Sunday 16 June 2013

30 Day Book Challenge

After vowing not to participate in any book challenges for this year due to university work, I have finally caved and want to participate in one. It is called the 30 Day Book Challenge, in which you attempt to read a book a day. Since I would find this virtually impossible unless all the books I read were super short, various other YouTubers have suggested reading 200 pages a day, over the course of 30 days, which I have decided upon doing, seeing as though the majority of the books I've chosen are longer than 200 pages. The books I am attempting to read are:


1.   The Queen’s Fool by Philippa Gregory – 400 pages
2.   Letters From Home by Kristina McMorris – 384 pages
3.   Dare You To by Katie McGarry – 352 pages
4.   My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher – 221 pages
5.   Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers – 484 pages
6.   Emerald by Karen Wallace – 288 pages
7.   The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd – 375 pages
8.   Ill Wind by Rachel Caine – 414 pages
9.   Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy – 384 pages (e-book)
10.                Kissed By An Angel by Elizabeth Chandler – 698 pages
11.                Vampirates: Demons of the Ocean by Justin Somper – 298 pages
12.                Prophecy of the Most Beautiful by Diantha Jones – 268 pages
13.                The Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink – 352 pages (hardback)
14.                The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter – 293 pages (e-book)
15.                Immortal City by Scott Speer – 406 pages
16.                The Tide Knot by Helen Dunmore – 336 pages


17.                Petals in the Ashes by Mary Hooper – 192 pages




The Grand total of pages comes to 6145 pages. It will be a miracle if I manage to finish all these books within this time period, but since I have finished university for good, I might as well try it out as it gives me something to do. I will leave a link to the YouTube channel of Nerd in Translation below, who came up with the challenge, and good luck to everyone who's doing it! Happy reading.

Nerd in Translation's YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/nerdintranslation

Book Haul - 16/06/2013

I haven't done a proper book haul on the blog in a while, so I thought I would share all the books I have bought and received in the past two months.

For review, I received The Elephant Girl by Henriette Gyland

I bought:
The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence
Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin #1) by Robin LaFevers
Dare You To (Pushing the Limits #2) by Katie McGarry
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Touch of Power (Avry of Kazan #1) by Maria V. Snyder

From swaps:
Vampirates: Demons of the Ocean (Vampirates #1) by Justin Somper

Won:
The Eternity Cure (Blood of Eden #2) by Julie Kagawa (From a Facebook competition)
The Sea Change by Joanna Rossiter (My first ever win from Goodreads)


I am super excited to read all of these books, and they should keep me busy until my next haul. Feel free to let me know what books you got in the comments below, and have a great week! Happy reading.

Tuesday 4 June 2013

Hubble Bubble by Jane Lovering - Review

Published: 2013
Publisher: Choc Lit
Length: 290 pages
Rating: 3/5 stars

Summary from Goodreads:
Be careful what you wish for…Holly Grey only took up witchery to keep her friend out of trouble – and now she’s knee-deep in hassle, in the form of apocalyptic weather, armed men, midwifery … and a sarcastic Welsh journalist.
Kai has been drawn to darkest Yorkshire by his desire to find out who he really is. What he hadn’t bargained on was getting caught up in amateur magic and dealing with a bunch of women who are trying really hard to make their dreams come true.

Together they realise that getting what you wish for is sometimes just a matter of knowing what it is you want.

Review:
Hubble Bubble was quite a strange book for me to read and review. After reading the synopsis, I wasn’t quite sure if it was a paranormal romance or a chick-lit book, but upon reading the first few chapters I grasped that it was a sort of mixture of both, but more on the chick-lit side.

Holly is a thirty-something woman from Yorkshire who is content without a man or children in her life. She goes along with her friend Megan to a nearby woman’s house who promises to make all the women’s wishes come true. Eventually, Holly discovers that the wish brings many different things into her life, including Kai, a Welsh journalist who is looking for his birth mother who abandoned him.

Holly was an okay character for me; I admired the way she lived an independent life, and wasn’t desperate for a man to complete it, on the other hand she could be slightly selfish and inconsiderate to others, such as Cerys, Kai’s daughter who was expecting twins.

I also enjoyed her and Kai’s romance; it really is a fun love story when the woman doesn’t want a relationship in the first place, and is feisty instead of letting the man walk all over her, which thankfully, Holly does not do.

I think that overall, Megan, Holly’s best friend was my favourite character of the book. Some of the stuff she came out with was just so random and quirky, and I loved it when she took in a scruffy little stray dog.

It also had a few dark elements to it that I would not normally expect from a chick-lit book, but as it also has some fantasy elements thrown in, I guess it would be fair to say it contained them.

Overall, this was a light, funny book that is great for all the single women out there, and I recommend it.