A Monday Update (Is This a Thing Now + A Reemergence from Sickness)

Well, hello there. It’s me. Again. With another Monday update. I’m not sure if it should become a thing or not? I mean, it’s literally just me rambling on about random things when I’m sure most of you are like, oh gosh, another post, Mandy? Don’t you have other things that you could be doing, like, oh, I don’t know, rearranging your desk because books keep appearing that you have somehow ordered and you are running out of ROOOOOM? I guess we will see how it goes, but I guess for the second week in a row, I’m here, continuing the babble session.

Mandy’s back, back, back

Back again, again, again

It’s true. I’m not sure you even missed me, because I literally have so many posts scheduled up, but I disappeared from the moment I posted a lovely little review about Wicked Charm. I got hit with some mysterious sickness that wasn’t the common cold but also wasn’t the stomach bug that gave me a week full of just feeling like crap. I was doing well enough to write my February Wrap-up and cheerfully tell you that I was making a recovery and then I WAS GONE. I WAS DEAD AGAIN BUT THEN SOMEHOW COUGHED MY WAY BACK TO LIFE.

So, I disappeared for, like, five days, and you know you’re sick when you get your beloved Amazon package with your copy of These Vengeful Souls and Heart of Iron and you leave it chilling on your desk until Saturday. Still slightly dying, but hopefully by the time you’re acting reading this post, I will be REVIVED. So I should be back to the blogging game on Sunday and hopefully for the rest of the week!

A Soul Screaming Review?

I’m in a bit deep in the reread of Soul Screamers with Sha, and I have to say that it is going…interesting for sureeeeeeeeeeeeee. This book was published in, like 2009 or 2011ish time, and I feel like I was just such a different reader then. I mean, the writing of the paranormal books in this timeframe (and literally, Twilight made paranormal a THING that wouldn’t stop because I don’t even remember any contemporaries even being around???? not a big presence anyway) all had the same formula and same cliches and same feel to it, and it’s just weird going back to read something that was so beloved and enjoyable to you during that time, but now has this whole different vibe but it’s bringing back that vibe and I AM JUST WANT TO BE DONE WITH THIS SENTENCE BUT IT’S NOT HAPPENING.

This review will be a mess if it’s any indication of how the read is going so far.

The Shaming of Mandy, Who No Longer is a Pirate Queen????

So, the end of February brought the wondrous and amazing release of some of my most anticipated reads of the year. I had been counting the days until at least three of these books came out, and one of them had been Daughter of the Siren Queen. I had absolutely adored the first book last year, and I’ve been screaming/fangirling over it ever since then. When in doubt, I push this book hard at anyone that will listen to me. However, I read it in, like, two sittings, so clearly I needed a refresher on what happened at the very end, so the other day, I did a little skim/scan and…

…found I wasn’t enjoying it at all. I mean, it was fine and everything, but I just kept looking at it going, but is this the same book? Because I feel like it wasn’t. It wasn’t quite what I had enjoyed. Alosa was good, but she irked me in a way. I found everything to be a bit off and a little too…cheesy? And the characters were just…I DON’T KNOW. Like, it wasn’t anywhere close to being taken from a five crown to a one crown, but it just wasn’t the favorite book that I was SO SO in love with and invested with. Still like a solid three and four crown read and I didn’t hate it but, but it just wasn’t that five crown ultra love.

And now I…I have this weird feeling to Daughter of the Siren Queen. Like, I’m not sure what this next book is going to be like. Like, I was SO excited for it and now I’m a mess about it. I mean, where did my love go??? Maybe I’m in a weird reading slump that I don’t know about that has me not enjoying books I liked in the past? Maybe I have gotten TOO critical of my books than I was in the past? Was I in a different head space back then where I was too prompted to like it? AM I JUST GOING MAD?

SHOULD I LEARN SOME BOOK CHILL AND JUST TRY TO LET IT BE?

Idk, but has this happened to anyone? Obviously, I’ve done it before with books I read like My Soul to Take, but is it weird to do it in literally a year with a book that I absolute adored? IS IT A PHASE? PLEASE LET IT BE A PHASE BECAUSE I LOVED ME SOME PIRATEY GOODNESS AND THIS WAS WHAT I THOUGHT WAS PIRATEY GOODNESS.

R.I.P. Book Princess Mandy because if a book can be un-Princess trained, then I’m just done for since what happened to the sacredness of the princess train????

Me, Lost in Sea Books (and apparently still stuck in the water title phase)

Also, the fact that soooooooooooooooo many new releases. I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO READ. Like, I literally am at the point where I want to read everything, that I end of just sitting here, thinking about all the books that I want to read that I actually don’t end up reading ANYTHING?

Like, there is just so many books that sound good and they’re all hitting me at once. Here’s a little snapshot of all the books that I actually want to read right now at this very moment:

• Daughter of the Siren Queen (somehow still even though I’m a mess and want to rip off the band-aid)
• binge read of These Vicious Masks, These Ruthless Deeds, and These Vengeful Souls
• reread of The Gallagher Girls series (because, yes, a 7 book series is the perfect thing to start now????)
• Wires and Nerve Vol. 2
• Now a Major Motion Picture
• Second graphic novel in the Infernal Devices series
• …reread of The Infernal Devices series

I WANT TO READ ALL OF THESE ALL AT ONCE AND THEN A RANDOM OTHER BOOK JUST POPS IN THERE AND I WANT TO READ IT TOO AND I AM A MESSSSSSSSSSSSSS. I CAN’T READ ALL OF THESE AT THE SAME TIME, BUT I REALLY REALLY WANT TO. So, I’m off here, going, if I read really, really, really fast THEN I can do it, but then I’m sitting here going, but I can’t read really, really, really fast and actually kind of enjoy it and then what would I actually tackle next and OMG, WHY IS THIS SO MUCH.

I’m trying. I’m falling apart over here. This update probably needs to end.

So, what’s new with you? What are you reading? Do you have solutions for the mess that is me? Have you ever been in the same situation? Is Monday update a thing that should stick around so I can babble some more? Let’s discuss in the comments below!