Ashers' Personal Three Month Challenge

Okay, if you've ever been on goodreads you'll know they have groups, and on these groups they can have some pretty awesome challenges. I took part in the Winter Challenge on goodreads and got 9 books read. Now I am going to do my very own challenge that I can create, edit, and talk about on this blog. Suggests are welcome.

Please note this is still in the first stages of creating, it's most likely going to change. But! Let's get on with it. And I shall show you the categories!

1. Bookclub frenzy- I am on four goodreads bookclubs, and each one has one or more books we read a month. So in each month I want to read at least TWO BOOKS that have been chosen for the monthly read.

2. Friend's request- Recommendations from friends, or borrowed from friends, I want to read at least THREE BOOKS recommended or borrowed from friends in the next three months.

3. TBR- I have the worst case of buying books I don't need (check out my IMMs if you don't believe me) so in the next three months I want to read TWO BOOKS that have been on my shelf for at least a year.

4. Creature Feature- This is a very broad category of any form of creature (examples: zombies, vampires, werewolves, trolls, fairies etc) I want to read FOUR BOOKS in the next three months to do with creatures.

5. Realistic- I'm not the biggest realism fan, and I want to change that. So, I am aiming to read TWO BOOKS without any form of paranormal or fantasy or horror in them.

6. Rereads- I'm a massive fan of rereading books, like a lot of the times I like rereading books over picking up a new book, because if I've enjoyed it enough to want to reread it, then I know it won't disappoint me when I pick it up. With this in mind I want to reread ONE SERIES in the next three months.

7. Golden Oldies- I'm not a big fan of classics, but I know that they're supposed to be appreciated. Which is why I want to read TWO BOOKS that are not contemporary.

8. Kindle Books- I have over a hundred books on my kindle, and most of them I've wanted to read for a while, therefore I want to read at least THREE BOOKS that are on my kindle.

9. New Releases- I love new books, but I often get them, put them on my shelf, and wait til they're old releases. I want to read at least ONE BOOK that has just been released in the next three months.

Those are the categories, and if you think about it, that's a bucket load of books I'm wanting to read, I mean, at least twenty books in three months. That's a lot. I'm not saying that I will get through them all, but I'm going to have a good try at it.

Rules:

No overlapping books: if you have one book representing one category, it cannot represent another one as well. You can change the category it's in, but you can't have it double worth.

No cheating: Read the books.

Reviews: This hopefully will give me incentive to review more. Each book I read will have a review of it up on the blog.

Monthly check in: I will come in at the end of the month and tell you how I am doing.

If you want to take part then please do so, help me along with it, if you don't that's fine, this is just a bit of fun for me to be honest. But yeah, this is hopefully going to get me more read this year and get me out of my reading slump!

Sea Glass

NOTE THIS IS THE SECOND BOOK IN A COMPANION SERIES. IF YOU HAVE NOT READ STORM GLASS OR THE STUDY SERIES I SUGGEST YOU DO NOT READ, SPOILERS HAVE BEEN KEPT FROM THE REVIEW, BUT THERE ARE A LOT IN THE BLURB THAT COULD SPOIL THE FIRST BOOK!

Author: Maria V. Snyder

Publishing Company: Mira Books

Blurb: Her abilities remained hidden- Until challenged by enemy forces.

Student glass magician Opal Cowan's newfound skills to steal a magician's strength make her too powerful.

Kept under house arrest, Opal dares defy her imprisonment to search for Ulrick, the man she thinks she loves. Thinks because she is sure another man- now her prisoner- has switched souls with Ulrick.

In hostile territory, without proof or allies, Opal isn't sure whom to trust. And now everyone is after Opal's special powers for their own deadly gain...

The review:

I only picked this book back up after remembering that I was supposed to lend it to a friend a while ago and I hadn’t actually read it. I hadn’t read the Study series for a while, and hadn’t read the first one since I bought it, I picked the book up rather nervously, I mean I hadn’t gotten far through it before I’d put it down last time so I was worried the plot wouldn’t entrap me.

Compared to the Study series, this one is no where near as good, I have to say it right off the bat, however I think most people realise that when jumping into a companion series. Usually (not always, but often) the original series is a lot better. Also seeing different characters in different lights because you’ve got a different character’s point of view, it’s very odd.

When I started reading this I was apprehensive. The thing with Maria V. Snyder’s writing is that you don’t ever know where her plot is going to go, and though most of the time that is a blessing because you’re continuously guessing, at the end of quite a few of these chapters I was thinking ‘JUST GIVE OPAL A BREAK!’ because Opal always seemed to be getting into worse and worse trouble, and everyone was out to get her. It was annoying. I did think some of the twists were cool, and some of the book was just funny and kept me reading on and on, but sometimes I was just thinking ‘can we just have some more of the nice cosy scenes or funny scenes’.

I will say that I loved how the end of this book all came together, it was dead interesting to see how everything would be resolved and how everything had happened. I’m pretty nervous for the next book though, because in my eyes Opal’s plot could just be left at the end of Sea Glass, and now I’m venturing onto Spy Glass, I’m worried about the turns this will take.

My rating:

Setting: 5 out of 5

Characters: 4 out of 5

Plot: 2.5 out of 5

Writing: 3 out of 5

If you read the book, I hope you enjoy it, and I'll talk to you guys later! Bye x

Recommendations?

Okay, I've been doing this blog for a while now (well you know here and there with intervals when I don't have time), and I'm wondering what books you guys want from the blog. I want to make it better for everyone to read and experience.

So, this includes what books you want me to review, when you want me to post, if there are any weekly memes you want me to include, layouts, anything and everything.

I know I haven't been very good at posting lately, and I do want some feedback of what you want because I want to get back into reviewing and blogging. So if you want to help, please let me know what you want from the blog :)

Furnace: Lockdown

Author: Alexander Gordon Smith

Publishing Company: Faber and Faber (Kindle Edition)

Blurb: (taken from goodreads)

Furnace Penitentiary: the world’s most secure prison for young offenders, buried a mile beneath the earth’s surface. Convicted of a murder he didn’t commit, sentenced to life without parole, “new fish” Alex Sawyer knows he has two choices: find a way out, or resign himself to a death behind bars, in the darkness at the bottom of the world. Except in Furnace, death is the least of his worries.

Soon Alex discovers that the prison is a place of pure evil, where inhuman creatures in gas masks stalk the corridors at night, where giants in black suits drag screaming inmates into the shadows, where deformed beasts can be heard howling from the blood-drenched tunnels below. And behind everything is the mysterious, all-powerful warden, a man as cruel and dangerous as the devil himself, whose unthinkable acts have consequences that stretch far beyond the walls of the prison.

Together with a bunch of inmates—some innocent kids who have been framed, others cold-blooded killers—Alex plans an escape. But as he starts to uncover the truth about Furnace’s deeper, darker purpose, Alex’s actions grow ever more dangerous, and he must risk everything to expose this nightmare that’s hidden from the eyes of the world.

The review:

Okay, I am finally back, I’m sorry that I disappeared, but I have a few reviews coming up. So here is my review of Furnace: Lockdown. I’ve wanted to read this book for a couple of months now, ever since a Goodreads book club put it up for a vote for Halloween read. I finally started reading it after Christmas, and just finished it now. Didn’t get far in the first month (I’ve really been in a reading rut lately!), but I swept through it today like crazy.

First thing about this book, it is very much like the Maze Runner, I saw a lot of parallels in these stories. Not a bad thing. Second thing I want to say about it, I honestly think this book does it better. It is definitely more of a boys read, mainly boy characters, bar the mention of one or two girls, so it’s very much centred around all these boyish problems. Yeah, I don’t know how to word that.

The book starts off introducing Alex Sawyer as this ‘I’m not an innocent kid, I’ve done my own bad things’ which is different because it’s nice to see characters being instantly thrown out as not perfect, and you can see that even though he’s the main character of the book, he isn’t a perfect little angel either. Alex gets framed for a murder he didn’t commit after he did something pretty bad to begin with. I have to admit before Alex got put into Furnace Penitentiary, I wasn’t that interested, in fact it was the main reason I didn’t pick up the book for so long.

When you get into the depths of the prison though, that’s when the fun begins. We meet interesting characters, find out that many of the “new fish” have been framed too, and we find an escape plan. Lots of fights, and horror, and things that go bump in the night too. Wheezers and Black Suits and Hell Hounds. It’s very Darren Shan meets James Dashner in a prison with unknown monsters.

I don’t want to give much away though. I mean, the book is packed with things that you have to explore yourself, if you want a new and interesting book, I’d definitely say pick this one up though.

Donovan was definitely my favourite character. You can tell that though he has done bad in his past, he’s definitely not a bad guy. You find out how long he was in there, what he did to get in there, and I really felt myself sympathising to him over all of the other characters. He’s definitely an interesting character and I cannot wait to find out what happens to him in the next book (which I’m going to have to pick up because of the horrible horrible horrible cliffhanger ending, it wasn’t nice!).

I’m keeping this review short, because I don’t know exactly what to say about this book, I enjoyed it, and yet at the same time I didn’t feel like it was one of the best books I’ve read. It was a bit of a let down because it does sound like a really good book, but it wasn’t the best one I’ve read. But I recommend it for people who are fans of Darren Shan or James Dashner.

My rating:

Setting: 3.5 out of 5

Characters: 4 out of 5

Plot: 4 out of 5

Writing: 3 out of 5

If you read the book, I hope you enjoy it, and I’ll talk to you guys later! Bye x

More posts after 25th

Yeah I keep trying to write blog posts, but I've been doing a lot of homework/studying. I have an exam on the 25th and then I have a week free of lessons/studying/homework so I will do a lot of posts then and just upload them in the coming weeks.

If you have any requests or reviews you'd like to see, any recommendations for books or what I could do with the blog or anything please let me know below!

Books I'm reading - January 2012

 Goodreads / Amazon

This is the second book in the Tale of Lunarmorte. The first one was fantastic, and I wanted to read this one as soon as I'd finished it. I'm just over half way through this and it's pretty good so far. I definitely recommend them if you haven't checked them out!

 Goodreads / Amazon

I tried to read this a couple months ago and I couldn't get through it, I watched the new movie and it was awesome, so I'm trying to read it again. The film was amazing, I'm hoping the book is as good.

 Goodreads / Amazon

I can't wait for this book and I'm keeping it until after my exam at Uni so I have something to look forward to after exam prep.

These are the three main books I want to read, however I don't know if I'll definitely get to all of them this month, I have lots of work to do. But yeah, I'm hoping to get through these and more.

2011 Favourites

Hunting Lila by Sarah Alderson

This was a book I wasn't going to pick up, but the woman in my bookshop just handed me it and said 'that looks good' and I decided to pick it up. Very glad I did, the story was amazing, the characters were phenomenal, and it was so fast paced from the first line.

 Feed by Mira Grant

I have never really been a lover of zombie books, but seriously this one blew me away. The characters and the writing were amazing, and the way you see blogging and how media has changed and how it could change if there was a zombie apocalypse. This one I picked up because it sounded pretty interesting, but I wasn't expecting much from it. It was amazing, and I recommend anyone to pick it up and read it.

The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare

I don't have a clue why I took so long picking these up, but I'm so glad I did. The world is so well thought out, the characters have such a great mix of humour and seriousness. The plot keeps you desperate for more, and just then ending is amazing. I haven't picked up City of Fallen Angels yet, but I plan to soon.

 Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

This book is amazing because of how different it is. The blending of the story with pictures, the way you book showed you all of this amazing story as well as these interesting characters and this wonderfully different way of how it was put together. It was just a stunning read.

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You by Ally Carter

This book was fun and just a nice fun read. The characters were funny and interesting, the book is amazing and interesting, it was just a nice fun read. It wasn't like a life altering book (though I must admit for a few days I was pretending to be a spy...come on...you can't say you haven't before!)

 Hereafter by Tara Hudson

This was just...I dunno. I just loved reading it, and I loved the writing, it just read so beautifully. The story was still simple enough that it was easy to read, but it had enough mystery and fun that made me love reading it.

 Virals by Kathy Reichs

This book was just such a different book, it was something I wasn't expecting. I've tried to read Kathy Reichs books before and failed because of the science jargon and stuff. This was definitely a way to ease your way into her writing. The book was interesting and fun, there was enough mystery and suspense to keep you reading. Just a good book.

These aren't all of my favourite books from last year, but they are the main ones that stand out. I'm gonna do a post soon on the books I'm looking forward to for 2012, and yeah, I'll talk to you guys later.