Read More Friday - January

It is 2017 and one of my goals this year was to read more. I read a good amount last year but fell out of it the second half of the year because I was studying so much for tests for work and I became distracted with other things. I joined Good Reads and set myself up with a reachable goal. I made a big spreadsheet with a giant To Be Read list (TBR) and I am excited to get a good portion of those books read. Right now the list is over 420 books that I want to read over the next few years. Crazy, right? The list is sure to grow but I'm not discouraged. I just like having the list so when it comes time to buy the next book I have plenty of options. 

I have already read 3 of the books on the list so I'm pretty pleased with the good start I'm getting in January. 

The first book I read was The Grift of the Magi by Ally Carter. This book is a part of the Heist Society series. 

I got into Ally Carter's Gallagher Girl series because Gallagher is my maiden name and the book called to me when I was at the store one day. That series was about teenage spies and I thought it was a fun and easy to read series. I love the Heist Society series, and The Grift of the Magi is a short story or Novella to go along with it. The series is about teenage thieves and the many plans they come up with to do what they think needs to be done. It is enjoyable and this book was just a fun addition. It doesn't really move the overall series along and I'm not sure if Carter plans on making more but I enjoyed it. 

Next I read The Siren from Kiera Cass. This book is not part of a series. The title says it all - it is about sirens. 

I started liking Kiera Cass when I read The Selection series. I wanted to read this book because I liked her style. It is much different and I did enjoy it, although I thought some things were a bit bizarre - especially the way it ended - sweet yet odd. Not much else to say about that book! I read it pretty quickly. 

Then I moved on to another Ally Carter book, All Fall Down, the first book of the Embassy Row series. 

The book was super cheap on B&N for Nook so I scooped it up to give this series a try. For me, it wasn't as good as her other two series that I love so much (Gallagher Girls and The Heist Society), but I didn't mind it and I'll probably read the rest of the series because I usually need closure with every series I begin! 

The next book I began was called Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake. I have never read any books by Blake before but GoodReads suggested I try this and then I saw it very cheap on B&N so I thought, why not? 

For me, this one was hard to get through. There were some parts that went easily but some of it was either too randomly dark and gory for the sake of being dark or gory - to me, anyway. I don't tend to love those sorts of things and I'm sure there are plenty that do that might like it. The world that was created was hard to understand at first because I couldn't relate at all and it wasn't spelled out or explained right away. You had to figure it out as it went along. Still, I didn't hate it.

Next Up...

I downloaded a few books that were free or cheap on my Nook and so my next book will be A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston. I have a few tests to study for between now and March so I'm not sure how much leisurely reading I will get done but my fingers are crossed!