August has been a long month and a short one at the same time. I think this is partly because I have been rushed off my feet at work had a bunch of changes come in and partly that I’ve continually been behind on my blog, finishing posts the night before so I’ve never felt relaxed when it comes to blog posts. I am going to attempt to try harder to be a little bit more organised and on top of things next month (maybe) but who knows.

I have to say, putting this post together has really highlighted all the posts and books I’ve read, I am impressed with myself. Go me! I may not have managed to organise myself at all this month, but I definitely haven’t been slacking off either. I always like to treat September as like a second New Year because I still connect it with the start of a new school year, so once more I will try to organise myself. I don’t know how successful I’ll be.

August Posts

August Links

Sunday Summary: 02.08.2015 Author Addiction: Jennifer Echols TTT: Top Ten Fairytale Retellings I’ve Read Review: A Wicked Thing – Rhiannon Thomas Review: All The Bright Places – Jennifer Niven Sunday Summary: 09.08.2015 National Book Lover’s Day: My Childhood Bedtime Reads TTT: Top Ten Authors I’ve Read the Most Books From Review: Reawakened – Colleen Houck Review: Never Always Sometimes – Adi Alsaid Sunday Summary: 16.08.2015 TTT: Top Ten Auto-Buy Authors Review: The Last True Vampire – Kate Baxter Tag: Mean Girls Book Tag Sunday Summary: 23.08.2015 Review: Lair of Dreams – Libba Bray Discussion: We Need to Talk About Ratings Sunday Summary: 30.08.2015

Stephen Hawking believes he’s solved a huge mystery about black holes How to Find the Best Fanfiction on the Internet Video: The Benefits of Good Posture Video: Uptown Funk Sung By The Movies Video: How Your Feet Help You Sleep (I actually do this, and now I know why it works)

How has your August been? I’d love to hear about what books you’ve read and what you’ve been posting. I am determined to get better at saving links I’ve loved through each month so I can have fun links to blogs and various corners of the internet.

Time for me tell you about my week and relay all my reading and new purchases. I almost skipped this week’s summary post, but I really like writing them, who cares that I’ll be posting a monthly wrap up post in a couple of days? I do what I want and no one can stop me, I’m a rebel. Also, this is probably the only time I ramble about me and my life, however briefly

Last week I was in a bad mood and had a bad end to the week. This week I’ve been in a really positive mood but I’ve note been reading as much and I definitely haven’t been blogging as much as I should. I have half written reviews and discussion posts left right and centre and I missed a Top Ten Tuesday because I couldn’t find the motivation to write a post. I don’t know, I’m concerned blogging fatigue may hit, but I’m thinking it’s more my laziness is coming through. I will take the weekend to recharge, I think.

This works out well because it’s a bank holiday weekend! Do people in other countries get bank holidays or do you guys call it something else? Anyway, bank holiday weekends are a sacred thing treasured by all because our bank holidays simply aren’t spaced out well. This is the last bank holiday until December! It is always a long dark haul to Christmas after the August bank holiday, so I’m determined to make the most of it. Normally I either try and find something fun to do locally or I create a pile of books to entertain me, if the weather is nice anyway. I’ve been a but of a reading rut since I finished When A Scot Ties The Knot, I just don’t know what I feel like reading. It’s not that I don’t have books to read, I simply don’t know what I’m in the mood for. Hopefully this is just a temporary thing and it will soon pass… maybe.

I told you last week I bought it, well I started reading it as soon as if came through the door, The Shattered Court was just a perfect book. It was well worth me staying up until well past my bedtime Sunday night to finish. I know it’s probably not a book for everyone, but I enjoyed it. As for Burn For Me, that was a recommendation from Danya after a short discussion about terrible book covers, this one has one of the worst I’ve seen in a long while and it doesn’t even properly suit the book! They could have picked literally any other cover and it would have suited better, but don’t be put off by a bad book cover, there is an excellent story inside. And finally my Kindle pre-order of When a Scot Ties the Know was delivered Tuesday morning, I was obviously going to pick it up as soon as possible. Dare delivered an excellent romance once more, and it gave me a strong urge to rewatch Outlander.

Okay, as you can see from my large collection of new books, I have a problem. Firstly, anywhere I can request review copies of books is both good and bad because that is how I ended up with Hello, Goodbye, And Everything in Between, The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss, Tonight the Streets Are Ours and Shadows. I can’t help myself, so I am once more stuck with a pile of review copies to get reading. As for the rest… I have a problem with buying. In my defence I pre-ordered both the Dare book and Ness’s new book, so that makes it okay right? I don’t know when I’ll get reading all these, but this shows I am not lacking in books to read, I simply have not picked any of them up.

So how have your weeks been? Does anyone else find themselves requesting too many review copies and then find yourself drowning in books? And what do you do when you’re stuck with having no clue what you feel like reading?

I’ve not had a discussion in a little while (or an incredibly long while) and I noticed that ratings are  a topic which continually crops up on a variety of blogs and I decided to provide my thoughts. Various questions pop up in regards to ratings, from whether the five star rating system works to whether or not we are critical enough reviewers. There are plenty of things I could talk about when it comes to ratings, but I already know what I want to talk about anyway… if I give two books the same star rating does that mean they are both as good as each other?

Logically, you would think the same rating means I must rate them the same, right? Well you would be wrong. I may employ a five star rating system but I actually have a different rating based on genre. Also, how much I love the author, and the general emotions and feelings a book invokes in me my affect my rating. One book I give 4 stars I love for the general warm fuzziness it gives with the sweet romance and excellent story with it’s nice, neat, happy ending. Another one I give four stars to is action packed and filled with drama and makes me feel a bit exhausted at the end, but had me hooked for the entire book. And a third I give four stars to, even though it was slow paced and the story itself is not amazing, but it’s a story which lingered with me for days afterwards and when the story resonates and I have to give it a high rating for the thoughts and emotions it invoked in me. These are three very different books, but they all get the same rating, does that seem right?

 

It’s not right that completely different books get the same rating, but at the same time, I know of no other way to rate and so many sites require a rating. The rating system is arbitrary but I expect my review to be the thing that shows my true feelings on a book, not some arbitrary rating system. I just put it on out of habit, really. I don’t know. Rating is a strange concept in general because I can love a book but not give it a high rating because it’s a book I enjoyed, but it didn’t wow me, or stay with me, it was simply an enjoyable read I could happily recommend but have no grand opinion. Then there is that totally amazing book I want hit you round the face with to make you read, that obviously deserves a high rating, right? Well, no, there are plenty books I adored and will recommend like crazy that didn’t receive that coveted five star rating, they sometimes even miss out on the four star rating.

 

I find I will either give a middling rating to romance or a really high rating to it, even if the story itself was not grown breaking. Maybe I should be more critical with some of my ratings, but if I enjoy a book I don’t see why I should have to find fault with it to give it a more accurate rating. Then there are plenty of fantasy reads I give a higher rating than they may deserve because the story gripped me, even if there were other faults with the story or characters themselves. If a book invoked a bunch of emotions from me then I’ll probably rate it well, because I like nothing more than a book that can make me feel things. Maybe this all means I am rather an uncritical rater, but I just don’t think I care if that’s the case.

 

I’m not really reaching any grand conclusions, I just mean to say that rating is a very individual thing, but the rating itself is not the be all and end all when it comes to my opinions on books. Don’t assume that my lowly three and a half star book was not that great, I probably really enjoyed it, but it’s one of those books you enjoy but may not pick up again for another five years. I know I’m guilty of just looking at a persons star rating and glancing past books that I probably would really enjoy and it’s stupid. I am determined that I will start actually reading people’s thoughts on a book, and not just assuming they didn’t enjoy it if they gave it less than four stars.

 

Is anyone else guilty of assuming things based on a person’s star rating and not looking guilty? And does anyone else find themselves rating different genres differently?

Where do I begin with this book? I had a love/hate relationship with The Diviners, which grew into a love with occasional dislike relationship after I managed to get through the book. It had elements which bothered me, but overall I loved far more than I disliked, so I was obviously excited for the release of this book. I was straight in there when I saw it available to request on NetGalley and I was excited to get reading. You can imagine my annoyance when I once more experienced a love/hate feeling about this book.

I don’t want to be negative because I loved so many things within this book, but it would wrong for me not to be honest with you all. The writing is fantastic, I cannot fault Bray and her writing skills. She keeps the characters voices feeling very true to the era, she has all the colloquialisms down for Jazz era America. The colloquialisms, much as they were in the first book, can be a bit off-putting when you first begin reading, but they are easy to get used to. You can tell she has done plenty of research in putting this book together, it comes through in her writing that she has put the effort in to know what she’s talking about, which I appreciate. Whenever I read any book with a historical setting I like to see an author put in at least some effort to make it true to the era, and Bray does that and then some.

My complaint is more that the story felt very confusing, this is partly my own fault for not remembering the story of The Diviners well enough, I did find it hard to recall the details of the book, making it difficult picking the story back up, but I also feel it is slightly an error in the writing. Usually, when reading a series, you at least get bits of the story rehashed to you to help readers recall the details of the last book so they are not left confused, I don’t feel there was enough of that recapping in this book. You very much dive into the deep end and it is a case of sink or swim when it comes to the story. That was frustrating for me, especially as Bray has so many different characters and interlinking stories on the go making it so easy to become confused. That put me off as I was reading because I just couldn’t grasp everything which was going on. At some points in the book you can small reminders to help trigger your memory, but they happened later in the book, not at the beginning as I would have liked.

Another complaint is in regards to Bray’s multitude of characters and their interwoven stories. On the one hand, it was great to have a full cast of characters who were all well developed and had their own stories which helped to progress a greater story arc, I loved that, but at the same time it felt a bit much. I sometimes felt what I gained with the smaller individuals story was not worth the loss I had in an over-arcing storyline. The greater storyline got a bit lost in this book. It was easier to follow the direction of the story in The Diviners, you could see how the individual stories worked together. You can see how they work together in this one, but not until the end, and that occasionally felt a bit forced. I don’t know, it’s a small complaint, but it did feel liked you were following too many different stories and it got a bit confusing. It also meant the story progressed slower than I would have liked, the stories all seem completely independent so it was hard to stay interested until you realise how things become linked together, and then you can’t put the book down, but that didn’t happen until about halfway in for me. Now, that may be that I was not paying enough attention, I don’t know. It didn’t prevent me from enjoying the book, anyway.

My final issue is more my own fault than Bray’s, she wrote such a fantastic story in The Diviners which had so many open ended questions you were hoping would be picked up on the second book and you just did not get enough of that. That is more from it being its own series, Bray wants to leave this questions opened to keep you interested, and I am, but I think I would have preferred it if she at least answered a few of the questions and then raised more, instead you get no answers and just have more questions you are waiting to be answered. It is not even a major complaint, just a minor frustration at the path the books are taking. I hate the not knowing and Bray is definitely keeping plenty of mystery back.

Those were my major complaints about this book, I’ve gotten them out of the way and off of my chest, so I want to move on to what I loved. When the story picked up it was gripping. I spent Sunday evening glued to this book needing to know what was going to happen. I loved Evie’s story, and she definitely grew on me after the first book, and I wanted to discover more about Sam and his mother. Then there was Jericho, he did not get enough attention because his story is only going to get better as time goes on, the hints of his story in this book were fantastic. And Trista, she found anew place in my heart, I only wish there was more of her and she had the opportunity to open up to someone sooner. And as for Henry, I adore that boy, I’m a sucker for anything New Orleans related, but his story was perfect , I’m glad we got to see more of him in this book because it was so interesting. Also, can I say it was nice to meet the new characters of Ling, she was a breath of fresh air because she was so easy for me to like. Basically, Bray’s cast of characters was fantastic, they are some of the most well-developed cast of characters I’ve seen in a long time, and it really is a cast. This is a world where each character seems to have a genuine life mapped out for them and you can tell this in Bray’s writing, I love that no matter how small their role they always seem real. That is a skill not all authors possess so I am in awe of Bray’s skill in that sense.

This book takes a lot of things which bothered and frustrated me and combines them together into something I really enjoyed. Bray may know how to annoy the hell out of me with some aspects of her books, but she also leaves me in awe of her writing abilities, character development and the sheer amount of research that must have gone in to make these books feel so real. I was amazed that a character that had annoyed me when I began The Diviners could become one of my favourite characters with such ease. All the things that frustrated me about the character of Evie became the things which I adored about her. It is not simple author which can do that. I spent the first half of the book confused and almost a bit bored, and then Bray some how sucked me into a story that quickly came together and showed it to me from every possible angle. It was immense.

No matter what issues I have with this book I cannot help liking it. I could easily recommend it to you, and if you haven’t read The Diviners yet, well what are you waiting for? Go pick it up and read, this is a series which has a lot to offer, it is complex and gripping and everything you could want from a book, and so incomparable to anything I’ve read before.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this book and The Diviners. Are there any books you’ve ever read that annoyed the hell out of you in countless ways, but you loved it anyway? And have you ever found yourself adoring a character which started off hating?

Welcome to another weekly wrap up of my week. We are approaching the end of August and I’m feeling all warm weathered out. Living in the UK I have fully embraced the fact we get about a week of summer and then it promptly transitions into winter, but I do occasionally wish our weather would be a bit more reliable because we’ve had sun, rain, wind and lightning all within the space of a day. At one point I was reading about how we were at risk of tornadoes (yes, seriously, there was an article on the Daily Mail and everything) so that fully demonstrates how rubbish our summer weather has been this week.

You may have seen I was having a bit of a bad day on Wednesday, to be honest my morning began badly because I was already so damn tired, and then when I left the house my bus had mysteriously disappeared (as buses are prone to do) and so I ended up being twenty minutes behind on my morning before 8 o’clock, not an east feat. I then spent the entire day feeling out of sorts, I hate when things don’t happen as I planned it to. It wasn’t like there was anything that went particular wrong with my morning, apart from almost being late for work, but it really set the tone for the day. To be honest, since my terrible Wednesday morning I’ve been feeling a bit flat. I keep thinking about blogging or reading and can’t find the motivation, I think it’s just a bad mood radiating to all areas of my life, I’m attempting to sing and dance it out and have found my colouring book has helped. I’ve almost finished my first double page picture!

I am rather impressed with my reading this week considering Wednesday’s bad mood kind of drifted over right on until the end of the week. It just left me feeling very unmotivated, and uninspired, but my reading didn’t suffer. I have a half written review for Followed by Frist and I hope to review Cruel Beauty as well.

I am rather impressed with myself about my small new books list. The Language of Spells was part of one of the kindle daily deals of this week and it sounded interesting so I bought it. As for The Shattered Court, once more was I listening to a podcast on Smart Bitches Trashy Books and they were interviewing Tina Chaney who raved about this book, the things she said happened in it sounded amazing! So it got bought and delivered over the weekend. I’m proud that it’s only two books purchased this week, though. Go me!

Anyway, that has been my week. Pretty dull and dominated by a bad mood, but as I said on twitter, it can only get better! What do you guys when you find yourself in a bad mood with no particular reason for it?

As a kid I totally good not get Hermione’s name right, I don’t think anyone could. I always pronounced it Her-moyne, instead of Her-my-o-knee, I just couldn’t grasp it. Honestly, though, who could pronounce it correctly until that scene in Harry Potter? It was just an awkward name, also I was like eight, what eight year old had perfect pronunciation?

 

To be honest, I don’t know if there are other characters whose names I am pronouncing incorrectly because without someone, like the author, to point out the error to me I will never realise my error. It’s normally fantasy characters I worry about pronouncing names wrong for. Mostly because authors insist on the weird and wonderful names, like Celaena and Chaol, and Feyre (yes, I am looking at you Sarah J Maas!) and so how are we mere mortals expected to get it right first time?

Wow, this is a weird question. Erm… I suppose I’d want a character to go from a completely different genre.  Maybe transport someone from a really dramatic fantasy setting to like a romance novel or vice versa? I think it would be interesting to see how these characters would cope in a different setting. So, Celaena, from Throne of Glass, being transported to a book like Confessions of a Shopaholic (for her excellent taste in clothes and ability to buy plenty) would either lead her to having a chilled out consumeristic life, her she’d kill someone simply out of boredom to create a bit of drama. It would be so fun, I’d kind of want it to be a transport the entire cast of characters to a different book type thing, though.

The book which immediately springs to mind is The Girl at Midnight and Daughter of Smoke and Bone. These books were so similar, I had a serious sense of deja vu . Thankfully, The Girl at Midnight managed to keep my attention and love by drifting from the similarities and creating quite an original story. That is the only major one I can think of. I sometimes get concerned reading a books summary that it may be similar to another, but normally they aren’t. I think it’s a good thing I can’t think of more, I know there are probably a few books I had feelings of deja vu, but none that I can immediately think of.

Erm, Tease was definitely not one of those books that filled me with the warm and fuzzies when it came to girl power. It was not one of those books I could enjoy. In general, though, I have tended to avoid those books that give me those vibes. I do admit there is still slut shaming happening in books, especially in a few romance books I’ve read, but there is a lot of support in the books for other female characters so I can’t just classify them as a whole as not giving me a strong sense of girl power. I don’t know, I feel like this is one thing that is getting a lot better in books, no more do I want to throw a book across the room for attacking another female character for shallow reasons.

I’m pretty sure I want to cheer on most main characters, or at least the good ones, anyway. I remember reading A Court of Thorns and Roses I was totally cheering Feyre on when it came to the challenges in the second part of the book. I mean, how could you not. And that girl needed some cheering on towards the end, it got bleak for her for a while.

Moving away from Maas and her excellent writing, though, I remember cheering on for Laia in An Ember in the Ashes, because that girl needed cheering on, I was also cheering on for Elias. Basically, that pair in general, lots of cheering because that book just got me, you know? I do find it’s way easier to cheer on characters in fantasy books, it seems.

Either loads of time or none at all. I have to be in the right frame of mind to shop. I am far more likely to be in that mood when it comes to books, but even so, if I’m not fancying being around people I will be in and out of a shop in the blink of an eye. Normally I can spend a good half an hour browsing the shelves as I remember books and authors who I want to see if I can find. It tends to involve a lot of googling when I’m in a book store, mostly because I can never remember the author of that book I want to read so I need the surname to find the book on the shelves. I also tend to brose goodreads checking ratings for books I’ve not heard of but am being enticed by the cover to buy.

A restraining order sounds really extreme, I’d like my love for a character would never reach those kinds of extremes… probably. I mean, I would probably just be that strange girl who sat quietly in a corner and watched people from a distance. I would be completely willing to drool over any and all Jill Shalvis’s men from her books, from a completely respectable distance. And don’t get me started on my long list of book boyfriends, like all of Colleen Hoover’s characters would have me following them like a lost puppy. In general I would be far too intimidated by the characters I love in books to ever speak to them. I would just happily watch from a distance and possibly get arrested for stalking, but restraining orders would be totally unnecessary, right?

I was cautious about A Darker Shade of Magic because I had only seen good things and hype kills books. Also, that was one of my most anticipated reads for this year, so my own hype was at risk of ruining it. It didn’t ruin it, but it was a book I needed to read in my own time, and I am so glad I did! I cannot wait for the next book.

 

I also put off reading Morgan Matson’s Since You've Been Gone for a full year because the hype scared me off. I regret waiting on that one, it was such an amazing book that I was a bit sad a little thing like hype could drive me away from reading.

Any well written villain is one I love to hate. I like villains, although I am still a sucker for a reformed bad guy, but that could just be me. But I don’t know if I can think of one I loved to hate, I suppose I loved the ‘bad guys’ in Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone series because there was not a single bad guy, instead the villains were on both sides of the war, which was way more interesting to read about than just a single big bad. It was especially interesting as the bad guys, the villains, were on both sides which made it far more fun to read.

I adored Lola’s dads from Lola and the Boy Next Door, they were hilarious. I adored them as soon as they were introduced with their fun banter with their daughter and their teasing and I loved them later on when they were concerned and exasperated with her and vowed she would never have a boy in her room. They felt like real parents acting as parents would, making you want to die of embarrassment from their sheer panic about you growing up. I was also a massive fan of Mia’s parents in If I Stay, which is just heart-breaking isn’t it? In the flashbacks her parents seemed like the coolest parents, even if Mia herself did not always feel she fit with her family, they were still the coolest parents, even she could recognise that.

Throne of Glass for sure, I will read book three and move on to book four if it kills me. I love that series so no idea why I haven’t caught up on it yet. I would also love to read the whole Princess Diaries series because I never got past books six and it is a damn shame I stopped reading! I know it inevitably wasn’t as good later one, but I don’t care, I want to read it god dammit! And finally, I would love to catch up on the Stephanie Plum series, I may be about ten books behind at a minimum, but for nostalgia purposes alone it is required.

I want a character with strong opinions, but not unwilling to listen to others. Sarcastic characters are a soft spot for me, as our roguish characters, I don’t know why, but that is not a must. I don’t know what it is, but I love reading about characters who are thieves or rebels. I don’t know, I tend to like strong characters and those that grow! A good case of character development is my jam, but not as much intelligent characters with a strong sarcastic streak are. It’s like they speak my language, they appeal to me. To be honest, I am not the fussiest with a characters personality or whatever, as long as they feel real and I care about their story.

What can you do when this happens? I prefer to be in private, because I hate crying in front of people, and generally just let my emotions flow free. Case in point, I was reading All The Bright Places blubbering like a baby, there were sniffles and silent tears because I was reading in the living room. My family my know I get emotional over books, that does not mean I enjoy crying in front of them, they still find it a little weird. I ended up surrounded by balled up tissues and generally looking a state. It’s worse in public places, I have to restrain my book feelings. I may want to grin like a silly idiot, or laugh out loud, but you can’t do that in public, and crying in public is just asking for trouble. Basically, I struggle with my book feels, their is no easy solution to them, in private I can embrace them, and I can at home, but it’s the being in public I have issues with.

Well, damn, now I wish I could remember more one liners. I know there are a few good lines in Harry Potter, I think one of my favourite lines in there is ‘I am a wizard, not a baboon brandishing a stick’, becuase it is the most perfect sentence for the moment. I know there are more but I can’t think of them!

And I wish I had the perfect banter down you see in numerous romance books, like the hilarious, culturally relevant one liners you see in Jennifer L Armentrout’s books. She knows how to write cool characters who understand me on an internet geek level, if I was as quick-witted as some of her characters I would find myself hilarious. I suppose that could get boring for some of my friends, but oh well.

Erm, well, I was reading this one book Roomies and it was fun it was two brothers and this girl dithering between the two and she ended up with the wrong brother (in my opinion) and it just made me be like ‘seriously?’ when I was reading. And I always roll my eyes in romance novels when characters make decisions for the other lead ‘for their own good’ because that is always a load of bollocks if I’ve ever heard any. It’s never for the good of anyone, it’s just because some characters have yet to grow a pair when it comes to relationships. I have read so many romances where one of the characters has that dumb thought cross their mind, it doesn’t get any less stupid the more it happens.

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And there you have it, I am all tagged out after this one, but yay for a Mean Girls rewatch. I know I’m meant to tag others into doing this, and if you’re reading are totally tempted go ahead and just say I tagged you. I almost always avoid tagging folk simply because I take ages about completing a tag, so what hope is there for others? Anyway, I feel you may know me and my reading tastes and opinions a bit better. Also, if you can’t tell, this took me days to write, these questions were hard!

Does anyone else find they can talk about books and all things bookish until they are posed with a tag question and then your brain clams up? That’s what I experienced!