Bloomsbury Author Signings in the UK

Great news for all you UK book lovers! This morning I received an email from Emma over at Bloomsbury with a list of signings that their authors are attending here in the UK over the next few months. I decided to share the news with you lovely people so you can spread the word and write the date in your diary to meet some of your favourite authors. Here’s the list :) John Green, author of Paper Towns has already sold out his event at Waterstone’s Piccadilly and his event at Edinburgh Festival. Due to popular demand we have added another event to John’s all too brief visit to the UK . If you would like to see John and the amazing Sons of Admirals you can catch them for one night only at Ice Father Nation, 33-35 Commercial Road , London E1 1LN on Saturday 14th August. Doors open at 6:30pm and the main event starts at 7:30pm. Tickets are available on the door priced £7. For the latest from John take a look at http://www.johngreenbooks.com/ or see the man himself in action at www.youtube.com/vlogbrothers Mary Hoffman, author of numerous YA novels including the hugely successful Stravaganza series will be at Edinburgh Festival on Saturday 21st August at 1pm. To book your tickets call 0845 373 5888 or visit the website http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/ Cathy MacPhail, author of Underworld, Roxy’s Baby and a whole host of other action-packed titles will be at Edinburgh Festival on Monday 23rd August at 10am. To book your tickets call 0845 373 5888 or visit the website http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/ Simmone Howell is making a rare visit from her native Australia for two appearances at Edinburgh Festival. The author of Notes from the Teenage Underground and Everything Beautiful will be running a workshop on Tuesday 24th August at 6pm and talking about her writing on Wednesday 25th August at 10am. To book your tickets call 0845 373 5888 or visit the website http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/ Ian Beck (Pastworld) will be joining Philip Reeve at Edinburgh Festival on Wednesday 25th August at 5pm to talk steampunk and much more. To book your tickets call 0845 373 5888 or visit the website http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/ Gemma Malley (The Declaration, The Resistance, The Returners and The Legacy) and Sophie Mackenzie will be appearing at Edinbugh Festival on Thursday 26th August at 6:30pm. To book your tickets call 0845 373 5888 or visit the website http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/ Lucy Jago will be at Montacute House, the National Trust property that inspire her book of the same name, on Saturday 28th August at 2pm. She will be signing copies of her book. If you can’t make it, but would like to reserve a signed copy call 01935 823 289 Jim Carrington (Inside My Head) will be on a panel alongside Alex Diaz and C.J. Skuse, chaired by Julia Green (Drawing with Light) at the Bath Festival of Children’s Literature on Thursday 30th September at 8:30pm. To book your tickets call 01225 463 362 or visit the website http://www.bathkidslitfest.co.uk/ Mary Hooper (Fallen Grace) and Celia Rees (Witch Child and The Fool’s Girl) will be talking all things historical at Cheltenham Festival on Saturday 16th October at 6pm. To book your tickets call 0844 576 7979 or visit the website http://www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/ Celia Rees will be running a workshop on writing for teenagers at Cheltenham Festival on Sunday 17th October at 10am. Place are limited. To book your tickets call 0844 576 7979 or visit the website http://www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/

Review for Nothing Like You by Lauren Strasnick

I was going to get this book when it was out in hardcover but I’m so glad I waited for it to come out in paperback. Not because it’s a bad book - no quiet the contrary but because the cover for this book is gorgeous. I love it and down the side of the book there’s a beautiful paisley design. A very pretty one for on your bookshelf and what’s inside this book is just as gorgeous. It’s only a short book being just over 200 pages long but it packs a punch. I read this one last Sunday and couldn’t put it down here’s a little bit on what it’s about. ‘‘You think he’s yours, but he’s not.’’ I thought. ‘‘You think he’s yours but really he’s mine.’’ Ever since Holly’s mom died 6 months ago Holly’s felt numb. Desperate to feel something- anything - Holly loses her virginity to Paul in what she assumes is a one night stand. After all, what would popular, gorgeous Paul see in ordinary Holly? Especially when he’s dating perfect, blond Saskia. But to Holly’s surprise Paul wants to continue their secret affair which is fine by Holly. Paul makes her feel good something she desperately needs. But when Holly’s paired up with Saskia at school and the girls begin to form a friendship Holly realises that what she’s needed all along is a friend and now that she’s got one she might lose her. Holly’s gone about trying to find love the completely wrong way because all along the kind of love Holly’s really needed is the love only she can give to herself. This book was so much more than what I expected it to be. I really liked Holly and Saskia and wanted the best for both girls. This is a book about making the wrong decisions and learning to live with the consequences, it’s about learning what truly matters in this world and that despite everything you have to love yourself. I got teary eyed a few times whilst reading this, its just such a real book. Holly makes mistakes and learns from them along the way whilst all the time grieving for her mother making her incredibly endearing. This is definitely a book I would recommend if you’re looking for a quick yet brilliant summer read. I now can’t wait for Lauren’s second novel ‘Her and Me and You’ to come out. 4 stars. My Rating 4/5 stars ****

Review for The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Ok I have a slight confession to make. I’ve been procrastinating and trying to put off doing this review for a while for several reasons. The main two being that I don’t want to be verbally attacked and I really don’t know what to say about this book. I guess I better start at the beginning. So I was really looking forward to reading this, in case you’ve been living under a rock for the last few months it’s one of those books that a lot of people are raving about. So I saved if for a weekend when I wanted something really amazing to read and at first I loved it. I loved Julie Kagawa’s writing and I loved awkward dorky Meghan and her best friend Robbie/Puck and things were going great until something happened that really disturbed me. They entered faerie land through the back of a closet. I had a slight sense of Déjà vu at that point and thought I was re-reading The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and shook it off, but then bits from a bunch of my favourite stories kept showing up. It was like reading a mish mash of Narnia, Alice in Wonderland, A fairytale, Peter Pan, Labyrinth and The Never-ending story all merged into one - rather unabashedly so at that. That seriously lowered this books standards for me because to be frank anyone can coble together a story with bits of all their favourite tales give it a title and put their name to it. So this really didn’t showcase Julie Kagawa’s ability to story tell for me. Whilst reading the middle of this book I wanted to put it down so many times. The Meghan I loved at the beginning of the book turned into a whiny weakling who was constantly getting herself kidnapped or putting herself in unnecessary danger. And the middle was action packed but not in the usual way that I like. It seemed really stupid the amount of times Meghan got into trouble and yet she always miraculously found someway to escape. Because there was so much action going on you barely got any interaction time with the characters making me feel like I didn’t get to know them as well as I would have liked and making the friendships Meghan made seem a little bit unrealistic. Then at the end things changed around again. I loved the ending. Julie finally brings some originality to the book with the Iron fey and Meghan finally develops a back bone. The end of the book really made me want to read the next book The Iron Daughter and so I closed the book very confused about my feelings towards it. I loved both Puck and Ash towards the end and I really began to like Meghan again once she became a bit more kick ass. But the middle of the book was a real let down. I don’t know if I’ll be buying the sequel and I don’t know if I’d recommend this book. I can see why people love it and I can see why people wouldn’t like it. I just hope that with The Iron Daughter Kagawa focuses more on the Iron fey than trying to rip off other great stories, if she does and if Meghan continues to grow as a character it’ll be an amazing read. If she keeps mish mashing other stories and Meghan gets kidnapped numerous times then I’ll probably give it a miss. Over all I give this book a 3.5, you might love it you might hate it, this ones a bit of a risk taker. One to borrow or buy when you’re feeling reckless. My Rating 3.5/5 stars ***1/2

In My Mailbox!

Hello my fellow book freaks, It’s time for In My Mailbox! At the start of this week I didn’t think I was going to get that many books, but then a bunch of books that I pre-ordered arrived along with some I got for review plus some that I ordered from Amazon cranking it up to 16 books! My last few IMM have been pretty beasty, this could become quiet the regular thing. I’m so addicted to buying books and then books sent for review just makes it even bigger- not that I’m complaining :P Anyway on with the books! Books from the Book Depository The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, & June by Robin Benway You Wish by Mandy Hubbard Nothing Like You by Lauren Strasnick (currently reading this one- I like it so far!) The Maze Runner by James Dashner Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith Books from Amazon Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta Claire De Lune by Christine Johnson The Child Thief by Brom To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Candor by Pam Bachorz (hate our UK cover but it sounds so good!) Sleepless by Cyn Balog Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken The Lighter Side of Life and Death by C. K. Kelly Martin Shadow Hills by Anastasia Hopcus Books for review from Bloomsbury Fallen Grace by Mary Hooper The Poisoned House by Michael Ford (Really excited for both of these, thanks Bloomsbury!) So that’s what I got In My Mailbox this week, what did you get in yours? :)

Book Bloggers Hop & Follow My Book Blog Friday!

It’s time to do a hop, skip and a jump onto some new book blogs! Yep you guessed it its time for The Book Bloggers Hop and Follow my Book Blog Friday. The Book Bloggers hop is hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books and Follow my Book Blog Friday is hosted 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 listen to music when you read? If so, what are your favorite reading tunes? I can’t stand to listen to music whilst I read. I just find it too distracting. I’m definitely not someone who can multitask so if music’s playing while I’m reading I find myself singing along to the what I’m listening to instead. So no, no music for me, peace and quiet please so I can concentrate on my book! If you like my blog please follow I’d really appreciate it and make sure you leave a link to your blog so I can check you out too. Thanks for hopping by!