Stacking the Shelves (1): The Start

Hi everyone! I've seen quite a few people posting a tag called "Stacking the Shelves", in which they share the books and bookish things that they've acquired over the last while. Since I've realized that a monthly haul isn't good for me (it makes me feel like I need to buy books for something to post) I've decided to give this a go! I'll post these irregularly (whenever the stack of new books on my desk reaches a certain point!)
These are all the books I've gotten recently!

Adult books:

1. Perfect Remains by Helen Fields
2. If You Knew Her by Emily Elgar
3. In a Cottage in a Wood by Cass Green
4. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
5. The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham
6. The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst
7. The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn
8. How to Stop Time by Matt Haig

Teen books:

1. The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
2. Scythe by Neal Shushterman
3. Suitors and Sabotage by Cindy Anstey
4. A Girl like That by Tanaz Bhathena

February 2018 Wrap-Up

Hi everyone! Last month was a pretty good reading month for me, considering that I'm in university, but I had a fair amount to say about every book I read, so I figured that I would do a wrap-up for the month.
The books I read:

      1. The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan
This was the first book I read this month, and I enjoyed it! It was written in a very different way, with each page being a new word in the dictionary, and the story being told using each word as a different part of the story. It was weird, but in a good way.
I have a full review of The Lover's Dictionary here if you want to read more of my thoughts!

      2. How to Stop Time by Matt Haig

This one I've been looking forward to reading for awhile. I read Matt Haig's Reasons to Stay Alive over the summer, and even though that that book was non-fiction and How to Stop Time is fiction, I knew that it was going to be great because I love his writing style. He writes in a beautiful way, and you can tell that a lot of thought goes into his work.

I absolutely loved this book, I loved how it was told, how it had famous characters like Shakespeare and Fitzgerald in it, and I found that the entire book was wonderfully created and the build up to the ending was amazing. I highly recommend it!

      3. Unraveling Oliver by Liz Nugent

This is a psychological thriller that I personally found to be more of a psychological analysis, of sorts. It focuses solely on the character of Oliver, and even though I was expecting more of a thriller, the aspects of a thriller were there and I definitely enjoyed the book overall.

I have a full review of Unraveling Oliver here if you want to read more of my thoughts!

      4. The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn

This one is also a psychological thriller, and I quite enjoyed this one too. I found the plot to be a bit slow for the first 100 pages or so, but when it did pick up the pace, it REALLY picked up the pace. I enjoyed all the characters and the plot overall, and the ending really shocked me.

I have a full review of The Woman in the Window here if you want to read more of my thoughts!

      5. The Wicked + The Divine Vol 6 by Kieron Gillen

I've had mixed feelings about all of these graphic novels in this series, as can be seen by my review of the first five volumes here. I've loved some, and I've hated others, and this one sits more on the disliked side than the loved side.

I enjoyed the artwork in this one, as it was consistent and I could easily follow it through, but I found the story to be a bit lackluster in this volume. Some of the volumes in this series were fast-paced all the way through, but I found this one to be more of a filler between the fourth, and the seventh (which I will have to wait until it comes out to see how much of a filler this volume was).

Overall, it was alright, and I'll definitely read the next volume to see if it will pick up a bit.

      6. Suitors and Sabotage by Cindy Anstey

I was kindly sent an ARC of this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This was the last book that I read this month. After all of the psychological thrillers I was reading, I wanted a lighter, cute contemporary read to finish my month off with.

Overall, I quite enjoyed this book. It was a super sweet and lighthearted romance story that took place in the 1800s, with a bit of a mysterious twist to it, which was a nice change!

I have full review of this here

Review: The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn

Title: The Woman in the Window

Author: A. J. Finn

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Pages: 448 (Paperback)

Publisher: William Morrow
Publication date: January 2nd, 2018

Synopsis from The Woman in the Window's Goodreads page

Anna Fox lives alone—a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times . . . and spying on her neighbors.

Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, a mother, their teenage son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn’t, her world begins to crumble—and its shocking secrets are laid bare.

What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control? In this diabolically gripping thriller, no one—and nothing—is what it seems.

THOUGHTS

Quite a few of my close friends had read this book before me, and every single one of them hyped it up. They all told me that it was really good, but also that it was very predictable. Knowing that, I was hesitant to start it but I knew that due to its size, I would only be able to read it during my reading week, or after the term was over. So I opted for reading week, and I somehow managed to read it in less than 24 hours.
The idea behind this book I found to be really interesting. The main character is an agoraphobic; she can't go outside and stays in her house alone all the time. Cue the new people moving across the street, and she begins to keep an eye on them. An event occurs (not going to say because SPOILERS) and then Anna'a entire world is turned upside down and everyone thinks she's crazy.
Anna herself I loved but I also found quite annoying at times. She's an alcoholic, so a lot of this book was her drinking and being drunk and questioning everything that she does and sees. However, I did love her more than find her annoying; she knew that the event that had occurred across the street happened, and she was fighting everyone to believe her. Even though she is an agoraphobic, she is still resilient and will put up a fight when she knows is right, which I enjoyed.
A lot of the other characters were very well thought out as well. The entire family across the street were very well created and that massive twist at the end I DID NOT see coming; the character was so believable the entire book that he definitely tricked me the whole way through. (That is very vague, but again, spoilers are killer).
I found the plot of this book to be very slow at the beginning. It is over 400 pages which is very long for a psychological thriller, and I found the beginning to lag in places; a lot of the minor things that happened in the first half of the book I found dragged a bit, but overall the book was very well written so the slow parts were punctuated with a lot of action and suspenseful parts.
As a psychological thriller, this was definitely well written. A fair amount of the events that were happening I was able to guess before they did, but a fair amount of other things shocked me because there was no way I was going to be able to guess them. It was fast-paced in the second half, and I was able to read it in less than 24 hours, so it kept me interested even through the slower parts.
Overall - ★★★★☆

Review: Unraveling Oliver by Liz Nugent

Title: Unraveling Oliver

Author: Liz Nugent

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Pages: 272 (Paperback)

Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication date: August 22nd, 2017

Synopsis from Unraveling Oliver's Goodreads page

“I expected more of a reaction the first time I hit her.”

So begins Liz Nugent’s astonishing debut novel—a chilling, elegantly crafted, and psychologically astute exploration of the nature of evil.

Oliver Ryan, handsome, charismatic, and successful, has long been married to his devoted wife, Alice. Together they write and illustrate award-winning children’s books; their life together one of enviable privilege and ease—until, one evening after a delightful dinner, Oliver delivers a blow to Alice that renders her unconscious, and subsequently beats her into a coma.

In the aftermath of such an unthinkable event, as Alice hovers between life and death, the couple’s friends, neighbors, and acquaintances try to understand what could have driven Oliver to commit such a horrific act. As his story unfolds, layers are peeled away to reveal a life of shame, envy, deception, and masterful manipulation.

THOUGHTS

I'm going to start off by saying that going into this, I thought it was more of a psychological thriller. After the first few chapters, however, I realized it was more of a psychological analysis of sorts, instead of a thriller, but it did have a lot of the aspects of a thriller. Saying that, I really did enjoy this book.
Unraveling Oliver is a story about a man who has harmed his wife to the point where she is in a coma, with little to no hope of her waking up. The entire novel is a character summary of Oliver, with each chapter being told from a different characters' point of view of him. Each character is recounting how they either met Oliver, or the different things that have happened to him in his life that could possibly have made him the person he is, and explain why he harmed his wife.
The story overall I really enjoyed. Each character added a few pieces of the puzzle of Oliver together, while creating more mysteries. Each recounting of each part of his life fit together perfectly, and I had no problems with how anything fit together or how it was told.
In regards to the characters in the story, each and every single one of them was needed in some way, for something, either as someone who is currently in his life, or as someone from his past who is required to tell his story. In a lot of thrillers I find that there are unnecessary characters that are used in order to distract the reader for some reason, but that was definitely not the case for this book. Every single character was well thought out, and well executed. I also loved how each and every single character had their own distinct voice. With telling a story from different characters' points of view every chapter, a lot of the time the characters start to become mashed together and start to sound very similar. That was not the case at all here, with each character having a very distinct voice, and I loved how that was not only shown through what was spoken about, but also in how they spoke to the reader.
The story itself was also something that I really enjoyed. It left just enough of a mystery throughout the entire novel, while also giving just enough to the reader that they can almost figure out what will happen next, before continuing to read and realizing you are completely wrong.
I feel like this book could have been an easy 4/5 stars for me, if I had gone into it knowing that it was less of a psychological thriller and more of a psychological character study. It definitely had all the aspects of thriller and I did read it in less than twenty-four hours, but it was more of a character study than anything else.
Overall, I really enjoyed the book that I'm glad that I took the time to read it and I know that I will definitely read it again in the future when I'm more in the mood for a character study, and then I have a feeling that it will be a higher rating for me.
Overall - ★★★★☆

Review: The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan

Title: The Lover's Dictionary

Author: David Levithan

Genre: Contemporary/Realistic Fiction

Pages: 211 (Paperback)

Publisher: Picador
Publication date: January 17th, 2012

Synopsis from The Lover's Dictionary's Goodreads page

How does one talk about love? Is it even possible to describe something at once utterly mundane and wholly transcendent, that has the power to consume our lives completely, while making us feel part of something infinitely larger than ourselves? Taking a unique approach to this age-old problem, the nameless narrator of David Levithan's The Lover's Dictionary constructs the story of a relationship as a dictionary. Through these sharp entries, he provides an intimate window into the great events and quotidian trifles of coupledom, giving us an indelible and deeply moving portrait of love in our time.

THOUGHTS

This book was definitely not what I was expecting. I was expecting more of a lighthearted, easy, love-story read. This was not that.

This book is told in a very unique way - every page has a word on it, in alphabetical order, and the story is told as the definitions of the words that are on the same page. It was this that drew me into the book in the first place - an easier read, and something that I have never even seen anything similar to before.

The plot of this book was also really different, in that there wasn't really even quite a plot. The entries jumped from sad ones to cute and happy ones back to devastatingly sad ones, and I really liked that. It resembles a real relationship, where there are good days and bad days, and the good days are really good and the bad days are really bad. It resembles life, and I really liked that it didn't sugar coat it; it was abrupt and to the point.

The entries themselves were absolutely amazing. They were very short, with some being a sentence or two, and the longest being just over a single sided page. They were beautiful and sad and heart-wrenching and wonderful.

One of my favourites was this quote, from the page titled "Only":

"That's the dilemma, isn't it? When you're single, there's the sadness and joy of only me. And when you're paired, there's the sadness and joy of only you."

The story itself is raw and real, and is completely relatable to any relationship. It was sad and happy and gave me a lot of emotions, but was also a bit too short for me. I was hoping for a bit more, an I felt that even though it did end on the letter Z, I feel like a bit more could have been done.

Overall - ★★★☆☆.5

February 2018 TBR

Hey everyone! This past week has been crazy with midterms for me so I wasn't able to post my TBR for the month, but it's never too late!

I plan on reading:

1. The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
       This one came out last month, and everyone at my work has been buzzing about it, so I'm definitely going to be reading it this month!

2. The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan
       I bought this one in December, and I absolutely love the idea of it. It's written in the form of a dictionary, with different words on each page and the story is told part by part according to the word on the page. It's a strange, different concept but I'm sure it's going to be amazing, and it seems like a really quick read! I'm hoping to write a review on this by the end of the week next week.

3. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
       This one came out last year and everyone has been buzzing about it and everyone on booktube seems to have loved it. So I'm going to give it a go!

4. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
       With the third book in this series coming out, Still Me, I feel a need to finally get this one off my TBR shelf. Not to mention that it's February and I need some romantic reads (but I'm sure this one will break my heart more than anything else).

And a few tentative reads (if I have time over my reading week!)

5. The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken (reread)
       I read this one about 4 years ago, and with the movie coming out, I really want to reread it and to finally finish this series!

6. Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi (reread)
       This one I read YEARS ago and also never finished the series. I'm working on my New Year's Goal of finishing every series that I want to finish this year so I can go into 2019 with no opened series (other than ones that still have books coming out).

Well that's it! A pretty good TBR in my opinion, but I'm excited for it and excited to start reading again now that I get the time over my reading week.
Happy reading everyone!

Top Ten Tuesday (10): Top Books to Read in 2018

Hello everyone!
So this year is going to be good, I'm hoping. Good for me for university, for work, and most importantly, for reading! I figured I'd get back into the Top Ten Tuesdays that I haven't really posted since, well, 2015...but here's to second chances, right?
Anyways, the top ten books that I want to read in 2018! This list includes adult books, teen books, and a bunch of other books as well, but none of them are new releases for 2018. Here's hoping I can get to all of them by the end of the year. I seem to have a hard time reading everything on my top ten lists..

1. Voyager (Outlander #3) by Diana Gabaldon
       I started the Outlander series about 2 years ago, and between working and getting my degree, I've never been able to sit down and read the third book. I'm really hoping to get back into them this year.

2. Lord of Shadows (Lady Midnight #2) by Cassandra Clare
       This one I've owned for awhile now, but I don't want to read it until the third book in the series comes out, because I've heard mixed things about the ending. Hopefully the third one does come out in December, and I can get around to reading this one!

3. Red Rising by Pierce Brown
       With Iron Gold coming out, I've finally decided this year is the year to read this series. I've owned them all for a long time, and now that there's a fourth book, I need to hunker down and finally read them!

4. All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater
       I've been, let's say, saving this book since it came out. I'm not sure when we're going to get a new Maggie Stiefvater book, so in lieu of that, I've been saving this one. However, one of my coworkers read it a couple weeks ago, and she said it was really good, so I may just sit and read this one this year. I feel like it will be a great, quick read.

5. The Young Elites by Marie Lu
       It's been a couple years now since I've read the Legend trilogy by Marie Lu, and I'm really missing her writing style. I don't want to reread Legend just yet, so I feel like this trilogy will be another great one to read.

6. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
       I've been meaning to read this series for, well.....years. And years. Hopefully 2018 will be the time.

7. The Hero of Ages (Mistborn #3) by Brandon Sanderson
       It's now been almost 2 years since I've read the first two books in the Mistborn trilogy. I really, really want to read this one, but it's been crazy busy for me lately. This year, I'm going to finish it, no questions asked. I'm excited to see how it ends!

8. Artemis by Andy Weir
       This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2017, so I'm frustrated that I haven't read it yet. This one is definetely on the top of my pile, because I absolutely love The Martian, and Andy Weir's writing style.

9. The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
       This one has really been circulating around booktube and my work lately, and I know a lot of people who have absolutely loved it. It seems to be a quick, enjoyable read, so I'm hoping I can get to it soon!

10. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
       This one was on my TBR for 2017, but it wasn't anywhere near the top, so I never got around to it. Now that it's been out for awhile, I've heard nothing but amazing reviews of it, so I'm definetely going to be reading it!