Happy St Paddy's Day!!

Hello there guys!!

HAPPY ST PATRICK'S DAY!!

As one of those Irish-ish people (that means I'm not Irish but for some strange reason I'm in bloody love with that country), I love to celebrate St Paddy's Day! Which means I'm wearing green today, started my morning with Irish Breakfast tea, I'm listening to me Irish instrumental playlist and will be downing a few Guinness while I watch Boondock Saints tonight after work!

And since books are my thing, I want to recommend a few books here that are either set in Ireland or that have a certain Irish flair to them, or where Ireland is part of the plot, setting or motivation!

Sláinte!!

See Me by Wendy Higgins

While most seventeen-year-old American girls would refuse to let their parents marry them off to a stranger, Robyn Mason dreams of the mysterious McKale in Ireland, wondering how he’ll look and imagining his cute Irish accent. Prearranged bindings are common for magical families like her own, however when she travels to the whimsical Emerald Isle she discovers there’s more to her betrothal and McKale’s clan than she was led to believe.

What starts as an obligatory pairing between Robyn and McKale morphs over time into something they both need. But one giant obstacle stands in the way of their budding romance: a seductive and deadly Fae princess accustomed to getting what she wants—and what she wants is McKale as her plaything. Love, desire, and jealousies collide as Robyn’s family and McKale’s clan must work together to outsmart the powerful Faeries and preserve the only hope left for their people.

 The Treachery of Beautiful Things by Ruth Frances Long

A darkly compelling mix of romance, fairy tale, and suspense from a new voice in teen fiction

The trees swallowed her brother whole, and Jenny was there to see it. Now seventeen, she revisits the woods where Tom was taken, resolving to say good-bye at last. Instead, she's lured into the trees, where she finds strange and dangerous creatures who seem to consider her the threat. Among them is Jack, mercurial and magnetic, with secrets of his own. Determined to find her brother, with or without Jack's help, Jenny struggles to navigate a faerie world where stunning beauty masks some of the most treacherous evils, and she's faced with a choice between salvation or sacrifice--and not just her own.

 Girl Against The Universe by Paula Stokes

Maguire is bad luck.

No matter how many charms she buys off the internet or good luck rituals she performs each morning, horrible things happen when Maguire is around. Like that time the rollercoaster jumped off its tracks. Or the time the house next door caught on fire. Or that time her brother, father, and uncle were all killed in a car crash—and Maguire walked away with barely a scratch.

It’s safest for Maguire to hide out in her room, where she can cause less damage and avoid meeting new people who she could hurt. But then she meets Jordy, an aspiring tennis star. Jordy is confident, talented, and lucky, and he’s convinced he can help Maguire break her unlucky streak. Maguire knows that the best thing she can do for Jordy is to stay away. But it turns out staying away is harder than she thought.

From author Paula Stokes comes a funny and poignant novel about accepting the past, embracing the future, and learning to make your own luck.


And I'll leave you with one of my very favourite instrumental songs from my Irish playlist!! 

 

Lucky IS Reading Giveaway Hop!

Hello everyone! Today I'm super excited to take part in my first giveaway hop organized by Valerie from Stuck In Books!

I wanted to take part of this one because it's March and that means everyone is a bit Irish and everything can be green for St Patrick's Day, and with my love for everything and anything Irish... I just had to!

That's why I decided to give away a copy of a book set in Ireland and with a lot of Irish myth and folklore in it: The Treachery of Beautiful Things by Ruth Frances Long!

I read it last year and loved it! And really, that cover is gorgeous, isn't it?

Well, to enter you only have to fill the Rafflecopter below, easy peasy! Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Now, you can check the other participants in the Hop to see what other books you could win! Sláinte!

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Mark This Book Monday: Gold by Talia Vance (my first ARC!).

Hello everyone!

Happy Monday! Today I'm gonna have no one but two Mark This Book Monday entries! I could have done a combined entry of both books, but I thought each book ought to have their own very entry, since one of them should have been last Monday's entry!

So, for the first Mark This Book Monday, I'm going to review my very first ARC copy that I've got through NetGalley!

Gold by Talia Vance (Bandia #2).

As I've said before I requested this book on NetGalley and my request was approved, so I was sent a digital copy of the ARC of this book. As it is an ARC it is not a final copy and might differ from the finished book when it is published, but being able to read it in advance since it doesn't publish till September 8th was amazing!

I read Silver, book 1 in the series and really liked it, but this one I love! I give it 4 and a half stars out of 5!

Gold starts where Silver left us, but not exactly, since Silver left us with Brianna choosing Blake and in Gold Brianna is running to Ireland to clear her head and save her life, and she does it without Blake. And ends up at Austin's ancestral home of all places. And let me tell, this book is big on Austin time!

Through some flashbacks we find out why Brianna came to Ireland without Blake, and during Brianna's exploring of the surroundings of her refuge she gets two big surprises: one of the charms of her bracelet allows her to go back in time, the time before all Hell broke loose and the Feud started; and all of a sudden, Austin is back from the Underworld!

In Gold, we get a much deeper look at all the characters, a new threat, and discover more about how the present, the future and the past get intertwined. The plot deepens, and shows us that nothing really is as it seemed at first, with some very unexpected twists and turns!

Brianna's character goes through a lot, and how she grows to accept who and what she is, the choices she makes and why she makes them, it kept me rooting and feeling for her through all the pages and trials she has to deal with.

There's a love triangle here, and despite my absolute lack of interest on love triangles, this one never buggered me at all. The way it was presented and developed must have made sense enough for me, so I understood Brianna's affections and choices without thinking "arrgh, not another love triangle!!". Also, silly little me hadn't made sense of the book titles before, but mid-book I had a "Aha! That's why book #1 was Silver and book #2 is Gold!" moment. Austing and Blake, Blake and Austin, and surprisingly, I completely got to understand why Brianna makes the choices she does. But, I'm not gonna say anymore on that!

Talia Vance waves a very intrincate story with Ireland as the background, their myths as the inspiration and a look at human nature, choices and Fate as the main drives of it and delivers a great story that will have you turning each page wondering where Brianna's choices will lead her and the rest of the characters.

The ending is heartwrenching in more ways than one, with loss, casualties and a goodbye to Ireland, but also has a glimmer of hope in the end, and I just can't wait to read book 3! Hopefully the title will give us a little hint of what's to come!


Are you wondering if after reading the ARC copy I'm likely to buy the book once it comes out, since I already know what happens? Well yes, this is a book I want to add to my collection!



Stay tuned for the second review of the day, coming later!!

Saturday Song: The Drunk Scotsman!

Hello everyone!


This is a scheduled entry, cause right now I'm on my way to the cottage, to play with Chipi, enjoy the weekend off, read some, take some photos and recharge my batteries!


But, I wanted to leave ya'll with something to make you smile and sing, and to chug a beer or two (or what other berverage of choice you might have!). Salud!

Travelling Thursday: My first trip to Ireland: Dublin and Newgrange!!!

Hello everyone!

After a faily busy 5 days of work and quite a few emotionals ups and downs and a lot of unhappiness with my own country over the way they're handling the economy, the country, the stupid backwards laws the new goverment wants to pass and the fact that they won't give Gaurav a tourist visa to come this year...

So, to cheer myself up today before working night shift, I want to share with you all some photos of my trip to Ireland in March! I didn't go for St Patrick's Day, if you remember I was at my Wilton 1 intensive course. But I managed to exchange a few days and went to visit the Emerald Island with Joel, my elder nephew!

I've always felt drawn to Ireland for no particular or apparent reason, and after being there... I just can't wait to go back! We stayed at a small B&B quite in the middle of Dublin & the Temple Bar area itself! We had everything walking distance, and we enjoyed having early bird dinners and then some pints at the pubs with live music. I dragged my nephew to see Newgrange (which he actually enjoyed) and marvelled at the amount of daffodils you can find all over the roads, and loved seeing all the black faced sheep everywhere! And of course, Newgrange itself is just amazing!

Funny fact, late March, Ireland... and not a drop of rain! We had the sunniest days ever, and I left my sunglasses back in Spain expecting it to be cloudy and rainy every day!

 The view of the river Liffey from the bridge right outside our B&B

 Let's have some Guinness!

Joel had his first taste of Guinness during this trip, and he loved it! We also learnt how to properly throw yourself a pint, and we even had our own tap the last night when we went for a dinner with live music and Riverdancing at the Arlington Hotel!

 The Half Penny Bridge over the Liffey

 Spring time in Ireland, with gorgeous cherry trees!

Visiting Newgrange (or Brú Na Bóinne) was an absolutely fantastic experience. And I'm really glad I could do the tour for this, since I couldn't visit Tara Hill. Obviously, another reason to go back!

There's a lot of debate about what was the actual function of Newgrange, a passage toomb or an ancient temple, that predates both the Piramids and Stonehenge? Check out their website for more info on this superbly remarkable place: Newgrange.

And to say goodbye, let's say good morning to sweet Molly Malone, selling cockles and mussels in the streets of old Dublin by day, and who knows what else by night...

I can't wait to go back to the green old Ireland, even more with Gaurav, and I wouldn't be adverse to moving there one day either...

Saturday Song: The Blood of Cuchulainn from the Boondock Saints Soundtrack!

Hello everyone!


I have been fooling around all day, doing nothing much other than doing most of the packing for my trip and thinking I need a bigger suitcase. I was thinking that I wanted to share some music with you lot but wasn't sure what, till listening to the Dropkick Murphys made me think of the right song!


For today's Saturday Song I want to share a song from the Boondock Saints soundtrack, called "The Blood of Cuchulainn" that made me shiver and want to move to Ireland! Sometimes the Irish music has that effect on me, I have no idea why, but I feel really pulled towards Ireland!


Here it is, enjoy!