City of Heavenly Fire Cover Reveal

AHHHHH Its finally here.

The City of Heavenly Fire cover was revealed last night, its the sixth and final book in the Mortal Instrument series.

I don't think I can express how excited I am for this book to be released May can not come quick enough, even though it will be sad to say goodbye to Clary, Jace and all the gang and I know that we are in for some shocking surprises, I still can't wait to see what happens, espcically after the cliff-hanger in book 5.

The cover is awesome it shows Clary holding a sword dressed in white while Sebastian stands in the background with black wings. We all know that someone (or maybe more) are going to die in this book and I am guessing the Clary wearing white is a reflection of this.

 

What do you think of the cover? Do you have any predictions for the final book?

Fictional Crush (January)

Okay, so we all have to admit we occasionally (maybe more than occasionally) wish that some of our favourite fictional characters were real. I know I do and I can even admit to having a tiny incy wincy crush on some of them too.

Now instead of hiding our feelings away I think that this is something we should embrace, something we shouldn't be afraid to announce to the world. Well maybe not the entire world but you know lets not hide the fact that we sometimes crush on people who aren't real.

Once a month (maybe twice) I'm going to talk about my fictional crushes and why I think they are completely crush worthy.

This months pick has to be my first ever book crush Ned Nickerson from the Nancy Drew series.

I'll be honest when I was younger I wanted to grow up and be Nancy Drew, I wanted to solve mysterious, I wanted to be as quirky and witty as she was. Basically everything about her life I wanted including her boyfriend Ned. Thinking back he was the first every character that I had a crush on, the Nancy Drew series was one of the first series where I started to imagine what I would do if I was one of the characters.

“Ned said "Nancy Drew is the best girl detective in the whole world!"
"Don't you believe him," Nancy said quickly. "I have solved some mysteries, I'll admit, and I enjoy it, but I'm sure there are many other girls who could do the same.”  


As I've gotten older I've realised that Ned isn't the greatest guy on earth and that he is a little bit of a bore. But when I was younger all I knew was that he was kind and considerate, he worried about Nancy's safety and all round he seemed like a good guy. He was completely devoted to Nancy and let her shine when it came to solving cases and yet was there to rescue her if he needed to, plus he was the hottest guy in River Heights.

Who was your first fictional crush?

Top Ten 2014 debuts I'm excited for

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

This weeks theme is top ten 2014 debuts that we are looking forward too. I always love reading an authors for the first time, I love hunting down new authors to read. Every year more and more amazing authors are getting published and this year is no exception.

Nearly Gone by Elle Cosimano

 

 

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Page

 

 

Love Letter to the Dead

 

 

The Murder Complex

 

 

Side Effects May Vary

 

 

The Winners Curse by Marie Rutkoski

 

 

Are there any other 2014 debuts that I should be looking out for?

 

Angelfall by Susan Ee

Angelfall by Susan Ee
Penryn End of Days Book 1
 
Release Date: 23rd May 2013

Pages: 325

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Romance, Dystopia

Star Rating: 4.5

It's been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.

Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.

Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels' stronghold in San Francisco where she'll risk everything to rescue her sister and he'll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

A dark and captivating story set in a post apocalyptic world that has been devastated by Angels, cities lie in ruins, most of the population has been wiped out and only a handful of survivors are left doing what they must to get by in a world gone mad. Angels rule and you hope you never have to meet one.

17 year old Penryn lives and breathes this world everyday and with a Mother suffering with Schizophrenia and a sister who is wheelchair bound, she must fight harder than others to keep her family together. The story starts with Penryn and her sister having to flee the apartment they've been living in as its no longer safe. When a fight between a group of Angels breaks out and Penryn watches in horror as one Angel has his wings ripped from his body and her little sister is kidnapped by the same group. Knowing the only way to get her sister back is to work with the broken and battered Angel she must overcome her fears and help him.

Penryn is a strong and beautiful selfless heroine, who will do whatever she has to in order to look after her family. She is the personification of what a protagonist in this genre should be like, it doesn't matter the situation Penryn will use her wits to figure out a way out of it, she is fierce and loyal to a fault and has a strength that is hard to comprehend and yet she comes across as being a normal 17 year old girl, who is so easy to relate too. Susan Ee has done an amazing job at creating a character that is believable in a world that is so far from our own.

Now Raffe, apart from the name which had a few problems initially when trying to pronounce, I absolutely loved him. He was dark, mysterious and a typical bad guy with a twist. Initially he was arrogant and was clearly amused by Penryn's acts of bravado but as the story progresses we get to see a softer and funnier side to him. At first him and Penryn come to and uneasy truce in order to get his wings back and Penryn her sister but as their journey progresses so does their relationship. Whilst not overly romantic, they both start to learn that maybe the other isn't the 'enemy', their banter is witty and funny and was definitely one of my favourite parts about the book. Actually I completely loved everything about this book.

A book that is anything but ordinary, with a plot that never gives up and plenty of twists and turns. The character and wind building is fantastic, Susan Ee creates a vivid and captivating world that I could completely imagine existing with characters that manage to balance each out. A book about doing whatever its takes to look after those you love, about learning to overcome prejudices and a book about finding love in even the bleakest of circumstances.

This is one book that you just have to read to understand just how good it is.

Graphic Novels

I've never been a big graphic novel fan, there isn't a particular reason behind this I've just never had the urge to pick one up before.

However recently this has all changed, my boyfriend is a big comic book fan and he loves exploring our local comic stores for hours on end, looking at all the new releases and well whilst I'm there with him, I end up looking too and I have to say I think I may have a new love, they are quick and easy to read and yet at the same time some are so thought-provoking and create intense emotional reactions from me, the same reactions I get from reading books, I can't believe I've never given them a try before and can we talk about the illustrations. Just wow! I wish I could draw as well as some of these artist, honestly I would love to see some of my favourite books turned into graphic novel form.

Now I am still a complete novice but these are some of the graphic novels that I've read and really enjoyed.

Locke and Key (Welcome to Lovecraft) by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez

"The Eisner-nominated Locke & Key tells of Keyhouse, an unlikely New England mansion, with fantastic doors that transform all who dare to walk through them, and home to a hate-filled and relentless creature that will not rest until it forces open the most terrible door of them all!"

 

Chew (Tasters Choice) by John Layman and Rob Guillory

 

 

Tony Chu is a detective with a secret. A weird secret. Tony Chu is Cibopathic, which means he gets psychic impressions from whatever he eats. It also means he's a hell of a detective, as long as he doesn't mind nibbling on the corpse of a murder victim to figure out whodunit, and why. He's been brought on by the Special Crimes Division of the FDA, the most powerful law enforcement agency on the planet, to investigate their strangest, sickest, and most bizarre cases.

 

 

The Sandman (Preludes and Nocturnes) by Neil Gaiman, Sam Keith and Mike Dringenberg

 



 

In PRELUDES & NOCTURNES, an occultist attempting to capture Death to bargain for eternal life traps her younger brother Dream instead. After his seventy-year imprisonment and eventual escape, Dream, also known as Morpheus, goes on a quest for his lost objects of power. On his arduous journey Morpheus encounters Lucifer, John Constantine, and an all-powerful madman.

 

Maus (My Fathers Bleeds History) by Art Spiegelman

 

A story of a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe and his son, a cartoonist who tries to come to terms with his father's story and history itself.

 

Fables (Legends in Exile) by Bill Willington, Lan Medina, Steve Leialoha and Craig Hamilton 

 

 

When a savage creature known only as the Adversary conquered the fabled lands of legends and fairy tales, all of the infamous inhabitants of folklore were forced into exile. Disguised among the normal citizens of modern-day New York, these magical characters have created their own peaceful and secret society within an exclusive luxury apartment building called Fabletown. But when Snow White's party-girl sister, Rose Red, is apparently murdered, it is up to Fabletown's sheriff, a reformed and pardoned Big Bad Wolf (Bigby Wolf), to determine if the killer is Bluebeard, Rose's ex-lover and notorious wife killer, or Jack, her current live-in boyfriend and former beanstalk-climber.

 

 

Can you recommend any Graphic Novels I should read?

Top Ten Bookish Resolutions

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


This weeks topic on Top Ten Tuesday are  'bookish resolutions' for the new year, whilst I don't have ten I do have a few things I would like to change about my reading habits.

1. Read More Classics - I used to say that Classics were my favourite genre to read and yet in the past year or so I don't think I've picked up a single one and so this year I want to try and read at least one a month.

2. Read More Non-Fiction - I never read non-fiction and yet when I am browsing bookstores it always a section I find myself looking at, especially the popular science books and so this year I want to try and read at least 7 non-fiction titles.

3. Stop giving up on books - I'm not referring to books I'm not enjoying reading this is for those times in a book when something is going wrong for a character, when the world around them is falling apart. Sometimes I don't want to read about bad things happening to them and so I just stop reading. I really do need to stop this because its part of the experience of reading a book, to experience those emotional highs and lows with a character.

4. Read at least 10 books from my TBR pile before I buy anymore books.

5. Try new things - This goes along with reading more non-fiction but I also want to read new authors and new genres, try something within fiction that I wouldn't normally think of picking up.

6. Finish Series - This is something I've been meaning to do for a while now, I've started tons of series and then neglected to pick up the rest, as I've always found something new and shiny to read instead but this year I want to try and finish some so I can finally put them to bed.

I think is this the year that I try to branch out with my reading, explore new avenues and get lost in brand new and exiting adventures.

What are your bookish resolutions?

Home

 

Wanderlust

Wanderlust
-n
a great desire to travel or rove about

I love to travel, who doesn't. The chance to explore a new place, delving into new experiences and new cultures. I love it all.

A couple of years ago I spent two and half months travelling around America, it was one of the best experiences of my life and now in six weeks time and going back again, this time not for as long, just three short weeks but I can't wait.

I'm starting off in New York, then flying to Vancouver, then off to Seattle, then onto Portland and finally to Chicago. I've been to both Chicago an New York before, I loved both cities so much that I am really eager to return. But Vancouver, Seattle and Portland will be a whole new adventure for me. I've never been to Canada before, but its one place I've always wanted to go and I've only ever heard great things about it. I've spent weeks reading through travel blogs and books trying to find the best places to visit to make the most of my short time. I'm going with a couple of friends from work, and considering we are all book crazy we want to try and visit as many bookstores as we can, from the big mega bookstores to the small independent ones, I want to see as many as I can. I want to experience the American and Canadian nightlife, I want live music and local bars. I want to see the local markets, the parks and museums. I especially want to visit the museums, I love going to museums, (side note: I would love to travel around Europe one day on  tour of museums). There is just so much to see and do and I don't want to miss a moment.

"Travel as much as you can. As far as you can. As long as you can. Life's not meant to be lived in one place."

Are there any places you think I should visit whilst I'm there?

Top Ten Books of 2013

2013 was actually a good year in terms of books read for me I beat my goal of 100 by 4 books and I know if I hadn't of slacked of in December and actually finished some books then that number would have been a lot bigger which is why I have set myself a target of 150 for 2014, if I meet this goal then it will be the most books I have ever read in one year, its going to be quite a feat for me but I think will a little perseverance, I am more than capable to doing it.

Now onto last year, as I said I read 104 books last year, some of them I liked, others I loved and some I actually obsessed over. It was really hard for me to pick just 10 books that I loved and would encourage you to read but here are the ones I would recommend you drop everything you're doing and read right away because I loved them that much.

 

1. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

 

Rainbow Rowell was defiantly my discovery of the year in terms of new authors, I fell head over heels with both of her books and the characters and worlds she creates. Fangirl spoke directly to my inner book nerd, I loved Caths obsessive behaviour with the world of Simon Snow, she reminded me of my younger self and my love of Harry Potter fanfiction. Rowell created a wonderful world in which Cath learns to grow and enters the 'real world', a world full of magic of its own kind.

 

2. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Lani Taylor

 

I remember when I found this book, I don't think I shut up about it for weeks and I think I may have actually have fallen in love with Laini Taylor and her words when I read it. From the minute I read the first page, I wanted, no needed to know more. Taylor created a magical and beautiful world and merged it with our own, her words left me speechless and her characters were beautifully flawed, I don't know if I would recommend another book as much as I would this one. I promise you wont be disappointed.

 

3. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephaine Perkins

 

 This book was a breath of fresh air, it was beautiful and heart-breaking and made me want to go back to Paris and have the same experiences as Anna. I wish I could express how much I loved this book, it was beautiful and mesmerizing, Stephanie just has a way with words that creates a world and characters that I would love to experience and to know.
 

4. Throne of Glass by Sarah Maas

 

 

This book is filled to the brim with action, tension, murder, mystery, romance and with a sprinkling of magic. Loyalty is questioned, battle lines are drawn and it is just the start to what is sure to be an epic series. Celaena is such a refreshing chance from the stereotypical characters we often see in books, she is good looking, smart and extremely skilled in combat and boy does she know it. 

 

5. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

 

 

I hadn't heard much about this book before it appeared in work one day and after finishing Daughter of Smoke and Bone I was eager to read something in a similar vain and let me tell you I was not disappointed. Shadow and Bone was an epic fantasy, the characters, the world building all blew me away, from the prologue to the end I was hooked, the writing was beautiful and kept me captivated throughout.

 

6. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

 

I had been eager to read Eleanor and Park since I had first heard about Rainbow Rowell and I think this book is a contender for being my absolute favourite of the year. Eleanor has to be one of the best female characters I have ever had the pleasure of reading about, she individual and quirky. This book gave me those butterflies in my stomach, it made my heart clench and it sent me on a roller-coaster of emotions and the ending, I think I screamed in frustration when I read it, I kept turning the page hoping for something more.

 

7. More Than This by Patrick Ness

 

More than this is an utterly compelling and wonderfully bizarre book, that will keep you hooked from the opening chapter, when our main protagonist dies whilst swimming on the beach and wakes up back in his childhood home. The events that occur throughout the rest of the book will have you second guessing everything you thought you knew. Ness keeps us on the edge of our seats and has created a diverse set of characters that you'll learn to love. More than this challenges the human nature and the fact that we are always searching for 'more than this'.

8. All my Friends are Superheroes

 

I think this was one of the shortest books I read this year and it was recommended to me by a lot of the people I work with and I loved it. It was funny and quirky, I loved all the little descriptions of the different types of superheroes that exist. It was a romantic comedy in a small little package and will leave you feeling warm inside. 

 

9. Forgive me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick

 

This book was an interesting look and compelling story about a depressed teenager and what he perceives to be his last day on earth, the book jumps between different times in Leonards life and those life changing moments, as Leonard starts to say goodbye to all the people who have changed his life in some way, whether they realise it or not. It was a surprisingly sweet story and made me think about how people effect may our lives in the smallest of ways.

 

10. Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder

 

This was the last book I read in 2013 and from the moment I picked it up I couldn't put it down. Touch of Power is the first book in the Avery of Kazan series and if you like high fantasy then you should defiantly give it a try. Snyder has created a magical world, full of mayhem and danger, her characters are funny and loyal. Every chapter brings a new threat to Avery so its never boring. I ran out and bought the sequel as soon as I had finished it.

In other news, as I'm writing this post I am actually watching or should I say catching up on some NHL, I haven't watched that many games before but one of my close friends is a major Chicago Blackhawks fan and considering we are heading over to America in a couple of weeks and we are actually going to watch a game I figured I should get to grips with it.

Now if you didn't know I am more an NFL girl myself but I have to say once I got my head around the speed of the sport I am really enjoying watching it, I'm not sure I fully understand all the rules yet but I am sure that that will come with time. It's definitely more of an aggressive sport, its strange that fighting is actually acceptable but boy do these guys have some skill on the ice, I'm more of a grip the sides of a rink girl myself.

 

What were your favourite books of 2013? Do you agree with any of mine?

Let's talk: Reading Habits

Okay so I've got a little confession to make, recently I've been starting books but not actually finishing them now this isn't one or two books its a lot, 11 to be exact.

I don't know why I keep doing this, sometimes is simply because I just am in the mood to read a different genre of book and sometimes its because the story itself isn't keeping me entertained and then other times its because I can tell something bad is about to happen in the story and I don't want to read about it just yet, I just want to keep envisioning everything being perfectly happy for my characters for a little while longer and then in one case its because the subject nature of the story hit a little close to home and I couldn't quiet bring myself to carry on reading it just yet.

Now I will get round to finishing them, that's actually going to be my goal for this month is to finish what I've started to read and this shouldn't be too hard to complete considering I'm over half way through most of these books.

Do you ever struggle to finish reading books?

A New Year, A New Blogger

 

I hope you all had a wonderful time bringing in the new year last night, whatever it was you choose to do.

 

Welcome to 2014, its a new year, time to forget about all the bad things that may have happened last year and a chance for a fresh start (even though I am a firm believer that it doesn't have to be a new year for you to have a fresh start). A time to make those new years resolutions and to try and stick to them.

 

So in keeping with the theme of a 'fresh start' and 'resolutions', I have decided to do this with my blog, I haven't posted a review since September and even though this was mainly due to my laptop dying a very slow and painful death it was also because I just wasn't putting any effort in, I would get so bogged down with real life that I never took the time to do anything with my blog and even though some may think that this was because I didn't like blogging, I can honestly say nothing is further from the truth, I love blogging, I love talking about books and sharing my passion with other passionate readers, I love discovering new authors, I've found hundreds of new books through reading peoples blogs, books I would have never dreamt of picking up before and you know what some of them have become my favourite books and now I recommend others to read them too. That is the point of blogging for me, to be able to share and express my love of reading.  So no more slacking off, instead of filling notebooks with ideas for my blog I actually need to put them into practise, this is the time for me to get back into blogging and this time to do so seriously.

 

• Write more reviews: This is one of my biggest downfalls in regards to blogging, I enjoy writing reviews I like that feeling of satisfaction I get when I've particularly loved a book and I get a chance to tell the world about it and I want to do this more. I need to write my posts in advance and schedule them so that I don't stress about finding the time to write one.
• Be more active: This is one of my biggest downfalls I don't tend to interact with many other people in the blogging community, consider I struggle sometimes to find time to write my own posts I never seem to have any time to look at other people's but this is going to change, even if its just a select few I keep updated with it will be an improvement on what I do now.
• Branch out: As much as I love books and my blog will never change to being solely centred around books, I do want to try and make this blog a little more personal, so this year you'll probably see more posts about me and what I've been up to. Plus I want to try and make everything more conversational, make posts that get people interacting and chatting.

 

I've got lots of ideas in my head at the moment as to what I want to do with my blog and now its just making sure I implement them. I've already got a few reviews written and ready to be posted. Sometimes starting anew is exactly what you need and that's what I feel like I am currently doing with my blog, I gave it a mini facelift yesterday and got rid of a lot of clutter and now I feel like it looks a lot cleaner and fresher.

 

 

Now onto the most important decision of the year so far what book should I read first?