I joined Goodreads a few years ago, way before I started blogging, so my profile is kind of a mess. I really want to clean it up so I can make better use of it. I thought what a better way to do that than to join the Down the TBR Hole meme started by Lia @Lost In a Story! I am going to do it once a month instead of weekly, and hopefully make my Goodreads a pleasant place to be again.
Here is how it works:
- Go to your Goodreads to-read shelf.
- Order on ascending date added.
- Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books
- Read the synopses of the books
Decide: keep it or should it go?
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
“Speak up for yourself–we want to know what you have to say.” From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether. Only her art class offers any solace, and it is through her work on an art project that she is finally able to face what really happened at that terrible party: she was raped by an upperclassman, a guy who still attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her. Her healing process has just begun when she has another violent encounter with him. But this time Melinda fights back, refuses to be silent, and thereby achieves a measure of vindication.
In Laurie Halse Anderson’s powerful novel, an utterly believable heroine with a bitterly ironic voice delivers a blow to the hypocritical world of high school. She speaks for many a disenfranchised teenager while demonstrating the importance of speaking up for oneself.
My Thoughts: I saw this movie a long time ago and thought it was so good; therefore I immediately added the book to my TBR. Years later, while I still think it is a great and influential story, I don’t really feel the draw to read the book anymore. VERDICT: TOSS
Entwined by Heather Dixon Wallwork
Just when Azalea should feel that everything is before her—beautiful gowns, dashing 
suitors, balls filled with dancing—it’s taken away. All of it. And Azalea is trapped. The Keeper understands. He’s trapped, too, held for centuries within the walls of the palace. So he extends an invitation.
Every night, Azalea and her eleven sisters may step through the enchanted passage in their room to dance in his silver forest, but there is a cost. The Keeper likes to keep things. Azalea may not realize how tangled she is in his web until it is too late.
My Thoughts: For some reason, I am never drawn to Fairytale retellings, but I always love them when I read them. The 12 Dancing Princesses is one of my faves, so this book definitely intrigues me. I’m not dying to read it, but seeing as it has good reviews I’ll stay on the look out for it. Plus that cover is GORGEOUS. VERDICT: KEEP
Outside Wonderland by Lorna Jane Cook
Alice, Griffin, and Dinah Stenen’s mother and father died tragically when they were quite young. The loss haunts them into adulthood. Alice is a stage actress in New York who can’t commit to a relationship. When she meets Ian she’s smitten, but suspects it’s Ian’s four-year-old son that really captivates her. Griffin and his longtime partner are settled into a contented domesticity, however Theo’s insistence that they adopt a child throws Griffin into a panic. When he refuses to cooperate, the crack in their relationship widens. Dinah, the youngest, has a short, passionate love affair that leaves her pregnant and alone when she discovers the father is engaged to someone else. The three look to each other for support during this rough period but they falter. What they don’t know is that their parents are watching them from a place outside time and space–worrying, reminiscing, and perhaps guiding their children as each makes their tentative way towards happiness. In luminous prose, Cook tells the story of these tender souls and a love that knows no boundaries.
My Thoughts: This story sounds potentially interesting and most likely emotional, but I am no longer drawn to this type of fiction. This summary doesn’t really do anything for me. VERDICT: TOSS
A Need So Beautiful by Suzanne Young
We all want to be remembered. Charlotte’s destiny is to be forgotten. 
Charlotte’s best friend thinks Charlotte might be psychic. Her boyfriend thinks she’s cheating on him. But Charlotte knows what’s really wrong: She is one of the Forgotten, a kind of angel on earth who feels the Need – a powerful, uncontrollable draw to help someone, usually a stranger.
But Charlotte never wanted this responsibility. What she wants is to help her best friend, whose life is spiraling out of control. She wants to lie in her boyfriend’s arms forever. But as the Need grows stronger, it begins to take a dangerous toll on Charlotte. And who she was, is, and will become – her mark on this earth, her very existence – is in jeopardy of disappearing completely.
Charlotte will be forced to choose: Should she embrace her fate as a Forgotten, a fate that promises to rip her from the lives of those she loves forever? Or is she willing to fight against her destiny – no matter how dark the consequences?
My Thoughts: OOOh this book sounds really interesting and has such mixed reviews. Kendare Blake’s goodreads review of it makes me want to read it though… I trust her opinions. VERDICT: KEEP
Adored by Tilly Bagshawe
Sienna McMahon was born into glamour. The granddaughter of film legend (and ogre) Duke McMahon, she grows up amid Hollywood scandal and opulence. Determined to forge her own identity, she becomes first a successful supermodel, then an actress; but unhappiness and tragedy keep breaking through. Then, in the time-honored tradition of Jackie Collins and Danielle Steel, the love of a good man brings her happiness and fulfillment.
My Thoughts: For some reason, I have ALWAYS wanted to read this book and I just never have. I always keep it in the back of my mind as a book I want to read and never do anything about it. I love a smutty, escapist, Hollywood drama so when my friend recommended this book to me years ago I couldn’t wait to read it…. So why haven’t I?? VERDICT: KEEP
What do you guys think of my decisions? Should I rethink any of them? Why? Let me know in the comments 🙂
Reading In The Wings 
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