Bought, Borrowed & Bagged (61)

Bought, Borrowed and Bagged hosted by Talk Supe and Sunday Post hosted byCaffeinated Book Reviewer are both weekly memes where you can share your book haul, ongoing events and news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead. I take part with both of these hops fortnightly so I can be introduced to a range of blogs on the atmosphere. Please Note: All images link back to their GR pages.

Bought

Imaginable and Anywhere by J. Meyers

Both of these I bought directly from Jen last month, signed copies too, but this is my first time home so I've only just been able to get my hands on them, I'm so happy to own all her books now!

Bagged

The Deepest Cut by J.A Templeton, A Touch of Midnight and Heart of the Hunter by Lara Adrian.Amazon Freebies!

This fortnight on Northern Plunder

Series Review: Scott Pilgrim

Upcoming Northern Plunder

February Wrap Up
Attempting University

Review: Awakening Foster Kelly
Review: Scott Pilgrim

Lauren's Progress

Read in 2014: 5 / 70

Shattered Veil by Tracy E BanghartTotal Blueprint for World Domination by Jolene Stockman

Currently Reading:
Memory's Wake by Selena Fenech

News from Lauren

Focused a lot on my university work, which has been a lot of reading and research which meant I didn't feel up to reading in my spare time too, but I did this week and finished two books! I didn't realise how much I missed reading until now. I'm up to date with watching The Walking Dead and The Following too and both are amazing, are any of you watching them?

Series Reivew: Scott Pilgrim #1-2 by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Published: 2004 - 2010
Publisher: Oni Press

I can not promise that these reviews will be spoiler free, especially as they're graphic novels!

Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life

Goodreads
Page Count: 168

Read Date: 13th January 2013

Synopsis: Scott Pilgrim's life is totally sweet. He's 23 years old, he's in a rock band, he's "between jobs," and he's dating a cute high school girl. Nothing could possibly go wrong, unless a seriously mind-blowing, dangerously fashionable, rollerblading delivery girl named Ramona Flowers starts cruising through his dreams and sailing by him at parties. Will Scott's awesome life get turned upside-down? Will he have to face Ramona's seven evil ex-boyfriends in battle? The short answer is yes. The long answer is Scott Pilgrim, Volume 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life.

Review: I spent a lot of time deciding whether I would review the Scott Pilgrim series and finally decided to take a shot at it, unfortunately I'm pretty sure they'll all end up as mini-reviews as not only are they short, they're also graphic novels so a lot of the story-telling is down to the art. As someone who has watched the movie at least five times I figured it was about time to read the books too as I had bought them all for the boyfriend, unfortunately I think this didn't help when it came to picking volume one up. Whilst I adore the humour, story and art of this series I kind of expected there to be more than what was shown in the movies, you know a little more padded? and it wasn't. I know I shouldn't really criticise the book for this, but instead congratulate the movie for cutting so little out, but it did leave me feeling a little disappointed which is why I couldn't go for a full 4 stars. I think now that I know to expect it to my very very similar to the movie I'll enjoy the rest of the series more.

3.5 / 5 stars

Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World
Goodreads
Page Count: 200
Read Date: 24th December 2013

Synopsis: Does Scott and Ramona's burgeoning relationship have a future? Isn't Scott still supposedly dating Knives Chau? Who is Ramona's second evil ex-boyfriend, and why is he in Toronto? Who are The Clash At Demonhead, and what kind of bizarre art-punky music do they play? Who's their hot girl keyboardist, and what is Scott's relation to her? Why are they Knives Chau's new favourite band? Fights! Drama! Secrets revealed! The answers to all these questions and more!

Review: This book follows Scott as his relationship with Ramona becomes a little more solid, he realises he'll have to face his ex at some point soon and the leading up too and "training" to fight Ramona's evil ex-boyfriend #2. I can finally see what the fuss is about, I definitely preferred this book seeing as though it had less similarities with the movie which allowed me to enjoy reading it more. My favourite scene that wasn't in the movie would have to be Knives Chau and Ramona's meeting/fight scene in the library, which makes me feel like that Knive's character is a lot more developed in the story which I'll be happy to read more about.

4 / 5 stars

Amazon: UK | US
Bryan Lee O'Malley: Website | Twitter | GR | Facebook

Bought, Borrowed & Bagged (60)

Bought, Borrowed and Bagged hosted by Talk Supe and Sunday Post hosted byCaffeinated Book Reviewer are both weekly memes where you can share your book haul, ongoing events and news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead. I take part with both of these hops fortnightly so I can be introduced to a range of blogs on the atmosphere. Please Note: All images link back to their GR pages.

Bagged

Phantom Summer by Amy Sparling.

Another freebie found via various facebook pages.

By Blood and Moon Child Boxset by Tracy E. Banghart.
I won a copy of this box set from the author :3 look at the pretty new covers! Its not on GR yet though.

This "fortnight" on Northern Plunder

Audiobook DNF Review: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

January Wrap Up
Review: Insanity by Cameron Jace
Cover Reveal: Troll or Park

Upcoming Northern Plunder

Attempting University

Review: Awakening Foster Kelly
Review: Scott Pilgrim

Lauren's Progress

Read in 2014: 3 / 70

Insanity by Cameron Jace

Currently Reading:
Shattered Veil by Tracy E Banghart

News from Lauren

I'm slowly getting through my review pile and reviewing them too, I think I'll read a lot quicker once these are out of the way because review books do take me longer to read no matter how good they are! I'm really enjoying Shattered Veil at the moment, I'm only about 14% of the way through but its interesting so far and a lot of world and character building has happened already. 

Cover Reveal: Troll or Park by Red Tash

This is the first cover reveal I'll be sharing with you of 2014, how great is that.

Thanks to Red Tash I'm able to reveal not only the cover but also how Harlow looks!

Troll or Park by Red Tash

Troll or Park on Goodreads

This is the sequel to Troll or Derby, my review can be found here.
I'm so excited for ToP to be released, I can't wait to see how the story progresses and find out what happens to Deb and Harlow.

Review: Insanity by Cameron Jace

Insanity by Cameron Jace

Published: 20th December 2013 by Jawigi Publishing

Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy
Page Count: ?
Format: eBook
Source: Author

Synopsis: After accidentally killing everyone in her class, Alice Wonder is now a patient in the Radcliffe Lunatic Asylum. No one doubts her insanity. Only a hookah-smoking professor believes otherwise; that he can prove her sanity by decoding Lewis Carroll's paintings, photographs, and find Wonderland's real whereabouts. Professor Caterpillar persuades the asylum that Alice can save lives and catch the wonderland monsters now reincarnated in modern day criminals. In order to do so, Alice leads a double life: an Oxford university student by day, a mad girl in an asylum by night. The line between sanity and insanity thins when she meets Jack Diamond, an arrogant college student who believes that nonsense is an actual science.

Goodreads

Purchase: Amazon UK* / Amazon US

Cameron Jace: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

*When purchasing through this link, I will receive a small amount, once I have enough saved up I will put it towards a giveaway.

Review: 

3.5 / 5 stars

I was fortunate enough to receive a copy of Insanity for review from the author, this will in no way effect my opinion of the book.

Insanity follows the adventure of Alice, a possibly mad girl, locked away in the underground of Radcliffe Lunatic Asylum. 

Her only guidance of sanity is her friend, Tiger Lily, a potted flower and when she responds to Alice, Alice knows she's currently hallucinating. 

Whilst dealing with her possible insanity, knowledge of killing all her class and a phobia of mirrors, she also has a lot more on her plate.

After a failed attempt at escaping, a fellow inmate of the Asylum - Piller the Killer - requests her help to become a hero by day and madwomen by night.

Outside of the Asylum, a serial killer is on a rampage, murdering girls and leaving them with grins sewn to their faces. The killer of course being The Cheshire Cat.

And it is Alice's job to save the recent girl being taken by him whilst solving the puzzles he's left behind, and most importantly the puzzle of herself. Is she The Alice? Or does Piller just hope so? And is Wonderland truly real, or are these people just mad?

So as you can see, there is a lot of elements to the story and it's very heavily on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, which surprisingly is not something I've read, only seen the Disney version. 

I learnt a lot about Lewis Carroll's (sorry I can't refer to him as just Carroll or my mind is going to start thinking we're talking about The Following television series and combining the two would end drastically) world he built, or well in this case, saved. 

I really enjoyed reading the book throughout, the story was fast paced with nice short chapters meaning I could pick it up and put it down when needed, which is perfect for my hectic schedule lately. 

There was a lot of parts to the story that slowly unfolded themselves which I think was perfect because it helped hold my attention and it felt great when everything fell into place.

What's more is that, for me, it wasn't necessarily one of those books where you're trying to guess what is going to happen, you just kind of enjoy the ride, which I love.

The only downsides for myself is that sometimes I felt the chapters didn't flow too well which I think is more the writing than anything, and that for me I didn't really like Piller as a character.

I mean I get that he's a bad guy, and also the one initiating the whole adventure that Alice goes on but at times he felt more like a character that was there to fill in all the holes and give information dumps rather than a character as a whole.

However, with that being said, I think the sequel will lessen that aspect as Alice is now more awake and aware, so she can start piecing things together herself.

Sidenote: This is the second book I've read recently from an American author who's set the book in the UK, which is super nice, but for some reason it still felt very American too me. I think one of the main things is that our phones are always referred to as mobiles, never phones, and it was odd reading it in that context. Other than that none of the slang or wording felt too out of place, I don't where I was getting the vibe from but it was there.