Monday 31 March 2014

Monthly Round-Up: March

Hello! March has been a sort of okay month for me reading wise, but not particularly great. I did get to go to the Hot Key Books blogger brunch with Piccadilly Press and Templar books also taking part, and got to meet/see a lot of bloggers again, which was lovely.

Books read:

The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Young Avengers Volume 2 by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie
We Were Liars by E Lockhart
Say Her Name by James Dawson
Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr
Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira

Total: 7 

Books reviewed:

Book of the Month:

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith. I luuuurved this book. But We Were Liars and Say Her Name were both excellent reads, too. And I adore Young Avengers.


At Hot Key I got to see a bunch of lovely bloggers (which I am going to try and name here but I may accidentally miss some people out it was a few weeks ago) like Lucy (Queen of Contemporary/UKYA Lucy), Lucy (Choose YA Lucy), Faye, Debbie, Stacey, Michelle, Georgia, Daphne, Nina... Um, I think that was it? Out of the people that I saw and talked to, any way. There were also several Booktubers there who I did not know, but they seemed really lovely, too! It was just a really nice event with books and pizza, so what more do you need really. Plus we got to take home a whole load of books, so thank you so much Hot Key, Piccadilly Press and Templar Books! Also, thank you to all the Bloggers who I swapped books with!

So, that was my March. And now onwards to April (and more importantly, GAME OF THRONES ONE WEEK TO GO CAN YOU TELL I'M EXCITED)



                         

Wednesday 26 March 2014

Grasshopper Jungle review

Grasshopper Jungle
Andrew Smith
February 27th 2014
Electric Monkey

In the small town of Ealing, Iowa, Austin and his best friend Robby have accidentally unleashed an unstoppable army. An army of horny, hungry, six-foot-tall praying mantises that only want to do two things. This is the truth. This is history. It's the end of the world. And nobody knows anything about it.

Funny, intense, complex and brave, Grasshopper Jungle is a groundbreaking, genre-bending, coming-of-age stunner.


This book was just wild from start to finish. It is so weird and so gross and so great I don't even have the words to describe my feelings about this book. Though that's probably more because I still do not really know how I feel about it... This is starting to look like a recurring theme with my reviews. I did definitely like it a whole bloody lot though. But I'm still not sure why, so I should probably think on that.

One thing I know I definitely loved about it was Austin, and specifically Austin's general sort of confusion about his sexuality, and the fact that he was such a teenage boy in all his horniness and historian-ness (okay, maybe not a teenage boy thing necessarily, but whatever) and everything else-ness. I appreciated the fact that he was questioning his sexuality because there's a lot of books about straight people, and there are not enough books about other sexualities. And from my limited experience, it seems like a lot of those are books about people who know that they're gay/bi/not straight. But again, I have read only a few books about LGBT characters (which sucks). Anyway, back to the point! I am a teenager. I am not going to lie, I'm not really sure about my sexuality. That's probably not something I should openly admit when I have very little idea what I am/who I want to do the do with/whether I want to do the do at all/whatever. I AM CONFUSED. As such, reading a book about someone who is confused makes me feel a hell of a lot better. Also, putting it in the context of this crazy praying-mantis-apocalypse really normalises it. So I think that was a very clever move. Though I would just like to state for the record that I am nowhere near as horny as Austin is. He is a real dynamo. I literally do not understand how someone can be that horny and still function. For real, is that how horny teenage boys are? Is it not tiring? Boys are weird.

So. I also really liked the way the story was told. Austin thinks of himself as a historian, and the way that this book is written is like he is writing his history as it happens, if that makes sense? He writes about his ancestors and there's a lot of repetition and sometimes it would go off, like one chapter Austin and Robby and Shann would be doing something, and then the next chapter it would be like 'At that same moment, some people were getting eaten by giant bugs'. There's a lot of referring back to things that have already happened, or that has already been said, as it is written in such a way that all of these things are linked. Like, you'd read about one thing and be like 'what is even happening' and then a hundred pages later it would come back and it'd be like 'WHOA WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING', mainly because this book is hella weird and you never really know what's happening because regardless of how clearly Austin Sczerba puts everything, there's still essentially a bunch of hungry, horny praying mantis-things eating people. And a surprising amount of bug sex. I will say, I have never before read a book with so much bug sex in it (meaning any. And hopefully NEVER AGAIN.) Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, this book is really smart. It's written in this straight forward, frank, efficient way and I think that's why the weirdness just works. This book is not pissing about. It is frank and unashamed and you don't really have a choice but to just go with it. Embrace the weirdness. Embrace the gross.

Initially, it might seem a lot to take in. When I first heard about this book, and found out what it was about, I thought it might be too much. How could you possibly write a book that manages to be about all of the complex things, and that is also just a complete genrefuck. I was half convinced that Grasshopper Jungle was going to be genius, and half convinced that it would be a hot mess. But I think that it was incredibly successful in what it was trying to do. And again, I think that has a lot to do with the style of the book. Though I will say that I think because of the way it was written, there was kind of a detachment despite the fact that it was in first person. Though that may have just been me. But I have very little negative to say about this book. Obviously it's not perfect, or the best book I've ever read, but I did enjoy it a lot and it's just so smart in how it all fits together. I do not believe that there are any coincidences in this book, any unnecessary details. EVERYTHING is connected, somehow, in this book, pretty much.

So, yeah. Those are my thoughts on Grasshopper Jungle. It is weird and wonderful. I think you should read it. Unless you think you wouldn't like it. In which case, don't. BUT don't let the bug sex put you off.

(I hope I don't regret posting this.)

Friday 21 March 2014

Blogging and Me

Okay, so that title sounds really pretentious. But I've just been thinking a lot about blogging and the impact it's had on my life over the past couple of years and I kind of just wanted to write about it? Well actually I talk about blogging quite a lot, so I guess it's not really anything too different.

I have a turbulent relationship with blogging, as I think most bloggers do, really. I love it a lot, but it's hard to love it all the time, and I go through a cycle of being really happy about blogging regardless of things like comments and views and I just do it for the reason that I started doing it - because I love talking about books and various other shit and now I can do that in real life AND on the internet. But other times I go through that annoying thing where you feel like you aren't getting any where and that your output just doesn't matter and that there's no growth and you feel stifled, and think that your content is boring because you're not as creative or as thoughtful or as interesting as other bloggers. But that doesn't usually last too long (thank god), and you find a book or something that you love, or you just remember again that you do this for YOU and that you're really happy with where you are.

I think I'm sort of in the transition phase between Happy and Annoyed & Frustrated, which is probably why I'm writing this.  So I can remind myself of all the good and being in the Happy phase again.

One of the most important things about blogging, for me personally, was that it was something that I actively chose to do, purely for me. I am the kind of passive person that always does that thing where you complain about something you want to do, or about the state that you're in, and then proceeds to do literally nothing about it. I love to do nothing. Which is why it continually surprises me that I started this blog, and that I am still writing it three and a half years later. It's not that long a time for some, but it feels like a long time for me because I usually give up on stuff pretty quickly. This blog has carried me through my GCSEs and now my A Levels and the uni application process, and you'd think that it would add more stress to my already kind of stressful life, and it can sometimes feel like a burden, but most of the time it's a comfort. It's nice to have a place where I feel like I fit it and can be myself, and where I feel like I'm good at something when I'm having a bad time at school or college and need to somehow escape from that. And I feel like I balance the two pretty well.

Though obviously I feel like at times it's not worth it and that I should just throw in the towel. It's easy to get frustrated and jealous when you see your friends and other bloggers doing interesting things and working hard and being successful, and it's easy to feel like their success somehow makes you less important, or less successful. And sometimes I do get jealous. I'm human, after all. But then I try to remind myself that this is not a competition. Page views and comments and attention are not the reason I started doing this, and they sure as hell aren't going to be the reason that I stop. It's just sometimes really hard to remember this.

And so we kind of get back to one of the other things that I have found I love about blogging - the community around it. Book bloggers, or at least the ones that I know, are probably some the loveliest people I know. They are so friendly and easy to talk to, and it's so great to be part of a group of people who are all kind of into the same stuff as you and do the same things as you, and the blogging community is not something I would want to leave. And I guess there can be drama, but I feel like this doesn't really happen in the UK book blogger community. Which is nice.

So yeah, sometimes I wish that I was more creative, or better at blog design, or that I had a different style or just plain had more ideas. I sometimes wish I put myself out there more. But I'm just me, and at the end of the day, I like my blog. I like how I run it. Sure, there could be improvements, I could change it up a bit, but this is kind of how I like it. Blogging makes me happy, and I don't want to constantly let it turn into something that I feel is an obligation more than a pleasure.

This was good. It's nice to be positive about something for once in a while!

Thursday 20 March 2014

We Were Liars review

We Were Liars
E. Lockhart
May 15th 2014
Hot Key Books

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 a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart. 

Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.


*****SPOILER FREE*****

I finished We Were Liars about a week or so ago, and I still don't know how I feel about it. I'm going to try and talk about it without spoiling anything or without hyping anything up, because I know the hype about it has let a lot of people down, but I think that it's a book that, whether you love it or hate it, you still want to talk about it. It's a book that I think a lot of people should read, just because I think it is special regardless of whether I loved it or hated it. As I said, I still don't really know. But I'm glad I read it.

I think that We Were Liars was a really beautiful book. I loved the writing style, and I know that it will get on some people's nerves because that's just how it is when sometimes the narrative kind of breaks off into something poetry-ish
with lots of  line breaks
with lots of repetition
which can sometimes come across as a little pretentious. And had this been pretty much any other story, or handled in any other way, it really could have annoyed me. I think that goes for a lot of things about this book for me, actually. Especially the ending. Which is why I understand the people who did not like because it's one of those things that feels like it's kind of on the border between brilliance and mehness.

Though, taking the ending out of the equation, the book stands on it's own without that. I feel kind of sad about the fact that so much emphasis is placed on the ending of this book, or rather the 'twist'. It's really the sort of story which you don't want to say OMG THAT ENDING THAT TWIST?1?.?(though I did do that when I finished it because it is pretty crazy) because we're just hyping it up so much that it's going to wind up being a disappointment to a lot of people. But then again, I guess that's the fun of it. Reading through a book a trying to piece everything together so that you can be one step ahead.

But anyway, enough with my contrary opinions about twists and endings and things, I should probably get back to the original point. It is just a really good, solid book. It's a mystery/suspense novel, yes, but it's also contemporary fiction in that it deals with a lot of stuff usually dealt with in less mystery-filled contemp and so I obviously liked that aspect of it. It was a really interesting book about family and trauma and youth and decadence and rich people and social consciousness. Which I think was one of the more interesting things about the book, and I loved the importance which it played in the book without seeming preachy or frustrating. When I first heard about this book and saw what it was about, I was expecting a book about a bunch of rich kids who go to a private island every summer and are rich and something happens to them which is bad. That's pretty much the premise. I expected a bunch of self-obsessed people who are so sort of caught up with their lives that nothing else is really even considered apart from that. And again, this is pretty much the book, and I can't really say to much about this without spoiling it, but I don't really know. I just liked how that whole aspect was handled.

Funnily enough, I feel like the characters were the least memorable thing about this book. Because the book is so short (well it's just over 200 pages, I think) we don't really get as much time for character work rather than just having things which contribute to the plot. Which is good for the kind of book that it is, but I feel like I would've been a lot, a lot more emotionally involved in the book if I felt like I'd gotten to know any of the liars better than we did. Though I did find it an emotional read, despite this, so maybe I'm just being fussy. And I do kind of think that the revelation was perfect, but that the tying up of the ending was all a little to perfect and nicey-nice and maybe that's just me? I don't know.

We Were Liars is an incredibly interesting book, and I think that there's a lot to it, and I'm excited about the discussion it's generating whether it's good or bad, because talking about books is the most fun. If you're a book nerd. But I don't think that it was perfect, even though I liked a lot of things about it. And I think that taking the time between reading it and writing this review has given me a chance to really think about my feelings and get them into order and all that. But regardless of all this, I've found it a hard book to stop thinking about. 

Sunday 16 March 2014

The Naturals review

The Naturals
Jennifer Lynn Barnes
November 7th 2013

Cassie Hobbes is not like most teenagers. Most teenagers don’t lose their mother in a bloody, unsolved kidnapping. Most teenagers can’t tell who you are, where you’re from and how you’re likely to behave within moments of meeting you. And most teenagers don’t get chosen to join The Naturals.

Identified by the FBI as uniquely gifted, Cassie is recruited to an elite school where a small number of teens are trained to hone their exceptional abilites.
For Cassie, trying to make friends with the girls, and to figure out the two very different, very hot boys, is challenging enough. But when a serial killer begins recreating the details of her mother’s horrific crime scene, she realises just how dangerous life in The Naturals could be...

I really enjoyed The Naturals. It was like reading a YA version of Criminal Minds, and I love Criminal Minds, so, there's really no way to go wrong there. Plus it was a nice sort of twist to have on the typical thriller, and I'm really looking forward to seeing where the series will go. It kind of reminds me of The Body Finder, only these people have talents that are real and can actually be explained, I guess? Yeah.

I really liked Cassie, and I thought that the way the plot was heavily involved with her mum's murder and her past was great. Usually, I don't expect things to get personal until the second or third book, so it really raised the stakes a lot. I am curious as to how much worse the next few books are going to get though (like, how much worse the situations will get). It will be interesting, that's for sure. I also thought Cassie was really great, and and I liked the fact that even though she kind of was a loner before she joined the naturals, because of her ability and because of her past, she still really loved her family and found her place among the naturals. I like it when people find their place. It's nice.

I also thought that the whole idea behind the book - of the FBI having a bunch of teenagers who already have the skills that it takes FBI agents years to learn and who are training them up. It's unrealistic, for sure, but that's not really important. It's also a lot of fun, and the fact that Cassie is a profiler is what makes it so Criminal Minds (seriously, I LOVE Criminal Minds). I think that it was actually pulled off pretty well as well,  and it kind of felt like a little mish mash between the Body Finder and the Gallagher Girls only not like that at all. But a bunch of weirdly talented teenagers living in a house together + MURDER is always going to be a fun combination (IN BOOKS.)

I thought the plot was really good too. I could not put the book down. I literally read it in one sitting, which rarely ever happens with me. And it kept me guessing right up until the final revelation, too, plus I think that the way it all worked out was surprising and not too far fetched, which is always a concern with thrillers and stuff. You know the type where it turns out the killer was that one guy which there was never any clues about or anything and you're just like REALLY? REALLY?! I hate that so much. Plus I really liked all the other guys who lived with Cassie and I'm looking forward to finding out more about them. And luckily I didn't think the love triangle was too annoying, so!

The Naturals was a fun, thrilling read and the first book in what I am sure will be a great series, and I am really looking forward to seeing where the series will go next.

Saturday 8 March 2014

Cress review

Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3)
Marissa Meyer
February 6th 2014
Puffin
Cress is the third book in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles series, following Cinder and Scarlet.
Incarcerated in a satellite, an expert hacker and out to save the world - Cress isn't your usual damsel in distress.
CRESS grew-up as a prisoner. With only netscreens for company she's forced to do the bidding of the evil Queen Levana. Now that means tracking down Cinder and her handsome accomplice Emperor Kai. But little does Levana know that those she seeks, and the man she loves, are plotting her downfall . . .
As paths cross and the price of freedom rises, happily ever after has never seemed further away for Cress, Scarlet and Cinder.
This is not the fairy tale you remember. But it's one you won't forget.
I love this series. Like, properly, properly love it. And each book just gets better and better. I always knew that Cress would probably be one of my favourites because it's based on Rapunzel, which I love (a little bit because Tangled, but I loved that this was a little bit like Tangled, but it's closer to the actual  fairytale in certain ways and in space.) But seriously, before I even get into the proper review, if you haven't started this series yet, I highly, highly recommend them. Seriously, fairytales in the FUTURE. In SPACE. With hints of SAILOR MOON. And one of the main characters is a CYBORG. I think that that's all the convincing you will need.

Each book in the Lunar Chronicles just gets more and more immense as the scale of the story grows. With each book, a new main character is sort of introduced and a lot of the book will be from their perspective (it's all 3rd person so it doesn't get confusing) telling their story, at the same time as weaving together all the plot threads from the first and second books, as well as carrying on the main plot which was set out in the first book, Cinder. So yeah, it's quite a task. But each new character that's introduced has a major part in Cinder's plot, while each having significant plots of their own. Am I making it sound confusing? I don't mean to. But I think it's done really skilfully and I think that it's a really interesting way to write a series. Plus it's a lot of a fun to read and see how it all comes together.

I loved both Cress and Thorne in this book. I wasn't really that bothered about Thorne in Scarlet. Like, I thought that he was funny, but I didn't really think about him that much after I'd finished, but I'm really glad that he had a much bigger part in this book. He kind of reminded of Flynn Rider a little bit, which is really not a bad thing. At all. And I thought that Cress was really great too. I love the fact that all of the heroines are so different because they all show that you can be powerful in different ways. Cress isn't like Cinder or Scarlet in that she isn't particularly physically strong, and she's not particularly gutsy, but she's smart and incredibly good at hacking and her character arc was really good in this book. But I also loved Cinder's arc in this book and I'm really looking forward to seeing where it all ends up. And Scarlet's plot in this book was really interesting! I am very excited to find out more about Winter and about Luna.

Also, I love the world and I love the fact that we get to see so much of it. A lot of this book was in Africa, whereas the first two were mainly set in Asia and Europe respectively. I just really like books that are set in the future where there is a crisis on Earth and it's not just set in one place (like Pacific Rim- not a book, but still awesome), and you definitely get a sense of that in Cress, and the rest of this series. Especially because of the chapters from Kai's perspective, too, and the situation which he is and and they way in which the rest of the world leaders are reacting. With the way that Cress ended, I can tell that Winter is just going to be amazing, and I am just so excited for next year when it will come out.

The Lunar Chronicles is genuinely an amazing series which just gets better and better with each book as the story builds and builds, and I just love so many things about these books! Seriously, please just read them so that I can talk to you all about them and we can fangirl about how great they are.

Wednesday 5 March 2014

Banished review

Banished
Liz de Jager
February 27th 2014
Tor UK

Sworn to protect, honour and slay. Because chaos won’t banish itself…

Kit is proud to be a Blackhart, now she’s encountered her unorthodox cousins and their strange lives. And her home-schooling now includes spells, fighting enemy fae and using ancient weapons. But it’s not until she rescues a rather handsome fae prince, fighting for his life on the edge of Blackhart Manor, that her training really kicks in. With her family away on various missions, Kit must protect Prince Thorn, rely on new friends and use her own unfamiliar magic to stay ahead of Thorn’s enemies. As things go from bad to apocalyptic, fae battle fae in a war that threatens to spill into the human world. Then Kit pits herself against the Elder Gods themselves – it’s that or lose everyone she’s learnt to love.


Banished had a lot of things in it which I love. An awesome heroine, blonde fae boys, werewolves, dragons! (well, a dragon, but that's more dragon than most books have, so!), evil ancient gods, action, adventure, romance. You know, that kinda stuff.

And if that isn't enough to make you want to read it, then first of all, how? And second of all, I should probably write an actual review that doesn't just consist of a list of things which I like. Banished is an exciting, action-packed, fun urban fantasy (Set in the UK! Another thing to go on The List of Things I Love That Are In This Book) about Kit Blackhart, a girl who fairly recently found out that she beings to a family which fight fae (the bad fae). I liked the fact that the story started not at the point at which she found this out, but a few months later where she'd really gotten into her training. I like books where we meet characters at the point at which they find out about all the supernatural stuff or whatever they're involved in, but it can get a little repetitive at times so I was kind of glad we didn't have to through that. 

But there is still a whole lot of world building, which I think was really well done. There's a lot of mythology to adjust to, but it's pretty gradual so I never felt like it was too much or too little, and I'm excited to find out more about the world which Liz has created. And also possibly more dragons? No? (I'm only half joking. If I had it my way I would put dragons in almost everything. But I won't be sad if there are no more dragons. I'll stop talking about dragons now.) Plus I hope we get to find out more about the werewolves and how they fit in with the mythology and the fae, which I'm hoping will happen in Aiden and his family are in the next two books more. Also, I would love to find out more about the Blackharts themselves and to have Megan and Marc and Kyle be in it more. 

I also really like Thorn (aforementioned blonde fae boy) and his relationship with Kit. It was a slow build, and I felt like there was definitely mutual respect for each others abilities and stuff in there which is always a plus for me when it comes to romances. And seriously, Kit is such a badass, and there is definitely something up with Thorn as well, and I loved that they kept on helping each other get out of some pretty bloody bad situations. Also Thorn was pretty hot. And I feel like there is a potential for a love triangle with Aiden, Thorn and Kit, but there was nothing too overtly or annoyingly love triangle-ish in Banished which made me pretty happy.

Anyway, I really enjoyed Banished and I am really looking forward to the next two books. It's a really strong UKYA urban fantasy debut which has real potential to be something even more awesome than it already it. (Also, did I mention the dragon? Really. I love dragons.)

Monday 3 March 2014

Spy Society review

Spy Society (Also know as Also Known As)
Robin Benway
June 18th (UK)
Simon & Schuster

Being a 16-year-old safecracker and active-duty daughter of international spies has its moments, good and bad. Pros: Seeing the world one crime-solving adventure at a time. Having parents with super cool jobs. Cons: Never staying in one place long enough to have friends or a boyfriend. But for Maggie Silver, the biggest perk of all has been avoiding high school and the accompanying cliques, bad lunches, and frustratingly simple locker combinations.

Then Maggie and her parents are sent to New York for her first solo assignment, and all of that changes. She'll need to attend a private school, avoid the temptation to hack the school's security system, and befriend one aggravatingly cute Jesse Oliver to gain the essential information she needs to crack the case . . . all while trying not to blow her cover.


Ever since the Gallagher Girls series finished, I've been eager to find some other books to fill the hole in my life that that series left. Spy Society certainly filled that hole. It was fun, it was funny, it was about spies. What more do I need in my life?

Like in all of Robin Benway's books (I love Robin Benway), I loved the characters and they were probably my favourite part of the book. Maggie was absolutely hilarious. She was so overdramatic and just funny and smart and such a fun character to spend time with. And her parents, too! I do love it when there are parents it books and they're kind of just normal parents even if they are spies and I loved their family love. And also Angelo, who is their family friend who also works for the Collective who is the greatest and if anything bad happens to him I will probably cry.

Also (and yes, I'm still going on about the characters. Seriously, if you're looking for one author who is just always on point with brilliant characters that you just love, look no further than Robin Benway) I completely adored Roux. She was so not who I was expecting her to be at the start of the book. And somehow she was even more melodramatic and hilarious than Maggie, and the two's friendship was just awesome. Plus, I really liked the romance between Maggie and Jesse. When I started it, I was kind of worried that it would be just like reading the first Gallagher Girls book all over again, which would have been fine, but I wanted something a bit different. And it was.

Spy Society definitely felt more character driven to me, but the plot was still really fun, and I loved the idea behind it of a girl who has been a spy all her life, cracking safes, who's never really had friends or been around normal people being sent for her first mission in a high school. There was a good balance between the spy stuff and the normal teen stuff and Maggie adjusting to high school and it was just a whole load of fun. Plus there was a bit of action and a helicopter in it, so yeah. I suspect that the next book is going to be even better.

Yeah, I thought that Spy Society was an incredibly enjoyable read and the perfect follow on if you're also looking for something Gallagher Girls-ish. The characters are all wonderful, the plot is good and pacy and there's loads of humour in it, too.

Saturday 1 March 2014

Monthly Round-up: February

February started off as a really slow month for me, but in like the past week and a half (coincidentally the same week and a half that I should have been revising for mocks) I read a load of books, so it was surprisingly good! Apart from that, I haven't really done much of anything all month, so I probably won't have a lot to talk about here.


Books Read:
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April G Tucholke
Smuggler's Kiss by Marie Louise Jensen
Trouble by Non Pratt
Spy Society by Robin Benway
Banished by Liz De Jager 
Cress by Marissa Meyer

Total: 9 (which is a lot for me by normal length month standards, so I'm pretty happy!)

Books Reviewed:
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
Trouble by Non Pratt

Weird, I felt like I posted more that I actually did this month. Maybe one year I'll actually manage to be productive instead of just thinking I'm being productive... But yeah, I would have done more this week, but again, mocks are kind of taking up my time right now. But next month, hopefully!

Book of the Month:


Code Name Verity, obviously. Though I did read some really great books this month so it was quite hard to pick. None of them gave me quite the emotional punch to the gut that I got from Verity, though. This sounds pathetic, but I can't talk about That Moment without tearing up.

Didn't do much else this month, though I did go to Liz's launch for Banished (her awesome book which came out on the 27th which you should probably most definitely buy and read) which was a lot of fun! Plus there were Banished cookies, which were fabulous, and I got to see and talk to and meet a bunch of people which was really nice.

Also, I was maybe possibly going to start doing like a monthly In My Mailbox/Letterbox Love thing here instead because I've seen a couple of people doing it and think it might be a good idea! So, here's all the books I got this month :)


Bought:
Young Avengers v2 by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie
Banished by Liz de Jager
Cress by Marissa Meyer
The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
The Bone Dragon by Alexia Casale
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
The Fiery Heart by Richelle Mead

Review:
Trouble by Non Pratt 
The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton (thanks Waker for these two!)
Theodore Boone: The Activist by John Grisham (thanks Hodder!)
Taken by David Massey 
Fire & Flood by Victoria Scott
Where the Rock Splits the Sky by Philip Webb
The Glass Bird Girl by Esme Kerr (thanks Chicken House for these four!)

Going to try not to be any books in March, but I can promise nothing. My TBR is kind of ridiculously huge but my problem is that I'm pretty never in the mood for any of them which is why I always buy more and it's just a vicious cycle. 

Anyway, that was my February! How was yours?

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