I was tagged by the lovely Samodiva Reads for the Keep it Fresh Award & Book tag.
It’s truly amazing to still be tagged after being away a while due to work and such. It gives me a real boost blogging wise and makes me want to keep working on this platform and continue to review and talk about books.
Before I get too sappy, let’s start with this tag. It seems like fun and I’m really happy I got tagged in it. Thank you, again, SamodivaReads for tagging me!! ❤
Rules:
- Post the rules before starting and link back to this post as a reference for other bloggers.
- Part A: Answer each of the fruit questions (each fruit corresponds to a book!) & add pictures plus why you thought that particular book deserves that particular fruit if possible.
- Part B: Choose your favorite fruit (even if it is one of the fruits in part A). Come up with a question that we didn’t ask and answer it.
- Part C: Create your own smoothie from the fruits in Part A (imagine a Lemon-Tomato-Apple smoothie ~ yuck), and find a book that would correlate to your smoothie!
- Nominate as many and anyone that you think are deserving of this award but it would be nice if you nominated a minimum of 5!
- Notify your nominees of the nomination.
- The most important rules? Have fun and of course, keep it fresh!
Part A; Fruit questions.
Strawberry; The sweetest book you’ve ever read; in terms of sweet characters or a sweet world.
I’ve always had a soft spot for Mouse (Mallory), who is the main character in The Problem With Forever. She’s an orphan who grew up in a violent home along with her foster brother (Rider). Both foster kids got seperated after people found out their foster home was anything but a proper one. But they find each other again during High School. Mallory is currently residing in a stable home but still dealing with a lot of mental issues while Rider has to deal with drug related issues and a lot of problems back home. But he still wants to protect her from everything in the world.
Both characters are so deeply layered and well-written. Their story touched me and whatever’s between them is really sweet. Either it being the fierce loyalty and protectiveness Rider feels or the worry and strength Mallory shows when it comes to Rider.
Coconuts; A book that you would take with you to a tropical destination.
This book is one of the very few Dutch books (my native language) that I actually like. It’s a coming-of-age story about a girl named Rosa. There’s lots of books in this series but this particular one gives you survival tips on how to survive your vacation.
It’s not the perfect beach read but it’s funny and learnsome. Especially when you’re out camping somewhere.
Pineapple; A book that you didn’t think you would like based on the cover, first few pages etc but it started to grow on you.
That’s definitely Obsidian. It’s the first book in the Lux series by Jennifer L. Armentrout. I never liked the idea of aliens in literature and always refrained from the topic all together. So when this book spread all over BookTube, I had doubts and still stayed away… until I could get it as a free E-book as part of a sale combo. So I got it, started reading it and absolutely went mental for it. I finished the entire series within the week and it’s become one of my all-time favorite bookseries.
What makes it even better is that I’m meeting JLArmentrout next month!!!! I’m so over the moon about it!! This year has been amazing when it comes to myself meeting authors that I’ve admired for so long. I’m so excited!!
Orange; The juiciest book you’ve read -> A book with lots of action, romance etc…
That’s -hands down- Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff. It may not look like a book filled to the core with action, feels, romance, plottwists and so on but it is. Boy it is!
When I first read this book I nearly fell off my chair by all the feels coming straight at me. There was a plottwist almost every 20 pages, a feelstorm every 10 pages and a deliciously evil villain who will grow on you and make you say: “aaaaahhhhww that’s adorable- but creepy af”.
Watermelon; A watery book -> Not to say there was a shitton of water in it. The details were just to watery…. don’t get us wrong, we do love watermelons *omnomnom*
Before this book was released I was already hooked by the summary. It was supposed to be similar to The Wrath and The Dawn but it was anything but. It did have a pull to it that made me read it in almost one sitting but the potential it has completely fades away by the rushed writing. There’s so much ground to cover yet so much is left untouched, which -in it’s own way- turned the romance into a runny and laughable business with no ground to grow upon.
Dragonfruit; The most unique book you’ve read.
This Is Where It Ends is truly a unique read because it’s been written in portions of time. It goes back and forth between time periods and characters so that the reader learns what happens to several people at the same time.
Using this writing method, it creates a continuous tension throughout the book which had me trembling on the edge of my seat. I’ve never read anything like it since.
Lemons; A book that made your feel sour.
There were a lot of options for this particular question but in the end I had to go with A Court of Wings and Ruin.
As far as final books in a series go, I’m usually somekind of satisfied with it. I may not always agree with the ending but it usually gives me some sort of closure.
But ACOWAR… I don’t know. It didn’t live up to the hype around it. It totally didn’t give me any of the ACOTAR vibes it gave me in the previous books. It felt so alien compared to the other two. And it didn’t have anything to do with the -now- established relationship between Feyre and Rhys. That was to be expected but everything around them just felt rushed and bland. Feyre suddenly transformed into this all-knowing High Lady with full control over her powers while she was still training them in the last book. It didn’t make sense. A lot of it just didn’t make sense. And that ruined the experience for me. Turned it sour.
Tomato; A book you feel should be more widely known. Or a fantastic author who deserves more recognition.
Everyone I talk to about angelic inspired books has either never heard of these books or has never read them or felt like they should need to. Which -in my opinion- is ridiculous because they are freaking amazing!
I read all three of them within a couple of days and was anticipating more of Courtney in this genre. Too bad she didn’t write much more after these.
Apples; A real stereotypical book of a certain genre. Like apples which are typical fruits. Was it a good book in the end?
After reading most of his books, John Green’s books all start to blend into one another. Even though they talk about various topics and themes, they all seem to have the same set of characters. Which is okay for a coming-of-age story but after a while they all look the same. Or maybe that’s just me.
Don’t get me wrong, I do like his books and I love his writing. TFIOS is one of my favorites but his books are really everything a contemporary YA novel needs. Whenever someone asks me what Contemporary means, I always refer to John’s books.
Was Looking for Alaska a good book? I’m still deciding. I did like the read but would I recommend it? I don’t know… It’s something you need to be in the right mood for. Otherwise you’ll end up hating the book while it deserves so much better.
Blueberries; A book that made you feel blue.
After reading so much other material, All the Bright Places is still one of those books that’s very dear to me. When I first got into it, I wasn’t at a very good place in my own life which made this book a little hard to read. Since it came so close to whatever I was experiencing myself at that time but -like I said- it has become one of the most beautiful novels I have ever read.
The only reason why I put it under BLUEBERRIES is because it does involve mental health in a realistic manner. It doesn’t shy away from it or from what happens when mental ilness gets the best of a character. It’s unedited and raw and it has helped me so much understand so much. It took me a couple of days to really get over it and put the characters away but do I recommend it? Hell yeah!
Grapefruit; A bitter book -> A book that was blue but MORE… Do you have any bitter resentment towards a character? Any sour turned bitter emotions? Any uber-hateful villains?
If you’ve read my reviews on The Selection books, you may know how much I hate/love these books. And not because I hate the idea of a selection but because of the writing style combined with a truly over-the-top annoying leading lady.
There’s lots to say about these books that I’m not going to say in here but I have come to hate America Singer with a passion. Her as a main character ruined the whole experience for me. Combine that with a lacking writing style and it had me pulling my hair until I was near bald. It was so frustrating reading about America going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth (times a million) between her former lover and prince Maxon and ugh….
I will continue this rant if I don’t stop now so yeah…. If you want to know more, read my reviews here, here, and here.
Limes; A funny book you’ve read because lime adds flavour and so does humour with every book.
I don’t read a lot of comical books since my preferences lie with fantasy and dystopians (which always include a certain level of humour) but the mangas I read are always really funny. I love the Japanese humour and always end up laughing out loud over something a character did or how the comic portrays it.
Hanazakari no Kimitachi E (For You in Full Blossom) is a typical Japanese comical comic. It’s about a young girl who’s dressing up as a boy to be able to enter an all-boys school and attend there in order to restore the reputation of an ex-athlete. It’s incredibly funny to read but it’s also a beautiful romance.
Cherry; A companion book or novella that, like a cherry, comes paired with a standalone/series.
How can I not mention the one novella that is solely about my favorite character’s progression in a story he was left out from in the last book????
Tower of Dawn is a novella in the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. It’s Chaol’s story during Empire of Storms since he was completely left out of EoS, Sarah decided to write a novella about him which turned into a full-blown novel (600+ pages) and made me cry a little #ProudMomma
I haven’t finished it yet because I don’t want to rush things (and work’s been mental) but I’m halfway through and loving it. It gives me so many feels towards Chaol. My baby is going to be okay *cries*
Part B; Make your own fruity question.
Figs; A book that gave you bittersweet feels or and ending you don’t completely agree with -> Like figs are sweet to the taste but sometimes very bitter too.
To me that was Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. It’s a touching story about a paralyzed man and a young woman who takes on the job as his caretaker.
Throughout the course of the story both character learn from each other and show each other that life doesn’t need to be limited to a chair or a certain town.
It gave me bittersweet feelings because it builds up to this nice romantic tension between the two, only to rip out my heart at the end.
*still not over it*
Part C; create your own smoothie using fruits from part A.
Strawberry – Lemon – Grapefruit.
This sequel to Easy was a anticipated read for me. After I finished Easy, I wanted to learn more about Lucas and his life. There was a depth to him that we didn’t really touch in Easy so when this book was announced by the author, I went nuts for it. I just had to have it. And when I finally did…. it didn’t meet any of the hopes I had for it.
It managed to ruin Easy for me and Lucas as a character.
I know teenage boys are bodies full of raging hormones but I expected more of Lucas. Now that I know he wanted to have sex with Jaqueline almost all the time instead of wanting to help her get over what happened to her without ulterior motives…. I’ll never get back to liking him.
Tag some peeps!
And anyone who stumbles upon this tag and wants to participate 😀
Thank you all for reading this tag.
With love,
Leanne
nevertrustabooknerd.wordpress.com 
Thank you for tagging me lovely!
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