Top 13 books of 2013!

Today I am doing my top 13 books of 2013! This was actually easier than I thought it would be to decide what 13 books would make my list. So lets get started...

13. The great Gatsby by  Scott Fitzgerald.

I didn't think that a classic would make my list because they do not usually interest me very much, but the great Gatsby is an exception as I really enjoyed it and I also thought that the film was a very true adaptation of the book, which is why it is #13 on my list.

12. The forbidden game trilogy by LJ Smith.

I absolutely loved this trilogy and got through it very quickly. It was exciting and quite creepy at times, which kept my attention and really made this book very enjoyable.

11. Eve by Anna Carey.

I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to get to the sequels sometime soon! It was a really interesting concept and one which I have not read in a dystopian book before.

10. Blood ted road by Moira Young.

I loved this book! It would be further up in my list because I did really enjoy it, but there are so many books that I love even more, which is why it didn't make it past my top 10.

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

This was the perfect Christmas read and I loved how the three separate stories were linked together throughout the book, and I think that the way that the book concluded was very good and a nice way for the book to end.

8. Poison study, assassin study, magic study and fire study by Maria V Snyder.

I read this whole trilogy and the novella assassin study during the month of December and is the reason why I now have a love for high fantasy novels. This trilogy was amazing and I absolutely loved it!

7. Entwined by Heather Dixon.

 

As the first fairy tale retelling that I have ever read, it has now gotten me interested in reading more fairy take retellings as well as more books by Heather Dixon, because I love her writing style and this book was just brilliant!

6. City of bones and City of ashes by Cassandra Clare.

 

I absolutely love this series so far, but only got round to reading the first two books last year, but I am excited to finish this series and especially as city of heavenly fire is being released in May.

5. Delirium, Pandemonium, Requiem and Delirium stories by Lauren Oliver.

 

This series is by far one of my favourite series of all time and I loved the premise of the book and thought that it was very interesting and quite different to other dystopian books that I have read.

4. The maze runner, the scorch trials, the death cure and the kill order by James Dashner.

 

This is another one of my most favourite series of all time. I loved every single book in this trilogy as well as the prequel book, the kill order, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone!

3. Hunting Lila by Sarah Alderson.

 

The next three books were very difficult to put into an order of how much I liked them, because all three are amazing! Hunting Lila was a great book and was also quite unexpected, as I bought it on a whim one day, but ended up absolutely loving it!

2. The fault in our stars by John Green.

 

This book was just...Wow. I literally cannot explain how much I loved this book, but if you want to read my full review of TFIOS, than check out the link at the bottom of this post.

1. Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth.

 

First of all, I did actually read Allegiant this year as well, but it was not as great as Divergent and Insurgent which is why I didn't include it into the #1 spot. Anyway, I absolutely love this series and think that it is probably the best series that I have ever read!

Thanks for reading and I hope you had a great reading year in 2013, and have a great 2014! Check out my TFIOS review here.
Star Reads

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.