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.