A bit 0f bookish/bloggish backstory..
My journey into reading began in late 2016. During a difficult period in my life I decided to project my anxious attention and funnel my bleary awareness into something rewarding. I found reading. After many bereft years of only my mind's conflict to contend with I picked up Divergent by Veronica Roth, and I remember summing up my reading experience like this: 'this book is sensational'. I flew through this inventive world of fantasy, sprouting the wings of a literary novice and collecting the insights this book offered me with nothing short of amorous intention. Many thoughts trampled over my rather oppressive ones, but the most pivotal thought that rose above all others was 'I want to read more, and I need to find more books like this'. I realised that I spend an unsavoury amount of time brooding, fretting and ruminating over the idiosyncratic elements of my person; my internal monologue filled with such anxious nonsense and introspective analysis that I needed divergence from my own script. I developed a sense of what I like to call ‘tangible reading’ where I lived through a life that wasn’t my own, I fell in love with people that I had never met, I made friends and family with fictional people who were so very real to me, I experienced the charged emotions of the living by walking alongside them for the day, and experienced a frisson of feelings founded on a level of connection through words alone. To be pulled by the tether of make-believe made me want to believe. It was beyond mythical for me to visit another's mind, another's life and feel invested in buried stories of hope, loss, resilience, grief, love and triumph. Gruelling and heartfelt stuff, but by far, some of the best experiences of my life have been lived through story and crafted from the lace of language. And so a few years later in the early months of 2019 I created my blog (V.L.Book Reviews) where I learned the value of living vicariously through the people and places fashioned from imagination, allowing me to see the best when I felt the worst. I found visceral stimulus, kinship and a tapestry of hands that held my very own through reading, and I hope I can encourage you to as well! It was once said that the universe is made of stories, not of atoms, and we wear them, see them, make them, read them, believe in them, are touched deeply by them, play with them like living ghosts, build our worlds around them, wrap them around ourselves as we meet every day, dress ourselves in them like a changeable livery, and live every one into this form we call life. Reading encompasses much more than the word itself suggests, and as well as being a life source for the imagination, stories possess a special kind of magic all on their own. How can you claim to live a full life when you have never taken a deep dive into imaginative infinity? So here I am on my quest to explain the unexplainable, read the magical, become bound by the mystical and bear the hold of every story that breaks skin. Bear with, it's a tough odyssey. While I love reading, playing with words and excercising my creativity through crafting reviews, the big bomb that is significant cognitive fog and the big body burden that is chronic illness do partner up like partners in crime in persistently impeding my progress in many and all things bookish. For that reason, you'll find that my reading volume in no way rises like the megalithic stacks most readers enviably gobble up like moreish, afternoon snacks. My reading style is slow by necessity, I read when my health permits, and unfortunately that isn't as often as I like. But I'm a big believer that to be dubbed a book lover is to simply love reading, to always be drawn by the pull of the story and to let the passion preserve its place whether a book is in hand or not. And love reading I do. To breathe in fiction is to become any adventure you read. Please feel free to browse, read my reviews and express your thoughts! I'm so very thankful you found your way here through the many rabbit holes of the vast chasm we call the superhighway of cyberspace. Thank you so much for stopping by and visiting my blog. As a person who likes to play with words, I hope you get the best out of reading them! I'll leave you with my willful mantra: 'To the story, its reach and its radical infinity.' Located in the West Midlands in the United Kingdom
What I Like Reading...
I enjoy fantasy because there's nothing quite like the surreal eccentricities of an elusive world to rouse my imagination, but there's something undeniably captivating about the romance genre. Both genres eat up equal space in my heart, but where fantasy pairs up with romance? You'll find that It Is my happy place to be in the arms of a fantasy romance. A love for both makes me a warm-blooded fantasist and a fanatical romanticist that believes in HEA's brimming with chemistry and soaring with the most rewarding outcomes. With the mind of a realist warring with the soul of a romantic, my heart usually wins out, drawing me to the romance and idealism in a story - often finding myself seeking out strong bonds of companionship, friendship and character driven stories. I like books that explore the landscape of human nature at its best, believable and darkest, that examine us with unambiguous honesty, latent courage an hidden hope. I like dynamic female leads, rakishly protective warriors, sharp and charming male leads with glowing hearts, an engaging cast of characters, gripping and promising storylines, irresistible chemistry, a thoughtful setting, rich content, plentiful in action and exploit. I like complex characters, broody alpha males, faceted anti-heroes, cruel antagonists, character evolution, slow burners, fast burners with believable outcomes, world-building that comes to life in my mind's eye, compelling narratives and transitional growth. I like humour, rapport and camaraderie, believing it brings out the best in a story, much like it does in life. I like bloodshed, battle, adventure and tumultuous tension. Family bonds and friendships are also not to be overlooked. If you've crafted a character you know I'll fall in love with, I'm your girl (I've fallen in love with the best of fictional hopefuls, tempting heroes and crush-worthy heroines), what's another for the collection? I specifically like anything Fantasy, Fantasy Romance, Paranormal Romance and Contemporary Romance with a special affinity for anything Fae. (You can blame Queen of the Fae, Sarah J. Maas, for this particular obsession). Favourite Genres...
YA/NA/Adult Fantasy (urban/high), Fantasy romance, PR/CR romance, romantic suspense, dystopian, apocalyptic, mythology (just to recap, everything romance & everything Fae!). Favourite books/ B O O K S E R I E S:
● 'Shatter Me' series by Tahereh Mafi
● 'A Court of Thorns and Roses' series by Sarah J. Maas ● 'Throne of Glass' series by Sarah J. Maas ● 'Darkfever' series by Karen Marie Moning ● 'The Fae Chronicles' series by Amelia Hutchins ● 'Dark Lover' by J.R. Ward ● 'Under the Never Sky' series by Veronica Rossi ● 'An Ember in the Ashes' by Sabaa Tahir ● 'The Baragainer' series by Laura Thalassa ● 'Starfish' by Lisa Becker ● 'Wicked' series by Jennifer L. Armentrout ● 'Love and Chaos' by Willow Summers ● 'Wait With Me' by Amy Daws ● 'New Orleans Rush' by Kelly Siskind ● Any Cassie Cole reverse harem romance is not to be missed Click here to take a look at my Review Directory
Click here to take a look at my Review Policy
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2019 Reading Challenge
Vaishali • [Vicarious Living] has
read 15 books toward
her goal of
30 books.
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2020 Reading Challenge
Vaishali • [Vicarious Living] has
read 1 book toward
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20 books.
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2021 Reading Challenge
Vaishali • [V.L. Book Reviews] has
read 1 book toward
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10 books.
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2022 Reading Challenge
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2023 Reading Challenge
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Vaishali • [V.L. Book Reviews] 's bookshelf: read-in-2021
by Lucy Score
R A T I N G: 4 stars to The Price of Scandal ★ ★ ★ ★
Emily glared at me. “Why are you here?”.
“If I’m being honest,” I said. “I find you annoyingly irresistible.”
“You can trust me, Emily Stanton, formidable boss, beautiful billion...
tagged:
adult-fiction, alpha-female, bold-brave-females, comedy-humour, con...
by Kat Addams
R A T I N G: 2.5/3 stars to On The Rox ★ ★ ★
‘Grateful didn’t begin to explain how I’d felt when I saw the world. For two years, I had dined with monks in Scotland, worked a charity for the homeless in Italy, learned life lessons fro...
tagged:
adult-fiction, alpha-female, contemporary, ebook-kindle-app, read-i...
R A T I N G: 3.5 stars to One Last Risk ★★★
'They swayed as one and everyone else melted away. It was just the two of them on the dance floor, wrapped up in each other, where no guilt and grief lived, where no troubles chased them.’...
tagged:
adult-fiction, contemporary, ebook-kindle-app, family-relationships...
by Cassie Cole
R A T I N G: 4.5/5 stars to Sealed with a Kiss !! ★★★★
As much as I wanted the Diadem, I don’t want to leave behind a world where the greatest treasures have all been found.’
“I have many questions for you, Dakota Bettiker.”
“Ask a...
tagged:
adult-fiction, adventure, action, alpha-female, army-military, cont...
R A T I N G: 4 stars to Killian's Dead ! ★★★★
Killian’s Dead
is the prequel novella to Josie Jaffrey’s Seekers series. It’s not an obligatory read for the Seekers trilogy, but it does set the scene for what’s to come for impulsive J...
tagged:
novella, paperback, read-in-2021, romance, vampires, and urban-fantasy
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Vaishali @V.L. Book Reviews
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Vaishali @V.L. Book Reviews
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Hosted by Weebly & edited/created by Vaishali of V.L. Book Reviews
V.L. Book Reviews is neither sponsored by or affiliated with any partners.
Any expressed thoughts, views and observations do not aim to offend or affront.
This site uses stock photography and royalty free stock media by creatives to create featured graphics
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