Bookstagram: My Very Ambitious May TBR

Here's a picture of almost all of the books that are in my May TBR.

Here are almost all of the books that I’ve selected for my May TBR. (Neal Asher’s new book, The Soldier, doesn’t come out until May 15th.) @therealsjmaas’ new book, A Court of Frost and Starlight is going to be the first book that I’m going to read this month. @amandafoody’s book, Ace of Shades, is going to be the second book I’m going to read this month. I want to read it before @owlcrate’s OwlBabble with Amanda Foody. I’d like to read the first two books in @genashowalter’s Everlife trilogy back-to-back, but that might change depending on how close to the 15th it is by the time I finish reading Firstlife; I’m really hoping to read The Soldier this month. I would also really like to read @stephanie_garber’s Caraval again this month since the sequel, Legendary, is going to be released at the end of the month. I’m not quite sure where I’m going to fit @tessa.gratton’s book, The Queens of Innis Lear, into my reading plans this month, yet, but I’m really excited to read it. I’m also really excited FINALLY read @vanessafewings’ book, The Chase. 😀 I haven’t read the rest of @aleatharomig’s Infidelity series yet, but I’m really excited read Respect. It sounds really intriguing. 😀 All in all, I’m not sure that I’m actually going to be able read all of these books by the end of the month, but I’m definitely going to try my best to pull it off. 😀 #bookstagram #bookblogger #bookblog #bookaholic #bookaddict #acourtoffrostandstarlight #acofas #aceofshades #owlcrate #everlife #everlifetrilogy #thequeensofinnislear #tessagratton #genashowalter #aleatharomig #infidelityseries #icontrilogy #theicontrilogy #vanessafewings #nealasher

A post shared by Taylor Madison Street (@tmswriter6) on May 2, 2018 at 8:21am PDT

Books Featured in this Post  

A Court of Frost and Starlight (Book #3.1 in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series) by Sarah J. Maas 

Ace of Shades (Book #1 in The Shadow Game series) by Amanda Foody

Firstlife (Book #1 in the Everlife trilogy) by Gena Showalter

Lifeblood (Book #2 in the Everlife trilogy) by Gena Showalter

Everlife (Book #3 in the Everlife trilogy) by Gena Showalter

Caraval (Book #1 in the Caraval series) by Stephanie Garber

The Chase (Book #1 in the Icon trilogy) by Vanessa Fewings

Respect (An Infidelity series novel) by Aleatha Romig

The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton

The Soldier (Book #1 in the Rise of the Jain trilogy) by Neal Asher (Not featured in picture; Comes out May 15th) 

Related Book Reviews

A Court of Thorns and Roses (Book #1 in the A Court of Thorns and Roses Saga) by Sarah J.Maas

A Court of Mist and Fury (Book #2 in the A Court of Thorns and Roses Saga) by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Wings and Ruin (Book #3 in the A Court of Thorns and Roses Saga) by Sarah J. Maas

Book Review: Dark Intelligence (Book #1 in the Transformation trilogy) by Neal Asher

Firstlife (Book #1 in the Everlife trilogy) by Gena Showalter

Book Haul: End of February 2018 YA Fantasy Book Haul

Here are two YA books that I bought on Amazon, which were both released on February 27th.

My copy of the last book in @genashowalter’s Everlife trilogy, and my copy of the sequel to @tricialevenseller’s book, Daughter of the Pirate King, Daughter of the Siren Queen came in the mail today! Showalter’s Everlife trilogy is definitely one of my favorite YA fantasy book series, so I’m really looking forward to reading Everlife, and seeing how the Everlife trilogy ends. I got a copy of Levenseller’s book, Daughter of the Pirate King, in an @owlcrate box, and I thought that it was a really fun book, so I couldn’t resist buying a copy of Daughter of the Siren Queen. I’m definitely really excited to read both of these books. 😀 #bookstagram #bookhaul #bookmail #bookaholic #bookaddict #bookworm #booklover #bookblogger #bookblog #everlife #everlifetrilogy #genashowalter #daughterofthesirenqueen #daughterofthepirateking #tricialevenseller #owlcrate

A post shared by Taylor Madison Street (@tmswriter6) on Feb 27, 2018 at 10:10am PST

Firstlife: Not since Lost has a story simultaneously confused the hell out of me and completely blown me away (My thoughts on book #1 in the Everlife trilogy by Gena Showalter)

Before I get too far into talking about my thoughts on Firstlife, I definitely need to mention that as I was reading this book, I constantly found myself thinking about the book Divergent by Veronica Roth and comparing this book to Divergent. Maybe that might not seem fair of me to do that, but no matter how hard I tried to avoid comparing the two books, I just couldn’t seem to help it a lot of the time. If you’ve read my review for Divergent, then you know that I went into reading Divergent really looking forward to that book, but I was ultimately incredibly underwhelmed and disappointed by it. In my opinion, Firstlife is very similar to Divergent in some ways; however, Firstlife is a much better book in the grand scheme of things.

That being said, as much I was loved Firstlife, I’m not going to deny that this book really confused the hell out of me at times as I was reading it, which really made the story hard for me to follow at times. Honestly, my overall experience with reading this book reminded me a lot of how I’ve always thought that Lost was a really awesome show, while also being a really weird and confusing show to watch at times. Because Firstlife was a rather hard story to follow and keep all the details of the story straight in my mind as I was reading it at times, it’s definitely hard for me to describe the plot of the book for the purpose of this review. I’m going to do my best, though.

Firstlife is about a girl named Tenley “Ten” Lockwood who lives in a society where the life that people are living now is referred to as “Firstlife”, while the afterlife is referred to as the “Everlife”. People have to choose one of two realms that they can make a contract with to live in when they die. The two realms are Myriad, which basically values independence, happiness and indulgence, while Troika is more about structure, equality, freedom of choice, and standing up for what’s right. If you don’t pledge yourself to one of those two realms, that means you’re unsigned and you’ll go to the Realm of Many Ends when you die, which is basically the equivalent of hell. The two realms have been at war with each other for centuries, and they both view Ten as being special and what’s referred to as a Conduit, which means she has the ability to help either realm win the war.

Because Ten refuses to sign with either realm, her parents put her in an asylum where she has been for a little over a year at the start of the book in an attempt to make her sign with Myriad. Personally, Ten’s refusal to make a decision regarding what realm she wants to sign with and the fact that the possibility of Ten signing with Troika causes a lot of conflict between her and her parents is one of the ways this book reminded me a lot of Divergent. After all, in the society that Tris Pryor lives in, it’s viewed as a major betrayal if a person chooses to join a different faction, rather than remaining a part of the faction that they were raised in. Ten’s refusal to sign with Myriad leads her father to give the doctors at the asylum his consent for them to try and torture Ten into agreeing to sign with Myriad. The fact that her father told them to torture Ten into signing with Myriad definitely put him in the running to be featured in a blog post that I’m thinking about doing where I discuss and debate which fictional characters from books that I’ve read relatively recently have the worst parents.