Books I Read - May 2016

My reading in May has been wonderfully mixed as usual and though it looks like I haven't read as much, I have in the fact that the books I have read this month have been a lot longer in content. I haven't however got around to reading my single issue comics yet, though I have got a journal ready to start keeping a record. I still haven't decided quite how to write them in, so I've been putting off starting. Hopefully in the next few days I'll have something figured out.

Over the next month I have three book tours, the first one being on the 1st of June (so it might actually be up before this post) for Anything For Her by Jack Jordan. I will also be reviewing a few comics once I start picking them back up, as when I first started blogging it was comics that I started with and it'll be nice to get back to that in a small way. 

In May I visited the Enid Blyton exhibition at the Scarborough Museum and I'm actually hoping to have a blog about the experience up in the next few days. Small spoiler, but I loved it. 

Onto the books:

1. Batman: The Black Mirror by Scott Snyder - 5 Stars
2. Whispers Of Bedlam Asylum by Mark C. King - 5 Stars
3. Saga, Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughan - 5 Stars
4. Saga, Volume 2 by Brian K. Vaughan - 5 Stars
5. Demon Bound (Marris And Wade Book 1) by David Parkland - 5 Stars
6. The Pillars Of The Earth by Ken Follett - 5 Stars
7. Anything For Her by Jack Jordan - 5 Stars
8. City Of Bones by Cassandra Clare - 4 Stars
9. City Of Ashes by Cassandra Clare - 5 Stars

I'm looking forward to all the books for review I have lined up for June and all my new books that I want to fit in around them.

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

Finish It Feb 2016

Hello! I'll start off by apologising for such a long gap between blogs. I got hit by the flu quite badly and I just haven't been up to much at all recently, but fingers crossed I'm finally getting my energy back to get stuff done and I can go back to my regular posts, I've a couple of reviews coming up and I'm part of an exciting blog tour in February.

Anyhoo, though as of yet I'm not participating in any specific challenges this year, I have decided to take part in Finish It Feb where you concentrate on finishing books you're half way through or finishing off series that you're part way through reading. It's being hosted by Faye over at A Daydreamer's Thoughts.

I do have a lot going on in February with reviews and blog tours etc but I am planning on trying to read some more books in series that I have started but haven't got through yet. I have a ridiculous amount of series that I have started and then I've been distracted by starting reading another series and I'd just like to at least get to the stage where I've read the books in the series that I own.

I feel this challenge will work well for me as I have a nice variety of books and genres to choose from so I should be able to match my reading mood without feeling restricted. I will be posting a picture of the books I have chosen to pick from for the month on my Instagram, Twitter and Facebook on Monday and I'll also update this blog with the list too at that time, so keep your eye out for all of those! At the end of February I'll do a wrap up of how I managed and if I got any completed.

I'm really looking forward to all the exciting things coming to my blog over the next couple of months and I really hope you enjoy them too.

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So the complete list that I have to choose from are:

Cress by Marissa Meyer
The Kill Order by James Dashner
Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas
Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas
The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J Maas
Clariel by Garth Nix
A Dance With Dragons: After the Feast by George R.R. Martin
I Am Dead by Gareth Wiles
Icon's Request by Gareth Wiles
A Matter of Dark by Gareth Wiles
Where the Birds Hide at Night by Gareth Wiles
Death Note: Black Edition, Vol. 4 by Tsugumi Ohba

As I said a nice varied selection to choose from! Here's hoping that I can get through a good chunk of them. I've linked each on to their Goodreads page so if you want to check any of them out you can do.

Pet-Friendly Francie Scores A Pooch - Kat E. Erikson

I was lucky enough to receive an e-book copy of Pet-Friendly Francie Scores A Pooch direct from the author Kat E. Erikson in exchange for an honest review.

I read a lot of children's books having two nerdlings and so I thought it would be really interesting to actually review one. I'll also be adding a mini blog at some time in the future with my 7 year old's own review of it which I think is going to be really fun.

The story follows Francie Waggit and her dad after they meet a stray dog at a 49ers game and they are giving Scrimmy (the dog) a trial period. There are a lot of fun hi-jinx throughout and all the characters are extremely loveable. As a parent I found the writing really easy to read both in my head and aloud, which I think is a great aspect of any children's book even if they are aimed at the slightly older child. There were also a lot of lessons which can be learnt throughout the book, which I will go into more detail in a moment,

I liked that the book covered things like the fact that Francie's mum was working abroad and so she had been away for around 4 months at the time of the book and how Francie and her dad dealt with her absence and the feelings about it, without going into too much depth. It also covers the fact that the family had to make sacrifices (renting out the top of the house) to be able to live the way that made them happy and do the things they wanted to do as well as working hard.

Pet-Friendly Francie as I said previously teaches a lot of lessons, there are the real knowledge lessons given by the teacher about dogs and wolves and their packs and then there are the life lessons. Francie shows kindness and love for all animals and humans (diversity is covered) and how it is good to be nice, even if it's to a bully as they might have their own problems. All of this is fantastic and covered in such a way that a child can understand and learn from it while it all being a very fun story to both tell and read,

I really enjoyed this book and I will be telling my other mum friends about it. My 7 year old loved it too and I'm going to let her write her own review when she's finished re reading it so you can see from a child's perspective what she picked up and what she thought of everything.

I started reading this on the 10th of January 2016 and finished it on the 12th of January 2016.
I gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads.

My Review of Sigmund Shaw: A Steampunk Adventure

I received an e-copy of Sigmund Shaw: A Steampunk Adventure directly from the author Mark C. King in return for an honest review. Thank you Mark.

I have never read a steampunk book before, but I have always wanted to delve into that world and see what all the fuss is about. I love the Victorian time period and I'm intrigued by the machinery and fashion relating to steampunk so I thought it would be a good fit of genre for me. Sigmund Shaw I feel was a perfect book for me to read first!

I want to start off by saying just how much I absolutely adore the character of Sigmund, he is just such a nice guy and its so nice to see. Yes he has faults and he has done things that aren't right, but he has done them for the right reasons and in ways to cause as little hurt to people as possible. He is a good brother, uncle, brother in law and friend. Sigmund will put the people he loves first at all times he is just so selfless and he'll do whatever needs doing to get the job done. I feel he has been written so well that I have become really attached to him while reading his story.

I do also like a lot (if not all) of the other characters, Sarah is a badass, Harry is a sweetheart and I love Holmes and the fact he is annoyed by his name (nice touch!). I feel they are all well thought out and written beautifully so that they all stand out with their own personality and are not just 2 dimensional.

The story is fantastic from the start and I was gripped from page 1. Sigmund is asked to do something that will possibly help his niece walk for the first time and what follows is a story of adventure, mystery, murder and war. The writing is fast paced but you never lose what is happening and everything is shown and not told. I didn't see the end coming till not long before Sigmund and his crew figured it out themselves, so King kept me guessing for a long time and I followed the twists and turns at the same time as the characters.

The machines that are brought out towards the end of the book are amazingly described and I could picture perfectly these mammoth war and flying machines. I actually also preferred reading the battles using this kind of weaponry than your typical gun, tank etc. In some books that have war scenes I tend to skip over the fighting as it can sometimes be confusing and sometimes it can be boring, but the fights in this book didn't fall into either category.

I only really have one ever so small criticism of this book and that is when Sigmund and his crew have figured things out, they go to tell someone of importance (I'm being vague to avoid spoilers) and then they explain in full everything that has transpired up until that point. I remembered and had understood already everything that they then explained and I feel it could have been left at the characters explained while the important person listened in disbelief or some such before asking questions. But that is just my opinion and it didn't take away any of my enjoyment of the story.

Overall a fantastic book and I feel lucky to have been asked to read this. I recommend that you read this book even if you're not a steampunk fan but you enjoy a good mystery and crime drama. I look forward to reading more both from this author and from the genre in the future.

And one last thing I started reading this book on the 30th of July and finished reading it on the 19th of September. The only reason it took this long was due to the fact it was an e-book, I only have my Nook at the side of my bed and I don't use it every night. Had I had my hands on a paper book I would have read this in one or two sittings at the most because I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads

September 2015 Book Round Up

As soon as there was a chill in the air I immediately wanted to start reading crime thrillers and psychological mysteries etc, so my YA and fantasy were put to one side so I could indulge in what I class as my guilty pleasure (though you should never feel guilty about what you read). I haven't got much reading done this month as the Nerdish family has been very busy but I've managed to sneak in quite a few graphic novels/trade paper backs and I finally read the first Sword Art Online book which the hubby has been wanting me to read. I haven't changed the format of my round up this month, but look forward to seeing something different at the end of October!

Book 1 - You by Caroline Kepnes - 3 Stars
Book 2 - Black Butler, Vol 6 by Yana Toboso - 5 Stars
Book 3 - Batgirl, Volume 2: The Flood by Bryan Q. Miller - 4 Stars
Book 4 - Remember Me This Way by Sabine Durrant - 5 Stars
Book 5 - Sword Art Online: Aincrad, Vol. 1 by Reki Kawahara - 5 Stars
Book 6 - Iron Fist: The Living Weapon, Vol. 1: Rage by Kaare Andrews - 2 Stars
Book 7 - Sigmund Shaw:  A Steampunk Adventure by Mark C. King - 4.5 Stars
Book 8 - Action Comics, Vol 1: Superman and the Men of Steel by Grant Morrison - 3 Stars
Book 9 - Siege by Brian Michael Bendis - 4 Stars
Book 10 - Winter Soldier, Vol. 1: The Longest Winter by Ed Brubaker - 5 Stars
Book 11 - Black Butler, Vol 7 by Yana Toboso - 5 Stars
Book 12 - Black Butler, Vol 8 by Yana Toboso - 4 Stars
Book 13 - The Winter Soldier, Vol. 1: The Longest Winter by Ed Brubaker - 5 Stars

What books have you been reading in September? Do you have a TBR for October? Let me know, I'm always happy to talk books.

My Review of You

I'm really trying hard to work on my 2015 reading challenge as I'm really far behind on it and I still want to fully complete it by year end. This is meaning that I'm changing up some of the choices I made at the beginning of the year so that the books fit into the current genre mood I'm in. Overall I'm only 4 books off hitting the amount of books I'd set myself to read this year (I wanted to read 100 books) but out of those only 21 of them are from the 70 books for the challenge.

The book I chose for "a book with a one word title" was You by Caroline Kepnes. I was really excited to see this in The Works in their 3 books for £5 offer as I had heard so many good things about it and the whole concept sounded really new and interesting, getting a view from the eyes of the stalker rather than the stalkee. There are some very minor spoilers ahead, but if you've read anything about this book, you'll probably already know.

The start of the book was fantastic, I felt incredibly uncomfortable reading from Joe's perspective and the things going through his mind. The language used was so far from what I would use or hear, especially when the C-word was dropped in the first few pages or so. My hubby kept asking if I was enjoying the book and all I could say was "I don't know" the main character gave me the creeps and I didn't like being in his head but obviously that meant that Kepnes had done a brilliant job of portraying Joe. The book is exceptionally well written and it was definitely a unique way of telling this kind of story.

All of the characters in this book are absolutely awful human beings (apart from Ethan but we barely see him) and they have no redeeming qualities. Joe is awful for obvious reasons. Guinevere or Beck is a selfish, flaky and entitled brat. As for Beck's friends, each one is worse than the last. I know a few people who have read this have felt sorry for Joe and want him to succeed, this isn't my opinion but I certainly understand why they would feel like that with all the people he meets.

I got around half way through the book and I started to think the story started to lose credibility and believability, The story to begin with, was very creepy and made you seriously look at the mark you are leaving online that makes it so easy for the wrong people to find out everything about you. When Joe began on his kidnapping and murderous ways (also finding out about previous murders) it just lost the magic that had been created and just no longer captured my imagination the same way it had to start with.

Sadly the book ended up falling flat for me and it just wasn't what I had expected or wanted. I have since finishing the book found out that this isn't a stand alone which I feel takes away from the uniqueness even more, however being a completionist if I see the next book/books I will probably pick them up, just to see where this story can be taken as I feel everything has already been covered. I would love to be proven wrong and for me to get the experience that I wanted out of You from the next book (Hidden Bodies).

Overall a brilliantly written piece that in my opinion is let down by the story told.

I started reading this book on the 30th of August 2015 and finished it on the 2nd of September 2015
I gave this book 3 stars on Goodreads

Red Blooded - My Review of Red Queen

The book I have ended up reading for the Popsugar challenge of "a book with a colour in the title" was a book that I hadn't planned on reading at all due to hearing so many mixed reviews and that book is Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. I was in Waterstones with my husband and they had their buy one get one half price offer on and he suggested I pick up this and another. (I also picked up The Kill Order by James Dashner, yes I'm a sucker for punishment)

I've heard a lot of people saying that this book is just a combination of everyone's favourite dystopian novels and yes as you read through you can see comparisons to other books such as the Hunger Games etc but that doesn't change the fact that the book is well written and a very enjoyable read.

I really liked all of the characters both main and peripheral, everyone had a personality and a place where they fit into the story. I enjoyed the mess that was the love interest in the story, it made a nice change from a straight forward love triangle and I still am not 100% sure who I'm rooting for, which normally by now I would have definitely decided on who I'd like the main character to be with (if anyone).

Though the story isn't unique, I thought it was really interesting and I'm looking forward to learning more about the world and the people in it. I also thought the betrayal and twist was done incredibly well, sadly I'd been spoilt as to the fact that there was a twist but luckily not what the actual twist was. Even though I knew it was coming I was still really shocked as I couldn't make up my mind who would be the betrayer and what would come from it.

I thought the story was paced well and built up to all the action at the end of the book which has left a perfect opening for the next instalment in this series (trilogy?)

Though it was not the book I set out to read, I'm very glad that I did and I will be recommending it to other people and picking up the next book.

I started reading this book on the 27th of August 2015 and finished reading it on the 30th of August 2015.
I gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads

Monster Joke Month 2015 Snail Mail Project

A few weeks ago I had an idea which I thought was really fun and the more I've thought about it the more I wanted to share it with other people and hopefully for those people to get involved and join in.

My idea is that for the entire month of October, every piece of mail that I send out, whether it's a letter, package or a post card, will have a monster joke on it. I absolutely love Halloween and I thought this would be a really fun way of celebrating it using snail mail and sharing the fun with other people.

For other people to join in, I thought that I would create a hashtag and then every piece of mail you receive/send with a monster joke on, you could post a pic on Twitter or Instagram (or any other form of social media that you use) with the hashtag #MonsterJokeMonth or #MJM2K15

I really hope that people get involved as I am really excited about this and I'm really looking forward to seeing the monster jokes, the cheesier the better!

Please let me know if you're planning on joining me and I'll be watching the hashtags and re-tweeting/re-gramming any and all that I find. I'll also be blogging about the project throughout the month of October and I'll share some of my favourite jokes.

Snail Mail August 2015 Round Up

I thought I'd share something a little different this month and show my snail mail stats. I'm a member of the International Geek Girl Pen Pal Club (IGGPPC) and through them I have met a lot of wonderful friends that I exchange letters and postcards with. During August I've been keeping a record of how far each of my letters have travelled for both incoming and outgoing mail. I recorded the distances as the crow flies rather than by transport as I have no way of knowing which route any of them would take.

I sent a total of five letters and 2 postcards throughout the month and individually they travelled the following distances

Letter one travelled 4049 miles
Letter two travelled 33 miles
Letter three travelled 4782 miles
Letter four travelled 70 miles
Letter five travelled 5198 miles
Postcard one travelled 155 miles
Postcard two travelled 65 miles

I received one letter and two postcards which travelled the following distances

Letter one received travelled 70 miles
Postcard one travelled 4043 miles
Postcard two travelled 3797 miles

I then thought it might be fun to add up the distances to see how far in total everything has travelled, I'm thinking of maybe doing an quarterly and annual round up to see just how far my post travels

Letters sent total distance travelled 14.132 miles
Postcards sent total distance travelled 220 miles
Post sent total distance travelled 14,352 miles

Letters received total distance travelled 70 miles
Postcards received total distance travelled 7840 miles
Post received total distance travelled 7910 miles

Overall total distance travelled
Letters - 14,202 miles
Postcards - 8060 miles
Combined - 22,262 miles

I really hope you enjoyed having a look into my snail mail life, I'm hoping to do more blogs about the kind of things I do with my pen pals in the future.

August 2015 Book Round Up

After a bit of a reading slump, I am slowly getting back into my reading groove. After reading the Gone series and it being so intense I've been reading a lot of quick easy reads to break myself into things but by the end of the month I was ready for more.

Book 1 - Wolverine MAX, Vol. 1: Permanent Rage by Jason Starr - 4.5 Stars
Book 2 - Batman Incorporated, Vol 1: Demon Star by Grant Morrison - 2.5 Stars
Book 3 - Ms Marvel, Vol.1 No Normal by G. Willow Wilson - 3 Stars
Book 4 - Fear by Michael Grant - 5 Stars
Book 5 - Light by Michael Grant - 5 Stars
Book 6 - Elektra, Vol. 1: Bloodlines by W. Haden Blackman - 5 Stars
Book 7 - A Night In Terror Tower by R.L. Stine - 4 Stars
Book 8 - Fright Camp by R.L. Stine - 4 Stars
Book 9 - The Unexpected Occurrence Of Thaddeus Hobble - 4 Stars
Book 10 - Batman Adventures Vol. 1 by Kelley Puckett - 5 Stars
Book 11 - Forensics: The Anatomy of Crime by Val McDermid - 5 Stars
Book 12 - Rogues Revenge by Geoff Johns - 3 Stars
Book 13 - X-Men: Wolverine/Gambit by Jeph Loeb - 4 Stars
Book 14 - Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard - 5 Stars

I'm thinking about trying a different format of how I do my round ups at the end of next month to make this a little more interesting. If there's anything specific you'd like to see, like recommendations or synopsis of the books, please let me know.

My Review of The Assassin Princess

I originally had a different book chosen for the Book Riot topic of "a book published by an indie press", but then I was lucky enough to win a signed copy of The Assassin Princess by Blake Rivers on Facebook directly from the author and thought that it would be a perfect choice for me.

I'd read the blurb and I'd read the Goodreads description as I'd been coveting the book for a while and it sounded really interesting so I was really excited to read it. It was everything I expected and more!

The world building is brilliant and I absolutely adore Legacy, the Planrus Lands etc. They are described just enough for you to picture them yourself but with enough detail so you have a complete picture, The lore and the history that you learn as you travel through the book is incredibly interesting and going forward I would love to read more about it, it's just so well thought out and credible. The magic is also very cleverly done with where it comes from and how it is used, I don't want to go into it too much as I don't want to ruin the wonder of anyone coming to read this book.

The main three characters are Ami, Adam and Hero. Ami is exactly the right kind of badass female main protagonist that you want in a story, Adam is exactly the right kind of twisted evil you want in a story and Hero is the perfect damaged hero you want in a story. I genuinely think the characterisation has been done so well and not only for the main characters, I love the story about Ami's parents and I love the unicorns (yes there are unicorns in this book!)

I'd say the only criticism I have about this is that I don't have the next book in the series so I cannot just jump straight back into the world.

Just a mention about the front cover too, it's stunning and eye catching. So simple and yet striking.

Overall a fantastic book that throws you straight into the action and keeps you going right until the very end. People need to read this book.

I started this book on the 16th of July 2015 and finished it on the 25th of July 2015
I gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads

July 2015 Book Round Up

This month I have continued with my slump! I really need to get back into reading more again so I can power through the rest of my 2015 reading challenge. I am determined to complete it before year end. Anyone who has tips to kick a reading slump, please let me know! Anyway onto the books -

Book 1 - Plague by Michael Grant - 4.5 Stars
Book 2 - The Death Cure by James Dashner - 2 Stars
Book 3 - Grey by E L James - 3 Stars
Book 4 - The Art of War by Sun Tzu - 3 Stars
Book 5 - Ultimate Comics Ultimates: Disassembled by Joshua Hale Fialkov - 3 Stars
Book 6 - Red Robin, Volume 2: Collision by Christopher Yost - 5 Stars
Book 7 - Batman: Gordon of Gotham by Dennis O'Neil - 4 Stars
Book 8 - The Assassin Princess by Blake Rivers - 4.5 Stars
Book 9 - Grimm' Fairy Tales: The Complete Collection by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, interpreted by Margaret Hunt - 5 Stars

And that's it. Fingers crossed for more books and reviews in August.

June 2015 Book Round Up

I started the beginning of June with a serious case of reading slump and I didn't read for days as I just didn't know what I was in the mood for. I then decided that I really wanted to read some manga but it seems I've exhausted my local libraries supply and there was only one that I hadn't read, so I ended up with a few graphic novels/trade paper backs as an alternative.

Book 1 - The Borrowers by Mary Norton - 3 Stars
Book 2 - Batman: A Death In The Family by Jim Starlin - 5 Stars
Book 3 - X-Men and Power Pack: The Power of X by Marc Sumerak - 3 Stars
Book 4 - Animal Academy: Hakobune Hakusho Volume 1 Moyamu Fujino - 2 Stars
Book 5 - Hunger by Michael Grant - 5 Stars
Book 6 - Lies by Michael Grant - 5 Stars
Book 7 - Captain Atom, Volume 1: Evolution by J.T. Krul - 4 Stars
Book 8 - Justice League Beyond: In Gods we Trust by Derek Fridolfs - 4 Stars
Book 9 - Uncanny X-Men: Sisterhood by Matt Fraction - 3.5 Stars
Book 10 - Batman: Gotham by Gaslight by Brian Augustyn - 5 Stars
Book 11 - Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman - 5 Stars
Book 12 - The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - 1 Stars

Not a bad month, though I really need to get back into it as that last book has put me back into a slump! What's everyone else been reading this month?

My Review of The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas

For the PopSugar topic of "a book that makes you cry," I added  book that I have wanted to read for a long time, but just have never seemed to have gotten around to. The book I chose was The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne.

I'm not entirely sure where to start with my review, but I'll start by being honest and admitting that I hated this book. Hopefully I will be able to coherently explain as to why.

The first few pages of the book I found the writing style to be extremely strange and it took me a while to get into the flow of how Boyne wrote. I also found a lot of the metaphors and similes extremely odd, for example on page 7 we had this simile " 'Say Goodbye to them?' he repeated, spluttering out the words as if his mouth was full of biscuits that he'd munched into tiny pieces but not actually swallowed yet."  To me that just seems really long winded and awkward.

SO MUCH REPETITION

The descriptions of some of the characters physical actions are also odd, the fact that Bruno (who is 9) feels his arms stretching out at his sides in surprise, is something that my toddler does when he's surprised or excited. A child of 9 would have grown out of this a long time ago. Also the amount of people whose mouth formed the shape of a O is quite ridiculous. There are so many better ways of describing this facial expression such as " his jaw dropped in surprise," "her mouth was agape" I could go on, but you get the picture.

SO MUCH REPETITION

Another thing I found infuriating was Bruno's mispronunciation of Auschwitz and Fuhrer. It felt as though Boyne was just trying to avoid actually using the words in his book. It is just plain unbelievable that a child of one of Hitler's top men would be allowed to go on in this manner, oh and don't let me forget that he believes that saluting and saying "heil Hitler" is a way of saying "goodbye and I hope you have a nice day".....yeah....oh, oh and a high ranking Commandant's son that does not know what or rather who a Jew is. I do understand that a lot of people at the time were sadly unaware of what was happening around them, but as someone who is living right next to Auschwitz and who is surrounded by soldiers, it just seems unbelievable in my opinion that Bruno would know so little. My feelings are that Boyne used this time period and the atrocities that happened to write his "fable" but was then too scared to actually use any form of correct representation of what was actually going on.

SO MUCH REPETITION

As children of a Commandant, there is no way they would have been allowed to have been out of education for even a short amount of time or some form or military style training. By 1943 (which is the year I'm guessing this is set in due to Bruno being 9 and born in 1934) the Hitler Youth and the subdivisions were recruiting children as young as 10, so though Bruno wasn't quite old enough, he would have being prepared for it and Gretel would definitely have gone as I believe only 10 or 20% of German youths avoided being drafted.

SO MUCH REPETITION (is it annoying yet)

I felt that the children were portrayed in such a way that they appeared much younger than any child, especially in a time of war, would seem. Children are extremely intelligent and know a lot more than any adult would like to think. Their characters just didn't seem to fit the ages that were given as 9 and 12, I don't feel that Boyne can write children very well at all, the way they talk, think and act just don't seem natural.

SO MUCH REPETITION

And we come to the ending, if you don't want to be spoiled, stop reading here...Ok the ending for me came completely out of nowhere and was surprising, however I am apparently the only person who hadn't been spoiled for the ending as even my husband knew what happened and he has neither read the book or seen the film. I did not cry at the tragic end as I'd not felt any connection to any of the characters and I felt that though yes you should definitely mourn the loss of one boy, the book almost sidelines the fact that millions of people died. Even the final sentences were kind of insulting "Of course all this happened a long time ago and nothing like that could ever happen again. Not in this day and age."

Did I mention - SO MUCH REPETITION (Ok I'll stop now)

The only part of the book that I actually found quite interesting was the implied affair between Bruno's Mother (who was never even given a name) and Lieutenant Kotler. But we never really get anything in a way of payoff as we're following the story through the eyes of a child. All that happens is that Kotler is sent away, whereas I would have thought he would have suffered an "accident" but maybe that's just me.

I do kind of feel that I am cheating using this book as the one that made me cry as it did not. I am going to stand by it as I could cry with anger and frustration at how history has been used to produce this book. There are even now more things that I could comment on (the fence not being electrified, no guard patrols, a child in Auschwitz being able to sit around all afternoon without anyone noticing, the fact that that child was alive, the fact there was a way under the fence and not one person tried to escape) about how much I dislike this book, but have chosen to only include the most prevalent in my mind while writing this.

I originally gave this book 2 stars on Goodreads, just due to the surprise ending (for me) and then I dropped it to 1.5 and now as I've been writing my review I have decided it is only a 1 star.
I started reading this book on the 23rd of June 2015 and finished it on the 26th of June 2015

Cyborgs, Princesses and Fairy Tales Oh My! - My Review of Cinder

I've been doing a lot of the PopSugar categories recently so I thought it was about time to get into some of the Book Riot Read Harder challenge categories. I chose "a book that is a retelling of a classic story" and the book I chose was Cinder by Marissa Meyer.

I will hold my hands up and confess that before reading this book, I really thought I was going to hate it. I don't like cyborgs and I'm pretty sure this is the first retelling book I've ever read so I did not know what to expect and I had made a judgement before I even started.

The writing throughout Cinder is fantastic and Meyer has created a world and characters that you can instantly recognise and relate to. I absolutely adore the characters of Cinder, Iko and Kai and in complete contrast I absolutely hate Queen Levana with a passion, though I think there's more to her character which I'm looking forward to hopefully finding more about in one of the other books.

I really enjoyed the fact that we had a bit of back story for the prince in this story too as I sometimes feel we get the princesses story and then prince charming just rocks up to save the day without us knowing much about him (this isn't true for all fairy tales, just some of the ones I can think of off the top of my head).

I loved this book and was gob smacked it ended when it did, I don't have the next book and I NEED to know what happens next.

The only...not negative but something I want to point out is that I figured out pretty much on page one who Princess Selene was, to be honest though surely everyone must have known. Am I right?

I started this book on the 23rd of May 2015 and I finished reading it on the 24th of May 2015
I gave this book 5 Stars on Goodreads

Hot! Hot! Hot! - My Review of The Scorch Trials

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner is the 2nd instalment of my choice for the PopSugar "trilogy" category. There was nearly a month between me reading this and The Maze Runner, but the story was still really clear in my mind and I knew exactly where the story had left off which is a good sign that I had really enjoyed the book.

I feel like I've said it a lot recently but this book definitely got start with a bang, Dashner does an amazing job of creating the feeling of confusion and fear with the fast paced and bizarre goings on. You feel alongside the characters and need to keep reading to find out what on earth is going on.

With how much was happening, I got around 50% through the book and I needed a break, I was just so tired with all the adrenaline rushes. After I got past this though, I flew through the second half of the book and I'm really looking forward to finding out, hopefully, how these trials are helping design a cure for anything or how it will help save the world putting children through so much trauma in the final book.

I did enjoy the addition of the new characters Brenda and Jorge though I wasn't sure about them at first, I really grew to like both of them. I do feel really sorry though for all the peripheral characters that survived the Maze, that we never even learn their names and they keep getting killed off like red shirts in Star Trek.

I'm going to have another small break before reading the final book in this trilogy (eventually I am planning on getting the prequel and reading that too), but I really can't wait to continue the journey with Thomas and the gang.

I started reading this book on the 20th of May 2015 and I finished it on the 23rd of May 2015
I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads

May 2015 Book Round Up

I said earlier this year that I would start to do a round up of the books I'd read each month as I was only blogging reviews of books on my reading challenges and I have finally got organised enough to be able to do it! Yay! These are the books I've read during May with the rating I gave them on Goodreads.

Book 1 - Half Bad by Sally Green  - 4 Stars
Book 2 - Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher - 5 Stars
Book 3 - Four: A Divergent Collection by Veronica Roth - 5 Stars
Book 4 - Superman: He'l On Earth by Scott Lobdell - 5 Stars
Book 5 - Superman: Godfall by Michael Lane Turner - 3 Stars
Book 6 - Gone by Michael Grant - 4 Stars
Book 7 - The Scorch Trials by James Dashner - 4 Star
Book 8 - Cinder by Marissa Meyer - 5 Stars
Book 9 - Half Wild by Sally Green - 5 Stars

9 Books, not a bad month if I do say so myself. Currently I am 52% the way through my reading goal of 100 books this year and I am 11 books ahead of schedule according to my Goodreads reading challenge counter thingy. I am however really slacking in my 2015 Reading Challenge, my Classics Challenge (though to be fair this is a 5 year target) and my Panels Challenge, I really need to make more of an effort to start ticking books off my lists.

My Review of The Maze Runner

My original choice for PopSugar's reading challenge category "a trilogy" was the Bourne Identity, I have owned the books for years and have only watched the 1st movie (which I wasn't overly enthralled with) and thought now was a perfect time to read it. As I've got more into my challenge, I have decided they are just not what I fancy and I didn't want to get myself into a reading slump by reading something I wasn't interested in. So I decided to choose something a little more fast paced and something I wanted to read and that was The Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner, the first book being The Maze Runner.

I'll start by saying that I'm not really sure why everyone seems to think that this book starts off slow, I think it starts off great and just keeps going. There is pretty much action from page one and it just builds from there.

James Dashner has done some excellent things in this book, the memory erasure was extremely well thought out and explained really well, he creates an incredibly creepy feeling during the book with the maze and the artificial environment. Did I mention how horrendous the Grievers sounded?! Urgh! One thing that really irritated me throughout the book was the weird slang that the boys used, I really didn't feel there was any need for it at all as they all knew the correct words and slang for what they were saying. To me it feels like Dashner came up with this language at some point in the past and wanted to use it in one of his books.

I did very much enjoy this book and I am looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy (though I've now found out that there is a prequel? I'm not counting that though I will probably still read it). As much as I did enjoy it though, I felt like there was something missing and I could happily put the book down and not be constantly wondering when the next time I could pick it up would be, not enough to make me dislike it, just enough to make me like it less than other books I have read recently.

I started reading this book on the 17th of April 2015 and finished reading it on the 25th of April 2015
I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads

Things that go bump in the night - My review of The Haunting of Hill House

I took my time choosing the book for the PopSugar challenge topic "a book that scares you" as I wanted something scary, but not too scary, because as I've got older, I just can't deal with horror the way I used to be able to and now pretty much everything terrifies me. I decided on a classic that sounded more psychological than outright horror and it's one I have wanted to read for a long time, the book I chose was The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. There will be a spoiler in this review, so you have been fairly warned.

The first thing that struck me about this book was the writing, it seemed slightly "off" to me. The book was written/published in 1959 and yet the writing seemed to try and make it feel like it was written a lot earlier than that. Once I got into it though, I got used to how it sounded and it felt natural.

The story itself took almost half the book to get started, but I did enjoy the character building with Eleanor. I absolutely love how Eleanor made stories in her head about things that she saw as she was driving along as I do the same thing when I'm out and about. Something I didn't like was the conversations between the guests at the house, I know it was written in a different time, but seriously who has conversations like these people do? All the make believe and non sensical stuff at times took away from the story and I found I didn't really follow what they were talking about.

This bit contains the spoiler. After finishing the book, there are a few things I'm still unsure about so if you can answer any of them or have your own thoughts please let me know! I'm not 100% sure whether there actually was any paranormal activity or whether it was just fear creating fear. And finally the ending left me confused, did Eleanor really exist? Did she kill herself? What happened?

Overall though I enjoyed this book and I'm glad that I got around to reading it.

I started reading this book on the 2nd of April 2015 and finished reading it on the 4th of April 2015
I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads

My Review of Throne of Glass

I'm currently trying to make a concerted effort to read my 2015 Reading challenge books as I'm actually finding it quite restrictive even though I thought it would help widen my horizons with genre, content and authors etc. I think next year, I may come up with my own challenge which will allow me a lot more freedom, but we'll see how things go.

Anyhoo, onto my review of Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas, which I chose for the topic "a book with a love triangle" for the PopSugar part of my reading challenge.

The story certainly gets right into it from page one, so it grips you from the get go and you want to carry on reading to find out what is happening. I felt that the world was really well built and I could picture each place perfectly in my head with the descriptions given. I do feel though that you could tell at times that this book was written by a younger person, not that it mattered or was in any way detrimental to the book, but I noticed it enough to feel like I should mention it.

The characters for me are great and I love the characters I'm supposed to and love to hate the characters I'm supposed to hate, which means that the author has done a good job. Having read Divergent just prior to reading this, I felt that Celeana actually seemed younger that Tris even though Celeana is 18 and Tris is only 16. I can't put my finger on why I felt this, but there was just something that made me feel that their ages were reversed.

The hints of magic throughout the book are tantalising and I can't wait to see more of it as the series continues, the story is also left at a perfect jumping off point, leaving me wanting to read more.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I am looking forward to continuing with the series.

I started this book on the 8th of April 2015 and I finished it on the 12th of April 2015
I gave this book 5 Stars on Goodreads