The BOOKTERNET ‘All Star’ Charity Challenge #BookternetGivesBack is a a book community tag challenge to raise money for COVID-19 relief created by Rachael Marie and A Frolic Through Fiction.
In this post I won’t explain the challenge in detail, for this I recommend checking out both creators Youtube channels. Basically in this tag a list of books/series and authors extremely popular on the Youtube book community, aka Booktube, is discussed and you comment if you read them or not and which were your main impressions of these books/series/author’s works.
Needless to say the graphic image below also belongs to the tag creators and I only changed the check marks to indicate which books/series and authors I read.
So, without much further ado, let’s start:
Angie Thomas
I haven’t yet read On The Come Up or The Hate You Give. I probably won’t read them tough, because I don’t read Contemporary, but never say never, right?
Shatter Me Series by Tahereh Mafi
This was a very entertaining series. I read it until book #3, Ignite Me. Eventually I’ll go on reading this series.
Leigh Bardugo
I really liked the Shadow and Bone trilogy, and also the Six of Crows duology. I considered King of Scars quite a let down so I’m not sure if I will go on to read the next book in the King of Scars Duology. Another book of hers that I really liked was The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic, this short story collection was very nicely illustrated, and the tales were awesome. Apart from that I also plan on reading Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1). Since this author’s works inspire me so much I even bought a year-long journal called The Severed Moon, which has a collection of writing prompts inspired in the magical world of her books.
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
This was a very entertaining series, which I liked and read really fast, but it also happened that two persons I recommended this book to didn’t like it at all. I plan on reading more books by Holly Black since I really like her morally gray characters.
The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco
I haven’t read this book yet, but I bought it and it’s on my TBR.
Victoria Schwab.
I read the first book of the Monsters of Verity duology, the first book of The Darker Shade of Magic trilogy and the first book of the Vicious duology. I do like her books, but I don’t consider them especially memorable or a series I have to go on reading immediately and that is probably why I have started three of her series but haven’t continued any of them.
I plan on reading Our Dark Duet (Monsters of Verity #2), and Vengeful (Villains #2) eventually tough.
I started The Archived but set it aside after 100 pages, not sure yet if I really want to finish it. I do read YA, but when the teen drama and problems are the main aspect of the book and are more present than the story world/plot itself than it’s not my taste.
Cinder by Marissa Meyer (The Lunar Chronicles)
I liked the way the sci-fi elements were used in this retelling, even if the writing style was quite off. Perhaps I had too many expectations on the book due to all the hype. I never finished the second book in the series, Scarlet, tough and I’m not sure if I still want to do that.
Adam Silvera
I haven’t read any of his books yet. I hope eventually to get to it.
Cassandra Clare
The Mortal Instruments was a very entertaining series, something good to read in summer when you just want to relax in the sun, (or shadow like me). I say that this series is pleasant like using old Havaianas on a summer day. 😉 The fourth book in the series, City of Fallen Angels, wasn’t especially memorable tough so at the moment I don’t really plan on reading the next two books in the series?
My favorite series by her so far is The Infernal Devices. I liked the steampunk historical setting and also the characters of this trilogy more. I’m not sure about reading Chain of Gold yet, let me know if it’s worth it.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
I have this in my TBR because everyone raves about this. Not sure tough because it’s Contemporary?
Laini Taylor
The Daughter of Smoke and Bone series was OK, even if full of ups and downs, and with a third book that didn’t really wrap-up in a way I considered satisfactory, (Zuzana and Mik were my favorite secondary characters of all time tough).
Strange the Dreamer was a three star read for me but I’ll probably still read its sequel, Muse of Nightmares.
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Warning: I’m spoiled for badly written and boring sci-fi after this series. I haven’t read all the books in this blog post, but I can say with great certainty that this is probably my favorite series on this list! I liked its sequel, Gemina, very much too and plan to read Obsidio still this year.
I also have Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle Book 1) by these authors in my TBR.
Scythe by Neal Shusterman
I didn’t like the first book of this series and decided not to continue it. The premise is interesting but this book is so hyped that I expected much more and was completely underwhelmed, adding to that I also didn’t like the writing style.
Sarah J. Maas
I got tired of the Throne of Glass series on book 3. I did read book 4, but lost steam and didn’t go on reading this series so far. I might, I’m just not in a hurry. I have the feeling that this series would have been a good duology or trilogy, but it has been stretched so much that I stopped caring enough to go reading.
The same happened with A Court of Thorns and Roses. I really liked its second book, A Court of Mist and Fury, and finally the third book, A Court of Wings and Ruin, was a good wrap-up on the story arc. This is tough planned to be a six book series, so I wonder if it will have the same problem of being overextended.
No idea either if I will read her next book, House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1). I’m still waiting for the reviews to decide.
An Ember In the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
This is in my TBR too, I’m just not in a hurry because that is again an YA series and I have more than enough YA books to read for now.
Seanan McGuire
I read the first of the YA Novella series Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children #1), and two of her paranormal fantasy series books: Rosemary and Rue (October Daye #1) and A Local Habitation (October Daye #2) by this author and in all three books I had this sense of everything being rushed-up and the world building and story not being developed enough to fulfill its premise, so I guess this author’s books aren’t for me.
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
This is in my TBR as well, even if I wonder if Grimdark is something I really like. I read and watched Game of Thrones, but this was very much an exception, when there is too much violence I tend to set books and TV series aside especially on these days of lock down, so let’s see.
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
I almost never read Romance and even less Young Adult Romance, so I probably won’t pick up this one.
And you, do you think that hyped books are the best or the worst? Which of these books would you recommend me to read first? Let me know in the comments.
