March 2018 TBR

The first half of march is already over and I have to say I didn't read a lot of books I've planned. But still here are the books I've finished so far:

I'm so glad that I finally finished Otherworld since I've started this book in January! On the contrary to Otherworld I finished Wrong about the guy in one sitting 😂.

On to the books I'm currently reading:

I'm actually listening to the audiobook of The Hate U Give and I like the book more than I would have thought. I'm only two chapters into Our Dark Stars so I don't know what to think about it yet but I will probably write a full review of this book cause I got it from netgalley.

Last but not least a few books I plan to read after finishing my current reads. There are a lot of books I wanna read but I don't know to which ones I will get to so the list is a lot longer than I can realistically finish. Also I am kinda participating in Emojiathon this month but I will link my reads to the emoji challenges in my wrap up at the end of the month so it doesn't really influence my reading choices.

Reading Challenges

I already finished a book for the Monthly Key Word Challenge for march. This month I chose the word "Wrong" and I read Wrong About The Guy by Claire LaZebnik for this challenge.

For the Read The Rainbow Reading Challenge I plan to read City of Bones by Cassandra Clare or The Price Guide to the Occult by Leslye Walton cause this months color is yellow.

2018 Reading Challenges

Since I read 109 books last year I thought that I can reach the 100 book mark again and set my Goodreads reading goal to 100! I'm currently behind schedule but I hope that I can still catch up and read 100 books in 2018. Also I wanna read at least one NetGalley or Edelweiss+ book every month and write a review for it here on my blog cause I find these websites really cool and I wanna support new authors. I also have a Goodreads shelf with all my current eArcs and I hope to read them all before their release date.
Now on to the reading challenges I want to participate in this year:

Monthly Key Word Challenge

The goal of this challenge is to read one book with one of the key words each month. For more information go to the host's blog: My Reader's Blog
And here are the key words:

Read the Rainbow Reading Challenge

Basically you just have to read one book with the color of the month for this challenge. Here are some details from the host: Mia Sutton. Also there is an official hashtag for this challenge: #readtherainbow2018 which I will try to use when I read the respective book of the month. And this are the colors for each month of 2018:

Are you participating in any of these challenges this year? If you are what books do you plan to read for each challenge? What reading challenges or goals do you do in 2018?
Also I will do a reading challenges update every month here on my blog. Stay tuned for that!

Duodecathon February Wrap Up

I actually wanted to do the award winning book challenge but I just wasn't in the mood for The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin and since I couldn't find any other books I wanted to read for this challenge right now I just changed it and decided to do the books with multiple points of view one. The Duodecathon overlapped with the Alphabethon and since I wanted to do both I had to find books meeting both challenges which was not that easy at first. So it was quite convenient that the Duodecathon is so flexible because you choose which challenge to do each month. Since I didn't participate in January I still have 11 challenges to complete so I will probably do two challenges in one month sometime this year. There are a few challenges that I'm unsure about so maybe I just delete one of them from my list. All in all I read 3 books for this challenge which I'm really happy about! I'm really looking forward to doing this each month.

Read 1,200 pages
Read the second book in a series
A book about a villain/antihero
A book published the year you were born
A 2018 bestseller
An award winning book
A book with multiple points of view
A book with antonyms in the title
A banned book
A book with a great first line
A "high school" book you haven't read
A book recommended by someone in the Duodecathon group

Challenges completed: 1

If you have any recommendations for "A book published the year you were born (1995)" or "A book with a great first line" please feel free to comment below. I would really appreciate it! Are you participating in Duodecathon this year? What are you planning to read for each challenge?

Alphabethon E Wrap Up

So... that happened 😉 I really failed miserably at the 5th round of alphabethon. I only read 4 books and one of them wasn't even with an E (don't kill me). But since I'm off to a really bad start with reading this year I consider it still at least a little successful (even though I had 11 books on my alphabethon tbr).
So at the beginning of the weak I finished Mockingjay cause I had already started it and I just couldn't put it down for the whole week. I know, I know no E! But at least the readathon got me to read more even though I cheated.
Also I like that readathons get me to read books that I normally wouldn't pick up in that moment. It takes away the pressure of choosing which book I want to read the most because during a readathon I just choose the book that fits the challenge the best. On to my books I really read for this readathon so books where the title or the author starts with and E:

I really liked all of the books I read during the readathon (more about my thoughts about the books in my February Wrap Up). Actually I finished the last one (Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles) a little bit after the readathon ended but I still count it cause I tried to finish it in time.

I think the concept of this readathon is great cause you can participate no matter what genre you like to read. In addition to the condition to read only books with E there are a few reading challenges. Here are all the challenges and the books I read (or didn't) for each on: 

1) Read a book over 400 pages - I wasn't in the mood to read an extra long book for this readathon
2) Read a book under 200 pages - Just Another Girl by Elizabeth Eulberg
3) Since Alphabethon will take place the week of Valentine’s Day read a romance novel. - The Hundredth Queen by Emily R. King
4) Read a book with two E’s - Just Another Girl by Elizabeth Eulberg
5) Read a book with a MC whose name begins with E. - Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles
6) Read a book with an E setting. (world, city, state, country,etc.) - I couldn't find a book for this challenge
7) Read 7 books - I had 11 books on my TBR and failed this challenge miserably but all in all I read 4 books this week

So I finished 4 of the 7 challenges which means this readathon wasn't a complete fail. I'm really looking forward to the next round of the Alphabethon (I hope I will have time to participate)! Comment below if you have participated in this round of the alphabethon and tell me which books you read. Also if you plan to participate in the next round.

February 2018 TBR

Hello. I'm really bad at sticking to TBRs but because I wanna do a lot of Readathons this month I'm trying to plan my reading. Could be that I'll be switching it up before the Readathons start though. Also I don't think I will get a lot of reading done till the 12th cause I'm currently on ski holiday. But the rest of my time will be spent reading since I have February off of university. I hope I can catch up to my 2018 reading goal and maybe even read ahead a few books. Also I'm doing a few reading challenges this year starting in February (more info on my reading challenges page).


Already finished my first February read: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. This book is action packed and mysterious and I would highly recommend it if you haven't read it already. I read it for the fourth time around and I still love it. Also I'm crying every time I read this series but I just can't stop rereading it.  I'm excited to finish this series!

Current Reads

I'm currently reading three books:

Otherworld

I'm approximately one third in and I don't know what I should think about this book. Most of the time I'm totally confused but I'm really curious how this all turns out.

Turtles All The Way Down

I'm halfway through with this book and I don't think it's gonna be my favorite John Green book but let's see. More about my thoughts in my February wrap up.

Mockingjay

Also I'm currently rereading Mockingjay. I hope to finish this series soon (maybe even this weekend). I'm listening to the audio book for part of it and I'm not a huge audio book fan (I think it's harder to concentrate on) so I'm glad that I've already read this book a few times. This series will forever be one of my all time favourite!

Duodecathon (February 15 - 21)

The Duodecathon is a monthly readathon where you choose one from 12 challenges each month. This month I chose the "An award winning book" challenge and plan to read The Fifth Season from N. K. Jemisin for it. This book won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2016. I've heard a lot of good things about this book and am really excited to read it. For more info on the book and the synopsis go to the Goodreads page.

Readathin (February 1-31)

The goal of this readathon is to read books you already own so you can thin out your tbr! There are 11 reading challenges for the February 2018 Read-a-thin but according to the guidelines you have to do 6 to "complete" this readathon. I'm planning to read a lot more than six books in February and I found 8 books that match the challenges. Here is a complete list of the challenges including my planned reads for each one:

1.) 2017/2018 Release - Everless by Sara Holland
2.) Buddy Read - Broken Beautiful Hearts by Kami Garcia (Group Book!)
3.) Least Favorite Emoji - I don't really have a least favorite emoji but I hate all the people emojis with yellow skin so I chose City of Bones by Cassandra Clare for this one cause Jace looks kinda yellow on the cover ;P

4.) Read a New To You Author - The Hundredth Queen by Emily R. King (I got the third one on netgalley and really wanna read this series now)
5.) Finish a Series - Hope to finish a few series this month but the first one I will hopefully finish is the Hunger Games trilogy with Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
6.) A Book with a Spring Themed Cover - The White Rose by Amy Ewing (I figured that roses are pretty springy)
7.) A Book with a Red, Pink, or White cover - Just Another Girl by Elizabeth Eulberg
8.) It's Black History Month, read a book by a Person of Color - The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin
9.) Read a book feat a Diverse Relationship (not m/f)
10.) Read a Smutty Book
11.) Read a book with NO Romance

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Alphabethon (February 12-18)

The goal of this readathon is to read the Alphabet and this is Round Five so the letter is E. So I mainly looked for books that fulfill this goal but I also tried to find books matching the additional reading challenges. Let's see which books I can finish! Here are the Reading challenges and my Alphabethon TBR:

1) Read a book over 400 pages - The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
2) Read a book under 200 pages - Garnet's Story by Amy Ewing (Novella of The Lone City Series)
3) Since Alphabethon will take place the week of Valentine’s Day read a romance novel. - The Hundredth Queen by Emily R. King
4) Read a book with two E’s ( either author’s first and last name begin with E, title and author’s last or first name…you get it.) - Just Another Girl by Elizabeth Eulberg
5) Read a book with a MC whose name begins with E. - Everless by Sara Holland
6) Read a book with an E setting. (world, city, state, country,etc.) - I couldn't find a book for this challenge but I'm open for recommendation (comment below if you know any books with an E setting and an E title or author!)
7) Read 7 books - all in all I have 11 books on my TBR for this readathon so I hope to read at least 7 of them.

Rainbow Reading Challenge

This months color is orange. I have three books on my TBR for this challenge:

• Turtles all the way down by John Green
• Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
• Everless by Sara Holland

Monthly Key Word Challenge

I chose the word Heart cause I couldn't find any books I wanna read with the other key words and my book for this Challenge is Broken Beautiful Hearts by Kami Garcia!

Possible Reads

There are a few books outside from any readathons and reading challenges that I hope to read this month (if I finish all the other books) but will probably push to the next month. We will see :)

These are all the books I plan to read in February 2018. I hope I can finish at least 14 of them! Let me know if you have read any of them and what your thoughts were on the book. Also let me know if you are doing any of the readathons or reading challenges I mentioned and what you are planning to read for them. Comment below and link your February TBR if you did one :D

Readathons I wanna do in February 2018

These are only the Readathons I wanna do in February 2018. There will be a lot more, but I can't do them all because not all of them can be combined. So I chose just a few that I will participate in and try to do all challenges of. I'm also planning to do a few Reading Challenges this year starting in February. So I will post my complete February 2018 TBR including the Readathon TBRs soon. For a whole list of Readathons happening in February look at the Monthly ReadAThon Guide of Duskangelreads or at the Readathon Calendar of Little Book Owl!

Read-A-Thin (Whole February)

The Read-A-Thin is a monthlong readathon. The goal is to finish 6 challenges out of 11 but only with books you already own. There are a lot of reading sprints on their Twitter page which I love!
For more information go to the Goodreads Group

Alphabethon (February 12-18)

Another readathon I wanna do is round 5 of the Alphabethon. It's a readathon centered around (you guessed it) the alphabet. So every readathon is focused on another letter of the alphabet. This is round 5 so the letter will be E. There are also reading challenges and even a giveaway. All the information can be found on the host's blog: Bookaholicbanter Blog and the Twitter Page

Duodecathon (February 15-21)

This is a monthly readathon and here is how it works: You pick one challenge every Duodecathon to complete out of the list of 12 challenges, so by the end you will have completed all the challenges. All the reading challenges can be found in the Goodreads Group




So these are all the readathons I wanna do in February. If you are participating in any of these let me know. Also if you are participating in any other exciting readathons please link them in the comments ;)

My snow day reading list

It’s day one of the Winter Biannual Bibliothon 2018 and I'm already behind on my reading goal. I have already finished a novella and started reading the group book Otherworld. But since I've not a lot of time to read next week I wanted to get ahead of my reading. Hope to finish my goal of reading a book per challenge but if I can't do it I will just double up on some.
But enough about the reading challenges. Let's get started with the blog post challenge.

There are a lot of books I would read on a snow day because it's just the perfect weather for reading. Also I normally don't select my books by the weather outside so I have a lot of very different books on this list. So here it is:

My true love gave to me

I love to go outside when it's snowing because it's my favorite weather. I will do a snow angel or have a snowball fight or build a snowman. But if you go outside into the cold weather it's nice to warm yourself up in between. Maybe with a cup of tea and a good book. My true love gave to me from a bunch of different authors is the perfect book for this. Since it's a collection of shortstories you can just read one of them and then go back outside when you feel warm again without having to pause a novel.

The Selection

Winter is ball season where I live. The first book that came to mind when I think about parties with people in pretty dresses is The Selection by Kiera Cass. Also it's a very fast read so perfect for Winter Biannual Bibliothon ;)

Anna and the French Kiss

I think snow is very romantic as is Paris. Anna and the French Kiss is one of my favorite contemporaries of all time and I love the description of Paris in it. It's like being teleported to the city of love.

Love & Gelato

This book is a little bit strange for a snow day reading list because it plays in the summer and they eat ice cream which you normally don't do that often in winter. But if you have enough of winter and the snow it's nice to put your head in a book and dream about summer. I read this book in July but I think I would have liked it just as much on a snow day.

Twilight

I haven't recommended this book in a long time. Not because I don't love it anymore, on the contrary. I will always love Twilight. I just feel like everybody has already read it. But it came immediately to my mind because Bella is struggling a lot with snow and especially the slippery ice. (And who wouldn't love being caught by a sexy vampire on a snowy day)

Wanderlost

A lot of people are travelling south when it's snowing to avoid the cold. But if you don't have the opportunity to travel in the winter time you can always do it by reading a story about traveling. I always love to go to new places with book characters and one of my favorite travel stories is Wanderlost by Jen Malone. It's just a nice read to escape from especially stressful times :)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

This list wouldn't be complete without a Harry Potter book on it. Of course any Harry Potter book would do it. Also I think any time is a good time to reread Harry Potter but I just feel more like diving into this world on a snow day because I love it the most when it's winter time in Hogwarts. For me Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the most wintery, snowy book because of the winter ball. Also who can get cold while reading about getting burned by dragons ;D

That's it for my snow day reading list. Would you read any of them in the winter time or do you prefer different books. Comment down below! I would love to chat about it.

2016 Reading Challenge

My goodreads reading challenge is to read 100 books this year! Last year I did it :D
In addition to my Goodreads Reading Challenge, I try to do another challenge every year to read books I wouldn't have picked up normally.

In 2015 I did the TBR-Jar-Challenge. This year I thought about doing the Popsugar Reading Challenge. I'm so glad that they published a Challenge again this year so I can participate.

I hope I can read a book for all 40 challenges. We'll see ;)

Review: Dreaming of Antigone - Robin Bridges

Uncharacteristically for me I've read a lot of Contemporary YA lately. In between I also read Dreaming of Antigone. I didn't like it as much as some of the others, but it was still a great book. I liked the way the main characters fell in love with each other and although it was a little bit unrealistic and instalovey it kind of makes sense that they would turn to each other for comfort after what happened before the book. I think there was happening a little bit too much at the same time for such a short book. Which means it was very fast-paced, but some topics felt a little bit rushed and I thought they could have been exploit a little bit more. I liked the characters very much. I love it when main characters are passionate about something. It gives them personality and makes them become alive. Also I often learn something new about hobbies the main characters practice. Still I couldn't quite connect with the main characters. But in the end I really liked the story and especially that it deals with so many serious topics. And even though I kind of guessed the plot twist it was still surprising and very interesting. I just think because of all the serious topics and sad events the characters were just coping a little bit to well and that was the only thing that made me really feel a little bit disconnected and not emotional enough considering all the terrible and heartwarming events. Oh yeah and by the way I LOVE this cover.

Review: Untraceable (The Nature of Grace #1) - S.R. Johannes

I can't decide if I hated or loved this book. The first 100 pages were kind of boring but it got better after that. The last 100 pages were really exciting and thrilling. I couldn't take my eyes of the book, but I feel like it was more like a train wreck. I wanted to stop reading but I just couldn't. That doesn't mean that I didn't like it. There were so many plot twists in the end and I love it if a book is unpredictable. Also I really liked the characters - at least the ones you were supposed to like ;). I would have wished for a better clear up of their relationships in the end. It was just like the emotions described in the whole book where in the end just gone and after three days everything was back to normal.
The end was just the thing that kind of ruined this book for me. It was like the whole book was pointless in the end and I wished it would have been differently.
Also I saw on Goodreads that it was listed as Fantasy and I waited the whole book for something fantastical to happen but it didn't!
I kinda wish I haven't read this book - although it was not that bad - but because of this stupid cliff hanger in the end I feel like I have to read the next one in the series but I didn't like this one so much that I wanna invest the time to read two more books, so I don't know what to do!
If you like mystery thrillers I think you should try it, but prepare for reading the whole series!

Review: Call Me, Maybe - Ellie Cahill

I normally don't read romance novels but it was a nice change. I actually liked the characters and I liked that they had a background story that influenced them til today. It made them human and relate-able. I liked the way their relationship started. It was nice and cutesy and really original I think. Also I liked that you get to know different characters who don't actually show in the book. That made the main characters come to life because they had other relationships in their life like a family and friends.
The story for me was kind of boring. Maybe it's because I don't usually read romance books and fantasy books have a lot more going on than just the romance between the main characters. I waited through the whole book for something unexpected to happen but it was pretty predictable. I still liked the story because it was also very realistic but it just wasn't enough for me I think.
But the writing was great. It was fast-paced and in the beginning I couldn't even put it down. After about 100 pages I realized how far I've gotten and was kind of shocked. That's also why I finished this book in a day. Since it covers only approximately 3 weeks it is easy to read in one sitting and also it is kind of understandable that there wasn't going on that much. I think the main part in a contemporary romance novel is the romance so it was very well done. I think I just don't wanna read romance novels all the time but I'm really clad I did read this book and I'm happy I got approved for this book on netgalley. If you like romance novels you should definitely give this one a try.

Review: Sentinel (Covenant #5) - Jennifer L. Armentrout

Ok first of all: Normally I hate the covers of Jennifer's book. The covers of the Lux series are really hideous, but this series has so beautiful covers. I just adore them!

I did a review of the first book of the series and talked about the resemblance to Vampire Academy. The first one was pretty similar, but as the series progressed it got more and more complicated and develop it's own story and it was very thrilling and captivating. The love story in this book was just amazing and I love how this all wrapped up in this book. I just really like it when a couple overcomes all its problems to be with each other and starts to fight their problems together. Also I liked the "love triangle" in this series. Normally I really hate them, but there are a few series where it's well done and this one definitely belongs to the well written love triangles.

I also love the main character's relationship to the other characters and how they develop and also how she develops throughout the book. You can really see that this book is written for young adults who are as well in the process of changing and finding themselves.

Also as the series progressed I started to appreciate the Greek mythology in this book. You can't really see much of that in the first book, but it definitely adds to the story later.

I really really loved the ending. It wasn't the typical corny and cheesy ending which you have sometimes with happy endings, but it was still a happy ending. I could have never thought about this ending. It was very surprising for me, but it was a nice surprise. And if I wouldn't have had all the feels already throughout the series with this ending I would have had them at the latest. I just wanted to cry and laugh at the same time throughout the whole series. It was heartbreaking and so relate-able and also so sweet and sad and scary at the same time. Really just all the feels!

Also this series is relatively long because there are 5 books and 2 novellas but they are really fast-paced and pretty short so you can read them in a short amount of time like all Jennifer L. Armentrout books but you should read the novellas as well to really understand the whole series and also the novellas are amazing especially the second one ;)

This series is like Percy Jackson for young adults. So if you wanna have a mix between Vampire Academy and Percy Jackson you should definitely try this. Just don't let yourself get scared of by the first one because you feel like you have read this already because there is a lot more to the story later on. 

Review: Silver Shadows (Bloodlines #5) - Richelle Mead

This book was definitely the best one in the series so far. I really liked the other ones too but in this book the characters develop so much it's amazing. The other 4 books just feel unimportant beside this one. Which doesn't mean that they weren't good or interesting. They built the story but in this book the series reached it's excitement top!
I don't know if I like the series more than Vampire Academy because they are both so good!
I think I like the characters more than in Vampire Academy. Especially the side characters have more depth and their stories are a nice addition to the main plot. If you can even say main plot because in Richelle Mead's books there are always many, many plot strings intertwining and standing out. It was kind of confusing that in the fourth book the POVs started to change but I can see that it was necessary for the story and after getting used to it I like it. Also I like that you can see a lot of different kinds of relationships in this series. Of course there is the romance, but the relationships between family members and friends are also very interesting. I really like how deep the friendships always are in Richelle Mead's books.
I think this book was so far the most thrilling and emotional one of the series.
The first half of the book was hard to read because it was really depressing but it was even harder to put down because it was so exciting. And the end was so heartbreaking and lovely that it was nearly too romantic but at the same time still action-packed which made the book really unique.

Review: Half-Blood / Daimon (Covenant Series #1 / #0.5) - Jennifer L. Armentrout

Before I started this book I've heard that it is similar to Vampire Academy. Normally I don't care if YA books feel similar to other YA books I really liked. I think if I like a book why don't read a similar one because I will probably like that too. So for me it was ok that it was similar although I think there were a little bit too many similarities.
The characters and the whole story were practically the same. I still liked this book a lot and am very interested in reading on with the series. It's just that I often felt like I've already read this book. I think that the next books will be more interesting and new to me, so I'm glad I read this book and look forward to reading on with this series.
Also Jennifer L. Armentrout fulfilled my expectations as always. The writing was really good and the whole world building felt so real. Also I liked the characters a lot and I'm really curious how the relationships between the characters develop throughout the other books. Also it was the perfect book for a readathon because like always I just couldn't put Armentrout's book down. If I have had the time I would have read it in one sitting. It was short and captivating.
If not for the similarities to Vampire Academy it would get five smileys ;)

I also read the prequel to Half-Blood: Daimon. It isn't really necessary to read it but I still liked it as start of a series and it intrigued me into reading the series. It didn't really give extra information to the story or characters but it was a nice story and gave the reader more information about the main character before the events of the first book. I would recommend to start the series with this book but if you don't want to read it it's also ok to start with Half-Blood. If I haven't read it before the first book I think I wouldn't bother to read it later. All in all I think this series has a lot of potential and I really like it so far!

Review: Hollywood Witch Hunter - Valerie Tejeda

So at first I didn't really like the book. The first hundred pages were fast-paced but kind of boring. There wasn't a lot going on except from world building and character development. Since it is an urban fantasy novel the world building wasn't amazing but very relatable. For me the characters were the worst in this book. I mean I liked them but I didn't really feel like I get to know them in the book and that was kind of confusing. I didn't really know who to trust and also I didn't really know much about the main characters' background story. I know that the lack of information regarding the characters was part of the mystery and that the reader is supposed to puzzle over which side is the good one and which side the bad one but I would have liked to get to know some of the characters a little bit more.

The plot was amazing. I was surprised by all the changes many times and it was really gripping. Also there was a lot of action in this book and I think the main character was really sassy and badass. I never knew what was coming next and I really liked that. If you hate predictable books this is exactly what you should read because it was definitely the opposite of predictable.

Also I think for a fantasy stand alone novel it was really great although I really wish that Valerie Tejeda writes a sequel because I think there was a little cliff hanger at the end and a lot of potential for the story to become a series. I also can live with the fact that this was the end but I would be very sorry. I mean it wrapped up nicely and doesn't necessarily need a sequel but there where still a lot of questions left open. Also I would like to see more of the side characters if there is a next book. All in all it was a really quick and refreshing read and the perfect pick for a readathon ;)