Top Ten Tuesday | Chonky Books

Posted October 7, 2024 by Haze in Top Ten Tuesday, Weekly Book Memes / 40 Comments

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.

Today’s topic is Bookish Brags (or Confessions!)

I’m not sure that I have anything book-related worth bragging about, tbh, other than I love reading chonky books. So this week I’m just going to go with a list of chonky books I’ve read. These are the chonkiest books I’ve read and they are 800 pages and above. Some of these are my favorite of favorite books, but there are also many less chonky books I’ve loved more than others listed that are only here because they are chonky. Most of these are worth reading though!

Top Ten Chonky Books

  1. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas – 1276 pages. This is one of my favorite books of all time. I’ve read it many times and loved its chonkiness every time because I never want it to end. It’s so intense and engrossing that I finish it very quickly despite its size, and then I want to reread it again!
  2. Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell – 1037 pages. Another favorite I’ve read several times. I haven’t read it in a while though, because while I swooned over the romance as a child, I realize now as an adult that it was such a toxic relationship. I still think it’s a work of art as a historical novel though.
  3. The Stand by Stephen King – 1152 pages. There are so many Stephen King chonkers I’ve read and loved; It, Under The Dome, 11/22/63, and many more, but I thought for the sake of this list I’d stick to one per author, otherwise this whole list would be saturated with Stephen King’s books!
  4. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin – 835 pages. Technically, every book in this series is a chonker, and this one is the smallest one compared to the others, but it’s the first one so it’s the one chosen to represent them all!
  5. The Light Bearer by Donna Gillespie – 1024 pages. The most underrated chonker on the list and one of my favorite books! I’ve read it many times and I still love it now as much as I ever did. I’ve talked about it so many times and featured it on so many TTT lists!
  6. Swan Song by Robert McCammon – 956 pages. I don’t remember much about this book except that it was compared to Stephen King’s The Stand, and I rated it 4 stars. I’ve forgotten much about it though, and it’s only here because it’s a chonker I read.
  7. I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb – 897 pages. Another book I don’t remember much of but I’m haunted by this one and another book by the author I’ve read. I remember loving them and having my heart broken, and I rated them both 5 stars but I can’t bring myself to reread them just yet because I’m not sure I want to get my heart broken like that again. I need a little more time to heal! I also really want to read his other books, but same reason for why I haven’t yet.
  8. Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey – 1040 pages. It was hard to get into at first, but it got really good later. Not sure that I like it enough to continue the series though. It’s a relatively recent read so I haven’t decided what I want to do with it.
  9. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens – 882 pages. Another relatively recent read that I loved! Especially because I had just finished Demon Copperhead not long before.
  10. The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber – 922 pages. I actually love another book by this author – The Book of Strange New Things – more, but it was only 500 pages. I rated The Book of Strange New Things 5 stars, and this one only 3 stars, but this one is rated higher on Goodreads, so take what you will from that. I would highly recommend The Book of Strange New Things though!

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Would you read any of these books?

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Sunday Post | Moving On Up

Posted October 5, 2024 by Haze in Sunday Post, Weekly Book Memes / 15 Comments

Welcome to the Sunday Post, a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer to share weekly news and updates on what we’ve been up to on our blog, with our books, and book-related happenings. 

Valar Morghulis

Well, this has been a busy week!

One of the biggest highlights of my week is that I signed up for The Conqueror Challenge! It’s a virtual running challenge (or any activity, really) with lots of fun virtual rewards, and a real medal you get in the mail when you complete the challenge, and they had challenges that corresponded to quests and adventures in The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and other real and fictional places!

I hadn’t been doing as well with my running as I would’ve liked in the last few weeks, and as the weather gets colder, I’m afraid that I might lose motivation to go outside and run, so when I came across this challenge I thought that maybe it might help keep me motivated.

I was hesitant at first, but apparently one of my friends has finished two challenges with them and spoke highly of the experience, so that made me excited too and I ended up signing up for the Game of Thrones challenge!

So far it has worked very well, because I’ve walked and ran a total of 23.31km last week, 8.14km of them from just this morning! It makes me excited to get out more and get as many kms in as I can. It pushes me especially when I see how much more I have to go to reach the next checkpoints, but I’m also trying to pace myself because I don’t want to finish the challenge too quickly!

I’m just so delighted about this because it combines my new-found love of running with my existing love for Game of Thrones (and other stories)!

I’m also no longer apprehensive about when real winter comes (Winter is coming!) and probably not feeling like running at all. I have less motivation to run at home on a treadmill, but I think I’d be able to convince myself to get in some kms for the sake of moving forward in my GoT adventures!

Zoo
We also went to the zoo last week. It’s been a couple of months since we last went and I’ve missed the animals. It’s also a great place to walk and get in my kms! You bet I counted them for my challenge!

The penguins were the star of the show this time around. One of them kept swimming up to us and checking us out. I wanted to pet it so badly, it was that close, but of course we weren’t supposed to so I didn’t.

Inside Out 2
One more thing I have to talk about; my husband and I finally watched Inside Out 2 last week, and that portrayal of Anxiety made me cry because of how accurate it feels like for me.

I have had many sleepless nights and anxiety attacks and although my husband has always been loving and patient with me even at my worst times, I don’t think he’s ever understood what it felt like, and I love that the show was able to show him in a way that I was never able to articulate.

It’s been so much better for me recently; Anxiety has taken a back seat and Joy is leading the way a lot more, but it was just so cathartic to watch this show and feel so seen and realize I’m not alone. I love the first movie, and I love this one too!

All the happy things:

  1. So very happy about my virtual running challenge!
  2. And about my renewed motivation for running/walking in order to get the kms!
  3. And about the fact that I got in 23km this week!
  4. I even got my fastest pace at 8min/km! I’m usually at about 10min/km. Of course, I was exhausted after, and I don’t think I want to kill myself like that again for a while, but I was still very happy about it.
  5. The zoo visit made me very happy too, especially since we haven’t gone in a while, and we’re not sure when we’ll be going again.
  6. It’s a new month so we got KFC last week! We only get KFC once a month as a treat, and it’s such a happy treat!
  7. I baked a new batch of cookies!
  8. I’m starting a new crochet project with some gorgeous yarn and I can’t wait to see how it turns out!

The Books

Books I read last week:

  1. The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer – It didn’t live up to expectations but it wasn’t bad. It’s categorized as adult fiction but it feels like it might be better suited for middle grade.
  2. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers – This is a reread and a buddy read. It’s been a while since I read it the first time so I didn’t remember much of the details except that I loved it and I thought it was such a great example of interpersonal connections and acceptance of other cultures and beliefs. Reading it a second time made me love it more!
  3. The Girl from the Other Side Volume 9 by Nagabe – It ended on a cliffhanger that’s making me very anxious to find out what happens next! Most of the other volumes end on cliffhangers too, but this one makes me wonder how it’s going to move forward.
  4. I Fell In Love With Hope by Lancali – DNF. I’d been trying to read this book for weeks and I just couldn’t get into it. I finally realized that it’s just too purple prose-y for me. Too much style and not much substance. The writing is beautiful and it might’ve been good if done in poetry maybe, but as a story it’s a struggle to read.

Book(s) I’m reading:

  1. Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler – I am 70% in and I am loving it! It’s my first Octavia Butler book and I’ve heard so much praise for this book but I’ve never known what it’s about. Now I am totally invested!

Last Week on The Blog

I didn’t do very much on the blog last week. I’ve got some book reviews to catch up on!

This Week

I gotta get on the book reviews because I don’t want them to pile up on me. I’m also going to try to get a start on Never Whistle at Night, and/or The Glass Chateau.

How was your week? I hope you had a great week last week, and I hope you have a great one again this week!

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Monthly Wrap Up | September 2024

Posted October 1, 2024 by Haze in Monthly Wrap Up / 2 Comments

Welcome to the Monthly Wrap Up hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction to share our monthly wrap-up posts that summarizes our month in books, our favorite books of the month, what we did on our blogs, and anything noteworthy we want to share.

September 2024 Wrap Up

It was a pretty good reading month! I read from my September TBR, and I finished all my reading challenges except two! I’m not sure that I’ll finish the other two though; they’re both about finishing series, but series that we started before this year, and I’m currently embroiled in new series and I’m not sure what to do! 😅 I can’t resist the shiny new books!

My September 2024 TBR Intentions

I read all the books in my September TBR Intentions! Woot! I was kind of conservative with it with only five books on the list, and I do have more motivation when they are buddy reads and BOTMs, but still!

  1. Perfume by Patrick Suskind
  2. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
  3. Cujo by Stephen King
  4. Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
  5. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

I’m just realizing that all of them are darker-themed and there were several other dark books I read in September too. Setting up my intentions for next month, I’m going to try to get in more balance for the light and the dark. I know ahead of time there are some horror stuff coming because October is Halloween season, but I can definitely add more fun stuff to my book diet too!

Books Read in September 2024

  1. After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid
  2. Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
  3. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
  4. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
  5. The Girl from Rawblood by Catriona Ward
  6. I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
  7. The Girl from the Other Side Volume 8 by Nagabe
  8. Born A Crime by Trevor Noah
  9. Goddess of the Hunt by Tessa Dare
  10. Surrender of A Siren by Tessa Dare
  11. One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig
  12. Cujo by Stephen King
  13. Perfume by Patrick Suskind
  14. The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center
  15. Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle
  16. Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster
  17. The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
  18. The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer

Notable Books This Month

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
I’m very proud of having finished this chonker! I’m not sure that I liked it, but at least I finished it!

Born A Crime by Trevor Noah
This was amazing and might be my favorite book this month! I love listening to Trevor Noah’s stories and I love his humor and wisdom.

Cujo by Stephen King
This is a reread, and I think I got a lot more out of it this time around than I did the first time. I love the buildup of the story, and I love the insight we get into such different characters in the book. Stephen King is truly a master at his craft.

Reading Challenges

October 2024 TBR Intentions

It’s October and that means Halloween, and guess what? My irl bookclub’s BOTM is Pet Sematary by Stephen King. And my online bookclub’s BOTM is The Shining by Stephen King! I’m not complaining, because I love Stephen King!

  1. Pet Sematary by Stephen King
  2. The Shining by Stephen King
  3. Dear Enemy by Jean Webster
  4. Never Whistle at Night by various authors
  5. The Glass Chateau by Stephen P. Kiernan
  6. Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
  7. I Fell in Love With Hope by Lancali

I’ve got so many books I hope to read this October, some have been on my TBR for ages. Let’s hope I can get to them all!

How was your month in September? What were your most memorable bookish moments? I hope you have a wonderful October with lots of great books!

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Top Ten Tuesday | Hyped Up Books I Read

Posted September 30, 2024 by Haze in Top Ten Tuesday, Weekly Book Memes / 38 Comments

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.

Today’s topic is Books I Read/Avoided Because of the Hype

I don’t usually avoid books because of hype; I am much more likely to get taken in by the hype because I am very easily influenced and I have BIG FOMO. Even if I don’t think I’ll like the book, sometimes I read it just because I need to see for myself, and maybe give it the benefit of the doubt. The ones listed below are just some of the ones I can think of. I didn’t like them all, but I did read them because of the hype.

Top Ten Hyped Up Books I Read

  1. The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins – This is the latest one I finished, and I am torn. On the one hand it was very well-written and plotted; on the other hand, I feel like the message at the ending ruined the whole thing for me. In terms of the hype, it’s true that this book is very different and definitely entertaining, but I’m not sure if I can get behind it.
  2. Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett – Honestly, with or without the hype, I would’ve read this because “Encyclopedia of Faeries” just calls to me. I enjoyed this book very much, but I’m just a tiny bit disappointed it wasn’t an actual encyclopedia of faeries.
  3. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt – This wasn’t a bad book but I don’t think it was worth the hype, and I think the octopus’ role in the story is a little misrepresented.
  4. The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune – I loved this one. It was hyped up but I didn’t know what to expect going in and so I was pleasantly surprised.
  5. Heartstopper by Alice Oseman – I feel like this one isn’t hyped up enough. I’ll be honest and say that I wasn’t very interested in this series at first because it’s about a bunch of teenagers and teenage love and I thought it would be a lot of high school drama. But I was so, very, very wrong. It is about teenagers and teenage love and high school drama, but it’s also about real life issues, and real love, and family and friendship. It’s so wholesome and heartwarming, and it’s the best thing that ever happened to me.
  6. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros – This is a guilty pleasure for me. Do I think it’s the best book ever written? Definitely not, there are so many problems with it. Do I love it anyway? Yes, very much! It’s that very bad, very unhealthy fast food that I love to gobble down!
  7. All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries) by Martha Wells – It’s not about what happens in the books, it’s about who the book is about. I love Murderbot. I love getting to know it, reading its thought processes, seeing humans through its eyes. It’s just a wonderful character.
  8. Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree – So worth the hype for me! I love stories about found families and I loved how cozy this book (and Bookshops & Bonedust) was. I love Viv and her friends. I would read a dozen books about her.
  9. Verity by Colleen Hoover – Not worth the hype. I wish I had dnf’d it but I’m just too curious about the hype for my own good sometimes.
  10. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green – I loved it when I read it, but it was a while ago and I don’t remember much of it now anymore. If I recall correctly though, I read this before it got even more hyped up (because of the movie?) and then it started getting cheesy because everyone was quoting it and getting “Okay” tattoos. Maybe I should reread because the memes have overtaken my actual memories of the book.

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Would you read any of these books?

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Sunday Post | Whelmed

Posted September 28, 2024 by Haze in Sunday Post, Weekly Book Memes / 13 Comments

Welcome to the Sunday Post, a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer to share weekly news and updates on what we’ve been up to on our blog, with our books, and book-related happenings. 

Not Overwhelmed

I looked up the word “whelmed” just to make sure it meant what I thought it meant, and it doesn’t, but that’s fine because I’m actually quite whelmed. Not overwhelmed, but I am whelmed.

I have been tired most of last week and I thought I’d have some time to rest this weekend but today turned out quite eventful too – my irl bookclub had our meetup this morning, and then we went to grab lunch together so I got home hours later than I thought I would. But I had fun and I love hanging out with my bookclub so I’m not complaining!

Trying to keep this post short though, because I’m still whelmed and all I want to do is lie down on the couch and doom-scroll on my phone.

All the happy things:

  1. We had someone new join us for our book club meetup today!
  2. And then we all went for lunch after!
  3. One of my friends treated me to lunch. It was delicious and I’m so appreciative of wonderful people like her.
  4. Went for my regular checkup and the doctor says everything looks great!
  5. I leveled up in my Discord bookclub! It’s a role thing and gets you additional benefits in the server.
  6. I’m also getting points for the buddy reads I signed up for, which gets you additional benefits when you level up as well. It’s a lot of fun!

The Books

Books I read last week:

  1. Perfume by Patrick Süskind – It’s my irl bookclub BOTM and everybody finished it and enjoyed it! Even the newcomer! It’s weird but good, and I really enjoyed listening to it on audiobook.
  2. The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center – I’ve been enjoying Katherine Center’s books very much and I really liked this one too! It got me quite emotional, especially near the end.
  3. Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle – I really like the premise of this book, and Julia Whelan narrates it so of course I was going to read it! The execution wasn’t as good as I hoped, but I still enjoyed reading it.
  4. Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster – I just reread this book last month and here I am rereading it again! This time it was for a buddy read that I instigated, so I felt obliged to read it with everyone else, but it’s not like it was difficult for me to love it all over again! 😂
  5. The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins – This book is very well-written but I’m not sure how I feel about it. I loved almost everything about it but I’m struggling with the message. If you’ve read the book, I’d love to know what you think.

Book(s) I’m reading:

  1. The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer – Currently on page 87 of 278. I like it so far! I’ve heard lots about it and I’ve been curious for a while so I hope it lives up to expectations.

Last Week on The Blog

This Week

I haven’t read very many books from my buddy reads TBR list last week because I needed some fun and light romance. I’m ready to jump back into them this week!

How was your week? I hope you had a great week last week, and I hope you have a great one again this week!

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Book Review | The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

Posted September 27, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 3 Comments

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

A missing God.
A library with the secrets to the universe.
A woman too busy to notice her heart slipping away.

Carolyn’s not so different from the other people around her. She likes guacamole and cigarettes and steak. She knows how to use a phone. Clothes are a bit tricky, but everyone says nice things about her outfit with the Christmas sweater over the gold bicycle shorts. After all, she was a normal American herself once.  

That was a long time ago, of course. Before her parents died. Before she and the others were taken in by the man they called Father. In the years since then, Carolyn hasn’t had a chance to get out much. Instead, she and her adopted siblings have been raised according to Father’s ancient customs. They’ve studied the books in his Library and learned some of the secrets of his power. And sometimes, they’ve wondered if their cruel tutor might secretly be God.  Now, Father is missing—perhaps even dead—and the Library that holds his secrets stands unguarded. And with it, control over all of creation.

As Carolyn gathers the tools she needs for the battle to come, fierce competitors for this prize align against her, all of them with powers that far exceed her own. But Carolyn has accounted for this. And Carolyn has a plan. The only trouble is that in the war to make a new God, she’s forgotten to protect the things that make her human.

Populated by an unforgettable cast of characters and propelled by a plot that will shock you again and again, The Library at Mount Char is at once horrifying and hilarious, mind-blowingly alien and heartbreakingly human, sweepingly visionary and nail-bitingly thrilling—and signals the arrival of a major new voice in fantasy.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Bookish Books Challenge
2024 Audiobook Challenge

The Reason

I’ve heard so much about this book and I’ve been curious. Also, it’s a bookish book and I’m doing a bookish book challenge.

The Quotes

“Peace of mind is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it.”

“The only real escape from hell is to conquer it.”

“It’s the notion that the universe is structured in such a way that no matter how many mysteries you solve, there is always a deeper mystery behind it.”

“She knew every word that had ever been spoken, but she could think of nothing to say that might ease his grief.”

The Narrator(s)

Hillary Huber. She was great for the time that I listened on audio.

My Thoughts

It might not be fair to count this book in my audiobook challenge, to be honest. I only listened about 50% on audio on and off in the beginning, and ended up switching over to the print copy for good towards the end. There was nothing wrong with the narration, but it was because there were some made-up words for a lot of specific concepts in the book, some dialogue in different languages, as well as the purposely confusing plot. They made it difficult to follow on audio, so I switched over to print when it got really exciting.

I’m not sure how I feel about this book. I loved it all the way I was reading it, up until the ending. I loved the pace, the storytelling, the plot, the characters, but I really hate the message and I feel like it might have ruined the whole book for me. I’m quite conflicted. I talk about it in more detail in Notes & Discussion | The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins at the end of the post. If you’ve already read the book, please feel free to head on over to the post and let me know what you think, otherwise, please be warned that it’s a spoiler-filled post!

For more discussion on the book – with SPOILERS – check out Notes & Discussion | The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins. This post has SPOILERS and assumes you have already finished the book. It is password-protected to prevent accidental spoiling. Password is “SPOILME0004”. Proceed at your own risk.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars. Giving credit where credit is due, it’s a really well-written book!

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle

Posted September 27, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Book Review | Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle

Being single is like playing the lottery. There’s always the chance that with one piece of paper you could win it all.

From the New York Times bestselling author of In Five Years and One Italian Summer comes the romance that will define a generation.

Daphne Bell believes the universe has a plan for her. Every time she meets a new man, she receives a slip of paper with his name and a number on it—the exact amount of time they will be together. The papers told her she’d spend three days with Martin in Paris; five weeks with Noah in San Francisco; and three months with Hugo, her ex-boyfriend turned best friend. Daphne has been receiving the numbered papers for over twenty years, always wondering when there might be one without an expiration. Finally, the night of a blind date at her favorite Los Angeles restaurant, there’s only a name: Jake.

But as Jake and Daphne’s story unfolds, Daphne finds herself doubting the paper’s prediction, and wrestling with what it means to be both committed and truthful. Because Daphne knows things Jake doesn’t, information that—if he found out—would break his heart.

Told with her signature warmth and insight into matters of the heart, Rebecca Serle has finally set her sights on romantic love. The result is a gripping, emotional, passionate, and (yes) heartbreaking novel about what it means to be single, what it means to find love, and ultimately how we define each of them for ourselves. Expiration Dates is the one fans have been waiting for.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Audiobook Challenge
2024 Library Love Challenge

The Reason

I found the premise interesting. Plus, Julia Whelan narrates the audiobook!

The Quotes

“It’s hard to hold on to people the older we get. Life looks different for everyone, and you have to keep choosing one another. You have to make a conscious effort to say, over and over again, “You.” Not everyone makes that choice. Not everyone can.”

“But being surprised by life isn’t losing, it’s living. It’s messy and uncomfortable and complicated and beautiful. It’s life, all of it. The only way to get it wrong is to refuse to play.”

“My life has been filled with magical moments, I was just so busy waiting I didn’t see them when they were here.”

“If you never stop long enough to sink into something, then it can’t destroy you. It’s easier to climb out of a pool than a well, is the thing.”

The Narrator(s)

Julia Whelan. The Awesomest!

My Thoughts

I’ve read one other book by the author before and if there’s one thing I can say, it’s that she does have very interesting ideas for her stories. This one is mostly fun and light-hearted but there are some difficult topics covered as well. We don’t go very deep with them though.

There’s also a lot of cheesiness here and some things that don’t completely make sense, but that’s okay, it’s magical realism and we’re just going to enjoy the story for what it is. I enjoyed the story itself and I needed the light-heartedness. Bonus is that Julia Whelan reads it and of course, I always enjoy her narration.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

Posted September 27, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 1 Comment

The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

She’s rewriting his love story. But can she rewrite her own?

Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter. She’s spent her life studying, obsessing over, and writing romantic comedies―good ones! That win contests! But she’s also been the sole caretaker for her kind-hearted dad, who needs full-time care. Now, when she gets a chance to re-write a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates―The Charlie Yates! Her personal writing god!―it’s a break too big to pass up.

Emma’s younger sister steps in for caretaking duties, and Emma moves to L.A. for six weeks for the writing gig of a lifetime. But what is it they say? Don’t meet your heroes? Charlie Yates doesn’t want to write with anyone―much less “a failed, nobody screenwriter.” Worse, the romantic comedy he’s written is so terrible it might actually bring on the apocalypse. Plus! He doesn’t even care about the script―it’s just a means to get a different one green-lit. Oh, and he thinks love is an emotional Ponzi scheme.

But Emma’s not going down without a fight. She will stand up for herself, and for rom-coms, and for love itself. She will convince him that love stories matter―even if she has to kiss him senseless to do it. But . . . what if that kiss is accidentally amazing? What if real life turns out to be so much . . . more real than fiction? What if the love story they’re writing breaks all Emma’s rules―and comes true?

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Audiobook Challenge
2024 Library Love Challenge

The Reason

I love Katherine Center and I’m probably going to be reading everything she writes.

The Quotes

“I had a theory that we gravitate toward the stories we need in life. Whatever we are looking for- adventure, excitement, emotion, connection-we turn to stories that help us find it. Whatever questions we’re struggling with- sometimes ones so deep, we don’t even really know we’re asking them- we look for answers in stories.”

“Well, you’re lucky. Because love is something you can learn. Love is something you can practice. It’s something you can choose to get good at. And here’s how you do it. Appreciate your person.
That’s it.”

“Whatever story you tell yourself about your life, that’s the one that’ll be true.”

“Humanity at its worst is an easy story to tell – but it’s not the only story. Because the more we can imagine our better selves, the more we can become them.”

The Narrator(s)

Patti Murin. Loved it! There was such a natural flow to the storytelling and I was engrossed.

My Thoughts

First of all; tropes! I love them, but only if they’re done well and not overly cliched, and I love them here in this book. We’ve got close proximity, enemies to lovers, miscommunication, and more! There’s also a little bit of cheesiness, but come on, this is a romance; cheese is an essential part of the recipe, otherwise why are you even reading romance?

Having said all that, I loved the story! I love how well-written it was and how emotional I got at the end. There were a couple of scenes that were difficult to read about, specifically one with the FMC, Emma, and her sister. And while I don’t necessarily like that it happened, I feel like it’s true to real life and real family dynamics.

As for the romance itself, I really love how the relationship developed between Emma and Charlie. I love the conversations they had, the way they got to know each other and started respecting one another. It was a bumpy ride, and again, so emotional, but well-worth it in the end.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Perfume by Patrick Süskind

Posted September 27, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Perfume by Patrick Süskind

An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind’s classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man’s indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of smell—leads to murder.

In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift—an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille’s genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and fresh-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the “ultimate perfume”—the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brilliance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Audiobook Challenge
The Classics Club

The Reason

It was my in-person bookclub’s September BOTM. This is a reread for me and I remember enjoying it very much the first time too.

The Quotes

“Odors have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words, appearances, emotions, or will. The persuasive power of an odor cannot be fended off, it enters into us like breath into our lungs, it fills us up, imbues us totally. There is no remedy for it.”

“He who ruled scent ruled the hearts of men.”

“He had preserved the best part of her and made it his own: the principle of her scent.”

“And because people are stupid and use their noses only for blowing, but believe absolutely anything they see with their eyes, they will say it is because this is a girl with beauty and grace and charm.”

The Narrator(s)

Nigel Patterson. No complaints! I enjoyed listening to the narration.

My Thoughts

I remember the first time I read this book; I was in my “scentology” phase and I was fascinated with the sense of smell. I’d been reading a few other books on smell as well, one I remember is The Scent of Desire by Rachel Herz. Obviously unlike The Scent of Desire, this book is fiction, but they were both very interesting.

I also really enjoyed the movie based on this book even if I don’t remember much of it anymore. I might watch it again soon! Our BOTM theme for September is Banned Books, and I have a feeling that the movie version I watched might have been edited as well, especially since I watched it in the cinema when I was living in Malaysia.

Rereading it this time, once again I loved how beautiful the writing is. I love how immersed in smells we get. The description of the scents, all the different ways to evoke them in our imagination; the book was written so well! Even though we were reading about a really creepy murderer, it was still so fascinating to see his journey from his birth, his perfumery apprenticeship, his obsession with possessing scents and using them in very interesting ways, until the very end. Some parts of the story seem a little bit fantastical but they are still very entertaining to read about, and at the end of the day, I just love how smell-y the book is! So worth reading!

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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