New To My Wishlist #4

Welcome to a new feature at The Left-Handed Book Lover! Basically, this feature is meant to showcase books I really want to read, whether they were released years ago or don't come out for another six months. Enjoy!

Heart of Iron by Ashley Poston

Published: February 13, 2018 by Balzer + Bray 

Summary from Goodreads: 
Ana is a scoundrel by nurture and an outlaw by nature. Found as a child drifting through space with a sentient android called D09, Ana was saved by a fearsome space captain and the grizzled crew she now calls family. But D09 — one of the last remaining illegal Metals — has been glitching, and Ana will stop at nothing to find a way to fix him.

Ana’s desperate effort to save D09 leads her on a quest to steal the coordinates to a lost ship that could offer all the answers. But at the last moment, a spoiled Ironblood boy beats Ana to her prize. He has his own reasons for taking the coordinates, and he doesn’t care what he’ll sacrifice to keep them.

When everything goes wrong, she and the Ironblood end up as fugitives on the run. Now their entire kingdom is after them — and the coordinates — and not everyone wants them captured alive.

First of all, I am Ashley Poston trash. I will read anything she writes. Also, this sounds friggin epic, my dudes. It's a space opera! And look at that cover. Massive heart eyes.

In a Perfect World by Trish Doller
Published: May 23, 2017 by Simon Pulse

Summary from Goodreads: 
Caroline Kelly is excited to be spending her summer vacation working at the local amusement park with her best friend, exploring weird Ohio with her boyfriend, and attending soccer camp with the hope she’ll be her team’s captain in the fall.

But when Caroline’s mother is hired to open an eye clinic in Cairo, Egypt, Caroline’s plans are upended. Caroline is now expected to spend her summer and her senior year in a foreign country, away from her friends, her home, and everything she’s ever known.

With this move, Caroline predicts she’ll spend her time navigating crowded streets, eating unfamiliar food, and having terrible bouts of homesickness. But when she finds instead is a culture that surprises her, a city that astounds her, and a charming, unpredictable boy who challenges everything she thought she knew about life, love, and privilege.

I read a really raving review for this book, which is what originally piqued my interest, but re-reading the summary got me intrigued all over again. I've never read anything set in Egypt, and I've also heard that this sheds a lot of light on privilege. I'm sure reading this will be both emotional and informative.

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanen McGuire
Published: April 5, 2016 by Tor

Summary from Goodreads: 

Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children
No Solicitations
No Visitors
No Quests

Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere... else.

But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children.

Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced... they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.

But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of the matter.

No matter the cost.

A ton of people rave about this book, especially a ton of people whose opinions I trust. I never really paid much attention to what it was actually about, but the more I learned about it, the more I realized how up my alley it sounds!

Lefty's Lowdown: Vicious by V.E. Schwab

Vicious by V.E. Schwab
(Vicious #1)
Published: September 24, 2013 by Tor
Source: Purchased

Summary from Goodreads: 
Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?

This book has received SO MUCH hype and I was thrilled when BookTube-A-Thon gave me an excuse to read it. While I did like it a lot, I didn't fall in love with it the way some people did. I think part of that may be due to the fact that I read it for a read-a-thon and therefore was more concerned with finishing it than savoring it. Because this is the book you need to savor. You need to luxuriate in the gorgeous writing and complex characters, and I didn't give myself the chance to fully appreciate the beauty of this book.

This was my first ever Victoria Schwab book, and I'd gone in with high expectations for the writing, as everyone raves about how beautiful it is. I will say, I was not disappointed in that regard, but I was surprised. It's not beautiful in the way I expected it to be. It's not lyrical and poetic and bursting with these artsy metaphors. Instead, Schwab wields words like a paintbrush, gracefully filling our minds with vivid images and sucking us into the story & characters. And I just think it is so funny that everyone talks about the beauty of this book when there is so much stabbing and shooting and killing.

Another thing that really makes Vicious stand out is the unique execution of a tired premise. At its core, Vicious is about two college kids who gain super powers. It's an idea that's been written countless times, right? Not like this. Schwab makes it feel fresh and new, like you've never read anything like it before. It was fascinating to see Victor and Eli, the two main characters, unravel how people develop these super powers, and even more interesting to read the ways they try to acquire powers themselves. My favorite part was, by far, the flashbacks to their college days as their mindsets and their relationship developed and changed.

Now, I don't think it's fair to discuss Vicious without mentioning the characters. It's kind of a daunting task, talking about these characters, because there is so much that could be said. Eli and Victor are complex and well-developed. Schwab brings the concept of heroes and villains into question, as well as intentions vs. actions. It's all kind of a giant mindfuck because you think you know who is the villain and who is the hero, but then your brain just gets completely scrambled because NOPE. You know who thinks they're the villain and who thinks they're the hero, but it's all so fantastically twisted. I have to say, I ended up really rooting for Victor, who is the protagonist. I didn't agree with all of his methods, and I didn't think he was a particularly great guy, but that's kind of the point. Humans are messy and selfish sometimes, but that doesn't make them evil. Victor was just kind of doing the best he could, in my opinion, and I love the fatherly role he begins to play for Sydney, a young girl he meets and adds to his team.

What prevented me from falling head over heels for this book, though, was the pacing. I found the novel to be a bit slow sometimes. I think a major part of that was all the jumping from character to character. There's a ton of perspective shifting and I understand why it was done, but it just got to be a bit exhausting sometimes. There were some parts that I just would have liked to stay in one person's head.

Vicious is such a complicated, intricate book, and even though I've written quite a bit already, I feel like I have not even come close to doing it justice. It is a dark, twisted book that will really make you think about the nature of humanity and right and wrong. It's truly a brilliant piece of literature and I now understand why everyone speaks so highly of it.

4/5 

July Recap

Time to reflect on my month! 

Okay, July was not my most eventful month! I hung out with my friends quite a bit--going swimming, to the movies, out to eat, etc. I also went to Silver Dollar City (which is a theme park near me), and I saw Kian Lawley & Jc Caylen (famous YouTubers) on tour. 

Thanks to BookTube-A-Thon, I did much more reading than usual, which is wonderful! However, there was a point that I slipped into a blogging slump and had a lot of trouble finding the motivation to blog. I've conquered that, though, and I've come back with lots of fun stuff planned for August! 

ANYWAY. 

Reviews: 

Top Ten Tuesdays:  Top Ten Books With Less Than 2,000 Ratings On Goodreads Ten Fun Facts About Me Top Ten Books That Take Place Outside The U.S. Top Ten Books That Have Inspired Me Summer Blog Promo Tour:  Peyton from A Bookish Mess: Hobbies Jessica from The Book Bratz: Music & Dancing Flo from Book Nerds Across America: Interview Brooke from The Cozy Little Book Nook: Contemporary Novels Kat from Perks Of Being A Book Nerd: Scavenger Hunt
Misc. Posts:  Cover Reveal: Long Way Home by Katie McGarry Live and Let Psi Book Blitz: Giveaway and Interview with D.R. Rosensteel 61 (Non-Spoilery) Thoughts I Had While Re-Reading Delirium by Lauren Oliver  (this is like my favorite thing I posted this month!!)

Followers: 

Bloglovin - 67 (gained 9)

GFC - 16 (gained 2) 

Twitter - 181 (gained 60)

Instagram - 49 (gained 8)

Facebook - 4 likes (gained 1)

YouTube - 73 (gained 42)

Total pageviews - 9,910 (gained 2658)

Books read: 9

5 paperback | 1 hardcover | 3 eARC

Book with the most pages: Delirium by Lauren Oliver (441 pages)

Books with the least pages: Defending Taylor by Miranda Kenneally (304 pages)

Total Pages read: 3,169

Books reviewed: 6

1 star reviews: 0

2 star reviews: 0

3 star reviews: 2

4 star reviews: 2

4.25 star reviews: 1

5 star reviews: 1

Average rating: 3.875 stars

Most popular review:

by pageviews - 

And I Darken by Kiersten White

This is a re-read, but I don't care. It was still incredible! 

Last month's TBR: 

I read 3/4 books I'd planned to read in July, so I did a pretty good job!

This month's TBR:

The Summer of Chasing Mermaids by Sarah Ockler | The Reader by Traci Chee | Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver | Live and Let Psi by D.R. Rosensteel

School starts back up this month so I honestly have no clue how much reading I'll get done, but hopefully I'll get through all of these! 

BookTube:

Here is my most popular video this month! I'll be (ideally) posting twice a week. Make sure to subscribe to me if you want to stay updated on when and what I post! If you have a YouTube channel, send me your link because I wanna see whatchya got!

Music: So I'm probably a little late to the party on these, but here are two of my favorite songs that I discovered this month!  Lost Boy - Ruth B Cecelia and the Satellite - Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness  TV: I have been all about Glee this month! I'm so addicted to this show. It was getting a bit out of hand (I watched 3 seasons in less than a week) so I had to force myself to take a break, but now I'm back at it. I'm on season 5 now and even though it's kind of a mess right now, I don't want it to be over!  Movies: There have been so many wonderful movies released lately, and though I haven't seen all the ones I want to (Finding Dory, I'm looking at you), I have seen a few that were amazing!  The Shallows, which is basically about a shark attack, is SO. TENSE. I kind of expected it to be really stupid, but it kept me on the edge of my seat.  I also saw the new Purge movie and holy crap is it twisted! The previous Purge movies were child's play in comparison. It's about election year, so there's politics and just so much crazy shit going down. 

What has your month looked like? 

Lefty's Lowdown: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
(standalone)
Published: April 14, 2011 by Dutton
Source: Received in a trade

Summary from Goodreads: 
Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It's company policy.) But they can't quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.

Meanwhile, Lincoln O'Neill can't believe this is his job now- reading other people's e-mail. When he applied to be "internet security officer," he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers- not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke.

When Lincoln comes across Beth's and Jennifer's messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can't help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories.

By the time Lincoln realizes he's falling for Beth, it's way too late to introduce himself.

What would he say . . . ?

After being wowed by Fangirl, I vowed to read everything by Rainbow Rowell. Let me tell you, Attachments did not disappoint me. This book is clever, addicting, and different. 

I'll admit, I had a few problems with this novel when I was reading. In the beginning, I thought Lincoln was a bit too mopey for my tastes, but I did respect how realistic and (even though some might not like to admit it) relatable his character was. Socially awkward, stuck in a job he hates, and living with his mother again, Lincoln was definitely stuck in a life slump. In a way, his transformation almost reads like a coming of age novel (even though he's almost 30). All in all, though, he was a good guy and I really enjoyed reading about him once he starts getting his life together. 

The other problem I had was that the ending felt very rushed. This whole novel builds up to Lincoln and Beth meeting in person, so the way things went down when they finally did meet was not what I was anticipating. I just thought what took place was a bit strange, and I could feel myself reading with furrowed brows. 

Aside from those two things, though, I thought this book was brilliant! I just adored getting to know Beth and Jennifer exclusively through their emails back and forth with each other. They were so much fun and so so so clever! Their emails were definitely my favorite part of the novel. In the beginning, when I wasn't so much vibing with Lincoln's narration, I found myself eagerly awaiting their email exchanges. You know Rowell is doing something right when she gets me super invested in these two characters through just emails! 

I also think it is really neat that this book deals with the turn of the century AKA the Y2K debacle. I'm a bit too young to remember the panic that centered around this event, so it was so cool to see it in a book, and to read about the transition into a more technology-driven era. 

Despite minor issues, this book had me really hooked, and feeling very happy by the end of it. I love that Rainbow Rowell's books leave me with this deep-seated feeling of contentment when I finish the last page (NOT ELEANOR AND PARK THO). Anyway, this book was quick, addicting, and super enjoyable! 

4/5