Friday 31 August 2018

August 2018 Wrap Up

Well August was a pretty good reading month but then it always has been. When I was attending school, I would read at home or on holiday and it would always be the time when I would read the most. When I was at Uni, I had all of August off so it was a time to start reading for pleasure again and then when I started teaching, again August was a month where less work happened for the first 2 weeks and so more reading got done and I haven't got out of that mindset yet. 

There were 2 readathons this month, and I ended up doing another one in the middle of the second readthon-madness I know! So we knew there were going to be a lot of books covered this month. Of course i deviated from my TBR, that's what it's there for, but I DID read most of the releases I wanted to read. 

As always I will split my wrap up into the types of books that I read and leave links to any reviews I have already posted, reading lots of books means writing lots of reviews, that's the only drawback!

EBooks

 









My Review


Physcial Books














Audiobooks
























Picture Books




Thursday 30 August 2018

Review: The Adults by Caroline Hulse

Claire and Matt are divorced but decide what's best for their daughter Scarlett is to have a 'normal' family Christmas. They can't agree on whose idea it was, or who said they should bring their new partners. But someone did - and it's too late to pull the plug.
Claire brings her new boyfriend Patrick, a seemingly eligible Iron-Man-in-Waiting. Mattbrings the new love of his life Alex, funny, smart, and extremely patient. Scarlett, their daughter, brings her imaginary friend Posey. He's a rabbit.
Together the five (or six?) of them grit their teeth over Organized Fun activities, drinking a little too much after bed-time, oversharing classified secrets about their pasts and, before you know it, their holiday is a powder keg that ends - where this story starts - with a tearful, frightened, call to the police...

But what happened? They said they'd all be adults about this...




Review: I liked this novel but I didn't love it. I thought the premise behind this novel and the storyline itself was great. The idea of a blended family trapped together at Christmas is a villa in a holiday park in Yorkshire, awesome idea, so much could go wrong. Throw into that the fact that the little girl who this is all for has a giant rabbit as an imaginary friend who requires his own chair at the table and cup for drinking from, winner. But at times I found it to be a little confusing and it left me wanting just a little bit. 

The characters in this novel are not the kind of characters you take an instant liking to. The only overly 'nice' on of the group is Claire, Matt's ex-wife and Scarlett's mum. She tries her best to be nice and to do the right thing and the great thing is, you spend the novel wondering what she's covering up by being so nice all of the time. She is with Patrick who definitely has more to hide than he is letting on. He doesn't seem too bothered by not spending Christmas with his own kids and doesn't really seem to like the rest of the group. He may not be likable but boy is he intriguing!

Then the other couple are Matt and Alex, Matt used to be married to Claire and now lives with Alex, he is Scarlett's Dad. He is easy going but so much so that he is lazy. You get what you see with him and I spent most of the novel resenting him, a strong feeling! Alex definitely has more to her than meetings the eye. We know that she is a scientist and no longer drinks but we don't really find out an awful lot about her past until way way on in the book. I just really didn't sympathise with her at all and I think that's one of the issues I had with this book at some point. 

Scarlett to me seems like a little brat and I really didn't like her imaginary rabbit friend either. He seems evil and I almost became scared for her to be alone with him because I was worried what he might do and if he really was real or whether he was someone in a purple rabbit's suit, interesting concept I know! The scenes from her point of view though were good because I spent the whole time hating her and so I wanted to read on to get past them.

This book is structured a little bit like Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty but I found it a little confusing at times. We know something has happened and we have police reports and hospitals being mentioned and these police reports and interviews are dropped in throughout the novel, slowly, slowly revealing what happened. I think this was just a little bit too slow for me and sometimes it interrupted something that was happening in the rest of the book that never really felt resolved. 

Overall I thought there was definitely potential for this to be a gripping read but it just fell short on a few basic points for me and so I don't think I would be recommending this one to you. 

To order your copy and see for yourself, just click the link: UK or US (released 11/27 in USA)

Wednesday 29 August 2018

Guest Review: One Day in December by Josie Silver

Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn't exist. After all, life isn't a scene from the movies, is it?
But then, through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day, she sees a man who she knows instantly is the one. Their eyes meet, there's a moment of pure magic...and then her bus drives away.

Laurie thinks she'll never see the boy from the bus again. But at their Christmas party a year later, her best friend Sarah introduces her to the new love of her life. Who is, of course, the boy from the bus.
Determined to let him go, Laurie gets on with her life. But what if fate has other plans?
Following Laurie, Sarah and Jack through ten years of love, heartbreak and friendship, One Day in December is a joyous, heart-warming and immensely moving love story that you'll want to escape into forever.



Review: When I saw the title of this book, I thought just another Christmas story. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas stories, and I sat down to read with great anticipation. However, this is no ordinary tale of tinsel and sleigh bells; it is an absolutely wonderful love story that keeps you captivated and guessing at the same time. As well as romance, there is heartbreak, happiness, humour and the most amazing lasting friendship in the pages of this incredibly moving book. 

This is the story of Laurie and Jack. As the title says, Laurie first glimpses Jack one day in December from the bus she is riding home from work. Although she doesn't believe it possible, she is smitten there and then, but the bus drives on, Jack is left behind and she is left searching for him. When they finally meet properly, it is when he is introduced to her by her best friend in the world, Sarah, but as Sarah's perfect boyfriend. There then follows 10 years of ups and downs in which Laurie's, Jack's and Sarah's lives move in all sorts of directions, and a host of other characters come and go. 

I completely loved this story. It took me on an emotional rollercoaster, but not one that had me shouting to get off; I never knew where it was going to turn next - wonderful writing. I cannot recommend it highly enough. However, be prepared with tissues for tears of joy, sorrow and frustration. 

To order your copy now, just click the link: UK or US

Tuesday 28 August 2018

Review: Bad Twins by Rebecca Chance

Never trust the face in the mirror . . .
It’s no surprise to anyone that Jeffrey Sachs, billionaire CEO of his own hotel chain, has a drop-dead gorgeous Estonian mistress. But stepping down to spend his retirement years with her? No one saw that coming – least of all his wife!
So now the prize of becoming Sachs CEO is up for grabs – and Jeffrey’s four children have until the day of his wedding to compete for the job.
The front runner is Conway, the older son and golden boy. But Charlotte, a glamorous social media star with an Instagram-perfect family, is hugely ambitious, fully prepared to scheme and backstab to get to the top. Then there’s the dark horse: Bella, her mild-mannered, hard-working twin sister. Or could Bart, the youngest child, a sexy, incorrigible playboy, somehow catapult himself into Daddy’s good books?
In a game where the ultimate prize is power beyond your wildest dreams, you should never underestimate your competitors, even if they are family . . . and, it turns out, twins can be the most dangerous rivals of all . . .


Review: This was another classic from one of my favourite authors that I just don't talk about enough! This book had it all, opulent wealth, scandalous affairs and of course sibling rivalry. The twins in Bad Twins are just classic Rebecca Chance Characters, spectacularly larger than life but definitely believable enough for you to believe that their actions really could happen. Despite their sibling rivalry and between themselves and with the rest of their family, these women and strong and supportive of each other to the bitter end. That's one of the most wonderful things about Rebecca Chance novels, they feature strong women who tend to come out on top, no matter what is thrown at them. 

When we speak about a Rebecca Chance novel, we have to speak about the sex because this writer can concoct the most wonderful sex scenes that, again, are female friendly. They go on for pages but not so much that you get bored of them, so much that you can't believe they were over so quickly. There is always an extra element of scandal or mischief to her sex scene, some sort of forbidden element that make vanilla the farthest flavour from your mind. There is one scene which is a role play scene and a sort of rape is role played that made me a little uncomfortable but other than that I just wanted more characters orgasming left right and centre. 

Of course there is a scandalous storyline at the heart of this novel. Children vying to take over their fathers company and a new younger wife, for the umpteenth time who has more to her than meets the eye. The secondary characters all get their own time in the spotlight with affairs and risque behaviour and it all twists and ties together to form an ending that will have you exclaiming 'what?' right to the very last moment. In case you can't tell I was a big fan of this book and if you are looking for something a little different then I can highly recommend this one to add some spice to your TBR!

To order your copy now, just click the link: UK or US

Monday 27 August 2018

Bout of Books Wrap Up!


What an amazing week Bout of Books always is! I'm not going to lie, I found some of my book choices a little tough this week and I'm kind of kicking myself for saving some of these for the readathon, it really wasn't the right move but I ended the week on a high finish 3 awesome books at the weekend!

I took part in 5 out of 7 challenges and all of the instagram challenges. I took part in both chats and tried to cheer on other bout of book participants by commenting on blogs, instagram posts and tweets all week!

What I Read


Audiobook: 356 Pages


Hardback: 293 Pages




Audiobook: 432 Pages


Hardback: 320 pages


Audiobook: 512 Pages


 EBook: 416 Pages


Pages Read Day 7:  514

Pages Read This Week: 2329

Complete Books Finished: 6

I had an amazing time updating and tracking my reading and taking part in the challenges so I call that a big win!

Look out for the reviews of all these books coming to this space very very soon!




Sunday 26 August 2018

Bout of Books Day 6 Update and Day 7 Challenge


Today was a really good reading day. Because I had that migraine hangover I just stayed in, like I literally didn't leave the apartment at all and was able to read on the sofa, in bed, in the bath, it was a good reading day. I also decided to switch genres to help get me out of a little bit of a reading rut. This was helped in part by owlcrate announcing their readathon this week so I decided to hit their goals whilst still doing bout of book of course. 

Their challenges were to read 1 book over the weekend that you'd received in Owlcrate and to read a genre you wouldn't usually pick up. They also had reading sprints on instagram which i took part in and I ran and took part in some reading sprints on twitter using the bout of books hashtag, so fun!

Day 7 Challenge
Today's challenge is to stretch your goals and I just filmed a little bit about this funnily enough. I have 25% of my ebook left to read, so that's about 100 pages and about 300 pages of my audiobook left to read and then I will have read 6 books this week. My audiobook can be listened to anywhere and anytime so that should work and since I listen on double speed its only about 6 hours remaining-yey! And the ebook can be read at other times so if I can just reach those goals I'll be a happy bunny!

Day 6 Update
So that Owlcrate book that I read yesterday was from the most recent box, Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart. This was 320 pages and I read it all in one sitting thanks to reading sprints. 


Then I read another 33% of my ebook which equates to about 137 pages. I will finish this one today so you can expect a review next week!


And finally I started another book I wanted to read this week. Since I had finished my audiobook on day 5 I decided to download this one on audio even though I have the paperback-hey it's another sale for this lovely author isn't it? I listened to 102 pages of this (I know the exact number because I have the paperback yey!) And again I will have a review of this one on the blog next week all being well so look out for that one to hear my thoughts!


Let me know how you've been getting on in the comments and look out for my wrap up and vlog on here and on my BookTube channel tomorrow!

Pages Read Today:  559
Pages Read This Week: 1789
Complete Books Finished: 4





Movie Reviews August 19th-25th


Well I didn't see as many movies this week because I wasn't feeling great and then Movie Pass changed again and I'm now limited to 3 movies a month with them, which is a bit of a blow but it's still good value so who am I to complain. I saw a lot of movies before movie pass and I'm sure I'll still see plenty of movies. 

The first movie I saw this week was Blindspotting which thankfully I saw with a friend. I say this because it was a real thinker of a film and it was good to have someone to discuss it with even if I wasn't ready to discuss it right after the film. I thought the acting was great, the storyline was very real and the way it was shot was really cool as well. I really recommend this movie but make sure you've seen the trailer before viewing so you know what you're getting yourself into. 


Then something completely different, a documentary about Alexander McQueen. This was equally not all sunshine and rainbows but I thought it was really well put together with a mixture of professional and amateur footage and plenty of interviews with all those involved. I'm not particularly interested in fashion or this designer but I love a good memoir when reading and so I loved this one and even if you're not interested in fashion, I think you'll like this one!


The Happytime Murders is basically everything you'd expect it to be. There is a plethora of sex and swearing and violence but somehow it seems funny because the sex is between puppets and the violence it towards puppets. Melissa McCarthy is great of course, she can do no wrong in my book so I'm a little bias. But i enjoyed this. It was kind of detective movie so there was a bit of mystery to it and a lot of comedy. If lots of swearing and guns isn't your thing though, maybe avoid!




Bout of Books Day 5 Update and Day 6 Challenge


As I mentioned yesterday I had a migraine today so I was banished to audiobook only, however that meant that I finished my audiobook-yey!

I've done the Instagram challenge for today but I won't be doing the other challenge today, hopefully I'll get on better with tomorrow's challenge but a migraine hangover isn't fun so I'm going back to lying down now!

I finished save the date by Morgan Matson. I started the day before on page 92 and read to the end today. Since I forgot to track yesterday I count all 325 pages today!




Pages Read Today:  325
Pages Read This Week: 1230
Complete Books Finished: 3

Saturday 25 August 2018

Bout of Books Day 4 Update and Day 5 Challenge


Well I was out and about again today so it was a big audiobook day again! I also went to an author event in the evening so that took up my evening reading time. I DID do some reading sprints on twitter though so do poke me if you fancy doing more of these in the future!

Today's challenge is to match songs and books. Again I'm going to stick with one author which seems to be the way I'm doing this this week... The song titles need no explanations!








I actually read another 32% of The Adults which is 133 pages-go reading sprints!


Then i listened to a ton more audiobook but i forgot to track it before going to bed so I will add today's audiobook listening to today's audiobook listening and update you on this one tomorrow!




Pages Read Today:  133+
Pages Read This Week: 905+
Complete Books Finished: 2