The Novel Hermit

daydreaming about books

Waiting on Wednesday

WAITING ON WEDNESDAY | Half Bad by Sally Green

Comments : 6

wowfestivo

Waiting On is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

Sally Green - Half BadHalf Bad by Sally Green
February 25, 2014
Viking Juvenile
Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Pre-order: Amazon | Barnes & Noble |  The Book Depository

In modern-day England, witches live alongside humans: White witches, who are good; Black witches, who are evil; and fifteen-year-old Nathan, who is both. Nathan’s father is the world’s most powerful and cruel Black witch, and his mother is dead. He is hunted from all sides. Trapped in a cage, beaten and handcuffed, Nathan must escape before his sixteenth birthday, at which point he will receive three gifts from his father and come into his own as a witch—or else he will die. But how can Nathan find his father when his every action is tracked, when there is no one safe to trust—not even family, not even the girl he loves?

Why I’m waiting?

I. NEED. THIS. BOOK. IN. MY. LIFE. RIGHT. NOW.

WITCHES, DEAR FRIENDS. WITCHES. AHHH. SO AWESOME.

I haven’t seen a lot of witch books last year and you know what this means, right? 2014 is year of the witch! I AM EXCITED. I love that Half Bad is set in England, will address two different types of witches, and that it’s from a male point of view (that’s what I’m assuming). Don’t mind me. I’m busy SCREECHING.

My friend Nikki has read this book already and absolutely loved it, so that makes me incredibly excited to read this book. More so, then I originally was.

What books are you waiting for?

Typography

YOU’RE JUST MY TYPE | {3} – Carolyna Pro Free Alternatives

Comments : 18

I love fonts. You can say I’m obsessed with collecting them all. It’s no secret to those who know me. You’re Just My Type is a new feature where I showcase the fonts I absolutely adore and use. And hopefully, you will love the fonts I pick. 

Today, I’m showcasing a few free alternatives to this lovely paid font:

Designed by Emily Conners of Emily Lime Design

I absolutely adore Carolyna Pro because calligraphy! It looks so epic. I first saw it on the blog header of Oh Chrys and I instantly fell in love. (It’s those capital letters and the ‘r’ and ‘y.’ Total hearts in my eyes.)

These free ones below aren’t totally like Carolyna Pro exactly because Carolyna Pro is one of a kind, but I tried my best to find free alternatives (with a little help from the internet).

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Designed by Måns Grebäck.

When you get Sverige Script, there are actually two types: decorated and clean. Sverige Decorated Script is far loopier. To me, it just screams TA DA (in a similar fashion to Carolyna Pro). I love that it looks like it has a hook (because of those loops and embellishments.) And Sverige Clean Script is basically as it says. It’s a calmer version of the decorated script. Just think yin and yang but with fonts. ;D

(In the picture, the font name is in Sverige Decorated Script and the quote is in Sverige Clean Script.)

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Designed by Font Cafe.

I sigh at the beauty of Voluptate. I love the thickness of the letters. There’s nothing flimsy or weak about it. If you do use this font, just know that it’s a demo. You can only use the lowercase and the capital V. (I believe you have to pay to have the capital letters and probably other glyphs.)

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Designed by Måns Grebäck.

Do people write like this? I just want to write my q’s and k’s like that. Quicker is softer and is closer in thinness to Carolyna Pro. I have the urge to sigh and pet it. Don’t be surprised if you come across me staring at it with a dreamy gaze.

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 Designed by Kimberly Geswein.

Okay, Janda Celebration Script isn’t really like Carolyna Pro, but those loops, people. : DDD
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AND EXTRA BONUS:

Even if you can’t afford Carolyna Pro, Emily Lime Design put out a free Carolyna Word that has set phrases like “Lol,” “Southern Belle,” “whatevvver,” “Hot Mess,” and many more. ;D

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I do have to give credit to the Wedding Bee board for some of these choices because I wouldn’t have seen the similarity until somebody tells me.

The majority of these fonts are demos of paid ones. It doesn’t have the full benefits of the font, but hey, it still works. Also, none have the epicness of the ‘r’ in Carolyna Pro, but that’s to be expected since it’s one of a kind. ;D

Which font do you think is similar? Any one you absolutely love more than the others? Do you want to see more posts like this? (If you want, you can leave links of paid fonts over here so I can attempt to find free alternatives for you. :) )

Reviews

REVIEW | The Queen’s Army (The Lunar Chronicles #1.5) by Marissa Meyer

Comments : 5

Marissa Meyer - The Queen's ArmyThe Queen’s Army (The Lunar Chronicles #1.5) by Marissa Meyer
February 5, 2013
Feiwel & Friends
Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon | Wattpad

It is time. The boy must leave his family to serve in the Queen’s army. To be chosen is an honor. To decline is impossible. The boy is modified. He is trained for several years, and learns to fight to the death. He proves to the Queen—and to himself—that he is capable of evil. He is just the kind of soldier the Queen wants: the alpha of his pack.

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myreview

First sentence: “They came at the end of the long night, when the manufacturing dome had not seen sunlight for almost two weeks.”

Oh, darling, Ze’ev (Z).

I have so much love for this short story. It is about Ze’ev’s induction into, you guessed it, the Queen’s army at the age of twelve. It follows him as he adjusts to the modifications and “improvements” to his body that will eventually help the Queen. His days are filled with endless training and fighting; none of which he particular likes.

My heart goes out to him because he’s, y’know, [spoiler]Wolf. (It’s no secret if you’ve read Scarlet already.)[/spoiler]. (I just fall in love with his character over and over again.) He isn’t a mindless soldier, doing his job. He shows that he is against the way the pack is run, but keeps quiet because of the consequences. He doesn’t win all his fights, but he’s a good fighter who is exceptional at defending himself. At the end of the novella, he regains most of the control that was taken from him. It’s really frickin’ awesome.

I love the tension between the brothers. Ran wants nothing to do with Z even though they’re in the same pack. Ran feels like he’s living in Z’s shadow again. It’s really not Z’s fault. It’s sad that Z’s only family member refuses to have anything to do with him. It makes me excited to see how their relationship will develop in the next book.

The Queen’s Army is a great introduction to what exactly these soldiers are doing before they are sent to complete an important mission for Queen Levana, and to Z, who plays an important role in Scarlet.

gradeA

Monthly Recap

MONTHLY RECAP | January 2014

Comments : 5

january

The first month of the glorious New Year is over! I am forever stuck with this sprained ankle that refuses to heal. (Correction: I keep getting overexcited when I can walk that I reinjured it all over again. It totally sucks! On the good news, I’m helping out my college’s literary journal by keeping track of submission decisions during their discussion. It’s nice to be interacting with people in person.

Let’s see how January have been for me in the reading/blogging world.

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REVIEWS

Compared to last month, I didn’t review as many books. I blame it on this reading slump I’m having.

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BOOKS GALORE!

Cress (ARC) by Marissa Meyer from Mac Teen Books!
Roomies (ARC) by Tara Altebrando & Sara Zarr from Alice-Jane (who drew me a lovely narwhal with a monocle and a moustache and it’s frickin’ adorable.)

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BOOKS READ/CURRENTLY READING

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ON THE BLOG

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MUSIC

I want to put down bands I’ve been listening to this month. (I can’t promise I will do this every month because I tend to listen to the same bands/albums over and over again.)

Arctic Monkeys | Goldroom | Royal Teeth | London Grammar | Little Daylight | MS MR

Thank you to Jamie at The Perpetual Page-Turner for introducing me to London Grammar and Royal Teeth. I am so in love with them. (If you have suggestions that are similar to them or CHVRCHES, feel free to recommend them to me.)

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How was your January? Any memorable thing happen? Any new music? Are you looking forward to February? (I know I am!)

Discussion

THE THREE C’S: CANDID CONVERSATIONS WITH CEE | Reading Slump —> Romance Phase

Comments : 15

three c's

Do you ever find yourself unable to read YA because your heart isn’t in it? No matter how much you want to read it, that little voice in your head is telling you “nahhhhh, let’s not read that or that or that. Not that either.” You’re absolutely beside yourself because it looks like you’re heading toward a reading slump and that’s the worst thing to can happen.

But then, you realize, no, you’re actually not. Reading slump? Not at all! You just want to read books from a specific genre (like romance or sci-fi) that’s not YA or you want to reread books you’ve read before.

That’s me.

I get into reading slumps and I have two main types:

  1. I can’t read anything.
    • THIS IS THE WORSTTTTT. No books are read. None of them can hold my attention or my interest. I can’t force myself to read any books. I spend my days attempting to read anything, but then I give up.
  2. I can’t read YA, but I feel like reading all the romance books in the world!
    • This happens a lot. More than I realized. I reach for romance books almost on instinct when I’m not satisfied with YA.

I’m having one of those phases right now where I can’t read YA, but I WANT ALL THE ROMANCE BOOKS! GIVE MEEEEE. 

Since the New Year, I haven’t been inspired to read YA. From the 11 books I’ve read so far, only three of them are YA. :\ I had feared that I was headed to another dreaded #1 reading slump, but luckily, my heart was set on reading and it wanted books that I can breeze through and entertain me. Usually when that happens, I start rereading a bunch of my favorite romance series (like the Psy-Changeling by Nalini Singh or the Highland Pleasures by Jennifer Ashley). Romance novels are always what I fall back on when I enter a YA reading slump.

This time around, I am all about new romances (that I haven’t read). I’m actually quite happy about this since I yearned for new ones when I went through this romance phase (but I wasn’t feeling any then). I went from wanting to read contemporary romances to historical romances. It’s absolutely great! So far in my historical romance reading phase, my absolute favorite one is The Luckiest Lady in London by Sherry Thomas. It’s soooooo awesommmeeee. (Alexa at Alexa Loves Books and Racquel at The Book Barbies can vouch for this!)* Go read it!

Sometimes, we need a break from reading YA and from reviewing any books. I know I get burned-out, so I’m happy that romance novels is an outlet for me. I think I fall back on them because they are light and fairly easy for me to breeze through and that’s what I want when I’m in a #2 reading slump. Also, if I don’t like a romance book, I’m more inclined to stop reading it and toss it in my DNF pile so I can pick up one that’ll keep my interest.** It’s easier for me to do that because I really can’t deal with incredible cheesiness or absolute over-the-top ridiculousness with characters or the situation. I don’t like getting irritated or angry when reading romance books because that defeats the whole purpose for me. I don’t do that with YA books I don’t like because I have to finish it or else I won’t ever pick it up again, which I don’t like doing. (I know. It’s quite weird.)

It would be awesome if I suddenly have the urge to start reading YA right now, but alas, not yet! In the mean time, give me all the tears and the sexy times. ;D

* Felix and Louisa are frickin’ adorable. All the power play they do to get the upper hand in their relationship is funny and amazing! I am just so into the way they fell in love. Both are learning from their mistakes and gahhhhh. Also, Sex isn’t something that they skirt around. They are totally upfront about it with each other, and I love that! 

** I actually don’t keep a DNF list for YA books because I know I’ll read the book again when I feel like it. That’s not the case with romance books. 

Do you have different types of reading slumps? Do you ever need to take a break from YA and find yourself reading a totally different genre? When do you find yourself going through those phases? Tell me about them.

Waiting on Wednesday

WAITING ON WEDNESDAY | Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

Comments : 2

wowfestivo

Waiting On is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

Andrew Smith - Grasshopper JungleGrasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
February 11, 2014
Dutton Juvenile
Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Pre-order: Amazon | Barnes & Noble |  The Book Depository

Sixteen-year-old Austin Szerba interweaves the story of his Polish legacy with the story of how he and his best friend, Robby, brought about the end of humanity and the rise of an army of unstoppable, six-foot tall praying mantises in small-town Iowa.

To make matters worse, Austin’s hormones are totally oblivious; they don’t care that the world is in utter chaos: Austin is in love with his girlfriend, Shann, but remains confused about his sexual orientation. He’s stewing in a self-professed constant state of maximum horniness, directed at both Robby and Shann. Ultimately, it’s up to Austin to save the world and propagate the species in this sci-fright journey of survival, sex, and the complex realities of the human condition.

Why I’m waiting?

I would never imagine in a million years that I would be intrigued by a book with bugs in it. I’ve read snippets of people’s reviews, saying that this is written bizarrely and I am strangely excited to see how it affects the story! Also, I loved this part: He’s stewing in a self-professed constant state of maximum horniness, directed at both Robby and Shann. Ahhhh. Yay to exploring sexuality!

What books are you waiting for?