScents
Steelheart Lanyard
XL Lunar Chronicles Pouch by. CatarinaBookDesigns
Hero Pop Socket
Mystery Hero Card Collection
Young Elites Collectible Coin
Carry On Collectors Polaroid by. @choink

The book is Collateral Damage by. Taylor Simonds with a super cute reversible dust jacket:

And the edges are sprayed black…

And it even comes with a free ebook download – the book is Deviation by. Christine Manzari

My favorite thing in the box is the XL pouch, looks like it can hold a laptop. What do I do with the rest of the items in the box? I gift them or will put them together for giveaways I do on my instagram account. I haven’t read the book yet, but I’ll get to it eventually!

I thought the box was some cute things, but it’s not my favorite of the three subscriptions I’ve tried. I do like that with Fae Crate you can do a one-time purchase. Some other companies is a monthly subscription and you have to go in a cancel if you don’t want the next box. The one-time purchase is so much more convenient when you are shopping around like I am. I’ll try it again when I see a theme I like. I kind of want to get all the Halloween themed subscriptions 😂 but I’d be super broke if I did that!

Have you tried book box subscriptions? Any you would like to recommend?

Top Ten Tuesday

This week’s topic is…

Books I’ve Read That I’d Like In My Personal Library

(perhaps you checked it out, borrowed it from a friend, received it for review, etc. and want to own it yourself.) (Submitted by Annemieke @ A Dance with Books)

I have so many I want – now only if I had the space…haha…

Vow of Thieves by. Mary Pearson – because the Dance of Thieves duology is one of my favorites. I love Kazi and Jase! ❤️ Read it as an arc and need it to complete my set.

The Nightingale by. Kristin Hannah – it’s the book that got me reading all of Kristin Hannah’s work. Read it as an ebook and definitely need a hard copy.

The Cruel Prince, The Wicked King, & The Queen of Nothing by. Holly Black – I’m actually getting the Barnes & Noble trilogy set when it releases in November. Can’t wait!

Every Judith McNaught book in Hardcover – because her books made me fall in love with reading when I was a teenager.

Most of Lisa Kleypas historical romance books – I want almost all of them, because after Judith McNaught stopped writing, Lisa Kleypas books filled that void for my love of historical romance novels.

His Hideous Heart by. Dahlia Adler – because I love Edgar Allan poe and only read this as an arc. Will add it to my collection once it releases.

The Bridge Kingdom by. Danielle L. Jensen – hopefully I can get the set once the series is complete. Love this first book, hope the rest lives up to it!

Inferno and Mafiosa by. Catherine Doyle – I have Vendetta, from the Blood for Blood series but need the other two. One of my favorites!

The World on Either Side by. Diane Terrana – read this as an arc and I absolutely loved it.

The Bone Witch Series by. Run Chupelco – because I need more filipino authors on my book shelf and I love this series.

What books do you want on your bookshelf? Leave me your answers or link in the comments below! I’d love to hear from you!

First Lines Fridays

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!

Happy Aloha Friday everyone! What a week! We have visiting family from New York and California, so it’s been busy around here. We have been hanging out at the beach a lot and since my son turns 7 years old in five days and our family leave this weekend, we have been doing birthday celebrations. Lucky him, he’s having the best birthday ever I think. 🤗

So like I’ve been doing the past few weeks – here are some photos of my week before I do my First Lines Friday.

Hope you enjoyed that! So let’s get to the lines:

“People lived because she killed. And if that meant braving the Arz where even the sun was afraid to glimpse, then so be it.”

⇩

I hope this one is good! I know there was a lot of hype around it so we shall see. I do love the map inside it. 😍

How has your week been going? What are you reading? Have you read We Hunt the Flame? I would love to hear from yo! Let me know what you think in the comments below. 😘

Ultimate Book Tag

Another fun book tag post from A Little Haze Book Blog! Check out her book blog for more book tag ideas and enlightening book reviews. Let’s see how well I do answering these questions:

1. Do you get sick while reading in the car?

I never used to but I haven’t tried it in forever since I’m always the one doing the driving lately!

2. The Harry Potter Series or The Twilight Saga? Give 3 points to defend your answer

Twilight

According to my Goodreads Read list, I’ve read 2 Harry Potter Books. I don’t even remember the second one. It’s not for me.
I read Twilight so long ago but I loved the whole ordinary girl gets noticed by a vampire and a werewolf. I was addicted to this series.
It has romance! I love romance – did Harry Potter have any romance in it? I don’t even know!

3. Do you carry a book bag? If so what is in it?

Nope, I have one bag filled with my essentials, and no room for a book. Plus I’m always with my kids and they never leave me alone enough to actually read in public.

4. Do you smell your books?

Um yes…doesn’t every book lover smell books? 😂 I love it new, I love it old.

5. Books with or without illustrations?

Obviously without illustrations for novels but I read a LOT of children’s books and soon middle grade books for my son. He’s moving onto graphic novels so I’m trying them out too.

6. What book did you love while reading but discovered later it wasn’t quality writing?

Long ago (I act like I’m a dinosaur sometimes 😆) – long ago, in late 1990’s, when I was in college, lol… I started reading Lauren K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series. It’s urban fantasy, and I thought it was really good, different, Anita Blake was a badass vampire slaying private investigator, it was addicting, kinda racy, a little kinky, sexy if you like seeing someone hook up with shape-shifters, ya know…but then each book after the first few started sounding the same. And Anita didn’t only now have a vampire lover and a shape-shifter lover…she had a few…like soon all the story was about who’s turn it was for her to have sex with and I gave up. And look, I don’t even mind sometimes if a book doesn’t have quality writing, but when it’s a series and the newest book reads like the last book, then we have a problem. I gave up…and I just checked goodreads and it says there are now 26 books in the series!! I think I gave up at book 10.

7. Do you have any funny stories involving books from your childhood? Please share!

Not that I can think of.

8. What is the thinnest book on your shelf?

The Little Prince by. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

9. What is the thickest book on your shelf?

Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning

10. Do you write as well as read? Do you see yourself in the future becoming an author?

I started writing in the 6th grade, writing some teen romance novel. I wrote in diaries since the 4th grade, journaling until I was about…33 – when my kids came, I found no time to write. But when I thought to tell my parents when I was young I wanted to be a writer/author…my immigrant parents said “what do you mean, writing? What is that? You can only be a doctor, lawyer or nurse.” 😂 SO…I wrote and wrote for years privately, never really finishing a story because I didn’t believe I could I think. I had a few blogs years ago to just write about what was going on in my life – especially when I was wedding planning. Did some paid blogging jobs also, which was was surprising and fun. But never sat down and finished a story. Instead I just read a lot, worked in a library (to be near books), and finally told myself to start a blog again to do book reviews since all I do is read so much. Will it happen? I don’t know. Maybe. My friends keep trying to encourage me, which is nice. But we shall see…

11. When did you get into reading?

I remember being fascinated with the Disney version of Cinderella at like 5 or 6. But getting INTO reading, like…when my addiction started? I’d say middle school when I read teen romance novels that my older cousins handed down to me. 😬

12. What is Your Favourite Classic Book?

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and of course, Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen.

13. In school was your best subject English or another Language Arts subject?

English and History

14. If you were given a book as a present that you had read before and hated, what would you do?

The only person who gifts me books is my mother-in-law! If someone did give me a book I hated I would donate it to the library haha.

15. What is a lesser known series that you know of that is similar to Harry Potter or The Hunger Games?

There are so many books on Amazon by indie authors similar to Harry Potter, but with a female protagonist. I’ll mention The Culling Trials (Shadowspell Academy Series).

16. What is your favourite word?

So hard to pick one. But one of my favorites is “Mana” – in Hawaiian it means “power”, the power inside of you or the power of nature, etc…

17. Are you a Nerd, Dork, or Dweeb? Or all of the above?

A book nerd for sure. Sometimes a dork, but aren’t we all? Dweeb…hmmm, what exactly is a dweeb?

18. Vampires or Faeries?

You really going to make me pick? Because I think my love for both them are EQUAL. Now would I want to get with a vampire or Faerie? I might like the lure of Faerie much more…they seem to have a lot of fun. 😂

19. Bookmark or Random Piece of Paper?

Both, because I love bookmarks but always lose them! I blame my daughter though, she takes them from me.

20. Love Triangle or Forbidden Love?

I love a good love triangle if it’s done well. I love anything with “love” in it. 😅

21. One book at a time or several books at once?

I used to only read one book at a time but when I started this blog I wanted to have all these posts ready to go and then I signed up for NetGalley and now I read several books at once. It’s taken awhile for me to get used to it and sometimes I get overwhelmed and take a break from reading. Hopefully I can get back to reading one at a time.

22. Can you stop reading at any part of the book or does it have to be the end of the chapter?

I shoot for end of the chapter.

23. Do you write in your books?

Nope. The only one I ever wrote in was my paperback copy of Jane Eyre but ever since then I don’t do it.

24. Can you read while listening to music or watching TV?

I can read while my kids watch tv – does that count? 😂 but I prefer quiet.

25. Do you read out loud or silently in your head?

Silently but sometimes when the writing is just so beautiful, I read a passage out loud to just appreciate how wonderful it is!

BONUS QUESTION: Physical book, e-book or audio book?

Physical and ebooks and NO to audiobooks. I don’t have the concentrate needed for audiobooks.

And that’s another book tag! If you think this was fun and you want to do it, feel free to leave me your link in my comments. I would love to read your answers! Happy reading book lovers!