Thank u, next Book Tag

Hello everyone!

I have been wanting to do another book tag for awhile so scrolling through different book tags online I came across the Thank u, next book tag. This tag is based of the song thank u, next by Ariana Grande which most of you probably heard of before because this song literally blew up when it came out. This tag is created by Jananie from the channel  thisstoryaintover. 

1. Name a book that you said "thank u, next" to, i.e. DNF'd (did not finish).

I rarely DNF books because I am not enjoying the book. Most books I DNF are because that my library loan expired. A book I did DNF because I was not enjoying was Uprooted by Naomi Novik. I had such high expectations for this book and ended up being so bored while reading it. I really wanted to love it. May give it another chance in the future though since so many people love it. I do plan on giving her new book Spinning Silver a chance though because that one sounds so interesting.

2. Name a book that taught you love (i.e. a book you loved)
A book I read recently (or at least when I am writing this post) is The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. This book is so good and yes I know I am only adding to the hype that this book has but it made me fall in love with reading more especially since it pulled me out of my reading slump that I have been in since the end of last year.

3. Name a book that taught you patience.
A book that taught me patience is Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Lani Taylor. I did really enjoy this book but there was one chunk of the book towards the end that was so boring that I had to force myself through it. I wanted to DNF the book so bad because that part was so slow and boring, but I absolutely loved the previous parts of it and I knew what I was reading was important so I did end up pushing through and am so glad I did because after that part, the story really picked up.

4. Name a book that taught you pain.
A book that taught me pain was Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare. This book literally destroyed me. That ending was just heartbreaking. I saw it coming about 5 seconds before it happened and ahh. I still am not over it. The Shadowhunter books are some of my all time favorites and I have a feeling that some of her new books are also going to teach me a lot of pain. Queen of Air and Darkness also could of worked for this prompt but I think Lord of Shadows taught me a bit more pain.

5. Name a book that you loved at the time of reading but in hindsight you do not like as much anymore but which you still learned some other quality from.
A book I absolutely loved at the time I read it but looking back I do not like as much is Divergent by Veronica Roth. This book was one of my absolute favorites when I started reading and it was one of the books that got me into reading. Over time, however, if I were to reread it, I honestly would probably not enjoy it as much but because of nostalgic reasons I may still like it. As for something I learned, I will have to say perseverance. The main character is a very strong character and does not give up.

6. Name a book you're currently talking to, i.e. have the hots for.
Other than The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, a book that I am currently obsessed is Throne of Glass. I recently reread it for the Throne of Glass readalong hosted by Kassie from the channel MissSassyKassieand Brittni from Brittni's Book Find. This series is one of my all time favorites and I am so glad I chose to reread the first book because there was so much that I forgot about it and I cannot wait to finally finish reading this series!

7. Name the book that gon' last - the book of you - the book that helped you love yourself a little bit more.
For this book I will be choosing The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan. Leigh is half Taiwanese and I am also half Taiwanese. Even though she is half white and I am not, there were still things that I did relate with. This book takes place in Taiwan and I have also visited Taiwan and seeing all these places in the book that the main characters visited that I have been to meant a lot. There were a lot of cultural things that I was familiar with and it was nice to read it in a book.

8. Tag someone do to the tag!
Anyone who wants to do it!

That was the Thank U, Next book tag. Thank you so much for reading and I hope to see you in my next post. 

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue [ Spoiler Free ] Review

Title: The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue
Author: Mackenzi Lee
Series: Montague Siblings #1
My rating: 4/5 stars
Date Read: 1/27/19

TW Child abuse, alcoholism

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue is a book I had little interest in picking it up. I am not a fan on road trip books and I tend to stay away from historical fiction even though I do enjoy the genre. The main reason is probably because my least favorite subject in school is history and I want to avoid history when possible.

This book follows Henry "Monty" Montague and he goes on a grand tour of Europe with his best friend Percy and his sister Felicity is also suppose to accompany him for part of the journey. Monty also has a minor crush, okay, a huge crush on his best friend Percy. Percy is also black so this book does deal with the racist issues Percy faces as well. Early on during the tour, Monty steals an object he thinks is harmless and he, Percy, and Felicity end up being on the run.

I found myself struggling to focus on the story in the beginning and had to do a lot of rereading to figure out what was going on. After about a hundred pages, the story pick up and I was hooked.

One of my complaints of this book is that the chapters were way to long sometimes and as a result, I felt like I was making no progress in the book, even when I was and it ended up making the book feel unnecessarily long even though it actually was not looking back. This issue is a more, it is me not you situation as I know some people are not bothered by chapter lengths.

If you are looking for a fun read, I will highly recommend it. The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue is a highly entertaining read. I absolutely love all the main characters, especially Felicity. She is definitely my favorite. I will be continuing on with this duology in the future!

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A Court of Frost and Starlight [ Spoiler Free ] Review

Title: A Court of Frost and Starlight
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Series: A Court of Thorns and Roses #3.1
My rating: 3/5 stars
Date Read: 12/22/18

ACOFAS is the in between novella between the original ACOTAR trilogy and the second half of it if that makes sense and it should be read before ACOTAR #4. To be honest, most of this book was pointless. I feel like she could of just added a chapter at the end of ACOWAR or a mini epilogue or something like that.

This book is less then 250 pages and it is basically following Feyre and Rhysand after the war and the aftermath of it during the Winter solstice.

I found the beginning of this book to be so boring but it eventually picked up but it still is my least favorite out of the three. Keep in mind this in novella and not a full length book. I think what I enjoyed most in this novella is revisiting the wold and characters again. I personally love the characters and was very happy to see that Mor and Cassian also had a point of view in this story.

The one thing I found weird about the writing is that Feyre and Rhysand's chapters were told in first person while Mor and Cassian's were told in third person. It made no sense to be and I personally thing they should all be told in the same way, meaning only in third person or first person. The other thing I did not like about the writing is that I could not really tell the difference between Rhysand and Feyre's point of view. At one point of the novella I thought we were following Feyre until Cassian said Rhysand's name.

If you are not really interested in this novella and want to read the rest of the series, I would recommend just reading the last 20 ish pages of the book.

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The Reputation Book Tag

Today's post is another tag! I love doing tags but do not do them that often and would like to change that. I went through and searched up a ton of tags and I decided to do the Reputation Book Tag which is based on the songs in Taylor Swift's new album. I liked some of the songs in the album and if I were completely honest I did not listen to every song, but I really like the questions so I decided to do it. This tag is created by Liv's Books so please check out her video as well!

1. ...Ready For It?
What is a book that you were super excited to read?
What book am I super excited to read? Well there are so many. One of them is Children of Blood and Bone which is a book that I have been wanting to read since it first came out. Have I read it yet? Nope. But I want to and I will and I hope so soon!

2. Endgame
What are some of your OTPS?
I have so many OTPs! I love Cress and Thorne from the Lunar Chronicles. I actually love all the Lunar Chronicle pairings, they are just my favorite. I also love Thomas and Audrey Rose from Stalking Jack the Ripper, and Simon and Blue from Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens agenda.

3. I Did Something Bad
Name a book with morally gray characters
A book with a morally grey character is Death Note by Takeshi Obata and Tsugumi Ohba. Light, the main character tries to do good by getting rid of crime in the world but the way he did it was bad and not right. At least at the beginning. In my opinion, as the story went on, I thought Light became more of a villain than someone trying to do good in a bad way.

4. Don’t Blame Me
What's a book that you recommend to everyone?
Other than Harry Potter, I always recommend The Infernal Devices trilogy by Cassandra Clare. Yes I know I am cheating by recommending three books and not one but I love all the books so much it is always one of my go to recommendations.

5. Delicate
What is a book that you will never loan to anyone?
This question is quite easy but that is my signed edition of Furyborn. First off, I love this book, but Claire Legrand is also the first author I ever met and Furyborn is my first signed and personalized book I owned and it has a special place in my heart.

6. Look What You Made Me Do
What is a book that got you into reading/ gateway book?
There are so many books that I read when I was younger that I love like the Boxcar children books and Rainbow Magic so I guess those count but the book that introduced me to YA is Legend by Marie Lu. I still love the Legend Trilogy and really want to reread it soon!


7. So It Goes… 
What is a book that sucked you into a particular author or series?
I have to go with Marissa Meyer for this question. I fell in love with Cinder and then I binge read all The Lunar Chronicles books that were out and now I have always been anticipating her books being released. And yes, I do plan on reading Arch-Enemies soon!

8. Gorgeous- 
Name a book with a beautiful cover
There is one book that really stands out for me and that is the cover of Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo. Underneath the dust jacket the book is also so pretty. Basically the entire book if beautiful including the writing and illustrations.

9. Getaway Car
What is a book you've read with crime involved in some aspect?
I absolutely love Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco. This book follows a girl name Audrey Rose (who I mentioned before) and she is alive during the time where Jack the Ripper was at large and is really interested in forensic studies and as a result is very interested in the Jack the Ripper Killings. I love the mystery aspect of the book and the characters. Also one of my highly recommended books.

10. King Of My Heart
Who is your book boyfriend/ girlfriend?
There are a few but my ultimate book boyfriend is Dorian Havilliard from the Throne of Glass series. I do still need to read Tower of Dawn and Kingdom of Ash and I hope to read it soon!

11. Dancing With Our Hands Tied
What is a book that made you want to dance around when you finished it?
For this question I have to choose Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens agenda by Becky Albertalli. I love this book so much and it was such a cute read that I was smiling the entire time reading it. It was a much needed read when I read it.

12. Dress
Name a book character you want to trade wardrobes with
This question is hard because I really cannot think of a character I would like to trade wardrobes with. If I had to say one though I guess I will go with Lara Jean from To All the Boys I've Love Before because her outfits seem amazing. I have not seen the movie yet and I want to but I also do not have Netflix so I probably will not see it.

13. This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things
What is a problematic book you've read?
A problematic book I read was Thirteen Reasons Why be Jay Asher. I thought the book was okay when I read it and I did notice it was problematic before the Netflix show premiered and everyone started talking about the problems.

14. Call It What You Want
What is a book you wish you could change the title to?
I would definitely change the title of Anna and the French Kiss to something else because I feel like this title has nothing to do with the book and it definitely was one of the reasons why I was hesitant to read it since it sounded like a book I would not like.


15. New Year’s Day
What book that gave you a fresh outlook on life?
For this one, I have to go with Warcoss by Marie Lu. This book really makes you think of what could happen in the future when the technology becomes even more advanced than it is already and in a way it is kind of scary but also super cool and really changed the way I think about the future.

And that was the Reputation Book Tag! I am not tagging anyone but if you want to do it feel free too! This tag was a lot of fun and I hope to do more tags soon! Thank you for reading and I hope to see you in my next post!

Monday's Not Coming [ Spoiler Free ] Review

Title: Monday's Not Coming
Author: Tiffany D. Jackson
My rating: 4.5/5 stars
Date Read: 11/30/18


TW Child abuse

This book such a surprise. The good surprise. A book I was not expecting to love as much as I do. I first heard about this book around the time it was released and that was about it till a few months ago. I was lucky to hear Tiffany D. Jackson, the author, talk about her book on a panel and it sounded so good. I finally picked it up and I really enjoyed it.

Monday's Not Coming is about a girl name Claudia whose best friend Monday is missing. She seems to be the only one who noticed. Claudia is determined to figure out what happened to Monday.

This book takes place during several timelines. It is hard to explain. We see Claudia with Monday when they were younger. We see Claudia when she noticed Monday just went missing. Basically with each timeline we get, we are piecing together the mystery of what happened to her friend. I am warning you now, if you do not like books with many different timelines and flashbacks, this book will probably not be for you.

I think this book was so interesting was because I wanted to know what happened even though I kind of already knew what happened due to finding the hints scattered in the book pretty early on. There are other reasons why I wanted to continue reading and was so invested in the story but most of them are spoilers.

The ending of the book was a bit of a let down but I still enjoyed the story and piecing everything together. If you read the book you may know what I am talking about but I do not want to say the end since I do not want to spoiler the book.

We do have a diverse cast of characters as well so if you are looking for a book featuring black characters, including a black main character, definitely pick this one up.

Overall I do recommend it and I am so glad I finally read it and I look forward to read Jackson's other books in the future.

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Diverse Recommendations Pt. 1

Diversity has become a huge topic in the world today especially in the book community. I totally support diversity being a Chinese born American and thought I would recommend some of my favorite diverse reads. These are only some of them since I have so many more. Yes there will be a part two coming who knows when, but it will come.


The two books I am recommending are both by the same author and those books are Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda and the Upside of Unrequited both by Becky Albertalli. Simon is becoming a movie called Love, Simon, which I am extremely excited to watch. Simon follows a boy name Simon who is not openly gay and the only person who knows is a boy he calls blue and they email each other constantly. This is such a cute book and I love it so much. The Upside of Unrequited follows a girl name Molly who has many unrequited crushes. This book is full of diversity and the main character has two moms. Both of these feature characters from the LGBTQ+ community and Upside has a Korean American or half Korean character. I don't remember but I do remember she is pansexual.


The next book I am recommending is George by Alex Gino and this book is a middle grade novel and it features a main character who is transgender. This book is about George and her school is having a play of Charlotte web and she wants to play Charlotte. The teacher however says she can't try out for the part because she is a boy. I love this book mainly for the fact that so many people respect George or who she is and it is such a cute book and super easy to read as well. If you are looking for a quick diverse read definitely pick this one up. I have not seen many people talk about it online and it is one of my must read .


The next book is one of my all time favorites and that is Warcross by Marie Lu. I need the next book since the day I finished Warcross. The main character is Asian american and most of the story takes place in Japan. We follow a girl name Emika and she is a bounty hunter tracking those who use the game Warcross illegally. When she is is a tough spot for money she hacks into the Warcross opening games trying to make herself some quick cash and accidentally glitches herself into the game. Instead of being arrested, she is contacted by the creator of the game and offered a trip to Japan to meet him as well as a job for finding someone who may be trying to ruin and destroy the Warcross games. This book is often compared to Ready Player One and I personally did not like that book, but I still love this one so if you are not a fan of Ready Player One still pick this one up. I love the characters and the story so much and even though it was predictable I still have no idea what is going to happen next in the second book.



A really underrated diverse book is Love Hate and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed. This book took me by surprise on how much I liked it. This book own voices following a girl who is an Indian American Muslim teen. The main character, Maya, wants to attend film school in New York while he parents want he to attend school near home, have a "practical" job, and marry a Muslim boy. One day there is a terrorist attack and Maya shares the last name with the main suspect. She is treated differently even though she never knew or saw him in her entire life. This book does deal with the topic of Islamophobia which is very relevant, sadly, in today's society. This book is own voices and talks about an important subject that more people should be educated on. I highly recommend it.


The next book is also an own voices book and I am an own voices reviewer for it and that is American Panda by Gloria Chao. Both the main character and I are a Taiwanese American. We follow Mei who is attending MIT, studying to be a doctor. She does not like anything with germs which is a big problem if she is going to be a doctor. Her parents are very strict and want the best for her, making sure she has a "practical" job and marries another Taiwanese man. Mei however has a crush on someone who is not Taiwanese. She does not want to disappoint he family as well. This book teaches a lot of people about the Taiwanese culture for those unfamiliar. I personally did not really learn that much, but I had a lot of I know what that is moments which I loved.

Those are only some diverse recommendations I have to share. There are so many more that I want to recommend but this post will be super long if I put every one of them on here. There will be a part 2 and maybe a part 3 and 4 since there are so many diverse books I need to read and so many new ones coming out! Thank you so much for reading. Hopefully you all found a new diverse book to add to your TBR.

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns [ Spoiler Free Review ]

Title: Forest of a Thousand Lanterns
Author: Julie C. Dao
Series: Rise of the Empress #1
My rating: 4/5 stars
Date Read: 12/3/18

I was lucky to hear Julie C. Dao talk about her book on a panel a few months ago and thought it sounded very cool so I finally picked it up and I did enjoy it.

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns is an East Asian inspired retelling of the evil queen. That was all I needed to know to before going into this book. That was all I think you really need to know before diving into the book since I think that it is best to go into this book not knowing to much about the story before hand.

Before reading this book, it is important to know that the main character is not really likable and if you are a person who only likes books with likable main characters, you probably would not enjoy it. I also did not like the main character at all but still enjoyed the overall story.

The beginning of the book was very slow and boring for me. I got very bored and thought I was not going to like it. After pushing through about 100 pages, the story picked up and then I was hooked and basically binge read the second half of the book in one night when I was suppose to be sleeping.

If you are a fan of reading villain origin stories, you would probably love this book. I would also recommend this book for fans of retellings and duologies since this is a duology and the second book just came out.

I absolutely love the world and it is evident that the author knew about the East Asian culture. I do believe that the author is Vietnamese which is part of East Asia.

Overall I do recommend this book and will read the sequel and Julie Dao's future books!

Read for tistheseasonathon [ read a book while listening to holiday music ]

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