I've been trying to push myself to do this as well. I've been studying French for 3 years now and that doesn't seem like much, compared to others, but I really want to have as close to native fluency as I can. I'm hoping that by pushing myself to do things like that the language will really stick with me. As of now I'm reading two books for my Extedned Essay (a 4k word paper basically, I'm still a high school student) and I'll also be writing that paper in French. I'm reading This blinding absence of light by Tahar Ben Jalloun and The last summer of reason by Tahar Djaout. This blinding absence of light is a lot easier to read than I thought it would and I've been reading it without a dictionary and it makes me really happy that I'm actually understanding it well. I don't understand everything, but I came in thinking I wouldn't be able to read it without a few trips to a dictionary so I'm actually really proud of myself. This blinding absense of light is a different story...

I thought the same things about this book. One part that stood out to me was that part after Rhine was chosen and you hear gunshots after being told women were so precious or something. I was so confused. I finished the rest of the series and I don't know why, but I was never really satisfied with anything that happened or any of the characters. The writing was absolutely beautiful and I agree that Lauren DeStefano is a very talented writer, but this series just let me down so much.

I'm very late, but I've just discovered your blog and have been reading basically all your posts. This is so true. I used to enter every Goodreads giveaway and I actually won a good amount of arcs, but i ended up only reading and reviewing like 5. Now it's been 3 years and I still haven't reviewed them and I feel really bad about it but I'm gonna go back and fix it. I really wish I had really thought about what I actually wanted to read and review when I was younger instead of entering everything. Great post!