15 Non-ARCs I want to read ASAP

Those who follow my blog regularly have probably realized by now this year has been all about my ARCs so far… I have a huge backlog of ARCs and I’ve been slowly trying to scale the ARC mountain, and it does show in my reading numbers. More than 70% of the books I’ve read so far in 2017 have been ARCs!! I do love my ARCs, but I feel like I’ve been neglecting all those poor non-ARCs on my TBR pile for way too long now… So I decided to sit down, browse my owned books and compile a list of the fifteen titles I want to get to first. They are from a mix of different genres and both new and older releases; here we go!

• Room by Emma Donoghue (312 pages) (published in 2010)
• The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman (343 pages) (published in 2012)
• Bird Box by Josh Malerman (262 pages) (published in 2014)
• More Than This by Patrick Ness (480 pages) (published in 2013)
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (386 pages) (published in 2011)

• Now You See Me by Sharon Bolton (400 pages) (published in 2011)
• I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh (371 pages) (published in 2014)
• Black-Eyed Susans by Julia Heaberlin (354 pages) (published in 2015)
• The Woman In Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware (340 pages) (published in 2016)
• Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz (359 pages) (published in 2012)

• Red Rising by Pierce Brown (382 pages) (published in 2014)
• Heartless by Marissa Meyer (453 pages) (published in 2016)
• The Bird And The Sword by Amy Harmon (352 pages) (published in 2016)
• Stardust by Neil Gaiman (266 pages) (published in 1999)
• Strange The Dreamer by Laini Taylor (544 pages) (published in 2017)

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Have you read any of these titles? Which do you recommend I should pick up first? Feel free to comment! 🙂

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ARC REVIEW: Flame In The Mist – by Renee Ahdieh

Title: Flame In The Mist
(Flame In The Mist #1)
Author: Renee Ahdieh
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Retelling
First published: May 16th 2017
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Finished reading: May 1st 2017
Pages: 368

“Sometimes we must fall forward to keep moving. Remain motionless—remain unyielding—and you are as good as dead.
Death follows indecision, like a twisted shadow. Fall forward. Keep moving. Even if you must pick yourself up first.”

*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***

As soon as I saw the cover and the mention of Mulan, I was sold. Flame In The Mist has been on my list of most anticipated 2017 releases ever since, and I still cannot believe my Netgalley request was actually approved. I read a teaser back in January in one of the Buzz Books editions, and what I saw was GOOD. So good that my expectations were extraordinary high when starting this new series by Renee Ahdieh, but somehow Flame In The Mist managed to be ever better than expected. I practically devoured its pages and loved every single minute of it. The setting, the writing style, the characters (Mariko, Okami!!!), the plot… It doesn’t happen often that I hand out the full five star rating, but I just couldn’t give this story any lower. Both the worldbuilding and the writing style feel rich, engaging and very well developed and executed. I also enjoyed that Flame In The Mist is set in Japan and talks about a culture I’m personally not all that familiar with. The characters started to grow on me almost instantly and I LOVED Mariko as a main character. A little note though: even though this story basically blew me away, I did feel my love would have been even greater without the romance… It’s not all that distracting, but there is a hint of a future love triangle I’m not that sure/happy about. It was too insignificant to influence my rating though. I just cannot wait to find out what the future has in store; the wait for the sequel is surely going to be a long one! If you like the genre, this is definitely a must-read.

Even though Mariko has a long list of skills, she has long known her future has been out of her hands simply because she was born a girl. She is the daughter of a prominent samurai and at the age of seventeen now promised to the son of the emperor’s favorite consort. Mariko has no choice but to do as her father wishes and accept this political marriage, but it seems like fate has different plans for her in store. In route to the imperial city of Inako, the group is ambushed by a gang of bandits known as the Black Clan and Mariko narrowly escapes with her life… She is believed to be dead, and Mariko decides to use this to try and find the Black Clan. Will she be able to discover who was behind the attack and will she be able to restore the honor of her family?

If you like well developed fantasy reads with gorgeous prose, setting and interesting characters, you are in for a treat with Flame In The Mist. The only thing that would have made me enjoy this story even more would have been the exclusion of the romance scenes; otherwise this first book of a new series is simply perfect. In fact, I can’t wait to read the sequel and the first book hasn’t even been published yet… More than recommended!

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