Ooof, that one’s a wild ride! I have no idea what to make of this book. There were aspects I liked, aspects I loathed, and aspects I found superfluous. It’s also a book of opposites: it was a lot and not enough, too distant and too near, too weird and not weird enough. It’s like three different books mashed into one, a collection of weird fragments …

Fun fact: I haven’t posted a monthly TBR list since 2014. Why? Well, I never stick to them anyway. So why am I doing this now? I honestly don’t know, but I felt like doing it anyway. Maybe it will help to keep me on track this time around. Or not. But at least I’ll know what I meant to read that Corona-struck May in 2020 if I ever look back … and that sounds darker than I intended it to be …

I was hooked by a mysterious title, a stunning cover, and an intriguing idea. Unfortunately, it was all a ruse. The title belongs to a different book, the cover only fits the first third and the idea was abandoned in favour of a generic romance-y fantasy plot. This is one of the ‘great idea, poor execution’ cases and therefore fell flat for me …

When I paused for the first time on page 118, I was a little scared. I thought I was getting old, mature, more grown up – whatever you want to call it. Why? Well, this wasn’t the first time I picked up Where Rainbows End. I tried to read it when I was 17 or 18. Tried, because I trudged through the first 80 pages and then gave up. I was bored to death. This time, however, I flew through those 118 pages and actually really enjoyed myself. Who would have thought!

And suddenly, everything went to hell. So unfortunately, after Jan and Feb worked out quite alright, my stats took a nosedive in March …

I found this little gem in my favourite Dublin bookshop last summer and it took me no time at all to whisk it away. I mean, just look at it! The beautiful cover drew me in, the promise of feminist fairytale retellings and beautiful illustrations sold it, and it being thoroughly Irish in origin was the cherry on top. And what can I say: it was so worth its money!

Yep, this one is super late even for these! However, since I didn’t have my blog, I didn’t feel like finishing and/or publishing it yet since no one besides me would be able to read it. It was kind of nice going through this, remembering the books I read not so long ago that feels like a different life time. So here are the tops and bottoms of 2018 …