Double Mini-Review: The Naturalist & Looking Glass (The Naturalist #1-2), by Andrew Mayne

I love a good thriller with murder and mystery and an unorthodox detective. This series is one of my absolute favorites in this genre and today I am sharing mini-reviews of the first two books of this series!

Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads / Amazon

Synopsis: Professor Theo Cray is trained to see patterns where others see chaos. So when mutilated bodies found deep in the Montana woods leave the cops searching blindly for clues, Theo sees something they missed. Something unnatural. Something only he can stop.

I heard a lot about this book once it came out in 2017, and while I was curious, it took me months to really pick it up – I normally don’t pay too much attention to hype among thrillers, because of previous disappointments. But The Naturalist is an actually unique thriller among a multitude of thrillers that get published every month. And that is because Theo Cray, the “detective” of this story, is such a unique character, a mixture of intelligence, social ineptitude, charmingly witty personality, and acute perception. I loved following his steps towards this very unique crime story! So naturally, I had to pick up the second book…

ARC Review: The Bone Curse, by Carrie Rubin

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Genres: Thriller, Horror

Goodreads  / Amazon

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

This book attracted me immediately with its creepy cover and intriguing synopsis: Ben is a medical student known for his pragmatic personality. He goes to a trip in Paris with his friend Laurette, where he enters a catacomb and gets hurt in an old bone.

I loved the creepy, horror feel of the novel. I flew through its pages and was always on the edge to see who would fall victim to the curse next and if they would survive! I really liked Laurette, too, a Haitian student who wants to become a nurse to help her country.

500 WordPress Followers Giveaway!

Hello bookworms!

If you follow me on Twitter, you already know, and if not, here you go:

Yayyy!! Did I hear… there's a thank-you giveaway coming??? pic.twitter.com/c3mgdzGsnW

— Naty's Bookshelf (@natysbookshelf) March 22, 2018

Yes, you read it right!! I made it to 500 followers on WordPress, around 600 on Twitter and a bit over 200 on Instagram! I’m so happy about this, as this blog’s 1st birthday is still 1 month and a half away, so I think this is quite an accomplishment and I’m very thankful that you guys read my posts and cheer me on, this community is AWESOME!

As a thank-you, I am holding my first giveaway ever! Here is how it will go:

1. Open internationally
2. This first giveaway will be done with USED books from my own shelf, that way I can give away a few books at once instead of just one! They are also all in English.
3. I am NOT one of those pristine book owners, whose books look immaculate and new and have angelic light shining delicately over it. Almost all of them have broken spines. They’re not in OH MY GOD AWFUL CONDITIONS FALLING APART CALL THE COPS THERE’S BEEN BOOK ABUSE, but some of those more than one person has read, and of course it looks used.
4. Results will come out on this blog’s birthday, May 8! I knoooow it’s a long time away, but I will be on vacation for 2 weeks in late April, so it’s difficult for me to finish the giveaway before that.

How to participate:

1. Click this link and follow the instructions to enter until May 7!: Rafflecopter giveaway
2. Mix and match! You have 6 spaces in total (because of the box size). The books below are the ones available for the giveaway. Choose the books you want and leave your choices in the comments, summing up their space values until you have a maximum of 6.
3. First winner gets their mix-and-match choice! Second winner gets the other books! YES YOU HEARD IT RIGHT. TWO WINNERS. TWO BOXES OF BOOKS. (and maybe goodies??? Shhhhhhhhh it’s a secret!)

Books available:

1. Young Jane Young, Gabrielle Zevin. 1 space.
2. Illuminae (The Illuminae Files 01), by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. 2 spaces.
3. The Dry, by Jane Harper. 1 space.
4. The Muse, by Jessie Burton. 1 space.
5. Magpie Murders, by Anthony Horowitz. 1 space.
6. My (Not So) Perfect Life, by Sophie Kinsella. 1 space
7. Three Dark Crows + One Dark Throne (must go together!), by Kendare Blake. 2 spaces.
8. When Dimple Met Rishi, by Sandhya Menon. 1 space.

Example on how to choose: Illuminae, The Dry, Magpie Murders and When Dimple = 2 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 5! You can still choose a book worth 1 space! (The Muse, for example).

GOOD LUCK!!

The Sunday Snuggle W12/2018 #TheSundaySnuggle

Hello readers!

I reached 500 wordpress followers! Yay!! KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR THE GIVEAWAY, THE POST WITH THE RULES COMES UP TOMORROW!!

This week I was far more reasonable on my buying of books! Here is what I got:

Audible:

Physical copies:

On Netgalley:

Books I’m Not Sure If I Should Add to My TBR #2

Hello book lovers!

I am back with a second post on this series! You can read the first one on this link: Books I’m Not Sure If I Should Add to My TBR #1. I ended up adding a lot of those books to my TBR, so let’s see what this second part of the series will do!

The Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

I have heard much about this book! Some love it so much, and some were quite disappointed. The Passenger got so much hype some couple years ago, but now and then I will see reviews popping up, and most are of underwhelmed readers. Have you read it?? Should I pick it up?

ARC Review: Wintersong, by S. Jae-Jones

Rating: ★★★★★

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance, Retelling

Goodreads / Amazon

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

I am so in love with this book, I hope this review is coherent and not just drooling and gushing.

Synopsis from Goodreads: All her life, nineteen-year-old Liesl has heard tales of the beautiful, mysterious Goblin King. He is the Lord of Mischief, the Ruler Underground, and the muse around which her music is composed. Yet, as Liesl helps shoulder the burden of running her family’s inn, her dreams of composition and childish fancies about the Goblin King must be set aside in favor of more practical concerns. But when her sister Käthe is taken by the goblins, Liesl journeys to their realm to rescue her sister and return her to the world above. The Goblin King agrees to let Käthe go—for a price.

Review: As Good As True, by Cheryl Reid

Rating: ★★★★☆

Genres: Family Drama, Literary Fiction, Historical Novel

Goodreads / Amazon

In this debut novel, Anna waits in the dark, terrorized, as her abusive husband yells for her at night with increasing rage, and then dies of a heart attack. As she tries to hide her relief, she now has to deal with the consequences of his death and make peace with her past. As a daughter of Syrian immigrants living in segregated US in the 1950s, her white neighbors were not too fond of her, and once suspicion arises of her having something to do with her husband’s death, Anna is in great danger.

The Sunday Snuggle W11/2018 #TheSundaySnuggle

Hello readers!

Thank you so much for your lovely response to my last Sunday Snuggle!! It was such a personal story that I shared and you guys were so sweet. ❤

So I’ve been reading many library books, ebooks and audiobooks, but I keep buying physical books, so those don’t get read a lot. *sigh* So I will try to read more of those and stop buying so much (I still have 2 library books to read oh my god, and around 30-40 eARCs?? I’m screwed.)

All book covers below lead to the Goodreads page of the respective book.

I got two Audiobooks:

 

I got approved for a few books from Netgalley:

  

Aaaand I started my “ban” by buying the whole The Raven Cycle collection and the first book on the Scythe series:

    

Classic Books I Want to Read

Hello readers!

Some time ago I published a post named Why I read classics + Why you don’t need to, which got me thinking: which are the classics I do want to read, and why? As said in the post, I am rather picky with classics to read, because most of the time I expect their writing to be boring, even in adventure books. So I do quite some research before adding one to my TBR. Also, a lot of the classics I’ve read are Brazilian, so the “international” classics I haven’t read much. Here are the ones I look most forward to!

To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf, is a book I simply cannot believe I haven’t read yet. I really liked Mrs Dalloway and A Room of One’s Own, and I admire Virginia as a writer and person so much! I need to read this ASAP. It tells the story of a family as they travel to an Island in Scotland in the 1900s. Seems to be a very introspective book.

ARC Review: The Light in the Labirynth, by Wendy J. Dunn

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Genres: Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Tudors

Goodreads  / Amazon

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

When I saw this book in the Read Now section of NetGalley, I just had to get it! I am a sucker for a Tudor historical fiction, and I have been very interested in Young Adult historical fiction lately, it’s a subgenre I haven’t read much of, but I really like it!This is the story of the fall of Anne Boleyn, told by the point of view of Kate Carey, daughter of Anne Boleyn’s sister, Mary. Raised in the countryside by her mom and her stepfather, Kate dreams of going to court with her aunt, the Queen of England, her image so full of glamour and majesty. When she finally gets the chance to do that, Kate finds herself immersed in the political drama and all the gossip of court, a labyrinth of fake smiles, strict rules and secretive plots.