Blackpool Comic Con 2015

Saturday the 12th of September 2015 marked the first ever Blackpool Comic Con. Myself and my little nerdish family had been looking forward to it for months and our friend that comes with us to Cons had even got his first ever cosplay together.

Waking up early on that morning to get ready, we were slightly disappointed to see that it was pouring with rain so we had to make the decision not to put the nerdlings in their cosplay outfits (Wonder Woman and the Flash) as we didn't want them to get cold and wet. My hubby however still donned his Arrow cosplay and our friend his Sebastian (Black Butler) waistcoat and tails. I have yet to cosplay as I spend that much time making sure everyone else is sorted I don't have time to sort my own, however I did an everyday cosplay and wore red and black with my Deadpool necklace.

When we arrived we found parking easily just around the corner from the Winter Gardens and walked round to the "front" of the place, we were surprised to see just a handful of people waiting outside the doors. We waited here for a few minutes before someone walking past advised that the queue was actually at the side, so we wandered round and found that the queue was actually the length of the entire outside of the building! By this time we were extremely lucky and the rain had eased off so we didn't end up getting wet. When we go to cons part of our enjoyment comes from queueing and seeing all the people in cosplay and all the effort that these people have put into their costume. In fact a lot of our pictures end up being from the queue.

Once the doors opened, the queue moved fairly quickly and we were in in no time at all. As soon as we were inside we saw an amazing couple of cosplays of Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) and Maleficent which our oldest nerdling wanted her photo taken with, the women were absolutely lovely and posed for the picture and also gave her a gift of a princess family card game. It's easy to say that she was absolutely made up. Winter Gardens is an absolutely beautiful venue and it has such a grand entrance it really makes you feel as though you are entering a wonderland, however once we were through though doors, we walked into complete chaos. The last con we went too (Preston Comic Con) had printed out floor maps and were handing them out in the queue, they had also put them up on their Facebook page prior so we could make a plan of action (we decide in advance who we want to see and then work out where they are to make our lives easier), but Blackpool had none of this and we only saw one sign in the entire place which was for the WWE Superstars, but it didn't really point you in the right direction. Considering how big Winter Gardens is and how many rooms there are, a map and signs I feel are essential. However, this was the events first year, there were bound to be teething problems and organisation was one of them.

Our first port of call was to find Kevin Nash as he has been one of my hubby's heroes since childhood and he has waited a long time for the chance to be able to meet him. Once we located the right room, we saw a huge line waiting to meet Mick Foley (yes THE Mick Foley, I was in the same room as Mick Foley!) but we were able to get to the front of Kevin Nash's table and wait for him while he finished up his photo shoot. While we were waiting I nipped over the Booker T's table and I was lucky enough to get his autograph. We are a WWE fan family. When Kevin Nash arrived my hubby talked to him for a few minutes and had his photograph taken with him, this absolutely made his day and Kevin was so nice and seemed to really enjoy the interaction.

Next up was Jeremy Wilkin who voiced Virgil Tracy in Thunderbirds, this one was for me. I absolutely love the original Thunderbirds and I have already met Shane Rimmer (who is absolutely lovely). There was only one lady in front of us but we had to wait a while, when I got to the front I found out why, Jeremy is a chatter! He was happy to talk away and engaged with the nerdlings, I was thoroughly happy with my encounter and was very happy with my autograph and how he signed it. Those who also got an autograph will know what I mean.

We were going to see Richard Madden and we did ask a member of staff where he was but they didn't know but luckily a con goer overheard us asking and pointed us in the right direction. When we found the queue it was coming out of a room with no sign and people were just asking people already in the queue who they were queueing for. We waited for a while before being told we might not get in before he had to go to his panel and that everyone had to put their cameras and phones away (not in the politest of ways). At this point we gave up on seeing him and went out to look round the stalls and to see the cosplay guests.

Our friend is a big fan of Doctor Who and was looking forward to meeting Jenna Coleman, but sadly we could not find her anywhere and no one was able to tell us where to find her, so he missed out on his opportunity.

Our final stop of the day was to meet Ian Beattie who played Sir Meryn Trant in Game of Thrones, I had wanted to meet him at Preston but had missed out so I didn't want to miss him again, We had to wait a long time at his table as the people who were manning the tables didn't know where he was or when he would be back (he was at a panel and then a group photo shoot) but I didn't want to miss him and we were the front of the queue. I have never been so glad to queue for anything ever, Ian is an absolutely wonderful man and just so lovely. He has the ability to make you feel like you're the only one in the room and that you have his full attention, which in a room filled with hundreds of people is an impressive feat! We had a brilliant chat and he let me take his picture holding mini nerdling even though he was covered in chocolate.

Once I was done speaking with Ian we went off to the sea front for a walk and to get some chips so we could cool down after being so hot inside and we were done with the con for the day.

Overall we really enjoyed our day and made of it what we wanted. There were some disappointments (where was the Batmobile and Ecto 1?) and the organisation was horrendous, but the calibre of guests was exceptional for a first time. I've heard all sorts of both rumours and information after the event and if they're all true then I don't believe we will see another Blackpool Comic Con in the future, which is sad firstly for the people who have been affected and secondly because the venue was so perfect and run by the right people I think this Con could be amazing.

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.

Make Love Not War - My Review of The Art of War

I'm really trying to cut down the amount of books left on my 2015 Reading Challenge and I decided to chose one that was a topic on both the PopSugar and Book Riot challenges and that was "a book that was originally written in a different language". The book I chose was one that has been on my owned tbr for a long time and the book was The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

The Art of War was originally written in Chinese and the copy I read was in English. The book took me just over an hour to read and was surprisingly easy to read. I expected a lot more detail and more indepth descriptions. The writing style was almost lyrical or like poetry and so that was how I read it in my mind.

I don't really know how to review this book as it is so different to everything I normally read. Yes I feel it is an important book and I am glad that I read it. As to whether I think it is still relevant, maybe. Some people say that you can relate certain things to your work life instead of war, but I'm not entirely certain that it would be necessary.

I know this is short and sweet but I really don't have a lot to say about this book

I read this book on the 12th of July
I gave this book 3 stars on Goodreads

How Not to End a Trilogy - My Review of The Death Cure (Contains spoilers, many spoilers)

The Death Cure by James Dashner is the third and final book in my 2015 Reading Challenge for the PopSugar topic of a "trilogy" and oh boy was I disappointed.

The first two books in this trilogy, though they had their faults, kept me interested and I liked the characters and I really wanted to know what was going on. I continued reading on the promise that everything would be explained and we would understand what was happening.

I'm annoyed at myself while writing this review as I normally take notes as I read, but for some unknown reason I didn't for this book and so all my thoughts are disjointed and I'm trying to get them straight so I can explain my feelings. I apologise for things being out of order and slightly jumbled.

I'll start with the characters, all of them, yes ALL OF THEM have lost any personality that they had and any character development that had been going on in previous books just comes to a grinding halt from page one of the Death Cure. One of the worst casualties of this is Theresa, in The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials I thought she was very interesting and I was looking forward to learning more about hers and Thomas' relationship. I thought in this book she would be given the chance to redeem herself for the things she had to do in the past and would come out stronger and more badass than before, but no, there was nothing except bits making her sound awful and then she's killed off in one sentence and no one even really cares. She's actually barely in the book at all. I also grow to dislike Brenda and Jorge after liking them before, Brenda is used as a way to progress the plot and Jorge is just a peripheral character all of a sudden, Also I must have been really confused in The Scorch Trials because I thought that Jorge was the same age-ish as the rest of the characters but in this book his relationship with Brenda is described as Uncle and Niece? It could just be me who totally missed something but that was the impression I was under.

Onto Thomas our main protagonist, he has spent the last two books bemoaning the loss of his memory and being determined to get it back no matter what. So when he's offered the chance to get his memory back, what do you think he does, yep he doesn't do it!! And for what reason? Oh because it's a scary looking machine. Seriously after everything they've been through and dealt with, he can't bear two minutes of discomfort to get what he has wanted all this time. This now means that not only does he not get any memories, but we as readers get no answers bar the tiny bits of dream memories that are thrown in every now and again. This made me really angry as this was the great reveal I'd been waiting for and it was taken away from me!

The story in this book also seems all over the place. There is a whole lot of action but nothing really happens. Dashner brings in  this Right Arm movement people and then doesn't really do anything at all with them except use them to create drama in the final scenes. I also wondered why the book became a zombie apocalypse survival story, I understand it was people beyond "the gone" but it just became one fight/escape after another, Oooh and another thing, where was Dashner going with the whole the group being followed in Denver and all the streets being quiet and then,...what? Was he going somewhere with it and then forgot about it? It feels like a whole heap of different ideas he had which he started but then never followed through to completion.

Another part of the story which baffled me was the introduction by Brenda that this Chancellor Paige was super important and we should look out for her, there are posters of her face everywhere etc and then all we get is that she came in while Thomas was unconscious and leaves a note for him. We don't even get to meet her and I was waiting from the moment Brenda mentioned her for her to appear somewhere. And then right at the end we get an email from her explaining the happy ending that we got (yes it was a happily ever after, well for the munies anyway) that it was all WICKED's fault anyway releasing the Flare. This would have made an excellent plot point DURING the story, not as an after thought at the end.

One final piece of the story I want to mention is the storyline with Newt. I feel if Thomas had read the letter at an appropriate point and followed through with Newt's request, then Newt's death would have been a lot more emotional and I would have been genuinely upset as I had previously enjoyed Newt as a character. As it was though, it just felt kind of shoehorned in and like I said, that Dashner had started a plot line and then totally forgotten about it.

Overall this book was extremely frustrating and very unsatisfying. I had enjoyed the trilogy up to this point and then the ending has left me disappointed. I probably will pick up the Kill Order at some point purely because I'm a completionist, but I will get it from the library or something rather than buying it. I would recommend reading The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials and then just making up your own ending as I think you'd probably do a better job yourself.

I started this book on the 4th of July 2015 and I finished it on the 6th of July
I did originally give this book 3 stars on Goodreads, but while writing this review I have amended that to 2 stars

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?