October Wrap Up

On The Blog

This month was definitely a lot more productive in terms of posting! I managed to be somewhat consistent, so I'm pretty satisfied with my effort.

"Top Ten Tuesday"

Character Driven Novels | Places I Want To Visit | Series I Want To Start | Characters I Want To Dress Up For Halloween 

"Talking Personal" 

In which I do some complaining (like usual), and recommend two new restaurants for all you food lovers. 

"Most Anticipated: Book to Movie Adaptations" 

I listed the 2015 book to movie adaptations that I'm looking forward to the most, and was thoroughly surprised that there are so many coming out. 

"The Waiting List"

November releases to keep an eye out for

Posts For Thought

There have been so many posts that I've loved this month, especially now that I've been a bit more involved within the community and really utilising Bloglovin (find me here). 

• The Mile Long Bookshelf lists "20 Signs You Follow Too Many Bookworms on Instagram" - TRUTH
•  Thinking of jumping on board blogging? These Paper Hearts has you covered with their "DIY: Starting Your Own Blog - A Checklist"
• If your struggling with organisation, check out The Private Life of A Girl's "Apps and Websites to Help Your Business or Blog Stay Organised"
• "Finding Time To Read" from ALO is the perfect guide to squeezing in that extra reading time you need. 
• "8 Reasons I Struggle To Put Down A Book" was a fun and GIF filled post by Perpetual Page Turner. 
• Also check out her equally entertaining "I Dress 5 of My YA Couples for Halloween." My favourite is Amy and Rodger!
• Try and find yourself in Notebook Sisters' "The 10 Types of Book Bloggers"
• They, and a few other bloggers, also connect with their inner psychic to predict "2015 YA Trends"
• Need some advice? Diva Booknerd to the rescue with her "Dear Diva" segment - she's such a gem, and helped me loads whilst I was trying to navigate through NetGalley! 
• Happy Indulgence writes about fandoms creating wars internally and compares the book community in "Chatterbox: Didn't Like The Book? We Won't Flame You"
• Tired of spending $$$ on books every month? The new app Oyster might save your bank account as The Hungry Runner Girl points out. 

Wow. That is one long list. 

Reading Time

Moving on to my reading month, and October was actually very successful despite exams fast approaching. I read a total of 10 books, without even participating in any read-a-thons. They were all quite average, but check out my wrap up below!

Favourites

        

Reviews

  

  

How Was October For You?

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The Waiting List

November really isn't a spectacular month, but I've listed some of the books that I think I'm going to look out for. 

1. The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer #3) by Michelle Hodkin; Nov 4th
2. A Thousand Pieces of You (Firebird #1) by Claudia Grey; Nov 4th 
3. The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare; Nov 11th
4. Girl Online by Zoe Sugg; Nov 25th
5. The Last Changeling (Faerie Revolutions #1) by Chelsea Pitcher; Nov 8th
6. Waistcoats & Weaponry (The Finishing School #3) by Gail Carriger; Nov 4th

I am so pumped for the release of The Retribution of Mara Dyer, especially after re-reading the series again and desperately wanting to know what's happening. It's one of the best on-going series at the moment, and whilst I'm sad it's about to end, I can't handle being kept in the dark. 

A Thousand Pieces of You has been going around the book community, from reviews on blogs to mentions on YouTube so I decided why not. Also because it has such a beautiful cover! 

I'm going to give Girl Online a girl despite knowing that Zoe only got the deal because of her popularity. She's an amazing girl, don't get me wrong - I love her - but I am apprehensive about her writing and the plot. Still, I wouldn't mind taking a peep. 

Let Me Know What You're Waiting For.

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NaNoWriMo 2014: Connecting with Creativity

Source: Young Writers Program

What: National Writing Month 

When: November, 1st - 30th 

Username: PrintedWords

Check out FAQ for more information

Back when I was first exposed to the book blog/booktube community, I had no idea what NaNoWriMo was even though I kept hearing about. A year later and I am now taking part in this amazing event and am so pumped for it to begin. 

NaNoWriMo is an annual writing event where countless of aspiring writers come together during the 30 days of November to just write. The goal for the month is to write a 50,000 word novel (I know, insane), but you're not alone in the journey. In fact NaNoWriMo is very a collective effort from connecting with writing buddies to hearing feedback and just encouraging everybody to keep going. 

I am both a little daunted and excited to take part this year. I haven't actually written anything in the past 2 years, but creative writing was a very big part whilst I was in high school and the best outlet to channel my stress from school work. I think I've always dreamt of seeing my name on a published novel before, and I do remember writing short stories or starting different chapters on notebooks. Except when I started university, I took on a Creative Writing class and the fizzle just went out of me. I'm not sure if it was because writing is a hobby of mine, but having to do it under pressure and be assessed made writing lose it's magic. 

For the past year though, I've had so many ideas come and go, and I've discovered that I really do want to write a novel some day. I don't think NaNoWriMo will be the opportunity for me to be published, but I'm taking it as a writing exercise to jump start my creativity again. I'm going to be a little rusty, and definitely not the best, but I'm glad that I'm trying. 

I don't think I'll be able to write a full 50,000 word novel but I do have some goals: 

• Write 4 times a week 
• Write more than 15,000 words
• Engage with other writers 
• Be committed!! 

So that's my life story leading up to NaNoWriMo. I have some sort of idea of what story to write, but watch this space while I decide and fine tune the details. 

Come find me and be my writing buddy - PrintedWords - and if you haven't, sign up!

Get your write on. 

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Trust In Me - Sophie McKenzie

Title: Trust In Me

Author: Sophie McKenzie

Publication Date: September 11th, 2014

Disclaimer: I was sent this as a recommendation from  Simon&Schuster

Add to Goodreads | Buy from The BookDepository 

Livy and Julia have been best friends ever since the tragic death of Livy's younger sister, Kara. They treat each other like sisters so when Julia is found dead in her house, Livy is devastated and confused. Not willing to believe the report that Julia's death was a suicide, Livy begins to investigate on her own. 

Yet, what she finds out tears open a new hole that just might not be abled to fill. 

Review

I've had no luck with thrillers this month, and that includes Trust In Me. Again this might just be because it didn't suit my taste but I was detached from the start right to the end. 

I found this to be unmemorable because of the plot, characters and writing. McKenzie is a great writer, don't get me wrong, but she just couldn't maintain my interest. The plot was a standard murder mystery that needed to be solved. However, instead of officials/authoritative figures cracking the case, we have your average suburban mum with a intuition she's determined to follow. It didn't really flow properly and the suspense just wasn't there. Of course I wanted to know who the murderer was but it was more because I wanted to be done with the book. There are snippets of the criminals diary entries which were interesting at first, and quite creepy, but then I just got lost in his drawl and couldn't keep reading it. Maybe that's why I didn't really understand how the person who was revealed as the murderer came to be the killer in the first place. There was no motivation revealed, just that he was there and biding his time. 

I couldn't connect with Livy at all, and I thought it was pretty unrealistic for her to pull off a CSI project with just basic sleuthing and attempts at interrogation. She was a really annoying character for me, raising suspicion without any logic and being naive when she just needed to think. The relationship developments were also a headache, and I really questioned her priorities in trust. I understand Livy had reasons to be apprehensive but she constantly got upset when no one believed so it frustrated me when she couldn't trust the person she was suppose to trust the most.  However, I have heard that some people do relate to Livy so maybe it's just me and my age/experience. 

The other important character is Julia, but because she's dead before I even met her, I had to learn about her through other people. I would've thought that at the end I could've figured her out and  understand her motives etc. but I got three different perspectives of her it was difficult to really comprehend. The plot already portrayed her as a mysterious character no one really knew, so I wasn't sure who to trust when they relayed what they knew about her. Still, it did reflect the novel in that everyone puts up a front and it's hard to decipher what their true form is. Exactly how the criminal was as well. 

It was a decent read, but not spectacular. Instead, I actually forgot I read it and had to remind myself to start it just to review before realising I had read it. I'm interested to see what other crime/thriller lovers think about this though, and if I'm the only one who just couldn't connect. Let me know! 

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Top Ten Tuesday: Characters I Want To Dress Up As For Halloween

Hosted By: The Broke and The Bookish

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and The Bookish, where we list our top ten according to a topic of the week. Check out future topics here.


Top Ten Characters I Want To Dress Up As For Halloween

1. Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter Series by J.K Rowling
There are so many characters that I would've wanted to go as in Harry Potter but Luna Lovegood is just that bit more fun, and her quirky side is definitely something I can relate to.

2. Manon Blackbeak from Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J. Maas
This cold-hearted witch is a fascinating character and definitely creepy enough to dress up as for Halloween. Her fangs are the distinctive part, along with her razor nails - I would get such a kick out of this.

3. Isabelle Lightwood from The Mortal Instrument Series by Cassandra Clare
Glamorous and bad-ass at the same time? Well why the hell not. Just going to get my thigh high boots and whip ready.

4. Green Wind from Fairyland Series by Catherynne M. Valente
This is silly and yet, eccentric enough to pull off for Halloween. I love the Green Wind and it'd just be fun to paint myself green.

5. Daeneyrs Targaryen from A Song of Ice and Fire Series by George R. R. Martin
She's a beautiful character, and I love her style. The long braid, somewhat rugged gowns and the dragons that she would carry around. I can carry dragons as well, they're definitely part of me. 

6. Creature/Monster from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Another one of those scary costumes, but I'd probably walk around with a goofy smile on my face because he really is a harmless creature. They just can't look past the scars.

7. Ents from The Lord of the Rings Series by J. R. R Tolkein
Now this would be a challenge, but certainly something I would look forward to. Ents are the tree-like creatures in the series, with more of an old man face. There's just a problem - I'm not tall enough.

8. Blair Warldof from Gossip Girl Series by Cecily von Zeigesar
Ok, this is definitely more just so I have an excuse to look a million bucks, like Blair always does. Always.

9. Scorpion Creatures from Angelfall Series by Susan Ee
Reading about this freaks me out so I think it'd be a perfect costume to really give people a fright. Half angel half scorpion, the thought is giving me shivers already.

10. Elizabeth Woodville from The Cousins War Series by Philippa Gregory
Lastly, the ever elegant Elizabeth Woodville who, in the series, has mystical powers. I've never dressed up as a princess/queen before but better late than never right?

Who Do You Plan To Dress Up As? 

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