I still hate the cover, and still wish we had a prequel for pretty much any character in The Hunger Games, but DANG--The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was actually REALLY good.  Like, really good.

Whisper by Lynette Noni | Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3.5)

As a note, an e-galley of this novel was sent to me via NetGalley by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not effect my opinions in any way.

To be honest, I did a Very Bad Literature Lover Thing when I requested Whisper. I, wait for it, didn't read the synopsis and only was intrigued by the cover. I know, I know, bad. Should I ground myself, now or later? Don't worry, I'll ground myself after the review. Double honest moment: I'm glad I judged the book by its cover because I found Whisper to be intriguing and read it in one sitting.

I love (love, love, love!) Sci-Fi as a genre but I do struggle with it when it comes to the YA exploration of it. Most of the time, books in the genre just fall flat and don't reach my expectations. Lynette Noni's writing is just fun and purely so--it has that can't-put-down quality to it that we all crave when it comes to literature. What I liked most about her writing was the unexpectedness. After I lit a fire under myself and did read the synopsis, I was skeptical of Whisper--it sounded like so many other YA science fiction releases and I was like, "Oh. Great." And then Noni hit me upside the head with some sort of magic and I was like, okay, fair.

First thing is first: I can't believe I haven't posted a Top Ten Tuesday since December. Damn. I am so bad at keeping up with things these days. As a quick update, not only am I working on my first True Crime novel--centered around the murder of my aunt in the 90s--and have found myself with more questions than answers while being immersed in that research, I have been looking into apartments and jobs.

Basically, it's been a hectic year so far and I've been staying busy. That being said, this particular Top Ten Tuesday is going to be posted on Wednesday around midnight and not on Tuesday. I'm fake like that. And, if you couldn't tell from the spiffy new banner in honor of spring and summer, Booked J is going to be getting a serious makeover by the end of June.

For those of you who are new to Top Ten Tuesday, it is a weekly entry amongst the book community in which we get to know each other a little better. Originally, it was hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and nowadays you can find it at its new home at The Artsy Reader Girl. Every week, or every entry, centers around a specific topic in which we list our--you guessed it--top ten favourites.

Exciting! This week's topic is Books I Decided to DNF too Quickly. Which was a bit of a difficult one for me, personally. It's like Loretta over at Laughing Listener said: I rarely leave something unfinished. Especially books. But, after doing a little digging, and by a little I mean I am presently covered in the dirt and dust of my mind, I think I found just enough to include on my personal list.

The Vaskell Empire began on September 26th, 2017 with Touch of Ice. Promising to be a mix of all the fantastic elements readers love in YA: science fiction, dystopian settings, fantasy at its best, all wrapped up in one novel. Coming of age in an ordinary world is one thing. Coming of age in a world other than our own is another--enter Ayla Vaskell, your next favourite YA lead.

I'm so excited to celebrate the release of what is sure to be a gripping saga. Touch of Ice combines so many of my favourite YA qualities into one that it's easy to see it will captivate many fans and leave them on the edge of their seats. Plus, who can say no to that summary and cover? I can't.

To learn more about the start of this series, the author and an exclusive giveaway: follow the cut! And buckle up for some serious world building in this one.

The Future of Sex by Aubrey Parker | Rating: ★★★☆☆

It would be a confusing mistake to experience sex and love together at first — akin to mixing flour and sugar into something she couldn’t separate later. She had to experience sex fresh, without emotional entanglement, so she’d recognize it in its pure state. Chloe had to know sex and love separately, before she could blend them.

Sometimes, we all need a good old piece of erotica to read. After my delicious run-in with The Red, I decided now was the time to experience more. Nothing says fun like, "I need a cold shower" right? The Future of Sex by Aubrey Parker was actually the perfect addition to my Kindle library. Fast, sexy and futuristic. I thought it was very intriguing, the way that Parker mingled with sex and the future.

It wasn't overly flashy. Instead, it was hot and fun and ended far too soon for my taste.

I thought that the entire premise was interesting. The contribution of a new world (it is set in the near future, but the future nonetheless) was a fun twist on what I typically explore in the genre.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood | Rating:  ★★★★★

“Night falls. Or has fallen. Why is it that night falls, instead of rising, like the dawn? Yet if you look east, at sunset, you can see night rising, not falling; darkness lifting into the sky, up from the horizon, like a black sun behind cloud cover. Like smoke from an unseen fire, a line of fire just below the horizon, brushfire or a burning city. Maybe night falls because it’s heavy, a thick curtain pulled up over the eyes. Wool blanket.”

There are times when I think about the first time I read The Handmaid's Tale: I had lukewarm feelings towards it. The ground didn't move nor break when I closed it for good that first visit. But the thing about timing is that it really is everything. I was a teenager, then. The Handmaid's Tale isn't necessarily something that would be beyond the realm of one teenagers standing. For many reasons, it did not connect with me. I enjoyed it. It tripped me out. Mostly, it made me frightened of the future because--well--the way it has aged, always feels parallel and relevant to our social climate.

The second time I read it, I felt more passionate towards it. It moved me. It startled me. My mind was off the charts well into this reprise. I was still a teenager then, just nearing my 20th birthday. I remember thinking, again, how relevant it remained. How real it felt even in its most surreal moments. I was bothered by the lack of history in this world on display, but for the most part, it struck a deeper cord on me than that first read.

Dark Parties by Sara Grant | Rating: ★★☆☆☆

I can't change what happened. If I'm honest, I don't want to. I won't regret it. I'll keep those memories trapped in a bubble away from labels of good and bad and right and wrong. 

I've been trying to put together my thoughts on the good, the bad and the in betweens in Sara Grant's novel Dark Parties for at least a week now. But, I can't. There was something so disappointing about it--and a bit patchy in terms of how things tied together--but I am having difficulty putting it into words. I think I expected something else entirely when it came to this novel due to its intriguing blurb. There's something about the description that holds a promise for a dystopian novel that is unique in a sea of similarities.

But Dark Parties seems to trip over itself on more than one occasion and it is what ultimately makes this read to be so tedious. It just felt like at every damn turn, the concept could have really worked but didn't quite make the mark. The entire time you felt like you knew what would happen--that you'd read it in some other variation before. Like literature deja vu. Except you hadn't, not really. Dark Parties isn't a bad novel, it's just not terribly good and hits so many speed bumps on the way.

Which kind of makes no sense because Sara Grant isn't an awful writer.

Four by Veronica Roth | Rating: ★★★★★

“Dead people can be our heroes because they cant disappoint us later; they only improve over time, as we forget more and more about them.” 

What's the first word that comes to mind when I think of Four? Four as in both this collection and the character? Swoon. Swoon, I think about swooning. Actually, come to think about it I do more than think about swooning, I swoon the heck on out of this Popsicle stand and before you know it, my icy exterior has melted to the sidewalk like that ice cream cone I wept over as a child. But that's neither here nor there and I'm soooo not bitter about it or anything. 

Honestly, though. Four--Tobias Eaton, if you prefer--is one of my top ten book boyfriends of all time and frankly I loath the term book boyfriends but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, you know? And Four is completely worth the silly hair twirling (which, admittedly, I found myself doing in the more romantic scenes of his) and that's a pretty high compliment from me. 

Typically I'm not one for collections of short stories. None of my favorite series have little bonus stories in their line-up (that's a lie; The Darkest Minds and Splintered have done so and those were fantastic, too) so I tend to sprint in the opposite direction when I do see installments as such. While many authors and publishers do so only to bank on the success of their series and make that $$$$ (get that money, y'all!) Roth, instead, uses to build onto the series we already know and love. I love, love, love the collections that I listed above but Four goes above and beyond that.

Homecoming (The 100 #3) by Kass Morgan | Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.5)

Endings and beginnings are inseparable, like the moment before dawn and the moment after.

I waited so long to get my hands on this bad boy and now that I have it, and have read it, I can't decide what I'm feeling. On one hand, I am glad to see how the series has improved in terms of... well, everything. 

Kass Morgan's writing is so smooth and fast paced, and remains delightful and action packed with every chapter. Everything that was flawed about the series' first two novels has vastly improved and I have really, quite a lot more than I'd expected, enjoyed watching it grow. While many may argue that the show is better than this series (I disagree--with the exception of the grounder plots, Clarke's sexuality and Commander Lexa, which FYI, I'm still in denial about her death but that's nether here nor there) I think that both are on even footing in terms of good vs. bad. 

That being said, Homecoming was originally intended to be the finale of the trilogy that was the books and I'm glad to say that it isn't. Morgan will be returning with a fourth installment--hooray! It would have been a mistake to end the book series so quickly because in terms of endings and closure, this book was pretty lackluster. Many fans disagree with me heartily on that note, that it was a solid end to the books, but hear me out: I just don't feel it as an ending and think Morgan can, and will, do better. It's been such a joy reading and seeing her work grow and come to life. As I've already said, the growth and improvement has been far more pleasurable than I'd ever anticipated.