September Reading Round-off

Well hello there folks!! I know it has been quite a while since anything got posted on this here blog but that's because I've been rather busy over on my new writing/study blog Ray May Write fretting and procrastinating my way through September. Which has disappeared alarmingly fast, I'm less than a week away from my 24th birthday and only a few days away from the start of my two OU modules which is a little scary.

But I'm here today to do my September reading wrap-up and tell you what my Book of the Month is, it should be a fairly obvious choice if you follow me on twitter :P

Books Read in September
89. Mastiff by Tamora Pierce (8/9/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
90. Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas (11/9/2014 AM)
91. Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini (12/9/2014 PM)
92. Cross Stitch/Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (15/9/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
93. Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce (17/9/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
94. Trickster's Queen by Tamora Pierce (17/9/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
95. Speechless by Hannah Harrington (21/9/2014 PM)
96. Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan (23/9/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
97. Untold by Sarah Rees Brennan (25/9/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
98. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (29/9/2014 PM)
99. Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout (30/9/2014 PM)

Oops again with only 4 new reads out of 11 but who cares?

Book of the Month
This is an easy choice as you'll well know that I've been absolutely *dying* to read the rest of this after I got something like 25 chapters in over the YALC weekend. I had quite a time getting hold of a copy since I hadn't realised that the UK release date was over a week later than the US date so I expended rather a lot of stress and energy getting myself to Waterstones when they didn't have it in yet. *sigh* But when I did finally get my grubby mitts on a copy everything was right with the world. I devoured this book, I fucking loved this book and all its characters and the world and dammit I just love Sarah J. Maas ok? Heir of Fire was amazing and I don't quite know what I'm going to do with myself until the fourth book comes out. Thankfully we do have the epic sounding Court of Thorns and Roses due out in the Spring(?) so I can still get my Sarah fix before I find out what's cracking with Celeana. And I always have my re-read binge before the next release :P

Books I'm looking forward to in October
Now I'm going to keep the rest of this brief because I need to go be useful and help get dinner ready. I have a few things that I'm very excited for in October. One of them I finished this afternoon and have already flailed all over Twitter about - Misty Falls by Joss Stirling is part of a series that I adore and love to re-read over and over so I nearly had a heart attack in the library earlier when this book which technically doesn't even come out until tomorrow was already there on the shelf! Like a good addict I snatched it off the shelf and took it home to speed through. I may even re-read before I have to take it back to the library.

I'm also still trying my damnedest to get hold of a copy of Unmade by Sarah Rees Brennan since I did my series re-read in prep for the release on the 25th and then no bloody bookstores near me have the book! So it will be the mission of early October to get it and see what Sarah the Soul Destroyer (as I shall call her to differentiate from Sarah of the Sexy Fae) has in store for me. From what I've heard so far, heartbreak and sadness but also perfection. So who knows what the fuck is going to happen?

There's also My true Love gave to Me which is the awesome sounding anthology of Christmas stories from a bunch of my fav authors. I am super excited for this and it should be a great book to read either in October or closer to Christmas when it'll really be fitting.

Anyways that's all I gots for you now, see you guys soon maybe.
Ray

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June Reading Round-off - the lazily late edition

Well howdy there folks. As you might have guessed I had a bad blogger moment and disappeared from the interwebs for something like a week. My excuse? Pokemon... I had a little week-long binge on Soul Silver and it kind of distracted me from the readathon and everything else. So obviously I didn't finish anything during the YALC Readathon which continues my track record of being shit at readathons.

But anyways here is a brief-ish round-up of what I did finish during June. It was surprisingly quite a good month (if you ignore the Pokemon week)

June Reading
50. Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop of Dreams by Jenny Colgan (3/6/2014 PM)
51. Angelfall by Susan Ee (4/6/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
52. Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare (10/6/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
53. Captain Jack's Woman by Stephanie Laurens (10/6/2014 PM)
54. Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare (12/6/2014 AM) *RE-READ*
55. Open Road Summer by Emery Lord (14/6/2014 PM)
56. Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare (15/6/2014 AM) *RE-READ*
57. Reasons for Marriage by Stephanie Laurens (17/6/2014 PM)
58. Louder than Words by Laura Jarratt (18/6/2014 PM)
59. The Name on your Wrist by Helen Hiorns (19/6/2014 PM)
60. Sense & Sensibility by Joanna Trollope (20/6/2014 AM)
61. Ark Angel by Anthony Horowitz (21/6/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
62. Snakehead by Anthony Horowitz (21/6/2014 PM)
63. Crocodile Tears by Anthony Horowitz (22/6/2014 AM)
64. Revived by Cat Patrick (30/6/2014 PM)

It was quite an eclectic month with a mix of Fantasy and Contemporary fiction plus a bit of Alex Rider re-reading. I have had the last two books in the series sitting unread for a year or two so I thought I'd finally finish them and then I could cull the books. I have now donated almost all of my Anthony Horowitz books (including 4 of the Power of Five series) to my school's library since they're likely to get far more well read by the students than they are by me.

Book of the Month
My favourite book in June was a bit of a surprise. I saw it on a table display in Waterstones last month and since I was buying some books to read during the readathon *or not as was the case* I thought I'd give it a go since the blurb sounded fascinating and the cover was beautifully intense. Louder than Words by Laura Jarratt is a story told from the point of view of a girl who hasn't uttered a word to anyone since she was six. Rafi is a really intriguing character as it's not clear why she stopped talking and over the course of the story the mystery begins to unravel and we get to learn more about her relationship with her brother Silas and her artistically distant Mother. I really liked the development of Rafi's friendship with Josie and the inclusion of quotes that the two of them like scattered through the book was lovely. The whole book had lots of thought-provoking moments and I got really invested in the characters - so much so that there was a point near the end when I got vair concerned and was almost shouting "Don't you fucking dare!" at the book. But yea excellent UKYA Contemp novel and y'all should give it a look.

Honourable mention goes to Joanna Trollope's modern rewrite of Sense & Sensibility. I have read the Austen original at least once so I thought I'd give this new take on the classic story a go. It was written for the rather awesome Austen Project which is getting bestselling authors to rewrite Jane Austen's novels in a modern setting. So far there has been Sense & Sensibility, and Northanger Abbey has been re-done by Val McDermid. Pride & Prejudice and Emma are due to be announced soon.

So that's what I read last month. I've had a pretty good reading month so far in July (actually finished some of the YALC titles I meant to read in June) and since this Friday me and Jess are heading down to London for YALC!!! *flails* Lawd knows I'm insanely excited and struggling to process the fact that it's finally here and I'm mere days away from meeting a whole fuckton of really awesome authors that I'm going to have to try and speak to reasonably normally. O_o

So speak to y'all again soon.
Ray

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YALC Readathon - Day 4

Well oops. I kind of forgot to any reading for the last couple of days. No, that's a lie because I have knowingly not done any reading because I have been playing copious amounts of Pokemon like a bloody idjit. It was mainly a procrastination from my space OU work but it ended up distracting me very thoroughly from everything else as well. I have got a little bit of reading done but for someone who managed to binge read 4 Alex Rider books last weekend it's rather a pathetic amount.

What I'm Reading
Still going with Dead Romantic I'm now 110 pages in and shit is getting rather Franken-freaky which is in no way a bad thing. Camille and Zoe are getting stuck into their DIY Boyf shenanigans with aplomb and it sure as hell ain't for the faint-hearted!
I've also been reading some more of Revived by Cat Patrick. Now I know it's the wrong Cat for YALC but still it's been something to read! I had a really long spell of not reading this since I kind of just put it down halfway through but I may actually finish it this week. So yay for that.

Posts y'all should check out
Since I've been kinda MIA for the last few days there are a couple of posts from our Lovely Hostesses to share with you.
Jess has a Guest post from Holly Bourne (Author of Soulmates) about authors meeting other more famous authors. With YALC getting ever nearer it's got some excellent advice for meeting your fav writers.
Carly has had two posts. One from Lucy Saxon (Author of Take back the Skies) about some of her top Movie/Music/Book/Youtube picks. Also a fab Dream Cast of Dead Romantic from C.J. Skuse herself.
Michelle has a post from Bryony Pearce (author of Weight of Souls) talking about the book she wished she had wrote. And another post from Phil Earle (author of Bubble Wrap Boy) about finding inspiration to write.

Also do make sure to check out the YALC Readathon Twitter chat tonight at 7pm GMT! Remember to use the hashtag #YALCreadathon and enjoy all the bookish awesomeness.

Right I am going to get some of my science work done now so I can join in the chat later with no guilt :P
Keep Reading!
Ray

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YALC Readathon Day 1!

Afternoon my lovelies! Tis the start of the YALC Readathon!! Hope everyone has enjoyed diving into their stack of YALC books so far! Alas for those of us who have been working most of the day this evening may be when the real reading begins.

What I'm Reading
I've decided to start my readathon with the hilariously macabre Dead Romantic by C.J. Skuse. During my lunch break earlier I managed to get 50 pages into it and so far I'm finding Camille's bizarre fascination with dead things and sudden girl crush on Zoe rather chucklesome. One of the librarians at work said she couldn't get more than 50 pgs into it because she thought it was a bit gruesome; clearly my brain is wired more along the lines of Camille because I find the resurrection of hamsters vair intriguing and I'm interested to see where this is going to lead. Some totes awesies Camille/Zoe Shenanigans in my future methinks :P.

Posts to check out
The four hosts of this readathon, Jess, Vicky, Carly & Michelle will be posting things from some of the fabulous authors due to attend YALC over the next week so keep an eye on their blogs for new posts. Today's posts:
Jess has a guest post from Katherine Woodfine - one of the organisers of YALC
Carly has a guest post from Beth Reekles - author of The Kissing Booth
Vicky has a guest post from Marcus Sedgwick - author of She is Not Invisible & various other books
Michelle has a post giving some recommendations of her favourite YALC authors.

Hopefully I'll have an update with whatever else I get read today later on but for now tis goodbye.

Happy Readathon!
Ray

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May Reading Round-off - ALL THE RE-READS!

Afternoon my lovelies! As promised I come to you this Saturday afternoon with my May reading post. This was a much more reading-oriented month than April since I got very little writing done until this past week. So I have a much heftier list of books to mention although I do need to disclaimer now that I am failing massively at lowering my re-read count this year. SERIOUSLY GUYS IT'S A PROBLEM! Anyhow...

Books Read in May
30. To all the boys I've loved before by Jenny Han (3/5/2014 AM)
31. The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith (6/5/2014 AM)
32. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas (8/5/2014 AM) *RE-READ*
33. The Taming of Ryder Cavanaugh by Stephanie Laurens (9/5/2014 PM)
34. Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder (12/5/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
35. Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder (13/5/2014 AM) *RE-READ*
36. Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder (13/5/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
37. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead (15/5/2014 AM) *RE-READ*
38. Frostbite by Richelle Mead (15/5/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
39. Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead (15/5/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
40. Blood Promise by Richelle Mead (16/5/2014 AM) *RE-READ*
41. Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead (17/5/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
42. Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead (17/5/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
43. Seraphina by Rachel Hartman (19/5/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
44. Stealing Phoenix by Joss Stirling (21/5/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
45. Seeking Crystal by Joss Stirling (22/5/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
46. The Oathbreaker's Shadow by Amy McCulloch (26/5/2014 PM)
47. Scandal's Bride by Stephanie Laurens (27/5/2014 AM)
48. City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare (30/5/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
49. City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare (31/5/2014 AM)

Have you realised the extent of my problem? Out of TWENTY books I read this month, only SIX were new reads!! That is a terrifying statistic for someone who also bought something like 20 books over the course of the month O_o I really need to get better at working through my TBR pile rather than re-reading books I've not read for a few years.

Not including my re-reads it's pretty easy to pick a Book of the Month - City of Heavenly Fire wins hands down. I was up til past 2am this morning reading it (downstairs in the lounge out of respect for Le Boyf so I didn't keep him awake with the light/crying). Since a lot of folk haven't had chance to read it yet because of shitty Amazon not despatching their copies etc. I am not gonna talk more about what I thought of it. I will only say that I am now wracked with Herondale feels and have a massive craving to Re-read the Infernal Devices trilogy *shakes fist*.

Honourable Mentions go to the fabulous Geography of You & Me by Jennifer E. Smith and also The Oathbreaker's Shadow by Amy McCulloch. The latter of these two is rather pertinent to upcoming bookish shenanigans in the UK.

As you may know there is going to be the first Young Adult Literature Convention held within the London Comic and Film Con on the 12th & 13th of July. I am going to be there along with the fabulous bestie/twinnie that is Jess of JessHeartsBooks and ahead of YALC Jess and several other UK book bloggers including Carly from Writing from the Tub, Michelle from Fluttering Butterflies and Vicky from Books, Biscuits & Tea are hosting a Readathon for people to read books by authors who are going to be at the YA Lit Con. The Read-a-thon is going to be from the 23rd-29th of June and if you're interested in taking part you can sign up HERE.

I shall probably be doing a post soonish on what books I'll be wanting to read ahead of the Con so I can get things signed by ALL THE AUTHORS who I'm dying to meet. *bounces excitedly* Seriously guys I cannot tell you how flaily I am gonna be that weekend, if I get words out to speak to people it will be a miracle so advance apologies if I seem totes weird to you. (I promise I'm only like that some of the time :P)

Anyways I need to skip off (metaphorically) and get some writing done since I'm nearing a milestone on Le Novel front :D Post on that soon...

Toodles darlings
Ray

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Sorry about the tumbleweeds

I fell off the grid a bit there. Didn't plan on doing it but my brain decided it didn't want to focus hard on writing this month so instead we went on a reading binge. That was pretty fun I'll grant you but since it was almost entirely re-reads it has further sunk my intentions to read more new books than previously read books. *quelle surprise*

I am trying to claw my way back onto the writing wagon, but real-life things have kicked me in the teeth somewhat and I may be looking at a much grimmer end to 2014 than I previously imagined. But I do still want to finish my book, damn it I will finish it this year; come hell or high water. It won't be as soon as I had hoped unless I can make June a lot more productive than May was but it *will* be done.

I'm gonna keep this short and sweet because I doubt y'all fancy reading a massively long spiel about my writerly woes. I should be doing an end of May reading post soonish and perhaps another post of as-yet-undetermined subject matter. I have done a couple of book haul vlogs over on my Youtube channel so if you fancy watching those then feel free :)

Anyways hope y'all have a good Sunday and Happy Bank Holiday to the Brits.
Ray

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April Reading Round-off - Wait, where did it go?

I thought this year was going to be a little different and maybe not keep running away from me like last year seemed to. But since we're now over a third through 2014, I guess I've got to accept that time will just continue to stream through my fingers while I shout obscenities at it.

April vanished in a blur of words and dirt. Lots of writing and a heck of a lot of gardening. 15K for my novel and much destruction for my front and back garden (seriously there's much to be said for the therapeutic value of hacking down a tree when you've had a really shitty day at work). But more surprising was that I actually got 8 books read last month, which is about the combined total of February and March. Of course having 2 whole weeks off work was a help since I was at home all day with time to procrastinate from writing.

What I read in April 
I started off my reading month about a week in because y'know, writing was eating my brain. My first book was Storm & Stone by Joss Stirling. I loved Joss's Savants series and I'm tres excited for the new book Misty Falls which is due out in October, so I thought I would give her new series a try. It's set in a boarding school which are always hot-beds of mystery and nefarious shenanigans. Throw in a strangely absent friend, two gawjus new students and you have Raven Stone's dilemma on returning to school after the Easter break. A very enjoyable start to what will be a fun series I reckon.

My next two batches of reading are pretty obvious because of the two books that I was *immensely* excited for that came out around the middle of the month. That being Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor and The Forever Song by Julie Kagawa. So of course before I could read these two I needed to re-read the first two books in each trilogy.

My fabulous signed pre-order of DoGaM arrived on the 17th which spurred me on to finish my re-reads so I could spend Easter Sunday reading and live-texting my reactions to Jess. It was a fantastic end to a gorgeous series and I really do hope that Laini decides to go back to Karou & Akiva's world even if it's to explore other characters (major props go to Jess for actually asking Laini that question on Thursday night in Birmingham *more on that later*).

After I had had my feels mauled about by Laini I decided to very cleverly hand them straight off to Julie Kagawa, whose muse lives for the feels and tears of fans. Rather worryingly for my boyfriend I dashed through both the first two books of the Blood of Eden trilogy in next to no time at all. I think my ability to read a 400pg book in only 2 hours both appalls and scares him in equal parts. :P I stayed up until 2am reading The Forever Song which I cannot regret because it was fan-fucking-tastic. I am rather sad to reach the end of this trilogy as it's been such a fabulous series and I adore the characters but since Julie's new *dragon* book Talon is coming out soonish I shall very much look forward to throwing my feels after that series.

The last book I read in April was a bit of a sudden thing. I am slowly ingratiating myself with the librarians at the school I work at, mostly because I would like to maybe work in a library once I leave this school and also there is loads of cool books I can borrow. Earlier in the week I was in the library and the reading group they have was reading a little book called Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell it has a super pretty cover as you can see and just from looking at the first 6 pages I knew this was a book I had to read.
It's more towards the middle-grade end of things but it's such a lovely story and so whimsically written that it is very deserving of its Waterstones' Children's Fiction Prize. Eccentric characters, nefarious insurance fraud schemes and rooftop adventures in Paris, what more could you want?
I devoured it just before I went to bed and spend my free hour the next day scouring the book for all of the wonderful quotes I'd seen. My particular favourite is from the main character Sophie - "I think, actually, everyone starts out with some strange in them. It's just, whether or not you decide to keep it." If you guys are super lucky you may actually see a proper full-blown REVIEW from me about it!! *lays out cushions for the swooners*

So that's everything I read, I also made a few vlogs over on my Youtube channel that are mainly book hauls and also a rather special freak-out over the YALC announcements whereby ALL THE AUTHORS are going to be there in July. And also moi. And Jess because we twinnies must go to all the things this year! But seriously it's going to be awesome and I can't wait! More on that maybe in the near future.

Also even though it happened in May, I *have* to mention the amazing happenstance which was when Jess and I went to Birmingham Waterstones to see Laini Taylor talk, answer questions and sign books!! It was a fantastic evening, with gorgeous cakes, great questions and also Laini was so lovely and sweet. She did actually say that she liked my t-shirt *dies*. Jess is gonna do a proper write-up of the night soon so look out for that!

Anyway this has taken about two hours to write and I meant to do productive stuff today like laundry and writing a lovely cute scene to cheer up my Twinnie since I broke her heart yesterday with my evil writerly ways :P

Hope everyone's April was both chocolatey and booky and that May is gonna be just as awesome.
Ray

p.s. No really Jess, a cute scene is gonna be coming your way before the Bank Holiday is over PROMISE. It may be Stella it may even be a Kid!Deryn/Keelan scene because of reasons :P

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March/April Reading Update

What do you mean March finished over two weeks ago?!

Ack yea in the mayhem of my impending Camp Nano shenanigans I completely forgot to do a March Reading Round-off post. Not that it was going to be a long post because of course I read a mere Four books!

Seriously 2014 is going to be the year in which I potentially write a novel (I'm being optimistically pessimistic as you never know with these things) but at the same time I'm probably going to read the smallest number of books since I started recording my reading totals. It's mad I tell you. Not to mention that I have some serious End-of-Series reading to do over the next few months since Dreams of Gods & Monsters arrived today, The Forever Song is coming at the start of May and City of Heavenly Fire is due mid-May. I gots to re-read like a madwoman!

So March's reading comprised of a somewhat eclectic mix of books; a re-read of Divergent ahead of my excursion with Jess to the Movie Premiere at the end of March (which was pretty amazeballs although vaguely disappointing in that our "mingling with the stars" was limited to zoomed in pics on my phone from inside the cinema). Then came a feverishly excited devouring of Half Bad by Sally Green which I shamelessly stayed up until 1:30am reading. Two weeks passed before I finished another book - The Sum of all Kisses by Julia Quinn because I sometimes need a dose of Regency fluff.

The last book of the month was a more out-of-nowhere read - All you Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka.  For those who have never heard of this book, it's the story which the upcoming (and awful looking) Tom Cruise film "Edge of Tomorrow" is based on. Basically a young Japanese man Keiji is flung into battle against an alien foe which has been systematically wiping out the human race. Keiji is bricking it as all his friends are dying around him and he can barely remember his meagre training. He manages to kill one of the aliens but he gets himself fatally wounded in the process. As he's dying he has an odd conversation with the legendary soldier Rita (more often referred to as the Full Metal Bitch), who has killed more of the aliens than anyone else left alive. Keiji dies and then wakes up... on the day before the battle. A bizarre loop of battle and death begins that Keiji has to try and figure out how he's going to break free of it.

I borrowed my boyfriend's copy of the book since I wanted to see what the story was like after hearing le boyf rant about his disgust of what the film had done to the book. It's a really interesting story that is a fun mix of Pacific Rim and Groundhog Day with some surprising emotional undercurrents. It is quite a short book - quite literally only 200 pages long so won't take very long to get through. I really enjoyed it and if you're at all interested in seeing the film STOP - go and buy/borrow this book and read it first. Trust me you'll feel completely differently about seeing the film afterwards. Tom Cruise has no business playing an 18yr old Japanese guy and Emily Blunt (as great as she is) can't really portray a 19yr old girl. Also as a disclaimer if you don't particularly like overly sweary books, this has a metric f**kton of f-bombs :P

April's Reading so far consists of two books; Joss Stirling's most recent book Storm & Stone which was a fun mystery/boarding school/thrillerish story. And this morning's re-read of Daughter of Smoke & Bone by the ever-lyrically masterful Laini Taylor (who I shall get to meet on May 1st with Jess *flails*).

So that's what I've been reading, let me know if you guys have read anything awesome lately.
Ray

p.s. Before anyone says it, Yes I am procrastinating writing my Scene of Doom *shhh*

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What *did* I read in February?

You know it's possibly the first time I've got the end of a month and really cannot recall if I read any books. I spend so much of the time that I would normally spend reading, on writing my book right now that it's murdering my reading totals.

On the face of it this February has not been my worst *ever* reading month, I'm pretty sure that there has been a month where I only read 5 books - I'm right it was November 2012. In the past 28 days I have read 6 books and as won't be surprising to most people who know me, half of those were re-reads :P

I re-read the first two books of Marissa Meyer's fantabulous Lunar Chronicles; Cinder and Scarlet before I devoured Cress in a few hours. I already am a big fan of Fairy Tale retellings and the fact that this series is just that but with a SCI-FI TWIST makes it even more awesome. I love all of Marissa's characters, except the Lunar queen obvs (what a cow) and Cress is so adorable with Thorn that I feel like some kind of bloody Admiral with all the ships I have got sailing (Damn Marissa you got some 'splaining do the Wolf/Scarlet front).

After my sojourn to New Beijing I took a much needed trip back to see how Juliette and Warner were getting on in Ignite Me. *pours bucket of icy water over self*

DAMN IT ALL TAHEREH ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?! Cos you bloody well succeeded. Your whole series had me sitting there grinning like a fool and squealing with delight. I have never in ALL MY LIFE had a complete reversal of feelings towards a character as I had with Warner. That sexy, adorable bastard. The intensity of his scenes with Juliette were enough to set me and the house alight and it was all I could do to sit there reading with a straight face (Tumblr is good training for that shit). The Shatter Me series is going to become a staple re-read for me every year methinks and until Tahereh writes something new I'll be pining away for her lusciously beautiful writing.

I also read Unite Me, which was the gawjuss bind-up of Destroy Me and Fracture Me by the aforementioned Goddess. As you might expect my fav of the two by a country mile was Destroy Me because WARNER POV! *flails* I could easily read the entire series through his eyes and rather hope Tahereh might do more novellas in his POV *bats eyelashes* PRETTY PLEASE? Is it really wrong of me that the main upside to Fracture Me was that I get to see Kenji? Julienji is now a particular BroTP for me.

Finally I re-read Fangirl by the current Queen of Contemp Rainbow Rowell. I read the e-book last year while I was supposed to be doing my final prep for my Spanish speaking test and since I passed I have no regrets about doing it. I recently bought the amazingly designed paperback and HOLY BALLS THE ARTWORK GUYS! Seriously this is why I love having physical copies of books because there is just no comparison to having the awesome colour illustrations of Cath, Levi and the gang inside the front and back covers while you're merrily reading away.

So to sum up my February reading went as follows
Cinder by Marissa Meyer *RE-READ* 4.5 Stars
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer *RE-READ* 4.5 Stars
Cress by Marissa Meyer 4.5 Stars
Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi 5 Stars
Unite Me by Tahereh Mafi 4.5 Stars (Most of that for Destroy Me)
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell *RE-READ* 4.5 Stars

Overall a pretty good month, both in terms of reading and writing. If you don't follow my twitter then you may not have seen that I passed 32K on my 2014 Writing Project *confetti* I'll be doing another post for my "Writing Ray" blog series in which I may vair well give you a look at the Prologue to the as-yet unnamed book. Due to my weird writing style in which I'm doing from about half-way until the end first and then going back to write to the middle, the only unspoilery bit I have that I can show y'all is the Prologue.

Hope everyone is having a Good Saturday
Til I post again
Ray

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January has been one of those months...

Where all you've wanted to do is wallow in the nostalgia of books you've already read at least twice before, or as the case is with some of my reads in January fourorfivetimesIdunno. As I've had additional goals for what I do with my time I'm strangely not all that bothered and despite my claim to re-read less this year I reckon it's going to happen just as much as it always does because 2014 is the year that ALL THE SERIES seem to be ending!

I mean the Shatter Me series is nearly over (my copy of Ignite Me is already on its sexy way here so *dances*), the last Mortal Instruments book is out in May, the last Daughter of Smoke & Bone book is out in April, the last Blood of Eden book is due out in April, the last Slated book is going to be out and the next freaking Throne of Glass book is out in September-ish, not to bloody mention Unmade by that evil madame Sarah Rees Brennan! The last Grisha book AND ISLA AND THE FREAKING HAPPILY EVER AFTER!! I mean that's a lot of series finishing and some of them I am probably to re-read ahead of the final book's release so I've already lined myself up for about 15 re-reads just from those lot.

But anyway I digress as always. I should probably confess to my shameful reading from January. Only 11 books and literally only *ONE* book was a first-time read.

January
1. The Emperor Mage by Tamora Pierce (1/1/2014 AM) *RE-READ*
2. Realms of the Gods by Tamora Pierce (2/1/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
3. Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder (4/1/2014 AM) *RE-READ*
4. Scent of Magic by Maria V. Snyder (4/1/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
5. Taste of Darkness by Maria V. Synder (6/1/2014 PM) NEW READ WUT?
6. First Test by Tamora Pierce (13/1/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
7. Page by Tamora Pierce (15/1/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
8. Squire by Tamora Pierce (16/1/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
9. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi (20/1/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
10. Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi (20/1/2014 PM) *RE-READ*
11. Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce (26/1/2014 AM) *RE-READ*

I think this month is very indicative of which three awesome gals are some of my absolute favourite authors, I mean I don't know if you can spot the pattern but I assure you it's there. *shifty eyes*

*coughs* But anyway that's what I read in January! Now a wee bit later today or possibly tomorrow depending on what my grumpy self can be bothered to do y'all may get a post will more info about my 2014 Write a Fucking Book project (that's not it's actual name but it's a good Motivational point). So keep your lamps peeled for that!

Laters
Ray

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Surprise Top 13 of 2013 and 2014 Reading Goals

Surprise Bitches, bet you thought you'd seen the last of me...

Yes well I know it's not unheard of for me to just vanish into the aether and then not reappear for 2 years but I think that just adds to my charm n'est pas?

So I return in the New Year with a plan to slowly reintegrate myself into a more active participatory role in the book community and this time I have Gifs! (gods all bless Tumblr).

Top 13 Reads of 2013
Since no one has any idea what I read last year (except those few whom I actually communicate with through other mediums) I thought I'd start with a list of my favourite reads of 2013. This list won't include any re-reads or multiple books by the same author. Also in no order of favouritism.

Angelfall by Susan Ee 

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell  

Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

Unravel Me - Tahereh Mafi

Clockwork Princess - Cassandra Clare

Etiquette and Espionage - Gail Carriger

Just One Day - Gayle Forman

This Song will Save your Life - Leila Sales

Siege and Storm - Leigh Bardugo

Untold - Sarah Rees Brennan

Battle Magic - Tamora Pierce

The 5th Wave - Rick Yancey

1Q84 - Haruki Murakami

Reading Goals for 2014

I kinda failed with some of my goals from last year so hopefully I can succeed with this year's.

1. Read at least 150 books

2. Read at least 1 non-fiction book a month

3. Read at least 1 classic book a month

4. Read more from my TBR pile than re-reads

5. Get back into the habit of filling my reading journal properly

6. Try to get back into book community (see already trying with this one!)

What goals are all you lovely folk setting for yourselves in 2014? 

Hopefully y'all will see more from me soon - alas now I have to go be domestic, ironing calls!

Ray

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So I kinda suck at Read-a-thons

Good evening all you lovely people, it's a tad embarrassing coming back here after supposedly starting a readathon last Monday and realising that I just, sort of stopped by Thursday. While I did get some reading done that day (Started on the Repossession by Sam Hawksmoor) events conspired against me and I just didn't get round to updating the blog that day. Then the weekend arrived along with that wonderfully lovely specimen of awesomeness (Also known as my boyfriend, Mark :D) and all blogging went out the window and was replaced by Doctor Who marathons and copious amounts of Cricket (Alas not the Bell variety).

Hilariously I did get a bit more of the Repossession read on Saturday morning while I was volunteering at my local library. I've been helping with the Summer Reading Challenge for les enfants and there was quite a hefty lull so one of the librarians asked if I wanted a magazine to look through, I said thanks but I've got it covered and whipped the book out of my handbag. I'd got it with me just in case although I felt very odd about bringing my own book to a freaking library but eventually got over the weirdness and zoned out. Thankfully there were not many other kids during the two hours I was there.

So my Readathon was somewhat curtailed but it was really great to be able to sit and actually read since July was a very low yield reading month. I think I blitzed about 5 6 books in the first week of August which already has equalled July so I'm hoping to get through a fair bit more before we hit September (although srsly what the frack? I'm gonna be 22 around the start of October and that's getting scarily close!).

The final tally for my Readathon was as follows;
Frostfire by Zoe Marriott - 45 pgs. 4 stars
Slated by Teri Terry - 327 pgs. 5 stars
How to Marry a Marquis by Julia Quinn - 375 pgs. 4 stars
Fat Cat by Robin Brande - 327 pgs. 4.5 stars

I think it is rather fabulous that I managed to read four completely different genres of books that almost perfectly sums up the majority of my book collection; Fantasy, Dystopia, Historical and Contemporary. Yea I do have a lot of "classics" but seriously when have I last read a good chunk of those?

I do actually want to write reviews for all the books I've read so far this month (including at least one from the end of last month) so maybe I shall get uber productive and post a review a day for a week or more sensibly post two a week so they last me a bit longer since who knows when I might write another?!

Well this has been a rather lengthy ramble about my inability to finish another project (C'est la vie non?)
But I shall now bid thee adieu.

Yours wistfully
LadyV

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July Reading Update

A good morning to ye fine folk! I know it's been a little quiet on the blog front for the past week or two but never fear I've not disappeared again! It's just been a much busier month than any other so far this year for very excellent reasons and I've done very little reading since I've basically not been at home most weekends :D

While the whole job front is still a bit uncertain I gotta say that for the first time in 18 months I'm too happy to give a flying fuck. Things will all sort themselves out eventually.

Anyways this is a now rather belated look back at what I've read in July and for the most part it is a awfully tiddly amount due to aforementioned reasons.

Books Read in July
104. Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers 6/7/2012 PM 4 Stars
105. Unrest by Michelle Harrison 19/7/2012 PM 4 Stars
106. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss 20/7/2012 AM 4.5 Stars
107. A Gentleman of Fortune by Anna Dean 23/7/2012 AM 4 Stars
108. Mr Cavendish. I Presume? by Julia Quinn 27/7/2012 AM <4 b="b" stars="stars">
109. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart 29/7/2012 PM 4 Stars

Wow a whole month without a single re-read! (Wait that's a lie I re-read Seraphina for a second time) but still it's impressive! I've discovered my new fluffy book love - Julia Quinn novels! I've found myself very enamored with stories set in Regency England of late and now with the finding of Miss Julia and her wonderfully funny characters and occasional sauciness I am determined to get my grubby mitts on more of her books! Add in the rather delightful Anna Dean books which are Regency murder mysteries where the main character is a bit like Miss Marple with a love of deduction and I have all the Austen-esque fun I could want!

But the Book of the Month has to be The Name of the Wind, an immensely fabulous fantasy novel with the most compelling story that ends so lacksidaisily that it made me flail and want to go out and devour Wise Man's Fear straight away just so I could know what Kvothe was up to next. It still awes me that this was Patrick Rothfuss' debut novel, dude can fecking *write*!

Now to continue with what I'm supposed to be doing (job-hunting) and hopefully later I will get to finish what I'm currently reading - Frostfire by the fabulous Zoe Marriott - and actually start joining in properly with the Summer Wrap-up Readathon that I'm supposedly taking part in this week. *snort*

Procrastinationally Yours,
LadyV

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British Books Reading Challenge!

Although I had kinda said to myself "don't sign up to loads of reading challenges cos you'll only put pressure on yourself to complete them" I still thought I ought to sign up for this particular challenge what with being British and all.

The British Books Challenge is being hosted by The Bookette

The idea behind the challenge is simple, for those home grown Brit folk like myself the aim is to support our marvellous authors by trying to read 12 books by British Authors in 2011. The books can be new or old and from any genre you like.

If you need more motivation to sign up then never fear! The Bookette has had loads of support from several Fab UK publishers and there will be awesome prize packs chock full of goodies that BBC participants can win during the year (a la The Debut Author Challenge).

My Brit Books Reading List

I'm a tad late to start this challenge but I've already read a couple of books by Brits so it's not too bad. I don't want to pick out a set list of books I want to read since I'll invariably end up not wanting to read them when it's an obligation.

1. The Radleys by Matt Haig - Review

2. Stolen by Lucy Christopher - Review

I'll update reviews on this post as the year goes on and hopefully I can smash the 12 book target to smithereens since I have multiple works by non-YA authors such as Elizabeth Chadwick and Daphne du Maurier which I really need to read.

Toodles folk!

LadyV

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Booking through Thursday - Encouragement

How can you encourage a non-reading child to read? What about a teen-ager? Would you require books to be read in the hopes that they would enjoy them once they got into them, or offer incentives, or just suggest interesting books?


Since I've not done a post for several days (I'm really sorry about that I've got a lot of work from uni to do) I'll do this week's BTT. 


Although obviously I am not old enough to have non-reading offspring to worry about I have had to deal with my mostly non-reader sister. Until very recently we were completely opposite in that she preferred to watch TV and Dvds all the time and had to be forced to read anything that was larger than a magazine whereas I hardly watch TV anymore (although I do love watching films) and I have to be threatened to get me away from my books- the threats usually imply that some form of harm will befall my precious books should I not comply. Our parents have long accepted the fact that I was the bookworm and my sister the TV addict and didn't force her to read if she didn't want to.


However in the last year a strange and miraculous change was wrought upon my sister thanks to me and although I'm not all too happy to admit it- Twilight. Yes that's right those beslubbering books which have been hyped up beyond all reason and which have ensnared the minds of an enormous portion of the female population, old and young, were the catalyst which got my sister reading. When I first read the Twilight books back around the time just when Breaking Dawn came out I'll readily confess that I was addicted. I raced through all four books and went back and re-read them several times for good measure. I even gave the first book as a christmas present to three of my best friends with the very stern order to "read it or else!" I even joined The Twilight Lexicon (one of the largest Twilight fansites) and was so hooked on it that I annoyed a heck of a lot of people for several months until I weaned myself off it. But out of that experience came something brilliant- as dodgy as this may sound- I met my best friend on the Lex. Although we've only known each other for a year and only met up twice in person I fell as though I've known her my whole life- we have so much in common it's scary and we actually got mistaken for being sisters on our first get-together (which was hilarious oh our faces were a picture!). Nowadays neither of us much like the Twilight books since the furor surrounding them has just got to the point of being ridiculous but I do have to give thanks to the books and the Lex for providing the spark for a friendship that I'm going to be glad of for the rest of my life.


Now before you cry "hold on, how off on a tangent are you going?" I do have a point and I'm getting to it, albeit by a very convoluted route. What I'm trying to say is that although I don't like the Twilight books anymore I have to acknowledge the fact that they have had quite a remarkable effect on my life and my reading habits. They are not great literature and they're not going to become classics by which 21st century fiction is defined, not in the slightest, they're books about sparkly freaking vampires for god's sake! But no one can deny the incredible effect these books have had on a whole generation of young people. Some kids who hated reading before they read Twilight now are almost as ravenous for books as kids who've been reading all their lives and are clamouring for more books "like Twilight" (how many times a day bookstore clerks hear those two words I can't possibly imagine). If you can get past the annoying whininess of Bella and the sheer craziness that is the sparkly vampire concept the Twilight books are, initially, thrillingly addictive and you almost can't help speeding through them. Even though on multiple readings they become less brilliant to even a minimally critical reader, they give such a rush to new readers that they can ignore the faults and devour them happily until someone gives them something new to read. 


At first my sister wouldn't read the Twilight saga, but when the film came out she became suddenly interested in the books and I lent my copies to her. Since she was not a usual reader it took her a long time to get through all four books but by the time she'd finished them all the Twilight fandom had it's newest recruit. Over the months that followed she re-read those books more times than I actually know, she had to buy replacement copies for two of them since she'd read them almost to the point of tattiness. I had been trying over that time to get her to read some other books so that she wasn't reading just the Twilight books for the rest of her life. She requested suggestions for books with romance in them which is not too difficult to find as most YA books these days have at least some romance in them. So I gave her my favourite Sarah Dessen books to read, Just Listen- unfortunately she didn't really get on with Dessen's brand of romance so I switched tack. Short of Mills and Boon drivel the most romantic books I could think of were Nicholas Sparks' novels - that man is a marvel to me. Almost every book of his that I've read has left me sobbing by the end so I thought they would fit the bill perfectly. And I struck gold- although it wasn't the book I suggested, my sister read his newest book "The Last Song" and within a day of her reading it I got numerous emails and texts in full caps complete with an army of exclamation marks to "READ THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW OR ELSE!!!!" I was completely shocked, where on earth had this monster come from? My sister the devout TV lover who had to be brow-beaten into reading was now demanding vehemently that *I* read something?? Just yesterday when I spoke to her on the phone she said that I would have to read a book that had just arrived at home straight away so that she could read it because it looked really good. I'm both immensely glad and amazed at the change in my sister because now we have something else which we can share and talk about together and that is fantastic after so many years of us being quite different from each other. 


So to sum up, although the Twilight saga is regarded by some as the stupidest piece of tosh to appear this century I have to say that it has been enormously helpful to get thousands of young people reading. If a non-reader gets hooked onto these books it's possible to get them to read other books which they may never have dreamt of reading before. Use Twilight as a launch-pad to wider reading, help someone to branch out into other genres depending on what aspect of the series interested the non-reader most, for my sister it was the romance aspect, for others it may be the paranormal creatures- give them a choice of similar books to choose from and see where they want to go from there. (if I'm sounding at all preachy I'm terribly sorry) Who knows, Twilight might get people reading the classics which are mentioned in the books! That'd be a thing to see indeed!


Now I've bored you for far too long so I'll finish here (I really must try and write to a word limit because posts like this are just mental). Thanks if you've read all the way down here and if you want to make a comment then feel free :)
LadyV

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