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

Preston Table Top Day 2015

The 11^th of April this year was the 3^rd annual International Table Top Day. International Table Top Day was created three years ago as a way for board gamers around the world come together and celebrate table top gaming and this year I was able to go to an event to celebrate it. The event that I went to was Preston Table Top Day and it was held in the Foster Learning Building at the University of Central Lancashire, UK.

When we got there (finally, university campuses are confusing!) we were welcomed into the building by the organisers and pointed in the direction of the room the event was being held in. Inside were tables galore laid out ready for people to play games, game tables all ready set up for bigger games and stalls to buy table top goodies.

We stopped by was The Museum of Gaming table, who were showing some ancient games and letting people play. Me and my husband had a go at a game called Rota from Roman times and it was so much fun. It’s very much like noughts and crosses, except that it is circular and there is a second stage in which you can then move your pieces into empty places to try and win if no one matches their three counters in the first stage.

We had a look around and watched some people playing family games and a man painting game pieces. We chatted to the stall holders about games and what they suggested and our friend bought himself One Night: Ultimate Werewolf (which we played and it was awesome). The final game we played was Cube Quest, which was incredibly fun! It’s kind of a strategy game that involves flicking cubes across the board.

Preston Table Top Day was family friendly and I took a 6 year old and a 21 month old with me and they both thoroughly enjoyed themselves. There were so many games and activities to get involved in and there was something there for everyone. We would definitely go again and would recommend that people go and get involved on International Table Top Day.

I was cheeky and asked if I could ask the organiser, Millie, some questions and she was good enough to agree:-

Can you tell me the history or story behind Preston Table Top Day?

Preston Table Top Day was part of International Table Top Day, Wil Wheaton has a YouTube show called Tabletop (yes it’s Wesley from TNG) and they created the holiday back in 2013. I went to an event last year at Harlequin’s Game Shop, it was great. I recorded a radio show about it and was lucky enough to have a phone interview with Boyan Radokovich (the producer and “games guru” of the show) You can listen to the show here.

How did you get involved in being the organiser of the event this year?

I thought it would be great to have a HUGE event for the day and level it up from the one I went to in 2014. So I chatted to people and spoke to people on Facebook and Twitter and a lot of people agreed that it would be a good idea. So I went on to set up a Kickstarter page to help fund the event, thinking that I would just get enough to cover the cost of the venue and the insurance. We ended up with almost double the amount so we were able to get make special t-shirts for the backers, have a game designed for us, there were prizes and promotional items that were given away through a free raffle, a Pandemic tournament was run with prizes and the entrance was free for everyone who came. It also meant that the people who volunteered to help got some drinks and I was able to give them each a thank you present.

But I’ve waffled away from the question, I was the organiser because I wanted there to be a giant Table Top Day event, so I made it happen. There were some amazing people, who I couldn’t have done it without, but basically I wanted it to happen in my City so I did everything I could to make it.

Can you tell me about your day job?

I make podcasts, some YouTube videos and I write some blogs. But really I’m a stay at home mum; I take the kids to school, cook tea, load the washer and wash the dishes. There’s fun stuff too, I’m very lucky that I get to spend so much time with my family, see my kiddies grow up and spend time with my husband, it’s actually great fun.

Was there a final tally as to how many people attended?

178! The real count is a little higher, there were some kiddies there that didn’t count towards the door tally and also the vendors and volunteers aren’t in that total. But 178 people played games at Preston Table Top Day!

What is your favourite board game?

I love a game called The Resistance; it’s a social game where you’re either a spy or a Resistance member. The aim of the game depends on what team you’re on. If you’re a Resistance member, you need three successful missions. If you’re a spy, you want to sabotage three missions. Everyone’s roles are hidden; it’s a game full of social deduction, lies and convincing your friends that you’re really on their team…even when you’re not.

Will there be a Preston Table Top Day 2016?

I think so, I’m currently deciding on if I should try another Kickstarter or if we should charge a really small ticket price and see if we can get a bigger venue or a bigger area of UCLAN.

A big thank you to Millie for your time and effort in organising this event and thank you for answering my questions

This was originally published on the IGGPPC blog which you can view here.

A Non Divergent Opinion - My review of Divergent (Some Spoilers)

It's been quite a few days now since I finished this book and I finally feel that I can (maybe) put my thoughts and feelings into words. As part of the PopSugar reading challenge (see my 2015 Reading challenge) I chose to read Divergent by Veronica Roth for the topic of "A book that became a movie" I knew absolutely nothing about it (apart from that a load of people of book tube had read it) and chose it off a Goodreads list of books that became movies. My plan was to keep a lookout for it at the library or maybe wait till later in the year and see if I could pick it up somewhere, Now, my hubby obviously pays more attention to me than I thought as this is I think the second time he knew something was on my reading challenge list and when he saw the trilogy box set in a bookshop, he picked it up for me!

Going into reading Divergent, I really didn't hold up much hope of me liking it, but knew it'd be quite a quick easy read, I was so incredibly wrong! I was instantly hooked from the first page and I genuinely loved everything about this book. The characters are all well formed and have their own individual personality and identity. The world design and the idea of the 5 different factions is extremely interesting to me and I look forward to learning more about it all in the next books. I'm incredibly glad I have all three of the main books (though I now need the Four book too!!) so I can just get straight on and carry on with the story.

I'm late to the party, but how awesome is Four/Tobias?! Seriously I absolutely adore his character, though I have to admit that I thought his character was late twenties until they actually said he was only 18. I'm really looking forward to getting the book containing four novellas of scenes from the book from his perspective,

There is one thing I was really sad about and that was the death of Tris' mother. Her character was amazing, interesting and full of strength and I would have absolutely loved to have seen more of her in the following books. However the death worked well in the story and didn't feel just put in for shock value.

I cannot recommend this book enough to anyone and everyone, you all need to go out and read it. It has been the first book in a long time that I have not wanted to put down.

I started this book on the 2nd of April 2015 and finished it on the 4th of April 2015
I gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads

A Trip Down Memory Lane - My Review of The Enchanted Wood

Choosing a book for the "a book from your childhood" section of the Popsugar reading challenge was very difficult due to the fact I loved so many books! I ended up choosing the first book in The Faraway Tree series, The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton.

Re- reading this as an adult, I was worried that it may have lost its charm, however I was wrong. I still thoroughly enjoyed Beth, Joe and Franny's adventures in the Enchanted Wood and up the Faraway Tree. I love the imagination and thought that went into each of the worlds that they found at the top of the tree. Each of the characters has its own personality and I particularly like Mr Whatizname as a grumpy old wizard who loves his sleep. I look forward to my little ones reading this series and seeing what they make of it.

The only things I did notice (as an adult) is that the children aren't just "mischievous" they're downright naughty. Sneaking out at night, disobeying their parents and doing things they know that they shouldn't. Though I think that my parent might be showing! There was also one story where the characters were all turned into toys and Silky was turned into a doll and everyone kept saying how pretty she was and that they wanted to take her away. This made me feel a little uncomfortable, but when this was originally released in 1939, it was a completely different time.

Overall I still really enjoyed this book and will probably now go back and re read the whole series. It brought back great memories of reading this as a child and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone.

I started this book on the 26th of March 2015 and I finished it on the 1st of April 2015
I gave this book 4.5 stars on Goodreads (rounded up to 5 stars)

Tinged With Disappointment - My Review of Ready Player One

Ok I've been putting off writing my review of this book for a good few days now as I feel like I'm letting people down with what I think of it. The book I'm talking about is Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I chose this book for the PopSugar challenge topic of a book set in the future and my husband knew it was on the list and that I was excited about reading it so he went and ordered me a copy.

As soon as it arrived, I put down my other books and I started reading. It started off ok, but no better than anything else I've read. It then went onto infodump for about a quarter of the book before anything really happened. I kept waiting and waiting, but it was just very flat. Then when something finally did happen, a love interest was introduced. As much as I liked Art3mis, I don't feel that her character added anything to the story. I would have preferred to see how Parzival and Aech dealt with the whole situation being best friends and seeing if they could stay that way or if the game would tear them apart (rather than what happened and a relationship got in the way).

Everyone has also said that it's cool that there are all these 80's references and as a big fan of the 80's I was looking forward to spotting things I knew about. I didn't need to "spot" them though as they were clearly dropped almost like someone bragging that they knew a famous person. It felt very much like the author was trying to show how cool he was and was trying too hard by mentioning all these retro games and films etc.

I could see the ending coming a mile away and if I remember rightly, the ending seems to be a slight variation on the ending to the film Hackers. It has been a while since I've watched it, but still...

Overall I feel really let down by the book, though I am glad I read it so that I could form my own opinion. It took me far longer than a book this length should as I had to force myself to keep picking it back up, when I was expecting a page turner.

I started this book on the 20th of March 2015 and finished it on the 26th of March 2015
I gave this book 3 stars on Goodreads, though I would have preferred to have given it 2.5

My Review of In The Dark by Richard Laymon

I really need to get back to reading books on my reading challenge lists and stop getting distracted by ALL THE BOOKS. So on both the PopSugar reading challenge and the BookRiot read harder challenge, there is a topic for "a book recommended by a friend" and the book I was recommended to by the hubby (he counts as a friend right?) was In The Dark by Richard Laymon.

Since meeting my hubby I've read quite a few Richard Laymon books as he is one of his favourite authors, this isn't one of them though and he really wanted me to read it to see what I thought as he hasn't read it yet either. 

As with all Richard Laymon books, even though this was over 500 pages long, it was very quick and easy to read and I read it in just a couple of hours over 3 days. 

The story centres around Jane who is the new head librarian in the town and she receives an envelope which contains money and a clue to where she would find more money. Along the way she meets Brace who becomes a love interest and you get the usual "is it him or is it not" twists, hints and misdirections. As she follows each clue, the challenges become more and more difficult and dangerous. As a normal, sensible human being (honestly) there is no way I'd have gone past finding the first envelope and I don't think anyone with any sort of sanity would continue past maybe the fourth one when it becomes more extreme. 

The characters as usual for a Richard Laymon book are pretty pantomime, but I found both the main characters to be likeable which isn't always the case. 

Overall I really enjoyed the story and would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of horror without it being too scary, There was just one bit at the end that I felt was an unnecessary addition to the story, but I won't say what as I do try to keep spoilers out of my reviews. 

One thing I did do when starting to read this book was to get out my pen and paper and start a "nipple" count. If you've read any Richard Laymon at all, you'll probably know he loves the word nipple! This book actually came in with a relatively low score of only 11 mentions.

I started reading this book on the 6th of March 2015 and finished it on the 9th of March 2015

I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads

Once Upon A Time - My Review of Jack of Fables: The (Nearly) Great Escape

I've been wanting to pick up a Fables book for a long time and the Panels comic book read harder challenge gave me the perfect excuse under the topic of "read a fantasy comic". The book I picked up at the library was Jack of Fables: The (Nearly) Great Escape by Bill Willingham.

I have played the first chapter of The Wolf Among Us by Telltale Games on the Xbox 360, which I loved and so I did have a little insight as to the Fables and how their world works.

The story was really great and very interesting, I loved all the characters (except Jack, but I think that's the point). It was weird, in a good way to see all the characters that I grew up reading about as grown ups themselves and doing "grown up" things like smoking, drinking, swearing and having sex.

The artwork was brilliant too and worked brilliantly with the writing, I loved searching each page to see which fairy tale characters I could spot in the back ground.

I absolutely loved this book and I am hoping to add it to my own personal collection at some point in the future, as well as all the other volumes.

I started reading this book on the 22nd of February and completed it the same day
I gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads

A Decision Has Been Made

I've been thinking about my book reviews and how I want to go forward with them, making sure I have enough time to do all the things that I want to do as well. I have decided that I will for the time being at least only be doing a full review on books and comics for my reading challenges. All other books I read will still get a mini review on Goodreads with a star rating, but they will not currently get a blog review. What I will do though, is a monthly wrap up blog post listing the books I have read outside of the challenges and what ratings I gave each of them.

Looking to the future, I will also be blogging about snail mail, crafts and any conventions that I attend (I have a few in my diary already) so making this decision gives me more time to dedicate to my other passions and to be able to share them with you.

This has been a big, scary but exciting decision to make and I am looking forward to bringing a more diverse content to my blog.

I Need Eye Bleach - My Review of Requiem Vampire Knight

For part of my Panels comic book reading challenge, under the category "a comic published in Europe" I picked up Requiem Vampire Knight Vol. 1: Resurrection by Pat Mills from the library (my library has an amazing selection of graphic novels and trade paper backs for such a small town).

I wasn't sure what to expect as I didn't read any synopsis and chose it for the fact it was published in Europe and the cover art was awesome. Looking back I think I could have done with some preparation for what I was about to face.

I have really struggled writing this review as I've been so unsure as to what to say about this book. The story itself is interesting as it describes how depending on your crimes during your life time you get "resurrected" in hell as different terrors and the worst people become Vampire Knights. The main protagonist is a Nazi who was killed by the woman he was attacking and we follow his story and learn about vampires.

The artwork was stunning if not brutally graphic. I still don't feel that I needed to see a grotesquely pierced penis to help with the story and was left worried about looking too hard at the details on the pages, The one picture I thought was awesome though was the flying ship.

All in all a weird read and not something I'll be picking up again.

I started reading this book on the 20th of February 2015 and finished it on the same day
I gave this book 2 stars on Goodreads