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!

Book Review | Broken Knight

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️1/2

Title: Broken Knight

Author: L.J. Shen

Format: eBook (Kindle Unlimited)

Pages: 367

Categories: Coming of Age, New Adult, Romance, Drug Abuse, Sexual Situations

Not all love stories are written the same way. Ours had torn chapters, missing paragraphs, and a bittersweet ending.

Luna Rexroth is everyone’s favorite wallflower.

Sweet.
Caring.
Charitable.
Quiet.
Fake.
Underneath the meek, tomboy exterior everyone loves (yet pities) is a girl who knows exactly what, and who, she wants—namely, the boy from the treehouse who taught her how to curse in sign language.
Who taught her how to laugh.
To live.
To love.
Knight Cole is everyone’s favorite football hero.
Gorgeous.
Athletic.
Rugged.
Popular.
Liar.

This daredevil hell-raiser could knock you up with his gaze alone, but he only has eyes for the girl across the street: Luna.

But Luna is not who she used to be. She doesn’t need his protection anymore.
When life throws a curveball at All Saints’ golden boy, he’s forced to realize not all knights are heroes.

Sometimes, the greatest love stories flourish in tragedy.

Broken Knight is the second book in the All Saints High series by L.J. Shen was actually one I was looking forward to because of Luna. When Luna appeared in book one, Pretty Reckless, I was fascinated with her because she’s mute.

And this book started off cute with childhood memories of Knight Cole and Luna Rexroth and I was feeling all soft about them and my heart was saying “awww“, you know? They are the meant-to-be type of love, come on, you know those. So things looked promising. Then it would go back into present day and I was like…ugh….

It is a new adult novel, because though Knight and his friends are in high school, they live pretty fast when it comes to sex and girls. Knight is the quarterback on the high school football team, the girls love him, but he loves Luna – except…she doesn’t know it since he has girls hanging around him all the time. Luna is a year older than Knight and about to start college, and she’s always loved Knight, but knows about his reputation. She is a selective mute due to some severe anxiety and traumatic experiences in her childhood. She and Knight have been best friends since…forever. So why can’t they figure out how to get together?

Drama. Angst. Lots and lots of it.

Usually, I’m ready for the broken characters from this author, she’s known for them in her books. But I think this book was angst overload. Or am I just too old for this book, or series because these are high school “kids”. I think at one point in my life, I would have gobbled this book up – but I’m in a stage of being over BS. 😂 If the point of the book was the message that LIFE IS SHORT…then damn it, Luna and Knight could have figured out how to be honest with each other since day one, I think.

They both love each other, but they have that back and forth relationship, you know what I’m talking about? They miscommunicate, then Knight takes his revenge on Luna, then Luna does something because she assumes (but do I blame her for thinking Knight is a sleeping around? Hell no.) The characters are young, coming of age and dealing with a lot of things outside of each other. Anyway for two people who are the supposedly the best of friends and communicate without words so well…it was frustrating to see them not be on the same page when it came to one another.

I didn’t read Knight’s parents’ story which is Ruckus. But I felt like I caught up on it by reading the book. That part of the story was sad, but even then I didn’t even shed a tear because the back and forth with Knight and Luna was too much for me. I read past midnight and realized, damn, the story had 10% to go and you know what? I shut my fire tablet down. I was done for the night…I didn’t want more back and forth, I was tired. Usually with 10% to go, I power through…not with this one.

I picked it up the next day and yeah…the ending was bittersweet with a happily ever after but I didn’t feel happy. I’m glad it came to an end. Glad Luna and Knight figured things out – they got the sex figured out for sure. It did make me wonder what will happen with Dixie, Knight’s real mom…her story was sad and the way Knight treated her at times made me want to slap him. I wanted to slap a lot of people in this book. 🤣

If you are a fan of characters that are broken, hot messes (I will admit that guy on the book cover is pretty hot 🤷🏻‍♀️)…with tons of angst, you will definitely like this book. For me it was just okay, I may read Vaughn’s story – it’s kinda interesting already, but I have no interest in Hunter’s story haha. We shall see, this is probably a mood read kind of thing for me, so that will probably determine if I continue the series.

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!

Book Review | We Hunt the Flame

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Title: We Hunt the Flame

Author: Hafsah Faizal

Format: Hardcover (borrowed)

Page: 469

Categories: Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance

People lived because she killed. People died because he lived.

Zafira is the Hunter, disguising herself as a man when she braves the cursed forest of the Arz to feed her people. Nasir is the Prince of Death, assassinating those foolish enough to defy his autocratic father, the sultan. If Zafira was exposed as a girl, all of her achievements would be rejected; if Nasir displayed his compassion, his father would punish him in the most brutal of ways. Both Zafira and Nasir are legends in the kingdom of Arawiya―but neither wants to be.
War is brewing, and the Arz sweeps closer with each passing day, engulfing the land in shadow. When Zafira embarks on a quest to uncover a lost artifact that can restore magic to her suffering world and stop the Arz, Nasir is sent by the sultan on a similar mission: retrieve the artifact and kill the Hunter. But an ancient evil stirs as their journey unfolds―and the prize they seek may pose a threat greater than either can imagine.

That first line of the blurb pretty much says it all about the two main characters that we follow in We Hunt the Flame.

Zafira is the Hunter, or Huntress, but almost everyone thinks she is a man. She is the only one who can brave the Arz, a cursed forest that devours the land and the people that venture inside it. Because Zafira is the only known person to survive the Arz, she is the one that hunts and provides meat for her village.

Nasir is a hashashin (assassin) but also, the crown prince who cannot seem to fight the will of his father, the sultan. The sultan is cruel and possessed by some dark magic that has Nasir wishing for the life he had before his father turned evil.

There is a quest for Zafira to find a book called the Jawarat. She hopes when she finds it, it will restore the lost magic to the people of Arawiya. Nasir’s part in this quest is somewhat different than hers. In this quest we also meet other players and learn what is really at stake if they fail to retrieve the book.

Is the story predictable? Sure it is and I have definitely read many fantasies about a girl on a quest and an evil prince out to stop her, and needing magic to be restored to the land and people. But this book is so beautifully written. I was seriously involved in googling words I didn’t know (I love learning something new), and looking at the map in the book, studying the layout of the land because I was absolutely intrigued about this world! I love learning about the supernatural beings in Arabic culture that was featured in this book.

It’s not a book that starts right off with action. Act 1 is definitely building the world and introducing us to Zafira, her friends, her family, her life and some of the history of Arawiya. Some might find it too slow, but I’ve learned with books like these, I just have to put it down and pick it up later with no pressure and go with the flow. But I did read this in a day and a half, so that’s pretty good!

We also meet Nasir, oh Nasir…his life is so different from Zafira, but his upbringing is just so sad. The quest brings them together and breaks them and mends them in ways they didn’t expect.

There is a slow burn romance, it is definitely an enemies to lovers situation, but I don’t think it took over the story. I thought for a moment there would be a love triangle but there wasn’t, though it was interesting how Zafira dealt with the loss of her best-friend, who was a potential suitor. The other characters in the story from Yasmine, Zafira’s bold best-friend to Altair who is that annoying yet very charming guy with a secret brought so much to the story. I enjoyed the interaction between all of them whether it was funny or tense, it made me care for these characters. There is love there, especially with Zafira and her family and friends. ❤️

The story navigates many emotions like grief, guilt, love and fear. But I really resonated with the message of teamwork in this book. Everyone had a role, everyone plays a part, even if Zafira and Nasir are usually lone hunters, they had to learn and lean on one another. The book starts off on the assumption that Zafira is the chosen one, but she’s not, she wouldn’t have had success in this quest without the others.

I don’t usually talk about titles to books but this one, We Hunt the Flame, is so meaningful. In the book the phrase means to be always looking for hope, hope being the flame. But I realized after reading it, the characters were all hunting for something. Nasir wondering if anyone will ever love him 😔, Zafira hunting for forgiveness and bravery to be the woman she is, the Silver Witch righting a wrong, and so forth. We all hunt the flame…whatever the flame is to us.

Over, We Hunt the Flame is a lush Arabic inspired fantasy novel that is beautifully told and that gave me characters I cared about and leaves me looking forward to the next book.

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? ☺️

Unboxing | Owl Crate | August 2019 Box

I’ve been dying to try Owl Crate for months now but I was waiting for a featured book I wanted to own and when I saw that the book for August was House of Salt and Sorrows, I bought it. I got the box last weekend and I was not disappointed!

This is what was in the box:

Just the theme alone I’m so in love with! I am an island girl and love all things ocean and the octopus? Love those tentacled creatures! The pin, bath salts, tea, wooden book mark and pencil case are so lovely! And that lantern? 😍 I’ll be using it as a prop for my bookstagram photos. I’m going to gift a few things but I’m definitely keeping the lantern and book. Isn’t it beautiful? This was a great box, glad I got it!

Now I’m looking forward to the September box and all the Halloween themed items coming! Love this box and I will definitely keep this subscription for now. Stay tuned for the next unboxing! 😘

Have you read the book House of Salt and Sorrow? What did you think? I’ll post my review once I get to reading it!

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!