Book review: Peter Darling by Austin Chant

Have you ever been in a situation when you don’t know what to read and then randomly find a book and it is exactly what you have been craving but you just didn’t know that? Well, this is what I felt when I started reading “Peter Darling” by Austin Chant, after seeing it being recommended by Cece at ProblemsofABookNerd. I still mentally salivate when I think about it.

I did not read the synopsis of the book before reading it, and I encourage you to do the same. Not because it is really spoilery (it is but there is just no other way to summarize the books, I guess), but because it does not reflect the dark and surreal feeling that this book inspires. To put it shortly, it is an adult fantasy novel, a sequel to Peter Pan, which features a transgender main character. That’s all you need to know. Go and read it now!

It takes place 10 years after the events of “Peter Pan”. Peter Pan has grown up, but his life has not been easy with Darlings. His father keeps calling him Wendy and his brothers think he invented Peter Pan. Peter feels the pull to return to Neverland, and this time for ever. Once he is back, he has to face his old adversary, Captain Hook. Ten years is a long time, and Peter is not a boy anymore, and it is not only hatred that he feels towards Hook.

I love reading books by indie authors, however, I rarely stumble upon real gems, and this book is definitely one of them. The book is well written with the right amount of angst and action. And I am a big sucker for angst. Peter struggles to be true to himself while managing his relationship with his brothers and parents, who see him only as Wendy. It is striking and moving, and I couldn't help but root for Peter.

Peter, when he returns to Neverland, and Lost Boys are brutal and more savage, which reminded me of “Lord of the flies” in some ways. There is a certain twist in the novel, which I freaking loved, and wish I could rant about it in my review, but it is a big spoiler.

Relationship between Peter and Hook is very believable, and I appreciate the fact that it did not happen out of blue or developed at a warp speed. For those who are concerned with the age difference, remember that Peter is of legal age in this story.

I really, really liked this book. I wish I had a physical copy, but it is definitely joining my favourites collection on my Kindle. I liked this book so much that I immediately went on twitter to tweet at the author and ask if he plans to do more fairy tales retellings/sequels because this one was awesome.

So, if you like queer stories and retellings peppered with angst, go and read it!

Personal rating: 4 stars

Buy on Kindle:

BookTube-A-Thon TBR

Who doesn't love a good challenge? Or an opportunity to tackle some of the books that you have always wanted to read but never had time to? Well, that's what read-a-thons are for.

Next week, beginning Monday, July 24, and till Sunday, July 30, the BookTube community will strive to complete all of the seven challenges announced by Ariel Bissett in this video. Obviously, I have to try too.

So, here is the list of challenges together with books, I picked (some links are affiliated):

The 2017 Reading Challenges:

1. Read a book with a person on the cover.

If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo

Genre: YA, contemporary, LGBT, Own Voices

 

2.  Read a hyped book.

Because You Love to Hate Me: 13 Tales of Villainy

Genre: YA, fantasy, anthology

3. Finish a book in one day.

Black Dog: 4 vs the wrld by Matthew Heiti

Genre: play/script

4. Read about a character that is very different from you.

Fishbowl by Bradley Somer

Genre: adult, contemporary, humour, magical realism

 

5. Finish a book completely outdoors.

genre: classic, detective, graphic novel

(I don’t think it is available in stores now, but I found this listing on Amazon - http://amzn.to/2uNADce)

6. Read a book you bought because of the cover.

Sherlock: A Study in Pink (Manga)

genre: TV-tie in, manga

7. Read seven books.

Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes

Genre: play/script, LGBT, magical realism

OR

Grief is the Thing with Feathers

Genre: poetry, novella, magical realism

 

Let's see how I do this year :)

Book review: 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher (audiobook)

   

I had never heard of this book before it started to consistently pop up in my YouTube feed. For some reason I thought that it was a new release, and then was confused when I realized that it has been on sale at BookOutlet for awhile. Everyone seemed to rave about it, which, as always, makes me apprehensive. And then this title appeared on my Netflix feed. I was getting annoyed.

And then I saw that Emma from emmmabooks did a review of the tv show, and I was like, okay, if Emma has read it, then I should read it too as I trust her opinions when it comes to sensitive topics.

But a warning first: this book deals with abuse, rape and suicide. If you are triggered by either of those, do not read it and skip the tv show. I am serious.

I did not want to read the physical book because I find it hard to concentrate on contemporary YA, and I also thought that this book will work well in an audio format seeing as the major part of the narration is done via audio tapes. I got the audiobook on OverDrive and, to my biggest surprise, flew through it.

I wouldn’t call this my favourite story. It is a horrible and a very realistic story of abuse at school, rape, and other circumstances that resulted in a suicide. The book is told from the first point of view of Clay Jensen, the boy in high school, whose first love, Hannah Baker, took her life. One morning, two weeks later, he receives a package with audio tapes, recorded by late Hannah, in which she talks about thirteen people that had affected her life. Clay is compelled to listen to them, not only because of the threat of the second copy being made public if he doesn’t listen and then pass on the tapes, but also because he wants to know what part he himself played in Hannah’s death.

This book is perfect as an audiobook. Hannah’s narration gets more raw and candid as the story progresses. I enjoyed both narrators and I think they did a great job with both characters. The story has a bit of mysterious, almost suspenseful, air at the beginning, which made me think that there might be more to the story than it seems. Unfortunately, even though the story does have some unpredictable moments, it was not the case. I managed to guess some of the twists right off the bat, as they were rather obvious. The way the story was narrated, however, was very compelling, and I couldn’t stop listening to it.

Funny thing about this book - I kept forgetting that Hannah was dead. I kept thinking that this is going to be the moment when she would be okay. And after I watched Emma’s video review of the book and TV show, I found out that she had the same feeling while watching it. But no - Hannah Baker is dead, but she is so alive in this audiobook, that it is easy to forget this fact. I liked both Hannah and Clay. I felt really horrified by everything that Hannah went through, and I think that the author did a great job describing abuse and depression, and how all of those small things just add up. I was appalled by the fact that nobody could see what she was going through, including adults (which is a very real and common thing, unfortunately). It is a very believable, realistic and terrifying story.

I felt that the ending of the book was a bit weak, seeing as the book had a great build up, but I was let down a bit as the ending didn’t feel as cathartic as I expected. Also, I felt that the reasons behind some of the people’s actions were never properly explained. People can be cruel for no reason at all, but I felt that it made some of the characters a bit cliched.

I didn’t have any intention to watch the tv show, but after Emma’s review, I am starting to think that I might actually like it better than the book. I did enjoy the book but I felt it lacking for the reasons mentioned above. To my surprise, it seems like the tv show addressed those weaknesses and made the story more dimensional and elaborated. As a matter of fact, if you watch Emma’s review (and she gives away everything including the ending of the show, so beware of major spoilers!!), it feels as if the tv show might even be extended, which gives the story a different perspective (if it does get the second season, I might be even more compelled to watch it, because I want to see how everyone is dealing with the aftermath, as we are not shown that in the book). Honestly, her review makes me want to watch the show as I want to know more about those characters, although I don’t like the idea of watching Hannah suffer all over again.

“13 Reasons Why” is not a light read, nor it is the best book I have read this year. It is, however, an important read - a reminder to everyone to be kind to each other and that there might be people around us who are suffering in silence.

Plot: 3 stars

Narration: 4 stars

Overall rating: 3.5 stars

Affiliated links:

  

Book review: The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich

   

This book kept coming up on BookTube and GoodReads as a new YA contemporary with a main gay couple, so of course I had to pick it up! I chose to read this book as part of #LGBTQIAREAD Read-a-thon, as I mentioned in my blog post.

“The Love Interest” is a slightly sci-fi young adult contemporary romance novel. Sounds confusing? Well, how about the plot. There is a nefarious secret organization that cultivates teenage spies. They are taken from their families and raised and trained to be perfect love interests for people who are destined for great power or influence. Those “love interests” are split into Nice and Bad, depending on their personality fit, and are constantly evaluated for various skills. Once they are deemed to be fit and are matched to their “chosen one”, they are then given the directives and are implanted into lives of those “chosen” to spy on them for the rest of their lives.

Caden is a Nice, Dylan is a Bad. They are give the same target and the ultimate incentive to win this dangerous game: be chosen or be killed. But, unexpectedly, they start to develop feelings for each other.

The plot summary was what attracted me to this book. I am not a huge fan of YA contemporary romance, but I love queer books and dystopian/sci-fi elements, so I was very excited to read it. Good thing that I purchased the book before I checked its rating on GoodReads or I might have never picked it up. As I am typing this, “Love Interest” has the rating of 3.18 on GR, and I try to never go for books which are under 3.5, because I get mostly disappointed (the only exception besides “Love Interest” was “Wink Poppy Midnight” which I adored).

Let’s be fair here, “The Love Interest” is far from a strong debut novel. There are a lot of plot holes surrounding the secret organization and how it was dealt with. Especially, in the last third of the novel - I had an impression as if the author was rushing through the ending or didn’t have it fully outlined, because everything that was happening was just too fantastical to be real. Some of the characters were too two dimensional for my taste and some of their actions were just implausible.

The good thing about this book is that it is just pure fun. The first half or even two thirds of the book is just a pure satire and parody on a typical young adult romance. And it is intended to be such. I found the narration overall pleasant enough and the action was fun.

I think that this book would have benefited from more editing and perhaps another round of revisions. I liked the idea of love interests/spies, I liked both Caden and Dylan. But the book lacked depth and even the moments that were supposed to move me felt a bit shallow as they were so brief. Not to mention the fact that the ending was extremely weak.

Is it a great book? No, but it IS a fun book which I might even re-read if I need a good laugh (because some of those romance tropes were just hilarious). But most importantly - the book gave me exactly what I wanted to read: a queer love story. We don’t have enough of those in YA, even nowadays.

I will definitely keep an eye on Cale’s books and hope to read more by him.

Personal rating: 3 stars

Affiliated links:

Book Review: Heartless by Marissa Meyer (audiobook)

 

A year ago when several lucky booktubers were hauling an advanced reader’s copy of “Heartless”, a new stand alone novel by Marissa Meyer, I was feeling rather jealous. The ARC looked stunning and the final version was beautiful too. I had not read a single book by the author, but I was extremely interested in reading “Heartless”.

“Heartless” is a retelling of a story about Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland. Catherine might be a daughter of marques, but her dream is to become a baker and open her bakery. Her mother, however, dreams of her daughter to be wed to the King of Hearts. Catherine is struggling to find the balance between her parents’ wishes and her own dreams, until one day she meets Jest, a royal joker, and she is immediately attracted to him. But nothing is what it seems, and their secret courtship is overshadowed not only by the impending marriage to the king, but also the attacks by hideous and murderous monster named Jabberwock.

In spite of a great premise, I felt disappointed by the book. I read the first 100 pages and then got stuck, not because I hated the writing or was completely not interested in the plot, but rather because the story felt too slow-paced and too reflective for my taste. I felt almost bored when I was reading it, that is why I found myself picking up the book less and less, until I put it aside for a month or two. Frustrated, I decided to switch to an audiobook version, especially since I found out that it was narrated by Rebecca Soler, who voiced Nimona, and whom I rather liked.

So, I switched to an audiobook, started from the very beginning, and found that, although it was much easier to get through “Heartless” while colouring or doing something else, I was still getting annoyed by the fact that almost nothing was happening. Cath seemed too weak-willed to turn into a real Queen of Hearts. Her shiness and modesty didn’t match with the image of the queen yelling “Off with their heads!”. Jest was intriguing enough, but too good to be true, and I kept waiting for a big dirty secret to be revealed about his past and, unfortunately, was let down. I found some of the secondary characters more interesting than Cath herself.

However, no matter how many problems I had with the action and plot, I found the world wonderfully written. Marissa Meyer did an amazing job intertwining all the elements from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass world together into something that was very fascinating on its own. I would have loved another book set in this world, but not related to “Hearltess” in the plot.

Although Rebecca Soler does a great job voicing different characters, I found her British accent quite annoying and unnecessary. Her Cheshire and Hatter sounded too similar at times. Her King was extremely annoying (purposefully, I assume). Jest was lovely, but I could barely stand Cath or her friend Mary-Ann (not sure if it was because Rebecca is so good of a narrator of it is because I just disliked the characters).

I think the downfall of Heartless for me lies in the predictability of the ending. I mean, we all know what kind of character Queen of Hearts was in Lewis Carroll’s books, so it was never about the ending, but rather about the journey to that ending. ‘The journey’ failed to deliver and ‘the ending’ was just as expected, which turned this book, to my surprise, into a three star read.

I enjoyed the book, I liked the world and some characters a lot. I think that it was very well written. But the plot line made me want to grab the book and shake it until everything gets mixed inside and all the puzzle pieces finally fall into right places. I am still on the fence about how I feel about the book. I liked it, but I might have overhyped it to myself (I wanted to be so badly swept off my feet by it!), so it turned out to be a letdown. It is in no way as bad as some other retellings - it is well written! But it could have been so much better!

Therefore, I am splitting the ratings as follows, as I am not able to give just one rating to this book:

Plot: 3 stars

World/characters: 4.5 stars

Narration: 4 stars

Overall: 3.5 stars

If the author ever decides to write another book in this universe, that would have a completely original plot, I would totally down for it. Otherwise, I am glad that I only spent an Audible credit for an audiobook and didn’t succumb to the urge to buy a physical copy, no matter how pretty the cover is.

P.S. I am totally NOT OKAY with what Marissa Meyer did with Jest and Hatter at the very end. NOPE. That was just UNFAIR.

Affiliated links:

 

Book review: Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles, #2) by Marissa Meyer (audiobook)

 

I started “Scarlet” audiobook immediately after finishing “Cinder”. Just like “Cinder”, it is a retelling of yet another children’s favourite story. This time of “Little Red Riding Hood”. I definitely like this fairytale better than Cinderella, but I was wary of how they would portray the big bad wolf.

Okay, I loved what they did with Scarlet and Wolf. I liked how the story developed and that we got glimpses into other parts of this world. What I was honestly surprised by is how seamlessly “Cinder” and “Scarlet” were connected. I expected to get a whole new set of characters and only episodic references to Cinder and what was happening to her, but on the contrary, two plot lines run in parallel and intertwine at the end. That pleasantly surprised me.

I felt that “Scarlet” was overall a better thought through book than “Cinder”, although not without its faults and number of cliched twists. My favourite part was, actually, Cinder’s escape and her meeting with Carswell Thorne and how self-absorbed and oblivious he was. Scarlet rocked the novel though. I liked the depiction of her home and all of those little references to her life and memories of the past. Scarlet’s father turned out to be an annoyingly predictable character. As well as Ran (whom I actually liked - no idea why). I liked the character of Wolf too, although at times it seemed as the author was trying too hard to make him into a typical “bad boy with a heart of gold” character.

The plotline with Princess Selene became even more obvious to the point that I wondered how I can sustain the interest in it till the end of the series. Thankfully, there were other things happening in this book.

All plot holes aside, “Scarlet” was a bit more engaging than “Cinder” and some of the fighting scenes were pretty cool. Also, it seems like Prince Kai has finally grown some backbone, which made him a bit more interesting in this book.

My biggest pet peeve with “Scarlet” was that the narrator Rebecca Soler gave Scarlet the most infuriating little French accent. Same as with British accents in “Heartless”, Rebecca couldn’t sustain it at 100% at all times and sometimes it just felt redundant and annoying. Not sure, if it is only me who thinks this or not.

I think, I can tell that Marissa is getting better, as “Scarlet” is more fast paced, in my opinion, but I am still annoyed with her overly romanticizing everything in her novels. I am quite okay with not listening for the millionth time about how fit Wolf is or how hard his muscles are. It gets tiresome after time.

I find “The Lunar Chronicles” series interesting but not wowing, which is disappointing.

Plot: 3.5 stars

Performance: 3 stars

Overall: 3.5 stars

Happy Canada Day: Book Recommendations

 

Happy 150th Birthday, Canada! Have a wonderful maple-syrup-sweet and fun weekend. I put together a list of some of books by Canadian authors that I don't see recommended a lot. Or not at all. So, if you would like to see what I have read by Canadian writers and enjoyed - read on!

This blog post (sadly) does not contain any affiliated links, but I will link to my reviews and GoodReads pages for you to learn more about those books.

"Milk and Honey" by Rupi Kaur

If you are from Canada and haven't seen (or read) this collection of poetry and prose by a Toronto author, Rupi Kaur, you must be living under a rock (or in an igloo). It is a collection about love, abuse, pain and betrayal. So, consider yourself warned.

Personal rating: 4 stars

Long Story Short: An Anthology of (mostly) Ten-Minute Plays, edited by Rebecca Burton

This is one of my favourite anthologies to date and includes scripts and plays by Canadian playwrights from coast to coast. I have read and reviewed this collection on my blog.

Personal rating: 4.5

"Jane, The Fox and Me" by Fanny Britt

It is a cute middle grade picture book/graphic novel. I adored it. (And not only because it has a fox on the cover and in the title.)

Personal rating: 4.5 stars

"Hark! A Vagrant" by Kate Beaton

You probably have seen Kate's cartoons all over tumblr even if you don't recognize the book title or her name. Go check it out through - it is hilarious and has the best Canadian memes ever.

Personal rating: 4 stars

"The Lady Paranorma" by Vincent Marcone

A creepy and unique graphic novel from a visual artist. Plus, you get a challenge throw in - you need to find cardinal birds throughout the book. I loved it.

Personal rating: 4 stars

"Through the Woods" by Emily Carroll

Five creepy stories with gorgeous illustrations. If you like Brothers Grimm's like fairytales and graphic novels - it is a must have. I loved it so much, that I gave it to my friend as a gift. (But I still don't own a copy myself, why....) If you are at it - check out another book by Emily Carroll co-authored with Marika McCoola - "Baba Yaga's Assistant" - I liked it slightly less but the art is great!

Personal rating: 4.5 stars

"The Liszts" by Kyo Maclear, Julia Sarda (illustrated)

Another graphic novel with gorgeous art (I know, I have a trend here). It is super short but I want my own copy. Because a) the art, and b) I love making lists.

Personal rating: 4.5 stars

And here are 3 books that I haven't read yet but would like still recommend.

The Secret Loves of Geek Girls by Hope Nicholson (edited)

I was lucky to be at the panel with some of those lovely lady authors. This is a collection of stories and graphics and illustrations all about geek girls, and insecurities, and loves, etc. One of the stories was even written by Margarett Atwood (I couldn't NOT mention the dame of Canadian literature, eh). I am yet to read it myself but I heard only great things.

"The World Needs More Canada" by Indigo

It is a coffee table type of picture book that celebrates Canada and the country's 150th anniversary. It definitely looks pretty on my shelf :)

"Now You Know Canada: 150 Years of Fascinating Facts" by Doug Lennox

I picked it up at the library because I want to know more about Canada. Although I have a feeling the book might be 2/3 hockey facts :D

I hope you enjoyed my list, and Happy Canada Day, eh!

Book review: Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles, #1) by Marissa Meyer (audiobook)

 

Here is to another book series that I am reading far behind everybody else. But in my defence, I started reading young adult novels less than 2 years ago. I have a lot of catching up to do.

“Cinder” is a debut novel by Marissa Meyer, and having read (or rather listened to) “Heartless”, which was the author’s fifth full novel and being slightly disappointed, I was not too hot on reading “Cinder”. However, I decided to go the same route as I did with “Heartless” and picked an audiobook version, in spite of owning the whole series in physical copies. I had my problems with some of the voices that Rebecca Soler did in “Heartless”, but her rendition of “Cinder” turned out to be quite good.

The Lunar Chronicles is a series of  fairytale retellings set in a sci-fi world, a sort of dystopian version of Earth, split into various alliances and empires. “Cinder” retells the story of Cinderella, who in this story, is named Linh Cinder, and is a cyborg and a mechanic. The is also an adorable android sidekick Iko, a handsome and slightly naive Prince Kai, his overbearing counsellor, a bit too vicious Queen Levana, and a vindictive stepmother and two very different stepsisters.

I had the same problem with “Cinder” that I had with “Heartless” - I liked the world well enough, but the relationships seemed shallow at times, the emotions too exaggerated (and why is everyone so hung up on Prince Kai?), and nothing really happened for some portion of the book, which undoubtedly would have made me DNF if I had been reading it in physical form.

As an audiobook, though, “Cinder” is pleasant enough to serve as a background for doodling, cleaning or cooking. It has an interesting enough world to keep me listening, but I admit that since Cinderella is my least favourite fairytale, I couldn’t wait to be done with this part.

I liked it enough to continue with the series, thanks to the coolness factor of fairytales in sci-fi setting, but “Cinder” failed to ‘wow’ me. In some way, I might have done a disservice to myself as I read a rather overhyped “Heartless” before “Cinder”, but nothing can be done about it now. I sincerely hope that the series will get only better with each book.

Plot: 3 stars

Performance: 3.5 stars

Overall: 3 stars

Book Review: Caraval by Stephanie Garber (audiobook)

 

Warning: might contain very minor spoilers

“Caraval” is a young adult fantasy novel about two sisters who live on a remote island with a tyrannous father. Scarlett, the elder sister, is willing to do anything to save both herself and her younger sister Donatella, including accepting the arranged marriage. She has a dream, though, of seeing a mysterious performance, Caraval, and one day she gets the invitation from the master Legend himself. When Scarlett is brought to the island to partake in the game, almost against her will, she is faced with the fact that Donatella is missing, and now Scarlett has to win the game to save her sister.

I was very excited to get my hands on Caraval, but since I had never heard about this author (and only later found out that it is a debut novel), I got it from the library. Unfortunately, I failed to read the book and had to return it. So, when I found out that Caraval was narrated by Rebecca Soler, I immediately went to Audible and got my copy of this audiobook.

I finished the book surprisingly quickly. I felt, however, very much let down by it. Very similar to my experience with “Heartless” by Marissa Meyer (but only worse in this case), the book left me feeling as the author had poured all efforts into creating visually appealing world and characters, but the plot was crafted from cliches and tropes. It was getting so ridiculously predictable at times, that I could even guess the lines in dialogues. Because I have already read all of those before, in multiple books.

Caraval, which is positioned as a fantasy novel, is surprisingly romance heavy. It has too many elements of romantic settings and all of those descriptions of ‘smooth, muscled backs’ and ‘chiseled features’ only made me roll my eyes repeatedly. It would have been okay if this book was meant to be a romance novel. In a fantasy setting, it seemed just a bit too much of sugar at inappropriate places.

The world of Caraval is crafted well enough, however, the ideas behind it are not new. A deadly game to save the loved one? We have all read a book or two about that. Falling for a bad boy? Yup. Dying but not actually dying? Err, what?

I had a big problem with the plot, which had more holes than a plot is allowed to have, but the biggest issue for me was with the ending. The dead should stay the dead unless their death wasn’t such a big deal. Because if it is, if it is supposed to be a hoax, do not let either readers or characters believe in it for so long. And especially, if it all turns out to be a trick - do not treat it so lightly. I personally found annoyed and cheated at the end.

I liked Scarlett fair enough, although I didn’t always agree with her actions. I liked Dante, probably, the best from all secondary characters. I liked both his and Julian’s backstories, however, everyone else verged at the edge of annoying. Especially, Tella. I am ready to say that she was the most annoying and least enjoyable character for me.

There is so much hype surrounding this book, which I don’t understand at all. The plot is weak, the romance is predictable, the characters are cliched. The idea was great, but it should have been executed and wrapped up in one book. But we, it seems, are getting a sequel.

Rebecca Soler does a good job with this book. I had some trouble distancing myself from my experience of “Heartless” at the very beginning, but overall I think “Caravel” characters sound more believable and alive. I am not sure if it was due to the fact that I started listening to “Caravel” right after “Heartless” or perhaps because both books are narrated by Rebecca, but I kept thinking that these two novels have a lot in common in the way certain things are romanticized and exaggerated. Of course, these two books are different, but I kept wondering if Stephanie Garber was somehow inspired by Marissa Meyer’s writing.

At the end of the audiobook, there was an interview with Stephanie Garber. Listening to her talk only solidified my opinion that this author is just not for me. Since we are getting the sequel that will focus on Tella, I am still on the fence with whether I would like to continue with duology (and I hope it is only going to be a duology), but I might give it a go if I have time and if I get it as an audiobook (preferably, from OverDrive). Because I am not spending a penny on the book that could have been so good, but turned out to be a hoax.

Plot: 2 stars

Performance: 4 stars

Overall rating: 3 stars

Affiliated links:

My #LGBTQIAREAD TBR

Okay, I am not very good with TBRs or read-a-thons or read-a-longs as I am a moody reader and prefer to read what I want to read in a particular moment. But when I watched George’s video on YouTube announcing Queer Read-A-Thon, I just had to sign up! I mean, I read queer lit anyway, and it is Pride Month, so I am going to do it!

I put together a list of books and graphic novels that I would like to read in that week. It is, undoubtedly, a pretty big list, but like I mentioned before - I am a moody reader and I need to have options. I also need to tackle some of my eBooks, as I keep shopping on Kindle and not reading them (does anyone else have the same problem?).

My TBR:

• “The Seafarer’s Kiss” by Julia Ember (eBook) - picked this one as it was recommended by Cece from ProblemsofABookNerd
• “And It Came To Pass” by Laura Stone (eBook) - also picked based on Cece's recommendation
• “This Book Is Gay” by Juno Dawson (eBook) - it was recommended by George more than once
• Utena (manga) - I recently got the new reprint!
• Kaptara, vol. 1 (graphic novel) - it has been sitting in my Hoopla account for awhile
• “The Love Interest” by  Cale Dietrich (young adult) - a new spring release that I can't wait to read!

The read-a-thon takes place during one week, June 25 - July 1. #LGBTQIARead is going to be the official hashtag on Twitter, if you would like to join in.

I can’t wait to start as I have been meaning to read some of those books for awhile!

Sign up here: http://daydreamersthoughts.co.uk/lgbtqiaread-is-back/

George’s video: https://youtu.be/xJBK3pQmo4A