The Girl the Sea Gave Back by Adrienne Young

Author: Adrienne Young

Original title: The Girl the Sea Gave Back
Pages: 416
Edition Language: Russian
Series: Sky in the Deep #2
Format: e-book
Genres: Fantasy
Goodreads

Blurb:    
   For as long as she can remember, Tova has lived among the Svell, the people who found her washed ashore as a child and use her for her gift as a Truthtongue. Her own home and clan are long-faded memories, but the sacred symbols and staves inked over every inch of her skin mark her as one who can cast the rune stones and see into the future. She has found a fragile place among those who fear her, but when two clans to the east bury their age-old blood feud and join together as one, her world is dangerously close to collapse.

My thoughts: 
     As with many second books in the series, let's pretend it does not exist. 

Sky in the Deep was a great stand alone novel with a great world and characters. This book seems a carbon copy of a book that might have been written if the author took more time or effort. I think the idea is here, but the plot and characters fell flat for me. The world building is minimal, if any, and the plot is quite predictable. The prose is very beautiful and rich here, but most events of the book just do not have any purpose. Altogether, motivation and events seemed rather weak and pointless.

     I liked how Adrienne Young writes, but I find her first book way better than the second. Hopefully, the next one will be great and surprising.

 Rating:  

    3/5  

December 2020 Wrap up

 

Read books: 
read: 2/ listen: 0/ pages: 1373/ hours listened: 0
1. Six Degrees of Assassination by M.J. Arlidge 4h50m ****
2. The Girl the Sea Gave Back by Adrienne Young p.416 ***
3.  Beartown by Fredrik Backman p. 528 *****

Movie watched:
none

November 2020 Wrap up

 

Read books: 
read: 4/ listen: 0/ pages: 1113/ hours listened: 0
1. French Women Don't Sleep Alone: Pleasurable Secrets to Finding Love by Jamie Cat Callan p.384**
2. The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon p.352 ****
3. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells p. 148 ***
4. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi p. 229 ***

Movie watched:
none

October 2020 Wrap up

 

Read books: 
read: 1/ listen: 2/ pages: 625/ hours listened: 20h12m
1. Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston 12h15m  ***
2. The Toll by Neal Shusterman p. 624 ****
3. Sadie by Courtney Summers 7h57m *****

Movie watched:
none

September 2020 Wrap up

 

Read books: 
read: 2/ listen: 0/ pages: 870/ hours listened: 0
1. The Princess Bride by William Goldman p.448 **
2. You by Caroline Kepnes p. 422 **

Movie watched:
none

August 2019 Wrap up

 

Read books: 
read: 4/ listen: 0/ pages: 2016/ hours listened: 0/ DNFed: 1
1. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling p.608 *****
2. Truthwitch by Susan Dennard  p.576 ***
3. Passenger by Alexandra Bracken p.512 ***
4. This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay p. 320 ****
5. Wayfarer by Alexandra Bracken DNFed
 

 Movie watched:
1.  The Mummy Returns (2001) re-watch ***
2. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008) re-watch **
3. Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) re-watch *****
4. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) re-watch *****

July 2020 Wrap up

 

Read books: 
read: 17/ listen: 0/ pages: 4357/ hours listened: 0
1. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë p. 639 ****
2. The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill p. 386 ****
3. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch p. 398 ***
4. The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey p.300 ***
5. Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by Nikolai Leskov p.70 ***
6. The Ladies' Paradise by Émile Zola p. 416 ***
7. The Last Star by Rick Yancey p. 352 ***
8. Caraval by Stephanie Garber p.402 **

9. My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite p. 226 ****
10. Saga, Vol. 2 by Brian K. Vaughan p. 146 ****
11. Saga, Vol. 3 by Brian K. Vaughan p. 146 ****

12. Saga, Vol. 4 by Brian K. Vaughan p. 146 ****

13. Saga, Vol. 5 by Brian K. Vaughan p. 146 ****

14. Saga, Vol. 6 by Brian K. Vaughan p. 146 ****

15. Saga, Vol. 7 by Brian K. Vaughan p. 146 ****

16. Saga, Vol. 8 by Brian K. Vaughan p. 146 ****

17. Saga, Vol. 9 by Brian K. Vaughan p. 146 ****

Movie watched:
1. Dark S.3 E. 1-8 (2019) *****

May 2020 Wrap up

 

Read books: 
read: 8/ listen: 1/ pages: 3008/ hours listened: 

1. Well Met by Jen DeLuca 9h45m **
2. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo p.384 ***

3. Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo p.416 ***
4. Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo p. 416 ***

5. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman p.384 *****

6. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne p.216 **
7. Saga, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan p.168 ****
8. Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames p.544 ***

9. The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black p.480 ***

Movie watched:
1. Bumblebee (2018) **

April 2020 Wrap up

 

Read books: 
read: 5/ listen: 1/ pages: 1955/ hours listened: 7h51m
1. The Distance Between Me and the Cherry Tree by Paola Peretti p.224 ****
2. Knife by Jo Nesbø p.600
3. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini p.416
4. The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien p.544

5. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys p.171

6.10 Blind Dates by Ashley Elston 7h51m

Movie watched:
1.Constantine (2005) *** re-watch
2. A Monster Calls (2016)  **** re-watch

March 2020 Wrap up

Read books:  read: 7/ listen: 1/ pages: 2576/ hours listened: 8h57m
1. The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary 9h35m ***
2. Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman  p. 448 ****
3. Force of Nature by Jane Harper 8h57m ****
4. Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty p.320 ****
5. Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery p.512 ****
6. Serafina and the Twisted Staff by Robert Beatty p.400 ****
7. Serafina and the Splintered Heart by Robert Beatty p. 384 ***
8. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan p. 512 ***

Movie watched:
none

February 2020 Wrap up

 

Read books: 
read: 9/ listen: 1/ pages: 3490/ hours listened: 22h20m/ DNFed: 1
1. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. p.224 ****
2. Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco p.416 ***
3. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes p.485 ****
4. After You by Jojo Moyes p.381 ***
5. Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young p.416 *****
6. To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han  p.352 ****
7. P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han p.352 *** 
8. Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han  p.352 ***
9. Hunting Prince Dracula by Kerri Maniscalco p.512 ***
10. The King of Crows by Libba Bray 22h20m
11. Big Sky by Kate Atkinson DNFed

Movie watched:
1. Mr. Mercedes S3. E 1-10 (2019) ****
2. The Frankenstein Chronicless S.1 (2015) *** 
3. Me Before You (2016)  **
4. To All the Boys I've Loved Before (2018)  ***
5. To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You (2020)  *** 
6. Death in Paradise S9. E 1-8 (2011–2020 ) ***

January 2020 Wrap up

 

Read books: 
read: 4/ listen: 0/ pages: 1437/ hours listened: 0
1. Dry by Neal Shusterman, Jarrod Shusterman  p.399 **
2. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley p.351 ***
3. One Day in December by Josie Silver  p.480 **
4. A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg p.207 ***


Movie watched:
none

Middle Grade March Announcement and TBR 2020

One of my favorite month long challenges is happening again. Middle Grade March is a month long readathon happening March 1-31. It will be hosted by Katie @ Life Between Words  and Krista from BooksAndJams.
Katie's Announcement Video
Krista's Announcement Video
Don't forget to use the hashtag #middlegrademarch

CHALLENGES (optional, of course):

1. A book with illustrations 
2. A book about books or stories 
3. A mystery 
4. A book set in another country 
5. A book to screen adaptation

  I do not read too many so I put up quite a big TBR list so I can choose from.

1. I want to check Serafina series by Robert Beatty: Serafina and the Black Cloak; Serafina and the Twisted Staff; Serafina and the Splintered Heart; Serafina and the Seven Stars. There are four books so far and quite chunky, so it will be good to start and see if it's any good. I do not have the 4th book, so my aim here is read at least first 3 that I have.

2. For challenge #2 I have not found a book that grabbed my attention.

3. For challenge #3 I have Murder Is Bad Manners by Robin Stevens. It is the first book in Murder Most Unladylike Mystery series, which has at least 9 more books. I am not sure about this one, as this book will be out of my comfort zone, I do not read many middle grade mysteries.

4. For challenge #4 I have Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery. I would like to continue in the series as I loved the first book. So I hope it will be the same good.

5. For challenge #5 I am thinking about The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. There are 5 books in the series and I am not sure if I would like those books as a grown up. My nephew loved another series by Rick Riordan - Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, and I want to check this series before him, so I can be sure to recommend it or not.

Apart from the challenge prompt, I want to read below books which I have for a long time, but never picked up.

• The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
• The Giver by Lois Lowry 
• The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
• Die magische Gondel by Eva Völler - still not translated into English
• The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
• The Distance Between Me and the Cherry Tree by Paola Peretti

So altogether it is 10 mandatory books, which is quite ok. So I am quite hopeful that I will be able to read through many series during the month and find new favorites.

2020 Goals

     This is quite a difficult task for me this year to set any type of goals as I was not consistent with my reading and blogging in 2019. I was thinking over my goals for more than a month, taking inspiration and ideas from other bloggers and booktubers; and here is the list of  my goals so far for 2020:

• Read 52 books
• Read 5 books by Russian authors
• Read 3 books by Czech authors
• Read 4 books by German authors
• Read 20 books in 2020 list
• Listen to 10 audiobooks 
• Read 10 classics
• Complete Read your Bookshelf Challenge
• Complete Page challenge
• Buy only 12 books during 2020
• Participate in at least 3 readathons
• Finish 4 series

Challenges I am Joining in 2020

1. This year I am setting my Goodreads goal to 52 books

2020 Reading Challenge

Julie has read 1 book toward their goal of 52 books.

1 of 52 (1%)

view books

2. 2020 Pages Read Challenge
Goal is 24 000 pages
 
3. Read Your Bookshelf – Reading Challenge 2020
Goal is 12 books throughout the year.

4. Reading German Books in 2020
Goal is 4 book, 3 of which are in German.

That is basically it. I am still continuing with my Russian Literature, World of Literature, Booker Prize and Classics Club projects, which at the begging 2020 are the following:

Russian Literature: 9/30
World of Literature: 21/50
Booker Prize Project: 7
Classics Club: 9/50

To Be Continued Readathon 2020 and TBR

    A readathon for those series you need to finish

RULES AND INFORMATION

•     The readathon will take place during the month of February 2020
•     There are 15 prompts in total, distributed along 7 levels
•     Complete the prompts of one level, to level up to the next one!
•     There’s a WILD CARD that you can use once.
•     The important thing is to HAVE FUN and ENJOY YOURSELF!
•     One book = One prompt
•     You don’t have to read them in order, but you will have to complete all the previous levels.

It seems that the readathon will be managed through Twitter, which I do not have, so I will just keep the progress to myself, anyway, I do not think I will surpass the second level.

THE PROMPTS

LEVEL 1: STAND ALONE
Top of the TBR Pile: the sequel you are Most Excited to get to.
The Girl in the Tower (Winternight Trilogy #2) by Katherine Arden 
The Journey: is about the sequels we read along the way. Read a book in the Middle of a series
Knife (Harry Hole #12) by Jo Nesbø
The Grand Finale: Read the Last book in that series so you can finally boast about finishing it.
The King of Crows (The Diviners #4) by Libba Bray

LEVEL 2: SEQUEL
Read the book: There’s always a book being adapted or something getting adapted into a book! Read a sequel with Adaptation/Adapted and figure out how much they screwed that up...
The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials #2) by Philip Pullman
This Just In: fresh from the printing press, read a New Release!
WILD CARD 

LEVEL 3: TRILOGY
Catch-Up: This prompt is for that Popular Series everyone keeps going on about
Stalking Jack the Ripper (Stalking Jack the Ripper #1) by Kerri Maniscalco
Hiatus: People are still waiting to see how it all pans out! Hopefully the author will get to it and release the rest of the series. Read a book in an Uncompleted Work (as of yet).
 In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad #1) by Tana French

LEVEL 4: ARC
Tangent: Stories don’t have to be linear! Read a Companion novel, a work in a Parallel world or a Prequel!
Welcome Home: Sometimes self-care is ignoring the unread books and getting back to what you know. Treat yourself to a Re-Read!

LEVEL 5: SERIES
I Like Them, Another: Read a book by your favourite author
Tale as Old as Time: Read the sequel that has the Oldest Publishing Date

LEVEL 6: SAGA
Hipster: Ah, the bittersweetness of loving an obscure book, but having no one to share our love! Read a Hidden Gem!
Procrastination: There’s always that pesky book, side-eyeing you from the shelf. Read a sequel that has been on your TBR the Longest, that you find Intimidating, or that you’ve simply been Putting Off for no good reason! (pick one)

LEVEL 7: MASTER OF THE TBR
I Bet You Thought You’d Seen The Last of Me: You thought you had this one in the bag! SIKE, there’s a new book on your TBR now! Read a book from a Previously Completed series!
Second Chance: Some things get better with age, like wine and cheese, and unlike most jokes from old sitcoms! Sometimes the Sequel is Better—read a book where you found the first/previous installment disappointing, but have heard good things of the follow-up

REMEMBER: Don’t have a book that fits a prompt? Use your WILD CARD! You can replace one of the prompts with any sequel you fancy