Down the Rabbit Hole

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

Good morning and a happy Tuesday to you all! I’ve been having a super week of reading lately (including listening to an audiobook or two which is new for me), and I feel excited to be getting through my TBR a teensy bit faster.

But of course, as books get off the TBR, many more get added onto it.

This week’s TTT focuses on the books I am highly anticipating this fall. Some of these titles have just come out this month, but I have still included them here because I have yet to read any of these titles.

Let’s begin!

Aurora’s End by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
You’ll Be the Death of Me by Karen M. McManus
The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Kingdom of the Cursed by Kerri Maniscalco
The Bronzed Beasts by Roshani Chokshi
Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray
The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik
The Righteous by Renee Ahdieh
Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber
Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong

How many of these are on your TBR or TTT list? Would you read any of these based on the cover alone? Let me know in the comments below! It’s time to make those TBRs longer haha.

4 star, YA

Review: Heartbreakers and Fakers by Cameron Lund

September 20, 2021September 19, 2021 Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

From the author of The Best Laid Plans comes another fresh voiced, hilarious rom-com perfect for fans of Tweet Cute and The Rest of the Story.

Penny Harris just ruined her life.

As one of the most popular girls in school, she’s used to being invited to every party, is dating the Jordan Parker, and can’t wait to rule senior year with her best friend, Olivia. But when Penny wakes up on Jordan’s lawn the morning after his first-day-of-summer bash, she knows something went terribly wrong the night before.

She kissed Kai Tanaka.

Kai, her long-time nemesis. Kai, Olivia’s boyfriend. Penny can’t figure out what could have inspired her to do it–she loves Jordan and she would never hurt Olivia–but one thing’s for sure: freshly dumped, and out a best friend, the idyllic summer she pictured is over.

And despite the fact that Jordan seems to be seeking comfort (and a whole lot more) in Olivia, all Penny can think about is winning him back. Kai wants to save his relationship too, so they come up with a plan: convince their friends that they really do have feelings for each other. After all, no one can resist a good love story, and maybe seeing Penny and Kai together will make Jordan and Olivia change their minds.

But as summer heats up, so does Penny and Kai’s “relationship,” and Penny starts to question whether she’s truly faking it with Kai, if he’s really as terrible as she always thought he was, and if the life she’s fighting so hard to get back is the one she really wants.

In her second novel to date, Cameron Lund has shown me that her romances can do this girl no wrong. Hearbreakers and Fakers is the perfect combination of the fake dating trope PLUS enemies to lovers. After a night she can barely remember, Penny wakes up in the morning realizing she not only lost her boyfriend but also her best friend when she was caught drunkenly kissing her best friend’s boyfriend. Which happens to be her nemesis Kai Tanaka.

Continue reading →

discussion

Let’s Talk Bookish – What Do You Do When a Book Triggers You?

September 17, 2021September 16, 2021 Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books & Dani @ Literary Lion, where they discuss certain topics, share their opinions, and spread the love by visiting each others’ posts.

SEPTEMBER 17: WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN A BOOK TRIGGERS YOU? (SUGGESTED BY JILLIAN @ JILLIAN THE BOOKISH BUTTERFLY)

Prompts: Everyone has different reactions to triggers; what is yours? Do you have measures in place to help you avoid books that could potentially trigger you? If you get triggered without previously knowing there would be a trigger, do you still care to finish the book? Does it affect your eventual rating/review? Have you ever read a book knowing that something within it would trigger you?

Welcome to another week of LTB here at DTRH! An interesting topic today for sure (like every week), and something I must say I don’t experience too too often. It’d be interesting to see what others have to say on this topic as well. Without further ado, let’s begin!

I don’t think I really worry about triggers in general when I’m reading, but I think perhaps the closest thing is general gore and really graphic violence. These usually happen in the murder mysteries or thrillers I read and I’m honestly not a fan of it. Things can definitely be scary and suspenseful without the use of super graphic details – although if that’s your thing, I’m definitely not judging, you do you.

I never know when a book will have graphic details, so I really don’t have any measures in place to help me avoid it. I have definitely read books where I was surprised by what I found, but I pushed through anyway. I tend to still try and finish the book if I can help it, unless the content of the book just wasn’t good. I actually thought the book was pretty good albeit a bit too scarily graphic, so I just went through with it anyway.

At the time of reading I wasn’t a book review blogger so it didn’t really cross my mind whether it would affect a rating or not, but thinking back, since these ratings are a measure of how much I personally enjoyed it, I would definitely have to say that it would have affected my rating for sure. Honestly, maybe I shouldn’t have finished it. Not only was it graphic, but rather it was just a bit too horrific of a story for me. But you live and learn, I guess.

And for the last prompt…nope! I definitely never mean to read anything that might trigger me. I tend to scrutinize synopses and genres to make sure I am generally interested in reading the book, and I am rarely disappointed. That being said, I do enjoy sometimes randomly picking books off shelves and enjoying them that way too. While I do run a risk, it’s often worth it for it the books you never would have discovered otherwise.

Do you all have triggers in books? If you don’t mind me asking, what are they, and how do you deal with them? Feel free to let me know in the comments below!