Top 5 of 2015!

Where did the year go? We're in December already and there's just over a day to go until 2016 (and I AM NOT PREPARED), so I thought I would round up my five of my favourite books of 2015. It was a difficult decision and I have no doubt forgotten some, but here we go!

5. The Shadow Cabinet by Maureen Johnson

This is the third book in the Shades of London series, and I had been waiting for it for a long long time! The thing I love about these books is Rory, our main character, who is so funny and kind that I want her to be my friend! The plot of TSC was at times a little confusing, but it was brilliant and my ship finally got together!! (Kind of...maybe...if you have read this series you know what I'm talking about). I am so incredibly excited for the fourth book in this series to come out, even though we don't have a release date...or title!





                                                                                   4. Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas

Dangerous Girls has possibly the best plot twist I have ever read! It was incredibly unique and just so freaking amazing!! (this post appears to be the post of double exclamation marks). It is the sort of book that makes you pause after finishing it and re-evaluate everything.







3. Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer by Katie Alender

I love books about ghosts. I love books about Paris. So it's safe to say I adored this book! It was fun and tense and I read it in like a day, and there was great character development in Colette. My full review can be found here.










 2. The Accident Season by Moira Fowley Doyle

This book. Wow! The writing was divine, the characters were so relatable and well-constructed, the plot beautifully mixed magic with the grittier parts of life...just everything about TAS appealed to me! It is quite dark in places, though, and deals with some sensitive topics, so be warned.






Which brings me onto my number one book of the year! What do you think it is?

I'm sure that this will come as a tiny huge surprise, but my favourite book of the year is...

1. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.

I am still not over the wonderfulness that is this book! I have a whole review where I talk about why I like it here, but basically it's amazing and you should read it. (I feel like that's been my thoughts on all of these books, but...it's true!).

So, that's it! My top 5 of 2015. Honourable mentions go to: A Darker Shade of Magic (my review is here), The Raven Boys series, The Game of Love and Death (review here) and The Lunar Chronicles series (reviews can be found here).This has been a great reading year for me, the year when I properly discovered bookstagram and book blogging, and I look forward to what 2016 has in store!

Have you read any of these books? What did you think? What are some of your most anticipated releases of 2016?
Thanks for reading(:

The Young Elites - Review

Title: The Young Elites
Author: Marie Lu
Part of a series? The first book in the Young Elites trilogy.
Synopsis: After a disease ravaged Adelina's home when she was young, she has been treated as an outcast for her whole life. Then, one disastrous event sets her life off onto a completely different path, one that finds her in the middle of The Young Elites, a group of people all like her. As she becomes submerged in political intrigue, assassination plots, and a pleasure court, she begins to embrace the hidden powers inside her. But soon it will become clear that not even Adelina knows what she's capable of, and that the Young Elites have more enemies than they could imagine.
Rating: 4.25 stars.

When we first meet Adelina, she is in prison for committing a murder. This essentially sets the scene for a powerful, dark story that tests your loyalty to every character!

This is my first book by Marie Lu, and it did not disappoint. The twists and turns throughout the novel kept me hooked, and the twist at the end especially was unexpected. The world was well-developed and reminded me of Venice slightly, though it was slightly confusing with all of the different place names. The descriptions of the catacombs and the Court were particularly good.

As for characters, I didn’t warm to Adelina as much as I would have liked to. I think it was because at
times I would feel sorry for her, but then she would think or say something that just made me question her, and even though that meant I wasn’t as connected to the main character, that was really interesting to read. You never knew if she was the villain or the hero of the story, and this is not something I’ve read much in YA! The rest of the characters were equally well-created, Raffaele being my favourite for how kind he was compared to others. Violetta was innocent, a good contrast to the darkness in Adelina, and I loved their sibling relationship, although her actual character got on my nerves sometimes.. It feels like that was the main relationship in The Young Elites, as to me Enzo and Adelina’s relationship felt a little off. It would have been better if we had read more about Enzo and Daphne’s relationship before, but it was still upsetting to read about how Adelina was betrayed. Enzo was perhaps my least favourite character, although I’m not sure why.

Overall, I am really looking forward to reading The Rose Society and seeing where Adelina and Violetta end up, and I have no idea what could happen! If you love fantasy novels, I would definitely recommend this!
Thanks for reading(:

An Apology & Life Updates

In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t posted on this blog in a while…quite a while, in fact. And I am very very sorry! I could give out some excuses (school is time-consuming, I’m tired six days out of seven etc.) but it’s mainly because I was too lazy to update. I haven’t actually read a book in at least a week either! But this will hopefully change. I’m going to try and post once a week in December – we all know that probably won’t happen, but I can dream – and, failing that, at least a bit more regularly than before.

To make up for my lack of posts, here are some life updates:

Reading:

-          I have almost finished Hamlet, some required reading I have to do – and should have done a few weeks ago – but apart from that November has not been the best reading month for me! So far I’ve got through The Accident Season and The Young Elites, as well as 70 pages of Winter, but I’m trying not to put any pressure on myself. Everyone goes through reading slumps, and I think it always makes things worse if you force yourself to read something.

Writing:

-          While not being a participant of NaNoWriMo this year, I have made quite a bit of progress with my current story! A couple of days ago I passed 20,000 words, and so far I’m liking how it’s turning out. Generally I start stories and never finish them, but I’m hoping this won’t be the case this time, as I’m finally starting to get into the first draft mentality that nothing will be perfect the first time around! I’ve struggled with this before, but now I’m trying to just go with it. (However, my notes are a mess and I've introduced a new character, so that’s an issue…ah well!).

TV Shows:

-          Recently there have been so many TV shows I have wanted to watch! I’m currently watching Scream Queens and absolutely LOVE it, and then I’m catching up on Teen Wolf. At the moment I’m only on series one but it is amazing, and Lydia and Stiles are brilliant! (I’m writing this will watching a pretty tense episode actually!). I want to catch up on Faking It too before the year is over, and I would love to marathon The Man In The High Castle because it sounds so interesting.

I hope this post marks the start of a more regular posting schedule! Also, what do you think of the style of this post? Are there any readers who like Teen Wolf or Scream Queens?

Thanks for reading(: