Who doesn’t love cake? I like cake. Well, certain types at least. And mostly for the icing. But still, I have a huge sweet tooth, so I couldn’t resist trying out this book tag I found
Chocolate Cake: A Dark Book That You Loved
The Cursebreakers trilogy by Brigid Kemmerer, starting with A Curse So Dark and Lonely, followed by A Heart So Fierce and Broken, and finishing with A Vow So Bold and Deadly. I wasn’t too thrilled with the first book, a Beauty and the Beast retelling where the Prince is doomed to repeat the autumn he turns 18 again and again until he falls in love. The catch is at the end of each season he turns into a murderous beast with little sentience. Harper is “chose” as the season’s next girl, pulled from Washington D.C. into this magical world, and she is a tough one to woo. I found this book not to put too much twist on the original tale, but as the series went on and we got to know an original side character, Grey, and his adventures, I fell in love.
Vanilla Cake: A Favorite Light Read
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han. Though I’m not exactly crafty like Lara Jean, I still felt seen in the way we both loved books and movies and had (at that point in my life) never dated anyone. When her letters to her crushes over the years are mysteriously sent, Lara Jean freaks out, knowing her latest letter was to her sister’s very fresh ex-boyfriend. She kissed the first guy she can–someone she wrote a letter to years ago–and he agrees to be her fake boyfriend, at least for a while. This is such a light and fun romantic read and because of this, I will always always be a sucker for the fake dating trope.
Red Velvet: A Book That Gives You Mixed Emotions
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. It had SO MUCH hype. And a cool premise: a sun summoner discovers her powers and is recruited by The Darkling, told she’d be a hero because she can destroy an awful place of darkness called The Shadow Fold. Cool, right? But the characters were lacking and the protagonist was too much “I’m not like other girls.” However, I loved Nikolai’s character, and I loved the next duology, Six of Crows, set in the same universe.
Cheesecake: A Book That You Recommend to Everyone
I’m going to go with a new favorite, a YA Fantasy I read in the summer: Legendborn by Tracey Deonn. Such a good read. After Bree’s mom dies, she is in a hurry to get away from her town, and enrolls in an Early College program at Chapel Hill. At the university, she witnesses a magical attack which unlocks her own hidden powers. In an effort to understand what is happening, she finds herself wrapped up in the campus’s secret society, full of white people who claim they are descendants of Arthur’s Round Table, and are at least a little off put by Bree’s blackness and her own magic. Such a good book mixing my favorite things: a hint of enemies-to-lovers, retellings, fantasy, and gave me, as a white person, a small insight into the Black experience and encouraged me to be better and confront my own small racisms I may not be aware of.
Coffee Cake: A Book That You Started but Never Finished
I hardly ever DNF. Even if I hate the book, I force myself to finish it. But, there was one book over ten years ago, that I tried reading–I even almost got to the end–but I just couldn’t do it anymore. Unfortunately, it’s a real favorite, so please don’t judge me. That book was Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
Carrot Cake: A Book with Great Writing
Even if I was slow to get into this book, I can’t deny that the writing was flawlessly seamed together. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig was a pretty good read. A woman who wants to take her life gets the chance to explore all the different lives she might have had if she had made a different choice.
Tiramisu: A Book that Left You Wanting More
The Folk of the Air series by Holly Black! Even after the original trilogy, the following novella, and the two short stories plus Cardan’s letters, I still thirst for more of Elfhame. I will never tire of their story. Jude and her sisters were adopted by a Redcap and brought to fairyland when she was seven. Ten years later, she seems forever bullied by the Fae–especially Prince Cardan–for being human. She vows to show them she can be just as awful. And she might have her opportunity when she is recruited to spy for a member of the royal family.
Cupcakes: A Series With Four or More Books
Another favorite fae series of mine is A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas! When I started it, I thought it was just a trilogy but she seems to just keep cranking out more. In the first book, another Beauty and the Beast retelling, Feyre kills a fae. To compensate for her crime, the fae Tamlin takes her to live with him in fairy-land (Prythian) as his…prisoner, I suppose. But there is something strange going on in Prythian, some sort of curse, and Feyre might be the one to break it.
Fruitcake: A Book That Wasn’t What You Anticipated
Loved by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast, part of the House of Night Otherworld series. I loved the original House of Night series in high school so I thought this would be just as good. But, honestly, the writing went way downhill, the characters were one-dimensional, and the conflict was solved way too easily.
Feel free to do this tag if it looks fun to you! You know I was never officially tagged in it haha.
Living For Literature 