Review: They Both Die At The End, by Adam Silvera [Audiobook]

Rating: ★★★★☆

Genres: Young Adult, Science Fiction, LGBT+

Goodreads / Amazon / Skoob

What would you do if you knew you had less than 24h before you die?

They Both Die At The End is a lovely, sad and hopeful story that follows Rufus and Mateo on the last day of their lives. When Death-Cast calls them on September 5th, both boys need to decide how to spend their last day, and they end up signing up for the Last Friend app, in hope of getting company one last time and try to live their whole lives in less than 24h. 

The Playlist Shuffle Tag

 

I’ve been seeing this tag around and it’s so fun to read people’s answers, so I was pretty excited when Birdie @ Birdie Bookworm tagged me! Her lists is so fun, I was such a big fan of Jewel and Michelle Branch as a teen, her playlist made me add a few more songs to my own 🙂

Sooo, I’ll start saying that my playlist has A LOT of stuff I listened through various phases of my life… from my 2000s Pop phase, going through my Classic Rock phase, all the way to my Depressive Songs Are Everything phase… you’ll see.

Rules

• Put your music on shuffle and list the first 15 songs to play (no cheating).
• Tag 10 others to do it as well.

My Playlist

Most Girls – Hailee Steinfield

This is a new addition, and it’s such a fun, positive song I was very surprised when I heard it last year… (or this year?) and it immediately made it to my playlist!

10 Things That Changed Since I Started Blogging

Hello readers!

What has changed for you since you started blogging? Did you expect your habits to change at all? Did they come as a surprise for you?

Here’s what changed for me!

1. I now use words like “enthralling” and “gripping”. It seems like “SO GOOD” isn’t an entire review, after all. Also “unputdownable” is a word??
2. I read more critically. Not only analyzing if it was a good book or not, or what has called my attention about it, but also more pointed things, like writing style, book tropes, pacing. Probably because of that, I recommend books to people more confidently. Because now I know what I found good or bad about what I read, so it’s easier to see if someone will like it or not. Although sometimes my brain just goes a bit stupid and all I can think about after reading is “SO GOOD” and writing a review becomes very difficult! 
3. I read a lot of new releases! I’m 100% a mood reader, and seeing a book going around on Instagram, Book blogs, Booktube etc will definitely make me want to read it more. This happens far more often with new releases than older books, soo…
4. I tried audiobooks! Really great experience, which I definitely would not have tried without blogging!
5. I read more YA and fantasy. After having a couple disappointing experiences with YA, I’d become more cautious with the genre, and found myself inclined towards women’s fiction far more. But now I get awesome recommendations that definitely don’t disappoint at all. Fantasy also sometimes can be a hit or miss for me, but with reading more reviews I get far more hits now! 
6. I learned and use acronyms daily, like TBR, YA, NA, ARC, MC… book blogging has its own language.
7. I created Twitter, something I never thought I would. And Twitter is more fun than I thought. So hard to keep your thoughts to 140 characters, though. (when I wrote this post at least… now it’s 280 characters, but I’m team 140)
8. I also created a public Instagram account, which means I now take photos of books randomly in places I go to, while looking like a weirdo who photographs books on top of pumpkins while an old couple judges me. #truth
9. I use lots of my spare time to read and blog, and have no idea what I did before with said spare time. Did I have friends? I vaguely remember faces. 
10. I am more lenient with my ratings. As now I start listing exactly what I like and dislike about a book, sometimes small things that made me very petty with the rating seem very small. Though twice it did happen that I had given a better rating and changed for a worse one when writing the review. The majority of the ratings tend to go up, though.

ARC Review: Dear Martin, by Nic Stone

Rating: ★★★★☆

Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult

Goodreads / Amazon / Skoob

I have received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Dear Martin is the story of Justyce, who gets top marks at school and dreams of going to Yale. One night, his ex-girlfriend Melo gets very drunk and he attempts to take her home and not let her drive in that state, but before he knows it, two cops arrive and handcuff him, under allegation that he was trying to carjack her. Assaulted and mistreated, even Melo’s testimony for him barely is enough to get him out of jail. After that, Jus can’t ignore anymore the microagressions at school and the major problems in the system and the police when dealing with black people. So he starts writing letters to Martin Luther King, in the hope of becoming more like him. But it won’t be easy, and much more awaits him.

Review: The Female of the Species, by Mindy McGinnis

Rating: ★★★★★

Genres: Thriller, Contemporary, Young Adult

Goodreads / Amazon / Skoob

This was excellent! I bought this novel when it was on sale at Amazon, but now I crave to have the physical copy, too.

The Female of the Species is the story of Alex Craft, whose sister was brutally raped and murdered three years before and the culprit walked away for lack of evidence. Alex knows the language of violence well, and is decided to take justice to her own hands. She can’t stop being this way, and knows she’s a danger to normal people and cannot trust them with her secret. But when she befriends Peekay and starts to fall in love with Jack, things get out of control, and it will change their lives forever.

One Lovely Blog Award

Hello bookworms!

The amazing Alex from Coffee Loving Bookoholic and the great Anatomy of a Book Thief have tagged me for this very cute award! I had totally forgotten I’d be nominated for this two months ago (sorryyy), but I’m answering now. Better late than never? Both bloggers are so wonderful, check their blogs out and you’ll love them too ❤ Thank you both so much for the tag, I’m quite happy to have received the nomination ❤ ❤ (so much love in this post!! <3)

Rules:

• Thank the person who nominated you
• Share 7 facts about yourself
• Nominate 15 bloggers and inform them of the nomination

Fun Quizzes for Bookworms!

Hi bookworms!

So, I love quizzes. I’d do quizzes all day, if it was a profession. So I thought maybe you guys also love quizzes and more specifically bookish quizzes, because if there is something bookworms like to do, is sort themselves in Hogwarts houses, Prythian courts, kids of Olympian gods and so on… SO WELL. If you didn’t know how to spend the next few hours doing something totally productive, I’m here to help you!

So I’ve separated into categories so it’s easier for you, for example, if you haven’t read Harry Potter and don’t quite care what house you belong to, you can just skip until you find a series you are more curious about, or you can skip to the last part, where I put more general bookish questions, not related to specific books.

A Court of Thorns and Roses

What Court Would You Belong To?

Which ACOTAR character are you?

Review: The Punch Escrow, by Tal M. Klein [Audiobook]

Rating: ★★★★☆

Genres: Science Fiction, Thriller

Goodreads / Amazon US

First of all, I’d like to thank Darque Dreamer for recommending this book and also for recommending that I get it as an audiobook, because wow, the narration was fantastic! Matthew Mercer did such a good job, his narration was full of personality, I could tell each character apart easily and it never felt caricature-like. I’m quite impressed.

The Unique Blogger Award

Hello Bookworms!

It’s a grey, cold November afternoon here, so to cheer things up, let’s celebrate this lovely award and spread love to unique bloggers. Thank you so much Lauren from Comma Hangover for nominating me, I was very excited to receive this! Do check out her blog, Lauren is such a sweet person and her reviewing style is clear, critical and perfect if you’re in doubt whether to read a book or not.

The Rules

1. Share the link of the blogger who has shown love to you by nominating you.
2. Answer the questions.
3. In the spirit of sharing love and solidarity with our blogging family, nominate 8-13 people for the same award.
4. Ask them three questions.

Review: One Dark Throne (Three Dark Crowns, #2), by Kendare Blake

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

Goodreads / Amazon / Skoob

One Dark Throne is the second volume of the Tree Dark Crown series, a dark fantasy story around three sisters, each with their own magical inclinations: Katharine is a poisoner, Mirabella is an elemental and Arsinoe is a naturalist. The three of them must fight to death in order to become Queen, and using their powers, knowledge and cunning to achieve that, they are raised since childhood with this objective in their hearts.

Much like Three Dark Crowns, I very much wanted to love this book and this series. After being disappointed with the first installment, I decided to buy the second book and read it anyways, since the blurb indicated that this one was even better than the first. Since I want to love this so badly, I gave it a second chance.