October 2019 – Monthly Book Wrap Up

November 3, 2019 innah96Leave a comment

Welcome to the October Book Wrap Up!

I can’t believe it’s November already! It’s also my Birthday Month and I am so excited about it!

This was a very fun October, I was reading a lot of books I wanted to read, and most of them were spooky, which matched my Spooky October Theme. I read 7 books in total, of which 4 were on my Spinning Wheel list. Sometimes, I have a tendency to ignore my list and pick up other books, and I hope November is a bit different.

I ended up giving three 5-star ratings. zero 4-stars, two 3-stars, zero 2-stars and two 1-stars.

Books I read in October:

~ To read my review – click on the book titles! 🙂

1. The Awakening by L.J. Smith (The Vampire Diaries #1) – ★★★★★

The first book from the Vampire Diaries series. I have watched and loved the TV Show, so wanted to read the series as well. It’s a story about a popular girl Elena, who meets the mysterious boy Stefan, and the adventures and dangers she is yet to have. I really loved the first book!

Purchase Links:
| Amazon UK |Amazon US |

2. The Struggle by L.J. Smith (The Vampire Diaries #1) – ★★★★★

The second book of the Vampire Series. A continuation of Elena and Stefan’s adventures, but with a little twist – Stefan’s brother Damon appears. And he wants Elena as well. I loved this book too, and cannot wait to read the rest of the series. BTW, team Damon all the way!

Purchase Links:
| Amazon UK |Amazon US |

3. Blood Shadow by Dianna Hardy (Blood Never Lies #1) – ★★★

Blood Shadow (Blood Never Lies #1) is a companion novel for An Eye of The Storm Series.

This book can be read without reading the previous books. At the beginning, the author has included a recap of everything you need to know about the main character, before you start reading this book. It is a story about a woman, who is a werewolf, but then has an accident and anonymous person gives her a new life, but she is also strangely human now. But there is a danger coming, and the anonymous person has to reveal himself to her…

Purchase Links:
| Amazon UK |Amazon US |

4. Reverie by Ryan La Sala – ★

I wanted to love Reverie by Ryan La Sala so much!

Reverie has a wonderful cover that draws you in immediately. The plot mentions a boy and a fantasy world that revolves around dreams. Everything I hoped this book would be – it wasn’t.

Kane is a gay teenager who is trying to pick up the pieces of his life back together after an attack leaves him with no memories of the past. He is in the search of who he is and who he was, and he discovers an alternate reality that he was involved in.

Reveries are worlds born from a person’s private fantasies, and once they manifest they can only be unraveled by bringing their conflicts to a resolution. Reveries have rules and plots, magic and monsters – anything you could wish for. And one wrong step can twist the entire thing into a lethal nightmare maze.

Purchase Links:
| Amazon UK |Amazon US |

5. The Devil Aspect by Craig Russell – ★★★★★

The Devil Aspect by Craig Russell was a very pleasant read for me for many reasons! I am so glad I got the chance to read it!

The Plot

A terrifying novel set in Czechoslovakia in 1935, in which a brilliant young psychiatrist takes his new post at an asylum for the criminally insane that houses only six inmates–the country’s most depraved murderers–while, in Prague, a detective struggles to understand a brutal serial killer who has spread fear through the city, and who may have ties to the asylum.

Psychiatrist Victor is starting a new job in the Asylum where the Devil’s Six are – Czech Republic’s most dangerous murderers. Victor has a theory by the name of the Devil Aspect, where he believes that is manifested in these six murderers. He believes it comes out in certain circumstances, making these people commit crimes, but not being aware they have done it. Something similar to a split personality, but in this case, the murderers think that the Devil is next to them, and he is making them do all these things.

Purchase Links:
| Amazon UK |Amazon US |

6. Close to Home by Cara Hunter (DI Adam Fawley #1) – ★

Close To Home is, I believe, the first mystery/thriller book I have given one star to. I had very high hopes for this one. And it crashed my hopes quite hard.

Close To Home is the first book in a series called DI Adam Fawley.

The books are not related to themselves and can be read as standalones. They all feature the detective Fawley, therefore the series solution. Something similar to Dan Brown’s series. I listened to the audio book, and I think that the format might have a little blame on my rating.

In this book, the 8-year-old girl Daisy Mason disappears from her parents’s summer party. No one in the neighbourhood saw anything, not even the parents, and the detective is trying to keep an open mind in this whole situation, as someone is clearly lying.

Purchase Links:
| Amazon UK |Amazon US |

7. Love, Heather by Laurie Petrou – ★★★

Love, Heather is one of the most disturbing YA novels related to bullying I have read! Please be aware that this book has bullying and assault triggers.

Stevie and Lottie have been friends since they’ve known about each other. And when Lottie starts to hang out with the popular kids, Stevie wants to fit in too. One thing leads to another, and Stevie gets bullied by them, which quickly leads to the whole school avoiding her.

Then Stevie becomes friends with Dee, and they start plotting a revenge on the popular kids, which very quickly gets out of hand. The ” Love, Heather ” pranks are now spreading without anyone being able to stop them.

Purchase Links:
| Amazon UK |Amazon US |

And that is my October Wrap up! How did your October go? How many books did you read? Let me know! I love reading your comments!

September 2019 – Monthly Book Wrap Up

October 6, 2019 innah9616 Comments

Welcome to the September Book Wrap Up!

I can’t believe it’s October already!

Last month I changed the way I choose my monthly reads, (see my September TBR Update if you haven’t seen it yet) and I struggled to read the books in order. I even read a few books that weren’t on my list… But I think that I am now fine and have gotten used to the routine. I have read 7 books in total, and I truly hope my October Wrap Up will contain more books 🙂

Books I read in September:

~ To read my review – click on the book titles! 🙂

1. The Tether by Julia Ash – ★★★★

The Tether is the second book from the ELI Chronicles, that features a woman who saves the world from a zombie apocalypse. I really enjoyed The Tether and it ended perfectly, getting us ready for the third book and Ruby’s next challenge. I highly recommend it – it is a real page-turner with incredible plot twists!

Purchase Links:
| Amazon UK |Amazon US |

2. One in A Million by Lindsey Kelk – ★★

Contemporary romance in a world of social media. One in a Million is a nice addition to a library, for those of you who enjoy this genre. If this genre is something that you usually read and enjoy – please pick it up, you are probably going to enjoy it! This book just wasn’t for me, that’s all.

Purchase Links:
| Amazon UK |Amazon US |

3. The Swords Of Silence by Shaun Curry – ★★★

The Swords of Silence is a great book, and I love the fact that the author captured moments in history that were true and brutal, and not many people in the world know about. A story that will make people aware of what was happening in the past.

Purchase Links:
| Amazon UK |Amazon US |

4. Geek Girl: All Wrapped Up by Holly Smale – ★★★★

Geek Girl: All Wrapped Up is a Christmas special and a spin-off from the Geek Girl Series, written by Holly Smale. It is cute and full of Christmas spirit and I only have one regret – I wish I read it in December.

Purchase Links:
| Amazon UK |Amazon US |

5. Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu – ★★★★

Mooncakes is a cute paranormal story, filled with magic, love, family… In a paranormal city, Nova, a teen witch goes to the woods and follows a white wolf. It turns out that the wolf is her high-school crush, Tam. It would all be lovely, but Tam is in life danger and needs help. The two girls help each other and their connection grows throughout the book.

Purchase Links:
| Amazon UK |Amazon US |

6. Scythe by Neal Shusterman – ★★★★★

Scythe by Neal Shusterman is my favourite read for 2019 so far! I had this book on my TBR shelf since last Christmas, I don’t even know why I waited so long to read it! In a perfect world, where immortality exists, the only way to die is to be gleaned by a scythe. Citra and Rowan are both living different normal lives, when they both have separate encounters with Scythe Faraday that will change their lives. They are both chosen to be his apprentice, a role neither of them wants to have.

Purchase Links:
| Amazon UK |Amazon US |

7. The Die of Death by Kenneth B. Andersen – ★★★★★

The Die of Death is the second book from The Great Devil War Series, written by Kenneth B. Andersen. I loved this book. I cherish it. And I can’t wait to see what happens next and I highly recommend it to you – especially this month, as it’s Spooky October already!

How did your September go? How many books did you read? Let me know! I love reading your comments!

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Book Review · Books

If You Were Here by Alice Peterson

August 22, 2019August 21, 2019 innah966 Comments

(The image has been taken from Alice Peterson’s Website)

DO NOT – I repeat – DO NOT read “If You Were Here” in public. People will ask you why you’re crying and you won’t know what to say.

★★★★

“If You Were Here” by Alice Peterson is an emotional story about Huntington’s Disease, a disease that affects your brain & movements and it gets worse as it progresses, without any cure for it yet.

Peggy has lost her husband to this disease, and now her daughter as well. But what she needs to do now is tell her granddaughter Flo that the disease is hereditary and she might be at risk.

Flo is about to get married and move to the US, but the news change everything. How do you even deal with such news, right? How do you process it? Through Flo’s character, you can clearly see her confusion and struggle to accept the fact – something that is so common for a human to do. Her fiance is not ready for the risk and will probably never will. The only support Flo has is her roommate James, his sister and her grandma Peggy. Flo needs to make the hardest decision of her life: does she take the test or not? Is she at risk of getting the disease too? What if she is tested negative? But, what if she is tested positive? Or would she just rather not know and live every day experiencing as much as she can? With her mother’s diaries helping her on this journey, she finds hope and strength she never knew she had before.

I loved Flo’s character. Despite the whole world turning upside down, she picked herself up and was always thinking on the positive side. Sure, there were ups and downs, but damn, that persistence was incredible.

”If You Were Here” is such a sad, but positive and powerful story about what we can do with our lives, and how we should live every day of our lives like it’s our last. Because – that is the truth: you don’t know whether you’ll wake up in the morning. You don’t know whether you’ll be going through troubles until it happens. You don’t have a map of your life, and that’s completely okay. Try to achieve as much as you can today, because you never know what tomorrow may bring.

Please pick this book up. It’s powerful, it’s incredible, it’s sad and it’s motivational. But above everything else, this book is bloody real!

Thank you to the teams at Netgalley and Simon & Schuster UK for providing me with an ARC copy of this book, in exchange for my honest review.

Purchase Links:
| Amazon UK |Amazon US |

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Blog Tour · Book Review · Books

BLOG TOUR: What Happens Now by Sophia Money-Coutts

August 17, 2019 innah966 Comments

I am so excited to be part of the Blog Tour for What Happens Now by Sophia Money-Coutts! Thank you to the team at HQ, for being so kind to send me a copy of this book!

Without further delays, let’s see what I thought…

★★★★

What Happens Now by Sophia Money-Coutts is a wonderful story that features Lil, who is a normal lady, living a normal life. She thought she has found ”the one”, but after so many years, this fellow dumps her for a twenty-year old blonde girl.

Doing what everyone should do, she moves on, and tries to find a new match, choosing a dating app and swiping right. She finds a handsome man that seems to like her and arranges a date. She gets ready, meets this guy, has a few drinks and spends the night at his apartment.

What is the worse thing that can happen?

Well – firstly, he doesn’t seem to respond to her messages at all. And then, she discovers that he is, in fact, the famous mountaineer Max, who is currently out there somewhere, climbing a mountain and can’t actually see her messages, the Max who is possibly Prince William’s best friend. But on top of it all, after weeing on a stick, she discovers she is pregnant with his baby.

So now Lil is single, thirty-one and living in a small flat in London, and this is not how she expected to become a mum. But our lady Lil here is probably the bravest woman I have ever encountered in my books, and she decides to do this whole motherhood thing on her own. Yes – she really likes Max, and it would be amazing if he gets involved too, but she doesn’t need him really. She can do this!

Throughout this book I felt so empowered to read about Lil’s daily challenges and I was cheering for her all the way through. She, and all women in the world that had the courage to give birth to and raise a child on their own should be praised, and I can’t think of any words to describe how brave these people are and how much I admire them!

Lucky for Lil, she has her mother and her stepdad along her way throughout the whole journey, and these two people are the friendliest and kindest people in the world.

And then there’s Jess – Lil’s best friend, who is, by the way, THE BEST FRIEND anyone wants. She was EVERYTHING and I loved her so much! She was always there for Lil, giving the best advises in the world. We all need a Jess in our lives!

And to be honest, given my low opinion on Sophia’s first book, The Plus One, I didn’t have high expectations on this one, but I think she outdid herself and created a masterpiece! The writing style has improved so much, that you wouldn’t notice these two books have been written by the same author.

I loved reading about Lil’s journey – I truly did. The writing was gorgeous and I couldn’t put the book down. Very empowering, but at the same time a very light summer read. I recommend it to all of you – read What Happens Now? this summer, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Purchase Links:
| Amazon UK |Amazon US |

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Book Review · Books

Bright Pink Ink by Laura Dinovis Berry

August 15, 2019 innah96Leave a comment

★★★

‘’I was born to destroy everything you ever loved before me.’’

It is very hard for me to judge this work and write a book review. It’s hard to tell you what I think because I don’t feel like I’m an expert in poetry. I love reading poetry, but I don’t read it as much. I love poetry, but maybe I don’t understand it.

Bright Pink Ink: New and Selected Poems has a jolly vibe to it, a lot of love & happiness, emotions of loss, missing loved ones and love, as well as a feminist vibe that is refreshing. It was an enjoyable read.

However, it also holds a little bit if monotony with it, very short poems or poems that are written as prose. I encountered a few repetitive sentences on a few occasions and while I know that repeating a line is common in poetry to straighten the meaning and add rhythm – in this occasion it wasn’t pleasurable to read.

“Maybe I should tell them about my husband’s laugh. A sound that erupts as suns inside me till I float – free as dust.”

I loved ‘’A poem from 4/14/2015 read on 6/21/2017’’. It is written quite well, with two parallel stories happening while you read, in a different timeline. I really enjoyed it, despite the great annoyance that is the date. The only logical date format I know of is day – month – year.

There were a lot of feminist vibes through the poems, which was pleasantly enjoyable. On this topic, “Mortal Gods Demand a Sacrifice” was my favourite one.