Showcase Sunday #80

Showcase Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by Vicky at Books, Biscuits and Tea. This meme allows book bloggers to show off the books they collected over the last week.

Hello everyone! Apologies for not doing a Showcase Sunday last week. I was heading off to Edinburgh again and never had time to get it done before I left. So I have two weeks worth of books to show you guys today. I haven't actually bought that many books - I'm trying to not spend as much on books so I can actually start saving money now. 

But I did get an early release book from one of the Edinburgh signings I went to and one of my physical pre-orders finally showed up (about a week after I got the kindle version because I was impatient). I also bought a few kindle books and got quite a few review books from Edelweiss and Netgalley. I also got a lovely package from My Kinda Book!

Bought

• Physical

Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass #3) by Sarah J Maas

I HAVE HEIR OF FIREEEEE!! I honestly went slightly crazy in the children's bookstore at the Edinburgh Book Festival when I saw this and quickly grabbed myself a copy because there were hardly any copies left - and I got it signed!

Isla and the Happily Ever After (Anna and the French Kiss #3) by Stephanie Perkins

• kindle

Isla and the Happily Ever After (Anna and the French Kiss #3) by Stephanie Perkins

Struck (Struck #1) by Joss Stirling

One Tiny Lie (Ten Tiny Breaths #2) by K. A. Tucker

Netgalley

Unspeakable by Abbie Rushton

Love and Other Unknown Variables by Shannon Lee Alexander

The Iron Trial (Magisterium #1) by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

Edelweiss

The Orphan Queen (The Orphan Queen #1) by Jodi Meadows

Solitaire by Alice Oseman

The Memory Key by Liana Liu

Better Than Perfect by Melissa Kantor

How to Win at High School by Owen Matthews

No Parking at the End Times by Bryan Bliss

Lies I Told by Michelle Zink

Review

Trial by Fire (Worldwalker #1) by Josephine Angelini

MASSIVE thank you to MyKindaBook for sending me a copy of Trial by Fire and my very own willstone necklace!

I also picked up this Grisha bookmark and badge at the Leigh Bardugo & Maureen Johnson signing, and I came across a jewellery stall in Sloans Market in Glasgow that does book related necklaces so I picked up an angelic rune one for The Mortal Instruments! Expect more book related necklace to follow now!

What books did you get this week?

Waiting on Wednesday #88

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event,  hosted by breaking the spine, that spotlights upcoming
releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan

Series: The Heroes of Olympus #5

Publisher: Penguin

Publication Date: October 7th 2014

Though the Greek and Roman crew-members of the Argo II have made progress in their many quests, they still seem no closer to defeating the earth mother, Gaea. Her giants have risen—all of them—and they're stronger than ever. They must be stopped before the Feast of Spes, when Gaea plans to have two demigods sacrificed in Athens. She needs their blood—the blood of Olympus—in order to wake.

The demigods are having more frequent visions of a terrible battle at Camp Half-Blood. The Roman legion from Camp Jupiter, led by Octavian, is almost within striking distance. Though it is tempting to take the Athena Parthenos to Athens to use as a secret weapon, the friends know that the huge statue belongs back on Long Island, where it "might" be able to stop a war between the two camps.

The Athena Parthenos will go west; the Argo II will go east. The gods, still suffering from multiple personality disorder, are useless. How can a handful of young demigods hope to persevere against Gaea's army of powerful giants? As dangerous as it is to head to Athens, they have no other option. They have sacrificed too much already. And if Gaea wakes, it is game over.

I NEED THIS BOOK SO BAD. For those of you who don't know, I love this series. I was really sad to let the characters go when Percy Jackson & the Olympians ended, but then I fell straight into this series and realised I didn't have to let them go just yet. But it's the end now. The end for Percy, Annabeth, Piper, Jason, Hazel, Leo, Frank & Nico. I just adore everything about this series: the characters, the crazy adventures, and I just can't believe it's almost over. But I still want this book so bad.

What are you waiting on this week?

Top Ten Books I Really Want To Read But Don't Own Yet

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This weeks topic is:

Top Ten Books I Really Want To Read But Don't Own Yet

What books do you REALLY want to read but haven't gotten around to buying yet?

Waiting on Wednesday #87

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event,  hosted by breaking the spine, that spotlights upcoming
releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

They All Fall Down by Roxanne St. Claire

Series: No

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Publication Date: October 14th 2014

Pretty Little Liars meets Final Destination in this YA psychological thriller that will have readers' hearts racing right till the very end!

Every year, the lives of ten girls at Vienna High are transformed.

All because of the list.

Kenzie Summerall can't imagine how she's been voted onto a list of the hottest girls in school, but when she lands at number five, her average life becomes dazzling. Doors open to the best parties, new friends surround her, the cutest jock in school is after her.

This is the power of the list. If you're on it, your life changes.

If you're on it this year? Your life ends.

All I had to read to completely suck me in for this book was 'Pretty Little Liars meets Final Destination'. I was sold the second I read that sentence. And then when I read the rest of the synopsis I got even more excited for it! It sounds like it's going to be an extremely tense and thrilling read and I can't wait for it to be released!

What are you waiting on this week?

Top Ten Books People Have Been Telling You That You MUST Read

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This weeks topic is:

Top Ten Books People Have Been Telling You That You MUST Read

1. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

2. Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
3. A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin
4. Dark Lover by J. R. Ward
5. The Mad Scientist's Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clarke

6. Charm and Strange by Stephanie Kuehn
7. Shipwrecked by Siobhan Curham
8. Parallel by Lauren Miller
9. Blood Red Road by Moira Young
10. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

What books have you been recommended to read?

Bout of Books 11: Progress

Bout of Books 11 is a week long read-a-thon that runs from Monday 18th August to Sunday 24th August. To find out more and to sign up for Bout of Books, click here!

Monday

Books Read: 1

No. of Pages Read: 70 pages

Challenges: Book Scavenger Hunt @ The Book Monster

A book that begins with "B"

A book that has been made into a movie/tv show

A series you love

An anthology of poems or short stories

A book on your TBR shelf or your full TBR shelves

Blogs Visited: 8

I definitely didn't have as much time for reading as I'd hoped today. I was a lot busier than I thought and also Celeb BB started in the UK tonight and I always watch the launch show, so that kind of took up my reading time tonight. I'm aiming to finish Heir of Fire tomorrow though!

Tuesday

Books Read: 1
No. of Pages Read: 58 pages 

Challenges: One True Pairing @ Infinite Ink

This required a lot of thought because I have a lot of book couples that I love, but I think my OTP has to be Will and Tessa (Wessa) from The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare. God. These two had an extremely rough journey before they even stood a chance at possibly being together. The extremely close friendship between these two characters was something that I was rooting for to turn romantic from half way through Clockwork Angel. I just adore Will and Tessa and how amazing they are together and they made me cry on countless occasions.

Blogs Visited: 0

So far, I'm sucking at this read-a-thon. I thought I'd have a lot more time to read today, but I totally forgot I was going to the cinema after work. And when I got back all I wanted to do was go to bed, but I made myself read another chapter or two of Heir of Fire to get my pages count up a bit more.
After I've done everything I need to do tomorrow, I'm going to lie in bed and finish Heir of Fire.

Wednesday

Books Read: 2
No. of Pages Read: 244 pages (finished Heir of Fire) & 23% of Isla

Challenges: 0

Blogs Visited: 0

Day 3 and I've finally finished my first book! *throws confetti*
Heir of Fire may have destroyed me though. The ending made me sob and was soul destroying. So I decided to move onto Isla instead of Timebound because I needed something light after all the heart-break. 
Tomorrow I need to give myself a kick up the arse and visit a ton of blogs to make up for yesterday and today.

Thursday

Books Read: 2
No. of Pages Read: 77% of Isla (finished) & 61 pages of Timebound

Challenges: 0

Blogs Visited: About 25? I didn't comment on all of them, but I did find quite a few new blogs to follow! 

Well, I stayed up until 2.30am this morning finishing Isla because it was so freaking adorable that I just couldn't put it down and spent the entire time reading it with either a stupid grin on my face or tears rolling down my cheeks (or both)! And then I had a terrible start to my day when I woke up which really didn't put me in the mood to read at all. so I only managed to get through 60 pages of Timebound (which was a lot less than I'd planned). But today was still a great reading day since I finished my second book :)

Friday

Books Read: 1
No. of Pages Read: 38 pages

Challenges: 0

Blogs Visited: 5 (no comments because I had absolutely no time today)

Today has been a busy, busy day and I'm absolutely shattered. I'd planned to come home and get about 100 pages of Timebound read, but I'm waaaaay too tired. I should have quite a bit of time during the day tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be able to catch up on commenting on other blogs and also finish Timebound!

Saturday

Books Read: 0
No. of Pages Read: 0

Challenges: 0

Blogs Visited: 0

I did absolutely no reading or anything today whatsover. Blah.

Sunday

Books Read: 1
No. of Pages Read: 133 pages

Challenges: 0

Blogs Visited: 0

Today was also a sucky reading day but that's because I was through in Edinburgh with my fiancé for the Leigh Bardugo & Maureen Johnson event at the Edinburgh Book Festival - which was awesome! And then we watched some American Horror Story when we got back and now I'm tired and want to sleep so bad. So yet another sucky reading day.

Wrap Up

Total No. of Books Finished: 2

Books Read: Heir of Fire by Sarah J Maas; Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins & Timebound by Rysa Walker (NOT FINISHED).

So I read two and a half books this week... which is really sucky for me. I never pushed myself at all, instead I was just being extremely lazy. I'm going to spend Monday making up for not visiting blogs some days of the week and I'll be visiting tons (hopefully)!

Let me know in the comments how you're getting on with Bout of Books!

A Kiss in the Dark by Cat Clarke

A Kiss in the Dark by Cat Clarke
Series: No
Publisher: Quercus
Publication Date: March 27th 2014
Source: Netgalley [Quercus Children's]

When Alex meets Kate the attraction is instant.

Alex is funny, good-looking, and a little shy - everything that Kate wants in a boyfriend.

Alex can't help falling for Kate, who is pretty, charming and maybe just a little naive...

But one of them is hiding a secret, and as their love blossoms, it threatens to ruin not just their relationship, but their lives.

A Kiss in the Dark is the very first Cat Clarke book I’ve ever read and I’m wondering why it’s taken me so long to read one of her books. A Kiss in the Dark is definitely one of the strangest, most beautifully written and heart breaking novels I’ve ever read.

The book follows our two main characters Alex and Kate who meet for the first time and they are instantly attracted to one another. But one of them is hiding a secret that will threaten their relationship and change both of their lives forever.

I made an assumption when I started reading this book, and I’m pretty sure that most people did. Because of the way the book is written it’s a very easy assumption to make. The secret that one of the characters is hiding is revealed pretty quickly and I was extremely surprised. It’s what completely hooked me in because I was dying to know how the secret was going to affect their relationship and whether the truth would ever come out.

I loved both Alex and Kate, even if Kate did completely change during the second half.

Alex was a shy, sweet and funny character. As soon and Alex meets Kate you could tell that there was an instant attraction. Alex genuinely loved Kate and would do anything for her.

Kate was a naïve, adorable and sweet character, but my opinion of her completely changed during the second half of the book because she did something horrible.

My emotions were all over the place reading this novel because it was full of heart breaking moments and moments that left me wanting to scream. A Kiss in the Dark is a book I can’t say much about because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone because it’s a book that needs to be read.

Overall, A Kiss in the Dark was a beautifully written novel with a deep message behind it. It was such an amazing book and I’ll definitely be looking forward to reading more of Cat Clarke’s books in the future.

Bout of Books 11: Goals

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 18th and runs through Sunday, August 24th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. 

For all Bout of Books 11 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team.

Goals
So for Bout of Books 11 I'm giving myself quite a big TBR list since I can't seem to stick to a specific amount of books. So hopefully giving myself a variety of books to read will help me stick to it!

I'm hoping to be able to finish 5 or 6 books; Participate in at least 5 challenges and hopefully take part in at least 1 twitter chat since I couldn't take part in any of the last ones.

I also want to try to visit at least 5 new blogs per day and find some new people to follow.

So that's my goals for Bout of Books 11! Let me know in the comments if you're taking part and what your goals for the read-a-thon are.

Showcase Sunday #79

Showcase Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by Vicky at Books, Biscuits and Tea. This meme allows book bloggers to show off the books they collected over the last week.

Hello everyone! I'm back from London! I'm still absolutely shattered, but I need to be up and out again this morning because I'm off to the Edinburgh Book Festival for the Sarah J Maas signing! I had an absolutely fantastic time in London, but I'm so glad to be home. I didn't think I'd miss Glasgow so much!

London basically robbed me. I think I must have spent about £100 on books... I was on holiday! That's how I'm justifying it. So I was carting a total of 13 books home with me on the train: two from Waterstones; 3 from The Works and 8 from Foyles.

Bought

• Physical

Say Her Name by James Dawson

Far From You by Tess Sharpe

Red Hill by Jamie McGuire

Into the Still  Blue (Under the Never Sky #3) by Veronica Rossi

Prince of Shadows by Rachel Caine

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (Fairyland #1) by Catherynne M. Valente

Every Day by David Levithan

The DUFF by Kodi Keplinger

Blackfin Sky by Kat Ellis

To All the Boys I've Loved Before (To All the Boys I've Loved Before #1) by Jenny Han

Dissonance (Dissonance #1) by Erica O' Rourke

Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin #1) by Robin LaFevers

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

I also picked up some pretty cool book related necklaces from some markets stalls in Camden and I'm completely in love with them (especially the time turner).

What books did you get this week?

Chasing Stars by Helen Douglas

Chasing Stars by Helen Douglas

Series: After Eden #2

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Publication Date: 

Source: Netgalley

The boy Eden loves just saved her life. Now she must save his. To do so she must make a huge sacrifice. Eden can never see her friends or family again, as she travels a hundred years into the future. But the dangerous risk Ryan took to rescue Eden has been uncovered, and now Ryan faces an exile ...which will leave Eden separated from him - the one person she can't live without - and stuck in the future. She must fight to save both of them.

The mesmerising sequel to the author's wonderful debut, After Eden.

After reading After Eden last year and enjoying it, I knew I had to get my hands on Chasing Stars and find out what was in store for Eden and Ryan next.

Chasing Stars was a fantastic sequel that I enjoyed just as much as After Eden. Chasing Stars starts off with Eden trying to escape from Travis – who’s trying to kill her – and Ryan travels back in time (illegally) to save her. Eden and Travis find themselves in trouble when someone from the future comes looking for Ryan and brings them both back with her. Ryan is facing some serious charges for travelling back in time to save Eden, so Eden realises it’s now her turn to save Ryan.

I was actually quite excited to get to see Ryan’s future. I loved learning about his world; the foods they ate; what they did for fun and how everything worked. It was fascinating. I also really loved meeting Ryan’s friend Peg. He was so helpful and hilarious and really looked out for Eden.

Eden and Ryan’s relationship is adorably cute and I just wanted everything to work out for them. They’re both really great characters.

I don’t usually like open endings, but it definitely worked for Chasing Stars. There are so many possible opportunities of where Ryan and Eden could end up and I actually found myself happy with it.

Overall, Chasing Stars was a great sequel to After Eden and a great end to the duology.

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
Series: No
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: May 13th 2014
Source: Netgalley

A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution.
An accident.
A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.

We Were Liars is going to be one of those books that I’m going to have trouble reviewing. Not because I hated it, in fact, it was quite the opposite - but because I’m terrified of writing the wrong thing and giving too much away. This is one of those books that I definitely recommend going into knowing as little as possible, because that definitely makes the story better.

I received a digital review copy of We Were Liars from Netgalley and I was super excited to read it. And then around it release date everyone seemed to be reading it and raving about it, which slightly lessened my interest for this book. I waited until a lot of the hype surrounding it died down before I picked it up. Waiting also helped because I forgot everything I’d read about the book and I’d forgotten the synopsis – which I didn’t look at before I started reading it. And I’m glad I didn’t.

We Were Liars is a beautifully written novel that follows 4 friends who spend summer after summer on a beautiful private island. There was an accident one summer and Cadence lost her memory. Her friends and family spend the summer tip-toeing around her and wondering whether she’ll ever remember what happened.

I’m going to be completely honest here; I almost put this book down. To start with, it wasn’t really gripping my attention that much and it was just kind of bland. But boy am I glad I stuck it out. It’s one of those books that you need the back story before getting to the big reveal. So even though there were parts of the back story I found boring, overall, I did enjoy hearing about Cadence, Gat Johnny and Mirren’s previous summers on the island. I also really loved hearing the family history behind the Sinclair family and all of their family drama definitely added a lot to the story.

The build up to the main reveal at the end was fantastic and that twist left me in tears. I never saw it coming; it was heart-breaking and also such an amazing twist. I just want to applaud E. Lockhart for that ending because it was superb. It broke my heart and made me ugly sob, but it was fantastic. 

Overall, despite the slightly boring parts, I loved We Were Liars. I adored all four of the Liars and I loved uncovering what happened the summer of Cadence’s accident. We Were Liars is one of those books that I’m just going to recommend to everyone now because it’s fantastic.

Waiting on Wednesday #86

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event,  hosted by breaking the spine, that spotlights upcoming
releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Trust Me, I'm Lying by Mary Elizabeth Summer

Series: No

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Publication Date: October 14th 2014

Julep Dupree tells lies. A lot of them. She’s a con artist, a master of disguise, and a sophomore at Chicago’s swanky St. Agatha High, where her father, an old-school grifter with a weakness for the ponies, sends her to so she can learn to mingle with the upper crust. For extra spending money Julep doesn’t rely on her dad—she runs petty scams for her classmates while dodging the dean of students and maintaining an A+ (okay, A-) average.

But when she comes home one day to a ransacked apartment and her father gone, Julep’s carefully laid plans for an expenses-paid golden ticket to Yale start to unravel. Even with help from St. Agatha’s resident Prince Charming, Tyler Richland, and her loyal hacker sidekick, Sam, Julep struggles to trace her dad’s trail of clues through a maze of creepy stalkers, hit attempts, family secrets, and worse, the threat of foster care. With everything she has at stake, Julep’s in way over her head . . . but that’s not going to stop her from using every trick in the book to find her dad before his mark finds her. Because that would be criminal.

The main two things that drew me to this book were the Title and the Cover. The cover is stunning, and the title definitely makes it sound interesting. And then I read the synopsis and was even more drawn in by this book. The synopsis sounds fantastic and I'm definitely intrigued to find out where Julep's father has gone and what's actually going on. This is definitely one I'll be pre-ordering and I can't wait until it's released!

What are you waiting on this week?