Reading Goals & Anticipated Releases

I don't know about you, but for me the new year is always time to set new reading goals. I love being able to use Goodreads (or just keeping track on my own) to know how many books I've finished in a year and which ones they were. Whether your own goal is to read one or one hundred books throughout the year there's no better feeling than once again being able to enter a new world. My own goal for the year is 75 books and you can all watch as I succeed (or fail!) to read them. Here's my reading breakdown for the year.

All of 2017: 75+ books

January: 7+ books

February: 5+ books

March: 5+ books

April: 5+ books

May: 7+ books

June: 7+ books

July: 7+ books

August: 7+ books

September: 7+ books

October: 7+ books

November: 7+ books

December: 7+ books

Hopefully I'll be able to stay on track with the schedule – I've given myself enough wiggle room to allow for some monthly goals not to be met which will probably be helpful for January-April. I have set up rewards for myself though which allow me to buy myself new books if I complete my goals. If you think you'll struggle with your own book goals, find a reward system that works for you to get in all those books you're itching to read!

Most Anticipated Releases of the Year:

Now that I've set my reading goals, here are my ten most anticipated YA releases of 2017. You just know that I'll be rewarding myself by buying some of these throughout the year:

1. Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh
2. Missing by Kelley Armstrong
3. King's Cage by Victoria Aveyard
4. Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare
5. Caraval by Stephanie Garber
6. A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
7. Untitled Throne of Glass #6 by Sarah J. Maas
8. Untitled Falling Kingdoms #6 by Morgan Rhodes
9. Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth
10. Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab

There are so many more but that would take way to long to list. Which books are you most looking forward to this year? And what (if any) book goals have you set for yourself? Let me know in the comments below!

A New Year & New Changes

Happy New Year everybody!

As we start to embark on this new year I'd just like to let you know that there will be some changes coming to the blog.  For those of you who regularly followed my posts you know that their timing was fairly inconsistent.  I initially set out to make new posts every day or almost every day.  Unfortunately, life does get in the way sometimes.  School was extremely busy this past term, leaving little time for anything else, and unfortunately I was not able to post nearly as much as I would've liked.

Since the upcoming term will be the end of my final year, and I'm taking extra courses, I'm likely to be pretty busy again.  So rather than trying - and failing - to post everyday, new posts will be every Sunday, probably between 3:00 and 9:00pm EST (a specific time will be nailed down when I have made enough posts to schedule their uploads in advance).

Thank you to those who have regularly been checking for new posts.  I'm hoping that this new system will allow me to continue uploading reviews for you guys while also allowing me to have plenty of time for my schoolwork.

Have a good week everybody and make sure to check back next Sunday for my next review!  If you have any requests just let me know and I'd be glad to look into doing that for you.  I hope you all have a great year!

A Review: The Dream Protocol (Descent #1) by Adara Quick

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Quite honestly, I'm not 100% sure what to make of this book.  In some ways I really enjoyed it, but other parts about it seemed rushed or almost unfinished.  The idea was definitely original, I'm not sure I've even heard of a book with a similar plotline.  I definitely liked the originality of this book and am very interested to see where the story goes.

While most of the major characters were likable, they unfortunately weren't fleshed out enough for my liking.  For whatever reason, there seems to be little in the way of backstories for these characters so I never felt like I actually knew them.  As a result, I wasn't extremely invested in what happened to them.  If the characters had been developed a bit more this wouldn't have been as much of an issue.  That being said however, I did quite enjoy the character of Flynn.

A bigger problem with the book, especially the beginning of it, was the shifting perspectives.  There were a few pages that were constantly changing which character's perspective we were reading from that actually made it quite difficult to understand.  I almost stopped reading the book because of this, worried that it would be like this the entire time.

Ultimately, it was a very interesting story with an original plotline that definitely has potential to lead to an amazing series.  Character development and the pacing of the plot seemed rushed or unfinished, possibly due to the short length of the story.  Overall though, I'm interested in finding out what happens next and would recommend for a quick and fun read.

Rated: 3/5