Category: Books

Whether TikTok book recommendations are good or not, one thing is for sure: they are everywhere. I don’t have TikTok, and even I know what books are blowing up there. While this is nowhere a testament to the quality of TikTok books, I appreciate it whenever I discover new books. The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes is one of them. A mystery YA series full of puzzles, riddles and a treasure hunt feeling with an inheritance on the line. Title: The Inheritance Games Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes Series: The Inheritance Games #1 Publication year: 2020 Length: 10 hours 45 minutes Genre: YA, Mystery, Puzzle, Drama, Romance Pace: Fast Story focus: Character & Plot Avery is living with her half-sister when she suddenly loses her ground. Her sister’s abusive boyfriend is back home again, and he kicked her out. Now living in her car, dreaming of a better life, and …

I was not planning on rewriting a review for We Were Liars by E Lockhart. I read this book five years ago, loved it, and obviously, I had to write a review and post it here on the blog. And now, as I finish reading that review, I have a question: what is that girl talking about? Memory is a funny thing. I could swear to you what I thought about We Were Liars before rereading it was the same thoughts I had when I finished it. Turns out, it wasn’t. And that is quite fitting for this book, where nothing is as it seems. I wasn’t planning on writing another review. I decided to reread it now to help me get out of a reading slump and to decide once and for all if the spoiler was actually a spoiler or a spoiler. Although, I feel like I can …

I adore the Robert Langdon series by Dan Brown. Ever since I read The Da Vinci Code, I’ve been making my way through the series. Although, I’ve been reading it in the most out-of-order you could ever imagine. And that’s the beauty of this series. It doesn’t matter where you begin. With the last, Origin, in the middle, The Lost Symbol, or with the very first, Angels and Demons. Title: Angels and Demons Author: Dan Brown Series: Robert Langdon #1 Publication year: 2000 Length: 18 hours 28 minutes Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspence Pace: Fast Story focus: Plot Robert Langdon, a world-renowned symbology professor, is called to travel to Switzerland to help with the murder of a physicist. A strange symbol had been burned into the skin of the victim. A symbol Robert identifies as being part of a secret organisation: the Illuminati. The discovery takes Robert to Rome and the …

Have you ever rage quit a book? You know, getting so done with a book that you want to shut it as hard as you can or throw it away without minding if it gets damaged? Either way, I’ve read some books that I did not like, but most times, it’s always left with a meh feeling, so I just put them away to forget they ever existed. Although, Virgin by Sanghani Radhika left me outraged. I usually don’t write reviews about books I don’t enjoy, most often because I don’t have anything to say large enough to fill a post. But sometimes, some books just hit that little part in your brain that doesn’t shut up, and those words need to go somewhere. I wrote about After by Anna Todd, probably the only negative review I have here on the blog, and even that post isn’t all bad because …

The first time I read The Final Six by Alexandra Monir was back in 2020. I listened to the audiobook while working on a puzzle and really enjoyed it. Right after that, I listened to the sequel The Life Below, but I’m not going over it in this post. I enjoyed listening to this story so much that I had to buy a copy to have on my shelf. Last month, on a whim, I decided to go on a little space adventure and reread it. And now, I have the story fresh in my memory and ready to be reviewed. Title: The Final Six Author: Alexandra Monir Series: The Final Six #1 Publication year: 2018 Length: 7 hours 40 minutes Genre: Sci-fi, Mystery, Post-Apocalyptic, YA Pace: Fast Story focus: Character & Plot Earth is dying. Natural disasters are increasingly more frequent, taking lives wherever they hit. But there’s hope …

I have no words. You’re about to read a full review of This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada, but I want to state that I’m at a loss for words, even though I’m about to write a bunch of them. This is the biggest takeaway from this review. After I closed the book, I was speechless about what I’d read. And here is why. Title: This Mortal Coil Author: Emily Suvada Series: This Mortal Coil #1 Publication year: 2017 Length: 13 hours 26 minutes Genre: Sci-fi, Apocalyptic, YA, Adventure, Thriller Pace: Fast Story focus: Plot In the future, humanity has found a way to hack into their bodies. Everyone has a panel on their arms that camouflage their DNA with different genes, meaning they can have fangs or grow coloured nails by installing an app. This is achieved by a grown network of cables inside the body that carry nanites, …

June marks one year of my Project TBR Zero, and I have to say that after a whole year, it’s been hard to keep focus and find meaning in this project. Not what I expected to write about since I’ve been so motivated throughout this project. And right on the final stretch. Since I didn’t finish my TBR, this is not the end of the project. But it does mark the end of a year focused on reading the books I own. And it’s also a reflection on how I’m feeling about it, how my reading was affected by it, and how much progress I made. Reading for me is a fun activity, a hobby, a recreation, a pastime, whatever you want to call it. It’s not work or a chore. It’s something I do because I enjoy doing it. And throughout this project, that feeling never changed. It just …

While I’m slowly but steadily getting out of my most recent reading slump, nothing like reviewing a book to remind myself why reading is so great. This time is Under the Heavens by Ruth Fox, a new sci-fi trilogy that came out last year with a lot of whales. Disclaimer: Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for allowing me to read this book for free. All the thoughts and opinions here are my own. Title: Under the Heavens Author: Ruth Fox Series: The Ark Trilogy #1 Publication year: 2022 Length: 11 hours 40 minutes Genre: Sci-fi, Space Opera, YA Pace: Medium Story focus: Character & Plot Hannah Monksman is a caregiver for a group of whales being transported from Earth to their new home in New Eden. The book starts already on board the ship while Hannah is ending another of her social media live streams to update …

My bookshelves always bothered me for one reason: they are too deep. And lately, with the growth of my book collection, I found myself thinking of putting the books in double rows. Although which books will go in the back? They will be out of sight and hard to reach, so I need to think carefully about which one will be in the back. While scrolling through Pinterest, I saw an ad for a shelf riser for manga collections. And that was the answer I needed all along. A shelf riser, or as I prefer to call it, a shelf shelf is a structure to elevate the books that will be placed on the back row. So, I grabbed a pencil and paper and began to draw. I wanted something simple and cheap. Cardboard. Although for it to sustain such weight, it had to have a structure underneath that could …

Last year, an 88-year-old book took Tiktok by storm. Its newfound fame brought a lot of readers to its web with the promise of the hardest mystery to solve. I was one of them, and I have to say this book is not for readers. Cain’s Jawbone by Torquedama, originally published in 1934 as part of a collection of crossword and other word puzzles, came back to life to ruin brains all over the world. If for some reason you haven’t heard about Cain’s Jawbone, the book tells a murder mystery in 100 pages, but unfortunately, the pages are out of order. The text is printed only on one side of the paper, and the objective is to find the correct order of the pages while discovering the six victims and their respective murderers. Sounds easy enough, right? Except this is no ordinary text. You can read all 100 pages …

In January, I mentioned Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes in my Favourites Books of 2022 and even compared it to The Book of You by Claire Kendal. Both books have some similarities, although they are still different. In approach and theme. So take this as a quick recommendation to read The Book of You if you’ve read and enjoyed Into the Darkest Corner or vice versa. And now, on with the review. Title: Into the Darkest Corner Author: Elizabeth Haynes Publication year: 2007 Length: 13 hours 58 minutes Genre: Psychological Thriller, Mystery, Crime Pace: Medium Story focus: Character The main protagonist Cathy lives a life of obsessive-compulsive behaviours. She can’t leave the house without checking every lock multiple times and leaving everything in its precise place. She doesn’t trust anyone. Not since her last relationship, which ended 4 years ago. Until a friendly and handsome new neighbour moves …