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Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar // Night Markets, Star Courts and Desi goodness

GOODREADS // AMAZON // BOOK DEPOSITORY The daughter of a star and a mortal, Sheetal is used to keeping secrets. Pretending to be "normal." But when an accidental flare of her starfire puts her human father in the hospital, Sheetal needs a full star's help to heal him. A star like her mother, who returned to the sky long ago. Sheetal's quest to save her father will take her to a celestial court of shining wonders and dark shadows, where she must take the stage as her family's champion in a competition to decide the next ruling house of the heavens--and win, or risk never returning to Earth at all. This gorgeously imagined YA debut blends shades of Neil Gaiman's Stardust and a breathtaking landscape of Hindu mythology into a radiant contemporary fantasy.   ( A huge thank you to the  HOV Tours  and HarperTeen for the eARC and the opportunity to be a part of this blog tour.  ~When a book sees you~      Yes I am absolutely going to s

The Blog Squad - Part 20

We are a group of three book bloggers situated on different continents but brought together by our love for books and a penchant for talking about them. We’ve joined our forces to create a collaborative series of posts about book blogging and we hope you’ll enjoy the discussions.
BOOK REVIEWS BY DI - Di Hewlett

What makes you add a book to your TBR?

Di says....png
It’s a combination of a lot of factors… But generally I’d have to say that other reviewers are what drive me to add books to my TBR in the first place. Even when it comes to my favourite authors I probably only found these authors on recommendation from someone else. I’m just that sort of reader - I like to know that other people have read the book and enjoyed it before I pick it up!
Amy says.......png
For me too, it’s a combination of factors. Typically, it’s because I love the cover and premise (those often go together - but while I’ll rarely add a book just because I love the cover, I will add it if the premise sounds good but the cover happens not to be).  And then there’s the author: if it’s an author I love, I’ll immediately add the book because I can trust their writing and storytelling.  I know I’ll rarely be disappointed in those cases.  
Recommendations also go a long way.  Thanks to Waiting on Wednesday, my TBR has probably doubled in size, and when my close bookish blogger friends recommend a book to me, I’ll usually add the book to my Goodreads TBR automatically; if they know me well and know my tastes. 

What makes you most likely to buy a book?

Di says....png

My favourite authors are definitely autobuys for me - I even pre-order when I can but for some reason I’m not often able to do this on Kobo.
If I pick up the first book in a series and I absolutely love it I’ll pretty much go straight in and  buy the next book - even if the first book was a library borrow and I could probably get the rest if I just went and looked - I just like to support the authors that I love and buying their books seems to me to be a great way to do this!

Also if I’ve enjoyed a series by an author previously I’ll probably go and buy another of their books to try, even if it might take me awhile to get to it!

Amy says.......png
Cue sobbing.

I literally never buy books BECAUSE THEY’RE SO FREAKIN’ EXPENSIVE. (And I’m usually broke most of the time). So this obviously plays a huge factor in the books I plan to buy, and I’m a lot fussier when it comes to deciding which one to take a chance on.
If I’ve read a book already but want to own a copy, that’s probably at the bottom of my priority pile. Books that I’ve only heard amazing things about and ones with excerpts and premises I’ve already fallen in love with, get top priority. But still, I can’t say when - if ever - I’ll actually get the money to buy them. Those are just at the top of my wishlist.

Because of my shortage of cash I’m forever comparing prices of the books I want to buy and rearranging my online wish lists, etc. By the time I finally click “buy”, I’ve most likely spent months prior to it deciding. I never buy spontaneously; I can’t afford to.      

Are you comfortable rating a generally disliked book highly? Or vice versa?

Di says....png
Reading is so subjective. What I always try to keep in mind is that a lot of my ‘bad reads’ can just come down to personal preference as will a lot of my ‘good reads’.
I love a lot of book bloggers out there but we don’t have to enjoy the same books for me to respect their opinion. In fact there’s only a couple that I feel have very similar reading tastes to mine. Often I’ve been surprised that people had issues with certain scenes in a book or even with an entire theme in a book that I was never bothered by. No two readers will ever be exactly the same!

If I liked a book I’m going to shout it out there, whether other professional reviewers liked it or not. A book review is simply my own personal opinion and experience with a book and if I found something to enjoy I want to express that because there will surely be other readers out there that can enjoy the same things that I did.

It can be difficult as a book blogger to know that your opinion isn’t aligned with the masses - whether you love a book that no one else seems to (because how could they NOT???) or whether you were disappointed after hearing a million good reviews and all the hype and a book just didn’t meet your expectations… If you can back up your opinion and you aren’t just doing it to be contrary it’s valid and you should OWN it.

Amy says.......png
This is SO subjective. I’m often been shocked that some bloggers have loved books that I’ve found to be terrible, and vice versa. But reading is subjective, and I think all reviews should be honest; no matter the peer pressure or contrasting arguments.
I mean, that is WHY there are reviews in the first place. This is where you can vent your frustrations or your praise and that’s what people want to see: An honest expression of your thoughts on a particular book and your “contribution” to the book’s overall reception.
But this doesn’t make it any easier when you see a review of a negative review of a book you’ve loved, or vice versa. It’s hard to accept that, and I’ve personally struggled to see why, for example, someone would rate Fifty Shades of Grey 5 stars when I wouldn’t even give it 1. I’ve frequently felt awful rating a popularly loved book less than average, but at the same time I feel defensive of my opinions and want to get them out there.  It’s overwhelming and intimidating, but I think it’s important to state your honest opinion so that others can see the good and bad bits of a book.


Go over to their collab posts to know my answers!:
Book Reviews by Di
A Magical World of Words


We hope you’ve enjoyed the latest in our series of discussion posts! Please talk to us and let us know YOUR answers below. What do you think of our responses? If you have any specific questions you’d like us to address in the future, please let us know in the comments section below.

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