September Wrap Up

September has been a busy month for myself but a happy one too. I managed to get a fair bit of reading done which I'm pleased about and I'm still ahead of my GR challenge.

Bought, Borrowed & Bagged (78)

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

Diablo III: Book of Cain was a birthday gift from my lovely boyfriend, I actually got two copies of Nimona this month (hardcover as a birthday gift from my dad and paperback from a book swap on tumblr) oops, a long time follower on tumblr purchased Mad Max: Fury Road Inspired Artists and The Art of Satoshi Kon (and an ink pen) from my Amazon Wishlist for me - holy cow, and Sketching from the Imagination: Fantasy was a birthday present from my flatmate. So basically I'm super super thankful for all these lovely gifts.

If you want to check out any of Satoshi Kon's work I highly recommend Perfect Blue, it is my all time favourite anime movie. It took me 5 years to be able to buy a copy because it was always out of stock or unavailable.

I won a signed copy of City in Embers thanks to Black Heart Reviews and they sent some bookmarks and stickets too, and Not After Everything is the book in Augusts box from Lovingly Bookish, it just took me until now to open mine as it was at my house.

 

The books listed below are freebies that I've picked up throughout September and forgot to add  to my goodreads and posts because my kindle has no internet connection! I can't guarentee any of them are still free but worth checking them out if you're interested in any.

Review: Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas
Series: Throne of Glass #2
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy
Length: 418 pages
Published on 15th August 2013 by Bloomsbury
Purchase: Amazon / B&N / The Book Depository
Sarah J. Maas: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Copy purchased from Amazon

Synopsis:
Crowned by Evil.
Bound by Duty.
Divided by Love.

Celaena Sardothien, royal assassin, is the King of Adarlan's deadliest weapon. She must win her freedom through his enemies' blood - but she cannot bear to kill for the crown. And every death Celaena fakes, every lie she tells, put those she loves at risk.

Torn between her two protectors - a captain and a prince - and battling a dark force far greater than the king, Celaena must decide what she will fight for: her liberty, her heart or the fate of a kingdom...

Read Play Blog: Surprising Games

"Read Play Blog is a meme about video games and books, posted every 16th of the month. Bloggers are encouraged to answer a discussion question, and recommend a video game that is similar to a book they liked. Hosted by Happy Indulgence Books & Read Me Away."

Is there a video game that surprised you when you played it, whether in a good or bad way?

Bought, Borrowed & Bagged (77)

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

Both The Untold Tale by J. M. Frey and Untouchable by S. A. Starcevic are books I've recieved for review from the author. I'm excited to read both of these are both authors contacted me via my tumblr so its nice to get noticed over there too. 

Review: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
Series: Throne of Glass #1
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy
Length: 404 pages
Published on 2nd August 2012 by Bloomsbury
Purchase: Amazon / B&N / The Book Depository
Sarah J. Maas: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Received from NetGalley and purchased myself a copy

Synopsis:
Meet Celaena Sardothien.
Beautiful. Deadly.
Destined for greatness.

In the dark, filthy salt mines of Endovier, an eighteen-year-old girl is serving a life sentence. She is a trained assassin, the best of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake: she got caught.

Young Captain Westfall offers her a deal: her freedom in return for one huge sacrifice. Celaena must represent the prince in a to-the-death tournament—fighting the most gifted thieves and assassins in the land. Live or die, Celaena will be free. Win or lose, she is about to discover her true destiny. But will her assassin’s heart be melted?

Current Plunder: Enthrall by M.R. Reed

Enthrall by M.R. Reed
Series: Standalone
Genre: Young Adult / Science Fiction
Length: 318 pages
Published on 12th October 2014 by M.R. Reed
Purchase: Amazon US / Amazon UK

Synopsis: 

After years of being a helpless witness to his alcoholic father’s abuse towards his family, seventeen-year-old Miles Boswell has just about reached his breaking point. He dreams of the day where he can leave everything behind and begin a new life on his own -- that is, until he discovers that he has the ability to control people’s minds. Suddenly, the odds are overwhelmingly in his favor.

But what begins as the answer to all of his problems soon causes him to question his every thought when he captures the attention of August Sylvan, who seems to be the girl of his dreams. As someone who has limited experience with girls, Miles can’t help but wonder -- where do his powers end, and where does reality begin? 

At the same time, he finds himself at constant odds with his morals and his potentially warped sense of justice...and soon discovers that nothing is as simple as it seems.

This book contains strong language, violent scenes, and some sexual content. It is not intended for readers under 17. “Rated R”

M.R. Reed: Amazon | Tumblr | Facebook | Goodreads
There are a number of things that I am – mother, teacher, roller derby player, and author – and I wish that there were more hours in a day in which to enjoy all of them. My favorite type of books are ones that feature realistic, flawed characters that don’t necessarily have a happy ending, because let’s face it – life isn’t always tied up in a neat little box. My passion for the X-Men, science fiction, punk rock, and the straight-edge lifestyle are what inspired me to write this book. If any of those things appeal to you, read on!

Excerpt

July & August Wrap Up

July and August were pretty great months for myself, even if I did take a month off from blogging to visit my boyfriend, I was still able to read and game  a lot and get back into the swing of things with blogging. I'm so happy to be back and I'm praying my final year studying wont halt my progress here.

Bought, Borrowed & Bagged (76)

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

Emerge and Nirvana are both books I've recieved for review, both the first of a series so I'm looking forward to that. Queen of Shadows I bought after pestering my friends to make sure no one bought it for me for my birthday because I just couldn't wait any longer to read it, and Neverwhere I also bought after someone said I reminded them of Door from this book.

Review: The Ugly Stepsister by Aya Ling

The Ugly Stepsister by Aya Ling
Series: Standalone
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy
Length: 452 pages
Published on 12th June 2015
Purchase: Amazon | B&N | The Book Depository
Aya Ling: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Received from author via Xpresso Book Tours

Synopsis:
When Kat accidentally rips apart an old childhood picturebook, she's magically transported into the world of Cinderella--as Katriona, one of the ugly stepsisters! To get back, she'll have to complete the story, right to the end of happily ever after. But the odds are huge: the other stepsister is movie-star gorgeous, the fairy godmother is nowhere to be found, and the prince isn't interested in marrying any time soon. Can she ever return to the real world?

The Ugly Stepsister, as you may have guessed, is a retelling of Cinderella but this time we get to see it from one of the ugly stepsisters point of view, only she's not quite herself either.

This book follows Kat who is a regular girl, living in our regular world until she accidentally rips an old book and falls into the world of Cinderella, taking the place of Katriona. 

She is visited that night by a Goblin who I guess is like her own fairy godmother in a twisted sense, he explains for her to be able to return to her own world she has to see the story through to the end and make sure Cinderella's story comes true but that he has no way of knowing where abouts in the story she currently is nor how to help to make this happen.

See? The premise is pretty great, and I so much wanted to love this book and be able to rave about it but I'm struggling.

The writing is great and the characters seem interesting enough - Ella isn't actually the step-daughter, the Prince doesn't want to marry anyone, and the other ugly sister is annoying as hell.

But Kat? I just can't connect with her or how she's viewing this world, I understand to suddenly be dropped in this world would be confusing and difficult to adapt too but there is just something about her that I'm struggling to connect too.

I've read 25% of this book, honestly I would've DNF it a lot earlier but as its a fairly long book I agreed to read a quarter of it to see how I then felt, and I still just don't have the urge to finish it even though I do want to know whats up with the Prince and lack of Fairy Godmother?

I've also figured out one of my own reason as to why this is happening. I have a terrible book hangover. I tried reading this at the same time as Heir of Fire but it just wasnt happening because I was already so invested with that series, and of course my copy of Queen of Shadows hasn't arrived yet hence the hangover.

I feel like cause I'm in the stupid fangirl stage of that series I'm not able to give my full attention to this book, or well any other book that I've also been struggling to get through.

So whilst I'm going to "did not finish" this at the moment its really more of a "on hold", I can still see it having some potential and hopefully I can pick this up at the end of the year with a fresh view on it.

3 stars / 5 stars