Make Me Read It Readathon 2018

Hello! Ely @ Of Wonderland and I are again hosting the Make Me Read It Readathon, making it the fourth year in a row. Basically, this readathon allows your friends and audience to vote for what you'll be reading. This year, the readathon will be from August 6th to the 13th! So that will give you guys about a month to set up voting and polls and all that!

An Innocent Life #24: The Start of Summer

I seem to somehow skip all the months, and now we are in May. Well, technically tomorrow will be June, AND IT WILL REALLY BE SUMMER. I am not ready. At all.

Review: From Twinkle, With Love

From Twinkle, With Love by Sandhya Menon
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: May 22nd, 2018
Source: Edelweiss
Date Read: 5/11/18 to 5/17/18
336 pages

Aspiring filmmaker and wallflower Twinkle Mehra has stories she wants to tell and universes she wants to explore, if only the world would listen. So when fellow film geek Sahil Roy approaches her to direct a movie for the upcoming Summer Festival, Twinkle is all over it. The chance to publicly showcase her voice as a director? Dream come true. The fact that it gets her closer to her longtime crush, Neil Roy—a.k.a. Sahil’s twin brother? Dream come true x 2.

When mystery man “N” begins emailing her, Twinkle is sure it’s Neil, finally ready to begin their happily-ever-after. The only slightly inconvenient problem is that, in the course of movie-making, she’s fallen madly in love with the irresistibly adorkable Sahil.

Twinkle soon realizes that resistance is futile: The romance she’s got is not the one she’s scripted. But will it be enough?

Told through the letters Twinkle writes to her favorite female filmmakers, From Twinkle, with Love navigates big truths about friendship, family, and the unexpected places love can find you.

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Book Depository

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Quotes taken from ARC may or may not be in the published edition.

Make no mistake, I wanted to love this book so bad. Especially since I absolutely loved When Dimple Met Rishi. But this, in the end, just didn’t work out for me. And honestly, I’m 100% sure it’s a me thing.

Review: Only Human

Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel
The Themis Files #3
Publisher: Del Rey Books
Release Date: May 1st, 2018
Source: Netgalley
Date Read: 3/18/18 to 3/24/18
336 pages

In her childhood, Rose Franklin accidentally discovered a giant metal hand buried beneath the ground outside Deadwood, South Dakota. As an adult, Dr. Rose Franklin led the team that uncovered the rest of the body parts which together form Themis: a powerful robot of mysterious alien origin. She, along with linguist Vincent, pilot Kara, and the unnamed Interviewer, protected the Earth from geopolitical conflict and alien invasion alike. Now, after nearly ten years on another world, Rose returns to find her old alliances forfeit and the planet in shambles. And she must pick up the pieces of the Earth Defense Corps as her own friends turn against each other.

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Book Depository

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Quotes taken from ARC may or may not be in the published edition.

I bit late with this book but hey at least I actually completed the review. 

So just to back up a bit, this is the third and final installment of this trilogy, and I guess to get straight to the point, I don’t think I loved this as much as everyone else did. Which is fine because I still very much enjoyed it, BUT it just didn’t meet my expectations. 

Review: Circe

Circe by Madeline Miller
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Release Date: April 10th, 2018
Source: Netgalley
Date Read: 4/10/18
400 pages

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child--not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power--the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.

Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Book Depository

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Quotes taken from ARC may or may not be in the published edition.

I can’t believe I haven’t blogged or reviewed a book in so long. Whoops. Well it WAS that time of the semester where I’m doing ALL THE THINGS, and every time I had some free time, I wasn’t motivated. But that all changes TODAY. Maybe.

Review: The Astonishing Color of After

The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X. R. Pan
Publisher: Little, Brown Books
Release Date: March 20th, 2018
Source: Netgalley
Date Read: 3/14/18
480 pages

Leigh Chen Sanders is absolutely certain about one thing: When her mother died by suicide, she turned into a bird.

Leigh, who is half Asian and half white, travels to Taiwan to meet her maternal grandparents for the first time. There, she is determined to find her mother, the bird. In her search, she winds up chasing after ghosts, uncovering family secrets, and forging a new relationship with her grandparents. And as she grieves, she must try to reconcile the fact that on the same day she kissed her best friend and longtime secret crush, Axel, her mother was taking her own life.

Alternating between real and magic, past and present, friendship and romance, hope and despair, The Astonishing Color of After is a novel about finding oneself through family history, art, grief, and love.

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Book Depository

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Quotes taken from ARC may or may not be in the published edition.

Hello there, long time no see. I’m back from…wherever I’ve been, to review The Astonishing Color of After, an amazing debut that I have had the wonderful pleasure of reading. Seriously, it’s only March and I’ve found a 2018 favorite. And I mean, yes, though it is probably due to the fact that I related so much to the biracial main character, there was just so much more to it than that.

The Pros & Cons of Binge Reading

I'm currently in the process of reading an entire series that I read the first book of exactly 3 years ago. And this is actually pretty huge for me because I almost never, NEVER binge read or watch ANYTHING. Yet this year, I have done both of those things! Which is why I will now list out the pros and the cons of binge reading.