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.

24Hourathon TBR

Hello Everyone!

So I know I did my own read-a-thon yesterday, but I heard that Kelly from the Youtube channel KellysBookSpill is hosting the 24-Hour-a-thon that is taking place tomorrow. I decided it would be fun to try and participate in another read-a-thon. Here are the books I plan on reading tomorrow (Note: two of these are repeats from my last read-a-thon TBR since I didn’t get a chance to get to them.)

1. With You Always by Jody Hedlund

2. Wanderlost by Jen Malone

3. Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

4. When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

5. One Piece Vol. 7 by Eiichiro Oda

6. One Piece Vol. 8 by Eiichiro Oda 

7. You Are Here by Jennifer E. Smith (If I haven’t already finished it!)

And those are the books I am planning to get to during the 24-hour-a-thon…I won’t be able to get to all of them, but two of them I am almost finished with so those will be the ones I read first, then I will read a volume of One Piece and then pick one of the other novels on my list.

Happy Reading,
Janelle L. C. 

Top 5 Wednesday: Children’s Books

Hello everyone!

Welcome to another edition of Top 5 Wednesday. Today’s topic is favorite children’s books. This was hard narrow down because I have so many favorites and I am thinking about doing a post in the future with a more extensive list of my favorites. But without further ado, here are my favorite Children’s books

1. Matilda by Roald Dahl

Ever since I read this in first or second grade this has been my favorite book especially since I felt like I could identify with Matilda in that I loved reading and I also felt like the odd one out at school. I am also planning on rereading it this month.

2. Sleepovers by Jacqueline Wilson

I remember this was the first Jacqueline Wilson book I ever read and I remember my parents had given me this book when I was about 8 when we were getting ready to go on a trip and they wanted me to have something to read on the plane ride. I remember loving this book and I reread it several times and I have no idea what I did with it, but I do want to reread it sometime just for the nostalgia.

3. Anything by Enid Blyton

I read a lot of books by Enid Blyton, probably one of my favorites is The Faraway Tree series. She has a huge collection of novels, some of them are set in boarding school and some of them are fantastical and just really good! Now that I am thinking about it, I really want to pick up one of her books and reread it to see what I think of her writing as an adult.

4. Anything by Dr. Seuss

This list would not be complete without mentioning Dr. Seuss, my parents used to read these books to my brother and I and I loved all of them. I don’t know if I could pick just one book that is my favorite because they are all great!

5. Tales of Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume

I remember listening to the audio book several times on road trips when I was 8. I loved this book and all the Fudge books by Judy Blume. And, I know I’ve said this for almost every book on this list, but I want to reread this sometime just to revisit my childhood.

And those are my Top 5 Children’s books, but I know there are a lot more, so there will be a longer list soon!

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.

Personal 24 Hour Read-a-thon TBR

Hello everyone!

I know I already posted today, but after watching several Booktube videos from people that participated in a 24 hour read-a-thon hosted by ReadbyZoe and really wanted to do my own read-a-thon. Lately I have been in a mini reading slump and I thought that it would be a great idea to try my own read-a-thon to see if that brings me out of my slump. So I have decided that starting at midnight tonight and going through until midnight tomorrow night I will have my own read-a-thon and see how much I can read in 24 hours. Here are the books I plan on picking up tomorrow:

1. Matilda by Roald Dahl 

2. You Are Here by Jennifer E. Smith

3. Wanderlost by Jen Malone 

4. Skip Beat Vol. 5 by Yoshiki Nakamura

6. One Piece Vol. 7 by Eiichiro Oda

7. Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella 

I don’t know which book I am going to start first, but I am going to probably save Confessions of a Shopaholic for last because I have already started it and I don’t know if I will be able to finish it.

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.

TBR Jar

Hello Everyone!

Today I thought I would share with you something that I started over a month ago to keep my TBR lists interesting. I’ve seen a few people do this so I thought it would be cool to try it, it is a TBR jar.

There are different ways to do this, but I decided to put all the books that I own (physical books, with a few ebooks) on to slips of paper and put it in a mason jar. Each month when I make my TBR list I will draw about 5 or 6 slips from the jar. The ones that I don’t finish will placed back in the TBR jar after the drawing for the next month.

Here are the list of books that are in my TBR jar:

• Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige 
• Gathering Darkness by Morgan Rhodes 
• Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas 
• Lost in a Book by Jennifer Donnelly 
• The Praying Life by Paul E. Miller
• You Are Here by Jennifer E. Smith 
• Matilda by Roald Dahl 
• The Waking Land by Callie Bates 
• Lucky in Love by Kasie West 
• Ever the Brave by Erin Summerill 
• Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson
• The Elephant Keeper by Christopher Nicholson
• Paige Rewritten by Erin Mangum
• She Myself and I by Emma Young
• Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao
• The Crimson Cord by Jill Eileen Smith 
• A Book of Spirits and Thieves by Morgan Rhodes 
• The Prophetess by Jill Eileen Smith 
• Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterley
• Delirium by Lauren Oliver
• Nyxia by Scott Reintgen
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor 
• Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie
• Frozen Tide by Morgan Rhodes 
• Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
• Heidi by Johanna Spyri
• More of Me by Kathryn Evans 
• Queen of Hearts by Colleen Oakes 
• Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare 
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline 
• Curio by Evangeline Denmark 
• Shopaholic Takes Manhattan by Sophie Kinsella
• Shatter Me by Tahera Mafi 
• Shadow of the Almighty by Elisabeth Elliot
• 204 Rosewood Lane by Debbie Macomber 
• Wendy Darling: Volume 1: Stars by Colleen Oakes 
• Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller 
• Snow Like Ashes by Sarah Raasch
• The Mirror Crack’d by Agatha Christie 
• These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Megan Spooner 
• Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
• A Short History of the Girl Next Door by Jared Reck 
• Truthwitch by Susan Dennard 
• Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell 
• The Painter’s Daughter by Julie Klassen 
• A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro
• Hard Times by Charles Dickens 
• Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella 
• Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen 
• Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend 
• The Epic Crush of Genie Lo by F.C. Yee
• The Beautiful Lost by Luanne Rice 
• Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley
• Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover 
• The Silent Governess by Julie Klassen 
• The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien 
• The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien 
• A Face Like Glass by Frances Hardinge
• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen 
• Landline by Rainbow Rowell 
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• Amid Stars and Darkness by Chani Lynn Feener 
• Off the Page by Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer 
• Happy Again by Jennifer E. Smith 
• Ante Up! by Chautona Havig 
• Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson
• The Beaches and Brides Collection by Various Authors 
• Here Lies Daniel Tate by Cristin Terrill
• Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
• Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer 
• The Fairest Beauty by Melanie Dickerson
• Paige Torn by Erin Mangum 
• Anne of Windy Poplars by L. M. Montgomery 
• An Awakened Heart by Jody Hedlund 
• Stuck in the Moment by Tracie Puckett
• The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh 
• Zero Repeat Forever by Gabrielle Prendergasst
• The Lover Letters of Abelard and Lilly 
• Roseblood by A. G. Howard 
• Wanderlost by Jen Malone 
• Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas 
• Dear Reader by Mary O’Connell 
• Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler 
• The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie 
• A Portrait of Emily Price by Katherine Reay 
• The Bronte Plot by Katherine Reay 
• Shopping for Time by Carolyn Mahaney 
• Walking on Sea Glass by Julie Carobini
• Nemesis by Brendan Reichs 
• The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
• Haunting the Deep by Adriana Mather
• A Note Yet Unsung by Tamera Alexader 
• The Breathless by Tara Goedhen
• The Beautiful Pretender by Melanie Dickerson 
• Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth 
• Odd and True by Cat Winters 
• The Healer’s Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson 
• Of Poseidon by Anna Banks 
• Your One and Only by Adrianne Finlay 
• The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill by Julie Klasssen 
• The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo 
• The Silent Songbird by Melanie Dickerson 
• The Gospel According to Jesus by John MacArthur 
• Things I Should Have Known by Claire LaZebnik 
• The Huntress of Thornbeck Forest by Melanie Dickerson 
• The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton 
• Timeless by Armand Baltazar 
• Satellite by Nick Lake 
• The Mysterious World of Agatha Christie by Jeffrey Feinman
• The Old Curiosity by Charles Dickens 
• The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall-Smith
• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 
• Paradise Lost by John Milton 
• The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski
• The Vintage Wren Week 1 by Chautona Havig 
• Earth Before Us by Abby Howard 
• Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia 
• Meaning at the Movies by Grant Horner 
• Hunted by Megan Spooner 
• Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper

If you would like to see my progress with reading books from the TBR jar, I will have a separate page on the blog where I will cross off each title that I end up reading. 

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.

Book Review: Road to Paradise

Hello Everyone! 

Today’s review is on The Road to Paradise by Karen Barnett.

Summary: 
An ideal sanctuary and a dream come true–that’s what Margaret Lane feels as she takes in God’s gorgeous handiwork in Mount Rainer National Park. It’s 1927 and the National Park Service is in its youth when Margie, an avid naturalist, lands a coveted position alongside the park rangers living and working in the unrivaled splendor of Mount Rainier’s long shadow. 
But Chief Ranger Ford Brayden is still haunted by his father’s death on the mountain, and the ranger takes his work managing the park and its crowd of visitors seriously. The job of watching over an idealistic senator’s daughter with few practical survival skills seems a waste of resources.
When Margie’s former fiancé sets his mind on developing the Paradise Inn and its surroundings into a tourist playground, the plans might put more than the park’s pristine beauty in danger. What will Margie and Ford sacrifice to preserve the splendor and simplicity of the wilderness they both love? 
Karen Barnett’s vintage national parks novels bring to vivid life President Theodore Roosevelt’s vision for protected lands, when he wrote in Outdoor Pastimes of an American Hunter: “There can be nothing in the world more beautiful than the Yosemite, the groves of the giant sequoias and redwoods, the Canyon of the Colorado, the Canyon of the Yellowstone, the Three Tetons; and our people should see to it that they are preserved for their children and their children’s children forever, with their majestic beauty all unmarred.”

My Thoughts: 
I enjoyed this book, it had a sweet romance and I liked how Margie had to fight against her ex-fiance. I liked learning more about the early days of the national parks system and how they struggled with finances and getting support from people in order to keep them running. There were also moments throughout this novel that took me by surprise even though some of it was predictable. 

I loved the character of Margie and even though she had a privileged upbringing she was willing to get her hands dirty in order to enjoy working in God’s creation and sharing that beauty with others. However, I found Ford to be kind of annoying and off-putting because he is so focused on the events that happened several years before the novel took place. But I also liked how his realistic view on life and the park balanced out Margie’s idealistic views and I do like how their relationship starts to blossom. I liked the antagonist of the story because he was realistic and that there are people like him in the world today. I loved the side characters in this novel and their interactions with the main characters. 

Overall, I enjoyed this book even though some of it was predictable. I loved the backdrop and the characters and I am looking forward to reading the next book in this series. 4/5 Stars. 

I would like to thank the author and the publisher, Waterbrook Press, for sending me a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest review! 

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.

July TBR

Hello Everyone!

Last month was a pretty good reading month and I am hoping that this month will also be a good one. Here are the books I am planning on reading this July:

1. Lucky in Love by Kasie West

2. With You Always by Jody Hedlund

3. Matilda by Roald Dahl

4. When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandyha Menon

5. Wanderlost by Jen Malone

There are other books that I am planning on reading this month, but these are the ones that I know for sure I want to read. I am also going to take place in the Booktube-a-thon later this month, so I will be posting another TBR for that closer to the time of the read-a-thon.

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.