Tag: #Michelle Hodkin

November Wrap Up

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Hey guys! I hope you all had a great November. I decided to fill this post out as the month went on rather than all at once at the end of the month and it has definitely helped! This post hasn’t taken nearly as long as it wold have done if I had done it all at once and I think I am definitely going to keep filling out my Wrap Up posts throughout the month. Looking back over the month, I definitely need to go onto a book buying ban until at least the new year! I feel like I had a great reading month and I am well on my way to completing this year’s Goodreads Reading Challenge with 87/90 books read so far.

Read:

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Physical Books read this month! Missing is The Crown’s Fate by Evelyn Skye because I traded it for another book with someone 

Bought:

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Physical books bought this month! I found a website that is similar to Book Outlet but for Germany and I may have gone a little wild!

ARCs Acquired:

Goodreads Monday:

Special Posts:

Book of the Month

I’ve decided to add a new feature to my monthly wrap ups and that is the Book of the Month. This will be my favourite book read during the month! So, this months book of the month is a from an author I wasn’t expecting to love because I disliked all of her previous works!

WC

Warcross by Marie Lu

Published: September 12th 2017 by G. P. Putnam’s son book for Young Readers

My Review

Amazon: Warcross

For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life. The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down players who bet on the game illegally. But the bounty hunting world is a competitive one, and survival has not been easy. Needing to make some quick cash, Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships—only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation.

Convinced she’s going to be arrested, Emika is shocked when instead she gets a call from the game’s creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. He needs a spy on the inside of this year’s tournament in order to uncover a security problem . . . and he wants Emika for the job. With no time to lose, Emika’s whisked off to Tokyo and thrust into a world of fame and fortune that she’s only dreamed of. But soon her investigation uncovers a sinister plot, with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire.

This has been a fantastic month for me and I cannot even believe that it is nearly the end of the year already! In other news, I have already put the Christmas decorations up (bar the tree) and the house is looking pretty festive!

How has your month been? Feel free to let me know in the comments and feel free to add your links to monthly wrap ups so I can see what you guys have been up to!

Find me Here:

Instagram/Twitter/Goodreads/Litsy @ Lauren’s Page Turners

 

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

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TUOMD

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Published: September 27th 2011 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Amazon: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (The Mara Dyer Trilogy, Band 1)

Book Depository

Mara Dyer believes life can’t get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can’t remember that killed her friends and left her strangely unharmed.

There is.

She doesn’t believe that after everything she’s been through, she can fall in love.

She’s wrong.

I first read this book a few years ago and I absolutely loved it. I also read book 2 and enjoyed it just as much, but for some reason, I never actually picked up book 3! So, I thought I would have a re read of the first two books, so that I could finally pick up number three and then pick up the new instalment in this world – The Becoming of Noah Shaw! I loved this book just as much as the first time I read it and I cannot wait to move on to book 2!

Mara Dyer is a completely unreliable narrator. She suffers from PTSD after an accident that happened, so she hallucinates a lot and struggles to figure out what is real and what isn’t. As a reader, this makes it difficult to determine what is real and what isn’t and as soon as you think you have it figured out, something else happens to bring it all back into question. This left me completely on my toes, even though I read the book already.

I forgot just how great a character Noah is. He tries to help Mara, even though he knows he doesn’t have to and he sticks by her no matter how crazy she gets. I do wonder from where he knows her, because that was a detail that I completely forgot about and picked back up after my re read, so I am looking forward to seeing how these two are connected – where one character remembers and the other one doesn’t.

I wish we saw more of Jamie. I loved his character and the way he tried to help Mara based on his own experiences, even if they were slightly jaded or misplaced. He was an honest character and someone who really was a friend to Mara from the very beginning of the book and it was sad that we didn’t get to see much of him because of what happened – I am hoping that he will turn up some time later in the story again.

I loved the fact that Mara had an actual family at home who worried about her. A lot of books, whether contemporary or fantasy, often have missing family members or none because of certain circumstances etc. So it was a nice change to see a set of parents, together who, whilst they may have argued, cared about Mara and what happened to her and were willing to protect her – even if Mara thought they were being too overprotective. Daniel is a great support system for Mara, as well as being the annoying brother sometimes, which balanced out his actions some.

The plot kept me on my toes, largely because we didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t and the fact that certain things started happening without any idea as to why etc. I loved the way that everyday news helped make the plot what it was and it was done a subtle way that crept up the on the reader, rather than just being there in your face.

All in all, I loved this book as much as I loved it the first time! I am absolutely looking forward to re reading book two and I cannot wait for my copy to get here so that I can! I gave this book 5/5 stars.

Find me Here:

Instagram/Twitter/Goodreads/Litsy @ Lauren’s Page Turners

Other Reviews:

The Reader’s Bay

Ana @ The Book Smugglers

Chasing Faerytales

January Wrap – Up

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Hey guys!! I feel like January went really slowly… almost like it didn’t want to end AT ALL!!! Or is that just me? I have been ill for the most part of it, which is probably why it went so slowly for me! Anyway, because I was ill for the beginning of January (like couldn’t get out of bed ill), and I fell ill again, and my son was ill and my husband fell ill (with the man flu), I didn’t have such a great month reading. However, I did get through some books, and here they are…

Read:

The Accident Season by Moira Fowley – Doyle – 3/5 stars – This was my first read of 2017 and I was pretty disappointed…

Wanted by Betsy Schow – ARC , 5/5 Stars– This is by far one of my favourite series out there so far! This is the second book and I LOVED it

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare – 4/5 stars – This was my first time reading Clare and I had a ball!!

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare – 4/5 stars – Again, I had a great time reading this!

The Lost Girl by Candy Atkins – 5/5 Stars – I was sent a signed copy of both the first book in the series and this one as well… and ironically enough it got lost in the post. They had to send it again!!

Last Stand by Rachel. E. Carter, ARC – 5/5 stars – This was the final instalment in the series… and it was everything I wanted and so much more!!

Books Started:

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare – I did start this book, and then I stopped about 1/4 of the way through to beta read something. When I came back to it, I found I was no longer in the right mood for it. I didn’t want to force myself to read through it when I was enjoying it because I know I won’t like it if I do! I will come back to this when the mood takes me 😀

A Shadow Bright and Burning by Jessica Cluess – I am currently reading this and, whilst I am enjoying myself, it hasn’t blown me away.

Book Haul:

All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin – Illustrated Edition

The Lost Knight by Candy Atkins

The Lost Girl by Candy Atkins

Heir of Thunder by Karissa Laurel – The author actually approached me with a review request for this one 🙂

Last Stand by Rachel E. Carter

Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth

Special Blog Posts:

Roseblood by A. G. Howard – Release Day Blitz

The Black Mage Series by Rachel E. Carter – Cover Reveals

Goodreads Monday:

This is a weekly meme that I host on my blog, so I am going to add this section to my monthly wrap up!

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins – January 2nd

The Retribution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin – January 9th

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven – January 16th

Proof of Lies by Diana Rodriguez Wallach – January 23rd

Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth – January 30th

*phew* finally got to the end of this post!! Unfortunately I didn’t have a great reading month, but I am hoping the February will be better!!

How was January for you guys? Let me know in the comments!

Goodreads Monday

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Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme hosted here. To participate, choose a random book from your TBR and show it off! Don’t forget to link back here and link me up so I can see what books are lying on your monster piles!

Hey guys!! I realise I have been pretty absent recently and I am really sorry. We have all been really ill and I am only just recovering from it! My son, however, is ill again, so we shall see how long this recovery lasts! Hopefully I won’t get ill again, but I definitely want to get back into the swing of blogging again! So, without further ado, here is my pick for this weeks Goodreads Monday:

the retribution of mara dyer

The Retribution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Published: November 4th 2014 by Simon & Schuster books for Young Readers

Book Despository

Mara Dyer wants to believe there’s more to the lies she’s been told.
There is.

She doesn’t stop to think about where her quest for the truth might lead.
She should.

She never had to imagine how far she would go for vengeance.
She will now.

Loyalties are betrayed, guilt and innocence tangle, and fate and chance collide in this shocking conclusion to Mara Dyer’s story.

Retribution has arrived.

I read and loved the first two in this series, so I am not entirely sure why I never bothered to read the final book in this series. I will definitely have to re read the first two before jumping into this one, though! It was ages ago when I read the other books!

What books are on your TBR’s? Feel free to leave links and comments and I will check them all out! 

Top Ten Tuesday

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toptentuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the Broke and Bookish.

Hi guys! I am sorry I have been absent – moving house and all that! I am currently back at my dad’s house, but I will be going back to our new house later- so I have time to do a quick TTT :-). This week it is Top Ten favourite books from the last three years. This is probably going to be really hard since there are so many amazing books out there. However, in no particular order:

10. forbidden Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma. I absolutely loved this book! I was really wary of actually picking it up at first because of the subject matter – but this book is definitely worth the read. It has has you feeling things you never thought possible!

9. Shatter Me Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. This entire series had me hooked from the get go and I felt so sad when it came to the ending of the series. I wish there were more books!

8. the selection The Selection by Kiera Cass. Anyone who knows me knows just how addicted I was to these books! I freaked when I found out that she is going to be writing another installment and I literally cannot wait to get my hands on it!

7. Divergent Divergent by Veronica Roth. While I loved all three books, this one was definitely my favourite. I loved the characters and the pace of the book. This is one of those books that I could happily read over and over again.

6. wither Wither by Lauren DeStefano. Other than the fact that the Author and I share the same first name, I was surprised by how quickly I flew through this book. I liked the dystopian world she set at my feet – I really need to read the rest of the series.

5. Introductions, ghost bird The Academy: Introductions by C. L. Stone. For regular readers of my blog, you all know just how fast I flew through these books. I have also been put onto the mailing list for ARC versions of the authors new releases because I loved them that much! Need I say more?

4. the unbecoming of mara dyer The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin. This is one of those books that make you question everything you know about reality. I love it!

3. The distance between us The Distance Between Us by Kasie West. Anything Kasie West is sure to be a book that I will adore. I have loved everything she has written so far. This book is one of my favourites of hers because of the dynamics of the characters. I felt like I could relate to everyone and I ended up enjoying the book more because of it.

2. Queen of Someday Queen of Someday by Sherry D. Ficklin. This was actually my first ever approved ARC on Netgalley and I ended up absolutely loving it! I also recently read the next installment – which comes out later this year, which was even better than this book!

1. anna and the French kiss Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. This is a really cutesie series and really lifts your mood if you are in a bad one! From all three books this is definitely my favourite one – but I really did love them all! I loved the fact that the characters are reoccurring ones throughout the series!

This is it guys! It was a pretty hard list to conjure and I feel bad about leaving out some of the other books that I love! What are your Top Ten? Feel free to leave either an answer or link in the comments below and I will check them out.