Book Review: A House of Rage and Sorrow (Blog Tour)

Author: Sangu Mandanna

Genre: Sci-fi & fantasy

Age Range: 13+

Published: By Sky Pony Press on 3rd September, 2019

Content Warning: Grief and loss of a body part

Format I Read: Kindle e-book

Grade: Outstanding

Note: I received a free digital ARC of the book via Caffeine Book Tours and Sky Pony Press in exchange for an honest review

Esmae once wanted nothing more than to help her golden brother win the crown of Kali but that dream died with her best friend. Alexi broke her heart, and she vowed to destroy him for it. And with her sentient warship Titania beside her, how can she possibly fail?

As gods, beasts, and kingdoms choose sides, Alexi seeks out a weapon more devastating than even Titania. Past lives threaten the present. Old enemies claim their due. And Esmae cannot outrun the ghosts and the questions that haunt her. What really happened to her father? What was the third boon her mother asked of Amba? For in the shadows, lurking in wait, are secrets that will swallow her whole.

The House of Rey is at war. And the entire galaxy will bleed before the end.

Top 5 Diverse Book Recommendations for Popular Fantasy Tropes

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. How it works is that each Tuesday the host assigns a topic and then posts their top ten list that fits the topic. Every blogger can create their own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well and link to the host’s. The topic for August 19th, 2019 is: Favourite Tropes. For this prompt, I’m going to list some popular fantasy tropes (with the help of this article) and recommend a diverse book that I think have used these tropes masterfully.

Book Review: Small Town Hearts

Author: Lillie Vale

Genre: Contemporary

Age Range: 13+

Published: By Swoon Reads on March 19th, 2019

Content Warning: Drugs & alcohol consumption and manipulative friendship

Format I Read: E-book

Grade: Exceeds expectations

Note: I received a free digital ARC of the book via the blog tour organised by Lili @ Utopia State of Mind and Swoon Reads in exchange for an honest review

Fresh out of high school, Babe Vogel should be thrilled to have the whole summer at her fingertips. She loves living in her lighthouse home in the sleepy Maine beach town of Oar’s Rest and being a barista at the Busy Bean, but she’s totally freaking out about how her life will change when her two best friends go to college in the fall. And when a reckless kiss causes all three of them to break up, she may lose them a lot sooner. On top of that, her ex-girlfriend is back in town, bringing with her a slew of memories, both good and bad.

And then there’s Levi Keller, the cute artist who’s spending all his free time at the coffee shop where she works. Levi’s from out of town, and even though Babe knows better than to fall for a tourist who will leave when summer ends, she can’t stop herself from wanting to know him. Can Babe keep her distance, or will she break the one rule she’s always had – to never fall for a summer boy?

Top 5 Short Book Recommendations

Welcome back, readers! Last week was a mess and I couldn’t post on the blog at all but I want to be consistent for the rest of the month. The Top Ten Tuesday topic for August 13th, 2019 is: Book Characters I’d Love to Be Besties With. I don’t feel strongly about this topic, so instead I decided to do a recommendations post today on short/thin books that can be finished in one sitting. I’m considering books with less than 300 pages for this. I feel like short books are great for when you’re looking to get out of slumps or taking part in readathons. I hope you find some good recommendations in this post!

Book Review: The Last of the Firedrakes

Author: Farah Oomerbhoy

Genre: Fantasy

Age Range: 13+

Published: By Wise Ink Creative Publishing on August 15th, 2015

Content Warning: Cruel stepparents, bullying and violence

Format I Read: E-book

Grade: Poor

Note: I received a free digital copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

16-year-old Aurora Darlington is an orphan. Mistreated by her adopted family and bullied at school, she dreams of running away and being free. But when she is kidnapped and dragged through a portal into a magical world, suddenly her old life doesn’t seem so bad.

Avalonia is a dangerous land ruled by powerful mages and a cruel, selfish queen who will do anything to control all seven kingdoms — including killing anyone who stands in her way. Thrust headlong into this new, magical world, Aurora’s arrival sets plans in motion that threaten to destroy all she holds dear.

With the help of a young fae, a magical pegasus, and a handsome mage, Aurora journeys across Avalonia to learn the truth about her past and unleash the power within herself. Kingdoms collide as a complicated web of political intrigue and ancient magic lead Aurora to unravel a shocking secret that will change her life forever.

Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag (2019)

Hello, lovely bookish people! It’s been some time since I disappeared from the blog without an explanation again, but we’re not going to talk about that. The Third Anuual Book Blogger Awards Round 1 hosted by May @ Forever and Everly closes tonight and I’ve been nominated by quite a few people – Kate @ Your Tita Kate, Camillea @ Camillea Reads, Shealea @ Shut Up, Shealea and Simant @ Flipping Through the Pages. Thank you all so much for thinking of me and I just wanted to say that your kind words has got me out my blogging slump. I’m finally motivated to get back to my regular posting schedule and, as my dearest friend, Shruti @ This is Lit, suggested, it’s easiest to start off with a tag. The Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag has really caught on with book bloggers in the recent years, which I’m really happy to see. I have tweaked the original questions a bit to make it more like a mid-year check-in kind of post. You can find the original questions and a slightly tweaked version on Simant’s post. Now let’s move on to the tag itself!

10 Most Interesting Asian Myths and Retellings

I love that more and more diverse books by marginalized authors are coming out, but we haven’t reached a point where publishing is truly diverse. As an international blogger, I adopted this cause as my own at the start of the year and have been pushing as many diverse books as I can on my blog and bookish social media. However, I feel a certain kinship with Asian books because I can see more of myself on the page in them. So, this year I’ve been focusing on reading as many Asian books as I can and I want to talk about some of my recent reads as well as some that are on my TBR. I love retellings and I’ve recently read some amazing Asian ones, so I decided to recommend my favourites as well as highlight the myths behind them.

Top 5 Books That Are Worth Reading Again

I was a huge re-reader until a couple of years ago when I started my book blog. The pressure of keeping up with review copies and the hyped books has kept me away from picking up my old favourites again. In the recent past, old series are being renewed again or sequels are coming out years later which have necessitated re-reads from publishers themselves. The book community has also embraced re-reading as a way of defeating the dreaded reading slump or as pick-me-ups on bad days. That is why today I feel comfortable sharing a list of books from my past which I want to read once more.

The Secret Tip to Organising Your Bookshelves Perfectly

Off Tangent Thoughts is the brainchild of Charvi @ Not Just Fiction, my blogging soul sister, that I helped out with in a small capacity, so it was mandatory for me to participate in the first prompt. Here’s what the creator has to say about this meme:

Off Tangent Thoughts (OTT) is a bi-monthly meme that has a basic list-based format wherein bloggers express their points in the form of a short or long list with the points under the list being merely a couple lines or even complete paragraphs. Every 1st and 3rd Saturday I will be putting up prompts based on which everyone can write their own posts. For prompts that will be released on the 1st Saturday, bloggers can write and publish their posts over the next two weeks, that is, until the 3rd Saturday from when posting for a fresh prompt will begin and continue up until the 1st Saturday of the next month and so on. On the rare occasions when we have a 5th Saturday, I will keep an open prompt where everyone can generate a topic of their own or catch up on previous OTT prompts they may have missed. Everyone is encouraged to interpret the prompt however they like and be innovative with their posts. I myself will be uploading my posts for every prompt at 12am IST each 1st and 3rd Saturday so that everyone participating can link their posts back to my post for that prompt. I am also putting up a schedule of prompts that will be regularly updated so that everyone can get a glimpse into the future prompts and plan their posts accordingly.

The topic for April 20th, 2019 is: Thoughts You Have While Organising Your Bookshelf. I thought I’d give you a sneak peek into what goes on in my head while organising bookshelves and also give you one secret tip to get it perfect each time! Read on to find out more.

Book Blogging 101: A Comprehensive Guide to Social Media Success

The biggest to-do item of 2019 that is still languishing on my list is to figure out how to use social media to boost my blog. If you’ve wondered the same, chances are you’ve probably done some searching around and stumbled on a wealth of resources. However, they rarely seem to be geared towards book bloggers and more so for bloggers in general, especially those who seem to have a lot of time and money to invest in their blogs. This post caters to the very specific book blogging crowd and will also be helpful to those who blog as a hobby. I’m just an amateur when it comes to social media, so I had a friend help me out in putting together this post – Shruti @ This is Lit (the expert), who works in the social media analytics field. Her characteristic wit and professional insights will hopefully teach you a trick or two that will turn you into a social media wizard in no time!