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Books Fun Hops

The Cephalopod Coffeehouse #Review: Fairest #scifi #fairytale

Sorry for being late this month. I forgot to schedule my post. For those of you in the US, be safe out there today. If you’re at home, please enjoy this hop.

The idea is simple: on the last Friday of each month, post about the best book you’ve finished over the past month while visiting other bloggers doing the same. In this way, we’ll all have the opportunity to share our thoughts with other enthusiastic readers. Please join us below.

Title: Fairest
Series: The Lunar Chronicles #3.5
Author: Marissa Meyer
Genre: Science Fiction, Fairytale Retelling
Pages: 256
Reading Level: Teen
Content: PG-13 (violence, brutality, doom, mature and dark themes, adult situations, oppression)

After reading Cress, I wasted no time jumping into this long-awaited backstory into the life of the Wicked Queen, aka Levana. I can barely find the right words to describe how much I enjoyed this book. I’m so afraid of giving away spoilers that I’m purposefully making this a short review.

I will say that, dang is this woman’s life messed up. She is all kinds of damaged, from an early age, and she just spirals into, what I consider, insanity. What she does, what is done to her, what the what…. I just can’t. This is such a sad, and brutal, and terrifying story. You want to feel bad for Levana, but she won’t let you. Her crazy out does any wrong done to her and any sympathy she didn’t ask for.

I absolutely love this villain. I so want her to lose so I can feel bad for her and be completely satisfied all at once… See, just reading her story has made me a little crazy.

Totally recommended to fans of this series, fans of psychological sci-fan, and dark fairy tale retellings.

I give this book a 5.

Please stop by and see what others have read. 😀

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

Categories
Books

The Cephalopod Coffeehouse #Review: Armada #scifi #videogame

The idea is simple: on the last Friday of each month, post about the best book you’ve finished over the past month while visiting other bloggers doing the same. In this way, we’ll all have the opportunity to share our thoughts with other enthusiastic readers. Please join us below.

So, not only am I late this month but I’m coming up short. I’ve read several books in the month of October and liked most of them, but I haven’t sat down to review any of them. I’m currently reading Armada, the second book by Ernest Cline. So far the story is really good, but I’m still not sure how I feel about it overall. I’m definitely interested in where the story is going.

I’m 96% finished with my Goodreads Reading Challenge, but I still have about six books left to read on my personal ‘to read’ challenge. Guess I’ll have to hunker down over the next two months.

Even though I’m disappointed that I missed this post, properly, at least it’s not the only one. I missed my usual Reading Challenge and Wip Update,  my movie review, and more. Hopefully, I’ll be back on track next month with a proper book review and my regular blog schedule (though, I may have to change some things).

Please stop by and see what others have read. 😀


Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

Categories
Books FlashbackFriday

#Bookreview: Strength #fantasy #book

This is a special post I do once a month to highlight a book I reviewed some time ago, but never actually featured on my blog. Because this is an author blog and not a book blog, I don’t always feature all the books I read. Like all good and dedicated fans of the written word, I do my part and leave reviews on Goodreads.com, Amazon.com, and sometimes other places, but don’t always bring attention to what I’m reading, unless you follow me on YouTube… hint, hint, wink wink 😉 In any case, please enjoy this review of a book I read at some point in my life.

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I realize this should be a WIP and or Reading Challenge Update, but… life happens. I’ll have it next Friday. Promise :D.

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Goodreads

Title: Strength

Series: Mark of Nexus #1

Author: Carrie Butler

Genre: Urban Fantasy Romance

Pages: 389

Reading Level: Teen Adult

Content: R (violence, brutality, sensuality, sexual content, dark and mature themes, adult situations, suspense)

If only my college experience had been so interesting.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. There were times when I didn’t know exactly where it was going, but it all came together in the end. At no point during reading it was I ever bored, but there were times when I had to really think about what was going on in the story, and I appreciated that. I like that this author made me think as well as entertain me.

This is a new adult story, very realistic and a bit steamy in places, but that’s what college is for. There’s nothing shocking in this story, but is very mature and sophisticated. The heroine isn’t a ditz who doesn’t know how pretty she is, but despite that, when she meets a man who looks like a god, she does drool a bit. Who wouldn’t?

Out of character for me, I fell hard for the strong, brooding, and dark Wallace. Not sure why, but who cares. We soon learn that there’s more to him than his brooding and there’s no doubt that he’s the type of dangerous that you want on your side, perhaps cuddling up with you at night… I digress.

Wallace’s family, not so alluring at first, but I won’t go into that.

Back to the heroine, Rena. I like her. She’s practical and smart. She’s more scared of going to church than she is facing a possible homicidal maniac, but she has her reasons. She also has a great group of friends. I want to say more about this but I don’t know how without giving away something.

This is thrilling from beginning to end. The slow parts add an edge of suspense to an already intense story and the action is amazing to the point where my superhero geek mind was definitely blown. Yes, there is a romance in this story, but it is second to the actual story and action. Got the next two books already.

Recommended to adult readers (teens with parental agreement) who like urban fantasy.

I give this book a 5.

This review has been posted to GoodReads.

If you’d like to obtain a copy of this book, try this link: Amazon

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords