Friday, 1 April 2016

March wrap-up!

March has been a manic month, but somehow I still managed to read loads of books! I think I’m secretly using books as a coping mechanism. Here is the re-cap of all the books I read this month, and thankfully it isn’t late this month!


What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick
Gwen’s summer as a companion for an elderly neighbour gets interesting when Cass Summers gets a job as the ‘yard boy’ ★★★★

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman
a book about university, not being ready to enter the adult world, and secret youtubers that gave me all the feels ★★★★★

Spot The Difference by Juno Dawson
a wonderful short story for world book day about a girl who gets life changing medication that allows her to find out what its like to be popular - horrible ★★★★★

This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp
a heartbreaking story about an hour of terror that Opportunity High School would never forget ★★★★★

Kindred Spirits by Rainbow Rowell
another beautiful story from Rainbow for world book day -with Star Wars nerds and peeing outside cinemas! ★★★★★

The Sleeping Prince by Melinda Salisbury 
the gripping sequel to The Sin Eater’s Daughter, Melinda has delivered yet another amazing book with heart-warming characters and her usual heartbreaking twists! ★★★★★

Finding Mr Brightside by Jay Clark
bought this book for the title (one of my favourite songs is Mr Brightside by the Killers), stayed for the amazing story! two damaged teens come together to fix each other - definitely one of my all-time favourite reads ★★★★★

Walt Disney: Drawn From Imagination by Bill Scollon
this is the story of the greatest man in entertainment history - I love Walt like a granddad and reading about his life has given me hope that anyone can achieve their dreams in they just believe in themselves. but there will never be another Walt Disney! ★★★★★

so I read eight books, all of which I enjoyed and I’ve picked up some new favourites along the way! these books totalled a massive 1,966 pages, which over 31 days of March, I somehow managed to read 63 pages per day! That’s 23 pages more than February and January! I’m concerned now that this will massively decrease in April.. But I’m very pleased I managed to read so much in such a busy month!

📖TBR for April📖
Before I Die - Jenny Downham
Crush - Eve Ainsworth
More Happy Than Not - Adam Silvera
House of Windows - Alexia Casale
I’ll Give You The Sun - Jandy Nelson
Fire Colour One - Jenny Valentine
Did I Mention I Love You? - Estelle Maskame

I feel as though I’m being over-ambitious about April, I have another busy month ahead but I’ll try my best to get through this TBR!

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Saturday, 12 March 2016

Radio Silence - Alice Oseman

At last, after waiting so long, I finally have my hand’s on Alice’s second book, Radio Silence! I love her so much, her two books and two novellas have - no exaggeration - given me life. So I would just like to begin this review by saying this: I would give it one thousand stars, if goodreads allowed me to. I am being a massive fangirl in today’s blog post, but I’m not sorry because Alice Oseman is my favourite author so I think I’m allowed.


Frances Janvier is top of her class and headed to Cambridge. Nothing is going to stop her from achieving her goal, to the point that she isn’t really close to any of her ‘friends’ at school, and nobody sees her outside of school. Her only real friend, her best friend, ran away over a year ago, and she has no idea where she went and has no way of finding out.

There are two sides to Frances Janvier. On one side, she is an uber-clever study machine, who aces all her exams and seems to only care about doing things that will get her into Cambridge, such as being head girl, and seemingly nothing else. She is the ultimate role model for the lower years.

Then there is the Frances that no one at school knows exists. The one that is obsessed with a small and practical unknown youtube podcast called Universe City - with an anonymous creator known as Radio Silence. She draws fan art about the show and spends her down time lounging around her room in burger jumpers - but she doesn’t allow anyone other than her mother to see this side of her.

Until Frances becomes friends with Aled Last, and then she finally feels free to be herself around someone. Telling your ex-best friend’s twin brother why it’s your fault she ran away mustn’t have been easy, but despite that fact, Aled and Frances become the best of friends, with an unbreakable bond that is devoid of any romance whatsoever.

Radio Silence touched me even more than Solitaire did, which I think was because this book focused more heavily on the impending doom of university, a part of my life that I definitely struggled with, so this book hit me on a much more personal level - much like Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl. 

University is a very strong theme in this book - some characters lack the grades to even have the opportunity to go to university, some are being actively pushed into going to university, either by their parents or through expectation, and this is something I forget happens to people. My parents encouraged me to better myself by going to university, but never pushed, and I love them for that. I sometimes think my parents found my first few months at university just as difficult as I did.

University is not for everyone, and that was my take-away from this book. Alice writes all her stories from the heart, and that is something that always makes me feel like I know her better than I already do. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, of course I’m going to give it five stars. I cannot wait to see what Alice does next. ★★★★★



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Monday, 29 February 2016

January and February wrap-up!

So, I figured since it’s now the end of February (how quickly is this year going?) and I still haven’t posted my wrap-up for January, I would do both months together. 

Problem solved! ☺️



So I’ve started getting more organised with my reading this year, keeping a note of the books I’ve read in the journal shown above, and calculating my average pages read each month, so I can see if I’ve had a good month or not.

January
Cinder by Marissa Meyer
a unique retelling of Cinderella, with cyborgs, the plague, and a threat of war between Earth and the Moon ★★★★★

On The Fence by Kaisie West
the story of a sport-turned-girly girl and the boy next door ★★★★★

All Of The Above by Juno Dawson
an addictive read about a girl who moves to a new town and makes some amazing new friends ★★★★★

Reasons To Stay Alive by Matt Haig
a book about depression through Matt’s experiences of living with it. this book has changed my life, and given me a new perspective, and I would recommend it to anybody ★★★★★

so, in January, I read 4 books, with a total of 1,245 pages, and over 31 days of January that gave me a total of 40 pages per day! And I thoroughly enjoyed every single book I read, as you can see since I gave them all 5 stars.

February
99 Days by Katie Cotugno 
Molly has 99 days left in a town where everyone hates her, and where she is involved in a twisted love triangle between two brothers - I didn’t enjoy this as much as her other book, How To Love ★★★

The Savages by Matt Whyman
a seemingly normal family with a huge secret - cannibalism. Drama unfolds when the eldest daughter starts dating a vegetarian. I devoured this book! ★★★★★

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
for anyone who has read Fangirl, my favourite book, this is the story of Simon Snow, the character which Cath writes fan fiction about in Fangirl ★★★★★

I read 3 books, which is 1 less than last month, but my total pages was higher at 1,169 pages and over 29 days of February that keeps my total at 40 pages per day! I’m not feeling so bad about only having read 3 books now. I was disappointed with 99 days, but the other two were so amazing it made up for it. I will be posting all the reviews for these books when I have time to write them!

📖TBR for March📖
Radio Silence - Alice Oseman
What I Thought Was True - Huntley Fitzpatrick
The Sleeping Prince - Melinda Salisbury
Geek Drama - Holly Smale

I’m setting smaller goals for myself this month, but March is a very busy month, with my own birthday, my boyfriend’s birthday, and my dad’s and my auntie’s birthday, plus a mini-break with my boyfriend and a full-time job to navigate around. Wish me luck! 

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Wednesday, 27 January 2016

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

My first book of year was a new series, because it’s been so long since I started one!


Marissa Meyer's first novel in The Lunar Chronicles series introduces you to Cinder, a cyborg mechanic who lives in New Beijing with her stepmother and two stepsisters.

 When her stepsister falls ill with the plague, a disease with no cure, her stepmother blames her and sends her to be a test subject as punishment.

 Cinder is found to be immune to the plague, for reasons the doctors will not tell her right away, and she becomes very valuable in the race to find a cure.

 The Emperor of New Beijing is also dying of the plague, and his son, Prince Kai, spends a lot of time in the research labs, and with Cinder. He doesn’t know that she is a cyborg, or a test subject.

 As Cinder’s feelings for Kai grow, she is terrified. Who could love a cyborg?

 It took me a while to get into this story, with there being so much going on all at once, but once it had hooked me, I couldn’t put it down.

 This is a wonderful story that retells Cinderella in a truly unique way. ★★★★★
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Saturday, 2 January 2016

Bookish New Year’s Resolutions!

Happy New Year everybody! This is going to be a short and sweet post to put into writing my goals for this year.


1. I am going to read the books that I have hoarded: I have at least seventy unread books in my house waiting to be read, and I want to get through as many of those as I can this year.

2. I am going to set realistic reading goals: last year, I told myself I would read 100 books. While I was at university, that was a realistic goal; I was spending up to four hours each day reading whilst travelling to and from university, and then I had spare time at home to read as well. But then I started a full-time job, and my reading goal took a massive hit. I managed to read 75 books, which is still an achievement, but I was disappointed in myself. So this year, I want to read at least 50 books.

3. Only buy books I need: this doesn’t sound like something I am going to stick to. But I impulse buy books in Waterstones and on Amazon and it just makes my hoard pile bigger, so my first purchase of the year is going to be a sequel, and the books after that will only be books I feel I absolutely have to read straight away. If I can’t stick to it, I may have to get my boyfriend to impose a book-buying ban on me.

4. Post more book reviews: another downside to having a full-time job was that I didn’t have time to write and post my book reviews anymore. I started to get overwhelmed by how many were piling up that I lost my motivation to write them anymore. I am hoping to get back into the habit of writing them again, so you’ll be seeing a lot more of me this year! As a side note to this, I will be making more use of my instagram (asdfghjklize) and tumblr (lizebronwenreviews) accounts to post more bookish things.

5. Make more time for reading: this is the big one. I won’t be able to meet any of my other four goals without making more time in my lunch hours and at home to read more. I have a lot of books I’m excited to read this year waiting for me, and I’m excited to start them.

I hope you all have a book-filled 2016!

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