The bookshelf scavenger hunt!

Today I am doing the bookshelf scavenger hunt tag! I have seen many different versions of this on YouTube, so I decided to give it a go!
The questions are:

Find an author's name or title with the letter Z in it 
The maze runner by James Dashner
Find a classic
Sense and sensibility by Jane Austen
Find a book with a key on it
I do not have one.
Find something on your bookshelf that's not a book
I have 2 owl ornaments that sit on top of a few of my classic books.
Find the oldest book on your shelf
Broken soup by Jenny Valentine, I have had this for about 5 years.
Find a book with a girl on the cover
Teardrop by Lauren Kate.
Find a book that has an animal in it
Blood red road by Moira Young, this has a crow in it.
Find a book with a male protagonist
The spectacular now by Tim Tharp, I have not yet read this, but I believe that the main character and the point of view that the book is written in is male.
Find a book with only words on it
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.
Find a book with illustrations in it
My copy of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte has illustrated flowers on it.
Find a book with gold lettering
Allegiant by Veronica Roth.
Find a diary (true or fictional)
The Carrie diaries by Candace Bushnell.
Find a book written by someone with a common name (like Smith)
The statistical probability of love at first sight by Jennifer E Smith.
Find a book that has a close up of something on it
Captivate by Carrie Jones has a close up of a face on it.
Find a book on your shelf that takes place in the earliest time period
The white queen by Philippa Gregory, set in 1464.
Find a hardcover book without a jacket
Wuthering heights by Emily Bronte did not come with a jacket, but is one of the only hardbacks that I have that doesn't have one.
Find a teal/turquoise coloured book
The fault in our stars by John Green.
Find a book with stars on it
The fault in our stars by John Green, technically this does not have stars on it, but it does say stars in the title so I am counting it anyway.
Find a non-YA book
One day by David Nicholls, this is an adult fiction book that I got for only 10p, but have yet to read.

Thanks for reading. This tag was very good and I tag all of you who are reading this to do this yourself! Speak to you in my next post!
Star Reads.

Most played: Week of 23rd December

Today is my second most played songs post, where I tell you guys my most played songs from this past week. So lets get started...

1. Blurred lines by Robin Thicke ft TI and Pharrell

 

 

Even though this song has been out for a while, I have recently been listening to it a lot. This song has also been named the most controversial song of 2013, which I do not necessarily agree with, and I still really like this song anyway.

 

2. Duck the halls by the Robertson's

 

 

 

As you probably do not know, I absolutely love Duck Dynasty. And if you do not know what duck dynasty is, it is a documentary TV show about the Robertson family, who invented the duck call. I love the show and so for Christmas I was given their duck the halls CD. I have been listening to this over the Christmas period and I love it! Definitely check it out as it is a cross between country and classic Christmas music!

 

Those are my most listened to songs of this past week, I hope you enjoyed it and I will speak to you next week in my first music post of 2014!

Star Reads

Most Played: Week of 16th December

So this is a new series which I have decided to start, where I show you what my most played songs of this past week have been. I will be doing this every Friday and I hope you all enjoy!
So before I start I will say that my taste in music is quite varied but mostly I listen to country and occasionally a little bit of pop music, so lets get started!

1. Not by Hunter Hayes.

This is one of Hunter Hayes' older songs from his album songs about nothing. I absolutely love every song that I have ever heard by Hunter Hayes, but this has been my #1 most played of this week, check it out even if you are not keen on country because he is amazing!

2. Constant conversations by Passion pit.

Considering I am not the biggest fan of electronic music I love Passion pit, I find that listening to them at the end of the day just cheers me up a bit and puts me in a good mood. Definitely give this a listen, even if you don't normally listen to electronic.

3. Let it go by the Neighbourhood.

I have recently found the Neighbourhood and I absolutely love them and have mostly been playing this song non stop over the past week, also after hearing it on the Originals, I el in love even more because I also love the show!

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this. I have obviously listened to a lot more than just these 3 songs this past week, these are just my most played. All of the links to the songs are I the titles and I definitely recommend that you check them out because they are amazing! Watch out for more music posts and next weeks most played.
Star Reads

2014 Reading Challenges I am participating in

Today I have decided to tell you guys about the reading challenges that I will be participating in during 2014. There are only a couple of challenges that I have decided to take part in so far, but if I find any others which I decide I will take part in, then I will make sure to update this post.

A-Z Reading Challenge GoodReads Page



In this challenge you basically choose either a book title, cover or author name beginning with each letter of the alphabet. If you want to know the official rules or join the challenge, then check out the GoodReads page that I posted above.

2014 Dystopian challenge

In this challenge, there are four different levels which are decided on how many dystopian books you read during the year.

Thanks for reading and good luck with whatever challenges you decide to embark upon in the year of 2014!
Star Reads

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green book review

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

GoodReads synopsis:

Despite the tumour-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

I will start by saying that after reading TFIOS, I was left wanting more. But after reminding myself that this was a standalone, I instead decided that I needed to go out and buy every book that John Green has written. IT WAS THAT GOOD!

Not only did TFIOS manage to capture my attention from the very beginning and keep it until the very end, but the array of characters and different plot lines and the very big plot twist towards the end, was what made this book for me, the best contemporary that I have ever read.
I loved every character in the book, with one exception being Peter Van Houten, who in the end I decided even though he had his reasons for being a complete idiot to Hazel and Augustus, I still am not a huge fan of. But the characters that I did absolutely love were of course Augustus Waters and Hazel Grace. I loved both their witty humour and the way that they acted with and around each other, and I definitely think that that was one of the main things that made this book so enjoyable for me. But of course their star crossed love for each other was another obvious reason why I loved this book, and I think that the way that John Green portrayed their relationship with each other was very well done and completely realistic.
And of course, how could I not mention Isaac. He is yet another character that I absolutely loved in this book and the main reason for that is because of yet again, his witty humour and the fact that even though he was living with cancer, he was very brave and always making jokes about it. And whether he is a fictional character or not, I completely admire him for that.
And lastly, the ending. What can I say about the ending. Well honestly, I cried. A lot. This was one of the saddest endings to a book that I have ever read, although after thinking about it for a while, I decided that it was the right way to end the book, and no matter how sad it made me, it did make sense and I think that it made the book even stronger than it already was.
Overall, if you have not been able to tell from this review so far, I LOVED this book and honestly I cannot find any faults with it at all. It was brilliant and if you have yet to pick this up, get to it because I promise that you will not regret it!
In the end, as you can probably guess, I gave TFIOS a very well deserved 5/5.

December TBR

Today I am doing my December wrap up, and I am going to be doing it a little differently to how I normally do it, by just showing pictures of the books instead of writing about them. Also sorry that this post is up a little late, I have just been busy and haven't gotten around to doing it until now. So anyway, lets get on with it...

Entwined by Heather Dixon.

 

Let it snow by John Green, Lauren Myracle and Maureen Johnson.

 

The statistical probability of love at first sight by Jennifer E. Smith.

 

City of glass by Cassandra Clare.

They are all of the books that I am planning on reading, although I am hoping to get a kindle for Christmas so if I do, I will most probably be reading a lot of novellas and eBooks, so I am very excited about that! Thanks for reading.

 

Star Reads.

November Wrap Up

So today I am doing my November wrap up, where I will be telling you what books I have read in the month of November. But before I get started, I just want to say that I was actually participating in NaNoWriMo this month, so I was not expecting to read more than one or two books this month, but I surprised myself and actually read a total of 5 and a half books!
So the first book that I finished in November was Requiem by Lauren Oliver. I actually started this book at the end of October but didn't finish it until the beginning of November.

Overall, I think that this book was a great way to end the Delirium series, although I was not to keen on the way that it ended because I think that it was too abrupt. Although I did enjoy the rest of the book but I will also had to add that certain parts did upset me quite a bit. In the end I gave this book 5/5 stars.

The second book that I read and finished in the month of November was Allegiant by Veronica Roth. Initially, I was planning on reading this in October once it was released, but I just did not have enough time, so I decided to read it this month.

First of all, I have to say that this book was not as bad as I have been hearing that it is. Although it is not as good as Divergent or Insurgent, it was still a good and understandable way to end the series.
Before reading Allegiant, I was expecting a terrible book with a horrible ending that would just make me cry all throughout the book, and yes, I will admit that I cried a hell of a lot during the whole book, but I do think that no matter how sad the ending was, it made sense and after thinking about it for a while, I realised that it was a good, albeit sad, way to end the trilogy.
Apart from the ending, I found this book very disappointing in comparison to the first two and what I had expected it to be like. I kept finding myself getting a little bored throughout parts of the book, and I kind of hoped that they would have shown more of the factions and how they have broken apart. But after a considerably fast paced beginning, the rest of the book was disappointing. Whilst reading it I found it very boring, but afterwards I realised that the reason why this book was a lot less fast paced than Divergent and Insurgent, was because it was more focused on world building and how the factions came to be made, than having a more interesting plot line.
Overall, even though I did find parts of Allegiant a little boring, it was still a good enough book and I ended up giving it 4/5 stars.

The next book that I read was Romeo and Juliet, the condensed down kids version.

The reason why I decided to read this, was because we were currently studying it at school, so I thought that I might as well read it to help with my school work, and it only ended up taking me 20 minutes to read anyway, so it was definitely worth it.
It was a good adaptation of the original Romeo and Juliet, and a lot easier to read which is why I was able to speed through it so quickly.
Overall I gave this a 4/5 as it was just an easy and quick read.

The fourth book that I read is actually a bind up of three of the novellas from the Delirium series, called Delirium stories.

This book consisted of the Hana, Annabel and Raven novellas set in the Delirium world. I really enjoyed this book, and it was a nice way to add to the series, especially after I had just read the last book, Requiem. By reading these three novellas after I had already finished the whole series, it meant that I had some extra information in mind whilst reading each novella. This was a good thing for me, because it helped me to understand some extra of what was going on in the books, although knowing what happens in Requiem, it made me a lot more upset whilst reading Raven and I will not say why because I don't want to ruin it, but definitely keep a box of tissues near by, because after reading these you may need them.

The fifth and last book that I finished in November was The fault in our stars by John Green.

First of all, this book was the best book that I read this month and is also now one of my favourite books of all time! Before reading TFIOS, I did expect it to be very good, because of what I had heard from other people, but after reading it. OMG. This book is one of the most amazing and thought provoking books that I have ever read and is now definitely a permanent favourite in my eyes.
I am not going to go into much more detail, because I am planning on doing a full review on it in the next few days, so look out for that!
Overall I loved this book and gave it a very well deserved 5/5 stars.

The last book that I started reading, but only managed to finish on the 1st of December, so even though I did not technically finish it in November, I am still counting it. And that is the Great Gatsby.

This book was very good and surprisingly I did really enjoy it. I am not normally a big fan of classic books, but this was definitely an exception and is now easily my favourite classic book of all time. Although, because of the language that is used, I found some parts a little difficult to understand, but I still managed to follow the main storyline of the book and I have to say that the plot twist at the end, even though it was very sad, was very well done and I did not expect it at all.
I am now very exited to see the film, which has been pushed up to number 1 on my Christmas list!
Overall, a great book and I ended up also giving this one 5/5 stars.

Thanks for reading and I hope that you found my (albeit very short) reviews of the books that I read in November helpful or interesting, and look out for my upcoming review of TFIOS and next months wrap up and this months TBR!

Divergent Promotional Posters

Divergent is one of my favourite books of all time, so when I found out a few months ago that it was being made into a film I was so excited!
Lately I have been seeing a lot of promotional posters for the film, showing some of the characters like Tris played by Shailene Woodley and my favourite Four/Tobias played by Theo James.
I thought I would show you guys a few of my favourite promotional posters that I have recently seen!

The first is Tori, and I have to say I love how they did her tattoo!

The next is Tris, I love her tattoo as well!

Last but definitely not least is Four/Tobias and his tattoo is by far the best one I have EVER seen!

Watch out for more Divergent related things which I will be putting up soon!
Star Reads

November TBR

Today I am doing my November to be read where I tell you what books I am planning on reading in the month of November. Although I do not always stick to my TBR's, I just use them as a rough outline.

The first book I am planning on finishing is Requiem by Lauren Oliver. I started this at the end of October but didn't get to finish it so that will be my first book to read.

The second book I am planning on reading is Allegiant by Veronica Roth. I was also planning on reading this last month after it was released, but didn't get round to it so I am excited to finish this series this month.

The third and final book I am planning on reading this month is the Fault in our stars by John Green. I am VERY excited to read this, this month as I have wanted to for ages!

 

That is all of the books I am planning on reading in the month of November. It isn't very many but as I have not previously mentioned I am taking part in NaNoWriMo this month so I wont have much time to read too many books. Thanks for reading!

Star Reads

October Wrap Up

Today I am going to do my October wrap up where I show you what books I read in the month of October.
As this month was the month of Halloween I was planning on reading some spooky books and I was also planning on a reading a total of 6 books but I only ended up reading 5 and a half.
The first book I read was actually a bind up of the forbidden game trilogy by L.J Smith which was amazing! I gave this 5/5.

The fourth book I read was City of bones by Cassandra Clare which is the first book in the Mortal Instruments series and this is now one of my favourite series of all time. I loved this book  and also gave this 5/5.

The fifth book I read was City of ashes by Cassandra Clare, which is the second book in the Mortal Instruments series and this is even better than the first book! I also gave this 5/5.

The last book that I half read was Requiem by Lauren Oliver which is the third and final book in the Delirium trilogy. I haven't yet finished this so I do not have a rating for it yet.

Thanks for reading and my November wrap up will be put up soon!
Star Reads

October TBR

Todays post is going to be my October TBR, which is where I show you what books I am planning on reading in the upcoming month. After last months record of 9 books I have higher expectations of the amount of books I want to read this month, so I am planning on reading a total of 6 books. Also with Halloween being this month I am planning on reading some spookier and more paranormal books.
The first book I am going to be reading is of course by far my most anticipated book of the year, Allegiant by Veronica Roth.

 

As this book doesn't come out until October 22nd, I won't be able to read it until the end of the month :( but I am so excited and I really can't wait until its release date!

 

The second book I am planning on reading is City of Bones by Cassandra Clare.

 

 

I will admit that I am a bit late jumping on the bandwagon of this book as the film is already out and I do want to see it, but I am holding back until I have read the book.

 

The next book I am going to read is my classic of the month and that is going to be The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

 

I am also late reading this, but I figured that I still need to read it before I see the film because for the most part books are better than films and I do need to read this one.

 

The fourth book I am going to read is The Forbidden Game by L.J Smith.

 

I actually only got this book recently, it was in my September haul, and after reading up on it, it just looks so good and also a little creepy, which is why I am planning on reading it this month to go along with my paranormal/spooky theme.

 

The fifth and final book I am planning on reading this month is actually one I picked from my TBR jar and that is Grave Minder by Melissa Marr.

 

 

This is a book I have had for a while and so was put into my TBR jar, but I decided I would read it this month because I thought that it would go along well with my spooky theme.

 

Thanks for reading and I hope I gave you some new ideas for some books you may want to check out. These books are just a guideline to what books I want to read this month, so some I may decide to not read or I may read a different book instead. Thanks for reading and I will speak to you in my next post. Keep reading!

 

 





Huge September book haul #1

Today I went to a local car boot sale and went a little crazy with buying books, I bought 19! And today I am showing you all of the second hand books I have bought today. Now, lets get started...

I got all of these books for only 50p each and all but 3 were from the same person. So I will start with the first 3 I got, The secret keeper by Kate Morton, The curious incident of the dog in the night time by Mark Haddon and Harry Potter and the deathly hallows by J.K Rowling. The first 2 books I got were in paperback but Harry Potter was in hardback and still only 50p each!
The next 17 books I got were all from the same person and were all 50p each. I got The Northern Lights by Philip Pullman, Ash by Malinda Lo, The Forbidden Game by L.J Smith, Beautiful creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Shadow kiss by Richelle Mead, Living dead in Dallas, Club dead, Dead as a doornail, definitely dead, All together dead, dead reckoning, Dead in the family, Dead and gone, From dead to worse and A touch of dead all by Charlaine Harris. All of these books are in paperback as well, except for Dead in the family by Charlaine Harris which is in hardback and all of these books were still only 50p.

Thanks for reading and I hope this post gave you some new ideas of some books to read.
Keep reading!

September Wrap up!

Today I am doing my September wrap up where I will show you what books I read in September. During this month I set a personal record for reading 9 books! This is the most books I have ever read in one month, so I am extremely proud of myself, although I wouldn't have been able to have done this if it wasn't for all of the great books I read this month. 
Anyway lets get started with what books I actually read...

So the first book I read this month was Divergent by Veronica Roth.

Now I will admit that I am a bit late reading this, but either way I am so glad that I did! This is now one of my most favourite books of all time and I will definitely be posting a full review on this soon! I am not going to say much about this book now as I am saving it for the review, but what I will say is that I loved it and I recommend it to anyone whether it is your first time reading a dystopian book or the 100th time, if you have not already read it, do it now! I gave this book a well deserved 5 out of 5 on GoodReads.

The second book I read in the month of September was of course Insurgent by Veronica Roth.

Of course, after reading Divergent I couldn't help but dive straight into Insurgent and I am glad that I did as this did not let me down, whereas with a lot of books in a series the second doesn't tend to be as strong as the first book, this was an amazing exception! I absolutely loved this book just as much as the first and I will also be doing a full review on this book because it was just so damn good! I also gave this a 5 out of 5 on GoodReads.

The third book I read was yet another book from the Divergent series, Free Four Tobias tells the Divergent story.



This book is actually a 43 page eBook, so I was not sure whether it really counted towards this months wrap up, but of course it is still a book (an amazing one at that) so I decided to include it in my September wrap up. I read this eBook straight after finishing Insurgent because I just couldn't wait and I had to read something else from the Divergent series as I still have to wait a month for Allegiant :(. This was a great short story to go along with the series and I may include a small review in the Insurgent and Divergent review so make sure to check that out once it is up. I gave this book another 5 out of 5 on GoodReads. 

The fourth book I read in September was Beneath the glitter by Elle and Blair Fowler.

 

I actually only read this book because I have watched Elle and Blair's YouTube videos for a couple of years so I wanted to check out their book and I also heard that it was loosely based on their lives which intrigued me even more. I went into this book not really expecting to like it very much and only reading it because I needed something lighter to read whilst I got over my post book depression from the Divergent series, but oh boy was I wrong. This book may be a lighter read than most of the books I read but it still had its own plot twists and was a lot more exciting and interesting than I thought it would be and after that cliff hanger of an ending I have to go out and buy the second book asap. I rated this book 5 out of 5 on GoodReads.

 

 

The fifth book I read during September was Eve by Anna Carey.

 



I have had this book since March and just hadn't got round to reading it so I decided I better read it this month because it had been on my shelf for to long. I was really looking forward to this when I got it because the story sounded really promising and quite different to what I have heard of before, and when I read it this month I wasn't disappointed. Eve is not only an interesting book, but it has a good amount of plot twists and an amazing and strong storyline which makes it even better. I will be posting yet another review of this book which should be up shortly. I gave this book 5 out of 5 on GoodReads.

The sixth book I read was the book which I was most excited about getting this month and that is Hunting Lila by Sarah Alderson.

I had ordered this book off of eBay a few days before I started reading Eve but it didn't arrive until a few days after I had finished Eve so I was not reading during that time as I didn't want to have to want to finish another book until I could start reading Hunting Lila. As soon as I read the description for this book on GoodReads I immediately went onto eBay and bought it because it just sounded so good and I was not disappointed at all! This book is now my favourite book of all time and I recommend it to anyone. It is a paranormal romance book about a girl with telekinetic powers (what's not to love!) I am going to be posting a review for this book as well and it should be up soon after this post so look out for that also. I gave this book yet another 5 out of 5 on GoodReads.

The seventh book I read this month was Lord of the flies by William Golding.

 

I actually was reading this book at school and although we started reading it in around May we only finished it in September (slow reading or what). As this is only the second classic book I have ever read I was quite proud that I finished it, even if it did take 5 months, and I did quite enjoy it. It is not the kind of book which I would normally read but as it was for school I didn't really have a choice but I will say that I am still glad I read it. I gave this book a 3 out of 5 on GoodReads.

 

The eighth and second to last book I read during September was Blood Red Road by Moira Young.

 



This book was a-maz-ing and I absolutely loved it. Before reading it I was a little intimated because it is almost 500 pages, but if it wasn't that long than it would not be as good! And even though it took me about the first 15-20 pages to get over some of the language used in it, I quickly got used to it and ended up really enjoying it. Expect yet another review of this book soon. I gave this book another 5 out of 5 stars.

The ninth and final book I read this month was the magicians nephew by C.S Lewis.

I decided to read this because I have owned the chronicles of Narnia box set for about 6 years and have never got round to reading it so I went in and read the first book in the series as my classic book of the month (as well as lord of the flies). This book was surprisingly good but you could definitely tell that it was written in 1955 because of some of the language used, but that was inevitable. I will be reading all of the other books in the chronicles of Narnia series so I may post a series review once I have finished them. I gave this book 4 out of 5 on GoodReads.

Thanks for reading and I hope I gave you some good ideas of some books you may want to check out. It looks like I have a lot of book reviews to be writing so I better get on that soon. Fell free to leave a comment with what books you read in September as I would love to know. Speak to you in my next post.
Keep reading!

August Wrap Up

For my first post on this blog I have decided to do an August wrap up. If you are not familiar with what a wrap up is, it is where I show you what books I read in that month, what I thought about them and what I rated them out of 5 on GoodReads.
In August I was in a bit of a reading slump so I only managed to read 2 books, but I thought I would show you guys anyway.

The first book I read in August was Crossed by Ally Condie, which is the second book in the Matched trilogy.

I am not going to do a full review of this book because I am planning on doing a review of the trilogy once I have read the third and final book, which will hopefully be soon. After reading Matched I was excited to read Crossed and was hoping that the second book lived up to the first... which it didn't. I found Crossed to be boring and repetitive and I don't think that it was necessary to spread out the series over three books when they could have easily condensed the first and only made two books but I am not completely criticizing the series as I really enjoyed the first book but the second just did not live up to it. Anyway I ended up giving this book a 1/5 on GoodReads because I really didn't enjoy it.

The second and only other book I read in August was Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, which is the first in the Twilight series.

To my surprise I actually really enjoyed this book which I was not expecting because I had watched the film a couple of years ago and didn't really enjoy it that much but I decided to read it anyway and I am glad that I did now as it was a very good book. I gave this a 4/5 on GoodReads.

I hope you enjoyed this post and I am planning on doing one for each month. I would love to see what books any of you read in the month of August so please feel free to leave a comment.

Keep reading!