August Challenge Wrap Up Post

2018 Books I Already Own Challenge

Well, August was both a good and bad month for reading. It was busy and HOT so I didn't sit and read quite as many print books as I wanted to, but I snuck in a few extra audiobooks so that wasn't too bad!

All links below take you to the title's entry on goodreads.com. So, here's what I read in August:

Audiobooks I Own
Trickery by Jaymin Eve and Jane Washington
Persuasion by Jaymin Eve and Jane Washington
Seduction by Jaymin Eve and Jane Washington
Unqualified by Anna Farris

Physical Books I Own
The Exact Location of Home by Kate Messner
Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller
Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding by Rhys Bowen
Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas
Untamed by A.G. Howard

eBooks I Own
Slaying It by Chloe Neill
Greta and the Goblin King by Chloe Jacobs
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

Official Cheat Book: Wild Hunger by Chloe Neill
Incidental Cheat Book: My Lady's Choosing by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris

Required Reading
(Work) The Secret, Book and Scone Society by Ellery Adams
(Professional Review) Side Life by Steve Toutonghi
(Professional Review) Blood of the Four by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon

CHOSE NOT TO FINISH: Subscribed by Tien Tzuo

I find in the summer I love to dive into "easy" books.  Paranormal romances, series books, etc.  My audiobooks were perfect for the weather and speed of my life in August.  I was able to squeeze them in wherever and they were highly entertaining if not highly intellectual.  Just pure escapism. 

I was also able to finish up a couple of series this month.  I read the bridge novella between the Chicagoland Vampires series and Neill's new spin-off Heirs of Chicagoland series, which starts with Wild Hunger which was my official cheat book for August. I also read Untamed which is the compiled novellas for the Splintered series and Ruin and Rising which is the final book in the Grisha trilogy.  Though I didn't love all of Untamed it was enjoyable.  I was disappointed in Ruin and Rising, but I'm looking forward to reading Six of Crows which kicks off a duology set in the same world.

My Library received its copy of My Lady's Choosing and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to choose my own romance path (SUCH A COOL CONCEPT) so that became an incidental second cheat book for me.   Whoops!

Lastly, my best and worst books of the month. 
I LOVED LOVED LOVED Maas's Heir of Fire. I cannot wait to start Queen of Shadows tomorrow.
I tried desperately to read Subscribed, which was going to be my nonfiction book of the month, but I couldn't get myself to focus and so I skimmed bits then DNF'd it.  I ended up listening to Unqualified which counts as a nonfiction and LOVED hearing Anna Farris tell tales.  Such a funny book.

I'm excited to head into September.  How's your reading going?

Ensnared

Ensnared
by AG Howard
Splintered, book three

*Spoiler Alert - This IS the final book in the trilogy!*

After surviving a disastrous battle at prom, Alyssa has embraced her madness and gained perspective. She's determined to rescue her two worlds and the people and netherlings she loves. Even if it means challenging Queen Red to a final battle of wills and wiles . . . and even if the only way to Wonderland, now that the rabbit hole is closed, is through the looking-glass world--a parallel dimension filled with mutated and violent netherling outcasts. In the final installment of the wildly popular Splintered trilogy, Alyssa and her dad journey into the heart of magic and mayhem in search of her mom and to set right all that's gone wrong. Together with Jeb and Morpheus, they must salvage Wonderland from the decay and destruction that has ensnared it. But if they succeed and come out alive, can everyone truly have their happily ever after? (Description taken from Goodreads.com) 

As this is the final book, I'll be somewhat cryptic in my review to try to keep from spoiling things for you who may not have read this yet... This was one of those books where I was SO excited to read it that I almost couldn't pick it up at all. I don't know if you ever experience that as a reader (I know my friend Jen from Yabooknerd shares this with me), that feeling where you just can't bear for a series to end and you're terrified that the book won't live up to your expectations and so you just keep putting it off and putting it off and suddenly you realize you've owned the book for YEARS and still haven't finished the series... (I'm eyeballing my copy of the last Vampire Academy series book as I write this)

Well, that's how it was for me with this book, until I finally put my proverbial foot down and forced myself to crack open the first chapter...and immediately got swept away into Howard's fabulously dark and twisted world once again. I love how deliciously twisted both Howard's settings and characters are in this series.  She takes  the familiar pieces from my childhood and manages to give them such an unexpected and creative twist, that though the idea behind the series is a classic, it really does take on a completely wonderful life of its own.  I never find myself actively comparing these books to Carroll's as I'm reading, only after the fact as I'm describing them to others. They exist in and of themselves. 

There had been some controversy, I guess, about the ending to this series. In today's readersphere, where everyone pits one romantic lead against another in the never-ending line of love triangles, there were readers who had pinned there hopes one way or another and inevitably some readers found their hopes dashed...in an interesting way.  In fact, as a reader who loves both a romantic and a realistic ending, resigned to the fact that often one cannot find them together, EVER, I was happy with this ending. In fact, it's what I wish would happen more often in the books that I read.  

Then, just after I finished reading, I was even more excited to find out that Howard will be releasing a novella set in this world, a collection of three short stories! I don't have to give up this Wonderland just yet. Oh Frabjous Day!

Full disclosure: Book Purchased for my Personal Library

Unhinged

Unhinged 
by A.G. Howard
Splintered, book two

Alyssa Gardner has been down the rabbit hole. She was crowned Queen of the Red Court and faced the bandersnatch. She saved the life of Jeb, the boy she loves, and escaped the machinations of the disturbingly appealing Morpheus. Now all she has to do is graduate high school.

That would be easier without her mother, freshly released from an asylum, acting overly protective and suspicious. And it would be much simpler if the mysterious Morpheus didn’t show up for school one day to tempt her with another dangerous quest in the dark, challenging Wonderland—where she (partly) belongs.

Could she leave Jeb and her parents behind again, for the sake of a man she knows has manipulated her before? Will her mother and Jeb trust her to do what’s right? (description from Amazon.com)

Okay, before I say anything else, I just have to ask...does anyone else get creeped out by this cover? Don't get me wrong, I LOVED this book just as much as the first, but every time I look at Morpheus on the cover, I find myself actually shrinking back mentally from the story...it's so disconcerting. 

Anyway, moving on...let me tell you how I devoured this book as soon as I couldn't see the cover any more.  I think my imagination just takes me in a different place, but man, can A.G. Howard create the best world inside your head! 

Alyssa's world is darker, creepier, and just plain more addicting than the original Alice's could ever have been.  I love peeling back the little layers of not only Wonderland, but our own to find the secret and creepy things that might be hiding underneath.  As much as Alyssa's dilemma about how she feels with both Jeb and Morpheus is fun to read...it's really the world and Alyssa's power within it that keeps me totally captivated.

I'm itching to dive back down this rabbit hole again.  Soon, I hope!

Full disclosure: eARC received from NetGalley, ARC received for review from VOYA 

Giveaway - Splintered by A.G. Howard!

You may all remember that I reviewed A.G. Howard's Splintered back in November and gave it a big fat GOLD STAR review because I loved it so much...

Well, I happened to come across a nice, shiny, new never been read hardcover copy that I don't need since I already bought my own...sooo... GIVEAWAY TIME!!

Have you been dying to read this one but haven't yet had the chance?
Have you wanted to own your own copy, but couldn't afford it yet?

Well, here is your chance to enter to win your very own copy!!!!!


a Rafflecopter giveaway