i picked up Daughter of the Forest at work because its been making the rounds lately in fantasy booktube and youre the first person ive heard provide a content warning for rape so THANK YOU -- i hate being blindsided by that
it is the most explicit graphic rape scene I have ever read so it really needs to be talked about in bold print because that's not a trigger of mine and it still made me physically ill
I read the Farseer trilogy in 2019 and I really loved the way it ended. I mean it crushed my soul but I loved it 😂 I did all 3 and auido and definitely recommend that narrator!
I finally got my act together and read the night circus and I loved it. 💝💝💝. I swear I was there the smells The acts it was so richly written I felt pulled in to the book. 😻😻
happy new year!!! love that lipstick ;D i heard "slow burn" and automatically added empire of sands to my tbr so glad to hear you enjoyed royal assassin! get ready for more suffering fitz for the rest of the series 😂
I felt the same way about Daughter of the Forrest. I totally understand why people love it but I could not connect especially since the pace was so slow. I just recently decided to give up on the series and give away the book. Nice wrap up!
Lady Valkyrie_I - glad you are digging into that series. My wife and I listened to all of the books in the series so far. The audio books are easier to go through.
I am so glad to hear you enjoyed Robin Hobb's Royal Assassin - my favourite is the Tawny Man trilogy, and also particularly loved the Rain Wilds Chronicles. Robin Hobb is just my favourite author - even though I found a couple of the stories hard going at times, she just made me care so much for Fitz, the Fool, and Nighteyes. She is cruel to her characters, and I have never been so traumatised by the end of a series as I was at the end of the Realm of the Elderlings series. So if you enjoy authors making you care then ripping your heart out and stamping on it keep going 😉. In December I read Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman, The Starless Sea (thanks to your recommendation), The Mortal Word by Genevieve Cogman, and Foundryside...all of which I thoroughly enjoyed. Good luck with the move at the end of the month.
Sam I am SO glad you loved Empire of Sand!!! Jocelyn is living her best book pusher life with everyone picking up that series 😂 I already own One Day in December and I'm so excited to get to it!! and I wasn't sure I'd be into A Wedding in December but it sounds so? cute? may have to try that too I finally finished Daughter of the Forest a few months ago and it's one of those books that is so well-constructed but just left me drained at the end of it. I definitely agree about Sorcha's agency--I think Marillier did a good job of communicating her thoughts and wishes while she was silent, but I feel like she was one of those characters who had NO personality beyond her terrible circumstances. Not quite a favorite but I think my biggest surprise of the month was Lifestyles of Gods and Monsters by Emily Roberson! I thought the mash-up of Greek mythology and modern technology/reality TV was fun but then the story ended up having SO much more depth and it just really got to me in a way I wasn't expecting
Oh my god thank you SO much for the content warning for Daughter of the Forest! I was actually about to pick that up because some of my favourite booktubers have been raving about that but NO ONE had mentioned the rape scene, which makes me kind of angry. I'm so glad we can count on you for stuff like that. Whew. I won't be picking it up now, because from the sound of that scene, that could have made me ill for days. Seriously thank you so much, you saved me a horrible panic attack. ♥
oh I'm so glad I could warn you in time! yes that is not one of my triggers but hearing the scene made me feel sick. It is the most graphic rape scene I have ever read. If you ever do want to read it, let me know and I can tell you the chapter to skip because it only is brought up there. BUT there is also some "well what did you expect; that's what happens to women" from a fae character in the story so you might just not want to read it at all.
@@ThoughtsOnTomes Oh yikes, sounds like a really bad time. Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll just pass now, I have plenty of other books I want to read, so I'd rather just find some rape-free ones instead!
Happy New Year!!! So glad you’re doing that Philly meetup. I wish I could go. I don’t have a car right now, otherwise I would just drive up from DC. *sighs* On a happier note, December was a solid reading month for me. I loved most of the books I read. My favorites ended up being Sawkill Girls, Every Heart a Doorway and The Miseducation of Cameron Post. I also got back into audiobooks. I listened to Little Fires Everywhere. While I didn’t love the story, the narration made it much more enjoyable.
I have a lot of nostalgia with Daughter of the Forest! The writing is gorgeous but I do like the second book more as it follows Sorcha's daughter who I feel has more agency in her story. However, I never felt the need to pick up the other Sevenwaters books.
So excited for The Wicked King! I read One Day In December last year, I liked it enough for the time I was reading it, but didn't love it as much as the reviews lead me to believe. Maybe I just couldn't stand Jack, I usually love getting the male perspective in a romance, but I could really do without his chapters, they did not do him any favours imo (aka he seemed like a jerk). The book felt like watching a movie that is every Christmas on TV. I lent it to a friend of mine during the summer and we both agree that it can be read any time of year.
I got Christmas in the City because the last two stories had characters from previous books I read so those were good to me. I found the others to be kinda meh. I read One Day in December last year thinking it would just be a light and fluffy Hallmark type book.I was surprised with how emotional I actually found it to be. There is a book that just came out called We Met in December. It's basically the same plotline but I still really enjoyed it
I'm currently reading Meg and Jo a modern Little Women retelling by Virginia Kantra. It's great and I'll continue with the series. he two books I finished in Dec were Let it Snow by Nancey Thayre and 25 Days till Christmas by Poppy Alexander. Both were really good.
The story that Daughter of the Forest is based on The Children of Lir which is an Irish story. I'm gald someone else finally spoke about the rape scene in this since I had the same issue with Deerskin by Robin Mckinley last year.
The meet-up sounds so fun, I hope you have a great time! And wow, congrats on reading so much, Amberlough sounds really nice, I might have to check that out. I started and finished Elantris yesterday and loved it and my favorite book I read in December was probably The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo!
I found One Day in December EXTREMELY problematic, I'm surprised you (and so many other people, don't get me wrong) enjoyed it so much. The lying, rather than the cheating, really bothered me. And for a freaking decade!
duuuude that was SO FRUSTRATING! but idk I also got it?! Like, seeing in their heads and how they both were like "I can't say anything" and wanting to look past it and then it snowballed? that rang true to me! did it suck? yeah it hurt my heart. but I think stuff like that happens a lot!
I’m glad you enjoyed The Wicked King, as it was one of my favorite books of the year!! I also really liked Amberlough, and I’m planning to continue on with Armistice this month. My favorite book that I read in December was either Emma by Jane Austen or In an Absent Dream by Seanan Maguire. Happy New Year! 🥳🎉
Do you plan to do a full review video for any of these books? More specifically, Royal Assassin? I absolutely love Robin Hobb and I'm interested in your opinions of the Farseer Trilogy. I know you're reading to get to the Liveship Traders (and I really liked those too. Like, I asked my friends to take a detour on our trip to Vegas to stop at a bookstore that had the second two Liveship traders books in stock because my store only had the first one and I didn't want to wait for the others to ship- pun intended ) but Fitz's story has always been my favorite.
was jealous of the philly meet up but then im like wait..shes moving right by me tho 😁 i live by chicago! anywhoo i finished House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin Craig last week and I think that was my fave of my dec. reads!
I definitely plan on being active in the Chicago book scene when I get out there. It seems to be much more active then Philly. Philly doesn't have a lot of bookish events unfortunately. I have House of Salt and Sorrows but have been putting it off for the scary factor lol
@@ThoughtsOnTomes its a 2020 goal for my introverted self to be more open to get-togethers for my interests..like book and planners so throw in a person i see myself in from personality to interests like yourself and im there! 😁😊 the book is definitely a "who dun it" murder mystery meets fantasy?. if youre scared by paranormal incidences then yes, id skip this one for now (shouldnt have read that part at 2am 🙄) otherwise its overall pretty depressing 🤷♀️ still definitely a good one! trying to decide my next read. i wanna finish the grisha trilogy..but wasnt crazy about seige and storm 🙈
I read one of the stories in Christmas in the City. It's the male/male romance set in Toronto with the hockey players. But this is a short story that was a companion to another series, so I'm just wondering... maybe a lot of them seem off bc they're actually companion stories? Like you're supposed to go into them knowing all the backstory lol
So I actually saw in the reviews after I read it that a lot of people bought this collection just for that story since that series is so popular! Some of the stories in here were companions, but with side characters that seemed very minor to those main stories. The Chicago story I loved was actually a companion as well. It wasn't the lack of back story that was missing for me, since most of the characters in here are meeting for the first time and don't actually have history together in the world.
Have you read/watched Love, Rosie? There’s a lot of the will they/won’t they and it seems to fit your description of One Day in December. I adore the movie, but I find that the book is alright. It doesn’t pack as much of an emotional punch that the movie does IMO.
I finally finished the Goldfinch on the last day of December. :D Was it worth it? I don't know. But I listened to some fun audiobooks in December as well.
I must admit I loved Daughter of the Forest, but I wouldn't recommend the rest of the series anyway - I thought the heroine and her love interest in the second book were absolute garbage, and I'm still angry about how her sister was treated. I need to give Empire of Sand a try asap - I've heard nothing but amazing things!
The next one in the series by Juliet Marillier, Son of the Shadows, is better than Daughter of the Forest. Completely understand why you don't want to continue, but the next one doesn't suffer from the issues you said you didn't like.
Are any of the relationships in the Folk of the Air trilogy anything like the Nessian dynamics from the ACOTAR series? I'm craving to read about a relationship like that, specially in a fantasy setting
That sounds like fun times! 😁 I think it might be refreshing to read the trilogy after finishing few of the more tedious series that I'm currently in the middle of (I'm looking at you, LOTR 👀)
FINALLY SOMEONE ACKNOWLEDGES THE TOXIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JUDE AND CARDAN. everyone else seems to think it's the bestest thing ever. but if it was pure romance people would be screaming. Soooo. That's just my opinion. But I had other problems with wicked king and the relationship actually ended up at the bottom of my list. AMBERLOUGH. I still need to read the other books in the series.
i picked up Daughter of the Forest at work because its been making the rounds lately in fantasy booktube and youre the first person ive heard provide a content warning for rape so THANK YOU -- i hate being blindsided by that
it is the most explicit graphic rape scene I have ever read so it really needs to be talked about in bold print because that's not a trigger of mine and it still made me physically ill
I love how everyone is toxic in wicked king too 😂
I read the Farseer trilogy in 2019 and I really loved the way it ended. I mean it crushed my soul but I loved it 😂 I did all 3 and auido and definitely recommend that narrator!
I finally got my act together and read the night circus and I loved it. 💝💝💝. I swear I was there the smells The acts it was so richly written I felt pulled in to the book. 😻😻
yay!!!
happy new year!!! love that lipstick ;D
i heard "slow burn" and automatically added empire of sands to my tbr
so glad to hear you enjoyed royal assassin! get ready for more suffering fitz for the rest of the series 😂
I'm so sad for him my precious boy
I felt the same way about Daughter of the Forrest. I totally understand why people love it but I could not connect especially since the pace was so slow. I just recently decided to give up on the series and give away the book. Nice wrap up!
I came for N7 hoodie admiring. Also on December I got 600 pages into Way of Kings. Still at it. It's sooo good.
Lady Valkyrie_I - glad you are digging into that series. My wife and I listened to all of the books in the series so far. The audio books are easier to go through.
My favorite book in December was The Bookish Life of Nina Hill which also made it to my list of favorites for the year.
I've been hearing about that one a lot!
I think that one was my favorite too! At least in the top 3.
I am so glad to hear you enjoyed Robin Hobb's Royal Assassin - my favourite is the Tawny Man trilogy, and also particularly loved the Rain Wilds Chronicles. Robin Hobb is just my favourite author - even though I found a couple of the stories hard going at times, she just made me care so much for Fitz, the Fool, and Nighteyes. She is cruel to her characters, and I have never been so traumatised by the end of a series as I was at the end of the Realm of the Elderlings series. So if you enjoy authors making you care then ripping your heart out and stamping on it keep going 😉. In December I read Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman, The Starless Sea (thanks to your recommendation), The Mortal Word by Genevieve Cogman, and Foundryside...all of which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Good luck with the move at the end of the month.
Sam I am SO glad you loved Empire of Sand!!! Jocelyn is living her best book pusher life with everyone picking up that series 😂
I already own One Day in December and I'm so excited to get to it!! and I wasn't sure I'd be into A Wedding in December but it sounds so? cute? may have to try that too
I finally finished Daughter of the Forest a few months ago and it's one of those books that is so well-constructed but just left me drained at the end of it. I definitely agree about Sorcha's agency--I think Marillier did a good job of communicating her thoughts and wishes while she was silent, but I feel like she was one of those characters who had NO personality beyond her terrible circumstances.
Not quite a favorite but I think my biggest surprise of the month was Lifestyles of Gods and Monsters by Emily Roberson! I thought the mash-up of Greek mythology and modern technology/reality TV was fun but then the story ended up having SO much more depth and it just really got to me in a way I wasn't expecting
Oh my god thank you SO much for the content warning for Daughter of the Forest! I was actually about to pick that up because some of my favourite booktubers have been raving about that but NO ONE had mentioned the rape scene, which makes me kind of angry. I'm so glad we can count on you for stuff like that. Whew. I won't be picking it up now, because from the sound of that scene, that could have made me ill for days. Seriously thank you so much, you saved me a horrible panic attack. ♥
oh I'm so glad I could warn you in time! yes that is not one of my triggers but hearing the scene made me feel sick. It is the most graphic rape scene I have ever read. If you ever do want to read it, let me know and I can tell you the chapter to skip because it only is brought up there. BUT there is also some "well what did you expect; that's what happens to women" from a fae character in the story so you might just not want to read it at all.
@@ThoughtsOnTomes Oh yikes, sounds like a really bad time. Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll just pass now, I have plenty of other books I want to read, so I'd rather just find some rape-free ones instead!
Happy New Year!!! So glad you’re doing that Philly meetup. I wish I could go. I don’t have a car right now, otherwise I would just drive up from DC. *sighs*
On a happier note, December was a solid reading month for me. I loved most of the books I read. My favorites ended up being Sawkill Girls, Every Heart a Doorway and The Miseducation of Cameron Post. I also got back into audiobooks. I listened to Little Fires Everywhere. While I didn’t love the story, the narration made it much more enjoyable.
Can you make a video about the best books of the decade?
Oh my god one of the stories in Christmas in the city is actually a companion to a mlm romance duology I love
Covenfan1234 which one?
Austin M The last one Epic by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy about the Hockey Players, the duology is called Him
that was apparently the story a lot of people bought the anthology for lol
Thoughts on Tomes if your interested i couldn’t recommend it more
I have a lot of nostalgia with Daughter of the Forest! The writing is gorgeous but I do like the second book more as it follows Sorcha's daughter who I feel has more agency in her story. However, I never felt the need to pick up the other Sevenwaters books.
So excited for The Wicked King! I read One Day In December last year, I liked it enough for the time I was reading it, but didn't love it as much as the reviews lead me to believe. Maybe I just couldn't stand Jack, I usually love getting the male perspective in a romance, but I could really do without his chapters, they did not do him any favours imo (aka he seemed like a jerk). The book felt like watching a movie that is every Christmas on TV. I lent it to a friend of mine during the summer and we both agree that it can be read any time of year.
Loved this wrapup! And I read more in December then I did for most of 2019 and that seems to be a theme for me 😂
If you haven't read Silver in the Wood, you should definitely check it out. Magical woods and mythology!
that sounds delightful!
I got Christmas in the City because the last two stories had characters from previous books I read so those were good to me. I found the others to be kinda meh.
I read One Day in December last year thinking it would just be a light and fluffy Hallmark type book.I was surprised with how emotional I actually found it to be. There is a book that just came out called We Met in December. It's basically the same plotline but I still really enjoyed it
I'm currently reading Meg and Jo a modern Little Women retelling by Virginia Kantra. It's great and I'll continue with the series. he two books I finished in Dec were Let it Snow by Nancey Thayre and 25 Days till Christmas by Poppy Alexander. Both were really good.
Royal Assassin made it into my top 10 favs of 2019. I’m glad you enjoyed it! I cant wait to read more in her world. Happy reading in 2020 🤓
Now that I finally feel like I'm getting traction in her world, I'm very excited to continue!
The story that Daughter of the Forest is based on The Children of Lir which is an Irish story. I'm gald someone else finally spoke about the rape scene in this since I had the same issue with Deerskin by Robin Mckinley last year.
I also got the ebook from One Day in December but ended up not getting to it last month so...I guess now I have to wait for next december 😂
I am so happy you loved Empire of Sand! Realm of Ash is also spectacular and made me ugly cry 😭
omg I already cried in Empire of Sand I'm going to be a MESS
@@ThoughtsOnTomes I can't wait for you to read Realm of Ash. Share in my weeping 😂😂
I love your N7 coat. I have the same one and it’s so nice and warm. ❤️
it's my favorite!
The meet-up sounds so fun, I hope you have a great time! And wow, congrats on reading so much, Amberlough sounds really nice, I might have to check that out. I started and finished Elantris yesterday and loved it and my favorite book I read in December was probably The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo!
I found One Day in December EXTREMELY problematic, I'm surprised you (and so many other people, don't get me wrong) enjoyed it so much. The lying, rather than the cheating, really bothered me. And for a freaking decade!
duuuude that was SO FRUSTRATING! but idk I also got it?! Like, seeing in their heads and how they both were like "I can't say anything" and wanting to look past it and then it snowballed? that rang true to me! did it suck? yeah it hurt my heart. but I think stuff like that happens a lot!
I’m glad you enjoyed The Wicked King, as it was one of my favorite books of the year!! I also really liked Amberlough, and I’m planning to continue on with Armistice this month. My favorite book that I read in December was either Emma by Jane Austen or In an Absent Dream by Seanan Maguire. Happy New Year! 🥳🎉
Do you plan to do a full review video for any of these books? More specifically, Royal Assassin? I absolutely love Robin Hobb and I'm interested in your opinions of the Farseer Trilogy. I know you're reading to get to the Liveship Traders (and I really liked those too. Like, I asked my friends to take a detour on our trip to Vegas to stop at a bookstore that had the second two Liveship traders books in stock because my store only had the first one and I didn't want to wait for the others to ship- pun intended ) but Fitz's story has always been my favorite.
yes! I do have a review coming for Royal Assassin!
was jealous of the philly meet up but then im like wait..shes moving right by me tho 😁 i live by chicago! anywhoo i finished House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin Craig last week and I think that was my fave of my dec. reads!
I definitely plan on being active in the Chicago book scene when I get out there. It seems to be much more active then Philly. Philly doesn't have a lot of bookish events unfortunately.
I have House of Salt and Sorrows but have been putting it off for the scary factor lol
@@ThoughtsOnTomes its a 2020 goal for my introverted self to be more open to get-togethers for my interests..like book and planners so throw in a person i see myself in from personality to interests like yourself and im there! 😁😊
the book is definitely a "who dun it" murder mystery meets fantasy?. if youre scared by paranormal incidences then yes, id skip this one for now (shouldnt have read that part at 2am 🙄) otherwise its overall pretty depressing 🤷♀️ still definitely a good one! trying to decide my next read. i wanna finish the grisha trilogy..but wasnt crazy about seige and storm 🙈
Philly is about an 8 hour drive for me but I do have that Saturday off... 👀 Road trip!
:)))
Amberlough sounds really awesome! Definitely going to check that one out.
I read one of the stories in Christmas in the City. It's the male/male romance set in Toronto with the hockey players. But this is a short story that was a companion to another series, so I'm just wondering... maybe a lot of them seem off bc they're actually companion stories? Like you're supposed to go into them knowing all the backstory lol
So I actually saw in the reviews after I read it that a lot of people bought this collection just for that story since that series is so popular! Some of the stories in here were companions, but with side characters that seemed very minor to those main stories. The Chicago story I loved was actually a companion as well. It wasn't the lack of back story that was missing for me, since most of the characters in here are meeting for the first time and don't actually have history together in the world.
Have you read/watched Love, Rosie? There’s a lot of the will they/won’t they and it seems to fit your description of One Day in December.
I adore the movie, but I find that the book is alright. It doesn’t pack as much of an emotional punch that the movie does IMO.
oooh I have not but now I want to
Lily Collins and Sam Claflin are in the movie and they are perfect. It’s probably one of my favorite rom-dramas.
I hope I can go to the meetup! I’m going to try to request off hehe cuz I would love to come!!
ROYAL ASSASSIN!!!!!
finallllllllly
I finally finished the Goldfinch on the last day of December. :D Was it worth it? I don't know. But I listened to some fun audiobooks in December as well.
lol so glad I put it down. I'd probably still be reading it lol
I must admit I loved Daughter of the Forest, but I wouldn't recommend the rest of the series anyway - I thought the heroine and her love interest in the second book were absolute garbage, and I'm still angry about how her sister was treated.
I need to give Empire of Sand a try asap - I've heard nothing but amazing things!
well shit i almost read one day in december last month!
there's still time!
Amberlough totally sounds like my thing, the only thing is that I'm always wary of books with mlm romance, just because idk..
I am too if they come off as straight women writing it in a weird sexualized female gaze way but this is not that
The next one in the series by Juliet Marillier, Son of the Shadows, is better than Daughter of the Forest. Completely understand why you don't want to continue, but the next one doesn't suffer from the issues you said you didn't like.
My friends would kill me if I don't read The Folk Of The Air series.
thankfully they are quick reads :)
I’m going to try really hard to make that Philly meet up because I need another hug before you leave me!
YESSSS
Wish u a very happy new yr! loads of love from Sri Lanka
thank you!
Happy new year Sam
you too!
Finding amberlough audio book really hard to get into. Going to give the physical copy a go and see whether that makes a difference
I found that at first but I stuck with it and now I love it
Assassin’s quest is a big of a slog at the beginning as it’s really repetitive but the last 200 pages are perfection, so definitely stick with it.
so glad I'm reading it on audio!
Are any of the relationships in the Folk of the Air trilogy anything like the Nessian dynamics from the ACOTAR series? I'm craving to read about a relationship like that, specially in a fantasy setting
kinda yeah except where Cassian is like a good person Cardan is not lol but neither is Jude so it all works out. everyone is awful and it's fine.
That sounds like fun times! 😁 I think it might be refreshing to read the trilogy after finishing few of the more tedious series that I'm currently in the middle of (I'm looking at you, LOTR 👀)
I should be able to make it to the meet up!
YAY
I would love to come thats only about 20 min from me
yay!!
FINALLY SOMEONE ACKNOWLEDGES THE TOXIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JUDE AND CARDAN. everyone else seems to think it's the bestest thing ever. but if it was pure romance people would be screaming. Soooo. That's just my opinion. But I had other problems with wicked king and the relationship actually ended up at the bottom of my list.
AMBERLOUGH. I still need to read the other books in the series.
So Hallmark movies but as a book?
either Christmas in the City? basically but Hallmark movies don't have sex in them.
Robin Hobb ❤️
a goddess among mortals
One does not read audiobooks, its audio, it's in the name----one listens to audiobooks.....