Showing posts with label january 2017. Show all posts

T5W: Underrated Books

Hey my lovelies, this week I decided to try my hand at one of the Top 5 4 Wednesday posts , and this week it is my favourite underrated books. Now this is a topic I could go on and on about. Even before having my blog I used to love undiscovered gems, and having EnglishBlonde has let me find even more, which is why I try to accept as many Indie authors for review as I can. But you can find out more about that on my review policy page. Anyway, back to the post. 

Not necessarily an underated book, but what definitely deserves some more love is the Savant series by Joss Stirling, if you've been following my blog long, then you will already know how much I love this series, and one of this series spin off book's was one of my first ever reviews! But this series is great for anybody simply getting into the YA genre, or enjoys a supernatural read, that's just a bit different. But seriously, if you haven't already you should check it out

The next book on my list, is a seriously amazing book in my opinion, and that is Faceless by Alyssa B. Sheinmel, I posted a review on this a few months a go, which can be found here. Faceless deals with the aftermath of a serious facial disfigurement and deals with the stress and emotional trauma that our MC Maisie goes through by processing what has happened to her and how to effectively deal with it. I go in much more depth in my review, but you should read it, it's an amazing book and really does make you feel appreciative for what you have.

My third book is one that I was actually sent for review and that is the History Major by Michael Phillip Cash. I read this as part of a book tour mid-last year and loved it (You can find my review here). It was such a strange book, not only was it incredibly short (with only 120 pages), it held a ton of character development for the MC and upon till that point and still now I have never read a book like it. To me it was completely original in both plot, philosophical standards and the ending. 

And my final book, is another quite well known book. but it is AMAZING. That is the Hate list by Jennifer Brown. It took me ages, to finally get round to this, but it's great. Would recommend to everyone if I could. The Hate list discusses the hard hitting issue of the before, during and aftermath of school shootings. However, instead of it coming from the shooter or who you would expect the victim to be, it's the shooters girlfriend, who not only blames herself for what went down, but other people also believe she is partially responsible. It is such a great novel, taking you down various twists and turns you never expected to go on, but you are so glad you did(You can find out more here). As it is so important to learn more about these drastic situations that happen far too often. 

And on that slightly depressing (but important) note, that is the end of this weeks Top 5 4 Wednesday post, I am going to try and get some posts done for Wednesdays, but I cannot promise anything, as sometimes the T5W posts, don't take my fancy, but as mentioned in my New Years Resolutions, I'm trying to get 2-3 posts up a week. So I will be trying to do as much as I can. 

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2017 Anticipated Releases (Part 1)

Hey my lovelies, welcome to my most anticipated reads of 2017, these are all of the books I can't wait to be released in the first part of 2017!

Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth

Carve the Mark is one of my anticipated releases, as I remember really enjoying reading the Divergent series, however I have various friends who reread the series recently and claim they did not enjoy it. All I know so far is that its a space opera following two people, in a world where everyone has a powers, with theirs being ones that put themselves at risk to others. Sounds interesting, right?

Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth is expected to be published on January 17th by Katherine Tegen Books.


Kings Cage by Victoria Aveyard

What Victoria Aveyard fan is not hanging on the edge of their seat waiting for this to be released? I know I am, since I picked up Red Queen almost two years ago now. Kings Cage is the second sequel to the best selling Red Queen book, following Mare, a member of the lower class Reds, who finds she has a power, that only the upper class silvers are claimed to have. I have been waiting for this to be released before I'm allowing myself to pick up Glass Sword. I have to say out of all of the Red Queen, this one by far has my least favourite cover.

 King's Cage by Victoria Aveyard is expected to be published on February 7th by HarperTeen.


By Your Side by Kasie West

I read my first Kasie West book, almost two years ago now, and did enjoy the writing, even if I thought the ending was cut off. But it was still a short and sweet contemporary read, which I am hoping this one will be too.

By Your Side by Kasie West is expected to be published on January 31st by HarperTeen.




Caraval by Stephanie Garber

The first thing that attracted me to Caraval, was definitely the cover, because how stunning is this? It's honestly amazing, and I would purchase this for the cover alone, even if the book ends up being crap.

Caraval by Stephanie Garber is expected to be published on January 31st by Flatiron books.



The Winds of Winter by George R.R Martin

And of cause a book that is featured on many anticipated releases list, with no expected publication date, we have the Winds of Winter! The sixth and hopefully second to last book in the Game of Thrones series.

The Winds of Winter by George R.R Martin is expected to be published by HarperVoyager.




Iron Gold by Pierce Brown

Iron Gold is the first book in the second series taking place in the Red Rising world, even though I have yet to read Red Rising, I am hoping to soon. As a lot of people have recommended Pierce Browns books to me.

 Iron Gold by Pierce Brown is expected to be published on August 22nd by Del Rey.

Don't forget to check out my second part to my 2017 Anticipated Releases coming mid 2017. 

Thank you for reading my lovelies, I hope you checked out my first full week of posts last week, if you didn't you can check out them all now. With my second book review of 2017 coming out on Friday, which is *drum roll* 

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Inkitt for Android has launched!

Hey my lovelies, welcome to today's post on Inkitts new android app! A few weeks ago I was asked by Inkitt, to write this little post on their new release. This post is not sponsored in anyway, I just felt that it would be a great edition to all of my readers phones. They successfully launched the iOS app back in November, which was featured in the Books category of the US app store, for more than 4 weeks and become fan favourites for many people.

If you are completely unaware of what Inkitt is, or maybe you've heard of it in passing, but not sure exactly what it could do for you, here is a short and sweet explanation of what exactly Inkitt is. Inkitt is a platform where aspiring and indie authors can share their novels, and readers can find and read new content. However, Inkitt has a very clever algorithm which allows them to analyse reading behaviour in order to predict and find out the very best future best sellers on their website. So the more the readers enjoy, it the more likely it is to be published. With the readers being able to do this for free!




Inkitt for Android has four key features:

  1. It allows readers to access thousands of novels from a large range of fiction genres (including my favourite YA, of cause). 
  2. It offers readers individualised reading suggestions with hand picked novels based on the readers favourite fiction genres
  3. The app offers a customizable look in order to match the user preferences (e.g different colour combinations and range of font sizes)
  4. And the opportunity for readers to keep and save novels to their offline library in order to access them at anytime.
You may be wondering whether or not Inkitt has published any best selling novels and the answer is yes! Since July 2016, Inkitt has published 7 novels in paperback format, six of these then went on to become best sellers on Amazon.One of which I shall be reviewing next week, for my second book review of the year. And the best thing about the app you may ask? It is absolutely free!

Thank you for reading my lovelies! If you haven't already check out this weeks series of posts including; My 2016: A Year in Review, My 2017 New Years Resolutions, 2017 TBR, December Wrap Up and my first book review of the year Famous Last Words by Katie Alender.

Next Bookish Post: 2017 Anticipated Reads (Part 1)

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2017 TBR

Hey my lovelies, welcome to my 2017 TBR! Here are some of the series I plan to read in 2017. This year I have decided to set my reading goal as 50, due to only just meeting my goal last year, so I have plans to read some of these books after I have reached my goal in order to ensure that I do actually meet it this year.

The first series I plan on reading this year, is The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare, I have already read these books, however I'm planning on rereading, in order to finally read Lady Midnight and Lord of Shadows, when it comes out.

The second series I plan on reading this year, is Dorothy Must Die series by Danielle Paige, I received the first book for Christmas this year, and plan on getting the rest of the series, as recently there have been lots of fairy tale retelling's, but I have never heard of a Wizard of Oz one. Especially one, with such as compelling synopsis.

The third series I plan on reading this year, is the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling. If you've been following my blog for along time then you will know I have been trying to read the Harry Potter series for years, it's just that something has always come up, or I've suffered a reading slump, but hopefully 2017 will finally be the year. 2017, the year I read Harry Potter.

The fourth series I plan on reading this year, is the Game of Thrones series by George R.R Martin, I have been a fan of the show for quite a few years now, and as I received the books the Christmas before last, I would like to finally read them, for when Winds of Winter eventually gets released.

Thank you for reading my lovelies, and due to it being the first week of the brand new year I have scheduled a post every day for you guys. 

January 3rd - Christmas Haul
January 4th- 2017 TBR
January 5th- Top 10 books of 2016
January 6th- Book Review: Famous Last Words by Katie Alender
January 7th- Books I planned to read in 2016, but didn't, but will
January 9th - 2017 Anticipated Releases (Part 1)

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December Wrap Up & January TBR

Hey my lovelies, welcome to my December Wrap Up! I didn't read as much as I would have liked, as my goal was 6 books, however only ended up reading 5 books. 

December Wrap Up

The first book I read in December was The Selection by Kiera Cass, I enjoyed this book a lot more than I expected, yes there was points that I didn't like, but I found that it was a very enjoyable read, and really began to route for America. Which is why the second book I read in December was The Elite by Kiera Cass and followed it with The One by (shocklingly) Kiera Cass. Meaning I completed the original Selection trilogy.

The fourth book I read in December was What I Thought was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick, this is the second book written in this world, with little cameos from characters from the first novel, My Life Next Door, which I read earlier this year. I did enjoy What I Thought was True, however it is definitely one of the most long winded books I have ever read, with most of the plot happening in the final 50 pages, which isn't the best when it is 496 pages long.

The fifth book I read in December was Famous Last Words by Katie Alender, this book was not as good as I expected it to be, and you can find out all about why in my first book review of the year, coming out on Friday 6th of January!

January TBR

And for my first tbr of the year I only want to read 5 books. Yes that's it. Quite unambitious for me, right?

Don't forget to check out my other posts coming out this week...
January 1st - 2017 Goals
January 2nd - December Wrap Up & January TBR
January 3rd - Christmas Haul
January 4th- 2017 TBR
January 5th- Top 10 books of 2016
January 6th- first book review
January 7th- Books I planned to read in 2016, but didn't, but will
January 9th - 2017 Anticipated Releases (Part 1)

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2017 New Years Resolutions

Hey my lovelies, welcome to my 2017 goals, which basically leads onto a post of stuff that I plan to do, but most likely won't make it past February, however its always good to make these sort of posts.


Planning

I am someone who really likes planning, the only problem with this is I am terrible at it. Like I won't do anything before I've made a list of things I need to do, however don't tend to accomplish most things on said list. So in order to be prepared I am beginning writing this post on a cold dreary morning in the middle of October, trying to think of things I want to accomplish next year. My solution to all of this is bullet journal-ling. I began bullet journal-ling i early November, and have found that it makes organising my life so much easier. Which hopefully means that I will be completing all of the goals listed below. 

Blogging Goals

My first goal of 2017 is to post 52 book reviews, I will hopefully do this by scheduling and ensuring that I write a review for every book I read. With prioritizing Arcs over, my own pile of books. Meaning overall my goal is to be posting 2-3 times a week with at least one of these being a book review. And to do this I am planning to be a month in advanced for posts, which I am already failing at.

My second goal of 2017 is to read more books than bought. Sounds easy right? Probably not as easy as you originally think. As I really seem to have a compulsion to buy as many books as I can, and my bookshelf can no longer take it. 

I also want to be a lot more vigilant with all of my books, meaning I am going to start tracking my book, purchasing,blogging and author stats. Hopefully, all of this will allow me to compile together, the sort of posts and books that you guys prefer hearing about. I started a reading journal last year, and kept up with it completely until around September time, so this year I plan on tracking all of this in my new Moleskine journal, which I have purchased specifically for reading purposes. 

And my final bookish/blogging goal of 2017 is to start interacting more on social media, as I do have both an Instagram and twitter account dedicated purely to books, which I have been neglecting as of late. 

Personal Goals

I would like to save up enough money to go on holiday with my friends this summer, as I have already had enough of the cold. And to go to V Festival again this year, however this year I believe I will camp, to get the proper experience and to take sunscreen this year. 

I would like to finally Pass my driving test, as I just want to do it now and pass, without them cancelling my test, this goal will get done however, as I already have my test booked for the end of January. 

As so far at college, I have not dropped a grade, I would like to continue to do this, in order to get the grades that will allow me to go to University (Even though I am still unsure about whether or not I want to go).

Thank you for reading my lovelies, and due to it being the first week of the brand new year I have scheduled a post every day for you guys. If you didn't catch my 2016: A Year in Review, you can check it out here. 

January 2nd - December Wrap Up & January TBR
January 3rd - Christmas Haul
January 4th- 2017 TBR
January 5th- Top 10 books of 2016
January 6th- first book review
January 7th- Books I planned to read in 2016, but didn't, but will
January 9th - 2017 Anticipated Releases (Part 1)

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