Top Ten Tuesday: Things That Make Me NOT Want to Read A Book

Ugh, I am so behind with reviewing and blogging and life! :( I have been trying (and failing) to blog about my trip to Universal & Disney at the end of March (we're now the end of April? Yeah...). It is a serious struggle between talking about everything, and not writing a novel about a mere 8 days of vacation...

Anyway! We're not here for that, we're here for Top Ten Tuesday! Which I haven't done in ages (and which I missed again. I cannot keep up, y'all!). If you weren't aware, Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week's topic is ten things that make me not want to read a book. I actually could only come up with nine. Let's dive right in, shall we?



1) Zombies. I'm just not into it, ok? I don't watch The Walking Dead, probably never will, definitely don't want to read about it.

2) Amish. I read a lot of those books when I was younger, and I just can't stomach them anymore. If there's a bonnet on the cover, I will not read it.

3) High School romance. I love YA, love reading about teens who are in high school... but I don't necessarily want to revisit high school. They are either sickeningly sweet (and unrealistic), or extremely immature, and quite frankly, I'm too old for that! I hated high school.

4) Aliens. This one I'm picky about. I read, and loved, the Lorien Legacies and Carve the Mark, and I do like fantasy, but most high fantasy themes just don't intrigue me that much.

5) Cover art. Just being honest, here, but I totally judge books by their covers, and if the cover is ugly, I'm probably not going to read it. I often pick up books for $0.50 at yard sales/thrift stores, which have ugly covers, but the title intrigued me so I read the back and thought it sounded interesting.  I still don't usually read them, though, because there are prettier books to be read. And by the way, no matter how many people gush over how amazing A Court of Mist and Fury series is, I find the covers ugly and I will not read them.

6) Hype. This one's a tricky one too. I mean, generally speaking, I'm as influenced by my peers as anyone else is. I tend to jump on board and read what everyone else is reading. The ones that get too much hype, I tend to stay away from. No, I have not read or watched Game of Thrones. No, I have not read A Court of anything, nor anything else written by Sarah J. Maas, thankyouverymuch.

7) Graphic novels. Nope. Just, no. I enjoy a little bit of artwork in a book, especially in YA and children's lit. But the whole thing? Just pictures? I'm not even gonna touch it.

8) Biographies & autobiographies. Again, depends on the book. I have read the occasional biography and, much rarer, autobiography - they can be interesting. I like hearing about real-life stories, and who better to get the story from than the person in the story? However, it is not my go-to genre, and I am definitely not going to rush out to buy the next new celebrity autobiography. *gag*

9) R rated. If it were to be made into a movie and rated R, chances are, I probably don't want to read it. Admittedly, I find things a lot less shocking/offensive in written word than I do seeing/hearing it on a screen. But for the most part, if a book is explicit sex scenes or is violence-filled, I'm not interested. I can handle one or two scenes, but that's it.



So, yeah! These are the ones I could think of. I'll read just about anything if it's got a pretty cover and I've heard at least one person talk about it (whether good or bad). I do tend to lean more towards dystopian, murder mystery, and thriller genres, but I do branch out on occasion.

Book Review: This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

Source: OwlCrate sub box (July 2016 "Good vs. Evil")

Synopsis:

There’s no such thing as safe in a city at war, a city overrun with monsters. In this dark urban fantasy from author Victoria Schwab, a young woman and a young man must choose whether to become heroes or villains—and friends or enemies—with the future of their home at stake. The first of two books.

Kate Harker and August Flynn are the heirs to a divided city—a city where the violence has begun to breed actual monsters. All Kate wants is to be as ruthless as her father, who lets the monsters roam free and makes the humans pay for his protection. All August wants is to be human, as good-hearted as his own father, to play a bigger role in protecting the innocent—but he’s one of the monsters. One who can steal a soul with a simple strain of music. When the chance arises to keep an eye on Kate, who’s just been kicked out of her sixth boarding school and returned home, August jumps at it. But Kate discovers August’s secret, and after a failed assassination attempt the pair must flee for their lives.

Review:
I wasn't too sure about this book in the beginning. The setting was a bit strange, and I just wasn't sure if I was on board with the whole monster thing. But I had heard some really amazing things about this book, and Victoria Schwab practically has a cult following among OwlCrate subscribers, so I persisted.

I ended up really liking this book. Usually in art, music is portrayed as a healing power. In this book, music is the weapon the monsters use to kill their victims (but generally, the "victims" are bad people who are in need of punishment), which was a refreshing difference.

It had a bit of a Romeo & Juliet vibe to it: forbidden love between two warring houses... I very much enjoyed the romance between Kate and August, their flight for their lives, and the unexpected twists. It was somewhat of a disappointment for me to discover that it is the first in a series, simply because this book was newly released in July 2016, so the second book won't be released until this summer (June 2017).

I hate waiting.

But I will be very anxious to get my hands on the next book, Our Dark Duet, to know where Kate and August end up, how the consequences of Kate's actions will follow up with her, etc.

Goodreads rating:

Book Review: The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George

Source: I bought this book

Synopsis:

Monsieur Perdu calls himself a literary apothecary. From his floating bookstore in a barge on the Seine, he prescribes novels for the hardships of life. Using his intuitive feel for the exact book a reader needs, Perdu mends broken hearts and souls. The only person he can't seem to heal through literature is himself; he's still haunted by heartbreak after his great love disappeared. She left him with only a letter, which he has never opened.

After Perdu is finally tempted to read the letter, he hauls anchor and departs on a mission to the south of France, hoping to make peace with his loss and discover the end of the story. Joined by a bestselling but blocked author and a lovelorn Italian chef, Perdu travels along the country’s rivers, dispensing his wisdom and his books, showing that the literary world can take the human soul on a journey to heal itself.

Internationally bestselling and filled with warmth and adventure, The Little Paris Bookshop is a love letter to books, meant for anyone who believes in the power of stories to shape people's lives.

Review:

There are spoilers ahead. I do not care and I make no apologies.

I won't say I hated this book... but what I feel is pretty close to that.

I had such high hopes from reading the above synopsis! In my mind, this book was going to be a very different journey; a more magical, fantastical journey. To me, this synopsis read like a science-fiction sort of theme... with this bookseller who has this uncanny ability to be able to prescribe books to his clients to feed their souls and heal their broken hearts. That he would travel the world in his floating "apothecary," prescribing books to his clients, and eventually discovering the book (or the love?) that would heal his own heart and feed his own soul.

I suppose, in essence, that is what the book is... It's just that in my mind, it was a much more exciting and adventurous story...

What I actually got was a gratingly romantic fiction story (romantic in the sense of which followed approximately the same formula as above. I found it pitiful that this man was still mourning the loss of a lover twenty years after she left. I found it petty and immature that he had never read the letter she wrote him, completely closed off the room that reminded him most of her. I found the journey he took pointless and unexciting. We only saw him prescribe a handful of books, and in the end, he gave away the bookshop! I'm sorry, but if the thing is in the title, it needs to hold a more significant role than merely being the vessel he uses to travel the world!

In short, I would not recommend this book to anyone.

Goodreads rating: