Singing In the Shower Book Tag

This is my original book tag. Yes, I cringed too. So let’s waste no time and get ready to learn a few new songs, and stretch those creative muscles!! I tried to make this as surprising for myself as anyone else. So please enjoy, and if you decide to do it too please tag me or send me the link. I was surprised how many songs I could find that hit the mark so well.

1. Select a theme song for #girlboss character that you’ve recently discovered.
   Serena from Serena is most certainly a #girlboss. I think she’d appreciate Little Red Wagon by Miranda Lambert, a sort of guilty pleasure.
   

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2. Your all time favorite character just pulled up in your driveway. What song is most likely playing when you climb in?
   All time favorite character? Seriously? Who wrote this?
   I’m going with Darrow from Red Rising because climbing in a car with him is going to result in some sort of epic adventure. He’s got Back In Black by AC/DC. And Sevro is in the back seat singing it and playing air guitar.

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3. Go to last book on your shelf (or stack no judgement!) A character of your choice from the first chapter is singing karaoke. What song do the pick?
   Mark Watney from The Martian belting out Destiny Child’s Survivor  You know it.

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4. Pick an anthem for a beloved rascal.
   Jesper from Six of Crows would definitely identify is with Florida-Georgia Line’s This is How We Roll. It’s just the kind of song that would mark him subtly different from the citizens of Kitterdam.

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5. You know that one couple that just wasn’t meant to be? What’s their love song?
   It personally wounded me that Dagny Taggart didn’t end up with Francisco D’Anconia in Atlas Shrugged. Their love song would be Night Train by Jason Aldean. *Dreamy Sigh*

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6. Randomly select a book with from an author with the last name starting with C. Flip open to a random page, and the first character you see is singing in the shower. What song are they singing?
   YEssss. It’s Dr. Alan Grant from Jurassic Park!!!! He is belting out Africa by Toto.

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7. What’s song would be your favorite OTP’s first dance?
   My OTP’s are often not cannon, but Gale and Katniss from the Hunger Games should get a dreamy first dance in some secret, sweet wood. How about the acoustic Making Memories of Us by Keith Urban.

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8. The villain from the last book you read is looking for a theme song. What do you suggest?
   Pekka Rollins was a villain from the last book I read, Crooked Kingdom, and I guess he’d probably like the song All I Do Is Win by DJ Khaled + friends.

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9. Think of a tragic couple, they are dancing their last dance, what song is it?
   Ruby and Liam from the Darkest Minds trilogy are my token tragic couple. Their last dance song: Rewind by Rascal Flatts.

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10. Your favorite stand alone book just got made into a movie. What song is playing in the opening credits?
    Alas, Babylon getting made into a movie would be beautiful! Safe and Sound by Taylor Swift & the Civil Wars would be playing for sure.

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11. Pick up the 5th book on your shelf. The main character is standing in an elevator with you- what song comes on that annoys them the most?
    Well, Darrow from the Red Rising trilogy is going up and Lorde’s Royals comes on. His eye rolling is constant.

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12. What’s the last series that you started? The kindest character from that series is sitting next to moonlight pond. What song do you serenade to cheer them up?
    Strange the Dreamer….and the kindest character was definitely Lazlo Strange. If he were sad, a moonlight serenade would actually cheer him up. I’d get someone that isn’t me to sing Hooked on a Feeling by Blue Suede.

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Extra Credit: Do any songs come to mind that remind you a setting in a book you love?
The Red Mine that Darrow in Red Rising comes from, their song would have to be Drinking Class by Lee Brice.

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So I hope you enjoyed Singing in the Shower Book Tag. And all you fellow book review bloggers, copy and paste. Let’s see what you come up with!!

Zombie Apocalypse Book Tag

I succumb. Zombie Apocalypse Book tag will be dragging me into this book tag nonsense, but look how fun this actually is!! Plus I am a sucker for zombie related material.

The Rules:

• Choose 5 books!
• Randomly set up your books in order.
• Flip to a random page in the book and write the first two names you see.
• Put the names in the categories listed below in the order you saw them!
• Cry at how screwed you are…
• Tag some more people to join in the fun

My Books:

• Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
• Pyromantic by Lish McBride
• Trespasser by Tana French
• Morning Star by Pierce Brown
• Six of Crows by Leigh B’Adugo

The first person to die: Edward (Breaking Dawn)

How pleasing. This is going well so far.

The first person you trip to escape the zombies: Jacob (Breaking Dawn)

What? That’s my favorite character in Twilight! He’s useful and loyal. I have terrible judgement. Hopefully my devious plan is thwarted and he’s okay.

The first person who trips you to escape the zombies: Bianca (Pyromantic)

I’m not really surprised, but I don’t know why she’d have to trip me. She can just disappear. Maybe she would disappear on me and leave me to get chomped.

The Team Idiot: Ezra (Pyromatic)

Hmmm….Ezra is daring and would take unnecessary risks. But he could be on my team!!

The brains of the group: Steven Moran (Trespasser)

I am not sure if that means we are in trouble or not. Steven is street smart, but I wouldn’t say he’s brilliant. Not sure how’d he do in a zombie apocalypse, but hey maybe have that Rick Grimes thing going on.

The team medic: Aislinn (Trespasser)

Pretty sure we are screwed, she’ll be one of the first to go. She has terrible judgement.

The weapons expert: Ragnar (Morning Star)

This isn’t so bad! Maybe with some training from Ragnar on how to be a general butt kicker we will be okay. Ragnar! He will save the day.

The team brawler: Mustang (Morning Star)

Well that is an interesting turn of events. She’s definitely dangerous, I just can’t see her brawling. Perhaps the zombie apocalypse brings out the worst in people.

The first to turn into a zombie: Jesper (Six of Crows)

I have mixed emotions about this. On one hand-NOOOOOOO. On the other hand- he isn’t the most reliable person. There was the business of revealing secrets, but he is very good with a gun.

The team leader: Nina (Six of Crows)

Can we please nominate Nina to team medic? It’s not that I don’t think that she could do it, it’s just….her witchy powers would be so handy for healing. But could she bring down the zombies from a distance? This would give her a clear advantage. Hmmm….

I am not really sure we will make it for long. It’s not terribly weak. I give us 3 months! Maybe 6 months if I don’t kill Jacob and we can keep our medic alive.

I tag: YOU! Reading this. 

 

 

 

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh B’Ardugo

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo is the sequel to Six of Crows. It takes place in the same universe as her Grisha Series. If you keep reading, expect spoliers for both Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom.

Crooked Kingdom picks up right were Six of Crows left off. Inej is kidnapped by Van Eck and Kaz is plotting on how to get her and the money back.

The first thing that has to be talked about is the fearless gang leader, Kaz “Dirtyhands” Brekker. Kaz has got to the best example of a sympathetic dark antihero. He isn’t this kind hearted soul wearing a thinly veiled tough exterior. Nor is he this obvious villain that has good looks and a little bit of mystery to compel some heroine to swoon occasionally.  Kaz is this complex, brilliant leader that calculates every move as if his whole life is a chess game that is infinite and could end at any moment. Kaz’s plans are even more brilliant than Six of Crows, and I think that is because he has home field advantage. I thought for sure it would be revealed that Nina healed his crippled leg before the effect of her drug high wore off. But that didn’t come to pass. Which also leads to more development of his skin to skin weakness which was so raw and this idea that his crippled leg is his advantage. People don’t look for other weakness, they are obvious. Kaz makes my favorite observation of the book. He’s recalling an old crime wizard that compares a lock to a woman but Kaz is annoyed by it. “Sure a lock was like a woman. It was also like a man and anyone or anything else–if you wanted to understand it, you had to take it apart and see how it worked. If you wanted to master it, you had to learn it so well you could put it back together.” Kaz also reaches and grasps his dreams. He starts he own gang which was no easy feat, it required breaking up with his boss in a public and dangerous display.

This might sound horrible, but I was really hoping that Inej wouldn’t escape by herself. It would have destroyed their crew. Instead, the tension and poison Bardugo created with Inej’s raw fear of having her legs broken thus tossed away by Kaz was so powerful and gut wrenching because the audience can completely get behind that fear. “”He’ll never trade if you break me.”“ You believe that line in your stomach and so does Inej. So she clings harder to escaping Kitterdam and Kaz with lofty visions of being a pirate of pirates. It’s so real. Inej is reunited with her crew in this elegant disaster and escape. She ends up fighting this insane assassin she calls her shadow. For this first time, I see Inej as a dark soul that has a lot to be sorry for, she isn’t just a victim of slavery and prostitution. She has done her own dark deeds.

Which leads us to this relationship between Inej and Kaz. They spurn their feelings for each other. It’s way too complicated and messy for either of them. Inej’s dark fear that Kaz would abandoned her if she was no longer an asset builds this tension that has be addressed. It’s at this point, pretty early in the book, things really change between them. Inej tells Kaz about Van Eck wanting to break her legs and how she convinced him that she’d be a useless pawn for him if he did. Kaz grapples with it too. Finally he says, “”I would come for you. And if I couldn’t walk, I’d crawl to you, and no matter how broken we were, we’d fight our way out together–knives drawn, pistols blazing. Because that’s what we do. We never stop fighting.”” This has to be the romantic line of either book. It’s not accompanied with any dramatic or physical gestures, but it’s this turning point. That doesn’t mean it’s roses for them afterwards. Kaz forgets her fear of being touched because he’s blinded by his own. Their is suspicion. But really from this point on, there is only reinforcement of their strong relationship. Inej displays unwavering loyalty. Kaz changes her bandages without his gloves. In the end, he spells out exactly how much he loves her, not with stolen kisses or well crafted words. He gives her freedom, her family, and her dreams on silver platter.

Bardugo doesn’t suffer from giving the audience too much information, especially with her characters. She lets them speak, rather than just telling us about them. The only dip in this if I find is with Nina. Nina is this almost trained Grisha solider. She is well educated and speaks a few languages. We are told that she is a fierce warrior, but I forget that sometimes and think of her as the softest one of the bunch. But then I have to take it back because boom, in the midst of street battle for her life she breaks her softness and destroys her would be assailant. Nina is also going through a sort of identity crisis. She is struggling with this new strange and dark power she has, and mourning the power she no longer has.

Matthias was under developed compared to the others and I think that is why he died. Bardugo didn’t bother to give him a future, a purpose beyond the moment. You can see it in the super sugary moments Nina and Matthias share like this: “”You’re better than waffles, Matthias Helvar.” A small smile curled the Fjerdan’s lips. “Let’s not say things we don’t mean, my love.””  I feel like his death was pointless. Not in the random way that sometimes bad things happen and there is nothing you can do about it, but in the let’s kill one of the main characters off kind of way. It was so anticlimactic and it lacked impact. I also thought it might be a sort of symbolic killing. Matthias was this traditional solider type with a streak of naivety and formality about love. His sort of ideas are dead, and so is he. I just sort of boxed him up and put it on the shelf.

Then there is Wylan and Jesper. I really feel like this was their book. These characters are two peas in a pod which strikingly similar obstacles they must over come. Both have pasts that are catching up them and problems with their fathers. They both try to hide their weaknesses, and both are struggling with acceptance. Wylan is rejected by his father, the odd man out in the crew with his upbringing, and even rejected (accidentally) by Jesper at one point. Jesper is also struggling with rejection from Kaz, fear of his father rejecting him, and rejecting himself, by rejecting his Grisha gift. This common thread is really the binding agent.

At one point, Jesper and Inej discuss forgiveness and she says “This action will have no echo.” I wish this was thing in our culture. It has so much more meaning than apologizing. Jesper really takes it to heart and it shows.

Wylan gets all the complexity he lacked in Six of the Crows. He is having a purpose crisis and rightfully so. He doesn’t really belong with Kaz and his group and he’s been completely rejected by his father. You see his toxic relationship with his father both in snippets like “I will treat you no more harshly then the world will. That was his father’s refrain.”  and the larger flashbacks like his father attempting his murder. Then the crux of Wylan’s purpose crisis resolving when it’s revealed his mother is alive. Wylan’s vigor is completely changed after that. He’s got this grit about him after that is respectable instead of just feeling pity for him.

I loved this book, it’s obvious from the time I took thinking about it. I want badly to give it 5 out 5 but, I just can’t because there are some glaring things I can’t over look. Leigh Bardugo wove an amazing tale worthy of praise. I wish our journey with Kaz, Inej, and Nina weren’t over. I feel like they especially have so much more to do.

4.5 out of 5 stars. Go ahead, dive and have a good time that will leave you whirling.