Tag! My Top 2 Books From 6 Genres!

Hello everyone,
as promised it is Wednesday and here I am with another post for you all. Today's post is as the title says, my top two books from six genres tag. This is a tag that was started by Benjaminoftomes (click the link to see his video) in the YouTube book community. So let's dive right in!

Category Number 1: DISTOPIAN!

DIVERGENT by VERONICA ROTH

Look guys, I don't know how many times I've said this now, it's one of my favourite books, I couldn't not include it! So Divergent is set in a futuristic Chicago where society has split into 5 factions which are, Abnegation, Candor, Amity, Erudite, and Dauntless. At the age of sixteen each citizen will choose whether to stay in the faction they were born in or to move to a new faction and never see their friends or family again.

BLOOD RED ROAD by MOIRA YOUNG

I freaking LOVED this book. It was just plain awesome for once, the girls soul focus and attention wasn't on falling for a guy, it was all about saving her little brother. She didn't want to get involved with the guy because she didn't want the distraction but you know every young adult book has some form of romance so she obviously gave in eventually. I am yet to read the sequel normally I would reserve judgement but I can tell you now I'm not going to like it. Why? LOVE TRIANGLE! That's why, for the love of god, why ruin the potential of the first book by using such a generic and tired old plot device.

Books I Did Not Finish! - 1/07/2013

Hello everyone I am currently working out a weekly posting schedule that I want to stick with. My plan is to post Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I think that gives me enough time to plan and write my post's.
So until further notice Monday's will be Book's I did not finish.

Now I know what you're thinking. There can't be that many right? Wrong! There are a lot, but it won't just be books I did not finish it will also be series I gave up on. So with out further ado here is the first book I did not finish! (Which actually is a complete contradiction because it's a series I gave up on)

The Maze Runner Trilogy by James Dashner

I have never owned up to not finishing this series and I mean never. Why? Because it's so popular and so many people love it, it just feels weird that I hated it. I am of the opinion that it is vastly over hyped. I mean it's a New York Times Best-seller, that had to count for something, but apparently not. This book (Maze Runner) according to Good Reads is recommended for fans of The Hunger Games and Divergent! Are kidding me? Really? I love Hunger Games, I freaking ADORED Divergent (it's one of my favourite books) Maze Runner in my personal opinion is not in the same league as those two series, I'm sorry it just isn't.

So let's learn a bit about the book, here we go with the synopsis/ blurb: 

"When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His memory is blank. But he's not alone. When the lift's doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade - a large open expanse surrounded by stone walls.

Just like Thomas, the Gladers don't know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night they've closed tight. And every thirty days a new boy has been delivered in the lift.

Thomas was expected. But the next day a girl is sent up - the first girl to ever arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers. 

Thomas might be more important than he could ever guess. If only he could unlock the dark secrets buried within his mind."

Now if we are being totally honest here that synopsis didn't make me want to read this book at all. It sounded okay, but nothing special. Yet I bought it anyway, I mean the first time I picked up The Hunger Games I didn't think it was my cup of tea and I ended up staying up until 5 am to finish reading it so I thought maybe it will be the same with this. I was wrong. The book wasn't even okay, it was mediocre at best I wasn't intrigued, the scenes in the maze didn't get my heart racing, I didn't find 'the creepers' all that creepy. It was just a plain old mediocre read that if I could go back in time I would tell myself not to buy.

One thing I don't think I've ever told you guys that read my blog (I may have done, things slip my mind a lot) is that I go through my book reading with one general rule. If nothing of interest has happened 100 pages in then it is not worth my time. I feel this is plenty of time to set your story and introduce your characters, I mean there has to be something exciting going on when you hit around page 100, and to be fair to Maze Runner, something did happen, so despite feeling a little bored I persevered and by the time I had finished the book I wished I hadn't. I'd give Maze Runner maybe 2 stars at best, if I'm feeling generous but it just wasn't one of those books that gripped me. Honestly I didn't even like the main character, he just seemed really annoying and boring to me. 

Now then the other two books in this series, The Scorch Trials, I think I read maybe 2 chapters and never picked it up again. I don't know if I was busy and just forgot about it or if I made a subconscious effort to find something to do other than finishing reading it. Either way it sat on my desk at uni until I moved home for the summer where it has been sat in my book shelf untouched until I pulled it out for the picture. 

So The Death Cure, I never read it. Now your probably wondering why I own it if I never read it. Well The truth is I had heard so many good things about this series so I wanted to buy them all I just never got round to it. Then whilst on my lunch break at Uni one afternoon I went into an outlet shop call The Works, they were selling the entire series for something ridiculous like £3.99 so I just couldn't pass it up and bought the entire series then and there. So I can't really say I regret buying them because I paid less than £2 each for them. 

Now then I have seen on Good Reads (that website I frequent a lot and am kind of addicted to) that the Scorch Trials is the highest rated of the series. And honestly when I read the blurb for the Scorch Trials it sucked me in and I couldn't wait to read it, then I finished Maze Runner and because that one bored me to tears I could never really convince myself to read on any further so now here is your chance to convince me, 

what's your opinion do you like The Maze Runner series? Let me know in the comments and lets see if you can convince to me buckle down and finish this series! Rest assured if I do decide to finish it you will see a series review, but only if I finish all 3. I can't promise I'll read the Kill Order too, that might just be too much to ask.

see you next time.

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June Book Favourites!

Hello everyone as you may notice I have been working a little on my blogs appearance/ layout. If anything is hard to see/ read please let me know in the comments and I shall fix it.

Welcome to a new 'feature' for my blog, a post that will happen at the end of every month. As a self confessed book nerd I tend to read a lot so I thought I would let you know what books I have been loving throughout the month of June!

1. Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

Wow. She's only gone and done it again! I am in love with Colleen Hoover, Slammed and Point of Retreat were my favourite books by this author but Hopeless? That just blew both of them out of the water for me. When I first started reading this I thought okay cool it's just another of your typical easy to read good girl meets bad boy high school romance books that you forget about only moments after you put it down. I was wrong, I was so wrong. It's a heart wrenching tale that I just did not see coming. This book has got to be one of the easiest 5 star ratings that I have ever given, it was truly breathtakingly beautiful. I really want to tell you what happens but I can't you'll have to read it for yourself, I mean you get suspicious pretty soon that something isn't quite right, but I didn't expect the twist to be so huge, when we find out what happened to Sky, I had tears in my eyes. I just didn't see it coming. So I can't say more than that if you choose to read any of the books I list in this post please read this one!
A word of advice if you're an emotional reader have a box of tissues handy.

2. Ten Tiny Breaths by K. A. Tucker

Okay I admit it I first read this book back in April, and I fell in love with it, the reason it's in my June favourites is because I wasn't sure if this book was actually as good as I first thought it was so I read it again, and I still loved it.

This is a story about love, loss, friendship, about losing everything and learning how to pick up the pieces again at the end of it all. Kacey Clearly (the main protagonist) lost her mother, father, best friend, and boyfriend all in one night in a car accident. For four years Kacey and her little sister Livie live with their Aunt and Uncle. That is until the Uncle attempts to attack Livie forcing Kacey to take her away from them to start a new life in Miami. She refers to herself as Kacey the imposter, the real Kacey died four years ago in the car accident. All that keeps her together when she feels the panic rising is ten tiny breaths.

Once in Miami we follow Kacey along her journey of healing, this entails 9 stages that Kacey must go through to make her life whole again.
Stage one - Comfortably Numb
Stage two - Denial
Stage three - Resistance
Stage four - Acceptance
Stage five - Dependence
Stage six - Withdrawal
Stage seven - Breakdown
Stage eight - Recovery
Stage nine - Forgiveness
Whilst in Miami she meets Trent a guy who lives in the same apartment block and whilst he makes her feel again he also harbours a secret that could destroy everything Kacey has worked so hard to put behind her. This book is one of those that you find yourself thinking how would I react if something like this had happened to me. It's thought provoking and it stays with you long after you turn the final page.

3. Entwined With You by Sylvia Day

The long awaited third book in Sylvia Days best selling Crossfire series, and oh boy was it worth the wait. Now if you are familiar with this series you will know that this was supposed to be the final book, however Ms Day has decided to continue the series with what I believe is at least two more books. Normally hearing news like this would have set me off in a blind rage, and it almost did. That is until I got my hands on book 3 devoured it in a matter of hours and realised that I was very happy with the way it ended, and whilst I'll probably remain curious as to what happens next for Gideon and Eva I don't feel I need to read the next two books to get the closure I wanted, that was delivered in spades by Entwined With You. Sorry I can't say more than that I don't want to spoil for anyone that hasn't read it yet, all you need to know is that I was extremely happy with the ending and that in itself is a huge spoiler if you've already read books 1 & 2.
The Crossfire series is of course recommended for fans of (don't hate me! please!) Fifty Shades of Grey, however (PLEASE hear me out!) as one of the reviews on the back of my copy of Bared to You says "A well written and sexually charged romance with characters who have real depth . . . I would highly recommend Bared To You because it's what Fifty Shades of Grey could have been" and I can honestly say I have never agreed with a review more. Also this book is a little bit more light hearted than my first two favourites.

That is all for my June Favourites I hope you enjoyed ready this post as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please checkout these books if you're even the slightest bit interested. Like I said if you  read only one of them it should be Hopeless, in fact I wrote these mini reviews in my order of preference. Also I have attached the Good Reads link for each book, all you have to do is click on the title of each book and it will take you to it's page so you can do a bit more research, if you'd like.

See you next time.

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The Hangover Part 3 - a Review!

Okay, first off I'm sorry I've not posted for two months, not that it's much of an excuse but I've been very busy with University work but I'm back now and I will be posting more often. Or at least I plan to, you know what don't hold me to that considering my track record it may not happen I'm going to try.

So first post back and we're doing a review for The Hangover part 3! First things first let's have a look at the trailer!

Having now seen the film it's safe to say that the trailer shows quite a lot of the story, which surprises me but then you could also ask does it show the best parts of the film in the trailer? Yes and no if you ask me, there still some good parts that don't go in the trailer.

As usual the wolf pack get up to some crazy shenanigans as they try to track down a missing member of the group, like the first film this member is Doug only rather than drunkenly leaving him on the roof of Caeser's Palace this time he has been kidnapped by a drug gang leader (who is fleetingly referred to in the first film) and will be killed if the Wolf-pack don't find Mr Chow.

The premise for the Hangover Part 3 is as follows courtesy of IMDB

When one of their own is kidnapped by an angry gangster, the Wolf Pack must track down Mr. Chow, who has escaped from prison and is on the lam.

This time around there is no wedding, in fact there isn't even a Hangover. Many reviewers have picked on the fact that it's less of a comedy than it's two predecessors and more of a dark angry action thriller, which I can attest to. It definitely isn't as funny as the first two films (though it does make a few funny references to them) however I still enjoyed this film. The critics slated it, I think it has been judged too harshly, it's not a great film by any stretch of the imagination but it certainly isn't a terrible one.

I actually liked that they moved away from the alcohol/drug induced amnesia of the first two films, that was a tried an tested method but they had to do something different to end the series with a bang. I think it is a decent film. The first Hangover will always be remembered as one of the top class modern comedies by the public and critics alike and a lot of the time it's hard to live up to that kind of success.

That being said this film will still give you some thrills, laughs and twists along the way, it's a 90 min action/thriller/comedy ride that fans of the franchise won't be to disappointed with.I would say if you only like the series and didn't love it don't go to the cinema to watch this last instalment you might leave wishing you had never spent the money, you're better off waiting for it to come out on DVD or sky movies if you have it.

The film will not be to everyone's liking. I enjoyed it, I hope you will too. Don't give up on it just because the critics hated. Remember most people like Part 2 despite the critics not liking it. It's all down to the type of films that you enjoy watching. I loved comedy/ action/ thriller amongst many other genres so I enjoyed it. Mr Chow was at his best in this film, so was Alan for that matter I thought the way his story ended was cool. It was a nice way to put the series to bed whilst tying up the loose ends. 

I give it 3.5/5 stars! Not as good as the first two but still an enjoyable ride.

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