Discussion Post: Binge Reading Series

Have you ever started a series, duology or trilogy? Either picked something else

up in the middle or finished an entire series in a week? I have done both, many

many times and lately I’ve been hooked on finishing series, duologies and trilogies.

From the day I started reading, series have been something I’m drawn to, and have

read quite a few in my years of reading. The most recent being The Falling Kingdoms

series by Morgan Rhodes, I met Morgan at a book signing I had gone to for another

author and picked her books up soon after. Let’s just say I was devastated when

Ashley didn’t have book 5. Now that I’ve finished books 5 and 6, I am truly hoping

parts of the story continue into more books. Most of my reads this year have been

either stand alones, duos or trilogies, it depends majorly on the story whether I eat

up the book(s) or do I put off reading the rest because the story doesn’t leave me

wanting more right away. Now my sisters and I often all read the same series, duos

or trilogies, and sometimes it’s a race to finish whatever we are currently reading in

order to read the next one if we have it. It is all in great fun as we all love being able

to discuss books together, what characters we like or don’t like, favorite parts, etc.

I really enjoy series over stand-alones, one because it gives me more to read and

two because I like being able to see how stories turn out, if the good or bad

win, and if there’s any romances. A benefit to binge reading is not having to wait a

full year or more in order to read the next book. More times than not we’ve ordered

the UK copy of a book so we can read it sooner.

~Michaela

Discussion Post: Defacing Books

Black Moon

GGTVaV

I sometimes forget how well art and books go together, and both happen to be

something I’m fond of. I’ve always been a reader that hated finding writing/drawings

in a books’ pages or on the inside cover. I hadn’t really heard of defacing books

until Ashley asked me to deface one of hers. I was so nervous about it that I

sketched out what Ashley was thinking of for the blank black cover of

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee. I used some

of the designs from the book dust jacket for my defacing of the cover. When

I had finished my sketch on paper, I carefully transferred it to the cover of TGGtVaV,

and then took a silver sharpie to make it stand out on the cover. When I had finished

the cover I still couldn't believe I had been convinced to draw on a book. Defacing

TGGtVaV was only the beginning.

I have since defaced Black Moon by Romina

Russell and got to show it to her in person at a signing, which was incredibly nerve

wracking. (She loved it (: ) I have a stack of books currently waiting for me to

deface and some others in mind, but time simply hasn’t been there with my first

year of college wrapping up and the horse show season being upon us.  Ash has

tried to convince me to open an Etsy shop to sell some defaced books, but I haven’t

gotten the courage to do so yet. Ashley asking me to deface TGGtVaV has allowed

me to combine my love a books and a talent I tend to keep to myself.

I may open and Etsy shop for books at some point, but for now I’m going to

stick to defacing books off our shelves. Keep and eye out for them on bookstagram!

What do you think of defacing books? Love it? Hate it?

Any books you’d want to see me do?

Let us know below.

~Mackenzie

Book Expo 2018 Wrap-Up: Michaela

The journey to Book Expo was an adventure involving my first plane ride,

my first major trip (meaning leaving the comfort of my mountains) and

experiencing the city life. I was extremely nervous and excited for this

adventure as Ashley has always brought home wonderful stories from

BEA and I am glad I was able to be a part of it this year. Thankfully we

started making our plans way in advance which helped avoid any chaos

for Kenz and I’s first trip to the big city.

So we started this adventure by exploring many sweet treat places after we picked up our BEA badges (which was very surreal) , all the treats were delish, then we prepared to the early morning of BEA Day 1, after we got

to the convention center we started it off right like any bookish girls we got Butterbeer frappes and then we were off, Kenz and I headed over to signings to wait for Kendare Blake, the first author for our day. It was so cool to meet her since the three of us cosplayed as the three queens for

Halloween last year and we all loved the books. I also met Natalie C. Parker who was also at her first BEA with Seafire, I look forward to that read! I also picked up Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart and Light Years by Kass Morgan

via galley drops and look forward to reading those too.

Friday was the big day! Our busiest day that's for sure. We all had 3 authors we

wanted to see (it was rock, paper, scissors for who was seeing who). That list

contained Laini Taylor, Kerri Maniscalco and Katherine Locke. I went to Kerri

Maniscalco with Escaping from Houdini, I absolutely ate up Stalking Jack the

Ripper and Hunting Prince Dracula and thoroughly enjoyed them and #Cressworth.

Ash went to the lovely Laini Taylor for Muse of Nightmares, I still got to meet

Laini though on the floor of BEA which was a hoot! Kenz met Katherine Locke,

so each was a win win. I also met A.C. Gaughen for book two of Reign the Earth

(Imprison the Sky), I read Reign the Earth in like three days. I also met Courtney

Summers for her book Sadie, I haven’t read anything by her yet but look forward

to it. I managed to get a copy of The Bird and the Blade by Megan Bannen

thanks to Owlcrate and some lovely ladies trading with me.

Overall BEA was incredible, granted I still am not a fan of large groups of people

but I survived, I met some fellow book lovers and picked up a few of my anticipated

reads for the year. Cannot wait to see what 2019 BEA brings.

Michaela :)

Audiobook Discussion

This last year I have been on a huge audiobook kick. I have found more and more time
that I can squeeze in some listening. It takes me 45 minutes to clean horse stalls
so I just turn my phone on and let it play. I get to work an hour before we start seeing
patients so I play my audio while setting up for the day. When the girls are helping
with chores they get to hear snippets of the book I`m currently listening to.
It's always fun catching them up on what they missed and then them asking if
they can listen when I'm finished.

Audiobooks aren't a new thing for me. When I was younger my parents listened to
the first Harry Potter book narrated by Jim Dale. Thats where my love of audio
truly started. From there my listening took a pause when Audios became so expensive.
I found audible and my interests grew.

To date some of my favorite audiobooks and Narrators are;

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Narrated by Wil Wheaton

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Narrated by Jim Dale

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Narrated by Fiona Hardingham

Wil Wheaton is one of those nerdy gamer guys I followed on youtube before I knew
he had narrated a book. Ernest Cline`s debut novel is one I was late to discover
but since finding it I have reread it or re-listened to it at least twice a year.
I am beyond excited to see the movie in March. Although I am not going in with any
high expectations just because the trailer already seems off.
The Night Circus is a book I picked up on a whim just based off of the narrator.
I am so glad I did and now I am eagerly awaiting to see what else Erin will write.
Jim Dale will always hold a special place in my heart for books. He was my
introduction to Harry Potter. The Scorpio Races was my introduction to Maggie`s novels.
Her style is amazing and since listening to this I have picked up her debut novel Shiver
to listen to at some point. This was also my introduction to the narrator as well.  
To be honest though anything by Fiona Hardingham seems to be an insta-like
book for me. She adds so much to the characters with her voice.

I am a tad picky when it comes to picking a book to listen to. I thought I would
only listen to books I had already read but that soon allowed my mind to wander
since I recalled what was going to happen. Like mentioned above though there
are some books I can reread again and again. Some requirements I look for when
picking out a book are;

1. I need an narrator that has a voice that I'm willing to listen to for 8+ hours.
2. The audio itself has to be at least 8 hours long. I just prefer unabridged version

because longer means more details.

I hope you enjoyed a look into my mind of audiobooks. What books do you enjoy
listening to instead of reading?
What stops you from listening if you haven`t tried it yet?

TTFN,

Ashley