Friday Follow and Hop - 31st May 2013

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Billy at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. It's a chance for book bloggers to connect and share the book love. Click the button for more details and to find the links to some awesome blogs.

This week's question is:
What is your favorite series that you've finished all the books (more than 3 books) to?

It has to be Harry Potter! I don't even know how may times I've read them - I've lost count. One of my favourite current series' is the Morganville Vampires but I've not finished that one yet.

Gain new followers and make new friends with the Book Blogger Feature & Follow! The Feature & Follow is hosted by two hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee's View and Alison of Alison Can Read so be sure to drop by both as they have different feature blogs.

This week's question is:
What blogger would you most like to meet in real life? Tell us about him or her.

While I'd love to say a bunch of awesome bloggers, the reality is, I'd probably much rather hide in a corner than meet any one lol. Team Introvert!

Waiting on Wednesday - 29th May 2013

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. What are you waiting on this week?

Replica - Jenna Black

Sixteen-year-old Nadia Lake comes from a high-class Executive family in the Corporate States. Her marriage has been arranged with the most powerful family in her state, which means she lives a life of privilege but also of public scrutiny, followed everywhere by photographers, every detail of her private life tabloid fodder. But her future is assured, as long as she can maintain her flawless public image — no easy feat when your betrothed is a notorious playboy.

Nathan Hayes is the heir of Paxco — controller of the former state of New York, and creator of human replication technology, science that every state and every country in the world would kill to have. Though Nadia and Nate aren’t in love, they’ve grown up close, and they (and the world) are happy enough with their match.

Until Nate turns up dead, and as far as everyone knows, Nadia was the last person to see him alive.

When the new Nate wakes up in the replication tanks, he knows he must have died, but with a memory that only reaches to his last memory backup, he doesn’t know what killed him. Together, Nadia and Nate must discover what really happened without revealing the secrets that those who run their world would kill to protect.

Teaser Tuesday - Angelfall

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should be Reading Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others.
* Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Angelfall - Susan Ee

I pull on my favorite boots. They used to be my favorites because I once got a compliment from Misty Johnson about the look of the leather strips down the sides. She is - was - a cheerleader and know for her fashionable taste, so I figured these boots were my token fashion statement even though they're made by a hiking boot company for serious wear. Now they're my favorites because the strips make for a perfect knife holder. .

It's Monday - 27th May 2013

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a weekly event to celebrate what we are reading for the week hosted at Book Journey, Post the books completed last week, the books you're currently reading, and the books to be read this week. Please comment or leave a link to let me know what you're reading this week!

Completed last week

  

After Tomorrow - Gillian Cross (review)
Dusk - Eve Edwards

Currently Reading

 

The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
The Lost Hero - Rick Riordan

Up soon

Angelfall - Ee

Staking the Shelves - 26th May 2013

Stacking the Shelves is hosted at Tynga Reviews. It's all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

I think a couple of these may have been from last week but as I haven't done this kind of post for a while I figured I'd include them anyway.

For Review (from publisher unless stated)

Nowhere - Jon Robinson (Puffin)
Dusk - Eve Edwards (Penguin)
Sketcher - Roland Watson-Grant (Alma)

For Kindle

Grave Minder - Melissa Marr

Friday Follow and Hop - 24th May 2013

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Billy at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. It's a chance for book bloggers to connect and share the book love. Click the button for more details and to find the links to some awesome blogs.

This week's question is:
Have you ever been to BEA, and if so, do you recommend attending? Any good advice for first-time attendees?

Unfortunately being from the UK means that BEA is way to far for me to go. It does look kind of amazing though!

Gain new followers and make new friends with the Book Blogger Feature & Follow! The Feature & Follow is hosted by two hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee's View and Alison of Alison Can Read so be sure to drop by both as they have different feature blogs.

This week's question is:
The #FF is 150 weeks old! And we want to hear from you! What would you change about the hop? What do you like about it? Or just suggest a question to be used for next week!

The best part about the #FF is connecting with other bloggers. I never fail to stumble across at least a couple of blogs I've not visited before. And it's great to read the answers to the current question.

Review: After Tomorrow - Gillian Cross

Title: After Tomorrow
Author: Gillian Cross
Format: Uncorrected proof
Pages: 304
Genre: YA
Published (UK): 4th April 2013 (Oxford)

What if you woke up tomorrow and everything had changed? Money is worthless. Your friends are gone. Armed robbers roam the streets. No one is safe. For Matt and his little brother, Taco, that nightmare is a reality. Their only hope of survival is to escape through the Channel Tunnel. But danger waits on the other side...Stay or go. What would you do?

After Tomorrow is set in the UK in the near future. The banks have collapsed and there is a massive shortage of food. Matt's family supplement their food supplies by growing their own produce. While this keeps them from being hungry, it puts them at risk from Raiders - who attack the homes of those who store food.

When things turn from bad to worse, the family plan to escape to France but when Gran has a last minute accident Matt's mum insists that Matt, his younger brother, Taco, and step-father, Justin go ahead without them.

I really enjoyed this book as it takes an very realistic situation and puts an unusual spin on it. We've all seen images of refugees on the news but usually they are from third world or war torn countries. It was interesting to see how British kids might react to such a situation.

The characters were very likeable with Matt and Taco particularly making you care what happens to them. They all have different ways of coping with their new lives and some find it harder than others to adjust. Matt has to take on a lot of responsibility and his relationship with his step-dad changes throughout the story.

The only slight down point I had about the book was that there wasn't a whole lot of explanation about how the crisis in the UK occurs.This is mostly me just being curious though as it doesn't really take anything from the book. In a way it makes sense that it's not fully explained as the story is from Matt's point of view and he probably doesn't understand it all either.

All in all, After Tomorrow is an interesting and thought provoking read with plenty of adventure to keep the pages turning.

Waiting on Wednesday - 22nd May 2013

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. What are you waiting on this week?


The Arrivals - Melissa Marr

Chloe walks into a bar and blows five years of sobriety. When she wakes, she finds herself in an unfamiliar world, The Wasteland. She discovers people from all times and places have also arrived there: Kitty and Jack, a brother and sister from the Wild West; Edgar, a prohibition bootlegger; Francis, a one-time hippie; Melody, a mentally unbalanced 1950s housewife; and Hector, a former carnival artist.

None know why they arrived there--or if there is way out of a world populated by monsters and filled with corruption.

Teaser Tuesday - The Lost Hero

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should be Reading Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others.
* Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

The Lost Hero - Rick Riordan

The room started spinning. Annabeth tried to separate Piper from Rachel, but it was no use. Green smoke enveloped them, and Piper was no longer sure if she was awake or dreaming..

It's Monday - 20th May 3013

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a weekly event to celebrate what we are reading for the week hosted at Book Journey, Post the books completed last week, the books you're currently reading, and the books to be read this week. Please comment or leave a link to let me know what you're reading this week!

Completed last week

Throne of Glass - Sarah J Maas

Currently Reading

 

The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
The Lost Hero - Rick Riordan

Up soon

Nowhere - Jon Robinson

Friday Follow and Hop - 17th May 2013

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Billy at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. It's a chance for book bloggers to connect and share the book love. Click the button for more details and to find the links to some awesome blogs.

This week's question is:
What is your guilty pleasure read?

My guilty pleasure is basically re-reading books that I read as a kid. So maybe Sweet Valley High book or something. Also, I have a bit of a weakness for pretty much any book aimed at eleven-year-old boys - think action adventure, spies, detectives ...

Gain new followers and make new friends with the Book Blogger Feature & Follow! The Feature & Follow is hosted by two hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee's View and Alison of Alison Can Read so be sure to drop by both as they have different feature blogs.

This week's question is:
School is out! What is your favorite Summer Reading book?

I'm not sure I have a favourite summer read, although I guess I'm more likely to pick something a bit lighter and fun if it's warm and sunny outside ... and I'm being optimistic about the UK weather here, it's probably going to be rainy. Saying that though, I'm tempted to reread The Beach by Alex Garland this year.

Review: Throne of Glass - Sarah J Maas

Title: Throne of Glass
Author: Sarah J Maas
Series: Throne of Glass
Format: Uncorrected proof
Pages: 420
Genre: YA Fantasy
Published (UK): 2nd August 2012 (Bloomsbury)

Meet Celaena Sardothien.
Beautiful. Deadly. Destined for greatness.

In the dark, filthy salt mines of Endovier, an eighteen-year-old girl is serving a life sentence. She is a trained assassin, the best of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake: she got caught.

Young Captain Westfall offers her a deal: her freedom in return for one huge sacrifice. Celaena must represent the prince in a to-the-death tournament—fighting the most gifted thieves and assassins in the land. Live or die, Celaena will be free. Win or lose, she is about to discover her true destiny. But will her assassin’s heart be melted?

I was initially a little bit cautious about reading this book as I'd seen a fair amount of hype about it. In my experience books that received this kind of attention before release (especially as it's the first book in a seris) don't always live up to expectations - and in some cases turn out to be down right awful.

Thankfully this book met the hype face on and I was extremely glad to find that it is well written. The plot flows nicely and the main characters are likeable. Celaena meets most of my criteria for a good heroine - actually, I'd be inclined to call her the hero because heroines can be a little pathetic at times; Celaena's an assassin, she holds her own with the boys. I loved the mix of tension and rapport she has with both Captain Westfall and Prince Dorian and that she can at one moment be witty and sarcastic but the next awkward and cautious.

One of my minor issues with the book was that some of the names were annoying at times. The author has, as is often done in this genre, used unusual names and spellings to reflect the fantasy world. While I don't have a problem with this in theory, I did find myself basically skipping over a lot of names because I just couldn't decide how to pronounce them in my head.

My second 'issue' was that at times the story reminded me of a fantasy version of The Hunger Games. To be fair, being compared to that amazing series probably isn't the worst thing in the world but it did make it feel like the story wasn't a hundred percent unique. Saying that though, it's still a really good one.

Throne of Glass is a must read for fans of The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins), Avry of Kazan (Mari V Snyder) and The Seven Kingdoms (Kristin Cashore)

Waiting on Wednesday - 15th May 2013

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. What are you waiting on this week?

Witch Fire - Laura Powell

I loved the first book of this series, so can't wait for this one!

Lucas and Glory are hard at work in WICA (Witchkind Intelligence and Covert Affairs). As part of their training, they learn more about the witch-terrorist organization Endor. It is believed that Endor has infiltrated a boarding school for young witches in Switzerland, so WICA sends their two youngest agents—Lucas and Glory—to the school undercover. There, they learn more about an experimental brain implant that blocks the power of the fae. It’s a dangerous procedure . . . more so than they could ever have imagined.

Teaser Tuesday - Throne of Glass

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should be Reading Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others.
* Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Throne of Glass - Sarah J Maas

She didn't fear the night, though she found little comfort in its dark hours. It was just the time when she slept, the time when she stalked and killed, the time when the stars emerged with glittering beauty and made her feel wonderfully small and insignificant..

It's Monday - 13th May 3013

Oh my gosh! I can't believe it's been almost a year since I blogged here. I've been super busy with work and house renovating, and blogging was one of those "I'll catch up with it next week" things that never really happened. I feel so bad.

However, I've started working from home now so hopefully have a little more time on my hands (Yay, no commuting!) so I'm going to make every effort to get this blog back to how it was.

So, I'm going to kick off with and "It's Monday" post (even though it's technically the early hours of Tuesday here in the UK):

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a weekly event to celebrate what we are reading for the week hosted at Book Journey, Post the books completed last week, the books you're currently reading, and the books to be read this week. Please comment or leave a link to let me know what you're reading this week!

Completed last week

Ghost Town - Rachel Caine
Wartime Farm - Peter Ginn

Currently Reading

Throne of Glass - Sarah J Maas
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins

Up soon

Prodigy - Marie Lu

Bite Club - Rachel Caine