August 2020 TBR

Hey guys! Today I am bringing you my August TBR. I’ve got a mixture of young adult and crime thrillers and my most anticipated book at last! August is going to be a really exciting month for that alone! Here’s what I’ll be reading:

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Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer: This is my most anticipated release so of course I’ll be dropping everything to read it! I’ve been waiting years for this book and I honestly thought it would never be published. I reread Twilight a couple years ago and I still really loved it. I can’t wait to read the story from Edward’s perspective!

A Window Breaks by C.M. Ewan: I started reading this in July and unfortunately I didn’t manage to finish it so it’s one I’m carrying over into August. It’s pretty good so far!

July 2020 Wrap Up

Hey guys! Today I am sharing with you my July wrap up and I managed to read 10 books in total, some of which were short stories. I didn’t manage to read all the books I wanted to but I am still pleased with the overall number. Here’s what I read:

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Crownbreaker by Sebastien de Castell: I finally finished the Spellslinger series! I am gutted it’s over. It has become one of my favourite fantasy series and I wouldn’t have minded if it went on forever as there seemed to be so much more to explore. One thing I would have liked to see though was one of the most prominent plots throughout the series – and the one I was most invested in – being resolved. Other than that, I’ll definitely read this series again.

REVIEW: Auxiliary: London 2039 by Jon Richter

Title: Auxiliary: London 2039 by Jon Richter
Pages: 223
Published by: TCK Publishing
Publication date: 1st May 2020
Genre: Science Fiction
Format: eBook
Amazon UK

Synopsis: 

London is quiet in 2039—thanks to the machines. People stay indoors, communicating through high-tech glasses and gorging on simulated reality while 3D printers and scuttling robots cater to their every whim. Mammoth corporations wage war for dominance in a world where human augmentation blurs the line between flesh and steel. 

And at the center of it all lurks The Imagination Machine: the hyper-advanced, omnipresent AI that drives our cars, flies our planes, cooks our food, and plans our lives. Servile, patient, tireless … TIM has everything humanity requires. Everything except a soul.

Through this silicon jungle prowls Carl Dremmler, police detective—one of the few professions better suited to meat than machine. His latest case: a grisly murder seemingly perpetrated by the victim’s boyfriend. Dremmler’s boss wants a quick end to the case, but the tech-wary detective can’t help but believe the accused’s bizarre story: that his robotic arm committed the heinous crime, not him. An advanced prosthetic, controlled by a chip in his skull. 

A chip controlled by TIM.

Dremmler smells blood: the seeds of a conspiracy that could burn London to ash unless he exposes the truth. His investigation pits him against desperate criminals, scheming businesswomen, deadly automatons—and the nightmares of his own past. And when Dremmler finds himself questioning even TIM’s inscrutable motives, he’s forced to stare into the blank soul of the machine. 

Massive Book Unhaul! (40+ Books)

Hey guys! Today I am bringing you my biggest unhaul ever. Unfortunately I only have space for one bookshelf and that got full pretty quickly. I have a couple floating bookshelves and some other places to store my books but I completely ran out of space early this year and had multiple piles on the floor. It was terrible. I sorted through all my books and I found just over forty that I have no desire to keep hold of. That actually created a lot more space for me and I have some room for some other books now, yay! Here are all the books I’m getting rid of:

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Strange the Dreamer & Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor: I finally read this duology this year and unfortunately I didn’t like it. I thought it was too focused on romance rather than the mystery of Weep and each characters ability/power. It had a lot of potential but it didn’t work out in the end for me. Sad to see these go despite not enjoying them but I’d rather they go to someone who likes the author and/or wasn’t able to buy the hardbacks.

Top 5 Wednesday: Unanswered Questions

Hey guys! Today I am bringing you another Top 5 Wednesday post about unanswered questions. Basically I’m going to have a mini rant about some of my most annoying unanswered questions in certain books and I hope you enjoy! Just so you are aware, there’s potential spoilers.

Unresolved plot line: What happened to Kellen’s shadowblack?

As much as I love this series, I’m still annoyed that the plot line I was most invested in and mentioned in every review, never got resolved! Sure, we got a book about it and that was great, but Kellen doesn’t find a cure in the end and he doesn’t even seem to have a view on his shadowblack. Does he care that it will drive him mad eventually? I suppose it would have been a downer with it being the last book but some clarification about his shadowblack would have been appreciated! For me, this will forever be the one plot line that sounded exciting, but ended up being the most underwhelming.

My most read authors!

Hey guys! Today I’m going to be sharing with you some of my most read authors and I bet most of you will already know who the majority of them are. I’m going to start from the lowest and work my way up to the author with the most books that I’ve read. There’s a lot of sixes and sevens, according to my read shelf on Goodreads, so I’ve picked my favourite ones. If I include them all this post will be way too long!

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Marie Lu (six books)

First up we have Marie Lu with six books and these include The Young Elites trilogy, Batman: Nightwalker and her Warcross duology. Lu has been hit-and-miss author for me unfortunately, but I do still really want to read her other published books, especially The Kingdom of Back. I enjoyed the concept of The Young Elites but I don’t think it was executed very well, whereas I loved Nightwalker and Warcross. I wished the latter one was a trilogy but it worked really well as a duology so I’m happy.

REVIEW: Crownbreaker by Sebastien de Castell (Spellslinger #6)

Title: Crownbreaker by Sebastien de Castell
Pages: 410
Published by: Hot Key Books
Publication date: 17th October 2019
Genre: Fantasy
Format: Hardback
Amazon UK – Waterstones

Synopsis:

A young queen will die. A continent will go to war. And one little murder can stop it all.

Kellen and Reichis are settling into their lives as protectors of the young queen. For the first time in his life, Kellen feels as if he’s becoming the kind of man that his mentor Ferius wanted him to be. Even Reichis has come to appreciate having a noble purpose – so long as no one minds him committing the occasional act of theft from the royal treasury.

But thousands of miles away a war is brewing that the Argosi always warned could destroy the continent. Word comes from an unexpected source that there’s one way Kellen can prevent a hundred years of bloodshed. He just has to be willing to kill for it…

Now Kellen and his sister Shalla find themselves on opposite sides and neither love nor loyalty can protect them from the choices they must make.

Books I Regret Buying

Hey guys! Today I thought I’d do a different post as I’ve recently been sorting through my books to try and make some room on my shelf (an unhaul is coming soon), and I’ve come across a fair amount that I really regret buying mainly because I ended up hating them. Fortunately, this doesn’t happen a lot and there’s not that many. Without further ado, here are the books I regret buying:

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The 5th Wave & The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey: I’ve had these books for so long that I can’t actually remember when I purchased them. I bought the first one because it sounded really refreshing for a dystopian as it’s about an alien invasion and the different waves of the invasion. I recently read it though and I absolutely hated it and really regret spending my money on this series. I hated the characters; I did not care about them at all and the change of POV was so confusing. For some of them, you don’t even know whose POV you’re reading until the end of the chapter and then one chapter is told from the POV of a five year old! Why do I want to read the POV of such a young child? Also, the whole story ends up turning into a terrible romance and the invasion is pushed to the side. It was so incredibly boring and I’m not even going to read the second book. I can’t put myself through that boredom again. I really don’t care what happens.

Top 5 Wednesday: Top of the TBR

Hey guys! So today I’m bringing back a post that I haven’t done in a really long time because I thought this group was dead in the water, but it turns out someone revived it last month and I had no idea! I hope this group does return for good because I had a lot of fun participating when it was active. This week showcases those books that you wanted to read in the first half of the year but never got round to. So let’s get into it!

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The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas: I want to say I bought this book last year and regretfully I have yet to actually pick it up. Given everything that is going on in the world right now, this book is more relevant than ever and I shouldn’t continue to let it sit there on my shelf unread. It does not deserve that and I will be reading it soon.

Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater: Please someone shout at me if I don’t read this book by the end of the year! It was one of my most anticipated and I’ve heard nothing but good things about it so I honestly don’t know why I haven’t read it yet. Ronan was one of my favourite characters and I’m so excited that he has his own trilogy. I definitely think his story isn’t over yet.