Thursday 30 April 2020

april showers!


welp. 
another month of this self-isolation funtimes

shorter month than march, at least. 
look for the silver lining... 


i was more productive than i thought i'd be this month
between reading and camp nano. 
so, 
i'm happy :) 



I managed to get 37 books in. how? i have no idea. 
novels and graphic novels alike :) 

- satisfaction and revenge (lawless) 
- MMPR: Pink   (GN)
- Pink (V47)  (GN) 
- SpiderGwen Collection (GN)  
- Moto 
- Land of stories 2 & 3 
- Kingdom hearts: the novel 
- monsters of men 
- suggested reading 
- is it just me? 
- library of lost and found 
- Pokemon series 1-12 (GN)
- this boy 
- secrets of foxworth 
- ghost gwen (V3 i think)  (GN) 
-  someday, someday maybe 
- eleanor and park 
- hate drunk & love sober 
- match me if you can 
- Ruby 
- Queen of Air and Darkness 
- the Help
- A court of thorns and roses 

sheesh! this puts me at 108/200 for the year. craziness ! 
i am still working on little women and i had to DNF stain 
but what can you do 




i'm in a bit of a slump, i think i just overwhelmed my reading brain 
but ACOTAR is helping pull me out of it 
i'm in a reread mood
which my tbr isn't happy about
but too bad. 

a few weeks ago i reorganized my shelves into read/not read
and so i just pulled a random stack from the 'not read' pile 
and came up with: 

- a list of cages
- curses and kisses 
- love her or lose her 
- you'll miss me when i'm gone 
- the future of us 
- practical magic 
- the magicians (and book 2 if it keeps my interest) 
- lost boy 
- the rest of the Landry series (ruby was book 1)
- miss ellicot's school for the magically minded 
- beautiful bastard (i have all but 1 in this series so we'll see how far i get) 

and whatever else grabs my attention. 
i miss library books ... sigh. 
part of me wants to reread more harry potter too 



april 30th is my last day of being a 20-something. a lot has happened in the last 10 years and i'm kinda amazed how far i've come. 
i don't even remember my 20th, or my 21st ...
but since then? 
i've been pregnant, i graduated college, i moved away for work (and moved a few times since), i started my interpreting business, i got my wedding planning licence, i've been married, i've been separated, i started a cleaning business (that didn't last long), i became an aunt 3 times, i became a fur mama, i've been to the states for the first time, i've been to one other province, i've been on a plane (once!), i wrote a first draft of my novel, i've seen a couple of work-friends pass away, i've made some amazing memories, i've met the love of my life, i've become okay with who i am. 

it's been a busy 10 years. 

my mom and i were supposed to be on a plane today, going to paris/london for our milestone birthdays this year. but with how sick the world is we had to postpone it. we'll get there one day. 

no idea what next month is going to look like 
but i'm ready for whatever happens. 
hopefully, some May flowers <3 


Tuesday 14 April 2020

series review: beneath the attic


alright. 
it's no surprise that i didn't like this series. 
did i read it anyways? yes. 
why? because i can't argue why it's garbage if i have no evidence

beware of spoilers :) 


beneath the attic 

not many of us who are "hardcore" fans were excited for this. he is really beating this horse just to get a paycheck. enough, man. please retire writing under the VCA name. we beg you.

anyways 
i ended up giving this one a 1 star on goodreads.
If it was possible to give a 0, I would have. 
How could anyone enjoy this drivel? An obvious cash-grab with the 40th anniversary of FITA soon after publishing. It felt like he took the outline for Garden of Shadows and just changed (most) of the names and no consideration of the time period.
We learned nothing about the characters and the characters we thought we knew were rewritten into sex-crazed weirdos.A slow build up to nothing happening... all of this could have been 5 chapters, instead of 350 pages that dragged on. The ramblings of Corinne's feelings about sex with her new husband and whether or not they even love each other was slow and difficult to get through.



Such disrespect. 


Out of the attic 

I had no expectations or hopes for this story. 
I find the whole series a waste of time - but, being a vca purist, i had to give it a shot.
It was at least better than the first (though not by much)

I find his writing of a toddler being so evil and rude coming out of left field. This kid is being raised by a sweet nanny, and a decent mother ... and his fathers influence is no where to be found. So why is this kid sucha jerk? The character arc makes no sense.

The author has been hyping this story up for months, but really... I can't figure out why? We all knew she ran off with another man. She seemed quite loving to her kid, well, she tried to be (* see jerk comment above) and her husband is a piece of garbage so I am okay with her running off.

after reading this one, I was curious if we'll be getting different POVs in the next one since, without it, we will have many questions left over (though the author uses that as excuses to butcher our beloved stories)

but we aren't able to find a story synopsis anywhere so us fans are left out. 


also! what does the attic have to do with any of this series? 
insert eye roll here. 


shadows of foxworth  (does not come out til june 2020~. arc was from netgalley) 


honestly sir, find another word! Shadows has been used 4 other times in book titles under the VC andrews name. expand your vocab. (secrets is another one. oy.) 

since the synopsis of the book was not updated on any platform, us readers really have no idea what we are getting into. 
and it is not corinne's story. 
it is her children's. 
conveniently, corinne and her hubby die off in the first few pages. 
oh look, another recycled plot point. 
jeeze. 
it took me a few pages to figure out whose POV i was getting 
and finally, i got it. 
Marlena, corinne's daughter, is telling us how her parents died 
after a wonderful childhood in france 
and now she must go live with an aunt they've never met in america 
(beau's sister) 
with her older brother, the two are off to find out what it means to be a member of the Dawson family in Richmond, VA. where the mysterious Foxworth family lives.
Can you guess the rest of the story? i'm sure you can. 
I did. 

as a "dollanganger" book, this was terrible. 
if he had made it a new series, yes it is all recycled plot but it would've made a good 
first book in a series. 
well, decent, at least. 

that ending was rushed and made no sense 
and while i'm happy malcolm doesn't become a baby daddy to his half sister 
(enough with this story too!) 
it made for a flat ending of happily ever after. 

~~~ 


I do NOT recommend this series to anyone. 
everything under the VCA name until 2004 was great, and since then, the stories have decreased in creativity and excitement 
there was a time when he jumped on the supernatural bandwagon, and we got some interesting stories, but nothing beloved like those original stories. 

if you are interested in the vca fellowship, start at flowers in the attic and work your way through the books following publication order. that's really the best way to see the progression of the writing and characters*.

*i mostly say this because if you read My Sweet Audrina, and then Whitefern you will be very, very confused. wait 40 years (or longer). same with the diary series and now the above garbage. wait at least 40 years. i promise you, you'll thank yourself. 



i am also happy to report i got these off netgalley/the library and spent no money. 
i would be returning them. 

Wednesday 1 April 2020

march madness


welp. this month is FINALLY over. 
hallelujah. 
because this was a ridiculous time for the world.
in both good and bad ways. 

but honestly, yes I was more careful
but i didn't freak out like many people did 
unnecessarily 

so
with everything being cancelled 
i got to stay home 
and read 
which, lets be honest, work was taking up too much time anyways 



i got sick with a yearly cold 
so my reading wasn't as great as the past few months 
which is fine by me 
but i managed to get these beauties read: 

- ruthless
- girls made of glass and snow 
- fix her up 
- into the woods
- daughter of smoke and bone
- red hood 
- unexpected reality 
- a heart so fierce and broken 
- unexpected odds (arc) 
- straight on till morning
- tweet cute 
- midnight at the electric
- harry potter & philosopher's stone
- down and across
- knife of never letting go 
- crazy rich asians
- the ask & the answer 
- subtle art of not giving a fuck 


plus i'm in the middle of an ebook and little women. 
so overall, 19 done. 

putting me at 70/200 for the year 
yay ! 





as long as i don't get sick again
i should be able to read 

- monsters of men 
- is it just me 
- MMPR: pink (graphic novel) 
- ghost spider (GN) 
- spider gwen collection (GN)
- someday, someday, maybe 
- days of blood and starlight 
- stain 
- land of stories V2 
- kingdom hearts
- satisfaction / revenge 
- the library of lost and found 
- suggested reading 

however
 i've noticed that since manfriend is living with me during this nonsense 
that i've been reading less
and playing more mario party 
so we will see ! 





i also wana do camp NaNo ... but my motivation is not there to keep to a schedule. who knows. my mom keeps bugging me to edit my 2017 NaNo book and it's been in my head lately so there's a good chance i get to it.  fingers crossed. (anyone else doing it? i want a good cabin!) 

other than that, nothing really is going on. work getting cancelled was not fun (for anyone) because it gave me an excuse to get out of the house. sigh. my life is really boring. 

i also want to be crocheting but i don't have a project and i hate making things just for the sake of it. it's fun having a reason to make it, y'know.  if anyone wants a blanket or scarf, let me know! 

april is going to be quiet, which is fine. hopefully those who celebrate easter will be able to use technology to do it (i'm just in it for the chocolate) 

i hope you're all being safe and using your best judgement (or ask someone in a different house for a second opinion) on how to take care of yourself and your family in this difficult time. 


- A