Teaser Tuesday[130]: My True Love Gave To Me: Twelve Holiday Stories by Stephanie Perkins and Eleven Others

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

--------------------------

My True Love Gave To Me: Twelve Holiday Stories by Stephanie Perkins and Eleven Others

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance; Holiday

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Release Date: October 14, 2014

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Wishlist Thursday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

If you love holiday stories, holiday movies, made-for-TV-holiday specials, holiday episodes of your favorite sitcoms and, especially, if you love holiday anthologies, you’re going to fall in love with MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME: TWELVE HOLIDAY STORIES by twelve bestselling young adult writers, edited by international bestselling author Stephanie Perkins.

Excerpt:

“‘Are you the one he was sleeping with?’ Silke asked, and I noticed her eyes were bright and red-rimmed, like she’d been crying.” (Hardback, pg. 168; Krampuslauf by Holly Black

What are you reading right now?

Manga Review: Sweet Rein, Volume 3, by Sakura Tsukuba

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: Shojo Beat (VIZ Media)

Release Date: July 2014

Volumes: 3

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells. RightStuf.

Volume: 1. 2.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Sad at the thought of spending Christmas alone, Kurumi Sagara goes out for a walk. While she's crossing the street, a boy bumps into her, and a rein suddenly appears that binds them together. The overjoyed boy tells her she's his master and that she's a Santa Claus. Kurumi dismisses him as a crazy person, but then he transforms into a reindeer?!

Review:

I’m pretty sure this is the final volume of this series, but it really didn’t feel like it.

There were some more episodic chapters, but we also met a new character, Alto. Alto is sweet, but also a little sad. We got to see the black reindeer again, and I rather like her and her Santa. They’re odd, a little cynical, but I like them.

There was a chapter where Kaito is in heat, and so attracts all the women to him, and I found that rather funny. I really like him and Kurumi, though. I think they’re cute together, and I just think that Kaito is adorable.

I wanted some kind of resolution for the characters, for at least the romance, but instead the volume just kind of ended. I really believe this is the last volume, so that made me confused. Still, this was a really cute series. It was sweet and kindhearted and full of Christmas. I enjoyed it.

There was an extra story at the end, one featuring a character from Tsukuba’s Penguin Revolution series. I haven’t read any of it, but I thought the story was cute. I kind of hope VIZ publishes another series by Tsukuba, because I rather enjoyed her artwork and characters in this one, and her other series that have been translated look really cute, but I don’t think any of them were ever finished.

Manga Review: Sweet Rein, Volume 2, by Sakura Tsukuba

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5-4

Publisher: Shojo Beat (VIZ Media)

Release Date: April 2014

Volumes: 3

Spoilers?: Not really.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells. RightStuf.

Volume: 1. 3.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Sad at the thought of spending Christmas alone, Kurumi Sagara goes out for a walk. While she's crossing the street, a boy bumps into her, and a rein suddenly appears that binds them together. The overjoyed boy tells her she's his master and that she's a Santa Claus. Kurumi dismisses him as a crazy person, but then he transforms into a reindeer?!

Kurumi and Kaito have remained together for a year, but a Dark Santa appears, intent on breaking the two apart. Kurumi and Kaito's rein is severed, and the Dark Santa takes control of Kaito. Can Kurumi manage to get Kaito back, even when she’s still unsure if he's truly happy as her servant?

Review:

This is really just a cute, light-hearted shojo series, full of Christmas, with lots of good-hearted moments.

Kaito is adorable, and his devotion to Kurumi is so sweet. Kurumi is a nice heroine, and I do enjoy reading about her.

Another reindeer-santa pair makes some trouble for Kaito and Kurumi, there are a few episodic Christmas chapters, and at one point Kurumi gets sick and Kaito worries and is generally adorable as he helps her. It also seems like three years have passed since the series started, but instead no time has actually changed in the timeline, but the authors commenting on this makes it more laughable than anything else.

The other main plot in this volume was that a family member of Kaito found his santa. Rihito does not want to be a reindeer, and his santa doesn’t really want anything to do with it either, but they slowly get used to it. And, weirdly enough for me, I felt quite a bit of yaoi vibes between them. I’m not usually one to really see the yaoi thing between characters when there isn’t actually anything, but I saw it here. I’m not sure if anything will come of it, though probably not, but still. I saw it. But even without it, I liked their storyline.

Then there was an extra story at the end, an earlier story of Tsukaba’s I think, and it was cute.

I’m rather enjoying this series, and how cute it is. The next volume is the last, and I look forward to seeing how it all wraps up.

Teaser Tuesday[26]: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4) by J.K. Rowling (Also, Merry Christmas!)

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

-------

Merry Christmas! Or, Happy Holidays!

So, it’s Christmas today, and New Year’s is coming, and then school starts again, and it’s all happening so fast. It didn’t feel like Christmas was so close, and then it was happening. Where did the time go?

I did almost no reading this past week, although I did get some actual good Christmas shopping done, and I did post reviews; so, I was at least partly productive.

This week, I am kind of reading several books at once. I’m trying to get through several manga, plus at least two books that I had on my list to finish before the year was over. Obviously, I have not made as much headway as I would have liked, given there is less than a week left in the year. I did, however, reach both of my reading goals (as shown on Goodreads), as I read over two hundred books including manga, and my separate goal of reading a hundred novels was also surpassed (yay!) by, at the moment, nine. That’s eight more than last year, which makes me feel super good. I’m not done reading (never done!) for the year, though, of course.

Anyway, here is this week’s book, which is super intimidating in length, and I know that I’m super late with this, and it has taken me forever, especially since I read the first three, like, two years ago, and I own the full series, but…:

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter,#4) by J.K. Rowling

Genre: Children’s Fantasy/Fiction

Publisher: Scholastic

Goodreads Synopsis:

The summer holidays are dragging on and Harry Potter can't wait for the start of the school year. It is his fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and there are spells to be learnt, potions to be brewed and Divination lessons (sigh) to be attended. Harry is expecting these: however, other quite unexpected events are already on the march...

Excerpts:

“’Go!’ he hissed at Sirius. ‘Go! There’s someone coming!’

Harry scrambled to his feet…” (Hardback, pg. 335)

“Harry seized one of the POTTER REALLY STINKS badges off the table and chucked it, as hard as he could, across the room. It hit Ron on the forehead and bounced off.” (Hardback, pg. 335)

Sounds exciting, right? (Or, perhaps, familiar if you’ve read the books or seen the movies.)

What are you reading right now, on this fine Christmas day (or, you know, whatever day you’re reading this)?