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Books That Have Surprised Ely So Far in 2020

Jun 28, 2020

Hello, it’s Ely again, back with my monthly guest post! Today, I thought I’d share with you all a couple of the books that have really surprised me so far in 2020. So without further ado, let’s jump in.

Well Met by Jen DeLuca: I’m not really a contemporary romance reader. I’ll enjoy a contemporary YA every now and again, but rarely a general/adult romance. But the idea of a Ren faire romance sounded adorable to me. And guess what? I was right. This was just a sweet book and I really think that’s mostly down to the added element of that Ren faire.

Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid: Again, literary fiction? Not really a genre I pick up often, at least not on my own. But I saw this starting to appear everywhere in January, and I thought ‘screw it’. I borrowed the ebook from my library and started it on my long haul flight to London. I didn’t take my eyes off it until I was finished. About four hours later when we made our stopover in Perth.

The House of Youssef by Yumna Kassab: This is really just a whole post of books from genres I don’t ever read. So I picked up The House of Youssef because it was nominated for this year’s Stella Prize, and I ended up really enjoying it.

Dominicana by Angie Cruz: This is 100% one of my favourite books of this year so far. I read it as part of the Women’s Prize longlist. And I drew me in instantly. As soon as I finished it, I went ahead and ordered Cruz’s other books because I just knew I would love them.

The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan: Despite many people telling me how amazing this book was, I was always kind of hesitant to pick it up. Crime is one of the genres I have the worst luck with. Other than Agatha Christie, I usually end up DNFing them but then along came The Ruin. This truly kept me on the edge of my toes—it was intriguing and none of the characters annoyed me. All in all, it was just very surprising.

Those are the books that have surprised me in 2020. What are some of your most surprising books so far this year? Let me know below and I’ll see you all next month!

Romance Genre Battle: Military vs Paranormal

Apr 26, 2020

Hello, everyone! It’s me again—Ely from Of Wonderland. I’m here to do my monthly takeover of Angel Reads!

I thought I might do something a little fun and different today! You’re probably well-aware that Angel loves a good romance book, and naturally, she sucked me into that life too. I’ve been pretty content to sit in my bubble of historical romance, but I challenged myself to step out of that comfort zone. So I picked out two genres I don’t have much experience with, picked out two books for both genres and today we’re putting them to battle.

Basically, I’m going to tell you which books and genre I preferred.

Paranormal

Grave Phantoms by Jenn Bennett

I started the project off with this one and I think that was a good idea, despite it not being my favourite on this list. While this is paranormal, it’s also historical as it takes place in the 20s. So I think it was a nice way to ease myself into the genre. Plus, I enjoy Jenn Bennett’s YA work so I felt like I was in safe hands.

As I said, this wasn’t my favourite book on the list and a lot of that has to do with the paranormal parts. This is the third book in the series and the first one I read. I think that was fine in the sense that there wasn’t anything I’d missed. But I do wish I’d started with the other books—the heroines in those books just sounded more interesting and the paranormal aspects sounded more up my alley with mediums and cursed ancient Egyptian artefacts.

Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning

Oh boy. This book is the definition of a trip. There is so much stuff in this book that just blew my mind, but not in a good way. It was definitely more of a ‘who signed off on this?’ kind of reaction. I can’t even speak about any of it without spoiling it, but just know if you read this you are signing up for some weird-ass shit.

So did I enjoy this? Well, eh. I found the plot and the world kind of interesting. I didn’t hate the paranormal aspects even though I’m not usually a fae kind of person. The characters though? Mac has got to be up there as one of the worst ever. I swear to God if you made a drinking game out of the number of times she describes her outfit or nail polish, you’d be dead in the first few chapters. But somehow…I still kind of want to know what happens next?

Military

The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros

I was reading this one partly for this post, but also partly for the ‘Bestie picks my TBR‘ project that Angel and I have going on. She warned me that this would break my heart. She really did. But I chose to ignore that, which was stupid but OH MY GOD. It broke my heart into tiny pieces and I loved every second of it.

I didn’t think I’d enjoy the military aspect, but that’s really more of background information than having a whole lot to do with the actual plot. So the military is kind of key to the premise, but less so in the actual story—I hope that makes sense. In fact, I’d almost consider this more of just a straight contemporary.

The Darkest Hour by Maya Banks

This was my first time reading anything by Maya Banks and I’m feeling a little conflicted about it. I felt like this book followed a lot of characters rather than just focusing on Ethan and Rachel. In a way that was okay but Ethan is probably my least favourite of the brothers, at least in this book. I get that we’ll be following the brothers in the other books but I’d have been happy just to go into those having only seen the brothers as side characters.

Anyway, yes, I found Ethan kind of boring. I didn’t really feel a spark between him and Rachel—maybe because I could kind of guess certain things that were going to happen. That all being said, I did really like the way Maya Banks wrote—it was easy and enjoyable. It certainly didn’t hit me in the same way The Last Letter, but it also wasn’t Darkfever, you know?

Final Thoughts

So for this genre battle, I have to say that military won mostly because of how much I loved The Last Letter. However, I’m not going to completely give up on paranormal romance genre yet but at least now I have somethings to compare them too.

Well, that’s me signing off for now. I’ll see you all again next month!

Get In My Cart: Books I Really Want

Mar 26, 2020

It’s that time again! Yep, it’s me Ely from Of Wonderland, here to take some of the pressure off Angel for a day. This month I’m going to be talking about some of the books I’m most tempted to buy and throw into my cart. So let’s get straight into it.

We Can’t Say We Didn’t Know by Sophie McNeill: I saw this one for the first time about a week and a bit ago and was instantly intrigued. I love hard-hitting non-fiction and this sounds like it fits that bill perfectly. The only reason I didn’t pick this one up was because of the lack of information about it. It is a new release, so I’m giving it a few more weeks for some reviews to come out before I pick it up.

The Oracle Code by Marieke Nijkmap: I have absolutely bought this book so many times since I heard about its release. I have this thing about pre-ordering books—I don’t know what it is, but it makes me extremely anxious. This is now out, so hopefully, I’ll pick it up soon. This is a graphic novel featuring Barbara Gordon (Batgirl!) as a wheelchair user. Now the comics often do some magical cure thing or don’t make her paralysed at all. But Marieke Nijkamp is a disabled writer so I’m hoping for some good representation!

The Silence Between Us by Alison Gervais: Some more disability rep! I recently saw this one reviewed by Laura who is someone that I really trust. I’m not really much of a YA contemporary reader these days. But as its often the genre with disability rep, I find myself continuing to be drawn to it.

My Fake Rake by Eva Leigh: Would it really be a post from either Angel or me if there wasn’t at least one romance book mentioned? This is one of the ones I’m most excited about at the moment. It’s friends to lovers and honestly, we all know that’s the best trope. I’m prepared to die on that hill.

What about you—Are any of these on your list? What others are sitting patiently in your carts and wishlists?