July Book Haul 2015

 

Hello! Hello! How are you?

I’m here today to show you the books I bought in July! I recently had to put myself on a bit of a book buying ban as my physical TBR shelf was getting out of hand, and it was kind of getting me down. Plus, I don’t really have money to spend on books at the moment. So 5 books is pretty good for me, and they’re all books I really want to read/are sequels to books I already own.

1. Fairest – Marissa Meyer

This is a novella and is part of the Lunar Chronicles series. It’s all about the origin of Queen Levana. This follows Levana as she grows up in her sisters shadow, all the way up until she becomes the Queen of Luna. This is all about how she becomes so evil.

2. Cress – Marissa Meyer

The third instalment of the Lunar Chronicle series, following on from where Scarlet left off. I cant really say much about this without spoiling the first two books, but this follows Linh Cinder and her slightly strange group of friends as they try to stop evil Queen Levana from taking over Earth. *insert dramatic music here*

3. The Retribution of Mara Dyer – Michelle Hodkin

This is the third book in the Mara Dyer series. I have yet to read the second one, but now I can marathon them!

4. To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before – Jenny Han

I have heard to many great things about this book! It sounds like a light easy contemporary and I can’t wait to read it! This is about young Lara Jean who rights letters to the boys she loves, then seals them up, never to show them to anyone. However, one day, they get sent out and Lara Jean has to deal with the consequences.

5. P.S I Still Love You – Jenny Han 

This is the final book in the duology to the  “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before” series. I plan to marathon the two books.

What books did you buy in July? Have you read any of these?

Hope you’ve had a great month!

The Heir – Kiera Cass – REVIEW

Thirty five suitors…
One Princess…
A new selection has begun…

Hello, hello!

I am here today to review The Heir by Kiera Cass. I received this from NetGalley in return for an honest review! So here goes!

The Heir is the fourth book in The Selection series and I have already read The Selection, The Elite and The One. I really enjoyed the first three, but was a little hesitant to go into this book. The Heir follows twenty-ish years after The One has finished, and follows the soon-to-be Queen, Eadlyn, as she goes through her own Selection.

First off, once again the main female character was awful. I couldn’t stand her half the time! She was selfish and manipulative! And she never thought anything through! She was so impulsive and thought everything revolved around her and she was so rude.

On the other hand, the gentleman of the Selection! Wow. After reading this I have three favourites. #TeamKile #TeamHale #TeamErik I love them. I feel like there isn’t much plot to this however, and there has been no action! (other than one fist fight).

That being said, (I know it all sounds so negative) I did really enjoy this. It was hard to see Prince Maxon all grown up as he just seemed tired and washed out. It was great to see a lot of the other characters from The Selection in this book though, even if they were all grown up!

All in all this was a fun and quick read!

4/5 stars!

The One- Kiera Cass – REVIEW

Thirty five beautiful girls…
Thirty five beautiful rivals…

I’m here today with another review! I received this from NetGalley in return for my honest review. The One is the third book in the Selection Series and I have already written a review for The Selection and The Elite if you want to check those out.

This is set in a distopian world where castes determine your life. Every time a Prince comes of age, he must seek a wife through The Selection, a reality game show were thirty five girls fight for the heart (and crown) of the young Prince. Once the Prince narrows in down to ten girls, they are classed as ‘The Elite’. The One follows on from where The Elite left off.

I loved The Selection, and I had some problems with The Elite, but this. Wow! Pulled it right out of the bag. I flew through it, I was up all night reading it because I just had to know the ending. However, I did feel the ended could have lasted a little longer, I needed more! I didn’t hate America nearly as much as I have done and I thought there was some great character development from Celeste!

Over all I thought this was a very satisfying ending and I’m excited to go on to The Heir next!

4.5/5 Stars!

The Liebster Award

Hello! I was nominated to do The Liebster Award by the wonderful Audrey at ForwardsandBookwords which was awfully nice! Thank You! I’m not sure who created this (I’m very sorry) but I think this is a lovely idea! The concept of The Liebster Award is to acknowledge and give a shout out to smaller/newer blogs!

I am very, very new to this whole blogging malarkey and don’t know where anything is! (i.e I don’t know how to look at my followers, or see who I am following…oops). So I will try to find some blogs that haven’t done thing (but I’m blonde, therefore I’m not promising anything!) I encourage everyone to answer these questions though!

• Would rather you rather never be able to read again or never be able to write again?

I’m not much of a writer, I write on occasion but it stresses me out a little! So I’d rather never be able to write again!

• What is a bookish sport/event that you wish existed in real life?

Quidditch… duh. Well, technically here in England Quidditch is actually a sport we play in University (no lie). However, we don’t have flying brooms, instead we run around we a broom between out legs 😀

• What is a series that you think is underrated?

The Hollow Series by Jessica Verday. Wow. I LOVED this series and I’ve never heard anyone talk about it! Go check it out!

• What is a book that you liked “before it was cool”?

Ooooh! Hipster Moment. Hmmm I’m not really sure if I’m honest.

• How do you like to organize your bookshelves?

I have one that has all of my TBR/unread books on it and that’s not really in any order. The other bookshelf is all of my read books, and they’re not really organised, but I like to keep series together, and books by the same author together.

• Who, in your opinion, is the ultimate book villain?

Is there any other answer than Voldemort and Dolores Umbridge?

• What book has a horrible cover but a great story?

So are so many ugly book covers! Honesty, I judge a book by its cover, and I don’t tend to buy ugly books…

• What is a hyped book/series that you never see yourself reading?

Easy! The Mortal Instruments and The Internal Devices by Cassandra Clare. I just don’t care. Sorry not sorry.

• What is a book that you want to seen turned into a movie?

So many! Maybe something by Jennifer E. Smith could be made into a RomCom! That would be good!

• What book animal/creature would you like to have as a pet?

I don’t like animals… at all! But maybe I could have the Weeping Willow tree from Harry Potter to guard my house?

• What’s the least amount of pages it took you to decide to not finish a book?  What book and why?

I’ve only DNF’d maybe 4 books. I try to get through them even if I hate it, so I normal try to get though a hundred!

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Here are 11 random facts:

1. I tend to grow my hair really long then chop it really short and donate it to charities that created wigs for cancer sufferers.
2. I’m distracted really easily, and writing a blog post can sometimes take me three days.
3. I currently have 102 physical unread books on my bookshelf.
4. Halloween is my favourite time of year.
5. I am drowning in notebooks and stationary.
6. I marathon TV shows way too often.
7. Nutella is my favourite food.
8. Chicken is also my favourite food.
9. I love social networking sites and I’m on almost all of them!
10. I love anything that smells of raspberry.
11. I love taking pictures.

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This is were I should be tagging 11 bloggers…But I don’t know who has done it. But I think that everyone I follow deserves some attention!

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I love you all!

The Elite – Kiera Cass – REVIEW

Thirty five beautiful girls…
Thirty five beautiful rivals…

I received this from Netgalley in return for an honest review.

*Takes deep breathes to avoid this turning into a rant*

Righty, The Elite is the second book in The Selection series by Kiera Cass. As always this will be a non spoiler review, so I can’t tell you much about this book.

This is set in a distopian world where castes determine your life. Every time a Prince comes of age, he must seek a wife through The Selection, a reality game show were thirty five girls fight for the heart (and crown) of the young Prince. Once the Prince narrows in down to ten girls, they are classed as The Elite.

I loved The Selection, but this was just a little bit of a let down. I just wanted more form it. I hated pretty much all of the characters at one point or another and America and Prince Maxon were so stupid! No one ever thought anything through before they did something and everyone acted through anger. That being said I’m excited to read The One. This series is just so entertaining and addictive!

3/5 stars!

The Selection – Kiera Cass – REVIEW

Thirty five beautiful girls…
Thirty five beautiful rivals…

Hello! I’m back with another review! Today I’m reviewing The Selection by Kiera Cass which I received from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Before going into this, all I knew was that it was “Hunger Games mixed with The Bachelor”. This is set in a distopian world where castes determine your life. Every time a Prince comes of age, he must seek a wife through The Selection, a reality game show were thirty five girls fight for the heart (and crown) of the young Prince.

Let me start by saying, I loved this! Was it amazing and poetic? No. Was it life changing? No. Was I hooked? YES! I just wanted more and more and flew through it. There were some really cute scenes which I really liked. I’d heard a lot about the main character, America, about how she was the most annoying character ever. I honestly didn’t think she was that bad, some things she did annoyed me however. The last half of the book she did get more irritating, but I could deal with it.

Fun and easy to read!

5/5 stars!

T5W: Anticipated New Releases For The Rest Of The Year

Happy Wednesday humans!

I’m here today with another Top 5 Wednesday. As always Top Five Wednesday was created by GingerReadsLainey over on YouTube, and you can find the Goodreads group here. This weeks topic is the new releases you are most excited for that haven’t been released yet!

In no particular order, here they are:

• Everything, Everything – Nicola Yoon

I’ve heard soooo much about this! It kind of sounds a little like Because You’ll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas, so I’m excited for this!

• Carry On – Rainbow Rowell

I’ve yet to read Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (please don’t kill me) but I’m just excited for more Rainbow! Yes!

• Hello, Goodbye and Everything In Between – Jennifer E. Smith

I love Jennifer E. Smith. I’ve read (I think) everything she has written and I’m super excited for this!

• Winter – Marissa Meyer

Need I say more?! Need this!

• Revival – Stephen King

So this has actually already been released in hardback. But I hate hardback, so much! So I’m waiting for the paperback to come out, which is so soon! I need this!

What are you most looking forward to? Let me know!

Cram-A-Thon Wrap Up

Hello! How was your weekend? I hope it was wonderful.

So this weekend I participated in the Cram-A-Thon Readathon hosted by Whitney over at WhittyNovels on YouTube.

You can find my overly ambitions Cram-A-Thon TBR here. I had to work on Friday and Saturday so didn’t finish my TBR, but read way more than I thought!

These are the challenges that were set, and I completed none of them…oops.

• A children’s book
• A hardback nook
• Read two books in 24 hours
• A graphic novel
• 5 books over the duration of the readathon
• A book written in verse
• A novella

Here’s what I read:

Lying Out Loud – Kody Keplinger

I was on page 150 when the readathon started and I finished this on the first day. I gave this a 3.5/5 stars and you can find my review for it here.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson

Before the readathon started I was on page 31. I listened to this on audiobook and read along on my kindle. This is a classic I’ve heard so much about and really wanted to read. This is about Dr Jekyll who develops a potion that unleashes his inner persona Mr Hyde.

I really didn’t enjoy the audiobook, the reader was too slow but the over all book was good. I thought it was written very well but wasnt very hard to read.

I gave this a 3/5 stars!

Love Sick – Jake Coburn

This is about Ted York, a 17 year old who once had it all going for him. Until he wrapped his car around a tree while drink driving. He loses all chances of a scholarship to a great school and must acknowledge that he has a drinking problem. He then gets the offer of his life. He gets his college tuition paid for, and in return, he must watch over a teenage bulimic girl.

This was written really well, and I thought it felt really real while reading it. It confused me a little at the beginning I got through that bit. I really enjoyed the email and chat room sections in this.

4/5 stars!

Stardust – Neil Gaiman

I’m sure everyone had seen the film to! This follows a young man who goes to collect a fallen star for the woman he hopes to marry. I only got to page 93 during the Cram-A-Thon but Im really enjoying it and I’m going to carry on reading this.

So that’s everything I read during the Cram-A-Thon Readathon! What did you read? I’m rather proud of what I read, as I’m not a very fast reader. How did you do?

Happy Monday!

Lying Out Loud – Kody Keplinger REVIEW

3.5 Stars

This is the forth book in Kody Keplinger’s Hamilton High companion series. Just like the others I flew through it and found it very easy to read. It’s enjoyable and a great summer read.

This book follows Sonny, a student at Hamilton High who lies a lot. I mean a lot, she lies to get out of trouble and a lot of the time her lies get her into trouble.

I wasnt a big fan of any of the main characters in this one and didn’t really care about them. That being said, I still enjoyed it. I also loved the little cameos that some of Keplingers other characters from different books made through this novel.

Overall a great fast read!

Cram-a-thon TBR

Hello again! Today I’m coming at you with my Cram-a-thon TBR. In case you didn’t know, Cram-a-thon is a readathon created by Whitney over at WhittyNovels on YouTube. The whole point of this readathon is to try and read as many of your small books over the weekend. The readathon starts on the 10th July and lasts until the 13th July. There are also 7 challenges you can complete which are:

• A children’s book
• A hardback nook
• Read two books in 24 hours
• A graphic novel
• 5 books over the duration of the readathon
• A book written in verse
• A novella

So here’s what I’ll be reading during the readathon! It’s a bit overly ambitious and I am working Friday and Saturday, but hey ho! I’m challenging myself.

Love Sick – Jake Coburn
Pages: 228

Honestly not too sure what this is about. An alcoholic much watch over a bulimic. That’s all I really know, but I love going into a book blind.

Stardust – Neil Gaiman

Pages: 194

I’ve seen the film and rather enjoyed it, but I love Neil Gaiman’s writing. This is about a young man who goes to collect a falling star to give to the woman he loves. Bring on a crazy adventure!

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson

Pages: 92 – Although Im currently on 31. 91-31=61 pages left.

A classic that I’ve never read but I’m enjoying it so far. Im listening to it on audiobook and reading along with it on my Kindle.

Lying Out Loud – Kody Keplinger

Pages: 309 – Although I am on page 150 already. 309-150=159.

Yes. Another Kody Keplinger book, but I’m on a roll right now. Reading this on my Kindle and enjoying it (like I knew I would). Set in Hamilton, once again, this follows Sonny, who is a professional liar, and everything she gets into. I’m hoping to fly through this and finish it first.

The Selection – Keira Cass

Pages: 336

This may have the most pages but I’m sure I’m just going to fly through it (that’s if I enjoy it). I’m told it’s like a love competition in a dystopian world? So I should like it!

Are you taking part in the Cram-a-thon? What are you reading? I know I won’t complete any challenges but will you?

Let me know!

Happy Thursday!