Once Upon A Time Book Tag

 

Hello folks! Today we're doing something a tad bit different, for a few reasons. First of all, I had some people tell me that it would be cool if Wisteria Lane had some book related posts that weren't book reviews. And second, this was quicker than a full book review which was necessary for reasons that will be stated after the tag. And I get to tell y'all about more than one book at once!!

So, we're here today with a book tag! *cheering* 

I stole found this tag from Lizzy at A Bit of Everything. And she got it from Tori at Sweet Obsession. Both of which are amazing blogs. Go, shoo, take a look at them. Then come back. 

Alright, let's get started!! 

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"Cinderella," a book that changed your life: 

To me, this is a no brainer. God has changed my life in so many ways. I truly don't know where I'd be without His grace, mercy, and forgiveness. He's the one person who's always been there for me no matter what. 

"Sleeping Beauty," a book that took you forever to finish:

This one... *grimaces* I'm about to have so many people scream at me, but I did not like this book. Like, at all. Sure, Janner and Tink are amazing, but there was something about it I hated. I stopped reading it before the end. *hides from whatever things angry fans may be throwing at me* 

But, I came back to it. It took me a good three years to pick up, but I did. Be proud. And I actually enjoyed it that time. It is nowhere near my favorite book, however I will reread it on occasion now. 

"A Thousand and One Nights," a book you couldn't stop reading: 

Okay, okay. So I may be breaking the rules here by listing an entire series but I couldn't help it. All of Olivia Jarmusch's books were AMAZING! Like, I literally could not put them down. And I keep rereading them and finding more connections between the stories that I missed before! They are such sweet, Christian romances that don't make the romance the main focal point for every story. The plot twists are amazing, the writing holds my attention really well. Olivia is such a talented writer! I could sing her praises for quite some time, but I shall spare y'all. and may i just say THOSE COVERS *screaming* they are so gorgeous!

"Little Red Riding Hood," a book you recently read in an unfamiliar genre:

*looses any bit of calm I might have had left* TOLKIEN GUYS!!!

*clears throat* I mean, I recently read the first part of Lord of the Rings. Unfamiliar genre for me because I rarely read any type of fantasy. 

I have loved Tolkien for many years, even before I ever read The Hobbit. Finally, my parents let me read it and I was in love. The writing style, the worldbuilding, the characters just *screams* And so far, Lord of the Rings is even better than The Hobbit. 

"The Wild Swans," a book you read with your favorite sibling relationships:

Yes, I'm breaking the rule here and doing two. Because there are so many AMAZING sibling relationships in books. I searched one whole bookshelf and came up with these two as favorites. I know there are more though because I have five more bookshelves....

But, The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street. So good! It's a wonderful story about how life can be beautiful, chaotic, and heartbreaking all at once. At surface level, it seems just like a fun story that makes you laugh, but the more I read it, the more depth I see in it. There are five siblings in this one and their relationship is just perfect. Very realistic, sweet, and funny.

Nothing Else But Miracles was so sweet. Dory, Fish, and Pike have a beautiful relationship. Each one supports the others in their own way. They're true siblings- holding each other up, arguing, laughing, and just being siblings.  

"Rapunzel," a book that you procrastinated on reading after buying:

This is probably going to shock most of you, but I actually don't buy books I haven't read before. On rare occasions, I will. But typically, I've already read books by that author and then read them that week. When I have a new book I want to read, I get it from the library and if they don't have it, I ask them to buy it. So far, they've been quite patient and bought all my suggestions. *looks guiltily at the long list* Hopefully they keep buying them for me. 

The only one I can think of recently buying and not reading right away was This Life of Mine by Victoria Lynn. I got it for Christmas and just read it. But I don't know if that truly counts because a. I got like ten books for Christmas and b. God really used that story in my life right when I read it- just confirming things He had been trying to tell me for a while. So I know I read it when He wanted me to. 

"The Little Mermaid," a book that took you on a magical journey:

Okay, so I figured I could "magical journey" in two ways. Actual magic, or just a really cool journey. So I have both. Raiders from the Sea is one of my favorite books of all times. The storyline is absolutely amazing, the characters truly alive and not utterly perfect like in so many stories, and the themes are so powerful. Every time I read this, it feels like I'm reading it for the first time. I never get sick of it. 

Briar and Rose and Jack is just.... wow. Katherine Coville did a stellar job on this. She managed to weave the fairy tales of Jack and the Beanstalk and Sleeping Beauty together in such a unique way. None of the characters are ones I would have liked if they were on their own without the others, but when you put them all together... wow. It's amazing, superb, stellar. And the magic is just right. It's not so much that it makes me uncomfortable, because I do try to stay away from magic systems and stuff, and yet the magic is the entire backbone for the story. If the magic didn't exist, there would be no story. Again, this is one I never get sick of reading.

"The Frog Prince," a book that you'd like to turn into a frog because you hated it so much:

In middle school, there was this book on Benjamin Franklin I was forced to read. I don't remember its title or who wrote it, but it was the worst book I've ever read. Okay, maybe not the worst. But it was a textbook disguised as a fiction book. *glares* Advertised as a fictionalized version of Benjamin Franklin's childhood. You open it up, and it was like reading a really, really dry textbook. It unfortunately caused me to hate dear Franklin. Until I watched the movie 1776 which changed hatred to neutralness. *clears throat* Moving on...

*winces* I really hate to put this one on here, because four of the five stories in this collection were AMAZING. I'm currently writing a short romance story and found some collections of Christian romances so I could study how they were done. All of the stories in this collection were wonderful, especially the one about the famous 1925 serum run to Nome which is a story that should be done more often than it is. But Golden Twilight just grated on my nerves so much. It followed the brother of a character who had been in the two previous stories. He was a great character and I really liked his personality. And then his love story. It was going along great until that stupid plot twist that wasn't hinted at and went in a completely different direction than any love story I have ever read in my entire life. At that point, I could still sorta see why the author might have written it like that. Until the character's whole personality shifted. He went from a cheerful, strong opinionated, outdoors man to this guy who lived in town, was gloomy, and kinda lost all his authority and opinionation. I read the whole thing, just to give it a chance, but I raged about it to anyone who would listen for days afterwards. As a reader, how the story went was super annoying. As a writer myself, I could see no possible reason why the story needed to be written that way. *stalks off to tell my stuffed animals about this once again*

"Peter Pan," a book that reminds you of your childhood: 

The Boxcar Children, guys. This was my childhood. I would go to the library and walk out with every single Boxcar Children book they had. One of the Boxcar Children books was the first book I ever managed to read in one day- I must have been only seven or eight years old. I own probably forty of these as audio books. I loved getting to grow up with the characters. I started reading them around Benny's age and stopped reading them as often around 14, Henry's age. They cultivated my true love of mystery stories which has never died but has now been transferred to more complex mysteries. I love going back and reading them even now! Henry is my favorite character. If you disagree, we may have a problem.

And how could I not include Peter Pan? I remember seeing a Peter Pan play when I was around 7 years old and a Peter Pan ballet a few years later. I read and reread the Disney version of the story so many times. If I remember correctly, I had a crush on Peter as well. I finally bought and read the actual story about two years ago. It hits very different now. I used to see it as a fun, magical story with fairies and pirates. Now, it's a bittersweet story about growing up and slowly losing your childhood which really hits hard right now. 

"The Goose Girl," a book you had low expectations for but ended up loving:

My mom introduced me to Julie Klassen a few years ago, around the time I started this blog. *eyes widen* When was that anyway? 2021? *shrugs* No clue. But this one was released this year and is the second in a series. My mom read it first and said she didn't like it that much because it lacked depth. So, I went into it expecting it to be meh. In my opinion, it was quite good! Not as good as some of Julie Klassen's others, but still good. 

"Hansel and Gretel," a book that made you hungry:

Do I even need to explain? It takes place in a candy factory, guys. With chocolate pizza and taffy. I mean, just look at the cover. If that doesn't already make you hungry..... *goes to find chocolate* 

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*comes back with a caramel apple* Alright folks. Now that you have been introduced to a bit of my craziness, I'm leaving this tag open to anyone! Just answer the questions and link my blog on your post if you do. And yes, most of these books will end up getting detailed reviews on my blog. 

Now, I do unfortunately have to state that there will most likely be no book reviews until July. As I stated above, I'm writing a short story for publication and the deadline is the end of May. I want to devote my writing time to this opportunity, since my blog will always be here. And then I'm away for the entire month of June, two weeks of which I will not have a computer. But, I can assure you that posts will start up again in July! 

Cheerio!