Book related haul

Hi booklovers

As I mentioned in my book haul, I went to London in December. Besides books I also bought some book related stuff.

When we went to King's Cross Station to get our Oyster cards, I immediately went to 'Platform 9 3/4' where I bought a key chain, a fridge magnet and a burgundy lanyard and ticket. Because the line was so long, I didn't get my picture taken with the trolley. I liked the cosy little shop better anyway :-)

We also visited Harry Potter Studios and there I bought Xenophilius Lovegood's Necklace, The Marauder's Map and a Butterbeer glass.
My boyfriend got me the beautiful Dobby bookend.

My godson bought me this beautiful Time Turner necklace for Christmas.

 

At Selfridges there was a special section dedicated to Paddington Bear and for nostalgic reasons I had to get a souvenir.

Hope you liked this little book related haul. Let me know in the comments what book related stuff you have or would like to have.

Bye for now!

Annelies

Series I would like to continue / finish in 2015

Hi booklovers

One of my Bookish Goals 2015 is to continue or finish some of the series that I have already started.

I took a look at my bookshelves and I've realised I have a lot of unfinished series :-s

I'm going to divide this into completed and uncompleted series. This list in no particular order - I just wrote them down as I came across them on my shelves :-)

A) Completed series.

1. The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare - I've read the first four, still need to read books 5 and 6. I was marathoning this series, but after City of Fallen Angels I needed to stop reading it, because I truly disliked that book. I was scared of getting into a reading slump.

2. The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare - I've read the first book, still need to read books 2 and 3. I actually started reading the second book, but I wasn't enjoying it after COFA.

3. The Cousin' War series by Philippa Gregory - I've read the first three books completely and I'm about halfway through book 4. I also own book 5 in the series, but not book 6 which was released last year. I'm actually not sure if this is a completed series or not. Tell me in the comments if you know.

4. The Tudor Court series by Phillipa Gregory - I still have to read the sixth book. Again, I'm not 100% sure if this series is complete or not.

5. The Fallen series by Lauren Kate - Actually, I only need to read Fallen in love.

6. The Wheel of Time - by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson - I've been reading this series for almost 10 years now. I've already read books 1 to 10 and then I reread books 1 to 6. But being a non-native English speaker, it takes me a long time to get through such massive books. I started rereading them because I had forgotten about a big part of the story, but I stopped again after book 6 because I was making very little progress.

7. The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - I own these books in Dutch and I've read books 1 and 2 of this 7 books series.

8. The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini - I still need to read the last book in the series.

9. The Dwarves by Markus Heitz - I've read the first book and I'm halfway through the second book. I'm not sure if I'll finish them, because I really didn't like the second book.

10. His Fair Assassin by Robin LaFevers - Bre Faucheux and I've buddy-read Grave Mercy (book 1) last year and I really want to finish this series soon.

11. The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien - I've read the Fellowship of the Ring and part of The Two Towers. I know, I really need to continue this series!

B) Uncompleted series.

1. Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin - Like with The Wheel of Time it's taking me a long time to work my way through these books, but I'm determined to get through them at some point. I've read the first two books and I've started the third one.

2. The Shannara series by Terry Brooks - This series actually consists of several smaller series and together they consist of a huge number of books. I've only read the first book in Dutch. I'm (very) slowly collecting the books both in Dutch and English (because I can't find them all in Dutch apparently.)

3. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas - I've read The Assassin's Blade, Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight.

4. The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer - I've read the three books that have already been released.

5. The Falling Kingdoms series by Morgan Rhodes - I'm currently reading Falling Kingdoms.


That makes a total of 15 series I want/need to finish and 1 I probably won't finish. Let's be realistic, I'm not going to continue or finish them all in 2015, but I want to make a start on this list, so I can reduce my TBR pile - which I still haven't counted, btw. Wish me luck.

And the worst part is there are so many more series I want to start. So many books, so little time!

Let me know in the comments if you've read any of these series and which of these I should tackle first.

Bye for now

Annelies

How I rate books

Hi booklovers

The other day I posted my first review and I thought it might be useful to share with you how I rate the books I've read.

I looked it up on Goodreads and it turns out I only gave 8 books 5 out of 5 stars last year. I think it's safe to say I hardly ever give the highest rating. I think this is because I rarely get completely blown away by a story. I've realized that most of my 5 star books are books that have given me a (major) book hangover. To give an example: although I absolutely adore the Harry Potter books and I've read them multiple times, I don't give them 5 stars. A book has to really blow me away to get the highest score.

That also means that I really, really, really like the 4 star books I've read. I also use half stars - Goodreads, you should really make it possible to give half stars!! - because that gives you more leeway.

Sometimes I change my rating after re-reading a book.

So:

5 stars - mind-blowingly good, all time favourite, (major) book hangover.

4.5 stars - almost perfect.

4 stars - really, really, really good book, liked it very, very, very much.

3.5 stars - very, very good book, really liked it, you should check it out.

3 stars - liked it, you should still check it out.

2.5 stars - finished it, but that's just about it.

2 stars - barely finished it, didn't like it.

0 - 1.5 stars - did not like it at all, don't bother with it.

When you look at the list of books I've rated, you'll see that there are different types of books with 4 star ratings. A couple of months ago I saw a video by Ariel Bisset about rating books on different scales. I have to say I totally agree with her. I've rated Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, the Divergent series, the Shatter Me series, etc.  4 stars along with New Adult books by Abbi Glines. Do these books have the same quality? No. Why do I rate them all 4 stars then? Because they are good in their own genre. Like Ariel said, they are good at what they are meant to do. And books don't all have to be classics to be good books! Not that all classics are good books, mind you!

Let me know in the comments how you rate books!

Bye

Annelies

Review - The Elder Origins

Hi booklovers

Today I'm bringing you my very first book review.

I've just finished 'The Elder Origins #1' by Bre Faucheux. I've been following Bre's BookTube Channel for quite a while and last year we started talking via Twitter. I've been wanting to read some of her books and I've finally started her 'The Elder Origins' series.

I went into this expecting this to be a bit weird, because Bre had warned me about it several times. But since I enjoy weird, I was very curious to find out about the story.

*Story:

The story starts in 1346 where we meet Kuruk and his son He Lush Ka, the Elders of the Native American Vam-pyr-ei-ak Tribe. We don't find out much about them except that they have these visions in which they see 'the white men' coming.

Then we jump to England during the winter of 1347. We meet Madison and her brother Jamison during the Hundred Year War when their house and village are being burned to the ground by the French. Madison, Jamison and some other people from their village flee and set out to find a new place to live. The arrive at a seemingly uninhabited stretch of land in native America. They decide to settle there and start building new houses. Unfortunately, disaster strikes again. From there on lots of things start to happen...

*Characters:

- At first I thought Madison would be a soft-hearted girl who did everything her brother told her to. But soon you start to see that she has her own opinions and she frequently doubts her brother's beliefs. Throughout the story she develops a stronger character, although certain events still make her doubt things. I'm curious to see how she will evolve.

- Jamison is okay, but we don't get to know that much about him.

- I wanted to strangle Jayden right from the start, he is so annoying and stuck-up. I wonder how he will develop in the next story.

*Plot:

I really like the way Bre writes about vampires. I've read a couple of vampire books and I like this original take on them. I'm curious to see where the story will go from here.

*Overall rating:

I really liked this book. Even though Bre had warned me about it being weird, I found it to be intriguing. You get a glimpse of the Elders and then you move on to Madison's story. Because of the cliffhanger I really want to know what happens next, so I will be starting it very soon.

I give this book 3.5 / 5 stars. (I will make a post about my rating system soon)

If you like vampire stories that are a bit different mixed with historical things, this is a book you should pick up!

Let me know in the comments if you've read this book or if you want to read it.

Bye

Annelies

Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes

Hi booklovers

Like I said in my previous post I'm putting down the book I was reading to FINALLY pick up Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes. 

After seeing Gingerreadslainey and Bre Faucheux rave about this book on their BooktTube channels - go check them out :-) - I think it's finally time to start this series. I currently own the first two books, I still need to order the most recent one :-)

I'm curious to see what the hype is all about!

Have you read this book already or are you planning on reading it? Let me know in the comments!

Bye 

Annelies

Update - currently reading

Hi booklovers

Just a quick update on what I'm currently reading.

In one of my previous posts I started reviewing the short stories from My True Love Gave To Me. I'm having mixed feelings about this book. Some stories are really good and some are really disappointing. That's why I'm not sure if I'm going to continue the other stories straight away. (I'm actually currently in the middle of a story and I'm having a hard time continuing.) I'm not even sure I will pick the book up again before the 2015 holiday season, since they are all holiday themed.

So, I think I'm going to take Juhina's advice and not read all the stories back to back.

Juhina has a BookTube channel and she and her sister Farah make great videos. Although I don't always agree with their opinions on some books, I do really appreciate their opinions :-) so go check out their channel. 

Let me know in the comments if you've read My True Love Gave To Me and what you thought of it.

Bye

Annelies

London Book Haul

Hi booklovers

Last month I went to London and of course I had to buy some books.

I bought a total of 13 books - 7 for myself and 5 for my boyfriend. I think 13 is an okay number :-) To be honest, I would've bought more, but on the last day there wasn't enough time left to go to Waterstones at Piccadilly Circus. Ah well, I'll just have to visit that one next time ;-)  

I'll start with the 5 books I bought for my boyfriend:

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda (Origami Yoda #1)

The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee (Origami Yoda #3) (He already owned #2)

The Surprise Attack of Jabba the Puppett (Origami Yoda #4)

Princess Labelmaker to the Rescue (Origami Yoda #5)

Emperor Pickletine Rides the Bus (Origami Yoda #6)  All written by Tom Angleberger.

 

My boyfriend doesn't read books that often, but these books really appealed to him. He had already bought the second volume at Boekenfestijn. To be fair, he did also read the first 4 Harry Potter books, but the 5th one is too big to take with him to work ;-)

And now on to my own shiny new books :-)

Cinder, Scarlet and Cress - by Marissa Meyer. I have already read them on my e-reader - see My favourite book of 2014 - but because Fairest is coming out on Jan. 27th and the final book Winter will be released in November I wanted to own the physical copies.

 

My True Love Gave To Me - by different authorswhich I'm still reading.
Let it snow - by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle.
To all the boys I've loved before - by Jenny Han. I'm curious about this one, because I've never read a Jenny Han book before. (Besides of course the short story in My True Love Gave To Me.

 

Weird things customers say in bookshops  - by Jen Campbell. This looked so funny - and perhaps frustrating at the same time - I just had to pick it up. Unfortunately I couldn't get my hands on the second on yet, but I'm working on that ;-)

 

I bought all these books at Waterstones Oxford Street and Covent Garden.

The last book I bought, I got at an Oxfam Charity Bookshop and it is Firelight by Sophie Jordan. I don't really know what its about except that it has to do with dragons. :-/ I just found out on Goodreads that this is actually the first book in a trilogy.

 

Have you read any of the books mentioned? Let me know in the comments what you think of them.

Bye

Annelies

Bookish Goals 2015

Hi booklovers

This blog post is based on a lot of current videos on YouTube: Bookish Goals/Resolutions of 2015.

I'm not going to set that many goals for myself, because I'm still new at all this, but there are a few things I want to try to accomplish:

#1 I've set my Goodreads reading challenge to 50 books - the same amount as in 2014. I think this is an achievable goal.

#2 Read a classic. I have a lot of classics on my book shelves which I got very cheap at Boekenfestijn (a Dutch and Belgian book fair where you can pick up books for practically no money). Unfortunately, I haven't read any of them. So that's something I want to do this year.

#3 Reduce my TBR pile. I haven't counted my TBR pile yet - I'm scared to do so - but I know there are a lot of books in it, so it's time I start reducing it.

#4 Finish / continue some of the series I've already started. I'm going to do a separate blog post on this.

#5 Not buy more books than I did last year. I should probably count the number of books I bought last year, teehee.

At the end of 2015 I will come back to these goals and see how I fared :-)

Bye

Annelies

Winter TBR

Hi booklovers

Like I said in my Top 10 Favourite books of 2014 last year was a great reading year for me, but not thanks to my TBR. I just checked my TBR of 2014 and I aimed to read 25 books! Yay for me for surpassing that number :-) On the downside: I haven't read a single book from my TBR - cheeks turning shamefully red.

Last summer I decided to do a TBR by season and that turned out to be a better choice. 

I'm also over-ambitious when compiling my TBR's, so I'm usually happy when I manage to read half of the books on my list.

  

So here's my December - January - February TBR:

- City of Lost Souls - Cassandra Clare
- City of Heavenly Fire - Cassandra Clare
- Clockwork Prince - Cassandra Clare
- Clockwork Princess - Cassandra Clare
- Crown of Midnight - Sarah J. Maas
- Heir of Fire - Sarah J. Maas
- The Elder Origins - Bre Faucheux 
- Exile - Bre Faucheux
- Encounters - Bre Faucheux
- Rosy Hopkins' Sweetshop of dreams - Jenny Colgan
- Meet me at the Cupcake Café - Jenny Colgan
- Falling Kingdoms - Morgan Rhodes
- Rebel Spring - Morgan Rhodes
- Gathering Darkness - Morgan Rhodes
- My true love gave to me - different authors - currently reading 
- Let it snow - Maureen Johnson, Lauren Myracle, John Green
- You were mine - Abbi Glines
- Faking it - Cora Carmack
- Finding it - Cora Carmack
- Seeking her - Cora Carmack

(I've already read the ones that are crossed out)

I've also already read a couple of books that weren't on my TBR:
- Kiro's Emily - Abbi Glines
- Bitter Sweet Love - Jennifer L. Armentrout (reread)
- White Hot Kiss - Jennifer L. Armentrout (reread)
- Stone Cold Touch - Jennifer L. Armentrout
- Breaking the Rules - Katie McGarry

I'm going to update this list during the months of January and February.

Let me know in the comments if you've read any of the books on my TBR or which book I should read next!

Bye

Annelies 

Currently reading - My true love gave to me

This is actually a sneak peek on my London Book Haul :-)

The cover states: Twelve winter romances - Long cold nights are for falling in love.

This book consists of 12 short stories written by several authors and edited by Stephanie Perkins.

#1 Midnights by Rainbow Rowell ****
I really enjoyed this short story, it was cute, adorable. I liked the flashbacks to the different New Year's Eves and then everything wrapping up in the most recent one. The characters are relateable and sweet and you completely feel what they feel. I wouldn't mind reading a bit more about them :-)

#2 The Lady and the Fox by Kelly Link **
I didn't enjoy this one at all, simply because it didn't make sense to me. I worked my way through it, but I was glad when it was over. (Please note that this is my personal opinion!)

#3 Angels in the snow by Matt de la Pena ****1/2

This was so cute and heart-wrenching at the same time. It contained multiple aspects such as different races, wealth and poverty, fitting in... Such a great short story. 

I just found out over at April Brook's blog (go check her out, she does BookTube videos as well. She's one of my favourite BookTubers!!) that the main character in this novella is also the main character in de la Pena's full length novel, 'The Living'. One more book to add to my wish list :-) 

#4 Polaris is where you'll find me by Jenny Han ***1/2
A very short and cute short story. I really liked the setting of this - the North pole. I liked the main characters Natty and Flinn. It was cute to read how Nathalie - as a human - experienced life amongst Santa's elves.

#5 It's a Yuletide miracle, Charlie Brown by Stephanie Perkins ****1/2
Cute, funny, sweet, all in all the almost perfect short story. It was so lovely to read how the two main characters got to know each other during such a short period of time. I really liked Stephanie Perkins' writing style and I'll definitely read her Anna and the French Kiss series. 

#6 Your temporary Santa by David **1/2
This story was kind of meh. I liked the premise of a gay boy doing his boyfriend a favour by playing Santa for his little sister, but he was dealing with so many personal issues it became annoying. The story just fell short for me.

Top 10 favourite books of 2014

Hi book-lovers

First of all let me say that 2014 has been a great reading year for me. I had set my Goodreads 2014 reading challenge at 50 books and I managed to read 58 books. Yay for me! Actually, because Goodreads doesn't include re-reads, I've read 63 books, but who's counting ;-)

I would also like to mention that the books in my top 10 weren't necessarily published in 2014.

And now on with my favourite reads: (Click on the titles and authors to go to the Goodreads pages to read the summary.)

#10 The Vampire Academy Series by Richelle Mead (Technically this isn't one book, but I've marathoned this series, so I want to discuss them as a whole.)

The reason I've put the VA series in the n°10 spot is that I didn't like books 4 and 5 as much as the other ones. I still gave them 3 stars on Goodreads, but the first halves of both books were extremely slow. Luckily the second halves picked up the pace, which made them turn out okay.
But the final book made struggling through book 4 and 5 worth it. What a finale to a series!

#9 The Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J. Maas (Again, not one book ...)

 

This series isn't finished yet and I haven't read Heir of Fire, but I enjoyed the first three books. The Assassin's Blade consists of all the prequel novellas and I'm glad I've read this first, because they give you a good insight in Celaena's behavior in the following books. Heir of Fire is on my TBR for 2015.

#8 The Divergent Series by Veronica Roth (Here we go again...)

Although a lot of people felt really betrayed by how the story evolved in Allegiant, I actually liked how the trilogy ended. I'm not going to go into details because I don't want to spoil you in case you haven't read the books, but I just want to say that in my opinion a book doesn't always need a happy ending...


#7 The Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi (Yep, you've guessed it...)

These books were some of the first books I read in 2014 and also some of the first books I read on my e-reader. I experienced a lot of emotions reading these books. They were fast, exciting reads and I really enjoyed the novellas. They tied everything together.
And oh yeah, for those of you who are curious: after a hesitant start I completely became Team Warner :-)

#6 Wonder by R.J. Palacio

I read this for the #AntiBullyReads hosted by Sarah Churchill. I really liked this book and it has made me think about how I react to people who look different. High school pupils should really this story as it would get them thinking about their own behavior.

#5 The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

It took a while for Cinder to really grab me, but once it did, it didn't let go. Neither did Scarlet and Cress. The books kept getting better and better. I really liked the fact that these stories are fairytale retellings. Oh, and the male characters in these books are serious book boyfriend material :-) I can't wait to read Fairest and Winter.

#4 The Pushing the Limits companion series

These were some of the first contemporary books I've read and they convinced me to read more books in this genre. 
Although I enjoyed Dare You To a bit less than the others, I still really, really, really liked this series. I'm currently reading Breaking the Rules and I'm loving it!!

#3 If I stay by Gayle Forman

I absolutely loved this book, it is so beautifully written. It takes you on a constant emotional roller coaster and yes, I cried while reading this book. I also watched the movie - I cried even more then - and it was a really good book-to-movie adaptation.


It's been a real struggle to decide which book was my 2nd favourite book of the year and which one was my absolute favourite and I would rather put them both in the number 1 spot...

#2 Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

I have only one thing to say about this book: I read this in one sitting and had a major book hangover afterwards - okay, that's two things :-)


And my absolute favourite book of 2014:

#1 The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

I honestly don't know why I haven't read this book sooner. It was very well written, packed with a wide range of emotions. I cried my eyes out - really ugly crying - during several scenes and even more so with the movie. Again, I found this to be a very good book-to-movie adaptation.
And this book gave me my first book-hangover of 2014.


I hope you enjoyed my top 10 books of 2014. Let me know in the comments what some of your favourite books of 2014 were.

Bye

Annelies

Welcome

Welcome and a very Happy New Year to all you book-lovers - and everyone else ;-) - out there!

January 1st, the start of new year and the start of my blog.

I began reading when I was about 6 and I've been reading ever since. My love for books has always been huge and now I want to share that love with all of you.
I've been watching BookTube videos and reading Book Blogs for about a year now and I really want to give my own blog a try.

What you can expect on this blog:
- Book hauls / book related hauls (although I am trying to limit my book buying :-) )
- TBR's
- Wrap ups
- Reviews
- Tags

I hope you'll enjoy my posts and feel free to leave comments!

Bye

Annelies