Hi y’all – it sure has been a while since I last posted.  Life has gotten very hectic and I haven’t been reading half as much as I would like.  With summer comes the busy time at my ‘real-world’ job, plus extra activities with friends and family. I am in the middle of 7 books currently and am hoping to finish at least 5 of them by the end of the month.

One exciting thing I do have planned for my reading life for the summer is participation in my FIRST ever readathon!  This readathon will be hosted by my favorite booktuber (Common Spence – Retellathon Announcement – watch this for additional information) and four other fabulous booktubers: Read By Liv, Wilde Book Garden, Mikayla Tweeting and Lea Bex.

Titled, ‘Retell-A-Thon’, the purpose is to knock some ‘retellings’ off our tbr lists.  As I have mentioned numerous times, I adore retellings!  I own a ton of them because I basically buy them anytime a new one comes out…but actually reading them, that’s a different story. The dates of the readathon are July 8th through the 15th and consists of 5 challenges. Earlier this week I compiled my tentative tbr – of course, I am a mood reader so all of this is subject to change, and most likely will as the time draws closer:

Challenge #1: Love At First Sight (retelling of your favorite fairy tale) – My favorite fairy tale has always been Beauty and the Beast and I own quite a few retellings based on this classic love story. The one I have chosen for this prompt is, The Beast Within: A Tale of Beauty’s Prince by Serena Valentino. This is my second Serena Valentino retelling and I am really looking forward to it. This is the story told completely from the perspective of The Beast. One of my favorite spin to retellings is when they are told from the villain’s perspective. I am a villain and therefore love villain tales. (I’ll let you be the judge of whether this is a joke or not…)

Challenge #2: True Love’s Twist (queer or gender flipped retelling) – for this I believe I am going to go with, Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust. Basically, this is a feminist fantasy retelling of Snow White. I believe there is LGBTQ+ rep in this, perhaps a F/F relationship, so hopefully this one counts.  If not, I may switch to And I Darken by Kiersten White, which is a gender flipped retelling of the story of Vlad the Impaler.

 

Challenge #3: Faraway Kingdom (a retelling of a fairy tale from your heritage) – for this, I have already switched from my original plan earlier in the week. As heritage goes, I am choosing to go with my Irish heritage for this challenge, which literally became a challenge because I felt like I had read all of the retellings that fit this category…but, alas, I was wrong. I had to go book shopping for this selection but I am SO excited to get it and it sounds amazing (arriving today from Amazon). This is, Beyond a Darkened Shore by Jessica Leake. While not based on a literal fairy tale, it is based on Irish folklore/legends; specifically, from what I can tell the legend of The Morrigan. Quick synopsis, The Morrigan is a goddess figure from Irish mythology that is associated with war and fate, especially with foretelling doom, death or victory in battle. This goddess is a shape-shifter and often appears in the form of a crow or raven. So, in this story, Ciara, our main character, a Princess in the ancient land of Eirinn (Ireland…get it?) is visited by a crow who tells her of threats coming and basically she needs to fight to save her home and her people.  Sounds amazing, right!? I am very glad I found this one – plus there is a crow on the cover which is totally my aesthetic.

Challenge #4: Under A Spell (read the group book) – The hosts of the challenge selected, The Surface Breaks by Louise O’Neill for this one which I am so excited about.  I had just been looking for an excuse to buy this book because the cover is amazing and it needs to live on my shelves! Rumor has it, that under the dust jacket the actual physical book has a mermaid scale design over the entire thing!  My hearts stops just thinking of it.  This is a Little Mermaid retelling that sounds really fun and cute and I am definitely looking forward to this one.

Challenge #5: Unhappily Ever After (retelling with a dark twist) – This is MY challenge, I may read multiples for this if given the time. What I have officially selected for this is from the Twisted Tales series by Liz Braswell. I have previously read another book in this series, a twisted take on Aladdin which was fabulous, but I digress.  My selection for this is Once Upon a Dream which is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty with the tagline: ‘What if Sleeping Beauty never woke up?’ – um, yep, I am here for this. Not to mention the fact that Maleficent is basically my idol in both real and imaginary life so I am very excited to read a book where she features in a main role!

So, that is it!  That is what I plan to read for ‘Retell-A-Thon’.  I cannot even express how happy I am that this readathon has been created.  It is beyond perfect for my reading tastes. I hope it is a wild success so that it may become a yearly event!

Have you ever participated in a readathon? Tips or tricks on how best to tackle it? Let me know in the comments below or reach out to me on social media -links to the right!

Cheers and happy reading lovies!

Publication Date: June 5, 2018    |    Rating: 4-stars

Publication Date: May 15, 2018

3.5 ☆s – ‘Nothing Happened’ is a fun and quirky YA contemporary that is actually a modern day retelling of Shakespeare’s comedy, Much Ado About Nothing. The drama unfolds at a kids summer camp called, Camp Dogberry, on the coast of Maine. I did have fun with this one but also had a few issues with it that I will touch upon briefly here. For me personally, it felt a bit young in comparison with most of the YA contemporary I read. That feel held throughout the story so I have a feeling this one would be enjoyed more by individuals who are actually younger than I am (and since that is A LOT of readers, I think this will do great!) With this in mind, I was surprised at how much alcohol was consumed by the characters in this book – I know some of the characters were in college but many were not. I am certainly not being prudish about this, I know underage drinking is a thing, I mean, I was young once, but I don’t think I have read a YA Contemporary recently were it was so much a part of the story line.

Another slight issue I had was that the story follows multiple POVs and cycles through these views rather quickly and steadily. This being said, it can be hard to follow in the beginning as you are learning the characters, their personalities and backgrounds. Multiple times I had to skip back to the chapter head just to remind myself who I was following at any given point. For me, I felt the characters lacked their own ‘voices’ – they all sort of sounded the same so it was really hard to decipher at times whose chapter you were actually in.

The story did move along quickly – pushed along mainly by gossip and angst but really, if you read the synopsis, that’s what we’re here for!  I loved the relationship between the MC sisters, Bee and Hana – it was 100% supportive and loving. Bee is the older girl and is adopted from Ethiopia. I thought that was handled well. Hana, the younger of the two, battles depression and I also felt that was handled well. The love relationships were a mess but that is what brought the drama. No one was communicating, everything was getting messed up and around and around it went, like a perfect Shakespearian comedy. Claudia, Hana’s love interest, was hugely self-conscious and jealous and I’m not sure if she actually learned anything by the culmination of the story; poor Claudia.

With all of this being said however, it was good! It was a quick read and would be perfect to take on a weekend holiday or to the beach. I am sure teens will find it fun and relatable. The relationships were dramatic, over the top and actually believable. I want to thank the publisher, Disney-Hyperion, for providing me with an early copy to read and review. As always, I appreciate the opportunity and look forward to seeing other readers thoughts on this one!

Publication Date: March 6, 2018   |   Star Rating: 4 stars

Wow. Okay, let me catch my breath. I just finished this book moments ago and I have a lot of thoughts but I can’t seem to wrangle them. The Girlfriend, by Sarah Naughton, is a very unique thriller told from multiple perspectives. I transitioned between a 3.5-star and a 4-star rating throughout the book and ultimately decided to go with a 4-star.

The writing style was likable for the most part; nice short chapters, mystery and fluid prose. I liked one of the main characters, Mags, a lot and found I related to her the most. The other main character, Jody, was less likable and less relatable to me personally but I think she was developed well by the author.  Jody was an unreliable narrator (VERY) with a traumatic past who clearly struggles with mental illness throughout the course of the book. Having never experienced the types of mental struggles and stressors that Jody was experiencing personally, it is hard for me to judge whether the mental illness rep was a proper characterization or not; I will leave that for others who know more about that topic to debate.  In regards to Jody however, I was pleasantly surprised with the position she found herself in at the end of the story. I think as a story arc, hers was the most satisfying, definitely leaving off at a more promising place than she started in.

As far as negatives go, I only have a couple items: I was a little taken aback by a few sentences describing the size of side characters which after first noticing, then seemed to just pop up everywhere for me like a beacon. I am sure that the author was maybe just trying to show some sort of attitude of the characters thinking these things but it happened with multiple characters – for example, Mags thinking, “I never thought a fat woman could be so beautiful,” (ugh) and later Jody thinking, “…panting, perhaps with the adrenaline rush of a narrow escape, or maybe just because he’s fat.” (ughh) This being said, if you are someone who may be sensitive to this type of sentiment being batted about in a story, you may want to stay clear. Furthermore, I would say trigger warnings for child abuse, sibling abuse, rape and sexual assault. My only other slight critique would be that personally I do not enjoy second person narratives.

Overall, I found this book to be exciting and engaging. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who loves thrillers and is looking for something with exciting twists and unpredictable turns. Thank you so much to the publisher, Sourcebooks Landmark, for providing me with a copy to review – I enjoyed it thoroughly and look forward to hearing what other readers think a well!