Weekly Book Round Up #56 and a Blogging Hiatus...

After really enjoying Eleanor and Park, I couldn't resist downloading another Rainbow Rowell book for my Kindle! Fangirl is the story of Cath, a girl who has recently left home to go to college with her twin sister. Cath is incredibly shy and writes fan fiction, while her sister is outgoing and sociable. This book is very much a coming of age story, with Cath realising that real life can be just as good as her fictional worlds. Rainbow Rowell's novels have a very distinct writing style which I absolutely love, I just wish her endings were a bit more rounded. I was quite surprised that this ended where it did, but it did tie in nicely with what Cath says about fan fiction, the ending is up to the reader!

Nicola's rating: 4/5



Also, you read correctly, I am taking a blogging hiatus! Next week Luke and I are off to Norfolk and the week after I will be starting my degree with the Open University, so now seems like as good a time as any to make my announcement. I will be sporadically posting in the week before I start studying, but after that there probably won't be any new content for a while. I'm really sad to be leaving my blog, I started it up not really knowing what I was doing and I feel like I've learned a lot! 

See you around, internets!

Weekly Book Round Up #55

Kelley Armstrong is one of my favourite supernatural authors. Her young adult stuff can be a bit hit and miss but I always love her adult novels. This is the second book in her new Cainsville series, and if you were left with lots of questions after the first book (Omens), then Visions goes someway to explaining all of the strange goings on in Cainsville. Olivia and Gabriel are back, and when the dead body of a girl who looks very similar to Olivia is left in her car, it can only be a threat. Meanwhile, Olivia has issues in her personal life to deal with, following the reappearance of her ex-fiance, James. I was hooked from start to finish by this book, I'm really hoping that this series isn't just going to be a trilogy!


Nicola's rating: 5/5

Weekly Book Round Up #54

I don't know what I was expecting from this book, but it certainly surprised me. Having absolutely loved The Shining Girls, which was at once terrifying and insanely compelling, I knew I was going to have to read Lauren Beukes's new novel. Based in Detroit, the story begins with Gabi investigating a serial killer who leaves behind disturbing half-animal, half-human corpses, while her daughter has launched her own vigilante project of hunting down paedophiles. I didn't find this book as scary or compelling as The Shining Girls, but I still really enjoyed it. The ending was really not what I was expecting, mixing in an almost supernatural element to what I had thought was a standard crime/thriller. 

Nicola's rating: 4/5

Weekly Book Round Up #53

I really wish these books didn't have such cringey covers! This is the sixth novel in Jess Haines's H&W Investigations series. This story picks up more or less straight after the end of the fifth novel, with Shiarra being held captive by Max, a sadistic vampire. Shiarra spends a large part of the book actively defying Max which results in a lot of punishment for her. Eventually she escapes, and teams up with some of Alec's vampires to rescue her friend Sara and the rest of Max's 'pets'. I didn't find that I enjoyed this one as much as the other books in the series, and I found the first part of the book quite difficult to get through. The ending and the final battle were much more entertaining though!

Nicola's rating: 4/5

This is the fifth book in a spin-off from the Vampire Academy books. It pretty much kicks off from the end of the previous book, with Sydney captured by the Alchemists and being tortured into confessing her 'sin'. Adrian is still with Jill and her guardians, until his mother arrives and takes him back to the vampire court, where he soon spirals into an alcohol fuelled depression after failing to locate Sydney through dream-walking. He does eventually get his act together and forms a plan to rescue Sydney. I found this book a really exciting installment to the series, a lot of big things happen which are obviously lining everything up for the final book, which I can't wait for. February seems so far away!


Nicola's rating: 4/5

Weekly Book Round Up #52

Firstly, wow. This marks a year of blogging for me which is amazing! I'm really not looking forward to having to give it up once I start studying, I'll miss taking photos and planning posts.

Anyway, this weeks book is The Book of Life, the final book in The Discovery of Witches trilogy. I've been waiting two years for this book to come out, and initially I was pretty disappointed. It's definitely one of those books that has a very steady incline towards the ending. I was expecting a lot more drama and action, but there just seemed to be an awful lot of planning and mooching about. Obviously if your main character is pregnant then you can't really have her getting into all kinds of scrapes, but I just felt a bit disappointed. I still thought it was a good ending to the series, all the loose ends were wrapped up nicely, but don't expect there to be any last minute plot twists.

Nicola's rating: 3.5/5

Weekly Book Round Up #51

The next book in Richelle Mead's Age of X series, this book follows Justin and Mae as they venture into enemy territory on a diplomatic mission. I really struggled to get into this one, it seemed to take a really long time to get going and then not an awful lot happened. I'm hoping that this book was just suffering as it appears to be the second book in a trilogy, I really like the concept of a futuristic setting but with gods from all cultures becoming involved in the lives of humans. Hopefully the next book will be a bit more action packed!

Nicola's rating: 3/5

Quite a few people have recommended Rainbow Rowell's books to me previously but this was the first one I managed to get my grubby paws on! This story is about two teenagers who slowly start to communicate through sharing comic books and music, and eventually fall in love. It really is a very bittersweet story and I feel like it's been a great introduction into the world of Rainbow Rowell, I definitely want to try her other books! Hopefully I'll get time before my degree starts!


Nicola's rating: 4/5 

Stephanie Plum is back and this time she's on the hunt for a used-car dealership owner and a Russian assassin who has his sights set on Ranger. Unfortunately I'm beginning to find these very samey. The earlier books in the series used to make me laugh out loud but I don't even tend to crack a smile with the newer books. The series definitely needs something to liven it up a bit, I'm just not sure what. It would help if Stephanie would finally make a decision between Morelli and Ranger, there's only so much dithering a readership can take!

Nicola's rating: 3/5

Weekly Book Round Up #50

This is such a fun series, I'm always excited when a new Charley Davidson book comes out! Charley is a P.I. with a difference. She's the grim reaper incarnate and in addition to guiding souls to thir final destination, she can communicate with ghosts to help them resolve any unfinished business. Think Stephanie Plum with a supernatural twist, these books are fun, dramatic, and a riot to read. I'm already looking forward to the next one!

Nicola's rating: 5/5

Rebel Belle is the a new offering from Rachel Hawkins, and while I wasn't expecting much, I actually really enjoyed it! Harper Price is the queen bee at her school, but after a strange encounter at her school dance, she finds herself gifted with super strength and lethal fighting abilities. She has become a Paladin, a guardian for one of her classmates, who just so happens to be her worst enemy. In some ways this reminded me of Buffy the vampire slayer, there's a lot of kick ass fight scenes and the dialogue between charaters is always entertaining. I really thought that this would be quite a boring read but I was pleasantly surprised!

Nicola's rating: 4/5

Weekly Book Round Up #49

This is the final book in Cassandra Clare's debut series, The Mortal Instruments. I've been waiting what's felt like forever to read it, so long that I couldn't really remember what had happened in the previous five books! Luckily, the book is written in such a way that I soon remembered the majority of what had happened, and was straight pulled back into the world of Shadowhunters and demons. We follow Clary, Jace, Isabelle, Alec and Simon on a dangerous journey to take on Sebastian and his army of 'Endarkened' for the last time. This book had me hooked from the start, and even though it was sad to say goodbye to the main characters from this series, there's already the promise of a new journey with Cassandra Clare's next series which is due to start with the first book next year.

This is the eighth book in the Outlander series, and follows pretty much straight on from the end of the seventh book. This was a bit disorienting as I read that a few years ago, so it took me a while to remember what had happened! Claire and Jamie are struggling to negotiate living through the Civil War in America, whilst her time-travelling daughter and son-in-law are on a frantic search through time to find their young son Jem. I found this book a bit less exciting than the previous novels in the series, I had a sense of constantly waiting for something big to happen, and then was a bit disappointed when the book ended. Even more disappointingly, I'll probably have to wait another four years for the next one! Boo!

Nicola's rating: 3.5./5

 

Weekly Book Round Up #48

I've really gotten into this series from J.K. Rowling. This is the second book written as Robert Galbraith, that follows the detective Cormoran Strike. This time, he's investigating the disappearance of an author, who made plenty of enemies both before and after writing his scandalous novel, Bombyx Mori. The novel was sent to his editor as a draft who accidentally forwarded it on to a publishing company, even though it contained characters closely resembling those close to the author in a less than appealing light. Once Cormoran discovers the body of the author, the race is on to catch a brutal and calculated killer. This book had me gripped from beginning to finish, and I'm absolutely loving how the series is developing. I can't wait for more!

Nicola's rating: 4/5

I think this book slightly suffered from me reading Cormoran Strike right before. It's a new series from Elizabeth Haynes, following DCI Louisa Smith as she tries to uncover the twisted link between a murder of a young woman, and a suicide. I'd not read anything by this author before, but I felt that the book was very rushed in places, and not really laid out very well. There were also initially a lot of characters which I found hard to keep track of. Perhaps under other circumstances I might have enjoyed it more, but it felt flat after reading The Silkworm.

Nicola's rating: 2.5/5

Weekly Book Round Up # 47

This book seriously creeped me out. It's about a couple who buy a house, and when they move in they realise that they can hear strange voices through their childs baby monitor and through audio equipment. In places the narrative seems to go off on a bit of a tangent and isn't very scary at all, but the ending builds in suspense to the point where I was almost hyperventilating! I am a pretty big wimp when it comes to scary stuff so some people might not be as affected by this book as I was, but I really wouldn't recommend reading it on your own at night!

Nicola's rating: 3.5./5

Weekly Book Round Up #46

I really like reading autobiographies, especially those of comedians, and David Mitchell (of Mitchell and Webb) is someone that I've always found very funny. Initially, I struggled a bit with this book as it is laid out in quite a strange way, but once I got into it I enjoyed it. It was particularly interesting to read about his time as a Cambridge University student, and how he met many of the people he now works with. I didn't find it a funny book, he often goes off on long tangents that I found a little bit boring and long winded but overall I still found this to be an interesting read.


Nicola's rating: 3.5/5

S.J. Bolton is one of my favourite thriller/crime authors, and the latest edition to the Lacey Flint series did not fail to disappoint! We rejoin Lacey after her recent traumatic cases, living on a boat on the Thames. Life isn't entirely peaceful though, as someone has started to leave strange objects on her boat, and she discovers the body of a young woman wrapped in a shroud in the river. I was kept guessing for the majority of the book, and thoroughly creeped out in other parts, and as a result I devoured this book in a couple of days. I can't wait for the next one!


Nicola's rating: 4.5/5

Weekly Book Round Up #45

I was pretty excited to see a spin-off series from Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl after their Beautiful Creatures series ended, especially when I heard that these books would be following Ridley and Link. Ridley is a siren, and Link is a hybrid incubus. After saying goodbye to their friends in Gatlin, they travel to New York. Ridley is in a whole heap of trouble after losing 2 bets to the owner of a club, and one of her debts is a drummer. In the process of paying off her debt, Ridley manages to alienate Link and the rest of the people in his band. Set in a dark underworld of magic and persuasion, I really enjoyed the beginning of this new series. The ending was really irritating though, a huge cliffhanger that I'm going to have to wait ages to resolve! Boo! You could probably read this if you haven't read the Beautiful Creatures books, but you might feel a bit confused at the start.

Nicola's rating: 4/5

Weekly Book Round Up #44

So this was meant to be last Friday's weekly book round up, but I've been really ill with Tonsillitis so today is my first day back to blogging! I'll hopefully have some beauty box posts later this week for y'all!

This book is the second in the Blackwell Pages series, written by Melissa Marr and Kelley Armstrong. The books are aimed at young adults, and follow a group of teens who are the chosen champions of Norse gods and face the challenge of trying to prevent Ragnarok. With all the hype surrounding Norse mythology at the moment (partly in thanks to Chris Hemsworth's Thor) these books could not have come out at a better time. I do find them a bit childish in places, but the adventures are fun and the quest has kept me immersed in the story. I don't know a lot about Norse mythology, but these books have made me interested to learn a bit more about it.


Nicola's rating: 3.5/5

This was a bit of an impulse purchase for my kindle before we went on holiday. We saw the film last year and I liked it, so I decided to give the book a try. The book is very different to the film, and I found it quite hard to get through in places. There are a couple of quite long winded chapters that go on about various American football games the main character goes to see, and while I can understand why they were included, I just found them a bit boring. The main story is about Pat, who has mental health issues for undisclosed reasons (at the beginning of the story). He is introduced to Tiffany through friends who are clearly trying to get the two of them together. Even with the boring football chapters, I really enjoyed this book. It was definitely interesting to read about the different ways people react to mental health issues, especially one scene in particular when a football player is being derided by the crowd at a game for supposedly attempting suicide. Pat's brother is among those who are jeering, even though he has a close member of his family who has struggled with serious depression, and other issues. 



Nicola's rating: 4/5

Weekly Book Round Up #43

Emma Donoghue can be a bit hit and miss for me. I've loved some of her books (Room) and short stories, but some of them just leave me cold. Frog Music was a weird in-between, I enjoyed certain aspects of it, but other parts just weren't as good. The book is set in (as far as I can tell) early 1900's San Francisco. The story follows Blanche and her unlikely friendship with Jenny Bonnet, which leads to the end of Blanche's relationship with her long-term lover. Jenny is shot and killed and Blanche immediately sets out to find who she believes is the murderer, and rescue her child. What I enjoy about Emma Donoghue's books is that she researches odd characters from history and writes stories about them, filling in the gaps as she goes. I just sometimes found that this book seemed to drag out the story a bit, which resulted in me losing interest in places.


Nicola's rating: 3/5

Weekly Book Round Up #42

This was a bit of a weird one. The main character, Juneau, has been raised in Alaska in what she believes to be a post- World War III society. However, one day after returning from hunting, she finds her entire clan gone. Through her connection to the Yara (a form of natural magic) Juneau traces her clan, and discovers that World War III never happened, and that she has been lied to by everyone she thought she could trust. Enlisting the help of Miles (who has his own reasons for helping Juneau) she heads off on a trip to try and rescue her family and the rest of the clan, whilst being chased by several groups who seem to be after Juneau for her connection to the Yara. This is the first book in a trilogy and it's ended on a massive cliffhanger, I can't wait to see where the series goes!


Nicola's rating: 3.5/5

 This is a book I was super excited about! Charlaine Harris is one of my favourite authors and I couldn't wait to see what her new series was like. This story is told from the viewpoints of the different inhabitants of Midnight, Texas. The characters are all vastly different, and not all entirely as they seem. The book mainly set the scene for a murder mystery and introduced the new characters to everyone. Initially I found the amount of characters slightly confusing, mixing up who was who, but after a while I really got into the story and now I can't wait for the next book! If you enjoyed the Sookie Stackhouse novels, these are a must-read!



Nicola's rating: 5/5

Weekly Book Round Up #41

For the first time in ages I managed to get more than one book read in a week! Obviously, I was on  holiday so there was a lot of catching up on my Kindle books, and I'm aware that this is a bit of a weird time of week to be posting a round up, but I've got a lot of blog posts that I want to get posted this week so prepare for a lot of posts this week!

This book was really odd. It's the first Kate Atkinson I've read, and it follows the lives and various reincarnations of Ursula. Born in 1910, Ursula lives and dies repeatedly in different ways, seemingly searching for a way to live her life 'right'. Large parts of the book are focused on her different lives in the second world war. In one, she is living in Germany with access to Eva Braun. In another, she is working as a bomb site responder. I really enjoyed reading this book, and the way it was written, but I finished it feeling as though I'd missed something. 

Nicola's rating: 3.5/5

I first read Adrian Mole when I was in school, and after hearing about the very sad death of Sue Townsend, I decided to revisit it on holiday. It's just as funny as I remembered, and I can't wait to read the sequels. For those that haven't read the book, think Louise Rennison's 'Angus, Things and Full-Frontal Snogging', but set in the 1980's and from a male point of view and you're pretty much spot on. Great fun, and a must-read if you haven't already!

Nicola's rating: 4.5/5

This was the book I was most excited to read on holiday. The final book in Laini Taylor's masterpiece 'Daughter of Smoke and Bone' trilogy. The story has followed the battle between the chimaera and the angels to it's peak, and now everything hangs in the balance. I can't really review this book in a way that will do it justice, but for me, this is a must-read trilogy. I think that this is one of my favourite series of all time, and Laini Taylor has become one of my favourite authors. I can't wait to see what she'll write next!

Nicola's rating: 5/5 


My giveaway to win TheBalm's 'How 'bout them Apples' palette still has 11 days left to go! Remember to keep tweeting about it for more entries, and if you haven't already entered, you can find it HERE!

Weekly Book Round Up #40

This is the first book in Kelley Armstrong's newest trilogy. It definitely wasn't what I was expecting, and is a bit of a departure from her usual style. This was much more of a fantasy novel than anything I've read from her before, following the main characters (twin sisters Ashyn and Moria) who are the Keeper and Seeker. The Seeker's job is to calm the spirits of the exiles that are sent into the forest, and the Keeper's job is to protect the Seeker and villagers. There were a few elements in this book that reminded me of Game of Thrones (shadow stalkers, white walkers?) and Sabriel (the spirit calming), but the story didn't really grab me as much as Kelley Armstrong's novels usually do. Hopefully the second book will be an improvement!


Nicola's rating: 3/5



This is my last post for a week, as I am off on my honeymoon to Corfu! I haven't scheduled anything for next week (because I'm lazy) but I will be back to regular blogging on Monday 26th May, hopefully with some outfit posts and lovely holiday pictures to share! In the meantime, please keep entering my giveaway to win TheBalm's How 'bout them Apples? palette which you can find HERE! 

See you soon!

Weekly Book Round Up #39

This is the fourth book in the Virals series written by Kathy Reichs and her son. While I'm a big fan of her Temperance Brennan books, I find this series for young adults a little bit boring. It has more of a supernatural element than the Tempe books, with some crime solving mixed in, but unfortunately I find the main characters quite irritating! Having said all of that, I actually think I enjoyed this one the most out of all the other books in the series. Once I got into it, the clues and investigating sucked me in more than the other books have previously, and we're finally starting to get somewhere with the ongoing investigation into how the Viral's superpowers work. I tend to get these books from the library as I'm not that keen on them, but I'll be looking out for the next one now because we've been left on a bit of a cliffhanger!

Nicola's rating: 2.5/5

Don't forget to enter my giveaway here to win TheBalm's How 'bout them Apples? palette!

Weekly Book Round Up #38

This book was one of my birthday presents, and I absolutely love getting books from people! It's always interesting to see what they pick out. This one came from my Mother-in-Law (Thanks Susan!) and it's a great choice! I'd not read anything by this author before, but this book has definitely made me want to try her other books. In a way, I found this book to be quite similar to Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl. It twists and turns and really keeps you on your toes, and I really enjoyed it. The story is told in several parts, the beginning following what would seem like a routine family holiday until a new member of the group disappears with the youngest child. The second part of the book goes into more detail about why this family has been targeted, and by whom. I can't go into too much detail without being spoilery, but if you loved Gone Girl then I'd definitely suggest you give this a try!

Nicola's rating: 4/5

Weekly Book Round Up #37

If urban/supernatural fantasy is your kind of thing, then Patricia Briggs is a great author to start reading! Her Mercy Thompson series has just had it's 8th installment in the form of 'Night Broken', and I swear these books just keep getting better and better. Mercy is a skin changer, and can change into a coyote. Her husband Adam is the alpha of a pack of werewolves, and they're about to face their biggest challenge yet. Adam's ex-wife has returned to the pack seeking refuge from a being that none of them have faced before, and don't know how to destroy. What I love about these books is that they never lack in the quality of writing. Patricia Briggs tends to take her time with her novels, which can be frustrating for fans, but results in an engrossing story from start to finish. She's one of my favourite authors so maybe I'm biased, but I'd definitely recommend her to anyone out there looking to find a new urban fantasy author to read!


Nicola's rating: 4/5