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July 12, 2020 Leave a Comment

Memories from YALC, the UK’s biggest YA book convention

YALC (Young Adult Literature Convention) is the UK’s first young adult book festival. You could say it’s the UK’s equivalent of BookCon and BookExpo. Every year book lovers from all over the UK gather in London at the end of July for a weekend of bookish fun. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, 2020 will be a year without YALC and as expected, it’s left a lot of us disappointed.

UKYABA’s are still going ahead this year and they have encouraged book bloggers and shortlistees to spread some YALC love through their blog posts this month. Realising that YALC isn’t taking place this year has made me reminiscent of the years past, so I thought it’d be a grand idea to create a post of my personal favourite memories.

Incoming soppy-ness! This year I was nominated for UKYABA’s most Inspirational award and I’d like to say a massive THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to click on my name and press that ‘vote’ button. I’ve been on the book community for 6 years now and it’s the best thing I’ve truly ever been a part of, and for my blog and bookstagram to be acknowledged like this has meant the absolute world to me.

Now, let’s reminisce about YALC together, shall we?

Reuniting with friends

This is by far my favourite part about YALC! Being in the online book community, you will have a lot of friends that you only get to see once a year at YALC. The excitement of knowing you’ll be seeing your friends for three days straight in and out of the convention is just a feeling that I don’t get tired of.

And it’s guaranteed that you’ll probably leave YALC with even more friends, because you’re constantly meeting new people with one massive shared interest; books!

April 27, 2020 Leave a Comment

Blog Tour | Q&A with Holly Jackson

Recently, I had the wonderful opportunity to interview best-selling author Holly Jackson, author of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. She’s now the author of Good Girl, Bad Blood which is the sequel to AGGGTM and will be publishing later this week.

To celebrate the publication of Good Girl, Bad Blood, I’m kickstarting the blog tour by sharing my Q&A with Holly Jackson below. Enjoy!

Thank you so much Holly for taking the time to answer some questions!

And thank you very much for taking the time to ask them!

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder was recommended to me by a friend after I’d been eyeing it in Waterstones for a few months. I truly kicked myself for waiting for so long! What would you say to someone to entice them to start reading your series now that Good Girl, Bad Blood is about to be released?

I would say that if you have ever day-dreamed about solving a murder, or have ever attempted to solve any kind of mystery on social media (aka less murder – more
investigating friends’ potentially cheating boyfriends) then these are the books for you! A chance to truly step into your detective shoes and see if you can work out what really happened to Andie Bell, before Pip does.

January 12, 2020 Comments : 3

Book releases to look out for in 2020

There are a lot of exciting books releasing in 2020 across a variety of different genre. We’re getting positively spoiled with books, and I’ve chosen a few that I’m most excited about to share with you…
(In no particular order)

‘Kingdom of the Wicked’ by Kerri Maniscalco

Expected September 15th 2020

Emilia and her twin sister Victoria are strega – witches who live secretly among humans, avoiding notice and persecution. One night, Victoria misses dinner service at the family’s renowned Sicilian restaurant. Emilia soon finds the body of her beloved twin…desecrated beyond belief. Devastated, Emilia sets out to discover who did this, and to seek vengeance at any cost—even if it means using dark magic that’s been long forbidden.

Then Emilia meets Wrath, the outlier among the seven demon brethren, always choosing duty over pleasure. He’s been tasked by his master with investigating a series of women’s murders on the island. When Emilia and Wrath’s fates collide, it’s clear this disturbing mystery will take a bewitching turn…

‘Blood & Honey’ by Shelby Mahurin

Expected September 1st 2020

Synopsis to come!

‘A Heart so Fierce and Broken’ by Brigid Kemmerer

Published January 7th 2020

The curse is finally broken, but Prince Rhen of Emberfall faces darker troubles still. Rumors circulate that he is not the true heir and that forbidden magic has been unleashed in Emberfall. Although Rhen has Harper by his side, his guardsman Grey is missing, leaving more questions than answers.

Win the crown, save the kingdom.

Rumored to be the heir, Grey has been on the run since he destroyed Lilith. He has no desire to challenge Rhen–until Karis Luran once again threatens to take Emberfall by force. Her own daughter Lia Mara sees the flaws in her mother’s violent plan, but can she convince Grey to stand against Rhen, even for the good of Emberfall?

The heart-pounding, compulsively readable saga continues as loyalties are tested and new love blooms in a kingdom on the brink of war.

‘Crescent City’ Sarah J Maas

Expected March 3rd 2020

Bryce Quinlan had the perfect life—working hard all day and partying all night—until a demon murdered her closest friends, leaving her bereft, wounded, and alone. When the accused is behind bars but the crimes start up again, Bryce finds herself at the heart of the investigation. She’ll do whatever it takes to avenge their deaths.

Hunt Athalar is a notorious Fallen angel, now enslaved to the Archangels he once attempted to overthrow. His brutal skills and incredible strength have been set to one purpose—to assassinate his boss’s enemies, no questions asked. But with a demon wreaking havoc in the city, he’s offered an irresistible deal: help Bryce find the murderer, and his freedom will be within reach.

As Bryce and Hunt dig deep into Crescent City’s underbelly, they discover a dark power that threatens everything and everyone they hold dear, and they find, in each other, a blazing passion—one that could set them both free, if they’d only let it.

With unforgettable characters, sizzling romance, and page-turning suspense, this richly inventive new fantasy series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas delves into the heartache of loss, the price of freedom—and the power of love.

December 30, 2019 Comments : 2

My Favourite Books of 2019

It’s almost the end of 2019, you know what that means! It’s time to list my top 10 reads of the year.

I didn’t read as much as I hoped I would, but enjoyed everything I read and I consider that a hard win!

I highly recommend you checking out any of these books below if you haven’t read them yet. Each one successfully absorbed me into the story (even the graphic novels and the audiobook) and some of them have even made it to my favourite books of all time list.

Without further ado and in no particular order, here are my favourite books of 2019…

December 16, 2019 Comments : 2

5 ways to add some fun to your Christmas wrapping

It’s just over one week till Christmas which means it’s time to wrap your gifts! (If you haven’t already)

I’ve put together a short list of 5 ways you can add a little bit of fun into your gift wrapping and make the gifts stand out under your friend’s or family’s tree.

I personally do these with a lot of my friend’s gifts and it’s very fun to see their reactions!

May 13, 2019 Comments : 2

The Avengers Assemble Book Tag

With Avengers Endgame now here, it was only fitting that I tackled the Avengers Assemble book tag that the wonderful Connie tagged me in.

I was lucky enough to score midnight tickets to see Avengers Endgame on Wednesday 24th April. I attended the 11:55pm showing and my goodness friends, it was incredible. Was it worth the ten year wait? Absolutely. I’ll say no more because I know everyone is dreading seeing a spoiler (this post is spoiler free) so let’s get on with this tag.

Avengers, ASSEMBLE!

March 23, 2019 Comments : 9

Five Authors I’d Love To Meet

Over the past few years, I have gotten the chance to meet authors such as; Samantha Shannon, VE Schwab, Laini Taylor, Pierce Brown, Maggie Stiefvater, Holly Black, and Cassandra Clare amongst many others. I love to meet authors who’s books I’ve thoroughly enjoyed, or who’s books I’m eager to pick up in the future. However, there are some I’ve never met or, they’ve been to the UK before and I’ve not been able to attend. Usually this is because it’s a “UK tour” meaning, England tour stops only.

I made a list of top five authors (in no particular order) that I’d like to meet in the future. I hope that at least some of them come to/return to the UK at some point, because I’m positive that there are many other readers within the UK who would love to attend their events.

August 8, 2018 Comments : 2

Kiss, Marry, Kill with BooksNest

Hello friends! It’s time to ask another book blogger to decide the fate of some fictional characters!

Just in case you missed the last post, I’ve recently decided to start this new feature on my blog as a bit of fun. I used to enjoy watching booktuber’s Kiss, Marry, Kill tags, where they would write out a collection of fictional characters and put them in a jar. They would pull three out at a time and decide which of the three they’d kiss, marry and kill. How terribly morbid!

Each week I will feature a different blogger/bookworm to let us know what their choices would be and why. After all, who doesn’t love the pressure of choosing the fates of their favourite fictional characters?

Last time, WhatVickyRead was featured and she definitely had to make some tough decisions. You can read that post here.

This week, the lovely Beth from BooksNest will be taking part, and we’ll get to see which fictional characters she would choose to kiss, marry or kill. *insert evil laugh here*

Below you can see my magical plastic cup of fictional characters (unfortunately I had no aesthetically pleasing mason jars at hand) which I will choose twelve sets of three characters out of for every feature. This cup has a mix of female and male characters, and of course, some villains as well.

Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that this feature is only for fun!

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* Magical cup of fictional characters ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

Without any further ado, let’s get to the fun stuff.

July 17, 2018 Leave a Comment

Kiss, Marry, Kill with WhatVickyRead

I’ve decided to start this new feature on my blog as a bit of fun. I used to enjoy watching booktuber’s Kiss, Marry, Kill tags, where they would write out a collection of fictional characters and put them in a jar. They would pull three out at a time and decide which of the three they’d kiss, marry and kill. How terribly morbid, I know.

Each week I will feature a different blogger and bookworm to let us know which their choices would be and why. After all, who doesn’t love the pressure of choosing the fates of their favourite fictional characters?

Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that this feature is only for fun!

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* Magical cup of fictional characters ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

The first blogger to take part in this feature is the lovely Vicky from WhatVickyRead who is a wonderful friend of mine and who was more than ready to decide what characters she would kiss, marry and kill. I could think of no one better to start off this new feature!

Let’s do this!