Collective July - December 2015 bookhaul.

Hi booklovers

This is my collective July 'till December bookhaul:

*July
- When you're back - Abbi Glines
- Every last breath - Jennifer L. Armentrout
These are both e-books
 

*August
- Malice - John Gwynne
- The colour of Magic - Terry Pretchett
 

*September
- Queen of Shadows - Sarah J. Maas
- Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb
- The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch
 

*October

- Fairest - Marissa Meyer 

- Talon - Julie Kagawa. I bought this one in preparation for the 'Antwerp bookfair' because I wanted to get it signed by Julie Kagawa.

These are the books I got at the 'Antwerp bookfair':
- Snow Like Ashes - Sara Raasch
- These Broken Stars - Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

- The Way of Shadows - Brent Weeks

- Prince of Thorns - Mark Lawrence

- Fables: Legends in Exile - different authors

- Locke & key: Welcome to LoveCraft - Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez

- Inkt, zweet en tranen - Marec. He's a Belgian cartoonist. I bought this one for my boyfriend and I had it signed.

 

*November
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone illustrated edition

- Royal Assassin - Robin Hobb

- Winter - Marissa Meyer

- Auggie & me - R.J. Palacio. This is an e-book

*December
At the beginning of December I went to 'Boekenfestijn' which is a bookfair where you can get fairly cheap books.

 

- The sworn - Gail Z. Martin
- Shadow prowler - Alexey Pehov

While I was in Ghent I went to a bookstore there and got:

- Red Queen - Victoria Aveyard

- Legend - Marie Lu

 

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them?
 

Bye for now
 

Annelies

2015 reading goals in review.

Hi booklovers

At the beginning of 2015 I wrote a blogpost about my bookish goals and now I want to take a look at the things I accomplished - or failed at :-s 

#1 Goodreads goal => read 50 books => Check = I've read 54 books (actually 58, but again, rereads).
 

#2 Read a classic => I mostly failed this goal, because I haven't read a single classic. But I did read the graphic novel of 'Sense & Sensibility' by Marvel. I know, this is technically cheating, but hey!

#3 Reduce my TBR => Fail: at the beginning of this year I had 114 books on my TBR. At the moment I have 121 :-/ I'm not even going to bother justifying that.

#4 Continue/finish some series: I'm dividing this into different 'categories'.

a) Not continued:

* The Mortal Instruments and the Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare.
* The Cousin's War and the Tudor Court series by Phillipa Gregory.
* The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan.
* The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
* The Inheritence Cycle by Christopher Paolini.
* The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.
* Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin.
* The Shannara series by Terry Brooks.
 

b) Continued:

* Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas: I've read Heir of Fire, but not Queen of Shadows, but I'm still counting it as continued.
* The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer: Hmm, I haven't read Winter yet, but I have reread Cinder. Does this count as continueing? ;-)
* The Falling Kingdoms series by Morgan Rhodes: I finished Falling Kingdoms and read Rebel Spring and Gathering Darkness, but not Frozen Tides.
 

c) Unhauled:

* The Fallen series by Lauren Kate.
* The Dwarves by Markus Heitz.
 

d) Finished:
 

* The His Fair Assassin's trilogy by Robin LaFevers.

#5 Buy less books than in 2014 => Let's just say I failed this goal too, but only slightly. I've bought less physical books, but more e-books.

My conclusion?
A) What does this tell me: I'm not good at sticking to my set goals.

B) Will I be doing another 2016 goals post? I don't think so, I don't know yet. Maybe I'll just make a TBR of 10 books I really want to read in 2016.

Did you set yourself any goals for 2015 and how did you fare? Are you setting yourself goals for 2016? Let me know in the comments.

Bye for now

Annelies

My top 10 favourite books of 2015

Hi booklovers

Another - reading - year gone by, another top 10 favourite books.

I would like to start by sharing my reading year according to Goodreads:
I've read 54 books. Again, Goodreads doesn't count rereads, so I read 58 books, which is 6 less than last year, but I'm totally okay with that :-)
 

I read a total number of 14 843 pages, averaging at 303 pages. The shortest book I read was 35 pages and the longest book 562 pages.
 

My ratings: 5*: 2
                4.5*: 9
                4*: 25
                3.75*: 3
                3.5: 11
                3: 7
with an average rating of 3.6*

Two sidenotes before I move on to my top 10:

1) The books I read weren't necessarily published in 2015.

2) It was really hard to rank these books, but since they made it to my top 10 I obviously love(d) them all.

#10: Falling Kingdoms series by Morgan Rhodes

I've only read the first three books in the series so far, but I really enjoyed them. I gave each of them 4 stars. Since I'm a bit behind on reading the sequels in certain series, I haven't ordered Frozen Tides yet. I haven't read nor do I own 'A book of Spirits and Thieves', but I think I want to pick it up.

#9: Saga Volumes 1 and 2 by Brian K. Vaughan (Writer), Fiona Staples (Artist)

 

I only recently jumped on the bandwagon of the Saga graphic novels and I don't know why I waited so long to pick them up. I  gave them both 4 stars. I borrowed them from the library, but unfortunately they don't have the next volumes yet, so I might buy them for myself. These were the first graphic novels I ever read and because they are a bit 'different' it took some getting used to, but once I got into the story it kept me wanting to read more.
 

#8: Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers

This is the third book in the 'His Fair Assassin's' trilogy and by far my favourite of the three. I gave it 4.5 stars. This one wasn't as political as the first two and I really loved Annith as a character.

#7: The Violet Blake novella series by Bre Faucheux

I've read a couple of Bre's books this year and I have to say the Violet Blake series was my favourite one, closely followed by The Keeper's Realm. I gave them all 4 stars, except for the first one which I gave 3.75 stars. I have read them as individual novella's but now they are sold as a boxset. This is a really good paranormal story with a lot of character development and some surprising plot twists.

#6: Nowhere But Here by Katie McGarry

I couldn't not include a Katie McGarry book in my top 10. This is the first book in Katie's new Thunder Road series and I loved it - I gave it 4.5 stars. Rachel and Isaiah (Crash Into You) will always be my favourite Katie McGarry couple, but Oz and Emily come in a close second.

#5: Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

This was the first Morgan Matson book I read and I really loved it. I have a non-spoiler review of this on my blog. I gave it 4.5 stars.
 
#4: Assissin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

I discovered this book by watching Sam from NovelsAndNonsense rave about these books and this author in a lot of her videos and I'm very glad I picked it up. I also have a non-spoiler review of this book. I gave it 4 stars and I want to continue this series soon.

#3: Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson

This was my second 5 star read of this year and this book made me ugly cry so much. It was so emotional and well-written, I loved it - even more than Amy & Roger. I have Since You've Been Gone on my TBR pile and I want to pick it up during the spring of next year, because Morgan Matson has another book coming out in May 2016 and I want to read Since You've Been Gone first.

#2: The Addicted series and its spinoff series the Calloway sisters by Becca & Krista Ritchie

This is another series I've picked because of a BookTuber - Jillian of Bookishandnerdy. She was raving about the first book in the series and I decided to pick it up and I'm so happy that I did. I really had to pace myself to read this series because I've had some bad experiences with marathoning series and I wanted to make the series last as long as possible as well. I'm currently reading 'Fuel the Fire' which is the last but one of the Calloway Sisters series and I'm loving it.
I gave Addicted to you 4,5 stars (my first 4,5 stars of the year), Ricochet 4 stars, Addicted for Now 4.5 stars, Kiss the Sky 4,5 stars, Hothouse Flower 4,5 stars, Thrive 4 stars and Addicted After all 4 stars.
Can you tell I really, really like this series :-) I have a non-spoiler review of Addicted to you. Needless to say that Becca & Krista Ritchie have rapidly become my new auto-buy authors.

And now for the best book I've read this year - altough it was really hard to decide whether or not I would put this first or second on my list:

#1: Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

This was the first 5 star book of this year and there are no words to explain how much I loved this book. I did a 'while I read' series of posts, but beware, they contain major spoilers! I desperatly want to carry on with the trilogy - I don't own them yet - and then move on to Six of Crows because I've heard a lot of great things about this one as well.

What were (some of) your favourite books of 2015? Tell me in the comments below.

By for now

Annelies

Talon by Julie Kagawa - non-spoiler review

Hi booklovers

When I went to FACTS convention, HarperCollinsHolland had a booth there and they were advertising that Julie Kagawa was going to be at the Antwerp Bookfair for a workshop on making dragons. (If you follow her on Twitter, she regularly posts picture of the dragons she makes.) I didn't really feel like taking the workshop, but I also found out that she was going to have a signing session.
I (almost) immediately decided I wanted to go, because here in Belgium we don't get to meet American authors that often, so it would be a unique opportunity. 
Unfortunately, I hadn't read a single book by her. I've heard mixed things about her Iron Fey series, so I decided to read the first book in her Talon Saga: Talon. I wasn't able to finish it before the bookfair, but I finished it soon after the fair, so here is my (long overdue) spoiler-free review.

Title: Talon
Author: Julie Kagawa
Genre: YA, fantasy
Publication date: 2014
Format: Paperback
 
 

*Story:
Talon is about Ember and Dante Hill, 'human' twins who are actually dragons hiding in human forms. Of course, the world is not aware of dragons living amongst them. Except for the Order of St. George, whose only mission is to track down and kill all the dragons.
Talon also tells the story of Garret, St. George's 'perfect soldier', who is sent on a mission to sniff out the possible dragon in Crescent Beach. Ember and Garret get to know each other. They both have their own mission: Ember needs to learn how to blend in with the humans but still maintain her training as a dragon and Garret has to find out who the hidden dragon is. As Garret gets more and more convinced about Ember possibly being the dragon, he also learns that there is more to dragons than meets the eye. Maybe all he has been taught about dragons isn't necesarily true.
Ember also starts to realise that Talon, the organisation responsible for the training of the dragons, isn't what it appears to be. There is Dante, who very much believes everything Talon says and does. And last but not least we have Riley, a rogue dragon who tries to convince Ember that Talon isn't the perfect organisation.

*Characters:
-Ember: She is the female dragon in human form. She has some difficulties fitting in with the young people in Crescent Beach, because this is the first time she has to live amongst humans. She adjusts rather quickly and is able to fit in. However she keeps struggling with all the human emotions that she isn't supposed to feel, both with Garret and Riley (although with Riley it's more her 'dragon' feelings stirring). At the same time she has to keep up her training as a dragon and deal with all the stuff she has to endure from her trainer.
 

-Garret: Garret is St. George's perfect soldier, who is determined to kill all the dragons there are. His motives are mostly based on revenge because both his parents were killed by a dragon. When he is sent to Crescent Beach to sniff out the sleeper dragon, he has to try and fit in with the young people there. As time goes by he starts to realise that dragons aren't necisarrily the bloodthirsty beings that St. George says they are.
 

-Riley: The rogue dragon. His mission in Crescent Beach is to convince Ember and Dante to leave Talon behind, because they are a manipulative bunch of dragons.
 

-Dante: He is Embers twin and he is the complete opposite of Ember. He always follows the rules and believes wholeheartedly in the goodness of Talon. He tries to convince Ember that Riley is bad for her and that he is lying to her.
 

*Plot:
I really liked the fact that dragons can shapeshift into humans in this story. I absolutely love dragons and if they would excist, I would definitely have one as a pet :-) So I really liked the idea of dragons secretly living among humans and trying to fit in. Of course, there will always be people who fear the unknown and so the organisation of St. George thinks they know all there is to know about dragons and wants them exterminated. This is the classic 'good' vs 'evil' part of the story.
The story unfortunately also has the typical YA love triangle - this isn't a spoiler, it's pretty obvious Ember will develop feelings for both boys! - which probably wasn't the best thing for the story. There were some typical YA tropes in this book.

 
*Overall rating:
I gave this book 3.5 stars, but now I'm actually leaning more towards 3 stars.
The book isn't bad. Like I said, I liked the idea of shapeshifting dragons living amongst people. What I didn't quite enjoy was the love triangle and Ember's personality. She's a bit too indecisive for my liking.
I do plan on continuing with the story, because I hope the story will become better, but I won't pick it up straight away. Maybe I'll pick up the first book in one of her other series first, I just don't know yet.

I have to admit that meeting Julie Kagawa was really nice, it's really cool to have an autographed book :-)

  















Have you read Talon or any other book by Julie Kagawa. What did you think of it? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Bye for now

Annelies

Anti Bully Reads Readathon update: day 1 - 2.

Hi booklovers

In one of my previous posts I showed you my TBR for the #AntiBullyReads Readathon and one of the books I want to (re)read was Eleanor & Park. On Monday morning, the first day of the readathon I picked this up on my way to school. From the first page onwards I was immediately pulled back into the story, but I also realised I had already forgotten quite a few things. That's why a reread is sometimes a good thing :-)

On the first day I only read 20 or so pages and yesterday I read 30 pages. I know this might not seem like a lot, but since my pupils have a report card, I have a lot of marking to do, so that is taking up a lot of my time. I know some people have already read multiple books, but I just don't have the time. I'm hoping to finish this book by Friday, so I can go on to reading the smaller companion stories of Wonder. We'll see how it goes.

Sarah Churchill does daily updates on her YouTube channel and every day you can win books, so it's well worth your time to go check out her channel!

That's it for my short update on how the readathon is going.

Are you participating in the readathon or do you have any recommendations for books about bullying, let me know in the comments.

Bye for now and happy reading

Annelies

Anti Bullying Week Readathon TBR

Hi booklovers

I decided a while ago that I wasn't going to do TBR's anymore, because I don't stick to them anyway. But today I'm going to make an exception:

This is my TBR for the Anti Bullying Week Readathon hosted by the lovely Sarah Churchill (Click on the link to go to her YouTube channel).

This readathon will be held from 16th  - 22nd November. 

Last year Sarah hosted the first Anti Bullying Week Readathon and I participated. I ended up reading one book, but it was one that counted: Wonder by R.J. Palacio. It made me even more aware (I am a teacher, so I'm confronted with the problem on a more or less regular bases) that bullying needs to be stopped and that not enough people know/care about it.

So, when Sarah put up her video for this year, I immediately knew I was going to participate again. I looked up the list of suggested books on the Goodreads page and decided that this year I'm going to try and read:

- Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell (technically this will be a reread, but I've been wanting to reread it for a while now, so this will be the perfect opportunity.)

- The Julian Chapter

- Pluto: A Wonder Story

This is a readathon for a good cause and I'm hoping a lot of people will be joining in.

Let me know in the comments if you're planning on joining in and tell me what you'll be reading.

Bye for now

Annelies

Amy & Roger's Epic Detour - non-spoiler review

Hi booklovers

Summer has officially started - temperature wise, that is - so I decided to read a summery book. 

Title: Amy & Roger's Epic Detour

Author: Morgan Matson

Genre: Contemporary, YA

Publication Date: May 4th 2010

If you want to know the synopsis click on the title above.

This was such a fun, quick and perfect summer read. I loved the fact that the book not only consists of the story but also has pictures of the places they've seen, receipts of things they've bought or eaten. All these things are gathered in a scrapbook, which is so cool. I also really liked the playlists that were added to the book. If you want you can listen to the songs while reading - not something I wanted to do, because I hardly ever listen to music while reading unless I'm on the train and it's really noisy.

Throughout the book we find out what happened in Amy's recent past through flashbacks and I really enjoyed that. You immediately know that Amy's father has recently passed away, but you only learn the how of it later on in the book.

Another positive thing about this book is that although the cover suggests otherwise, the story doesn't focus on the romance the whole time. It focuses more on the road trip and discovering oneself and all the emotions involved.

The relationships between Amy and her mother and Amy and her twin brother are also explored, which is nice.

SPOILER WARNING!! (You can highlight the next sentences if you want to read them)

I liked the fact that Roger has an ulterior motive at first and he actually admits it at one point. This makes the book more realistic and believable.

Unlike for some people, this book didn't make me want to go on a road trip, but that's probably because I'm not really the travelling type, so I won't hold that against it :-)

What I didn't like was the cover. When I bought this at Waterstones I was actually looking for the beautiful pink cover to match the blue cover of Second Chance Summer, but they only had the other cover :-(

I gave this 4.5 out of 5 stars. I deducted a 0.5 star because I wanted to read some more of their story after they arrived in Connecticut, maybe in an epilogue or so. 

I couldn't have picked a better book to start my reading summer :-) I already have Second Chance Summer and Since You've Been Gone on my shelf, so I'm definitely going to read them soon!

Let me know in the comments if you've read this book and what you thought of it or if you're planning to read this.

Bye for now

Annelies

Spring TBR

Hi booklovers

I'm still currently reading two books from my winter TBR - one of which is actually a TBR-jar pick *Pat on the back* but I already wanted to show you my spring (March - April - May) 2015 TBR:

(My seasonal TBR's run from the 1st of the 1st month until the 30th or 31st of the 3rd month. I know a season doesn't start until the 21st of a certain month, but it's easier to start on the first day. Weird, I know!)

- Splintered - A.G. Howard

- Unhinged - A.G. Howard

- Ensnared - A.G. Howard

- Heir of Fire - Sarah J. Maas

- Exile - Bre Faucheux

- Encounters - Bre Faucheux

- Dark Triumph - Robin LaFevers

- Mortal Hearts - Robin LaFevers
- Noughts & Crosses - Malorie Blackman

- To all the boys I've loved before - Jenny Han

- P.S. I still love you - Jenny Han (published May 26th 2015)

Books I've read that weren't on my TBR:
- Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop of Dreams by Jenny Colgan (this one was actually on my Winter TBR)

- From the first touch (1-4) by Gwendalyn Fox
- From the first kiss (1-3) by Gwendalyn Fox 
- From the first sight (1) by Gwendalyn Fox 
- All Lined Up by Cora Carmack
- When I'm Gone by Abbi Glines
- All Broke Down by Cora Carmack 
- Making Faces by Amy Harmon 
- Addicted to you by Becca and Krista Ritchie 
- Ricochet by Becca and Krista Ritchie 
- From the first sight (2) by Gwendalyn Fox 
- From the first sight (3) by Gwendalyn Fox
- From the first sight (4) by Gwendalyn Fox 
- From the first sight (5) by Gwendalyn Fox

As always, let me know in the comments which of these books I should read first. If you have any other suggestions for spring-reads, let me know too!

Bye for now

Annelies

Winter TBR - wrap up

Hi booklovers

During the Winter season I managed to read 14 books out of the 19 on my winter TBR. Actually, to be honest I read 9 books from my TBR and 5 that weren't on my TBR.

Here are the TBR books I've read: 

* Crown of midnight - Sarah J. Maas
* The Elder Origins - Bre Faucheux (e-book)
* Falling Kingdoms - Morgan Rhodes
* Rebel Spring - Morgan Rhodes
* Gathering Darkness - Morgan Rhodes
* You were mine - Abbi Glines
* Faking it - Cora Carmack (e-book)
* Finding it - Cora Carmack (e-book)
* Seeking her - Cora Carmack (e-book)

Other books I've read:

* Kiro's Emily - Abbi Glines (e-book)
* Bitter sweet love (reread) - Jennifer L. Armentrout (e-book)
* White hot kiss (reread) - Jennifer L. Armentrout (e-book)
* Stone Cold touch - Jennifer L. Armentrout (e-book)
* Breaking the rules - Katie McGarry (e-book)

I'm curious to see how many books I will be able to read during spring.

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

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