March Book Haul (2016)

Hey Everyone,

Today's post is my March book haul! This month I got a lot of books despite my current book buying ban (which I admit is going badly). So without further ado here are all the exciting books I got in the month of March.

FICTION:

Title: Girl Online On Tour
Author: Zoe Sugg
Publication Year: 2015
Publisher: Puffin Books
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26781912-girl-online-on-tour
Short Summary: The sequel to Girl Online by the same author. Penny is just an ordinary girl with one secret, she is a mysterious blogger by the name of GirlOnline. Using this secret identity, Penny writes about her personal problems involving family, friends and school. As her parents move her away to New York City, Penny meets Noah who might have the ability to expose her. In this sequel, we follow Penny as she embarks on a tour journey following the events of the first book.

Top 5 Wednesday: Least Favourite Book In Your Favourite Series

Hey Everyone,

Today's post is all about some of my favourite series. People normally talk about what they liked the most of their favourite series but this post has a bit of a twist. Today I will be sharing with you all, my top 5 least favourite book from those series. There is a quite a few series that I love but the ones in this list will not be my absolute favourite ones but simply the ones that I could think of where there was one book that I clearly liked less than the rest. So let's get started!

5. Legend By Marie Lu (Book 1 in the Legend Trilogy)

(https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17258061-legend)

This series is my absolute favourite series which I can say no wrong about. If I had to choose which book I least liked, It would be the first book but it's not what you think. This is a bit of a cheat answer but I found that the first book was an amazing introduction and that the series only got better with each book. So out of the three books, this was the one that I liked least.

Review Tuesday: Love Is The Higher Law By David Levithan

Hey Everyone,

Today's post is a review of a book that read almost 2 years ago but one that I really love. This book is Love Is The Higher Law by David Levithan who is a very well known author. So let's just jump straight in the review.

Title: Love Is The Higher Law
Author: David Levithan
First Publication Year: 2009
Publisher: Ember
Goodreads Link: 
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5982447-love-is-the-higher-law
Plot Summary: It was the event that shook the whole world and it took place on September 11, 2001. Claire is in her junior classroom in high school when it happens and remembers that all she needed to do was look for her younger brother. Her class mate, Peter was at a record store near the disaster when he should of been at school. Jasper is a college student had slept in that morning and missed class but was woken up to calls from his parents seeing if he's okay. Three different teens, in three different places but whose lives intertwine after the 9/11 attacks.

Mini Review Saturday: Young Adult Fiction

Hey Everyone,

Today's mini review compilation are reviews of some young adult books I have read over the last couple years. So let's dive right into it!

Title: Fathomless
Author: Jackson Pearce
Publication Year: 2013
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
Goodreads Link: 
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17928815-fathomless
Sentence Summary: Celia has always felt her ability to see people's pasts was unimportant until the day she meets the mysterious Lo but how can her gift help this interesting girl?
Mini Review: I first heard of this book off a booktuber who was doing a read along of mermaid books. Once she described the story and said that is a retelling of "The Little Mermaid" I was straight away convinced that I needed to read it. This is my first Jackson Pearce book read and her third fairytale retelling. I found this book to be quite good but of course it had some slight flaws. It was a bit of a slow read and build up in the beginning as it set up the two different worlds of the main characters and so it was difficult to understand the multiple perspectives at first. This of course changed once I got further into the book and the story started to unravel more. I really enjoyed the story as it was a fascinating take on the common idea of Mermaids. I haven't read any books about mermaids before besides the Hans Christian Andersen version of The Little Mermaid and so this was an intriguing change to that. It was fascinating to read from both a human perspective and a mermaid perspective of the same events as they were both really different. I also really enjoyed the writing as it had such a beautiful tone throughout the novel even through the intense moments. Pearce was able to keep a fairytale atmosphere around the story despite taking a classic story and giving it a dark twist. Although in saying all of this, the ending could of been a little bit better but it was still a satisfying conclusion. Overall, I really enjoyed the story and would definitely love to check out her other fairytale retellings.
Star Rating: 4/5 Stars!

Book Tag Friday: The Bookish Bookin Book Tag

Hey Everyone,

Today's tag post is one that was created by Bekah over at  Bekah AwesomeBookNut on YouTube. She is a booktuber who I only just recently subscribed to and have been loving very much. She posted this tag about a week ago and I was very excited to do it. Be sure to check out Bekah's channel as she is really honest and has such great energy. If you would like to see Bekah's answers to questions, you can see them at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCN0hMesny0

Let's get started!

1. What is a well loved book that you hated?

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler & Maira Kalman: I read this book a while ago before I heard anyone else talk about and absolutely hated it. I couldn't stand it and it really irritated me. After I finished, I heard more people were reading it and loving it. I couldn't understand why but if you would like more of my thoughts, I did write a full review a while ago.

2. What is a guilty pleasure book?

The Internet Girls Series by Lauren Myracle: I love this series and will find myself reading them over and over again. It follows three best friends from their freshman year to college and it is full of teenage girl drama. It is definitely a guilty pleasure for me and I wish more people would read them.

Series I Want To Start This Year

Hey Everyone,

Today I will be putting up two posts to make up for the lack of a post yesterday. This first post is a list of series that I would love to start (and maybe even finish or be up to date with) this year. This year has so far been a pretty good year of reading and so hopefully I should be able to get to these books that I have been putting off for a while now. I plan to make another post soon about the series I have started and so those ones will not be included in this list.

So in no particular order, lets get started!

Throne Of Glass Series by Sarah J Maas

(https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13519397-throne-of-glass)

This is an ongoing series that I have heard nothing but great things about. It is all over book tube and everyone seems to love it and so I picked it up to give it a go. I actually was on the fence about this series for a while and eventually gave away my copy of the first book to my best friend. As more talk about the series comes up I have been more interested to finally read it. Hopefully I can at least read the first book (Throne Of Glass) this year as I know there is still more books coming.

Top 5 Wednesday: Books You Did Not Finish (DNF)

Hey Everyone,

Today's post is all about books I did not finish. Now before we get into the books, I would like to point out that I don't normally DNF (did not finish) books and so it was difficult for me to think of 5 titles. In saying this there are some books that I have marked are "couldn't finish" on goodreads that I am still considering whether or not to pick back up. So those books have been added to this list and I will also give a sentence or two about why I didn't finish it. So here's the top 5 books that I DNF!

5. Fun Home By Alison Bechdel

(https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/926365.Fun_Home)

This was my most recent DNF but I was really close to finishing it before I gave up on it. I was really excited to be finally reading this graphic memoir because I had heard so many good things about it. I really liked the art but the memoir itself was quite confusing for me and I had a hard time keeping up with the events that occurred. Maybe someday I might attempt it again but right now I don't wish to finish it.

Review Tuesday: The Infernal Devices By Cassandra Clare (Graphic Novel Series)

Hey Everyone,

Today's post is a series review of The Infernal Devices Graphic Novel Trilogy by Cassandra Clare and illustrated by Hye-Kyung Baek. As a disclaimer, I am not sure how the original books compare to this version as I have only read the graphic novels and so I will be giving my honest review on this version.

So let's jump right in!

Series Title: The Infernal Devices
Author: Cassandra Clare
Illustrator: Hye-Kyung Baek
Number of Books: 3
Series Summary: Tessa Gray enters the world of supernatural creatures after being abducted on her journey to London to meet with her brother. Facing warlocks, vampires and other demons, Tessa learns that there are more to her world than meets the eye and also finds that there are more people just like her. These people call themselves Shadowhunters and they fight off evil to help humanity and now they are here to stop Tessa from being taken by a mysterious enemy called The Magister. As Tessa moves into her new life, she learns there is more to her own identity than she thought was even possible.

Title: Clockwork Angel
Publication Year: 2012
Publisher: Yen Press
Goodreads Link: 
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13226173-clockwork-angel
Review: I really enjoyed reading this graphic novel. I struggled reading the mortal instruments and was only able to read the first 3 books and so I had my worries that I wouldn't enjoy this series. I heard this series was so much better and so decided to pick up the graphic novels instead of the books. The world is the same as mortal instruments but just a different time period and different characters. I did enjoy the story of this first book but did struggle a bit with the art as I got confused who was talking and also got confused between characters as they all looked quite similar and so I wasn't able to distinguish between characters. Overall it was a good first instalment to the series and it definitely encouraged me to continue the series as the story was really interesting and action packed. I was left wanting to learn more about Will, Jem and Tessa by the end of the book as they all intrigue me. I might eventually read the original books sometime in the future if I feel like comparing the two forms of text. I actually included this book in my Top 5 list on the QBD blog which you can read here: https://blog.qbd.com.au/2015/11/06/qbds-top-5-graphic-novels/
Star Rating: 4/5 Stars!

Mini Review Saturday: January Wrap Up

Hey Everyone,

Today's post is a collection of reviews on the books I read in January. So I'm a bit late but I realised I didn't post a wrap up on here of how I did that month. I was able to read a total of 3 books and 1 novella which was a great result for me.

So here we go!

Title: Ugly Love
Author: Colleen Hoover
Publication Year: 2014
Publisher: Atria Books
Goodreads Link: 
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19487009-ugly-love
Sentence Summary: When Tate and Miles meet for the first time, they feel an immediate attraction towards each other but what happens if Tate begins to want more in their arrangement and Miles just wants to keep it casual?
Mini Review: An interesting look at a very different type of love/relationship. I did enjoy reading this book and it was quite a quick read once I had the time to read it. The writing was so easy to get into. I'm still not sure how I felt about the dual perspective as I did find that I enjoyed Miles' chapters more than Tate's. I didn't enjoy this one as much as Maybe Someday as it was definitely a different kind of book and does have more adult content which I don't normally find myself reading. Tate was quite annoying at times as I tried to relate to her at times but couldn't. Also a lot of stuff that happened in this book, I felt happened a bit too quickly and dramatically. So there was a lot of mixed feelings throughout the book but overall it was an okay book and I will still be checking out Colleen Hoover's other books.
Star Rating: 2.5/5 Stars!

Book Tag Friday: Bookshelf Scavenger Hunt Tag

Hey Everyone,

Today I thought I would do a really fun tag that I saw a couple years ago on a bunch on booktube channels. This tag is the Bookshelf Scavenger Hunt tag. In this tag, there is a list of things that you need to find on the books on your bookshelf. I thought this would be really fun to do, as I have a lot of books and want to test myself on if I can find everything on the list.

Let's get started!

Find an author’s name or title with the letter Z in it.

The Collected Works OF A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

Find a classic

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery - Amazing Classic

10 Bookish & Blogging Facts About Me

Hey Everyone,

Today's post is a bit of a more personal post that is still related to books and blogging. There is a lot of facts about me that some people find kind of interesting when they get to know me. I thought it would be fun today, to share with you all a few of these facts.

Here they are!

1. I started blogging in 2008

I started a blog back in year 10, where I would just write about silly things that seemed important to me at the time such as friends, schools and most frequently, BOYS! I then made another blog filled with poems that I used to write in classes when I was bored. Since I started this blog, I no longer post on these blogs but they do still exist.

2. I'm only reading Harry Potter this year

To many people's surprise, I had never read the Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling. I had read the first book when I was younger but didn't continue it. I had tried picking up the series a couple of times after that but wasn't able to stick to it. It is only currently that I am reading the series FINALLY. I am currently finishing the fourth book and will be starting the fifth book tomorrow.

Top 5 Wednesday: Fictional Items You Want

Hey Everyone,

Today's post is all about fictional items. The topic for this week's top 5 subject is fictional items that readers want in real life. Especially in fantasy novels, particular objects get introduced that don't exist in the real world which most readers would love to have if they did exist. I don't read a lot of fantasy books but there is a couple of things I can think of that I would loved to have. I don't want to spoil too much about these items and so I'm just going to give a brief description. Here are my top 5 items.

5. Quick-Quotes Quill (From Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire By J.K Rowling) 

 This is a practical item which involves a quill that automatically writes things for you based on what you are saying out loud. A magical type of tape recorder. This would come in very handy for me as a blogger.

Review Tuesday: If I Stay By Gayle Forman

Hey Everyone,

Today's post is a review of a book that I read a couple of years ago for a bookclub. The book is If I Stay by Gayle Forman which was a very popular book at the time due to the movie which came out that same year. I have yet to see the movie but I've heard nothing but good things about it.

Let's get straight into it!

Title: If I Stay
Author: Gayle Forman
First Publication Year: 2009 
Publisher: Definitions
Goodreads Link: 
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6740549-if-i-stay
Plot Summary: Seventeen year old, Mia Hall had a pretty average life filled with great family, amazing boyfriend and an undying passion for music. That was until the fateful accident occurred. Now lying in a coma on a hospital bed, Mia finds herself being able reflect on her life up until this moment as well as observing how everyone she cares about is dealing with her current state. It is up to Mia to decide whether she will ever wake up again.

Mini Review Saturday: Fiction Favourites

Hey Everyone,

Here is another Mini Review Saturday post for this week to make up for missing a post last week. This post will be a collection of short reviews for three of my favourite novels that I have yet to review on here.

Title: A Walk To Remember
Author: Nicholas Sparks
Publication Year: 1999 
Publisher: Sphere
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1054003.A_Walk_to_Remember
Sentence Summary: 1958 is a year that Landon Carter will forever remember as it was the year he fell in love with the most unexpected girl.
Mini Review: I can still remember the first time I read this book and how much it blew me away. I watched the movie adaptation before I even knew there was a book and it soon became my favourite movie. As soon as I found out it was a book first, I knew straight away that I would love it too and so I borrowed it from my library. I have since read this book multiple times and I must say that it still remains as one my all time favourite books no matter how cheesy it gets. It's a typical love story between two teenagers who are very different but it is told from the male perspective which I found really interesting since I usually read books from the female perspective. It is such a sweet and deep story about two unlikely people falling for each other despite what everyone else thinks of it and shows how love can conquer obstacles. It is beautifully written and is really detailed that you can really connect with the characters. Nicholas Sparks really knows how to mess with a reader's heart with his books. I just love this book so much; the story, the characters, the writing,  the structure, just everything. If you saw the movie by the same name, and enjoyed that then you would definitely love this book because it is definitely 10 times better with all the detail and other events that don't take place in the movie. In case you know nothing about this story I won't spoil it for you but if you like a little bit of cheesy romance, I totally recommend this book!
Star Rating: 5/5 Stars

Mini Review Saturday: Graphic Novels II

Hey Everyone,

Today's post is a collection of mini reviews for another three graphic novels I have read. So let's jump right into it.

Title: This One Summer
Author: Mariko Tamaki & Jillian Tamaki
Publication Year: 2014
Publisher: First Second
Goodreads Link: 
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18465566-this-one-summer
Sentence Summary: Rose and Windy's families spend every summer together at Awago Beach but with Rose's parents constantly fighting, how will she be able to distract herself from their problems.
Mini Review: I first heard about this book through a booktuber who was reviewing it. They explained the premise of the story and showed a bit of the artwork and I was straight away interested (even though they had given it a low rating). I actually really enjoyed this book quite a bit as it was my first contemporary graphic novel and I found it very insightful. The two main characters, Rose and Windy are best friends who meet every summer on their family beach holiday. Their friendship was interesting to read about as they were both really different but also shared a special bond. Although sometimes I couldn't agree with the way they treated each other, in the end I really felt like they were truly best friends as they supported each other. On a personal level, I did find it difficult to relate to the characters but I was still able to understand what they were going through and feel for them. It was great to see true interpretations of how teenagers understand the events that are going on around them. A lot seem to happen in this book, but the one thing that kept me hooked was a mystery surrounding one of the mothers which unfolds throughout the story. I really enjoyed the simple one toned art which was still quite detailed and layered. I also found the writing was quite poetic especially through the thought portions of the story. The only thing I think this book lacked was more detail in the plot as there seemed to be a lot going on in a short period of time. I would of loved to read more about some of the events that took place. Overall, It was a really good graphic novel and I will definitely be checking out more of this author's work.
Star Rating: 4/5 Stars

Book Tag Friday: The Goodreads Tag

Hey Everyone,

Here is another tag post that I owe because I wasn't able to post last week due to my brother's wedding. So today I will be doing the Goodreads tag. This is a pretty old tag that everyone did a couple of years ago. I was wondering what tag I should do for you guys and as I searching youtube, I came across Kassidy from Kassidy Voinche's video doing this tag and though it was fun. Kassidy mentions that this is an original tag by Kayla from Spiral Bookmark so be sure to check out both channels. If you would like to see Kassidy's answers from 2014, you can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWoVoBGjERc

Let's get into it!

1. What was the last book you marked as 'read'?

Falling Into Place by Amy Zhang - I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I was going to. I will have a more detailed review coming in my March wrap up at the end of the month.

Book Tag Friday: Totally Should've Book Tag

Hey Everyone,

Today's tag post is one that was recommended to me by one of my favourite booktubers, Lindsey over at https://www.youtube.com/c/LindseyRey. She recently posted a video herself doing this tag and also told me it was fun to make and that I should do it. Be sure to check out her channel because she is amazing. If you would like to see her answers to these questions, you can see them at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3VOECVii7g.

Let's get into it!

1. Totally Should've Gotten A Sequel

Maybe, Someday by Colleen Hoover - I absolutely loved this book and from the ending, there was still so much that could be written. There was a novella written to depict another couple prior to the events in this book but I would love a whole other book about these characters.

QBD The Bookshop Blog

Hey Everyone,

Today's post is all about the QBD Blog which is the blog of an Australian book store franchise. As many of you may already know (if you follow my instagram), I work in one of the stores and also regularly have posts on the blog which are different from the ones I have on here. I have been posting on there for a few months now and so I thought I could compile a list of all the reviews I have made, to make it easier for you all to find one that interests you. I also thought it would be great for some of you who are new to my blog, to see some of my other reviews.

Be sure to visit the QBD blog in order to read all types of reviews from more avid readers: https://blog.qbd.com.au/

Here are all the posts I have posted so far on there:

Post Title: Reviewsday: Batman:Hush by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee

Title/s Included: 
- Batman: Hush by Jeph Loeb & Jim Lee

QBD Link: https://blog.qbd.com.au/2015/07/14/batmanhush-by-jeph-loeb-and-jim-lee/

Top 5 Wednesday: Books That Feature Time Travel

Hey Everyone,

So today's Top 5 Wednesday topic is books that involve time travel. Unfortunately I haven't read much about time travel but there is a lot that I want to read. For this reason, I have decided that instead of not making any post today, I would just share with you the top 5 books that I WANT to read that has time travel (from what I've heard) that I already own.

Here we go !!!

5. Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children By Ransom Riggs

(https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9460487-miss-peregrine-s-home-for-peculiar-children)

So I read the graphic novel of this book and absolutely love it. Now I really want to pick up the books to find out what happens next. This book has time travel throughout it which is nicely placed in the background of the plot. This series is about a boy who stumbles upon a mysterious home of unique children who all have amazing powers after his grandfather is murdered by a monster. I really want to read these books and find out more about this world.

Review Tuesday: Looking For Alaska By John Green

Hey Everyone,

Today's post is a review of Looking For Alaska by John Green. John Green is a best selling author who is also a well known Youtuber as one half of the duo, VlogBrothers with his brother Hank Green.

Let's dive into the review.

Title: Looking For Alaska
Author: John Green
First Publication Year: 2005
Publisher: Harper Collins
Goodreads Link:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17416065-looking-for-alaska
Plot Summary: Miles Halter believes that his life is pretty average and so he convinces his parents to enrol him in a boarding school in Alabama where he hopes to find where he belongs as well as a bit of excitement. After befriending some fellow misfit classmates, Miles meets the beautiful Alaska Young and instantly becomes intrigued by her. Knowing that Alaska is already taken, How is Miles going to stop himself from falling completely in love with this mind blowing girl.

February Instagram Book Challenge

Hey Everyone,

So today's post is a wrap up of how I did in the February Instagram Book Challenge. There are many different ones you can participate in but the one I chose to do was created by @Celinereads and @seth.the.reader on Instagram. So in case you didn't see my posts each day, here are all the photos I posted with their captions.

"Hey Everyone, I'm going to be trying to complete @celinereads and @seth.the.reader February challenge :) Wish me luck :) Will you be doing a challenge next month?"

DAY ONE!

"#celineandsethfebruary16 Day One: February TBR - I'm not entirely sure what I want to read this month but here is a few titles I've been meaning to read for ages. I will be posting up my January wrap up tomorrow so keep an eye out for that. #februarybookchallenge #bookstagram #tbr"

Top 5 Wednesday: Biggest Book Hangovers

Hey Everyone,

Today's post is all about book hangovers. I'm sure we've all experienced it, where you finish reading a book and there is just nothing else you want to do but think about what you just read. When I've read a good book, I usually don't want to read anything else for a period of time because I'm still stuck thinking about that book. So today I will be sharing my top 5 book hangovers. Be sure to visit the Top 5 Wednesday's Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/118368-top-5-wednesday and join in the fun.

Let's begin!!!

5. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

(https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1162543.Breaking_Dawn)

This series was my life back in high school and so when it ended I could not get over it. Unlike most people, I really enjoyed the final book and thought it added to the story and so I was so unhappy for the series to finish. The ending was satisfying for me and so all I did was sit and think about it once I stopped reading.

Review Tuesday: Raina Telgemeier (Author)

Hey Everyone,

First of all, I would like to apologise for this post being late as I was having computer issues yesterday and was unable to post anything. Thank you all for understanding.

Today's review post is a little bit different to my previous posts as today I will be reviewing an author rather than just book. I plan to do more of these in the future, so please let me know what you think about it. Today's author review is of a graphic novelist by the name of Raina Telgemeier.

Raina Telgemeier is an American graphic novelist that both writes and illustrates her own work. She has currently released three books that have all been best selling graphic novels, all whist also working with Ann M. Martin, in creating graphic adaptations of Martin's well loved series, "The Babysitter's Club". Her books are a mix of fiction and non fiction with the non fiction retelling stories from her childhood. So in todays author review I would like to review the three books Telgemeier has published through Graphix Publishing which is an imprint of Scholastic.