31 Day Blog Challenge: Day 10

[raiindust]

10. What's your best physical featureI'm going to go with my hair, because it's easily manipulated. If I want it to be curly, it will be curly. If I want it to be straight, it will be straight. If I cared about doing my hair more, it would be the greatest thing ever. As is, I enjoy wearing a bun day in and out, and that's probably not going to

Comments

[absolutelybatty]

READ THE NAME OF THE WIND. DO IT IMMEDIATELY. If the sample you read was from the prologue (aka the first few pages), it is absolutely NOT indicative of the style of the rest of the narrative. In fact, the rest of the narrative tends to be quite action packed despite its rather detailed world building and magic style. The first book, especially, is so incredibly worth the journey, Jess. I cannot express to you how much I love The Name of the Wind (and the sequel and the third book, I'm sure, once it is released). Its protagonist is delightful, and you should ignore EVERY SINGLE PERSON who rags on him because he's too smart/perfect/skilled/etc because, whatever. He's also awkward and ridiculous and prideful and HILARIOUS basically. Besides, all the side characters are MAGICAL, and they definitely make up for any flaws (or lack of flaws) you see in the protagonist. And that is saying something coming from me because I am absolutely the first person to slam down a book if the protagonist is terrible. I've done it many times. I've re-read The Name of the Wind so many times. And I've re-read the sequel twice. Trust me, if your taste in books is anything like mine, you will WANT to re-read them, and the continuity between the books won't be a problem because you'll actually look forward to the re-read when the next book comes out. I am so attached/defensive about this book series. I should probably shut up. Anyway, the point is...this is what I consider a must read. The first one is on my top ten books list, for sure, and it comes highly recommended by me.

I also second the suggestion of Deathless. I read it recently after getting caught up in the Tumblr hype for it, and I don't think I was disappointed. It is a strange tale. If you love the Grimm versions of fairy tales over Perrault, you will probably love the style of this book. The way it weaves history and folk lore together is lovely. I can't say I enjoyed it, necessarily, but I was definitely caught up in it; I kept thinking about it after I'd finished. So I think I would definitely was I recommend it.

If you want something more within the realm of YA fiction (still within the fantasy category), you could try Green Rider by Kristen Britain. It is also a series, and I am not certain if it is completed yet. If you like it though, there are already four novels out. I have only read the middle two (because Australian publishers do not seem to understand that they need to label that such and such a book is # whatever out of a series, but hey), but I enjoyed them a fair bit. Not in my top ten, really, but engrossing and interesting for sure. Female protagonist, only a small, insignificant love triangle for fun, horses, lots of awesome ladies, etc.

ALSO YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY READ THE ASSASSIN'S CURSE BY CASSANDRA ROSE CLARKE. Oh my god, Jess. This trilogy is the best. LADY PIRATE PROTAGONIST IS BEING MARRIED OFF, SHE HATES IT, RUNS AWAY, AND THE OTHER PIRATE CLAN SENDS AN ASSASSIN AFTER HER. PLOT TWIST, SHE AND HER ASSASSIN GET MAGICALLY BOUND TOGETHER. Tell me that doesn't sound like the most magical book summary EVER. I don't want to spoil you so I won't say anymore, but this series has SO MANY GOOD THINGS. SO MANY. There were, like, three things TOPS that annoyed me, and two out of the three were easy to ignore/go along with because everything else was awesome. I made all my uni friends read it as well because it was just so perfect.

Also the Inheritance Trilogy is amazing. More fantasy~~~ But fierce lady protagonists (except in the last book, but that's fine because of reasons you won't understand unless you read it), crazy, all consuming gods, castles, weird royal elites, etc. etc. It's a completed trilogy as well.

(End Part One because my comments was too long for one post.)

[raiindust]

SAMANTHA YOU ARE FANTASTIC! I am going to be so happy for so long with all these book recommendations!

Firstly, I promise to go past the prologue of The Name of the Wind. There is the first 40 pages of the book in the sample, so I'll be able to see if I am pulled in more over the next couple of days. I hope I am though, because you seem to be very invested in the book and that is always a good sign.

I'm going to add everything to a list of books to sample and subsequently buy though. I've realised today that I'm quite poor, and am going to Sydney for a couple of days for a work-related thing and everything is more expensive there, so that means I can't just buy books on the whim I've become accustomed to. (WOE)

(because Australian publishers do not seem to understand that they need to label that such and such a book is # whatever out of a series, but hey)
Oh so perhaps I can be of help here. Australian publishers legitimately suck. I'm now on the e-book train, however before that all the book buying I did, I did through thebookdepository, which is the greatest website in the world. A quick search of the authors name, and you have these results, which potentially might provide you with books 1 and 4 in the series? IDK. But yes, the best thing about the site (aside from the cheaper than Big W prices) is that it delivers for free no matter how much or how little you spend. From the UK, it delivers for free.

Annnnd because I went there I found out it's cheaper for me to buy Deathless in book form, so now I am staying away because even if it's cheaper I'm still poor.

In any case, thank you so, so much for all these wonderful recs. I am so looking forward to getting my read on for the next like, year... though I'm hoping it won't take me that long, lol. I think I could try to average one book a fortnight.