I haven’t actually played Animal Crossing (whoops) but it looks cute and I know loads of folks have so much fun with this game. I feel like I picked up a lot just from seeing people talk about it back in 2020! But this tag looked like a lot of fun too, and I figured why not? I originally saw this on Mybookworld24 and it was created by Two Book Thieves so make sure you check out their posts! As usual not tagging anyone, but if you want to give this a go, please do, and let me know in the comments so I can read your post too!
Past Villager – Who is a character you found when you were younger that still has a place in your heart?
Lucy Penvensie. I loved her from the very first moment I ‘met’ her, though that was via the cartoon adaptation of the book before I received a boxset of Chronicles of Narnia as a Christmas present. I adored this series, and I loved Lucy, the youngest child (like me) who just wants her older siblings to play with her (like me). I was also drawn to these stories of evacuees, reading any and all I could get my hand on. Carrie from Carrie’s War is a close second.
Blather’s Blatherings – Recommend a historical fiction book that you think everybody should read
I’ve picked up some really great Historical fiction recently, but the most recent one is definitely one I’ll be recommending to people for a long time. Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez is a powerfully told, little known story about two young girls and the nurse who looks after them.
My Review of Take My Hand
Celeste’s Wish – What is a future book release you wish you could read now?
The Luminaries by Susan Dennard. I absolutely love how this started, with a “choose your own story” on Twitter. So many of us joined it and it was just so fun! I can’t wait for Winnie’s return in book form!
Timmy & Tommy – What is your favourite sibling relationship in a book?
This is hard one, because I can’t think of much I’ve read recently that has sibling relationships, as such! Not one that’s positive anyway, rather than distant, or fraught, or comes with additional complications. For this, I’m going to pick a relationship I’m absolutely loving seeing develop, even if it’s tense and difficult. Snow White and Rose Red from Fables, especially in the second volume, which sees the sisters caught up in a revolution.
My review for Fables, Volume 1 and Fables, Volume 2
The Easter Bunny – A popular book character that you’re not a big fan of
I was going to say I don’t actually have an answer to this question, but although I haven’t read the original Les Misérables, (I did try, before. Maybe I will again one day) I’ve seen various versions of the musical and absolutely cannot stand Marius and Cosette. Yet they seem popular? Or maybe that’s a perception of mine that doesn’t stand out. But if they are anything like their musical versions in the books, they’d do nothing but frustrate me!
I haven’t read Les Misérables, but I have read Court of Miracles, inspired by Les Misérables and The Jungle Book, and highly recommend that book.
Nook’s Loans – An author you’d give all your money to
Oh this is a hard one…there’s a few authors I’d give all my money to if I was given half the chance! Okay, so excluding authors who are my friends…probably Elizabeth Lim. I first read her via the Disney Twisted Tales series, with her addition, Reflection. I adored Spin the Dawn and Unravel the Dusk, and I’m so excited to catch up with her latest two asap! She has a completely magical way of writing that completely absorbs you into her worlds.
Read my reviews of Spin the Dawn, Unravel the Dusk and So This Is Love.
The Sisters Able – What is your favourite fictional family (found or otherwise)?
I think it’s gotta be Our Bloody Pearl by D.N. Bryn. The people who help Perle become her pod, her found family, and I loved how Bryn developed the relationships between them. It’s really beautiful to watch unfold.
Read my review of Our Bloody Pearl – part of the BBNYA blog tours!
It’s a C+ – What is a book trope you don’t like that keeps popping up?
Insta-love. Specifically in some of the adult romances I’ve read recently, where the characters meet and just…get along. I prefer my Romance with some tension on the couple themselves, whether that’s from their internal selves or external, I want some reasons why initially they shouldn’t be together, until they overcome those things.
The Wandering Camel – What is your favourite book set in a land far away from yours?
Excluding created worlds in, say, Fantasy, this one is actually tricky because it feels like so much of what I read is either a created world or in the US, but the US doesn’t feel ‘far away’. I don’t think I’ve read much – not recently anyway – set in, say, Australia. I am going to go for a US based book here, though, and focus on one in which the location becomes a character of its own – The City We Became. I loved this book, and New York does truly feel worlds away from me in Cardiff!
My review of The City We Became
What Would Dodos Do? – A fictional land you wish you could fly away to at any moment?
This is really difficult – it’s hard to think of a fictional land in any recent books where the world isn’t, you know, a dark, dangerous, messed up place. Shows a lot about my taste I think! One world I would absolutely love to visit is Arnes – the Red London of V.E. Schwab’s Shades of Magic series. That would be pretty amazing.
So there we have it – what do you think? This was a really fun tag to do, and I hope it was as fun to read!
Unwrapping Words 