Sunday, 11 December 2016

#Blogmas Day Four, Five and Six: November Wrap-Up




So, it's the end of the month and that means another wrap-up!  I did not have a good month. I only read five books, but to be fair, I was busy trying to get good grades. [still doing that btw]

I also watched TV. I watched The Flash, Once Upon a Time, and Supergirl. Oh and I started up Legends of Tomorrow. I love the show so far. So you will probably hear fangirlling.

Also I started a book club which you can find here.

 Anyways...

Time to talk about the books I read this month.


PHYSICAL BOOKS






The first physical book I read was And the Trees Crept In by Dawn Kurtagich. This was a Horror/Paranormal YA book that I honestly thought I would hate and die screaming in terror. Well, that wasn't the truth. It was hella scary. Like really creepy. I freaked out more than once which is why it took me awhile to finish it and I ended up finishing it in November, rather than October. But, it was a good book. I rated it 4 Crowns.

The second book I read was An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. This was such a good book. I have put off reading this for the past year because I thought it would be bad. :( But I was wrong as it was actually amazing. I mean not amazing, cause I did rate it only 4 Crowns but it was still pretty good.



The third book I read was Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. This is another book that I had put off for forever. I have owned it for like two years and never picked it up because I was scared, as usual. But it was really good. I loved the characters [especially the Darkling. He's evil but also bae] And I rated this 5 Crowns.

The fourth book I read was Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan. This was another book I put off. [I'm sensing a pattern here] I also really enjoyed this one. I love Rick Riordan books and I am excited to read the next one but not yet cause I need to finish so many books first. I rated this 5 Crowns. 



ARC'S READ





The first and only ARC I read was Woe for a Faerie by B. Brumley. I did not enjoy this book as much as I had hoped. I'm really sad because I love fairies but I ended up only rating it 2.5 Crowns.  I did do a review of this book so you can check that out. 



REVIEWS IN NOVEMBER: 






OTHER POSTS: 

MUSIC MONDAY:



TOP TEN TUESDAY: 

NONE

TOP FIVE WEDNESDAY: 

NONE


WEEKLY WRAP-UP:


DISCUSSIONS/OTHER:




FAVORITE COVER OF THE MONTH:





NEW FICTIONAL BAE'S: 


The Darkling from Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Elias from An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir



TV SHOWS I WATCHED THIS MONTH:

 




WHAT BOOKS I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT MONTH:




NEW BLOG FINDS


SONGS ON REPEAT

Hairspray Movie Soundtrack 


The graphics at the top belong to me. The background pictures for them, however do not.

Saturday, 3 December 2016

#Blogmas Day 3 Winter Book Bingo '16 - '17





Hello everyone! It is time for another Book Bingo. I know right, it is already time for the Winter Book Bingo. This year is almost over. *cries* 

Anyways. 

This seasonly challenge is hosted by Bekka from Pretty Deadly Reviews. You can find the original post and the rules here The reading categories give us plenty of wiggle-room though I may change a couple categories to suit me better. I will mention the categories that I edit, later on with my TBR. This runs from December '16 - February '17. 

Here is the card and my TBR: 







B






GREEN COVER:  Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

BANNED BOOK: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

NOT YA: A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

CRIME: A Study in Charlotte  by Brittany Cavallaro

TWITTER POLL: TBD


I






ALTERNATIVE FORMAT: Maximum Ride Volume 1 by James Patterson

2017 DEBUT: Caraval by Stephanie Garber

WHITE COVER: Winterspell by Claire Legrand

SURVIVAL: The Death Cure by James Dashner

NATURE ON COVER: Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy


N

 



SET ABROAD: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by 

ROMANCE: A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

FREE

BLUE COVER:  Jackaby by William Ritter

UNRELIABLE NARRATOR: Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard


G





SEQUEL: Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

GR CHOICE NOMINEE: Heartless by Marissa Meyer

SCIENCE FICTION: Frost by M.P. Kozlowsky

LGBT: Ash by Malinda Lo

COVER BUY: Night Speed by Chris Howard


O






OWN VOICES: The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Adieh

PINK COVER: The Iron Queen by Julia Kagawa

DEC, JAN OR FEB RELEASE: Crystal Storm by Morgan Rhodes

SUPER HYPED: RoseBlood by A.G. Howard

URBAN FANTASY: Morganville Vampires Volume II  by Rachel Caine



Fall Book Bingo Wrap-Up '16


Hello everyone! It is time for my wrap-up of the Fall Bookish Bingo. I have no idea how I did so let's get straight into it to see. 


COMPLETED READS

Stand-alone: Shadow of a Girl by Shannon Greenwald

Animal on Cover: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard; The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan

Purple Cover: The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury

Backlist: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Sea Creatures: Fear the Drowning Deep by Sarah Glenn Marsh

Horror/Paranormal: And the Trees Crept In by Dawn Kurtagich 

Friendship: This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

Creepy Cover: Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

Multi POV: Frozen Tides by Morgan Rhodes

Green Cover: Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

FREE: Any book

Retelling: Stealing Snow by Danielle Paige

Killers: All Her Secrets by Kate Avery Ellison 

Revenge: Ruined by Amy Tintera

Black Cover: Woe for a Faerie by B. Brumley

Suspense: All Her Secrets by Kate Avery Ellison

Rec'd to You: Firstlife by Gena Showalter

Weapon on the Cover: Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas


DID I GET A BINGO?

YES!

1. Backlist, Sea Creatures, Horror, Friendship, Creepy Cover



See you soon for the Winter Book Bingo! I'm excited



Monday, 28 November 2016

Music Monday #34

I got this idea from the blog Trust in the Words. 








Surrender the Throne by Krewella

This was on someone's writing playlist on 8tracks once and I became obsessed. Of course, I've been playing it on repeat for the last month or so, since I've been absent from this blog. AHH! I highly recommend that you give it a listen. You won't be disappointed.  [I hope you won't]

What's in your headphones?

Happy reading everybody! <3

Sunday, 27 November 2016

Weekly Update: 11/21 - 11/27

I have decided to start doing a weekly post called weekly recap where I update you on my life, reading and watching. Plus any posts I have done or will do.

So, I had a four and a half day weekend, which is why I am back. I had such a great weekend. About a week and a half ago was my school's production of Hairspray which I was in!! Well, I wasn't in the cast. I was in the pit orchestra which was fun.

I also managed to do a lot of things this weekend. I went to the library and got some interesting books. On Thursday, I did mostly nothing. I caught up on Supergirl and had Thanksgiving with my family. On Friday, I went to see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them which was AMAZING! Highly recommend it! <3  I also did Black Friday shopping online. I got some good stuff. I also caught up on The Flash. Eeep! On Saturday, I went to see the Nutcracker Ballet at the Kennedy Center which was fun.

I also started Legends of Tomorrow. I'm excited. It's good so far! I didn't get much reading done though. Yes, I am so behind on reading.

Also, if you didn't join my book club, go join!!



New Books

Purchased:





Library: 








Received for Review: 




In Case You Missed It


This Week I Read
  
  




Next Week I'm Reading







Upcoming Reviews



 



Upcoming Posts



Monday:  Music Monday featuring Surender the Throne by Krewella

Tuesday: NONE

Wednesday: Top Five Wednesday is Favorite Villains [Villains I Love]

Thursday: NONE

Friday: Shadow and Bone Book Review

Saturday: November Monthly Wrap Up

Sunday: NONE






Around the Blog Community



Rayna over at Reader Rayna did her Beat the Backlist Challenge TBR

Fiktshun did the top 10 of 2016 Signup [which I will participate in]

MINI REVIEWS: THE LATE ARC EDITION

 Idea from here!

Mini reviews are going to work differently from my normal reviews. I follow a different format for my normal reviews which is a lot easier when I have a lot to say. Mini reviews are for books that I didn’t enjoy as much as I wanted to or I don’t have a ton of stuff to say. This way, it is a lot more pleasing for you all. I don’t have to rant about what an insufferable brat a character is or just write random stuff and you won’t actually read it because it is so boring.  This is going to be an ongoing thing on my blog.

Usually, I will organize them into some system so I will group books that have something in common. But there is nothing in common for these. Sorry.

Let’s dive in.

Thank you to the publishers and authors for the review copies!


#1: Woe for a Faerie: Keepers of New York

Rating: 2.5 Crowns
Author: B. Brumley
Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy/Paranormal
Publisher: Unknown
Release Date: September 2, 2016
Pages: 222
Edition/Source: eArc from Netgalley + Read on Kindle
Summary

I love fae and fairies and all that jazz. Back in seventh grade, I attempted to write a novel about fae and only got to like the sixth chapter with no fae in sight. AHH! So, I expected a ton from this book and it was not delivered.  
Beautiful Male Characters: #swoon
Interesting concept: How she just fell to earth and didn’t know what had happened. That was an interesting idea
The fact that there are fae: Fae are so interesting. I love them so much because you can have the bad fae or the good fae
The romance isn’t believable: There are two love interests and she is suddenly attracted to them.
Mentions of Rape or Drugs: This is a BIG No No for me.
The main character annoyed me. The main character annoyed me. She was kind of clueless and just ugh. I can’t even express my thoughts.
The plot confused me so much. I’m not sure why. Maybe, I just read it way too fast [which I kind of did] but for some reason, I was just confused throughout the entire thing.



#2: The Wrong Prince

Rating: 4 Crowns
Author: C.K. Brooke
Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy
Publisher: 48fourteen
Release Date: June 17, 2016
Pages: 235
Edition/Source: eArc from Publisher
Summary
I originally got this for a blog tour but then I had no internet access or something on the day, the blog tour happened so I couldn’t post it. So, here is the review. Months late. I am sorry, but at least I am getting it up now. Can I have a pat on the back, guys?
Beautiful Male Characters: again, this is a good thing. It makes me happy and makes up for my non-existent love life. [It’s okay, it happens to the best of us]
It’s Fantasy: I love Fantasy so much. Fantasy books just make me ridiculously happy
The main female character, is not a wimp. She is strong and independent and I loved her
The romance is not insta lovey. Yay! Insta love usually makes me sick. I hate it when the characters meet and they are like “Awe he/she is perfect for me. I’m in love.” Gross. Not real life at all.
I generally liked most of the characters. This almost never happens. So, yay for me!
The plot is so intriguing.

MINI CONS

The plot may or may not have happened before. I’m not sure but I did get some vibes from some other fantasy YA books. Not gonna lie.



#3: The Summer Before Forever

Rating: 3 Crowns
Author: Melissa Chambers
Genre: Young Adult/Contemporary
Publisher: Entangled TEEN
Release Date: August 22, 2016
Pages: 304
Edition/Source: eArc from Publisher
I got this from Netgalley way back in the summer and I never bothered to review it because my thoughts were all over the place. I'm still not sure where I stand with this book. I rated it three crowns but I am still wary of that and I'm not sure if I should have rated it higher or lower. Ugh #bookworm problems.
Cute contemporary: I like cute stories, which was a pro for me.
Likable main characters: The characters were generally likable and easy to relate to. [well most of them]
Tackled important issues that many YA Contemporaries don't.

The romance was not to my liking. Most people liked it. I just didn't.
Love at first sight? Yes, that was an element in this book. Sadly. :(
Chloe wasn't as strong as I wished she had been.  In fact, she was constantly dependent on others because of something in her past. Ugh!



Have you read these books? What did you think? Did we have any of the same thoughts?

I'll see you soon for another mini review post! :)