Angela's November Wrap-Up

Paper Hearts- Claire Contreras

The Fall Up- Ally Martinez
Going Bovine- Libba Bray

Suicide Squad Vol. 2- Adam Glass

Unravel- Calia Read

November 9- Colleen Hoover

How I Live Now- Meg Rosoff

Revival Vol. 1- Tim Seeley

Day 21 (The Hundred 2)- Kass Morgan

Bared to You (Crossfire 1)-- Sylvia Day

The Deal- Elle Kennedy

Tell Me Three Things- Julia Buxbaum

Preacher Book 1- Garth Ennis

Finding Cinderella (Hopeless 2.5)- Colleen Hoover

Can we please talk about how insanely slack I've been these last two months??! I've seriously been dragging my feet lately. I can't really explain why either. Might just be because I've surpassed my reading goal and figured I'd take it a little slower in October and November. Might be because I fell into a deep Netflix spiral... Who really knows. My November numbers might reflect alright, but trust me the further it got into the month the harder I had too push myself to pick something up. However, a lot of the things I picked up this month weren't so bad.

My favorites were: Paper Hearts, The Fall Up, November 9, The Deal, Tell Me Three Things, and Finding Cinderella. Huh... Maybe my reading month wasn't as rough as I thought. Can't remember the last time I had a list with this many favorites on it. Paper Hearts first few chapters were released early on, and when I read it I knew right away this would end up on a favorites list. A sweet cute read that had the perfect little news clippings in it. The Fall Up was a book I was really worried about reading. When I saw it's stunning cover I was instantly drawn to it, but worried that the inside wouldn't be as good as the outside. Completely wrong, really enjoyed it. November 9, is the first Colleen Hoover book I'm going to talk about. It was her new release with massive hype surrounding it. Other books that have tried to pull off this same idea haven't done what this did. I wasn't at all let down. The Deal and Tell Me Three Things were my biggest surprise reads of the month. First The Deal has one of the worst covers I've ever seen, but oh my God was it hilarious. Tell Me Three Things was an ARC I received and is one of the only contemporary books I've ever enjoyed. Lastly is Finding Cinderella. Yes, the second Colleen Hoover book on this list. Even though I still haven't read Losing Hope (which I'm dying to read now) I still loved this novella. Picked it up because I was in a slump and because it is currently free on kindle.

My least favorites were: Going Bovine, Unravel, and Preacher. Going Bovine might have one of the funniest male protagonist I've read in the longest, and a concept like no other, but still somehow ended up being too much. I will say that I didn't hate it, I just wasn't in love, and something ultimately didn't stick with me. I was hoping for a book that would forever stick out in my mind, and this just didn't happen. Unravel was a book I ended up DNFing. It seemed like it was going to be a mind blowing read, and it is something I plan on picking up at a later date, but at this time it just wasn't doing it for me. Lastly Preacher. You have probably seen this popping up a lot lately because it is AMC's new comic book TV show. The show looks like it will be bitchin, but the comic was just something I couldn't get into. I think that if I give it more time and volumes that I might end up liking it but I'm not in any kind of rush to get to it.

14 books down in November and so many left to cram in before the end of the year. So goodbye November and hello December. I'm doing December way different than I have in the past. First off I'm going "offline". Logging off my social media accounts (kind of). I'll be logging off all my personal accounts and just focusing on reading and blogging. I'm logging into out bookstagram and am going to be doing a daily or every other day update of what I'm reading. I usually log into our book account once a week, update, comment back, and then log back out. In December it'll be something I focus on more and I'll be staying on it the entire month. I already have my entire Tbr planned for December. I'll be posting my list the first week of December so keep an eye out. I'm going to try and knock out some series I've been putting off, getting a good pipeline of reviews written, and then the last week of December I'm going to be doing nothing but re-reading my favorite books so I end my year on the best notes possible.
See y'all then.

-Angela

The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkosi

"I leap without feet to land, my cloth head is filled with sand. I have no wings, yet try to fly... what am I?"...

The second and dramatic second book two of The Winner's Curse series perhaps mmmmm.....

I was very, very lucky to get an Arc of The Winner's Crime. This book is set to come out March, 2015. With the approach of this books release date coming up fast I figured I would re-post this review since 1) I got this ARC forever ago and 2) because I originally posted it right when our blog started.

I know that when it comes to reading books I only care about one true thing, and that is how the book ends. I REPEAT: IT'S ALL ABOUT THAT ENDING! Doesn't matter if it's the first book or last book in a series. If you don't bring a strong ending then don't let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya... The thing Marie Rutkoski doesn't disappoint on is book endings. The Winner's Crime is no different.

TWC starts off where the first book left off. Krestle is still set to marry the Valoria's crown prince in an ever so awk marriage arrangement. She's still struggling between what is right and what is wrong; who to trust and where her true alliance lies. (Even I still don't know whose side I'm on). Marie Rutkoski isn't just skilled at book ending she's amazing at dropping oh so subtle hints that are usually closely followed by "WTF" moments. This book is sprinkled like a cupcake with surprises that I can't wait for you all to get a taste of.

This book is however very much a second book in a trilogy. It has moments that are a little slower. As usual you know that they are there to lay so much ground work for what will be coming in the next book. The thing I love about this story is Krestle isn't at all your usual suspect as far as ya fem heroines go. She isn't a dagger slinging, muscle having, archery shooting wild women. What she has though is something I think we often overlook in stories, and that is brains. Krestle is oozing with smarts. She has a silver tongue and a quick wit that often lets her see things other over look. This make her even more like-able, believable, and more dangerous than most would think. Arin is still a strong, smart, and very like-able leading male in this novel. And yeah he is still as mysterious and grey eyed as in book one (swoon! grey eyes <3333). He also may or may not have several sneaky tricks up his borrowed shirt sleeves.

Something I absolutely loved about this whole novel is the brief and amazing moment Rutkoski has between Krestle and the father she fears she will never be able to impress. The moment is beautiful and is written to perfection. The thing I really craved was more Arin and Krestle moments. This one didn't have as many as I hope for BUT I'm hoping it's because book three will be overflowing with steamy star-crossed lover-ness and I can be super giddy and heart eyed  that whole book. I just want to shake them both and scream "come on and get together already and make beautiful piano playing babies!". Still the main thing I have to say about this book is THE ENDING THE ENDING THE ENDING!!! IT IS PERFECT, and is worth some of the more book building moments, and slower paced scenes. I have NO doubt that the ending of this series will knock my socks off. Add this series to you TBR list.

8.5/10 Stars
-Angela

(The Winner's Crime BookDepo)