My 2024 reading challenge is to read 50 books in total this year. I'm off to a great start with having read 8 books in January. Some of those books were short novellas and others I read via audiobooks, making this goal more possible.
After not meeting my reading goal to read 30 books last year, I decided this year to use audiobooks more so I can finally get to more reading even while I'm at work. I have an office job and using audiobooks more has helped me to make use of all that desk time to also get some "reading" done while I work. It's even helped me resent my job a little less by allowing me to combine work time with my reading time (the thing I actually want to be doing all day).
What's your 2024 reading goal, challenge, or endeavors?
Bonded by Thorns (Beasts of the Briar 1) | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | Great book that really delivered on the promise of a more grown-up retelling of beauty and the beast. The story is so complex, dynamic, and imaginative. I wasn't bored for a second! I burned through this book and you will too. |
A Court of Wings and Ruin (ACOTAR 3) | ⭐⭐ | This should have been Nesta's book, she was the true main character of this portion of the story. It was frustrating to have the true main character's story narrated to us from Feyre's perspective for some reason. There was also more personality retconning in this story with their "deadbeat absent father" suddenly showing up at the end to be heroically killed in an effort to selflessly save his daughters, (just kidding readers, he's actually been secretly a great dad this entire time and actually has been doing a butt ton of work to secretly help his daughters). She does this with characters so much and it gives me whiplash as a reader. You never really know who any of these characters are because in the name of Plot anyone's personality could suddenly completely change. |
A Court of Frost and Starlight (ACOTAR 4) | ⭐ | I really didn't love this book. It's essentially a "Christmas" in-between book where Feyre has everything she ever wanted and we are all supposed to hate and judge Nesta for no reason the whole time. I just don't understand how Nesta went from becoming this integrated member of the group and help save the world and then suddenly became a really mean drunk? She just seems like a scapegoat character to add social drama. |
A Court of Silver Flames (ACOTAR 5) | ⭐⭐ | It was really hard for me to get through the beginning of this book. The way Feyre treated Nesta, pulling Nesta in front of everyone in Feyre's "new family" to boss her around and judge her, made me so mad at Feyre. It also made zero sense to me why Nesta was suddenly acting this way after being super involved in the last book, there's no reason given for why she backslided so much into literally a mean drunk all the sudden? Also why was there all that relationship development between her and Cassian in ACOWR if she was just going to randomly decide she hated him now in this book? Why?! These characters' decisions don't make sense, their decisions are all plot devices. Like how did Nesta and Cassian's relationship go from the seriousness and depths of “I have no regrets in this life, but this. That we did not have time. That I did not have time with you, Nesta. I will find you again in the next world - the next life. And we will have that time. I promise.” to her hating him in the very next book? This is such a huge plothole for me. Like I've seen that quote everywhere, and yes, it is super romantic, but utterly ruined given that all of that is suddenly and randomly erased and completely forgotten so that we can go back and actually see Cassian and Nesta's relationship buildup that we didn't get to see in ACOWR because that book was written in Feyre's POV instead of Nesta's. |
Fourth Wing (Empyrian 1) | ⭐⭐⭐ | This world is fun and interesting but I'm not exactly in love with it. I don't love the "military school" premise just because I'm not a fan of books set in school settings in general. Everytime they're in a classroom or a teacher starts teaching I die a little inside. But I do love the premise of dragons and riders and magic. A couple gimmicky things that bother me were how Violet conveniently recites world-building facts out loud when she's nervous or how she has brown hair with silver ombre highlights, how her mother apparently does love her but would basically send her to her death, why of all the magic things magical modern pens are the most exciting thing for new recruits, or how she bonded with 2 uber powerful dragons for no real reason other than pure main character syndrome. I also didn't believe how or why Violet and Xaden fell in love. It seemed to just happen and it felt like we were just told to believe they're in love now rather than all the human things that go into falling in love with another human being. They felt more like characters who are each other's designated love interests than two people who fell in love with each other. I think part of why I felt this way reading their romance plotline was how Violet objectified Xaden so much. I don't think she ever gives a reason beyond how hot he is for why she's interested in Xaden. |
Book 1.5: Ice Planet Honeymoon: Vektal and Georgie | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | A fun little in-betweener book within this series. Made me cry! It was so sweet and felt really emotional to get a bit more of the story from the couple that started it all, Georgie and Vektal. It also felt like a really cathartic moment for me as a reader to, to go back to the roots of these girls struggles and put some of the girls that didn't make it to rest alongside Georgie. |
Book 2.5: Ice Planet Honeymoon: Raahosh & Liz | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | A very very sweet read. I love how each couple comes with their own quirks, strengths, and weaknesses for them to work through like communication and not being afraid to talk to your partner about the things you need to talk about. |
Book 3.5: Ice Planet Honeymoon: Aehako & Kira | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | This in-betweener book made me love Aehako more even though he was a playboy in the beginning after seeing him take on so much of the worrying about the baby. It was super cute to see him like this for a change. |