Author: crmullen

The Book Gif Tag

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Book Tag Tuesday (1)

Happy Tuesday! I came across this book tag as I was browsing through some lists of them and it seems so fun! I think it is a bit of an older tag and technically you are supposed to get tagged by someone to do it with a list of 10 books, but I am just gonna pick some and go for it on my own (shrug emoji). Basically, you use a gif or a couple gifs to review the given books, or indicate what you like/disliked about them. You can add some written context if you like, or just let people figure out what your gifs mean. Let’s go then!

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Book Review: Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab ★★

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“People were messy. They were defined not only by what they’d done, but by what they would have done, under different circumstances, molded as much by their regrets as their actions, choices they stood by and those they wished they could undo. Of course, there was no going back – time only moved forward – but people could change. 

For worse.

And for better.

It wasn’t easy. The world was complicated. Life was hard. And so often, living hurt. 

So make it worth the pain.”

Hi guys!

So, I feel like I would have enjoyed Our Dark Duet a bit more if I had read it closer to when I finished This Savage Song. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely enjoyed this second and final novel of the Verity books…but it was surprisingly a little lackluster for me in places. That sense of urgency, that feeling of needing to read more and find out what happens next, that I had after This Savage Song just was not really there for me anymore. That and a few other things lead me to give this book 2.5 stars.

This will have spoilers!

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The Individual in Season of Migration to the North

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Throwback

Hey, ya’ll! I have been wanting to incorporate some additional types of posts here and I was thinking that a throwback post would be fun. I am not 100% certain what the structure will be, but I think anything that strikes me as a throwback piece will do. You know something old-school or riddled with nostalgia. Or just something I wrote a while ago, that I would like to share! Creative or otherwise. Maybe I will write up some stricter rules for it at some point, but for now, I just want to have fun with it.

So, to kick it off, here is an essay I wrote a few years back about Season of Migration to the North, by Tayeb Salih.

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Book Review: The Cruel Prince by Holly Black ★★★★

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“What could I become if I stopped worrying about death, about pain, about anything? If I stopped trying to belong? Instead of being afraid, I could become something to fear.” 

I am just gonna dive right in here with a quick review of Holly Black’s The Cruel Prince, the first novel in her Folk of Air series. I loved this book! 🤗 I went in not knowing anything about it, but I was a previous Holly Black fan (Seriously, why haven’t more people read Tithe? It is so good!), and I was very pleasantly surprised by how great it was. Definitely a 4.5 star book for me!

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Book Review: Soul Scent by Reyna Favis ★★★

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“I did not want to imagine, but the worst part was that in my experience, the truth could easily outstrip my imagination.”

In this second installment of The Zackie Stories, author Reyna Favis brings everything I loved about the first book and more. She really ups the ante here and creates a stronger, bolder thriller. I was wavering between 3 and 4 stars for this one, and decided overall to go with 3.5 stars, because of the progress made from the first book, and the potential for this to become a great full-length series. All of the characters that we met in the previous book are back and they create a fun and endearing misfit ensemble. Fia returns as our main character, with her life teetering precariously between a normal Search and Rescue field agent and paranormal soul seeker. As much as she tries to keep her two lives separate, though, a tragic event threatens to merge them together, when her team has to search for a body in the woods.

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Book Review: A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J Maas ★★★

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“I have to create, or it was all for nothing. I have to create, or I will crumple up with despair and never leave my bed. I have to create because I have no other way of voicing this.”

The Inner Circle is back, guys! Any book by Sarah J Maas is pretty much an instant buy for me and this one was no exception. I was eagerly anticipating reading this novella and I was not disappointed. Overall, the book, while not the best of the series, did what it was intended to do, and bridged the gap between the original Court series and the new spinoff trilogy that is in the works. I enjoyed it!

Spoilers below!

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Book Review: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon ★★

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Image result for outlander book cover

“There are things that I canna tell you, at least not yet. And I’ll ask nothing of ye that ye canna give me. But what I would ask of ye—when you do tell me something, let it be the truth. And I’ll promise ye the same. We have nothing now between us, save—respect, perhaps. And I think that respect has maybe room for secrets, but not for lies. Do ye agree?”

Outlander is the popular story of Claire Beauchamp. She is woman on holiday in Scotland with her husband Frank in 1945. While there, she inadvertently touches some magical standing stones that transport her 200 years in the past, where she must navigate the Scottish Highlands during the Jacobite Rebellion. With the help of the MacKenzie clan and one James Fraser, hot Scot extraordinaire. This book review is an interesting one for me, because it is one of the few stories I have read, after watching the show/movie adaptation. This leaves me no choice, really, but to compare the two different executions and review them as a whole. Not to mention, that this is a story beloved by many and has a huge fan base. Fair warning, this one might be a little long!

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Road Trip Book Tag

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Book Tag Tuesday (1)

Hey, ya’ll! I’m back at it again with a Book Tag Tuesday! Woo! And hopefully I can keep ’em coming this time.

So, I checked the deep recesses of the interwebs and I did not find a specific tag like this. However, if there is one that I am not aware of, please let me know and I will give credit where credit is due. And, like always, please feel free to join in!

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