WWW❓Wednesday: 5/11

Happy Wednesday, all! We are halfway through this week. Does anyone else feel like this week is flying by? It is likely just me. 😂

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam @TakingOnAWorldOfWords in which we answer the three Ws:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

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Currently reading:
Dreamfever by Karen Marie Moning (Fever, #4) – 30% progress

I am really liking this series! I figured it would be just best if I just read the entire series straight through rather than breaking it up with other books in between. While sometimes I do not feel like reading a series straight through (mood reader prob #211), I definitely prefer it because the details, the nuances… they stay more fresh in my mind! Dreamfever is the second to last book in the Mackayla Lane part of the Fever series. The next part of the series revolves around another character, Dani. I am not currently sure if I will pick that series up right after finishing Mac’s story–we will see. Have you read the Fever series?

Recently finished:
Faefever by Karen Marie Moning (Fever, #3)

Reading next:
Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning
The War of Two Queens by Jennifer Armentrout

What are you currently reading? What will you read next? Let me know in the comments below!

-Maya🌹

🧐Flashback Friday: Oldie Greek Mythology Retellings💙

Happy Friday, everyone!
Flashback Friday is a weekly meme hosted here @HerBookishDesires that focuses on older novels with the hopes of bringing them back into the spotlight. For more information and upcoming topics, see the information page here. In addition, you can also find the upcoming topics in my weekly Sunday Post, which is a meme hosted by Kimberly @CaffeinatedReviewer!

Today’s topic is Greek mythology-or rather, retellings of Greek myths. I have always loved these types of books! I really should re-read the ones I have and pick up some new ones. What books of this kind would you recommend? New or old!

Here are my top choices of oldie but goodie modern takes on Greek mythology! I have included the links to Goodreads if you want to read their synopses. 🥰

While I still need to finish these series, I had to include it! Anyone else excited for the upcoming TV series?!

What are some of your favorite oldie books that retell Greek myths? Let me know in the comments below!

-Maya🌹

Meet the Blogger Tag👋🏼

Thank you so much to Leslie @BooksAreTheNewBlack for tagging me in this post. I feel a little badly because she tagged me two weeks ago and I just saw it at the end of the week last week😂. But hey, better late than never, right?! If you are not familiar with Leslie’s blog, or even if you are, show her some love and check out her blog. She has wonderful content and she is SO sweet. 💗

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The Rules:

• Thank the blogger who tagged you
• Mention the creator Lauren @ Lala’s Book Reviews
• Tag as many (or as few) people as you’d like
• Have fun and get to know one another!

Introduction:

Introduce yourself!
Ohhhhh boy. Where to begin? Best to start with my name, I suppose. 😂 My name is Maya M. I have been blogging for about 4-5 years now. I am an incoming medical student in the United States and I am very excited to start that new chapter of my life. I am also a bit scared. 😂 I absolutely love to read. Always have and, likely, always will! Another passion of mine besides medicine and reading is figure skating. I was a competitive figure skater for 13-14 years! I miss it.🥲 Lastly, a fun fact about me is that I am a twin!

Something most everyone wants to know…do you have any pets?
I have 5 dogs! Gatsby, Boo Arthur Radley (BRadley), Rio, Ryder (Magic Carpet Ryder), and Randy. They are cavalier King Charles spaniels.🐶

What is your favorite thing to drink?
I love tea. I grew up drinking PG tips English tea with milk and sugar so that is my favorite; however, I tend to drink more green tea (about 2 cups per day) now. It is less sweet! Fun fact: In my undergrad, we did research on antimutagenic (anti-cancerous) properties of green tea and found that green tea does have antimutagenic properties!

What is your favorite season?
I love fall. 🍂🍁 Sweater weather? Boots? Chilly days with long socks, an oversized sweater, and a book in hand? Um yes, sign me up.

Do you have any special talents?
I can move my ears back and forth… 😂

Blogging:

When and why did you start your blog?
I started my blog in 2016 right before I started undergrad. I was inspired by a friend to blog (she blogged about fashion). At that time, I had really been wanting to share my love of books, reading and storytelling with others, but, at the time, I did not really have any friends that liked to read. It has been great to connect with the reading and blogging community!

What is something that you wish you knew about blogging when you first started?
You do not have to post every day/you can take breaks: This is something that I still struggle with to this day – knowing that there will be times when blogging as to take the back burner. Life is busy and messy and, sometimes, we cannot do it all. And that is okay.

What has been the hardest part about blogging?
For me, I feel that coming up with new content is quite difficult. I created a weekly meme (Flashback Friday), but I struggled with individualized or “one time” posts.

What has been the most rewarding part of blogging?
The friends I have made – all of you!💗

Do you write your posts ahead of time or write them the day of posting?
It really depends on what I have going on/what I am in the mood for. Usually, I draft the posts on the same day! If I am really busy and I anticipate not having time the day of the post, then I will draft the post the night before. I suspect that I will be doing this a lot during med school!

Reading:

Who are your top 5 favourite authors?
Jennifer L. Armentrout
Sarah J. Maas
Laura Thalassa
Becca Fitzpatrick
Victoria Schwab

What genre do you read the most?
Fantasy- YA and NA

What genre surprised you by how much you love it?
I really like historical fiction. I know that, in some ways, this falls under the umbrella of fantasy, but I can really appreciate the way authors weave in historical events or historical aspects into their novels. One of my favorite historical fiction books is: Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly.

Which popular book didn’t live up to the hype for you
I am not sure if the book is considered “popular” but the author is quite popular – The Stand by Steven King. It just was not “it” (ha-ha) for me. No pun intended there as I never read It. 😂

Who are some popular authors you haven’t read?
Colleen Hoover (BUT I am planning on reading her – I have two of her books (Ugly Love + It Ends with Us)

What upcoming release are you excited to read?
Queen of Myth and Monsters by Scarlett St. Clair

Do you listen to music while reading?
Yes, I do! I typically listen to instrumental (trailer music) but occasionally a song with lyrics will call out to me to be matched with a book I am going to be reading. If you also like to listen to music while reading, be sure to check out my Monday Music Match Up meme. Click here to check out a Monday Music Match Up post.

Where else can we find you online?
For right now, just here on WordPress. 🙂 My twin sis and I are actually in the process of making a YouTube channel for medical school, but I might also incorporate some bookish stuff! Stay posted for more information on that, if you are interested.

I Tag:
Evelyn @EvelynReads
Kristie @UpsideDownBooks
Yvonne @It’sAllAboutBooks

I hope you all enjoyed learning a little bit more about me! Thank you again to Leslie for tagging me in this post. I had so much fun writing it.🥰

-Maya🌹

🌞The Sunday Post: 5/1/22

Credit: here

Happy May, everyone! Wow, it is May🌼. Finally. A particularly exciting something might be happening in May (could also be June/July😂) so I am really ready for May! I am also very ready for warmer weather. Thankfully, it has started warming up here. I am ready to read outside in the sunshine!

🌞The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @CaffeinatedReviewer. According to Kimberly, “It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead.” See meme rules here.

🥰Weekly Recap
Overall, I had a great week. I have been going through some personal stuff for a while and, this week, something just clicked. Shifted. I felt a spark of hope again and I felt the urge to enjoy every moment of every day. To not look too far ahead and fall into the trap of “once I get through this, then…” or “once I have completed this, then…” To, essentially, not let any dark moment or situation overshadow the joy of life and living. To finally feel that shift was pretty liberating. However, that is not to say it is now all sunshine and daisies. 😂 But I feel better overall.

📚Books I Read This Week:
Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning
Bloodfever by Karen Marie Moning

📖Currently Reading:
Faefever by Karen Marie Moning (31% progress)

As you might recall, I set a spring TBR. Yeah, I am definitely not reading what I put on there. 😂 I started out… okay. I think I read maybe one book that was on there. 😂 I am honestly too afraid to check. Besides my general inability to stick to a TBR, I also want to blame Karen Marie Moning, specifically her Fever series, for my non-adherence to my TBR. I am really enjoying the world that she has built and I just feel like I have to keep reading. So, for right now, I am just going to be working my way through all 11 of her Fever books.

💌Recent Posts
Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Crowns on their Covers
WWW Wednesday

📋Upcoming Posts
Monday: Meet the Book Blogger Tag
Wednesday: WWW Wednesday (weekly meme hosted by Sam @TakingOnAWorldofWords)
Flashback Friday: Oldie Greek Retellings (meme hosted here @HerBookishDesires)

How was your week? What did you read? Let me know in the comments below. Be sure to also include the link to your Sunday post. ❤️

-Maya🌹

WWW❓Wednesday: 4/27

Hello, hello my bookish friends!
WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam @TakingOnAWorldOfWords, in which we answer the three Ws:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

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Currently Reading
Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning
–65% progress. I am thinking I should be able to finish by the end of this week.

Recently Finished
The Traitor Queen by Danielle Jensen
–I really enjoyed this book! I was seriously wondering where the author was going to take the ending for Lara and Aren. Without being spoilery, I will just say that I was quite satisfied. Also, never thought I would say this but thank goodness for the 🦈 in Ithicana!

Reading Next
The War of Two Queens
–I believe I will be buddy reading this, but I am not quite sure exactly when in May we will be starting! I am excited though. I was supposed to re-read the FBAA and then ASITE, butttttt I definitely did not get the chance to do that so I hope my memory is good enough to remember everything for TWOTQ.

Other than TWOTQ, I am unsure what to read next. So I have included a poll because I am an indecisive mood reader. 😂 Please help me choose what I should read next by voting in the poll below!

What are you currently reading? What have you recently finished? Let me know in the comments! I love chatting with you all. 💛

-Maya🌹

📚Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Crowns on the Cover👑

Hello, all! Happy Top Ten Tuesday.📚 For those of you who are not familiar, TTT is a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ThatArtsyReaderGirl. Each week, there is a new topic for which participants list 10 related items. For more information and a list of topics, click here.

This week’s topic is a freebie of sorts: Books with [___] on their cover. I chose crowns! Let’s get started.😁👸🏽

What was your favorite cover from above? What is your favorite cover with a crown that is not listed? Be sure to let me know in the comments below! Be sure to also link your TTT so I don’t miss it!❤️

-Maya🌹

💭Mini Review: The Bridge Kingdom🌁

Hello everyone! 👋🏼
Last week, I finished buddy reading The Bridge Kingdom with Leslie @BooksAreTheNewBlack and Dini @DiniPandaReads (casual re-read for Dini). I believe this was my first time buddy “reading” with Leslie as well as Dini. Leslie and I have buddy “watched” Shadow and Bone on Netflix though. That was incredibly fun — and this buddy read was wonderful! It is so nice to be able to discuss a book with someone else concurrently with reading the book! Buddy reads are just so much fun. I am very excited for our buddy read of The War of Two Queens coming up in May. 🌼

⚠️Note: This review does not contain spoilers, but as always, read at your discretion.⚠️

👀Synopsis from Goodreads:
“A warrior princess trained in isolation, Lara is driven by two certainties. The first is that King Aren of the Bridge Kingdom is her enemy. And the second is that she’ll be the one to bring him to his knees.

The only route through a storm-ravaged world, the Bridge Kingdom enriches itself and deprives its rivals, including Lara’s homeland. So when she’s sent as a bride under the guise of peace, Lara is prepared to do whatever it takes to fracture its impenetrable defenses. And the defenses of its king.

Yet as she infiltrates her new home and gains a deeper understanding of the war to possess the bridge, Lara begins to question whether she’s the hero or the villain. And as her feelings for Aren transform from frosty hostility to fierce passion, Lara must choose which kingdom she’ll save… and which kingdom she’ll destroy.”

💭Thoughts
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I thought that, while it was enemies to lovers, the story and characters still managed to be unique. Is it the classic lady assassin trained to kill “evil” man/prince/king? Yes. However, Danielle Jensen allows the reader to see the conflict (or rather, read) in Lara. You get an in depth view into the struggle between the Lara created by her father and the Lara that she has found in Ithicana. Generally, when I read these enemies to lovers, I find that there is not enough inner conflict for the story of be believable- or perhaps the conflict is just not as impactful as I feel it could be. That was not the case with this book! Jensen did a wonderful job displaying this to the reader.

I really did enjoy the banter between Lara and Aren. It added a great dimension to their relationship and it livened things up. I only wish that there had been more of it!

There was one thing I wish was written better in the book, in that I found it hard to envision the bridge. Now, this could totally just be a “me” thing and, while the map did help, I just found it difficult to conjure up an image. While I would not normally be too bothered by that, the book, in some ways, is quite technical with war/attacking/defending strategies. Sometimes, I felt a bit lost in how parts of the bridge were supposed to look like. Again, this could just be a “me” thing. 🤷🏽‍♀️

Rating
4.5-5⭐️

Have you read The Bridge Kingdom? What were your thoughts on the novel?

-Maya🌹

🌞The Sunday Post: Easter 2022✝️

Credit: here

Good morning, all! Happy Easter. ✝️ I hope you are all having a beautiful day. The weather has been a bit chilly and it started as sunny, but the clouds have taken over😭. However, I am used to it as the weather is always like this at this point in the year! Do any of you have any fun plans for Easter? My plans are to hang out, read, and study for an upcoming interview. Nothing too fun, I am afraid! I always miss spending Easter with my family. Not only was the company great, but the food was amazinggggg. Because my dad is from India, we would have Indian food and American food at our table – the best of both worlds! What is your favorite dish that you have on Easter?

🌞The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @CaffeinatedReviewer. Per Kimberly, “It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead.”

📖Currently Reading
The Traitor Queen by Danielle Jensen
From Blood and Ash by Jennifer Armentrout

My progress with reading has been slow just because I have been pretty busy, but I am going to try and finish Traitor Queen either today or tomorrow. Then, I will focus more on FBAA. I am trying to read all the books that have been published so far so I can be fresh on the details for when I read The War of Two Queens, but I am not sure that will happen in time for my buddy read for TWOTQ!

📋Last Week’s Posts
Flashback Friday: Oldies with the Chosen One Trope
Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I Haven’t Read Yet, but Want To

👩🏽‍💻Upcoming Posts
Monday- Mini Review: The Bridge Kingdom
Tuesday – Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Merchandise I’d Love to Own (weekly meme hosted by Jana @ThatArtsyReaderGirl)
Wednesday – WWW Wednesday (hosted by Sam @TakingOnAWorldOfWords)

How was your week? What books did you read? Let me know in the comments below. I love chatting with you all.

-Maya🌹

🧐Flashback Friday: Oldie Books with the Chosen One Trope💜

Good afternoon, my bookish friends!
I hope you are all having a “good” Friday so far. Ha-ha. Get it? Because it is Good Friday?! Speaking of which, while I am Catholic, I actually was just wondering why it is called “Good” Friday. Why Good and not another adjective? So I did a little bit of research. There are different thoughts on why it is termed so, with the main one deriving from the sacrifice of Jesus, but I found a particular tidbit of information to be interesting: Good is derived from the word holy, in that, holy “traditionally means to dedicate or consecrate a day on or a season in which religious observance is held” (Christian.net). Maybe you will find that interesting, as well!

Anyway. Today’s post is Flashback Friday. This post highlights oldie but goodie novels. It is my hope that, through this meme, we can bring older books back into the spotlight and that we can discover – and rediscover – old novels together! In the spirit of Good Friday, I decided to highlight oldie books with the Chosen One trope. However, this topic could be expanded upon!

Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
Published: 1997

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Published: 2008

Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan
Published: 2005

The Giver by Lois Lowry
Published: 1993

What are some of your favorite oldie Chosen One novels? Let me know in the comments below! I love chatting with you all. 🥰

-Maya🌹

📚Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I Haven’t Read, But Want To🙈

Jana @ThatArtsyReaderGirl

Hello, hello everyone!
How are you doing today? Today seems to be off to a lovely start; the sun is shining, the birds are singing their happy songs… 🕊☀️ I couldn’t ask for a more peaceful morning. I hope your day is off to a nice start as wekk, but if not… fear not! Thing can only get better. 🥰 “You don’t need a new day to start over, you only need a new mindset.” – Hazel Hira Ozbek

Today’s post is Top Ten Tuesday, which is a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ThatArtsyReaderGirl. Each week, there is a new topic for which we list ten related items. Today’s topic is: Authors I Haven’t Read, But Want To submitted by Deanna @NovelGlimpse. 😁

Elise Kova (A Deal with the Elf King)
John Gwyne (Bloodsworn Saga)
Amelia Hutchins (Legacy of Nine Realms)
Colleen Hoover (It Ends with Us, Ugly Love)
Maggie Stiefvater (The Shiver trilogy, The Raven Cycle)
Diana Gabaldon (Outlander series)
Elly Blake (Frostblood)
Laura Sebastian (Ash Princess)
Hannah Whitten (For the Wolf)
Sarah Rees Brennan (The Lynburn Legacy)

What are you authors that you have not yet read, but would like to? Have you read any of these authors?Let me know in the comments! Be sure to link your TTT as well so I don’t miss it!

-Maya🌹