Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the Broke and Bookish.

Hey guys! time for another TTT and this week is top ten characters who are fellow book lovers. When I first read this, I completely blanked. Then I thought about it some more and realised that there are a fair few out there. So, in no particular order:

10.  Juliette from Shatter Me. Juliette is a very curious character and she comes across as someone who wants to know everything there is to know about everything. She is also a character who would use books as a form of escapism from her life, who wrote in her notebook when she was locked up.

9.  Celaena from Throne of Glass. Celaena is a character well known for being a female MC who kicks a lot of butt. However, she is also a book lover! Who would have thought it?

8.  Hermione from Harry Potter. I can imagine that Hermione is going to be a particularly popular choice this week! She is our beloved smart ass – who wouldn’t pick her for this weeks topic!

7.  Tyrion Lannister from A Game of Thrones. Tyron uses his mind to keep an edge on those around him – and to do this, he always has a book in his hand.

6.  Elizabeth from Pride and Prejudice. As Darcy points out, Elizabeth is constantly extending her knowledge through copious amounts of reading. She always seems to have a book in her hand!

5.  Klaus from A Series of Unfortunate Events. Back to my childhood for a moment to visit Klaus Baudelaire. He was our inventor, who managed to get the Baudelaire children out of horrid situations through his constant studying and reading.

4.  Sang from The Academy Series. Sang, although she isn’t constantly reading, she does enjoy a good book – I guess thats what makes her so relatable.

3.  Lara from to all the boys I’ve loved before. While it isn’t shown that Lara is someone who enjoys to read, she definitely comes across that way. She is a typical nerdy character and she did write all those letters – her way of communicating her feelings!

2.  Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Now, I don’t actually know if Belle was a book nerd from the get go, but I grew up watching her on screen and there she was a book nerd. So I guess I am cheating – but I am sure you don’t mind!

1.  Hanna from Beautiful Player. Until Hanna is forced to go and get a life, she is a character who is constantly studying and working – so it would make sense that she is a book worm!

What did you guys come up with? Feel free to leave comments and links below.

Beautiful Player by Christina Lauren

A bombshell bookworm. A chronic Casanova. And a lesson in chemistry too scandalous for school.

When Hanna Bergstrom receives a lecture from her overprotective brother about neglecting her social life and burying herself in grad school, she’s determined to tackle his implied assignment: get out, make friends, start dating. And who better to turn her into the sultry siren every man wants than her brother’s gorgeous best friend, Will Sumner, venture capitalist and unapologetic playboy?

Will takes risks for a living, but he’s skeptical about this challenge of Hanna’s…until the wild night his innocently seductive pupil tempts him into bed- and teaches him a thing or two about being with a woman he can’t forget. Now that Hanna’s discovered the power of her own sex appeal, it’s up to Will to prove he’s the only man she’ll ever need. (Goodreads)

I actually started this series a while back – I can’t believe it took me this long to actually crack open this book. It has been sat waiting for me for a fair few weeks now and I literally feel like kicking myself.

What I love about this book (and, indeed, the series) is that, although we are introduced to new characters, we have the familiarity of the old characters. The connection between the reader and the book itself deepens in a sort of sense because we can see how the lives of the characters we first fell in love with pan out.

What I also enjoyed about this book, possibly more so than in the other books, is that the emotions that the characters felt for each other were already established before they even began sleeping together. The emotions experienced in the first two books both stemmed after they all started sleeping together. In a sense, it felt more real and I felt like I could relate more to this situation than that of the first two.

Will and Hanna are characters that seem to click from the very get go. They have a chemistry together which makes them enjoyable to read. While they needed to work on their communication and some points within the book (which couple doesn’t?), I loved the fact that they were both mostly open with one another throughout. It meant that the reactions of the other one were more genuine. They are funny and a good example of the idea that love can happen to anyone at anytime.

I am definitely looking forward to reading the next book within this series and I gave it 5/5 stars.

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the Broke and Bookish.

Hey people! Time for another TTT. Is it just me, or does it seem like this year is flying? It feels like yesterday when I wrote last weeks TTT. Oh well, this weeks TTT is Top Ten Books on My Summer TBR. My summer TBR is a list that seems to be constantly updating itself, so while this is what I am currently hoping to read this summer, it may change based on books that I add to my TBR or books that I actually get. Without further ado, and in no particular order:

10.  Those Girls by Lauren Saft. I added this book to my TBR a few weeks ago, and it made my summer TBR 🙂

9.  Spelled by Betsy Schow. Who doesn’t love a retelling of childhood fairytales?

8.  P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han. I loved To All The Boys I’ve loved Before and I have been waiting for this book for ages! I actually already own a copy and I will be cracking it open after I have finished reading A Storm of Swords!

7.  Beautiful player by Christina Lauren. Again, another series that I have adored so far and again a book that I already own but need to read!

6.  The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson. I added this to my TBR list after reading a glowing review of it! Plus, I am adding it to my British Books Challenge – definitely a book that I want to read over the summer!

5.  The Fill In Boyfriend by Kasie West. Anything Kasie West has written is perfect Summer reading and I literally cannot wait to open this book! I have loved every book that she has written and she is definitely on my favourite authors list.

4.  Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton. As a Black Swan fan and as a current PLL binge watcher (although I was a fan quite a while back), these two definitely need to meet! Who doesn’t enjoy reading about bitchy girls?

3.  They All Fall Down by Roxanne ST. Claire. Again, PLL meets Final Destination. I know what Final Destination is about but I have never actually seen it! Either way, this is definitely on my summer TBR.

2.  The Revenge Playbook by Rachael Allen. I find books about revenge fairly funny and enjoyable and they normally remind me of John Tucker Must Die and they are, at least for me, feel good books! Schadenfreude…

1.  The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich. I guess this is really a summery book, rather more of a halloween read. However, this is being release late summer and it is a book I NEED!! It looks so cool! So, to hell with normal, cutesy summer reads and bring on the horror! 🙂

That’s it guys! I could have easily carried on beyond the realms of ten books, but I stuck to the rules. *pats back* Now, I am off to have a lay down before attempting to eat again… What are your summer TBR’s this year? Feel free to leave your comments and links below and I will check them all out! 🙂

Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.

Hey guys! 🙂 Another Saturday and time for another Stacking the Shelves. I only have two additions for you this week, so I will include both the synopsis’ of the books and the links to Goodreads in case you want to add them to your own TBR!

The Wrath and The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh.

A sumptuous and epically told love story inspired by A Thousand and One Nights

Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi’s wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend.

She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all.

Beautiful Player by Christina Lauren.

A bombshell bookworm. A chronic Casanova. And a lesson in chemistry too scandalous for school.

When Hanna Bergstrom receives a lecture from her overprotective brother about neglecting her social life and burying herself in grad school, she’s determined to tackle his implied assignment: get out, make friends, start dating. And who better to turn her into the sultry siren every man wants than her brother’s gorgeous best friend, Will Sumner, venture capitalist and unapologetic playboy?

Will takes risks for a living, but he’s skeptical about this challenge of Hanna’s…until the wild night his innocently seductive pupil tempts him into bed- and teaches him a thing or two about being with a woman he can’t forget. Now that Hanna’s discovered the power of her own sex appeal, it’s up to Will to prove he’s the only man she’ll ever need.

I jumped onto The Wrath and The Dawn bandwagon not too long ago after seeing it absolutely everywhere. I am not going to lie, I didn’t want to put this onto my TBR list because of the hype monster and I am struggling to actually sit down and read it without going and doing something else. So far I have absolutely loved the Beautiful Bastard series by the duo Christina and Lauren and I am definitely looking forward to reading this books offerings!

More than anything, I have added a ton of books to my TBR list thanks to Netgalley and Goodreads … This list will never shrink at this rate!

So, what about you guys? Have you added anything interesting? Feel free to leave your answers and links in the comments section below and I will check them all out! In the meantime, I am going to go and get some lunch…

Beautiful Stranger by Christina Lauren

Escaping a cheating ex, finance whiz Sara Dillon’s moved to New York City and is looking for excitement and passion without a lot of strings attached. So meeting the irresistible, sexy Brit at a dance club should have meant nothing more than a night’s fun. But the manner—and speed—with which he melts her inhibitions turns him from a one-time hookup and into her Beautiful Stranger.

The whole city knows that Max Stella loves women, not that he’s ever found one he particularly wants to keep around. Despite pulling in plenty with his Wall Street bad boy charm, it’s not until Sara—and the wild photos she lets him take of her—that he starts wondering if there’s someone for him outside of the bedroom.

Hooking up in places where anybody could catch them, the only thing scarier for Sara than getting caught in public is having Max get too close in private. (Goodreads)

After reading Beautiful Bastard the other day and absolutely loving it, obviously reading the next in the series was a must. I am glad that I did! Of course, I have to love this book even more based purely on the fact that our leading man is a Brit. Being English, I practically revelled in the idea that someone was being represented from my part of the world!

What Christina and Lauren managed to do here, which many American authors fail at, was keeping Max inherently British, even if he had lived in America for the past few years. He spoke and acted like a Brit, which just made this book even more enjoyable because I didn’t feel like it was just a made up work of fiction – they pulled it off. Although, someone is seriously going to have to explain to me (preferably an American) what they find so fascinating about our accent… I just don’t get it! What I also loved about this was the fact that Max wasn’t Bennett. I was worried I was going to be reading pretty much a repeat of the first book, however, the dynamics, stories etc from the characters was completely different, which made this book interesting in its own right. Max was quirky and fun, but always straight up about everything. I found myself laughing at his attempts to use American phrases and the fact that he just sounded so different compared to the American language in the rest of the book.

Sara was a breath of fresh air as well. Again, she was completely different to Chloe and had her own demons in the closet. At the beginning of the book, I lost felt like I was living vicariously through her because I have also never experienced what she experienced in the night club etc. I married pretty quick and was never one to linger around night clubs, go out dancing or to drink. I really loved her as a character and I loved the fact that she had her own demons in the closet that she had to deal with in her own time – it made the story seem more realistic. I am glad that she managed to learn through her mistakes and that both Max and Sara managed to learn from each other.

This time I decided not to drink and read this book at the same time – which I am pretty sure my bed and my macbook are happy about! Reading their encounters and quirks and how they are with each other in general left a warm fuzzy feeling behind and a feel good mood!

I am really enjoying this series so far and I am looking forward to reading the next instalment! I gave this book 5/5 stars

Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.

Hi guys! It has been way too long since I did one of these! Here I am now though and I am really looking forward to the books that I got 🙂

 Rites of Passage by Joy N. Hensley. I have already read and reviewed this, but just as a recap – I loved it!

 Hunting Lila by Sarah Alderson. I have had this book on my TBR forever now! I need to read a copy of it (which I now have), which is also going to to toward my British Books Challenge.

 The Heir by Kiera Cass. This is the fourth book within The Selection series and I flipped a lid (in a good way) when I found out that she was going to carry on with the series. This book hasn’t long released and I am definitely looking forward to cracking the spine open!

 The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu. Again, this book has been on my TBR for a very long time – the problem with this one was that I could not find a copy in English anywhere. However, I have one now, so I am looking forward to finally taking it off of my monster list.

 The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney. This is one of those book that I would never have given a second thought to adding to my TBR if I had not read a review about it first. I am glad that I finally have a copy of it!

 Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren. After seeing Beautiful Secret on Netgalley a while back, I decided to add this series onto my TBR list.

So that is it, guys! What have you all added this week? Feel free to leave comments and links below.