#T5W | Bro.

This week, we are talking about Bromances.

I have two lists for you today. The boring book list – I say “boring” because it’s going to be the same as everyone else’s – and my anime list. I am truly more excited for the anime list. I’ve been watching a lot of sports anime and it’s a black hole of bromances, straight up yaoi, and fan fiction fodder for years to come.

I won’t dwell much on the book list but do hear me out:

GRAYSON PIERCE & MONK KOKKALIS, Sigma Force series by James Rollins.
Let’s start with the lesser known one. Their friendship is so great. They’ve been through hell together and lived their lives side by side. They’ve protected each other and have feared to lose one another multiple times. Theirs is one of the strongest relationships in these books.

KELL & RHY, Shades of Magic trilogy by VE Schwab.
They’re adoptive brothers and they quite literally share a lifeline. I feel like this is kind of cheating a bit but this is the best bromantic relationship in this trilogy without crossing the actual m/m romance line. I love how much they care about each other and the guilt they both feel because of how they affect the other’s life.

LEGOLAS & GIMLI, The Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien.
Legolas spent the rest of his Middle-Earth life and beyond with his friend Gimli, a dwarf. They blurred racial lines and forged a lifetime of loyalty and friendship. I mean, I love Aragorn but to be truly honest, he was a 3rd wheel in this friendship. 😉

DARROW & SEVRO, Red Rising trilogy by Pierce Brown.
Loyalty plays a huge part in all the bromances I’ve mentioned so far. This one is no different. These two are foils of each other. They’re opposites but somehow, they found a friend and ally in each other. Sevro continued when Darrow couldn’t and kept the band together. Darrow never lost hope in Sevro. I just love them!

CASSIAN & AZRIEL, A Court of Mist and Fury and A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas.
This entry will link my two lists together. Why? Because in my head as I was reading these two books, I dreamcasted Cassian as JJ Leroy and Azriel as Otabek Altin from Yuri!!! On Ice. More on that later but in the books, they’re these seemingly chill dudes – really, dudes. They keep Rhysand in check. But then they go to beast mode. They’re so devoted to protecting their loved ones and the sense of obligation is so strong. They’re the best part of the series.

And now, for the fun list… the Top 5 Anime Bromances!

#T5W | Summer 2017 Reads

This week, we are talking about Summer Reads.

Here is my list last year: Summer 2016. While my sentiments about seasonal reading still remains the same, my choices will be different. I do understand wanting to read a certain book or genre that is influenced by the weather outside. Even a book cover can (be) inspire(d) by the seasons. And some books are marketed and released to appeal to a certain overall mood for that season. Contemporaries tend to be more popular during spring and summer while darker reads such as horror and mystery make a comeback during fall and winter.

Personally, my kind of “summer read” is adventure stories. Fantasy stories whether they be light or high or epic. Long books. Finished series to binge read. Something to take me away from reality. I don’t really go anywhere for summer due to my dislike of scorching heat and glaring sunlight so books are my way to go. And I’m lazier in the summer. It’s too hot to move. LOL.

James Rollins books. You’re probably sick of me mentioning this author every so often. What can I say? He’s my favorite and I’ve grown comfortable with how he writes sci-fi mystery thrillers. I’m listening to one of his works right now, War Hawk, which he co-wrote with Grant Blackwood. Kane is my new favorite dog. I’ve read a good chunk of Rollins’ backlist and I’m actually looking forward to re-reading those that I’ve only listened to on audio. I’m sure I have copies of it lying around my room somewhere. I know for sure I have copies from Sandstorm to The Devil Colony in the Sigma Force series. I don’t mind them as mass market paperbacks, strangely enough. I just need to find that push to finally re-read it.

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas. And I guess I’ll put A Court of Wings and Ruin on here too. I have both books. I waited for ACOMAF to be released in paperback to match my copy of ACOTAR. As for ACOWAR, I was sucked in by Target having an exclusive edition on their shelves. One of my weakness is any kind of signed whatever from the author may it be a book plate, a printed signature, or in this case, a stamped signature on the naked book. I’m not the biggest fan of ACOTAR but from what I heard, the next two books are way better. So no better time to marathon read these two.

Chain Mail: Addicted to You by Hiroshi Ishizaki. The title sounds like some cheesy New Adult-y novel. But this is a Japanese horror thriller. Yep. I don’t really know what it is about since the GoodReads blurb is a mere sentence or two. Really, this could be a placeholder for any of the Japanese fiction I have in my possession. I just picked this because while I was rearranging the literal stack of books by the foot of my bed, I saw this. I almost forgot I had it so I decided to include this book here. Who knows, maybe I will read it.

The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson. And with this, binge read the rest of the series. I have this in digital and I actually wanted to read this last week. But I decided to go with Daughter of Smoke and Bone instead since I have physical copies of the whole trilogy. But I still want to read this as soon as possible. I’ve always been intrigued by the first book’s premise. I’ve heard nothing but good things about this book and trilogy.

Bad Romeo by Leisa Rayven. I have have physical copies of the whole trilogy. Two of them, I got in a haul last year. And the third one was graciously gifted to me. Actually, any New Adult read would do. I just chose this for this purpose because I have the whole trilogy in paperback. But it could be anything. Hopefully, I will find the drive to finish Infini or some other steamy NA I recently added to my TBR.

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Summer is still a couple of weeks away. I’m still trying to work on my Spring TBR (4 out of 10, I keep getting distracted by other books). But I’m sure I’ll get to these eventually, summer or not.

TOP TEN TUESDAYS | Not What I Thought

I feel like I made a list like this before. But I’m too lazy to check the rest of my posts so we’re still doing this!

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is the Top Ten Books I Loved Less/More than I Thought I Would.

While it didn’t take me long to end up with this list, it was kind of difficult to come up with it. I’m a mood reader and quite picky at that. I don’t usually veer away from genres that I know I like. And I do extensive research even before putting a book as “to-read”. If I don’t like the sound of the blurb, I probably won’t pick it up.

But for those that made the cut, my expectations aren’t always spot on. For some, I liked it more that I thought I would and that’s awesome. Yet for those that I expected to like but ended up not liking, well… the disappointment is real. So why not we start with those.

BOOKS THAT I LIKED LESS THAN I THOUGHT I WOULD (this GIF pretty much describes my feelings about these books):

Trivia: Rei is my favorite character from “Free!”; then Makoto.

• Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes. I’m still not over this. This is the book that disappointed me the most. In all my life. I feel like I should be inserting that Tyra Banks gif here instead. I mean, to begin with, my expectation wasn’t that high. But that hook, man. Half-boy, half-deer carcass found in the woods? Criminal Minds should be wheels up in 30. Then it became this magical realism BS that is just so ridiculous. No. Unhauled faster than I hauled it.
• I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga. Same reason as above, really. The premise was A+ but it ended up being a C. At least to me. I was excited that it was a series but I’m not continuing on with it.
• To All the Boys I Loved Before by Jenny Han. See, I went in to this prepared for cheese and bubbles and  a lot of eye-rolling. I already knew that I wasn’t going to sing its praises. But when I read this… geez. I originally rated this a 3 but the more I thought about it, I actually hate this book. Then this standalone is now a trilogy. Wow.
• Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch. This wasn’t particularly bad. I just had high hopes for this book and everything in it. And it disappointed me at every turn. The writing wasn’t good, the world building is the most convoluted thing ever, the magic system had potential but none of the characters were good enough to embody it. The best thing about it is the love triangle. There you go.
• A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. Wow. It’s Twilight time all over again. Prior to picking up this book, I’ve never held a SJM book in my hands. I finally gave in to the pressure but I had low expectations, regardless of the glowing reviews this book has on Goodreads and everywhere. Dang, this is totally guilty pleasure read. And even with that mindset, this was laughably disappointing. Bordering on bad. Fae is not my thing. But you know what, I kind of want to continue with this series.

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BOOKS THAT I LIKED MORE THAN I THOUGHT I WOULD (yes, Viktor — I love them too):

• Legend trilogy by Marie Lu. I read the entire trilogy and two graphic novels last year. It was already an old trilogy filled with the dystopian tropes that avid YA dystopian readers are used to. But I wasn’t one of them and I loved this trilogy so damn much. I was able to have Champion personalized and signed by the author not too long ago.
• Eon duology by Alison Goodman. I knew next to nothing about this book when I bought it. But my brother read it and he said it was okay. No, it was more than okay. I loved it. Enough to marathon the whole thing. Lost sleep even.
• Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson. No one is more surprised than myself. Contemporary is not my thing but I enjoyed this one so darn much. It was cute and it came in the perfect time in my life. It wasn’t super cheesy and I loved the playlists.
• The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. Talk about going in blind. I bought this book because I needed something to read on a long-ish wait. And it was $1.99 at Goodwill. But I loved this book. LOVED IT.
• Lexicon by Max Barry. It’s more like I’m surprised at the strong urge to re-read this book. I’ve been meaning to re-read this for about a year now. I knew nothing about this book when I picked it up but the story stuck with me. I can’t remember particulars but I remember how creative this story is and it’s so smart. I hope I can get to this book again this year.

Notice the anime gifs in my posts? Yep. It’s taking over my life again. I should do an anime version of this topic. 😉

WORD VOMIT: A Court of Thorns and Roses

I have one but I can’t be bothered with a written book journal right now. Plus, typing is faster.

Go Genos, go!!!

Backstory: I know this is one of the most hyped books and authors of the past few years. But I’ve never ever physically picked up a Sarah J. Maas book until I saw it on a Target run a month ago. And it was for $8. I would pick it up and set it back down again. Then yesterday, work stress got the better of me and I finally bought it. I started reading it this morning (2/3/2017) and I’m about a third of the way through. That’s pretty fast for me.

I’m torn. I do like Beauty and the Beast, the Disney version as well as the original. And this being a loose retelling, I’m not expecting it to follow the events of the original. I’m not much for retellings but if it’s done good, it’s good. After all, the Disney ones are technically retellings also. I know the story of Beauty and the Beast better than the other retellings that I read. But… I am finding the decisions made and directions taken in this book a bit (lot) problematic.

(May contain potential spoilers. You are warned.)

Again, I’m a good chunk in but who is Feyre? Really. I know that 1st person POVs don’t talk about themselves a lot but I know next to nothing about her. I have a good idea of what Tamlin looks like — your typical romance novel Fabio. The three of them – Feyre, Tamlin, and Lucien – remind me of an anime dynamic. Tamlin and Lucien are two sides of the same coin and then Feyre is this newcomer trying to figure them out. Tamlin’s and Lucien’s characters are so developed that I can probably figure out a backstory and continuation on my own. But Feyre? I had to look up crude fanart just to figure out what she looked like. Emphasis on crude.

Each chapter is like a day in a life of Feyre. And it’s all the same every time: she eats with the two, she refuses help from Tamlin when clearly he’s willing to help, she goes to Lucien just to piss Tamlin off, then plans to escape even though she has no clue as to where she is and how she got there. I admire the tenacity but… stubborn much? Your family doesn’t care about you even if you cared for them. It seemed that she was more honor-bound than actually doing it out of the goodness of her heart. From her, I got the “I want out but my mom said I stay” vibe but at the same time, she had nothing good to say about her mom. Huh? And she never told her father and sisters about it. She just accepted their greed and awfulness. Boo-hoo. Then what?

Also, is this YA or adult? I’m asking because I tend to get into a reading mood. If it’s YA, I go into a YA mode. I tend to be more forgiving. Then again, I was told this has adult themes. (And yes, I flipped through and happened on that part.)

But despite all of that… I am enjoying this. Very much. Sort of like how you would enjoy a guilty pleasure read. That’s why I’m torn. Do I rate this because my knee-jerk reaction is that I like it? Or do I sit down and think about how problematic things are and give it a lower rating?

Hashtag: Reader Problems.

Let’s talk about this. I needed to let this out.