An author you want to read more from this year?

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Teri Terry!! I still have one book by her that is on my physical tbr, and more that I’ve not gotten my mitts on yet!

She’s a fantastic YA fantasy author and I’ve adored everything by her I’ve read so far. I can’t wait to delve more into her different books and hopefully I’ll love those just as much too!

We’re about to start out first full week of 2022, I hope that you’re doing well, that you have amazing books, and that we can make 2022 much better than 2020 and 2021 were!

Image ID: a white woman stood in front of white bookshelves. In her hands she holds four books vertically. From left to right these are: Shattered, Fractured, Slated, and Books of Lies. All by Teri Terry

#TeriTerry #YAFantasy #SlatedTrilogy #BookOfLies #Bibliophile #BookstagramUK #Bookstagram #Bookstagrammer#BookCommunity #BookGirl #BookGeek #Bookish#BookLife #Reading #Reader #Read #ReadersOfInstagram#ReadingIsLife #AmReading #AlwaysReading #BookLover #BookPost #InstaReads #ReadersOfIG #BookDragon #BookWorm#PellinorReport

The Last Book You Read in 2021?

Here’s my December Wrap Up!

Not the biggest number of books but still a fair amount! The books that are facing backwards (scroll to see the second photo) are to represent my audiobooks: Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire and To Be Taught if Fortunate by Becky Chambers. I loved listening to these while I worked this month and I want to grab myself some physical copies!

I’ve FINALLY read Good Omens (now @cbooksanctum only needs to nag me about watching the show!) and loved it so flipping much. Like dear GOD was it good! And A Song of Wraiths and Ruin? @oliviascatastrophe knew I would love it and she was so right! I’ve already bought the sequel and I’m so excited to read it in 2022!

Of course we have to have some Skulduggery on there, this is an… interesting one (as most of the new season are) so I’m looking forward to hearing the thoughts of the rest of the Dead Famous crew. And I finally finished the amazing Major Labels, a non-fiction about music. So. So. Good.

My very last read of the year? 💙Midnight by Derek Landy💙 (nice and ironic)

Image 1 ID: Three books stood upright on a white shelf. To their left is a small christmas tree. From left to right the books are: Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A Brown, and Midnight by Derek Landy

Image 2 ID: Seven books stood upright on a white shelf. To their left is a small christmas tree. From left to right the books are: Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, two small hardback books turned spine inwards, Major Labels by Kelefa Sanneh, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A Brown, and Midnight by Derek Landy

What’s the first book you want to pick up in 2022?

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This is my January tbr! And yes, it’s surprisingly small. I wasn’t expecting this but hey, we’re going for it!

We of course have my monthly Skulduggery Pleasant read, and also I’m going to be reading a chapter a day of another classic with @oliviascatastrophe this year! We’re going to be reading The Count of Monte Cristo together and I’m so excited to get back into this routine, it was one of my favourite parts of 2021!

Amari and the Night Brothers somehow manages to fit every single one of the prompts for @griff.reads Goodreads Choice Readathon, not sure how I winged that but I’m running with it (and if I manage to smash my tbr I have other books lined up for the various prompts)

Last but not least, a little sneak peak into the December @illumicrate book because A Marvellous Light is my last read! I’ve never really used Discord, nor been part of a large group reading, but I want to try it out with my first month of the book box and I’m hoping it’ll be a lot of fun!

I hope that whatever books you pick for your January 2022 tbr you’re super excited for and I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on them!!

Image ID: Four books laid flat on a white bookshelf with the spine facing outwards. From bottom to top the books are: A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske, Bedlam by Derek Landy, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, and Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston

What’s a book you really want to read in 2022?

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Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston is one I was so excited to see in the supermarket when I was doing my shopping one day. I’ve heard so many fantastic things about this Middle Grade magical fantasy and the cover is stunning to boot!

I’ve just had a heck of a final quarter of 2021 and been far too busy so I was never able to squeeze this one onto a tbr, but I’m super excited to get around to it in the new year. Fingers crossed I absolutely love it!

Image ID: Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston is laid flat against a blue, white and grey plaid fabric. Behind this fabric peeks through some white

#AmariAndTheNightBrothers #MiddleGradeFantasy #Bibliophile #BookstagramUK #Bookstagram #Bookstagrammer #BookCommunity #BookGirl #BookGeek #Bookish #BookLife #Reading #Reader #Read #ReadersOfInstagram #ReadingIsLife #AmReading #AlwaysReading #BookLover #BookPost #InstaReads #ReadersOfIG #BookDragon #BookWorm #PellinorReport

Your favourite series?

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The Gift is the first book in the Books of Pellinor (kind of…) and it’s the book I’ve re-read the most in my life. I must have read this book upwards of 50 times and yet I still adore each and every page!

I say kind of the first for two reasons. One is that in the US it’s titled The Naming, because it clashed with a book that was already known there. But in Australia (where the author is from) and the UK the book is named The Gift.

The second reason is because a prequel to the series was released! The Bone Queen, which is now considered the first book in the Books of Pellinor. To me it will always be a 0.5 but I still love it, it’s a great prequel!

I last re-read this series in 2020 and I’m tempted to add in another re-read in 2022! What do you think?

Image ID: The Gift by Alison Croggon sat upright on a white shelf. Behind and slightly covering the book are fake plants of green ivy

Q: Do you collect mugs?

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I… have a bit of an afinity for mugs to the point where my partner dispairs every time I find a new cute one! So of course I wanted to try matching my books to one of my mugs!

I’ve loved owls for most of my life so this felt like the perfect mug to start with and I also really don’t have many brown books so this was a fun challenge! There’s only one book on this stack that I’ve not read (Dune) and the rest I’ve read and I absolutely loved them all!! They are all 5 star reads for me. Maybe I should pick up more brown books? 😂🤎

Image ID: A stack of brown books on a white shelf. There is a brown owl mug sat on top of the books, and in front on the right is fake green ivy. The books from bottom to top are: The Crow by Alison Croggon, Miss Marple Stories by Agatha Christie, Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and Dune by Frank Herbert

Q: Have you read self-help books?

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I’ve not purchased any myself, but my mum likes to buy me them sometimes as presents, especially when I was younger. This is one of those books!

A book from the late naughts that talks about health and beauty, when I delved back into this I wasn’t expecting much. I was expecting some decent advice, along with some questionable content and a lack of representation. I was pleasantly surprised!

This book has genuinely good health advice, there’s representation in the girls they photographed, and the makeup and hair sections make a point of also providing ways of looking after Black hair and Black skin. It’s not perfect by any means but it’s definitely better than I’d expected!

Image ID: Be Beautiful by Alice Hart-Davis and Molly Hindhaugh laid flat ona white background. Above the book is “growing” spelt in scrabble letters , around the book are generic beauty items like nail polish, makeup brushes, and a balck skirt with roses

The Eye of the North

First of all, I would like to say thank you to NetGalley for an eARC of this book in return for an unbiased review.

This book is aimed at the 8-12/Middle Grade age range, and recently I’ve found myself really enjoying books within this bracket, so I decided to pick this one up. It’s a tale following a young girl after her parents have been kidnapped, and her being confused and having to find out all of the information by herself. The world building was really interesting to me as it seemed to simultaneously be set in both the past and the future. Our protagonist Emmaline wears bloomers and she is traversing the Atlantic by ship rather than by plane. However, the ocean levels around the world have been rising so much that it has drastically changed countries borders. This is explained much further into the book, but I really enjoyed this little glimpse into climate change and how this book seems to emphasise the point that we need to look after our planet to avoid this future.

I vastly enjoyed the character development within this book, with Thing (yes, that’s his name) really coming into his own and I found him very endearing. Emmaline also seems to become a little less independent, and in her case, this is a good thing! She is much more willing to allow people to help her on her way, which means she is able to do much more.

The way this book ends, I feel like it has been left open for a possible sequel. There is nothing on Goodreads, however, I’d really enjoy diving back into this world and seeing more of these children’s escapades. Definitely a fun, charming and engrossing read and one I would recommend to children and those young at heart!

Seed

I saw this book in Waterstones, and the cover made me pick it up and read the synopsis. From that point, I knew I would have to read this book. I haven’t seen this book anywhere online and I am so surprised as this is a really hard-hitting YA book, it is written really well and I enjoyed it (if that’s the right word) a lot.

This book is based around a cult, where the members are cut of from the rest of society and brainwashed into thinking that those on the outside are morally wrong and that the people within the group are more worthy of God’s love. It was really tough at some points to have to read about what they were all going through, how different their lives were and how they thought it was all normal. But that is the point of books like these. They’re there to make you think. To make you reconsider what is going on in your world and to get you to re-evaluate your actions and your life.

The ending of this book was so sad and heartbreaking, as well as full of action. I did predict what was going to happen at the very end, but the way in which it was done and the writing style of Lisa Heathfield made it poignant and wrenching despite my prediction.

This was an absolutely amazing book which I think so many more people should read. It has its faults, but it is so engrossing and something I consider to be an important read. A difficult topic which needs to be covered.