Books and Fluff

Last month I was all, "Isn't it Show Us Your Books day YET???" and this month I almost forgot about it.  Time, you wily minx.

I had to check Goodreads to see what I'd been up to and then I was mildly appalled.  You see... I did a bad thing and reactivated my Kindle Unlimited account.  And then I downloaded fluff book after fluff after fluff.  Have I ever claimed not to have a guilty pleasure?  I lied.  This is it right here.

♥♥♥♥♥ - Loved!

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (paper)

I mentioned this already in my summary of the year, but it's just a great book.  I don't normally like fiction, and especially not WWII stories, but this captivated me and then gave me all kinds of emotions.  Super well written with great characters and a balance between horror and hope.

One Fell Sweep by Ilona Andrews (ebook)

I should have used this for my "favorite author" category in Erin's challenge but it wasn't out at the time we were picking books.  I love this series almost as much as Andrews' other one about Kate Daniels.  Alien worlds, shapeshifting inns, and powers we don't fully understand.  Ahhhh...  This one I loved as much as the first (the 2nd wasn't quite at that level) and I think part of it was that as the series continues, the cast fleshes out and we get to know more characters and their interactions are more interesting.  This one also introduced some additional plot lines so the books won't be as one-and-done in the future as the first couple.

♥♥♥♥ - Liked

The Princess Companion by Melanie Cellier (ebook)

There are tons and tons of Cinderella retellings, so I thought I'd try out some of the other fairytales and this one was fun.  It's the Princess and the Pea and I liked it, but it was fairly predictable and the characters weren't anything exceptional.  I gave it a 4 because it's exactly the kind of fluff book I enjoy but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it based on that.

Sleeping Beauty by K.M. Shea (ebook)

As K.M. Shea is one of my go-tos for Kindle Unlimited, this is hardly surprising.  Another cute story, although her fairytale series is getting a bit formulaic (this princess is NOT like a normal princess!), but I still enjoy them.

Cinders: The Untold Story of Cinderella by Finley Aaron (ebook)

This was surprisingly good!  Less predictable than most fairytale retellings and the characters felt more substantial and unique to me.  Plus I really enjoyed that the main POV is the fairy godmother.  4 stars for enjoyment AND for writing.

The Firethorn Crown by Lea Doue (ebook)

Adaptation of the 12 Dancing Princesses and another one that I thought was both well-written and personally enjoyable.  In this one I liked the dynamic between the sisters a lot (although the romance bothered me - I'm so sick of the "but what if he doesn't really feel the same way" and the whole conflict centering around people's inability to talk to each other) and I liked how they had to come up with workarounds to solve a problem they couldn't speak about.

The Midsummer Captives by Lea Doue (ebook)

And then I got all excited because I realized the author was going to write more adaptations for the other sisters from the first book!  This one had fewer characters, so lost some of the fun of the first, but it was a more original story and I still quite liked it.  Will be following this author in the future.

Declutter Your Mind by S.J. Scott and Barrie Davenport (ebook)

I did squeeze in one self help book in the midst of all the mindlessness!  This was quite good for being a Kindle Unlimited book.  I'm actually surprised it's available there.  Very practical advice and much more succinct than most self help books (I've told a few people that I think most self help books could chop the last several chapters and be better for it, but this one doesn't have that problem).  I'm actually following up with some of the exercises they provide - primarily setting "core values" and using that to base my future goals on.

♥♥♥ - Ambivalent-ed

Twice Upon a Time by Aya Ling (ebook)

I figured while I'm bingeing on KU, I have to check in with my 2nd favorite fairytale author, Aya Ling!  While I enjoyed revisiting a couple of characters that I'd enjoyed before, this story felt less rich and complex than the first (I felt like nothing really happened) and then the ending disappointed me.  The author's writing a 3rd book about these same characters and it had better end the way I want or words will be said!!!

Once Upon a Happy Endings (ebook)

I did not realize going in that this was a collection of short stories.  It actually included a couple of my KU favorites (K.M. Shea and Aya Ling) but I didn't feel like they did well in short story format.  And, I'll be honest, I rarely like short stories.  Some were good, most were mediocre, and a couple were bad.  The most unexpected was the Wizard of Oz version - it's surprisingly dark and so much death!  Dorothy's a gun slinger and there's racism and rape and all kinds of crazy stuff.  I'm still shocked that story made it into a collection where the rest were light-hearted fluff stories.

The Spinner and the Slipper (ebook)

So this had an interesting premise - to combine Cinderella and Rumplestiltskin but in places it just felt like the characters did things that made no sense and the only purpose was to mash the stories together.  There was also some interesting stuff about the faerie realm, but in the end it kind of fell flat for me.  Cute story, but nothing special.

♥♥ - Mildly Disliked

None!

♥ - Did Not Finish or Wanted to Burn in a Fire

None!

Currently...

I'm working on finishing up What to Expect When You're Expecting now that the end is finally nigh.  (Although there's a big chunk devoted to postpartum stuff but I figure I won't necessarily have the time/energy to read that when I'm experiencing it so I'll just do it now.)  Also trying to get through The Feminine Mystique but I'm struggling.  Either lack of motivation or the fact that it feels like an awful lot of words to not convey a whole lot of information.  I haven't even added it to my "currently reading" because I don't have faith that I'll actually finish it.

Challenge Updates

Jenn Self Book Challenge

Giving myself Declutter Your Mind for "mindset" and The Nightingale for "recommendation from someone who doesn't read your genre" (technically not recommended by word of mouth but someone bought it for me, so close enough) for a total of 75 points out of 175.

Erin 6.0

Nothing so far!  But it's only the 10th and the challenge is young...  (EDIT: I finally started Stiff last night, so when I get through that I'll have at least one book down.)

What have you been reading?  Have you read anything from my list and what did you think?

Linking up with Steph and Jana