Month: February 2019
Happy Girl Lucky (The Valentines #1) by Holly Smale – Blog Tour, Exclusive Book Extract, Competitions and More!
BLOG TOUR, EXCLUSIVE BOOK EXTRACT AND COMPETITION
The first time I found out about Holly Smale was when my sister came to visit me and she gave me all these Geek Girl books and said I must read them. After reading the first one (click here to read my review of Geek Girl), I knew I loved the writing and I was a forever fan of Holly Smale. And now, a few months later, I was so lucky that I got the finish off this amazing blog tour, give you my thoughts of Happy Girl Lucky, share an exclusive extract of the book with you and have a competition for you to win 5 signed copies with 5 ‘The Valentines’ pop sockets.
To enter the competition, all you have to do is go over on my Instagram post and enter!
BOOK REVIEW
★★★★★
Happy Girl Lucky is the first book from The Valentines Series. This is a story about a famous family, The Valentines, who have been Hollywood stars for ages. Hope is one of the daughters of the famous couple, but she grows up without all that paparazzi attention and hype. It is a family rule not to involve their children into the famous world until they are sixteen. Hope can’t wait to turn sixteen and start living this amazing life.
Hope spends her teenage years as a normal girl – she steals clothes from her sisters and makes movie scenarios in her head. She reads her horoscope every day and knows what the magazines say is true. She is naive and funny and so unique. And when one day, her horoscope says she is on her way to finally meet her true love, she has to make everything possible to make this come true.
And when she meets this boy, we follow Hope’s adventures from touring London, to travelling to the US, to making decisions she never thought she could make. I loved how we are with Hope every minute of her journey and we watch her slowly grow and make us giggle.
Even though Hope gives the life of this story, and makes us all want to be friends with her, all of the other characters have their own little unique spark, which I loved so much.
A wonderfully written story, but also a very meaningful one.
Holly Smale managed to perfectly capture some of the issues that some teenage girls are facing today. Living their own reality while their family lives a completely different world is not so uncommon, and girls need to know this. Sometimes, we wake in a reality we don’t know and think we are the ones to blame, but there is nothing wrong with you. All you ladies out there, you need to hear this. There is nothing wrong with you. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. You are unique, and you should believe in what you are, who you are, and what makes you truly happy. And through Hope’s story, we can understand this so well, and I am forever grateful!
A fun and entertaining story, meant to capture all the teenage hearts out there. This is definitely a must-read for every girl out there, to find her true self and be happy for what she truly is.
My favourite scene in this book was the moment when Hope meets her ‘’dream boy’’ in the train, and I am sharing an exclusive extract of that chapter with you!
Click Here To Read The Exclusive Extract
I would love to chat with you, so let me know in the comments:
- Is Happy Girl Lucky a book you might enjoy?
- Have you entered the competition on Instagram?
- Have you read any of Holly Smale’s books before?
Social Media:
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January 2019 – Monthly Book Wrap Up
January was a great start of the year, I made my goal to read 60 books (last year I read 70, and I think that I will read more, but I wanted to not be under pressure throughout the year, as I will be doing a lot of travels with my daily job).
I focused on the upcoming ARCs that are being published soon and a lot of books that I was sent by authors, but I also found time to read a few pleasure reads, of which some I loved, but some left me quite disappointed.
I have also continued with my Down The TBR Hole Tag and I am excited to see what progress I will make this year. Below are all four posts I did this month:
🌟TBR Hole #13 🌟 TBR Hole #14 🌟 TBR Hole #15 🌟 TBR Hole #16 🌟
Books I read this month:
An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen – ★★★★
Awaken (Northern Witch #2) by K.S. Marsden – ★★★
The New Power Eating by Susan Kleiner – ★★★★
Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks – ★★★
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi – ★★★★★
Pretty in Punxsutawney by Laurie Boyle Crompton – ★★★
Curses of Scale by S.D. Reeves – ★★★
The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo – ★★★★
How did your January went? How many books did you read and what was your book of the month?
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Down The TBR Hole #18
Hello guys! Happy Saturday!
This time, I am continuing with the Amazon freebies I have collected over the years. Yes, I own all of them, but do I really want to read them?
Credit for this tag goes to Lost in a Story.
How it works:
❤ Go to your Goodreads to-read shelf.
❤ Order on ascending date added.
❤ Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books.
❤ Read the synopsis of the books.
❤ Decide: keep it or should it go
Here’s the next patch:
➥ The Witch and Other Stories by Anton Chekhof
I love Anton Chekhof’s stories, and I have loved them since I was a kid. I remembered how happy I was when I saw this book being free on Amazon.
Verdict: KEEP ☑
➥ Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies by Samuel Johnson
I love Shakespeare, and I remember I downloaded this book to help me with a project. But will I enjoy reading it now. Not sure…
Verdict: REMOVE ✖
➥ Second Chances by Angela Kelman
Oh, romances. Thank you, next.
Verdict: REMOVE ✖
➥ Another Broken Wizard by Colin Dodds
Again, not sure what this book is, or what it’s doing invading my TBR list.
Verdict: REMOVE ✖
➥ A Little Book for Christmas by Cyrus Townsend Brady
As this is classified as a classic, I think I should read this around Christmas time. It’s a short read, and even if it’s bad, it would be festive, right?
Verdict: KEEP ☑
➥ The Ultimate Yao Ming Fun Fact And Trivia Book by Mark Peters
One part of me is like – why on Earth do you have this. Some of you might remember the website 9GAG as a really good meme factory back in the days. I loved it when I was a teen, and Yao Ming kept having memes made of him. So I wanted to read this book. It’s also just 30 pages, so I decided to keep it.
Verdict: KEEP ☑
➥ Answer That! 1980s Quiz by Naomi Dennison
I have always loved the 1980s, as I grew up knowing a lot of the references. I will keep this, only to see if I am still as full as knowledge as I was when I was a kid.
Verdict: KEEP ☑
➥ Betting the Farm by Alyssa Lin Palmer
A short story and a prequel. I will give it a chance.
Verdict: KEEP ☑
➥ The Summer Of… by D.C. Lowe
Not too confident about this, so removing it.
Verdict: REMOVE ✖
➥ Element, Part 1 (The Natalie Vega Saga, #1) by C.M. Doporto
Not sure about this. I think I will only keep it, as I haven’t read anything similar before.
Verdict: KEEP ☑
I am only removing 4 books from my TBR this time. Not the best results, but we are still making progress.
Which books would you keep or remove? Please let me know in the comments – I love reading your comments and thoughts!
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Down The TBR Hole #17
Hello guys! Happy Saturday!
This time, I have an interesting collection of books, and I am excited to get going.
Credit for this tag goes to Lost in a Story.
How it works:
❤ Go to your Goodreads to-read shelf.
❤ Order on ascending date added.
❤ Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books.
❤ Read the synopsis of the books.
❤ Decide: keep it or should it go
Here’s the next patch:
➥ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2) by J.K. Rowling
Here we go. How have I not read them already? The truth it, I have, but not as a book reviewer. And I love Harry Potter so much. I have to do this soon!
Verdict: KEEP ☑
➥ The Fellowship of the Ring(The Lord of the Rings, #1) by J.R.R. Tolkien
The same applies here. I have loved the books, and the movies. Time for a re-read.
Verdict: KEEP ☑
➥ The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
I actually haven’t read the Hobbit, but I told myself I would read it after I finish the Lord of The Ring series again. I will keep it on my TBR.
Verdict: KEEP ☑
➥ Fury (Otherkin, #1) by Anya Bast
I have this book on my TBR because it is on my Kindle, as it was free at that time. I assume all the below titles would come from the same place as well. The reviews are mixed, but this content is erotica, and I am not sure I am into that right now.
Verdict: REMOVE ✖
➥ This Tangled Thing Called Love by Marie Astor
Again, a freebie. A chick-lit, not something I am into reading right now. But – I will leave it on my TBR, as I have some moments where I really enjoy reading this genre.
Verdict: KEEP ☑
➥ Story Crush Teen Sampler by Various
A sample of six stories. I will remove this one, as I would rather find these six stories, and read their synopsis, and decide whether I would want to read them or not, without having to read their first chapters.
Verdict: REMOVE ✖
➥ Lucky Charm by Marie Astor
I don’t think I’ll ever read this one.
Verdict: REMOVE ✖
➥ Into the Shadows (Into the Shadows, #1) by Karly Kirkpatrick
Into the Shadows seems like every paranormal story now. Except this one has lots of bad ratings…
Verdict: REMOVE ✖
➥ Romantic Confessions: a poetry collection by Robert Ropars
I’ll only keep this because it’s 19 pages of poetry. This might be a nice way to wait at the doctor’s office.
Verdict: KEEP ☑
➥ Perfect Love Here I Come by Gina Reedy
Umm, why is this on my Kindle?
Verdict: REMOVE ✖
Removing 5 books from my TBR this time. We’re making progress guys!