August Book Haul 2015!

This is not going to include very many books, and for that I apolagize, I just haven't had much money and haven't really been very "read-y" lately. But, I hope you enjoy what I did pick up! What did you buy this month? 

"The Alchemyst" by Michael Scott. 

"The Magician" by Michael Scott. 

Both books were gifts for my 19th birthday back on August 8th from my mother and my younger sister (she's seventeen). They follow twins, Josh and Sophie, who take up a summer job thinking they can do what they need to do and leave, but things take a turn as they're bundled into a world of adventure! I first heard this from my favourite YouTuber, Stacyplays, in her Attack of the B-Team Minecraft series and was intrigued from the get-go! They're books I brought with me to England to see my nan and granddad, I'm probably going to move on to read them shortly and I'll let you know what I thought about them.

"Am I Normal Yet?"by Holly Bourne. 

Amazingly, I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway and started to read shortly afterwards because of it's interesting premise. It follows a young sixteen-year-old girl who tries hard to be normal and fit in, despite that not being who she is, because she suffers from OCD and doesn't want people to know about it. It also follows some very feminist ideas that I really enjoyed reading about, and I can't wait to get my hands on more books written by Miss Holly Bourne.

"Horrorstor" by Grady Hendrix. 

This was a gift from my boyfriend, co-owner of the blog (Austin), for my 19th birthday. I'm currently reading it but by the time this will be posted on Saturday, I would have already finished it. So far, I can say that I really enjoyed it. It's a great joke on how hard working in retail is, getting lost in Ikea and what would probably happen, but also a really horrifying story involving the 1800's and torture devices. I didn't think I would like it as this man has also written for Playboy, but I found myself pleasantly surprised.

"Darth Bane: Path of Destruction" by Drew Karpyshyn. 

Also a gift from Austin, I read this book and finished it shortly after my arrival here in England. It's a science fiction novel from the world of Star Wars following a Dark Lord of the Sith. It was dark and creepy towards the end, a great book for character development, and a fantastic introduction into the Star Wars world. Even if you don't like Star Wars, I think you'll really enjoy reading this book.

"The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Completely Fantastical Edition" by Tony Diterlizzi and Holly Black. 

My granddad kindly bought me this book as he had a WHSmith discount voucher, and it's all five books in one beautiful book (believe me, I will be making a post on that very soon) that I can't wait for. I don't know too much about it, I want to go into it blind, but I do know that it's a kids' book that has also been made into a movie and everyone else has read it or watched it but me! No worries, I'll be getting around to it soon.

"Landline" by Rainbow Rowell.

Again, another book bought for me by my granddad, I'm not entirely sure what it's about? Something to do with how a woman wants to get into contact with her ex-husband through the phone and sort things out and start on a clean slate. I really enjoyed reading "Eleanor and Park", it had some flaws but overall it left me with quite a gooey and happy feeling. I'm wondering if I will get the same, or similar, experience here or in "Fangirl". I will let you all know.

Okay, that's all the books I got for the month of August, thank you so much for reading and I'll see you all tomorrow, bye!

- Loz x

My Birthday Haul 2015! || Part one: Gifts

Hey! 

So, if you didn't know, my birthday was on the 8th August, where I went to the Milford Perk American Diner and it was so much fun! I think some of you might be interested in what I got for my birthday, right?! Well...I hope so!

Anyway

The first thing I received for my birthday was probably one of the best things, my mother got me a second-hand laptop from her friend and I got it a couple of weeks before my birthday. I remember doing a very exited, short post on here about that and I'm still very exited! It's been great to write to my hearts content and watch videos on the 'big' screen!

Next best thing I got for my birthday was a kitten from my aunt and uncle!

I named her Boo! (although everyone in this house calls her Baby Boo or Boo-Boo). 

I'm not going to talk about her much here because I'm planning to write full posts on her later! 

They also got me these!:

I've wanted that bracelet forever, I've been eying it up on Amazon for quite a while (although, for whatever reason, I never bought it). It's a Harry Potter bracelet, for those unaware, with the Snitch and the Deathly Hallows symptoms. The second one is a RSPCA pet guide on how to care for my kitten, which so far, has come in use! I didn't know kittens needed worm medicine, nor did I know they are lactose intolerant.

My mother also surprised me by getting me some new books! She never usually gets me books because she never knows what to get, I assumed she asked my boyfriend or my sister. It's the first two books in the Nicholas Flamel series by Michael Scott, "The Alchemyst" and "The Magician". I'm not sure what they're about, I like to go into books blind, but I have been hearing so many wonderful things about these, I rarely hear a bad word! Pretty exited to read them (although I don't know whether to get all the books first?!). 

My sisters' good friend came to my evening dinner to Milford Perk and even came with gifts! The bag is beautiful, pink with birds on and little blossums, my mother said that my sisters' good friends' mother makes these kinds of things...yep, it was made! Awesome, huh?! I also got some toiletries from Sanctuary Spa, and some really pretty earrings! :3 Shame my ears aren't pierced anymore, but I'm thinking of going to a tattoo place to get them done soon!

These actually came today!! These are from my boyfriend. The top if the Ultimate Edition of the Harry Potter movie, "Chamber of Secrets", it has cards and a picture book and four disks, I'm pretty exited to watch them! (and because it's so expensive and it's not something you would buy without thought, or at least it's my version of expensive, I might do a little 'review' type of post!). "Horrorstor" by Grady Hendrix is a horror parody of Ikea, essentially, I hope it's as goofy as it sounds. The next book is a Star Wars book because I watched the movies with my boyfriend once, but I couldn't really get into it as much as I wanted to just because I didn't understand it, so he thought to buy me one of the books, "Darth Bane: Path of Destruction" by Drew Karpyshyn. Again, I have no idea what it's about. 

Lastly, I got a little bit of money from my Grandad, my dad and his girlfriend and my mums' family friend! We're going out shopping on Tuesday of next week (18th!), I'll tell you what we got! 

Thank you for reading, I'll see you next post! 

June Monthly Book Haul: Part One: Romance

As always, late to the bandwagon, but I'm not a fan of doing things scripted as of late (not that I needed to tell you that, just take one look at this blog). But, also late to the bandwagon in a different way, as Rainbow Rowell has become a favourite author of many, many people and I've only just got my hands on them. Usually, I avoid the popular books unless I really want to read them so the less popular or not popular books can get a chance too (and they're pretty amazing sometimes) but that's a whole other blog topic I have been meaning to talk about.

"Fangirl" by Rainbow Rowell (Unread).

Published 2013. 

The thing that caught my eye about this book is that it's about twins. I love reading books about twins. Although I am fairly close to my sister in the fact that we hardly ever fight (physically or verbally) and we usually help each other out, we're not close in the fact that we know a lot about each other or that we talk about our life with each other but that's mostly due to our personalities. With twins, you get this bond that is so different from any other and it makes a really enjoyable and interesting read. I don't wish to be a twin, I'm quite content with the relationship I have with my sister, but I often wonder what it would be like.

"Eleanor and Park" by Rainbow Rowell (Unread).

Published 2012. 
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This is about a girl called Eleanor, who has frizzy red hair and wears weird clothes, and Park, who likes music, books and being invisible. I believe this starts off as a friendship and blossoms into a relationship. I'm not sure how much I will enjoy this book, I've heard mixed things about it, but my favourite reviewer on Goodreads, Emily May , said a comment in a recent review (I can't remember which one) on how she liked the friendship-to-relationship type of theme in the book even if the book never ended up being a huge success for her. The relationship I have with Austin started off as a friendship and now we've been together two years this month, so I have a weakness for this kind of thing. I hope it's as good as my expectations.

"Hens United" by Lucy Diamond (Unread)

Published 2009.

The last Diamond book I read, "Sweet Temptation", didn't do so much for me as "Over You" did but, despite the sugar sweet endings and the easy-to-guess plotlines, she has a way of writing characters that makes you fall in love with them and can cover dark topics in a serious way without it getting depressing. "Hens United" is about a group of women after the hen night that takes place before a wedding. I believe one is divorced, one is unhappy...and I love nothing more then reading about broken marriages.

"Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop of Dreams" by Jenny Colgon (Sweet Shop #1) (Unread).

Published 2012. 

This is exactly as it sounds. Rosie gets dragged away to the candy shop owned by a relative of her boyfriend and she thinks it will be uneventful but she is wrong. She also discovers the history behind the jars of sweets. I've never really been a huge candy person, I'm more of a chocolate person and savory stuff for the most part, but I have heard so many good things about this book that I didn't want to turn it away. I finally picked it up. Plus, I am quite interested in the historical background of sweets. Especially mint humbugs. 

Other parts:

Horror/Thriller.
YA. 
Historical Fiction.
Other. 

Thank you for reading!

2015 Reading Challenge!

If you are an active user on Goodreads, you probably take part in or know about the yearly reading challenges you can set yourself. 2013 was to read fifteen books, 2014 was twenty five (which I ending up going over, v.g) so I decided to really push the limits this time and try to read fifty books. Well...it's the 1st May as I write this, so by halfway through the year (End of June, I believe), I should have reached half of my goal, twenty-five. How much have I got to, you may ask? Seven. I've almost finished the book I am on - "It's not me, it's you" by Mhairi McFarlane - so that would make it eight, therefore I am going to need to read about seventeen books by the end of June in two months time. 

Now, my typical reading speed really does depend on the size of the book so let's just say a typical 500 page novel will take me three days, so that's two books per week - I'm going to round it and say there's an average of four weeks per month, so if I really pushed myself I could finish eight books a month and therefore sixteen by the end of the two months - and that's if I really try hard. I'm probably going to end up reading a few more books made for kids/teenagers just to sneakily boost my numbers and be somewhat proud come December, and this time I will try not to get too ahead of myself and set a reasonable and achievable goal - taking in the fact that if I don't want to go to a library for books, I cannot afford to buy them. Which I really didn't take into account four months ago.

Anyway, the point of this ramble-y post being? I want to set myself some upcoming book reading goals (about one goal per week/month, depending on the type of challenge it is) so I get through my TBR books in my bedroom and read a lot more actively. I already have a few small ideas and I haven't even looked for any yet - October is obviously going to be the book of the horror/thriller genre, so I am going to save all my Stephen King books and any books I want to re-read for that month. I'm only going to pick about five books out for that month and I will try to get through them all. I also want to do a Harry Potter read-a-thon, because well I've already read them before so it's pretty boring not being able to write a review or anything on here for quite some time (as it is seven books).

Also, I made this blog to be a book blog and it's swerved more to beauty related topics and random tags then books recently. I really like those kinds of posts so I will still be doing them, but this is the sort of thing I want to do more. 

Thank you for reading this very long post, and I will see you soon!

What's your reading challenge of the year, and how many books can you handle?