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Book Mail!
I always love getting books in the post! Today Penguin have
sent me “A New Darkness” and “The Dark Army” by Joseph Delaney and also “The Creeping Shadow” by Jonathan Stroud. Have any of you read the Spooks or Lockwood & Co series? I’m so excited to read these! I shall be saving them for Halloween season!
#bookmail #books #reading #amreading #horror #halloween #spooks #lockwoodandco #bookblogger #bookblog #blog #blogging #halloween
The Tales of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
(please excuse the poor photo quality)
Even after all these years, I still enjoyed reading it and really felt for poor, naughty, Peter.
It gave me such a warm fuzzy feeling to be so lucky as to have my very own daughter that I can read books to and pass down my childhood favourites to. I really do hope she becomes a book lover just like me.
My apologies for such a short review tonight. Brain is getting sleepy so has given up for the night lol!
Take care, guys,
Dayna.
Serial Reader – An app for book lovers!
This morning I’d noticed on Litsy that people were talking about an app called Serial Reader. Being a book lover, I thought I’d check it out!
I know it’s my first day of using it but so far I’m loving it! It’s an app for people who love to read the classics. Your book of choice is split up into manageable bite size pieces called issues (like a comic/graphic novel).
Each day, at a time of your choosing, an issue is sent to you and you’re also given an estimated reading time. – I thought it might also calculate your actual reading time but it doesn’t which is shame. In my opinion, it would be great if they could update it to do that. Once you’ve read an issue, you have the option of waiting until the next day or, if you’re the impatient type and the book is just too exciting to wait, you can read on ahead to the next issue. However, to do that, you have to upgrade which costs £2.99. This unlocks the option to read ahead, sync with iCloud, make highlights and notes, pause & read later, and add more fonts. I love the concept of this app and with the upgrade, it reminds me a lot of the Kindle app. I think maybe £2.99 for the upgrade is a little steep, though, and I’m not in the habit of paying for upgrades in apps anyway but that aside, the app is still definitely worth downloading and gets a thumbs up from me as I love the idea of looking forward to an issue to read each day.
Have a lovely day, guys!
Dayna.
Next On My TBR List: And I Darken by Kiersten White.
A few weeks back the lovely Harriet at Penguin sent me a copy of the soon-to-be released And I Darken by Kiersten White. Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to read it yet BUT this weekend will be THE weekend that I can finally get engrossed in it! I am so excited to be reading this book! Here’s the blurb:
AND I DARKEN by Kiersten White
Published 7th July 2016
“The phenomenal first book in an epic feminist trilogy set in the bloody Ottoman Empire, by the New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White.
Perfect for fans of Game of Thrones and The Queen of the Tearling, this is the ultimate, gripping, ‘can’t-stop-reading!’ novel to get stuck into on your summer holiday. Anti-princess Lada Dracul is destined to be the next feminist heroine, following in the footsteps of recent strong, gritty female characters Arya Stark, Jessica Jones and Star Wars’ Rey.
No one expects a princess to be brutal. And Lada Dragwyla likes it that way.
Ever since she and her brother were abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman sultan’s courts, Lada has known that ruthlessness is the key to survival. For the lineage that makes her and her brother special also makes them targets.
Lada hones her skills as a warrior as she nurtures plans to wreak revenge on the empire that holds her captive. Then she and Radu meet the sultan’s son, Mehmed, and everything changes. Now Mehmed unwittingly stands between Lada and Radu as they transform from siblings to rivals, and the ties of love and loyalty that bind them together are stretched to breaking point.”
Look out for my review in the coming weeks! 😃
Have a lovely weekend, all!
Currently reading … And my Valentine’s Day gifts! 💕
Hi everyone! I haven’t disappeared off the face of the earth … honest! This pregnancy (I’m now 38 weeks pregnant – eek!) just seems to have taken over! So apologies yet again for being so quiet! I seem to have really lost the reading bug of late but I’m *trying* to get it back! I’ve been attempting to read something on my Kindle but my hands are crying out for an actual book to hold and turn the pages of (you just can’t beat the feel of an actual book, right?) so I’ve given in and chosen to read The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury!
Here’s the blurb:
“I am the perfect weapon.
I kill with a single touch.
Twylla is blessed. The Gods have chosen her to marry a prince, and rule the kingdom. But the favour of the Gods has its price. A deadly poison infuses her skin. Those who anger the queen must die under Twylla’s fatal touch.
Only Lief, an outspoken new guard, can see past Twylla’s chilling role to the girl she truly is.
Yet in a court as dangerous as the queen’s, some truths should not be told…”
I haven’t gotten very far but of what I have read, I’m really enjoying it! I love my YA novels and this was one that was recommended to me by Amazon. Seems completely unique to anything I’ve read in the past so thought I’d give it a go. Can’t wait to see how it all unfolds. 😃
Now on to Valentine’s Day … With having a little one due any day now, Aled and I didn’t go mad this year. He did offer to buy me a new Pandora charm but I opted for books instead! Coz I do love my books (even if I seem to have lost all motivation atm) and thought it a great excuse to get some new ones! These are the books I’d chosen:
For a change, I thought I’d go for a classic by H.P. Lovecraft and a book called Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick. As you can see, it’s been compared to The Hunger Games but for me the only similarities seem to be the fact it’s a dystopian. Here’s the blurb taken from the back of the book:
I couldn’t find a blurb online that matched the back of the book, hence this picture.
Oooh Superheroes AND zombies … should be in for an interesting read here!
So, there you have it. I can’t wait to delve into these books and hopefully my reading bug will return and I’ll be back to normal with my head constantly stuck in a book. Or as much as our baby girl will allow, once she is here lol!
Halloween Bookfest. Book #2!
Hi guys. So as stated in my last Halloween Bookfest post, next up on my Halloween TBR list was Stephen King’s Misery.
Oh boy what a read this was! It took a while for me to get into but I think that’s because I was getting distracted too easily. Half way through, though, I was finally engrossed and I couldn’t put it down. I spent the majority of yesterday reading it and finished it at 1am this morning! It was so scary in a suspenseful kind of way and there were moments when I was just too afraid to continue reading (like the axe part! Or the birthday cake)! Of course, I did. I guess I’m glutten for punishment lol! I got so panicky at times and thought my heart was gonna beat right out of my chest! A quote from the actual book summed my feelings up perfectly: “In a weird way it was just too good to put down. It was like a novel so disgusting you just have to finish it.” It was like Stephen King was talking about his own book! And that was another moment where I was afraid to keep on reading in case Annie came home to find Paul reading her “memory lane” book. Misery is one of those books that really gets you thinking about what psychological torture the main character must have gone through. He’s trapped in a house for months with someone who is a complete lunatic! One moment she’s all genuinely loving and caring and then the next she’s a complete psycho monster brandishing an axe (and that’s just one example)!! I’m surprised I didn’t end up having nightmares about it last night to be honest lol but so thankful that I didn’t! I thoroughly enjoyed this book but it really creeped me out. I think I’d better stick to my paranormal books because at least then none of that could ever be real. If you know what I mean.
The third book on my Halloween TBR list is the Crimson Peak novelisation by Nancy Holder. I am so excited to read this. I love Nancy’s style of writing and will no doubt sail through this book in no time!
Take care,
Dayna.
Halloween Bookfest. Book #1!
With it being Halloween month I, of course, wanted to fill my TBR list with scary, spooky books perfect for the season. I actually kicked my spooky Bookfest off with a book that may not be scary to read but is filled with scary “vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness” and that book is Demons of the Hellmouth A Guide For Slayers by Rupert Giles (Nancy Holder).
How gorgeous is that cover?! I couldn’t have envisaged anything more perfect!
I received this as a gift from my boyfriend for my birthday last week. I cannot begin to tell you how excited and happy I was when I received it! Out of everything, this is what I had been wishing for the most. I began reading it on Saturday (had to finish reading The Probable Future by Alice Hoffman first) and finished reading it this morning (Monday). I loved it! It’s a little similar to The Monster Book but is written as though it’s Giles’ journal and the book itself is even designed like one, complete with photos and drawings -some made to look like they’ve been stuck in with sticky tape! – and also cool little side notes from the Scooby gang which makes it a little less “stuffy” 😝 to read.
The moustache on Sunday made me chuckle. As did Xander’s “dollars in the waistband” comment!
“Party in my eye socket” oh lol!
Being a huge Buffy fan, I felt so nostalgic and emotional reading it! It brought back so many memories! Like oh page 112 when Giles writes, ‘…my dream seemed to center around Spike being my son, an attack from the First Slayer, and … cheese.’ I was instantly transported back to the episode of Restless and the Cheese Man! “I wear the cheese, it does not wear me”. I love the Cheese Man! He was my favourite thing about that episode lol!
It was such a fantastic read and now I want to go and watch Buffy from the very beginning!
So what’s next on my Halloween Bookfest?? Well, I have decided to read some classic Stephen King and go with Misery. I loved the film but have never read the book so it’s time I changed that. I think I might need to leave the main light on for this, rather than ready by torchlight under the covers. Eek!
Honest Reviewer. Always Am, Always Will Be!
Credit goes to the amazing illustrator, Quentin Blake.
I had a message on Goodreads waiting for me this morning. It was from an author offering me an incentive to basically hurry up and read and review her book. The incentive? $50 or books from my wish list on Amazon. Awesome, right? Not exactly. There’s a catch … She wants a 4-5 star rating and glowing review of her book. I would happily take the offer and give her that rating, and that review she so wants, IF I genuinely thought the book was that amazing but it’s not and I am not in the business of giving dishonest reviews just to earn a bit of cash. So, thank you, but no thank you.
I know we would all love to get paid for something we love doing but not like this! I would be potentially misleading someone into thinking it’s a great read only for them to be really disappointed and I’m not willing to do that. I have morals and I’ll stick by them, thank you very much! Now, if I’d been offered money to give an honest review then I would have happily obliged.
#TBT
Ahh Of Mice and Men… Definitely an underrated book, I agree. I studied this back in secondary school and loved the movie too. It’s a book that will leave an imprint on your life forever. Or it did mine anyway. I always shed a tear (several times throughout ) whenever reading or watching it. Oh the feels! Poor Lennie was, at heart, a gentle giant who was misunderstood but sadly didn’t know his own strength (physically). *sniffs and wipes away a tear* A worthy read for sure. And I never knew it was on the banned book list untill I saw Jordan’s post! Wow!
So as a request from my husband my #tbt for this week is going to be Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. I read this book in high school in the 11th grade. It’s funny because the copy I pulled off our bookshelf yesterday was one that my husband had refused to give back once he graduated high school, so now we have a copy for ourselves. I have loved many things that Steinbeck has written, but for some reason this story always pops back up into my life in some form.
This story is one that I always thought was underrated. Yes it is a simple story of one that deals mostly with a world that has a hard time with mentally challenged people and that of a blossoming friendship within the Great Depression. I find it fascinating when I reread it that compared to our times…
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