Girl Against The Universe: 7 Days 7 Giveaways Paperback Blog Tour!!!!

Helloooo there guys!!

Getting back into the blogging sphere because one of my most re-read and most beloved books is being released in paperback!

I think it's no secret that I love Paula and her books, and also that you can meet my fictional version if you read GATU (What?!? IKR!! There's a nurse called Pili in there!!) and I adored GATU from the very first time I read it, before I was included as the nurse that Paula needed for a few scenes! ;)

If you haven't yet read Girl Against The Universe, you're in luck! It's been released in paperback which means it's even more affordable, and you can even win a copy during this blog tour!

And in case you need a few reasons to read GATU: it's the perfect mix of fluffly and issue contemporary, deals with mental health issues in a way that is positive and relatable, there's an adorable romance that does NOT cure the mental health issues, and positive female friendships, present and realistic family dynamics! Well, I could add many things because I've already said this before... I adoooore this book!

From the author of The Art of Lainey and Liars, Inc. comes a fresh, contemporary story about a girl coping with PTSD and the boy who wants to help her move on from the past. Perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen or Jenny Han.

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

Despite what her therapist tells her, Maguire thinks it's best to hide out in her room, far away from anyone she might accidentally hurt. But then she meets Jordy, an aspiring tennis star who wants to help her break her unlucky streak. Maguire knows that the best thing she can do for him is to stay away, but it turns out staying away might be harder than she thought. 

 

 

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

 

 And now, over to Paula, who'll tell you all about the giveaway!


Paula: Hi everyone! Girl Against the Universe releases in paperback on June 6, 2017 and I’m so excited about that I decided to do an entire blog tour of giveaways to celebrate! In the story, main character Maguire creates her own list of seven challenges to help her overcome her fears. This week I have seven challenges for you, and seven chances to win a shiny GATU paperback :D These contests are international, but due to shipping costs, US winners will receive signed copies sent by me and INT winners will receive their books from Wordery or The Book Depository, with signed bookplates mailed separately.


All contests will end on May 31, 2017. All winners will be contacted via Instagram, Twitter, or email as well as posted on my blog in early June. If you’re going to enter a Twitter or Instagram challenge, be sure your account is set to public during the contest period so I will be able to see your entries and contact you if you win. 


Ready for still more ways to win?


Challenge #6: 

Tweet and/or Instagram an image of one of your personal good luck charms! People, pets, lucky socks—whatever it is that gives you a little added boost on a hard day. Your posts must include these tags so I can find them: @pstokesbooks, #GATU, #SevenDaysSevenGiveaways, and #LuckyCharms. 


Here’s an example using one of my favorite lucky charms ;)

Here’s my entry for @pstokesbooks #GATU #SevenDaysSevenGiveaways contest! It’s Taz, one of my #luckycharms giving my next release a kiss of approval :)


You can enter up to two entries on Twitter, Instagram, or one of each by May 31, 2017. If you enter twice, you must use two different lucky charms. Questions? Put them in the comments :)


That's all guys! Don't forget to check the rest of the tour for more chances to win a copy, because trust me, you want, nay, NEED, to read this book!

MON MAY 15
Adventures of a Book Junkie

TUES MAY 16
My Bookish Itinerary

WED MAY 17
Mary had a Little Book Blog

THURS MAY 18
The Forest of Words and Pages

FRI MAY 19
Xpresso Reads

SAT MAY 20
In Love With Handmade

SUN MAY 21
Author Paula Stokes

ARC August is HERE again!!

My beloved friends Octavia & Shelly from Read Sleep Repeat are once again organizing ARC August!! The month to stop and catch up with all your various ARCs before they get too out of control!

The good thing about ARC August is that both physical and digitals ARCs count, so I can finally allow myself to tackle my ARCs from BEA as well as focus on some backlogged Netgalley ARCs that will also count towards my Netgalley & Edelweiss Challenge!

My goal for ARC August is to tackle all the September ARCs I got from BEA (that'd be a total of 7, if I don't read any from that pile during July) and then 3 or 4 backlogged eARC from NetGalley.

My tentative list:

BEA ARCs

- Stalking Jack the Ripper
- Three Dark Crowns
- Metaltown
- The Female of the Species
- A Shadow Bright & Burning
- Vassa in the Night
- The Forgetting

And eARCs:

- Warrior Witch
- Wild Swans
- Tell The Wind & Fire
- Unicorn Tracks

Wish me luck guys! I hope I will do better than my major fail this past ARC April!!

30 Days of Yoga Challenge Completed!! #FWFG30days

Hello there guys!!

Happy Independence Day to all my US friends! I hope you guys had an awesome weekend of celebrating safely!

Today I have a non-bookish post because I want to a) continue keeping me accountable b) celebrate my accomplishments!

Yesterday I completed my 30 Days of Yoga Challenge!!

I have finished a lil late, not on June 30th as I should have, but I am pretty happy because even during my trip to Rome, I didn't do the challenge videos assigned for those days BUT I did manage to still do Sun Salutations every day while on vacation, and I have done all the videos even if I completed day 30th on July 3rd!

Now I'm gonna continue working on my Yoga everyday because I've turned it into a routine that I rely on to energize my morning and it's my main self care point!

My plan is to follow the July #FWFGworkshop schedule loosely, changing days around to fit better with my work schedule, shorter videos for days when I work and saving the longer ones for my days off.

My first video for tomorrow is gonna be a long (and looks like tough) one but it's a day off so it's a long video day!





Wish me luck as I continue with my Yoga journey! Hopefully by this time next year, I'll be doing a proper crow and side plank! So far after 2 months & a half I can plant my heels on the floor on downward facing dog!

Thursday Thoughts: Vicious & Midnight Marked (ARC review)!!

Hello there guys!!

Since last week I totally failed at posting reviews, I'm adding an extra day of review posting this week, and since I love alliterations, I'm calling it Thursday Thoughts!

As my extra reviews of the week, I'm pairing today two adult books, one that has been in my TBR pile since either early last year or late 2014, so it will count towards my Rock My TBR Challenge and that I buddy read with my friend LaLa from LaLa in the Library.

And the other one is an eARC I got approved for on NetGalley that releases in March BUT since it's the next book in one of my favourite Urban Fantasy series ever... I just HAD to read it! It counts towards my Netgalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge and contributes to keeping my ratio at 80%!

Vicious by V.E. Schwab

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


My first book for #RockMyTBR challenge! And I'm sort of kicking myself for not reading it before. As soon as I read ADSOM, I needed to read anything else Victoria had written, and so I bought this one, but it ended up being packed up in a box way too soon (moving time) but I finally got it out in time to buddy read it with my friend LaLa!

I love how very grey all the characters are, and how unsure you are while reading if everything is part of the plan or not. The first part of the book is told mostly on Victor's POV, and you aren't entirely sure if it's a very sucessful antihero story, an even more successfully done "now I feel bad for the villain dammit" or if it's something in between. Then we see a few more POVs and on the second half we also get Eli's POV, and then things change a bit. You start wondering if the usual labels of villain and hero or even antihero can be applied to either of these two, and how you alternatively keep on switching your allegiance from one to the other.

I think I very much ended up siding with Victor but fuck if I know if he's the hero, the villain or the antihero, and I have to wonder what that says about my moral code... I mean, it's not that I approve about his tactics or his motivations or lack of empathy, but I very much prefer him to Eli so... I dunno? Damn Victoria Schwab making me root for a guy that is the lesser evil? I don't even know!

We keep on switching between present and past, between Victor's revenge plans and the how and somewhat the why Eli and Victor became who they are or even "what" they are now. A lil bit of science, a lil bit of philosophy and a lot of food for thought about powers, responsability, what defines who we are or how we even define ourselves. The ending was quite a twist and once again left me wondering if it had all been planned in advance or if it was as it was only because of the character's change in choices that couldn't be planned... or could they? Seriously, so much that I'm not sure if it's fate or a brilliant strike of planning!

Thankfully, I read the book knowing that there is a sequel, and I'm so very highly and impatiently awaiting! 4 to 4.5 stars to this one!

View all my reviews

Midnight Marked by Chloe Neill

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Oh, how I loved this one! Chicagoland Vampires is one of 3 adult urban fantasy series that I'm utterly in love with, and that is still going strong and onto book 12 with Midnight Marked. This is the kinda series that I preorder the book as soon as it becomes available on Amazon, and that I usually start reading as soon as it downloads to my Kindle at midnight.

It's a bit mind-blowing to think that only a year has passed between the first book and this one being the twelfth, because SO MUCH STUFF KEEPS ON HAPPENING! These guys can't even go to a damned baseball game without encountering a dead body and finding themselves knee-deep in another crisis!

The cast is extensive because we've met quite a varied group of supernaturals of a type or another, and a few humans too. I love having the Pack back in the picture, along with our favourite vampires from Cadogan house, our resident sorcerers and the best grandfather on that side of the Atlantic.

Merit is a great main character and I like how she's grown so much since she was turned and how she continues to be both resilient, kick arse and vulnerable all at once! She's very much in love with Ethan, Master and alpha male, but she does NOT fail to call him on his bullshit and challenge him when it needs to be done.

Ethan, also known as Darth Sullivan, is alpha male 100% and changes cannot come too easily for a 400 year old vampire, but I like that he is beginning to adapt, even though he still seems uncapable of a proper apology and instead we get what Mallory calls "alphology". He deserved a bit of a smack in the head for failing at being Master and losing his head going all alpha, but nothing that can't be forgiven.

Merit & Mallory's friendship continues to be a joy to read about, and I love how after all that happened, their friendship was tested and strenghtened. I loved seeing them going on double dates, even if they usually end interrupted rudely by murder more often than not.

We get a few interesting answers when it comes to questions unanswered from book 1, and so proving that you never know when something will come back to play a part on what's to come. We also get a few more mentions of a certain prophecy that I hope we'll get more answers to soon, maybe next book?

The ending after the final confrontation with the bad guy seemed a bit... I dunno, cheap? But of course opens up for what might come in the next book(s) and I wonder how things will play up. On the other hand, I'm extremely please with the final surprise in the book and I'm still squeeing about it!!

Only thing that must be noted is how every book seems to be a love letter to Chicago, Chloe Neill never fails to make me want to visit all the places talked about in the books! Is there a Chicagoland Vampires tour yet? There needs to be! Very much deserved 4 stars for this one! When is the next one coming out!?! Waiting a whole year is gonna kill me!!

View all my reviews

Tell Me Tuesdays #34!!

Tell Me Tuesdays is a meme/feature created by the awesome La La In The Library, where we can share how we choose the book we are currently reading from our TBR pile!

I'm always curious about that, cause as much as I tend to make myself a rough schedule for books to read and the like, I'm quite a mood reader and sometimes I just HAVE to ignore my schedule and read something else!

Vicious by V.E. Schwab


Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. 

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?

Vicious is the first one of my buddy reads with LaLa for this month, both as part of the #RockMyTBR challenge for the both of us! I'm quite loving the book so far, even if I'm not even halfway with it!! Hopefully I'll have more reading time tonight to read it!!

So what are you all guys reading and how and why did you decide to pick up that book? Shiny new ARC? Comfort read? Scheduled for review? Must have new release? Tell me!!

#DiverseDecember: Reading books by BAME authors only for this month!

Hello guys!

Twitter might not always be an entirely positive and safe place, but many many times there are some amazing initiatives that you can find there, and one of them is #DiverseDecember!

Diverse December's objective is to promote diversity and the idea is to read as many books written by BAME authors during December and to share recommendations with each other to add more diversity to our shelves!

My list of books to read for Diverse December so far are:

- Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed

- Under A Painted Sky by Stacey Lee

- None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio

- Charm & Strange by Stephanie Kuehn

- Empire of Sand by Teresa Yea

- Black Heart, Red Ruby by Teresa Yea

- Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra & Dhonielle Clayton

- The Rose Society by Marie Lu

- Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon


Although that's quite a list in itself and I don't know how much reading time I'll have this month with things are work being busy and hopefully some extra work done in the apartment, I'm also looking forward to more recommendations, so if you have any... leave them on the comments guys!

Had you heard about #DiverseDecember before? Are you planning to join? 

Friday Reads: #TMGReadAlong - The Witches by Roald Dahl!

Hello there again!

As my second review for this week's Friday Reads I have this month's book for The Midnight Garden Classic YA & MG challenge and readalong!

This month's book it was a very apt & Halloweenie book that I think I would have enjoyed more as a child than I did as an adult.

The Witches by Roald Dahl

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I ended up really enjoying this book but I was so very put off by the beginning and the insistence on the evil of witches and them being ONLY women... It rubbed me the wrong way and it really took me a while to get into the story!

Once I managed to get past my irritation and dislike of the insistence on the evilness of women as witches (I think this is an issue of me reading this one for the first time as an adult and not as a kid) I found this one a really endearing and creepy book!

I loved the relationship between our main character and his Norwegian grandmamma and how they both found comfort in each other and how she tells him about the witches and how they become partners in crime in both adventures and fights against the witches!

The creepy factor in this book is quite high and I liked it, making it perfect as a Halloween read and as October's book for the #TMGReadAlong! The description of the witches, the presence and evil from the High Witch herself, little boys turned into mice!

I also enjoyed how the ending was hopeful and full of planning and plotting and fighting the evil witches for our boy and his grandmamma, even if it is a very open ending, since we don't know what will happen despite their plans.

All in all, I give it 3 stars because I ended up enjoying it, I loved the grandmamma but I really hated the characterization of witches and women-witches from the very beginning.



View all my reviews

ARC August: Final week recap!!

Hey there guys!

I've just returned from a weekend at the cottage so it's time to get on with my final ARC August recap!

How did I do this week? Well, not too impressively, I must confess... I only read one ARC and as it was, I just needed to finish it because I had started it last weekend.

But by finishing the ARC of Tonight The Streets Are Ours I did manage to achieve one of my main ARC August goals, that was reading all the Sept releases ARCs that I got at BEA! Hooray!

As far as to get to 80% ratio on Netgalley, I did achieve it! YAY! But it bloody well only lasted for a day or two because since I have ZERO self control, I requested a bunch of book, were approved for a few and not I'm back at 77%! Bad Pili, BAD!

All in all, I'd say this edition of ARC August was a success and I want to thank Octavia and Shelly for once again organizing and hosting it! You ladies rock!!

Friday Reads: Firewalker by Josephine Angelini and The Girl with the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts!!

Happy Friday guys!

I've been reading loads as of late, which is great of course, but I've been really remiss at writing reviews, and now I have a backlog of reviews to write and publish, but hopefully I'll manage to sort that out!

I'm starting with two reviews for this week's Friday Reads! I'm having an ARC review that counts towards my ARC August goals first!

Firewalker by Josephine Angelini

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Last year I read and loved Trial by Fire, so getting my hands on an early copy of Firewalker was one of my top priorities at BEA, the fact that I met the author and got a signed ARC were one of my highlights of the event!

Firewalker starts pretty much where Trial of Fire left us, and so you might expect some spoilers for the first book in this review but I will try my best to avoid spoilers for this one.

Lily and Rowan are back in Lily's own universe and her own version of Salem, having escaped Lillian... more or less. Being back means having to deal with the consequences of her disappearance and having to explain a lot of things to her family and friends, the first one Rowan and her burns, even if her mum does help with everything in very unexpected ways.

But the respite of reality does not last long, and Lily find herself facing some really tough choices and keeping secrets from everyone, even from Rowan, which she knows is a very bad idea, but once started doesn't how to stop or explain.

Firewalker was a brilliant sequel because it takes us in a direction we really weren't expecting to go, with Lilly finding herself a new coven and being able to be who she really is with her family and friends.

We learn more about Lillian and her motivations for her despicable actions, and although we might still not agree with her genocide and killings, we do understand better her reasons and the fear behind what she's doing. Things stop being clearly black and white for Lily and for us, and she has to make her choices in what's clearly more in the grey spectrum and finds herself having to choose between the lesser of two evils. And she finds herself keeping more and more secrets, some with the power to break those she love.

But Lily proves that she's herself and not Lillian, no matter how she can understand the tough choices she made, and she finds herself trying to find an answer to the Woven to try and save Lillian's Salem and that reality from turning into a cinder world with her friends and some of her old allies, but not all of them.

Firewalker has plenty of new information, loads of unexpected twists and some hints at even more baffling reveals to come. Plenty of heartbreak and jarring revelations. The world building is expanded in many ways, the characters are challenged in different ways, the plot moves forward in unexpected ways and we are never sure what will happen next.

The ending was shocking, heartbreaking and a proper game changer and although I'm not a fan of cliffhangers, I have to say that Josephine Angelini really managed to left me both speechless and excited, shocked and intrigued and quite a bit shaken!




And then as my second Friday Reads review, I have August's book for The Midnight Garden Classic MG & YA challenge!

The Girl with the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This month I read the #tmgreadalong book on time and I really enjoyed it!
I keep on thinking how much I would have liked to have read this one as a young girl and how I would have dreamed that I could also move things with my mind, like Katie does.

Katie has just moved into a new place with her mum and she's having to adapt to the new place and living with her mother and a new place and new people. Something that might be hard for any kid, but Katie has never been a normal kid, and adults tend to be wary of her.

She finds herself dealing with unwanted babysitters, nice neighbours and others that are certified jerks and she makes some friends, and finds some acceptance to her oddity but still finds herself very much alone.

It was hard for me to read about how alone Katie really was, not able to confide in her mother or having her support, but instead feel like she was judged weird and held at arms lenght. She entertained herself and even if she tried to hide how she was "peculiar", she still felt like she shouldn't have to be ashamed of it.

I loved to see how resourceful she was once she found a hint of answers for her being different and how determined she was to finding someone else that would maybe be like her and would understand how she felt.

Seeing Katie use her powers for both good and mischief was a lot of fun, and I kept rooting for her to get rid of the babysitters and instead hang out with her neighbour, who would lend her books and was kind and understanding for a change. And once more silver eyes enter the fray, it was a lot of fun to see them understanding each other and working together.

It was quiter heartwarming seeing Katie's mum proving herself reliable and a better mother figure than appearances led us to believe at first, even if something dramatic had to happen to shake her into it.

All in all, a great read, both fun and with enough depth to hold its own well with younger and older readers alike! Well deserved 4 stars!



View all my reviews

September is for Sequels Challenge by Lisa Loves Literature!!

Hello there again!

Today is the day for challenges it seems! Not only I have the recap for ARC August, but I'm also doing the sign up post for the September is for Sequels Challenge!

This is my third year signing up and I really hope I will do better than I did last year because to my shame and horror, some of the books that were in my original pile, STILL remaind unread, so I do hope to do much better this year and READ THEM ONCE AND FOR ALL!

If you want to know all about the challenge read Lisa's post HERE! But long story short, Lisa from Lisa Loves Literature has this challenge for the month of September where we go pay attention to all those poor ignored sequels of books we loved!

So there's my pile, rather ambitious this time, but I really hope I can finally finish some of those series, because I really loved the first book and I want to read the sequels and finish the series too! I hope having Mini-maug and Morrigan in charge this year, they'll keep me accountable!

The Rules For Breaking by Ashely Elston (#2 and final book)

Unravel by Imogen Howson (#2 and final book)

Altered by Gennifer Albin (#2 in the trilogy)

Unraveled by Gennifer Albin (#3 and final book)

Kinslayer by Jay Kristoff (#2 in the trilogy)

Endsinger by Jay Kristoff (#3 and final book)

Let's hope I reach the end of September with all or most of these read!

ARC August: Second Week Recap!

Hey guys! Welcome to my recap of the second week of ARC August!

This week I haven't done as well as I would have wanted, but being the mood reader than I am, I got through two re-reads and read a newly released book and started another... and so I only finished two ARCs, one physical : The Copper Gauntlet, the review will be up tomorrow and an eARC: The Bollywood Bride, review HERE.

I gave up on Legacy of Kings so I've DNFed that one, and will write a short DNF review after its release. Now I've started two ARCs and I hope to finish them early next week: A Curious Tale of the In-Between by Lauren DeStefano and Into The Fire by Manda Scott!

Into The Fire is one of my backlogged ARCs and I cannot believe I had forgotten about it because it's an adult historical fiction mixed with actual events novels by an author I love and I'm completely immersed in the book now!

Let's hope my mood reading is better and I can get through more ARCs since I'll be spending a few days at the cottage!

How did you guys do this week?

ARC August: First week recap!

Once again I joined ARC August hosted by the lovely ladies of Read Sleep Repeat and this is my first recap post to keep myself accountable!

Between work and my apartment stuff related, I'm not reading as much as I hoped, but on this first week I've focused on reading eARCs, to try and get on with the ever ellusive 80% on NetGalley! I'm happy to report that right now I am at 79%! NEARLY THERE!!

I finished two eARCs this week, Fated by Sarah Fine that I reviewed HERE and Beastly Bones by William Ritter, which will be reviewed next week on the blog.

I've also got two other eARCs started, Riot of Storm & Smoke by Jennifer Ellision that I hope to finish today itself (and hopefully have up for review on Monday) and Legacy of Kings by Eleanor Herman that I hope to return to at some point and not just give up on... I'm currently at 43% but not too invested, too many POVs seem to be a problem for me...

For week 2 I plan to focus on physical ARCs, and since I'll be gone to my parents cottage for a few days next week, no distractions will mean loads of reading time, or so I hope!

I'll be back next Sunday for another recap!

ARC August is back and I'm totally signing up for it again!!

Hey there guys!!

Once again the amazing ladies at Read Sleep Repeat are doing ARC August (for the third year!!) and I do plan to once again, sign up for it!!

You might be asking, what is ARC August? Well, I'm gonna let the mighty Octavia explain it to you, words taken right out of her blog:

"For those of you new to RSR let me explain ARC August. And to answer your first question, no it is not a month where ARCs of you most anticipated books rain from the heavens and fall directly into your laps.

I started ARC August my first (was it really my first?!) year of blogging, as an attempt to get caught up on my ARCs and get my Netgalley ratio up since it was completely in the shitter (think 32% people) and it wasn’t changing any time soon. And, like they say, misery loves company so I invited my fellow book nerds to tackle their ratios and piles with me and it was GLORIOUS! Not only did we have fun, I really made a dent in my pile! So I’m bringing ARC August back and am inviting all of YOU to look over those ARCs and show them who’s boss."

I was so close to getting to 80% ratio on NetGalley before I had to put the blog on hiatus, so I'm hoping to get back to eARC reading and reviewing with a vengeance, so I can end the month of August with the ever ellusive 80% NG ratio! And also, I need to tackle my BEA pile of ARCs in the proper order!

That's why I'm planning to read and review all the September ARCs from the BEA pile

And I'm also planning to read another 5 eARCs that are currently in my Kindle, probably Legacy of Kings, The Veil, Beastly Bones, Lair of Dreams and at least a pair of titles that I'm late to read and review...

My goal is reading at least 10 ARCs, between physical and eARCs, and I hope to succeed! After all, once I'm done with ARC August, I'll have Queen of Shadows to read, and what better way to read it that with all the Sept ARCs read and reviewed!! No guilt!!

Are any of you guys thinking of joining ARC August? Wish me luck!!

Friday Reads: A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle!!

Hello there guys!

I shall be putting the blog on hiatus after this weekend, although there will still be some scheduled posts since I had some blog tours and interviews and posts that I agreed to do and I've already worked on them and have them ready so now I can stop worrying about my blog and focus only on worrying about my apartment, getting the damned keys already and pack for BEA!

Today, I have a late review to start this Friday Reads, because I'm talking about April's choice for The Midnight Garden's Classic MG & YA challenge! I was a bit late to start reading it because April truly got away from me!

A Ring of Endless Light: The Austin Family Chronicles, Book 4 by Madeleine L'Engle

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I finished reading this one on my last night shift at work and holy hell, was that a bad choice... If you’re wondering why it was a bad choice for me to read this one at work? Well, I was feeling pretty down with all the death and with Vicky’s reaction to it all and did I mention all the death and accidents? A real bummer to go and try to smile at my patients while I wake them at 6 am for meds and blood tests.

Well, I give this one 4 stars, even if I have some serious issues with some parts of the book, but Vicky being a rather wonderful almost 16 year old girl, that felt realistic and rather sensible even being a dreamer and poet and one that didn’t feel like she had to do or give in or feel guilty-ed (not a word, I know, forgive me, I slept lil today!) into doing what any of the boys would want her to do, from Zachary pushing her (for goodness sake, HE’S BLOODY 20!?!), to Leo wanting to be more than she wanted and Vicky being very clear that she just wanted to be friends, and Adam… Adam pushing her away and also needing her and Vicky being mature enough to know she what she wanted but also respecting the boundaries as long as she was treated as someone mature enough to talk to and not a child to be condescending. I was very glad to see that Vicky was more into thinking than simply swooning…

But what really made me give this book the 4 stars was the dolphins! All the dolphin interactions, the swimming, the mind-melding/telepathy with them, Norberta, Basil, baby dolphin… and everything about them really! I adore every interaction, every way in which dolphins are shown as interesting and intelligent creatures with perhaps a different intelligence & understanding from ours. I just couldn’t help but hum “So long and thanks for all the fish” sometimes in my head, and my Hitchhikers fangirl was squaling a bit at all the dolphin-ness. I need to go swimming with dolphins somehow, it’s always been on the bucket list, but boy have I been reminded of HOW MUCH I WANT TO!!

The dolphins also bring me to another favourite part of the book, because I loved how characters discuss and talk about why’s, how’s and science and philosophy and how to figure out your questions about life, the universe and everything (sorry, had to do it, again) and how to figure out yourself. Vicky’s demands of being treated like mature enough would have been rather more annoying if her main demand was caused because she wanted to be treated as someone that can talk about complex issues and will bother to learn and understand and be open enough to new ideas, not just as “someone old enough to kiss” which unfortunately is more the focus on more recent YA’s.

I really liked the Austins, even if I felt some of the Bible talk and quoting and discussions about God felt a lil preachy at times for me, but never too much to make me want to stop reading, only a bit of frowning now and then. And they were what I call the good kind of Christians, if you allow me to use that qualifier. They are kind, inclusive, eager to talk and learn and to help people and not think they are better than others or have all the answers. A bit preachy or not, they’re a family I probably wouldn’t mind spending time with, if I can duck having St Agustin quoted at me! ;)

Going back to the three boys… if this would have been another book I would have totally said “hell no!” but it was done so very well! More in a way of exploring friendships and attraction and relationships, and not simple indecision back and forth of declarations of love. Vicky is clear with them all and the boys are more or less clear too. And quite frankly, the only one actively trying to woo her and taking her on dates is Zachary, since Leo and her seem to be hanging out as friends mostly, even if he tries to push the boundaries and Vicky is clear and upfront with him all the time. And Adam… well, he’s the one with the most genuine connection and that spend more time with Vicky talking and interacting with the least “date” scenario, and he ends up being the best option, even with the age difference. I was shocked and rather appalled when Zachary was revealed to be 20!! O_o I felt bad about Zachary but I was bothered that he was made such a “broken bad boy” cliché. And that the non-Christian option was represented so cartoony, and with the most shallow characters, like Zachary and his dad.

And last but clearly not least given the importance and how overwhelmingly present the theme was all over the book: death. It made me wonder if the author had suffered some loss recently when she was writing? Because sometimes it felt like a way for her to go through the stages of grief and how to get yourself together! I feel like the illness and clearly upcoming death of Grandfather and the dolphin baby would have been rather enough, but there’s so much of it! Yes, I know quite well that life can suck like that sometimes, but oh boy! The way Grandfather’s illness progression and treatment and deterioration and how that affects the family as a whole and each one of the differently was done brilliantly, and that would have been more than message enough, I feel. Some of the added deaths felt a bit like kicking us in the gut when we were already down, you know? I am someone used to death surrounding her and it took me a while to kick the gloominess after finishing the book!

Still, this is a very recommended book for teens to try and make them stop and think about life, and for adults too, because we all might need a reminder now and then. And dolphins make everything better!



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Saturday Pages: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett!!!

Hi there everyone!

The weekend is here and I have to work, but I had a lovely lazy and full of reading day off yesterday, so I will not complain!

Today as my first Saturday Pages review I have The Midnight Garden's Classic YA & MG challenge book for March! As per usual (except for last month) it was a book I had not read before and as per usual, I thoroughly loved and enjoyed it! As usual I will be taking part in their discussion post and writing my usual looong babbling novel of a comment, and I have my own review up here!

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Another gem of a book discovered via the #tmgreadalong. I really am extremely happy that I decided to join the ladies at The Midnight Garden in their classic middle grade & young adult challenge last year, and I do plan to continue to be part of as it as long as they have it!

I was intrigued by the beginning and despite our lil Mary being quite contrary I felt immensely bad for her. She was ignored and spoiled and unloved and she didn't even know what she was missing, which is the worst part of the whole thing.

Then she is taken to England and gets stuck in another grand house where she might not lack anything except love again, but thankfully for her she doesn't have the same kind of servants attending her, but a young pure Yorkshire girl that takes no nonsense from her. I simply loved the change in Mary as she was first a lil forced and then allowed to play on her own and explore and be a child outside!

And I absolutely loved her determination to find the Secret Garden and to make sure it was kept alive! I adored how she was so different with Dickon and Martha and how she loved everything about them and their family and how she stopped thinking herself as above them and never acted like she would have before. She might have been acting out of selfish reasons, but she was kinder that you could have expected her to be!

I was quite surprised when we got introduced to Colin, the small Rajah, and the biggest tyrant you could imagine. I could barely conjure any sorry feelings for him at first, and I was beyond happy when in one of his "fits" Mary came to him and confronted him with her own "spoiled girl" manners! Who would have thought that Mary could be such a great influence, along with Dickon, the red breasted robin, Dickon's menagerie and loads of fresh air!

I just loved how important family was in this book, and how it showed the influence of good examples and encouragement can be. It's also quite a tongue in cheek dig at the way children in afluent families were raised, primed & pampered but without real affection, and it's a wonder how those kids grew to be even half functioning adults!

And I love how doing something with your hands, making things grow and watching and interacting with others that are different from you can be both eye opening and sobering. It's not like planting a flower or two and interacting with someone with a different upbringing will solved every problem for spoiled kids... but it will make them confront themselves with different realities and with some luck make them think about what they have and what other's have and not.

I adored the descriptions of the moor, the gardens, the secret garden and all the food that they were getting! It made long for some warm oatmeal and buns and scones and tea time... *sigh*. It was a wonderfully visual book! I could clearly picture myself in every room and every part of the gardens, and even at the cottage in the moor!

If I had to pick a favourite character it would be Susan Sowerby, even if we don't get to have her in the flesh in the pages till the last part of the book, she's very much present at every turn of the page, with her advice, her observations and her considerable common sense wisdom! She is the archetype of a mother figure and I loved when we finally got her to interact directly with Mary and Colin!

A wonderful book that made me long to visit the moor, skip around the secret garden, have some buns and scones with my tea and made me long for the Magic. Well deserved 4.5 stars!



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Friday Reads: Mrs Frisby and The Rats of NIMH!!

Hey there guys!

Happy Friday! This week's Friday Reads is once again this month's The Midnight Garden Classic MG & YA book! I'm so very happy to continue with this challenge and even more since this month for the first time, it was a re-read for me too!

Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I continue to take part of the Classic MG & YA challenge hosted by the ladies of The Midnight Garden and this month's book was for the first time since I joined, a re-read!

I read Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH when I was still in primary school and I think it was one of the first books I got from the public library as opposed to getting it from my school's library.

To be perfectly honest I didn't remember all that much about the book, to my shame, even if of course I knew I had read it and a very general idea. But once I started reading it I kept remembering the feelings that the book evoked in me, all those years ago!

Our main character is Mrs Frisby, a widowed mouse that is taken care of her four children on her own, and finds herself in a very tough position, where she needs to find a way to move to her summer house without it costing her the life of her younger & frail and sick child, Timothy. She finds herself getting help from unexpected allies, like a crow and an owl and finally the most unique and intelligent rats.

I remember being extremely fascinated by the rats and their past and I was equally fascinated this time around! It's fantastic how based on reality the whole labs of NIMH were, with the trials of different serums, the control group, the learning techniques with the mazes. How they were rather smart animals to begin with and how they began to improve and become more and more intelligent, plotting and planning and learning to read. I have a serious soft spot for characters in books that love reading!

I loved how strong a character our Mrs Frisby was! She was tough and kind and brave and knew how to get over her fear to do what she felt was right! The book was full of wonderful lessons like how kidness can be returned to you tenfold, how you need to make something of your own instead of simply taking the easiest way out, and it never felt preachy, which is quite an achievement!

This book really made me cheer for the rodents and hope for an alternative society of intelligent beings that were not humans. I must say that thinking about it now, this book is plenty dark and scary with the themes it deals with, but the main feelings I remember were of fascination and wonder!

A great book that was a lovely re-read for me! 4 well deserved stars!



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Friday Reads: Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt!!

Hello there guys!

It's Friday and I have the day off and the weekend off!! *does happy dance*

To celebrate the long weekend off I'm having my review of Tuck Everlasting for Friday Reads, since I'm very happy to continue taking part of the Classic MG & YA challenge from The Midnight Garden ladies and their readalong and discussion!

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I had not read or even heard of this book before it was chosen as part of The Midnight Garden's Classic MG & YA Challenge for January. After that I started seeing more about it everywhere given that its 40th anniversary was coming.

I had planned to start reading the book last night at work, but I ended reading it start to finish. It was a fast and endearing read, but also one with plenty of food for thought.

This is the story of Winnie Foster and the Tucks and the choice of what to do to defend what you think was right. And also what would your choice be if you had immortality within your grasp? We see almost everything develop from Winnie's POV, although we also get a few other POVs.

Winnie is an only child that feels smothered at her house and one morning decides to go on a small adventure that turns into the biggest adventure of her life. One that gets her to meet a most interesting family, the Tucks, and that makes her grow quite a bit in a lil over 24 hours, making her change her opinions about the world and what she thought she wanted.

I found really sweet how the Tucks dealt with their immortality, each one of them in a different way, but how none of them were turned into something different by greed or ambition, they remained essentially who they were, even if not all were unhappy about their unlimited time.

Winnie showed a certain amount of both childish choice and wisdom beyond her years. Her toad was her first friend outside the house, the one that made her take a step outside and into a larger world, and she wanted to make sure her friend was safe. That way she once again gave power to someone/something that was not likely to misuse it!

This is one of those books that can be read by children and adults alike, and that will provide food for thought for both and that can spark many interesting debates and conversations. Very well deserved 4 stars to this one!



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Dystopia Reading Challenge 2015!

Hey guys!

I have no review for this Friday because I am taking a long weekend off the blog, so to speak, and will be resuming normal schedule from Monday on!

What I have today is yet another sign up for yet another challenge for 2015!! Yes, I think I have once again 5 challenges to juggle in 2015!! I have tried to be more reasonable with my goals and I hope to add some spice to my reading but without any stress or guilt over failure!

I'm once again signing up for the Blog of Erised Dystopia Reading Challenge! This year I did great and conquered the 24 dystopian books I had challenged myself to read, but it was a close thing.





This year I'm gonna be aiming much much lower because I am a bit burnt out on dystopias, and although I have a few dystopian books in my reading pile and wish list, they are very few!

I'm gonna be aiming for the Recruit Level (1 - 6 books).

Mark This Book Monday: The Luckiest Girl by Beverly Cleary!!

Hello everyone!

A new week starts, and hopefully one full of good news! It's also the week of Xmas, so Happy Holidays to you all! We won't be celebrating too much over here in the family, but please keep your fingers crossed for me while I continue to try and get my apartment!

For this Mark This Book Monday I have another classic YA book that will be my 8th, allowing me to count the Classic YA & MG Challenge & readalong at The Midnight Garden as completed and not flunked! This one was March's book so I'm a bit late to the discussion, but better late than never!

The Luckiest Girl by Beverly Cleary

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is another of those classics that I never had heard of before and that I missed originally on the Classics challenge at The Midnight Garden when I was the readalong book in March.

But wanting to complete the challenge and not fail it, I decided I needed to read a book that wasn't too long, and went for this one!

Shelley was a very sweet teenager but her mental processes being so taken up with boys did manage to annoy me on occasion. But the moment she started arguing with her mum about the slick vs the raincoat and reacted by destroying the roses... I decided that I liked her more! I was never too explosive as a teenager but I could really understand the frustration and the differences between mother and daughter. I still have them today with my own mother, but I am the kind that doesn't really argue but end up doing whatever I want... ;)

Shelley moves to California for a school year with her mum's college roommate, which seems like a fantastic adventure for a sixteen year old girl that had never travelled on her own or spent time away from home. I really loved that she appreciated everything and looked at her trip and all the differences as wondrous instead of comparing them and finding them lacking with what was "back home". Her enthusiasm popped from the page and was quite contagious too.

Seeing San Sebastian and the new school through her eyes was quite refreshing, and although her obsession with Phil was a bit eye-rolling-inducing, she felt very genuinely a teenager, because at some point and in varied degrees... we were all obsessed with boys (or girls).

I loved how Shelley grew and learnt some lessons during the course of the book, how she became to understand herself better seeing Katie and her reactions, and how that gave her perspective to her past and current actions, making her understand her mother better.

Shelley also realized why she felt like she got tired of Jack and why she didn't feel like things were working out with her dream boy in San Sebastian and realizes that crushes when you don't have many things in common can get pretty awkward, and sometimes the guy you think of as a friend and enjoy sharing things with is the one you can be with and love in the end.

What I found extremely sweet and that dated this story more than anything else was the way Shelley thought about the boys and the relationships, how it was all "going steady" and there were so few kisses and dates were more doing things together and the boys going into the house to meet the parents (or responsible adults) compared to what contemporary books of today show, with more absent parents, more uninformed parents and loads more kissing! ;)

A very sweet read that I ended up liking more than I expected at first. 3.5 to 4 stars for thi one.



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2015 Debut Author Challenge hosted by Uncorked Thoughts!!

It's still December 2014 and already signing up for another 2015 challenge... and I was hoping to not getting myself into many challenges because I start very enthusiatically and then end up failing at half of them, but when I saw this one on Twitter, I need I had to jump in!

My second challenge for 2015 is hosted by Uncorked Thoughts and it's the 2015 Debut Author Challenge!
This one I'm pretty sure I'll do quite great since I already have quite a few 2015 debut books preorder that I'm super excited about! And I have a few 2014 debuts in my TBR pile pending to read!

As with all challenges it has a few rules to keep in mind:

The Rules

1. This challenge will run from January 1st 2015 to December 31st 2015

2. The books have to be the debut book of an author, preferably 2014+ 

3. There will be a linky at the beginning of every month to post up your reviews/ posts on the books

4. Please link up your sign-up posts in the linky below and grab the badge for your blog! 

5. You can read as many or as little books as you like - that choice is yours

 6. You must have reviewed a debut author at least once to enter the Debut Author Challenge Giveaway

 

  Levels

1 - 9 - Bronze Reader

10 - 19 - Silver Reader

20 - 29 - Gold Reader

30+ - Platinum Pro-Reader

 

And it's got a few levels to choose from. I have been working on my Goodreads shelf for this challenge and so far with the books I've added, I'm gonna be aiming for Silver Reader!

If you want to join in discovering amazing new books and authors, do visit Uncorked Thoughts sing up post HERE! Come on guys, it'll be FUN!!