Insomnia Gaming Festival

Less books, more gaming. 

I had intended to do a very well planned out post about my time at Insomnia Gaming Festival, or i52 for short, with lovely pictures of the exhibition halls the Bring Your Own Computer halls and overall documenting the great time I had with my friends.

However I didn't take any photographs because I was simply enjoying myself too much and well running off not a lot of sleep.


i52 started for my group of friends on the Thursday which went very smoothly and we gamed until 2am I believe. Friday was the first  "proper" day though as the exhibition halls actually opened, inside there were stalls to try out early access to Evolve and Borderlands: The Pre-sequel and a Transformers themed MOBA, a few stalls selling geek themed items and of course PC stallls. Above is my group of friends with one of the guys we know working there.

I aimed to pull an all nighter that night too, most of my group abandoned ship before 4am I believe so it was just myself and my best friend, Jon. It went pretty smoothly and I didn'[t even feel tired until they so rudely turned the lights back on at 8:20am. That was killer. Have you ever gone from so long in the dark to sudden and un-warning bright light when tired. It is not fun!

Of course some obligatory selca's of me during the night, the second one I was adamant I could last until that evening until I slept. 

The rest of the weekend pretty much carried on the same, apart from I was much more sensible with my sleeping - only getting myself delirious with lack of sleep on the Sunday night. The only downside to the long weekend was the local shops and restaurants weren't prepared for the extra 2,500+ people that they should've been feeding. It was very much a first come, first served, fight for the best food situation each day.

The drive back was really smooth though! (Nothing to do with me sleeping, nope).

Bought, Borrowed & Bagged (66)

Bought, Borrowed and Bagged hosted by Talk Supe is a weekly meme where you can share your book haul, ongoing events and news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead.
Please Note: All images link back to their GR pages.

New Books

I'm still being well behaved on the book side of things, both Captured by S.J. Harper and the Kingdom Series Collection (1-3) by Marie Hall are amazon freebies. I saw them on another blog and their covers were too nice to pass.

However outside of reading I did pretty bad, I spent last week with my best friend and we saw Guardians of the Galaxy as well as having a take away every night, so not only did I loose a few £ I probably gained a few too. I shall behave better for the rest of the year.

Recently on Northern Plunder

Attempting University
Mini Review: Hot Ticket by Olivia Cunning

Upcoming on Northern Plunder

*nothing next week as I'm at a gaming festival and decided to leave my blog inactive for it, ready for a potential wrap up post*

Lauren's Progress

Read in 2014: 21 / 70
Deviation by Christine Manzari

Currently Reading:
Soulless by Gail Carriger
Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor

News from Lauren

As mentioned I spent a week with my best friend, we basically had a week long movie marathon, it was so amazing. Its been too long since I've just done nothing, but also so long since seeing The Matrix, Sin City and other movies. Plus how frakking amazing is Guardians of the Galaxy? I love it.
This week I'm starting to move some of the non-essentials into my new flat which'll be great, I can't wait to fully move in.

Please note that I've implemented a new drop down menu at the top but some pages are still in progress so the links haven't been added yet!

DNF Review: All He Saw Was The Girl by Peter Leonard

All He Saw Was The Girl by Peter Leonard

Published: 15th May 2012 by The Story Plant
Genre: Thriller / Mystery
Page Count: 290
Format: eBook
Source: Book Tour

Synopsis: Rome:
McCabe and Chip, two American exchange students, are about to become embroiled with a violent street gang, a beautiful Italian girl, and a flawed kidnapping plan.

Detroit:
Sharon Vanelli’s affair with Joey Palermo, a Mafia enforcer, is about to be discovered by her husband, Ray, a secret service agent.

Brilliantly plotted and shot through with wry humor, ALL HE SAW WAS THE GIRL sees these two narratives collide in the backstreets of Italy’s oldest city.

Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon* / TBD* / B&N / Kobo

Peter Leonard: Website | Facebook | Goodreads
*When purchasing through these links, I will receive a small amount, I will put any money earned towards hosting a giveaway.

Review:
Did Not Finish
1 / 5 Stars
I first received this book two years ago, it was the first book I ever agreed to review as part of a book tour and I felt terrible that I just couldn't get into it that I promised I'd give it ago at a later date.

Well this year was the later date and yet again it just didn't grip me, back then I should've known I wouldn't finish it even after time had passed but I also was very stubborn and refused to acknowledge "did not finish" could be a thing.

The reason I agreed to this tour was because I was still very much in love with Rome, I always will be, I had a great time being there and I wanted to read a book set there to see how they'd portray the two cities and whether they'd connect.

After reading two chapters and then finding myself skimming the words I realised I just couldn't do it, nothing grabbed my attention and hooked me, it was simply a chore.

I've seen the book have some good reviews and I'm upset that I didn't get to see this part of the book, but alas I just couldn't connect.

Mini Review: Hot Ticket by Olivia Cunning

Hot Ticket by Olivia Cunning

Published: 5th February 2013 by Sourcebooks Casablance
Genre: Romance / 18+
Series: Sinners on Tour #3
Page Count: 365
Format: eBook
Source: Bought

Synopsis: Book #3 in reading order of events in book series, per author

There are things in bassist Jace Seymour’s past that he is unwilling to share with anyone. To cover his guilt and anguish, he seeks dominatrix Mistress V (Aggie) to temporarily placate his inner turmoil.

Aggie doesn’t have much use for men–besides the power rush she gets when they’re begging for mercy at her feet–but Jace isn’t like her usual clients. His cool defiance and unexpected dominance in the bedroom drives her to distraction and quickly steals her heart.

When circumstances threaten Jace’s position in Sinners, Aggie must help him regain his rightful place in the band while showing him that time and love can heal all wounds.

Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon* / TBD* / B&N / Kobo

Olivia Cunning: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

*When purchasing through these links, I will receive a small amount, I will put any money earned towards hosting a giveaway.

Click here for review of Sinners on Tour Book 1 and 2.

Review:
3.5 / 5 Stars
Hot Ticket is from Jace's point of view, and probably my favourite of the series read so far and this falls down to one thing, and this one thing bumped it up to a 3.5 stars.

The thing in question is the character development of Jace, if you loved his character before hand I can only think that after reading this you will love him more.

The depth that exists in Jace's emotions in immense, the guilt and anguish he feels is real and he barely knows how to handle it.

That is until Aggie comes along, she is amazing. Even outside of her dominatrix career she is able to handle Jace so well and it just made me gush an awful lot watching her work through his past with him which allowed him to gain control over the parts of his life that were out of his control.

Aside from this I did have some things about the book I disliked, that being the trend of this book when comparing it to the previous ones.

The Sinners on Tour stories follow a trend: he meets her > they're not good for each other > they need each other > they finally have each other > INJURY!! > happily ever after.

So after reading a third book with a similar path its a bit samey, however I do intend to finish the series because I'm invested now.

Attempting University (3)

First year of university is over, I finished it with some very good grades and I got the full deposit back on my flat even though it had looked more like a garbage truck most of the time.

Summer has been really good, I've not done too much when it comes to being creative but I have been working on a few small things.

But for now I want to finish sharing my Creative Narrative work with you, don't know what I'm talking about? Please refer to this post for the first lot of my work.

(Hey also please note that I do have a blog to keep track of my work in progress which can be viewed here, at the moment I'm posting these images you can see below as I'm not actually working on anything I can show just yet - its a present for my best friend)

These two images illustrate a transition of sorts, the change in nature to man-made and old to new. I prefer my second attempt at this and surprisingly really enjoyed the process and outcome.

I have a great love for typography, and I think that is why I took to this task so strong. I had to illustrate a different typeface for every letter of the alphabet that portrayed "environment" before selection one to create fully. My chosen design was inspired by tree rings and ripples in water.

Here I decided to use leaves and plants to portray the "environment" theme by dipping and printing them with ink.

These last two aren't of my creations but instead some of the research, planning and development that went into some of my final pieces of work. I think I ended up working harder on this part than the outcome in the end.

Bought, Borrowed & Bagged (65)

Bought, Borrowed and Bagged hosted by Talk Supe is a weekly meme where you can share your book haul, ongoing events and news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead.

New Books

So I've finally completed my current ASOIAF paperback set, thank you to my friend for sending me these. I'm really happy that I own them all now as its given me the push I needed to keep reading A Storm of Swords.

Since accepting a hardback copy of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest from my Grandpa he's been hoarding hardback books for me, not realising it was that specific book I was lusting for in hardcover and not all hardcovers but this has turned out into a good thing because no doubt I'm getting introduced into authors I wouldn't otherwise pick up so thats why I have Faces by Martina Cole,  Unscathed by Major Phil Ashby, NYPD Red by James Patterson and Marshall Karp, Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell, Presumed Guilty and Never Say Die by Tess Gerritsen, and Sanctus and The Key by Simon Tyone added to my shelf.

Whilst ordering my dad birthday presents I also slipped up and ordered Saga, Volume One by Brian K. Vaughan/Fiona Staples and Tank Girl, Volume One Remastered by Alan Martin/James Hewlett.

Lastly I actually accepted a book for review too, which is Diamones by Massimo Marino.

Recently on Northern Plunder

Series Review: Assured Destruction and Script Kiddie by Michael F. Stewart
Wrap Up: April & May
Review: Insurgent by Veronica Roth
Review: With Zombies by Michael F. Stewart
Release Day Blitz: Tracy Banghart, Heather Hildenbrand & Aimee L. Salter
Cover Reveal & Giveaway: Cinder & Ella by Kelly Oram
Wrap Up: June & July

Upcoming on Northern Plunder

Attempting University
Mini Review: Hot Ticket by Oliva Cunning
DNF Review: All He Saw was the Girl by Peter Leonard
Mini Review: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams

Lauren's Progress

Read in 2014: 20 / 70
Assured Destruction by Michael F. Stewart
Script Kiddie by Michael F. Stewart
Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor
With Zombies by Michael F. Stewart
Memory's Wake by Selina Fenech
Embracing the Wolf by Catherine Bybee
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr
Kick Ass by Mark Millar
Kick Ass 2 by Mark Millar

Currently Reading:
Deviation by Christine Manzari
Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor
Soulless by Gail Carriger
A Storm of Sword: Steel and Snow by George R. R. Martin

News from Lauren

I took a break from blogging and now I'm finally back, I've used the time off to queue up stuff ready to post this month and the following in hopes this'll give me the start I need to not get behind again. My reading has picked up slowly but surely too. 
August is actually a really busy month for me, I'm sure I'll clue you in on some of the highlights as they happen, at the moment I'm staying with a friend for a week so any comments will be replied too once I get back home. 
I hope everyone's August and reading is going well, and hello again I guess.

Please note that I've implemented a new drop down menu at the top but some pages are still in progress so the links haven't been added yet!

June & July Wrap Up

As June started I decided I needed to figure out my reading, I needed to find myself again. Somewhere along the road reading had become too much of a chore for myself and whilst what I read I was enjoying it also felt taxing, because of this I put down the two larger books I was trying to make my way through and focus on smaller or YA books. As you can see this has worked out well for me and these past two months have been so much more successful for me. I also started blogging more but only queued posts up for August/September to keep myself from getting behind again.

Women Author Challenge
8. Memory's Wake by Selina Fenech
9. Embracing the Wolf by Catherine Bybee
10. Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
11. Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr
Total: 11 / 20

Indie Fever Challenge
8. With Zombies by Michael F. Stewart
Total: 8 / 24

TBR Pile Challenge
5. Memory's Wake by Selina Fenech
6. Embracing the Wolf by Catherine Bybee
7. Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
8. Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr
9. Kick Ass by Mark Millar
10. Kick Ass 2 by Mark Millar
Total: 10 / 24

Shelf Stacking:
Over these two months I've only purchased the two graphic novels, all others have been gifted to me from family or friends.