Tag: Booktube

Bookish

Favorite Reads of 2018!!

India

This post is a long time coming and for some reason I just haven’t put it up on my blog. It has been placed on my youtube channel and you can also watch it down below. These books were some of my favorite reads from 2018. I tried to only pick 5 because I read a lot of good books last year and I didn’t just want to gush about all of the books I read during the year. I still kind of cheated though as I made it into two videos. One video for favorites and one video for favorite romance and contemporaries. As someone who self proclaimed as a fantasy reader, I was surprised at the amount of romance and contemporary that I read during 2018, especially towards the end of the year. Anyway, let’s get down to this list, starting with my favorite reads of 2018! None of these books are in any particular order.

My Favorite YA Fantasy books of 2018:

  1.  Three Dark Crowns, Kendare Blake
  2. Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi
  3. Tower of Dawn, Sarah J Maas
  4. Kingdom of Ash, Sarah J Maas
  5. An Ember in the Ashes, Sabaa Tahir

A lot of these books I’ve talked about through out the year, and some of them I have reviews up on my youtube channel of. I will link those above, and I talk about some of these books a lot more in the video!

Next up are my favorite my favorite Contemporaries of 2018:

  1. The Kiss Quotient, Helen Hoang
  2. The Proposal, Jasmine Guillroy
  3. Dumplin, Julie Murphy
  4. Intercepted, Alexa Martin
  5. Curing Doctor Vincent, Renea Mason
  6. Odd One Out, Nic Stone

I kind of cheated on this list and added in a sixth just because I felt like all of these needed to be talked about.

 

What were some of your favorite books of 2018, or maybe you’ve already read some books in 2019 that have blown your mind! Let me know what you’ve been reading because I’m always looking for something new to add to my shelves! Until next time,

Keep Turning the Pages

India

Book Reviews

An Ember in the Ashes, Sabaa Tahir

India
An Ember in the Ashes follows two characters Laia and Elias on their different journeys and how they end up falling in and out of each others orbits. Laia is from a group of people called the Scholars that have been oppressed by the Martials and the empire. Frequently their friends and family go missing in the middle of the night or are killed by raids conducted by the deadly and unfeeling Masks. When Laia’s world gets turned upside down she tries to seek out the group called the resistance, who her parents used to be apart of. Only thing is when she finds them are they going to be the people who she wants and needs them to be, or without her parents guidance have they warped into something different.
Elias is first in his class and on the right path to be the best Mark in Blackcliff history, but he doesn’t want it. Elias wants to be free of all of the non-feeling, brutal, and brutish ways of the Masks, he wants to desert. Punishment for getting caught deserting is death in front of the whole school, so of course Elias can’t get caught. His best friend in the entire world, Helene, suspects something is going on with him, but she has her own feelings to deal with and is loyal to a fault to Blackcliff and the Masks. Elias believes that there is another way to be and he can’t stuff down his emotions anymore.
The two of them find out that they’re lives are not their own and that they have a higher calling to do more than is expected of them. They discover that within all of the hardships they have already faced there are plenty more in front of them, but now they have the chance to do something good and something that can change the world. They just have to survive first.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It honestly gets straight to the good stuff which is awesome because I hate when books take to long to get to where you need to be just to add some pages.  I thought that there was a good mixture of being true to who you are while fulfilling your obligations, but at the same time pushing back at the people who are doing the wrong things. I believed that Laia’s character was believable because even though we always want the heroine in the book to be brave immediately after something bad happens that’s just not always possible. It takes a while to find that inner courage and for awhile you have to fake it until you make it. Elias on the other hand had to make some true life and death situations and then is placed in a situation that he honestly can’t turn down and I loved that we got to see his background to figure out where these thoughts came from. I loved that this book was fast paced and made me keep wondering what the other person was doing at the time. Until next time,
Keep turning the Pages
      India

 

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
Book Reviews

Illuminae Files, Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

India
Kady thought that her life could not get any worse. She had just broke up with her boyfriend, Ezra, and she thought that she was going to be able to move on and go off planet somewhere after graduation. Little did she know that going off planet was happening a lot faster than she expected. All of a sudden while sitting in class, all of the warning bells go off alerting the planet to an invasion. It is then that all chaos breaks loose and the everything that Kady knows and loves comes crumbling down around her. Kady is forced to try and find a way off the planet and to stay close to the ones she loves, and who love her. She is forced to flee the home that she knows and grow and learn more than she ever thought imaginable. Kady has to overcome her fears and reservations and become  a leader and warrior in her own right. The system is in the hands of a 16 year old girl and a palm pad.
I absolutely loved this book! I listened to it solely on audible. I did not buy the kindle version or the paper version of the book. They did such an amazing job on the audible version with a full cast and everything that I didn’t feel the need for either of those things.  I heard that if you try and read the actual copy it might be a little difficult to do. I enjoyed the story and the twists and turns that were associated with our main character Kady. I also loved the role that Ezra had to play as kind of her humanity and her voice of reason, and of course her anchor. AIDAN was his own character who also had his own role to play, which turned out to be a giant one. Who knew a computer program system could have so much personality when they are not supposed to. If you haven’t picked up the Illuminae Files by Amie Kauffman and Jay Kristoff I definitely recommend it and do it on Audible! You’ll enjoy it even more, I promise. I can’t wait to read Gemina and Obsidio when I get through some of my TBR. I have a review up on my channel now if you want to listen to it as well. You can check it out here. If you’ve read it what do you think? Any other sci-fi fantasy novels that you can recommend? Until next time,
Keep turning the Pages
India
Bookish, Unboxings

Unboxing Booktube | September Owlcrate Box

India

The September Owlcrate box was filled with a lot of mischievous items going with their theme of Masters of Disguise! You can subscribe to the Owlcrate box by clicking here to be apart of their subscription list. It is a more affordable box compared to a lot of other boxes if you live in the United States. Now let’s get into this box!

 

  • We got a beautiful, purply, bath soak created by Leeloo Soaps inspired by The Diabolic, which I have not read yet, but it is definitely on my list and on my bookshelves already!
  • These Crow Club gloves to help pick any and all locks and to create the most intricate plans in the streets of Ketterdam created by Team Owlcrate
  • A wonderful Ceramic Mug featuring our favorite mauraders from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkban and was illustrated by Cara Kozik
  • An apple mint lip balm inspired by The Kiss of Deception, which I also haven’t read yet, created by Geek Fire Labs
  • An art print featuring Lila Bard from the Shades of Magic series illustrated by Kirsty Carter

 

Finally the book with it’s gorgeous cover is Mirage by Somaiya Daud! This book is all about a young girl who is kidnapped and forced to be in the royal palace because she looks like the princess that everyone hates. With her life constantly on the line as she impersonates the princess in public settings she has to be extremely careful, so that she does not get killed. This book is also apparently set in a sci-fi situation so it’s kind of like some of my other favorite books, so I’m excited to read it.

Mirage by Somaiya Dayd

This book featured a lot of great items of course the mug being one of them and I can’t wait to use that bath soak!! Let me know what you thought about the box! You can also watch my full unboxing here! Until next time,

Keep turning the Pages

India

Bookish, Unboxings

August 2018 Owlcrate Ruthless Royals

India
August Ruthless Royals Box

Another month has passed and of course that means another unboxing. I’m as usual super late to getting this to my blog, but here it is! This months box was themed “Ruthless Royals” and featured a lot of items from different books that featured a kingdom where the royal court might have some ruthlessness in it.

👑 A tin inspired by The Cruel Prince featuring artwork with many different quotes from the book. It was designed by @stellabookishart!👑 A s pocket mirror with pouch, inspired by The Belles! Designed by @catarinabookdesigns.
👑 A set of three magnetic bookmarks handmade by @craftedvan featuring three different evil queens from Disney, which have both their normal selves and their alter ego
👑 A kitchen towel inspired by Throne of Glass and designed by the amazing @littleinklingsdesign!
👑 An agate ring from @geocentral. We sent out a whole bunch of different color gems!
👑 Collectible monthly pin and postcard illustrated by @spykles!
👑 The book for August was Grace and Fury by @tracythewriter! It has an exclusive cover that I like a lot more than the original. I started to read it a little bit, but it just wasn’t what i wanted to read at the time.

I recorded my unboxing, which I will link here and below as well! What did you think of this box? Have you read this book?! Let me know! Until next time,

Keep turning the Pages

India