February 2015 wrap up

Hi booklovers

During the month of February I was able to read 5 books, thanks to my midterm break and some shorter, quicker reads. I've added the links to the Goodreads pages so you can check out the synopses.

1) Rebel Spring by Morgan Rhodes: non-spoiler review / spoiler review.

2) Faking it by Cora Carmack. This is the second book in an NA companion novel series. I've read Losing it and Keeping her (a novella) last year. The first two books are about Garrick and Bliss and I really liked reading about them, so at first I was a bit hesitant to read the other stories. (I tend to have that reaction to companion novels, I had the same issue with Katie McGarry's books.) But while I was on the train to go to Waterstones Brussels the other day, I decided to read it on my e-reader. I was still reading Gathering Darkness at the time, but I didn't feel like taking such a chunk of a book with me, so I took my e-reader instead.
This story is about Cade and Max - it's written in dual POV - and I read it almost in one sitting. Cade is trying to get over Bliss but he has a hard time forgetting her. And then, all of a sudden Max comes into his life asking him a weird question.
Like Losing it and Keeping her this was a quick, fun, sexy read, but with a bit of an edge. I know most NA stories are about the same themes but this one didn't have the cliches that Abbi Glines' stories sometimes tend to have. I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads. (Click here if you want to know how I rate books.)

Beware if you're a younger reader because this has sexual content.

3) Gathering Darkness by Morgan Rhodes: non-spoiler review / spoiler review. (coming soon)

4) Finding it by Cora Carmack. In this book we follow Bliss' best friend Kelsey on her trip around Europe. On this trip she want to discover herself and find out what she's going to do with her life. What I like about this book is that although there is instant attraction between Kelsey and Hunt, they don't hit it off immediately. You have your typical characters weighed down by their personal histories, but it was so well written that this didn't bother me. My heart was trampled on a couple of times. I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads.

5) Seeking her by Cora Carmack. This is a novella in which we get part of the Finding it story told from Hunt's POV. I really liked it because we get to know a bit of the story before the start of Finding it. It was nice to get to know the story from Hunt's POV and some of his back-story. The only problem I had was that I thought it ended at a weird point in the story. I would've loved to read a bit more. That's why I gave it 3.5 stars on Goodreads. 

All in all, February was a good reading month :-)

Which of these books have you read or would you like to read? Let me know in the comments!

Bye for now

Annelies

January - February book haul

Hi booklovers

During the months of January and February I bought 10 books.

Five of them I ordered at bol.com because for me that's the easiest way to order books.

I got:

 

  Splintered - Unhinged - Ensnared

by A.G. Howard

 

          Shatter me                                            Gathering Darkness

          by Tahereh Mafi                                    by Morgan Rhodes

The other day I went to Waterstones Brussels with one of my best friends and I bought five more books. I know I said I wanted to buy less books this year and knock off some books of my TBR list, but in my defense: my friend bought more books than me :-)

   

Amy & Roger's Epic Detour - Second Chance summer
by Morgan Matson

I haven't read any books by Morgan Matson yet, so I'm curious to see what her writing is like. I wanted to get 'Amy & Roger's Epic Detour' with the pink cover to match 'Second Chance summer' but this was the only one they had.

Noughts & Crosses

by Malorie Blackman

I got this one solely because I've heard Megan Olivier raving about it quite a few times and it's one of her favourite books. Maybe Bre Faucheux and I will do a buddy-read for this book.

    Shadow and Bone                                       Half-Blood

      by Leigh Bardugo                          by Jennifer L. Armentrout

I had a really great time at Waterstones, I love browsing through books and bookshops. Because Waterstones is one of the few English bookstores in Belgium I don't go there very often so I always cherish the time I get to spend there. I find ordering books online very easy, but going to a bookshop is just a whole different experience!

Which do you prefer: going to bookshops or ordering your books online? Which of these books should I read first? Let me know in the comments!    

Bye for now

Annelies               

TBR jars

Hi booklovers

The topic of this post has been going around BookTube and Book blogs a lot and I decided to take part in making a TBR jar.

I'm not sure yet how this will turn out, because I've made seasonal TBR's a couple of times now and:

A) I'm always extremely ambitious (the only time of the year I'm able to read 10 books in a single month is during the summer holidays).

B) I tend to read books that aren't on my TBR list.

C) Every time I end up moving some of the books to my next TBR list.

I went ahead and bought two cute jars - a bigger and a smaller one.

(Don't worry, those aren't real candles standing next to my books! Well, the one on the right is but I would never light it!!)

The bigger of the two jars contains my general TBR. 

It might not seem to contain that many pieces of paper, but I've only added the first books in the series I own or the book I have to read wherever I'm at in the series. 

When I've read a book in a series, I'll add the next one in the series.

The smaller jar (I know it doesn't look like this one is smaller, but that is due to my crappy photography skills) contains my seasonal TBR.

 

I'm going to change the content of this jar when I make my new TBR.

I still need to pimp my jars, but I'm not sure what I want to do with them yet. Once I've done that, I'll add some pictures to this post.

I'm not sure how this will go, but we'll see. I have decided I won't force myself to read a book I don't feel like reading it at that time. I don't want to put myself into a reading slump. So if I don't feel like reading that particular book, I'll just put the paper back into the jar. (I promise I won't do that endlessly :-) ) I'm also not going to be using my TBR jar if I want to marathon a series or if I already know what I want to read. Like I said, I'm not sure how this will go :-s

Do you use a TBR jar and does it help with your TBR pile? Let me know in the comments.

Bye for now

Annelies

TBR pile

Hi booklovers

In my Bookish Goals 2015 I said I wanted to tackle my TBR pile. I finally had the courage to actually count the number of books that are on it. If I'm not mistaken, there are 114 unread books on my shelves.

While going over my bookshelves I discovered that there might be a few books in my TBR pile that I might never read. So, maybe I should do some sort of unhaul soon. But I'm still at the point where I can't really part with any of my books just yet.

Any tips on reducing my TBR pile - besides getting rid of the books I will probably never read? Let me know in the comments.

Bye for now

Annelies

Rebel Spring - non-spoiler review

Hi booklovers

Title: Rebel Spring

Author: Morgan Rhodes

Genre: High Fantasy, YA

Publication Date: November 27th 2013

Publisher: Razor Bill

Goodreads

Goodreads summary (highlight the next text if you've read Falling Kingdoms!)

Auranos has been conquered and the three kingdoms—Auranos, Limeros, and Paelsia—are now unwillingly united as one country called Mytica. But alluring, dangerous magic still beckons, and with it the chance to rule not just Mytica, but the world. . . .

CLEO is now a prisoner in her own palace, forced to be an ambassador for Mytica as the evil King Gaius lies to her people MAGNUS stands to eventually inherit the new kingdom but is still obsessed with his feelings for his adopted sister, Lucia LUCIA is haunted by the deadly outcome of her breathtaking display of magic that allowed her father to capture the kingdoms JONAS watches at the palace gates, a troop of rebels behind him, waiting for him to tell them how he plans to overtake King Gaius When Gaius announces that a road is to be built into the Forbidden Mountains, formally linking all of Mytica together, he sets off a chain of cataclysmic events that will forever change the face of this land.

My review:

Just like with the first book, I really like this cover, I've always had a soft spot for hooded capes.

Once again you get a map and the list of characters - which is adapted for this book.The list of characters is handy to go back to when you're confused.

Morgan changed the way the chapters are introduced: instead of telling you which land you are in, you immediately know which character's POV this chapter is in and also where it takes place. I like this even better than the names of the places in the first book.

The prologue of this book introduces new characters, which is nice. It keeps the pace of the story going.

The world and characters are constantly being developed. You think that you know everything about a character and then something unexpected happens. Some of the characters that are mentioned in Falling Kingdoms are given a bigger role to play in Rebel Spring: Queen Althea and Lucia.

All in all, I think this is a good sequel in which a lot of things happen and there is never a dull moment. I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.

Bye for now

Annelies 

Rebel Spring - SPOILER book review

**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**

DON'T READ THIS POST IF YOU HAVEN'T READ Rebel Spring YET! I also have a non-spoiler review.

If you want to read the following text, just highlight it :-)


In this post I'm going to talk about my feelings about the book. Again I would like to apologize if this is a bit confusing, but I wrote down my feelings while reading the book. Remember these are my personal thoughts and feelings!

* Pretty soon after the start of the story I wanted to strangle Aron for telling Cleo's secret about having slept with him to save his own sorry little ass. Grrr!!

* Magnus is starting to grow on me: the way he cares for his sister and he seems to be genuinely concerned about Cleo when she's kidnapped. 

* Queen Althea is such a bitch the way she wants to kill her daughter 'to save her'. I almost did a happy dance when she was killed.

* I kind of saw the kiss between Jonas and Cleo coming because of all the chemistry between them, but I was still surprised about the timing. I totally ship them!

* In my spoiler review of Falling Kingdoms I wrote that I wondered if Cleo wasn't reacting too calmly to the death of her loved-ones. She answered that question herself: 'I can barely remain standing and contain my grief'. This made her very real for me.

* All the feels when the rebel's attack at Cleo & Magnus' wedding backfired and King Gaius forced them to continue the ceremony.

* I don't care much for Lucia. Granted, it's difficult for her to deal with her elementia, but she is such a nasty person sometimes.

* I was on the train while reading the scene when Jonas was stabbed through the heart and my boyfriend was sitting next to me. I went: 'Noooooooooo, this can't be happening' and I started flipping the pages and he was like: 'What are you doing???' And then the feels when Phaedra rescued him and was betrayed by her brother Xanthus!!

* My face went like this O____O when Prince Ashur kissed Nic, didn't see that one coming at all. I don't know why but Prince Ashur reminds me of Prince Oberyn of Game of Thrones.

* I still hate King Gaius for all the things he has done, especially when we find out he was the one who ordered Aron to kill Queen Althea. He is such an infuriating character.

* The moment I found out is was Brion who was captured and brought before Magnus and Aron and then when Aron stabbed him to death, my heart just stopped. The way Morgan Rhodes describes those scenes is so heart-breaking. You could feel all the emotions going through Jonas and Lysandra while watching this.

* A second happy dance occurred when Aron was killed by Magnus.

I really liked this sequel. It was packed with emotions and I wanted to pick up the next one immediately. This is something that rarely happens to me, usually I need to put the series down after reading two books. This is the case for the 'Throne of Glass' series and the 'Mortal Instruments and Infernal Devices' series. So, it's a good sign that I wanted to pick up book 3 in this series straight away.

As always, let me know in the comments what you thought about this book. Let's discuss it!

Bye for now

Annelies

Books I bought in 2014

Hi booklovers

In my Bookish Goals 2015 one of my goals is to buy less books than last year. In order to do that, I needed to count the amount of books I bought. 

Apparently I bought 45 books (both physical books and e-books). I don't want to brag about the amount of books I got, but I just needed to know to be able to achieve that goal :-)

I know 45 books isn't that much compared to some BookTubers, but I buy all the books myself, so!

I would like to use my local library more often, but since I don't live in an English speaking country, my library doesn't have that many English books. Besides, ever since I was little I've liked owning the books I read, I don't really know why.

How many books do you generally buy in one year? Do you borrow a lot of books from the library or do you want to own all of the books you read?

Bye for now

Annelies

Falling Kingdoms - non-spoiler book review

Hi booklovers

I finally decided to jump on the bandwagon of reading the 'Falling Kingdoms' series. After watching Bre Faucheux's review and Lainey's recommendation on YT I decided to give it a try.

Title: Falling Kingdoms

Author: Morgan Rhodes

Genre: High Fantasy, YA

Publication Date: December 11th 2012

Publisher: Razor Bill

Goodreads

 

Goodreads summary:

Treacherous betrayals, secret alliances, unforeseen murders, and forbidden love —
The world of Mytica will hold you captive:

AURANOS - Privileged Princess Cleo is forced to confront violence for the first time in her life when a shocking murder sets her kingdom on a path to collapse.

LIMEROS - The king’s son, Magnus, must plan each footstep with shrewd, sharp guile if he is to earn his powerful father’s trust, while his sister, Lucia, discovers a terrifying secret about her heritage that will change everything.

PAELSIA - Rebellious Jonas lashes out against the forces of oppression that have kept his country cruelly impoverished—and finds himself the leader of a people’s revolution centuries in the making.

Witches, if found, are put to death, and Watchers, immortal beings who take the shape of hawks to visit the human world, have been almost entirely forgotten. A vicious power struggle quickly escalates to war, and these four young people collide against each other and the rise of elementia, the magic that can topple kingdoms and crown a ruler in the same day.

My review:

I would like to start off by saying I absolutely adore the cover of this book, it's so beautiful. The inside of the book is also nice, I really like the map.

Something I found really helpful was the character list, you can easily go back to it when you get confused.

The story is told from multiple perspectives and I really liked that. It's a good way to get to know a lot of the characters and the world. 
Besides the good character development there is also great world building. Morgan Rhodes paints a great picture of the differences between the three countries. The story is told from the perspective of different characters - mostly - within their own country.

I liked the distinction between 'mere' witches and sorceresses.

Characters:
*Cleo: This is the character that has the best character development in my opinion. When we first meet her she is a spoiled little brat, but you soon discover that she is faithful and strong-minded. She knows what she wants, but she doesn't always think before she acts.

*Aron: Urgh, the first character I did not like. What an arrogant bastard!

*Theon: Oooh, Theon, he's loyal, dutiful and totally swoonworthy :-)

*Nic: He is a funny, loyal friend to Cleo.

*Jonas: He's a very strong character, driven by his desire for revenge.

*Magnus: I know some people instantly liked Magnus, but I simply don't know what to think of him. I like that he stands up to his father, but most of his actions infuriate me.

*Lucia: I can't really say much about her without spoiling the story, but like with Magnus I'm not sure yet how I feel about her.

*King Gaius: What a horrible man! The way he treats Magnus is infuriating.

*Chief Basilius: What a fraud!

Overall opinion:
I really enjoyed this story. The writing is really good, not too complicated. Most of the characters are well developed. The world is described very well. The pacing is just right. It was a real roller coaster of emotions.

I gave the book 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. 

Let me know in the comments if you've read this book and whether you liked it or not. Please don't put spoilers in the comments! I have a spoiler review up as well, so we can discuss the book more in detail over there.

Bye for now

Annelies 

Falling Kingdoms - SPOILER book review

**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**

DON'T READ THIS POST IF YOU HAVEN'T READ Falling Kingdoms YET! I also have a non-spoiler review.

In this post I want to talk about all my feelings about this book. I'm sorry if my thoughts are a bit jumbled but I wrote them down while reading, so that's how I'm going to put them in this post.


Remember, these are my personal thoughts and feelings!




* Like I said in my non-spoiler review, I know there are a gazillion people who adore Magnus, but I still don't know how I feel about him after reading this book. The way he feels about his sisters made me cringe a bit. I also didn't like the way he takes advantage of the maid, but doesn't stand up for her when his father is torturing her. Okay, I can understand why he doesn't, but still! The way his father treats him makes you pity him, because you have the feeling he is nothing like his father. Until Lucia turns him down and he becomes this cold, distant person. And I couldn't believe he killed Theon. I was like: 'Whaaaaaaaaaat, no, this did not just happen!' It totally killed my buzz after reading about Cleo and Theon kissing!

* Talking about Theon: although we don't know that much about him, I immediately loved him and my heart was ripped out when he was killed :'-(

* A lot of things happened to Cleo in a very short period of time: Theon's, Emilia's and her father's death, Auranos being taken over and I wonder how she will deal with this? I think her current reaction is a bit too calm, but maybe this will change in the next book?

* I think Chief Basilius is such a big fraud: there is a huge contrast between him living in all his luxury and the poverty in his country. I liked how Jonas immediately noticed this. Unfortunately, his need for revenge was so big, he went with it at first. Besides Cleo Jonas is one of the characters that develops most in this first book, in my opinion. From being totally revenge-driven he starts to realise that Basilius is a fraud and he no longer agrees with what Basilius does. I can totally understand why he hates Cleo and Aron and that's why I'm curious to see what he will do in the next book to help Cleo. I was a bit surprised that he warned her to run at the end of the book.

* I wonder what's in store for Lucia after having discovered the magic within her.

* I was a bit disappointed by the fact that both Emilia and Cleo fall in love with a guard and have their true loves taken away from them. It felt a bit too coincidental.

* I also kind of guessed that Eirene was the exiled Watcher Cleo was looking for and I don't know if that's a good thing or not.


Again, I know this might seem a bit chaotic, but this is the first time I've written a spoiler review.


Let me know in the comments what you think about this book, I would love to discuss it with you! 


Bye for now

Annelies

Valentine / February reads

Hi booklovers

I know I'm extremely late to post this, but the last week before the midterm was very hectic, so I kind of forgot to finish this post. But I still want to share it with you.

Although I'm not a fan of Valentine's Day - yes, I am one of those people who thinks Valentine's Day is overhyped - I have to admit I like reading love stories every now and then. I've actually only recently started reading books in the contemporary / romance genre.

First of all I want to share some books I've already read:

1) Pushing the Limits, Dare You To, Crash Into You, Take Me On, Breaking The Rules - Katie McGarry
2) If I stay, Where she went - Gayle Forman
3) The Fault in Our Stars - John Green
4) Eleanor & Park - Rainbow Rowell

I think we can discover a theme here: love stories with an edge. That's the kind of love stories I prefer, I don't care much for those lovey dovey stories.

The next set of books are in a genre that I've also discovered last year: New Adult. They have some (very) explicit content, so be wary if you are a younger reader.

5) Rosemary Beach series - Abbi Glines

6) The Vincent Boys & Brothers - Abbi Glines (I know these were originally released as YA books, but she added some more mature content.)

Some people don't like Abbi Glines' books, but I think they are fun, quick, sexy reads. Admittedly, the most recent releases in the Rosemary Beach series are a bit more cliché, but hey, every girl needs her guilty pleasure reads ;-)

Finally, this is a list of books I want to read and I think are suitable for Valentine's Day:

1) Anna & the French Kiss; Lola & the Boy Next Door, Isla & the Happily Ever After - Stephanie Perkins

2) Just One Day, Just One Year, Just One Night (e-novella) - Gayle Forman

3) The summer I turned pretty trilogy - Jenny Han

4) To all the boys I've loved before - Jenny Han (this is the only one in this list I actually own)

I have to admit I didn't get around to reading any of these books, because I was still reading Rebel Spring and I'm currently reading Gathering Darkness. 

Let me know in the comments if you've read any of these books or if you want to read some of them. Maybe you could also recommend me which of the books I haven't yet read I should pick up soon :-) or give me some other recommendations!

Bye for now

Annelies

January 2015 wrap up

Hi booklovers

I know this blogpost may be a bit redundant, but I want to write it anyway. (Redundant because you can check what I've read in January on my 2015 Reads page.) Also, I know this post is a bit late...

In January I managed to read three books. You might think that isn't very much, but for me this is a good number. I know people think teachers always have all this spare time and I'll be the first to admit that we have a lot of holidays, but during the school year, we are very busy most of the time. This week my pupils got a report card so this meant a lot my time went to marking tests, entering grades and commenting on them. So most of my reading takes place during my holidays. To give you an example, I read 19 books during my two month summer break :-)

I know a lot of bookbloggers and BookTubers read a lot more books during a single month, but I simply don't have the time to do that. Good for you if you can do that and I wish I could do that too, but alas...

Anyway, let's talk about the three books I read in January:

1)  Breaking the rules by Katie McGarry. Katie McGarry is one of the authors I discovered last year and I absolutely fell in love with her books. Echo and Noah and Rachel and Isaiah are two of my all time favourite couples. So far, I've read all of the books in her companion series that starts with Pushing the Limits. Since reading that book, I know that all of Katie McGarry's books will be automatic buys from now on :-)

Maybe I should talk a bit more about the actual book :-) I'm not going to tell you that much, because that might spoil Pushing the Limits. It's a sequel that picks up where PTL left off. Because I read the other books in the series, it took me a while to realise that the events of the other books hadn't taken place yet. But other than that I absolutely loved the book. It has great character development. You see the characters grow through all the ordeals they have to deal with. I also thought Katie's writing evolved a lot. I had the feeling that she dared to go deeper. I'm not sure how to explain it, but the content was a bit more mature than PTL. Don't get me wrong, it is still a YA book, but she didn't shy away from all the aspects of a relationship.

If you like contemporary with an edge, you should definitely pick up this companion series (I do advise reading them in the order they came out - except for BTR, you can read it immediately after PTL)

2) The Elder Origins by Bre Faucheux. I have a review of this. This was the first book I read by her. I really liked it and I'll be reading the sequels too, as well as some of her other books. Bre is a currently a self-published author but I hope her books get picked up by a publisher very soon because she deserves it.

3) Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes. I absolutely loved this book and I'm currently reading Rebel Spring. I'm going to post both a non-spoiler and a spoiler review for this.

I'm not going to do a February TBR, because monthly TBR's aren't my thing, but I've made a winter TBR.

That was it for this month's reading. Let me know in the comments if you've read any of these books and what you thought of them or if you want to read any of them.

Bye for now

Annelies

Little update

Hi booklovers

I just wanted to post a little update:

I haven't had time to write a new blogpost, because the past week has been hectic. My pupils get a report card tomorrow, so I had a lot of tests to correct. I've also been busy writing remarks on the report cards.

On top of that I've been sick last week, so I didn't really feel like writing blogposts.

On the bright side: next week is the last week before the midterm break, so I'm hoping to do a bit more reading and get some writing done for my blog. 

I finished 'Falling Kingdoms' last week, so I'm going to write a review about it. I've bought two jars that are going to become TBR jars, so keep a look out for that post as well.

Bye for now

Annelies