For today's Top Ten Tuesday post, the topic is a freebie! I am not feeling particularly adventurous today as to come up with my own original-ish topic so I just did a quick scroll through past topics and picked this one because it is one that I have actually been thinking about lately.

I don't really know why, but ever since I started blogging, I have gotten SO bad about finishing series! I used to always read series back to back (if possible) before blogging! Maybe its because there are just so many books I want to read, there just isn't time to start new series AND finish old ones?

Anyway, the following list is ONLY the series that I found by scrolling through pictures I already had uploaded to Blogger. This doesn't account for any unfinished series I might only have on Goodreads or on my shelf. This is also, obviously, only the series that I have any desire to finish.

All of the following series are also series that I could finish right now if I wanted to because all of the books are out already (or in the case of Nevernight, ALMOST out).

          

1. Reign of the Fallen by Sarah Glenn Marsh

I loved this book? So much? And I loved her other book, Fear the Drowning Deep. So what am I waiting for?

2. Song of the Current by Sarah Tolcser

I also loved this book and I own the second book. What is stopping me? Is the power of the sequel just too much for me at this point?

3. Royal Bastards by Andrew Shvarts

          

4. Frostblood by Elly Blake

5. The Valiant by Lesley Livingston

6. Flame in the Mist by Renèe Ahdieh

          

7. Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

8. The Island by S. Usher Evans

This series is, for the most part, exactly the type of books I have been wanting to read lately? But my aversion to finishing series strikes again.

9. Thrones of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

I'm not so confused about why I haven't finished this one yet. I have become SO disenchanted with SJM's writing (which is sad because these were the first books I reviewed on my blog and also where I came up with the name for my blog). But I have to finish this series because I have already put so much time and energy into it and I also do enjoy some of the characters. I guess I'm just not mentally prepared to put myself through Kingdom of Ash yet.

          

10. Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson

11. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Lately, I keep saying that I am ABSOLUTELY going to finish Crooked Kingdom and VERY soon. And I keep lying to myself and to you.

12. The Young Elites by Marie Lu

So there's that list. And just as a bonus, from my spot on the couch, I can see the following series that I have started and not finished (or read as far as I can in them at least):

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Truthwitch by Susan Dennard

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski

To Catch a Killer by Sheryl Scarborough

Those are just the ones that are not hiding behind my sloppy piles of books I'm too lazy to put back in their spots.

Are you good about finishing series? What are some series that you haven't finished, but would like to?

NEWTs Magical Readathon TBR

Hello and welcome to my TBR for the Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests! This is a readathon for the entire month of August that is hosted by Book Roast from Youtube.

The OWLs were in April and I read all the books I needed to qualify to choose either Magizoologist or Herbologist as a wizarding career. I was waiting for the prompts for this readathon to come out so I could see which one would be easier.

I am going to be qualifying to be a Magizoologist since that's what I am in Wizards Unite and also because Newt Scamander is my favorite wizard and I love him with my whole heart.

To succeed in this readathon, I need to get an O in Care of Magical Creatures and an E in both Herbology and Charms. I want to try to overachieve a LITTLE bit and get Os in all of my classes, though.

Anyway, here is what I tentatively plan to read at this point in time.

Herbology

A - Mandrake! Quick, Put Your Headphones On! Listen to an Audiobook (or Read a Book with a Green Cover).

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

Goodreads

E - Read a Book Between 350-390 Pages.

The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst

Goodreads

O - Read a Book with a Flower on the Cover.

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

Goodreads

Charms

A - Read a Book That You Think Has a Gorgeous Cover.

The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw

Goodreads

E - Read a Comic / Graphic Novel / Manga (or a Book Under 150 Pages).

Wolf Children: Ame & Yuki by Mamoru Hosoda

Goodreads

O - Spongify (Softening Charm): Read a Paperback Book.

Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune by Roselle Lim

Goodreads

Care of Magical Creatures

A - Follow the Spiders! Why Couldn't It Be Follow the Butterflies! Book Title That Starts With A, For Aragog!

Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett

Goodreads

E - Book Under 300 Pages.

Saga Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughn

Goodreads

O - Grab Onto Fawkes' Tail! Read a Book with a Bird on the Cover!

Saga Volume 2 by Brian K. Vaughn

Goodreads

So, there you have my tentative August TBR! It is definitely only tentative because even as I was creating this post, two of the books have already changed. I will only be reading the Os for Herbology and Charms if I manage to read all the rest of the other books.

These fun readathons are literally the only things inspiring me to read lately and I am particularly excited about this one!

Are you participating in the NEWTs? What career are you aiming for?

Top Ten Tuesday // Settings I'd Like to See More Of

Today's topic for Top Ten Tuesday is one that I don't think I have ever actually given any thought to before. What kind of settings would I like to see more of or at all in books? I feel like the thing that is the most important to me in a book are the characters. I don't care too much about plot (as long as it isn't just bad) and even less about setting. Or at least, that's how I feel right now without ever having given it too much thought. Now this is probably something that will really stick out to me since I have given it the tiniest amount of thought just now, but here we go.

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

After giving this topic a little bit of thought, I have come up with two things. Renaissance Festivals and road trips.

One book that I am excited about for the rest of 2019 is Well Met by Jen DeLuca. It is set at a Ren Fair and that is something that I don't recall ever having seen before, but I think it sounds like so much fun! Maybe this setting stands out to me because I primarily read fantasy books which, depending on the era it's set in, I'm assuming Renaissance Festivals will have some similar elements.

I am saying all of this as someone who has never been to a Ren Fair, but desperately wants to go. There have been a couple times now that I had made plans to go to the one in Shakopee, Minnesota, but they ended up falling through both times. Love that for me. There is supposed to be an unofficial Harry Potter day or weekend this year in September, but I think it will be during when my sister and I are road trippin' to Indiana to see my mom, so I guess I'm not going to that!

And the other setting that I can think of that I would like to see more of is road trips. Here is my obligatory plug of The Darkest Minds, which is a road trip book and my favorite book ever.

I personally love going on road trips. My sister and I try to take a yearly road trip to Indiana to see my mom, which is so much fun. It's about a 12 hour drive from where my sister lives (16 hours from where I live). I look forward to this so much and I love reading about people going on road trips. I don't care where they're going or why they're going, the journey is the fun part for me.

I don't think that I have read very many road trip books, but I think I know of a few. I need to remedy this promptly after giving this topic some thought.

Those are literally the only things that I can think of. Since I mostly read fantasy books, I really just like my settings to not be real places. Fictional kingdoms, pirate ships, I don't care, just as long as it's not a real place on planet earth (and also is not outer space because outer space scares me). I guess more accurately, it can be a real place on planet earth as long as it's not taking place in present day.

I guess today's Top Ten Tuesday is another short one. I feel like all the topics since I started doing these again have been super challenging for me, but it's fun to try and figure these things out.

What are some of your favorite settings or settings that you think need to be featured more often?

Top Ten Tuesday // Auto-Buy Authors

     

1. Alexandra Bracken

It should come as absolutely no surprise that Alexandra Bracken is my #1 Auto-Buy Author. I first read The Darkest Minds when I was like.. 22?? I saw it listed on a recommendations list from Epic Reads for books you might like if you like to go on road trips. Wasn't 100% sure about it because I wasn't sure how much I liked the cover, but it sounded good. I ordered the first book, read a bad review, got scared, and then ended up loving it. I have loved everything she has put out so far, but The Darkest Minds series is still my favorite series ever.

     

2. Rin Chupeco

At the time of writing this post, I have only read Rin Chupeco's Bone Witch series, but I would say it is easily my second favorite book series ever! I liked The Bone Witch, LOVED The Heart Forger, and had my life ruined by The Shadowglass. I am currently reading The Girl From the Well (I've read like 2 chapters), but I think it is so interesting that the main character is a thing straight out of a horror movie. I am READY for her two new series that are coming out soon!

     

3. Lauren Oliver

I have always been somewhat of a reader, but Delirium is the book that got me to be an avid reader. I binged this book and finished it at like.. 2 am. It was SO good, I almost drove 20 miles to Walmart in the middle of the night to get Pandemonium because I needed it RIGHT then! I have enjoyed everything else of Lauren's that I have read. I haven't read any of her middle grade stuff, but I have read all of her YA up to Replica. I still have that series to read as well as Broken Things.

Back in 2013, I remember on Twitter there was a contest by Epic Reads (I think??) going on to try to win a package full of Lauren Oliver's favorite things. I don't remember exactly what we were trying to prove, that we were her biggest fans, maybe? This was my entry into the contest:

I kind of retold the story with watching tv vs. reading a book. Since it's kind of hard to read because it's so old and who knows how I even got this version of it, I will explain the different pictures.

1: 2013, a time where people would rather watch a story unfold on a television screen than let it unfold in their minds with a book. Reading is unheard of!

2: Three people laying on the floor watching tv.

3. Me creepin' in the book section of Walmart with a hat and sunglasses on and thinking, "I hope no one catches me reading this!"

4. My little book fort I made to represent the place that Alex and Lena went to be together in the first book. I think it was called 31 or 37 Brooks? Either way, my little sign says 31 (or 37) BOOKS. I used 31 (or 37) books to create this fort. I have a few books that were mentioned in Delirium (Shakespeare, Fairytales, Walt Whitman). I bought new tennis shoes because Lena likes to run and that's what I'm wearing. I have an orange because there was something important in the books that oranges reminded Lena of or something. I don't remember, it's been so long!

5. Me wearing a homemade Invalid (I think that's what it says and that's what they call the people who don't get the cure??) t-shirt with heart eyes, holding Delirium and saying, "This book makes me deliriously happy."

6. My sister wearing an Evil TV cardboard helmet.. thing that I made saying, "What are you doing?! Watch me!" And me saying, "I'd rather die reading a book than live in front of the tv!"

7. Me fake running from Evil TV saying, "We must get to the Wilds!"

8. Me gracefully trying to leap over a fence with my book in a large ziplock bag hanging from my mouth with the Evil TV grabbing it and saying, "MUAHAHAHAHA!"

9. Evil TV holding my book over their head in victory and me basking in my failure saying, "I love you. Remember, they cannot take it."

I got first runner up. I didn't know how Twitter contests like this worked. So I didn't know what to do about winning. I never got my prize.

ALSO, when the Delirium pilot was being considered for TV, I remember a big twitter thing going on with people tweeting support or something?? I tweeted about it. I used a line from the book and said something along the lines of, "'Anything is possible if you can just see the sky.' I can see the sky right now so #Delirium is definitely possible!" And Lauren Oliver retweeted it and it was a big moment for me.

I am glad the Delirium show never made it to tv though. I watched the pilot when they had it on Hulu for awhile and I didn't really like it.

     

4. Leigh Bardugo

I believe I have read everything except Crooked Kingdom and Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo and I have thoroughly enjoyed everything from her so far. I am SO excited for Ninth House. I am making more of an effort lately to dabble in adult works, so it makes me excited that one of my auto-buy authors is putting out an adult book.

There isn't a book of hers so far that I would ravenously flail over like the others on this list so far, but I know that I will highly anticipate everything that she puts out!

     

5. Kerri Maniscalco

I think this is going to only be Top Five Wednesday again! I would honestly say that the above four are the only ones that I think would TRULY make the list, but I adore the Stalking Jack the Ripper series and I am so excited to see what comes next from Kerri!

I kind of don't like putting authors on my auto-buy list if I've only read one series from them, I am pretty sure I have done it in the past and have had literally no desire to read other things from said author (so HOW could they be auto-buy?), but I am pretty confident in this addition to the list. I am READY for Capturing the Devil and I am hoping to see more amazing things from Kerri in the future!

Who are some of your auto-buy authors? Do we have any of the same ones?

What I've Read Recently // #2

Hello and welcome to another edition of what I have been reading recently along with a few thoughts on each one. Hopefully after this point I will be kind of caught up on sharing what I have been reading and then maybe I will start writing real reviews again. We shall see how I feel! This is a combination of books I read for the remainder of the OWLs, books I read for round one and now part of round two of Game of Booksathon, as well as a few other random books.

          

1. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

This was a reread for me to prepare myself to finally read Crooked Kingdom. I read this book for the OWLs in April and if you continue on with this post, you will see that I have NOT yet gotten around to reading Crooked Kingdom because I'm kind of a failure. If you want to see my thoughts on Six of Crows, here is my original review.

2. You'd Be Mine by Erin Hahn

This is another book I read for the OWLs in April. I didn't really like this one as much as I was hoping to. After reading this one and Daisy Jones & The Six, and not liking either of them that much, I just don't think that books with a big focus on music/touring are for me. There wasn't anything in particular that I recall finding wrong with this book, it just didn't really tickle my fancy.

3. The Black Coats by Colleen Oakes

I listened to this one as an audiobook. I didn't really like it that much. I like the whole feminist vigilante justice thing, but there was just something about this one that I just wasn't a huge fan of. I enjoyed the group of friends in this book and I liked the romance. In particular, I didn't really like the training they went through and how it was this group of adults who are beating the snot out of teenagers to prepare them to go out and beat the snot out of random people, even if they are people who may deserve it. I also didn't like the group's reaction to finding out who Thea's boyfriend is. I like Colleen Oakes writing, but this book just wasn't for me.

          

4. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

This is the first book that I read for the Game of Booksathon that I did in June. I am sad that the show ended (and that it was SO rushed!) so I was ready to jump back into Westeros with the book. I don't read a lot of adult books, especially not like... epic/high fantasy or whatever ones like this. So it felt like I was reading this book for forever (I really wasn't), but I really enjoyed it. I'm excited to read the rest of the series and hopefully George will bust out those last two books soon!

5. New Game! vol. 1 by Shotaro Tokuno

This manga series is about a girl just out of high school who gets a job working at the company that made her favorite video game as a character designer. I thought it was really cute and fun and I started watching the anime on Crunchyroll too. I am excited to get the rest of the series to read!

6. Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

I enjoyed Red, White & Royal Blue. I don't think I liked it as much as everyone else did, but I did like it. Henry and Alex were cute together, but the third person present tense was... not my favorite thing. It felt so weird to read! But overall, it was a cute summer read and I'm glad I read it.

          

7. The Legend of Zelda Legendary Edition: The Minish Cap and Phantom Hourglass by Akira Himekawa

I love reading these Legend of Zelda mangas! I have never played Minish Cap, but I played Phantom Hourglass. I feel like reading the Phantom Hourglass manga made me realize I don't remember a THING about the game. Also, I love how these mangas give Link a personality that you don't get to see in the game! If you're a fan of the game franchise, you should try out the mangas if you haven't!

8. Crown of Feathers by Nicki Pau Preto

This book wasn't really anything like what I was expecting. It took awhile to get into, even via audiobook, because there was a LOT of info dumping in the beginning. I feel like that's easier for me to get past in an audiobook because I listen to them at work and it doesn't feel so unbearable while you're doing something else, but this info dump was... bad. I did like this book and I'm excited to see where the series goes, but I think I need to physically reread this book before moving on because it was hard to follow the flashbacks and whatever else there was between chapters. Even though it had a gnarly info dump, I think I would recommend it.

9. Monstress vol. 3 by Marjorie M. Liu

I really don't know what I think of this graphic novel series. I don't... actively dislike it, but I don't know if I actually like it either. I feel like I like the story and the art is BEAUTIFUL and there are CATS! But I feel like I struggle to follow along with the story. I struggle with reading it too fast and not paying enough attention to the art so I feel like I rush through it. I haven't felt like I struggled with any mangas I've read. I just feel like maybe this series isn't for me and it makes me sad.

          

10. Orange the Complete Collection vol. 1 by Ichigo Takano

I ADORED this collection. It follows a girl named Naho who receives a letter from herself ten years in the future that tells her the steps she needs to take to try to stop a new classmate of hers from committing suicide. I loved following Naho and her group of friends and I loved seeing her overcome her shyness to get close to Kakeru to try to change how things are supposed to turn out.

11. Magi vol. 2 by Shinobu Ohtaka

I am mostly reading this series from the beginning because I watched the anime series (SO GOOD) and there are only two seasons and some googling tells me there wasn't enough interest in the show to continue on. So I am reading from the beginning to see how it ends. It follows the show so far pretty well, I am excited to see what comes after the end of the anime. I'm so sad that there's no more of it though! Life is unfair.

12. The Girl From the Well by Rin Chupeco

This book was so interesting! The character that this book follows is dead, she goes after people who kill children. From the description in the beginning when she is tormenting and killing a child murderer, I was picturing her as like... the creepy thing from The Grudge. I have never read a book with such a unique point of view, it was so much fun. Rin Chupeco is A M A Z I N G!

     

13. Orange the Complete Collection vol. 2 by Ichigo Takano

I flew through the rest of this series so fast. If you are into manga and you haven't read this series yet, I would highly, highly recommend it, it is so cute.

12. Haruiro Astronaut by Ichigo Takano

This one was a bonus story at the end of the second volume of Orange. It followed two identical twins, Mami and Chiki. Mami always has boys confessing their undying love for her, but Chiki never gets that. This book is basically kind of about her trying to get a boyfriend. It was cute and a little bit unexpected and just generally fun!

So, that is what I have been reading for the last few months! I am currently three books ahead on my Goodreads goal (thank you manga collections I can count as individual books on GR, but also WHO am I?!). Next up for me is the first volume of Children of the Whales by Abi Umeda.

I discovered this one while my sister was at my house once. We had just watched the Emoji Movie and we didn't want to go to bed after having just watched something so stupid so I picked this anime because I thought the artwork in the thumbnail on Netflix was SO beautiful and it actually turned out to be so much more wildly violent and bloody than either of us were expecting. I think we just started watching it with our jaws dropped. What a ride. So far (haven't checked in awhile) there was only one season on there, but I thought I read that there was going to be more.

What have you been reading lately? Anything amazing?