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Flower Crowns and Fearsome Things by Amanda Lovelace

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I read a few of Amanda Lovelaces books before I picked up this one. However, I felt like this one did not sit with me as much as the other collections did. I felt like I had read it all before during different feminist poetry collections. Despite really looking forward to this one due to it having mythology references I did not enjoy it half as much. The mythology aspect was definitely my favourite aspect of this book. 

“Never once has she felt as if she’s interesting enough to be the daring heroine of her own story, & she’s oddly okay with that. —she likes being nobody.”

Flower Crowns and Fearsome Things is Amanda Lovelaces delve into poetry through mythology and folktale inspired poems. Whilst this was a little shorter than Lovelaces previous collections it did not feel too different to me in size and there was still plenty of poems to enjoy and read. 

My favourite aspect of this poetry collection was the fact it focused on mythology specifically Persephone, goddess of spring and the underworld. One of my favourite people from the Greek myths and I was so excited to see how she brought her across in the style of poetry. The symbolism with the flowers portrayed Persephone so well and by bringing in more masculine aspects just perfectly portrayed Persephone as the strong, independent woman that she is. It showed women as strong, powerful, fierce and formidable which was my favourite aspect throughout. 

“Being friends with girls isn’t TOO MUCH DRAMA, but you know what is? Constantly trying to burn your sisters…at the stake out of pettiness & resentment when you could just support them instead…”

Lovelace brings across difficult aspects of life and makes you realise that you are not alone in these feelings. However, I feel as though this was portrayed better within previous works. There were certain quotes that really resigned with me throughout but only a few stuck with me once the collection had ended. I just did not feel absorbed by the writing as I had previously, and I felt as though this was more like quotes, I would see on Instagram rather than an actual poem collection. 

Overall, I would go back to Amanda Lovelaces works however this one didn’t hit home with me. I ended up rating the book a two and a half stars. I loved the myth retelling but that was where my love of this book extended too. Hopefully the next Lovelace book I pick up I will love just as much as I loved her previous works. 

Love In The Time Of Serial Killers by Alicia Thompson

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This book was made for me. I am the girl obsessed with true crime always suspecting people of crimes that I know they haven’t committed. And I felt all of this reflected in this book. Alicia Thompson writes such a funny and loving book about a girl who is obsessed with serial killers but still finds love along the way and I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next. This book was one of my favourite kinds of romcoms; easy to read and funny in all the right places. Also how cute is the cover!

“It made me dream, for one night at least, of something I hadn’t even dared to as a young girl lying in this same bed— that all the pink heart valentine, sappy love song stuff might be real, and be something I could have.” 

Phoebe has just moved back home after her dad’s death in order to clean out his house whilst also trying to finish her dissertation on serial killers. However, when her new neighbour starts behaving suspiciously, she starts to suspect him of being a serial killer. But as she gets to know Sam, she starts to find herself feeling more than she has in a long time. As she starts to spend more time with her brother, old friends and Sam she begins to realise how much she suspects the worst and maybe something she finds much scarier is love. 

I loved the characters in this book. Phoebe is so prickly and sarcastic; she has a wall up and its going to take a lot to bring it down. Seeing her overcome these issues within this book was so interesting and seeing her interactions with Sam was adorable. Also, her writing her dissertation was so relatable to me at the moment as I am doing my masters, so I loved reading this aspect. Sam was the gender-reversed version of the girl next door. He was sweet, loving and you just wanted to know him in real life. Of course, her brother and his girlfriend were also just the cutest.

My main love of this book was the referencing to pop culture as well as true crime cases that were familiar to me. I did wish that it references how the true crime community can be harmful when taken to the extreme but other than that I loved the references. It showed that the author clearly had an interest in this topic, and I feel as a reader that I really enjoyed reading about it. 

“True crime is especially interesting, because it tends to reflect and shape our cultural attitudes toward crime in general.”

The writing style, the themes and the setting of this book was super enjoyable to me. I was worried that this book sounded too good to be true and I am so glad I loved it as much as I did. My favourite bit was definitely when Phoebe suspected Sam of being a serial killer in the beginning. The relationship aspect of this book was definitely a lot more than the romance which I really enjoyed. It was about Phoebes relationships with the people around her which was really refreshing to see rather than a pure focus on the romance. 

This book was just really fun and sweet. I gave it a four stars and it could even be a four and a half stars because I just had such an enjoyable time reading it. I wish there were more books that contained a romance as well as true crime aspects because I just loved the cross over! I would definitely read more of this authors work in the future and I hope she brings out more like this. 

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book for review!

Books I Need To Get To In 2021 Part One

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Today’s blog post is going to be all about the twenty-one books I need to get to in 2021. This is books that have come out either in 2020 or even before that, that I just have not had the chance to get to yet. These are books that I either just have not got around to or books that I have seen highly recommended and want to read. This list is not in any order it’s just books that I’ve taken note of that I need to read. This post is going to be split in two due to the length this post ended up being too long for one post so here is the first eleven books!

Breathless by Jennifer Niven

One of my favourite books of all time is All the Bright places by Jennifer Niven; I adore this book and I reread it at least once a year. I have also read Jennifer Niven’s other book Holding Up The Universe which I did not love as much but I still enjoyed. Jennifer Niven’s book often contains hard-hitting content that can be triggering for some people, but I find them really interesting and really heart-warming.

Breathless follows a girl named Claude who is focused on her career and falling in love but everything falls apart when her dad announces he is separating from her mum. Claude is whisked away to a small island where she soon meets a local boy. He loves photography and as Claude can see herself falling for him something goes wrong.

Get A Life Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

This series has been everywhere this last year specifically on BookTube with BookTubers such as BookswithChloe. It is the first book in the Brown Sisters series and I know all the books are supposed to be amazing but my aim for this year is to at least get to this first book.

Get A Life Chloe Brown follows Chloe who has a chronic illness. When she has a near death experience, she decides that she is not going to let her illness dictate her life anymore and she creates a list of things to do. One of these things includes becoming a bad girl but she needs the help of the town bad boy to do so. However, she discovers things are not quite as they seem as she grows to know him.

The Switch by Beth O’Leary

I read the Flatshare by Beth O’Leary in 2020 and I adored it. I know she has a few books out but this is her newest book and the plot sounds so cute! It really reminds me of the plot of The Holiday with Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet mainly because of the switching lives plot. I would like to get to the rest of Beth O’Leary’s books, but I think this is a really good place to start.

The Switch follows a 79-year-old woman who is sick of being older and a girl who is bored of life in her twenties. When the young girl ruins her presentation at work, she takes a two month sabbatical and escapes to her grandmothers house. Her grandmother is newly single and wants to get out of her small town. When the young girl proposes they switch, and she stays in the small town whilst her grandmother moves in to her London flat to look for love.

Midnight Sun by Stephanie Meyer

This book was on so many of my TBR’s last year so I really need to get to this book this year. I have been in a huge vampire mood recently and have been devouring vampire books ridiculously quickly so it will be interesting to jump back into one of the original teenage vampire books and see how it compares to the amazing books I have read recently.

Just in case you did not know Midnight Sun is the new book in the Twilight series that tells Edwards perspective of the first book of the series. It allows us to see a different version of what occurs in the first book but also allows us to see into what other characters are thinking thanks to Edwards power.

From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout 

This book has been receiving so much hype on every single platform these past few months. The hype around it does make me cautious about reading this book but I am planning on picking it up for the New Year Readathon in January so hopefully it will live up to the hype. It contains a lot of tropes that I love in books especially the enemies to lover’s trope so I do not know why I would not love it.

From Blood and Ash follows a princess who is not allowed to be spoken too or touched. When she is assigned a guard and they clash in their views troubles instantly begins. But soon hate turns to love forcing the princess to question everything that she has known.

Lovely War by Julie Berry

This is another book that I have been seeing everywhere at the minute. I have recently got back into my love of Greek myths and I know this contains a perspective from Aphrodite which sounds like a really interesting format to read. This is another book that has received a lot of hype but I am worried that it wont live up to they hype but I am definitely going to try and get to this book this year.

This follows Aphrodite telling a story of love to her husband Hephaestus and her lover Aries during the second world war. It follows two couples as they struggle to make their way through the war in different ways. The book looks for an answer to the question: why are love and war eternally drawn to one another?

Loveless by Alice Oesman

This is another book that was on a lot of TBRs in 2020 and I was supposed to buddy-read it with my best friend, but I ended up not getting round to it. This is another one that is on my January TBR so I will hopefully be getting to it this month.

This follows Georgia an asexual girl who when she moves to university, she is ready to find love. When she gets involved in a Shakespeare play, she may get what she was hoping for. I really want to read more diverse and LGBTQIA+ books during 2021 and I have heard that this one has really great representation throughout.

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

This is another book I bought towards the end of 2020 and this book has a lot of hype surrounding it too. As I said about Loveless I want to read more books with representation and I know this one is supposed to have great trans representation in it as well as Latinx representation.

This follows a trans boy as he attempts to prove himself to his Latinx family. He attempts to resurrect his cousin who has been murdered with the help from his other cousin. However, he ends up resurrecting the high school bad boy who has some unfinished business. As they begin to work together the two realise, they might be getting too close for comfort. 

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

Over the past year or so Elizabeth Acevedo has become one of my favourite authors. With the Fire On High is one of my favourite books of all time and Clap When You Land is on my favourite books of 2020 list. However, I haven’t managed to get to her debut novel yet even though I know I am going to love it.

This book is written in the same style as Clap When You Land which is all written in verse. It follows a young girl as she comes to grips with her mother’s religion as well as her growing up. She’s invited to a slam poetry class where she can read her poems out loud without her mother finding out about her secret life and the words she writes.

The Toll by Neal Shusterman

This is the third and final book in The Arc Of A Scythe trilogy which I absolutely adore but I still haven’t managed to get to it yet. I haven’t heard much about this last book despite the first book Scythe being hugely popular a few years ago. I don’t know why I haven’t got to this book yet even though I loved the first two and the second one ended on a huge cliff-hanger.

The Arc of a Scythe series follows a world where no one can die; there is no illness, no old age, no accidents. You can just be brought back to life. The only way you can die is if a Schythe kills you. A Scythe can choose who he kills and when depending on their own reasoning. At the beginning of the first book a Scythe chooses a boy and a girl to have as an apprentice but there can only be one of them that can survive.

The Entire Ember In The Ashes Series by Sabaa Tahir

I read the first book in this series years ago and I loved it. It’s probably one of my favourite first books in a series ever. I then read the second book and loved it just as much. For some reason I bought the third book and just never got around to it and now the fourth book has just come out. Since reading the first book I have forgotten a lot of what happened in the first two books so now I really want to binge the entire series.

This follows Laia who is a slave and Elias who is a soldier. After Laia’s brother is arrested she is forced to join the revolution and disguise herself in order to spy at the Empires military academy. Here she meets Elias a soldier who wants nothing to do with the Empire and the uprising.

So this is the first half of my list of books I need to get to in 2021 and I can not wait to tell you my other ten! Let me know in the comments what books you need to get to this year or which book you are most excited to get to this year. Thank you for reading and please follow down below!

New Year Readathon

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So this month I have decided as well as my usual TBR that I want to take part in a month long readathon. Although I have doubled up on some books there is also some books that do not appear on my monthly TBR. This is a new readathon that is hosted in the month of January to start your book goals off to a good start. It is hosted on YouTube by;

Literary Lizzy: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPcmAbT6eegqn124HBWxJlQ

Mindy’s Book Journey: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLd_e77IsqzY455zDEvgFUg

David’s Book Reviews: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=davids+book+reviews

Noelle7pages: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrlIcbZlBZUz2t-qNWHJoeA

I really love the idea of having a readathon that helps me get a head start on this years goals! The prompts are a good selection and even come with there own bingo board which is one of my favourite types of readathons! So here is my TBR for the prompts:

A Book You Meant To Read In 2020 – Unravel the Dusk by Elizabeth Lim

I read the first book in this duology Spin the Dawn in the first lock-down and I immediately ordered Unravel the Dusk. However, something went wrong and by the time the delivery got to my house I was back at my university house, so this definitely fits this prompt. I loved the first book. I thought it was really beautifully written and the description of all the materials and clothing was so stunningly written. This is a re-imagining of Mulan meets Project Runway and I am obsessed.

The first book follows Maia who is trying to become the world’s next great tailor but as a woman this is not a career. When she disguises herself as a man in the place of her dad to enter a competition against all the tailors to try and become the tailor for the royals she is entered into a competition against other men in the kingdom. This book picks up straight after the first book and follows Maia after the trial she’s endured towards the end of this book.

A 2021 Reading Goal – Tomie by Junji Ito

One of my goals this year is to read more manga; especially Junji Ito’s works. For this challenge I am probably going to choose Tomie by Junji Ito as Junji Ito is a very popular horror manga writer and one of my reading challenges for this year is to read more manga as well as more horror books. I read Uzumaki earlier in 2020 and adored it which makes me really excited to get to this book.

This book follows Tomie a girl who is cursed to have men fall that intensely in love with her that they end up killing, however, it is usually Tomie that is on the receiving end. Tomie keeps coming back to life but can not figure out why this keeps happening to her. I am really excited to see if I love this one as much as Uzumaki and I can not wait to pick it up.

Physical Book Left Unread The Longest – Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian

I have had this book on my TBR for so, so long. This is probably the book that has been on the most TBR’s since I got into reading. I have not heard much about this series but I do know one person that loves it but other than that I have not heard a thing. Another book has recently come out I’m not sure how many books it is now but I really want to give the series a try.

This book follows a princess after her mother is murdered and she is held captive in the castle for ten years. When she is forced to do the unthinkable, she realises if she does not escape now, she will lose her kingdom forever. This book sounds so good and I feel like I will love it so I’m really excited that this challenge is making me get to it.

Reread a favourite book from 2011 – Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

In 2011 I loved Richelle Mead books. I adored the Vampire Academy series and the first book of the Bloodlines series. However, for some reason I never got around to the rest of the Bloodlines series, so I think this year is the year I’ll get to them all. I find the world that Richelle Mead has created is so complex and interesting but she also throws a lot of plot twists into her novels that I never see coming.

This follows the alchemists from the Vampire Academy series specifically Sydney. The alchemists protect the humans from the vampires and Sydney is suddenly sent to protect one of the Moroi’s royals; at a boarding school. But when they begin to get threats it turns the situation upside down. I can not wait to jump back into this world and reread this favourite so that I can continue with the rest of the books.

Top of your TBR – Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco

I am so excited for this book that I literally cannot contain myself. This book looks and sounds amazing which is why it is so perfect for this prompt because this is one of the next books I am so excited to pick up. You can tell just from the cover of this book; it is stunning. I have not read any of Kerri Maniscalco’s other works but if I enjoy this one as much as I think I am going to then I will definitely be picking up her other works.

It focuses on two sisters and after one is found brutally murdered leading the other to set out to find her sister’s killer. During this task she meets one of the Wicked. I’ve already read the first few pages of this and the text is beautiful. The setting and the descriptions just set a really good vibe for this book.

A Book You Are Intimidated By – From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

This book has received so much hype on every platform; Instagram, BookTube and even TikTok. That’s what makes this so intimidating. I’m not even sure what this book is even about I just know it has an amazing enemy to lover’s romance and the characters are supposed to be brilliant.

I think it follows a fallen kingdom and a girl that is forbidden from being with anyone. After a man is enrolled to protect her a forbidden romance begins between the two. I love enemies to lovers’ books so I’m hoping it holds up to the hype. It is also nearly seven-hundred pages which is a little intimidating as well.

A Book Written by a POC – A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown

This is another book that has been on a lot of TBR’s during 2020 so I really want to get to it at the beginning of the year. Roseanne is a POC from Ghana and I really cannot wait to read her book. This is the first part in a duology and the second part is coming out later this year so I want to read this one so I can read the second as soon as it is released.

This is another competition novel that follows a man that has made a rule to kill the princess of the land and the princess who is holding a competition to find a husband; so that she can kill him for his heart. It just sounds so interesting especially with the African folklore that it features but also really cutthroat and I am so excited to finally get into it.   

A Book From a Different Genre – Loveless by Alice Oesman

I have been trying to branch out of the books that I usually read in 2020 which is predominantly fantasy and sci-fi. So far, I’ve been enjoying some contemporaries that I read as well as a couple of adult romance. I decided to go with Loveless by Alice Oesman as I have been loving her series Heartstopper and now I really want to get into her other books.

This is a book about an asexual girl who is ready to find love. She starts at university and I know it involves a Shakespeare play. During 2021 I really want to read more diverse books and I think this one is a really good place to start. I just think this book sounds lovely and I am so excited to finally get to it.

A Debut Novel – Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar

Finally another book that I have been meaning to read through the end of 2020 and a book that I am completely in love with. I think this cover is my favourite cover ever. It’s just gorgeous. This is a debut novel by Shveta Thakrar and is a standalone book which is based around a competition; a trope I cannot get enough of.

This follows a girl who is forced to return to her fathers celestial court to compete in a game to decide the next ruling house of heavens. After burning her human father the girl has no choice to compete in order to try and heal him. I just think this sound like another beautiful story and I can’t wait to see where the story goes.

So these are all my prompts for the New Year Readathon. Hopefully I will be able to get to all these as well as all of the books that were on my January TBR. There are some amazing books on this list that I am desperate to read so I will definitely be getting to most of them this month. Thank you for reading; please follow and leave a comment about a book you are excited to read this month!