Happy birthday to me! I am now solidly in my mid-30s, but I still feel like I’m in my 20s having a good time. Only instead of clubbing on weekends I much prefer to read a good book. I’m living my best life. Anyway, as one way to celebrate my birthday I decided to complete the Birthday Book Tag.

I found the Birthday Book Tag on Mackenzie’s blog. Created by Antonia at Always Books, this tag provides birthday-related prompts that you completed with a book recommendation that fulfills it.

Birthday Cake

A book with a plot that seems cliché but you adore it anyway

A DEAL WITH THE ELF KING by Elise Kova has all the tropes I love in it that are also popular in the romantic fantasy subgenre. Sure, the tropes/plot are cliché, but they don’t seem like it because the story is well written. It’s actually my favorite of the three published books in this New Adult series of standalones.

Party Guests

Your most anticipated book release for this year

This is a tough one. I’m not someone who really takes a lot of time and effort to track new releases. I’m always pseudo aware of upcoming releases, but I’m way more distracted by what I already have to read. But that said, the more I see MORGAN IS MY NAME pop up on Twitter, the more interested I become. I skimmed the first lines of a few NG reviews. Those gave me the impression the story might be has beautiful as HALF SICK OF SHADOWS, which I absolutely loved.

Olivie Blake also has some upcoming releases, one of which hit bookstores today (ONE FOR MY ENEMY) in the U.S. I can’t get enough of her books. She has such a unique way of storytelling relative to all of the other books I read. The plots are always intriguing, but everything feels very..academic, smartly written, well researched. I guess there’s a part of me that craves a little philosophy in books despite often veering away from that subject.

Birthday Presents

A book that surprised you with how much you loved it

I sound like a broken record here, but Olivie Blake’s THE ATLAS SIX surprised me. Again, I saw a few middling reviews so didn’t have high expectations for it. But I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it so much. It also introduced me to one of my now-favorite authors.

Another book that surprised me with how much I loved it is THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEWOMEN WITCHES by India Holton. I requested this one on a whim on NetGalley and it’s literally the first and only time Berkley approved my request. I wasn’t sure I’d like it at first because the dialogue style is similar to that of Ausen and Bronte books. But don’t be fooled. There is a lot of witty and smart banter and I fell in love with this book. I still need to read the other two.

THE DARK QUEENS was completely off my radar, but I ended up loving it. It’s narrative nonfiction about two 6th century queens in what is now France and how they cultivated power in a man’s world. It reawakened my interest in history of the western Middle Ages.

“Happy Birthday” Song

A book that certainly deserved all the hype it got

I think A DOWRY OF BLOOD and THE CHILDREN OF GODS AND FIGHTING MEN definitely deserved all the hype. Frankly, I think the latter deserves more hype than I feel it received. The inclusion of religious metaphors in A DOWRY OF BLOOD is incredibly well done. And I love this female-driven Game of Thrones-like story that is THE CHILDREN OF GODS AND FIGHTING MEN. I look forward to book two this year!

Happy Music

A book with some very beautiful and truly memorable quotes

I’m not someone who collects quotes from books. But these are a few books in which I do remember highlighting a lot, either digitally or using sticky notes.

Getting Older

A book that you read a long time ago, but you think you would appreciate more if you read it as a more mature reader

Oh, this one is easy! I think I’d enjoy THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING more as an adult than I did as a 12-year-old. I tried to read it in sixth grade, but Tom Bombadil bored me to death at the time and I gave up. Now I think I’d have the patience to perservere if I again found myself annoyed getting through that section of the book.

Sweet Birthday Memories

A book that kept you incredibly happy during a sad or demanding period of your life

During some of the more adverse times in my life I hadn’t yet gotten back into reading. Everything I’ve read recently was during the pandemic, which I think we can all agree was (is) a demanding period. If you remember what I’ve said in previous posts about my blog origin, you’ll remember that the A Court of Thorns and Roses series kept me happy during the pandemic. I was flagging in January/February 2021 and picked this series up on a whim via Kindle. Wow, what a book hangover I had. I still have fond memories of this series and am rereading it now as a buddy read.