5 Reasons to Read The Diviners series!

Hi all!

I finished Lair of Dreams over the weekend - at twenty past midnight, desperately trying to finish it
before my Audible free trial ran out - and it has become one of my favourite reads of 2016. I already want to reread it again! But it feels like hardly anyone has read The Diviners, so I thought I would give you some reasons why you absolutely should dive into this series!


1. The writing - Libba Bray's writing style is wonderful and enthralling. There wasn't a single point
where my attention wavered, and the way she describes things is both unique and clear. She weaves so many characters' stories together until they all join up at the end, which is something I love, and although I didn't find The Diviners particularly scary, I did find Lair of Dreams very, very creepy!

2. The setting - The Diviners takes place in 1920s New York, which to be honest was enough for me to be interested! But it isn't just set in New York; when you read the series you become immersed in the characters' worlds. I could easily imagine myself at the Follies or the Museum, and I love how Libba Bray uses just enough 1920s slang for it to be believable without it being over the top, so it felt like natural speech when someone said 'jake' or 'copacetic'.

3. The plot - There is an overarching plot throughout the two novels so far, but it is slow-moving and we find out more about it through the smaller plots of each book. I really like how towards the end of Lair of Dreams I could feel the pace speeding up, and there is a mystery at the heart of the novels which I am desperate for answers to!

4 - The characters - These are really what makes the books for me! I admittedly find Evie - the main main protagonist (there's a lot of different viewpoints) - a bit annoying, but she feels very human; she's flawed and makes bad decisions, but at the same time she's very loyal and compassionate. Each character feels like their own person and I've never gotten confused between them, and there's a lot - Jericho, Sam, Theta, Memphis, Henry, Mabel, and then Ling in Lair of Dreams. They all have strong subplots, too. After reading Lair of Dreams I absolutely adore Henry and his friendship with Ling!

5. The audiobook - I can't speak for The Diviners as I haven't listened to it, but the narrator of Lair of Dreams, January LaVoy, was phenomenal! She put on different voices for each character that were consistent throughout, and she even sang the songs in the book! I think I found Lair of Dreams spookier than The Diviners because of how excellent her narration was.

Let me know if I've convinced you to read this series! If you've already picked up The Diviners, what did you think? Who's your favourite character? (Mine are Jericho and Henry and Ling and Mabel...basically everyone!)
Thanks for reading (:

The Hamilton Book Tag!

Hi all:

I am finally doing the Hamilton Book tag, which combines two of my very favourite things - books and Hamilton! These questions were created by maureenkeavy on Youtube, and I've picked which ones I want to do instead of doing all of them so this post isn't humongous!


1. The Room Where It Happens: Book world you would put yourself in
I would say the Shadowhunting world, as it's my favourite book world, but a) scary monsters, b) wars, and c) I would not last more than five seconds as a Shadowhunter! A world I would love to live in would be the circus in The Night Circus, because that would be so mesmerising and beautiful. I want to be a Reveur!

2. The Schuyler Sisters: Underrated Female Character
I feel like Vivian from the Vivian Apple series doesn't get enough credit! I remember reading the two books and thinking how strong she and her best friend Harp were while dealing with the end of the world, and no one has read them! I really recommend them, especially as there's only two in the series.

3. My Shot: A character that goes after what they want and doesn't let anything stop them
For this I'm going to choose Gansey(<3) from the Raven Cycle. He always keeps his goal of finding Glendower in sight, even through everything he, Blue, Adam and Ronan experience.

4. The Reynolds Pamphlet - A book with a twist that you didn’t see coming
*SPOILERS FOR TMI*
I did not see the end of City of Fallen Angels, which was one of my favourite cliffhangers of all time! The entire series was filled with twists and turns that I didn't predict at all (admittedly I'm not great at spotting plot twists, but they were still unexpected!).

5. Non-stop: A series you marathoned
I've just finished reading all of The Raven Cycle, and I'm so glad I reread the first three books before continuing with The Raven King because it meant that I actually knew what had happened before! Generally, I don't marathon series for some reason, possibly because I forget what events happened in which book.

6. Satisfied: Favorite book with multiple POVs

I adore The Lunar Chronicles, and this series has a lot of points of view by the end of it. Reading all of the points of views in Winter was so much fun, and I love all of the characters we get to see, as well as how different each character was.

7. Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story: A book/series you feel like will be remembered throughout history
I feel like I'm cheating with this one as I haven't actually read these yet, but I'm going for the obvious answer of the Harry Potter series. It has had such an impact on so many people across the world, and I can't think of any other book that has had the same effect. I really should start reading them soon..!

8. Right Hand Man - Favorite BROTP   
I'm currently listening to Lair of Dreams, and I love Henry (Well, I just love Henry to be honest!) and Ling's friendship, as well as Henry and Theta's. Ling and Henry just contrast against each other so well.

9. What’d I Miss: A book or series you were late to reading
  
SO MANY. The Mortal Instruments, Throne of Glass, Illuminae, The Young Elites...I'm slowly catching up though, guys!

They were my answers to the Hamilton Book tag! I love watching these tag videos on booktube, and I can't wait to (hopefully) see it when it comes to London!

Thanks for reading(:

August Bookhaul!

Once again, I have accumulated too many books for my bookhaul and wrap-up to be in the same post (unless you want an extremely long post). In one month I managed to buy 22 books. 22! I'm 100% going on a book-buying ban in September.

Books for school:

I start school again in September and in English Literature we're studying four texts, so I went out and bought the ones that I could, only for one of my friends to tell me that I didn't need to buy two of them! They were:

• 1984 by George Orwell - This is featured in my August wrap-up post, which can be found here.
• A Streetcar Named Desire - I don't know if you've ever seen a copy of this, but it's the size of one chapter of a normal book. Why did it cost £9.99??? (This was one of the books I didn't need to buy, so I'm a bit annoyed about it!).
• Hamlet by William Shakespeare

I don't really have an excuse for the other nineteen...I did find out my exam results and they were really good, so some of them were yay-I-passed purchases. And then one of my best friends and I went shopping, and we both have out of control TBR piles, and we both bought loads of books (and now we both are on bans!)
Anyway, here are the many, many books I've acquired in August:

• The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
• Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
• Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray
• Get Even by Gretchen McNeil
• Darkmere by Helen Maslin
• The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman
• The Accident Season by Moïra Fowley-Doyle
• The Glass Sentence by S.E. Grove
• Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid
• Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes
• The Improbable Theory of Ana and Zak by Brian Katcher
• The Archived by Victoria Schwab
• Fairest by Marissa Meyer
• Bad Girls Don't Die by Katie Alender
• Famous Last Words by Katie Alender
• Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
• For Real by Alison Cherry
• The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
• Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke by Anne Blankman

I won't do summaries of each book as otherwise this post could last forever! But if you want to know what a book is about, tell me in the comments and I'll reply.

Have you read any of these books? What did you think (no spoilers please!)? Let me know in the comments.
Thanks for reading(: