August Wrap-Up!

To see all the books I've acquired in August, visit my bookhaul here.
August was a good reading month for me! I read nine books in total,, compared to my usual five or six in previous months, and the books were great. I think I read so much because I went on holiday at the start of August and got through four books alone in that first week!

• Blackfin Sky by Kat Ellis - I'm working on a full review of this at the moment, and it was really good! Spooky, creepy and mysterious, the town of Blackfin was excellently created, and I look forward to reading Kat Ellis' new books, as Blackfin Sky was her debut novel. 4 stars.
• Scarlet by Marissa Meyer - This is the second book in the Lunar Chronicles series, and my full review can be found here. I loved Scarlet almost as much as Cinder, and I especially loved the introduction of Captain Carswell Thorne! If you're unsure about reading the Lunar Chronicles because of all the hype around it, try Cinder anyway, because I think it will live up to expectations. 4.5 - 5 stars.
• PS I Still Love You by Jenny Han - The sequel to To All The Boys I've Loved Before, PSISLY was just as sweet as the first book. Reading about how Lara Jean and Peter's relationship changed was fantastic, and I loved the points Jenny Han made about double standards. These books are not just a fluffy, cute romance (although they definitely have that in), but are about family and friends and high school. Family is definitely important in these two books. 4.25 stars.
• The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater - I'm also working on a review of the entire Raven Cycle so far. I enjoyed The Dream Thieves just as much as The Raven Boys, although it once again took me a while to get into the world again. Having just finished PS I Still Love You, where the love interest's surname is Kavinsky, it was quite confusing to read about another, much wilder, much less nice Kavinsky! I didn't like him at all, but I have to admit that his texts to Ronan made me laugh! Blue is such a strong character, and even though the concept of ley lines and Welsh kings are very confusing, the characters really make this series. 4.5 stars.
• Let's Get Lost - This was the perfect summer read! I loved all of the different stories, although I think Elliot's was the least satisfying. Leila was our main character, the one that linked Hudson, Elliot, Sonia, and Bree's lives together, but each of the others were well-developed and likeable. I think Leila's story was my favourite, although I loved her friendship with Bree. 4.75 stars.
• Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anne Blankman - I have a more detailed review of this on my Goodreads account, but I enjoyed this book a lot! It was an interesting, well-written historical fiction novel and I'm very excited to read the second book in this series. 4.5 stars.
• Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater - This is the third book in The Raven Cycle, and it. Was. FANTASTIC! All of the things I love about The Raven Boys and The Dream Thieves - all of the funny dialogue, all of the intriguing characters, all of the mystery - was apparent in every single page of Blue Lily, Lily Blue. I think this is one of my favourite reads of 2015 so far, and I am incredibly excited for The Raven King! 5 stars.
• Panic by Lauren Oliver - This was so very tense! I flew through Panic as I just had to know what would happen next. The challenges were crazy and very, very dangerous, and Lauren Oliver's writing was wonderful. 4 stars.
• Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins - Hex Hall was funny and entertaining. Jenna was my favourite character, and Sophie was a likeable protagonist whose sarcasm often made me giggle. There were several parts that felt a little tired, like I had read them before, but I can definitely see the potential in this series and I'm looking forward to seeing what else Sophie gets up to! 3.5 - 4 stars.
• A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams - I had to read this for school, and I wasn't expecting much. However, I was pleasantly surprised! A Streetcar Named Desire was an emotional whirlwind of a play, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It also took next to no time to read - maybe only an hour and a half! 3.5 - 4 stars.
• I'm currently reading 1984 by George Orwell, and according to Goodreads I'm 24% done with it. So far I'm not enjoying it as much as I had hoped, but I hope that will improve as I continue.

Those were the books I read in August! What books did you read in August? Have you read any I've mentioned? What did you think?
Thanks for reading(:

April Book Haul & Wrap Up!

The end of April is upon us, and I have sadly only read 3 books (well, technically three and a half). But I gained lots of books (about 10 or 11), so yay for that!


The first part of this post will be my book haul. As it was April, I was allowed to buy books, which was good because it meant I didn't have to feel guilty when I splurged in Waterstones! These were the books I bought:

• Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver - I have managed to almost buy this book quite a few times, and I finally decided to give in and get it!
• The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson - I've already read this, but I didn't have a physical copy, until now!
• The 100: Homecoming by Kass Morgan - It annoys me how none of The 100's covers match, but I want to see how the series ends.
• Dracula by Bram Stoker - Having read The Cure for Dreaming by Cat Winters, I really wanted to read Dracula so I could understand the references, and the copy I have is the gorgeous Vintage one!
• The Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbrough - I found this book watching Katytastic's video on April Releases, and the synopsis sounded like The Night Circus. Therefore, I had to buy it, because The Night Circus is amazing and seems to appear in every post I do (sometimes intentionally, sometimes not).
• The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey - because why do you need to have read the first book to buy the sequel?
• We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach - The summary of this with all the labels of people was what made me want to pick this up. I think it'll be different to what I originally thought it would be like, but I'm still excited to read it!

And now for the three books that my dear mum gave me for Easter:

• The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater - There have been so many good reviews of this. I kept seeing graphics of it on Tumblr and I wanted to be a part of the fandom!
• The Mysterious Affair at Castaway House by Stephanie Lam - It's set in 1924 and 1965, which immediately intrigued me.
• A Darker Shade of Magic by VE Schwab - I've seen this everywhere, and I loved the idea of parallel worlds. This also seemed like a good VE Schwab book to start with, as I've never read anything by this author before.

Onto my April wrap up! This month has not been particularly fruitful reading-wise, but the books I read were:

• The Cure for Dreaming by Cat Winters.This was as strong as Cat Winter's debut (In the Shadow of Blackbirds) and the world-building was once again powerful. I loved the characters (Henri especially), but didn't like the ending as much as I wanted to. For a full review, click here). 4.5 stars.
• A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. This was partly a cover buy, and for the most part it didn't disappoint! While Gemma and the others were not initially likeable, they eventually grew on me. The magical elements felt unique to me and there were no weak points in the plot in my opinion. I'm looking forward to reading Rebel Angels, whenever I buy it! 3.75 stars.
• The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater. It took me a while to adjust to Maggie Stiefvater's writing style, as it's more descriptive than other books I've read, but once I had done that I enjoyed it. The parts about ley lines were a bit confusing, but I was ill when I read it so not everything will have sunk in! The characters were what made this book; each was individual and interesting. My favourite was Noah or Ronan (every moment with that bird was sweet, and that is a hard thing to achieve when said bird is called Chainsaw and it's Ronan Lynch). 4 stars.
• 1/2 of The Mysterious Affair at Castaway House by Stephanie Lam. Now, this was the first adult book I tried to read, so that could have been why I didn't like it. There were certainly points where I felt it was a bit too...graphic, shall we say, which made me feel uncomfortable, but there was also a few plotlines that I felt were unnecessary and pointless. The whole book felt like two stories shoved into one, and while the central plotline was interesting and made me want to continue, every time something was revealed in one of the time periods, it would dart back to the other, which was really annoying. I put this down at about 51 % (I worked it out because my Goodreads doesn't seem to do it anymore). There's a chance I may pick this up again later on now that I know what to expect, but for now it felt better to put it to one side and start another book that I'm looking forward to reading, which is Cinder by Marissa Meyer!

Those were the books I read and the books I bought in April! Have you read any of the books featured in this post? What did you think?
Thanks for reading(: