Sunday 28 February 2016

February Wrap Up + March TBR

Hi! It's getting toward the end of February, as in it ends tomorrow, so it is time for the Wrap Up and TBR!

February Wrap Up


Books
February was a pretty slow month for me reading wise. I read three books, but the good thing was, they were all unbelievably amazing!

Dorothy Must Die- Danielle Paige
This was so good. It kept you on the edge of your seat through nearly all the book. Here's my review.

Throne Of Glass- Sarah J Maas
Such an amazing book. It was such a good fantasy read. It did have some dull moments, but meh. Here's the review.

The Rest Of Us Just Live Here- Patrick Ness
I really liked this book. It was the last book I read in February and it was great. I just got More Than This out of the library and i haven't started it but it looks good. Here's my review.

Music
I've been listening to a few good songs in February.

Somebody That I Used To Know- Gotye


Alive- Sia

Runaway (U & I)- Galantis

Life
It was my birthday this month! I turned 11 and then at my birthday party I got hit on the head by a metal swing and nearly got concussion! Best. Birthday. EVER.

I went for a small orientation at the high school. As I start high school next year, the local high school lets all the primary schools around to do a class and have a small tour. I did science and it was so fun.

I have a new cousin! My aunt had a baby, so now I have a new cousin!

March TBR
The Hunger Games- Suzanne Collins
I have actually already read the Hunger games trilogy, but I've decided to reread it as I just bought the first one. 

Special- Georgia Blain
The funny thing about this one was that it hasn't been published yet. It's being published the 1st of April. The thing is, I found this uncorrected copy in the op-shop and saw that it hadn't been published... *nervous laughter*

More Than This- Patrick Ness
I got this out of the library and I'm completely nervous/excited.

On The Jellicoe Road- Melina Marchetta
I heard that this book is really good, so I'm excited to read it!

Rose :3

Tuesday 23 February 2016

The Rest Of Us Just Live Here By Patrick Ness | Book Review

Title: The Rest Of Us Just Live Here
Author: Patrick Ness
Genre: Fantasy/Contemporary/Friendship/Romance
Publication: August 27 2015, Walker Books
Pages: 343, hardback
Source: Library

Side Note: The cover I had was this one, but I know that the US has a different cover, as this is the Australian and British cover.

What if you aren’t the Chosen One?

The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever the heck this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death?

What if you’re like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again.

Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world, and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life.
Even if your might be the God of Mountain Lions...

I really enjoyed this book, so without further ado, I bring you the pros and cons.

Pros
  • I loved the narrator! Mikey was so nice, and surprisingly I never got frustrated with him. He did feel like the outside and that he was least wanted in his group of friends, but he finally got over it.
  • Ness's characters were SO amazing. They were so realistic that I felt like they were real people. I especially liked Jordan.
  • I loved how Ness mixed the real world with heaps of fantasy elements, though kept it real. I liked this because I have just finished Throne Of Glass so it was good to have a but of contemporary in there.
  • The scenarios in the book were so well described and detailed. There were a lot of accidents in this book, and I think they were really well described.
  • Can I just take a moment to talk about THE BEGINNING OF THE CHAPTERS??????!!!!!!!!! Sorry, but the beginning of the chapters told you what the indie kids were doing in each chapter, and they were being amazing and trying not to die. I can't even.....
    *not mine*

Cons
I don't actually have any problems with this book, but it seems like everyone else does. Now, I haven't read any other Patrick Ness books, but it seems like everyone has some problem with this book, but I honestly don't. I just don't. 
*not mine*
All in all, I'd rate this book:

*    *    *    * . 5

Sunday 21 February 2016

Throne Of Glass By Sarah J. Maas | Book Review

Title: Throne Of Glass
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Fantasy/Romance/Mystery
Publication: August 2, 2012
Pages: 404, Paperback
Source: Library

Meet Celaena Sardothien. Beautiful. Deadly. Destined for greatness. In the dark, filthy salt mines of Endovier, an eighteen-year-old girl is serving a life sentence. She is a trained assassin, the best of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake. She got caught. Young Captain Westfall offers her a deal: her freedom in return for one huge sacrifice. Celaena must represent the prince in a to-the-death tournament- fighting the most gifted thieves and assassins in the land. Live or die, Celaena will be free. Win or lose, she is about to discover her true destiny. But will her assassin's heart be melted?


Before I start, I have to admit that one night I was reading this book so late that I fell asleep on it. Anyway, I enjoyed Throne Of Glass. So, I am now giving you the pros and cons!


Pros
  • I loved the multiple POVs. It really let you know what most of the main and some of the supporting characters were doing.
  • This was one of the books I liked the romance in. I usually hate romance, because I feel like this book had a really good romance, and I think that was because Celaena was an assassin, so she isn't as mushy gushy was some other romance characters.
  • I loved the detail and description of everything. Maas was great at describing all the dresses Celaena was wearing. They seemed AMAZING! 
    *not mine*

  • I think most of the good characters were quite nice. Now, you'd think that Celaena would be a real idiot, but she wasn't. I really liked the princess, she was so cool.
  • SO MANY PLOT TWISTS! Half of the time I was reading this I was like 'didn't see that coming!' SO, yeah...
But sadly, no books are perfect...
Cons
  • I wasn't sure who the villain was for most of the book. As there were multiple villains I wasn't sure who the villain was. Oops... 
    *not mine*

  • There were some parts when I wanted to kill of two of the main characters. They just ruined the situation and were just so ANNOYING!
  • Celaena was in the castle so long with nothing exciting happening that it just dragged on. I was getting so bored at these points that I nearly stopped reading.
All in all, I thought it was a good book, and i can't wait to read Crown Of Midnight! Overall I'd rate the book:

*  *  *  *

Organising My Bookshelf


Hi. So, last night I was bored, it was around 8.30PM and I decided to organise my bookshelf. Now, I had already organised it around a month before. But after my giant book haul and that yesterday I got a further 5 books, plus another 2 bookmarks, I needed more space to say the least. Plus, I had also divided up my TBR pile and counted that I had 24 books in the pile (I am literally drowning in them). So, I gathered my faithful companion and started unloading my bookshelf.


But sadly, Mae (my cat) disappeared after around 5 minutes. Here is the before (monstrosity) of the bookshelf:

And, that doesn't even have my 24 TBR books on there. Of course, there's also the pile of books on the ground. Finally, I had unloaded all of the books off the bookshelf and on to the ground. And boy, there was a lot of books:
That's not even all of them. Then, my mum walked in and she helped me put them into genres. I seem to have a lot of contemporary but I never read contemporary. AM I READING IN MY SLEEP? It is entirely possible of course. This is what my amazing bookshelf looked like once I had taken all the books out:

I know, fabulous.

Anway, we finally got all the books into the bookshelf and the outcome was wonderalandaful! I put it into genres so I put sticky notes telling myself where all the different genres were.




Well, I am officially done, I hope you enjoyed! I now leave you with a picture of my dog:


Rose :3

Sunday 14 February 2016

Birthday Book Haul

Hai! As it was my birthday party yesterday and my birthday last Tuesday, I received some money, books and vouchers. And guess what I brought with that money? Books! I brought 5 books for $20, one of them free and another for my mum, 3 books I got for presents and 4 I got on a voucher. Attention: I am not bragging in anyway. I am merely showing you what books I got for my birthday and I am SO grateful for everything I got. So, let's get started! Sorry for the quality of the photos, I had to take them on a phone.



  • Almost Sincerely- Zoë Norton Lodge: This is one of my all-time favourite books, and I'm so excited to own it. It is the funniest book ever. I originally got it out of the library and read it but now I have it. *strokes book* MY PRECIOUS.
  • Deep Water- Debi Gliori: So, I got this one from my parents. I am intrigued by it and can't wait to read it. I have another of her books and they are quite interesting reads. Plus, there is a character named Titus, I mean, it's bound to be good.
  • Flora & Ulysses- Kate DiCamillo: I have been wanting to read this for a while now, so I thought I'd give it a try, seeing as it was only $5.
  • Red Queen- Victoria Aveyard: This book looks quite interesting and it will definitely be on my March TBR, I'm planning to read it after I've reread the Hunger Games.
  • The Hunger Games- Suzanne Collins: OK, I have to admit I didn't own this book. Don't get me wrong, most of the books I read are library books but the weird thing was, I owned the last two books of the trilogy as I had read the 1st one at school. I am so happy that I own the whole trilogy now!
  • Heat Stroke- Rachel Caine: I got this as a gift from my good friend Kylie. It looks very interesting, so that's also on my March TBR. How many books are on my March TBR list? 500+.
  • The Thickety #1 A Path Begins- J.A White: I love a story about a forest, and this one looks AMAZING! 
     
  • The Wicked Will Rise- Danielle Paige: Guess who got the sequel to Dorothy Must Die? Rose did. I am so excited. I can't even.
  • Dorothy Must Die Stories: And then guess what the other bookstore had this for $2? This book. It is three prequel novellas all rolled into one book. 


  • The Story Of Land And Sea- Katy Simpson Smith: I don't know what to expect. I guess we'll have to wait and sea.
  • The World Is Round- Gertrude Stein: This is the book I talked about with the girl named Rose and her Poodle in my birthday post. Oh and Cait @ Paper Fury is hosting a Mortal Instruments giveaway!
Well, thats all! Have a wonderlandaful day!

Rose :3

Friday 12 February 2016

World's Greatest Shave 2016

Hai guys, I've decided to do the World's Greatest Shave. Well, I'm actually not shaving my head, but I'm colouring it. It's a great way to help raise money for people with blood cancer. Some of my friends from school are colouring their hair so I'm doing it as well. All you need to do is sign up an get people to sponsor you. You can find my page here.
Have a wonderlandiful day,

Rose :3

Thursday 11 February 2016

Dorothy Must Die By Danielle Paige | Book Review

Title: Dorothy Must Die
Author: Danielle Paige
Genre: YA/ Fantasy/ Science Fiction
Publication: April 1 2014, HaperCollins
Pages: 452, paperback
Source: Library
Buy The Book On Booktopia | Buy The Book On Book Depository



I didn't ask for any of this. I didn't ask to be some kind of hero. But when your whole life gets swept up by a tornado—taking you with it—you have no choice but to go along, you know?
Sure, I've read the books. I've seen the movies. But I never expected Oz to look like this. To be a place where Good Witches can't be trusted, Wicked Witches may just be the good guys. A place where even the yellow brick road is crumbling.
What happened? Dorothy.
My name is Amy Gumm—and I'm the other girl from Kansas. I've been recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked,and I've been given a mission: Remove the Tin Woodman's heart. Steal the Scarecrow's brain. Take the Lion's courage. And then—Dorothy must die.
So first, let's got brought the pros of this book. I LOVED THIS BOOK! It is like a retelling/sequel of the Wizard Of Oz. It is about what happened when Dorothy returned to Oz. The characters were all so unique and I thought that was great and Paige changed all of the main characters from the original's personalities in this book. It ended on an immense cliffhanger and that was annoying, so I'm so going to get the second book. I love Paige's writing style and Amy's personality. Now, for the cons.  There are few though. Firstly, I think that Paige killed of a main character too soon and I thinks she could have been a major part of the plot. Secondly, I thought at some parts there was too much going on. I feel like the character of Glinda could have been touched on more. Lastly, I got frustrated at some part when the story dragged on. All in all, I think it was a great book! 
Quote Of The Book:
"Words like Good and Wicked had lost their meaning. What really 
mattered was right and wrong."
- Amy Gumm, page 389
I would rate this book
  





Tuesday 9 February 2016

Birthday Events

Yay! It's my birthday!  I am officially 11 A.K.A 1+1=2.... Anyways, I just went onto Google and it knew it was my birthday. Kind of creepy if you ask me, but kind of nice. I made cupcakes for my class, with cat faces. It was also our substitute librarian, A.KA my friend's grandma's birthday. I also got to see my little cousin after school. My birthday party is on Saturday, but I'm only inviting 3 people, because my 'party' is just a picnic and a sleepover. I got some AMAZING gifts though. I even got a book about a girl named Rose and her poodle! Coincidence much? I am nearly finished Dorothy Must Die, I reckon it's one of my new favourite books, so that review is coming to you soon. W e are having takeaway Indian, we were going to go to the restaurant but I didn't want to miss one of my favourite shows, MKR (My Kitchen Rules). I a lot of people said Happy Birthday too me. My grandparents gave me some weird assortment of pig ornaments. I have had the best birthday ever and am very grateful for all my presents and day. Have a wonderlandaful day!




Rose :3

Wednesday 3 February 2016

February TBR

Hai! Here is my February TBR! 4 of them are library books, and 2 are my own, and all but one are YA.

Dorothy Must Die- Danielle Paige
I am so happy I got this out of the library! Ever since I discovered this book I've wanted to read it.
Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones- Cassandra Clare
I have read the 1st and 2nd book of the Infernal Devices and decided to read this series. Again, I got it out of the library.
Touch Of Power- Maria V. Snyder
My friend had read this and it looks really interesting, and I for some reason have gotten quite a lot of fantasy out of the library.



















Skullduggery Pleasant: Dark Days
I have had this on my shelf for a month, so I have finally decided to read it! I got it for $3 at a bargain book store on the main street of my town.    

The Kensington Reptilarium- N.J Gemmell
Sorry, I couldn't get this above the book cover. I won this as an award at my schools presentation day assembly for academic achievement. I have had it for about 2 months now.      


Well, I hope you enjoyed my February TBR. My birthday is in 5 days!

Rose :3