TBR for Scallywagathon (20/05/18 – 27/05/18)

I am so excited for SCALLYWAGATHON! I loved this readathon the last time I did it and I managed to read so many books that week! Who doesn’t love a readathon with a map? Scallywagathon is a pirate themed readathon but I won’t be reading many pirate themed books and by that I mean I’ll be reading one. But I can’t wait to do the challenges and hopefully complete all the challenges that I challenge myself to.

Heres the map and the challenges:

I know most people are taking the four challenge route and there for only reading four books. I’m hoping to read eight books and listen to one other audiobook which isn’t part of this TBR but I’ll tell you that later. Here’s the challenges and the books I hope to complete.

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Challenge 1: Siren’s Song – Read a book with Mermaids or Sirens

For this challenge I’ll be reading Daughter of the Pirate King – Trish Levenseller. I’ve been meaning to read this book for so long. Since it came out pretty much. I’m such a huge fan of the Pirate’s of the Caribbean films and when I found out there was Jack Sparrow quotes which I am there for I knew that I needed to read the book.

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Challenge 7: Shark Bait – Read a book with red on the cover

I’ll be reading The New Girl – Cathy Cole for this challenge. The MC on the cover is wearing a red coat so it counts for the challenge. This is the first book in the Heartside Bay series which I found at my library and I’m very interested to see how it is.

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Challenge C: DETOUR. Walk the Plank – A book you’ve seen someone unhaul

I’ll be reading Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculier Children – Ransom Riggs for this challenge. I trolled through so many unhaul videos to find a book that I wanted to read and I finally came across a video by Sasha Alsberg where she’d unhauled this book because it was a double. I love this series, I’ve read the first book before but I’m due a reread.

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Challenge 8: Yo Ho Ho – A Book that stars with ‘RRRR’

This challenge took so long for me to work out. I couldn’t find a single book on my TBR that I wanted to read for this readathon which started with R. Until I came across this book. I’ll be reading Royals – Rachel Hawkins. I’m very interested in this novel and I can’t wait to read Rachel’s writing style. I recently bought this book from ASDA 😀

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Challenge A DETOUR. Marooned : Read a Standalone

Carrying on with my Kasie West marathon of reads. I’ll be reading P.S I Like You – Kasie West. I adore Kasie West. I like she writes such cute and fluffy reads and I can’t wait for the next one.

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Challenge 6: Treasure Map – Read a book with a treasure map

I’m finally going to reread A Court of Thornes and Roses – Sarah J Maas. I’ve been putting this off and off and not reading it and now I think it’s finally time for me to read this book.

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Challenge B: DETOUR. Thar She Blows – Read a book that’s exploded with popularity

I’ve decided to read The Fault in Our Stars – John Green. I can’t wait to see if this lives up to the hype. I’ve been meaning to read it for so long and now it’s finally time to read it. I am worried it’ll be overly emotional though

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Challenge 9: Blow Down The Man – Read a book by a woman author

For this challenge I’ll be reading The 100 – Kass Morgan. I’ve had this from my library for over two weeks. Should probably read this soon!

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There it is! That’s my TBR for ScallyWagathon, As for the Audiobook I told you about earlier I will be continuing my audiobook mission through all the Paddington books with book 4: Paddington Abroad – Michael Bond.

What are you reading this coming week?

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Book Review: The Fill in Boyfriend – Kasie West.

Title: The Fill in Boyfriend
Author: Kasie West
Publication Date: 05/05/15
Publisher: HarperTeen
Series/Stand Alone: Stand Alone
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Favourites, ChickLit.
Pages: 346 Pages
Format I read: Paperback
Rating: ***
Amazon 
Goodreads. 

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Synopsis for Goodreads:

When Gia Montgomery’s boyfriend, Bradley, dumps her in the parking lot of her high school prom, she has to think fast. After all, she’d been telling her friends about him for months now. This was supposed to be the night she proved he existed. So when she sees a cute guy waiting to pick up his sister, she enlists his help. The task is simple: be her fill-in boyfriend—two hours, zero commitment, a few white lies. After that, she can win back the real Bradley.

The problem is that days after prom, it’s not the real Bradley she’s thinking about, but the stand-in. The one whose name she doesn’t even know. But tracking him down doesn’t mean they’re done faking a relationship. Gia owes him a favor and his sister intends to see that he collects: his ex-girlfriend’s graduation party—three hours, zero commitment, a few white lies.

Just when Gia begins to wonder if she could turn her fake boyfriend into a real one, Bradley comes waltzing back into her life, exposing her lie, and threatening to destroy her friendships and her new-found relationship.

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I loved this book. I really enjoyed reading it. It was the exact sweet fluffy book that I needed and I read it within a day because I couldn’t put it down. It’s the perfect summery, contemporary read. I’ve read three of Kasie West’s books now and I’ve enjoyed all three of them. She’s definitely the queen of fluff. I love the sweet relationships that are cultivated in the books. They’re squeal worthy romances.

The Fill in Boyfriend follows Gia, who’s boyfriend breaks up with her before prom, so she decides to find someone else to take his place. Hayden is such a fantastic character and I fell in love with him completely. He’s a sweet, loving and generous character who did everything he could for Gia as soon as she asked. Hayden is my favourite character by far, just the way he acts and the way he treats Gia. I love his entire family, Olivia and Bec are fantastic characters as well.

Gia’s friends are the reason that I had a few issues with the book. I didn’t like how mean Jules was considering there was no reason for it, I didn’t like that her other friends didn’t even notice the fact that she was being cruel to Gia. At one point during the novel Jules says that Gia never called her when Gia said she did, and her friends just make excuses for her. I’m reading it like…. There’s a call log on your phone…..

I liked Bec’s character so much, she really subverts what is expected of her. She’s this cool girl who dresses different every once in a while to see if people recognise her and she’s so damn sassy and protective of her brother. It’s refreshing to see the sister overly protective of the older brother. It’s a spin on a classic trope.

I recomend this book to anyone that wants to read a good contemporary, any fans of Kasie West and anyone who wants a quick summery read to read by the side of the pool or at the beach this summer

Book Tag: Disney Princess Book Tag

Hello! Welcome to Tag Thursday! It’s the Disney Read A Long this week so in honour of the Disney Read-A-Long I’ve deicided to do a Disney inspired tag so here it is! This tag was created by Of Stacks and Cups!

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3 Princess Facts:

1) I’m not the biggest Disney Princess Fan. I don’t have a favourite but there’s a three that I can rewatch over and over if I wanted too and that’s Pocahontas, Mulan and  The Little Mermaid.

2) I haven’t watched an animated Disney Princess Movie since Princess and the Frog came out in 2009 and the only live action one I’ve seen is Beauty and the Beast, that’s almost ten years and I can’t remember a good few of them. I’m gonna make a list of all the princess movies that I have to watch because I’m fairly certain I haven’t watched them all. Feel free to leave a comment telling me which ones to watch and in what order.

3) I didn’t really like the Live Action Beauty and the Beast.

 

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Snow White – Name your favourite classic

I haven’t read any adult classics, which I’m aware is really bad. I have an entire classics shelf where all my black wordsworth classics live but I haven’t read any yet.  But my favourite children’s classics are Winnie the Pooh – A A Milne and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl. I googled it and they’re definitely classics.

 

Cinderella – Name a book that kept you up reading well past you’re bedtime. 

Everything, Everything – Nicola Yoon. I adored this book. It was so sweet and so cute. I couldn’t put it down. I lost so much sleep over one night because I refused to sleep until I’d finished the book! My review is here

Aurora – Name your favourite classic romance

How long before we can class Simon and Bram from Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda as a classic romance?

Ariel – Name a book that’s about making sacrifices and fighting for your dreams 

At First Blush – Beth Ellyn Summers. This is a fantastic novel and I highly recommend. It’s such a feel good book.

Belle – Name a book with a smart and independent female character 

I think the answer to this question should be fairly obvious, Hermione Granger! Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone – J K Rowling. She’s the cleverest witch of her generation you know?

Jasmine – Name a book with a character that challenges the social conventions of their world. 

I’ll use Gia from The Fill in Boyfriend. She’s this pretty popular girl and she’s supposed to be mean like Jules but she isn’t. She’s actually pretty nice, insecure but nice. Her world is high school so I suppose you could say she challenges the social conventions there. Hayden and Bec are the best characters though without a doubt.

Pocahontas – Name a book whose ending was a rollar coaster of emotions 

SIMON VS THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA! THAT DAMN FERRIS WHEEL BROKE ME

Mulan – Name a book with a kick ass character 

Lira from To Kill a Kingdom! The Princes Bane! That girl wrote the book on how to be kickass!

Tiana – Name a book featuring a hard working, self made character

Esther Solar from A Semi Definitive List of Worst Nightmares. She worked so hard to overcome all of her fears and to successfully move forward and it was a pleasure to read all of her shenanigans with Jonah.

Rapunzel – Name a book that features an artist 

Leah on the Offbeat! Leah is a fantastic artist!

Merida – Name a book that features a mother-daughter relationship

The Distance Between Us by Kasie West. I’d love to run a doll shop with her mum. She’s so accepting and nice and as much as it gives me the creeps being around dolls. I reckon it’d be so much fun.

Elsa and Anna – Name a book with a great sibling relationship 

Screw it, let’s use another Kasie West book!. Off the Fence. There was a delightful relationship between siblings there and I loved it. It was so cute to see how the boys protected their little sister and how the father tried to be a good mother and father. It’s such a wholesome well rounded book.

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That’s it! That’s the Tag! I tag everyone that reads this post!

Book Review: The Duff – Kody Keplinger

Title: The DUFF
Author: Kody Keplinger
Publication Date: 25/02/15
Publisher: Hodder Childrens Books
Series/ Standalone: Stand Alone
Genre:Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Romance, Chicklit
Pages: 300 Pages
Format I read: Paperback
Rating: ***
Amazon
Goodreads

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Synpopsis from Goodreads:

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is cynical and loyal, and she doesn’t think she’s the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She’s also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact, Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her “the Duff,” she throws her Coke in his face.

But things aren’t so great at home right now, and Bianca is desperate for a distraction. She ends up kissing Wesley. Worse, she likes it. Eager for escape, Bianca throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with him.

Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out Wesley isn’t such a bad listener, and his life is pretty screwed up, too. Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she’s falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone.

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This book.

Let me tell you something straight off the bat. This book is nothing like the film. So if you’ve seen The DUFF as a film and feel like reading the book don’t go in to it thinking that it’ll be the same because it’s not. Short of the characters names the book is completely different.

I didn’t hate this book quite the opposite. I like it. I thought The DUFF gave you everything that you needed in a contemporary. Completely cliche and a little stupid but it’s just a cookie cutter contemporary. There’s a girl, there’s a guy, there’s a reason they can’t be together, they get over the reason and BAM that’s the end of the book.

Bianca and Wesley are ‘Friends with Benefits’. Which honestly I can’t understand. If someone had come up to me in a bar and told me I was a DUFF then they would have gone home with less teeth than they came to the bar with. There certainly wouldn’t be any sex. Wesley goes through some character development and actually turns out to be a nice guy but just from the start where he tells her that he’s only speaking to her so he can sleep with one of her friends, I can’t understand why she would sleep with him the the first place.

Another really significant change in the book to the film, Bianca lives with her alcoholic father and not her wildly successful mother (And there’s no Pepper the dog). It gives a whole new flavour to the book. Instead of having a supportive family she has to be the one that supports her father and whilst it gives an edge of reaism, I still didn’t find myself invested in the story. I thought the Bianca was a sarcastic arsehole who desereved what she got half the time. She stops talking to her friends purely because of what Wesley said to her and then gets upset when she doesn’t have friends. There were a lot of parts within this book where she annoyed me. 

However, I was a huge fan of the ending when she finally accepted that she wasn’t as attractive as her friends in the eyes of a lot of people but it’s not other peoples opinions that matter. It’s her own and I really liked the message of that. I really like the idea that as long as you have a good opinion of yourself then it doesn’t matter what other people think.

I recommend this book to anyone that wants a high school contemporary, likes the films where you fall in love with your friend with benefits but like I said at the beginning don’t got in to this book thinking it’ll be the same as the film because it’s completely different.

Book Review: Warm Bodies – Issac Marion

Title: Warm Bodies
Author: Issac Marion
Publication Date: 25/12/12
Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books
Series/ Standalone: Book One of the Warm Bodies Series.
Genre: Apocalyptic, Adult Ficton, Romance, Movies
Pages: 256 Pages
Format I read: Paperback
Rating: ***
Amazon
Goodreads

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Synopsis from Goodreads:

R is having a no-life crisis—he is a zombie. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he is a little different from his fellow Dead. He may occasionally eat people, but he’d rather be riding abandoned airport escalators, listening to Sinatra in the cozy 747 he calls home, or collecting souvenirs from the ruins of civilization.

And then he meets a girl.

First as his captive, then his reluctant guest, Julie is a blast of living color in R’s gray landscape, and something inside him begins to bloom. He doesn’t want to eat this girl—although she looks delicious—he wants to protect her. But their unlikely bond will cause ripples they can’t imagine, and their hopeless world won’t change without a fight.

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I’ve been meaning to read this book for soooo long. Its been on my TBR for years and I finally managed to read it. This was one of my birthday presents that I got in March and I was so excited to dive in to it. Then I was disappointed.

This book is a solid three star book, I didn’t really like it but I didn’t really hate it either. It was just meh. I’m definitely not continuing with the series because I am just not there for that. It wasn’t gripping enough and I just don’t care. If this book was a standalone. Then it’d be a fine three star book but it’s not and I don’t want to put myself through that again.

The romance in the novel was beyond stale, I couldn’t get behind it. All the flashbacks took me out of the story so that I didn’t really care about the romance between R and Julie. The flashbacks made me feel sorry for Perry and considering R was the one that killed him, it just made me not like him as a character.

The whole zombie community confused me a little, the whole school thing and the marriage thing was strange to see. I’ve seen the movie and I can say that its not in the movie so I wasn’t really expecting it. It didn’t add a lot to the story but it didn’t take anything away from it either. It was just kind of there… does that make sense?

This review is so negative but I didn’t dislike the book, I gave it three stars because it’s a short quick read, it’s got a good writing style and the concept is interesting hence why I picked it up, it just wasn’t what I was looking for in a Zombie Apocalypse.

I’d recommend it if you like zombie books because… there’s zombies and I’d recommend it if you want a quick read. If you’re someone like me though, that needs the concept to deliver or the book is boring, then I’d give this one a miss.

If you do decide to pick up this book series, here’s the Goodreads link to the series. The last book in the series The LIVING WORLD comes out in 2018.

Book Review: To Kill a Kingdom – Alexandra Christo

Title: To Kill A Kingdom
Author: Alexandra Christo
Publication Date: 06/03/18
Publisher: Feiwel Friends
Series or Stand Alone: Stand Alone
Genre: Fantasy, Retelling, Young Adult, Favourites, Romance
Pages: 346 Pages
Format I read: Ebook
Rating: ****.5
Amazon
Goodreads

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Synopsis from Goodreads:

Princess Lira is siren royalty and the most lethal of them all. With the hearts of seventeen princes in her collection, she is revered across the sea. Until a twist of fate forces her to kill one of her own. To punish her daughter, the Sea Queen transforms Lira into the one thing they loathe most—a human. Robbed of her song, Lira has until the winter solstice to deliver Prince Elian’s heart to the Sea Queen or remain a human forever.

The ocean is the only place Prince Elian calls home, even though he is heir to the most powerful kingdom in the world. Hunting sirens is more than an unsavory hobby—it’s his calling. When he rescues a drowning woman in the ocean, she’s more than what she appears. She promises to help him find the key to destroying all of sirenkind for good—But can he trust her? And just how many deals will Elian have to barter to eliminate mankind’s greatest enemy

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This book was hands down the best retelling I’ve ever read. It was utterly phenomenal. I really liked it. I really liked how Lira went from this fearless Siren to this human with these emotions that she didn’t understand. She gained a little humanity with her legs and it was awesome to read.

Lira is the Princes Bane, she’s a Siren. A deadly one. One that only kills princes, she rips the heart from a dying prince every year for her birthday and keeps them buried in her bedroom. That is until she encounters the wrath of the Siren Queen also known as her mother and must learn to survive as a human.

To Kill a Kingdom is a dark retelling of The Little Mermaid and I have to say, I much prefer this version of the story than the one where it’s all instalove. This version was brutal and sharp and was action packed to the point where I couldn’t put it down. It was super enjoyable.

My only issue and it was a small issue was the ending, I lost it towards the end. Where they finally got to the end of the quest and a certain character who bugged me the entire book was the person to work out who she was before Elian. I hated that, I really wanted him to work it out himself and not be a dunce. Not have to be told by that ‘Certain Character’. Maybe I’m reading too far into it and being overly critical but I just didn’t like that. If he’d have work it out himself then I would have loved the ending.

I gave this book 4.5 Stars, Like I said hands down the best retelling I’ve ever read. I recommend it to anyone that wants to read a dark retelling or maybe just an adventure book. Highly Recommend.

 

Readathon: TBR for Disney Read-A-Long / It’s Monday , what are you reading? (07/05/18)

Hello and Welcome to a TBR for another readathon as well as this weeks It’s Monday, what are you reading? I’ve decided to thrown them both together this week!

This time I’m taking part in Disney Read-A-Long which is hosted by the TinyBookDragon. I realise that the readathon actually started yesterday but I didn’t want to post the same thing twice. Anyway There’s a series of challenges which are based around Disney characters so here they are:

Challenge 1: Frozen. – Read a book that’s set during Winter.

For this challenge, I’ve chosen to read Shiver – Maggie Steifvater. I’ve been so excited to read this book. I can’t wait to sink my teeth in.

Challenge 2: Dory – Read a book you forgot you owned.

For this challenge I’ve chosen to read Fallen – Lauren Kate. I completely forgot I owned the first three books in this series.

Challenge 3: Aurora’s Dress – Read a book with pink and blue on the cover 

For this challenge I chose to read, Ps I Still Love You – Jenny Han. I’m currently reading the first book and I really want to continue.

Challenge 4: Huey, Dewey and Louie – Read a book that’s part of a trilogy 

For this challenge, I’ve chosen to read Always and forever, Laura Jean – Jenny Han. Same as above. Just want to finish the series.

Challenge 5: Cinderella – Read the original fairytale (By Brothers Grimm) and watch the Disney Adaptation.

This is actually a blessing for me, I’ve recently read The Little Mermaid and Snow White by The Brothers Grimm so you can only imagine my happiness when I read it was Cinderella! One I hadn’t read. I can’t wait to read this and watch the animated film which I haven’t watched in like… 10 years maybe more.

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Phew! That’s a lot of books! I can’t wait to read them all! What are you reading?