Blogmas day #9 – Goodreads Choice Awards 2020 – results *reaction*

Hello lovelies!

Welcome to day 9 of Blogmas!!

The Goodreads Choice Awards 2020 results came in and I wanted to talk about the results, who I voted for and what I think of the winners in the following categories: Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult Fiction, Debut Novel and Young Adult Fantasy.

I’m really happy about the number of diverse reads that were nominated and won this year; I think 2020 was really a turning point (at least I hope so) for the publishing industry and I hope this trend will continue in 2021 and in the following years.

Historical Fiction

I voted for:

Winner:

I’m am absolutely thrilled that this book won. I don’t read a lot of Historical Fiction but this just blew me away. This book is incredibly well-written with a unique plot and it deserves all the praise it gets. You can see my review for the book here.

Fantasy

I voted for

Winner

This is kind of funny because I did not read this book, yet I still voted for this because I knew that it wouldn’t disappoint and I’m conforted in my opinion by the fact that it won. The Invisible Life of Addie Larue (see my review here!) was an amazing book too so I’m glad that it was also nominated in this category.

Romance

I voted for

Winner

I was torn between so many books in this category – from Beach Read (which came in second place with 60k votes against 70k votes) as well as Take A Hint, Dani Brown and Party of Two! Several other books that are nominated are also high on my TBR which is the case for From Blood and Ash which I haven’t shut up about in my later posts. I still would have liked Beach Read to win because to me it was so much more than a romance. The story dealt with so many other topics than just a typical love story and it’s now one of my favourite books ever. However, that does not mean that From Blood and Ash is underserving and since it won, I’m really excited to read this! (see my review for Beach Read here).

Debut Novel

I voted For

Winner

Once again, I haven’t read either of these books so I really can’t say which one I like better but I was so happy that such a diverse, inclusive book as Cemetery Boys was nominated that I voted for this one.

Young Adult Fiction

I voted for

Winner

This was one of my favourite reads of 2020 and I couldn’t be happier that this book won!! It was such a beautiful tale about grief, sisterhood and love and I couldn’t recommend it enough! You can find my review for this wonderful book here. I also love the fact that so many of the nominees featured BIPOC characters as well as LGBTQ+ characters! This warms my poor little heart. I honestly think all of the nominees equally deserved to win.

Young Adult Fantasy and Science-Fiction

I voted for

Winner

Okay hear me out: The Folk of the Air trilogy is one of my favourite series ever. I even broke my book buying ban for the new Cardan novella. But I think it’s a little unfair that this book won because it was published in 2019. And there are so many and I mean so many amazing books that were published this year that are predicted 5 stars reads for me (hello Legendborn, Cemetery Boys, A Song of Wraiths and Ruin, and These Violent Delights) and i wanted one of them to win. I’m really excited to read these books this month or in 2021. However, I’m still very happy that Holly Black won this because The Queen of Nothing is an amazing book and it was such a beautiful ending to the series and I miss the characters so so much. (see my review here).

What did you think about the winners? Are you satisfied or disappointed by the results?

August Wrap Up!

Hello lovelies!

I can’t believe we’re in September already! This year has been pure chaos and the month of August certainly lived up to that. Let’s dive into my wrap-up!

August was my best reading month ever!! I had the time of my life. I read so many amazing, diverse and interesting books. I highly recommend all of them! (Except the one I gave two stars to).

August statistics

Books read: 11
Total pages: 3654

5 Stars ★★★★★

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Beach Read – Emily Henry. This is one of the best romance books I’ve ever read and it was the perfect summer read. It dealt with so many topics and had so much depth and I might never recover. You can see my full review here.

Take A Hint, Dani Brown – Talia Hibbert. This was so so cute and Zaf and Dani live in my mind rent free. I cannot recommend this book enough. You can see my full review here.

Bérénice – Racine. This is a French Classic and my friend recommended it to me and it was one of the best plays I’ve ever read. I would love to see it live.

Queen of Shadows – Sarah J. Maas. WORTH THE HYPE. It’s my favourite of the series so far.

4 Stars ★★★★

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Party of Two – Jasmine Guillory. It feels like the author looked inside my head, saw exactly what I wanted and needed to read and wrote it.

Get A Life, Chloe Brown – Talia Hibbert. This was one of the steamiest, funniest, healthiest and cutest books ever written. It tackled so many subjects and Talia Hibbert handles them with care and love.

The Hunter and the Mage – Kaitlyn Davis. I received this ARC for the second book in The Raven and the Dove series and I think I even liked it more than the first book. Full review to come.

Shatter Me – Tahereh Mafi. This is a beloved books in the book community and my sister’s favourite series so I just had to read it. I think the beginning was too slow-paced for me but once it picked up I couldn’t put it down. I really can’t wait to read the second book in the series since it is a lot of people’s favourite and we get to see Warner a lot more so there’s that too.

3.5/5 Stars ★★★

This book. Phew. I had such a great time reading this book because it was a historical romance with a Black main character!! How haven’t I read this sooner? Since it dealt with the Civil War, the topic of slavery and racism were dealt with but it was more triggering to me than I thought so I can’t give it more stars but the romance is definitely 10/10.

2 Stars ★★

I had so many expectations for this book but it was so bad it nearly made me angry. This is quite sad because I love The Selection series by the author.

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Favourite posts by fellow bloggers

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS | STANDALONE BOOKS EDITION BY SOFII @ A BOOK. A THOUGHT.
I loved the format of this book recommendations! And Sofi has impeccable taste so I cannot recommend this post enough.

5 Reasons I Love Audiobooks by Liza @ The Inharmonious heroine
I'l a fervent defender of audiobooks and Liza summed up perfectly why you should like audiobooks too!

Blue chocolate chip cookies for the best character ever – Happy Birthday Percy Jackson 💙 by erin @ Reading On A Star
This is one of the cutest and heartwarming posts I've ever read! I love that people get attached to characters so much that they feel like our close friends, even if they are fictional; and this post celebrates this.

6 books that feel like a hug by Margaret @ Weird Zeal
Let's be real here, we all need a hug right now. 

September is Snatching my Check ~ My 10 Most Anticipated Book Releases BY: Rachelle Saint Louis
Rae just shared so many incredible books that are coming out this month and I love how she puts forth diverse books!

August was so weird because there were really good moments but also very bad ones so I really don’t know how I feel. I’m really grateful for the escapism books offered so it wasn’t so bad.

I am also under a lot of stress because I am moving to Paris on Saturday and it’s what I’ve always wanted but it is also intimidating and scary since we’re in the middle of a global pandemic.

I’m still very hopeful because I’m going to meet so many new people and start my master’s degree and I missed going to class. This new chapter is so exciting!! I’m going to send positivity into the world and pray for the best.

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I have mostly watched dance movies for some unknown reason and I loved it! My personal favourite was Work It because the chemistry between Sabrina Carpenter and Jordan Fisher was off the charts! It wasn’t perfect but I had a good time. Also is there anything Jordan Fisher cannot do?? Feel the Beat was good too and I loved the representation! But the romance wasn’t very convincing even if the actors had chemistry. My sister recommended Battle to be because there’s Lisa Teige and she also stars in Skam but it was quite disappointing and the ending was quite abrupt and so many questions.

I also watched Ghost for the first time ever and it is now one of my favourite movies!! The cast and their acting was phenomenal and the plot was so interesting and clever! I loved it.

Spot some of your favourites? What were some of yours? Let me know in the comments! Karla xx

Beach Read by Emily Henry – Book Review

Hello lovelies!

This is my latest 5 stars read. I have tried to write this review for hours. I started from the minute I put the book down but I don’t know how to convey my feelings. I am overflowing with love. This is the best romance I’ve read in a while. This is coming from a person that only reads books with romance in it. 

Title: Beach Read

Author: Emily Henry

Synopsis (Goodreads):

Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.They’re polar opposites.In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block.Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really

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Persephone:  5 stars. One of the best books I’ve ever read; it holds a particular place in my heart and it is now part of my favourite books ever.

Pheme: Hyped book.

The best thing about this book was THE CHEMISTRY. It was out of this world. From their very *first* encounter, I was hooked.  I really really liked their banter and I found myself smiling from ear to ear at times.

The steamy scenes were incredibly well-written; I could feel the sexual tension and lust rippling off of the two and I adored that. I also liked how romantic their interactions were when they were trying to hide their feelings. The fact that they went on “not dates” was really clever because they were behaving as a couple without knowing it. I swooned whenever they were doing “research” (and no that’s not a code for sex.). I also like all the little details which made the romance believable like passing notes and hugging. That melted my already soft heart. 

What is great about this book is that it not only focused on the romance. It deals with heavy subjects such as grief and child abuse. These themes were really important in terms of character development and I really liked the dialogue around it. I loved how the character found themselves with the other’s help . They each had their own demons and it was so nice to see them both being so honest and open with each other which was very healthy. I really dislike the miscommunication trope and it was SO NICE to see them talk about their traumas and feelings. I loved how patient and supportive they both were! Man, I really cannot get over how healthy and respectful their relationship was.

All of the characters were all very well fleshed out and I liked the friendship and family dynamics. This is a book about what it means to love someone be it your aunt, your wife or your father.

I also liked the “writing a book” aspect. The author tackled the subject of writer’s block and the writing process and, as a reader, it was a nice experience.

One of my favorite parts was when the author validated the romance genre. I’m sick of gender-based categories and how anything preceded with “women” is frowned down upon. That’s why I liked the bet because it allowed the reader to delve deeper into literary fiction as well as romance and the elements and research that go into writing these genres. I hate that “Happy endings” are a factor that deter some people from reading those. The world is really glum and scary and I think it is very comforting to have those beautiful stories in our lives. That’s what the book is about. I love books that make me want to live my life and fall in love.

Did you read this book? Did you enjoy it?

Let me know in the comments! Karla

Reading Project Wrap Up!- Week 3/3

Hello lovelies!

Woohooo I did it! *Happy dance*. I managed to read 10 books in three weeks! The first two weeks were off to a rocky start but I managed to catch up this week since I read 5 books. FIVE BOOKS. IN A WEEK. I usually manage to read five books in a month so I’m very proud of myself.

I really liked challenging myself and I think I might do this project again in the future. I want to hank you for taking this journey with me. Here’s a list of all the books I read with ratings and small reviews :

5 STARS ★★★★★

Beach Read: I love romance with my whole heart. I scarcely read books that do not contain a romantic relationship in it. It can be the worst plot ever, if the romance works, then I’m sold. This book was the best romance I have read in a long time. The chemistry between the characters was wonderful and the banter was just so well-written I couldn’t spot grinning. The plot was complex and exceeded my expectations and the writing style made it an enjoyable and swift read. I want to put this book into everyone’s hands. Full review to come.

Bérénice: This is a French classic. I love everything the playwright Racine writes and this play was no exception.

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4 STARS ★★★★

Shatter Me: It’s my sister’s favorite series and what got her into reading. I cannot believe it took me so much time to read it. The beginning was too slow for me but once the plot picked up I couldn’t put it down. I can’t wait to read the rest of the series.

Party of Two: It’s as though the author looked inside my head, saw the kind of book I craved for and wrote it. It was perfect.

Get A Life, Chloe Brown: This was so cute. It was a healthy, sexy and funny romance and I couldn’t get enough. I also want to get a life…and a Redford Morgan please.

The Hunter and the Mage: this is the second book in The Raven and the Dove series. This was an ARC and I will release a review closer to publication date. I was so afraid it wouldn’t live up to my expectations but it did and that makes me so happy.

Clap When You Land: This was heartbreaking in a beautiful way and reconciled me with books written in verse. A true masterpiece. See my full review here.

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3 STARS ★★★

The Wicker King: This has highly been recommended to me and I ordered it immediately. I initially gave it four stars but it was very different from what I expected and I think I was trying to convince myself that I loved it but I didn’t.

Her Royal Highness: This story was really cute and had all the elements I like: a sapphic relationship, a school in Scotland, great friendships and royals. What’s not to love?

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2 STARS ★★

The Siren: this was a big disappointment especially since I love The Selection series. This was a lot darker than I expected and the romance was lukewarm. I couldn’t wait to get it over with.

That’s all folks. Spot any favorites? Let me know in the comments!

Karla.