Top Ten Tuesday [1]

Hello! So as you can see, I've decided to start doing Top Ten Tuesday posts! I've been considering this for a while but just never gotten around to it, but as I'm making some changes on the blog I thought now would be a good time to start.

Top Ten Tuesdays is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week's topic is: Top Ten Authors Who Deserve More Recognition.

 This is a weird one to write, as a blogger, because I see some books and authors totally (and deservedly) raved about on the blogosphere, but you never know how popular they are out in the real world. So I'm gonna be careful with these. I'm in now way suggesting that these authors don't get good sales (I don't know numbers, obvs) or good exposure or recognition, these are just authors that I love and admire and would love to see catapulted to JK Rowling-esque status.

Sarah Rees Brennan

It is no secret that I am a HUGE fan of SRB. She's my favourite author. I think her and her books are awesome and I would love to see her become as successful as humanly possible.

Melina Marchetta

Another one of my favourites, her books are so emotional and beautiful. 

Lili St. Crow

She writes, in my opinion, one of the best YA urban fantasy series out there. Everyone who loves UF should read the Strange Angels series. 

Leigh Bardugo

This woman has written one of the most interesting, different and intriguing universes I've read in ages. I'd love to see the Grisha trilogy become astronomically huge. 

Gabrielle Zevin

I read Elsewhere when I was younger and now I love her Anya Balanchine series. A fantastic, coming of age contemporary story set in a dystopian-like future with a strong and struggling heroine. 

Stephanie Perkins

I may have only read Anna (because I have been waiting for the paperback of Lola for forever) but I love Stephanie's writing style and her characters and I think she's pretty cool. As far as I know, this epic woman does not yet have a UK publisher and the UK is missing out.

Hannah Harrington

She writes some of the freshest, most interesting and thought-provoking YA contemporary books out there. I can't wait to see what she comes up with next. 

Jennifer A Nielsen

The False Prince is one of my fave middle-grade fantasy books and whilst I may not have read the sequel yet, I want everyone to read this series.

James Dawson

I think he's proper awesome and I loved Hollow Pike. I can't wait for Cruel Summer to be released next month. 

Laure Eve

Bit of a weird one, as Laure's book, Fearsome Dreamer, isn't published yet. But it sounds fantastic, the little bit I've read is fantastic and I hope that Laure gets the recognition she deserves. 

Memory Lane Monday [10]

Welcome to another edition of Memory Lane Monday. The idea behind this feature is to take a nostalgic stroll along the bookshelves of my past, looking at those books I've loved since I was a small(er) girl.


Today is 2 books instead of one! Ooooh ;) But these are books I've been having nostalgic feelings about for a while and tried to resist re-reading until I thought "Actually, I'm gonna read them" so I borrowed them off a friend and am so glad I did:

Cuckoo in the Nest and A Spoonful of Jam by Michelle Magorian

Both are set in post-war England and follow the same family, the Hollis'. In the first book we see Ralph, who desperately wants to be an actor but has to fight against the wishes of his father, his social class and numerous other obstacles to do so. The sequel follows his sister, a smart girl who is tormented by bullies every day for a seemingly unknown reason.

Both books focus on the struggles faced not just by the individual, but by their family and by their class and by Britain as a whole following the second world war. They are heart-wrenching but also so feel-good and delightful. Sometimes when you re-read books from your younger years they don't measure up to your memory; but these absolutely do and I am so glad I re-read them. 

Have you read these books? If so, what did you think? And, can you recommend me anything similar?

With GFC leaving us soon, please: Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Top Ten Tuesday [1]

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted over at The Broke and the Bookish!

This week's topic is: Bookish Goals for 2013

So as you can see, I've never actually taken part in TTT before, despite being a blogger for nearly two years now. But as one of my goals is to interact more and meet new bloggers, and as this topic so fittingly came up, I have decided to give the meme a go and see how it fits. 

So my bookish goals are:

Read 100 books

This is the most important to me. I decided not to place too many restrictions on my reading this year because 1.They never work and 2.Well, they never work. I just read what I want anyway, but this is one goal I really would like to hit.

Interact with bloggers more

As mentioned earlier, this is a big goal for me this year. I felt I lost the plot a little blog-wise in the latter part of 2012, and I want to regain that this year. A huge draw for blogging was of course getting to talk to loads of other bloggers who love books as much as me, so I want to get that back

Get my TBR pile down

And here it is, the biggie. The one on probably nearly every blogger's list. Before I started blogging, I didn't have a TBR pile at all, and now it is over 100 books (I think) which I know is not a lot compared to most bloggers, but for me...it needs reducing

Less Rereading 

I am such a re-reader. People comfort eat, I comfort read. I am constantly rereading my favourite books (I honestly couldn't tell you how many times I've read the Southern Vampire and Vampire Academy series...) last year my rereads came to 11 which I'm fairly proud of, but I'd like that number to be under 10 this year.

Think before you buy

I have a tendency to spontaneously purchase books. It happens. I have little control over it. Until now. Those spontaneous buys are either the ones I read and absolutely adore, OR they sit on my shelf for forever. I can no longer take this chance. So I will carefully consider what I buy, and hopefully that will lead to less build up (and more money!)

Don''t prejudge books

This is a big one for me. I am a massive booksnob. Not necessarily about covers, mainly about content. I sit there and think "hmmm I don't think I'd like that" so I don't read it. But look at all the amazing books I have read that I thought I wouldn't like! (Anna and the French Kiss! Easy! The Assassin's Curse! Poison Study! Gallagher Girls!) the list goes ON. So I am stopping the prejudgyness. I actually just bought Code Name Verity because SO many people have told me it's amazing, even though it isn't the sort of thing I would normally read.

Use the library more

I get the same thrill from seeing something in the library that I've wanted as I do from buying a book. So what I need to do is get them from the library, because then at least, if I never read them, they just go back and don't sit on my shelf unread forever after I've spent money on them (I went today actually and got The Diviners by Libba Bray). I also hope this will force me to read books when I get them and remember why I want to read them.

Stick to a schedule with blogging, and mix it up a little

Yeah, that one sounds a bit contradictory. What I mean is, I want to blog at more regular times, but change up the stuff I'm posting. I got a little sporadic last year, and it was mainly review-focused posts, whereas now I want features and other fun things (like this) as well.

Don't give up

I have turned into this person who, if I'm just not into a book, I put it down and never go back to it. I never used to do this and now I have so many unfinished books lying around (mostly on my kindle) and it's annoying. I guess this kinda ties into the earlier goal of thinking about what I'm buying. 

What are your bookish goals of 2013?

In My Mailbox [27]

IMM is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren, designed to showcase books we have received. 

I know, I know. No books, get the TBR pile down, etc etc. BUT I won a giveaway...soooooo not my fault.

I won a totally awesome giveaway from Christina at Christina Reads YA for an Amazon giftcard! So ofc I had to spend it.....

Won:

Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles 

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

I've heard nothing but positive things about both of these, so I just *had* to buy them!

For review (not pictured):

Someone Else's Life by Katie Dale

Katie emailed and asked if I'd review this for her for a blog tour, so of course I said YES (as I was going to buy it anyway) it sounds really good.

So what did you all get? Leave me your links!

In My Mailbox [23]

In My Mailbox is a meme designed to showcase the very cool books we're all receiving and is hosted by The Story Siren!

So I haven't done an IMM in almost TWO months! I know! My camera cable has gone AWOL, completely and utterly...but I've resorted to using my BlackBerry.

I didn't want to feature EVERY book I've received in the past 2 months, so I've picked out some of my faves to showcase:

For Review:

Stolen Away by Alyxandra Harvey

Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

Bought:

Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare (review here)

Saving June by Hannah Harrington (review here)

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

I actually got a copy of CP for review about 3 weeks ago, but I really wanted to pay for a copy so I donated mine to a friend and bought myself one! I also got SJ from NG but then loved it so much I had to own a physical copy! (It's also the first contemporary book I've bought for about 4 years!)

Stolen Away sounds SO good and I love this cover, and ofc I was ridiculously excited to receive Pandemonium.

I want to thank Bloomsbury, Hodder and Walker Books, but also Macmillan who have sent me many cool books recently that I didn't picture. Thank you all! You continually make this girl very happy. 

That's all for now guys, please leave me links in the comments so I can see what you all got! I expect to see lots of Clockwork Prince this week ;)

Follow Friday [16]

I haven't done one of these in a while, but Follow Friday is still hosted by Rachel from Parajunkee's View and Alison of Alison Can Read

This week's question is:

"What is your biggest pet peeve when it comes to books?"


Now personally, I don't have anything against Love Triangles (which is something I imagine most people will pick) except for the fact I ALWAYS pick the wrong team. I like the dark, broody, mildly evil guy, which, for some reason, the heroine doesn't. Except for that one time she did. Oh...and that other time..anyway.


I DO have a severe disliking for cliches in plots. I tend to do a massive eyeroll at these (insta-love, 'science partners' absent parents, whatever) but if I like the book enough, I can usually ignore these.


What I really REALLY dislike however, is bad writing. What do I classify as bad? Well, I don't really know. I could name some books I think are badly written...but that would be unfair. Essentially, simplistic writing, lots of 'he said she said', boring descriptions, bad metaphors...anything like that. I'm a bit of a stickler for writing and beautifully written books are my favourite. So yeah, I guess that's my biggest pet peeve.


What about you guys? Does the writing matter to you, or are you more about the plot? Lemme know in the comments and remember to leave a link to your own post!

Follow Friday [14]

Hola and happy friday! I hope you've all had a great week =] Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Rachel at Parajunkee.com and the question for this week is:

"What is the worst book you've ever read and actually finished?"

You know what? I thought this was gonna be a hard question...then I remembered:

Yep. Breaking Dawn is genuinely the worst book I ever finished. It's so bad, I refused to let my mum read it even though she liked the rest of the series. I'm very, very against book burning but I do not blame the people who burnt their copies of this appalling excuse for a novel. 

---

I've been thinking about adding more content to my friday hops post, and have decided to go with something I included when I first started doing them, but dropped for some reason: Five Friday Fiction Favourites.

This week I'm going with: Five Friday Fiction Favourite.... Crushes. 

1. Damon Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries This vamp will probably always be top of my list. He's just so...amoral. It's bizarre, I know, but I like that in a love interest. He's also sarcastic, and dangerous and dead and...yeah. 

2. Bones from the Night Huntress novels. Bones is a new (but highly rated) addition to my crush list. I pretty much like him for all the reasons I like Damon, but he's got the added bonus of an english accent and Spike-esque feel to him. 

3. Ash Redfern from the Nightworld series. Another LJ Smith character (I actually love a lot of them, she knows how to write excellent bad boys) this guy is mean and a liiiiiiittle bit of a dickhead. He's blonde, which isn't my type anymore, but his snarkiness and downright cute behaviour makes up for that. Ash is probably my oldest bookcrush, I've liked him since I first read these novels back when I was about 14. 

4.  Adrian Ivashkov from the Vampire Academy series. Surprised? Most people seem to  choose Dimitri. But honestly, I much preferred Adrian. That careful carelessness holds great appeal for me, and his witty banter is endlessly entertaining. I can't wait to get an Adrian fix when Bloodlines comes out later this summer.

5. Eric Northman from The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries. I debated this one long and hard. Eric held great appeal for me years ago, but as my tastes (and his character) have changed, he's not as attractive to me as he once was...but who to replace him with? Personally I think love interests in YA have lost their edge. They're all whiny, broody, carbon copies of each other recently. There's no diversity (or immorality) in their characters anymore-I'm sure you're all going to disagree with me on this, that's fine, it's my personal and very warped opinion. 

It's no coincidence that every guy on my list is a vampire. Vampires have a special place in my heart, and they always will have. There's something about them that I will find endlessly appealing-despite many readers moans about the sheer volume of 'vamp lit' currently lounging around in bookshops. I might do a post one day about why the undead get my pulse racing, for now is not the time. 

So what do you think of my list guys and dolls? Any you agree/disagree with? Feel free to share your own lists in the comments!!

Review Appreciation Day [2]

Once again it's time for my new blog-hop Review Appreciation Day! The aim of RAD is to incorporate all the fun of a blog-hop whilst at the same time getting some much needed and appreciated love for our reviews!

This week there is an optional theme of DYSTOPIAN so feel free to link up your dystopian reviews below. However, you can still take part in the blog-hop with a normal review!

The rules are:

***Please link your review to my blog so everyone knows where to sign up!!***

-Only one link per person please!

-Your link will go directly to a review, either a new one or an old one of your choosing (or one that fit the weekly theme)

-The title of your link should be the name of your blog, not the name of the book you review

-Visit as many blogs and read as many reviews as you can!

This week I'm also hosting my Graduation Giveaway, and taking part in the bloghop this week will get you an extra entry into this! Simply go to the post here and fill out the form!

To claim your extra entry for taking part in RAD, leave a comment on THIS post with your email address!

My review for this week is Released by Megan Duncan:

Released (Agents of Evil #1) by Megan Duncan
Published: 1st April 2011
Publisher: Self Published
Buy: Amazon.com/Amazon.co.uk

Goodreads description:


After a demon apocalypse kills their parents and everyone they know, 17-year old Abby Phillips, her brother, Carter, and friend, Max flee their home to travel through what has become the wastelands of America. When radio transmissions of a resistance offering shelter and safety cease, Abby is tempted to give up. Struggling to overcome life-threatening obstacles in their dangerous journey, Abby and her companions quickly discover there are much worse things lurking in the dark than they could have ever imagined.


My thoughts:

I’m not usually a huge fan of dystopians, don’t ask me why I’m not too sure. Probably just unfamiliarity with the genre, but this book had had some good reviews, so when I was asked to read it I said yes.

The story reminded me slightly of 28 days later and it gripped me straight away. I loved the first person narration from Abby the main character, it felt so real. The romance element was very well played which I appreciated a great deal. It was very subtle and realistic, very well written indeed.

This book was definitely one where the plot was the most important element and it really didn’t disappoint on that front. There was just enough action to have me on the edge of my seat, frantically following every gunshot hoping that it would all work out, but not too much that I felt overwhelmed or as though plot development had been sacrificed in favour of endless fight scenes. I wasn’t sure how I felt at the hinted at religious aspect, I’ll have to wait and see to make my mind up on that. The ending couldn’t have happened any other way really, so whilst predictable it wasn’t negatively so.

I really liked Abby as a character, she was resilient and brave in the face of an unimaginable situation. I liked Taya too, though she occasionally got on my nerves but then-she got on Abby’s nerves occasionally too. It was the whole little sister syndrome and it worked and was portrayed perfectly. The boys I could take or leave to be honest, I felt their characters were a bit underdeveloped-like I said the book was more plot driven which worked well for this particular story. I felt a lot of the secondary characters were basically cannon fodder-a way for the story to seem more realistic without losing a main character. They kinda reminded me of the red shirted crewmen in Star Trek? The ones you never see until they go on an away mission and get killed?

The writing was very straightforward-no flowery language or creative metaphors which fit the story and allowed it to be read smoothly and quickly. This was an exceptionally quick read for me but I enjoyed every second of it. There were very few editing issues for a self-published novel which is to be commended.

Overall this is a fantastic quick read if you’re looking for some intense heart-in-your-mouth action.  An excellent gritty dystopian-I’d recommend it to anyone. 4/5

Now for the blog hop fun! Simply follow the rules above, and insert your links to your reviews in the linky below! I look forward to reading all your dystopian and otherwise reviews!!

IMM

Sunday again! Yesterday I met up with some Northen England bloggers which was really awesome, I had a great day so thanks guys! They bought LOTS of books, but I'm still on my book buying ban because I've still not made any major inroads into my TBR pile *sigh*

So if I haven't bought any books how can I be doing an IMM I hear you cry? Aha well...

For review this week I got:

EVERYONE has read/reviewed this book and it sounds so good I just had to ask for it! Thanks to Jenny at Egmont for being kind enough to send it to me










From the Library:

I got the first book, Need, for my kindle at the bargain price of about £1 and then Bloomsbury sent me the 3rd one for review. So I checked the library and managed to find Captivate-so now I can read em all!









Won:

I won Delirium in a twitter contest held by Midnight Reads, thankyou very much!










Lent:

Vickie from ComaCalm's Corner lent me this which I'm ridiculously excited about!

I've had a really bad week in terms of reading this week, and am now really behind on my 30 books in 30 days challenge. I moved home from uni on Wednesday, which meant I spent most of monday&tuesday packing, I did manage to read Wildefire by Karsten Knight which is over 400 pages, so that's not too bad and I'm also about 70% through a kindle book.

Unfortunately now I'm home I'm swapping bedrooms with my mum, which means more packing, moving and sorting! Looks like I may well be failing my challenge =[

Days: 12
Books read: 5 3/4

Leave me your links so I can see what's in yout mailboxes this week!

TGIF blog hop

So I'm taking part in a new blog hop this week, you know what they say about variety and life. Thank God it's Friday is hosted over at GReads and the question for this week is:

YA Saves: How do you feel about the "dark" books filling the YA shelves today?

Ah dear, how long do you have? Now this question is in response to the article in the WSJ that caused uproar earlier this week, if you haven't yet read it and enjoy a dose of outrage with your morning coffee you can do so here

Well. Firstly, the 'concerned mother' mentioned in the article didn't appear to do any more than glance at the covers of the books before leaving in disgust at their 'darkness' (meaning, presumably, that they were all black). This can probably be blamed on the popularity of Twilight, the black and red gothy scheme has been emulated by many in the hopes of appealing to the Twilighters. Classic example being the Vampire Diaries books which, despite being published nearly 2 decades before Twilight was given a makeover to make them resemble the saga.

Now of course I know the article goes into more detail about the darker themes of YA not just the packaging, but I wanted to focus on this point first because I think it's crucial. What has the mother in this story done? Well, she's judged a book by it's cover of course. She's looked at these books and said "They're obviously too dark for my precious darling" had a paddy and walked out. If we're lucky she glanced over one of the blurbs, saw the word Vampire and vowed never to set foot in a YA section again.

I find this funny because in my opinion (and experience) the books with the darkest themes have the most unassuming colours. Take Twilight, Vampire Diaries etc. The covers are all dark, dramatic, vaguely gothic in terms of fonts etc. But really, these are the books with the least dark content. Sure, there's vampires, and werewolves, and the occasional bloody death but when we look past all that what are the messages of these books? Basically, it's about acceptance a lot of the time. Acceptance of races that aren't yours, they're about friendship, the triumph of good over evil, bravery etc. All the monsters in these books can be fought with swords, teamwork and a bit of confidence. The bad guys don't win in these books. The messages aren't really dark, the packaging is-and that's a publicity tool.

Then take some of the books with 'happier' (by which I mean less threatening seeming) covers.

If you were this girls mother, in this book shop with this attitude, chances are you'd choose one of these books instead. 'Cause look, there's no black on the cover! Not a vampire or gothic-style font in sight! This clearly is a book suitable for my 13 year old. One of them even has 13 in the title!! But what are these books about? They're about depression, isolation, suicide. These are the real demons of humanity, and they're demons that can't be fought with pointy sticks.

Now I'm not claiming that these books should be shunned in favour of vampire lit. Quite the contrary, I think (and you've read by blog recently you'll know this) that more books should deal with these darker sides of human life, because they eliminate ignorance, they promote understanding, empathy and openmindedness.

But really, think about it. If you were an overprotective parent like the one mentioned in the article, would you rather your teen read a book about mythical creatures that can be fought off with the help of a dashing and sarcastic hero or a book about real human suffering, the kind that can sometimes never be beaten?

Review Appreciation Day [1]

Hello! Welcome to the very first Review Appreciation Day or RAD! The idea of RAD is to have all the fun of a bloghop, whilst getting some love for our reviews too!

Each week you'll come and link your blog up here, and then we can all visit each others blogs, meet new bloggers and read some excellent reviews whilst we're at it.

This week is a THEMELESS week, but next Thursday 16th there will be the *optional* theme of DYSTOPIAN 


The rules for this bloghop are fairly straightforward:
-Please add the picture above and link it to my blog so everyone knows where to sign up!!

-Only one link per person please!

-Your link will go directly to a review, either a new one or an old one of your choosing (or one that fit the weekly theme)

-The title of your link should be the name of your blog, not the name of the book you review

-Visit as many blogs and read as many reviews as you can!

I hope you all take part and I hope you all enjoy it too!

My review this week is My Love Lies Bleeding (Also known as Hearts at Stake-The Drake Chronicles book1) by Alyxandra Harvey and you can read it here


In other, slightly off topic news one of the best books I reviewed this year, Sleight by Jenn Sommersby is now available in paperback!

How beautifully eyecatching is that cover?? Just click on it, and you'll be taken to the Amazon page! Alternatively, you can purchase a copy here
My review of Sleight can be found here

Link up everyone! I'm looking forward to seeing your reviews!

Memory Lane Monday: Special Edition

Apologies for the lateness of this post-I've been at my dad's today! Anyway this wont be a usual memory lane monday. I'll be moving back home in summer when I graduate; so I've been sorting through all my stuff and working out what I want to keep. My mum put a few of my old books on freecycle; and a teacher from a school in Salford. Their kids do 40 minutes of reading every monday-and they and the school have so few books that many of them have to read their textbooks. We decided to give these books to the teacher for her school; and when I came home today I also sorted through the books I'd put in the loft. The result is that we now have nearly 80 books to donate to this school!! I'm so happy about it-If I can inspire just one child to love reading that would be amazing! So fingers crossed they enjoy them!!

Here's a few of the books I'm giving:

Some of them are: The first 7 books of the House of Night series by PC Cast

Evernight by Claudia Gray

Junk by Melvin Burgess

Star Girl by Jerri Spinelli

Boyfriend List/Boy Book by E.Lockhart 

Sabriel series by Garth Nix

First 3 Saga of Darren Shan books

and some others! 

Tomorrow I'm going to have an extra special guest post by Amanda Stevens to celebrate the release of 'The Restorer'

and don't forget to enter my giveaway to win a copy of Born At Midnight by CC Hunter!!

Follow Friday

I'm sure you all know about this fantastic meme by now! But incase not; head over to Parajunkee's blog for the full story! =]

This week's question is:

"Do you have anyone you can discuss books with IRL? Tell us about them."


Well,I'm quite lucky in the sense that a fair few of my friends read. But the person I most talk about books with is my friend Amy. We've been friends a long time; we met in High School when we were like 12/13ish and we've always had a very similar taste in books! We go to different uni's now; but we always meet up when we're home to swap books and talk about our favourite reads/upcoming releases etc. We're constantly recommending and lending books to each other. She actually introduced me to several of my favourite series' and I hope I introduced her to enough in return!! The best thing about having a RL friend who loves the same books as you is getting twice as many for half the price!! Although; we often buy the same books because we both want our own copies (we're book hoarders) and we can't wait to get whichever book it is off the other!!  I love having a RL friend to discuss books with!


Do you guys have someone you can talk books with? share share share!!


Don't forget to enter my international giveaway to win a copy of Born At Midnight by C.C Hunter!!!

Also on my blog this week: Review of The Restorer by Amanda Stevens (this is my fave book of the year so far, and my fave debut for quite a while!!)
and, inspired by the Restorer; some examples of my terrible photography!! haha enjoy and happy weekend guys!!!

Memory Lane Monday

Apologies, I've not done one of these for ages!

This week I've chosen a pretty obvious book:

We got this book when it came out in 1997. I was only 7, my brother was 5 and my sister was 3. I think my brother got it for his birthday, possibly off one of our aunts? My mum read the book to us because we were so young; a chapter a night. I remember, she cheated because in Chapter 16 'Through the Trapdoor' where it says at the end:  "It wasn't Snape. It wasn't even Voldemort" she turned the page and read who it was before reading it to us the next day! I felt, and still feel, very betrayed by this.
But yeah, I liked reading even before this book; but this series really inspired a sort of hysteria over books in people; which was lovely. It's the only book I've queued at midnight for and it's got to be one of my favourite series'.

How old were you when you read a HP book for the first time? Were you as gripped by it as I was?

Waiting on Wednesday VI

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Breaking the Spine showcasing books we're all eagerly anticipating. My pick this week is:

Possess by Gretchen McNeil
Publishing Date: 23rd August
Publisher: Balzer + Bray


Description (from Goodreads)


Fifteen-year-old Bridget Liu just wants to be left alone: by her mom, but the cute son of a local police sergeant, and by the eerie voices she can suddenly and inexplicably hear. Unfortunately for Bridget, it turns out the voices are demons – and Bridget has the rare ability to banish them back to whatever hell they came from. 

Terrified to tell people about her new power, Bridget confides in a local priest who enlists her help in increasingly dangerous cases of demonic possession. But just as she is starting to come to terms with her new power, Bridget receives a startling message from one of the demons. Now Bridget must unlock the secret to the demons' plan before someone close to her winds up dead – or worse, the human vessel of a demon king


My thoughts:


Firstly, how completely beautiful is that cover???? I'm not usually that bothered about covers, I enjoy pretty ones, but I wont pick a book (or reject one) solely on the basis of it's cover. Some of the best books I've read I've hated the covers for *cough*mortalinstrumentsseries*cough*. But this is just GORGEOUS.  I NEED IT IN MY LIIIIIIIIIFEEE


Secondly, the story sounds totally awesome. Kinda different and interesting. A bit like Constantine, but better. 


Thirdly, I recently won some Possess swag from Gretchen which I am SO excited to receive!! My first *ever* swag win!!


Gretchen's also giving away an ARC copy on the 23rd of each month!! I don't know why I'm telling you, cause the less of you enter, the better my chances of winning are :P But it's definitely worth checking out. Gretchen McNeil's blog can be found here

Follow Friday IV

Apologies again for being so behind! I've been out campaigning for my friend who was running for president of our student union. The great news is she got elected Vice President!! So Yay! I'm very pleased, some great news to begin the weekend with. The bad news is I now have no excuse to not do my essays *sigh*

Follow Friday is, as usual, hosted by Rachel at her blog Parajunkee.com she's picked a great question this week which is:

5 Silly book related facts about yourself 


1. When I was a child, I used to sleep with my books under my pillow. Not just one book, like 10. 
2. I got HP7 at midnight, and then stayed up to read it. I'd finished it by 8am, and then went to sleep :P
3. I like to stack my books on things. The floor, stairs, tables, chairs etc. But not on shelves. I dunno why. Maybe I think it looks kitsch?
4. I have to listen to an audiobook to sleep at night. I find it too difficult otherwise (I find it difficult anyway) usually I listen to HP or the Percy Jackson series
5. I'm proud of the fact I read the Sookie Stackhouse and Vampire Diaries books long before they became TV shows. Which is a really pointless thing to be proud of


Make sure you leave your links for me, I'm really excited to read people's facts this week!!


On my blog this week: 


*WIN* a copy of The Goddess Test by the fabulous Aimee Carter
Review of Die For Me by the equally fabulous Amy Plum

Again, apologies for the lack of posts this week! I will try and get a couple of good reviews up, and resume all my memes soon =] Have a great weekend everyone!!

Waiting on Wednesday V

I've gotten really behind on my memes this week! (You can blame my essays) But I had to make time for Waiting on Wednesday, because that's how I find out about loads of cool books. As always, this is hosted by Jill over at breaking the spine

My pick this week is:

Graveminder by Melissa Marr
Publishing date: 17th May 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins


Description from Goodreads:


Rebekkah Barrow never forgot the tender attention her grandmother, Maylene, bestowed upon the dead of Claysville, the town where Bek spent her adolescence. There wasn’t a funeral that Maylene didn’t attend, and at each Rebekkah watched as Maylene performed the same unusual ritual: three sips from a small silver flask followed by the words “Sleep well, and stay where I put you.” 

Now Maylene is dead and Bek must go back to the place—and the man—she left a decade ago. But what she soon discovers is that Maylene was murdered and that there was good reason for her odd traditions. It turns out that in placid Claysville, the worlds of the living and the dead are dangerously connected. Beneath the town lies a shadowy, lawless land ruled by the enigmatic Charles, aka Mr. D—a place from which the dead will return if their graves are not properly minded. Only the Graveminder, a Barrow woman, and the current Undertaker, Byron, can set things to right once the dead begin to walk

My thoughts:

I love Melissa Marr's YA series, so I'm excited to see what her adult series will be like too. The concept of this book sounds really different aswell, and I'm hoping I'll enjoy it!

What's your WoW pick this week? make sure to post me your link so I can check it out!

And whilst you're at it, don't forget to enter my giveaway to win a copy of The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter!

Follow Friday&Weekly Blog Hop

Its follow friday once again! As always, this is hosted over at Parajunkee's blog!

This weeks question is:

"How did you come up with your blog name"

I dunno really, I made my blog a long time ago, long before I actually started blogging. But I went through a phase of calling everything 'files' all my documents on my laptop were called 'The college files' or 'The Mouse Files' etc, so it probably came from there.Not very interesting really =/

The weekly blog hop is, as per, hosted over at Crazy for Books and the question for this week is:

"Do you have only one book going at a time, or several at once?"

Well, before I got my kindle, way back when (before last week, haha) I only read one book at a time, and then started another fairly soon after (though most of the time, I was re-reading) but now, I have a couple. I usually have a netgalley book going on my laptop, a 'tired' book which is an easy and old favourite read for when I'm too tired to concentrate on a new book (At the moment I have 2, nightworld: daughters of darkness and the Coven by Cate Tiernan) these are on my kindle, and I just dip in an out of them. And then I'll usually have either a print book or a kindle book on the go too (right now its Once a Witch) Sounds kinda complicated right? But don't worry, I read fast, so it's not really :P Plus the kindle makes reading multiple books super easy *end shameless kindle advertisement*


Apologies for the lack of posts this week, I've been pretty busy campaigning! But later today I'll be posting a guest review of 'The Forest of Hands and Teeth' written by my boyfriend, and that's definitely worth a read!

Happy friday =] as always, comment if you're a new follower so I can follow back!

**ADDED**

Some contests for you guys to sink you teeth fangs into!!

Check out Suzannes Blog to win a copy of wither, the new vampire diaries book, demonglass, and so much more! There's some fantastic giveaways there.

And also the Lucky Leprechaun Giveaway where you can win Nightshade, Hex Hall, and much much more. Great ways to end a week eh?

Memory Lane Monday III

Hey so it's Monday and time for my Memory Lane Meme. This is when I post books from my childhood/younger years that were special/significant/inspiring.

Today I'm posting:

This is the first Famous Five book by Enid Blyton. I remember my parents bought me these (and some secret seven books too) I LOVED the Famous Five so much, I always wanted to go on adventures and drink ginger beer and eat sandwiches too.

I'd love it if you wanted to take part in this meme too! Feel free to grab the button above, and make sure you post your link back here so I can see what you chose this week!

Weekly Blog Hop II

Follow Friday is hosted over at Parajunkee's blog!


This week's question is: 

Who are You the Boy/Girl, instead of You the Blogger?

Well I'm Caitlin, I'm 21 and I'm in my final Semester of University in Liverpool. I study philosophy and I'm writing my dissertation on Kierkegaard, who was a Danish philosopher, sometimes referred to as the father of existentialism. I only started my blog about 3 weeks ago and I'm loving it! It's a great, almost productive way to procrastinate. I've found ALOT of new books through reading others blog's, which is why I started doing it in the first place-so that's great. Aside from reading I enjoy cookery shows (especially Masterchef) Criminal Minds and Grey's Anatomy. I've also recently gotten into Pretty Little Liars which I ADORE. I don't have any pets here at uni, but at home we have 4 cats and a puppy. I'm not sure what I want to do with my life yet, but when I figure it out, I'll let you know ;)

The weekly blog hop is hosted by Jennifer over at Crazy for Books and this week's question is: 

"If I gave you £50 ($80) right now and sent you into a bookshop, what would be in your basket?"

Okay, well I'm gonna work on the premise that a paperback is £6.99 as I think that's the average RRP and a hardback is 12.99, again cause I think that's the average RRP.

I'd get:

Haven by Kristi Cook (hardback)

Once a Witch Carolyn Macullough (paperback)

The Iron Thorn by Caitlin Kittredge (hardback)

The Balefire Omnibus by Cate Tiernan)

Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey (paperback)

Okay, that comes too £46.95

If the shop had a promotion on...so one or more of the books was sliiiightly cheaper (sometimes they do hardbacks for £9.99 or less) or there was a 3 for 2 (usually is in Waterstones) I'd also get:

The Return: Midnight (The Vampire Diaries) by L.J Smith (paperback)

Yay so there we go! I wish someone really would give me £50 now =[ 

If you're hopping by, make sure to leave your own link so I can visit you back! And if you follow me, I will follow back, like I said I'm a new blogger so I love checking out people's blogs.