Month: August 2015

August Wrap Up and Book Haul

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I had a pretty good reading month this month. I read 7 books, almost half of that being the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. Including the amazing Queen of Shadows which comes out on September 1st! In other interesting news, earlier this month I was featured by Hazel from Stay Bookish for her Novel Portraits feature. So that was super exciting! I also got a new lens for my camera, the Lensbaby Spark which takes awesome crazy photos. So you can look forward to some of those next month. Read and Reviewed this month: The Looking Glass House by Vanessa Tait – 3/5 stars – Review. The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes – 5/5 stars – Review. Lair of Dreams (The Diviners II) by Libba Bray – 4.5/5 stars (I actually read this last month bu only posted my review this month) – Review. Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass II) by Sarah J. Maas 5/5 stars Review. Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass III) by Sarah J. Maas – 5/5 stars – Review. Queen of …

Recom-Monday-Tions – Graceling by Kristin Cashore

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“I’m not going to wear a red dress,” she said. “It would look stunning, My Lady,” she called. She spoke to the bubbles gathered on the surface of the water. “If there’s anyone I wish to stun at dinner, I’ll hit him in the face.” Set in a kingdom where a small percentage of the population are born with Graces, meaning they are super-dooper talented in one particular thing, any one found to be a Graceling immediately becomes property of the king. People can have all sorts of Graces, from cooking, to dancing, and in Katsa’s case, killing. Katsa spends her early life being the king’s goon and beating/killing people for him. And then one day she decides that it probably isn’t the life she wants, and well who is going to stop a Graceling graced with killing? You? No? I didn’t think so. I absolutely love this book. Mainly for Katsa. Katsa is awesome. A little overly aggressive, but we all have our flaws. Po (the love interest) and Bitterblue (a little girl in …

Book Review: Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas

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I was sent this book by Bloombury Australia for review… but at the time I hadn’t actually read books two or three in the series. So I have been marathoning this series over the past couple of weeks and I have enjoyed it so so so much! You can see my reviews for Crown of Midnight here, and Heir of Fire here, and my Recom-Monday-Tions post about Throne of Glass here. This is now one of my absolute favourite series! It will be difficult to review this without spoiling anything in the series, but I will try. This series gets better with each consecutive book you read, and Queen of Shadows is by far my favourite. I absolutely couldn’t put it down. There was not a single moment where I felt bored or where my mind wandered to other things. It is just completely all-consuming. There are some new characters in this book who are absolutely delightful, and we finally meet Arrobyn, the King of Assassins that Celaena used to work for, for the first …

Book Review: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

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This is one of those books that Tumblr raves about, which had been sitting on my shelf for so long unread. But I finally just decided to get it off Audible. I was expecting to love this book and thought it would be completely soul-crushing, but honestly I didn’t love it. It didn’t make me feel anything but some slight nostalgia of what teen love was like. But that’s pretty much it. What it’s about: Eleanor is finally allowed to come home after being kicked out one year earlier. On her first day at school she meets Park on the bus, and they start up a forbidden romance. Why forbidden? you ask. Because Eleanor’s stepfather is a psycho. What did I think: Honestly, I didn’t love it. Due to my black black heart and love of magic, Contemporary Romance isn’t my favourite genre to begin, but I was expecting to like this a lot more than I did. I think the main reason I didn’t love this was that I didn’t really like Eleanor, like at all. She felt …

Friday Photographer Feature – Darcy’s Book Blog

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Happy Friday, everyone! This week’s feature almost didn’t happen because of my lack of organisational skills but we got there in the end. This week’s lovely photographer is the wonderful Kelsey from Darcy’s Book Blog. I love her photos, especially the dark ones. Dark book photos are so thoroughly underrated in my opinion. I love them and I don’t feel like there are enough of them. Question Time! Name: Kelsey Location: Illinois, USA Favourite book: Hmm…Right now it would probably have to be The Wrath & The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh. Or A Court of Thorns & Roses by Sarah J. Maas. This is tough. Favourite classic: Oh boy, this is a tough one…It’s a toss up between Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, or Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. Favourite book to photograph: Probably Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. Such a gorgeous yet simple cover. Also Seraphina by Rachel Hartman. That cover is simply gorgeous. Hogwarts house: Hufflepuff Random Question: If you could steal one potion from Snape’s storeroom, what would you steal and …

Recom-Monday-Tions – Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

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“You could rattle the stars,” she whispered. “You could do anything, if only you dared. And deep down, you know it, too. That’s what scares you most.” Okay, this one should be no surprise, as it’s quite obviously my current obsession. I read Throne of Glass ages ago but never picked up the second one because all the spoilers on Tumblr had serious given me the cranks and I was throwing a bit of a tantrum. But I was a total fool. I finally read the next two books in a mad rush when I was sent Queen of Shadows for review by Bloomsbury. And trust me, you need this series in your life. Throne of Glass is the story of Celaena Sardothian, who is the most famous assassin in Adarlan. Well, she was until she was caught and ended up serving a life sentence as a slave in the salt mines of Endovier. But then a spunky young prince, and his spunky captain of the guard come and give her an opportunity to win …

Book Review: Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

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Well, well, well. Sarah J. Maas is quickly making it onto my list of favourite authors, because Heir of Fire was absolutely awesome. “And then I am going to rattle the stars.” As always, as this is a sequel this review will be quite short, and wont contain any spoilers of the series. So it will basically be me ranting about how amazing it was for a while. This is the third book in the Throne of Glass series, which is about the assassin, Celaena Sardothian and her wild exploits. These books really do keep getting more and more amazing as they go along so I am eagerly anticipating Queen of Shadows (which is sitting right next to me just begging to be opened. *purrs* Soon, my pet. Soon). In this installment of the series, we delve farther into Celaena’s past, and learn just how much she had endured during her rather short life, and grows hugely as a character. If you loved Celaena before, you will love her even more now. I promise. For …

Friday Photographer Feature – Quentale

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Thank goodness it’s Friday, am I right? Firstly, I just wanted to mention, that if you like this feature you may also be interested in Novel Portraits by Hazel from Stay Bookish, who this week featured me. You can see my Novel Portraits feature here. Today’s amazing photographer is just starting out on her book blogging journey and I am already in love with her amazing photos. So let’s all make Hannah from Quentale feel welcome. Questions! Name: Hannah Location: An impossibly small town in the Blue Ridge Mountains Favourite book: I feel like my answer for this could change every other day. Only choosing from books I’ve read several times I’d say A Room with a View or Ender’s Game (it gets me every time). Favourite classic: Jane Eyre Favourite book to photograph: The Fairyland Series by Catherynne M. Valente. They are beautiful inside and out. Hogwarts house: I think the Sorting Hat would have a tough time deciding between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff for me. Random Question: Which book character would you like to …

Book Review: Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray

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I had been waiting so so so long for this installment of this series! Thank you to Allen and Unwin for providing me with a copy of this book! As this is the sequel to The Diviners, I don’t want to give any spoilers of either book so this review will be fairly brief. Firstly, The Diviners is about a young psychic flapper, Evie, from Ohio who after revealing a few too many secrets, ends up being sent to live with her occult-researcher uncle in New York, where they team up to help catch a supernatural serial killer. Lair of Dreams picks up several months after The Diviners finishes. What’s it about: Something is unleashed in New York’s underground which seems to be invading people’s dreams. Henry teams up with another Dreamwalker to investigate the dreamworld. Also, Mable and Theta spend some time just basically being awesome, and Evie gets drunk… a lot. What I thought: Well first up, this book was not what I expected, mainly in that it’s not really about Evie at all. …