Hello and welcome to my blog, Sofia's Corner! I want to wish you a happy new year, but before we can focus on books in 2019, I figured the fair thing to do was to wrap up my 2018 reading list. For the first time, I participated in Goodread's Reading Challenge and set the goal to read 14 books. However, although my final list says 14 books, those are only works that I finished.This post will laso deal with some unfortunate DNF's
The Bad
I'm starting with the bad ones because I like to go from negative to positive. I like ending on a positive note.
Zodiac by Romina Russell
Look, this book sat in my bookshelf for three years, and it waste of space. I gave up at about 60% of the way because I couldn't take it. The premise is that there's 12 Zodiac Houses, and our heroine, Rhoma "Rho" Grace, from House Cancer, has had omens about the 13th sign, Ophiucus, rising. I loved zodiacs, and when I bought this, as a thirteen year old, it sounded great!
It wasn't. Rho acts like the stereotypical weak heroine who is "The Chosen One", which fine, Chosen One plots are not even that bad if the main character shows capacity to deal with surroundings and the main action. Rho spends way too much time worried about her crush on Mathias, her dark and brooding Cancer friend/crush, while also noticing Hysan, the cute and funny Libra guy;it's pretty obvious where that was headed... Unsurprisingly, after you discover the love triangle, the book just becomes a pile of overused tropes. The story itself feels flat and there is an overwhelming amount of terminology that drove me crazy, because they have this sphere thing where they see stuff but every sign gave it a different name, which made it super confusing for me. All in all, I was disappointed, especially cause I love astrology.
The Sparks by Kyle Prue
I gave this book a shot, and look, it had potential to be great, because it deals with conflict among rivaling families in a sketchy city, and I love that trope...but I didn't enjoy it. The story just lacks something, Neil Vapros, one of the main characters, just feels meh, and even the scene of him trying to kill someone feels bland! Also, even the writing style was lackluster. I genuinely feel bad because this is not a super known book and I hate giving it a bad review but...it wasn't for me....I stopped reading at like 35% of the way...
Something that really annoyed me was how every family member had to had specific physical traits to say "Hey! I have black hair so I must be a Vapros!", it was a super minor aspect of it but still....
The In-Between
Not terrible, not great, just books that gave me mixed feelings.
My Plain Jane by Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand, and Jodi Meadows
You may think you know the story. After a miserable childhood, penniless orphan Jane Eyre embarks on a new life as a governess at Thornfield Hall. There, she meets one dark, brooding Mr. Rochester. Despite their significant age gap (!) and his uneven temper (!!), they fall in love—and, Reader, she marries him. (!!!)
Or does she?
Prepare for an adventure of Gothic proportions, in which all is not as it seems, a certain gentleman is hiding more than skeletons in his closets, and one orphan Jane Eyre, aspiring author Charlotte Brontë, and supernatural investigator Alexander Blackwood are about to be drawn together on the most epic ghost hunt this side of Wuthering Heights.
Summary from Goodreads
There's two things that I love: Retellings and Jane Eyre. The premise of this book sounded fun and intriguing. I mean, you get Charlotte Bronte as a character herself, and she was a quirky girl that was Jane's friend. She was clever and witty, which obviously aided the plot. There's also Alexander Blackwood, one of the Royal Society´s ghost hunters, and he was also a well-built character with an interesting story and a good motive. Certain aspects of the original novel were rewritten and were made justice. The story also was entertaining at times and it surprised me here and there.
However,
Jane's character was not written well enough, and that bothered me to no end. I understand retellings will deviate from certain aspects of the original, but these deviations only damaged her character. They really watered down the original Jane. Also, the writing style sometimes seemed like it was aimed towards a younger audience, and although I don't notice the details of an author's diction, I realized they overused parentheses,and that irritated me. My biggest complaint however, was how some twists seemed too out there, and just felt a bit like gimmicks. I don't want to get too into it, but trust me, they came out of nowhere.
The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
I had been meaning to read this book since I was like thirteen, so when I got my hands on it I was so excited! Because I've always complained about not being enough books about fairies, so this seemed like the greatest choice!
I think the plot was good, I always love a good quest story, especially if there's fairies involved. The characters were mostly fun and created an interesting dynamic, especially Puck, he was my favorite character in this book, and maybe my favorite part about it too. The ending also raises more questions instead of answering them so there's a lot of suspense meant to get you to read the second book. Also, I'm a sucker for Court rivalries so that definitely gives it bonus points from me
However, a big chunk of the book was Meghan just...walking. I understand she was looking for someone or something during these scenes but they could have been shortened for the sake of time and the plot. Meghan herself was a bit too whiny at times, and that got old fairly quickly.
Spoilers ahead:
She also had this "romance" with Ash, that turned from "I hate you and I want you dead" to "We danced once" to "we shared a couple of intense glances" to "we kissed now!". Seriously, this was the most rushed kiss scene I've read in a while. They kissed, and I was so confused because they literally just stared at each other before this happened. Not the best dynamic. They just had a weird romance because it was so rushed.
This just gave me some really mixed feelings. I still don't really know if I want to read the second one because the story was good, but the writing...not so much.
The Good
The Best books I read this year!
The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
I have a knack for getting into stuff late....like really late. The last book, Winter, was published in 2015, and back then I didn't even know how many of these books existed...and it was such a big mistake! I know that I'm reviewing the series itself rather than in individual book, but that's because as a whole it's so strong! The first book, Cinder, starts off with such a simple plot, but by the end, there is so much more to it, so many risks and so many plot twists that you have to keep reading. By the end of the series, Winter has such a different feel that you can't even believe that it is the same series.. The saga really develops in the best way possible. AND THE CHARACTERS!! They all come from completely different backgrounds, they have an amazing complexity and it is a really diverse cast that Meyer wrote. (Just saying, but Cinder and Thorne were my absolute faves in this and they deserve all the attention they have)
And the romance...the romance is so well written. The main ships are all so complex and they all face different issues but they all have such amazing stories that you can't help but root for them, I would say who is my favorite but I wouldn't want to spoil it so...
Also, a futuristic Earth + fairy tale retelling was not something I expected to work so well but it did!
A Refuge for Masterminds by Kathleen Baldwin
If I had to choose a series that has been the most underrated in the past decade is this one. A Refuge for Masterminds is the third book in the Stranje House series. The series deals with five young ladies being spies during the time of Napoleon, and even if you're not huge on history, it's a cool plot because girls are doing stuff that was definitely not even allowed in the 1800s. But anyway, the main character in this is Jane and at first she is a little bit snooty but she means well. The book has really cool interactions and friendships, which I adore, and it has Alexander Sinclair, one of my absolute favorites in YA literature. He's the teasing American that ruffles Jane's feathers while he helps them try to stop Napoleon and his minions. They're a great pair, and the only reason why I mentioned their dynamic is because literally even the summary clues you into it, so is not really a spoiler. This book has all sorts of political intrigue, mystery and drama so...you should definitely read it.
Also, not gonna lie, I've made my mission in life to get people into these books because I'm lonely and nobody appreciates them nearly enough.
And that concludes my first blog post! Hopefully is the first of many more to come and hopefully you get something good out of this!
Join me next time as I tackle the list of books I want to read this year!
Stay curious,
SofÃa💖