Romance-Comedy || "Hens Reunited" by Lucy Diamond.

Basically, about three different women who were together at each others' hen parties years ago. There's Georgia, a heartless journalist who has given up on romance and now lives her life ruining other peoples'. There's Katie, a woman who had a bad marriage and has now given up on marriage - which causes her problems with her current boyfriend, Steve. And then, my personal favourite, Alice. A woman who was treated harshly by a woman she called a best friend, and ditched publicly by her husband when she was pregnant with her daughter, Iris. They have since gone their separate ways, and it's a book about claiming back lost friendship and to bud new romance. 

I think reading a fluffy, loosely-plotted romance novel directly after reading a hardcore science-fiction space battle written from an anti-hero's point of view was a bad idea and negatively affected my experience of this book. Which is a huge shame, because the previous books I have read by Lucy Diamond - "Over You" and "Sweet Temptation" - were a relief after reading hefty, mentally-draining books. That was, really, the reason it was picked up in the first place. It was like getting a nice, long sleep after running a marathon so you have the energy to do it all again tomorrow. 

Well, it's what I wanted, but didn't get.

I want to at least say the premise was interesting, but it's not. There isn't anything on the back that grabbed me. I picked it up purely because it was written by Lucy Diamond, and she has surprised me in her talent to get me hooked twice before. Not here. It just all seemed like filler. Like that horrible tasting stuff in the middle of a Victoria sponge that just ends up ruining the whole thing in the end. I was expecting some nice sub-plots, but there wasn't. What you see is what you get. It was all just a little bit boring. 

It didn't help that I had a strong dislike for Georgia. Same with most horrible characters, she had an unpleasant back story, but this weak attempt to pull at my heartstrings failed. She was vain, superficial, annoying, everything in a person I would usually try to avoid. 

One of the most important things in a book, I personally think, is writing characters you love. Or, at the very least, relate to or care about. The only person I really wanted to hear about was Alice, and because it was split in to three different perspectives from third person (my least favourite narrative), she hardly turned up. I don't think Diamonds' strong point is splitting up the point of views. I think she should just stick to the one person.

Not that this book is all bad - if you can believe it after this ramble - I still came out with a somewhat feeling of enjoyment and satisfaction. I would still recommend people to read it, it just was not my thing on a whole.

But wait, there's more. 

I almost forgot! There was one more point I wanted to bring up about this novel that really irritated me. 

The terrible love you feel nothing for. *spoilers* Alice spoke to Dom from our POV probably three or four times, most of which was not in a good light, and then suddenly they were loved up and a team. Katie refused to get married because she wasn't okay with it, causing Steve to ditch her for a week because apparently not wanting to be married just is not okay and she ended up proposing to him and getting pregnant after spending years saying that's not what she wanted. Georgia and Owen spoke literally once and the second time they spoke ended in a kiss and sex, and then they were loved up in a click of your fingers. I don't think love works like that *end of spoilers*

Phew, glad I could get that off my chest! Despite dedicating an entire review on her book to ranting, don't let that put you off her! She writes very light-hearted, wonderful reads with a touch on serious topics in each one of her books - I urge you to give at least one of them a try, 

Good-bye for now

- Loz x

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets #2 - Squibs and Ginny.

This book is the first time I have ever actually felt sorry for Filch. He has to deal with not being magic surrounded by people who are, including the greatest wizards and witches like Dumbledore and Hermione Granger. I don't know if it's possible for a squid to advance to basic magic, I'm a fan of Harry Potter but I'm not educated on all of it. Part of me hopes that he does find a way to become magic somehow. 

There's also writing on the wall in blood and in the movies, of course, it was easily wiped off but in the books it's half impossible to remove. Of course we know it was Ginny, but did she really do it without magic then if she can't remove it? I don't know, it always amazes me how much the movies left out.

How did you like these parts of the book?

See you next time

- Loz x

Monday Missions #12

I finally am getting kicked back into reading again, and I have recently finished "Horrorstor" by Grady Hendrix, and I am now reading "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" by J.K.Rowling. I will follow this post with my reading update on that discussing what I have read so far and what I thought of it, though this is not the first time I have read it so it won't be first time thoughts or anything. 

I plan to follow this up with "Alice in Zombieland" by Gena Showalter. I haven't heard good things about it (even from the fan club of YA romance) so I'm not looking forward to it, although I really want to get through the trilogy because I have it on my shelf, I don't read many zombie books and Why on Earth not? so I'll let you know how I get on with it in mini updates but an actual review of the book/trilogy won't be up until October, the horror month. 

If I, by whatever miracle, manage to get these finished by the ends of the week then I will be moving on to a book by Rainbow Rowell. This will probably be the book I will be reading on my way home, as I'm due to leave England pretty soon (in about a week, this makes me pretty sad...). I'll let you know how I feel about that, too, it'll either be "Landline" or "Fangirl". 

Thank you ever so much for reading, and I will see you all soon, bye!

What I Read in August 2015!

I believe I missed doing this last month and I think it was because I didn't think I had enough books to tell you about? I'm not entirely sure, my memory doesn't stretch that far, I have a sneaky suspicion it was probably because I'm lazy.

"Alfie: The Doorstep Cat" by Rachel Wells. 

To cut to the chase, I DNF'd this book. It was a cute and interesting idea - an adorable Alfie becomes homeless after his owner dies from old age, he takes to the streets, and then finds a road that needs him maybe even more then he needs them. How it was delivered is what ruined it for me. I just didn't like the writing style, it was slow for me. Too much was given away too quickly, and at the same time, not enough was going on. There wasn't really any sub-plots going on, or character development. -I think this was her first book, so I can understand it probably wouldn't be a very well-rounded novel because of that. It was just disappointing, I wasn't fond of it.

"Eleanor and Park" by Rainbow Rowell. 

I had mixed thoughts on this book but I have a book talk on here for the novel, I will be brief. It made me feel good, I liked it a lot. The romance was kind of forced to me, they fit together but more in a friendly kind of way - when they started to do romantic things, any chances of having a discussion fell out the window and I think friendship in relationships is important, it was lost between the two. Otherwise, I really enjoyed it, I think it was a three or four star rating on Goodreads.

"My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult.  

This book used to be a well-loved read of mine, but I think I grew out of it as the pace of the book is far too slow for my taste and Julia and Campbell ruined the story. I probably will re-read it again in the future, just because I want to keep my love for it. This month was probably just a bad time to get into it.

"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" by J.K.Rowling.

I needn't bother saying what I felt about this, you know I loved it! I read it for my Harry Potter Read-A-Thon (and didn't do so good on the updates...), it left me as satisfied as they usually leave me.

"Am I Normal Yet?" by Holly Bourne. 

A book on feminism, stereotypical OCD and how being yourself is better then trying to fit in. It's a wonderful story, Holly Bourne might be one of my new favourites, we'll see when I read her second two books. She's only been an author since 2013, so I guess that's why she isn't well known yet? I'm hoping more people notice her existence soon, she's a good writer and a good person.

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

I really enjoyed this. It was like the starter book for the other two books in the trilogy, and it was the perfect example of character development. A flaw I can say about it, though, was that it was slow in parts and I wanted more people-presented women in there, I think there was only one. I have higher hopes for the next two books though, I won't give away any spoilers but that cliffhanger, that cliffhanger. 

"Hens Reunited" by Lucy Diamond.

I enjoyed this read, but I can't say it's something I actually wanted to spend so much time reading. It was okay and everything, but it had a lot of major flaws I mention in my review, like the terrible Instalove and how I jumped from the previous book to this one without much consideration of their differences. I just didn't want to jump onto another hefty book.

"Horrorstor" by Grady Hendrix. 

Again, you can read my review on this book if you want to know my full thoughts but seeing as that post won't be up for another few days, I really enjoyed this. It was filled with the paranormal, torture devices, zombies, people going mad - it was dark, and I really enjoyed it, always with that subtle humour on working in retail. Highly recommended read for anyone into horror and parody, or anyone who has ever worked in retail, you will enjoy it!

"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" by J.K.Rowling. 

Yes, for my Re-Read-A-"Thon" of the summer, I finally moved on to the second book and plan on doing regular updates throughout so you can read my thoughts on it and so you can give your input on what you thought about it. Personally, this one is my favourite tied with "Prisoner of Azkaban", so I'm even more exited to read this then I was about the first one.

Thank you ever so much for reading, let me know what you've been reading this month, and I'll see you all tomorrow, bye!

- Loz x

  

The Hype Train: MGS V: The Phantom Pain

Choooo chooooooooo, chugga chugga chugga chugga, wooooohooo... *ding* *ding* *ding*
Chugga.... chugga... chugga... ... chooo.... *screeeeeeeeessss* SHHHSHSSSSSS,

Whoa, what was that noise that just loudly blared in the start of this post? Oh...

It's a new segment called "The Hype Train"! That's right, readers of the blog that are mostly here for Loz and not me, I have created a new segment on the blog dedicated to, you guessed it, HYPE in it's purest form. What might that be, you may be asking yourself, well, UNSTOPPABLE, sorta like a train. And hence, here we are, the beginning of a hype that cannot be stopped until it's reached it's destination; release day! Today, for our first ever HYPE TRAIN, I am going to talk about something that has been awaiting for years to finally be played by the masses; Metal Gear Solid V.

It's a bit of an understatement to explain how purely excited I am, and I want to make this a bit more of a short post, as the BIG one will be hitting this page soon enough, I can assure you of that. I want to get my hands on the game first. I am, however, going to give you a rundown on how I feel and what I'm most excited for! First and foremost, I am PUMPED we are finally getting a finale to the series, the final big mystery in the series will be answered... which is why Big Boss is a fucking nutcase. Now, the gameplay itself is very similar to Peace Walker, which, unpopular opinion inbound, happens to be one of my favorites. I cannot WAIT for the ability to build my own Mother Base and watch it grow with new soldiers. A favorite of mine is the side-ops, and how I'll be able to do those ASIDE from the missions.

Metal Gear is a silly series of games that started out very humble. Kojima himself did almost all the coding of the original games, and to top that off, the very first Metal Gear (Titled just "Metal Gear", released in the late 80's) was supposed to be the only one. At the time, he worked for Konami, and they owned his series. They felt the first sold well, so they decided to make a second game, which was a huge failure and flop, and as such, Kojima felt challenged and angry over this failure of this game. This made him come back to create MG2, which, following the success of THIS game, caused him to create MGS1 (Metal Gear Solid 1), which was also supposed to be his final game. Kojima is a man who has always wanted to let his creation go. He felt as though the series was left good enough where it was, but Konami always convinced him in the long run to make another, and if it wasn't Konami, it was his massive fan following that was growing stronger by the day..

Following the many years of making these games, Kojima and Konami seemed to grow more hostile of each other. With each passing game, he seemed to get more aggressive on his stance on how he wished it was his final game, but I assume he kept making them out of fear that Konami would make the next game and ruin it, which he so very clearly hated. This all came to a crescendo, though, once the series reached it's final game, MGS V. Kojima made it clear this WOULD be his final game, and Konami was all the happy to make it so. It seemed Konami had grown sick of the massive support he had, the loyalty of his production crew "Kojima Productions", and his cult following of fans. They decided that this wouldn't just be his final MGS, but his final game at all for that company. He is to be let go this December, following the release of MGS V. As if that was bad enough, they also canceled his second project he was working on with renowned film director, Del Torro, titled "Silent Hills", a revival of the Silent Hill series.

All the drama aside, Kojima seems very confident in his final game, and I believe he did he best to make it his greatest game of all time, and from the looks of it, that holds very true. All the fans are very excited, I myself know many people who are eagerly waiting for it, co-workers of mine included. MGS started as a small game and grew to one of the biggest of all time. It's left the realm of being "just a game", and has, in my opinion, reached true art form. Sure, the game is silly as all hell, but do you think all artists and actors are all constantly serious? Is a comedy movie immediately not allowed to be a work of art? Can a funny painting not be a good one as well? Needless to say, games in general have come far, and this one in particular has surely helped pave the way. My hype is about as strong as it can get.

I've been replaying Ground Zeroes (the prequel) in order to shake off rust and get ready for the game. I'm going to name my base the "Leaping Lynx", name subject to change at any time. Please, give me your life force energy to keep myself from exploding for the next two days, I'll need it. Also, please send me knowledge, since I'm too dumb to remember how to double space, apparently. I'll be writing a much more comprehensive review/hype explosion as soon as the game is released, lemme know if you want more info on this subject, I might come back and write more on it as I think of what to add!

(Snake had a hard life)

So, follow me if you wish, into the wonderful world of tactical espionage! Don't forget your box!

-Austin

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

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets #1 - Dobby the House-Elf.

Hi, I'm finally back with another Harry Potter book and update posts! This time, I will really need to update every few chapters to keep my thoughts on the book written down. I kept forgetting to do it what with all the other posts I was trying to get done, but what with my posting-everyday-in-August coming to an end really soon, I think I'll try to be posting one of these every few days! And it's not really much of a marathon, is it? 

Anyway, I'm up to chapter four, I believe, and we have just been introduced to Dobby. I want to say what my first impressions of him are, and I would love to know what you thought about him. I actually didn't really like him. I felt pity for him, what with the description of him being ugly and in dirty clothes and having a horrible family to keep him, but I mostly just felt mad at him for doing that to Harry. On the assumption that he is an eavesdropping type of Elf (otherwise how would he have known Harry would be in danger that year?), he must have known all about Harry's situation, too? At least once he did find out, he should have put a stop to it. I mean, he seems to really care about Harry's safety so what he did with the cake and the making noise seemed a dumb thing to do on his part in terms of keeping Harry safe. 

He also seemed very invasive of Harry's life, like he had a right to keep hold of Harry's letters and make him stay away from Hogwarts.

Of course, my fondness for him grew over time but I can't remember if that happened in this book or the later books. We'll soon find out!

What was your first impression of Dobby?

- Loz x