Hey guys, and welcome back to The Quoted Blog! Today I'm here with the very first reading wrap-up of 2023! Aren't you just so excited? If you're not, then....)':
This is my third year continuing this series, and each year I've tried to change the post up a bit. Last year I called this I LOVE READING, and this year it's going to be: should you read it? Because, ultimately, I'm literally just sharing what I've read and telling you whether or not you should read it.
Also, if you need any book recs, check out more posts from this series: https://miribrooks1.wixsite.com/quoted/my-blog/categories/everybookireadthismonth
So, without further ado......let's get into everything I read in January!
1. House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City, #1): by Sarah J. Maas- finished January 7th
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
GUYS! Sarah J. Mass is trying to pass Neal Shusterman in my favorite authors list...and I don't know how I feel about it.
I kind of impulse bought this book when I got a gift card for Christmas, and I realized that there was this discount/sale thing going on Amazon, and I had to take that opportunity to get the most out of my gift card. So, I bought this book and another one called The Housemaid which I have not yet read.
I randomly decided that I was going to start this year off with this book. The thing is-the first book I read last year was A Good Girls Guide to Murder, and that book just slayed. Like it was so good that it's not even funny. And the fact that there's going to be a TV show for the series makes me want to scream so hard because I'm so excited andIreallyhopetheydon'tmessanythingup....(I'm looking at you Satan!) 😂😭
I wanted to start the year off with a really good book, and it turns out that this book was definitely the right one to choose!!!
At the beginning of 2022, I read my first SJM book (A Court of Thorns and Roses), and now here we are. I loved the first three books in that series because I just feel like Sarah is a phenomenal writer when it comes to big books and lots of detail.
I love writing, but I would wholeheartedly cringe away from writing an 800 page book. I mean fiction haha because I actually did write an 800+ page book. (BUY QUOTED: https://www.amazon.com/Quoted-Guide-Girls-Ella-Catherine/dp/1638740585/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1DK5JGKM1KM3Q&keywords=quoted+a+guide+for+teen+girls+by+ella+catherine&qid=1673739034&sprefix=%2Caps%2C106&sr=8-1 Seriously, it's only $12.72 on Amazon and the prize keeps going down which is not good...so please buy it!)
It took me a whole week to read House of Earth and Blood, and I don't regret a second of it. Even if that means I'm now two books behind on my reading goal, I don't care. I love this book! I love the characters! And you will not understand unless you read it. The way Sarah J. Maas writes an 800 page book without messing up the plot and making it boring is insane. It's not funny. I'm in awe of this woman's writing. I'm so excited to read House of Sky and Breath!!!!
(If you decide to tackle this beauty of a book, know that it's not clean, but I've learned to skip and change. Every single bad word was not a bad word in my head. And you shouldn't let the bad words stop you from reading this book. I mean it.)
I'm obsessed. That's all I have to write. I gave this book 6 stars because I believe it is exceptional.
2. Ignite Me (Shatter Me #3): by Tahereh Mafi- finished January 11th
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
I finally continued the Shatter Me series! I'm pretty sure that I rated the first book 5 stars, and the second 4...maybe...but I ended up rating this book 3 stars. That's only because I didn't feel like much was happening in this book. I'm still obsessed with Warner, but this book was slower, and things really started to pick up at the end.
According to the acknowledgements, this was supposed to be the last book in this series, but then Tahereh decided to continue writing and gave us three more books and some novellas.
I'm excited to continue the series! I really do love the characters! Also, fun fact: Tahereh Mafi is actually coming to a Barnes and Noble near me, so of course I want to go! I'll update if I get to go or not haha, but that's so exciting!
Anyway, I'm interested to continue reading this series and see how it ends!
3. Our Secrets and Scars- A Prison Pen Pal Romance: by Maisie Myers- finished January 14th
Rating: ⭐⭐
Don't let the cover of this book fool you...because it kind of fooled me. 🤭
Maisie Myers self-publishes her books, which I think is great, and of course I want to support her. But, maybe I should have started with her debut novel The Truth About Love because I've actually heard good things about that, and I hadn't really heard anything about this one.
Anyway, at the beginning I was intrigued to see how this book would go. Then, I just got tired of reading it. This same thing happened when I was reading A Thousand Boy Kisses at the beginning of last year. I just didn't enjoy that story and didn't really want to finish it.
I know the reason why I got bored with this book. As cute as the relationship between the characters was, and as great as the overall lesson was, it was just a little too much. I skipped over a lot, and there was less connection between the characters. I don't know how to explain it to you without getting too...yada yada...but I don't recommend this book. I hate that I gave it two stars, but I also just had to. I didn't want anyone thinking that I kind of loved it when I really was just bored with it. I definitely respect and understand where Maisie was going with this book, but it's definitely more for adults, and it definitely just wasn't for me. I am still going to read The Truth About Love though! And, I am for sure obsessed with the cover and page design of this book! That's all I have to write about that...
4. Kind of a Big Deal: by Shannon Hale- finished January 17th
Rating: ⭐
Here we have my first one star read of the month...Yes...I might have started judging very harshly because I don't think I've ever rated a book one star before. But, fear not, I have a reason!
So, Shannon Hale is also the author of one of my favorite nostalgic series, The Princess Academy. I love that trilogy so much, and the fact that I gave Shannon Hale's other book a chance and hated it is just sad...
Why did I hate this book? Well, first of all the synopsis was kind of murky (I hope you like my choice of that word there) and didn't really give me much to go on. I kinda felt like I was going into this book blind because the synopsis sounded interesting, but I didn't really know what was going to happen. And that's a good thing sometimes! But pretty quickly I realized that this book was just too repetitive. And then a side character was described as gay. And then 100 pages in one of the kind of main characters was described as transgender. I was shocked, to say the least. When I first saw this book, it looked like a fun, middle grade book. But, I was wrong. And I had no idea that Shannon Hale was one of those people. When I write those, I mean one of those authors that feels like they have to succumb to the horribly broken world and add in a gay character, trans, and I'm sorry? What else is there? Because the list is so long that I'm lost...(Okay, I'm sorry that sounded mean. I still love people even if they make the wrong choices and are completely lost in this world). Yeah, there are just some authors that make me so mad because they want to do things so that no one will get mad at them and then they ruin books for me. That's where I'm at right now.
I almost DNF'ed this book. But, I hate DNF'ing, so I powered through. (I still feel bad that I DNF'ed And Then There Were None though). I felt like this book was way too long. Sarah J. Maas can write an 800 page book and it won't feel too long, but Shannon Hale. I'm sorry. Three hundred and eighty pages was too much. Call me a hater, but know that I'm trying to be nice. I just can't with this book. But, it doesn't have the best reviews so...
This is one of those books where the idea was there, but it was kind of done poorly. Ya know? I think you get it. Moving on...
5. I'm Glad My Mom Died: by Jennette McCurdy- finished January 22nd
You probably noticed that I didn't give this book a rating. And that's because it's a memoir, plus I don't even know what I should rate it. So, here are my thoughts on this book...
I've been eyeing this book for awhile. At first I never thought I would end up reading it, but then I randomly decided I wanted too.
I kept avoiding it in Barnes because it's almost $30, and I just wasn't willing to spend that much. I was honestly planning on getting it on Amazon in the near future, in hopes that it would be cheaper, but then I went to Sam's one day, and found it for like $22. I decided that day that I had to get it, so I did.
I also didn't expect to start reading it right away because I was in the middle of a few other books (as usual). But, I just wanted to start it the day I bought it, so I did. And then I paused and wondered if I was going to be able to finish it. I knew it was about heavy topics, and sometimes those are hard to read because I think about things a lot, and heavy topics can swirl around my mind and stress me out because I want to fix them and don't know if I can. Ya know? Anyway, I put it down for a day, then picked it back up and read 100 pages in one sitting, and then the next day I finished it also by reading 100 pages in one sitting.
And, wow. It was interesting to read about Jennette's life. I've never watched iCarly or Sam & Cat. I have however watched an amazing movie called Minor Details that Jennette is in. But, I didn't really know anything about her prior to reading this book because I didn't grow up watching her on TV like some people might have.
This book certainly deals with several heavy topics, and if you're thinking about reading, remember that. It was definitely sad to read about Jennette's childhood and how she was forced into acting. I'm really really glad that Jennette wrote this book though. I think a lot of people needed to know her story because it might help someone who struggled with some of the same things as her to know that they're not alone.
Lastly, I really liked the ending to this book. I don't want to give anything away, so I won't go farther than that, but I definitely recommend this book. It was good, but also sad. Therefore I can't rate it because it has to do with someone's life. But, if you're feeling a memoir, think about picking this one up.
6. The Forgotten Sisters (Princess Academy #3): by Shannon Hale- finished January 24th
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
So, if you checked out my last reading wrap-up post from last year, you would know that this is a re-read. At the end of last year I started re-reading and annotating the Princess Academy trilogy. I first read this series in elementary school and loved it! And of course I had to re-read it.
I really enjoyed reading this again and I definitely recommend! It can get slow at times, but my favorite book character of all time is in this series, so...I would read this again and again just for Miri. End of story.
7. Morrighan (The Remnant Chronicles #0.5): by Mary E. Pearson- finished January 28th
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Okay guys...I got this book from the library, and read it in the same day.
Last year, I read The Remnant Chronicles trilogy with one of my best friends! And, I really loved it. I hadn't heard anything about this trilogy prior to reading it, but I had heard a lot about the Dance of Thieves duology. Also, I just learned that that duology is actually a spinoff of The Remnant Chronicles. So that's very interesting, and it bothers me that this trilogy has not gotten any hype recently because it's so good.
Either way, the prequel novel actually just came out as a hardback in 2022, so I went to the library to get it. It was really good! I love it! And, if you're thinking about reading this trilogy, I suggest reading the prequel last like I did. I think that's a good idea because you already know the other characters, and then you get to end off this series with a cute little romance that tells you a little more about Morrighan.
And, that was everything I read in January! I was able to read seven books this month. I wish I could have read more, but I ended up working on my new book more this month so that was good! I don't have enough time to read and write and go to school every single day, but I'm proud of what I was able to get done. (Just because I love hyping things up, I have written 100 pages of my new book! It's obviously just the first draft, but I can not wait to share this story with you. My plan is to finish draft one before the end of summer, and hopefully get this book out to you guys by the end of this year/beginning of next. Stay tuned! And follow me on Instagram @thequotedpodcast to see the progress of my book. I'll also be sharing the cover over there first!)
I think my favorite book that I read this month was definitely House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas. I mean, if you rate a book six stars, it has to be your favorite. 🤷♀️
I'm actually really close to being done with the second book House of Sky and Breath right now, and I'm not sure if it's going to be as good as the first...so...we'll see.
Yeah, thanks so much for reading today's blog post! Hopefully I'll have some more blog posts out this month, and go check out my podcast. Season ten is starting soon and it's going to have a lot of guest episodes! That's all for now. ~Ella