Bookish Bingo: Introductory Post

This is hosted by Great Imaginations, The idea is, over April, May and June, you try and read a book for each of the 24 categories. If you complete it you will be entered into the giveaway to win a book of your choice. Even if you don’t manage to complete it (which I probably won’t), it looks like it could be great fun.

Want to join in? Head over and sign up asap. Great Imaginations.

I am going to plan out which books will fit into each category tonight. Hopefully get some off my TBR pile, and maybe an excuse to buy some new ones.

Happy reading

Emma

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ARC Review: First Impression

First Impression by Pauline Creeden.

Chira Kelly thought she didn’t need anyone…until she met Ben.

Because of one ugly rumor, Chira lives as an outcast at her school. Which is fine with her, because she works better alone. Always has, always will. And at least she has her one and only true friend, Tasha. When Tasha insists that they join a group to visit a possibly haunted abandoned old schoolhouse, she’s wary, but joins her friend. Because of that decision, their lives are in jeopardy as a malevolent spirit targets the group. Tragedies and accidents pick them off one by one, and Chira finds herself drawn to the one person who can see the truth. But can he protect her?

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

General Review (No Spoilers)

I loved this book, it was not exactly what I was expecting, it was better. It was very YA but with mystery, paranormal and romance. I was not exactly sure to make of the paranormal part. It was not magic or vampires or zombies, it was something new, once I got my head around it, I really liked it. I liked the characters, they were fun and relatable. The story flowed well and was exciting. I was kept guessing at what was going to happen. Ben, sounds like a dream. He is good looking but not full of himself and really cares for others, my kind of book man. I really liked Tasha as a character, just wish we saw more of her.

It was the first book in a long time that I have sat and read in one sitting. It really was that good.

Favourite Quote

“I watched for the owl with my Hogwarts letter to appear on my 10th birthday, but he never did. So when an owl taps at my bedroom window near midnight six years too late, I am more confused than elated.”

That’s the very first line to the book. Other than Harry was 11 was not 10 when he got his letter, it’s a very clever start, most youngsters can relate, I know I wanted a letter badly.

5 out of 5 stars.

Step by Step Overview (Spoilers)

0% – Looks like a good fun YA paranormal story. Not sure yet what is paranormal about it but looking forward to finding out.

20% – I am loving the fact that Chira loves her life, it’s no where near perfect but she makes the most of it and does not complain. It’s refreshing for YA. So far it’s a fun read with some hints of possible magic and/or ghosts. I really like Chira and Tasha. They seem great friends and I like how people who think they are gay really don’t care other than it’s gossip.

40% – Not sure what a Shadow Maven is yet but I am enthralled by this story. I cannot seem to put it down. I am hoping Tasha comes out of her coma, she is a fantastic character.

60% – Is a spirit after them or is it coincidence? Ben reminds me of Edward Cullen, just not quite as creepy. I want to know what happened to the ghost girl and what does it have to do with the story?

80% – Okay so did all the people who were downstairs in the haunted house see something or at least Tasha saw something and someone is killing off all 5 of them and making it look supernatural? The person who killed the Fairfax girls perhaps?

100% –Could the killer be Mr Scott? That’s how he knows who to go after? Okay, wow what a great way to end the book, I like how there was some closure with the characters, you get to know how they are after the fact. It also leaves room for more books. Which I would love to read. 🙂

Who would I recommend to?

Anyone who likes YA paranormal, or a good light-hearted mystery. Fans of books like Fallen and Twilight.

Miss Mabel’s School for Girls: Katie Cross

A book and book review worth sharing.

mylittlebookblog

This review means quite a lot to me and I’m going to push as many of you lovely readers to read it, and re-blog it, and pass it onto others because this is not only an incredible book but the lovely K-Cross deserves a little extra publicity. When I first started my blog Katie always liked or commented and has really helped to improve my writing and the way I review. Sometimes blogging can feel a little lonely and having her comment or give me a little lift has meant a lot over the last year So, when she asked me whether I would like to read and review her book before it came out I could not resist and was begging her to send me a copy! So here it is just for you my lovely readers! (And I’m counting on you to share it, Twitter it, re-blog it…

View original post 1,091 more words

MIA for the last few weeks

I am sorry about not being on here much, I have not even had time to read other people’s blogs let alone write ones of my own. I hope to change that soon. I have been working lots had a job interview and family gatherings. It’s all been go here. I have managed to read a few books, so there will be some reviews soon. And of course sometime in the next week the first post of Harry Potter’s crimes. Hopefully today I will manage one review and try and read all your blog posts from the last two weeks, there’s a lot but I am determined.

Unfortunately the next few weeks are not going to get any less busy for me, I can only hope that I manage my time better and I read more and write more reviews.

Happy reading.

Emma

ARC Review: Chameleon: The Awakening

I received a free copy of this book via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This look really good and inviting, different from anything else I had read, I saw some bad reviews but there was some great ones too.

I did not finish this book. The main problem I had with it was that there were terms that were not explained and they kept cropping up, they were integral to the story. I found myself getting confused a lot. I got a 5th into the book until I realised that the Agnoses where us. There were names of tribes and I still cannot tell you which was which, it was never explained. I am all for letting the reader figure things out for themselves, but this was too much for me.

I stopped at 20%, I thought if I kept going I would not be able to read anything for a while. I found it hard to read. The story line was great though. I just needed more explanations. In the last few pages I read a dragon appeared from nowhere and that was the last straw for me. A talking dragon needs more introduction than it got.

Maybe I am too used to YA now, but this book was not for. I am not going to rate it though. I do not think it fair to rate it when I did not finish it.

Happy reading

Emma

The Liebster Award

I was awarded the Liebster award by Brilliantly Novel and Books for Thought and Live a Thousand Lives. They all nominated me in the last few days so I thought I would combine the post and answer the questions from them all. I was thrilled to nominated once (first time) but to get nominated three times in one week, made me feel very special. Especially when it was by three amazing blogs, I would have nominated them if they had not nominated me first.

Each of them had a different set rules. I mixed and matched. 🙂

The rules are as follows:

1. You must link back to the person who nominated you.

2. You must answer the 10 Liebster questions given to you by the nominee before you.

3. List 11 facts about yourself.

4.You must pick 10 bloggers to be nominated for the award with fewer than 200 followers, There may be one or two that have less than 1000 followers because I love their blogs so much.

5. . You must come up with 10 questions for your nominees to answer.

6. You must go to their blogs and notify your nominees.

Number 1 I already did in the introduction and I will mention them again in the question portion. Now for answering questions.

11 Facts about myself

1. I am a massive fan of Bowling for Soup.

2. I have a degree in Forensic Science.

3. I really like cheesy teenage films and T.V. like ICarly and sadly I love the Bratz Movie.

4. I like making cards.

5. Family is one of the most important things in my life.

6. I like playing computer games like Spyro and Rayman.

7. I don’t like Terry Pratchett or Neil Gaiman.

8. I like cooking and baking.

9. I love Snoopy an Garfield.

10. I like buying notebooks and pens and socks.

Questions from Brilliantly Novel

1. If you could take a vacation in any fictional world, where would you go?

Never Never Land. It’s so magical, you can imagine food and it’s there, there’s just so much to discover there.

2. What is one book that you’ve always wanted to read, but haven’t?

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, I will get there sometime soon.

3. What two characters make up your favorite fictional couple? What book are they from?

Probably Yelena and Valek from The Study series by Maria V Snyder

4. More and more authors are posting playlists of songs that they listen to while writing a book. Are there any songs that remind you of a book that you’ve read?

I found this question really hard, the only one I can think of is Super Massive Black Hole by Muse when reading the Baseball scene in Twilight, but that’s because it’s in the film.

5. People are always asking about who your favorite heroes/heroines are, but who is your favorite villain/bad guy?

I like Iris in the Study series, especially since she was good at the start.

6. If you could ask one author any question you wanted, who would you pick and what would your question be?

I would ask Karen Maitland, why all the ambiguous endings?

7. What is your most anticipated book of 2014?

Kate Morton’s new book, that is out in October this year.

8. In the event of a disaster, if you could only save 3 books, which ones would you save?

Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield and Under the Dome by Stephen King, since I have not yet read it and it is 900 pages longs, would last me a while.

9. What is one book that you read before you blogged that you would like to reread and review?

There’s quite a few, Eternal Eden by Nicole Williams is one I have been wanting to reread for a long time.

10. If you could pick the perfect cast, what book would you like to see turned into a movie and/or TV show?

Poison Study by Maria V Snyder, probably a TV show though, it would have to be done well.

11. Would you rather have to survive a zombie apocalypse or be a tribute in the Hunger Games? Why?

Zombie Apocalypse, since I would not have to kill real people, okay I know they once were but I could hide.

Questions from Books for Thought

1. What are you currently reading?

Quite a few, the one I am trying to get read first is Chameleon by Maggie Faire.

2. If you’ve read Divergent, what faction do you think you’d be in? Or in Harry Potter, what house? Or in Percy Jackson, what God or Goddess would be your parent? Or anything else like this.

In Divergent I think I would be in Eritude, and in Pottermore I am in Ravenclaw. I have not read Percy Jackson.

3. What’s a book that you hated the ending to and why?

I cannot think of one book, but the House of Night series, it just dragged on, was not a big fan.

4. If you could redo any movie based from a book, what would it be and why?

Eragon, i think it could be done so much better.

5. How many books do you own? (approx.)

300, and that’s just the ones on my shelves, got about 600 kindle ones, least I will never run out of books.

6. What book have you read the most?

The Study series by Maria V Snyder, or the Harry Potter series.

7. First book that pops into your head!

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton.

8. Would you rather have to survive a zombie apocalypse or be a tribute in the Hunger Games? Why?

Zombie Apocalypse, since I would not have to kill real people, okay I know they once were but I could hide.

9. Would you rather be stuck in Divergent or The Hunger Games. Why?

Divergent, you have more of a choice and you do not have to kill people if you do not want to.

10. What book are you most excited for this year?

I already answered this one by Brilliantly Novel, so I will say which one I really want to get read this year and that’s the Hobbit, still have not gotten around to it.

11. Who is your favourite villain? Why?

I already answered this so my second favourite villain is Voldemort. He is just so evil, it is quite unbelievable.

Questions from Live A Thousand Lives

1. What is one of the best pieces of advice that you have ever gotten?

That I should trust in myself.

2. When was the last time you laughed really hard?

Last Weekend when my best friend surprised me by coming to visit and had a nice meal and a few drinks, it was a brilliant night.

3. Why did you decide to start a blog?

To improve my writing skills, I want to be an author. But I found that blogging is great fun by itself and I have met so many nice people.

4. What is your goal for your blog? (ex. To entertain? To make people think? To have fun, etc.

All of the above. To meet new people too.

5. What’s one of the most challenging things you have ever done?

I really cannot think of anything that big, getting my degree or getting through depression.

6. Do you have any hidden talents or a not so hidden talent that you can tell us about?

I can make cards. I can make pretty pictures in Lattes with the milk.

7. What’s your favorite holiday/day of the year and why?

Hogmanny (New Year) I like being with friends and family.

8. If you could go anywhere in the world tomorrow, where would it be and why?

USA, I would love to move there, Denver especially.

9. If you could meet any five well know figures, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

J.K Rowling, what Harry Potter fan does not want to meet her? Penn Badgely, well have you seen him? He is lovely. Gordon Rasmey, I wish he could teach me to cook like him, without the swearing of course. Maria V Snyder because she is one of my favourite authors and seems like a really nice person. Stephen Fry, he is great, massive fan of of QI.

10. what’s your favorite comfort food?

Jelly beans or chicken goujons.

11 questions for my nominees.

1. Which fictional character would you most like to meet?

2. What’s your favourite fantasy race to read about? Or if you don’t read fantasy, which race do like the idea of least?

3. What’s your favourite kind of music and which artist is your favourite?

4. Do you have any book geeky friends you can chat to, or is that one of the joys of blogging for you?

5. What’s your dream job?

6. If you it was possible to survive without food, as in it was only a luxury, if you had to give up food or books which would you give up?

7. When rereading a favourite book of yours, is there any part you skip over because you don’t like it or find it boring?

8. Which book was the one that made you find the magic of reading?

9. If you could have an animal (real of fictional) as a pet which one would it be?

10. Which book that is not one you usually read are you wanting to read, or have read recently?

11. I am running out of ideas sorry. Coffee or Tea?

The Nominees

1. Random Book Muses
2. What comes next reviews
3. My Novel Opinion
4. Book Bliss
5. Amanda’s Nose in a Book
6. Reading in the Sunshine
7. A Bottomless Book Bag
8. Faith’s Book Nook
9. Obsessive reads
10. Required Reading
11. Reading in Pajamas

Okay so this took me a week to complete, I had finished it then somehow it crashed so had to do half again. Here’s hoping it works this time 🙂

ARC Review: Stiltskin

“Stiltskin breaks through the cacophony with a finely tuned laugh-out-loud tale. Original, twisted and satisfyingly hilarious, Stiltskin will sing in the fantasy world.” –Audrey Kearns, Host and Co-Creator of the 5 Truths and a Lie Podcast

What would you do if you found an evil dwarf in your bathtub?

In Robert Darkly’s case you scream like a girl. And then you get taken on a journey to an entirely different world living just on the other side of our own reality; a world where fairy tales are real but not in the way we’ve come to expect them.

The aforementioned dwarf, Rumpelstiltskin, has escaped the Tower prison of Thiside determined to finish the sinister plot he started so many years ago.

Robert Darkly, oblivious that he is the son of the Mad Hatter, must partner with the mysterious ‘Agency’ to pursue Rumpelstiltskin across our world and the world of Thiside and uncover the treacherous secret that threatens to throw both realities into eternal chaos.

Fans of Stiltskin should also check out Death, the Devil, and the Goldfish, by Andrew Buckley.

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I hate saying that I did not finish a book, I would rather pretend that it did not happen and not tell anyone about it. But since this was a review book I could not do that. I had to fess up that this book was just not for me. That is the one reason I hate admitting defeat is that people assume that it was a bad book. In this case it was a really well written, coherent book. I just found it too much, (reminded me of Terry Pratchett, who I really do not like to read).

There was some great concepts in this book. Like the idea of the rabbits building the building and the lightning happening whenever. It was too full on for me. I like to be able to grasp one concept before another is thrown at me. I know  a lot of people do like this style of writing, it’s just personal opinion. I was confused at times, I had to reread paragraphs to see if I was missing things.

I got to page 75 and decided that if I kept going I would end up hating the book, instead we parted ways on good terms, both determined to find the perfect partner, which sadly we did not find in each other, even after a very promising start. I am not going to rate it since I did not finish it and the fact that I know it is not bad, just not suited to me.

So if you like witty, clever and action packed books this is for you. Especially if you are a Terry Pratchett fan, you should delve right in.

Snow Queen giveaway Winner

A couple of weeks ago, I set up a giveaway to win a copy of this fantastic book. The giveaway has now ended and winner has been selected by Rafflecopter.

The winner is:

Shannon Ainsworth

Congratulations Shannon. I have contacted the winner and asked them to reply to me in 5 days, if they have not a new winner will be selected.

Thank you to everyone who entered and I hope to host more giveaways very soon.

Happy reading

Emma

Harry Potter’s Crimes: Introductory Post

I have been thinking of doing a new post for a while, and I wanted to do something I am passionate about and hopefully other people will enjoy reading. Something I know well, Harry Potter is an obvious choice, maybe people are getting sick of it, but I am not and I hope I am bringing something new and engaging.

So what if after the big battle at Hogwarts Harry and his friends were arrested and charged with the crimes they committed but were not punished for. What crimes would they get charged with and what defense would they have if any? I personally think it’s an interesting thought. It is all meant as a bit of fun, as I said before I love everything about Harry Potter, so in no way is this making fun of the series.

A few years ago, one of my best friends and I were studying for a law exam and whilst trying to learn the terms we used Harry Potter references to learn them. It was a good laugh and it helped us learn. A few days ago I was thinking about this, so I thought why not do it as a blog post, show it to the people who would appreciate it the most.

Here are some examples of the kind of thing that will be discussed.

• The Murder of Voldemort, could Harry claim self-defense? But he had been planning to kill Voldemort for at least 6 years, so was it premeditated, making self-defense not a viable defense.
• Bank Robbery, breaking into Gringotts and stealing the cup and the dragon.
• Murder of Professor Quirrell, could he claim self-defense? Or even that there’s no proof since there is no body left?
• Kidnapping of the Goblin in Gringotts (okay they put him under the Imperius curse, but they still took him against his will).
• Torturing Bellatrix Lestrange, after she kills Sirius Black, once again through a curse but it’s still torture.

I do not plan to do this on any particular day, or with a certain interval in between but at least once a week, but if I am feeling inspired it might happen every day. I am going to read through each book and find every crime I can leaving no stone un turned, no matter how small it is. I will also be focusing on all the good characters, so no death eaters or Voldemort, their crimes are obvious. I will start on book one and see how it goes.

Does this seem like something you would like to read? Is there any crime that you find funny or interesting or would just like to discuss? Please leave a comment, I am interested for any input and feedback you may have on this.

Happy reading

Emma

 

Give away: Snow Queen: One and Half days left

Five years ago, Cambridge Ballet’s Sugar Plum Fairy vanished after performing The Nutcracker. Despite extensive city and statewide searches, no traces of her, besides her ballet slippers, were ever found. Every year since, another member of the cast has gone missing after closing night: a Spanish Hot Chocolate, an Arabian Dancer, The Dew Drop Fairy, a Flower. Nieves Alba, who as a thirteen-year-old played Clara in the first ill-fated performance, is now cast as the Snow Queen. On closing night, every police officer in Boston surrounds the theater, determined to catch the perpetrator whom they’ve dubbed “The Nutcracker.” Can Nieves break the curse or will she be the next victim of America’s favorite ballet?

I have a paperback copy of this book to give away to one lucky person.

GIVEAWAY

Good luck and happy reading

Emma