Wrap Up: April 2020

Hello readers, we are back again with a recap of my reading this month.

How are you doing with the lockdown?

In April I participated in the Magical Readathon (O.W.L.s) so I managed to read 11 books!

Unfortunately, 4 of these are 1-star books.

5 stars:

The Hunchback assignments is a great historical fiction/steampunk with a really unusual main character. Modo is a hunchback rescued by a freak show who is also a shapeshifter. He became a spy, and this story is full of action.

3 stars:

The Romanovs: the final chapter is about the final days, the murder and the research of the bodies of the Romanov family. Is really gruesome at the beginning, but it became boring with the discussions about DNA and the investigations.

The transatlantic conspiracy has an amazing idea (a train who runs underwater between Europe and America!!), a beautiful cover and a really good description. The mystery is a little bland.

Goddess of the hunt is a collection of poetry, I enjoyed it because it’s about asexuality, even if poetry isn’t my cup of tea.

Clockwork gold is a short story set in Australia with a little bit of steampunk, but it’s a love story, in the end.

2 stars:

Il quarto fato (sorry, it’s only in Italian!) is a retelling inspired by One thousand and one nights, written really well, but I can’t stand the main character.

Unfortunately, I’ve read Greenglass house only months ago, and my rating is influenced by this. The last chance hotel is basically the same story, but less captivating.

1 star:

Mountain of the dead: fourth book (for me) of this series, it became more misogynist every book I read. But I made a promise to finish it, and there’s one last book.

Convenience store woman was interesting in the beginning, but I can’t stand the MC or her lifestyle during the story.

I had great expectations for Incarnation, a sort of retelling of Dracula where Lucy tries to find who transform her in a vampire, but as always, the author treats Bram Stoker very badly, and I can’t accept this.

Readers, I present you the most boring, the worse advertised, the most helpful if you suffer by insomnia book of all the time: Bellman & Black.

And that’s all for this month!

Have you read some good books in April?

Tell me in the comments!

 

The Great British Bake Off Book Tag

Hello readers! I haven’t done a Tag in a while, but I had to do this, because GBBO is one of my favourite shows! This tag was created by Zaheerah, but I found it on Life of a literary nerd.

Amateur Bake: A self-published book

Dead school

I’m not really sure if this is self-published, usually I don’t give attention to this detail. Anyway, Dead school is funny!

Soggy Bottom: A book with a great start and a disappointing ending

The lost history of dreams

The most disappointing ending of all the time.

Bingate: A book you got frustrated with and had to DNF

Lumière

This is my last DNF: I couldn’t stand the whiny main character.

Junior Bake Off: A children’s book

Charlie and the chocolate factory

A classic!

A Hollywood Handshake: A book that impressed you

This is going to hurt

This book has impressed me because it was funny, and sad and comical, but it has impressed/shocked me also with all the medical procedures!

Signature Challenge: A book you recommend to your friends and family

The one and only Ivan

My parents couldn’t read long books in English, so I bought an Italian copy!

Technical Challenge: Books you read without knowing much beforehand; rank them from worst to best

The worst: The case of the green dressed ghost.

The meh: The boy from tomorrow.

The best: Fever.

Showstopper Challenge: A book or series that’s your all-time favourite

In the shadow of Blackbirds

I know, it’s a surprise, I never mention this book! (the sarcasm here is real)

The Finalists: A favourite trilogy

The Stoneheart trilogy

I read a lot of standalone and series with 5 or more books, and Stoneheart is an underrated trilogy.

Extra Slice: A favorite companion book

Arbrook Huxley & the miraculous confection

A short story companion of The Electrical Menagerie. Love it.

 

And that’s the end of the tag, hope you enjoy it!

Wrap Up: March 2020

Hello readers, how are you?

I’m writing to you from northern Italy, so we are still in lockdown, but today begin the Magical Readathon, so I’m pretty excited!

In March I managed to read 9 books, and I DNFed only one book. As always, if the book it’s in my first language (Italian), I will write the translated title too.

5 Stars:

It’s insensitive to read a book about a woman who carries a disease during a pandemic? Probably, but I’ve learned so much thanks to Fever, that’s inspired by real events.

Edelweiss sent me this super cute children book, and Little Ghost is definitely the cutest ghost I ever saw.

Thanks to Kindle Unlimited I discovered the Time Hunters series, and it’s incredible, I can’t wait to read the other volumes!

3 stars:

The adventures of Tom Finch, gentleman, is a surprising historical fiction about a blind musician. I’ve loved the ending.

Do you know that I love books with weird/long titles? Keep smiling, your teacup is levitating is the perfect example, a non-fiction book about ghosts, strange scream in the night, etc…

I’ve heard a lot of things about Jackaby, and at first, I enjoyed it, but I prefer books with the same situations, but with more deepness, darker characters.

2 stars:

If you ask me what’s my favourite seaside city in the world, I probably will answer Whitby, UK, so I was pretty excited about Never the bride, set in Whitby with monsters and the bride of Frankenstein who runs a B&B, but it was disappointing.

The confectioner’s guild has a beautiful cover, a lot of YA clichès (love triangle, love at first sight, special snowflake syndrome, I love you but I can’t be with you…) and even if talks about cakes, sweets and food a lot (YEEAAH), I found it fatphobic, and I didn’t like it.

I colori delle stelle (sorry, no translated title) talks about the months Gauguin and Van Gogh has spent together in Arles. I love Van Gogh with all my heart, and I enjoyed the second half of the book, unfortunately, it’s not well written.

DNF:

Another beautiful cover here, but Eyelet is a whiny, spoiled ungrateful main character. I couldn’t stand her, so Lumière is my DNF of this month.

 

Magical Readathon TBR

Hello readers! I’m back during these difficult times to share with you my tentative TBR for the Magical Readathon or O.W.L.s of 2020!

It’s my first time doing this readathon, so I’m pretty excited! I chose Culinary sorcerer for my Career, you know, because there’s food!XD

For my career, I need to complete Arithmancy, Charms, Herbology and Potions (Oh no, please, not Snape!!)

 

Arithmancy: A book outside your favorite genre

Wool

Usually, I don’t read dystopian/post-apocalyptic novels.

Charms: a book with a white cover

Goddess of the hunt

This cover is great!!

Herbology: a book that starts with “M”

Mountain of the dead

Another book of the World’s scariest places series!

Potions: a book under 150 pages.

Clockwork Gold

I don’t have a lot of books under 150 pages…

 

And that’s my TBR! Do you participate this year?

Wrap Up: February 2020

Hello readers! How are you?

We have finally the rain back, after 70 days without a single drop from the sky, sigh.

In February, thanks to the Demonathon too, I manage to read 11 books!

5 stars:

This is going to hurt is a solid 5 stars for me! I laughed, I cried and I learned a lot of medical things that scared the hell out of me.

Ella, The slayer surprised me! It’s a retelling of Cinderella set in 1918, with Ella who slays “zombies” with a katana. Weird but interesting and funny, I’ve loved the relationship between all the characters!

3 stars:

Midday Moon 1: thanks Kindly Unlimited for all this yaoi manga! This has a lovely (and angst) story, and look at the cover!!

L’origine delle specie (On the origin of the species) well… I’m happy to have read another classic, but honestly, it was too long.

Guns of liberty is the first ARC I received through BookSirens. I fell in love with the cover, but was boring in fact.

Don’t go there: I didn’t know the Dyatlov Pass Mystery until I discover the series by Jeremy Bates. I began with this book because it’s non-fiction written by a Russian author. It’s interesting, but in needs of a good editor.

Greenglass House is a middle-grade mystery, set in a beautiful house full of secrets, it caught my attention but then was predictable.

2 stars:

Replay: An ARC of a yaoi manga I received thanks to Edelweiss, it was cute, but with a serious problem of format.

Paved with good intentions: it’s so similar to Good Omens, in particular to Aziraphale and Crowley, but without all the English humour and with chapters more suitable to a tv show.

Ready player one: well, surprise, I didn’t like a superhyped book! I didn’t understand most of the references, but I admit that the world was interesting.

1 star:

Ally Rose la quinta vittima (sorry, they didn’t translate it!) it’s an urban fantasy full of s*x scenes, love triangle, love/hate relationship and, unfortunately, with a lot of typos.

And that was my reading month!

How was yours? Have you read some good book?

Tell me in the comments!

 

 

 

 

 

The Rapid Fire Book Tag + Happy Birthday to me!

Hello readers! I’m back today with a new post because today is my birthday!! I will thank Soph @BookBlog&Candle for the tag!

Sorry for the lack of posts this month, I’m constantly worried about the health of one of my cats, Gomez. Now he’s slowly improving, we pray for the better.

 

E-Book or Physical Book?

Physical!! I like e-books because they don’t take up a lot of space, and when I finished or DNF and e-book I can simply delete it, but I’m frustrated when I want to read and I forgot to recharge the battery.

Paperback or Hardback?

Totally agree with Soph here, I’m a paperback girl! Hardback books are difficult for me to carry with me and to handle them in my hands.

Online or In-Store Book Shopping?

Online when I made shopping from my country, because 85% of my books are in English, and I live in Italy, so the bookshops/bookstores don’t sell English books here.

When I am on holidays, usually in the U.K., I love to visit every bookshop/Waterstones /charity shop I can find.

Trilogies or Series?

Uhm, it depends… This time I will say series, because my favourite series, like The Ministry of Curiosities or Harry Potter are composed of more than 5 books.

Heroes or Villains?

A great hero against a great and complex villain. But I prefer the villain. (And they slowly fell in love)

A book you want everyone to read?

The nowhere emporium because it’s so underrated but it was just magical to read it, you really fell to be in the emporium. I love it so much.

Recommend an underrated book?

I read a lot of underrated booksXD (and then her mind goes puff, totally blank) Constable & Toop is really underrated, but recently it goes to reprint, so now you can easily find it on Amazon or Book Depository!!

The last book you finished?

Paved with good intentions by Keith Durrell.

The Last Book You Bought?

Creatures of Will and Temper and I’m totally in love with the cover!!

Weirdest Thing You’ve Used as a Bookmark?

An oven mitt. I was cooking.

Used Books: Yes or No?

Yes, they are cheaper! But they need to be in excellent/good condition, not covered with highlighter or drawings or missing pages.

Top Three Favorite Genres?

Historical fiction

Gothic

Steampunk

Borrow or Buy?

Buy! I don’t use the library, and I don’t have friends to borrow books from.

Characters or Plot?

Plot. I love when I can connect to a character, or when there is a great cast of characters, but if the plot is boring, I’ll totally lose interest in the book.

Long or Short Books?

Again I agree with Soph: short books! I need time and the right mindset for long books.

Long or Short Chapters?

Short chapters! I usually read in the evening, and my eyes are already tired because I work at the pc all day, so I prefer short chapters.

Name The First Three Books You Think Of:

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Time stops for no mouse by Michael Hoeye

The cure for dreaming by Cat Winters

Books That Makes You Laugh or Cry?

Laugh!

Our World or Fictional Worlds?

Fictional worlds! I mean, Middle earth, you know?

Audiobooks: Yes or No?

No: I listen to a couple of audiobooks in Italian, and they were pretty boring, but in general I’m easily distracted or I fell asleep. Shame on me.

Do You Ever Judge a Book by its Cover?

Of course. I’m a really bad person.

Book to Movie or Book to TV Adaptations?

Tv adaptation, I think they have more time and more episode to better develop the story, like Good Omens.

A Movie or TV-Show You Preferred to its Book?

The Maze runner. I can’t stand the book, but they made the Maze really well in the movie.

Series or Standalones?

Standalone, if they had a good ending.

 

And that’s the tag, everyone who wants to do it is welcome!

 

Demonathon TBR

Hello readers!

Today I want to share with you my tentative TBR for a readathon that will run from February 14th to February 28th called Demonathon!!

You can find all the info on the Twitter page or on Youtube. There is also a wonderful website set up for the readathon that is fantastic!!

The reading tasks are:

Incubus/Succubus: read a steamy romance or a book with a s*x scene.

Ally Rose la quinta vittima

Shetani: read a book that is weird, or outside your confort zone

Ella, the slayer

Wekufe: read a book with secrets or lies

Greenglass house

Eudaimones: read something inspiring!

This is going to hurt

Djinn: read an adventure/action-filled book

The time hunters

 

And that’s my tentative TBR! Before the readathon begins, you can also choose your demon and write a little story about him/her!

Hope you enjoy my TBR, tell me in the comments if you are participating!

Wrap Up: January 2020

Hello readers, how are you?

Welcome to the first wrap up of 2020! In January I managed to read 9 books, with one DNF.

As always, I will include also the books I read in Italian, with the translated title, if exist.

5 stars:

Look, 2 books with 5 stars rating! How it is even possible?

Arbrook Huxley & the star crossed lovers is another short story from The Celestial Isles series. It was so funny and delightful!

Bewitch me: I love this cover so much, even if it doesn’t suit well for the story, a funny and supernatural adventure with witches and demons.

3 stars:

Ok, also the cover of The strings of murder is beautiful, right? Every single cover of this series is amazing, unfortunately I couldn’t stand the main character.

I’ve found The book of general ignorance in the house I rent in London, and it was a light read.

I didn’t know the history of Belle Gunness, so it was interesting to read Hell’s Princess, my first book finished in 2020. It became a little boring past the middle.

2 stars:

I discovered that also manga, comics and yaoi manga (m/m) are included in my Kindle Unlimited, so now on you will see it more frequently on this blog. Tricky Prince 1 is yaoi, but was pretty plain for me.

How disappointed I was when I finished The boy, the bird & the coffin maker! I don’t know if I am too old or too cynic, but it gave nothing to me.

1 star/DNF:

See what I have done is my first DNF of the year. I’m really interested in the Lizzie Borden story, but the writing style was awful and so weird.

Please, don’t hate me, I’m not a bad person, but I don’t comprehend and don’t like the kind of story where you can’t identify if there’s really something paranormal or not. Also, the ending of The boy who could see demons was terrible.

And that’s all, have you read some amazing books in January?

Tell me in the comments!

 

Worst Books of 2019

Hello readers, how are you?

After the good (Best books of 2019) and the beautiful (Best covers of 2019), it’s now time to see the worst books I’ve read in 2019.

Please don’t be offended if one of your fave books is on this post, this is my personal opinion, I will not cause you to stress or offend you.

I will make another separate post for the book I DNFed last year.

These are the books that I disliked so much last, or even that I hated.

We have Smoke gets in your eyes, disrespectful and that has left me questioning about the hygiene rules in the US.

The destroyer was ridiculous, Island of the dolls was the copy of Suicide forest, Circe was so boring I had to force myself reading it.

The case of the green dressed ghost is fatphobic, so keep this in mind if you want to read it; The land of yesterday has a beautiful cover but it was just so weird.

And the last one, Just one damned thing after another… characters that act stupid, unnecessary s*x scenes but again, an appealing cover. I was so disappointed.

And that’s all, fortunately there were more good books last year than bad books!

Do you have read some bad or boring books last year? Tell me in the comments!

Best covers of 2019

Hello readers! How are you?

I’m here to show you my personal favourite covers of books that I read in 2019! They are not books published in 2019, as I read mostly backlisted books.

What you prefer to see on a cover? A beautiful dress, a shirtless guy, the ever-present snake? XD

As you can see from my selection, I’m a fan of Steampunk covers. Lady Mechanica is the perfect example.

I also have an obsession for typography/calligraphy, so my eyes are captured by how the title is written, like Limelight.

But the creepy cover of Constable & Toop is a little jewel, the perspective is amazing, it seems to have tridimensionality, right?

These were my ten favourite covers of 2019!

Do you agree with me?

Tell me in the comments what’s your best cover of the last year!