blogmas · To Be Read (TBR)

Blogmas Day #20 – Next week’s TBR!

Hello lovelies! Welcome to day 20 of blogmas!

I hope you’re all safe and well.

I thought that if I posted next week’s TBR here, I would hold myself accountable and feel ashamed that I didn’t fulfill my promises. So this post is basically me trying to force myself to read.

I have been reading Empire of Storms, Finale and Opposition for weeks now and I’m hoping to finally finish them this week! I’m halfway through Empire of Storms and I love the book so far but I haven’t been able to pick up a physical books for a while now. I hope I’ll manage to do that next week! I’m reading the audiobook of Finale and I have 4h7mn left! My reading pace is 1.8x though, so I might finish it sooner than that. Can’t wait to see how everything ends.I’m 70% done with Opposition and I might finish reading it tonight or tomorrow morning so I’m quite hopeful. I was a little disappointed with the beginning of the story but I’m really enjoying the latter part of the story.

When (if) I manage to pick up a physical book, I would love to start reading The Poppy War!

I want to read Faking Under the Mistletoe before Christmas to put me in the Christmas mood. I have been watching Christmas movies (I watched Love Actually again today!) and I realized that I like Christmas related stuff. Better late than never?

What are you hoping to read next week? Let me know in the comments!

Karla xx

blogmas

Blogmas Day #1- November Wrap-Up!

Hello lovelies!

This is the last wrap-up of the year since the one for December will be up by the beginning of January, so in the new year. I always feel nostalgic at the end of the year; I hate endings. But anyway, I had a great month.

My universities physically closed but I still have online classes which are taking up too much, a lot of my time and I haven’t been able to read as much as I would have liked. Thankfully I’m going to be on holiday December, 18th which gives me plenty of time to tackle the books I want to read before 2021 (see my post about that here!). So this month I only read two books but one of them is now one of my all-time favourites so it’s fine.

Books Finished

The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E Schwab. One of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read. See my feel review here.

Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu. I’m part of an LGBTQ book club and we chose to read the novella Carmilla which is one of the first vampire stories. It has a sapphic twist (scandalous at the time!) and it actually inspired Bram Stocker’s Dracula; not bad huh?

Currently reading:

Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas. Definitely one of my favourites from the series. It has a strong start and I am obsessed with the group dynamic. Loving every page.

Finale (Caraval #3) by Stephanie Garber. I love this series; I didn’t expect to enjoy it this much since I read a lot of mixed reviews but it has been great so far! Can’t wait to see how it all ends.

Opposition (Lux #5) by Jennifer L. Armentrout. I adored book 3 and 4 but I’m not enjoyng this one as much; it seems a little chaotic right now but I’m nearly halfway through and there is plenty of time for the story to evolve (hopefully).

This month has been kinder than others. First, I have officially signed a lease for a new apartment in Paris (can’t wait to go back there once everything settles down) and what a relief it was. I waited two months for it and I nearly cried. I used to live in a squalid apartment rented by someone I used to trust and as I said it was stressful. Since everything closed I also went back home and it was nice to be able to spend time with my family and relax. Overall a great month.

This was….THE BEST THING EVER. Okay, I’m being a little dramatic but I was so hooked that I watched the entire season in one sitting; (there are only 9 episodes of 35 mins each). The plot was incredibly well thought and well carried out. Kenny Ortega aka the director of both High School Musical and Descendants directed most of the episodes. The songs are so incredible that I wish the band existed in real life. I added all of them on Spotify as soon as I finished watching the show. The actors are all incredibly talented and the chemistry between the characters was to die for. So so so good.

This month I didn’t read much so I saw more movies than usual which was nice. I rewatched some old favourites such as Tangled and 10 Things I hate about you. Those are in my top 5 favourites; I love these movies to death. I also rewatched Avalon High since I’m a sucker for retellings: this is a retelling of the King Arthur myth with a feminist twist. It’s not the best movie ever but it does the trick. I also watched Titanic and I love it more than ever. I feel like it even gets better with time? This movie is a true masterpiece.

I (finally!!) watched A Cinderella Story and as I said earlier I love retellings and nothing beats Cinderella retellings. It was pretty great. I also enjoyed watching A Christmas prince which is officially my first Christmas movie of the year. I really enjoyed it and it was actually better than I expected.

What are some of your favourite moments from November? Let me know in the comments!

Karla xx

Reading Project · Reading Update

Books I’m hoping to read before the year ends!

Hello lovelies!

I am very happy to report that I reached my Goodreads challenge of reading 50 books this year! I’m so proud of myself! Last year I managed to read 45 books and right now I read 6 more books than last year. Of course lockdown and quarantine are reasons why I read more; but I also joined book twitter and took my bookstagram more seriously so I discovered so many great books and people who pushed me to read more. Overall I have had a great reading year so far. Since I don’t have the pressure of reaching my Goodreads goal, I’m free to read how many books I like!

I have so many books I want to read but realistically, with my slow reading pace and my busy school schedule, I don’t think I’ll manage to read all of my “end of the year hopefuls” but we’ll see. Here’s my list:

Finish the Throne of Glass series and start Crescent City

I’m currently reading Empire of Storms and I AM LOVING IT. And I really want to finish the series this year but the books are all quite big (600- 800 pages) and I don’t think I’ll have enough time to read everything before 2021. But let’s be hopeful!

The Poppy War – R.F Kuang

I have seen this book everywhere so I gave into tentation and I bought it last month. Since I didn’t read as much as I had hoped, I haven’t gotten around to this. I’m hoping to read this one before the year ends!

Advanced Reading Copies

I had the brilliant idea of requesting books on Netgalley, when I already have so many books on my physical TBR but I just couldn’t resist. Afterlove is a sapphic book about Ash who is about to become a reaper in the afterlife but who is determined to see her first love Poppy Morgan again. Dearest Josephine is a book about a girl who discovers old love letters written by an elusive novelist two centuries before and it seems like she is the heroine….So excited to read these!

Opposition (Lux series #5)

This is the last book in this series! I started it years ago and I finally managed to reach book 5! This is one of my favourite series and I really want to see how it all ends!

Finale (Caraval #3) by Stephanie Garber

I have read the two previous books as audiobooks so I purchased the third one also as an audiobook! The narrator is fantastic and I can’t wait to see how everything all ends.

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

The raving reviews were enough for me to instantly buy this book. This book follows the life of 12 Black and British women through their hardships and victories. I really want to read this before the year ends.

That’s it! Fingers crossed! Thank you for reading xx

Book Tag

Top 5 Tuesday – Books Beginning With K -L – M – N – O

Hello lovelies!

I’m back for a TOP 5 TUESDAY hosted by Shannah @Bionic Bookworm Blog (go check out her blog; it’s amazing!). So this month we’re doing letters instead of topics and I really like the idea so thank you, Shannah! The letters this week are pretty hard but I’m very happy with the books featured 🙂

 

Letter K-

60931.jpgKindred by Octavia E.Butler

I have not read this book but the synopsis on Goodreads seems promising and it has quite a good rating of 4.23/ 5 stars. Amazon sells it as “One of the most significant literary artists of the twentieth century. One cannot exaggerate the impact she has had (Junot Diaz) ” and it’s actually a #1 New York Times bestselling novel!

Synopsis: The first science fiction written by a black woman, Kindred has become a cornerstone of black American literature. This combination of slave memoir, fantasy, and historical fiction is a novel of rich literary complexity. Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning white boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes the challenge she’s been given: to protect this young slaveholder until he can father her own great-grandmother. (Goodreads)

Letter L-

81q2N5pxuMLLord of the Flies by William Golding

This is one of the books that shaped my childhood. We read it in Middle School when I was 12 and I did not get all the depths and layers of this book. It was a long and tedious read but I liked the characters because they were my age. I later found out how ironic and telling this book was. It shows how violence and animality touch everyone and especially those who we don’t expect: English schoolboys: the symbols of western civilization. It raises the question of culture, norms and society as a whole. A Must-Read!

 

Letter M-

 

15507958Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

I read this book in one sitting. I used to adore it. I read it when it was brought to the screen by director Thea Sharrock with the wonderful Sam Claflin and Emilia Clarke. It was gripping, sweet and painful. It made me want to go outside and live life to the fullest…UNTIL I read many eye-opening articles about how hurtful and painful that ending was. It’s such a shame how the author dealt with that ending and took that direction. At the time I liked the discussion about euthanasia and I still think it’s important, but the message that the book sent through its ending is quite problematic.

Letter N-


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Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice is my favourite classic ever and I plan on reading all of Jane Austen’s writings: letters, novels, poetry…I decided to give Northanger Abbey a go, especially since it’s her first novel. I have to say that I was quite disappointed by it and did not like the story as much as I expected. However, I like how ironic this book is and how it’s a parody of gothic novels. The plot could basically be described as “Expectations vs. Reality”. I guess I like the expectations a bit too much.

 

Letter O-

lux1Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout 

Obsidian is my first book involving aliens ever, and boy am I happy about it. The whole series is just amazing, the main character Kat is a bookworm and Daemon is one of the best book boyfriends out there! I have yet to read the last book in the series but I’m planning on reading it before the end of the year.

 

 

What do you think about my picks? And what are yours? If you did the tag, feel free to leave the link to your post in the comments so I can go check it out!

Thank you for stopping by!

Karla xx