Waiting On Wednesday

The Reckoning of Noah Shaw
by Michelle Hodkin

Release Date: November 13th, 2018

Synopsis:

Noah Shaw confesses all in this second novel of a chilling new companion series to Michelle Hodkin’s New York Timesbestselling Mara Dyer trilogy!

Noah Shaw doesn’t think he needs his father’s inheritance.

He does.

Noah believes there’s something off about the suicides in his visions.

There is.

Noah is convinced that he still knows the real Mara Dyer.

He does not. 

Everyone thought the nightmare had ended with Mara Dyer’s memoirs, but it was only the beginning. As old skeletons are laid bare, alliances will be tested, hearts will be broken, and no one will be left unscarred.

My Thoughts:

I love these characters so much and I love their story and I can't wait to see how things develop after the first book in this new trilogy. I know things are probably going to have to get a lot worse before they get better, but I'm hoping it will be worth it in the end.

Top 10 Paranormal Romances

All of these books have several things in common; They are romances, they have fantastical themes, they take place in our world (mostly).

1. Wolfsong

You guys already know. This is my new favorite book. A spellbinding slow-burning romance and so much epic and awesome. And if you couldn't already tell from the title of the book it's about werewolves.

2. IAD

The Immortals After Dark series is one of my favorites. I binged this entire series, I don't remember how long it initially took, I just know that I read maybe one a day and just couldn't seem to stop. At the time I think there were maybe 14 or 15 books in the series, so a lot. There is just so much romance and magic, it sometimes took place in other dimensions, but I didn't think that was enough to be considered fantasy, so I put it on this list instead.

3. Practical Magic

This book had four different romances happening and I loved them all in very different ways. Gary is there to help Sally get over the past and find love again, Ben is good and everything Gillian needs and wants, Scott is the smart guy that Antonia never looked at that way before but once she does she realizes what she was missing, and Gideon is Kylie's best friend and the person she has battle feeling about. It's perfectly mixed in with some magic.

4. Hush Hush

This is one of those books I sporadically mention because I do love it a lot but it's almost never at the forefront of my mind unless I'm reminded of it. I especially love the first book because you don't really know anything about Patch or what's going on and it makes everything so much better.

5. Obsidian

This one is heated and has one hell of a hate to love romance. Technically I guess this is sci-fi, but it's in an urban setting so I'm counting it on this list. If you haven't read this one yet you definitely should.

6. Fever Series

I'm a sucker for Barrons. I will occasionally tweet about my love for Barrons as he is the very best. I love Mac and I love the new direction the series is going in with Dani. This is one of the best adult paranormal romances out there. 

7. Alice in Zombieland

This is a really badass series with a romance that contains so much chemistry you'd think it was a titration (I'm sorry that was very cheesy). Maybe not for everyone, but if you are really into YA paranormal romances then this is a series you would love.

8. Black Dagger Brotherhood

I just binged around 7 books in this series. The Black Dagger Brotherhood is a series you would love if you like those darker alpha male types with lots of gritty plotlines.

9. Sweet Evil

This is one of the sexier YA series'. I don't even know where to start with this one, it's about these Nephilim who are embodiments of the seven deadly sins. The main love interest is lust. That's all you need to know.

10. Born at Midnight

I won't say too much about this one because there is a love triangle. What I will say is she ends up with the one you want her to ;)

What are some of your favorite paranormal romances?

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Top 5 Romances

Now since I’ve read a lot of romance novels of every shape and size, I decided to make this easier on myself and just make the list books of contemporary settings. No fantasy and no historical. Also, no YA, just plain romance. So you won’t be seeing Wolfsong or Kresley Cole’s IAD series. This was also honestly the hardest list to write because I had it narrowed down to about 8 books and I just couldn’t figure it out.

5. Fear Me

I have a weakness for darker romances and man this book checks that box. I love Kieran and Lake and I’ve reread this book about 10 billion times. I love it.

4. Hideaway

This was an instant love. I loved everything about this book, I even read it about 3 times in the first month of its release and I’ve probably already read it about 15 times as a whole.

3. Scandal Never Sleeps

This book is full of scandal as the title suggests and the romance is very sexy. I’m addicted to not only this book but this series.

2. Hopeless

This is old school Colleen Hoover and still to this day remains my favorite of her works. I love her writing style and her characters, it’s impossible not to fall in love along with them.

1. The Secret of Ella and Micha

This has been a favorite of mine since the beginning of time. I love them and I love their love. I read this maybe 6  years ago and I still love it. 

What are some of your favorite romances?

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Top 10 Books I Wish I Could Read for the First Time Again

I'm pretty excited for this one. It's something I hadn't thought of before and once I did the list made itself.

10. Throne of Glass

This series was exactly what I needed at the time. I didn’t realize that female characters could be like that before reading this book. It opened my eyes to all these different possibilities that I want that to happen again.

9. The Vampire Academy

I binge read this series, I stayed up to 1 am to read Blood Promise and then woke up at 6am so I could finish it. This series was a great time in my life and I would love to be that invested in something again.

8. I’ll Give You the Sun

The smile that this book left me with the first time I read it is something I would love to have again. That initial happiness I felt will never be matched again and that does make me sad.

7. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

This is one of those series’ that I’ve read over and over again, but I will never again get the satisfaction I felt the first time I read this book. It was creepy and I loved the chemistry between Mara and Noah so much and I’m sad I won’t be able to experience that for the first time again.

6. The Hunger Games

This was the first dystopian I ever read and so it set the bar for every other dystopian I read after it. I wish I could feel those same feelings I had when I first read this series. 

5. Obsidian

I want the pleasure of meeting Daemon Black again and not knowing anything about him. I want to get to know Katy and relate to her and go through everything all over again without knowing anything.

4. The Gallagher Girls series

One of the first YA series’ I read. It’s probably the series to thank for getting me into YA in the first place. Nothing will ever take the place of my young self, getting into books about girl spies again. 

3. Wolfsong

I can’t express to you the emotional rollercoaster this book took me on. Not knowing what would happen next and how anything would turn out. Now that I know what happens it won’t be the same reading it. I would love to read this book over an do over as if it was my first time.

2. Ruby Red Trilogy

This is actually the trilogy that inspired this list. I was at work thinking about how much I wanted to read this series again and how amazing it was the first time I read it.

1. Harry Potter

It would be like living my childhood all over again if I could read this series over as if it were the first time. It was probably the most magical time in my life.

What are some books you guys would love to reread?

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What Makes a Good Thriller/Mystery

Felt like doing something a little different today, so I decided to talk about what I think makes a good Thriller/Mystery novel.

If you are anything like me, you might have a harder time reading thrillers and mysteries than you do reading everything else. I love watching thriller/mystery shows and movies, but when it comes to pen and paper it just can’t seem to hold my focus. 

I almost never read those types of novels specifically because I don’t feel as connected to them as I do other genres. These novels might just be the hardest to write because of how complex they have to be. A good thriller/mystery has to keep you on your toes while still managing to make you care about what is going to happen. I find that in a lot of thrillers I don’t really care about the characters because we don’t really get anything likable about them. Thrillers usually star characters we don’t like or respect and therefore don’t really care what happens to them because of it. The times that I’ve enjoyed thrillers was because I liked or had a general respect for the protagonist or whomever we are rooting for.

A great example would be The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. There is no book character out there as badass as Lizbeth Salander. She is just so well rounded. Lizbeth Salander is one of those characters that always surprises me, I never know what she’ll do and I love that.

Another thing absolutely necessary is a plot that twists and turns. No one likes a mystery that can be guessed halfway through the book. You have to be hit with a plot twist or it just isn’t worth reading, especially considering how long thrillers/mysteries tend to be. No one wants to waste their time on a boring book.

Another aspect that is so so important is the antagonist. The hero is only as good as the villain is bad, we all know this. So if the antagonist of a story isn’t truly driven and complex then there is no point.

What do you think is an important part of a thriller/mystery novel?

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Sunday Favorites: Damon Salvatore

“It's not wrong to hustle hustlers. It's like killing murderers, a public service.

I've only done books for this Sunday Favorites thing so I thought it was time to transition to some of my favorite characters! 

I've decided to start with my 7-year fictional boyfriend, Damon Salvatore.

Whether it’s on screen or on pages, Damon Salvatore is one of my all-time favorite fictional characters. The thing that sets Damon apart from all my other book boyfriends is that he is different on the show and in the book and yet I still love him in both. 

Damon is such a complex character, he starts out as the bad guy that no one trusts and people just want to get rid of him, and he transforms into everyone's favorite bad boy who isn’t so bad. He has a tragic backstory that we don’t get to see right away but once we do we finally understand him.

In the books, Damon is very suave, incredibly manipulative, and very dark. I also pictured book Damon differently than from the show. Damon is said to be Italian so I had this whole tall dark and handsome image of him going on in my head. Very sophisticated and despite the fact that he was evil, still very classy. He always seems to be very much in control of himself and situations. 

“Damon, leather and silk and fine chiseled features. Mercurial and devastating.” 

Damon on the show is a whole other story. Damon is the snark master man whore who sleeps with half the characters on the show. He’s dark and damaged and I would say he’s tall dark and handsome, but there is definitely a difference between how L. J. Smith wrote him and how Ian Somerhalder played him. Damon seems to be a bit of a mess in the show. He gets drunk and does irrational things that make people hate him.

“I've been in love. It's painful, pointless and overrated.”

Love him or hate him, you have to admit, Damon Salvatore is a dynamic character. He changes and does things that surprise us. An I personally love him very much for it. What I love most about Damon is that even though he has a tragic backstory and has some pretty shitty things done to him, he tries to get past it. He doesn't mope around, maybe he got vices, but it's better than moping. 

After writing this I now have to go and rewatch the entire tv series.

How do you feel about Damon? Love him or hate him?

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Rave: Friendships

Happy Chinese New Year to all my fellow Chinese out there! This post is going to be primarily gifs of Friends because I have an obsession.

Everyone loves to have friends. It doesn't matter who you are, you don't like being alone. Just as long as there is that specific person you like being around is there, you don't mind what you guys are doing. Connection makes people happy, and sometimes we have to get that sense of connection through novels as we can't get any in real life, therefore friendships in books are really important.

Friendships in books are probably the most important thing in the characters life. Not only is it good for the reader to see the protagonist making connections, it also makes the reader feel more connected to the characters.

When an author wants to make you and the protagonist feel sad and isolated they take away their friends and family, leaving them completely dependant on themselves and that in turn makes the reader feel how much those friends and family members are important to the protagonist.

I find that if I'm reading a book and the protagonist doesn't have many outward connections, it can make the story feel isolated and I know that sometimes that is exactly what the author is trying to do. they are trying to make you feel the isolation that the character feels. Whenever I read a romance I like to look for a friendship somewhere in there as I feel like a lot of the time the romance authors can just forget about building up any relationship that isn't part of the love story. I've read so many romances where the protagonist wither doesn't have any friends or just ditches their friends to hang out with the super hot guy they barely know. This makes the story feel really flat to me.

When you're reading a book and the protagonist is in a sticky situation and they don't know what to do and they feel very alone, there needs to be that perfect character to help them through it. Maybe they don't know what they're doing but they make the protagonist not feel so alone. They create a support system which infinitely makes whatever the protagonist has to do that much simpler.

Friendships are also important because I feel like without them characters can make really bad decisions, with a friend they will have someone to bounce ideas off of or have someone to tell them when something is a terrible idea. It adds another layer to the story because you know that the protagonist will probably be okay because they have a good friend standing by them.

It's really just the best aspect of a characters life to have those they love. Love interests will come and go, but as Phoebe Buffay says, friendship is forever.

Thoughts?


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