Booktubeathon Days #2 & #3 | Reading With Danielle

I forgot to post yesterday's post until 6 o'clock on day three, so I decided to just combine both days! Enjoy.

DAY TWO

After a very successful day one, I moved on to day two on my third book for the week! I was already 100 pages into the 350 page book that is Aristotle and Dante, which was a nice lead. I had to work in the morning, but by noon I was home and ready to go.

I was a bit nervous for this book, as I tried to read it a few years ago and couldn't really get into it. But it was so hyped that I couldn't bring myself to get rid of it. But I found that I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I would have thought! I had a few issues with the writing style (I prefer a bit more description than Saenz provided), but on the whole it was very enjoyable. I can see why everyone hyped it so much.

I finished Ari and Dante by nine at night, so I figured I would get a head start on tomorrow's read. I picked up The Color of Magic and quickly discovered it was not going to be good for a read-a-thon. I still want to read it at some point in the future, but now is not a good idea. So instead, I'm going for Balance Keepers!

I got to 50 page by the end of the night.

Challenges completed today:
Read a book about a character very different from you ✔️ 
Read a hyped book ✔️ 

DAY THREE

On day three, I had work in the morning again so I couldn't get my reading started as early as I would have liked. Still, I worked my way through Balance keepers pretty solidly all day long. I have a nice little system going where I read 50 or so pages, take a break, then read 50 more. It helps me to not feel burnt out at all or tired of reading since it doesn't feel like that's the only thing I've done today.

I ended up spending the whole day reading this in bits and finished it by 8:30. It was a pretty solid book, though it's definitely not my favorite read of the week.

I decided to pick a new "read a book that you bought for the cover" book since I chose not to read The Color of Magic anymore. I ended up picking Starters by Lissa Price.

I saw this book in the bookstore for the first time probably four or five years ago now and the cover has always stuck with me. I don't know why, but I think it's absolutely stunning. I finally bought a copy of the book this summer and I have completely forgotten what it's about, so it was really just for the cover.

By the end of the night, I ended up not reading any of Starters, but it's ready to go for tomorrow. I'm still a book ahead, which is fantastic. I didn't complete any challenges, but I'm ahead on that too, so it's okay.

Check out my instagram for my Booktubeathon pictures! I'm documenting my reading there as well.

Booktubeathon Day #1 | Reading With Danielle

Hello everyone! I thought it would be fun to do daily posts about my Booktubeathon adventures, so here's the first one!

The day didn't start off the best. A little after midnight, I started The Painting like I'd planned, but quickly found that I didn't like it. I was struck with a dilemma: should I push through the book even when I don't like it or scrap it right away? Since I was only a few pages in, I scrapped it. I switched to another book on my TBR: Mustaches for Maddie. It even can count for the same challenge, since this book as a person on the cover as well, which is a plus. I now have no idea what I will replace The Painting with, but I guess we'll find out as the week goes on.

I read twenty or so pages of Mustaches for Maddie before going to sleep. Luckily, this book wasn't too long, so I was able to finish it the next morning before it even hit noon! One book down before lunch.

My next read was Life is Like a Musical, and it was for my "read a book outside" challenge. This one was a little bit tougher since I'm in southern Kentucky and it's in the 90s pretty much every day lately, if not the 100s. I had to do it in little spurts, especially when I realized this isn't a story (it's actually more of a "lessons from theatre life that can apply to real life too" nonfiction sort of book. Which isn't bad, but not what I was expecting).

It was interesting for the most part, though I ended up failing the "outdoors" challenge completely. It was just too hot and I wanted to keep reading! I think that challenge just isn't going to happen for me this year, but I did still accomplish one challenge with this book. 

I decided that I couldn't slow down even after finishing two books in one day (gotta keep that momentum going!), so I started Aristotle and Dante shortly after finishing Life is Like a Musical. I figured it could only help, since this book is around 350 pages and would be harder to read in one day.

By the end of the night, I managed to read 100 pages! Hopefully, I'll be able to knock out the rest of them tomorrow. I was lucky to not have work today. It really helped me get a strong start onto the read-a-thon. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it up.

Challenges completed today:

Read a book with a person on the cover ✔️ 

Read a book completely outside ✘

Read a book in one day ✔️ 

Check out my instagram for my Booktubeathon pictures! I'm documenting my reading there as well.

All The Crooked Saints | Review | Reading With Danielle

REVIEW | ALL THE CROOKED SAINTS

Rating: 4/5 stars

Goodreads review

This is definitely a whole different ball game than TRC. The writing style is even more stylistic that TRC was and it is something that could really be hit-or-miss for people. Luckily, it was a hit for me. It helped make the book so atmospheric and otherworldly, which fit this weird magical realism story so well. I think that was something that really helped me enjoy the magical realism aspect of the story, since that's something that usually doesn't gel with me too well.

The main thing I didn't love about this book was that the focus was really all over the place. There were so many characters (which isn't a bad thing in and of itself), but we delved deep into the majority of them! Halfway through the book, you still can't really say who the main characters are without listing close to ten characters! I like how fleshed out all of the characters are (Maggie is truly skilled in that department) but I think we could have benefitted from a little more focus on a few characters and a little less on others.

I loved the little thing Maggie did every time she introduced a new character. The "here was a thing they wanted/here was a thing they feared" thing. It was quirky and fit so well with the narration. It was also a quick way to make the reader feel like they know the character well. It helped a lot, since the book was so character driven and we really needed to feel like we knew all of the characters.

I think Maggie is incredibly talented as a writer and this book truly shows it. The pacing was great; slow, but not bogged down or monotonous. The characters were all likable in one way and unlikable in another, which helped build their complexity. And the actual plot, no matter how often it got shoved to the background, was ever-present and always had me guessing how it was going to work out in the end.

It would be realistic to complain about how quickly Beatriz and Pete fell for each other, considering this book took place only over a few days and that they didn't spend a whole lot of time together, but it worked in this story. I think the magical realism elements of the story helped make that seem less odd, considering most of the other couples in the book seem to have had similar timespans to fall in love.

If character driven stories with highly stylistic writing is for you, you should definitely pick this book up. If you've ever liked anything Maggie has written previously, you should definitely pick this book up. If you like magical realism, you should definitely pick this book up.

Basically, just go and pick this book up.

Books That Aren't Set In/Inspired By The Western World | T5W | Reading With Danielle

This was definitely harder than it should have been, which is a huge indicator that I need to expand some of my reading! But still, here is a list of books I have read that either are not set in and/or not inspired by the Western world.

5. Eon by Alison Goodman

A lot of people call this a retelling of/inspired by Mulan, but I don't like categorizing every book about a girl dressing as a boy as a Mulan retelling. Still, this is very reminiscent of Eastern Asian cultures (it's been too long since I've read this to remember exactly which cultures, sorry! I think it's Chinese, but I don't want to be wrong, you know?) It's about dragons and dragon tamers and it's a fun book. I actually love fantasy stories that are inspired by Eastern cultures (Avatar The Last Airbender, anybody?) and this is another example as to why I need to find more to read.

4. America Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Okay, so to be fair this is sort of set in the Western world. Half of the story does take place in America (hence the title), but there is a large portion that doesn't and is taken straight out of Chinese folklore (if that's the correct term to describe the Monkey King. Everything about the story surrounds Chinese culture and what that means for the characters, so I'm going to include it anyway. Sorry if that's breaking the rules of the topic too much, I just really want everyone to read this book.

3. The Crown's Game by Evelyn Skye

This book is another fun fantasy novel and it takes place in Russia! Or possibly a fantasy version of Russia, I can't quite remember (please don't mind me and my memory issues). I loved the setting in this book and how the characters interacted with it. One of the main characters is actually next in line to be the Tsar, which makes for some interesting Russian politics moments. It's definitely more on the fantasy side, but yeah. I'd definitely recommend.

2. Ink by Amanda Sun

I LOVED this book back when I read it and it is a crime that I still have not read the next book. This is an urban fantasy that takes place in Japan and, um, WOW. The author has been to Japan before (I think she lived there for a while, but don't quote me on that) and you could definitely tell. It just felt like it was in Japan in a way I almost can't describe. It felt the same way reading manga feels- just absolutely Japanese. Plus it plays with some mythology here, which makes the story super fun.

1. Cinder by Marissa Meyer

This one might be a little obvious, but I had to include it. This is, of course, only really talking to the first book, which takes place in "New Beijing" and the Eastern Commonwealth. This is clearly a futuristic version of China. I actually love the fact that Marissa Meyer chose to have Cinder grow up here, since there are many claims that the original Cinderella story is a Chinese folktale.

Don't forget to check out the Goodreads group!

Booktubeathon TBR | Reading With Danielle

Booktubeathon is coming up and I'm so excited for it! I don't normally do readathons, but I always attempt to do this one every year. And this year, I'll document the experience right here with you guys :)

I'll be mostly updating about the readathon here or on my instagram, so if you want to check it out you totally should!

Lastly, I'd like to say that I really don't know what any of these books are about (oops), so sorry for not describing any of them? Is that a thing I should be doing (lol)? Idk I'm not super familiar with book blogs- I'm more of a booktube-watcher. Also, you could recommend some book blogs for me to read!

And now, on to the seven books I'm going to try to read in seven days!

• Challenge #1: Read a book with a person on the cover

 For this challenge, I'm going to go with The Painting by Charis Cotter! This is one of the books I got from BookCon this year and there is a lovely picture of a girl on the cover. It looks like a fast read, which is always a plus for a readathon.

• Challenge #2: Read a hyped book

For this one, I'm going with a book I have owned for close to three years now (if not three years lol), which is Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz. I tried to read this one back when I first bought it (because of booktube!!) and didn't really get into it, but the hype was so wild I couldn't get myself to get rid of the book. So now, after so long, I'm going to attempt to read it!

• Challenge #3: Finish a book in a day

This is going to be doubled up with Challenge #5 since this book is so tiny. I'm choosing Life is Like a Musical by Tim Federle. This is an ARC that I got at BookCon this year and is less than 150 pages, so I think it should go by super fast and be easy to read in a single day.

• Challenge #4: Read about a character that is very different from you

This is a tough one to find, since most of the books that I own that could fit the bill are far too big to attempt in this time period. I might double up and could this one for Aristotle and Dante as well, but I'll try to find something else for this one.

 But if I do go with Ari and Dante, the differences are vast:

1. Ari is Mexican, while I am white.
2. Ari is gay, while I am not.
3. Ari is a guy, while I am a girl.

So, it'll be a very different perspective!

• Challenge #5: Finish a book completely outdoors

Like I said before, I'm doubling up on this challenge with Life is Like a Musical! It'll be easy peasy lemon squeezy to read it outside.

• Challenge #6: Read a book you bought because of the cover

This might be flubbing this one a little, but I'm going to go with The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett. I was already going to buy this book, but the cover I found on Book Depository is so amazing that I ended up spending a little extra money for this edition. Don't judge me lmao. (Yes, that picture is the cover I own!! It looks so nice in real life!!)

• Challenge #7: Read seven books

So, if you were counting you will have noticed that I've only picked four books so far... For right now, I'm going to only list six books and leave the seventh as sort of a wild card (lowkey it might just be The Last Olympian so I can finish my reread, but we'll see :p). I might try to make other books count for the two challenges I'm doubling up on, but I won't sweat it if they don't. I'll still be accomplishing them all.

I think one of my other reads will be Mustaches for Maddie by Chad Morris and Shelly Brown, which is yet another ARC I got from BookCon. It feels good to have a plan on when I'm going to get to some of them. (Don't tell anyone, but I still have some from last year that I haven't read yet... oops).

And the last one that I'm going to decide right now is The Balance Keepers: Fires of Calderon by Lindsay Cummings!

And that's all for now, folks! Be sure to check out my Instagram, which is mostly book related though I don't post super frequently. And let me know what you're thinking of reading for the Booktubeathon and it'll be like we're all reading together :)

Children's Books | T5W | Reading With Danielle

So, here's my first official Top 5 Wednesday post! And this one is gonna be a fun one, considering I'm a Children's Literature major in school, so these books are definitely my fave! As per requested in the July Topics post, I'm going to shy away from the obvious choices (like Harry Potter or Percy Jackson). I'll also try to avoid using the same author over and over, even though this could easily turn into a Brandon Mull recommendation post.

These are in no particular order (maybe). Well, they are in a least-to-most favorite order, but except for the number one spot, they're not set in stone.

5. Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi

This is the most recent of all of my middle grade books on this list, but it is the only one I gave three stars on Goodreads. It was a good, solid book and I enjoyed reading it, but it didn't wow me. I think it shows Tahereh's potential in a middle grade setting and I'd like to see her write more in this age group!

4. Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz

This is only for the first book, not the second or third in the series! I actually really enjoyed this book. That's probably because I'm weirdly obsessed with it's partner movie Descendants. But it was so fun and had great characterization and I gave it four stars back when I read it! The second book was disappointing, though, so I'm just gonna stick with this book and the movie.

3. Fortunately The Milk by Neil Gaiman

This was such a cute little read! Neil Gaiman is a hit or miss for me, but this was definitely a hit. The story was goofy and adorable. The art was quirky and perfect for the story as well. Overall, this was such a fun little read.

2. The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen

This book caught me by surprise. I was not expecting a simple middle grade about a boy pretending to be a long-lost prince to be mind-blowing, but it ended up blowing my mind. While the other books in the series weren't quite as good as this one, I definitely recommend this book. (Also, there's some debate over whether this is middle grade or ya, but I definitely think it's middle grade, hence why it's in this post.)

1. Fablehaven by Brandon Mull

Arguably one of my favorite series of all time, I absolutely had to put this book on the list. Fablehaven will always be one of my all time faves and it is such a fun middle grade series! All of Brandon Mull's books are fun middle grade series, to be completely honest, but this one is his best and the one I recommend the most.

And here are some honorable mentions, which are basically my favorites from back when I was an actual child, rather than an tennager/adult reading middle grade novels...

The Doll People by Ann M. Martin

I read the first two or three books in this series as a kid and absolutely adored it! It's about dolls who come to life when people aren't looking (like Toy Story, but funnily enough as a kid I found this one to be more logical about it all). I loved the art in the books and how it showed different types of toys (like the two main dolls are a new plastic-y doll made for a four year old and an old porcelain doll that was passed down from a grandmother). It was just such a fun read and I'm often tempted to re-buy these books and reread them all.

W.I.T.C.H by Elizabeth Lenhard

Don't get me started about W.I.T.C.H. This is actually a comic book that had a TV show and was also novelized. I read the first few books in the novelization as a child and adored it. I've always been a sucker for magical girl stories and this is no different. I still have fond feelings when thinking about this book.

Peter and The Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

I loved this book as a kid more than I love the actual Peter Pan story. This was so much fun and gave reasons to how Neverland was the way it was and I just ate it up. I read it multiple times but somehow never actually finished the series.

Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg by Gail Carson Levine

This is mostly a stand-in for all the Disney Fairies books that were out back when I was eleven or younger. I was obsessed with them and was constantly going to Borders and discovering new ones. These books still hold such a special place in my heart. Once I unpack all of my books, I'm half-tempted to reread some of them!

Don't forget to check out the Goodreads group!

Biggest Disappointments | Reading With Danielle

This is a list of some of the books I've read in the past year or so that I would say were some of my biggest disappointments. These aren't necessarily bad books (except for one of them, which I didn't like in the least bit), but they were just disappointing either because of the hype surrounding them or the preceding book in the series...

These aren't in much of an order, except for the fact that #1 is the one I hated/was most disappointed by.
So, let's start at #4!

4. Truthwitch by Susan Dennard

This was so hyped up and I was really looking forward to it, back when it first came out. I even got a signed copy when Susan came to my local bookstore. But the world-building was off for me, I didn't really get any of it, and I hated the budding romance. I could sense it from a mile off and was like "No thanks!!!"

I like the friendship aspect of it and it did make me wish I'd enjoyed the rest of the book, but I just didn't. I'm kind of bummed because everyone else seems to love this book and the next one, but it just didn't work for me.

3. Everything Leads to You By Nina LaCour

Now I really enjoyed this book, don't get me wrong! It was a super cute contemporary and I loved the movie set aspect of the whole thing. If I hadn't been reading it for the romance, it wouldn't have been a disappointment at all. But I was reading it for the F/F romance and I found it to be lacking? Like, they were super cute together and I liked how it worked out, but there wasn't enough of the actual romance! It was barely there and I just wanted more.

2. The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

Now, I gave the first book 5 stars and a place on my favorites list, so maybe it's not super shocking that this wasn't as good and, thus, a disappointment. But this was just too political for me and there was barely any action. It was dull, and now thanks to this (and other recent enlightenments about the author) I don't know if I really care to finish this trilogy...

1. Timepiece by Myra McEntire

Oh. My. God. I could rant for days about this book and what a disappointment it was! For starters, the first book in this trilogy (Hourglass) was such a surprise and I adored it back when I read it. And I loved Kaleb so much (lowkey wanted Emerson to end up with him, even though I knew it wasn't going to happen). I was heartbroken to discover how difficult it was to get my hands on Timepiece, since the series had gone out of print. It took me a solid year to finally get my hands on a reasonably priced copy of this book.

And it was such a disappointment.

One, I hated the fact that the POV was changed. The change in voice did not suit the story at all. Plus, Myra McEntire basically just made me hate Kaleb, even though I had adored him in the previous book. He was such an asshole??? And so much less complex than in the first book. Everything I had liked about the first book was gone and this literally ruined it all for me.

Ugh! I am still so mad at how this book went. I couldn't even tell you anything that actually happened in it; I was too engrossed with being pissed. Needless to say, I did not try to get my hands on the third book. (I am so happy that I buy series one book at a time! I would have hated to waste the money.)

This book was just really not for me and ruined how good the first book was. 

**

So yeah, those are my biggest disappointments in books that I've read. It's very rare (as you can see) that I dislike a book/am disappointed by a book, since I usually just DNF it if I'm not enjoying it. But I finished all of these and was let down by each and every one of them.

What are some of your biggest disappointments in books? Or better yet, what are some of your best surprises?