Calendar Girls January Wrap-Up

2019 IS GOING TO BE SUCH A GREAT YEAR FOR BOOKS!!!!

Seriously, can we just keep this theme all year long? Tell me some more books to read, I’m all ready for the hype!

Most Anticipated 2019 Release Picks

The Starless Sea – Katie @ Never Not Reading (that’s me!)
Capturing the Devil – Adrienne @ Darque Dreamer Reads
Slayer – Liz @ Stellar Kitten Book Reviews
King of Fools – Teri Polen
American Princess – Clarissa @ Clarissa Reads it All
The Winter of the Witch – Lucinda @ Lucinda is Reading
Sherwood – Deanna @ Deanna Writes About
Children of Virtue and Vengeance – Samantha @ Modern Witch’s Bookshelf
No Country for Old Gnomes – Dani @ Mousai Books
On the Come Up – Ashley @ Inside my Minds
On the Come Up – Krista and Dawlyn @ Little Blind Book Finds
Honor Bound – Sophie @ Beware the Reader
Enchentee – Flavia @ Flavia the Bilbiophile
King of Scars – Lindsey @ Lindsey Reads

Our Favorite Pick is…

Review: Slayer

Slayer by Kiersten White

Series: Slayer
Genres: Young-Adult, Fantasy
Maturity Level: 3
View on Goodreads
Rating: ⋆⋆⋆⋆

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Nina and her twin sister, Artemis, are far from normal. It’s hard to be when you grow up at the Watcher’s Academy, which is a bit different from your average boarding school. Here teens are trained as guides for Slayers—girls gifted with supernatural strength to fight the forces of darkness. But while Nina’s mother is a prominent member of the Watcher’s Council, Nina has never embraced the violent Watcher lifestyle. Instead she follows her instincts to heal, carving out a place for herself as the school medic.

Until the day Nina’s life changes forever.

Thanks to Buffy, the famous (and infamous) Slayer that Nina’s father died protecting, Nina is not only the newest Chosen One—she’s the last Slayer, ever. Period.

As Nina hones her skills with her Watcher-in-training, Leo, there’s plenty to keep her occupied: a monster fighting ring, a demon who eats happiness, a shadowy figure that keeps popping up in Nina’s dreams…

But it’s not until bodies start turning up that Nina’s new powers will truly be tested—because someone she loves might be next.

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Slayer ended up being pretty much exactly what I was expecting. It was fun and exciting, nostalgic without relying on it, and had just the right amount of teen angst.

Burnout Solution Check-In

So way back in June I wrote a post about how I was getting burnt out on YA, mostly because I was reading sooooooo much of it. I’ve always been a reader who prefers lots of variety, and tend to read any old thing that catches my interest. But since I started blogging I’ve been reading lots of YA books.

My solution that I devised for myself was that I separated my books into loose “genres”, and read one from each before I could do any repeats.

The good news: it’s going GREAT! I’ve read so many AMAZING books this year, and several of them are books I probably wouldn’t have ever picked up if I hadn’t started this process. In particular I’ve read three SciFi’s that I’ve loved, and a couple really good mysteries, which were genres I’d definitely been neglecting. I’ve been very happy with each and every book I’ve picked up in the last six months, and I’ve felt so refreshed. It’s nice knowing every single book is going to be a change of pace!

The things that need to be improved: since I was primarily focused on reading more genre fiction, everything else got sort of lumped together. Historical fiction, chick-lit/contemporary, literary fiction, they all got kind of thrown together. The result is that I’ve read exactly zero literary fiction since then. And while it’s not my favorite genre, there’s a couple of literary fiction novels that have been sitting on my tbr for years, and at this rate I’ll never get to them! I also haven’t read a lot of historical fiction, and that IS one of my favorite genres.

Anticipated Books: January 2019

WOW!!! You guys! It’s 2019!!!

It’s going to be an amazing year. One of my splurges on myself this year for Christmas was a subscription to Book Riot Insiders. Or course the first thing I wanted to do was dive into the New Release Index! How are there so many amazing books coming out every week?!

So something I’d like to start doing in 2019 is featuring ten or so of my most anticipated releases each month. If you like what you see, go get your own subscription for only $5 a month!

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Book Love by Debbie Tung

January 1 (Available Now!)
Genre: Graphic Novel
View on Goodreads

Bookworms rejoice! These charming comics capture exactly what it feels like to be head-over-heels for hardcovers. And paperbacks! And ebooks! And bookstores! And libraries!

Book Love is a gift book of comics tailor-made for tea-sipping, spine-sniffing, book-hoarding bibliophiles. Debbie Tung’s comics are humorous and instantly recognizable—making readers laugh while precisely conveying the thoughts and habits of book nerds. Book Love is the ideal gift to let a book lover know they’re understood and appreciated.