So, lately I have spent a lot of time perusing booktube and I stumbled across this tag by Thoughts on Tomes. And 'tis the season, so I thought I would do this since I haven't been super active on the blog lately (hopefully that will change in 2018, I already have a lot of posts written for January).

Basically it's a bunch of Grinch-y Christmas scenarios paired with bookish questions that pertain to them.

HALF OF THE LIGHTS ON THE CHRISTMAS TREE ARE BURNT OUT

Name a book/series/character that started out good, but then went downhill.

I'm going to go with Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas for this one.

I absolutely adored Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight, and The Assassin's Blade. I mean, I must have loved it because I used a quote from the series to come up with my blog name.

Heir of Fire was where things started going downhill for me. There were so many new characters that I just don't give a shit about. I hate Rowan as the love interest. I think that Aelin's powers are ridiculously over the top. Like 50% of this series could get cut and it would still be the same story.

I am going to finish it because like.. I care what happens, but I think it's mostly just because I have put so much time into this series already.

ANNOYING GREAT AUNT SALLY WHO WILL NOT LEAVE YOU ALONE

Name a book that you didn't enjoy, but everyone else seems to love so it never goes away.

The A Court of Thorns and Roses series is never ever ever going to go away, I'm sure of it. Especially since it's getting dragged out some more.

To be fair, I really liked ACOTAR when I read it. It just had something that I was really looking for at that point. But as soon as I found out where the romance was going in ACOMAF I decided that I wasn't going to bother with the rest of the series. I absolutely see why Feyre shouldn't have ended up with Tamlin even if I liked him while I was reading the book.

But I hated Rhysand and I don't think that she needed to end up with him either.

YOUR PETS KEEP KNOCKING OVER THE CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

Name a character that kept messing things up for everyone else (No villains!).

I'm going to go with Skye from The Goblins of Bellwater. If only for the fact that after she gets cursed by the goblins, she chooses a stranger that she randomly runs across in the woods to be her mate, subsequently cursing him as well.

YOU HEAR YOUR PARENTS PUTTING OUT THE PRESENTS AND LEARN THAT SANTA ISN'T REAL

Name a book you were spoiled for.

     

These are the two books that immediately come to mind when I think of books that were spoiled for me. Allegiant was spoiled for me in a comment on one of Veronica Roth's instagram pictures that had NOTHING TO DO WITH BOOKS.

I don't remember exactly how I was spoiled for Crooked Kingdom. But I am still super salty about it. I also still haven't read Crooked Kingdom. I need to. I want to read the first one again first, but ain't nobody got time for that.

IT'S FREEZING OUTSIDE

Name a main character that you just couldn't connect with.

I'm gonna go with Alia from Wonder Woman: Warbringer for this one. Like, I didn't dislike her at all. I didn't really care for her attitude toward Diana and her people when she first is on the island, but like... I can understand her thoughts and feelings about it.

I don't know.. There was really no reason why I didn't like her and I was rooting for her, but I think she's a good example of a character I just didn't connect with.

MARIAH CAREY'S 'ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU' IS PLAYING NONSTOP AND IT'S GIVING YOU ANTI-ROMANTIC FEELINGS

Name a couple you couldn't stand.

Juliette and Warner.

Also, Feyre and Rhysand.

Liesel and the Goblin King.

THAT SCRATCHY HOMEMADE WOOL SWEATER YOU GOT FOR CHRISTMAS YEARS AGO BUT WON'T GET RID OF

Show some books that have been sitting on your shelves for awhile, and you aren't motivated to read, but you don't have the heart to get rid of.

          

Here are three examples of books I have on my shelves that I just am not motivated to read.

The only one that I might possibly want to get rid of would probably be Falling Kingdoms.

I really really liked The Orphan Queen, so I really don't know why I haven't just gone ahead and finished the duology yet, but here I am... avoiding it.

I don't know why I haven't read Replica yet either. Lauren Oliver is one of my auto-buy authors. I think I might be intimidated by how this book is written. I don't know how I want to read it. It sounds like a pain in the ass to have to flip back and forth between the different parts...

GRANDMA GOT RUNOVER BY A REINDEER

Name a character death you are still mad about.

SPOILERS

Cole deserved a happily ever after!! It isn't fair!

THE MALLS ARE OVERLY CROWDED WITH HOLIDAY SHOPPERS

Name a series that has too many books in it/went on too long.

The Mortal Instruments series was twice as long as it should have been. We won't even talk about how long the whole Shadowhunter thing has been drug out.

I really liked the first three books in the TMI series when I read it. I am pretty much over it now, but I liked them when I read them. But I HATED the last three books. I don't even know why I bothered to finish the series, but I stuck it out.

THE GRINCH

Name a main character you HATE (No villains!).

I really hated Liesel from Wintersong. Like everything about her. I hope that she is more bearable in Shadowsong because I requested it for some reason.

Do we share any of the same Grinch-y book opinions?

Pokemon GO Book Tag

I am FINALLY doing the Pokemon Go Book Tag! I was tagged to do this by Alexandra at Literary Legionnaire awhile ago, but I decided to wait to post this during the #ReadThemAllThon! This tag was created by Aentee at Read at Midnight!

Aentee also created the #ReadThemAllThon and all the graphics for this tag!

I think that there are quite a few books I could credit with this during different parts of my life, but I'm going to go with Delirium by Lauren Oliver for this one!

I was a lot more of a casual reader before Delirium. This is the book that made me always want to have a book handy, if not actually in my hands. I don't remember a lot of books that I read in one sitting or stayed up super late reading before I read this book. I think I finished this book at like 1 am and I was super tempted to drive to the nearest Walmart to see if they had Pandemonium.

My go-to starter Pokemon is Charmander! I love love love Charmander! He's always been my go-to starter! For Christmas a couple of years ago, the BF bought me a Gameboy Advance SP and Pokemon Red to play on it and it made me SO happy.

I think most people who's posts I've looked at so far have said Harry Potter for this one. So I'm going to go a different route and mention once again, my love for The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton.

This is probably my favorite book that I ever had to read in school. I bought my own copy of this one and I frequently pick it up to just flip through the pages and find that I've just read the whole thing.

In November they're releasing a 50th anniversary edition of this book and the cover looks so cool. I'm so buying another copy. Maybe I'll gift someone my current copy of the book.

I was super excited for this book when I first heard about it. Probably a lot of it was because everyone else was so excited. But then before it came out the street team was EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME! I liked the chats and the coloring contest and stuff like that, but the constant barrage of tweets about the book from the street team members just got to be too much for me.

But since I haven't seen too much about this book lately, I'm finally gonna read it. It's my 'thunderous hype' book for the #ReadThemAllThon. I better get to that one ASAP though because I've seen #WindwitchWednesday stuff on twitter and it's already lessened my excitement to finally read this.

I didn't personally think this when I read it myself, but when I was reading other people's reviews A Shadow Bright and Burning, a lot of them said that it wasn't really an original fantasy, it had elements from all sorts of different fantasies, etc.

Looking back, I can see where that would be true. I can see where it would be kind of your run-of-the-mill fantasy book with your common fantasy tropes. But I still really enjoyed it!

Not only are these books rather large, the sheer size of the bill if I were to buy all of these makes me sad on the inside. But I loved the TV show (only got to season 5 so far!), so I am definitely going to have to suck it up and get these books. Probably when I finally get my credit card bill paid off someday.

When I think of books that kept me up late reading, this is always the first book that comes to mind. This is the first book I ever preordered and I got it the day before it officially came out! So my goal after getting home from work that day was to finish it before the rest of the world could buy it!

So I stayed up really late reading this one.

Also, I just watched the episode of Pokemon with Ghastly, Haunter, and Gengar and I thought they'd be 'scarier' than they were. But they were mostly a bunch of clowns and I think that was probably my favorite episode of the Indigo League show so far.

My favorite OTP will forever be Ruby and Liam from The Darkest Minds. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!

I just finished reading this book for the second time and I forgot how exciting this book was! It seems like they're always doing something important, there really aren't any parts that are too slow or anything. It's sooo exciiiiiting.

I want all the spin-offs of this series. Specifically I have seen people talking about how they want one about the Marauders' time at Hogwarts and I didn't know how badly I needed that until I read that conversation. I would love to read something like that! I would read spin-offs about basically any character in this series.

I liked The Maze Runner. I liked The Scorch Trials less. And I really just did not like The Death Cure. Like, really at all. But I bought a box set of all the paperbacks so I felt like I had to read The Kill Order. I was NOT expecting to like it as much as I did. I LOVED this one. It's not quite enough to make me want to check out The Fever Code, but it was enough for the series to kind of redeem itself to me.

I think that this series is super hyped, especially with the tv show! I want to read this series so bad, but it's SO expensive to buy the books! I've seen most of the tv show, I've seen up until the end of season five! I am really excited to read the books someday because I've seen some articles online talking about things that are different between the books and the show and I'm curious to see some of the things!

          

I don't really think that these are collector's editions, but for me they would be! I would LOOOVE to add these to my Alexandra Bracken collection! They're really hard to find online! I have found one website where I could easily figure out how to buy them, but it would have cost me an arm and a leg to order them from Australia.

Someday they will be mine, though.

The first debut that comes to mind when I think of ones that I'm super excited for is Ever the Hunted! I'm so excited for December to roll around so I can get my paws on this one! :)

The coolest thing I've hatched out of an egg so far is probably an Aerodactyl. I want a Lapras so bad, but I seem to not be attracting more 10 km eggs. The other day I had two 2 km eggs going at the same time. They both hatched at the same time and they were both WEEDLES! I was so mad. I hate Weedle so much.

Alexandra Bracken is my number one auto-buy author. I love everything she has written and I'm super excited to read Wayfarer in January! 

I don't think that there are any books out there that I have been waiting any ungodly amount of time for, but it feels like it's been forever since I read Passenger and I'm dying to get my hands on Wayfarer!

I pretty much just tag whoever wants to be tagged in this! :)

Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag

I originally saw this tag on A Book and a Cup of Coffee!

1. Best Book You've Read So Far in 2016?

I've read about fifty books so far this year and Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys is EASILY the best one I've read. I loved the characters. I loved learning about the history behind it. It gives you the feels. Seriously, it's been like six months since I read this book (HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?!) and I'm still not even close to over this book.

If you decide to read this book. Please come talk to me about it. PLEASE?!

2. Best Sequel You've Read So Far In 2016?

I went through all the books I've read so far this year and I think that only like 2 of the books I have down were sequels? The Dream Thieves was actually the last book that I finished and I am SO in love with this series so far! I might have actually DNFed a book after this one partially so that I could get on to Blue Lily, Lily Blue faster. BUT ONLY PARTIALLY! I also didn't love the narrator's voice and it wasn't about what I thought it was going to be about.

3. New Release You Haven't Read Yet But Want To?

Okay, I'm going to go with ALL OF THEM! I haven't read really any of the books I have been so excited for this year yet! I have ELEVEN of the books pictured below and I haven't read them yet. I'm hoping that after ARC August I can get all my ARCs read and then I can work on some of these!

               

              

               

                    

          

4. Most Anticipated Release For The Second Half Of 2016?

Once again, like ALL of them!! I have like all of these preordered, I think. I'm so excited. I can't pick just one.

          

          

          

5. Biggest Disappointment?

I was SO excited to read this one because I had heard EVERYONE raving about it and the premise sounded so cool! But this one just didn't work for me, sadly. I kind of want to read the second one to see where it goes, but at the same time, I wasn't even excited for the cover reveal so maybe I don't want to anymore. :(

6. Biggest Surprise?

This one was a surprise for a couple reasons. One was because it wasn't about what I thought it was about exactly. Also, contemporary isn't something I usually choose to read, but I absolutely ADORED this book! It deals with mental health and was SO good!

7. Favorite New Author (Debut Or New To You)?

1. Maggie Stiefvater

2. S. Usher Evans

3. Roshani Chokshi

8. Newest Fictional Crush?

     

I loved both Julian from Caraval and Gansey from The Raven Boys! They have both made their way onto my fictional boyfriend list! But they'll never top my beloved Liam Stewart! *heart eyes*

9. Newest Favorite Character?

One of my favorite characters so far this year is Emilia from Salt to the Sea. I think she's so brave and strong and I love her so much!

10. Book That Made You Cry?

This book was so sad! There have been a few others that made me cry this year *cough*SaltToTheSea*cough*, but this is probably the most recent book that made me cry! I can't wait for the movie to come out because I think this one missed the theater in my little town.

11. Book That Made You Happy?

I just finished rereading this book and if it's even possible, I think I loved it even more the second time! Everything about this series makes me happy and I'm excited to reread the rest of this series as soon as possible!!

12. Most Beautiful Book You've Gotten So Far This Year?

Seriously, I have been raving about this cover since I first saw it. Why have I not gotten around to reading this yet?!

13. What Books Do You Need To Read By The End Of This Year?

See questions 3 and 4.

14. Favorite Book Community Member (Blogger, Bookstagrammer, Booktuber, Etc.)?

Truly, I love you all! Everyone here is fantastic and I refuse to play favorites! ;)

15. TAG! Who's It?

YOU ARE!