#CakeFlavoredBooks

Oh, Bookstagram. You are way too pretty.

I will never achieve the standards you’ve set.

Cait made a beautiful blog post that she attributes to the Cake-Flavored Books hashtag on Instagram.

I hate photos, but I love cake, so here I am to participate!

I will be using Cait’s extra cake-related questions because I loved them so much.

 

Chocolate Cake

A dark book you absolutely love

I don’t love love it, because it made me so sad, but I’m rather fond of Heartless by Marissa Meyer.

She committed to the weirdness of Wonderland and the style of Gregory Maguire. (Wicked also would have qualified for this prompt. “Horrors.”)

As she says in her author’s note, she wrote the book she most wanted to read.

Seriously, though, this book is dark.

I wanted it to save me.

I wanted there to be a miraculous, hopeful twist.

There wasn’t one.

 

Vanilla Cake

A light read

I revisited this book (blog post forthcoming? Possibly?) last year. It was so much better the second time around.

May I say: great concept and great romance.

And the writing’s not bad.

Because I am secretly a cheesy sap and not the tough nut I like to portray, I felt uplifted after reading this. I cried…more than a little bit.

Audrey goes after what she wants. She sticks up for herself. She falls for AN ANGSTY REDHEAD (…and my true reason for loving this book shines forth.)

 

Red Velvet

A book that gave you mixed emotions

I always feel a disappointed twinge during series finales.

A lifelong idealist, I expect perfection. That rarely works out well for me.

Mia gets a happy ending.

I wanted a different ending. A real ending.

Despite a lot of character development on Mia’s part, Forever Princess in some ways felt like a return to the status quo.

You could argue the book has redemptive qualities, as relationships that were once broken are healed and reestablished.

And Mia makes some choices for the better.

Maybe I’m more cynical about “true love” than I ever realized.

 

Cheesecake

A book you would recommend to anyone

Hey, have you read Ian Morgan Cron’s The Road Back to You?

You SHOULD!

I mean, you don’t have to. I’m a personality freak who values self-knowledge. I read the “Four” personality section in this book – it was so accurate.

I could also pick out my friends and family (and enemies) in the different types described.

I like the deeper understanding the enneagram gives me, as well as the (reluctant) appreciation I later feel for people who think differently than I do.

One of my best friends is a Nine. While reading about her personality type, I recognized things about her that drive me crazy. I also saw how great she is and how she prefers to be encouraged.

People are hard. People are good. Personality is awesome.

Read this.

 

Coffee Cake

A book you started but never finished

Who’s going around not finishing their coffee cake? Can I have it?

Where do I begin? There are so many books I couldn’t finish.

The one I feel worst about is the second book in Mercedes Lackey’s Elemental Masters series.

My friend Shane lent this to me and was CLEARLY stoked that I was reading it.

I tried…I really tried.

And, honestly, I liked the concept quite a bit. Lackey created the exact type of world I find interesting with a compelling magical structure.

The book was so thick, though…and I just wasn’t feeling it.

I tell myself I’ll revisit this series one day.

I probably won’t.

 

Carrot Cake

A book with great writing

I love Laini Taylor.

Her writing is great all around, but the prose in Strange the Dreamer blew me away.

Taylor’s best-written book by far.

 

Tiramisu

A book that left you wanting more

I interpreted this prompt a bit differently.

I’ve mentioned Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe.

I read this whole book and felt nothing.

After finishing, I went, “That was it? That’s what everyone was freaking out about?”

I expected a little more…well, more.

 

Cupcakes

A series with 4+ books

From the Files of Madison Finn has almost 30 books.

At one point, I owned all of them.

These books make me nostalgic. After going to great lengths to collect the series, I sold the books to Powell’s…for not much money, probably.

Of course, now that they’re gone, I want to reread them.

They were SUCH a STAPLE of my middle school years. (Okay, and high school.)

LOOK AT THAT COVER ART.

And I still have this great memory of Madison’s dad reading posts on a cyberbullying message board: “‘Lame-o?’ ‘Needs to go to fat camp LOSER?’ Madison, what IS this?”

Gold.

 

Fruit Cake

A book that wasn’t what you anticipated

I reviewed Say What You Will a long time ago.

I expected a book about two teens connecting over internet chat. (I’ve read countless books like this. It’s one of my favorite plot devices.)

It was…not that.

THIS IS A HUGE SPOILER BUT I HAVE TO GET IT OUT.

The book deals with disability and mental illness in an interesting way, so props for that.

But it also tackles TEEN PREGNANCY???

I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT AT ALL.

It works, though. Quite well.

I cried. You cried. They cried. Everyone cried.

 

Lamington

Favorite Australian book(s)

I’ve never had Lamington. I’m daunted. IT DAUNTS ME.

Melina Marchetta is my favorite Australian author of all time. Sorry, Markus Zusak.

I reread Jellicoe Road, telling myself I wouldn’t cry like I did the last time.

I cried HARDER.

I also loved Finnikin of the Rock. Even with its…weird plot twist (and names), it redeems a character I thought past saving.

Marchetta wrote two sequels, but I can’t bring myself to read them. Idealist and all that.