Top Ten Tuesday #19

Top Ten Tuesday #19

Top Ten Finished Series I Need To Finish And Has Not Finished Yet.

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish and consists of them picking a topic each week for us bloggers to list our Top Ten.

Ok, ok, ok I am soo late with this post like over half a week late but I just really wanted to do this topic, so I'm doing it now! :P

1. The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo
I have only read the first book in this series :'( and I really loved it!! It had me completely hooked but I didn't have the second book so I waited a while before getting it and then purchased it in March of this year and now have only got the third book this month because I was waiting for it to become standard paperback size so it would match my set and now it does!! Anyway I've read book 1 - Shadow and Bone but still have to read Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising.


2. Ashes Trilogy by Ilsa J. Bick
In this horror, zombie, completely engrossing trilogy I have read the first two books, Ashes and Shadows (Shadows is still pending on review, I will have it up soon, I promise!!) Now I just have the last book in the trilogy to read and that is Monsters and I really can't freaking wait to read it but I'm leaving it till the month of October :P I wonder why??? :P


3. Nightshade Trilogy by Andrea Cremer
I read the first book in this trilogy, Nightshade, about a year or so ago and I really enjoyed it but I haven't picked up the other books in the series yet... so therefore it makes this list and I have yet to read Wolfsbane and Bloodrose.  



4. Breathe by Sarah Crossan
This series here is only a duology and I've read the first book, so all I need do now is read the second!! Besides I really enjoyed the first book so why haven't I read the second one yet???


5. The Chemical Garden Trilogy by Lauren DeStefano
I loved, loved, loved the first book in this series. It was just such a dark dystopian but much like all the others on this list I have yet to pick up the following books in the series....


6. Delirium Trilogy by Lauren Oliver
Again another series which I absolutely adored but have only read the first book, Delirium. I have Pandemonium now waiting on my shelves and well I need to get Requiem and I need to finish this series.


7. Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth
Yes, yes, yes, I know!! What the hell.. But I only need to read Allegiant then I'm finished. I have read both Divergent and Insurgent and well the only reason I'm waiting to read Allegiant is besides the bad talk surrounding the book, that I was waiting for the standard sized paperback to release so my set would match...


8. Wolves Of Mercy Falls Series by Maggie Stiefvater
And here I though I had the series complete with Shiver, Linger and Forever but along comes another book, Sinner, and I just have to get my hands on it!! It's about Cole, people! So yes, now I need to finish this series all over again :P


9. Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy by Laini Taylor
This series is just perfection!! Literally. I have read the first two books which are Daughter of Smoke and Bone and Days of Blood and Starlight and have just got to read Dreams of Gods and Monsters to finish off this series. But I'm so scared and I don't want it to end!!!....


10. Partials Sequence by Dan Wells
Lastly, and this is actually my last series that I need to compete which are finished. There are a whole load of unfinished series too but that's a whole different kettle of fish. Anyway I have read the first book in this series, loved it and have just recently bought the second and third book meaning that I can now finish the series :D The books in this series are Partials, Fragments and Ruins.




And that is it!! My full list of series which are finished that I need to complete, what made it onto your list?? Or how many series have you left to finish? 

Wishlist Wednesday #6

Wishlist Wednesday #6

Wishlist Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Pen to Paper. This meme is where you showcase one book that is on your wishlist and that you can't wait to get off your wishlist and into your hands.

On my Wishlist Wednesday today is....

Winter by Marissa Meyer

SPOILERS!! 

Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.

Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won’t approve of her feelings for her childhood friend–the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn’t as weak as Levana believes her to be and she’s been undermining her stepmother’s wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters?

After completing Cress not so long ago, about a week ago actually, all I can think about is Winter. I need Winter. But Winter doesn't release until November 10th. That's like 2 months away! And I need it now!! Because I need to know what is going to happen but I don't want to say goodbye to this world either, but, but, but..... But on the bright side, I only have to wait two months while some people have had to wait over a year for this final book in The Lunar Chronicles, so that is a blessing!

Have you this marvellous book on your wishlist??

What have you got on your wishlist??

Top Ten Tuesday #18

Top Ten Tuesday #18

Top Ten Characters I Just Didn't Click With .

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish and consists of them picking a topic each week for us bloggers to list our Top Ten.

I know some of these characters are just extremely popular but honestly they just didn't click with me for reasons that I'm not really sure myself sometimes so I'm just going to write the names and what books they are from and leave it as that really. These are by no means characters I hate or anything, it's just I feel meh about them really. Also I may have only read one book in the series for some of these characters so my opinions may change as I read more!

1. Jace from The Mortal Instruments

2. Peeta from The Hunger Games

3. Pudge from Looking For Alaska

4. Alaska from Looking For Alaska

5. Nathan from Half Bad

6. Tris from Divergent

7. Cleo from Falling Kingdoms

Who could you just not click with??

August 2015

August 2015 Book Haul / Wrap Up 

August is now over! And my little brother is off to school now on the first of September. Summer is practically over and well.... what can ya do?? Winter is coming!! :P

August 2015 Book Haul

Here I was, expecting to not have a book haul this month, I was so delighted with myself but then August 27th happened and August 28th and well, guess what... I got books!

• The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich
• The Rest Of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
• One by Sarah Crossan

So what happened was that August 27th arrived and well it was he publication day for both One and The Rest of Us Just Live Here and I was in town and then I was near a bookstore and one thing led to another and I left with them and with an extra edition too, The Dead House, because it looked fantabulous and I just couldn't leave it there either.

Then August 28th came around and there was a knock on my door and I'll be damned there was the post man with an owlcrate box in his hands. So yup, on August 28th I received my first owlcrate box! You can see it picture below and for to head to my unboxing post click here!

August 2015 Wrap Up

Here is my recap for August!! :) I honestly think that I had a great reading month for
1. The amount of books I read and
2. The quality of books that I read :D

What Was Read:

• The One by Kiera Cass (5 Stars)
• Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider (4 Stars)
• The Gates by John Connolly (DNF - 1 Star)
• Conversion by Katherine Howe (5 Stars)
• Shadows by Ilsa J. Bick (5 Stars) (Review coming soon!)
• Cress by Marissa Meyer (5 Stars) (Review coming soon!)

Defeating My TBR Progress!!

My, my, my, as you may remember from my July post, I had 124 books left on my TBR and was counting down the numbers to 120 and I have done it!! My TBR is now at 120! :D It would have been less, but I splurged on some books as you can see above...

Other News:

Book Reviews which I was behind in and that were written this month are all linked below (I was trying to catch up on them all and I have succeeded!!):
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson
The Young Elites by Marie Lu
Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick

I also had some discussion / tag posts / read-a-thons, linked below:
- BookTube-A-Thon & Wrap Up

And lastly, I participated in some memes. You can find those linked below too:
- Top Ten Tuesday #14
- Top Ten Tuesday #15
- Top Ten Tuesday #16
- Top Ten Tuesday #17
- Wishlist Wednesday #2
- Wishlist Wednesday #3
- Wishlist Wednesday #4
- Wishlist Wednesday #5
- Best of the Bunch #3

And that is it for my wrap up and book haul!!
How was your August??

Book Review - Conversion by Katherine Howe

Conversion

Author: Katherine Howe

Genres: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Witches. 

Published: 2015

Pages: 402 pages (Paperback Edition) (Rock The Boat)

Read: August 2015

Rating: 5 Stars 

It’s senior year at St. Joan’s Academy, and school is a pressure cooker. College applications, the battle for valedictorian, deciphering boys’ texts: Through it all, Colleen Rowley and her friends are expected to keep it together. Until they can’t.

First it’s the school’s queen bee, Clara Rutherford, who suddenly falls into uncontrollable tics in the middle of class. Her mystery illness quickly spreads to her closest clique of friends, then more students and symptoms follow: seizures, hair loss, violent coughing fits. St. Joan’s buzzes with rumor; rumor blossoms into full-blown panic.

Soon the media descends on Danvers, Massachusetts, as everyone scrambles to find something, or someone, to blame. Pollution? Stress? Or are the girls faking? Only Colleen—who’s been reading The Crucible for extra credit—comes to realize what nobody else has: Danvers was once Salem Village, where another group of girls suffered from a similarly bizarre epidemic three centuries ago . . .

Inspired by true events—from seventeenth-century colonial life to the halls of a modern-day high school—Conversion casts a spell. With her signature wit and passion, New York Times bestselling author Katherine Howe delivers an exciting and suspenseful novel, a chilling mystery that raises the question, what’s really happening to the girls at St. Joan’s?

Book 32/60 - 2015 Goodreads Reading Challenge

Conversion is a historical fiction novel set around the Salem witch trials and paralleling that with a present day all girl private school. I for one am not a girl that will read much books about witches. I've simply just had bad experiences with them. That is not saying that I won't read a book with a witch in it, I will, it's just when the whole book revolves around witches or witch society that I start to cringe. One such book that made my opinion this way is Half Bad by Sally Green, *shivers* just not the book for me. So when I picked this up, I was apprehensive because of the with aspect, but it was also historical and I just love anything to do with the Salem witch trials. For that reason alone, this book piked my interest.

But then after buying the book, I checked it out on Goodreads and was so devastated to see a huge amount of negative reviews for this book, which led me into a state of "Did I make a mistake?" But I went and read this anyway and I am so glad that I did. I loved every piece of this book!

The one aspect that I loved the most about this book was the time switches. This book would travel from present day back to the past of the witch trials and I just found this to be done really well and I enjoyed that aspect thoroughly. I also love the way that this book was related to real life events, not just the witch trials but also an event that had only happened recently to a group of school girls (I shall not say more.) 

The plot was another major asset to this book. As the plot thickened, there was this air of tension and mystery and just a riveting sensation that kept you flicking through the pages and I instantly became obsessed and invested in this story. I needed to know what happened. I need to know what happened in the present day story and in the past story and then as they intertwined, it just fit. This book fit, both stories that you see in this book slotted together like a perfect puzzle piece! 

The characters (which seemed to be a problem to most people) I found to be fine. There was nothing that made me despise them. Yes, I did question our main present day protagonist's personality at the start of the book as she gave the impression of being this preppy, snappy, cliché of a rich girl and even if that side of her just lessened a small bit as the book went on, I felt that she grew on me and so did her friends. They went through situations and events that had me physically feeling for them, be that betrayal, heartache, happiness, shock, the whole lot. As for the characters from the past story, they had me at the get go. Not much more I can say there... 

Overall, I felt this book was exactly what I was looking for and I am sure that I will reread this again and again and again as well as pick up Katherine Howe's next book which is released soon called The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen. 

Best of the Bunch #3 - August 2015

Best of the Bunch #3 - August 2015

Best of the Bunch is a monthly meme hosted over at A Cocoon of Books. What it is is that you give the Best of the Bunch award to one book which you have read in that month.

This is going to be so, so hard! I read so many good books this month! So many!! I read a total of 6 books this month, 4 of them received 5 stars, 1 received 4 stars and 1 received 1 star! So youp! I have to pick from 4 absolutely amazing books....

Just to let you know the four books were:

• The One by Kiera Cass
• Conversion by Katherine Howe
• Shadows by Ilsa J. Bick
• Cress by Marissa Meyer

What will I pick? What will I pick? I'm going to go with Conversion by Katherine Howe because it is probably the least known book in that little list above!

Conversion by Katherine Howe

It’s senior year at St. Joan’s Academy, and school is a pressure cooker. College applications, the battle for valedictorian, deciphering boys’ texts: Through it all, Colleen Rowley and her friends are expected to keep it together. Until they can’t.

First it’s the school’s queen bee, Clara Rutherford, who suddenly falls into uncontrollable tics in the middle of class. Her mystery illness quickly spreads to her closest clique of friends, then more students and symptoms follow: seizures, hair loss, violent coughing fits. St. Joan’s buzzes with rumor; rumor blossoms into full-blown panic.

Soon the media descends on Danvers, Massachusetts, as everyone scrambles to find something, or someone, to blame. Pollution? Stress? Or are the girls faking? Only Colleen—who’s been reading The Crucible for extra credit—comes to realize what nobody else has: Danvers was once Salem Village, where another group of girls suffered from a similarly bizarre epidemic three centuries ago . . .

Inspired by true events—from seventeenth-century colonial life to the halls of a modern-day high school—Conversion casts a spell. With her signature wit and passion, New York Times bestselling author Katherine Howe delivers an exciting and suspenseful novel, a chilling mystery that raises the question, what’s really happening to the girls at St. Joan’s?

Oh my, my, my! This book got so many bad reviews that I was so apprehensive walking into it but I loved it!! I love the way it was written! I loved the mystery and the history and the characters and the cover and everything about this book.... That right there was a gush! But Katherine Howe has a new release coming out this year along the same lines of this book and I cannot wait to get it and read it now :D Go read this guys!!

What was your Best of The Bunch for the month of August?? :)

Book Review - The Gates by John Connolly

The Gates

(Samuel Johnson vs. The Devil #1)

Author: John Connolly

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Humour. 

Published: 2009

Pages: 264 pages (Paperback Edition) (Hodder & Stoughton)

Read: August 2015

Rating: 1 Stars (DNF)

Young Samuel Johnson and his dachshund Boswell are trying to show initiative by trick-or-treating a full three days before Hallowe’en. Which is how they come to witness strange goings-on at 666 Crowley Avenue.

The Abernathys don’t mean any harm by their flirtation with Satanism. But it just happens to coincide with a malfunction in the Large Hadron Collider that creates a gap in the universe. A gap in which there is a pair of enormous gates. The gates to Hell. And there are some pretty terrifying beings just itching to get out. . . .

Can Samuel persuade anyone to take this seriously? Can he harness the power of science to save the world as we know it?

Book 31/60 - 2015 Goodreads Reading Challenge

This is going to be a short review. Well it's not even going to be a review at all, just varied short, to the point thoughts. Because all I can give is those short opinions because of the fact that I didn't finish the book. 

I read books for enjoyment! It's my hobby. I'm not a professional reviewer or anything. Just a person who is doing this for fun! Therefore when I don't enjoy a book. I stop reading it. Because there is just not enjoy time in life..

And that is why I stopped reading The Gates by John Connolly. Simply because I wasn't enjoying it and just didn't think I would as the story unfolded. There were after all a few reasons as to why I didn't enjoy a book. I didn't enjoy the writing style or the content that was in the book. If you've read this book you'll know what I'm talking about, but there were massive amounts of random, annoyingly witty paragraphs in the story as well as down as a footnote in the book. This I found just to be overly annoying. 

I also didn't like the jumpiness of the book. From all of what I had read, only one did we see the actual story, the rest were different pieces about the big bang and other 'scientific' or 'witty' facts that I just didn't understand how it was going to benefit or be a part of the story. 

I also wasn't too fond of the characters. I will say that I did like Samuel and his dog, but I just didn't like them enough to keep me reading and get past my annoyance at the writing style of this book.  

So yes, I really wasn't enjoying myself or the story of this book and just couldn't get past that fact to continuing reading. This just wasn't the story for me, but I am certain that my younger brother when he's a tad bit older will probably love this book. 

But I have heard amazing reviews for this book, so don't let me put you guys off if you really want to read it. This are just my thoughts.

Book Review - Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider

Extraordinary Means

Author: Robyn Schneider

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Romance. 

Published: June 4 2015

Pages: 336 pages (Paperback Edition) (Simon & Schuster Children's Books)

Read: August 2015

Rating: 4 Stars

When he's sent to Latham House, a boarding school for sick teens, Lane thinks his life may as well be over.
But when he meets Sadie and her friends - a group of eccentric troublemakers - he realises that maybe getting sick is just the beginning. That illness doesn't have to define you, and that falling in love is its own cure.

Book 30/60 - 2015 Goodreads Reading Challenge

Can I just start by saying that the cover for Extraordinary Means is absolutely stunning! I just love the way the art was created by making a tree look like lungs, the major organ affected from TB. It just really fits with the story in the book along with the cover line 'Life Goes On Until It Doesn't'.

'Sick Lit' is a genre that is becoming increasingly popular these days in Young Adult with many new releases being classed in the genre. I think I started reading Sick Lit with Before I Die by Jenny Downham and then continued down the genres path with many popular books including The Fault In Our Stars and All The Bright Places and now with Extraordinary Means. 

I really enjoyed Extraordinary Means. I found that many of the usual tropes were displayed in this book including the ever popular boarding school trope, with a twist, the cool popular group with the main protagonist starting out as the geeky outsider, and of course the love story that everyone predicts. But I felt even with these cliche tropes, this story worked and I enjoyed and was entertained with reading this novel.

But to say that this book was completely predictable and cliche is wrong, because I haven't come across a TB YA book before and the twist that Robyn Schneider put on the strain of TB was striking and devastating at the same time but it was also real. Even though it is not TB this is a story that can be seen more and more lately as non-curable, horrific diseases wreck havoc to countries and the world. 

For the uniqueness of the plot, this story got me. For that ending twist, this story grabbed me. For the characters and the situations they were placed in, this story engaged me. Even if it was something you've seen before in books, I still truly enjoyed this one. I enjoyed the characters and I could easily relate to them also, with their personalities and with their lives before. Yes, some of them really didn't stand out and some annoyed me like hell and what they did sometimes I found to be the most utterly stupid thing they could have possible ever did. But this story made me laugh, it made me question and it may have even made me shed a tear or two. 

So, would I recommend this book? Yes, give it a shot! After all I did give this one 4 stars. 

Owlcrate Unboxing

Owlcrate Unboxing

Dun, dun, dun, I decided to buy an Owlcrate box!!!! I was waiting on the waiting list and then one day an email arrived saying it was my turn to subscribe and I did! I did a one month subscription so that I could get August's Mystery themed Owlcrate.

So ever since the 20th of August, I was impatiently waiting for my Owlcrate box to arrive. I knew it would take a while cause I lived in Ireland but that did not mean that I wasn't constantly checking the tracking number given to see where my box was! 

Then on August 28th , today, my Owlcrate box arrived and I was so so so so happy!! It was such a surprise to hear a knock on the door and see the postman standing there with an Owlcrate box in his hands! I was so excited that I tore into the box, then repacked it again so that I could take the unboxing pictures :P

Without further talk here is my Owlcrate Unboxing!!!

And here is what I got in my Mystery Box!! There was so much amazing stuff in the box! Down below there will be more info on everything that was in the box :)

Trouble Is A Friend Of Mine by Stephanie Tromly

I had actually seen really little about this book before it came in my Owlcrate, but it sounds like an awesome, fun, mystery, detective type read and I can't wait to start reading it. It is top of my September TBR at the moment! And also the hardback cover jacket has such a soft feel and I actually find the cover to be quite appeasing with is slightly unusual for me :P Along with the book, came a bookmark and a pin! :)

Next in the box, I saw a little box and in that little box was a gorgeous Nancy Drew keyring. I just love this style of work and have been contemplating getting one of these for ages but now I have one!! :D

Next in the box was a little package with a notebook in it. And what a cute little pocket notebook it is! It is Sherlock Holmes themed and the inside pages are just adorable because they are also detective themed.

After this there was another little plastic package which contained Sherlock Holmes nail decals! I've never used nail decals before but I am a really passionate nail polish person so I cannot wait to use these!.

And last but not least there was this beautiful wall art quote from Harriet the Spy. It reads 'Some Times You Have To Lie, But To Your Self You Must Always Tell The Truth' And this gorgeous piece is now living on my wall, right beside my bookshelves as you can see in the bottom picture.

And that is it! I loved getting this box and every item in it was of such a high quality. Unfortunately I won't be getting next months box, or the month after that probably but I'll be sure to get this box again sometime in the future, when my finances get better. Overall, I was really impressed and would highly recommend this subscription box!