Scholastic Bloggers’ Book Feast 2018

On Saturday, I attended Scholastic’s Bloggers’ Book Feast for the second time! It’s been so long since I have gone to any book events (I think the last one was YALC in the summer), and I hadn’t realised how much I missed doing bookish stuff that wasn’t confined to social media. It was so wonderful to see some of my blogging friends again, and to make some new ones!

I travelled to the event with my sister and fellow blogger, Jess, and because I have absolutely no time management skills whatsoever we were a couple minutes late, but still were right on time for the beginning! We started by hearing about Scholastic’s 2018 releases, which was very exciting, and has me desperate for 2018 to hurry up already so that I can read all these books! Here’s the complete list, in chronological order:

1. Shell by Paula Rawsthorne
2. The Light Jar by Lisa Thompson
3. Tender by Eve Ainsworth
4. The State of Sorrow by Melinda Salisbury
5. Spark by Alice Broadway
6. The Surface Breaks by Louise O’Neill
7. Night of the Party by Tracey Mathias
8. Your Turn to Die by Sue Wallman
9. Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl
10. Noah Could Never by Simon James Green
11. A Sky Painted Gold by Laura Wood
12. Showstopper 2 by Hayley Barker
13. A Storm of Ice and Stars by Lisa Lueddecke

YA Fantasy On My TBR

It’s been so long since I read some fantasy, despite the fact it is my favourite genre! My fantasy TBR has been getting far too long, and most of the books on there are part of a series! Anyway, the books on here range from very recent, to slightly older, but they are the books that are at the top of my TBR!

 

Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh – this will hopefully be one of the books on this list that I get to sooner, considering I own a copy! I’ve heard that this story was inspired by Mulan, which is unbelievably cool, and I think will make for a fantastic story!

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black – I have yet to read anything by Holly Black, but this book has been so highly praised ever since it was released at the beginning of the year. This particular fantasy novel is about faeries, which is a branch of fantasy I have not read much of, so I am very excited to read this book!

Review – No Filter

Title: No Filter
Author: Orlagh Collins
Published by: Bloomsbury
Publication date: 13th July 2017
Pages: 355, hardback
Genre: young adult, contemporary, romance

This is the story of THAT SUMMER … the one when everything changes.

Emerald has grown up in a privileged world – the beloved daughter of a wealthy family, friends with all the right people, social media addict. But Emerald’s family has secrets – and when Emerald finds her mum unconscious on the bathroom floor, no one can pretend any more. Now she’s being packed off to stay with her grandma in Ireland while her mum recuperates and her dad just works and works and works. 

Grandma’s big, lonely house is set back from the beach, and there’s no phone signal or wifi. It’s going to be a long summer … Until she meets Liam. 

When you’re falling in love, it’s hard to tell someone everything. Even if you’ve got nothing to hide any more. And when secrets and lies are all you’re used to, how do you deal with real love – brave and true – with no filter? 

The fresh, funny and poignant debut novel from Orlagh Collins, a bright new voice in YA fiction. Authentic, down to earth and sweepingly romantic all at once, No Filter is perfect for fans of John Green, Rainbow Rowell and Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Goodreads | A Great Read 

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No Filter was one of the books I read last month, making it one of my first YA reads of 2018! I was lucky enough to be sent a copy of this book by Orlagh, the author of No Filter, as I am going to be interviewing her next month as part of the YA Shot Blog Tour. In the mean time, I read this book, and thought I would review it!

In January I Read | 2018

My new reading goal for 2018 is to read 60 books, leveling out at five books a month. I had honestly thought I could do that without a problem, but whilst I did read five books in January, I read the first four within the first twelve days, and then finished the last one just before midnight on the 31st! So I think five was a good number to settle on, and I read some really great books this month.

First of all, I read A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens – this took me a little while to get through, as I found it quite hard to get into at first, but I eventually warmed to the style of writing and the plot. I watched the film of A Tale of Two Cities in December, and I had enjoyed that, and I think that made the book easier to digest. My favourite part of this book was definitely the ending, which left me feeling quite unexpectedly emotional (and if you are interested in reading this particular classic, you can buy it from A Great Read for just £2.50!). ✮✮✮

After that, I read my first YA book of the year – Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart. Unfortunately, I wasn’t a huge fan of this book; I found the protagonist very annoying, and I really struggled to get to grips with the plot and the narrative style. I did start to enjoy the book more around halfway through, but I was overall slightly disappointed with this read (I reviewed it in full here, if you are interested in hearing more of my thoughts!). ✮✮✮

January: How Are My Goals Going So Far?

The first month of 2018 has flown by already, and I think it’s time for a bit of reflection. I haven’t really touched upon the personal goals I set myself for 2018, and I am not even going to talk about all of them in this blog post; I will be mentioning quite a number, however, and they are all non-bookish ones!

If you’re serious about sticking to your New Year’s Resolutions, I think January is crucial – if you can’t stick to it in the first month of the year, what hope is there for the remaining eleven? So don’t worry, I’m not going to be doing these every month, but I thought that as it is now the end of January, I would reflect on my progress so far! I am considering doing a monthly round up of this kind more often, one which focuses on things that happened in my personal life each month, so let me know if you think that would be interesting!

I went to see at the Winter Lights in Canary Wharf on the weekend. It was such a nice atmosphere, and the lights were, unsurprisingly, stunning.

My Favourite Kinds of Blog Posts

Two things I wish I did more are: write blog posts, and read blog posts. Since the start of 2018, I have been making more of an effort to scroll through my Twitter feed and WordPress Reader to read the content other bloggers have put out, but sadly since going back to school, I have had to revert back to two posts a week (as a maximum). Nonetheless, today I thought I would share the three types of blog posts I most love to read and write, and for each kind of blog post, I will also include links to my own blog posts, as well as links to some other blog posts. Honestly, this blog post could have been a mile long, but I decided to keep it down to three, as I thought this would lose some of its significance if I went on to list every type of blog post under the sun!

My Non-Fiction TBR

Happy Monday, everybody! Today, I want to share my non-fiction TBR, which has been growing steadily for a year or so now. Recently, I have found myself wanting to read more non-fiction, and as soon as I find the time, these will be the books I reach for! There are so many different topics I would love to read about, and all of these books I think will teach me a lot.

Blog Tour: Shell – Interview with Paula Rawsthorne

Today I am so excited to be participating in the blog tour for Shell by Paula Rawsthorne! This book has been on my radar for a while, and I finally read it in December, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it! I will begin by sharing a bit about the book itself, before moving on to an interview with Paula Rawsthorne about her writing process.

The Book

What if you thought you had died, only to wake up to find that your brain and eyes had been transplanted into someone else’s body? 

When Lucy, a teen diagnosed with terminal cancer wakes up cancer-free, it should be a dream come true. But faced with a life she didn’t choose and trapped in a new body, Lucy must face the biggest question of all . . . How far would you go to save the one you love?

Goodreads | A Great Read

New Years Resolutions Book Tag

January is a month that is filled with content looking back on 2017, and looking forward to 2018, and today I decided to continue with this theme by doing the New Years Resolutions Book Tag. I wasn’t actually tagged to do this, but I saw this on Lia @ Lost in a Story‘s blog, and I thought it looked like a lot of fun – you can read her tag here!

Review – Genuine Fraud

Title: Genuine Fraud
Author: E. Lockhart
Published by: Hot Key Books
Publication date:  7th September 2017
Pages: 267, hardback
Genre: young adult, contemporary, mystery, thriller

Imogen is a runaway heiress, an orphan, a cook, and a cheat.
Jule is a fighter, a social chameleon, and an athlete. 
An intense friendship. A disappearance. A murder, or maybe two. 
A bad romance, or maybe three.
Blunt objects, disguises, blood, and chocolate. The American dream, superheroes, spies, and villains. 
A girl who refuses to give people what they want from her.
A girl who refuses to be the person she once was.

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The hype for this book built up throughout 2017, and having enjoyed We Were Liars and adored The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, I was so keen to read Genuine Fraud. Having read both positive and negative reviews, I was slightly apprehensive going in, and unfortunately, I really don’t think this book was for me.