Mid-Year Freak Out Book Tag

I cannot believe it is already at the mid way point of the year, and I read so many great books. I wasn’t tagged by anyone but I decided to do this anyway.

Best Book you’ve read so far:

This is the first book I have read by Holly Black, and I was so glad to meet her earlier this year when she came to Boston. It had morally grey characters and a lot of political intrigue. I cannot wait to read The Wicked King.

My favorite author wrote one of my favorite superheros and it was amazing. It was a sort of origin story of Batman, when he was just Bruce Wayne, a young billionaire with dead parents.

Best Sequel You’ve Read this year

Of course. The ending of the Illuminae series gave me all the feels. I am so glad that I read this series.

THAT CLIFFHANGER! This took everything that was Scythe and turned it up to 11. Great characters and I need to know what happens next.

New release you haven’t read yet, but want to.

I loved the Illuminae series and I am excited to read his new series. I also heard good things about Furyborn, and the premise sounds good.

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

I loved Vicious, and I was surprised that a sequel was happening.

Two authors that I really like is writing a book. I am sold. Also since its Adam Silvera and Becky Albertalli I am basically going to suffer and be happy about it.

Biggest disappointment

Let me just say that the ending really dragged this book down. While it did have a good setting, I just couldn’t connect with the characters and the plot.

Biggest surprise

These books are sort of outside of what I usually read. Eliza and her Monsters is a contemporary YA novel, which dealt a lot with fandom. The Poet X is a book told through verse, which is something I really don’t grab for.

Favorite new author. (Debut or new to you)

I loved this book. A fantasy novel set within West Africa. I cannot wait to see how the series goes on.

Book that made you cry.

Oh Jason Reynolds. How it did it take this long to finally read you books. I also made the mistake of reading this after I finished Dear Martin. Yeah, I was almost in a whirlwind of emotion.

Book that made you happy.

A nice cute YA romcom, that truly made me happy and rooting for the couple. \

Favorite book to film adaptation you saw this year.

Last year I read Simon vs. and then I finally saw the movie this year. While it did make some changes to the adaptation I still loved the movie. Hopefully with this and The Hate U Give it will lead to better YA adaptations.

Favorite review you’ve written this year. (Booktube version: Favourite video you have done so far in this year)

Top 5 Other SFF Media

I loved writing the list, and seeing other lists of other faves that people like with the SFF medium.

 

That is my Mid Year freak out Book tag for 2018. I really hope the rest of year will also lead to a great reading year.

If you are reading this, consider yourself tagged.

When Dimple met Rishi by: Sandhya Menon

Summary:

Dimple Shah has it all figured out. With graduation behind her, she’s more than ready for a break from her family, from Mamma’s inexplicable obsession with her finding the “Ideal Indian Husband.” Ugh. Dimple knows they must respect her principles on some level, though. If they truly believed she needed a husband right now, they wouldn’t have paid for her to attend a summer program for aspiring web developers…right?

Rishi Patel is a hopeless romantic. So when his parents tell him that his future wife will be attending the same summer program as him—wherein he’ll have to woo her—he’s totally on board. Because as silly as it sounds to most people in his life, Rishi wants to be arranged, believes in the power of tradition, stability, and being a part of something much bigger than himself.

The Shahs and Patels didn’t mean to start turning the wheels on this “suggested arrangement” so early in their children’s lives, but when they noticed them both gravitate toward the same summer program, they figured, Why not?

Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.

The Review:

This was another book that was on my TBR, since last year, and from the sound of the premise, it seemed like a nice cute YA contemporary romance.

The book is told through two points of view, Dimple, a Stanford bound Indian girl who has enrolled in a summer program, and Rishi, someone is who MIT bound and also comes from an Indian background. It was told to Rishi that he is suppose to have an arranged marriage with Dimple through both of their families.

Their first “meeting” was a sort of meet cute fail, in which Rishi snuck up on Dimple, which leads to of course Dimple throwing an iced coffee in his face. But after that fateful meeting they do begin to get to know each other, through their summer program and is even teamed up for a project.

Both Dimple and Rishi, are also pretty fleshed out characters with their own dreams and goals. For Dimple, she is passionate about computers and wants to build an app, and for Rishi he has a passion for comic books and drawing. It was through their individual passions that they begin to fall in love with each other.

Dimple is also sort of not really into the family pressure of having an arranged marriage or even the pressure of finding a suitable husband. While it does seem like a cliche, I felt the story framed it a little better.

The book touched on a bit about their Indian heritages and also family pressure that both Dimple and Rishi face, and it really added to their character development, which made them more fleshed out.

Yes, the book is very much like a Rom Com, and it goes through the usual tropes of a Rom-Com, with two people who don’t really like each other begin to fall in love. I think that is where its weakness comes in. The relationship between both Dimple and Rishi is what I enjoyed most about the book, but then it had that sort of 2nd act break up, which I felt was kinda a dumb reason for.

In the end, I thought When Dimple met Rishi, was a nice cute story, which could almost make for a summer read. It had a nice romance, even though it did feel like a cliche both Dimple and Rishi was a couple you would love to root for.

Grade: 4/5

Top 5 Wednesday: Books I didn’t get to in 2017

Happy Wednesday everyone, and here is another Top 5 Wednesday and the topic is:

January 10th: Books You Didn’t Get to In 2017
–These are books you didn’t end up getting to in 2017, but really want to prioritize in 2018.

Top 5 Wednesday is a group in Goodreads and was formerly created by Lainey at gingerreadslainey and is now done by Sam from Thoughts on Tomes. It is open to everyone.

City of Saints and Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson

This was a Hype or Like Book, and I was very excited that this book was picked, but then reality set in and I got extremely busy and kinda forgot to read it, but I really hope to read this book.

When Dimple met Rishi by Sandhya Manon

While YA contemporary isn’t a genre I usually gravitate towards to, but this book seems like a nice cute romance story, which I am starting to take an appreciation for.

Before She Ignites by Jodi Meadows

I remember being excited about the cover, and I am usually not a cover person. I really wanted to read it before the end of the year, but than Christmas was happening and I had finals and shopping to deal, so I didn’t have time to read it.

Rebel Seoul by Axie Oh

This is a book I really wanted to read. I put it on reserve at the library picked it up, but never got around to reading it, so much that I had to return it, and I couldn’t renew it because it was on a waiting list. So hopefully I will try to read it again.

A Conjuring of Light by VE Schwab

I’ll be honest, I am almost scared to read this book. Mainly because after reading Our Dark Duet and being emotionally devastated by it, I am almost scared of what will happen, I love these characters so much. and I really want to see how it ends.

Those are the books I missed out in 2017. What books did you miss out in 2017? Let me know in the comments below.