THE SUMMER BUCKET LIST BOOK TAG

I am not a summer girl. I cannot abide the heat and humidity, though trips to the beach do make it worth it! Oh, let’s not forget the sunshine in human form people who make everyday bright! One of them being the sweet Tiffany from Read By Tiffany whose new blog is soft pastels and sweet contemporary reads. 

To kick off June, I’m participating in The Summer Bucket List which is a book tag created by Tiffany! I love the prompts for this tag so I do hope you find your perfect summer read here!

The Rules

• Link back to the original creator in your post.
• Feel free to use any of my graphics in your post, or create your own!
• Tag 5 other people at the end of your post, and let them know you’ve tagged them.

I honestly think I don’t scream enough about Our Bloody Pearl by D.N. Bryn. This is one of my absolute favourite reads. It’s about a captive siren, Perle, who is rescued by a pirate named Dejean. This book has a wonderful asexual rep of its characters, and even has a lesbian couple! Our Bloody Pearl is a quiet fantasy book that centers on the blossoming relationship between Perle and Dejean. My favourite part of the book is how Perle and Dejean create their own form of sign language to be able to communicate with each other. Besides the beautiful relationships, Our Bloody Pearl is a story told with vivid descriptions and oceanic metaphors. I adore this book with my whole heart, so please do pick it up!

🌺 Related: Review of Our Bloody Pearl by D.N. Bryn

This one might contain spoilers, so skip ahead!

The Shadow Glass is book three of Rin Chupeco’s Bone Witch trilogy. I’m recommending this book because this is when Tea and Kalen’s relationship just knocked the heart right out of my chest. The way Rin Chupeco wrote of their relationship during a time when Tea’s mental health spiraled downwards made me cry. I shit you not. I love how patient Kalen was with Tea, and how Tea did everything to protect Kalen. Theirs was a relationship grounded on patience, understanding, and respect.

🌺 Related post: The Shadow Glass by Rin Chupeco || Thank you for the heartache, Rin

 Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix by Julie C. Dao is a standalone companion to her amazing Forest of a Thousand Lanterns. Kingdom stands out for its beautiful retake on several Asian myths and folktales. It’s not often we get a YA Fantasy with so many Asian lores packed into one book. Unlike its companion, Kingdom is a fast-paced book of adventure, riddles, daring escapes, and found family. Reading Kingdom reminded me so much of the many riddles my Indian grandfather would tell me! This is a book that is both nostalgic and fun to read.

🌺 Related: Review of Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix by Julie C. Dao

Magpie’s Song by Allison Pang is a jaw-dropping, cross bending read that is perfect for summer! It is a gorgeous world of science, steampunk, fantasy elements, and also deals with themes of class and revolution. Maggy is such an amazing character! She is loud-mouthed, a skeptic, and reckless. She is unlike any of the YA heroines I’ve read and while she is not a person I would be friends with, I did admire her! It was the world of the Moon Children that really inspired me. I loved reading about the clans, the architecture, the politics, and the small previews of the cultural practices in Magpie’s Song.

🌺 Related: Magpie’s Song by Allison Pang || Roof Dancing & Clockwork Hearts

 You should know by now how much I adore The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It is one of those books with a unique writing format and not just because it’s told from the perspective of Death. It’s hard to get emotionally involved The Book Thief’s story. Set during 1939 Nazi Germany, this book retells the harrowing situation of the Jews through the eyes of a young girl. The Book Thief is one book I can read over and over and over again, and cry every single time. I still haven’t recovered.

Also, I can confidently say that the movie version lived up to and surpassed my expectations!

🌺 Related: 10 Orphaned Characters I Would Adopt and What Dinner Would Be Like With Them

 While I have read many Asian fantasies, I could not fully relate to them. I am Indian-Filipino, and many of the Asian fantasy books I read had characters of East Asian descent. I love Asian reads and I’m so happy with how many are being released, but I wanted so badly to read a book with an Indian or Filipino MC. So, when Orbit Books kindly considered my request and sent me a copy I was over the moon!

This book did not disappoint! It’s a slow fantasy book set in a desert-like area. It is greatly inspired by the Mughal history of India and this showed deeply in the magic system in Empire of Sand. It was the first book I read where magic originated from dance. The romance was also beautiful – it’s not exactly a hate to love relationship but the characters had a LOT of vulnerable moments and require much self-awareness to be able to understand each other. This book tackles complex power systems and religion, resilience and sacrifice, and the mythology in Hinduism.

 I recently read The Watermight Thief by Jordan Rivet and was immediately drawn into the world of Pendark. I promise it’s not just about the dragons. Tamri is an intriguing main character who moves from being a magic thief living in an underprivileged district to a student at a prestigious magic academy. What stood about Tamri was her inability to befriend people. Tamri comes from a life where thievery is survival and having friends undercuts that survival. So to watch her try to navigate this new environment where everyone is friendly and supportive made it a bit of a heartwarming read. Tamri’s main objective for any of her actions was to protect her grandmother and to watch her struggle between making friends and keeping her grandmother safe made me feel more involved in the story. In the end, I love how she pushed through every obstacle for her grandmother in spite of the risks.

🌺 Review of The Watermight Thief by Jordan Rivet: A Magic Thief, An Adventurous Princess, And Feathered Dragons!

  This book was…GLORIOUS! A Thousand Perfect Notes by C.G. Drews was a perfect weekend read. It made me cry from sadness, cry from joy, cry from sadness, cry, cry, cry. I loved it.

A Thousand Perfect Notes is an emotional story – it is harrowing for its potrayal of domestic abuse and yet shines lights of compassion with the relationship between Beck and August.

My favourite scene from this book is the moment when Beck and August skip school to enjoy a cake at an alternative cafe. In Beck’s words, “It’s like fruitcakes but almonds and also small explosions of chocolate and the occasional chewy date.” Doesn’t that sounds just tempting!

🌺 Related: How to Make The Cake from A Thousand Perfect Notes by Cait at Paper Fury

 The Poppy War is everything to me. I would DIE for this book. The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang is a fantasy book influenced by the events of the Nanjing Massacre which makes this read so much more distressing than any fantasy book I’ve read. The way R.F. Kuang wrote history into her book really inspired me. It was something I was trying to achieve with my own writing project but it wasn’t until I read The Poppy War that I got an idea of how to properly and effectively craft my story.

🌺 Related: The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang || Discussing the Book With Dani

Did any of these books interest you? I’m tagging

🌺 Etinosa from Uwadis

🌺 Kaleena from Reader Voracious Blog

🌺 Kate from Reading Through Infinity

🌺 Shri from Sun and Chai

🌺 Veronika, Clare, and Ruzaika from Wordy and Whimsical

Recommend me a book with a firey romance!

What’s the last book you read which inspired you?

What’s your favourite summer food?

DISCLAIMER: THE HEADER IMAGE WAS CREATED USING CANVA. THE PROMPT HEADERS ARE FROM READ BY TIFFANY’S BLOG