Pokemon Go Book Tag

I was tagged by Bekka at Pretty Deadly Reviews to do this tag created by Aentee, and I am so excited, because I am a day one Pokefanatic, back when Pokemon were played on a device the size of a trade paperback and twice as heavy. I remember GameSharks and Mew hiding under the truck and basically I'm old af.

I'm not the best Pokemon GO player. (Level 6, 50 catches, highest CP 148,) because it's approximately 9000 degrees in Ohio right now. But I have three eevees, all named for the original eeveelution trainers, so I'm calling that winning. 

This is where I insert my favorite Emerson quote, "I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.” I've always been a reader. My mom tells stories of me trying to return my sister at 2 because she was chewing on my books. But I remember The Ghost at Dawn's House very well. I was in second grade and I was already very obsessed with the Little Sister companion series to The Baby-Sitters Club. Problem - I had read all the library had, new copies ran $3 a piece, and I could read 3 a day. Out of self-preservation, my mom started foisting BSC off on me, even though they were technically  "big kid books", because it took me a whole day to finish one. (Then there was a whole bunch of drama with my school and I got detention for reading over my age level and the superintendent was involved and it's a goddamn mess for such mediocre tripe, looking back.)

The Giver. Come at me. 

I know dystopians are passé. The movie is a travesty unto god.  Don't care. The book started the YA dystopian scene 15 years before it blew up and it's still awesome and if some of the scenes are a little familiar, that's just testament to it's iconic status.

Winger has a 4.6 star average from my friends on GR. It was on every end cap in B&N for months. It's won like 800 awards. The NYT said that if Smith hadn't dethroned Green, he'd given him a run for his money. It's been optioned. I DON'T CAAAAAAAAAAARE. I don't even know what it's about. Coming of age? Something with sports? Manpain? I just want to punch this cover every time I see it.

Eye of the World is probably the tropiest book to ever trope and I can't help it, I still love it. So there's a farm boy and an overbearing childhood love interest and a magical guardian who deus ex machinas her way around the globe and a massive overblown final fight that turns out to be like the twelfth least important fight in the series. You look me in the eyes and tell me you weren't hooked after the Trolloc attack. 

There may only be two Kingkiller books out, but the second one is 994 pages. In hardback. And Doors of Stone isn't even finished and it's set at another 890. I already have Wheel of Time, Game of Thrones, and Stormlight Archives. I can't.

(I must.)

This book might have made me go a little insane. 

It's not that I stayed up too late reading it, though I did. I thought about this book too late. What order should the stories be read in? What's the math behind the combinations? What's the math behind the Fibonacci sequence? How should I word my review? Should I buy a copy for my mom? How can I make Jessie give it another chance? Then I started seeing spirals in my room. Like, this book is how someone ends up babbling in a corner about snails. 

lol going straight down my "I will go down with this ship" shelf:

Celaenehemia

     Chaolaena

     Rowaelin

     Aelin/Manon? 

     ME/AELIN/MANON????

Lex/Driggs

Lola/Cricket

Anna/Ettiene

Karou/Akiva

     Zuzana/Mik

Serena/Hugo

Cress/Thorne

Rincewind/Twoflower

Owen/Mabbot

Ismae/Gavriel

Nyx/Ignifex

Olivia/Zoe

Cara/Aelyx

Locke/Jean

     Locke/Sabetha

Sybella/Beast

Kate/Curran

Mercy/Adam

Sookie/Eric

Dany/Drogo

     San/San*

*ok, so what I ship is Sansa/Agency and what Sansa wants is some of those HoundKisses, sooooo

I might have too many feelings about kissing.

The. Pin. Scene. The definition of "fire-hot".

I couldn't love the Bridgertons more. All eight books. All eight second epilogues. The Violet prequel. The Smythe-Smith spin-off. The new Miss Bridgerton book. The short story collections of Lady Whistledown. I even love it every time Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron shows up in another series. (I just spotted it again in a Tessa Dare, published 10 years after the initial Miss Butterworth appearance.) If all regency romance novelists could just agree to link back to this series, that would be greaaaaat.

I've had some ups and downs with urban fantasy and the last series that was highly rec'd to me didn't exactly turn out. Additionally, Jess and Angie didn't have positive things to say about The Black Diamonds series, I was pretty sure this was going to be a solid middle of the road borrow.

This series is so fucking awesome.

I have lost count of the number of people who have rec'd Red Queen  to me, but it still sounds so good. The hype for the sequel almost drowned my Twitter, but I don't care, I'm ready to dive into this (as soon as a space clears on my epic TBR, of course.)

The 1974 Limited Edition Club speckled Martian Chronicles with lithographs. Do not touch me.

Lesbian princesses.

LESBIAN.

PRINCESSES.

LESBIAN PRINCESSES!

Duh?

Where is Winds of Winter, George? Where is it? Why do I keep letting you do this to me?

Ok, loves, that does it for today's tag. I'm terrible at picking people who haven't already been picked, so if you're reading this - tag, you're it!

Backlist Review: When Beauty Tamed the Beast by Eloisa James

Title: When Beauty Tamed the Beast
Author: Eloisa James
Genres: Romance
Series: Fairy Tales #2
Pages: 372
Published: January 25, 2011

Source: Borrowed Library
Rating: 2 out of 5

Miss Linnet Berry Thrynne is a Beauty . . . Naturally, she's betrothed to a Beast.

Piers Yelverton, Earl of Marchant, lives in a castle in Wales where, it is rumored, his bad temper flays everyone he crosses. And rumor also has it that a wound has left the earl immune to the charms of any woman.

Linnet is not just any woman.

She is more than merely lovely: her wit and charm brought a prince to his knees. She estimates the earl will fall madly in love—in just two weeks.

Yet Linnet has no idea of the danger posed to her own heart by a man who may never love her in return.

If she decides to be very wicked indeed . . . what price will she pay for taming his wild heart?

As far as Ms. James' fairy tale retellings, When Beauty Tamed the Beast is a miss. It shares similarities to the rest of the series: an overstuffed, farcical set-up akin to A Kiss at Midnight and a sarcastic, anachronistic heroine like The Duke is Mine, but where I found both of the other books charming, I found these quirks annoying in WBTtB.

There is too much plot to the book, firstly. Linnet's mother was light with her favors and died en-route to one of her many lovers. Linnet, despite being the most beautiful woman on the face of the Earth, has to work twice as hard to ensure her virtue because of this. Until a careless comment by a potential suitor, a prince, causes the Ton gossip scene into overdrive and poor, virginal Linnet's five months pregnant in everyone's eyes by the end of the ball. Piers is the heir to a dukedom. He's also House - literally. The fictional television diagnostician. In a Victorian Beauty and the Beast retelling. Piers was injured by his addict father as a child and now reputedly can't bear an heir. The Duke is also obsessed with royal lineage and traces himself back to Henry VIII. So he and Linnet's father make a deal that (not)pregnant Linnet will marry Piers and, passing off the (not)baby as his, providing him with the heir he (can't)can't create. Did you follow all that?

There's also a beta romance between the Duke and his estranged wife, some trainee physicians named Kibbles and Bitts, and because this is a medical historical - an epidemic and a bedside, near-death confession.

I liked Linnet fairly well until the end. First, her desperate begging was just that, desperate. I lost all respect for her, clinging to Piers and declaring that she'll wait for him "for awhile" to be a decent person. Please. Then, when something threatens her beauty, her attitude is appalling. I understand people get depressed after long illnesses, but she gets downright mean in a way that didn't jibe with the saintly "giving puppies to sick orphans" thing she had going on.

Despite being a huge House fan, I never took to Piers. Hugh Laurie made the misanthrope charming, and most importantly, right. I never felt Piers was the genius he claimed. We saw him put a pregnant woman on bedrest and diagnose a case of heatstroke. Well by golly, alert the old timey media. We're told he loses the fewest fever victims, but by this point in the book he's been such an unrelenting ass who cares? His leg issue only appears when the story needs a reason for him to be extra cranky. Of the disabled heroes I've read this week, the match definitely goes to Tessa Dare's blind Ransom in Romancing the Duke. (Which, not marketed as a BatB retelling, manages to do that better as well.)

The romance and the sex are the saving graces in WBTtB. Despite an inconsistent characterization, Linnet fits well with Piers. Their wits are well matched and the verbal sparring is actually delightful. I loved every morning that Piers woke her to go swimming. It's a sex-heavy romance, with several scenes of intercourse, (including one where a physician thinks the godsdamn hymen is up in the vagina,) as well as oral for both characters. Other than the aforementioned hymen issue, they're written well with only one "wait, I don't think that's how legs work" moment and no cheesy euphemisms.

When Beauty Tamed the Beast isn't a keeper. It's not a bad romance, but in a series with markedly better options, let's all just reread A Kiss at Midnight instead.

Review: Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

Title: Nevernight
Author: Jay Kristoff
Genre: fantasy
Series: Nevernight #1
Pages: 429
Published: expected August 2016
Source: publishers via NetGalley
Rating: 4.5/5

The first in a new fantasy series from the New York Times bestselling author.

In a land where three suns almost never set, a fledgling killer joins a school of assassins, seeking vengeance against the powers who destroyed her family.

Daughter of an executed traitor, Mia Corvere is barely able to escape her father’s failed rebellion with her life. Alone and friendless, she hides in a city built from the bones of a dead god, hunted by the Senate and her father’s former comrades. But her gift for speaking with the shadows leads her to the door of a retired killer, and a future she never imagined.

Now, Mia is apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic—the Red Church. If she bests her fellow students in contests of steel, poison and the subtle arts, she’ll be inducted among the Blades of the Lady of Blessed Murder, and one step closer to the vengeance she desires. But a killer is loose within the Church’s halls, the bloody secrets of Mia’s past return to haunt her, and a plot to bring down the entire congregation is unfolding in the shadows she so loves.

Will she even survive to initiation, let alone have her revenge?

Bloodthirsty, dark, and unrelentingly brutal, Nevernight is Jay Kristoff's newest fantasy offering and it is every bit as good as the steampunkish Lotus War series before it. Also like the Lotus War trilogy, this is a book that can bridge both YA and adult fantasy readerships, though the themes, action and characters feel more geared towards an adult audience. It's a blood-soaked revenge story and Mia Covere is a protagonist to remember.

This is a darkly imaginative book; death and destruction begin the book and set the unchanging tone from there. Kristoff has always leaned towards the grimdark side of the spectrum with his fantasy and he again skirts that edge here. There is a bit of humor (sardonic, sarcastic, cynical, dry)  and hope to be found for Mia and Co. That's not to say that Nevernight pulls its punches because the exact opposite is the truth; no character is safe from betrayal, pain, or death. The stakes are high and Kristoff shows that in multiple harsh ways.

The beginning of Mia's story is a bit rough and admittedly the main reason it's not getting a full-five star rating here. Normally this is an author more than adept at scene-jumping and crafting cross POVs, but the start of Nevernight is very confusing and off-putting for less pateint readers. I can see what the author is trying to do with how he opened the book and the point its trying got make re: sex and violence, but it's so jumbled that it loses any impact. 

Thankfully the muddled execution that launches the story fades out after those scenes. Kristoff's storytelling style has always been unique and engaging in manner and the unnamed narrator of Mia's life is another great example. The footnotes may not amuse every reader but I loved the added bits of history, lore, and worldbuilding. It's another layer to the story that Kristoff is so slowly unraveling; though this is an entire "plot" in one book, there's obviously a much larger game at play being revealed in bits and pieces. It's intriguing and creative.

 Also.. that sly mention of "Montoya's dual-hand forms." I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE, KRISTOFF.

Two Minute Review: The Gilded Cage by Lucinda Gray

Title: The Gilded Cage
Author: Lucinda Gray
Genre: historical fiction, gothic
Series: N/A
Pages: 245
Published: August 2 2016
Source: ARC from publisher
Rating: 2/5

After growing up on a farm in Virginia, Walthingham Hall in England seems like another world to sixteen-year-old Katherine Randolph. Her new life, filled with the splendor of upper-class England in the 1820s, is shattered when her brother mysteriously drowns. Katherine is expected to observe the mourning customs and get on with her life, but she can't accept that her brother's death was an accident.

A bitter poacher prowls the estate, and strange visitors threaten the occupants of the house. There's a rumor, too, that a wild animal stalks the woods of Walthingham. Can Katherine retain her sanity long enough to find out the truth? Or will her brother's killer claim her life, too?

The Gilded Cage is a YA novel with a fairly gothic premise and an interesting beginning, but in the end, it's chiefly hampered by its lack of length at less than 250 pages and also from the lack of dimension given to the characters.  Short on characterization, short on original premise, and just kind of a lackluster effort all around. The feel of the story is the best aspect by far -- from Virginia to England, Gray knows how to nail the atmosphere. The rest of the novel leaves a lot to be desired.

The story follows main character and narrator Kate through a serendipitous turn of luck that soon turns out rather ill for the sixteen year old. An unknown relative dies, leaving Kate and her brother a sudden inheritance, and then death and danger follow in close suit. Even from just reading the premise and synopsis, this is a book that is easy to predict. Gray falls victim to the genre tropes of gothic stories, instead of using them in new or creative ways. 

Review: A Week of Mondays by Jessica Brody

Title: A Week of Mondays
Author: Jessica Brody
Genres: Contemporary
Series: N/A
Pages: 464
Published: Expected August 2nd 2016
Source: ARC via Publisher
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

When I made the wish, I just wanted a do-over. Another chance to make things right. I never, in a million years, thought it might actually come true...

Sixteen-year-old Ellison Sparks is having a serious case of the Mondays. She gets a ticket for running a red light, she manages to take the world’s worst school picture, she bombs softball try-outs and her class election speech (note to self: never trust a cheerleader when she swears there are no nuts in her bake-sale banana bread), and to top it all off, Tristan, her gorgeous rocker boyfriend suddenly dumps her. For no good reason!

As far as Mondays go, it doesn’t get much worse than this. And Ellie is positive that if she could just do it all over again, she would get it right. So when she wakes up the next morning to find she’s reliving the exact same day, she knows what she has to do: stop her boyfriend from breaking up with her. But it seems no matter how many do-overs she gets or how hard Ellie tries to repair her relationship, Tristan always seems bent set on ending it. Will Ellie ever figure out how to fix this broken day? Or will she be stuck in this nightmare of a Monday forever?

From the author 52 Reasons to Hate My Father and The Unremembered trilogy comes a hilarious and heartwarming story about second (and third and fourth and fifth) chances. Because sometimes it takes a whole week of Mondays to figure out what you really want.

Ellie's having the worst Monday of all time. She's stuck in the rain, runs a red light, and her boyfriend wants to "talk". She flubs her student council speech, takes a terrible yearbook photo, misses a crucial hit in softball, and flunks a pop quiz. So when Tristan breaks up with her in the middle of a fantasy date Ellie's been concocting for years, she wishes to the universe that she could just have another chance to make it right. And that's how Ellie ends up in a Groundhog Day style loop of never-ending Mondays.

AWoM is long. The first four Mondays are covered in excruciating, minute-by-minute detail. How many times can you read about the same car ride before your eyes glaze over? The same election speech? The same band performance? There's a reason you don't see Bill Murray trapped in ten years of news reports. It's boring. The second half of the week, the part with all the actual plot and character growth, moves much faster.

Ellie tries to fix herself to fix the day. Tristan says she's too high maintenance, so she spends an entire day doing what everyone else wants her to. A TV love guru says she should be mysterious and aloof, so she spends a whole day avoiding him. She tries a rebellious persona and a hyper girly persona. An overly sexual day is the only one that seems to really make a difference, but as best friend Owen points out, can Ellie really maintain any of these personas long term? She's not being herself.

Ellie's tough to like because she isn't authentic. She turns down her volume to let Tristan shine. She lets life happen to her, signing up for sports and student council because others want her to. She ditches Owen so regularly, I don't understand why he stays with her. Obviously this is her character arc and the progression does work. I like EndofBookEllie a lot better than first chapter Ellie. She's also pretty selfish at the start of the story.

Like Groundhog Day, part of fixing the time loop is fixing the lives of those around her. At the start of the book, Ellie just breezes past these issues, so absorbed with getting back (staying?) with Tristan. But by the end, her dad's forgotten his anniversary; Ellie makes breakfast for him to take up. Her sister's obsessed with 80s teen movies because she's being bullied; Ellie gives the girls their comeuppance. She starts living for herself, too.

In between each "day", is a flashback to important parts of Ellie and Tristan's relationship. The first night they met, their first kiss, and finally, their fight. I like that Tristan wasn't set up as a villain. He's selfish and completely absorbed in his band, yes. But he's not a bad guy, just a seventeen year old one. He and Ellie worked, then they didn't. Their present doesn't change that in the past, there was romance and love and that can still be a good memory. I think it's important in a genre where we're often told first = only love.

A love triangle develops between Tristan and best friend Owen. Unfortunately, Owen needed more character development for it to work. I read 500 pages with him and the only definitive I can give you is he runs a book club? It's also not a great love triangle, because the winner's very obvious from day two or three, making the rest of the romance feel sloggy. <Spoiler>I don't think Owen and Ellie should have ended up together considering even in the perfect day, she still treated him like crap to go on the Ferris wheel with Tristan.</Spoiler>

I'm conflicted by A Week of Mondays. It's not badly written and parts of it are really fun, but I find myself hesitant to recommend it.

Backlist Two Minute Review: Born of Deception by Teri Brown

Title: Born of Deception
Author: Teri Brown
Genre: historical fiction
Series: Born of Illusion #2
Pages: 336
Published: June 2014
Source: publishers via edelweiss
Rating: 2/5

Budding illusionist Anna Van Housen is on top of the world: after scoring a spot on a prestigious European vaudeville tour, she has moved to London to chase her dream and to join an underground society for people like her with psychic abilities. Along with her handsome beau, Cole Archer, Anna is prepared to take the city by storm.

But when Anna arrives in London, she finds the group in turmoil. Sensitives are disappearing and, without a suspect, the group’s members are turning on one another. Could the kidnapper be someone within the society itself—or has the nefarious Dr. Boyle followed them to London?

As Cole and Anna begin to unravel the case and secrets about the society are revealed, they find themselves at odds, their plans for romance in London having vanished. Her life in danger and her relationship fizzling, can Anna find a way to track down the killer before he makes her his next victim—or will she have to pay the ultimate price for her powers?

Set in Jazz-Age London, this alluring sequel to Born of Illusion comes alive with sparkling romance, deadly intrigue, and daring magic.

Though Born of Deception is not a bad book, necessarily, it can't do anything but pale against its predecessor, Born of Illusion. The sequel feels tired, a limp attempt to extend the chemistry and action that was actually rather neatly wrapped up in book one.

I had a mild amount of fun while reading this sequel, but there's just nothing new happening here. In fact, all this does is wear away some of the good will that I had for the characters -- the romance becomes far less enjoyable and detracts from both character's development. A bit of fluff that is just not needed and serves to muddy the waters from the first, strong story.

Book Tour Review + Giveaway: Arabella of Mars by David D. Levine

Title: Arabella of Mars
Author: David D. Levine
Genre: science fiction
Series: The Adventures of Arabella Ashby #1
Pages: 352
Published: July 12 2016
Source: publishers for review
Rating: 4/5

Ever since Newton witnessed a bubble rising from his bathtub, mankind has sought the stars. When William III of England commissioned Capt. William Kidd to command the first expedition to Mars in the late 1600s, they proved that space travel was both possible and profitable.

Now, one century later, a plantation in the flourishing British colony on Mars is home to Arabella Ashby. A tomboy who shares her father’s deft hand with complex automatons. Being raised on the Martian frontier by her Martian nanny, Arabella is more a wild child than a proper young lady. Something her mother plans to remedy with a move to an exotic world Arabella has never seen: London, England.

Arabella soon finds herself trying to navigate an alien world until a dramatic change in her family’s circumstances forces her to defy all conventions in order to return to Mars in order to save both her brother and the plantation. To do this, Arabella must pass as a boy on the Diana, a ship serving the Mars Trading Company with a mysterious Indian captain who is intrigued by her knack with automatons. Arabella must weather the naval war between Britain and France, learning how to sail, and a mutinous crew if she hopes to save her brother from certain death.

Steampunk, science fiction, and alternate realities combine with Regency-era manners and customs to create the fun mishash of genres and ideas that is Arabella of Mars. Part adventure, part coming-of-age story, with an excellent slow-burning romance, this series beginner introduces a lot of fun concepts and also its fair share of well-drawn, interesting characters. Veteran author David D. Levine makes creative use of some genre tropes and also isn't afraid to turn stereotypes and expectations on their heads.

In this alternative version of history, the English drive for domination have led them all the way to Mars. In Arabella's version of the world, her nation's people have been colonizing Mars since the 1600s, and do so using open-air steampunk ships equipped with automaton technology. Levine's version of space exploration is utterly unlike the real world's, but he adapts interstellar travel to his created world's available tech rather well. In fact, the steampunk elements are utilized sparingly and smartly and never overwhelm the plot. Some of the finer points of how the ship functions aren't too clear, but the fun in the story is enough that readers won't notice or won't care. 

Arabella Ashby, 16 and a frustration to her mother, is the eponymous and relateable heroine of the novel. Using an excellent third-person POV, Levine has created a visual and descriptive narrator, and a smart one as well. Her personality is large and multi-dimensional; she's headstrong, likeable, a bit naive, and stubborn. She's not a girl who is at home in the strict rules of British Society, but instead feels natural planning counter-maneuvers in the Martian sand with her beloved brother Michael. Her relationship with her brother is both the emotional core of the book and the reason behind Arabella's personal arc. This is a girl who loves her brother enough to risk pirates, mutinies, and a rebellion just to be near enough to protect him.

The beginning of the novel is a high-flying genderbending adventure. Arabella's hard work, both as a captains boy and to keep her identity a secret, on the Diana makes for an intense and exciting story. However, that fraught interstellar journey is just the beginning of her struggles. It's easy to see the analogy of the fictional British colonization of Mars with the real-world way India was invaded by the British Empire. Like with that historical occupation, the people of Mars are relegated to subordinate roles and their culture is ignored or desecrated. This uneasy coexistence is explored from both sides of the conflict as it builds more and more pressure, and creates a strong secondary plot for the last half of the novel.

There was a lot to appreciate over the 350-page length of Arabella of Mars as both a fan of YA and of science fiction. The strong sibling relationship was definitely one of the highlights, as was the subtle but slow-burning romance (enjoyable and painful at the same time), and the creativity of the steampunk technology is refreshing. Touching carefully but meaningfully on societal themes that intersect with Arabella's experience (such as racism, sexism, feminism, and of course colonialism) this is a multi-layered story. Mixing manners and magic, steampunk and starlight, Arabella of Mars is an excellent launch-point for further adventures to come.

And thanks to the wonderful people at Tor Books, I have a copy to giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Arabella of Mars is a 

Review: The Rat Prince by Bridget Hodder

Title: The Rat Prince
Author: Bridget Hodder
Genre: Fantasy
Series: N/A
Pages: 272
Expected Publication: August 23, 2016
Source: ARC via Publisher
Rating: 3.75 out of 5

Cinderella thinks she must work alone to save her noble family from the ruin and disgrace her stepmother has brought to Lancastyr Manor. She has an ailing father, a sweet, innocent little stepsister and dependent servants to protect from the wicked Wilhemina--and no way to call attention to their plight unless she figures out how to attend the royal ball.But Cinderella knows nothing of the ancient pact between the House of Lancastyr and the rats who live within the walls of her ancestral home.Nor is she aware that the sleek black rat she thinks is her pet is actually the Rat Prince...and she is not alone.

The Rat Prince is a cute, well written, but by-the-numbers Cinderella retelling. There are a lot of positives to it: I like that the aristocracy seemed real and made sense (obviously Regency/Georgian inspired) and I liked that the ton remembered the family had a daughter and asked after her. In a lot of retellings, the step-mother is able to abuse Cinderella without anyone saying boo *coughEllaEnchantedcough*, which is kind of crazy in a well enough off family to know the royals. Char's a really sweet prince and, except for the flaw of him literally being a rat, I could totally see him being a MG book boyfriend. The step-sisters are given some nuance, though I do see one being re-imagined as nice but helpless a lot lately.

Truly, my issue is with the rats. Their court is really interesting and fun and reminds me of the Borrowers, but this is the story of a human woman falling in love with a rat. He's not a man turned into a rat by magic. He's not a talking rat. He's just a pet. rat. I couldn't fully get past it, and though Char is turned into a human, I was left feeling super weird about the romance, especially since it was obvious Char was in love with Cinderella when they were different species. The addition of magic is also hasty and didn't really integrate with the generally realistic setting and the ending is rushed.

When I was MG myself, I went though a serious Cinderella phase, and I think this is a perfect followup when Ella Enchanted and Just Ella are over, but it's never going to be my go-to retelling.

Top Ten Things About Jessie

Top Ten Tuesday is all thanks to Broke and the Bookish!

Today's topic is pretty open-ended, so I'm going to go with some bookish related facts about myself.

1. I can read 100+ pages in an hour

This is seriously my superpower! I used to be so consistent I could tell how much time had passed based on how many pages I'd read. Nowadays I can read as little as 100 pages in an hour to 115 if I am really really into the story. I get super-focused and the pages just roll byyyyy.

2. I have a library!

I mean in this in the sense that I own enough books to populate a library and also in that I have a separate room in my house that serves just this function. It was the one thing I asked for when we moved and my husband delivered.

One wall of my library in the beginning of 2016..... • . • #bookstagram #instabook #igreads #igbooks #pagesfordays #bookish #ireadya #shelfie #bibliophile #booklover #personallibrary #funkopop #wefunkopop

A photo posted by Jessie Hall Wallace (@jypsyhowl) on Jan 10, 2016 at 2:10pm PST

(this is just one wall) 

3. I'm a rereader

I know some readers prefer to read a book once and never revisit. And while I can't reread all the books I've liked over the years, I do make it a point to reread the truly special ones at least every couple years.

4. I'm a Ravenclaw

I'm a Ravenclaw twice-over, both my own decision and Pottermore's. But I do admit there's a good 27.8% of me that is definitely Slytherin-ish.

5. I'm a dragon fanatic

If a book mentions a dragon, hints at a dragon, or especially has one on the cover/in the blurb, I WANT TO READ THAT BOOK.

6. Sometimes I really do think the movie > the book

My love for HTTYD is expansive and well-known, but that love is for the movies only. The same goes for Coraline, and Stardust (sorry Gaimanites! I like his stuff... but the movies are better.)

7. Sometimes, I don't like having ARCs

Don't get me wrong, it is a privilege to get them. But it is also a lot of pressure, especially when they come unsolicited. And I always wonder -- what changes from the version I read to the final? Plus the waiting is even longer for a sequel!

8. Most of the time, I love having ARCs

It is really fun seeing your favorite author's newest land on your doorstop.

9. I don't want to be a writer

I know a lot of people assume readers/reviewers/bloggers do so with the hope of one day penning their own opus. Not me. I do like to write and that drive is fulfilled entirely by blogging.  I just have absolutely no desire to imagine and build a story.

10. I've been blogging for 5.5 years and have no plans to stop

YOU'RE STUCK WITH MEEEEEE