The Name Change

Hello everyone!

It has been about a week since I moved from Blogger to WordPress, and The Scribbler became Meanderings of a Bookworm.

The reason for the change is that I felt like it was time to give my blog a makeover and I was finding it difficult to use Blogger in more innovative ways to improve my blog. I had heard in the past that WordPress was better than Blogger, however I wanted to do my own thing and refused to accept it. But since I felt that a change was needed on my blog I decided to check it out and see whether or not I wanted to use it as the new home of my blog.

After spending a few hours of playing around with WordPress, I discovered that it was easier to use and make changes than on Blogger. I also decided that if I changed to WordPress then maybe it was time to change the name as well; for a while I have been wanting to change for a while.

I also felt like a change was necessary since I started The Scribbler back when I had just finished my senior of high school and two years later I decided to turn it into a book blog. However, now that I have graduated from college and I am a little bit older I also wanted my blog to reflect the changes I have been going through.

For those of you who read The Scribbler, welcome to Meanderings of a Bookworm and I hope you enjoy the content of this blog as much as you enjoyed the old blog! To my new readers, welcome! I hope you enjoy my ramblings about books and anything book related! 🙂

Happy Reading,

Janelle L. C.

P.S. Don’t forget to follow the blog and like the Facebook page. You can also follow me on Twitter (@Jlc0904Janelle) and Instagram (@jazzyjan101).

Tome Topple Update

 Hello Everyone!

As some of you know I have been taking part in the Tome Topple read-a-thon. Click here to read more about it and my TBR for the read-a-thon.

I thought I would be able to finish one tome within the first week, however it is now 9 days in and I completed my first tome yesterday. For some reason I was in a reading slump for about two/three days, partly due to trying to not pick up the book I really wanted to read (Outlander) until yesterday which marked the start of the #TheReadingQuest. However, I soon got over it and finished A Court of Wings and Ruin!

 

This behemoth was 699 pages and I’m not going to lie, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would because it just seemed slow and not as action-packed as I was expecting. But I did enjoy the political intrigue elements of it. I am still deciding on whether or not to do a longer review on it, so watch this space!

 

Once I finished A Court of Wings and Ruin, I dove right into Outlander and I have managed to read about 233 pages so far. I am hoping to finish it this week, but I am also wanting to take my time with it because I love the writing style.

I also listened to about 7 hours and 40 minutes of The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan which is about 250 pages, I am going to keep listening/reading to it, but I don’t know if I will finish it by the end of the Tome Topple Read-a-thon.

So all together I have read a total of 1182 pages in the last 9 days, and I am hoping I can finish strong in the last four days of the read-a-thon.

Happy Reading,

Janelle L. C.

P.S. Don’t forget to hit the follow button on the right hand side, and to follow me on Instagram (@jazzyjan101) and Twitter (@Jlc0904Janelle).

Book Review: Dark Tide (Waterfire Saga #3)

Today’s review is on Dark Tide by Jennifer Donnelly.

Click here to read my review on Book 1, and click here to read my review on Book 2.

Dark Tide picks up a few days/weeks after the events of Rogue Wave. Serafina has been betrayed by those who she thought she could trust with the events that have happened so far, but she doesn’t let this get her down. She becomes the leader of the Black Fin Resistance and does everything she can to be one step ahead of her enemies as well as try and make sure that her friends find the rest of the talismans before the Death Riders do. Meanwhile fellow mermaid Ling has been captured by the villainous Rafe Mfeme, a human who wants to gather all the talismans to use for evil (at the end of book 2 a big secret was revealed about him but it is kind of spoiler-y so I am not going to say what it is), forces her to work in a prison camp in her kingdom to help search for one of the talismans. Becca finds Astrid, who had previously left the group at the end of the first book, and finds out she is hiding a shameful secret that is making her angry. Ava can’t return to her home and is forced to seek shelter elsewhere.

This was a great sequel to the the previous book. I loved how we got to see each of the six mermaids’ perspective and what they were going through, rather than just Serfina and Neela’s. Once again, Jennifer Donnelly does a great job with the continuous world-building. She develops the magic system even further and the myths that she has created for this series.

I loved getting to know Ling, Astrid and Becca more in this book, especially Astrid because the reader starts to understand her a bit more. I loved Ling’s story line and some of the sweet things that take place against the backdrop of some horrible things too. Becca’s story was also great, especially when she tries to get her talisman and how she deals with Astrid. I loved these characters and I am going to be sad to see them go at the end of the fourth book. I also loved the continuing tension in Serafina and Neela’s story line. I also liked how we got the wicked Lucia Volerno’s perspective a few times and I can’t find out what happens next.

This book was filled with gorgeous details, action and plot twists. I am giving this book 4/5 Stars because it was an interesting, fun read.

Happy Reading,
Janelle L. C.

 

P.S. If you have any book recommendations let me know and I will check them out! 🙂

Book Review: Rogue Wave (Waterfire Saga #2)

Today’s review is on Rogue Wave by Jennifer Donnelly

Click here to read my review on the first book, Deep Blue.

Rogue Wave picks up where Deep Blue ended, Serafina has just escaped from the sea witches cave after the death riders caught up to them. She has no idea where the other five mermaids have gone and she has no idea if they are still alive. As she journeys back to her kingdom to see what is left with it after the deadly attack that took place in the first book, she first tries to find the talisman that belonged to her ancestor, Merrow,  at an old shipwreck. Meanwhile, her best friend Neela travels back to Matali, where her parents have now become the rulers. However when she tells them her story they don’t believer her and lock her in her room. She soon escapes and goes in search of the talisman that belonged to her ancestor. As they race against time to find the talismans, they also discover that the plot that was enacted against Miromara is far more sinister and wide spread than they thought.

I loved being immersed in this fantastic, underwater world again. Jennifer Donnelly does a great job at continuing building the world that she introduced in Deep Blue. She continues to provide a detailed description without it being an information dump on the reader. She also does a good job of building upon the magic system that she introduced in the previous book. I love how we got to journey to Neela’s kingdom for a while and experience what the life and culture of that underwater kingdom is like.

I loved the characters and Donnelly does a good job of developing them even further in this second installment. Serafina discovers that she has more courage than she thought she could and is powered by her love for her friends and for the people of her kingdom. Neela discovers that the life of a pampered princess is no longer for her but that she needs to journey to find the talisman even if it means disappearing from the palace again. She also discovers that she is braver and smarter than she knew when she has to find a way to get the talisman. I loved all the different side characters that were introduced in this novel, like Coco and a few others. I also enjoyed to getting to know more about Neela’s brother and cousin.

This book was filled with many twists and turns and it ended on a major cliffhanger that changes a lot about plot, but in a good way. I am giving this book 4/5 Stars because I loved the entire thing even though it took me a while to get into it again. I can’t wait to read the rest of this series because I need to find out what happens next!

Happy Reading,
Janelle L. C.

P.S. Don’t forget to subscribe to the blog and follow me on Twitter (@Jlc0904Janelle), Instagram (@jazzyjan101), and to like The Scribbler Facebook page.

The Reading Quest TBR

Hello everyone!

Just over a week ago I heard about this fun reading challenge called The Reading Quest hosted by Aentee over Reading at Midnight. The artwork for this reading challenge was done by CW at Read, Think, Ponder

#TheReadingQuest is a reading challenge which has a bingo board with the list of reading challenges that need to be completed. However, the catch is that you have to pick one of four characters and follow their “quest” and complete their reading challenges (and the side quests which are the reading challenges in the middle) before moving on to the next character. Here are the characters that can be chosen:

And here is the Quest board:

I have chosen to start as the Bard because I have several books that I want to read this month that fulfill those quests and it just sounds cool to be a bard.

So how The Reading Quest works is that each participant starts off with 10 experience points, 10 health points, and at level 1. Participants get to level up every +50 XP. There are several ways to earn points:

• For every book read to complete a step of the quest – +10XP.
• If character challenges are completed before the end of the challenge (Sept. 10th) – +50XP
• +30XP for any character challenges completed after complete your character’s path.
• For every 20 pages read characters will receive +1 Health point
• Players can also earn up to 20 health points for meaningful social media posts with +1HP for each post.

Here are the challenges I have to complete as the Bard:

• A book that has a movie/tv adaptation
• A fairy tale retelling
• A book cover with striking typography
• A book translated from another language
• A banned book

These are the books that I plan on reading – in order of the above challenges:

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon 

 

Hunted by Megan Spooner

 

An Unusual School for Girls by Kathleen Baldwin 

 

Heidi by Joanna Spryi 

 

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle 

 

I plan on doing weekly updates during The Reading Quest and which side quests I end up completing.

Let me know if any of you plan on taking part in The Reading Quest and which character quest you chose!

Happy Reading,
Janelle L. C.

P.S. Don’t forget to subscribe to the blog and follow me on Twitter (@Jlc0904Janelle), Instagram (@jazzyjan101), and to like The Scribbler Facebook page.

What I Read in July

Hello everyone,

Today’s post is my July Wrap-up. I managed to read 42 books, granted most of them were graphic novels and manga. Because I have such a long list of books I am only going to give my star rating and I might have posts up later this month with mini-reviews for the novels that I read this month.

 I’ve also decided to divide this post into six sections, the first section are all the books I read before all the read-a-thons I took part in, the next four will be my wrap-up  for each read-a-thon, and then the sixth part will be an update of how I am doing with my TBR jar challenge so far. Here are the books that I read in July:

1. Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Vol. 2 by Naoko Takeuchi 

3.75/5 Stars

2. Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Vol. 3 by Naoko Takeuchi 

3.75/5 Stars

3. Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith

4/5 Stars

4. Library Wars: Love and War Vol. 7 by Kiiro Yumi

4/5 Stars

5. Library Wars: Love and War Vol. 8 by Kiiro Yumi

4/5 Stars

6. Library Wars: Love and War Vol. 9 by Kiiro Yumi 

4/5 Stars

7. Lucky in Love by Kasie West

4/5 Stars

8. Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Beats Up the Marvel Unvierse by Ryan North

3/5 Stars

9. Lock & Key by Sarah Dessen

4/5 Stars

10. Library Wars Vol. 10 by Kiiro Yumi 

4/5 Stars

11. Library Wars Vol. 11 by Kiiro Yumi 

4/5 Stars

12. Library Wars Vol. 12 by Kiiro Yumi 

4/5 Stars

13. Library Wars Vol. 13 by Kiiro Yumi 

4/5 Stars

14. Library Wars Vol. 14 by Kiiro Yumi

4/5 Stars

15. Library Wars Vol. 15 by Kiiro Yumi

4/5 Stars

16. Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O’Malley 

4/5 Stars

17. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World by Bryan Lee O’Malley

4/5 Stars

18. Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness by Bryan Lee O’Malley

4/5 Stars

19. Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together by Bryan Lee O’Malley 

4/5 Stars

20. Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe by Bryan Lee O’Malley 

4/5 Stars

21. Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O’Malley 

4/5 Stars

22. The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

3.85/5 Stars

23. Skip Beat Vol. 3 by Yoshiki Nakamura 

3/5 Stars

24. Cruel Crown by Victoria Aveyard

3/5 Stars

25. One Piece Vol. 6 by Eiichiro Oda 

3/5 Stars

26. Skip Beat Vol. 4 by Yoshiki Nakamura 

3/5 Stars

My Personal Read-a-thon (July 19th) Wrap-up:

I managed to read one whole book and 100 pages of another book during my personal read-a-thon which is pretty good considering I ended up being busier than I expected that day! The book that I completed was:

27. Matilda by Roald Dahl

5/5 Stars

And I read 100 pages of You Are Here by Jennifer E. Smith

24 Hour-a-thon:
I decided to take part in this read-a-thon on a whim. I managed to finish two books I had already started before this read-a-thon.
The two books I finished were:

28. You Are Here by Jennifer E. Smith

4/5 Stars

29. With You Always by Jody Hedlund

3.75/5 Stars

And the books that I read from start to finish are:

30. Shopping For Time by Carolyn Mahaney, Nicole Whitacre, Kristin Chesemore, and Janelle Bradshaw

4/5 Stars

31. The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl

4/5 Stars

32. The Twits by Roald Dahl

4/5 Stars

33. Esio Trot by Roald Dahl

4/5 Stars

24in48 Read-a-thon:
I didn’t do a TBR for this one because it overlapped with the last few hours of the 24Hour-a-thon. The goal was to read for 24 hours within the span of 48 hours. Since I knew that I would not be able to hit the 24 hour goal, I decided to set a goal for myself of 12 hours which even then was pushing it. I managed to get  8 hours and 55 minutes of reading done that weekend.

34. George’s Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl

4/5 Stars

35. Anne of Windy Poplars by L. M. Montgomery

4/5 Stars

36. When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

4/5 Stars

BookTube-a-thon Wrap-Up:
I also took part in the BookTube-a-thon, which started right after the 24in48 Read-a-thon on July 24th and went through until the 30th. If you would like to see my TBR and the reading challenges click here.

 37. Wanderlost by Jen Malone

4/5 Stars

38. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

4/5 Stars

39. The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me by Roald Dahl

4/5 Stars

40. The Vicar of Nibbleswicke by Roald Dahl

4/5 Stars

41. Lost at Sea by Bryan Lee O’Malley

3/5 Stars

And then the last two books I finished in July were:

42. Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

4/5 Stars

43. Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh

3/5 Stars

My TBR Jar Challenge Update:
At the beginning of the month I shared my TBR jar challenge. This month I managed to read seven books from it! I am hoping that next month I will be able to get almost as many books knocked off my TBR.

Happy Reading,
Janelle L.C.

P.S. Don’t forget to subscribe to the blog and follow me on Twitter (@Jlc0904Janelle), Instagram (@jazzyjan101), and to like The Scribbler Facebook page.

Tome Topple TBR

Hello Everyone!

I am taking part in Tome Topple that is hosted by BookTuber Sam at Thoughtsontomes and it wil be taking place from August 4th – 17th. The goal of this read-a-thon is to read as many books over 500 pages as you can. There are also some reading challenges which are:

1. Read more than one tome
2. Read a graphic novel
3. Read a tome that is part of a series
4. Buddy read a tome
5. Read an adult novel

TBR:

1. A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

2. Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

3. The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

4. One Piece Volume 3 Omnibus by Eiichiro Oda

5. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

I will probably do a check-in post halfway through Tome Topple to update you all on how I am doing.

Happy Reading,
Janelle L. C.

P.S. Don’t forget to subscribe to the blog and follow me on Twitter (@Jlc0904Janelle), Instagram (@jazzyjan101), and to like The Scribbler Facebook page.

August TBR

Hello Everyone!

August is going to be an interesting month because I will be taking part in two read-a-thons/reading challenges (I will have posts up soon with my TBR for both of those). And I am probably starting school again later this month. Here are a few of the books I plan on reading this month:

1. The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

2. The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien 

3. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi 

4. A Name Unknown by Roseanna M. White 

5. A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas 

Happy Reading,
Janelle L. C.

Book Review: Deep Blue (The Waterfire Saga #1)

Today’s review is on Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly

This summer I have really been in the mood for mermaid books, and when I saw this at my public library I immediately picked this up because I’ve had my eye on it for a couple of years. I didn’t really know what to expect from this book, but I loved it!

Deep Blue tells the story of Serafina who is a princess of Miromara and is next in line to take the throne. The night before the ceremony in which it will be proven whether she will be the next queen and betrothed to a prince, she has a nightmare. However, she shakes it off and the ceremony goes well, until her kingdom is attacked by a group assassins and Serafina and her friend Neela go on the run and on a quest to find out who attacked Miromara and what it means to the seven seas as a whole.

This book is a middle-grade/YA fantasy series about mermaids and Jennifer Donnelly does a good job at the world-building, which was kind of complex – a whole world under the sea. However, it wasn’t an info-dump which often tends to happen in fantasy books. There was also a magic system that all the merfolk use that was very interesting and definitely made the plot more interesting.

I loved the plot because even though it was somewhat straightforward, there were several different things that happened that I wasn’t really expecting to happen until it happened. I enjoyed the mythology surrounding how the merfolk came into existence (spoiler: it has something to do with Atlantis), and how that whole origin story has an effect on the plot of the novel and the rest of the series. I also think that the mythology was made up by the author, if that is true that makes this book even more awesome.

I really enjoyed the characters, even though for most of the novel we only really get to know Serafina and Neela a lot. I also liked all the different side characters that were introduced throughout this book. I loved all the characters in this book and I can’t wait to find out more about them.

I am giving this book 4/5 stars because I felt like this was a great introduction to the rest of the series, which I will definitely be reading in the near future.

Happy Reading,
Janelle L. C.

P.S. If you have any book recommendations let me know and I will check them out! 🙂

Booktube-a-thon TBR

Hello Everyone! 

Today’s post is going to be the list of books I plan on reading for the Booktube-a-thon that takes place
this week. It is hosted by BookTuber Ariel Bisette and even though I am not taking part in the vlog/blog portion of this read-a-thon, the reading challenges sounded really interesting so I decided that I would like to take part in it. 

Originally I was going to list the challenges and name the book that I was going to read for that challenge, however since several of these books could potentially help complete several of these challenges I am just going to list the challenges and then list the books that I hope to read next week. 

The Reading Challenges: 

1. Read a book with a person on the cover.
2. Read a hyped book.
3. Finish a book in one day.
4. Read about a character that is very different from you.
5.Finish a book completely outdoors.
6. Read a book you bought because of the cover.
7.Read seven books.

My TBR: 
1. Wanderlost by Jen Malone 

Completes challenge number 1.

2. Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh 

Completes challenge number 2.

3. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl 

Completes challenges 3 and 4.

4. The Vicar of Nibbleswicke by Roald Dahl

Completes challenge number 5.

5. Because You Love to Hate Me edited by Ameriie

Completes challenge number 6.

6. The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me by Roald Dahl 

7. Once and For All by Sarah Dessen

8. Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley 

9. The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennett by Bernie Su 

10. Lost at Sea by Bryan Lee O’Malley 

Happy Reading,
Janelle L. C.