Review for Angel by L.A. Weatherly

"In a world where angels are beyond redemption, Alex thinks he's found one that might deserve mercy. Alex is a ruthless assassin - of angels. Forget everything you've heard about them before. Angels are not benign celestial creatures, but fierce stalkers whose irresistible force allows them to feed off humans, draining them of their vitality until there is barely anything left. As far as Alex is concerned, the only good angel is a dead angel...until he meets Willow. She may look like a normal teenager but Willow is no ordinary girl. Half-angel, half-human, Willow may hold the key to defeating the evil angels. But as the hunter and the hunted embark on an epic and dangerous journey and Willow learns the dark and terrifying secrets of her past, Alex finds himself drawn to Willow...with devastating consequences." When Angel first landed on my door step a little over a week ago I’m pretty sure my shrieks of joy could be heard from the bottom of my street. To say I was excited is an understatement. I’ve been wanting to read this book ever since I first heard about it which was towards the beginning of the year and ever since then I’ve been counting down the weeks until it’s release date, so boy was I happy to receive this book a whole week before it hit the bookshops! Angels are my very favourite paranormal creature to read about, their my drug of choice and I buy and devour any books on angels I can find. These beings fascinate me and whilst I have read and loved pretty much every single angel book I’ve ever read Angel is by far the best book on these celestial beings on the young adult market. Angel is Usborne’s first book for teens and it solidly places a respected name amongst young adult books. This makes me very excited to see what else Usborne has for us readers in the future. Hold on to your halos fans of the paranormal because this book is going to be huge! A popular theme on the Teen book market at the moment is taking something bad whether that be vampires, werewolves etc; and reinventing it as something good. L.A Weatherly turns the tables with Angel and turns something heavenly into something deadly. This makes Angel a very much needed breath of fresh air in the young adult market and what is going to set it apart from other books like it. On top of the original concept its fast paced providing constant entertainment right from the very first chapter. I was sucked into this world and didn’t want to come out of it so much so that I thought at times I might be suffering from “angel burn” myself! L.A Weatherly’s writing has a very nice smooth flow to it that kept the story moving along nicely making it incredibly hard to put down and when I managed on the rare occasion to tear myself away from this book it was still constantly on my mind. Willow is an incredibly likeable character who has a very, sweet, kind personality. Unlike a lot of YA heroines she never once annoyed me. She’s the kind of person every girl wants as a best friend. Weatherly also gets it spot on with Alex who has just the right amount of vulnerability and bravery to him, making you want to look after him one minute and swoon over his kick ass-ness the next. Together they make a brilliant couple who you find yourself routing for throughout the book. As they fall in love with each other you fall in love with them more and more too. They develop and complete each other which makes their love feel very real to the reader. Angel is the first book in the trilogy and I can already hardly wait for books two and three with the second book Angel Fire coming out June 2011. I can not begin to recommend this book enough, if you only read one young adult angel book make sure it’s Angel! 5 shiny halos. Thanks go to Usborne for sending me this book to review. Angel will be available in all good bookshops October 1st 2010. Book description taken from goodreads. My Rating 5/5 stars *****

In My Mailbox! Maybe the last for a while?

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren Hey guys, so about the title, I may not be able to participate in IMM for a while. My phone – which I use to take the pictures of the books I get – died on me this morning. Luckily I already took and sent the pictures of my books this week, but because of that this may be the last IMM for a while. If I have a smaller haul I might be able to share it with you guys but because I normally get so many books a week it would take far too long to hunt down individual pictures for each book and post them every weekend. So I guess we’ll see. Another thing I wanted to talk to you about this week is IMM and jealousy. This was brought to my attention in a brilliant post that I was a teenage book geek posted last night and I have to admit I agree with a lot of what she says. It does sometimes feel like bloggers are bragging about what they got and the greatness of their blog is determined on how many books for review they’ve been sent. I’ve been thinking about it and I guess sometimes it isn’t fair that some people get books to review and some don’t because at the end of the day we all write reviews and we all work damn hard on our blogs and you can have one blogger get books to review who has very few followers and doesn’t write that great of reviews and then another who has more followers, writes brilliant reviews on everything they read and still not get noticed by publishers. Because of this, to me sometimes IMM feels very much like a contest on who can get the most and best books and who is there for the most superior blogger. I for one don’t want to cause anybody to feel like that so I’m not sure if I’ll be continuing with IMM anyway. I’d love to know your thoughts on this to help me make my decision. Do you get frustrated that you work hard on your blog yet don’t get books to review? Does IMM turn you green with envy or do you feel happy for the blogger receiving the books and want to come back to find out their thoughts on them? I have mixed feelings about it and because I do this blog for you guys I ultimately want to know what you think. If you enjoy reading my IMM I’d be happy to continue but if you don’t for whatever reason let me know that too! This is in no way an attack on Kristi she does a great job and I love her blog this is just my feelings towards it and me just wanting to know what my followers would like to see from my blog. To check out I was a teenage book geek’s post click here. Now on to In My Mailbox as usual, I was actually pretty good this week and technically only bought 2 books as the books you’re about to see were in a buy one get one free offer. I think I’ve done enough chatting so I’m just going to bring out the books! Brought The Perfect Lie by Emily Barr You're the One That I Don't Want by Alexandra Potter The Happy Home for Broken Hearts by Rowan Coleman Second Hand Heart by Catherine Ryan Hyde For Review/ Won Out for Blood (Drake Chronicles) by Alyxandra Harvey Buffy the Vampire Slayer 1: Coyote Moon; Night of the Living Rerun; Portal Through Time by John Vornholt, Arthur Byron Cover, and Alice Henderson I’d like to say a big thank you to Bloomsbury for Out for Blood and funnily enough Lauren @ I Was a Teenage Book Geek for the Buffy volume. So that’s what I got this week. Opinions on how you feel about IMM would be very much appreciated and if you just want to comment on the books I got this week that’s fine too! I hope you’re all having a lovely weekend, happy reading! :-)

Book Bloggers Hop & Follow My Book Blog Friday!

Hello to all my wonderful followers and to hopefully some potential new ones! This Friday I’m participating in The Book Bloggers hop which is hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books and Follow my Book Blog Friday that’s hosted over at Parajunkee's View if you wish to take part please stop by there and sign the Mr Linky. This week’s question from the hop is... “When you write reviews, do you write them as you are reading or wait until you have read the entire book?” My answer: Before I write a review I always, always make notes on the book whilst and straight after I’m done reading it in a notebook. I have categories set up and I write my thoughts on them underneath like plot, characters, writing etc; then when I’m done filling in my thoughts on those I’ll jot down any random thoughts I have about the book. Then when I’m next online I’ll cobble together all of my opinions and turn it into a review. I’ve only been doing this for a couple of weeks now before I’d just sit down at the computer and write whatever came to mind but I’ve found doing this so much better so I don’t forget anything I want to include. So in short I guess I do both! Brilliant question this week. I look forward to finding out how everybody else writes their reviews! I hope your all enjoying my blog and if you like what you see follows and comments would be much appreciated, Hope you all have a great weekend :-)

Booking Through Thursday

Current “What are you reading right now? What made you choose it? Are you enjoying it? Would you recommend it? (And, by all means, discuss everything, if you’re reading more than one thing!)” I just started reading Angel by L.A. Weatherly that I got sent for review. I’ve wanted to read this book ever since I very first heard about it with it being about Angels. I love the whole Angel theme that’s going on in YA literature at the moment and Angel has its own unique twist with the Angels in this book actually being bad. I’m 71 pages in and I adore it! The plots really fresh and I’m excited to get back to it later on tonight. So far I’d definitely recommend it. Angel will be available to buy on October 1st this year to learn more about it visit the official website here. If you have any questions about Angel feel free to ask me in the comments bellow or leave me a link to your answer for this week!

Review for Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles

People who know me will know that I love, love, love a good romantic story and when I read Simone Elkeles’ first book in this series Perfect Chemistry at the beginning of the year it quickly became one of my favourite books ever. I adore the Fuentes brothers so when I found out that Rules of Attraction would be about brother number two Carlos I was desperate to get it. It’s not out in the UK until next year and I of course couldn’t wait that long so I snatched up the US version but for some reason didn’t get around to reading it until last weekend. The airs starting to get that crisp autumn feel and I definitely needed me some Fuentes lovin’ to heat things up and this book didn’t let me down I loved it! Let me start off by saying that I didn’t love this book quiet as much as Perfect Chemistry. I didn’t feel that Carlos and Kiara had as much up against them as Alex and Brittany so the plot wasn’t as intense but I thought that in it’s own right it’s a good book. I didn’t think I could love a male character as much as I loved Alex Fuentes but Carlos actually knocked him off the top spot! I loved Kiara but not quiet as much as I loved Brittany. Where Brittany’s kind, sweet and girly Kiara’s her opposite being a complete tomboy and she could definitely hold her own against Carlos. I was pleasantly surprised by how much Alex and Brittany were actually in Rules of Attraction it was so good to see how they were getting on two years later after Perfect Chemistry finished. When I started this book I was a little worried that this might just be Perfect Chemistry repeating itself but it definitely wasn’t. Whilst there are similarities a lot was different and Kiara and Carlos were definitely not another Alex and Brittany they had their own distinct personalities and their own problems to face. Simone Elkeles has a brilliant talent for really knowing her characters, their really well developed and they feel so real which I love about Simone’s writing. Even the secondary characters you can’t help but fall in love with and in Rules of Attraction I especially loved Kiara’s little brother and dad. Where Simone Elkeles really excels is the romance. You can practically feel the heat between Kiara and Carlos radiating off the pages. The romantic, fiery, passionate banter between the couple leaves you in no doubt that their love and attraction to each other is strong. At one point when Carlos tells Kiara how much he loves her I found myself tearing up because it was just so real and convincing I could literally feel how Carlos felt and that is what makes this book so brilliant. It’s a die hard romance but not in a girly way at all. I’d definitely recommend this book for both genders as unlike a lot of romances I think it has a lot to offer everyone. It’s funny, fast paced, witty and sexy and I don’t think I’ve read a bad review for Perfect Chemistry or Rules of Attraction yet. Everyone will enjoy this book simply because Simone Elkeles is one of the best writers of YA realism fiction out there and if you don’t read her books you are seriously, seriously missing out. I can’t wait to read the last Fuentes brother Luis’s book Chain Reaction in 2011 and don’t know where I’m going to get my spicy Latino lovin’ until then. Highly, highly recommended to everyone. 4.5 stars. My Rating 4.5/5 stars ****1/2

In My Mailbox!

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren Hey all you crazy bookworms! I got some great books this week that I’m excited to share with you all. Let’s bring out the books! Book’s from Amazon Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks My So-Called Afterlife by Tamsyn Murray Plus by Veronica Chambers My So-Called Haunting by Tamsyn Murray Book’s for Review Angel by L. A. Weatherly Finding Sky by Joss Stirling Raised by Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly So that’s what I got In My Mailbox this week. Have to say a huge thank you to Usborne, Oxford, Quercus and Bloomsbury for my books for review this week! Feel free to leave me a comment and let me know what you got this week or if you’ve read any of the books I’ve got I’d love your opinions on them good or bad I don’t mind! Hope your all having a lovely weekend and happy reading! :-)

Book Bloggers Hop & Follow My Book Blog Friday!

Hello to all my wonderful followers and to hopefully some potential new ones! This Friday I’m participating in The Book Bloggers hop which is hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books and Follow my Book Blog Friday that’s hosted over at Parajunkee's View if you wish to take part please stop by there and sign the Mr Linky. This week’s question from the hop is... ‘In honor of Book Blogger Appreciation Week, let's take time this week to honor our favorite book bloggers and why we love them!’ My answer: I love this weeks question and there are so many that I follow that deserve praise but I’m going to narrow it down to my top 5 ( in no particular order) to save us from being here forever! 1.) Ellie @ Musings of a bookshop girl – This girl’s one of my best friends and before you start thinking that that’s why I’ve chose her note that before we were friends she was someone I followed religiously for the latest posts on her book shop craziness. I love Ellie’s blog because it offers something original as she does all of her own meme’s and talks about her life working in her very own second hand bookshop. I count myself as very lucky that I’m now friends with the infamous, wonderful Ellie and can experience her book shop first hand when I get to pay her visits! 2.) Rhiana @ Rhiana Reads – Rhiana’s blog is just awesome and it was one that I followed before I myself had a blog. She’s a UK blogger and we have similar taste in books so I always take her reviews into account before buying a book. A lovely blog with a lovely blogger who I always turn to to get my Chick lit and YA fixes. 3.) Rachel @ In the Library of Ladyviolet – Like Ellie this girl is now my best friend in real life but we actually met online! I love Rachel’s blog because we literally have the same taste in books and if I’ve read and loved a book chances are she has too and vice versa. I love reading her reviews to find out if there are any I should add to my wish list. We call ourselves book twins because our tastes are so similar so if you enjoy my blog chances are that you’ll love Rachel’s too. 4.) Jenny @ Wondrous reads – Jenny is another blogger that I followed even before I myself had a blog. She’s a fellow UK book blogger who receives the most awesome books for review every week that make me green with envy! She’s one of the more famous book bloggers and she deserves everything she gets as her reviews are amazing. 5.) Amanda @ One more page- Last but not least is Amanda! Like everyone on this list she’s a UK blogger not that I don’t love US bloggers I really do but obviously I have more books in common with UK bloggers living in the same country and all which is exactly why I chose Amanda we have a lot of books in common both loving Chick lit and YA. She’s such a lovely person and I feel that her blog should definitely get more recognition! So there you have it my 5 favourite book blogs! If you have the time you should check them out too I’m sure you’ll love them! I hope you’re enjoying my blog and if you like what you see remember to follow! Leave me a link with your blog and if you follow I’ll check you out too :-) You can find my most recent review for City of Bones here. Thanks for stopping by and happy hopping!

Review for City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Well what can I say about this book that hasn’t already been said? I hopped on the wagon very late for this one which isn’t like me at all especially when you consider that I’ve had the complete Mortal Instruments series sitting on my shelf for the past year. Everyone has one of those series that they really want to read but for some reason or another never get around to and the Mortal Instruments series is mine. I think what finally pushed me to read City of Bones was all the hype around Cassandra Clare’s latest book Clockwork Angel which is a prequel to this series. I really want to read Clockwork Angel and although they don’t have to be read in order I did want to read The Mortal Instruments first just because I’m particular about things like that- I don’t want to miss anything and want to read them how there ment to be read. So I forced myself to sit down with City of Bones a few nights ago and after months of putting it off in favour of other books I wish I’d read it sooner…I loved it. The story is set right in the heart of New York City which I loved. Most books that involve supernatural beings take place in the clichéd small quiet town but Cassandra Clare brings the story into a huge modern day city which made the book feel more real to me and more current. I loved the idea of vampires dancing in the hottest night clubs and faeries running around central park. It was very fresh and I loved the thought of sharing our world with these creatures in secret. Most YA books on the market tend to focus on one supernatural species but Clare gives the reader any supernatural creature they can think of werewolves? Sure, witches? you’ve got it. This makes the world were introduced to very layered and action packed with never a dull moment. Before reading City of Bones I’d read a couple of reviews that said that they found the series badly written but I personally loved the writing style. It’s fresh, witty and modern and I found it a breeze to read. Cassandra Clare creates a quirky, funny dialog and the banter between the characters was great. You quickly come to love the characters and my favourite had to be Simon closely followed by Magnus (who I hope there’s more of in books to come!) and Jace. I have to admit that I found Clary a little annoying at the start because she was so slow to figure things out that I picked up on chapters ago but as she developed through the book I really began to like her towards the end. The only fault I had with this book was the romance. I just didn’t feel it between Clary and Jace and would have liked to have felt a little more chemistry between them then again it is early days so I’m hoping things get more intense in books two and three. I personally love Simon myself but I think ultimately Clary belongs with Jace so I really hope their err “problems” that stop them from being together get resolved in the next books. Not saying too much on that as I don’t want to give away a great big stinkin’ spoiler! I’d of loved to have given this book 5 stars but I had to knock it down to 4.5 just because whilst the beginning of the book was good it wasn’t perfect for me. I didn’t think about it when I put it down, I didn’t want to read it every spare moment I had at least not until I was half way through when I really started to get into it. It’s one of those books that just get’s better and better and so I hope that over all this series does the same. If it does I can see it being up on my favourite section of my book shelf before long. Over all highly recommended and I’m very excited to read the next book in the series City of Ashes soon. 4.5 stars. My Rating 4.5/5 stars ****1/2

Bookish News: Read an extract of Jennifer Donnelly's highly anticipated new novel Revolution and more!

As you all know I love historical fiction and one of my all time favourite historical fiction books is A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly. It was actually one of the very first historical fiction books I ever read being only 14 when I first picked it up and it was the first book that really got me into the genre. I only ever got to borrow it from the Library and since then I’ve been meaning to buy my own copy but thanks to the lovely Emma at Bloomsbury I received a copy for review this week and let me tell you I’m so excited to re-read it now 7 years on and fall in love with it all over again. It comes highly recommended and I shall be reading it soon so keep your eyes peeled for a review to learn more about that. On top of that Jennifer Donnelly has a new novel coming out soon the highly anticipated Revolution! I’m so excited for this book! Here’s a little bit about what it’s about. Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly BROOKLYN: Andi Alpers is on the edge. She’s angry at her father for leaving, angry at her mother for not being able to cope, and heartbroken by the loss of her younger brother, Truman. Rage and grief are destroying her. And she’s about to be expelled from Brooklyn Heights’ most prestigious private school when her father intervenes. Now Andi must accompany him to Paris for winter break. PARIS: Alexandrine Paradis lived over two centuries ago. She dreamed of making her mark on the Paris stage, but a fateful encounter with a doomed prince of France cast her in a tragic role she didn’t want—and couldn’t escape. Two girls, two centuries apart. One never knowing the other. But when Andi finds Alexandrine’s diary, she recognizes something in her words and is moved to the point of obsession. There’s comfort and distraction for Andi in the journal’s antique pages—until, on a midnight journey through the catacombs of Paris, Alexandrine’s words transcend paper and time, and the past becomes suddenly, terrifyingly present. Revolution will be published in the US by Random House/Delacorte on October 12th and in the UK by Bloomsbury on October 13th. Click here to read extracts of A Gathering Light and Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly. You might also like to check out Jennifer Donnelly's website. I hope you will all check out the links above Jennifer Donnelly is such an amazing writer if you buy her books you’ll be in for a real treat! So why not jump on the wagon now and pick up a copy of A Gathering Light? And brace yourself for Revolution! Thanks to Bloomsbury for providing the links!

Booking Through Thursday

Day and Night “I couldn’t sleep a wink, so I just read and read, day and night … it was there I began to divide books into day books and night books,” she went on. “Really, there are books meant for daytime reading and books that can be read only at night.”- The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera, p. 103. Do you divide your books into day and night reads? How do you decide? I only tend to read one book at a time so no I don’t really have day and night books. When I read a book I just get lost in the world and want to read it at every moment I have free whether that’s day time or night time. However if I’m reading something supernatural and dark I look forward to creating the mood and reading it that night and if I’m reading a beachy summer read I enjoy reading my book outside during the day to fit the mood for that. But over all no I don’t choose a particular book to fit in with the evening or day if I did it would probably take me an extra half an hour on top of the hours I usually spend on deciding on what book to read next so I think it’s a good thing that I don’t! How about you? Do you have book’s you save for the night or devour during the day? Leave me a comment with your answer :)

In My Mailbox!

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren Hey everyone! I got some great books this week I’m so excited for all of them! A lot of them I’ve been highly anticipating and now I finally have them don’t you just love that feeling? Anyway enough talk lets bring out the books! Books from Amazon The Infernal Devices 1: Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare Lies by Michael Grant Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson Finding Sky by Joss Stirling Zelah Green: Bk. 2: One More Little Problem by Vanessa Curtis Books from The Book Depository Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews Spy Glass by Maria V. Snyder The Duff: Designated Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger Firelight by Sophie Jordan For Review A shiny ARC of Entangled by Cat Clarke so excited for this one thanks Quercus! So that’s what I got In My Mailbox this week! Many of you will be pleased to know that I’ve finally got round to reading City of Bones by Cassandra Clare and I love it so much so far! I’m 150 pages in and I can’t wait to read some more today- so happy that I’ve finally got round to reading this series! I think it was all the hype around Clockwork Angel that gave me that extra push ;) If you’ve read any of the books I got this week leave me a comment with your thoughts – good or bad I don’t mind! And make sure you leave me a link with what you guys got this week. Here’s to another week of good reading ahead!

Review for Zelah Green by Vanessa Curtis

I hadn’t heard very much about this book at all other than it kept coming up in my Amazon recommendations, so when I read a book bloggers review and found out that it was about a teenage girl with OCD I knew I just had to buy it and bought it prompt on my next trip to the book shop. I, like Zelah, suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder more commonly known as OCD which I developed in my teen years after going through a rough time. I know that there are a lot of books on depression out there for teens but I haven’t ever heard of one that’s based on OCD before. I think it’s great that Vanessa Curtis decided to write a book on this subject because unfortunately whether we like it or not mental illnesses are on the rise in today’s society and I find that books are a great comfort to those suffering with one. When you’re a teen with a mental illness – no scratch that – anybody with a mental illness a lot of the time people are too ignorant on the subject to see that it is an actual illness and are quick to just label the person as ‘weird’ and when you’re a teen life’s hard enough, add a mental illness on top of that and people avoiding the ‘freak’ it’s possibly one of the hardest times to have to deal with having a mental illness. So I salute Vanessa Curtis for writing this book – hopefully it will make anyone out there going through this feel less alone and help everybody else understand the illness a little better. Zelah Green is a cleanaholic. She spends most of her life sticking to her harsh schedule also know as germ alert and dirt alert. This involves Zelah washing her hands up to 31 times, jumping on the stairs 128 times and having to touch everything with a tissue between her hand and the item. If Zelah doesn’t stick to her rituals or they go wrong she has to do them again to avoid having a panic attack and something bad happening to the people she loves. With her mother dead and her father gone Zelah’s left with her stepmother who can’t stand Zelah’s routines anymore so she ships Zelah off to Forest Hill House to get treatment for her OCD. There Zelah meets Alice the anorexic, Caro the cutter and Silent Sol who’s gorgeous but doesn’t speak to anyone. Zelah’s mortified to be at Forest Hill and worst of all having to live without her routines, but the teens soon become friends and with a little help from each other they help work through their problems and what follows is a heart-warming story that will have you laughing one minute and teary eyed the next. This was a short sweet read that I read in two sittings. Zelah’s an endearing, hilarious character who you can’t help but want the best for. The book remains sweet and funny whilst at the same time deals with some serious issues. At no point did it ever feel heavy so I think that Vanessa Curtis got this just right for the teen reader. I immediately after finishing this bought the sequel Zelah Green: One More Little Problem and I can’t wait to read more of Zelah’s adventures and struggles with OCD. Recommended whether you want a funny, quick, quirky read or whether you want to learn more about teens with a mental illness from the view point of lovely awkward Zelah. This book has a nice balance between both making it a very good read indeed. 4 stars. My Rating 4/5 stars ****

Book Bloggers Hop & Follow My Book Blog Friday!

Hello to all my wonderful followers and to hopefully some potential new ones! This Friday I’m participating in The Book Bloggers hop which is hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books and Follow my Book Blog Friday that’s hosted over at Parajunkee's View if you wish to take part please stop by there and sign the Mr Linky. This week’s question from the hop is... ‘Link to your favourite book review that you've written in the last three months.’ My answer: Oh I love this week’s question! I think my favourite recent review of mine has to be the one I wrote for Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma which can be found HERE. I really loved this book so much more than I originally thought I would. It’s a very controversial story and I thought very carefully about what I wanted to say about this book. I really enjoyed writing this one and got a lot of positive feedback for it. If you have the time feel free to check it out and leave a comment it would be very much appreciated! :) Feel free to leave me a comment and if you like what you see remember to follow! Leave me a link with your blog and if you follow I’ll check you out too :) Hope your all enjoying my blog! Happy hopping!

Booking Through Thursday

You’ve just dropped your favorite, out-of-print book into a bathtub, ruining it completely … What do you do now? Ok well first things first I doubt this will ever happen to me. I don’t like to read whilst I’m taking a bath so the last time I actually read anything whilst bathing was years ago. I don’t to my knowledge own any out of print books – never mind a favourite. So this really isn’t an issue for me. I suppose hypothetically though I’d cry and be very upset then hunt me down a new copy off the internet not really caring about the price? But then isn’t this what most people would do? I mean what else are you suppose to do? Bit of a lame question this week me thinks, I’m a tad disappointed :| Never the less leave me a comment with your answers and if yours is in anyway different to mine lemme know!

Review for Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel

When I first heard about this book months ago I immediately added it to my wish list and started counting down the days until its release date. It sounded right up my street- a fresh new take on vampires with it being about a 500 year old vampire queen being re-made as a 16 year old human girl, and after reading this the books biggest triumph is definitely the originality of it all but unfortunately for me that’s pretty much where it ends. Lenah Beaudonte is a ruthless, murderess vampire queen to a coven of some of the most feared vampires in the world. Having been made into a vampire in 15th century England she is one of the oldest and strongest of her kind. Despite all of this Lenah isn’t happy. After being turned into a vampire by her lover Rhode at the young age of sixteen Lenah feels like she’d missed out on her chance to live life, so as Rhodes last act of love he performs an ancient ritual that allows her to reclaim the human life that he took away from her. Lenah must now live as a mortal in a boarding school in New England and try to stumble her way through modern technology, make friends and keep her past a secret. But when you’ve lived your days as an evil creature of the night it’s not so easy to put your past and your mistakes behind you, and when Lenah’s coven discovers that their queen is missing Lenah realises that her human days may be numbered… I loved the idea of this story and when I first started it I found myself really enjoying it. It was interesting learning about Lenah’s past as a vampire queen and watching her try to fit in and appear normal amongst her peers but my problem started when this didn’t stop. For 300 pages there’s no real action and it reads very much like a YA realism book. Yes it’s all very interesting watching a vampire try to live as a human but after the first 100 pages it got very tedious and boring and by the time I was half way through I was debating putting it down. When I pick up a book about vampires I expect it to be action packed, and filled with blood and lust but Infinite days just didn’t read that way. The plot moved along very slowly making some parts boring to read. It wasn’t what I was expecting when I picked this book up so it left me very disappointed. The second problem I had with this book were the characters. Be warned - if you find Zoey Redbirds boy problems irritating in The House of Night series you may not get along so well with Lenah Beaudonte. Like Zoey, Lenah has a string of 4 boys in this book that she has some sort of thing with who are all fighting for her love and to make things worse none of them were that great. There was very little character development which made the characters just ok for me. I didn’t love any of them in particular and so wasn’t really fussed who Lenah ended up with. The main relationship that Lenah does have happens very quickly over the period of a few weeks and when that’s done well in a book I don’t mind it but with Lenah and the guy in question I just wasn’t convinced they were the real deal. So after suffering through 300 pages of the above I get to the last 100 pages and that’s when things start to improve considerably. We finally get some action and the ending almost makes it worth getting through the first 300 pages. I won’t say too much about that but it definitely sets things up for a potentially better sequel. During the last 100 pages Rebecca Maizel really shows us what she’s capable of and I just hope that now with everything set up in Infinite days she’ll continue on along that path with the sequel. Her writing is really beautiful and this definitely has the potential to be a great series if she’d just cut out a few of the guys and work on adding some action and suspense through out the book instead of saving it all for the end. Over all I have to say that I was disappointed with this book because I was looking forward to it for so long and it just wasn’t what I expected it to be. It was an ok read though not something to rush out and buy so for that reason I’m giving it 3.5 stars. My Rating 3.5/5 stars ***1/2 Note on the UK Cover: I just wanted to leave a note about the UK edition of this book. The cover has an almost tracing paper like quality to it making it very easy to snag which happened to me - even though I’m a very careful reader - a few times leaving tiny tears in it. The model used also looks like she’s in her late twenties and doesn’t resemble a just turned 16 year old girl at all. After one very careful read of this book the covers crumpled and snagged, this book just isn’t very good quality at all. This is in no way Rebecca’s fault though which is why I didn’t want to include this in the actual review of the book but if your from the UK and are thinking about purchasing this book I’d advise you to try and hunt down the US copy – considering this is a hardcover it’s really not worth the money!

In My Mailbox!

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren Hi guys! I’m so excited about every single book I got this week and I’ve been bursting to share them with you all! Thankfully this is a smaller haul this week – I think my bank balance needed it! But these are all books that I’ve been highly anticipating and now I finally have them *squee!* Anyway, bring out the books! Books from the Book Depository Halo by Alexandra Adornetto Return to Paradise by Simone Elkeles Paranormalcy by Kiersten White Books from Amazon Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters by Natalie Standiford Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel So that’s what I got this week. I’m currently reading Infinite Days right now – I can’t make up my mind whether I like our UK cover or not it’s very unusual with an almost tracing paper kind of cover that you can see through. I’m nearly done with this so look out for my review soon! And can I just say how incredibly beautiful is the cover for Halo? It’s even more gorgeous in real life all the little details to it are amazing I think this if officially my favourite cover ever. So excited to read that one as angels are my favourite paranormal creatures to read about – Halo is definitely my kind of book and I just really hope I’m not disappointed! If you’ve read any of the books I got this week feel free to leave me a comment with your thoughts- good or bad I don’t mind! And make sure you leave me a link with what you got this week :) Hope your all having a nice weekend!

Book Bloggers Hop & Follow My Book Blog Friday!

Hello to all my wonderful followers and to hopefully some potential new ones! This Friday I’m participating in The Book Bloggers hop which is hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books and Follow my Book Blog Friday that’s hosted over at Parajunkee's View if you wish to take part please stop by there and sign the Mr Linky. This week’s question from the hop is... 'Do you judge a book by its cover?' My answer: It depends. If I’m in a book shop browsing for some new titles then yes because if you don’t know anything about a book it’s the cover that draws you in. However if I’ve heard about an amazing book and I look it up and it doesn’t have the best cover it doesn’t put me off buying it. Having a nice looking cover on your bookshelf is always a bonus but it’s not the be all and end all for me. That said a lot of the time US and UK covers are different and if I prefer one cover over the other I’ll either snap up the US title or wait for the UK one an example of this actually happened the other day with Halo by Alexandra Adornetto. I much prefer to US edition over the UK so I just had to order the US one and when it arrived yesterday and I got to see how pretty it is in real life I’m so glad that I got that edition. So over all yes I’m kind of fickle but if a books got good reviews and an awful cover it doesn’t stop me from buying it. Feel free to leave me a comment and if you like what you see remember to follow! Leave me a link with your blog and if you follow I’ll check you out too :) Hope your all enjoying my blog! Happy hopping! :)

August Round Up & Book of the Month!

Hey guys! Today is my very first book of the month! I’ve noticed a few people doing something similar to this so I wanted to hop on the wagon and do one myself. I’m hoping to maybe make this a monthly thing at the end of each month so if you like it and want to see it again next month let me know! Each month I’m going to choose an ultimate book of the month and then also choose the best titles for other categories that people might be looking for in a book. Like some people might love a good romance so I’m going to recommend the best book I’ve read that month for romance and so forth you’ll get the picture as you scroll down anyway! Anyways I hope everyone enjoys it – I’ve definitely had a lot of fun doing it! Feel free to leave me comments on your thoughts! August’s book of the month is… Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins! Do I really have to explain why? It was just awesome and if you haven’t read this series yet you really should. Best Plot: The Maze Runner by James Dashner Best Writing: The Poisoned House by Michael Ford Best Cover: The Iron King by Julie Kagawa Best Characters: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins Best Ending: Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma Best Romance: Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma Most un-put-down-able: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins Most Memorable: Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma Best Moral: Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles Top 3 Most Recommended Books: Mockingjay, Forbidden, The Maze Runner. Bookish Highlights of the month Everything Mockingjay – reading it, buying it, vlogging about it etc; and the book hauling road trip with Rachel and Ellie. Bookish Lows of the month Not enjoying The Iron King as much as I hoped I would and having to come home from the road trip! Book’s I’m looking forward to in September There are so many books coming out in September that I’m looking forward to so many! I’m reading Infinite Days right now which I’m enjoying so far. Halo and Return to Paradise arrived this morning both of which look awesome. Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready, The Duff, Firelight…I have a feeling that Septembers going to be a very good month indeed! ;) So there you have it my reading for August summed up in one post! Links lead to reviews and posts from my blog that are related.

Book Hauling Road Trip Take Two; Vlogs, Mockingjay and More...

Hi guys! I’m finally getting my post for the road trip up! I wanted to get it up sooner but I had reviews to do and things so I’m finally getting around to it now. Last week I went to visit my best friend and fellow book blogger Rachel and when were together we end up buying a ton of books! We also went to visit the lovely Ellie and her book shop Book End and Ellie very kindly let us pick out whatever books we wanted for free which was awesome! Sadly it’s going to be the last time I see them both for a while with Rach heading back to Uni soon and all but plans for a Christmas stop over at Ellie’s is already in the works so I’m very much looking forward to that already! I love both of those girls dearly and just wish we lived closer so I could see them more often! I guess it just makes our rare meet ups even more special though :) Anyway me and Rach made some vlog’s which tell you a little bit about what we got up to so instead of repeating myself I’ll just post them on here for your viewing pleasure ;) The first video is a Mockingjay squee on our first reactions on seeing the book and buying it. This was before we read it so don’t worry, no spoilers! Then the second a book haul. Hope you enjoy!