Tuesday 10 January 2017

Teaser Tuesday: A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Ambrosia of The Purple Booker.
To play along just do the following:
  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro.

A Study in Charlotte –
Katherine Tegen Books

When I get angry, my English accent thickens until it’s clotted and snotty, a full-on cartoon. And I was furious. I probably sounded like the bloody Queen.
— Chapter 1

“Do you think, if I set fire to the maths building—”
“No.”
“But—”
“Still no.”
— Chapter 7



The day may come when I’ll no longer be temped by a Sherlock remake. So far, it doesn’t seem likely though. And that is a very good thing in my opinion, otherwise I would have missed this entertaining book. It’a nice to see the uncompromising analytical mind of the detective in a female main character for a change and let Watson be the (as per the role) more nursing one but with a slightly more problematic angle. I actually wish that this were taken even more to the point, but that probably would have caused reader riots ...
I especially liked how the original stories are referenced and sort of taken as actual history to be taken with a grain of salt in terms of creative license. And no doubt would Watson have liked a guidebook on the care and keeping of Holmses. That alone made me giggle quite a bit. Yet the story is not only amusing for a Sherlock fan. Even if the stories are completely unknown at the heart of the book there is still a very well-crafted crime plot. Among other things. I’m very much looking forward to the second book in the series.

By now it’s probably back to work or school for most of you. I hope you have found no unhappy surprises at your desk upon your return. Are you perchance watching the new BBC Sherlock series? I’m still a little shell-shocked if I’m absolutely honest. Share your thoughts and teasers in the comments!

Tuesday 3 January 2017

Teaser Tuesday: My Unscripted Life by Lauren Morrill

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Ambrosia of The Purple Booker.
To play along just do the following:
  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Unscripted Life by Lauren Morrill.

My Unscripted Life –
Delacorte Press

She tosses me a pen from the mug next to the computer. I catch it and sign, hoping it doesn’t obligate me to shave my head or dance a jig anytime someone says the words “peanut butter.”
— Chapter 2

You’ve got to quit confusing the plan with the dream. Plans change. They fall apart. Sometimes outside forces even blow them to smithereens. But the dream is what you always come back to. It’s your lighthouse in the fog. In the freaking storm.
— Chapter 10


Happy new year, everyone! I hope you had a good one and have already started well into this new round around the sun. At one point I got a little fed up with this dreary wet and stormy winter and what better way to get rid of it than with a summer book? This is a pretty summer romance with quite a few very quotable sentences. Admittedly you’re more than likely to get me interested in a book when it’s a two worlds collide type of love story ... Pride and Prejudice ring a bell? They can be very straightforward and often also formulaic, but I nevertheless appreciate them when they manage to convey this special feeling. This book does that quite well and tops it off with a nice underlying plot of character development.

How did you start your reading year? Do you have a resolution on how many books you want to read in 2017? Let’s hear from you in the comments!

Tuesday 27 December 2016

Teaser Tuesday: The Midnight Star by Marie Lu

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Ambrosia of The Purple Booker.
To play along just do the following:
  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

The Midnight Star by Marie Lu.

The Midnight Star –
G.P. Putnam's Sons


By the shore, the banners of my ships flutter in the wind. I feel the burden in my chest lighten at the sight, and the whispers stir happily. I’m no longer a prisoner. I am a queen again.
— Chapter 14

Do you greet all the foreigners passing through with knives? That must take up an awful lot of your time.
— Chapter 21




Closing out the blogging year with a final book in a trilogy seemed fitting. I hope all of you had a lovely Christmas if you celebrated and otherwise a wonderful weekend. I lived the dream of “All I want for Christmas is you. Just kidding, I sure hope there are books under that tree.”
This trilogy has tested me in a way I never anticipated. I always thought that I was a fairly generous reader in the sense of bestowing empathy to the main character of a book, but in this case Adelina almost gave me whiplash whenever I started to see her side of things with how much she twisted reality (and not just with her illusions) to support her point of view. Ultimately I can say that I am very happy with the solution of everything. It doesn’t absolve anyone of their deeds but it very much conciliates with the overall plot and other characters. I’d say if you like books with an ambiguous main character, like Mara Dyer, this could definitely be a series to look into. If you haven’t already.

How are you closing out the year, bookish and non-bookish? I’m enjoying home comforts and reading a few things I couldn’t find the time for in the past couple of weeks. And I’m definitely watching the storm outside. We should definitely consider changing the lyrics to I’m dreaming of a green and stormy Christmas. Be safe, wherever you are and I hope to see you all healthy and fresh-faced in the new year!

Tuesday 20 December 2016

Teaser Tuesday: The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Ambrosia of The Purple Booker.
To play along just do the following:
  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan.

The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily –
Knopf Books for Young Readers


The truth doesn’t have to advertise itself. All the truth needs to be is true.
— Chapter 7

Escape, sure. But it wasn’t so much about gettng away, as going to. You can go anywhere in a book. Books are adventure. Knowledge. Possbility. Magic.
— Chapter 10





Six years after the publication of one of my favourite holiday season books we finally get a follow-up! I fell in love with Dash and Lily quick and hard upon their book and I was happy to leave them after that with a warm feeling in my heart and revisit them in the seasonal spirit. Yet as with so  many of my favourite couples I always secretly hoped to find out more about their further lives.
This second book picks up about a year later so it is the holiday season again. Lily’s favourite time of the year ... only something is different and of all people Christmas-cynic Dash misses cheery Lily. I missed cheery Lily as well, she was mostly absent most of the book and it was really hard to compensate for this. In fact I just now realised how much of my love for the first book stems from the extreme contrast between Lily’s holiday cheer and Dash’s cynicism and her slow but steady conversion. And of course all the slow falling in love. Here we have the first serious relationship crisis, which is also interesting to read, but not necessary what I expected from what I thought to be a holiday romance read. I still adore Dash, especially now for all he did for Lily ... although both are to blame for what happened.

Do you have a book that got an unexpected sequel? I’m curious if you think they lived up to the first book. Share your opinions and teasers in the comments!

Tuesday 13 December 2016

Teaser Tuesday: Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Ambrosia of The Purple Booker.
To play along just do the following:
  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo.

Crooked Kindgom – Indigo

“I would come for you,” he said, and when he saw the wary look she shot him, he said it again. “I would come for you. And if I couldn’t walk, I’d crawl to you, and no matter how broken we were, we’d fight our way out together—knives drawn, pistols blazing. Because that’s what we do. We never stop fighting.”
— Chapter 12

“It’s easier when you’re younger, but so is everything. Children learn languages more easily. They learn mathematics more easily.”
“And they’re unafraid,” said Wylan quietly. “It’s other people who teach them their limits.”.
— Chapter 18

There are a lot of ways to describe how much I adore Leigh Bardugo’s writing, but the simplest is possibly also the best: Her Grisha trilogy was and is a miraculous tale and I fell head over heels in love with it. And now the Dregs dulogy is absolute perfection! The first book is an impossible heist story with twists and turns at breakneck speed. And this second book is all that only amped up to an unthinkable maximum. When you think that nothing can go wrong now expect everything to go wrong at the worst possible moment and in the worst imaginable way. And then expect to keep holding your breath for the next several chapters to find out how this can possibly be solved. I have a feeling that these brilliant characters can beat most of the odds but I still have a bit to go and I’m quite afraid that there is enough time for something to go horribly wrong.
The greatest fun are the characters I already knew from the previous series crop up in unexpected places and hear tales of their deeds like legends. You don’t have to have read the previous books to enjoy this dulogy. You could even read them the other way around.

These characters are not what you’d call wholesome, but I still know that I’d want them on my side whenever possible. Do you know and love ambiguous characters like that? Let me know about them and your teasers in the comments!