Looking Forward: March

It's March. March. What--how--I mean--where did the time--how did we---*SCREAMS INTO PILLOW*

Here are all the March releases I'm most looking forward to:

These Are a Few of My Favorite Tropes

This post brought to you by the untold hours I spent on tvtropes.org an evil website that will steal hours of your life away DO NOT VISIT IT. Okay. Now let's talk tropes because why not.

I hear "it was so full of tropes" as a pretty common literary criticism, but the truth is that tropes are neither inherently good nor bad. It's all how you use them, and which ones you twist, and which ones you delight in using.

Every book you've ever read is brimming with tropes. It's impossible to write without them, and the truly great books manage to play with and balance the familiar with the unfamiliar, giving you just what you like and want in a trope in as fresh a manner as possible. And when authors brilliantly SUBVERT a trope...well, that is my happy place.

There are a few tropes I, as a reader, can just NEVER resist. If I see these alluded to in a synopsis or a review, then I will be there with jazz hands. Give me all the books with these story tropes, please (done well, especially, and with a twist BE STILL MY HEART).

Let's Catch Up: What I've Been Reading (Or More Accurately, Haven't)

HI GUYS! Things have been busyyyy in Gillian-land lately. Nothing terrible, just mostly tiring, which means my reading has...well, it's gone kaput. I'm going to blame The 100 for returning to air and sucking up all my emotions and dominating the part of my brain reserved for fictional investment. (That and binge watching Grey's Anatomy because oh my god you guys I ship Alex and Meredith so hard I am such ship trash GOD HELP ME BUT I WANT IT)

NO SHUT UP ALEX IT'S PERFECTLY NORMAL TO WANT YOU TWO TO BONE

I mean honestly, look at them

The YA Sorting Hat (5)

Last time on the YA Sorting Hat: Book Boyfriends Part II

One day, I asked myself the not at all ridiculous question, "Which houses would I sort my favorite literary characters into?" So got Ye Olde Sorty out of the Headmaster's office and put him on the job of sorting some of my favorite non-Harry Potter characters into Hogwarts Houses.

Hamilton Book Tag

Hamilton is everything, everything, e v e r y t h i n g. Twitter has proven this time and time again, managing without fail to mash Hamilton up with every other piece of fiction/pop cultural event/poilitical happening/random Tuesday occurrence seamlessly. A few months ago, Angie from Lady Knight Reads tagged me in this, the Hamilton Book Tag, started by youtuber Maureen, which YAY FUN TIMES LET'S GO

Review: These Vicious Masks by Tarun Shanker and Kelly Zekas

These Vicious Masks by Tarun Shanker and Kelly Zekas
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository
Series: Yes, #1 in the These Vicious Masks series
Release date: February 9th, 2016
Publisher: Swoon Reads (Macmillan)
Length: 352 pages
Source: ARC from the publisher
Rating: FUN WITTY BANTER TIMES! Plus powers.

Jane Austen meets X-­Men in this gripping and adventure-­filled paranormal romance set in Victorian London.

England, 1882. Evelyn is bored with society and its expectations. So when her beloved sister, Rose, mysteriously vanishes, she ignores her parents and travels to London to find her, accompanied by the dashing Mr. Kent. But they’re not the only ones looking for Rose. The reclusive, young gentleman Sebastian Braddock is also searching for her, claiming that both sisters have special healing powers. Evelyn is convinced that Sebastian must be mad, until she discovers that his strange tales of extraordinary people are true—and that her sister is in graver danger than she feared.

Oh, yes, this is just what the book doctor ordered. If you read my review of The Dark Days Club, you know that this kind of book is my crack. I'm an easy customer, truth be told, when it comes to historical + genre mashups, especially if you add in some witty banter and a Ship of Dreams. So yes, you should take my review with a grain of salt, but also...well, These Vicious Masks is just plain delightful. It really is.

Top Ten Greatest Declarations of Love

hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This was the most fun TTT to research ever. I opened up all my fave books and reread the kissy scenes. Best job ever.

Double Review: Riders by Veronica Rossi and The Last Place on Earth by Carol Snow

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository
Series: Yes, #1 in the series
Release date: February 16th, 2016
Publisher: Tor Teen
Length: 364 pages
Source: borrowed ARC
Rating: DNF

Oh, man, this kills me to do. KILLS ME. I love Veronica Rossi's Under the Never Sky trilogy--I binged the entire thing, novellas and all, in a single weekend and walked around in a haze for days afterward. But I just could. not. get into Riders. I was intrigued by both the concept--a guy dies and comes back to life as War, one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse--and the conceit--the novel opens with Gideon, our MC, strapped to a chair and being interrogated. The novel is the tale he spins his torturer/kidnapeprs, explaining how he got his powers and how he got tangled in this mess.

Looking Forward: February

WHAT THE HELL. Didn't I just write the January one of these?! What did I say, time, about moving so quickly? UGHHHH. Whatever. Get your wallets out, because February, like January before it, is going to stretch it to breaking point. Here are all the February books I'm most looking forward to: