Weekly Recap: 4/22 - 4/28

TRACY'S HAPPENINGS OFF THE BLOG Hi everyone! It has been another hectic week in Florida! Between dog sitting and candlemaking, I'm booked! I did find time one day this week to go to Universal Studios and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, though! I was only there for about three hours (I went to get an annual pass), but I did have time to grab a Butterbeer and ride the Hogwarts Express! It has been a Harry Potter filled week! I also MADE TIME to go see Infinity Wars! I booked the ticket months in advance and had no idea I'd have to make several dog sitting house visits the same day! It was crazy, but I did see it and now I HAVE...

Saturday Screen Time #16: It's been a few weeks

It has been a few weeks since I shared a recap of what I've been watching, and I've been watching so much TV that I've decided to expand this to TV instead of just film. TV season is coming up, after all! The Handmaid's Tale and Westworld are back!  THIS WEEK IN SCREEN TIME Girls - This show! How have I never heard of it?? I started watching because of Adam Driver and I stayed because it was amazing. This show definitely isn't for everyone. It's awkward and gross, but it's hilarious and heartwarming and I loved almost every second! I binged all six seasons in a couple weeks and will probably be watching again. Sadly, the...

Book Review: The Falconer by Elizabeth May

Title: The Falconer (The Falconer #1)Author: Elizabeth May Publication Date: September 19, 2013Publisher: Chronicle BooksPages: 378Add to Goodreads One girl's nightmare is this girl's faery tale She's a stunner. Edinburgh, 1844. Eighteen-year-old Lady Aileana Kameron, the only daughter of the Marquess of Douglas, has everything a girl could dream of: brains, charm, wealth, a title—and drop-dead beauty. She's a liar. But Aileana only looks the part of an aristocratic young lady. she's leading a double life: She has a rare ability to sense the sìthíchean—the faery race obsessed with slaughtering humans—and, with the aid of a mysterious...

The Best and Worst Love Triangles in YA

Love triangles, we all love to hate them, but is it possible that sometimes they actually (rarely) work? I'll admit, when a love triangle is extremely well-written, I actually can enjoy them. Sadly, that hardly ever happens. Most of the time love triangles are written into YA books as garbage plot devices that don't make any sense. Today I'd like to talk about the love triangles I love the most, and the ones I most despise. (Click on fan art for sources.) THE BEST Katniss, Peeta, and Gale An oldie but goodie, this was one of the first triangles I ever read that felt authentic. It has been (many) years since I last read The Hunger...

DNF Review: King's Cage by Victoria Aveyard

Title: King's Cage (Red Queen #3) Author: Victoria Aveyard Publication Date: February 7, 2017 Publisher: HarperTeenPages: Way too Many 507Add to Goodreads Reviews for book 1 & book 2 In this breathless third installment to Victoria Aveyard’s bestselling Red Queen series, allegiances are tested on every side. And when the Lightning Girl's spark is gone, who will light the way for the rebellion? Mare Barrow is a prisoner, powerless without her lightning, tormented by her lethal mistakes. She lives at the mercy of a boy she once loved, a boy made of lies and betrayal. Now a king, Maven Calore continues weaving his dead mother's web in an...

Top Ten Tuesday #184: Frequently Used Words in YA Fantasy

Today's Topic:  Frequently Used Words in YA Fantasy Today's post actually took some digging! When I started noticing trends in the fantasy books I have shelved as read or to-read on Goodreads, I realized a common theme between them. Now I'm wondering what this says about the people who write and read these books... xD I'm excited to see the differences between these and what's common in other genres! Sorry, no links to books this week - there were just too many! FIRE SHADOW DARK NIGHT Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl....

Weekly Recap: 4/15 - 4/21

TRACY'S HAPPENINGS OFF THE BLOG Hi, everyone! This has been a busy, but fun week! My mom was here for the whole week visiting for my birthday and she watched Harry Potter all the way through for the first time (after ten years of trying to talk her into it)! On Tuesday we went to a nighttime event at Disney's Animal Kingdom with some friends and spent some time in Pandora, then on Thursday we got to go to the Tampa Zoo. I didn't get much reading in, but we did get to spend lots of quality time together! Cornerfolds Candles April Prythian Boxes have all arrived and the unboxings have started! Our May Caraval box has been selling out...

ARC Review: Bookish Boyfriends by Tiffany Schmidt

Title: Bookish Boyfriends (Bookish Boyfriends #1)Author: Tiffany Schmidt Publication Date: May 1, 2018 Publisher: Amulet BooksPages: 400Add to Goodreads Boys are so much better in books.  At least according to Merrilee Campbell, 15, who thinks real-life chivalry is dead and there’d be nothing more romantic than having a guy woo her like the heroes in classic stories.  Then she, her best friend, Eliza, and her younger sister, Rory, transfer to Reginald R. Hero Prep—where all the boys look like they’ve stepped off the pages of a romance novel.  Merri can hardly walk across the quad without running into someone who reminds her...

Ten best (mostly horse-related) books from Chelcie's childhood

I’ve been reading for as long as I can remember.  There was a point that I went through a stage where I would only read horse books, but thankfully I got introduced to YA novels.  While I read a ton of books as a kid here are a few that have really stuck with me since I’ve grown up. Disclaimer: I will try not to make this list all horsie, but I'm making no promises. CLIP CLOP BY NANCY HOAG This book is the first one that I can remember reading.  The copy that I had of this book was fairly old and tattered.  I think it used to be my uncle’s before it became mine.  Anyways, this book was about a young horse that...

Audiobook Review: The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

Title: The Bone Witch (The Bone Witch #1) Author: Rin Chupeco Publication Date: March 7, 2017 Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire Pages: 432 Add to Goodreads In the captivating start to a new, darkly lyrical fantasy series for readers of Leigh Bardugo and Sabaa Tahir, Tea can raise the dead, but resurrection comes at a price... Let me be clear: I never intended to raise my brother from his grave, though he may claim otherwise. If there's anything I've learned from him in the years since, it's that the dead hide truths as well as the living. When Tea accidentally resurrects her brother from the dead, she learns she is different from the other witches...