We Love Lists: Top 5 Bookstagram Pet Peeves

We're probably all annoyed with Instagram right now. It really shouldn't be that hard to show you the posts from all the accounts you follow in the order they were posted. And I read last week that they changed the algorithm again and it will kill your posts if you use too many hashtags or don't reply to comments fast enough. But today I want to talk about things that users do that drive me crazy.

Here are my Top 5 Bookstagram Pet Peeves

5. Blind follow backs

1k followers and 0 posts? This has to be from people auto following back. Also random accounts that follow me assuming I will follow back. I don’t. I only follow back if I like your feed. I do try to follow back book bloggers but maybe leave a comment and introduce yourself?

4. Follows based on one photo

This is only slightly better than blind follows. I get new followers every time a post a pic of my dogs. A few days later a bunch of them unfollow when I post a book pic. It only takes a second to click on a name and look at their feed or don’t even look at the pics, just read the bio. This one's hard on my self-esteem, guys.

3. Inappropriate hashtags 

When I search #coverlove all the photos should have covers in them. Why is this a hard concept?

2. Ignoring challenge prompts

This is probably a big part of why the above happens. People want to post a certain number of times a day or week so they post any photo they want with the photo challenge prompt and tell you what their photo should have been about. It’s called a photo challenge, not a caption challenge! I’m all for combining prompts but combine them in the photo too.

1. Ignoring the captions

Which brings me to my #1 problem. No one seems to read the captions. What’s the point of doing the last two things if people are only looking at the pictures? Just tag them with what they are so I can find what I’m looking for. Because we all know Instagram won’t show me everyone I follow!

The reason I know no one’s reading the captions? Mostly because the comments don’t address them. It’s nice to hear people like your photo, but it would also be nice if they answered your questions. My fave is when the post starts out with what do think about x? And someone comments with Awesome! What exactly is awesome? The picture, the feed, the thing in the caption? Aaah!

What are your Bookstagram pet peeves?

We Love Lists: Book Titles That Gave Me Earworms

Christine Warren has a new shifter romance releasing this month called Baby, I'm Howling For You. I posted about it on Instagram saying that for once I actually liked the song that got stuck in my head because of a book title. And that got me thinking about some of the book-related earworms I've experienced over the years.

Sometimes the author deliberately chooses song titles for their whole series like in Warren's case. The next book in her series is called Lion Eyes. (Why she went from a 2010 song to The Eagles circa 1975, I have no idea.) And sometimes it's just my brain making a connection that no one intended but I'm stuck with anyway.

Here are my Top 5 Book Titles That Gave Me Earworms

5. You’ll Miss Me When I’m Gone by Rachel Lynn Solomon 
I’ve been singing the “Cups Song” from Pitch Perfect for a week now since I saw someone talking about this book on Twitter. (I know it’s a real song outside the movie, but I don’t think I’ve actually heard it anywhere else.) Sometimes I veer off in to “Titanium” but not the whole song, just the part they sing in the shower scene.

4. Magic For Nothing by Seanan Maguire
I thought the Dire Straits reference was accidental (Remember "Money For Nothing" from the MTV commercials?) until I found out the next book in the Incryptid series is called Tricks For Free. That's the next line in the song for those of you not up on your 80's hair bands. And now I'm doomed to hear "I want my MTV" every time I see this book. Tricks For Free just went up on Netgalley so I’m having a lot of  “No, not again!” moments.


3. Tainted Blood by M.L. Brennan
This one wasn't deliberate, but the Generation V series now has me singing "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell. Seriously, why are 80's songs so darn catchy?


2. We Don't Need Another Hero by Sierra Dean
Mad Max. Tina Turner. This shouldn't be a bad one, but when I was little we had a Muppet song parodies calendar. Now I just hear my mother singing "We don't need another Gonzo. He don't even know the way home." She sounds nothing like Tina Turner.


1. Bite the Hand That Bleeds by Megan Erickson
This short takes the top spot because it's an earworm two-fer. There's the obvious one, "The Hand That Feeds" by Nine Inch Nails. But since the series is called Mission and I'm already thinking about Trent Reznor, what actually stays with me for days is "Past the Mission," this creepy, atmospheric duet he did with Tori Amos.

Do you have a song stuck in your head now too?

What title gave you an earworm?

Top 5 Most Unlikable Characters

This week I participated in Top 5 Wednesday for the first time and I thought since our theme for this week's blogoversary is Top 5 it would be perfect to share my first Top 5 video with you all!

If you don't know, Top 5 Wednesday is a feature for bloggers and booktubers based on a Goodreads group. There is a unique topic for each Wednesday and bloggers and booktubers make posts or videos to discuss their responses. Here is the link to the Goodreads group if you'd like to participate - and let me know if you do!
Top 5 Wednesday

This week's topic is:

Top 5 Most Unlikable Characters

These cannot be characters that were purposely written as villains, mean girls, etc. but rather characters that were meant to be likable, but that you just didn't like at all. Check out my choices below! Did I name any characters you love? Who would you add to this list?

Top 5 Most Unlikable Characters

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Goldilox's Booktube Channel

Goldilox's Top 5: Favorite YA Books

These are my Top 5 favorite YA books that I have read so far in 2012!

I couldn't decide on just five books, so I split my list into two groups: 

Top 5 adult books and Top 5 YA books.

This list is my Top 5 favorite YA books read so far this year. 

Did you miss my Top 5 Adult books? Check it out HERE. 

TOP 5 YA BOOKS:

(in no particular order)

Masque of the Red Death
(Masque of the Red Death #1)
Bethany Griffin

MY REVIEW

Everything is in ruins.

A devastating plague has decimated the population. And those who are left live in fear of catching it as the city crumbles to pieces around them.

So what does Araby Worth have to live for?

Nights in the Debauchery Club, beautiful dresses, glittery make-up . . . and tantalizing ways to forget it all.

But in the depths of the club—in the depths of her own despair—Araby will find more than oblivion. She will find Will, the terribly handsome proprietor of the club. And Elliott, the wickedly smart aristocrat. Neither boy is what he seems. Both have secrets. Everyone does.

And Araby may find something not just to live for, but to fight for—no matter what it costs her.

The Immortal Rules
(Blood of Eden #1)
Julie Kagawa

MY REVIEW

In a future world, Vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity.

Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.

Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them. The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked—and given the ultimate choice. Die… or become one of the monsters.

Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.

Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend—a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.But it isn’t easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what—and who—is worth dying for.

Dark Frost
(Mythos Academy #3)
Jennifer Estep

MY REVIEW

I’ve seen so many freaky things since I started attending Mythos Academy last fall. I know I’m supposed to be a fearless warrior, but most of the time, I feel like I’m just waiting for the next Bad, Bad Thing to happen. Like someone trying to kill me—again.

Everyone at Mythos Academy knows me as Gwen Frost, the Gypsy girl who uses her psychometry magic to find lost objects—and who just may be dating Logan Quinn, the hottest guy in school. But I’m also the girl the Reapers of Chaos want dead in the worst way. The Reapers are the baddest of the bad, the people who murdered my mom. So why do they have it in for me?

It turns out my mom hid a powerful artifact called the Helheim Dagger before she died. Now, the Reapers will do anything to get it back. They think I know where the dagger is hidden, but this is one thing I can’t use my magic to find. All I do know is that the Reapers are coming for me—and I’m in for the fight of my life.

Onyx
(Lux #2)
Jennifer Armentrout

My review won't be posted until closer to the release date, but you can read my review of Obsidian, which would have been on this list of not for Onyx, HERE.

Being connected to Daemon Black sucks…

Daemon’s determined to prove what he feels for me is more than a product of our bizarre connection. I’ve sworn him off even though he’s running more hot than cold these days. But against all common sense, I’m falling for him. Hard.

Our relationship issues aren’t out biggest problem…

The Department of Defense is here. If they ever find out what Daemon can do and that we’re linked, I’m a goner. So is he. And when a new boy shows up a school with a secret of his own, things get complicated fast. I need to choose between my own instincts and Daemon’s.

But then everything changes…

I’ve seen someone who shouldn’t be alive. Daemon’s never going to stop searching until gets the truth. What happened to his brother? Who betrayed him? And what does the DOD want from them—from me?

No one is who they seem. And not everyone will survive the lies.

Clockwork Prince
(The Infernal Devices #2)
Cassandra Clare

MY REVIEW

In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray has at last found safety with the Shadowhunters. But that safety proves fleeting when rogue forces in the Clave plot to see her protector, Charlotte, replaced as head of the Institute. If Charlotte loses her position, Tessa will be out on the street and easy prey for the mysterious Magister, who wants to use Tessa's powers for his own dark ends.

With the help of the handsome, self-destructive Will and the fiercely devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister's war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal. He blames them for a long-ago tragedy that shattered his life. To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors, from the slums of London to an enchanted ballroom where Tessa discovers that the truth of her parentage is more sinister than she had imagined. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister himself knows their every move and that one of their own has betrayed them.

Tessa finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, though her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will; the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do?

As their dangerous search for the Magister and the truth leads the friends into peril, Tessa learns that when love and lies are mixed, they can corrupt even the purest heart.

What have been some of your favorite YA reads so far this year?

Goldilox's Top 5: Favorite Adult Reads

These are my Top 5 favorite books that I have read so far in 2012!

I couldn't decide on just five books, so I split my list into two groups: 

Top 5 adult books and Top 5 YA books.


This list is my Top 5 favorite adult books read so far this year. 
Keep an eye out for my Top 5 YA list coming soon!

TOP 5 ADULT BOOKS:
(in no particular order)

The Shadow Reader
(McKenzie Lewis #1)
Sandy Williams

MY REVIEW

There can only be one allegiance.
It’s her time to choose.

Some humans can see the fae. McKenzie Lewis can track them, reading the shadows they leave behind. But some shadows lead to danger. Others lead to lies.

A Houston college student trying to finish her degree, McKenzie has been working for the fae king for years, tracking vicious rebels who would claim the Realm. Her job isn’t her only secret. For just as long, she’s been in love with Kyol, the king’s sword-master—and relationships between humans and fae are forbidden.

But any hope for a normal life is shattered when she’s captured by Aren, the fierce and uncompromising rebel leader. He teaches her the forbidden fae language and tells her dark truths about the Court, all to persuade her to turn against the king. Time is running out, and as the fight starts to claim human lives, McKenzie has no choice but to decide once and for all whom to trust and where she ultimately stands in the face of a cataclysmic civil war.

Chasing Magic
(Downside Ghosts #2)
Stacia Kane

MY REVIEW

A DEADLY HIGH

Magic-wielding Churchwitch and secret addict Chess Putnam knows better than anyone just how high a price people are willing to pay for a chemical rush. But when someone with money to burn and a penchant for black magic starts tampering with Downside’s drug supply, Chess realizes that the unlucky customers are paying with their souls—and taking the innocent with them, as the magic-infused speed compels them to kill in the most gruesome ways possible.

As if the streets weren’t scary enough, the looming war between the two men in her life explodes, taking even more casualties and putting Chess squarely in the middle. Downside could become a literal ghost town if Chess doesn’t find a way to stop both the war and the dark wave of death-magic, and the only way to do that is to use both her addiction and her power to enter the spell and chase the magic all the way back to its malevolent source. Too bad that doing so will probably kill Chess—if the war doesn’t first destroy the man who’s become her reason for living.

Shadow Bound
(Unbound #2)
Rachel Vincent

MY REVIEW

If you live in the dark long enough, you begin to forget the light…

KORI DANIELS is a shadow-walker, able to travel instantly from one shadow to another. After weeks of confinement for betraying her boss, she’s ready to break free of the Tower syndicate for good. But Jake Tower has one final job for Kori, one chance to secure freedom for herself and her sister, Kenley, even if that means taking it from someone else…

The job? Recruit Ian Holt—or kill him.

Ian’s ability to manipulate the dark has drawn interest from every syndicate in the world, most notably an invitation from Jake Tower. Though he has no interest in organized crime, Ian accepts the invite, because he’s on a mission of his own. Ian has come to kill Tower’s top Binder: Kori’s little sister.

Amid the tangle of lies, an unexpected thread of truth connecting Ian and Kori comes to light. But with opposing goals, they’ll have to choose between love and liberty….

The First Days
(As the World Dies: A Zombie Trilogy #1)
Rhiannon Frater

MY REVIEW

The morning that the world ends, Katie is getting ready for court and housewife Jenni is taking care of her family. Less than two hours later, they are fleeing for their lives from a zombie horde.

Thrown together by circumstance, Jenni and Katie become a powerful zombie-killing partnership, mowing down zombies as they rescue Jenni's stepson, Jason, from an infected campground.

They find sanctuary in a tiny, roughly fortified Texas town. There Jenni and Katie find they are both attracted to Travis, leader of the survivors; and the refugees must slaughter people they know, who have returned in zombie form.

Fast-paced and exciting, filled with characters who grab your heart, The First Days: As the World Dies is the beginning of a frightening trilogy.

Summoning the Night
(Arcadia Bell #2)
Jenn Bennett

MY REVIEW

MAGICAL TRICKS. DEMONIC TREATS.

After narrowly escaping her fate as a sacrificial scapegoat, Arcadia Bell is back to normal. Or at least as ordinary as life can be for a renegade magician and owner of a tiki bar that caters to Earthbound demons. She’s gearing up for the busiest day of the year—Halloween—when a vengeful kidnapper paralyzes the community.

The influential head of the local Hellfire Club taps Cady to track down the fiendish bogeyman, and now that she’s dating red-hot Lon Butler, the Club’s wayward son, she can hardly say no. Cady and Lon untangle a gruesome thirty-year trail of clues that points to danger for the club members’ children. But locating the person behind the terror will require some metaphysical help from Cady’s loyal bar patrons as well as her potent new Moonchild powers—and she’d better figure it out before the final victim disappears and her own darkest secret becomes her biggest enemy.

Honorable Mention:

Blood on the Bayou
(Annabelle Lee #2)
Stacey Jay

MY REVIEW

It's only been three weeks since Annabelle helped solve the murder of Grace Beauchamp, and in the process, she discovered a secret world of invisible, magic-working people who have decided she might have what it takes to join their ranks.

As best as she can determine, Annabelle’s attack by a group of fairies has infected her with paranormal ability she did not previously possess, including being able to mentally move objects and heal wounds. Her new abilities appear to have few negative side effects, aside from creepy dreams. But would that change if she stopped injecting herself with the mystery drug delivered to her by the even more mysterious Tucker, one of the Invisibles? Leery of trusting criminals with her health, Annabelle wishes she had someone she could talk to about the changes in her life. Enter Hitch, FBI agent and Annabelle's ex, who's back in Donaldsonville on an off-the-books investigation. Hitch suspects that there's a government-funded illegal lab that’s developing a controversial fairy-killing spray that could adversely affect the existence of every living thing in the delta—including humans. And Hitch and Annabelle will have to find a way to work together if they're going to find a way to shut it down.

What have been some of your favorite adult reads so far this year?