The First Date tag

Hi there,
How’s it going? 
First of all, thank you so much to all of you who have been visiting me throughout this last two weeks, the stats are like crazy since I posted my ARC review, so, an immense hug to each and every single one of you who commented, read, or even just clicked them. It means the world to me, that someone takes time out of their day to read something that I wrote.

Today I’d like to share a book tag, that was popular on Youtube, among booktubers: The First Date Book tag.

I know it is old, it’s a 2017 tag, it was done long before I discovered booktubing, but as I have an answer for every part of it, I’d thought it would be fun to try. I was inspired by LilyCReads, who did the tag here, and also by Katesbookdate, the creator of the tag herself, here. Make sure you visit both of them, their channels are just AMAZING.

I have reviews for the books I will mention, where I explain myself better, so if you want to take a look, check the right column, in the Blog Archive and Popular Posts, ok?

Let’s go:

1. The awkward first date, a book where something felt off, it wasn’t necessarily a bad book but it lacked that spark for you.

This is definitely The Dancing Master, by Julie Klassen.

 

The whole theme of this book sounded wonderful, and beautiful, as there was dancing involved, and it is one of the things I love the most in historical fiction and romance, but it felt flat, there was some really lacking elements to the plot that I just couldn’t swallow. Although Julie Klassen is still one of my favourite authors, and all of her books are great. Read her books, now!

2. The cheap first date, a book that turned out to be less than you expected.

I’m going with Arabella, by Georgette Heyer. 

I had seen so much praise around the author, calling her the Queen of Regency romance, and when I read this one… No. Not great, but not good either. The characters are little two-dimensional, they don’t have so much interaction for me to believe their love… No, it just didn’t do it for me.










3. The well prepared first date, a book that turned out to be better than expected.

With is one, I’m gonna pick not one, but two books. 

The first one, Divergent, by Veronica Roth. 

This is one of those books that, apparently, you either love it, or hate it. I can’t say that I loved it, but it did surprise me, on the whole Dystopian worldbuilding –the society that is dominated, but considers it the right thing–, and a heroine that is the furthest from the damsel in distress, who knows how to punch back and fight like hell, and doesn’t let the love interest to rule her life or her decisions. Definitely good. Not perfect, but a must-read for Dystopia lovers.







And the other would be Threats of Sky and Sea, by Jennifer Ellision. 

It wasn’t perfect, but it was definitely better than I was expecting, with a both strong and funny heroine, a wonderful setting, and a simply great cast of characters. If you love fantasy, you should definitely read this one.

4. The hot but dumb first date, the book that was pretty but not to so hot on the inside.
I know this immediately.

Damn you, beautiful cover I grabbed it because of the promise of a fantasy world based on India, a good, refreshing change of the usual Europe-inspired fantasy setting. But the abundance of clichés, the dumb heroine, the stupid insta-love, and the poor worldbuilding just didn’t do it for me. Sorry.

5. The blind date, a book you picked up not knowing anything about it.

I rarely know nothing about my next read. But I have one.

This is the second book in the Earthsea Cycle. I had a very vague idea about the first one, but I knew absolutely nothing about the rest, and it was one of the best surprises I’ve ever encountered in the literary world. Every fantasy lover out there simply HAS to read the Earthsea Cycle. Go. Now. *snapping fingers in your face*

6. Speed dating, a book that you read super fast.

This is easy. 

Jane Austen one of my favourite authors. It is a really short epistolary novel, the first Jane Austen ever wrote, when she was very young, and you already could tell she would be a genius. It’s a glimpse of the amazing, smart, observing woman that would be known as one of the best authors the world has ever seen. A must read.

7. The rebound, a book you’ve read too soon after a book hangover.

Even though I don’t relate with the book hangover term, I have an answer.

I read it because I just wanted more of this world. I didn’t want to say goodbye to Percy and Annabeth, and I didn’t want to leave Camp-Half Blood and abandon the quests to save the world. And it was great, just… not as good as the previous saga. A four GoodReads stars for me. The Mark of Athena and The House of Hades are both perfect, though. A must-read.






8. The overly enthusiastic date, the book that was trying to hard.
Oh, my God.

This book is great in terms of worldbuilding, and I was loving every minute of it, but in one, single sentence (literally), the whole thing fell down like a dynamited building. Relationships between the characters that came out of nowhere, a constantly whining heroine, contradictory attitudes in the main characters, and an ending that made me want to flush the book down the toilet. One of the worst fantasy books I’ve ever read. Just, no.








9. The perfect first date, a book that did everything right for you.
Let’s go with an obvious one.

Harry Potter, by J. K. Rowling, the true Queen of Magic. This is perfection, and it doesn't need further explaining.







But also this one: Percy Jackson and the Olympians, by Rick Riordan.

Oh, it was so addictive, and wonderful!! The characters are just lovable, and the villains, astounding. I read the whole saga in like a month, I devoured it, and loved every single book. All of them, perfect. A must-read, I don’t care this is a Middle Grade, just read it. Read it. Now.

I love all of them, but if I have to pick one, that would be The Battle of the Labyrinth. It was EPIC.




10. The embarrassing first date, a book that you are embarrassed to admit that you’ve liked, or a book that you are embarrassed to be reading in public. 

I’m gonna pick the reading in public part. And you all know the answer to this one.

Do I need to explain myself? Of course not. I would never want to be seen reading this in public.











Hope you enjoyed that, I’m not going to tag anyone because this is really old, and I don’t know if it is a thing anymore (probably not), and if you want to do the tag, go ahead! Just let me know, so I can see it!

Thanks for reading!
‘til next time!