Sunday 26 October 2014

1 5.

My debut as a 15 year old.


Turning 15 isn't all that bad! (I can hear all the 30 year olds groaning). The second I turned 15 I literally blasted Welcome To New York by t-swift and I don't really listen to her music but this was just happening and I wasn't complaining. I had sort of a birthday weekend, so I spent the whole of Saturday (a day before my birthday) with my family/family friends which was very fun. We had a barbecue and gazed at the sea, it was pretty. On Sunday the 26th it was my actual birthday and I spent most of the day with my besties. I cannot thank them enough for all the presents (mostly books ✿◕‿◕✿) and the 'you're not that old shut up' remarks. I love you guys. I had a lovely day. If you live in America or places similar you guys are a whole day behind us so right now it's Sunday night and in America it's probably Sunday morning. I don't even know, it's all very weird. 
thankyou everyone who sent me messages on my tumblr and also my fam/friends i love you. 

Saturday 25 October 2014

Lola and the Boy Next Door | Stephanie Perkins




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Again, don't worry I hate the editing too, bare with, I'm hella sleep deprived.

Would you hate me if I said I preferred this book to Anna and the French Kiss? Even if you did I wouldn't care too much. I can like what I want tooOOoooOOOOooOOO......Send help.

'Lola Nolan is a budding costume designer, and for her, the more outrageous, sparkly, and fun the outfit, the better. And everything is pretty perfect in her life (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighbourhood. When Cricket, a gifted inventor, steps out from his twin sister's shadow and back into Lola's life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.'

It's raining as I write this review and I don't think I've ever mentioned Autumn is my favourite season and October is my favourite month. The weather does that thing where its slightly cold but not too cold and leaves fall, I get to wear more jumpers and leggings, more tea (cued Englishness) and hot chocolate I don't drink much coffee. More red/burgundy/rebel-ish lipsticks and boots, I'll have you know I have indisputably 1099584357348959438592894 pairs of boots. October is my 'birthday month' and Halloween is Halloween. I get to wear scary stuff without it being weird, not that it would ever stop me but walking around with a pseudo bullet in my head would be a wee bit strange.

Lola and the Boy Next Door is a young-adult, contemporary. I gave both books a five star rating so it's not so much the writing or the plot but the fact I related to Lola so much more. Don't get me wrong, I adored Anna in it's own special way and Lola in another. Similar to how I love Etienne for Etienne and Cricket for Cricket even though they are totally opposite people. Look at me making so much sense!

These books are such fast reads it's actually unbelievable! I started reading Lola two nights ago thinking I would get a few chapters in but that didn't happen and I ended up reading practically almost the whole book. I then proceeded to finish it the next morning because lolaandcricket. I had a guy over that night and he thought I was crazy - "I swear every time I look up it's like you've whizzed twenty pages or something!" I blew his mind.

I said in my Anna and the French Kiss review that there are so many reason why teens (including me) love Stephanie Perkins, from her writing to the way she captures the essence of 'love' in her books. I also said that all her characters are so relatable and that's another reason people love it. I personally related to Lola more than Anna which I did explain in my Anna review. So read that if you wanna.

Also in my Anna and the French Kiss review I explained how the books work, as they are all companion novels to each other, Anna being the first. I also explained that in Lola we would get book cameos of Anna and Etienne, as well as in Isla. Basically I explain everything concisely in my Anna review.

The one thing I disliked about this book but didn't over-think and give it a 4 star rating was something I just thought was totally and utterly unnecessary. Lola, at the beginning of the book has a long-term boyfriend who is kind, caring and an all round lovely boyfriend who then has to turn into a jerk/dick for Lola to 'understand' and for it to be okay for her to then break up with him. It could have been written better and just thought out better. It was very unnecessary because I did like his character and it was a shame he turned into a jackass.

I don't think I've ever met someone who read Anna and the French kiss but disliked Lola. In a particular case, my friend Tess, like me enjoyed/preferred the book Lola to Anna. All Stephanie Perkins books are warm fuzzies and make you feel so fjsdafdskafjkdasjfkds and you just wanna explode cause of the overwhelming cuteness. I highly, highly recommend her books!!! Seriously!

I still yet have to read Isla and Happily Ever After but I assure you I will and I will review it. Just soooooocuteeeee. 

Wednesday 22 October 2014

Anna and the French Kiss | Stephanie Perkins



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*Don't worry I hate the editing too. But it will have to do for now, I'm sleep deprived. I can't even see properly.  
The fact I haven't read these books till now is appalling, I know. Trust me I know. I just don't know why it took me a century to actually get to them. I've read Anna and Lola so far and I still have Isla but I've put that off for a bit just to finish some other books first. 

This is one of the best feel-goods I have EVER read and holy crap I think I'm falling in love with the book. Stephanie Perkins is already hands down one of my favourite young adult authors and I've only read two of her books so far. I say this because its not easy to write 'love' realistically or to capture the essence and the build up, but she does and she gets it. I love her. 

Anna and the French Kiss is about a girl called Anna (...) who gets shipped off to an American boarding school in Paris and meets some fantastic people and obviously a boy (but he is so great). It's a typical teen romantic novel and that's why we love it! It's books like this that need to have more recognition (even though this novel is hyped up loads), as it is so relatable to teenage girls including myself. The reason I love Stephanie Perkins and her novels is that I see myself in her characters. I see myself relating to them in some sort of way, whether its good or bad I get to see that I'm not the only one and it's books like these which give you that extra boost to be yourself and not to dress/look/act for any boy or anyone for that matter. This is especially pronounced in Lola and the Boy Next Door.  

Anna and the French Kiss is a young-adult contemporary, it is the first book in a three book companion series, if that makes any sense. It's like, Anna and the French Kiss is the first book and Lola and the Boy Next Door is a companion to that book; Isla and the Happily Ever After is a companion to that. However you can read all three books in whatever order you want, that's the great thing! Not to mention the books after Anna have the characters in Anna (...) so Lola has book cameos of Anna and St.Clair and the same with Isla- it'll have the book cameos of Anna and Lola + St.Clair and Cricket. Am I making any sense? Probably not. Again.....sleep deprived, bare with. 

I started reading this for the Dewey's 24 hour read-a-thon as my last book as I had only three hours left to spare and I thought I could whizz through this which I did but I had around 100 pages left. I didn't finish the whole book in time but I did the next day and I loved it of course. Although it was very hard to put this book down (you cannot put these books down!) Once you're invested you might as well stop your life till you finish. That means sacrificing sleep. 

This book has it all, you can't hate it! How the hell do you hate this? I mean you have a loveable/likeable protagonist, a goddamn cute English boy - Etienne St.Clair - so swoon worthy and witty; fantastic friends. I am not lying when I say you will fall in love with all these characters (apart from the mean horrible ones), you will definitely not forget this book. 

The first two chapters (which are pretty short) were a bit slow but it picked up and holymacaroniandcheese it was PHENOMENAL. At first I didn't know what people loved this book at all I mean there were so many cry worthy scenes and tears were shed (no shame). I had no clue why people were raving I mean it was so depressing at some parts which made it realistic; not cliche and stupid! 

I gave this a five start rating simply because I loved it and it made me happy. It's not a five star novel however and I understand the reasoning for the average amount of people who have given it four stars. Baring this in mind I prefer to rate books on whether I enjoyed it and would I recommend this to my friends, boyfriend, future children *screaming*. I try not to take it too seriously. I mean at the end of the day, what's stopping someone from reading a book if they desperately want to? I know for sure it's not 'someones' review on it.  

I will probably review Lola as I've also finished reading that, although Isla will have to wait as I still yet have to read it. 

Sunday 19 October 2014

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer #1 | Michelle Hodkin



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hey ho! 
It's almost my birthday and I'm very excited to get a bunch of stuff I don't need. I'm also very excited to get The Retribution of Mara Dyer (#3) in the main around November-ish and it's gonna be a signed copy cause Michelle Hodkin said she was signing all pre-orders so if you want one go....go pre-order one noW!

I also started this book a few days before the Dewey's 24 hour read-a-thon and when the read-a-thon started I only had a hundred or so pages left of this book so I finished this in the read-a-thon which was super fun. I also started and read some other fantastic books. More on that later. 

These covers are breathtaking! 

Well this was a very interesting read. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is a young-adult /paranormal/ psychological thriller. I've actually spent the last four years avoiding books like this because I used to read loads of them back in the day (4 years ago), hard times. I used to read books like: Hush Hush, Beautiful Creatures, Fallen The Dark Divine etc, and I realised that I was a stupid little 'baiseur' and I was reading crappy-cliche-badly written books and I need to sort my goddamn priorities out. So I stopped. So the first time I heard about this I was all: Oh god not again, je ne peux pas continuew a lire cette connerie. 

'Mara Dyer believes life can't get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there. It can. 

She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her strangely unharmed. 
There is.
 

She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love. 
She's wrong.'

I did very much enjoy it and I will not ever be re-reading this, thankyou. 

I don't know whether to accept this book because ffs there is sexism and as a feminist I just, WHY!!!! I know there are people who hate this book ; it may be very cliche for people and I totally understand I mean I could have gone either way. Like I said before I stopped reading books like this because of 'this'. Putting that aside for this review I did enjoy this but I did not love it nor will I ever read it again. There are many reasons why I gave this book three stars and there is not enough of my sanity to explain why. 

I've seen this book contrasted with 50 shades of grey (without the sex) and yeah I see it. How are people giving this book a full five star rating? I mean how are you guys so oblivious? I would give you some examples to talk about but frankly I just finished writing an English lit essay and I rather not. 

To generalise this book messed with my head so bad. I need to also stress that this may trigger. This book deals with blood/abuse//post-trauma/anxiety/bruising etc and it may cause post-traumatic flashbacks or self-harm and I don't want anyone to get hurt, physically or mentally (。^‿^。). 

I personally suffer from anxiety and panic attacks and at times I did have to put this book down but I did finish it. The book is a psychological thriller but it's passive, it eases you into the mystery. It's not fast-pace or action packed but it messes with you for sure. When I was reading it I felt like I was going insane. Michelle Hodkin knows how to mess you up! My only reaction was 'WHAT THE F IS GOING ON?'

It's weird talking about this book because I like it and then I hate it. Bittersweet? I haven't read a book like this in a while. The writing style wasn't unique at first I thought it was written by a thirteen year old girl with a slightly large vocabulary. I then got used to the writing style, nothing special but it was refreshing. The book itself is a mystery and that was the element I adored, it was such a good page turner. Not to mention the book made me laugh a lot. Always a plus. I think I could let it slide (I hear screaming) I'm so sorry it's just I can't say I hate it because I don't, apparently it gets better, oh dear god I hope it does. 

I want to finish reading the series because (1) I already have the second book and I've pre-ordered the third, (2) It's a mystery! I can't just s t o p. 

The characters are alright nothing special. Noah though. Yeah I do like him and I hate that I do. I feel as though if he wasn't in this book it would just be depression, depression, depression and that's why Noah and Mara cancel each other out/help each other. The main character: Mara Dyer, I really do like her. Although she is very.....Anastasia Steele. Like she can't tell people (men) to F THE HELL OFF! But then again in a public situation with a guy I'm head over heels with I don't think I could either, but after the night I'd go home sleep on it and think about it and then ditch his ugly ass. 

What is even happening in this book? I'll read the second one and then I shall be back. 

Thursday 16 October 2014

Siege and Storm #2 | Leigh Bardugo



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Oh my god you don't understand how much I wanted to love it! 

Sorry for being dead for eight days and not posting/reviewing anything. It's not cause I wasn't reading anything because I've read two books since my Heir of Fire review. I read Siege and Storm and hated it. Maybe hate is a little too strong, I highly disliked it. Then I proceeded to finish the series as I had the third and final book: Ruin and Rising (yeah I'll review that in a bit) but what the shiitakemushrooms happened here? I mean I loved the first book in this series: Shadow and Bone (I have a review of that
here). I literally adored that book and I have no idea what happened when I started Siege and Storm. So we have established that I have indeed read two books since and basically my hiatus was cause I don't even know what to think of them....

Siege and Storm in the second book in the Grisha trilogy and I mean it was 'alright', not memorable at all and I just felt as though it was bloody pointless! There was only, what? three main things that happened that could have been introduced/added at the end of the first book to make that slightly longer than writing a whole other book! The story just got boring and at some point I gave up, although I forced myself to finish it I didn't really have much positivity to spread and thats why I haven't reviewed anything for a while. I just didn't know how to comprehend this. I haven't read a book I just totally blanked on for a while.

It's like the delirium trilogy all over again:
Loved the first book,
Hated Highly disliked the second book,
and the third instalment was just not even finished properly. I'm sorry but what kind of ending was that!

Oh look it's like a depressing poem of my relationships with trilogies! Not every trilogy I've read has followed this scheme but I'm starting to see a recurring theme here....The Selection by Kiera Cass, Delirium by Lauren Oliver, Divergent by Veronica Roth, Legend by Marie Lu and now this. FFS!

I should probably warn you now that this is not gonna be a review per-sae but a dreadful rant. A bit belated on the warning but I just don't care anymore. I'll try my hardest to review but in the end I'll probably degrade everything.

I would have given the book a two star rating but because of the Darkling -swoons -I guess I could push it to three. I pictured him as Colin O'Donoghue who plays Captain Hook from Once Upon A Time if you wanted to know (great tv show, go check it out). I have no idea why I kept on picturing him but hey lets be honest! Hookers gonna Hook.

      ........god he is so beautiful

I don't know if it's just me or everyone gernerally hated the second book, I've read some mixed reviews. However I really did try to love it and I tried to understand but I just couldn't and looking back I don't remember much of anything that happened in Siege and Storm apart from new characters getting introduced. Then again that could have been done in Shadow and Bone. 

Don't get me wrong I enjoy Leigh Bardugo's writing and her style is fantastic; everything is so fluid and lovely. I will say I liked this series. The last book (which I have also completed within my hiatus-review coming in a bit) was much, much better than Siege and Storm. Ruin and Rising was exceedingly better as I actually remember the goddamn book for starters, there was more action yet it was slightly slow.  

I said in my Shadow and Bone review that I was compelled to the main character- Alina Starkov- and I still do love her! Another thing, Leigh Bardugo writes the most amazing characters I have ever read they are all witty and fabulous. Although I am still delighted by the cast. Alina however -sighs- god now it's like she literally looks at everyone else (men and women) in disdain which is such a bummer because she could have been amazing! There could have been better development and there was so much potential to see her ignite. But were just going in circles. This book was way too passive for me. 

Something I noticed throughout the second book and also in the third was-and I'm not sure if this is a writing flaw-but there were multiple bazillion times where Alina was like 'I want to go talk to him/she/them/it but I thought better of it'. You're probably like what is she on about but here's the thing, I don't mind this at all but when it's repeated so much in the book that I start to keep count it's not fun. No, no, no because now when this happens I'm like 'JFC ALINA PLEASE GO TALK TO THEM!' 

Everyone might love this specific book and the series itself and it might just be me, never the less I urge you to pick up the first book because that was by miles my favourite from the three. I assure you will love it! 


Wednesday 8 October 2014

Heir of Fire #3 | Sarah J. Maas


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This book was everything and it gave me life. 

Heir of Fire is the third book in a 'in-the-process-six-book-series'. Only three of the six (or maybe seven) books are out so far. The first book is: Throne of Glass and the second: Crown of Midnight. If you haven't started this series I just think you should, so listen to me and do it! I mean why would you not want to read good books? I'm telling you it is worth it! So, so worth it! 

It's a young-adult fantasy series (quite epic fantasy in my opinion). Much fantasy happens in this book (ha ha)..... Fantasy, fantasy, fantasy. It sucks me into this fictional world and every time I get so invested. Every goddamn time!

Obviously this book would pick up from where the second one ended as it is the...third book. However I went into this book not knowing very much of what happens it in, I forced myself off tumblr and looking at other peoples reviews cause I didn't even want a mere idea of where this was going. I did this cause my brain does this lame thing where it 'thinks' and weird-ass theories pop up and I end up ruining the book for myself. So even if you have read the first two books I recommend you don't ask people who have read the book or read a brief premiss about it, unless of course you desperately want to. 

I don't want to spark any theories that may spoil for anyone. I feel like if I tried to explain or give you a brief summary of this book I would end up spoiling the book, so yeah. Just go into it and be ready to be amazed. 

......although if you would like a synopsis, here is Sarah J. Maas herself, explaining a bit about her third book. 


In this instalment of the series we get some new characters and new perspectives to follow, the books a written in third persepctives so you get a good overview of all the main characters something similar to Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin.  As said in the video we get a new character - Manon Blackbeak - in my opinion she is quite similar to Khaleesi (Daenerys Targaryen) in Game of Thrones as she has a huge part in the book series but doesn't mix/meet the rest of the cast. I would also like to mention Manon is my new favourite person in this series apart from Celaena of course. Sarah J. Maas you are actually amazing, the fluidity of her writing and the epicness of the fantasy!

Celaena Saradothian, the assassin. Yeah, lets go there. I thought in the first book she was amazing; one of the best female heroines I have ever read. Then the second book rolls around and she got even more badass. Now with the third instalment, she absolutely sparked and just to think there are probably gonna be three or four more books to see her truly ignite. 

You mean there's more?
Oh yeah! 

The character development *screams*. You can actually see how she has developed and bloomed and become so much more badass and loveable. Literally my favourite character, ever! And not just her but the rest of the cast have developed from the first book as well. Celaena will always be my favourite book character. People ask me what team I'm on romance wise and I always say team Celaena, I actually have no clue who 'end-game' is or might be so yeah. 

When I first started this series only read it for the romance and I know that was terrible but I was young and foolish. Now I read it for Celaena and the story line; her epic story and where this journey will take us readers. (I still cannot believe I used to read book for just their romance plot.......wow I seriously needed to sort my priorities.)

I have all three books in the UK edition and I think they look fab, I mean I love the US hardbacks as well but you know how sometimes the hardback of a book looks so good and the paperback look like horsecrap.

I knew from 50 pages in that I was gonna give this five stars, and the rest of the book was even more phenomenal. This is me, legit:


There is a lot of hype surround this series and I mean I understand why but I also understand that many people may pick up the first book and think it was alright/ehhh but I can only encourage you to read the second book because the books truly do get better! The second book really got me into the world and the characters; the third, well I almost died because the third book was fantastic and blew me away. 

I highly, highly recommend you start this series; I promise no ragrets (inserted we are the millers reference).