Book Series I’ve Completed this Year... and Others I've Abandoned

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to have as pressure-free reading year as I possibly could, and since I hadn’t signed up to any official reading challenges, back in February I challenged myself to try and catch up with or finish as many series as I possibly could. I’ve sort of kept to my original list… but there were a few changes.

Series I've completed in 2016

Tunnel Vision Duology by Susan Adrian

The Winner's Trilogy by Marie Rutkoski

The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

Hex Hall Trilogy by Rachel Hawkins

Dead Beautiful Trilogy by Yvonne Woon

Six of Crows Duology by Leigh Bardugo

So far, I’ve completed six series. (Wooo!) But, only four of these series were on my list at the beginning of the year. I’m not sure how I feel about this, to be perfectly honest! I thought I’d done a little better with sticking to my plans, but I’m so glad I’ve got four series that’s been haunting me for a while completed.

Since February I have found out the His Fair Assassin series is getting two more books, so, technically I can't finish that series until 2019 even though I do own Mortal Heart. I plan on continuing with both the Infernal Devices and Mortal Instruments series soon. I own both Clockwork Prince and City of Lost Souls, so I hope to read both of those by the end of the year even if I don’t get around to completing each series just yet.

The Vampire Academy series on the other hand, well, I'm debating whether to continue on or to abandon it. I loved the first book, but the second wasn't anywhere near as enjoyable. I bought the third book, Shadow Kiss, recently so I'll probably give it a go and see how I feel about the series then. I’m conflicted. It’s really hard to justify investing the time to read a six book series when I’m not completely in love with it, ya know? If you’ve read the series, do you think it’s worth continuing?

Series I've Decided to Abandon

Speaking of investing time in books, while I was on a blogging break I went through all the series I’m currently in the middle of reading and I’ve started 45 series that I actively want to finish. That’s… an awful lot of books. So, I think I need to become a bit more heartless regarding whether I want to continue a series I feel conflicted about or to just cut ties and move on.

Now, I’ve decided to abandon a few VERY popular series and it might anger some people. I just want to say that these are my feelings, opinions and the reasons why I’m unwilling to invest time (and money) on something that isn’t making me happy. Please, please respect this. Okay *deep breaths* Here we go!

Matched Trilogy by Ally Condie - I should have listened to all the reviews for Crossed and Reached. But, oh no, my stubborn curiosity got the better of me and I had to try Crossed. There's only so much lovey-dovey pining and moping I can take before my nausea reflex kicks in.

Morganville Vampires Series by Rachel Caine - For some weird reason after I had finished reading Carpe Corpus (book six) I felt like the series was complete. It's definitely not: there are nine more books after this one, but I felt like it was a good time to step away. I was happy with the ending, and I thought walking away on a happy note would be good idea.

Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J. Maas - As many of you may know, I didn’t like Queen of Shadows. At all! I had been back and forth on whether to continue the series for the entire year up until Empire of Storms was released. Since I love Chaol Westfall with all my heart, I was on the verge of convincing myself to read the book just to see what he was up to. You can see where this is going…. I'm sure the entire world has seen the spoilers at this stage, but if you haven't, don't highlight the following text! --- I’m all for series changing and developing, as they rightly should. However, when the first half of a series doesn’t match the second half of the same series, there’s a SERIOUS consistency issue. I was here to read the story of the Crown Prince of Adarlan, the Captain of the Guard, and Adarlan’s best assassin. That was the story I invested my time and money in. But now it’s morphed into the fae version of The Blackdagger Brotherhood series, where abusive alpha assholes abound. It’s been obvious for quite a few books now that Chaol is the scapegoat for everything negative that has ever happened to anyone in the series. With regards to QoS and EoS, when I saw a certain little novella announced, I began to worry. I’ll support change that makes logical sense, but when a main character receives a personality transplant for no reason, gets his past rewritten mid-series, is shoved aside for the sake of a ship and is quite literally crippled at the end of one book, and then is written out of the next book only to get his own novella like someone is throwing crumbs to a starving crowd... ooh you have no idea how angry this makes me. I can’t justify reading, supporting or spending money on the rest of the series in a situation like this. I can’t. --- I'm sorry, but you've also used up all my reserves of patience. I’m done.

A Court of Thorns and Roses Series by Sarah J. Maas - I was drawn to this series because it was advertised as a Beauty and the Beast retelling with a little bit of Tamlin woven in. When I saw lots of talk of the second book morphing into a Persephone and Hades retelling I had MAJOR reservations. I will always adore Sarah J. Maas as a person. But, as an author, my trust in her books has been severely and irreparably damaged. I’m unwilling to put myself through a scenario of Chaol 2.0, and I’m walking away from this series before history repeats itself. Sometimes you have to face up to the reality that a once favourite author doesn’t hold the same magic anymore, and sadly, you have to move on with a heavy heart.

*Sigh* I really hate leaving series unfinished as I love seeing the same characters grow and evolve over multiple books, but sometimes you just have to let go. It’s at times like this I wish I could escape my addiction to series. Standalones are starting to sounding extremely appealing! Which do you prefer: series or standalones? Or do you like both equally? Thanks for stopping by!

So, It's Been a While...

Hi! Hello! How've ya been? So, it's been quite a while. You may (or may not) have noticed that I disappeared for a while. About that, well, when I came back from the US at the end of April I started back blogging as normal, but I began to feel sick. I casually mentioned it on Instagram, and when I wasn't getting better I decided to take a week to ten days off to rest up, get healthy again and maybe catch up and schedule some posts so I could be a little less stressed in the long run. One week lead to another without writing anything, then fast forward to October and here we are…

I've written three versions of this post. Once in June. Then again in both August and September. Honestly, I spent most of this time debating whether to come back at all. Each time I was about to post I would chicken out because I felt extremely guilty and embarrassed. And the more time that went by, the worse I felt. I did the one thing I said I'd never do: disappear without a proper explanation. For that, I'm very sorry. No excuses. It's all on me.

To everyone that's stuck around, thank you. Those words aren't not enough, I know that, but nothing else covers what I want to say other than thank you.

So, Alma, what have you been doing with your new-found freedom? Well, I'd love to sit here and ramble off a list of humanity-benefitting and life-long wishes that I accomplished, but honestly I just RELAXED. You don't realise how much stress blogging dishes out until it's removed. I played PC games I haven't played in years. I baked. And between both the Euro's and the Olympics, my TV time was well spent in couch-potato sports watching bliss. Then add Pokemon Go to the mix and my couch-potato ways got a sudden but much needed shake up. Yep, I'm a complete Pokemon nerd, and if I had this back in the '90s when the anime was everywhere… wow, I'd have been in heaven. Plus, my dog doesn't seem to mind the extra walks and exploring, so win/win!

I've been trying for a blogging/life balance for the longest time, and with taking a really long and unexpected break I'm determined to achieve it this time. I'm the kind of person that tends to pour all my energy into a project until it's either finished or I burn out, and I know this attitude isn't healthy. So, I'm going to try and change it. My blogging schedule might be a bit unpredictable from here on out, but I want to balance the freedom of life outside blogging with the bookish community that I missed while I was away. So, that's about it, and hopefully I'll be back to blogging as normal over the coming weeks. Thanks for sticking around!

March 2016 Wrap-Up and Stacking the Shelves

Blogging did take a bit of a back seat for me in March. Since writing my mood blogger post a couple of weeks ago, I’ve started to change how I approach writing reviews and other posts. I’m following my moods a lot more - when I get in the mood to write, I write, and when I want to do something else, I stop - and it’s actually working! I’ve managed to catch up on quite a few posts that I needed to write and it’s always an awesome feeling to see things being crossed off the to-do list. I’m getting there with commenting, too, but that’s something that’ll just take a bit more time I think.

Right when I’m slowly getting back into a blogging mood again… I’ll have to step away for a couple of weeks. We’re off on holidays next week – going back to Walt Disney World, woohoo!! It really does become an addiction! We’re also stopping in Memphis on the way, so that’ll be interesting :) – so I just wanted to mention I’ll be absent from the blog for a little while. I have got a few posts scheduled while I’m gone so it shouldn’t be a complete ghost town around here while I’m away! I took the plunge on Thursday past and created an Instagram account for my blog and, Wi-fi permitting, I’ll try to take a few pictures while I’m there and upload them. Let me know if you’re on Instagram, I’m trying to find all the book bloggers I know so I can to follow! I’m @journeythroughfiction :)

I’m linking up to both Stacking the Shelves and The Sunday Post memes this weekend.

My March Book Haul

I bought four books this month – I have been trying to be on my best behaviour with going on holidays in April. I know I’ll end up in Barns and Noble and any other book shops I stumble across and I’ll end up going a bit mad, so I tried to show a bit of restraint before I go!

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton // The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman
Of Metal and Wishes by Sarah Fine // Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes

Books I Received for Review

The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi // My Mad Fat Diary by Rae Earl

Thanks so much to St. Martin’s Griffin for all of these!

I read and reviewed Dreamfever by Kit Alloway last month, but I wasn’t expecting to receive a physical copy of Dreamfever, and oh my gosh, it was the best bookish surprise I’ve gotten all year! The cover is even more gorgeous in reality than on screen, and I absolutely love it! Thank you so, so much for it, you made my day when it showed up in the post!

Books I Read in March

I read 6 books this month, which is pretty good. Red Rising was by far my favourite, and the rest ranged from really good to underwhelming.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown – 4.5 stars
Wandering Wild by Jessica Taylor – 2 stars
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh – 3 stars
Winter by Marissa Meyer – 3 stars
Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly – 4 stars
The Hidden Twin by Adi Rule – 3 stars

TBR-Jar Updates

My TBR jar pick for April is Possess by Sarah Dalton. I had intended on reading this one last year, and it completely went out of my mind! Hopefully I’ll get to it soon. I didn’t make any progress on the back log of TBR books in March… I’m putting it down to pre-holiday distractions. Well, that’s my excuse, and I’m sticking with it!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful weekend! Happy Reading!

Is It Possible to Be a Mood Blogger?!

This question came to mind the other day, and I’d like to talk it through with you. I’m not sure if it’s going to make a load of sense as my own thoughts have been all over the place lately, but, is it really possible to be – or to become – a mood blogger?! I’m a mood reader, so I guess it’s not that hard to think that blogging could follow along in the same vein?

We all have to force ourselves to do things we’re not in the mood to do, but the one thing I can’t force – and believe me, I’ve tried – is being able to write. Anytime I do try it sends my thoughts into overdrive and I manage to think of every single thing I need to do that doesn’t involve writing, and by extension, blogging. All these thoughts come flooding in and they will. Not. Go. Away!

I swear, some days my thoughts really do resemble Jabberjays.

I know that I need to be in specific moods to tackle different blogging tasks. Take review writing. I need to have a completely different mind-set when I sit down to write a review than I would if I’m writing a Top Ten Tuesday post, for example. I feel like I’ve placed this unspoken need to be professional on myself when it comes to reviews, and sometimes I feel like I’m not letting my personality show through enough. It’s always how I’ve written reviews, and in a way, I feel like I’ve begun overthinking how I write them, instead of just writing.

And it’s not just with reviews, but with commenting as well. I’m a naturally shy person, and it takes a lot of inner pep talking for me to get the confidence to comment, comment, comment! I know I should just DO IT, but that’s always a lot easier said than done. Then my overactive brain latches on to the need to leave meaningful comments, and that lovely inner voice insists that every possible comment I could leave completely sucks, and it’s best to not leave one at all and save myself from the eternal embarrassment.

Mood blogger meets crippling anxiety??

The more I force things, the more everything crumbles, and I know I’m most productive when I follow my moods and whims… like, if I want to watch a movie, but force myself to write instead, I’ll get nothing of value done. This has happened WAY more often than I’d care to admit, yet, I still do it in the vain hope that this time I’ll be able to conquer my moods.

Those days when I do get into blog-mode easily are like little gifts from heaven. I get so much done, and I feel all accomplished and stress free. The trouble is they only last a day or two, then my focus shifts to something else and I’m back to square one trying to recapture that wonderful blog-mode that’s so elusive. For the past few weeks I haven’t been in the mood to blog, and I wish I had some other excuse to explain why I’ve been blogging inconsistently, but this is the only thing I’ve been able to come up with to explain why. I’ve fallen so far behind on everyday blogging tasks, and it terrifies me to even begin looking into all I have to do. It doesn’t help that these thoughts trigger my anxiety something fierce.

There are lots of things I love doing; yet, blogging is the only thing I’ve ever felt guilty not doing. Like, I enjoy baking but I don’t feel guilty if I don’t bake for a few weeks. (Actually, the scales would thank me if I don’t bake!) If I didn’t blog for a month or two I know I’d be completely crippled with guilt. I don’t know where the pressure to blog stems from, but it’s something I don’t think will ever fully go away, no matter how hard I try to ignore it.

So, I guess, I haven’t really come to an answer for my question. Do I feel like I’m a mood blogger? Yeah, I sort of do. Do I have any idea on how to overcome this? Heck no! But, I’d love to know what you think about this. Do you think it’s possible to be a mood blogger? Is this an anxiety thing? A procrastination thing? An all of the above thing??

February 2016 Wrap-Up and Stacking the Shelves

I’m linking up to both Stacking the Shelves and The Sunday Post memes this weekend.

What I Read in February

I read 7 books in February, and I hope to finish one of my current reads over the next few days. It was a really good reading month overall, despite having a rough start when I abandoned The 5th Wave. I might give it another chance in the future, but for some reason it wasn’t working for me right now.

Partials by Dan Wells – 1 Star – My annotation experiment failed. But I did succeed in recording precisely why I disliked the book… so, erm, yay?? I’ve learned my lesson. Stay away from pencils. They can cause all kinds of rage. Who knew?!

Almost Midnight by C.C. Hunter – 4 Stars – If you like the Shadow Falls and the Shadow Falls: After Dark series, then you’ll love this one!

Spell Bound by Rachel Hawkins – 4 Stars – I mentioned a few weeks ago that I wanted to complete some series, and the Hex Hall trilogy was one of those I listed. So… check!

Reap the Wind by Karen Chance – 2.5 Stars – Not what I was expecting. It sucks, as this is one of my favourite Urban Fantasy series, and I was fairly certain I’d love Reap the Wind.

Dreamfever by Kit Alloway – 4.5 Stars – This was an almost-5-star read. If you like the concept of being able to dream walk, then give this series a go. It’s awesome!

The Winner’s Kiss by Marie Rutkoski – 5+ Stars – This was one of the most satisfying conclusions to a series I’ve ever read. That’s all I’m gonna say! Promise!

Carpe Corpus by Rachel Caine – 4 Stars – I liked this one a lot more than the previous two, but I’m unsure if I want to continue the series. Myrnin is the only character I have any sympathy toward, but I’m not sure investing the time in reading another nine books is really worth it for one character…

Currently Reading

Red Rising by Pierce Brown – I’ve only read a couple of chapters, but so far, I really like it. I'm trying to keep my expectations in check even though I have seen LOTS of praise for the trilogy, so I'm expecting good things. Hopefully I'll love it!

Wandering Wild by Jessica Taylor – I started this book a few weeks ago… and haven’t gone back to it since. Erm… oops?

What I Bought This Month

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

Reap the Wind by Karen Chance

Received For Review

The Winner's Kiss by Marie Rutkoski
The Hidden Twin by Adi Rule

Thank you so much to Bloomsbury UK and St. Martin’s Griffin for these!

The New Pottermore

Over the past few weeks, I’ve seen lots of talk on both Twitter and Youtube about the updated Pottermore and people being sorted into different houses since the update. That kind of freaked me out! The old sorting quiz sorted me into Gryffindor, and not gonna lie, I like being a Gryffindor! It didn’t make a lot of sense to me initially, what with the bravery thing and all, but the more I learned about the houses the more I’ve come to agree with it. See, here’s the thing, the only other house I have any affinity toward is Slytherin. It was the house I instantly thought I’d have the least leanings toward, but actually… *cough* it sounds a bit like me!

So, this past Monday I finally plucked up the courage and redid the Pottermore quiz. Annnd… It's official. I’m a Gryffindor again! (YEEEESSSSSS!) Buuuut, I was curious. I did find a full sorting house quiz you can take with all the new Pottermore questions included, and it’s meant to be a bit more accurate overall. So, I took the quiz. (Shocking, I know!) And… these were my results:

77% Gryffindor and 69% Slytherin, humm? Ha! Can’t say I’m that surprised. Best face up to it: I’m a Gryffindor with a healthy dose of Slytherin. Best of both worlds, then, eh? *waggles eyebrows*

My March 2016 TBR Pick

All Our Yesterday’s by Cristin Terrill

I'm still behind on my TBR picks, but I did make a little progress by completing both my November and December picks. I didn't get along very well with Partials by Dan Wells, but Carpe Corpus by Rachel Caine was a lot better. I had originally intended chipping away at the Morganville Vampire series until I had completed it… but right now, I’m unsure if I want to continue. I’m satisfied with how this book ended, and there’s a little nagging voice at the back of my head insisting that this would be a good spot to step away. I’m conflicted :/ If you’ve read the entire series, any advice would be appreciated! Should I give the seventh book a shot? I don’t want to regret continuing on if I end up being disappointed further down the road.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you have a fab weekend, and Happy Reading!

I Solemnly Swear I’ll Complete These Series This Year

I mentioned back in my New Year’s resolutions post in January that I wasn’t planning on signing up to many challenges this year. I’m still planning on staying as challenge-free as possible… but there is something I’ve been trying to do for the past year or so that I want to focus on, and that’s to complete more of the book series I’ve already started reading. Most of the series I’m currently obsessing over haven’t been completed yet, but there are a quite few I feel I should be able to chip away at throughout the year.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about what my reading habits were like before I began blogging, and I remember being fairly consistent completing a series if I enjoyed it. Since beginning blogging, though, my focus has slowly shifted and I have one eye that’s constantly anticipating books that’ll be released months, if not years, from now. While it’s awesome to know about all these new shiny books so far in advance, I feel like I’ve started to brush aside books that I really wanted to read only a few short months ago. I still plan on reading new releases, but I want to balance it out with backlist titles as well – older books deserve to be remembered, too!

His Fair Assassin Trilogy by Robin LaFevers // Dead Beautiful Trilogy by Yvonne Woon

The last books in both trilogies, Mortal Heart and Love Reborn, were released in 2014, so… I have no idea why I haven’t read them yet!

The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer // The Hex Hall Trilogy by Rachel Hawkins

I just bought Winter and Spell Bound, so at least these two series should be completed by the end of the year. I just have to hope they don’t end up sitting on my shelves for months unread… as the vast majority of the books I buy end up doing, (oops!).

The Winner’s Trilogy by Marie Rutkoski // The Remnant Chronicles by Mary E. Pearson

Okay, so it’s probably cheating to include the next three series in this list as the final book hasn’t been released yet … but they will be released by the end of the year, so we’ll go with it! The Winner’s Kiss and The Beauty of Darkness are two of my most anticipated released of 2016, and I definitely plan on reading both books by the end of the year!

Snow Like Ashes Trilogy by Sara Raasch

I’ve only read the first book in the Snow Like Ashes trilogy, but I hope to get my hands on Ice Like Fire in the next couple of months. As far as I know, the last book in the trilogy – Frost Like Night – is set to be released in September… so plenty of time to catch up (in theory, anyway!)

The Moral Instruments Series by Cassandra Clare

I couldn’t connect with the first two books in the series, but I’m really glad I stuck it out and read City of Glass – it’s definitely the best book in the series, so far, and I’m beginning to see why so many love the Shadowhunter world. I’d love to finish off the last three books, but, in order to do that I need to read…

The Infernal Devices Series by Cassandra Clare

I’ve heard a lot of talk about William Herondale, both in the blogosphere and on Booktube… and okay, I need to see what all the fuss is about ;) I own both Clockwork Angel and City of Fallen Angels, so I should be able to make at least a little progress in the next month or two, and hopefully by the end of the year I’ll get some of the others read as well.

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

I had the first book in the series sitting on my shelves unread for absolutely forever, and I only got around to reading it at the end of last year, and it was a million times better than I expected. I honestly don’t know why I hadn’t tried the series long before now. They didn’t seem like ‘me’ books, but if the first book is anything to go by, they definitely are ‘me’ books! Shame the covers are so... meh. It's probably part of the reason why I kept overlooking them!

Thanks for stopping by, and Happy Reading!