in which i crawl out of my blanket cocoon and emerge a beautiful bloggerfly

Well, hello again! It has been 226 days since I last blogged. Oops. 

review: queen of shadows (spoilers ahoy)

From Goodreads:

Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she's at last returned to the empire—for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past...

She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die just to see her again. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen's triumphant return.

Celaena’s epic journey has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions across the globe. This fourth volume will hold readers rapt as Celaena’s story builds to a passionate, agonizing crescendo that might just shatter her world.



Question: How is it possible that every book in this series is so much better than the rest?

Answer: Because Sarah J. Maas is a fucking queen, that's why.

Just a warning in advance, this whole post is probably going to contain quite a bit of profanity. So if you're not into that, this is your cue to move along. I just finished this beast about two hours ago and am still catching my breath, so you'll have to excuse my overly-excited sailor talk. Okay? Great.

Queen of Shadows was 100%, absolutely perfect. Honestly, I can't say a bad thing about it.

That's it for non-spoilery stuff. Proceed with caution.

waiting on wednesday - just visiting

Hello, my lovely internet pals! Today is another Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. If you're new, it's a weekly feature that allows crazy book addicts to gush about upcoming releases that will drain their bank accounts even further. What's not to love? 

This week, my can't-wait pick is... 

book cake tag

Here's a fun little tag for you, because who doesn't love cake and books? The main idea of this tag is to pick a book that fits each ingredient for delicious, wonderful cake. Like this: 

I don't know who this tag was started by, and I don't have any intention of tagging anyone else, so we're just gonna answer the questions and get back to our merry lives. Sound good?

1) Flour - A book that was a little bit slow to start off but that really picked up as it went along. 

Throne of Glass! For some reason, I could not get into it for the first hundred pages or so. But damn - once I was hooked, there was no looking back. 

2) Margarine - A book that had a really rich and great plot. 

The entire Harry Potter series. Hidden eggs everywhere, just perfect.

3) Eggs - A book that you thought was going to be bad but actually turned out quite enjoyable. 

I'll probably have to go with Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway. It's not that I thought it was going to be bad, it's just that I loved Audrey, Wait! so much and didn't really hear a ton about it from other people. So when I picked it up, I was kind of scared that Audrey, Wait! was a fluke and I would be disappointed. 

4) Sugar - A sugary/sweet book. 

Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler. Mostly because the title just fits so well, but also because it actually was such a nice, sweet book. (And also because it made me crave cupcakes like nobody's business, but let's not dwell on that.)

5) Icing - A book that covered every single element that you enjoy about a book (funny moments, action moments, sad moments, etc.). 

The first one that comes to mind is Maus I & II by Art Spiegelman. It was one of my first ventures into the world of graphic novels, and I absolutely adored it. By the way - Tracy, if you're reading this, which I know you are: READ IT NOW! 

6) Sprinkles - A book series that you can kind of turn to for a little pick me up when you're feeling down. 

Again, Harry Potter. It will forever be my favourite. 

7) The cherry on top - Your favorite book this year so far. 

It's an extremely close toss-up between Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon and The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin. Both of them were absolute, sheer perfection. 

Well, I'm hungry now and have a sudden urge to bake until my hands fall off. 

waiting on wednesday (on thursday) - this is where it ends

Well, hi! I know this is a day late but we're rolling with it. Because we're rebels. And since I'm late for almost everything else in my life, I thought this would be fine. You forgive me, right? 

Can we just talk about my new WoW header for a second? How cute is it? I have another one for Top Ten Tuesday that you'll get to see next week. Spoiler alert: it's also adorable. 

Anyway. I'm doing another Waiting on Wednesday (thanks to Breaking the Spine for hosting this every week!). This week's pick is.... 

a new look

Hi, all! This really has nothing to do with books, but if you happened to see my post yesterday (it was only up for about an hour before I had the issue fixed), I was complaining about how I couldn't reply directly to comments. 

Well, I got a new template/blog theme, and all is well. I'm absolutely obsessed with how it looks right now, and even better - I can reply to comments! I hope you guys like the new layout and colour scheme. It definitely fits my personality better than the pink did! There may be a couple new updates as time goes on, but for now, I'm loving it. 

what's in a name? (harry potter update #1)

Full disclosure here: my Harry Potter re-read isn't going so well. I haven't even finished Philosopher's Stone yet, if we're being completely honest. My excuse is that BookTube-a-Thon took up a week of potential HP reading time, and my newfound obsession with the Throne of Glass series isn't helping much. So I am hereby revoking my promise to have the series done by September. Basically, I'll finish it when I finish it. Definitely Hopefully by January, when my Harry Potter class starts. 

One of the things I've noticed so far is that J.K. Rowling is really quite fantastic and placing little hidden eggs throughout the text. It's especially fascinating look at these hints from the perspective of someone who has already read the series, watched the movies, bought the t-shirts, the whole nine yards.