Best of the Bunch #1 - June 2015

Best of the Bunch #1 - June 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.

I am new to this, so here is my first ever Best of the Bunch!!

In June I read a total of 5 Book, 2 of which got a 5 star rating from me. But for this prize I can only choose one and the book that is getting he Best of the Bunch award is......

I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson

From the author of The Sky Is Every­where, a radiant novel that will leave you laughing and crying - all at once. For fans of John Green, Gayle Forman and Lauren Oliver. Jude and her twin Noah were incredibly close - until a tragedy drove them apart, and now they are barely speaking. Then Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy as well as a captivating new mentor, both of whom may just need her as much as she needs them. What the twins don't realize is that each of them has only half the story and if they can just find their way back to one another, they have a chance to remake their world.

I must admit that I was skeptical going into this one because of the fact that I hadn't enjoyed Jandy Nelson's previous book and also because the synopsis/blurb was quite vague. But am I glad that I did take the leap of faith and read this one. It was truly amazing and I would dearly recommend it to everyone.

June 2015

June 2015 Book Haul / Wrap Up / July TBR

And here rolls the end of June. My God, this year is really going fast...

June 2015 Book Haul

I bought 3 books this month and they were 3 books that I was highly looking forward to too. Without further a due the books were:

• Conversion by Katherine Howe
• Cress by Marissa Meyer
• A Storm of Swords Part II by George R. R. Martin 
• Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson
• I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson
• Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider

June 2015 Wrap Up

Here is my recap for June!! :)

What Was Read:

• The Poison Diaries by Maryrose Wood - 2 Stars
• I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson - 5 Stars
• Blood Red Road by Moira Young - 1 Star (DNF)
• A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas - 5 Stars
• Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson - 4 Stars

All Reviews will be posted up soon. I'm having a backlog but my ratings of each book can be seen above!!

Project Sarah Book Ban!!

I am feeling quite accomplished with my new rewarding system!! It seems to be working fairly well :P I may have already purchased some extra books but I have added them in :P So my progress as follows is this:

Phase 1 - COMPLETE
1. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (12/5)
2. Insurgent by Veronica Roth (17/5)
3. What's Left Of Me by Kat Zhang (20/5)
Reward - I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson

Phase 2 -
1. Parasite by Mira Grant (25/5)
2. The Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead (31/5)
3. The Poison Diaries by Maryrose Wood (1/6)
Reward - Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson

Phase 3 -
1. I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson (13/6)
2. Blood Red Road by Moira Young (17/6)
3. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (21/6)
Reward - Conversion by Katherine Howe

Phase 4 -
1. Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson (27/6)
2.
3.

Reward - Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider

Phase 5 -
(Reward - A Storm of Swords Part II by George R. R. Martin)

Phase 6 -
(Reward - Cress by Marissa Meyer)

Other News:

Book Reviews which were written this month area all linked below:
What's Left Of Me by Kat Zhang

I also participated in an awesome read-a-thon called Crazy For Summer read-a-thon and you can find my final wrap up here!!

I also had two discussion posts, linked below:
- BEA and Bookcon - How it affected me!!
- Personal Project - Defeating my TBR!!

And lastly, I participated in three of the fiveTop Ten Tuesdays for the most. You can find those linked below too:
- Top Ten Tuesday #9
- Top Ten Tuesday #10
- Top Ten Tuesday #11

I also participated in my first Best of the Bunch hosted by A Cocoon of Books!!

Challenges Progress:

A - Z Challenge:

12/26

10 From The List Challenge:

5/10

Goodreads Challenge:

24/60 (5 Books Behind Schedule)

July TBR

I have 9 books scheduled for July, most which are actually buddy reads and they are as follows:

1. Cress by Marissa Meyer
2. Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes
3. The Young Elites by Marie Lu
4. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
5. Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider
6. Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor
7. Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas
8. Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
9. Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr

And that is it for my wrap up :) How did your June go??

Top Ten Tuesday #11

Top Ten Tuesday #11

Top Ten Books I've Read So Far In 2015.

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.

Ohhh this is gonna be a good topic!! So far this year I have rated 12 books as 5 stars so I'm just going to list the Top Ten right here, right now!! In no particular order....


1. I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson
Oh my my my!! I was slightly apprehensive going into this book because I had not enjoyed the authors previous book 'The Sky Is Everywhere' but I am so damn glad that I read this because well, it made it to my favourites of 2015 list!!

2. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
I nearly read this whole book in one sitting. If that's not an indication of how I fell head over hells for this one, I don't know what is. An absolutely amazing sequel!!

3. The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Lesly Walton 
This is the first book that I have read from the magic realism genre and it was absolutely beautiful. A stunning debut! 






4. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
Ohh Ohh, this book was just bliss. I really enjoyed this one!!

5. More Than This by Patrick Ness
This book left me in a book hangover. Complete shock I was left in with this book and that's what made it fabulous!!

6. Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson
The book that made me start reading Contemporary. Need I say more??






7. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
A monster of a book but everyone was talking and hyping this book and well I agree with the hype. It was about time I joined the bandwagon...

8. Parasite by Mira Grant
I loved her book Feed and who doesn't need a good horrific tapeworm fix?? :P

9. Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys
I completely enjoyed this historical fiction. I enjoyed it so much that Ruta is now on my auto-buy list and I'm going to be getting her other novel soon - Between Shades of Grey.






10. All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
A heart-breaker of a debut, but absolutely fabulous all the same.





Have you read any of these books?? Have they made your list?? What is on your list?? Let me know below :)

Crazy For Summer Read-A-Thon (Last Line Challenge)

Crazy For Summer Read-A-Thon (Last Line Challenge)

I've been extremely busy these last few days and I was unable to participate in some of the challenges or post wrap ups but I really wanted to do this challenge so here it is!!

I am going to post up 5 book titles and 5 book endings and what you do is match the book to the ending practically :P Because I thought it would be a bit hard if I just posted the last line :P

Books:

1. I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson
2. More Than This by Patrick Ness
3. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
4. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
5. The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

Last Lines:

• "But, mostly, I like to think that Jack Griffith, my father, smiled as I let go of the railing behind me and, stretching my wings to that star-studded sky, soared into the night. 
• And he says, "I'm ready."
• "Let's go home," I said, and took his hand.
• That this was not the end.
• Remake the world. 

And there they are!!! Best of luck guys!! :D And look out for my answers in my final wrap-up post :D

Crazy For Summer Read-A-Thon (Final Wrap-Up)

Crazy For Summer Read-A-Thon (Final Wrap-Up)

Here is the final wrap-up. For some reason this week just flew by and I got extremely busy during the middle of the week, meaning that I didn't get to read as much as I had hoped. But alas, the read-a-thon is now over and here is what I did get read...

My Progress:

Books Finished:

2/6

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson

Pages Read:

Total - 594 pages

Answer To Last Line Challenge

1. "But, mostly, I like to think that Jack Griffith, my father, smiled as I let go of the railing behind me and, stretching my wings to that star-studded sky, soared into the night.  - The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

2. And he says, "I'm ready." - More Than This by Patrick Ness

3. "Let's go home," I said, and took his hand. - A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

4. That this was not the end. - Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

5. Remake the world - I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson

Crazy For Summer Read-A-Thon - Day 4 (Summaries)

Crazy For Summer Read-A-Thon - Day 4 (Summaries)

Today's challenge is simple. You can use 140 words or less to summaries books!!

These are the books that I have been reading so far in the read-a-thon.

A Court of Thorns and Roses:

A different universe. Bad-ass heroine. Steamy love. Good guys. Bad guys. Epic fight. The End. #ACOTAR #sassy #lovin'

Second Chance Summer:

Girl does something bad. Has to face what she does and learns all about second chances. #summer #beach read 

Crazy For Summer Wrap Up - Day 3

Crazy For Summer Wrap Up - Day 3

Here is my progress for Day 3. I'm in a bit of a rut at the moment, slowing down on my reading :"(

My Progress:

Books That I Was Reading Today:
Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson

Pages Read:

Second Chance Summer - 60 pages 

Total - 60 pages
Complete Total - 343 pages

Books Finished:

1/6

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Crazy For Summer Wrap Up - Day 2

Crazy For Summer Wrap Up - Day 2

Day 2 is now done and dusted!!

My Progress:

Books That I Was Reading Today:
Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson

Pages Read:

Second Chance Summer - 78 pages 

Total - 78 pages

Complete Total - 283 pages

Books Finished:

1/6

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Crazy For Summer Read-A-Thon - Day 2 (Poetry)

Crazy For Summer Read-A-Thon - Day 2 (Poetry)

Today's the second day of the Crazy For Summer Read-A-Thon and today's challenge is to write a poem in the style of George Ella Lyon to express your feelings and thoughts about reading, blooging and books and how they have affected you in your life. 

I'm not the best with poetry, but I'm giving this challenge a go so here it is!! :)

I am from books, from walker and bloomsbury.

I am from the land like no other, where people live a thousand lives through the eyes of others.

I am from the trees, the breathing pulp that creates the soft, comforting feel of the pages between my fingers. 

I am from reading before bed and turning the lights down low, from dreaming of Will, Karou and Snow.

I am from getting lost in the words and forgetting about reality. 

From 'You have too many books' and 'Don't spend all day reading'.

I am from a complicated relationship, that makes me jump for joy and breaks me into pieces. 

I'm from a different world, a different time, past or future.

From the no more room on my shelves to the having too much room.

I am from a world like no other and one I will never leave. 

And click here for the template that I used also :P      

Thank you!!

Crazy For Summer Wrap Up - Day 1

Crazy For Summer Wrap Up - Day 1

This post is my wrap up for the first day of the Crazy For Summer Read-a-thon and I can tell you that I had a blast!! I had so much fun today, reading my books and with a very eventful twitter chat with Tessa @ Crazy For YA and Adriana @ She's Got Books On Her Mind. It was such a productive chat that we even scheduled a buddy read for Dreams of Gods and Monsters!! So I can finally read this book and finish up this awesome series, it will be sad though :'(

Now down to my progress for Day 1!!

My Progress:

Books That I Was Reading Today:
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson

Pages Read:

A Court of Thorns and Roses - 126 pages (finished book)

Second Chance Summer - 79 pages 

Total - 205 pages

Books Finished:

1/6

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Answer To Two Truths and A Lie

Dun, Dun, Dun, my lie was that 'I live in the city.' 

I actually live in a quite remote area out in the countryside with farms and stables as my neighbours and a mountain just a couple miles away, quite a stunning view from my kitchen window actually. 

But yes I actually do have 6 pets, 2 dogs, a cat, a leopard gecko and 2 goldfish and I also don't know how to ride a bike, which may be shameful, but the situation never arised after I left stabilisers :P

Congrats to everyone who got it right!! :)