2020 Reading Goals

~ megs14malloy

Now that 2020 is in full swing, it’s time to let y’all know my reading goals for the year.

My biggest take away from 2019 was that I am putting to much pressure on myself to read certain things at certain times and was causing unneeded stress in my life.

I’m not sure when or why I started taking what I was reading so seriously but moving forward, I am going to get back to reading for me.

All joking aside, at my heart, I am mood reader. One of my favorite feelings in the world is after I finish one book, picking out a new book to start. With some many things to choose from, the possibilities seem endless, like the world is my oyster, and I love that feeling.

I have decided to forgo my monthly TBR challenges for this year (I was failing at them terribly by the end of 2019, anyway) and also give up on my monthly theme reading.

Someday, maybe I will go back to this type of format, but for now, it just wasn’t working for me.

I also am going to try to slow down on the number of review copies I request and accept. I feel like all I read lately are ARCs. While they are all books I am excited for, I still have a ton of books that I purchase that I am also excited for that I never get around too because, well….ARCs!!!

I always, always appreciate the opportunity to read a book early and will continue to follow through with the obligations that I have made to publishers and hope to continue working with many of them going forward. I’m looking at you St. Martin’s Press, Disney Book Group and Berkley Books, to name a few!

This isn’t the end of ARCs for me, just a scaling back, let’s say.

I also want to continue to scale back on the number of books that I am purchasing. Last year, I allowed myself to pre-order 2 books per month and that worked pretty well. I am also down to one book subscription box per month, Book of the Month, with an occasional Book Outlet haul thrown in for good measure.

Lastly, I want to continue to strive to write full reviews for every, single book I read. Currently, I am going back through all the books I read in 2019 and trying to get full reviews up for the ones I missed. So, you may see an uptick in book reviews over the next week or so.

What are some of your reading goals for 2020? Were you successful with your 2019 goals? I want to know. Leave a comment here or contact me through any of my social media links.

Until next post, Cheers & Happy Reading~

Review: Geekerella (Once Upon a Con #1) by Ashley Poston

~ megs14malloy

Geekerella (Once Upon a Con, #1)Geekerella by Ashley Poston
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What can I say?

I am a geek and I loved this book.

My last completed book of 2019.
What a great reading year.

During the course of my holiday 2019 travels, I found myself alone in the car, A LOT. I wanted a little romance to keep me alert during my drive.

Not for me exactly but on audio. I had been putting this book off forever, for unknown and totally irrelevant reasons, and on a whim decided to download it.

The stars had blessed me on that day, as I found so much more in this story than romance. It touched my nerdy soul.

I felt filled to capacity with acceptance and understanding whilst listening to this modern-day Cinderella retelling. At its heart, a story about embracing your passions and never apologizing for who you are or what you love.

Our protagonist, Elle Wittimer, is a teen living with her Step-Mother and two Step-Sisters in South Carolina, and yes, you guessed it, the Steps are wicked!

Elle tries to stay out of their way at home. She spends her summer days working in a food truck called the Magic Pumpkin and her nights blogging about her favorite fandom.

Starfield, a classic scifi show that she has loved her whole life is her drug of choice. It’s the one thing that makes her still feel connected to her deceased parents, both huge fans.

When it is announced that Starfield is soon to get a movie reboot, Elle can’t wait to see who they cast. As any superfan though, she’s worried they are going to ruin it.

Do reboots or adaptations ever truly do justice for our loves?

After teen heartthrob, Darien Freeman, is announced to be playing the pivotal Federation Prince Carmindor, Elle knows it is going to suck.

What would he possibly know about Starfield? All he knows are abs workouts and alarmingly charming smiles, right?

Fueled by anger, she takes to the web and blogs what a travesty it is.

Darien Freeman is a fan however. Being cast as Carmindor has been a life-long dream for him but he’s been cast to play a role, not just in the movie but in life. Bubble-headed playboy is his image and he is forced to stick with him.

Written off by the Starfield fandom as a faker of the highest order, Darien finds himself frustrated and misunderstood. But what can he possibly do about it? He’s trapped.

Under the same stars, Elle is trapped as well. Her Steps are downright cruel to her but she has no means of retaliation or true escape. She feels powerless against them.

To promote the new movie, the Starfield execs plan a cosplay contest to be held at ExcelsiCon; the very same Con created by Elle’s late father. She can’t believe her luck and sees the grand prize, tickets to L.A., as her means of escape.

Darien is not pleased when he discovers he will be forced to attend the Con. He used to love attending Cons but to have to go and not be able to proclaim his love as a true fan feels stifling.

Reaching out to a phone number listed as info for ExcelsiCon he ends up getting in touch with Elle but neither knows who the other is. Thus begins their relationship, via texts, and their means of finding escape through one another.

From the very first chapter, I fell for Elle and her story, hook, line and sinker. The homage to the original tale of Cinderella, while bringing it fully into the 21st-century, was beautifully crafted. I loved all the little details and connections throughout the book.

As the synopsis states, this is also a love letter to nerd culture and for many of us, that means a lot. To feel that we aren’t alone and there are legions of people out there just like us, who love the same things and accept us and don’t call us weird. It feels good.

Overall, I was really damn impressed with this and hope to be picking up the next, Once Upon a Con installment soon!

Thank you, Ashley Poston, for writing this. It was absolutely wonderful!

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Blog Tour Announcement: Tweet Cute by Emma Lord

~ megs14malloy

Good news, book friends!

Thanks to the lovely people over at Wednesday Books, I will be participating in the Blog Tour for Emma Lord’s upcoming debut release, Tweet Cute!!!

This adorable romantic comedy follows a boy and girl in a heated Twitter battle. Can love result from their online shenanigans?

My review will be posted here, and on GoodReads, on Wednesday, January 15th, so stay tuned for that!

Review: Scavenge the Stars by Tara Sim

~ megs14malloy

Scavenge the Stars (Scavenge the Stars, #1)Scavenge the Stars by Tara Sim
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

…no one left in the world to love her…only the promise of retribution.

On the debtor’s ship, The Brackish, young Silverfish, once known as Amaya, spends her days diving for pearls and counting down the moments until she can regain her freedom.

Things aboard the ship are far from smooth sailing. The Captain is cruel and treats his young prisoners with an iron fist.

When Amaya rescues a man from drowning, she fears she may be punished by further time added to her sentence.

And although that may be true, she’s taken with this mysterious stranger wrangled from the depths. When she begins to interact with him, Boon promises her unimaginable riches and the possibility of returning to the city of her birth.

With his help, she’ll be able to find out the truth about the cause of the downfall of her family, and in turn, seek revenge of her own.

Through an exciting series of events, Amaya is able to flee the ship and does indeed return to her hometown of Moray, a port-city with an even mix of old-world opulence and new-world problems.

Set up by Boon, she poses as a wealthy Countess in order to infiltrate polite society and bring down the man Boon feels responsible for his problems.

The man he seeks is Kamon Mercado, a high-society businessman, who has secretly fallen into hard times of his own.

His son, Cayo, once involved heavily in the Vice Sector, gambling, drinking and carousing, is trying to stay clean but definitely played his part in dragging the family name through the mud.

Amaya is directed to befriend Cayo and use him to get access to his father. Once she does however, she finds all may not be as easy as it once seemed.

This story is a gender-flipped retelling of the adventure classic, The Count of Monte Cristo, and I definitely felt the themes of that woven throughout.

I loved the back and forth between Amaya’s and Cayo’s perspectives, as they both pieced together the darkness and mysteries surrounding their lives.

I enjoyed so much watching their relationship grow and am definitely interested to see where it will go in the second book.

The setting of Moray reminded me quite a bit of New Reynes, from Amanda Foody’s, Ace of Shades. So, if you enjoyed those books, you should definitely pick this one up.

The Vice Sector, with it’s gambling dens and ruling Slum King, was steeped in danger and underhand dealings. Corruption is a major theme in this book, as is deception and individuals being used as pawns for other’s gains.

Additionally, I enjoyed the pacing and felt it was cleverly plotted, although some of the reveals felt a tad convenient. I did ultimately like the way it all came together. The conclusion was an nice set up going into the final portion of this duology.

Overall, I had a lot of fun reading this and look forward to continuing with the story!!

Thank you so much to the publisher, Disney Book Group, for providing me with a copy of this to read and review. I appreciate the opportunity to get my hands on it early!

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December Wrap-Up

~ megs14malloy

As I sit down to write, it is currently 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, January 1, 2020! It seems like just yesterday that the Y2K-paranoia was sweeping the globe and yet, here we are 20-years later, with computers still functioning and people continuing to buy and read hard copy books.

You’re right. Enough lame intro. Let’s get into what we are really here to discuss, my December 2019 wrap-up.

As some of you may recall, my theme for the month was ‘Diverse December’. My goal was to complete 10-books with at least one prominent character whose life is significantly different from my own. In the below list, I will put an asterisk next to the titles that counted towards that goal.

My complete list of titles read, in order of completion is as follows:

  1. *Keeping Lucy  by T. Greenwood – This was an ARC provided to me by St. Martin’s Press. It had a main character with Down Syndrome and although that character was just a baby, it did provide a strong historical narrative regarding the treatment of children with disabilities in the late-1960s to early 1970s; 4.5-stars.
  2. Murder, She Wrote: A Time for Murder  by Jessica Fletcher and Jon Land – ARC-copy provided by Berkley books. This is book #50 in the beloved Murder, She Wrote mystery series and the first I have read under the new authorship of Jon Land; 3-stars.
  3. *The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang – Adult Romance novel with a main character with Asperger’s Syndrome and a main character that is half Vietnamese; 4.5-stars.
  4. *Aurora Rising  by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff – YA SciFi with a half-Asian protagonist and a queer side character. This is the first book to an all new series for this successful author duo; 4.5-stars.
  5. *Dear Martin by Nic Stone – YA Contemporary OWN voices novel following an African-American main character as he grapples with race relations and police brutality in America; 5-stars.
  6. Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin – YA Fantasy new release; 3.5-stars.
  7. *Reflection: A Twisted Tale by Elizabeth Lim – YA Mulan retelling set in China with a focus on Chinese history, folklore and culture; 4-stars.
  8. *The Ancient Nine by Ian K. Smith – ARC provided by St. Martin’s Press following an African-American student navigating the secret societies of Harvard University. Great premise, bad delivery; 2.5-stars.
  9. *Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia – This Adult Mystery novel follows Tuesday Mooney and her friends on a literal treasure hunt through the beautiful city of Boston; gay side character; 5-stars.
  10. Golden Son (Red Rising #2) by Pierce Brown – YA Dystopian; 4-stars.
  11. *All-American Muslim Girl by Nadine Jolie Courtney – ARC provided by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. YA Contemporary with Muslim main character; 3.5-stars.
  12. Gemina (The Illuminae Files #2) by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff – YA SciFi; 4-stars.
  13. *Geekerella (Once Upon a Con #1) by Ashley Poston – YA Contemporary. This modern-day Cinderella retelling with a focus on geek culture had a lesbian best friend.

If my math is correct, I failed to reach my 10-diverse book goal but I did complete 9! Not to shabby. I’ll take it. I finished Geekerella last night so was very happy to end the year with a 5-star read.

My favorite covers of the month include:

How did your December reading go? Did you complete your goals? I want to know! Comment down below or contact me through any of my social media links.

In the next couple of days I am planning to post a list of my top 10 favorite books of 2019, as well as my 2020 reading goals, so stay tuned for that!

Until then, Cheers & Happy Reading~

Review: Aurora Rising by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufmann

~ megs14malloy

Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle, #1)Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

**4.5-stars rounded up**

So, this is what it feels like to have your heart ripped out?!

The year is 2380 and our story begins on the eve of graduation at Aurora Academy, after which squad leaders will choose their teams and be given their first real assignments.

Tyler Jones, star pupil and known leader, cannot sleep. Call it nerves, call it excitement, whatever it is, sleep is not happening!

During the course of the night he hears an SOS over the comm system and sets out to see if he can help. Since he is incredible in almost every way, of course he can help.

When he comes across the beaconing starship he finds hundreds dead with one survivor locked in cryogenic sleep.

Fortunately for her, he is able to save her and bring her back to the Academy with him. But just who is this beautiful sole survivor?

Aurora is shocked when she comes out of cryo to find herself at some Academy for space cadets and not Octavia Colony, her original destination.

As she struggles to clear her head and put the pieces together, she also discovers she has some sort of mysterious powers awakening.

Tyler is disappointed and confused as well upon returning to the Academy. Due to his late night rescue mission, he missed graduation and as a consequence he missed out on the selection of teams.

What is he left with? His sister, a loyal friend and a few other miscreants: Scarlett, Cat, Kal, Fin and Zila.

Thusly, Squad 312 is formed. The most lovable bunch of misfits the galaxy has ever seen!

The story follows all of their perspectives as they go on their first mission and learn more about Aurora and her puzzling claims about the nonexistent Octavia Colony.

Guys, to say I am anxiously anticipating Book #2 would literally be the understatement of 2019.

I loved this story a ton, my only small compliant being that I found the numerous POVs a bit jarring at times. Other than that, nothing but love from me!

Squad 312 against the whole galaxy?

This author duo is hard to beat in my eyes. I hope they continue to collaborate for years to come!!!

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Review: Reflection (A Twisted Tales Story) by Elizabeth Lim

~ megs14malloy

ReflectionReflection by Elizabeth Lim
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Any Mulan fan knows well the battle scene versus Shan Yu and his army high in the mountain pass. But what if Captain Shang ended up mortally wounded during the course of that fight?

What would Mulan do in order to save him?

This story tackles that very question. In this recent addition to the Twisted Tales series, we follow Mulan, still posing as the solider Ping, as she travels to the Underworld, Diyu, to try to save Captain Shang.

King Yama, ruler of the Underworld, has agreed to a deal with Mulan. If she can navigate through the different levels of Diyu by sunset, facing numerous challenging obstacles along the way, Shang will be revived and she will be released.

If she fails, however, she will remained trapped in the Underworld as Yama’s prisoner forever.

So, no pressure.

Accompanying her into Diyu is Shang’s lion guardian, ShiShi. Like Mushu in the original version of Mulan, he added a great deal of humor to the story. Although a bit tougher on Mulan than Mushu, I just adored his character.

I really enjoyed in this one. It was such a fun and interesting twist. Following Mulan into Diyu had a very Alice in Wonderland dreamlike quality to it. The obstacles she faced were genuinely terrifying at times and I loved the dark atmosphere to the entire tale.

This is now officially my favorite book in the Twisted Tales series, out of the ones I have read thus far. I truly enjoyed Elizabeth Lim’s take on this classic tale and look forward to reading more from her in the future.

If you love Mulan, you should definitely give this one a shot!

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Review: Golden Son (Red Rising #2) by Pierce Brown

~ megs14malloy

Golden Son (Red Rising Trilogy, #2)Golden Son by Pierce Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am wrecked.

Picking up approximately 2-years after Red Rising left off, we continue to follow our intrepid hero, Darrow au Anadromedus, The Reaper, as he forges secret warfare against the heartless rulers of society.

Full of the same action-packed, pulse-pounding battle scenes as the first book, this one adds on to the level of political intrigue and plotting.

It left my head spinning. In a good way!

My favorite part of this continues to be the world-building. Brown has created a dark, dystopian world with all of the brutality of ancient Rome but in space. As we all know, everything is better…

Additionally, the characters are compelling and well-fleshed out. Darrow is particularly riveting. I love his evolution as a character and have truly felt for him as he grapples with impossible decisions that ultimately end up haunting him.

It’s hard to lead a revolution. Particularly when you have to keep it hidden. A proverbial snake in the grass, who can he trust with his secrets?

His pain and joy are visceral. I felt every moment. Relationships are continuing to develop and as always, there is a healthy dose of back-stabbing and betrayals mixed in for good measure.

I am really looking forward to moving on with this story. My plan is to continue with the audiobooks. The narrator is Darrow to me. They couldn’t have selected a better choice! So well done.

If you haven’t picked up this genre-bending series yet, I cannot recommend it highly enough!

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Review: All-American Muslim Girl by Nadine Joline Courtney

~ megs14malloy

All-American Muslim GirlAll-American Muslim Girl by Nadine Jolie Courtney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars rounded up**

Allie Abraham is a regular girl. Living in the South with her close-knit family, she excels in school and participates in the general activities that most kids her age take part in.

The thing is, Allie is keeping a secret from the outside world. Her family is Muslim and she’s not sharing that fact with anyone.

This book opens up with a blatant display of discrimination against her father and it really never lets up from there.

Although this story may make some people uncomfortable, I think it is an important story and a powerful examination of identity and societal prejudices.

While it is true that this is a story that needs to be written, and more importantly read, it wasn’t necessarily what I was expecting which decreased my enjoyment level just a smidge.

I was sold on this book as a sweet romance between a Muslim girl and a boy whose father is one of America’s most notorious shock jocks. It is true that this exists in this story, however, I wanted more of Allie and Wells.

For me, the focus of the book was obviously Allie’s own exploration of her identity and owning and embracing her faith. A lot of the time we follow her with a new group of friends she discovers over the course of the book and their discussions of Islam as it relates to their lives and the larger world around them.

I did appreciate those discussions but as mentioned earlier, I picked this up with romance in mind and really wanted more of that.

As a Contemporary exploring self-identity and the Muslim faith in general, this was really well done. Courtney has a smooth and easy writing style and I would definitely pick up more books from her.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, for providing me with a copy of this to read and review. I truly appreciate the opportunity and am so happy this book is out in the world!

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Review: Gemina (The Illuminae Files #2) by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman

~ megs14malloy

Gemina (The Illuminae Files, #2)Gemina by Amie Kaufman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As the BeiTech assault continues, we follow two all-new characters aboard the Jump Station Heimdall.

For those of you familiar with this series, you may recall that the Heimdall is the destination that one of our protagonists from Illuminae, Kady Grant, on the Hypatia, was ultimately hoping to reach with news of the Kerenza attack.

If you haven’t yet read Illuminae, number one, what are you waiting for? Number two, you can read my review here to see how much I loved it: Meg’s Illuminae Review

One thing you may be wondering at this point, is why did I only give this 4-stars, when I gave Illuminae ONE MILLION STARS?

Format. It’s all about the format.

Due to receiving a lot of comments that I should try the audiobooks for this series, in conjunction with the hard copies, I decided to do just that.

I was going on vacation, including a long road trip, so downloaded the audiobook and packed my hard copy. The thought was I could listen in the car and while at our destination, I could read my hardcover.

However, I had zero time to read on vacation…

…so, I ended up listening to the entirety of the book on audio.

Now don’t get me wrong, the production was flipping fantastic. Absolutely phenomenal full cast with sound effects, etc., but I am such a visual person, I missed the unique formatting and illustrations within the hard copy.

Additionally, I became quite attached to Kady, Ezra and AIDAN in the first book and was sad not to be following them directly in this story as well.

I did eventually come to really enjoy Nik, the Heimdall’s resident bad boy with a heart of gold and Hanna, its spoiled princess with an edge, but Kady will always be my number one.

There is no doubt that this book is action-packed and a great continuation of the BeiTech assault. I am really looking forward to the final book in the trilogy, Obsidio, but I will definitely be reading my hard copy version to conclude the series.

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