Blog Hop #4

Book Blogger Hop is a weekly meme hosted by Crazy-For-Books

This weeks question is:

 "If you could physically put yourself into a book or series…which one would it be and why?"

Answer: Harry Potter, because I just love that world, plus I have always wanted to go to the UK.

Follow Friday #9

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee's View.

This weeks question is:

Inspired by the inane twitter trend of #100factsaboutme, give us five BOOK RELATED silly facts about you.

Answer:

1. I always read the book before the movie or TV  show.

2. I have one of those tin lunchboxes full of bookmarks.

3. I finish every book I start no matter how boring.

4. I am oblivious to everything around me whilst I am reading.

5. If I am going to put a book down, I have to finish off the chapter, I can't stop mid chapter.

Book Review #30 - The Forest of Hands and Teeth (The Forest of Hands and Teeth #1) by Carrie Ryan

In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent.

And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth.

But, slowly, Mary's truths are failing her. She's learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness.

When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future - between the one she loves and the one who loves her.

And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded by so much death?

My Rating: 4/5

After reading this book I was surprised to read that this was Carrie Ryan's debut novel. The writing was vivid and cunning.

The main character Mary was very strongly written. I think she made alot of the secondary characters less noticeable.

I wasn't a fan of the romantic aspect of the book. I never understood her love for Travis, and they rarely talk to each other throughout the book. And with Harry, I felt like Mary thought she was too good for him.

I found Cass very annoying. She whinged throughout a large portion of the book. I think she felt inferior to Mary and that she is a coward.

This is the first book I have read where there have been zombies present. But if all Zombie books are at this standard then this won't be the last I will read.

The second book in this trilogy is called The Dead-Tossed Waves.

Book Review #29 - Stuart Broad Bowled Over: An Ashes Celebration - My Side of the Story by Stuart Broad

Stuart Broad's magnificent spell of 5 wickets for 37 runs in the decisive final test against Australia at The Oval won him the man-of-the-match award and played a major part in helping England to capture the 2009 Ashes.

This fully illustrated book is devoted to the thrilling success of Andrew Strauss's fiercely determined England team in overcoming a fine Australian side - captained by Ricky Ponting, one of the greatest batsmen of recent years, who within weeks of the Ashes series led Australia to victory in the ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa.

Stuart was England's leading wicket-taker in an Ashes series that had also shown him to be an increasingly effective batsman. His all-round ability was further underlined by the spectacular catch he took at Lord's. By the end of the summer he had become one of a handful of instant heroes.

Stuart's outstanding achievements, allied to his competitive character and acute cricket brain, have quickly made him a hugely popular figure with the cricket public and it is clear that he is destined to play a significant role in England's cricket future.

The son of Chris Broad, also a member of an Ashes-winning England team, Stuart has clearly inherited his father's natural ability and in Bowled Over - An Ashes Celebration he describes his astonishing progress to frontline Test bowler.

Now every true England cricket fan can take great pleasure in reading the inside story of his first Ashes campaign - a series of remarkable highs and lows that ended in a famous English victory.

My Rating: 4.5/5

First of all I have to say it only took me a few hours to read this book cover to cover. I loved the way it was set out with all the pictures amongst the text.  It made the writing more free flowing.

I loved the writing. You could feel the emotions of playing in an Ashes series through the language that he chose.

This is one of the best autobiographies (not just cricket) that I have read so far.

I think that you wouldn't have to be a cricket tragic like me to like this book nor would you have to know the laws of cricket to understand it. It is very much just a book based on Stuart Broad's experiences throughout that entire series.

Reading this book brought back all the memories of the 2009 Ashes series, and so now hopefully another player will write a book about the 2010/11 Ashes Series because that would be really interesting.

Book Review #28 - Secret Lives (Darke Academy #1) by Gabriella Poole

'True Graduates of the Darke Academy take life by the throat, Cassandra, remember that!'

The Darke Academy is a school like no other. An elite establishment that moves to a new exotic city every term, its students are impossibly beautiful, sophisticated and rich. And the more new scholarship girl Cassie Bell learns about the Academy, the more curious she becomes.

What sinister secrets are guarded by the Few - the select group of students who keep outsiders away? Who is the dark stranger prowling the corridors at night? And what really happened a year earlier, when the last scholarship girl died in mysterious circumstances?

One thing Cassie will discover is that a little knowledge may be a dangerous thing, but knowing too much can be deadly.......

My Rating: 2.5/5

I found it really hard to first get into this book and then secondly stay interested in this book. I found myself constantly putting the book down.

The main character Cassie was great, one of the few things I liked about the book.

I also liked the writing style. It was very British.

The plot idea was very good, I just don't think it was executed very well. It was poorly paced as all the action happened in the last few chapters.

At the beginning too many characters were introduced too close together and so they became intertwined. All the secondary characters were one dimensional and were all majorly stereotyped.

I hope all the aspects I didn't like about this book are due to it being the first book in the series. I will definitely read the second book in the series to see if it gets better.

Blog Hop (#3)

Book Blogger Hop is a weekly meme hosted by Crazy-For-Books

This weeks question is:

"Do you read only one book at a time, or do you have several going at once?"

Answer: Well right now I am currently reading seven books and I usually read them at different paces.

Follow Friday #8

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee's View.


This weeks question is:


How did you come up with your blog name?

Book Review #27 - Careful What You Wish For by Maureen McCarthy

'There is no real risk as long as you're careful,' Rodney said to Ruth. 'You'll have three chances to create your perfect life. If for some reason you don't like where you've ended up, you can return. But if you choose to stay longer than one day, you'll stay in your new life for ever.'

Ruth Craze thinks her life can't get any worse. She fights with her brothers, her parents drive her mad and no one ever listens to her. So when Rodney the Rat suggests a way out, Ruth is ready to risk everything.

Three wishes.

Three chances to create her prefect life.

A million ways to get it wrong.

My Rating: 3/5

First of all I think this book is aimed for 9 to 14 year olds, but I still found it enjoyable.

The protagonist, Ruth was annoying at times mainly throughout the first 50 or so pages when she was complaining about her sucky family and life.

I thought the plot was great and the ending was predictable.

I would recommend it to older readers because whilst it is immature at times, it is altogether a great read.

Follow Friday #7

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee's View.


This weeks question is:


Who are You the Girl, instead of You the Blogger?"


Answer: I am a 21 year old Australian bookworm. The only thing I love more than reading is sport, which I follow religiously.

Blog Hop (#2)

Book Blogger Hop is a weekly meme hosted by Crazy-For-Books

This weeks question is:

If I gave you £50 (or $80) and sent you into a bookshop right now, what would be in your basket when you finally staggered to the till?

I honestly don't know. I never go into a bookshop knowing what I'm looking for. But you definitely wouldn't get any change.

Book Review #26 - Need (Need #1) by Carrie Jones

Pain shoots through my head. Fireworks. Explosions. All inside my brain. The white world goes dark and I know what's about to happen.

Zara White suspects a freaky guy is stalking her. She memorises phobias and chants them when she's nervous. OK, she hasn't exactly been herself since her stepfather died. But moving to a freezing Maine town to stay with her grandmother is supposed to be the perfect fix - so her mum says.

Except, this plan of sending Zara away to help her stay sane? Yeah, not working. Turns out the stalker is not a figment of Zara's imagination. He's still following her, leaving behind an eerie trail of gold dust. There's something not right - not human - in this sleepy Maine town, and all signs are pointing to Zara.

My Rating: 4.5/5

I finished this book in a couple of hours. It is a very easy book to get into. It sucks you in from the very first page. 

I loved Zara, the protagonist. She was strong, unique and independent. She was the opposite of all other female characters in YA fiction. I liked her obsession with phobias, although it is a weird obsession to have it was interesting learning about different phobias.

Although the plot wasn't entirely unique, the writing made up for it. There were numerous plot twists that I predicted chapters before.

The next book in the series is called Captivate.

Book Review #25 - The Alchemyst (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel #1) by Michael Scott

He holds the secret that can end the  world.                                              

The truth: Nicholas Flamel was born in Paris on 28 September 1330. Nearly     seven hundred years later, he is           acknowledged as the greatest              Alchemyst of his day. It is said that he discovered the secret of eternal life.    

The records show that he died in 1418. But his tomb is empty.                         

The legend: Nicholas Flamel lives. But only because he has been making the elixir of life for centuries. The secret of eternal life is hidden within the powerful book he protects - the Book of Abraham the Mage. In the wrong hands, it will destroy the world.

That's exactly what Dr. John Dee plans to do when he steals it. Humankind won't know what's happening until it's too late. And if the prophecy is right, Sophie and Josh Newman are the only ones with the power to save the world as we know it.

Sometimes legends are true.

And Sophie and Josh are about to find themselves in the middle of the greatest legend of all time.

My Rating: 3/5

I found it really hard to get into this book. The plot was really slow and I found myself continuously putting it down.

I didn't connect to any of the characters. I had to keep reminding myself that Sophie and Josh were fifteen years old as I kept thinking they were younger.

I did enjoy the book though. I thought that the story was well thought out and the plot was engaging. The author had obviously put alot of research into creating it.

I do own the next two books in this series, and I do intend to read them, but I think I might take a break from this series.

Blog About Your Dog (or cat) Mondays

A new meme hosted by Lindsay Writes.

This is my Labrador.........

This is a picture of him the day we got him on 7 July 2008.

This is what he looks like now wearing the guernsey of the football team of the city in which he was born. He is now almost three years old. 

Book Review #24 - The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein

Ernessa is a vampire. She wants me, and only me, to see it. Her hand is guiding mine as I write these words.

At a girl's boarding school, a sixteen-year old pupil records her most intimate thoughts in a diary. The object of her obsession is her roommate, Lucy Blake, and Lucy's friendship with their new and disturbing classmate.

Ernessa is a mysterious presence with pale skin and hypnotic eyes. Around her swirl dark secrets and a series of ominous disasters. As fear spreads through the school, fantasy and reality mingle in a waking nightmare of gothic menace, fuelled by the lusts and fears of adolescence.

And at the centre of the diary is the question that haunts all who read it: Is Ernessa really a vampire? Or is the narrator trapped in her own fevered imagination?

My Rating: 3/5

I wasn't sure if I was going to like this book or not. It is set in diary format, and I had never read a book like that before.

After reading this book I can say that I liked everything about this book except the main character.

First of all you never find out her name, which made it harder to connect to her. Then she did nothing but act jealous the entire novel. She became obsessed with Lucy and that got annoying at times.

There were parts that just didn't make sense to me and there were parts in the story that I thought were really weird.

The plot was intriguing and had unexpected twists.

There is a movie adaptation coming out sometime this year.

Follow Friday #6

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee's View.




This weeks question is:

What embarrassing thing have you done on cold medicine? 

Answer: This is going to be a boring answer. I don't take cold medicines because they either don't work for me or they make me throw up.

Blog Hop (#1)

Book Blogger Hop is a weekly meme hosted by Crazy-For-Books

This weeks question is:

 "Who's your all-time favourite book villain?"

Answer: Either Lord Voldemort, Umbridge or Bellatrix Lestrange all from the Harry Potter Series.

Book Review #23 - Vampirates: Demons of the Ocean (Vampirates #1) by Justin Somper

Uncharted Waters.........

The year is 2505. The oceans have risen. A new era of piracy is dawning. A vicious storm separates twins Connor and Grace Tempest, destroying their boat and leaving them fighting for their lives in the cruel, cold water.

Picked up by one of the notorious pirate ships, Connor soon finds himself wielding a cutlass. But does he have the stomach to be a pirate?

Grace finds herself aboard a more mysterious ship. Kept under lock and key, she's assured no harm will come to her, just as long as she follows the enigmatic captain's rules.....

Can the twins survive life on-board and find their way back to each other? The voyage of the VAMPIRATES is about to begin.......

My Rating: 4/5

I only bought this book because I got it really cheap from booktopia. From the cover, I wasn't really expecting much from it because it seems a little immature.

I was surprised when I started reading it, as I got sucked into the story straight away.

One thing that I liked about this book was that it was set off the east coast of Australia, as not very many books are set in Australia. In this sense, it was unique.

The only problem I had with this book is that I had to keep reminding myself that this book is set in 2505. It felt like the book was set in the past.

The characters were great. I loved both Connor and Grace and can't wait to see them develop over the course of this series.