This month I managed to read 12 books!! 4867 pages!! I have no idea how that happened. Probably me trying to procrastinate on work or something haha. Did you know that Goodreads has a stats tracking feature where you can see how many books you read over time? It turns out April of last year was also a huge month for me! Maybe there’s just something about April that makes me read more – not sure what that would be though. Let me know if you have theories haha.

Thank you so much to Richard Hummel and Kelsey at Book Publicity Services for sending me a signed copy of this book to review!

The style of this book was so different than everything I’ve ever read. It’s described as LitRPG, which I didn’t even know was a subgenre until this book! It makes total sense though when reading it. It reads very much like a video game – where you can “loot” things so to speak, upgrade your character, defeat bosses, etc. I feel like it generally melds well with a novel style, since it’s obviously basically like any character that goes on an adventure. The style was super interesting, but ultimately one of the things I struggled with. I know many people will enjoy it, but I still haven’t decided if it’s for me.

Our two main characters are Jared (a human) and Scarlet (the dragon he becomes bonded with). I found Scarlet way more compelling, and I think it was mainly because she had the knowledge of her forebears passed down, and the fact that she was alive for hundreds of years before she hatched. Which is a pretty cool concept, that she was alive and conscious within her egg. Jared is fine, but I just didn’t feel a very strong attachment to him. I liked that he was very caring and driven to help others, but other than that I felt like something was lacking.

The world setting was super interesting! That was probably my favorite thing. Things have basically gone wack on Earth’s surface, and there are strange creatures everywhere. Just plain monstrous things, and also things like giant rats and bunnies that are not at all cute and cuddly but pretty vicious. I won’t go in to detail but the scene with the lake and underground bunker/base thing had a VERY interesting “monster”. That was probably my favorite umm not like subplot but it was my favorite part of the story, definitely. There are also floating cities for the rich that float above earth, and I wish we had gotten to see more of that because it sounds cool. I’m sure that will be a thing explored in the future though.

I think the pacing was overall pretty good, but it did feel a bit draggy in some points, where Jared and Scarlet are gaining skills (aka kinda like “leveling up”).

To summarize, I think the world was super interesting, and for the most part the plot was also pretty compelling. I think my main issue was the style (LitRPG). It made it difficult for me to connect with the characters and the story. However I think that’s a very personal thing, and many people will probably enjoy it immensely!

Once again, thank you so much Richard and Kelsey for sending me a copy to review!

You know what they say, April showers bring May flowers right? Well, regardless, New Jersey seems to be taking the “April showers” to heart because we’ve been having a lot of rain lately, and there’s a lot in the forecast. What a perfect time to talk about rainy day reads! Honestly for me anything is a rainy day read. I love being cozy inside with a candle and blanket, reading a book while it rains outside. But I’m gonna pick a few today that to me give off the vibe of a gloomy but ultimately happy day.

And thank you to Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl for hosting/organizing Top Ten Tuesday!

New month, new mini reviews! I’ve been really busy lately (science conferences, people visiting me, prospective graduate students visiting our program) so I haven’t had a ton of time to read but I’ve manage to finish Pride and Prejudice (which I’d been working on for forever!) and a few shorter romance/contemporary books.

I remember a few years ago, everyone was into the whole Six Degrees of Separation thing. It’s basically the idea that everyone is connected to any other person by six connections or fewer. I haven’t heard people talk about it in a while but I recently found the book version of it! Emma Chapman and Annabel Smith created #6DEGREES, where book bloggers share links between books in six moves. Here are the rules if you want to join in! Basically they choose a starting book and then you make your own chain however you want.

Today’s starting point is……How to be both by Ali Smith! (You’ll have to read all the way to the end to see where I end up 😉)