THE PANCAKE BOOK TAG

Photo by Luke Pennystan on Unsplash

I was googling the questions for the Mid-Year Book Freakout Tag ages ago because I was too lazy to go to my bedroom and retrieve my notebook with the questions when I came across Ilsa's blog, A Whisper of Ink. I did a bit of jooking and found this tag; The Pancake Book Tag. This post has been collecting dust in my blog's drafts so I decided to dust it off and do my own take on it. The questions were just too cute not to do it. The challenge myself that little it more, I will only be using books that I've read in the past year. That takes in the books that I read in the latter half of 2020. That's not a lot either since I was in a reading slump for a while last year. 

PANCAKES & A SPRINKLING OF SUGAR

a book that has a dusting of beautiful prose/descriptions

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab definitely fits this bill. Most of the books that I've read in the past year haven't had beautiful prose. They're well written but they aren't lyrically written. Beautifully lyrical prose can be hard to achieve. In some cases, it suits the world of the book (think Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor) and in other cases it can fall short of the mark and actually hinder the plot, i.e. just get to the point! Addie LaRue is beautifully written. I have always liked V.E. Schwab's writing. There is something about it. In Addie LaRue, Schwab creates an idyllic French countryside village that is simultaneously heaven and hell. It's simply a beautifully written book. 

PANCAKES & LEMON DRIZZLE

a sharp character in wit or temperament

I'm going to include two characters. Manon Blackbeak from Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas and Steris Harms from Mistborn Second Era by Brandon Sanderson. Manon has quickly become my favourite character in the 'Throne of Glass' series. From the moment she was introduced to the page that I left off on, she has been such an intriguing character. I find myself looking forward to her chapters and her abrasive nature. I adore everything about her. Then there is Steris from Mistborn gen. 2. She is such a dry character in 'Alloy of Law' but I quickly began to appreciate how droll she is, especially in book two. The woman literally plans for every occasion possible with such a dry wit that I have to adore her.

PANCAKES & CHOCOLATE NUTELLA DRIZZLE

a comforting read you could devour again & again

Bookish and the Beast by Ashley Poston. This little book series has captured my heart. I almost exclusively read Fantasy books and so for me to read a Contemporary book and to love it, that's something special. I love the characters that Poston created and how much they love the fandom featured in the series. It reminded me a lot of my love for Star Trek as a teenager, especially the first and third books in this series. It's so sweet and I can see myself reading it over and over.

Another book I want to feature is Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. I have read this book four times already and I always find something new about it to love. It's a book that ignited my imagination and re-ignited my love for reading. 

PANCAKES & GOLDEN SYRUP

a novel that gave you a seriously bad book hangover

• A “book hangover” is the slangy shortcut for the feeling when a reader finishes a book—usually fiction—and they can't stop thinking about the fictional world that has run out of pages. The story is over, but the reader misses the characters or the atmosphere of the novel

I honestly do not get book hangovers. I definitely get into reading slumps. I think that the closest that I came to a book hangover and the definition of it was The Black Prism by Brent Weeks. I loved the world within the book and the characters that Brent Weeks created. I sometimes catch myself thinking of it at work whenever I pass by a section where I had read the audiobook. It's strange but true. There are sections of work that trigger an audiobook memory. The Black Prism has been one of those audiobooks and I think I've been thinking about it more latently as I want to continue with the series.... Not a great answer but it's all that I've got. 

                PANCAKES, STRAWBERRIES, & CREAM

a book that gave you all the indulgent feels!

Dark Disciple. I fell in love with Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series on Disney+ late last year. Every day after work I would watch a dozen episodes as I drew or relaxed. I even started a re-watch of it a few months ago. Dark Disciple and Ahsoka were indulgent reads because they both featured some of my favourite characters from the series; Asajj Ventress and Ahsoka. Ahsoka bridged the gap of what happened to Ahsoka immediately after the execution of Order 66. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Dark Disciple, however, gave me all of the indulgent feels. This book gave Asajj the ending that she deserved because she isn't really seen in season 7 of The Clone Wars. This book deserved to be the arc that it was meant to be in the show. It would've been amazing in the show. It featured all of the main characters; Asajj, Obi Wan Kenobi, Yoda, Mace Windu, Anakin Skywalker and Count Dooku amongst introducing new characters unique to the book. It was such a whirlwind. Plus, the accompanying sound effects in the audiobook were a nice indulgence too as most audiobooks do not feature sound effects.

PANCAKES & BLUEBERRIES

a character that seems sharp at first, but actually has hidden depths

Captain Zamira Drakasha. I looooooooved this character in 'Red Seas Under Red Skies' by Scott Lynch. I loved her. You think at first that she's this stoic pirate captain with this rag-tag harsh crew but then you find out pretty quickly that she has two children who she loves to the ends of the earth and will do anything to protect them. She had a side to her that I truly wasn't expecting. She would gut an aggressor from stem to stern without a second thought and then tell her children a bed-time story on the next page. 

PANCAKES & BANANA TOFFEE

a book with a slippery plot that kept you guessing!

Malibu Rising was one of my most anticipated reads of the year and I devoured it in a few days. I was hooked from the very beginning and I kept trying to guess what was going to happen next or what was going to happen when Taylor Jenkins Reid baited me with this throw away sentence. I did not call a single thing but it kept me guessing the whole way through. 

PANCAKES & CRISPY BACON

a romantic pairing you weren’t sure you’d like at first, but ended up being the perfect match!

Okay, this one was tough. There haven't been a lot of romances or pairings in the books that I've read in the past 12 months that made me excited or even remember them to be honest. I have shipped characters but they aren't strictly 'romantic' pairings. I just want them to kiss. After thinking for a few minutes, I think I've decided to go with Darrow and Mustang from 'Golden Son' by Pierce Brown. Without giving spoilers, I loved seeing them interact in 'Red Rising' and I did ship them hard in that book and I'm pretty sure they skirt around it the second book and give in to it. I honestly can't remember. 

PANCAKES & PEANUT BUTTER

a character that makes you recoil

Chaol Westfall. Do I need to say anything more? If you know, you know. In the first two 'Throne of Glass' books, I liked Chaol. I didn't love him by any stretch of the imagination but I did like him and wasn't annoyed by him. Then I read book 3 and book 4 and my opinion of him plummeted. I kept thinking that he was turning into Arthur from BBC's Merlin. As a result, I hated seeing Chaol's stupid face.

PANCAKES WITH A BIT OF EVERYTHING!

a book with wonderfully diverse characters

My definition of 'diverse' is slightly different to what most people think 'diverse' is. When I think of 'diverse,' I think of characters that are different, that are dynamic, that leap off the page and that are unique. I don't think of sexuality, identity or race. So for this question, I think of the characters in Miss Peregrine's because they all have unique abilities and backgrounds and all come from a unique loop. I'm going to stick with this answer. None of the characters in this series felt forced or that they were the token gay, black, bi, or inter-racial character. They were all unique, they were all intriguing and I adored them all. 

What did you think of this tag? It's cute, isn't it? Feel free to share your answers in the comment section. I would love to see those.