It's Exam Season... So Here's What I've Been Doing Instead of Revision

Hey there, it's nice to see you again, if you're still here... I know I haven't posted for almost a month, and I'm sorry! You probably guessed from the title of this (very rambly) post, it's Exam Season, which means I will probably not post that much. I haven't been reading (very much - less than half a book in three weeks :( ), and no reading means no books to review, so I don't really have anything to post, hence my silence. So, I was thinking that I don't just want to be really quiet until the end of June, and I'm not going to be revising 24/7 (and now that I'm on study leave I don't have school) so I should have some time to at least post something occasionally... Anyhoo.

I thought I'd start with a showcase of a few of the books I've received in the last couple of months that I'm looking forward to reading after revision and exams are over, as I won't be able to review them anytime soon and I feel I should at least talk about them once for now since I was so lucky to receive them for review. So. I guess this is kind of like a Letterbox Love but I'm doing it a little differently, and then adding a little bit at the end.

DOLL BONES by Holly Black
9th May 2013, Random House Children's Books
Twelve-year-old Zach is too old to play with toys. Or at least, that's what his father thinks.

But even though he stops hanging out with Poppy and Alice, stops playing with his action figures, it's no good. There's one toy that still wants to play with him. A doll that's made from the bones of a dead girl.

The only way to end the game is to lay the doll to rest forever. It's time for a journey to Spring Grove cemetery. It's time to grow up.

I'd not heard of this one until I received it, but I really like the sound of it and I've heard a lot about Holly Black's book before, but never actually read one. I also really enjoy middle grade books every now and then so I'm looking forward to this one! Also, the cover is hauntingly beautiful so I'm definitely going to have to give this one a read soon!

THE DROWNING by Rachel Ward
2nd May 2013, Chicken House
What happens if you've done something terrible? But you can't remember what. And you don't know how to put it right ...When Carl opens his eyes on the banks of a lake, his brother is being zipped into a body bag. What happened in the water? He can't remember And when he glimpses a beautiful girl he thinks he recognizes, she runs away. Suddenly he knows he must find her - because together they must face the truth before it drowns them.

I'm really looking forward to reading this one too - again, I've heard a lot about Rachel Ward's Numbers series but I haven't read it, so I'm expecting this one to be really great. I love a good mystery and haven't read one for a while so I'm sure this'll be a nice exam antidote!

THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE CURSED by Page Morgan
2nd May 2013, Hot Key Books
Ingrid Waverley is a young woman to be reckoned with. Faced with her brother's mysterious disappearance after an abrupt move to Paris, she is determined to discover what has happened to him. Soon she and her sister Gabriella are drawn into a Parisian underworld more terrifying than they could ever have imagined, but watching over them are two impossible (and impossibly handsome) young men. Luc is a 'Dispossessed', an ancient gargoyle whose sworn duty it is to protect the humans who inhabit his abbey. Nolan has secrets of his own too. He is a member of the Alliance - a shadowy group dedicated to keeping Paris safe from the demonic forces that threaten to destroy it.

I love the sound of this one, and I've never read anything about gargoyles before so that's very exciting! The back of the book says it contains romance, murder, gothic and supernatural, so it sounds right up my street - very excited to give this one a read! Also, this will  be my first Hot Key Books book, so that's equally exciting!

LIFE AFTER THEFT by Aprilynne Pike
25th April 2013, HarperCollins Children's Books
Kimberlee’s dead. Has been for a while, actually. Stuck haunting the halls of her high school, she’s doomed to an afterlife of boredom. That is until the new kid shows up.

The first thing Jeff spots is Kimberlee lying on the floor as other students walk right through her. Pretty soon she’s harangued him into helping her escape to the afterlife.

Kimberlee guesses that once Jeff rights her mean girl wrongs she’ll be able to move on. But nothing is simple in life after death...

I really love the sound of this one too, and I really like the cover too. I've never read anything by Aprilynne Pike, but I've heard good things about her Wings series so I'm looking forward to giving this one a read. It sounds like it could be pretty funny and if that's true it'd be nice to read after the stress of exams. Very exciting!

KITE SPIRIT by Sita Brahmachari
9th May 2013, Macmillan Children's Books
During the summer of her GCSEs Kite's world falls apart. Her best friend, Dawn, commits suicide after a long struggle with feeling under pressure to achieve. Kite's dad takes her to the Lake District, to give her time and space to grieve. In London Kite is a confident girl, at home in the noisy, bustling city, but in the countryside she feels vulnerable and disorientated. Kite senses Dawn's spirit around her and is consumed by powerful, confusing emotions - anger, guilt, sadness and frustration, all of which are locked inside. It's not until she meets local boy, Garth, that Kite begins to open up - talking to a stranger is easier somehow. Kite deeply misses her friend and would do anything to speak to Dawn just once more, to understand why . . . Otherwise how can she ever say goodbye? A potent story about grief, friendship, acceptance and making your heart whole again.

I love stories about friendship, so I'm looking forward to this one. I've not read any of the author's other books, nor have I heard that much about them, so I'm not really sure what to expect from this one. However, I like the idea of the story and I really like the cover so I have high hopes.

Have you read any of these books? I'm trying to decide which one I want to read first, but I can't! I think maybe Life After Theft, or The Beautiful and the Cursed... I believe all these books are out now so you can buy them for yourselves if you see anything you fancy and get reading! :)

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While I'm not reading, I am watching a lot of TV and listening to music while I revise, so it's probably more appropriate for me to talk about that here because that's actually something that I've done recently! I'm currently watching my way through Gossip Girl - I'm currently on Season 4 and even though I've seen every episode a few times already I just love it so much! I'm also really loving Doctor Who this series - I'm SO happy that they've gone back to having one story per episode that is unrelated (mostly) to the one before - it's so much more fun that way! I also really like Clara - I like her even more every episode and I really want to know who she is and why she keeps popping up everywhere and everywhen ;) (Also, have you guys seen that Matt Smith has shaved his head?! His beautiful floppy hair has gone... :'( )

Music wise, I'm loving P!nk right now (always have, always will) - her newest album The Truth About Love mostly but also Funhouse and the rest of her albums. I've also recently bought Paramore's new album, Paramore, and I'm really liking it though it's quite different from their last, Brand New Eyes. My favourite song from it is probably Proof, or maybe Still Into You (which also has a great video if you've not seen it yet). Any recommendations for new songs would be great - I can't work in silence so I need new things all the time!

Last thing - movies! I watched Star Trek last week in preparation for Into Darkness, and I really enjoyed it! Looking forward to Into Darkness hugely (Benedict Cumberbatch, anyone? ;) ). I saw Iron Man 3 last week, and it was incredible as usual. Robert Downey Jr is just so amazing as Tony Stark, and I also love Gwyneth Paltrow, despite her being voted Most Hated Celebrity! I thoroughly recommend it!

So. That's what I've been up to in the last couple of weeks and what I've received and am looking forward to reading once exams are over and I've got time to think. I'm currently reading Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys and it's excellent, but I have been reading it for about three weeks now and I'm not even half way through so there's not much I can say about it yet, really. I'll keep you posted on Twitter, though :)

Thanks for reading (I hope it was interesting - I just wanted to let you know I'm still alive and haven't forgotten about my blog and you lovely readers, I promise!), have a great week and I'll see you soon, hopefully! Also sorry it's so long, but it'll probably be the only new thing for a while ;)

Book Review: The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead

Title: The Indigo Spell 

Author: Richelle Mead
Series:  Bloodlines, #3
Pages: 432
Publisher: Puffin
Date of Publication: 12th February 2013
Source: Publisher*
Synopsis from Goodreads: 

In the aftermath of a forbidden moment that rocked Sydney to her core, she struggles to draw the line between her Alchemist teachings and what her heart is urging her to do. Then she finally tracks down the elusive, enigmatic Marcus Finch – a former Alchemist who the organisation denies exists, and who lives in shadows, on the run. With Marcus's help, Sydney realises that the group she's been loyal to her whole life has been hiding the truth from her. Is it possible that her golden lily tattoo might have more power over her than she thinks?

As she struggles to come to terms with what that might mean, Sydney is compelled to use her growing magical powers to track down an evil magic user who is targeting powerful young witches. Using magic goes against everything she always thought she believed, but she realises that her only hope is to embrace her special blood – or else she might be next.

Forging her own way is harder than Sydney ever dreamed. Maybe by turning off her brain – and following her heart – she'll be able to finally figure out where she belongs.

My Thoughts:
After the shocker of an ending that The Golden Lily left us with, as soon as this book landed on my doorstep (thanks Puffin!) I had to read it. After completing some coursework for Textiles, I wasted no time in getting straight into The Indigo Spell. I considered a reread of the first two books first, but I needed to know what would happen after the huge cliffhanger of The Golden Lily, so I opted to start this one without a recap, hoping that I would be reminded of the previous events as I went along. I wasn't, so a reread is recommended, although It was still really, really awesome!

In my notes for my review of this, I've got:

"SYDNEY AND ADRIAN. YES PLEASE. Frustration.
SO ANNOYING. SO FRUSTRATING. SO. SO. GOOD.
Exciting. Obvs."

I write things down as I'm reading, as they pop into my head, so that I don't forget them and have something good to write in my review... Well, I'm not really sure if you could count those as good notes, but it sums up my feelings for this book pretty well. While I really, really enjoyed it, there were so many times I wanted to chuck it at the wall, or scream and shout at the characters. I absolutely adore Richelle Mead but boy this book is annoying.

Firstly, Sydney. She needs to get over herself! Yes, she's been brought up as an Alchemist, but I've never really understood their principles. They've been taught that vampires are hideous creatures that are unnatural and abominations. But, they help them, by disposing of Strigoi bodies and hiding them from regular humans? So that makes no sense to me. Anyway, she may have been brought up this way but she's lived around Moroi for so long that obviously she can see for herself that they're not the bad guys, and while yes, they do eat humans which is a little bit freaky, it's not that bad because they only drink from willing volunteers... Right?

Also, the whole magic thing. She's got the gift of being able to use magic, and she's really good at it, so why doesn't she just use it?! Man. Anyway. I did like her, apart from sometimes wanting to give her a good ol' slap to make her see some sense. Saying that though, she was seriously awesome when she did do magic. I absolutely loved those parts of the book - it was nice to learn more about magic and also Mrs Terwilliger too - she's pretty cool. I'd love a teacher like her...

I really love how, while the Bloodlines series does have an ongoing story that spans all three books so far, each book has it's own little story that gets resolved at the end. It means that even if I've forgotten what that ongoing story arc is, I can at least enjoy the story of that book. I also like it because it's just a story that I can read all at once, without worrying about having to remember everything that's happened while I wait a year or so for the end of the story. So that's good. It keeps it interesting too, and is a lot less confusing than the story arc (because with the Moroi, Hunters, Alchemists, Warriors... Confusing!).

Lastly, I can't say nothing about Adrian. I love him so much, and he is so perfect with Sydney. Their relationship is so frustrating though, because it goes against everything that Sydney's ever believed, so I won't spoil whether or not they work it out, but it takes them a long time to even begin to try. I've had a couple people ask though, and I will say that there are some kisses. Yeah. Anyway.

Overall, I really did enjoy The Indigo Spell, and I'm super excited to read the next book, The Fiery Heart, which hopefully will be coming out later this year so we don't have a whole year to wait, just half! I definitely recommend this series if you haven't read Bloodlines yet but have read Vampire Academy. If you've not read VA I'd recommend you read that first, seeing as this is a spin off. This series continues to be awesome and seriously, you're missing out if you've not read them! They're action packed, fun and exciting, and I will always love them, no matter how frustrating they can be.

*Huge thanks to Puffin for sending me this in exchange for an honest review! In no way has this affected my opinion of the book. 

Happily Ever Endings... The Killables by Gemma Malley

Happily Ever Endings... was born out of sheer frustration. You know how when you read a series and you love it but the last book takes a little while to come out and then you sort of forget parts of the novel? That's what these posts are going to serve to remedy. Happily Ever Ending... is a short post about what happened at the ending of each book that is going to be in a series for people who need a quick reminder of what happened in the previous installment. It's really annoying when you can't remember what happens and don't have time for a reread, so this hopefully will be a huge help!

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Synopsis from Goodreads: Everyone accepted that people were different physically. But inside? Inside, they were different too. You just had to know how to tell, what to look for.

Evil has been eradicated. The City has been established. And citizens may only enter after having the 'evil' part of their brain removed. They are labelled on the System according to how 'good' they are. If they show signs of the evil emerging, they are labelled a K... But no one knows quite what that means. Only that they disappear, never to be seen again...

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Happily Ever Ending: After Raffy and Evie escape the City with the help of Raffy's brother, Lucas, they are captured by Linus and his friends. They turn out to be against the City and its System, and have been working with Lucas for a very long time. Linus takes Evie and Raffy to their 'city' (called Base Camp) where they are preparing to wage war on the City and the Brother.

Evie learns that the Evils aren't actually evil - they are just the City's experiments gone wrong. She then finds out that she was adopted at three years old, and her parents in the City are fake. Her real, biological parents are 'Evils', or Damaged Ones. Once Evie realises that the City are using the Evils as slaves, she decides to help Linus and the Base Camp attack the City and restore 'healthy' civilisation.

The plan was to gather the damaged ones and let them loose into the City using the key Evie stole from her father at the beginning of the book. Then, while the police guard was focused on that decoy, Lucas would let them in at another gate so they could get in without being killed on sight. Then, Linus and Raffy would rewrite the code for the System, and Martha and Evie would change everyone's labels to As in case Linus and Raffy couldn't change the code for whatever reason.

However, somehow the Brother got wind of the plan and captured Lucas which temporarily jeopardised the plan. However, Lucas managed to get Mr Brides to let Evie and Raffy and everyone in at the gate and the plan went ahead, with a little detour to the hospital to free Lucas. Once Lucas is free, he goes to the Brother and captures and imprisons him. Meanwhile, Evie and Martha have changed everyone's labels to As, and Raffy has rewritten the System. However, Linus is nowhere to be found, so Lucas goes to find him.

He goes to where the Brother was tied up and finds him gone. He then hears voices and follows them and finds the Brother talking to Linus outside the Meeting Room. The others all follow him and then the citizens of the City come out of the Meeting Room where they can hear the Brother. Evie tells them all about what is really going on, the truth, and threatens to shoot the Brother dead. In the end, Lucas shoots him in the leg, allowing everyone to escape apart from Linus. Lucas stays behind to get Linus out and make sure the new system works, and to ensure that peace is restored to the City.

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I hope this helped! Now you're all set up to read the next one! If I've missed anything important or you think there's something wrong, let me know in the comments! I'm not all that good at these... ;) 

Book Review: Geek Girl by Holly Smale

Title: Geek Girl

Author: Holly Smale
Series: Geek Girl, #1
Pages: 378
Publisher: HarperCollins Children's
Date of Publication: 28th February 2013
Source: Publisher*
Synopsis from Goodreads:
Harriet Manners knows a lot of things.

She knows that a cat has 32 muscles in each ear, a "jiffy" lasts 1/100th of a second, and the average person laughs 15 times per day. What she isn't quite so sure about is why nobody at school seems to like her very much. So when she's spotted by a top model agent, Harriet grabs the chance to reinvent herself. Even if it means stealing her Best Friend's dream, incurring the wrath of her arch enemy Alexa, and repeatedly humiliating herself in front of the impossibly handsome supermodel Nick. Even if it means lying to the people she loves.

As Harriet veers from one couture disaster to the next with the help of her overly enthusiastic father and her uber-geeky stalker, Toby, she begins to realise that the world of fashion doesn't seem to like her any more than the real world did.

And as her old life starts to fall apart, the question is: will Harriet be able to transform herself before she ruins everything?

My Thoughts:
First off, I'd like to apologise for the lateness of this review! There's no excuse, really. I'm just lazy... Anyhoo.

I absolutely adored Geek Girl. I wanted to read it because with a title like Geek Girl I couldn't not (right?!), but I was a little bit wary of the whole modelling and fashion side of things. I am just not interested in fashion. Sure, I like clothes, but I couldn't care less about what's 'in' at the moment, and I think that models can really be far too skinny. Anyway, I digress. So I wasn't completely sure I'd enjoy it, but I gave it a go anyway seeing as so many of my blogger friends loved it so much. And I loved every bit of it too.

I really liked Harriet, and I loved that I could relate to her completely. Weirdly, I was in her position just a couple of weeks before I read Geek Girl - I was going on a school trip to The Clothes Show Live at the Birmingham NEC and I really just didn't want to go. The idea of going on a four hour coach trip to look at lots of clothes was not fun especially, as like Harriet, my friend was ill and couldn't go (I think that's what happened?). So, I could empathise with her completely. She was also really great in that she stood up for what she believed in and I guess you could say she took a pretty unconventional approach to modelling? I guess I just liked that she had some guts, and made modelling seem a lot more real and even a little bit appealing to me, and showed that it is not just some super skinny girls not really doing anything, just walking around and pouting, which is all I'd really thought it was before.

The other characters were great too - I'm pretty sure I don't need to say that much about Nick, apart from that he was just super awesomely perfect and I'm looking forward to reading about him more in the next book. I also really liked Toby, Harriet's geeky, just-plain-weird stalker friend. He was really dorky and he made me laugh, but despite this he was there for Harriet when she needed a friend, so there was more to him and I liked that. Lastly, Harriet's relationship with her dad was great too and I loved how Holly really brought it out in the book - family relationships are just as important, if not more so to a teenager, than romantic ones. So super happy to see that in Geek Girl!

Surprisingly for me, the parts of the book in which Harriet was modelling or travelling to a shoot were my favourites, I think. They just seemed so fun! I loved the shoot in Moscow, and imagining Harriet wobbling around in too-high heels made me laugh out loud, as did the catwalk show. It's not often that I will literally laugh out loud at a book - they often make me smile, but an actual laugh is rare... But I laughed more than once at Geek Girl. Sign of a great book, right there!

The plot was super fast and exciting and things just kept on happening. I've heard that a lot of people felt that the speed in which events took place in the book was unbelievable and rushed in comparison with real life, but having listened to Holly talk about her own modelling experience at the launch party, it seems that it's actually pretty accurate (not that I would really know, I know... :P) Anyway. Not once did I think that it was unrealistic - I just got completely engrossed in the story and loved every minute of reading it, so don't worry about that.

I think it's pretty obvious how much I loved this book, and I definitely think that you should go out and get yourself a copy if you've not got one already, and read it! I cannot wait to read the second one, but I think it'd also have worked well as a standalone (though don't get me wrong, I'm really glad there'll be more of Harriet's story!) I'd recommend if you're looking for a light-hearted read that'll make you laugh out loud, has fantastic characters and many gorgeous settings. It's just brilliant!


*Huge thanks to HarperCollins for sending me this in exchange for an honest review, in no way has this affected my opinion of the book. Also, again, I'm so sorry this review is ridiculously late!

March 2013 Wrap-Up

Hey, so another month has gone, and here's what I read this month!

    

1. The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

2. The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson

3. Requiem by Lauren Oliver

4. Hidden by Marianne Curley

5. Zom-B City by Darren Shan

6. This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith

7. In The Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters (half way through)

Yay, I read more than four books this month! I'm slowly getting back into reading, I think, so hopefully it'll last but it's exams soon so we'll see. The Name of the Star was a reread, so that I'd be completely ready for The Madness Underneath, and seriously, this series is amazing. I hope to have my review of The Madness Underneath up this month, seeing as it's already pretty late... I finished the Delirium trilogy, with the final book Requiem, and my review is here. I wasn't happy with the open end, but I went to Lauren Oliver's signing and she explained why she left it like that and now I can appreciate it. I actually managed to post my review of Hidden within a few days of finishing it, and that can be found here. Zom-B City was a good quick read, and In The Shadow of Blackbirds is proving to be very spooky so far... But that's good, I'm really enjoying it!

Pages read this month: 2230
Average number of pages per book: 343

My favourite book of the month was...

THIS IS WHAT HAPPY LOOKS LIKE by Jennifer E. Smith

I loved this! It's not often that I'm able to read a 400 page book in one day, but with this one I did. My review will be posted later this week, hopefully.

Here's what I'm looking forward to reading in April:

    

And here are some other new releases to look forward to!

    

    

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to let me know in the comments what you've been reading this month! 

Book Review: Hidden by Marianne Curley

Title: Hidden

Author: Marianne Curley
Series:  Avena, #1
Pages: 325
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books
Date of Publication: 14th March 2013
Source: Publisher*
Synopsis from Goodreads: For as long as Ebony can remember, she’s been sheltered. Confined to her home in a secluded valley, home-schooled by her protective parents, and limited to a small circle of close friends. It’s as if she’s being hidden.

But something is changing in Ebony. Something that can’t be concealed. She’s growing more beautiful by the day, she’s freakishly strong, and then there’s the fact that she’s glowing.

On one fateful night, Ebony meets Jordan and she’s intensely drawn to him. It’s as if something explodes inside of her—something that can be seen from the heavens. Ebony still doesn’t know that she’s a stolen angel, but now that the heavens have found her, they want her back.

My Thoughts:
I haven't read an angel book for a long time now, because after a while I felt like every single one I was reading followed the same story line and even though I did like them, I wanted something a little bit different, something that wasn't generic. But, seeing as it's been so long since I've read something like this and the cover is absolutely gorgeous, I requested it, and while I had a few problems with it, I'm glad I did as I enjoyed it!

I started reading Hidden at a sleepover when I couldn't sleep at about 4am, thinking it would calm me down a bit and help me get back to sleep... I was so wrong! I read until 6am, when I finally began to feel a little bit tired. It's super easy to read and kept me interested, and it just felt so good reading it. I loved Marianne's easy and relaxed writing style, and while there was a lot of description and telling, I didn't mind because it let me concentrate on the story more, and meant I could sit back and read without having to think too much, which, in the midst of exams and controlled assessments, is definitely not a bad thing!

I really liked Ebony, and there were several things about her character that I thought Marianne wrote really well. Firstly, when she was first told that she was an angel, despite having weird lumpy things on her back that produced feathers and being scarily strong and super fast, she didn't believe it. YAY! If I was told I was an angel, I would laugh in whoever it was that told me's face, and I think most other people would too. She didn't just believe them like so many other characters in books - she was stubborn, and that was awesome. Also, when she first met Jordan, the main male character, she didn't fall in love with him right away. She felt a connection, but it wasn't a romantic one. Again, yay! I'm sick of instalove, so a different kind of connection (although kind of cheesy) was good for me.

I liked Jordan too, more and more as the story went on. I liked his narrative (it's told from two points of view - Ebony's and Jordan's) and I liked learning about angels along with him. I liked the whole storyline with Adam Skinner, which I won't spoil for you, and I liked how he dealt with that because he could have been a dick about it. I do think that unlike Ebony though, he was quick to trust Thane and the angels and that was a little bit unbelievable. But whatever, he was cool anyway.

I did have a couple issues with the pacing in the book though. While I enjoyed the beginning, it lasted a little bit too long. It took a while to get started, and then once it did it went really fast. Like, hardly anything was happening and then all of a sudden it was all happening, if that makes sense. The end felt rushed and I got a little bit confused with who was who and everything that was going on... It also ended on a huge cliffhanger which was pretty annoying, but that's a good kind of annoying :P

Overall, I enjoyed Hidden and I'm grateful that I got a chance to read it. I've heard that Marianne's other books are even better so I'll definitely be digging out my copy of The Named (I think?) and giving that a read sometime, hopefully soon (but probably not...). I'd recommend this if angels are your thing, or if you're feeling a little bit nostalgic like I was. It's a good, quick read and I'm looking forward to the next one!

*Huge thanks to Bloomsbury for sending me this in exchange for an honest review! In no way has this affected my opinion of the book. 

Letterbox Love #4

Hey! Welcome to my Letterbox Love for this month, I think it is! Hosted by Lynsey at Narratively Speaking. I might just do these monthly, weekly just isn't working, is it...? Oops! Anyway, here's what I've received recently! Also sorry for the quality of these pictures, they're really not that great!

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

I won this from Rhys at ThirstforFiction agesss ago and I finally got it this week! Can't wait to get started with it - only heard good things about it so far :D I also really like the new cover, which I'd never actually seen before! It's pretty, though lots of people at my youth group thought it was Fifty Shades at first... :S I assured them quickly that it wasn't! It also came with some bookmarks with the old cover, which are super cool. 

Zom-B City by Darren Shan

Third in the Zom-B series. Super excited - the last one ended on a huge cliffhanger so looking forward to getting to this one! Thanks Simon & Schuster!

The Hit by Melvin Burgess

This was unsolicited from Chicken House, but it looks good! I read Melvin's last book, Kill All Enemies, and actually really enjoyed it, so I'm looking forward to this one. Thanks Chicken House!

Geek Girl by Holly Smale (plus swag)

I was super lucky to be invited to the blogger party for the launch of Geek Girl, which was super fun! They had delicious looking cakes (I had to restrain myself because I've given them up for Lent, but the macaroons I could eat and they were awesome) and ping pong (which I suck at - may have embarrassed myself a little bit while playing that), and it was really, really fun. Holly's super nice and the book's great - and I will hopefully write my review this week and get it posted! Also, as you can see, I have a lot of business cards and Geek badges - if you want one or both, in the UK, tweet me and I'll see what I can do :) Thanks HarperCollins!

Lastly, I also went to another blogger party this week, this time it was MIRA Ink's Blogger Party! I went last year and it was super awesome, so super glad I was reinvited and this year was definitely just as good. I'm hopefully going to do a write-up later this week to tell you a little bit about all the awesome books that are coming up this year. Also, isn't that bag super awesome? I love it :D The books pictured are:

Confessions of an Angry Girl by Louise Rozett

Speechless by Hannah Harrington

Ink by Amanda Sun

The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa (YAY!)

Dare You To by Katie McGarry

The Girl with the Iron Touch by Kady Cross

The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa

With All My Souls by Rachel Vincent

Love Is a Thief by Claire Garber

So that's what I've received in the last month or so, what have you got? Leave me a link in the comments, and if you have any recommendations out of what to read first, let me know! Thanks for reading!

Marissa Meyer UK Signing!

Hey guys! I've just got a quick post here to say...

    

MARISSA MEYER is doing a UK signing next week!

Marissa Meyer is the author of Cinder and Scarlet, the first two books in The Lunar Chronicles, and they are super awesome! I  really want to go to this signing, and if I can make it I hope to see you guys there too! Details below :) Also, I'm hoping to have some kind of guest post from Marissa (hopefully a Q&A) so look out for that in the next couple of weeks. Lastly, definitely check out both Cinder and Scarlet if you've not read them yet, because they're fab, they really are! You can read my review of Scarlet here. 

Book Review: Requiem by Lauren Oliver

Title: Requiem

Author: Lauren Oliver
Series:  Delirium, #3
Pages:  391
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Date of Publication: 21st March 2013
Source: Publisher for review*
Synopsis from Goodreads: Battling against a society in which love has been declared a disease, Lena now finds herself at the centre of a fierce revolution. But the Wilds are no longer the haven they once were as the government seeks to stamp out the rebels. And Lena's emotions are in turmoil following the dramatic return of someone she thought was lost forever...

My Thoughts:
Hmm. Um. Ahh... I kind of don't know what to say about this one. I'm conflicted! I loved this series so much when I read the first two books - they were my favourites for quite a long while. And I really enjoyed this one too, but there were things wrong, and I hate to say it about this series because I have so much love for Lauren Oliver, but I'll be honest - it definitely wasn't my favourite of the series and I was kind of disappointed... Let me explain!

It was really good and in most ways it really lived up to my expectations. I absolutely loved that it was told in dual narrative - one chapter from Lena's POV, and then one from Hana's, etc. I actually preferred reading Hana's point of view to Lena's, because I found Hana trying to come to terms with marrying a man she didn't want to and trying not to have the feelings that she was having much more interesting than Lena trying to decide between Alex and Julian and occasionally hunting or collecting water or whatever she was doing while camping in the Wilds (although saying that, there was a pretty badass exciting bit involving Lena and a bear, but you'll have to read it to find out what that was). Anyway. The dual narrative in this book was a lot better than the 'Then' and 'Now' from Pandemonium. A lot less confusing!

And as always, Lauren Oliver's writing was awesome. Despite not really having a clue what was going on seeing as I read Pandemonium so long ago, it was so easy to read and I quickly got caught up in the story. Whenever I had nothing to do, I would pull it out and read a couple pages, or maybe a chapter, even if I only had a few minutes to spare. It perhaps started a little slowly, but once I'd got about half way I was flying through the pages, and then I read the last 130 pages in one sitting, almost. It gets pretty exciting, that's for sure! A lot happens, and it builds up, and it's really good reading. I don't want to spoil what happens, but yeah. It's good.

And then it ends. It kind of just finishes, in the middle of the action. I'm still confused as to whether this definitely is the last book in the series... Because it really feels like Lauren Oliver has left it on another one of those evil cliffhangers that she's annoyingly good at! I just don't get it. There was no closure, nothing to indicate which side won or even which boy she chooses! One of the things I was most looking forward to about this one was finally finding out which boy she would choose - Alex or Julian. I couldn't decide which one I liked better, so I needed to know, obviously... And I'm disappointed that I honestly don't know! EURGH it is so frustrating! If someone could explain, that'd be lovely. I guess Lauren wanted to leave it open and positively, but still... So yeah. Sorry for the completely mixed feelings here!

THE VERDICT: If you're a fan of the first two books you should definitely read Requiem. Mostly, it's really good, and has everything you would expect from the awesome first two books. Just be wary of the ending, and when you've read it, please tell me how you feel so it's not just me that feels like it didn't finish properly!

Also, I just read my Pandemonium review and this book has completely changed my opinion on quite a lot of things, it would seem! Gosh, this series is so confusing. Let me know what you thought in the comments, but please keep it spoiler free! If you wanna talk about something specific, please feel free to tweet me (@CheezyfeetBooks) instead (DMs though, please, to avoid spoilers!)

*Huge thanks to Hodder for sending me this in exchange for an honest review! In no way has this affected my opinion of the novel.

World Book Day YA App!

Hey, I know it was two days ago, but Happy World Book Day! I have a post today about the YA app that has been put together and is still available for free, that includes short stories from authors such as Sarah Alderson, Joesphine Angelini and Will Hill. Apologies for it being late!

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TEENS SORTED FOR APP-Y ENDINGS THIS

WORLD BOOK DAY!

· New app launched with free, exclusive new stories from nine top YA authors

· App powered by Movellas.com for download to iOS and Android devices

An eclectic and exciting mix of exclusive new stories from some of the country’s hottest Young Adult (YA) writers has launched on a brand new app for World Book Day.

Available to download for FREE on iOS and Android devices in the UK and Ireland , the app has been developed in partnership with online teen reading and writing platform Movellas.com, with contributions from Sarah Alderson, Josephine Angelini, Dave Cousins, Will Hill, Sarah J. Maas, Patrick Ness, Dawn O’Porter, Chris Ryan and Alex Scarrow.

And joining the top line-up of YA writing talent are a clutch of aspiring young authors from the Movellas community, whose stories have been added to the app after receiving nominations from their peers.

From comedy, friendship and romance, to fantasy, horror and espionage, the app includes something for every teenage reader, whatever their favourite genres or interests.

Broadcaster, author and YA contributor, Dawn O’Porter said, “I’m proud to have my World Book Day story sitting alongside the cream of the country’s young writing crop. I hope members of the Movellas community will be inspired by the new app to continue dreaming up exciting ideas and characters, and developing their own unique voice.”

There are five exclusive stories on the app on release and a further four will be released on World Book Day on 7 March, and available to read on the app for two months.

Yvonne Biggins, Community Director at Movellas commented, “The opportunity to appear alongside their writing idols on the YA app has been a brilliant way to encourage teenagers to develop their own writing skills. Not only have we seen thousands of brilliant entries posted on the site but we've also seen even more voting and commenting on the stories.”

Kirsten Grant, Director of World Book Day said, “The new app and our partnership with Movellas is just one way of getting great book content to Young Adult readers who have a hunger for new stories from top authors. Delivering content digitally and talking to teens in the spaces they like to visit and socialise also allows us to offer a taste of the brilliant fiction that’s out there and hopefully, turn more young people on to reading.”

A brand new space for teens has been developed for the World Book Day website, packed with book recommendations, activities and information on YA book events, while new initiative The Word Herd has launched to give young people creative ideas for sharing their passion for books with schoolmates.

Alongside the World Book Day YA app, a special ‘Story Chain’ game is also being hosted on www.movellas.com, where eight of the app authors have suggested the first line of a new story for members to continue.

Yvonne Biggins said, “Our partnership activity with World Book Day is seeing a brilliant response from our community, and I hope providing a platform for teens to engage in this way sees many more fulfilling our joint mission to keep up the practice of reading and creating throughout the year.”

Visit www.worldbookday.com for more information, the latest news and to subscribe to the free monthly World Book Day e-newsletter.

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I hope you all had a great world book day and will check out the app - I have and it's awesome, I can't wait to read more of the stories. Next week, stay tuned for an interview with Sarah Alderson about her contribution to the app and more! Thanks for reading!