Sunday 7 March 2021

Down the TBR Hole #25


Current TBR shelf: 3879

Last week's TBR shelf: 3886

The rules   

  1. Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
  2. Order on ascending date added.
  3. Take the first 5 (or 10 (or even more!) if youre feeling adventurous) books. Of course if you do this weekly, you start where you left off the last time.
  4. Read the synopses of the books
  5. Decide: keep it or should it go?
 

Into the Wild Nerd Yonder by Julie Halpern

 
It’s Jessie’s sophomore year of high school. A self-professed “mathelete,” she isn’t sure where she belongs. Her two best friends have transformed themselves into punks and one of them is going after her longtime crush. Her beloved older brother will soon leave for college (and in the meantime has shaved his mohawk and started dating . . . the prom princess!) . . .
 
Things are changing fast. Jessie needs new friends. And her quest is a hilarious tour through high-school clique-dom, with a surprising stop along the way—the Dungeons and Dragons crowd, who out-nerd everyone. Will hanging out with them make her a nerd, too? And could she really be crushing on a guy with too-short pants and too-white gym shoes?   

If you go into the wild nerd yonder, can you ever come back?
 
It makes me sad that I'm just not as into standard YA contemporary as I used to be because I would have ate this up 8 years ago but not enough there to interest me now.
 
Verdict: Remove
 

The Glassblower of Murano by Marina Fiorato   

 
Venice, 1681. Glassblowing is the lifeblood of the Republic, and Venetian mirrors are more precious than gold. Jealously guarded by the murderous Council of Ten, the glassblowers of Murano are virtually imprisoned on their island in the lagoon. But the greatest of the artists, Corradino Manin, sells his methods and his soul to the Sun King, Louis XIV of France, to protect his secret daughter. In the present day his descendant, Leonora Manin, leaves an unhappy life in London to begin a new one as a glassblower in Venice. As she finds new life and love in her adoptive city, her fate becomes inextricably linked with that of her ancestor and the treacherous secrets of his life begin to come to light.
 
To put it simply, this just sounds really boring and I have no idea why I added it in the first place...
 
Verdict: Remove
 

Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken

 
Just as the rains come after ten long, dry years, a young wizard, Wayland North, appears, to whisk Sydelle Mirabil away from her desert village. North needs an assistant, and Sydelle is eager to see the country - and to join him on his quest to stop the war that surely will destroy her home. But North has secrets - about himself, about why he chose Sydelle, about his real reasons for the journey. What does he want from her? And why does North's sworn enemy seem fascinated by Sydelle himself?
 
I'm interested in Alexandra Bracken's work but I think I'd want to start with The Darkest Minds or even Passenger first.
 
Verdict: Remove
 

Poison Study (Study #1) by Maria V. Snyder

 
About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.

And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust—and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.

As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear...
 
This is classic YA fantasy that I really do want to read at some point in the future. I really like the sound of following a food tester and her plans to escape.
 
Verdict: Keep
 

The Six Rules of Maybe by Deb Caletti  

 
Scarlet spends most of her time worrying about other people. Some are her friends, others are practically strangers, and then there are the ones no else even notices. Trying to fix their lives comes naturally to her. And pushing her own needs to the side is part of the deal. So when her older sister comes home unexpectedly married and pregnant, Scarlet has a new person to worry about. But all of her good intentions are shattered when the unthinkable happens: she falls for her sister’s husband. For the first time in a long time, Scarlet’s not fixing a problem, she’s at the center of one. And ignoring her feelings doesn’t seem to be an option...
 
The idea of the main character falling for her sister's husband is making me uncomfortable 😬

Verdict: Remove


Black Tuesday by Susan Colebank

 
Everything is going just the way superachiever Jayne Thompkins planned. She’s at the top of her class and captain of the girls’ varsity tennis team. Her ultimate goal? Harvard. She wouldn’t be killing herself with all these extracurriculars otherwise. But her life changes when she crashes into another car—and a little girl dies as a result. Will she ever be able to live with the guilt she feels over this accidental death?
 
I genuinely like the sound of this premise but I think this is going to be a book I'd have to track down and I'm not that bothered about it. But if I ever come across it then sure!

Verdict: Remove


Fragile Eternity (Wicked Lovely #3) by Melissa Marr

 
Seth never expected he would want to settle down with anyone - but that was before Aislinn. She is everything he'd ever dreamed of, and he wants to be with her forever. Forever takes on new meaning, though, when your girlfriend is an immortal faery queen.

Aislinn never expected to rule the very creatures who'd always terrified her - but that was before Keenan. He stole her mortality to make her a monarch, and now she faces challenges and enticements beyond any she'd ever imagined.
 
I own the first book but I haven't read it so not sure why I've added the third book to my TBR before the others?? 

Verdict: Remove


The Sweetheart of Prosper County by Jill S. Alexander

Almost-15-year-old Austin Gray is tired of standing at the curb and watching the parade pass her by. Literally. She decides this is the year she’ll ride on the hood of a shiny pickup truck in the annual parade, waving to the crowd and finally showing the town bully that she’s got what it takes to be the Sweetheart of Prosper County.

 But far from simply being a beauty contest, becoming Sweetheart involves participation in the Future Farmers of America (FFA), raising an animal, and hunting or fishing. Austin will do almost anything to become Sweetheart, and has the support of her oldest friend, Maribel, her new FFA friends (including the reigning Sweetheart, and a quiet, cute cowboy), an evangelical Elvis impersonator, a mysterious Cajun outcast, and a rooster named Charles Dickens. If only her momma would stop overprotecting her, and start letting Austin live her own life. But Austin can’t move on until Momma moves on, too—and lets the grief of losing Austin’s daddy several years before out into the open.

This sounds cute (maybe a little young for me) but I really like the sound of the quirky cast of characters in small town Texas.

Verdict: Keep


First Kiss (Then Tell): A Collection of True Lip-Locked Moments by Cylin Busby et al

 
Was it magical, momentous, and completely earth-shattering? Or was it sloppy and self-conscious? Cecil Castellucci realizes that bad boys can be good kissers. Lisa Papademetriou relives being a Texas girl at a Vermont summer camp-and one momentous night in the woods. Amy Kim Ganter draws her first kiss with her future husband in full comic-book form. And those are just a few of the many stories in First Kiss (Then Tell), a collection of anecdotes, poems, cartoons, and stories that are altogether hilarious, heartwarming, and memorable-just as a first kiss should be.
 
Wow, does that cover scream 2000's or what? Cute for teenagers but probably not for me in my mid-20's 🤷

Verdict: Remove


Clockwork Prince (The Infernal Devices #2) by Cassandra Clare

 
In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray has found safety with the Shadowhunters. But that safety proves fleeting when it becomes clear that the mysterious Magister will stop at nothing to use Tessa’s powers for his own dark ends.

With the help of the handsome, tortured Will and the devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister’s war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal and fueled by revenge. To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister knows their every move—and that one of their own has betrayed them.

Tessa is drawn more and more to Jem, though her longing for Will continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa answers about who she really is? As their search leads to deadly peril, Tessa learns that secrets and lies can corrupt even the purest heart.
 
I own the whole trilogy but I haven't started them yet so there's not much point keeping the other two books on my TBR until I do.
 
Verdict: Remove
 

This Week:

Kept: 2
Removed: 8 

Overall: 
 
Kept: 90
Removed: 162
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