The 5th Wave: The Infinite Sea Cover Reveal!

Hello!
I haven't posted a blog in ages and I'm sorry but I have actually been reading quite a lot lately! I have finished reading Panic by Lauren Oliver (A review is to come very shortly) and I have been re-reading one of my favourite books of last year 'The 5th Wave'! A couple of days ago, the cover reveal had come out for the sequel of 'The 5th Wave' due to be released in September, 'The Infinite Sea'.

The official cover for 'The Infinite Sea'

So I love this cover! It matches the first one and has a very apocalyptic tone to it! For one it is not a cover change and it has a person in the middle (as did 'The 5th Wave'). It has a nice blue shade which works well with the white light, also Rick Yancey, the author of the novel, said the tunnel has quite a big them in the book. What could all this mean? he also stated that there is going to be a major twist in the novel and the book will definitely cover Evan's fate, a big mystery that all of 'The 5th Wave' fans are trying to figure out.

I will have a review for both 'Panic' and 'The 5th Wave' up very soon.

See you soon.

'WIll Grayson, Will Grayson' by John Green and David Levithan: Review

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two teens—both named Will Grayson—are about to cross paths. As their worlds collide and intertwine, the Will Graysons find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, building toward romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most fabulous high school musical.

Hilarious, poignant, and deeply insightful, John Green and David Levithan’s collaborative novel is brimming with a double helping of the heart and humor that have won both of them legions of faithful fans. 
-Goodreads Summary.

'Will Grayson, will grayson' is a contemporary young-adult novel written by two popular authors, John Green and David Levithan. Having heard great things about this book, I ultimately decided to pick it up, even if I wouldn't usually pick this type of book up. This book was really funny and was a very quick-read, yes it did follow the 'John Green' formula a bit, but I felt it was necessary for some characters. I was very surprised by David Levithan's chapters (if you didn't know, all the odd chapters are from John Green's Will Grayson, whilst the even chapters are from David Levithan's will grayson), at first I thought that Levithan's will grayson was an annoying emo teenager who 'hated everything' and wanted to 'cut himself', which at first annoyed me quite a bit, but as the novel progressed onwards, you see his character develop massively. John Green's Will Grayson was very much like all his other main characters but he was still quite relatable. I was quite annoyed about the character Jane though, she is basically the same as all of John Green's other female characters (pixie manic dream girl, quirky, hipster, too cool for everyone else) and it was like reading the same thing over again. But I still really enjoyed John's section, especially towards to end. The plot of this story was nothing really special, but I think this was because this book is mainly a 'character novel' in which it is mainly about the characters developing. The character of Tiny Cooper, who is rather 'larger than life' was really fun to read about, he brought all the humour to the book and he brought the book to life. I did enjoy the rather open-ending we got to the book because although it isn't a cliffhanger, it lets the reader imagine the ending for themselves. Overall the novel did have a few problems but it was an entertaining feel-good novel that was a very good book to get me out of a reading slump. I am looking forward to reading other books by David Levithan, and I'm very excited to read the remaining books I haven't read by John Green. In conclusion I am giving this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Panic: Booksplosion Read-a-long

Hello guys!

So if you didn't know, Lauren Oliver, the immensely popular YA author of the Delirium Trilogy, has a new standalone YA novel called 'Panic' releasing on the 4th March (6th March in the UK), Last month 5 booktubers (people who talk about books on youtube) did a read-along of Lydia Kang's novel 'Control'. In March they are doing another read-along for Panic, anyone who wants to read-along with them can, all you need to do is purchase the book (and of course read it...). I am very excited to start this book because it is one of my most anticipated books of 2014, and it just sounds amazing, The read along is going to be hosted by Ariel (ArielBisset), Jesse (JesseTheReader), Christine (PolandBananasBooks), Liz (ElizzieBooks) and Kat (Katytastic). The read-along starts on the 4th March and ends on 5th April, where there is going to be a live show on one of their channels on Youtube. This is a great opportunity to read a book with other people, and discuss it, and there are already over 1500 members!

Here are the hosts twitter accounts and the Goodreads Group page.

Christine: https://twitter.com/xtineMAY
Jesse: https://twitter.com/jessethereader
Ariel: https://twitter.com/ArielBissett
Liz: https://twitter.com/elizziebooks
Kat: https://twitter.com/kat_tastic
Booksplosion: https://twitter.com/BOOKSPLOSION
DON'T PANIC: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/123821-don-t-panic-booksplosion-read-a-long

March TBR

Hello!
Sorry for that 'accidental' February hiatus, I have just been extremely lazy and haven't read anything, but I did watch a ton of movies, so expect a 'Captain Phillips' Blu-Ray review soon! Also I just binge-watched all the new season 6 episodes of Parks and Recreation, and i'm proud to say that it is as good as the brilliant season 5! I only read half a book in February, partly because I was in a slump and because I was just watch tv all the time, and now I am 3 books behind on my Goodreads challenge, so I have to increase my March TBR, even if I am being a bit ambitious. I want to read 5 books in March, and may I remind you all Divergent is coming out in less than a month! The final trailer was everything I wanted it to be, and it just looks like perfection. Enough blabbing on, and let me tell you what books i'm going to read in March.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson
by John Green and David Levitan

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two teens—both named Will Grayson—are about to cross paths. As their worlds collide and intertwine, the Will Graysons find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, building toward romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most fabulous high school musical.

Hilarious, poignant, and deeply insightful, John Green and David Levithan’s collaborative novel is brimming with a double helping of the heart and humor that have won both of them legions of faithful fans.

Panic by Lauren Oliver

Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a dead-end town of 12,000 people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do.

Heather never thought she would compete in Panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She’d never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought.

Dodge has never been afraid of Panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game, he’s sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he’s not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for.

For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them—and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most.

The Impossible Knife of Memory

By Laurie Halse Anderson

For the past five years, Hayley Kincaid and her father, Andy, have been on the road, never staying long in one place as he struggles to escape the demons that have tortured him since his return from Iraq. Now they are back in the town where he grew up so Hayley can attend school. Perhaps, for the first time, Hayley can have a normal life, put aside her own painful memories, even have a relationship with Finn, the hot guy who obviously likes her but is hiding secrets of his own.

Will being back home help Andy’s PTSD, or will his terrible memories drag him to the edge of hell, and drugs push him over? The Impossible Knife of Memory is Laurie Halse Anderson at her finest: compelling, surprising, and impossible to put down.

Paper Towns by John Green

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows.

After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor


Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real, she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands", she speaks many languages - not all of them human - and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out. 

When beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

TV Overview: January 2014 + Community Review

    TV Overview: January + Community Review

January has been one of my favourite months of TV, this month we have had the return of the mighty Sherlock, Community was back and so much better than season 4 already, Call the Midwife has brought tears already to many british viewers, TV has been amazing. In addition to that, The Musketeers, a new BBC drama that is on 9pm on Sundays, has been very promising so far, and I cannot wait to watch the next episodes!

Community: Geothermal Escapism: Review

This season of Community so far has been Amazing, and this episode may be my favourite one so far, in this episode, Troy Barnes (Donald Glover) leaves and even if it was very emotional (have to admit, a few tears were shed), this episode was still hilarious! I love all these special episodes Community do, they are full of pop culture references and are usually a parody of other tv shows. In this episode, similar to the paintball episodes, All of Greendale college are playing 'Lava World', which is simply when the floor is lava, and you have to jump from sofa to table trying to not touch the lava. This episode was so funny right from the start, I liked how all the characters were involved, in the past season, Britta's character was quite a waste of space, but in this season so far, she is becoming more of an important character and not just an extra supporting character. Abed's portrayal in this episode was amazing, seeing how he reacted to Troy leaving was upsetting yet realistic (for Abed) and it was done really well. It is going to be very sad to see Troy go, but I cannot wait for more episodes in this series!

             

Poison Study: Book Review

Poison Study by Maria .V. Snyder: Review

I was a bit hesitant to start this book for numerous reasons, for one I thought it would be one of those annoying romantic books (that say they are action packed fantasy) in which the main protagonist (usually a girl) is very weak and insta-falls in love with the other main protagonist. I have never been more wrong in my life. My sister who is a massive fan of this book, has read this book countless times and told me that it is honestly the best Ya novel ever written, I put off reading it quite a few times because for some reason it just never seemed to appeal to me. A few days ago, I picked up this book (partly because my sister forced me to) and I read the first 100 pages in 1 day! That may not seem a lot but with my snail pace of reading, that is incredible. She was whole-heartedly right about how awesome this book is. There was not actually an aspect to dislike. The characters were really fun and interesting, the writing was very easy to read but very beautiful, and the plot was so unique that I had no idea what was going to happen next. If you are a fan of Assassins Creed, this book has an amazing kick-ass protagonist called Yelena, and she is so relatable and cool, Also there was a very Merlin vibe coming from this book, I loved it; there was Castles, and servants and everything that is delightful in Merlin, This book was written nearly a decade ago, but it seems so fresh and new. 

Characters:
The characters were so realistic and amazing, They went so well with the story and were wonderful to read about:
-Yelena was my favourite character, and she was so funny and cool at the same time, what I liked about her was that instead of being a 15-16 year old teenage girl who just wants life to be perfect and so on, she was a 19 year old who did things that were meant to be done, and instead of being a serious moody assassin, she did things a normal person would do and that made her so unique and relatable. 
-Ari and Janco were just the best people ever, they were so different from each other yet so similar, Janco was so hilarious and he gave the book a lot of light, With Ari, he was like an protective older brother and he reminded me a lot of Arthur from Merlin, I loved the sibling relationships Yelena forms with Ari and Janco.
-Valek was also an interesting character, at the start I didn't really like him that much, but as the novel progressed onward, he was much more of a cooler character and he fit in the story very well, Also I loved how the relationship of him and Yelena grew as the book went along. I loved the scene with the poison test at the start of the book and it was really funny to see Valek in that chapter. I feel like we got two sides of Valek in Poison Study, which I liked.

Plot: 
The plot in this book was probably my favourite aspect, it was so unique without being too abnormal, and it kept me hooked throughout (partly because of the cliffhangers that came at the end of nearly every chapter):
- My favourite scene was probably the Fire festival, since it was so interesting and intense. I also loved the last 1/3 of the book because it kept me gasping and was so action-packed. 
-The action of this book was amazing, What I loved about the book was that there was lots of action, but just enough to not make it over-powering. The end fighting sequence was so interesting to read about and kept me entertained. The magic didn't come until about half way, which was good because I think in the sequels we are going to get much more.
- There was never a boring section, it was either so intense that you couldn't breath, or so interesting that it kept you hooked. The feast was a wonderful scene to read about because it was interesting and action-packed altogether. 

Overall this book was such a great read and was perfect, I don't think there was a single thing i did not like about this book (except for a few minor things which I won't say because otherwise it will spoil the book). This book has such a great potential of becoming a tv show, I don't think it should become a movie because they would probably forget important things like 'Butterfly Dust', but like Game of Thrones, each season should be ten episodes covering one book. I do think this book is very underrated though and I wish more people read it. I definitely will be reading the sequels some point this year, so hopefully they are as good. This book is definitely 5 stars, and seriously, everyone should read it.

Bout of Books 9.0 TBR

Hello! Tomorrow is when the Bout of Books week-long read-a-thon starts, so here is my list of books I want to read during the week. Since i'm going back to school tomorrow as well, it will be very hard so I have only picked 3 books to read. I picked books that are either really short, or just that they are really fast paced. SO here is my TBR for the Bout of Book 9.0.



Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor


Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real, she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands", she speaks many languages - not all of them human - and her bright blue hairactually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone. 

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken. 

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own. Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed. In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women - mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends - view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

     Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.

A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Laneis told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.