Teaser & Top Ten Tuesdays

 

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by Purple Princess of The Purple Booker. 

Here are the rules:

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a page
3. Pick out 2 lines that are SPOILER FREE
4. Name the title, author, etc.

 

"The thing she'd birthed stretched. It untucked. It was shaped like a shadow that warped and ran and bent in odd places. With a quiver and a sigh, it gathered itself into the narrow form of a woman. Beautiful, with fingernails made to scratch. Jenny's blood on the floor was red as candy, and her mother's gathered in black pools, reflecting the moonlight like the glass eyes of a doll." Kindle loc 30%*

 

*This quote comes from the eARC, therefore it and its location are not final. 

TITLE: Tales from the Hinterland
AUTHOR: Melissa Albert
PUBLISHER: Flatiron Books
GENRE: YA Fantasy
RELEASE DATE: January 12, 2021

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

 

This week's topic is: Top Ten Non-Bookish Hobbies

 

*in no particular order

 

10. JIGSAW PUZZLES--on occasion I like to make jigsaw puzzles!
9. SEMI-BAKER--I like to bake on occasion as well! Mostly desserts! Never my own recipes but ones I find online!
8. WALKING--if the weather is good I like to go for walks

7. COIN COLLECTING--I previously mentioned having an oddball coin collection, basically all the bookish and non-monetary kinds! Lol!
6. TRAVELING--once upon a time, long long ago, I used to like to travel. Mostly anywhere I could drive or reasonably fly to author events. I'm not sure I'm going to remember the protocol for these whenever they get to happen again! Lol...sobbing!
5. GINGERBREAD COOKIE FREAK--yeah, for some reason at Christmastime I become obsessed with gingerbread cookie designs, decor, whatever! Lol! I'm a big fan of the Little Debbie cookies and really hope they come out this year. They've already said the trees will be delayed, but didn't mention any of the non-tree cakes.

4. WRITING--though I've taken too long of a break from it, I used to love writing. I still think things over with my one WIP, I just need to edit a few things and try submitting it around again!
3. FUNKO POP COLLECTOR--I love buying bookish ones from mostly Pages of the Night, but I also buy the regular ones from shows or whatnot that were absolute faves.
2. CRYSTAL HOARDER--I do like collecting different crystals and gemstones with different meanings. You know like ones that are good for confidence or warding off negative energy. Yeah, I'm a geek!

1. DISNEY GEEK--I'm a certified Disney Geek and proud of it! No matter how old I get, I'm never too old for Disney!

Review--The Little Mermaid & Other Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen & Ill. by Minalima

Nearly two hundred years after its publication in 1837, Hans Christian Andersen’s timeless fairytales continue to inspire young imaginations. This beautiful unabridged edition brings together many of the Danish writer’s favorite stories that have become literary classics, including "The Little Mermaid", "Thumbelina", "The Snow Queen", "The Princess and the Pea", "The Ugly Duckling", "The Emperor’s New Clothes", and more.

Gorgeously designed, this keepsake illustrated edition—the fourth book in Harper Design’s series of reimagined children’s classics—will be treasured by readers of all ages for generations to come.

In between reads and waiting on one to arrive, I picked up the HarperCollins latest interactive fairy tale edition, The Little Mermaid and Other Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen. I’ve previously enjoyed Peter Pan, The Beauty and the Beast, and I look forward to reading Alice in Wonderland when it releases.

This collection of fairy tales in these interactive editions are so fun! Minalima does an AMAZING job with the illustrations and interactive elements! The artwork is positively gorgeous! In this installment, I particularly enjoyed the artwork in The Little Mermaid, as the undersea life was so colorful. Another little detail I enjoyed was how the page numbers were highlighted with a little picture that was iconic to the individual story you were reading. It was nice how they were kept separate from one another.

In this book you will find the fairy tales; The Little Mermaid, The Nightingale, The Ugly Duckling, The Swineherd, The Tinder Box, The Princess and the Pea, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Red Shoes, Thumbelina, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Little Match Girl, and The Snow Queen. Some of these I’ve read before and others were new ones for me, though I pretty much have heard of all of them! It was a treat reading the familiar ones and knowing the outcome and yet reading the new ones was also a delight since I didn’t know what was going to happen.

I could go into detail about what each fairy tale is about and I was almost going to, but instead I think I will let you read them for yourself. Just remember these are the fairy tales Disney movies were based off of, not the other way around! Some of these stories get pretty morbid, which I remembered that of The Little Mermaid. Not all fairy tales end happily ever after and after reading these, I feel like Hans was a fan of the unhappily ever after. I mean, the end usually involves death for pete’s sake!

And did you know in Thumbelina, she pretty much shrugs off leaving her mother—I assume you all know the general idea of this story. And then when she’s on the cusp of happily ever after, she let’s some prince change her name because Thumbelina is “ugly” sounding! Really? Really?! Then when you look at The Ugly Duckling, that poor little guy was nearly suicidal because everyone kept calling him ugly. And really, have you Googled “baby swans?” They are ADORABLE!!!

It truly goes to show you what a different time these writers lived in when they wrote these classic fairy tales. I mean, I get that. I really do, but man does it hurt to read such things. Why do I barely twitch an eye when a stepsister decides to cut off her toes in order to fit into a shoe, but seeing a poor little ducky heartbreakingly consider suicide because everyone calls him ugly send me into a fit of tears?! It’s insane!

Besides some of the moral issues I had with these tales, I still very much enjoyed them! I am fan of the original fairy tales and I know that they are not all happy ones. This is truly dark reading material when you think of it. Luckily, there’s a good mix of dark and light-hearted tales in this collection. A wise move on the publisher’s part I’d say! Lol.

Definitely a worthy read for the fan of fairy tales and the interactive elements alone are what make this a fantastic read! The gorgeous illustrations falling closely behind that, if not just on the level because you can’t have the elements without the art! This book, and the collection to date, is truly a work of art that any booklover should have among their shelves!


Overall Rating 5/5 stars

 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It's a fun meme where we gather to share what we've read last week and our reading plans for this week.

 

Last Week I Read:

The Ravenous by Amy Lukavics (3.5 stars)

 

Currently Reading:

Tales from the Hinterland by Melissa Albert (ARC)

 

What I Plan to Read Next:

The Devil You Know by Trish Doller

 

Other Posts of Interest:

Teaser & Top Ten Tuesdays
Waiting on Wednesday
Random Thursday
Book Blogger Hop
Creeptastic Giveaway Winner!
Challenges Monthly Wrap-up: October
Stacking the Shelves
Series Spotlight: The Weather Wardens

 

 

 

 

 

Series Spotlight: The Weather Wardens

 

Time for a little series spotlight! As you all probably know by now, the beloved Rachel Caine is not doing well healthwise, so I wanted to do this series spotlight post on one of her earlier series, The Weather Wardens! This was the first series I read by Rachel and was one I found in my days of strolling the shelves at Borders.

This series in a nutshell, involved magical people who had an affinity with weather elements. They used their powers to help tame Mother Nature so that people and society wouldn't suffer so greatly that they couldn't recover. So they'd try to basically tame a storm so it's not devastating, calm some winds here, fight back the fires so firefighters can get them put out...that kind of thing! Add in they have "relationships" with the djinn that aren't always happy ones and you have a bit of chaos on your hands.

The Djinn, as we may know, are sort of like genies. They have phenomenal cosmic powers that they are usually forced to use to help the Wardens. They too are usually trapped into jars and such and are only let out when the Warden who "owns" them commands them. That is a whole other issue that gets addressed in the series as well.

The series focuses on our heroine Joanne. In the first book she's wanted for murder and crimes she didn't commit and is on the run. She's trying to find her friend Lewis, another Warden who is also on the run and has three Djinn bottles in his possession. 

This series was beyond awesome! It's a completed one, so you can happily read it all in one go now AND there was a spinoff that focused on a Djinn too! This series was seriously epic you guys and yes, there was romance in it too between Joanne a Djinn! I won't say more than that. I probably have a few reviews of the later books on my blog, but I will warn you, those are from the early days of blogging and may be pretty scary! Lol!

But if you're looking for an action packed series that treads on a different level of paranormal THIS SERIES IS IT! It was a never-ending thrill ride AND another positive note that made me love this series as my TBR pile continued to grow, there's a short recap in each book where Joanne gives you the lowdown of what just happened and where she's at and what's about to go down. It's a continuing series so each book picks up where the last left off and it was beyond amazing!!! Do check this one out asap as you know, buying the books now will greatly help Rachel's family in the long run.

Stacking the Shelves

 

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks! The meme is now hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality.

 

I can't really remember this week. It was one of those weeks that was just agonizing while waiting for the weekend. Then naturally, the weekend just flew by! Halloween was uneventful as expected. A few Trick-or-Treaters were out, but not as many as we've had in the past. Last year we had a freeze, this year we had a pandemic. So more candy for us I guess!

This was quite a week of books too! Sadly, one of my packages is being held hostage at the post office. Not sure why they felt the need to hold it for two days longer than necessary, but hopefully it will come tomorrow.

 

Here's what I bought:

Fractures by Alice Reeds--Keeper copy!
Finding Faeries by Alexandra Rowland--saw this one pop up somewhere in the bookiverse and it looked liked fun!

Then, naturally, I added this beauty to my collection:

Caraval: Collector's Edition by Stephanie Garber--SIGNED!!

 

Then I ordered a few book boxes and they all came in pretty quickly this week! Full pictures to come later on Instagram--no spoilers present here:

Blood & Honey by Shelby Mahurin--The Fairy Loot box, after a very long wait, I finally have it!

Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco--Bitty Beacon Special Edition Box version 

Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco--The Bookish Box version

The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen--Bae Crate edition, after a massive delay due to shipping to the Bae Crate team, the books finally arrived to me!
The Traitor Queen by Danielle L. Jensen--Bae Crate edition

 

For review I received: 

Wicked All Night by Jeaniene Frost (ARC)

THANK YOU Avon!

Then I won a gift card & received another one from my credit card company:

 

I received one for winning the September Wrap-up of the 2020 Series Enders Reading Challenge!

 

THANK YOU Holly @ Words Fueled with Love!

 And after a few months of spending too much I earned myself another B&N gift card! So yay!

Then other things bookish and Disney that I acquired this week:

Legend and Julian Fae Crate Polaroid--an eBay find!

 The Black Widow Disney Store Key!
Mickey Mouse Gingerbread Pin!

A new pin hoop for my Halloween pins from Fandom Sleeves!

And that was it for me this week! What all did you get?