CONTRADICTIONS BOOK TAG

I was just recently tagged by Sweaters and Raindrops to do the Contradictions Book Tag! It looks super interesting, so I’m diving right in. This tag was originally made by Daniela at Only If For a Page. I’ll tag some people at the bottom so we can keep this going! Heeeeeeere we go!

1) I love this genre but I didn’t like this book

It’s no secret I love just about every sub-genre of fantasy there is. I absolutely adore the whole secret-magic-school trope, but I detested A Deadly Education. It was my first foray into Naomi Novik’s work, and I’m really sad to say that it did not make me want to pick up another of her books.

I hated the main character, I hated that the school was so dangerous, I hated a lot. But, what can you do? Not every book is for me!

2) I rarely read this genre but I loved this book

I’m not a huge historical fiction reader — though I do enjoy it! At the Water’s Edge is an interesting little book about searching for Nessie in Loch Ness. The relationships are fascinating, and the history is, too! This takes place right smack-dab in the middle of WWII.

I picked it up not knowing what it was really about, and wow, I remember just falling in love with the main character. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve read this, but I really recommend!

3) I love this trope but I didn’t like this book

I’m an enormously huge sucker for anything remotely similar to Hades and Persephone. This book should have hit all the buttons for me, but I wanted to scream basically the entire time. It’s poorly written, the main character is quite dumb (and I mean that literally, she makes the worst decisions ALL OF THE BOOK) and the world-building is…well it leaves much to be desired.

I need more people to write retellings of the Hades and Persephone myth, but I need them to write well. (Lore Olympus is fantastic, please go read it.)

4) I hate this trope but I loved this book

This is kind of a bogus answer to this question, because I had never read a progression fantasy before. My husband read the Cradle series before me, and kept telling me I had to read it. I had heard it described as anime in a book, and boy is that the absolutely perfect description of it.

If you like anime even a little bit, you’ll like the Cradle series.

5) I love this author but I didn’t like this book

This is another bogus answer, I guess. I liked Gallant fine enough, it just didn’t stand up to Schwab’s other works for me. Her works have such a lushness to them that you can almost feel them like velvet against your skin, and Gallant just wasn’t quite long enough for that. You can read my whole review here.

6) I previously disliked a book by this author but I loved this book

I really, really liked the world of Eidolon a whole bunch. It was a beautifully crafted world with an absolutely excellent villain. However, I was meh on the first Grace Draven book that I read — Phoenix Unbound. There was entirely too much rape in that book. It felt like every character on page had been raped or was doing the raping, and it was just… too much. Thankfully, Eidolon was much better.

7) I love this cover but I didn’t like this book

In a Garden Burning Gold has the prettiest cover I’ve seen in a long, long time and I just…could not get into it. I wanted to like it, I really, really did! But it ended up being too political, and every character was just an awful person. I hate books like that. You can read my full review here.

8) I don’t like this cover but I loved this book

Wolfsong‘s cover is entirely too bland compared to how excellent the book is. It’s okay, really, but I feel like there could be some seriously amazing art to back this book up.

I had a hard time picking a book for this one, tbh. Most of the books I read really do have gorgeous covers!

Those are my answers for the Contradictions book tag!

I’m going to tag the following people:

• dinipandareads
• Becky’s Book Blog
• kristinkravesbooks
• booksarethenewblackblog
• veebookishbooks