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Title: The Extraordinaires

Series: The Extraordinaires #1

Author: TJ Klune

Some people are extraordinary. Some are just extra. TJ Klune’s YA debut, The Extraordinaries, is a queer coming-of-age story about a fanboy with ADHD and the heroes he loves.

Nick Bell? Not extraordinary. But being the most popular fanfiction writer in the Extraordinaries fandom is a superpower, right?

After a chance encounter with Shadow Star, Nova City’s mightiest hero (and Nick’s biggest crush), Nick sets out to make himself extraordinary. And he’ll do it with or without the reluctant help of Seth Gray, Nick’s best friend (and maybe the love of his life).

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Amazing,
Fun,
Fabulous,
Humorous,
And written by a genius.

This was so good, I listened to the audio and the
narrator was fabulous!

Nick is a fanfiction writer who is basically obsessed with the superheroes, The Extraordinaires, who fight crime (and each other!) where he lives and Nick decides he needs super powers after being attacked so gets his friends to help.

What follows had me laughing all the way through this. There was a few points where I had to pause this because I tears rolling down my face from laughing so much!

Nick is someone I love. I want to know him in real life although he’d probably tire me out with his constant dialogue! His little group of friends made me smile a lot, utterly fabulous!

I can’t seem to form the words to say how much I loved this. But I am diving straight into book 2!!!

Top Ten Tuesday is featured by That Artsy Reader Girl. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

Topic: Most Anticipated Books Releasing In the First Half of 2022

This was so hard to narrow down to just 10!!!!

💛 House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J Maas
💛 The War of Two Queens by Jennifer L Armentrout
💛 The Merciless Ones by Namina Forna
💛 Amari and the Great Game by BB Alston
💛 Book of Night by Holly Black
💛 Forging Silver into Stars by Brigid Kemmerer
💛 Spark of Ash by Molly E Lee
💛 Empress Crowned in Red by Ciannon Smart
💛 For the Throne by Hannah Whitten
💛 Blood Traitor by Lynette Noni

What books are you looking forward to?

Title: Gild

Series: Plated Prisoner #1

Author: Raven Kennedy

The fae abandoned this world to us. And the ones with power rule.

Gold.

Gold floors, gold walls, gold furniture, gold clothes. In Highbell, in the castle built into the frozen mountains, everything is made of gold.

Even me.

King Midas rescued me. Dug me out of the slums and placed me on a pedestal. I’m called his precious. His favored. I’m the woman he Gold-Touched to show everyone that I belong to him. To show how powerful he is. He gave me protection, and I gave him my heart. And even though I don’t leave the confines of the palace, I’m safe.

Until war comes to the kingdom and a deal is struck.

Suddenly, my trust is broken. My love is challenged. And I realize that everything I thought I knew about Midas might be wrong.

Because these bars I’m kept in, no matter how gilded, are still just a cage. But the monsters on the other side might make me wish I’d never left.

‘Does it really matter if your cage is solid gold when you aren’t allowed to leave it? A cage is a cage, no matter how gilded.’

Auren is the Kings favoured, they go back years but now he keeps her like a pet. King Midas has turned Auren into living gold. I did like Midas although I wasn’t sure why!!!!

On a journey to another Kingdom, Auren wonders if she should’ve stayed at home in her cage…….

The world building was great, the plot was ok but a little on the slow side for me but I really loved Auren. She’s funny, brave and resilient.

Also…..Commander Rip ….now he sounds like a man I’d want to meet!

I really was not expecting that ending though so I need that next book!

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Happy New Year!

Wishing you health and happiness in the New Year ahead. And, of course loads of fab books!

2021 – My year in books!

Here we are on the last day of the year! I hope you all have a lovely New Year’s Eve and ring in the new year with your loved ones.

I do love looking at my Goodreads stats when they’re published! Then I like to post about them for a sense of achievement (and satisfaction!) and also I can record here so I can look back!

Do you like to see your stats too?

For 2022 I am going to use Goodreads and also Storygraph too, in tandem, to see what the differences are in stats!

Here are my stats for 2021:

I read 95 books! 39, 725 pages read, wowee!!!!!

It appears I was flinging those 4 and 5 stars around like confetti and my average rating was 4.4!!

There were some other stats and info but I didn’t want to bore you all and though these were the most pertinent!!!

Have a great evening whatever you are doing! We are staying in and having a family Zoom call!

Welcome to Closing the Chapter!

I hope you all had a great Christmas and are looking forward to ringing in 2022. We had a great time, lots of food, fun and family.

I read 8 books in December! Most of my reviews will be published in January as I didn’t want to mess with Blogmas!!!

I’m moving to bi-monthly updates in the shape of the Sunday post for January as a test (for me!) to see if I’ve actually got enough to contribute so look out for my first post on 15th January!

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📚 Physical/EBooks

A Touch of Darkness by Scarlett St Clair

See my review here.

Plated Prisoner by Raven Kennedy
Gild
Glint
Gleam
See my reviews soon!

The Dark Artifices by Cassandra Clare
Lady Midnight
Lord of Shadows
Queen of Air and Darkness

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🎧 Audiobooks

City of Brass by SA Chakraborty

See my review soon

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What did you read in December?

The Beat the Backlist Reading Challenge is returning for its 6th year in 2022! Designed to help you tackle all the books you keep meaning to read and still haven’t!

I’M SO IN!!!!!!

For 2022 I am setting my goal as 24 books. That’s 2 a month so that’s totally doable I think!!

The guidelines are simple:

• The book must be published in the previous year or earlier (for the 2022 challenge, anything published in 2021 or earlier counts).

• You have to start and finish the book in 2022.

Any format, any genre. Re-reads count, and you don’t have to own the book.

There is no formal sign-up for Beat the Backlist this year. The only request is that if you do post somewhere online about the challenge, please give Novelknight a link back so more readers can learn about BTB!

Hashtags for 22 =
#BeatTheBacklist
#BeatTheBacklist2022

Come join in….you know you want to!!!!

It’s that time of year when we are stuck between Christmas and New Year and because this years been such a stinker, I thought we needed some laughs….in the form of meme’s!

So here you go!!!

The Audiobook Challenge is back for 2022!

It’s ran by The Caffeinated Reviewer – click on her name to find out how to join and  don’t forget to add your link!

Choose your level and rock your ears off!

Use hashtag #2022AudiobookChallenge on social media to alert others of your listens and progress!

I listened to 12 audios in 2021 so I’m going for 10 to 15 listens (Stenographer – can listen while multitasking!!!) and I’m going for the full 15!!!!

Here are the details:

Achievement Levels

• Newbie (I’ll give it a try) 1-5

• Weekend Warrior (I’m getting the hang of this) 5-10

• Stenographer (can listen while multitasking) 10-15

• Socially Awkward (Don’t talk to me) 15-20

• Binge Listener (Why read when someone can do it for you) 20-30

• My Precious (I had my earbuds surgically implanted) 30+

• Marathoner (Look Ma No Hands) 50+

• Over-Achiever (Power Listener) 75+

• The 100 Club (Audiobook Addict) 100+



Challenge Details

• Runs January 1, 2022 – December 31, 2022. You can join at any time.

• The goal is to find a new love for audios or to outdo yourself by listening to more audios in 2022 than you did in 2021.

• Books must be in audio format (CD, MP3, etc.)

• ANY genres count.

• Re-reads and crossovers from other reading challenges are allowed.

• You do not have to be a book blogger to participate; you can track your progress on Goodreads, Facebook, LibraryThing, etc.

• If you’re a blogger grab the button and do a quick post about the challenge to help spread the word. If you’re not a blogger you can help by posting on Facebook or Tweet about the challenge.

• Updates plus a giveaway will be posted twice during the year. The first update will be July 2, 2022, and the last update will take place on December 30, 2022.

Will you join for 2022?